CITY OF KANKAKEE
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
7:00 P.M.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: I’d
like to call the meeting to order. It is
7:00 P.M. and I would like to ask Pastor Andrew Anthony from Asbury United
Methodist Church to come forward and lead us in prayer. PAUSE Would
someone like to volunteer to lead us in prayer?
I hate to just select someone.
Carl? Carl?
ATTORNEY BOHLEN: James.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Mr.
Gordon is stepping up.
JAMES GORDON: Bless
you my people. Heavenly Father, we thank
You for this day that You’ve given us. We
thank You for the opportunity to come and serve. We thank You for the blessings that You
bestow upon us. We ask as we continue
this Council meeting for this day. Bless
the leaders in charge. Bless the
City. Help us oh God to do the things
that are pleasing, acceptable in Your sight.
Give us wisdom, help us to always understand and appreciate the ones
that are not as fortunate as we are.
Help us to always want to give back to make this City a place that
everybody can live, be happy and have the basic needs of this life. We thank You for the things that You’ve given
us. We thank You for the things that You
want to do for us. We continue to give
Your name glory and honor. These things
we pray and believe they’re done for
Christ’s sake. Amen.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you, Mr. Gordon. I’d like to have a
moment of silence for Alderman Leatha Coleman who passed last week. PAUSE Thank you.
I would like to also offer the Council’s sympathy to Chief Ron Young
whose stepfather passed away this past week and for Officer Raimondo whose
father passed away just yesterday. We
give our sympathy to them and their families.
Ah, I would like to call the members from the Eastside Bulldogs Junior
Football League to come forward and lead us in the Pledge.
ALDERMAN BROWN: All
right!
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – CRAIG
BUTLER, DAVID
MOORE, AND JEREMIAH MOORE
FROM EASTSIDE
BULLDOGS JUNIOR FOOTBALL
LEAGUE AND ALL: Pledge of Allegiance
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you. May we have roll call, please?
CLERK DUMAS:
PRESENT: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade (1)
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Department
Heads, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
PRESENT: Kinkade; Harmon; Doyle; Bohlen; Power; Simms;
Tyson; Gordon; Bertrand (9)
ABSENT: Spice;
Rodriguez (2)
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you. You have in your packets the
minutes of the last meeting. Do I hear a
motion to approve the minutes of the September 8, 2009, meeting?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Mayor
Epstein, hearing no objections from my colleagues, I move they be approved as
recorded.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
made by Alderman Hunter, seconded by..........
ALDERMAN OSENGA:
Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Alderman
Osenga to approve the minutes of the last meeting. All those in favor, aye. Opposed, same sign.
MOTION TO APPROVE CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF
SEPTEMBER 8, 2009
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. I have no Petitions. Are there any Petitions from the Floor? Hearing none, ah, as part of the agenda for
this evening, there’s a Resolution in honor of Alderman Coleman, and her family
is in attendance and with your permission, I would like to move that agenda
item up so we can do that at this time.
Okay, would the family of Alderman Coleman.......oh, I’m sorry. A motion to approve the Resolution.
ALDERMAN BROWN: So
moved.
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Made
by Alderman Brown, seconded by Alderman Davidson to approve the
Resolution. All those in favor,
aye. Opposed.
RESOLUTION HONORING THE LIFE OF FIRST WARD ALDERMAN
LEATHA A. COLEMAN
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Thank you. Would Alderman Coleman’s family please come
forward? I had the pleasure of working
with her for the past four years and it was truly an honor so I would like to
read a Resolution. WHEREAS, Leatha
Annette Jones Coleman was born on October 11, 1942, in Jackson, Tennessee, to Dorothy Paradise Smith and John Hunter,
into a family which included four
brothers and one sister. Her
stepfather was Roduscus Smith Jr. She
attended both Merry High School and Lane College in Jackson; and WHEREAS,
during her youth, music became a very important part of Mrs. Coleman’s
life. She moved to New York City to
pursue a professional music career where she sang with a group of four ladies,
and later went independent. She also sang in Chicago with notable musicians;
and WHEREAS, Mrs. Coleman was a member of Refuge Temple Church of God in New
York City, and in the early 1980s she launched a gospel tour which included
Kankakee. During that time she also sang
in Monrovia, Liberia, and Senegal with the Refuge Temple Radio Choir; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Coleman and her family settled in Kankakee, where she worked for
several years as an outpatient counselor at Riverside Medical Center and also
at Duane Dean Prevention and Treatment Center.
She served as First Ward Alderwoman in Kankakee from 2005 to 2009. WHEREAS, prior to her position as a politician,
Mrs. Coleman was very active in the Prayer Network of Kankakee, an affiliate of
Crusaders Church in Chicago, where she served as an ordained elder; and WHEREAS, Mrs. Coleman was a very active,
caring, and dedicated woman. She was
president of the Old Fair Park Homeowner’s/Homebuyer’s Association and Parent
Group Facilitator with Kankakee Community College Teen Mother’s Program. She was awarded Outstanding Volunteer by the
Kankakee County Junior League; Outstanding Service Award from the Illinois
Department of Children and Family Services; Youth and Career Education Service
Award from Crusaders International; SCORE Community Advocate Award; Leadership
Recognition Award from University of Illinois at Urbana; and Community
Decentralization Leadership Award from the Ford Foundation. She was also honored by the veterans from the
Exchange Club of Kankakee in 2003 and achieved the Teacher’s National Dean’s
List of 2004; and WHEREAS, Mrs. Coleman was married for forty-one years to
Johnny Lee Coleman, Sr. Their family
includes three sons: Johnnie and his
wife, LaToya Benson-Coleman; Vincent Ross-Coleman; and Johnnie Lee Coleman II;
and four daughters: Wilhelmenia and her
husband, Sham Jettoo; Nizera Coleman; Leatha Louise Ross-Coleman; and Ja’hnette
Lucinda Coleman. Mrs. Coleman also leaves behind a loving group of
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, three brothers, one sister, nieces,
nephews, and many cousins; and THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by Mayor Nina Epstein
and the City Council of the City of Kankakee, Illinois, to recognize and honor
Leatha Annette Jones Coleman for her many years of unselfish and loyal
contributions to the City of Kankakee.
