McHenry Times

Village of McCullom Lake President and Board of Trustees met Feb. 11.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

President Shepit called the meeting to order at 7:03 P.M.

Pledge of Allegiance

Roll Call: By the Village Clerk, Sherri L. Messina

Present: President Shepit, Trustees Bogacz, Fritz, Given, Matthesius, Mazurek, Walter.

Minutes: Trustee Matthesius made a motion to approve the minutes with minor corrections; seconded by Trustee Walter. Voice vote: Bogacz, Fritz, Given, Matthesius, Walter=ayes. Trustee Mazurek=abstained. Motion carried.

Bills: Trustee Matthesius made a motion to pay the bills; seconded by Trustee Bogacz. Voice vote: Bogacz, Fritz, Given, Matthesius, Mazurek, Walter=ayes. All in favor, motion carried.

Roads: Trustee Walter brought up that there is a portion of the road where water sits and if maybe Paul can take the tractor and make it so that when it rains or the snow melts that the water can move downhill instead of the water sitting on the road. President Shepit stated that with it being muddy right now if Paul were to do that then it’s just going to push the mud down into the pipe and down to the lake but we will figure something else out for that issue.

Communication: President Shepit mentioned that Brian Sager the Mayor of Woodstock is not running for another term, but he is running for the Illinois House of Representatives 63rd District. He is hoping for our support. Chief Beatty has been working on the contract for dispatching. The cost for a five (5) year contract would be as follows:

2020 Dispatch Cost - $17400.88

2021 Dispatch Cost - $17835.90

2022 Dispatch Cost - $18281.80

2023 Dispatch Cost - $18738.84

2024 Dispatch Cost - $19207.31

Audience: Glenn Gates is looking for any recommendations on a reliable roofer. Deputy Clerk Prehn the Police department wanted her to relay back to the board that out of the fifteen (15) letters that were sent out for inoperable vehicles all but three (3) have made them operable or got rid of them and one (1) got an extension. Treasurer Brandt mentioned at the next board meeting the board will have to pass a Resolution for the sewer increase that will go into effect on April 1st. This will be added to the next meeting’s agenda.

New Business: Approval of MFT Resolutions from 01/31/13 to 12/31/20. President Shepit when she was Roads Trustee and Clerk Messina had went back years ago and got everything caught up. Then Jeanne Hansen when she was Treasurer took over and was doing them and then she was shut down by the previous people and since 2013 they haven’t been done. All documents needed had been sent to IDOT and they started their auditing and said we originally owed $48000.00 from our General Fund to the MFT Fund. There was money taken out, then money put in, money put here, and money put there without notation of what it was used for. Deputy Prehn has been doing an awesome job tracking down where the money is, where it went and what for and has it down to about $16000.00 but she is still waiting on getting more old bank statements that will be coming in the mail. They are questioning where these deposits and withdrawals went and came from. President Shepit stated that we had set Paul up to record any of his hours that went to Roads and he was told by the previous people not to do it anymore and that it was a waste of time. So we don’t even have that going back to 2013 to use towards MFT. Clerk Messina: He had done all that snow plowing for Roads and he was told he didn’t need to keep track of it and he did a lot of snowplowing that could have been paid out of MFT. President Shepit stated and the amount of time he did plowing could easily have come out to cover the $16000.00 that the General Fund would have to reimburse MFT, yet we don’t have a labor report for it. There are a few more things that also went on that Lori is trying to track down on what the funds were used for. Trustee Bogacz mentioned that she noticed back then that that fund was constantly up and down $20000.00 to $40000.00 dollars and she remembers always asking about it from looking at the Treasurers report. President Shepit stated there was a constant shuffling and nothing was documented just shuffling. Treasurer Brandt: There were accounts that we didn’t even know about because they were closed accounts from years ago so when she did the audit she found this trail where funds were moved into this account that was now closed and where did that money go after that and other accounts that were closed and we’ve been asked to get all these old documents from banks which Deputy Clerk Prehn and Treasurer Brandt are not signors on. President Shepit: So once again myself and Clerk Messina fixed the previous ten (10) years, Jeannie had it going after that and now from 2013 until this current year 2020 we had to go through and do it all again so now hopefully whatever happens down the road this doesn’t happen again and it’s from people not knowing what they were doing and taking over control of stuff. So all of these here on the agenda are squared away, the auditor is the one who completed all of these by going through everything we have sent her. MFT Funds can only be used for Roads and only specific things for Roads not for parking lots. So these are to get everything out of the way and caught up with. Trustee Bogacz to Deputy Clerk Prehn: So everything we are looking to approve right now you feel very comfortable with? Deputy Clerk Prehn: Oh yes. Trustee Bogacz: Then I make a motion to approve these Resolutions; seconded by Trustee Mazurek. Clerk Messina: The auditor is the one that compiled all of these. This whole thing was a nightmare and she really did a lot for us. President Shepit: If it’s kept up with moving forward it’s not a problem. Clerk Messina and I got everything caught up, we turned it over to Jeanne Hansen who knew what she was doing and then she was told that she wasn’t going to be doing it any more. This right now has taken a year and a half to put together. They were writing down take this out of MFT and doing all kinds of stuff that who knows what they were doing. Clerk Messina: I wonder about what was done previously if this didn’t put us in violation and we could be screwed out of receiving anything because the previous audits weren’t done. Voice vote: Bogacz, Fritz, Given, Mattheisus, Mazurek, Walter=ayes. All in favor, motion carried.

