Welcome everyone to the City of Joeyet pre-council meeting here Monday, March 2nd, held at 5 30.

The meeting will be our mayor, Kierry Darcy.

Okay.

We'll begin with roll call.

Mayor Darcy.

Here.

Councilman Cardinals?

Councilman Clement?

Here.

Councilman Hog.

Here.

Councilwoman Abarra?

Here.

Councilman Moreno?

Here.

Councilman Mudron?

Here.

Councilwoman Quillman.

Present.

Councilman Ridden.

Here.

Next, we will have two presentations.

First, we have National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System NPDS presentation presented by Dan Bowns with Baxter and Woodman, consulting engineers.

Good evening.

This is an annual presentation we do to the council, so you've probably seen this before and remembered it.

But Joliet is a what's called an NS4 community.

That means municipal separate storm sewer system that means our storm sewer and their sanitaries who are separate.

And as a result, we have to comply with NPDS permit requirements that are kind of set at the federal level but are administered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

NPDS permits are national pollutant discharge and system permits.

Excuse me, Clean Water Act that was passed by the federal government.

And one of the terms of the permit is that we do public outreach because this meeting is televised and open to the public.

This counts as a portion of our public outreach.

And I'm going to have Dan Baum step in and do our presentation.

Dan works for Bachelor and Women who assists us with our permanent requirements.

He's going to touch on probably a number of good housekeeping items.

And also new permit requirements.

Thanks for that introduction.

Greg, good evening.

Yeah, I'll provide an overview of the local stormwater quality program that the city does a great job implementing.

As Greg mentioned, LME EPA sets a set of standards and requirements that comes out through a permit to municipalities in Illinois like the city.

Requirements are to reduce and or eliminate the amount of discharges of pollutants or materials or chemicals that could get into our waterways and cause downstream detrimental effects.

That's the uh chemicals or pollutants that would enter the municipal separate storm service system at the MS4.

So the city has this program and compliance with the requirements for stormwater pollution prevention, developing and documentation requirements of the program, water quality monitoring to assess the effectiveness of the management programs here locally, and then staff training on pollution prevention.

So if you think about what stormwater could pick up and drain into your local storm grain inlets, your curve, your governor, and your stormwater outfalls.

That could be just about really anything, any type of material that's left behind at work sites or on roadways or parking lots or other surfaces, or spills or releases that can happen and enter into the storm drain system.

And they can have negative impacts on downstream organisms and ecosystems, recreation activities like fishing, swimming, waiting, and then of course we've got rapid water sources downstream as well.

So we're blessed with a lot of local waters, a lot of streams and rivers in the city.

Here's just a quick summary of them and some of the impairments that put them on IEPA is list of impaired waterways, things like not enough dissolved oxygen at times, or excessive nutrients like phosphorus can create these downstream impacts like we were mentioning before.

This is not a complete list, but just a summary or an overview of some of our great local waters and how some of them are not meeting all water quality standards as sometimes.

So the program has six major areas of requirements regulatorily, they're known as the minimum control measures, but I think of them just areas of the program.

So publication public education and involvement on stormwater impacts so that residents know how to properly handle uh waste or materials and local businesses as well, and then public education involvement on the program, like the presentation tonight.

Um a program to reduce or eliminate illicit discharges or illegal connections to the system, um construction and post-construction oversight of development and construction activities, and then uh good housekeeping training and pollution prevention activities for municipal staff.

So best management practices within these six different program areas are developed and implemented to uh achieve their pollution reduction goals.

So I mentioned monitoring is a requirement of the program, the city participants within the Lower Displains River Watershed Group and the Lower Depage River Watershed Coalition as a part of regional water quality efforts, regional water quality assessment to determine the impact or the benefits of the program locally.

And we do staff training so that public works crews, municipal staff know the right best management practices to use to prevent pollutant discharges, reduce spills for fleet and building maintenance, working out in the water systems at uh at city facilities as well, like public works facilities.

So a lot of documentation involved with the program.

I help the city with those documents and make sure they're submitted to IEPA on time and complete and also put up on the city's stormwater website as well.

That would include the city stormwater management plan, each annual report that goes into IEPA June 1st, every year are on the website for public review and uh questions.

