Mayor and Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Hey, we're live, Mayor.

It's Saturday Night Live.

Okay. All right. This meeting of Mayor Maura Alderman of the City of Cleveland is now in session.

Anybody coming to have a business with this board, please come forward and she'll be heard.

A little rough this morning. I ain't ready yet.

You didn't have a run through.

You hit the high spots. All right.

Well, I've got Greg and his group in the waiting room. If y'all are ready, I can go ahead and admit them. Yeah, let's do it.

Let's get these department heads out of the way and move on. Do you need to pull their budget up, or are you going to wait until they get there?

I have. Let me go ahead. I've got it open. I'll go ahead.

Are they in front of a laptop or something where they can see? They are.

They're going to be on Zoom, so I think they're all in Greg's office. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen so that we'll be ready. All right, and if y'all are ready, I'll go ahead and admit them.

All right. Open the door.

All right, Greg.

Morning.

Good morning. How are you doing?

I have got, I'm doing well, thank you. I've got both assistant chiefs in here as well as Wes Williford, the chief, so any questions? I'd be glad to answer them and whatever y'all like.

Got your budget pulled up.

Okay. Can you see it? Yes, sir.

Okay. We did move that training site concrete to the bond.

Okay. That's going to go underneath the training props that we're ordering this budget.

Okay.

They should be here today, so you should see that PO come through.

Okay.

All right.

Greg, I don't think we had any issues with y'all's department.

I don't have an issue. I got a clarification I'd like.

Yes, sir.

Your telephone expense, $1,000 a month, is that for your officers' cell phones?

That's just there. That's just there. Telephone and internet in the office.

Okay. Okay.

Yes, it all goes in there.

Does that include e-dispatch?

No, sir.

Where does that go?

Is that a contracted service, Michelle?

I think so. I can look and verify that, Brian, to be sure.

Where is the line Paul is talking about? Which line is that?

241. I didn't know at all.

There's three stations and telephone and all that. And internet.

The majority of it is probably internet.

Yes, sir.

Yeah. I'm just curious.

Well, so our phones are actually voice over IP. So we're on, the city's on fiber. So you don't really pay a separate fee.

It's all in the internet charge.

It's all in there together. That's right.

We have the same thing.

Yes, sir.

We're not making a note on the $2 million truck.

Who is that phone service with?

C Spire.

I'm surprised his is that much just for his offices.

They have three stations all with

Oh, so all three stations are on that number. Okay. All right. Well, that's probably okay then.

As well as internet.

Right. Okay. Then the fire protection fund, Greg, we actually put the equipment, the generator with the cascade system and the air packs.

I just want to clarify, we did size down just to cover the bay doors and all that stuff in Station 3, right? We didn't get one to do the whole station? Exactly. Okay.

That's what I thought.

I mean, will it keep your phone service open?

Well... If we knew you had an emergency situation, we would probably go into radios out there.

I would think that generator, if it's strong enough to open those doors, it would also provide enough electricity to keep your phones activated.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it would do phones, lights, everything included in the lights.

Probably wouldn't run the air conditioner.

No, sir. It would tell a lot, isn't it? No air conditioning, no heat. But actually, the heat is gas out there, so it would actually run the heat as well.

Yeah, so it's just got an electric starter.

Yes, sir. Someone asked what kilowatt the generator is.

That's a 20kW, and it would have an automatic transfer switch on it.

Okay. 20k is pretty strong.

Yeah, it's going to run the bay. I mean, it'll run the lights and all the doors in the bay. Okay.

But you said it wouldn't run your AC. Is that correct?

That's right. The bay's not air-conditioned, no, ma'am.

Okay.

We did get a quote to do the whole station that would run the air conditioning and the kitchen and all that, and it was quadruple what the one y'all were looking at.

It was $80,000.

That's right. It was $80,000. That one right there is right at $20,000, I think.

Yeah. What kind of generator are y'all looking at? I don't have them.

It's a Kohler.

Kohler?

Good.

Yeah, I saw a Generac burn up recently.

That was a Kohler that you saw burn up. It was?

That was a Kohler that burned up.

That was a Kohler that burned up.

Yeah, I got a good picture of it.

Yeah.

I got three Kohlers and unfortunately they hadn't burned up.

I don't have any questions, Jerry.

No, I'm good. I'm good, Greg. Unless y'all have something specific y'all need to talk to us about. I don't have any.

No, sir.

Five-year plan.

Yeah, I just, again, only five-year plan. Wes just mentioned that. I did turn that in to you to be aware on what's coming up in five years. No surprises. Yes, sir. Greg, was that 1.4?

At this point?

They're anywhere between 1.1 and 1.4. Yes, ma'am. And that's equipped. Okay. And, of course, we won't know five years from now. That's right.

That's right.

What we're looking at right now is going ahead and getting a committee on that truck. and trying to lock in a price. They'll let us lock in a price four years ahead of time, so that would be a 2030 truck. We can get that committee together and probably by springtime get a price locked down for you, and then we'll miss out on any price increases between now and 2030. Okay.

That's good. We can go on it. That'll help us start bonding it next year. We can start bonding it over the next four years. Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

I feel like we were just doing this.

Yeah. Now, one thing we did talk about at one point, I don't think we have mentioned it in this conversation, is Seeing if there's a way that we could get in touch with IHL and get them to give Delta State some more money for fire protection. Delta State doesn't have it in their budget, you know, but I think we need to reach out to IHL because they give Ole Miss and Mississippi State over a half million dollars apiece for their fire departments in those cities.

