March 7, 2026 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Live at St. Joseph Village, Jan. 10, 2023

I am here so you don’t have to be.

Discussing bills.

Art has some questions about the bills. Discussing Sterling Codifiers which is the database that hosts their ordinances.

No public comment because I am the only one here.

New Business: Audit report. I am going to guess they get dinged for internal controls. Which most small towns get a note about because of the small staff. #itsfine #dontpanic

Yup. Internal control letter. #Iknowwhatiamtalkingabout

The auditor said that every small town gets this letter. #amipsychic?

One of the lowest taxing rates in the area. “You are strong and healthy,” the auditor said. They increase $600,000 in revenue. Have made all their debt payments.

Still discussing the audit. Terri asking if adding Joe helped with the internal controls. The auditor said it did because it added another layer of people checking each others work but they would have to hire three or four more people if they didn’t want the internal control letter.

They are discussing a special events permit for IBEW tournament. They are doing a special events permit because IBEW wants to give away beer. Participants will have to have a wrist band so the general public just can’t walk up and get beer.

Spring clean up time. Township will pay half up to $4,000. They put a Dumpster at the Sports Complex and we can all throw our junk away. #yay #cleanupandcleanout

The board discussing if they can cap the amount, use a certain amount of Dumpsters. They board wants Luke and Mike to keep track of who is a township resident and who is a village resident. This could backfire spectacularly if the majority is the village cause the township will say they aren’t paying for it if it’s mainly village residents. Luke just said the majority are from the village.

They are discussing charging people to dump into the Dumpsters.


Despite costs, some things are just good public relations. Its a very tangible, real thing they can point to and say “We offer these services.”

The board should go to the dump day to see how much people bring, ect. I cannot believe they are discussing this so long. If you don’t want your town to look junky you provide this service so people have someway to get rid of their junk.

How would you even charge people? Employees just take the cash?

May 6 is the date. 7 to 11 a.m. at the sports complex. Take your junk.

Now is a good time to say the spring garage sales are May 4-6.

Discussing how public works needs a new storage building.

Here’s the details.

During the construction of the new WWTP, the Public Works Department will lose approximately 1,100 square feet of storage space. The storage space that is being repurposed for the WWTP currently houses equipment which the department is hesitant to store outside during the colder months.

Public Works will ultimately lose storage sometime during the fall/winter months, which is exactly the most critical time to have the storage. Staff has been considering options for addressing the loss of storage space. All options considered involve replacing the storage space in one way or another. The bare minimum need of storage, which would be around 48’ x 48’.

They are discussing building it at the sports complex because they already own the land. Nothing to be decided tonight.

Discussing strategic planning sessions and community stakeholders who they may invite to participate. They want to have a rep from the each school, the chamber, the sports leagues, the women’s club and a banking institution. The mayor saying they should include a pastor from one of the churches. Art doesn’t want any one group over represented. Art wants a realtor on it and Tami wants a fire department rep. It will be one six hour session or two three hour sessions. These will take place on the “off” Tuesdays in May. Meaning not the first and third Tuesdays.

Jeff Van Buskirk is looking to move to Champaign or Savoy. #openboardseatsoon?

Meeting is over.


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