And then there are a lot of local resources for people to know what to do with waste or household chemicals or things like that, your recycling programs, uh, trash waste pickup programs like the fall beef program and the uh in the fall, and then Will County Green has a lot of um resources available for local residents as well for proper recycling or waste management of things they might have.

So the local contact for this program is Public Works Department, phone number 815 724 420.

Um website also has contact information if anybody would have any questions about the local stormwater quality program.

And Greg promised uh some a little bit about the new permit requirements.

So effective August 1st of last year, Illinois EPA put out a new MS work permit statewide.

Um it includes numerous new requirements that have to be implemented.

A lot of them the city is already doing.

Um might just uh require a little bit more documentation or a little bit more reporting.

So just some highlights here.

Um, if a city of a village had not been part of a local watershed group in the past, they must join now, got that one checked.

There's some specific new education requirements for residents and local businesses about pollution prevention.

Um, and then there's some new uh documentation requirements for training for your staff or city staff on how to handle spills or illicit discharges, and then we have street sweeping programs and catch basin programs and landscape maintenance programs already, but there's going to be a little bit more documentation and annual reporting required for those.

And then lastly, um an inventory of every facility that the city owns or operates, and some new inspection requirement requirements quarterly at those facilities for pollution prevention measures.

With that, I'll take that's the update.

I'll take any questions about the uh the local program or the new requirements this year.

I actually have some feedback, and this is absolutely no disrespect to you, sir.

I respect very much what you do.

But I think public engagement and outreach is more than just a meeting that's televised.

Sometimes you have to go and meet people where they're at.

I'm sure if you scheduled a meeting, you'd get a lot of participation on this subject.

So that's just my feedback.

Like this is very easy to do.

It's harder to get into the neighborhoods and have a meeting where you educate people.

And again, this is just a me thing.

I don't speak for this whole council, and I mean you know disrespect, but I think that would be a good thing to do moving forward.

At least one meeting, invite the public.

If they come, great.

If they don't, you try, but you can't always come here and do like I would think you would bring it to the neighborhoods at least one.

That's great input.

And this is just one part of the public outreach that occurs.

Um, there's also the two watershed groups that the city's a member of, and they do immense amount of uh outreach publication as well.

So it's just one small part, but uh getting out to neighborhoods that's something we could put in, maybe the uh the program plan.

I can help you.

Great.

Okay, any suggestions?

Yeah, so we're we've got a new set of permit requirements, we have to put together a new stormwater management plan for the the five years of this new permit.

So new things can be incorporated within.

Okay, thank you.

The mayor.

Yeah.

I got a question.

So we know we required to monitor the amount level plumes of different types that go out in our stormwater.

What happens if it gets too high according to the EPA?

We we already have waters that are impaired.

So there are already certain levels of nutrients that are too high, um, not enough dissolved oxygen at times and other water quality impairments.

So the local waters I showed the summary there, they're they're already on the impaired waters list.

So at times the water quality parameters are too high already.

So working with these programs to try to reduce the amount of discharges, working with uh regional watershed groups to try to uh work on regional programs on those as well as part of the effort because of the impaired waterways.

And a big part of that would be resident business owners, you know, changing your oil on the side of the road side by the storm sewer and letting it walk that's gonna go into the water.

If that oil goes into the storm green, that's exactly what we're trying to get education materials out on the the separate storm green system, does not go to the wastewater treatment line.

It goes right on right into our local streams and rivers.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, anyone else?

Thank you.

All right, thank you all.

Okay, next we'll have non-revenue water reduction program update presented by Alison Swisher, Director of Public Utilities.

Good evening, Mayor Council.

Uh, tonight we're going to be discussing our uh annual water, non-reminu water, more common water loss um uh annual um update.

I'm just going to give a brief.

Um wait.

Oh sorry, sorry, it's like my first time doing this.

Um, so I'm going to discussing the background of why we are working on a non-review water reduction program.

I'm gonna turn it over to Will Jardin with Kavanaugh.

Uh he's gonna discuss our work to date, um, the results from our 2025 water year, and then our next steps, which involve our 2026 um program of work.

Okay, so just some background.

Um, we started on this journey when the city council selected Lake Michigan water as our alternative water source.

