Village of Bartlett met Dec. 3.
Here is the minutes provided by the Board:
1. Call to Order
President Wallace called the regular meeting of December 5, 2019 of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Bartlett to order on the above date at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers.
2. Roll Call
Present: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins, Reinke and President Wallace
Absent: Trustee Gabrenya
Also Present: Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Economic Development Director Tony Fradin, Sr. Management Analyst Sam Hughes, Management Analyst Joey Dienberg, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Planning and Development Services Director Roberta Grill, Public Works Director Dan Dinges, Public Works Engineer Bob Allen, Building Director Brian Goralski, Head Golf Professional Phil Lenz, Police Chief Patrick Ullrich, Deputy Chief Geoff Pretkelis, Deputy Chief Jim Durbin, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.
3. Invocation – Jesus Journey Church Pastor Rob Ritacco gave the invocation.
4. Pledge of Allegiance
5. Consent Agenda
President Wallace stated that all items marked with an asterisk on the Agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. He further stated that there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Board member so requests, in which event, that item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered at the appropriate point on the Agenda. He asked if there were any items a Board member wished to remove from the Consent Agenda, or any items a Board member wished to add to the Consent Agenda.
Trustee Deyne stated that he would like to add Ordinance 2019-98, an Ordinance Abating a Portion of Taxes Heretofore Levied for the Year 2019 to Pay Debt Service on: General Obligation Refunding Bonds Series 2017 of the Village of Bartlett, DuPage, Cook and Kane Counties, Illinois as well as Ordinance 2019-99, an Ordinance Abating Certain 2019 Tax Levies of the Village of Bartlett for Special Service Area Number One (Bluff City).
Trustee Hopkins stated that he would like to remove Resolution 2019-101-R, a Resolution Adopting the 2020-2024 Capital Improvements Program from the Consent Agenda.
Trustee Camerer stated that he would like to add Resolution 2019-100-R, a Resolution Approving the Engineering Services Agreement Between the Village of Bartlett and Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd.
President Wallace then recited each item that was on the Consent Agenda, including the nature of the matters being considered and other information to inform the public of matters being voted upon. He then stated that he would entertain a motion to approve the Amended Consent Agenda, and the items designated to be approved by consent therein.
Trustee Deyne moved to amend the Consent Agenda and that motion was seconded by Trustee Hopkins.
Roll Call Vote to Amend the Consent Agenda and Consent Items Therein
Ayes: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins, Reinke
Nays: None
Absent: Trustee Gabrenya
Motion Carried
Trustee Deyne moved to approve the Amended Consent Agenda and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
Roll Call Vote to Approve the Amended Consent Agenda and Consent Items Therein
Ayes: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins, Reinke
Nays: None
Absent: Trustee Gabrenya
Motion Carried
6. Minutes
Trustee Camerer moved to approve the Board and Committee minutes from November 19, 2019 and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
Roll Call Vote to Approve the Board/Committee Minutes from November 19, 2019
Ayes: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins
Nays: None
Absent: Trustee Gabrenya
Abstain: Trustees Reinke
Motion Carried
7. Bill List – Covered and approved under the Consent Agenda
8. Treasurer’s Report - None
9. President’s Report - None
10. Question/Answer: President and Trustees
Trustee Deyne recognized staff anniversaries and birthdays. He thanked the Village for the wonderful lighting in the downtown. He asked who decorated the tree by the Town Square.
Public Works Director Dan Dinges stated that it was contracted out along with the Depot Museum and train station.
Trustee Deyne stated that this Friday is the tree lighting, there is a craft fair with the Park District and Arts in Bartlett. He wondered if there was a way to coordinate events within the downtown in order to avoid overlap.
Village Administrator Paula Schumacher stated that residents should watch the website and perhaps talk about it at the joint taxing district meeting.
