Village of Spaulding

Village of Spaulding Board Meeting Minutes March 7, 2016

Call to order village board meeting 7pm by Mayor Brian Cuffle. Roll call: Bill Hinkle, Mark Urban, Mike Foster, Dan Sexton, Mary Ann Burge. Absent: Amy Cunningham.

Motion to accept last month minutes as read made by Dan Sexton seconded by Mark Urban. All in favor passes 5-0.

Treasurer’s Report (Lisa Cave) Month End February 2016 Diamond Communication $1,300.00 Comcast $4,069.86 Illinois Municipal League $500.00 Police Report #1534931 $15.00 Ameren Cilco $2,528.73 R & S Towing Recovery $330.00 Gaming tax January 2016 $1,987.84 Spaulding DUI transfer to General Funds $350.00 Spaulding Police Vehicle Transfer to General Funds $500.00 General Revenue Fund $161,683.78 Outstanding Checks $1,306.28 General Revenue Balance $160,377.50 MFT Allotment $1,903.03 Motor Fuel $26,937. 82 DUI Fund $40.00 Police Grant $98.00 Police Vehicle Fee $21.62

We have 2 CDs that are getting ready to mature on March 12th. We are not getting very much interest on it they are only 6 month CDs. We have one that is $31,966.47 and another one at $12,107.65. I just need to know if you wish to continue to roll these.

Mayor Cuffle: I think we need to look at doing something better with it. At least look into what else they may have and come back to the board and let us know.

Motion to approve treasurer’s report as read made by Mark Urban seconded by Mike Foster. All in favor passes 5-0.

Police Report (Chief Hillyer) Over the last month we attended a Traffic and Incident Management class at Riverton Fire Department which was a certification class. I taught a class at Riverton Fire Department on Active Shooter it was a 4 hour class. We have all been to the range. I do have a thing for Mike to bring up as far as batteries are concerned for the MDCs. Are Traffic Safety Fair is the primary thing that I am going to report on tonight. It is slow going but we are moving forward. We do have confirmation from several of the agencies that came last year that will be attending again this year. The ones that we do have on board is AAA, Riverton Fire, Riverton Fast Stop, Williamsville Police, Capitol Police, Springfield PD. I am still working with ISP on getting their stuff but we are a little behind the eight ball.

Traffic Stops 34 Citations 23 Written Warnings 13 Calls for Service 23 Arrests 08 Assists 07

Bill Hinkle: What about the dog deal? Chief Hillyer: Bill had contacted me about a loose dog that we think is coming out of Riverton. It is a black lab with an orange collar. I did contact animal control and they did come out. Them and I we looked all through the trailer park and couldn’t find it. I did talk to Mr. Gray tonight. Bill Hinkle: His rental house it was getting into the garbage. Mayor Cuffle: I talked to him also and told him what our process and procedures are in terms of if they see it or someone sees us and calls us. If we don’t see the dog eventually we can’t really call the county. Chief Hillyer: My opinion is if we do find an owner of the dog then we follow our ordinances and they will get the written warning just like anyone else. Also we have gotten several phone calls from residents on E. Raylots of more that even just an excessive wreck less driving so we do have permission to sit in a residence driveway to try and do some radar there and try to curb some of the problems but what I have noticed is our speed limit signs. We have one at this end and one at that end and the one at that end is in bad shape. So if we do have a sign we need to get it up. Mayor Cuffle: I will get Derik on it. The speed limit sign on east Raylots coming into town please replace that.

Motion to approve the police report as read made by Mike Foster seconded by Dan Sexton. All in favor passes 5-0.

