[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:42] Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call this village board meeting to order for the date of August 18, 2025.
[0:50] And if we could all please start by rising and saying the Pledge of Allegiance to
[0:57] the flag of the United States of America
[0:59] and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[1:09] Thank you, everyone.
[1:12] Maggie, if you could please call the roll.
[1:35] Thank you, Maggie. We have two sets of minutes to review and approve tonight. The first one
[1:41] is from 8.45, it's a village board meeting.
[1:44] Are there any corrections or changes from anyone on the board?
[1:49] Anyone need to pass?
[1:50] Pass, okay, pass a note if we're Trustee Zick.
[1:53] Anyone else?
[1:54] Anyone from the audience?
[1:57] If not, I'll take a motion for approval.
[2:00] I would move that we approve the village board meeting
[2:02] minutes from August 4th, 2025.
[2:05] Second.
[2:06] Motion made by Trustee Schwingbeck,
[2:07] seconded by Trustee Lebedz.
[2:09] any further discussion. If not, all those in favor say aye.
[2:13] Aye. Aye. Any opposed? None. Motion carries.
[2:16] Next item is the special village board of trustees meeting minutes from 7.14.25.
[2:22] Again, any changes or corrections or are there any passes from anyone on the board?
[2:29] Seeing none. Anyone from the audience that needs anything changed or adjusted?
[2:34] Seeing none. Then I'll take a motion for approval please.
[2:37] I would move to approve the minutes of the special village board meeting of July 14th,
[2:44] 2025.
[2:46] Second.
[2:47] Motion made by Trustee Manganero, seconded by Trustee Zick.
[2:50] Any further discussion?
[2:52] All those in favor say aye, please.
[2:54] Aye.
[2:54] Aye.
[2:55] Aye.
[2:55] Aye.
[2:56] Aye.
[2:57] opposed so motion carries all right next item is approval of accounts payable
[3:03] and I'd call on trustee Bertucci please. Mayor I'll move approval of the warrant
[3:09] register for the check date 8 15 2025 in the amount of two million three hundred
[3:27] Second.
[3:28] Motion made by Trustee Bertucci, seconded by Trustee LeBeds.
[3:32] Any discussion from the Board?
[3:35] Anyone from the audience?
[3:37] Seeing none.
[3:38] This is a roll call vote.
[3:40] Maggie, please.
[3:41] Trustee Bertucci.
[3:42] Yes.
[3:43] Trustee LeBeds.
[3:44] Yes.
[3:44] Trustee Schwimbach.
[3:45] Yes.
[3:46] Trustee Shirley.
[3:47] Yes.
[3:48] Trustee Menganero.
[3:49] Aye.
[3:50] Trustee Donington.
[3:51] Yes.
[3:52] Trustee Zick.
[3:53] Yes.
[3:53] President Tonalia.
[3:54] Yes. Okay, thank you. Next item is recognitions communication. We have none. No public hearings.
[4:01] So we'll go right into Citizens Be Heard. And I do have two blue cards tonight. If anyone is in the audience that would like to speak, you can certainly grab wings in the back.
[4:09] And if you don't, it's okay. We'll still call and just raise your hand. So the first one is Melissa Care. Melissa, come on up.
[4:19] I see that.
[4:20] Okay, we'll hold that for that discussion. Under Citizens Be Heard is Keith Moons.
[4:24] Thank
[4:31] you President Tonalia. I just wanted to note you know as we begin to negotiate to
[4:37] bring the billionaire bears out here I would really appreciate it as a resident if members
[4:42] of the Board of Trustees would not appear on television and proclaim that residents real
[4:48] estate taxes will not go up as a result of them coming out here. And this is for
[4:54] two reasons, two reasons why. First, that board member cannot know for sure where our
[5:00] real estate taxes are going to go if the bears do come out here. Second, our taxes likely
[5:05] will go up as a result of their relocation out here. So let's consider the bear's request
[5:12] for tax certainty over many years, which is a reasonable request from their point
[5:18] of you, but they have that because there is inherent and unavoidable uncertainty or risk
[5:25] in real estate tax levels increasing from year to year.
[5:29] In other words, tax uncertainty is built in to the system, it's just going to be there.
[5:35] And we all, we all know about this and we all have to cover that risk every year
[5:40] in our own tax bills.
[5:42] So by granting the bear's tax certainty through schemes such as pilot or mega projects, I fear it will transfer the bear's tax uncertainty risk onto local taxpayers forcing our taxes higher.
[5:59] Finally, if the billionaire bears want to come out here and relocate here, they're welcome.
[6:04] I welcome them with open arms, but we should not accept their uncertainty risk to do so.
[6:12] Thank you.
[6:13] Thank you, Mr. Moons.
[6:17] I think that's it for Citizens Be Heard, unless there's someone else.
[6:21] Yes, come on up and introduce yourself, please.
[6:29] My name is Robert.
[6:31] I believe I've expressed this with Randy before.
[6:34] I communicated to him that the businesses along Arlington Heights Road, there seems to
[6:44] be a number of people that seem to have privilege to park on Arlington Heights Road no matter
[6:55] at the time of the day and I tried explaining this to Randy before no
[7:02] matter if it's a like an Amazon delivery truck or if it's literally somebody
[7:10] parking there to want to get out of their car to walk to noodles and company to
[7:17] take all the time of the world to buy food and then come out to their car
[7:23] and then just leave. Like they're the only ones on the road. I've seen this
[7:31] time and time again and I've even said something to the police station and I
[7:37] said well I guess I'm gonna have to mention something to the board. I don't
[7:42] know if there's something that you guys can do where maybe you can paint some
[7:48] sort of details into the road like if like the fire station has in front of the
[7:55] fire station with diagonal lines that would say like no parking and then put no
[8:00] parking signs there for like you know saying we'll tell you like at your own
[8:08] discussion things like that or ticket you but I've noticed it becoming more
[8:14] more problem over the last couple years. People just, what happens is like they can't find
[8:23] parking in the mall there so they'll come back around to Arlington Heights Road to just
[8:30] take it upon themselves just to park there, just to like go to a noodles and company
[8:34] or something and I wondered if there might be some sort of solution for that.
[8:42] Okay. Thank you, Robert. I think it's a good point. I see it. I think all of us see it happen again.
[8:47] And yeah, I had actually one more thing.
[8:49] Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.
[8:51] So I as a customer that likes to shop at the Joel in town, just based on our observation, I noticed that the math isn't
[9:05] mapping with what I see in the store and how many cars are parked out in the parking lot.
[9:15] Because there's just no way by the amount of people that are in the store versus who's
[9:21] parked out in the parking lot, like there's 20 people maybe in the store and then almost
[9:34] a full parking lot and I've even talked to people in there you know about that
[9:44] situation and they told me like yeah that's that's not customers that are you
[9:51] know for the store and for somebody like me that wants to shop there it there's
[9:57] There's only a few parking spaces left and it's kind of aggravating and I didn't know
[10:04] if there'd be some sort of solution with that as well to get that resolved because I've
[10:13] been noticing this for a while.
[10:15] So.
[10:18] Okay.
[10:18] I didn't want to interrupt you.
[10:19] Are you...
[10:20] Is that it?
[10:21] Yeah, that's it.
[10:22] Okay.
[10:22] All right.
[10:23] Well, thank you for your points.
[10:25] Yeah, but I interrupted you, so our village manager will take a look at that and if you
[10:32] want to grab his business card from him later on, I'm sure he can share thoughts with you.
[10:37] Anyone else from the audience?
[10:39] Okay.
[10:40] And we're going to move on then to the consent agenda.
[10:43] And the consent agenda is one vote with a number of items.
[10:47] Is there anyone on the board here that wishes to take an item off the consent agenda
[10:51] for separate discussion. Is there anyone who wants to vote pass or no on an item on that agenda?
[11:00] Is there anyone in the audience that would like a trustee to remove an item for separate discussion?
[11:06] Seeing none, is there someone who would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda?
[11:11] I'll move approval of the consent agenda.
[11:13] Motion made by Trustee LeBeds.
[11:16] Second.
[11:16] Second by Trustee Zick, sorry.
[11:18] Sorry. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? I'm sorry. We'll have
[11:24] roll call vote on this one. I knew that. I knew that.
[11:27] Peggy, it's up to you.
[11:29] Trustee Labads.
[11:30] Yes.
[11:31] Trustee Zick.
[11:32] Yes.
[11:32] Trustee Schwingback.
[11:34] Yes.
[11:34] Trustee Bertucci.
[11:35] Yes.
[11:36] Trustee Dunnington.
[11:37] Yes.
[11:37] Trustee Manganero.
[11:39] Aye.
[11:39] Trustee Shirley.
[11:41] Yes.
[11:41] President Tenalia.
[11:42] Yes. All right. Very good. So then now we're going to go into new business.
[11:48] right? And we have five items tonight and the first two are a couple of appointments
[11:54] and I'm really pleased to call on Jennifer Thomas. Is she here? She is
[12:01] right there. If you could come up to the podium there, there's two mics that you
[12:04] can choose from.
[12:16] Wait a minute. I'm jumping ahead here. There was a
[12:20] discussion earlier today at the Committee of the Whole and I'm going to
[12:24] call on Trustee Schwingbeck first.
[12:26] Thank you, Mayor.
[12:27] I would move, as I did earlier this evening,
[12:30] to concur in the Mayor's appointment of Jennifer Thomas
[12:33] to the Commission for Citizens with Disabilities
[12:36] with a term ending April 30th, 2028.
[12:39] Second.
[12:40] All right.
[12:41] Motion made by Trustee Schwingbeck,
[12:43] seconded by Trustee Bertucci.
[12:45] Is there any further discussion?
[12:46] Anyone from the audience?
[12:48] Seeing none, is this a roll call vote again?
[12:51] This would be a voice vote, Mayor.
[12:52] Okay. All those in favor say aye.
[12:54] Aye.
[12:55] Any opposed?
[12:56] None.
[12:56] Okay. Motion carries.
[12:58] That is that.
[12:59] Now, I'm going to read you your oath.
[13:02] If you don't mind, you can repeat after me.
[13:05] Sure.
[13:06] Ready?
[13:07] So, aye.
[13:08] State your name in full.
[13:10] Aye.
[13:10] Jennifer Thomas.
[13:11] Having been appointed to the commission for disabilities.
[13:15] Having been appointed.
[13:16] For citizens with disabilities.
[13:17] Having been appointed to the coalition for citizens with
[13:21] disabilities, in the village of Arlington Heights, in the county of Cook, I do solemnly
[13:31] swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution
[13:41] of the State of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office
[13:51] according to the best of my ability very good congratulations Jennifer
[14:01] if you
[14:01] could come up here I'm gonna give you this pin and your oath and
[14:09] if you could
[14:10] take this over to Maggie over there she'll go ahead and take care of your
[14:16] signature down there with her and you're all set to go
[14:19] congratulations thanks all right so next is Stella Butler Stella if you
[14:28] could come on up. And I'm going to call on Trustee LaBette's.
[14:32] Thank you, Mayor Tonalia. I move now, as I did earlier this evening, to concur in the
[14:38] Mayor's appointment of Stella Butler to the Environmental Commission with a term ending
[14:43] April 30th, 2026. Second.
[14:46] Motion made by Trustee LaBette's and seconded by Trustee Dunnington. All those in favor
[14:52] say aye.
[14:53] Aye.
[14:54] Aye. All right. Sarah, are you ready?
[14:58] Steal up.
[14:58] Steal up.
[14:58] Steal up.
[15:00] Are you ready? Yes. Here we go.
[15:04] Raise your right hand. Aye. Stella Butler. Aye. Stella Butler.
[15:08] Having been appointed to the Environmental Commission. Having been appointed to the Environmental Commission.
[15:14] In the village of Arlington Heights. In the village of Arlington Heights. In the county of Cook.
[15:19] In the county of Cook. Do solemnly swear and affirm. Do solemnly swear and affirm. That I will
[15:24] support the Constitution. That I will support the Constitution. Of the United States. Of the
[15:30] United States and the constitution of the state of Illinois and the constitution of
[15:34] the state of Illinois and that I will faithfully discharge the duties and that I will faithfully
[15:39] discharge the duties of the office according to the best of my ability of the office according
[15:44] to the best of my ability fabulous congratulations all
[15:52] right Stella if you would take this over
[15:55] by Maggie and sign that and that's a pin that you can wear like we all do because
[15:59] you're part of our whole commission okay and same for you thank you very much everyone
[16:03] So
[16:09] now we're going to move on to item C, which is an ordinance amending Chapter 7 of the Municipal Code of the Village of Ireland tonight regarding municipal grocery retailers, occupation taxes, and municipal grocery service occupation taxes.
[16:24] So I'll call on Village Manager Recklout.
[16:27] Thank you, Mayor.
[16:28] So these are two separate items but the discussion is related so we're going to
[16:34] have one general presentation and then the board if it's so chooses can vote on
[16:38] the two items separately. You know the question is I think this is unique you
[16:43] know why are we discussing these you know outside of the budget process
[16:46] outside of kind of our normal way of discussing budgetary items and it's
[16:50] both of these are relatively unique. Back in June the board discussed and
[16:56] approved our budget ceilings for the 2026 budget. And they included the revenue that these two
[17:05] revenue sources would produce. However, at that time, the board indicated that it wanted
[17:11] to examine alternatives for both of these prior to approving them. These are unique
[17:19] for a couple of reasons. The grocery tax is not a new revenue. It is a revenue that
[17:24] that we've had for many years in the state of Illinois enacted a law recently where if
[17:31] municipalities want to retain the grocery tax, they have to take affirmative action.
[17:36] We're going to talk a little bit about the impact of that and the timing of that, but
[17:40] that's why that issue is before us.
[17:42] The second issue is the potential of a streaming tax.
[17:46] If you recall over the last several years, after a lot of analysis, it was determined
[17:52] that the village needed to put into operation a fifth ambulance.
[17:56] Currently, we've had four full-time ambulances,
[17:59] and this has been part of a multi-year process
[18:02] where we've been ramping up to a fifth ambulance.
[18:06] Currently, we have the fifth ambulance working
[18:09] on about 260 days a year during peak hours and peak days,
[18:15] and we staffed that ambulance with overtime,
[18:20] and if we happen to have overages on staffing,
[18:23] if we're above minimums,
[18:24] we can use those individuals to staff it.
[18:26] The goal as part of our three year plan
[18:28] was to have a fully staffed ambulance in operation
[18:33] January 1st of 2026.
[18:35] That will require additional revenue.
[18:38] And as we've been talking about,
[18:40] we've looked at different options
[18:42] and streaming tax is the one
[18:43] that the staff has recommended.
[18:45] The reason we are looking at putting that tax
[18:47] into effect now,
[18:49] and that's always been the plan,
[18:50] is firefighters have a long what I'll call incubation period. They require a lot
[18:55] of training before they can be available on the street and so we're
[18:59] actually making those hireings now so that we can have people ready to go come
[19:05] January 1st and so that was always a plan to have something in effect the
[19:09] middle part of this year so we can cover those expenses. The streaming
[19:14] tax itself we're gonna be talking about the merits of that in a minute
[19:18] but that was something we've talked about for a while and so that's why this is a little bit
[19:23] different of a process and why we're talking about this this year. Right now staff as part of
[19:29] our budget process is developing the 2026 budget and it's being developed based on the 2026 budget
[19:38] ceilings that the board adopted back in June and so the each department has now completed
[19:44] They've submitted their budget, they've submitted that to myself and Director of Finance Melissa Gallagher.
[19:51] What's going to be happening soon is those are going to be reviewed for completion and then our internal budget committee is going to be going through those.
[19:57] So that process is well underway so that we can have a balanced budget proposed to you all in usually the end of October for discussion in November.
[20:07] So that's going underway and so we're being able to talk about these revenues
[20:11] situationally is difficult because we're still we're in the process of
[20:15] developing that 2026 budget and we always do that under the direction of the
[20:19] board based on that 2026 budget ceiling that you've already developed. So the
[20:24] question here tonight is more how we will meet the needs of those 2026
[20:30] budget ceiling levels based on the board's direction back in June. So with
[20:36] With that, I will turn things over to Ms. Gallagher who is going to be walking through
[20:41] our analysis on these items and then obviously there will be the opportunity to discuss them
[20:46] further by the board and then vote if the board so chooses this evening.
[20:50] Thank you, Manager Recklaus.
[20:52] And yes, so we're in the midst of our budget development process and want to walk through
[20:58] this presentation with you.
[21:00] So one of the things as Manager Recklossom mentioned is that within the actual ceilings
[21:06] of for 2026 are the projections for the local grocery tax which has been part of our revenue
[21:14] stream for many, many years.
[21:16] And as we've mentioned, as part of the funding of the fifth ambulance we have proposed
[21:22] as one of the agenda items, the streaming tax is a two-year operational plan.
[21:27] So, what we wanted to do is walk through some of those revenue alternatives, kind of listening
[21:31] to what the board kind of had mentioned to us during our budget ceiling discussion and
[21:37] look at things also from other different means, which would also be looking at our peer communities
[21:43] in market considerations and discuss those alternatives with you as well.
[21:48] This is kind of, as Manager Reckles mentioned, we typically will kind of take a look
[21:54] at revenues just in general through the budget ceiling process and then come back to you
[22:00] with a proposed budget. But this is a little bit unique and we want to make sure we're
[22:04] kind of going through those notes from the budget ceiling discussion we had in June.
[22:11] So I wanted to first start with the local grocery tax in terms of the fiscal impact.
[22:18] And in the memo and in the agenda packet itself, we have been looking at a 1% local grocery
[22:26] tax as we're retaining the current tax.
[22:30] This, as we've mentioned before, would create a significant shortfall within our general fund
[22:35] operations.
[22:37] And this is not just one year, but it's every single year.
[22:41] So we have to think of it that way.
[22:42] It's not just a one-year loss of revenue.
[22:44] revenue. When we look at our general fund revenues just in total, local grocery tax
[22:50] is part of sales tax and sales tax makes up roughly about 25% of our overall general
[22:57] fund revenue so it's a very important revenue stream along with property tax which is about
[23:01] 29% and then income tax which is about 14%. So our major revenues are about almost
[23:08] 70% and so that's where we're kind of focusing in on the major revenues and what
[23:12] that might look like.
[23:14] When we're also looking at things also in terms of revenue streams, we take a look at
[23:19] what we can do to actively reduce any impacts for the property tax levy as well, and so you're
[23:24] going to hear a little bit about that as we walk through this.
[23:27] But the local grocery tax is direct money into the general fund paying for all our
[23:32] critical services.
[23:33] And what we are going to show you as well is that there are visitors to Arlington
[23:37] in height to shop here and they also do pay for grocery, food and other items in the village.
[23:44] And so as we mentioned during the ceiling discussion that should we have to look at
[23:51] other revenue sources, we mentioned property tax, we're not suggesting that in terms of
[23:56] making up the shortfall, what we are suggesting is to retain the local grocery tax. We're
[24:01] not suggesting service reductions but those are the types of things and when we say
[24:05] service reductions. We always take a look at that in a global way, and that would be
[24:11] through personnel. But we're not suggesting that. Again, this is just more of the fiscal
[24:15] impact showing about a $1.3 million significant shortfall to the general fund annually.
[24:23] One of the questions that comes up is what's the impact to the shopper? So you can
[24:29] look at it in a variety of different ways, but one way to look at it is when you
[24:33] to your local grocery store and you purchase a basket of goods.
[24:39] And so a typical grocery store purchase is going to vary widely, depending if you have
[24:44] teenagers like myself, but it will vary widely.
[24:47] And we kind of looked at some of the data points.
[24:49] And so we estimate about 70 to 85% of the grocery bill if you go to a grocery store
[24:54] is related to food items.
[24:56] So that's that 1% grocery tax.
[25:00] The next part of the basket is about 15 to 30%, which is general merchandise items, which
[25:05] would be household supplies, personal care items, or other items.
[25:10] So if we look at a family of four, that could be at a moderate cost plan about an impact
[25:16] of weekly grocery spending, and of course, every shopper is a little different when
[25:20] they go to the grocery store, but if we say you spend $323 in grocery spending,
[25:26] that 80% is food and 20% non-food items.
[25:30] And so we're looking at about a $2.58 impact per week,
[25:35] but if you annualize that, it's roughly $134.
[25:38] Again, I'm just for illustration,
[25:41] just sharing again what it might look like for a family.
[25:44] It could be more, it could be less.
[25:49] An important consideration as well
[25:51] is when we look at the local grocery tax impact
[25:54] are the effects of food assistant programs which is SNAP or supplemental
[26:00] nutritional assistance program which is a federal program that helps provide
[26:05] income assistance for shoppers and so none of the shoppers will be affected
[26:12] by the local grocery tax and they're exempt from that. We want to mention
[26:17] again that there would be limited impact per household and just based
[26:22] based on our analysis and what other municipalities looked at as well, is that there's equity
[26:26] built in through the SNAP tax exemption for household assistance.
