Michelle Cerentano presented President Veres with $120 generated from the sale of surplus items during a WCO yard sale held earlier this year at the Community Center.

Members of the Wilsonville Village Board voted unanimously Monday night to make formal application for a $20,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help subsidize the cost of a new storm warning siren.

The vote was preceded by a brief public hearing prior to the regular meeting during which Village President Annetta Veres and village trustees discussed the project.

[pullquote]They (USDA) have accepted our pre-application and asked us to move forward with a formal application[/pullquote]“They (USDA) have accepted our pre-application and asked us to move forward with a formal application,” President Veres said. She said USDA representatives met with village officials on June 21 to review forms and requirements for the grant application. The deadline for submitting the application is Sept. 30.

Trustee John Veres, who researched the project last year, said the total cost of the project is estimated at about $46,000. President Veres said the village has funds available for the village’s $26,000 share of the cost.

President Veres said USDA did a cost comparison with other communities similar in size to Wilsonville and found that the projected cost is slightly more than storm warning siren projects elsewhere. Those communities, however, have full-time police and fire departments who do some of the tasks the proposed sire system will do automatically in Wilsonville.

Trustee Veres said the system the village wants to install is computer-driven. The software will monitor weather reports from the National Weather Service and will automatically sound the siren when threatening weather is imminent. The siren also can be activated manually if necessary and can be activated remotely from police radios. The range of the proposed new siren is much wider than the current system, reaching as far as Sawyerville Hills Road to the east and the Village of Dorchester to the west.

The proposed siren is battery-powered, meaning it can function even in the event of a power outage.

[pullquote]The fact the siren will reach surrounding rural areas will be a consideration when grant administrators consider awarding the grant[/pullquote]The fact the siren will reach surrounding rural areas will be a consideration when grant administrators consider awarding the grant, according to President Veres. The fact the village hosts a summer lunch program for school age children also will be a consideration, she said.

The current siren system cannot be heard by residents in some sections of the community, according to Trustee Veres. Moreover, it must be manually activated from City Hall and is out of service if the power goes out.

Brought to a vote, the board voted unanimously to proceed with the grant application.

STREET AND ALLEY ISSUES

Board members voted unanimously to purchase a supply of cold patch and hire Dylan Turner as a part-time worker at $9 per hour to assist maintenance worker Mike Campagna with street patching and mowing. The board, however, narrowly approved a request to rock a section of alleyway behind the Stacy Marshall residence at 304 Rice Street.

President Veres said the homeowners want to move their driveway to the rear of the property and abandon a culvert at the front of the house. Veres said the culvert is undersized and impedes drainage. To accommodate to reconfigured driveway, the homeowners asked the city to rock a portion of the alley for better access. They also asked about trimming tree branches that currently encroach on the alley.

Veres said the city already rocked the north end of the alley to accommodate another resident and she suggested extending the rocked area to the Marshall residence. Some trustees, however, suggested it might be shorter and require less rock to come from the south end to the Marshall home.

Trustee Pam Zaksas voiced opposition, saying the measure would set a precedent and the city would be inundated with requests to rock other alleys.

[pullquote]I wish we could do like Gillespie. If you want your alley rocked, you have to buy the rock and city spreads it.[/pullquote]“I wish we could do like Gillespie,” Zaksas said. “If you want your alley rocked, you have to buy the rock and city spreads it.”

“The precedent has already been set,” President Veres responded, noting that one end of the alley was improved earlier.

Trustee Veres said he wasn’t opposed to the project, but thought the city should survey the site to determine which option would be more cost effective. He also suggested the project should be conditioned upon the Marshall’s removing the substandard culvert from the front of the property. His motion to rock the alley in the most cost-effective manner and require removal of the culvert languished for several seconds before Deno Filippini seconded.

Brought to a vote, Veres and Filippini voted in favor of the measure, while Zaksas and Keith Mohr voted against it. Trustees David Day and Bob Carr were absent. With a tied vote, President Veres cast the deciding vote in favor of the project.

TRACTOR MAINTENANCE

On a motion by Trustee Veres, the board agreed to have the village’s brush hog mower serviced by Sievers Equipment at the same time the village’s tractor goes in for annual maintenance. Veres said the mower blades are worn and need to be changed out with spare blades the village has on hand. He said the operation may involve two hours of labor costs and possibly $20 in materials.

The board also unanimously approved the purchase of a sun canopy for the tractor at a cost of $582.42, with the cost to be split between the General Fund and Sewer Fund.

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POOL FENCING

Resident Todd Picklesimer appeared before the board to question a directive he’d been given to complete a four-foot fence around a swimming pool at his residence. The board approved an ordinance last month to require fences six feet in height around swimming or ornamental pools that are two feet or more in depth. Picklesimer said he contacted President Veres about the issue and was told the four-foot fence would be “grandfathered” and would not be considered in violation of the ordinance. However, when he told city officials the fence has a gap left open for maintenance, he was told the gap would have to be closed.

“It’s a safety issue,” President Veres told Picklesimer. “We talked to our attorney about it and he said that if the ordinance says it needs to be enclosed, it needs to be enclosed.”

A disgruntled Picklesimer said the fencing would have to wait until he had the money to complete the fence since he had just spent a considerable amount on improving the ditch in front of his home. He said he didn’t expect to address the issue until this fall and that the closure would probably be temporary to allow access to the pool for maintenance.

“That’s fine, as long as we know you’re going to do it,” President Veres said. “It doesn’t have to be permanent, it just has to be closed up to keep people out.”

When Picklesimer questioned how the height of the fence could be grandfathered and not the gap in the fence, Veres noted the existence of an earlier zoning ordinance requiring fences around all pools regardless of depth.

“You’re in violation of an ordinance that’s been in effect for 10 years,” she said.

WATER BILLING SOFTWARE

The board tabled action on purchasing new water billing software until the village can determine whether or not its battery-powered remote meter reading device is operational. President Veres said a new battery for the unit has been ordered but has not arrived yet. Whether or not the device is functional will determine whether the village opts to purchase a JUS program that will work with the village’s handheld device at a cost of $2,485 or a SOLUS program that would cost $2,199 but will require purchasing a new remote reading device.

The council also tabled action on the purchase of air conditioning equipment for the Wilsonville Community Center at a cost of $15,150 until Trustee Veres can get more information about a possible Ameren grant program that could subsidize some of the cost. Veres said only two of the five window units currently in use at the building are functional and they are not adequate for cooling the dining area in hot weather. A central air conditioning system was installed to cool the kitchen area during an earlier renovation project.

LOGGING

President Veres reported she has been in contact with a logging company that is willing to come look at Shady Oak Park to determine whether some of the oversized oak trees there are marketable. She said the company may also look at trees on other city properties to see if the city could generate revenue from selling them.

WCO YARD SALE

Board members voted unanimously to permit the Wilsonville Community Outreach organization to use the Community Center for a yard sale event from 4-8 p.m. on July 29 and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on July 30. WCO will have items for sale at the event and is expected to coordinate a community-wide yard sale on the same days.

Earlier in the meeting, Michelle Cerentano, special events coordinator for the group, presented the village with $120 generated from the sale of surplus items at a yard sale event held earlier this year.

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