ROCHELLE — At its Monday meeting, the Rochelle City Council approved future increases to its video gaming terminal fees by a vote of 6-1 with Councilman Dan McDermott voting against the change.
The state’s Video Gaming Act recently authorized municipalities to raise the maximum annual fee per terminal to $250. Many surrounding municipalities have adjusted the annual fee to $250.
The previous maximum fee amount per terminal was $25. The city currently has 124 video gaming terminals.
Gaming fees will be raised in Rochelle gradually over a three-year period starting Jan. 1, 2023 to $100, to $150 on Jan. 1, 2024 and to $250 on Jan 1, 2025.
The establishment must be a current liquor license holder while also meeting the requirements for their liquor license. An annual permit fee for each video gaming terminal shall be paid in advance on or before Dec. 31 of each year. Each permit shall expire on Dec. 31 of each year. There will be no prorated fees and funds will go towards the general fund.
“I just don’t like the opportunistic, taxing them because we can thing,” McDermott said. “Taxes are supposed to be because we need stuff. I’m just opposed to taking the max tax on everything you can.”
City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said the gaming terminal fees won’t be a large revenue generator for the city and the increased revenue will help to cover costs of staff time when working on gaming and liquor license issues.
“If you look at how much goes through these terminals every month, you have $6.29 million,” Fiegenschuh said. “In the last couple of years we’ve seen more applications for liquor licenses because they want gaming. There have been 2-3 instances where those have taken a lot of legal and staff time. And the liquor licenses really don’t cover those costs. One reason to implement this is it takes a lot of legal and staff time to do these things.”
Property sale
The council unanimously approved the sale of property it owns at 201 N. Washington St.
“City-owned property located at 201 N. Washington St. has been deemed surplus real estate property located within a defined redevelopment project area and is no longer necessary, appropriate, useful to or in the best interest of the City of Rochelle to retain ownership of the property,” the meeting’s agenda packet said.
The property is .67 acres and has a 15,624 square-foot industrial building located on it, which was reportedly constructed in 1916. The property is zoned for light industry. Requests for proposals were made public for interested parties to submit proposals, and the offer the city accepted Monday was from Josh Schacht for $119,000.
Energy credits
The council unanimously approved an ordinance for the sale of renewable energy credits (RECs) it accumulates at solar arrays at Rochelle Municipal Utilities’ Wastewater Treatment Plant and in the Village of Hillcrest. The city is also entitled to RECs produced at the Rochelle Energy Center at the Rochelle Landfill.
RECs can generate revenue by being sold to companies seeking to lower their emissions footprint. City staff has met with Engie Energy Market NA, Inc. to formalize an agreement to sell the RECs generated from June 1, 2022 through May 30, 2024 at a rate of $12 per solar REC and $14 per methane REC. The new contract is estimated to generate an annual revenue of $270,000, which is three times the revenue of the city’s recently-expired contract.
In previous years, the revenues have been used to fund RMU’s income assistance program.
“That’s the $500 credits we give our low to moderate-income residents,” Fiegenschuh said. “If this is approved, we’ll continue to fund that program at the $500 level and any additional revenue will go back into the general electric fund.”
Substation
The council unanimously approved a contract change order with Whittaker Construction & Excavating for its Ritchie Road Substation project in an amount of $110,506.
The substation switchgear experienced a significant delay in delivery due to supply chain and labor challenges due to COVID-19, the city’s agenda packet said. The delay pushed the project completion date from December to April and the contractor is claiming additional charges for winter construction and additional general conditions to cover the additional four months of construction.
The $110,506 is 1.2 percent of the total contract amount.
Auction
The council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing Bearrows Real Estate & Auction Co. to auction surplus property owned by the city. The auction will take place at 1030 S. 7th St. on Saturday, Sept. 17 and will be performed by Mayor John Bearrows at no cost to the city.
Auction proceeds will be utilized to fund the purchase of additional holiday décor throughout the community. Items to be sold include: Various office furniture items, 15 round folding tables on wheels, a 1984 Hotsy pressure washer, a 1989 walk-behind target pavement saw (bad engine), a Bobcat seven-foot straight blade plow, two Bobcat skid loader tires and a 2005 GMC 7500 with Hi-Ranger 5TC-55 bucket.
Industry
Bearrows read a proclamation designating Sept. 6, 2022 Industry Appreciation Day in the city and presented the proclamation to City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh.
Arbor Day
Bearrows also read a proclamation designating April 29, 2022 Arbor Day in the city and presented the proclamation to City Sustainability Coordinator Molly Sedig. The proclamation was made due to the city’s efforts to reapply for a Tree City, USA designation.
Good News
Fiegenschuh read two Good News awards at the meeting. The first went to City Engineer Sam Tesreau and Public Works Director Tim Isley for their work on the 4th Avenue storm sewer project.
“I was approached by a couple of business owners recently after we had that heavy rain downtown and they complimented the city and said that was the first time in decades that the street wasn’t flooded,” Fiegenschuh said.
The second Good News award was given to the city’s IT department for its recent work on the city’s communications infrastructure.
“We’re very lucky to have the IT staff we have,” Fiegenschuh said. “They’re the best IT staff I’ve ever worked with and they do a great job. I wanted to thank them for all of their hard work.”
Rochelle News-Leader | City council: Video gaming terminal fee increases approved & Latest News Update
Rochelle News-Leader | City council: Video gaming terminal fee increases approved & More Live News
All this news that I have made and shared for you people, you will like it very much and in it we keep bringing topics for you people like every time so that you keep getting news information like trending topics and you It is our goal to be able to get
all kinds of news without going through us so that we can reach you the latest and best news for free so that you can move ahead further by getting the information of that news together with you. Later on, we will continue
to give information about more today world news update types of latest news through posts on our website so that you always keep moving forward in that news and whatever kind of information will be there, it will definitely be conveyed to you people.
Rochelle News-Leader | City council: Video gaming terminal fee increases approved & More News Today
All this news that I have brought up to you or will be the most different and best news that you people are not going to get anywhere, along with the information Trending News, Breaking News, Health News, Science News, Sports News, Entertainment News, Technology News, Business News, World News of this made available to all of you so that you are always connected with the news, stay ahead in the matter and keep getting today news all types of news for free till today so that you can get the news by getting it. Always take two steps forward
Credit Goes To News Website – This Original Content Owner News Website . This Is Not My Content So If You Want To Read Original Content You Can Follow Below Links