The Minonk City Council approved several ordinances at their Monday
night meeting to annex the Durre Bros. manufacturing plant north of
town into the city limits. The first step taken by the council was to
approve Ordinance 2006-07 which created the Durre Bros. subdivision.
The next step was to approve Ordinance 2006-08 which zoned the property
I-Industrial. The final step was to approve the annexation agreement
between the City and the Durre Bros. corporation known as JAM Land Inc
The incentives for the annexation are:
• Abatement of Real Estate Taxes. City shall refund to Owner 50% of all
real estate taxes collected by the City as a result of the annexation
of the property for a period of 23 years.
• Waiver of Water and Sewer Connection Fee. The City is installing
the water and sewer service line extensions from our nearest point to
the property line of Durre Brothers property and the City will waive
all connection fees.
• Waiver of Rezoning Fee. The City shall waive the fee required
for rezoning property under Section 17. 12.04 of the Minonk City Code.
Trent Smith said the cost of this would be $50.
Council Chambers sound system
The council approved
spending $4,500 for a new wireless sound system for the council
chambers. The proposed system would have 3 microphones, one at each
table, and 4 speakers. City Administrator Trent Smith said that more
microphones can be added if needed, but it is necessary to get the
motherboard that has the capacity to add on to it and start with 3
microphones. He added that with 4 speakers you do not have to turn the
speakers up as loud and thereby you eliminate distortion.
Mayor Koos said that we have to be cognizant that some people are
hearing impaired and I think that we have a responsibility to insure
that all people have a right to hear what is being said in the
chambers. It is a minimum investment which could have a lot of
beneficial return to the community as far as the democratic process
goes because they are going to be able to hear what is going on up here
at these tables.
City amends personnel code
City Administrator Trent Smith reported that Ordinance 2006-06 been
reviewed by the Public Safety Committee and they developed some changes
to the ordinance which are summarized below:
1. There is a definition for "Volunteer": an individual with no
employee/employer relationship whom may be given a gratuity for their
volunteer work.
2. Ambulance personnel scheduled to work 35 hours (or more) per
week shall be considered full time. At the discretion of the Ambulance
Chief, they may be allowed to be on-call away from the ambulance
building for all or a portion of any given shift.
3. Description of Volunteer Service:
• Volunteers must remain within the city corporate limits during their shift unless on an ambulance call.
•Volunteers may be given a gratuity for each six (6) hour shift.
• Ambulance volunteers may also be paid an amount per loaded ambulance mile traveled.
• Gratuity and mileage rates may be adjusted annually by the City Administrator through the budget process.
4. There is a clothing addition: Employees must wear a uniform if
one is provided. If a uniform is provided, the employee will not
receive a quarterly clothing allowance. In addition, any damage to
personal clothing must be documented at the time of the incident.
Reimbursement for like or similar clothing may be made at the
discretion of the department director if personal clothing is
significantly damaged. Clothing reimbursement must be made within a
reasonable time and a receipt must be provided prior to reimbursement.
Any clothing damaged due to blood borne pathogens being unable to be
removed must be disposed of be the department in the appropriate
manner.
5. "Unsalaried" has been added in clause 2.30.708 which refers to
before ambulance department. It refers to the health benefits.
6. The present policy has a holiday for an employee’s birthday. It
was put down as a “floating holiday” and we are changing that to “day
before, day of, or day after”. Regular compensation for holidays is
clarified to be 8 hours.
7. Since our Public Safety Committee meeting we caught one other
thing in the bereavement entitlement. Currently it does not include
bereavement entitlement for children (death of your own child). It has
it for step-children and grandparents, but children were omitted from
that section so we are adding that now.
Alderman Fortner moved that the City Council approve Ordinance
2006-06 and the amendment that full-time on-call personnel must remain
within the corporate city limits, seconded by Alderman Cunningham and
approved unaminously by the council.
Request to purchase property
City Administrator Trent Smith
reported that Ali Zulbeari, owner of 604 North Chestnut Street (Old
Dairy Barn), wishes to purchase a 30 foot strip of the old railroad
track right-of-way property immediately behind his property. It would
be used for a parking lot for his adjacent property. As before, with
the adjacent piece of property purchased by Nick Peiffer, this property
contains a storm sewer and may never be constructed upon. Due to this
restriction, the sale price for Mr. Peiffer was $0.10 per square foot.
The property in question is a 30 foot wide by 100 foot long strip.
Alderman Cunningham asked Mr. Zulbeari what the city could do to
help get a business on his property saying that the property is in a
TIF district and there are a number of things the city can do to help
him.
Mayor Koos said that the item is tabled until the November 6, 2006 meeting.
Halloween hours
The City Council was in unanimous agreement to keep the same hours as
in the past years (5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.) on Halloween night Tuesday
October 31, 2006.
City Council comments
Alderman Cunningham welcomed Durre Brothers to the City of Minonk.
Alderman Fortner reported that the members of the National Honor
Society picked up litter along a large stretch of Illinois Route 251
outside of town and did a very good job.
Mayor Koos reported that
he had a visit from Congressman Jerry Weller. The mayor and the city
administrator discussed with him grant proposals for the City and
learned who the liaison contact is in his office. Congressman Weller
pledged his support to help the City work its way through this maze of
paper work and bureaucracy that will be necessary. Mayor Koos said that
he wanted to reemphasize the importance of residential participation in
the survey in order for the City to accomplish the big sewer grant. He
also said that Miner’s Trail will be run through a different process,
but hopefully we will get that as well.