Wednesday, November 6, 2013

City Council Meeting Nov. 5

Missed last night's city council meeting so am listening to the copy archived on the city's website.

Mayor Fritzler just mentioned reporting streetlights that were out of service which prompted a  citizen to come up and complain about the 4 streetlights surrounding his house, shining in the windows all night.  He requested the city or the electric supplier put shields on the lights to prevent the streaming into his windows.  City Manager Baity said the city would look into it, which appeared to satisfy the complaintant.


The hearing regarding granting an easement to Amerin Illinois Company across Cedar Lake for electrical transmission lines had no discussion

Presentation and discussion of the audited comprehensive annual report, which was accepted with just a few questions from council.


Consent agenda passed with items 5.6 and 5.7 pulled for individual votes, 'cause you know we couldn't just have a clean consent agenda passed.  Item 5.6 is the Amerin easement noted above, since apparently no easement was ever granted when the lines were put into place in the 1970s.  Councilman Jack pulled to to inquire about the possibility of getting fees from Amerin for the easement, which, as Councilman Monty notes, would cost an "exorbitant" amount of money for the company to reroute, as apparently Amerin will only pay $10 for the easement.  After discussion, council grant the easement as proposed.

5.7 deals with extending the cable franchise agreement with Mediacom.  Medicom requested extending the contract but apparently the commission that deals with this has had several members resign and been unable to find additional members to form a quorum. The extension would only be for 60 days.  Passed after extensive discussion unanimously.

Council comments started with Don Monty commenting on his observations of a very quiet Halloween season.  Lee Fronabarger inquired about the status of a crosswalk across Hwy 13 and Jane Adams asked about the Bright Fields solar panel project, which has encountered some concern from residents in the northeast part of Carbondale near the project.  Council directed city staff to hold meetings in the neighborhoods to address concerns.  However, city manger Baity indicated that residents were unwilling to hold meetings in the neighborhoods, forcing the city to move to other locations, such as city hall or on one of the churches in the northeast area.  Baity will continue to pursue conversation with the groups concerned.

At  that, council moved into closed session at 8:21 after 1 hour and 21 minutes.

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