Peoria Standard

Village of Germantown Hills Economic Development Council met October 12.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

1. Call to Order/Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance-Marty Clinch called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Everyone stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance.

2. Approval of the September 14, 2017 EDC meeting minutes-A motion was made by Amy DeFreitas to approve the September 14, 2017 EDC meeting minutes. The motion was seconded by Randy Nash. Motion passed #1.

3. Discussion and update on the Germantown Hills Library-Mike Hinrichsen noted Ann Sasso had attended the last library meeting where the library board had discussed reducing the Germantown Hills branch hours. Mike noted he and Ann had met with Annie Hicks, Library Board President and Joel Shoemaker, Library Director. They are both engaged and have a lot of things they are dealing with right now. Mike noted all of the wonderful things Joel has done in the short time he has been with the library district. They both understand the library is important to our community. The library board is proposing to reduce the hours at the Germantown Hills branch from 60 hours per week to 48 hours per week starting in January 2018. Joel had stated he wants to balance out the District hours with all of the branches.

The library board is also working on finalizing the sale of the old library building in Germantown Hills to the School District. The library board approved their audit and will provide a copy as soon as they can and have decided to hold off on doing anything with the additional lots they own by the new library along Holland Road and Woodland Knolls Road.

4. Update on the vision for Germantown Crossing-Mike Hinrichsen reported he and Marty Clinch had met with some CEFCU representatives about the Germantown Crossing vision and how CEFCU fits into the plans. They were very positive and Mike notes he feels they caught the vision. CEFCU will be getting back to the Village soon but Mike felt encouraged that they liked the vision.

5. Discussion on funding opportunities for the Germantown Crossing Vision-Mike Hinrichsen explained how the Woodford County revolving loan fund has funds available and how there may be grant opportunities. Other potential funding opportunities were discussed amongst the committee members.

6. Discussion on the ITEP Grant-The ITEP cycle has been opened up. Ann Sasso noted we are planning on submitting the sidewalk extension from the daycare to the library as we did previously. We plan on including the streetscape features along the sidewalk such as the benches, water feature, flags and lighting.

7. EDC Chairman/Director/Village President Reports-Ann Sasso reported she had attended the Enterprise Zone Conference to get updated on the enterprise zone application and procedures. She also attended a webinar on lead generators where they talked about leveraging your marketing tools and how important your website is, along with video clips and social networks.

Ann noted there is going to be a community cleanup day the week of October 16th. We are starting to pull information together for a brochure for Metamora and Germantown Hills.

Mike Hinrichsen reported GPEDC is starting a CEO search outside our region.

Mike gave an update on Woodford County in regards to the funding of GPEDC and the Tri- County Planning Commission. He stated the County has not put any funds for these two organizations into their budget. Mike is planning on attending their next meeting but if they are not going to help then all of the communities will move forward on our own.

8. Germantown Hills Chamber of Commerce Update-The Halloween on the Hill event and 5K Run is on October 28th. Amy Pace indicated the restaurant flyers showing Germantown restaurants that Veronica Axelson had put together are being distributed at the school events.

9. School Updates and upcoming events-Amy DeFreitas reported the Citizen Advisory Council had put on a community event at the school with many speakers in support of the recent event that took place in our community. This month is antibullying prevention month.

10. Business round table updates/public comments-Randy Nash noted the fire department is looking at a storm shelter and is going to wait and see if they can work with the Village on this since the Village is also discussing the idea. They are also working on tightening their rules on the use of their building for outside organizations.

Rich Brecklin reported the J.R. White Park trail has been completed other than some seeding.

11. Next meeting-November 9, 2017 5:00 p.m.-The next meeting will be on November 9, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. at the Village Hall.

11. Adjournment-A motion was made by Amy DeFreitas to adjourn the meeting at 5:41 p.m. The motion was seconded by Amy Pace. Motion passed #2.

http://germantownhillsillinois.org/media/10-12-17-EDC-Minutes.pdf