Kankakee Times

Village Of Onarga Village Board met Sept. 13.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

1. Call to order at 7:00 p.m.

Cultra called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.

2. Roll Call

Shane Cultra, Village President; Fred Walraven, Trustee; Angie Martinez, Trustee; Cole Rabe, Trustee; Holly Zirkle, Trustee; Sarah Barnett, Trustee; Russ Geisler, Trustee; Stephanie VonDrehle, Village Clerk; Tim Hamilton, Village Supervisor; Doug Brenner, Police Chief; Becky Morgan, Park Coordinator; Samantha Sansone, Village Treasurer; Gilman Star; Linda Harris; and Jamie Kozma.

3. Review and approval of the Regular Village Board Minutes Monday August 9, 2021.

Zirkle motioned to approve the regular meeting minutes of August 9, 2021 as presented. Martinez seconded the motion. The motion carried.

4. Review and approval of treasurer’s report

Barnett motioned to approve the treasurer’s report as presented. Walraven seconded the motion. The motion carried. VonDrehle informed the board of IDOT’s final audit on the Evergreen Street Repair and how one bill in the amount of $9,790.79, that was paid from the General Account should have been paid out of MFT. Sansone and VonDrehle corrected this.

5. Review and approval of bills to be paid

Walraven motioned to approve the bills to be paid as presented in the amount of $126,988.00. Zirkle seconded the motion. The motion carried.

6. Public comment

Walraven motioned to open public comment. Martinez seconded the motion. The motion carried. Linda Harris asked the board for a donation for the Onarga Home & Garden Club. Harris informed the board the last donation was in the amount of $1000 and was asking for the same amount again. The board will address this later in the meeting and let Harris know.

Jamie Kozma addressed the board on the behalf of Nexus Academy. Kozma, the Executive Director of Nexus informed the board of the Nexus Cornerstone Café Open House which is September 18th from 1-4pm. An invitation was in everyone’s mailboxes at the Village. Kozma handed out a worksheet on current info on the academy and discussed the highlights of this worksheet. Kozma also informed the board if they had any service projects around town that the students could help with to let her know, they would help out anytime. With this being said Geisler inquired as to who would be at liability if a student was injured while doing one of these service projects? No one was really able to answer this question, but this is definitely something to look into before allowing this. Kozma also gave everyone her phone number to call if she is needed.

Cultra asked to get a meeting scheduled with her and/or Kat Woods.

7. Review of correspondence to the board

There was no correspondence to the board.

8. Review and Possible Action on Ordinances

Walraven motioned to approve Ordinance # 2021-001-Ordinance Amending Garbage Rates as presented. Geisler seconded the motion. The motion carried. A roll call vote was conducted with all Aye votes. Geisler motioned to approve Ordinance # 2021-002-Annual Appropriation Ordinance as presented. Walraven seconded the motion. The motion carried. A roll call vote was conducted with all Aye votes.

9. Standing Committee reports

9.1 Parks and Recreation (Holly Zirkle, Angie Martinez, Sarah Barnett)

Morgan informed the board the Fall Festival currently has 7 vendors. Morgan gave all Board members flyers to put up at different businesses.

Morgan also informed the board that this past pool season was not the best. The weather was a major factor in this with it either being too hot or too cold and a lack of lifeguards. Morgan stated she was going to speak with Nexus to see if the Village could use their pool to get lifeguards trained and to also train them to teach swim lessons.

9.2 Infrastructure (Russ Geisler, Holly Zirkle, Cole Rabe)

Geisler motioned to approve the Infrastructure Meeting minutes of August 16, 2021 as presented. Rabe seconded the motion. The motion carried.

9.2.1 Evergreen Street Repair

Hamilton stated he spoke with Piggush and they are verifying when the State funds will be available and this project will hopefully go out to bid in the Spring of 2022.

9.2.2 Bore & Jack

The Bore & Jack project should start the end of next week.

9.2.3 Sidewalk Project

Geisler stated NBC Demolition is getting everything in order with proper insurance on the sidewalk project, and hopefully work will be beginning the following week.

Geisler motioned to approve the spending of $35,000 for handicap accessible parking lots alongside the bank and Post Office. Barnett seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Geisler motioned to approve the spending of $2,670 to Bulk Excavating to clean out the culvert on Washington Street. Zirkle seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Geisler stated he had spoken with Tungate on the Garcia property and they are working on paperwork to condemn the property.

