2020.05.11 Meeting Minutes
GREEN GARDEN TOWNSHIP
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 11, 2020
The regular meeting was called to order by Supervisor Nolan at 7:01 p.m. with a moment of silence for Bob Massat, our Road Commissioner for 35 years. Nolan: A moment to him, acknowledge his service to the Township for the last 35 years, speak for the Board, our sympathies go out to Penny and the rest of the Massat family, and all the service he did for this Township, loss for us, losing a neighbor, someone from this Township, itâs a tremendous loss.
Roll Call
In attendance were Trustees Wagner, Newton, Standish, Hellriegel, Assessor Bushong, Supervisor Nolan, and Clerk Coffey.
There was a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting held April 13, 2020 as submitted by Trustee Wagner with a second by Trustee Newton. Voice vote: Motion carried.
Nolan: Just to let everyone know, typical to run a meeting like this with Corona Virus and everything going on. Stay at home orders, weâre doing the best way to run meetings that we can. For those who never been to meetings before, thereâs a Public Comments section, normally at end, before Old Business. I ask again, if anyone wants anything again, even though itâs not agenda item, I ask, now to Public Comments, if anyone has a public comment.
PUBLIC COMMENTS – Dietz: Call from neighbor, across from us. Devonshire AG-1 doing commercial thing, another one at 7608 W Manhattan-Monee Rd. 24 acre site, home and pole barn using concrete pumper business out of pole barn, washes trucks out. Starts at 4:00 a.m. can work until 12 past midnight. I told guy to call Code Enforcement, which he did, filed complaint April 1st. They canât come out because of Covid, extended again, so they canât come out, but heâs doing all this washing and itâs driving the neighbors crazy. Butts up against SW corner of Tuscan Hills and north end of Canterbury, itâs annoying, obviously Green Garden know nothing about it. So, 24 acres, a house, 3 bay barn, converted into concrete and he washes his trucks, also has 56 acres to the west that he farms. Part of the 24 getting farm exemption and now has a business. Hellriegel: Whatâs that address again? Nolan: Thanks Ralph, Code Enforcement has been brought on? Dietz: Carrie, I think took original complaint.
PLANNING COMMISSION – Murday: Clarification to what Ralph raised, the County is not writing anybody up at this point,
feel as though useless act with everything being shut down. I would say to Ralph, folks affected to keep contacting
County. Once doors are opened back up, there may be a lot of people with a lot of complaints. Want to make sure youâre
at front of the line, best you can. Keep pestering County with that. Nothing on Planning agenda for May, nothing on agenda for June. Item brought to township attention, more by notice than anything, request for variance. Fawn Landscaping with regard to parcel that has been before the Board on a couple of occasions in the last year or so. Variances do not come before the township, only Special Use and Map Amendments, we were notified with regard to request for variance, Jim received letter from Mayor Holland from Village of Frankfort, voicing their objection to the variance. The variance relates to, that is the code requires there be a 2500 ft. buffer between property line of an area zoned residential because what they are attempting to do, or thought is to become a âCraft Growerâ for cannabis. Village of Frankfort is made official, their objection to request for variance. Also spoke with County today their staff report is not completed, my understanding, staff report also voiced an objection so Land Use staff is opposed to variance as well. Hearing supposedly set for May 19th, not sure if going forward or not. Will find out tomorrow when I speak to folks at Land Use, just wanted folks to know whatâs going on in regards to that property on LaGrange. For record, I too, on behalf of the
Planning Commission offer our condolences to Penny and Massat family, while I may have had my disagreements with Bob, never any question in my mind that he always had the township and townshipâs interests at heart, and did a great job. For record as well. Nolan: Very nice, thank you.
HIGHWAY COMMISSIONERâS REPORT – Nolan: Several projects already in works before Bob passing, a little behind, about 2 weeks behind on this. Whispering Prairie , being repaved, Canterbury 5 being repaved, and Links over at Green Garden Country Club repaved also. Some of this, some of the grindings they got to do first, then theyâre gonna lay over a new thing on that, so thatâs kinda it over there, all I got right now.
