Council - Regular Meeting

Folks, it is 7:00. I will go ahead and call our meeting to order. If we can start with a moment of silence, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. If you happen to have a cell phone with you, please make sure it's off. We're on silence. Please

here and here. Do I have a motion to approve of the agenda? So move. Support. Um I would like to add an item to the agenda, please.

What have item? Uh a brief presentation on all hires. There's going to be a meeting on the 30th. So we hear through the out of the but it's not who made the motion. You made a motion. I do. Okay. So, I'll second.

No. All in favor say I. I. So, that would be item. Item.

What? What is this uh title again? Well, Alzheimer's presentation this mindful neighbors Albian community and a motion for the motion support has been amended the vote on the amended agenda. All in favor say I. I oppose. Very good. So, we will start this evening with a presentation from Eric Coven, our income tax administrator.

Hello. Thank you for having me out tonight. I know I'm not the uh funnest person to hear from in the city, but uh you know, as well as from the resident side of things. Um in your packet, you had a little flyer that gave you some information. Um, David had me add to it the last page which has kind of the financial information about the income tax department over the last five years from 2021 till last year last year. So that gives you our revenue picture and stuff like that and I'll talk kind of briefly about that. So I'll only spend a few minutes. I know that you got a busy agenda tonight. So, I'll only spend a few minutes on things and more importantly, um, it's going to be to introduce the the portal to you, kind of give you an idea of what that is and, uh, how to access it. So, we're going to be going through that. So, just a very brief thing, many people don't know that there are 24 cities in Michigan that have an income tax, and obviously Albian is one of them. um that that income tax amounts for the city about a third of the city's revenue, almost a third of the city's revenue as you can see by the income projections that David had put together for you. Those kinds of things pay for help us maintain parks. It helps us maintain the cemetery. helps us provide um public safety um as well as uh to provide grant funding when you guys need a match and you need to come up with some money or when Jason has another presentation about more money, you know, he doesn't have one to me, does he? Anyway, um it helps with all those kinds of things as well as to pay for all the administrative and financial things that the city does. So, um, when people ask me, uh, a lot of times I get the the number one question I get is, "We didn't know that there was an income tax." So, part of my job has been to try to find more ways to get the message out there that the city does have an income tax. So, I put it on the back of water bills and David's always on me to save money.

So, I've got to try to do things that are semifree. So, we well, we put it in the newsletter. I'm sorry. We put it in the e-news. We put it in the the quarter. Uh we've done various types of uh I've even attended like one of the chamber meetings. Um things like that to try to get people to know about the income tax. And uh lately um we've been having more Facebook posts and things like that. Cassidy from the community foundation has put together. She actually put together this graphic right here. So I can't take any credit for that. Um, I gave her the information, but she put together that and I thought it was a great graphic, so I decided to use it for so I got permission from her, though. Um, so one of the things that people ask is, well, you know, I I don't have to file a federal income tax return. Do I have to still file an Albian tax return? And the answer is anyone that has income over $600, whether they're work here or live here, needs to file an income tax return. So that's even if they have some people ask I have a rental property there. Well that's income inside the city. So that qualifies as needing to find out income. So that's important. Um the second thing I get asked a lot is what does the money go for? And the first thing that they bring up is road construction and things like that. So I talked to them about that. We're working on that. That's one of the reasons why we're trying to get this get income tax taken care of. Um, so one of the other things I'd like to mention is that we'd like to make sure that when people get letters from us, the biggest thing to do is to have them respond to us, whether it's a phone call, an email. Uh, we now have two of us downstairs. There's myself and Penny. We're available 7 to 6:00 p.m. Uh, Monday through Thursday. Of course, we're off on Fridays um with the four,

but uh we're there. And so the biggest thing that we need to do is to try to get encourage people to get in contact with us because when they get their first letter or their second letter, the the biggest thing to do is to find ways to work with us if there's a problem, especially if it's a financial one. Eric, I see that you sent me a $1,000 bill. I can't afford to pay it. What can I do now? Um, so we can work out, we can work things out with them. We can set up payment plans. We can do all kinds of stuff, but the last thing that we want to do is have to send it over to Cullen and then my hands are tied more or less on being able to do some of those things. So, get to us early, get to us as soon as you can. If you get a letter, if it's asking for more information, yes, we do need that stuff. So, if it's asking for a copy of your federal tax return or a copy of another city tax return or financials, uh, if you own a business and things like that, all of those things, we we do need them. It's not it's not just Eric wanting to note something or something. So, all right. So, without a further ado, because I know we got a short period of time, did you want to go ahead and um So, on the cover of this page right here, it does show a picture of the city's website. When you type in www.c cityoflmi.gov, this is what the homepage looks like. So, if you go to the homepage, down here in the bottom right corner is a tab that says new income tax portal. So, this is a way for people um to access and get uh information from the city income tax without having to call in. So, if you're at 2 a.m. in the morning and you want to have access to the city's uh income tax information, you can do it. If you want to file your tax return yourself without having to go through a tax preparer, you can do it on the website. you got a letter from us saying Erica or uh saying I I need to uh get more information or I

need uh missing tax return or I forgot to attach a W2. You can now upload them using this. So the simple log on it'll take you right into there and on here again it's going to help you. The first thing at the top there it tells you your current status of the tax year. So it's right now only available for you to file taxes for the 2025 tax year. So, we're in 2026. It's going to be the current year. I am working on with our software provider to allow us to be able to do file back taxes through here as well. Um, you can uh make a payment on here. So, you can see that the next tab over first tab is file the tax return. The next tab there is you can make a payment. So, uh let's say you didn't want to pay the 3% fee for using a debit or credit card. through this portal, you have the option to set up an automated uh withdrawal out of a check in your savings account that costs nothing. Uh so we have that as an option. Um you can change your name and address on here. And then the last one there is upload a file. That's like uh like I said, if you're if you get a letter from us saying, "Hey, I'm missing your first page of your federal tax return." You can simply upload it right there right on there. So um as you can see, I put in here, we got Mr. Fred Flintstone. He's got this is his account. uh we put in some dummy stuff so it's not a real personal stuff. He's got two years of taxes that he has a balance due on and those are the balances and it lists out their pen penalty uh and interest breakdown and it gives them also if they made any types of payments on. So they can see kind of all that information that we would see if someone needs to call up and ask us what's my balance they can go on and look at it right away. They don't have to wait for us to get back to them or anything like that. So this gives them that opportunity to do that and again they can they can e file um we were the first to get this in the state of Michigan. So um we beta tested it basically for the last year and um other cities are going to get the city of Springfield just rolled theirs

out and Grand Rapids and Battle Creek Prepare next. So but anyways I'll be happy to take any questions if you got them. Again I just wanted to be real brief for you. Yeah. Thank you. So for those of us who have to pay quarterly in 2026, can we pay on this portal? Yes, you can. Yeah. Go to the thing and just say make payments. Yeah. So, um, Jill, if you want to click on the make payment. So, you can see here it lists those two years that you have a balance on and then it gives the four quarterly payments are right there for Y. Any other questions? Any other questions?

Again, I wanted to be really brief. We also have a a portal for for uh corporations for withholding. So for tax withholding, there's a similar portal that they can use. It's on the city's website. It's under the finance and treasury tab and then you go to the income tax page and it's right on there. So we can also do that on that page as well. So any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Sorry. Mr. Oh, sure. One of the fives. Yes. Sorry about that. I got

right. Next is our proclamation for alcohol awareness month. And do we have representatives for from our substance abuse council?

Yes, we do. We have our representatives as well as students and the director as we have our representatives coming up. I will go ahead and read our proclamation for alcohol awareness month April of 2026. Whereas adolescence is a critical and often vulnerable stage of human development. And it is during this time that many young people experiment with substance such as alcohol. And whereas compared to those who wait until they are 21 years of age to drink, young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are at a higher risk for developing alcohol use disorder later in life and are more likely to be in a motor vehicle crash due to alcohol use. And whereas youth who drink alcohol are more likely to experience problems in school and their social life, legal problems, physical and sexual violence, higher risk for suicide and homicide, misuse of other substances, and have changes in brain development that may have lifelong effect. And whereas the solution to under drinking comes through widespread collaboration and engagement of multiple organizations and communities with all adults doing their part. And whereas alcohol abuse is linked to as many as 23 of all sexual assaults and gay rapes of teens and college students and is a major factor in unprotected sex among youth increasing the risk of contracting HIV or other transmitted disease. And whereas the substance abuse council asked residents to refuse to provide alcoholic beverages to underage youth. Now therefore I Victoria Garcia Snider along with the city of Albian city council do hereby proclaim April 2026 as alcohol awareness and underage drinking

prevention month in Albian. I will go ahead and start. So, does anybody want to say any words about programming that we've done around this? I will.

And then I'll let one of the children say, uh, I really appreciate these kids. Mario and Dia, they graduates of commercial opportunity school and they have been involved in the music program at the studio and have been doing very well staying out of trouble. As you know, DeAndre has some struggles in school, but through his music, he's been doing performing in big venues and I think he's finally got it together working with bargain and other students. So, I just want to applaud the effort. They took out their day to come do this and they was doing some other stuff. So, they're doing great. I appreciate it. the candidate thought to our students and also shave their hands. Thank you.

Now, who wants to receive this? This young lady right here. There you go, ma'am. I want to get a picture of that. You want to get pictures? A rose among thorns.