Hamilton informed the board that the Village Clean Up days total cost was $12,529.40, which was an increase of almost $2000 from last year. This was due to a resident put out 40 tv’s that had been taken apart. The board decided next year that they would not be taking tv’s like the 40 that were taken this year.

9.3 Safety, Security, & Enforcement (Angie Martinez, Russ Geisler, Cole Rabe)

Martinez motioned to approve the Safety, Security, & Enforcement Meeting Minutes of September 9, 2021. Rabe seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Geisler stated another resident of the Village would like to put a 40-foot trailer behind their home. This was discussed a few meetings ago with all board members agreeing this was not something they wanted in the Village. Cultra recommended the committee have a meeting to discuss this and then stated the board should probably have an ordinance drawn up for this. Rabe stated he would get a committee meeting scheduled and make a recommendation to the board.

Geisler motioned to approve adding a 3-way stop sign at Roosevelt & Cherry. Walraven seconded the motion. The motion carried with 3 Ayes and 3 Nays. Rabe, Barnett, and Martinez all were against the stop sign and thought a speed bump should be placed instead on Roosevelt.

9.4 Finance (Shane Cultra, Sarah, Barnett, Russ Geisler, Holly Zirkle)

Geisler motioned to approve the Finance Committee Meeting minutes of August 16th and September 7th as presented. Zirkle seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Cultra discussed the Windfarm Agreement and the possibility of entering into this agreement with the 230 acres the Village owns in Vermilion County. The lease would be from 25 to 50 years and the Village would be paid $20,000-$21,000 per year, a dollar amount per acre, and possibly other additional amounts. If this agreement is signed and no windmill is built the Village will still get this money.

Zirkle motioned to approve the signing of the Windfarm Agreement. Martinez seconded the motion. The motion carried.

9.5 Local and Intergovernmental Communications (Sarah Barnett, Fred Walraven, Cole Rabe)

9.6 Building Standards (Cole Rabe, Fred Walraven, Sarah Barnett)

Rabe stated he would work on getting a meeting scheduled with Clarage included on zoning.

9.7 TIF Committee (Shane Cultra, Holly Zirkle, Russ Geisler)

Barnett motioned to approve the TIF Committee Meeting minutes of September 7th as presented. Geisler seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Geisler motioned to approve the hiring of Pete Iosue as the Village’s TIF Attorney. Zirkle seconded the motion. The motion carried.

9.8 Litigation Committee (Fred Walraven, Sarah Barnett, Angie Martinez, Shane Cultra)

Cultra stated he is meeting with the attorney on the 15th about the lawsuit with McCann’s. The 16th will be deposition for the case.

10. Old business

11. New business

Martinez stated she had received some calls on the E. Lincoln Alley and what was going to done with the trees in the alley and if the Village was paying for this. Cultra stated the trees would be cut down that are in the alley and his

company would be re-establishing part of this alley as it is owned by the business. Cultra also stated the tree removal would be paid for out of the business not by the Village. Cultra stated anyone that wants to discuss should contact him. Barnett motioned to approve the donation of $1,000 to the Onarga Home & Garden Club. Geisler seconded the motion. The motion carried.

12. Executive session (if needed) for any lawful purpose including but not limited to: Appointment, employment, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees; Salary schedules for one or more employees; Selection of person to fill a public office or discipline, performance or removal of the occupant of a public office; Purchase or lease of real property or setting of a price for sale or lease of village property; Litigation, pending or probable. Walraven motioned to open Executive session on employment and salary matters at 8:24pm. Geisler seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Walraven motioned to close Executive session at 8:28pm. Geisler seconded the motion. The motion carried.

13. Possible action on any executive session item

Geisler motioned to approve the hiring of Omar Camarena at a rate of $14.00 as a general maintenance worker for Streets & Sidewalks. Martinez seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Barnett motioned to approve making Samantha Sansone the Treasurer of the Village and increase her pay to $17.00 beginning the next pay period which is September 18th. Martinez seconded the motion. The motion carried.

14. Adjournment

Walraven motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:31pm. Barnett seconded the motion. The motion carried.