AMBOY – The Amboy City Council meeting held Wednesday, April 15 had many options to discuss as projects are keeping Mayor Frank Stenzel and the aldermen busy.

During committee reports, Brandon Klein discussed the Amboy Community Building and the excitement surrounding the higher volume of use of the building recently as well as the high level of effort from new manager, Holly Bruington.

Depot Commission committee leader, Dave Shaw, thanked the City of Amboy maintenance crew for fixing the caboose on the train depot and they’re replacing windows on the old depot building.

Greg Noble, library committee head, reported the Pankhurst Memorial Library did receive new fans and electrical work has been done on the building. Noble and Stenzel applauded Pankhurst Director Emily Goff and her staff for the updates to the library.

The council approved a payment of $288,894.95 to Hoerr Construction for the new sewer lining. The bid for the summer street project was also approved to improve Amboy roads by using a different technique than tar and chip.

“When COVID-19 happened, we received about $300,000. We are allowed to spend it on city improvement,” Stenzel said. “We’ve been hanging on to the funds until we got the bid for the sewer lining last year and decided it was something we needed to do.

“We’re going to have a little bit of money left and we’re going to buy valves to replace and maintain our water supply. We’ll also be able to zone the water system, which wasn’t done before.”

Concerns did arise from the audience on two fronts, making sure people are receiving their building permits and repair of Sterling Road was addressed.

The Amboy City Council was asked by Cindy Phillips, summer music coordinator, if it could donate toward music entertainment every Friday or Saturday night at the bandstand downtown. Amboy agreed to $175.

Mayor Stenzel also addressed a grant Amboy may receive through the Lee County Board.

“Lee County received a grant and they’ve used some of the money in Dixon. It’s been offered to us and we’re going to work with the county on abandoned homes. We’d like everyone to know, we’ve picked out four different properties. We’ve sent them to the Lee County Board and its administrator will get with the Amboy Street Superintendent Jeramey Wittenauer.

“We are going to push forward as hard as we can to clean up some of these houses that have been on the city’s radar for years. We’re really excited about it. They’ve had some success with this in Paw Paw and Dixon. We’re hoping we can cash in on some of that grant.”

Toward the end of the meeting, Stenzel said he was impressed with the city cleanup held on Wednesday, April 10 and the tire recycle, 200 car and small tires were brought in, held Saturday, April 13.