Galesburg Reporter

City of Monmouth City Council met June 16

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

I. CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Mayor Rod Davies called the meeting to order in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 100 East Broadway at 6:00 p.m. and led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

II. ROLL CALL

City Clerk Melissa Teel called the roll and those answering Present were: Aldermen Roger Teel, Brad Bone, Juan Pinedo, John VanVleet, Kevin Ferry and Jim Conard

Absent: Aldermen Brian Daw Also Present: Mayor Rod Davies, City Clerk Melissa Teel, City Attorney Marcum Spears, City, Communications Director Ken Helms, MFD Chief Casey Rexroat, MPD Chief Joe Switzer, Public Works Director Brayden Bledsoe and Building and Zoning Director Joe Clark

III. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

A. Approval of the May 19, 2025 Council Meeting Minutes and the June 2, 2025 Council Meeting Minutes as presented

It was moved by Alderman Pinedo and seconded by Alderman Conard to approve both sets of minutes. AYE: Alderman Teel, Bone, Conard, Pinedo, and VanVleet

NAY: None PASS: Alderman Ferry

MOTION CARRIED.

IV. PRESENTATIONS

A. Andrea Monroe, executive director for MCAP presented the update for the month.

She states that there was a meeting of a group of leaders to discuss how to get more grant funding for Monmouth. She states she also participated in half way freezing for food. She explains that there was some change over in the board members for MCAP. She states that there have been some ribbon cuttings and that Ryan Painter just moved to Market Alley. She states there are some big things coming that she can’t give details on just yet and that she just got back from a training that was about housing development that was based more rural this year and was more helpful for that reason.

B. Chief Switzer presented a longevity certificate to Officer Myers for 25 years of service.

V. CONSENT AGENDA

A. Appointment of 2nd Ward Alderman, Scott Weber

Mayor states that he is pleased to recommend Scott Weber for our vacancy of 2nd Ward Alderman for a 2 year term. He explains he has been in the community since the 80’s and is involved in the community in many ways including coaching basketball at the local high school level. 

It was moved by Alderman Pinedo and seconded by Alderman Teel to approve the appointment. AYE: Aldermen Conard, Pinedo, Ferry, VanVleet, Teel, and Bone.

NAY: None

MOTION CARRIED.

City Clerk Melissa Teel swore Scott Weber in as the second ward alderman and he was seated to start immediately.

B. Approval of the Bills

It was moved by Alderman Bone and seconded by Alderman Conard to approve the bills as presented. AYE: Aldermen Bone, Weber, Conard, Pinedo, Ferry, VanVleet, and Teel.

MOTION CARRIED.

VI. COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

A. Jeannie Weber was called up to discuss the Hispanic Heritage Festival that is scheduled for September 20, 2025. She states that they would like to move the festival to the square this year to provide more room since there are many people that attend. She states that the prior year there were about 4500 people in attendance. She states that they would also like to use the 100 blocks of Main Street and Broadway in each direction as well. VanVleet asks if she is going to push the food trucks back one block to help with blocking the streets off and she replies yes that is the plan. Chief Switzer states that they will take care of that. Jeannie goes on to explain that she was working on a grant to help purchase barricades for the community but has been unsuccessful. She states that United Way would like to help Monmouth purchase some new barricades for different events that take place in town. She goes on to say the police department is very good at helping with the event. She thanks Chief and asks that he pass that along to his team as well. Jeannie explains that if anyone has concerns about the businesses on the square and their business for that evening, she has been already worked out something with Abner’s and has asked Patton Block to possibly offer a special beer for that time period. She explains that she also intends to work something out with Market Alley Wines and with Avery’s Pub so that everyone shares in the celebration rather than taking away their business. Mayor Davies asks what hours the festival will take place and Jeannie replied that it would go from 6 pm to midnight but that the roads would need to be closed by 3 pm to allow vendors time to get set up and that the stage would need to be set up the night prior so she will be coordinating with the Mayor’s office for that. She states that she is unsure where it will go to try to avoid the use of a generator.

It was moved by Alderman Pinedo to approve the use of the downtown square for the festival and seconded by Alderman VanVleet AYE: Aldermen Conard, Pinedo, Ferry, VanVleet, Teel, Bone, and Weber NAY: None

MOTION CARRIED.

B. Tom Best gave a short presentation for the Buchanan Center for the Arts Cemetery Walk on the north side of the cemetery this time on October 8th. He explains that there will be one at 10 am and another one at 5pm and 6pm to learn about several famous people buried there. The rain date would be October 9th and if they get rained out they probably would not reschedule. They are requesting permission to be in the cemetery at that time for the presentation. They will ask that people park  along Jackson since it will be on the North side of the cemetery and will be less likely to effect traffic on that road.

It was moved by Alderman Bone to approve the Cemetery walk request and seconded by Alderman Ferry. AYE: Aldermen Conard, Pinedo, Ferry, VanVleet, Teel, Bone, and Weber. NAY: None

MOTION CARRIED.

C. Mayor Davies states that he has a appointment to fill one of the vacancies on the Zoning Board of Appeals and would like to suggest Mark Crain. He states that Mark Crain is heavily involved in the community, is a business owner, and a long time resident.

It was moved by Alderman Conard and seconded by Alderman Teel to approve the appointment. AYE: Aldermen Ferry, VanVleet, Teel, Bone, Weber, Conard, and Pinedo. NAY: None

MOTION CARRIED.