Mayor Wallace stated that the Bartlett Lions are sponsoring Santa in the log cabin at 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
11. Town Hall
Michael Werden, 431 S. Main Street
Mr. Werden stated that he wanted to comment on the 120 W. Bartlett Avenue project. He stated that they had hearings at the Zoning Board and the Plan Commission and that the petitioners did a good job of allaying some of the fears that people had. He was concerned with allowing some of the music and entertainment going on until 11:00 p.m., especially since there are residential people living above the businesses and it could be a little bit disruptive six days a week. Perhaps an earlier cut off time could be addressed. He was concerned over the demeanor of the Plan Commission. All but two of the members were pretty arrogant and rude to the people testifying. In the past there was a member on the Zoning Board and the Village President did not renew him because of continual down talking to people who would testify. He hoped to see something addressed with the Plan Commission.
Gina Davalos, 439 S. Main Street
Ms. Davalos stated that she was also there to talk about the 120 W. Bartlett project. She stated that she loves the downtown and likes the family atmosphere that it has. There have been a lot of businesses that have come and gone and it has always maintained a focus on the family. Keeping something open 6-7 days per week, late at night, goes against the principles that we have here in Bartlett. She recommended some flexibility with that but not so extensive.
12. Standing Committee Reports
A. Building and Zoning Committee, Chairman Hopkins
Trustee Hopkins stated that the 2020 Annual Meeting Schedule was covered and approved under the Consent Agenda.
B. Community and Economic Development Committee, Chairman Gabrenya
President Wallace in the absence of Trustee Gabrenya stated that there was no report.
C. Finance and Golf Committee, Chairman Deyne
Trustee Deyne presented Ordinance 2019-97, an Ordinance for the Levy and Assessment of Taxes for the General Corporate and Other Purposes of the Village of Bartlett, Cook, DuPage and Kane Counties, Illinois, for the Fiscal Year Beginning May 1, 2019 and ending April 30, 2020.
Trustee Deyne moved to approve Ordinance 2019-97, an Ordinance for the Levy and Assessment of Taxes for the General Corporate and Other Purposes of the Village of Bartlett, Cook, DuPage and Kane Counties, Illinois, for the Fiscal Year Beginning May 1, 2019 and ending April 30, 2020 and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
Roll Call Vote to Approve Ordinance 2019-97, Levy and Assessment of Taxes
Ayes: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins, Reinke
Nays: None
Absent: Trustee Gabrenya
Motion Carried
Trustee Deyne stated that Ordinance 2019-98, an Ordinance Abating a Portion of Taxes Heretofore Levied for the Year 2019 to Pay Debt Service on: General Obligation Refunding Bonds Series 2017 of the Village of Bartlett, DuPage, Cook and Kane Counties, Illinois as well as Ordinance 2019-99, an Ordinance Abating Certain 2019 Tax Levies of the Village of Bartlett for Special Service Area Number One (Bluff City) were covered and approved under the Consent Agenda.
Trustee Deyne stated that Resolution 2019-101-R, a Resolution Adopting the 2020-2024 Capital Improvements Program was taken off of Consent.
Trustee Deyne moved to approve Resolution 2019-101-R, a Resolution Adopting the 2020-2024 Capital Improvements Program and that motion was seconded by Trustee Camerer.
Trustee Hopkins stated that he has been a critic of this sewer pipeline from the Devon Excess Flow Plant to Bittersweet. He doesn’t understand why we haven’t taken other avenues. Why would we want to treat excess flow when we don’t have to. He did not understand why this administration doesn’t want to fix the sewer system. He doesn’t understand why this administration has not brought forward in the five years that he has been there, any kind of solution to fix the sewer system. They have talked about INI, lining sewers, but not once about correcting the issues. We line sewers and according to Dan Dinges, it has not helped our INI. Over the course of five years we have known about extreme excess flow, above the normal standard and have not corrected the issue. He wanted to know why. Why hasn’t the board taken that direction through a capital program to fix the sewers? The sewer system is a key municipal service that the village is supposed to provide. We do not have one capital program to address the sewer system.
