Village of Bartlett Committee of the Whole met June 6.
Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:
President Wallace called the Committee of the Whole meeting to order at 7:24 p.m.
Present: Chairmen Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Hopkins, Reinke, and
President Wallace
Absent: None
Also Present: Acting Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant to the Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Community Development Director Jim Plonczynski, Director of Public Works Dan Dinges, Public Works Engineer Bob Allen, Building Director Brian Goralski, Grounds Superintendent Kevin DeRoo, Chief Patrick Ullrich, Deputy Chief Geoff Pretkelis, Deputy Chief Chuck Snider, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.
Planning & Zoning Committee
1. Alden Estates of Bartlett Chairman Hopkins presented Alden Estates of Bartlett.
Community Development Director Jim Plonczynski stated that Alden Estates has been returned from the Plan Commission. The development is on the east side of Route 59, behind the Artis Senior Living project, south of Apple Valley Drive. They are looking for a Preliminary and Final PUD plan on Lot 2 of the subdivision for a 78 bed skilled nursing facility which would provide both short and long-term rehabilitation services. The Plan Commission reviewed this and conducted the Public Hearing on May 11, 2017 and it was recommended. Because this is a PUD, the petitioner has a one-year timeframe in which to construct. They have to go through the State to get approval for this type of facility which takes quite a while so they are asking for a two-year timeframe to allow the construction of the final development plan.
President Wallace asked when Artis Senior Living will be finished?
Building Director Brian Goralski stated that it will hopefully be done before winter.
President Wallace asked if Artis is selling that land to Alden Estates or are they leasing it?
Mr. Plonczynski stated that they are purchasing the land.
Steve Friedland, Attorney for Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen stated that as far as Artis is concerned, they don’t have a problem with the delay. Because this facility requires financing through the State, it takes extra time. They would like to proceed as quickly as possible and confirmed that they are buying the land from Artis.
Chairman Hopkins stated that they meet the parking requirements but asked if they anticipated any issues.
Mr. Friedland stated that they greatly exceeded the required parking requirements. They planned it based on their needs versus the code requirement. They are very comfortable with the space count.
Chairman Hopkins asked if any signage should be required as far as mandating the right-in and right-out? He wondered if people will try to turn left and cross Route 59 to get into this facility.
Mr. Plonczynski imagined that there would be some kind of signage saying “no left turn”. IDOT is not keen on adding signage in the right-of-way. It is a matter of education for the employees to learn about the flow of traffic and how to get in and out.
President Wallace stated that there will be a lot of people u-turning on Congress.
Chairman Hopkins asked if there is currently a no u-turn sign?
Mr. Plonczynski stated “no”, not to his knowledge. IDOT allows u-turns and promotes them.
Chairman Hopkins stated that he meant a u-turn sign on Congress and we should monitor it.
Mr. Plonczynski stated that they will keep an eye on it and have the police patrol if necessary.
Chairman Reinke asked about the referenced “Mail Affidavit” and asked for a copy to make sure that all the residents in the area have received notice of this. He found it hard to believe that nobody showed up and he has not received a single email about it.
Finance & Golf Committee
1. General Obligation Refunding Bonds
Chairman Deyne introduced the 2007 General Obligation bond refunding. He asked the Finance Director to address the details.
Finance Director Todd Dowden stated that these bonds were issued for the Fire District and did become available for refunding in December, 2016. Because of the favorable interest rates, now is the time to refund them. The total savings due to the lower interest rates would be roughly $260,000 over the remaining life of the bonds. That equates to a present value savings of $230,000. You calculate whether it’s worth refunding or not by how much money you are saving from the total par value that you are refunding and that calculates to just over 8%. The GFOA recommends at least a minimum of 3% savings to make it worth your while. We feel that we are clearly above that level right now. He included a parameters ordinance, similar to the way the bonds were issued for the police station.
Chairman Carbonaro asked if these were originally 30 year bonds?
Mr. Dowden stated that they were 20 year bonds.
Chairman Carbonaro asked if we were extending them for another 20 years?