[26:36] It's important to look at a variety of aspects to grocery store data, and one of the tools
[26:42] that we have at our fingertips would be some information that other municipalities have
[26:49] looked at.
[26:50] we pulled this data from a source that extrapolates data based on zip code and trade areas and
[26:56] what we were able to show based on our variety of grocery stores that we have in our community
[27:03] is that it just depends on where the grocery store is as far as the visitors to the stores.
[27:10] And so visiting shoppers may attend and shop at different grocery stores depending
[27:15] on the location.
[27:16] And so, just an overall picture, if you look at the estimated tax paid by zip code, and
[27:22] it's just extrapolated data, so it's not actual data, and it's not sales tax data because
[27:28] that's confidential data, but about 60% of visitors to Arlington Heights are not living
[27:37] in the community actually spend their dollars here, and about 40% of Arlington Heights
[27:41] zip codes spend their dollars in Arlington Heights.
[27:45] but it depends on the location of the grocery store.
[27:48] For example, downtown dual has a higher percentage
[27:51] for actual residents coming in to shop in the grocery store
[27:56] as compared to other types of grocery stores.
[27:59] Again, this is just one type of data to take a look at
[28:02] in terms of trade areas and it's just another aspect
[28:05] of the local grocery tax to share with you.
[28:11] We've been monitoring a variety of sources
[28:14] And we want to point out our local comparables.
[28:19] There are about 11 communities that we tend to say,
[28:22] how are we looking at as far as a comparable community?
[28:26] And so this is our list of 10.
[28:28] And we're one of a group, so it's a total of 11.
[28:32] But more than 350 Illinois municipalities across the entire state of Illinois
[28:38] have retained the local grocery tax as a funding mechanism for their general fund to retain that.
[28:44] We share that with you because that is also our pool of communities that we take a look
[28:49] at and we're going to show you some data from other points as far as our peer communities.
[28:55] So peer data moving on through and I'm just going to leave local grocery tax for just
[29:00] a moment because I want to show a little bit about our peer data and tax rates.
[29:06] And again, one of the things that we do when we're formulating new taxes or looking
[29:13] at our current tax structure, we're looking at how we kind of sit side by side with our
[29:18] community and how others formulate their tax structure.
[29:21] Just looking across from the home rail sales tax, you can see that pretty much we're all
[29:28] in on par at 1%, we just one community slightly higher at a quarter percent, Illinois Department
[29:34] of Revenue, the increments are only a quarter percent, so 25 basis points, it's the
[29:40] only increase that you can do at a time so it's not like you can do 10% or so
[29:45] on. Again, retaining the grocery tax, you can see all the communities there. We're
[29:51] going to talk about food and beverage tax rates and so I just list them for you
[29:55] to look at as well to kind of see where we sit and fall in our communities. And
[29:59] then the hotel
[30:00] We're going to talk about that as well.
[30:03] I mentioned the increase of a quarter percent to the village is approximately $1.8 million
[30:10] annually to the village. And so we're not recommending a new tax or this option as a new tax to consider.
[30:20] We do believe that it would place us a little bit above our community comparables and it
[30:25] also and potentially increasing costs to consumers for higher priced items and as well as to
[30:32] restaurant dining.
[30:37] And what does home roll sales tax apply to?
[30:41] We kind of abbreviate it there, HMR, it applies to purchases with the exception of
[30:45] food and drug.
[30:46] Things that are also common would be electronics, furniture, purchase a patio table, it can
[30:54] be a variety of household cleaning supplies. It can be school supplies. It can be a variety
[31:00] of things in your shopper's basket. It is going to just vary depending on what you shop
[31:06] for and how your spending plan is. And so shoppers may be a little bit more price concerned
[31:14] as things go up and as we're seeing that in the economy. And so the impact might
[31:19] be greater. Shifting things, when you look at shifting, should local grocery tax compared
[31:26] to an increase in homeworld tax? We'll talk a little bit about that. But that may potentially
[31:32] add a little bit more burden to retailers and potentially to restaurants. And so we're
[31:36] just kind of keeping those things in mind, particularly as profit margins have some
[31:42] pressure out there.
[31:43] If I can jump in too and just the point with this is, again, generally speaking, when you
[31:50] go to the grocery store, now everything you buy there is quote unquote groceries and
[31:53] subject to that grocery tax.
[31:56] A lot of the things you buy are general merchandise items, toiletries and all that type of thing.
[32:03] Anything essentially that you buy at the grocery store that other than drugs and food
[32:09] would be subject to the home roll sales tax and so one of the reasons we looked
[32:14] at this was it's another type of sales tax but it would essentially be also
[32:19] raising that grocery bill or the household item bill just in a different
[32:22] manner and again correct me if I'm wrong Melissa I don't believe these
[32:28] items are exempt from a sales tax like SNAP. We would have to just double
[32:36] confirm. But for the most part, we've identified that potentially it would not be, but I think
[32:41] that's an important point that you raised.
[32:42] Snap is generally for food items, and so they would get the sales tax exemption on that.
[32:49] But on non-food items, our understanding is that they still pay sales tax on that.
[32:55] But I just wanted to make that distinction.
[32:57] And if you think about it as, let's say it's $300 worth of food items and grocery store items
[33:04] in your basket. So you're going in and you're purchasing $300 worth. In the example of the
[33:10] grocery tax, as you've mentioned, only a portion of that is subject to the 1%. So if you look
[33:16] at your receipt, let's say you go to whatever grocery store you choose and you look down
[33:20] at your receipt and it's $300, two and a quarter you'll see, and then the 10% you'll
[33:26] see. And so it's either or. The two and a quarter includes the 1%. And so when you
[33:32] look at the grocery tax you just have to kind of look at your receipt and see that
[33:37] it's included in the two and a quarter. And the reason I mentioned is if you
[33:41] kind of shift things around and you say okay now we're going to eliminate the
[33:45] grocery tax and that now becomes one and a quarter and we're going to shift
[33:50] maybe a quarter percent for home roll sales tax and now our rate becomes ten
[33:54] point two five percent you shift it around when we ran this the short
[33:58] calculation it shifts it slightly and you may see some sort of savings but it's
[34:05] going to be very minimal to the shopper on the grocery bill where you are going
[34:10] to see the impact or some of those higher price items when you go to maybe
[34:13] other retail establishments and then also dining out and let's say you go to a
[34:18] home improvement store and you start purchasing other ticketed items so the
[34:23] The point is that you're shifting things, small increase to higher priced items.
[34:29] So I want to mention that because I know that there's a lot of different ways that
[34:33] you can look at examples but it's important to note kind of the shift that there really
[34:39] is kind of a modest change there that's important to note.
[34:43] We're not suggesting a home rule sales tax be implemented and be outside of our comparables
[34:47] but I do want to mention that.
[34:48] Feel free if you want to add a thought as we go through and you may have questions.
[34:55] But what I'm going to continue to go on through here, through the presentation, is to shift
[35:01] a little bit on the streaming tax side and because there is an ordinance for review, discussion,
[35:08] and consideration, as we've mentioned, this has been a plan now for several years.
[35:13] And with the full implementation in 2026, the effective date for a streaming tax could
[35:21] be considered as of next year.
[35:23] So we'd like to implement it, but it takes time to implement and initiate such a fee.
[35:29] Cable and telecommunication fees have been declining as people have cut the cord.
[35:35] And one of those things that are very important is that we still maintain the rights of
[35:39] weight.
[35:39] There's still an infrastructure cost.
[35:41] While the conduit in all of the services still flow through the rights away, we still maintain
[35:48] as municipality those rights away.
[35:51] There are several communities that have implemented a streaming tax and we've looked at a variety
[35:56] of things in addition to as we drafted with legal counsel the ordinance for review.
[36:03] I would want to also just mention that, again, it does not cover the full cost of the fifth
[36:11] ambulance.
[36:12] I know when we were speaking last year during the budget sessions that while the streaming
[36:17] tax is important, part of this, it doesn't even provide the full funding and we want
[36:22] to make sure that we are providing as much funding as possible for the full implementation
[36:27] of the fifth ambulance service.
[36:29] In our budget ceiling discussion, if you recall, and I put it in the agenda item as well,
[36:36] the approximate cost.
[36:37] So if you have a handful of streaming tax or streaming services, let's say from one
[36:44] of the, you know, Hulu to any of the other streaming services, it might range from about
[36:49] $41 to $61 per year.
[36:51] And I think we talked about at the end of June at the budget ceiling discussion,
[36:55] This is more of a choice-driven, consumer choice-driven tax rather than any other type
[37:00] of tax.
[37:02] So, I'm going to walk through a variety of the other aspects of the memo that we provided
[37:09] in the packet so that you have just a little bit of background on other types of revenue
[37:13] streams that come into the general fund, which are very important.
[37:16] One is our local hotel tax.
[37:19] It's a rate of 5%.
[37:22] It's administered by the village for the general fund services.
[37:28] And just a note to that, we looked at what might it look like should you increase it by a percentage.
[37:35] And one of those things that we also look at is our municipal comparables.
[37:39] But if we did increase anything by a percentage for hotel tax or current revenues about 925 to 950,000 to the general fund,
[37:48] but we estimate based on our 11 local hotels about 200,000, if you net out our contribution
[37:55] to meet Chicago Northwest, it's roughly about 184,000.
[38:00] We're not suggesting to consider an increase to the local hotel tax, but we did want to
[38:05] just make sure that you are aware that those are options to take a look at.
[38:10] We are suggesting to have this as part of a more thorough review and analysis as
[38:16] in context of ongoing and planned development activities across the village.
[38:24] Our local food and beverage tax, again, that's a local tax that we administer and collect.
[38:30] And it's a 1.25 percent tax on prepared food and liquor on and off premises.
[38:39] And there's also an additional amount for a fresco establishments.
[38:43] And what we did was just kind of run an increase from 1.25% up to 2% to see what that might
[38:51] generate for a revenue ad.
[38:54] And that came out to about 1.5 million.
[38:57] This is not one we're considering.
[38:58] We feel like it's an impact on shoppers and restaurant patrons and the hospitality sector.
[39:05] And we'd like to remain somewhat in line with our municipal comparables as well.
[39:09] The reason we are running a lot of these scenarios is to see what some of the
[39:14] bigger impacts. We do this as normal part of our budget process. On one of the
[39:18] pages in last year's budget, we actually run a lot of these for
[39:22] consideration. We want to make sure we're kind of going back through and
[39:25] updating numbers. And so that's the local food in Beverent Shacks.
[39:31] So how
[39:31] do we again kind of fit in the scheme of our comparable communities and
[39:35] municipalities, alcohol-related tax is really hearing the feedback from the village board
[39:45] we looked at, kind of those consumer choice or choice-driven kinds of taxes.
[39:50] And alcohol-related is typically taxed through your food and beverage tax structure from your
[39:57] local municipality.
[39:58] And so you can see the variation there across the municipalities.
[40:02] package liquor tax, the village does not have one, there are a couple out there that do that tax,
[40:08] that have that enacted in their village or city, and those sometimes are designated for certain aspects.
[40:16] But we, again, we're not suggesting new on that as well.
[40:21] Local tobacco tax, we did a survey and none have a local tax, but there are other considerations at the county and state we'd have to look into.
[40:29] do. And then video gaming terminals. We did run some numbers on that. Most of this you
[40:35] can download directly from, you know, the various websites. So we did provide some information
[40:41] in the back part of the presentation that I'll go through in just a moment. I did want
[40:45] to turn to a couple things that are not into effect and kind of walk through that
[40:49] as well. And I know we're, from a perspective of looking at all these different revenue
[40:54] new streams, I'm highlighting certain things on a per revenue basis, and I want to make
[41:01] sure that it's understood that we're looking at things globally as well.
[41:05] So I'm just kind of highlighting things on a global basis, and we can always walk through
[41:09] questions at the end.
[41:11] One of the aspects of kind of optimizing our operations through the village board process
[41:18] in the budget process. We eliminated the vehicles and pet stickers affected by the 2024 budget.
[41:26] The revenue was about $1.3 million to the general fund, but through some of the
[41:32] ways that we frankly did better in sales taxes over the last several years, we were able to
[41:38] absorb the loss of this important revenue stream. It is a very highly labor-intensive
[41:45] way to collect funds. When I think about revenues, I think about fairness, efficiency, predictability,
[41:52] and also reliability. And this one unfortunately wasn't one that was suggested to continue
[42:00] because one, it was very inefficient. And, you know, for example, we were able to save
[42:06] on savings for the village by eliminating a staff position that wasn't needed when
[42:11] the program ended. There was also considerations for enforcement and we felt like it was not
[42:17] a fair revenue source. So it's not recommended to reinstate the revenue but I did want to
[42:22] review some of the bullet points to that as well.
[42:26] One of the asks as well is to take a look at some of the things such as single use
[42:32] bag taxes or fees. I think generally people think of plastic bags when you're shopping
[42:37] is, I forget mine. I forget my reusable ones. I try to remind myself. But some municipalities
[42:43] want to incent behavior. And so to do that, they enact fee or a tax. Sometimes it's 10%
[42:49] per bag. And there are a variety of ways you can look at it. Of the municipal comparables
[42:55] that we looked at, we pulled a few. I would say what we're seeing is that, again, the
[43:01] the taxes were enacted so they could modify behavior,
[43:05] but that was not a revenue-generating source.
[43:07] And so just looking at some of the ones that we looked at,
[43:10] some of the net revenue out there was about 100,000 annually,
[43:14] but it was really more of a different way
[43:15] to incent behavior.
[43:20] And then video gaming,
[43:21] I'm gonna turn it over to Randy for just a moment.
[43:24] Yeah, and this is one that's obviously a current topic.
[43:27] And so we ran some numbers from some of our peers,
[43:31] But, you know, we know that that's something that's going to be discussed soon.
[43:36] And we know that this is being looked at not solely as a revenue source,
[43:40] but also as a way to help the business community.
[43:44] But from looking at this, it does not, when you look at the amount of revenue
[43:48] that we're looking to retain of the 1.3 million in terms of grocery tax
[43:54] and gain so we can fund the Fifth Ambulance,
[43:59] It doesn't appear that we can very easily kind of video gaming revenue our way out of those
[44:05] particular issues because one thing to consider is that our market right now we're one of
[44:12] only a few communities that don't have them and so by gaining them it doesn't necessarily
[44:18] mean we're going to realize the same amount of revenue per unit as some of these folks.
[44:23] It gives you a point of reference, but you're kind of saturating the market a little bit
[44:29] by doing this.
[44:30] But it is useful as a point of reference, but we know that that discussion is being
[44:34] had independent of this, so we wanted to throw it up for review as well.
[44:40] I'll add one footnote to that is that it's one of those revenue streams that consider
[44:48] factor and also remember that sometimes there's an unpredictability factor. The pandemic is
[44:54] a good example when gaming wasn't happening. Revenue was zero to general funds.
[45:00] But obviously it's just one of those things that were saturated. I thought I'd pull some
[45:04] data just to take a look at.
[45:08] So I want to somewhat end here because I think this one is interesting.
[45:13] There's a lot on the slide. We have, you know, in our budget book for 2026 we'll provide
[45:20] the updated amounts, but this one is from the 2025 Comparable Municipalities. So with
[45:27] What we try to do is kind of see where we sit in our total estimated annual homeowner
[45:34] costs.
[45:35] And so you can see from last year, we're kind of in the middle.
[45:38] Depending on what you look at, if you look at just home roll sales tax, you can see
[45:43] we're right in line with our municipal comparables.
[45:46] If you kind of take a look at the property tax, it's a little bit different where we're
[45:50] still kind of right in line, a little above actually.
[45:53] And then you can also just take a look at fees and user fees as far as utilities.
[45:58] I think what's important in the takeaway to this is what we were kind of saying in the beginning,
[46:04] is that much of what we're looking at, the two viable options,
[46:09] makes a lot of sense from the perspective of sitting within our community comparables.
[46:14] But in addition to that, making sure that our total costs are as much as possible viable for our residents as well.
[46:22] and so when we think about providing services in the general fund and we're
[46:27] looking at adding or looking at new taxes and seeing what the fairness
[46:31] structure is I think what's important is to remember that looking at the overall
[46:37] picture for our general fund revenue stream and so the two considerations while
[46:41] they're combined together they're a little bit separate the retaining of
[46:45] the local tax is no impact as far as new taxes to residents or visitors to
[46:51] to the village. Streaming tax has been paired up with our provision of the
[46:57] Fifth Ambulance Service and we feel that they are the most viable revenue options.
[47:02] Not that there are other revenue options to take a look at, but we're also
[47:05] balancing at the same time considerations to making sure that the tax levy
[47:10] proposal when you receive the budget in late October is as low as possible to
[47:15] next to zero if we can, but we're looking at as low as possible from
[47:19] feedback from the Village Board. So again, I wanted to kind of walk through what we presented
[47:25] within the memo and leave that and pause there for questions.
[47:29] If I can add just two points as well. One, there is a timing issue with the grocery tax
[47:38] in particular and that is in order to retain the grocery tax as we've been collecting
[47:45] at all these years. The board has to take action prior to the October 1st village board meeting.
[47:52] And so we wanted to have this discussion and provide this analysis, you know, with some time
[47:57] to spare on that issue. And so that's number one. If you didn't do that, then you would lose
[48:04] six months of revenue. You wouldn't be able to enact the tax again. And at that point, it would
[48:10] be a tax increase, really, you'd have to do that in the spring, and then you'd be able
[48:16] to begin that in effective July 1, 2026.
[48:21] So that's number one.
[48:22] Number two, again, on the streaming tax, this discussion is being generated by the decision
[48:28] by the board to implement the fifth ambulance in 2026.
[48:34] The idea was to generate a revenue that would take pressure off of property taxes
[48:39] to help fund this difference, something that was fair, looking at things historically.
[48:44] The other thing is with any new tax of this kind, it does take some time to implement,
[48:49] take some time to get the service providers kind of in line on this, and we are beginning
[48:54] hiring now.
[48:55] And so that's the reason we're looking at both of these at this point in time.
[49:00] And so at this point, yes, we do have ordinances prepared.
[49:03] If the board is so inclined to approve them tonight, it can happen.
[49:07] then if the board obviously has questions or wants to go in a different direction, that's
[49:11] obviously under your prerogative.
[49:16] All right.
[49:16] Well, thanks, Melissa and Randy for that very detailed outline for both of these items.
[49:24] I also wanted to welcome Trustee Santa Maria.
[49:28] She let the record show that she was here.
[49:30] She was returning from a wonderful vacation and back at 8.15 here joining us tonight.
[49:36] So these couple of items are things to talk about and I think at this point it's probably
[49:42] a good idea to just open it up to the board for discussions and we can start on either
[49:47] side.
[49:48] We'll start over here.
[49:48] Trustee Schwingback.
[49:49] Thank you, Mayor.
[49:51] So Randy, Melissa, on the, I guess the first one, the grocery tax.
[49:59] Right now 1% comes to us.
[50:03] what is the state, what's their percentage, one and a half?
[50:11] So 1% to the municipality.
[50:16] When I mention that, and I apologize for not kind of walking through the total tax,
[50:20] but our total tax rate is 10% on general merchandise.
[50:25] 2.25% is what we call food and drug.
[50:28] and so that one percent is part of the two and a quarter and so that two and a
[50:34] quarter includes one and a quarter for the RTA. Okay. So are they, when you
[50:40] mentioned here that the state of Illinois passed the legislation to
[50:45] eliminate the one percent, we have the opportunity to keep it. Is that because
[50:51] we're a home rule? So are any other, they wanted to eliminate it, they you know
[50:57] So they looked at eliminating it across the board but they realized the negative impact
[51:01] it was having on municipalities and so they changed it to, they were eliminating it as
[51:07] a mandated revenue but every municipality, home rule or non-home rule under the law has
[51:14] the ability to retain it.
[51:16] At this point, it appears that all of our neighbors have retained it because again
[51:22] I think everyone's in that kind of same boat where it's an existing revenue and
[51:25] And, you know, expenses are tight, everyone's trying to keep proper taxes.
[51:29] And that gets distributed to us at some later point in time by the state.
[51:33] Monthly basis, I believe.
[51:34] Yes.
[51:35] Yeah.
[51:36] And you had mentioned that it's been going on for many years.
[51:39] How long has that been in effect?
[51:41] I mean, over 10?
[51:42] Oh, yeah.
[51:42] Oh, more than that.
[51:43] I would have to say even 30 or 40 years.
