Kankakee Times

Kankakee County Highways and Buildings Committee met June 21.

Here is the minutes as provided by the committee:

Members Present

Mr. McConnell, Mr. Vickery, Ms. Polk, Mr. Tripp, Ms. Webber, Ms. Evans, Mr. Mulcahy, Ms. Peters,

Mr. Olthoff, Mr. Stauffenberg, and Mr. LaGesse

Members Absent

Mr. Hildebrand, Mr. Ritter, Ms. Parker, and Mr. Einfeldt

In Attendance

 Board Members

 Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Liehr

 Department Heads

Mark Rogers, Brian Gadbois, Sandi Cianci, and Kevin Duval

Media

None

1. Call to Order

 Roll Call

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

present.

2. Public Comment

None.

3. Approval of Minutes (Buildings & Grounds): June 15, 2016, July 13, 2016, August 10, 2016,

September 14, 2016, and October 12, 2016

Mr. Olthoff made a motion to approve the above minutes, and Ms. Polk seconded it. Motion

carried with a voice vote.

Approval of Minutes (Highways & Buildings): May 17, 2017

Mr. Tripp made a motion to approve the above minutes, and Mr. Vickery seconded it. Motion

carried with a voice vote.

4. Highways - Mark Rogers

 Bidding and Letting

None.

 County Engineer’s Pay Estimates

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

Ms. Peters made a motion to approve the pay estimates, and Mr. Olthoff seconded it. Motion

carried with a roll call vote of 12 ayes and 0 nays. Voting aye were Mr. McConnell, Mr. Vickery,

Ms. Polk, Mr. Tripp, Ms. Webber, Ms. Evans, Mr. Mulcahy, Ms. Peters, Mr. Olthoff, Mr.

Stauffenberg, Mr. LaGesse, and Mr. Wheeler.

 Resolutions

 Declaration of Highway Department Surplus Equipment

Mr. Rogers showed the committee a PowerPoint presentation of the equipment he is looking to

declare surplus. They are planning to have a sale in August.

Mr. Stauffenberg made a motion to declare the equipment surplus, and Mr. Vickery seconded

it. Motion carried with a voice vote.

 State Funding Without a State Budget

Mr. Rogers wanted to make everyone aware of the state funding without a state budget. He received

a letter from the Department of Transportation. Mr. Wheeler received a similar letter, and the

contractors are receiving a similar letter, regarding the shutdown. He provided the committee with a

copy of the letter. The letter basically says that any state let projects -- of which we do have one,

which is the overlay of County Highway 58, 2000 West from 115 south into Chebanse -- that project

was let in Springfield. The feds pay 80%, so that money is expended by the State of Illinois, and we

pay 20%. Currently, the project isn’t started. KVCC got the job and they are waiting for the right of

entry to do the work around the railroad tracks. They could technically start, but the state had a cutoff

to submit any pay estimates for them to get paid as of June 14th. They can still do the work through

June 30th, but as of June 30th, they would have to shut down. They would not get paid for any work

from June 14th to June 30th until after the budget is settled. This does not affect our MFT current

projects because we always program those with money through June, so everything that we’ve let

here at this committee, all of the money is already here, so we don’t have to shut anything down in

the County. Until there is a budget, we won’t be receiving our MFT. If they can’t come up with a

budget by June 30th, what happened two years ago was that we did not get our MFT from July until it

started coming in in December. The money is still collected; they just don’t give it to us.

5. Buildings - Brian Gadbois

 Facility Dude Report

 Financial Report

 Building Report

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

6. Chairman Update on ADA Submission to Attorney General

Mr. Wheeler stated that we’ve been in contact with the Attorney General’s office. We waited quite a

while for them to reach out to us, and they finally did. They came back with some date certain things

that they wanted on the courthouse at a time when we don’t have any money to do what was

perceived as millions of dollars’ work there. As the State’s Attorney, Mr. Gadbois, and I talked

through this, it soon became apparent that they were wanting to work with us to achieve the spirit of

what the ADA is talking about, and that’s to be able to look for those accommodations and not have

to break the bank in order to get that. We submitted a proposal, about 40 pages long, to the Attorney

General with a very detailed explanation on what we intend to do to the courthouse. We’re waiting to

hear back, but under that program it appears that it may not be anywhere near as costly as it was

assumed before to get some of the things taken care of. Once he hears back if the plan was

approved, then we can look at how much this is going to cost and where the money is going to come

from, but they wanted to see the plan and weren’t going to wait any longer. Accordingly, we still can’t

do any renovations since everything we do has to be approved by the Attorney General. He knows

that the Circuit Clerk will be talking about that shortly, but going into that conversation, realizing that

anything we do inside of that building has to be fully approved by the Attorney General’s office. We’re

under a strict mandate on that, and have no choice whatsoever. Anything structural, anything that

involves construction, they want to see plans. They want to approve the plans and want to be here.

7. Circuit Clerk Renovation Request

Ms. Cianci stated that, with the advent of the e-filing, she predicts that they will have less foot traffic

coming into the office. What she would like to do is move the main office into Room 208, which is the

smaller of the two offices on the second floor that she has. She would be able to consolidate the

orders of protection, probate, and the rest of the filing together because most of it will be coming in

through the internet. She is asking for drawings from an architect. What she would like to do is move

the counter perpendicular to the way it is currently situated. It’s an extremely tall counter, so even a

person who’s not in a wheelchair has a hard time, if they’re shorter in stature, to see over the counter.

She would like to have it lowered and moved. She would probably have to move out the rolling file

system she has in that corner as well. That could be the area where the public access computers are

put, so possibly build a counter along the wall and put them there. In the bigger office, she would like

to put all of the minute clerks in together that go to court with the judges so that their supervisor can

be successful in supervising them. Currently the supervisor has people in three offices on two floors,

and is busy going to court and doing other things, too, so isn’t able to go to the other offices very

often to see what’s going on. Ms. Cianci thinks it would be helpful for the supervisor to have the 13

minute clerks in the same room together, and that room could hold that without many adjustments.

The main office has decreased as far as staff, so she thinks it would work better if they were in the

smaller office.

Mr. McConnell stated that she does need an architect to do that, but where are the funds going to

come from for the architect?

Ms. Cianci stated that she received her budget numbers the other day from Mr. McCarty and some

things aren’t correct yet, so they need to get together and see what’s going on, but she does have

some money.

Mr. McConnell stated that, if she has the money then, she could just get in touch with Doug Bright or

another architect. Everything will need to be approved by the Attorney General’s office before

anything can be done anyway.

8. Old Business

 Reminder of H & B and PZA Committee Meeting Date Changes Effective July 2017

Mr. McConnell reminded the committee about the change of meeting dates for the Highways &

Buildings Committee and the PZA Committee, beginning in July.

9. New Business

None.

 10. Other Business

None.

 11. Adjournment

A motion was made by Mr. LaGesse to adjourn the meeting at 9.59 a.m., and was seconded by

Ms. Peters. Motion carried with a voice vote.

http://www.co.kankakee.il.us/files/committees/highway_62117.pdf