Welcome to the village board meeting of August 25th. Please join us in our
pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Thank you. Welcome to Floridausty
» here. Hyper >> here.
» Trusty >> here.
» Trusty Mason >> here.
» Trusty Bowman >> here. Mayor Hol
» here. representing staff this evening. To my left, our village manager,
Napoleon Haney. To my right, our village attorney, Chris Cummings. To the
audience is right, our police chief Don Johnson. Assistant for the village
manager Anne Mitchell. Noah Schumer, community and economic development
director, Amy Zakowski, finance director, public works director Josh
Berman, and assistant village manager Karen Saka.
the minutes of August 11th in and in the front row is Antonia Steinill
who is our communication director. Excuse me for overlooking here.
» The minutes of uh August 11th. Any additions or correction? Trusty W.
» Trusty Hyperman. >> I have none.
» Trusty C. >> No sir.
» Trusty. >> No sir.
» Trusty Roman. >> Nothing.
» May I have a motion to approve the minutes, please?
» So move. >> Second. Been moved by trustee Singson,
seconded by trustee Roman. Roll call, please.
» Trusty. >> Hi.
» Simpson. >> Hi.
» Benson. >> Hi.
» Ro I. >> The minutes are approved. The claims
list in the amount of $781,895.84.
Comments or questions? Trusty W. >> Trusty.
» Trusty Simpson. >> No sir.
» Trusty Mason. >> I am not.
» Trusty Bowman. >> No. I have a motion to approve the
claims list, please. >> Second.
» Been moved by Trusty Willis, second by Trusty Roman. Roll call, please.
» Hi. >> Trusty Hacker.
» Hi. >> Trusty Sing.
» Hi. >> Trusty Mer.
» Hi. >> Trusty Bman.
» Hi. >> Claims list is approved. Of that 700
almost $782,000 claims list. Four items comprise the
majority of that list. Our payment for pavement markings in the village was
$96,000. one month's village employees health
insurance $365,000 Thorn Creek Sanitary District one month
payments $89,000 and what's going to be the first of many
storm related outside contractors payments to trees are us $77,000
that amounted to $627,000 or 80% of that claims list
the oath of office. >> Mr. Burman.
» Good evening, board. Good evening, residents. Uh, Connie, I'd like you to
invite you up.
Connie joined the village of Homewood as a utility division supervisor on June
29th, 2026. She brings a strong background in public
works and emergency response, most recently serving as with the village of
Tinley Park public works department as a utility maintenance worker. During her
time there, Connie gained extensive experience with water main repairs,
sanitary sewer maintenance, meter replacements, street light repairs, snow
operations, and day-to-day operation of pump houses and lift stations.
Prior to career with public works, Connie served as a firefighter paramedic
for the Hazel Press, Country Club Hills, and as an emergency dispatcher in South
Holland. We are excited for Connie to join the public works team and look
forward to the experience she brings in serving the residents of Homewood.
running step
office of the office of utility division supervisor utility division supervisor
for the village of homewood for the village of do solemnly swear do solemnly
swear I will support the constitution of the United States that I will support
the constitution of the United States the constit Constitution of the state of
Illinois constitution of the state of Illinois and the municipal ordinances
the municipal ordinances of the village of the village of I will faithfully
discharge and I will faithfully discharge of the duties of utility
supervisor utility supervisor according to the best of my ability
I love the sign. [laughter]
items number eight, the retirement resolution oaths of office within the
fire department are deferred until our next meeting presentations. At this
time, Antonia Stein Miller will give a presentation on the refresh of the
village of Homewood style guide. >> The most exciting thing on your agenda
today. Um, woohoo. So, a little background of what we're doing here
today. Um, for those of you who aren't familiar, we are getting a new website
very soon. Um, and with that comes sending our original style guide to our
Civic Plus website vendor. Um, in our research, we discovered that our style
guide and our branding guidelines haven't been updated since 2010.
So, actually 15 years going into September. So, we as a team decided that
we were going to look at our style guide and refresh it and make it a little more
vibrant, a little more modern. Um, we're doing it in-house, so we're going to
save money. And we're not changing the brand. We've already established our
brand over the last 15 years. So, we don't want to change it. We just want to
enhance it and refresh it. Um, it's going to mirror more of what Homewood is
today rather than what it was 15 years ago. So, I'm going to just show you a
little bit. Um, this has a cost breakdown of what it could cost if we
were to do an entire rebrand. Um, government municipalities have paid
anywhere from $40,000 upwards to $85,000.
