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

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, Jan. 25

Tonight at St. Joseph Village Board we will get some honorary street designations, a discussion and vote regarding special event permits. Not on the agenda, any zoning discussions regarding a certain bank. We are here so you don’t have to be.

Approving the minutes.

Now they are paying bills.

No public comment. #speedingalong

Audit report. Wanna take bets on if the auditor says that they need more safeguards within the office. No comments needed- every small town gets that comment because the staffs are small and they need to do multiple jobs. They got the highest level they could have- no issues. #winning They were in a strong financial position at the end of the year with strong fund balances.

Bam. Segregation of duties. They do the best they can but they don’t have the ideal separation of duties.

WOW this was the fastest audit report ever. #loveit #keepitmoving

Clark Dietz Stormwater facility plan update. This is all very technical that doesn’t really matter to the average person.

Moving on.

Regulating special events ordinance time. I will break this down this week. “Basically, this is not an ordinance to make it difficult for a special event in the community it is only to help it be more organized.” Mayor Tami Fruhling Voges said. I really want to know if they don’t fill out the paperwork if they will shut down an event. #iamgoingtoguessno

Max Painter pointing out that people either aren’t going to fill it out or will fill it out too late and the board will allow it anyway. Fruhling-Voges saying there will be a learning curve. “We need to be flexible. I don’t want to be a jerk or anything.” #maxissayingwhatweareallthinking

Joe the administrator saying that this gives the village the option to say no to events that cause problems or don’t fit the brand.
This only covers village roads and parks.

So it seems my guess was right. They will work with people who don’t fill it out.

The honorary road designations for Landers and Hackler passed. The village will do something special when the signs are installed.

BJ would really get a kick out of the sign at Main and Lincoln. #BJHacklerway

Zoning meeting update: They had a zoning meeting last week regarding updating the zoning map. They are just cleaning up some stuff. The towncenter is dead and it will now be the COMMERCIAL DOWNTOWN. #dontuttertowncenteragain It will keep like a junkyard from buying the big blue building and moving into downtown.

Basically, the residential updates are just preventing someone from buying a house, tearing it down and putting it in a giant apartment complex.

I love zoning but I know the average person does not.

I cannot get over how cold it is in this room.

They will have a public hearing. That I will attend so you don’t have to and then the zoning board will pass it to the village board and then the village board will pass it. God willing. Previously, one trustee tanked this zoning update. #letsnotwasteanymoremoney #passit

They spent $35,000 on the previous zoning update that was tanked. #PASSIT #dontwastemytaxdollars

Athletic Field Rental Schedule. They want to simplify it. It has been discussed with shareholders. It is for review only. No vote tonight. Wow this is a much bigger discussion than I thought. Basically they are trying to determine if the practices should be on the village calendar or if the teams should work it out on their own.

The fees were approved but the scheduling will be worked out at a later date.

Parks agreement: more condensed than it used to be.

Discussing field maintenance now at the sports complex. This is a huge discussion regarding should they hire someone to mow.

This is a very detailed conversation on something that probably doesn’t need this much discussion honestly. I gotta leave in six minutes so I hope they can move on soon.


Public works will bring them information.

The only thing left is the administrator’s report. He is going to tell them about staff coaching in February and a meeting to discuss how to spend state and federal funding.

The meeting is over for me. Cause Matt has to go edit the copy from Illini beating Michigan State. Check out the News-Gazette tomorrow for their amazing coverage. 🙂




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