Kankakee Times

Kankakee County Highways and Buildings Committee met Wednesday, March 22.

MINUTES

Members Present

Mr. McConnell, Mr. Hildebrand, Mr. Tripp, Mr. LaGesse, Ms. Polk, Ms. Webber, Ms. Evans, Ms. Peters, Ms. Parker, Mr. Mulcahy, and Mr. Ritter

Members Absent

Mr. Vickery, Mr. Einfeldt , Mr. Olthoff, and Mr. Stauffenberg

In Attendance

 Board Members

Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Liehr

 Department Heads

Mark Rogers, Brian Gadbois, Erich Blair, and Kevin Duval

Media

None

1. Call to Order

 Roll Call

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Mr. McConnell, at 9:00 a.m. Quorum present.

2. Public Comment

3. Approval of Minutes: February 22, 2017

Mr. Tripp made a motion to approve the minutes, and Ms. Parker seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

4. Highways - Mark Rogers

 Bidding and Letting

Mr. LaGesse made a motion to open the bids, and Ms. Peters seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

Mr. Rogers provided the committee with maps showing where the work is going to be done. He opened the bids and read each one to the committee.

Ms. Peters made a motion to approve the bids as read, conditioned upon review of the bid tabulations and responsibility of bidder, and Ms. Evans seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 12 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. McConnell, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Evans, Ms. Polk, Mr. Tripp, Ms. Webber, Mr. Ritter, Ms. Parker, Mr. Mulcahy, Ms. Peters, Mr. LaGesse, and Mr. Wheeler.

5. County Engineer’s Pay Estimates

Mr. Rogers reviewed and discussed the pay estimates with the committee.

Mr. Mulcahy made a motion to approve the pay estimates, and Ms. Peters seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 12 ayes and 0 nays. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 12 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. McConnell, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Evans, Ms. Polk, Mr. Tripp, Ms. Webber, Mr. Ritter, Ms. Parker, Mr. Mulcahy, Ms. Peters, Mr. LaGesse, and Mr. Wheeler.

6. Resolutions

a) Resolution Authorizing the County Board Chairman to Sign an Agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation, State of Illinois, Regarding Administration of Maintenance and Construction Work Approved by the Illinois Department of Transportation

Mr. Rogers stated that the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) needs to approve all expenditures and plans for motor fuel tax unless there is an agreement of understanding between the County and the State of Illinois. He has been operating under an agreement of understanding which was approved by this board back in 2012. Upon an audit, an executed copy could not be found from the State, so they contacted Springfield, and apparently it just was never executed by the State. They gave Mr. Rogers a new one and asked him to bring it before the board and have it executed now.

Ms. Peters made a motion to approve the resolution, and Mr. Tripp seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

b) Resolution Appropriating County Bridge Funds to Match Pilot Township Road District Local Funds to Construct Two Culverts in Pilot Township

Mr. Rogers stated that the Township has petitioned the County for aid to pay for 50% of the cost. There are two locations, one being a 4’ by 8’ box culvert, and the other one a 48” culvert. They have those plans ready and are set to go. They need to appropriate $70,000 from the County Bridge Fund to pay for this project.

Mr. LaGesse made a motion to approve the resolution, and Mr. Hildebrand seconded it. Motion carried with a roll call vote of 12 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. McConnell, Mr. Hildebrand, Ms. Evans, Ms. Polk, Mr. Tripp, Ms. Webber, Mr. Ritter, Ms. Parker, Mr. Mulcahy, Ms. Peters, Mr. LaGesse, and Mr. Wheeler.

c) Declaration of Highway Department Equipment as Surplus Property

Mr. Rogers stated that they have a lot of electronics sitting in their back room that they need to dispose of. He provided a list of those electronics to the committee.

Mr. Hildebrand made a motion to declaring the equipment as surplus property, and Ms. Peters seconded it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

7. Buildings - Brian Gadbois

 Facility Dude Report

 Financial Report

 Building Report

Mr. Gadbois reviewed and discussed the above reports with the committee.

 Office Relocation Update

Mr. Gadbois stated the construction on the first floor is basically complete. Anything left to do will be done by the maintenance staff. They’ve moved about 90% of the Treasurer’s office over, so the department will have about four weeks to get situated before tax time starts.

Mr. Gadbois stated that, regarding the Veterans Assistance Commission (VAC) move, as the committee is aware, the bathroom had to be made ADA compliant. That is just about finished, so the VAC should be moving Wednesday of next week.

Mr. Gadbois stated that other things that need to be discussed are the cameras on the first floor, and the emergency 911 button. Right now, they have a price of $11,895 for the camera replacement and upgrade.

Mr. Wheeler stated that these cameras are internet capable, so there can be remote monitoring from law enforcement during the busy times of the year. Potentially, a large portion of this, if not all, can be covered by the safety grant through our liability insurance.

Mr. Gadbois stated that he’s been working with Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Rowe regarding the State’s Attorney’s office relocation. Tentatively, their lease is due to expire in April of 2018. They will advise him when they will want to move as several things have to happen ahead of time in order to make that relocation happen.

 Signage for First Floor

Mr. Gadbois stated that Mr. Wheeler is working with the department heads on the first floor regarding signage.

 Parking Lot Discussion – Chairman Wheeler

Mr. Wheeler stated that he wanted to discuss the parking lots on the west side of the building. With the Treasurer’s office moving, the patrons for their office will not be parking in the old area. Those people will start taking advantage of the other parking that we have as they should be. This committee has some decisions to make on what we want to do as far as the parking lot that some of the board members and department heads use, which is the parking lot that’s in between the Treasurer’s office and this building at 189 E. Court. There are employees parking in that lot which, technically, they aren’t supposed to do. They are supposed to be parking in the other lot along the railroad tracks, or across the street as overflow is needed. One of the ideas he has is to make that lot available for the public. At certain times of the year, like election and tax season, it’s going to be very busy. He thought it might be a good idea to make that lot for the elected department heads, give them assigned spots, and obviously handicapped accessibility for employees who might need that. Then all employees would park either in the Treasurer’s old area or along the railroad tracks. His thought was to have the Highways & Buildings Committee make this their policy and send it to the full board.

Ms. Peters suggested possibly making the first row in the Treasurer’s old parking lot for the department heads instead of in the middle lot.

 Curb Parking on Street – Chairman Wheeler

Mr. Wheeler stated that he also wanted to bring up the parking out front which should be part of the above discussion. There is a handicapped spot out there and he has noticed that sometimes that’s all taken up by board members, and people that are here to do business have to go around the side, and if that’s full, then they’re parking in the back. It’s not just board members as sometimes it’s employees. There should be an official policy that we, as the board, should use those parking lots, unless someone needs access to the handicapped spot.

8. Old Business

9. New Business

10. Other Business – Highways

a) Project and Maintenance Updates

Mr. Rogers stated that his staff went out and took a look at the parking lot by the downtown jail. He showed the committee a PowerPoint presentation, and discussed their findings and proposals with Mr. Gadbois and the committee.

Mr. Rogers also showed the committee a PowerPoint presentation concerning a problem they had with their salt building. As the salt was being removed, they had some exposed rebar. They found an area that was probably 30’ long by 12’ high, so they had to chip all of the concrete out, an inch beyond the rebar, and then sandblast the rebar that was there. Their crews did that, but then they had to hire a contractor to come in and do the concrete work for them. They had to pay time and material for the contractor, but they saved quite a bit of money by their crews doing the demolition and sandblasting to get it all prepared for them. They emptied the building of the salt, and sealed the concrete that was there. They will continue to work on sealing the concrete on a continual maintenance program.

11. Adjournment

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