The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Introduced To New Deputy
The Village of Stronghurst met at its regularly scheduled meeting and was introduced by Michael Bohnenkamp to Angela Garson the new part-time deputy for Stronghurst.
Currently, Garson works for Avon, London Mills, and Woodhull Police Departments. She will be graduating from Western Illinois University with a bachelor's degree and is willing to pursue interests of the board which is emergency management and being a juvenile officer. She has been given her uniforms.
Angela left the meeting to go to work at Avon.
Police Report:
Blake Fox is now working for Missouri State Police.
Mayor Chockley inquired why Stevenson's name on the agenda was crossed off.
Debra Hale explained that she had received a voice mail from Pam Stevenson saying that one of her neighbor's pit bulls was loose and had Bernice Little (Stevenson's mother) cornered on her porch growling at her. Hale said she had talked to Todd Stevenson, and he said that they had contacted the Henderson County.
Hale asked them to come to the meeting, and talk to the board and also informed them that they need to file a complaint. It was put on the agenda, and then Stevenson came into the office and asked the Clerk to take her off of the agenda.
Schaley said that he had talked to Bernice and Pam this afternoon and they said the dog is loose every now and then. Schaley said that he and Pam would talk to owners of the dogs and give them a copy of the ordinance and notify them that they have a complaint against their dog. "if it is vicious or not, it still doesn't need to get loose, Schaley said.
If any further actions are needed, they would go from there.
Deputy Arbry Vancil distributed and read the monthly police report. The report is included with the minutes.
Deputy Vancil had written 3 tickets for underage smoking at the park and thought they will probably get 20-30 hours of community service.
Deputy Vancil also had to retrieve 2 young children from on top of the shelter house that could not get down. He took them home and informed their parents if it happened again, they could be banned from the park this year.
Since the car engine light has been coming on, the police committee thought they would try the fuel at Wisslead Oil to see if that helps.
It was reported the squad car needed fixed which has something to do with the gas cap and an air leak.
The firing range has been tabled this month since Tony Anderson is not here nor is Terry Myers who had requested leasing it.
Debra talked to Attorney Mike Neff and she said she was told that the board members could be sued, even if the board leased out the rifle range. Mayor Chockley said that Neff had told him differently.
Schaley said that we have to have a trained range master for the rifle range, and since we do not, our insurance will not let us use it right now.
Clerk Lou Ann Nortrup said that Doran Insurance will give the village a quote for all of our insurance needs, not just for the Stronghurst Police Department.
Water Superintendent Report:
Mayor Chockley said that Gittings had passed his Waste Water test and therefore will receive a bonus of $500. This will be before taxes. Gittings said that the test is not required again and there is no further education. He will, however, take 3 tests for water, and will need further education for that.
Gittings also reported that when they were digging the new well they hit water at 42-43 feet. and it can pump about 186 gallons per minute. They continued drilling until it was about the same depth of the other well (70 ft.) The water tests came back approved.
The uranium test was not back as yet, but Bassham thought it would be approved as well.
Bassham said on Tuesday (April 3) they would pull the pump and pipe, and cap it off.
Gittings said that Plate Services thought it would take about $5,000.00 to hook the well up and get it in service. Plate thought the most expensive item would be the pit less adaptor that goes on top of the well, for access to the well.
Dan from Test Inc. told Gittings that he should run one well every other week.
"We should be able to treat and flush each well independently. That would help with corrosion," Gittings explained.
It was discussed about what to do with the well at the MST fire station.
Option 1: Give the well to the fire department.
Option 2: Pull the pump, lines, and the electrical lines and then fill it with 300 ft. of limestone chips, 300 ft. of betinite, and 300 ft. of something else, then 3-4 ft. of concrete would have to be poured on top of it.
Option 3: Have it changed over to city water.
There were no further comments on the well at the fire station.
The guys have put white flags up at the new well where they want the fence to go to give enough room to do maintenance work. Joe Kane came and looked it over and thought it was okay.
Gittings will call Paul from MSA and ask if the village needs to bid the well hook up or if it can be paid in increments so as to be under the amount where you have to have bids.
Hale made a motion that if it is okay to pay in increments, to have the village buy the needed parts, and pay Plate the labor. Mike seconded the motion and it was passed unanimously with Anderson absent.
