South West Illinois News

City of West Frankfort City Council met September 12.

Here is the minutes provided by the Council:

1. Mayor Jordan Called The Meeting To Order At 7:00 p.m. Requesting A Roll Call. All Commissioners Were In Attendance Along With The City Attorney And City Clerk.

Janet Reeves Presented A Spotlight Award On Behalf Of The Women's Business Council To The Downtown Beautification Group For Making Our Town Look Beautiful And All Their Hard Work

2. Mayor Jordan Asked For Approval Of The Minutes From The August 22, 2017 Regular Council Meeting. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

3. Mayor Jordan Next Asked For Approval To Pay City Bills And Payroll In The Amount Of $434,035.55. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

4. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Appointing A Pad On Call Volunteer Firefighter To The City Of West Frankfort Fire Department. Fire Chief Jody Allen Stated This Is A Replacement For Three Openings That We Have This Gentleman Came To Us, He Graduated From West Frankfort And Spent The Next Twenty Years In The Air Force. He Is Now Retired And Moved Back To West Frankfort His Names Chuck Margell And He Has All Kinds Of Certificates From The Air Force Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: Commissioners Blades And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Commissioner Chambers Abstained Motion Carried.

5. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding Proposed Changes To The City's Health Insurance. The Mayor Stated The City Met With The Insurance Company That Handles Our Health Insurance On May 9. They Made Some Recommendations To Us, And We Have Taken Sometime To Meet With The Employees About The Insurance Program And Explain To Them That Our Health Insurance Went Up 40% And The City Absorbed That. The City Pays 100% Of The Payments For All Of Our Employees. We Aren't Changing Anything With The Deductible Or Out Of Pocket. What We Are Asking Is That We Currently Have A $75.00 Copay To Go To The Emergency Room And We Have Had A Numerous Amount Of People Who Have Been Going To The Emergency Room And We Are Trying To Explain That If You Go To Your Doctor It Is Around $200.00 And When You Go To The Emergency Room It Is Around $4,000.00. We Are Self Insured, The City Pays The First $45,000.Oo Of Coverage For Every Employee And After That We Have Insurance That Kicks In It Is Really Important That We Keep The Cost Down, Because We Want To Provide The Best Insurance Possible Think The Employees Have The $500.00 Deductible, Out Of Pocket Maximum Expense Of $2,500.00 Which Is Excellent. We Just Want To Make Sure We Can Continue To Provide This Coverage. What We Have Asked Them To Do Is Raise The Copay On The Emergency Room From $75.00 To $250.00. In Return For That What The City S Going To Do Is Have A New Program Called Healthiest You... What That Allows Is The Insurer And Their Family To Use This, You Can Call A Number And Talk To A Healthcare Provider Without A Copay. The Fee For This Is $9.00 A Month Per Employee, But We Feel Like This Is Important And Will Help In The Long Run. If You Need To Go To The Emergency Room Then You Go To The Emergency Room, But If It's Not Needed Then Maybe This Could Provide Them With Some Information At This Time Would Like To Recommend That We Make These Changes To Our Healthcare Insurance Based On The Recommendations From Our Insurance Carrier. Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

Is The Copay Waved Fit Is Found That It Is A Legitimate Reason? If Someone Is Ina Car Wreck Is The Copay Waived? The Mayor Stated Copay Is Copay Think The Situation Is The Copay Will Probably Be The Same Think It Will Be Dealt With As Far As Cost But Im Not Sure If I Can Make The Statement That It Will Be Waived.

The Copay Is Going To Be S25o For Emergency Room Visits Regardless Of Whether It Is An Actual Emergency The Mayor Stated Yes, If It's An Emergency Yeah.

The Employee Has To Pay The Extra S9.00 A Month For Teledoct The Mayor Stated The City Will Pay That.

The Mayor Stated Our Insurance Company Alerted Us To The Fact That We Had A Lot Of Employees That Were Using The Emergency Room. When They Looked Into These Visits There Was Only One Of Them That They Considered To Be An Emergency. The City Was Paying $4,000.00 For Someone To Go To The Emergency Room When They Probably Could Have Gone To The Doctor And We Would Have Paids200.00. As A Cost Saving Measure They Recommended That We Would Raise The Copay Soit Would Make Someone Think About What They Need To Decide. Giving Them The Access To The Physican On The Phone Would Help Them Make A Wiser Decision.

