Chambana Sun

Village of Mahomet Board of Trustees and Board of Education met Aug. 22.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

1. CALL TO ORDER: The Joint Meeting was called to order by Village President, Sean Widener at 7:00 PM

2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

3. ROLL CALL: Widener directed Village Clerk, Dawn Mohr to call the roll. Village Trustees, Bruce Colravy, Jason Tompkins, Andy Harpst, Rebecca Preston, William Oliger and Brian Metzger are all present. Mahomet Seymour Board of Education Members in attendance include, Sunny McMurry- Board President, Justin Lamb - Board Vice President, Max McComb - Board Secretary, Jeff Banister, Kyle Jordan, Rebecca Severns, Jordan Rock are all present. Additionally with the Village, Sean Widener Village President, Patrick Brown - Village Administrator, Joe Chamley - Village Attorney, Mike Metzler - Chief of Police and Dawn Mohr - Village Clerk are present. Additionally, Mahomet Seymour Superintendent Dr. Kenny Lee, Ed.D and Administrative Assistant, Jodi McDuffee are present.

4. PUBLIC COMMENT: No Public Comment was presented to the Village Clerk nor is there any comment in person.

5. OPENING STATEMENT BY VILLAGE PRESIDENT: Village President welcomes both boards to the joint meeting. He states that the last time there was a joint meeting was in 2019. .

6. JOINT BOARD DISCUSSION

7. Introduction: All board members from both the Board of Trustees and the Board of Education states their name and gives a brief bio. School Superintendent introduces himself and gives background information.

A. Agency Highlights and General Updates: Widener gives a brief synopsis of what the joint meeting would like to accomplish tonight. He states that this meeting is informational and if at any time they have a question, to please speak up so the questions can be answered.

1. Village of Mahomet - South Mahomet Road: Widener states that this project is a 2- phase project. Back in 2019 the Village was given the task of how to meet the need of the potential new Junior High School traffic. Additionally, this project would provide the Village an additional "loop" to the Prairieview Road corridor. The first phase will be open soon. Widener goes through the development in full detail and explains some delays in the project. He states that the second phase is very early stage, and he also states that phase 3 will be much further down the road and will include connecting to 150 at Purnell. He refers to the slide show and goes over the main takeaway. He states that inflation has caused quite an increase in the project. Widener also states that the futures with the TIF income is set conservatively at 4% increase however the returns could be higher. Widener states that depending on what goes into the 150/Prairieview corridor depends on how much of an increase we could see. He states that there are a lot of rumors as to wat is going in and he assures the board's that there are no building permits issued and as though we may have an idea on what is going out there is nothing official to date. Widener asks again if there are any questions, Jordan Rock with the Board of Education questions the TIF balance in the slide in the bold blue letters, Widener states that the amount is what the Village currently have to spend that budget year. Widener continues to explain the upcoming projects in 2025 and 2026. He states that the largest project will be the Purnell 150 intersection and that it is the most expensive. Purnell has been called the million- dollar intersection due to the amount of work that has to be done. This intersection will go back to Patton Drive. The final phase of the project includes connecting South Mahomet Road to Prairieview Road and is anticipated in 2026. He states that the way to fund the projects is commercial development. If for some reason development doesn't come on schedule there are back-up plans in place with the Capital Improvement Plans. He asks if there are any questions before moving forward, Kyle Jordan with the Board of Education - when does the TIF sunset. Widener answers 2036.

2. Village of Mahomet -- Community Tennis Facility - Widener states that on to exciting news - the grand opening of the new Tennis Facility. Widner states that the Village of Mahomet and Mahomet CUSD have an intergovernmental agreement for the school's tennis teams. He states that the practice schedule is Monday - Friday 3:30-6:00 PM. And the school's seasons are Fall and Spring August 1-October 31st and Spring March - May. He states there will be home matches as well as the practices. Public hours are the courts are open Sunrise to 9:00 PM except for the aforementioned times. Lights will be on in the evening hours. He states that the lights were partially funded through the Mahomet Community Foundation.

