Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Council met July 30.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

The Special called meeting was called to order by Mayor John Allhands at 7pm. Present were Alderman

Elliott, Dewitt, Garfield, Barragree, Cahoe, and Hoffmann with Alderwoman Foster. Alderwoman Ulfers was absent.

Public Comment:

Justin Nichols was in attendance to see what was happening with the old Casey’s building. He has signed for season 2 of Wrenched the TV show, he is looking to expand if he doesn’t expand now he will miss the training.

Ordinance #2517- Amending Chapter 22, Intoxication Liquors, By Changing Section 22-6, Classification of Licenses, Section 22-8, Limitations on Licenses and Section 22-9, Licenses Fees, of the City of Watseka, Municipal Code.

Motion was made by Garfield, seconded by Barragree to approve Ordinance #2517 Motion passed 7-0.

Review and Possible Action for Outside Displays Mayor Allhands shared a local group had brought this to the Council for their approval. Mayor Allhands read the guidelines that were presented briefly. No action taken they will need to amend the ordinance next month.

Discussion of contract for the purchase of 123 W Walnut St. in Watseka, IL. and possible action to repeal Ordinance #2510 (Casey’s Real Estate Purchase)

Mayor Allhands pulled up the 2005 and 2014 Comprehensive Plans to show those who were in attendance what was purposed in those plans and gave some facts. Discussion was had Alderman Garfield feels we need to keep the DMV office in town they service 40-70 people a day. He has spoken with several business people who felt the city should not purchase the city should not be landlords. Alderman Dewitt is against this also he feels the city should not be landlords. Alderman Hoffmann feels it is a key corner. He feels there is an opportunity to attract tourists to town, he is not sure if the DMV has expressed interest, but he feels is the city could make some revenue they should do it. Alderman Dewitt shared that if the city purchases the property the schools will get no property taxes off of it. Motion was made by Garfield, seconded by Dewitt to repeal Ordinance #2510. Motion passed 6-1 with Alderman Hoffmann voting no.

Open discussion concerning the proposed sales tax increase from.75% to 2%.

Mayor Allhands shared some sales tax figures and comparisons from other counties. During the comparisons it shows Watseka would go from 7.25% to 8.50%. Mayor Allhands turned this discussion over to Alderman Garfield who thanked everyone for coming tonight, he did limit comments to 5 minutes or less, let’s keep the repetitiveness down, and he would only answer sales tax questions no other questions during this time. Mark shared that the city has to look at ways to generate revenue. He shared the city has been through devastating flooding that 218 homes were affected we are losing property tax income and people. He pushed for the special called meeting tonight to discuss different ways to increase revenue. Mark shared some figures of other towns and what their current sales tax rates were. Alderman Garfield then opened the floor up to the public for discussion. Heather Fox asked about the major infrastructure and the water/sewer system she asked where the money would go, she also mentioned she has read that the police pension was underfunded. She asked about an agreement in 2002, Bob Harwood shared that back in 2002 this was a sales tax agreement with Standard Register this is now in void does not apply. She asked if the sales tax increase does not go through how where does the additional revenue come from. Flo Miller asked if the increase goes through will there be something put down on paper that states that property taxes will go down. Mayor Allhands shared that the sales tax would need to be collected for one year before any discussion could be had to reduce property taxes accordingly they might only decrease by 10-15%. Charles Bitten said he is from the Sheldon area but this does affect his family as they bought property on County Farm Road and plan to open a bed and breakfast, wedding center. He shared how many people will bypass Watseka now and shop out of town. He stated that Watseka has already lost several businesses KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. we are going to scare off anyone interested in coming to town. He feels we need to revitalize Watseka we need another big box store here, more industry, more retail shops, this is not a good thing to do. Ted Horner stated raising the tax is a giant leap, he feels we are going to harm the people we are trying to help keep in mind a lot of our community is made up of renters. Randy Verkler asked if we had a total on the 218 homes affected by the flooding do we have an idea of how much revenue we have lost. Mayor Allhands said this is possibly something that we could figure out. Rich Kingdon shared he is very sympathetic to our city’s problems but he feels we are not giving people an incentive to come here, he also looked up other towns sales tax rates and feels we would be above other counties we are not in a good spot. Alderman Garfield again thanked everyone for attending he also stated things like this start with discussion and that’s what he wanted to do. He also gave an apology that when he was talking with businesses he had given some higher figures then he was discussing tonight.

Ordinance #2514- Ordinance of the City of Watseka, Iroquois County, Illinois, Increasing the Rate of its Existing Home Rule Municipal Service Occupation Tax- No action was taken.

Mayor Allhands shared that this is a regressive tax, contact your Aldermen/women if you have strong thoughts we need your input he was thankful for the full house. He also shared that there would be a Flood Mitigation meeting on Tuesday, August 7th at 7pm at Trinity Church.

Motion was made by Hoffmann, seconded by Garfield to Adjourn at 7:54pm.

http://www.watsekacity.org/files/3215/3321/4870/council_minutes_7-30-18.pdf