Mr. Dowden stated that they will mature at the same time span. They are not stretching it out at all and it will be flat debt service.
Chairman Hopkins asked what the general fund balance was?
Mr. Dowden stated that it is in the $10-$11 million range.
Chairman Hopkins asked if it would be worth it to pay this off and then we can save on all sorts of fees that come along with refinancing bonds?
Mr. Dowden stated that it would bring the fund balance below the policy. There is reasons for keeping a fund balance cash flow for emergencies, etc. He would recommend not doing that at this time.
Chairman Hopkins asked about maybe taking $1 million towards it.
Mr. Dowden stated that they are working the fund balance down with the police station bonds and they have already committed $1.2 toward that. When he says $10 million, some of that is already accounted for. He would advise against using the fund balance dollars.
2. Municipal Advisory Service Agreement
Chairman Deyne asked Mr. Dowden to proceed.
Mr. Dowden stated that this goes along with the bond refunding. This is the housekeeping on the agreement that spells out the fees. They have been working with Robert W. Baird, who has helped them reduce the bond fees and has saved them $7,000 by switching the paying agent. They also work with the underwriters on the whole bond issue.
License & Ordinance Committee
1. Kickstand Classic II Bike Race Agreement
Chairman Camerer stated that they are very excited to have the Kickstand Classic II come to town on October 1st. He spoke about an addition to the race with the Davis Phinney Foundation. He introduced Jim Duran.
Jim Duran stated that he has worked for the last 7 years with the Davis Phinney foundation. Davis Phinney is a former bicycle racer who competed back in the 1980’s. Davis was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and started a foundation which is focused on people with Parkinson’s living well today. His message is to get out and be active and don’t be a victim. They started as a result of that mission, a bicycle challenge. Over the last 7 years they have held this ride in Hampshire Illinois. He stated that he participated in the Kickstand Classic last year and it was through that experience, that he saw an opportunity for us to work better together. They approached the Active Transportation Alliance with this idea. This event is a 5 hour challenge. The idea is to ride 100 miles in 5 hours. These riders are like the ultra marathoners. There are very few opportunities to do this kind of event. They were looking for a way to marry these two events. They have worked out all the logistics and would be happy to answer any questions.
President Wallace stated that these 200 riders are top-level cyclists and come from all over the Midwest. He had concerns over the safety of slower riders.
Mr. Duran stated that the type of riders that do this kind of event are used to doing this kind of event. We set the rules and the organizers make it very clear on how this will run and if they violate the rules they will be pulled off the course.
President Wallace asked how fast they would be going?
Mr. Duran stated that they would average about 20 mph for 5 hours. By comparison, he participated in the fast race of the Kickstand Classic last year and they were going faster than that.
Chairman Camerer asked about the division of the road and having the professional writers on the inside lane.
Mr. Duran stated that it is about safety. They proposed to take the inner lane, especially in the corners, to the sub five riders and preserve the outer lanes to the Kickstand Classic riders. The reason is because as you are doing the event, the Davis Phinney riders would leave first and the rest can finish in the allotted times through the rest of the morning. The last thing they want is for groups trying to cross paths. If you let the Kickstand riders come onto the inside lane where the other riders are going continuously, it would create a scenario where you would have to cross paths and they want to avoid that.
Chairman Gabrenya stated that it is a natural tendency for a slower rider to try to cut the corners. What will they do at the corners?
Mr. Duran stated that they will have cones in the corners and will have assigned marshals on the course. They will help direct traffic for the bicyclists. Their vision is that each corner would have one or two marshals dedicated specifically to remind everyone of their correct lanes.
Chairman Gabrenya asked if it was a 5 hour event or 100 mile finish?
Mr. Duran stated that the goal of it is to finish 100 miles in 5 hours. They are organized into teams of 6 to 8 individuals working together as a team. Over the course of 30 minutes, all the teams are set off with 30 seconds to 1 minute in between. That gets them pretty much scattered around the course. The expectation is to do it within the 5 hour limit. He didn’t anticipate that they would keep going past the 5 hour limit since the goal would not have been reached. He stated that their goal would be to finish no later than 12 noon.
