Five Quick Hits from Tuesday's Yorkville City Council Meeting

No major headlines came out of Tuesday's Yorkville City Council meeting, but here are five quick highlights:

• The newly elected officials will be sworn in at the next City Council meeting May 10, so some farewells were said Tuesday. Yorkville residents Tam and Mike O’Connell presented plants to outgoing Ward 3 Alderman and outgoing Mayor . Alderman-elect thanked outgoing Ward 1 Alderman Wally Werderich, whom Colosimo unsuccessfully ran against four years ago. (Werderich did not seek re-election this year.)

Outgoing Ward 2 Alderman congratulated City Clerk , who voters selected to be the next Ward 2 alderman. Plocher also thanked city staff. Plocher does not plan to attend the May 10 meeting.

“You’re by far the finest staff anyone could ask to work with,” Plocher said.

• A proposal to reduce the senior garbage subsidy was tabled. Sutcliff had suggested limiting the $1 senior garbage rate to those seniors who qualify for Circuit Breaker, a state grant program for senior citizens. City Administrator Bart Olson estimated that the city was spending $142,632 a year to offer the $1 rate to all seniors, but could reduce that cost to about $56,700 by limiting it to seniors on the Circuit Breaker program.

Some aldermen said they wanted more time to discuss the proposed changes and their impact. Sutcliff and Plocher, both outgoing aldermen, were the only two to vote against postponing the decision.

• A resolution mentioning “bike accommodations” had nothing to do with the . Aldermen passed a resolution indicating they did not want state officials to pursue bicycle accommodations along Route 47 between Route 126 and Somonauk Street. The city’s long-term plans route bicycles off the main road through that area, so the resolution just formalized those plans for state officials, Olson said.

• One citizen spoke against reducing the senior garbage subsidy. Yorkville resident and Zoning Board of Appeals member Charles Walker told City Council members to “get a life,” during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Walker said city officials waste far more money on the REC Center than subsidizing senior garbage by only charging senior citizens $1 per two-month billing cycle.

“Some of you, as well as people in the state and federal government, think seniors have money,” Walker said. “Maybe they do; maybe they don’t. But I’ll remind you: There are [millions of] seniors who can vote, and it’s growing every day.”

• Another Yorkville resident challenged the city’s Resident Kathy Neddo said that expense for the city just didn’t sit well in light of the and increased property tax to cover the city’s.

“I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I think this line item in the budget deserves just as much scrutiny as any other,” Neddo said.