001call this meeting to order. If everyone could please stand, we have Scout Troop 44 here that's going to lead us in the pledge tonight to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Trusty Natson, >> here. Trusty Scaliz >> here. >> Trusty Dooza >> here. Trusty Riser >> here. >> Trusty Wilson >> here. >> Trusty Christopherson is absent. Mayor Balderman >> here. First up is our consent agenda which consists of 10 items. They are the minutes of the regular meeting for October 27th, 2025. Ordinance creating a class A liquor license, Queen of Hops. Second read. Ordinance vacating rightway Elm Drive Alley. Second read. Approval of proposal transmission main hydrant
002bolt replacement public works ordinance authorizing the release of surplus property for the police department vehicles and raffle licenses for 2026 for the following organizations. Lincoln High School Foundation, New Lennox Community Park District, American Legion Post 1977, Friends in New Lennox Library, and New Lennox Chamber of Commerce. Does any member wish any of those items to be pulled and discussed separately? All right. If not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Trusty Matson, second by Trustee Scaliz. If there's nothing further, a roll call vote, please. >> Trustee Riser, >> I. >> Trusty Matson, >> I. >> Trusty Galuza, >> I. >> Trustee Scaliz, >> I. >> Trusty Wilson, >> I. >> Mayor Baldin, >> I. Motion carries. All right. Next up is consideration for approval of
003a resolution for the Tribute to Valor Foundation. Uh as uh all of you are aware and and some were able to participate in uh tribute to valor is a 5013C uh that uh tries to connect veterans and heroes with uh school kids asking the question who am I and answering that question by looking at the six core values of the Medal of Honor. Um, Tribute to Valor Foundation is a wonderful organization. Um, we would be the first community to support this and I got the word today that the Illinois Senate has approved for it to go uh the resolution to go before them in January and the House is expected to do the same. So, the focus uh I'm serving on that board uh of tribute to Valor. Uh the the focus then is to
004not only continue to bring these values to our school kids, the six core values to our school kids um and to see it adopted uh in schools not here only here in Illinois, but to take this template and bring it to other states. Nevada's getting close to getting on board as well, but it'll be nice to see um here that is a bipartisan a nonpartisan um resolution that has nothing to do with politics. It only has to do with supporting young people and helping them learn that they can overcome adversity. It's really pretty impressive. Um the kids the the veterans that spoke to our kids here from Lincoln Way and 122 in Union and also up in Westmont uh were Israel Del Toro. Of course you're all familiar with the injuries that he suffered. Gary
005Lynfoot who um had the first robotic device to be able to stand up again after being paralyzed in his Blackhawk helicopter crash. Um and they talked to kids about no matter how dark things have gotten, how difficult things have gotten, how they've overcome that adversity, those challenges, and now they're making an even greater impact uh on people um well beyond what they had to do. I mean, they served our country. tremendous sacrifices were made. Uh but they didn't just say okay, they're going out there and doing more. So, I'm really honored that we would be the first community uh to adopt this resolution. And thanks to uh uh Spas's office for uh taking care of that. Any questions on that? All right. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? >> So moved. Second. >>
006Motion by Trusty Madson, second by Trusty Wilson. There's nothing further. A roll call vote, please. >> Trustee Madson. >> I. Trusty Riser. >> I. >> Trusty Galuza. >> I. >> Trusty Wilson. >> I. >> Trusty Scaliz. >> Hi. >> Mayor Balderman. >> Hi. Motion carries. Thank you for that. Uh B and C are consideration of ordinance creating a class D2 liquor license and a class BG liquor license for True Country. Um this is just up for first read. Uh they're doing a nice job there. They're looking for a spring opening. They did go through background checks. There were no issues. Uh however um they don't need it expedited so it can just come back before the next board meeting for approval. Any questions on that at all? No. All right. Very good. Thank you. All
007right. Next is consideration of an ordinance amending a special use for a preliminary and final PUD plat in Lennox retail subdivision Pete's Market Cooper Hawk. First read Robin. >> Um yes. So when this uh commercial development was completed, there was provision in the PUD for a future monument sign. However, the details of the sign were not known at that point. So the only zoning code deviation that was included in the PUD was to increase the height from 15 to 18 ft. Um but all other provisions of the sign were supposed to comply with the code. Um the sign would be located uh roughly at the corner, the southeast corner of the overall site. uh the location would be in compliance with uh the setback requirements and the zoning ordinance. Um the zoning deviation that is
