Chambana Sun

City of Hoopeston Citizens Advisory Committee met Oct. 17.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

The Citizens Advisory Committee meeting was called to order at 7:00pm. There were 14 of 19 members present. Jones, Wilson, Mills, Archer, Kellerhals, Ponto, Highfill, Ramos, Andre, Kelnhofer, McGee, Inman, Moore and Murphy.

There were no public comments

*Our meeting schedule has been updated and we will meet each month through May except for December. December is a very busy month for everyone.

Old Business: 

DNR has been contacted about the abundance of Geese at McFerren. We will have updates and discussion with the parks department soon on ways we can get them out of the park. We are waiting on a couple calls back from other park districts on suggestions that worked for them.

The Grandstands in the McFerren Park Annex are in desperate need of repair or a new set. We are happy to report that the old bleachers at the High School are being removed for them to get new and we will now get their old set for the annex. So we are very excited for this report coming in based on our last meetings discussion on this topic.

The Civic Center was a big discussion at our September meeting. Again, I am happy to report in October that the details are now being put together for a plan for a remodel at the civic center.  The kitchen, the stage, the bathrooms and the  dressing rooms will be renovated.

In September we discussed creating a downtown committee to spruce things up and bring new ideas to downtown. A committee will be formed soon and we look forward to  seeing what ideas that committee comes up with.

Lighting on Penn Street and Route 1 was discussed in September and the concerns for how the area is not well lit now that the Caseys is not there. After discussion, we would like to update and let you know, the city is waiting on a potential buyer to see if we will need to place brighter lighting there. If it is a business with a large sign, it will really light that area up and there wont be a need for that. If it’s a small business or restaurant type business, the city will look further into that lighting issue as they may not have a large lit sign there as Casey’s did.

New Business:

Jones- Gave updates as noted above during Old Business from previous September meeting.

Ramos- Commented on how nice the new sidewalks going in around the town look.

Wilson- Reported there is discussion and planning happening for the homelessness issue from a church group in town. There will be more information on this coming soon.

Archer- Inquired about razing buildings on Route 1. Jones reported where those buildings stand in city currently. Mr Archer asked about Planting Trees in the city. Jones reported a website people could go to to inquire about a program they once had where you could get 1 or 2 trees by giving your email/information on that website. Mr Archer inquired about the Kirby Foods Parking lot needing repair. Jones reported that is not city property. It is a private parking lot owned by someone out of state. Lastly, Mr. Archer inquired about using the civic center on weekends in the winter or the High School Gym for walkers in the winter. Discussion was had on this idea with the times etc and Jones will report on this in November once more information is available to the committee.

Murphy- Inquired about Alley Repair. She reported that the alley accessing the Methodist Church, 3 homes garages and Anderson Funeral Home is need of desperate repair. Jones reported to the committee how to access the city website and the contacts for these type of concerns in the city.

Ponto- Brought discussion to the committee for an outdoor Fitness Area at McFerren Park. Images for the idea were been shared with the committee and this would be ADA accessible.

Jones will look into some things that were suggested at the committee meeting and discussion will continue at our November meeting.

We will meet again on November 21st

The meeting adjourned at 7:46pm

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