Good evening. Welcome to City Council Chambers. We're here for the City Council meeting tonight, April 7th, 2025. We'll begin with roll call, Ms. Benowitz. Council Member Hicks. Here. Dennis. Here. Miller. White. Present. Achera. Here. Carrington. Cheeseman. Here. Mayor Schwartzman. Here. Six are present, Your Honor. Thank you. Let's do the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the invocation. in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Good evening Heavenly Father. First of all we want to thank you for allowing us to assemble here on this Monday the 7th day of April 2025. As we come may you lead and guide us in all the activities that are presented this evening. May it bring honor and glory to you. We pray as this season ends that the next season, when it begins, will be greater than ever before. Please continue to bless Galesburg to prosper. Bless all of the citizens and all of the city departments, the sheriff department, and District 205. We pray our access in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen, amen, and amen. God bless. Thank you. The first item are the minutes from the March 17th, 2025 meeting. We need a motion. So moved. I heard Mr. White and Mr. Dennis. Any questions about the minutes? Seeing none, I call for a vote on the minutes. Please do a roll call. Thank you. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We also have minutes from the January 6th, 2025 executive session. We need a motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Cheeseman. Any questions about those minutes? Seeing none, I call for the vote on those minutes as well. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Echera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We've reached public comment. If you came here for public comment, please step forward. State your name. You have three minutes or up to three minutes to speak to the body. Thank you. Good evening to our mayor, to all those on the council, to those that are listening at home. My name is Reverend Andrew Jowers. And I started a segment last time on good governance. And I think it was kind of voiced around the room. Some others picked up on that. So thank God for his grace and his mercy for Galesburg. And so in that context of good governance, the key principles, the first one was participation. And so I'm glad I heard that some of the comments for the election results show that there was an increased participation. So I'm happy for that. So we have an upcoming Juneteenth coming up. And so we want to give an invitation up front for that meeting. Some plans will be finalized tomorrow. So we're thankful. And I say congratulations to those that have served the city of Galesburg. Mr. Dennis. and others. I'm thankful for the mayor for his service, Mr. Cheeseman, for all the city staff. I think you're doing a great job. And I'm looking forward to continuing this thing of good governance. And I want to do my part in primary school, middle school, high school, and throughout this community to reflect good governance. Preachers, pastors, and ministers oftentimes are kind of kicked around and rabble-rousers and this and that. But you know what? Those individuals, they preside over your weddings. If you lose a loved one, they preside at those services. And they bless your children. And we are the ones that are charged with compromising. We have to hear all sides and try to reflect that example of good governance in terms of a spiritual sense. So I thank you all. I'm looking forward to A great time for Juneteenth. I think it's going to be that Father's Day weekend. So you all are invited. It's just not an African-American holiday, but it's all of our holiday. It's our history. And I don't think we can get away from it. So you're invited. You'll hear more in the coming days. I'm the co-chair. Candy Webb is the chair. So we're working on it. Thank you. Thank you. Please step forward. State your name. Thank you. My name is Elaine Dean. I live on Dover Lane. On behalf of the families of the Castleberry and Dover residential community, I'd like to thank the city manager, Eric Hansen, Attorney Alcorn, Steve Golota, Steve Cheeseman, and other council members for hearing us and taking action on our behalf. Our families have taken a strong stance on this project for many reasons, including this land being originally zoned for residential expansion. The noise, smell, attraction of bugs and lice and potential disease of the sheep are some of our issues, as well as not yet hearing any Plans for maintenance, shelter, or care of the sheep. Inadequate drainage system for the livestock and the environmental effect of such system. And finally, the plan of using Dover Lane as the enter and exit point of this project. It enters and exits off of the South Lake Story Road. This would be extremely dangerous. When I moved into my home, the previous owner told me the farm ground would continue crops of beans and corn with possible future plans of that land growing into a new residential area with new homes being built. This would be a great calling card to encourage city growth as well as for the additional tax revenue added from that project. I was thrilled to be living in a country-like setting, yet being in city limits and having city services. When my house was built, a manhole was to be put in the southeast side of my street. It was overlooked and later plans were dropped. During a minimal rain, water collects here and expands at least 30 feet into the roadway and stagnant water remains there for days, if not weeks. This water is breeding ground