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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Tuesday, June
11, 2002 @ 7:00 p.m. at the Legislative Center’s Freedom Conference Room.
Vice-Chairman Robert Hutcheson called the meeting to order.
Members present were Sue Leifheit, Tige Hoffman, John Morreale, John
Wilson and Ruth Anne Tobias. Mr.
Steimel was absent. Chairman Pritchard arrived late. Others present were Ray
Bockman, Dr. Conway, Eileen Dubin, Gary Hanson, John Dlabal, Greg Millburg,
Terry Hannan, Pat LaVigne and Diane Strand.
Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Mr. Morreale, and it was carried
unanimously to accept the minutes of the June 11, 2002 meeting.
Chairman Pritchard recommended the following appointments:
Community Mental Health Board 708:
Ms. Mary Petruchius, reappointment for a term of 4 years, until 07/01/2006.
Mr. Robert Krogman, reappointment for a term of 4 years, until 07/01/2006
Public Building Commission:
Mr. Robert Morrison, to fill
the unexpired term of Mr. Field Utter, until 10/01/2003.
911 Emergency Telephone System Board:
Fire
Chief Lanson Russell, to fill the unexpired term of Fire Chief Peter Polarek,
until 12/01/2003.
Workforce Investment Act Board:
Ms. Evelina Cichy,
Mr.
Roger Hopkins
Ms.
Donna Turner
All
reappointments for a term of 2 years, until 07/01/2004.
Moved
by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried unanimously to approve
the appointments as presented by Chairman Pritchard, and to forward them onto
the full board for approval.
RELEASE
OF EXECUTIVE SESSION MINUTES
Vice-Chairman
Hutcheson, presented a resolution to the committee highlighting the release of
executive session minutes from the standing committees and the county board
meetings.
Moved by Mr. Hoffman, seconded by Mr. Morreale, and it was carried
unanimously to accept the resolution and to forward it onto the full board for
approval.
APPROVAL
OF THE COUNTY BOARD AGENDA
Mr.
Bockman reviewed the county board agenda for the board meeting to be held on
July 17, 2002.
Moved by Ms. Leifheit, seconded by Mr. Wilson, and it was carried
unanimously to accept the county board agenda as presented by Mr. Bockman.
GENERAL
DISCUSSION
Mr.
Hoffman, Vice-Chairman of the Administrative Services Committee said that their
committee discussed the Loan to the Forest Preserve for the acquisition of
approximately 300 acres in Kirkland.
Vice-Chairman Hutcheson asked Mr. Morreale, Chairman of the Forest
Preserve Committee, if his resolution was anything different than what the
Administrative Services Committee one looks like.
That is, if you get the loan, but the $320,000 isn’t paid off in a
long-term loan, is there anything in the resolution that is different coming
from the Forest Preserve? Mr. Morreale said that in their resolution it does state that
they have until no later than 11/30/2004 to pay it off.
Mr. Bockman, County Administrator, said that the details of the loan are
mentioned in the Administrative Services resolution.
Mr. Terry Hannan, Superintendent of Forest Preserves, said that there
will be a resolution that shows an offer to purchase agreement that is being
reviewed by the State’s Attorney’s Office now.
Ms. Tobias, Chairman of the Public Policy Committee, said that her
committee met but did not have a quorum. They
discussed access to the county’s website and that they would like talk to Ms.
Berkes-Hanson, IMO Director about how to make the County’s website more
e-government. Mr. Morreale suggested that standard property information
would be helpful, like the P.I.N. number. Ms.
Dubin said that all kinds of forms would be helpful. Ms. Tobias said that her committee will be inviting Ms.
Berkes-Hanson to their meeting first. They
will discuss what the department heads and her department feels is possible to
place on the website. Mr. Bockman
said that we need to be careful with certain ideas.
He said that other governments that rushed into doing this are now going
back in the other direction because some of the ideas are not working. Some of
them are so complex that you would literally need the county code to understand
them.
Ms. Tobias also said that she has encouraged Mr. Paul Miller, Planning
and Zoning Director, to apply for the Governor’s Illinois Tomorrow Award. They
have five core values in this program like reducing traffic congestion, things
like that. One of the items that you can be recognized for is regional
planning.
Ms. Tobias also said that her committee would be meeting with the City of
Sycamore in August at the City Council Chambers.
Mr. Morreale, Chairman of the Forest Preserve Committee, said that his
committee discussed the Kirkland property acquisition and the loan request.
Chairman Pritchard said that he had two items that he would like to
inform the committee about. He said
that the Rotary Club of DeKalb/Sycamore approached him about their 100th
year Anniversary and that they would like to do a community service project.
They raised two options. One
was to look at developing a bike trail between DeKalb and Kishwaukee College.
The other one is to put in a small park along the bike path on Peace Road.
He would like the committee to think about this and if anyone else has
any other ideas to bring them to his attention.
Chairman Pritchard also informed the committee that the Regional Planning
Commission has decided to study impact fees as a topic they would like to see if
there is some commonality. He
assumes that the commonality would be to the extent of every community using
impact fees and secondly, to explore how those impact fees are created and try
to get some commonality between the communities.
Ms. Dubin asked Chairman Pritchard if the commission is looking outside
the county? Chairman Pritchard said
just within DeKalb County right now.
Ms. Tobias said that one issue that she was approached on was what is the
County doing about planning for drinking water resources for the future?
Chairman Pritchard said that it is not a topic on anyone’s horizon
right now. Generally, he continued,
it is a municipality issue of supply and service to its residents.
Ms. Dubin said that she had recently read an article in the Daily
Chronicle about Poverty. She
said that DeKalb County is 1 out of 12 counties in Illinois that is being
considered reaching the poverty level. She
feels that this may be something we might need to look at more deeply as to what
is putting us at risk. Mr. Dlabal
said that the college population mixing in with the regular population could
“skew” the findings. Ms. Dubin
said that maybe we need to look at other things happening in the community that
we might need to get a handle on for the future.
Chairman
Pritchard asked Ms. Tobias if she had anything to say on the subject since she
was quoted in the article? Ms.
Tobias said that it has been the case that having a lot of college students in a
community depresses the per-capita income.
She stated that in those findings there were 5 counties that were college
towns. She also said that the
immigrant population has increased in our county, too.
Of course, the newer immigrants, obviously, earn less income and have a
hard time getting jobs. She said that in McLean County, which is larger than our
county, has a Hispanic population of 2%. Our Hispanic population is at 6% and
that basically is where our immigrant population is coming from.
Moved by Mr. Hutcheson, seconded by Mr. Hoffman, and it was voted
unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
_________________________________
Robert W. Pritchard, Chairman
_______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary
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