Um, in order to use Lake Michigan water, we have to have uh allocation from the L Department of Natural Resources, and because Lake Michigan is such a precious resource, it's important that we not waste it.

And so the city has done a lot to commit to water conservation and other measures, and one of those can commitments is to reduce our non-revenue water to less than 10% by September 30th, 2030, which is the time that we anticipate that we'll be turning on the taps for Lake Michigan water.

So we started in 2022 implementing a water system improvement plan, um, and then in 2024 selected Kavanaugh to manage our water loss reduction program.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Willows.

Thank you, Allison.

Good to be back with you.

I think it was a year ago, and I think a year ago I went after the MS4 presentation as well.

Um headlines here, um, the city's actually made some really good progress when it comes to water loss.

So, what I want to share with you is I look back the last few years uh and zoom in to work that was done specifically last year in 2025.

What's gonna be the focus for 2026, and what's the overall strategy?

That's that's the big uh focus for this presentation.

Okay, there we go.

Um, for the last six years, six or seven years, uh, the city has been doing a couple things that are considered just good hygiene.

Best practice in the industry uh doing leak detection where technicians go out with listening devices and listen to try to find leak voices and find leaks so that they can be fixed.

That's annually detection.

They've been doing it, you've been doing it every year, as well as meter testing, testing all your large meters, the ones that measure your supply, the water coming in, as well as the largest of customers in your neighboring export meters.

So that's something that you've had in place already for a number of years, which is which is good.

Uh more recently than that, and Alison mentioned the water system improvements plan, which is sort of triggered by the like Michigan allocation and the IDNR uh piece of it.

You put in place in 2022, 23 a couple of programs for replacing water mains.

And the one for water mains is intentionally spread out from 2022 to 2030.

So it's a multi-year program.

And to date, you've accomplished about half of what you've been you intended to replace in in terms of those pipes.

It's almost 200 miles, 192 miles.

On the metering side, this is these are customer meters, meters at the homes and businesses that measure water that gets delivered.

You set out to target the specific, the most problematic of those meters, typically, it's your oldest meters.

And since 2023, have now, as of the end of the most recent water year finished network, so gotten all of those oldest meters out.

So that's that's a pretty good milestone in your water loss program.

And now you move into more of an upkeep and maintenance on a smaller amount of change out that occurs on the customer meters ongoing.

Here's a visual of the 2022 to 2030 master plan.

This is developed by another another one of your consultants, but this identifies where are those most problematic water lines.

And typically they're ones that were installed prior to 1970.

The data has proven out that those are the ones that you lose the most water from.

So spreading that out, you'll notice that the river that kind of goes through the center of the image here.

You'll notice that this is pretty heavily concentrated in the center of town.

That's not unusual.

That tracks with it being the oldest pipe.

That's often how towns and cities are developed.

Another interesting data point, if we look back over to the last uh eight years, this is an image of a reducing number of water main breaks.

And every year, this is a data point that you track.

And the the good news is that it's going down.

That is absolutely what we would expect to see.

If you have been aggressively replacing water mains, then that's that's good.

That tracks, that's what we want to see.

So that's that's an encouraging uh number that uh that is is trending in the right direction.

And then the last highlight from the last number of years is this concept of zones.

And you may remember us talking about this concept at last year's presentation, and I used the haystack analogy.

If we've got a needle and it's in a big haystack, but we're able to divide that big haystack up into smaller haystacks.

Let's just say we're using a metal detector, it's easier to find the needle if you've got it subdivided up into smaller haystacks if it's that one needle.

So that same concept applies here that the city uh established already prior to Cavanaugh engaging with the city.

This was established over the last number of years, having this total system divided up into six zones.

And it allows water loss to be measured in each zone, and that way you can say this zone over here is doing fine, this zone over here is not, and that's where we're going to concentrate our efforts.

It turns out that your data points to the purple zone and the blue zone as the ones with the highest levels of loss.

So that's very useful information, and the program is focusing on that as a result.

So here is the last uh six to seven years of the water loss performance.

And I'll take a moment just to explain the three colors that we're looking at there.

On the top is the water that is supplied into the system from uh primarily from your wells.

Uh and then the second line in green is all the water that's used.

This is mostly your customers and also the city facilities, it's it's authorized use.

We'll call it sales for short.

And the red line is just simply the difference between the two.