Yeah, they give that directly into their one fund for fire. It's the same fund that they have at the physical plant for electrical contracting and all that. It's at the university. I talked to Chip Cooper, I mean, probably two or three times. And it's going to be pretty much up to Delta State to request how much of an increase they do. And then when they get that money, it'll go into contracted services and they determine how much they give to the local fire departments and And I've still got all those materials. You know, we went two or three or four meetings, talked to, it's been as far as back as when Blancet was there. And then I talked again to Dr. Kraft. And at one time, they were not in a good position out there. They seem to be doing well. I mentioned to Michelle that probably that meeting needs to come up here pretty soon. We were really wanting our... our new mayor to come in, you know, with everything's happened out there at Delta State. And, you know, we're in a good position right now to go ask for some more money, just to put a long story short. They are, we are, and I've mentioned two or three times about that, and sitting on ready with all the paperwork. So whenever y'all want to do that, I'm sitting on ready to do it.

I would hope Ennis would be in the conversations. It'd be great if he would be in that meeting. Absolutely.

Yeah. But I would, I would really like mayor, I would really like for us to write a letter to Teresa Hubbard. She is, she's on the IHL board and she is a great supporter of Delta state. You're muted, Paul. Can y'all hear him?

No.

Sorry, I hit the button. Okay. Yeah, I think we need to go to her.

Yeah, we just need to send it to Teresa and let her take it. Because she's about the only person I know on the IHL board that's a Delta State graduate.

I can work on that next week, Mr. Gaines, please. Make it happen.

Yeah. We need to tell them it's what we're doing. That's the only thing.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And Dr. Kraft as well.

Yeah.

Did you say Dr. Kraft?

Yeah.

Who is that? He's a financial guy out there. Yeah. New Wayne Blanchard.

He's with the Board of Trustees?

No, no. It is going to be our main shot, though. Yes. Okay.

The last time we met out there, Blanchett was there, and that's when we increased from $100 to $1,000. Yes, sir, it's comical. 2007. That's the date on that letter. I've got that file in my office.

2007 is when we went to $1,000 a month? Yes, sir.

Oh, yeah, we've got a whole lot of them. We've got some room to make up. Yeah.

Okay. Greg, unless y'all have anything else to talk about, we appreciate what y'all do for us. Thank y'all so much.

Yes, sir.

Thank y'all, gentlemen.

Thank y'all.

Appreciate y'all staying this morning.

Appreciate y'all's support. You got it. Thank you.

Who we got?

Ashley, you want to text Christian? He came on early and I text him back and told him he was at nine. He came on at 830. I'll call him or quit. Okay. So after I put in the 5% across the board decrease, I don't know if y'all noticed that on the general fund also when I shared fire department. But on the park fund.

You did that on all the funds we're having trouble with?

I did it on every fund that had payroll. Okay. So this is now the park fund deficit. So you could, obviously you've got mowers. I mean, that could, anyway, I guess we can look at that more. I'll go ahead and admit Christian.

Mayor, how many mowers? Did you look at that mower inventory? Yeah.

We did. 22.

22, okay.

Throughout the city, right?

Right, throughout the city. I think you told me two of those were dead. They just weren't marked on my list that they were dead. 11, 20.

I think we've got Christian.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Oh, I'm blessed. How are y'all?

Doing well. Alrighty. Got your budget pulled up. We did move Scoreboards to the bond. And I removed the benches because you actually have money from a previous bond year for benches.

Awesome.

So you're good on those two things.

And on the scoreboards, I've talked to Mr. Homer and we are going to meet next week to see if it'll be something that he can do for me.

Okay.

That's great.

Yeah, he's been real supportive in that area, Christian.

I like him. We're not doing scoreboards. We're doing soccer boards. They must be French.

Oh, did I? Yes. Those are very special.

Those are very special. Yes. They will speak two languages.

I figure if I make them very special, we're more likely to get donations.

That's exactly.

I've been typing a lot on this thing. That's funny. Thank you.

No problem. Christian, as usual, we are struggling with this park fund. Trying to find any place we can reduce cost.

Be more efficient.

I got it. And that's, that's going to be this coming year. This last, the last two years is I've been training my coordinator. So I'll be able to put a little bit more focus into this. I think we've got a good coordinator. Landon's done amazing this year. So I think I'm going to be able to take my hands off of that a little bit and actually put more, one of my big focus this year, you know, we had the issue with the concession stand. So we'll put a little bit more focus on that and, Getting a routine and kind of improving that area.

Management and supervision is what you're saying.

Christian, you know, thinking about concession stands for a minute. If you go to virtually any park or any kind of sporting event anywhere in this country now, there's no cash.

Credit card only.

I would be willing to try it. The only issue is I think about 80% of my revenue, I think, probably comes from cash. I understand.

You're not a big revenue generator anyway. I would try it.

Yeah, you know, the thing of it is, I mean, even if you go to a bioacademy football game, you can't buy a hamburger without a credit card or debit card.

And I see these mamas handing these kids these debit cards at these games. So I think there's more than we think.

We will definitely look at trying that this coming year. People will change. Yeah.

If I'm being honest, myself included, there are a lot of people that don't walk around with cash. You may see actually an increase.

Yeah. I'm willing to try for sure. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.

I feel like the tournaments that the kids go to, like all those ball places, are cashless. So a lot of parents are used to it.

I'll be happy not to touch cash.

The other ones will just figure it out.

Well, it'll be a whole lot easier. It'll eliminate all your internal control problems.

It don't hurt my feeling to go cashless.