ASSESSORâS REPORT – Bushong: Most important, we had announced previously new General Homestead Exemption
application which new residents would have to complete in order to comply, has been put on hold, I assume theyâll try to reenact next year. In meantime, Iâm automatically applying those. If there is a new home owner, good idea to email Green Garden Assessorâs Office, just to make sure Iâm picking up on the new oneâs, and automatically applying it.. The 2020 exemption renewal forms have been simplified (all new from County) in an effort to prompt tax payers to utilize mailing options, please mail your renewal forms if at all possible. Everyone trying to stay safe, even though most of the County employees did go back to work today, in the offices, we really appreciate mailing option and people not showing up in
person. 2020 exemption renewal forms will be mailed out May 29th, anyone that previously had an exemption renewal or
exemption, such as Senior Freeze, theyâre gonna get it in the mail. All Senior events have been cancelled for the year, no face to face events, too risky with seniors. Most important on Senior form (Senior Freeze Example) you no longer have to have it notarized, at least for this year. Just going to sign the form swearing your info is correct and mail it in. It will be accepted that way. Just a reminder, for all Green Garden property owners, tax bills went out May 1st, please double check your tax bills and make sure your proper exemptions are on there. If they are not, drop me an email to [email protected], and Iâll make sure to take care of it. Believe everything is correct, but like to make sure of it. I do have a new âsoft appealâ form which I announced previously, if anyone thinks they are over assessed or have questions about their assessment, happy to email that form to you. You can complete, get it back to me, you can hopefully avoid formal appeal this fall. You still have right to go to formal appeal, but you can do that in advance, itâs helping to equalize a lot of the property inequities prior to formal appeal. Thank you. Nolan: Thanks Jane, you do a great job and we appreciate you, trust me.
TRUSTEEâS REPORT – Hellriegel: Whatâs that letter we got from somebody south on 88th Ave. with water issue? Nolan: Thatâs Jim & Georgina, I talked to them the other day, might have been 2 weeks ago, I apologize, I donât think I responded back to everyone, that I actually went over there & talked to Jim. I didnât go to his house, I drove by his house and all that, I have follow up with him next week a little bit, he did have County out, he does have flooding issues over there, obviously that corner is, itâs a tough corner, Iâll be frank with you. I feel bad for anyone thatâs over there on 88th & Pauling area, itâs a tough area. Heâs got someone coming out to rod out a drain pipe, he had a pipe out there, he had, see if that helps flow some of the water. Last week we got 3 inches of rain almost out there, the water doesnât go down as fast as everyone would like it to, and I totally understand. I did call him, talked to him, he called me again, might have been late last week
he called me, cause he had County come out take a look at somethings, and had someone come out to rod some pipes
for him too.