for devastating insects such as growth of mosquitoes. We have three homes there on our street now. Adding heavy construction equipment would only further destroy our street. We have continuous potholes as it is. With all these issues that's been brought up in the previous meetings, I'm therefore humbly requesting that our Castleberry and Dover residential area not be considered for further study for the solar project and the sheep project. In the end, I'd like to say the utmost gratitude to our local officials for hearing our concern and taking action on our behalf and being the strength of the community that I know you all can and will be for us. New housing would bring in new growth and additional taxes. Please stop this project. Once again, thank you again for all your efforts that you city leaders are doing for us in trying to get this project through. Thank you. We try not to clap or refrain from clapping. I know there was some clapping here. I wasn't here last meeting. I apologize. But in past president, we just avoid clapping for speakers. It creates division and controversy within our community. So thank you for your words. Anyone else here to speak tonight? Please step forward. My name is David Selkirk. I'm in Ward 5. I'm chairman of the City Golf Commission. And as you know, Bunker Links opened on March 1st. So our greenskeeper, Matt Miles, and his crew, with all the wind, rain, and bad weather that we've had, he has done a tremendous job. It's really beautiful out there. You'd think it was the middle of the season. So thank you, Matt, and to his crew. And then Aaron Young and his guys, they were out Thursday and got our top on our patio and put the... Heaters out. They put up two new 65-inch TVs. We have what we call the Eagle Eye, and it looks down number 18 fairway. And now you can come in on a 15-minute delay and on these big, beautiful screens watch yourself. I mean, it's just absolutely unbelievable. They also put in a new ball washer for our really top-notch ball washer for our range balls. And he put in that same day, they put in a couple of new bricks for our brick walkway. which is still going on. If anybody's interested, come out. You can buy a brick, put your name or whatever. There's three rows. With that being said, last year we had over 32,000 rounds played. That means 32,000 people walked down that sidewalk over that brick layout. And then Brian, of course, with his crew, he's got some new ones that he's been training and they're all up to snuff. He's got a wonderful lot of shirts and hats and shoes and whatever, and you don't have to be a golfer to come out and purchase them if there's a birthday present or something. Also, he got all new tables because he's having 51 outings this year. 51 outings, which keeps the price down for the memberships. That doesn't interfere with the other play, but it also helps the bottom line for the total city. If you want to come out and see it or want a tour or something, get ahold of me and I'll be glad to do that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please step forward. Hello, Jeanette Chernin, Ward 5. First of all, I want to thank my older person, Heather. for helping me with my ongoing trash issues at the apartment building and for updating me on all of the dilapidated houses. Thank you very much, Heather. And I wanted to bring up something I brought up last year. Oh, someone left the phone up here. Was it you? No. I'll just leave it here. I just noticed that. Sorry, I'm very distractible. Last year, we went to the fishing. We always, we volunteer at the fishing Derby probably for the last 10 or 12 years. And they didn't have it, I think two years during COVID. And this year it's on Sunday, May 18th. So you have a little more than a month. About 500 children come between the ages of three and 15. They're more on the younger side. It is free. They come with their families. And I just wondered if any of you all knew if anything had been done to address the handicapped parking problem that they had last year. And I'll tell you, last year they had the people park at Lincoln Park up by where the bathrooms are at Lincoln Park. And that is impossible for people who are handicapped to park up there and go to a fishing derby at the pond because you have to walk up and down the grassy hill. If you have trouble walking at all, it's hard to walk up and down a grassy hill. But if you're like have a cane or a wheelchair, you can't. So I just wanted to know if there was arrangements made for people to park down lower this year. I don't know what else I wrote here. I wanted to point out that a lot of children in our community are being raised by grandparents. Sometimes people who just raised their own kids forget about that. And also the fact that there are some children in wheelchairs as well, and there's no reason they can't fish. Because you're in a wheelchair doesn't mean you can't fish. So I just wanted to make sure that there was going to be some handicapped parking right near the pond this year, because we want to make this event as inclusive as possible. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Okay. That's fast work. Anyone else here for public comment? Okay. Thank you all. And we'll continue with the meeting. We have consent agenda 2025-07. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. We actually have nine items on the consent agenda this evening. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Ms. Chair and Mr. Cheeseman. Anybody have any questions about any of those items? Seeing none, I call for a vote on the consent agenda 2025-07. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. A cherry, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We move to passages of ordinances and resolutions. We have two items to consider this evening. The first is 25-1002. This is an ordinance, addition of Class A liquor license. This is on first reading. I'll ask Mr. Hansen to speak to it. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval amending Chapter 113 of the Galesburg Municipal Code regarding the limitation of number of Class A1 liquor licenses. Fisk Beer and Wine LLC has submitted a business plan to the Liquor Commission requesting a Class A1 liquor license to open their business at 240 East Simmons Street. Fisk Beer and Wine will operate a full bar with a curated beer and wine list, offer a small food menu of shareable items and retail package Beer and wine, happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Mr. White. For the people in the audience, people that are watching, how many for Class A liquor license do we have totally right now? 25, Class A1. Okay. Now, is this addition or is this one that we already have that's not being used? It's an additional one. All right. Thank you. We try not to have any. in stock available, they have to come to council for approval. The previous business at this location, however, had a liquor license. So was that license rescinded or what happened to that license? When they closed, they surrendered that license. So presumably there was 25 at that time, plus or minus maybe some other things that have happened. Correct. Okay. Any other questions from the council? Any other? Mr. Cheeseman. I was just going to say that in this situation here, this isn't a packaged liquor. This is a restaurant that will add a number of different things that are positive to our community. So it's a little different than as I see it where you're coming in buying packaged liquor and so on and so forth. This is a restaurant or some type of, as it says here, bar, et cetera, that I think will add much more to our downtown area and will be a good addition. Mr. Chair? Can you tell me, Todd Simmons, what was there previously? I'm having a hard time. La Cantanita. La Cantanita, yes. Okay, thank you. And, Your Honor, if I may, they have asked us to suspend the rules, if that's possible, to approve this so they can start getting orders in with distributors. They don't plan to open until May, however. Yeah, that would take someone on the council's action. A motion to... move, suspend the rules and move forward with this. Okay, do we have a second? Mr. Dennis seconds. So we are now voting on that motion. Please vote yes to suspend the rules and no to not. Hicks yes, Dennis yes, White yes, Echera yes, Cheeseman yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Okay, so we have suspended the rules and we are now considering this for second reading. Okay. And do we need a motion for that? Yes. We need a motion to consider this in second reading. All right. Mr. Chair is the first. Do we have a second? Okay. I heard both of you, but I'll say Mr. Cheeseman. And any other further discussion by the council? Seeing none, we'll vote on this 25-1002. City Clerk, please do a roll call. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Echera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. Excellent. 25-1003. This is an ordinance sale of surplus city-owned real estate. This is on first reading. Mr. Hanson? Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval of an ordinance to sell 13 city-owned vacant lots through a bid process to reduce city maintenance costs and return the properties to the tax rule. Bidders can submit a bid with or without a development plan. The minimum bid is set at $100, and proceeds will fund future property redevelopment. There was actually a story on GLIL put out over the weekend, which has additional information, but also would be happy to answer any questions, or Mr. Gugliotta could do the same. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Any questions about this item? You'll come back to the next meeting. We move to bids, petitions, and communications. We have two items. 253010, Lake Story Trail Widening. We need a motion and a second. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Thank you, Mr. White. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval of the bid submitted by Gunther Construction, the amount of $73,201 for the widening and resurfacing a section of the Lake Story multi-use path. The overall project goal is to improve the entirety of the walking path on the north side of Lake Story. This bid will widen and resurface an additional 575 feet, beginning where the last portion ended in 2024. Two bids were received with Gunther Construction submitting the lowest and best bid. The work is anticipated to begin after June 1st with a 15-day completion time. There are sufficient funds in the budget for this project. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Hanson? Seeing none, I have a call for a vote on 253010. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Cherry, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. Next item, 253011. Cook Park improvements. We need a motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mr. White. Second. Thank you, Ms. Cheeseman. Mr. Hanson. The long-awaited action is here. Staff recommend approval of the bid in the amount of $650,159 from Lockwood Excavating and Construction for improvements to Cook Park, which will be 50% funded by the Oslaad Grant with the remaining half from the City Park Fund. The park improvements included in this bid include a playground, picnic shelter and restrooms, benches and picnic tables, sidewalk path, baseball backstop and a parking lot, a trailhead, concrete pad and shelter, an ornamental fence and gate will be included in the project's scope, but purchased and installed separately, utilizing city staff and volunteers. Six bids were received, with Lockwood Excavating Construction Incorporated providing a low and best bid. It is anticipated this project will begin in June of 2025 with a completion date on or around November of this year. In addition, to this bid, there's also additional work that is still being planned. Ultimately, this project will be in the $1 to $1.25 million when it's all said and done, including some other amenities. But this is kind of the first phase to get construction started and get the main facets of the park underway. Happy to answer any additional questions. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Mr. Cheeseman. Just a comment, Mayor. The amount of additions and improvements to our park system and all the things that have just taken place in the last number of years are tremendous. I mean, we have this good a park system with opportunities galore that you'd be hard-pressed to find almost anywhere. So, again, thank you for continuing to move forward with this. Thank you to our citizens that have partnered with this. This is all good and continues to make us the city that we want to be and the city we're proud of. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, I'll call for vote on 253011. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you for everyone who's involved in that. We've reached the city manager's report. Mr. Hanson, anything to add? Just a couple of quick things for those that are young. or I guess young at heart, if you want to go chase down some eggs, this weekend, 1 o'clock, lakeside, should be a good time. Always a great event. I think they have 10,000-plus eggs stuffed and ready to go. Some of them, I think, have some extra magic in them. So good luck to all that participate. um want to recognize uh and again there was a story this this last week but uh the the crew that continues to plant uh trees i think they got 18 of them in the ground on saturday there's another planning coming this week um they're they're quickly approaching 500 trees that they've planted around the community with many more to go and i just couldn't be happier about the work that they're doing a lot of stuff this summer targeting improvements in our in our downtown and in our parks uh... i think they planted multiple trees in lancaster over the weekend uh... they've got additional additional things coming so to tom and his crew and uh... i know some of you participated in and have participated city staff that participate in addition to our our park staff uh... just Want to give them a special shout out. That's a tremendous program and one we look forward to continue doing for years to come to beautify our city. Happy to answer any other questions if council has any. Thank you. Anything for the city manager? Mr. Cheeseman. Just one question with a lot of folks here from the Castleberry neighborhood, and you've updated before. Would you and Mr. Gugliotta just give us a little bit of a review or update where we're at right now with what's happening with that whole potential solar project? Sure, I can. Thank you. Happy to. I can. certainly start and and steve feel free to to a jump in uh... following last meeting uh... in which i discussed uh... some things with council relative to our options uh... mister google data sent a letter to the developer letting him know that their initial site plan was denied and they would have to start over uh... they didn't take that very well uh... as you might imagine uh... but i uh... as i explained to some residents have reached out to me the last uh... week or so uh... the ball is really in their court in terms of to resubmit a plan that we can evaluate. They understand that the agovotaics, which is a really big word, fancy word for sheep, is not well received and that the city will exercise whatever legal options that we have to... should that they decide to proceed, that they will be good and appropriate neighbors. Otherwise, they shouldn't expect support from the city or certainly from the city council. Obviously, the big issue that we discussed is the drainage easements. Those remain your discretion to waive or not waive should a proposal come forward. Obviously, the eastern drainage is a significant problem for their project, but Also important as this is a zoning matter and a development matter, you know, we have to be cautious of making sure that we don't move the goalpost inappropriately and that we articulate our position and they need to respond. So at this point, there really isn't an update because since the May, March 18th letter, I don't believe we received anything officially back from them, have we, Mr. Guglielmo? No. If and when that happens, obviously we'll share with the neighbors, but also we will evaluate and respond accordingly. But I'll restate again what I shared with the council at the last meeting. The permanent drainage easements are just that, permanent drainage easements. And the only body that can waive them is the folks sitting up here around the dais. So that's a hurdle that they're going to have to address. Okay, thank you. Anyone else have anything for the city manager? I just want to say I wish you safe travels. You and Mr. Gavin are apparently going out of town to represent the city in the next few days. So just wishing you well. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. We'll do our best. Moving on. We have five items under miscellaneous business. First is 254025. Cook Park Construction Administration. We need a motion and a second. Thank you, Mr. White. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval of the construction administration agreement with Farnsworth Group for the Cook Park development. The scope of services for this proposal includes attending construction meetings with the city and the contractor, site visits, providing responses to the request for information from the contractor, shop drawing reviews, review and approval of the payment applications, and assistance with project closeout and final inspections. This agreement cost is not to exceed $28,500, which is half funded by the Oslob grant agreement. This is a pretty typical arrangement, especially on these grant agreements, because there's a lot of grant-related paperwork that has to be filed in order for us to get our funds. And we have a long history of working with Farnsworth Group. They have been our administrator on a number of park projects that have totaled well over, well, I think we're approaching 3 million just in the last few years. So happy to answer any questions, but is recommending approval. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Any questions from the council? Seeing none, I ask for a vote on 254025. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. A cherry, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. 254026 is our next item. ICC stipulated agreement for BNSF Peoria subdivision crossing protection upgrades. We need a motion and a second. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Second. Thank you, Ms. Cheeseman. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. These next two items kind of go hand in hand. Staff is recommending approval of an Illinois Commerce Commission stipulated agreement with BNSF Railway to enhance safety at five highway rail grade crossings on the BNSF Peoria subdivision. Upgrades to the crossing protection include gate arms are warranted at these locations. The agreement provides that BNSF is responsible for the cost and work to install gate arms and constant warning. time circuitry at the following crossings on BNSF's Peoria subdivision on Day Street, Pine Street, Lombard Street, Locust Street, and Farnham Street. The city is responsible for modifying roadway approaches, sidewalks, and curbing estimated at $36,109, but will be fully reimbursed for the work through grade crossing protection funds. All of those crossings, for those of you that aren't familiar, are down on the southeast portion of the city. primarily what is ward three and if you traverse through that area you will know that these crossings are atrocious and this is something that staff has been working on for a number of years and not only to get the crossings improved and safety improved but it's also the initial phase of what would be required if we wanted to pursue pursue a quiet zone through that area long term so Alderman Councilmember Miller asked me to express I've reviewed this with him since this is all in his territory. He's highly supportive. These crossings need to be addressed, and this is a project that's, like I said, several years in the making. So happy to answer any questions. Obviously, Mr. Gavin can as well. Thank you. Anyone have questions about this item? Mr. Chair? Aye. I'm sorry. Just a comment of support. As someone who was integral to raising the issue of needing a quiet zone to the city many, many years ago, it was at least a decade ago, this neighborhood has been waiting a very long time. So I really hope that we can move this along. So I support that. Thank you. Mr. White. I was just concerned about the 1st Street and Pearl Street area. Are they planning on closing the 1st Street Just, what is it, West of Pearl, but they were going to leave Pearl open? Yeah, the next item on the agenda, there is one crossing intersection where essentially the roads come together and there's two immediate adjacent crossings that are in close proximity as part of this deal. We did traffic counts and the one crossing I think on first has to be closed in order to upgrade the one on the north-south road. Obviously we get compensated for that for the adjustments that have to be made to the road, but traffic counts are low. They're not zero, so inevitably there will be some impact, but it should be minimal. But it is required to allow this project to go forward. I know the area pretty well, so I'll just... asking about that. I have some friends that live there. Okay. I'm going to ask for a vote on 254026. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. 254027, ICC stipulated agreement for Pearl Street crossing protection upgrades and closure of the East First Street crossing. We need a motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mrs. Chair. Second. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Mr. Hanson, anything to add? Sure, absolutely. Yes, staff is recommending approval of the agreement to enhance safety on the Peoria subdivision by installing the gate arms and the CWT circuitry on South Pearl Street and closing the East First Street crossing, which has a low traffic volume of approximately 50 vehicles per day. And safety concerns due to the skewed roadway, the agreement provides that BNSF is responsible for the cost of the work. the city's response for all costs associated with removal of their roadway approach on East First Street, installing closure signage and public sidewalk extension and new curbing along the Pearl Street intersection. Upon completion of the work to close the East First Street crossing, the city will receive $150,000 in GCPF assistance and $10,000 each from BNSF and IDOT as closure incentive to... fix the now closed street and address the various issues. The cost of the city for the closure is estimated at about $90,000, resulting in an estimated net credit to the city of about $80,000, which can be used there or other project-related matters. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I ask for a vote on 254027. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you, Ms. Benowitz. Next is 254028, budget adjustments. We need a motion and a second. So moved. Second. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman and Mrs. Achera. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. This is the, we're closing out soon. The 2024 budget staff is recommending approval of the December 31st, 2024 budget adjustment two as presented. The city uses the municipal budget system for budget purposes. The system allows city council to approve budget adjustments through the fiscal year to ensure expenditures are posted according to the generally accepted accounting principles or gap, the budget adjustments or accounting reclassifications, and the revenue have or will be received in expenditures expensed. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Anything? Any discussion of this? Seeing none, I call for a vote. 25-40-28. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. Last item under miscellaneous business, 254029, Enterprise Lease and Consignment Agreement. Motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And a second. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval of a five-year lease agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management for 20 new vehicles and an annual cost of $145,260, aiming to replace aging fleet and reducing overall maintenance costs. The initiative shifts from a pay-as-you-go vehicle replacement system to a lease-to-own model, which will continue to be funded out of the Vehicle Replacement Fund, but will decrease the average fleet age and increase the remaining equity in the fleet when sold. A consignment agreement is also provided for approval, which establishes the selling mechanism for older vehicles replaced by the new lease vehicles, as well as potentially selling the lease vehicles after the term with any profits returning to the city. The strategy expected to help us right-size the fleet, lower average fleet age, and maximize our equity in our everyday vehicles. Happy to answer any additional questions. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Anybody have questions on this item? Okay, I'll call for vote. 25, 40, 29. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. I need to ask for a motion to sit as the town board. So moved. Thank you, Mr. White. Second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All those in favor, say aye. Anyone opposed? We are sitting as a town board. One item under town business this evening, 259008, the bills. Need a motion. So moved. Thank you, Mr. White. And second. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. We got a first and a second on the bills. Anybody have any questions about the bills this month? Seeing none, I call for a vote. 259008. Hicks, yes. Dennis, yes. White, yes. Achera, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five vote yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We need a motion to sit again as a city council. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. White. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? We are now sitting as a city council. We have reached closing comments. Who wants to lead off this evening? Baseball started recently. And who wants to be the leadoff hitter? Okay. All right, Ms. Cherry, you're up. I'll keep it short. Just want to say happy birthday to my mom, Rita Ziegler. Going to keep it short because she's got an awesome homemade spice cake at my house with ice cream that she's going to have tonight. So happy birthday, Mom. Very well. Ms. Cheeseman. I want to bring attention to a little group of handout papers that we got. Jennifer Graves, would you raise your hand back there? She's principal at Bright Futures. She's dropped off some stuff about the week of the young child, and they have a big event April 11th out to the high school. Again, so many things are done to help our young kids get off to the right start. Our school district does a fine, fine job with that. So there's that. Nonprofits, I've said this before. When I say nonprofits, I mean those folks from a variety of organizations and also within our government that do things to help out those that need help in whatever ways. I can't say enough good things about all of those. There are people all over the city with expertise and experience and just a loving heart to help with that. They should be saluted. Yesterday, I was in at Hope House and they're working all the time, whether it's delivering meals, providing clothing, doing holiday meals. These folks are salt of the earth, all of these different groups that do things for our community and they should be commended. Finally, congratulations to those who were elected, reelected, those that are gonna leave us and those that ran. All of those kinds of things certainly need are are are compliments and i look forward to working with uh... as a new council's established here today continue