Yeah, I think you say services. Okay. Wonderful. All right. Well, thank you all for taking time out of your busy days to be here for us and we appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Next is a presentation from Steve and Bob. Good evening, council. Um, I wanted to introduce um, Carrie G from G Farms and also Bob Wright from G Farms. They are one of the largest, the largest tree nursery in the state of Michigan. And we actually got hooked up with them through the college. Uh, Misty Brooks reached out to me along with Bob. we started talking about uh taking down some of the trees in the parks and along Erie Street. And so I met with them both and then Bob came out and helped with Councilwoman Davis's tree planting uh this past Saturday on for Arbor Day replanting more trees back into Victory Park. See the old ones that come down. But we went and met with them at their facilities which is phenomenal. And it's uh I wanted them to come and talk about some of the things that we're going to start doing. We're partnering with them to start replanting trees back in the rightways. We still have more many trees to take down. They're old, but what we want to do is start replanting as we go. So, with that, turn it over to them.

Good evening. Um, just real quick, I want to give a little background. Um, I am the sixth of eight generations on our family farm. We're just north of Jackson. Um we are the largest retail nursery uh growers and retail nursery stock this side of the Mississippi. We are on 800 acres. So um most of the trees that we supply are grown by me, my father, um my son, my niece, nephew, and uh the one thing about our business is we live and breathe these plants. They're our babies from the time they're little seedlings on up. So we know them, we understand them, we know what they want, what they don't want, we know how to plant them, and we know everything about them. So we are landscapers, but we are first and foremost nursery people and we care about the trees, what they can do for our environment and for for our air quality. Um, I was talking to Jason. He came in to talk to us and I was telling him that uh one of the things about replanting trees in the cities we do partner with a few cities up in the Lancing area is we make sure that we use the right trees for the right situations. Um we make sure that the trees uh where we're putting them they're going to survive. U a lot of the older trees here in have been around for a lot of years. Most people don't realize that trees have a lifetime. And especially when we come through and we put them by roadways, sometimes these big oaks that should be around for hundreds of years, they the roots get under the roads, they get driven on, they get diseases, they get trimmed at the wrong time, um which causes failure. So, I know it's really really hard to lose an old friend, but sometimes our old friend, these big old trees can be a detriment um to a danger and a detriment. So, um

I want to I want to talk I wanted to talk about that and let you know a little bit about us. Um the other thing I wanted to talk about that I spoke with um Jason about is we we have a sister company that we work with myself specifically um and it's called Retree. And what Ree is is we are an actual digital marketplace that we repurpose trees that are are otherwise going to be destroyed. Um we we uh started this program with a friend of mine um in the Pontiac Detroit area and um in the last two years since we've launched our ree app uh we have repurposed over a million dollars worth of trees that would otherwise be destroyed. So I was talking to Jason about how this program works and what it is is so when we plant trees in roadways or things like that they out they out they outgrow that area. So what Retree does is it actually and not so much cityways but parking lots and things like that. We we partner with you. You grow the trees and then at some point that tree you invest, you invest, you invest, you invest, tree gets more valuable and then it outgrows its space and then what happens is you start to decline. So your return on that investment you lose and then you have to um take it out and it costs money. So what Retry does is we are trying to set up urban nurseries with cities where we go in and we recommend plants that number one are very are are healthy strong plants and then we turn around and we say okay 10 years from now that tree is going to start to outgrow the the the roadways things like that. At that point, we say, "Let us come in. Let us list it on our virtual marketplace, which goes all over the United States.

Architects, things like that, people like that look at that, and we try to sell that tree for you, which it does a few things. It it takes your return on your return on your investment, grows it, and then we turn around, we can sell it. We replant tree, another tree, and then we hand the city um a check. We take a small commission like 20% of the cost. We sell it at a wholesale price. Um this is we don't do as many uh road sidewalk um plantings and do that with um we do it more in areas in the cities that are unused where you're mowing them. You're you're spending dollars. Anyways, we we set up so it's kind of like a small nursery where they're going to be mowing, purchase the trees, um come in, we grow them. 5 years usually is when we start to dig. The trees are are owned by the city. So they can be used as city trees here. Um so you can grow your own trees. You can use them in rightaways or replacements or we keep uh a log of what what you're growing and we have the ability to say, "Okay, we know you have these trees. We can turn around and place them on our marketplace, sell them for you, and we can supply our suppliers and then turn around and give you um money back for those. So, you do get a return on your investment. It also helps to pay for the mowing of any um lots that may be that you're mowing and maintaining. Anyways, uh we the biggest project that we have done now is a Costco in Brighton and they had 54 6 to 8 inch diameter ginko trees. We went in, we harvested those. They were

in big uh parking lot and they were 8 inch diameter. So across the trunk. Uh we harvested them, we sent them to New York, we sent them all over the United States, uh we replanted the rightways or the the uh parking lot islands. and we turned around and we had the owner of that Cisco uh at Costco's I believe it was $55,000 for those trees that they had been growing which a few years after that they would be now costing them more money because they were going to have to take them out and replace them. So, we're trying to get a hold of municipalities um that uh like Jackson, we've we've tried to target Jackson. Um they decided to use a lot of their uh vacant properties for the 100 homes project instead of planting trees and doing things like that, but they may come back around. It's I just want to throw this out there. I would like to leave some information. Um we do this for uh homeowners, businesses. If you have a tree that you know is is a really nice tree, it's outrun its space, you need to move, you need to get rid of it because of construction. Um, this also has uh QR codes information for you uh um as as as individuals, homeowners also. So, um that is what I have to say. Did I hit on everything a little bit?

Yes. When she told me about this program, the first thing I thought of is we have five acres that's vacant that's right next to the water treatment plant that we own and all we do is mow it. So, my thought would be that is a perfect spot right next to the water treatment plant to start this nursery that's that we can start using to replant not only some of our trees but also to help offset the cost of whatever else we may have going. So instead of just burning gas and mowing it, why not let's turn this into a little bit of uh to our use a little bit better than just the grass. So um one of the other things too, Bob has been phenomenal to work with as an arborist. He's telling us yes, no, maybe so and kind of teaching us. Of course, he's starting with crayons because that's the best way I learn, but uh he he's starting to get us educated on everything. So, we are really looking forward to working with them and partnering. I couldn't think of anybody better than than this group here. So, Bob, you want to say anything?

Yeah. Um Jason did have me look at some of the trees that have been marked for removal and what I've noticed there's a lot of older oak planting near the street and they've been damaged over time and they're starting to decay through the trunk. So, what I look at when I'm trying to decide whether a tree is worth keeping or not is what's the likelihood of failure on that tree and what is the risk to property or people around it. Um, and more than half the trees I looked at on Eerie Street alone, um, pose a pretty significant risk to people and property. Um, and I do try to save trees whenever I can, but um, mostly what I'm here for is to try to help establish new trees. um make recommendations and help take care of existing trees too.

Do we have any questions for our present? Yeah, thank you mayor. Um my question I I love the idea. I'm glad you all are here. um when removing trees, let's say in um say we utilize a park space to do the um the nursery, how much um disturbance to the actual white ground of soil when removing those trees are are we doing?

Well, we dig with a spade. Uh, and usually our spades depending on how long the tree is. The the beauty of trees is when you buy a tree, the bigger it is, the more it costs because you pay for time. So depending on the size of the tree will determine the size of the spade. So we don't come in when we come in and dig say a 2 inch 2 and 12 inch tree. Say say you have a project downtown that you want to move some trees and you can contact us. We can come and we can dig up the trees for you, move them. um the only thing you're going to have is a hole and then that hole just gets filled back in with top soil or something along that line. So, you're actually the other nice thing is you're taking your native soil and you're transplanting it into another native soil. So, the trees are not going to come through and and be shocked. So, we don't come in and we don't tear up the ground or anything like that. We we make sure that the trees have everything they need. Trees are like people and um as as uh you know when you have trees and and one thing I do preach is we don't want to plant all one kind of tree. You will never see me plant a flowering pair. They're problems. They're invasive. Uh I I come in and I say this is why you don't want this tree or this is why this tree. uh we're seeing mass trees being planted, same species, same varieties, and a disease is coming through. It's like a bunch of people in in in a in a nursing home together. You know, one disease comes through and they're all so close together or they're all, you know,

and and you lose a lot of them. And that's what that's what's happening right now. We're seeing a lot of trees dying because years ago architects massplanted same varieties. The blue spruces are all dying right now and um that is because they were overplanted and they're they they were planted too close together. They weren't planted correctly, planted too deep. So that is one of the things that we do really strive for is to make sure that we mix up species of plants. So not only is it is good for the plants, it's good for the neighborhoods because there's different trees. You don't look at the same tree when you go down um the road. And it's it's very interesting. Manchester is a really great community for that. If you ever go to Manchester, they have tons of different trees. And for a tree geek like myself, it is the coolest thing to see. It's kind of like a mini art marina. Let me drive through this. So,

that answers your question. It does. Thank you. Appreciate you. Absolutely. I would just like to say thank you to Mr. Wright for helping us last Saturday uh plant 10 trees. We had 20 or more people there to help and they said, "Are we done?" They were ready to keep going. So, we could have had 20 had I known all of those students for coming. But thank you. They had fun and they worked. Thank you. I enjoyed doing that. They They follow directions.

That's neat that you have a community that likes to do that because uh you know, it's not easy to plant a tree. It's not just digging a hole and putting it in the ground. There's a lot involved to planting a tree. He had a in terms of location and things that tree. Yes. So Bob does Bob does a lot of plant healthcare, too. So like you said, he doesn't always destroy trees. If we have a tree that's struggling, um Bob Bob comes in and does plant health care and we try to figure out why it's struggling and save it before you do lose it because there's usually something that's not been done correctly um that that causes that. So, well, thank you both for being here today. Thank you. I'm going to leave some of these bloggers for anybody who wants to

Any other questions? Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next is actually our proclamation for our tree committee designation. Whereas in 1872, the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day would be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees can be a solution, combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life, giving oxygen, and providing habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable resource given giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas and beautify our community. And whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source source of joy and spiritual. Now therefore, I, Victoria Garcia Snider, mayor of the city of Algian, do hereby proclaim April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of Algian. And I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. And further, I urge all citizens to plant trees to plant in the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations. So, like I said, this is uh a distinction that the community of Albian has held uh for years and very proud to say that we are able to continue this. Mayor Snider Vanita and the citizens to Albian are here to see

the wonderful Miss and Stacy. Do you have any words to say?

