Savanna City Council Hears Plan to Welcome Bird Enthusiasts to Area

By Michael Miller For The Prairie Advocate News

SAVANNA – The Tri-State Tourism Council informed the Savanna City Council of it’s program to host “birding” enthusiasts who are interested in viewing eagles and pelicans and many other types of birds, at the June 14th, 2011 meeting of that body, at the new City building at 333 Chicago Avenue.

This meeting was attended by Council members Bill Robinson, Merle Long, Robert David, Rosalie Hansen and Bill Grummitt. Also attending was Mayor Pro Tem Peg Haffey who presided over the meeting in the absence of Mayor Larry Stebbins, City Clerk Paul Hartman, City Attorney Phil Jensen, Police Chief Michael Moon, Fire Chief Shawn Picolotti, and Public Works Superintendent John Lindeman. Alderman Jeff Griswold was also absent.

The sole committee report came from Robinson, who gave a detailed Finance Committee update. He said that the Committee had received a request for funds from the Train Car Museum for $150.00 to help advertise the upcoming area Shop Hop, which will include participants from Savanna, Mount Carroll, Lanark, and Fulton. Long quickly corrected him and said that this request came in through the Hotel/Motel Committee and actually had nothing to do with the Train Car Museum.

Another request for funds came for the first payment on the Civil Construction Fund, in the amount of $245,677.03. He said the amount named in the Warrant was off because it did not deduct the traditional ten percent retaining fee, but that the listed number of $278,974.48 will be approved with the provision that Civil will be informed that ten percent will be deducted from the next payment.

Next up was a request for funds from the Police Department for a computer laptop and the relevant software to help the department convert camera footage into video for court cases, and another laptop to type police reports on. The first request would come out of the DUI fund and the second would come from the drug offender fund. Both were budgeted items, and the total cost of both would be $3,000.00. This request was unanimously approved.

The fire department requested a jaw cutter unit for their evacuation equipment. Picolotti explained that the one currently in use has actually failed to perform many times because it was too small. This was also a budgeted item, with $5500.00 in the budget. The fire department also requested a two head radio, and this request was also approved at a maximum charge of $1700.00.

The committee also reviewed the Insurance Committee Report, with Lindeman telling the Council that the Committee had recommended staying with the current state program.

Warrant #2, bills for the month of May, totaling $508,117.61 was approved, with Robinson adding the correction relating to the payment of Civic.

Haffey relayed Stebbins’ recommendations for appointments to the newly structured Hotel/Motel Committee, consisting of Haffey as Chairman, with Grummitt and Griswold as members. This was unanimously approved.

During a review of Monthly Reports, Long mentioned he thought there was some smoking occurring in bars, which was not legal and he briefly discussed this complaint with Moon.

Celebration of Flight

Dave Decker of the Tri-State Tourism Council addressed the Council. He told them that the Council is doing a “celebration of flight” event in the area, and will be working with communities from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin to Fulton, Illinois (14 in all), from which the Tri-State Council has so far received $8,000.00 in funding ($4,000.00 from both Galena, Illinois and Dubuque, Iowa). He identified two tiers of “birders,” one which would stay in hotel/motels and would want a map to get to the area. The second he described as needing a bit more guidance, i.e. needing transportation in a van to take groups to the birding areas. These would be the primary marketing target for the Council, Decker said. He said the secondary target market would be motor coach travelers. The event will start on January 7th , and Clinton, Dubuque, Cassville, Wisconsin and Prairie Du Chien will all participate in the eagle celebration. Decker keyed in on the pelican migration and mentioned the possibility of having this event go viral, like the eagle event last year. Carroll County Hotel/Motel has given $1,000.00 for this effort and Decker urged the Council to think about contributing to such a camera, as well as moral and intellectual support for the program.

Decker emphasized that while pelicans and eagles were the emphasis, anything relating to ecotourism was of interest to the Tri-State Council.

Long expressed his wholehearted support for the program and talked about ways in which the City could benefit from it.

The Council also granted a waiver to Heartland Pet Welfare for it’s annual kennel license fee, with Robinson commenting that the group is “doing a service to the City” with what he guessed was around 90 cats in it’s shelter.

New Business

The rest of the New Business was rounded out by a series of resolutions and ordinance readings. First up was Resolution #1020, granting a request for the Illinois Department of Transportation permit to authorize construction of manholes, point repairs and cured-in-place lining within the right-of-way in the State of Illinois, which the Council quickly approved. Next was Resolution #1021, which determined the prevailing rates of wages for work being done for the City, adopting those determined by the Illinois Department of Labor.

The Council then dealt with the finding of fact by the Zoning Board of Appeals in the matter of property owned by Kurt and Lue Ann Dreger and Carol and John Gloor on North Main Street in Savanna, which would allow a front yard setback of zero feet instead of the required twenty feet. Lindeman said that the recommendation of the Zoning Board was to grant the request with the condition that before the building permit would be issued by the City to build on this lot, there would need to be a sign off by the IDOT okaying their access point as well as to the layout of the property to address any potential life safety issues the situation might entail. Robinson favored signing the agreement contingent upon both parties signing agreements waiving their water rights. Jensen called this a great opportunity for the City, whereby if this variation was granted, whatever obligation the City had to run water to that property would be terminated, thus also terminating the liability issue for the City. Jensen said he would work on this agreement between now and the next scheduled meeting, which would see the second reading of the ordinances related to this finding of fact. Ms. Gloor commented that she and her husband would not sign any agreement until these ordinances were passed and Jensen said this could all happen at the next scheduled Council meeting. All parties present seemed satisfied with the arrangement as Jensen explained it.

The Council then approved the first reading (only) of the ordinances which would authorize the zoning board’s finding of fact regarding the request variances. The second and final reading will be read and voted on during the next Council meeting.

Final comments saw Lindeman reporting on the progress of the streets repairs, saying that roughly half the work had been done and that work has begun on the chip and seal process, and that work on the sewer lining project had begun with completion of the lining expected in early August.

Long publicly acknowledged the hard work done by Connie Zink on the annual Garden Walk and other projects, and reiterated that he felt there was a misunderstanding regarding the connection between the Garden Walk, the Hotel/Motel Committee and the Savanna Train Car Museum Committee. Haffey said that there’s currently a restructuring going on regarding the Hotel/Motel Committee and that as time goes on these misunderstandings should be cleared up. Hunsaker noted with dismay that the media had covered the moving of a local chiropractor from one building on Main Street to another on the same street but had been silent on the three businesses that had moved subsequent to the purchase of their properties by Manny’s Pizza, commenting that this did not seem fair to her.

The next regularly scheduled meeting is June 28th, at 7:30 pm at 333 Chicago Avenue.

 

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