Town meeting lightly attended but good issues discussed

By Margaret Downing

Reporter

ROSCOE – Village President Dave Kreinke and village trustees held a “town meeting” Feb. 22 at the Kinnikinnick School for residents looking to get answers or clarification on where the village is heading.

Kreinke said this is the first of several meetings he would like to hold and he got a feeling at this meeting what is on people’s minds. Although turnout was light Feb. 22, he is not discouraged and believes further meetings will most likely be held at village hall on Main St. “We’ll do it again,” he said. “This time we didn’t know what to expect or what to do entirely but other meetings will be better!” He is already planning another meeting in a few months for businesses.

Trustees Stacy Mallicoat, Chris Marks, Lindsey Swanson, Sue Petty and Rob Baxter were on hand, along with Kreinke, who opened the meeting saying, “We hopefully will be able to provide some answers to questions.”

Realtor Joanne Koslofski had a number of questions concerning village roads and infrastructure, including questions on annexations, economic development, and water and sewer lines.

Kreinke seemed quite familiar with all the issues and gave explanations as to what, why or why not the village has future plans regarding these issues.

Resident Terry Brock wanted some clarification on garbage pick-up and financing in Roscoe, asking, “If Advance Disposal handles garbage pick-up, will they do quarterly billing or will the village handle it?”

Trustee Petty explained that now the village pays $12.90 a month for each pick-up but has been advised that Advance Disposal does have a billing system that can handle billing, possibly for a small fee. “Nothing is official yet,” she said.

Kreinke explained that the village would have to contract out to another company to do this type of billing. At this point, there is no plan to hand over garbage pick up charges to residents. The cost is currently being carried by the village.

Concerning Koslofski’s questions on economic development, Kreinke said there is at this time no economic development arm at village hall. Koslofski’s wanted to know “What is the village doing to keep business here?” and said she had heard recently that one business was leaving.

She said good infrastructure and roads are important to businesses and suggested, “We need to hold their hands.”

Kreinke said, “If a business closes its doors, we aren’t always informed. As far as new business, we find out about it when they come in asking for signage okay.”

Trustee Baxter noted that Roscoe, at this time, is not a member of the Rockford Area Economic Development Commission or of the Rockford Chamber due first, to membership costs, and secondly, “They have not really done anything for us.”

Koslofski also asked, “What are we doing to encourage businesses to come to Roscoe?” Baxter answered, “We don’t’ currently have an economic plan in place but we did have a meeting last year and determined that infrastructure (roads) are of utmost importance. Economic development came in about third.” He said too that “we would like to see residents pay for garbage pick-up next year some time.” The village is now facing costs to update infrastructure.

In reference to sanitary service, Koslofski wanted to know about a resident who owns 60 acres that he might like to sell but the property is within the mile and a half limits of Roscoe and is too far out for it to be connected in a cost effective manner.

Kreinke said the water and sewer ordinance in the village was cemented about 15 years ago but the sanitary district, has in the past, issued a waiver on a case-by-case basis. Running a water trunk line is very expensive.

He said one of the village’s priorities is upgrading the service road from Swanson Road to McDonald Road and a service road off Prairie Rose north of Hononegah. The current situation, for instance with Swanson Road out to Hwy. 251, and McDonald Road out to Hwy. 51 is conducive to traffic back up and he would like to see stacking done in a better manner.