County Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. It is Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible. Hey, minutes and reports received and filed. We have none. What?

Okay. Commissioner committee leaison reports upcoming meetings and events.

Uh tomorrow morning we've got the building commission review committee meeting state of city county. Tomorrow, uh, Lake University's new meat processing facility. There'll be a groundbreaking for it. Tomorrow afternoon, planning commission meeting tomorrow night. It got postponed from last week. And then, uh, news trivia is also doing a their reader's choice awards ceremony down at Millbottom. Friday's the capital city cookoff bucket bone. I'm not sure what the official name of that is. I think they go by both, don't they? This for the special learning center anyway. But, um, Saturday is the perfect date. Not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a small jacket. Sunday is the Nicholas Career Center Skills USA car show. And I think that's it.

I don't have anything on my calendar that hasn't already been mentioned by Mr. District. One thing I've got tomorrow besides everything else, there's the Tri County Coalition, which I probably won't make because I don't think I'll be done with the chamber. Thursday, we have an emergency management meeting. Saturday is the homeschool state track meet at Capitol City High School. And then Monday, I have a meeting with the governor in the afternoon. And then Monday night is this 75th Capital Region 75 years old. So we have a celebration over at Capital Bluffs. That's all I have. Do we have any commission comments? Okay. Bids and contracts. Signing of updated lean and title search service contract. This is a contract with Cole County ADAC and title company for the collector's office is for them to do their lean and title searches. Um it looks like or cost per record information report is $200 and then an updated report is $125. We're just needing the contract signed today. They use them as needed as a professional service. Make a motion to sign a contract between us and co abstract and title.

Second. All in favor? I I I Okay. Approval and signing of a capital purchase agreement with Sam Sarah. Excuse me. Let me find my

Good morning. Morning, sir.

So, for several years now, we've been pretty reactive in our approach to driver safety and vehicle operations. And um you know really we we look at these things in a in a post accident or after an event occurs and and we use them to to train our folks and and get them to uh operate a little bit more safely. But that's a very expensive endeavor when we when we think about post accident um you know identifying those causes. So, we've been looking pretty hard at finding a way to be proactive in that. Um, similar to some of the products out there that you see from the insurance companies, the safe driving, uh, vehicle monitors that reduce your your rate if you don't speed and wear your seat belt and all those sorts of things. Um, so SAM SAH is a system that allows us to to do that. that it utilizes AI technology to monitor uh the drivers and the vehicles to make sure they're operating safely. And if they're not, it'll provide real-time feedback to the driver as as an audio alert of, hey, you're following too closely or you're not wearing your seat belt or or those sorts of things. In addition to that, it also integrates into the vehicle system um and it creates a link to our maintenance platform. So, um, if we were to have an incident where, uh, we would have some sort of code or get an check engine light, that would automatically prompt into our service software and it would also diagnose. So, it has an OBD reader. It would So, instead of our mechanic getting this ambulance that, you know, has a check engine light on, they have to do all the diagnostics, try and recreate it, they'll have a print out from the ambulance that says exactly what happened, what the code means, when it happened. um so they can cut out a lot of that diagnostic work. Um so this is a very robust system, something that

we really need and the best part of it is we don't pay for the hardware. Uh it's an annual subscription. So um we pay for the cloud-based services and all the hardware comes with it. So the annual commitment for what we're doing uh this year is $10,66710. And then the reoccurring invoice for the next three years is $10,530 annually. Jill's reviewed the contract. It is subject to appropriation each year, so we don't have any issues there. Um, so happy to answer any questions, but ready to sign this.

Chief, the uh real time feedback to driver, do you have real time feedback to you in the office?

Uh, there will be that. Yes. Um it it it's not necessarily designed for us to constantly be monitoring. What it would do um it logs the event and it would send an image or a 15-second video to the employee so that they can justify why they did what they did before it would continue to get escalated. And really what we want to do is capture that image and use it in training and not as a punitive process. Um but right now we don't know how many events um go unnoticed because all we can do is go back and watch the video in in post time and we're logging almost you know half a million miles a year in in our apparatus. So um we're we're driving a ton and um you know it's too much for us to manage you know randomly to to view and screen these videos. half a bill in miles.