ADOPTED this 21st day of September, 2009. Thank you.
Communications. Tonight we have a
presentation by Rob Hoffman of the River Valley Metro Mass Transit System that
is going to do their annual update for the Council. Mr. Hoffman.
ROB HOFFMAN: Good
evening. Thank you for your time this
evening. I’ll try to make it relatively
brief. As the Mayor said, I’m Rob
Hoffman. I’m Managing Director of River
Valley Metro. This is Michelle Brutlag
who is our Marketing Director. Michalle
joined us about two years ago. And, you’ll
notice when we get to recognition that we started getting a lot more
recognition two years ago than when it was just me doing it. I’m trying to flip through this really
quick. The first page there just kind of
demonstrates our ten years of growth.
You know they’re going to charge..........it’s been pretty
remarkable. In early 2005 is when we
added the evening service. And you can
see, since then the growth has been pretty rapid. We did just over 633,000 trips this fiscal
year. Ah, we’re looking at right now
for the current fiscal year that started July 1, we’re probably going to well
exceed 700,000 trips. First two months
of this year, we’ve done 72,000 and 73,000 trips each month. So, it’s a.....it’s just phenomenal
growth. People ask me why is it and what
are we doing? I’ve been doing this 30
years. I can’t explain it. We have a good system. We went a long time without public
transportation in our communities–40 years almost exactly we went without
public transportation and it’s just something that’s obviously well
received. We’re projecting 2011 fiscal
year will exceed 1,000,000 riders. We’re
projecting 1.1 million riders in that year and I happen to be.......back in ‘99
when we started this system, I lived in Oregon and I was a consultant and I
happened to come out and help start the system–just as a consultant I would
have never believed 1,000,000 trips in our communities here. It’s a pretty incredible group. A couple of pages here on recognition that we’ve
received in the last couple of years.
Ah, the most important of these recognitions for me is the second page
of that. Last two years we’ve been
recognized by the Federal Transit Administration for enhancing ridership. The national average, to give you an idea,
depending on your source for information, national average for the last two
years has been somewhere between 2% and 5% growth. We’ve been averaging in the low 20% growth
year to year. We’re well beyond national
average. A lot of that goes to Michelle’s
credit. Some programs she’s put in like
the student summer pass program. Most
of you are probably familiar from Memorial Day to Labor Day children through 12th
grade ride the system free. They can get
out. We don’t let them use University
Park. We let ‘em move about the
community and go to Splash Valley and go to jobs. We don’t let them escape to Chicago without
an adult so that’s the only exception.
Chicago you have to have an adult with you otherwise that’s free all
summer. This is the third year we’ve
done it. The first year we did 8,400
trips, I believe, in the entire summer and this year we did 48,000. So, that.....that’s something that’s been
very well received. The other thing we
started doing a couple years ago, I think probably some of you are familiar
with Andy Locke, Handycam. We were
fortunate enough to get to know Andy and he put together a program called Metro
TV. It’s something we’ve been looking
for. We struggled in the community
without access to local television to really get the word out. This day and age
there’s so many folks that it’s just
internet and television is where they get their information, so we actually
started producing twice a month local television programs. So, we play it actually on the bus. We have flat screen TVs on the bus. Andy, produced the programs for us. It was information about River Valley
Metro. The Kankakee Fire Department had
programs that they put together in there during the holiday season on fire
safety and those type of things and a lot of other. We didn’t sell advertising, but just other
community agencies were involved with programs on it. Received national recognition in 2008 for
that program. It’s something that was
innovative in a new way to get out in the smaller communities and get the
information out to our customers. So, we’re
working on revising that. We lost Andy
last year. We’re trying to find another
source to put those together, but it’s just another thing that we’re trying to
do over the years to serve the customers.
We, ah, one of the things that our board–Carole Franke just joined our
board and Bill Yohnka served on our board for a couple of years. One of the things that our board’s been real critical
on the leadership is that we don’t want to be just a bus system. We want to be THE bus system. We’re....we’re very customer focused. If a customer misses the bus, we consider
that our fault. People don’t go out–especially
in extreme weather conditions–don’t go out and intentionally miss the bus. That’s something that we didn’t made it easy
enough to understand. We did something
wrong. We have what we call Customer
Care Supervisors. They actually go pick
those people up, take them where they’re going.
We now have ‘em one on one to help them through. And, this is how you use the system, how you
catch the bus and where you’re going. Or
Michelle, or if nothing else, get them with Michelle and Michelle will actually
route their trips and do whatever it takes to get that person familiar with the
system and how to use it. We also, with
the Customer Care Supervisors, try to touch the non-riding community and try to
keep value to Metro, unless they’re responding to an emergency, they cannot
pass a stranded motorist. If we see a
car with a flat tire, or out of gas, or whatever it is, we’re going to stop and
do whatever necessary to get them going again.
Even if that’s just blocking the lane and turning on the strobe, to
assist them in changing a tire or we had a lady and her grandchildren one night
at Christmastime. The car was done. And, they lived in Indiana and we took ‘em
home, loaded ‘em up, took ‘em home. So,
it’s something that–say we’re a customer service agency, we’re like most of
yourselves, we’re community servants and we’re trying to put a real value to
our existence for the folks here. Ah,
real quick highlight on some capital projects.