[51:46] Yeah.
[51:47] Randy, could you put up that slide or Melissa, where it talks about the other communities
[51:50] neighboring that you had up a little bit ago?
[51:53] Because all the other neighboring communities had already
[52:00] opted to retain it.
[52:05] And then on the other streaming tax, the question that I had was, I guess when I look at this,
[52:16] I look at it as a tax, I put the fifth ambulance aside because when we're losing tax because
[52:30] people are getting rid of, say, their cable TV and they're going to streaming.
[52:35] So when I look at this, I don't really look at it that we're trying to generate money
[52:40] for an ambulance or anything else.
[52:42] I'm looking at it more kind of like the cell phone versus the landlines where as people
[52:50] are getting rid of their landlines, we're losing all that tax that was on there.
[52:57] So when you had mentioned in here that the streaming service still require the use of
[53:06] public right away for cable lines, as people have,
[53:10] just one more time,
[53:12] as people have been getting rid of their cable
[53:16] and going to streaming,
[53:18] how much have we actually lost in revenue?
[53:22] Do we have that slide?
[53:24] If you could put that up.
[53:25] About six million was our annual,
[53:28] about 10 years ago,
[53:29] and I'll pull up the slide,
[53:30] I've got one in the back here.
[53:32] As you can see back in 2006,
[53:34] Right.
[53:35] We're almost to $6 million, now we're about half of that between cable franchise and telecommunication
[53:40] taxes.
[53:41] Okay.
[53:42] And that public right-of-way, what are we actually doing as a village?
[53:47] What expenses are we incurring by keeping that public right-of-way clear for them?
[53:53] We have to maintain it, essentially, that when these things are generally, the utilities
[53:59] are generally put in the right-of-way and we're responsible for maintaining it.
[54:03] And they, we have to keep it clear, there's Julie locates, there's all of those things.
[54:09] We have to make sure that no one else is building things that's going to interfere with these
[54:14] utilities.
[54:15] Those are the types of things we do, maintaining the roads, sidewalks, streets, et cetera.
[54:20] There's a permitting process to do work in the right-of-way that we have to manage,
[54:25] so all of those things.
[54:27] Some utilities are better than others at putting things in the right-of-way and
[54:32] And then we have to go after them.
[54:33] A lot of times residents will find cable lines and stuff just in their backyard.
[54:38] And then we can go after those and say, no, you have to bury it, you have to do those
[54:42] things.
[54:42] And so it's a process that whether, you know, essentially people are getting their
[54:47] services through that cable or through that telephone line now, just like they always
[54:53] have been, it's just packaged in a different corporate structure.
[54:56] right and so the work is the same the elements are the same it's just a
[55:01] different you know fee-for-service so as we've seen our revenue drop we're still
[55:08] doing the exact same thing to keep right public right away but our costs have
[55:14] probably gone up of course they have sure just like everything else yeah so
[55:19] I yeah I just wanted to try and understand what what we as a village
[55:25] we're doing to keep that right away clear for them.
[55:29] Yeah, so, okay.
[55:30] Thank you.
[55:31] Wendy?
[55:33] Jim?
[55:34] Go ahead.
[55:36] Well, without repeating, but just to piggyback on Tom's comments, Tom, your questions I thought
[55:43] were spot on.
[55:44] And by the way, Melissa and Marion, you're the rest of the finance staff.
[55:49] You guys did a great job with your memos and explaining all this.
[55:52] But I, too, look at both of these taxes as taxes that are being retained
[55:59] because they're just being packaged differently.
[56:02] Certainly, it's obvious on the grocery tax that this is just retaining the tax
[56:08] that the state said we're no longer going to be the ones that are so-called in charge of this.
[56:13] If you want it, put yourself in charge of it, you know.
[56:16] Okay. And so we already have that tax.
[56:19] We're already trying to push down our property tax levy from over 3% to under 3% and closer
[56:27] to an inflationary amount.
[56:33] And this would put a lot of pressure on being able to do that and maybe even put pressure,
[56:39] upward pressure on that if we don't retain these.
[56:42] And again, the streaming tax, I look at as an entertainment tax that's being retained
[56:46] And just for the reasons that you guys had mentioned that it's just shifting from one
[56:53] technology to another newer technology, such as the example that Trustee Schringbeck used
[57:01] on the phone systems.
[57:03] So that's my two cents, Mayor.
[57:06] Thanks.
[57:07] Mayor, I did get a piece of information.
[57:10] The Illinois Grocery Tax has been in effect since 1990, so about 36 years.
[57:15] Very good.
[57:15] Thanks.
[57:16] Thanks.
[57:16] Thank you.
[57:17] Trustee Donington.
[57:18] Thanks, Mayor.
[57:19] Thank you so much, Melissa, and the whole finance team.
[57:22] The memos that you sent and the presentation today was really helpful, good information,
[57:27] and explained in a really clear way.
[57:31] So I really appreciate that, thank you.
[57:33] One thing from the memo I did want to ask about is it highlighted the foods that
[57:39] are included in the grocery tax, but then it also mentioned drugs, and that was something
[57:44] that I wasn't familiar with. So is it correct that the grocery tax, if we eliminated the
[57:51] grocery tax, then we would not, there would be no tax on prescription medications over
[57:58] the counter drugs like pain relievers, allergy, meds, and acids, medical appliances, hearing
[58:04] aids, crutches, blood pressure monitors, is that correct?
[58:08] Those are the items that are listed on the Department of Revenue's website. So those
[58:12] Those are the ones that are included as far as food and drug and so in that category.
[58:17] And so if we eliminated it, there would be no tax on those prescriptions?
[58:28] I'm not sure.
[58:29] I think the 1%, I don't believe that the grocery tax is different than the special
[58:41] Also, 1% rate on prescription drugs remains in effect, I believe, we can double check that.
[58:49] We'll confirm that.
[58:50] Yeah, we'll confirm that.
[58:52] Okay, so the 1% is on bread, milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, cereal, pasta,
[59:00] rice, yes, what it's on, okay.
[59:04] I will be voting no on the grocery tax tonight.
[59:07] I think it's a bad tax and tonight is our opportunity to eliminate a tax that hurts
[59:14] vulnerable people in our community, like seniors on a fixed income or lower
[59:20] income families who don't qualify for SNAP benefits. Low income households spend
[59:26] a much higher share of their income on food than better off households. The
[59:31] current grocery tax is a tax on food and maybe drugs that are basic
[59:35] necessities and it's something that's unavoidable even if you operate on a tight
[59:40] family budget. There was an article that just came out from the Hill and it said
[59:46] that the price of ground beef which is a staple in American households is soaring
[59:52] across the country right now and it's unlikely to drop anytime soon. The U.S.
[59:56] Bureau of Statistics shows the average price was $5 million.
[1:00:00] $5.36 in June of 2024. And just last month in July, it's currently $9.26 per pound according
[1:00:09] to the USDA. So I think that we should be the village that doesn't tax food, that food that's
[1:00:17] brought for your home. Who knows? Maybe people will choose to shop in Arlington Heights if
[1:00:23] eliminate that grocery tax. If the board feels that we have to make up the
[1:00:31] deficit, I would be more in support of the quarter increase in the home rules tax
[1:00:37] instead, since that would generate 1.8 million dollars in revenue and so that
[1:00:43] would cover both the grocery tax and the streaming tax that we're discussing.
[1:00:48] I think that with the rising costs of food,
[1:00:53] homeowners insurance, and electricity,
[1:00:56] the elimination of the tax will help families and seniors
[1:00:59] afford more nutritious food and afford basic needs.
[1:01:05] So my vote is no for the grocery tax tonight.
[1:01:08] Okay, thank you.
[1:01:10] Anyone else down here?
[1:01:12] Trustee Santamaria?
[1:01:13] Sure, thank you Mayor.
[1:01:15] Melissa, I know you had mentioned in your presentation that people receiving SNAP
[1:01:21] benefits would not be or not subject to the tax. Is that correct? That based on
[1:01:27] our research that is what I found. Okay, and but we don't know what would happen
[1:01:31] with the decrease of SNAP federally correct and what that might look like.
[1:01:38] Correct. I do not. Okay. Then I think I would because of that I really
[1:01:43] feel that groceries are not a luxury and they are a necessity and I agree with
[1:01:47] many of the sentiments that trustee Dunnington had said about food being in
[1:01:51] a necessity and not knowing how SNAP benefits may decrease for people who
[1:01:58] need it in our community. I don't think that this would be a fair tax to to
[1:02:02] continue in early tonight's.
[1:02:06] Thanks. Before we go on to the other side, can
[1:02:09] you clarify something, Randy? When you were talking about SNAP and you were
[1:02:16] You're talking about the difference between someone buying groceries versus buying other
[1:02:24] household items and how that affects their purchasing power.
[1:02:29] Can somebody refresh that, please?
[1:02:31] Our understanding is that SNAP benefits are generally for the purchase of food.
[1:02:38] And so food purchase with SNAP is exempt from any grocery tax that might be in effect.
[1:02:43] But obviously low-income people have to buy other household items.
[1:02:48] And those household items are still subject to whatever sales tax that locality has in
[1:02:54] effect.
[1:02:55] If that locality increases that sales tax, such as in the, you know, situation of our
[1:03:01] homeral sales tax, they would pay for that, whereas they're not currently paying local,
[1:03:08] you know, the grocery tax.
[1:03:10] I think I understand what you're saying.
[1:03:16] Does everybody understand that here?
[1:03:19] I'm just making sure I'm with you.
[1:03:21] Okay.
[1:03:22] Trustee LaBette.
[1:03:23] Thank you.
[1:03:24] I agree with a trustee's swing back and Bertucci that these are,
[1:03:31] this would be a continuation of existing taxes.
[1:03:34] So I'll just say up front that I will vote in favor of both.
[1:03:38] then, but I also have some questions. One is, I assume that stores that sell
[1:03:46] groceries that weren't listed like a Dollar Tree or a gas station,
[1:03:51] Cookie Mart or something like that, those also are 1%. And is it also
[1:03:57] correct to think that it's not that there will be no tax if we eliminate
[1:04:03] this because there'll still be one in a quarter percent RTA tax. Is that
[1:04:07] correct? So it's not that there will be no tax on these items. It would only be
[1:04:14] less if we did not agree to continue the 1%. I also want to mention that you know
[1:04:27] I that as far as the streaming tax goes we've actually this has been a
[1:04:32] subject that we've talked about for years during the budget time, and I think that the
[1:04:38] staff who are here will remember that has been part of the discussion that at some point
[1:04:45] with the loss of the cable franchise fee and the table communication tax revenue,
[1:04:52] we are going to have to start talking about this because I remember being here in
[1:04:58] this room and asking our former Director of Finance, Tom Keeney, how does this work?
[1:05:05] Because I just couldn't quite comprehend how one, how do we get somebody like Disney
[1:05:12] and Hulu and Netflix and all to assess this.
[1:05:17] So it's been something that we have discussed long before.
[1:05:20] We had a discussion about the fifth ambulance.
[1:05:23] So it's just kind of finally, in my mind, coming to the time that we need to address this and make up this difference.
[1:05:33] And a question about this particular chart, which is the green and which is the purple?
[1:05:40] The telecommunication taxes are in green and the cable franchise are in the purple.
[1:05:46] Okay.
[1:05:47] Thank you for that question.
[1:05:48] Kind of interesting. There's a slight increase in cable franchise fees this last year, but it's probably an anomaly of some kind.
[1:05:58] Let me see. If I had any... I think that we were probably... Oh, I have a question about this package liquor tax that some communities have.
[1:06:12] Does that mean if somebody was to buy a 12-pack of Bud, there's no tax on that?
[1:06:18] Or is it, is this a different kind of tax?
[1:06:21] It would still pay sales tax.
[1:06:22] Okay.
[1:06:23] This would be an additional tax on top of regular sales tax.
[1:06:26] Okay, okay.
[1:06:27] That wasn't clear to me from the chart.
[1:06:30] Perhaps that's going to be something we're going to need to discuss at a future date.
[1:06:33] Perhaps we're going to need to discuss the increase in the hotel tax.
[1:06:37] And yes, I am completely sympathetic with the potential loss in SNAP benefits for some
[1:06:45] people.
[1:06:46] I'm completely sympathetic with the knowledge that these items that are taxed for food and
[1:06:56] for drugs are necessities in life.
[1:07:00] If they're not something that you can choose not to have like you could choose not to have
[1:07:07] a Hulu subscription or any other streaming subscription, those are, you know, those are
[1:07:12] choices individuals make.
[1:07:16] So I understand that.
[1:07:17] But I still am in favor of the taxes.
[1:07:21] Thank you.
[1:07:23] Thank you for seeing that.
[1:07:24] Anyone else on this side?
[1:07:26] Trustee Shirley?
[1:07:27] You know, I'm going to mirror what Trustee LaVette said.
[1:07:32] I support both of these as presented by staff, and I, too, looked at them kind of as replacements
[1:07:41] for other revenue loss that we've had.
[1:07:44] I guess they ask, Randy, if we don't pass one or the other of these, then isn't it
[1:07:49] just going to put more pressure on the property tax burden this coming year, right?
[1:07:54] So I'm already very unhappy with the fact that we're targeting something over three percent, you know
[1:08:01] We had I don't know five or six years in a row. We were zero and then last year. I can't remember where we were but we were
[1:08:08] It was north of two percent two point four six two point four, right? Who's counting right? Yes
[1:08:13] But I just I don't find that to be an acceptable
[1:08:18] You know alternative to these I know we've gotten negative feedback on the streaming tax
[1:08:24] by quite a few people that have written in and sent emails and such and so I just
[1:08:31] I just can't see going into that discussion on property taxes with this
[1:08:36] additional burden on top of everything else so I know some people are gonna
[1:08:40] say well property taxes you can write off this and that but property taxes the
[1:08:44] one thing is increases in property taxes never go away they never go down no
[1:08:49] matter who the taxing body is they're there forever as far as I'm concerned so
[1:08:54] I do support these if someone makes the appropriate emotion or I would certainly
[1:08:58] be happy to do so at the appropriate time I just think that I don't really think
[1:09:03] we have any other good options and so I think these are the two that that I'm
[1:09:07] willing to support so that's all I have. Thanks Trustee Shirley. Trustee
[1:09:11] Manganera. Thank you Mayor. First of all I appreciate all of the work
[1:09:17] That staff has done to answer a lot of questions provide us with a lot of information
[1:09:25] When we talked about this at the the budget ceiling discussion, I think the board had a had a lot of
[1:09:32] Anks about these recommendations. I still do
[1:09:36] I'll be honest. I'm not planning to vote for any tax increase of any kind this year. I
[1:09:42] think that there are a lot of
[1:09:44] financial pressures on our residents from a lot of directions coupled with a
[1:09:49] great deal of uncertainty about 2026. We heard a lot about the conservative
[1:09:55] approach we take to budgeting and I agree that we take a financially
[1:10:00] conservative approach. I'd like to see us take a more tax policy conservative
[1:10:04] approach.
[1:10:08] Some of the burdens include we raised our water tax rates 3.6
[1:10:12] percent this year. The meter replacements, while that accuracy has had the effect of
[1:10:21] further increasing people's water bills. Meanwhile, ComEd has increased their
[1:10:26] rates 10 to 15 percent. NYCOR is looking at a 9 percent increase. All state,
[1:10:31] excuse me, state farm is following suit so that by the end, by next year everyone,
[1:10:37] everyone, whoever their carrier is, will be paying about 25% more for casualty insurance,
[1:10:44] property insurance than they did three to four years ago.
[1:10:47] We also are going to get reassessed on our property values in 2026, another upward pressure.
[1:10:57] So I believe this is the year, and as George Manager Recklaus said back in June, I believe
[1:11:05] when we looked at this, that reserves are a lever we can pull once.
[1:11:10] And I think this is the year to consider doing that.
[1:11:14] The grocery tax and a little aside on that, I don't agree that this is just a continuation.
[1:11:21] The legislature eliminated that tax with intent because of, as Trustee Dunnington
[1:11:29] mentioned the skyrocketing price of food to try to give people a break.
[1:11:36] If my math is right, the medium cost that you mentioned comes to about $3.84 per meal
[1:11:49] for that family of four.
[1:11:51] That's very frugal food budgeting in my view.
[1:11:57] And that 1% means they have 43 fewer meals per year.
[1:12:04] I really, as I say, believe that there was intent in that change.
[1:12:11] If we're not certain about the impact on prescription drugs,
[1:12:15] again, think of someone who is taking a very high-cost cancer drug.
[1:12:20] Think of someone who is taking a GLP-1 at hundreds of dollars,
[1:12:24] if not a thousand dollars or more per month.
[1:12:26] that has a real impact. So these are things that I'm just not prepared this
[1:12:31] evening to put on our residents over and above all of the additional costs
[1:12:37] they're bearing that are higher than they were last year. Thank you. Thank you
[1:12:42] Trustee Mangano. Trustee Zick. Thank you Mayor. Yeah and thank you you know
[1:12:47] everybody for for all the hard work that's gone into all this and Trustee
[1:12:52] Mangano you had mentioned in June that we had a lot of there's a lot of
[1:12:55] angst throughout the board. I'm still having a lot of angst right now as we're talking about
[1:13:00] this. The 1%, you know, that was essentially a pass-through to the state, right? They were
[1:13:09] taking this 1% in and they were just passing it, you know, taking it in and then passing
[1:13:14] on to us. The one reason I can stomach that part of it is because it isn't actually
[1:13:21] a tax increase that we're putting on people. If we walk out of here voting
[1:13:25] forward today, nobody's paying anything more than they were when we
[1:13:28] walked into here, because it's the same 1%. So that's the one part of it, that
[1:13:33] I can at least get me to kind of think about doing that, though I do
[1:13:40] agree with the comments of the other trustees on how it does affect certain
[1:13:44] people. The other one, though, that I'm having problem with and some things
[1:13:48] that came out through the discussion is with the streaming tax and it's just taxes, tax
[1:13:53] increase overall. You know, if we were a financially strapped village, I would be probably having
[1:14:00] a very much thought, different thought process in how we do things. You know, this past
[1:14:05] year, after last year, we had such reserves and I know you talked about it a little
[1:14:12] bit. We had such reserves that we had enough money that we were able to take some of
[1:14:16] that money and we were able to spread it around to other funds to increase to the pension
[1:14:20] funds, which was the right thing to do. So we are doing well financially as a village.
[1:14:29] This whole thing of tying it to the Fifth Ambulance. The Fifth Ambulance was a good
[1:14:34] decision by this board last year, and it was the right decision by the board. And
[1:14:38] I don't want to be put out there that if we don't go for this, maybe it wasn't
[1:14:43] a good decision for the village because it was a good decision for the village.
[1:14:48] You know, during the presentation there was a comment that was made that if we don't do
[1:14:52] this, if we don't pass both of these increases, two things are going to happen.
[1:14:58] One were.
[1:15:00] We're going to have to raise the property tax, or we're going to have to cut back services.
[1:15:06] And those are possibilities, but they're not the only possibilities, as we talked about
[1:15:12] with the reserve fund that we do have. We are doing a very good job, and I get it. It's
[1:15:16] a rainy day thing, and in case property taxes don't come in from the state or the county
[1:15:21] as quickly as possible, it helps us so we don't have to go out and borrow money
[1:15:26] and do all that kind of stuff and for different downturns. I totally get that, but we do
[1:15:31] have a policy, and correct me if I'm wrong, our policy for the reserves is that we want
[1:15:35] to be between 25 and 40%. If I'm wrong, please, please let me know that. Well, we have that
[1:15:41] for a reason. Maybe we do go that level this one time instead of increasing taxes
[1:15:49] and doing things like the streaming tax. We do it this one time in place of doing
[1:15:56] that, because if we don't ever want to come off that 40%, we should change that policy.
[1:16:00] We should make it that we have to be at 40% all the time, not that there's this range
[1:16:06] on there. So it's something for us to consider. I want to also get something on the hotel
[1:16:13] tax too if I can, and I will finish up here in a second. You know, it was a big thing.
[1:16:20] It was made on the grocery tax that how much of a percentage it comes from people outside
[1:16:26] of Arlington Heights based on the different stores, and it's true. Not everybody in Arlington
[1:16:30] Heights is the only one affected by that, people that are coming in also. You look at
[1:16:34] the hotel tax, though, and you spread, take that math and you spread it out to 11 hotels
[1:16:39] 365 days a year, however many rooms that they have to. You break that down per room.
[1:16:45] It definitely lessens it. But I'm guessing 95% of the people that are paying that
[1:16:51] particular tax are not people that are in Arlington Heights.
[1:16:55] I'm just throwing that number out there, I have no idea, but that's for people that
[1:16:58] are coming into Arlington Heights, not living here in Arlington Heights.
