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Okay, let's get started with this committee of the whole board meeting. It is February 12th, 2024, at 6 o'clock PM.

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Quick, would you please call the roll?

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Laura's here.

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Lambert.

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Meyer, here.

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Ross, here.

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Schwank.

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Wilson.

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Here.

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Very good.

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Thank you very much.

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Just one moment.

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All right.

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We'll welcome everyone.

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Thanks for attending.

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Everyone here live and joining us online as well.

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This is the annual State of the Village of Dress.

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And I have two promises tonight.

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I promise, first of all, that we won't have any awkward, pregnant pauses, while I wait for you to stand up.

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in thunderous applause.

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Well, they other half may be just sits there in scouts.

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We won't do that, but I do promise also

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that we'll have great information for you.

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They'll take roughly an hour, and I think at the end,

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you'll learn some things about our community

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that unless you're in the building here every day,

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you may not know all this stuff.

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So you'll hopefully learn something here tonight

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with some good information, and you'll

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kind of know where the village is at

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from a variety of perspectives.

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First, I want to stipulate, though, that great local government starts and stops with great

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public safety and public works, fire and police and public works.

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It's those public safety and public works, those are the blocking and tackling of municipal

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government.

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And tonight, I mean, think about it.

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If people don't feel safe, and the tap water is brown, they're not going to move here.

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All right, you got to have those things set in place and we're very fortunate in our town that those three departments are just rock solid and it enables us to have bandwidth for other things that we're going to talk about tonight that are run by pretty much the other departments most of which are all in here

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administration, our building department, community development, and finance, as well.

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So we're going to talk a lot about and silvery things, but keep in mind,

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immunisable government, the majority of our employees

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are in the fire, police, and public works. And so we appreciate that we're so

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rock solid in those areas that we can talk about art. All right, and

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beautifying our community and growth, things like this. With that in mind, tonight we

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Okay, I'll give the address here and then I'll publish questions at the end during public commentary.

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If you have commentary itself, we'd ask that you wait until the board meeting to follow right afterwards at 7 o'clock or so.

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Okay, but questions would be great at the end. We certainly have a lot of brain power here that'll address anything that I might not be able to handle.

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Okay, and so tonight we'll have, oh, we've got to kick this off every, you know, this is a slide we always go with, what is our brand promise is a community.

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And it's that we are, we are centrally counties premier location for entrepreneurs and we're known as a welcoming community and our slogan is start here, start here.

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Whenever I talk to high schoolers, whenever I have a chance,

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I tell them where we're going as a village,

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our goal is that when you leave high school

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and go get your other education,

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and then come to a place in life,

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or you're looking for a place to lay roots down,

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and grow a family, or just start growing your life,

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we want you to consider coming back to Monday line.

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We don't want you to leave,

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and go, I'm never going back there.

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Well, we want you to at least consider it,

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because we're doing, we're making a lot of changes

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over these last 10 years and we really want you to give us a good shot there. That's what I say to

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all the young people and we're making huge inroads. Tonight I have the top 10 items that will cover

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after which we'll go just to a survey of all the departments, but tonight the first three items

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we'll discuss are the goings on with downtown here. We'll talk about a few infrastructure projects

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bring up to speed there. We'll talk about the status of arts in

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Monday line. We'll go over the elements of fiscal responsibility.

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Talk about our new website a little bit. We'll do a survey of the various

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commissions and committees. We'll talk about our road projects coming up as

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well and then top it off with some events and latest news.

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And then after which we'll do the survey of all the departments and everything.

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OK, first off, downtown development, back in 2005, my predecessor and the board then embarked

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on the, oops, I'm out, embarked on the project of deindustrializing our downtown.

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And what that looked like over the following years meant that the village itself would

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purchase a 10 acre box factory on which this village hall is, is it's now, we purchased

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a eight-acre guitar factory site, we purchased a lumber yard, and we purchased the recycling

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plant as well, with a notion that we're going to redevelop all of that and we really

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gain traction now in terms of doing that.

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So when you look at a map of our downtown, since 2005, you can see in the red, you have brand

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new buildings, all in red, the big cluster up top is more a station, of course.

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major renovations or the blue that where we've had some demolition going on is in the gold and public infrastructure improvements are in the purple.

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We've been extremely active since 2005 and really gained a lot of traction here in the last few years as we'll discover.

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Going onward, we have a first huge project to report and where it's at.

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We have the village hall here at Village Plaza, and all this vacant land, surrounding Village Hall is spoken for by Flaherty and Collins.

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And that is a $68 million project.

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You can see that in, they're going to have upwards of 230 residential units here, apartments and some town homes as well.

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There's a retail building up on, right on Holly Street in Chicago, and they're going to break ground.

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they're due to break ground, this spring,

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spring sometime late summer late or early summer,

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right around there.

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And so that project is moving forward.

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It's going to be very, obviously very present here

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in downtown, and so there's a lot of work going on,

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but that's very exciting that we have all the rest

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of the land being spoken for here right around the village

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Plaza.

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Next, right to the south of us, we have station 250.

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There you have 165 market rate luxury apartments, they're going to open this year and they have an outdoor pool,

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sauna, fitness, studio, golf simulator, dog cleaning station, lounges, and a barbecue patio.

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It's a luxury apartment right next door here and that's going up as well.

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You have more a station that we discussed.

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Those are being built right up there near Park Street and Seymour.

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And those are leasing out very well.

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I'm over half the people that go to a showing and up leasing with them.

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And so they're going gangbusters there.

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We're very pleased with that project.

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Those are town-home style apartments.

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And we're just very happy with that.

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Two other items to report.

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We have the Cardinal Square buildings across the tracks here on the east side of the

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tracks near the pedestrian bridge.

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Those two buildings are going to open this year.

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those are combined 180 units over there.

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One unique thing with that, those buildings

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is they have high speed internet, what's it called?

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Used to be called Gigafiber, and then now it's

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Fiberty Unit, all right, and very fast.

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It's just going to be building full of gamers, right?

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I think that's how I think of it.

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When I think, OK, who's going to move in there

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is those that have a reason to have all that?

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So, and then also, we have the online senior apartments

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over there across for mories on prospect and holly and they're going to open this year the

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going gangbusters and you may have noticed those little modules located around downtown

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that were kind of stored and then eventually a crane would pick those up and move those

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over and you can see here the modules arrived outfitted with carpeting cabinets and plumbing

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fixtures and on-site construction includes all the plumbing electrical brickwork elevators.

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There was a weird rumor going around that didn't have elevators, which is kind of weird, but it does have elevators and the sightings put on there as well.

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And so that's immediately in the downtown area.

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Now, the second item going on in downtown, and this has been in the news for the last month or so.

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Right about a month ago, we had a committee of the whole board meet in here from Hezner Group and it concerned this sight downtown where we have two banks that are for sale.

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the old PNC bank, as well as the first mid-west bank, and this is, you can kind of see the,

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it's kind of a triangle, but if you include the land, the vacant land on the other side of Chicago,

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that amounts to six acres. And when you, when you look at it, you have green is at the bottom of the screen,

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and then you have the top left, that's PNC bank, and then kind of right in the middle towards

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the right, that's the municipal building. We own that building. That was our old water building.

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And currently, the Moonlight Tool Library is in there.

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And then on the far right kind of behind where it says parking density, you have the old

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sit-golf station that the village purchased.

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So we control quite a bit of this.

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And looking at this, we could just not do anything and let someone come in and maybe redo a bank

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and convert it to something, maybe a restaurant who knows.

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But what we decided to do, what the Board decided to do was to hire the Hezner group, come

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And in a value, what would happen if we marketed this whole piece to a developer, a developer with the means to create something really grand?

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If they were to buy both bank buildings and then our building and then take the gas station as well and then maybe the land there, the tracks, what could happen if a developer could start from scratch have a blank canvas so to speak?

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So, Hezner came up with some great concepts, they introduced two of them, and one of them

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involved the municipal building remaining, and being converted to a bar, restaurant, and

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another one had it being raised, and converted to basically a courtyard.

