12-19-2023 4:15am

Municipal meetings in South Beloit, Rockton, and Roscoe

Michael McGinnis Editor

Staff photo

The village boards of Roscoe and Rockton, as well as the Kinnikinnick and Prairie Hill school boards, will meet Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. The South Beloit City Council met on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. The Hononegah School Board will meet Wednesday. The South Beloit School Board meets next on Jan. 9, 2024. The Shirland and Rockton school boards meet on Jan. 24, 2024.

At Tuesday's meeting, the Village of Rockton is expected to appoint a new Village treasurer. Also on the agenda: paying $27,952.85 to Northern Illinois Service Company for emergency water main repair at Blackhawk and Hawick. And William Charles Electric is installing a new electric line for a light pole in the Stone Ridge Subdivision for $9,395.

At Tuesday's meeting, the Village of Roscoe will hold a final vote to hire Josef Kurlinkus to serve as Village Administrator. The current Village Administrator, Scott Sanders, will be leaving at the end of December. Kurlinkus has been the Village's attorney for many years.

After approving a tentative tax levy on Nov. 21, 2023, the Village is expected to approve a final 2023 Property Tax Levy, including two tax abatements from 2017 and 2018. The 2024 budget is still being discussed.

The Village's Committee of the Whole will discuss the third draft of the Village of Roscoe FY 2024 annual budget as well as an engineering outsourcing agreement with Fehr-Graham & Associates, LLC for a joint project with the City of South Beloit. The Village’s quoted portion would be $83,700.

The monthly Kinnikinnick Board of Education meeting at 7 p.m. includes December 2023 bills, November 2023 payroll deductible expenses of $491,536.58, and November 2023 payrolls of $775,487.69. The board will hear and approve reports, have a first reading of several Board policies to be adopted/amended, and deal with staff hires and resignations.

As always, Wednesday's Hononegah School Board meeting will include reports and recognitions about every aspect of the school, including state qualifiers in girls cross country, swimming and diving. At this meeting, the board will have a second reading of Academic Handbook and Press Policies Issue 113. They will also discuss destruction of tapes, overnight student trips, the Property Tax Relief Grant application for fiscal year 2023, and the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school calendars. The board is expected to approve $8,800 for ARC Design Resources Inc. to plan the front parking lot pavement replacement project, which needs to go out for bid. Colfax Corporation has bid $24,500 for the classroom flooring abatement contract.

On Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, the City of South Beloit held a public hearing on a supplemental budget ordinance before its regular city council meeting where the commissioners voted on an amendment to the city's Employee Handbook. They held a first reading of ordinances on the 2023 Combined Supplemental Budget and Budget Transfer Ordinance, a revised Zoning Code, and the release of funds committed in 2014 for Nature at the Confluence. They held votes to approve an additional 2023 Fire Pension contribution and a transfer from the General Fund to other funds. They voted on putting a question on the ballot to levy a 1% retailer’s occupation tax and service occupation tax for public roadway infrastructure improvements.

Other resolutions considered at Monday's South Beloit meeting:

Pay raises for certain city employees
Tyler Technologies to provide integrated software services
Fehr Graham Engineers to provided Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) assistance
The 2024 Risk Management Insurance Policy
Chem Scan Inc to provide maintenance, calibration, and training services not to exceed $9,500.
River City Construction and the City Waste Water Treatment Facility
IEPA loan disbursement for $1,622,358.63
Fehr Graham to provide professional engineering services, including the electrical records drawings for the Waste Water Treatment Plant project

Under new business, the South Beloit city council voted on the Street Study 5-year Plan, $25,000 in annual funding for the Stateline Mass Transit District (SMTD), and the 2024 Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) project recommendation.