Um I um I'm at a loss. Anyway, well, as you know, we do the the flowers, but we do also plant trees. We've done some at the new garden up there on um the point on Michigan Avenue on Clark Street. We planted predles and we planted this fancy tree that I can't remember. I can't remember the name of it now, but it's the leaves are like a star. If you know the guy nav, they're like a they're like a star and the color in the fall is going to be so beautiful and and so we did we do plant trees at Weatherford Garden has several trees that we have planted. So it's not only the flowers but it's also the trees that you know we we plant and we welcome anybody to join us.

You want to give a plug for your upcoming meeting? Well, yes. Okay. So, um May 2nd, we have our meeting at St. James Episcopal Church on Erie Street at 10:00. It's a Saturday. And this Saturday coming up the 25th, we have a pile of wood chips up there on the corner of Austin and Elpian Street that we're going to put down against this wall where we envision a a uh mural coming in on Austin Avenue. We're cleaning up that corner up there on the corner of Austin and Albian Street with a perennial gardens that are already there. Johnny Craig's memorial bench across the street just making that entrance from the west side coming into route pretty.

So do you need volunteers? I need Oh, we always need volunteers. So Saturday at 10:00 Saturday the 25th 10 o'clock on the corner of Austin and Elvin Street to spread wood chips that were donated. And we have the fabric because we're going to spread them like this heavy. We don't want any weeds or anything there. Want to make it pretty. And Marie, sorry.

Oh, and one thing that we're doing to, you know, as you know, we used to plant all those flowers along the street in Albian. And we can't do that anymore because we're all getting older and we just can't do it. But something that we came up last year, we're giving away a $15 value voucher. You go to Jelly Junction and you can use that voucher to beautify your own space and you either buy plants, flowers, or vegetable plants, or you can buy seeds and put in a little garden. So, it's it's all to beautify your space, you know, and hopefully it'll encourage people to do that with this $15 vouch voucher that Miss Margaret has. And it's one per household that we're passing out.

Yeah. It's a start. Yes. And so, you know, everybody can have something. They can have a little planter, just one planter in front of their porch. Yeah. Right. You one house at a time. One or seven. That's it.

Thank you all for being here. Appreciate all of Thank you. I'm going to take one because I'm going to take a picture of it and So, do they get who do they get a hold? Who do who do the residents get a hold of if they want one of these? Any of us any members of citizens and we have a web page and a site.

Okay. Thank you so much. And I encourage council to do as well. So, this is the $15 voucher. So we didn't bottle it. No, we give this to anybody who wants to go to Queen Johnson. Okay. This is drinking bottles of them to beautify their front yards.

Well, that's exciting. I mean, that's that's a wonderful incentive for our residents to do something. All right. Next is our presentation on mindful neighbors.

Thank you so much for having me so that I can make this announcement this evening. I'm Dr. Katie Price. Uh I am here in my capacity this evening as a board member for the Michigan chapter of the Alzheimer's Association as well as a committee member of the walk to on Alzheimer's disease. Uh I'm excited to invite you all as well as everybody here and the whole community to uh what I am so grateful for. We're finally doing an event called Mindful Neighbors. It is going to be next Thursday, April 30th from 5 to 7 p.m. uh at the uh Opportunity High School. Marshall,

thank you. Marshall Opportunity High School. This event is being spearheaded by the Alzheimer's Association and has been planned by a handful of community members uh including our own council members Davis and Reed as well as Shirley Zeller, Jim Cidell, and myself. Uh I would like to please uh have you all consider joining us whether dementia has personally affected you or not. Uh this evening is going to be informative. There's going to be presentations as well as uh community discussion um on ways that we can watch out for our family, our friends, and our neighbors and make dementia a shared experience and not an isolating one. Uh in addition to these important discussions, there will also be heavy orders. We know 5 to 7 is dinner time, so we're making sure you're taken care of and you got plenty your blood sugars up, you know, to get through. So, I have flyers here that I'm going to leave. Um, there is a QR code on here if you would like more information outside of just what's on the flyer. And again, we look forward to seeing you next week, Thursday the 30th, from 5 to 7 p.m. Thank you for having me. Any questions for our

This is such a an important uh disease, you know, that we should all learn about because most of us are impacted or know someone who is impacted and mindful neighbors uh really takes care help teaches us to take care of each other. So that's why we thank you for coming. It takes a village, right? Yes, it does. Well, thank you so much. Thank you all.

Thank you. All right. Next uh is our public hearing on the Brownale plan for 215 and 217 South Superior Street. I will go ahead and open it up. Our public hearing is 7:41 p.m.

Good evening. Thanks for having me this evening. Um, I'm joined tonight with Joe Verbecki from Ace Investment Properties who is the developer for this project as well as Dave Van Herren from Triter. He is the environmental consultant that assists the developer as well as the city Brownfield Redevelopment Authority. Um, this is for a rental rehab project. um 10 apartments total, five for the address at 215 and 217 South Superior, as well as the five apartments at 300 South Superior and 105 West Porter. Um these spaces are considered functionally obsolete. They're badly blighted as we all know. Um, at the March CityBL Alvian Economic Development Corporation board meeting, um, our board approved funding for asbestous and lead risk assessments, phase 2 subsurface investigations, phase 2 ESA reports, the brownfield plans, and the act 381 work plan for both of these two rental rehabs. I apologize, I'm kind of doing A and C both. I hope that that's okay. Um for the um for the total project it's estimated at 2.27 million contingent for the MISTA rental rehab award would be 1 million. Um and this is a requirement for that development to move forward with MISTA to get those uh funds approved. So tonight we're just seeking your approval on these two amended brownfield plans. And I don't know if Joe or Dave have any comments that they would like to add. Um, but with that that's all I had unless there's any comments or questions for me.

Any council member questions for Mr. Pis open it up for public comment on 215 and 217 street. Hi council. Um Joe Rebeck, 1217 East Porter Street. Um wanted to take a brief moment to ask you for your support of the brownfield plans uh before you tonight. I worked on these projects for about nine months. They're very long and complicated um application project uh through MISTA. Um and these brownfield plans, they make a challenging project more financially sustainable. And perhaps more importantly, um, both Debbie and Dave from Triteria are here to answer any specific questions about the plans, but I wanted to publicly state my gratitude for Lindsay Ror at the city um, for navigating this complicated mission to application system uh, with me. Uh, it's not easy uh, because the grant funds for which we're applying are federal funds. The city must be the applicant and Lindsay has been an absolutely huge help. Uh, and I know that this is in addition to all the other duties that she's managing on a day-to-day basis. So, thank you to Lindsay publicly.

Any other public comment on P15 South District? Seeing no movement, I will Columbus public hearing at 7:45 p.m. Do I have a motion to approve resolution 2618? So, move support. Any questions or comments? Council member Williams, yes. Yes. Stewart, yes. Ross, yes. Davis, yes. Yes. And

yes. Next, I will open the public hearing for 300 South Superior and 105 West Portage Street at 7:45 p.m. comment in regards to this these specific addresses. No movement. I will close public hearing at 7:45 p.m. Do I have a motion to approve resolution for 2619 for 105 West 300 South? So move

support. Any question or comment? City Marie. Yes. Steer. Yes. Ross, yes. Davis, yes. Yes. Williams. Yes. And there's yes. Next, I will open the public hearing for our proposed wastewater collection system improvement project. It is 7:46 p.m.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Um, I think a lot of you are aware several weeks ago, I gave an update on this. Uh we've been working on a project plan and that is essentially the funding application for funding through um Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy also known as Eagle and this is for wastewater improvements. So it's through the clean water state revolving fund. I'll try to be quick on this let you ask questions because uh I can talk infrastructure forever. You know that. Um so the project plan requirement of that we had a draft prepared been at city hall here for um few weeks now and our requirement is a public hearing which is where we're at right now and then there's a resolution on here for your consideration following this and then the project plan itself is due May 1st has to be submitted to Eagle. So we'll have a couple weeks to wrap that up and get that submitted. Um perfect. Thank you. Um, so in 2017 and 18, the city undertook a saw grant and a lot of video was done of the city sewer system, which is kind of like a health checkup. It was the condition that it was in, but nobody really knew what that was. About 110,000 ft of 255,000 ft was videoed, so not quite half of the city's collection system. um about 45,000 ft of that was found to be in poor or very poor condition. The assessment also included all system manholes and of those found 225 structures to be in poor or very poor condition. There is still 144,000 ft of sewer pipe that has not been videoed. So that means we don't know what condition that's in. um if it's proportional to the 110,000 ft that was videoed um there's probably some work to do. So

those are some some needs that were identified in the system. We would look at options and how to address this. So one thing one option that's always exists for every project this applies to you at home is the do nothing um alternative. So no action that's considered but um there are no issues within the sewers system. I think I talked about some of the condition assessment. So, there was pictures on the previous slide. There's pictures right here that show some of the issues that were identified. There's um significant cracks. There are pipe joints that are offset. There are voids in the sewer and more has been discovered um even since then. So, we looked at two different realistic options. One we called the optimum performance. The other one we called the full replacement. the optimum performance. We kind of we looked at the sewer, broke it into a couple different categories. So, there's about 36,500 ft of cured in place that is proposed. And what that is, it's a felt liner. If you uh picture it in a a circular shape, but when it's loose, you can bend it into the shape of a U, which makes it smaller. and you shove that into a sewer. You apply heat and pressure, it expands, it hardens, and it becomes stronger than the carrier pipe originally was. It does not need anything from the carrier pipe. It has structural integrity to it. And then it allows the waste water um to be conveyed through that. And afterwards, they go through, they cut out all the services, picture the houses that come into the sewer. um they televise it beforehand, they put the liner in, they go in, they cut the services in, they televise it again to make sure they got everything done. So, it's very efficient. It's not um non-destructive, if you will, doesn't tear up the roads, minimal disruption to traffic. So, um, of the 44,000 that needs improvement, about 26,500 can have this, uh, in place pipe put in put in place,