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So if you wanted to see that presentation, it took the better, we went over an hour, I think,

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on that.

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You can go online at monolind.org, you can see that video of that presentation as well as

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the slides. It was just fantastic. They were envisioning five story buildings with restaurants

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and retail and everything. So take a look at that. It's a it's a it's a it's a big deal

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coming down the pike. It's just on the radar and it really sets a bar for what could happen further

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in our downtown region here. Moving south in the downtown area we come to Cortland province. This is

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the area of construction, you may have noticed on the corner of Portland in Seymour, just

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kind of east of that on the north side of Portland. You'll see a lot of work being done.

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That is a new park going in, where we envision hosting several events there, having that

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be a great venue for more events. And one of the events involves community days, and I want

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to roll out to you what we envision that community days could look like going on that site.

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So, have an open mind, just be open to this.

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What you'll see then looking north is at the top and you have where on the left it says

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Carnival Area and that's where the stage and the tent used to be was previous and so we

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envisioned that Portland Park down on the right half of the screen that would be where

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The stage is in the main tent and the beer tent and everything there and the carnival would

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encompass crack our park as well as the Santa Maria parking lot as well as the seat portion

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of Seymour.

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So we're working on this.

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This is not, notice in the bottom right, it says design is not final, but this will be change

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and change is not always easy and so this will be just something different and we can always

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make adjustments and changes down the road,

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but this is tentatively where we're at on community days coming up.

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Okay, let's leave downtown and talk about,

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well, not really, two significant infrastructure projects

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I've want to bring you up to speed.

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I have a coffee with the mayor every first Saturday of the months,

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and these two topics come up more often than not

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at each of those coffees.

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People ask, hey, where are we on this?

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First off is East Holly.

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You're every years ago West Holly from Chicago

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or the railroad tracks moving west all the way to the high school, we had a huge project

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where we tore down the polystreet down to the dirt and it was extremely disruptive to

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the businesses downtown. And we got that all rebuilt, curbs put in, it was amazing, infrastructure

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replaced, it was an amazing project because the road was failing so badly. Well now, East

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Holly Street from the railroad tracks going east all the way to the intersection with 176,

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That street is in pretty bad shape, and so we are in the middle of

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Desizing that and phase one design work and we're going to we're trying to figure out how to wait a partner with the county similar to the West Holly project

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Partner with them on the East Holly, but the first step is that we pay for all the design work

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And whenever the county wants to you know get involved, they want bike pass put in and so we did get a

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and a half dollar i-tap grant that goes towards the bicycle path portion of the project.

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And so, we're off to the races, we're in the design phase.

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It's definitely on our radar in a big way and that's kind of the status.

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So, where things I cannot report a timeline on that, we have to talk with the county about what their budget situation is for projects like this.

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But the first step is always the we pay for the planning and the design on that.

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So, we're going to town on that.

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Second, I get asked about this all the time.

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is the 683i.project from 176 down to townline road.

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We had a few years back.

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The governor himself came here right in this room

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and had a little mini press conference about that project

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that was involved with the capital bill that was going in

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at that time.

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And so they committed to do this to expand

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683 from 176 on the north coming all the way down to townline

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And that included an overpass at the Diamond Lake Railroad Crossing,

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which is the music to thousands of people's ears

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who commute on that road.

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And so that project is being,

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it's in phase two engineering now,

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which includes land acquisition and a lot of preparation.

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And at best they'll break ground in 2025.

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That's extremely aggressive.

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And I would turn it out in Boshe and say,

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where we have it because it could change, but that's kind of where that was the aggressive

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time frame, you know, figure something around 2026 or something, but know that that project

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is a go, it's just, you know, we'll just see where we are here in a year. Okay, so that's

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where we are on that one. All right, going to another topic completely, all right, just kind

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Turn around three times, take a deep breath, and change your brain.

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We're going to talk about the status of arts in Monday line.

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Because we have an amazing, monoline arts commission that is very busy.

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And they divide themselves into subcommittees.

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And one committee does the writing contest.

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Another one does the photography contest.

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Another one does murals, sculptures, and life performances.

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They're extremely active and very effective.

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And so, this has been a banner year for the Moonline Arts Commission.

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I just want to report on some things that have happened two murals were installed this year

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as well as the sculpture, which is unheard of in our town.

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We have not seen that active of that kind of art blossom all in one year.

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It's amazing.

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So first off, we have the sculpture that went in.

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It's called Earth Flight.

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It's located there by the pollinator garden, which is off of Seymour in Crystal, okay.

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You go down past, going south, you go past McDonald's, make a left on Crystal and it's kind

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of right there on the right, and the sculpture, it's kind of a crescent sculpture that

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you can sit on it and have some interaction with it, and go check it out.

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In spring after we planted that pollinator garden, it really is something.

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And the Moonline Arts Commission found this that was originally commissioned in 1988,

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they got it for a great price and transported it here, and public works helped out with that project of getting it in,

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and it's very proud to have that in town.

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Two murals went in, first of all, the one next to the looks of Mondayline,

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It's the largest mural in our community at this point and it's the first large-scale private contribution to public art in Mundaline.

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So no public money went towards this. This is the first large-scale privately funded public art.

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And here's the ribbon cutting and right in the middle you see Mike Majestic. He's the owner of Luke's of Mundaline.

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And so if you build a looks to get your food and he happens to be in there, give him a shout and give him a thank you.

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I mean it's great what he did there and the mural depicts a 1940s era Chicago Street scene and it's just wonderful.

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And so Kudos the mic for doing that for the community. Next is a skate park mural over at the skate park.

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Cross from, just right next across from Fair Haven School, next to the Heritage Museum, you have a mural set up there that's just outstanding.

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And it's, you should go see it. It's basically, it's artwork that honors the life of Matt Rogan, who passed away.

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And what you interesting point, I mean he was a classmate of my daughter Ami who graduated in

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O7 I think it was, and so, but it's a beautiful mural and go check it out.

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It's kind of where the skate ramp is.

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It's on the back wall of that and when you park for the museum, you'll just see it right there.

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It's pretty nice.

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Finally, just want to thank the Arts Commission for hosting the lure of the local.

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Well, this was a wonderful art exhibition in the summer, and it occurs at the old Walgreens

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building, which is beginning to, who remembers when Walgreens was there anymore, it's been

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so long.

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It's the vacant spot where Starbucks is.

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If you go into the new Starbucks across from Duncan, you have that back in the corner,

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a very large vacant space, and that's where the lure of the local was.

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It's an art exhibition featuring local artists, and I hope it turns into a great tradition

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because it's on the weekends and the summer there for a month.

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It's just a wonderful event with local artists

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being depicting their art, showing their art,

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and then music and food, local food as well.

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OK, again, turning our heads around

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and deep breath going in another direction here.

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I just wanted to get in some of the top 10 things

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that we have to talk about, and one of them

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is fiscal responsibility.

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And I like to touch on this because we have to evaluate

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Whether we are fiscally responsible, and how does one determine if you are fiscally responsible?

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And so one way I want to address is the number of employees.

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There's something in the world of government, and it pretty much any organization.

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It's called Parkinson's Law.

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It says that the number of subordinates will rise regardless of the amount of work accomplished.

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There's something about organizations that just want to grow in terms of people.

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And it's seen in multiple different bureaucracies, governments, private organizations, businesses,

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and it's just something to be aware of.

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And we, as a board, are aware of it.

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I'm aware of it, and our staff is aware of it, that we are very stingy about adding employees

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because there's a cost to that, and so it's in 2008, before the recession or just when

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the recession hit, a model I had 209 employees, and then after that, there was some

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downsizing that had to occur because our tax revenue plummeted so much.

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It was a rough time to be in municipal government, and so here today, and then slowly over

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the years that we've added people very judiciously, we've been very stingy about that.