Uh so whatever doesn't make it to an end user, it's some form of loss.

And so a couple things that I want to point out here with this interesting six to seven-year trend.

You've had a steady reduction in your water loss volume over this time period.

And if you think back to the first visual we showed where you started doing leak detection in 2018, you started doing those good hygiene practices.

This tracks with that, and this is what I would expect to see.

So that's that's checkpoint one.

Check point number two is that the reduction is not always linear.

And we've worked with a number of water utilities around North America and have seen this occur time and time again, where you're working towards the goal over many years, it's not going to be nice and clean where it's a stair step where you get linearly down every year.

Some years you're gonna have a colder winter with a lot more breaks, some years you're gonna have more get more headway and gain on it.

So what we're really interested in is the multi-year trend.

And so we see this dynamic playing out.

Last year it was a reduction, but it was a modest reduction from 2024 to 2025.

So far this year, you're about halfway into the water year right now.

It starts October 1st.

So far this year, you're seeing a stronger reduction.

And again, that's just sort of the nature of year to year.

It's going to break that year.

That's kind of the thing to follow.

The last thing I want to point out with this particular graphic is the green line is also showing a downward trend.

And you may remember, some of you may remember us mentioning this last year.

This is a success story of your customers conserving your water, and you have a campaign, you are messaging to your customers to use low flow fixtures to be mindful of how much water you use, irrigation systems, those types of things.

And your customers are responding to that.

So that's a positive.

So this really is a kind of a textbook case of water conservation in the city of Joliet because your customers are saving water and you're also reducing your own water loss.

And that's why you see the blue line going down.

From a water conservation standpoint, that is what Lake Michigan wants to see is we're we're taking care of the precious resource.

So I'm going to quickly mention a couple highlights from the last year and then a couple highlights that we're focusing on this year.

We mentioned we replaced about 30 miles of water main.

You can see they're spread out in different projects.

This is in the past year in the downtown area.

A couple things I'll just mention, finishing up the targeted customer meter replacements that happened in the past year.

A couple things that are that are very relevant regarding our six zones.

Prior to this past year, it wasn't up in fully operational where the data was available on a routine basis.

You kind of had to wait till the end of the year, get all the data together, analyze it, and then draw conclusions from that.

So one of the things that was a success in this past year was moving it from an annual basis to a monthly basis and getting that to where those data points are available monthly.

Other data improvements and just continuing to maintain those good hygiene practices, testing meters, leak detection, and auditing.

I'm going to quickly highlight what is the main area, what is the main thing we're focusing on this year for the water loss program.

And the strategy that we shared a year ago, in general, is the same strategy, which is you divide the system up into zones, you let that data tell you where the problems are the greatest, and then you focus your efforts there.

Right now, the purple zone and the blue zone remain the highest levels of water loss, and they will remain the focus for the program.

It doesn't mean we're not doing anything in the other zones.

We're still monitoring and keeping an eye, because you can still have things pop up.

Things can uh break and go wrong anywhere, but the focus of the energy is to look at those the blue and purple zone.

Strategically, we're also looking to take that same haystack idea and say, well, if six haystacks is better than one, what if we went to something that was more than six?

And the magic number is actually 13 in the commission.

We discussed 12.

The difference is the 13th one is the system that you just acquired, which is the Southeast Juliet Sanitary District.

So that actually is sort of a ready-made DNA or ready-made zone.

It comes with its own individual measurement.

Here's what that'll look like when that comes to play.

And those those uh efforts are underway.

So this during this calendar year is when the subdivision is being implemented for these things.

Continued work on water main replacements.

Again, you'll see those focused, kind of see the river and the going through the center of our image there.

That's right between the blue and the uh and the purple zone.

So the water main replacements are hitting the bullseye where where they need to be.

Continuing those hygiene practices, and now those hygiene practices include uh customer meter replacements, but not at a big scale.

You're not trying to get through and get half of them done in two or three years, like you like you have been.

You've completed that effort, and now it's more to what we would call a maintenance level.

Every year the meters get older and the old disciplines need to be changed out, but that's much more manageable.

Uh and then strategically moving those zones from monthly data to real-time data, which is more of a daily basis.

The operators they come in, they look at what last night's information shows, and they can use that to make decisions about what to do today.

