MCLEANSBORO, IL — The McLeansboro City Council acted on several items at Tuesday night’s meeting.

The council executed an agreement for management and other administrative services between the city and Southeastern Illinois Regional Planning and Development Commission and for engineering services with Shawnee Engineering regarding a $65,000 grant for sidewalk improvements and ADA compliance at Pearl and Randolph streets.

The city will compensate the commission $3,250, or 5 percent of the grant award amount, and will pay Shawnee a $9,500 engineering fee. The grant requires that the work be bid out to an outside source.

In other business, the city approved the annual tax levy of $11,350,930 for the fiscal year ending April 30 of next year, approved an ordinance prohibiting the sale of recreational cannabis in the city, purchased  a snow plow from Meyer Truck Equipment for $6,900 and purchased cloud-based emergency reporting software for the volunteer fire department.

The council voted in a major change, effective January 1, in the way volunteer firefighters will compensated. The new policy will be based on answered fire calls, participation at monthly meetings and achieved certifications. Mayor Dick Deitz stated the changes will serve to increase firefighter safety and result in better service to the community.

As for renovation plans at City Hall, the council decided to allow the architect to complete plans and then see if it would be more cost effective to renovate the current City Hall or build a new facility.

The council also approved their regular meetings for next year. The January, February and March meetings will be held on the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. All other city council meetings will be held on the second Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m.