City Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey, hey.

Here we are. Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. from our um recess meeting last week. So, a motion to uh receive and file the agenda is presented.

So, move second. All in favor say I. I.

All opposed run into our old business. Let's see. Item A. Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashland, Kentucky authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract between the city of Ashland and service pump and supply in the amount of $78,84857 for the removal and replacement of blower units at the 10th Street and 26th Street pump stations for the Department of Utilities Division of Wastewater Collection. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. I B. Second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky authorizing and approving change order number two, final adjusting between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and Southern Ohio Trenching and Excavating Incorporated, decreasing the amount of the contract for the Spring Park sanitary sewer project in the amount of 60,920 and increasing the length of the contract 46 days for the departments of utility operations and engineering. Motion.

So move. Second. Second. Discussion. Yeah. Hey, did they have to go through people's yards and everything like they thought they were? Did get that worked out on relin or how' that end up? No. So the rellining hasn't actually occurred yet. We did that off of and they won't have Okay. Right. Any other? That's a pretty substantial change order. Yeah, I agree. But the key word is decreasing. Uh, all in favor say I.

All opposed. Uh item C, second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and approving change order number two, final adjusting between the city of Ashlin, Kentucky and Gullet Sanitation Services Incorporated for the Ashlin water treatment plant removal and dewatering of reservoir solids project decreasing the contract in the amount of $142,96012 and increasing the length of the contract 56 days for the departments of utility operations and engineering. Somebody second uh discussion. Yeah. Um we talked about this a little bit at the last meeting, but it is Mark here. Yes, sir.

Could you walk us through this? It's you know one point 225,000 was budgeted. Uh we did a contract for substantially less than that. Mhm. And then we did a change order that took us back to the original budgeted amount. Uh which bothers me a little bit. The the plan behind that was to try to maximize the amount of salts we could get out of there at the time, which is why we increased the contract originally. And then when when when the project actually happened, we got the weather caught us. We we just couldn't get the amount of salt. We have any other bidder?

Uh yes, there was one other Well, I mean, you know, when you put in a low bid and then your intention is to get back to the the authorized amount of the change order, it kind of defeats the purpose of of the deal. their this this um they were the lowest bid and and then also their unit price was the lowest. So um it was definitely to do this it was definitely cheaper using this contract than it would have been the other one too. Mark, did they request the increase or was that an increase that administrative staff recommend?

We we requested that. Well, and then apparently they weren't able to do the work and we did another change order to reducing it by $82,000. Yes. And um through the process of that of of of doing this work uh between the water plant and sewer collection and um if Barry and I were involved, they think we think we can do some uh internal plumbing to be able to handle this in the future with totally on the city, you know, the city handling it and no contractor. Will that involve dissolving the solids that are there in some fashion or how

it will actually what we'll do is actually wash them into the sewer system and then they'll they'll ultimately end up the sewer plant and and be treated. And we'll be able to do that, get them off the the bottom of the We'll have to wash them down to some extent. They'll run out fairly easily, but we get in there and physically help them. moving it down. The problem with the past when we did it before was when we brought all that equipment in there,

we broke up the concrete and it just got extremely expensive trying to haul that out of there. This would be uh there would still be some washing down of all but nowhere near the amount of of equipment like heavy equipment that we need to be involved and it should be considerably cheaper than we got to do this like every 10 years. Well, that's what my question was going to be. When would the next uh Well, we haven't finished the job that we started. So, when's the plan to complete the work?

There's still about um I mean there's a lot of head space in there with water. We're no rush to get it out of there. This was kind of a surgical like a we were basically we have some some data that said how much solids were in there. Um we were doing what's called a a hydroraphic survey. to basically go in there with sonar and listen and determine how much salt's in there. But we there was some debate internally as to how accurate that was. So we wanted to actually do this and at least take a portion out as much as we could and then determine when we need to do this again. Honestly, um we're not it's not critical that we remove solid. There are plans now to remove the the balance of the solids.

We we haven't talked about it, but we could we could do it. It wouldn't concern me if they said we couldn't do it for 5 years, but are these solids in one location in the reservoir or are they spread uniformly? They're not necessarily spread uniformly, but they're spread throughout the the reservoir. And we had the reservoir down to to where there's only a few feet in it and there's spots where there's solids and spots where there's not. So,

and the division the division of water did tell Bill that we needed to fill back up the reservoir and start is reason we did not finish the extra amount we wanted to do. The original bid came in over under budget. I remember the old Yeah. When it came in under budget, we did not expect to do the amount of solid we changed it to when we bid it. But when it came under budget and it was a unit price per solid, Mark thought he could do more, but then we had weather and issues and we had a deadline with the division of water to start filling it back up again and that's the reason it didn't get finished. What was the nature of the deadline?

Well, it was actually what it was. It just it just had to do with treatability issues with the solids coming down the river become starting to get higher and higher and higher. It just it caused the water plant treatment issues. They need that and because of that active flow system, they need that reservoir to be able to function efficiently. uh when it's when it's less, you know, muddy water coming down the river and things like that, there's less concern, but they need that as a buffer to be able to treat water as efficiently as possible. Mark, you said that in the future we could just send it to the sewer plant. Yes, we'd have to make some hobby changes. Yes.

Will then would it turn into solids? We take the rumpkkey or how does that work? Okay. Yes, that's what would happen if you filter it out and follow up. So, we would start on this project, you know, within this five years. So, yeah. I mean, we're going to look at doing that as soon as possible. We're not going to wait on that. We're going to look at doing it as soon as possible.

Gotcha. Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. All opposed. Item D. Second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky authorizing directing the mayor to execute an contract with Bentag Midsouth Incorporated for the purchase of liquid costic soda at a price of 1.149 per gallon and sodium hypocchlorite at a price of $1.77 per gallon for the Department of Utilities Division of Water Production and Wastewater Treatment. So move second discussion. All in favor say I. I. All opposed.

Item E. Second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract with Chemrite Incorporated for the purchase of potassium per manganet at the price of $211 per pound for the Department of Utilities Divisions of Water and Production and Wastewater Treatment. So move second. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Item F.

Second reading and final adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky authorizing directing the mayor to execute a contract with Siko water for the purchase of powdered activated carbon at a price of $125 per pound. Aluminum sulfate at a price of $150 51 cents per gallon. and sand at a price of uh 0.103 cents per pound for the department of utilities divisions and of water production and wastewater treatment. So second discussion. All in favor say I. I.

All opposed. Item G. Second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing directing the mayor to execute a contract with Ivonic Corporation for the purchase of parasitic acid at the price of.752 cents per pound for the department of utility operations, divisions of water production and wastewater treatment. Okay. All in favor say I. I opposed. Item eight,

second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract with Polydine Incorporated for the purchase of liquid polymer for the water treatment plant at a price of $17 and.14 per gallon. And for the wastewater treatment plant at a price of $15 uh308 cents per gallon and polymer cadionic at a price of $248 per pound for the department of utility operations, divisions of water production and wastewater treatment. So move second discussion.

All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Item I second reading and final adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city of Ashlin, Kentucky, authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a contract with us co LLC for the purchase of poly aluminum chloride at a price of $340.466 per gallon for the department of utilities divisions of water production and wastewater treatment. Okay. discussion. All in favor say I. All oppose.

All right, we move into our discussion items. And as I said earlier with you with everyone that we can jump around on this and whatever we feel uh talking about uh some of these projects, but uh I I think first of all um Mr. Grub, let's talk about the the budget uh for fiscal year 2026 and 27 item BB. Uh do we want to set a date for that or what was your intention on discussion today?

Um my notes here that I have the uh we internally do have the budget completed. Uh it needs final review by myself and Michelle. Uh we're still we still need the paramount data on some capital. Uh but we should be able to present to the commission at your convenience. Um some dates that I've written down would be the 15th or the 16th of one 15th and 16th of uh that's just yeah I mean we're we are which month which April April

in the next couple weeks. We just have no we just got any data from the Paramount actually what Wednesday. Uh so I have a lot of questions on their expenses on there too. So I'm going to have to have some kind of conversation with them about with the Paramount or with the AP3 or AP3 or Venue Works or whoever's making the expenditures down there. All right. All right. Well, we can make that happen. Yeah. the uh the FY27 budget is is 99.9% complete and we'll be ready to uh present. Good news. Early jump right on that. It is.