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up to 198 people now. So we're way below where we were in 2008 and that's after we've even grown

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in everything. So that's one way of gauging, you know, whether you're being fiscally responsible,

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is are you managing Parkinson's law well or not? Dead payments. We've been very stable,

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you'll see in a little bit, we've been really holding the line on the dead payments that in the

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amount of debt that we get into. But I do want to also report that we have some challenges

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coming up here. They're quite serious. First, there's a lot of growth going on, obviously.

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Apartments going in, we've had neighborhoods going in parts of town, especially out west,

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and we're going to have another big development, of course, up north. And with growth comes the need

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for more services and with more services being provided, you need more employees. And so that's the

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challenge coming down the pike, but at the same time, right now we have inflation that's hitting

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the country and it's affected us at all levels.

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Our labor supplies, our hard and soft costs, it's affecting our budget in a very significant

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way.

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Combined with, and this is the real part that squeezes us, we have declining tax revenue across

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multiple levels at sales. Our sales tax revenue is down. Personal property tax use tax

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and income tax, the portion of the state income tax that we pay to the state, the municipalities

305
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get a portion of that. That's down as well. And so when you put all that together, suffice

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to say, I say this to the trustees and the community, this will be the toughest budget season

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in many, many years going into this. And so our staff is awesome. They'll figure out how we're

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to do this, but we're going to have some tough discussions coming up here, even when we meet

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over at regarding the budget, and so that's just something to report the state of the

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village, and that's the state of our finances in that particular way.

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And so we'll see what kind of budget we come up with.

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All right, spinning around again, we have a new website being rolled out.

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We are going with civic plus, as a provider of the technology that provides websites.

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There's a community of mass communications, notification system, freedom of information,

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technology, and as well as the agenda software that we use internally to generate the

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agenda.

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And also that it appears on the website for you to look at in terms of agendas and minutes

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and everything.

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All of that is a system that we're switching over to civic plus coming up and we'll have

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new website next month. And so we're looking forward to that internally. We're very excited about that actually.

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Closing in on the end of the top 10 commissions and committees, but first just a word about volunteerism.

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I think that vibrant communities are communities that have a strong sense of volunteerism in town.

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And if you, if you like people, or can at least tolerate people,

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You have a little extra time on your hands and you want to enhance your life in a great, great way.

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I would highly recommend that you consider volunteering your time someplace.

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For me, it was youth sports. A lot of people find youth sports is a great place to volunteer.

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The schools that your kids go to, it's your church, maybe it's scouting.

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But volunteer your time because there's many organizations in town that really rely on volunteers.

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and so I would encourage you and then here at the village we have opportunities for you to

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volunteer as well. And let me just go over those a little bit here. We have a variety of

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commissions and committees that do some important work. Plan and zoning commission. They review proposed

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developments and land uses and ensure compliance with our comprehensive plan and our zoning

333
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map, and they have statutory powers and they're completely staffed with those commissioners

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or completely volunteers.

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Community, community days commission, they plan the four-day festival, and that's what

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they do.

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They meet occasionally right afterwards here in the fall, and then they really ramp it up

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and going into July.

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I mean, it's very, they're very, very busy, and they work tirelessly to bring us a wonderful

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four-day experience.

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Mindline Arts Commission, they're awesome, I talked about them earlier, we have a beautification

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committee that develops plans and programs to beautify Monday line.

343
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We have an economic development commission, the EDC, they attract and retain businesses

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that's their task.

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The Mindline Historical Commission, a wonderful group of people, they're tasked with preserving

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our history and they administer the Mindline Heritage Museum out there across from Fairhaven

347
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School.

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old number one fire truck preservation committee. Our fire truck, the first fire truck was

349
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purchased in 1990. It was given to us by Cardinal Monaline in 1925, which means next year,

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Bob is the 100th anniversary and 100th birthday, what do you want to call it? And we're already

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talking about plans for rolling out some celebration there. We'll have a 100 year old fire truck

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town that's just awesome. Three other commissions. We have the police and fire commission.

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Three folks that are in charge of hiring all our police officers and firefighters.

354
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We have a police pension board and a fire pension board that administers those respective

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pensions to our retirees. So a variety of ways to volunteer and all that information is on our

356
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website when we have openings and such.

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Closing in roads, roads, we live in a tough place in our country for asphalt.

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The thine cycles are numerous every year and every time the snow comes off the streets and

359
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the spring starts entering every crack that's developed.

360
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You wonder where these cracks come from, they just emerge and it looks terrible and then

361
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our public works department does a great job of addressing those.

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But every year we do a lot of road work and I want to talk about that a little bit we have

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110 miles of roadway in town and our budget for addressing the roads in terms of work allows us to

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address roughly two and a half miles of roads each year. Now we address those in two ways.

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One is that we will take a road that has no curves and gutters and we will just remove the whole thing

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down to the dirt and put in all new curbs, storm sewers and everything, utilities, and build

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it from the ground up, and that's very expensive.

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The other way to address roads is when you have a development that's maybe 20, 25, 30 years

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old, and it was, you know, the streets have curbs and storm sewers and everything, and it just

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needs to be resurfaced, that's the scrape and overlay, as they say, and that's much less

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expensive and you can accomplish a lot more miles, you know, per dollar doing it that way.

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So we do both projects this last year, we spent a million on cert resurfacing and 3.65

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on reconstruction.

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And so this year, we have those two projects coming out and right now, and so I'm going

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to show you the list of streets and those of you that want to print out the page and see,

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you know, and you're going to magnifying glass out and see what it is, you know, we're

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going to show you a map of all this.

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But basically the top in the orange is the...

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Surfacing streets. The road reconstruction is in the blue, and when you put this on a map, it looks like this and on the left, we have the resurfacing, and this is the neighborhood called long meadow estates off of 83, and you can see, and that we're taking care of most of that development. The very northern part will be addressed, Chadwick, that'll come later, but the huge portion of long meadow estates will be addressed in terms of scraping and overlaying.

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and bring in those streets, you know, addressing the age of those streets.

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Now, in terms of the reconstruction, that's on the right side, and that's the neighborhood kind of continuing where we started last year around Hawthorne, you know, west Hawthorne, and this is North Shore and Lakeview region down there.

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We're going to do a complete rebuild for those streets in that neighborhood there, and so a lot of work coming down this summer for those two neighborhoods.

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And so, we have a list of neighborhoods we need to get to.

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We still have miles of road that have no curbs and gutters.

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Those will have to be reconstructed, but the good news is that the miles of those roads,

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the ones that need reconstruction, it's slowly being whittled away, and once we address the roads

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that need reconstruction, once we get those done now, the whole budget can go towards resurfacing.

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And then you can really start making headway on terms of the miles you address every year because you're resurfacing and not reconstructing and so

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but every year we have to pick away and get those streets rebuilt that don't have curds and gutters, okay?

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So that's where the roads project is.

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Finally, events and latest news.

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We have a whole host of events that the village works with my online community connection and other organizations in town.

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everywhere from park on park, farmers market, we have Santa's Cottage, Bingo, the bike race,

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00:32:02,300 --> 00:32:08,960
all of these are in town that you really need to understand where they are and where they are.

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It would be best if you were to, if you don't already get our email newsletter,

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00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:22,320
just simply email info at monline.org and you'll get a weekly Friday afternoon newsletter that will

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00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:29,000
price you upcoming events, you can also go online to our social media, we're on Facebook,

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Instagram, Twitter, slash x, and LinkedIn now as well. And we have the Arts Commission,

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00:32:35,020 --> 00:32:41,120
the Farmers Market, and the Park District, are on social media where you can get dates and

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all these events. And so that's how to keep a prize of all the numerous events that we have

401
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:50,640
going on throughout the year. So, especially, get the newsletter if you're not already signed up for that.

402
00:32:51,780 --> 00:32:58,040
Okay. We're done with the top 10. Let's go around the departments and address a few things.

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Finance. Finance department, Linda Miller's finance directors, does a great job.

404
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:13,760
And we have to address property taxes because we're talking about the state of the village.

405
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Where are we in terms of property taxes? And we just got to report what it is.

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So, when you get your property tax bill in the mail, the village takes up roughly 13% of that total bill.