Greg Kelso (resident) two things. I passed out flyers. United States Power Squadron is the local chapter of Land of Lincoln we have boating safety courses coming up. Boating safety week is in May so we are starting some new stuff this year where we are going to do nightly seminars at the CWLP training center. Just thought maybe I would pass those out and if you guys want to make copies or hang them up where ever you could whatever we could do to spread the word on that kind of thing. We probably won’t be at the traffic safety fair this year. The other thing is we would like to find out what the villages stance would be on us building another house on our lot since we have 4 acres. We would like to build another house on the eastern most edge of the property. I don’t really want to split the lot yet but eventually down the road we would do that. Essentially we want to build a roughly 2,000 sq. ft. house down on that end, keep the one we have now. It is only a 2 bedroom house and I have a special needs daughter who is probably never going to be able to live on her own, but would like to live independently. I’m thinking a couple of years down the road when our other daughter gets out of the air force she will have the house and live there with our special needs daughter. Before I make any plans and get an architect and spend the money time and effort. I would like to find out if I need to separate the lots before. Mayor Cuffle: Our ordinance itself doesn’t allow it. Greg: It doesn’t say anything either way. Mayor Cuffle: It says single family dwelling based on whatever the zoning is. Greg: Well single family dwelling is a house where a single family lives. It doesn’t state that you can have one or only one or more than one. Kevin (attorney) you have 4 acres now and you want to cut that in half. Mayor Cuffle: But he doesn’t want to right now. Greg: I don’t really want to if I don’t have to right now but I can if I have too. Kevin: You would probably have to do that so there is no issue with the county on the septic. Greg: I guess my question at this point is assuming we get a good septic inspection, come to you with a plan and all that can we expect the board to allow us to build a new house on that lot without having to separate it? Mayor Cuffle: I would think you would have to split it before you could do that. Based on the ordinances I would think you would have to separate it. Our attorney would have to dig into it. Greg: It is more of a time and survey and I would have liked to have gotten going on it. Mike Foster: Where would your driveway be? Would it be into Griffitts Ln there or would it be the easement on the back side. Greg: We could do it either way. Right now the plan would be to have it off of Griffitts. Mike Foster: I have one question for you. Our community has a lot of boaters and I know that conservation is now starting to patrol the river during spring. Is there any way that your organization could get us print outs of what’s required to be in a boat? Then we can scan it and put it on our website and have copies here if someone wants to stop by and get one to make sure they meet all the qualifications so that they are safe for being on the river or lake. Greg: Yeah and I would even go so far as to say that if you guys are willing I could give you some links to put on your website that would point to the coast guard vessel safety checklist as well as DNR safety sight so it shows what Illinois regulations are so they can go by that. Mike: Personally I wouldn’t have a problem putting those links on there since we have such a large boating community. Greg: We do boating classes all the time for different places. We generally do our own 2 or 3 times a year but we had a couple of classes up at the fire department here so we could put on a class. Mike Foster: What is your fee for a class? Greg: They are free they just have to pay attention. Mike Foster: So if we wanted to do a class would you be the contact person on that? Greg: Sure. I am a certified instructor through DNR also so I can do either or but they all qualify for it. Anybody that was born after 1996 is going to have to have a boater’s education card to operate a boat. Their plan to phase that back a few years every few years so that pretty much anyone under 60 would have to have a boater’s education within the next 10 years or so. Mayor Cuffle: I would like to set something up in the park so that people can bring their boats through to get them checked and stuff. Greg: We do that the 1st Saturday of June we do vessel safety checks at the lake at the Lindsey Bridge launch ramp. People can just bring their boats and we inspect them and if they pass they get a little sticker if they don’t we tell them what is wrong and they can go fix it. Mike Foster: I would like for you to get us the links and then maybe look at us setting up a class or something or promoting the safety check that you guys do. Greg: Our weakest link is marketing. We can put on classes and stuff but if a community wants to put on a class the only thing we ask is that the community helps to promote it. As far as the classes go you have a couple of options. State requirement is an 8 hour class. You can do it in a day which would be an 8 hour day or we can do it a couple hours at a time one night a week or we can do a half Saturday and the other half the following Saturday. Mayor Cuffle: Thank you Greg.

