City of Fairfield Council met March 26.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
Meeting called to order by Mayor Brent Maguire at 6:00 P.M.
Prayer led by Ralph Barbre followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag.
City Clerk Tina Hutchcraft called the roll:
Mayor: Brent Maguire
City Clerk: Tina Hutchcraft
City Treasurer: Julie Duncan
City Attorney: Darrin Rice
Aldermen: Ralph Barbre; Mike Pottorff; Jim Griffith; Tyler Lampley; Eugene McGill; Jerry Lisenbee; Terry Stahl; Ed Prince
Also Present: Kyle Ellis, Wayne County Press; Ken Otey, WFIW Radio; Andrew Miller, Fire Chief; Tyler Lashbrook, Electric Department; Kevin Leonard, Water Distribution; Rick Doty, Gas Department; Dian Downs; Flo Simpson, FADC; and other citizens from the community.
The minutes of the meeting of March 12, 2019, agendas and bills of March 26, 2019 were sent out to those entitled to receive them. Mayor Maguire asked for approval of the minutes for the March 12, 2019 meeting. Motion by Alderman Stahl, seconded by Alderman McGill to approve the minutes of the meeting of March 12, 2019.
Vote yes: Prince; Stahl; Barbre; Griffith; Lampley; Lisenbee; McGill; Pottorff
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
Mayor Maguire asked for approval to pay the bills for the March 26, 2019 meeting. A motion was made by Alderman Barbre, seconded by Alderman Pottorff to approve the bills for payment.
Vote yes: Stahl; Barbre; Griffith; Lampley; Lisenbee; McGill; Pottorff; Prince
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
Mapping the Future of Your Community – Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs – Gisele Hamm with the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs made a presentation to the Council. The topic of her presentation was “Mapping the Future of Your Community”. This is a strategic visioning and planning process for rural communities to create a long-range vision for the economic development of their community and a plan of action for achieving it. They would assist a local group to clearly define goals for our community and set out a plan to achieve those goals. Common goals are business retention, expansion, and attraction; downtown revitalization; infrastructure maintenance and improvement; community marketing; tourism and recreation; and housing. The program cost for Fairfield would be approximately $4,867. If we were to decide to participate in this program a steering committee would be appointed and the program would not begin until the fall.
Amending and Revising Ordinance Regulating Mobile, Manufactured, and Modular Homes – A motion was made by Alderman Pottorff to table this topic and the ordinance will be given to the Zoning Board of Appeals for their review. This motion was seconded by Alderman Griffith. Mayor Maguire asked the Zoning Board to meet with the trailer committee and report back by the April 23rd meeting.
Vote yes: Barbre; Griffith; Lampley; Lisenbee; McGill; Pottorff; Prince; Stahl
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
NW 10th Street Resurfacing Project – Mayor Maguire asked the Council if they would like to include NW 10th Street as a MFT resurfacing project this year. A motion was made by Alderman Lampley, seconded by Alderman Griffith to approve moving forward with the NW 10th Street resurfacing project.
Vote yes: Griffith; Lampley; Lisenbee; McGill; Pottorff; Prince; Stahl; Barbre
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
Street Closing Request for FCHS Prom - FCHS Principal, Jill Fulkerson has requested closing the 200 block of Southeast 2nd Street between Center Street and Delaware Street from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., on Saturday, March 30th for their 2019 prom. She also has requested using the flood lights that are currently in place to allow better lighting for the event. A motion was made by Alderman Griffith, seconded by Alderman Lampley to approve this request.
Vote yes: Lampley; Lisenbee; McGill; Pottorff; Prince; Stahl; Barbre; Griffith
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
Spring City-Wide Cleanup – The Wayne County Health Department and CDC are planning to have an electronic recycling event on April 26-27 during Earth Week. Mayor Maguire asked the Council if they would be interested in have a cleanup day on April 27th similar to what we did last fall. Mayor Maguire would like to have an extra dumpster brought in at the Street and Bridge Department and also coordinate with Lewis Scrap Yard for tire and metal recycling. A motion was made by Alderman Barbre, seconded by Alderman Pottorff to proceed with plans for the spring city-wide cleanup day.
Vote yes: Lisenbee; McGill; Pottorff; Prince; Stahl; Barbre; Griffith; Lampley
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
Gas Service Transfers – Rick Doty with the Gas Department told the Council that the City belongs to an organization called GUA (Gas Utilities Alliance). They provide liability insurance on our gas system. He met with GUA earlier in the year and they first recommended that we no longer do gas transfers. Any order for gas would be either an “on” or “off”. Several of the members stressed that it would not be a good idea to shut off gas in the winter months because it would create a lot of problems. They have now agreed to the transfers but have an idea to get permission for the transfers so the City would be covered if something were to happen. He showed the Council an authorization form that we are looking to implement first with landlords that have numerous properties. The landlords would sign a form to authorize the City of Fairfield to transfer gas service to them when a renter moves out instead of shutting off the gas. This would help cover the city for liability reasons. This would be strictly voluntary at this time. Eventually we will offer this to individual transfers as well.
Miscellaneous – Alderman Pottorff asked if there are any plans in the near future to work on clearing the banks of Johnson Creek. Mayor Maguire has considered having an engineer look over the area to see what can be done to mitigate the flooding issues we have been having.
-Alderman Griffith stated he has been receiving complaints about dogs and cats running loose. He reminded the public that animals must be on a leash.
-In conjunction with the spring clean-up Uniquely Rustique, the Fairfield Park District, and the Retail Merchants will be joining together on April 27th to pick up trash throughout town. They encourage others to join in the clean-up effort.
Executive Session – Alderman Stahl made a motion, seconded by Alderman McGill to go into Executive Session to discuss Section 2(c)(21) – discuss minutes of closed session meetings and Section 2(c)(2) – the collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives.
Vote yes: McGill; Pottorff; Prince; Stahl; Barbre; Griffith; Lampley; Lisenbee
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried.
Return to Regular Session – Alderman Pottorff made a motion, seconded by Alderman McGill to return to regular session.
Vote yes: Barbre; Pottorff; Griffith; Lampley; McGill; Lisenbee; Stahl; Prince
Vote no: none
Mayor Maguire declared motion carried and Council returned to regular session at 7:20 p.m.
Adjourn Meeting – Motion by Alderman Pottorff, seconded by Alderman McGill to adjourn the meeting.
Vote yes: 8
Vote no: 0
Mayor Maguire declared meeting adjourned at 7:23 p.m.
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