407
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Schools, 63, 65% and then the other agencies take up the rest.

408
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All right, now, of that 13% it's divided into two parts, the village of Mundaline line item, and then the village of Mundaline pension line item.

409
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Okay, and so you have the numbers there, you can print it out and look at them if you want,

410
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But I'm going to show you the graphical version of this item one, village of Montelina.

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We're breaking that out into three parts, just to show you kind of where we're at.

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And the line item number one, it's all summarized right here.

413
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And ideally, in the board always favors when it comes time to look at our property tax

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levian november, the board always is looking at a way, what would it mean if we didn't

415
00:34:18,460 --> 00:34:26,480
our property tax levy at all? What would that mean to us as a village government if we just kept it flat the same?

416
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And for years we were able to do that. We actually kept kept it the same, but recently especially we just haven't been able to

417
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most recently to to inflation these last few years. And so inflation hits us and trust to provide the service level

418
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that our community is accustomed to.

419
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We've had to raise the tax levy to accommodate inflation.

420
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And it's not an insignificant number.

421
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It's pretty serious.

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And so that's where it's at.

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And when you break out the number of village of

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Monday line, we have three parts to it, as I said.

425
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The corporate, this is where all the raise went into,

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is our corporate tax levy as the operations.

427
00:35:08,980 --> 00:35:11,440
Okay, so all of that increased went towards operations.

428
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:13,740
where that inflation level is really hitting.

429
00:35:14,420 --> 00:35:21,100
The other two, road and bridge, it's gone up over the years, but we flatline it when we can.

430
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:32,640
And if the board were ever to decide to address roads by raising property taxes, this would be the fund where you, this would be the line item where you go to do it.

431
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:36,840
It is the road and bridge fund, but we've held it the same for the last several years.

432
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:42,140
And finally, our debt payments, we've kept it roughly at an a million dollars a year for

433
00:35:42,140 --> 00:35:46,400
several years, even when we rolled bonds over, and rebonded out.

434
00:35:46,540 --> 00:35:49,240
We kept that payment the same, and it hasn't been raised.

435
00:35:49,260 --> 00:35:52,760
It's actually down from where it was certainly 10 years ago.

436
00:35:53,700 --> 00:35:56,140
So that's kind of where we are on that one line item.

437
00:35:56,140 --> 00:36:02,760
The other line item is pensions, and this is certainly not unique to us, is that pension

438
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:10,980
costs have risen dramatically for various reasons, and it's mostly due to what the state

439
00:36:10,980 --> 00:36:19,860
requires in terms of when they win our auditors as well is that when the model, when you run

440
00:36:19,860 --> 00:36:25,080
the big math problem is to how much money you should sock away for our retirees. If you change

441
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:30,860
a few variables, it has huge ramifications down the road. So over the years, there's been

442
00:36:30,860 --> 00:36:35,020
and adjustment for the longer life expectancy is one.

443
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:37,420
So when they assume that people are going to live longer,

444
00:36:37,860 --> 00:36:39,760
well, that means you're going to have to suck away more money

445
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:41,240
for years down the road.

446
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:46,120
And so that's what some of that is where they raise the life expectancy.

447
00:36:46,260 --> 00:36:50,020
The other one is the assumed return from the stock market.

448
00:36:50,100 --> 00:36:51,880
So when you suck the money away,

449
00:36:52,220 --> 00:36:53,780
you're assuming that the stock market

450
00:36:53,780 --> 00:36:56,780
is going to give you a certain return over the years on average.

451
00:36:56,780 --> 00:37:03,040
And when you reduce that number as the state did, and are actually where he did to our

452
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,660
routers, well then, you know, that number goes up again.

453
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:10,820
And so that's some of what you're seeing here in terms of higher pension.

454
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:16,320
And the desire also to be fully funded by a certain date in the future, all contributes to

455
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,380
that raising that higher number over the years.

456
00:37:20,300 --> 00:37:22,100
And so that's our property.

457
00:37:22,100 --> 00:37:28,740
Now, ironically, the property tax rate is gone down, and I'm not going to dwell on this

458
00:37:28,740 --> 00:37:33,760
too much, but basically, you know, when a community is growing and you need to assess

459
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:41,680
more property tax, we assess dollars, how do you gauge whether or not you're being responsible

460
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:42,180
or not?

461
00:37:42,260 --> 00:37:47,100
One way, just a rule of thumb is to take the percentage of your home value that you're

462
00:37:47,100 --> 00:37:49,700
being assessed with property tax.

463
00:37:50,740 --> 00:37:53,200
And so when your property value goes up,

464
00:37:53,660 --> 00:37:55,320
but the levy stays the same,

465
00:37:55,420 --> 00:37:57,480
well, the property rate goes down, okay?

466
00:37:57,620 --> 00:38:00,320
Now if your property value goes down

467
00:38:00,900 --> 00:38:04,460
and the property tax, the dollars levy stays high,

468
00:38:04,660 --> 00:38:07,240
well, then your percentage goes higher, of course.

469
00:38:07,500 --> 00:38:10,180
And so, but you wanna just have it as a rule of thumb,

470
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,040
it's not something you can hang your hat on

471
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,920
and say, like in this case, yay, we dropped it one penny,

472
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:21,980
You know, no, we had to raise it because of inflation and pensions, but yet the rate went

473
00:38:21,980 --> 00:38:27,160
down because our property values went up so much and we've added more real estate into

474
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:33,380
town as well, raising the total aggregate value of the real estate in town, okay?

475
00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,020
So I just wanted to report that not going to dwell on it too much.

476
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:44,180
Moving over to our community development department, talked about a lot of the things that all

477
00:38:44,180 --> 00:38:48,300
The growthing town, Amanda Orenshuk, and her department handle a lot of this.

478
00:38:48,780 --> 00:38:51,800
All the plan is only commission stuff goes through them.

479
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:58,040
But one of the things they do is help businesses find locations in town and help with

480
00:38:58,040 --> 00:38:58,860
the ribbon cuttings.

481
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:02,800
And we've just had so many business start businesses start up here in Monday line.

482
00:39:03,220 --> 00:39:05,920
I've gone to several ribbon cuttings for some of these businesses.

483
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:12,460
And it's just a joy to watch businesses start out, family run, start ups, and just all

484
00:39:12,460 --> 00:39:13,720
over the place in Monday line.

485
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:16,180
and we are indeed a town of entrepreneurs,

486
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,000
and it's something we can be very proud of.

487
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,180
Another way we help businesses

488
00:39:21,180 --> 00:39:24,240
is we have something called the Business Incendent Grant Program.

489
00:39:25,220 --> 00:39:28,960
And what we do is the board is assigned money

490
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,460
toward for used by businesses the one who

491
00:39:31,460 --> 00:39:35,320
they want to improve their property,

492
00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:38,740
either through a better sign, landscape being,

493
00:39:38,780 --> 00:39:40,580
maybe there's interior work that needs to be done

494
00:39:40,580 --> 00:39:46,140
attach to the real estate, sprinklers, et cetera. And so over the years since 2015 that we've

495
00:39:46,140 --> 00:39:55,440
had this 74 businesses have taken advantage of our grant program and we've spent 928,000, we've invested

496
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:01,100
that into that program over the years. But then usually when a business doesn't improve it to their

497
00:40:01,100 --> 00:40:10,560
property, they just don't do the matching. You know, if we give them 5,000, they're not going to

498
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:14,580
$3,000 and oh, by the way, can you give me a grant for some improvements you're doing?

499
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:18,320
And so we're just helping the business kind of priming the pump.

500
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,860
And so it results in far more money being invested in total.

501
00:40:22,500 --> 00:40:30,600
So we've invested $9,28,9 or $28,000 combined with the businesses that have inputted their own,

502
00:40:30,820 --> 00:40:36,820
or have used their own money for improvements, $7.5 million has been put into those 74 businesses.

503
00:40:36,820 --> 00:40:39,740
So, that's pretty, that's pretty impressive.

