January 17, 2026 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Live at St. Joseph Village Board

It’s a full house with seven audience members.

Public comment time: Basically, don’t ramble about nonsense, you gotta provide your name and address and gotta be polite.

Audit time. shocker said no one- they got the letter saying there aren’t enough staff, ect. #DONTWORRYITMEANSNOTHING #EVERYONEGETSIT

It was a very good clean audit.

Art and Dan Davis have motioned to table the audit so they can “absorb it.”

Public comment time: thanking john and maintance crew.

Allan Wall is here from Jefferey Drive. “The last several years I have loosely tried to submit a bid for taking care of the parks for fertilizer and weed control.” Wall owns Professional Outdoor Solutions.

The mayor is starting something new tonight. “I want this to be resident initiated,” Fruhling-Voges said. Tami had a friend from out of town and one of the employees went out of his way to help this couple. “He went above and beyond,” Fruhling-Voges said. “He stopped, turned around, came back because he saw two people my age scraping up gravel in the street. They were so very impressed with him.” Employee appreciation award: Hayden Cargo.

If you have an employee that does something that is above and beyond or you are impressed with something please contact us. The village will make up a little form.

Halloween- the concensus was on the official central illinois mayor texting chain that everyone was moving forward with trick-or-treating. #washyourhands It will be 6-8 p.m. The parade is taking place. They won’t be going in any of the businesses because they will have their treats outside on a table. Hopefully the weather will be better this year. #itwascoldbutfun

85.1 percent of St. Joseph residents have filled out their census. Lets make it 100 percent.

Max Painter- the lights got left on at the park all night. I don’t know how often that happens but maybe we need to look into a time clock shut off.

discussing partial tree removal. At committee meeting they discussed paying $2600 to this tree trimming company that didn’t fully take the tree down but came out, took a branch down and stablized the tree that was split down the middle, ect. It was the tree that basically split in two on Lincoln a few months ago.

Company owner is here. Said the village employee called in a panic and said no one else is answering their phones, ect. Saying he put his life at risk in order to help the village out. Had 22 man hours there divided by six guys. He is a tree climber and doesn’t use a crane or a lift.

Basically, it’s a payment dispute. The business owner billed more than the village is willing to pay. I think he said it’s like $4,800 and this was “48 days ago.” He broke down why he billed them what he did though.

The business owner is going into the village budget and how they can transfer money from one line item to another to find the money to pay him.

Tami stopped him and said “We know how to do our budget.”

Tami said “Did you complete the job?”

Business owner explaining he took care of the problem branch that was the most threat to anyone and anything.

Tami saying the other tree guy was there 40 minutes and got it done.

Originally they were told it was $250 per hour.



Unrelated, some people here aren’t wearing masks. If I get COVID I am going to be super, super pissed off.


Anyway, the mayor saying she would have offered $1,300 not the $2,600.

Max pointing out that he can’t imagine what it would cost to have this company take down the whole tree?

Board members pushing on if the “straps” were new. I think they are talking about straps used to stablize the tree? Max is incredulous about the pricing.”I own a business. I can’t just make up prices willienillie.”

I guess the business owner said he was taking $1,000 off when he originally met with the village but now he isn’t. I think its because he wasn’t paid in a timely manner.

Business owner said Luke Fisher is lying. #ohhellno Luke saying he isn’t disputing that he strapped the tree. He’s disputing that he didn’t get the job done. Luke saying some of the workers were not working and were chatting with spectators.


Okay I guess I did go into great detail. I have never ever seen someone pull out the village budget and tell them what they could move. That was amazing. Like my mask covered mouth dropped open.

Discussing sending the $2,600 and saying if he wants the rest he would have to take them to court.

Mason Wagner is here taking in the civics lesson. #startthemyoung

Joe saying HELL NO to mailing the check. “if you send him the check and say take us to court you have lost all your leverage on it.” “If you are going to end up in court why would you pay anything up front?”

I love Joe. LOL

So it looks like they are going to mail him an agreement offering the $2,600 and we will go from there.

OMG YOU GUYS THE FISHER EASEMENT AGREEMENT HAS BEEN SIGNED. WOW. This is a long time coming.

Abbeyfield is still working with the daycare people. Cause issues keep popping up regarding mold and drainage. #shocker

Fruhling-Voges thanking Joe for all his hard worker on this issue.

Luke saying they need to set a deadline for outdoor seating to get picked up. Luke saying Nov. 15. It’s due to snow issues. #gottaplow Tami is going to talk to the business owners.

MIke Peters – village workers are going to be in the Birkey’s 2021 calendar. OMG #FAMOUS

Village administrator will be next meeting. The ordinance wasn’t done.

Rangers: The village isn’t licensing them because if they are street legal they are allowed by state statute. Golf carts aren’t allowed through state statute throughout the state so that is why they register them. According to the deputy there if the UTV owner goes to the secretary of states office and makes the razor street legal they can drive it on the roads.








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