[1:17:00] So they're paying, they're paying nothing, not the citizens here of Arlington Heights.
[1:17:05] So getting, so my end conclusion right now is I'm leaning towards voting for the
[1:17:12] grocery tax and keeping that since it's not really increasing anything, but coming
[1:17:16] back and voting no for the streaming tax.
[1:17:19] In fact, I also want to look at when we get to budget time, and I've talked about this
[1:17:23] before, I don't know how this really affects the budget.
[1:17:25] I don't really know if we vote for this or we don't vote for this, what really happens
[1:17:28] to the budget, because I haven't seen the complete budget numbers, you know, what it
[1:17:33] does.
[1:17:33] And I know we're working on those, and you're working very hard, and I know, and
[1:17:35] I get that, and we'll get that at some point.
[1:17:38] But it's hard for me to say, yeah, it is something like that when I really don't
[1:17:42] know what's the end result going to be at the end.
[1:17:46] Thank you.
[1:17:48] Just a couple of the comments that were made.
[1:17:52] For the hotel tax, one of the reasons that that's not looked at directly is travel, particularly
[1:18:01] business travel, is something that's really dropped down considerably in recent years.
[1:18:06] And it is one of those things that changes dramatically depending on the economy.
[1:18:12] And so when you're looking at things, you're going to use the fund services we've talked
[1:18:16] about, elastic and inelastic sources of revenue.
[1:18:20] Generally you want to base your service provision revenues on things that aren't bouncing up
[1:18:27] and down with the economy.
[1:18:28] That's one of the reasons on that.
[1:18:29] And the one thing I would caution is, you know, we don't ever, it's not a good practice.
[1:18:36] It's not something staff would ever recommend.
[1:18:38] And I wanted to make sure because, you know, we talked about drawing down reserves temporarily.
[1:18:42] Staff would never recommend using the reserves to cover an operating cost, ever.
[1:18:48] That is not a good practice.
[1:18:51] You can use your reserves due to a one-time expense, where if you have a one-time expense
[1:18:58] that you're not going to incur every year, that's a situation to draw it down.
[1:19:01] You can also use your reserves to deal with a temporary reduction in revenues.
[1:19:09] So if, you know, perhaps you may want to consider that when you have, you know,
[1:19:13] a recession or something where you feel strongly that that number is going to come up.
[1:19:18] But we are adding a pretty significant increase in the cost of service with the fifth ambulance.
[1:19:27] I think everyone has agreed that it's something that's necessary if we want to maintain the
[1:19:31] same level of service that we provided to our residents.
[1:19:34] But I mean, make no mistake, that's something that's going to cost us money, and it's going
[1:19:38] to cost us money every year for the foreseeable future.
[1:19:42] And so the only way to do that is to add some kind of revenue source.
[1:19:48] And that's something we've said from the beginning.
[1:19:50] I'm just trying to be very clear with the board.
[1:19:52] There is no, we don't have that type of give in our budget without reducing services or
[1:20:00] looking at increases in property taxes. I mean, property taxes, love them or hate them, are
[1:20:05] the thing that communities look at year to year when you have cost overages. And so,
[1:20:11] are there other sources of revenue? There are. We laid out a lot of them. They have
[1:20:16] different pros and cons. Could they be reasonably looked at as an alternative to the streams
[1:20:20] that absolutely they could be, you know staff has this recommendation but that's
[1:20:24] ultimately up to the board but I did want to make it clear that staff would
[1:20:27] never recommend drawing down reserves to pay for an operational cost because what
[1:20:32] you're doing is essentially you're meaning that that increase is gonna have
[1:20:36] to be double in the in the in the following year and so I just wanted to
[1:20:39] make that point. If I may also add to that as far as a credit reading
[1:20:44] perspective so when you sit down with your rating agencies such as Moody's
[1:20:48] they will ask if you're doing those types of activities.
[1:20:52] Drawing down reserves is unfavorable.
[1:20:55] In addition to that, they're not rainy day reserves.
[1:20:59] They are for any type of situation
[1:21:01] that would be an unforeseen circumstance.
[1:21:04] And we do, as we've done over the years,
[1:21:06] kept it at that 40%.
[1:21:07] It's not a range for very good reason.
[1:21:10] And we've been very, very prudent on those uses,
[1:21:13] such as pension costs
[1:21:15] and then also investments in capital.
[1:21:19] I think the baseline, if I may add one more thing, the baseline for your general fund
[1:21:24] is sales tax, income tax, and property taxes.
[1:21:28] We are an organization of municipality that has just a little bit less than a third
[1:21:33] of their property taxes funding, the general fund,
[1:21:35] whereas libraries may be at 90-95% for property taxes.
[1:21:40] Park districts might be at 40 to 55 to 60 percent.
[1:21:45] School districts almost 100 percent.
[1:21:47] So we have, what we're looking at is trying to make sure
[1:21:50] that we've got that stable revenue source over time
[1:21:52] to fund those ongoing operations.
[1:21:55] And it's not just a one year.
[1:21:56] So to the point of, could we use reserves?
[1:21:59] No.
[1:21:59] And could we make sure that we're looking
[1:22:01] at the future we are and making sure
[1:22:04] that you've got that revenue source year over year,
[1:22:07] which is important for both of those.
[1:22:10] Well said.
[1:22:12] Mr. Passman.
[1:22:14] Thank you.
[1:22:15] One point of clarification.
[1:22:17] It's come up in the discussion this evening.
[1:22:19] On prescription drugs, there is a state sales tax of 1% on prescription drugs, excuse me,
[1:22:27] that is separate and apart from the previous state grocery tax and from any municipally
[1:22:35] imposed grocery tax, which is the one that's on your agenda for tonight.
[1:22:38] In other words, that tax was unaffected by the state legislation, and if the Board adopts
[1:22:46] the ordinance on your agenda, it will not apply to prescription drugs.
[1:22:50] So I want to clarify that.
[1:22:52] Very good.
[1:22:53] Thanks.
[1:22:53] Does that clarify the question at the Board level here, then?
[1:22:56] I appreciate that.
[1:22:57] Okay.
[1:22:57] I got a question on that.
[1:22:58] Yeah, there's a couple of questions here yet.
[1:23:00] Anything else from staff before we come back to the Board?
[1:23:03] Okay.
[1:23:04] We're going to go back to the Board for a second round here really quick, and
[1:23:06] I know Trustee Bertucci had a question and then Trustee Schwingbeck.
[1:23:11] Actually, Randy and Melissa answered my question because that's the point that I was going
[1:23:15] to make.
[1:23:16] So I am in total support of what Randy and Melissa had to say about using reserves.
[1:23:25] Just to, we'll let Trustee Schwingbeck, but when I'm ready I've got the recommendation
[1:23:33] that I'm ready to make a motion.
[1:23:34] Okay.
[1:23:36] Trustee Schwingback.
[1:23:37] So question on prescription medication, because Trustee Dunnington and I were talking about
[1:23:42] this.
[1:23:43] When I went back and looked at prescription medication, there's no tax on there.
[1:23:50] It's a fee for the drug, but there's no line item on there for tax.
[1:23:56] Is it buried somewhere else?
[1:23:58] I think so.
[1:24:00] It's not a municipal tax, for sure.
[1:24:03] My understanding is that there is a statewide sales tax at a reduced rate for prescription.
[1:24:10] The normal statewide sales tax is six and a quarter percent for regular goods, whatever
[1:24:16] that may be.
[1:24:17] There's a reduced sales tax of one percent for prescription drugs.
[1:24:20] That's my understanding.
[1:24:21] Because it's not showing up in a line item anywhere on the receipt.
[1:24:26] And I was thinking about that, but it's my own personal anecdotal experience.
[1:24:29] and starts to shrink back. I can't speak to that, but this proposed local grocery tax would
[1:24:38] only affect food. Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else here? All right. Well,
[1:24:46] I'm going to make a comment or two in that it's really something that this board has
[1:24:52] the kinds of diverse perspective all the way around. And I think our residents should
[1:24:58] be pleased to the fact that it's not some kind of a slam dunk. Everybody thinks the same
[1:25:03] on something. Here we are debating, you know, something that we all feel passionate about
[1:25:08] and we're all speaking eloquently about it. And I think at the end of the day the vote
[1:25:13] that happens will be one that was well thought out and well researched. So thank you to
[1:25:18] staff for everything that you've done and thank you to the board for being good leaders.
[1:25:24] My own perspective are really just very simple on the fact that I don't feel like we need
[1:25:31] to take it away and be the island in the middle of these suburbs that has this extra benefit.
[1:25:39] I think we're going to need it and I think it's important to keep for now at least.
[1:25:44] We'll have time down the road if it ever comes up again and we want to remove it.
[1:25:49] We can always do that. Am I correct?
[1:25:52] So for the foreseeable future, my opinion is to leave it on the board, on the books as it is and keep the 1% tax.
[1:26:03] On the other point of streaming taxes, I had this discussion with my young adult children and I said,
[1:26:13] Well, you guys don't know because the question was why would you want to do that dad?
[1:26:17] You know tax are streaming devices and so well because what you don't know is your mother and I paid an
[1:26:23] ungodly amount of taxes on our
[1:26:26] Cable bills and our cell phone bills and communication and so on and and now it's gone and these
[1:26:33] Services don't want to change at the village level. We are really not I
[1:26:38] Shouldn't say it like it. I am not an advocate for reducing any services
[1:26:42] If I remember correctly, when we had our department heads come in here earlier, I kept thinking
[1:26:47] myself, how are we going to get these departments more money to do their job that they're going
[1:26:53] to need to do over the next 12 months, because there's so much to do and so much going on.
[1:26:57] So reducing services to me is not an option.
[1:27:00] I do not want to raise property taxes to cover something like this.
[1:27:05] So I'm going to vote in favor of both of these, and I'm just really thankful for
[1:27:10] the dialogue, and I'm thankful for the research and the work everybody put into this. So whoever
[1:27:15] is preparing to make a motion, I think Trustee Shirley did, or Trustee Bertucci.
[1:27:19] Oh, you know what, Scott, do you have the wording there?
[1:27:21] I don't know if we really have the wording. Jim's got it here. Jim, why don't you go
[1:27:27] over? I think I see it in the memo. Oh, there it is. Now you can put it up. Thank
[1:27:33] you for that. Well, this is awesome.
[1:27:36] I'll move that. The Village Board approved
[1:27:38] the Ordinance Amending Chapter 7 of the Municipal Code of the Village of Arlington Heights regarding
[1:27:43] municipal grocery retailers, occupation taxes, and municipal grocery service occupation taxes.
[1:27:52] Second. Okay, motion made by Trustee Bertucci, seconded by Trustee Shirley. Now, what we're
[1:27:58] going to do is we're going to go to the audience and ask for audience participation.
[1:28:02] I have one card here and as Melissa Kayer our
[1:28:13] nonprofit companies exempt from the sales tax
[1:28:18] That's a good question. Does anybody on staff know the answer to that?
[1:28:25] I think anyone engaging in the sale of
[1:28:29] these materials at the at the retail level would be subject to them regardless of whatever their corporate structure is so I
[1:28:36] I believe so it depends if they're the buyer of the tax they might
[1:28:43] Right if the non-profit is the buyer of it. They may be exempt from sales tax
[1:28:48] I don't know offhand, you know what they were a passman. We have we happen to have an extra matter expert
[1:28:52] We have a subject matter expert on the board here
[1:28:55] So trustee Santa Maria nonprofits are exempt from the sales tax as as the buyer as the buyer if you use your sales tax
[1:29:02] exemption. But as a seller, and I apologize if I missed it, I thought
[1:29:08] Melissa was referring to if they were selling items, you would still have to
[1:29:13] pay a tax. Okay, sure. And the marijuana tax, I didn't see that listed. I don't
[1:29:20] think anything is changing with that, am I correct? Which what that? With
[1:29:25] dispensary tax? No, nothing's changing with that. Why was that not listed on
[1:29:29] that chart with you know the alcohol tax isn't that that's regulated by the
[1:29:36] state of Illinois that and you know we have there is a tax on there but it
[1:29:40] wasn't listed it wasn't anything that was examined the part of this but it's
[1:29:45] it's it's an established tax that we have we have a certain we have our own
[1:29:49] debt we add above and beyond the state for our own benefit taxes on it right
[1:29:55] and we're not discussing that tonight that's not changing correct and we
[1:29:58] We don't believe.
[1:30:00] Is there a reasonable increase when that would generate the type of money that we're talking
[1:30:06] about?
[1:30:06] We have two dispensaries.
[1:30:08] Correct.
[1:30:08] And one just recently opened and the type of money that we're talking about there would
[1:30:13] not be enough to, unless you made a very dramatic increase that probably would generate
[1:30:20] some conversations with the existing business owners, you wouldn't be able to make up this
[1:30:24] kind of money.
[1:30:25] But yeah, well it's fairly new and that that could be used for the the problem
[1:30:32] you're trying to solve.
[1:30:36] You could have a tax, let's see, so I would say yeah try
[1:30:43] other things like a marijuana tax. You could put a tax on insurance, a government
[1:30:49] worker head tax, a golf game tax, the sports field use tax, and how does the
[1:30:58] streaming tax work? How does that exactly work? The provider will be collecting it
[1:31:04] through their payments that any of us have to pay and then that money will get
[1:31:10] sent to the municipalities from that provider. Because you are paying a tax
[1:31:17] for your internet service, correct?
[1:31:20] We already are.
[1:31:21] Yeah, so now you're gonna ask on,
[1:31:24] so now additionally what are,
[1:31:26] how are you gonna pay more tax on streaming?
[1:31:29] Streaming is different than internet.
[1:31:30] Okay, how is it different?
[1:31:32] I don't know that I can.
[1:31:33] You would get a bill of mayor from,
[1:31:36] you know, directly from your provider Hulu
[1:31:38] or Netflix or whatever, and on that bill,
[1:31:41] there would just be an additional tax,
[1:31:43] which is separate from the internet.
[1:31:45] separate from your internet service provider. Correct. In Village Attorney
[1:31:51] Passman did want to note something as well. Thank you Manager Reckless. For
[1:31:56] reference, the state caps local taxes on the sale of cannabis at 3%. The
[1:32:04] village's cannabis tax is already at 3%. So we are statutorily prohibited from
[1:32:08] raising that tax any further. Thank you. Perfect.
[1:32:12] Well, so yeah, the
[1:32:14] marijuana tax and some other tax could go towards funding the project, but all
[1:32:20] right, so back to streaming tax. So you are going to ask for every streaming
[1:32:27] company in this whole world to pay Arlington Heights a percent. That's
[1:32:34] going to be an administrative nightmare. They already do that elsewhere.
[1:32:41] We're just kind of catching up is all we're doing here.
[1:32:44] Well, isn't that similar to a dog text that now you're putting a burden on it
[1:32:50] someone else. Arlington Heights isn't keeping track of the dog licenses. The
[1:32:56] streamers are keeping track of the licenses and actually you have to
[1:33:00] keep track of all the streamers now which they come and go.
[1:33:03] No, maybe you're misunderstanding, because we're going to have nothing to do as a municipality
[1:33:12] with the streaming tax except open envelopes that come to us from those streaming providers.
[1:33:17] Am I correct?
[1:33:18] Yeah, we will notify all the streaming providers of the passage of the tax, and then at that
[1:33:24] point they would be obligated to implement it under law.
[1:33:27] And they already do that for other communities in states across the nation, it's just
[1:33:32] matter of we have not been yet. Yeah, well just because other people are doing it doesn't mean we
[1:33:40] should do it. And they do come and go, you know, in this day and age. Okay, I understand. So
[1:33:50] non-profit streamers don't have to pay the tax.
[1:33:56] I don't know about that exactly. And what is
[1:33:58] the definition of a streamer exactly?
[1:34:03] I don't think you should pass this because you don't
[1:34:05] know what you're doing. I'm apparently not. Okay.
[1:34:12] Okay. Is there anyone else from the
[1:34:14] audience that wanted to address the board on this? Yes. Come on up.
[1:34:22] Shaking my head over
[1:34:23] the thought of you're saying that this average family of four spends $3.84 a meal. So someone
[1:34:34] will go back to our family of four here at $3.84 a meal, three meals a day. They're
[1:34:40] living pretty close to the bone. I'm thinking that's not a lot. That's pretty low. So that
[1:34:45] 1% that now that they have to pay, that means to keep things even, you're asking that family
[1:34:53] afford to eat 43 less meals per year, right, to get by on less. I also feel like the streaming
[1:35:01] tax, people are very stressed and they're hit with a lot of bills and they're trying
[1:35:06] to hold it together. They just come home and especially if they're on $3.84 a meal, they're
[1:35:12] not going up. They just want to watch a few things before they go to bed and have to get
[1:35:17] up and face the next day, right? I think about us heading into probably some tough times.
[1:35:24] I remember during the Depression, people went to the movies even though they didn't
[1:35:28] have much. They didn't go to movies that depicted people in poverty like themselves.
[1:35:32] films, they watched, you know, BuzzFeed Berkeley films and big, you know, things to forget what
[1:35:38] they had going on in their life and just to give them a little relief. I feel this streaming
[1:35:43] tax, this is going to be your soda pop tax. This will stick to you like that and it's
[1:35:48] going to be that popular. I just really think it's a mistake. This is just something
[1:35:53] that people go home, they want to relax and to make them pay more for that is not
[1:35:59] a good thing. So here's my two bets. Thank you for your input. Yes, come on up.
[1:36:13] I'm sorry,
[1:36:13] I had most in this. Tell us your name. I'm sorry. Just tell us your name. Oh, Robert.
[1:36:19] Okay. I must have missed, what's the reason we can't raise the percentage on the pot
[1:36:28] Dispensaries. It's prohibited by state law. Maximum maximum tax 3%. Because I was
[1:36:36] gonna advocate to somehow be able to raise more money through POT. So I just feel
[1:36:45] like that would I guess unless we have more POT dispensaries here that would
[1:36:52] Let's follow a lot of the problems.
[1:36:54] Okay, so thanks.
[1:36:57] Anyone else before we close this discussion
[1:36:59] and go back to the motion?
[1:37:01] Okay, any last comments from the board?
[1:37:04] Trustee Donington.
[1:37:05] Thank you.
[1:37:06] Since it sounds like the grocery tax
[1:37:08] will be approved tonight,
[1:37:11] I want to suggest that we add a sunset to this motion
[1:37:17] so that we review the this tax in two years and reevaluate it to see if it is
[1:37:26] something that we need or not. So I'd like to move to add a sunset clause for
[1:37:34] two years to this motion. Okay so there's a motion to amend the motion to
[1:37:41] add a sunset clause for review in 24 months. I think parliamentary procedure is we have
[1:37:49] to ask the, is there a second to that? Second.
[1:37:54] Okay. And then we have to ask the maker of the motion if they accept that.
[1:37:58] Well, no, this is done as a formal motion, Mayor Tonalia. So I think what you do is
[1:38:04] you consider the amendment, whether or not it would be incorporated into the main
[1:38:09] motion and when you're ready you can entertain a vote on that and then we'll
[1:38:13] have the main motion either as originally stated or as amended depending on the outcome
[1:38:16] of the vote on the amendment. Okay so there's a motion made to amend the the
[1:38:20] actual motion to add a 24-month sunset for discussion in the second and that
[1:38:26] second was made by Trustee Zick. Okay is there a discussion about that that we
[1:38:30] want to have? If I may before you have a discussion I want to clarify
[1:38:35] trustee Dunn is in your motion referred to a 24-month sunset would that
[1:38:38] be 24 months by which the tax would be effective or you and keeping in mind we
[1:38:46] assume that the state law doesn't change as the manager indicated earlier the way
[1:38:50] the law is written is that there is a the deadlines are either imposing your
[1:38:55] or eliminating this tax come October 1st and April 1st of each year for
[1:39:01] implementation whichever direction three months later January 1st and
[1:39:07] If this passes what it means, are you suggesting that this tax would automatically – right
[1:39:13] now as – let me back up a step, but forgive me – right now the main motion, the ordinance
[1:39:18] that's in your packet, which is the subject of that main motion, would implement the tax
[1:39:21] beginning January 1st, 2026.
[1:39:24] Is the amendment to have the tax go away automatically as of January 1, 2028?
[1:39:30] Yes, unless we review it and decide to get it.
[1:39:33] Right.
[1:39:33] We'd have the code – so the amendment would have the code reflect that.
[1:39:35] I want to clarify what the 24 months meant.
[1:39:38] So the tax would be in place only for a 21-month period under this amendment, and it would automatically
[1:39:43] go away.
[1:39:43] It would automatically go away.
[1:39:45] Yes.
