Monroe County Board of County Commissioners met April 17.
Here is the minutes provided by the Board:
The meeting of the County Commissioners of Monroe County, Illinois was called to order at 8:00 a.m. Chairman Robert Elmore, Commissioner Delbert Wittenauer and Commissioner Vicki Koerber were present.
The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Others present included Deputy County Clerk Audrey Trembly, Sheila Wetzler, along with Press Corps representatives – Joe Leicht of the Monroe County Independent and Alan Dooley of the Republic Times.
There being a quorum present, the meeting was called to order by Chairman Elmore.
There were no public comments.
There were several complaints about having to stand in the rain while waiting for the doors to open.
Carla Heise came to the meeting to discuss Ambulance Service business. She said the Ambulance being refurbished is now in the production line. There was also discussion of a new restocking agreement contract between the Monroe County Ambulance Service and Red Bud Illinois Hospital Company for medical restocking after calls. Ms. Heise said she has always refused to sign this contract in the past, because the contract called for a certain amount of calls to come to the Red Bud Hospital. She said all of the Illinois hospitals restock the Ambulances, but Red Bud is the only hospital requiring a contract. Ms. Heise said Chris Hitzemann reviewed the document and saw no problems with the contract language.
Commissioner Koerber said she has been working with Ms. Heise to find a training class for Ambulance Department Managers that would be close. There is one upcoming class later this year in San Antonio, Texas, and the cost for that session is about $2,500. The class would include ASM (Ambulance Service Manager) certification. Commissioner Koerber said the flight would have to be booked in May to save on the air flight expense. Ms. Heise said the other issue is that a laptop is required for taking this course, and currently the Ambulance Service does not have a laptop. The Commissioners agreed that Ms. Heise should proceed with making flight arrangements and registering for this conference.
Ms. Heise said she is having problems with the County car. It takes on water every time it rains.
Mike Fausz came to the meeting to discuss a mobile home hardship permit. Motion was made by Commissioner Wittenauer, with a second by Commissioner Koerber to approve a Temporary Hardship Permit for a mobile home for Alice Schlemmer at 274 Schlemmer Lane in Columbia. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
Resolution 17-31
Be It Resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Monroe County, Illinois that the Temporary hardship Permit #8617 issued to Alice Schlemmer for a mobile home on Parcel Number 04-21-300-003 located at 274 Schlemmer Lane, Columbia, IL be renewed for one year.
Passed by the Board of County Commissioners of Monroe County, Illinois at Waterloo, this 17th day of April, 2017.
Motion: Wittenauer
Second: Koerber
Aye: Three
Nay: None
Absent: None
Robert Elmore, Chairman
Dennis M. Knobloch, County Clerk
Delbert Wittenauer, Member
Vicki Koerber, Member
Mr. Fausz said he had put a copy of inspection cost comparisons in the Commissioner’s mailboxes for review. He said many of these rates have not been changed in Monroe County since the early 1970’s.
The following Accounts Payable having been approved for payment, Commissioner Koerber moved that the same be allowed and that vouchers be issued against their respective funds of the County Treasurer for payment. Motion seconded by Commissioner Wittenauer, and so declared. All voting Aye, none Nay, and none Absent. Motion carried.
General Fund:
Americom 320.54
Cercis Emergency Physicians 196.90
Cintas Fire Protection 833.75
Coast to Coast Equipment 68.53
Coast to Coast 249.77
Coroner M E 245.00
Creative Mailroom Systems, Inc. 146.99
CTS Group 526,663.60
Culligan-Schaefer Water Centers 90.88
Dobbs Tire & Auto Centers 24.95
Ed Roehr Auto Radio Co Inc. 77.95
Election 4/4/17 – Election Judges 34,678.04
Election 4/4/17 – Polling Precincts 3,600.00
Election 4/4/17 – Set up & Workers 6,789.44
Fick Eggemeyer & Williamson CPA’s 18,500.00
Gateway FS 2,910.00
Glock Professional, Inc. 250.00
Haines & Company 351.50
Harrisonville Telephone Co 365.59
J.D.R. Construction Service 265.00
GreatAmerica Financial Services 152.49
Harrisonville Telephone Company 384.00
John Deere Financial 30.36
Kone Inc. 633.14
Leon Uniform Company Inc. 842.48
Logo’s ‘N Stitches Inc. 65.00
MPS Industries 419.25
MAR Graphics 304.48
Monroe County Electric Coop Inc. 437.50
Nabers Shop 545.18
Quality Collision 75.59
Quill Corporation 555.02
Radiology Consultants 8.50
Reliable Sanitation Service Inc. 340.00
Republic-Times LLC 2,443.06
Sidebarr Technologies 300.00
Sirchie Finger Print Laboratories 206.07
St. Clair/Monroe County CASA 1,200.00
Sure Shine Auto Wash 1,049.68
