City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll call to order tonight's Committee of the Whole for the City Council meeting July the 7th, 2026. City Council should have the minutes from the Committee of the Whole from the June 16th meeting. Are there additions or corrections to those minutes? If not, is there a move to approve?

So moved.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the minutes are approved.

Planning Commission, tonight we have two nominations, two vacancies to consider.

And it is a responsibility... uh, of the mayor to make these nominations. I want to say thank you to our citizens. We had, um, five excellent interviews. Um, and I appreciate, um, those citizens making, um, themselves available and having a passion and interest for our community to go through the interview process and fill out an application. Um, very honored, uh, the kind of people who want to be involved in our community planning commission is a, is a unique way of serving your community, and I'm very thankful that we have people that want to serve on our planning commission. But for our first vacancy, that vacancy has been recently filled over the last year by Vanessa Echols, who took a partial term, which was basically a one-year term, to fill the term of the late Wendy Birmingham, who we still miss today, and I would like to nominate Vanessa Echols for her first full term on the planning commission.

Second. Second.

I have a motion and a second for Vanessa Echols. Any comments? Thoughts?

She's done great, and she knew what she was getting into, and she's just great at what she does. I'm proud she's going to run again.

Anyone else?

So am I. I think Vanessa has done a great job, and I'm glad that she considered being on. On the planning commission, and thank you, Vanessa, for all that you do for the community. And one thing I know about Vanessa, she listens and she does have a voice.

Question. Question. Anyone else? I certainly agree with all those comments. And as I said about a couple meetings ago, she makes an excellent emcee for your nonprofit banquet. So you can consider that as well. All right, we have a motion and a second for Vanessa Echols for one full term. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And we will confirm that later on in the agenda. The second vacancy is created by Nanette Reese, who has served two full terms. She's done an excellent job. This will be 12 years. Her final meeting will be this Thursday night. She is finishing the last two years on the planning commission as the chair, and I certainly want Nanette to know how much we appreciate and value the effort and the time that she has given this community through serving on the planning commission. I would like to nominate Anna Solomon to take her place for one full term. Second.

Second.

I have a motion and a second for Anna Solomon. Any comments, thoughts?

I've known Anna Solomon for going on 10 years. She has a lot of depth, a lot of understanding already of this city. I think she'll be an excellent commissioner. Simply one of the reasons is her sensitivity to the city itself, but also she just has been dialed in to the processes of this city for some time. I, in fact, at the, at her interview, I said, I feel such support for her. I should recuse myself, but I, I know that that is not necessary. She's an excellent candidate and I'm thankful that she has, uh, taken this opportunity to serve the city in a more substantive way. And I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Anyone else? Well, I think Anna will do a fantastic job. Uh, I have also known Anna for well over a decade and she and her husband have committed themselves to this community, um, in many different ways. Um, she has been very interested in the planning process and has served on the, uh, downtown design review team, uh, since its inception, which is a unique entity that was, uh, created. Uh, and Anna was one of the very first people to join that. And they have evaluated the projects that we have in downtown. And I believe that they have delivered better projects for us in downtown by their influence and their ideas. that they have given to developers. And so I have all the confidence in the world that Anna will do a fantastic job on the Planning Commission.

Will she have to resign her position on the downtown review?

We will, more than likely, yes. She will not have to, but I expect her to do that. Yes. Anyone else with a comment?

I think during her interview, I really think that she did a great interview. All the candidates that I was able to hear, they did really, really good. But Ms. Solomon, she stood out because she was very familiar with the planning. And I think she was saying that she goes to most of the meetings. And I just like that bubbly personality she has and some of the interest that she has as a planner. So, yeah, I agree that, you know, she's the one for the position.

Okay. All in favor of Anna Solomon, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? And that motion carries, and we'll confirm that later on in the agenda. Again, I want to thank everybody that made application and that went through the interviews. Excellent. And I want to encourage you, if your name was not called tonight, to continue to seek ways to serve this community because all of you were excellent. All of you were. All right, questions on tonight's agenda. Any questions for the city manager? All right, Ms. Crouch, anything for us?

Yes, Mayor, there's a replacement page for page five of the minutes from the regular meeting from June 16th that inadvertently said on item 9C1, the Ivy Lane no parking item, that a public hearing was held and indeed was not held. And one was not open nor closed nor required. So it's striking that during the regular agenda, you are fine to vote on the minutes as part of the consent agenda. They don't need to be amended as long as you have this, but. That was caught this afternoon. I apologize for that, but better than adopting the minutes with the wrong information. Okay.

Thank you for keeping us in line. We appreciate that. All right.

Is there a move to adjourn?

So moved. All right. We'll adjourn the Committee of the Whole, and we'll go ahead and open tonight's Auburn City Council meeting for July the 7th, 2026. We certainly welcome all of you that have joined us live in the council chambers, as well as those listening on WANI and are watching through our streaming services. Lindsay, with the roll call.

Adams.

Here.

Oglin.

Here.

Dawson. Here. Griswold. Here. Mormon. Here. Parsons.

Here.

Taylor.

Here.

Fitton. Here.

Here. Would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence.

Please be seated.

It is the first meeting of the month, and so at this time we're proud to introduce you to our employee of the month as well as our other employees with the service awards.

We're proud to introduce you to our July Employee of the Month, and I have a memorandum here from John Hoare, Inspection Services Director. Jason Pearson is being nominated for the Employee of the Month in recognition of his exceptional performance, professionalism, and dedication to the City of Auburn and the Inspection Services Department. Over the past year, our department has experienced unprecedented growth, resulting in the highest volume of permitting in our history. Faced with these workload demands, Jason stepped up in a major way. Due to his exceptional work ethic, he helped keep permit review times manageable while maintaining a high level of customer service. Jason's type of work ethic became the backbone of our division during his record-setting year. Day in and day out, he tackled an influx of projects head on, ensuring our department continued to operate efficiently. Jason's commitment to the city's mission has also been evident in his proactive approach to professional growth. In his role as a plan reviewer, Jason has significantly improved his attention to detail and expanded his technical knowledge. He has continuously embraced larger, more complex projects and additional responsibilities to help support the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the division. In addition to his strong productivity, Jason consistently demonstrates a high level of professionalism, teamwork, and a positive attitude. He communicates effectively and respectfully with both the public and his colleagues. And he is always willing to help whenever needed. His reliability and commitment to quality work make him someone the department can depend on during periods of high demand. Jason exemplifies the city's core values through his dedication, integrity, teamwork, and commitment to serving the community. His contributions over the past year have had a direct positive impact on department operations and customer service, making him highly deserving of this recognition. Thank you, Jason. We appreciate your hard work.

Thank you.

congratulations and to all of our employees thank you for your hard work to Jason Pearson congratulations on being our employee of the month and to Geraldine Jude Hackett and Billy Jackson all the best to you in retirement and we wish you well during the committee the whole the City Council made two appointments to the Planning Commission Vanessa Eccles was reappointed to serve one full term and Anna Solomon was newly appointed to serve a full term and they will begin In August, again, we appreciate everybody's interest in serving our community. Under announcements tonight, I want to say thank you to everyone at Christ Methodist Church for their production of the Star Spangled Concert. I attended that, and what a great evening it was at the Gooch Forman Arts Center with Lee Greenwood as a special guest. talent and very patriotic and very moving, and a lot of work went into that, and I just appreciate that gift to the city that they put together. Also, I want to say thank you to the consortium of golf pros in this town who have created a youth golf tour for those young people who enjoy playing golf. They have created, I believe, a four-tournament schedule for our youth in this community. I went to the first event out at Sagahatchee last week, and it was well-organized and well-supported. And the young people were having a good time, and it gives them an opportunity to compete and for their parents not to have to go out of town. And so what a win for our community. I want to say thank you to our economic development team for inviting me over to speak and spend lunch with the New Venture Accelerator students. These are young people who are already trying to create businesses and have ideas why they're here in college. And they're taking advantage of the support that's offered to them over in the research park and a lot of bright minds over there. a lot of young people that have great big ideas and that are going ahead and pursuing them, even while they're here in college. And so it's very encouraging about the future. I want to say how proud I am. Recently it came out of the city of Auburn went through a bond ratings exercise. And as mayor, I played a role in that. I will say just from my seat how proud I am of the people in our finance department that make that happen. There is a lot of work that goes into taking care of the money that our citizens provide us to provide resources for them. And it is done with the ultimate professionalism and attention to detail. And when you go through one of these exercises, you're talking to people that – that don't care that you're nice and they don't care that you work hard. All they care about is how, how well you've done your job. And we were, uh, graded again, double a plus from SMP and double a two for Moody's. I'm just thankful for the leadership that Alison edge provides for that group of people and all the hard work that goes in. Of course, our city manager oversees all of it and we're just very fortunate. The better ratings, the further our money goes in our community, which means we can do more for our citizens. And so, Ms. City Manager, I didn't know if the staff would like to add anything to that.

I believe you covered it, Mayor. I'll make sure, yeah.

Well, we're very proud, and we don't take it for granted. Absolutely. And when you go through an exercise like that, you really get to see what goes on and how important they are. And you get to hear people make comparisons to our city, to other places. And we're very blessed. We're very blessed here. Also, recently we were recognized for the Matt Conway Award, which means we're We are operating in an outstanding MSA, and we have checked a number of boxes to be recognized for that. And, Ms. City Manager, I didn't know if a member of our economic development team or industrial recruiting team would like to weigh in on that recognition.

Phillip loves weighing in on recognitions. You know, as usual with this particular recognition, he may or may not get up and speak. I mean, there's a lot of things by data that is provided by us. Following the path that we follow by the council support and our general economic development philosophies are why these things happen, but it is A testament also to this the work of our team I used to be part of that team still a city manager But I was a direct staff member on that team for many years and I know the hours they spend and Remind everybody for a lot of what we're doing on the industrial front really funds our quality of life and our schools And it also provides jobs for people in a five-county area, not just Auburn citizens. You know, 30% of the people that work in our industries live in Auburn and 70% don't. And so we're also providing high-paying jobs for people in the region, and I think that's important as well.