So, if everybody can check their calendars when they get back and and respond back to whether 15th or 16th will be the best for you all. But if you want to go probably want both days, don't what you set aside to do both. Uh, Commissioner Martin, I think, uh, probably the previous years we've got it done in one day. Uh, probably allows maybe about three hours. We could probably get it done or unless you all want to break it up, uh, we can come back a second time. 16th is not good for me. 15th is good for me.

15th on the 15th. Um well it's what time you want to do it on the 16th that afternoon I'm fine at doctor's appointments in the morning the afternoon afternoon 16th it's fine with me afternoon on the 16th sir yes sir how's that with you DJ that's my birthday but gone we can what better way we can we can man we can celebrate it at the after a while it doesn't make any difference. You know, you'll have one next year. Big deal. You get one every year, won't you? Yeah. You celebrate tax day and then your birthday. Exactly. Uh 1:00.

1:00. One o'clock. It is on the 16th. You good with that? I'm good with that. We think we can finish it one day or do we need to? That's good for me. Well, let's let's see how far we get on it. And if not, we can

keep on going and recess and go to the next day if we need a beer or whenever that's Thursday. Yeah. Okay. All right. Putting it in now. So, you got it. All right. Let's uh let's get into um some of the other discussions. Anybody uh have a preference? I know we have uh Miss Kums here with um the uh visit Ashlin. Maybe we start with the item K the um the first Friday funding and charges or is that more of a um would that be a budget work

a budget orientated uh conversation? my notes from the previous uh work session we had that we would defer that to the budget work session. But I mean we can certainly talk about it now if people go. Well, we can preliminary talk about it. Yeah, sure. Um do they have a request or Well, I guess they have a request and go ahead. I guess it's the way who we're going to fund who gets the money or Ashlin motion has typically in the past we have funded Ashlin in motion

what what's our president on first Fridays how much have we been spending well we don't get an accounting from Ashlin motion I have no idea what they've spent on they budget a certain amount for them and they pay for first Friday out of that okay they actually pay her for first Friday from what I understand. So they take our money and they give it to Ashlin KY. Okay. How much do you have a um um accounting of what the the money is spent on and

Yeah. Every month I have to do a breakdown of what events are what they cost to turn them in and anything that you need I can send you that way. Can you give us some of the past um ones from maybe last year? Yeah. Michelle, did I send you? Yes. I I just didn't. Okay. So, I can send you I can send you a breakdown of like the last come up. Yeah.

But yeah, I can send you surprising here. I can I can send you anything that you need. Do you guys want like a monthly breakdown on the house that was spent last year? I believe you pro provided us a proposal uh at the previous work session and it had a breakdown of where the expected expenditures will be uh and what they were. I believe you provided that from last year too an overview of the expenditures.

Yes. But I mean I do a thing every month where I we have our board meeting which you just had this fall last Monday. In the meetings, I break down and have a complete report where they can see budget versus actuals. They can see what what it is that's been spent, what's what we've got left, all that good stuff. So any of that, I like the report that you mentioned. I think we've got that, don't we? What do we have budgeted for this year, Sean? Sean, you got something?

I just have Yeah, but it may help. And this may help with your question too. I think for Michelle I wanted to determine whether you want to recapture the actual cost and events or just add it to that request, right?

Yeah. So we can do a little bit of both like I mean that's kind of the thing. There's some things that are a little different but the inind helps a lot too. That that's money when it all comes down to it to put it toward whatever. Um, but again, like I said last time, I do work on $150,000 off a deficit from my predecessor. So that does make things a little difficult in how it looks. So I'm being I'm trying to be very mindful. I want everything to stay the same and be even more elevated if at all possible. But I also know that there's

there's a strength that people have and it's just hard business. So I understand if there's not a way to do that. So take anything I can get. I'm happy with what we actually put her request in. Um, ARPA funding. I did not bring that with me because I thought we were going to do the budget. I thought it was 90 some,000 from memory. It was 150 is what was the ARPA fund was, but not from last year. Yeah. 90ome,000. No, no, your request to us it was well 120,000, but it' be 90 something without the cities. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha.

And we have that. That's including like Infinity Con helps and things like that for the different things for for tourism and again those kinds of things I've had to kind of put on the back burner until I figure out what it looks like and what we actually have financially. It's hard to say yes. That's been hard for me not to tell them yes, but I have to I have to make sure that it makes sense. And it may not make sense this year. Like it it may be something that I have to wait on, but I'm going to do my very best to make sure to get what we can get. Well, our downtown events, you know, attract people re all across the region and we don't want that to drop it off. I want to I want to fully fund you. We've been given AIM 35.

That's been the every the way that it's been and they subcontract visit Ashland and we execute some of the events of course in inflation wise have went up a little bit but of course the fundraising and help with sponsorships and things that that helps us too. So I mean again I know that you guys have what you have and can do what you can do. Are you working on sponsorships now for Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. I told them the other day that all you see me is a smile and a handout because that's pretty much what I have to be at this point just to make sure that we keep things moving. Okay.

And not be stagnant because I I feel like we're there. I I think this commission supports what you're doing and um I don't want to speak for everybody, but it's a feeling I guess. Um, but you may want to um when we talk about our budget to be here on the 16th if you can. I'll be here. I'll be here. Thank you. Any other questions? No.

All right. Thank you. All right. So, we'll um with that discussion, we'll u we'll move on and and cover that in our u our budget for the fiscal year. All right. Any others that you would like to talk about? Maybe an easy one would be the bus system app. Yeah.

Um that's a wonderful uh deal to develop. I did uh with what was uh on our website. I tried to get on the app, you know, location and download it and I didn't know what to put in. I put in Ashlin Kentucky bus system and nothing came up. So I think need to know what the magic words are to put in to get the app. Yeah, I can help get into that. I mean it's um I think it'll be start playing around with it and um it's so much easier. When I say what's what when going to the app store, what do you put in?

Um the pacio this right here when it looks like that one. ER Erica actually has brochures and the brochures have instructions and a QR code. Put in an image when No, but when you type in the P A S io, but you'll kind of look for that and make sure you have the right one. It's Ashlinky. Go.com. If you're at a computer, we might want to put that on the website. It's It's not ready for prime time just yet. It I said it's not ready for prime time just yet. Okay.

It is active. We are playing around with it. Uh essentially what the app does when you download it and if you're at bus stop A and you want to go to B, it's going to tell you how long the bus will take to get to A and then to pick you up and take you to B. And it tells you how long the bus is. I mean, is it 2 minutes out, 5 minutes out, 10 minutes out? It does. It's something that we've worked on for quite a few years to uh to get I just sent you the link to and to be able to fund it, but we will market that heavily. We'll put it on the city website and social media. Thought we were going to have downstairs. That's great. It wasn't on there. We're not trying.

And it'll also have a QR code that you can scan and download. the marketing that we have. If you look at the text, the marketing I just got that my Oh, okay. That where they scan it. Mhm. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. But it's so much easier. I mean, uh, when I looked at it a year ago, I mean, it's a big step. I couldn't even figure out how to get to point A to point B on it. Well, it's extremely impressive because you look at it and color highlights each each route. Not only does it do that, but it actually has a little icon on there that shows the bus moving and it says your an estimated arrival is, you know, in five minutes to this bus stop, right? You know, and this is where this

Well, if you hit the bus stop that you're at, it'll show you that that information where it's at. But anyway, u and it's also a useful tool for uh the bus system management team. we can call this up on your computer screen and look at the entire bus system and see where the buses are and to make sure that they're running on time and stuff. So, so are have the uh all the bus drivers been trained? All the bus drivers been trained and as Tony said earlier, um we are in the first day of marketing and teaching people to use it. Okay.

Um Erica's putting stuff on the website and Facebook today. She's put these uh brochures I've showed you in the lobby. Um they're going to be on the buses and they're going to be in the lobby of the transportation center. Uh she's going to um we're going to actually put it in the water bills. What she's got a press release ready to go out to the Daily Independent to show people what we have, how to use it. In addition to um the wrership functions of it too, it does a lot of administrative work we're doing manually. It actually does passenger counts which we have to do to the FTA. And right now we do them on little slips.