Chief Boy, have they given any indication if uh for liability insurance if this would reduce the rate or things of that nature?

I think that's a conversation that we should definitely have with our insurance provider. I would say that with our deductible going to $10,000 uh a year, I think, or it might even be 15 now. I don't know what that number is, but um you know, if we managed to avoid one accident, uh per year, this would would pay for itself um even without any reduction. So, um we've known what our insurance has done over the last uh several years. We know that we've had some high-profile events in in other agencies. So, um this is our way to try and be proactive at at managing that. Well, I was going to ask that question, too. Beat me to it. Sorry, it don't count because you didn't come to a podium.

The price tag that I had on the first page though was different than what Yeah. So, the the price tag um the the overall amount the total contract value that's over three years, right? They had it split up the first year. I might have sent you one that had tax on it. So, this is the most recent one that had our tax exempt on it. There it is, too. That is exactly it. So, okay. Thank you. I'll make a motion to execute a contract Sam Sarah for Co County EMS. Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

I. Thank you. New business. Accounts payable review. Ask for approval. Accounts payable pending review. Make a motion to approve accounts payable pending review. Second. Y. All in favor? I. I. I. Okay. Second and final reading of budget adjustment number three.

This is the second and final reading of budget adjustment number three. It's for the EMS enterprise fund in the amount of 191,8 has to do with that pay at the end of the year. Make a motion to approve the second final reading of budget adjustment three for the EMS enterprise account $191,55. Second. All in favor? I I

Okay. Discussion on public works central maintenance shop extension. All right. Sit. You lost some information yesterday. I guess I need to be at the podium. Jeff, is that correct? Please. Yes. Everybody needs to come. Feel like I'm a city council. Everybody needs to come forward. There's a timer on the front, too. So, you

just put that aside and sit down. Um, and bear with me. I've been under the weather since last Monday, so I'll do my best. Um just to give you an update on where we stand on the shop and then the discussion on where we want to go moving forward. So about 3 years ago we made the decision to establish central maintenance. Um promoted Tyler Clark to central maintenance supervisor. In that we took over maintenance of of county departments with the exception of the sheriff's department and EMS and that's going very well. I think the benefit to that is that the county departments can schedule a repair or service or anything relatively easy easy and can drop it off that same day or the next day and get it in and out at a reduced cost to to the county. And we we were able to uh roll it into our current operations. Um the the public works uh repair, the fleet repair and maintenance of that uh can be a little bit hit and miss. Uh it's very busy throughout most of the year, but there's times that we can move other things in. And so we felt like we could do it with our current workload and staff and that's been working just fine. So um wintertime may be a little little busier depending on what's going on, but have had no issues with that. have been very smooth um from everything that we've seen. Um now part of the conversation was as we establish federal maintenance the next phase would be we would want to go uh expand the shop and a little history on that building. that building. Um, originally back in the day, um, the public works department was a special road district and we had a Brazo facility and we had the facility which

is now the the city parks maintenance facility across from the golf course. And uh, when they built the shop down there where we're currently at, that was gravel road on one side and asphalt on the other. There was not really much repair of anything going on. Uh, most of the work was shipped out. As time went on, we started bringing some of the maintenance in house. And that building was not built as a shop. Okay. Had to cut out the floor, put a drain in, and do all kinds of other work to to convert one side to a repair shop. And then over the past 20 years that that I've been there, and it started back before my time, but as as we've developed, uh we do everything in house. Everything. Rebuilding motors, transmissions, you name it. There's nothing that we don't ship out unless it's warranty work or there may be some specialty type work uh that we'll ship out. But for the most part, we do everything in house. We got all the diagnostics. We can do anything in house, but the shop's really not designed for heavy equipment. You get you pull a grater in, it's not big enough. Um you're tripping over everything to get from one side to the next. Tyler can attest to that cuz he's got to deal with it. Um it's just not set up for a lot of heavy equipment all at once, but we're making do. Uh we make do by doing stuff outside. We got our crane that's outside um that's used to uh take dunk beds off and and everything. So when we started looking at, okay, the next phase of central maintenance is we need to expand the shop to allow us to take on sheriff and then ultimately EMS and that would be a phasing approach. We have to raise the ceiling of this expansion and we have to redo the floor cuz the floor doesn't drain good. If you're laying underneath on a creeper, you're sliding down. You're rolling down as you're working on it. So, um, what we have here is is the plans are essentially ready to bid out.

