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Marengo will ask the state why it can't add a fourth road off the I-90 roundabouts on Route 23, after a property owner asked the city to reconsider a 2018 promise not to seek one. The council also worked through a rewrite of the city's building code, due back for a vote October 12, and approved an after-the-fact $35,331.50 change to the Meyer Road paving job.
Continue reading →Marengo Township's board got a health insurance renewal quote 17 percent higher than this year's and sent it back to the broker for options. The highway commissioner has a state salt contract this winter when seven or eight nearby agencies do not, and the township will meet with IDOT about the Route 23 and River Road intersection.
Continue reading →For the first time since June, Marengo's city council split. A Grant Highway property headed for a small grocery was rezoned 5 to 1 and got its six variances 4 to 2, after council members argued over whether the variances were the right tool. The Chamber's Settlers' Days beer tent passed 5 to 1 after a question about what the event costs the city. And a new $63,975.62 utility truck will finally carry a utility box the city bought years ago and never put on anything.
Continue reading →The park district's interim director has handed the buildings and grounds supervisor full authority over his own department, a change from an arrangement in which the executive director set the grounds crew's daily priorities. The board also learned the printed fall program mailer has been cancelled, that the basement is still flooding after heavy rain, and that the new walking path needs drainage work before winter.
Continue reading →The nuisance and outdoor storage rules Marengo has worked on since summer were adopted Monday night, one section lighter after the council pulled it on the floor. What passed puts a fourteen-day clock on junk piles and on vehicles that do not run. The council also awarded a $623,682.80 paving contract and licensed ten security cameras that staff went out of their way to say are not Flock.
Continue reading →A request to rezone three parcels at Prospect and Prairie for a 24-unit apartment building split the Marengo Planning and Zoning Commission 2-2 on Monday night, sending it to the City Council without a recommendation. That is not the same as nothing: under the zoning code, granting the three variances that travel with it now takes a two-thirds vote of the council rather than a simple majority. Two members were absent and a third recused because he is one of the applicants, leaving four to decide, and the code required all four to agree before the commission could recommend in the applicants' favor. It separately recommended rezoning 605 E. Grant Highway from residential to general business for a grocery, along with six variances describing setbacks and a lot size that are already there.
Continue reading →Two different sets of rule changes were in front of the Marengo City Council on Monday. It adopted one, a renumbering and cleanup of the entire city code, and only discussed the other, the nuisance and outdoor storage rules that would change what property owners can do with their land. The second one drew the crowd, and nothing was decided on it. The council also approved a health insurance renewal that trims a 20.7% PPO increase to about 13.5%, a $629,578 sewer lining contract, and $32,161 of tree removal with the bid process waived.
Continue reading →Marengo has a new Public Works Director: the council unanimously approved Tyler Ankney's appointment Monday night, with a start date the morning of its next meeting. It also approved the lift-station change order it tabled in July after the city's engineer called the added cost fair. The council discussed a first-ever mural policy. The night's expected centerpiece, a package of tougher nuisance and outdoor-storage rules, slipped a second time, pulled from the agenda with the code officer who wrote it unable to attend.
Continue reading →Marengo's City Council lost power ten minutes into its July 13 meeting and finished in the dark, working through nearly the whole agenda before adjourning early. Members adopted a $32.94 million appropriation ordinance for the year ahead, awarded a $4.86 million contract to extend water and sewer along Route 23, seated new Ward 3 alderman Ryan Mueller, and swore in Police Chief Andrew Kjellgren and Sergeant Roy Amaya. A lift-station change order was tabled, and a nuisance-rules discussion was pushed to a future meeting.
Continue reading →The Marengo City Council met June 22. Members approved three engineering work orders for the city's water and sewer upgrades and talked over possible new rules for e-bikes and scooters. The city also expects to launch bank-draft autopay for utility bills on September 1. In closed session, the council interviewed four candidates for the vacant Ward 3 seat but didn't make an appointment.
Continue reading →The council named Andrew Kjellgren chief of police. It approved engineering for this year's road program after pushback over Railroad Street, and locked in a two-year natural gas contract for city buildings.
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