[1:39:46] You'd have to bring it back up to discuss it in two years.
[1:39:50] We would need to code if this amendment passes, and then if the main motion passes, we would
[1:39:55] need an amendment at some point between now and October 1, 2020, 7, to keep that
[1:40:01] tax going.
[1:40:02] So, what that's saying to me is that, well, let me ask a question first.
[1:40:06] We at any time, tomorrow, two years from now, or six months from now, can, someone can make
[1:40:14] a motion to revisit this, and we can decide that we don't want to do it anymore because
[1:40:19] we've opened up six more dispensaries in town here, for whatever reason.
[1:40:24] Correct.
[1:40:25] The tax is covered now, and then it would be just a matter of timing as to when
[1:40:29] we would stop collecting this in commensurate with the Illinois State
[1:40:34] program of April 1st or January 1st or whatever. Nothing in the motion would
[1:40:39] prohibit this or a future board from you know ending the ending the
[1:40:44] grocery tax if it so chose. So the flexibility is endless basically on it
[1:40:50] as it sits right now but with the additional amendment we're going to be
[1:40:54] required to have this dialogue again in 24 months if there's an if the desire is
[1:41:01] to keep it correct I have that right okay is there further discussion on the
[1:41:06] amendment before you have to vote on the amendment okay we're gonna do a roll
[1:41:11] call vote on the amendment and can you can staff can you repeat what the
[1:41:16] amendment says exactly my suggestion but again I look to trust you Dunnington
[1:41:20] to make sure we're consistent with her meaning,
[1:41:24] it would be to, I would say, I would suggest
[1:41:27] specifically the proposed section 7-2004, the village code, which under the draft in
[1:41:33] your packet says that the tax is effective as of and after January 1, 2026, would add
[1:41:39] in through and until December 31st, 2027.
[1:41:43] So essentially, this tax would become effective for only that two-year period.
[1:41:48] Okay.
[1:41:48] Is that accurate?
[1:41:49] Trustee Dunnington? Okay, okay. Okay, so that's the motion and it was seconded by
[1:41:55] Trustee Zick and we'll do a roll call. Trustee Dunnington, yes. Trustee Zick?
[1:42:02] Yes. Trustee Shirley? No. Trustee Labedz? No.
[1:42:11] Trustee Bertucci? No.
[1:42:24] Trustee
[1:42:25] Trustee President Inalia?
[1:42:27] No.
[1:42:30] Okay, so the amendment did not pass.
[1:42:34] So now we can revisit the actual initial motion,
[1:42:38] the main motion, which is just the ordinance.
[1:42:39] It's in the packet.
[1:42:40] Do we need any further discussion on that from the board at this point?
[1:42:44] If not, the motion was made by Trustee Bertucci.
[1:42:51] Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.
[1:42:53] Trustee Bertucci, seconded by Trustee Schuerl.
[1:42:55] I lost track here.
[1:42:56] All right?
[1:42:56] Yes.
[1:42:56] You got that?
[1:42:57] Okay.
[1:42:58] Maggie?
[1:43:01] Trustee Bertucci?
[1:43:02] Yes.
[1:43:03] Trustee Schuerl?
[1:43:05] Yes.
[1:43:05] Trustee LaBeds?
[1:43:07] Yes.
[1:43:07] Trustee Manganero?
[1:43:08] Nay.
[1:43:09] Trustee Schwingback?
[1:43:10] Yes.
[1:43:11] Trustee Dunnington?
[1:43:12] No.
[1:43:13] Trustee Santa Maria?
[1:43:14] No.
[1:43:15] Trustee Zick?
[1:43:16] Yes.
[1:43:17] Yes.
[1:43:17] President Tonalia.
[1:43:19] Yes.
[1:43:23] Motion passed.
[1:43:24] Okay.
[1:43:25] So motion carries.
[1:43:26] Yep.
[1:43:26] The motion that was suggested by village staff carries.
[1:43:35] Now we're going to talk about the second item, right?
[1:43:40] And it is, I think we're pretty much done with the dialogue from staff, from the audience
[1:43:46] and the board.
[1:43:47] Are we ready for a motion on this one?
[1:43:51] I would move that the village board approve the ordinance amending chapter 7 of the municipal
[1:43:56] code of the village of Arlingtonites regarding attacks on streaming amusement.
[1:44:01] Second.
[1:44:02] Motion made by Trustee Schwingbeck, seconded by Trustee Lebedz.
[1:44:06] Is there further discussion?
[1:44:09] Okay.
[1:44:11] We'll do a roll call.
[1:44:13] Trustee Schwingbeck?
[1:44:14] Yes.
[1:44:14] Trustee Lebedz?
[1:44:15] Yes.
[1:44:16] Trustee Santa Maria?
[1:44:17] Yes.
[1:44:18] Trustee Bertucci?
[1:44:20] Yes.
[1:44:20] Trustee Shirley?
[1:44:21] Yes.
[1:44:22] Trustee Zick?
[1:44:23] No.
[1:44:24] Trustee Dunnington?
[1:44:26] Yes.
[1:44:27] Trustee Manganaro?
[1:44:28] No.
[1:44:29] President Inalia?
[1:44:30] Yes.
[1:44:32] Okay.
[1:44:32] Motion carries again.
[1:44:34] All right.
[1:44:34] Well, again, I don't need to reiterate myself, but I will thank you all for a very healthy
[1:44:39] debate on this.
[1:44:40] This was a good example of how boards should work.
[1:44:42] work.
[1:44:45] I think the last item on the agenda, item E, is a presentation by staff for some
[1:44:52] upgraded potential work in our downtown area. Yes. So hand it off to Manager Reckloss.
[1:44:58] Okay, I'm going to introduce this briefly and then
[1:45:00] And hand it off to our Emily Rodman and our consulting team.
[1:45:04] So back in 2020, I think we all are familiar with the creation of Arlington
[1:45:09] Alfrosco. And since that time, the board has indicated an interest in making some
[1:45:17] of those improvements more permanent. And back in 2023, there was a concept that
[1:45:21] was presented to the board that the board approved that generally created a,
[1:45:27] and we're going to go into detail on this, a curbless street, use of permeable pavers,
[1:45:31] created more of a plaza feel for the, for the, that, the, the El Fresco area that created
[1:45:39] a sense of place all year round, not just during the El Fresco period, but also made
[1:45:45] the El Fresco feel more, less of an afterthought than perhaps it seems now.
[1:45:50] Now, thankfully, the staff has been very aggressive seeking out grant money for these concepts.
[1:45:58] And at this point, we're coming to a point where we've received over $3 million in grants.
[1:46:04] We still don't have the entire project funded, but we're getting there.
[1:46:09] And we theoretically would begin potentially as soon as 2027 on construction.
[1:46:17] And so before we get much further in this process, we wanted to check in with the board,
[1:46:23] make sure that we're still on the right track in terms of the design concepts,
[1:46:28] answer questions from the board and have our consultants available to talk about the project
[1:46:34] and have a little bit of dialogue on this.
[1:46:37] But with that, I'll turn things over to Ms. Rodman, who's going to introduce our team.
[1:46:42] Thank you. I'm just going to start off by introducing Kurt Corrigan from V3
[1:46:46] and as he proceeds through the presentation, he'll introduce his team as well. Thank you.
[1:46:51] All right. Good evening, everybody. My name is Kurt Corrigan, as Emily said, with V3
[1:46:56] companies and on behalf of the V3 team, we look forward to presenting the progress
[1:47:03] and the updates to the Vail promenade area. So tonight, we have a few things on the
[1:47:10] agenda, but we want to keep this really an open dialogue. So if there's questions
[1:47:14] or commerce throughout, just jump in whenever and we'll be able to address those as we go.
[1:47:20] So with me tonight is Sarah. She's our in-house landscape architect and she will discuss some of
[1:47:26] the hardscape and streetscape features of the Ville Promenade. Elora Xu, she is with us here
[1:47:32] tonight. She does a lot of the I.DOT coordination in some of the phase one and she's very
[1:47:38] intimate with some of the grant and funding opportunities out there and securing of various
[1:47:42] funds. And then also Mark Millers with Confluence, he'll discuss some of the
[1:47:47] performance area and any discussion concerning staging or entertainment
[1:47:53] parts of the park itself. So first up the priorities, so I think everybody's
[1:48:00] familiar with the original concept plan up here that's shown and really from
[1:48:06] the original concept the goals have been to create a large census place of
[1:48:11] the area with the park and the road and the fountain and some of the entertainment area
[1:48:15] there itself. We want to create and enhance the pedestrian feel of the area. Mostly in
[1:48:22] the roadway section itself, obviously the park is more pedestrian friendly, but we
[1:48:27] want to kind of create that same feel within the road platform itself. We want to create
[1:48:34] a shared use functionality of the road, which brings in sort of the curbless street
[1:48:39] component of the discussion. We want to maintain flexible programming options
[1:48:45] through the corridor itself and also explore some of drainage enhancements,
[1:48:50] permeable pavers, maybe using some of the planter and seat walls as some green
[1:48:56] infrastructure type effects throughout the corridor. I know we've talked a
[1:49:01] little bit about Vale promenade itself in the stretch between Campbell and
[1:49:06] let's say your parking garage but there are also three other intersections
[1:49:09] that we've included in the in the project itself and they are Wing and Veil, Campbell and Dutton
[1:49:16] and Campbell and Highland. I'll get to these a little bit further on but basically these
[1:49:23] will all have some pedestrian enhancements. Bumpouts included gateways and some of the
[1:49:29] different various signages as you enter the Alfresco area in the downtown area and as you guys
[1:49:35] know right now the DTA sign is already out there as part of the park so that's
[1:49:40] already been sort of implemented in this overall plan.
[1:49:46] Next up, so Vale itself,
[1:49:48] Vale Promenade runs from Campbell Street South to like I said about the
[1:49:53] parking garage and so a few of the highlights here and some of the
[1:49:56] differences from what you see out there today of what we're proposing is
[1:50:01] bumping out the intersection curb lines, approximately about seven feet from
[1:50:06] and what's out there today, still allowing about 26 feet
[1:50:09] of pavement for cars to go by, two-way traffic.
[1:50:14] This will allow for a shorter crosswalk
[1:50:16] across the intersection, including
[1:50:19] the enhanced crosswalks, whether it's
[1:50:21] pavers or colored asphalt or sand concrete.
[1:50:24] Those will just enhance the pedestrian feel
[1:50:27] and really alert the drivers when the road isn't shut down.
[1:50:31] This is a pedestrian space.
[1:50:38] In this intersection, there are right turn lanes that are out there today, but as we did a lot of the traffic
[1:50:44] counts and some of the traffic movements, eliminating the right turn lanes to create these bump-outs will
[1:50:50] enhance the pedestrian safety and just the crossing in the field of the area itself.
[1:50:56] One thing you'll notice is there's a boulevard-type section along Vale.
[1:51:01] that section there. We want to increase during the alfresca time, but when the road
[1:51:10] is open to traffic with the shared use and the shared street and the curbless
[1:51:14] effect and the patio feel of the corridor, we want to create an area where
[1:51:19] people can feel safe, be part of the road, but yet share the road and vehicles
[1:51:26] will have to get used to a little bit of sharing the road on the
[1:51:29] non-closure time. Now I would just add that we did implement this, or in my previous life
[1:51:36] I did implement this in Batavia, the shared street aspect, and yes it does take a little
[1:51:41] time to get used to because cars and people are everywhere in the road, but I think if
[1:51:46] you went to the city of Batavia and asked them for what their thoughts of it were,
[1:51:51] they would be very, very happy with it. I'm down there doing the pedestrian ramp
[1:51:54] now and I mean every day there's people riding and biking and strollers and all kinds of people
[1:52:01] just because they feel safe on the street even though cars are allowed they have that sense
[1:52:06] that sense that it's more of a patio and just it's just an overall pedestrian feel.
[1:52:12] The drainage patterns we did discuss with staff about raising the intersection
[1:52:17] to create a little bit more of a traffic calming effect to the area but there are some
[1:52:23] sensitive areas from a drainage standpoint. So after we discuss it a little bit with staff,
[1:52:29] we decided to eliminate the raised intersection component of it, just because of the sensitivity
[1:52:35] of the drainage in the area. So back to the Kerbalist Street. So this would be a section
[1:52:42] looking north up Vale Avenue. So if you're standing kind of towards the garage and looking
[1:52:47] up towards Campbell Street, you'll notice that from the building off to the left,
[1:52:52] the park is on the right. The area itself drains from north to south which is
[1:52:58] good because there's plenty of slope out there for drainage and also from the
[1:53:02] building to the middle the plan is to invert the road. So right now you have a
[1:53:06] crown of the road, typical road section. What we plan on doing is inverting the
[1:53:11] road, eliminating the curves, letting the drainage come out away from the
[1:53:15] buildings, away from the park to the center of the road and creating the
[1:53:19] bowl of our area that you saw in the middle as a permeable paver area so then
[1:53:24] the water will drain down naturally into the pavers into an underdrained system
[1:53:28] and into the storm sewer system. So we also are leaving an 18 foot
[1:53:33] unrestricted area. We've met with our staff met with the fire department and
[1:53:39] they you know need 18 to 20 feet of an unrestricted area to be able to
[1:53:43] drive an emergency vehicle through there. So we've we've maneuvered
[1:53:47] some of the different aspects and planter areas to allow that to happen. And then when
[1:53:52] the road is open to traffic, I would like to, you know, add with 18 feet, you can still
[1:53:57] have a eight to nine foot, I'll call it a parking area or a pull off area and cars
[1:54:04] are still going to be able to get around a vehicle that's waiting for a delivery
[1:54:09] or picking up or running into a store. They'll be able to still get around there
[1:54:13] in either direction. So we've tried to listen to the, you know, the fire, the emergency vehicles,
[1:54:21] staff, drainage, public works, and so with the Curbless Street, I can tell you trying to
[1:54:27] incorporate this as a shared use in creating that patio feel alongside the park is going to be a
[1:54:34] big upgrade. And so what we've done, we've created a few renderings here and you'll see
[1:54:39] more throughout the presentation, but this would be a look, an overhead look of the area
[1:54:44] once it's completed. And then we have another view, and like I said, there's some other
[1:54:49] views of this is looking south at the intersection, looking down Vale, what we anticipate the
[1:54:55] final improvements to look like. So I mentioned the three other intersections.
[1:55:01] Can you just put that, excuse me a minute. You had said that we could kind of make
[1:55:05] comments. Can you go back to the aerial view?
[1:55:12] Where would the stage be during
[1:55:18] sounds of summer and during the band? The stage will be in this picture of the
[1:55:24] upper right corner of the south end. It still would be in the same. Yeah, we've
[1:55:29] reorientated things and Sarah and Mark will get into that a little bit later,
[1:55:33] or the stage component in the programming of the park,
[1:55:36] but it would still generally be on the south end of the park
[1:55:38] just orientated in a little bit different of a direction.
[1:55:41] Cause right now it's really faces north-south.
[1:55:44] And one of the things we heard right out of the gate
[1:55:47] when we started the project is,
[1:55:48] is there a way to maybe look position a stage
[1:55:51] a little bit more, I guess, northwest
[1:55:54] to allow people at the restaurant or seating
[1:55:56] or just at the intersection to look more into the stage
[1:56:00] versus more of a north-south look
[1:56:02] that's out there today. So we kind of reorientated that south area a little bit to allow for a
[1:56:07] more northwest look of the stage. And you reduced lawn area. Well Sarah will get in that as well,
[1:56:16] but let me let you. No, no, the lawn area generally is about the same size. It's just
[1:56:20] to rearrange. So we do have an exhibit that shows the outline of the old lawn area versus
[1:56:25] this landline area. So it's a good question because it has come up before and we will
[1:56:30] address that here coming up. I just briefly want to talk about the three
[1:56:35] other intersections included in the project. They all really are just
[1:56:40] incorporating bump-outs, enhanced crosswalks. We again are looking at
[1:56:44] evaluating, raising these intersections to create a little bit more of a traffic
[1:56:49] calming element to them. But again drainage is pretty sensitive around some
[1:56:54] of these building corners and some of the areas. So it's looking like
[1:56:58] eliminating the raised crosswalks will be taken out of the project but again
[1:57:03] enhancing the pavement type, the color of the intersection will just you know alert
[1:57:09] the drivers that you're entering an area that's more pedestrian friendly and not
[1:57:13] car friendly.
[1:57:16] So with that I'm going to turn it over to Sarah and she can get
[1:57:19] into the hardscape and streetscape features and some of the programming of
[1:57:22] the park area itself. Good evening. So this illustrative cross section
[1:57:30] here is sort of a reiteration of the geometrics that Kurt went over earlier, but it gives you a
[1:57:36] sense of feeling of the place that we want to enhance with your corridor here. So starting over on
[1:57:43] the right side, we are providing a buffer between the existing commercial buildings and to provide
[1:57:50] for plant bed and landscaping along that to soften the edge up. And then we'll have a perimeter
[1:57:55] or walk that connects folks from the streetscape experience through Harmony
[1:58:00] Park with a five foot minimum sidewalk. Then a large open event lawn we're
[1:58:06] really looking to enhance what the functionality that you have out there
[1:58:11] today and just better organize it for even more enhanced flexibility for
[1:58:15] programming throughout the year. Then as we continue to move to the left hand
[1:58:20] inside we've identified pedestrian circulation
[1:58:24] that seven feet there along with a plant bed
[1:58:27] that would have seat walls to provide some of that protection
[1:58:31] from the pedestrian zone and between the vehicular zones.
[1:58:35] It also provides seating opportunities
[1:58:39] for programming that is envisioned to happen
[1:58:42] at Harmony Park.
[1:58:44] And then moving into the vehicular area
[1:58:47] we've provided for two-way drive lanes, a 10-foot median that would include a
[1:58:53] seating element within that boulevard section. This is really to create a
[1:58:59] comfortable space that the trees there create shade for when there is
[1:59:04] programming and the street corridor is shut down to vehicular traffic as well
[1:59:09] as flexible seating there so that folks can orient themselves in
[1:59:14] whichever direction they wish to sit in.
[1:59:17] And then continuing to move over to the left-hand side,
[1:59:20] we're planning for enhanced streetscape area there
[1:59:23] with the dining space next to commercial buildings.
[1:59:27] We're planning for overhead stringer lights there as well
[1:59:31] to create a more intimate and lively space there
[1:59:36] for alfresco nights.
[1:59:39] This is a site rendering,
[1:59:42] really refining that concept
[1:59:44] that we have worked with your staff in refining over the past few months. I will just draw your
[1:59:52] attention to a few things here. The green outline, I don't know if this, I don't think the pointer
[1:59:57] is working, but there's a dashed green line there.
[2:00:00] That identifies the existing turf area. So, you'll see that in comparison to the proposed
[2:00:07] turf area. Essentially, they're very similar in terms of their spatial sizes. Again, it's
[2:00:13] better organizing and creating,
[2:00:21] providing some connectivity so that folks can get from the
[2:00:25] streetscape all around Harmony Park as well. We have reoriented where the
[2:00:32] temporary stage would be set up, so where today it's in a north-south
[2:00:38] direction. We are shifting that over slightly so that it's in the southeast
[2:00:43] corner. That provides this performance line out to the streetscape as well. So
[2:00:51] So envision people sitting in that boulevard area on those benches underneath the trees
[2:00:58] and the stage is more now oriented to maximize that space that people will be in.
[2:01:04] That plaza then also really pulls in folks that are parking just to the east here and
[2:01:11] coming along that alley whereas today it feels a little bit more closed off.
[2:01:16] We're really opening up that connection there, enhancing that through some stringer
[2:01:20] lights as well. As we continue to move then kind of page left or as we go to
[2:01:26] the north, we've identified some boulders in that landscape area. That's
[2:01:30] a fun kind of feature for kids to clamber on. It also provides some informal
[2:01:35] seating and then we're incorporating the location of the DTA sign there and
[2:01:40] another plaza with a proposed overhead structure for seating, shaded seating
[2:01:48] there. Again, we envision folks, you know, taking pictures at the DTA sign. We've identified
[2:01:53] a potential mural opportunity on the building behind that DTA sign. You know, as we see this
[2:01:59] as one of those Instagrammable moments for Harmony Park. We've provided site harnesses
[2:02:05] like bike racks and trash scepticals thinking about the public use space as well as then
[2:02:11] Then identifying some bollards at the page right near the median there.
[2:02:19] Thinking about being able to close off the street for vehicles when you're programming
[2:02:25] the space but then also still allowing for functionality and trash pickup into that
[2:02:29] maintenance entrance just south of the theater space there.
[2:02:34] And then also thinking about functionality from a drop-off zone.
[2:02:38] We've identified that.