Um, Tinley Parks rebranding um initiative cost a little over $8 million
back in 2015. So, that was a full marketing rebrand, tourism, the whole
nine. Um, so it's going to cost the Village of Homewood free.99 right now.
So we're we're here with it. Um, and just to give you an idea, this is the
style guide and branding are the colors, our logo, uh, basically what we use to
design our website and any other external documents that go out to public
facing residents, uh, businesses and of those types of things. So this was
created in 2010, I believe. Um, the one that I have
sitting in the shared drive um date is dated uh September 2011. So this is our
official logo as you all can recognize. These are our colors, the Homewood blue,
black, and white. And then we have the original secondary color palette that
you might have seen on our website for several years. Um our fonts that we are
supposed to use for everything. Um and then I'm going to show you how
we've updated and refreshed the look. So, you can see that the logo is very
similar to our original logo, just a little bit of a different font, a little
more modern, a little brighter. Um, we've incorporated officially now this
Home Sweet Homewood secondary logo that we'd like to use in more places online.
Um, these are going to be our new primary colors. So, Homewood Blue,
dolphin blue, white, and black. And then we've just enhanced all of the original
color palettes um colors from the previous ones. And I'll do a side by
side in the next slide. We've also updated our uh typography. So all of our
fonts are going to be updated from previous um uses. In fact, we have now
um a Google font for our website that we'll use. And then we also have Canva
fonts and Adobe fonts as well. Um here are the side by sides. You can see that
they really haven't changed much. They're just a little bit brighter, a
little more vibrant, and a little more refined. So, the original versus the
refreshed. You can see we added in another neutral,
like a pale pink. It's hard to see on the screen, but it's almost like a blush
pink that we can use for like a background and things. Um, one thing to
keep in mind that these colors, yes, they are bright, but they will be great
for ADA compliance when we're using it for graphics and those um those things
of that nature um because we have now guidelines and rules to follow. So, as
far as the logo goes, we updated the logo. This would be our official logo
um here this correspondence. And I just wanted to show a few other more modern
logos um with communities that are around us, some near, some far, but you
can see more modern logos are bright, colorful, no dates, no seals type
things. Um, some of these are just for digital like we will have a few that are
will be for original correspondents and then obviously digital um and external
media and then we have a few of the dated more dated seal logos um here. So
see the difference >> these were I I dug very deep for these.
I just want everyone to know. Um, this one looks like late 90s, early 2000s.
And then we moved into this one, which was also late 90s, early 2000s. And then
I give you this one, um, from 2010 to present. And then here's how we've
updated the current logo. You can see it comparison here. Um, we added just a
small detail there in the water tower, adding that home sweet homewood. We
added a brighter color, which is the new Homewood blue. We took out the date down
here and added Illinois so that people know that we're Homewood Illinois, not
Homewood Alabama. >> And we modernized the font. Yes. Yep.
» Um and then these will be our secondary logos, brighter colors, more options to
use for different things. We created uh public safety logos. So, police, fire,
and public works will now have a new logo, an updated logo. Um this is our
typography. We talked about that. And then these are just some fun little
banners I created just to show you with the different things that we can do with
the updated branding colors and guidelines. And that is it.
» Thank you. All right.
» Your usual wonderful job. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll look forward to the
rest. >> Hear from the audience. If anyone in the
audience would like to address the board on any subject not on the agenda, please
raise your hand. Sir, come on.
» Presidentfield trustes, thank you for giving me the opportunity. Everyone
else, good evening. Uh, I want to begin by thanking our electrical line crews,
people that work tirelessly, often in dangerous conditions to keep the lights
on. They deserve our recognition, respect, and thanks for a job that truly
goes unnoticed too often. Tonight, I want to talk about something that
affects every household in our region. The reliability and equity of our
electrical grid is managed and dictated by a franchise agreement with com
medicine. Vice President Holfield, I'm asking you
to use your seat at the South Suburban Mayors Mayors and Managers Association
to build a coalition of 20 municipalities across Cook and Will
County from Chicago Heights to University Park all affected by the
recent prolonged power outages to unite around a single demand red equity. your
Cook County members, Chicago Heights, Country Club Hills. Uh
again, there are there's 20 communities including uh five in Will County that
have been affected by this. The United Coalition can take five concrete steps.
