City Council - Regular Meeting

meeting to order. Would you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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. [clears throat]

As required by section 84-1412 subsection A of the Nebraska statutes statutes notice is hereby given that a copy of the opens meetings acts is posted for your examination on the wall inside the door to the city council chambers. Before we have roll call, I'd just like to welcome all of our guests this evening. It's nice to see good attendance at our meeting. Could we have a roll call, please? George Klein here. Shane Shepard here. Mark Graves here. Kevin Alexi here. Anderson absent.

Could we have a motion for approval of the agenda? I move to approve the agenda. Second that. Motion by Mark, second by Shane to approve the agenda. Any questions about the agenda? If not, could we have roll call, please? Klein, yes. Shepard, yes. Graves, yes. Yes. Have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Move to approve the consent agenda. A second.

Motion by Shane, second by Kevin to approve the consent agenda. It includes minutes for the special council meeting and regular city council meeting held November 17, 2025. There included in for the boards and commissions. There's minutes from the citizen advisory review committee uh community betterment meeting held November 4th, 2025 attached and also the minutes from the PRT problem resolution team meeting held on October [clears throat] 22nd. Special designated licenses that were administratively approved include Wild's Bar and Grill Postp Prom New Year's Eve dinner and dance fundra at the Shadron Arts Center on December 31st, [cough] 2025. Wild Bar and Grill for the Egg Banquet, which will be at the Daw County Fairgrounds on January 17, 2026. Wild Bar and Grill for the Shattering beautiful green gayla fundraiser at the Shatron Art Center for March 21st, 2026. That seems to be all. Any questions about any of those items? If not, could we have roll call, please?

Yes. Shepard, yes. Graves, yes. Yes. Okay. Introduction of new community service officer.

This is a joint position between planning and zoning and the police department chief report. [laughter] So, we're gonna ask Mike True Blood to come up, please. Mike's our new community service officer. Um, that position was in this year's budget. He just started a little maybe a month ago

and um he's already been on the job finding areas of concern. Um the type of complaints that he will be looking at are vegetation complaints, weeds, trees, shrubs, overgrown alleys, sidewalks, um snow. We started with snow. We talked about snow today. Um there are a couple other things he's going to be helping with and he's helping out my department and Rick's department. So that's why it's a joint position between the two departments. But Mike, if you'll come and introduce yourself, give them a little background. [clears throat]

Mike Triblad. I know most everybody. I've lived here since oh 1990. Moved here to go to college. Uh worked at the radio station for 22 years, Walmart for 14, and most recently Plat Valley Bank. Um four kids that are all grown. They all live here and three grandkids. So, uh, hopefully I can make a difference. That's kind of why I accepted this position. So, really, that's about it. There's not much. [laughter] Like I said, I know most everybody here anyway. So,

well, good good to have you in there. And I I don't know if the city manager will allow me, but I'll I'm going to get have a direct line to you about [laughter] weed weeds in the sidewalks. I for next summer. I I can hardly wait. All right, [laughter] I'll watch. Now, if you don't want to get those messages, you can get ahead of me. [laughter] Thank you. Yep. Thanks. I think he will get ahead of us.

Okay. Um, I need to recognize the city of Shadron Water and Wastewater Departments for the Scott Wilbur Award, Outstanding Facility, Gold Safety Award, and Silver Safety Award. Um, who does the presentation of that? Got Tori here. Tori,

uh, Tory Zuer, uh, 1590 South Maple. Um, we apply for awards every year for different stuff. Um, we have three that we received this year. Um, it's kind of a hit or miss when we get them, but uh, uh, Nicole Forny also helps me put in for all those. She does a lot of the leg work on that stuff. Um, so appreciate that with her. Um, but a lot of these awards also show that the guys are are uh doing what they're needing to be doing to keep things up and and do their jobs. So, um, we've got my entire crew here now. So, um, the one the Scott Wilbur is on the wastewater side for the facility and the other two are water related. Um, I believe the one with the that you'll see later here is with the frame was we were the only ones to apply for that this year is what I got told. But um, and then the other ones, the Scott Wilbur alone, there was like three or four different facilities that applied for that this year that I know of. And uh, we managed to get the gold award on that one. So, I don't have a whole lot else unless you guys have any other questions I can try and answer.

