Galesburg City Council has a busy night in store for the final meeting of the year.
Alderman may take a step towards finding a new use for the Broad Street Armory.
Trillium Dell, a local company that constructs timber frames, is interested in using a portion of the building for storing, building frames and then packaging and shipping.
Council’s issue tonight is whether or not to approve a $7,300 feasibility study to see if Trillium Dell’s proposal is doable. If the study says it is feasible, the city would lease the space to the business.
Council documents say even if the proposal doesn’t come to fruition, the information could be useful for other potential projects.
Aldermen will also take up a development agreement with Midstate Manufacturing. WGIL reported last week that Midstate plans to add 77 full-time jobs in the next two years and are expanding operations with two new facility purchases.
Midstate says they will pour nearly $3 million into the former Midwest Plastics on Monmouth Boulevard and Olsen Packaging on McClure Street, but they are the asking the city for $200,000 in working capital.
Their expansion is threefold; involving autonomous vehicle kits for off-highway trucks, assembling kits for industrial vehicle driver safety and the installation of a new paint line.
The $200,000 would be a grant, not a loan, but clearly, the administration thinks the economic development is worth the price.
Council tonight will also take a vote on amending the liquor code to allow brewpubs to have minors on the premises until 10:30 p.m. or when food stops being served. Essentially this affects Iron Spike and the Knox County Brewing Company.
The code technically has not allowed minors to be in either establishment up to this point because they have Class A licenses, and their primary source of sales is not food. The code would be amended to allow any state-licensed brewpub to operate essentially as restaurants that happen to have a bar do.
Aldermen will also have a look at the Comprehensive Plan. City Council has worked for over a year and a half and the end is in sight for the Comprehensive Plan. The plan is the broad strokes of what will guide city policymaking for the next 15 years or so.
We’ll see if Council agrees when they convene at City Hall Monday night at 6:30 p.m.