doing good things again as i've said many times this is a great city with great people we've got a lot more to do there's a lot been done now and uh... we want to keep moving forward to to make this the very best community that the gales for can be uh... and and then and i know that jeanette talked about up here a little bit about cleaning things up we're doing things to try to clean properties up And we can all make sure that we're taking care of whatever way we can, making sure our own property is the very best it can be. So a good time to take a look at that or think about that if that's something that you can get at. And enough for me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Mr. Higgs. I'll keep it short as well. Just wanted to piggyback on Chairman Selkirk's comments. The golf course, as you said, is in excellent shape and to update you on the conversation we had out there the other day. The day I got three birdies on the first round, I got another one. Dave and I had a challenge of figuring out who could get the first birdies on one through 18. So I've got... Four out of the 18 so far. We'll have to see. I bet you'll beat me, though, because you're a much better player. But, yeah, you're right. Brian and Matt and the crew have done an excellent job getting it ready for the season. And I'm looking forward to warmer weather and pleasant rounds with my family and friends. Thank you, Mr. Higgs. Mr. Dennis? Well, after 16 years. Turn your mic on. It turned off. So, Mr. White's already giving me a going away present, walking in the building tonight. Anyway, one more meeting and it was a pleasure for 16 years working for the city, working for the people at the city and to the council and to all the constituents out there. I really appreciate giving me 16 years. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Dennis. Mr. White. I just want to say I love you, brother. I love you, Wayne. He's my man. Always, I want to make sure that I love seeing all these people here today. That means that they are interested in what's happening in the city. That's very, very, very important. Everybody, in the sound of my voice, go to the city's website, go to the very bottom of the page, and click on Get Notified. Follow the prompts. Get notified. Grants. All kinds of information is in there. Our agendas. Everything you need to know about your city. Bottom of the city's page, click on get notified. Get notified. Get that information so you know what's going on in the city. So you'll be up to speed. Please try that. I'm going to miss Wayne. I'm definitely going to miss you, buddy. We'll find other things to do, especially my daughter's birthday parties. Thank you, Mr. White. I want to open my comments. Mr. Hanson, I failed to ask you about the new buses. We have some new buses that have arrived, and I just wanted the public to know that because they may see new vehicles riding around town. And rather than calling them in and reporting them, I'd hope they'd celebrate. Yeah, no, obviously excited. I'll give all the credit to Mr. Gugliana and Mr. Boynton at the transit team. What did it take us, three years to get buses, Steve? Yes. Three years. So their perseverance paid off. Seven buses, $120,000 apiece, and they're all free to the city. They were all grant funded by either state or federal money. Thank you. We will get them logoed up and get the safety cameras on them and get them out on the road here within the next, I think, couple weeks. You'll start seeing them out. But to my colleague, Mr. Guglielmo, like I said, his team, they deserve all the credit. They stuck with it and pestered IDOT until they finally gave us buses. So appreciate it, Steve. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for that update, yes. Wanna wish Ms. Chair's mom a happy birthday. My daughter will turn 22, my oldest daughter in the next few days. So that's a big, and she grew up in Galesburg from birth. So I'm very excited about that. Two other things I wanna mention. I don't usually mention this, but an organization I'm very much a part of is KPCK, Knox Prairie Community Kitchen. And I wanna welcome all of you to dinner this Thursday. We hold dinner twice a month at the Ascent. and uh... it starts at five p m it's a lovely dinner people come from all walks of life uh... we sit community and have just excellent full course dinner that's served by volunteers so you all are anyone watching or whatever are very much welcome to that and lastly uh... you know we have a lot of really amazing young people in our community and i had the uh... occasion this past week to attend an event that uh... a gentleman i'll mention his name in a second he organized uh... April, as you may know, is Autism Awareness Month, and this gentleman has done a lot of amazing things over the last several years to raise awareness about autism and many other things that he and some of his friends struggle with in our community. And it was held at Stonehays, and many different entities that provide services across Western Illinois were in attendance. It was a very well-organized event. Representative Swanson was there, and Senator Hoffman's representative was there as well. And so it was just a really good event. And honors go to Nick McMayhill. And he is a young person who is worthy of our commendation. And just thank him for his continued success in our community. And on that high note, I call for a... Adjournment of the meeting. Do we have a motion? We have one. We have a second. All right. You guys don't want to stay here all night. So that's good. We are adjourned.