Village of Ladd Village Board met April 12.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
The Ladd Village Board met in regular session in the Village Hall. Mayor Pro-tem Jim Manning called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm and led the pledge of allegiance to the American flag.
Roll Call: Present: Trustees Dave Margherio, Jan Martin, Dan Nelson, Molly Thrasher. (5)
Absent: Mayor Frank Cattani, Trustee Mike Urbanowski
In attendance: Attorney Pat Barry, Attorney Colin Barry, Deputy Clerk/Village Treasurer Julie Koch, Engineer Adam Ossola, Superintendent Doug Englehaupt, and Police Chief Jacob Frund
Margherio motion/Thrasher second to accept the March 22, 2022 meeting minutes as presented.
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion carried 5-0
Nelson motion/Martin second to authorize payment of the bills in the amount of $51,175.41
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion carried 5-0
Correspondence: None
Public Comment: Randy Tomaseski of SKI Construction. Bid on the water main job. They contacted the News Tribune 3 days before the advertising was supposed to be in and the News Tribune dropped the ball on getting it in the paper when it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be in 16 days ahead of time and the paper only had it 13 days ahead of time. Also stated that Superior had a typo error on the bottom of there bid stating that it was for March 31, 2023 instead of 2022. At that point, there wasn’t a minority company that would have bid yet because the job was a year out according to the publication. He stated that SKI is a minority-owned company. He is hoping that we take all info into consideration and since they are the lowest bidder, they will get the job.
Committee Reports: David Margherio stated that there was an Economic Development meeting and that Gage Ripka is now a part of the group and Marty Fiocchi Jr attended also. Stated that it was great to have some younger people there and that they think that it will bring a lot of new ideas. Stated that things are looking good with the Stalk Market, the Coffee Shop, and the Mexican Restaurant coming. He also was wondering if we could Annex more into the Village, towards 80 and East to Meadow Lane. Pat Barry stated that we would have to contact the landowners and see if they would be willing to come into the Village limits. Ladd can talk to them about refunding them the difference in the taxation since their taxes will go up being within the Village limits. It will be a wash for the Village because we will receive the money and then give it straight back to those landowners.
Engineer’s Report: Ossola gave the board a summary of why the water main is back on the agenda. Stated that we had some issues with the lowest bidder's advertisement as he didn’t have the advertisement in 16 days before the bid letting as we had talked about in the previous meetings. So at that time we had intended to go with the second-lowest bidder of Superior Construction and he was getting ready to prepare the paperwork and was reading the second-lowest bidder's paperwork and he realized that they had a typo on the date of when they had to have their paperwork back in for the bidder's consideration. It had 2023 instead of 2022. Someone might interpret that as misleading to the DBEs and possibly why there weren’t any responses to their ad. Ossola thought that he would bring it to the attention of the board to make sure that wouldn’t change their thought process on who to award the contract. He did raise the issue with the EPA since they are the ones that have that advertisement requirement in place. They thought that Superior’s typo could be waived by the Village of Ladd. We would just need to supply them with a letter of explanation as to what happened, so they could file that in case anyone would happen to question it or when we get audited. Their opinion on excepting SKI’s bid with the advertisement that didn’t appear in time would be that we would need to provide a legal opinion stating that we thought that the advertisement still met the spirit and intent that the DBE required. If that is what we choose then we would need Pat or Colin to write up that Opinion for us. Pat and Jim both talked to Frank before the meeting. Frank stated that he would like to see SKI get the contract since they are the lowest bidder. Pat stated they have come to the same conclusion that the spirit of the EPA comes to which is unfortunately that SKI’S publication not meeting the 16-day deadline, is critical and they think that’s structural to a defect in that bid, whereas the one-digit typo in the Superior bid is just a typo. They don’t think that structurally affects the bid. Pat recommends that we go with Superior because he doesn’t think that SKI structurally met what they needed to do for that publication. Randy stated that we would end up in court. Randy asked if there was a grace period on when he could protest it and Adam stated that he wasn’t sure of the timing and that Schweickert would be taking care of it.
Superintendent’s Report:
Unfinished Business: The proposal from Hoerr Construction is in and the price is $22,740.00 for cleaning and televising the Ladd sewer collection system. Martin motion/Margherio second to accept the proposal for Hoerr Construction for cleaning and televising Ladd Sewer Collection System.
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion carried 5-0
Discussion ensued regarding the Ameren project. Dave Margherio asked Doug if they will be tying into the houses and then if they will then come in and relight everyone's pilot lights. Doug stated that they will bore from the mainline to the houses, and then tie into the houses. Joe Perez and Todd Heath are running the job. Any questions they will take calls from all concerned residents.