And I want to share a couple of things that are going to be very important for Joliet specifically, and also important for the state of Illinois.

So the metric that is utilized and required by Illinois DNR is percent water loss.

We're using water loss here in non-revenue water is the official term, but we're uh we're referring to it as water loss.

So for the city's metric from the 2016 to now, that percentage has gone from 35 to 28, which at first glance feels rather underwhelming.

And so the challenge is that the industry at large, the water industry at large has moved away from looking at things on this percentage basis.

And the reason is because it creates a moving target.

Every year you improve your loss, and maybe your customers can serve, which is great, but then that means you have less supply in your system, so you're dividing by a smaller number every year, and it ends up creating a moving target, and it penalizes conservation.

So the authority in the industry is the American Waterworks Association, and they came out officially in 2020 with what they call the 2020 position that said basically stop using percentages.

It's it's not the right metric, it doesn't tell the story.

And Joliet ends up being a pretty interesting and and uh poignant uh case study of that.

This is a map of what other states are doing, and uh the punchline of this map is this is where the industry is headed, they're headed away from the percentage towards uh using volume-based measures.

Uh, and so that sort of sets up the frame for the discussion with IDNR.

Excuse me.

Um, and here's the discussion.

If we look at the city's water loss improvements in percent, uh again our underwhelming uh change from 35 to 28.

But if you look at it in terms of volume, that's the red line laid over.

The volume and the the um recommended measure is in gallons per connection per day, it's just sort of a normalized unit.

Uh, but it's the city.

If you look at that number over the same time period, the city's improved it from 125 to 80, which is over a one-third reduction in your total water loss by volume.

And it it tells two different stories.

And so this is a really uh textbook example of why the industry has moved away.

So, what is what does all that get to?

The conversations with Illinois DNR, we've already been in discussions within 2025 about at least uh adding this measure into the picture so that the percentage is not the only component that's looked at.

Uh, really to better tell the story of system-wide improvement.

And so what we expect, and we're we have a meeting uh or a series of meetings and um events that are going to be happening in the spring where we present this case to them.

And it's it's obviously for the city of Joliet something that's going to be important, but it really is going to help the state of Illinois also move forward and kind of kind of get with the times, if you will, of the uh the metrics that they're asking all of the water utilities uh to need.

So it's kind of a leadership opportunity, I think, for uh for the city to help the state.

Key takeaways for this presentation.

Um progress from on a volumetric basic basis has been good.

Uh you've reduced over a third of your water loss since 2018.

Uh you've been focusing on the right things, water pipelines, meters, establishing doing leak detection and establishing these haystack zones.

Uh so far this year, the current year that we're in, we're seeing even further and stronger reductions and good momentum.

The zones are going to be key.

They're going to be a key component of getting getting your hands around it.

The final thing I'll offer is when you get the zones and they're fully operational and everything's going, it not only helps you get down to where you want to be, but it becomes extremely important to stay there.

The operational information and seeing it every day is how you quickly react when things start to go wrong, and then you get it back down.

So it's not just a one-time solution, it's it's the thing that you're going to see on one benefit problem.

Alright, I know that was a lot of a lot of technical information.

Um definitely happy to dive in anywhere that would be helpful.

Any questions?

Just a clarification.

We talked in the committee so that people might understand if they don't already.

information um definitely happy to dive in anywhere that would be helpful any questions just clarification and we talked in the committee so that people might understand if they don't already so the reason the percentage doesn't work is because these aren't accurate numbers for Joliet but if we have four million and and losses on six million or twenty million and and draw if you will water into the system and you you take you you correct 25% of that formally and into one you know eliminat one million in loss you'll also lose one million in what comes into the system in the future because it's no longer being brought into the system and wasted and that's why the percentage the only way to keep the the to make percentage model work would be to set a a um a bar uh benchmark yeah of the original amount that you were buying yeah you know so we were drawing 60 million and now we're only drawing 48 million corrupted 12 million dollars in volume loss yep we should measure that number if there was no 60 million that's right okay I just wanted to clarify go ahead well yeah to your point that I put this graphic up because if you if you give the time machine you hear that 2018 uh your supply you were around 11,000 uh gallons per minute is the unit that's here but 11,000 GPM gallons per minute that was what you were supplying into the system so what is 10% of that number 1100 right so in theory your your target your regulatory target in 2018 was you needed to be at or below 1100 GPM.

