Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Mayor Glen Hughes shares the latest city news

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Talk Line: Mayor Glen Hughes shares the latest city news · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Sock Valley. You're here with us on the
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Speaker 1: Waking Crew FM ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty WIXN.
0:07
Speaker 1: It's eight point fifteen. Oh yeah, on time, very smooth.
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Speaker 2: For once.
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Speaker 1: It's time for talk line and I'm joined in the
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Speaker 1: booth once again for the update of updates concerning Dixon.
0:19
Speaker 1: The mayor himself, Glenn Hughes. Glenn, how are you.
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Speaker 3: I'm doing well? How about you?
0:23
Speaker 2: Good? Staying busy.
0:25
Speaker 1: Idle hands are the devil's play thing, and he's got
0:27
Speaker 1: no hold.
0:28
Speaker 2: On me, I tell you what.
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Speaker 3: All right, that's good.
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Speaker 1: Uh, And neither does he have on the City of Dixon,
0:34
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of ground to cover. Always staying busy.
0:37
Speaker 2: Here, Yeah, we are, we are.
0:40
Speaker 3: We're keeping pretty busy. Not quite seeing quite as much
0:45
Speaker 3: new stuff out in the gateway, but there's a lot
0:47
Speaker 3: of a lot of things that continue to happen. Some
0:51
Speaker 3: of the you know, the infrastructure, particularly the streets coming up.
0:57
Speaker 3: We've got hopefully everybody has seen in the newspaper or
1:02
Speaker 3: gone to the city website to see the list of
1:07
Speaker 3: streets that are going to be worked on this year.
1:11
Speaker 3: I think it's about if my recollection is correct, about
1:15
Speaker 3: fifty one blocks worth of streets that are going to
1:19
Speaker 3: be worked on. There will also be sidewalks done again,
1:27
Speaker 3: because it's part of the same contract. It's a little
1:30
Speaker 3: difficult to pin down the dollar amount, but probably plus
1:35
Speaker 3: or minus about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, maybe
1:38
Speaker 3: as much as one hundred fifty thousand dollars in sidewalk
1:43
Speaker 3: work that's being done. And as those who have listened
1:47
Speaker 3: to me over the years know that, you know that's
1:51
Speaker 3: important to me. It you know, it's important in terms
1:54
Speaker 3: of the accessibility in the community as we continue to
1:59
Speaker 3: grow and see new and better things happening, the sidewalks
2:06
Speaker 3: and that type of amenity are almost as important as
2:12
Speaker 3: the streets. Obviously there's a lot more traffic on the streets,
2:16
Speaker 3: a lot more deliberate stuff there, so that's the highest priority.
2:20
Speaker 3: But you know, for individuals there's a real importance to
2:26
Speaker 3: making sure we work on the sidewalks, and we're continuing
2:30
Speaker 3: our process with that. It's along road, but there's quite
2:34
Speaker 3: a bit that's gotten done over the years, particularly in
2:38
Speaker 3: the last eight years. So pretty proud of that, and
2:43
Speaker 3: we'll continue, well, you know, a couple of years ago,
2:46
Speaker 3: I got real focused on making sure we were designating
2:49
Speaker 3: specific dollars above and beyond the regular work that the
2:55
Speaker 3: Street Department was doing on sidewalks as they as they
2:58
Speaker 3: came across issues, and in addition to the program where
3:07
Speaker 3: the homeowner pays for the materials and the city provides
3:12
Speaker 3: the work. So this money is in addition and we're
3:16
Speaker 3: real happy to keep keep that going. Speaking of sidewalks,
3:21
Speaker 3: that leads into the crosswalks and in the downtown area specifically,
3:29
Speaker 3: there's going to be a lot of crosswalk work done
3:32
Speaker 3: this summer. Some of those old ones that were done
3:37
Speaker 3: years ago, you know that probably it doesn't may not
3:43
Speaker 3: seem that long, but back when we did the streets
3:46
Speaker 3: stape excuse me, streetscape stuff, that those are starting to