Good. Thank you very much. Are you good with that?

Hope would like to get up and speak.

Would you like to add anything, Mr. Dunlap? Thank you. Okay. All right. Anyone else have an announcement they'd like to make tonight?

yes sir i'm sorry no go ahead all right okay mine's small potatoes uh i've been meaning to thank somebody i'm not sure who we'll just say the city staff are redoing the bike lane on thatch avenue i've been whining about it for a long time and there it was complete with no parking signs to keep the bike lane open so thank you very much for that and i also wanted to give a big thank you to public safety for slowing down the speeders on Sanford Avenue. They've done a good job, and it's been noticed, and I hope it's been noticed by the right people. But thank you very much for both of those.

I notice it every morning.

Every morning.

It's gone. Yes.

Okay. Uh, I think I missed the last council meeting, but I want to, uh, uh, send some props out to some people that may, uh, Juneteenth of success. Um, I want to thank, especially Auburn parks and recreation, how do you always step up and making sure everything is straight in the parks and everything. And, uh, I just want to thank you and your staff for the support. I want to thank the Auburn Public Safety for letting those guys come out and helping us out and always being there for the support of the parade and the event. So I just want to say thank you to those people. I also want to say thank you to Anna who's sitting in the back. When I say Anna, and I made a speech earlier about Anna having a bubbly spirit, every Anna I know, got that same type of spirit about them. So Anna, thank you, and thank the Chamber of Commerce for their donation, and also the AO Tourism, who always been there for us every year that I started this Juneteenth, even in Auburn, and they have always, always been there. And I can name Cat Bobo and Robin Bridges and all of those people who really has really been supportive. But I also want to thank Mayor Anders for coming out. And he also not only participated in the parade and rode on what, Mayor? What did you ride on with me?

It was a real fancy golf cart.

He said, Connie, you call this a golf cart? Well, I think this boy did a golf cart. And, uh, also, um, Bob Parson and bringing his, uh, bicyclists and his sons out and they participated in the parade. So I just want to just thank everybody I've already given. There's so many people that I can think, but I just want this, uh, thank the city staff in front of, you know, the city, uh, for their participation and everything that they does to make Juneteenth a success. But I've already thanked everybody else because there was a lot of people that helped out, and there was a lot of participants and everything. Oh, there you sit. I was trying to think about the public safety. I was looking for you over there, but there you sit right there. For public safety, right? No, no, I got the wrong person. Never mind.

Keith Harris is up there. Okay. Yep, he's back over here. Oh, okay. I looked at you there. There you go. Okay, okay.

But I wanted to also ask Parks and Recreation, did anyone turn in some keys? They've been asking me about some keys, a whole thing of keys somebody lost. So if anybody turned in some keys, please let me know from the Juneteenth event, okay? And that's it.

Thank you, Connie. We appreciate it. Appreciate your hard work. Ms. Whitten.

I would like to say thank you as well to Parks and Rec and the entire city staff that worked on a holiday for celebrating America 250 for the July 4th festivities. My family and I attend that event every year and have for a very long time, and we love it. We look forward to it. It's a great way to have community, and this year to celebrate America 250 made it extra special. I just want to say thank you, Ms. Krauts, to your staff and all those who worked on the holiday. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we'll move ahead with Auburn University Communications.

Good evening, City Council and Mayor Andrews. Good evening. My name is Andrew Faircloth, and I serve as Auburn SGA's Director of City Relations, and I have the honor to share some of the good things happening across Auburn's campus and some fun things we have on the horizon here. First thing I wanted to highlight tonight is Can't Wear Eagle. orientation program will come to a close this month of July. We have around three more sessions and our orientation staff has worked really hard to really set the tone and to welcome our students with a welcoming face and show them what it really means to be a part of the Auburn family. And one important thing we like to tell our freshman students is how important it is to get involved on Auburn's campus. And getting involved is only as special as it is at Auburn because of the hard work that our organizations really put in at Auburn. A lot of that starts early on. Our organizations have already started the recruiting efforts and planning welcome events for the first 56. Basically, if y'all have never heard of the first 56, it's the first eight weeks of class organizations will hold welcome events and opportunities for incoming students and returning students to really find ways to get involved on campus and to find their home. And the last thing on our agenda tonight is Greek life. Greek life recruitment preparations are great. Continuing throughout the months through the month of July fraternities will continue to hold recruitment weekends and sororities are preparing For pre-recruitment and work week ahead of their formal recruitment, but that is all for me tonight.

Thank you Thank You Andrew. We appreciate you being We appreciate y'all staying with us during the summer too. Thank you for that All right at this time we'll open up for citizens communications on items on tonight's agenda This is only items on tonight's agenda if you'd like to speak to the City Council on Please come forward and give us your name and address for the record, and you'll have five minutes to speak to the council. If your item includes a public hearing, which there's a few resolutions on the very back page of your agenda, we'd ask that you wait until then to speak to the council. Anyone? Okay. We'll move ahead with city manager's communications. Okay.

Mary, I don't have any communications other than the, there is a change to your minutes, just striking a public hearing. I'm on page five from item nine C one. You have that before you on the dais, as I mentioned during committee of the whole, otherwise our first item of business is a consent agenda. Does any council member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda and deal with that item individually?

I would spam eight B one through six, please. Eight B one through six.

Anyone else? Yes. Uh, eight C Charlie two and eight C Charlie five.

Anyone else? Okay.

Eight B eight B one elects and certifies Connie Taylor as the ward one council person for the term of office that begins on the first Monday of November, 2026.

Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Ms. Whitton?

I just wanted to acknowledge the hard work of these individuals. Um, and yes, my name is on that list, but, um, primarily just because I think it's a testament to our hard work over the last, um, four years and that we are, um, honored to be able to serve another four. And I would say the same thing about all of them. Although our second one is a new face and I think she deserves, um, an introduction when we get to that point.

Okay. All right. We have a motion in second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. Congratulations, Connie.

And I'll remind everyone that, yes, it is okay as a sitting council member to vote on all of these items because you have to ratify this.

So, just for clarity, our city attorney will nod at you, and we are good.

Item 8B2 elects and certifies Kirsten Malenkovich as the Ward 2 councilperson for the term of office that begins the first Monday of November 2026. Move for approval.

Second. Second. We have a motion and a second. Kirsten, they've already threatened me, so I'm going to have to follow through. We would love for you to stand, and we want to give you a hand for making it this far. So if you'd please rise, introduce yourself to everybody. Here's our new councilwoman for the city of Auburn. Congratulations. Any further comments? Yes, sir, Kelly.

Yes, Carson and I met together for, well, hours on hours, I think, and I am very, very confident that she's going to fit right in up here. I'm really jealous that she doesn't have to. go door-to-door in this heat and campaign like some of us had to do. But I certainly welcome you up here, and the city's going to be in fine shape and in even better shape with you up here. So thank you for your interest in doing this, and I look forward to watching you on the TV. Thank you, Kelly. Anyone else?

All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. And the motion carries.

Item eight B three elects and certifies Beth Witten as the ward three council person for the term of office that begins on the first Monday of November, 2026.

Move for approval.

Second motion. Second. Any comments, thoughts?

Yes. I'd like to thank Ms. Witten for bringing these items off the agenda so we could talk about them tonight. And I would certainly like to say thank you to her for all her hard work for the last four years. And, and, uh, Look forward to seeing you up here on the dais for another four. So congratulations. Thank you, Sonny.

Anyone else? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

Item 8B4 elects and certifies Tyler Adams as the Ward 4 Councilperson for the term of office that begins on the first Monday of November, 2026.

Move for approval. Second. Motion is second. Any comments? Thoughts?

I'm very proud of him. He's come a long ways in the last four years.

I appreciate it, Tommy. There were times I didn't think I was going to make it.

I reached back and pulled you through it.

Anyone else? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

Item 8B5, elections certifies Bob Parsons as the Ward 6 Councilperson for the term of office that begins on the first Monday of November, 2026.

Move for approval.

Second. Motion and second. Thoughts, comments?

You told me about 12 years ago I wanted Bob Parson to serve on this council. I said, you've gone crazy. You've come a long way, Chief. You've come a long way.

I appreciate it. And I'm the first to recognize that Ward 6 is not my seat. It's a seat that's out for the public to claim and to state their case as to why. And I was perfectly ready and able to do that. My summer has gotten a lot easier, and I appreciate it. I appreciate your confidence. Thank you, Bob.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries.

Item 8B6 elects and certifies Max Koblentz as the Ward 7 Councilperson for the term of office that begins on the first Monday of November, 2026. Move for approval.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any comments? Thoughts?

Well done, Max. Thank you. Excellent.

I echo Mr. Parsons. It's a privilege to serve and look forward to the opportunity to serve him for another four years with each of you. So thank you.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. Before we move on, Mr. City Manager, I just, you know, from my seat, I get to work with all these individuals, and I have seen how much they care about those that they serve. And for the five individuals that'll be returning, um, your wards are in good shape because they have worked hard. Um, every call that you make, every email that you send is seriously considered and they work on it on your behalf. And they're all honorable people and they have all done a great, great job for our community. And I believe Kirsten will be the same way, and we'll be saying the same things about her in the future. So for these six individuals to represent this city, we are blessed and we are fortunate, and I think we should expect great things out of them because they certainly have proven that they can do it, and I believe they'll continue to do it. Okay. All right. Eight. C2.

