City Council - Regular Meeting

You have, you know, first winter and then you have false fall and then you have second winter or false fall spring and you have second winter. And so the one thing I do remember is we were in spring like yesterday and now it's almost feels like a second winter. Anyway, but it's uh you know, thank you again for being here. Uh again, maybe not memorable, but maybe a quick meeting uh this evening. Uh so again, welcome to tonight. Uh we're going to start off with the pledge of allegiance to the US flag by Council Member Craig Pearson. uh followed by the Texas pledge uh from Chief of Police Larry Bergs and then finally invocation by Mayor Pro Tim John Holmes.

Join me in the pledge of the US flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one and indivisible.

Join me in prayer. Dear heavenly father, just want to thank you for this community, our great city, and also especially for our staff from top to bottom and hope that they hope that they continue to serve with a service attitude, whether it's fire, police, water, sewer, city manager, whoever, as they focus on service and build this community and make those that feel all our neighbors and everyone as loved as they can be. help guide and direct this counsel. I just ask for your guidance tonight and also help us to love and then love some more. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Amen. We will call this meeting of uh the city council uh on Tuesday, February 10th to order at 5:32. Uh couple of little things to remember. Uh we do have um tomorrow a retirement ceremony for Barbara Bzon. So, if you're not aware of that, that's tomorrow. Barbara Brozan will be um retiring and stepping down from her role in the Central Texas Housing Consortium. I think I said that right. Okay. Um Friday is the 13th. So, for any of you who like that, Friday is the 13th, but the 14th is a special day. Just FYI, if you haven't looked to your calendar, still time to buy. So, all right. First item on our agenda is public comments. Uh um anyone may speak um and address the council for any issue in which the council does have some purview. Uh I do have one listed on this. Uh if anyone else wishes to speak after Rucker Preston then they may do so. So Rucker Preston um name and address for the record and you got three minutes.

Three minutes. Thanks council. My name is Rucker Preston at 2013 Hilltop Street. Speaking on behalf of Belton ISD tonight. Um you guys, Councilman Holmes, your prayer is perfect because I want to speak about the staff. Um you know, Chief Berg and our fire department always do an amazing job on our city and I just want to thank you all for uh what public works and everyone in the city did during a couple weeks ago when we had ice all over our roads. uh not just for everyone in the city around our residential roads and feeders and collectors uh but for our schools. We had a lot of ice and so we needed some help a ton and we called upon the city every single time school district asked uh the heavy equipment came and helped with some ice breakup and we couldn't do those kind of things without the partnership from the city of Beldon. So very appreciative for always being top-notch and doing a great job for our city and our community and thankful partnership.

Always have enjoyed the partnerships and one of the strongest ones is BISD and Belton. It's always been a great partnership. If anyone else wishes to speak, now's the time for public comments. If not, we will move on to from public comments to uh a recognition. Uh the next is to recognize the city of Elton's Lena Armstrong Public Library for being the 2025 achievement of excellence in libraries award from the Texas Libraries Directors Association. Thank you very members of the council. I'd like to invite Matt and Amanda and Laura to come up.

We're really excited to be here tonight to present this uh award. The library has earned the 2025 achievement of excellence in libraries award and uh really really special. Um if you saw the note in the council agenda packet there's about 516 library systems in the entire state and only 100 101 have received the awards which is about 20% or so of the library. So we're very very fortunate to have a great team in they do an outstanding job going through some exciting u visioning right now strategic planning you know my my love and and so just appreciate Matt's Matt's leadership and working with the library. I want to present the award uh to Amanda and then just ask Matt or Matt to make any comments. We get a picture. Okay.

I'll make a qu I'll make one quick um comment. Invited Lauren Gomer here. She's our library cons our library coordinator. Um I was not here for the period that this award covers. So it was important to invite somebody who was they did a lot of work. Um all I had to do was fill in the boxes and click submit. So I want to thank them for their hard work for the last year. Well I I would like to I would like to ask a question had this discussion. Uh does every library get this award? You have to submit for it and you have to be a member of TMLDA. So if you're not a part of the Texas Municipal Library Directors Association, it has certificates.

Yes. Yeah. So there's certification requirements to be a part of that entity and then you have to go ahead and submit and you have to meet several metrics. Um you know not just not just having the books, right? It's the programs um and it's the service levels and so you have to go through and prove all that. You submit pictures and um you know all your data from the year. So, they did a great job of keeping the records and all I had to do was kind of backfill and talk about all the good work they did. So, I've heard it's uh fewer than or onethird or fewer that are actually of public libraries get this award. So, it's not like everybody gets it anyway. Everybody gets it, which is which is great. So, thank you guys.

What a transformation in our library. It's beautiful. The activity down there is impressive and just uh we all should be proud of that uh facility. Thank you. Awesome. Expand expanded hours. We're really excited about that as well. and more to come. More to come.

Congratulations. And for those who use the hike and bike trail, you can read all about all of you, uh, which is the book that's posted on the little signs along the hike and bike trail. Who does that? Who does the little books on the hike and bike? Do we? Okay. All right. Well, thank you for doing it. I'm halfway through the book. I needed a couple more miles.

All right. Uh, next is recognize the city of Belton's finance department for receiving the distinguished u budget presentation award for the government's finance officers association for the 34th consecutive year. Mike, almost as good as

Amanda. Chrisstein, come up. Y'all come up again. Uh we're fortunate to do this award annually, but it again we never take it for granted. We're it's certainly something that's very very exciting for us and of course the process for that as you saw in the packet and independent reviewers have reviewed the and examined the budget and found it to exceed all expectations and uh achieve that distinguished budget present award from GFOA. Um this is the highest recognition form in government budgeting. And what I want to particularly call your attention to this time is in addition to just the award, the following special recognitions were um uh granted to to the city of Belton for the capital program, capital improvement plan and strategic goals and strategy. So very very exciting to have that achievement and I just want to present this to Mike and his team and ask you to say something if you'd like. Okay.

All right. Thank you.

I will. I'll put it on my wall. Um, thank you, mayor and council. Um, the award for the distinguished budget presentation award, I'm sorry, is meaningful because it is the transparency of our city finances and it's the city finances. Um, it's not just a bunch of numbers and columns that nobody will care about. Um, a budget's intended to tell the community how you plan on spending their money. And I think our goal is to improve our budget document every single year. I think we've done that. Um, that goes in no small part at all to the um, without the effort of these two ladies beside me. Christine is your senior accountant. Amanda Cox is your assistant finance director. Um, they are the future of your finance department. Um, and I say that because um, both of these two young ladies are about to become certified government finance officers in the state of Texas, which is a task in of itself. Um, so we couldn't do it without their work. Um, but thank you very much for your support. We're starting already FY27 and we'll keep keep making it better.

Awesome. Thank you. Go for 35. The budget was so good. Let's just run it next year and skip all those meetings. Copy and paste. Yeah, copy paste.

All right. Items five through eight are our consent agenda. Uh these items can be enacted by a single motion by the council. If they wish to remove any item and discuss it separately, they may do so at this time. Uh for the record, I will read these in the the minutes and then the council can take appropriate action once I finish reading. Item five is approving the amendments of the previous meetings of January 277th workshop and January 27th uh city council meeting. Item six is uh items related to the May 2 election. Adopting an ordinance uh ordering the May 2nd, 2026 general election for council members place one and two. authorizing an agreement with Belton ISD for conducting a joint election and and and authorizing an agreement with the Bell County Elections Department for lease of election equipment for the May 2nd, 2026 general election. Item seven is adopting a resolution nominating the city's candidate for the board of directors of the Central Texas Water Supply Corporation, who would be um uh city clerk Amy Casey. Ready?

Red list. Sorry. Okay. Sorry. You were highlighted in my little notes, so I just read the I just saw Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Freddy Roles, uh, public works. Thank you. And, uh, item eight is adopting a resolution authorizing the submission of an application for membership in the Central Texas Water Alliance. Right. Those are the items. Move we approve items 5 through eight as presented. Second. Second. We have a motion, a second to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any discussion before we vote? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed.