504
00:40:41,820 --> 00:40:49,840
Recently, this last year, we invested 94,000 through this program and then the total investment

505
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:56,820
from the businesses was 266,000 and these are the five businesses that got some of the big

506
00:40:56,820 --> 00:40:58,900
funds, the business extent of grant funds.

507
00:41:01,020 --> 00:41:06,900
In terms of occupancy, and this is always a topic because you can go online and hear people

508
00:41:06,900 --> 00:41:11,720
talking about, ah, you know, there's shopping places where it looks like a ghost town and

509
00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:15,200
I'll admit Oak Street Plaza looked like a ghost town before it got demolished.

510
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:21,340
But now, and I can think that there's one empty building there on Holly Street.

511
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:25,880
Other than that, you have whole shopping centers that are completely full.

512
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:32,820
And if you were to go around and look at what the total occupancy rate is in Monday line,

513
00:41:32,820 --> 00:41:43,580
It turns out that it's roughly 88% combined industrial and commercial throughout our village 88% occupancy, 12% vacancy, which is a good number.

514
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:52,640
That means when a business comes to town and they want to look for a place, there's a chance that they might find some place to use for their business that they're going to either start up or move into town.

515
00:41:52,640 --> 00:42:00,300
If your occupancy is at like 99, it's likely they're not going to find anything, so they won't even try.

516
00:42:00,820 --> 00:42:07,460
Because there's just nothing. But here we're at a good place here. We have places in town that can accommodate many, many new businesses.

517
00:42:08,180 --> 00:42:15,540
If you look at just the commercial occupancy, not industrial, we're at 91, 91%

518
00:42:15,540 --> 00:42:21,060
And if you look at just downtown, just downtown in this region, it's at 81.

519
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:28,620
It used to be a higher occupancy, but we had a big, big tenant in the Archibusiness Center building,

520
00:42:29,540 --> 00:42:32,880
leave Sigma left, and that number dropped to 81%.

521
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:34,880
So, we're pretty happy with that.

522
00:42:35,020 --> 00:42:40,660
If you look at industrial, it's at 91% occupied, and it used to be much higher.

523
00:42:40,660 --> 00:42:49,420
as high as 97 at one point. Recently we had that large building going behind garden fresh 300,000 square feet.

524
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:55,920
They have yet to rent that out and that vacant building then lower the number to 91.

525
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:57,820
We're in a good place though.

526
00:42:58,280 --> 00:42:59,660
We're in a good place though.

527
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:03,600
Moving over to public works and engineering.

528
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:14,420
I think I don't know when it was last time that we competed in the snowplow championship at the state level.

529
00:43:14,500 --> 00:43:18,060
We have some of the best snowplow drivers in the state.

530
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:23,480
And they competed in the past down state, in a competition.

531
00:43:23,940 --> 00:43:26,240
They're just an awesome group of people.

532
00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:32,580
And all that said, there's a few things that they've been working on that I'll report on.

533
00:43:32,580 --> 00:43:34,200
but the core of what they do,

534
00:43:34,300 --> 00:43:36,360
we just can't appreciate those guys enough.

535
00:43:37,180 --> 00:43:38,000
Sidewalk replacement,

536
00:43:38,180 --> 00:43:40,640
one thing they do is go around and replace sidewalks

537
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:41,840
in this last year.

538
00:43:42,620 --> 00:43:46,520
Instead of just replacing the sidewalks that were depressed,

539
00:43:46,820 --> 00:43:50,000
if they found a panel that was depressed on a sidewalk,

540
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:52,260
they would do something called mudjacking,

541
00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:54,600
where they would put material under the panel

542
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,060
that would raise it up rather than chiseling it out,

543
00:43:57,280 --> 00:44:01,080
leveling it all new, they save a lot of money

544
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:10,820
by doing this mudjacking approach and a pretty cool technology and it saved some significant money this last year for us by using this mudjacking approach.

545
00:44:11,460 --> 00:44:20,620
LED street lights. This has been on our radar for a long time and we're closing in where 90% now of our lights have been converted to LED.

546
00:44:21,340 --> 00:44:27,460
So we're very happy with that and congrats to the public works department for all the good work that they do for us really.

547
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:33,140
Going to our building department, they are very, very busy.

548
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:37,140
Look at all the development going on in town.

549
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:42,720
Each one of those apartment buildings, town homes needs an inspection, needs several inspections

550
00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:43,340
actually.

551
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:49,080
And so when you break down all these numbers and combine, remember, we're also helping out

552
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:50,800
long-growth and hot-roen woods.

553
00:44:51,260 --> 00:44:54,360
They're paying us money for our inspection services down there.

554
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:59,500
But just within Mungoline since 2022.

555
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:27,640
The inspections rose to 8374 inspections done. That's a 164% increase. And so those guys are really out hustling, hustling around doing these inspections. And so also, I want to mention, Pete Schukegel is retiring. He's been with us. There's Pete Grazier-Hampy, there he is. He's been with us for 30 years, 30 years. And I think 12 as a, is the department head?

556
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:32,040
Something like 12 years is our department had these retireing this year

557
00:45:36,300 --> 00:45:40,040
and really big shoes to fill and so we're working on that right now

558
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:47,100
But congrats to Pete on retiring and he will be definitely missed around here. Very busy department though.

559
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:52,320
Admin our administration and information technology are IT department.

560
00:45:54,000 --> 00:46:01,240
One thing we, the administration does is they linemen row over our system village administrator.

561
00:46:01,500 --> 00:46:08,840
She works with the beautification committee, and this last year, they hosted folks from this

562
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:14,380
organization called America in Bloom, who came out and looked at our community, and then

563
00:46:14,380 --> 00:46:20,180
Lynn went to the convention where Monday line one three different awards from American Bloom for

564
00:46:20,180 --> 00:46:26,560
beautification efforts in a variety of ways, and those are listed here, but

565
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:33,320
beautification is definitely on our radar. The committee does a great job. They hosted the folks there.

566
00:46:33,340 --> 00:46:36,960
Chris Woodard over here was a huge help with that. Thank you very much.

567
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:43,400
And so we're very proud of the work, and that's one of just one of the things we've done inside

568
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:48,740
in our admin department. Another thing though is the administration of chickens.

569
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:56,620
The administration of chickens, so chicken keeping is now allowed and staff work very hard

570
00:46:56,620 --> 00:47:03,660
to come up with the process by which applicants would be awarded the permit to raise chickens.

571
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:09,260
We have 12 chicken keeping permits have been submitted and approved at this point.

572
00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:13,940
So if you're interested in keeping chickens, just come on in and get the paperwork for a

573
00:47:13,940 --> 00:47:15,860
permit and that'll get processed through.

574
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:24,140
Winding down, we have our police departments, an amazing group of people, and as I said,

575
00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:29,100
we have to feel safe around here, it's a very important, and they do such a great job.

576
00:47:29,380 --> 00:47:36,560
And if you go to the Neighborhood Scout website, we have been in the nation's top 100

577
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:44,040
for roughly 11 straight years, in terms of cities over 30,000 people, in terms of the

578
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:49,900
statistics and the safety levels. And that's that's just kudos to our police department for

579
00:47:49,900 --> 00:47:55,900
for doing such a great job. And I can't thank them enough. Jason Seely is our new police chief.

580
00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:02,460
Chief Seely, raise your hand. There he is. And congratulations on being our new chief this year.

581
00:48:02,500 --> 00:48:08,940
That happened just this last year. Finally, our fire department. Very busy. Very busy. Kind of like

582
00:48:08,940 --> 00:48:15,800
building department when you have growth and you have you know people need services but then when you

583
00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:23,200
add things like a kind of a nursing care facility down in the south area you have more

584
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:29,120
neighborhoods in town the number of calls has gone up when you look at this it's gone up 8.9% increase

585
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:37,060
in coal volumes since 2021 and so they're more busy and over the years coming up especially

586
00:48:37,060 --> 00:48:42,320
with more development going on out west and to the north there will be a need for more

587
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:47,700
firefighters eventually another fire station out there is development occurs out in that

588
00:48:47,700 --> 00:48:52,200
area and that's so that's something on the horizon there's no timeline but that's coming

589
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:59,900
up and I just want to end with just kind of just meditating on the notion that we live in an

590
00:48:59,900 --> 00:49:07,880
credible time where you could, I mean, to be able to call 911 and have a high-tech medical

591
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:14,160
team fully outfitted with the best technology at your door in seven minutes or less, usually

592
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:15,120
a lot less.