Village Administrator Paula Schumacher asked if he means replacing the sewer system? Replace the connections between homes and the mains?
Trustee Hopkins referred to a plan called the Basin M-5 Sanitary Sewer System Evaluation Survey. It was done in 2017 and the Village received it on January 19, 2018. He asked the village administrator if she had read this?
Ms. Schumacher stated that this was done when they were looking for solutions to Devon Avenue and that is when they were talking to MWRD about a solution. They came up with a solution and that was to take it and treat it. The elected board changed and they no longer wanted to do that. Staff came back with the plan that this board reviewed in July and approved to move forward on. INI does not solve the whole problem, it takes a portion of that problem away, not the whole problem. Lining the sewers takes a portion of that problem away but not the whole problem. Those two solutions and the programs they are working on along with the 50/50 program will be coming to the board for review in the next couple of months that addresses the connection between the homeowner and our system. The Board will be given an opportunity to address that concern.
Trustee Hopkins asked if she read the report?
Mr. Dinges stated that it is the INI report that EEI did for them for the area north of the tracks and east of Oak.
Trustee Hopkins asked if he has read the report.
Mr. Dinges stated that he did. I have been working off of this report and that is why they have done the smoke testing, manhole lining, separated the school stormwater sanitary sewer and have been working on the entire list ever since.
Trustee Hopkins asked him if he agrees with the survey.
Mr. Dinges stated that he agrees that the system needs to be improved.
Trustee Hopkins asked if they have completed all of the things that are outlined?
Mr. Dinges stated “no”.
Trustee Hopkins stated that they have put a price on this at $208,000. He stated that they have had this report for two years. He stated that the capital budget has $1.5 million dollars for a sprinkler system at a golf course. That’s insulting. A golf course is not a key municipal service.
Ms. Schumacher stated that she thought that a sprinkler system was life and safety at the golf course.
Trustee Hopkins stated that he was not talking about a sprinkler system at the banquet facility. He was talking about the irrigation system for the greens.
Ms. Schumacher apologized for the mix up.
Trustee Hopkins stated they want to invest $1.5 million dollars in one given year when you haven’t even spent $1.5 million dollars and the collection system in a combined two years. He really has a problem with that.
Trustee Deyne stated that he should not correlate the golf course with what they are speaking about this evening.
Trustee Hopkins asked where the funds are coming from for the irrigation system. Is the golf course going to pay for it or is it coming out of the general budget?
Finance Director Todd Dowden stated that the funds for the golf course have not been determined at this time. It is planned for in a few years from now. They presented it because it is one of the issues they are working towards. Normally golf course improvements like that will come out of the developer deposits fund but not out of the general deposits fund.
Trustee Hopkins stated that they are going to take money away from the taxpayers to pay for something. He asked why the enterprise fund at the golf course is not used?
Mr. Dowden stated that the golf course does not have that kind of money available in the fund.
Trustee Hopkins asked if he thought that fund should stand on its own.
Mr. Dowden stated that the golf course right now is supporting its operations. Capital projects for the golf course, clubhouse, maintenance facility, have been supported by other funds other than the operating revenues of the golf course.
Trustee Hopkins asked if they have been taking money from the taxpayers to prop up a golf course when our sewer system is crumbling.
Mr. Dowden stated that there is more than one function that the village has and one of them is providing a golf course facility to the residents.
Trustee Hopkins stated that we owe it to our residents to fix our sewer system and then evaluate building a pipeline that could potentially be useless. It potentially could not need to exist. The village administration wants to spend $8.5 million dollars on a pipeline that could be useless if we correct our sewer system.
President Wallace stated that it was a pretty high unlikelihood with the rain events we have.