Christian, I know we got- Start announcing it a couple months or whatever before you actually-

yeah just put up a sign the concession stands effective such and such date concessions will be cashless whatever christian i know we have a lot of questions um but one of my questions is uh what what do we we need tournaments is there anything we can do to make this happen

We're actually working on that. We have three set up. We have one September 19th, one in October, and one in November. They haven't made yet. We don't have enough teams signed up yet, but we're doing what we can. Then this summer, we're going to be working and having a soccer tournament out at Fiducia. Then Matt Ray and his crew, they have a new travel ball team set up, and they've gotten with Batesville and some other surrounding cities, and they've told them, hey, if y'all come to our tournaments, we'll come to y'all's tournaments. So we're looking at doing a, at least doing a 6U this fall, 6U baseball tournament as well.

So the ones you got scheduled for this fall, they're all baseball tournaments?

softball softball okay so so use your advisory board ask for help put it on the internet you i mean just get it out there okay yes sir 100 i've gotten with um i've gotten with tourism as well and delegate the responsibility tell me we got to bring these things in okay

And we are, it's in the making. We're going to see it. It's not 100%, but it's in the making. We're going to try to do, during spring break, do a wood bat tournament for high school.

Christian, just like you just pointed out, utilize those guys and ladies that have your travel ball teams that are going out. You know, get them to help you bring some of this stuff. Yeah. You know, that's how you can make some of those contacts and get some of that stuff in. Michelle, can we go down to the bottom and see where we are on this? Where did we land with Christian?

I have a question for Christian. Christian, why do we need a F-250 truck?

We need something that can pull. I have the F-150 I have right now. One, I need another truck because I got one this year that ended up getting put in the graveyard. And I have one sitting out here. I can't even crank it right now. It goes hot. But we need something that can pull. When I go get the dirt, the field conditioners and the sure dry and the mound clay, and I borrow a lot of equipment from public works, some heavy equipment to pull around. And it seems like every time I pull it with my truck, it sounds like it's gonna try to die. The belt is like it's slipping or something. It's a lot of pressure on it. So just needing something that can pull without damaging anything farther.

What's the biggest piece of equipment you borrow from public works?

We get there, the bobcat's the biggest and heaviest. How often do you do that? At least two to three times a year. It depends on the projects we have or what comes up and what happens.

For two or three times a year, can't public works pull it out there for you?

Yeah.

Well, their trucks are usually being occupied. So I still, but I would still need to get it. Like I said, even if we don't get the F-250, I would need to get, I would need a truck because I don't have enough trucks for the personnel that we have.

Is there a much difference in cost with that lease?

The lease difference between the F-250 and the F-150 is not going to be a tremendous amount of money.

$2,000. $2,000. $2,000.

What, Brian?

$1,000 a month. What kind? Is that a two-wheel drive or a four-wheel drive?

Well, that's a lease purchase. You know, it pays out.

Is it a two-wheel drive or a four-wheel drive?

The 250 is all four-wheel drive, right?

No, it's a four-wheel drive.

Do you need a four-wheel drive?

I would imagine it pulled better. We have a two-wheel. I mean, the F-150 we have is a two-wheel drive. And when we're pulling, it doesn't have a whole lot of power.

You know, one of the things they look at is, I had some of them, and it's the F-150 Fords, but they have those little engines in them, and that's what they put in them, pretty standard, unless you order that truck and get that bigger engine in it. But they're F-150s, but They put that small Ford engine in it. Gas saving engine. Maybe we need to look at the bigger horsepower engine and look at them. You may have those little engines in them. And they're not very good engines in my opinion. Don't kill Tyler Cannon, I said that.

I'll make some phone calls. One thing, Christian, you know, our gymnasium, since we've got it better equipped for air and heat now, it's obviously become one of the most popular buildings in town. Seems like every time I ride by there, you have a ton of cars out front.

It's usually about seven days a week.

Yes. I think we need to pay special attention to the looks of the grounds around that gymnasium.

That has been addressed. Yes, sir.

um it just you know that's it's such a reflection on the city when you walk up and the grass is not cut or we got flower beds that look like a dump you know we we need that we need to really clean that area up we can make that happen you know because one of the things we're going to move that building and build a parking lot over there which will be extremely helpful

Christian, are we still having some of our people offering to do dirt work, to do chemical work, spraying? Are you utilizing those friends of the city that ask?

Nobody really. If they ask me, they want to get paid. So it ain't volunteer.

Okay. I was talking to Bateman the other day and he said he, he had a few people that might be able to offer some help. So I'll get him to, you know, Bateman. Yes, sir. All right. I'll check with him and see what that was all about.

Matt, do something out at your fields the other day, a couple of weeks ago, maybe.

He, he comes out there. He's been helping a whole lot. Um, it's kind of like his baby. He did the dirt work. So he, he comes out there, um, on a, on a regular basis and, and kind of just helps. And, and I use him as a, uh, information and he kind of helps. And we, uh, when he, he kind of oversees it a little bit, I guess you can say, and if he, if he asks for something to be done, we try to make it done. Uh, we, we got out there last week and we, he, he donated a nail drag, a really nice nail drag to us. We got out there and nail drug, uh, and, you know, drug it out, watered it, weed eat it, kind of get it. And then this week, plan on getting over at the softball fields and getting those nail drug. And then next week, we're going to work on some Amzie Moore fields as well.

Regarding to the fields, how are our pitching mounds? Are they okay?

As of right now, they're probably just average. But then when we get closer to season, we put more. Because we have the It's a portable mound that we put dirt around. So we move it back and forth and then different distances and different things like that. But they're pretty good.

