City Briefs: Monday night agenda will include action items for Enterprise Zone, Jefferson Street bridge, and the Library parking lot

Send a link to a friend  Share

[October 19, 2015]  LINCOLN - Tuesday evening the Lincoln City Council met for their workshop session. All aldermen were present with Acting Mayor Marty Neitzel presiding over the meeting.

Enterprise Zone

City Administrator Clay Johnson advised the council that an ordinance pertaining to the new Logan County Enterprise Zone had been drafted. The ordinance has been reviewed by the city attorney along with Will D’Andrea of the county, and staff of Opportunity Alliance, who are all working on the Enterprise Zone application to be filed before the end of the year. Johnson said all the parties involved had reviewed and approved the language of the ordinance. He also explained that the ordinance is one of the requirements for the Enterprise Zone application and that in addition to Lincoln, the cities of Atlanta and Mount Pulaski will also be asked to pass similar ordinances for their municipalities.

The application for the new Enterprise Zone is nearly completed and will be submitted before the end of the year, 2015. Johnson said the application would go to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity where it will be reviewed. The DCEO will then contact Opportunity Alliance and D’Andrea to notify them if the application qualifies for approval. If so, then the Logan County application will be in competition with several others, with the final awards coming sometime in June 2016. If the Logan County does win an award for a new Enterprise Zone, that zone would then take effect in January of 2017.

Johnson noted to the council that the zone boundaries for the application is Logan County only, with no stretches into other counties involved.

Michelle Bauer asked about the other two towns that will need to pass ordinances. She wanted to know if they have reviewed the actual zone documents and are on board with the way they are written. Johnson said both town’s councils had reviewed the application. He said he felt the passing of the ordinance for those towns, like Lincoln, was just a final step in getting the application filed with the state.


Jefferson Street Bridge

City council members discussed bridge repair and improvements that are going to be needed soon. Johnson reminded the council that the Jefferson Street and State Street bridges had failed their last inspection by the Illinois Department of Transportation. He said that in failing, the bridges were not deemed unsafe, but that it was determined the bridges did not meet IDOT standards. Because of this, the bridges have to be updated. Johnson said currently, the Jefferson Street bridge is the worst of the two, so he is recommending that the city move forward by enlisting Farnsworth and Associates to create a project design plan. Johnson said the plan would cost approximately $58,000, with the money coming out of the city’s capital projects fund.

Mourning asked if there was a timeline for completion of the project. Johnson said that a timeline would be part of the work done by Farnsworth.


Library parking lot

Johnson reviewed a bid that was received for the Pekin Street parking lot project. Known also as the Library parking lot, the city is working toward restructuring the parking to include the green space located at the corner of Pekin and North Kickapoo. The design work and bid packet had been completed, but when the city went out for bid, only one firm responded.

Johnson said when the bid was opened the firm had quoted the total cost of the project at $574,000. The city had estimated the approximate cost would be $300,000.

He said that discussions had followed with the design engineers, Farnsworth Group, as to why the bid was so far from the expected cost. Johnson said they had drawn a few conclusions. First, there was no competition for the bid. The city didn’t get the interest in the project that was needed for competitive bidding. Secondly, Johnson said that many contractors were concerned about the amount of sewer work that was included in the project. He said there are a lot of unknowns when digging into a sewer and costs can add up quickly. Finally, he said there was not accurate pricing for the project.

[to top of second column]

Johnson recommended that the city reject the bid, and try again. He said that the city could make a few changes to the project and how it is presented to contractors that could improve the chances of more bidders. His first suggestion was that they advertise the Invitation to Bid for a longer period. He secondly suggested that the city reach out to some of the contractors in the Springfield area and encourage them to bid. He said that it appears that contractors in the Springfield area don’t often bid on Lincoln projects.

His third suggestion was that the city become the general contractor for the project and break it down into several smaller projects to be let out for bid individually. To do this, Farnsworth would be the city representative as the general contractor.

There were few comments regarding this recommendation. Michelle Bauer did note that the city has hired Farnsworth to represent them as city engineers. She noted they had the expertise and the resources to serve the city, so it made sense that the city would let them do the job.

On the Monday night agenda, the action item will be to make a motion to reject the one bid received.

Miles Craig to be promoted

Police Chief Paul Adams told the council that he would like to promote Corporal Miles Craig to the rank of Sergeant. He said that the recent retirement of former Chief Ken Greenslate, there were a few gaps created that are being filled. Craig is at the top of the list for the promotion. In addition, Adams said, there will be no new appointment to the Corporal position because there have been more Corporals on staff than needed. He said by not promoting anyone to the position, the department would be down to four Corporals, which is the appropriate number.

Consent Agenda items

At the Monday night voting session, the following items will be voted on in the Consent Agenda:

Approval of request from Logan County Alliance to close various city streets for the Christmas Parade on Thursday, December 3rd beginning at 6:30 p.m., and continuing through the conclusion of the parade.
 


Approval of request from Don and Janice Sielaff to close 10th Street from Chestnut Street to Union Street on Saturday, October 31st from 4:30 pm to 8:00 pm for a block party at 145 10th Street.

Approval of petition from Pizza Hut to hold a "road block" at the intersection of Broadway and N. McLean Streets on Wednesday, October 21st, and Wednesday, November 4th to solicit donations for World Hunger from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Approval of "Trick or Treat" hours on Saturday, October 31st from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Tuesday night Executive Session

At the end of the meeting, Neitzel asked for an Executive Session under the Open Meetings Act Section 2(c)(3) – Appointment or Removal of Public Officers.

There is currently a vacancy on the city council for a Ward 1 alderman. Also, Neitzel has indicated that she is looking to replace herself as Ward 4 alderman at some point. While Executive Sessions are not discussed publicly, it is expected that the discussion would have centered on filling these two aldermanic seats.

If Neitzel does appoint a new Ward 4 alderman, then her position will change from “Acting Mayor” to “Mayor”. As such, she will give up her right to vote as an alderman, but may be called on to place the tie-breaker vote as conditions warrant.

[Nila Smith]

Back to top