AMBOY — The Amboy City Council welcomed a new Alderman during Monday night’s meeting.

The Amboy City Council met Monday night in the University of Illinois Extension office. The meeting was postponed a week from the normal third Monday of the month due to weather.

Amboy Mayor John Schamberger recommended Jake Leffelman as the Alderman replacement for Eric McLauglin in Ward 1.

The four members of the council who were present voted in favor of Leffelman as the new Alderman of Ward 1. Alderman Bill Bontz was absent from the meeting.

Façade Improvements

Schamberger presented an idea to the council that would continue with the improvements that are being made in the city, including downtown. The idea is that the city would offer a pool of money that local businesses could apply for in assisting them with improvements on their building. Schamberger said the City of Rochelle has a program that Amboy could mirror. He said he would like to develop a façade improvement committee to look into the possibilities of what could be done.

He said that he thinks this could be something great to offer, and help some of the businesses to clean things up a little bit.

Amboy City Attorney Matt Keegan told the council that if the city offered a grant to the businesses it would trigger prevailing wage. He said that a TIF district, like Rochelle has, doesn’t trigger prevailing wage.

Alderman Brett Dewey agreed that prevailing wage would throw a wrench into the program.

In other board news:

• Schamberger proclaimed that March 10-16 is Girl Scout Week in Amboy. He thanked the local Girl Scouts for coming to the meeting.
• The library board is currently looking for a new member to serve.
• The city is working on a plan with Willett Hoffman to line the old sewers in the city. The city is looking at the City of Oregon as an example. By lining the old sewers, it would extend the life of the sewers by at least 30 years.
• Schamberger said the next Amboy Chamber Business After Hours will be held later in March at the Shady Oaks Country Club. He thanked all that attended the February Business After Hours event at the Dinges Fire Company.
• The council heard a concern from Amboy resident Camden Ross who said he had gotten four tickets in the mail saying he violated the dog at large ordinance. He told the council that these tickets are due to another citizen having a vendetta against him, and that this has been going on for eight months. He said that local police have sat outside his house like they are hardened criminals. He said he has talked to the Amboy Police and was dismissed by them saying this was a petty neighbor dispute. He presented the council with evidence of his claim and asked that the council overturn the tickets and have someone talk to the police and the neighbor about stopping this. Schamberger said they would set up a meeting with the Alderman in Ross’ jurisdiction and with the police chief and look into the matter. Alderman Dennis Weidman said it shouldn’t take more than a week to look into the matter.

The next Amboy City Council meeting will be held at 7 p.m., on Monday, March 18, in the Amboy Community Center.