The Minonk City Council approved Ordinance 2009-12 which authorizes the sale of Section 6 Township 28 North, a square mile parcel of land north of the city limits. The land will be sold through sealed bids and is being advertised in various news media. The sealed bids will be opened at a city council meeting on January 18. The city will review the bids and announce the successful bidder at a city council meeting on February 1. The bids are final and cannot be changed after the bids are opened. The city also reserves the right to reject any or all bids.
The land is presently owned by Waste Management of Illinois and the City is exercising its option to purchase the land which will then be sold through sealed bids. The City will be selling 565 acres and will keep some land for future expansion of the sewer plant and expansion of the Minonk Township cemetery. Some land will also be reserved for a Minonk Township building.
Waste Management will return ownership of the landfill located midway in the section. The City will own the strip of land that leads north to the "Jumbo" which is a coal mine slag pile located about 1/2 mile north of the city. The City plans to make this strip of land into a nature trail which will lead up and across the Jumbo.
Anyone who wishes to place a bid on the land should contact Minonk City Administrator Doug Elder for a bid packet by contacting him at 309-432-2558 or by email at minonkadmin@maxiis.com. To view a copy of the flyer describing the property, click here.
2009 Tax Levy Announced
City Administrator Doug Elder reported that the estimate for the tax levy for 2009 taxes payable in 2010 is $502,658. Elder said the GO Bonds that were being payed on have been retired and they will come off of the tax levy. However, there is a new bonds series that went on the levy and that is the GO Bonds that paid for the new storm work that was done earlier this year. The new bonds are at a higher reimbursement rate than what the older bonds were so the tax rate will be coming up a little bit to support them.
Elder also reported that the IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) is up because IMRF has experienced a down fall so the costs for IMRF is higher than what is has been in the past. Another big item that is affecting the levy this year is the liability insurance premium and it is significantly higher than what it has been in the past.
Elder said that a very positive thing in this year’s levy is that Minonk's assessed valuation is going to go up more than a million dollars. The assessed valuation looks like it is going to be 7% higher this year than is was last year. This means the levy request is up 13% over last year’s levy, but the estimated rate is only is only going up 6% because of the 7% increase in the assessed valuation.
Changes in Freedom of Information Act
City Administrator Doug Elder discussed the changes in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Open Meetings Act. He told the council there were significant changes to the two acts and urged the council to review the handout. The acts makes it explicit that all records will be open to the public for their study and copying and review unless specifically prohibited.
Finance Committee Reports
Finance Chairman Sean Cunningham reported that Doug Elder has provided a document to him that there will have to be a little belt tightening probably for this year. Cunningham said they did a good job of budgeting lower than expected revenues from outside sources other than real estate taxes, but are still off by 9.6 % or about $50,000 short on budget. He added that the City is doing better than many municipalities, but there are going to be some hard decisions that will be necessary as the year goes on.
City Council Comments
Alderman John Hill said that he would like to regrettably announce his resignation from City Council effective December 31, 2009. He said that he was getting married next month and moving out of town. He added that he appreciates the opportunity to serve up here and regrets that it has not been longer and thanked the people for their support.
City Administrator Comments
• Reminded the public that the drop box for payment of water bills is always available 24/7.
• Announced that the annual holiday dinner to say thank you to those who donate and volunteer in the City is going to be held in the banquet room at Pop’s Sweet Shop. He said we have a choice of two dates, Friday January 8, 2010 or Friday January 15, 2010 and asked the Council members to let him know by the end of the week which date works best for them.
• Reported that he has reviewed the Sewer Ordinance as he was asked to do and he has several changes to propose and there are enough changes that he thinks it should go to the Water and Sewer Committee first before it comes to the Council. He added that he will work with Committee Chairman Alderman Jenkins to get a meeting scheduled.
• Reported that the new drive-up drop box for water bill payment has arrived and we are in the process of determining the best location for that. He also said that if we have some good weather left this fall we may get it installed.
Mayor's Comments
• Said he wanted to address what Alderman Cunningham said about the estimates on our finances. He reported that one of the biggest hits we took and still do not know how this is going to play out is in the state income tax with unemployment the way it is and we are only 6 months into this budget year.
• Reported that our sales tax revenues are not going to meet what it has in the past as well.
• Thanked the Council for the passage of Ordinance 2009-12.
• Reported that Section 6 will be sold in one big tract of 564.8 acres.
• Reported that we will also be subdividing out property for the cemetery expansion (3.17 acres), property to the township for a new building (3.43 acres) and the City will be retaining property for the future expansion of the sewer plant (19.09 acres) as well as some property for recreational use (27.26 acres).
• Thanked Waste Management for their work and cooperation.
• Thanked the Zoning Board for all of their work on this matter.
• Announced that the City hopes to have it all wrapped up by February 28, 2010.