It passes unanimously. Right. Item nine, receive a presentation on the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended September 30th, 2025. Mr. Rogers. Good evening, Mayor Council. I'm very excited to give you our annual financial report for FY25. I have with me tonight Miss Christy Davis who is holder JRPT our auditor. She's gonna come that way.

Okay. All right. Good evening. Thank you for letting me be here. I always know it's Valentine's Day when I'm here with the audit. Um, and I did I also brought my own book with y'all so that you can read later. But in all seriousness, thank you for letting me join you tonight. Um, I have just more good news to continue to share with everyone here. So, I'm always excited when I can do that. Um, just a few things as a reminder for the audit. Um so these financial statements that you've received a copy of um are the responsibility of management and then we come in and do a set of audit procedures with standards that we have to follow um to make sure that the information that they've provided to us that we've put into this format of the financial statements is complete and accurate and that anybody that gets a set of those financial statements would be able to rely on that information. and you here in this room can make decisions for the city based on that. And so some of those audit procedures that we perform are kind of listed here. Um one we do things on a sample basis or a test basis that we uh like to refer to it and looking at different account balances uh transaction streams particular transactions that even happen during the year and working with Mike and his team to look at support um review any kind of documentations whatnot again to make sure again that information is complete and accurate and so I do stress test or sample basis because otherwise we might still be here um doing the audit. So we don't look at 100% of everything. Um part of procedures are looking at accounting principles that are used to record transactions within the ledgers of the city that makes its way to this financial statement and making sure those accounting principles are following um the standards that you are required to do for accounting and making sure any estimates that have been made

are reasonable and also kind of in line with what we expect based on our experience with cities. And then lastly, stepping back and just saying, does everything within that financial statement appear properly presented? Um, speaking of significant accounting estimates, we do spend some time and energy on those because typically these are have some amount of complex to them, have some amount of judgment involved in them. Um and really for the city it relates to these net pension and oped liabilities that you're required to record your share of including any outflow inflows. So what's different here is management's not really setting those estimates and doing those complex calculations that is coming um from TMRS but we're still required to audit that data and make sure what has been provided that is complete and accurate. And so as a result of all of those audit procedures, we did provide what we call a clean or unmodified opinion that the city statements for its most recent fiscal year end September 30th, 2025 are fairly presented. So it's good news. Um worth a clap. Um and so also just to mention briefly um there was a new standard that the city did have to adopt. You can read about it in that report related to its compensated absences. So, I just want to mention that because I do appreciate Mike and his team uh learning the standard, viewing the standards. They came prepared with those calculations and so that again was part of our audit procedures to review those and make sure they got properly completed. Um our audit also extends past justial statements because there are certain laws and regulations um that the city must adhere to and again those compliance would be the responsibility of management. And so in particular, we have to look at compliance with public funds investment act and also state competitive bidding requirements. And so

based on the audit procedures we perform over those, including reviewing controls uh done internally to ensure compliance, we did not have any instances of non-compliance to report. So the city uh materially met all of those requirements. And then lastly, um you did have federal expenditures over the limit um that did require what we call a sing audit or compliance with uniform guidance for the year. Um you'll see here on this slide the program um that was tested I call it slurf for short. It's very long name. um it is one that we have tested before for the city and that's based on a risk assessment and also looking at the total expenditures of that particular grant to the total federal award expenditures. We have a whole set of uh requirements that we're required to test that are provided to us um by the OM through that uniform guidance and again um the city complied materially with all of those compliance requirements including controls to ensure that it has materially complied with those. So um continued good news there. And then lastly, I didn't really speak to internal controls over financial reporting. So we're not required to audit those. Um but we do consider those in our audit procedures looking to see that controls kind of from initiation of the transaction all the way to its placement in the general ledger um is is working as it should that it's been properly designed and implemented. And so on those procedures that we do I do not have any internal control deficiencies which we would identify as a weakness or a significant deficiency to report. So, as I said, lots of good news.

That's my piece. Thank you. Okay, don't run off. I won't. Okay, so as I tell people frequently when I talk about annual reports, you know, we spend a whole lot of time preparing um an annual report, loads of information in this 150 so pages. Um but in the end, most people don't care. So, um, what I encourage you to do, most of those people,

but what I could, what I encourage you to do, um, as a governing body is there's a section in here called management's discussions and this is only about 10 pages. Um, starting on page five, if nothing else, um, that's a good place to go to get a good understanding of our of our financial condition. Um, the other that's quite exciting is the statistical section at the end. It's actually unudited, guys. Shh, don't tell her. Um, but what that gives you is a 10 years worth of history, so you can kind of do some your own trend and are we improving or not. Um, good information there. So, I was not going to let you go without me telling you kind of how we ended up for the year. So, bear with me a bit. Um, the city um financial position as a whole, this is all in full acrruel, includes everything except EDC. um net total net position increased by just overion dollars for fiscal 25. Um you can see that 87 million of our $125 million worth of assets or net position is uh capital assets. $8 million in restricted net positions. Those are that's the amount of that's has external restrictions tied to it like your special revenue funds uh some capital project funds etc fall under that leaving almost $30 million unrestricted net position again for the city as a whole. But let's let's talk now about some individual funds. So general fund general fund revenues for the year were just over $24 million. Property tax went up about 585,000. But you'll see sales tax revenue was essentially flat over uh FY24 only going up about $56,000. So total revenue is 24 but expenditures increased $1.3 million for fiscal 25. Um there was a lot of personnel related to

that. Um some capital costs etc. So in the end um the general fund drew down fund balance by $665,000. That's a little bit more, but in line with what we uh plan to do for fiscal 25. Um the we ended up with $9.2 million in fund balance in the general fund. 8.3 million of that is unassigned, which means we can go do with what we want. Um that number is now 33.6% of budgeted expenditures. So down from 37.9. Um we have a debt service fund. We paid just over $1.2 2 million of principal and interest payments during the year. That fund balance is $161,000 at the end of September. Um that's gone up from the previous year because you'll remember we're transferring money from the general fund into the debt service fund to make those payments um for the fire engine that we purchased with that recent bond debt. So it's um and this pay first payment is due in February. So we have to have some balance in there. That's why there's now a balance. We have two TURS related funds, an operating fund and a capital projects fund. Contributions into the operating fund increased almost $400,000 over FY24 to $3.4 million and it spent $3.1 million 3.1 million and most of that.1 that was that's in expenditures in the operating column end up being revenues in the project capital project fund because of the transfer from that. So, TUR operating transfers money into the TUR capital project fund to spend then on projects, which it did, $1.7 million during FY25. Um, and what it spent its money on were those projects that you see on the left. Um, the Connell Street, Sprint, uh, Spring Street Bridge, and sidewalk projects. Um, really good projects that

the TUR are, um, is contributing towards. Uh, okay, enough of that. Uh we have a couple of other governmental funds I just want want to mention. Um our hotel ampassy tax collection was down uh slightly $22,000 over fiscal 24. Expenditures were up considerably um 37% but that's exactly as we intended it to do. Um the hotel tax fund fund balance increased 168,000 to $1.2 million. On the right column is our is our ARPA fund. We basically have spent down all of that money now. Only $9,900 remained at September 30 of 2024. Moving on to our bigger funds, our water and sewer funds. So, this is more than just one fund. This is all of our our water sewer operating fund plus all of its uh capital related type funds kind of smooshed together, ported together. So, operating revenue um or there was 221,000 of operating income. Operating revenues increased $916,000 but operating expenses increased 2.1 million for the year and end up in the end change in net position $48,000 that's basically net income for the all of the funds together increasing our reserves slightly unrestricted um net position for all of the water and sewer funds together is 53 is I'm sorry 18 million but of that there's about 5.2 2 of that that is in the operating fund. That's the one that we put the percent of budgeted expenditures in and that's uh 40.3% of of the expenditures is where we ended the year. Our other um enterprise fund is our drainage fund. Again, this is drainage and its capital project fund. This fund um

