The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Jeff Tee -For The Quill
The Oquawka Village Board held its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, January 7th with Village Attorney Andy Youngquist absent.
APPROVE MINUTES BILLS AND TREASURE REPORT
Trustee Brian Collier asked if a bill from Galesburg Electric for the repair of the generator at the fire station could be paid out of the Bergman Trust account.
Village President Nancy Bundy said she wasn't sure because they were so close to closing on the sale of the station and equipment.
Trustee Brenda Tee said she felt they shouldn't worry about a $467 bill. Collier said he was concerned because something much more expensive could break tomorrow.
After some discussion about how much money was left in the trust, it was decided there is around $12,000 in the account and Nancy will inquire about using the account to pay the bill.
MAYOR & STAFF REPORT
City-wide clean-up will be May 9.
POLICE REPORT
After giving his monthly report, Clifford said he wanted to take a moment to reflect on a call that happened in December involving a person in town in which ambulance and fire department were involved.
Clifford acknowledged Barb McCann, Missy Marston, and Dalton Pullen on the ambulance crew and Gary Marston and Jacob Jones were the ones he knew on the fire dept.
He said they handled the situation very well and their demeaner helped to keep a bad situation from getting much worse.
FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT
No representative from the fire Department was present to give a report. Nancy noted that as far as the signing of the papers for the sale of the fire department to Oquawka Fire Protection District, everything was good on the Village's end and the Village was waiting on them.
She noted Youngquist had sent a letter to the OFPD attorney after Christmas asking for a closing date and he hasn't heard back from them yet. After some discussion, it was decided that Nancy would talk with Youngquist about setting up some sort of deadline to get the sale finalized.
OLD BUSINESS
The board has received bids for tuckpointing from Kenny Tharp Masonry and Northwest Masonry. There was some confusion on the wording of the bids as far as what they covered and which buildings were included.
Trustee Lain noted they were not exactly comparing apples to apples. After a very lengthy discussion, Trustee Rice made a motion to accept the bid by Northwest Masonry for spot tuckpointing of the pool building and full tuckpointing of the inside of the well house at a cost of $10,700. Second by Lain.
Motion carried with Rice, Lain, Bundy, Collier, Ray and Tee: all saying "YES
The drain in the bottom of the pool is required by law to be replaced and updated within the next 24 months. It was decided to get a bid for the drain before they accept a bid for painting the pool. Tabled until the February meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
Zoning officer John Newton is being asked to expand his job duties. John will now do follow up inspections to make sure buildings and structures are in compliance with the permit as it was issued. An example of this would be a shop/garage building that stands alone on a property must have at least 750 square feet of living space and must include a bathroom and kitchen. Upon completion, John would do an inspection to make sure the proper amount of living space was built into the building. Another example would be to make sure a building or fence adheres to the proper setbacks from the property lines. For this reason, John's salary will increase from $150 per month to $225 per month.
Resident Alvie Louck addressed the board about concerns he has in regards to his neighbor Barry McClintock. Alvie stated Barry tore down a retaining wall that has been there for over 30 years and has put up orange markers which in effect has taken Mercer Street from its 75' right of way width to about 35' right of way width. Alvie stated Barry's concrete driveway should be cut back from the road and the retaining wall should be rebuilt.
Barry McClintock then addressed the board stating he was not trying to steal property. He presented a flexible orange stake, about a quarter inch in diameter, to the board saying he had placed these markers along the road so that the snow plows would keep to the road and stay off the grass. Barry noted the orange stakes are being used by several people around town. Barry stated it is very common to have things planted or placed in a public right of way such as flowers and mail boxes and parked cars. Barry went on to say the orange markers aren't permanent and he only puts them out from Thanksgiving to Easter. Barry noted that the zoning officer had been sent to his home to move the stakes back and stated he didn't think it was fair to single him out when they are being used all over town. Barry then presented pictures of various objects around town that are placed in the public right of way. He stated that with snow in the forecast, he was planning on putting the stakes back out and if they wanted them removed, he felt they should respond in the appropriate manner such as writing him a letter instead of sending a person over to remove them.
Nancy said being new at Mayor, she wants to treat everyone equally. She said if someone comes to her with a complaint, she wants to address it and not push it off. She said she had asked that they be moved back and, right or wrong, she thought that was going to appease everyone. She said John was just helping her out by going to his house.
Lain addressed Alvie, stating that Barry's concrete driveway was not in violation of any ordinance by being poured to the edge of the road. He also stated the retaining wall had been taken down about six years ago by a previous owner. Lain then explained to Alvie that Barry was not trying to own the property, he was just marking the edge of the road and the Village still owns the property. Collier said he didn't understand what the problem is and that he also felt Barry was just marking the road for the plow. Alvie stated he didn't see it that way.
Nancy thanked them both for coming saying she hoped the issue was resolved and they could move on.
CLOSED SESSION
A motion was made to go into closed session.
Jeff Tee
River Rat News