The Finance and Personnel Committee of the City of Rockford met on Monday, February 9, 2026, at 5:30 PM in City Hall. The committee reviewed and approved several routine financial items, including vouchers, lien waivers, an intergovernmental agreement with Rockford Public School District 205, and a series of procurement contracts for equipment, vehicles, and services. All items were approved by voice vote without opposition.
All resolutions were approved by voice vote. Key discussion points:
Welcome to the uh finance and personnel committee meeting held tonight, Monday February 9th. Sir Clerk, you please take roll. Here. Thank you. Under committee reports, uh item number one is uh approval of vouchers, the amount of nine million eight hundred and forty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven dollars and forty-nine cents. Is there a motion to approve vouchers? Any questions or comments? See not all is a favor indicate by aye. Aye, opposed. Is there a motion to approve? Any questions or comments for staff? Seeing none, all is in favor indicate by aye. Aye. Opposed? Better pass this. Item three is intergovernmental agreement between the city and Rockford Public School District for the vacation of an existing right-of-way to RPS 205 for the construction of revised access to Lincoln Middle High School from Charles Street as part of the city's 11th Street Phase 2 project and reimbursement of improvement cost by RPS. Is there a motion to approve the agreement? Any questions or comments? Thank you. Um I am curious if any um conversation is bit was had uh as part of this about um possibly constructing a semi circular driveway in front of Lincoln Middle School to encourage the use of the historic uh front entrance versus the side or back entrance. And I asked this because um West Middle the school district came recently to the historic preservation commission to um get approval to to do just that at West. Um it would not be for buses, but it would be for parents who are dropping students off. And I know when um Charles Street was rerouted uh twenty-five-ish years ago. Um I was involved uh with some efforts at uh Lincoln Middle School at the time um to uh celebrate its 75th anniversary that included um having the city declare Lincoln uh a landmark and uh the group of citizens and parents um and faculty uh worked uh attempted to have uh semicircular drive installed at that time. But we were essentially told we were too late to the party um uh plans to for the rerouting of Charles Street were too far along. And um I believe I emailed um public works director and the superintendent of schools several weeks ago and the superintendent referred that to email asking this question to is the transportation director and unless I overlook something, I don't know that I ever received a response from the school district, so I'm just curious for anybody who has been working on this. Has there been any discussion at all? Um if we're doing another um road rerouting in front of Lincoln Middle School if we can't do something to um accomplish students entering through the historic lobby rather than through some back or side entrance. Um I don't know if there has been any uh official discussions over at the school district based on it. Um what I can tell you is the project that is talked about here is what the school district brought to us. Um and uh it was something that had been um on the city side had actually been contemplated uh as part of the 11th Street um improvement project. And so when they brought us the project, it kind of lined up with what we were planning on 11th Street. It just seemed to make sense. Um I guess the I know that there's a a potential circular road over on um Rockton. Um that may be a little bit more difficult on Charles given some of the speeds and some of the the angles of the road, but uh I'm not a I'm unaware of whether they vetted that before coming up with this proposal. I know that um they have been looking at many of their schools for years and have been working on different plans, but uh whether that was an alternative that was vetted by them, I I don't know. Mr. Sanders. Thank you very much. I'll uh I'll agree with and build upon what Jeremy uh just said. Um first of all, I'd point out that it while it could reopen what was a historic pedestrian access, there certainly has never been a drop-off drive there. There's never been an access or a circular drive off of Charles Street, and there's always been accessed from the pedestrian sidewalk along Charles. And while we have deflected that over time 20 some years ago, as you correctly mentioned, um it actually the sidewalk does actually still pass by that main entrance in much the same way that it always did. Now it's true they don't the the school has elected not to utilize that as their main entry point anymore, probably as they have expanded parking around other portions of the building. My understanding for brief communication with their facilities direct management team is that um as you might imagine they they handle access to the building in a much different manner than they might have 25 years ago and beyond, and that that is no longer a secured access point, uh, is permanently locked, uh maybe emergency egress only, but that access is controlled uh both by um by personnel and by equipment they have in place at other doors that they do not intend to relocate internally. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, seeing none, uh all is in favor and keep an aye. Aye. Opposed?