has been having some some difficulties over the last years. um an operating loss of 99,000 for the year. Total net uh net position decreased by 83,000. But what's really driving that is depreciation expense. Um and it's so uh we won't get into that right now. Uh so it's just you don't want to draw down reserves um due to operations necessarily. We intended to do that in this fund some to some extent. Um, but we but we're going to have to do a study on this one to see to see if we need to increase revenues uh coming into the drainage fund. We ended up with $36,000 of unrestricted um fund balance which is 46% of budgeted expenditures. There's some I'll get into that one day with what's causing that. Um we have two internal service funds. the information technology fund and building maintenance both uh drew down reserves as we intended in in FY23 in line with kind of what we expected. Um nothing terribly exciting there. The big news comes from EDC. Um EDC's net position declined $1.8 million as a whole with it in it with its operating fund and its other funds. Um but that was due to contributions of assets to the city. So they the big projects that were completed by EDC were West Avenue D and South Pearl Street. The way and and other some other projects, but that was like $5.1 million of of infrastructure assets that once they're completed, those assets become property of the city of Belton. So that there's a transfer of that value to the city of Belton and then the city will maintain that for the uh point on. So it's really that contribution to the city is what drove that uh decline in

net position. So really that's good news. So that's just the way that works. Um they ended up with $21 million of fund balance, if you will, net position. 11.3 of that is capital assets that belong to the corporation. The operating fund had 5.7 million and then it's got a capital projects and an incentive fund another 4.2 million of fund balance in those funds. And so to be clear the capital assets or owned property land or is it combination of land?

Space here is primarily the land that it owns, business park assets and that sort of stuff. But the infrastructure like say Avenue D and South Pearl those city. Yes sir. Yeah. the net positions. If you have any questions for Christie, I'll get out of the way. Um, if it may, just let me know. This is a just a presentation, so there's no action. Any questions or Mike? There was a change in in procedures for this year. Are there any changes coming for fiscal 26? Um, as far as um, changes, procedurally changes, like you pointed out, we had already applied those in terms of

time off bank and that sort of thing. And

um, there's always something that they throw at us. Um, the hurdle that we had this this past year was implementing uh, compensated absences and the and and that was that's already a complicated matter. um that is that doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense. Um and it just got more so, but we have to follow the rules. Um and so what happened was when we implemented compensate the new the new standard, the liability for compensated absence went up because we had to start capturing things like um sick leave and things and things like that and other Yes. vacation. Anyway, yes, but nothing nothing no I don't think there's anything Gazsby related that's big hopefully not

accounting change there could be some presentation changes for just in the financial reporting for those he referred to them as enterprise funds but the water sewer drainage um there'll be some presentation changes that impact the city next year um especially in the section that deals with nonoperating revenues and expenses. They've kind of wanted to further break that out into some other categories. Um, that wouldn't be an accounting change at all. And Mike related, but not the same. Were there recommendations that came along with the write up on the award that were things that they were recommending that we consider doing differently going forward?

Absolutely. as far as presentation goes. So the their the budget for example we also submit an award for our or this report our annual comprehensive financial report but each one of those is reviewed by by a panel of reviewers and each with each review or with each reward if you will they give us feedback on ways to improve. Um and so we try to implement some of those suggestions. Um and that's also led to some of our special recognitions doing some of the some of the things that they recommend that we change. Um so such a particular is something that is a continual improvement process. We we try to make it more transparent, more readable, understandable uh and that and so yes, there's always that.

But we wouldn't want you to get bored. No, please don't let me get bored. Is there just a side note something was on my head on the HR aspect. Um I know there was an issue where cost of health insurance went up this past year. Is that how long are those contracts? Our health insurance contracts last one year. Um sometimes it has a multi like if it'll have a rate lock in the second year. So there might be a multi-year component to but uh the contract itself is a is an annual contract. Okay.

Is that correct? human resources. Yes, sir. And that continues to get more expensive. You'll see that coming up next with this budget discussion. I noticed that the water loss over the last four or five years has been incrementally going up every year and it's over since 21 I think we're we've gone from 8% water loss to 15% water loss. Is that

that's a good director of public works discussion. If the director is council, there are some components of that that we have been finding as time's moved on and we feel that those start to die back down and it's been pressure related issues and things like that. But I think this next goound through the audit, you'll see that that has has decreased. So,

and I can I can also attest that um some of it is a billing issue that we've fixed as well because where that comes from is the volumes that you bill versus what's been metered, you know, and Yeah. And so some of that we've had some issues that we've corrected. Scott and his team brought to us and so we've implemented that. So yes, that number should also shrink. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Good answer. Thanks. Thanks, Scott. matters neither created nor destroyed. It just moved somewhere else. So the water's still somewhere. That's correct. Right. So it it went somewhere.

I I will say the and you made the one comment on the drainage fund. I I do know especially when we have some of the rain events that we probably could do a better job of policing our waterways, at least the enttrapment areas, just trash pickup and mowing and just there's I know there's we do a pretty good job of that, but I do know that we're probably uh at the edge. Um, and so we probably just justify a review of that that rate to make sure we're doing that. Any other comments or questions? All right. Thank you. Great job, Mike. Thanks to you and your team. Thank you.

All right. Item 10, consider an ordinance amending section 38.18 of the zoning ordinance related to high-profile monument sign height on properties uh with Interstate 35 and Interstate 14 frontage. Rontage. Go ahead. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I'd like to talk to you about some recommendations that we'd like to make to you on pole signs and monument high-profile monument signs. Um, currently we're limited to 20 ft. Uh, in most of the areas along 35 and 14. We do have some higher signs that were adopted with the imagine belt and standards which are on the west side of the highway between the interchange and the um the temple city limits. uh we currently uh calculate the height of the sign because we feel like we need to dig into that a little bit better um from the the elevation of the sign on the private property to the relationship to the main lanes of the highway. So for the first example that I want to give you is is a piece of propert is lower than the main lanes uh uh than the highway. And and so let's say in this particular instance, we have a piece of property that's 5t below the the the current sight is 20. So we'd allow the difference between the main lanes and uh the um elevation of the property. Uh that's the difference. So we would have a sign that's uh theoretically well not theoretically would be 25 ft. Um a more practical example might be this uh area where the property is is below the main lanes of the highway. This kind of conceptually shows you how we would calculate that. The sign is at the the elevation of the property. Um, and then the main lanes are uh 15 ft above uh the property. So that would calculate the sign height in that regard. So the overall height of the sign could be 35 ft if they decided to go that high. Alternately, if it's above the main

lanes, then there wouldn't be any adjustment. It's just 20 feet. And here's an example of that where this piece of property is about 25 ft above the main lanes. The height of the sign would remain at 20 feet. So above the main lanes of the highway, that sign's going to be 45 ft tall. So that's kind of how we get to that uh that calculation. In determining our recommendation, we did some research on existing ordinances in the area and we found out that about the average height of the the signs is feet and and you know how you calculate the average, you drop the highest and lowest values and then you take what's left. And for the actual actual um uh sign heights, uh we you know we surveyed some signs. Well, you see all these signs in the area. We did the same thing and uh we came up with a different number of course that's a 64 foot sign. So ultimately we decided that it would be good you know based on the evaluations that we had in the certain geography that we were in to make those recommendations. So, I'm going to zip through these pictures. You may then from the last time just some examples of some signs that we have uh surveyed in our in our analysis. And so, we land on our recommendation page here. And I'll explain this a little bit more. In the downtown areas from Temple down to Loop 121, essentially we're suggesting a 100 foot tall sign. And then anything west of the interchange of 35 and 14, we're suggesting 50 feet max. Uh and then south of 121 along 35 down to the southern property lines were suggested also 50 feet. So in that area on the uh southeast of I35, as you can see where the red arrows are, we're recommending a maximum of 100 ft. And as you you may

