River Forest Village Trustee Meeting 4-28-14

 River Forest Village Trustees Meeting

April 28, 2014                         

Meeting time: 7-8 pm

Al Popowits, Observer

Members Present; Cathy Adduci-Village President; Trustees Susan Conti, Thomas Cargie, Carmela Corsini, Roma Colwell-Steinke, Village Clerk-Sharon Halperin.

Member Absent: Thomas Dwyer Jr.

Public Comments: Only one resident was in attendance, i.e., Catherine Korgess(sp ?). She is a south River Forest neighborhood representative who was concerned about proposed business zoning changes and complained that she and her neighbors were not being informed in a timely manner. The Board told her the date and time of the next zoning board meeting and suggested that she and her neighbors attend. The lady seemed satisfied with the Board’s answers.

Unfinished Business: River Forest is in the process of getting bids from electricity suppliers for River Forest’s Aggregation Program. The new bids are coming in at between 7.2 and 7.4 cents per kilowatt-hour. These prices are higher than the bids for the 2013-14 contract. Due to the volatility of the electrical market, all contracts are single year. There was talk of “real pricing” programs in which the price per kilowatt-hour would vary according to time of day(prices drop steeply at night due to less demand). The village manager, Eric Palm, hoped to “lock in a price” by  the end of the week.

In regard to the Roosevelt School renovation, the Village Board is in the process of letting a contract for a traffic study for the Lathrop/Jackson/Chicago/Quick area of R.F.  The renovation project will put more cars on the above mentioned streets. The Village is studying current traffic patterns in the area and hopes that data gathered from the study will help the Board devise ways of relieving anticipated traffic congestion.

New Business: The Board voted to oppose House Bill 5485-Firefighter Minimum Manning Legislation. This legislation was introduced in the State Legislature by the Fire Fighter union to have the State require communities to staff their firehouses with at least four firefighters. Various municipalities are opposed to this legislation because they feel that they, and not the state, can best determine how many firefighters should be on duty in municipal firehouses.

The remainder of the meeting was spent on the question of renewing the intergovernmental agreement for the youth intervention program. River Forest contributes $46,000 to the program. The program seems to be effective, but the trustees felt that they did not have enough oversight as to how the village’s money is being spent. Basically they feel a need for more information and will invite a representative from the youth program to come and speak at a village board meeting.  

The public meeting ended when the Board went into executive session.