I'm going to add some things. I know Tori made it sound like they were the only ones that applied for it. That's because the other communities didn't think that they would be even come close to being recognized for some of these things. Some of them are based off of injuries called in. Some of them based on the appearances of what they do because they do have people come out here do a physical inspection or they'll do a video of doing the same thing. So it's it's not just, you know, just because of whatever things. I mean, they they put a lot of efforts into it that Tori and his crew should be commended for what they're able to do and completely get done for what they have. So,

thank you for doing that. And do we have some plaques that we want to present? [clears throat] Well, just you guys can do whatever you want. Okay. Maybe you guys We got to get a photo opportunity. Anybody got it on there [laughter] could be at the end be a bookmark. Come on.

Thank you guys. Job [applause] well done guys. Okay, next on the agenda is to recognize the city of Shadron for receiving the Shatron Urban and Community Forestry Project Grant. I think that's Scott's realm. He brought a Okay.

Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council. Scott Shremer, your parks cemetery and airport superintendent. I have also Rice Gerlock with me. He's one of our treeboard members and he works down at the NRD and he's going to be helping us facilitate this grant. Uh just a little bit about it, it is through the Nebraska Statewide Arboritum, but it's a federal grant. So, we were uh given $117,000 five or $17,550 and we are going to be doing tree removal, tree replacement, tree trimming, uh training, and some equipment and then a little bit of administrative cost goes through that stuff, too. So, uh some examples, you know, we have Bryce and I went out with Luke and Lucinda, a couple of board members last year before we even started working on this thing went and did some um assessments on trees and this is a uh basically a census type of a grant so only part of our community is even eligible for it. It's kind of weird because the way they the census blocks work here. It's u they call it a dysfunctional community for the and it's just because of the trees. I mean it's it's weird because like Crawford and Harrison, both of their communities are eligible for it, but Hay Springs and Rushville are not. Gordon is uh the next town uh part of Valentine. It's just broke up around the state on just different spot. It's really weird because like all of Scotsluff except like an eight block radius in the center of it qualifies. So, it's kind of weird. The one thing they did give us a little lenience on was that we get to use it's basically from Third Street to the north, but we get to use Finnegan Park and Memorial Park because of the schools. They won't allow Wilson Park, but they allowed those two parks at least that we

get to get to do some of the stuff in. Uh concentrating a lot of the trimming there so we don't have to do that. The tools uh that are in this grant are going to go to the parks department. So, we'll get less cost. It's about $4,000 worth of equipment we get out of this. So, a couple new saws, couple new pruning materials, and like I said, having Bryce and and Luke having tree tree guys at the NRD, you know, and they're mostly fire guys now, but [laughter] but uh it was we had it all put in place, so we were eligible for it. And when our our forester in Scotts have Chrissy Land, she asked if we wanted to do it and we went and talked to the NRD to back it. So because we didn't really have the staff to do the administrative side of it. So Pat O'Brien graciously took it upon himself to help and we met with Chrissy's replacement because she's out on maternity leave right now. She's going back till February. So our grant process is not going to start until February. But I think this is a good thing for the community. Get a lot of a lot of the old dead and dying trees that have been from the 87 hailtorm that are still there. So, it's a good way to clean some of them up. It will just be in the front yards and rightways. We don't have any street trees. So, that'll be the ones we're taking care of.

Any comments? So, a good deal on the parkways for for uh residents of Shadron. If uh Pat was telling me a story of uh how the the neighbor to NRD didn't want their tree taken down, uh is that something that's mandatory if they if they decide they don't want their tree trimmed or taken down?

