Galesburg Reporter

Knox County Board met Aug. 22.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

The Meeting was called to order by County Board Chairwoman Pamela Davidson and upon roll call the following Members reported present:

District 1 Lyle Johnson

District 2 John Hunigan

District 3 Tara Wilder

District 4 Jared Hawkinson

District 5 Ricardo “Rick” Sandoval

District 1 Cheryl Nache

District 2 David Amor

District 3 Pamela Davidson

District 4 David Erickson

District 5 Brian Friedrich

District 3 Kyle Rohweder

District 4 Sara Varner

And those absent:

District 1 Richard Conklin

District 2 Robert Bondi

District 5 Todd Shreves

Also present was County Clerk Scott Erickson.

County Clerk Scott Erickson delivered the Proclamation. Chairwoman Pamela Davidson led the Members in the pledge to the flag. In lieu of a formal invocation a moment of silence was observed.

Chairman Davidson asked for additions to the agenda. There were none.

Chairman Davidson asked for public comments. There were none.

Motion was made by Member Amor and seconded by Member Erickson to approve the following items of the consent agenda: 1) minutes of the Regular and Closed Board Meetings on July 25, 2018, 2) claims by Members for per diem and mileage for the meetings of August 2018 and other claims for per diem from meetings, and 3) sales tax and various taxes for the month of May 2018 in the amounts of $124,414.04 and $26,098.26 and public safety tax in the amount of $202,174.77. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner— (12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

A copy of the Proclamation of Recognition of the Galesburg Monarch Butterfly Migration Festival was presented to Kathy Johnson who described current efforts to preserve area habitats and establish waystations for the Monarch Butterflies which are the official Illinois State insect. She spoke of the importance of milk weed as it is a food source for the monarch butterflies as they migrate to Mexico. This Festival will be held September 8, 2018 at the Lakeside Nature Center, Galesburg, Illinois, This Proclamation also declares September as Monarch Migration Month in Knox County. Brochures were distributed to the Members and those in the audience.

Member Friedrich presented the monthly report from the Finance, Insurance, Treasurer, Judicial and Clerk Committee. The monthly report is in the packets. There will be a budget meeting August 30th.

Motion was made by Member Friedrich and seconded by Member Nache to approve the Holiday Schedule for the Calendar Year 2019. A copy of this list is included in the packets. Member Friedrich reminded Members that this is something that is done every year. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Friedrich and seconded by Member Amor to approve membership in the Western Illinois Regional Council in the annual amount of $5,485.20. Member Friedrich added that this organization has been helpful in assisting the County to receive various grants. Information is included in the packets. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Friedrich and seconded by Member Johnson to approve security awareness training and testing policy for County employees. County Clerk Scott Erickson added that this is part of the County’s cyber security awareness initiative, which is becoming a more visible concern. The County needs to take steps to make sure that the County’s technology assets are secure. Training will be provided to County employees. If employees do not recognize the e-mail address they should not click on it. Information about this training is included in the packets. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner— (12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Friedrich and seconded by Member Nache to approve the resolution amending the court security fee. The fee would increase from the current amount of $25.00 to $50.00 effective September 1, 2018. Sheriff David Clague had been talking to the judges about this. According the fee study that was conducted last year, this fee could be increased to $85.00.

Roll call vote to approve the resolution amending the court security fee is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich and Varner—(10). Noes—Amor and Rohweder—(2). Motion carried.

Member Johnson presented the monthly Building, Courthouse and Annex Committee Report. The report is included in the packets.

Motion was made by Member Johnson and seconded by Member Sandoval to approve the invoice for the winery road construction in the amount of $26,904.74 from the Highway Department. A copy of this invoice is included in the packets. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(11). Noes—Erickson—(1). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Johnson and seconded by Member Sandoval to approve the engineering, architectural and surveying agreement for the Nursing Home in the amount of $9,500.00 to Klingner & Associates to be funded through the Building Fund. Member Johnson added that these engineering surveys will be presented to the full Board individually as they are completed. Information is included in the packets.