about 7,900 ft um, is not linable. A liner will not work. The joints are too far offset. There's too large of voids. Um, there are things protruding into the sewers. In some cases, there are conduits that have been drilled through it. Don't know when that occurred. you know, if it happened last week from a fiber company, they could hold them accountable, but nobody knows when this occurred. So, you cannot line a pipe that has another conduit or pipe going through it. So, it's about 7,900 ft. That does require a traditional replacement. That's what you're kind of used to seeing going around town right now with back holes are out there. They're digging down, putting in new water man, and putting in new sewers. So, um that'd be a component of the project. There's about 26 manholes for lining. So the way we line the sewers, it's something similar for manholes, a little bit different. Comes with sprays on, but they'll go through, they'll put some hydraulic grout in, seal up the joints, and then they put a liner in it, and that helps protect the manhole and gives it integrity. Also some usually a new casting up on top. Another component is the videoing of the remaining sewer. So asset management planning is eligible for funding through this program. So, um, as we've worked with the city team on this, we said this is the time to get this done. So, we are including 144,000 ft of pipe that is in unknown condition right now as part of it. The full replacement alternative and and real quick, the um, a couple other things on the optimum performance. So, we learned from the water project, we had no plans to do sewer work and we got close to it. But the sewer often collapsed and it ended up being added to the project and that even sewers that were in perfect condition had very minimal structural integrity to them and they collapsed. So we knew we better look at water man on this project. This is a sewer application we're looking at. We knew we better look at the water man on the same road. Plus we don't want to tear up the road and leave older infrastructure which is in place right

now. So, in doing that and looking at that with the city, we ended up so about 7,900 feet of sewer needs to be replaced. We're at about 9,000 ft of water man to go along with that. Now, on somewhat the bright side, a lot of that water man is in close proximity to the sewer. Supposed to be 10ft separation. So, we could not get a permit for the sanitary sewer unless the water man is moved over. For that reason, that water main replacement is considered fundable under the same sewer program. Um, which has rates of one or two% for the city. So, that is a that's the bright side of that. It adds more to it. The infrastructure is old and age and does need to be replaced. So, it kind of um it's good timing to do that. Uh the estimated cost of that project is 23.11 million. And then there is an additional $1 million of water mane replacement. That is we had some cases where a sanitary sewer manhole the upstream end ended about 100 ft short of an intersection and instead of stopping the water man there we had several instances of this said it made more sense to go up to the intersection with the water man. So that's where you get some extra length of water mane in this. And like I said, there's several and there's some cases where there's a block and for some reason there's four manholes in this block and the middle piece of sewer needs to be replaced. The other segments can be lined. We said let's get the water main for the full block, stop at the intersection, but at least not do a partial on that. So that's why there's more water main and sanitary sewer, but most of it is fundable um through the CWSRF program. The full replacement option has uh just 44,400 feet below replacement. No lining. Just replace all the pipe. Replace all the manhole. Don't line those. Still video the 144,000 ft of

unknown. That has an estimated price tag of about 39.77 million plus the other million for the water man. So, um ultimately looking at this with a pretty easy choice to go with. Uh we're recommending the optimum performance and again there's two distinct parts. There's the wastewater collecting system improvements and the asset management planning. So the improvements include the lining, the sewer replacements, the manhole lining and then the asset management planning is the video taping of the remaining 144,000 ft of sanitary sewers. Um, there are 16 segments of sewer that did require replacement of all the sewers we looked at. And again, that's about 7,900 ft of sewer, about 9,000 ft of water main on that. Um, for the sewer televising, uh, that does have to be done under some strict standards that rates the pipes. We talked about the ratings one to five. So, there are certifications that the operators must possess to rate those pipes to make them eligible for funding through this program. Uh, anyone can go video them and say that's a bad sewer, but we can't get it funded unless it has a um NASCO, National Association of Sewer Service Companies rating of four or five. So, um, want to go to the next one, please, Jill? So, this is a little bit tough to see. This is a next one's a map and it shows um it's tough to see here. If you zoom in, you can see pretty well, but all of the yellow are locations where we're lining sewers and you can see blue is where they were placing. It's spread out over the entire city. So, it was tough to get this um be able to see it, but um you know, it's the 44,000 ft of sewer and it is spread out all over the city. And one thing I should said, I last gave you an update.

Um, we did add Mon North Monroe Street to this. Jason had called me um had some issues, some backups, and I went out there and met with them. We're like, "This is the time to add this one in." So, we did add that into our project. That's about 2,000 ft of sewer replacement and water main replacement that was added in. So, uh, the next page has kind of the funding summary. So this shows, as I mentioned, the estimated project estimated CWSRF amount is 23.11 million. Keep in mind that the additional $1 million for water main replacement is be in addition to that. Um the water main replacement does add up to about just over $6 million. So it's a pretty hefty amount between the water and the sewer that will replace require removing all the pavement which will then require replacing it. that would all be included under this funding program. Um, we ran two different financing scenarios. So, we assumed that it would be 100% loan. Um, we have we have not completed yet the calculations. There's a calculation that has to be done to determine if the city is overburdened or significantly overburdened and that impacts the rates. On the water side, we ended up at overburdened, which we got a 2% interest rate. And the reason for that is that I believe three township customers accounted for 55% of the water usage. It's a calculation based on the median household income of each local government taxing entity. So, uh there are three very large users in the township. And so that took us out of the significantly overburdened um position by a little bit. I think the sewer flows are different than what the water were. So I'm optimistic, but we're still um getting some information on that. What we have shown right here is if the if we

get the significantly overburdened status there, city would receive 1% interest rate for 30 years. That's really an outstanding rate. um that would result in a 60% increase to the wastewater uh sewer bill for an average residential customer and that would go from about 4142 per month to 6627. One thing I'll mention as well is um whichever one of those that we receive either overburdened or significantly overburdened. In the last funding cycle, overburdened communities received 13% principal forgiveness which is essentially grant but they call it principal forgiveness. Significantly overburdened communities received 18%. So um if you recall in the water project we got 50% grant. There was ARPA money involved. That was from um COVID money. There's several different funding bills on that, but the city received 9.6 million on that one because of the the COVID money. Essentially, that money is all gone. That's now no longer available. That's all been accounted for or committed. You can look at the next one. We ran a scenario for if the city just achieved the overburden status for 2% interest and that results in a 65% rate increase for a typical residential user. Now again, this is just the strictly loan. This does not account for any principal forgiveness in here at all.

The one other thing I do want to mention is that applying for this does not obligate the city. Um, so there would be a soon we get a funding offer, the city could decide yes, the city could decide no, the city could say we only want to borrow $8 million. It reduce the scope with the only caveat to that is you can't remove anything that gave us points. This is competitive. So if we remove something that we lost 10 points and they said, okay, you can reduce the scope, but now you're no longer fundable. you went from getting 18% principal forgiveness and a 1% low interest loan to not even getting funded. So, and well, we would have those discussions with staff before a decision was made, but um that is something so you can reduce the scope. I will say if you do reduce the scope, it doesn't make any of the problems go away. It just kicks them down the road. So, and and one other thing on that note I do want to share is that I think from probably the early 80s through probably 2018, somewhere in that range, there was not a whole lot done to the city's infrastructure. So, I don't believe any of you were on council back in the 80s or 90s or probably early

2010.

Okay. So, So yeah, so I mean in those prior years and that that did the city does does have extremely low water and sewer rates compared to other communities. Um that by itself is not any justification to raise them. But I think investing in the infrastructure I think it was heavily neglected for quite a bit of time and that's and you're not alone in that. Other communities are in sim similar places as well. But it is um you know there's some catch-up time here right now. The plan with 144,000 televising that what we would probably anticipate is a phase two of this coming in 2030 2031 something like that. So that'd be on the heels once we know the condition of that. Um probably be to pursue funding for the next phase of it. Next slide please. So just to cover on the schedule here. So, here we are tonight with the public hearing and hopefully a plan adoption after this final plan is due May 1st. As I mentioned, um the city the city will receive preliminary scoring in July. We'll have an opportunity to seek more points or to clarify things and then a funding opportunity. A draft would come out in September final, what Eagle called their intended use plan, which is how they're going to use their CWSRF funding for the fiscal year. would be uh issued in October. At that point, the city would receive notification of funding and have to decide whether to move forward or not. Assuming the city move forward, design would begin then in October. Final plans and specs are due in April of 2027. So about a year from now, all permits in place in May. We bid the project. In June, the city would tenatively award contracts. In July of 27, there'd be a closing with Michigan Finance Authority on the funding. In August, probably September, we'd have

pre-construction meetings. And you see begin construction in 2027. I highly expect that'll be the sewer lining that can go on year round. We don't start much underground construction on roads in Michigan in November. So, but they can line all winter long. So, that could get underway. We'd love to have that done by probably September of 27. And the reason for that is the next funding application um is November 1st. An intent to apply for funding is due. So if we can have that done by September, we can assess the information and submit an intent to apply. Again, that does not obligate the city to anything, but it makes you eligible. If you don't submit the intent to apply, you can't do the project plan and apply for funding. Um, and then we've, uh, construction would occur throughout the entire 2028 construction season with completion in spring, early summer of 29. Told you I'd be quick and I lied. I'm sorry.