SUPERVISORâS REPORT – Nolan: I think all the Trustees got the scanning of the bills this time. Is everybody, Iâll ask for
approval to pay the bills this way again, if thatâs ok with everybody? Bill, you ok with it? Wagner: Iâm ok. Nolan: Cherie,
you ok? Newton: Yes. Nolan: Don, you ok? Hellriegel: Yes. Nolan: Russ, you ok? Standish: Yes. Nolan: Ok, obviously when we get through this whole thing it will make it easier, best way I know right now is scan & get to you guys. Me & Sue will probably meet up tomorrow night sometime, we have a routine how we do it. Put in Town Hall, park outside, and she comes 15 minutes later, she signs them, and then I go and pick them up. Thatâs how we worked it out so far, to attest the bills. To let Trustees know, the tax bill came in, so I just got it today from PO Box, did stop at PO Box Saturday, did not have it. Today got tax bill for us, I believe we did it this way last year. I’m gonna pay it online early, itâs due on the 6th. I think the year previously we did not pay it online & we got fined for it. So, to let Trustees know, Iâm going to pay online
again this year. If it would have came in Wed. or Thurs., I could have got a check out, so itâs gonna be an ACH payment again, like we did last year, ok? Anyone has a problem with that, let me know. Other thing, Sue has helped me tremendously, and Bill. The County disbursements, if anyone on Board remembers, we always do it, County disburses money into certain funds for us. I want to say 13 payments throughout the year, 13 or 14 Sue? Coffey: We had 12, 1
special. Nolan: Ok, thatâs why I had 13 in my head, ok, 12 disbursements payments, and what we normally do is deposit in 1 account and we transfer it out, put in regular funds, weâre supposed to be. County actually has this, where we can actually have these funds transferred into specific accounts we need them to go into as they do their disbursements. So weâre going to go forward with that, unless anyone has objections to us on this. This way we donât have to transfer, do these old transfers weâve been doing for years. It’s something the County offers, and Iâm more than willing to do this. I think itâs the best way to do it. Anyone got anything with that? Weâll go forward, Sue thanks a lot for all the help with that. I really do appreciate getting it done. Coffey: Youâre welcome. Nolan: To let you guys know, coming up in, and Iâll have
them to you guys by the end of this week, is the budgets for the June meeting, we have our Budget Hearings coming up &
vote on budgets in June, just to let all Trustees know, we got that coming up. Remembering we weâre looking up in January, and weâre finishing up budgets already. Weâre a little bit ahead of the schedule, itâs here now. Youâll be getting that probably by end of this week for our June meeting. So if you have any questions, let me know on that. Outside of that, nothing else.
NEW BUSINESS – Nolan: Discussion on replacement of Road Commissioner position. As everybody knows, we did put
something in the paper, and also on web page, the Board was looking for a Road Commissioner to appoint, just so everybody know, the person has to be a voter in Green Garden Township, a resident for 1 year in Green Garden Township, and a member of the same political party as previous successor which was a Republican at the time. We have 60 days to do this for the board on that. Thereâs been several people, good candidates, that have submitted the request of being asked about it. What weâre trying to do is set up meetings with them. Looks like the week of June 1st, this is
discussion looks like week of June 1st, what weâll do is set up a Special Board meeting for us, once we get into that Special Board meeting, weâll go into Executive Session, reason Iâm bringing it up, is just so residents know we are doing this to conduct interviews. Those are always done in Executive Session. So people know Executive Session is not open to the public. So we go into meeting, immediately do Executive Session, so we can conduct interviews with people, 1 at a time. Two different ways I thought about doing this, and this is a Board decision on this all, weâll have to have several different conference call numbers, we can do via phone, give each candidate a PIN number to get into phone call, text,
then say now call in, incase something goes late, or one goes early. Thatâs 1 way of conducting it. We start meeting, go into Executive Session, hang up phones, go into different phone call to do this. Or we can split half & half if we want to. We could go to Town Hall, because it is Executive Session, thereâs 4 Board members, me & Sue, basically so 6 of us, and person would come in, one at a time to do that. We probably could do that in a safe way. Or, we can do it, half Board stays at home on phone, other half, or whoever wants to attend can actually be at the Hall on speaker phone, whoeverâs
