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CITYOF MONMOUTH
PLANNING SESSION
JULY 13, 2009
The City of Monmouth held a planning session at AmericInn, 1 America Way, Monmouth, Illinois at 6:00 p.m. on July 13, 2009. Mayor Davies opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. City Clerk Susan Trevor took roll call as follows: Aldermen Tim Heatherly, Dave Rutledge, Dave Bates, Bob Wells, Dan Heatherly, Jaime Godina and Alderwoman Vicki McNamara answered present. Alderman Dave Smith was absent. Mayor Rod Davies, City Administrator Eric Hanson, Fire Chief Jim Conard, EMC Public Works Director Andy Jackson, and members of the Press were also present. Mayor Davies then explained the purpose and goals for the planning session as follows:
• Establish the top 5 to 10 goals for the City to work towards by listening to the goals that the Council feels are top priorities.
• After setting the top goals, the Mayor and City Administrator also desired input as to how to achieve the established goals
Administrator Hanson said that although sometimes it appears that issues have been decided before they are brought up in Council meetings, that in reality these issues have come out of planning sessions. It is necessary, according to Administrator Hanson, to set frameworks as to where the City wants to allocate their finances to achieve the goals that have been prioritized. Administrator Hanson also stressed that it is important to consistently review the City's Comprehensive Plan to determine if the goals from the Plan are being addressed and included in the goals that are being set.
Mayor Davies also stated that Administrator Hanson talks with department heads on a regular basis as to their needs and goals, which helps keep awareness of the direction the City should be going in relation to each department. According to Mayor Davies, some goals may require building public consensus and establishing various time lines. At this point, Mayor Davies opened the discussion for comments from the floor.
The ensuing discussion established the following goals as priorities:
1) Infrastructure
• City doesn't have an infrastructure plan for water main or sewer replacement according to Administrator Hanson
• Replacement plan for infrastructure plan would take an annual allotment each year.
• It was noted that the City spends a great deal of time fixing water main breaks, but has not planned for replacement
• Suggestions included having some replacement work done in-house, but it was also noted that some projects were too complicated to do in-house
• If the City embarks on a capital replacement plan, then it is the staff's job to find the funds to pay for the projects in the plan; therefore, according to Administrator Hanson, the Council needs to determine its priorities for a capital plan
• Mayor Davies stated that the City can go to the EPA to conduct a study as to where Monmouth stands with their water rates. At some point, the City has to come up with funding and go to the public to find ways to pay for the capital projects.
2) Annexations/Future Growth
• Administrator Hanson stated that there are parameters to annexing property into the City limits such as offering incentives to annex into the City, which could be providing sewer.
• The City needs to take a long-range look at future annexations according to Administrator Hanson
• EMC Public Works Director Andy Jackson said that it can be a costly capital investment to get sewer and sometimes water to outlying properties that might annex into the City; therefore, the benefits to the City need to be balanced with the cost of annexing these properties.
3) Downtown Business Retention
• Administrator Hanson stated that the City needs to keep in mind that someone still owns vacant properties and the City can't go in and tell private owners what to do with their properties unless there are code violations.
• Downtown buildings are usually older buildings that are expensive to maintain.
• The City has a TIF District that probably was not used properly
• There are still professional offices downtown that are stable businesses.
• Utilization of upper floors will be expensive to develop due to code violations that are prevalent in the older buildings.
4) Sidewalk/Curb/Street Replacement
• Administrator Hanson said that it is possible to utilize some of the City's MFT money for the replacement of sidewalks and curbs. It would just reduce the number of streets that could be re-surfaced for that year if the City did use part of the MFT funds for sidewalk/curb replacement
• The City still does administer a 50/50 program for sidewalk replacement
• It was noted that parking on certain narrower streets such as South 6th Street have caused problems for two way traffic. The only solutions seem to be either restrict parking or widen the streets
• The Council can create frameworks for future Councils, but it will never happen if the City doesn't have a plan
• Administrator Hanson said that the City may need to explore what main thoroughfares look like, map them out, and bring back to Council to establish a plan. This might also help with infrastructure as well.
