Administration Department

Village Administrator: Valerie Salmons
Assistant Village Administrator & ADA Coordinator: Paula Schumacher

The Village operates with a Board of Trustees and a Village Administrator. Policymaking and legislative authorities are vested in the Board of Trustees. The Village Administrator is responsible for carrying out the Board’s policies and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Village.

The Administration Department provides general administrative services for the Village as a whole. The staff works directly with the Village Board and directs all Village departments. Additional duties include the recycling program, the health inspection program, the monitoring of municipal franchise agreements and managing the Bartlett Farmers Market.

The Administration Department also includes the History Museum curator who designs new exhibits, records museum inventory, and presents educational programs to increase awareness of local history. The Bartlett History Museum is housed on the first floor of the Village Hall.

A Community Relations Coordinator is responsible for, among other things, production of the Bartletter (the bi-monthly newsletter mailed to every Village household), maintenance of the Village cable station, and writing various news releases. A full time Health Inspector monitors business and residential sanitation including weed control.

Administration News & Highlights

Electricity Aggregation on March Ballot

If you’ve checked the mail recently, you’ve seen advertisements from companies offering energy savings if you switch from ComEd. That’s because Illinois residents are now able to pick their own third-party electricity supplier. New state law also gives municipalities the ability to seek lower electricity costs on behalf of residents and small businesses (using less than 100 KW of demand) through aggregation.

What are the steps for electrical aggregation?
At its November 15 meeting, the Village Board opted to pursue aggregation for Bartlett by putting a referendum on the March primary ballot. If the referendum passes, the Village will go through a public bidding or proposal process to select an electricity supplier for the entire Village.

Can I opt-out of the program?
Under the program, almost all Village residents and small businesses would be included unless they specifically choose not to be. This is the best way to achieve maximum rate savings.

However, if the referendum passes and after a contract is approved, notice would be sent to residents allowing them to opt-out.

How does ComEd fit into the picture?
Regardless of which company is actually producing the electricity, ComEd would remain as the distributor. Residents who choose to stay in the program would continue to receive a monthly bill from ComEd. The only difference will be a different name in the “power supplier” line of the bill and hopefully a reduced “amount due” line. ComEd would also continue handling resident complaints and respond to outages.

When would aggregation take effect?
Because the process for municipal aggregation requires a referendum to be passed and a public bid or proposal process, residents and small businesses included in the program should not expect to see savings in their electric bill until late summer or fall of 2012.

What if the referendum does not pass?
If voters do not approve the referendum question, ComEd will continue to be your provider for electric supply, unless you independently choose an alternate energy supplier.

Are there other choices?
If you have already signed up for a third-party electricity provider on your own, you will not be included in the aggregation program. You may, however, opt-out of the program you have selected and join the Village’s program.

In the meantime, residents and small businesses also can join the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus’ Clean Air Counts energy savings program. Clean Air Counts is an initiative to voluntarily improve air quality in the Chicago Metropolitan region and Bartlett is a member.

Clean Air Counts has already secured electricity pricing with Integrys Energy that is 20% cheaper than ComEd’s current production rates. The program runs through June 2013 and guarantees that the rates offered by Integrys Energy will never be more than ComEd’s during this time.

For more information about the Clean Air Counts program or to sign up, please visit www.cleanaircounts.org and click on the Energy Savings Program with Energy Choices icon.

Residents interested in choosing a third-party electricity provider should read all of the terms and conditions and be aware that many program agreements, including the Clean Air Counts agreement, have an early termination fee. For more information regarding electricity aggregation, please contact Assistant to the Village Administrator Steven Bosco at 630-837-0800.

Meetings via Audio
The audio recordings of all Village Board and Committee of the Whole meetings are now available on the Village website.

The audio recording of Board meetings is normally posted within a week of the meeting date on the websites “meetings, agendas and minutes” page. The text version of the meeting minutes is normally posted several weeks following the meeting date on the same page.

 

You Should Know

Bartletter
The Village publishes a bi-monthly newsletter. The newsletter is mailed to all Bartlett residents approximately the first week of even months.

Comcast Channel 17 & AT&T Channel 99
Residents can tune into Comcast cable channel 17 or AT&T channel 99 to watch a community bulletin board of area news, events and activities. Civic groups and schools are welcome to submit their special events for broadcast on the bulletin board.

Clean-Up Week
The Administration Department sponsors community Clean-Up Week events each June. Past events have included a used book exchange, prom dress collection, cell phone & gym shoe recycling collection and document shredding event.

Farmers Market
The Bartlett Farmers Market is operated by the Village of Bartlett from June to September. The market is held on Friday afternoons from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Bartlett Town Center, at the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue. Parking for the market is available in the Village Hall parking lot as well as behind the Town Center commercial building.

Pride in Ownership
The Village of Bartlett’s Pride in Ownership Program recognizes outstanding property maintenance of single family homes, multifamily homes, commercial properties, beautiful backyards and exceptional exterior home remodeling. Nominations are accepted in June and July.