3:54
Speaker 3: break down. And I think the biggest problem is that
3:58
Speaker 3: the connection between the bricks and the concrete there's you know,
4:04
Speaker 3: movement there and that type of stuff. So those are
4:07
Speaker 3: going to get redone this year. We're going to try
4:10
Speaker 3: and put some buffers in there to make a better
4:15
Speaker 3: transition between the between the designated walkway and the and
4:22
Speaker 3: the roadway as a whole, so that hopefully those will
4:25
Speaker 3: lot I mean, I think they actually held up for
4:28
Speaker 3: quite a while, but we're hoping we can get them
4:30
Speaker 3: to hold up for even longer. Having said that, that's
4:35
Speaker 3: also going to create as the streets do. But I
4:38
Speaker 3: think the sidewalk the crosswalk work is going to create
4:43
Speaker 3: a few more headaches because we're going to have to
4:46
Speaker 3: close off intersections and people are going to have to
4:51
Speaker 3: find alternate routes around those around those intersections. So I
4:56
Speaker 3: just want to mention this to make sure people have
5:00
Speaker 3: heads up. Go ahead and look at the city's website,
5:04
Speaker 3: see what's on there about what intersections are being done,
5:11
Speaker 3: and try and do complete pre planning. Again, that's been
5:16
Speaker 3: out in the newspaper. I think you've mentioned some of
5:20
Speaker 3: that work being done here on the radio, and I'm
5:23
Speaker 3: just taking an opportunity to again remind people there won't
5:28
Speaker 3: be anything done in that vein during especially especially in
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Speaker 3: that downtown area, during Petunia Fest, so people don't get
5:39
Speaker 3: We have enough alterations of traffic pattern during during the
5:43
Speaker 3: Petunia Fest as it is, but we won't compound it
5:47
Speaker 3: with working on those intersections during Petunia Fest. We'll be
5:51
Speaker 3: working up to that and then then finishing up the
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Speaker 3: work after that.
5:57
Speaker 1: So no good idea and this is something that yes,
6:00
Speaker 1: people always get passionate about it. It is very important,
6:03
Speaker 1: and I mean part of that understanding is that if
6:06
Speaker 1: you want your roads and your your walkways, you know,
6:09
Speaker 1: to be fixed and to be good in order, you
6:10
Speaker 1: are going to have to deal with some you know,
6:12
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to deal with the construction of it,
6:14
Speaker 1: the repair of it, alternate route. But as you said,
6:17
Speaker 1: you know, don't be that person who who jumps in
6:20
Speaker 1: their car at the usual time.
6:21
Speaker 2: Monday morning going on their route and his block. What
6:24
Speaker 2: is this?
6:26
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's coming. It's posted out.
6:28
Speaker 2: There, you know.
6:30
Speaker 1: And for all of you who you know, get really,
6:33
Speaker 1: really passionate about this, because my goodness, until as a reporter,
6:37
Speaker 1: I didn't get that much up in arms about it,
6:40
Speaker 1: but I learned that secret sect of people who do
6:45
Speaker 1: they do they do, Oh my goodness, and go check
6:48
Speaker 1: out what's being done here.
6:49
Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
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Speaker 1: I don't have any fancy degrees in city planning anything
6:54
Speaker 1: like that, but I know this, Okay, there's not enough money,
6:57
Speaker 1: there's not enough time, there's not enough feasibility to repair
7:00
Speaker 1: every single street of the city all at the same
7:04
Speaker 1: time in one shot. Okay, plans have to be done.
7:08
Speaker 1: They do their work, these departments, they're they're very diligent
7:11
Speaker 1: about it. And what can get done, I'm telling you,
7:14
Speaker 1: is like the optimized way for it to get done.
7:16
Speaker 1: If you've got a better idea, I don't know, crunch
7:18
Speaker 1: the numbers yourself and propose it to them during a
7:21
Speaker 1: media I'm sure they'd love to hear it better than
7:23
Speaker 1: a rant on the on on Facebook or something. But
7:27
Speaker 1: there's just a lot that goes into this.
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Speaker 2: Am I wrong?
