Peoria Standard

City of Canton City Council met June 5.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

Staff In Attendance:

Mayor Kent McDowell, City Attorney Curtis Lane, City Clerk Diana Pavley Rock, Treasurer Crystal Wilkinson, Public Safety Director Richard Fairburn, System Maintenance Superintendent Dash Wilson, Street Superintendent Ron Robinson, SRPED Missy Towery, Comptroller Lou Ann Armstrong

Media In Attendance:

Daily Ledger, Fulton Democrat

Video Services By Joe Ginger

Pledge Of Allegiance Opened The Meeting

Invocation – Rev. Meader-South Park Methodist Church

Public Participation –

Additions Or Corrections To The Agenda

Consent Agenda

Approval Of The Council Meeting Minutes Held May 15, 2018

Bill List

Comptroller's Report:

The comptrollers report is for the month ending April 2018. The report shows that the dedicated funds that the City levies for were upside down three years ago. The City is correcting the deficiency and the goal is to have these corrected by the end of the year and at a positive balance.

All of the departments were on track with their budget. The general fund revenue is right on target and the water sewer revenue is slightly over budget. The City received money from the state for their past due water bill which put the budget over for revenue in the water sewer fund. The State currently owes approximately 5 months of past due bills. They are behind $445,000.00 currently. The City should be receiving a payment in the amount of $120,000.00 within the next few weeks.

The sales tax increase will take place July 1. The merchants will report the taxes in August and the City should receive it in September.

Motion and second were made by Aldermen Nelson/Lingenfelter to approve the consent agenda.

Committee Reports:

Finance

Alderman Ryan Mayhew, Chairman

Legal And Ordinance

Alderman Craig West, Chairman

Discuss, Consider And Vote On Approving An Amended Ordinance And Revised Plat Vacation Of Golf View Villas, Section One. #4111 (below)

At one of the prior council meetings discussion took place regarding the Golf View Villa's. A request was made from some of the owners to vacate certain plats. There was some miscommunication because anytime you do a plat modification you cannot modify an actual utility that is in the ground. The prior council voted to approved this- which was an error. The proposed ordinance will correct this error.

Motion and second were made by Alderman West/Nelson to waive the rules for the first reading of the ordinance.

Motion and second were made by Aldermen West/Nelson to approve the ordinance and place it on file

Discuss, Consider And Vote On A Resolution Ascertaining The Prevailing Rate Of Wages For Laborers, Mechanics And Other Workers Employed In Any Public Works By The City Of Canton, Illinois, Or By Anyone Under Contract For The Public Works With The City Of Canton, Illinois. #5148

Motion and second were made by Aldermen West/Putrich to approve the resolution and place it on file

Discuss, Consider And Vote On A Resolution Approving An Agreement Of Legal Services For The City Of Canton And Directing The Mayor To Execute And Deliver Said Agreement On Behalf Of The City Of Canton, Illinois. #5149

The resolution being proposed is to retain Attorney Lane as the City Attorney.

Motion and second were made by Aldermen Putrich/West to approve the resolution and place it on file

Alderman Jump explained that he would be abstaining from the vote due to working with Attorney Lane.

Discus, Consider And Vote On An Amended Ordinance Rezoning Property On Cypress Street From A Planned Unit Development (PUD) Zoning Classification To An Ag-1 Zoning Classification. #4111

This was presented to the planning and zoning commission and was approved.

Attorney Lane said it is important to have the City engineer involved in any zoning decisions.

Motion and second were made by Aldermen West/Lovell to approve the ordinance and place it on file.

Motion and second were made by Aldermen West/Nelson to approve the ordinance and place it on file.

Discuss, Consider And Vote On A Resolution Approving An Agreement For Legal Services Between The City Of Canton And Collins And Collins For Conflicts. #5150

Mr. Collins proposed having an hourly basis fee of $175.00. This will pertain to ordinance violations in which Attorney Lane would have a conflict of interest.

Motion and second were made by Aldermen West/Hale to approve the resolution and place it on file.

Negotiations, Grievance & Personnel

Alderman Chris Jump, Chairman

Discuss And Consider The Hiring Of A Canton Police Officer And Firefighter

Alderman Jump said he had an opportunity to do a ride along with the police department and go on a search warrant. Alderman Jump said it was very clear to him that the City needs another officer on the department- specifically in investigations.

Alderman Jump said he would like to discuss the hiring of a new police officer and a new firefighter. Financial information will be gathered to determine the cost and will be brought back to another meeting.

The fire department will have someone retiring this month and the City needs to make sure overtime does not occur with a shortage.

A lateral hire in the police department would be more of an advantage to the City in saving with training cost and would allow the employee to begin working on their own sooner.

Community And Industrial Development

Alderman John Lovell, Chairman

Update From Srped Missy Towery

General Economic Development Points:

● Prepared for and attended Residential Housing Committee meeting. Shared a new suggested area for residential development at that meeting. Asked Jeff Cozad from the Western Illinois Regional Council (WIRC) for a contact at the Illinois Housing Department Authority (IHDA) to come speak to our group about the Abandoned Properties Program.

● Prepared for and attended Recruitment of Business Committee meeting.

● Prepared for and facilitated a Downtown Development Action Planning Session similar to the large one we conducted, but this one was specific to the downtown.

● Working with SRPED Board Member Jed Rhoades on hosting a Downtown Development Event on Thursday, June 28th from 4 p.m. – 8 p.m.