Thomson Reuters-West Publishing Corp. 906.39
Traughber & Morris Ltd 741.67
UPS 11.69
Waterloo Lumber Company Inc. 14.82
Watson’s Office City 92.20
Wightman Pharmacy 21.43
Ambulance Service Fund:
Airgas Mid America 307.31
Andres Medical Billing, Ltd. 4,718.25
Medpro Waste Disposal LLC 355.10
Mertz Ford 159.81
Midwest Warehouse & Storage 100.00
Monroe County Highway 115.00
Nicholas Hoeffken 150.00
Sunset Ford 141.28
Health Tax Fund:
Culligan-Schaefer Water Centers 48.13
Egyptian Workspace Partners 76.66
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. 1,822.12
Stericycle Inc. 278.52
Highway Fund:
Al’s Auto Waterloo 30.14
Ameren Illinois 48.11
Belleville Seed House Inc. 40.00
DataTronics 188.00
Dave Schmidt Truck Service 411.63
Equipment Service Co. Inc. 130.52
Fox Transmission 245.00
Gilbert Electric LLC 222.75
Huels Oil Company 3,649.40
Erb Equipment Company 774.35
Leaf 299.00
Luby Equipment Services 88,290.00
Gateway FS, Inc. 274.25
Monroe County Electric Cooperative 956.00
Quill 103.88
Reliable Sanitation Service Inc. 50.60
Schaeffer Mfg. Co. 997.15
Sunset Ford 78.60
Wedge Tire 1,226.08
Federal Aid Fund:
Monroe County Highway Fund 4,592.25
Mr & Mrs. Leonard Roy 1,600.00
Bridge Fund:
Monroe County Highway Fund 7,215.25
County Motor Fuel:
Columbia Quarry Company 250.59
Monroe County Highway Fund 29,475.69
Road Motor Fuel:
Columbia Quarry Company 6,404.37 Mississippi Lime Company 906.00
Recorder’s Document Fund:
Fidlar Technologies 1,586.30
The minutes of the April 3, 2017 regular meeting were approved upon motion by Commissioner Wittenauer, with a second by Commissioner Koerber. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Commissioner Wittenauer, with a second by Commissioner Koerber to approve a Courtyard/Bandstand permit for the Illinois Trekkers Volksmarch Club for July 15 for a 5K and 10K walk event. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
Sheila Wetzler said it has been brought to her attention that since the Security Checkpoint has been installed, there is less activity for those working the Information Desk. There was some discussion as to whether or not the Information Desk should continue to be staffed by volunteers. Discussion included whether the Security Officer could handle directing the public and showing them where to pick up brochures and information.
Kevin Koenigstein came to the meeting to discuss the Annual County Audit, along with Shawn Williamson and Keith Slusser of Fick, Eggemeyer and Williamson, the County’s auditing firm. Lisa Fallon was also in attendance. Shawn Williamson explained the audit in detail. He said the County’s assets had grown by $2.8 million to $53.3 million. Mr. Williamson said the County’s net income for the last fiscal year was about $2.76 million, and that included about $1.3 million in income from the Nursing Home.
There was discussion of the amount of accrued vacation and sick pay at the Nursing Home and in the other County offices. Mr. Koenigstein said he would break the total numbers down by office for review by the County Board. He also said that going forward, this should not be as much of a problem, but for those who had accumulated time on the books, they cannot be forced to liquidate those balances. There was also discussion of several management letters, including situations where several offices are managing checking accounts that only require one signature, when these should all be set up with two signature authorization.
Motion was made by Commissioner Wittenauer, with a second by Commissioner Koerber to approve the audit as presented. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
Kim Keckritz came to the meeting to discuss Nursing Home business. Along for the discussion were representatives of HTC and Holland Construction. She said there was an issue with the wiring in the new building area. Ms. Keckritz said it was the owner’s responsibility to obtain the telephone system, and she has had HTC involved from the beginning. It was explained that the original estimate was just for extending the phone line from the existing building to the new building, and now there is additional funding needed to install the phone lines and jacks into each of the rooms in the newly constructed area. HTC said that their documents showed that the electrician was to run and test all of the phone jacks. Ms. Keckritz said the wiring is more extensive than what the original bid included, and this will add $40,000 to the cost of the project. Commissioner Koerber asked who had dropped the ball on this issue. Will Stajduhar of Holland Construction said from their understanding, the electrical contractor would install the conduit throughout the new area, but the owner through HTC would be providing the rest of the phone system installation. HTC said the information that they were given said the electrician would provide and install all the wiring, as well as install and test the jacks in each room.