7:30
Speaker 3: Uh No, you're not wrong at all. That's yeah, it's
7:34
Speaker 3: you know, and we just keep plugging along at it. Yeah,
7:37
Speaker 3: by the time we get the whole city done, it'll
7:40
Speaker 3: be time to start over again.
7:41
Speaker 1: Yes, because it wears back down. I mean, you just
7:45
Speaker 1: you can't. So yeah, there it is there. There is
7:48
Speaker 1: a program in place, there is a plan in place.
7:51
Speaker 1: Do your diligence, check out what's there. The city does
7:54
Speaker 1: a great job about putting that in their info out
7:56
Speaker 1: there for you. Sue that you can plan your routes.
7:59
Speaker 1: Let's let's go into something happier but still commuter related.
8:03
Speaker 1: And uh that's the pedestrian bridge.
8:06
Speaker 3: Oh nice transition. Uh yeah, for infrastructure, the new Petunia
8:15
Speaker 3: Crossing bridge.
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Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, we do have Yes, we have official.
8:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we have an official name on that Petunia
8:23
Speaker 3: Crossing that was voted on by the community or those
8:27
Speaker 3: who showed an interest. So Petunia Crossing is pretty much complete.
8:37
Speaker 3: We still need to do what the contractors call it
8:41
Speaker 3: punch list. You know, those miscellaneous items that kind of
8:45
Speaker 3: pop up or didn't catch going through and as people
8:49
Speaker 3: spend more time to be able to inspect and that
8:52
Speaker 3: type of stuff, you got those those minor things that
8:55
Speaker 3: you know need to be addressed. And probably the biggest
8:58
Speaker 3: thing is going to be the the seating, you know,
9:02
Speaker 3: the the contouring and seeding and the plantings. That's what's
9:08
Speaker 3: what needs to get done. I know there was a
9:10
Speaker 3: lot of dirt put in to some of the planting
9:14
Speaker 3: areas yesterday. I know that the Garden Club is the
9:21
Speaker 3: Garden Club is going to be doing a lot of
9:23
Speaker 3: work on that with plants and placement and stuff. I'm
9:30
Speaker 3: not sure how helpful the weather is since the dirt
9:33
Speaker 3: just got put in yesterday. I think they were supposed
9:35
Speaker 3: to start today and are not. They've got some other
9:40
Speaker 3: projects that they're working on tomorrow. Is going to be rainy.
9:43
Speaker 3: They were looking at tomorrow to start, and with the
9:46
Speaker 3: rain that's coming, I'm not sure.
9:47
Speaker 2: But.
9:50
Speaker 3: It is, it is gonna get done. You know, nothing
9:53
Speaker 3: you can do about dealing with the weather. But that's
9:56
Speaker 3: really the end of it.
9:59
Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 3: I'm gonna make a comment that I made last night
10:02
Speaker 3: at council meeting, and this is this is the not
10:09
Speaker 3: so pleasant part about the bridge and the pathway, and
10:13
Speaker 3: that is that we have dog walkers are very welcome,
10:21
Speaker 3: but please clean up after your dog. I've been a
10:27
Speaker 3: dog owner for years. I understand that when they're out
10:30
Speaker 3: walking they have to you know, they have to take
10:35
Speaker 3: care of their waist. They have to get rid of it.
10:39
Speaker 3: Please pick it up. I know there are bags out there,
10:42
Speaker 3: but even smarter would be for you to take your
10:46
Speaker 3: own poop bag, scat bag, whatever you want to call
10:51
Speaker 3: it with you.
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Speaker 2: Glenn is putting it so nicely.
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Speaker 1: You know when you leave with the house, your dog's
10:56
Speaker 1: going to have the duty take a bag, Glenn, you
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Speaker 1: keep being nice.
11:00
Speaker 2: You're right. I'm sorry.
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Speaker 3: Well, and and the and the problem is last year
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Speaker 3: I was getting some complaints on that on the new path,
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Speaker 3: particularly between the bridge and seventh Street.
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Speaker 2: This year, those.
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Speaker 3: Complaints have multiplied. Obviously, there appear to be a lot
11:22
Speaker 3: more walkers. And we've even before the bridge was even finished.