All right. Are there any questions? Mayor, thanks. Um, Nikki, it's always good to hear from you and hear about the plans that you have for us. Uh, one question about the camera use and Jason's well aware that I actually live in a house that has an undocumented sewer line because it's connected to three other houses. And so the question is when we camera our sewer lines, we're cameraing from the city side, not necessarily from the resident side. So how do we create a plan that allows for the very creative sewer line system that some of our houses have?

Yeah. So there are I think there are cameras that can go up the laterals that's that's that technology does exist. Um you know if you go down a street and you see there's one sewer lateral and you look at an aerial or you walk out there and you see there's three houses um you know and kind of say well somehow unless somebody has a septic system they're all connected. And when we go through at some point if that sewer is replaced this happens with water services as well. will find three homes or four homes connected to one service because it was convenient. That is not allowed by Eagle to have that. So, if that sewer is replaced, we would run separate laterals. It could get tricky getting them connected, you know, because you think if it runs around the back or something like that, but um they would have to be separate and each each house should have its own um its own lateral. So, the city is responsible for the sewer main itself. I believe your ordinance says each resident responsible from the main to the house which um

yeah most house to house that's a gray area. Yeah. Yeah it is. And that's there aren't a lot of those but they do exist. Um and you know you are blessed or cursed to have some unique things here in in Albian with your infrastructure.

Right. But I'm not worried about whether who's going to pay for it. Just that we have an idea of what exists right so that we can then plan. We've been actually every time we do a camera system, we record it and we've been giving it to Whiteitman. They've been uploading it into GIS so we know where they're at. And then on these major constructions, we get a camera that has a lateral launch system and we'll send it up to the person's house and GPS locate it and then that gets put into our blueprints as well. So now we have an idea of every single place where it's at along with depth so so forth. Julius.

Yep. Thank you. When they cut the laterals out um after putting in the side, do they do it from the resident's house or does that find the laterals? What the camera? No, no, the line and they got to cut in the lateral. Great question. So, the lining what we do is it would line the main and then we do um they have the ability to go up about what they call them the top hat. It goes up into the lateral just a couple feet. Okay? And the reason that's important is those joints often settle. So you think of a smaller pipe coming into the main,

there can be stresses put on there. They do crack. And so we want to get a good seal. That's a good opportunity for either storm water to get in or roots to get in. So they will get that part right there. Um like the first two feet from the main up the lateral. Yeah. Just the first couple of feet. the places where we're replacing the sewer main when we do that we are going about to the right of way with the laterals. So everyone there wherever the sewer is getting replaced um because you know again the conditions of the laterals we're not sure if it works. We've got the ground excavated um and they'll get PVC back to near the right of way.

Yeah that was mine is a simplified I see you know um the outline of the manholes. So where the sewers are being replaced, what impact of that have on the roadway or the street, is it going to be enough to maybe do some work on that particular street under this grant?

Yes, under this funding. Um, and I just want to stress it as a loan. There is potential for a grant, but it's essentially a loan. It's essentially a loan program. Yeah. But yes, so the sanitary sewer, I'd say 90% of the time is down the middle of the road because that just makes sense um to gravity to serve each house on each side. So it goes down the middle. A lot of them are probably 8 to 12t deep. And so if you picture a trench um to be safe, the slopes on the side are usually a oneonone means one vertical to one horizontal. So if we're 10t deep, that's 20 foot. And then you got to have a two to three foot wide working space at the bottom. So we're about 22 24 feet wide and that leaves probably a few feet of pavement from there to the curb on either side that would likely fall in during construction. Additionally, with the water man placement, it's going to have to be moved away from. So it's going to be on one side or the other of the sewer man at least 10 ft away. So that will necessitate removing the pavement. So, wherever there is full sewer replacement and water man replacement, that roadway will be essentially replaced. Kind of like what happened with the water project. Very similar. Does that answer your question?

It does. It does. Just wondering streets are going to be impacted. So, no problem. You want to know that I'm Maple? No. He was cornet today regarding May. That's what I said. Yeah. If you want to know them, I there's a like I said 16 or 17 segments. So if you want I I do have them if you want to know them.

Which thank you may thank you Mickey for this uh presentation on this very thorough report. got a few questions regarding project school and maybe director Clark away on financing as well. So looking at what your numbers were here I'm on page what is this 232 um where we're talking about uh the total revenue annual and typical homeowners bill. Um you talked about this is a loan so it would be paid back through taxes right through sewer rates. Through sewer through sewer rates. Yeah.

Um which of course the residents are are going to feel when that's going to go up. Um your numbers here say somewhere around 60% depending on that 1% or 2%. Right now there's a potential that it could the uh either a 13% principal forgiveness or 18% principal forgiveness but that's probably not something that you're going to feel right away. Right? something that's going to be down the line if that happens. That would be part of the offer if that occurs. So that would reduce the amount. Okay?

Reduce the rate increase. You know, the rate increase is just to collect enough capital to make the debt payments. So that's that's the reason for the rate increase. Um any principal forgiveness would reduce that. Um so I think that would be I think what we're showing is probably a worst case scenario. And and then one I guess caveat to that is if there's some crazy thing occurs that causes massive inflation again. We saw a lot during COVID where prices went up 25% a year for a few years. I mean it was really aggressive and you know that's something we're we're hoping we're out um beyond that now and things are things have seemed to settle down a little bit. So um

Sure. Sure. I understand that and I know that the the new rates would reflect more what's uh normal regionally anyway about $65 to $70 a month. But when you're looking at Albian where right now our average rates are close to $40 a month go to $65 to $70 that's that's a pretty big increase.

Um so this goes into my project scope question for you. I know the finance part is for director Clark's neighborhood, but so you you talked about that this proposal here is for 50% really of what still needs to be done and is the next 50% is that part of this phase two that you're talking about in 2030. Okay,

that's I mean that's all that's that's kind of our plan right now is like let's assess the condition of the other 144,000 ft and let's find out what we don't know and then at that point um and if we find out and just say look the appetite for another project isn't here right now okay so be it wait another year or something we're going to know the condition and it's going to be what it is maybe all 144,000 is in great condition that'd be the best news possible right likely that's not the case. Um and we even we had a brief discussion about that with this current recommended um alternative and that you know hey this we got this sewer we can't line this this is bad should this be a separate thing and it's like we have knowledge of this we know this is the condition it would not be responsible to say let this go and so that's kind of where so I think the next phase being out of 110,000 ft we got 44,000 feet to be repaired or repaired. The next televised is 144,000 probably going to be 60,000 ft maybe more. So it probably be a heftier project. Maybe there's more lining than replacement. You know, hard to say on that, but um you know, like I said before, the condition is what it is. We just don't know what that is right now. And once we know um right now we're there's a little bit of peace in having ignorance not knowing you know like how bad it might be or it might be good but once we find out then we know and then then we make a decision with our eyes open and that that's what you guys get to do um on that decision.

Sure. Sure. and and I firstly I appreciate all the work that you all are doing and I'm I see the importance and know the importance of getting our infrastructure fixed up in this in this city but I'm also trying to just also for our own education make everyone aware of really what's not just in front of us now but what's down the road so we're talking about 2030 that's in less than four short years away being presented with another prop proposal at least as much as the one in front of us now. Um to take on the rest, which we want to do. I mean, we we want the city to to be uh working at its fullest capacity. Um but I'm also looking at what can we bear as a community, right? Um, and I don't have any answers, but there's certainly things that we need to be talking about and try and think about in the future and what we need to focus on because according to your own report here, uh, Albian's population is is at zero and I think that's pretty generous number. It's really stagnant. These are really kind of declining. So this this expense that our community is being asked to bear uh it it's not going to go down in the future unless as a community we can figure out how to increase our tax base, increase the people here who can contribute to this these infrastructure improvements that we're talking about, right?

Yep. Awesome.

Absolutely. So and one thing I'll note on that too is that we are always looking for funding opportunities out there. So there's a couple that help offset this a little bit. We did get the congressionally directed spending for Elbian Street and Bean and Hogland in the amount of $4 million after replacing uh sewers on those. We also received $2.5 million for Beamer Magnata and Little Blockadine to replace sewers and water mane on those. So, um there's $6.5 million that went toward water, wastewater, some storm sewer, some curbing gutters, some and then roadway uh reconstruction as well. So, that went a long ways. Um, we keep our eyes open. We're pretty plugged into a lot of those different programs that are out there and we just we apply everything. You know, we don't we're not batting a thousand by any means, but we're we're putting our hat in the range for a whole lot. And um I I've been pleased with what we've been able to secure so far. I think it's it's been impactful and you can tell it's tough to get around town right now. Um but you're right, it's it's a heavy burden. No doubt it is. Um, and that's kind of why I mentioned some of the history and the lack of investment that probably occurred for 30 years or 35 years, you know. So, and that's it's it's unfortunate. Um, I wouldn't care to be in your seats either, you know. It's it's tough. It is.

It really is. Thank you, Mayor. Are any of our um recently repaired streets at risk of having to have the um the sewer lines replaced or the um the mains moved?

