C ity names John R. Lebegue new building and safety officerAt the Monday night
voting session of the Lincoln City Council, the group went into
executive session near the end of the evening to meet and talk with
John R Lebegue regarding his candidacy for the position of building
and safety officer for the city of Lincoln.
When Les Last, the current building and safety officer, announced
in February that he would be retiring, Mayor Keith Snyder appointed
Alderwoman Stacy Bacon and Alderman David Wilmert to serve with
himself on a selection committee for Last's replacement.
Snyder said the committee heard from 28 applicants and
interviewed 15, before choosing Lebegue as the one most suited to
fill the position.
Lebegue has a bachelor's degree in political science from the
College of St. Francis in Joliet Illinois and a master's in public
administration from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
From 1994 to 1998 he served as the building and zoning
commissioner for the village of Riverside. From 1998 to 2001 he was
with the village of Hinsdale, serving as their deputy building
commissioner.
In 2001 he took the position of building commissioner for the
village of Lincolnwood and remained there until 2008.
Most recently Lebegue has been serving as a construction
consultant, providing professional building and zoning code analysis
and assistance to residential homeowners.
When the executive session was completed, Snyder said that he was
seeking approval to hire Lebegue. Wilmert made the motion, with the
second coming from Bacon.
With Alderman Buzz Busby absent for the evening, the motion was
approved with a vote of 8-0.
Lebegue will commence work for the city of Lincoln on March 29.
Snyder said that the retiring Last will remain with the city through
April 9 and will have two weeks to work with Lebegue before leaving
the office.
After the meeting, Lebegue said that he is looking forward to
getting into the position.
He is currently living in LaGrange. Lebegue will be moving to
Lincoln in the near future but said that his family will remain in
LaGrange through the end of the school year.
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City raises the roof
By unanimous vote, the council approved amending city code Title
11, Chapter 4, Section 2, changing the height limit on residential
accessory buildings from 15 feet to 18 feet.
This action is a result of a request from the zoning appeals
board.
It was explained that new home construction is increasingly
including higher rooflines. In addition there has been an increase
in need for taller garage doors to accommodate vehicles such as
SUVs.
The members of the appeals board have said that they are seeing
increasing numbers of requests for variances to the 15-foot
restriction and thus believe it would be best to upgrade the
ordinance to the higher 18-foot restriction.
Council approves more money to Hanson
In May of 2006 the city of Lincoln signed an agreement with
Hanson Professional Services for the engineering of their share of
the Fifth Street Road project.
The cost of those services totaled $343,216. Of that amount, 80
percent, or slightly less than $275,000, was covered by High
Priority Project funds from the federal government.
Last Tuesday at the workshop meeting, Alderman David Armbrust
reported on information received from Hanson.
The firm is at approximately 95 percent completion of its work
and has billed out approximately 90 percent of the contract amount.
However, there is a need for additional funding to the project
before it can be completely funded.
Hanson had requested an additional $76,528 in order to complete
the engineering stage of the Fifth Street Road project.
Armbrust reminded the council then and again prior to the Monday
night vote that the city will have to come up with 20 percent of
this amount, or approximately $15,300, while the High Priority
Project funds will cover the 80 percent.
When it came to vote, the council agreed unanimously to approve
the additional fees requested by Hanson Professional Services.
[By NILA SMITH]
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