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Antioch trustees review department budgets, table final vote to April 29 special meeting
Summary
Village officials heard department-by-department budget presentations covering police equipment and training, public works capital needs, parks programming and IT cybersecurity, and agreed to continue the budget vote at a special meeting April 29 to finalize capital items.
Mayor Scott Gardner convened the Antioch Village Board on April 22 for a meeting focused on departmental budget presentations and preliminary questions, but the board did not take a final vote on the full budget.
The meeting opened with a proclamation marking National Library Week and community recognitions before shifting to budget work. Director Peterson gave an overview and said staff are still refining line items; the mayor emphasized he does not intend to bring the complete budget to a final vote that night so trustees could focus on questions and proposed revisions.
Departments presented their requests in sequence. Public safety, led by the police chief, reported an operating budget of about $8.7 million and requests that included expanded license-plate-reader coverage and a wellness program. Public works described rising costs for vehicle maintenance, fuel, electricity and a potential wastewater treatment-plant master plan; staff reported a low bid of roughly $210,000 to repave North Avenue and recommended budgeting up to $250,000 to cover engineering and contingency. Parks & Recreation outlined investments to support facility rentals, playground safety audits and a conservative revenue estimate for the Aqua Center while noting expanding program revenue from summer day camp and new leagues.
Information technology requested recurring cybersecurity tools (password managers, mobile-device management, threat detection and email archiving), a new video server and fiber connectivity to the bandshell to support event connectivity and camera integration. Finance outlined efforts to eliminate a payroll vendor contract and to improve accounts-payable reporting and FOIA/redaction processing.
Trustees asked targeted questions during and after each presentation: how state 'Safety Act' changes have shifted unfunded training and holding responsibilities to local departments; why playground safety certification would be procured rather than handled by public works; and how staff will track marketing return on investment for a proposed $20,000 digital pilot. Staff acknowledged some budget presentation numbers did not yet match printed budget documents and said those differences would be reconciled with finance.
Instead of voting on the full budget, the board scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. to continue capital and budget discussions and potentially approve the outstanding items. The village will continue to refine cost estimates and present updated materials to trustees before that hearing.