593
00:49:15,620 --> 00:49:16,760
I mean, that is amazing.

594
00:49:17,500 --> 00:49:21,060
I mean, most, I'm not going to say most, but a lot of parts of the world, they don't have

595
00:49:21,780 --> 00:49:22,220
that.

596
00:49:22,240 --> 00:49:26,060
You can imagine living in a part of the world where you don't, you know, if you've made

597
00:49:26,060 --> 00:49:32,420
call and you're looking at hours in some places to get any help or to have an armed officer

598
00:49:32,420 --> 00:49:37,140
arrive within minutes if you need assistance of any kind.

599
00:49:37,660 --> 00:49:42,780
I mean that is this whole 911 thing is just a marvel of the modern world.

600
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:50,480
I mean most of the history hasn't had that and so just to contemplate life without that life

601
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:54,980
would be completely different and so we so appreciate our public safety and I'll start

602
00:49:54,980 --> 00:49:59,860
started in L.N. with the public safety and public works. You guys really, it's the blocking

603
00:49:59,860 --> 00:50:04,600
and tackling the municipal government. We're just so thankful that we have those bases

604
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:08,880
covered so well. All right. That's it. What time is it? How are we doing?

605
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:15,540
10 minutes. Hey. All right. We have some time for some questions. This is awesome. Any questions?

606
00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:20,900
We got all the brain power here. They could handle anything. So, anyone have any questions at

607
00:50:22,620 --> 00:50:23,160
Yes.

608
00:50:34,910 --> 00:50:35,450
Yes.

609
00:50:39,700 --> 00:50:45,340
Yeah. And so if you didn't hear the question for those online, we're talking

610
00:50:45,340 --> 00:50:49,920
about the building across from the post office, used to be the old village hall. It's

611
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:55,740
quite a large building and it's still vacant. So earlier this year, we had a potential tenant

612
00:50:55,740 --> 00:51:00,380
come in and give a presentation. It was a golf simulator company. They wanted to take over

613
00:51:00,380 --> 00:51:07,860
whole top floor and have, I think, eight stations in there, eight golf simulation stations

614
00:51:07,860 --> 00:51:12,360
of the highest tech and the board approved them to have a liquor license because they

615
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:16,300
wanted to in the off-season for them would have been the summer they wanted to have a bar

616
00:51:16,300 --> 00:51:24,100
and then a rooftop bar up there as well. And so that's the last of we've heard of any interest

617
00:51:24,100 --> 00:51:31,160
And I think if that group doesn't pan out, Mr. Gunther, there's another group also looking

618
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:35,620
at the same concept, and they wanted the bottom floor, I think, correct?

619
00:51:36,340 --> 00:51:42,200
And so that's currently what's in the works, was there a golf simulation company of some sort?

620
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:43,860
Anyone else?

621
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:45,620
Yes.

622
00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:47,620
Any update on the work property?

623
00:51:47,940 --> 00:51:48,320
No, it's the home.

624
00:51:48,500 --> 00:51:49,260
Works property?

625
00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:53,660
I thought, you know, maybe I could have invested a slide on them, because that, however,

626
00:51:53,660 --> 00:52:00,500
We haven't had anything of substance to report since the last time I talked about it a year ago.

627
00:52:00,660 --> 00:52:05,860
We are entering into a time of planning and then working towards a development agreement

628
00:52:05,860 --> 00:52:10,580
that we anticipate voting on the board voting on in a year or so yet.

629
00:52:11,240 --> 00:52:16,460
So there's a lot of planning going on and then there's going to be a lot of negotiating regarding impact fees.

630
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:22,100
And everything that goes into a development agreement is going to occur in the next 10 months or so.

631
00:52:22,100 --> 00:52:26,300
so that we can ink a deal, hopefully with them next January, February.

632
00:52:29,020 --> 00:52:30,060
Anyone else?

633
00:52:30,460 --> 00:52:30,940
Questions?

634
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:31,640
Yes, ma'am?

635
00:52:51,570 --> 00:52:51,710
Yeah.

636
00:52:51,710 --> 00:52:52,030
I'm

637
00:52:57,760 --> 00:52:59,220
kind of adult, ma'am.

638
00:52:59,580 --> 00:53:03,860
And what I think, maybe when we're not there, I'd hope to see what's in the one

639
00:53:03,860 --> 00:53:04,780
state of the community.

640
00:53:05,300 --> 00:53:08,880
And that's basically how nervous it is that it's the target, and then the

641
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:12,400
organization facility in particular, it didn't look like there was enough access to

642
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:21,840
place in Pyramid when you're always in emergency and there was no link, because it was a very small space for them to get in to provide emergency care.

643
00:53:22,540 --> 00:53:36,400
Okay, we have a question regarding the Morris Station development and regarding parking and also the width of the lanes for emergency vehicles to get into and out of.

644
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:42,500
Can I turn to my brain trust here to address who wants to take that one in terms of emergency vehicles?

645
00:53:43,460 --> 00:53:46,760
I know that when when a development ever is planned

646
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:54,660
It goes to all the departments for commentary. Okay, so if we could have a comment about emergency vehicles getting into more a station

647
00:53:54,660 --> 00:54:02,060
If those lanes are wide enough, and then we'll need someone to comment on the parking and the plant parking for more station as well

648
00:54:02,060 --> 00:54:06,600
Sure, the access to more station, not a problem at all.

649
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:11,960
There are studies done when they do the planning, turning radiuses of fire trucks,

650
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:15,840
the matter trucks, the ambulances, we have no issue at all getting in there.

651
00:54:19,290 --> 00:54:24,950
And from a parking standpoint, so the downtown area has different parking standards than the rest

652
00:54:24,950 --> 00:54:29,170
of the village, because of the urban environment that we are trying to create.

653
00:54:29,610 --> 00:54:34,490
There are requirements that every unit has to have at least one space per unit.

654
00:54:35,170 --> 00:54:45,410
Most of our multi-family units in downtown have more than one space per unit, but there is a minimal parking dedicated to those types of projects.

655
00:54:46,150 --> 00:54:53,630
So you are observing that correctly that there's not as many parking spaces for the units downtown as there are in other areas of the village.

656
00:54:54,730 --> 00:55:10,890
And will the barrier be currently at one point on the west side and more stations will be on the other side of the back of the proximity from the residents to the tracks was so tight and we'll see the barrier, but I hope we can go to both sides of the tracks.

657
00:55:11,290 --> 00:55:13,330
Yeah, the question is, is it more a station?

658
00:55:13,730 --> 00:55:15,350
There's a barrier on one side of the track.

659
00:55:15,490 --> 00:55:19,330
The question is, is there going to be a barrier on the other side of the track as well?

660
00:55:20,070 --> 00:55:21,430
Do we know that?

661
00:55:21,930 --> 00:55:22,550
We're

662
00:55:27,830 --> 00:55:31,730
working with the Canadian National Appeal to deal with that.

663
00:55:31,730 --> 00:55:32,670
To do both sides.

664
00:55:33,610 --> 00:55:36,490
That's in the works working with Canadian National, yep.

665
00:55:38,430 --> 00:55:39,350
All right, yes sir.

666
00:55:41,340 --> 00:55:46,540
683, especially from the Morsian and adding towards online growth.

667
00:55:46,740 --> 00:55:51,280
Is there any particular destruction maybe creating two ways?

668
00:55:51,480 --> 00:55:53,740
Each way or is there just going to stay that way?