[2:02:39] the blue dash line is another piece that I wanted to highlight and that is
[2:02:43] your existing extents of Alfresco Knights and so in this concept you can
[2:02:48] still maintain those same areas for programming and this just better enhances
[2:02:55] that with some of the overhead lighting that would be along the
[2:02:59] streetscape space there. It also builds off of the intersection with the
[2:03:05] overhead lighting that's currently there but we've identified some
[2:03:09] and intersection improvements as Kurt mentioned
[2:03:11] with the introduction of the crosswalks,
[2:03:14] as well as some branding that you can incorporate
[2:03:16] within the streetscape enhancements there.
[2:03:20] We are really keeping within the existing fountain
[2:03:24] that was something that we built off of.
[2:03:26] So that infrastructure piece stays, remains in place.
[2:03:30] And then all of this geometry really builds off of that.
[2:03:34] This again is that rendering there.
[2:03:39] Speaking of paving, we've identified some recommendations here in terms of permeable
[2:03:45] paver options for you.
[2:03:48] Where the concept had identified these co-centric greens to build off of a circular geometry
[2:03:53] coming from the fountain, we are recommending more of this blended pavement treatment
[2:04:00] That allows for maintenance and operations as you continue to use this space.
[2:04:06] If you need to replace a paver, it's not as specific in terms of the color because you've got this blend.
[2:04:12] So it just eases it from a maintenance perspective.
[2:04:16] But then we're still keeping with a very clear delineated crosswalk that you would need to identify those spaces.
[2:04:24] Again, the branding opportunity that you have here.
[2:04:26] it all kind of fits really well within your existing pavement that's coming
[2:04:30] off of the fountain. This also creates that sort of large field that communicates
[2:04:40] pedestrian space versus delineating the difference between pedestrian and
[2:04:45] vehicular. So this all kind of blends together and lets pedestrians know that
[2:04:50] they're welcome to use these spaces, particularly when the road is closed
[2:04:54] software programming. And again, this rendering kind of highlights that particular intersection
[2:05:01] and the pavement treatment and how that enhances it.
[2:05:06] We are thinking about incorporation of
[2:05:08] the circular geometry to blend in with the fountain there through the use of site furnishing.
[2:05:14] So you have a very traditional aesthetic out in your space today, which we would want
[2:05:19] to keep with. And so we can build that circular geometry into tree grates, whether
[2:05:25] that be iron tree grates or even with a paver option with trash receptacles, planters in a
[2:05:33] circular form, and then benches and biker acts. So the benches, this could be a mounted bench
[2:05:39] with a back and armrest that could be placed on those planters again along the streetscape
[2:05:45] side looking into Harmony Park to provide some seating for when there is programming happening
[2:05:51] or just your everyday use of a streetscape.
[2:05:56] We also are showing some flexible seating
[2:05:59] for Harmony Park, the use of the Adirondoc chair,
[2:06:04] excuse me, really adds a kind of colorful
[2:06:07] and playful touch to it,
[2:06:09] provides some of that flexibility
[2:06:10] that folks will need for sort of pop-up events,
[2:06:15] but these are commercial grade site furnishings.
[2:06:18] They would be heavier than what you typically see
[2:06:22] in like a traditional, or residential use, excuse me,
[2:06:24] so they're not like the light plastic ones
[2:06:26] that people can easily walk away with
[2:06:27] they're heavier, more sturdy,
[2:06:29] or built for commercial environments.
[2:06:32] And then this is the vision, you know,
[2:06:34] I think this is kind of what we're all looking forward
[2:06:37] to seeing a very full Harmony Park
[2:06:40] programmed with events, dining, alfresco,
[2:06:44] just a really lively pedestrian friendly space,
[2:06:47] a place where community wants to be.
[2:06:51] Thinking about overhead, or excuse me,
[2:06:53] you think about lighting and the incorporation of the overhead lighting, we shifted from
[2:06:57] the concept where it had been identified for lighting throughout the vehicular corridor.
[2:07:03] We're now focusing the, having the focus beyond these pedestrian spaces, so Harmony Park as
[2:07:09] well as then the sidewalk cafe areas. That creates this really like nice intimate mood
[2:07:16] lighting almost for these different events that would happen. The poles then that
[2:07:20] that would support these stringer lights to connect with could also then include a traffic
[2:07:28] and pedestrian light so that you are maintaining the current light levels that you have out
[2:07:35] on the streetscape today.
[2:07:39] And this is a nighttime view to show that desired experience, particularly with a concert
[2:07:45] at night.
[2:07:47] Lastly, landscaping. We are thinking about maintenance, so we've identified trees, particularly
[2:07:56] streetscape trees that are well-suited for streetscape conditions. You know, these have
[2:08:00] to be very tough disease-resistant trees that are picked for their shape to support
[2:08:08] streetscape environments, as well as then native plantings that would be included in
[2:08:12] the planting beds, just adjacent to Harmony Park
[2:08:17] to provide some seasonal interest
[2:08:19] as well as just softening that area.
[2:08:22] The planter beds I will say are identified as seat walls
[2:08:26] on both sides of the plant beds,
[2:08:28] but the ends, the north and south ends are open,
[2:08:30] also thinking about maintenance for staff
[2:08:34] to be able to get in and pick up trash or weed
[2:08:38] versus having to reach over an elevated planter and then the planters the
[2:08:46] circular planters that are along the streetscape are very much similar to
[2:08:49] what you have what's with the seasonal planters to provide interest and be
[2:08:53] in line with their branding and then this is a daytime shot to looking at
[2:09:01] the park toward the south and I think that's a good segue into Mark and how
[2:09:06] we're thinking about the stage.
[2:09:11] Yeah, sorry.
[2:09:12] So to talk about what we're calling the performance area,
[2:09:15] as previously mentioned, we relocated the setup
[2:09:18] to be that more Northwest-facing.
[2:09:21] So you don't get the sunsetting into the people
[2:09:29] who are watching the performance's eyes.
[2:09:31] It's not facing them.
[2:09:32] And also, you don't have to worry
[2:09:34] about the more North orientation,
[2:09:38] where it's more performing up into the park. It's now angling to be more performing to
[2:09:43] the whole street and whole of the Vale promenade. We're calling this performance area and we
[2:09:49] have been discussions about having a more permanent stage, but we are recommending
[2:09:53] not to be doing that to allow for greater flexibility of use than a permanent right
[2:09:58] size stage. This allows you to be able to still have that winter market with
[2:10:03] the trees sitting in this space. It allows you to have more informal pop-ups that are
[2:10:09] coming on in these spaces and it's not just about the weekend, weeknight performances during
[2:10:15] the summer, it's allowing more flexibility to utilize this space and to invigorate Harmony
[2:10:22] Park during other times other than just the major performances. And then the other
[2:10:27] thing that we had talked about is that connection to the South Alleyway, whereas
[2:10:31] today it kind of is a very tight space with landscaping kind of overgrown when
[2:10:36] you're coming from the rest of the community we're trying to really open
[2:10:39] that up but then this location during performances can be where performer
[2:10:44] staging happens so their crew hands can you know get into this area it gets
[2:10:49] it all behind the stage and then they get everything set up and it's very easy
[2:10:53] for the people who are working on they're working to set up the stage
[2:10:57] and then we think that this continuing to do the temporary stages the a good
[2:11:04] price that you already have so we're recommending to continue doing the rental
[2:11:09] here in the year out as opposed to a more permanent stage.
[2:11:18] Yeah so just real
[2:11:19] quick on the on the stage itself as part of the initial I guess the initial
[2:11:24] contract with us in the village. The stage itself isn't part of the scope and we're
[2:11:32] recognizing that and we're trying to incorporate what, whether it's a permanent
[2:11:36] stage or continue on with your temporary stage, having that space available. But a
[2:11:41] more permanent stage would certainly be a different type of scope and function
[2:11:46] that if the village, you know, wants to go down that road then we'll have
[2:11:50] those discussions on how that gets implemented and the team associated with
[2:11:54] that, but that wasn't really part of the avail promenade and some of the curbless street aspects
[2:12:01] of the project, it kind of morphed into, okay, let's make sure we have a space that's going
[2:12:05] to be usable for the other temporary stages or a permanent stage down the road.
[2:12:12] So I just wanted to kind of clarify that for the board.
[2:12:18] And then I'm here to, you know, talk about the IDOT process and the funding.
[2:12:22] So where are we, you know, currently at and where do we go next?
[2:12:25] Currently, our team is going through the IDOT process right now.
[2:12:31] This IDOT process involves three separate phases.
[2:12:35] Phase one is preliminary engineering and environmental studies, and that's the phase that we're
[2:12:39] in right now.
[2:12:40] Phase two is the preparation of construction documents and detailed engineering.
[2:12:45] And then phase three is the construction of the project.
[2:12:49] We are, we require to go through this process in order to enable the village to leverage
[2:12:56] either federal or state funding.
[2:12:59] And so, you know, that brings me to the two bullet points on the first two bullet points.
[2:13:05] You know, our team we have applied for and received $3 million in ITEP funding.
[2:13:11] And that is state funded.
[2:13:14] So, ITEP is the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, and it consists of both federal and
[2:13:21] state funding, and so this particular project did receive state funding allocated for it.
[2:13:28] Secondly, we also applied for this Local Projects Funding Grant, which is a 2024 grant that
[2:13:34] is also state funded.
[2:13:37] We requested a million dollars to supplement the 4.4 million that we are projecting
[2:13:43] this project to be. And then again, I think it's my understanding that the village did receive
[2:13:48] grant funding from Representative Grassy for $450,000. So, you know, in all, you know, we're
[2:13:56] projecting to anticipate that 4.4. We're still waiting to hear back on this local project
[2:14:02] funding for that $1 million. But again, we have a dedicated grant coordinator looking for
[2:14:08] additional funding sources to supplement the project budget.
[2:14:13] Where we go from here as far as phase one, we did submit a preliminary project development
[2:14:19] report to IDAT a couple weeks ago.
[2:14:22] We also are going to coordinate with the Federal Highway Administration which is a requirement
[2:14:29] as part of the phase one and conduct a public meeting.
[2:14:32] Again, all of these items check the boxes of the federal and state requirements for federal
[2:14:39] or state funded projects.
[2:14:41] And then the goal of the phase one is to receive design approval.
[2:14:46] And once we receive design approval, then we'll move on to phase two engineering and
[2:14:51] then onto construction.
[2:14:53] So those are the next steps.
[2:14:55] That's where we're at.
[2:14:56] And I think that is the end.
[2:15:02] Okay, thank you for a very detailed report. Staff, is there anything that you guys want to
[2:15:09] add to that at the moment?
[2:15:13] I would just reiterate that the focus of this project was multifaceted. I know that's detailed
[2:15:20] in the memo and the consultant team went through that as well. I mean, I think overall the
[2:15:25] goal of the project is to help the downtown, to bring additional people to downtown to
[2:15:31] to support our businesses.
[2:15:33] It's to provide an enhanced amenity for our residents,
[2:15:36] both those who live downtown,
[2:15:37] as well as those who visit the downtown.
[2:15:40] Certainly these improvements are being done with an eye
[2:15:43] towards green infrastructure and sustainability.
[2:15:47] A park itself is a green space,
[2:15:49] but trying to incorporate the permeable pavers
[2:15:51] and some additional green elements
[2:15:53] was an important concept related to this project
[2:15:55] and also has been a goal of the Village Board
[2:15:58] as it relates to some of the
[2:15:59] Villages Sustainability Efforts. And then also wanted to add that overall the
[2:16:05] project is enhancing accessibility for residents. So the curbless street and the
[2:16:10] enhanced crossings do make it safer for pedestrians that are transgressing
[2:16:15] through downtown. It does make it easier for those with disabilities or
[2:16:19] mobility impairments to be able to get to the park, get through the park when
[2:16:24] you have a curbless street and when you have improved crosswalks that are
[2:16:27] more accessible. So I wanted to highlight a few of those benefits more specifically in
[2:16:33] addition to what's already been reviewed. Okay. Thanks, Emily.
[2:16:39] I have a question. Can
[2:16:41] you put the slide back about the overall site plan view on?
[2:16:53] The one just passed it.
[2:16:56] That one? That one I think is a pretty good visual.
[2:17:03] So are we projecting this at 4.4
[2:17:07] million? Correct. Can you guess how much of that, what percentage of that is gonna
[2:17:17] be for the park proper? And how much is for the roadway changes and the other
[2:17:27] stuff? I guess what I'm getting at, if you did nothing to the park, to Harmony
[2:17:33] Park. And all you did was do the changes to the street and the boulevard and the
[2:17:42] other side of the street in front of Armand's and so on in the intersection.
[2:17:47] I'm just curious if we did nothing to that park what would what would be the
[2:17:52] budget change, net change would you guess?
[2:17:55] Let me just, I do have the estimate at the end of this.
[2:18:00] So, Mayor, just a point of clarification.
[2:18:04] Because you'd be doing, and you'd correct me if I'm wrong,
[2:18:06] if we're talking about the curbless street,
[2:18:08] there would need to be some lowering of the park,
[2:18:12] regardless, even if you didn't change the orientation.
[2:18:14] Am I correct on that, or?
[2:18:16] No, the park will essentially be at the same grade.
[2:18:19] So, it would just be the sidewalk.
[2:18:20] Yeah, the sidewalk and the road will invert itself.
[2:18:24] So it's 4.4 total project costs that's including engineering so I'm just
[2:18:31] trying to see what right the park itself now that that becomes a little bit of an
[2:18:40] issue because depending on what surface we redo the park at changes what the
[2:18:44] cost of the park is so if we're just putting sod back the park itself to
[2:18:49] redo the sod is only about $10,000 to $15,000 to redo the sod, but if we're
[2:18:54] going down a different material type that exponentially goes up. So the park
[2:19:00] costs really in the grand scheme of all the hardscape features in the road is
[2:19:04] really insignificant when you just talk about natural turf and grass because
[2:19:08] there's still a lot of pavers here outside of the park area if we were to
[2:19:12] do some of the areas in the northeast corner up there where the pergol is and the DTA sign
[2:19:22] to add the brick pavers up there and some of the stage area and redo that area as well.
[2:19:27] I mean, it's still all pavers and hardscape feature or streetscape feature, so you're
[2:19:31] still going to have to go on there and do some reconstruction of that in that orientation.
[2:19:35] So, I bring it up for a bunch of different reasons, but one that I can't deny is that it's
[2:19:44] not that old of a park.
[2:19:45] That park, I see Derek in the audience there, and I know that he was instrumental on the
[2:19:51] design of this back in the day.
[2:19:55] Do we know when this was built, what year it was built?
[2:19:59] Derek probably does.
[2:20:01] Your guess would be best, Derek.
[2:20:03] 2003.
[2:20:04] So about 22 years old, that was when the fountain was built and the rest of it was put together.
[2:20:12] And it's still in a really good shape. It's a great part.
[2:20:17] I'm just wondering can we find a way to do this without having to mess with the park itself and just do the street.
[2:20:25] And then the second question I'd have is have we talked enough with the businesses that are on that street,
[2:20:33] The corner is Arman's, Haynani's, the piano bar.
[2:20:40] I guess that's really it.
[2:20:41] Are they okay with the change and losing the parking stalls out in front?
[2:20:47] I'll let Emily address that because I believe she just presented this to the Dapa Group.
[2:20:51] I did share with the Dapa Group two weeks ago, and I see Ernie's here.
[2:20:55] Thank you for coming, that we would be discussing this this evening.
[2:20:58] We have not shared this plan specifically with the businesses. We wanted the village board to see it first
[2:21:05] So certainly we intend to share it with the businesses, but we wanted to get the feedback from the board in case there were
[2:21:12] Changes you were looking for in the plan before we shared it more widely with the business community and residents in general
[2:21:20] Okay, fair enough
[2:21:22] I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I'm going to hold back and hand off to the board here. So
[2:21:28] We started this one last, let's go this direction this time, trustee debates.
[2:21:33] Thank you. I just have a few questions and one note that I made that I don't know what I meant so I won't even address that.
[2:21:41] About the ITEP grant, is that guaranteed? Is there a risk of it getting clawed back if it's federally funded or is it really a done deal?
[2:21:54] Always a good question in the state of Illinois.
[2:21:57] Yeah, it's, we got awarded the ITEP funding in the spring.
[2:22:04] So it's secured, it's state funded, so it's not the federal share of the funding.
[2:22:10] And ITEP has been around consistently for a number of years.
[2:22:14] I've worked on a variety of projects that have received ITEP funding and we've seen
[2:22:19] it through the project.
[2:22:20] There is a four-year Sunset Clause and so going through the I.DOT process
[2:22:26] ensuring that we go through and go through phase one get a design approval
[2:22:31] phase two and phase three within those four years you know that's when you
[2:22:37] know it could be forfeited but as long as we're going through the process we
[2:22:43] will receive the the money for it. And the four years start started in the
[2:22:48] spring. Okay, thank you. The stage location, I actually thought about that and took another
[2:22:59] walk through the park when we were downtown eating last night. And as the people who always
[2:23:07] sit in the street, at first I didn't understand this, but now that I see it and you have
[2:23:13] a better explanation. I actually like the little shift that it gives a bigger picture
[2:23:20] to everybody because I'm just, you know, when it's just straight north, for those of us
[2:23:28] in the street and I'm usually along the fence, it's just not as good a view. So I think
[2:23:34] this gives more people an opportunity to have a better view of whatever is going on
[2:23:40] generally music on stage so I actually like the idea behind this. Do you know
[2:23:49] how many parking spaces would be eliminated? Yeah right now there's 13
[2:23:56] existing parking spaces so to clarify a little bit on the shared use of the
[2:24:04] street now with the Curbless Street and having the 18-foot unobstructed area
[2:24:09] I mean a parallel parking stall itself minimum is eight feet wide plus then we would still
[2:24:16] have a 10 foot drive aisle by it.
[2:24:19] So in the world of shared use street or a shared street you really don't want to designate
[2:24:25] the parking areas because that takes away from your whole idea of a shared use street.
[2:24:31] So you kind of want to create these pods or these areas where people know they can
[2:24:36] park or park or pull-off and they can they can stay there depending on how the
[2:24:41] village wants to you know sign that or regulate that so in the case of like
[2:24:47] Batavia right here in front of Metropolis we have an area that's
[2:24:50] designated between a couple planters that will have two cars and we're
[2:24:54] just anticipating that to be a drop-off area outside of the drive
[2:24:58] lane so I guess in the shared use I really don't like to designate
[2:25:04] parking areas because it takes away you're trying to make pedestrians and not
[2:25:08] vehicles so it's kind of allowing the space and how it gets used it gets used
[2:25:12] that way but it's not necessarily directed for parking if that makes sense.
[2:25:18] Yeah it does and and I'm not actually opposed to that because during
[2:25:22] Alfresco those spaces aren't there anyway so for half the year they're not
[2:25:34] off area for, you know, disability purposes or, you know, the bride getting out of her
[2:25:43] limo so that she can go up to the ballroom for, you know, the wedding and the reception,
[2:25:49] that sort of thing.
[2:25:50] So, and then again, that's only during the non-alfrescope time of the year.
[2:25:55] Yeah.
[2:25:56] It's pretty unique here because you do close the street down from May to September, right?
[2:26:01] Yeah.
[2:26:01] So now you're really talking October through April well a lot of those months are what they are and they're winter, right?
[2:26:09] so
[2:26:10] You're not really going to have a whole shared use kind of
[2:26:14] Time except for maybe October November, you know and maybe early in the spring
[2:26:19] Rest of it, you know having vehicles down there. It's going to be winter time anyway, you know
[2:26:23] So like the city of Batavia when they did the curbless Street in the shared use
[2:26:28] there was a there's a couple of beauty salons on the corridor and they were
[2:26:31] very adamant that some of their customers have to be in front of the
[2:26:36] building for a variety of reasons so those were actually signed as spots for
[2:26:41] that beauty salon but the rest of the area was just it's just pockets you
[2:26:47] know and you can kind of see where you can kind of pull off park go get
[2:26:51] what you need to get get back in and leave and so that's kind of the the
[2:26:56] idea here okay and then the one last question that I have I have to do with
[2:27:00] the paver bricks in the vehicle drive aisles how can we make sure that what
[2:27:08] how what makes them strong enough for the vehicles and and like when it's not
[2:27:13] blocked off for you know for alfresco if there's a delivery vehicle going down
[2:27:19] if there's a fire truck going down and that sort of thing because I'm always
[2:27:23] concerned about just the sidewalk paver bricks which we've had to redo because
[2:27:32] you know they wear out and there's the substrate and they're not as strong or
[2:27:38] whatever so so that how do you approach that? So the pavement design itself there
[2:27:43] will be a concrete base under the pavers having been in the public works
[2:27:49] environment before my previous life, the maintenance part of that. So I've been
[2:27:53] used to designing paver streets with a concrete base, even the sidewalk. And
[2:27:58] depending on where we're at in the sidewalk, so let's say around the
[2:28:01] radiuses of the corners, I'll make that area a thicker concrete because most
[2:28:06] likely public works truck or the fire truck or some sort of truck is going
[2:28:11] to drive over the edge of that curbless area. So I always deepen up
[2:28:15] of the concrete in those areas, the sidewalk areas
[2:28:17] where you have today can remain a little bit less
[2:28:20] of a concrete base, but still have the paver bricks.
