Morris City Council Recap: 4 new businesses approved, several officers recognized

MORRIS – A new barbecue restaurant, a mortgage lender, a new thrift store and a logistics company are among the four new business licenses the Morris City Council approved on Monday night.

Jason Durkin will operate Waterstone Mortgage Corp., a mortgage lending business at 1802 N. Division St.; Craig Strum will operate Strum’s BBQ, a restaurant at 721 Liberty St.; Cathy Decamp will run Cate’s Closet Boutique, a woman’s clothing, gift, home decor and thrift business at 115 W. Washington St.; and Justin Redfern will operate Kenco Logistic Services at 222 Airport Road.

Meanwhile, the city swore in three new police officers and recognizing several others.

Mayor Chris Brown swore in the three new officers, Officer Anna Scneidewend, Officer Javier Sanchez and Officer Trever Hodge.

Chief Alicia Steffes said the city has been “massively” understaffed for about a year and thanked the new officers for joining the force.

“It is a big time to grow, we have two more officers we are working with and we appreciate them being here. They successfully completed their 14- week basic training at Southwestern Illinois College,” she said.

Steffes congratulated Ben Zwolinzki on his promotion to Sergeant, presented Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorist Awards to Officers Ryan Ties, Sarah Markusic and Nick Pampinella, and recognized the ProAct program, which includes officers from throughout Grundy County, including the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office.

Officer of the year was presented to Dustin Seale. Officer of the year is presented to the officer the chiefs and sergeants feel have gone above and beyond for the year.

“We are very proud of Dustin. He took it upon himself to start teaching others and has improved our department,” Steffes said.

The Police Service Award was presented to Sgt. Steve Huettemann for “honorably and faithfully” serving in law enforcement for 27 years.

Huettemann thanked the council and the community for always having the police departments back.

“It doesn’t matter how hard things were out there in the bigger cities, our community always had our back. They were always there to thank us,” he said.