Welcome, everyone. It is June 16th, 2025. We are at City Council Chambers. We're going to begin our City Council meeting, and I ask the clerk to call the roll, please. Council Member Hicks? Here. Hunnigan? Here. Miller? Here. White? Here. Achera? Here. Saul? Here. Cheeseman? Here. Mayor Schwartzman? Here. Seven are present, Your Honor. Thank you. We're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. I ask Mr. Saul to lead us off, and then we'll have an invocation afterward. Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Oh, every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Lord, you surely influence the words of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. when he said, we cannot always build a future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. For here we are today, Lord, we who were youth conceived in his era, now gathered, elected, or simply personally committed to understand, encourage, and serve our community. Certainly, Lord, you also influenced the words of our Illinois governor, J.B. Pritzker during his recent speech for Knox College's commencement, calling on the graduates to, first and foremost, show up. Lord, continue to influence us to show up, to work together, to be open and empathetic as we pass through today's current social and political turmoils. We praise you, Lord. We thank you for our many blessings. Amen. We have two minutes to approve the first of the minutes from the June 2nd, 2025 meeting. I need a motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Saul. Second. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Any questions on those minutes? Seeing none, I call for vote on the minutes from June 2nd, 2025. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Thank you. The next are the minutes from the May 5th, 2025 executive session. I need a motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mr. White. Second. Thank you, Mr. Saul. Any questions about those minutes? Seeing none, I call for vote on the May 5th, 2025 executive session minutes. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We've come to the public comment portion of the meeting. If anyone's here for public comment, please step forward. You have three minutes to address the dais. Thank you. Please state your name. Amanda Larson. Good evening. I just came tonight to speak up for the ones suffering in our city. When I learned there was over 300 people homeless in just Knox County, it weighed heavy on my heart. I started going out and getting to know them and spend time with them because no one should have to go through homelessness alone. By doing this, you learn how they got there. Many assume that homeless are drug addicts that don't want to work or are lazy, but this is simply not true. Many that are drug addicts are that way due to things that have happened to them from abuse to abandonment. And they need support and guidance, not judgment. Others that don't have a home either can't get a job or don't have family support. I realize housing over 300 people sounds like an unreachable goal due to the cost. But if we all come together as a community and reach deep into our hearts and show the love to each other that God asks us to give to our fellow brothers and sisters, then he will see the good that we have done for his children and he will bless our city with abundance. So I ask all of you go out there and show that love. Take a meal to someone or a blanket or a book and talk to them. Pray with them or just sit and share a meal. And for those that have power and authority, speak up for them. I know that our mayor and city manager have already stepped up, and I ask for the rest of you to follow suit. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else here this evening? Please step forward. Say your name, please. Mindy Knapp, once again, speaking for the homeless in our community. I want to thank Eric Hansen, city manager. and the mayor, Peter, for seeing me and Charlie Little, who is in here tonight, for helping us to see our vision on a gateway that I believe will help the city a lot, going to a trip, fundraising us to hopefully make us to Washington, D.C. at the end of the month, to unbelievable possibilities that could help, that we could bring back to this community that we love, and that we have worked so hard The last 11 months, Charlie and I. Now, with Hope House tonight, I was over there helping with a meal, and the mayor, on behalf of them, on behalf of us, here's a meal for you tonight. You know you're a busy guy. Chili dogs tonight. Chips, ketchup-flavored chips and some kind of soda bubbly water is what they gave out tonight. Mom? with our friends in the churches, and with the lovely words that we've had every time we had this meeting. I'm going out on a limb here. I know with Hope House and all the good work that they do in the community, that they are giving, be giving a reward pretty soon from the Taste of Galesburg. Right? Well, tonight... in line getting the food and I take 10 and another lady takes 10 and we take good 30 of them to the library to feed. Now, I'm going to say it because there should be said, right? We all should be truthful of what we say. If we're gonna say we're gonna do something, we should do it. They sat there, Champ, Rick in the group in there and Bad Mouth, our group. Now, I could have said nothing and gone my way. Like a lot of us in your situations, you hear people bad-mouthing you, bad-mouthing