Mike (resident): Eastside of Briarwood we are almost down to the dirt. I have been pushing pea gravel back out there. We need a couple of roads tailgated down there. The other point I had I would also like to find out about the deal between the veterans and the Village board? Mayor Cuffle: It is really a long story we can go after the meeting and talk about it or we can sit right here and talk about it. The plain of the matter is back when it first started Larry came right into a meeting and asked us to change the park to Spaulding Memorial Park and so we actually then created the name of Spaulding Veteran’s Memorial Park and we told him then to just remember that just because we changed the park name that it is still the village’s park. We then started working with Larry and a couple of the other people in the group and they created their committee and we actually had at least 2 of our board members on their committee and going to their meetings and all that and working to figure it all out and that was where we put the agreement together. They had a little section of the area for them to do kind of what they wanted to with it but there were certain limitations. I believe the limitations were that if there was over a $500 improvement or anything permantley putting in there then they would have to come to the board to get approval for that because it is still village property. We are the one insuring it; we have to insure the property because it is the village of Spaulding’s property. At a certain point in time I know that Bill was on the committee and there was an argument between the people from the village that were on the committee and the veterans people of the committee of one of their ideas that the people from the village didn’t agree with and from that point in time it has been a take your ball and go home. They literally have done whatever they have wanted to do from that point forward without asking us anything. Larry knows my number, Dan knows my number. Not once have they ever called and said hey we are thinking about doing that is it okay or can you get your board to approve that or whatever? They think this board is against them and we are not against them we want to work with them. In the end we are still the final say to that property because it is the village of Spaulding’s property. We are the governing ordinance over that area no matter what they put in there. That wall is our property now because it is permanently installed but we had an agreement with them that they could work with it and put the flowers in and do whatever kind of up keep that they want to do because they wanted to be a part of that and we had no problem with that what so ever. We want to be with them in this. Two memorial days ago they had a Memorial Day celebration and didn’t even invite us. They didn’t even invite the village that they are in and we let them put that there and they had the village of Riverton mayor in the chairs as a speaker. That is where it gets real sticky with us because all we are trying to do is work with them and help them to be just what it is. It is a great memorial their hasn’t been anything like it in this area for a long long long time. All we want to do is to try to participate in it; we still have to be the governing body to oversee it. They won’t talk to us because they think we are the big bad village. Mike: Well you work with veterans we all work with veterans they are the biggest disruptor we got and it’s there right they gave up 4 years of the best part of their live to do that. If we over regulate something then we start to tarnish it. I think it would be above and beyond the call if the village offered an olive branch. Mayor Cuffle: What’s an olive branch? Mike: Offer good will. Mayor Cuffle: We have at least 10 times. We have sent them letters and we want them to work with us and Larry will not talk to us. I finally have gotten talking to Jeremiah he’s trying to get them at least to talk with us. He’s somebody that is actually civil understanding what is going on. Quite frankly you think about some of the things we have gone through with this whole mess. One day about two summers ago I was going to the fair and there are trusses out there. I called about everybody on the board to see if anyone knew what was going on with trusses in the park and no one knew. On the way back I say Larry there and I stopped and said what is going on what are the trusses for? He said well we are going to build a mini pavilion. So I said well did you think to ask us? He said well I’m just going to take a bull dozer and knock it all down. I said Larry that is not the point. Last fall I had a one on one talk with Larry for at least 30- 45 minutes and said Larry we need to just put water under the bridge and just start over. I don’t really understand what you guys are mad about and I don’t care. Face to face he was like yeah that sounds good and we need to make compromises from both sides and all that. Literally a week later it was worse than what it was. Mike: Here is something that they are really wanting I am sure you have all seen it (picture of sign). Mayor Cuffle: Actually we just got it today. This is the first time we have seen it. Mike Foster: I went to the last board meeting that they had. We sent them a letter and they invited us to come to their meeting to discuss all this. We are not able as a body to go somewhere without posting it in the paper because of the open information act. So I went to the meeting to explain this and my name is on the wall down there and I was never treated so poorly. At one point I was told you are dismissed you can go. All I was trying to do was say come to our meeting or pick a date out and we will be more than glad to meet with you anytime but we have to post the meeting. They brought up this sign and I said none of us have ever seen it send us a picture which they were supposed to send the next morning with dates to meet and we just got ours today. Derik: Is that what they have dug up there already? Mayor Cuffle: The other problem is all of a sudden we see dirt pile up there because somebody dug it and poured concrete in it and never once did they call us. Part of what we disbanded the agreement for is really geared towards getting them to come talk to us. They weren’t going to talk to us anyway so we disband the agreement so that they would come talk to us so that we could reissue a new agreement and start working together as a group. We don’t want to be the mean person or the mean village or whatever all we have ever wanted to try to do is work together with them. This is a great deal (sign). I think it is great but we haven’t talked about it as a board. To be honest with you I think it should say Spaulding Veterans Memorial Park. When we were still talking and that first initial thing it was actually supposed to take the place of the park sign. That was supposed to be the park sign and that was going to be the main entrance to the park. Mike: I think what they have drawn up is spectacular myself. Mayor Cuffle: I do too but it was supposed to take the place of the park sign so I would like for them to add park under memorial. Mark Urban: Not only that they need to come and communicate with us. Mike: Well like I said you guys are the bigger group until you guys extend an olive branch it is going to be tough. Whole board: We have. Mike: What you guys need is you need someone to mediate between you. Mark Urban: All joking aside, I was the last mayor here before Brian and they came to me while I was out of office and I sat back there and represented them and tried to mediate with them and they crapped all over me. Ed Egnot II: I used to be on the board for about 12 to 14 years and I know Larry really well. I sat and had lunch with Larry one day and all this came up and Larry can’t stand these people. What Larry doesn’t want to accept is the fact that that is the village’s property. Like they said they insure it and they have to talk with the village before they do anything. Larry thinks it is Larry’s property. Larry is like F*&% Brian Cuffle I don’t have to tell him S*&%. I sat there the whole lunch time thinking this just isn’t going to work because Larry doesn’t think he needs to ask anybody anything. He thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants up there. Dan Sexton: But when they first came with their hats in their hands saying that they will agree to anything. Mayor Cuffle: Jim Good even tried to be the mediator he was supposed to be a board member on their committee and he tried to reason with them too and he hasn’t been invited to another meeting since. Every time they get somebody in there that tries to reason with them that knows exactly how things work and you think being military people that they would understand that they have to go through certain chains to get answers or approvals. Ed Egnot II: Larry was always like I know this guy and I know this guy and I don’t have to talk to Brian Cuffle. I tried to explain to him what the situation was because I knew from the beginning that Mark was the mayor and I was on the board then and we sat through all of this stuff and they know what the agreement is and they don’t want to follow it. Mayor Cuffle: Even Larry’s boy Scott understands and he can’t reason with his dad either. Mike: I just got this bad feeling that there is a S*&% storm brewing. Here is the suggestion that I make why don’t you guys just go ahead and approve this (sign)? Mike Foster: As long as it gets park put on it. According to their meeting that I sat in on that night Dan and Larry both said that it should say Spaulding Veterans Memorial Park now why is it changed? Mike: I think because everything has been Spaulding Veterans Memorial. Mayor Cuffle: Well we could even go way back to a long time ago when it was first done and we were the only damn group out of all of them that had to pay for our own picture. How sad is that? We have tried everything we can. Mark Urban: They were invited to our last board meeting. Mayor Cuffle: We were actually trying to schedule a meeting for this week but Jeremiah is at the guard all week so when he gets back we are going to get a meeting scheduled. I want Jeremiah to be there since we have been communicating. Mike: Let’s not forget this is for the veterans. We need to increase the peace a little. Mark Urban: I’ve come to the conclusion that the peace isn’t going to be until Dan Ducey and Larry Beck are off the board. Once that happens then I think you will see things really start happening. Mayor Cuffle: There are other ones on their board that have said the same thing.

