Sunday, August 13, 2006

Council approves conditions for reopening downtown antique mall

Sunday, August 13, 2006 - Posted 8:40:29 AM
The Minonk City Council approved a special use variance request to allow a residential dwelling within a business to front a street in the downtown dommercial district. The request for the variance was made by Richard Voitik who is planning on reopening the antique mall if he is allowed to reside within his building located at 551 Chestnut Street.

Conditions pertaining to this permit include that he would immediately reopen his antique business and the permit will be revoked if the business ceases to operate OR the residential area is vacated by all family members. Other stipulations are that the residential address shall be on Oak Street, that there shall be no outside storage or loitering allowed, residential parking shall be on Oak Street, any change of commercial use must be approved by the City and the residential square footage shall not exceed 2,350 square feet.

Race track update

Mayor Koos explained the need for the city to have a completed developers agreement with the developers of the proposed raceway park north of Minonk. Koos said "What came to mind was in the event this project does start to happen this sitting City Council may not see the completion of this entire project. There could be a lot of different changes taking place within the City during the construction of this project and my concern has always been how are we going to basically insure that the racetrack on the night that we approve the redevelopment agreement, how it looks that night, is how the next council and councils after that can use as a resource and say this is what the City was led to believe that it was going to look like back then."

Koos continued, "If construction starts and something is not on that drawing, then the City has something to go back to and say when the redevelopment agreement was signed because inside this agreement is the requirement that they produce this drawing. One of the things that I want to insure is that no matter who sees this project to its’ conclusion, that they have something to draw from as to the original intent of when the redevelopment agreement was signed. This agreement is going to last a minimum of 23 years (life of the TIF), but chances are this agreement is going to last well into the future of the racetrack development itself."

"What we do not want is for them going out there and construct things at will without the City at least knowing what is going on or what the master plan is.  What we have done now is that we have agreed on the redevelopment agreement in language and now what we have come to is this drawing. The City has a letter from the engineer to Randy Hellyer stating that this drawing will be in front of the City Council within 30 days. Basically that is the final leg on the journey to the signing of the redevelopment agreement."

Koos said the City Administrator has planned for a Zoning Board meeting and a Public Works Committee to review this forthcoming drawing to make sure that they see no major conflicts or problems before the agreement is signed. and hopes that by the second council meeting in September the redevelopment agreement and drawing is sitting here and ready to be signed.

In response to a question by Julia Voss of the Woodford County Journal, Koos said that the map drawings will be available for public inspection.

Gene Oncken asked when the City Council signs the agreement will the public know if the money flows. Koos responded that we will not know where they are on the money when the agreement is signed. They have until March 1, 2007 to come up with the money.

Public comments on unlicensed vehicles

Gene Oncken told the council that just about every day he sees golf carts and unlicensed vehicles on the streets in Minonk. He asked the Mayor if the City passed an ordinance allowing this.

Mayor Koos responded absolutely not.  Koos said they are not licensed vehicles and he will address this and have the City Administrator address it with the Chief of Police. He added, "If it does not have a license on it, it is not legal. Those little scooters can be on a sidewalk and I would strongly recommend that they should have helmets on when riding those things."

Oncken also asked the Mayor if tickets will be issued stating that his son received a ticket 1 ½ years ago for $75 and he paid it.  Mayor Koos responded that the issuing of tickets is at the on-duty officer’s discretion and are issued according to the law.

Larry Hill asked the Mayor does this include lawn mowers and lawn maintenance equipment and Koos replied no.  Chief of Police Nick Cavera said that vehicles must have headlights and taillights and be licensed.

John Oncken said  he saw a child probably ten years old on a Go-cart type of vehicle in the Builta Addition to which Mayor Koos replied was also not legal. Vernon Matter said that the parents should be given the ticket for these illegal vehicles.

Mayor Koos said that he has not observed any golf carts on the street.

City Administrator Comments

Reported that the Bakery sidewalk project is complete except for re-seeding.
Reported that the Westside Park Gazebo sidewalk project is complete.
Reported that the 3rd Street extension project has been completed and is open.
Reported the hiring of Karl Ladtkow as a part-time police officer. He has 7 years experience and is PTI qualified.
Reported that the summer help would be returning to school before the next meeting and that they did a great job.

Other news

Mayor Koos reported that Steve White has resigned from the Recreation Board.  The council approved the nomination of Roger Gaspardo to replace White on the Rec Board.