April 2, 2025 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

LIVE at St. Joseph Village Board

Jayne Deluce is here from Visit Champaign County

They are using the big screen.

They did a blog post on St. Joe and it reached 1,300 people on FB and had 72 engagements. Talking about Restaurant Week and the Wheelhouse.

Talking now about what they plan to do in 2023. They are doing a strategic plan. Work with community partners.

Talking about “The Yards” which is the plan to have D1 Hockey, a conference center, volleyball, gymnastics and a conference center in downtown Champaign.

Touches on Kickapoo Rail Trail.

Tiffany McElroy Smetzer pointing out that Visit Champaign should include the St. Joseph Sports Complex on the list of attractions. Talks about the grant the village is trying to get to expand the sports complex.

Deluce talking about Willard and how the city loses meetings and conferences due to air and train services.

Talking about leading the effort to get boys basketball back in Champaign for 2021-2023. “We aren’t secretive about the bid but we aren’t putting our whole proposal out there.”

Says State Farm Center is done so that may help this time.

“It does take private funds.”

Would bring $4.8 million to the community each year if boys basketball is held in Champaign-Urbana.

“It is more centrally located, we have the top facility in the state and we have a community that wants to embrace it.”

Check out their website at www.legendsplayhere.com

There are 30ish people on the board of directors and the team for visit champaign county.

No public comment.

Mayor’s Desk: State veto session update- “A couple could affect the village.”

Talking about medical marijuana licenses now. Champaign county has one so far.

They are modifying the liquor ordinance to “clean it up”

Basically, it sounds like the winery doesn’t have the right type of liquor license so this will fix that situation. It will include microbreweries but don’t get too excited- a microbrewery isn’t looking to come to town. #lookingtothefuture

Raap wanting clarification on parts of the ordinance. Wants to make sure it is clear to business owners what they can and cannot do.

Discussing how the winery has three addresses on their liquor license and why that is the case. (Their meeting room technically has a different address than the store front.)

Tami Fruhling-Voges saying she doesn’t want language to require a business owner to have to purchase three liquor licenses when they are really only running one business and it’s more of a technicality due to the buildings in St. Joseph having more than one address. (Like the sister shop, ect.)

This board tries very hard to think of every possible scenario but at times that makes things more complication than they probably need to be. Especially in this scenario when the mayor is the liquor commissioner.

I really thought this was going to be a short meeting. We are only to the mayor’s desk which is before all the committees and everything else.

Tami being the voice of reason saying this is getting too complicated.

Roy McCarty asking if they should table this or passing it and modify it later.

They are moving to table it.

Tami, Joe and Tiffany met to discuss refinancing bonds. #moneymatters

Sewer- they mailed out 98 letters for delinquent sewer bills.
80 residents paid a total of $14,046.83 before their water was shut off.
16 residents paid $4,251.19 after their water was shut off. The village received $798.50 in village fees. They collected a total $19,096.52.

“We can and will shut you off.”

Julie is stressing that you shouldn’t ignore your sewer bills because they will collect them. “We are not going to sit by and let you ignore our bills any longer.”

“A lot of these people are years behind,” Julie Hendrickson said.

“I think it will help in the long run with us staying on it and being consistent,” said Tami Fruhling-Voges.

FUN FACT: You can have your sewer bill deducted from your bank account so you won’t forget to pay it.

The village is going through every bill to make sure it is accurate before it is mailed out. #sodon’tusethatasanexcuse

Dan Davis talking about doing a holiday festival. He wants to turn the tennis courts into a ice rink.

I can’t get over the sewer bills.

Anyway, they are done with the roof at the Hackler bathroom and they are going to do the rest of it as soon as the materials are in.

Discussing the open meetings act now and when it should be posted. Basically, just post everything 48 hours in advance. #2ormoreanditsameeting #donthitreplyallonemailscausethatsameetingtoo

Just to clarify, this is one of the most transparent boards I cover. They post basically everything and are very careful not to have meetings that are not posted.

They are discussing Monroe Street. And environmental hazards. And the bids to clean it out.

They aren’t discussing this but now would be a good time to look at leaf collection rules and regulations.

https://stjosephillinois.org/vertical/sites/%7B24DDC073-0F27-4A8D-B8E4-B5A8A41FF8A8%7D/uploads/Leaf_Collection_Guidelines(1).pdf

Okay, back to Monroe.

As of October 11, 2019 a warrant was issued for the clean up of the property at 101 N. Monroe Street.

Basically, this is going to be costly but the village feels it needs to be done.

It’s getting cleaned up. Which is good because they spent money on legal bills to take it this far.

Bob Rigdon is our hero and made a motion to adjourn.






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