President Wallace stated that last year’s event was so great on its own he hated to do anything to tarnish that with this melding in only the second year. He stated that they sold out last year and he had concerns about changing it.
Administrator Schumacher stated that they had the exact same feelings about it. They worked really hard with the Active Transportation Alliance and raised all the concerns that you have. She thought that they have come up with a good plan and a good way to logistically meld the two races. She thought they could stress the ending time and make sure the residents are not inconvenienced for a longer period of time.
Chairman Deyne stated that they expressed concerns last year and it turned out to be extremely successful. He felt that they need to trust the Kickstand Classic people who put this together and thought it was a great event for the Village of Bartlett.
Chairman Camerer stated that last year they had limited riders to 600. This year they were going to extend it to 1,000 riders (including the Phinney riders).
President Wallace asked Mr. Duran if he was sure they would get 200 riders?
Mr. Duran stated that they have not announced this yet but they think they could fill between 180 and 200 riders.
President Wallace asked if they were sharing in the registration fees?
Mr. Plonczynski stated that they were given our cost estimates for police, public works, barricades, etc. Our Agreement is with Active Transportation and is split 50/50. The Phinney Foundation is a separate Agreement that is not part of ours.
President Wallace stated that we should sharpen the pencil on that.
Mr. Plonczynski stated that they have reduced the costs based on our experience last year with the barricades and patrol officers.
President Wallace stated that if the Phinney Foundation has 200 riders at $100 apiece and Active Transit has 600 riders at $50 apiece, and with additional sponsors, it should not cost us anything.
Mr. Plonczynski stated that they are still asking for us to share in our end of it. He stated that they could certainly approach that aspect.
President Wallace stated that we are taking 100% of the public risk and 100% of the blowback from the public, he thought they could sharpen it a little bit.
Mr. Plonczynski stated that he will bring that up with Active Transportation.
Administrator Schumacher stated that they lost money on the race last year so she did not know how amenable they will be to that. She stated that they do the advertising, registrations, volunteers, swag, and timing.
President Wallace stated that this is a great event that he still has two concerns: messing it up from last year and making sure that it is equal and everyone shares a little bit of the deal.
Chairman Gabrenya stated that last year, the mission of the race was to draw people to the downtown. The question is, will this second race enhance us in succeeding at that mission? If the goal was to involve our community and get them involved, would we have done that without complicating it even more?
President Wallace stated that bike enthusiasts will love to come watch these guys. We will have people here just to watch this race.
Chairman Reinke stated that he would like to hear more about the coordination with Active Transportation and the staff so if something goes wrong, how we will handle it and keep the show on the road as well as keeping everyone safe and get the roads opened by 12:00 p.m. This was a great event last year and it brought a lot of people downtown. It is part of that spirit of community that we talked a lot about and it is innovative and very Bartlett.
Mr. Duran stated that they will put an end time to the race and did not anticipate any issues.
Administrator Schumacher stated that they will put together some more information on the cost, the hard end time, combination of our efforts with Active Transportation and a disaster plan and the bring it back to the Board for review.
President Wallace stated that he thought they were comfortable and advised staff to clean it up and get it back here for a final vote.
Public Works Committee
1. ADA Transition Plan
Chairman Reinke presented the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan and asked staff to explain.
Management Analyst Tyler Isham stated that this is an update to the previous ADA Plan with the updates to Title II which requires a difference in the sidewalks and right of ways to include truncated dome curb cuts. There is no timeframe for this but it just needs to be in our plan.
Chairman Reinke stated that he looked at the report in detail and he was very impressed with the thoroughness. He really appreciated staff work on this.
There being no further business to discuss, Chairman Camerer moved to adjourn the regular Committee of the Whole meeting and that motion was seconded by Chairman Deyne.
Roll Call Vote To Adjourn
Ayes: Chairmen Camerer, Carbonaro, Deyne, Gabrenya, Hopkins, Reinke Nays: None Absent: None Motion Carried
The meeting adjourned at 8:12 p.m.
http://www.village.bartlett.il.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=5038
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