Fairbury city council appoints Rod Coil, approves Outifi, does not rescind nuisance violation

The Fairbury city council unanimously approved a replacement member last week, filling a seat that had been vacant for less than a month.

Illinois native Rod Coil is the newest member of Fairbury's city council. In an anonymous paper ballot last week, the other six present members of the council unanimously approved his appointment to the body.

"I'm relatively new here - only lived here about eight years - and I just want to get to know more about this town - and it's a cool town, it's a nice town, I've met a lot of good people," Coil said after his first meeting as a city councilman. "I guess that's the main reason [I wanted to join] was to try to help."

The seat in Fairbury's third ward came open when Dusty Schmidt and his family moved out of town last month. Mayor Kelly Davis said he knew that spot on the council would be coming open earlier this year, and he identified Coil, who moved to Fairbury after more than four decades working in Illinois, as a potential candidate a couple of months ago.

"I've known Rod for quite a while, he's served on our power board before, and he did real well on that," Davis said during the meeting. "He knows some of the unions in and out so I think he'll be real helpful for us in negotiations."

Coil will fill the remainder of Schmidt's term on the council, through 2026 - after that, he can decide if he wants to campaign for a full term on the council.

In other business, the distinction between a warning and a citation has been a point of contention in local government here for the last few weeks. Fairbury resident Kim Thomas received a nuisance violation in December of last year, citing that she was in possession of too many chickens on her property. In accordance with the code guidelines, she got rid of the excess fowl to get back in compliance. That made it so she never had to face a trial, but it doesn't remove that initial violation from her record. 

"I removed the chickens, they were rehomed, I was never issued a citation, never taken to court - so in my opinion, this is a warning letter, and not a violation," Thomas said at the city council meeting. 

That persisting warning is now preventing Thomas from tapping into the ECAP program to acquire land from the Jefferson County Land Bank, which she wants to use to construct a community garden. Thomas has spoken to both bodies over the last month, and Tuesday asked the council to consider expunging the nuisance violation from her record.

"If the city does not abate [the violation], the city has the option to go to court and take care of it itself. Typically, most owners take care of their nuisances once they are notified of them," city attorney Kurth Brashear explained. "The Land Bank's policy simply says if there has been a nuisance issued, you're ineligible. That is not a determination the Land Bank makes - it is determined by what either the City of Fairbury or the Village of Endicott issued. Your request, I believe, to the council, is to retract that nuisance. But it was a nuisance that was issued to you, it's not a warning or a citation, and you must take action to correct it, which I think everybody is acknowledging you did."

Councilmember Brad Kuzelka presented a motion to do so, but since there was no second, no further action was taken.

The limitation elapses after 36 months; Thomas' warning was issued 12 months ago. Land Bank board members stressed there are still plenty of ways for Thomas to acquire that land even if the violation remains on her record.

And finally, the council unanimously approved a plan to launch a pilot program to potentially improve response times during power outages. Electricity superintendent Nate Francis pitched a new platform called Outifi, an alert system to directly communicate with people affected by power outages, while also lightening the load on dispatchers.

"I just felt like when that snowstorm hit last month, I got a lot of personal emails from people because we had no way to communicate to those people," Francis said. "I can't just go around and call these people. But I could, with this application, if we have a major storm, blot out the area [that's affected] and tell those people hey, it's going to be two days before we can get your power back on - in a major catastrophic situation. I just feel like this gets the city of Fairbury up with the coming generation, and is a better way to communicate with the customers."

The AI-powered program will cost $1,000 per month for the next year, the duration of the pilot. All seven present members of the council - including Coil in one of his official acts as a member - approved the pilot, which will take effect after planning stages are completed.