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Lincoln Mayor Welch hosts first
Coffee with the Mayor of the New Year
[January 12, 2026]
The first Coffee with the Mayor
of 2026 was held on Saturday January 10th at Guest House Coffee and
Pastries. Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch hosted the event and was joined
by Ward 4 alderman Stan Anderson and Building, Zoning & Safety
Officer Wes Woodhall.
There were about a dozen guests that attended the event.
Mayor Welch kicked off the meeting offering some updates on some
issues in the city. He began saying that the city’s Fifth Street
Road project is on track to be in the state’s bid letting process
this month and is hopeful that the project will get underway in
2026.
The Pavilion at 8th Street Park is moving forward nicely and it is
anticipated that it will be completed and open by the first part of
September. He said perhaps the first event to be held there will be
a movie in the park night.
The former Heartland Bank building in the 500 block of Broadway
Street that now belongs to the city is an ongoing project. He said
the building is divided into three parts with the larger portion
being the new museum. He said the middle portion of the building
will be city office space and that the city’s Administrative
Assistant Ashley Metelko now has an office in that building. The
third section, which is bordered by Broadway and Chicago Streets is
the new home of the Lincoln Economic Development and Advancement
office. He said that LEAD Executive Director Andrea Runge has moved
into her new offices.
Tim Brady with Brady Painting and Construction is working on walls
and remodeling projects in the building and the city has set a
“lofty goal” of having the museum open by the first of April.
Moving on, he said the city has approved and is in the process of
implementing a “No Knock” policy for solicitors. He explained that
on the city website, there is a place where residents can go and
verify if someone at their door has obtained the proper permits to
solicit in city limits. Now, there will be a second list where if
residents do not want solicitors they can put their address on the
No Knock list.
With the no knock policy in place, this gives city police and the
city code enforcement officer authority to order the person off the
property.
Anderson said that the public needed to know this no-knock policy
does not apply to local charitable organizations and churches.
Annette Welch asked if the rule also applied to people with
political motives such as those seeking signatures on petitions or
running for office.
It was explained that the no knock is ultimately for salespeople
going door to door to make money for their business or themselves.
Mayor Welch said that regardless of who is at the door, everyone has
the right to ask the person to exit their property, and if they do
not the police can be called.
Woodhall said that ultimately, solicitors are going to do whatever
they choose until they are challenged, and then they will move on.
This led to a sidebar discussion about the city’s new Code
Enforcement Officer Bill Cooper. Welch said that Cooper does not
make arrests or issue citations. His role is to respond to a
possible ordinance violation, verify the violation, then speak with
the responsible party, educating the person on the violation and how
to come back into compliance. Woodhall said that Cooper has been
highly effective. He said that less than 10 percent of the
violations move on to the second stage, which is an official letter
from the city laying out the violation and the consequence of not
correcting the issue.
The next topic Welch addressed was the Ward 2 vacancy left by David
Sanders. He said that prior to leaving, Sanders and alderwoman
Rhonda O’Donohue were working on a strategic plan for the city of
Lincoln. Welch is on the verge of appointing a new ward 2 alderman,
and once that is done, the development of a strategic plan will
continue.
He believes that task should be
completed by the end of the first quarter of the year. He added that
one aspect of the plan may be to establish a few committees. He said
that he is a proponent of having the full board involved in the
decision-making process, but sometimes a soft committee is called
for. Asked what he meant by soft committee, he said that committees
would be established but not required to hold consistent meeting
schedules. He said the committees would meet on an “as needed”
basis. He said they would be more like working meetings and would
not always be published. In the end, all the facts of the topic
would be introduced to the committee of the whole and decisions
would be made by the full council.
Woodhall addressed the situation with abandoned houses and derelict
properties in the city. He said that years ago, he did a survey of
such properties in the city and identified approximately 80. Since
then there has been about a 75 percent turn around.
In many cases, Woodhall said these abandoned properties are homes
where loved ones have passed away and surviving family members are
reluctant to dispose of the property for sentimental reasons. In
recent years, he has seen more turn around with more homes being
refurbished and re-occupied either as rental properties or real
estate sales.
Anderson spoke about the city’s recent passage of ordinances for
massage therapy businesses. He said the topic was visited in several
Committee of the Whole meetings before an ordinance was passed.
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There was an issue
that came about last year, where a business came into Lincoln
basically disguised as a therapy practice that was not. Welch
said that it was learned that the business was of a sexual
nature, but because the city had no ordinances pertaining to
massage therapy, the Lincoln Police Department had to go through
other channels that were very time consuming in order to get the
business shut down.
It was noted that the new ordinances will include issuing a
permit for said business. Then, the city has the right to revoke
the permit, and the police can disband the business right away
if needed.
Welch was asked if the city had decided to charge a permit fee
for this and the answer was there were no fees attached to the
permit. He said that in essence, legitimate massage therapists
had to be licensed through the state, with a fee attached to
that license. Because of this, the city did not want to add
additional financial burden to the licensed therapists who are
doing everything right.
Welch went on to say that the city had heard from and worked
with some of these legitimate massage therapists to help
establish the code and set the standards for the permits.
The next topic Welch addressed pertained to the ongoing
discussions and actions on the county level regarding a proposed
data center located in the Latham area.
While the city is not directly
involved with this decision, Welch said he did decide to do some
self-education and investigation of the topic. Like many voiced in
recent county meetings, Welch said he was concerned about the impact
the center would have on water and utilities, particularly
electricity. Welch said he has a reliable contact with Ameren
Illinois and had reached out to that person with questions. She had
said she would do some investigating and would meet with Welch to
discuss the issue. Welch said he was going to be inviting Logan
County Board Chaiman JR Glenn and Zoning Committee Chairman Micheal
DeRoss to attend that meeting.
There was a comment about sewer bills on commercial and rental
properties. One property owner said he had a building with a
commercial space on the ground floor and apartments on the second
floor. He pays one water bill, but three sewer bills. He wondered
how that was justified by the city. Welch said that sewer bills are
determined by water usage. In this case, there is one water line in
but three sewer lines out, so each sewer line is billed. Welch said
when the city worked on the sewer rate project a few years ago, as a
means to finance the state mandated CSO projects, this was brought
up. There are minimum sewer bills established, and basically water
usage in the months of October, November, and December set the sewer
rate. He added that during the initial planning, and yet today, he
felt like it might be fairer if the water bill for the three-month
period on multiple sewer line properties with one water line (such
as were being discussed) were divided by the total and sewer bills
assessed accordingly.
Another question was about the city’s Diversity & Inclusion
commission. Welch said that alderman Sam Downs is the city appointed
member of that commission. Welch has spoken with Downs about the
group and what they are doing. Welch has also asked to be invited to
the next meeting, but that has not happened yet.
Woodhall also told the group that his office is working on updating
the city’s building codes. He said that he is using the 2024
standardized code for the updates. He added that the state recently
adopted a standardized code, but the city is already well ahead of
the state in modern building codes.
The 10 a.m. hour was approaching, the group went on to speak about a
few minor topics before Welch called the end of the meeting. After
the meeting adjourned, guests lingered to visit with Welch and the
others one-on-one for quite some time.
Welch hosts the Coffee with the Mayor meetings every other month.
The next meeting should be scheduled for the month of March with the
exact date to be announced.
Nila Smith
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