[2:28:24] There are paver bricks rated for vehicle traffic.
[2:28:27] So between that and the concrete
[2:28:29] and any other sub-base, the stone underneath there,
[2:28:32] that's what would be the pavement section itself.
[2:28:35] And again, we would rate it
[2:28:37] towards the heaviest field, Gola 80,000 pound vehicle.
[2:28:41] But again, you don't have a tremendous
[2:28:43] And there's a lot of traffic down here.
[2:28:45] You have some heavier trucks.
[2:28:47] So with the concrete base and the thicker paver itself, Malcolm Wood, the last few towns
[2:28:54] that we've done that in, it's been fine.
[2:28:56] Okay, great.
[2:28:57] It's good to know.
[2:28:57] Thank you.
[2:28:58] Mm-hmm.
[2:28:59] Trustee Shirley.
[2:29:01] Yeah, I just, I had a couple of questions about drainage.
[2:29:04] Like, I'm not a big fan of inverted crowns, so, but I get you have to do it in this
[2:29:11] application.
[2:29:12] So, are there grates along the perimeter of the center island such that water that flows
[2:29:20] up against there or does it all go through permeable pavers?
[2:29:24] So, on the conservative side to your point, there will be a series of permeable pavers
[2:29:31] and there will be a series of trench grates or traditional type manual covers that you
[2:29:36] would see depending on where we are out in the road, right?
[2:29:39] Nobody wants it to flood.
[2:29:40] And the reason I continue to say inverted towards the center of the street,
[2:29:44] we could still put a crown out there, which would take a little bit away from the
[2:29:48] boulevard section, but I'm always hesitant to have water draining without
[2:29:52] a curb towards the building. So, if you had the normal crown and take
[2:29:56] out the curb that's out there now and have that curbless, I would still
[2:29:59] would have.
[2:30:00] They have some sort of drainage structures in that curb line that's out there today. So
[2:30:03] I want everything to go to the middle away from the buildings as much as possible and then
[2:30:08] drain it from that aspect. But along their way, like along the planters, usually there's
[2:30:14] trench drains in there because sometimes there's hard spots for the water to get around out
[2:30:18] to the center. So taking a little bit more of a conservative approach on that.
[2:30:23] Okay. Yeah, because I think if you get, I don't know what permeable pavers can pass
[2:30:28] as far as intensity of a rainfall. I doubt that they can pass an inch an hour.
[2:30:34] Maybe they can. I don't really know that much about it, but I just think you need
[2:30:38] to build in some safety for when you get a really good gully washer that
[2:30:45] you know that there's somewhere for the water to go. And then is there also
[2:30:49] drainage to this? You mentioned the whole thing drains to the south, which
[2:30:52] I know, but I mean is there like trench drains at the end of the block
[2:30:55] towards the parking garage as well or is it just along that center median?
[2:31:00] No, there would be a there would be a couple different spots around the park area on the
[2:31:05] south end. I know our drainage person has a few inlets out there at the south end of the park.
[2:31:11] We pick up that before it went into the existing drainage more towards the parking deck. So it
[2:31:17] could be a combination of both trench drains and traditional curb drains as we leave the
[2:31:22] promenade area. And then how does snow and ice work with
[2:31:31] permeable pavers? As far as can you use conventional road salt that's on the rest
[2:31:36] of the asphalt and concrete streets in town or do you have to apply something
[2:31:41] special? Because you've got to obviously keep the porosity of the
[2:31:46] pavers and the joints between them and I just don't know if if they go through
[2:31:52] there with a normal salt spreader do they can they not do that or do they have
[2:31:58] to do something different for a higher level of service how to how do you
[2:32:02] address snow and ice control yeah the permeable pavers itself there is
[2:32:07] maintenance that has to happen with that because if it if the areas start
[2:32:13] to plug up themselves, the permeableness of the pavers aren't going to work.
[2:32:18] So there's still a maintenance procedure every couple of years.
[2:32:22] Now from a snow and ice standpoint, what I've seen in the past is that the pavers, the permeable
[2:32:27] areas will flaw quicker than the normal pavement areas because they have access down below,
[2:32:33] right?
[2:32:34] So it's the heat's coming up and it's kind of self de-icing itself.
[2:32:38] Now, I don't know what your public works people use as far as de-icing procedures go.
[2:32:44] That's something we can talk about, but I know with the paver street, you're going to
[2:32:49] end up having the brushes and poly blades and probably a little bit more hand shoveling
[2:32:55] than what is used to out there today.
[2:32:57] But that's certainly a component of having an all-paver street, that there are some
[2:33:02] changes in your maintenance.
[2:33:04] So you do have to use rubber blades on the vows if you use condensers?
[2:33:07] The towns that I've talked to that have paver streets,
[2:33:11] yes, they go to a polymer blade or they go to a sweeper
[2:33:15] or they hand, do a lot of hand-shell, please.
[2:33:19] And then as far as street sweeping,
[2:33:22] can you use a vacuum sweeper or do you have to use
[2:33:26] mechanical or, because don't you run the risk
[2:33:29] of like pulling all that stuff out of the joints?
[2:33:33] Out of the pair of pavers, yeah.
[2:33:35] Yeah, from between the pavers.
[2:33:36] Right.
[2:33:36] I'm just curious, like, I just don't know, Randy,
[2:33:40] if we're gonna have to buy something special
[2:33:42] or if we have something as far as streets sweeping the area.
[2:33:46] So I guess these are all maintenance issues
[2:33:48] that can be addressed, but I'm just curious
[2:33:51] if the installation comes along
[2:33:55] with maintenance recommendations.
[2:33:59] Mayor, may I jump in?
[2:34:02] Trustee Shirley, I mean, a couple of comments.
[2:34:04] I mean, I think you're dead on on the drainage issues and for those of you that were on the
[2:34:09] board, there used to be some pretty significant flooding issues along Campbell and particularly
[2:34:18] and then somewhat along Bale and there were adjustments made in I think 2018, 2019, those
[2:34:23] before COVID to address that and public works was very aware of that when talking
[2:34:29] to these folks about not upsetting that.
[2:34:31] As for the pavers, the one thing some folks may not remember or be aware of is if you
[2:34:37] look at an aerial or if you just come out on your way out tonight, when we did the police
[2:34:42] station parking project, that entire parking lot kind of behind our parking garage as
[2:34:50] well as the drive that goes between Village Hall and the new police building, those
[2:34:57] are permeable pavers and we've kind of used that as we kind of designed it as
[2:35:02] and we've kind of used it as kind of a test bed for permeable paver concepts
[2:35:06] elsewhere in town and so we are maintaining it now my understanding is
[2:35:11] that we are using a street sweeper to clean that and that's worked reasonably
[2:35:15] well so I think we have the the equipment present right now to do that
[2:35:21] now it's a little bit different scale but if you look if you look online
[2:35:24] It's not an insignificant piece of property that we're maintaining that have the permeable papers right now
[2:35:30] And then I guess I would just say that it seems to me like the turf areas being reduced some I know you kind of showed
[2:35:38] That it's kind of equivalent, but it seems like we're taking some grass away
[2:35:43] And I kind of feel like the grass is a big attraction
[2:35:46] Even though I know it's kind of a meat. That's nightmare. So that's just a comment and then for as far as the stage
[2:35:51] I do think we've talked on and off about a permanent type of band shell.
[2:35:57] And so I'd like to see if we can't maybe incorporate that into future discussions about the site.
[2:36:04] And I like the orientation, but it seems to me like renting and setting up and all
[2:36:11] that stuff and then nighttime security if we leave it up so that it doesn't get
[2:36:16] vandalized and such that maybe something that was more permanent might be beneficial.
[2:36:21] So that's all I have, thanks.
[2:36:23] So just from the cost of the stage to address that, a stage that would sort of fit this
[2:36:29] area, we're estimating anywhere from three and a half to four million dollars for a permanent
[2:36:34] structure.
[2:36:35] And so the annual amount that you're paying for the temporary stage set up now at $60,000
[2:36:43] a year.
[2:36:44] I mean we can do some quick math, but you got about 20 to 25 years until you pay off that permanent stage
[2:36:50] So build that stage for 2 million
[2:36:53] I'm just giving you some perspective on stage
[2:36:55] And if I could on that point and Mayor Tenai and I were talking about this because you know he has
[2:37:02] familiarity with the stage and band world
[2:37:05] You know we can there's nothing incorrect if I'm wrong in this design
[2:37:10] that would preclude the addition of a stage later
[2:37:13] if the village were so inclined.
[2:37:16] And if it's the will of the board,
[2:37:18] staff can provide some further, you know,
[2:37:21] drill down analysis on options on that.
[2:37:24] But the idea is, you know,
[2:37:26] because we got this grant money,
[2:37:28] it's not within the scope of this project,
[2:37:31] but there's nothing standing in the way of it.
[2:37:34] Thank you, it looks great though.
[2:37:36] Very good, thanks.
[2:37:37] Okay, continuing this direction,
[2:37:38] Trustee Manganero.
[2:37:39] staff has already answered all the questions I had this afternoon I really
[2:37:43] like the concept and just a quick look at that it does look like the lawn area is
[2:37:50] almost identical it looks like where where there's a cut out here there's an
[2:37:55] addition there is that yep yeah it's very very close yeah thank you trusty
[2:38:02] sick thank you mayor and also thank you you know you brought up a couple
[2:38:07] things you know at the beginning I think you're talking about you know I was
[2:38:12] thinking about the same thing do we actually need to get rid of that grass
[2:38:15] area that it's right there or is it something that can work into into what
[2:38:20] we're doing right there do we need that cost to be able to do it so it's
[2:38:24] something I'd like us to consider and then also talking to the businesses
[2:38:27] that are there also how because I think one of the big reasons why we're
[2:38:33] doing this is to bring sure bring more people into downtown Arlington Heights
[2:38:36] but also to help the businesses there
[2:38:38] and how is it going to affect them?
[2:38:40] So I'm glad you asked those questions.
[2:38:43] For one thing, Justice LeBuzz, you had mentioned turning it
[2:38:48] and you get to see, you can see people,
[2:38:50] but you can see the band's performance is better,
[2:38:52] which is a great point.
[2:38:53] I wasn't thinking about that, and that is a great point.
[2:38:57] But one thing I kept thinking, and this may just be
[2:38:59] me being stupid, I don't have the experience
[2:39:03] of the mayor in this, but I'm not a sound engineer,
[2:39:05] but I kept thinking about this going, okay, now you've got all those speakers that are also
[2:39:09] turned and are going that way and now they're blasting right at the businesses that are right there
[2:39:13] and you've got glass there and glass reverberates sound. Is that a potential issue? Will it actually
[2:39:21] be louder because it's turned that way? So I don't know if we know the answer if it's
[2:39:26] something that we can potentially look into at some point. The last thing I just got thinking
[2:39:34] When we're talking about the landscaping, do we do anything such as talk with the Arlington
[2:39:42] Heights Garden Club, get them involved, or environmental commission, get them involved
[2:39:45] also in kind of getting their ideas and kind of giving us some guidance?
[2:39:49] Do we ever interact that way?
[2:39:52] We haven't, but that doesn't mean we can't, and that's something that if the board
[2:39:56] wants us to explore some partnerships with that, we certainly could.
[2:40:00] I mean, I think our public works department looks at this stuff from, you know, working
[2:40:06] with Derek, who's very experienced with landscape architecture, both from an aesthetic and a
[2:40:12] maintenance standpoint, but there's no reason you couldn't have other input points on that.
[2:40:18] Okay.
[2:40:19] Thank you.
[2:40:19] That's it.
[2:40:21] Just to step in.
[2:40:22] Quick note.
[2:40:23] One more?
[2:40:24] Sure.
[2:40:24] One more.
[2:40:25] Sorry.
[2:40:25] I was just going to respond to what Zick had said.
[2:40:27] And when you're setting up stage, the speakers get set up, they point them at whatever they
[2:40:34] want to point them at, so there's no real issue that I have, or I don't foresee any
[2:40:40] concerns with, like, it becoming an issue, like, you know, you test it, is it an issue
[2:40:46] over here, move the speaker a little bit.
[2:40:49] So it's all field adjustable, so just to do that.
[2:40:53] Go ahead.
[2:40:53] So thank you for the comment about the sound.
[2:40:57] My suggestion would be not worrying so much
[2:41:01] about whether sounds reverberating glass,
[2:41:04] but turning it down a little bit.
[2:41:06] It can be pretty blasting, no matter what.
[2:41:11] So I've sat through many concerts there.
[2:41:14] OK, we'll go this way now.
[2:41:16] Trustee Bertucci.
[2:41:17] Thank you.
[2:41:19] Couple of questions.
[2:41:21] Whatever slides you need to go to, I am not understanding what's happening with the current
[2:41:28] seating of the restaurants.
[2:41:33] So the current seating, have you, have you, anybody from the team been there on a Friday
[2:41:40] or Saturday night or sounds of summer?
[2:41:46] No, I haven't.
[2:41:48] I haven't specifically.
[2:41:49] I've been out there during a dining area time.
[2:41:51] Yeah, I mean, our planning staff has.
[2:41:53] But I'm talking about this design team not specifically at the sound of summers, but during the early evenings
[2:41:59] I've been out there, okay, okay, so but during sounds us that but not during sounds of summer, okay
[2:42:05] So the the seedings utilize and and and I'm concerned that are we
[2:42:13] Taking away seeding and either the along the west side
[2:42:19] So the seating stays exactly the way it is so the restaurant will not lose any tables
[2:42:27] No, so part of the
[2:42:30] Discussion with staff is the blue line that you see up there right now. That is the current
[2:42:36] Limits of the fencing. It's out there during alfresca now
[2:42:39] Yeah, and so we've maintained that obviously with the with the street use the way it is you could extend that
[2:42:47] However, we didn't want to get into a discussion with the other businesses on the other legs
[2:42:53] of the street, saying, how come that 200 feet of veil got more seating area than we did?
[2:43:00] So we kept the seating areas and the fencing as it is today generally in the same spot
[2:43:05] regardless of what street it was.
[2:43:09] Okay.
[2:43:09] Okay, so Arman's, the piano bar, and Hey Nani,
[2:43:16] none of them will lose any tables or seating.
[2:43:21] Correct.
[2:43:21] Is Staffall, are there any greens with that?
[2:43:23] Correct, yes, that was one of them.
[2:43:25] Okay, now let's talk about Carlos and Carlos.
[2:43:29] Does Carlos and Carlos lose any seating along
[2:43:32] their west wall?
[2:43:37] The reorientating, correct me if I'm wrong,
[2:43:39] Emily, but the reorientation this would change the seating for Carlos and Carlos
[2:43:44] because that's on some of our property now, but you could theoretically, when you
[2:43:49] see that area that said the flexible seating area, that could be if the
[2:43:54] village were so inclined, you know, programmed in a different way if we
[2:43:58] wanted to allow it. I don't know if you want any further comments? Yeah, you
[2:44:01] could potentially let them expand into the plaza area around the fountain as
[2:44:07] I mean, I think there are some options we could consider if we wanted to do that.
[2:44:12] Okay, whoever it was that was talking about, or Emily, I think it was you,
[2:44:18] I would specifically be interested in hearing what Carlos and Carlos has to say,
[2:44:27] with Armin's, with the piano bar, and Hainani,
[2:44:34] and going to them directly and not going through,
[2:44:38] in case they don't go to the meetings,
[2:44:41] which is a great organization, Ernie,
[2:44:44] but I'd like to make sure that we don't get
[2:44:47] any interpretation through any other organizations.
[2:44:52] So that's my one question, is to make sure
[2:44:55] that these restaurants don't lose what we're doing this for.
[2:45:02] The other thing is, do the dollars have to go in this stretch of downtown for the grants?
[2:45:11] This is the project that was applied for. Generally, yes. I don't know if there's any exception, but I would say generally yes.
[2:45:21] Certainly the ITEP funding, any future funding we receive through these other grants.
[2:45:26] I mean potentially Representative Grosse's money maybe could go towards something else.
[2:45:33] I'm not sure what she expressed she was going, she was, you know, requesting the funding for.
[2:45:39] But conversations with her, the intention was to make up gaps from that were with the ITEP.
[2:45:47] It was specifically designed to cover essentially the same scope as ITEP and eliminating that gap
[2:45:53] so that the village had opportunities to fund the whole thing.
[2:45:58] Because for the amount of, you know, the beautification, I mean, it's great, but we're pouring a lot
[2:46:09] of dollars to this particular area.
[2:46:13] In the meantime, we need to very much develop what I call the dark zone, and that is
[2:46:22] from Dunton to Evergreen. In other words, you leave beer on the wall and kitchen and the
[2:46:33] scratchboard kitchen and you walk towards Pacero and that area needs truly a lot of
[2:46:40] help, right? To really connect Evergreen and the Pacero and that shop in that area with
[2:46:51] this area and so I would argue that we need we could bring this down and spread
[2:46:59] some of those dollars to close that gap in that area somehow some way that would
[2:47:09] be my other thought so sorry did you want to jump in jump you go ahead okay
[2:47:14] while it doesn't sound like we have any flexibility with the dollars that we've
[2:47:18] been awarded thus far for this project.
[2:47:21] One of the objectives with this project
[2:47:23] was to potentially be able to expand some of these treatments
[2:47:27] into the downtown as the desire exists to do so,
[2:47:32] as funding becomes available to do so.
[2:47:35] So not necessarily that we're looking
[2:47:37] to make every street in the downtown a curbless street,
[2:47:40] but some of the treatment, some of the pavement treatment,
[2:47:42] some of the site furnishings, some of the lighting,
[2:47:45] we could potentially expand into the other areas
[2:47:47] of downtown so there may be opportunities to connect some of these areas such as you're
[2:47:51] describing with these types of treatments down the road.
[2:47:55] Okay, and I still would like to get a little bit more detail about the financials as far
[2:48:02] as what we specifically can and cannot do with the two grants and the grants that
[2:48:08] we're getting, and then I would be hesitant to put other than if those dollars can
[2:48:15] only go here to put many more village dollars there without looking at other ways of improving
[2:48:24] other areas.
[2:48:24] Otherwise, we've got this great area, but what are we doing, like I say, to close that
[2:48:30] gap on Campbell?
[2:48:34] And then not to mention is, I mean, if you listen to some of the businesses on the
[2:48:41] and south end, you know, and okay here we go, here they go again spending more money
[2:48:47] in downtown early tonight's and you know when when they can invest and spend
[2:48:52] more money and some of our you know in my area if you're a north or a south
[2:48:58] restaurant or business owner so that would be my other concern. Does this,
[2:49:11] my
[2:49:11] leave room or does it kill the idea of an ice rink?
[2:49:17] I can jump in on that.
[2:49:19] I would say that it's ice rink agnostic, that if the board were inclined to implement the
[2:49:29] ice rink, it could be accommodated in this space.
[2:49:33] It's, again, roughly the same amount of space.
[2:49:34] the one thing I would say is that the exact orientation layout set up the
[2:49:43] ice rink might be a little different and so if the ice rink were installed
[2:49:48] before this work were done you know it may be something we would want to
[2:49:53] consider to design it in a way to keep it in mind they could be used both ways
[2:49:57] I mean but but I mean again you're correct me for among Emily I mean I
[2:50:00] I think that it could be done, theoretically,
[2:50:02] with some additional funding.
[2:50:04] It's certainly possible.
[2:50:05] Anything's possible with engineering and money.
[2:50:07] One thing I would point out as staff
[2:50:09] has been talking just internally and formally about this
[2:50:12] is part of the goal with the stage area
[2:50:15] was to also preserve that area for the Christmas tree
[2:50:19] and have some flexibility in the space
[2:50:21] for maybe a holiday market or something like that.
[2:50:24] An ice rink would potentially limit that,
[2:50:26] but that doesn't mean it's not doable.
