MINUTES
PALESTINE VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
May 7, 2020

Palestine Board of Trustees met on May 7, 2020. Trustees answering the roll call were J.R. Dunlap, Twilla Davis, Brian Nethery, Tim McDaniel, Mary Michael and Gene Purcell.

Staff Members present: Chief Besing, Jacob McGinness, Patrolman, Shirley Adams, Village Clerk, Patricia Schofield, Mayor’s Consultant, Stacey Myers, Utility Clerk, Kathy Clark, DPW Superintendent and David Miller, DPW.

Visitors present:  Tom Osborne (Robinson Daily News).

Meeting called to order by Mayor Byrley.

The meeting began with all present reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Minutes were taken by the Village Clerk.

The Minutes of April 2, 2020, were accepted as presented. 

OLD BUSINESS:
1) LED Sign Update – J.R. Dunlap.   The 4 box signs have arrived in the U.S., however, we are now waiting for customs to release them.

2)  Discuss and formally approve the FY 2020-2021 Budgets – General Fund and Sewer Fund.

3)  Bridge repair/replacement update.  We are in limbo at this time.  We will discuss this more at our June Board Meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:  
1)  Discuss and approve the PDA request to have the Eighteenth Annual Wine and Art Festival – October 3 & 4, 2020 – See copy of letter attached.  Tim McDaniel moved that we approval the PDA request.  Mary Michael seconded motion. Motion carried unanimously.  Due to COVID-19, this may be rescinded if further mandates are made by the State at that time.

2)  Discussion and thoughts – Good Energy Renewal Information.  Our contract is up for renewal at the end of the year.  Bidding will be done remotely in June and then they will give us the proposed rates.   We will discuss this further at June Meeting.

3) Discussion of request from Tom Woodward, Jr.,/Kathy Gonzalez regarding raising free range chicken within the Village limits for the purpose of having their own eggs and poultry. There were conflicting opinions expressed, so it was decided that the Trustees would consider this more thoroughly and get some input from their constituents.  We will re-visit this at our June Board Meeting and vote at that time.

4)  Final Approval of Phone Poll (April 5th) re: ditch clean-out and fill.
Received a bid by Steve Mitchell of $1,000.00 to clean out the ditch at the lagoon, plus $500.00 per load of rip-rap which could be as much as $1500.00.  J.R. Dunlap made a motion that we accept this bid and Tim McDaniel seconded motion. Motion carried unanimously.  In addition, it was the consensus that if the cost would run over that we would go ahead and complete the project. 

DPW REPORT:  Kathy Clark.  Kathy requested approval to add a handicap space in front of the Palestine Insurance Agency on Main Street.  The consensus was to approve her request.

POLICE REPORT:  Chief of Police, Jeff Besing. The Police Dept. Statistics for the month of April was handed out.

The COVID-19 situation continues to keep activity quite low as there is less traffic flowing and kids are out of school, which decreases traffic immensely in the morning and afternoon.

Some departments are seeing an increase in domestic violence situations due to families being cooped up, parents not working, etc.  We have been fortunate in that we have had only one domestic related incident.

Officer McGinness is still doing on-line / virtual training for the academy. The last email received from the Commander of his academy is that they are going to try and get the recruits back to the academy for a straight 5 day period which will enable them to complete the hands-on portion of the training. If so, they expect a graduation date around the end of May.  Of course, the Governor and Illinois Law Enforcement Training Board has to approve this training plan.

With Officer McGinness being out of the academy since March, his time with Chief Besing has fulfilled the Field Training Officer portion of his training and he is doing quite well.  He should be out on his own within 1-2 weeks once he gets his certificate.

Chief Besing hopes to hear something this month in regards to the 2 grants that he has submitted for different equipment items which will not affect our budget.

PIONEER ROOM/COMMUNITY FACILITY – MAY – TIM McDANIEL

FYI:  SPRING CLEAN-UP – Republic will have our Spring Clean-up on May 13th. Only one day pass this year.
FYI:  FALL CLEAN-UP DAYS – OCTOBER 28TH (as of now).

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Budget Committee:  Shirley Adams, Chairman.  The IML has predicted that our State Revenue for this coming Fiscal Year may be as much as 15% less than anticipated.

Bldg Regulations, Permits, Maintenance: Harry Gene Purcell, Chairman. Gene said there was one fence permit issued.

Employee Relations Committee: Harry Gene Purcell, Chairman. 

FOIA Officers:  Shirley Adams, Chairman.  Complete.

Ordinance Committee: Pat Schofield.  

Streets, Sidewalks, Alleys Committee: Tim McDaniel, Chairman.  We have allocated some sidewalks to be repaired/replaced, just waiting on Dave Maxwell to be available.

Sewer/Lagoon Committee: Brian Nethery, Chairman.  

With no further business to discuss Tim McDaniel moved to adjourn. Mary Michael seconded motion. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 6:42 pm.

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  	   PRESIDENT					      CLERK