REGULAR MEETING OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF TAMPICO
August 19, 2025
7:00 PM
Reagan Community Center
Mayor Bruce Peltier called the Regular Meeting of the Tampico Village Council to order at 7:00PM.
Commissioners Sherry Coleman, Susan Dean, Jim Coleman and Tammy Kendell were present. Chief Strike and Village Superintendent, Tyler Chriest, were also present. Village Clerk, Jamie McIntire, was present and recorded the written and audio minutes.
Mayor Peltier led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Minutes of the August 5, 2025 Regular Meeting were approved as presented.
Reports of Village Officials
Mayor Peltier advised that he contacted Strada and spoke with Jay about an update. Residents that are close to the cabinet may be able to get the internet service around late fall, but for most of everyone in town it won’t start until the first of the year. Mayor Peltier said there was some miscommunication that some residents won’t be able to get this service, but Jay said that there shouldn’t be any issues, and it should be available to everyone in town. It just might be available sooner for some who are closer to the cabinet.
Mayor Peltier also reported that he and Superintendent Chriest have a meeting Thursday at 11:00AM with Matt Hansen to go over some of the exterior options for the water treatment plant. Mayor Peltier said I’m sure we’ll go over the water service line as well. If anyone has any questions they’d like asked at the meeting, they are to email or call Mayor Peltier beforehand. Commissioner J. Coleman asked if a property location has been decided. Mayor Peltier said he doesn’t think it’s been 100% decided, but it does seem like they favor the property over by Dan Smith because of the layout.
Chief Strike advised that he was in contact with the training board today. I’m speaking to them about someone who just moved to Prophetstown from North Dakota. Chief Strike said he might be able to get him waived so he could potentially come work for the Village. He may need to take a couple courses on the computer, but it sounds like he’d be willing to work here. He was actually an ISP Dispatcher. If I’m able, I’ll see if he can come to the next meeting. He may be a good candidate if you choose to hire. I have all his information from when he was in North Dakota. Chief Strike said I’ll have to have a few more discussions with the training board but we might be able to make it work.
A motion was made by Commissioner S. Coleman, second by Commissioner Dean, to approve a fence permit for 103 Ross St. – Kacey Batten. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
A motion was made by Commissioner Kendell, second by Commissioner J. Coleman, to approve a fence permit for 211 S. Canal St. – Jake Klett. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
Clerk McIntire advised that there is one more fence permit to review that was given after the meeting packets were delivered. It’s for 206 N. Main St. – Kevin Dennis. A motion to approve the fence permit was made by Commissioner J. Coleman, second by Commissioner Kendell. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
Remarks from Guests
There were no remarks from guests at this time.
Unfinished Business
First under unfinished business was to discuss / approve hiring part-time police. Mayor Peltier said Chief Strike kind of already gave us an update on that situation, but Clerk McIntire also put together a job posting on the Village letterhead that includes all the information they we’re required to post. Mayor Peltier asked do we want to post for the position or wait to see what happens. Clerk McIntire advised that it would cost $450.00 to post the position with Shaw Media for one week in the Dixon Telegraph, Sterling Gazette, Whiteside County weeklies and 30 days online on the Jobs.ShawLocal.com website. It could also be posted on Around Ptown at the business rate of $75.00 for 150 words and an additional $0.25 per word after that, but the Around Ptown post would not count as public notice in a newspaper that serves the community. That is required when posting a job position. Commissioner Dean asked if they could hire without posting. Mayor Peltier said yes. Clerk McIntire said it is already out there that you’ve discussed possibly hiring for that position. Commissioner S. Coleman said maybe we should wait to post anything until we know how the current situation plays out. The Mayor and Council agreed.
Next was to review / discuss / approve 2024-2025 Treasurers Report. A motion was made to approve the report by Commissioner S. Coleman, second by Commissioner Dean. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
Next was to review / discuss an ordinance Amending Chapter 13.28 Entitled Regulations of the Tampico Municipal Code – Service Deposit Fee Increase. Clerk McIntire advised that this is the ordinance Mr. Shirk put together to increase the service charge deposit to $100.00 for both owners and renters who are new to a property and placing the utilities in their name. If there are no questions or concerns, this will be placed on the next meeting agenda for approval. Commissioner J. Coleman said he had one question. He went through the ordinance book and didn’t see anything, but if there is a new renter, is there an inspection that must take place before they can rent the property? Is that something we should add? Mayor Peltier said I don’t know if we have the authority to do that. J. Coleman said can we make an ordinance that an inspection must be done showing the property doesn’t have mold or anything like that before moving someone new in? That might be something worth discussing. Chief Strike said it’s probably an ordinance that would have to be drawn up by Mr. Shirk. J. Coleman said ok, that answers my question.