We contact, you know, we contacted the property owners and we'll get permission to take them if we don't they don't that's their responsibility. Uh they just need to realize that this is an opportunity to get a a dead tree out of their front yard and a new tree planted. uh for every one we take out, we have to put one back in is the process. And we can plant more trees than we take out, so that's not an issue. So, we can go above and beyond that. Uh but we will respect property owners that don't want them removed, but we try to explain to them that that is their consequences. I mean, it's an opportunity to get it done for nothing,

get it cleaned out and a new one put in, and if they want to take that burden on themselves, they can. But yeah, it's it is one of those things where we did have somebody that we contacted already. They said, "No, you're not taking that out." And okay, if the tree falls on a vehicle or into a house, it's their dollar, not ours. So, that's that's one of the benefits of this is getting it done for for nothing. I mean, this is a huge deal for some of those because especially some of them are on rental properties where, you know, the landlords want to get them out of there and no cost to them. So, it's a good thing.

So, is it true that a lot of the trees that you guys looked at are kind of in the school districts to keep Actually, we have three up by uh the schools, the city schools. Uh the college wasn't in on this one. We didn't have that. We we might be eligible to do this again. This is only a one-year grant. So, we have to have this all done by next February. So, we're going to we're going to hit it. We hit it hard anyway. We already started to do this. The NRD will hire the contractors for the removals. Uh any of the pruning that'll be done will be done. Has to have myself, our licensed arborist there to verify it. And then we will have uh until Chrissy gets back, we have Kaden u it's her assistant and Scottluff will come up and verify most of the work when we're done. I'll just have to sign off on it. But so when they're pruning, I'll go make sure that we have qualified people pruning because we used our own basically our own uh literature that we have in our city codes for hiring arborist to do our work. So that's what they're going to do. planning them, they don't need an arborist, but when we're doing the the the removals and the trimming, they'll need to be a licensed arborist. So,

yeah.

Yeah. And the it's a one for one replacement. So, every tree that comes down will have to be replaced as well. And so, this grant also replaces those trees. And these are they have some uh requirements for the trees that go back in, but they're going to be really nice trees. Um, you know, good roots, good size. They're not like just little bare root trees. And then these are like two $300 trees and it's 100% uh paid for. So there's like no money in the land or the city or anything. And this will be going on our tree plotter, the program that we did with our tree inventory that we did a few years ago. It's all be on the program that we can go and look up all the information. You can see it all. You can see exactly where every one of them went. Uh you'll see everything that's trimmed. You'll see everything that's planted. And you'll see everything that's removed. So, we'll have to give them a species list. Pat and I are working on a species list that they have to approve, which we'll go with pretty four or five native trees that do really good here because we are kind of responsible for them. Uh there's a a 10-year watch on them. [clears throat] They're warrantied for the first year, but we we wanted to make sure they make it. So, we have to go and I have to be there when they when they plant them. So, they plan them properly or Bryce or Luke one of will have to be there when when they get planted so that they're done properly. because we are responsible for them for a year and then we want to they want a 10 year review on them. So that's one of the things that is nice about the tree plotter because it's all right there then you can go right back and just look it up. So

anything else? So where you say in your note 25 to 30 trees sickly or poor condition mo most of that is on private property. 20 it all is or city? Yeah. Or city property or city school property. So that's that's a big benefit. Yes. To Yes. But it all it all it's front front property too, you know, it's on right away. So, right.

But yeah, it's it's a huge deal. This is this is, you know, we we we didn't go too big. I mean, we went pretty big. I mean, this is a huge grant, but in a year's time, we don't have a lot of licensed arbit. I mean, we have the the groves, Logan and Kenny, that work around here, but other than that, we don't really have a whole lot of licensed arborists up in this part of the country. So, there's a lot of work to be done, and getting them planted back is going to be just as bad. So, But this is this is a good deal. So So is my black walnut in front of my office on the list? [laughter] You're on the wrong side of Third Street. Sorry, mayor. [laughter]

Oh, yeah. Well, I have mixed feelings about it. It's It's nice shade, but man, it's a [laughter] dirty black. Well, it's only dirty part of the year. And then of course and then we have to vaccinate it so we don't get aphids. Yep. Which we used to spray for that and then Bob Malone figured out he could vaccinate for Yep. We have them over by the community garden. He he does ours too. So [laughter] I thought he was crazy when he said I'm going to inject stuff in there. Seems to work.