Count 1, two, three, four, five. Now we can print a report. It has a electronic pre-trip. Our bus drivers check everything on the bus before they drive off with the morning. Make sure the tires are good, the oil, the everything. That's electronic. It goes to the supervisor. to check out the end at the end of the day, make sure there's nobody on the bus. Yes. So, we we have the pre-trip with that and if something is wrong on the pre-trip, it'll actually depending on what it is, it will send the mechanic supervisor and the bus system supervisor what's wrong with the bus for it can get fixed. Okay,

that was all done manually. And we have a post trip that they have to do. And the post trip every day is sent to the supervisor. And if it fails something mechanically or you need a new windshield wiper, it goes to the mechanic supervisor at the garage. So that way nothing mechanically gets slipped through the thing with eight pieces of paper every day. Excellent. So who credit to for this? I mean this is some I mean it really

it started with um Bailey Grub. She rode the Lex tra at school. She met with me and Randy and um we decided to do colored routes because we were going to do the bus app but and sometimes it takes younger eyes to uh know how to start them and then she found me a vendor. We met with the vendor and the vendors met with Randy and we got it going.

Great. every instead of like nobody really knew what the 29th Street route went. So now it's like a blue route or a green route or an orange route. And the app will also let you if you just want to go to Kixburg, it'll let you just show you where the Kixburg bus is. Then we've taken it one step further from the meetings that we had. The same company also has a paratransit app. So now when you need to call and schedule a par transit trip, you have to call down there and like manually schedule it and the girl schedules it in the computer. Now if I go to my doctor and I have a rescheduled appointment for January 5th, I can go to the paratransit app that we're developing currently and I can schedule my trip for January 5th and I have it prescheduled.

That's great. and it gives the paratransit customers an alert to say that the bus drivers within five minutes of you. So, a very good deal. Along that same lines probably uh we can take care of real quick. Our website um talked to Eric a couple times about this. Um we have a lot of things that are outdated, but there's going to be some cost to that. The videos are outdated. I have t and it's hard to maneuver.

I have tked the PIO to look into updating the website. Uh it does have some broken links. We are aware, we are tracking uh update the visual appeal of it. Uh and it'll be a central location for city events or city news. Uh but we are cognitive. It does need some work. Okay. I went on before the meeting today and the agenda was on there. I very much appreciate that. I think the public will too. Yeah, absolutely. That was very nice.

Yeah, I kind of envision that being a more centralized location for city news events and stuff like that in addition to our social media, but primarily our city's website, but we are going to try to clean it up and check for broken links and make sure it's updated. All right. Very good. Anybody has anything they want to How about the public works building and the financing for the public works gh?

Uh sure we're uh we have a small team dedicated to that. I would say it's in phase one uh concept, but we are looking at consolidating uh street, central garage and sanitation. Uh we've got some appraisals on some property. Uh anything beyond that, I think I would let uh Mr. Corbett uh Mr. Corbett's been heavily involved in it. Previous city manager, I I have some talking points.

Yes, sir. uh because we have spent a lot of time on this. Uh we've investigated five sites, four in the city, one outside the city. We met with the superintendent of the involved central garage sanitation and streets. We visited boy county central garage and road central garage. So we got a lot of a lot of information and we come up with a plan and we actually Barry has prepared requests for quotes and we could proceed you know tomorrow if if we had property. So what I would like to suggest is that uh the city look at purchasing the property of the most appropriate site. Uh and once that's appropriated, we can start uh start building or tearing down or whatever we have to do. And we have a rough cost within the range of three or four million dollars for the whole thing. and uh received a lot of good input from the superintendent from the guys up there. And then obviously I think that place was built to make ammunition in World War II once they made four lane out of 23 put the place under what

it's been used as a vocational school. years and everything definitely needs to be done. This we based our quotes on what it cost to build for the building for waste water for street notes water distribution and we that big building over there you were the groundbre so we had some background in a similar type structure so uh adding other notes Well, basically that's we're I think we're ready for C. And

so at a later time we just need to we figure out where we're coming where we're going to put it, right? Sir, I guess at a later time we can talk about property acquisition and um decide which route we want to go. Well, we're doing the budget. we talk about it then in terms of where we're coming up with the money at um you have anything preliminary uh Mr. grub on the um the financing.

It would be through bonds. We could spread that out since the useful life of these buildings would be 20 years. Uh we would probably bond the money. I mean, I don't think it'd be prudent to to for the current, let's just use our cash to pay for it upfront. Um but we would spread that out over time to match the the uh life. and we have five more years of the $1.3 million bond issue. So, in five years, we'll have $1.3 million freed up. Okay.

I would also add that we'd like to look at improvements other than that, like the city building here and stuff. Uh the HVAC unit, uh the uh the city windows. Uh we also have a police station that's running out of space that we need uh I can probably let Chief talking at some but uh that when the police station was built it was built for future expansion to go up one uh floor. Um and we also need some uh storage uh for fire equipment. So, it would be uh central garage uh sanitation u as well as the city building, please.

Well, some of that could be in this project that we're we're talking about. It could be incorporated into that. That's what I'm financing portion of it. The financing portion would cover all that. Right. Yeah. Right. Yes. Okay. Yes. So, all right. Well, there would also be some future use of what we're abandoning, right? For some of those, right? And we we also have I forgot to mention this is a staircase outside here. That's uh seriously in bad need of repair. What is it?

The staircase, the uh fire escape staircase out back here. It's uh it's rusting. It's not going to get any cheaper. Well, is that heavy, you know, with the the leaks that we have above the doors and Yes. It's my understanding. Yes. Uh that's some of the problem. Yes. Okay. Will we still have the buses up there around the central garage where it is now?

We will keep the central guard prop property not only for the buses and eventually we will expand that because we need more room because as you notice we're storing some outside. Um, we will also keep our gas pumps up there and um, we have other room places for storage. The chief with his storage building, you know, the $2 million worth of grants they got, we got all this equipment and we've ran out of room to store some of the especially the trailers, um, dive equipment and different stuff. They want to just build a three $400,000 building next down by the their training center for some storage for it. So it' be on land we already owned.

Well, let's segue into this other thing. This um relocation of recycling center. What's your idea about that? Let me before we get there, can we um can I mention the generator for the gas pumps? I think Well, that's exactly where I was going to go. I mean, we have it on here as Jay. Uh, yes, sir. Jay, um, it's going to cost approximately 25K and it should be completed by early uh, June. This definitely needs to get done. I mean, we need to Oh, yeah. emergency vehicles, we got to have Yes. Fuel. I mean, we're meeting our cops at Super America with credit cards. It's so bad when it's down. Yeah.

Yes, sir. And then who actually supplies our uh fuel? I mean bulk plants uh uh at the is it bulk bulk? Uh circle back and get back to Oh, okay. All right. Woodford's diesel. B plants is in letted. Well, it may be. There you go. Woodford is diesel, I think. Diesel. Okay. Yeah, we'll have that conversation. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. Um what is you were talking about? Uh, Commissioner Gu, do you have any ideas about that?

Uh, I don't have any ideas on the location. Um, when I was looking at this, the first thing came to my mind is do we have enough people that's actually doing it to warn it to even look at movement someplace? Uh, and it certainly appears. What's the status of that? I think uh the uh numbers it's uh 9,000 people use it last year. So, it's certainly getting used. Uh if we could collectively come up with an idea of where we want to relocate it to, uh I think that would be good. I think when you come across the bridge, you know, first thing you see is a kind of a recycling center. Not the best look, but uh

having said that, I don't have a I do not have a location. Well, if we move central garage, could that free up space up there? Uh it could, but uh that's not a bad idea. Um, that's not nearly as convenient as the current location. Probably not. No, it is for me. It is for me. It is for me, too. It is for me, too. Well, I'm with you. I would just I would just suggest, you know, you kind of brainstorm it, kick it around, and maybe we can talk about

We thought about that the way it was because not enough people signed up for curbside. It wasn't fiscally responsible because of the cost. But so I went down to Winchester and that's we we constructed that down there because it looked like Winchesterers Winchester, Kentucky. They do the same thing. But uh like you say, I'm I'm with you about the coming across the bridge. Yeah, I'd like to see us clean up that whole area down there. But uh but that is a good idea if there's room up there to Yeah. Okay.

Well, you know, in the future we may need that piece of land under there for additional parking. All right, moving on. Some of these um here X and Y kind of we got two things here going on. Uh with our seasonal preparations for parks and pool, is there anything we need to act on that or?

No sir. Uh the staff has already been contacted. usually start that process in February 1 of March because our classes that we need to have trainings in start that time. So we're already hired three meetings with potential employees full employee staff expecting to come back this year. They have confirmed that's across the board. So no issues report other than Flatwoods is anticipating close down their pool. Um Oh wow. They've asked me to take some of the overflow. So, I didn't know that decision was made for them.