Last under unfinished business was to review / discuss / approve adding a “Red Tag Fee”. Mayor Peltier advised that Mr. Shirk provided information on this topic because we currently do not have anything about red tags in our ordinance. He provided the current ordinance of Erie for a reference. Clerk McIntire added I don’t even know if we have to do red tags because we have nothing about it in our ordinance. Another option would be to come up with how you’d like it stated in the ordinance and add it in. Currently in our ordinance it states any person, firm or corporation that does not pay any bills on accounts rendered for utility services furnished by the village fifteen days after the end of the month for which a bill is past due shall be discontinued and shall not be reinstated until all claims are settled and a fee of fifty dollars shall be paid to reinstate such service in addition to any penalties that may be due. It also states that reconnection of the service will take place within three business days of the time the settlement of all claims required are paid. That information is even included on all utility bills we mail out, so people are aware of this if they pay attention to their bill. The red tags have been done as a courtesy from our office. Clerk McIntire said that it is completely up to you on how you’d like to move forward with this. Mayor Peltier advised that Mr. Shirk said that if we do decide to change things, we just have to make sure to give ample notice before making the change. Other municipalities made changes without giving notice and they were threatened with being sued for it. Commissioner Dean said if we make changes, it could be something we don’t implement until January 1st. Mayor Peltier said exactly. I know we discussed all this at the last meeting, but now it’s been discovered that we don’t have anything in the ordinance for this. Now we need to decide if we want Mr. Shirk to write up an ordinance for it. Dean said there were a few people on Facebook that were not in favor of this. Superintendent Chriest said there were also a lot of comments saying that the red tag is their reminder. If we didn’t do red tags all together, I think there will be a lot more shut off, initially. Instead of the red tag we’d just show up 15 days after the new bill is cut and shut them off if they haven’t made a payment. Clerk McIntire said as of right now, Utilities Clerk, Jennifer Vails, send out the red tags 5 to 7 days from the 15th, depending on what day of the week the 15th falls on. If you want to move forward handling that way, we can have him state how she’s currently doing it, along with adding the $25.00 red tag fee for anyone who receives a red tag for a past due balance. The way Erie does it is very detailed. They start by sending out the original utility bill, then they mail a different bill to those who are past due and then do the red tag. I’m not sure if I like that because of the extra postage and all that goes along with that. Mayor Peltier said I don’t think we need to go into that much detail. I think we should do it the way we have been and add that there will be a red tag fee. Commissioner Kendell agreed. Mayor Peltier said we can implement it on January 1st. Kendell said that would give everyone plenty of notice. Dean asked is it more expensive to purchase the red tags or would it be more expensive to run a new bill with the past due. Clerk McIntire said I think it would be more expensive to mail the additional past due bill. Cost of stamps just went up again, and that included the cost for the postcards that we mail. Chriest said if we’re thinking of different ways of doing this, what if we do the red tag on red copy paper and mail those instead of purchasing the red tags. Clerk McIntire said the mailing would add to that expense. Chriest said but you’ll be getting $25.00 per red tag. Clerk McIntire said so instead of doing red tags on the door, we’d be mailing them. Chriest said yeah, and then they can’t say to us that they didn’t get their red tag. Clerk McIntire said people do try to say that, but we let them know that we know it was delivered because Jennifer has her list after she writes them all out and then Tyler and/or Steve make sure they’re delivered. Dean said once they’re put in the mail it’s completely out of your hands. Kendell said but sometimes the mail don’t get to where it’s supposed to be going. Dean said that is true. Kendell said I have a huge problem with that. Clerk McIntire said it’ll probably be more writing on all the envelopes for Jennifer too, but its however you guys want to do it. J. Coleman asked how many red tags are we averaging? Chriest said 50 to 60 a month. Clerk McIntire said there were a few less this past month. Kendell said I bet the $25 red tag fee would make that go down quickly. Dean said and that’s the thing. We’re not trying to get the extra money, we’re trying to stop this from happening. Clerk McIntire said it’ll keep their balance from rising. When they’re only paying the past due, they continue to get late fees. Mayor Peltier said we can continue to think about this and leave it at unfinished business for now.