669
00:55:53,740 --> 00:56:01,000
Yeah, that sixty eighty three expansion from one seventy six for the north all the way to townline

670
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:04,960
They're going to four lanes isn't that right Adam correct four lanes

671
00:56:05,700 --> 00:56:09,600
Yes, with the overpass so that their trains don't

672
00:56:10,780 --> 00:56:17,500
You know, you know, in fact it's like they do anyone else yes sir

673
00:56:17,500 --> 00:56:17,500
Any

674
00:56:25,570 --> 00:56:28,850
population estimates I mean

675
00:56:30,350 --> 00:56:31,490
Well, I mean

676
00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:42,060
Yeah, I would, one number that was planned and under construction that I saw, the most recent

677
00:56:42,060 --> 00:56:46,860
total was like of 1,200 units, 1,200 units.

678
00:56:47,060 --> 00:56:53,900
So you figure how many people per unit, you know, 1 to 4, something like that, isn't that right?

679
00:56:54,220 --> 00:56:56,080
I think I saw the 1,200 numbers.

680
00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:03,420
Yeah, and I would say for projects like I have no village projects, there are going to

681
00:57:03,420 --> 00:57:09,400
You know a demographic analysis of that projection that will go along with the project like that.

682
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:11,260
That's going to be determined in one of these.

683
00:57:12,420 --> 00:57:12,900
Yeah.

684
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:17,040
Yeah. Well, the words project is completely separate in terms of.

685
00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:21,280
But we're talking to 1200 units in downtown including, you know,

686
00:57:21,460 --> 00:57:24,580
down there the DR Horton development where Oak Creek Plaza was.

687
00:57:24,580 --> 00:57:26,960
That's including them as well. But yeah, you're right.

688
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:30,200
I mean, as you grow as a population, you need more services.

689
00:57:31,020 --> 00:57:31,500
Absolutely.

690
00:57:32,200 --> 00:57:32,460
Yes.

691
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:43,760
Yeah, well, the question is, is with all these developments, is there enough room and

692
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,040
bundling high school and other schools for all these kids?

693
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:50,820
And one thing about these kinds of developments is you don't have a lot of kids living

694
00:57:50,820 --> 00:57:51,720
in these apartments.

695
00:57:53,340 --> 00:58:00,000
When you do the demographics, I mean, these buildings do not produce a lot of children

696
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:01,020
going to schools.

697
00:58:01,700 --> 00:58:04,060
I mean, do we have numbers on the Cardinal Square?

698
00:58:04,160 --> 00:58:05,880
I mean, it's very small.

699
00:58:06,980 --> 00:58:20,540
Yeah, so for, like, the apartment buildings, yeah, with the higher rents, you see, like, for the buildings at Cardinal Square, there's been anywhere from one to five kids coming out of that on the annual basis.

700
00:58:21,580 --> 00:58:26,800
In terms of, yeah, I think, some of the other residences. There certainly are additional kids.

701
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:38,020
I know that there are, when you look at some of the school enrollment slightly, there's actually been declines in school enrollment for some of the schools in our area.

702
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:50,920
I know 76 and 79 have seen lower enrollments in recent years because the population is, it's an aging population with less kids, so that's something to do.

703
00:58:50,920 --> 00:58:56,520
I remember when Oak Creek Plaza was going to get demolished in those 222 townhomes going in,

704
00:58:57,160 --> 00:59:02,880
District 76 was very happy that we were going to have those townhomes to bring more children

705
00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:05,740
into their school because of the declining enrollment.

706
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:07,840
Anyone else?

707
00:59:08,420 --> 00:59:08,700
Yes.

708
00:59:08,700 --> 00:59:18,160
You mentioned the budget, what is the time frame of when the budget starts and ends and annual January?

709
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:20,700
Yeah, May 1st to May 1st.

710
00:59:21,500 --> 00:59:23,460
Yep, that's our fiscal year.

711
00:59:32,890 --> 00:59:34,630
Story of carbon building in work.

712
00:59:35,370 --> 00:59:37,030
That's supposed to be a business district.

713
00:59:37,090 --> 00:59:39,890
Why are we going residential in a business district?

714
00:59:40,090 --> 00:59:40,630
I don't understand.

715
00:59:40,630 --> 00:59:49,210
The question is, why are we contemplating having a five or six-story building residential in a business district?

716
00:59:50,370 --> 00:59:54,170
And what's there now are two vacant bank buildings?

717
00:59:55,590 --> 00:59:57,630
And that's kind of...

718
01:00:08,410 --> 01:00:17,190
Well, the way to attract businesses is to have more walkable traffic, excuse me, walkable pedestrian traffic, I mean.

719
01:00:17,930 --> 01:00:29,770
And so this model of increasing density in a downtown of people that are living in more dense buildings, that creates people that are walking around with money to spend.

720
01:00:29,770 --> 01:00:34,550
And when you have that, you're going to have a demand for space for businesses to move into.

721
01:00:35,210 --> 01:00:38,230
And that model has been used all over the country.

722
01:00:39,850 --> 01:00:42,670
The biggest one around here, you look at Arlington Heights.

723
01:00:43,470 --> 01:00:48,450
I mean, 30 years ago, there wasn't a single apartment building where they're downtown is now with all those apartments.

724
01:00:48,770 --> 01:00:52,430
And now it's just full of apartments with eatery, with restaurants.

725
01:00:52,990 --> 01:00:56,770
And the summer they have outdoor eating everywhere, it's a dynamic place.

726
01:00:56,770 --> 01:01:04,030
And that's kind of the vision, it's called a transit-oriented development where you build density near a train station.

727
01:01:04,610 --> 01:01:12,330
And then with that density comes businesses that want to move in and serve all those people that are living in those buildings and walking around with money to spend.

728
01:01:13,490 --> 01:01:22,030
And so the bank triangle is an important step in getting us there because it's within walking distance to the train station,

729
01:01:22,030 --> 01:01:27,210
But it also, and the concept that they came up with,

730
01:01:27,210 --> 01:01:30,570
the Hesner came up with included some retail in there as well.

731
01:01:31,130 --> 01:01:32,150
It's not all residential.

732
01:01:32,310 --> 01:01:35,070
There was a retail aspect to it as well, certainly,

733
01:01:35,270 --> 01:01:37,190
for businesses that want to serve all those people.

734
01:01:37,970 --> 01:01:40,650
But that's the proven formula.

735
01:01:41,130 --> 01:01:44,710
It's to bring more people in and we're moving away

736
01:01:44,710 --> 01:01:48,930
from the suburb and commuter model where everyone's done

737
01:01:48,930 --> 01:01:53,490
$10,000 a lot, how much of the $10,000 a lot and driving everywhere.

738
01:01:54,290 --> 01:01:57,770
This is definitely the way to revitalize a downtown.

739
01:01:58,010 --> 01:02:00,050
It's been duplicated all over the country.

740
01:02:01,430 --> 01:02:03,050
So can I add on to that, Mr. Mayor?

741
01:02:03,570 --> 01:02:05,270
Two things to add on.

742
01:02:06,090 --> 01:02:07,130
It's a concept.

743
01:02:07,790 --> 01:02:11,010
The Hasner Group was very clear when they brought that to us a few weeks ago.

744
01:02:11,650 --> 01:02:13,190
This is not a plan.

745
01:02:13,370 --> 01:02:14,230
It's not set in stone.

746
01:02:14,410 --> 01:02:17,010
We're not seeking a current company.