Mayor, if I may, before that, each of you will be needing to sign a certificate of election for each one of the individuals elected. They've started on the dais with Connie Taylor. Please do not leave this evening before we get that done, or I will be chasing you down for the next couple of weeks trying to get this executed. So please don't leave Council Chambers tonight without signing the documents. Thank you. All right, Mayor, if you are now ready for 8C2 authorizes the purchase of 150 Walther PDP Pro handguns with optics and holsters for the Auburn Police Department from the Dana Safety Supply Incorporated in the amount of $128,689.82. This item was not budgeted, and a mid-biennium budget adjustment has been requested.

Move for approval. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Mr. Griswold? No, thank you.

Several questions. I certainly support the equipping of our police force with everything possible that they could use. How many are we actually replacing? All of them? I mean, how many do we have in our inventory? That's correct.

I'm going to have our police chief, Mike Harris, come up to the podium.

Okay, thanks.

And he can answer those easily for you.

Good evening. Good evening. Yes, sir. We are replacing all of our inventory for our primary firearm. The whole inventory. The whole inventory.

Okay. Are the, are the new ones the same caliber?

They are.

You don't have to, we don't, we're good to go on ammunition supplies. Uh, do the old ones have red dot sites? They do not. So are you have training, um, anticipated for, we already have a training program in place.

We've allowed officers over the last two years to purchase their own red dot siting system. Um, That's a somewhat restrictive policy, so we're looking to replace all of our weapons with red dot sights. Okay.

And currently you have some compact Glocks and some regular-sized Glocks. Your detectives have had this compact. Will you have a combination in this purchase as well?

Yes, sir. It's the same plan. Our patrol operations section will carry the full-size weapon. Admin and detectives will carry the compact with no change in price.

Okay. Okay, and I'd just like to say whoever negotiated this did a fantastic job. This is a super price because I like to look around on firearms and stuff. How was this sourced?

I know it was noncompetitive, but how did you all get such a good deal? We talked directly to manufacturers. We tested several different weapons. One of the things that we were looking for was basically a complete package from the manufacturer. We wanted the weapon, the red optic, because it's important, the mounting of that on the weapon. and the holster. And we also wanted a buyback program where we get some discount for trading in our old weapons. So we dealt directly with HK. There were a few manufacturers that offered that complete package. HK was one, Walther was one, Glock was one. We also tested FN, but FN could not to meet the standard that we put in place for the factory optic cut. And then we also looked at Kimber because Kimber has a manufacturing plant here in Troy, Alabama. We actually went to the manufacturing plant. So we dealt directly with all the manufacturers. Once we selected the weapon platform that we wanted, we went to various vendors that could meet the pricing that was basically set from Walther.

I think I'd just like to compliment y'all on a, what I think is a very successful solicitation and, and a contract and a good selection for a fine replacement.

Chief, you know, he's already using these weapons.

Yes, sir. Um, that was one of the other things that all the manufacturers give us some, some references, but you know, large, small and medium, uh, agencies, if they were carrying the weapon. Um, one of the primary ones we talked with, with Walter was Pennsylvania state police. We got a lot of good information from PSP about their transition to the Walthers, and it helped us make our decision.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thanks, Chief. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. All right. Any other comments or questions? Kelly?

No, I'm very happy with this, in fact. Okay. Anyone else? Usually I'm very happy with the agenda item.

For a purchase, yes. For a purchase. For a purchase, yeah.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Motion carries.

Item 8C5 authorizes the purchase of LED lights for the Yarborough Tennis Center outdoor hard courts from Musco Sports Lighting LLC in the amount of $219,900. Move for approval. Second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second. Mr. Griswold, come back to you. Hey, another contractor.

Oh, boy.

Okay.

Seems like we have one of these from time to time. We've been having them from time to time for years. A year, two years, whatever. I'm just curious, how many more parks and rec facilities still need this conversion to LED?

So it's very few. A couple of quick things. I know you weren't able, had a family emergency to attend the packet meeting. But one, these hard court, these particular lights, just important to note. light outdoor courts, hard courts that are also utilized under our lease agreement with Auburn University. So 85% of the cost of these, just not your question, but just make sure everybody's clear on that. Generally speaking, we're mostly done with our LED light conversion. There are a few areas that don't have them. The Duck Sanford parking lot, which is the upper and lower grass areas behind the home side of the football stadium. Due to certain uncertainty about how that space is going to be utilized in the future, we're not doing any organized events on that space and scheduling events there. Auburn City Schools has some general interest in discussing that space. We're not bringing forward any type of contract to replace the lighting there at this time until a future use is determined. We also have in Connie's Ward, Westview Park has lighting, but it's not LED as we continue to evolve some things into the next several years in that area. Those will likely be upgraded, but that's work that we can do ourselves because it's so few. It's a much more inexpensive undertaking. And then we have a few parking lots here and there. Most of our parking lot lighting is contracted with Alabama Power, and as they perform maintenance or get to it in their schedule, they replace those as part of a contract we have with them. So we don't expect you to be seeing a ton more of Musco LED lighting changeovers. Did I miss anything, Allison Hall?

Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Just in time for you to complete your term on the Council of Replacement of all of the LED lights in the city. Okay.

I mean, I don't know what the grand total has been on replacing these lights, but it is a boatload.

And I'll remind you, it is because of our inability to get the lighting equipment we need for the old lights, and so that is why. But, yes, it has been.

And they're more durable. Correct?

They are. They last longer, but also our inability to be able to replace lights from our old standard, yes. And, of course, these have bougie features, as I call them, which actually helps us save. We can turn them on and off from mobile devices, which helps when there's a problem.

Well, Mr. Griswold, since you've been on the council, I mean, for the last eight years, our inventory of spaces needing lights has certainly increased, too. Yeah. That's true.

Yeah, we've spent a lot of money on Parks and Rec. We have. No doubt about it.

So, I mean, that's all needed light. So, anyway, there's a lot of reasons for it. But, anyway.

I have one additional question I couldn't quite figure out. Is $219,900 our share? or the whole cost?

No, that is the cost. So, and Allison, Edge is going to correct me if I missed this part on the budget. So the total budgeted amount is $300,000. We have an installation piece of about 80 some odd that's going to come, 81, it's going to come to you later. Even though the university is going to reimburse us for this, we have to budget the full $300,000 and they'll pay their 85%. So that money will come back into the general fund, but this is... The cost of just the lighting, we have to order it now to be installed next fiscal year when this is actually budgeted. But we will still get our money back, but we have to budget for the whole thing. And then we'll have a receivable coming on the other side. And installation will come sometime probably in the October time frame once they arrive in the fiscal year 27 for the actual installation in the $80,000 range, we hope. Or Allison Hall will be asking for more money.

Thank you very much. So the university, they're going to reimburse us for these lights or all of the lights?

Yes, ma'am. 85% of the, so at the Yarbrough Tennis Complex, we have an indoor building and outdoor hard courts that the university tennis teams compete and practice at. We have a lease agreement through our public park and recreation board where they lease that from us it's one of the reasons we built extra on that complex and part of it is with maintenance and other things we have a cost sharing agreement we also secured you know a commitment from the university just in writing as we always do that they understood what this cost was and would be reimbursing us accordingly we do that for each and every one of these

Okay. Now, Megan, I heard you say something about the lighting over it.

Westview Park, not cemetery, which is lightly used. Yes, ma'am.

What type of lighting is that?

They're just regular lights that we currently have, Allison, correct? Or Kevin, you would say? yeah it's regular light it's just not switched to led we we are capable of doing that upgrade of our own accord we're able to get parts for them right now but when we do choose to switch them our staff is capable of replacing those fixtures instead of a full contract with the musco lighting system okay now this this might be a um it's a question for me to access i live in that ward and that is part of my ward how often is that

Do you know how often they use that area? Not very used. I never went over there. Somebody was over there.

You are correct. So in the email that I have from Allison Hall specific to some questions Councilman Griswold has states that. But it doesn't mean that it's not lit. It just means until we figure out if it's going to be used differently, we may not change these lights out right now because we're not having to do a ton of maintenance on them.

Okay. So do the school use that part? Do you know? They don't.

Okay. Yep. So in the budget... Mid-Biannium budget, when we get to that, we'll talk about some improvements that need to be made and continuing at the cemetery itself, but that's a separate topic as opposed to the park piece of it. Okay.

Anyone else? All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

Mr. Mayor, I'd also like to pull off another item that I missed earlier.

Okay. Please go right ahead.

8C6, please. All right.

8C6. 8C6. We'll go ahead and take that one. Thank you. Ms. City Manager.

Item 8C6 authorizes a contract with Wilson and Mazzola Architects for the Engineering Services Building Membrane Roof Replacement in the amount of $56,250. $56,250.

Mr. Griswold. Thank you. Yeah, this is a contract for professional services agreement. It's not a contract for actually fixing the roof. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Oh, okay. It seems like we have a trend on that kind of thing. We hire a company to analyze something and make recommendations and we have our, then we turn around and hire another company to actually do some work. Um, why don't we just hire a roofer for this? I mean, the roofer is going to give you a free estimate anyway, most likely, and tell you what needs to be done, not doesn't need to be done. And you find a very high quality roofer and just let them come in and do the job.

So quite a few things on this, this particular one, one, this is a flat roof basically. So it is seeing a ton more, we're getting leaks with the garbage cans in, people's offices right now that we're catching flat roofs don't have a great lifespan but in changes what it is is we've already had an analysis done that says the roof has problems and anecdotally in the engineering services building we're getting leaks on the regular the council has a choice here you don't have to approve this contract we can replace the roof as is if our building our own building inspections department will let us do that if we do that we will not get a warranty on the roof because it doesn't meet current international building code. And so one of our challenges is we have to design. We have problems around the parapet and skylight that don't meet current international building code standards in order to get that permitted. And I'm not sure, Dan, that inspection services says we can even permit it without changes.

We cannot. We need plans and specifications from an architect to receive a permit from our own inspection services department to replace that roof. There's structural modifications that have to be done. We need drawings and we need specifications from an architect to do those structural modifications in order to receive a warrantable roof.

Now, if we didn't want a warrantable roof, could we get a permit is the question?