New Business
First under new business was to review / discuss / approve quote from LOCiS – software for local government. Mayor Peltier said this is the company that Clerk McIntire and Utilities Clerk Vails have been in contact with to replace the gWorks and/or Village Books. Clerk McIntire advised that last week we had a remote demonstration of their software and it’s pretty similar to what we have now, but it’s updated with more features. The gentleman we spoke to on the phone was very nice and patient and said we can call if we’d like to go over anything further. We also went through the quote and discussed which features we could remove for now with the option to add them later on if we’d like. By removing some of these features, it would make the price less for us. In the print off given, it shows the features that we think we should remove for now, with the option to add later. This will also let us become comfortable and familiar with the software we have to have. The quote for the training, those hours are approximate because it may not take us that long to learn some of these areas. Clerk McIntire also advised that if we move forward with this company during the training time, it might be best to close the office during that time so she and Vails can strictly focus on learning the program. We’d make sure to post ahead of time when that would be. Right now, we’re just approving the quote. If we remove those features, it will make the software $8,050.00 and the training and implantation would be approximately $5,900.00 making the total $13,950.00. I was also told we could pay half to start and there’s possibly payment plans we could discuss. The annual membership/support agreement would be $2,551.00. Commissioner Kendell asked if there’s a contract we’d have to sign. Clerk McIntire said they’d get that put together once the quote is approved. Then we could all review it, including Mr. Shirk, before approving that. Clerk McIntire said I made sure to discuss with them what happened with our gWorks situation, and it sounds like we weren’t the only ones that had issues with that company. They’ve been taking on a lot of former gWorks users. If this quote is approved, I’ll let them know. Then they would get the contract put together and I made sure to let them know when our meetings were and that contract would have to be reviewed and approved before we get the ball rolling. Mayor Peltier asked if we would have to add any other computer software before using their program.
Clerk McIntire said no that we should be good with what we already have. Dean asked you guys felt comfortable after the demonstration. Clerk McIntire said yes. We’re nervous about starting something new but it’s a cloud-based software and it’s as similar as we can get to what we’re already using. Kendell said we have to have it. This company is based out of Joliet so the training could be remote or onsite. A motion to approve the quote with LOCiS was made by Commissioner S. Coleman, second by Commissioner Dean. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
Last under new business was to review / discuss / approve hiring Courtney Kennedy with Ehrmann Gehlbach Badger & Considine, LLC for specific building code and property maintenance issues. Mayor Peltier said he provided the Council with the email that was sent, breaking down all the steps that would have to take place to take care of the issues previously discussed. The rate is $300.00 an hour, which is pretty comparable to what we pay with Mr. Shirk. This would give us the green light to retain her services and get going with solving our issues. Commissioner Kendell said I say we retain her and get her going on that brick building. Mayor Peltier said he informed her of the meeting tonight and would let her know tomorrow how it went. Kendell said we’re not going to know where to start so she can get the 10-step process going. Commissioner Dean said we need to do it the legal way. A motion to approve the hire was made by Commissioner Dean, second by Commissioner S. Coleman. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
Building Permits
Building Permits approved by Zoning Administrator, Tyler Chriest, were 105 N. Benton St. – Roof, 211 S. Fremont St. – Replace Deck Boards and 208 B S. Main Pl. – Solar.
Communications
Clerk McIntire advised that Village Hall will be closed Monday, September 1st for the Labor Day holiday.
Bills were ordered paid on a motion by Commissioner Kendell, second by Commissioner J. Coleman. “Yes” votes were S. Coleman, Dean, J. Coleman, Kendell and Mayor Peltier. The motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at 7:29 PM. The next Regular Meeting of the Tampico Village Council is Scheduled for Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM in the Reagan Community Center located at 202 W. Second Street.
Jamie M. McIntire
Clerk
Bruce Peltier
Mayor
MINUTES APPROVED THIS 2nd DAY OF September, 2025
**These minutes are not official until signed, dated and sealed by the Village Clerk**