Yeah, it does. [laughter] I think that's a nice Well, I think it's a wonderful grant to go in conjunction with our uh sidewalk um thing that we do. This is another thing that will help help the community. So, yeah. And it's great to have the extra partnership that we're getting with the NRD. Couldn't do it without them. Exactly. And the tree board's been tree board has been great. And that that's just good to get those ties going strong so we can continue to find these. We did did communicate with the Sher State College and they were just kind of a little they got there a little late. I I it partially my fault because we didn't really want to branch out that big, but I did tell them that if we do this again, we'll definitely include them. If we can apply again and try to get some more done, we will.

I think there's going to be three more years of this if I remember right. So, we just did. Awesome. So, we're going to try again.

Thank you guys. Okay. Well, all of us know that Deb Kadier is retiring from the NNDC, Northwest Nebraska Development Corporation, and she is the representative to the Panhandle Area Development District, otherwise known as PAD. and her replacement at NNDC is John Reed. So we're need to replace Deb is a representative to the pad. If someone wants to make that motion,

I'll move them I'll uh make a motion to approve. John Reed as the new representative development district. I'll second. Motion by Shane, second by Kevin. Was Was he immunanable to that? Yes. Okay. Okay. Just thought I'd ask [laughter]

u to appoint John Reed as to the panhandle area development district. We have roll call, please. Line, yes. Shepard, yes. Graves, yes. Alexi, yes. Okay. Item F on the agenda. Someone care to introduce that? I'll move to introduce resolution 2025-105. Move for move forth approval. Second

motion by Shane, second by Mark for resolution number 2025-105, which is to recommend award of the bid for the purchase of one new 2025 or newer halfton crew cab 4x4 pickup for the streets department. Good evening, council. Dustin Lass, street superintendent, 1013 East Nabera. Uh we received three bids total from Walro. one from Walstrom's, one from GMC of Shadron, and one from Eagle Eagle Chevrolet. And they were actually very close between the three of them. Walstrom Ford was $46,950 with an additional $250 for the running boards. GMC of Shadron was $47,899 and Eagle Chevrolet was $48,345. And I would like to recommend the award bid to Walstrom Ford for having the lowest bid at 47,200. Anyone have any questions? I I noticed that there's the drivetrain warranty is 60,000 5 years 60,000 miles.

Yeah. Was there a time when the manufacturers were giving commercial 100,000 miles? Yeah, but they did away with that or they used to. Now it's just the standard 60,000 miles for drivetrain. I was wondering if they were doing that when they were kind of trying out the smaller engines on I mean these are all and I asked this at the agenda meeting. These are all V V8s.

Yeah, the F-150 from Walstrom is a 5.0. GMC and Eagle are both 5.3s. Anyone have any other questions? Well, it also states that uh if Walford can't fulfill that that the next lowest one receives the bid. Yes. Do we have a roll call, please? Fine. Yes. Shepard. Yes. Graves. Yes. Alexi, yes. Okay. Anyone want to introduce?

I'll introduce resolution 2025-106 and move for its approval. I'll second that.

Motion by Shane, second by Mark, which is a resolution to declare property a surplus and authorize the same to be sold or discarded. Um it's fairly short list. Um, of course, probably the biggest item is the the first item, which is a 2003 Ford F450 ambulance. And there's another vehicle, some computer said, and 72 inch diesel Xark mower and a John Deere Gator and a Polaris Ranger. miscellaneous a little couple other little things. So what do you how are they sell the ambulance because that's I think is a good working ambulance right for some somebody or not.