We’re almost completed with our fueling station at the Metro
center. We’ve been fueling since day one
through the City of Kankakee. So, thank
you for that. That’s, ah, made things a
lot more affordable to have that partnership and I think it’s worked out pretty
well. Couple of minor glitches, but it’s
worked out pretty well. But, we’ll have
a fueling station in on our property and up and running within the month. That’s going to save us about $500.00 a day
in man hours. Right now, when you see
our buses out here, you have 13 vehicles that finish their day at the same time
and we only have one pump. So you have
13 man hours and these are vehicles that take about 20 to 30 minutes, depending
on the temperature outside, to fuel for 100 to 120 gallons. So, you have 13 people, literally, you’re
paying for that first bus that you’re fueling, so having our own place to do it
and having our own fueler is going to save us a lot of money. So, we’re looking forward to get that
done. If you come to our facility. I think most of you probably have been by the
facility, ah, if you haven’t had a chance to come in, we’d love to have you
come in and show it. We’re pretty proud
of the facility. Right now, our
facility, we have no parking lot, we have 9 acres of blacktop that’s
missing. We’re repaving the whole
place. Lee’s laughing, he got to wade
through the mud the other day. Ah, we’re
resurfacing the parking lot. This is
stimulus money that we got. When that
money came out, we weren’t allowed to buy vehicles with it. If we could have bought vehicles with it we
would have. It had to be shovel ready
and this is what we had that was pre-engineered and shovel ready. So, we have a parking lot. We have an emergency generator going in. We’re replacing our roof. We’re gonna’.......we decided to upgrade the
one that’s doesn’t leak and an HVAC system.
Our HVAC systrem is the original one to the building. So, it’s 30 some years old. It’s remarkable every day that it even turns
on. Once in a while I’ve got to kick it
a little bit, but it goes. Ah, we’ve
completed the transfer center and park and ride for the University Park station
and we have three bus routes that serve that transfer station. So you can now park there at our facility for
no charge, get on the bus, go to the Metra Station. The vehicles can stay there all weekend which
Metra, at the mall where we were previously serving from, at 10:00, any cars
left in the parking lot, they tow ‘em.
So, you know, a lot of folks go up for the weekend, want to leave it
overnight. So, we have that done
now. I encourage you to use it. We’re putting in security cameras. You know, there’s no such thing as a
guarantee that something won’t happen, but the security is in place. We’ve never had a problem and, hopefully, we’ll
have the right system if something ever does happen, we’re able to identify who
it was if nothing else. Our next two
transfer centers will be the Bradley transfer center. We’re looking for a location there in the
proximity of Perry Farm which is a secondary transfer station. And, then our Kankakee transfer center which
is our primary transfer station. We’re
looking for a location that’s basically in the environment of the Court
House. With the City Hall moving, with
the County’s talk of wanting, some day, to move into that environment that
really focuses where the big growth of employees are going. I think it’s something we can put together
there that benefits both of those entities, creates the park and ride that we
need without need for additional parking, by, at some point creating a downtown
circulator. What we kind of envision
there is a trolly-looking type of vehicle that circulates through the downtown
corridor and have what they call a fareless square so you can jump off and on
that vehicle anywhere in the downtown area and you’re not charged a fare. We’ve yet to identify a location for that
transfer center. The Mayor and I have
talked about some ideas. We’re looking
at a location right now which I’ve asked Dave to look at a location here, take
a look at the footprint, does it work before we approach the owners and see if
there’s some interest to move forward with it.
Ah, we’re working with–this is kind of exciting–with The Daily Journal,
I know you guys do some of your internet stuff with The Daily Journal. The Daily Journal has quite a relationship
with Nextel to the point where they’re working with.... The Journal has partnered with us working
with Nextel’s engineers to take the telephone technology, bring it into the bus
and rebroadcast in the bus as high speed internet. So, it’s something that we’ve tested a number
of times and we’re still in that corridor to University Park having some
problems there that I couldn’t explain, that’s why people at The Journal and
the engineers do it. But, it’s not quite
there, but it’s very close and it’s something that we’re not paying anything
for. Nextel sees a market for this
nationwide or whatever their market is.
So, we’re paying nothing to be the test things. So, it’s kind of a neat deal. I think we’re not far off from having
wireless internet free to the customers inside the buses and for that
University Park trip–especially that’s 22 miles–that’s going to be a really
neat thing to have. And, it opens up a
lot of new opportunities for us also and how we can use that. Ah, we’re working on bus stop accessibility
enhancements. It’s something real
important to us. We have in excess of
400 bus stops. Right now we’re a flag
system on some of our routes ‘cause we haven’t completed signing all the
routes. Our guys, the mechanics and
whatnot, do that when they have some down time.
But, we’re getting close. When we
do that, we’re only going to stop at those signs. What we need to look at now with those bus
stops is how many of them are accessible, how many need a pad to get you to the
sidewalk–if there’s a sidewalk. So, we’ve
set aside $100,000.00 out of our budget this year to try to start doing some of
those accessibility improvements. I try
to be careful with that and let people know that’s really not the transit
system’s responsibility, but it’s something that, you know, it’s important to
our service, it’s important to our customers.
It’s not much use to have a bus stop if we’re limited on which customers
can use it. Ah, we’re looking at some new vehicles. We have our University Park service right now
is ran with three vehicles that are 1990s, which qualifies as antique in the
transit world. You know, a 40-foot heavy
duty transit bus is rated by the federal government as 12 years or 375,000
miles. These are 1990s that St. Louis
took out of service ‘cause they were worn out and we brought ‘em up here and
put some new engines in them and what not.
But, these things have all got a couple million miles on them. And, we have eight Blue Bird vehicles that we
had the day we started. So they’re ten
years old and they’re medium duty. They
were meant to be seven year vehicles.
So, we have a number of vehicles to replace. We’re looking
at–in
town, the latest thing that we’re looking at is there was a blue sheet that I
gave you. We’re actually going to go out
this month and look at this vehicle.
There’s two of these running at Charlotte Airport, been running for a
couple of years. They liked them enough
to buy 12 more. I have a friend of mine
in Baltimore, just put 21 of ‘em in service.
The vehicle has no engine and has no transmission. It is 100% electric. It has a extremely small diesel-fired turbine
generator. It’s a little aircraft
engine, basically. And when the
batteries go below 40%, it kicks in and brings these back up. Neat vehicle, like I said. Currently, our buses will run about 100
gallons of diesel in a service day in a bus.