Chairwoman Davidson reported that she had spoken to the maintenance director at the Nursing Home. He believes that this is a waste of money for the County. The maintenance person knows the landscaping, the wiring, the heating and cooling systems of the facility and all of the different issues. He does not understand why the County would spend $9,000 of the taxpayers’ money to do the same thing that he does. He knows if there is an issue and if there is not. He asked her to relay this information to the Board and encouraged the Board to vote this down. He gets paid a salary to do this and understands the mechanics of the Nursing Home.

Member Johnson reported that the Board brought this up some time ago that the Board should start inspections on all of the County buildings in order to develop a plan on things that need to be done. Some things need to be done annually and others can be done over a period of time. They hope to establish a five year calendar.

Member Hunigan questioned if some components of this survey are beyond the ability of the maintenance person to perform such as the HVAC system.

Chairwoman Davidson responded that she could not answer that. The maintenance person does make sure that there are maintenance checks. They have not done some updates due to lack of funding at this time.

Member Hawkinson commented that he agrees with the maintenance person’s concerns. However, by reading through the evaluation agreement from Klingner & Associates it is evident that this is an engineering firm with their engineering degrees to review the entire structure, the mechanical aspects, engineering, plumbing, etc. He does not dispute the maintenance person who is on site. This proposal would allow an engineering firm to perform this evaluation. If there had been a previous professional evaluation, perhaps the HVAC problems that developed at the Nursing Home this year, could have been caught earlier and prevented. The maintenance department should be working hand in hand with the engineering firm. He would like to see a ten year plan in place.

Chairwoman Davidson asked if the Board had asked the maintenance man to do an evaluation.

Member Amor questioned if this is a basic template standard agreement that the Board would approve for each building.

Member Johnson affirmed that to be true.

Member Amor questioned how many days they would spend on site.

Cody Basham from Klingner & Associates addressed the Board. He stated that they would expect to be at the Nursing Home for about two days but about two or three weeks of work would be involved.

Member Amor asked what value is added by asking professionals to perform this evaluation rather than a maintenance person.

Mr. Basham responded that they would work hand in hand with the maintenance person. They would investigate issues, inspect the roof, and look for leaks. This would be a top down inclusive inspection. Various professionals would be involved in this inspection and evaluation.

Roll call vote to approve the engineering, architectural and surveying agreement of the Nursing Home in the amount of $9,500.00 to Klingner & Associates is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Amor, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(8). Noes—Hunigan, Nache and Davidson—(3). Pass—Erickson—(1). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Johnson and seconded by Member Rohweder to approve a culvert installation by the Knoxville American Legion. Member Johnson explained that this is the entrance from the American Legion parking lot to the Winery Road. There will be no cost to the County. The Legion has contracted an engineering firm and will be paying for this project. The County will just be giving their approval.

Member Erickson questioned why an item like this would not have been with the Highway Committee versus the Building Committee. He asked Highway Engineer Duane Raterrmann if this is because the County does not actually own the road.

Mr. Ratermann responded that currently this road is not part of the County’s highway system.

Member Erickson recalled that as the County was beginning to build this road and trying to work with the Legion and some other businesses there that they were not interested in participating and sharing the cost of the road. The County did not get any help on the construction of this road. Now somebody else wants to use it.

Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(11). Noes—Nache— (1). Motion carried.

Member Hawkinson presented the monthly Sheriff, Jail, Mary Davis Home, Animal Control, and Nursing Home Committee report. The monthly report is included in the packets.

Motion was made by Member Hawkinson and seconded by Member Johnson to approve the purchase of a vehicle for the Sheriff’s Department in the amount of $22,268.00. Member Hawkinson added that this is for a replacement used pickup truck to be purchased from Bob Lindsey Honda. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder, and Varner— (12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Member Hunigan presented the monthly Assessor, Zoning, GIS, Recorder’s Office, Highway Department and Landfill Committee report. The monthly report is included in the packets.

