City of West Frankfort City Council met May 9.
Here is the minutes provided by the Council:
1. Mayor Jordan Called The Meeting To Order At 7:00 p.m. Requesting A roll Call. All Commissioners Were In Attendance, Along With The City Attorney And City Clerk.
2. Mayor Jordan asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The April 25, 2017 Regular Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
3. Mayor Jordan Next Asked For Approval To Pay City Bills And Payroll in The Amount Of $137,956.35. Commissioner Simpson Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
4. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Facade Improvement Grant Applications. The Mayor Stated We Have An Application From Sarah Usery. They Are Occupying The Building At 218 West Main That Is Owned By Greg Murphy. They Are Asking For Consideration For Some Signage That They Are Going To Put Up. They Have Window Graphics That Are Going To Say Spero Counseling And Wellness Center That Cost $410.00. They Are Also Going To Have A Sign on The Building That Is $1,492.00. The Total Amount To Be Considered Is $1,902.18 Which We Would Pay Half Of That Amount. Commissioner Simpson Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins, Roll Call Vote: Commissioners Blades And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Commissioner Chambers Abstained. Motion Carried.
5. The Next Item Was Approval To Accept Bids And Award The Project For The 9 Street Sidewalk project. The Mayor Stated We Advertised For Bids And The Bid Opening Was Last Friday. Mike Roberts Stated This Sidewalk project Goes From Lincoln To Madison We Don't Have All The Easements Just Wanted To Clarify That So There Is No Confusion. We Received Four Bids On This Ranging From $26,478.00 To $36,465.00. The Low Bid Was K.R.B. Excavation For The Amount Of $26,478.00. The Mayor Stated You Don't Have Any Problem With Us accepting The Low Bid? Mike Roberts Stated No Do Not Have Never Worked With Them, But The Have Been In Business Since 2004. They Do Work In MT. Vernon And The Metro East Area. They Have Had No Issues With Prevailing Wage So There Is No Reason Not To Accept It. Commissioner Chambers Stated I do Want To Explain That We Do Have An Easement On One Of The Properties In The Second Block And They Have Been Super Cooperative. We Might Want To Figure Out What Todo On The One Parcel That we were Not Able To Get An Easement. If There Is Any Right Of Way The City Already Has Because That Is A Possibility That We Can Put The Sidewalk closer To The Road In That Area. If We Aren't able To do Anything else With That Lot We Do Need To Come Back And Do Something About The Lot There On The Second Block That We Have Gotten The Easement From, Because They Are Under The impression That They Are Getting A sidewalk It Is Difficult Because Their Neighbors Will Not Agree To Get A Free Sidewalk. We Need To Accommodate Them or Make A Decision On That In The Future Make A Motion To Accept The Low Bid From K.R.B. Excavation Commissioner Chambers Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
6. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing The Hiring Of Dispatchers For The City Of West Frankfort Police Department. Police Chief Mike Irwin Stated Would Like To Request That We Consider Hiring Some Telecommunicators For Our Department. Giving Some Rough numbers Our Telecommunicators Average 3,500 To 4,000 Calls A month. That Is In The Addition To The Radio Traffic That Our Officers And firefighters Use They Area Very Important Part To Our Public Safety Side Of The House For The Fire And Police Department. We Are Also a 911 Center For everything South Of Yellow Banks Road And The Interstate We Have Been Working Somewhat Short We Had A Telecommunicator That Left Prior To My Administration That Has Since Been Resolved. We Are Dong A Balancing Act Between Over Time And Hours Worked By Hiring Two Telecommunicators We Go On A Consistent Shift And Think It Will Offset The Overtime Costs We Have Occurred And It Gives The Opportunity To Run a Smoother Operation John Has Worked More Hours That he Should And He And I Have Had That Discussion There Comes A Point In time Where People Just Can't Work anymore Either By Contract, Labor Laws Or The Simple Fact That They Are Just Tired John steps In And