Number one, they can file a formal joint petition with the Illinois Commerce
Commission under section 10-101 of the Public Utilities Act demanding an
administrative audit of KMED's grid resiliency and infrastructure equity.
Number two, it intervene collectively in raid cases. Hiring joint legal council
to demand localized grid spending data during ICC discovery processes on KMED's
multi-year rate plans. Number [clears throat] three, pass
unified municipal resolutions in every member city council creating a powerful
public record declaring grid inequity a regional economic and public safety
crisis. Number four, coordinate with the Illinois Attorney General, submitting a
collective briefing to urge the state's top legal officer to champion an equity
audit with the ICC. Finally, enforce the siege of mandates,
demand the ICC strictly enforce the climate equitability, and job acts,
which explicitly requires utilities to prioritize infrastructure equity.
Vice President Hooffield, our residents of the grid deserve a grid built for
equity, not just efficiency and profit. When 20 mayors speak with one voice,
they cannot be ignored. Will you lead this coalition or take active steps to
initiate facilitate such a coalition? >> Will you leave your information with me?
» My contact information? >> Yes. Do you just read the points that
you were discussing? >> Certainly.
Thank you. >> Thank you, sir.
» No, we can get
right there.
Is there anyone else would like to address the board this evening?
If not, the consent agenda, Miss Flores, we ask the board to consider a motion to
pass, approve, authorize, accept, or ignore the following items.
Approve the reappoint of Gerald Fritz to the ethics commission for a three-year
term ending on August 25th, 2029. Approve the reappoint of Tony Grief to
the tree committee for a three-year term ending on August 25, 2029. Pass
resolution R3272 extending the August 11, 2026 disaster
declaration for the village of Homewood through September 18th, 2026. Approve a
budget amendment of a 100,000 to downtown TOD tax increment financing
fund for the completion of the engineering and design services
associated with phase 2 of the downtown crosswalk improvement plan. Pass
ordinance M2447 suspending the imposition of the 10%
penalty for all current water charges that are unpaid as of August 21st, 2026
in orders to provide financial relief to water and sewer customers due to the
recent severe weather events. wave competitive bidding due to the
utilization of cooperative purchasing program and authorize the village
president to enter into contact contract with WTI for roof restoration at village
hall and auditorium located at 2020 and 2010 Chestnut Road in an amount not to
exceed $399,59840.
» Thank you. Any comments or questions from anyone in the audience with regard
to these matters? If not, Trusty Willis,
» no comment. >> Trusty, I have nothing. [clears throat]
» Trusty Simpson, >> no comment.
» Trusty Mason, >> no sir.
» Trusty Roman, >> nothing.
» I have a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda, please.
» So move. Second. >> Been moved by Trusty Simpson. Second by
Trusty Mason. Roll call, please. >> Trusty Willis,
» I. >> Trusty Hikerman.
» I. >> Trusty TSON.
» I. >> Trusty Mason. I.
» Trusty Rolling. I. >> The consent agenda is approved. New
business. Liquor license request for the Mongolian
Grill. Miss Sakowski. >> Good evening.
Job 66 Mongolian Grill and Dumplings has requested a class 4A liquor license for
their location at 1818 Ridge Road. A class 4A liquor license allows the
retail sale of any alcoholic liquor for on premise consumption only for
establishments with the bar. No more than 25% of their gross receipts can be
from alcohol sales. The liquor commissioner has reviewed the request
and is in support. Uh they are in the process of completing their buildout and
plan to open in the coming weeks. I believe if the board's in favor of the
request, staff will be directed to begin the liquor license application process.
However, due to the timing of their anticipated opening, we are requesting
an approval of the ordinance as well tonight to increase the number of
allowed class 4A liquor licenses subject to the completion of all the application
process. Um, the applicant is here tonight. If you guys, someone would like
to step forward and answer any questions the board might have.