Doesn't That Penalize The Employee Who Hasn't Abused This2 The Mayor Stated No, Who Are You2 Iamabby Dinn. The Mayor Stated All We Are Trying To Do Is Manage Our Health Care. Think If You Are Going To Have An Emergency Situation And Are Going To The Emergency Room And It Is Serious. Think You Will Fall Out On The Other End Of This On The $2,500.00 Maximum Cost. We Did Not Change The Deductible Or The Maximum Out Of Pocket; We Did Not Put A Cap On The Coverage. Right Now, I Have The Figures And We Have A 100% Increase On Our Insurance Cost For This Year Over Last Year. We Went Up 40% Last Year; Today It Is Twice As Much We Are Spending For Healthcare Insurance We Are Trying To Find A Way To Reduce Some Of This Cost And Will Agree That On Paper That S250.00 Is Not Going To Make Up For What We Are Spending On Healthcare, But It Will Hopefully Help With Reducing The Front End Cost Of A

$4,000.00+ Charge Versus A $200.00 Charge To Go To The Doctor, We Aren't Saying Not To Go To The Doctor Or Hospital, What We Are Saying Is If You Go It Is Going To Cost You A Little Bit More.

6. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A Proposed IML Draft Ordinance Established An Administrative Procedure For Assessing And Determining Claims Under PSEBA. This Matter Was Tabled.

The Mayor Stated The IML Has Looked Into A Situation That We Have With The Public Safety Employees Benefit Act. This Act Was Passed Around 1999 And The Intent Was Excellent They Determined If You Are A Public Safety Employee (Firefighter, Police Officer, Correctional Officer) And Are Full Time In The State Of Illinois And You Received A Catastrophic Injury Then Illinois Wants To Make Sure This Person Who Has This Catastrophic Injury Who Sable To Return To Work Who Cannot Be Gainfully Employed Will Receive Insurance For Themselves And Husband/Wife Or Children That It Will Be Covered By The State, City Or Correctional Department. The Problem With This Act Since 1999 Is There Is No Oversight Or Procedure Of How To Implement This Policy, What The IML Has Proposed Is An Ordinance For The City To Pass That Will Give Oversight. This Will Be Postemployment, This Will Be Someone Who's Retired Within Thirty Days Of Their Retirement If They Qualify For The PSEBA Then They Can Apply For This. This Ordinance Is To Set Up A Procedure To Determine If The Person Meets The Qualifications To Receive The Health Care Coverage By The City. It Also, Sets The Person Who Will Administer A Hearing And That They Will Oversee That Procedure And Make A Determination. I Am Introducing This Tonight: I Have Already Given This To The Police Department And Their Union Representative And The Fire Department And Their Union. We Will Not Take Any Action On This Tonight, But Want To Make This Available To Anybody And Have Discussion About This. Just Want To Make Sure You Understand The Intent Of This Was Brought About By The |Ml To Protect Municipalities And Give A Procedure In Which Whenever We Give Out These Benefits, We Are Not Trying To Deny Anybody What They Deserve, But There Wasn't A Procedure In Place To Make Determination Whether This Was Justified Or Not Have Asked The City Clerk To Contact The Fire And Police Departments To Get Their Union Representatives Together So Can Sit Down And Have A Dialogue With | Plan On Sitting Down With All The Firefighters And Police Officers To Explain What This Is And What It Isn’t, After That Time Has Gone By We Will Reintroduce This To The Council And See If It Is Something The City Want's To Adopt. This Will Not Have Any Affect On Anybody That Already Has The Benefits. This Is Only For How To Do Cases In The Future.

7. The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution Appointing New Members To The City Of West Frankfort Police Pension Board. The Mayor Stated We Have Two Appointments To The Police Pension Board And Would Like To Recommend To The City Council That We Appoint Mike Irwin, The Police Chief And Angela Baker Deaton, The City Clerk. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

8. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Ordinance Authorizing The Leasing Of A Specific Area Of The West Frankfort Outlet Mall The Mayor Stated We Discussed This At The Last Meeting Alan Nolen Has Moved His Chiropractor Clinic From Oak Street To The Mall It Is Nolen Clinic Ltd. Hes Going To Occupy 3,400 SQFT Of The Mall With A Three Year Lease Agreement. He Is Paying One Year Of His Lease In Advance And We Have Made Modifications For Him Out There. Want To Personally Thank Roger Stanley For Overseeing That Commissioner Blades Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

9. The Next Item Was Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding The Leasing Of Billboards On Highway 57. There Are Three Billboards. The City Clerk Stated Number One Is Right At Our Exit And That’s The Most Expensive One They Have Two Others One Is Just North Of Benton And One North Of The Ina Exit. They Are $250.00 Each Per Month And A Production Cost Of $250.00. The Mayor Stated Think The Recommendation Was To Put Something About West Frankfort On T And The Logos Of The Places We Have. Would We Take This Out Of Our Tourism Fund? The City Clerk Stated If We Take All Three Of These It Would Be $950.00. The Mayor Stated If We Just Do The Two We Could Do $500.00 And Wait To See If The Other One Becomes Available. Commissioner Chambers Stated Would Say We Definitely Get The One North Of Benton Because We Are The Next Exit. Commissioner Simpson Stated Will Make A Motion That We Go With Number Two And Three: Commissioner Simpson Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

