O’Fallon City Council addressing Rieder Road, Hampton Inn, food truck & more

Another agreement helping to pave the way for development at Rieder Road was approved and an ordinance allowing alcohol sales at a new downtown bistro advanced after O’Fallon City Council action Monday.

Because the city needs to place a 10-inch diameter sewer main on Rieder Road, a resolution seeking a facility encroachment agreement with CSX Transportation was approved. The cost is $9,050.

It’s necessary for the Rieder Road Lift Station Project to proceed because the opening of the new Interstate-64 interchange has increased the need for sewer service to this area. A study conducted by the city in 2015 identified that a lift station installed along Rieder Road about midway between I-64 and U.S. 50 could serve a future area of 1,500 acres. But a portion of this alignment is within the CSX railroad right-of-way and requires this agreement.

A new development downtown, the Boarding House Bistro, is planned for 212 E. State St. Crystal Johnson has requested both package liquor and pour liquor licenses for retail sales and onsite consumption, so amending a staff recommendation was necessary for the ordinance up for first reading.

The ancillary alcohol sales would include an outdoor seating area with alcohol consumption permitted. That would be one table on the front porch and two tables on the west side of the building.

The property needs to be rezoned from Community Business District to B-1 Planned Community Business District for planned use approval.

Hours of operation would be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday, with the possible exception of opening for holidays or coordination with downtown events.

In other action, the city approved a minor subdivision, “The Estates at Reno’s Ranch,” which is a 3-acre tract of land at 310 O’Fallon Troy Road that will be subdivided into two lots. Property owners Dennis and Darcie Reno were seeking annexation, which was approved in an ordinance Monday. The existing home is on 1.43 acres and a new homes will be constructed on the 1.43 acre Lot 2.

For the Simmons Road Bridge Project, a change in the engineering agreement was necessary to design the new bridge.

The existing bridge is a former township bridge whose jurisdiction was transferred to the city when the Reserves of Timber Ridge was annexed into O’Fallon. Bridge inspections note deterioration that requires removal and replacement.

The city recently required a federal grant to pay for 75 percent of the construction costs of the project. The engineering fees will be paid for the Motor Fuel Tax Funds.

Previously, an agreement was made with Rhutasel and Associates to perform the work but was recently voided because the company no longer has structural engineers who can complete the project.Those former Rhutasel engineers are now with Gonzalez Companies, so the new agreement is with Gonzalez.

The Public Works Committee recommended replacing the cell unit for fire alarms at 18 city facilities because Verizon’s 3G network is going offline at year’s end. Johnson Controls will remove and replace the existing ones with 4G units.

The city currently has a monitoring and maintenance agreement already with Johnson Controls for these fire alarm systems but this work is considered extra, and the cost is $25,956.07.

Mayor’s Report

The council and the city honored its longest employee, Mohammed Huq, on his retirement after 43 years as a civil engineer in the public works department.

Jeff Taylor, director of public works, said to put it in perspective, when he started on July 12 ,1976, there were roughly 8,000 residents and during his tenure, the city has quadrupled in size.

Mayor Herb Roach said Huq had an instrumental role in the growth of the city because of his due diligence and his oversight of public infrastructure. applauding him for his sacrifices in helping to make “O’Fallon the amazing city it is.”

“We all owe you a debt of gratitude,” Roach said. “Dedication like Huq has made a difference with the service we’re able to perform as a city.”

More on Rieder Road and City Development

At the Oct. 19 council meeting, a special service agreement was established for Rieder Road regarding Tri-State’s essential infrastructure development. Water is there and the city is in the process of extending sewer lines, but the site still needs natural gas and road improvements.

The agreement is for $1.7 million and the funds must be submitted to Ameren in early 2021 so the gas main extension can be completed by next fall.

In order to finance this development, the state requires a Special Service Agreement. The bonds issued will be for $1.7 million, which covers the gas line at $1,050,000 and the road improvements for $700,000. As with previous SSA agreements, the SSA bonds will be the liability of the service area property owners and not the city.

Hampton Inn update

In other council action Oct. 19, for the construction of the Hampton Inn at 430 Regency Park, the council approved the redevelopment agreement with Regency Park Investors.

That agreement allows for the developer to recoup the cost of constructing the Hampton Inn hotel with the additional 1% business district tax collected on the room rentals and food and beverage sales generated by the Hampton Inn.

However, the project’s maximum total for eligible costs is $2,685,000. But the total amount of these costs are to be recovered by Regency Park Investors, who are dependent upon the final receipts and total amount of business district tax collected.

Special Permit for Food Truck

Some confusion regarding how often a food truck would be present on the Mirage Wine & Spirits parking lot at 2020 U.S. 50 resulted in an amendment for a special event permit. The council agreed to two days a week for Lillie’s and Dedo’s Food Truck. The truck will be there from 10 a.m. for set up to 10 p.m. for clean-up.

The food truck has applied for their mobile food vendor license with the city clerk’s office.

All food trucks are required to get special event coupons from the Illinois Department of Revenue so the appropriate sales tax collected and remitted to the state is coded to O’Fallon as well as insuring they are remitting the 1% food and beverage tax to the city.

This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 12:42 PM.