Works day Shift And Comes Back To Work 7-11 And Comes Back And Works Days The Very Next Day And Sometimes The Evening Shift The Next Day. Would Ask Humbly That We hire These Two Telecommunicators Michael Fraulin And Brian Cunningham They Have Been Working Part Time We Have Evaluated Them and They Have Been On A Training Program. The Mayor Stated Seniority Wise How Does It Work When We hire Two People At The Same Time And Is There A Preference On That? Chef Irwin Stated Believe Whoever Came To Work First On Temporary Status Should Be Considered As Senior That Would Be Fraulin The Mayor Stated We Will Hire Fraulin And Then Cunningham and That Will establish The Seniority. The First Motion Will Be To Hire Michael Fraulin Commissioner Harkins Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Blades Passed, Commissioner Chambers And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
A. The Next Motion Will Be To Hire Brian Cunningham. Commissioner Harkins Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades, Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Blades Passed, Commissioner Chambers And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
7. The Next Item Was Approval Of An ordinance To Allow Lateral Hiring Of Police Officers And Establishing Minimum Qualifications For Hired Lateral Police Officers. The Mayor Stated We Had a Pretty Lengthy discussion About This Last Council Meeting And I Have Asked Our City Attorney To Prepare An Ordinance For That Which He Has Done. The Basics That We Discussed Are Included In This Ordinance. Right Now We Have A Fire And Police Commission That establishes New Hires And Test For Them But We Established Last Council Meeting The Need For The Ability To Laterally Transfer. The Ordinance Basically Says The Qualifications For A Lateral Transfer Would Be a Minimum Of 21 Years Old, High School diploma Or Equivalent, Two Years Experience As a Full Time Sworn Officer Of A Law Enforcement at a Municipality Or State Police Department Within The Last Three Years, Valid Drivers License, Must Comply To Agree With All Requirements Of The Position And Have The Ability To Pass All Examinations, Training And Requirements. Commissioner Simpson Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
8. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Proposed New Collective Bargaining Agreement Between The City And Laborers Local 773/Lieutenants & Sergeants To Cover The Period Of April 1, 2017 Through March 31, 2018. The Mayor Stated Have Spoken To both The Union And Our Attorney And This Contract Has A Couple Of Things We need To Sit, Down And Talk about So At The Request Of The Union And The City's Labor attorney We Are Going To Table This Until a Further Meeting This Matter Was Tabled.
9. The Next item Was Approval Of A Resolution Appointing Supervisory Positions Within The City Of West Frankfort. The Mayor Stated One Of The Statutory Requirements That We Have Is In The End Of May We Need To Reappoint The Following Positions. The City Attorney Mike Riva, Police Chief Mike Irwin, Deputy Chief Shawn Talluto, Fire Chief Jody Allen, City Clerk/Treasurer Angela Baker Deaton, Comptroller Cate Dinn, Deputy City Clerk Taryn Hartseil, Water Superintendent Jim White, Street/Public Works Superintendent Roger Stanley, Sewer Superintendent Charles Hubble, Incubator/Mall Manager Don Gass And Code Enforcement Officer Ed Hammonds. This Is a Resolution To do That We Can Do That In One Motion Unless Someone Would Like To Discuss Any One Of These People Personally Commissioner Blades Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
10.The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Appointing Board Members To The West Frankfort Library Board, We Have John Dimmick, Mrs. Leah Hughes And Mrs. Judy Little. Commissioner Chambers Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
11. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Estimates Regarding Installation Of A New HVAC Unit For The Police Department. Commissioner Harkins Stated We Are Trying Our Best To Take Care Of Our Dispatchers: Our Equipment We Have Now S Just Simply Not Big Enough To Handel Everything That Goes On In There We Will Accept The Low estimate From Darnell, Heating For $9481.00. Commissioner Harkins Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
12. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Proclamation Declaring The Month Of May, 2017 As Motorcycle Awareness Month Barbara Stated We Are Asking Towns Around The Area to Approve May As Motorcycle Awareness Month. There Are So Many People Out There That Do Not Look Twice They Pull Out And Just Don't Care. Somehow Someway We Need To Bring It To Their attention That Motorcycles Are Out There. Commissioner Chambers Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
13. The Next Item Was Approval To Install Water Service For Paul Burbank, 10508 Mitchell Street, West Frankfort, Which Is outside The City Limits. Commissioner Blades Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
14. The Next Item Was Approval For Payment Of An Estimate From D.A. Wilburn Contractors In The Amount Of $5,650.00 Regarding A Build Out Of A Space At The West Frankfort Outlet Mall The Mayor Stated We Are Going To Take A Portion Of What Used To Be Banister Shoes At The Mall In Front Of VF. We Will Have A Carve Out Around 8ft Wide And 16ft Long For A Coffee Shop. We Are Also Going To do Some Work To Put Water And A Drain In There For Them Commissioner Chambers Made Amotion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
15. The Next Item Was Approval For Payment Of An Estimate From weeks Chevrolet In The Amount Of $4,540.90 Regarding An Engine Replacement For The Police Department. This Was Damaged During The Flooding, We Also Have Insurance Coverage That We Are Seeking To See If They Will Take Care Of This. We Still Need To Get The Car Repaired So we Need Authorization To do So. Commissioner Harkins Made a Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
16. Officers Reports:
Chief Allen Read The Fire Department's Report
Chief Irwin Stated Mayor Would Ask For A Few Minutes To Talk about Our Flood Incident On April 29. This Is A Memo From detective Jeff Tharp. On April 29 West Frankfort Police Department Received a 911 Call Reporting A white Vehicle attempting To Cross The Fast Running Water On Route 37 South Of Cleveland And Was Swept Off The Roadway Into The Creek. West Frankfort Police Department And Fire Department Officers Were Dispatched. Upon Detective Tharps Arrival he Was Met By A Citizen Scotty O'daniel Of West Frankfort. Mr. Odaniel Parked His Truckin The Middle Of The Fast Moving Water And Called Tharp To His Location as He Located The Vehicle As It Was Sinking Into The Creek. Detective Tharp Positioned His Vehicle In A Matter To Be Used As An Anchor Point. He Retrieved A rope From The Vehicle And Tied It Off To The Hitch as He Was Doing This Dustin Shelton Tied Himself Off To The End Of The Rope And Went Into The Rushing Water Toward The Vehicle Officers Trogolo and Yunker Arrived On Scene Took Off Their Uniform shirts, Body Armor And Gun Belts And Retrieved A Window Break hammer From The Vehicle And Immediately Entered The Water Going Down The Rope Toward The Vehicle Where Mr. Shelton Was. They Swamover Carried By The Current To The White Vehicle Which Was Approximately 25 Yards Into The Water And Partially Submerged. While The Vehicle Was Sinking Officer Yunker Climbed Upon The Trunk Of The Vehicle Broke Out The Window And With The Assistance Of Mr. O'daniel Removed Mrs. Judy Collins From The Vehicle Officer Trogolo, Firefighters Morthland And Little Brought Her back To Safety And The Officers Were Also Brought Back From The Water Along With Mr. Shelton And Mr. O'daniel Police Chief Mike Irwin Stated When They Pulled Her Out Of The Car there Wasn't Any Air Left In The Car It went Under. Think That Was A Pretty Good Day At Work. Commissioner Blades Stated Think Your Guys Should Get A certificate Or Something To Thank Them For That. Mike Irwin Stated Representative Sever in Is Planning On It, But Think They Should Be Recognized. My point Being Is Pretty Good Teamwork Including Mr. Shelton And Mr. O'daniel Who Are Your average Folks. They Did A Pretty Good Job!
Chief Irwin Read The Police Department's Report.
Codes Officer, Ed Hammonds, Read The Codes Report.
17. Building And Sign Permits:
There Is One Building Permit From Larry Warren at 1716 West Road. It Is A Portable Storage Building With The Cost Of $2190.00. Commissioner Simpson Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.