Yeah Brandon [clears throat] Martin's fire chief. Um so yeah we did get the new one in and now our next step is to work on getting this one sold and moved forward. Um we have spoke with a couple different departments that have showed interest in it. Um right now it looks like Rapid City is looking to purchase this. So our step for us is just to get this listed with your approval kind of things so we can move forward. That was originally purchased through our in-house um donations and mailers kind of thing. Um and then we moved it through our governing body which is the city of Shattering and so it'll all go back into fund 28 as far as um going back after that.

But it is a good working ambulance. The same reason though we're trying to get rid of or trying to get a new one. It's also going to be a harder sell. I know we just purchased this one for 340. You know, it's going to be probably worth 25 35. It's hard to say somewhere in there. But that, you know, you look at the life of those ambulances that may only have 25,000, but there's a awful lot of idle time sitting there in some rough environments, things like that. So, um, it's done. It's good. And it's time to kind of update and get some better technology. in the [snorts] within the city. Tom, this isn't necessarily we're not going to have an auction or

No, we're we're not Brandon asked to have this surplus list and we had a few other things that we had accumulated at the time. So, the auction um to try to get rid of the the ambulance is best done through the fire department, but we put these other items there because there's every once in a while um auction uh companies would say, "Hey, we've got room for a little bit more and we'll have that list available for them to do that." So, it's an online auction versus [clears throat] Yeah. So, what we've done that with those in the past and they've been very very successful and I I plan on continuing with those online auctions. We get a lot more viewerships for them than we did when they were in person.

Anyone have any other questions? No. Could we have roll call, please? Flying? Yes. Shepard? Yes. Graves? Yes. Alexi? Yes.

Okay. The next item is um to motion to approve the city council meeting dates for the county year 2026. Um there's a list of there's in there and they're all on the first and third Mondays except for uh the day after Labor Day which is September 8th which was a Tuesday. Um, I looked at that and I thought, "Wow." Then I looked at the calendar and I said, "Okay, this is as late as Labor Day can be." I think on the 7th, if I interpreted that right, anyone have any questions about those dates? Could we have roll call, please? We need a motion.

So moved. Motion by Kevin and seconded by I'll second that. Second by Shane. We have roll call, please. Klein, yes. Shepard, yes. Graves, yes. Alexi, yes. Okay. I'd like to make a motion to approve the claims as presented.

Second that. have any questions about any of the claims? Um Shane noted that you know we're he asked me about the storm water bond payment and I told him I believe we just pay the principal once a year and the interest twice a year and we also have an payment for the sewer plant I believe payment And the and I'm sure everybody is waiting for my comment about the WEX bank. We got hit with a $86541 finance charge. We How would What do we do wrong? What we did wrong with that is we sent the check in the mail to the corporation and they did not get it in time is what happened. We are trying to get it corrected by doing the AC now. Initially that was not approved and now it is.

Anyone have any other questions? I just had one question about the open arts center rent. Was that part of the the uh tourism grant that's just kind of passing through? Creative district

creative district grant. Yeah, sorry. M represented that. That's going to come up every month for the next year. I think we're a couple months into it already if I recall correctly. Okay. [clears throat] Um we have somebody second my motion. Yes. Okay. We have a roll call, please. Klein, yes. Shepard, yes. Graves, yes. Alexi,

yes. like to introduce resolution 2025-107 to excuse council member Clay Anderson from this meeting. He sent me a text this afternoon that he came down with some kind of bug. So, I'll second that. I said I didn't want it and seconded by Mark. Could we have roll call, please? Klein, yes. Shepard, yes. Grace. Yes. Alexi. Yes.

Okay. Public comment period. Anyone wishing to address the council on a matter not on this agenda may now do so. Individuals are allowed a total of three minutes to speak.

Hello everyone. Cheryl Welch, re recently retired high school teacher. Uh, I'm I'm here today because I was I'm representing a group of people and families who were concerned about the Shadrad article that was posted on the 26th of November uh regarding the um city transit stopping transportation for kids. um what the article so we saw that it wasn't on the agenda and um Tom are you going to be speaking about that at all?