You know, of all the acreage that we have to cut, there's only a small amount of it that's inside baseball or softball fields. The rest of it is perimeter type stuff. Are we using an efficient way to cut that? Are we using mowers that are bigger than zero turns?

We're not, we don't have anything. Well, I mean, rephrase that like here at the armory we use, we have the bush hog and at fiducia the back or that South end of fiducia we use, we have a big tractor with a bush hog when it works. We use that to cut, But other than that, we use, excuse me, we use mowers, but I've been in talks and doing some research and we're going to try to get a more routine area and have all our mowers. If it takes Landon and I getting out there cutting, we're going to have on the two days, I think we can get it done in two days and we're going to try it. Guys might have, you know, one of those things, they have the ability to work through lunch and to make sure we get it cut so we're not stopping and going. But we're in the process of trying to get a better routine to make sure everything's cut and staying squared away.

Yeah, I know when you're trying to cut grass on 160 or 180 acres, it's a full-time job. But if you had something wider, because about the biggest thing you can get in zero turn is probably seven feet. Correct. You know, I don't know what you could get in a finish cut more.

I'd have to do some research and look. Okay. Just a thought.

Anybody else have any questions of Christian?

Yeah. Yeah, I do, Gary. I noticed in here, uh, There was a quote, more than one quote for the camera, but one of the quotes had expired and I just wanted to make sure that it was still being honored. Yes, sir. And secondly, as yesterday's discussion came up, you know, I've talked about this as it relates to Lupus Street Park. Yes, sir. I know we all talked about trying to keep park uniform. And we want to do the very best we can in doing so, but we have to be cost efficient. Is it to the point where we're going to not have Rubens Creek Park, you know, to the point where it's different, it's going to look the same as all other parks, how are we planning to do that?

The goal is for all my parks. I want something in every park so that everyone are being utilized. We're taking care of them, putting the money into it. uh kids out in the parks is is kind of my goal and um so my goal is my best opportunity is to get what we can out there um we've had some equipment donated that we we could put out there um but and if that's not where the board would like to put the equipment that's donated would like something else then we can you know y'all can just let me know where you would like it put and then the funds that we had it would be you know where y'all would like those funds to go If we don't put anything there this year, one of my goals will be to get with Peter Rock Church and see if they would be willing to help with the playground equipment because it would benefit them.

This is that little bitty park straight across from the church?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so I called Terrence Rash. Awesome. And I asked him would they be interested in working with us with the park. He has no response. I don't think they utilize that park for nothing. Okay. Because, I mean, I talked to him personally, and I gave him every opportunity to say, you know, we'd be glad to fix that park up for him, and he basically had no response, which indicated to me he didn't care too much for it.

Hey, Gary, let me say this, huh? And I want us to do the right thing. What I'm saying is that I don't know about the church and their role in it. And I'll do my best to do a survey with some of that community right there just to find out exactly what's being stated. I don't want them to feel like their voice wasn't being heard. But I just want us to continue working on it and do the best thing.

I know. I guess my thing is, Robert, How much money do we spend on parks that are totally underutilized?

Good question. I have no idea.

Well, I think Christian was doing his best to get equipment in all the parks. I understand. And he's got some very nice equipment that's been donated.

No, I have no problem with that donated equipment.

Christian did you send Michelle a picture of that yeah I have plenty I can send plenty I can send them to her and she can email them the equipment's in good condition I don't think it's older than four years old and it was in shade it's in shade majority of the day of where it's located I mean I think we most of us have some sort of little small park in their ward and none

park get closed, but we've got so much land to cover and to maintain and to keep up. At some point, we've got to make a decision. Do we want to scale back the park or do we just want to fund this thing? Because, I mean, it's a service. It's not going to make money. We know that. We just got to figure out how much we want to or can put into it to keep this thing operational and viable. I think that's Gary's point.

Yeah, I mean, it's just like, I know Brian's talking about that little exchange park that's on the end of 7th Avenue.

And it needs updated.

It's got metal slides. That park is probably less than a quarter of an acre.

That's a park, in my opinion, that does not need anything in it.

It doesn't need anything. Nobody's over there.

Nobody sits foot in that park.

You say that, I see people in that park.

Which one? 7th?

It's on Yale, North Yale.

Okay.

I mean, you don't see dozens of people, but when we're out riding around chicken, you know, just doing our thing every couple weeks, there's one or two kids there here and there.

We played there when I was a kid.

My kids did too, but it just doesn't look like it's used as much. And I'm just basing it on just one or two visits. I don't drive by there that much. a little bit to keep parks up is one thing putting a whole lot of money into a park that size may not be i'm not saying it's worth putting money into it but i'm just saying there there are some people there occasionally yeah maybe just maintenance like a park like that maybe just maintenance i think we need but we need to fix what's there when we did our surveys of the park There was a couple of pieces of equipment there that looked real antiquated. Disabled swing, disability swing, I believe. Yeah. I mean, I'm not talking about spending a lot of money. I'm just talking about fixing up what's there.

I think we need those swings at every park. At least one.

Yeah. Going forward, the ones that serve on the fire commission board, I mean, us as a just give us a recommendation and survey it and let us know so we'll have a better idea of what we want.

Well, we kind of did do that, didn't we? Yeah. Well, I think we did a whole lot. There wasn't a whole lot needed. I mean, it was noted that there was nothing left at Ruby Park, I don't think, and that one y'all talked about on 7th needed some things fixed.

I mean, I know this is probably a high-level budget question, but do we need to get back to the topic at hand, what we got in front of us?