Yeah, great question. So, the ones we did for the water project, all of those the sewer um was televised and most of them it was replaced. There might be a couple that we didn't that were um in good condition. The one that jumps out to me though is Irwin Avenue. Um that water man was replaced in 2020 21 something like when we did that project the water man was replaced we didn't touch the sewer um did some manhole work but we didn't do anything with the sewer mains and I would hate to see anything happen there so that was priority one of the first projects I said we've got to do Irwin Avenue we don't want that to fall in or anything to happen there when we looked at this the assessments almost all of it was rated four and five so we can mine it there was section in the title that's a three and ego says that's not eligible for lining but we can make a case that it was installed the same time as the others and on either side of it's a four and a five. We've been successful in other applications where we've made that case and Eagle has approved it. So we'll probably get some push back on that one but we can make a case as to why that one that 300 ft should be lined as well. Does

that answer your question? Yeah, it does. It does. I have another question as well. Um, back to the same page. Um, Councilman Frost was talking about the, uh, 2027 rate increase. So, it's expected to be 90%. 60. I saw 60 everywhere else. And looking at this, it's saying 90. So, maybe it's just wrong. Is that Is that for that might be for the um full replacement alternative? Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that was if we did the if we did the um that makes sense. What's the amount? It's almost like 40. Yeah, the 39 39.77. Y

yeah, got you. Okay. And then we would have to add an additional million of that plus a million either. Yeah. Yeah, this would be 40. Okay, perfect. Thank you. So, kind of like reiterating what Mickey had said though, this is this will come back to us again if we get this approved. So this is just giving right the ability to submit the application and then we make the hard decisions after that if we need to.

So this is definitely a great opportunity to kind of start conversations with your constituents if they bring it up like I heard this is what's coming down the pike. Are you serious about raising rates again? you can talk to them about how this has come about and why this is important work because as we know and as we've been told a lot of our infrastructure is failing it's failing I heard time and time again of residents who are feeling sewer backed up into their houses that is not sanitary we cannot have this we need to address it so I think we have this knowledge we start having these conversations this is a great way to address it, but we all are going to have to kind of make sure we're talking about this on a regular basis because it's not going to happen tomorrow. We're not going to know probably until another several months. Um, so at that point, that's when we start making decisions.

Yeah, that you summarized it perfectly. Um, and one thing it would be really wise to have those discussions in the meantime so that it doesn't just come up in October because if it does there's some questions and then it's tabled and it's tabled again. Um, yeah, if you're offered this funding, you have to have 90% plans submitted in February. Can't start in January, you can't start in December. you can't start design maybe starts beginning of like your first November meeting, but anything beyond that it's going to be really tough to get meet that deadline and then if you miss the deadline um you lose funding and you're not automatically in for the next round. So So these are tough conversations that we're going to have to have but that's why we've been elected to be in those positions.

Council Wings. Yeah. Thank you. um the uh principal forgiveness. When do you when when would we know if we were going to receive so say we go through the application process we got approved all that when would you know you're receiving the principal forgiveness?

Great question. So in September, Eagle typically publishes a draft IUP in intended use plan that says how they're going to use their annual allocation of this funding for both loan dollars and principal forgiveness dollars. So we'll have a we'll have an idea in September. It's draft. Um there's usually a few tweaks. Some community might drop out and say we can't do it now. And then you'll see when they get to the final plan, someone drops off and funding's increased or someone else is added. But um we'll have an idea at that point. And then in October, the final intended use plan is published and that contains the final figures of how much every community applied for, what their score was, how much interest uh or how much um loan they're getting, how much principal forgiveness they're getting. Last year, I think I me I mentioned was 13% for overburdened communities and 18% for significantly overburdened communities. That's not a guarantee. what it's going to be the next year. So, Eagle can adjust that. It's a much lower rate than what they've had. So, I I would expect it probably continue similar to that, but we'll find out. Um draft in September, final in October of this year at 26. So, that's when you'd have that information in hand when you make that decision.

Mister,

thank you. And Mr. Bitner and and also Director Kern, is there any potential for optimism on the phase two? I know that's not what we're talking about here, but just as we look ahead from the standpoint of is there any chance that what we've been looking at on purpose was our worst and so that phase two maybe isn't going to be as bad or is there no real sense of potential optimism? I would love to have that optimism, but looking at the sewers that were televised, a lot of the ones along the river were not done in 2017 18. I think those and I don't know uh we weren't involved in that and I don't know what discussions took place at that time but in my mind those would have been a priority because if you're getting groundwater into your sewers that means your wastewater plant is treating clean water unnecessarily. So those would be the most important ones to know. The ones up on high ground around Macintosh Park that don't have a high water table. Um, I probably would have left those for later, but for whatever reason, and you know, I there may have been a good reason to do that, but those it was the other direction around. So, um,

that's all I was asking. That said, let that said, Director Curran did televise uh one of the river crossings going underneath and he and I both fully expected that to have taking on river water and going right to the plant and it was dry as a bone. a after the wastewater was blocked and they could look at it. So we suspect that was probably replaced at some point. But

I will say so we pump about 1.4 1.5 million gallons of water through our system. We are taking in about 2.9 2.7 million gallons coming into the wastewater treatment plant. So we have just figure at least a million gallons coming in that we have no idea where it's coming in from infiltration. So there's kind of two options here really on where that could be coming from. um one could see an artisian well say that

but the most likely is probably groundwater which would be in the lower areas of the which would be along the river you know not just I'm not talking like within 20 ft of the river I'm talking all the lower areas that are like below the water table several blocks yep exactly yeah so that is a high likelihood candidate for taking on ground water getting into the sewers and a lot of the sewers are clay. So clay pipe with six foot sections. So you got joints every six foot. It's old. It's brittle. Um, that's

Yeah, thank the um the 3 million gallons that we're looking at currently, is that the the inflow that we use to base our um our bills off of? No, that comes off the sew off the water meter usage. Okay. or so we have over a million gallons that everybody's paying to treat that we can't collect on because we can't get to stop. Yeah. So,

all right. Thank you, Mickey. A lot of info. So I will open it up for the public comment on this topic. If there's anybody in the county that would like to stay council in regards to our proposed application for funding for this may come forth. See no movement. I will close the public hearing at 8:27 p.m. Do I have a motion to approve 6620? So moved support. Any other additional questions or comments? We have council member Stewart. Yes. Ross,

yes. Davis, yes. French, yes. Williams, yes. Reed, yes. And mayor, yes. Public comments. If there's anybody in the gallery that would like to stand and address council in regards to an agenda item, you may use that sign. No movement.

Good evening, uh, council. Um, want to congratulate you for taking on this very, uh, tough subject. Uh, I'm the village manager in Homer. We're going through something like this on a much, much smaller scale. Um, but all of us that are in smaller or older communities, I mean, it's a tough deal. I mean, it's not just the water and the sewer. We got the roads, we got sidewalks, we got trees that are built or planted between the sidewalk and the roads and they're causing waterline breaks and it just goes on and on and on and it's uh you guys should be congratulated on addressing this issue and I know it's a big money deal and you're working with a great company with Lightroom so um know you you're working with the best. Um, my name is Art Kale. Um, and I am the, uh, chair of the Albian Homer Substance Abuse Prevention Services. And, uh, I just want to, uh, on behalf of, uh, the coalition and Dr. Harry Bonner, uh, thank you for, um, recognizing the Albian or the, uh, alcohol awareness month proclamation. Um, so much of what we do is is is reaching out to the kids. And we can have all these great programs and all these grants, these grants for these great programs, but if we don't reach the kids, it's nothing but a big secret. And so any anytime we have an opportunity um uh to publicize what we do, um, we really appreciate that. And and you should know that people like uh Chris Farmer and Marquetta Frost and and Mo Barry and Dr. Harry Bonner uh they're working 247 to reach these kids and and help these kids when there's issues in the middle of the night. Um so again, I want to um

tell you how much we appreciate your support and uh again, thank you so much um for that and welcome back Cheryl. Anybody else have to stand in the press council in regards to an agenda item? All right, moving on. Do I have a motion to approve consent calendar items? So move support.

All right, in your packets, we have the April 6 regular session minutes. Uh we have the applications for the bios park. Uh we have applications for um Jason Kern for initial appointment to the ADA. Reappoints for Ian Garvore, Tim Seller, and Larry Sn. Any questions or comments? All in favor say I. I oppose. Do I have a motion to approve of a three-year contract with WCA assessing? So support.

I do. We have Dan Curry with us here tonight. Uh Dan, were you preparing to come and talk or um I have a just a short and sweet thing to say if you guys will have me. Good evening, council. I'm Daniel Curry, city assessor. Um I just want to say on the behalf of WCA assessing, I wanted to express our gratitude for the opportunity to serve this wonderful community. Um, and with your consideration, we are looking forward to hopefully another amazing three years here. Uh, so again, I just want to thank you for your consideration on this. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Curry? He is our current city assessor. You will find him dwelling in the basement.

I actually got upgraded. I'm on the main floor now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Big promotion. Additional comments. I I just want to mention that we did have a meeting and we had a very good discussion in regards to the assessment process there in Albian and some future opportunities we could explore as well. And um Mr. Curry has adjusted this calendar in terms of when he's in the office in city hall to coincide with us on what's it Thursdays? Uh Wednesdays. Wednesday. Yes.

So I will say that I am a member of the board of appeals. uh been on the board for three years doing the same amount of time that Dan's been here, but each year our processes get smoother and more streamlined. So, I do want to show my appreciation for Dan's hard work. um because he literally we think this when it's a stack um when he comes to a meeting he has a stack like this of appeals that he's working with citizens um to make sure that they have the proper documentation in place so that it is ready for the board to review um and he walks us through it professionally. I don't think there's any stone unturned when it comes to the information that we need. So I do want to thank you for your hard work in working with our residents who do feel like they have a life to stand on in regards to field.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I would like to say mine one time uh subbing. I was a sub and uh things are vastly different. So, I hadn't worked with uh Dan before, but uh I appreciate the work you put in before we even get to the table, and it shows. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments? Thank you for being with us tonight. Thank you again. Council member Ross, yes. Yes. French. Yes. Yes. Reward. Yes. And standard.

Yes. Do I have a motion to approve resolution 2681 uh to wave the mobile vending fee for June?