Well, this is what I said. Right now, I'm getting reports that they're closing. They need our assistance. So, I'll make sure it's confirmed. Yeah. Circle back to us on that. Our pool's good. Our pool's ready to rock. And again, I want to thank you for your job down here downtown. I've got more positive comments about that turf than you can imagine. I'll understand. What uh did we manage to get some seasonal employees for the sanitation department?

Yes. Uh right in the process like but that question is right for right now. Right now we're going through applications. Right now we are getting applicants and getting them hired and all the people through HR. at this. Thank you.

Can Can we utilize some of our seasonal help uh in the street department or sanitation what's or whatever to uh do some cleanup around town? I know this has been a priority of the commission as well as uh city manager Grub. Um I've been driving around town a lot lately talking to some people and u I've been to several different areas all across town and there's a lot of curbside such as just the roadsides and you see areas that have a lot of trash. Uh, and you see it more in the fall, winter, and spring because the greenery is down. So, I've got areas and I could send to you Deill Street, Geiger Lane, Garchal Street, Boy Scout Road, and parts of Robert's Drive. You see, and and you know, it would take probably entire box of trash bags pickup. I mean, if that's something that we could do.

Sure. Commissioner, I think last year the mayor had talked and city manager dedicated the staff downtown just to try to help with that. So, we definitely spend reducing that risk. You know, it may be something we think about civic groups, you know, uh adopting a a roadway. I know the Ashlin breakfast does um Opiew Road and they'll do it two or three times a year. Mhm. U it might be nice that we try to involve them in in adopting cartel hill or you know we could even do a a community cleanup you know that we incorporate that and repair or does that have to be

I would like to see a community cleanup if that's possible to where we used to have the highway 23 that the chamber um negotiated everything together with environment enirmental cleaning and um poling that they've been doing. Sean divided the city into five zones and I think it was community cleanup. He he was talking about to them last year was picking a zone. We are still driving that. It's it's my understanding that the police department has while they're out patrolling if they notice some stuff, lights out, they've been coordinating with public service. Has that been working pretty good?

Uh I think it has. We still have some work to do. Uh I mean it's constant ongoing uh but it's my goal to clean up the city. That's my number one goal. If if you look in your annual report, there's a lot of before and after pictures. Yes. That was a result of that. I mean it we've done a good job on that. We just need to put it in overdrive. I agree 100%. And we're supporting you what you're doing. Yes, sir.

Along the same line with uh Mr. Murray um and why here is proposed Ashlin Cemetery expansion. I'm going to ask about that. But I want you to think about this. It's been brought up that with our two boards of the the park board and the cemetery board that we combine those two boards. Um, I I don't want to taint you with whether I'm for it or against it, but think about that and just respond back to where you think it would be a good idea to do that. What's your opinion of that? If you ask for it, I think we should. I think they go together. Um,

well, you used to have the maintenance of the cemetery under the park, right? Right. Yeah. I to to me that makes sense. Uh, but I'm going with the commission. I'm good with it. Okay. All right. I think can you check statute and stuff that we can do that?

Yeah, definitely check on the PRS requirements that we have to do with regards to applying for grants. Typically, this is up to the local uh the city to the board if they'd like to do so. We have to have up to five members of five members at park board and or cemetery board. Uh this allows us to actually we only coordinate with cemeteries but it gives them an opportunity to meet more often if they would like to have monthly park board meetings. So it's definitely see a benefit.

Okay. So what's the here the proposed cemetery expansion? Um section 46 was newly developed this year and should actually work just a couple weeks ago. Um and they wanted to expand on plot of land here at the cemetery that has spots. I believe it's uh it's the lot adjacent to Park Street. I'm not sure which area. Um so basically what we've done in that handout, this is still very preliminary. We're still finding funding plans, but basically trying to lay out um the maximum amount of cost that we can get in that area. um

late last early last Thursday um department existing utilities and that'll be a driving force for us to refine that and to maximize the amount of Yeah. Yeah. So the top portion is what the would be. Yes. Yeah. All those all each one of those individual red rectangles would be a a plot and correct me if I'm wrong. I believe in each plot there be in each plot. So So how many addition would that be? Okay.

Wow. I I should mention uh we have three tiers, pricing tiers, make it affordable for everybody and then accessible abilities that they can why we don't have as many premium spots available. They've all sold out. We do have the second and third tiers still available. What that means is, hey, it's kind of on a hillside or a cliff or rocks and it's harder to get to. The previous spots are flatter, more accessible for a lot of people. We did add at at section 25 last year in January 2025. This is 26 and again both were premium spots. That one had about 80. This one's got about a thousand. Uh has the potential for again finance but that was spots our current rates. We looked at 1.9 revenue that we're mapping out helping us with probably about 10 years for that amount of time. Sean, we need um commission action on this or

Sean on this schematic. Is that the large block there? Is that for proposed mausoleum? Yes, it's near. Yes. Okay.

Sorry. All right. Well, thanks for that update. All right. Um, what else do we have on here, gentlemen?

What's this former Coke plant uh handout we got? Is that on here? I had an update this morning um with the company that was doing the the baiting and doing the ceiling and all that and that is uh how far it has got along and I think it's um they passed it now to the uh Kentucky level and it's getting close to be done. Katherine, if you want to uh give an update on it. I mean, but we just just had this meeting this morning and I just uh hobbyed that with you all what we talked about this morning,

right? And and pretty much what it has there on that agenda is what they discussed with us. Essentially, all of the remediation is complete. They have completed all remediation on the site at this point. Um they are finalizing the um uh covenant the environmental covenant that will go on the property and working with the Kentucky Department of Energy to to get the that land into their program. So they're close they're close to being completely done and uh you know being ready for some future development on that site. Very good. Yeah. Time to digest that. Um, let's jump.

Can we hit the uh land and water conservation grant for AK Sports Park? And I also want to talk about the ball fields up there. Yeah. Okay. Um, I've had several citizens reach out to me uh that have kids that that are playing ball and they have sent me some pictures. Sean, I'll reach out to you some of the conditions up there of the ball field. Uh, do we maintain those fields or was there some type of agreement with the little league to maintain those fields? have an agreement with the little league. We maintain one. Yes. Okay. Two depends on the type of year, right? So, right now this time of year it's early spring. So, no games start till next week starts up. So, right now we just opened up the parks and restaurants, right? Yeah.

On Monday, we start up at 8K at all. We do that now. We don't do it while they're practicing, you know, and they have their drafts and everything. Uh West is harder for us to get out there, but we got to get it before the day. So they've been out there all week. They be out there all next week. Okay. Like when it comes to trimming the grass and seed fertilizing that was all done or the fertilizer was done earlier in the year. Now we're down to we got to cut out parts.

The concerns brought forth to me were uh some lighting out in the scoreboard. I guess the bulbs bulbs burn out and there's some bases that were missing. Is that AK or Olivario? Uh, that was Olivario. This is AK though. So that's my concern was Olivario. Same thing. So we put new bases out before the season. Okay. So what happens is stolen bluehead. So I apologize on that. Yeah. No problem. We're getting out. Okay. When is when is opening day by the way? Next. Is it this weekend? 13th 14th. 1314.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Say not after Easter weekend. All right. Well, now that we're on that, what about the uh lights at AK discussion item? I I was hoping there was a question. However, having said that, back in 2022, we put together the commission at the time asked about light in the day. Uh we put together a bid and potential budget for it. It was roughly around $800,000 in 2022 2023. It's a lot of money. It was a lot cheaper when I built it. And that's kind of why it died in 2023 because we didn't have the funding at that time. The wedding that Callisburg did was over $500,000.

Really? Yeah. The the one um all of the electricity is there. It's underground, but that's not the But the uh the neighbors fought it like crazy. That's why they didn't do it. To your point too, back in 22 23, I went door to door, knocked on every door, and they were overwhelmingly in support or did not have an issue with lighting. That was a huge Yes. I got voted down back then. 20 years ago, I made that same walk and that was thrown at me. Oh, yeah. They did. Me, too. What about the what about the the money? What about the the grant?