No.

Okay.

So the previous analysis that determined we have leaks didn't accommodate the requirement for an architectural review. Did not satisfy that.

So the analysis that was performed is we reviewed the existing conditions of the roof, and we reviewed those conditions with the architect. And there are certain conditions of that roof, including the roof curbs that receive the skylights, that don't meet current building code. So we have to modify those roof curbs and the roof parapet in order to meet current building code so we can replace the roof. Otherwise, we cannot have a roofer install a new roofing system that's warrantable.

Well, okay. Is there a reason we don't put in the scope of work to bring the thing up to code from a roofer?

There are structural elements that require an architect's seal in order for us to be able to do that. So, in other words, we wouldn't bring this before you if we could have done it any other way. If we want to replace the roof on this building, we're going to have to get an architect involved because there are structural changes that need to be made. It's not something on the analysis, though, that was done previously. Dan, was that a consultant or was – who did the analysis?

Correct. That was done by our staff along with the architect.

And that was more than just this roof?

We reviewed the roof conditions with the architect. What architect? The architect that is on the agenda. So this is Wilson and Mazzola.

Okay. So I'm sorry again. Wilson and Mazzola have already – done an evaluation with an architect and made the recommendations for something?

They are the architect, so they will be.

Yeah, what I'm saying is when the roof analysis was done saying it needed to be replaced beyond the fact that we have active leaking that we're aware of in the building, did you do a separate analysis that was under a contract with this group?

No, no, ma'am.

So they came out and looked with us?

Correct. We have multiple leaks. Well, I don't have to have leaks. It has deteriorated.

I don't know why we have to hire somebody to tell us we have leaks. We do not. Okay. All right.

That part we knew, but it is complicated. But in 100% of our facilities, we have maintenance plans. We have other things that we're managing. What we can't do is have a full failure of a roof in a building that was replaced in the early 2000s or 2001. Yeah, so that's a 25-year-old roof. it's a flat roof and we don't like to build buildings like this but there was a time that that was the library when public safety moved into it then it got re-roofed and and that used to be public safety admin but it's our buildings it's part of a normal maintenance plan but we certainly wouldn't engage an architect if we could do this any other way um our first option is to always do the most cost-effective option how long we've been having problems with this roof so

These EPDM roofs, when they start to deteriorate, it's a rapid deterioration. We've had minor leaks here and there that we've been able to repair with our own staff. But that's accelerated over the last six months.

I know back when I worked up there 20-something years ago, it flooded my office. The whole roof collapsed, basically, in my office. And we should have had this fixed a long time ago, it sounded like to me.

We have patch kits, and we're able to patch rooftops, ABDM roofs. But it's beyond repair at this point. I agree. We need to replace it.

It's pretty bad, isn't it?

And this is different from, say, a person's personal business or personal home because we have added liability to the public for it not failing. Is that fair to say?

It's also this style of roof. It's different across the board, but a business that had the same roof wouldn't be able to get a permit either without going through this same situation. And when we replaced the roof on Dean road rec center, because we were also replacing the roof and needed to do that one makes a little more sense because we had to do structural loading due to HVAC. We had to engage an architect, but this one is different because we're not changing the roof other than we have to for international building code purposes with the skylights and the parapet among other things. Correct.

When this building was built, I presume it met international building codes all the time and since that time.

And we were on southern building code when it was built. Yeah. So, yep. And, you know, not our ideal situation, but here we are. It's got this building houses an entire department and, yeah. And just for your own knowledge, it's about $650,000 to replace the roof. Is that right?

That's a high-end estimate. That's the high end. That's the max. Yeah, final design documentation. There are certain elements of the skylights and other cost-saving measures that we can employ, but we're going to evaluate those through the design process.

But in part, it's because of the skylight changes and parapet changes structurally that the cost is so high. Yes, ma'am.

Any other questions? Comments? All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. One nay. All right. Motion carries. All right. Is there a motion to approve the balance of the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Motion is second. Any further questions, comments? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the consent agenda is approved. Ordinances.

Item 9A establishes a no parking zone in front of 206 and 208 Reese Avenue along with 211 Marion Circle. This item was postponed at the June 16th meeting. Today, the applicant withdrew their request for the portion of this that is along Marion Circle. A motion is needed.

I'll make the motion for denial.

You've got to move for approval and then vote against.

I'll introduce the ordinance and ask for unanimous consent. Second.

You already have unanimous consent. Just need a motion. So just move for approval.

Move for approval.

There you go.

All right. Do we have a second? Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. Discussion?

Yeah. I'd like to open that discussion a little bit. This is in Ward 6. And I understand that at the moment the no parking signage and striping is – due for some kind of review in the short term. And there was a couple of issues. On the Marion Circle side, there's about five or six residents there, one of whom doesn't have any off-street parking, so they park in the Circle. And the applicant, I know at At this point, apparently the applicant has asked that the Marion Circle portion of this no parking be taken away to allow parking where it's already been, and that's good to know. But also on the Rees side, There is, on the northern side of Rees Avenue, it's already established no parking, and I presume that's from the city ensuring that emergency vehicles have access through there, because Rees isn't the widest of streets. And reviewing the the diagram that we received in our packet, there is already a no parking zone from the south side of Rees at Gay Street to extending about 20 feet. So that's already been determined as a no parking zone. And I think the issue at this point in time is just a couple of parking spaces in front of the resident at 208 or 210 Rees. And I would like to move to deny this application at this point in time while the city staff review parking in general. So that would afford the applicant a time in the future to come back once I think there's some established consistency with our parking, signage and striping. Okay. So I'd like to make a motion to deny this applicant. Okay.

Second. So you have a move for approval because you have business on the table. You've had a second. If you move to a vote, those in favor of granting no parking vote, yes. Those against it, vote no. Thank you. I understand. And sorry for the confusion. You had first reading at the last meeting. That's why we just needed a motion. Not a problem. It's been three weeks. Yes. I would say also... Just for a light perspective, if the council is interested, we do have a newer city engineer. You know, he's six months or so into his role, and he has quite a lens on some changes that we need. And so to Councilman Parsons point, the city engineer would like the opportunity to review all of our policies relative to that and make. changes to those policies under your approval and direction um before we move forward with a ton of these because some things as we're getting a fresh look at it don't totally make sense to him either fair michael yes so we would like the opportunity to come back to you maybe um in in september or so when we've had some time or early october with some changes thank you appreciate it

All right, we have a motion and a second to deny.

No. My bad.

We don't make negative motions. Planning Commission does. This body does not. It's always motion to approve. If you're in favor of this agenda item, you vote yes. If you're not in favor of it, you vote no.

All right, is this a roll call?

Yes.

Just make it a roll call, yes.

Just make it a roll call.

Any further discussion?

Any further discussion, yes. Anybody else? Okay. All right. All right. So if you vote yes, you're supporting denying, correct?

No. I'm confused too. This item is for you to vote up or down. If you are in favor of no parking as requested, you vote yes. If you are not in favor of it, you vote no.

Okay. We'll work that out. Thank you, Bob. Tommy's going to take back everything he said about you tonight. All right, Lindsey with the roll call.

Dawson.

No, ma'am.

Griswold.

No, ma'am.

Foreman.

No, ma'am.

Parsons. No. Taylor. No. No. Adams. No. Koblenz.

No, ma'am.

No, I think. No. All right, resolutions.

Item 10A1 is a request for conditional use approval of a performance residential use, a multiple unit development located at 1256 Shug Jordan Parkway in the Redevelopment District Zoning District. This project is known as 1256 Shug Jordan Residential. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of this request at its June 11th meeting. A public hearing is required.

Move for approval. Second.

Motion to second. This time we'll open the public hearing. If you'd like to address the city council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record. And you have five minutes to speak to the council.

Good evening. Good evening. Lee Thorpe, cadre engineer and represent an applicant. Just wanted to stand up later by know that myself applicants also here. If you have any specific questions about the development, but This is kind of a continuation of, um, I don't want to call it a phase cause they're not necessarily related, but they're kind of sticking to this general area over here, um, near the jet Avenue Richland road kind of area. So excited about the project. I'm excited about what's been done to this point. So if y'all have any questions, please let me know. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay. We'll close the public here. Comments questions from the dice.

Yes, I would like to just know from the I guess the developer or Whoever the project this is I noticed mr. Palmer and if they just just I'll just give a little Overview of what this gonna look like.

Mr. Palmer, would you please come forward?

Only name and address for the record even though it's just a question. Just so we're tracking I

Yep, yep, yep. Andrew Palmer, 118 Cecil Lane. I believe we have a picture to show.

We do not have anything queued up.

Oh, goodness. We're going to be here for a long time. It's in your packets. I'll take it from the ground up. It'll be a mix of townhomes, cottages, overlooking a courtyard, very similar to what we did on Judd Avenue. So it's a... It will be beautiful, I promise.

How many?

Twelve total units.

Okay. So now this property is the one, and I'm just doing this for clarification and so that people know. I'm not against it or anything like that. But I would just, it's right across from that church, right? The property that sits on the hill. And right now there's a house sitting there, a brick home sitting there. Okay. So, um, I sort of kind of know that community from, you know, just growing up and being a child during that time. And it sits on a hill. So that's, I guess that's the concern. I don't know how much property is behind the front of the house that, that you're inquiring or acquiring. Um, So, I mean, is the house going more on, I mean, the apartments or the complexes or whatever you're doing on Alberta? Is it going more toward that way?

So, it'll be spread over the entire parcel. This parcel goes from Richland all the way back to Alberta. Judd, and then to our neighbor, and we will have a couple of cottages along Alberta, and then we'll have a parking area, and then moving towards Richland, we'll have another eight town homes over a middle green space, a courtyard.

Okay, so, and I guess, Mr. Palmer, my main concern, and you probably already worked it out, That's a really steep hill. Are y'all going to put some type of...