This vehicle will run the same distance on 20 gallons of diesel. The price point on it is identical to what we
would pay for a diesel engine hybrid and they’re offering a 12-year guarantee
on the batteries and the little turbine, so I hope, real soon, that we see
something like this running around the community. When you’re thinking 12 years out, you have
to be thinking at the very least, right now, hybrid. And, something like this is an opportunity to
have something be a real exciting change.
They said you can sit in the back of this bus and carry on a
conversation with somebody in the front of the bus from 35 feet away at a
normal voice; that the noise you hear in the bus is the cars around you. And, it’s, ah, a neat technology. It makes me wonder what we’re going to be
looking at 12 years from now........
UNKNOWN: Jetson buses.
ROB HOFFMAN: .......when
the next ones. Yeah. And, the other thing we’re looking at and we
actually–our plan is to implement it next year–and as you all know capital gets
in the way of plans. Especially in this
day. But, the plan is to implement a BRT–Bus
Rapid Transit which is pictured back in here.
We actually had this vehicle out here a couple years ago. Congressman Weller and the mayors actually
went on a little tour in the vehicle around the community. Ah, it’s a hybrid between a bus system and
trains. Our choice right now and I know
there’s a lot of debate in the community about trains coming down here or what
should serve to University Park. Our
view from Metro, we’re not ready for trains in the community. We have some big things on the horizon,
Illiana, third airport that will really focus–or change the focus of our
community and where people are commuting if any of these things come
through. Ah, and we’re looking at the
south side of Joliet. There’s a lot of
jobs. There’s more and more jobs created
over in that area. It’s becoming more of
a focus from our community. We lay down
tracks, it’s really hard to change if the focus changes. BRT looks like a train. It has five doors like a train and they all
open. You pull up the platforms. You have several levels of
implementation. We don’t have true
congestion on (Rt.) 50 yet so what we’re looking at initial
implementation would be simply signal preemptions so the bus never hits a red
light. I think my job at my age, really
quite frankly, is I need to work on set aside right-of-way through that corridor
so somebody that probably is going to come 10 or 12 or 15 years down the road
after me, the corridor is there and we can decide how do we best use it. A lot of communities now are going to
BRT. Los Angeles just opened up a system
down there where they just have dedicated bus lanes that run alongside the
highway. And, so, those buses, whether
there’s congestion or not can run right by at 70 miles an hour and move right
through. Ah, the big value to BRT under
the current federal guidelines, if we go with a train, a condition of new-start
money, which is the money to lay that track down and buy the locomotives. A condition of that money is we never go to
the federal government for operating expense.
This is transit, we get 50% of our operating expenses back from the
federal government if we go this route.
So, this makes more sense. There’s
a way to fund it, a way to operate it. I
can buy three of these vehicles right now and we can operate them for almost
400 years for the price of laying the tracks down from University Park to Exit 308. So, right now we see this as the best way to
get started. And, we’ll see what comes
down the road with other options. We do
have an agreement very close in place to have a park and ride–a second park and
ride at Exit 308.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Wait
a minute. What did you just say?
ROB HOFFMAN:
At Exit 308 we have.......we’re very close to having an agreement to have a
second park and ride for University Park which would give us service from 308
up to University Park, also. So, we’d be
picking up both ends of the community at that point. So, that’s long-term plan. The growth out from here. We plan our routes out 20 years in advance
now. We learned recently. But, we really look at five years. That’s really where it’s kind of
predictable. Five years, we’re going to
do this. It takes some time to get the
money for the vehicles and hire employees and what not. Five years out right now we see probably
service to Momence from Bradley out through Momence and then back down into
Kankakee so really just kind of a big U-shaped route there. If the 6000 interchange ever comes through,
we have the route drawn up on how we would serve that area with the predicted
growth that would happen in that area.
Ah, and we’re looking at some other things. We’re talking with PACE right now. We have some requests, Peotone-Monee and that’s
actually PACE’s area, but we’re talkin’ with them. We have buses going through there probably 12
times a day and it probably makes more sense for us to stop and open the door
than for them to duplicate the service.
Ah, we’ve had a lot of requests from Iroquois County in the last two
years which kind of surprised me. But,
there’s a number of jobs in Iroquois County at steel plants that they can’t
fill locally. So, they’re trying to
figure out how do we get public transportation, maybe start gettin’ some folks
wantin’ to come down. So, we’re looking
at a lot of stuff on the horizon. I’ve
got to apologize, I meant–this is obviously a Power Point presentation and I
meant to doctor it today and get my contact information. I guess I can send that back through the
Mayor’s office and if we could send that out, I’d like for you all to have my
cell phone. I know there’s a lot of
questions and things that people hear.
There are several of you now that have and have called me on
occasion. But, that’s my
preference. If you see something doesn’t
make sense, call me. You got an idea,
you know of a need that maybe we’re not aware of, give us a holler. It’s our job.
Like I say, our main purpose is to serve the community. So, any questions?
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Do
I have any questions for Mr. Hoffman?
Alderman Jones.
ALDERMAN JONES: I
just want to indistinguishable students took advantage of your indistinguishable
this summer. I know, last winter, when
it got very, very cold, you were offering free rides indistinguishable
ROB HOFFMAN: Yes,
every year, it’s.....
ALDERMAN JONES: I
want to thank you for doing that last year.
ROB HOFFMAN: Thank
you. Every year, when the temperature is–wind
chill–I’m not from cold area–gets below 0̊ then it’s free rides. People get on and ride as long as........it’s
just basically a mobile warming station.
Same thing in summer time for a cooling station. When it’s over 100̊, we’re free
rides. Ride as long as you need to.
ALDERMAN JONES: Thank
you.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Mr.
Hoffman, I got a couple questions with respect to your, ah, biggest and largest
partner, Bradley, Bourbonnais, Kankakee–who is your largest partner?
ROB HOFFMAN: Largest
route?
ALDERMAN HUNTER:
Partner–partner. In terms of financial contributions?
ROB HOFFMAN: Well,
our funding goes all over. Obviously,
the City of Kankakee is the largest local which is about, I think, we’re about
$60,000 a year now is what we’re at.