Probably. Anyway, Danny, I think it would be in order for us to take that synopsis we did of all the parks and make a recommendation.

I agree. I agree. We'll meet and do that.

Okay. So back to the numbers. Where are we now, Michelle?

We're still at a deficit, right? So is there anything else that we could?

Yes, we could. Did we talk about that?

Is there anything else we could transfer in or that we could cut out?

So if you were, I mean. I don't know.

Christian, what did you say? Okay.

The two more, the only way I would really need the two more is if I'm giving two employees. If the two employees is not something that is going to be put in place, then you can take the two more out. Like I said, I have a plan for both. Whether we're blessed with two more employees, excuse me, or whether we're not, I have a plan.

That's not even on here.

Okay, never mind. The two employees are not in this budget?

No.

He's requested two new employees, but we don't add them until y'all approve them.

You don't have these salaries built into the budget is what we're asking.

Right. Do what now?

You don't have the salaries in the budget.

Not the two additional employees.

No. So that would make it another $100,000 worse.

Not quite.

Save any problem. You start adding retirement and insurance, it goes up.

Can you go back up to the salaries and stop scrolling?

Right there.

So right now we're already budgeting for $350,000 worth of employees, and we were talking about two more. How many people is that?

I have nine on staff right now.

Nine, okay. Does that include you and Landon or not?

Correct. That's including me, Landon, Keita, and then our labor. Not going to leave it sitting there.

Okay. Okay.

Why do you think you need to explain needing two more employees, please?

Well, I have, like Mr. Gainsclay said, we have over 160 acres we're trying to cut. And when it gets into prime cutting season is also prime baseball season and football season. And trying to maintain those fields as well as trying to maintain all the area that we have to cut, it gets pretty tough sometimes. it gets, it's hard to maintain.

And grass is what you're saying.

A lot of it's grass. Yes, sir. But also not just the grass is putting all our effort, you know, every bit of power having to go into cutting grass, there's no room of putting power, you know, effort towards improvements of, of anything. So you're really just, you're trying to maintain grass, um,

Let me ask a question. So could you identify the grass that could be subbed out? In other words, if you took care of the fields and maybe some of the major park concerns, is there a segment of this grass that's being cut that we could sub out? Because we could sub it out cheaper than hiring an employee Because an employee cost us health insurance and retirement. And so you go hire a $30,000 employee and we got $50,000 tied up in them all of a sudden.

Yes, sir.

So to cut.

Pretty easily because it's wide open and they don't have to trim around nothing.

Well, I got it quoted to cut. To cut Bearpen, Fiducia, Amzie, Eastside, Fireman's. And that's just the cutting and the weed eating is $144,000 for a year. So I think it's a little over $12,000 a year. Did you have it broken down by park? We did not get it broken down by park.

How much was it total?

$144,000. It's like a little over $12,000 a month is what it ended up being. That's more than $12,000.

But then you wouldn't need the nine employees you have.

Yeah, it opened.

I mean, some, but not all that, I assume. Did that include cutting the fields?

That's not cutting the fields. Okay, that's just cutting the perimeter. That's just cutting the perimeter. We would still cut fields, and we would cut the gym area, and we would cut out here at the armory. So your employees could focus on other things. Correct.

Gary, this is something we need to look into.

Well, I want to honor Brian's request. I think we need to break down by a park of what that fee is.

Can you get that for us? I most definitely can.

One thing that I mentioned to the mayor yesterday, Michelle, will you look at economic development and tourism for a second? Go to the bottom. Okay. Why don't we allocate another $40,000 or $50,000 out of this tourism fund to help support the Park Commission? Mayor, you got a problem with that?

I do not.

That's all we can do.

What's the number?

Okay.

okay my suggestion right now is going to be let's remove the mowers until we find out what we're going to do gary yep if we're going to look at subcontracting it out and then use some contracted services and put the other figure up there because that we put the other but i mean i i We're going to put 144,000 contract service. We didn't do nothing.

But maybe if you're going to contract it out, you're going to get rid of employees. That would make sense to me.

Otherwise, which ones we're going to afford. I mean, we're going to take down. And, you know, if I'm also, I guess my opinion from what I'm listening to, if I'm understanding right, you're talking about the lawn services that are going to use the zero turn mowers on the outsides of the fields, right?

Yes, sir.

Will we not be better with a, instead of two more zero turn mowers, because my God, we've got plenty of them and they don't last, we wear them out. Are we better with a small tractor with a finish mower to mow out there. I'd be happy to try it or look at it. Not a bush hog because we don't want pile grass all out there with a bush hog. When I say finish mower, maybe not finish mower is not correct.

Do we have a tractor? No.

We do have a small tractor.

I mean, you can buy a finish mower for $4,500.

I'm saying, you know, I've got a small tractor that I use in the woods, and you can put a mower behind it. You know, it's just if you stay on top of it and don't let it get knee-high before you cut it. You know, maybe that is our better plan is to have something with a big, wide finish mower or somewhere between finish mower and bushel. How about that? That are people that's cutting twice as wide as these zero turn mowers are. I don't know.

I feel like anything that mows more width at a time would be helpful.

Well, even if the width is not but seven feet, it's faster on the tractor than it is with a zero turn.

Yep.

It's the speed that really helps you.

Yeah. I don't know. That's something maybe we just need. Why don't you, while we're still doing all this, Christian, also, this guy, John, didn't get an idea on a small tractor with a I'll pull behind more in the finish type more of some type, you know, that maybe that may do us better than putting two people on. I also use that one person on it instead of two people on two zero turns.