» Hello everyone. Uh, my name is Moi. People call me Katie because the Katie's
dumplings. I'm the lady who is making the dumplings over there. So my partner
Sarah's coming. Oh, why you don't call yourself Katie? That would be easier to
remember. Yeah. So, thank you so much for considering our request for the
liquor license for the jaw jaw 66 Mongolia grill and the dumplings. Yeah.
Any questions for me? >> Yeah. When are you opening?
» Our soft opening date will be uh September 1st. So we won't do a lot of
commercials for that because it's a brand new restaurant. We need to run it
out to make sure everything is right and we have so many new local people they
come here for for our teams. So we need to train them during two after two weeks
we will do the grand opening and we will spread out the words to the whole world
to invite them here. Chris, >> any comments or questions from anyone in
the audience with regard to the opening of the Mongolian barbecue?
» Comments with the hi.
» I'm looking forward to your opening and I wish you the best of luck.
» Thank you so much. You can come here to see me make the dumplings. Maybe I can
do the dumpling class. >> So, so many people have asked me when
they're open. So many people. >> Thank you so much. I'm so glad.
» Participation is It's really big. So looking forward to
» Thank you. >> I would love to come and watch you make
the dumplings. >> I will have a lesson if everybody
interested for that. >> We can do an art class.
» I would love looking forward to it. >> Has a culinary background.
» Yeah, we're Oh, >> you can work in the kitchen.
» If you show me, then I'll fill in when you're not a writer. [laughter]
» That's cool. right there.
» Oh, we're all just really excited for you guys to open. We can't wait. It
looks like a lot of work is being done and it's a beautiful storefront now,
restaurant front. Um, and we're really excited. So,
» thank you so much. Thank you so much for everybody. We will we will make sure
we'll do our commitment to the community because it's a very nice city and people
are really really they are so lovely. Every day I was there when you are open
I want come here. I come here just to come here. When we are open every day,
come maybe we can have a free free lunch for a week. How about that?
My partner
[clears throat] >> everyone that stands at that podium and
says that they want to give back to the community. I'm part of the PTA, so we
will [clears throat] be calling you from >> Oh, sure. Let's do something. Yeah, you
are great, right? Say something. >> Say you are.
Okay, we are great. >> We're looking forward to you opening.
And uh with that being said, may I have a motion to approve resolution RT
municipal code 2448? >> So move second.
» Been moved by Trusty Mason, seconded by Trusty.
Roll call, please. >> Trusty Willis.
» I. >> Trusty Herman.
» Hi. >> Trusty Simpson.
» Hi. >> Trusty Mason.
» Hi. >> Trusty Ralden.
» Hi. >> Motion is approved. Congratulations.
general board discussion. >> Yeah, we are all overdue for some fun.
So, join us Saturday from 3 to 6 at the Village Hall parking lot for the home
with back to school bash. Uh we'll have a DJ uh for all ages. It's for all ages,
games for all ages. rock climbing wall, bubbles, balloons, face painting, uh
community resources, food trucks, and plenty of family fun. Uh the village
will also be hosting a food giveaway for homewood families impacted by the recent
storms. Um each participating family receive a box of non-p perishable food
items. Uh quantities are limited. Um so it'll be available to first come, first
served uh basis. So residents are encouraged to come early. Uh bring your
family, bring your appetite, and come celebrate the start of a great school
year. Hope to see you there. >> Um do we have a brief update as to where
we are? And I'm talking to Josh on the on the cleanup. Are we
what's the status? I know. [laughter] >> Uh first off, I want to thank everybody
uh residents for all the patience with us. It's been a huge task. Um meeting
with staff today. We believe pretty confidently tomorrow will be completed
with our first initial every street has been touched by our team. Um a lot of
residents have already been bringing out kind of the second or third wave of
debris. Uh we're going to be cleaning it all up. U meeting [clears throat] with
our team internally to kind of discuss uh deadlines. Uh but that's a much
future conversation. Right now, our focus is on trying to help as many
people as possible. We've had a lot of support from our state and county uh uh
partners. Uh there's been trucks and equipment that's been all out throughout
our community. Had a lot of mu uh mutual aid uh from neighboring communities
close and afar. And uh it's been really cool to see the community come together
all working for the same goal of cleaning up our town. So,
» it's it's been amazing to see. I just encouraged and uh we can get through
this, we can get through most anything. >> Absolutely.
