Village plans increases in Appropriations Ordinance
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by Rachel LeBeane
MT. AUBURN — The Village of Mt. Auburn held a regular meeting on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. in the Village Hall.
Village Treasurer Charlene Saulsbury carefully went through suggested changes to the annual Village Appropriations Ordinance with the full board present at the meeting.
“I have a pretty good idea of what we need to do, but I’m not gonna do this by myself, so I’m gonna tell you all what I’ve done.” Saulsbury stated before giving the Trustees and the Mayor a quick rundown of all the suggested changes she had come up with.
To match the increased cost of services and products, and well as address increased needs, most items were increased. Saulsbury listed that she planned to increase the pay for Trustees to account for special meetings and committee meetings, as well as increasing the pay for the Village employee. It was also stated that she planned on raising the attorney costs by about $1,000 a month to help cover the expenses of Village Attorney Tiffani Baxter.
Trustee Bridget Willard asked why the Village was spending so much on attorney fees. Saulsbury explained that with all the ordinance updating the Village was doing, they were having Baxter do a lot of legal legwork for them. That increased rate would reflect that, as well as give the Village some cushion in case there was any litigation that Baxter had to handle.
Most of the other appropriations were also increased. The amount of the increase was estimated by Saulsbury based off of the bills she was paying as well as projected guesses from Mayor Mike Whitehead and other Trustees. Saulsbury planned on making a draft of the appropriations that would show what the projections were and what they had been raised to, and sending it out to the Trustees for review. She would then draft a new ordinance and send it to Baxter for review before bringing the final copy before the Board in April for approval.
Also on the subject of ordinances, the Board once again discussed how they wanted to handle ordinance violation letters. Half the Board felt that having one person sign the letter was fine, while the other half said that at least three people should sign it. Trustee Don Henderson stepped in to explain that both options were alright because in the end, everything had to go through the Board regardless.
He explained that anything the Ordinance Committee decided to do would have to go through the full Board for approval first – so if someone saw and signed a violation letter, it would go before the Board and collect all the necessary signatures there before being mailed out. The Board was satisfied with the explanation.
Saulsbury also told the Village that she had finally received the audit. “I asked the auditor how’d it go, and she said it went well. There were no concerns.” She reported. The audit cost the Village roughly $8,800.
Whitehead told the Board that the state Gaming Commission had sent him a letter explaining that the state had accidentally been paying the Village too much for their video gaming machines – so the Village wouldn’t be getting any payments from them for a time until the discrepancy was fixed and the rate adjusted. He also stated that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had decided to make the Village test its water every six months – despite the United Rural Water Cooperative saying that the water only needed to be tested every three years.
On the subject of water, the Board once against discusses doing a 5% rate increase in May instead of the usual 3%. This was in direct response to the 5% increase that URWC had levied on the Village. While no one on the Board really wanted to increase the water rates, they all recognized that they had no other choice this time.
“We have to be financially responsible,” Said Trustee Sandy Gooder, “And this will match their increase and keep us level.”
Also approved at the meeting:
The next regular meeting of the Village of Mt. Auburn will be held on Tuesday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Village Hall. The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.
