Agreement with Colorado firm allows City Council meetings to be broadcast on website while creating searchable database

QUINCY — People who want to watch Quincy City Council meetings on Monday night will soon have another way to do so.

Aldermen approved a proposal from Granicus of Denver, Colo, for a five-year contract for $126,655.05 for the Peak Agenda Management and GovMeetings Live Cast platforms.

City Clerk Laura Oakman said the Granicus program will allow a livestream of the City Council meetings to be shown on the city’s website instead of Facebook. A meeting agenda will be available on the page.

“There’s a good search engine, so if you wanted to look up the (proposed 48^th and State) roundabout, you can do a search,” Oakman said. “It’ll bring up every meeting (when) roundabout was brought up, and it’ll even take you to that particular point of the meeting so you don’t have to do a lot of searching. 

“It’s good for transparency. It’s a good way for the public to look up things and also (to) not have to call City Hall for information so much. There are a lot of communities in the state that use this program, and it’s very, very good.”

Mayor Mike Troup said the Granicus program will save the city’s IT department from recording the meetings and uploading them to the city website. He said the database will only be searchable from the first time the Granicus program records the meetings beginning in 2025.

“Laura’s office took a look at it, and (we) really all agreed this was a beneficial change,” Troup said. “By doing a five-year contract versus a three-year contract, the cost per year is a little bit less.”

Aldermen voted to spend $28,085 with HeatTrak, LLC, of Doraville, Ga., to buy 12 industrial pro heated walkway mats and four snow sensors to be installed on the platform at the recycling drop-off site at the HyVee on Harrison. The mats and sensors would prevent the accumulation of snow and ice during the winter months. 

Director of Public Works Jeffrey Conte said city also would have to spend about $10,000 for Ameren Illinois to install electricity at the site. He said the other recycling collection sites don’t have as much of a problem with ice and snow because they have plenty of sunlight, but he acknowledged the other sites eventually will have mats and sensors installed.

“The reason we went in this direction is because the cost of upgrading trucks (to provide curbside service) was going to be over a million dollars in the long term,” he said. “The expense of running this would be a better method.”

“Can we close them on icy days?” Alderman Dave Bauer (D-2) asked.

“We were concerned that people, if they show up with their recycling and they see it’s closed, they’re going to just drop their materials on site,” Conte said. “We don’t really want to do that HyVee.”

Aldermen approved the low bid of $796,338.90 from Laverdiere Construction of Macomb for the first phase of a water and sewer Improvements project on 18th Street from Adams to State. The project calls for:

• Replacing the water main from Payson Avenue north to the alley south of State.
• Replacing all the lead water service lines on 18^th Street in this area.
• Upgrading the corners at 18th and Ohio and 18th and State to meet ADA requirements.
• Spot repairs of the sanitary sewer.

Eric Entrup (R-1) noted the bid submitted by Rees Construction of Quincy was $12,315 higher than the Laverdiere bid. He asked about the city’s purchasing manual which mandates that 50 percent of a company’s employees working on any construction project involving the use of city funds must be residents of the county.

Engineering Manager Steve Bange said out-of-town construction companies typically ask for that mandate to be waived as part of the bidding process.

“Do we want to just not have (the mandate) anymore so we’re not waiving this every time year after year?” Entrup asked. “What’s the point of having it If we just waive it?”

“I believe we did discuss that a few months ago at Central Services,” Bange said. “It didn’t get much traction there.”

“Well, I’ll just put it out there for everyone to chew on,” Entrup said. “Right now, it’s Christmas. We can think about it.”

Aldermen voted to agree with the following recommendations by the Quincy Plan Commission and have ordinances drafted:

• Amend various sections of Chapter 162 Zoning Regulation including site plan review, commercial signage, accessory buildings and Plan Commission applications.
• Subdivide one lot into two lots the property at 1300-1400 Harrison Street under the “small tracts” provision of the subdivision ordinance. The lots would be 1.36 acres for an existing HyVee convenience store and 11.74 acres for an existing HyVee grocery store and undeveloped land.
• Rezoned approximately one acre of land along North 18^th, including 1900 N. 18th, 1910 N. 18th and 1920 N. 18th from light industrial (M1) to single-family residential (R1C).

Aldermen voted to agree with the following recommendations by the Traffic Commission and have ordinances drafted:

• A “No Parking” zone to be implemented on the north side of Vermont, extending west a distance of 130 feet from the centerline of N. 10th Street.
• Installing a streetlight on an existing power pole on the east side of 18th Street, north of the 18th and State intersection, and notifying Ameren Illinois of the lighting request.
• Removing a fire lane at Third Street on south side of Vermont 120 feet south and adding 100 feet of “No Parking” on the east side of Third Street, extending north a distance of 135 feet from the centerline of Vermont.

Aldermen agreed with the Traffic Commission and denied the installation of stop signs at the intersection of 14th and Payson Avenue, the intersection of 15th and Adams and on Diana Drive at N. 12^th Street.