Plus these zero turns don't last long when you're cutting 180 acres.

Will the tractor we have hold that attachment?

That's what I'm going to have to, I'll go look and I'll have to talk to John Deere to see if it's something, if it's going to be worth getting something for that tractor. Because the tractor is, it's not, it's not huge.

You don't need to pull a finish mower. You can pull it with the dead gum lawn mower if you don't know the truth. They're not heavy. And it's a three-point hitch, and every tractor's got a three-point hitch on it.

We might not need another tractor, just the attachment.

Yeah. That's the point I'm trying to make.

Okay. And get us a breakdown on the parts. We need that for sub.

I mean, this all goes together. That's no doubt. You're right. John Deere got three-year zero percent interest right now.

Any adjustment on that F-250 lease? We're still about the same no matter what we get, aren't we?

Being a lease, you're not going to change it probably $150, $200 a month over the term of it since it's a lease. I think that law is going to have to be answered by some of these other questions too as to what If we go with a different mower that we're going to pull a tractor on, it might be justifiable. We can look into just putting bigger motors in the F-150 trucks, but if you do that, you may be at the same damn thing.

Okay.

I mean, I got an F-150 and it pulls an 8,500-pound boat, so I don't even know. I can't imagine a bobcat weighs 8,500 pounds.

They weigh, my bobcat weighs 9,000 pounds.

Basically the same. You put it with your.

Yeah, it's not. You don't move it though.

All right.

Christian, the last thing I want to say is good job on this poster with the pickleball schedule. You've done a good job on that.

uh keeping that gym going and people seem happy so thank you appreciate the hard work on that yes sir thank you that's all i got mayor yeah this is you i'm good we just got to figure out how to get this number at least to zero yeah all right christian you got any more questions i don't have any questions but if y'all are

um the splash pad wasn't mentioned but um didn't forget that this year well well if we ever think about it i was gonna say y'all can y'all can cancel everything that i've ever asked for for something for like that for the city but um just for future meaning you really want the splash pad well i want it but i think it'll be huge for the city as well so

Tourism is what you're saying.

Yes, ma'am.

And where? Where are you talking about?

Bear P.M. by the bathrooms?

Yeah.

You know, the... Could you use the same water? You know, we hadn't talked about that pool over in Robert's Ward. Um, That place is disgusting. We need to do something with it. We need to fill that thing in with dirt. At one point, didn't you look at putting a cheaper splash pad option over there?

Yes, sir. It would cost roughly around $12,000 to fill it in and then whatever type of splash pad you want to put out there for that area. I mean, and it being more of a neighborhood slash community park, you know, you could spend about $50,000 to $75,000 and have a pretty good splash.

And the other thing I was talking about is tearing down that building.

It needs it bad.

That building needs to be destroyed. Somebody's going to get hurt in that thing. When I walked through it, I felt like I was going through a cave. Oh, yeah.

Well, the liability of that pool remaining open with no water in it is That needs to be in this budget for that lease to be filled with dirt. I agree. And that building needs to be torn down.

Mayor, I'm going to tell you what. That building needs to be torn down, too. That building is as much a risk as that pool is. Somebody might get hurt in there, Mayor.

And there actually is water in it. So it could be not good.

And you know, the thing is, we just gave away a ton of dirt from the airport that could have been dumped in that thing. where they dug those ditches out there. We gave all that dirt away. It could have been dumped in that pool.

I don't think they're done out there.

Well, they're going to dig some more. We need to tell them we want the dirt.

I think they've still got to do some work between the airport and the intersection. But I could be wrong. They're still working on something. They're starting back this week.

We need to talk to little Joe about any dirt that he's You know, the dirt he doesn't, they get rid of it. It can be dumped in that post.

It could have been filled with the dirt they've already dug out at the airport already. Robert, what'd you say?

No, I was reiterating what you said about that building. Josh and I had talked about looking at a grab too. We're trying to look at something to get a walking field around there. That would give us that area as well.

You could tear down that building and throw it in the pool first.

Hey, Robert, the state ain't got no money to get us down there for children. You can't get us any money down there for children.

Paul, every session I'm trying to get us money. I'm working on money. That's me and you talking right now.

I know, but we always see every other teacher getting money for police cars and everything else, and we can't get a dime. I don't understand.

Hey, that's a conversation for me, you, and the speaker. We're going to go in that back door together.

Okie doke. I have no problem. I'm tired of seeing everybody getting all of it and we don't get nothing.

They think we got a lot of money.

Oh, yeah. Tell them to come look at this damn budget.

All right. Thank you, Christian. Thank y'all. Y'all have a blessed one.

Thank you, Christian.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Michelle, do we have any room in the bond fund? Because, I mean, I really think that pool situation over there is going to get us in trouble if we don't do something with it.

Okay. We're right at the top of the figure.

How long has it been empty?

Two years.

A couple of years ever since?

Year and a half. I think it closed, was it last? Not last summer, but the summer before.

Yeah, it's been closed for two years. Shut it down, yeah. I'm telling you, if you go look at it, it will scare you.

Somebody's going to get hurt. We couldn't take care of the swimming pool. We let it fall to pieces. Now we're talking about building splash pads. We can't keep water in the swimming pool.

No, what I was talking about, Paul, he said he could do a splash pad there for like $60,000.

Yeah, I understand. Just in that pool.

It doesn't matter.

I think that's like a no-maintenance thing.

Just turn it on, turn it off. You wouldn't need a lifeguard, would you?