D. Josie Lair is present to request to hold a 5K run to raise money for the Warren County Prime Beef Festival that the route will go start at the American Legion and to South to East Broadway, then over to North 1st Street then to East Harlem, then to North 6th Street and then E Jackson and back to the American Legion. She states that it is similar to the Riley Run but they don’t have as many people to help so they eliminated a few of the turns.

It was moved by Alderman Ferry to approve the route for the 5K run for the Warren County Prime Beef Festival fundraiser and seconded by Alderman VanVleet. AYE: Aldermen VanVleet, Teel, Bone, Weber, Conard, Pinedo, and Ferry. NAY: None

MOTION CARRIED.

E. Public Works Director Brayden Bledsoe presented an update with a few projects that public works has going on. He states that the water department has finished flushing hydrants and hopes to have them all repainted by the end of summer. He states that Brandt Construction has been awarded the bid for the West Harlem roadway project and they expect that to start July 8th. He states that it will take 4-6 months that will push us to winter shut down but hopes all will go well and it will be completed this year. He explains that the surveying at the Jackson water treatment plant has been completed and they are doing a preliminary design. Lead service line replacement phase I will start in 4-8 weeks depending on when supplies become available. Alderman Pinedo asks where we are with the lawn mower purchase and Director Bledsoe replies that they are on the way. The company they were purchased from only had a couple in stock so they are waiting on more to come in. Alderman VanVleet says thanks for taking care of the weeds on the square. He states that he has already seen trucks destroying the medians in the middle of the road on North Main Street. Director Bledsoe explains he did raise some concerns about that but that they are working on some solutions for that problem and that there are signs on either end of town directing trucks out of town. Alderman Pinedo asks if the signs going into the new parking areas are backwards. Director Bledsoe states he doesn’t exactly know the logistics behind why they are that way but once they are done, it will help with the flow of traffic and once the lines are painted it will make more sense to everyone. Alderman Bone states that he had a resident ask about the stop lights at Euclid and Main brackets. He said the resident stated that one of them looked like it was about to fall off. Director Bledsoe states that he was unaware but he would take a look at it or have one of his staff take a look at it and see what can be done.

F. Fire Chief Rexroat gives his May report that they responded to 149 calls and that is 692 calls so far this year. A few training highlights that the Pitshop Stop donated a few cars and Berg’s used to do the same thing. They also provide a place to do the training for the safety of everyone. There was a representative from Ameren that did a departmental training of everyone on gas emergencies. He states they also had a presentation from OSF on flight zone safety and that they were going to land the life flight as part of the training but it had been called out on an emergency. He explains that Firefighter Conner Talbot completed his EMT training and is now certified and assigned to shift 2. Assistant Chief Spears and Chief Rexroat went to Bradley University and the Illinois Fire Service Institute was there and provided education training called train the trainer. They were teaching them how to teach other people this type of training. The Monmouth Firefighters local union held the annual retiree breakfast at station one and there were several retirees that attended over Memorial Day weekend. There will be a testing session at the fire department on the upcoming Saturday for new applicants. The deadline for applications was actually this past Friday. They will start of the morning with the physical agility test and for those that pass that will take the written test. After those are complete they will start interviews with the police and fire commissions and build their eligibility list from that. Firefighter Travis Bitner has made the decision to retire after 22 years and start a new chapter in his life.

G. Police Chief Switzer gives his May report that they made 65 arrests, issued 95 citations, calls that came into the dispatch center was 3621. MPD handled 1626 calls. Dispatch center handled in total 3195 calls. MPD handled 24 accidents and the officers had 18 grant hours. Officer spent approximately 12 hours in court. Monmouth College commencement was held with no issues to report. There were several anniversaries including Officer Corsaro had his 29th year anniversary, Officer Thompson had his 21 year anniversary, and both Officer Rico and Officer Galdamez Santos had their one year anniversary. Administrator Steinbrecher did negotiations with AFSCME and Chief attended the Monmouth Associates Luncheon at Monmouth College. Two officers completed radar certification class, all officers received training on high risk traffic stops, and 2 officers that went to seated standardized field sobriety testing and all officers received training on tunicate applications. There were two officer that went to ground arrest and control tactics training. Several squad cars went in for routine maintenance and looking forward they are planning for the Pottery event, the car show, and the fall festival.

VII. ORDINANCES

A. Chief Switzer explained the ordinance 25-012 would change the composition of the Monmouth Police Department. He explained that we are adding a school resource officer to the composition so we are taking away one patrol officer position to add the school resource officer position. Alderman Ferry moved to approve the ordinance and Alderman VanVleet seconded. AYE: Aldermen Teel, Bone, Weber, Conard, Pinedo, Ferry, and VanVleet NAY: None

B. Zoning Director Joe Clark explained that the ordinance 25-013 was for a setback variance that went to the Zoning Board of Appeals previously. He adds that the Zoning Board of Appeals recommends approving the request. Alderman Conard moved to approve the ordinance and Alderman Teel seconded. AYE: Aldermen Teel, Bone, Weber, Conard, Pinedo, Ferry, and VanVleet NAY: None

VIII. ADJOURNMENT

A. Alderman Ferry moved to adjourn the June 16th meeting at 6:38 p.m. and seconded by Alderman VanVleet. MOTION CARRIED by unanimous voice vote with the exception of Alderman Daw who was absent.

https://www.cityofmonmouth.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif7191/f/agendas/june_16_2025_council_meeting_minutes.pdf