Engineer Report (Steve) Board Budgeted $75,000 cost is actually at $86k. The reason the price went up is due to an addition to an area on Primrose that was added after the last meeting. Mayor Cuffle: Right me and Adam met with IRC out there on Primrose and that is where that came from. We also went to Schneider St. and we are going to at least get some locates on Schneider St. We started going down Schneider St. from the east to the west and he gave us some make do things we could do in terms of at least getting it up to snuff but once we get to the hill even the guy from IRC said we are going to have to get into a whole bunch of stuff for this. It is not something that can be easily fixed. It is going to have to be drawn up and planned out because you have driveways and you have to figure out where the water is going to go. We even talked about building up the north side of the road building almost like a wall. Steve: In some of Adams notes here it says that while you guys were out there on Schneider you found some utilities that were only covered by a little bit of rock. Discussed a lot would have to be drawn out to get the crown in road taken care of. Call for a design Julie which is where the utilities are not buried low enough. Mayor Cuffle: Adam and I discussed the road work that needs to be done and we are $11k over budget so to get down to that $75k mark we would have to remove Dogwood, White and Oak Street. We cannot wait on some of these other roads. I don’t have a problem either way if we just went ahead and took care of all of it or if we want to get down to the $75k then we would have to take off the ones that I had mentioned.

