The Happenings at the 15 June 2026 South Beloit city council meeting.

The South Beloit City Council meeting started off at 4:55 p.m. yesterday with a hearing of the liquor commission that resulted in the Rusty Wheel Saloon (city hall's next door neighbor) being fined $1,000 and placed on a 12 month probation for allowing patrons to consume alcohol in its parking lot during its Memorial Day festivities.

Kristin Karalis, the manager of the Rusty Wheel, was in attendance for the hearing but was not allowed to speak on behalf of the Rusty Wheel as city attorney Rachael Sosnowski said she could not speak during legal proceedings as the Rusty Wheel is an LLC and only an attorney could speak for the LLC at legal proceedings (Admin. Code tit. 77, § 100.4).

The council discussed when the $1,000 fine would be paid, with councilmembers Prentice and Hedrington agreeing on before the 4th of July and ultimately settling on 30 June. Ms. Karalis did mentioned that fine will be paid within the week.

This is not the first time a business in South Beloit had been fined for allowing the consumption of alcohol in its parking lot without a permit. The Wheel was fined under prior ownership and fined the same amount. Mustangs was fined twice for two separate infractions and was fined $1,000 and $1,500 for each infraction.

There were five more significant pieces of action transpiring from the meeting.

1) Language was clarified on the removal of the position of City Administrator and the person employed as city administrator. The clarification to current statute (section 2-26.10, South Beloit Municode Library) stresses that while it takes 2/3 of the council's vote to remove the office of City Administrator, only a simple majority would be required to remove the person occupying that position.

Sonya Hoppes South Beloit City administrator said she wanted the council to vote yes for this clarification at the meeting.

Mayor of South Beloit Tom Fitzgerald said this about the change: "This is clarifying just like we did with the department heads. We made sure that they were protected. This council can change. Five can come in; five can leave. It's that easy. And when you have good people as department heads, you should keep them because they are hard to find."

2) 532 Hemenway only received one bid the bid of $35,000 Goad Construction. In that bid, Goad Construction stated that it would rehab the property into a two-family rental unit occupied with tenants and rectify any existing code violation by the spring of 2027.

3) The city renewed its health insurance plan with insurance broker Tricor out of Beloit. The price for the city's health insurance plan increased by 14 percent.

4) The use of recycled asphalt for driveways in now limited to residential use only.

5) Another increase in engineering costs for the city's lift station and force main upgrade project of $77,000. While the only increase discussed at this meeting, the engineering costs to Fehr Graham were originally $309,500 and have not ballooned to $128,000.