Motion was made by Member Hunigan and seconded by Member Friedrich to approve to bid and bring back for a rubber tire scraper tractor for the Landfill. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder, and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Hunigan and seconded by Member Amor to table the agenda item to approve a lease option agreement with TerraNavigator for Landfill 1 and 2 Solar/Revitalization Project at the Landfill. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Hunigan and seconded by Member Varner to approve the purchase of a 1⁄2 ton pickup truck for the Highway Department. This will replace a 2004 pickup with 124,000 miles on it. A fully equipped new truck can be purchased through the State of Illinois purchase contract program at a cost of $24,160.00. Information is included in the packets. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder, and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Hunigan and seconded by Member Hawkinson to approve the resolution implementing predictable recording fees in the Recorder’s Office. This resolution would increase the recording fee $3.00 effective December 1, 2018. A copy of this resolution is included in the packets.

Member Amor stated that he did not understand why this is generating an additional fee. As he reads the resolution it states that the fee schedule needs to be predictable.

Chairwoman Davidson reported that County Recorder Carol Hallam had attended the committee meeting and asked for this $3.00 fee increase. Chairwoman Davidson stated that she would be voting against this resolution. This fee has been raised before.

Member Amor stated that it is unclear why these fees need to be increased by $3.00.

County Recorder Carol Hallam addressed the Board to explain the need for this fee increase. She reported that the recording fees are mandated by State Statute. Currently they charge a $70.00 fee and that is for a standard document and $1.00 fee for each additional page over four pages that is recorded of that document. However, this page count is going away. Even if the document is 100 pages they are still only getting the $70.00 fee. If they do not increase the fees somewhat, the revenue in the office will decline sharply. This fee increase is based on the previous cost study which was done by Bellwether. They helped with coming up with a predictable fee. There was a fee increase in May 2017.

Chairwoman Davidson commented that she did not know about the page count.

Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Amor, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(10). Noes—Nache and Davidson—(2). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Hunigan and seconded by Member Friedrich to approve the addition of new fees to the current Zoning Fee Schedule for telecommunication facilities and small wireless facilities for the Assessment Office. Information is included in the packets. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Member Amor presented the monthly report from the Knox County Board of Health. He presented some highlights from their monthly meeting which was held August 9th. The financial reports for the end of July list the total revenue as $2,700,000, which is 56% of the budgeted amount and total expenditures at $2,600,000 which is 52% of the budgeted amount. There was a discussion of the draft budget for budget year 2019. There has been information coming from the State as regards the acceptable standards levels of lead. This amount is decreased from 10 -5 micrograms. This is largely because testing has become more precise. However, there is no safe level of lead. They announced that the flu vaccine will begin to be available in September. They did draft a new food safety ordinance. The County Board will have to approve this. They are moving forward to be the local processor for LIHEAP applications for this low income energy assistance program.

Member Varner presented the monthly report from the Galesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. She reminded everyone about the 47th Annual Stearman Fly-In which will occur in Galesburg September 3-8th. The Council is excited to obtain the results from the recent destination assessment hat was conducted in the County.

Member Hawkinson presented the monthly report from the 9-1-1 committee. He reported that they met August 16th. The 9-1-1 fund currently has a balance of $1,472,000. Of the amount $500,000 is in investments. Even ten years ago, that amount was zero. These investment funds will help fund future multiple updates that will need to be made. Regarding the number of telephone calls which came in to the communications center for April and May, the total number of calls was 22, 746. Just for the month of May there were a record number of 12,000 calls. There were 3, 736 calls to 9-1-1 for those two months. There were 307 abandoned 9-1-1 calls. They are looking at expanded technology that would better allow them to track these abandoned 9-1-1 calls and also looking at other ways to stay in touch with 9-1-1 calls that are sent via text once that session is over. They also discussed a paging system that has been failing. They think that this is an issue with CenturyLink.