Okay. I guess what I would like to say is when I was in the high school there were kids that were picked up every afternoon. Usually middle school students would come running in to pick up those let the high schoolers know the bus was there. What I know the article said that they've had about 17 kids and that it was described as a great program that has been utilized by a lot of families for the last two years. I understand that Julie said because of increase in wrership that wasn't um explained but I think maybe in other times of the day uh and shortage of staff. I'm really concerned about those kids who have been catching rides with the via the bus. We've worked a long time in this city to try and figure out how to best support families to get their kids to school. And to stop the program potentially in the beginning of January, as principal Libby Mack said, is very unfortunate timing. And I hope that um as Julie said, they will re-evaluate if they can find another driver. Apparently, there's someone um leaving a position. But I really hope that we find the means in which to support this service because it is a great opportunity for us to help the ed foster the education of kids in our community and get those kids to school who otherwise might not have a way to get there or walk which in the winter and with the lack of some of the sidewalks that we know we have is not a anything we want to see happen. So thank you very much. Um, I'm here in support of

retaining that uh bus service for students. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. May I respond to that, mayor? Um, certainly. Okay. The [clears throat] one thing is the article is not correct. Okay. Transportation will be still allowed for the students. It just will not be be prior to 8:00. Right. And the reason

Yes. And I know school starts at 8, but the reason being is we would start picking up kids as early as 6:45 in the morning. That means our drivers have to be there by 6:15 and those hours that are being taken out um are not necessarily available then for the rest of the day. when you start losing certain people or whatever. We did talk to the administration and we told them that this is going to be an issue that the students are still allowed to drive or ride the buses both pickup and delivery. So that is not true in the the article itself and I

they did say that if two if parents [clears throat] call by 7 a.m. to schedule the pickup at 8. And here again, that's one of the things that we're we're trying to get all worked out so that we can try to help getting some of the kids there, but we can't guarantee that what we've done been doing in the past just because of, like I said, the staffing of of what we have here. Now, as far as the the wrership, um it's one of those that it's a tough decision. Um we have people that have medical appointments. We have people that have other appointments that are just as important as kids getting to the schools and it's unfortunate that we had to cut down the hours. We're not saying they can't ride. We're just saying we're not going to provide that early in the mornings. And so that's one of the biggest issues that we have to to concern or cons contain with what we're trying to do here. And it was a very difficult decision because Julie was the one that was the biggest supporter for it. She loves having the drivers love to have those kids on there and everything else. But it's one of those things that we cannot dedicate a driver and a vehicle to that for those times of hours every day during school time.

So then just a question. Um, if there is a new driver hired, is the program finished as far as getting to kids, getting kids to school on time? Once we get back up to staffing on what we're needing to do, we'll re-evaluate at that time. But it takes time to train new people to do some of these things, too. And as you well know, not everybody can drive for kids

or teach kids or anything else. You have to have that special person that's going to be willing to do those things. So, it is difficult to find in our community a person that's willing to do it. Our current person that does it does a great job. Great job. But it's one of those things that we have to make the decision. We're still offering the dried. It's just going to be later for them. and talking to the administrators and and I know talking to several of them um we asked you know we know that this is going to cause some headaches and they said we still want the kids to come even if it's an hour and a half late two hours late it's better than not having them there at all and so that's one of the issues that we had to deal with.

How many drivers do we have and how much do how many hours per week do they work? We have, I believe, right now, three drivers and they work approximately 20 hours a a week for that driving. And then we have one supervisor as well. And the service is from 8:00 a.m. to 3:45. Is that correct? Correct. Yep.