• While considering curb, street, and sidewalk replacement, replacement of fire hydrants was also discussed.
• There are approximately 720 fire hydrants within the City and it costs approximately $2,500 to replace a single hydrant.
5) Housing Deterioration
• Mayor Davies commented that the City has too many multi-family dwellings and unfortunately the City did not receive enough housing survey responses to qualify for a CDAP Housing Rehabilitation Grant
• A landlord and rental housing ordinance was studied a few years ago, but was not completed.
• Administrator Hanson emphasized that the housing issue looms as the City's biggest challenge in his opinion. He feels that it will affect future development. There are sections of town that are looking tired.
• It is going to take financial backing to rehabilitate our housing
• Enforcement of code violations is going to take more manpower, follow-up, and stricter consequences; therefore, the City is going to need to be realistic as to what it is going to take to enforce violations
• Mayor Davies stated that some communities have taken 4 or 5 properties together and worked with developers to get these properties developed. Perhaps the City of Monmouth might consider doing the same thing.
• Administrator Hanson said that he believes that the City is sending a clear message that we're serious about clean-up of properties and the process appears to be working with faster response to citations for code violations with the exception of chronic offenders.
• It was suggested that it might be better to require on-site managers for out-of-town landlords
• There is a local association of landlords and it might be possible for the City and the Landlord's Association to work together towards better standards.
• Administrator Hanson pointed out another problem for future housing is the lack of reasonably priced lots on which to build new houses.
6) Ambulance Service
• There was discussion as to where the City stands if GHAS withdraws their service from Monmouth.
• Mayor Davies said that as of a year ago, GHAS stated that they want to keep their service here. If the City were to attempt to provide ambulance service, it would require a lot of study. The administrative level is complicated to get reimbursed from Medicaid.
• Administrator Hanson stated that he doesn't believe this is a major issue and that GHAS will keep providing the City's ambulance service. He also said that Monmouth is fortunate to still have a hospital and it is a tremendous asset to the City.
7) Upgrades to Airport
• Administrator Hanson said that the City did not receive the stimulus money that they requested for the airport; however, repairs are going to begin on the airport runways, ramps to the hangars, and drainage issues. The total cost is around $400,000 with the City's portion of the repairs to cost around $10,000.
8) BNSF Loud Train Horns
• Mayor Davies said that the City did look into asking for Monmouth to be declared a "Quiet Zone", but that it would require a a substantial investment from the City as each crossing has to have new gates installed that make it impossible for anyone to get around the gates when the gates are down. Just to conduct a feasibility study costs thousands of dollars. There is not an easy solution.
• Administrator Hanson said that he is talking with IDOT about the removal of the tracks on North Main Street and also the significant increase of traffic in the area of the Bypass and North Main Street intersection
9) Other Concerns
• Street Gangs – It was noted that there is a tremendous increase in graffiti by "wanna-be" gangs. There are also indications that there is an increase by out-of-town gang members coming here and causing trouble. There needs to be more awareness and addressing of this problem before it gets out of hand.
• Amount of Information – Administrator Hanson said that he is trying to monitor as to how much information that the Council would like to have as he doesn't want to overload Council with information that they really feel that they don't need. He has developed an evaluation form for the departments and staff in order to help establish goals. In addition he could have the department heads provide reports on a rotating basis during Council meetings. The EMC monthly report could also be put in PDF form and included in the Council's web packet.
• Lighting of Flagpole in Monmouth Cemetery – Alderman Rutledge asked if it would be possible for the City of Monmouth to pick up the cost of lighting the flagpole at the cemetery as the American Legion has been carrying the cost along with the VFW.
• Funding of Police and Fire Pensions -- Administrator Hanson said that the situation with the funding of the Police and Fire Pensions is going to get worse. The City should have a good indication of where we are going to have to go in the Fall.
• General Fund – Mayor Davies said that the City has been taking in less and eroding the General Fund. He can see in the next two or three years no new money coming into the General Fund. It used to be over $1.2 million and now it is around $602,000. Monmouth's tax rate for the City's portion has gone down the last four years, but this will not be able to continue. The City has to look at financing, funding and revenue shares.
The planning session adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
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