So move uh on the 8th uh June 8th will be celebrated here in June 20th of June uh this year. It'll be one day after the 19th. But uh we do appreciate uh we appreciate waving our fee because our money is tight. Just put it like that. So and and we do hope that you all come out and celebrate with us this year. We're going to we got a lot of things uh going and we hope to have another children's ball game uh this year too. Last year, Albian played Marshall and it was just really, really neat and the kids had a lot of fun and so did the parents. Any questions or not?

Council member Davis, yes. Yes. Williams, yes. Yes. Stewart, yes. Ross, yes. Yes. I have a motion to approve the assembly permit sound to have application and part waiver fee for support. Same information. Any questions in regards to this application? Council member French. Yes. Williams. Yes. Reed. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Frost. Yes. Davis. Yes.

And mayor Snider. Yes. Do I have a motion to approve the application for Zena shell? In your packet, we have the information for the Sundays running from August 2nd through September 13th. This is a widely uh popular event that uh that uh they have for the community. Any questions or comments? Council member Williams, yes. Reed, yes. Stewart, yes. Ross, yes. Davis, yes. Yes. And

yes. Do I have a motion to approve of alcohol and public places permit for the following events with the LA meal, their anniversary on May 30th, online August 1st, and Rocky on August 20th. Support In your packets, you have the information and application, all of the verifications and signatures needed. City manager, do you have additional time? No, we have um they met all the requirements and we would recommend your consideration. Question for city manager.

Council member Ree. Yes. Sher, yes. Ross, yes. Yes. Yes. Williams, yes. And there's yes. Do I have a motion to approve the expense for 18 pallets of mastics at German? So move. Support.

Good evening, council. Uh this is to buy another shipment for the uh mastic patcher so we can continue going down uh east Yuri, some parts on uh Yuri, West Erie. Uh we'll also do Clark Street uh where the seams are coming apart and then uh Watson as well. So we're mainly using this patcher um for the long roadways. This isn't something you just do little spots with. This is quite a process. So once we get set up, we like to get areas that we can start rolling out pretty good. You'll see us mainly adjust our schedules to do this more at nighttime or early early morning hours, like 3:00 a.m. or even come in at midnight. Uh that way we have less traffic disruption and we learned our lesson on doing East Eerie during the day. May

I would suggest that you actually close the road? Well, that's that's one of the lessons we learned. So whether it happens during the day or in the middle of the night, I mean, it's not like these streets that you name are not easily detourred around. Yeah, that's that's kind of why we wanted to switch our schedules and we learned a lot on East area.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um, so we've had a few water mane breaks that we've had to replace and you know, they leave some really ugly and unsightful blemishes in the road. Um, it can't be used to like the the longer I don't know, maybe I saw one earlier. It's probably 3 feet wide and 12 to 15 ft long. No, that actually needs some ashall. Gotcha.

And so what our plan is, it's kind of like we had a water mane break down on Mingo and border and trying to stretch that ashalt a little bit further. So, because it's not just everywhere we have these brakes, you go another five feet and there's more potholes. So, I can't just fix that little spot and make it nice when I've got a huge hole over here. So, what my plan to do is actually get it to where Lakeland's coming in doing these other streets and so I can save on deployment costs and I can just patch a bigger area and just do it all at the same time. Gotcha. Perfect. So, you're keeping track of where all of these

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're keeping track and we're putting more dirt back in, then it rains and it washes it back out. We got to put more dirt back in. Just trying to buy as much time as we can. Now, when you're um when you're doing the longer stretch, are you planning on doing like the entire section of street from? So, we'll go that whole joint. It's basically everywhere you go down, you see those long potholes or just

that's from where the seam of the ashalt was. And so we're our goal is to just go through and start filling that back in. And then on some of the other streets that haven't cracked yet, we want to go back over it as a preventive maintenance to seal that off so it doesn't open up like Clark Street has. Okay. Perfect. As an employee. Oh, you know when I was talking to you about when the people turned off the street off the chestnut they go to the whale.

Well, I was out cleaning the leaves from along my the the front of the curb. I was cleaning that up and where they have been doing it. I have some great pieces of stuff that popped out of the potholes that's about this thick and about like this. I'll bring them to you tomorrow. And maybe you'd like to feel those. Any comments in regards to this topic? Council member Stewart. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Williams, yes. Ready?

Yes. And yes. A motion to approve the expenditure for Concord Escavating for the small pavilion. Support.

This is for the uh cement work that was done that the pavilion sits on. Um the bill came to 16,000. I made the I worked with Mickey uh in designing the pad. The previous pad was just a slab that had sat there and that's what caused a lot of the heaving. What we did is we actually beefed up the pad, made it wider, and then made it longer, and then we actually put footings underneath it. We went two foot down, one foot wide, and then that's what the build the building itself sits on currently. I also decided to go and put a 10-ft patio on the front and then make a 8ft wide sidewalk that's going to connect to the new uh cement sidewalks there. On each side of that patio, there's going to be double grills that face the um the playground equipment. And then we're also putting in an 88 compliant uh drinking fountain. And so we went a lot bigger, a lot longer, a lot wider, and a lot thicker so we won't have any cracks this time.

What type of grills? Uh just regular charcoal grills, but we went with the double ones instead of the singles. Any questions for director? It's got a little scrub route or something around there, too. We're going to put some um some gravel because it's pretty low and it's pretty wet through there. So, we're going to put in French drains on both sides that'll go into the collection system out front. And so, uh there'll be a little bit of gravel, but then we might look at doing something after that. City claim. Council member Ross, yes. Davis, yes. French, yes. Williams,

yes. Re, yes. Yes. Thank you, director, for that information.

Uh, next in your packets is updated information on our grant reporting. uh been a while since we've brought this to council to update you all on on how we've been doing as of recent in regards to getting money for the community. Um as you can see in the graph in the year 2025 we were awarded three grants in 2026 already one grant in the amount total amount of $3,41,000. So, I think this is great news for our community. Um, and as who said that, Lindsay's been working really hard. Um, I know that she has a lot on her plate. She is our our main grant writer for the city. Um, so I know that she's done so much work in regards to making sure we have our tees crossed, eyes dotted for these applications. So, um I'm hopeful that we will get more yeses in year 2026. Um city manager, do you have anything else to add?

It won't be for a lack of time. Exactly. Yeah. I got a question about that first grant, the Albian infrastructure project. Uh it's the Misha CBG in the neighborhood 3.0. very top at the very top. Um what's that? That's for the um the new housing. I can't think of the address right now. I want to say Watson Washington and Fine.

Yes, Washington and Fine. It's one that we were going to submit last fall, but somehow it fell through the cracks. Um, we actually we wanted to apply for another rehab, but Mista has told, you know, our organization at the EDC that we were pretty much tapped out with home rehab even though we have a significant need for more rehab projects. So, they indicated that it would be likely that we'd be most approved for the infrastructure. So, it's to provide for new infrastructure for the homes in concert with working with Norhole Homes for the construction. Perfect. Thank you. Sure. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments in regards to our grant information? Yeah. Will this be placed on the uh maybe the city website or because one of the one of the I guess concerns that have been shared is have you read any comments you know so I is this confidential confidential is included in the agenda packet so yeah um the city of Jackson does that I know they put it on their website. I've seen a few other places that do as well,

right? Because I know that sometimes there's a concern and it has been concerned, you know, at the council meetings, you know, so this the more is shared, the more the citizens will know that things are happening. Yeah. And I will say another little bit of good news is that we've been able to clear the first hurdle uh with federal appropriation funds for senior housing through Congressman Wahlberg's office. We were notified of that. So fingers crossed that we can get it to the finish lines. Yes. Hope so.

3.5 mill. I guess I just know the other side of the throwing abundant. It's hoping fingers crossed. All right. Any other questions or comments? Very good. City management report. No, sorry. Future agenda items. Anything council would like to see an upcoming agenda? Public comments. Good evening everybody. Steve Frisbee, 44th District State Rep. Um, first of all, welcome back, city the manager. Well,

thank you.

We had the opportunity to have breakfast at the MML conference. Uh, she felt very comfortable coming back and I think that's a direct reflection of you six sitting here. So, congratulations on changing the culture and the climate in Albian and working together. I think that's a huge part of trying to make this town successful. It's great to see. Did have a conversation with Congressman Wahlberg staff about the housing iss funding and gave him a very positive uh thanks for that and hope it, you know, he continues to push that. So, that would be very good for Alvin. Um, thank you to the mayor for coming to spend the e late afternoon into the evening with me at the state of the state uh earlier this this year. She was my guest on the house floor. Uh, it's quite an experience to see. Uh I was amaz I was amazed the first time I was amazed again uh by the pomp and circumstance of it the content of what what is included and where can we find as a legislative body you know alignment with the governor to work on different projects. We did it last year got roads done. So uh we found a few more things we're going to continue to work on together with the governor and hopefully the Senate. So, um, the budget looks like it should be on time this year. Uh, barring no surprises. Lancing's full of surprises. So, I never, you know, don't doubt that they couldn't happen and delay it, but our full intent is to have it done by July 1st. That would also potentially in the initial uh things that I'm hearing would increase some local revenue sharing. So, that's good news. Uh we also will continue to build the roads fund from its current $2 billion a year to more and we're going to gradually go up

instead of trying to fill it at the back end to get to $3 billion that it really needs. Um we're not even sure that it that will do it, but three billion is a lot farther ahead than where we were a few years ago or even last year. public safety uh trust fund will continue to exist and we should see a small increase in that as well. Um let's see I think that's good. Um any questions for me comments concerns that you want to want me to address you know on Albian's behalf? Good morning. Uh, I'd like to just continue to offer support for House 453, 454,

the um historic tax credits. Yep. That Yeah, I I was part of introduction, so I third that. Um, it seems to be held up. Uh, it's made it out of committee. Uh, it's not making it to the House floor yet. So, I don't think you'll see anything until fall. Uh but at that point, I'll repush. All the focus is going to be on the budget uh and getting that implemented in the early part of late part of spring and into the summer. So once we're through that, I think they may be open to taking that up on the floor. And it has Democratic and Republican support. So I think we can get it done.

