Kankakee Times

Village of Manteno Public Safety Committee met July 21.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Attendance

Committee Members:
Annette LaMore, Mayor	X
Peggy Vaughn, Trustee	x
Todd Crockett, Trustee
Annette Zimbelman, Trustee	X
Joel Gesky, Trustee	X
CJ Boudreau, Trustee	X
Michael Barry, Trustee	x
Other attendees:
Chris LaRocque, Village Admin
Jim Hanley, Super of PW	X
Sheila Martin, Treasurer
Al Swinford, Chief of Police
Jakob Knox, Marketing Dir
Melissa Gay, Deputy Village Clerk	X
Lieutenant Steve Skelly	x

The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m.

Public Participation: Joseph Carroll Signed up to speak, but was not present.

MOTION: A motion by Trustee Boudreau, Seconded by Trustee Gesky to approve the minutes from April 9, 2025, meeting. Voice vote – all ayes, no nays. Motion approved. Trustee Crockett Absent

MOTION: A motion by Trustee Boudreau, Seconded by Trustee Barry to approve the minutes from May 14, 2025, meeting. Voice vote – all ayes, no nays. Motion approved. Trustee Crockett Absent

MOTION: A motion by Trustee Boudreau, Seconded by Trustee Barry to approve the minutes from June 11, 2025, meeting. Voice vote – all ayes, no nays. Motion approved. Trustee Crockett Absent

Items for Discussion:

• Michael Parish: Adjudication officer replacement. Chris LaRocque wrote in his minutes, As discussed at several committee meetings our previous adjudication officer resigned and gave us Mr. Parish’s contact information as a good replacement for him Chris LaRocque did some research on him and he seems to be a good candidate based on the referrals that were checked.

• Illegal firework enforcement: Boudreau Asks the rest of the trustees do you feel like there’s something we can be doing better about this? Mayor Lamore Got a complaint from on Poplar Circle that there was a family that has big fireworks every year and they’re adjacent to a lot of other houses and the neighbors are not happy because they are afraid to leave their homes for fear something’s going to catch on fire and the person I spoke with said that there was so much debris in their yard ashes and pieces of paper and all over their pool cover and she really wishes that they wouldn’t do it. The Mayor asked Lieutenant Skelly any suggestions on how to combat These issues? Lieutenant Skelly,” Said not a lot they can do for on this holiday the amount of people who are doing fireworks, number of calls after the last three years from the July 2nd to July 5th we took 10 calls that were designated as fireworks calls over those three days.” Lieutenant Skelly says at a party full of people who do you write the ticket too? 10 calls this year Five calls last year, 9 Calls the previous year before that. Not something we’re overwhelmed with. Other jurisdictions just let it go for that holiday too many people would have to be citated. Trustee Barry Suggest that the folks on Popular should have had a phone call the next day from the Police Department and asked them to clean up after themselves maybe this would have them more aware for the following year. More to be discussed on this subject. Zimbleman suggest we give people a reminder beforehand. Lieutenant skelly we can increase our message on this.

• Community disaster plan: Trustee Vaughn And Mayor LaMore Went and talked with Chief Peterson at the fire department about emergency plan for our town They wanted to know what kind of emergency plan was in place. We do have plans if there’s ever an emergency in our town but Chief Peterson told us that there will be some ongoing meetings to update our emergency response training so that we’ll know what’s going to happen if we ever have airplane crashes, Train derailment, tornado or the school gets damaged or there’s an explosion or a disaster. We need to know where the help is going to come from says the Mayor I want the public to know that we are seriously looking into all the plans to make sure we’re up to date. The mayor wants the public to know we do have plans in place however we’re going to upgrade them and this matter is being looked into.

• Liquor Serving time ordinance change: Trustee Vaughn entered a petition to change Sunday alcohol serving from 11 to 9:00 AM Conversation was held with Berkots and

Berkots is excited for this change. 350 signatures from citizens were on the petition along with the businesses in town. This brings more revenue for the village. Trustee Boudreau didn’t realize how many of the citizens and businesses wanted this until he seen proof of the petition that was provided by Trustee Vaughan. Trustee Vaughn says the Citizens and businesses of Manteno want a change and ask for this to be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

Discussions that were brought up after the agenda: Trustee Vaughn, brought up for discussion children blowing right through stop signs on their razors and asked Lieutenant Skelly can we get more proactive on this Skelly’s response was yes. Zimbleman also suggest stricter police presence for this matter. Trustee Boudreau Suggest increasing tickets, Trustee Gesky agreed. Trustee Barry Suggested levels like level 1 level 2 Level 3, registering the razors. All agreed more needs to be talked about in depth and all Trustee’s would like to be prepared for the next summer school vacation break on this matter.

A motion by Trustee Boudreau, seconded by Trustee Gesky, to adjourn the meeting at 5:32 pm Voice vote: all ayes, no nays. Motion approved.

https://villageofmanteno.com/wp-content/uploads/PS-Minutes-7.21.25.pdf