008needed now is uh for the overall uh the ratio of the electronic message center component to the sign. Our code says that the maximum um percentage is 25% of the total sign area. Um in this case it's 5050. Um at earlier there were was proposal to have Cooper Hawk on the base of the sign. Uh it still would have required a variance but it was like 36% instead of 25. Um but now uh Cooper Hawk has made the determination that they do not need to be on the monument sign. So the ratio now is 50/50. Um the plan commission reviewed it and recommended approval and it's before you tonight for first read. >> Very good. Is there anyone here that needs to speak on this tonight? I don't think so. >> Okay. Any questions for
009Robin on that? >> No. All right. Just excited to see it going. All right. Then we'll bring that back. Thank you very much. Next, we have consideration for approval of a resolution author authorizing right-of-way use agreement with Surf Internet. Robin? >> Yes. Um so this is the third um of these right-of-way use agreements. um surf uh this one is has a limited access area at this point just to the southwest part of the village. Um so if they do proceed with uh providing services throughout the village, they will have to come back to amend the agreement to expand the area. Um but other than that, it's a 10-year term with um four up up to four automatic five-year renewals. Um and all of the other provisions are consistent with the other two agreements that the
010board has approved. Very good. >> And there is representatives from Surf here tonight if the board has any questions. >> All right. Are there any questions from the board on this? >> No. All right. Very good. Then we'll bring that back. Thank you. >> Oh, it's a resolution. >> Oh, you need it tonight. Okay. Uh, anything that the petitioner wants to add? >> No. Okay. All right. Is there a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the rightway use agreement with Surf Internet? >> So moved. Second. >> Motion by Trusty Guza, second by Trustee Scaliz. There's nothing further. Roll call vote, please. >> Trusty Galuza, I. >> Trusty Scaliz, >> I. >> Trusty Wilson, >> I. >> Trusty Riser, >> I. >> Trusty Matson. >> I. >> Mayor Balderman. >> I motion carries. Okay. Next up
011is consideration an ordinance amending chapter 90 traffic and vehicles article 4 stopping, standing, and parking village code parking in front of mailboxes. First read. As you recall, we had a resident who brought this uh concern to us. A lot of these times they are complaint driven. uh we really don't get this kind of issue, but it is it does make sense that we do that. So, um this is up for first read tonight and we'll come back for adoption at the next time just to prohibit people from parking in front of mailboxes so the mail truck can deliver. Any questions on that? All right, we'll bring that back. Next, we have consideration for approval of proposal risk and resilience assessment water update. Christopher Burke Engineering Mark. Yes, in uh 2021 um we had our risk
012and resilience assessment and emergency response plan done uh for sewer and water by Christopher Burke Engineering. Uh the EPA requires us to update the water portion every 5 years. Um so this is a proposal to do that update uh in an amount to not exceed $21,900. Um it's our recommendation to accept this proposal. All right. Any questions for Mark? All right. Is there a motion to approve the proposal? >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion by Trustee. Was that Keith? >> Yes, sir. >> Trusty Madson. Second by Trusty Wilson. There's nothing further. A roll call vote, please. >> Trusty Wilson. >> I. >> Trustee Madson. >> I. >> Trusty Galuza. >> I. >> Trusty Scaliz. >> I. >> Trusty Riser. >> I. >> Mayor Balderman. >> Hi. Motion carries. Okay. Next up is consideration for
013approval of proposal management, detection, and response for proven IT. Uh this is $3,515 a month. So, it's not cheap, but um you know, cyber threats, as we all know, are increasing. Uh we've been had a couple of uh serious attempts here and um of course with our organization, we've got somebody here monitoring it, but not 24/7. Uh there's a lot at stake here and so uh proven it has this CrowdStrike Falcon Complete uh that staff has looked at. They've looked at multiple vendors and they feel like this is our best solution for 247 protection um to keep the village finances and all the village information uh as secure as you possibly can from cyber attack. Any questions on that? >> Is this for all like parks and everything or just the village? Like it's for
014everybody like the parks we'll use it. Parks department, the library will be able to use >> No, this is for us. They would have to do their own thing. We are on separate systems. So this is just for all village stuff. Everything for us >> at the at the village. Yes. But not for parks or schools. Just us. >> And they have or would have to go get their own. >> Okay. If they opted to, is there a package or someone can get a cheaper price for >> I'm going to tell you that my guess is the schools are probably already in one. I don't know what the parks are doing, but um regardless, I think that this is probably what we would be. >> This is based upon our our areas of access. So,