Councilman. Yeah. Thank um I would like to say um thank thank you for being here for one but um we definitely can use help with uh affordable housing. I know it's very competitive to them um applying for the tax credits and receiving the tax credits as well. Um smaller communities are somewhat neglected

in their application processes. So hopefully um we can advocate for more funding in that way also. Um the CDBG funding as she mentioned earlier um last year and the year before they were doing the my neighborhood program and it was focused and targeted towards um helping homeowners. If we could get some more funding for that type of program. We've helped a lot of people in our local community. Um seniors, mostly seniors, you know, they're homeowners, but it it went a very long way to help. TBDG is typically federal, right? Yeah. So, my neighborhood or the chill for

MISTA. Yeah. Was it allocated through Mishka? Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that I've tried to put into people's mind is even with the tax credits, there's a limit and a cap. And what I put in people's minds is, you know, there's more than Detroit in the state of Michigan. Yeah.

Um, bless his pee picking heart, but Dan Gilbert has eaten those up to restore Detroit while a lot of the rest of the state hasn't had the opportunity. And Dan's done a great job. I'm not bad mouth, but if we increase those, I want those to be spread across the state in different regions so that every community has a shot at that instead of a wellunded oiled machine like Detroit in these situations to do like brownfield transformational projects. So, I will continue to push for that and see if we can't keep more ears open about spreading that around. Detroit needs it too. Blood needs it, too. Rapids. Everybody needs it. So, let's spread it around and make taxpayer dollars work for everybody. Appreciate it. You bet.

All righty. Well, thank you for being with us. I know it was a long day for you because you started off with us at 5:00 probably doing your town hall. Yeah. But that's fine. That's part of the job. I enjoy connecting with people. I enjoy connecting with, you know, city commissions and city councils and township boards and and citizens. So, it's my job to represent you and I'm really happy to be here. So, if you have any issues, reach out. Have a great day. Take care. Anybody else? Not this time.

Good evening everyone. spoke earlier about city manager require and I did forget to mention one thing just a reminder this Saturday April 25th is drug takeback so 10 am to 2 pm at family fair twice a year once in April once in October so it is a good time to take back all that unused medication that is in your cupboards or in your car or anywhere they don't need to be um and typically our newest officer always gets to uh state the station so Officer Desheni will be there and so it's also a good time to meet for him to meet everybody and typically getting introduced to Dr. Bonner which is always nice.

So just a reminder Saturday um at family fair from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. will be a national drug take bank. Yes, there's a question. You still have a container here. Yes, absolutely. Good point. Uh we do still have the container here in city hall downstairs. So we do that through do that often. Um this one is more backed by the DEA. So once this is uh everything's collected, they'll come here and pick it up. But yes, we do absolutely have we have sharps containers in our office on the other side. And we have the red box downstairs that medications came from it to as well. Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Are we still on the city manager? No rabbi. We haven't gotten there yet. Would anybody else like to stand in counsel?

Good evening, Mayor Council. Go back, Cheryl. And everyone else. Uh, I'm Al Smith, 129 Adam Street. Been a while since I darkened your doors. Um, I am the commander of the American Legion here in Albium, Post 55, Patrick Leo Hanland. Uh the 24th, this Friday, we are having a veterans information and resource fair. There are flyers all around town. There's some laying here. Uh this is for veterans everywhere. Anybody who can see me, hear me, whatever. It's for veterans. It's for military still serving. It's for spouses of deceased veterans. It's for family of veterans. is for anybody who has any question about any kind of veteran service. Uh we've got people coming in from uh the VA, from Congress Wahberg's office, uh from Vets Helping Vets, Volunteers of America, Michigan State Police, the Michigan Veterans Affairs Association, the American Angel will also have a service officer there, VA Battle Creek Hospital, Summit Point Veterans Navigator, Helmets to Hard Hats, uh Purpose Care of Bishkin, and Zero Day, plus others. Now what this means is that we can answer there will be someone in that room who can answer any question that any veteran or family member will have about any kind of service. Services are not only offered by the VA. Every one of these other groups I have mentioned have different types of services. to help anywhere from homeless veterans to uh veterans in need of medication or uh you if a the spouse of a deceased veteran if she's having car troubles or if the roof is bad on her house, somebody can help these people. And that's what we're here

for is to make sure that all these veterans and their family members get the help that they deserve and that they fought for and some of them their spouses gave their lives for. So, we're going to be there from 3 to 6:00 p.m. this Friday, the 24th at the American Legion Hall. Yes, Albian, you do have an American Legion Hall. We've been in this town since 1919. Uh, but uh 3 to 6:00 p.m. And if you need a little more incentive, Jesse Gray is catering. Thank you for your time. Anybody else like to stand in council?

No movement. Uh, city man report.

I lost the bet with councilman. How long does it last? Um I guess first and foremost I do want to ask um for input from you in regards to having a study session to discuss city manager goals and if you would like it to be before a meeting that's already scheduled so May 4th or May 18th or have a separate meeting scheduled to have that. I would think that this would typically be a little bit of a longer discussion than one hour. So I don't at least what we've done in the past has lasted longer than an hour. Um but I would say a special study session.

All right. So I'll have um our office has identified a date that works with everyone. But I think I'm sending a call because I'm Monday. I don't have counsel, but I'm just saying

and um pleased to share with you some updates. You have the city manager report which is also being shared on the website now and the water meter installation is almost at 67%. So we're very happy about that and our DPW um management last week attended a um a training course for public service management through the Michigan Public Services Institute. So we have um very highly trained and knowledgeable people on staff. applause them for the work that they're doing and continuing their professional development and training. And on April 8th, we were able to host a seminar for um DPW organizations, municipalities from around the state in regards to the deicing. So, this is um we're definitely at the forefront of this new initiative, the costsaving um approach to to do the streets cleaner. very proud of our team and what they're doing and setting an example for the community on how to be cost effective and efficient. Uh the tree removal director Kern has met with the arborist at Alvin College and um we have had conversations with volunteers and residents. So I'm very happy to say we have about 10 individuals who have indicated their interest in forming the U tree committee. So, we'll work with them and get them established to just um offer insights and suggestions as we move forward with um the plans relative to planting trees as well as where they should be located and how we can um remain a tree city which by the way we should receive the recognition that we are once again recognized by the Arbory USA as a true

city. So, congratulations to our community for their efforts. I want to remind everyone on May 2nd is the spring cleanup and graders providing the free trucks. They'll be at city hall, Ketchum Field, and Harris Field. Um, this is not for yard waste or recycling those other larger items usually. And the household hazardous Wednesday is May 18th and that will be from 12:00 to 5:30 at Petill and they take appliances and electronics and help things of that nature. And I saw on um social media that a number of people were concerned about the special cleanup um only being available at drop off. But I want to remind us of this that they have the opportunity to reach out to Granger and once a month they will come to your door and pick up your items. So um don't forget that is a service that is available to you as a resident and staff medical testing to review our water bond rating. So that was through by May 8th. And also you'll notice in your package the financial report that we'll now start including for um will be the month prior. So we have time to do the reconciliation. So it'll be basically a month of time but they'll start getting those monthly and director here if you should have any questions in regards to the financial documents for our tax today and we will be having a conversation in the coming weeks in regards to the water and sewer rates. Um we have to take a really close look at where we are currently in addition to the projects that we have in the pipeline. So, those are going to take some um some very concentrated conversations in order how we can move forward in a healthy way. As

you know, we've had a number of repairs, emergency repairs in the last couple weeks that have been substantial and we had to find money in order to uh pay for those. So, we don't want to be in that situation. We really need to be more proactive in terms of how we're funding these um unfortunately unanticipated repairs. And you have the grant package um information in your um packet. And let's see, we talked about the assessor already on the land thing. We received a communication from the Fountain County Land Bank today in regards to 100 South Superior Street. As you know, they have indicated um although they've been in possession of the property since 2016, they now want to recommend that it be demolished. Working with the exam brownfield, we were able to have a um a historic preservationist take a look at that. property. I haven't seen the report yet um but they had given um the city until May 5th to respond relative to what our institutions are relative to that property. The communication that we received today from the land banks indicated that if the city are interested in taking possession of the property, we need to let them know essentially now because their their board would be taking action in regards to transferring ownership of the property to the city or one of the entities at their meeting on Thursday. We have not indicated to them that we were interested in taking possession. So you have a copy of 19,

but this is an important historic structure in our field in our community and there are definitely people who would like to see it preserved. In all reality, there are also people including staff members who are quite concerned in regards to the safety relative to keeping the structure in its current condition. So we have to um exercise due diligence before making any type of decision relative to this particular property those conversations are. Any questions for our city manager? Council member comments. Last Wednesday, um, city manager Ariel, myself, and then council member Jim Stewart were in attendance for the rededication of family fair. I don't know if you all had an opportunity to get in there as of recently, but they have invested a lot of money in um kind of remodeling and reorganizing and including new items. Um so it definitely is a fresh look in there. We haven't been there in a while. Um so we had the opportunity uh to be a part of that. uh Hen and Spooled also received a large amount of money uh from Spartan Nash which is the company that owns family. Um so it was a nice event to attend um just to bring the community together um and to celebrate what they have done in our little store.

And I would like to say thank you to city manager and those of you who came to um the precinct meeting um community meeting. There were several community members there from across the city. Um we had city manager and uh Mrs. Uh as well as uh Mallalerie Avis from transportation to give an update on what is happening uh for our city in public transportation and it was well attended. So thank you and I did send uh I I sent you Maller's contact. You should have received it in your text. Any other post? Do I have a motion to

move to support? All in favor say I. Oppos.