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Speaker 3: And course, you know, I think I acknowledged that this.
11:29
Speaker 3: I expected it to happen, but people have been We're
11:32
Speaker 3: using that bridge fairly regularly. There there's animals defecating, dropping
11:39
Speaker 3: scat on the even on the bridge, and so I've
11:44
Speaker 3: had complaints. And I had one lady tell me that
11:47
Speaker 3: it's so bad on the stretch between the bridge and
11:51
Speaker 3: Seventh Street that she doesn't.
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Speaker 2: Walk that way anymore.
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Speaker 1: Oh wow.
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Speaker 3: So those of you were taking your dogs out there,
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Speaker 3: and I know it's probablyably only ten or twenty percent,
12:03
Speaker 3: but please pick up after your dog. You are you
12:09
Speaker 3: are making a beautiful amenity miserable for other people.
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Speaker 2: And you're just being and you're being lazy.
12:16
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna I'm I'm gonna say that's my pet.
12:19
Speaker 1: I don't like lazy. I don't stop being lazy and
12:23
Speaker 1: ruining it for the rest of us. So you very
12:27
Speaker 1: well said, Glenn, I'm I'm getting fired up over here.
12:31
Speaker 2: So we're gonna keep going.
12:33
Speaker 1: Uh, We're gonna going something else that gets me fired up,
12:37
Speaker 1: and you had brought this up, and I think it's
12:39
Speaker 1: a great thing for us to get out there, and
12:41
Speaker 1: that's not taking enough time to do your research when
12:44
Speaker 1: believing misinformation, and so I think it's a good time
12:48
Speaker 1: to do a public a service announcement on data centers
12:51
Speaker 1: and those that don't actually exist. You take it away, Glenn.
12:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm yeah, and I'm I'm really sorry things got
13:01
Speaker 3: out of hand. It is again, It is again a
13:05
Speaker 3: matter of misinformation.
13:08
Speaker 1: Clickbait the way I seen it, from the way I
13:11
Speaker 1: read it.
13:11
Speaker 3: But you know, it's it's one of those things that
13:14
Speaker 3: data centers are coming of age. They've been around for
13:20
Speaker 3: a long time, but it's the more we use the Internet,
13:24
Speaker 3: the more we use social media, the more we're gonna
13:28
Speaker 3: need those. But they come in a lot of different sizes.
13:38
Speaker 3: Some of the information that got put out there is
13:41
Speaker 3: based on stuff that was going ten years ago or longer.
13:47
Speaker 3: The viability of those is a whole lot different now,
13:55
Speaker 3: So anything that comes up, first of all, we need
13:59
Speaker 3: to take out of case by case basis. Having said that, however,
14:05
Speaker 3: there is no data center proposed for Lee County. Nobody,
14:10
Speaker 3: even though the land is available, and we're going to
14:13
Speaker 3: see that, just like we see the solar and the wind.
14:18
Speaker 3: We're going to see inquiries around this area about data
14:22
Speaker 3: centers because we have the electrical grid infrastructure in this area.
14:33
Speaker 3: But there's all sorts of options there and at this point,
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Speaker 3: nothing has been proposed to the City of Dixon. To
14:43
Speaker 3: the best of my knowledge and the most recent conversation
14:46
Speaker 3: I had with the county administrator, there is nothing proposed
14:52
Speaker 3: for the county. I've heard that there's still people planning
14:57
Speaker 3: on coming to a county board meeting. I'm not sure
15:03
Speaker 3: the purpose because there's there's nothing out there. I know
15:10
Speaker 3: the city has not even been approached much less a proposal,
15:13
Speaker 3: but hasn't even been approached by a data center developer.
15:18
Speaker 3: The other thing, both for the county and the and
15:22
Speaker 3: the city, is that any approval like that has to
15:27
Speaker 3: go through multiple stages. The county did a very smart thing.
15:35
Speaker 3: They developed a data center overlay district. They tried to
15:41
Speaker 3: break out areas that would be you know, zonings that
15:46
Speaker 3: would be permissible for data centers. They also set up
15:51
Speaker 3: criteria setbacks, you know, different different issues that needed to
15:57
Speaker 3: be dealt with.