you, bad-mouthing you. This is what's going on, City of Galesburg. All our groups are bad-mouthing each other. Now, this should have to stop. This is serious. We got a serious stuff happening to our government. Serious things happen to our community. And if we do not stand together, Gelsberg, as a community and support each other's group, we're not going to make it through this. Now there's no reason for Diana and Champ to be doing this. I can see their side of maybe scared because of what we're gonna do and what we're gonna offer, but it doesn't matter. Charlie and I and our group, we want to unite all of us, all the churches, all the organizations. We want them all to come together, which is going to take some work to help the people in this community. Okay, bad-mouthing everybody. If everyone wants to bad-mouth everybody, That's not gonna get us nowhere. We need to grow up and take it. Thank you. Anyone else here for public comment? Mr. Mayor? Yes. If I could say something. I think that, and this is public comment and folks can do whatever they want, but I would really, really like to see us talk about things that are like those things, but keep other people's opinions accusations out. They're not here to be able to speak for themselves, if that makes any sense. I just, I want people to be able to speak up, but also to speak out about the things that they're speaking about and try to keep other people that don't have the opportunity to be here to speak for themselves on things. I think that that would be something that I would sure like to see done. And I don't know if I'm out of line here. but I think that's the proper thing to do in that. And I respect those views greatly, but I think that that's something as we do these things, if we're going to move forward in a good way, then we need to keep them as positive as we can. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else for further comment? Please step forward. Good evening, Mayor, and to the councilmen. I'm Pastor James A. Haley III, the pastor of Allen Chapel. Here in Galesburg, but tonight I'm coming to you as pastor of St. James and Mama. And we want to invite this entire city in the Knox County to Warren County to come to St. James Mama, which is 900 South 3rd Street in Galesburg. In Monmouth, Illinois. In fact, the address is wrong. I think it's 600. So if you get lost in the city, just ask anybody. They'll tell you where it's at. But God is good. And this year in Monmouth, we'll be doing the Juneteenth celebration for the first time ever. The Church of St. James has been around since 1863 or 1864, so it was right before we got the news that we were free. So I just want to make sure you know that you're invited to come. It's from 2 o'clock p.m. to 8 p.m. on the 19th, which is Thursday. We're going to have games and going to have a couple of speakers. One will be the alderman of the second ward. Brother Hunnigan is going to come and share the history about Juneteenth. And then we have a former pastor, Reverend Dr. Cyrus Burns from Ward Chapel AME Church in Peoria, Illinois. And so with that, I just wanted to come tonight because we know here in galesburg we've already had three or four four different things that uh they were presenting for the juneteenth but we're going to have one i was just one day only and this will be the first one so this is the inaugural one for the city of mama and we look forward to having some more in years to come and so uh god bless you god keep you and uh To all of the fathers. I can't say mothers, but fathers. Since it's Father's Day, I'm going to give you what we gave all the men at the church. Father, they've been. They have. They have the first word on their book. I'm going to tell you what it is. All right, God bless you. And now I'm going to go and sit down. My time is almost up. God bless you. We love you. And keep praying for us, and we'll keep praying for you. Thank you. Yes, it said 900 South Third Street. So that's correct. Yes. Please step forward and state your name. And then you have three minutes once you begin. Okay. Good evening, everyone. My name is Bianca Krause. Thank you for allowing me a few minutes to speak tonight. I am a nurse, a wife, a mother of three, and I've lived in Galesburg basically my entire life. I'm here just to talk about the Pickleball Courts. It has become a game that my entire family has come to enjoy it is for everyone from young kids to grandparents and retirees my kids have asked to go out and play multiple times a day even if multiple times even if we've gone out earlier in the day i've sat back and watched people from the community of all ages laughing rallying making new friends and having the best time the game is easy to learn the courts are small enough to keep everyone engaged and inexpensive as inexpensive equipment is needed other than that it's free As a nurse, I know it's important to stay active for our health. Pickleball gets your heart pumping, improves coordination, and keeps you moving without being too hard on your body. It's low impact, making it perfect for even the seniors. Some of these players are 60, 70, 80 years old, and they're kicking my butt. It's so much fun, and I don't know if they'll all agree, but I refer to them as my friends. What I love most about Pickleball is it is going to build our community in a positive way. It's a social game that sparks connections and conversation, and especially for the teens, it's a great way to get them off their phones and social media and enjoy time outside. I've seen the courts full with kids, teens, and seniors with no courts left open to play, so we definitely need more. Some of the connections we have made, we would never have made without playing. Pickleball isn't just a game, and making more courts at Rotary or somewhere else in town would be a gift for the entire community. It promotes health, fosters friendships, and brings joy to players of all ages. So whether you're a kid, a parent like me, or a grandparent, grab a paddle, and I hope to see you on the new courts. Let's keep our community active, connected, and thriving through pickleball. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Okay, thank you. Step up, say your name, please. My name is Sally Wade. I'm a... wellness educator, but I'm also a precinct committee person. And I'm here tonight because I know we have some major, major things that we need to do in the county, in the city rather. And one is we need something called a community center that is staffed and able to handle a variety of programs that serve all ages, especially our youth. We also need a boys and girls club with afternoon and summer programs that are educational, our youth are really suffering in the community. But I'm here also to talk about another problem. And it may be in mostly my ward. Evan Miller and I have worked on this last year. There is a noise pollution problem with people wanting to use fireworks in their backyard parties. And some of them really don't know there's a fine involved. I have a little program that I'm going to submit to you guys because I think we could do it on a neighborhood watch sort of thing as we get together with our aldermen and our precinct committee people so that it's neighbors watching for neighbors and we don't have to report our next door neighbor if that's a problem. But the noise pollution is terrible for infants, for people's dogs, for vets that are recovering from PTSD, and also for people who have recovery issues from drug and alcohol abuse. The nervous system just can't handle this. And it's a problem in my ward. I don't know if it's a problem in anybody else's ward, but I think we can do something about it. I've talked to the police. They're gonna put something out on Facebook, but I'm gonna send you a little idea that I have for helping it become a neighborhood watch thing. And also a shout out to Jack Cheeseman, who is gonna have a community forum for an hour. Yeah, at the library tomorrow night. And he's not part of my ward, but I wanna go because, and I think it would be a good idea for each of you if you could have one of those maybe periodically. maybe once a quarter or something, where you can hear from people in the community, because our different wards have different problems. So a shout out to you for doing that. So yes, we can all work together. In a commencement speech I just heard from a woman in Spelman College, she said, if you want to heal the tree, you've got to treat the roots. And yes, and I've found from a, Boston fern I had for 35 years. Periodically, you have to prune the roots. Ms. Wade, your time's up. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much. We need to prune our roots of some hatred. Anyone else here for public comment? Seeing none, we'll move on. Thank you for those who spoke. Next item is the Consent Agenda 2025-12. All matters listed on the consent agenda are considered routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. There are five items on this consent agenda. The first is 253018, purchase of stump grinder. 253019, galvanized water service replacements. 253020, demolition of seven properties. 25-40-44, 2025 supply of water meters and transceiver units. 25-8011, approval and warrants drawn in payment of same. Do we have a motion for the consent agenda? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Second. Thank you, Mr. Saul. Any questions about those items? Seeing none, I call for a vote on the consent agenda. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We have reached passages of ordinances and resolutions. We have four items. The first three are in first reading. The first is 251009. This is an ordinance, site lease agreement for National Railroad Hall of Fame. I turn it over to our city manager. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval of an ordinance authorizing a 99-year lease agreement with the National Railroad Hall of Fame Incorporated for a portion of Colton Park. This agreement grants the NRROF a lease of approximately 25,066 square feet of city property, the location of which is depicted in the attached aerial at a total cost of $1 for the entire term with the exclusive purpose of constructing an operating museum. the uh the exact location for those because the aerial is not up is just to the south of the current amtrak depot for reference the lease stipulates that the hall of fame will be responsible for all maintenance utilities insurance and taxes and the land will revert to the city if it ceases to be used as a museum there's no direct budget impact happy to answer any questions any questions about this item mr miller they are going to start construction of this? I don't have their exact schedule, but I think certainly between this and the money that's been raised, I think construction very easily could happen in 2026. I'll look out this way. There you go. I got a head nod, so looks like 