Ms. Keckritz said she felt it was a problem with the plans, because one place it says the electrician provides this part of the project, and in another place it says this portion would be provided by the owner. Mr. Stajduhar said by direction from Holland Cosntruction, the electrical contractor did not include the extra cabling as part of their work. Ms. Keckritz said she feels there was contradictory information in the architectural plans, but the contract signed by the County said the owner would be responsible for the extra wiring installation. Commissioner Koerber said somewhere along the line the ball has been dropped, and she is not pleased. Motion was made by Commissioner Koerber, with a second by Commissioner Wittenauer to proceed with having HTC do the extra work needed to complete the installation of the telephone service to the rooms in the new addition. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
The HTC and Holland representatives left the meeting.
Ms. Keckritz presented the monthly Oak Hill report. She said the biggest issue right now is the staffing for the new facility, since there is not a definite date on when the rehab unit can open. Ms. Keckritz said they will try to use these personnel in other parts of the Home until IDPH approval is received for the new unit. She said they are offering a sign-on bonus and 12-hour shifts to try to recruit more workers. Ms. Keckritz said she also is looking at hiring someone for the Maintenance Department.
Motion was made by Commissioner Koerber, with a second by Commissioner Wittenauer to approve payment of the Nursing Home bills. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
Aaron Metzger came to the meeting to discuss Highway Department business. He said he was proposing a reduced speed zone on Bluff Road in the Columbia area, from Bottom Road north to Old Bluff Road. Mr. Metzger said he had done a speed study several years ago, and the results were marginal. Now there is a new business going in along that stretch of roadway, and there are a lot of accidents at the Valmeyer Road intersection. His proposal is to extend the existing 45- mph speed zone all the way to Bottom Road. Mr. Metzger said he would install signage to warn and remind the drivers of this change in speed limit. Motion was made by Commissioner Koerber, with a second by Commissioner Wittenauer to approve the establishment of this altered speed zone on Bluff Road. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
Ordinance 17-1
An Ordinance for the Establishment of an Altered Speed Zone Bluff Road
Whereas, Chapter 11, Section 604 of the Illinois Vehicle Code provides the authority for the county Board to reduce the regulatory speed on County Highways within their jurisdiction when it is determined that the existing speed limit is greater than is reasonable or safe with respect to the conditions found to exist along any portion or zone of the Highway; and
Whereas, the County Engineer has recommended that Bluff Road from Old Bluff Road (Mile 13.45) south 1.05 mile to Bottom Road (Mile 12.40) be posted at a 45 mph vehicle speed due to the number of commercial entrances, side roads and the high accident location at Valmeyer Road, said speed zone is a southerly extension of the existing 45 mph zone.
It Is Herebey Declared, by the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Monroe that in the interest of safety to the motoring public the vehicular speed limit on Bluff Road, FAS Route 1857, County Highway 6, from Old Bluff Road South 1.05 mile to Bottom Road shall be reduced to 45 mph; and
Be It Further Declared, that this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect immediately after erection of said signs giving notice of the reviewed maximum speed limit.
Passed by the Board of County Commissioners of Monroe County, Illinois at Waterloo, this 17th day of April, 2017.
Motion: Koerber Second: Wittenauer Aye: Three Nay: None Absent: None
Robert Elmore, Chairman
Dennis M. Knobloch, County Clerk
Delbert Wittenauer, Member
Vicki Koerber, Member
Mr. Metzger said at the recent election, there were some changes in the Road District officials. There was discussion regarding several bills for the Highway Department. Mr. Metzger said the old backhoe has been replaced with a new one, there are regular bills for intersection lighting at several spots around the County, and the bill for land acquisition was to obtain additional right- of-way at Hanover and DD Road.
There was discussion regarding appointments to the Health Department Board. Commissioner Wittenauer said he would talk to John Wagner for clarification.
The County Board took a short break to review the various lighting options being proposed by CTS for the energy upgrade program. Motion was made by Commissioner Koerber, with a second by Commissioner Wittenauer to take a short break. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
The meeting was reconvened.
State’s Attorney Chris Hitzemann came to the meeting. He said he was coming to the Board to see if he could amend his budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. Mr. Hitzmann said he has researched all options for outside funding to help him add staff, but none of these types of funding are currently available. He said he would like to have his assistant become a full-time employee, and he would like to have the employee that he currently shares with the Circuit Clerk’s office, Alice Murray, come to work for him full-time. He said the difference in cost would be somewhere around $45,000. Mr. Hitzemann said he wanted to bump the salary for his assistant to $75,000, which when compared to other counties, is a reasonably salary.