15:59
Speaker 2: They did the thing.
16:01
Speaker 3: They got ahead of it before anything ever comes rather
16:04
Speaker 3: than trying to scramble and figure out if a proposal comes,
16:08
Speaker 3: how do we deal with it the city we've had
16:12
Speaker 3: conversations about putting a zone zoning in structure as well. Again,
16:21
Speaker 3: we don't have a proposal, but we're looking at the
16:25
Speaker 3: possibility of an ordinance purely because we need to get
16:29
Speaker 3: ahead of any potential proposals and make sure that we
16:35
Speaker 3: have reasonable criteria if we would accept something and all
16:41
Speaker 3: those you know, as I said earlier, you have to
16:45
Speaker 3: take everything on a case by case and you know,
16:50
Speaker 3: look at it if it comes in. There's there's just
16:57
Speaker 3: a lot of time and effort that needs that gets
17:00
Speaker 3: put in into this effort, and it goes through public hearings.
17:06
Speaker 3: I think on the counting level, I think they've probably
17:10
Speaker 3: got at least three levels of opportunity for the public
17:15
Speaker 3: input for the city probably would be looking at at
17:22
Speaker 3: least that many public input sessions as well, between the
17:29
Speaker 3: planning or zoning boards, between proposals to the council itself
17:38
Speaker 3: and final votes. So nothing's being hidden from anybody, nothing's
17:44
Speaker 3: being done secretly at the city or the counting level
17:49
Speaker 3: just because land's available or somebody's interested in making their
17:54
Speaker 3: land available for data centers is strictly a matter of
18:00
Speaker 3: where we live and the times we're in. Yeah, whether
18:03
Speaker 3: something actually happens or not is yet to be seen.
18:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, And getting get it, getting into the
18:12
Speaker 1: whole merit or not of a data center would require
18:14
Speaker 1: several talk line sessions. So it's something we won't jump
18:19
Speaker 1: into today, but it was. It's a good point to mate,
18:21
Speaker 1: is the fact that you know you can set that
18:24
Speaker 1: conversation aside because that is not currently slated. There are
18:29
Speaker 1: no proposals for that, and again, as you said, there
18:33
Speaker 1: there's an extensive pro process, one that involves public transparency
18:38
Speaker 1: should these conversations even start to gain any kind of attraction.
18:43
Speaker 1: So before anybody, again, as you said, if they want
18:46
Speaker 1: to come to make their voice Shart, I guess at
18:49
Speaker 1: the Lee County meeting they can. But to what point
18:52
Speaker 1: at this point not sure for why so uh, I
18:57
Speaker 1: think we'll take that that point as a good one,
19:00
Speaker 1: just to take a quick break and we'll return for
19:02
Speaker 1: more talk line with Mayor Glenn Hughes right after these messages. Hey, there,
19:06
Speaker 1: so Valley, you're back with the Waking Crew on FM
19:09
Speaker 1: ninety five one and am fourteen sixty WI XN and
19:12
Speaker 1: it's time for more talk line. We're here with Dixon's Mayor,
19:16
Speaker 1: Glen Hughes and on a I don't know if I've
19:19
Speaker 1: been on a soapbox for most of the talk lines.
19:22
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm a hop on down before these aging
19:26
Speaker 1: knees give me problems. Let's go with something probably a
19:30
Speaker 1: little happier here. The development agreement between the city and
19:34
Speaker 1: the Y.
19:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, that came about because of the why getting a
19:45
Speaker 3: tax bill. As a not for profit, they don't pay
19:51
Speaker 3: real estate taxes, and the why is an important piece
19:55
Speaker 3: of this community, in particular the piece that's out in
19:59
Speaker 3: the gateway project for daycare. There's not sufficient daycare in
20:06
Speaker 3: this area, and you know, it's it's it's important that
20:10
Speaker 3: we can support the daycare and the fact that the
20:13
Speaker 3: hy is a is a not for profit. But there
20:17
Speaker 3: was a transition between the ownership by Dixon Land Group and.
20:23
Speaker 2: The y m C.
