FREEBURG — Freeburg has officially been designated as a Purple Heart Village and has become part of the Purple Heart Trail, with three signs presented to trustees at their meeting on Thursday, Oct. 8.

Chapter 65 Military Order of the Purple Heart representative John McClellan presented the signs, along with Freeburg resident Paul Backues, who initiated the process.

“The Purple Heart Trail is designed to honor Purple Heart recipients and those who gave all and were injured in combat,” McClellan said.

He congratulated the village on the designation and thanked trustees for their attention to this matter.

“We should have done this 10 years ago,” Mayor Darryl Haller said.

“Well, better late than never,” McClellan said.

“This is something I have been thinking about for a long time,” Backues said. “I’m really active in the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Our American Legion is named after a POW/Purple Heart recipient.”

Backues noted that while he got the process started, he was thankful to the trustees for their help. “I just think that we need to pay respect for those who earned it and paid a price, Paul A. Hasenbeck being one of them,” Backues said.

Trustees promised to get the signs up quickly.

In other business, the village has received some of the money for the grant to complete the wastewater project. Trustees will reach out for financial guidance on how to pick a fund to service the bonds.

• Trustees approved a measure requiring all new construction to have one meter installed per unit. Trustees will review the cost of labor and materials to install a meter and see if they need to adjust the current charge of $1,000 per unit.

• The board agreed to have City Attorney Nathan Nickolaus of Lauber Municipal Law reword the Village Ordinance #157, which outlines how residents are to maintain vegetation in their yards. The attorney will charge for a maximum of two hours.

“We all agree it could be worded better,” Haller said. “The same is true for all our ordinances, but we don’t have the funds for them to go through all of them. This is a start.”

• Haller noted that the contract is due on Nov. 1 for Radio Wire to pay the village the annual agreed-upon fees.

Haller has contacted Radio Wire and is waiting to hear back from the company.

• Republic Services representatives will be at the November meeting to discuss the new contract.

“I’m pleased with where we are at with things,” Haller said.

• Trustees approved the following outstanding expenses: general ($36,483.25), sewer ($387.39), and water ($2,502.02).

• Freeburg had the following account balances: purchasing ($467.35), sewer checking ($5,839.39), general checking ($12,560.26), sewer money market ($464,906.56), general money market ($570,392.49), wastewater and sewer ($60,215.33), water revenue ($12,048.78), water replacement ($655.04), and water money market ($1,096,239.30).

• Freeburg produced a total of 1,531,178 gallons, with 1,392,400 gallons billed for a water loss of 3% for August.

• The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m.