● Mayor McDowell and I met with a company referred to us by Dr. Gayon called 353 Court LLC. They came back to Canton the next week and we did a walk around of the downtown. We discussed how we may be able to get an USDA grant to support them working with us for capacity building and to do a strategic plan for the downtown.

● Coordinated participants on my end for the Community Commercial done by Spencer Theobald and produced by Dana Smith. Participated in two takes for the commercial regarding economic development. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Vwqf6Pi_GnkrTNAAMYumxjgS9iSntkBX (This link will be available until the end of the day on Wednesday, June 6th). This video will be posted on cantonillinois.org.

● Asked Snowman Studio’s to update the Downtown Directional signs. They responded saying they would do that.

● Phone conversations with a developer out of Peoria interested in some property for a potential retail client. Reached out to the property owners where he had shown interest and one property owner said they weren’t interested, but the other remained interested. We agreed to follow back up when he returned from the International Shopping Centers conference.

● Submitted Community Action and Relay for Life volunteer information for the Canton, IL Community Facebook page.

● Received word from David King at Prairie Hills that, “ The USEPA selected their grant proposal for funding the Brownfields Community Wide Assessment program for funding this October.” Canton is a community listed in this grant.

● Worked with Attorney John McCarthy, Mayor and Steve Kline to get the South Main/Pine Wall TIF redevelopment agreement started.

● Working with WIRC to make sure the correct information is going out to the residents for the public hearing on June 7th at 6:00 p.m. for the Housing Rehabilitation Grant.

Business Development, Attraction And Support:

● Coordinated and facilitated meeting with a company still interested in relocating their small manufacturing business in Canton. After that meeting I worked with Steve Kline to address some of the questions the business owner asked. I shared the answers with the business owner and we agreed to be back in touch once he had submitted numbers to Steve Kline in order to provide possible projections.

● Attended meeting with the Mayor and Josh Scaife, who is a representative from Governor Rauner’s office. We met to discuss Canton receiving a designated Opportunity Zone. (More information will be presented on this announcement at the City Council Meeting)

● Worked with Scott Harn from the Jimmy John’s project to verify (per Keith Plavec) one more time that their location is unfortunately not in the Enterprise zone.

● Attended CFC/Cook lunch at OTO to discuss Canton updates and then talked about the recent JCP property transaction with a potential business not happening. We did a tour of the Majestic Theatre and Blessings Food Hub after the lunch. Received a follow up call from Jim Murphy who said they are getting ready to make some major decisions regarding that property.

● Worked with two men interested in doing a baseball/softball facility by showing them several potential properties. They are hoping to work a lease out with one of those property owners that I helped them connect to.

● Met with Attorney Curtis Lane to discuss moving forward with a potential change in the designating ordinance for the Enterprise Zone in regard to the tax abatement matrix. This change would benefit the Hitchcock Scrapyard expansion project.

● The Mayor, myself and Rick Klinedinst met with the new Community Affairs Director of Vistra Energy (formerly Dynegy).

● Met with Eagle Point Solar Development company to discuss ways we may be able to move forward with a potential solar development in Canton.

● Conversation with Hadley Phillips from the Villas of Hollybrook project to discuss their desire to move forward with something in Canton.

● Checked in with person wanting to do a possible hotel/lodge development to complement their existing business, but they are waiting to see what happens with the current proposed hotel project. I reached out to AP to ask for an update, but he did not return my email.

● Received word from a local bank that they cannot do the loan for the project proposed at the industrial park as they are not getting participation from DCEO as there is liens against this particular businesses equipment that was originally going to be used as collateral.

● Reviewed Request for Information (RFI) that was shared by Cheryl at Ameren. The RFI required interstate and rail access. Another example of us not being able to apply because of our lack of a four lane highway.

● Majestic Theatre

○ Shared pictures with sponsors from the premier party.

○ Sent out remaining sponsorship thank you letters.

○ Worked with Diana to connect to Mark Hughes for the necessary mortgage information.

○ Sent Julie and Jeff emails on connecting to Sue Tucker at Ingersoll and then provided Sue with their recommended contact information.

○ Provided phone number information for the theatre from some people saying they don’t get on Facebook and would like an easy way to know what is playing.

Other:

Submitted monthly Chamber Courier article. Passed out Cruise-In flyers to the businesses that I committed to as a committee member. Attended Cruise-In meeting and solicited my two agreed upon sponsors and shared that information with Chamber Director Atchley.

Prepared for and attended SRPED Executive Committee meeting.

Prepared for and attended SRPED board meeting.

Attended Chamber’s TCB Breakfast.

Posted Helping Hands having a week for CMS on our CMS Facebook page.

Preparing for SRPED FY 19 (Goals & Budget) updates.

Public Works, Water And Sewer

Alderwoman Angie Lingenfelter, Chairman

Public Safety And Traffic

Alderwoman Angela Hale

Streets And Garbage

Alderman Justin Nelson, Chairman

Lake, Buildings And Grounds

Alderman Tad Putrich, Chairman

Mayor Communication:

Mayor McDowell congratulated everyone that helped with the recent Art on Main-which was a huge success.

Old Business

New Business

Adjournment:

Motion and second were made by Aldermen Nelson/Lingenfelter to adjourn into executive session for 5ILCS 120/ C(1) (2) (11)

Roll call.

No action was taken after the executive session and the meeting adjourned.

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