20:23
Speaker 3: A tax bill came out. It was still in the
20:31
Speaker 3: Dixon Land Group name, which rightfully for all of last
20:38
Speaker 3: year was actually still the owner of the property. But
20:46
Speaker 3: the bill came to the Dixon Land Group and the
20:50
Speaker 3: y was supposed to be responsible for that. The problem
20:54
Speaker 3: was that, as we have in other develops, was with
20:58
Speaker 3: Dixon Land Group, we would have had a tiff agreement
21:03
Speaker 3: with them. So with the why getting a bill that
21:08
Speaker 3: they weren't expected for almost one hundred thousand dollars, it
21:13
Speaker 3: was important for us to take a look and put
21:17
Speaker 3: together a tiff agreement with the YMCA to address the
21:24
Speaker 3: cost like we would have done with any other development
21:29
Speaker 3: in that tiff area that it's the called the Fargo
21:32
Speaker 3: Creek Tiff, but you know most of us know it
21:35
Speaker 3: is the Gateway area or just that area out by
21:39
Speaker 3: the interstate. So we provided the YMCA proved an agreement
21:50
Speaker 3: with the YMCA for a tiff development agreement to help
21:54
Speaker 3: cover costs of the purchase of that property. That tiff
22:01
Speaker 3: agreement is well within the parameters of what we would
22:07
Speaker 3: have done with any other development out there. It will
22:11
Speaker 3: provide the YMCA with the funds to be able to
22:15
Speaker 3: pay those real estate taxes, and then based on the
22:20
Speaker 3: development that's out there as is, we will be able
22:25
Speaker 3: to acquire that tiff money back through the development out
22:30
Speaker 3: there as a whole, not specifically the YMCA, but in
22:36
Speaker 3: part through the YMCA, because in fact they had to pay.
22:39
Speaker 3: They had to pay the taxes this year. So it's
22:42
Speaker 3: it's kind of in one hand, you know, came out
22:45
Speaker 3: of one hand, but comes back to the other hand,
22:49
Speaker 3: and that will be when we get the tiff reimbursement
22:52
Speaker 3: from the county after taxes are paid. So's the YMCA
22:59
Speaker 3: is a critical amenity for this community, particularly in the
23:03
Speaker 3: child care area, but other but also for families in general,
23:08
Speaker 3: and the and the and the families and the youth
23:11
Speaker 3: services that are provided. But this was simply a way
23:16
Speaker 3: of helping the Why address an unexpected bill. They shouldn't
23:23
Speaker 3: have gotten it any in any ways, not to the
23:27
Speaker 3: fault of the county, I'm not saying, but just with
23:31
Speaker 3: the logistics of what happened, the miscommunication. There was additional
23:35
Speaker 3: paperwork that should have been done, and so it was
23:39
Speaker 3: kind of some miscommunication between the developer and the WHY anyways,
23:44
Speaker 3: But that happens, and there was a relatively easy fix
23:48
Speaker 3: for it. It wasn't you know. It's it's nothing that's
23:51
Speaker 3: being any anything that's being a kickback on the side
23:55
Speaker 3: or anything like that. It's it's what we would have
23:57
Speaker 3: done with any development out there, any tax paying development
24:02
Speaker 3: out there. So we're just we're just helping them, why
24:09
Speaker 3: deal with something that they hadn't expected and yeah, now
24:13
Speaker 3: move on. So it's a positive. It's a positive thing.
24:16
Speaker 3: It doesn't hurt the community, it doesn't take you know,
24:19
Speaker 3: it doesn't impact anybody's real estate taxes in terms of
24:22
Speaker 3: how much they're paying or anything. It's part of that,
24:25
Speaker 3: it's part of that tiff development that we have out there.
24:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's just again as you said, it's a
24:31
Speaker 1: way to help the why. They have fantastic programs. When
24:33
Speaker 1: my wife and I when our kids were younger, I mean,
24:36
Speaker 1: our kids would go to those summer programs when we
24:39
Speaker 1: were over in Sterling, So I like, I get it,
24:42
Speaker 1: like and especially over here in Dixon where you know,
24:45
Speaker 1: as you said, the daycare has has desperately been needed,
24:48
Speaker 1: especially as some long standing facilities had shut down over
24:52
Speaker 1: the last few years. Keeping this going, and I mean
24:56
Speaker 1: especially in the area that it's at and being that
24:58
Speaker 1: it's the why, you know, let's people know that this
25:01
Speaker 1: is something that's going to be there. They're not going
25:03
Speaker 1: to have to worry about it. So this was just
25:04
Speaker 1: a great way to help him. So I appreciate that.
25:07
Speaker 1: I appreciate the, uh, the forward thinking of that, you know,
25:12
Speaker 1: and you wanted to give some acknowledgment to some people
25:14
Speaker 1: today while we had a few minutes.
25:16
Speaker 3: And yeah, and I might have I might have already
25:18
Speaker 3: done part of this last month, but again it was
25:22
Speaker 3: before I wanted to publicly thank Matt Heckman, our former,
25:30
Speaker 3: our former public works director, for his service thirty four
25:36
Speaker 3: I think it was thirty four to thirty five years
25:39
Speaker 3: to the City of Dixon. He'd been in different in
25:44
Speaker 3: different operations of the city back since he was young.
25:52
Speaker 3: Let's not start adding things. I'm not going to put
25:55
Speaker 3: specific numbers on it, but it's he's he's been with
25:57
Speaker 3: the city for a long time. And then Becky Leslie,
26:01
Speaker 3: who I think has been with the city for about
26:03
Speaker 3: thirteen or fourteen years, she retired from the finance director's position,
26:11
Speaker 3: and she is going to continue to help us as
26:17
Speaker 3: we transition into a new payroll and personnel software system.
26:26
Speaker 3: So she's gonna she's gonna stick around with us for
26:29
Speaker 3: a while. But in her but her uh, she will
26:33
Speaker 3: be greatly missed as our finance director. Having said that,
26:38
Speaker 3: that is not to take anything away from our new
26:41
Speaker 3: finance director Heather McCarter. She has worked with Becky closely,
26:48
Speaker 3: particularly in the last couple of years as we looked
26:52
Speaker 3: at the Tailent pool and in a in a way
26:56
Speaker 3: to deal with Becky's Penning retirement and making sure that
27:03
Speaker 3: that Heather had the support both internally as well as
27:13
Speaker 3: educationally to be sure she was comfortable with that job.
27:18
Speaker 3: The other that I didn't mention was our new public
27:21
Speaker 3: Works director, Matt Hewitt. And Matt's been with the city
27:26
Speaker 3: for a long time, been with the manager of the
27:30
Speaker 3: water Department, so he has worked closely with Matt Heckman
27:36
Speaker 3: over the years. He's been closely involved with some of
27:40
Speaker 3: the recent grant projects like the pedestrian bridge. So he's
27:46
Speaker 3: got a he's got a good handle on he's got
27:49
Speaker 3: a good handle on things and and so that'll that'll
27:52
Speaker 3: be a real positive. I also wanted to thank Rachel Kochar,
27:57
Speaker 3: who was on the has stepped off of the library
28:02
Speaker 3: Board of Trustees after nine years, and Terry Dunfie who
28:06
Speaker 3: also stepped off of that board after fifteen years. So
28:13
Speaker 3: provided provided immense service to the community and support that
28:20
Speaker 3: to the library which is so important to this community
28:24
Speaker 3: as well. So kind of thanks for the retirements and
28:28
Speaker 3: those that have stepped down or retired from the library.
28:33
Speaker 3: So just wanted to make some personal and public thank yous.
28:38
Speaker 1: Absolutely thank you for your service. Best of luck to
28:41
Speaker 1: those coming in. I'm sure you'll be doing a great job. Glenn,
28:44
Speaker 1: we're out of time this morning, and I thank you
28:46
Speaker 1: so much for all the updates and the fine work
28:48
Speaker 1: you and everyone else does at the city. We appreciate
28:51
Speaker 1: it and we look forward to hearing more.
28:53
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Appreciate the opportunity to be here.
28:56
Speaker 2: Always happy to have you