Trustee Hopkins read the following: “the number of storm tie-ins identified in Basin M-5 his unusually high. If the defects found in Basin M-5 are consistent with the defects which would be identified in the rest of the MWRD tribunal area, the village is likely to find another large source of INI. The rehabilitation of defects contributing to INI inflow and infiltration may decrease the need for the village to build, pay for excess treatment, storage or treatment mechanisms for the MWRD area.”
Ms. Schumacher stated that INI does not solve the problem entirely.
Trustee Hopkins stated that this decreases the likelihood, according to the engineers that the village staff has hired. Building an $8.5 million dollar pipeline to Bittersweet, and you have not presented the cost to the Cook County residents to treat excess flow. It costs money to treat water. What is it going to cost in five, ten, fifteen years from now? It is an unknown variable. He asked Mr. Dinges if he agreed.
Mr. Dinges stated “yes”.
Trustee Hopkins asked if he knew what it would cost to fix the most severe problems in our sewer system. He stated that it is $208,000.
Mr. Dinges stated that those have been fixed. He stated that he shared the numbers the last time it was discussed. It is millions of dollars. If the board would like him to put together that plan again and we want to do the rate increase to do all that work, that’s where they will go with it. He has shared what these numbers are and it is not just about fixing our system, which they have done in that area. It gets down to all the services having to do all those improvements as well, which involves the homeowners or the village paying for all of them at significant dollar amounts. They have been working on that system and they have the $600,000 over the last 2-3 years that they have been spending money on and improving the collection system in the Cook County area where there are issues. That is where they have been focusing their attention and spending the money on. If the board wants to spend this extra money they can get it done.
Trustee Hopkins stated that what he has a problem with is that certain homeowners have defects in their pipes. Mr. Dinges gave him a list of five thousand homes. He immediately knew that was not accurate and then he came back with three thousand homes. He still thinks that is high and they are going off of every address and not every connection point since there are multiple family houses with one connection point. He wants to focus on this report, although it doesn’t identify every home. If we did an actual survey of the whole MWRD area that they are talking about, and put together a concrete proposal of what it will cost. If we are only talking about $208,000, it is not going to cost $23 million dollars as was mentioned before. We are talking about fixing the severest problems like this report states. The point of all this is that you want to build a pipeline for $8.5 million dollars and not give us any hard numbers of what it is going to cost to treat the sewerage in future years. If we correct this problem, it significantly changes the dynamic to put storage in and send the excess flow back to MWRD.
Ms. Schumacher stated that even if they did that they would still have to put in storage tanks.
Mr. Dinges stated that if they did what was in the report they would still have excess flow. It is 25 percent of the Cook County area. The report and the services that he is speaking about highlights the “smoking guns”. There are still a whole lot of clay services and it’s a matter of time. If you are going to do the system and seal it like he is talking about, it is sealing every single service. If it is clay and it isn’t leaking now, it will be. When he put the numbers together, it is converting every single clay service to a lined service or replaced PVC service. As far as the services that are the “smoking guns”, those are the ones his contractor will look at when he gets in here this spring. They will be sending letters to each resident telling them the dollar amount for lining their services.
President Wallace stated that 25 percent of what we are talking about fixing with the pipeline, he is talking about fixing and that will fix the overall problem.
Mr. Dinges stated “no” as far as the whole Devon Excess Flow, it will not.
President Wallace stated that you have to use the entire map, not the 25 percent of that report. He stated that we have talked about this till we are blue in the face.
Trustee Hopkins stated that he didn’t think so.
President Wallace stated that it is not possible that you fix these few houses for $208,000 and the entire problem is solved. It is not going to happen.
Trustee Hopkins stated that five years ago when he sent a letter to MWRD and the IEPA, we knew there were issues. We still have not done a survey for the rest of the collection system. It just doesn’t make sense to him why we wouldn’t do a survey for the whole area and come up with hard numbers and either fix it or have the board have a choice in the matter. This administration has not done that. This administration has not given us an option. It’s coming down to the last minute and we are in violation with the EPA.