Which is based on–intergovernmental agreement bases it on, ah, hours of
service......
ALDERMAN HUNTER: So,
Kankakee is your largest financial contributor?
ROB HOFFMAN: ........in the community. Yeah.
Our largest–well, obviously our largest partners are the state and
federal governments on the financial side.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Right. That’s a given. I understand.
ROB HOFFMAN: And,
then the riders and then the City of Kankakee.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Ah,
and where do you have the most routes?
The most routes?
ROB HOFFMAN: The
majority of the routes come in to Kankakee.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Um
huh (affirmative).
ROB HOFFMAN: Because
that’s where our main transfer point is.
We have nine routes that meet here about every 30 minutes for the most
part. Some of them are hours.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: And,
how many employees do you have?
ROB HOFFMAN: Metro
has 13 employees currently. We have
a.........we contract for the bus riders through a company called First Group
America. And, we do that for the
liability side. We pay a one-rate for
the year and that covers the insurance and any law suits or liability that
might be there with it. They have about
70 employees.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Seventy? Do you happen to know how many of those
employees are from the City of Kankakee or the Township?
ROB HOFFMAN: I
don’t.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Okay. Do you keep up with those stats at all?
ROB HOFFMAN: I
don’t, no.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Okay,
out of the 13 that you referenced, are........where do they hail from? What’s their residency?
ROB HOFFMAN: Iroquois
County, ah.........
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Iroquois
County?
ROB HOFFMAN: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: What
are they contributing to...........
ROB HOFFMAN: I
have some folks from Iroquois County, I have folks from.....I think I have
folks from every one of the communities other than Manteno.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: What
does Iroquois County contribute to the system?
I’m just asking.
ROB HOFFMAN: Iroquois
County is not a member of the system.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Oh,
okay. I was just wondering. But, they’re employed by you.
ROB HOFFMAN: Yeah. We don’t.........we do not discriminate when
we hire.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: I
don’t discriminate against people from Iroquois either.
ROB HOFFMAN: We
get the most eligible people and we put ‘em on the payroll. We’re looking for the best and the brightest
and where we find those folks that have the customer service attitude.........
ALDERMAN HUNTER: So,
you’re looking for the best and the brightest and you found ‘em in Iroquois
County?
ROB HOFFMAN:
Some of ‘em, yes sir.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Pardon?
ROB HOFFMAN:
Yes, sir. Some of ‘em.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: I
would beg to disagree with you. Let me
talk to you........
ROB HOFFMAN:
Well, respectfully, Alderman, I’d love to have that conversation if you want to
give me a holler.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: No,
no, no. I’m not done..........I got a
couple more questions.
ROB HOFFMAN: Our
region........we’re a regional entity.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Let
me just ask you this now. You mentioned
some of the glitches. Now, Exit 308 is
no longer a glitch is it?
ROB HOFFMAN: Pardon
me?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: 308
is no longer a glitch. You mentioned
that there were some glitches that you had with the City of Kankakee and 308 is
not a glitch any more is it?
ROB HOFFMAN:
308 is something.........you’re referring to the Park and Ride?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Well,
no, I mean at one point there, you guys didn’t even want to run out there.
ROB HOFFMAN: I
don’t know that I’m familiar with what we’re talking about.
ALDERMAN WILLIAMS: Ah,
we had a problem with riders not being able to get back and forth from the
WalMart–the new WalMart in Kankakee.
And, I had to write letters to Senators Obama and Durbin to try to get
some expedience onto that and then later Mayor Green said that was
corrected. So, there was a problem.
ROB HOFFMAN: Yeah. What that was, was adding an additional bus
on that route. The KCC route cannot have
anything added to it. That route..........we
have two routes. KCC and Eastgate, you
can’t add anything to ‘em. Those routes
regularly get late covering the ground they cover now. So, when the new WalMart, when we became
aware of the new WalMart, ah, we laid out what route it was, we figured out
what the expense was to do that. We put
it in the transit bill that we did with Chicago a couple of years ago when
Chicago was threatening doomsday. We
built that money into that bill. And, we
won that fight. And, then as you all
know, the Governor reneged on everything downstate– Governor Blagoevitch. Ah, and with Representative Dugan’s
assistance, we got that straightened out.
But, this fiscal year that started July 1, 2009, is the first time we’ve
had the money that came out of that transit bill and that’s been more than two
years ago that was passed. Ah, it’s
usually the same answer. When you have a
route that you want to run, it’s money.
It’s always money. I’m sure you
guys know that with your own projects.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: You
referenced that Bradley has a transfer station, looking at Perry Farm, is that
transfer station, is that correct?
ROB HOFFMAN: Right.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Ah,
and, you mentioned earlier that Kankakee has the largest ridership and the
biggest contributor.
ROB HOFFMAN: Well,
the largest amount of riders come through Kankakee because all of the routes
transfer here.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: And,
you reference the fact that you talked with Mayor Epstein about something in
Kankakee. Ah, why is it that you don’t
have anything worked out for the City of Kankakee and you can reference Perry
Farm for Bradley?
ROB HOFFMAN: I
don’t have worked out for Bradley either.
At least with any success.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Oh,
did I hear you? I’ve got pretty good
hearing.
ROB HOFFMAN: Yeah. I know the feeling.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: I
thought I heard you say Perry Farm.
ROB HOFFMAN: No,
those are two projects that we’re working on.
There’s not a priority on which one’s going to come first. What’s going to dictate that is where we get
the location that we can use and get our hands on will dictate the order. Kankakee has been our first priority all the
way along. We’ve not been able to get
the location ‘cause that’s where we serve the most routes. All the communities except for Manteno....
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Well,
if Kankakee was your priority, why did you move to Bourbonnais in terms of your
headquarters?
ROB HOFFMAN: Well, where our headquarters are, are
different than our service.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank you Alderman Hunter. I think we need to move the agenda along.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Well,
I.......
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you, Mr. Hoffman.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: I’m
here to tell you that we’ve got some qualified people in the City of Kankakee.
