Village of Forest Council met in regular session on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM in council chambers.
Mayor, Dave Book called the meeting to order with the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Attendance:
- Mary Dickinson – present
- Derek Hastings – absent
- Loretta Perkins – present
- Suzanne Shark – present
- Jerrie Whitling – absent
- Valerie Mullholand – present
Approval/Corrections of Minutes: V. Mullholand motioned to approve minutes from January 9, 2025 council meeting. M. Dickinson seconded. Vote: all yeas, motion carried.
Bills: L. Perkins motioned to approve payment of bills. V. Mullholand seconded. Vote: all yeas, motion carried.
Citizen’s Comments: None
Old Business: Fiscal Officer B. Kromer discussed obtaining a new website provider. B. Kromer has met with multiple providers. B. Kromer recommended going forward with Pixelfire. M. Dickinson motioned to move forward with Pixelfire for Village website. L. Perkins seconded. Vote: L. Perkins yea, M. Dickinson yea, V. Mullholand abstain, S. Shark abstain, Mayor Dave Book yea. Motion carried.
New Business: Fiscal Officer B. Kromer and Mayor Dave Book need permission to obtain any Village loan information from Community First Bank. V. Mullholand motioned to approve B. Kromer and D. Book authorization to obtain Village loan information from Community First Bank. M. Dickinson seconded. Vote: all yeas, motion carried.
Approval needed for final Reallocation of Appropriations for 2024. V. Mullholand motioned to approve all Reallocations for Appropriations for 2024. M. Dickinson seconded. Vote: all yeas, motion carried.
Reports
Mayor: None
Finance: Committee met on 2/6/25. Still waiting on 2024 financials to be closed out.
Safety: Committee met on 1//28/25. The curfew ordinance is being reviewed. Committee discussed signs they may want put up. There is a free training program that council would be able to utilize.
Currently the police department is obtaining their past completed training records.
Police Chief: Monthly update was given. The police department had 275 calls for service. Issued were 12 traffic citations, with 7 citations being in 35mph zone. The average speed over the limit was 17 mph. The department had one criminal charge of menacing. The Auxiliary Officers completed 110 ó hours of service.
Fire Chief: None
Ambulance Board: None
Service: Met with Park Board on 1/19/25. Have put process in place for communication and projects to be completed. Discussed CDL certifications for those required to be completed by the end of 2025.
Service discussed the need for an updated employee review policy/procedure. Focus continues to be on improving the accuracy of meter reads, commercial trash, and updated website. Salt tank has been cleaned out.
Administrator: Water Plant – Salt tank has been cleaned. Water treatment has been dialed in and testing numbers are looking amazing. Still looking at upgrades to the process. Did inventory of Water meters including sizes. Meters will be ordered soon to fix remaining meters that are not working.
Wastewater: Received a $239,000 grant for lift station repairs, currently working on this. Wessler Engineering has been working with Airvac to get a better understanding of the system. Still looking at minor upgrades to the system. Vacuum pump arrived for the vac plant and will be installed in near future.
Roads: Once weather breaks Service will be fixing potholes with cold patch. Cold patch that was laid last summer has held.
Other: Stay off Ice signs have been placed by the pond, come spring they will be replaced with no swimming signs. Signs will be upgraded at the park. Nature Works Grant for the park is moving well. Looking to replace 12 light poles around the park and also replace lights in the middle of the park with LED lights. Waiting to hear back on a few more grants.
Park Board: Baseball Association and Park Board working on new concession in baseball field 2. The meeting with Service Department went very well. Discussion was had about projects, responsibilities, and communication with Service Dept and Park Board. Planning on a spring cleanup day in the park end of March 2025. The Riverdale Football team will be coming to help with the clean up at the park. Still looking for Park Board member to fill the vacancy. There have been 2 interested and Mayor Book will review and will be discussed at next council meeting.
Market Square: Will have a meeting in early April to schedule events. There has been an issue with people dumping items in trash at Market Square. This was discussed with the Police Department already. The top of the flag pole was lost during wind storm. They are working on replacing this.
CIC: Still working on easement to allow for the Welcome to Forest sign to be installed. Solicitor Tudor is involved with this. The goal is to have the sign installed in spring 2025.
Economic Development: Committee met on 1/22/25. Working on survey to send to local businesses. Committee will be focusing on recognizing and growing current businesses and assisting with the collaboration of various Village committees. Discussion held on Hardin County Community Foundation Grants that will be applied for.
Zoning/Zoning Board of Appeals: None
Human Resources: Committee met on 1/27/25. Discussed the need to focus on updated job descriptions and employee review policy. This will be the primary focus for the committee at this time.
Village Solicitor: Ordinance 2025-1 Retaining Andrew R. Tudor as Village of Forest Solicitor for 2025 and Declaring as Emergency was present. V. Mullholand motioned to suspend the rules and declare an emergency. L. Perkins seconded the motion. Vote: all yeas, motion carried.
V. Mullholand motioned to approve Ordinance 2025-1. M. Dickinson seconded. Vote: all yeas motion carried.
During this time, a citizen brought up that public access of the building needs have safer access. The area needs to have improvement on the clean up of snow and utilize salt in the area for safety.
Fiscal Officer: The financials for 2024 are almost ready to be closed out. GWorks upgrade has started and there are quite a few changes we need to learn. We will not go live with all the features until around April.
Loretta Perkins motioned to adjourn. Meeting adjourned 7:30pm.