Well, that's something that we can apply for in uh two months and we will apply for it and we are going to go out and get some new quotes uh on the lighting to see if it's something that we can I'd like to do that. I'd like really like because I think it would explode. Commissioner makes a good point. The thing on those uh grants typically is their matches, right? So, let's say I don't want to adjust inflation. Let's take it 800,000 from three years ago, right? So, we'd still be out roughly $400,000 if we got that grant. So, I want to keep that that in mind. It's not that we get the grand for money. We're usually they're a match to we got a match. The land water conservation there's 50% match. Okay. Up to 375,000.

I still like to do it. Yeah. I think that it was in the original plan, but you know. Yeah. All right. Uh let's jump back up to A for the waterline replacements and the timeline and and f and uh financing for it. Um do you want to start with the financing? Yeah, that'd be fine. Okay, sure.

When um Mr. Grub started a water loss committee and as you know we've changed out several of our large meters. We're looking at now and we're not finished with all of them. I think we just did King's Daughters. We don't have the uh information back from it. It's too soon. We've done Canonsburgs too soon. But right now, we're at 4 or 500,000 of additional revenue. when um which when we take it out over a 15-year bond issue, that revenue will pay for the amount $10 million and we have some bonds coming due in a few years. So, the debt service is staggered to pay for it.

Oh, okay. So, we can do $10 million without raising rates taken from anything else we're spending on with just the additional revenue that we have. But summarize, it's about $10 million over 15 years with 500,000 annual debt service. That will allow us to accelerate that'll allow us to accelerate some of the uh where the blue water study or and the records that we have internally where the reoccurring breaks are where the most breaks are. And that also allows us to uh Kixburg. Is that correct?

Yeah, we're we're slated to to the Kixburg project.

Yes. To be able to accelerate those. We're actually working up here right now on Brian Drive and Union Lane, but that's separate than the the project that we talked about a lot where we're going to be adding what's really beneficial to that would be adding the seven hydrants up there. Um, but yeah, we've replaced about 560 ft recently on those two lines of Kittensburg. The total is about 4,200 that they need to course completed. And then from there we'll just move directly over to 3435th Street Pay. Can't remember the others. It's right there in the same area. Okay.

And in the first year we have about $3 million worth of projects and that's with us doing it. And that's just the cost of the pipe, the labor, um, and like the pavement to to redo it. We have $3 million worth of projects that we can do right now that are already engineered. Then we have and these are some of our worst lawns. It's not only going to accelerate it. Uh it is my opinion and marks that it'll reduce uh maintenance cost because every time that we are fixing this line, we're having to tear it up and we're having to put it back. So, the quicker that we accelerate these and get these done, we're we're also reducing our maintenance cost and the time of our crews to do this. To do it full time like this and accelerate it, we need two pieces of equipment and an additional four staff members. The two pieces of equipment is a tandem truck. Um, the state contract price on it is 198,383. Whether you all choose to accelerate it or not, this is actually a piece of equipment our crews could use now because what Davey tells me is every time they fill the dump truck up, it's 45 minutes they're standing there till you get it emptied and back. So, it's it's something

counterproductive.

Yes. We're just just having a multi-disiplinary people talking. You got water people, finance people, billing people, um utility supervision in a room together trying to figure out the water loss. We've also learned a lot of other things and that's one of the things I've learned is we have a crew standing 45 minutes because they have to literally don't have the equipment to fill up a bigger dump truck. So whether we do this or not, that would be a productive use I think of our money is to buy them a tandem dump truck. Another thing on that, Michelle, too, we're currently looking, I mean, just to get this out there for the public, we would like to find other places where we could dump debris and construction material on on properties. Uh, we have a form and engineering that people can fill out, but often we're having to travel across the county to dump at our one of our our basically only approved area that we can dump in. So, that's what's causing an issue. Like if we could find a location near where we are up in Captain that really increases the the downtown.

Yeah. I I would see us having several, you know, places like that. Maybe we can throw it out on social media and our websites and see if there I'm sure there's individuals would love to have that fill. Yeah. Well, a lot of times they want and I mean I'm just speaking from past experiences. They want the clean top soil, but they don't want the fill. Right. So it it takes a unique situation for someone like when they're really filling in, you know, a low area or something, right? But yeah, that's that's another one of the concerns and also just to get it, like I said, to get it out there if there are people in are interested, we would

yeah, I'd say just, you know, coordinate that to to ask out there. Two, we also need a Caterpillar excavator. Uh the state contract price on it is 228909 and the adopt amended authorized position list where we can hire three operators the workers in the ditch and someone to drive the equipment equipment operator. The estimated annual cost of that is 274929.

So what would be the total? We're talking about expediting this between the two pieces of equipment, three people. What would be the total cost? Well, your your people would be year about 10 million. 10 million. It's it's the Yeah, it's roughly 10. And this I mean this is something that we need to that we're going to have to do regardless at some point in time. We're just trying to accelerate that. Could we potentially if we we went that route and we um authorized those positions, could we offer that to in-house first? Of course. I hope so. And then replace the others.

Well, if they're in a heavy department's got heavy folks, you know, we can cut that position via attrition of the person going. Now, with the water with the water operators, I don't know if any of them would have to be licensed. Um, and yes, we want them licensed, but you know, often we don't they're not going to start out there. Yes. To answer your question. Yes, sir. I got a question and I sent you this question and you responded. I like kind of like talk about a little bit more instead of buying the equipment. Uhhuh.

Leasing the equipment on the four-year lease with and and I I I remember your answer. You said that, you know, we need to keep it, but don't you have an opportunity to buy that after the lease runs out at the end of the lease? You do. I don't know that typically that's a little bit more expensive when you do that uh like that. Uh normally, well, that was my question.

It is. And and that's the reason um you know um like in finance if you're going to keep something longterm uh you know you you really want to finance it over time so to speak rather than putting all your money up front. Uh so but generally if you do a short-term lease you're you are paying more for it. that that would include and I believe exactly what you're saying because yeah we've looked at multiple times in different ways even servicing and everything like that it still works out that way. Yeah. And we and we keep these equipment till they they fall apart. Yeah. We get our money's worth out of them.

All right. The last time we talked about this at the work session, you all mentioned that we have been budgeting a million dollars or more every year for waterline replacement, but I didn't see where the money was actually spent on waterline replacement. Was it in effect absorbed in the repair and maintenance of water lines? it what happens at the end of the year on the financials and we do this in June and I've actually um talked to my supervisor about updating quarterly in June Davey sits down and he does all the work he did the year it currently right now it's in labor it's in POP at the end of the year

well it would be nice to have an analysis about how the money was spent yes when you budget it and you say it's for waterline replacement that it's Actually, we do that at the end of the year and we capitalize. That's good. I just didn't see it. Well, fair enough. And and maybe that's something we could generate. She's doing it quarterly. Now, I would say that in last year's budget, there was no money appropriated for a waterline replacement. A million dollars. A million dollars. I'm uh it's it's account number 4109, I do believe. Here's the uh page. It's got a blank on it at the top where it's highlighted.

I did each year on the budget and that one there was nothing. H

that is this you're out of your your budget. Yes, I I've never dealt with this report. I know they put it on the line. I'll have to um I can get you a report of what it was spent. Be great. Why don't you after the blue water study? This is our current uh replacement list and priority. Is that right? It looks like from here. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. It looks like it from here. Yes, sir. I mean, yes, if I represent to you, you came with you. U I didn't I didn't generate it.

On that report, have there been any changes or or have we undertaken any of those repair projects? Have any of these been replaced? Some the way the list is, the way the list that I have, and we've got numerous iterations of we have a main list that we work off of. and we just start marking off the the lines on the list when we complete them and there's a constant juggling of priorities. So, is this a fluid list?

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, because Commissioner Ryer, what happens is an area that may have had two leaks over the past 10 years all of a sudden has 15 over five years or something. So, uh it it changes and and then there could be other factors. Can you bring me the have them bring me up the utility as you have a running total of the estimated cost of these things right now fast itemized individually but I didn't see a total I don't have a I could give you a the accounting staff is actually bringing me up last year's accounting book I can show I can tell you about what we've done

Mark uh we were getting re paid for 50% roughly of the water we produce before we started, you know, doing different meters. Do we have where is it? Is that still about 50%. And and my second question, what is our realistic goal to get it down? I mean, zero be great, but that's a pipe dream.

A realistic goal is probably 25 to 28%. Um, I mean it can they can be lower like rural systems. They can get it a lot lower because they it's really easy. They got one water lines going this direction and it's easy to track where it's lost. But we have this spiderweb system and I mean it could be I'm sure it could be better but it's the law of diminishing returns. You put in tons of money to gain 1% back. Uh well just install meters the that that's a that's a help for sure. Do you know how much estimates reduce from those meters?

