City of Harrisburg City Council met April 30.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
Public Hearing – 8:00 a.m. – 2021/2022 Budget. There were no citizen comments regarding the proposed budget.
The Harrisburg City Council met at 8:15 a.m. in the Council Room of City Hall, Harrisburg, IL.
Mayor John McPeek called the meeting to order. Mayor John McPeek presided over the meeting with Commissioners Raymond Gunning, Roger Angelly, Rupert Johnson, and Ron Morse answering roll call.
Commissioner Raymond Gunning made the motion to approve the consent agenda.
Regular Meeting Minutes April 15, 2021
Harrisburg Lake:
Wayman &Cynthia Winters – Relinquish Lake Lot – 1st Addition, Block 1, Lot 6 Clayton Crum – Relinquish Lake Lot – 1st Addition, Block 2, Lot 14
Jamey Clarida – Petition Lake Lot – 1st Addition, Block 2, Lot 14
Kent & Jean Burns – Relinquish Lake Lot – 1st Addition, Block 1, Lot 22
Winston Weakly – Petition Lake Lot – 1st Addition, Bock 1, Lot 22
Renewal: See attached list
Seconded by Commissioner Roger Angelly. A roll call vote was taken with all present voting yes. Motion carried.
Commissioner Roger Angelly made the motion to approve the budget for FY 2021/2022. Seconded by Commissioner Ron Morse. A roll call vote was taken with all present voting yes. Motion carried.
Jim Brown with Brown and Roberts, Inc. discussed options for Mill Street/O’Gara Street Extension. Mike Roberts was directed to prepare several options. There was an open discussion about the options presented. Commissioner Roger Angelly wants to make sure this money is coming from a state funded project. He was informed the money is Rebuild Illinois money. The City has received three payments at this time. The City is expected to receive three more checks. The City currently has almost $300,000 from Rebuild Illinois Funds.
Commissioner Roger Angelly asked if there were utilities involved in this plan. Jim Brown stated this is just for the roads. Commissioner Rupert Johnson asked what it would take to include the utilities. Jim Brown stated they have not looked into that part of the project. He
could get the City estimates for water and sewer for that area. Commissioner Roger Angelly asked if the money can be used for utilities. Jim Brown stated no. The money can be used for watermains if they are relocated as part of a street job, but not new projects.
Commissioner Raymond Gunning said we have money to option six which goes straight into Sherrod’s property. He suggests option six to get it done and if the funds come in, make the motion to proceed with option four to time back in. He stated the cul-de-sac is not necessary.
Jim Brown said this project requires bids. Commissioner Rupert Johnson said option four makes more sense.
Citizen Rick Lane stated that as the owner of the property, we can’t have people moving in without water and sewer. He took on this project to clean up the area and he has spent a lot of money cleaning up that area. He thought there would be no question about the utilities being in the build back. He said we have got to look ahead as a Council and City as to what we are going to do with our town. He said it needs to be cleaned up. He said we all overlooked the utilities when he started the project. Commissioner Roger Angelly said putting utilities on this property will be a major project. He said the city will research this project. Commissioner Raymond Gunning asked if this could be an in-house project. Commissioner Roger Angelly said that would be a good idea, but we don’t have the money at this time. Commissioner Ron Morse said we can get estimates on what it will cost.
Treasurer David Cox said there is money in Capital Improvement Fund for Mill Street. Commissioner Ron Morse said we need an exact estimate on what it would cost. Citizen Rick Lane said we need to involve the entire property. Commissioner Roger Angelly and Jim Brown said it is cheaper to dig rather than bore in any utilities. Commissioner Ron Morse said option six takes care of Sherrod’s need which is what was promised. If we do that right away, he can begin to operate. Commissioner Ron Morse said if you are going to be digging, then let’s only dig one time. Mayor John McPeek suggest doing Mill Street and hold off on O’Gara. Jim Brown said when servicing this entire property, water is straight forward and there are several options with sanitary. Keep in mind that the sanitary on the west side of the bike path surcharges during high rain events and does not occur on the east side as much.
Commissioner Ron Morse made the motion to approve option four contingent on the utilities prior to O’Gara Street and hold off on the Cherry Street Extension until such time until we can establish utilities. Seconded by Commissioner Roger Angelly. A roll call vote was taken with all present voting yes. Motion carried.
Commissioner Ron Morse said all we will do immediately is extend Mill Street to accommodate Sherrod’s with a street. We will bid option four and not do O’Gara immediately. Jim Brown said we can put in some casings under the road as we go. Sanitary has to be in at grade and can be more complex. Citizen Joe Lane thanked Council for working with them on this property.