Ken Springer presented the monthly report from the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development. He spoke of some upcoming events. September 27th Orion Renewable Resources are putting together a tour of the company’s wind farm at Camp Grove. This tour will allow elected officials and County Staff to see up close how a wind farm operates. There will also be a question and answer time. September 6th, Jupiter Machines will be hosting an open house at their new Galesburg Headquarters at 1124 Enterprise Avenue. They will be giving tours through their facility and giving demonstrations of their new technology. They will be providing 52 new full time jobs in the community. This is a high tech company that works in the manufacturing industry. He also announced another new business in the area, Main Street Codes which will be located downtown Galesburg. This is a newly launched non-profit coding academy. They will be offering boot camps for computer coding which last 8-12 weeks. Those interested may contact them at www.mainstreetcodes.com or phone KCAP’s office at 309-343- 1194. It is exciting that this coding academy is coming to Knox County.

Member Johnson presented the monthly report from the Prairie Hills Resources Board. He reported that this meeting was held the previous week. They filled a vacancy as a member of the Hancock County Board has joined the Prairie Hills Resources Board. The auditors presented their report for the previous year. It was a clean audit. They approved two loans from the revolving loan fund. They updated some polices. They are working at getting another property into conservation.

Member Johnson presented the monthly report from the United Council of Counties. He reported that there was no meeting that this month.

Member Bondi was not in attendance to present the monthly report from the Ad Hoc Committee for Technology Services. However, County Clerk Scott Erickson did present this report. A copy of this report is included in the packets. The IT Department stays busy. They are working on projects at the Nursing Home, Landfill and Highway Departments. They continue to work to maintain security protocols and keep up with updates. Things are going comparatively smoothly.

Member Conklin was not in attendance to present the monthly report from the Knox County Mental Health 708 Board.

Motion was made by Member Friedrich and seconded by Member Amor to approve the opening of the budget for line item changes. Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes— Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

Proposed line item changes include the following funds or departments: the Public Defender’s Office, the Nursing Home, the General Fund, the Sheriff’s Department, VOCA Grant and DCFS Grant.

Motion was made by Member Johnson and seconded by Member Wilder to approve the proposed line item changes.

Member Hawkinson commented that there should be fewer line item changes with the coming year. He would hope that Department Heads would utilize these line item changes and prepare an accurate budget for next year. Chairwoman Davidson stated her agreement.

Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes— (0). Motion carried.

Motion was made by Member Friedrich and seconded by Member Wilder to approve the claims against Knox County, Illinois, for the period of July 26, 2018 through August 22, 2018 (ordering the invoices be accepted and approved and that the County Clerk and County Treasurer be authorized and directed to issue County Warrants in payment of the bills.) Roll call vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—Johnson, Hunigan, Wilder, Hawkinson, Sandoval, Nache, Amor, Davidson, Erickson, Friedrich, Rohweder and Varner—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried.

STATEMENTS OF GENERAL CONCERN

Member Johnson had no comments at this time.

Member Hunigan commented that the historical events of this week show the importance of voting in Elections.

Member Hawkinson commented that it is back to school time in ROWVA and area schools.

Member Sandoval had no comments at this time.

Member Nache commented that everyone should watch out for the children returning to school and wished everyone a Happy Labor Day.

Member Amor encouraged those who have not already done so, to register to vote.

Chairwoman Davidson extended her thanks to Interim Nursing Home Administrator Donna Motz who is doing a fabulous job in working with the staff and the union and she appreciates her hard work and dedication to this County.

Member Erickson and Member Friedrich had no comments at this time.

Member Rohweder extended his thanks to Ken Springer from the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development for bringing new opportunities to the County and the City of Galesburg. This motivates those business people under age 40 and constantly looking for reasons to stay here. He is thankful for all of Mr. Springer’s hard work. He also thanked all the Board Members who are always working to make good things happen in our community.

Member Varner had no comments at this time.

The next Regular Meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, 6:00 p.m., at the Galesburg City Hall Council Chambers, Galesburg, Illinois.

Motion was made by Member Wilder and seconded by Member Sandoval to adjourn from this Meeting until the next regularly scheduled Meeting of the Board. Voice vote is recorded as follows: Ayes—(12). Noes—(0). Motion carried. Open Meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m.

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