recall, I mentioned that on the north side of 35, we allow up to 100 feet on that side. Uh and so we're recommending a similar height on this side of the highway. On the other side of the highway, west side of 35 from the interchange 21, we're also suggesting a 100 foot height. That be consistent with the other areas of that on the other side. So from the interchange onto the west side of town, we're suggesting a 50 foot high sign, the maximum height. And then finally, as we go south from 121 down to the southern city limits, we're suggesting a 50 foot uh maximum height. Uh this picture was put in to give kind of give you a concept or a uh relationship uh example to kind of gauge what feet looks like. Um there I got a picture in there that helps me remind to tell you that that's a 40 foot sign. Uh and then this is another one that helps you maybe to see what those heights kind of appar to. It's very difficult looking along the highway as you might know to kind of figure out okay what's 50 feet, what's 20 feet, what's you know whatever it is. And so it's difficult to see. Some of those pictures that I showed you earlier kind of show smaller signs that are kind of in the Corey Central Street area. Um but um it's really difficult to tell what a really tall sign looks like. It's kind of easy to see what a 10-ft sign looks like because you can stand next to it and say, "Oh, that's 10 feet." Anyway, so just a little bit of background. We've gone through P&Z. They've recommended approval based on these recommendations. We had a public hearing back in September. We regrouped and kind of streamlined the recommendations and we're recommending at this point in time that you consider approving the recommendations that we've suggested to you. As always, we're very appreciative of all your thinking on these projects. Uh we understand that is

it is largely an aesthetic issue, but you know, we started with the with the u uh the objective position of you know, based on the research. So we uh we want to present that to you and see where you want to go with that. Right. Thank you. Uh this will be an ordinance. It is not a public hearing. So any comments or questions from council before making a motion? Bob, could you go back to the one slide that showed the uh heights that we have and the average the actual heights actual heights and our recommendation? I think was it 70 or something? Curious to know. This one right here, sir. I believe. Yeah. Maximum

actual. Oh, the actual heights. Okay, good. If you throw out the variances, does that drop that? No. Well, uh, that in, you know, we threw out the tallest and the shortest. So, that's the variances in the previous slide. The same the same. 150 ft. What is the two in there? What um is this for the sign height? Does this include billboards and business signs? Does not does not include this is strictly the monument uh signs and the pole signs. Okay.

Why Why is it that y'all feel that on I14 it should be half the height of of I35? It's I'm sorry. I don't understand. They have to it's 100 ft in the core areas and the remote areas is 50 feet on 14 and 35. Is that what So south 35 and west 14 are shorter as you get into town they go up they're less dense.

Yeah. So that's my question. Why why in those areas are you recommending 50 instead of the same? Well, um the uh uh the recommendations for the the downtown area is inconsistent with the imagine belt did. So, you know, that's kind of pegged uh with the existing standard. As we go south, you know, we just stuck with the analysis that we have here. So, there's there's uh no more than just the recommendations on the the research. So, did I help did I help you there? you know, since the you know, since the imagine belt and standards are higher

and and we've got a some history of the higher the higher sign heights, we figured say say, well, let's stick with the higher signs, you know, because of the topography in the downtown area. Uh, and and once we got out of the downtown area, we just thought 50 was appropriate because of that. And I'll real quick, Luke, for those areas that we're talking about, I14, Southford 35, currently those are all 20 feet right now. That's what we allow. So, we're trying to kind of gauge. We've always had that 75 ft in the in the bowl, we call it, where the creek kind of happened.

Imagine Belton came in, it added 100 ft as a allowable option. So, that's kind of why we just kind of crept up to 20 because that seemed to be enough variances coming through. Um, but not obviously all the way to 100 in in those areas. I just think we're seeing significant changes with the interstate system and the ability to see a sign and exit. It seems like exits are much further back now. Uh you check the uh text roadside sign that said these restaurants and gas stations are available. Um or you check an app. I just don't think uh the visibility of a 100 foot sign and exiting to go to Starbucks or Waterburger uh is doable anymore. Um much less very appealing to me personally. Um so I think mount and I think's dealing with this right now. Some issues down there about the height of their signs and so uh I'm just uh I don't think the the tallest bins now gets the traffic maybe that they used to. There was one instance where I think a gas station on South I35 wanted we made it an exception and taller sign because they wanted the visibility but you won't be able to exit in time to see the sign. just personal opinion.

Bob, talk to me a little more about the difference what we're deciding tonight. If if we if we decide in the what you've recommended for 100 ft, if we decide on something lower than that, how does that um relationship work with the imagine belting standards? If we like, let's say we say, okay, we're not going to do 100, we're going to do 75 or 50 or something. We have in the standards we have 100 feet in that area, right? So would would tonight trump that or would we need to change imagine belt and how does that work?

No, no, we wouldn't change anything in the imagine belt standards. So we're just talking about the other sideway and the outlying areas. So we're just dealing with that. Hopefully that kind of addresses that. Now how would it look? Um you know the central downtown area uptown area that's 100 feet. The transition is 40. Uh, as I mentioned to you, um, it's, uh, yeah, it's just kind of, you know, it would work fine whatever height you. So, if you'd go back to the map showing the where it's 100 and where it's 50 for the recommendation. Yeah. So, what's in Imagine Belin is essentially the the northwest side of I35, old green strip. Yep.

So, if we change something tonight, that's going to stay at 100 feet, right? That's clear. Yes, sir. Yeah. And we could sir if based on the discussion tonight we say well we don't feel good about 100 there we could have another discussion to change the absolutely ordinance for the imagine bells and si right absolutely yes yes absolutely uh another question if you'd go back to the actual s height bar graph. I'm starting to regret putting all these pictures in here. Sorry. That's all right. That's all right. We can get there. That one. Nope. Next one.

That one. the uh the two that we have that are over 75 ft. One is Bies and Temple and one is the Quick Trip in Celo. So in Belton we don't we actually don't have anything over 75 ft currently, right? Uh we have one at uh on Corey Drive somewhere and is that on the list? Yeah. Waterburg. Waterburger. I saw the Corey on the other. You have got two average. Yeah. And we've got Burger King, which is that is is over 70 75.

So you have to put the uh you know that's 60 to 80. So the increments in 20. Yeah. Okay. So you're a little bit taller than what you might be looking. So I hate to ask this question, but I'm going to ask this question. You showed us a graph to show height above grade and height of the sign. Yeah. And so you had a for nomenclature you showed an A but you didn't show a B. So I just want to clarify when you say sign height are you saying height above grade or the actual height of the sign? The uh height above grade. So you measure from the ground.

So these are not sign heights. These are height above grade which we're defining as so a 105 foot sign isn't 105 foot sign. It may be an 85 foot sign where it's placed on the ground in relation to the road. In relation to the road. You're exactly right. I would I would suggest that we use a different term than sign height because a 100 foot sign not being a 100 foot sign would confuse every engineer in the world. At least this engineer. Yeah. Because anyway, I just I would just use a different different word um

or or define it because if you go back I'm sorry. If you go back to that picture where you showed the A and the 20T and the 25 ft the way the way I read it, so it says A and then there's a 25 on the other side. Is that A? Is that B? Is that That's B. It's just exhibit. Yeah, it's a second 25. Yeah, the sign itself was 25 because of the grade. But see, in this particular case, the sign height is above 30 feet above grade. It's not 20. It's 30 the grade. But in the other one, it's 20.

Yeah. The grade is the property that it's it's on, right? So, you start from the property that it's on. No, that's sign height. That's above grade. No. Above grade is above the main highway lanes. So that's what I'm trying to ask. Is it the number of feet above the highway or the number of feet that it's actually sticking out of the ground? The number of feet that it's sticking out of the ground. That's where you start. I think we need to go highway. I think it needs to I think that's the whole reason we were talking is because it's like at eye level. If I'm on the highway, I don't care if it dipped down and dipped back up. I'm looking at what my height is. So if you took put a 100 foot sign everywhere in downtown Belton, it would look like this. It does instead of like this. It won't ever look like above grade.

It won't look like that. It can if you define it as above. You would have to pick an elevation. That's correct. Mean lease, you know, you know, you have to pick an elevation above ground. Okay. So if you're in some cases, you might be a pilot. If you're a pilot and you're flying at a,000 ft above ground level. Yeah. Or if you're a pilot flying 1,00 ft above sea level, it matters. 1,000 ft above sea level, plant yourself in the ground somewhere before you get to Lock.