Commissioner Roger Angelly discussed a water rate increase. The City has received a letter from Saline Valley Conservancy that they are doing a water rate increase of 15% beginning May 01, 2021. We are looking at various options for restructuring the water rates due to payments on the water projects and the increase. Commissioner Roger Angelly stated he should have
proposals to present at the May 06, 2021 meeting. We do not want to raise the rate any more than they have to. Commissioner Raymond Gunning said we need to consider putting water usage in future bids.
Commissioner Rupert Johnson discussed requiring a contractor permit for the Tree/Limb Site. He thinks the contractors need to be charged in order to pay for our employees to clean up the area. Commissioner Raymond Gunning said it is a good service for our community. Commissioner Ron Morse said it is for the citizens of Harrisburg and if you charge these contractors every month, it may put them out of business. Commissioner Rupert Johnson said this would alleviate out of town people from using the property. He stated he has his employees lock the gate at 3:00 p.m.
Commissioner Ron Morse said in the past, it was only open for the community on the first and third Saturday’s. He said the tree trimmers were given a key to come and go, but agreed to only haul trees/limbs/leaves from only Harrisburg citizens. Mayor John McPeek said a list will need to be given to the City Clerk so she can send out notifications of the new permit fee. Commissioner Rupert Johnson made the motion to approve the new contractor permit fee at $250.00 per year for local haulers only and to have a key to the gate. Seconded by Commissioner Roger Angelly. A roll call vote was taken with all present voting yes. Motion carried.
Commissioner Rupert Johnson discussed getting an engineering agreement with Brown and Roberts, Inc. for permits at Harrisburg Lake for water/sewer. It will pay for itself. He would like to see how much it will cost. Jim Brown said based on his experience, the best approach is to put in a dump station rather than individual treatment plants, pumping to Galatia or a treatment plant which will treat this site. He believes a dump station would be less expensive. The price given is just to obtain the permits.
Commissioner Ron Morse would prefer that the City take a pause on developing the lake until such time as this council decides on whether to continue owning the lake. There has been a lot of discussion on keeping or selling the lake. A decision has not been made and if we are going to sell it, we do not need to throw a lot of money at something we are selling. We should hold
off on anything that cost an extreme amount of money until we can make a firm decision on our intentions.
Mayor John McPeek asked if we really know what is owned by the City of Harrisburg. Jim Brown said there are multiple deeds from when it was built in the 1950’s. Many parcels were acquired and he has never pulled all of the deeds. He has only seen a tax assessor map. The first step is to see what the City owns. Attorney Robert Wilson said they have started pulling the deeds and there are a lot of things. These are not cookie cutter deeds. They are deeds that have nuisances in them like use and providing water or lake used as. There are reverters in some of those deeds.
There are several challenges with this process. There are several properties that are not owned by the City. This is complicated. There was never a plat submitted to the county office as required by the Plat Act. There are no meets and bounds descriptions. There are some threshold
decisions to be made. Information should be ready in about a month. There are several options with selling the lake and/or keeping the lake. The suggestion is to get all the information before making decisions.
Commissioner Rupert Johnson said he believes the lake is worth 5.5 million dollars. Commissioner Raymond Gunning asked Alex Watkins if there are any grants for this project. Alex Watkins stated that a majority of the grants state you cannot charge for the use of the facility if you are awarded a grant. You can apply for the grants, but you be required to offer the designated area for free of charge if awarded the money.
Attorney Robert Wilson reminded the City to consider the dam which sits next to a state highway. If there is a breach of the dam, it will wipe out a state highway. He said if we sell the property, someone will be required to be responsible for the dam and he does not suggest the City continue to be the responsible party because the City will have to go out and re-do the dam. Jim Brown said to re-do a dam will be in excess of $100,000. There are a lot of cost with the structure. There will be a map prepared in about a month detailing the lake property.
Mayor John McPeek discussed changing the time of the regularly scheduled council meeting of May 06, 2021 from 6:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Commissioner Roger Angelly made the motion to change the time of the May 06, 2021 meeting to 4:00 p.m. Seconded by Commissioner Raymond Gunning. A roll call vote was taken with all present voting yes. Motion carried.
Jim Brown stated Rick Lane will need to give the City the piece of property to continue on Mill Street. Rick Lane said he had a surveyor plat the property out as it was platted by the City when the City was being built.
Adjourn: 9:08 a.m.
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