It's a great question. And unfortunately, over my tenure as a developer here in Auburn, I've had to take a lot of people's remnants. And so we've had to be creative in what we've developed. along alberta we plan about a six or seven foot retaining wall um along richland we are going to cut the dirt down about three or four feet to work on as balancing the pro the site as much as possible and then along the green space with the town homes we're going to stair step those foundations down so we're probably looking at an overall elevation overcome of 13 feet, which I believe Lee's a smart one. He's the engineer. He can, he can go into specifics, but that's about the elevation change that we're having to deal with. But overall it's going to be, it's going to be really nice.

Okay.

Really nice.

Okay. So you saying, um, okay, I'm going to see a long shoot Jordan. That's what I'm talking about. Okay. Right there. So,

What will it look like?

Yeah, I'm just trying to.

Yeah, so from your perspective, if you're on Richland looking at our development, you'll see the sides of two townhomes. They're going to be really nice. We're going to put some shed dormers with a bunch of windows. They'll present themselves really nice to show. It's very similar to the townhome that we have being built now. Prayerful everybody thinks it's beautiful. We can talk about it later. But we'll have two of those facing Shug, and then in between them you'll have this green space. I think it's about 42 feet wide from building to building. So we're really trying to facilitate our tenants and owners through fellowship, getting out and meeting each other in that green space area.

Okay, so parking would be?

Further back. Exactly. In between the cottages and units on Alberta and the townhomes and green space, there'll be a parking in between that. So we're trying to hide the parking from all the roads.

So you'll actually come in and go down Alberta, and that's where you'll come into the complex? Is that not right?

We'll enter off of Judd.

Off of Judd?

Closer to Alberta. It's down below your hand.

Right here. The next drawing over, next page.

Oh, here.

There you go. What is it? That's just showing the current lot.

Oh, okay, okay.

So that drawing will show you off of Judd Avenue where the driveway is.

Okay.

Okay, I understand. We said he can make the entrance work. I'm going to believe in him.

Okay, okay. So the back of the homes are actually facing Shug Joy.

The sides will face Shug.

Oh, the size. Okay. Okay.

Okay. And then the rears will face Judd, but I've got one of the best designers in the business. So he's going to make the rears of these along Judd appear to be as they, as if they were fronts. And then there, there will be sides on Alberta, but we're going to do, do something nice with that architecture.

Okay. And I just got one other question and I know, uh, uh, The people in that area, and I've talked to a couple of them, are they familiar with this and they have no problem with the development or nobody came to you and had any concerns or anything?

I have not had any concerns or questions. And Pastor Griggs and I talk frequently. I was texting him last night. He's excited about it. Okay. He's excited. Okay.

And I understand Pastor Griggs, and he's just the minister or the pastor of the church. But I was just talking about some of the people who actually live there. Pastor Griggs don't actually live in it. And I know his church is there, and he could pastor there for the next year or six months and be gone. So I'm just wondering. But I did talk to some of the neighbors there. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to all of them. And so as I can see right now, none of the neighbors have. And it concerns because the houses are, you know, you're building in that area. And so it's, and I'm glad you're doing something that's maybe not really, you can't say where students are going to move, but it's not just really catered to students. That's right. Okay.

Any other questions for Mr. Palmer while he's standing up here? Yes, Mr. Griswold.

Yes, anything.

Good to see you. The two properties that are directly to the I guess that'll be the the east One of them faces Judd and the other one faces Alberta looks like are those single-family homes Yes, I believe so And those are adjacent properties that would have received public notice is that correct yeah joining property owners correct and And you got no replies, no objections from them?

The sign would have been up on the property as well. Okay.

And during our first phase, the Judd Cottages, Mr. and Mrs. Moore, who live on Alberta, we know it should be named Moore Avenue instead of Alberta, with the three family members that live there, we met every... every owner tenant in in that entire area and Spoke with them almost on a daily basis and mr. And mrs. Moore would drive by and they were they said it was it was really nice. So We've we've had a good relationship with our neighbors in the area. I

And those were the neighbors that I was concerned with because they are down in there.

And Eric just emailed me a rendering. Can you put it up on the bigger screens, Greg?

Oh, okay. This is what it looked like.

So the entrance into the parking lot is from Judd, and that's where Mr. Palmer was telling you they'll address both sides where the buildings don't have a back of house that looks like the back. They both kind of look like the front.

So Suge will be over here.

Suge will be on the top, yep.

The vacant property immediately to the north. Do you have any idea what's going on there? I assume it's vacant.

On the map, it's vacant. A lot of title issues. I had title ran on it, and it's pretty bad.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Palmer.

And thank you, Mr. Palmer, for wanting to actually – you know, make that area in now look good and feasible for everybody that lives there. So I appreciate all the work that you've already done. And I, and I go through there and I, it, it looks really nice. Well, thank you so much. Thank you.

Yeah. All right. Any other comments, questions?

These are two very, it was a very nice project to compliment what Mr. Palmer has done across the street. So certainly agree.

All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries.

Item 10A2 is a request for conditional use approval of a commercial entertainment use, a condo tell for property located at 211 South Gay Street in the Urban Core Zoning District. The project is known as the Collegiate Condo Tell. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this project by a vote of 8 to 1 at its June 11th meeting. This item was postponed at the June 16th meeting. A public hearing was held. The council did have a motion. Already. And you also decided that you would set another public hearing for this evening. So motion will not be needed, but at your discretion, open another public hearing and then discuss.

Okay. All right.

Or ask questions prior to opening the public hearing.

I'd like to ask a few questions or go ahead and go into the public hearing. Go ahead and go to the public hearing. Okay.

All right. We'll open the public here. If you'd like to address the council about this, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record.

And you have five minutes to speak to the council.

Hi, I'm Taylor Buckner, 2670 Danbury Drive. I am actually here representing the worst. Sorry. They're currently in Europe. So although I'm not the applicant, I'm here to try to help answer any questions I can, okay?

Thank you, Taylor. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. They told us they would be out of town. Anyone else like to speak at the public hearing? Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Comments or questions from the council?

Parking has been the big issue. Are we comfortable that parking, although maybe not in written form yet, will be put in written form and satisfy the city's criteria?

There's two components. So one of which is the collegiate hotel as it currently sits relies on some of its required parking on this parcel. So you postponed why that gave us the ability to. um, to meet with the worst and, and their team of people and get that worked out. I'll have the planning director speak to it while we, we don't have ultimately he is, is the arbiter of that. Why we don't have finalized documents at the moment. They have adequately demonstrated and he'll weigh in that they are capable of providing parking for the collegiate hotel. Why this condo hotel would be under construction.

Uh, That is correct. And so the parking is twofold. So there is the parking of the existing Coho that relies on this property, and then there's the parking of the condo hotel that's kind of yet to be decided. So what needed to be determined tonight was the parking for the existing Coho hotel for Coho. So we met with them, talked with them, they proposed the locations. And so when we got the locations and the proposed lease agreements, we checked with the... We checked the uses of those proposed businesses and the locations, verified just kind of the number of staff, standing staff that they have, parking spaces that they use, and extra parking spaces that they have that they can lease. And then also we checked the... I guess the availability of those on a daily basis. So staff has done a thorough check just kind of about the legality of them actually leasing it if they were over parked or under parked, and then also just kind of the availability of those spaces just kind of with the frequency of the frequency and the number of staff that they had in those proposed lease spaces. And so they're also in proximity of the coho. And so it was no concern to staff about satisfying the parking requirement for the existing collegiate hotel for the condo total be approved.

And I would say this is those lease agreements would, of course, not be finalized because it's pending your approval and their decision to proceed with a project. But they have adequately demonstrated that they're capable of leasing parking elsewhere. And they went to great lengths to provide documentation of the satisfaction of the staff. For the condo tell, though, just as mentioned, you're not dealing with that tonight. It does have a parking requirement, and they will have to demonstrate as such that they can meet that should they want to finalize a development review team approval if you approve this conditional use. Final for that or any building permitting or anything would be predicated on adequate demonstration of parking for the condotel itself. So two separate parking issues. One was delaying your decision three weeks ago when we had a meeting, and one has to be also then addressed. They both ultimately have to be addressed before they would proceed with a condotel project, should you allow it to proceed.

The condotel parking will be decided ultimately by the planning director. Is it his discretion?

Well, it is. It is, but they've got to demonstrate to his satisfaction that they meet the parking requirements somewhere per the zoning ordinance.

Yeah, that is correct. I mean, they have submitted their plans for what their parking arrangement is, and I think that's something that I've been very candid with them about, that that's going to be under review. It came up in discussion at the planning commission meeting about kind of – The nature of the customers, how many people come down, cars, all those things, those are active discussions that I've been candid with the worst about that we're still in the process of working through that.

Thank you. Yes, sir. So the proposed places for the customers of either Coho or the Con Hotel to park, They're going to lease something somewhere. Are you looking at the impact of where that somewhere is to see if they still satisfy their parking requirements?

Yes, yes, and so that was the main thing. Some of these have a litany of uses, gathering spaces, professional services offices and those things, and so they still had an excess parking space of about 50, and I think of those, they were only leasing about nine to the worst in that regard. And so, like I said, we called those businesses that they were leasing from to verify number of employees, how many people are there and kind of what days they are there and how many standing free parking spaces that they have. That was something that staff checked, sat down with the words and talked about it and got an understanding, so yes.

So there's not a domino effect there where the next parcel over is going to have a problem and then they're going to have, you know, like that.

No, if that had been the case, we would not have accepted it.

Kelly, I think it's important what you're getting at is that you can't make anything else nonconforming as to parking because of it. The interesting notion here is a lot of the property involved is in the proximity, within a certain proximity in the urban core, which rarely requires parking for any of those uses. But Justice was taking it a little bit further and saying, what are you using for your employees and other things? And to his satisfaction, verifying that they have adequate spaces to lease to the worst should they want to execute an agreement.