not at Executive Session. Any of that make sense? Not identified: Use zoom. Nolan: Whoâs that? Hellriegel: Jim, I think thatâs all pretty good, this is Don, that was Cherie. I think youâre doing pretty good. Nolan: You know Cherie, hereâs the
thing, the reason I got a conference call number here…Newton: I didnât say anything. (regarding zoom comment) Nolan: Oh, I apologize. Hellriegel: Cherie, I thought that was you. Nolan: Iâll address the zoom thing, what people donât realize at times is that when youâre doing these meeting, people ask why donât you do zoom? Not everybody in the Township has access to internet. Not all seniors have access to internet. Not all people in general have access to internet. Thatâs a problem. Internet goes down, you got a problem on your hands. Listen, I conduct a lot of business at my home and when you canât get on state calls or anything else through the internet, itâs a big problem. Unidentified: Oh, is it? Nolan: Excuse me? Unidentified: Thank you. Bushong: Jim, this is Jane. Nolan: Go ahead Jane. Bushong: I apologize, I have a question. What dictates that youâre with the Republican Party? Whatâs the definition? Nolan: The last primary, what ticket you
pulled. Bushong: Ok. Nolan: Jane, I tell people all the time, itâs not my rule. Bushong: Thatâs fine, I was just curious. I wasnât sure of it. Thank you. Nolan: Bill, you got any opinions on this whole thing, how to set this up? Wagner: Well, I think if itâs just the few of us, thereâll be enough room to maintain social distance at Town Hall. Personally, Iâd just rather do at Town Hall, but Iâll accept anything. I also really think that resumes from each of the so called candidates ahead of time to review. Nolan: I didnât specifically ask for them, when I was applying. I was trying to get in paper, it was going real fast so…Wagner: I understand, but those that called in, can we get them? I think a couple of them already have a resume, if the others put together a resume, so we get an idea. Nolan: Yeah, just so where they worked at or something like that, Sue has all the emails, so Iâm sure we could send out something to them all. We got until the 31st, so the 1st to start this with. Coffey: May I say something: Nolan: Yes. Coffey: We did receive the one resume, so I reached out to all the other candidates, just to be fair, since someone had submitted a resume and a letter of intent, if they would like to do the same, we are more than welcome to it. Even though we didnât ask for it. Nolan: Ok, thanks Sue, we can come back to that stuff in a little bit. What do you guys think about trying to do this meeting next time? Standish: I think I would agree with Bill, if we could keep our social distancing at the Town Hall, and Iâd like to be down there in person. Also, I agree with him on resumes and info about why they could do a good job and everything that a resume encompasses, cause I really only know a couple of people on the list. Nolan: By the way, we actually have a good list of people, very lucky on that. Standish: Well, I wouldnât know, because I donât know them so…Nolan: I understand Russ. Ok, Don Hellriegel, what do you think? Hellriegel: I prefer the Town Hall, in person. Nolan: you do, Ok. Cherie? To let everyone know we donât have to be in Town Hall, some people can be at Town Hall, and some people can do remote. Thatâs fine, actually. Newton: I would
prefer to be with Board and applicants, but I have reservations with my parents & mother-in-law. Nolan: Thatâs fine, let me ask you guys this, if we go to Town Hall, do we ask the people if they come in front, do they do it? I donât want to make anyone uncomfortable either. Weâre all in a bad spot with this stuff going on. We give people an option, that they can do it from a phone, or they can do a personal interview. Everyoneâs uneasy. There’s people that donât care, thereâs people I got respect for everybody. Not easy answers my friends. Wagner: I think if we give ourselves the option of being there, or the phone, we have to give the candidates the same option. Nolan: If people are comfortable , weâre all safe distances, we do it both ways, then just have it open like that then, gives everyone an option. Be honest, weâre not picking an easy job for