ROB HOFFMAN: And,
we have several of them that work for us, but I’d be more than happy to talk to
you any time.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you for your presentation this evening.
At the request of the Aldermen, I am pulling item 11E from the agenda
for this evening. We will postpone
action on that item to the next Council meeting. Moving onto Communications, we’ve had our
presentation. Item 7B is information
only. Items C, D and E, I believe, we
could combine if that is the pleasure of the Aldermen.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Motion
to approve.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
made by Alderman Hunter, seconded by..........
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: I’ll
second it, but we.....
MAYOR EPSTEIN: We
can do discussion.
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: Okay.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Seconded
by Alderman Davis–Davidson–I’m sorry, my apologies, to combine items C, D and
E. Is there any discussion?
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: I
have a discussion. Originally, we
thought that we would have an issue because they were asking for two particular
days.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: That’s
correct.
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: But,
after talking.........talking about it, I think we’ll be okay because of the
time frame.
ALDERMAN CIACCIO: Is
that them?
MAYOR EPSTEIN: So,
you agree with the two-day request.
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: It
would be no different than the church having an outing where they was two days
to it. So, we think it’ll be okay.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Okay,
thank you. I have a motion and a
second. All those in favor, aye. Opposed.
THE BOARD OF RIVERVIEW HISTORIC DISTRICT IS REQUESTING
CLOSURE OF THE 800 AND 900 BLOCKS OF SOUTH WILDWOOD
AVENUE ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009, FROM 3:00 P.M.
UNTIL
8:00 P.M. FOR THEIR ANNUAL STREET PARTY
KANKAKEE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT COUNCIL IS REQUESTING
PERMISSION
TO HOST THEIR ANNUAL HOMECOMING PARADE ON FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 2, 2009, BEGINNING AT 1:30 P.M.
LISA MCCOY OF 746 N. EVERGREEN AVE. IS REQUESTING A
NOISE PERMIT
AND STREET BLOCKAGE OF THE INTERSECTION OF THE 700
BLOCK OF
MULBERRY STREET AND EVERGREEN AVENUE AND THE 700 BLOCK
OF
WILLOW STREET AND EVERGREEN AVENUE ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER
2, AND
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2009, FROM 11:00 A.M. UNTIL 4:00
P.M. FOR A
NEIGHBORHOOD OCTOBER FESTIVAL
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank you.
Motion carries. Moving onto
Standing Committees, Public Safety, Alderman Hunter.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Thank
you. I hail from the fine metropolis of
Kankakee, Illinois, not from Iroquois County.
But, anyway, there are a couple of things I think we need to vote upon–several
things. We don’t have a Ordinance
regarding declaring the pumper from the Fire Department as surplus and at an
appropriate time I’ll make a motion.
ALDERMAN CIACCIO: I
haven’t got my glasses.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: We
will prepare an Ordinance declaring that surplus.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Should
I do it orally on the Floor?
MAYOR EPSTEIN: All
right.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Ah,
let me do this real quick. I move that
we Suspend the Rules that would interfere with consideration and passage of
this Ordinance at this time.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Do
I have a second?
ALDERMAN SWANSON: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Second
by Alderman Swanson to Suspend the Rules.
Roll call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Do I have a motion to put this
Ordinance on its Final Passage?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Since
we’re giving the pumper to Sun River Terrace to keep the dust down in their
community I move this Ordinance be placed on its Final Passage and Pass.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
made by Alderman Hunter, seconded by Alderman.......
ALDERMAN SWANSON: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Swanson. Roll call, please. Excuse me–discussion. Hearing none, roll call.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
MOTION TO DECLARE SURPLUS PROPERTY IN FIRE DEPARTMENT
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: I’d
like to combine a couple of things that are on your–in your minutes here. There’s a motion to approve Capital
Expenditures for several items, ah, as stated and that amount is
$32,672.00. That was for a new commander
vehicle lights and sirens for the Assistant Chief’s vehicle and that was
approved. Additionally, I’d like to
incorporate, also, in that on the second page the Committee approved the
expenditure of $144,000.00 from Capital to equip the six new squads with light
bars. I move that we approve this
request.
ALDERMAN BARON: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
made by Alderman Hunter, seconded by Alderman Baron to approve Capital
Expenditures for the Police and Fire Departments. Roll call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
MOTION TO APPROVE EXPENDITURES FROM CAPITAL FOR FIRE
DEPARTMENT
A/C VEHICLE, LIGHT AND SIRENS
MOTION TO APPROVE EXPENDITURE OF $144,000.00 FROM CAPITAL
TO
EQUIP SIX NEW SQUADS WITH LIGHT BARS
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Does that complete your
report?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Yes.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you. License and Franchise. Alderman Brown.
ALDERMAN BROWN: Briefly,
Mayor, the minutes contained in the minutes of the meeting are on your desktop
here. There’s a map of the City in each
Ward and this represents indistinguishable fire hydrants and indistinguishable. If you would, could you indulge Craig
Blanchette for about two minutes to explain this process. What this does is indistinguishable
the City liability and I think that’s really important. Craig.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Absolutely. Mr. Blanchette would you like to come
forward?
CRAIG BLANCHETTE: Thank
you Alderman Brown. Mayor Epstein and
City Council, what many of you have before you is a packet that I distributed
September 10, at the Licensing and Franchise Committee. And, for those who are on the Committee, I’ve
already given them theirs, so I apologize that I didn’t bring extras for this
evening. But, what I want to bring your
attention to is the larger pieces of paper where we did our projects for the
past 12 months within the City. Most of
them are within the 7th Ward and the 5th Ward although we
did do other capital projects throughout the vast majority of all the Wards in
Kankakee including valve work and service line things and so forth. But, what this really does, it shows you, as
Aldermen and officials of the City, where we did our projects and for a couple
reasons. One is, is so that you know
what we did in each of the neighborhoods and what your residents call and say
there was something done in their yard or something happened, what was it, at
least you’ve got some information about it and at least you can refine your
approach and call me instead of calling the gas company or whoever else it
might be. It gives you an idea of where we were and what we’ve done. The second thing is it’s good for you to have
this information because we spend over $2,000,000.00 in water main related
projects in the City over the past 12 months and, ah, it’s good for you to know
what we’re doing with our money and where we’re puttin’ it. And, you can see by some of the information
on there, we’ve added ten new hydrants throughout the City in the areas where
we did water main work. For instance, in
the 7th Ward we tripled the flow of fire flows on Pine Street,
doubled them on Linden and then increased them by 50% on Chestnut. And, again, in the 5th Ward we did
work on 6th and 7th Streets and improved fire flows there
as well as adding hydrants. So, we’re
working as close as we can with Chief Young.
