SE Illinois News

Village of Smithton Committee of a Whole met Aug. 27.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Mayor Smallwood called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm at Village Hall. Trustees Rogers, Elbe, Mourey, Hopkins and Reyling were in attendance. Trustee Jason Becherer was absent.

BUILDING REGULATIONS – Ongoing discussions were had about regulations for exterior building materials for buildings on Main Street. It was determined that Mayor Smallwood will request information from Attorney Bruckert for suggested revised Ordinance language.

DOUGLAS SEWER EXTENSION – Mayor Smallwood reported that he has talked with Administrator Liyeos, and he is planning to meet with Todd Peek with Gonzalez to get an update on this project. Concerns were raised about the initial quote costs for engineering versus the current quote costs for this project. Mayor stated that he will have Administrator Liyeos look at all of the engineering contracts received for this project to see if there are any discrepancies.

HY-DAC PROPERTY – Sergeant Wilson took pictures of the property as requested by Attorney Bruckert and shared them with the Mayor and Board. Mayor said he drove by the property when he got back from vacation and said it is noticeably cleaned up but nowhere near where it needs to be. He doesn’t know how Attorney Bruckert is pursuing the property. Mayor stated that there’s still stuff around the building, the dumpster’s not enclosed, and there’s weeds between the buildings.

17 N. HIGH PROPERTY (RITTER) – Mayor reported that Attorney Bruckert thought that the judge was going to issue a demolition decree, but the judge didn’t feel comfortable doing that, so they didn’t issue one. Trustee Hopkins asked if this doesn’t get resolved, what’s the next step since the property owner is still living there. Mayor stated that we will continue to site the property owner. He stated that the judge could issue another clean up order. Trustee Mourey stated that in Belleville when your house is in condemnation you can only be there from 8am-4pm and they post a placard stating this. The Code enforcement person tells the police department if they see anyone there after that time arrest them because they are trespassing. Mayor says we don’t have that language in our ordinance. He went on to say that if the judge doesn’t give us the order, we can’t do anything. Trustee Elbe said we had an Order, and it was cleaned up. Mayor said that Attorney Bruckert presented all of that information to the judge. Mourey said the County issued the Order that said he can’t live there, but now he’s back. There’s no sewer and no running water. He can’t sleep there at night. Mayor said everyone agrees on what needs to happen.

Trustee Rogers made a motion which was seconded by Trustee Elbe to suspend the regular order of business and go into Executive Session. All Trustees were in favor. The motion was granted.

Trustee Rogers made a motion which was seconded by Trustee Hopkins to go back into regular session. All Trustees were in favor. The motion was granted.

Trustee Rogers made a motion which was seconded by Trustee Hopkins to adjourn. All Trustees were in favor. The motion was granted. The meeting adjourned at 8:02 pm.

https://smithton-village.com/wp-content/uploads/Minutes-8-27-24.pdf