Right. So, what we're saying is I I think it needs to be above the driving elevation that there's a standard height at which I'm going to see signs if I'm driving through. I don't care if it's in a hole or on a on a hill. That's very challenging because the highway as a whole for it topography drops like at Nolan Creek and guess what? So you couldn't keep us consistent elevation. You can Well, you could theoretically.

No, not theoretically. It's that's how we do. That's how we do city. That's how we figure out where we flow. That's why we figure out it's this train. That's why we do the topography map. That's why we do 100year flood plane. It's all based on a mean sea level and we know what those are when we do these grades. So if they're going to put a sign in, we know what the grade is. Yes. So you calculate the way we do it, we calculate it from the elevation of the property where the sign is going to be built and then we go from there whether it's above or below.

But if you're calculating where the sign's built, it doesn't matter. If we say it's a 100 foot sign, you just put 100 foot sign anywhere you want to. On a hill in a in a in a valley, it's 100 foot sign. If it's if it's on a hill, yes, it would be higher than the the 100 foot. Then you don't have to do any calculation. It's just 100 foot sign. Yeah. You go down to Walmart, buy 100 foot pole, and slap your logo on the top of it. But it could be 140 ft above the ground. Above main. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or it could be 10 feet above the main. Right. But I think what we're looking at, I think the whole reason for coming back again is we want some consistency in what you see, right? Consistency in what you see

from the highway. From the highway. Okay. Correct. The way this reads, you have a 100 foot sign on I35. You can get a credit to make it the actual pole longer if you're below main lane. You don't we're not gonna take away height or above main lane. Correct. Correct. You're right. Okay. So to David's point, if instead of the reference being the the base of the sign, if the reference was, hey, we're going to go stick a grade stick on the mainland of the highway, whatever elevation that shows, the top of our sign, is that immediate?

Sorry. Is that point measured immediately adjacent to the sign? Well, that's not where you're going to be looking at it, but I you know, so I think you would have you have to be perpendicular.

The small secular in Austin built a large foundation for their tower to make sure that the tower was not taller than the capital while making the tower taller than the capital. uh the current president of the United States u made a big mound in his backyard to make sure that the flag pole met the flag pole height but was higher than the flag pole that was allowed. So we use grade to get around rules. You just build a big burn and then plan sign on top of it.

Put a sign on top of it. If we just were I think that's at least from my perspective I I think it's like whatever it is a 50 60 75 100 it should just be that above the road. So you would you would suggest let's say we would do 100 in the scenario that's on the screen where be 90 foot pole the property is 10 feet above main grade their max sign actual pole would be 90 ft you're debiting them for the do we know do we know how many properties on a hill we have compared to the I was going to say how high those highest parts are the majority of them are going to be below once the new interstate goes

majority on I14 14 pretty high sides. I mean, if that's 50, it might be the sign sitting on the ground some of those. Yeah. As you get down to Nolan, Nolanville Hill and you get some of those hills between on 14 or if you look at like Toy Hoya Road on one side of the road versus the other side of the road. Bob, can you go back to the number two? I mean, I'm sorry, the number one. But I mean to your point though, if you were up on a cliff, which one? Yeah, you would would install a sign on the ground cliff, but it'd still be visible from the main lane because it's 100 feet above the main lane, if that makes sense.

I mean, that makes sense to me right there. What is what what are we what are we is it a 25 or a 20? That's original question. It's a 25 foot foot sign. What they've presented because they've accounted for the five feet under the main lanes. That's how I see that. That's exactly. So, what are we talking about then? It looks good to me. Instead of going for a grade, is anybody interested in doing it by elevation? That's part of what because well, he's talking but down at the south end of I35, you can build a 200 foot sign.

But elevation is different than grade because highways create different false elevations. So again, that's why I asked the question is because it says the sign can be 20 feet, right? It's it's a it's a 20 foot sign, but it's really 25 foot sign. So I'm asking which is it? Is it a 20 foot sign, which is what this says. It says overall sign height is 25, but only 20 ft above the main lanes. Is that a 20 foot height or a 25 foot height? Depends on the the private property that it's being built on and accounting for the footage between the main lane and where the sign will be placed. David when Tex we're talking about the same thing and I feel like they're this is ridiculous

in the middle of lanes or the express lane whatever we've seen they're going to have a measurement that says 530.00 and that is the elevation of the road that sign if you were to stick pole on top of the 100 foot sign that measurement should read 630.00 0. It's 100 ft. Exactly. To John's point, it's the elevation. It's the true elevation based on the elevation of the road. Correct. There's no having to measure and there's no It just we go put I mean, every time we do a road, every time we build a foundation, engineers go and putting stakes. If we had a survey guy in the room, it probably help out a lot.

Yeah. But I it doesn't make sense to say, okay, every sign he cannot stick. You can do any sign height you want as long as it doesn't go over 630 feet elevation because the McDonald's is going to have a 20 foot sign and the gas station on AMD is going to have a 300 foot sign. No, it's it's 100 feet over whatever the main but of the main lane of the road. But John suggested using an elevation as a standard. No, you can't. Right.

You can't cuz in Yeah. No. Yeah, you can't. It it would be the elevation. We'd have to be It's an elevation based on main lengths. I let me just tell you where I am right now. Um I think this is reasonable how we're showing to measure for ones that are below grade. Um I want our businesses to have the highest signs possible. So I'm not offended if it's 100 foot and they also get another 50 feet because they're up here because signs do matter for businesses. visibility matters, especially on the interstates. And so for me, being able to see that sign before there's an exit, that's how family personally when we're traveling, when the kids get hungry, we say, "Hey, next Golden Arches we see, we're going to exit and go eat there."

Um, if you have just a minute, let me finish. Let me finish real quick. And so because of that and with all the changes we're going to have coming up to the interstate with exit potentially being even moved further back, I'm okay with the recommendation that they they're making. My issue is on is really the only issue I have re with the recommendation is I think the 50 foot areas should be taller. I don't I don't I think we should have higher signs there because that's only going to grow with the interstate. And we want people getting off in Belton. We don't want them going to Temple or Celo the other way to exit and eat. We want them to get off in Belton. And that only helps our businesses. So that's that's kind of where I am right now with the layout of I35. I just don't think you if you exit 121, you you're not exiting because you saw a sign, I don't think. or if you're exiting in DPS to come to Belton, you're not exiting because you saw one sign. I just think the signs

will not be the sign is on the current property

and that's an off premise. I mean, I think we get here's the challenge. We're getting into a lot of preference and we just we need to kind of stick and this is just my opinion. Whether it's 50 or 100, it needs to be consistent. It can't just and that's why I think it should be above the main lane of the road so many feet above the main lane of the road and then we can argue do we want 100 or 500 whatever but I think we just need to be consistent because you can gain the system but I think that makes sense for the very reason that there are signs that is that from being on the road you're trying to get inter visibility to customers in and so the only standard that makes sense is to measure it from the lane.

Okay, I'll tell you this right now. I'm on Google Maps Street View. I cannot see the Bucky sign when it's time to exit going northbound. They would have to have a 200 foot tall sign to to your point to be able to say, "Oh, there's a buggy sign. I'm going to exit." No, they do it with billboards, correct? They do it with billboard sign. Yeah. If you're coming southbound by Belton with an exit at god forbid Harley horny toad, you're not going to see any sign in Belton. Yeah. When you're after you have when you already have to exit.

Yeah. And I think ultimately I think there's a there's always a tension within um we need to let people do what they need to do what's best for their business that can then conflict with what's best for the community as far as we'll call it pollution. What does scenic city say about Oh, like scenic city is like no digital signs, no signs, like nothing. I mean like what like if they had a recommendation for a sign height on I35 would they they would leave that entirely to the local community. They would not venture into that and they come along.