015it's already been an established price by how many access points that we have. Okay? >> And so, it's it's based off of that. So, this this dollar amount may go up slightly as we add different access points. Uh so I would imagine as we grow more protection >> and so I would imagine this would be a similar cost >> dependent upon their their access points for those other organizations as well. >> And this is not replacing a service. This is the first time we're instituting one. Is that correct? >> Yes. We had we had some protections on it but this is another step above that that give us a 247. >> It's just getting so sophisticated of what they can do that we can't I mean we need the utmost protection. We we've done a
016nice >> for what the loss would be, it's really not much of a of an expense, but >> we've done a nice job. There's a couple times they've got into the system, we shut it down before they did any damage and everything, but this gives us a 247 with with the it's as the mayor stated, it's not cheap, but compared to what it would cost us if we we actually had a breach. >> Well, and if any of you have ever experienced that, and I know a lot of people have, it's it's a real problem. Now imagine how magnified it is if it happens here at the village. So all right, if there aren't any questions, is there a motion to approve the proposal? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Trusty Scaliz. Second
017by Trusty Wilson. There's nothing further. A roll call vote, please. >> Trusty Riser. >> I. >> Trustee Matson. >> I. >> Trusty Galuza. >> I. >> Trusty Scaliz. >> I. >> Trusty Wilson. >> I. >> Mayor Baldwin. >> I. Motion carries. All right. Next up is consideration for approval of an agreement hometown design studio. This is for $300, so it's a a little easier. Um, Hometown Design can uh create, as you know, the beer garden, we're looking at that going to be a 7-day a week restaurant there. They can create that homepage. We really, we're going to need their assistance for that. We don't have that expertise in that particular field, of course, because we don't have a lot of restaurants that we're running and operating. Um, but that's for uh $300 on that website.
018All right. Is there a motion to approve the agreement? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Trusty Scaliz. Second by Trusty Galuza. If there's nothing further, a roll call vote, please. >> Trusty Matson. >> I. >> Trusty Riser. >> I. >> Trusty Galuza. >> I. >> Trusty Wilson. >> I. >> Trusty Scaliz. >> I. >> Mayor Balderman. >> I. Motion carries. Okay. Under reports and communications, I have a couple things. first uh reapport reappoints to PTAB, our parking traffic advisory board. Uh Frank Palmisano and Tim Cochran. Frank's been on a long time and Tim Cochran's been on quite a few years, too. Um we obviously are very they're great members. They show up at the meetings. They do what what they're uh what's needed of them. Um and so I'm asking for the reappoints
019of both Frank and Tim to the parking traffic advisory board. Any questions? Okay. Does someone want to make a motion? >> I'll make the motion. >> All right. Trustee Scaliz made the motion. Trusty Madison seconds. Um, all those in favor signify by voice vote of I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Uh, a couple other things. Christmas in the Commons um begins on Saturday, December 6th, and runs those three weekends up until um Christmas on Saturdays and Sundays. Of course, the lights are out there all the time and the skating, but um our tree lighting, our our park lighting, our common park lighting, uh will take place um on the 6th, probably around 4:30, 4:45, as it starts to get dark, 5:00, right in that time. Uh we always have great attendance
020out there, so it'll be really nice uh to see people come out. Uh we would encourage you to come out with your families. Uh there's always people driving through, walking through during the week and on the weekends. It's great. There's so many characters for uh the kids to come see and there's hot chocolate. But all of the um information is on our website. If you look at the events uh for the village website, I would encourage everyone to do that and that's well established and well known at this time. It's it's great. So, um, last I would say, um, having served as a trustee for four years, school board president for two years, a mayor for 19 years, uh, all that time um, every once in a while something comes up and, uh, people we
