Alderman Joh Marcoline said the City needs to regulate the use of drones to protect people's privacy. He said he has been notified by a resident of a drone hovering over their swimming pool.
Mayor Bil Koos wanted to know if the ordinance prohibited commercial delivery using drones. City Administrator Edmondson said it covered recreational use of drones. Alderman Russell Ruestman said the state law governing drones was sufficient and the city doesn't need one. He said if the council passed an ordinance it wouldn't be enforced anyhow to which Mr. Marcoline disagreed.
Mr. Ruestman asked if that meant kids could no longer fly their toy planes in a city park. Mr. Marcoline said he doesn't want to restrict people's rights but he also wanted to make sure that people's privacy is not invaded.
Mayor Koos said he felt kids should be able to fly their toy planes in the football field. The Mayor said he doesn't want to be overly restricted. Mr. Edmondson said the ordinance could be changed to exclude toy planes. Mayor Koos said he doesn't want an ordinance which results in a loss of freedom and asked Mr. Emondson to do more research on drone laws to see if one can be developed that will not be overly restrictive.
Carolyn Development Repairs
At the previous council meeting a decision was made to reject the bids for doing repairs on the entrance to the Carolyn Development because of the cost and also because local contractors were not involved in the bidding. However, the council decided to go ahead and accept the low bid of$123,328 by Row Construction of Bloomington because the local contractor was not listed on the approved contractor list prepared by the State of Illinois. Mayor Koos asked City Administrator Edmondson to contact Row Construction and see if they will still accept the contract at the bid price they presented.
Shredding Agreement
The council gave City Administrator Edmondson the go ahead to purchase equipment for doing on sight paper shredding which requires an annual contract of $160. Mr. Edmondson said it is possible to allow the community to have a shredding day where residents can bring in their documents to be shredded. Mayor Koos said the community would embrace a town-wide shredding day and it could be coordinated with the town-wide cleanup day.
Code of Ordinances Review
City Administrator Edmondson said the city is looking at having a new code of ordinances book and suggested the council begin a review of existing ordinances and bring them up to date. Mayor Koos said the council should be thinking of reviewing a few ordinances at each meeting in order to bring them all up to date by December. Mr. Edmondson suggested the council start with a review of the nuisance ordinance.
Capital Improvement Software
City Administrator Edmondson gave council members sample copies of reports that can be created by a capital improvement software package. The cost of the software is $400 and can be used in analyzing capital outlay. Mr. Edmondson said he will be able to enter the required information into the system without difficulty.
Wireless Service Agreement
City Administrator Edmondson explained the services provided by Utility Services Group which could provide revenue for the city by leasing space on the water tower for wireless providers. The company markets the leasing of wireless space on the water tower and keeps 30% of the revenue with 70% going to the City. The company makes sure that wireless carriers do not compete with each other and also ensures that the equipment does not interfere with the water tower operations.
Water Shortage Concerns for Fires (Corrected 5-17)
Gary Wolf, the head of the Minonk Fire Department Board of Trustees, asked the council if it could use TIF funds of $6657.04 to purchase additional fire hose for $13,314.08. Mr. Wolf said that since the water tower will be out of commission for 2 months this summer, the fire department will be dependent on water being ported in from other sources. He said the fire hose would be used to run water from Durre's pond on the south edge of Minonk to downtown in case of a fire. Mayor Koos said he will check with the city engineers to see what water will be available for fires during the shutdown of the water tank.