Another end of the year is upon us, so it’s a good time to reflect and look at what all has been accomplished this past year within the Village. In addition, it’s a good time to look at what we have up for discussions and what we hope to achieve in the upcoming year. 

Starting off, we continue to improve the Village website. This is always a top priority in order to give the residents the most up to date and correct information at all times at their fingertips. There are still improvements to be made as well as the information that continuously needs updated, however, the website has and will be the best place for information within the Village that is on the internet.We encourage residents to use this website as a first and main source to gain correct, factual and up-to-date information. In addition, any questions, comments, and concerns can be sent directly to the board members to ensure that your voice is heard and that issues are dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible. We continue to have the added resource of the Hey311 app. This app continues to be beneficial for our community by giving residents the opportunity to take pictures of potential issues around the Village and post the photos on the app which notifies all village employees immediately. We hope to see this app’s usage increase through this year. As always, you can also call the Village offices to speak with someone during office hours or schedule an appointment to meet to discuss topics more thoroughly.

This year the Village has partnered with Safe House Animal Rescue League in order to help control the population of the feral cats in the Village through a Trap, Neuter, Release program. This program has seen great success as the Village has been able to T.N.R 35 cats and thus halting the reproduction of up to 135 possible new kittens in the Village. This could never have been accomplished without the efforts from a very select couple of individuals helping throughout the year and we are greatly appreciative of their support and efforts. Anyone who sees any new kittens or feral cats, those whose ears are not clipped, should report them right away to the Village so we may stay on top of the population control efforts. For more information on this process you can read the post about the program on the Village website or can reach out to the Village or Safe House for all questions and concerns. 

Some of the more neglected roadways were again repaired this year in hopes to continuously have a focus on the roadways and their conditions. Some things to keep in mind is that the Village does not have the resources or abilities to fix larger holes. The Village does have patch mix that can fix the smaller holes around town but this mix is not a solution and is rather a band aid. The mix will eventually fail and the hole will appear again with this temporary patch mix that we use.  The only permanent solution is to have a company come in to repair the overall road correctly and properly.

Numosh Park continues to see improvements. The plan was to have a sidewalk and  concrete pad installed as well as the landscaping this year, however due to lack of resources and companies abilities we were only able to have the fabulous landscaping installed by Hornbaker Gardens.

The Village has approved and is in the process of transitioning its accounting and record keeping over to Quickbooks online system which has helped improve the overall efficiency of the record keeping and pay system for the entire Village. This helps keep the records organized,balanced, well maintained, as well as giving our Village workers a much needed improvement in how we handle our Village Payment system. This transition is still ongoing and will continue to be transitioned over as time allows.

The Village was able to host 2 very successful Electronic Recycling Events in the Village. The first was for just the Village residents where we had approximately 98 vehicles help fill up 1 and 1⁄2 dumpsters of  waste. The other was a county wide event where they were able to collect 16,700 pounds of electronic waste. These events went very well and smoothly due to a large part of our Village workers abilities in preparing the sites for the events.

During the fall the Village partnered with Hungry World Farms to arrange a free roadside leaf collection service that allowed the Village to pick up all leaf collection bags and deliver them to Hungry World Farms for them to then be used in a safe and alternative method than burning. The overall hope and plan was to help eliminate the need for burning leaves within the Village limits as well as improve the air quality for residents during the fall. The Village workers picked up and delivered over 150 leaf disposal bags and a noticeable reduction in burning within the Village was noticed and mentioned numerous times.

 

2024 Plans Ahead

This year we hope to see many areas of the Village under construction. Tiskilwa has been fortunate to receive multiple grants and funding to improve some much needed areas around the town. We understand that these changes will impact all residents and ask for your understanding and patience during these phases of construction

We have been awarded a grant to replace 4 bridges in the Village: Walnut St., State St., Main St., and High St. We plan to start these constructions this year. We also have received funding for the Arch Street pedestrian bridge sidewalk that will be replaced this year that will be an entire new sidewalk and railing. 