021know are busy and they're not paying attention to every meeting. They're not looking at every post. They are not uh listening to every podcast. Um but as you know, some of you who served here longer than others, uh you we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of our community and they're not always easy. And one of the difficult things um as a newer board member uh and I'm not suggesting that anyone is in this position they feeling that way but um we all know what a poison social media is and how horrible it is. And the reality is that we have 30,000 people that live in this community, but there's always uh a handful of people who um uh probably could find better use for their time, but they enjoy uh
022going on there and stirring the pot. Um and then there are people who have differences of opinion, which we certainly respect. Um everyone's entitled to their opinion. Um they're welcome to come to all these meetings. um they're welcome to run for office if if they think they have a better way of doing things. Um we respect that, but um it's it's unfortunate. I started that podcast just because there's so much misinformation out there. Um and common sense doesn't always factor in, but uh as you know, we've done uh a two a couple things. Number one, uh we have by far second to none the best um Christmas commons area, best of anyone around. In fact, there are many really nice communities like Tinley Park, Romeoville, even Rosemont, great towns um that have copied us that
023are out there doing what we're doing now after the fact. We were the first ones to do electrical aggregation and after that everyone did went and did electrical aggregation. Um, so we lead the way in that. And as you know, you approve a budget every year that has funds for Christmas decorations. Number one, it's great for all the families to to enjoy. They're out here by the thousands. Uh, but number two, um, even though I don't particularly care for it, none of us are naive to the fact that we track who's out here. These marketing companies have the ability to know uh where you are at all times with your phone and who's out there and the thousands of people that come out here. Not to mention uh the mailbox letters to Santa uh where
024we get thousands of letters that come from over 90 different communities. And that all equates to people coming out here um seeing our beautiful town, spending money in our town, shopping in our town, eating in our town, buying gas in our town. um supporting our small local businesses by doing that. Um providing a great deal of sales tax revenue to our community. Our sales tax revenue numbers are great. Um it's because of the way that we market ourselves and what we do. And um that article that came out in the Tribune just a couple months ago that looked at all the Will County communities in the in the southern Cook County communities and over the last few years, New Lennox home values have increased higher than any other town. We were number one. And the
025reason for that is because people want to live here. They want to live in New Lennox. They want to enjoy all the wonderful things that we're doing, the progress that we make here. Um they love the schools, the parks, the libraries, all the great amenities that are here. Um we are on the map and we talk about a town of 30,000 people in what we do. And there are towns two and three and four times our size that don't do anywhere near as much as what we do for our residents and with residential and uh commercial growth. I mean, look at the subdivisions that we have planned now on the Tierling property. We've got over 500 homes there. We have another out southeast with a couple hundred homes. We have two other subdivisions that are
026coming here uh before staff with another couple hundred homes. um at a time when when residential building is not really happening, um we're going to have a thousand new homes on the books. I mean, think about that for a minute. Think about that. And some people will say, which I always love, "Oh, I liked it when it was a small, quaint town." Oh, really? When did you move here? A 2002. Okay. Well, maybe the people in 2001 would have wished you didn't come here. Because of what we're doing, people want to live here. But we're very strategic with our growth and what we do. We look at the sports complex, for example. That's the neighbor that the hospital wanted. If we didn't do what we were doing as a board and staff, that would be
027warehousing. That would be trucking. It's not it wasn't going to be a mall. No one's building those malls anymore. or if they started building a mall, it would be a vacant mall. So, we're very strategic in what we do. Um, that massive complex up there is going to bring hotels and restaurants and a lot of revenue to our community, but it's not going to create traffic headaches for the people here in town. So, you can have your nice quiet way of life. You look at uh that commons area and that is for older people a Rockwell painting for newer people a Hallmark channel. I don't I guess it depends on how old you are. I'm in between. Um but so we have our great small town community feel, but we're growing in ways because people