10.The Next Item Was Approval Of A Resolution For The FCHS Homecoming Parade To Be Held Friday, September 22, 2017 At 2:00 P.M. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins, Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

11. The Next Tem Was Discussion By Council To Set The Date And Time For The Trail Of Treats, As Well As The Hours For Trick Or Treating Commissioner Chambers Stated The Trail Of Treats Needs To Be From 3:00- 5:00pm The Kids Who A Rent In School Need A Chance To Get Down Trail Of Treats Before The School, Kids Get There It Has Always Been From 3:00- 5:00pmand Trick Or Treating Needs To Be From 5:00pm And We Usually Do Until 7:Oopm But I Talked To Weeks And They Are Going To Do Their Big Event This Year Again And It Really Cut Into Peoples Trick Or Treating Time. Would Recommend That We Do 5:00-9:00pm For Trick Or Treating And They Will Give 5:00- 7:30 For People To Go To Weeks. Commissioner Simpson Stated Think 5:00-9:00pm Is Too Long. Commissioner Chambers Stated Then 5:00-8:00pm2 Police Chief Mike Irwin Stated Would Say 8 Pm Would Be The Latest Would Go Simply Because It Gets Dark And The Traffic On The Streets. The Trail Of Treats Hours Will Be On Halloween From 3:00-5:00pm And Trick Or Treating Will Be From 5:00-8:00pm. Commissioner Blades Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

12. The Next Item Was Approval For Payment Of An Invoice From Brown And Roberts, Inc. In The Amount Of S1526.08 Regarding An Alley Survey Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

13. The Next Item Was Approval For Payment Of An Invoice From Carl Volanski Heating And Air Conditioning In The Amount Of $2,928.68 For The West Frankfort Mall The Mayor Stated This Was A Unit That Was Outside Of The Mall And We Replaced It With A 1 Year Old Used Unit That Saved Us A Bunch Of Money. This Unit Didn't Have Any Heat It Was An Old John A Computer Lab. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Simpson. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried

14. The Next Item Was Approval Of An Invoice From Diamond Equipment In The Amount Of $3,627.46 Regarding Repairs To The Backhoe For The Sewer Department. Commissioner Blades Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Chambers. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

15. The Next Item Was Approval For The Lions Club To Hold Their Annual Candy Day Fundraiser Roadblock On Friday, October 13, 2017 From 4:00 p.m. To 6:00 p.m. And On Saturday October 14, 2017 From 8:00 A.M. To 2:00 P.M. At The Intersection Of Route 149 And Highway 37. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

The Lions Club Is Celebrating Their 95 Year In West Frankfort. We Just Want To Thank You For Doing This

Because Without The Support Of The City And The City Council And All The Good People In West Frankfort Who Donate To Our Cause So That We Can Help The Needy.

16. Officer's Reports:

Chef Allen Read The Fire Department's Report

Chef Irwin Read The Police Department's Report.

Codes Officer, Ed Hammonds, Read The Codes Report.

17. Building And Sign Permits:

There Was One Building Permit From Shawn Hanley Who Lives At 202 N. Jackson. He Is Requesting A Building Permit To Put Up A Storage Building Connecting With His Existing Garage The Building He Wants To Build Is 25 X 25 To Use For His Vehicles That He Currently Owns. Commissioner Chambers Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Blades. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Jordan Voted To Approve Motion Carried.

18. Mayors Comments:

The Mayor Stated There Was A Mural On A Building Across From The Daly American That Building Is Going To Be Demolished This Week So With The Help Of Roger, My Brothers And Randy Perce | Was Able To Take About 95% Of The Mural Off And I Have It. It Is Tin And I Am Going To Try My Best To Reassemble That On Some Wood And Put It Up At The Mall It Is A Part Of West Frankfort's History And Enjoyed Spending The Time With It. With The Efforts Of Our City Attorney And Our Codes Officer We Are Going To Get Both Of The Buildings Demolished The Roofs Have Caved In And As Much As You Hate To See Your Heritage Leave There Is Nothing Left To Do It Is A Dangerous Building The Downtown Is Beautiful And Want To Thank You Guys Again For That These Lades Came To Us As Other People Have With Suggestions About What To Do And It Is Amazing What You Can Do When You Give Somebody A Little Bit Of Money And Support, They Have Proved Themselves. We Gave Them A Little More Money And It Looked Even Better, Im Not Sure There Is Any End We Are Going To Look Like Vegas Want To Thank The Council For Their Cooperation T S A Pleasure To Work With These People We Are Trying Todo What's Best For Our Community And Its Unfortunate That We Have To Raise The Insurance And Things Have To Change. We Area Community That Has Good Things And Bad Things That We Are Trying To Progress From.