We received grant funding to renovate the entire Lions West Memorial Park. This will include a new multi-use court for basketball, tennis and pickleball as well as new fencing surrounding it.  A brand new parking lot area will be placed alongside the east side of the park. All of the old playground equipment will be removed and replaced with new multi-sensory equipment as well as a new spot in the southwest area for fitness equipment. All of the old mulch will also be replaced with a more safe rubber mulch. The old restroom will be torn down and completely replaced with a brand new restroom. New sidewalks, benches, a drinking fountain as well as upgraded lighting will also be installed. 

Another Grant will be for the Village to install a new water line to connect Adams St water line to Brewster St. to help eliminate dead ends in the system and improve water flow. We hope to start and complete this project this year. 

Numosh Park will continue to see improvements as the Village has approved concrete work to be installed as well as other improvements that will be discussed. 

The Alleyway between State St and South St will be opened up this year.

The Village approved a community tree program with Great Lakes Urban Forestry Management Plan that will inventory and assess all the Village trees and put together a plan moving forward on the proper placement and types of trees to be planted in the Village. This will also put together a plan for trees on residential properties with a reimbursement program installed with it.

Our west lift station continues to run at half capacity causing issues as well as putting us at risk for further issues. We are in the process of putting out for bid the work needing to be done to completely renovate the entire station to improve the whole system as well as making it safe for our workers to be able to work on the system when needed. During this construction new culverts will be installed as well as the drainage and ditch along Galena will be regraded to help the water flow correctly and out of the Village as it should.

 

We are again finalizing our grant proposal for the Village water tower that will be placed on the west side of Numosh Park. This tower will allow for adequate storage of the entire town’s water needs as well as allowing us to start fixing a lot of our water issues in the Village. We should hear about this decision towards the beginning of the summer. Please keep in mind that the plan for the water tower is merely the start to a long process of upgrading and improving our water issues throughout the Village. 

The Village has applied for grant funding to replace the outdated and unused Emergency Siren in the Village. The new siren will be moved to a location that will better serve the Village to be able to warn the entire village and we hope to hear about this decision this year.

 

With all of the plans moving forward this year to not only improve some areas that are in need of attention but also improve the overall quality of life in Tiskilwa there are still many areas of concern and needs that need to be addressed. 

The well system has been underperforming this year and has put major stress on our entire system. The motors that pump the water have been unable to perform up to expected capacity. More work is being done on this system to identify and fix the problem that is believed to be cracks in the piping system. During this time the Water tank that we have will also be cleaned and properly cared for. While the tank is cleaned it will cause the entire town to be placed under a boil order. When this plan is solidified and dates confirmed an announcement will be made more formal so that the entire Village is aware and able to handle it.

Our waste water plant continues to degrade and is in need of attention. This past year we were able to fix and resolve some of the major air leaks all over our aeration system  which caused under half of our diffusers to provide aeration. This was a great improvement, however we continue to see issues with our motors failing throughout and replacements are needed as our only replacement motor was seized up and unusable. The Sand filters will be needing drained and cleaned this year as well to help the entire system run efficiently 

Another concern for the Village is the water meters. We have experienced many water meters breaking or no longer working. The current meters that we use are outdated and discontinued. The village wide meters will need to be looked into for replacement. Please inform the village if you are aware of your water meter or reader not reading correctly.  Plans will be created for the future to stay proactive on these issues before they fail any further and cause any major issues. The board continues to discuss other areas around the village that need further improvements.

For further information and clarification, please reach out to the Village. Please keep in mind that many of these previous topics are still up for discussion and may change due to various reasons or issues that may arise. In addition, feel free to contact the Village Office at any time regarding any comments, issues, concerns and/or suggestions. To schedule an appointment to meet and discuss any issues, please contact the Village Office.

 

Happy Holidays