028want to live here. People move out here. They want amenities and that's why we have what we have and that's why your homes are worth what they're worth and that's why we can have nice schools and parks because people want to be out here for that. So, you know, we've done the property tax rebate program for years at varying amounts when the fire department, who of course is a separate entity and anyone that participated in our citizens academy, uh knows that. Um well, I'll talk about that in a minute. Um who have still have one of the lowest tax rates of any fire protection district out there. Uh but when they just could not um pass a referendum, they were going to shutter a station. They were to close a station, board up a station
029on Cedar Road. That's the worst thing that could happen to the community that's struggling. So, of course, we reduced our property tax rebate, helped the fire department out, uh had an agreement where they paid us back, and they paid us back quicker than they were even required to, but we were paid back in full. When you look at Cooper Hawk and unless things have changed, I don't think they have. I don't know what they have now, 50 Cooper Hawks around the country. It was the number two most successful Cooper Hawk in the country. And Pets, yes, that has been a struggle because of CO, but you saw they're moving forward. Uh we have an agreement with them. Uh obviously that was a completely different animal when you're building a massive grocery store and COVID hits
030and everything goes up and uh uh but that was because we invested in our future. The Joey's, the Starbucks, the CVS, it was a uh a rundown uh it was a vacant restaurant. It was a bar that only Mark Brow went to with a couple of his buddies. It was an underperforming gas station and it was a dry cleaners and now it's a thriving corner across the street where you have some older homes and older businesses and people who there was nothing wrong with that but we wanted to redevelop that area. We as a board and a staff are reinvesting in our community and buying those properties up. And because we did that, we were able to sell one of those pieces off to the patio, which is now bringing that. They haven't built a
031new restaurant in 12 years, 15 years. They're bringing a patio out to New Lennox. They know that's the place to be. Portillos was going to go to our neighbor to the east. They came here. Cooper Hawk was going to go to a neighbor to the east. They came here. People want to be in New Lennox, but you have to invest in your community. And most of the time, we're able to balance investing and still give back some kind of a rebate. We've been able to do that. But we do have major projects going on. That triangle piece from Cedar to uh Prairie 30 to Haven, that's expensive. buying up those old properties. The sports complex, that's expensive. But these are all things that will pay for generations for this community. Somebody 10 years from now,
03215 years from now, you guys may be up here. I know I won't, but Keith, I know you're shaking your head now, too, but um they're not going to remember what boards did what. But the reality is we continue to set our village on a trajectory for success. And right now we could give back in our to our residents $2 and.5 million $2.4 million in a rebate and then borrow $2.5 million to buy land. And we're at about $80,000 a million for 30 years. So if you figure $2 and a half million dollars, that's two Robin likes when I do this math. It's that's $200,000 a year times 30 years is $6 million. So to give that $2.5 million back cost the taxpayer $6 million. That doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense. whatsoever.
033And that's just year one. Now, of course, you've got the uh the Facebook experts who said, "Oh, we'll never see that again. We'll never see that property tax rebate again. It's gone forever." No, it's it's not. We're committed to bringing it back. But while we're redeveloping, what's going to happen is the patio is going to bring in sales tax revenue. The hotels, the restaurants are going to bring in sales tax revenue. we'll be able to get back to our property tax rebate. So, the choice is we could give the property tax rebate and borrow and have everyone pay interest. I mean, look at car payments now. They're through the roof. You can't get a car payment for under 800 bucks. And that's over seven years, eight years. I can't believe they even have car payments
034going out that long. So, if you had 50 grand to buy a car, are you going to and had extra money in a bank like we do? We're not wasting all our reserves on what we're doing. Are you going to pay the 50 grand or are you going to take an 8-year loan payment out and pay $90,000 for your $50,000 car which won't even last the term of your loan? So, if people understand all that and they still disagree because they think, well, we don't want to grow, we don't want development, we want Well, they're entitled to their opinion. I disagree with them, but I respect their opinion. If they think it makes bad business sense, then they clearly don't understand finance 101. I just explained it. I don't think I could explain it any