Discussion: We had a previous resident that was working on our computers and we stopped using her. We then had another person from Lakemoor and he was charging $125.00 an hour to work on our computers and that didn’t work out so there is a guy that lives close by, he’s done a lot of computer work and he’s extremely good so President Shepit had him come in and talk to Chief Beatty because they have problems with the computers in the squads and in the office. He sat with Chief Beatty he worked on the computers he told him how he was doing it, why he was doing it and Chief Beatty could actually use the computers in the office. This guy is $45.00 an hour, he doesn’t know about the computers in the squad cars so Chief Beatty gave him everything he needs to know about those computers and he will be working on them. His name is Brad Dausman.

President Shepit: There’s been a lot of talk about parking on the road right of way, the easement. In going through all of our Ordinances there is an Ordinance that says you have to have the surfaced improved to have additional parking in your yard/driveway. The surface would have to be improved meaning you would have to have concrete, asphalt, paving bricks etc. So we’re looking at the easement, which is the road right of way/along side the road and a lot of people have been parking there and they want to put gravel there. Part of the Ordinance says it has to be paved in the yard but the easement can have gravel and it doesn’t make any sense because easement it technically part of your yard but it specifically says right of way can be gravel yet yard has to be paved these two (2) should both be the same. Trustee Walter: I can’t see how we can make someone pave the right of way. President Shepit: The Koczor house wanted parking there and they paved it. It’s the home owner’s responsibility to maintain that. Trustee Walter: To maintain it but not to improve it. Attorney Shaw: It’s not their obligation to improve it, but if they want to park there they have to otherwise they tear up the side of the road they tear up the ditch. Trustee Matthesius: You can’t put in a new driveway with gravel. Attorney Shaw: This is two (2) separate things according to our Ordinance. Trustee Walter: Because one is not your property and one is your property. Attorney Shaw: No, that’s not true it is your property. You’re responsible for maintaining it and you can use it. President Shepit: There are people parking right now in the easement in several spots that are ripping up the side of the road and the easement where there are tire ruts and actually if there is flow there for the water, that’s all gone there is no more ditch line there’s no nothing. To improve a driveway to the street it has to be paved. To put extra parking in your yard your property which includes the easement and to do that you have to have it paved one way or another and the other thing says if you’re going to park on the easement you can put gravel there. So the two (2) Ordinances are conflicting of each other so we’re trying to put these two together. Trustee Mazurek: So if we want to pave it, should we charge people engineering fees to make sure that it’s pitched right for the water. Trustee Bogacz: Oh yeah. President Shepit: That’s part of the reason you don’t want people just slapping something in there and just dumping a load of gravel saying hey this is where I’m parking. First off they’re not coming in for a permit so our Building Inspector isn’t seeing that they are messing with the flow of water. Trustee Matthesius: That gravel is just going to end up in the storm water sewer. President Shepit: Exactly. These Ordinance’s need to be brought together to say the same thing. Trustee Matthesius and Trustee Bogacz agree it needs to be paved. Attorney Shaw: I know within the last ten (10) years we have had a conversation about parking in the right of way. There were certain reasons why it remained gravel whether it was infiltration, whether it was the fact that we were afraid that paving up to the roadway might create a problem when they tried to match up paving surface with the roadway. Trustee Bogacz: I think it needs to be paved. Attorney Shaw: Well then if you’re going to do that then we would have to add that you need to submit engineering as well. Trustee Bogacz: Definitely because of the storm sewer. Trustee Walter: Then the engineer could say whether they need a culvert. Trustee Bogacz: So you’ll come up with something Jeremy? Yeah, if you guys want it paved I can just add a few more standards in there and what the expectations are and the engineering will dictate whether there needs to be a culvert or not. The question may become though what about those spaces that are currently gravel. Some would be grandfathered in or remain a legal non-conforming use of that space, but the second the nature of the use changes an improvement occurs they are required to bring it up to the current specs. Ordinance #152 will be the Ordinance that will be amended.