Yeah. All right. Do you guys have enough information to make a motion and act or no? I you know where I get hung up is the difference for the 100 and the 50 because why why is it that just that one little area we're allowing 100 if we are going to allow 100 I think as you were saying consistency

I I don't see just because you're on the other team you shouldn't have the same visibility and same sign height as the other parts of the interstate belt Um, so that's that's where I'm getting I'm getting hung up on it. I almost feel like if you're on the interstate and you're in Belton, we should have a standard sign height. I don't think one area should be 100, one should be 50. I'd rather have 75 everywhere than 150 or 75 everywhere. from the meeting from the next back I think Well, this won't trump Imagine. We'll have to change change that. That's relative.

We have to go through that process. Yeah. Yeah. 75 everywhere. But it needs to be sensible from I agree with the grade. Yeah. Wait, the grade of where the pole sits or the mainland? No, the the highway. The highway like adding five or five, you know, you can just that number one it it'll be the same. It's just the side the the height of the pole we're recommending a change, but it'll account for the grade below main lane main lanes like you've demonstrated in that existing example number one. Yes. So, so if you want to measure from the main lanes, that's just a policy decision. Yeah. So, just tell us.

So, I think I think before we have a motion, we need to just take a straw poll. Are we all on the same page that we're all comfortable measuring from the main grade? And that may mean that you get a bonus poll or it may mean you get less than shorter goal. I'm for measuring from the grade, but it's hard to say. And I'm for additional if you're below the grade, but it's hard for me to say I'm for a deduction if you're below if you're above the interstate because it all depends on as we were saying, you know, if say say the ground is 100 ft up and it's 75. Well,

well, in reality the roads it it's not. It's a good hypothetical, but that doesn't exist. I don't. No, it doesn't. It doesn't exist. I mean, the closest you're going to get is probably I'm trying to think. It's It's as you go towards Nolanville and I think Toyoa Road, that hill, Mesa Ranch and Messar Ranch somewhere along there. It's kind of high, but it's so high if you're 20 feet up, you're seeing that sucker. And especially if you're a messer on that hill coming from Colleen, you see it from Colleen.

And we're increasing that from 20 to 50 in this in this recommendation. This recommendation. So, it's more than if you're driving on I35 and you go under loop 121, there's a overpass. I'm looking at Google Maps right now. There's an overpass that goes over I35 and that's 17 feet clearance. So like the Valero that sits up kind of across from the expo center, let's just 20 ft higher than the main lanes. If we did 75, they could still have a 55 ft side. Yep. Yeah. Which is not a short sign. No, that's

right. And if that's and the ranger on our part, you're basically saying 20 ft is the pretty much the max around there. Right now it's at 20 and we're going more than double that. Well, no. I'm saying the the grade above I35. Yeah, that's 20 ft. I mean, most most hills I mean most McDonald's be where it is. You think that's I mean yeah that's about 20 feet because if you think about

uh over passions over you can just look at the number it's usually 20 25 ft is usually the standard grade difference. So Ranger Gas station that's going in in South Belton South right have we approved a sign for that one? Uh I believe so. Yeah, we have a like a standard 20 foot sign, but they'd like to come back and ask for a tall. Well, curious that they haven't come back. Okay. Well, I just was want the reason I'm saying is we go off and do all this and then we've already approved something that we have to come. Anyway, I just I didn't I just wanted to at least kind of have that as a as an idea.

Well, whatever decision you make, there's going to be somebody out there that's going to ask for an exception. Oh, always. Yeah. Yeah. Can I make a motion? Just make the best one you can. Yeah. But whatever you do, if you're going to go to grade 90 between the road and the sign. All right. Now, we're going to do a right angle. Yeah. I'm going to make a motion.

It's fine. that we enact this ordinance with a 75 foot sign height that's measured from the grade of the main lanes to the interstate 90° from the sign location on the property. Whether that creates an actual taller sign or shorter sign than 75 ft. It would always be measured from the main lane the the main lane of the interstate grade and that would be throughout the city of Belton uh where the current recommendation is both 100 and 50 it would be 75 throughout. Is that motion clear? Yep. Okay.

Second. We have we have a motion in a second to standardize our pole sign height ordinance along 35 and 14 to be 75 ft above the grade of the main lane at a perpendicular angle from where the location of the sign is to the main lane. Great. And that's that's everywhere on the interstate. Yeah, I said five and 14. That doesn't include the imagine builtin area which I No. Yeah. We just got say 35 and 14. Yeah. Yeah. Can't do it. No, we didn't. It's just I think we can bring that back and have a quick vote on that one.

Yeah. Or not. I love love your optimism. I just So, we have a motion to second. Any other comments or questions before we vote? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed? Passes unanimously. See you. Fantic. You should have said that from the beginning session to me. All right. All right. Fire station. Receive a presentation and discussion of and discuss a future fire station needs assessment. Chief front.

Mayor Council, I'll make it easy on you tonight. You not as hard as figuring out sign heights. hopefully. So, how many minutes from this station and how do you count the minutes? I'm sorry. And

okay, just to give you a little background, um Sam and I worked really hard on trying to find a great uh spot for the future for a fire station and we worked really hard with the um county and and got what we feel is is a very appropriate piece of of land. So now it's time to evaluate um the configurations, what that's going to look like in the future. Some of the things that we want to evaluate is time of course um in our business. Time is is u very important to us. Also the equality and the efficiency um of where we're going to put our next fire station. We are trying to address some of the growth especially in the in the south side of town. So, when we're addressing this, we have to look at um some standards, some recognized standards. So, just a little bit of education, uh we're going to use some NFPA standards. Now, NFPA is a nonprofit organization, but they write a lot of standard books. Um and they have standards for fire protection, life safety, electrical codes. As an example, in the county, if a county doesn't approve uh their own set of then the state has adopted NFPA 101 which is their code. So it although we're not in NFPA FPA uh does a lot within um the state of Texas. It's also used in a in legal proceedings and liability claims. ISO, which we get ISO rated, uses a lot of NFPA um guidelines and standards. So, we'll be utilizing some of that to

to to evaluate where we are. Also, uh some ISO um recommendations. We're going to be using some ISO recommendations. Now, just to refresh your memory, ISO is that uh company that comes and evaluates us, kind of helps us set our our insurance rates. Right now we're at a a three. Uh Temple and Colleen are at a one. One being the best, 10 being the worst. So we're currently at a three. So the question is how do we get to a one? Um well to answer that question is we need more stations, personnel, and a training field. Um but that's not going to be asked for um tonight. We're just to just to answer that question if you if you had it. uh the PPC rate what we're talking about when it comes to that one to 10 and they do closely align with an FPA. So here's some of those standards we talked about. Turnout time is important to us. That's what we can control. Our turnout time is something that we as a fire department can control this. Um that's the time it takes from the alarm the alarm to go off to the guys in the truck and actually rolling out the door. We monitor that very closely to make sure our turnout times stay within that 80 seconds standard. Um, and we hit that consistently. Uh, another one is travel distance or travel time. Um, NFPA says about four minutes um or less is a good travel time is the standard for career departments. And they're not saying you have to hit that every time, but 90% of the time you need to hit that 40 or that four minutes. Um, and of course ISO ratings. ISO re redefineses that four minutes to one and a half mile polygon. They say within a one and a half mile polygon, you should be able to get there within four minutes. And that's kind of what

we're judged and evaluated off of when they come do their evaluation. They also have a a different standard for a ladder truck, but people get this confused. It's a 2 and a half mile um polygon for a ladder truck, but that's 2 and a half miles to the nearest three or greater story building, a building that would need it. If it's running a regular calls, it's still considered an engine. So, it still needs to be within that mile and a half versus a 2 and a half mile. The two and a half mile is really those higher multiplestory buildings is what that's judged off of. Texas uh best practices also mentions the four minutes travel time and then um community risk assessment and and we are up to date on our community risk assessment um and we're we're doing that very well. So, it mentioned in there in NFPA 1710 um four minutes to get the first engine on scene and then eight minutes to get um a full firefighting force. So, that full alarm is what they call that. What that actually is is that's 15 personnel which consists of two engines, a ladder truck, and then your command and safety officers is what NFPA 1710 recommends. About 15 personnel. We have currently we have two trucks. So we're not able to meet that um full alarm. That's why we have automatic aid. That's why temples on our our box alarms. We have a structure fire. That's why we're getting aid into the city is to try to meet this. We talked about the one and a half mile polygon. Those are that's road face. That's basically um you draw a line using your roadways

