Renovation work on exterior of City Hall nearly complete, while work on inside about to begin

QUINCY — Aldermen learned during Monday night’s Quincy City Council meeting that work on the outside of Quincy’s City Hall is near completion, and work on the inside of City Hall is about to get started.

They approved invoices from Klingner and Associates totaling $73,246.78 for construction administration services for the City Hall renovations. Aldermen awarded a contract of $7.778 million on April 8 for the renovation of City Hall.

Greg Fletcher (R-1) asked Director of Public Works Jeffrey Conte if the renovation project was near completion.

“Oh, no, no,” Conte said, eliciting laughter in the City Council chambers. “The exterior is done. The roof is about done. The HVAC is close to finish. There are two more units to set, and the electric is done for that. The big portion is still a few weeks away when we start to cut the lobby and start all that work.”

Aldermen approved a bid of $153,352 from Leffers Landscape and Nursery for a Central Business District Beautification Program for a four-year contract. The city has operated a downtown beautification program since 1998. The service area is Third to Ninth, Jersey to Vermont. Streetscape maintenance run from May 1 through Oct. 31 each year of the contract.

The requirements of the program are: 

• Weekly removal of debris, weeds, trash and cigarette butts from streets, curbs, sidewalks and city-owned parking lots within the service area’
• Weekly cleaning of bus shelters and maintaining Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibits;
• Monthly spraying of weeds in non-landscaped parking lots, curbs, sidewalks and alleys;
• Planting in two landscape medians and 65 planter boxes.

The resolution was approved by a 7-5 vote, with Mike Farha (R-4) and Ben Uzelac (D-7) absent. Mayor Mike Troup cast the eighth vote for approval.

Aldermen also heard from Jason Priest, who spoke during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting. Priest had been absent from City Council meetings for more than two years, telling Troup in August 2022 that “Jesus has 10 sticks of dynamite for you,” before returning to speak last week. 

“The police force in our town has enough weapons to walk in here and annihilate all of you,” Priest said. “It’s called going postal. Hasn’t happened. Oh God, please don’t let it happen.”

He asked Troup if the city was self-insured. When Troup didn’t respond, Priest said, “The mayor has rejected what I say. Again, I’m at war. I’m at war with that man right there (pointing to Troup). He needs to leave. He needs to resign right now, and I wish he would.”

Priest called Adam Yates, chief of the Quincy Police Department, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” then claimed a “bunch of bikes” are underneath the City Hall building. He wants to donate the bikes to the homeless, then made a pitch to aldermen to promote biking in the city.

“Please, guys, let’s take a timeout and think about bike riders,” he said. “I’d ask anyone to join me riding a bike.”

In other action, aldermen: 

• Approved the Quincy Museum and the Quincy Public Schools Foundation to conduct raffles.
• Heard a proclamation declaring Nov. 25 to Jan. 1 as Quinsippi Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving: Project Red Ribbon Month.
• Approved Troup’s appointments of Nicole Mason, Preston Jarvis and Ross Glidewell as auxiliary police officers.
• Approved resolution allocating $600,000 of motor fuel tax funds for the replacement of the Harrison Bridge over Curtis Creek and $278,728 to Klingner and Associates for construction inspection services. They also approved a bid of $1,993,105.50 from County Contractors of Quincy. The motor fuel tax funds, along with $199,311 in city water funds, will be used to fill the funding gap for the $2.567 million project. 
• Approved a bid of $9,720.88 from Summy Tire for a two-year contract for the purchase of automotive, truck and off-road tires.
• Approved a quote from Vermeer Midwest of Goodfield for $73,051.70 to buy a 2024 Vermeer SC70TX track-mounted stump grinder.
• Approved a 12-month subscription to PowerEngage by PowerDMS for $9,876, with plans to buy and activate the software in 2025. PowerEngage is a community engagement and feedback software solution designed to gather feedback on the services provided by the Quincy Police Department. “The feedback this tool will provide will help us identify our strengths, improve on our weaknesses and monitor our overall community satisfaction rating, giving us relevant data we can use to better serve the Quincy community,” Yates wrote in his purchase proposal to aldermen.