[2:50:29] one of the things that staff was thinking about just I think this morning was
[2:50:33] potentially other areas in downtown where an ice drink could be located to
[2:50:37] preserve Harmony Park for some of these other things that I just mentioned and
[2:50:41] I have not talked with public works about this I don't I don't think I've
[2:50:45] even mentioned this to Randy yet but one of the suggestions was looking at the
[2:50:49] parking lot along the train line across from Bird's Nest so it's not
[2:50:53] unusual for municipalities to erect these ice rinks in parking lots
[2:50:57] because they're already graded and so it's also not unusual to do them next to
[2:51:02] train lanes because you have the visibility from the train. Obviously
[2:51:06] there's some parking and other things that we would have to look at but there
[2:51:10] may be other opportunities to keep the ice rink in the downtown. I'm not saying
[2:51:14] that Harmony Park couldn't make it happen but I think there are other
[2:51:17] areas we could also look at if that proved to be challenging. Okay, my only
[2:51:24] other thought is it reminds me of a nice open room that you know that sure
[2:51:33] needed some furniture and some direct but then somebody came in and over
[2:51:38] furnitureed it you know so to speak so and maybe it's just because it's an
[2:51:44] aerial view showing the tops of the trees but it seems like it made a nice
[2:51:49] open area, and I think European piazza kind of feel to a crowded, over-landscaped, over-bullvard area.
[2:52:01] So, again, that's just my opinion, but that would be my other thought.
[2:52:07] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:52:08] Thanks.
[2:52:08] Josie Donington.
[2:52:10] Thank you.
[2:52:11] Overall, I think the project looks really beautiful.
[2:52:13] Thank you for everyone that worked on all of the grants for the funding for this.
[2:52:18] Just a quick question, a few quick questions.
[2:52:21] For the bollards, it's the removable, correct?
[2:52:25] How does that work?
[2:52:26] Is it, do they like go down into the cement or how does that work?
[2:52:32] There are some that go down and there are ones that completely come out of the ground.
[2:52:37] So that's going to be a discussion with public works on the preference on, I mean
[2:52:42] if we go down then you're gonna have ice and snow and grit and all kinds of stuff
[2:52:46] that are gonna get down into this tube of the ballard so I would hesitate to go
[2:52:50] that direction from a maintenance standpoint because it's already cold
[2:52:53] enough these guys are gonna try to pull up ballards and you know we know what's
[2:52:57] gonna happen there versus them being taken out a cap put on it and then they
[2:53:01] come back in the springtime and and close it up and bring them back so
[2:53:05] that that's kind of an ongoing discussion of just the exact type of
[2:53:09] baller that's going to be used but we prefer to just take them out and bring
[2:53:13] them back. And then when you when we see the crosswalks they look different is
[2:53:18] that because the pavers are different or are they painted or how are they marked?
[2:53:26] Yeah so from an ADA standpoint you want to make sure that you have high
[2:53:30] contrast in your in your delineation of the crosswalk so we're
[2:53:36] proposing just a flat flush concrete curb essentially so it would be at the grade
[2:53:42] and then a darker paver there in between that crosswalk so that you've got some
[2:53:48] visual difference between the rest of the street and then where pedestrians
[2:53:52] cross. Okay, I was disappointed that we couldn't do the raised crosswalk because
[2:53:58] I think that really slows down traffic. Are there any of the intersections
[2:54:02] sections that we could either raise or is it just out of the question because of the drainage?
[2:54:07] The other three intersections that we discussed I think are still in probably somewhat of an
[2:54:12] evaluation mode from the raised crosswalk.
[2:54:15] This one it was pretty well discussed that given the past drainage issues down there
[2:54:22] that we really don't want to get into that again.
[2:54:25] So at that point it was like well let's we can eliminate it here but as you enter
[2:54:30] or into the area if we were to do a raised crosswalk,
[2:54:34] that would at least alert people that you're entering
[2:54:36] into an area that's a little bit different
[2:54:38] than the normal road.
[2:54:40] So I think it's still under evaluation.
[2:54:41] Trustee Dunnington, to further answer your question,
[2:54:45] while the grain edge was the primary concern,
[2:54:51] there is some concern by some in public works
[2:54:54] about snow plowing and maintenance
[2:54:57] of a raised intersection as well.
[2:55:00] and you know the public workforce are practical people and try to look at these things from
[2:55:05] maintenance standpoints and that's part of the conversation as well.
[2:55:09] I
[2:55:12] really like the curb bump out so that the crosswalk is shorter for pedestrians. I think
[2:55:19] that looks great.
[2:55:21] And the design in the middle of the crosswalk that's just the A is that
[2:55:29] something that we can put something different there? Okay. Because I think it looks really
[2:55:35] corporate. It looks like a business card or a letterhead and I think it would be nice
[2:55:40] to have something fun in that area rather than our day. And I'm also wondering about
[2:55:48] the trash receptacles. I know we're matching the ones that we currently have, but I would
[2:55:53] love to see the sorter receptacles so that we could do better recycling and
[2:55:59] garbage rather than just our standard ones that don't really give any
[2:56:05] information. And then one of the slides we saw some gateway options and so I
[2:56:13] just wanted to comment that I like the one with the arch on it. I don't know if I
[2:56:19] jump in on the signage component. So we are looking at incorporating some
[2:56:24] gateway signage at several of these intersections and V3 was able to put
[2:56:29] together a variety of concepts for us to look at just to help us start thinking
[2:56:32] about what that signage might look like. So we will continue to refine those
[2:56:38] concepts and likely take those to the design commission for input. They
[2:56:42] wouldn't necessarily provide input on the overall park design but signage
[2:56:46] just typically fall under their purview.
[2:56:48] So, we intend to take it before them
[2:56:50] for consideration as well.
[2:56:51] That sounds good.
[2:56:52] Okay, so, I'd love to see a different design in the center,
[2:56:56] better trash and recycle.
[2:56:59] It would be great to do the raised sidewalks,
[2:57:01] like coming into Arlington, El Frasco,
[2:57:03] to like slow traffic down.
[2:57:05] And I love the mural.
[2:57:07] I think it looks great.
[2:57:08] Thank you so much for your work.
[2:57:11] Trustee Schwingack.
[2:57:12] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:57:14] Phenomenal presentation. I mean I love the plan. I'm making an assumption that V3
[2:57:22] does all the construction as well. Are you the actual builder? Yeah. No we would
[2:57:29] not bid on this particular but it's all incorporated in the price. So yes the
[2:57:35] construction cost is in the three is in the 4.4 million dollars along with
[2:57:39] the phase two engineering and the construction engineering that goes along
[2:57:43] with that. And you would hire though would you are you the general contractor
[2:57:46] would you be hiring him or who's hiring? No this will go out to bid for a
[2:57:50] general contractor to build it itself. And we would work with the general
[2:57:54] contractor. Okay so I you know I love the design I mean from a landscape point
[2:58:00] of view it looks beautiful. The other three streets I think as trustee
[2:58:05] Bertucci brought up, those are still going to be dropped with curbs.
[2:58:11] So, you know, I certainly understand creating this European walkway.
[2:58:17] I mean, it, it looks beautiful, but, but our other three streets in the
[2:58:21] El Fresco zone are still going to be dropped down.
[2:58:25] I, when, when I look at this whole area, um, I, I'm looking at Arlington
[2:58:33] to El Fresco and I'm looking at people coming into this area to use our businesses and our
[2:58:41] restaurants and I'm not 100% sure that doing this is going to be bringing in any more people
[2:58:51] that are going to be eating at our restaurants and visiting our stores.
[2:58:55] It looks beautiful, but my main goal would be, is it going to bring any more people coming
[2:59:04] into our downtown during El Fresco and spending money?
[2:59:08] Because during the non-El Fresco months, streets are going to be opened up and they're going
[2:59:13] to be back to business as usual.
[2:59:16] Well, I mean one question I had that I think Mayor Tonalia was trying to answer but I didn't
[2:59:25] hear an answer from you guys, you don't touch the park at all, you just leave it as is.
[2:59:33] No rearranging of the grass or brick pavers or nothing.
[2:59:38] There's a lot of work there, it's got to add some cost, I can't see it just being
[2:59:43] $15,000 or $20,000.
[2:59:45] dollars so if we didn't touch from that you know east side curb even if we raise
[2:59:51] up the street all the way to that wall where Carlos and Carlos says we didn't
[2:59:57] touch that what would that reduce the price by
[3:00:00] Approximately.
[3:00:02] Based on my quick math here, while everybody's been discussing various things, we'd be somewhere
[3:00:08] in the two and a half million range for the road, the intersection, everything from the
[3:00:13] park to the opposite building, because there's still a substantial amount of work regardless
[3:00:19] of the park area.
[3:00:21] Right.
[3:00:21] Yeah, and I guess my thoughts on this whole thing is we just spent the first half
[3:00:26] for tonight's meeting talking about taxes and now, you know, if we had the funding to
[3:00:36] do this where it wasn't going to cost the village any money, that would be one thing.
[3:00:41] But to sit here and talk about a streaming tax and talk about that grocery tax and now
[3:00:48] seeing this project with approximately a million dollar gap that we've got to come
[3:00:54] up with. That's hard to swallow since we were just talking about, you know, not raising taxes
[3:01:00] and trying to figure out ways of bringing in, you know, more money. And that's where
[3:01:05] I really struggle. I'd like to see it where we're getting, you know, X amount of money
[3:01:11] from one source and 450 from State Representative Grassy and trying to figure out how to
[3:01:20] do that and make it beautiful for that amount of money.
[3:01:24] Because I think as people are watching this meeting and it's being reported on, we worked
[3:01:33] really hard at the beginning of this meeting to figure out what we're going to do with
[3:01:37] those first two taxes and now we're talking about adding another million dollars or coming
[3:01:42] up with a million dollars.
[3:01:44] So that's really where I'm struggling.
[3:01:46] And, you know, the race street looks beautiful, but we still have the other three intersections
[3:01:51] that are going to be lowered and, you know, what would it look like if this were lowered
[3:01:55] as well?
[3:01:56] And we didn't raise it up.
[3:01:59] So that's really, my thing is just that money that we would have to come up with
[3:02:07] a village when we were just discussing taxes.
[3:02:10] could I add just one point to that because I want to make sure this is clear
[3:02:15] and I'm not quite sure that it has been clear this evening there is a village
[3:02:20] match that is required for the ITEP grant so we do have money budgeted
[3:02:26] already in the for capital projects for phase two engineering I believe which
[3:02:31] is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars the ITEP grant covers that phase
[3:02:37] two engineering so we can use that money we have budgeted towards the
[3:02:40] village is required match but regardless of the where the scope of the
[3:02:45] project ends up there are village dollars that are required by the grant
[3:02:50] funding to be put into the project so I just want to make sure the board
[3:02:53] understands that there the village will have to contribute a portion of money to
[3:02:57] the project the question would be how much right and obviously if the board
[3:03:02] were so inclined to reduce the scope of that the savings you know the
[3:03:07] Village would feel savings. I mean, that's that's always an option for sure
[3:03:11] But we wouldn't be able to get out of this without without some money, right?
[3:03:16] So even though we would be getting three million if we drop the cost of this total project from
[3:03:23] over four, you know down to say only
[3:03:28] 2.5 or 3 million we'd still have to fork out money even though the grants are here
[3:03:33] That's that's our center saying there is a they want some local skin in the game for an ITEP grant so yeah
[3:03:38] And I guess from my point of view I'd need to see what that skin is sure so so the ITEP money is
[3:03:45] 8020 80 state federal and 20% local and then the other
[3:03:50] Funding source that we applied for the local
[3:03:53] Program funding that came out through iDOT
[3:03:55] Can be used as your match and so what we did
[3:03:59] we took the gap that we had from the ITEP money and the local money, and we put that
[3:04:05] into that additional grant that's out there, it hasn't been announced yet, who
[3:04:10] receives that. So that money, hopefully, knock on wood comes in, because that's a
[3:04:15] million dollars, that would make up the local gap to match that 20% ITEP. So
[3:04:21] we've kind of maneuvered the funds as best we could within the rules that
[3:04:24] we have. We've yet to be awarded that yet, not on what we might. Yeah and I just don't
[3:04:30] see, I guess personally I don't see any reason to really change the layout of
[3:04:34] Harmony Park. You know I think it's a beautiful area, people love coming there
[3:04:39] and you know again I with these changes I don't know what that cost is so I'd
[3:04:46] be, I'd really like to understand if we eliminated and didn't touch Harmony
[3:04:52] Park, what would that do to the cost?
[3:04:56] Thank you.
[3:04:57] Thanks. Trustee Santamaria? The best part about being last is that
[3:05:01] I typically don't have questions. But I wanted to say it's a beautiful
[3:05:07] design. I do love it. My only last question
[3:05:09] that hasn't been asked yet is what the plan for community feedback would be.
[3:05:15] So there's a couple stages to that. I think
[3:05:17] well as part of the I dot process we will have a community
[3:05:21] open house meeting. Somewhere, I'd like to usually have them on site so that
[3:05:26] everybody's engaged and go through sort of the same presentation. You know, there's
[3:05:32] usually questions, FAQs, we'll put QR codes everywhere, it'll be online to
[3:05:37] answer questions, get feedback from that standpoint. But I also heard tonight
[3:05:42] as well that engaging a few of the local businesses directly adjacent to the
[3:05:46] site will have to do outside of the normal IDOT procedure. So I think it's
[3:05:51] combination of both. Okay, thank you.
[3:05:55] Go ahead. That sound like rapping, but one
[3:05:59] last one. So it's usually not me.
[3:06:06] How many more sounds, we have one or two
[3:06:09] sounds, two sounds of summers left, right? Two. Two. I would, in order, let me, how
[3:06:18] best to say this. You need to come out and you need to stand there with the
[3:06:26] 3,000 people that'll be there. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know how you could
[3:06:33] design something like that and not come to one of our most packed events for
[3:06:40] that area. And it'll be even more during the Harmony Fest which is what's
[3:06:45] That's the date in early October, the first weekend.
[3:06:48] It's the last week of September.
[3:06:51] The last week of September, okay.
[3:06:53] So that's an even bigger event.
[3:06:56] And so if we're wrapped up here and I'm gonna get a chance here, what I wanna say
[3:07:03] is whatever you do, unless you put a second story on this park, you're not gonna increase
[3:07:11] number of people in here.
[3:07:13] Everything that we talked about here tonight, those images that you did with other people
[3:07:19] standing in there, it's 20 times more people than that.
[3:07:22] It's wall to wall, elbow to elbow, and there are times when it almost feels dangerous.
[3:07:30] There's that many people in this space.
[3:07:35] And while it may look beautiful, and I've said this about other petitioners who
[3:07:39] been here in front of us on different things. I think that, like Trustee Schwingbeck said
[3:07:45] and I said earlier, if we did nothing to Harmony Park, it would be fine to take that money
[3:07:53] and turn it around and spend it on an intersection here or there or find a way to have it work
[3:08:00] better for us somewhere just adjacent to this somehow. I just don't think that that
[3:08:06] That park is necessary to tear it apart and do that right now.
[3:08:13] I do think getting engagement like Trustee Santa Maria said with the stakeholders on-site
[3:08:21] here is important.
[3:08:24] I'm really worried about the parking guys that really I'm afraid of what people might
[3:08:28] say.
[3:08:31] but I guess at the end of the day, I think it's a wonderful idea. It would be great to
[3:08:40] take advantage of these grants. It would be great to do something with it. I don't want
[3:08:47] to be – I want to be more careful about where we spend the dollars. I want to be more
[3:08:54] careful about it. And I'm going to say one last thing because everybody knows that
[3:08:58] I have a lot to say about music.
[3:09:00] Can we go back to the drawing where you have the stage
[3:09:02] tilted in there?
[3:09:11] You guys don't know me, but if you take that stage
[3:09:14] and you aim it towards the promenade here,
[3:09:20] everything
[3:09:21] that Robin said is true.
[3:09:22] The folks who are sitting in those chairs where the
[3:09:25] ballards are and where the word says gateway, those
[3:09:28] folks who have a better view of the stage, there's no
[3:09:30] doubt about that.
[3:09:31] but the result is everybody else who sits closer to Carlos and Carlos by the fountain
[3:09:38] or who's standing anywhere near the fountain, when you turn it, you're going to turn your back on the other folks over there.
[3:09:47] And you cannot adjust these big, massive speakers willy-nilly on site like that.
[3:09:56] you set them up how you want them to be. No one is going out there and rotating
[3:10:01] those and twisting those when it's going on. So you'd have to know that in
[3:10:06] advance. We're going to aim these speakers here. We're going to aim those speakers
[3:10:09] there and that's just how it gets set up for that night. You might learn
[3:10:12] after a couple of performances you want to change it this way. As long as
[3:10:17] you have the same sound system every time. But there are complications with
[3:10:22] this and it's throwing all that sound. If you draw the line from the center of that stage
[3:10:28] on the angle it's going to hit the front door of Armand's. That's where your main point
[3:10:36] of your sound is that last big tree at the bottom just to the left or just to the
[3:10:41] north of the metropolis entrance. And then unless you turn all the speakers to
[3:10:48] go straight north, then you're going to lose the sound that goes to Campbell
[3:10:53] Street. There's a few things about this that I'm not comfortable with and I feel
[3:10:59] like we need a lot more dialogue on and some time and energy on and that's
[3:11:05] where I'll stop for tonight. It's getting very late. You guys did a great job for
[3:11:09] a lot of reasons. I think it's a really nice idea and I want to take
[3:11:13] advantage of this. I want to do it the best way that we can. For all the reasons
[3:11:18] Trustee Schwingbeck said about what we just did earlier today, you know, it all
[3:11:24] kind of makes sense. All right, we have to be careful here. And that's really all
[3:11:29] I have. So what are you looking for from us? What is staff looking for? I think
[3:11:33] we were looking for feedback guidance based on where we're at and I think
[3:11:37] we've gotten some good feedback and guidance that we can get back in, you
[3:11:42] regroup and look at some options. I think you all had asked for some specific things
[3:11:48] and we'll work on that. So, no, I think this is the kind of conversation we were looking for.
[3:11:54] I think we're at a point here where we probably need to drop the pencils for a little bit,
[3:12:02] do a little thinking, a little discussing, a little figuring. Not unlike another project
[3:12:07] in town here right now that we just need to kind of figure it out a little bit more.
[3:12:11] Before we go too far, and then we're sorry because we didn't think about some other stuff
[3:12:17] Come out Thursday night
[3:12:18] Come out next Thursday night whatever get a good feeling for what this space really is like right now
[3:12:24] And then walk down a couple of the other directions of the streets and and see
[3:12:29] the
[3:12:31] You know the imbalance of how things are it's it's pretty nice right now in some areas not as
[3:12:40] well-appointed.
[3:12:43] But you can't set your chairs or blankets out before 2 p.m.
[3:12:49] Try and do it. The blanket police will take it away.
[3:12:55] We do have some bar copies. Yes, absolutely. Hang on one second.
[3:12:59] Go ahead. I think you may have mentioned it earlier too but in the lieu of the
[3:13:03] let's say you raised the street up in lieu of the brick pavers I know a lot
[3:13:08] of times when I've driven through streets with brick pavers, they move around a lot
[3:13:13] on you and break up pressed concrete that looks like brick pavers.
[3:13:19] Certainly an option.
[3:13:21] I don't know if that would reduce the price dramatically and the maintenance.
[3:13:26] I know for a stamped concrete, it does not wear as well as pavers long term.
[3:13:33] It gets discolored.
[3:13:34] It can get cracked.
[3:13:35] look on saline then you would lose the permeable aspect of it that was a big
[3:13:40] reason we were getting grant money and so forth okay right and and I was
[3:13:46] mentioning it to trustee Bertucci here quietly on your honor driveway out here
[3:13:51] from this building where the brick paper example is the one thing that I
[3:13:55] would want you guys to be able to answer as we get together how does it
[3:13:59] behave when you spill blood light on it, and hot dog mustard, and ketchup, and then Scott
[3:14:07] Shirley's ex-mates have to go out there and clean all this stuff.
[3:14:13] When you have these big parties, you know, there's times when this is like a giant fraternity
[3:14:19] party out there, and people bump into each other and things fall down and things spill.
[3:14:24] How does that all work with these kinds of surfaces, right?
[3:14:27] And then what's the cleanup? What's the what's the repair?
[3:14:32] It's all I have anybody else
[3:14:36] Thank you all for the presentation very much. Appreciate it. Thank you
[3:14:40] And we do have some hard copies of the redner ease if you want to take those with as you're thinking about the project
[3:14:45] You'll have some nice photos here of that. So I'll leave them with
[3:14:50] Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right
[3:14:54] I don't think there's any other business tonight. Am I correct? Correct. Alright, so a motion to adjourn would be a
[3:15:00] I move we adjourn. Second. Motion made by Trustee Lavez, second by Trustee Schwingbeck. All those
[3:15:07] in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We're adjourned. Thank you, everyone.