to to measure that out um one and a half miles. Um it is required or are suggested for ISO if you want to get your full points. Um you're within that mile and a half. Um and it does reflect a true reach, not just a simple radius. Although we do use a mile and a half radius also, but that mile and a half radius is kind of to help quickly identify um gaps in your service. And that's more the radius is more as the crow flies. So what's our goal? Our goal right now is five and a half minutes of response time. That's 80 seconds to get in the truck and get out the door. I mean, and again, we're hitting those pretty pretty commonly. And then we want a four minute travel time. Um, that gives us about 10 seconds of of traffic adjustments and things. That's where we came up with that 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Station station location is key for that 4m minute travel time. And we want to make sure that all of our high-risk areas are covered the best we could possibly get them. So this is our current configuration. Uh we showing both the the mile and a half polygon which is the shaded area and the radius. So you can see when you're when you're building your polygons and looking at station locations, you actually want a little bit of that overlap. In case that one station is gone on one call, you can get another station in there quickly, too. um you may not be able to get it in there within that four minutes, but um it you want a little bit of overlap there, a little redundancy. And as you can see here, um the core of the city, the downtown area and a lot

of the the residential area that's up north of town is well covered. Um but the south part of town I is um just outside that that polygons and radius. And what makes it so difficult getting down there and what affects a lot of our response time getting to the south port part of town is we're crossing highways and very busy intersections. Think of 121 that we're going through, 93 that we're going through, Main Street and 35, that area trying to get to that south area is a very congested area. And then we have I35 and 14 that's going to get torn up and and cause us more issues. We know that during construction, we're probably going to have some extended delays. Um and then the growth that happens after those those things have been expanded um may cause us some uh increase in demands. So uh are y'all familiar with the property at the justice center where where we're proposing?

Okay. So we we took and we got like three different options um for you guys to kind of consider. This option would be to um relocate central station to the justice center and not have this current uh central station where it's at. And what we're seeing there is that it it opens up a large gap in the center of town um our downtown area that's outside the polygon and the the radius. And so there's no overlap there in this situation if this was the situation that we would go get into. What we would probably do because there is no overlap. Anytime a station goes on a call, that other station would move into a central location. So as an example, if station two had a call and they they left, then that justice center station would move toward the center of town to back cover their area, their own area. So, we would constantly be moving both those trucks. And again, because we're maintaining just a a two station um situation, we'd also rely heavily on automatic and mutual aid still for our structure fires. The other option would be uh to maintain the current central station and rebuild or build that justice center station. Have three stations. This option says the central fire station would be more of a quick response station with a captain and a driver. I call it an ICT. Um incident command technician is what you call them. um they would respond in a quick response truck to all the medicals in the center

of town. They would also be responding as mobile commands. Whenever there are larger incidents, they would be a mobile command officer. U about 65 of our call volume is medical calls. So 65% of that open area in the center of town if we went to two stations would still be covered. Um, and then any any calls that would require a fire apparatus would come from out of district back into the center of town. This uh this still relies on automatic aid. It does require uh three um lieutenant positions to be established at a cost of about 403,000 for those lieutenant positions because those would be new positions. Um this uh doing the math on this the tax rate from if if we did this today and it went to effect today the tax rate would cost about 1.6 cents on the on the tax rate. The another option is to fully staff all three stations. Um this would reduce the amount of reliance we have on mutual and automatic aid. It would it would cover all three of those uh areas. The majority of that what did somebody call it earlier? The dome. Um it would cover that dome pretty well. Um but it's costly. It's it's a nine additional FTEES at a cost of one o over a million dollars. Um1 million62,570. And that's uh equivalent to about 4.25 cents. But that would be if we put it on today. Now remember um tax rates will change throughout the next years. If we started building the station today um if we got

in in touch with an architect and started step one today, um we would still be three years out on this fire station. It takes a while to get through that design phase, the bond phase, um, and the construction phase. So, we're still looking at about three years. So, tax rates, how it would affect it today would be 4.25 cents. But what what that looks like in the future is is hard to tell. And these are operational costs, not the cost of construction, correct? Yes, that's just operational. We'll talk about construction costs in a minute. And it I was floored whenever I did this. Um a question real quick on the operational cost. What if you fully staffed three stations?

Mhm. Is there what additional equipment is needed? We would in reality all we need is another um engine be we could do a

I need a reserve engine, right? So we have enough engines for three stations now. But I I would have no engine. So we would need to to to think about that either keeping this ladder truck that we currently have, keeping in mind that ladder truck is 25 26 years old. Um keeping it and and helping that process. um or moving on down the line and buying another truck and putting one of our older trucks, probably our 2015 in reserve status because we we obviously need a reserve truck because um about 60 to 70% of the time something's getting worked on.

What's the lead time on an engine versus the aerial we already purchased? Lead time on an engine is much better because we can go with a stock engine that are coming in that are already in line. We could get one of those within the construction window. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And and this this operational cost, is that is that just the cost of the personnel? That's not Yeah, that's just just the cost of personnel. Utilities and No, that's just personnel. That's just Yeah. Okay. Just the salary cost.

All right. So, let's compare some response times and see what what may work and what may not work. That first line there is um our current configurations. Anywhere you see that red box, what that means is that the majority of that that district is um beyond that four point. Um if it's yellow, we can get to that box within four minutes, but we can't get to all the box in four minutes. So that second number you see there is the furthest distance to that district from a fire station. So as an example in box three district one we can get to some of that within that four minutes but to get to the furthest point it's seven minutes that make sense on on the numbers there. So, if we replace the current central station and and with the justice center, you can see um we're really robbing Peter to pay Paul on that one. Um but adding that justice center uh helps us out a lot. It it really helps us out um to get to the more majority of that city that dome area within within the uh 4m minute time. Uh and that's that answers that question there. If we do the minimum staffing at station our C central station where we're just putting a captain and a driver um we're looking at a cost of about 120,000 for a vehicle for them. Um, if we went to fully staffed, it's another about 850,000 for an engine.

This is our current uh run numbers and times. The blues are for each year are the the producers of run volume per year. And you could see that box three district one consistently makes the top three districts every year. Um but if you look at their response times that response times uh that travel time there in red. Now remember that's the travel time that's not the response time that's actual on the street time. Um those three red boxes are beyond the the a six minute mark. just go back to your map and show them what those areas are.

Sure. Boxes. So, the blue area on this map would be uh box three. The red area, that's box one, and the green areas, that's that's box two. Um that's based off the station location. Station two covers all the green area. Central Station currently covers the red and the blue area. And then the tan areas are those outline areas. Um, and we can talk about in a minute. So, box three, station, what was that? One, box three, district one. Is that dark blue area? Justice center area.

Uh, yes, that's that's where the station would be. Would be uh box three district one. So to talk about those outlining areas, 1720 and ISO um says that your response time in a low uh risk low density area and they define low risk low density as less than 500 people per square mile and in those both those areas we have less than that in population. So, they recommend a 14minute response time in those areas. That's why we're not looking at trying to put fire stations down by Celo or over by Nolanville. We have that 14minute kind of buffer there. Now, here's the uh the hard part to swallow. At least it was for me. When we built station two out on uh Sparta Road, it was 1.91 million for both the station and a ladder truck. So the station cost approximately 1.36 million. That's about $182 a square foot. When we went and did this evaluation, I have uh some people I worked with in the past, joiner architects down in the Houston area. I called them up. I said, "Hey, I need some data. Can you help me out a little bit?" And so he got me this data back. In 2010, um it was 320 a square foot and that consistently moved up to this year, which is 745 a square foot.

So, I said, "No, that can't be right." So, we went and uh I'll just go to this next page here. We looked at two different stations that were just in this area that just either are getting built right now or are uh just got done. Round Rock Station 10 is 13,000 square foot, almost 14,000 square foot, and costs $9.2 million. And that's 66 about $66 a square foot. So I called or 660 a square. So I called Round Rock. They already had the land. That's why the cost per square footage is down. They already own that.