Well fast forward to today your supply into the system is about 900 excuse me 9,000 because you've been making all these improvements and so now your regulatory target is every year news your your regulatory target is always 10% of that new number this is illustrating your point which is every year as you make improvements your target gets calculated on the new number on that blue line up top goalpost moves.

Yeah the goal post news every year you reset that target every year that's right okay they lose the goal yeah that's a good sports analogy there you go thank you thank you mail thank you no other questions thank you thank you very much next is citizens to be heard on agenda items is there anyone who would like to speak on an agenda item this evening good evening I am Shelly Clark I'm Joyce Clark and my name is Essence Clark and so we are coming um regarding the agenda item regarding the honorary street for Michael Austin Clark 15926 I am Mike's wife Essence Clark and I just want to give you a little bit of information about him.

Michael Clark is a 1999 graduate of Joliet West High School after that he was also educated at Troy um grade school in junior high um following that he actually went to Illinois Wesleyan University where he got a bachelor's in business administration and a master's degree at Keller Graduate School while at Joliet West in the Marching Tigers among other things and when he graduated and came back to Joliet he got involved in the community almost immediately with Joliet West or Joliet Township High School and Joliet West he was a member of the strategic planning committee.

He was also a member of the J rec committee he worked with the MLK Day of Service and he was also an athletic mentor in the community as a whole he was a member of the Illinois state police merit board the president of the NAACP he was the past president I'm sorry of the African American business association as well as a member of the diversity equity inclusion um committee of the Joliet Chamber of Commerce as well as being a loving husband a son and a brother one of Mike's huge things was making an impact on the community around him which is why MAC mentoring was started that was the C his C of MAC mentoring is a program that is aimed towards mentoring African American men between ages of well from sixth grade to 11th grade and it is just a way of honoring his legacy and making an impact among beyond himself as well as Joliet Township high school has also put into place the Michael Austin Clark scholarship fund which is going to be able to benefit students from this point out.

And I'm going to welcome my sister in love, Shelley Clark, if she has anything to say.

We just wanted to know if any of there were any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak under citizens to be heard on an agenda item this evening?

Okay, seeing none.

We will move on to have the city manager review tomorrow night's actionable items.

Thanks.

Tomorrow we'll have appointments, a reappointment to the historic preservation commission and reappointments of the tree advisory board.

We'll also hear from land use and economic development, public assets, and public service.

Consent agenda, as always, approval of minutes, invoices to be paid.

Council Memo 140-26 award of contract number 29620226 for the well 23D rehabilitation to Great Lakes Water Resources Group in the amount of 218,300.

Council Memo 14126 award of professional services agreement for district metered area management to McKim and Creed in the amount of 168,000.

Council Memo 1426 award of professional services agreement for the 2026 water loss control technical assistance program to Cavanon Associates in the amount of $668,355.

Council Memo 14326 award of professional services agreement for the 2026 Sanitary Sewer Investigation and Rehabilitation Program to RJN Group in the amount of 409,595.

Council Member 14426 award of 2026 Public Utilities Department Leak Detection and Meter Testing Services Agreement to ME Simpson Company in the amount of 595,440.

Council Memo 14526 approval of amendment number one to the professional services agreement for the geotechnical services for the West Side Treatment Plant Expansion Project to CECO consultants in the amount of $6,110.

Council Member 14626 approval of change order number one for the Marquette Park Water Main Improvement Project to Construction by CAMCO Inc.

for a deduction in the amount of 359,1934 cents and payment estimate number six and final in the amount of 515,575 dollars and twenty-five cents.

Council Member 14726 approval payment to Julie Illinois one call system services to Julie Inc.

in the amount of $30,591.25 cents.

Council Member 14826 award a payment for the Joliet Slammer Stadium structural steel painting to Cosgrove Construction in the amount of 409,660.

So this is year three of a four-year painting project.

And this round of painting will cover all the main concourse and steel on the face of the suites.

Council Memo 14926 approve a contract amendment with borderless studios for work associated with the Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant.

The cost for this work will be a lump sum payment of $30,000.

