Government At Work

Tuesday, January 17

7:30 p.m. -- Crystal Lake City Council

Meeting in the City Council Chambers, 100 West Woodstock Street.

A new firefighter Paramedic, James Gualdoni, is being welcomed to the department and is to be sworn-in at the beginning of the Council meeting. He began his duties with the department December 19 and is currently involved in his orientation and initial training with the Crystal Lake Department.

Two temporary Permits are being considered. One is for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church for a Friday night fish fry Special Promotion and waiver of Temporary Use Permit fee.

The second request is from St. Thomas the Apostle school PTO for a Class 19 Temporary License request to operate a cash bar during their annual dinner/fundraiser event scheduled February 4 from 6:00 p.m. to midnight at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 1023 McHenry Avenue.

New Crystal Lake Business

The Olive Tap, 68 N. Williams Street, is requesting $10,000 in matching grant funds as offered by the City for new and existing retailers who occupy vacant space and hire full-time employees or install eligible furniture, fixtures and equipment.

The Olive Tap is a specialty retailer offering flavored oils, vinegars, dipping success, condiments and cooking products.

Chen’s Chinese Cuisine

This business is located at 6100 Northwest Highway

Chen’s offers customers with Szechuan, Hunan, and Cantonese food. The first application by Mr. Chen was filed September 2011 prior to commencing the project. Due to prevailing wage requirements that were handed down to the City from the Department of Labor, Mr. Chen would have been required to pay contractors prevailing wage rates for the renovation project. He was forced to put the application on hold and reapplied for the grant and requesting the flexibility regarding the timing provisions of the program.

Phoenix Electronics

A new company is locating in a building at 300 Millennium Drive where they will be hiring six full-time employees and one part-time employee.

The company is purchasing over $438,000 in eligible manufacturing equipment used in everyday operation of circuit board manufacturing and assembly as well as furniture and fixtures purchased from the former Millennium Electronics, where the principals were employed.

The reimbursement is not to be made until there is proof of employment information for each of the six full-time Phoenix Electronics employees.

New Website Design

The City Council is being presented with a motion to award a proposal for the GIS Server Implementation and Website Development Consultant to the lowest responsible bidder, Swova, Fort Mitchell, KY for $67,300.

This is something the City has been working toward for sometime. A goal of the Planning and Economic Development Department is the implementation of a comprehensive city-wide GIS and GIS website to allow citizens 24/7 access to information via the web.

Upgrading the current stand alone GIS system to a server-based enterprise GIS system will provide more tools to allow for development, maintenance and sharing of consistent and accurate data among various departments as well as offering better informed citizens and employees.

Champions

The Sky High Volleyball17 Black Team has won the Amateur Athletic Union national title. Sky High Volleyball as been based in Crystal Lake since 1989 and has over 64 teams. Over 95% of the club’s senior athletes receive scholarships to collegiate institutions.

A sign is to be placed along the City rights-of-way recognizing the Crystal Lake Sky High Volleyball team for placing first in the 2011 AAU National Championship and USA Volleyball Beach Championship.

Traffic Control – Fenimore Road at Grandview Drive

Currently yield signs are in place on the northbound and southbound Fenimore Road approaches, with no traffic control on Grandview Drive.

Based on the amount of traffic, an all-way stop control is not warranted according to Federal standards. Instead the yield signs on Fenimore Road will be replaced with stop signs.

Library Board Appointments

An appointment is to be made to the Library Board to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of board Member Brian Pappalardo. A nomination for appointment to the Library Board is to be presented at the Council meeting.

Terms on the Planning and Zoning Commission

The terms of Tom Hayden, James Batastini and Darrel Gavle, members of the Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission, are due to expire January 31. All have expressed an interested in reappointment to a four-year term. These appointments are made by the Mayor with the City Council confirmation.