» Also, Josh, uh uh it's important to note uh a lot of the communities did not have
an inside person uh that could coordinate uh items like through county
state ID do county department of transportation. Fortunately, Homewood
had an inside man uh who's working tirelessly to kind of
coordinate and get a lot of the resources that you see on the street. So
thank you to our inside person. >> Thank you all legally and ethically
[laughter] >> and in addition to Mason's culinary
experience, he has also involved in Cook County Homeland Security and uh been a
terrific assistance to us in the relief effort
as he seems. >> Bill's also been a a resource to a lot
of other local agencies. So I appreciate him with a couple of my agencies. to
reach out to him. I think round of applause and recognition needs to go to
the entire village for everything they've done from the uh the staff here,
the PD, the FD, and the DPW. You guys are doing a great job. Continue doing
what you're doing. We appreciate it. I also want to recognize everybody, Chief
Johnson, public works, and the fire for I've noticed the recruitment that we've
had is amazing. these people that you guys are bringing up front and I read
the the n the the guy that the fire department is just hiring. These people
are amazing and how how we're getting these people especially on the the PD
side is is amazing and that that there's a lot uh there's a lot that goes into
that and we really appreciate getting those high qualities and thank you
» um along with the uh we got a lot going on this weekend. Saturday is going to be
a really really busy day in in town. Uh, of course we have the farmers market,
but starting this Thursday, uh, Thursday and Friday from 3 to 7, uh, Cook County
is, uh, putting on a a multi- agency resource center in the auditorium where
we bring in tons of agencies, both the governmental and nonforprofit to assist
residents that were affected by the extended power outages and the storms.
We'll have some uh agencies there to help you with things from SNAP benefits
or food loss as well as there may be some organizations there who can help
residents that have uh are still having some trouble removing debris from their
from their yards. Uh we have a team Rubicon has agreed to be there and
they'll be taking addresses to [snorts] assist um you know mostly our our
elderly or uh functional [clears throat] need uh uh individuals to get that
debris from the from the personal property to the street side. So that'll
be this weekend I mean this uh this week Thursday and Friday from 3:00 to 7:00
p.m. in the auditorium. Saturday will be from 10 to 2 and tenatively Sunday 10 to
2 as well if the need arises. to anybody in Cook County,
» anybody in Cook County, any of the uh any of the affected communities.
Anybody's welcome to come.
» While we're talking about the cleanup, I'm I don't even know if we've had this
uh or if you guys have had this conversation internally, but it's a
question I keep getting asked often. Once the branches are picked up and the
grass is dead on the Parkway, are residents responsible for
» fixing them? Okay. We're trying our best to leave things appropriate that is like
uh like we found it. Um but because the piles have been there so long, there's
been a significant amount of brown brown out. Uh grass will come back. It's not
going to look tidy right now. Uh but we're trying our best to rake it and
keep it clean. I've already seen some uh in my neighborhood grass is starting to
come back. Uh it's just going to be slow. But I've also been getting the
same requests of when are we going to come back and grassy. Right now we're
not. >> Right. Okay.
Um, thank you. And I just want to comment on Antonia's presentation. Thank
you so much. And I think it's amazing. And um, I think it's really important to
point out that the reason it is free.99 for our community is because of your
talents and those other communities did not have someone on staff that was
capable of a rebrand and you are. So, thank you for being here.
» Awesome. >> I love it.
» [clears throat] >> So that's it.
» Well, most of it's been said. I encourage everyone uh take a ride down
175th Street at the Village property at 1221 where the piles of debris are are
placed. It's the four stories high and we're trying to reduce them as rapidly
as we can. Taking the debris over to the Oak Forest Old Oak Forest Hospital where
the county is going to dispose of them. But the the work uh on the part of
public works been monumental. We thank you. The men and women in public works
have been working tirelessly. They have our thanks and our appreciation.
With that, may I have a motion to adjourn, please? So move.
» Second. >> Been moved by Trusty Mason, seconded by
Trusty Willis. Roll call, please. >> Will I?
» We stand. Thank you all. The shift.