The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The Dallas City City Council held its regular meeting on January 6, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. Mayor Kevin Six called the meeting to order with the following commissioners present: Carole McDowell, Peggy Newberry, Harold Northup Jr., and Greg Olson.
Others attending the meeting were: Anne Thompson, Eric Heath, and Gary Smith.
A motion was made by McDowell, and 2nd by Newberry to accept the minutes of the December 16,2024, meeting. McDowell, Newberry, Northup, Olson, and Six AYE.
A motion was made by Olson, and 2nd by Newberry to pay bills. McDowell, Newberry, Northup,Olson, and Six AYE.
Eric Heath asked about possibly having a street light put in on West Fourth Street behind his house between Cottonwood Street and Palm Street. This will be looked at and discussed more at the next meeting.
Police Chief Gary Smith gave his monthly report for December 2024. One of the police cars had to have some service work done to it, including a tune up. He has contacted Access Systems to have them assist with the setting up of the network for the Taser 10 docking station. There will be a county training session set up, as required, and paid for by the grant that the city is receiving. Chief Smith also informed the council the Camera Grant is open and includes prior purchases and lease agreements.
He and the city clerk will be completing the grant application and getting it submitted for consideration.
McDonough Telephone Company is scheduled to install the new internet service at the city hall/police station and the city clerk's office on January 23, 2025.
Greg Olson discussed the culvert at the northeast corner of West Fourth Street and Cedar Street. Hehas talked to the former streets employee and been told that this culvert is setting on bedrock.
Therefore, it doesn't appear that it is going to be able to be set any lower than it currently is.
Mayor Six reported that he recently received a call from Samantha Harnack of the Hancock County Economic Development Corporation regarding the land bank that the council has agreed to take part in.
She feels that there would be a good chance the city could get help with the demolition of the old high school if the city purchased the property. Mayor Six is planning on attending a meeting in Macomb to find out more about this.
Discussed the city's right to force a property owner to tear down or fix up a condemned property. This will be discussed more with the city attorney.
Discussed East Fifth Street east of Maple Street. The city clerk has taken the information regarding a question in property lines to the attorney to check on.
Discussed the city's messaging system. The city clerk informed the council that the company that the city has been dealing with sold out to another company. The new company told the city clerk that they sent him the paperwork that needed to be done in order to keep the messaging system with them, but the city clerk never received the paperwork. As a result the city's messaging system was deactivated on January 1. They have informed the city clerk that the soonest it could be reactivated is March. They
have also informed the city clerk that they no longer offer messaging by phone calls.
The city clerk asked for permission to look into finding a new messaging system company to use that would offer phone calls as an option for receiving messages. The council gave the city clerk permission to do this.
Discussed cats running at large around town and possibly making some kind of ordinance to address this problem. This will be discussed more at the next meeting.
A motion was made by Northup, and 2nd by Olson to enter executive session to discuss city personnel pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1). McDowell-AYE, Newberry-AYE, Northup-AYE, Olson-AYE, Six-AYE.
The meeting entered executive session at 6:41 p.m.
The meeting re-entered regular session at 7:09 p.m.
A motion was made by Northup, and 2nd by Olson to adjourn the meeting. McDowell, Newberry,Northup, Olson, and Six AYE.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
Steven K Vorhies, City Clerk