2026. Okay. Anyone else? I have a question. Yes, Mr. Honigan, turn on your mic, please. How much money is going to be spent on the museum? And is the city going to help in any way to make this museum possible? I don't know their total budget exactly. I think it's, you know, estimated, but again, better suited for the Hall of Fame, somewhere in the six, seven million dollar range, I believe. There is a request for a million dollars worth of support from the city towards construction that's in the capital fund, which Council still has to take action on. And then in addition, going back, because this has been a project that's in the works for about 20 years, I think we've spent roughly three quarters of a million, 752 for somewhere in that neighborhood in various support of property acquisition studies and so forth to date. Anyone else? Okay, I'll come back in our next meeting. The next item is 251010. This is also an ordinance conveyance of strip of land south of 40 East Simmons Street to Galesburg Public Library. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending approval of an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of 610 square foot strip of city-owned land to the Galesburg Public Library Board of Trustees to resolve a property encroachment issue. A recent survey revealed that approximately one and a half feet of the southern portion of the former library building at 40 East Simmons Street sits on the adjacent city-owned parking lot. To rectify this, the city proposes conveying the small impacted strip of land, which is no longer deemed necessary for municipal purposes, to the Galesburg Public Library. happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions about this item? So this is a complete parking lot that's on the south side of their building? Yeah, I think if you go over there, it's actually staked out, but you can see about a foot of their old vestibule actually is encroached onto the right-of-way. The rest is just either pavement or or landscaping, rather than make them tear down one and a half feet of their building, this is the easier solution. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. That will come back to us in two weeks as well. Next item is 25-1011. This is an ordinance. Ordinance and intergovernmental agreement with Galesburg Community School District 205 for acquisition of two parcels adjacent to Bateman Park. Mr. Hansen. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff recommends approval of an ordinance and intergovernmental agreement to transfer two land parcels on Clark Street from Galesburg Community School District number 205 to the City of Galesburg. These parcels are adjacent to Bateman Park and the City already maintains the grounds and has installed playground equipment on the site. The school district's board of education approved the property transfer on May 12th, 2025. And this ordinance will serve as the city's formal acceptance. There is no anticipated budget impact from the transfer of ownership as no new expenditures are expected. And if it would be considered to council to expedite this, we could move this to second reading if someone is interested in and resolve this issue tonight. Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Can you turn your mic on? Okay. I'm moved that we move this item 25-1011 to second reading. Okay, Mr. Miller makes a motion. Does anyone second that motion? Second. Thank you, Mr. Saul. That goes straight to vote. So please vote yes if you want to move this item 25-1011 to second reading. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Okay, now we are considering 25-1011 as second reading, so I need a motion to that. Mr. White, thank you. Second. And Mr. Miller seconds. Any discussion? Any further questions for Mr. Hansen? Seeing none, I ask the clerk to call the roll on 25-1011. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Thank you. Next item, last on this list, is 25-2019. This is a resolution. It's a modification of a solar moratorium. We need a motion and a second. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Do we have a second? I second. okay mister again thank you mister hansen thank your honors uh... resolution modifying the current hundred and twenty day moratorium on new solar energy system applications is presented for council consideration The moratorium was enacted on May 5, 2025, to provide staff time to draft a permanent ordinance and expires on September 2, 2025. The proposed modification comes at the request of a solar company, and we create an exemption that the moratorium should not apply to solar energy system installations on residential single-family homes and multifamily homes of two to four units. that are part of the Illinois Solar for All program as certified by the Illinois Power Agency or its designated program administrator. The state's Illinois Solar for All program is a program designed to make solar energy more affordable for income-eligible residents. Thank you, Mr. Hansen. Mr. Milley, you have a question? So this, the way that I understand it, this is just for residential Only this is not for our solar farms that's going on at this present time. Thank you. Correct. The solar for all program has a time limit as well as a funding available funding cap because it's through the state. A company approached us and said, you know, we want your residents to be able to take advantage of this. time is kind of of the essence. As you