035better than that. I'm sure Jim's kid could tell him about it later on today. I mean, that's So, it's not easy being an elected official when you've got people who take a shred of evidence or a a little opinion and take to the gutless, cowardly, keyboard warrior little corner of their home um to make attacks. What I would tell you is this board has proven that they're better than that. When we went through the Casey's gas station and the place was packed. There have been no gas leaks. There have been no doomsday scenarios. Everybody's fine. But that doesn't happen in a lot of towns. It doesn't happen in a lot of school boards. It doesn't happen in a lot of park boards. Um, you get a few squawkers and as I said to one reporter,
036you know, by responding to all of them, it's like the spoiled brat kid that gets their way because they stomp their feet. Now, again, that has nothing to do with people who ask questions. We love that. Again, our citizens academy, we had 30 people participate. I wish the whole town would participate in a citizens academy and learn how government really works. We have open meetings. People come here and and have the right to ask any questions. We love that. The more informed people are, the easier our jobs become. And I understand, I truly understand, too. There are just some people that struggle in life. Some people need attention. Some people are just angry. Some people are just well I say what they are on Facebook but we have kids here so I won't say it
037today. You know what they are. They can't help themselves. But for those that just have a tendency to disagree or or really feel strongly about an opinion, I respect that. But forget Facebook. Come to a meeting. Come talk to us here. Run for office. Every two years you get the opportunity to come up here and do it better than us. And I welcome that because if there's somebody who can be a better mayor or there's somebody who can be a better trustee, I live in this town, too. I want that smarter, better person to be sitting up here. But for all of you who show the resilience, who continue to do the right thing because you know what's best for our town, I appreciate that. And it's not easy for staff either. You know, the
038roundabout issue has almost died away, but you know, every once in a while still creep up. Oh, those geniuses that designed a roundabout coming from somebody that I'm sure has got a really uh a great engineering degree. Let's just stay the course. Let's just keep doing what we're doing. I assure you, the majority of the community appreciates what we're doing, realizes what we're doing. Um, and I assure you outside of this community, people do because they all want to live here. They all want to overpay for homes. They all want to be in this community. So, um, differences of opinion, I love it. Educated, informed discussion, I love it. Cheap shots on social media, I got no time for you. That's it. That's all I got for tonight. So if there's nothing for me, village
039attorney, >> nothing to report. Mayor, >> thank you. Village administrator, >> nothing further from staff within wish everyone and have a great Thanksgiving. >> Very good. Thank you. Payroll and dispersements. Trusty Madson. >> Yes, sir. I make the motion to approve our bimonthly dispersements in the amount of 14,11,97326. In addition to these dispersements, approval is needed for a payroll in the amount of $538,232 paid on November 14th, 2025. And that is in a form of a motion. >> And I will second that. >> All right. Very good. Motion has been properly moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? Roll call vote, please. >> Trustee Wilson, >> I. >> Trusty Madson, >> I. >> Trusty Gala, >> I. >> Trusty Scaliz, >> I. Trusty Riser >> I. >> Mayor Balderman. >> I. Motion carries. Anything else,
040Keith? >> No, sir. >> All right. Thank you. Questions or comments from the floor. >> Boys, you got any questions for your badge tonight? >> No. You You learned it all. It's always great to see you. Always great to see the scouts. Great organization. And to the scout leaders, thank you for the time that you commit to the kids. It's important that that keeps going strong. We appreciate you being here. >> Thank you for having us. >> Absolutely. Anytime. You're always welcome. All right. All right, there's nothing from the floor. Trusty comments, Trusty Riser. >> Nothing tonight. >> Very good. Thank you, Trusty Madson. >> Great comments, Mayor. Appreciate it. >> And I wish everyone a happy and enjoyable and safe Thanksgiving. >> Very good. Thank you, Trusty Blues. >> Just happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
041And I am thankful for such a great staff and a great mayor and fellow board of trustees. Keep up the great work. We got big things coming >> and we do appreciate that. Thank you, Trusty Wilson. Just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. >> All right. Very good. Trustes Glaze. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> All right. Thank you. Well, we have no need for executive session tonight. So, if there's nothing further, is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Trustees Scaliz. Second by Trusty Wilson. All those in favor signify by a voice vote of I. I. Opposed. Meeting adjourned.