19. Commissioner Comments:

Commissioner Harkins Stated The Police And Fire Department's Are Dong Their Jobs As You Can Tell From Their Reports. I Am Always Happy To Say They Represent Our Town Very Well

Commissioner Simpson Stated Would Also Like To Thank Danella, Harriet And Connie For The Job They Do, But Also Keith, John And Gary For Allowing You The Time To Do This And I Appreciate That.

Commissioner Blades Stated I Talked With Matt Tosh Today And We Are Trying To Allow That New Sewer Plant Online And Fix The Bugs That Are Here And There There Is Nothing Major But We Did Agree On One Thing About 70% Of Our Sewer Goes Right Down To The Manhole Where The Guy Stepped Through The Concrete And We Need To Get That Done Before Winter. It Is Just A Matter Of Time Before It Collapses. The Mayor Stated We Talked To Brown And Roberts Today The Sewage Is Starting To Run Through The New Sewer Plant, As It Does Come Online We Are Going To Have Some Issues We Are Going To Have To Address. We Have Made Some Big Improvements And We Will Have Some Changes That Will Be At The Next Council Meeting. Want To Thank All The Guys For Everything They Do.

Commissioner Chambers Stated Like Everyone Else Said The Downtown Looks Amazing. People Reach Out A Lot To Tell You What Needs To Be Fixed Or What Problems They Are Having And Normally Like With Anything Else You Don't Always Hear From People As Much About The Positive Things. The Flowers Have Been The Exact Opposite, Never Had So Many People Say Good Things About Our Town Hear

This From Other Mayors, Other City Council Members And Other Businesses They Ask What Are They Using To Fertilize It And Where Are They Buying Them From. It Is Nice That You Guys Have Given Usa New Face And We Are Setting The Trend Of Things That Are Growing And Bringing Attention To Communities And We Really Appreciate You. Also Want To Brag On Roger And The Street Department This Is Motor Fuel Tax Time And It Is A Busy Crazy Time For Them. There Isa Certain Amount Of Time That You Have To Get Everything Done And We Are In That Time Where They Are Dong A Bunch Of Extra Projects That Aren't On Their Everyday Radar. Thank You Roger And The Street Department.

Ed Hammonds Stated Would Like To Thank Mrs. Chambers For Her Persistence I Don't Know If Anyone Noticed But The Kmart Finally Took Our Suggestions And Dug The Entre Area Out And Ran Drainage Pipes They Are Finally On The Right Track It Looks Great.

20. Audience Questions Or Comments:

What Kind Of Boat Dock Did You Guys End Up With At The Lake? The Mayor Stated They Are Building One We Took The Old One Out. We Have A Group Of Volunteers That Are Going To Build The Boat Dock. Commissioner Blades Stated They Are Very Good Carpenters And They Are Going To Move It On The Other Side From Where It Was At And Think It Is Going To Look Really Nice. The Guys That Are Dong It Will Do A Great Job On It.

I Just Wanted To Say How Nice The Bowling Alley Parking Lot Looks, They Did Agreat Job. We Have Had Many People In The Past Month Ask Us About The Flowers And They Have All Said How Beautiful Our Small Town Is, Thank You Again For That.

I Was Wondering About Sidewalks. I Went For A Walk Yesterday And Our Sidewalks Are Not In Good Shape Most Of Them Were Buckled And Had Deep Holes In Them The Mayor Stated If You Notice A Sidewalk In Bad Shape And You Feel It Is A Hazard You Can Give The Location To Roger We Are First Addressing The Ones We Find Are Dangerous

First, The Sidewalks Were All Put In Around The 50's. Commissioner Chambers Stated What Roger And I Are Dong Is Making A List And The Most Dangerous Ones That Are In Front Of Houses That Aren't Handicap Accessible Because Of The Sidewalk Come First Residents Are Allowed To Pay For Their Sidewalk Material And We Do The Work For Free. When People Are Willing To Do That, We Tend To Get To Them Quicker Because They Are Paying For It To Get Done. Some Sidewalks Can Be Done In Small Portions Through Mft And The Rest The City Has To Pay.

21. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 8:11 p.m.

http://www.westfrankfort-il.com/Web_files/forms/September%2012,%202017.pdf