Commissioner Wittenauer asked what happened to make all this necessary? Mr. Hitzemann said when he took over the office, there were roughly 100 jury trial cases pending. He said there haven’t been many jury trials here since the Coleman trial, and the last jury trial here in the County was in 2015. Mr. Hitzemann said it appears to him that at least 8-10 of the pending cases could go to jury trial, and that will take a lot of extra preparation time.
Mr. Hitzemann said his office is not currently budgeted to the level it should be for our size County. He provided supporting documentation about some of the surrounding Counties, their related budgets and the types of cases that need to be tried.
Mr. Hitzemann said Monroe County currently has a full-time State’s Attorney, and a part-time Assistant working two days a week, along with a full-time Administrative Assistant, and a part- time Administrative Assistant working two days a week. Clinton County has a full-time State’s Attorney, as well as two full-time Assistant State’s Attorneys, two full-time Administrative staff, and additional people as necessary to help with the workload. He said other counties, like Randolph and Washington, also have more staff than Monroe County.
Mr. Hitzemann said all the hard work being done by the County Sheriff’s Department, along with the Police Departments in Waterloo, Columbia and Valmeyer all puts more work on his desk. Commissioner Koerber said the hard work being done to fight the war on drugs also creates extra work.
Commissioner Wittenauer said this is for a backlog of cases that are here right now – once you get caught up it shouldn’t be that bad. Mr. Hitzemann said no, a lot of these extra cases will need to be handled even after the backlog is cleared.
Commissioner Wittenauer said where are we going to get the money to pay for this? Commissioner Koerber said you are talking about getting an IT person, and that will also take additional funding. Commissioner Wittenauer said he was going to fight to get an IT person – that’s just as important. There was discussion of raising various fees to come up with the extra money necessary to help fund these situations.
Kevin Koenigstein was called to the meeting to discuss the budget.
Commissioner Wittenauer asked if there would be more income from all these extra cases. Mr. Hitzemann said there would be some, but the amount can’t be guaranteed. Commissioner Wittenauer said there should be some fees to help offset these increased costs.
Commissioner Wittenauer said he hoped this would be a temporary situation, with extra assistance needed for a short time to catch up with the backlogged cases due to the office transition. Mr. Hitzemann said it’s not just a matter of catching up, it’s a matter of doing the work that needs to be done by this office to serve the public.
Mr. Koenigstein said user fees, sales taxes and real estate taxes are going up. Commissioner Wittenauer said our costs are going up as well.
Commissioner Wittenauer said the Sheriff increased his budget when he came on board, and maybe some of that money should have gone to the State’s Attorney’s office. He said if all the things that the Sheriff’s Department is doing that promised to bring in extra funds were working, there would be extra funds to be shared with the State’s Attorney’s office.
Chairman Elmore said he feels that Monroe County needs to bring the State’s Attorney’s office up to meet the needs of the public – all you have to do is look at the budgets of the surrounding Counties like Randolph to see what they are spending. Commissioner Wittenauer said he understands the issue, and you could double the budgets here, but we still have crime – he said we only have so much money to spend.
Commissioner Koerber asked if we can find the money for this. Mr. Koenigstein said we are using extra money for a lot of other things, like the current energy upgrades and renovations – unless we can come up with extra fees, there probably isn’t available funding. Mr. Hitzemann said we may be able to see as time goes on whether this extra activity would bring in additional fees to help cover these costs.
Mr. Koenigstein said we don’t have additional income, and money would have to be taken from County reserves.
Chairman Elmore asked if the County can come up with some additional funding, which parts of this request would be the most important? Commissioner Wittenauer said he would have no problem providing some additional support to the office so the State’s Attorney can catch up with the backlog.
Commissioner Koerber said if the County Board would see fit to grant the increased budget request, she would hope that Mr. Hitzemann would seriously look at possible increases in the fee structure to help support the additional dollars needed. He said he would be willing to look at that.
Commissioner Wittenauer said he would rather see this problem solved with additional part-time help so the County doesn’t incur the extra expenses for benefits, but he would agree to provide some extra funding to Mr. Hitzemann, and let him decide where he wants to spend it.
Commissioner Koerber said she would like to talk to the Circuit Clerk to see if she will need to replace Alice Murray if she is moved to the State’s Attorney’s office. Commissioner Wittenauer said he would also like to see how much additional revenue could be collected in fees.
Chairman Elmore said he would like for the Commissioners to think about this, and have Mr. Hitzemann come back to the next meeting for a decision. Mr. Hitzemann thanked the Commissioners for their time and consideration of his request.
There being no additional business to come before the County Board, motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Koerber, with a second by Commissioner Wittenauer. All voting Aye, none Nay and none Absent. Motion carried.
http://monroecountyil.org/admin/upload/document_center/meeting-agendas-minutes/590a4a9d0b4cc.pdf
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