President Wallace stated that he disagreed with that wholeheartedly. We went through all kinds of solutions. This is not a knee-jerk reaction. He trusts the public works director as well as his judgment.
Trustee Hopkins stated that it was back in 2018 when they decided to do a survey to find out what the defects were. You knew there was inflow and infiltration in excess over the normal limits. Why wouldn’t we do this from day one and put together concrete numbers.
You build a pipeline and don’t give us numbers to find out what it’s going to cost to treat this sewage.
Trustee Deyne asked if we had a motion on the floor and we have a second.
Trustee Hopkins stated that he wanted to hold this motion until the next meeting.
President Wallace stated that we are going to call a vote.
Trustee Hopkins stated that you cannot call the vote.
Attorney Mraz stated “yes you can”. If someone makes a motion to call a question…
Trustee Hopkins stated that he is holding this until the next meeting. He stated that he could do that under our rules.
Trustee Deyne stated to take the vote and talk about it later.
Trustee Hopkins stated that this is a terrible idea.
Roll Call Vote to Approve Resolution 2019-101-R, Adopting 2020-2024 Capital Improvements Program
Ayes: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Hopkins, Reinke
Nays: Trustee Hopkins
Absent: Trustee Gabrenya
Motion Carried
D. License and Ordinance Committee, Chairman Reinke
Trustee Reinke stated that the there was no report.
E. Police and Health Committee, Chairman Carbonaro
Trustee Carbonaro stated that the authorization to replace one police vehicle was covered and approved under the Consent Agenda.
F. Public Works Committee, Chairman Camerer
Trustee Camerer stated that Resolution 2019-100-R, a Resolution Approving the Engineering Services Agreement Between the Village of Bartlett and Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd.; Resolution 2019-102-R, a Resolution Approving the Intergovernmental Agreement Between the Village of Bartlett and the State of Illinois
Department of Transportation; Resolution 2019-103-R, a Resolution Approving the Contract Between the Village of Bartlett and the Flolo Corporation for the Arc Flash Assessment were covered and approved under the Consent Agenda.
13. New Business
President Wallace stated that there was someone from the park district board that wanted to make a statement.
Dale Kasuba, 806 Kent Circle
Ms. Kasuba stated that she was a Park District Commissioner and also the secretary for Bartlett Heritage Days. She stated that they do Bartlett Heritage Days in September and the parade and trick-or-treating prior to Halloween. She wanted to thank the police department and especially the community service officers that do such a fabulous job keeping everyone safe. They are out there, have a plan in place and implement the plan. She thanked the Trustees and Village for the event budget.
Trustee Hopkins stated that he would like to immediately, at the next Village Board meeting, have discussions about fixing our sewer system and actually putting money from the Capital Budget together to pay for our sewer’s to be repaired. He thinks it is crazy that we have not done this and crazy that this staff would prioritize $1.5 million dollars for an irrigation system at the golf course over our sewer system.
President Wallace stated that they will discuss that on Tuesday’s draft agenda planning day.
14. Question/Answer President and Trustees
Trustee Deyne stated that he thought it was unfair to compare this to the golf course. The golf course has special needs and is not the same comparison and is there for a purpose. He believed that we have beat this to death enough and he wishes to not have any further discussions regarding the sewer system. We have taken a vote and let’s move on.
15. Adjourn to Committee of the Whole Meeting
President Wallace stated that the Board will be going into the Committee of the Whole meeting immediately following the close of this meeting. At the close of that meeting they will be going into Executive Session to Discuss Sale of Village Owned Property Pursuant to Section 2(c)6 of the Open Meetings Act.
There being no further business to discuss, Trustee Deyne moved to adjourn the regular Board meeting and that motion was seconded by Trustee Carbonaro.
Roll Call Vote to Adjourn
Ayes: Trustees Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Reinke
Nays: Trustee Hopkins
Absent: None
Motion Carried
The meeting was adjourned at 7:36 p.m.
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