And I'll show you just to give you a little explanation. So, the first page, the second page, it shows just a a general mockup of what that looks like. And so the expanded uh height of that section of the building, part of that is we're taking off a section of the current building to to raise that ceiling up to a 25 ft high height to allow us to raise a dump dump truck fully up. Right now they can't raise it up on the lift all the way uh to get underneath it. And so uh with that expansion, it's it's two additional bays. It's a room for oil and lubricant storage and then also um a room for the equipment for a wash bay which we don't have right now. We have to go into town to wash our equipment uh which is extremely inconvenient and um so we'll build a a wash bay enclosed within the building. Uh this wash bay will you'll enter in on one side the inside the the fenced in area of the facility and if you want to you can pull out onto Monaceel Road and so those two drawings uh show that uh the front side of the building and the back side with all the doors. So, a as we were developing the the plans for this and we have the one section with the oil storage and uh the washbay equipment, uh we knew we had to put a bathroom in. The bathroom we have right now is not ADA accessible and it's very uh very tight and and not not in the best of condition and we felt it'd be best to add additional bathroom restroom facilities in this expansion. So, that's part of that area as well. And with the 25 ft ceiling height and this area not needing to be that tall, we took advantage of some space up above and created a meeting room and an office for the mechanics and which allows us to remove a parts

storage room area and an office right now that's being used that's taken up one of the bays. So, we actually will expand what we currently have a little bit um and allow more space ultimately. So, when we did that extra work, uh, that it did add a little cost to the engineering and architectural design. It's about $2,300. We'll have to come back to you all for a a change order on that, but basically, we're down to the the time that we need to make some decisions on what we do going forward. And, uh, like I said, it's it's ready to ready to bid out. Um, as I understand it, we can advertise this weekend or soon. So, um, what we're looking at is a project that would phase, you know, if we bid it right now, it'll phase into next year. We'll get, uh, the main area where the where the shop is, get that done and under roof and get them back in and working in it by the time winter rolls around and then the additional work to to build the wash bay and all that would be at the tail end of the project of the next year. So, um just some rough ball ballpark estimates as it stands right now 2.3 million and that's for everything and that's kind of the median cost. Uh the price range could be anywhere from 1.9 to 2.6 and we're looking at as as uh costs have increased a 9 to 15% um cost increase per year. So waiting a year would be another roughly3 $300,000. So some of this work um will have to happen next year. There's a lot of site work, a lot of concrete work. We added we did add some um concrete replacement of our existing lot right there. Some some areas that don't drain well. So that's rolled into the project. added a little bit of extra cost to it, but some of the concrete has to be replaced anyway around the new

facility. So, uh, basically, we're just at a point where we need to make a decision um on whether we pull the trigger on this now or wait. And our recommendation is that it's not going to get any cheaper. Uh, we're ready to go. We started design on this about a year ago with the intent that we would have it ready to go out for bid this year. And that was the plan all along. So I just want to visit with you all on what you what your feelings are as far as making this happen and a little information about how once once we do this then we can phase in sheriff and EMS. Um our mechanics will all be as A asse level three certified um certified to do uh that equipment. Uh the wash bay can be used by all departments. Uh it's especially convenient for sheriff and EMS if they want to come in, fuel up, especially at night after hours. They can be inside the locked area, pull in the wash bay, wash, and head on out and and not have to do it just out and about out in the public. Any other department can use the wash bay as well. Um so it's a very very convenient fuel, do your service, whatever. If you're another department, a wash and and on out. So I think we got a very good plan here. here. I know Tyler's worked very hard with the architects to design and develop um what he sees his vision is long term here. And uh like I said, it's it's ready to go. We just need to pull the trigger and make it happen. So, you guys got anything to add on it?