President Shepit: We have an Ordinance that says no livestock. No chickens, no horses, no cows, no sheep, no goats etc. It specifically says that you can’t have any of these things. She has been asked a few times about chickens. A resident was supposed to come in tonight to ask about having chickens. Trustee Mazurek: But Ordinances can change. You have dogs barking in the neighborhood non-stop, what is the difference between dogs barking and chickens. If the chickens become a nuisance they get a ticket. Trustee Given: They actually have to see the dog barking to give a ticket. Trustee Walter: I believe that we used to have an Ordinance, though it could have changed but you had to have two point five (2.5) acres to have chickens. Trustee Bogacz: The other issue with chickens is that they can bring around coyotes, raccoons, possums; foxes that are looking for food so that could bring more of that into the Village possibly. Trustee Mazurek: I wouldn’t mind having chickens at my house. If they make noise they make noise just like dogs they would get a ticket. Homeowners would have to follow the guidelines for it. If residents want it in the Village I don’t see why we should stop it. Attorney Shaw: We looked in to that in another municipality where they were pro-chicken. The board really had to weigh all of the different factors and noise was at the bottom of the list. Because as long as you ban the roosters the chickens themselves aren’t real loud but there was also some research introduced where they basically came to the conclusion was primarily the predators, the second thing was you can’t sort of house break them and believe it or not they found the spread of not really disease but the sanitation was a concern not only to the immediate area but the areas outside of the property as well because feces gets tracked, it leaves the yard and so those were the two (2) big concerns. Trustee Mazurek: I can see that with the free ranging chickens but ones that are kept in a pen and laying eggs I think we could explore it more with research. We can go back and forth with this I just think it could be looked into more from us as a board. Trustee Bogacz: I think that we could handle this the same way we did with the signs, if the person wants this bring us the information, bring us more research. Let them bring it to the board. Trustee Mazurek: I just don’t want us to be narrow minded about this. Attorney Shaw: Just so everyone is aware the current code reads, It shall be unlawful for any person to keep any live swine or pigs, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, poultry or more than four (4) dogs in the Village without the owner having a minimum of one (1) acre. The Ordinance does not address bees.

Trustee Fritz: The derby was a success, we had ice, not as many people as last year, no one went through the ice, everyone had a good time and there were no complaints and all was good. He has tickets for the upcoming Steak Fry which is May 2nd, 2020.

Cindy: The Youth Group chose their charity and to raise funds they are looking to host an event at the Village Hall. They would have Dogs on the Go come in with their dogs and put on demonstrations to show off their skills and for the community members to learn what it is they do. The teens would be making homemade dog treats to sell at the charity event. They are looking at two (2) dates either March 31st or April 21st and they are both Tuesday nights. Cindy will check on them being insured for the event. Trustee Bogacz: Be sure to fill out the rental agreement. Clerk Messina: The fee should be waived for this event.

Trustee Bogacz made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:03 P.M.; seconded by Trustee Matthesius. Voice vote: Bogacz, Fritz, Given, Matthesius, Mazurek, Walter=ayes. All in favor, motion carried.

The next board meeting will be February 25, 2020 at 7:00 P.M. at the Village Hall.

https://voml.org/sites/default/files/FEBRUARY%2011%2C%202020%20MEETING%20MINUTES.pdf