Clerk Moore administered the oath of office to appointed trustee Troy Roberts and he took his seat.
Trustee Finn moved that the minutes of the July 5, 2017, Board of Trustees regular meeting and closed meeting be approved. Trustee Bickers seconded the motion. The motion carried with all ayes on a roll call vote.
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
Mike Roy, Sidney Improvement Group, thanked the Village Board for the monetary donation for the Sidney Fun Daze on July 28 and 29. He also thanked Earl Bennett, Brett Bennett, and John Finn for their help. Mr. Roy reported that the carnival receipts were down about 20% on Saturday and up a little on Friday. Trustee Finn thought that not having entertainment on Saturday night hurt, and Mr. Roy said that there were not enough volunteers for that. There were 99 cars in the car show. Trustee Schluter said that Fun Daze was fighting the Champaign County fair on entertainment. He said let the Sidney Saloon have entertainment on Friday night and SIG have two bands on Saturday night. Trustee Finbn said SIG should have both nights because the Saloon was making money anyway with the increased crowds. President White reported that when he was at the beer tent at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, the beer was still in the trough. He thought everything else went great. Mr. Roy said he would make sure that didn't happen again. All in all, Fun Daze was a success.
PRESIDENT WHITE'S COMMENTS
President White reported that his reservations for the Illinois Municipal League conference in Chicago September 21-23 and his hotel room were made.
The employees' procedure manual was being formulated.
President White had met with engineer Larry Johnson about funding for a new building. There are programs now for a 30-year loan up to 10.1 million with principal forgiveness. President White will meet with Ted Jeurisson, Community Development Assistance Program, for further information. This is for construction only. Trustee Finn questioned how much money the Village gave to the Township and whether it was refundable because the building is not going to be built. It was $10,000 and probably not refundable.
There were questions about a sewage project. It is on the back burner now because of other priorities.
President White read thank-yous from the Library for the Village's donation to the summer reading program and from a resident for the cleanup after the storm.
ATTORNEY MILLER'S COMMENTS:
Attorney Miller reported that engineer Larry Johnson had called to see if the Village had made any progress on the sewer project.
EARL BENNETT'S REPORT
Supervisor Bennett reported that he had hauled 100 loads of tree limbs after the storm.
He had put tags on cars along the streets to be oiled and chipped so that they could move their cars.
The leak detection survey will be done tomorrow (August 8).
Drainage tiles on Main Street by the Lions Club Park will be cleaned Thursday (August 9).
Meters should be done by the end of August.
ESDA would like to move out of its little office in the Community Building and questioned whether they could move into the old library space.
Four bid packets for tree and stump removal have been taken out.
FINANCE REPORT
The financial reports were read by Trustee Finn. Trustee Finn moved that the bills be paid. Trustee Arrasmith seconded the motion. The motion carried with all ayes on a roll call vote.
The audit reports were passed out to the Trustees and will be discussed at the September meeting.
STREETS AND ALLEY
The streets to be chipped are from Bryon to Victory and will be done this week.
WATER/SEWER/UTILITY
2,611,831 gallons of water were pumped in July with a daily average of 84,252 gallons.
$26,263.34 was received in July. 115 penalty bills were sent.
Trustee Roberts said that the water committee had not met to discuss late fees, that those fees would be discussed at the meeting to discuss the possible sale of the water system.
Attorney Miller said that the first thing the Village needed to do is to assess its water system: what it has, what condition everything is in, and what future expenditures are needed. This is needed in more detail than what we have now.
Engineer Mike Friend listed what his firm has done so far in its survey such as extra cost accounting. He has worked with other towns. Farnsworth has all theplans relating to the water and sewage. He estimated the time line to be two months plus. The first item to be taken up is the estimate of the cost for the engineers to prepare a basic inventory of the system, project capital promject needs for the next five years and for the next ten years, and provide rough estimates of those capital costs. The Trustees gave approval for him to present this estimate to the Board. The RFP plans were put on hold for now. The water committee will not meet on August 21 as tentatively scheduled.
PUBLIC PROPERTY
After the storm a tree at 105 South Scarborough was taken down and a hanging branch from one at 402 South White. Sanderson Tree Service did this emergency work for a cost of $900.00.
Two bid packets, one for tree removal and one for stump removal, have been prepared and advertised. Thirteen trees are to be removed. Bids are due August 28 by 10:00 a.m. and bid opening will be at 10:30 a.m.
No building permits were issued in July.
PARKS AND RECREATION
The ball program is cooperating with St. Joseph on a fall baseball program with two teams.
The batting cage will be left up for now.
Trustee Bickers will be working on parks cleanup, fixing fences, and putting up signs, including ones aabout dogs and parks.
There was a question about soccer but nothing was firm right now.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
The Village renewed the domain site for a year at a cost of $155.40.
NEW BUSINESS
None
Trustee Arrasmith moved that the meeting be adjourned. Trustee Bickers seconded the motion; motion carried with all ayes on a roll call vote. Meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.