Well, one of the things I wouldn't be able to speak to the meters that we've changed so far, but one of the things that we've done through our meeting is um so we have different sets of of of dates that we work off of. you know what the date that the water plant calls a production date for say March 20 or February 2026 for the amount of water produced uh the billing dates and that and those dates weren't lining up exactly. So when we were all in the same room with our heads together, we were able to put the billing dates and were able to match those dates closer together and now we're we gained about 5% of our water loss. So there was

it truly wasn't there. It was just a a mathematical issue where our dates were not, you know, water produced at this time was not the same water that calling. We're not lining it up with the same build water if that makes sense. So just that alone uh made our water loss drop down about 25%. We're about I think we're about 42% on the last update and I can get you guys an update on that and and you'd be able to see it. Did you do that? Yeah. What's the national average?

I'm not sure. I think AWA allows you to do they they have something I think it's like 15% is what they allow for uh which is a very very it's in that that's an aggressive aggressive number it's in that and for instance like if we do rate increases or whatever on our uh public service commission people who who are subject to public service commission like some of the water districts, they only if we do a rate increase, they only allow us to carry that that certain amount and then the rest goes back on the city. Basically,

that'd be 15%. Is that is that what the PSC public service commission? Does that sound correct? 15% is correct. That's out of that blue water study. When we put a case like Canensburg in front of the PSC, when they look at our financial data, they will only let us account for 15%. So, we do not get any uh any expenses above the 15 to the 50. they back out or what we're allowed to charge which is and I think that 5% I think you all said that we had about 20 to replace and we've replaced maybe 13 of them or

yes I think he's got uh he he's done Kingsbrook I think he's done King's Daughters and he's waiting on the part for the jail is he okay Sammy I'm sorry or his crew I don't know who does it okay very good yeah those are often you know what's happened with those. We've coordinated based on when we receive the materials, but also coordinating with the business or whoever owns the meter themselves, so we don't put we don't go in and change their meter out a really bad time. Yeah. Okay. Very good. 29% sound right for Kentucky as far as the

Yeah, that would sound reasonable. Yeah. And also too, I I will say this. I can't speak for other I can't speak for other citiz cities or entities, but our numbers were exactly what they are. You know, like we're taking the numbers. We're not trying to manipulate them to make them look any better than what they are. It's like warts and everything are out in the open. This this is what it is. So, you know, to me, it doesn't benefit us to have numbers that don't reflect what's actually going on. you know, totally understand why you would do

I don't know why someone would do that other than um the PSC type thing. Not saying that I'm aware of people doing that, but you know, I just know that our our numbers are are legit and I could Well, you're just lying to yourself. Exactly. It's like stepping on the scale. You're not really losing all this what it says. So, all right.

Uh let's see. just to report to you on our joint session with the county. Uh I finally did uh make contact and actually um I have a meeting tomorrow at noon with Judge Cheney and u Mayor Day to work out an agenda and what we would talk about and try to get some dates from them uh to to make it work. So, we'll at least we're on the way now to try to get them together. What about the parking adjustments and enforcement? We going to get something from the chief.

Excuse me. Parking parking adjustments enforcement. um

we met with the corporation council a couple times trying to determine um the best way to move forward. One of the uh items we've discussed is changing the uh enforcement hours, how we plan to do the enforcement as far as first couple of hours. Uh of course it's you know we've always said the first couple hours for free. Uh then we're proposing we'll put it in the ordinance uh potentially with the um maybe change in the progression of fine depending on where you all want to set the fines at uh for daily fines and they reset every day rather than a progression and and uh to where it gets into an astronomical number what we're dealing with right now. We haven't had enforcement up to now, have we?

Yeah, we're Yeah, we're we're back to enforcement since the holiday. Yeah. No, I mean we held people to keep the fire in terms of paying their fines or I don't I don't have that data. Uh I know that uh I mean we we've issued the tickets. Yes. So are we then? Uh that process is beyond into the civil process which uh which goes through legal goes through legal. So, I'm not sure if anybody has challenged or has contacted legal for any challenges or anything like that. There's been no appeals.

So, so how can we change it from let's say I'm down here and I want to get a a haircut. So, I'm I pull up in front of the business and I'm there and there's a line and I've got a lot of hair. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes.

And then Yeah. And then I moved from 17th Street or 16th Street to pull in front of the Cameo Arcade. And in that time, it's probably been a total of an hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes and I want to go into gyms and get a hot dog and I go in there and eat and uh sometimes I can be longwinded. I'm talking to folks and it's over an hour and I come out and I get a ticket on my card. How do we change that from being two hours total all day, whether you you're here at 8 in the morning or 4:00 in the afternoon? How do we change that to be two hours per slot or something like that? Because I I think it's I don't think that's advantageous for us to continue on that spot. um problem you have with that obvious problem is the employees

that you know they'll move their car apart for two hours move it away for a little bit and then move it back for two more hours. It's the roosters that we're dealing with.

That's what we're trying to three hours. We were looking at going to two to three, but I think chief talking about the what happened.

The thing is is this first this first period of going out in forcement uh that that period may change uh move forward just a little bit and then uh the couple times that he would make additional rounds. Plus remember he's got to go on foot and one whole uh five blocks on both sides. So really he's got to walk 10 blocks handheld. So uh moving it to to the three-hour thing is completely it it just wouldn't work. You would have people parking there all day long by the time he gets to the second round. So um you know I just think so.9 there a lot of folks that are coming downtown that are concerned about the two parking. You know, if we want to go to an antique store and then we want to get lunch with our family, well, you can't do that in two hours.

He makes this when he makes the pass and that tag has not been read in any of the previous passes for that day, that first two hours free. That's that's the way it's all been set up from the very beginning. Two more hours after that, you you may get the warning, but it's free. The thing is is that if you're there for another two hours, you're going to get the first enforcement action, which is the first file. Mean after the first two hours, you're going Yes. Even even if it's two days in a row,

that's what we're contemplating on making the change based on. We're we're throwing that out there. Um there there's no perfect way of doing this. I I mean it it is the same issues we're dealing with today 50 years ago and even with technology to try to make it efficient and and make it more um behavioral changing for the driver. It's it's still going to be a challenge and um you know changing it from per day to cumulative to whenever uh we've talked about that you know doing it per day but what to come up with as far as a fine or what it do for the whole day but at the same time as commissioner said are you inviting more roosting activities and providing places for people to park in front of their own business and taking up spaces for the for your uh patrons. So, you know, we're trying we're trying to be uh proactive with that thought process. Um again, there's no perfect solution to this, but that's trying to move it a little bit and change it. Uh that's that's what we have been discussing as far as uh changes in in the current ordinances. We've created it. Now,

what's your y'all's thoughts about getting a very nice looking sign that says free parking and put it there at the parking garage? Well, we need a a banner to go on. Whatever. Just something that doesn't look tacky. Yeah. Right. And uh Well, I mean, I I don't know why you parking sign. I'm good with it. Couldn't you put one on each block? A small one on each block. Obviously, we don't want signs all downtown, but you know, so people know. People come here from all over and if they don't know I mean a big banner on it too. Yeah. I don't see anything I think that's been brought up to put a free parking you know sign and stuff there just

city manager I guess can you make that happen? Uh you know I don't think most people most certainly will cause anything especially people that come in from come in from out of town. Uh, and and maybe this is a good time to bring this up. Um, this is not on the agenda, but I'm going to ask be put on there. So, you It's a general move, you

Okay. Um, in in Ashlin, we have very little level two and no level three EV charging stations. I would love to see some promoter or some developer or the mall or somewhere uh do level three EV uh charging. And here's why. You know, our residents have their own charging stations probably at home. You know, charge it during the night. But when we have visitors come here, they have nowhere to charge their cars. So if we're going to encourage people to come to Ashlin, we need to provide somewhere these charging stations.

We we can seek grants through COA for that. There's a new the it's under the uh Volkswagen uh suit that they had. There's money out there that can be used um and gotten by by governmental agencies or whatever for level two and level three. Um, matter of fact, I sent a copy of it this morning to uh the mall. I mean, that would be a perfect people come in there to shop and charge their car. Oh, yeah. Uh, but there's it was a um reimbursement type of a a grant. Uh, so they spend the money but get reimbursed. But if we can put that on for uh

I know that, sir. It would be it would be be good. And also um for next time um I'd like for us to look at our event application process. Uh I want to be able to encourage as many people to have events here in Ashlin as possible and sometimes I think uh it it's a little more difficult than it should be to put on an event. But maybe we just look at that in the future. If you all have a second, I could um go back to water lines. Okay. Oh, okay. Staff right answers.

