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, it’s 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, we’re doing the best way to run meetings that we can. For those who never been to meetings before, there’s a Public Comments section, normally at end, before Old Business. I ask again, if anyone wants anything again, even though it’s 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 can’t come out because of Covid, extended again, so they can’t come out, but he’s doing all this washing and it’s driving the neighbors crazy. Butts up against SW corner of Tuscan Hills and north end of Canterbury, it’s 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: What’s 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 you’re
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 “Craft Grower” 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 what’s 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 township’s interests at heart, and did a great job. For record as well. Nolan: Very nice, thank you.
HIGHWAY COMMISSIONER’S 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 they’re gonna lay over a new thing on that, so that’s kinda it over there, all I got right now.
ASSESSOR’S 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 they’ll try to reenact next year. In meantime, I’m automatically applying those. If there is a new home owner, good idea to email Green Garden Assessor’s Office, just to make sure I’m picking up on the new one’s, 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, they’re 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 I’ll make sure to take care of it. Believe everything is correct, but like to make sure of it. I do have a new “soft appeal” 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, it’s 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.
TRUSTEE’S REPORT – Hellriegel: What’s that letter we got from somebody south on 88th Ave. with water issue? Nolan: That’s Jim & Georgina, I talked to them the other day, might have been 2 weeks ago, I apologize, I don’t think I responded back to everyone, that I actually went over there & talked to Jim. I didn’t 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, it’s a tough corner, I’ll be frank with you. I feel bad for anyone that’s over there on 88th & Pauling area, it’s a tough area. He’s 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 doesn’t 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.
SUPERVISOR’S REPORT – Nolan: I think all the Trustees got the scanning of the bills this time. Is everybody, I’ll ask for
approval to pay the bills this way again, if that’s ok with everybody? Bill, you ok with it? Wagner: I’m 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. That’s 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, it’s 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, I’m going to pay online
again this year. If it would have came in Wed. or Thurs., I could have got a check out, so it’s 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, that’s 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, we’re 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 we’re going to go forward with that, unless anyone has objections to us on this. This way we don’t have to transfer, do these old transfers we’ve been doing for years. It’s something the County offers, and I’m more than willing to do this. I think it’s the best way to do it. Anyone got anything with that? We’ll go forward, Sue thanks a lot for all the help with that. I really do appreciate getting it done. Coffey: You’re welcome. Nolan: To let you guys know, coming up in, and I’ll 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 we’re looking up in January, and we’re finishing up budgets already. We’re a little bit ahead of the schedule, it’s here now. You’ll 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. There’s been several people, good candidates, that have submitted the request of being asked about it. What we’re 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 we’ll do is set up a Special Board meeting for us, once we get into that Special Board meeting, we’ll go into Executive Session, reason I’m 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, we’ll 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. That’s 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, there’s 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, whoever’s
not at Executive Session. Any of that make sense? Not identified: Use zoom. Nolan: Who’s that? Hellriegel: Jim, I think that’s all pretty good, this is Don, that was Cherie. I think you’re doing pretty good. Nolan: You know Cherie, here’s the
thing, the reason I got a conference call number here…Newton: I didn’t say anything. (regarding zoom comment) Nolan: Oh, I apologize. Hellriegel: Cherie, I thought that was you. Nolan: I’ll address the zoom thing, what people don’t realize at times is that when you’re doing these meeting, people ask why don’t 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. That’s 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 can’t get on state calls or anything else through the internet, it’s 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 you’re with the Republican Party? What’s the definition? Nolan: The last primary, what ticket you
pulled. Bushong: Ok. Nolan: Jane, I tell people all the time, it’s not my rule. Bushong: That’s fine, I was just curious. I wasn’t 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 it’s just the few of us, there’ll be enough room to maintain social distance at Town Hall. Personally, I’d just rather do at Town Hall, but I’ll accept anything. I also really think that resumes from each of the so called candidates ahead of time to review. Nolan: I didn’t 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 I’m 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 didn’t 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 I’d 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 wouldn’t know, because I don’t 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 don’t have to be in Town Hall, some people can be at Town Hall, and some people can do remote. That’s fine, actually. Newton: I would
prefer to be with Board and applicants, but I have reservations with my parents & mother-in-law. Nolan: That’s 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 don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable either. We’re 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. Everyone’s uneasy. There’s people that don’t care, there’s 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 , we’re all safe distances, we do it both ways, then just have it open like that then, gives everyone an option. Be honest, we’re not picking an easy job for
anybody, it’s a very important job to have, we want to make sure we’re making the right decision on this too. Newton: I think you’re right, we don’t want an applicant to come because they think they have to, because they won’t get a job if they’re not there in person. Whatever any individual is comfortable with. Nolan: I fully understand with that too. It’s fine for me, either way someone does it. I’ve been interviewing people for 25 years, 30 years and I’ve done them over the phone, I’ve hired them over phone, and I’ve hired people in person. I’ll be honest with ya, right person’s in front of you, you always know the right person’s in front of you. Either way, probably been doing it for 30 years. Bushong: Isn’t it possible, if it’s just the Board and the applicants to do either face time or zoom? Nolan: Not everybody can do it, that’s what you run into, we can probably do it or give applicant option to do so. If I’m actually in the Town Hall, I can set it up that way, not everyone can, not every Trustee, I’m just saying, let’s put that as other option too. If we’re going to be in Town Hall some people will be in Town Hall, some won’t, they can either call in or set up as zoom. I’ll 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: Nothing’s specific. Hellriegel: You have to put a deadline on it. Nolan: Yeah, we’re not meeting again, so the thing is we’ll set it up this way, if this makes everyone comfortable. People that
want to do it live, can do live. People that don’t, can do it remote, or on phone. That’s the comfort level you got, cause I think we’ll 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 we’ll ask what they’re comfortable with, d adapt to that too. We’ll open up both ways at least with us Trustees we can do either way, let’s put it that way. I understand some people want to see people face to face, whether 8ft apart or not. For people that don’t feel good coming in there, we’ll figure something on that. Should I move on? Hellriegel: I think so. Nolan: Next agenda item was about consult with Attorney”, 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 we’re 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 that’s right, we… 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, we’ll 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, we’re 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. It’s no different than people interviewing for a job. So as a hiring manager, you don’t. Any other board members? Standish: I talked to someone from a different township today, and he gave me something I should ask, but that’s fine. Nolan: Go ahead and ask. Standish: No, I’m done. Nolan: That’s it? Standish: If I don’t know who’s running then that pretty much will settle it all, you know. Nolan: Nobody is running for office Buddy, that’s the difference, the board…Schultz: I understand that.l Nolan: Sorry, ok. Schultz: I understand that, but you gotta know who’s being interviewed, you might have some low life who you don’t want. You know? That’s the way it is.
Nolan: Don’t worry Buddy, I’m not running, no low lifes (laughter). Bushong: Jim, just to be safe, would you mind checking with TOI on that? Nolan: That’s what I was just going to ask, see on that. That’s why, Buddy, I really don’t have a solid answer on that. Schultz: Alright. Nolan: Anyone else? Hellriegel: I think it’s 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: You’re 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