This is a hundred percent reimbursable expense by HUD and can be accommodated within the context of the entire grant budget.

Moving on to agenda items, Council Memo 15126, award of contract for the JOL-08-04 distribution system upgrades project to PT Faroe construction in the amount of $15 million 196,2572 cents.

Moving on to license and permit applications.

If you want to tell the council about the two liquor licenses, Mayor City Council, um item number 153-26 is an application for the issuance of a class K liquor license for the Joliet Baseball Concessions at one mayor art scholars drive.

The Juliet Baseball Concessions at one mayor art scholast drive.

A class K license authorized to sell alcoholic liquor at the outdoor air stadium having a permanent seating capacity of not less than 4,000 people for consumption on premise only.

This class shall promote entertainment on the licensed premises.

The slammers created a new LLC to separate the concessions from the baseball operations.

The concessions, including the sale of alcohol, will remain at the same as last season.

The liquor commissioner is recommending approval of this license.

Item number 154-26 is an application for the instance of a Class B liquor license for the Matisse at 113 North Otto Street.

The Class B authorizes the sale of alcohol for consumption on promisomia.

The owners are renovating the old St.

Mary's Church and plan to open a banquet hall for private events.

They're also planning on occasional public events with live entertainment.

The liquor commissioner is recognizing approval for this license.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to resolutions.

Council Member 15626, resolution appropriating supplemental motor fuel tax funds for the Bridge Street, Nicholson Street to Sunder Street, Roadway Improvement Project.

This is final project review and close out submittal to IDOT, so it's housekeeping for that item to appropriate the supplemental MFT funds.

Council Member 15726 resolution accepting a grant of public way utility easement from Larkin Village Apartment for the Larkin Avenue Watermane Improvement Project.

So in order to construct a portion of the project, a permanent and temporary utility easement is required from the Larkin Village Apartment on lowest place north of Vernon Avenue.

Council Member 15826 resolution approving easement agreement for water transmission main with Plainfield Community Consolidated School District number 202 at Plainfield South High School 7800 Caton Farm Road.

And oh, one more page.

Council Member 15926 resolution approving an honorary street name designation for Michael Austin Clark Way.

Council Member 160-26 resolution accepting a grant of permanent easement for 652 Collins Street parking lot on the 652 Collins Street Alley Improvements Project.

This permanent easement agreement provides for access to the public improvements installed within the parking lot of the business.

That concludes the agenda.

Okay.

Next is public comments.

Is there anyone who would like to address the council this evening?

Good evening, council.

My name is Trista Brown.

I am the co-founder.

Well, the founder, my daughter's the co-founder of Pika.

Um, first of all, I always want to start with what you are doing, and we appreciate a comprehensive panel.

We appreciate all the things that you do to improve to go forward into our community.

Um I just first want just to be reminded of each one that just because we have an Afro-American on the on the meeting board, doesn't mean that you don't represent us.

And I want to say that clearly because each one district represents everyone.

There's black white Spanish in each one of your districts, so there is no separation.

We have enough of that going down to the White House.

So I just want to clarify, just because the person isn't a certain color, doesn't mean that they don't represent who we are.

And I want to clarify that.

Second part is that I know I've been here many times, just asking for a town meeting.

Um years ago, I used to do a town meeting with uh the mayor at that time, uh city, the state attorney's office.

And when I asked uh probably about three years ago about attorney general report, um, I want to be clear.

We are not there to badge anyone.

We're there to let them know what you got, what you're doing, what you're doing different, what you're doing better.

I know people are still not aware that when those bodies were found in the river, that you guys would afford the safety department to make sure that there's things that would take place.

People don't know that.

Everybody do not come to the um council meeting.

And my voice is for those people who just need to be assured, right?

We talk about accountability, we talk about responsibility.

We also talk about that we care about diversity.

And so when I asked about um having a town meeting, I want to be clear is to hear the things that you are doing to make people feel secure what you are doing.

And so on um, excuse me, if I talk too much, uh my voice gonna go.

So March 12th, 2026.

We call it an educational form, the voices of the community.

And I want the community to know it's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's not a Mexican thing, it's our thing for the people by the people of the people.

So sometimes people seem to think it's just about one thing, but it's not.

Um Ashley, I again I have to commend the information desk.