18.Mayors Comments:
Would Like To Ask Permission Before i go into My Report That If You Guys Would Like To Say Something As a Council About The Efforts Of These Two Bystanders And Our Firemen And Policemen Would Like To Give You Sometime To Do That Want To Say All Of Our Employees Went Way Above And Beyond. It Was A Tremendous effort From Everybody From The Moment That I Realized We Were In Trouble Went Out To The Sewer Plant And There Was a Dump Truck with Street Department Personnel There Was Sewer And Water Personnel Unloading The Sewer Plant Trying To Get Everything Out. Had No Idea It Was Going To Go under, But They Knew. Then We Had The Flooding Of The Lakes I Have Never Seen The Water That High, I Dedicated A Lot Of My Time To The Two Damns And The Levy. The People That we Have Appointed Here Do A tremendous Job Jody, Mike, Jim white, Roger Stanley And Charles Hubble The Department Heads. I Didn't Worry Because Knew They Had It Under Control The Fire And Police Department Evacuated Monroe Street Apartments The Firemen Took Them Out And The Police Officers Took Them To Wherever They Wanted To Go, It Worked Very Well We Had a Lot Of Criticism because Of The Pumps, But No One Can Consume And Handle That Much Water On The Effort From The Gentlemen And The Bystanders In A Life Saving Event Like That Joke About It And Say That's Your Job That's What We Pay police And firemen to Do but It's Not And It Should Be Recognized.
19. Commissioner Comments:
Commissioner Simpson Stated Think all The City Employees Need Recognition For How They Handled The Job. A Lot Of Criticism at Different Times, But When They Are needed They Do Their Job And They Do it well.
Commissioner Harkins Stated There Is No Doubt A Life Was Saved. How Well Everybody Worked Together Just Reflects On This Town That Have Lived In all My Life And I Am proud Of It And The Fire And Police Department. They Do A Wonderful Job And I Tip My Hat To Them.
Commissioner Chambers Stated Was Out And About During The Flooding Too And Something Found To Be Very Neat As We went Around Was Who We Found Working Where Part Of What we Have Tried To do Over The Last Two
Administrations We Have Been Here Is Get Everybody To Work Together When Got The Call That The Sewer Plants Were Going Under Went There And There Were Firemen There, Street Department Guys Were On Their way To Help The Sewer Guys Get Their stuff Out When Called Roger To Block Streets Sometimes A water Department Guy Showed Up And Sometimes It Was A street Department Guy. It Was Literally Some Of The Lades At The Water Department Who Brought Cones Out To Us Jessica And Taryn Came Out And Put Up Cones To Block Roads. Everyone Was Out And About It Was A Huge Community Effort.
20. Audience questions Or Comments:
There Were So Many Complaints On Facebook During The Flooding And Tara Posted So Much On Facebook. Just Thought It Was So Awful Because They Weren't Out There Putting Cones Up She Was And Her Team. Just Wanted To Say Good Job To All Of You Guys It Was nice To See Our City Council Out There Working Because There Are A lot Of Towns That Don't You Guys Actually Do Stuff And It Is Wonderful To See That.
To All The Departments That Were Involved With The Flooding Situation Everybody Here From The Fire Department To The Police Department And The Street Department You Did a fantastic Job. You Went Way Above And Beyond The City Is Proud Of You, The Citizens Are Proud Of You And We Thank You For What You Do. Just Do Thank You For What You Do Each And Every Day.
21. Mayor Jordan asked For Approval To Go Into Executive Session To Discuss Contract Negotiations, Personnel, Land Acquisition And/Or Pending Litigation, With Possible Action. Commissioner Harkins Made A motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners along With The Mayor Voted yes. Motion Carried The Council Went Into executive Session At 7:50 p.m.
22. The Council Returned To Open Session At 8:32 p.m. On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners Along With Mayor Jordan Voted To Return To Open Session. Motion Carried
23. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 8:32 p.m.
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