So when you're saying per square foot, you're talking about the cost of the land.

That's allin cost. That's construction cost. That's land cost. That's outfitting the station with furniture. That's everything. Allin cost is what they call that. And then this is Waco's future station. It's 8600 square ft at 6 million which is right on track about 700 a square foot. So if we go back to this slide right now, station two is 700 square ft. Um, and that the cost of that today would be 5.36 million. If we went for like a Taj Mahal type station, if you wanted to build a just huge command center, huge 15,000 square foot, you're looking at 11 million 11.75 million um for 15,000 square feet. The the bad part about that cost is look at the the rate of increase every year. If you do that annually, that rate of increase, um, man, I don't know where we'll be in five years from now, you know,

could be cheaper. It could be or it could be 1,400 a square foot, you know, everything's relative. Tax base usually keeps up with the construction cost. I would hope so. Yeah. All right. You tell me one I just want to understand because this isn't making sense to me. All right. The cost. Tell me again when you say 700 a square foot. Tell me everything that's that would cover the land, the architectural fees, the building cost, the furniture. Um that include the engine. That does not include the engine. No apparatus is included in the net cost. But that's a move in ready. You move in, just bring stocked refrigerator with mac and cheese.

Ramen noodles, air mattresses, baby. Interesting. You're the main things you you need living quarters and you need a garage, right? Yeah. And some office space, office space, living quarters, um kind of day rooms, a training room is important.

Parking. Um, but you know, the average fire station is right around 10,000 square foot and that works out pretty well. Um, you could go below that uh to 8,000. I I'll tell you, station two is kind of small. We we need some more base base space and more um as you you could tell, we had to build a gym behind it because it just didn't have that room. We would want those type of features built into the next station. Because I'm what my comparison is, what would it cost to buy a house on some land for living quarters? Yeah. And put a metal building for a garage space in it, too.

Yeah. I'm Yeah, because in theory, you can do that for under a million, but your turnout time. I mean, you got to be you have to be with the trucks. Any other extra door run across a field, you know? That's what I'm saying. You're just saying I'm saying with the house right next to it.

One of the largest costs on the cost of a fire station is the concrete cost because the has to be reinforced and and a lot thicker than what you would normally pour on like a house as an example. A lot of that cost is concrete cost. So, summary of findings, uh, current location, uh, is a little results in a little bit longer response time than what we want in in the south part of town. Replacing central with, uh, the justice center opens up that central area and may increase the response times back to box one, but in turn, it'll reduce response times back to box three. a three-station model um may result in a more reliable and equitable cur coverage to the whole core of the city. So uh when you're when you're uh looking at making a recommendation, there's some things we want you to consider. the city growth trends, developing areas, cost versus coverage tradeoffs, maint that downtown rapid response. Um, and then operational resilience uh for multiple calls. And we're seeing that more and more often now, the multiple calls at one time. Um, and what we're having to do is either release a truck early, um, or bring a truck in from a diff different district to come in or call mutual aid. That's happening more often.

Is that typically due to I35 issues than when it happens to get pushed on multiple calls? Yeah, I35 causes us I35 and 14 causes us a lot of heartache. Has there been any conversation, not to take this off the task, but has there been any conversation with our neighbors from Troy to Coppers Cove down to Cedo to have kind of a interstate response or with Bell County? Because you think about that, it's just a regional issue that like this morning we started the day with blockage of 35 in Belton. We ended the day with blockage on 35 in front of Bies. Y

I mean it's just two different municipalities, same issue and almost all of the res resources are directing traffic and that's all that's pretty much it's one it's one car that's toasted and just directing traffic. The 35 expansion has has brought those talks about. Okay. So at at a chief regional level, we're starting to to really evaluate um and make some recommendations to the county to help us out

and to text dot. Um, you know, a lot of the tollways in the Houston area have their own response teams. Um, but they're tollways, so they can afford that. Well, honestly, what would be great, not you know, you think about if we had a station at the justice complex, if there was a county vehicle or two that they could respond out to Nolanville or to Temple and they they're just centrally located and they're just backup to allow the Temple engine to be on site for four minutes and then they can move on in Bell County. What would really be great if they had a tow truck, the county had a tow truck to where they can get there and pull those vehicles off to the side of the road, let us clear that interstate even faster. Yep.

Okay. Sorry for the distraction. No, no, but uh of course, um closing statements. Remember our goal was a timely, reliable, equitable emergency services. Um we really think about that acceptable response times. um the future growth um and then the funding for the station and and the personnel costs that come along with that. Any questions? Any more questions? Oh yeah. Is mutual aid really mutual or does it cost us? We're not having to pay people back for helping us or vice versa. It

it's it's mutual. No, there there's no payback. Uh we do give mutual aid quite a bit and automatic aid quite a bit. Um but we get it quite a bit also. Okay. Yeah. I was just asking because when you're comparing, you know, if you staff a stationation because you need to cover all your own incidences or paying for mutual aid or somebody else to cover for us, then you throw that into the the comparison. But no, no. There's mutual aid agreements, countywide and statewide mutual aid agreements that that restrict us from charging anything on your staffing three stations, whether limited or full. Mhm.

If if central is restrictive spacewise, which we've heard before, y how do you staff that station with the newer bigger vehicles? We would probably maintain an engine at that station only and it would not get much bigger than what it is. Uh if that was fully staffed, it would be the engine and a blocker truck is probably what we would keep there if it was fully staffed. If it's going to be minimal staffed, we're going to keep the reserve engine there. Um a quick response truck and a blocker there. We still plan on taking that blocker out of central um either either way.

Okay. And I just want to say appreciate all the leg work and I think you guys did this in-house with all your polygons and times and we did

and didn't use software consultants. So appreciate the the leg work on that. So yeah, and we want to make sure we get this in front of you as as budgets coming around, things to consider, you know, not it may not happen this year, may not happen next year, but it it it's going to happen. Um it'll need to happen. Uh so those are type of things you have to consider when y'all are looking at that. So we wanted to make sure you guys got all the information you needed. Yeah, at this rate I don't know how to do it or when to do it, but I think on the wind question, if you can beat I35 imploded on the center site one way or another, you I I think that 121 access is not really being touched, which would get you over to that side of town a lot easier than coming from central and trying to get through

whatever that access looks like. So, yeah. Anything else? All right. Right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Oh, actually, sorry. I did have one more question. Yes. Were you you're talking about this with just fire. Are you using EMS? Is EMS included this calculation?

They are being considered and I'm working with Matt, the new EMS chief in this area and letting him know the justice center location versus this current central. He's starting to run his numbers to see if we were to move out to the justice center. Um, would they rather stay in central, is that where their call volume is, or would it benefit the city to move them out to the justice center? So, yeah, they're definitely a consideration. Are their time requirements similar to to what fire is? Their time requirements are seven and a half minutes. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Uh, Chief, if we if if we were to build a third station at the Justice Center, deciding what to do with the central station, I know we have to decide whether we're going to close it or do a a rapid response or fully staff, but that could also be something where we stairstep that. We say, "Well, for this goound, we think we can afford to do a rapid response." And later on if we say well that's not cutting it we need to fully staff it. I mean that that can be done in phases too right. Yeah because it wouldn't change the station

Sam actually talked about that in length and and in the study itself it it says in there hey recommend we recommend the the command staff recommends that you look at this as temporary and know that it could be stepped up to a fully staffed station at some point. Um, yes. Yeah, that would be that would be pretty easy to do. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Y

All right, that concludes the regular portion of our council meeting on Tuesday, February 10th. Um, the last item is an executive session. We will be taking no action afterwards. So, uh, everyone present that's not involved in the executive session may leave, but I will read these, um, for the record and, um, we'll take a pause for the cause. So, anybody on council who wishes to step out for a couple minutes may do so while I read this in the record. Uh, item 12 is executive session pursuant to the provision of the open meetings law chapter 551 government code Vernon Texas codes annotated in accordance with the authority contained in section 551.071 consultation with an attorney and the other is like it section 551.072 deliberation regarding real property. All right, thank you guys and have a great evening.