You don't need a lifeguard. You don't need to clean it. You don't need to keep it pumps running. You know, all that stuff. You turn it on, turn it off.

Can we start... Yeah, we start by tearing down that building, throw that debris in the pool.

That's what I said.

Tear the building down and throw it in the pool.

Probably going to have to get rid of those.

We're on YouTube.

Here is the total and here's what your bond limit was. Okay.

Let me do some quick calculating. Okay. I think yesterday when I looked at it after I hung up, We might could go as much as $100,000 more in that bond fund. Okay. And if we could do that, then we could at least spend some money and fill that damn pool in and tear the building down.

Are y'all ready for me to bring Jamie Grant in?

Yeah, you can go ahead.

Okay.

I'm going to be off one minute. I'm going to find some dirt.

Hey, Jamie. Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you?

Good. My volume is kind of low.

All right. Got your budget pulled up. I don't think there were a lot of requests.

There was the mower. Jamie, in talking about that mower, can't we do that in contract services and sub that work out?

I think I texted you and asked you about that yesterday. Not sure.

Yeah, we had a mower and a previous animal control officer broke it. We still need to get it to public works and see if they can repair it. But it currently just goes in a circle. And it was pretty old as it was. But a previous animal control officer broke that one. And we got to try to get it on a trailer, even though it only goes in a circle.

The question was, have y'all checked into what it would cost just to get somebody to cut it for you? Yeah, cut it as needed.

We have not. I can absolutely, if y'all have some suggestions for some people we could call, I could absolutely follow up on that. My ACOs try. It's hard to do what they need to do and their calls and worry about the grass.

How many acres is it?

Don't make me lie. I'm not really sure. I know the four play yards have to be push mode because they're too small to get a zero turn in. Then there's a lot of weed eating is the biggest issue because there's a lot of fencing.

Jamie, what if you asked for a quote from a around here for a long hair to do the outside the big yard and the weeding around the outside of the fence and then y'all just maintain within the yard and it needs to be somebody that's licensed then like legit not one of these fly-by-nights right i can i can ask around right yeah i texted you yesterday and i guess you're having trouble with your phone

I think I left it, and it died at the house, and I forgot it. Oh, okay.

It does not ring loud when it rings, and then I forget to charge it, and then I walk out of the house with it. That's okay. I apologize.

No, that's okay. That's what I had asked, to get a quote for the outside, and then also I had asked about the gravel issue.

in the park spot. One time we needed gravel and needed dragging. Robert Maxwell said he could help us. Tell me about that. Is it?

We have, it's mainly right at the gate entrance. There's some potholes that every time we get them filled and dragged, as soon as we have a lot of good rains, it kind of, and Public Works has come out and worked on it before too. It's a chronic issue, and I think all that ice and snow kind of just compounded it this year. But it's right at the gate, and the rest of the actual lot is not bad. There's just several that are just really bad right at the gate. Yeah, I'll pet sit for Robert Maxwell. He's a good guy.

Robert said if we call him, he would help us on that. Okay.

Yeah, that's the only big issue is right by the front gate. There's like three of them right there at the gate. at the swinging gate everything running smooth it's the middle of summer so it's running as smooth as it can but we are fully staffed and that doesn't happen every summer so we're very thankful for that

Are you still getting good donations in for your air conditioning and your food?

Yeah, last month, everything right before school drops down. Adoptions, donations, everything right before school drops. But we're seeing an increase in our adoptions and donations and people calling. I think we're going to go to Tractor Supply Saturday and bring some animals. They asked us to, so I voluntold my husband. He and I are going to go up there and take some critters to be seen by the public.

And the pictures in the paper help on the adoption. You're doing a great job on that. Thank you.

Mr. Jack, he reminds me. Occasionally he forgets to remind me. He tries to email me every Monday to send those in. Mr. Chris.

What questions do we have here, guys?

I don't know anything we can. I don't see anything which can do any different.

Let's take that mower off in the meantime, Jamie, and let you look at subcontract services on that.

And if y'all have any suggestions for people y'all know that I could call, because I make my, my husband mows our yard, so I don't have anybody. So if y'all know anybody that's licensed and does good work, I'll be glad to call them.

So check with the fire department. They have someone. that does all the fire department. Okay.

I'll look and see who else.

Fire stations.

I can do that.

Do we need to put anything in the subcontract services for that?

You're going to take them all out. You're going to have to put some. Right.

What do we put in there?

I don't know what... And to be honest, I'd rather have someone else do it than have to convince my ACOs to find time to do it. So I would rather have someone come out and do it. It would make life easier.

They need to be doing their job.

Yeah, and they clean the dog building and go on calls all the time. Yeah, yeah.

Why don't you... What, 1,000 a month or 500 a month?

I don't think it'll be 1,000 a month. Let me look and see...

I mean, in a lot of water summer right now, ain't no grass growing anyhow. Right.

Yeah, Public Works does the front yard and the field. So the main thing for us is our play yard, the backyard, and a lot of weed eating around the fences. That would be our biggest issue.

I think y'all will have to do, y'all will have to push mow the play yards inside the fence because of animals.

Yeah, because you can't get a mower in there.

Just put that $4,000 for the mower up and so contract services. What do you think?

Yeah, just put the $4,000 on it.

And I'll make some calls today and tomorrow, see what I can find.

Okay.

I'm sure they'll want to come out and see how big the job is, but I'll work on that today.

You're doing a great job. We appreciate you.

Well, I've got a really good crew, and that's hard to get sometimes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, ma'am.

Is that all y'all need from me?

Yes, ma'am. All right.