747
01:02:17,610 --> 01:02:22,810
Trustee Lamberd and I joked on our podcast that if you have a half a billion dollars laying around and you'd like to invest it in debt

748
01:02:22,810 --> 01:02:27,010
I'm underlying we do have a great plan, but it is really just a concept so

749
01:02:29,150 --> 01:02:33,170
If the land was on the market and somebody came and bought it it's owned for

750
01:02:34,350 --> 01:02:40,790
the it's not see five c it's the it's the downtown zoning and you could build for right for whatever's

751
01:02:40,790 --> 01:02:46,530
allowable not to what we designed or has their corporation designed the second is

752
01:02:47,010 --> 01:02:54,510
a concept called value per acre, and in a value per acre model you would look at increasing

753
01:02:54,510 --> 01:02:59,310
density, whether that is commercial, but generally residential, to try to get the most

754
01:02:59,310 --> 01:03:07,010
amount of money in one acre of land, parking lots are the absolute worst, high-rise residential

755
01:03:07,010 --> 01:03:13,670
is the absolute best. So, in a value per acre, like the mayor is talking about the 10,000 square

756
01:03:13,670 --> 01:03:20,210
of it lots, the tax revenue that those generate don't cover the villages expenses for that

757
01:03:20,210 --> 01:03:26,830
lot. So the roadways, the sidewalks, the water lines, the sewer, the ongoing maintenance that

758
01:03:26,830 --> 01:03:31,610
has to occur to keep those maintained at 10,000 square foot property, and that does even

759
01:03:31,610 --> 01:03:39,850
include place and fire, right? So those costs just aren't, they keep growing every year in

760
01:03:39,850 --> 01:03:42,410
tax rate doesn't grow to cover those.

761
01:03:42,750 --> 01:03:45,590
So when you increase density, you increase the tax revenue,

762
01:03:46,110 --> 01:03:49,110
per that one acre lock, which helps cover the cost

763
01:03:49,110 --> 01:03:50,330
throughout the entire village.

764
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:56,520
I just want to, not the pile on, but, you know,

765
01:03:57,980 --> 01:03:59,960
we go to these conventions, right?

766
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:03,740
And so some of them are geared towards brokers and developers.

767
01:04:05,020 --> 01:04:07,180
And in years past, you would go to the conventions

768
01:04:07,180 --> 01:04:09,400
for the International shopping centers convention.

769
01:04:09,400 --> 01:04:13,840
and you would see all of these retailers, all of these potential end users.

770
01:04:14,880 --> 01:04:20,560
Now, the only people you see there are either municipalities or you see brokers, you don't

771
01:04:20,560 --> 01:04:22,800
see the retailers anymore when you go there.

772
01:04:23,300 --> 01:04:30,280
The changes that have occurred in the commercial markets have been substantial since, you know,

773
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:32,260
2015, really they've been declining.

774
01:04:32,480 --> 01:04:35,280
People are now doing a lot more online retail.

775
01:04:36,300 --> 01:04:38,260
They're really trying to write size,

776
01:04:38,540 --> 01:04:40,220
what retail and commercial that we have,

777
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:43,520
which is why you've seen the demolition of places like Oak Creek Plaza,

778
01:04:44,040 --> 01:04:47,120
because you tend to start getting what they call like value ad,

779
01:04:47,820 --> 01:04:50,940
which is not, you know, they're adding like storage units and other things

780
01:04:50,940 --> 01:04:54,520
to those places to try to make up for the commercial runs

781
01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:58,480
that they're not getting as commercial brokers and developers.

782
01:04:59,620 --> 01:05:03,100
So after the approval of the towns at Oak Creek,

783
01:05:03,100 --> 01:05:08,300
We actually saw an increase in terms of the tonalite square shopping center across the street.

784
01:05:09,180 --> 01:05:14,000
So there was the kids empire that went in there that lay fitness knew that the project was coming in.

785
01:05:14,180 --> 01:05:17,420
So they went in there. There's been a couple of other tenants that I've located there.

786
01:05:17,700 --> 01:05:22,520
And then same thing with Sheldon Woods and when our North West Edmonton Line crossings,

787
01:05:22,800 --> 01:05:27,060
there's now additional tenants that are backfilling with the news that these additional

788
01:05:27,640 --> 01:05:32,680
residences are coming and for the downtown we are actually seeing a lot more

789
01:05:32,680 --> 01:05:37,360
activity and inquiries for space and some of it is just space that we don't

790
01:05:37,360 --> 01:05:40,780
have like they're looking for a certain type of space like maybe it's 5,000

791
01:05:40,780 --> 01:05:44,700
square feet that has a kitchen ready in it and we just we don't have some of those

792
01:05:44,700 --> 01:05:49,600
available already for tenants that are looking so that's that's some of why you're

793
01:05:49,600 --> 01:05:53,680
not seeing some of these new commercial businesses is we don't have some of the

794
01:05:53,680 --> 01:05:59,520
basis or they're not getting calls back from some of our property owners that they're reaching

795
01:05:59,520 --> 01:06:03,940
out to to try to locate or they're not coming to deal terms with those property owners.

796
01:06:04,920 --> 01:06:10,320
So there is commercial and we are working on that but it all kind of goes together.

797
01:06:12,860 --> 01:06:13,040
Okay.

798
01:06:13,200 --> 01:06:14,480
Anyone else?

799
01:06:15,460 --> 01:06:15,960
Okay.

800
01:06:16,480 --> 01:06:22,620
We'll close the floor to the public commentary portion and do you guys need a five-minute break

801
01:06:22,620 --> 01:06:23,180
at all?

802
01:06:23,340 --> 01:06:24,080
Are you good to go?

803
01:06:24,080 --> 01:06:26,200
There's got one on the piece of business when you get back here.

804
01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:26,760
Oh, I do.

805
01:06:27,320 --> 01:06:28,280
OK, very good.

806
01:06:28,380 --> 01:06:28,840
One moment.

807
01:06:30,640 --> 01:06:30,780
OK.

808
01:06:47,700 --> 01:06:50,380
All right, before we adjourn, we need to do a minute's approval.

809
01:06:50,920 --> 01:06:52,200
From the last, I need a motion, please,

810
01:06:52,380 --> 01:06:54,020
to approve the committee of the whole meeting minutes

811
01:06:54,020 --> 01:06:56,140
from January 22nd, 2024.

812
01:06:57,040 --> 01:06:57,440
So load.

813
01:06:57,940 --> 01:06:59,460
Motion by Trustee Warris.

814
01:06:59,720 --> 01:07:00,120
Second.

815
01:07:00,120 --> 01:07:01,260
Second by Trustee Ross.

816
01:07:01,600 --> 01:07:02,180
Any discussion?

817
01:07:02,720 --> 01:07:03,720
Clerk, please call the roll.

818
01:07:04,560 --> 01:07:05,020
Well, it is.

819
01:07:05,180 --> 01:07:05,460
Yes.

820
01:07:05,840 --> 01:07:06,120
Ross?

821
01:07:06,640 --> 01:07:06,720
Yes.

822
01:07:07,200 --> 01:07:07,600
Lambert?

823
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:08,140
Yes.

824
01:07:08,460 --> 01:07:08,860
Swank?

825
01:07:09,080 --> 01:07:09,400
Yes.

826
01:07:09,880 --> 01:07:17,660
Mayer. Yes. Wilson. Yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you very much for attending. Those of you

827
01:07:17,660 --> 01:07:22,800
online and those of you live as well. Thank you very much for watching the committee of

828
01:07:22,800 --> 01:07:26,980
the whole board for the state of the village. I'll ask for a motion please to adjourn this committee

829
01:07:26,980 --> 01:07:32,200
of the whole board. Some of the motion by Trustee Swank. Second, second by Trustee Waris. Any discussion?

830
01:07:32,200 --> 01:07:34,060
Clerk, please call the room.

831
01:07:34,820 --> 01:07:35,080
Shwing?

832
01:07:35,660 --> 01:07:35,680
Yes.

833
01:07:35,920 --> 01:07:36,300
More as?

834
01:07:36,300 --> 01:07:36,660
Yes.

835
01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:37,500
Mayer?

836
01:07:37,880 --> 01:07:37,980
Yes.

837
01:07:38,360 --> 01:07:38,580
Wilson?

838
01:07:39,100 --> 01:07:39,320
Yes.

839
01:07:39,600 --> 01:07:39,940
Ross?

840
01:07:40,920 --> 01:07:41,180
Yes.

841
01:07:41,600 --> 01:07:41,900
Lamber?

842
01:07:43,520 --> 01:07:43,740
Okay.

843
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:47,080
We good to go or you want to break it all.

844
01:07:47,700 --> 01:07:48,040
Good to go.

845
01:07:49,340 --> 01:07:49,840
Okay.