Okay. Thanks for that clarification. I appreciate it. would just like to reiterate if we can keep this service for kids. Getting to school two hours late is a bad deal. I know getting them to school, we want them in school obviously, but uh if you can make that work, u it would be better for our community. I do know that the school has a a person that's been hired as well to do that too. And so that is another source out there. I think you're referring to the social worker perhaps

and that person has been a been notified and kept in the loop of our anything [cough] that we've got going on and so we are trying to make every effort to do whatever we can do but there is only so many things that we can do and unfortunately this is a service that we [clears throat] have to cut back until we can get better staffing for what we're doing. Okie do. Thank you. Okay, thanks again. Anyone else? Not um city manager report.

Thank you, mayor. Um couple things. I just wanted to say thanks to the NRD and Pat O'Brien and his crews for helping out with the the tree grant. It's a huge service. I hope everybody that's offered that is able to and willing to take advantage of it and so we can maybe get some extra ones down the road. Uh second thing is is I appreciate MPPPD and all of those that actually started putting up all the Christmas decorations and stuff. That's a huge task. Um we had street shop, we had parks, we had everybody Yeah, Mark. you know, cable company was over there, too, as far as doing all of those things that we're doing. And and it just makes the community feel Christmas this time of year. And then with that being said, [clears throat] Mother Nature provided us with a snowstorm that was a little bit more than what was anticipated and expected. Um, you know, everybody that was looking at what the weather forecasts were, um, we didn't anticipate the severe cold that we got behind this. Um, There was times where they were saying trace amounts of snowfall was going to happen. We didn't get quite that. We got quite a bit more. Um and so with that being said, uh when you go from a 40 45day degree day into a negative windchill factor of I heard as high as 16 below the next day, um it's tough for the guys to be able to get out there and get everything cleared off. So unfortunately ice is going to build up and the guys are working diligently trying to keep everything done and I thought they did a really good job. We had guys out on Saturday morning as early as 1:00 in the morning. Um they uh cannot make the entire town with our only three drivers that we had

at that time trying to get everything done. Um, and so I appreciate the public and the fact that they need to have some of those things uh cleared off and they they got safety concerns, but I also appreciate our guys willing to go in as early as they did uh to do everything they could to keep the streets as safe as possible. Now, for the next several days, there's going to be more sanding. We've got snow pickup tomorrow morning um and uh due some technical difficulties. Red or the code red was not functionally being able to use. So, we're going to use ShadraD to help us out and we're hoping to use this council meeting to let everybody know we're going to be picking up all the rows uh tomorrow morning with the snowblowers. Uh they're going to start at four o'clock in the morning and hopefully have most of it done. I I think they'll have it done by 8:00 unless we have a breakdown of some sort. But um I I just uh snow removal is one of those things that you hope to do everything. I'm not driving a truck, so I think Dustin's going to be all right. I won't break anything for him. But um it's one of those things that it's it's something that uh people have to got to understand. We've got some new drivers. We're training new people. Um, but if you have concerns or comments about any of the streets, please give me a call down here at city hall 432 0505 and I'll try to address any kind of questions that you have. We had a few things that uh could have been done maybe a little bit better, but for the most part, I think the guys did a really really nice job throughout the entire community. Uh, the last thing I wanted to bring forth is something that uh maybe the public should be aware of on some of it. December 5th from 2:30 to 4:30 at the Shadam Public Library is the Christmas party and Rosella uh provided me an

article and I think I forward everything to the council members but there will be live music, food, drinks, bake sale, crafts and Mr. Nick will show up. So and that's all I have tonight.

