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By Clark Natalie
Hans Brinker wannabees in the Harris area should sharpen their blades and get ready to enjoy the outdoors.
The
ice skating rink on Stark Road in Harris will have a grand opening on
Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. There will be music and refreshments. Everyone is
invited.
And if you can't get to that rink, Don Cardinal of
the Park Board told the city council on Monday that a skating rink is
open in School House Park. Maintenance supervisor Mike Kriz has been
able to put in a small rink. It is open to the public, but no hockey is
allowed due to its small size.
It was reorganization night at
the Harris council this week. Annual designations and appointments were
made. Most remained the same. Peter Grundhoefer of Johns, Grundhoefer
& Alliegro remains the city attorney. Charles Schwartz of
Bonnestroo and Associates remains the city engineer.
Steve Thorp is the building inspector and zoning administrator. although his contract was tabled until the next meeting.
At
the request of the council, Thorp had taken on the enforcement of the
Zoning Code. This entails investigating zoning violations, writing
reports and getting them filed with the appropriate Chicago County
officials for enforcement. Thorp had submitted an addendum to his
contract, calling for handling the code enforcement at an hourly wage.
Grundhoefer had suggested that a study be done to estimate what these
costs would be for 2008, based on what had happened in 2007. On an
hourly rate, there would be no limit for the budget. Mayor Rick Smisson
and Councilman John Pelant will discuss how to resolve this with Thorp
before the next meeting.
The next council meeting is Feb. 11. One
of the actions taken was to change the meetings from two a month to
one, the second Monday of each month. The council felt that progress
had been made on all of the issues that had to be dealt with in two
meetings and by going to only one, the costs could be reduced.
The
council also dealt with three policy issues that City Clerk Jennifer
Wothe and City Treasurer Marlys Balfany thought needed clarifying. The
first dealt with the city's Web site. On the Web site, the city can put
links to other Web sites which can provide information to the residents
of Harris. The policy will set out what type of Web sites can be
linked, what Web sites will specifically not be linked, and the
procedure to follow should someone wish to have a Web site added on.
Generally, government and educational institutions will be allowed to
establish links. Contact City Hall for guidelines.
Balfany went
over policies on the requirement for purchase orders before anything
can be ordered. Also, any item that is going to be shipped, has to be
shipped to City Hall. The department who ordered the item can pick it
up there. Balfany explained that this will help in tracking items to
the specific purchase order, and will know when the city received the
item requested.
Balfany also reviewed the payroll policy.
Part-time people, such as the fire department will get paid quarterly
and the councilors will get paid twice a year.
One item
concerning payroll that created much discussion was the policy on fire
department officer's pay. The council had set the maximum amount to be
distributed among the officers of the fire department for 2008 at
$1,800. This amount was put into the fire department budget. The
proposal before the council was a breakdown of how much would be paid
to all officers from Fire Chief of Operations to the engineers to the
fire marshalls. It also changed the meetings from two a month to one.
The meeting would consist of an hour-long business meeting followed by
three hours of training. The amount designated to pay the officers in
2008 totaled $5,600. Pelant asked if there was sufficient funds
budgeted to cover the additional cost.
Smisson said the cost of
the officers' pay was actually in the budget. This was based on the
number of calls last year, which was very high. In the 2008 budget,
$2,125 was budgeted to pay the leadership team, based on those calls.
Also, there will be a savings in having only one meeting a month.
Pelant asked if the fire department members were going to get more for
attending one, longer meeting each month than the two shorter meetings
that had been held in the past. Smisson said the amount each member
would not change. If the members were paid any more, it would offset
any savings that could be used for the officers pay.
Councilor
Kathy Olson asked some of the fire department members in the audience
what they thought. The general consensus was that it was an issue that
should be discussed within all of the members. It was the first many of
them had heard of the changes, they said. The members felt that the
training meetings were the most critical. Considering all of the
aspects that need to be touched on in training meetings, such as First
Responders, water rescue, and the many skills needed as a general
firefighter, they said there is never enough training. The council
tabled the request for changes until after the fire department had a
chance to discuss them with all of the members.
In other business:
•
The council adopted the International and State Fire Code as the
official code for Harris. A public hearing had been held earlier in the
evening to deal with this code.
• The City also requested to
purchase tax forfeited land. This land was behind the fire hall and
contiguous to the new wastewater treatment facility. It was felt that
for the $2,100 cost, it was important to have the area for future
expansion. The city also owned the land surrounding the area, so there
was no access to it except over city land.
• The City also
approved maintenance requests for the two pumpers of the fire
department. The cost of the repairs to each vehicle exceeded the $1,000
limit set by the council requiring their approval. During the repairs,
only one pumper would be out of service at a time.
• Councilman
Doug Chaffee recognizef Boulder Creek Stone for their contribution to
the fire department for the Kubota grass fire rig that was purchased.
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