DANVILLE — Members of the city council’s Public Services Committee recommended authorizing disconnection of territory for the Village of Tilton.

The full city council will act on the issue next week.

Corporation Counsel David Wesner and Assistant Corporation Counsel Rich Dahlenburg told the aldermen the issue came up a while ago. The county clerk again recently asked the city to clear up the matter.

The Village of Tilton filed a petition earlier this month with Danville City Clerk Janet Myers requesting the property, east of the railroad tracks that is the site of the Tilton water treatment facility and an ATV park, be disconnected from the city.

Tilton owns the property, which is less than 160 acres in size and has no electors.

Danville will not lose any property taxes from the move. Tilton is exempt from property taxes and no city taxes or assessments are owed on the property.

Dahlenburg noted that city firefighters and police officers should respond to any incident at the site until the transfer has been completed.

Wesner said the city annexed property around there years ago and General Motors had owned the property in question and donated it to Tilton. Somehow the property was annexed into the city of Danville.

The property is contiguous to Tilton and the village wants to annex the property.

Also Tuesday, committee members recommended approving the city’s new annual action plan for Community Development Block Grant funding for 2013-2014.

About $833,000 in funding is earmarked for: rehabilitating five owner-occupied houses in Vermilion Heights; accessibility modifications in five houses; demolitions/blight removal; neighborhood impact program for home repair grants to low-income homeowners; redevelopment assistance in the midtown/west downtown area; economic development projects and city administrative reimbursement costs.

In other business, the committee:

• Learned the Humane Society of Danville has two new animal control officers who will be on the streets, and it’s seeing new lighting that is costing around $13,000 for the building. A new director also is expected to be announced soon.
• Recommended creating a revenue line item in the city’s budget for video gaming income.

The state expanded video gaming in 2012, allowing certain businesses to operate video gaming machines for profit.

The city will derive revenue from the operations under the Illinois Video Gaming Act. The city has received $121.13 in December and $1,427 in January.

• Recommended amending the city budget for $10,000 in additional expenses related to advertising and job vacancy postings; and $10,300 in expenditures for fire and police promotional testing and employee safety program training.
• Discussed three-year and five-year agreements with Comcast for phone and internet service. The city would pay $4,789 a month for the three-year agreement and $4,348 per month for the five-year agreement, instead of $4,678 per month like it is paying now to AT&T.

Comcast representatives said the cost difference, between the three- and five-year agreements, was spreading out the recouping of costs of the capital equipment/fiber line improvements.

The full council is expected to act on an agreement next week.

• Recommended amending city code pertaining to electricity. Changes and clarifications pertain to aluminum wire regulations, bonds no longer being required and Class B license holders.