All right. The other question I had is, once again, on building height. The plan or the documentation says from the highest point on grade, we're looking at an 82-feet, 9-inch structure, plus an additional up to 6 feet for the parapet.

Am I reading that correctly? No, no. The 82-9 would be including the parapet. And it's including the parapet and the stair and elevator overrun enclosures.

Yeah, and then also that's the ground floor too, like the bottom basement.

No, with the bottom it makes it taller. That's on the back side. So the way height is measured in the zoning ordinance in the urban core is you take the highest point on grade on the site and you measure 75 feet from there for the height of the building. You can have additional height for a parapet, but in this instance we have a stair and elevator enclosure that protrudes above that gets an additional allowance. So the building height itself, as the zoning ordinance defines it, is below 75 feet, but you get extra things for parapet and or stair and elevator enclosures that make it taller. From the backside, it is even taller because the grade of the property changes, so it has a basement floor, in essence, on the backside of the property or the east side of the property that would make it a little bit taller.

Yeah, okay. All right, thank you.

Questions? Comments? This should be height-wise, this should be fairly comparable with what is being built across the street.

That is correct.

It's fairly comparable. I don't know if we've compared the grades of the two sites from a starting point.

No, no, no, no, no. The grades are totally different. So there's 15 feet of fall from the Gay Street side to the back of the property for the proposed condo.

But for the East Thatch Residence Hall is what he's referring to. I don't know what its starting grade is, but the building is similar in height. It's in the 70-plus foot range. Okay. And culinary is taller than that by a long shot.

Yes, quite a bit. So technically this is going to be compliant with the height limits. Yes. Technically. Even though from the lowest point it's going to be like 93 feet or so in that back corner. Yes. 90 plus feet or something. Right, but we do not measure from the. I know you don't. That's why I said technically you're in compliance. I just don't think from the. Our original intent was to do that, but certainly you're okay with that. And I really wanna recognize the contributions to the applicants, what they've done for downtown with the hotel and the restaurant and everything. It's very inspirational, but it's very difficult to vote against something because of that that I can't in good conscience vote for it either. Those are the height concerns.

Okay. Anyone else have a comment?

To clarify the height concern, it is not exceeding our own ordinance.

No, it's not. And there was a lot of discussion by Planning Commission and City Council about those at the time those were proposed. The 191 college project is what brought forth the stair and elevator discussion and the additional height there. And so it's part of the structure height definition in the zoning ordinance adopted by both bodies.

I plan to support this. I think it's going to be a beautiful building. They went to great lengths, I think, to make it aesthetically pleasing. But curiosity's sake, how does it compare to the collegiate height?

Collegiate height is in the – it's a three-story building from the front and a four-story building from the back, and it's in the 47-foot or so range. It's going to be taller. Ignore, you know, that includes they've got some structures on the roof for stair and elevator enclosures, but that was, I looked it up this afternoon, it's something like, don't quote me exactly, like 47 feet to the roof stair overrun. So remember the dormers were removed and the roof was flattened.

Yeah. Any other comments, questions, thoughts?

All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye.

All opposed, please say nay.

Abstain. Okay. All right. 10B.

Item 10B is sense to the vacation of various easements and right-of-way at the terminus of Cherokee Road and further authorizes the mayor and city manager to execute a quick claim deed relinquishing the properties to Broadview Properties FLP. A public hearing is required.

Move for approval.

Second. Motion is second. This time I'll open the public hearing. If you'd like to address the council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record, and you have five minutes to speak to the council. Okay, seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing. Any comments or questions from the council?

I would like to try to summarize the issue because I'm a little confused on it. I just want to make sure that I understand it. What I believe is that... the developer is asking the city of Auburn to vacate certain right-of-ways and easements because objectively they're not in the right place for his project. And then later on he intends to present those easements back to the city because there will be different easements. There will be different places to facilitate the utilities involved. Correct. So that, in a nutshell, I think is what we're voting on.

You're likely to see that at the next meeting, I believe. And we would like to have it together. And it's an internal discussion we have that normally we prefer these come together. So without certain things happening, it doesn't mean we fully execute all documents. We get your approval to make sure you're going to approve that. And then we execute it once, all the documents, so we don't give it up before we receive it. But it really is a switching, and I'll remind you that this is being done in part because the original request was for townhomes. That request was not granted, so this is for single-family detached homes is what they're building in there. And so part of that caused all these easement and rights-of-way changes and also a road not connecting through the property as well. It's ending in a cul-de-sac. Your summary is very accurate, Council Member.

And I'm very pleased with the changes that the developer has made to accommodate the neighborhood.

Any other questions? Okay, we've got a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, motion carries.

Item 10 C authorizes the city manager to begin the business license revocation process in accordance with city code section 12 dash four to restrict wildcat investments, LLC doing business as Jimmy John's located at one to six North college street from continuing business operations in the city of Auburn until all delinquent license fees and taxes are remitted.

Move for approval.

I have a motion and second comments, questions from the council.

I was sure hoping we wouldn't see this one.

Is there no... No, sir, we've received no payment to date. Last year you went through this exercise. We got all the way up to the agenda day and we received payment at this time.

Ms. Crouch, that wasn't the first time. I mean, this has been a repetitive situation, correct? Correct.

In the memo in your packets, it's been a repetitive situation, and often when we get... to to the edge of things to get paid in this instance we have not on the request before you would be to set a hearing if you would not be revoking business license in the moment you would be setting a hearing not sooner than 10 days from this meeting you don't have to set the date tonight if you're inclined to approve this we would set the date not sooner than 10 days once i have a chance to check with everybody in their schedule the applicant also lives out of state and we'll need to try we do have a difficult time getting a hold of this applicant directly or business owner their local management is extremely cooperative but they are not the decision makers

but they have not remitted their sales tax for, looks like, almost a year?

Yes, since we went through this exercise last year. Got current in the moment and then quit remitting again. Also means not to this business but any business when you're not remitting, you're collecting sales taxes that you charge your customers that are really the taxpayer money that has been collected by you and not remitted to us to spend toward things for our citizens. So, yeah, whatever sales taxes have been collected. But there is no business license renewal that happened, and then there have been no taxes remitted.

lots of other sandwich shops and restaurants that are, that do remit their guests. Absolutely.

This is not something that we want to bring forward to you. And we make every effort to get this resolved before it gets to this point, but we're at this point again.

Yeah. I'm like Sonny. I thought we would, we would get this taken care of before we got to this point here tonight. But, uh, I know the staff has been trying to reach, um, this owner and, uh, As Tyler said, in fairness to everybody that does remit their sales taxes, allowing this to continue on is not fair to other businesses in our town. All right. Any other comments?

The hearing, is that a hearing before the council? Yes. Okay. So you're going to have that within 10 days.

No, it's not sooner than 10 days. We have a larger window. Yes, sir. So we have a larger window to set that. So the plan would be if you're inclined to approve this, you're directing me to get a hearing set, which means I will check your schedules and offer dates to the business owner should we be able to reach them. The hearing then gives them the opportunity to tell you why they haven't been able to pay, and then you would make a decision.

And if they choose to pay during this period between tonight and the hearing, then what?

I don't know if Mr. Clark has anything to add. I mean, they would become current, but our municipal attorney will add.

Correct. If they become compliant before the hearing date, the hearing would be canceled and the action would be nullified by the council tonight if you're inclined to approve this. Okay.

So this is the fifth year in a row they've come up to the deadline and then paid at the last second.

It's the fifth year that we've documented for you in this memo. Let me put it that way.

Okay. Thank you.

they are having to pay like penalties and interest. So should they, should they choose to pay?

And again, I want to be very careful here because there's local employees who work very hard every day and are do everything they can to work with us, but that's not under their purview.

Sure. Okay. Any other comments? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

All right. Item 10D1 authorizes Amendment Number 12 to a contract with Foresight Group LLC for the Boykin-Donahue Campus Project in the amount of $13,300. Move for approval.

Second. Motion second. Any comments, questions? Yes.

Okay. 10D1 and 10D2. are both amendments to existing contracts where we've expended the contract value and all money set aside for contingencies that we previously voted for.

Correct.

Can you give us a rundown as to how these additional expenses came to be? Absolutely.

It's very unusual that we're before you this evening exceeding a contingency on a contract and not something we like to do. I'm going to have Keith Williams, our Executive Director of Public Services, walk you through why we are here where we're here. But I can tell you our biggest challenge right now is this contract is behind schedule. Um, and being behind schedule causes us to run out of funds for other, um, other purposes within the contract. And I'll have Keith address and give you an overview and then feel free to ask questions.

Thank you. Thank you. City manager, uh, counseling Griswold. When this project was award, the Boykin Donahue campus project was awarded October 1st, 2024. It had a contractual expiration date or completion date of May 25th, 2026. That was the amount of time allotted and agreed upon by the general contractor who won the bid to complete the project. Through the course of construction, the city and the contractor have agreed to extend that. That was extended to June 22nd, mutually, and that was the end of the contract completion date for construction of the project. As we're all aware, June 22nd is now in the rear view mirror. That project is not complete. It remains under construction. As a result, we have exhausted the contingency amounts for some of our professional services that assist us in completing this project. Foresight Engineering is the civil engineer on the project. HPM, Reward Program Management, is the program manager on the project. They are currently, through the contingency, able to work with us through July 31st. We currently believe that this project will be completed sometime in the early fall, so we're here before you to request an extension of those services to keep them available to us to complete this project through. Right now it would be through October 31st, but through any early finish by the contractor before that, we would be credited back a portion of what we're asking you for right now from those professional services.

Mr. Williams, what would you estimate the percentage completion to be on the project as of right now?

We are looking at probably about 85% complete. We track closely the amount of work that the contractor completes each month, largely through the amount of expenditure that they have. You can only burn through so much money every month, which is where we've come to the expectation that we think we'll see this project completed in the early fall.

In our program management, they would obviously agree with us.

