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Roscoe Police Department welcomes new officer
By Jean Seegers
REPORTER
John Timm became a member of the Roscoe Police Department during a ceremony at the beginning of the village meeting, July 5. Family and friends filled the meeting room as Village Clerk Chris Marks swore the candidates in as Chief Jamie Evans looked on.
Timm is a graduate of Stillman Valley High School and graduated from Illinois State University in 2015, with a degree in Criminal Justice and Business Administration.
The new officer will be attending a 12-week (480 hours) training program at the Illinois State Training Academy in Springfield, IL. After completing the program, Timm will return to Roscoe for 12 weeks of field training.
In other business: Trustees voted to authorize the appointment of Anne Hanson as the Village Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) Agent. Hanson is also the head of Human Resource and Compensation and the Compensation and Benefits Specialist for the village.
Trustee Stacy Mallicoat asked the board to waive the second reading rules and pass a resolution authorizing an agreement with Miller Engineering Company for the purchase and installation of HVAC equipment at Village Hall for the amount not to exceed $3,500. The HVAC system is located directly above Department of Motor Vehicle office in the Village Hall.
Trustee Rob Baxter suggested looking at charging the DMV a fee to help pay for the upkeep to the facility. De Grave will contact Jesse White at the DMV State office.
The Committee of the Whole meeting, chaired by Village Administrator Pat De Grave followed the general meeting. Trustees were asked to discuss and recommend the next step regarding the proposed police department construction. “Kluber (Architects and Engineers) is done with preliminary work. We have gone as far as we can go with this project,” De Grave said.
At the June 21, village meeting, the vote to hire Fehr Graham Engineering Co. ended in a 2/2 tie. Trustees Sue Petty and Carol Gustafson voted for the hire. Trustees Baxter and Lindsey Swanson voted against. Baxter wanted to know how the village was going to pay the cost. Swanson suggested the village should go out for bids for the project.
Trustees Stacy Mallicoat and Kevin Muradian were absent.
“A third of the board was not here for the last vote,” Village President Dave Krienke said.
Gustafson suggested another vote. “We need a total package with a dollar amount. Let’s get the total price of the project.”
“If the engineering doesn’t get done, the project doesn’t get done,” De Grave said. “We need to follow the process, not create a new set of rules.”
The issue was laid over and will be discussed in more detail at the July 19, meeting.
Trustees discussed how the $500,000 surplus from privatization of garbage and recycling should be used. Baxter said he strongly believes the money should go toward roads and infrastructure. Gustafson would like to pay down the police pension cost and use some of the money for operational costs.
Gustafson said the sales tax referendum that will be on the Nov. ballot, if passed, will go toward infrastructure.
Muradian predicted that if the garbage issue goes through, it will make the sales tax referendum less likely to pass.
Earlier this year, the village hired an independent contractor, Attorney Jamie Rein (Hepler, Broom LLC) to put together a garbage contract analysis. In her report, it was determined that there were many irregularities in managing the contract.
According to Gustafson, the report stated that the waste of money was staggering. The number of houses and condos, both rented and owned was inaccurate. Gustafson said there was a lack of oversite, primarily by the Village President.
“You didn’t manage the contract Dave.”
Krienke retorted that were was plenty of blame to go around.
Trustees agreed to review the contract, determine where the errors occurred and fix them.
The matter will be brought before the board at the July 19, meeting, The general meeting, followed by the Committee of the Whole meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m.
