GREEN GARDEN TOWNSHIP
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
The regular meeting was called to order by Supervisor Nolan at 7:00 p.m.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Roll Call
In attendance were Trustees Wagner, Newton, Standish, Hellriegel, Commissioner Massat, Supervisor Nolan,
and Clerk Coffey.
Clerk Coffey submitted the minutes from the regular meeting held August 12, 2019. There was a motion to
approve the minutes as submitted by Trustee Wagner with a second by Trustee Newton. Voice vote: Motion
carried.
PUBLIC COMMENTS – Buddy Schultz will respond at end of meeting in case of controversy.
PLANNING COMMISSION
● Nothing for August, nothing on schedule for September.
● Need to populate Planning Commission. Chairman Murday asks for info to be posted on website, and
through word of mouth. Three openings for a board of 7, with hopes of representing all quadrants of
township, Massat: Used to be 5. Please direct responses to Don Murday. Asks to be excused early for
prior commitment.
● Schultz: How many acres for 2 horses? Murday: When questions arise, I look to the code. Massat: 2 ½.
Murday: Is that County ordinance? Nolan: I think, a horse per acre plus 1 per half. Massat: Used to be 2
½. Schultz: Realtor advertising 2 horses on 2 acres, property location 24750 88th Ave., what is the
zoning? Massat: Thought A-1, their A-2 residential, not AG. Schultz: You can have a horse per acre?
Massat: I don’t think so. Murday: Send me address, I will look at zoning and tell you what is permitted. It
is R-2 on map. Murday & Nolan to follow up. Wayman: Saddle Ridge 2 ½ acres, no horses allowed.
Nolan: Might be HOA regulations. Wagner: Might have covenants.
HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER’S REPORT
● Done Tar & Chipping, going back to mowing, changing culverts, and cleaning ditches.
● Tar & Chipped 4 miles A-1, 1 mile A-3. 5 mile total. Schultz: Still sweep chips on road? Massat:
Sometimes we do. We get chewed out for doing, people on motorcycles say they slip & slide, also on
cut grass.
TRUSTEE’S REPORT
● Trustee Newton states she contacted TOI for Trustee Handbook, sent letter to their contact 7-24-19.
Asked for next publication, response was, no impending publication. TOI agreed to send 4 of the latest
publications at no charge.
SUPERVISOR’S REPORT
● AFR complete & filed with the state. Will give Sue copy to file with County.
● Contacted Attorney for: “Will Ride” if able to use General Assistance? Park Donation Property Fund
(not allowed to use), how to set up in different Fund? Can income on that property be used to pay the
taxes?
● Sent email to Rhonda Novak (Supervisor of Assessments – County) to see what needs to be done to
close out that bill. Should have one final bill from County. Newton: What about getting our files back?
Nolan: Will figure that out after hearing back from County, files are to come back here (building).
Newton: Don’t they need to be locked? Nolan: Building is locked. Newton: I thought we discussed
building a wall, closet, or something? Nolan: There’s no difference between an office & the building. We
can still discuss, it’s going to take time to get everything back too. Newton: Doesn’t it say, needs to be
in an enclosed secure location? Not just a locked door? Wagner: Like a locked cabinet? Newton: Jane
(Bushong)? Bushong: I will check with County, but not supposed to be open access to everybody, any
information that could be requested in a FOIA would need to be protected. Newton: File cabinets with
keys? Bushong: Yes, that would at least be a good idea. To recreate data & information would be
costly.
NEW BUSINESS
● Nolan: Can I have a motion to Appoint Jane Bushong as Green Garden Township Assessor? Wagner:
So moved. Nolan: Can I have a second? Trustee Hellreigel made a second to the motion. Roll Call:
Wagner, yes; Hellriegel, yes; Newton, yes; Standish, yes; Nolan, yes. Motion carried, 5-0.
● Oath administered by Clerk Coffey and sworn to by Jane Bushong for appointment of Assessor. Phone
number discussed and to be posted on website.
OLD BUSINESS
● Discussion for “Will Ride”, will put on Agenda for next meeting. Waiting to hear back from Attorney.