3. Mahomet-Seymour CUSD#3 - Listening Tour - Dr. Lee states that the new Board of Education bean on May 1st by reorganizing and set their first meeting on May 4th. At that meeting they decided to forego the strategic planning until they heard from the community. They created "listening tour" to hear how they would like to see the district move forward. The first meeting was on May 22nd followed by June 12th, June 27th, July 22nd, July 26th. The board hosted these events in various locations and times. They found that this was very beneficial to the district. A lot of Themes came out of the tour, and he named several - Curriculum should include trade/life skill classes in response the district added a construction/geometry class to help fill a void with their vocational student. -Communication was another issue that was presented. Dr. Lee agrees that the district cannot share/communicate enough with the public, extracurricular activities added was another theme and Dr. Lee states that as the district continues to grow it is a possibility to expand those activities. Facilities is a hot topic of course and the community want to see a better comprehensive plan from the board. That the community does not want the current junior high to be sold after another is built. Additionally, the consensus is to build with functionality and not for "looks". It was also noted that a lot of people would rather see the high school move as opposed to the junior high and when that is complete, move the junior high into the current high school. The public would like more ay as to how the new facility will be built and not to leave it all up to an architect. The public would also like to see the Board of Education and Village Board of Trustees collaborating more often. Dr. Lee states that Patrick Brown, Sean Widener, and himself meet monthly. They would also like to see more industry in the community to help lift the burden on the taxpayer. Trustee Andy Harpst agrees that there needs to be more programs for the trades. He states that there are several homes in the community that were built by students and would like to see something like that again. There is a large gap, and it is getting to a critical point. Trustee Oliger participated in the program offered by the high school and references the home that he had a part in building. Dr. Lee states that they have a program with Parkland Collee already and will investigate expansion. as long as it doesn't duplicate.

4. Mahomet-Seymour CUSD#3 - Strategic Planning, the district hired consultant group to assist them moving forward. He states that they are currently in Step 1, This step is to identify a stakeholder team. This team would include Board members community members, students, staff and administrators. He encourages anyone interested to apply. It is open until August 27th. Once the team is formed, they will move onto the Facilitator step. This will review past and present documents which include vision statements, mission statements, goals etc. This will help the district revise these documents and move forward. A SWAT analysis will identify the district goals. A Community survey will then be conducted, a radar diagram will be completed, and the final plan will be submitted to the Board of Education. Widener asks how this is different than what had been done in the past and is there any overlay. Lee answers that this will have some overlay however it will address more than just academics or facilities. That it will hold the district accountable and Dr. Lee accountable to the Board of Education.

B. Intergovernmental Collaboration Initiative

1. Tentative Topics - Widener states that both boards represent the same people/constitutes. He goes onto say that the Village and District have several same interests, for example, the tennis court project.

Widener states that the boards need to meet more often. Topic 1 is Growth, patterns of growth. What challenges we have with growth. There are 2 camps on growth- Widener states that the Village has focused on growth and the school district is the main source as to why people want to move here. There are things that the Village can do to throttle back (slow) growth however, people will still move here and it will outside the Village limits. So growth has to be managed-how is it managed? Opportunities and challenges, we are witnessing the opportunities now with the commercial development.

Topic 2- Finance 101- How do we pay for projects, the Village does not have unlimited resources and run a very tight budget. A lot has been accomplished with the budget allotted. Need to look for more opportunities i.e grants. Demographics of the Village make it harder to get grants etc. Simply does not qualify.

Topic 3-TIF Districts. Do a FAQ and also have a round table discussion to weigh pros and cons. Takeaway we wont get rid of TIF's in general. How can both boards use them for leverage. TIF is a huge resource for the Village.

Topic 4- Comp plan- Village is growing and the Village is in need of updating and would like to make it include the vision of the school district.

Topic 5-Common goal setting-Where do we want to go. This would be an open topic for the board to outline the future goals of the community. Widener wants to give all these topics the time they need.

