Freeburg trustees approve railroad agreement for water project and post finance manager job in-house

Mayor Seth Speiser called the Village of Freeburg Board of Trustees to order at 7:30 p.m. Monday and the board moved forward on two personnel and infrastructure items. Trustee Tom Carpenter moved to accept an agreement with Illinois Central Railroad Company to authorize a second boring permit tied to the village water project; Trustee Ramon Matchett Jr. seconded and the motion carried on a recorded roll call with six ayes and no nays.

The vote followed a brief Finance Committee report in which Trustee Carpenter noted questions about several vendors on the board list and said no investments are due until July. Village Administrator Matt Trout told trustees the village follows a practice of planning budgets with a contingency, saying, “we take the budget and go 40% over as the standard,” and explained that a $20,000 increase in the retirement line item reflected accelerated payments to IMRF.

In personnel business, Trustee Elizabeth (Lisa) Meehling moved to post the vacant finance manager position in-house; Trustee James (Mike) Blaies seconded. The board approved that motion by roll call (six ayes, zero nays). The motion does not obligate the board to hire a specific candidate; it authorizes an internal posting so current employees may apply.

No ordinance votes were recorded on Ordinance #1817 during the meeting; the topic was discussed in committee with the retirement-line increase explained by Trout. The board also heard reports from ESDA Coordinator Gene Kramer and Village Engineer Tim Pruett but took no further formal action on those items during the session.

The meeting adjourned at 7:49 p.m. after a motion by Trustee Meehling that was seconded by Trustee Dana Miller and approved unanimously.