He’s done a great job of working with us to try to improve not only our
water system, but how we interact with him and his department so that we can
get them information that makes them better, too. So, ah, I really wanted to give that to you
and present it and answer any questions you might have of. But, basically, the more information I can
give you about what we’re doing in your community, the better off you’ll be as
officials and the better off we’ll be as a water company. So, if there’s any questions?
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Are
there any questions for Mr. Blanchette? Thank you Craig for coming this evening.
CRAIG BLANCHETTE: All
right. Appreciate it. Thank you.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you. Alderman Brown, does that complete
your report?
ALDERMAN BROWN: Ah,
there is one, ah, item of business indistinguishable I don’t know indistinguishable
under New Business.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Yes,
it is.
ALDERMAN BROWN: There
is a leaf vacuum that was recommended to bid for equipment and purchasing
vacuum for the City. And, that bid came
in from Standard Equipment in the amount of $31,960.00, and the Committee is
recommending to the Council that we accept that bid.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Okay,
I have a motion from Alderman Brown to accept the bid from Standard Equipment
for a new leaf vacuum. Do I have a
second?
ALDERMAN BROWNE: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Seconded
by Alderman Rich Browne. Any
discussion? Roll call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
RECOMMENDATION TO AWARD THE BID OF $31,960.00 TO
STANDARD
EQUIPMENT COMPANY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
25 CUBIC YARD LEAF VACUUM
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Does that complete your report,
Alderman Brown?
ALDERMAN BROWN: Yes.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you. Budget Committee, Alderman Baron.
ALDERMAN BARON: Ah,
very briefly, we don’t have anything to ask of the Council tonight. We have no action items. The Committee meeting on September 14,
consisted of presentation and discussion of the year-to-date income, our
revenues and expenses. It’s something
that we intend to follow on a monthly basis from here on out. Follow the situation very closely as you’re
all very aware. The recession’s had a
significant impact on the City and we intend to continue to follow it
closely. But, as I said, we have nothing
to ask you tonight.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Thank
you, Alderman Baron. Ah, moving onto the
Report of Officers, do I have a motion to pay the bills?
ALDERMAN WILLIAMS: Mayor,
I move to approve the Report of Officers, place the monies into the proper
accounts and pay the bills in the amount $954,744.15.
ALDERMAN CIACCIO: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
by Alderman Williams, seconded by Alderman Ciaccio. Is there any discussion on the bills? Hearing none, roll call.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
REPORT OF OFFICERS APPROVAL OF BILLS – $954,744.15
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Moving onto Unfinished Business
we have an Ordinance that is on its Second Reading amending Chapter 8, Section
8-16 and 8-17 of the City Code of the City of Kankakee. Do I have a motion to put this on its final
reading?
ALDERMAN SWANSON: So
moved.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
by Alderman Swanson. Do I have a second?
ALDERMAN FAFORD: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Seconded
by Alderman Faford. Any discussion? Roll call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Browne, R.; Baron; Faford; Swanson; Osenga;
Linneman; Davidson (7)
NAY: Brown;
Hunter; Williams; Ciaccio; Jones; Cox (6)
ABSENT: Schwade (1)
SECOND READING
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 8, SECTIONS 8-16 AND
8-17
OF THE CITY CODE OF THE CITY OF KANKAKEE
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Moving onto New Business. The first item on the agenda is establishing
a handicapped parking sign at 929 Cobb Boulevard. Do I have a motion to Suspend the Rules?
ALDERMAN JONES: Motion
to Suspend the Rules.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
by Alderman Jones. Second?
ALDERMAN BARON: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Seconded
by Alderman Baron to Suspend the Rules that would interfere with the passage of
the Ordinance. Roll call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Do I have a motion to put this
Ordinance on its Final Passage and Pass?
ALDERMAN JONES: Move
to put this on Final Passage to Pass.
ALDERMAN BARON: I
second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
by Alderman Jones, seconded by Alderman Baron.
Is there any discussion? Roll
call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 32, SECTION 231
ESTABLISHING A
HANDICAPPED PARKING SIGN AT 929 COBB BOULEVARD
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Next item on the agenda is the
Ordinance amending Chapter 34 of the Municipal Code of the City of
Kankakee. At tonight’s Utility Board,
there was a presentation and discussion on raising the sewer rates for the City
of Kankakee 7 ½% on November 1 (2009), an additional 7 ½% on May 1, (2010),
in order to meet the obligations that we have for our debt service as well as
the increased expenditures to KRMA. It
is the recommendation of the Utility Board Committee meeting tonight to put
this Ordinance on its First Reading. Do
I have a motion to do so?
ALDERMAN BARON: Mayor
Epstein, I would move that we place this Ordinance on its First Reading.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
made by Alderman Baron to place this on its First Reading. Do I have a second?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Bipartisan
second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Second
by Alderman Hunter, thank you. May I
have roll call, please?
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Schwade; Davidson (Question.
MAYOR
EPSTEIN: Yes.
ALDERMAN
DAVIDSON: Ah, I was trying to
understand exactly what this was for and how we came about deciding whether or
not this was something that we needed to do.
MAYOR
EPSTEIN: At our Utility Board meeting
tonight, there was much discussion on the need to raise our sewer rates because
of the debt obligation that the General Fund can no longer make towards the
payments of the bonds as well as the increased rate that the City of Kankakee,
as well as the other municipalities, will be receiving from KRMA. And, so, in order to meet those obligations,
we must raise our sewer rates.