Um, I'm gonna say it again over and over again.

I tell you, love them because to come here, they can stay in me, I guess.

That's because we want to agree with it.

But they are very informative.

Actually, when you guys are busy, they can make sure that that information gets you the proper people.

And I said, in respect to them, they're the ones that people do see when they first come in here, and so they are gonna be there to share that information.

We also asked the fire department to be there.

This information is not about badgering, it's about being informed, and some of those people, all people, and remember South Side is not black side, is a side that everybody we've we've grown.

Do you know your neighborhoods are different?

So when I speak of that, my daughter lives on Canyon Farm.

We got people in your district, in your district, in your district.

We're not reaching those people, and I know that because most of my people, people that I know of any color lives out there.

They don't know who's running and what's going on.

We gotta continue to be more assertive and showing to them that they are a part of this community, it's not just the east side, the west side, the south side.

So in this meeting, is to bring in people who don't actually always come here, right?

And they want to feel comfortable to know what is going on in the community.

So again, March 12th, Joliet Library.

Thursday at six.

Told you I talked too much, right?

Six to eighth.

And we asked that if anyone would please come near.

Um, we're gonna have Mark Clemens.

Mars Clemens is from Chicago.

Actually, he's gonna facilitate it.

I don't know if anybody knows Mark Clemens, but he was one of those tortured victims from Chicago who's out there helping people in innocent project.

A lot of people who just came out of these prisons or people who are just struggling, period.

They need to know that there's hope.

There's a bill that we also I went down to Springfield called uh uh the HB 4443.

So we need to be informed so they know that you are doing something, you are trying to make a difference, so let's show them your accountability.

Thank you for listening.

I got through it.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council this evening?

Okay, seeing none.

Um there is no request for closed session this evening.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Mr.

Mayor, okay just real quick, if you guys don't mind.

No, I okay, just real quick since we're not in a poll session.

There's a motion second on the table.

For real.

Yeah.

I just just want to bring it up real quick.

You know, based on the news, you know, inner interstate 80 is gonna go down to two lanes.

We really have to have a plan downtown.

I mean, it is a complete nightmare.

I know I I sent an email and you know, trying to get uh portable, uh a portable stoplight up there on uh bridge and in Broadway, but you know, at some point one of these bridges is gonna go down, and we really need to have a plan.

I mean, it it's it's really gonna get bad.

I mean, it was just bad last week, it's gonna get real bad.

So I think we really have to start working on that before it's it's too late when we have our hands full.

Um so I just want to just keep working on that and sending that message across because it is bad when you're downtown.

I mean, I can't I can't say it, you know, any more than that.

So we just keep working on that.

Yeah, and I would agree with that because I was thinking, you know, why couldn't they just wait until after the big anniversary of 100, you know, Route 66?

Yeah, and of course, I don't have any connections with IDO, but I thought maybe one of our reps or you know, anybody that's had contact with the IDE may have said, could you just postpone it for a month or so?

But apparently that's not gonna happen.

I mean, just like the the portable uh stop lights, uh maybe we can take a hard uh a hard look, hard look at at uh the sequence of lights, so they're all flowing, they're not flowing at all.

So that's part of the problem.

I mean, and and we probably need IDA for some of those too to help us, but I'm just saying you said we're working on it, that's that's great.

I just we are actively working on it.

I have thank you.

I've had personal conversations with the secretary of IDOT and the assistant secretary, and Greg can fill you in on the work that the staff's doing.

Thank you.

No, I know you guys are working on it.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, just real quick.

Um, we have reached out to IDOT um when we had the two bridges down where Ruby Street was down to to look at alternative routes.

Um, IDOT has made a commitment to the city that we won't have two bridges down uh at one time if possible.

Uh Ruby Street was obviously uh an emergency situation, but um when those two bridges did go down, we came across a situation where uh we didn't have a uh canned detour route.

So we have a meeting coming up, I think it's in two weeks uh as at the staff over with city staff and iDot staff to look at getting a detour route set up.

So should that occur again with any you know um series of bridges or um different bridges going down at the same time, we'll have detour routes that we can implement immediately.

So we we are working um towards that.

Thank you.

Okay, we second okay.

Would you have a motion a second?

All in favor?

Aye, aye, opposed?