The reason that there wasn't a budget um when I pulled the counting book, we did 2.9 million in fiscal year 25 of waterline replacement. So, we did like a summer thing where we did it like in fiscal year where did the money come from if it wasn't budgeted? The money was in a Kyova grant a KIA grant and to we finished up these projects is the timing of that. Well, we still need to know how the money was what lines were replaced. Uh I have them good. Hicks Road just I mean just stood written to Okay.

the last whatever years. And and should we proceed with any of this or do you want to wait till we talk about the budget? Because I think it ought to be included in the budget time, but that's just my opinion because the the pieces will take a couple readings each to get them started.

What is what would the interest rate on that bond be today versus the interest rate of the bond in July? Do do you see any fluctuation? I think that the Fed open market committee uh on the federal rate is uh they held. So whatever the interest rate is uh on bonds, I would say that that would hold too. Normally it's the inverse. So when the Fed raises the rates, the bonds rate will go down or vice versa. So since they've held, uh I would say that the rates are steady. You kept it stable. Yes, my my thought process on time was not a financial one. It was Mark losing four months of warm weather.

What are our current number of employees? We're talking about adding three employees. What are what's our current level? 308 308 308 and that's reduced from 329. Yes. You just happen to have that number, didn't you? that

it it's just with our staff. It is done at a third of the cost because we've had projects that we've bid and we've rejected the bids and we've went back to uh our staff doing it and um when we captured all the cost, it was literally a third of the cost for us doing it. I know uh in the it's been brought up in the past about you know us continuing to look at um you know whether it be restructuring or continuing to look at uh cost-saving measures around the city that yes still needs to be done.

Is that something that you all are prepared to talk about today or should we do that another time if it's up to what is it cost? So restructuring, looking at restructuring if there's any areas that could be add additional additional uh and any cost-saving measures that we could potentially implement to save um overall expenditures. I could provide you all something. Yes. I mean wouldn't that be logical to doing again the budget process? I certainly agree. Well, just we're we're down 21 employees since we took over, right?

Uh would you agree that somewhere around 80,000 employee would be including benefits? Would it be GPS? Yes. So, we're down 1.6 million. Yes. I'm not sure we cut any more without losing some sort of service. We're not to uh internally um we're not looking at anyone losing their job. No guarantee that we talked about that u guarantee but I would not vote for it but we are looking at restructure. I mean if I mean

well along those lines and one of the things that I think we all had on the list to talk about was line of credit.

Uh we we are we are prepared to talk about any of these items on here. Uh but if we're going to get off the line of credit and stay off from it and when you look at two to three years or or five years down the road for capital needs, it's even more imperative. Uh but there was decisions made over the you know uh last several years that's u that these other funds uh that we've created hasn't really worked out well for us. So uh I think uh we've talked about this but the general fund is supporting these other funds. Uh if you look at the general fund it in terms of its uh in terms of its fund balance it looks good on paper. Uh but the only problem is it has no liquidity. It has due from these other funds and these other funds do not have money to pay the general fund. Hence the reason we're on the line of credit occasionally.

What's the current amount that's owed by the other funds to the general fund? It varies by fund. Well, do you have a a ballpark number in terms of what's owed to the general fund? That's something I can Yeah. I don't It varies per day. I mean, why don't why don't you give us some kind of a general, you know, I think it's it's really key that that you know, we're we're a board that is very fiscally conservative and responsible. And I think that the decisions we make today and the decisions we make in the budget session not only affect us today or tomorrow but they affect us 5 years from now. No 10 years from now. Uh you know when finance looked at looks at this we are looking out more than just one year.

Although uh uh the government operating cycle when you budget is one year. We always try to look out three years. and the department had submitted a a capital listing that I had requested a three-year capital list and I think some of these are valid request u in fact I think some of them are very important requests u so our goal in finance uh with your all's approval obviously we will we will fix this but uh it may require a little bit of restruction and tweaking Um, and the 1.6 million that you all have cut out, I can only say through the excellent teamwork and the hard work of everyone I work with, I think city services have got better. And when we look at these tweaks and changes, we do not want to provide less to our citizens. We think

more effective, more efficient. Yes. No. If that's if that's what you got that I you thought I No, no, no. I just want to I just want to reassure you that's our thought process. Here's my question. Uh not to put you on the spot, but since you're on the spot, what is the financial in your opinion the financial condition of the city right now? Are you talking about a particular fund? No, I'm just overall uh I think we have some downward pressures. I I think um I mean we was just on the line of credit uh was it two weeks ago on a Monday was 2.6 million. It's a million today.

It the other day it was 900 and she's telling me now it's a million today. Uh I would anticipate it getting a little bit better uh since we had some rate modifications in the occupational license fee that looked at net us about 1.7 million. Uh so a lot of these fees are on a quarterly basis. I think I'd sent out an email on this. I think this was a question, but some of your larger revenues will come in the month after the end of the quarter, which is uh April. Uh so as we go forward, I I do see us getting a little bit better. Uh but there is some structural cuts that I think are realignments uh that we need to make. Uh but to answer your question directly on the general fund um I think it needs it needs it needs improvement. We need liquidity. Uh and these other funds or these other projects that we've taken on unfortunately hasn't worked out well for us. Um, so therefore, I don't really see us getting I mean these uh the garage uh the downtown tiff and stuff uh having the ability to pay the general fund back

the downtown tip. So we're going to be holding these debts, these receivables for this for the foreseeable future and paying on some of these things that this will cost us money. Uh so uh

I I would give if you want me to give it uh the general fund a C. I think as time goes by through attrition hopefully uh it'll stabilize. I don't think it's nothing to panic about. I think the finance department is certainly capable of of steering us forward. Uh in terms of the other primary fund that would be the utility fund. Uh it does owe the general fund a fair amount. It is it is in better shape than it was. We went for quite some time uh needing a rate study. We had a rate study five or six years ago for whatever reason um it was delayed not the study itself but to actually adopt these rates. Um, in fact, it went so long it it went over two years and the engineering firm that was doing the rate study, some of our numbers were stale dated. So, this process went on five years. Uh, it went on too long. We should have implemented some of these rates adjustments uh but we didn't. So now then when when when we did get this study completed uh the board uh chose to implement them over five-year period. So we had some lag time with the utility fund on this uh rate study and now then we're implementing those rate changes over five years. So uh I'm optimistic for the for the utility fund in the near future. What's caused the recent fluctuation in the use of the line of credit? Has there been certain anything in particular that's caused the

Sometimes you like uh a lot of these uh grants and projects that we have going on, we have to fund the money up front and then request the payment. So a lot of times uh that can be part of it and it's just uh when a payroll will hit. Uh so you have three payrolls and our health insurance costs are trending upwards too every year. Mhm. Yeah. Um

but I think we might want to briefly interrupt and hit the insurance committee whether we're going to reinstitute that or not. Uh my recommendation would that we have a finance committee as opposed to a health insurance so that way we could talk about everything financial and I also made a note Mr. Martin uh Commissioner Martin that uh that we also incorporate the capital project meeting in the same meeting so that way and we talk about doing that on a quarterly basis in a regular city

meeting but I would recommend it be structured under the finance so that way we don't have to meet multiple times on in a quarter. we can just do it all at one time and if maybe uh two elected officials be on it and then rotate it and if there's any financial talk about capital or whatever we can do it all at one time. It's a good idea. I I for one appreciate the fact you're giving us a great monthly or weekly report Tony we really benefit from that and it's coming from all the department. It's a gathering.

This is this is a team approach for sure. you're putting it together, but one of the things you're including in there and and we need to see this maybe in a little more depth is the line of credit. Um we're seeing the weekly line of credit. It would be nice to know whether it's going up, whether it's going down, what's affecting it. Uh we need to know a little bit more about how we're having to utilize the line acrylic. Is is that a fair state? Yes, sir. I'm making a note of right now.

All right. Um, let's get some of these uh, which I'm not really sure. What about the boat dock at the riverfront? Um, I know this all the time getting silt in there all the time. And I I believe Sean actually took care of that last week at the parks department. Well, I know they they removed a bunch of at both 47 Street and and rep. Is that is that what that why it's on here?