CLOSING COMMENTS
Schultz: What’s going in on corner of Manhattan-Monee & 45? Massat: Used to be Davis Paving, still think it’s
going, no word from anybody, Davis & Sylvestri Paving. Sylvestri Paving just cores out roads, don’t have
paving plant. Davis Concrete bought in years ago, all equipment stored across street. Don’t think anything
different from other plans, but County jumps over Township. Nolan: Zoned industrial, abatement granted a year
and half or two years ago. Schultz: Do they get free taxes for 5 years? Nolan: 2 years, that’s it. Newton: I think
the 2 years is coming up. Nolan: Being taxed farm now. Schultz: Will new Assessor be qualified to assess
something like that? Bushong: Will work with County on something like this (industrial). I also have objective to
reach out to other townships, just for advice (guidance). Massat: When you apply for permit and they accept
what you’re gonna do, which they did 10 years ago. They should have never been AG. Should have been
taxed what they were zoned. They change zoning to Commercial, Tax Assessor should have already nailed
them Commercial, not AG. Bushong: Not professed to be an expert, my understanding is there might be an
exception on that. I am not to solely rely on zoning, like County. Example: I have a piece I’m working on now. It
was Farm, has home (Residential), farm buildings (Farm), and turned major Pole Building into a venue (renting
on weekends, for large price). So, now there is Commercial, too. County is handling zoning, I’m breaking into
portions (Farm, Residential, & Commercial). My concern, tax assessment. Massat: When approved for
subdivisions & market went down, they all (developers) went to County and cancelled everything. No longer
AG, zoning was already changed (Residential). Can’t change AG gotta change Residential. Wagner:
Historically, assessed for “use” not zoned. Nolan: Like property along 57, zoned Industrial/Commercial.
Changed back to AG, tax related.
Jim Hilliard: Last meeting I attended didn’t have a budget, did you fix budget problem? Nolan: Voted on budget,
still needs to be amended. Assessor coming on, we need Assessor Budget within that budget, still being
worked on and in touch with lawyers. Hilliard: How much was legal fees for that? Nolan: $1200.00 Newton: 1
bill for them. Nolan: $1162.50 paid in August to attorney. Hilliard: Did we receive any MFT funds for roads?
Nolan: Yes. Hilliard: How much is that, about a year? Massat: What does it total out to? Hilliard: Yes, what is
the estimate? Massat: $80,000.00 a year. Nolan: You don’t have to use all in a year, you can save that.
Massat: We don’t get that money, stays at County, doesn’t come to me. Hilliard: We get $80,000.00, how do
you use it? Massat: I apply, I go in, sit down with them, tell them I want to do a project. They send out for bid,
they do all engineering, they send everyone out to watch how it gets done, they pay it. Nolan: You can bank
that money for 3 years say, you can pave 2 miles of road (blacktop). You can’t use for equipment, has to do
with roads. Can’t use on Bridges, right Bob? Massat: No. Hilliard: You did 5 miles of road (tar & chip), do you
have a plan to do all gravel roads around here? As far as, so many miles a year? Reason I ask, I grew up in
Homer on gravel. There is not a gravel road there, I understand Homer is completely different than us with
residential growth, and the amount they have. Look at Kankakee County, I can go down a mile road with no
houses on it, and it’s tar & chipped. Not saying you’re doing a bad job, do you have a plan on how many miles
or what year you think they’d all be done? Massat: I came here, there were no paved roads, nothing except
Harvest Hills. We have 70 miles of road, I have 9 miles left. So there you go. Homer has a budget of 6.5
million, I have 670,000. Hilliard: I’m just asking what your plan is? Sounds like you should have this wrapped
up in 2 years. If you did 5 miles this year, you have 9 left. Massat: No, no, those A-1’s were miles I had done
last year, I did A-2 on them, so I did A-1 on them to make them A-3’s. I only did 1 mile this year and I did it A-3.
So next year, I’ll do overlay 5-6 miles, A-1 and maybe 1-2 miles A-2’s or A-3. Hilliard: So, 1 mile of road?
Massat: Maybe 2 in a year, you have to get base first, have to widen to 22ft. at least. You have to put $70,000
of base on every road. Nolan: I think last year we did 3 1/2 , but we got free base grindings, if I’m not mistaken.
Massat: Yeah. Nolan: Do you live on gravel? Massat: Yeah. Hilliard: I do, just asking out of curiosity. Everyone
has the same question about Kankakee County, and for some reason it’s tar & chip is holding up well. Massat:
Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, but they told me years ago Kankakee County went with the Township
and helped them tar & chip all those roads, and then gave them back to the townships to maintain after that. A
lot of those townships got less money than I got, I don’t know how they got all that tar & chipping. Wagner:
They are not all tar & chipped. Massat: There’s still gravel. Hilliard: There is some, out in Limestone area, I
know they are not “all”, but I go down & farm, I can go down 4 miles and maybe 2 houses. It’s not wide but it’s
tar & chipped, less population than we have, by a lot, so I’m sure the budget’s a lot less also. That’s it, that’s all
I have.
Schultz: Stuenkel & 45, have someone fill the holes! Nolan: That’s State. Schultz: Couple ugly ones. Massat:
You want me to spend money on State property? Holes on edge of Stuenkel, if you want me to go ahead &
spend money on State road. Schultz: Take a couple of shovels of grindings. Massat: We do that. You’d be
surprised how many times. Trucks & trailers going to landscaper just tears it out of there. Nolan: Lot of traffic,
not his apron. Massat: We’ll take care of it for you.
There was a motion to adjourn the meeting by Trustee Hellriegel, with a second by Trustee Standish. Voice
vote: Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 7:36 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Coffey, Clerk