Yes, we've worked closely with them. They've been a tremendous asset for us through this. Okay.

Under the current contract that you have with them that we agreed upon, I guess for it to be completed a couple of months ago, is that what it was?

June 22nd was the last agreed upon contract completion date between the city and the general contractor constructing the project.

So what was the reason? Was there a reason that it was not completed?

Yeah, so Connie, you know, we build language into our contracts for capital projects that protects our taxpayers. And if a project's not completed on time and there's a lot of things we've been working closely with the city attorney's office on. So to activate those. And so we get to a point for legal reasons and our legal counsel is here that we can't discuss further. in this meeting, but happy to meet with any of you behind the scenes because we have a legal situation that is brewing. I do want to be clear that the contractor is performing quality work. This is about timing. They have exhausted days, and we are in a contractual situation at the moment where we need to extend some of our consultants, say, for Foresight Group. They need to put their professional engineer seal on the completion of some things that say that these were built according to plans, and we've got to extend those, but there's other mechanisms that we're working on contractually behind the scenes. Okay.

And today, let's see, when did we sign the original contract? About two years ago now?

Keith, go ahead.

The original contract was from October 1st, 2024. So it's been two years and we're 85% complete and beyond the schedule by a while.

All right. We are, as we sit right now, a couple of weeks beyond schedule. Just a couple of weeks. Yeah, we're just a couple of weeks. June 22nd is the in-print contract completion date for this project.

So I'll remind you, it's a calendar day contract, and things like major rain events, delays in review of something, or some issue with a specification, those give the contractor time, and they should. So there's a June 22nd date that was... clarify we also had an issue for a while and in donahue um there's water that goes water runs under the road we'll leave it at that little stream little spring that goes to our recycling complex that is new over there some some changes the reason we've exhausted in part foresight no No doing of anybody, but Foresight had to step in and engineer some things for us in our contingency based on when we opened areas up, we found problems that were unknown at the time of the contract. Those things caused various and sundry changes contractually, but in the moment, we need both of these two particular consultants to stay in with us until the end. We may not need to spend this money if the contract finishes sooner, but we've exhausted, to your point, all contingencies and everything, and that's why we have to come back before you.

So the contingency money for these two contracts, or no, I'm sorry, for the original construction... Construction itself is fine, and I should clarify that.

So we're in budget on the construction project itself. These are consultants that do certain things for us that once we have exhausted all of our funds with them past July 31st, and we need your permission to extend those contracts through the life of the...

The contingency money that they've spent to date is on the two consultant contracts.

Within their contracts, Keith, correct?

That is correct. The contingency being spent is contingency that was provided on the contract for those professional consultants. Not the project. Not the overall project contingency. Okay. It is their contract, Forsyth's contract, and HPM's contract, the contingency of those. Okay.

So we need to extend this to no fault of their own at this point. That's basically it. That is correct. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Any other comments, questions? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item 10D2 authorizes Amendment No. 3 to a contract with Horror Program Management, LSC, for the Boykin Donahue Campus Project in the amount of $135,600. Move for approval. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Anyone like to have a comment or question on this? I know we kind of walked through this.

That's the same thing. Yes, ma'am. It's different companies.

Is it okay to ask the question if anything has changed as far as what we plan to do based on any of the items tonight? Everything that we were going to accomplish?

No, the project itself. Go ahead, Keith.

The scope of the project and the deliverable remains the same as what you approved.

That's why I also wanted to say that the general contractor working on site is building what they're supposed to be building. There have not been issues with that. We're just purely in a timing issue right now.

Are there penalties involved for the general contractor?

In all of our contracts, there are protections written in that include penalties, and those things can be invoked if needed.

For overruns as well?

For delays, yes. The contractual nature of all of our public works style building projects, road projects, et cetera, all have those things built in as a protection to our taxpayers.

Any other questions? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Okay, we're switching gears to a different project because we're involving the same two firms, but different project, new project. Item 10D3 authorizes a contract with Foresight Group LLC for design, permitting, bidding, and construction administration for the Richland Park project, which is a $40 million construction project. This design amount for Foresight Group is $2.4 million. Okay.

Move for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Comments, questions?

Mr. Mayor, I have a question on the project costs for Richland Park in general, in our CIP. Ms. Crouch, can you give us an idea of what that total project cost is going to be? Is this included as part of that overall cost of the project?

So we put in $4 million for design and construction administration. This and the next item, 10D4, slightly exceed that because you're at really – $4.642 million, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but we had $4 million in for that, and we have $40 million separate for the construction. We may be to you at mid-biennium to ask for a slight adjustment to the design contract. That is yet to be determined. We're working on that, and you won't see mid-biennium things until... Geez, about a month and a half to two months from now. And so we're still working through that internally. But this is expected to be a $40 million construction. And in the CIP, we have two different line items for the vast majority of our projects for design and construction management versus the capital cost of the project itself so that you guys can clearly see the difference.

And the, and the reason for the question is oftentimes we see multiple items associated with one project and oftentimes they span multiple years, uh, maybe in the CIP or preparing for the project itself. So just want to know comprehensively what we're spending on the project to keep that. that number out in front of them.

That's correct. So on this particular one, because I was looking at it today, it's page two 99 in the, in the budget actually is a project page. It also refers to a $40,000 cost that we had in a previous year. So it's really total, total budgeted was, you know, 40 million for construction, you know, 4 million for design and construction administration. And we had a rogue $40,000 we spent in a previous fiscal year on preliminary master plan layouts and so on. Not uncommon. What we're trying to do, though, is gather for you and our citizens and anybody who wants to know at all times the total all-in costs. So this also would include in the budget. These are baseball fields. So that is the batting cages, the backstops, the furnishings in the buildings. This should be an all-in number, but we will keep you updated. And it's very important to us that everybody know the total all-in costs, regardless of the current budget period that we're in.

The design that we see in the project and the packet now is...

So what they're designing to is what you see. That is this phase. There is more to go, meaning it's not shown on the master. There's potential for other recreational needs to be serviced on this property, but right now what's in this packet is the master plan, which is the baseball, softball fields, associated restrooms, equipment buildings, walking trails, parking lots. Keith, am I missing anything?

No, ma'am, you're entirely correct. And just for reference, the total parcel size you see before you is in the neighborhood of around 128 acres, and the work being proposed with this is in the neighborhood of about 50 acres. So there's remaining acreage, and that was shown to you all when the concept plan was completed about potential future additions at different phases.

And there are two key things about this property. It's beautiful property, but it is very sloped and it tends to have a lot of rock on it. So you'll see in the foresight contract some things for soil borings and other things. There's a lot of subsurface investigation we have to do and we will have to move a lot of dirt around on this site to balance it out in order to do what we need to do and we don't know. exactly all the rock we're dealing with just yet.

You beat me to my next question. The site itself, assuming foresight itself, has got some expertise in dealing with obviously what we're going to have to move around.

That's why they're in on this contract. They did the Parks and Recreation Cultural Master Plan, but this one in particular was a heavy civil job. They do have tremendous recreation experience, but it's a heavy civil engineering job in terms of what we're dealing with on getting the site ready to go. The schools are dealing with the very same thing. We purchased this from Auburn City Schools, but they're dealing with the very same thing on the new junior high construction behind it. Right. Thank you.

Questions? Anybody else?

Me again. So between this one and the next one, we're going to spend $4.6 million just on professional services before we even – put a shovel in the ground for the $44 million project.

No, we won't spend all of that up front. So you have design, you have bidding documents, permitting documents, and construction management for both entities are in there. Core program management will be much less front-end loaded and much more back-end loaded. They will, during design, be looking at value engineering, making sure for constructability, doing... pricing exercises for us, but they deal with the construction management and foresight group will spend a lot of design money up front. And then on the back end is they will have to do construction management and sign off on a number of things. So this money will be spent throughout the duration of the project, not all of it up front.

We pay horror program management as a percentage of completion of the project is done. We kind of keep in line with that percentage of the completion of how much that contract is paid, roughly. Is that how we?

Actually, horror program management provides us effectively a billing table based on the staffing and effort they put toward during different phases. Like Megan mentioned, what they're doing during design phase, what they're doing during bidding them, what they're doing during construction are different. So the tiers at which they build will change through the process. But she is correct that these costs are all in for both of these consultants to the completion of the project, estimated 32 months' time for each consultant, and will get us through the completion of the project. Right. Thank you.

Yeah, and you're right. Customarily for design contracts, it's percentage along the way. Right.

Okay.

These just track a little differently for HPM. Okay.

So the design contract, the 4.6 million between this item and the next one, that reflects your percentage of the overall project?

Yeah, the standard relative to professional services for a construction project is about 10% for your design, not program management. So we're actually, the proposal from Foresight is actually very economical relative to this project, likely because it's a little heavier on the civil side and less on the architecture and construction side. When you put HPM in there, we're just a little over 10%. That puts you very much in line, especially if you want to have program management for the entire duration of the project. Remind you, for the Boykin-Donahue, we only had HPM present for the construction period. It's very important in this case to have them there as well for design and bidding.

This means that HPM's on site all day, every day, and our staff member, our project manager, communicates with them, but they're not out there all day, every day. They're out there at times.

Mm-hmm. And this is a 32-month, I'm reading in here, a 32-month process from now until completion?

It would be from the notice proceed, so shortly thereafter from now, it would be 32 months, yes ma'am.

Well, it's much needed on the north side, right Tommy?

There you go, yeah. I'm sorry, could you please explain one more time what the difference between the four site groups contribution is and the whore program management contribution. But it sounds like you're doing very similar things during, you know, management support during design, bid and construction. And this one is for professional services and deliverables for design permitting bidding and construction. So Who's doing what and why are we hiring two different companies?

