By Alexis Rico

On January 28, 2021, the Village of Santa Clara Council met for a regular meeting session through Zoom at 6:10 p.m. at the Village of Santa Clara town hall. Mayor Richard Bauch, Mayor Pro-Tem Albert Esparza, Trustee Patricia Montgomery, and Trustee Arnold Lopez were all present for the meeting.

The council began the meeting by taking the time to go over the agenda. They then agreed to approve the agenda before going on with the meeting.

The council then approved the minutes for the regular meeting held on January 14, 2021.

The next item for the agenda was the committee reports.

"There are no action or updates to report for the committees due to the current circumstances," Mayor Bauch said.

Trustee Esparza did discuss with the council about some property destruction that had happened in the past month at the Santa Clara Cemetery.

Trustee Montgomery suggested that the council could look into getting a camera to be set up in the area to see what is going on and who is doing the damage to the property.

Bauch agreed that this could be something that the Village could look into.

For the Mayor's report, Bauch stated that he wanted to discuss a few items with the council.

First, Bauch brought up to the council the idea of continuing the new numbering system for different areas near Santa Clara such as Race Track road to make things more consistent.

Bauch also discussed with the council about getting the new addresses on Google Maps.

"We will need to enter all of the new addresses into the Google system in order for it to be updated in the system," Bauch said. "This is going to take some time to complete."

Bauch then gave the council an update on the new house numbers project.

"Maintenance Supervisor Bill is going to go around to help people put up their new numbers and to see which houses have not put up their numbers yet since it is now in the ordinance," Bauch stated.

The council discussed what could be done with these properties if they are not able to get a hold of the owners as it is important to get the numbers up as they are essential in the event of an emergency such as a fire.

The council then reviewed and briefly discussed the recommendation for RFP (Request for Proposal) 2021-01 with the approval of the Mayor entering into a contract with an approved firm.

Bauch stated that RFP is for the borderline design for the South Bellows water line project.

The council then reviewed resolution 2021-09 quarter 2 budget adjustments.

Village Clerk Sheila Hudman informed the council of some budget adjustments that needed to be made.

"Basically, we are staying in line with our line items," Hudman said. "There is still plenty of money available for the different departments. Nothing is in the negative or in the red. I just had to make some adjustments for some line items that had decreased and fallen into the negative."

Members of the council took this time to commend Hudman on her work with the budget.

Bauch stated that were no items that needed to be discussed in a closed session so there was no closed session held at this meeting.

Trustee Lopez wanted to take the time in the meeting to thank the fire department and the police department for all of their hard work during these trying times.

"I am hoping the new year will be better and brighter," Lopez said.

The meeting was properly adjourned at 6:47 p.m.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 11, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom.