Godfrey Village Board of Trustees Meeting Recap 9/20/22

GODFREY - The Godfrey Village Board of Trustees held a brief meeting on Tuesday evening, passing a number of motions and tabling one for their next meeting on October 4. Among the motions passed were the approval of a liquor license for the Eclipse Car Wash being built in Godfrey, approval for IDOT to construct gates and a sidewalk on Pearl Street, and more.

After the pledge of allegiance and taking roll call, the village board began the meeting by approving the minutes from their last meeting on August 30 - no corrections or additions were made, so those meeting minutes are now on file with the Clerk’s office.

Next, a proclamation was made regarding Beverly Farm’s 125th anniversary. A motion to make a presentation to Beverly Farms on October 1 celebrating this anniversary was approved with no comments, questions, or board members opposed.

Ben Allen was not present to make the Public Safety Committee report, but he will be present at the next meeting on October 4.

Karen McAtee confirmed that the Finance Committee will meet at their regularly scheduled time, after the Public Safety Committee meeting on October 4.

Chris Logan with the Godfery Parks and Recreation Department confirmed that their next meeting will take place on October 14 at 8:30 a.m. and that it is open to the public. He also mentioned that the Department’s Fall Festival is approaching this weekend.

“We have our Fall Festival coming up,” Logan said. “It’s going to be on Saturday starting at 11, so we hope people come out and enjoy themselves.”

Laura Dixon was not present to make the Planning and Zoning Commission report, but her next meeting will be on September 21 at 6 p.m.

Jim Mager with CPEDI said they did not “have anything pressing for the committee,” and would be postponing their next meeting, originally scheduled for October 12 at 6 p.m., until November 9. He then advised the board of some grants that were recently approved, including Bakers & Hale parking lot improvements and site preparation for a new Scooter’s Coffee location.

“I’m advising you of some grants that have been issued for improvements to the local businesses,” Mager said. “The Mayor and I have approved [Bakers] & Hale for [improvements to] their parking lot for a grand amount of $44,506. We’ve also approved for a site-readiness grant, which is the demolition to tear down the building where the Scooter’s is going to go, and that is for $10,000 - there’s $39,000 in expenses, and we’ll be giving the grant for 10.”

He added that at the next Finance Committee meeting on October 4, they’ll be looking at whether or not they want to provide construction support for the Scooter’s location.

Virginia Woulfe-Beile confirmed that the next Godfrey Sustainability Commission meeting will be held on Thursday, September 22 at noon, and that “the public is welcome to join us.”

Chris Sichra then confirmed that the next Emergency Services and Disaster Agency (ESDA) Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 11 at 11 a.m. at Village Hall.

Storm Water Committee chairman Richard Beran postponed their next meeting, originally scheduled for October 5 at 5:30 p.m., until November. He also said there was an important vote coming up regarding ARPA funding for the area.

“Tomorrow night at the County Board meeting, they’re going to be voting on some ARPA monies to be distributed to the local municipalities, and we’re on the list to receive over $2 million for stormwater projects,” Beran said. “So I’d like to thank the mayor for organizing and coordinating all those efforts.”

He also said his committee has been getting complaints recently about Republic Services not picking up yard waste after they took over waste collection operations from Robert “Bob” Sanders. Beran said he reached out to a representative from Republic and was told that Republic Services will “not be able to offer yard waste service at this time.”

A question was raised as to whether “at this time” meant this was only temporary, but Republic indicated it was due to personnel issues and that they were “more interested in pursuing a municipal contract,” leading to some pushback from Mayor Mike McCormick.

“Let’s cut to the chase - that’s what they want, is a municipal contract. They want to put other businesses out of business and be the only [waste disposal company] in the Village of Godfrey,” McCormick said. “And they realize that the Village of Godfery doesn’t have the resources without hiring a bunch of people to make a change … they’re trying to back us into a corner, and I’m not sure where it’s going to end up.”

Consideration and approval of IDOT to construct gates and a sidewalk at the Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railroad on Pearl Street (and to give authorization to Mayor McCormick to sign the funding agreement and Resolution) was passed with all in favor, none opposed.

Consideration and approval of “Stormwater Best Management Practices: A Guide for Residents,” was passed with all in favor, none opposed.

Consideration and approval to direct the Village Attorney to vacate the right of way north of Paris Drive and approve the proposals from RSM Geospatial and Madison County Title Company to perform the work for the vacation after payment is received from the homeowner was tabled until the next meeting, pending a question about pursuing pricing options from Serenity and/or Community title companies, with whom the Village has worked in the past.

Next, consideration and approval of a Class A liquor license for Eclipse Car Wash was discussed with some comments from Virginia Woulfe-Beile.

“I know that there’s a precedent of this in Edwardsville, but this is the car wash that’s been being built for two years and it’s still just a pile of dirt,” Woulfe-Beile said, with other board members confirming Eclipse did not yet have a building permit. “That’s been such a strange project.”

McCormick responded in defense of the car wash project.

“They’ve run into some problems they weren’t expecting to run into, like a sewer line buried 25 feet into the ground,” McCormick said. “They’ve run into a lot of problems and they put a lot of money in that, and they want to build a nice car wash in our community, and I’m pro-business - I think we should be doing anything we can to help them, instead of throwing curveballs at people trying to open businesses in our community.”

“I’m not throwing a curveball, I’m asking questions,” Woulfe-Beile responded.

After some discussion about whether Eclipse’s plan was to add gambling machines to their facility after securing this license, the motion to grant the liquor license carried with all in favor, none opposed.

A motion to consider and approve the addition of Minerva Satlker and Sister Maxine Pohlman to the Godfrey Sustainability Commission was passed with all in favor, none opposed.

Last on the agenda for tonight’s meeting was the consideration and approval of the lowest bid for “the Electronic Sign.” After some discussion over whether the bid price included the price of installation, or was just the cost of the sign, the motion passed with all in favor, none opposed. The meeting was then adjourned.

The next Godfrey Village Board of Trustees meeting will be held on October 4 at 6 p.m. To see a recording of tonight’s meeting and to watch the next meeting live, visit the Riverbender.com Facebook page.

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