anybody, itâs a very important job to have, we want to make sure weâre making the right decision on this too. Newton: I think you’re right, we donât want an applicant to come because they think they have to, because they wonât get a job if theyâre not there in person. Whatever any individual is comfortable with. Nolan: I fully understand with that too. Itâs fine for me, either way someone does it. Iâve been interviewing people for 25 years, 30 years and Iâve done them over the phone, Iâve hired them over phone, and Iâve hired people in person. Iâll be honest with ya, right personâs in front of you, you always know the right personâs in front of you. Either way, probably been doing it for 30 years. Bushong: Isnât it possible, if itâs just the Board and the applicants to do either face time or zoom? Nolan: Not everybody can do it, thatâs what you run into, we can probably do it or give applicant option to do so. If Iâm actually in the Town Hall, I can set it up that way, not everyone can, not every Trustee, Iâm just saying, letâs put that as other option too. If weâre going to be in Town Hall some people will be in Town Hall, some wonât, they can either call in or set up as zoom. Iâll bring in laptop, wifi from my phone, and I could do it that way. Newton: How about we will post on website what our decision will be for June 1st or week of June 1st meeting? With specific instructions? Nolan: Nothingâs specific. Hellriegel: You have to put a deadline on it. Nolan: Yeah, weâre not meeting again, so the thing is weâll set it up this way, if this makes everyone comfortable. People that
want to do it live, can do live. People that donât, can do it remote, or on phone. Thatâs the comfort level you got, cause I think weâll have a hard time doing zoom or anything else like that in the town Hall. Newton: When you get the details,or call, or whatever with applicants individually…Nolan: Ok, when we set them up weâll ask what theyâre comfortable with, d adapt to that too. Weâll open up both ways at least with us Trustees we can do either way, letâs put it that way. I understand some people want to see people face to face, whether 8ft apart or not. For people that donât feel good coming in there, weâll figure something on that. Should I move on? Hellriegel: I think so. Nolan: Next agenda item was about consult with Attorneyâ, can I, can we table that til our next meeting? Or meeting after that, probably July if anything? Or do we want a discussion now? I would suggest we just table it. Response: I wish you would just table it. Coffey: Who was that? Hellriegel: Don. Nolan: Does anyone have anything for next board meeting before New Business? Which we have none, and obviously weâre gonna have our Budget Hearing at beginning of hearing, so next board meeting, put on agenda to vote for Township Budget, Vote for Road District Budget, actually put on agenda for next month, vote & appoint new Road Commissioner next meeting. So, 3 agenda items on next, as New Business. That good with everybody? Newton:
What were the 3 items again? Nolan: Vote approval for Township Budget, vote approval for Road District Budget, vote & appoint new Road Commissioner, that way all on agenda. Wagner: Is hearing going to be at 6:45? Or 7:00? Nolan: We can actually do at 6…ah, 7 thatâs right, weâĤ Coffey: We started at 6:45 last year. Nolan: 6:45 ok, so 6:45 for budget hearing & 7:00 general meeting. Murday: Will there be a posting of the budget anywhere on website or anyplace where people can access it before the hearing? Nolan: Yes, it will. I was actually finishing them all this afternoon, on township side, Yes, there is. Murday: Thank you. Nolan: Anyone that wants documents, weâll get documents out to anybody or
email them. Hellriegel: That will be on website before meeting even? Nolan: Yes, if we got all those things on agenda, weâre fine.
OLD BUSINESS – Nolan: None.
Nolan: Any public comments at end here? Schultz: Is list of candidates public knowledge? Nolan: I personally believe they
are not. I guess people could challenge me on that. Itâs no different than people interviewing for a job. So as a hiring manager, you donât. Any other board members? Standish: I talked to someone from a different township today, and he gave me something I should ask, but thatâs fine. Nolan: Go ahead and ask. Standish: No, Iâm done. Nolan: Thatâs it? Standish: If I donât know whoâs running then that pretty much will settle it all, you know. Nolan: Nobody is running for office Buddy, thatâs the difference, the board…Schultz: I understand that.l Nolan: Sorry, ok. Schultz: I understand that, but you gotta know whoâs being interviewed, you might have some low life who you donât want. You know? Thatâs the way it is.
Nolan: Donât worry Buddy, Iâm not running, no low lifes (laughter). Bushong: Jim, just to be safe, would you mind checking with TOI on that? Nolan: Thatâs what I was just going to ask, see on that. Thatâs why, Buddy, I really donât have a solid answer on that. Schultz: Alright. Nolan: Anyone else? Hellriegel: I think itâs a good idea to check with TOI on that, and then give all members a heads up. Nolan: I will. Schultz Let me know too. Nolan: Youâre my first call. Monroe, you here too? Striggow: Here, having a hell of a time, phone going in & out.
There was a motion to adjourn the meeting by Trustee Hellriegel with a second by Trustee Standish. Voice vote. Nolan:
Everybody be safe.
Meeting adjourned at 7:41 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Coffey, Clerk