So, it will be funded next year. Um it would it would um well as when you encumber a project it comes out of this year's funding but it could be stretched into next year if we needed to do it kind of a two-phase if we had to. However you how however you want to do that. When you look at the east elevation and and see a taller structure with one, two, three, four, five doors. How many of those doors are actually there in the lower structure today? Two of them. Two of them. So the the two doors that you see on the on the right side of the page, right,

those are bays that are currently there. Got it. And so those just come out and everything gets raised up. Okay. So, you're just elevating the roof on those two doors and then it stays high all the way to the end. Yes. Okay.

And the the last bay, it's got a walk out door there. Um the last one's wider and that's where most of the public works items will be done in the wider area and that that's where the crane will go. The crane's currently outside and changing out beds and all that has to be done outside right now because we can't raise them up fully inside. The thing that influences me, we know this has to be done at some time. It's in the future. Is it now? Is it next year? And I feel like based upon the treasurer's last investment report that we do have funds. So, do we leave our money invested in We're fortunate to have 4% or wait for expenses to go up nine plus

9 to 15. So just from that point the other thing is we can't measure this yet but I suspect that if you don't have to drive a truck into town to go to the car wash, what do you do like give that guy a bunch of quarters to do that? We get tokens. Tokens. Okay. And then we just it's a monthly cost or monthly bill that we get. Uh but that's got to be so inconvenient. And then loading or unloading the for the uh snow season. That's all it done has to be done outside. Can be done inside with this.

Well, they can wash inside. That's the problem that when it's really cold out, you you don't want that salt sitting on your equipment for weeks on end. and you can take it in and wash. We can't do that now. Even if we go into town, we got to do it outside, right?

Um just a little thing about that. So, you know, our crews, they roll in, you know, 20 minutes before quitting time or whatever. And that doesn't really give you enough time to head into town to wash. Maybe you can do it on the way, but it it creates a huge inconvenience. And washing of equipment and the stuff that we're doing, especially in the snow, is so important. And we're not doing it to the best of our ability just because of this inconvenience of having going to town. So the wash bay just by itself is a huge huge improvement for us and much needed. And we used to do it. We had a wash bay. It just dumped into the creek 20 years ago which Yeah. And I mean everybody knew that's what it was. And we we had hooked it and it hasn't been in operation for a long time. So, um, you know, it's we just we just don't have that capability right now and we do the best we can, but it is a it is a hindrance.

The other thing on that, we're fighting with the city for use with the wash bay. We're also fighting with the city because they're washing all their stuff at the same time, too. They have a wash bay at their shop, but it's not wide enough. It's not real convenient to use. So, they got their issues with what they build. So, we can charge them to use ours. That's what I mean that I mean they have to leave town to do that. Yeah. We come out in the county.

We got charge to have a little toll there. Put quarters in. We can make our own little tokens. Tokens fan. We'll sell them to EMS and share for double. Do you think you can be competitive with the uh the drive-in oil change operations we have in town in terms of time and cost and service? Well, I mean, I know they're you know what we're charging what you're charging other departments for your labor. It's it's actual time.

I would say a normal oil engine is between $80 and $90, but we don't use cheap stuff. I mean, we use a lot of OEM oils and OEM filters. And that way, if you have any warranty issues, like we've had some issues with I'm not going to say brands, but some vehicles with motor issues. Tyler, come on up. We We got We got to have everybody up here for the cameras. We've had some issues with some engine issues and that way with warranty, we don't have to fight about it. We run their filters, we run their oils, and everything's went pretty smooth. Yeah. So that's good. I don't want to cut corners. No, I hope so.