ALDERMAN
DAVIDSON: KRMA–I’m not familiar with
KRMA.
MAYOR
EPSTEIN: I’m sure Mr. Simms can give
you a much more detailed explanation.
RICHARD
SIMMS: KRMA
is the abbreviated name of Kankakee River Metropolitan Agency. In the early 90s, the City of Kankakee,
Villages of Bradley, Bourbonnais and Aroma Park came together. The Bradley-Bourbonnais plants were closed
and the State required that the Kankakee plant be expanded to serve all four
communities. KRMA was created. It’s an independent governmental agency made
up of the four governments called a municipal joint treatment agency. They purchased the plant from the City of
Kankakee and now the City of Kankakee is a 53% owner of the plant and user.
MAYOR
EPSTEIN: The rates are set by KRMA as
well to not only us, but to all the municipalities–Bradley, Bourbonnais,
Kankakee and Aroma Park.
ALDERMAN
DAVIDSON: So this increase will
affect everyone?
MAYOR
EPSTEIN: Yes, the increase from KRMA
will affect everyone. It’s up to each
municipality to determine what percentage of increase they would like to charge
their residents in order to meet their obligation.
ALDERMAN
DAVIDSON: Thank you.
MAYOR
EPSTEIN: You’re welcome.) (10)
NAY: Ciaccio; Jones; Cox (3)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 34 OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF
THE
CITY OF KANKAKEE, ILLINOIS
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. Thank you. The next item, we’ve already taken care of C,
is D. Illinois Department of
Transportation Agreement for Brookmont Boulevard Emergency Road Project
Program. If there are any questions, Mr.
Tyson would you like to explain this to the Aldermen?
DAVID TYSON: Yes. What this is, is a City/State local
agreement. We received $270,000.00 money
from the State for the milling and overlaying of Brookmont Boulevard and it was
part of the emergency road repair program that we applied for and we were
successful in getting it. So, we’re
starting the paperwork right now in order to be able to receive the money. This will be run just like a regular
maintenance program is. We’ll be
submitting the program to the state, hopefully, being able to get it back and
get in a bid date. We’re going to try to
bid it by the end of the month or the first part of next month so that the
second meeting in October, we’re going to try to bring bids back to you and if
weather is permitting, we’ll do the work this year. If weather.........if we’re not in weather
frame where we can lay asphalt, we’ll have to put it off ‘til the springtime. But, this is a grant or free money that we
got from the state.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Are
there any questions? The City’s portion
of the project will come out of our infrastructure bonds and I would like to
thank Mr. Tyson and his office and department for applying for these emergency
road funds. Do I have a motion to
approve?
ALDERMAN DAVIDSON: I make a motion.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
made by Alderman Davidson. A second?
ALDERMAN COX: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Second
by Alderman Cox. Roll call, please.
CLERK DUMAS:
AYE: Brown; Hunter; Browne, R.; Baron; Williams;
Ciaccio; Faford; Swanson; Osenga; Linneman; Jones; Davidson; Cox (13)
ABSENT: Schwade
(1)
ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION LOCAL
AGENCY/STATE
AGREEMENT FOR BROOKMONT BOULEVARD EMERGENCY ROAD
PROJECT PROGRAM FUNDING – TEI JOB NO. E05194
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Motion
carries. The next items are........on
the agenda are Resolutions A, C, D and E.
Do I have a motion to combine those Resolutions and approve them? Oh, I’m sorry. D should not be on there. We will pull item D from the agenda. A, C and E Resolutions.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Second
Danita’s motion.
ALDERMAN SWANSON: So
moved.
ALDERMAN HUNTER: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Alderman
Swanson, second by Alderman Hunter. All
those in favor. Opposed, same sign.
RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE 40TH YEAR
ANNIVERSARY OF
GOVERNORS STATE UNIVERSITY
RESOLUTION REQUESTING A PERMIT FROM ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY OF KANKAKEE TO ALLOW CONSTRUCTION
OF A COMMERCIAL ENTRANCE AND RELATED
IMPROVEMENTS ALONG U.S. 45/52 FOR ALDI, INC.
CITY OF KANKAKEE CENSUS 2010 PROCLAMATION
MAYOR EPSTEIN: The
Resolutions pass. I’d like to just call
your attention to the one Resolution that’s on the census. They’re being very aggressive this year and
this is just one step in a very multi-faceted approach to encourage all of our
residents to fill out the census forms when they come. I’m sure you’re all aware of the fact that
many, many dollars are dependent on our census count. And, this is just a first step. We will also have committees throughout the
City that will be working towards encouraging our residents and providing education
to them so when those forms come in the mail, it’s very, very important for
them to be returned back. There are a
couple of red zones that are called in the City of Kankakee where the response
rate is less than 50% and that is truly an impact to our financial resources. So, we are going to do everything we can to
get those numbers up. Do I have a motion
to adjourn?
ALDERMAN HUNTER: So
moved.
ALDERMAN JONES: Ah,
Mayor.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Oh,
I’m sorry. Alderman Jones, any questions
or comments?
ALDERMAN JONES: I
talked with a couple employees here at the City and officers and they would
like to see if the City Council can move the bench for the officer that was
shot in duty that is in the back parking lot to the front. I was there when they dedicated the bench to
his mother and it was on the east side of the building. And, I was thinking that maybe it would be
better if it was in the front of the building so people can remember our
officer who has fallen.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: I’ll
be happy to look into that and see if there’s an appropriate place to do that.
ALDERMAN JONES: Thank
you.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: Any
other questions or concerns? Motion to
adjourn?
ALDERMAN WILLIAMS: So
moved.
ALDERMAN BROWN: Second.
MAYOR EPSTEIN: By
Alderman Swanson. Seconded by........oh,
I’m sorry. Alderman Williams, seconded
by Alderman Brown. All those in
favor. Opposed.
MOTION TO ADJOURN CITY COUNCIL MEETING
8:00
P.M.