FC Village Board discusses Randall Rd. project in special meeting
FALL CREEK - A special meeting of the Fall Creek Village Board discussed the the Randall Road urbanization project. The meeting was held back on May 1 in the Village Hall.
The project includes replacement of very old underground utilities and is also taking the opportunity to deepen the sewer mains to avoid the need for a lift station in the future. It also fixes the road grade and provides for storm water issues.
Village Administrator Jared McKee said that Randall Road is one of a few roads left in Fall Creek that does not have sidewalk and that creates somewhat of an equity problem as others in the village have had to pay for sidewalks. Assessments have been used in various ways for village project going back to the early 1960s. Village Trustee Karen Hurd suggested than rather than assessing specific property owners the village could do a referendum or find some other way of funding the project without special assessments at all such as increase in the village budget from state funding through shared revenue. Village President Tim Raap stated assessments are a mechanism that was chosen by past Boards for determining a
proportionate cost-share of the project. He also said if the Board wants to make a change to the level of the cost-share, there will be many factors to consider to try and pay for it but felt that none of them, whether shared revenue, referendum, grants, could meet the costs or be as fair as well as special assessments.
The meeting adjourned after discussion of the matter. After this month's meeting that took place on the 8th, the final decision on the project and how to pay for it will be made at another special meeting of the Board on May 25 in the Village Hall beginning at 5 p.m. The Board approved granting the village the power to levy special assessments during its regular board meeting in April.
During the April meeting of the Board there was discussion about village employees and Board trustees posting information and or opinions about the village or village employees and trustees on the social media, especially in the wake of the April election and whether it violated the hatch Act. Jared McKee stated that the Hatch Act only dealt with Federal employees and that Village policy was no member of the Board or an employee of the Village can post person opinions on the Village's Facebook Page or any other social media account but for their own accounts and private accounts their opinions are their own. The matter was referred to committee for further review.
On its agenda, the Board approved the village's audit reported unanimously, where the Village was given an “unmodified” audit opinion, which is the best a municipality can receive. They also. approved variances for the Creekside Estates subdivision along with its final plat plan. They also approved a bartender's license, appointments to the Library Board and selected Weld Riley, S.C. as the village's law firm.