Police Chief: Chief Frund let the council know that he is wanting to get Saturday and Sunday day shifts covered if he can. Frund told the council that he spoke with Frank and Frank told him that it would be great. He met with local chiefs and is trying to get opinions from them to see how they all do things with their towns and got all of their contacts. Granville PD gave us a Toughbook to go in the car that is $4000. I-Pads aren’t working at all. Frund is going to look around and see where we can get the docking stations for the cars. Dale Carls has it right now and is cleaning it up and updating the things that need to be updated. The taser is way out of date and he is getting a brand new state-of-the-art taser for $300. Normally they are $1,000-$2,000. Kyle Quick is going to come in for a small fee and train all of the officers on how to use it. Spoke with the council about the clerk's office taking calls from residents that need to directly be transferred to the dispatch center (Buecom) in Princeton. It is a huge liability for us to take calls. They can then dispatch one of our officers if they are on. If we don’t have an officer on at that time and the call can’t wait for the next officer to come on then they will dispatch a Bureau County Deputy. He wants to get a new phone system through Troy technologies in the amount of $1454.70 for the phones and setup, $60 a month will pay for any service that we need. We can then transfer the call straight to the dispatch center and it will take us completely out of the equation. The board directed Jacob to move forward and it will be addressed in the bills at the next meeting. Frund also let the council know that he ordered bright yellow door hangers for Ordinance violations so that they can either hang them on the doors with the violations or on the cars that are in violation. Discussion regarding the Tornado sirens- showed is no policy for it. There is nothing in place as to who sets them off and who doesn’t. He is going to look into it. IVRD the dispatch center in Peru sets off for the people that are in their jurisdiction but Buecom the dispatch in Princeton sets them off for no one. If there is a gap in the shifts for us and no one is on, then there is no one to set off our alarms if there is bad weather and a Tornado warning. There used to be a Village Civil Defense officer that was Todd Dominy but that is no longer in place. All of the dispatch centers are rated for F5 tornados and also have generators so they are safe to be there but it would be unsafe to send someone up here to set off the alarms. Frund is going to contact IVRD and see if we can get a price from them to see what it would cost to switch over to them and then they would have the ability to set them off for us. Colin is also going to talk to other small towns to see who sets them off for them when there is no officer on. All of the dispatch centers get warnings that lets them know when to set them off. Some fire departments get paged out to set them off but with us being a volunteer that isn’t an option for us. He also met with the school and they are going to set up some programs and drills. They are working through things to get the school safety ensured and get some great programs set up. Frund spoke about how Sam is been such a great help and how he could use her for looking for grants and many other things as there are a lot of things that need to be done. Also stated how she can work on the ordinances and policies to update them as well. Jacob was thinking about once or twice a month doing coffee with the cop at the community center so that anyone from town can come and talk to him, ask him a question or just come to him with any concerns that they have. Frund suggested that we get more cameras throughout the town. He would like to have them at each entrance and exit of the town, Kennedy Park, and some downtown. He is going to get a price from Mario for all of them and then he will bring it to the next meeting. The board ok’d Jacob to move forward on the new phone system.
Building Inspector: None
Village Attorney:
Pass Police Chief Wage Ordinance: Ordinance states that Jacob is formally approved at the rate of $70,000 a year and as a Tier 1 IMRF and will receive a $400.00 clothing allowance per year and all of the same benefits that all other full-time employees receive including vacation, sick, health insurance, dental and vision as well.
Thrasher motion/Nelson second to Pass Police Chief Wage Ordinance
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion carried 5-0
New Business:
Proclaim May Motorcycle Awareness Month:
Martin motion/Thrasher second to Proclaim May Motorcycle Awareness Month
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion carried 5-0
Donation Request for the Local 51 for a golf outing that goes toward the scholarship foundation that they have. Board had a little discussion and decided to pass on this donation. Stated that if we found out more about it that maybe next time we can donate.
Donation Request from the Project Success for the Hall Township Food Pantry Easter Dinner Baskets. Last year we donated $280 for 8 baskets. Council decided that we will do that again this year. Margherio motion/Nelson second that we donate 8 baskets at $35.00 apiece for the Project Success Hall Township Food Pantry Easter Dinner Baskets.
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Nelson Obstained: Martin, Thrasher (due to their positions on the Board for the Hall Township Food Pantry- Motion Carried 3-2
Donation Request from SV Little League (Ladd is now a part of). Council Decided to donate $122 to the League.
Thrasher motion/Martin second to donate $122 to the SV Little League.
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion Carried:5-0
Announcements: Carbon Solutions reached out to us and was wanting to put an EV Charging station within the Village. Rhonda spoke with Bethany and asked if she would be willing to come down and talk to the board and they said that they would be more than happy to do a Zoom call with us to explain more and answer any questions that we might have. There is no cost to the Village. They will install and maintain it all we just have to provide them with the spot to put it. They are partnered with Chargepoint they will most likely install the ABB Terra 184 DC Fast Charger or the Chargepoint Express Plus DC Fast Charger. These models provide 80% charge in 30 mins. They will need one parking spot open per charging station. A lengthy discussion ensued and we are going to wait till the IMEA meeting in June. The IMEA is having a meeting on June 2-3 in Springfield and one of the main subjects is going to be talking about these EV Charging Stations. We the Village will benefit from the sales of the electricity. We would also need to ask them if they are going to rent the property that they will be putting these stations on.
We are wanting to place the chicken on our property between the Frontier Building and Dick’s Tap. We are wanting to place a cement pad big enough to secure the chicken in and then eventually put a bench or 2 around the chicken. Koch told them that she went to Graphic Electronics today and they are going to design a plaque to put into the concrete that states PLEASE DO NOT SIT OR CLIMB ON THE CHICKEN. We could also put out there that after tagging yourself on the Village Facebook page with a selfie you can be entered to win a gift card from a local business. We can do one a quarter. We can ask all of the businesses to donate a gift card for it.
Letting the council know that we are going to be mailing the new magnets out to each resident in the next billing.
Molly wanted to say thank you to the Village for all the help with the Easter egg Hunt. They had about 100 kids and it turned out great
Thrasher motion/Margherio second to adjourn.
Ayes: Manning, Margherio, Martin, Nelson, Thrasher- Motion carried 5-0
The meeting adjourned at 7:57pm
https://www.villageofladd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022-04-12-MINUTES.pdf
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