Freeburg board promotes lineman Max Sallman, schedules electrical repair work

The Freeburg Village Board on Dec. 15 promoted Lineman Max Sallman to head lineman and reviewed recent electrical maintenance and staffing updates. Trustee James (Mike) Blaies, chair of the Electric Committee, reported a pole outage at the SAVE lift-station and said the village met with Sallman to review operations before recommending the promotion. The motion to promote Sallman passed on a roll call vote with five ayes and one absence.

Public Works Director John Tolan told the board a breaker for the south substation has arrived; he and Sallman will coordinate with VIP Power to install it, a task that will require two brief outages. Blaies also noted the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA) has hired Doug Brown to replace CEO Kevin Gaden effective April 1, 2026, an item reported for committee awareness rather than board action.

Mayor Seth Speiser opened the meeting at 7:30 p.m. and trustees expressed congratulations to Sallman during the staff comments portion of the meeting. The board recorded the promotion and moved on to other agenda items.