Motion to approve estimated road budget not to exceed $88,883 made by Mark Urban seconded by Mike Foster. Roll call passes 5-0.

Motion to approve $1,900 for Jay M. excavating to complete ditch work made by Mike Foster seconded by Dan Sexton. Roll Call passes 5-0. Mayor Cuffle: Time line to complete work is by April 30th

Mayor Cuffle: Originally he sent us the cost of the Maintenance building quote of $18,356 unattached custom structures, wick building and to tie onto current building would be an addition $600. Size would be 30x50. The new quotes are $20,659 includes prevailing wage And total would be $21,212 if we attached it to current structure.

Attorney Report (Kevin) The only thing I have tonight is the new agreement with Comcast. If it is okay with the board I would like to just hang onto it and read through it and bring it back next meeting. Mayor Cuffle: That would be fine.

Mary Ann Burge: 2 things. I would like to schedule dump day. We normally do it the Saturday after the Traffic Safety Fair. Bill Hinkle: Let’s do it the 14th. Mary Ann Burge: So dump day we can do on May 14th and then can we discuss setting up the garage sales. When did we do it before? Mayor Cuffle: I don’t remember. Mary Ann Burge: Okay we will talk about it next month.

Mike Foster: So some of you know that we had applications for the police department and we have a couple here that we need to vote on but I believe we need to go into closed session to discuss them before we take a vote on it. The police department needs batteries for their MDCs in the cars so I would like to see about getting them ordered if we can. They are $149.00

Motion to pick up 3 new batteries for computers made by Dan Sexton seconded by Mary Ann Burge. All in favor passes 5-0.

Mike Foster: Third thing dealing with the police department. Since Jeff has been with us for 2 or 3 years now then I would like to advance him to the rank of corporal with no pay increase no nothing but because we are getting a new officer it kind of puts things in order for us.

Mayor Cuffle: Cell tower update. I thought about it the other day and I realized the first email I received about the tower was about the middle of 2014 and then they told us it would be up live it 2016 some time because they had pushed their budgets back and everything so I emailed them and I got a reply back that that tower is going to become live in 2017. So I emailed them back and I rant and raved and pretty much gave them a statement in an email that I need to know the reasons why it is pushed back to 2017 and if it is in fact going to be in 2017 then we need a letter as to why because myself particularly has been getting blamed for it not being up and running. I told them I need a letter to post in our little local paper to let residents know. Then I got a phone call and we talked and I told him if it’s not going to be in 2016 then I need a letter saying that it has been pushed back to 2017. We got a call about a week ago to see if they need to redo their building permit for that little building inside the fenced in area and we told them yes. I still don’t know an exact time frame but it was kinda funny that we received an email from them about the permit so it sounds like they may be going to do something soon. Jean Hillyer: He replied back to my email and said they have it tentatively scheduled for May 2016. Mayor Cuffle: There you go.

Motion to go into closed session for personnel reason made by Mike Foster seconded by Bill Hinkle. All in favor passes 5-0. Motion to come out of closed session made by Mike Foster seconded by Dan Sexton. All in favor passes 5-0.

Motion to approval Officer Balding to be advanced to rank of corporal made by Mike Foster seconded by Dan Sexton. All in favor passes 5-0.

Motion to hire Jim Mullen made by Mark Urban seconded by Mike Foster. All in favor passes 5- 0.

Motion to adjourn made by Mark Urban seconded by Bill Hinkle. All in favor passes 5-0.