2. General Timeline- Both boards agree that they need to have joint meetings at least on a quarterly basis.

C. Board Member Questions and Comments Widener opens up the floor to answer questions.

Severns- As for industry, do we seek businesses, or do they find us? Is it both? Can we say no? Widner answers that it is a little of both. He states that the Village have actually turned down businesses before as it did not meet the criteria of the types of industry Mahomet is interested in. Widener answers that it's the zoning of a property that determines what is allowed to be constructed. Theres always conditional use-meaning we will consider it. Widner states that the Village is not aware of all the different site lookers that are in the community. The population reaching 10,000 brings a whole group of investors looking to open in our community. Widener states that the challenge is the Village is 10k however the population is actually larger. The Village is looking to hire an Economic Development Specialist, this position will be focused on rowing our commercial and industrial development. The Village spends more money on residential development than any other. Commercial development does decrease and industrial is really low expense for the Village.

Severns to Metzler- How is the police department going to deal with growth, safety concerns etc. Metzler replies that we are already seeing an uptick and that we just have to push back and let them know it is unacceptable in Mahomet. That you will b zarrested, pulled over. Its not taken lightly. The goal is to push everything back to the larger communities they are migrating from. Increase staff as the Village grows. Severns thanks the Chief for all their efforts.

Harpst - You used the term throttle back-what tools do you have? Widener-zoning and planning, not every single one, but majority of subdivisions have been on the books for a long time. We knew what was coming and when they were coming. Factors played into it of course like the economy. What can we do to throttle back-not very much, we can throttle back but we do have fees for water and sewer, those fees get passed onto new homeowner, the higher fees have not deterred so far. Residential is coming no matter what. Impact fees are not allowed in Mahomet as we are not a home rule community. The state of Illinois affords us certain rights and privileges. Which is limited but impact fees are not permissible. The answer is really not too much to throttle back. Brown states that several years back we raised the price to build. It hasn't slowed its growth. The Village does have a say in a mile and half outside the Village limits. A lot of people a misconception of the expense for new water hook ups etc. It is not passed along to the taxpayer. It is for the home buyer. The real estate market is increasing, people are paying the price to live here. The cost of an existing home has risen exponentially.

Widener states that they have raised the stakes for developers, they have a lot more restrictions etc. The Village does not build roads but they do make sure they are being built correctly now. Not like in the past where the Village didn't have a lot of say and inherited bad roadways.

Lamb thanks Widener for bringing up impact fees, the pros and cons of the impact fees. He asks if they can speak on pros and cons of being a ome rule community. Widener- how can we change-a referendum or per the Illinois constitution-the population would have to be 25k residents. Widener states that people get scared of home rule. It gives the community the ability to create more taxes. The Village is losing out on a motor fuel tax, and a storm water utility fee. Currently it is on the backs of the homeowner. Nobody wants to pay more for gas but the reality is we already are, the communities around us whom have a motor fuel tax, their gas is the same if not less than Mahomet. Were already paying a premium and not getting the benefit. It is a lot of money that we are missing out on. There have been 2 attempts to reduce population sizes for home rule. But it has failed both times.

Brown wants people to know that impact fees are helpful but a solution. Kyle Jordan- thanks Brown for brining up home values. He states that the median price for a home in Mahomet is now $350k. Is the Village seeing the benefits of the higher priced homes in property taxes? Brown states that we have seen a steady increase, but it isn't enough to make a difference. It allows for the Village to hire more staff but it is more of a wash.

Rock asks if we can get the joint meetings on the calendar. McMurry answers is that the plan is to have meetings just like this. She likes the structure of this type of meeting. She likes the idea on having a round table discussion for example of how growing pains effect the school district and how it does the Village. How the boards came come together and help solve/combat the problems. Widener states that the public would like us to meet more, he expects a lot of feedback from both the district and community. Widener states that the 2 boards will come from different angles and for one he wouldn't try to speak on how many children should be in a classroom.

McComb states that impact fees often have a misconception. For a new construction for it to make a difference it would have to be $30-50k per home for the next 30 years and not have that fee cut back. Realistically, it is not feasible. Home rule referendums are very difficult to pass.

Brown states the Village has communicated in the past the growth rate, we used to have meetings in the past about growth. However, they went to the wayside over time. Widener asks that everyone look at their calendars and see what dates would work best for joint meetings and they can get the scheduled.

8. ADJOURNMENT: Widener thanks everyone for coming together and is eager to see what the future holds. Widener called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. McMurry moved and Rock seconded. Mohr called the roll, ALL VOTES YES 13-0. Meeting adjourned at 8:23 PM

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