They're distinctly different. Foresight will be the engineer and under them the architect of record for the project. They will produce the design and then they will be there to provide construction administration just like any licensed professional architect or engineer would to make sure what's being built is in conformance with the plans they produce. Poor program management is to assist really the city side in managing and make sure the project is done efficiently. That, uh, we look for opportunities for, uh, cost savings that they check for eight particular, uh, potential errors and emissions through the process. And to be the eyes and the ears on the site, when you have 50 acres of work going on and everything, one project manager for the city cannot keep an eye on everything that is occurring. We've seen that on a site a fraction of that size over at Boykin Donahue, where having a construction trailer with Hoare Program Management there in place has allowed us, in fact, they keep a log, we have had effectively about a million dollars in savings from their presence there over the course of the Boykin Donahue project, of what they've been able to find and identify and assist with. So their opportunity is, Hoare is closely related to their sister company, which is a general contractor, They will be able, through the bidding for the design, they'll be able to look at Forsyth's design and talk about the constructability of it and look for efficiencies in that so that by the time we bid it, we actually get to maximize the taxpayer dollars to get the most product out of it.

This is what the university, on the vast majority of their projects, uses program managers. Same. We're also trying to speed up our deliverables and timing for things. We have capital dollars that are budgeted that are hard to get spent, and we're trying to spend it to deliver what our citizens are expecting.

So in theory, the construction management piece should pay for itself. I mean, the thought is that it will provide us savings throughout the construction process and help the construction process go smoothly, efficiently, and hopefully finish on time.

That is very much the general forensic evidence that Hoare and other ones like them put forth about the savings you get when they are there with you hand-in-hand through a project, yes.

And when we use these companies, we... When the project is complete, we have a report that we can look back on where they identify. We can see the savings that have been captured through the service. So we can look back at these agreements and speak with your team and determine whether or not there's actually value there.

Correct. I think if you were to speak to our team, they'd very much like to participate in telling how valuable Hoare has been through the process with Boykin Donahue and how important it is to have them with this project of this magnitude.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see it as a protection of taxpayer dollars in a lot of ways to making sure that we've got a third party that's not associated with the contractor looking at what the project is and making sure that it is being delivered in the way that it needs to be delivered. Also, finding a way to value engineer these projects, possibly to save money. It's an outside party. We do this a lot in the banking industry. We have bank inspectors that are professionals within the industry that are going to look at a project and make sure that it's being delivered in the way that it's supposed to be delivered per the plans. Cause I'm not a contractor and I can't understand it. We do have a lot of engineers and contractors that can, but I think this is a really, for me, it's, I think it's valuable for our taxpayers that we're delivering a valuable project and on time and doing the things that we need to be doing to, you know, to save money where we can. Okay.

Anyone else? All right, we've got a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

Item 10D4 authorizes a contract with Horror Program Management, LLC for professional services related to management support during design, bid, and construction phases of the Richland Park project in the amount of $2,242,000. Move for approval. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further comments, questions?

In discussions with the city manager... it was explained to me that this will allow us to, uh, to reach a timetable that we can, um, determine when the start date and the stop date is more accurately.

I mean, on we're on the, uh, whore program management item.

Oh gosh, we're still on four. One ahead. Sorry.

Just say that. All right. Anything else on number four? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. Now, number five.

Item 10D5 authorizes a contract with Hazen and Sawyer for the Town Creek Sewer Basin Sanitary Sewer Evaluation Survey Phase 2 in the amount of $248,000. Move for approval.

Second. Motion is second. You want to go first, Sunny?

Actually, you're referring to an item on the consent agenda that is also about the Gay Street Bridge. That is correct. And that one that you already adopted has to do, there's two items involving Town Creek, which would be confusing. That one will better inform a schedule because you're asking about detours when Gay Street has to be closed. That will better inform that work that's giving us information to finalize the design of that replacement. So, but both of them had to do with town Creek, but Matt Dunn is sitting here and this one is not a timing issue or a closure situation for any reason. Correct. Yeah. Just our regular sewer testing that we need to do.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

All right, mayor. Those are all the items of business we have for you this evening. Okay.

This time we'll open the citizens open forum. If you'd like to speak to the city council about anything,

You have three minutes to do that, and we'd ask that you come forward and give us your name and address for the record, and please address your comments to the City Council.

Yes, sir.

Good evening.

1927 Watercress Drive. I'm tired. It's past my bedtime. I wrote down my notes. I've got five things I wanted to brag to you all about. It's pretty apparent. It's pretty apparent that you weave in a pride element with everything that you do. And these are just some of the things that I've been noticing and noticed. The Veterans Memorial Corner, by the way, I just love how that looks, how it feels, and so forth. The landscaping and the fencing and so forth, it just lends credence and Just a real nice feel for its purpose. The Frank Brown Rec Center. I stopped by there the other day and went in to say hello to Houston. And I just walked back. He was on the phone. So I just walked into the gym. It's immaculate. The floor is immaculate. I thought of this 30 years ago when we coached those kids, Coach Ron and Coach Steve. But it looks better now than it did then. I mean, it just looks immaculate.

And I know you've reconfigured the racquetball courts and that sort of thing up front, but it's really, really, really neat.

And again, that's just a pride element. I'm already about half done. The Auburn Public Safety Department, if Will Matthews is here, I really want to brag on him, but I see Chief Mike Harris is back there. Anytime there's a Our neighbors across the street oftentimes they'll call 911 because they're getting to that stage of life. I've helped them in the middle of the night many times to lift them and so forth. They just can't do that anymore. But it's an immediate response. There's EMT and then there's the fire truck and then there's oftentimes a police officer. They're just lending credence to that and to the urgency. And it's really, really, really neat. It's remarkable, remarkable. The 4th of July Kids Parade at Ashton Park, Ashton Lakes, and so forth. Beth Whitten, you were really key with that. You really were. You really helped get that thing going and so forth. And it was really neat how it was done. Little kids and trikes and bikes and so forth. And it was just a fun time. There were a couple of lemonade stands and going from pool to pool and so forth. And I think that was really neat. And my last thing here, I am going to get it all in. Oh, the upgrade of the Boykin Center complex and so forth, and the recycling. It's a school known there in Donahue. That's really, really neat. But that's a reflection of the pride. Again, I keep coming back to this. There's a vein of pride that it's apparent that you all weave into everything that you do and touch. That's a tribute to the leadership. tribute to, and y'all are the leaders of the community, and I just wanted to tell you thanks. Thank you, Mr. Cosgrove. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. We appreciate y'all. Thank you very much.

Yes, sir. Charlie Hendricks, 875 North Cary Drive in Auburn.

I am vice president of the Auburn Heritage Association and I just wanted to bring or ask some questions or bring to your knowledge. We used to save houses, we don't do that anymore. We do put up historic markers for the city of Auburn. We also enjoy taking care of and refurbishing the graves in Pine Hill Cemetery. The only reason I've come here this evening is there's scuttlebutt about the intersection of Drake Avenue and North College, there is a rim of stones along the edge of that area. Has anybody ever noticed them?

Yes, we're aware.

Okay, does anybody know who put them in? Rumor is it's the Civilian Conservation Corps. And I just need to find out, I hate to turn in Sam Hendricks for this, we need to find out who put those stones in. The difference between a stone and a rock is you throw the rock away and you keep the stone. So I'm giving you a heads up, don't throw them away, okay? Stonehenge and not Rockhenge, okay? They are valuable. You might also pay attention to what might be under the stones that the men who built it from the Civilian Conservation Corps may have placed something down there. That's about all I got to say. I did it in half the time.

Thank you, Mr. Charlie. Hope you're feeling better, man.

Thank you. All right.

Who will be next? He had a piece of glass in his foot cut out today. Just right after Rucci had it cut out.

I'm Robert Wilkins, 261 Denson Drive, Auburn. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Our America, I hope you and your families have been celebrating in your traditional ways from family gatherings to cookouts because those simple times together are what makes this country special. As a kid, Independent Day was my mother's favorite holiday. She would get us all dressed up patriotically and decorate the house in red, white, and blue. We would meet at our farm in Palmetto with my uncle and aunt and their kids, have a great cookout, and spend the evening telling stories of our ancestries while celebrating Independence Day. I still cherish those wonderful memories. I had the good fortune of attending both of the big public celebrations a few days ago. Both gave such a sense of pride. I also accomplished the 250 laps for the 250 years challenge at Lake Wilmore Park. On June the 28th at the Star Spangled Spectacular at the Gouge Performing Arts Center, I sat with friends listening to Lee Greenwood delivering a soaring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and other favorites from his soul. The 100-voice chorus and full symphony orchestra under conductor Steven Razzo lifted all of us up. Razzo has conducted his celebration for 25 years. I even got to meet Lee Greenwood that night. Conductor Razzos received a proclamation of a well-earned honor for his longtime leadership and that beautiful tribute to America and our veterans. Then on Independence Day, I was right back at Duck Sanford Park with folks from all over. I saw families smiling, kids playing, and that big fireworks show lighting up the sky. I was glad to hand out over 1,100 plus bottles of cold Wilkins water so nobody went thirsty while we celebrated together. These nights remind me of why I love this country and this city so much. As a boy who came from Germany, I learned early what freedom really means. Our founding fathers understood it deep in their bones. George Washington said the sacred fire of liberty is in our hands. Thomas Jefferson reminded us we are endowed by our creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And James Madison told us, knowledge is the guardian of true liberty. Let's keep honoring our veterans, teaching our children what liberty costs, and standing together gratefully for this land we call home. God bless one of us, each of us, excuse me, and keep the flame of liberty alive.

Thank you.

Who will be next?

We'll close this. This is open forum. Anybody in the council have anything?

Ron, one quick clarification. I believe Mr. Wilkins was referring to Gary Claringbeck, who's done the Star-Spangled Spectacular for the past 25 years. But we appreciate your acknowledgement.

Anything else? All right. So move to adjourn. So move. We're adjourned. donations. This year the flower store celebrates its 40th anniversary. The old radio building became too small and its current location was opened in 2002. A guy from society