I apologize. I don't know why it's on the agenda. Having said that, twice a year we go in the stretch of once in the spring, once in the fall. We're going to be approaching that if you're, you know, folks aren't able to launch emergency personnel. That's our first and foremost is making sure they can get in and out of the water. We usually come in and it's close to $5,000. We have to rent a a long come out and help us out. It'll be like I said in April, May by early May and then we clean it whenever it floods. However, having said that too, uh we get help from fire department help us do that. Streets, utilities, we're using all those dump trucks and all that they got. Sometimes I apologize. It may take a couple days after it goes back down or it recedes and it's because of trying to get all those resources fully dictated up.

Okay. Well, Sean, did you I'm sorry. Well, I was just going to say if that's a continuing reoccurrence of of $5,000 a time, if you do it two or three times a year, you know, could we what would it look like if we just purchased the piece of equipment and used it in maybe the water department or the utility or move it? I mean, you know, the problem is, and correct me if I'm wrong, engineering, it's on the wrong side of the the jet that's out from that and collects the silt. If it was on the other side,

you know, the old one, we didn't have that problem. So, I mean, it might be interesting to look at to see just to move the whole thing. I mean, I don't know. Something to look at anyway. I mean, if we can save money over five or 10 years, done. Maybe we can look at it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Garbage dumpsters thing. Garbage dumpsters. Is that a question whether we're going to rent out dumpsters? I have issues.

No, we we when we changed the garbage ordinance, we looked at expanding our revenue within the city of Ashland, increasing the number of rental. Yes. and increasing. We have like in apartment buildings like two plexes, four plexuses, we have people with like Rumpky or Hart or other garbage that are not using city garbage where our residents are required to and a lot of the small businesses are using dumpsters outside the city. And we have dumpsters available to do that with.

Ben, it's just additional revenue stream for us for the city. I mean, I think that, you know, whatever we can do to look at additional revenue streams. I know that years ago the board city picked up the board hill sanitation and picked up the schools and picked up different things. Obviously, it's a business decision why they've chosen to go somewhere else. I mean, are are rates competitive with with other companies? And to that point, if they're not competitive, can we make them competitive while while also continuing to make revenue off that? You all reduce them 20%. So that is a long way going towards competitiveness.

But I mean, if we're requiring our residents to do it, why wouldn't we require our businesses to do? That was our thought process. Yes. Some businesses obviously we don't have the capability to handle. That's what I was going to say. The ordinance was written that Mr. Murray could decide that if they did not have the capability, they didn't have to. Part of the logic was we're competing with private enterprise. I mean, there are businesses that rent those out and do we want to compete with them? Yes, that's that's very important. That's the central question. I mean, it's cuz when you walk downtown, even not even getting away from dumpsters, you see a lot of 85gallon cans a block away from here.

Yeah. There's like four by the police station. Yeah. Well, with with this new finance committee, maybe that's something they can explore and and come back with a recommendation to the commission. Speaking of finance committee, can we can we pick two people uh now to serve and and we'll have a finance committee meeting here next month or month or so? You're going to rotate them each? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think so. Kind of like we done with the capital. Yeah. Yeah, we can do that. So, we can get a a jump on on it. Um got any volunteers?

Oh, yeah. We'll all volunteer. than one volunteer. We have two volunteers right there. Then we can rotate. Is that uh rentro? Okay. Just this uh include food. I'll get I'll get you some donuts. Is there lunch involved here? Do you have a date in mind? No, but uh I'm making these notes and then uh then I'll send you on an email to recap some of this and try to get you. Item M, steel arches over Winchester. Did we squash that? Yeah, that was just a wild idea that we somehow got on here.

Well, he he went back through every meeting and every note since the day you all took office and that's what how some of these got back on here. He wanted to make sure that they were taken care of. You can scratch that off. I mean, that was just a What's that? Still arches you can scratch off, you know. Yeah. Yeah. We we had agendas and meetings about this big. I think he went through. Um if we're at the point where we're not going to discuss anything further, can I make a motion that we go into executive session, discuss potential litigation? Sure. Uh do we have Let me see if anybody has anything else on here you'd like to u discuss before we

One one quick one. Wastewater treatment plant progress. a update. Uh I actually have been down there recently. Was down there this morning and uh honestly I would advise at some point if you guys would like to get together and just drive through there. It's been a massive change already. Lovely.

That's what we were told at the groundbreaking and then we needed to get back up. Um but currently if you enter the facility like you always did before before you would go through the gate they're they're working on the dewatering building which is right there to the left uh before you go through our gate the existing gate they have um poured the footer and then there's a knee wall that goes that is at the bottom of the building they poured all they poured three walls of that knee wall it's about I mean this thing's like 18 in thick and it's a thick heavy duty concrete section that's probably a couple feet tall. They're currently forming up the I guess would be the north wall, the riverside wall on that. Um they also are working on um they're currently working on all the structures down there now. Whether it's to that degree, that's the farthest one is is the uh the watering building, but all the others are at least they're getting ready to to form up the blower building and um the the locations for the admin building and the three clarifiers have all been excavated out and they brought in the admin building has uh the base put in and they're bringing extra gra to get to the point to pour the footer. And when I say they're bringing up the grade, I mean they're like 8 foot from where they need to be. Massive amount of rock. And currently down there, they're they're working and they're doing what's called ram aggregate peers and basically they drill down. They they they dig down to where they get good dirt and then they drill down even farther and then they just start ramming stone down in there to build a real strong base for these heavy structures. So, they're doing that right now. Um, basically that's the gist of what's going on right now. We've got a

lot of the material, the old material that we're calling fluff that was removed from the old man's back site. They've got it piled up, ready to be hauled off. We're just waiting for uh basically paperwork out back and forth between the landfill and the contractor and the city. But that's that's kind of the up that's really what's going on at this time. What happened to the uh that tank of Dalton's? It's still there. I've talked to them about it. Um I believe we was they were supposed to coordinate with the chief of the superintendent down there and um our contractor was going to set it on a truck for them when they got down there

because we you know they've got tons of equipment down there. They've agreed that hey we need to help you out do this. They've been great for those types of things. Pick it up, set it on the truck, and let them haul it off. Okay. On prior agendas when we making payments and stuff. I love the term grubbing. Haven't heard that since my dad passed away. He used to tell me to get up and grab off that side of the hill. They rubbed it down to the dirt down there.

It's definitely There's a sign a significant difference down there. And I would, you know, I don't know if you guys wanted to get a bus and just dip through there one time just for you guys to see it. But, you know, just think about that when whenever it works good for everyone. I think it would be interesting for you to see at there's one area they were working there today and they're 14 they're basically 14 about 13 to 14t below grade putting rock in. Wow. I mean, it's it's it's a massive operation. So, are you pleased with so far? So far. All right. How about you, Barry? And the contractor's pleased, too. All right. You know, things are going well. So,

that's good news. Good. All right. If no other discussion, we have a motion to go. Second. All in favor say I. All

right. Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.

Here we go. Here we go.

Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat.

Feel yeah.

Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

boy. Heat. Heat.

Here we are.

We're uh back in session, our executive session, and no action was taken there. So, um, we have any other comments or I got a I got a question. It might be a legal question for the fire chief. Uh, is it Martin or Louisa? Louisa wants to borrow one of our fire trucks and we have one we can give them. Uh, theirs got torn up in a fire last night. had a major brush fire that involved three truckers together

and during the course of fighting that fire they received significant damage to two of their pieces of equipment. One of them a tree fell on the cab. The other one they had to hastily retrieve there and I believe it went in the ditch as they were trying to evacuate crews out of there. This is apparently passing the fire and they reached out this morning uh to us and I believe can fire department and seeing if they could borrow an older piece of equipment that we had for extended period of time until they hit the repairs.

We have one, right? We we've got two reserves and one of them is an i3 model that the oldest one that's the one I was looking at letting and borrow it was okay I didn't know something that the board vote on or I would make entertain a motion to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I look into that really. Yeah. With the your assistance. Yeah. And who who first? I'll I'll make the motion first. You second it. Second. All right. All in favor say I. All oppose. Yes, sir. She can coordinate with the attorney. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Any other um

discussions or anything? I mean, there's a lot some of the things we didn't get to, but we got most of it. Yeah, we'll keep an eye on it. Make a motion we'll move. No vote on that. That's it.