Gittings said that Amanda Jack reported she was driving on North Street near Rod Nichols and smelled a gas odor and heard a hissing sound and called Plate's Services. Plate's called Gittings and Nicor Gas who was working nearby, so they came over. After checking it out closely, Nicor said that there was a leak and they repaired it.
There are 9 trees that need to be taken down. Bids were taken. After looking over the bids and with discussion, Mike made a motion to accept Lee's Tree Service bid for $1,250.00. Dave seconded the motion and it carried unanimously with Anderson absent.
Six pine trees were on Harmony Street, others were at Scott Dillard's and Bonnie Harr's.
Ritter's had trees on sale to put in the park. Gittings said that we wouldn't want small trees, because the kids would just pull them over and throw them away. Amanda said that she would look for trees and pick them out. She would want to be reimbursed for the trees.
Gittings said the lights at the park are fixed.
Old Business:
Hale has not heard back from the welcome sign people.
Anderson has the banners ordered for the 125th celebration.
Clerk/Treasurer Nortrup has not heard back from Attorney Neff about redoing the Ordinance on establishment of the zoning board. This is tabled for now. She had not heard back from Waste Management about taking electrical items to the park on clean-up day.
Hale reported that Waste Management will be sending out letters to people about recycling and gave each board member a copy of the letter.
Nortrup received a letter from Attorney Neff stating that Billy William's estate will be closing. She billed the estate $250.00 for labor, but the village's share will be $39.16 if we chose to accept it.
Mayor Chockley signed and dated a form that says the village will accept that amount.
New Business:
Amanda made a motion to donate $250.00 to the Henderson County Public Health Department for transportation expenses. Debra seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
Lou Ann brought up the subject of putting central air in at Village Hall. Gittings is to bring back bids next month to the board.
It was noted that there will be an Easter egg hunt at the village park on April 7th.
Ronnie said that they will have the 4-H boys' pick up sticks and the park will be ready for the hunt.
Clerk Nortrup asked if the board would be interested in purchasing a fire proof safe for the minute books and ordinances. The board thought it should also be able to contain guns. Nortrup was asked to get pricing for the costs of a safe.
Mayor Chockley was wondering if we could get insurance money for the village roof, because there are quite a few shingles missing from wind damage. David Vancil will call Sally Waddell of Country Companies to look at the roof.
Trustees Report:
Debra Hale and David Vancil had nothing new to add.
Amanda Kane asked if the spray park could be bigger. The past mentioned measurement was marked off, and it did not look like it would be big enough. The idea of having a sitting area also came into play.
Gittings thought it would be a good idea if the spray park would butt up against the tennis court. That way, they would not have to mow in between the two and get grass into the spray park when mowing. No one objected.
Kane also said that things had to be finalized because they needed to have the grant written up by July 1st in order that they may pay half of the expense.
Bohenkamp reiterated that the fire range discussion was on hold until the May board meeting.
Schaley suggested that the board get an official village attorney.
The police department is thinking about writing violation tickets under Village Ordinances rather than State charges. The village would then be able to receive 100% of the money back from the violations and it would be at a cheaper rate for the citizens. If a ticket should go to court, there could be a conflict of interest if the violator would have Mr. Neff for an attorney. Schaley will look for lawyers.
The county will want to get addresses on all homes for 911. Schaley will talk to Curt Eisenmayer about the addresses.
Schaley said that the board members are required to take a test for the open meetings act.
It can be taken on line. He will find the web page and then let everyone know.
Employee Report:
Clerk Nortrup said the village received a thank you letter from the 125th celebration committee for its donation.
Mayor Chockley has been asked if it was okay to have chickens in town, and he said he had explained to her that it is allowed for the north side of town, but not the south.
Bohenkamp made a motion to adjourn the meeting and go into executive session in regards to employee raises. Hale seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 8:33 p.m. and then went into executive session and returned to regular session at 8:40 p.m.
Vancil made a motion to give all employees a $.75 raise except for newly employed Deputy Angela Garson. Debra seconded the motion, it passed unanimously (Anderson absent). Meeting adjourned.
Mayor Eric Chockley had called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. with trustees Debra Hale, Amanda Kane, Brendan Schaley, David Vancil, and Mike Bohnenkamp present, and Tony Anderson absent.
Employees present were Ronnie Gittings, Mike Nelson, Lou Ann Nortrup, Arbry Vancil, and Angela Garson. No guests were present.
The minutes and payment of the bills were approved as presented.