DeKalb Times

Village of Shabbona Board of Trustees met May 7.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

1. OPENING OF MEETING - Denny Sands, Chair - opened the meeting at 6:30PM

2. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA - none

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA – Kallan Welsh approved, Joshua Snyder second

4. PUBLIC COMMENT – David Meier asked if there was a way to get BST to step on the gas for Purdy Park to get the pavilion up and if there is any way to get music for the festival. Melanie Berg reminded David that the BST is an entirely different committee, separate from the Village. David stated that he knows that, but maybe the Public Affairs committee can push them to get them going. Denny Sands said yes, they could.

5. ROAD ADVERTISING SIGNS – Denny would like to get road advertising signs, with the State park having 400,000 people that go to it yearly, but we do not have that many people that come downtown. He would like to come up with and idea to make road and advertising signs and put them on Indian Road and Preserve Road. Maybe include the school Industrial Arts and Art students to help make them. Will skip over that for now to concentrate on the fireworks.

6. FARMERS’ MARKET – Hunter Rowland gave an update that she currently has 5 vendors for the Farmer’s Market. She has not been able to get a hold of Carole yet. Carole brings a lot of produce to the Farmer’s Market. Cindy Barnes said that she will send Hunter, Carole’s contact information.

7. COMMUNITY GARDEN – Melanie gave a brief update on the Community Garden, that we still have spots for $10/each. 5 spots have already been purchased.

8. AMERICA 250 https://america250.org/ Melanie gave a brief description of America250.org. Melanie explained that next year it will be America’s 250th birthday. The library will also be getting involved with America250.org. Kallan Welsh asked what type of organization this is and if it would cost money. Melanie stated that it is a dot org and no it shouldn’t cost us any money. The committee agreed to get more information.

9. 4TH OF JULY

• Decision on having Festival and Parade in 2025 – The committee is all in agreement that we should have a parade and festival.

o Posters, flyers, and/or postcards –Melanie made a recommendation to the committee for advertisement. Approximately $275 for radio advertisements and approximately $150 for postcards. Kallan agreed that if we are going to do this we need to advertise. Denny asked about other radio stations.

o Other advertisement – Denny asked about other radio stations. Cindy said that last year we paid for the Coyote, but also utilized the WLBK free section and WSPY was free section. We also had posters for business windows.

o Parade

➢ verify/determine route for IDOT resolution - Route was verified for the IDOT resolution. Joshua Snyder asked if it might be worth looking into going through downtown. Don Goncher stated that we couldn’t since it was a State route. Denny said we would not want to close off the downtown for that long. Denny told Joshua and Kallan he wants one of them in charge of the festival and one of them in charge of the parade. Joshua stated he would take charge of the festival and Kallan stated he would take charge of the parade. Denny asked about vest for the guys for the parade. Cindy and Melanie said we have vests at the office. Kallan asked how many volunteers he would need for the parade. Melanie and Don told him he’d need at least 3 volunteers. Melanie and Don will take care of the Illinois Department of Transportation paperwork.

➢ parade invitations – Melanie will send parade information to Kallan.

➢ parade float contest – The committee stated that we will have a contest this year. ➢ prize for winner – No decision made on what prize will be.

o Festival:

➢ verify tent/table/chair/food machine needs -

➢ sponsorship request letters – Melanie will send to Joshua.

➢ craft vendor invitations – Cindy will work on craft vendors.

➢ food truck(s) – Cindy was sending a message to Grant from Battle Axe Coffee. Melanie already spoke to Los Girasoles Taco Truck and they will be there.

➢ bounce house – Melanie will work with Jen getting information on a bounce house and if our insurance will cover it. If not, how much will it cost. Melanie and Jen to work with Shynox Rentals for bounce house cost. Melanie reminded the committee that if we do get a bounce house, we will have to have a volunteer to supervise the bounce house.

➢ ice cream eating contest – Screamers needs to be contacted to see if they will do an ice cream eating contest again this year. Joshua said that he could contact Scott.

➢ BINGO – Jan Schnorr offered to lend us her BINGO game. It was mentioned that we’d have to limit BINGO cards to 3 cards per person per game. That this is a free thing and we’d need a volunteer to run the BINGO game. Denny said that he’d run an afternoon session, possibly 20 games.

➢ yard games/activities – Cindy said that some of the yard games was done by the Village Church, like 9 square.

➢ Singing contest – Denny asked about maybe having a singing contest. Maybe we could contact people and find someone willing to set it up? David suggested possibly doing karaoke. Kallan asked if anyone knows a DJ lives in town. Nobody knew of a DJ in the area.

➢ bags tournament – Don said the one thing that happened last year was that the tournament was extended. People kept playing even though it was ending. Don thinks if we have a tournament and someone to monitor it, people will show up for it.

➢ NFP – Mat Hinkston confirmed that the FD will be having their pancake breakfast again this year. Melanie confirmed that the library will be having their bake sale again. Melanie said that we will not know if the Lions Club will be having their Pork Chop supper until after their meeting on May 28th. Brainstormed to see who else we could contact in the area to invite. Some ideas were Building Shabbona Together, Shabbona Pathway, Indian Creek FFA, Potowatomi, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts, 4H, Shabbona Lee Rollo Museum, and the Masons.

➢ prizes – We will need prizes for door prizes, BINGO and Bags. Cindy said the committee will need to request for sponsors and prizes.

➢ volunteers – Mark Cinnamon, David Meier, Jan Schnorr, and Matthew Tatroe have offered to help. We can also utilize Public Works to set up barricades and picnic tables.

10. NEXT MEETING DATE – Wednesday, May 20th @ 6:30PM

11. ADJOURNMENT – Denny called to adjourn the meeting at 7:28PM.

https://www.shabbona-il.com/media/2551