If y'all think of anything else, just holler at me. Michelle, I'll go charge my phone at lunchtime. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Do you want us to go on and get Dudley in, or did you all want to discuss the budget?

I want to tell the mayor something. Mayor, if we went to $2.2 million in our bonded debt this year, which would add $100,000 to that schedule, our payment would be $264,000 if we come in at 3.5% interest. And it would make our total payment from bonded debt next year $2,238,000. And I think, Michelle, we got more than $2,238,000 coming in in the bonded interest fund, but confirm that for me. You should have seen it like this. Yeah, so we got 2.3 million coming in. So we would still have $140,000 surplus in that bond fund.

If you carried it to 2.3?

So we can go to, well, I didn't do 2.3. I can see what it looks like. What is the 2.3 for? So 2.3 would make it go up. He's talking about $2.3 million in bonds. I understand. What's the other $200,000? Yeah, $2.3 million would make it go up another $12,000. So it would make it $2,250,000. I was just looking at what the difference was. So $2,250,000.

Go back to your general bond and interest, Michelle.

It was 2.3. We're good. So we got 2.3 coming in in revenue. And our bond payment the following year in 28 would be $2,258,000. So we could add... Depending on the interest. Yeah, we could do a couple more things is what I'm trying to say.

In that poll at... Yeah, that pool stuff shouldn't be more than, what, 25? If it was 12 to fill it in, you know, to remove the building and take it off, give some extra.

That is a cinder block building. It's probably going to cost at least $10,000 to tear it down.

And then clean up after. I mean, there's going to be utilities and stuff, right? There's going to be It's going to cost more than you think.

I think $25,000 ought to get the whole thing done. $25,000 should do it. What do you think, Mayor?

I think you can. I mean, you're going to just kill the power out of the pole, go into it, turn the water off, and take the excavator and take it down in a few hours.

Yeah.

I just talked to Clint also. We got, you know, they have not finished that ditch out there for us, Marcia, what you were referring to. And the people are supposed to be there today, and I thought we may want the dirt. Don't give our dirt away to the farmers around town until they talk to us.

Yeah. Okay, so if we've got another $177,000, is there any other thing that we left out of the bond possibilities that might want to be considered if we went up to 2.3 million.

Maybe we should finish. Why don't we go all the way through? In case something else comes up. Okay.

Let's not get excited. One suggestion, if that splash pad, which has come up for the last 10 years, if that's something we need to do, we could put half of that money in there for this year and bond the other half next year.

Which one, the big one or the one at ASAP?

The big one. The big one.

If you're going to do one, do one big one. Because if we do a little one, then somebody's going to say, well, we won't.

And the big one would be out there with the ball field where, just like other cities that have ball tournaments and whatnot, they have splash pads and zip lines and all the stuff that kids get to do while they're there. So it is kind of an attraction for everybody from out of town.

Yeah. I agree. I know, like, when we have the all-star tournament, Christian like rents he's renting like bounce houses or different things like that for the kids to do but you know so that would be another that would be something right for all the siblings right that come along right right so are y'all ready for Y'all want to go somewhere else before?

You mean like out of town?

Y'all want to finish talking some about the park?

Is there anything else there that could have gone in the park?

I've got a dumb question about the parks. I know we, was it two minutes?

No dumb questions, just dumb answers. Go up to the top, Michelle.

I know there's two meals that we allocate to the parks. Yeah. Is that based on just city- It's state law.

It's state law.

Is that just property within the city limits of Cleveland?

Yes.

Okay, so we know that there's people that are out in the county coming in and utilizing the parks. Why doesn't the county give us some money for these?

That's why they're charged double the fee because they don't pay.

That's just for playing sports, but they go out there and feed the ducks and swing the swings and do all the things.

So you're saying why doesn't the county contribute to the park commission?

We can't even give the county to give us money for the animal shelter.

I know, but we can start asking. I told you it was a dumb question.

I know it. I'm not disagreeing with you, but they give us $80,000 now for a $300,000 obligation.

Got to start somewhere. Gary. Yes, sir.

With our size park commission, is it time to resurrect this

discussion about the sub subbing it out that we brought up a couple of years back.

I mean, we can always entertain it, but yeah. I don't know who you're going to get to do it.

And I think, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. I think that's only for operations. That's not maintenance. That's you still have to Like, that's just for, like, the games.

No, if we're going to sub it out, they're going to do it all. They do it. Gotcha.

I gotcha. I just know, like, when we visited, I want to say in Oxford, the city does part, and then they have, like, it's twofold.

Yeah, they have a separate company that does tournaments and everything else.

Yeah, but then the city maintains.

But the city maintains them.

Right. Mm-hmm. Okay. Because the city actually owns the parks. That's right. So they still have to maintain them.

All right. We're going to have to come back to the park before we get through today. But what we got left, police department and what else?

Police department is your last department head.

And what was the last one?

That's your last department head.

Oh, okay. Then can we get him?

Ashley, do you want to see if he can come on early? Yep, I'll call him. Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Have we ever talked about public works cutting all the grass?

You know, we have, Brian. We never, I don't think we ever reached any conclusions on that. At least the perimeters. They could cut the perimeter and leave the park to the park commission.

Can't cut the perimeters. We don't get them to fill in all those empty slots we got. You know, it's been mentioned before, and I don't know what we say about it. And I don't, I'll tell you what, I'm not going to wear it on YouTube. I'll talk about it later. I'll wait if we go into executive session.

If you were going to get public works to try and cut all that, you're going to have to increase public works a lot. You got to have a lot more employees, probably.