Thank you Tom. Tom, when you mention drivers are so there are additional drivers being trained for snow removal or we have new personnel in that department that's learning some new responsibilities. Um and that's one of the things that we still have to work with that work with them to determine make sure that they're going the proper speeds. Um, one of the things too that I know Dustin's wholeheartedly behind this, if the sidewalks and driveways are scooped out already, you know, we get citizens up there early enough, we don't want to block them in again. And sometimes we get so we we just need to do better on some of those kind of things. And unfortunately, it does happen. Um, sometimes we don't have any other place to go with it, too. And so I I'm hoping that the public understands when we do snow removal, it's not because we don't like you and we're going to move the snow there, but it's one of those things. It's tough to move the snow out of the streets so people can drive decent uh without putting it someplace. But they do everything in their power and that's what they need to do is continue working at doing that. Um and and it just takes time and experience. You know, several years back, I I was told, you know, many years ago, they were able to do all of this and everybody was happy and everything else. I never heard of a happy snow removal time. There was always somebody that had some issues. [clears throat] And like I said, these guys are going out at 1:00, 2 o'clock in the morning to go out and take care of it. It's not only just the streets, it's all the airport guys are doing it so that we can continue getting our EAS services into town. Um, so it's it's one of those things that it's takes a lot of people to get a lot of stuff and and when you consider how big our crews are, we don't hire any seasonal help to do this. We grab people

from other departments. um water, our utilities department provides extra personnel, but our utility department's three right now. We don't have a full group of them. So, uh it's one of those things that yes, uh we are still training and trying to get everybody experienced on some of these things and we just need time and so I'm asking the public to give us some patience while we're working through all of these learning curves. Fair enough. Okay, thank you. [clears throat]

Okay, council closing comments. I've been voting first, so I get the pleasure of going ahead. Um, I have a nice summary given to me by my executive secretary, otherwise known as Emily. [laughter] Um, but I'd like to thank you cable company, the great planes doing the Christmas lights and I don't know if anyone else was involved. I reiterate shopping local. Um, this Thursday we have tree lighting at the gathering space. Um, a first flush for the uh new restrooms. Uh, pray to lights festival of trees at the courthouse and the holiday concert at Shad State College at 700 p.m. and Chris Kringle Boutique at holiday guest des on Saturday at the fairgrounds 9 to 4. So, I think that pretty well takes care of everything you think you said about everything I was had on my list, too, George. Uh, also like to um thank Emily um Klein for decorating the uh chambers this year again. Um, and I'd like to thank uh Mark who works for the cable company and their uh task that they did on Third Street and Maine putting up the holiday lights and and MPPPD's uh um job for putting up the star over the uh the bank downtown area.

Well, winter is definitely here now. So, just uh reminder to everyone, give yourself a little extra time to defrost your windows and and uh drive a little slower because sometimes streets can be a little slick. So, just uh be careful. Well, just kind of on the the back of what we've talked about a little bit tonight, um I grew up not in Shadron. I grew up in in areas that had uh busing to school and that frequently was how I got to school. Um so I am a little disappointed that that this is I understand this is what you know we have to do within our budgets and within our um staffing. Um but I I really hope that we can work and I I intend to to keep an eye on it um to help get kids to school on time. Um, I I spoke to one of the drivers today that primarily takes kids to school and and he said that he would prefer to keep doing that. You know, he thinks it's the right thing to do. Um, but he's got to work within the parameters of the job. Um, I would just like to say I I think that's a great job uh for a retiree or someone with a little extra time. Uh, somebody in our community perhaps you're watching right now. um you know might be the person that could help bolster the ranks of the uh bus drivers and allow us to to maybe be a little bit more flexible like we had been. Um if if we don't have the people like like Tom said, you know, if you don't have the driver there, you're kind of stuck with what we can offer. But I understand that uh you know 90% of that ridership is is not school children and people do depend on it to get

groceries and medical appointments and other things. So we are trying to serve the broadest uh you know slice of of shattered citizens that we can. Um but get getting to school on the bus is important too. That's all I like to make a motion to go into executive session for personnel matters. I'll second that motion by me. Second by Shane. Could we have roll call, please? Yes. Yes. Yes.

650 hospital.

Okay. the hour being 7:35. Motion we come back and general session. I'll second motion by me, seconded by Kevin. Back in general session. Could we have roll call, please? Yes. Shepard, yes. Graves, yes. Yes. I make a motion we adjourn. Second motion by Shane, second by Mark to adjourn. Roll call, please.

Who made the motion? Who second? Shane motion. Okay. Klein, yes. Yes. Graves. Yes. Alexi, yes.