know, we're working on both the modification of the solar and wind ordinances. I think that goes to planning and zoning tomorrow night. So they are moving through the system. We are anticipating following a public hearing and planning and zoning tomorrow night that those will be to council in July for first and second reading and consideration. But in this case, time is of the essence. If you remember, we put this in place in part to deal with the larger solar farms, but also because we have received some complaints or concerns that some companies may be taking advantage of homeowners. We don't have any reason to believe that the company that's making this request is in that group, which is why we were willing to make this modification But ultimately, you know, it's a council decision to decide. Regardless, the solar and wind ordinance changes hopefully will be in effect by the end of next month. Anyone else? Mr. Cheeseman. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Hanson, are these going to be devices or instruments that would be placed on the house? This isn't in the yard. This is on the roofs, et cetera, that kind of thing on the actual dwelling. The primary location for residential solar, just by nature of the limitations of space, are on the roof. Dwight? So there's been a lot of these companies in town, and you don't know who to trust or who not to trust. And so this is a company that the city has looked at, and they consider them more trustworthy. So if someone, if this company comes by our home, then we have confidence that they're on the up and up and forthright. I don't want to speak to the pros or the cons, honestly. We did meet with them. They were forthright. They were honest. They provided us everything we asked for. As I said in my earlier comments, we don't have any reason to believe that they're doing anything unscrupulous, but... We also can't make that promise. The program, the request, the Illinois Solar for All, which is a phenomenal program, is legitimate. It is helping qualified owners get access to lower cost energy. And there is a finite period of funds available, which is why time is of the essence. But we don't, unfortunately, or fortunately, we don't get in the business of recommending certain vendors. And the concerns that you raise, Mr. White, are valid in terms of there are other companies out there doing this. I will tell you that waiving the moratorium, as Mr. Gugliotta would say the same thing, waiving this for one waives it for all. And so that's the risk that council has to weigh. But there's no doubt. that this is a good program and it could help people in our community. Fair? I'll throw in just for clarification. I mean, for anyone to put solar on their roof, a company or an individual, they have to go and get permits from Mr. Gulgada's office, right? And so in a sense, if they were to do that, if they're appropriate and they meet the description of this particular program, then they would get... perhaps certified. If they're not, then they would still be under the moratorium. That's my understanding. Yes, we hope they come and get permits, but fair enough. Again, we wouldn't be making even this recommendation if we didn't believe that there was some benefit. It's just want to caution folks to make sure they ask the right questions and do their due diligence before making any kind of agreement. That would be the best guidance I think staff could give. Mr. Honigan. I'm new at this. So what were some of the abuses of some of the former vendors that kind of forced the city council to put a moratorium on solar? What were some of the specific things that vendors were doing that probably put our citizens at a disadvantage? I can just speak in general to the concerns that we heard. Obviously, we didn't get into the contracts because they're not our contracts. Some were charged significant administrative fees to partake. Some are not realizing the savings that was claimed would be there. I don't think all of the rough work that can be associated with All either got completed or is permitted. And oftentimes, in order to qualify, you already have to be low to moderate income and meet certain criteria, may or may not have the resources to do due diligence. Again, I think the company that is making this request has given every indication and is working in multiple communities within the state with success. and the solar for all program is legit, but there are a lot of opportunities out there. There's a lot of money in renewable energy and lots of opportunities to potentially take advantage. I think one of the other, your council colleagues mentioned that they haven't necessarily achieved the promised results and the obligations. So that's why staff does not, get directly involved in these matters, but those are concerns that we have heard. Mr. Hicks. Just a brief comment. We're basically talking about 30 days. So if we vote this down, the ordinance that Mr. Gugliotta and his staff is working on should be ready to be presented to us and the safeguards should be in place. Correct. Three days doesn't seem like that long to me in government action. It isn't. I would just respond that, you know, and this is coming from the requester, but the solar for all program within the state has a finite pool of funds. And so they have a desire to help. I think they had already had 30 people signed up. I think they indicated. Was that right? before we put the moratorium in place. So, but this is council's prerogative, whether or not you want to move forward or not. Staff is not pushing one way or the other. Obviously we recommended the moratorium for a reason, but at the other hand, we also see the benefits of the solar for all program. And if this amendment is approved, we'll operate accordingly. And certainly our... Happy to work with this company or any company that's taking good care of our residents. Okay, it looks like I don't see anyone else. With all that, I'll call for vote on 25-2019. Hicks, no. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Five, yes. One, no. Your Honor. Thank you. We'll move on. Bids, petitions, and communications. We have two items. 253021, Cape Seal Projects. We need a motion and a second. Thank you, Mr. Saul and Mr. Miller. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff is recommending accepting the low bid of $255,992.20 from AC Pavement Striping Company for the 2025 Cape Seal project. This project involves applying a black rock seal coat and a layer of micro resurfacing or micro surfacing to streets in the Swangatai neighborhood and the entrance road and parking lot at Bunker Links Golf Course. After soliciting bids from eight contractors, two were received with AC Pavement Striping Company providing the lowest offer, which was within the anticipated budget. There are sufficient funds budgeted for the work, which is expected to be completed in July or August. Happy to answer any questions. Questions about this item? Seeing none, I ask the clerk to call the roll on 25-30-21. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Thank you. Next item is 253022, Seal Coat Projects. We need a motion and a second. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman and Mr. Miller. I turn it over to Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor. Staff recommends accepting a low bid of $382,331.28 from Gunther Construction of Galesburg for the 2025 Annual Seal Coating Contract. This project involves applying a black rock seal coat to various streets, primarily in the southeast section of the city, as well as park roads in Lincoln Park and East Linwood Cemetery. Three proposals were received, with Gunther Construction submitting the lowest offer, which falls within the anticipated budget. There are sufficient funds budgeted for the project, which is anticipated to be completed in August happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Anyone have questions? Seeing none, I call for vote on 25-30-22. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Thank you. We move now to City Manager Report. Anything to add, Mr. Hanson? Just a couple quick items, Your Honor. I sent counsel in my update the links to the various Juneteenth activities that are going on in the city, one being tomorrow evening, a Cyber Safe seminar that's in conjunction with F&M Bank. It's also the same time as Mr. Cheeseman's program, so I'll be there, but I encourage those that have interest to attend if available. And then obviously, the program on Thursday at the public library for those that have an interest. And then I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to formally recognize our new police chief. Welcome aboard, Chief. Glad you're here. Know you're going to do a great job and hope you'll all join me in supporting him. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Hansen? Okay, we'll move on to miscellaneous business. We have two items to consider. The first is 254045, amended city manager contract. We need a motion and a second. I hear it from Mr. Cheeseman and Mr. White. Do I ask Mr. Hansen to read this? I can read it. Okay. The first amendment, first amended employment agreement for the city manager is presented for council's review and approval. The parties have an existing agreement from October, 2023. The agreement will take effect upon approval through December 31st, 2029. In this case, I don't plan to answer any questions. The council, any discussion? Seeing none. Oh, Mr. Cheeseman, sorry. I just think that this was, This was something that needed to be done, needed to be done for a variety of reasons. We have a terrific city manager here where we very clearly worked with him. He's worked with us to come up with something that's very fair, that offers him some security. And the real world gets in the road of that. I mean, he just moved here with his family. He has done a terrific job. So we've been able to see what his work is like. And it was time to do this. And I'm Personally, I'm surprised we've never done anything like this before. All folks that are in these kinds of positions and all kinds of other work have a contract that is similar to this. And I know all of us work together with this, and I sure feel good about this and support this 100%. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. Okay, Mr. Higgs. Short again, as I always am. This is probably hiring you is the best decision. Any vote I've made since I've been here. You've done a phenomenal job, and I appreciate you every single day. Okay. We'll look for a vote on 254045. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. That was unanimous. Thank you. Move next to the 254046. This is Ameren Transportation Electrification Plan. I need a motion and a second. Thank you, Mr. Miller and Mr. White. Mr. Hanson. Thank you, Your Honor, and thank you to the Council. Very appreciated. Staff recommends approval of the Community Transportation Electrification Plan as presented by Ameren Illinois. The plan details strategies to expand electric vehicle infrastructure in Galesburg by identifying and overcoming existing barriers upon adoption of the plan. The city recognized as a equity investment eligible community will receive a $50,000 funding award from Ameren Illinois with no local match required. These funds can be used to implement key initiatives from the plan, such as installing public charging stations, planning for electrification of the city's vehicle fleet, partnering with local businesses for infrastructure, launching educational outreach programs. The report was attached. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Anyone have questions for Mr. Hanson? Mr. White? I'm looking here. There's, what, six different locations they're going to be putting these at? Well, these are just recommendations so that the plan laid out areas where there might be a higher likelihood of electric vehicles from out of town that would come in and utilize these to... generate not only activity but commerce and those kind of things. It's really up to the city to determine how best we want to use those funds. Okay. And I was asking a question about this limited distribution system capacity. That means how much power you can be able to run through each system? Because some of them say low and some of them say high. And so there'll be faster charging than other stations? Well, I believe the assistant distribution, if I remember right from the plan, has to do with the actual power capacity in that part of the city. There's some areas of the city obviously have greater capacity than others, which is why they were denoting that as either priority or at least on where we might prioritize based on available power. So as an example, I think in the plan, it talks about out at Bunker and Lake Story, which is a huge, traffic area for us, but there isn't necessarily a lot of access power out there versus downtown where there's much more substantial amounts of available power to support EV infrastructure. So that's the context of that in the report. Okay, thank you. Thank you for that clarification. Anything else? Seeing none, I call for vote on 254046. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes. You're on. Fantastic. Next, we need a motion to sit as the town board. So moved. Thank you. Second. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? We are now sitting as a town board. We have one item under town business, the bills, 259015. Need a motion to approve the bills. Heard Mr. White and I heard Mr. Miller. Any questions about the bills? Seeing none, I call vote on 259015. Hicks, yes. Hunnigan, yes. Miller, yes. White, yes. Saul, yes. Cheeseman, yes. Sixth vote, yes, Your Honor. Okay, we've concluded town business. We now need to move back to city council. I need a motion to resume. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. I heard Mr. Saul and all those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? We are now resumed as a city council and we have come to closing comments. Who wants to go first tonight? Mr. Hicks. Nothing this evening, Mayor. Okay, that was brief. Mr. Hunnigan, you're up next. You're second. Okay. I just have a couple comments. The first comment is in regard to our downtown supermarket. And it is Cornucopia Natural Market in Delhi. And they received a large grant from the state of Illinois. And it is to basically invigorate food deserts in our community. And they're going to use their $50,000, I understand, to update some of the outdated equipment in their store. They tried to apply. They did apply last year. They were rejected. And this year, they were persistent, and they got their grant. Also want to congratulate Mr. Michael Spinks in regard to his skate palace on Knox Avenue here in Galesburg. And one of the things that he did for Juneteenth was to open up his skate palace to the community. And I think maybe over a hundred kids came out and skated for free and they were given food and beverages and they just had a great time and it is, I just want to say the Skate Palace has really become one of the great assets of Galesburg. He took a facility that is being basically unused for a decade and he brought it back to life and we have to congratulate him and we need to support him as much as we possibly can. in terms of really bringing a jewel to this community. The kids did not want to go home after the party. And it was also interesting to see people my age trying to skate at the skate palace, but it is really, a tremendous asset, and it's in my ward, ward two. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunne again. Mr. Miller? Well, we had out in the country, I brought this up here a while back, but within the last week and a half, we had somebody come out and dump about four pickup loads of tree debris, some of them that was approximately two foot in diameter, dumped it out in the entrance of our fields that we were trying to get into. I just ask that people in the city, we have businesses that we contract with to take care of those type of things. Then there's also businesses that contract to do those. So please, let's not go out, take our trash from the city out into the county for somebody else to have to deal with. It costs farmers, residential people out in our country quite a bit of money and labor and equipment to take care of these issues. So I would just ask for the people in the city to take pride, not not go out and tear somebody else's stuff up. I'm also looking, I've talked to our city manager a couple times about doing a town meeting in my ward. It's going to be kind of interesting to see how yours goes, Mr. Cheeseman. I've asked for some guidance from city manager on how to to do this. I'm going to try to get something accomplished here in the next couple months in my work. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Mr. Wayne? I just want to ask for prayer for Melissa Ortman and her husband's family in this crazy situation. Keep their family in prayer and this nation in prayer. Thank you, Mr. White. Mr. Saul. Well, happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. Mine's not around, so I didn't get to celebrate with him. Michael Spinks is quite the man, I tell you. We have taken our foster child out there several times to go skating. She... Every time she comes into town, she wants to go skating. She lives in Blandonsville, so she doesn't get that opportunity very often. We get her once a month, and usually Friday night she wants to go out skating. So that's a compliment to Michael Sphinx, and he's a very generous man, I know for a fact. I mean, he gives out pizza to the kids out there when they go skating, and, you know, he's just a good guy. Also, congratulations to our new police chief. That's awesome. And thank you very much to our city manager. You work tremendously hard and I wish we could have made that contract longer. That's all I have. Thank you, Ms. Saul. Ms. Cheeseman. Just clarify a comment I made there after public comment. a really dicey situation if he says, she says, and how credible or how important it is to the actual comments that they're making, we need to be careful with. We're fair game up here for whatever, but when other folks are not here to answer those kinds of things, I think that it's something that I would sure like people to consider. The Gale Scholars as well, Mr. Hunnigan went out there to the skate party here a number of weeks ago and it was a terrific time. And Michael and his mom, his mom works extremely hard and just a nice, nice event. Local businesses, again, doing so much here and the pride they take in serving our community and area. Cornucopia, today I stopped in at Melton Jewelers. Chuck Melton, just a nice, nice man downtown. has now been in business as a jeweler for 50 years and adds so much to our community. June Tea Things. I went on Saturday morning downtown there to the parking lot. Lots of good things happening. A whole list of tremendous things happening. All the folks that are in charge of that are doing a tremendous job of promoting a really, really important event and all the things that encompass that event. And I hope folks can get out to to see that. And then finally tomorrow night, as I say, I'm gonna host a town hall meeting at the library from six to seven o'clock. I'll talk a little bit about some of the things that we've done council-wise, some of the things we'd like to do, speaking on behalf of myself and how we work together with things, some of the thoughts on how I go about my business of trying to make decisions, and then mostly opening it up to people for their opinions. their thoughts, their ideas, their criticisms, things like that. So I'm all in for that. I think it's absolutely critical that we communicate with all of our citizens and give them a forum to speak about things so that we can use those to help make our city a better place. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Thank you. No, it's open to the public. It's a public meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cheeseman. I'm glad you're doing this. I'm glad Mr. Miller is considering doing it in the future as well. I think it's very important, and I'm glad you're taking the lead on that. I hope people can attend, although there's multiple events tomorrow night, which is a beautiful thing about our community, especially in the summertime. There are a lot of things to do And a lot of good reasons to get out of your house and enjoy the community we have. I want to really reach out to Chief Legate. Congratulations. You're off to a great start. And I know you have the support of the council behind you. And lastly, Thursday is Juneteenth. June 19th is the date, ultimately, that the Mr. Granger went and landed in Galveston in 1865. And that's why it's celebrated on that particular day. Although it has been celebrated historically at different times. That is a federal holiday as of just a few years ago. So Thursday, please, if you have an opportunity, go out and celebrate as Reverend Haley has appointed. Mr. Hunnigan will be speaking among others. And we've had several events, and this is a wonderful indication of how we celebrate this holiday now, just not on a day, but over the course of several weeks. And I got to meet some of the pageant winners on Saturday morning. They were up bright and early and very, very excited to be sociable and to be representative of their community. I think it's powerful. for young, as Ms. Sully Wade pointed out, it's really powerful for our young people to have opportunities like that to lead and be celebrated for their good work and their potential, their great potential. With that, I'll call and end for the meeting. Do we have a motion? Thank you. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? We are now adjourned. Please be safe on your way home.