So I think Jay sent us some information. If we do this, if we pull the trigger for this project this year, that would pretty much eat through our capital improvements budget. I was just looking at some of the things we have on there. And then also what you had sent us. I mean, I'm all for this project, but we we've spent some damn money in this last couple of years. And I mean, it's just my opinion. I think we over spent on the juvenile center, so that kind of dipped into a lot of it. But can we can we phase it in 26 and 27 where we maybe don't use all of our budget in capital improvements in case I mean, there's going to be something else that comes up. Um, and I got a couple reasons. I'm all for it. All the reasons that you said, and I don't remember really the last time we did anything out at public works that was just for you guys. Um, we've done work on the pumps, but that's for everybody. Um, I don't know if we did any building improvements.

Not in my 20 years that I've been at the county. We've been reviewing the building codes and trying to upgrade that to 2018. in your your meeting room, if that's what you want to call it. That's pitiful. Yeah, we can't host a meeting. We got to go across the street.

So So I'd just like to try to figure out how we can do this without buzz on through our whole capital improvements and that we're four not even four months in. So, um, can we do a demo and, you know, prep phase in 26 and then do a building phase, um, 27 and then do you have FF and E in here? Do you have any the equipment and all that stuff in there, too? I mean, that's that would come out of our just our normal 211 budget. We would budget that next year. So, lifts and other equipment like that, we'll have to outfit that, but that

Yeah, we just going to do a little at a time. Okay, we'll just cover that in our own budget. Um, we can't demo it cuz what we demo that's our shop, so we got to take it apart and they got to move either across the parking lot or on the other side for those two bays that you're going to be obviously tearing off. But you can't start doing that in 26. We we have to I'm sorry. Foundation and digging and prepping cuz that's going to still take a few months to do.

It's it's going to be a two-phase. It would be a 26 into 27 project regardless. We're right now if we would have bid early January, you know, maybe get it all done in the year. So, it's it's going to stretch into next year regardless. But as soon as we start taking that thing apart, we got to take the whole floor out. They got to move somewhere else. So, we can't once we start, we got to we got to move. We can't we can't phase it and push it six months and wait. Okay. You know what I'm saying? It's in two different phases. You're you're going to demo and prep and do that in 26. And then 27 you actually do the building part of it. No, we'll start building the building now.

Yeah. Demo floor, underground, all that stuff. And then start building the structure, you know, starting in the fall. I mean, just depends on phasing and everything, but Yeah. But you could start building the building in the winter next year if we wanted to go 26 27 if if we waited and bid it like August or something. The only problem is the winter time is where we really need the space. I mean summertime you can you can finagle an area. Trucks can sit outside. We like to put everything we possibly can inside in the winter time.

Yeah. So, we're we're taking another space where we park trucks inside during the winter. That and that for that reason, we want to be have at least section there where they can actually be back in there. They can be back in there working. Yeah. Before winter really hits. I agree with Jeff and our auditor. I mean, we're we've got so much on our plate this year

with the juvenile center. And then, you know, I know the the HVAC for the jail came in considerably less, but I still want to see when that's done if if that's going to hold true or not. So, I'm I want I want to see this I'd like to see this move forward. I just don't know on funding right now. I'm I'm kind of cautious talking with our auditor. I think he is cautious as well. Um Eric is is there any possibility that any of the funding could come from capital improvements from road and bridge piece? We haven't done that in the past. And the analysis I put together and shared is regarding the courthouse or the 15% of that capital improvements.

I think that's you're treading in some dangerous territory there just because we've committed all the 85% just actually to road and bridge improvements. Now, you could say, you know, the shop is part of taking care of our roads and bridges. if we were going to do something, I'd rather take it out of the 211 fund, which we do have some contingencies there if we needed to draw out of that fund to to supplement. Um, you know, I think we would be willing to do that and that would be the appropriate use if we were going to take other funds.

I I'd prefer to leave that 85% alone as well. I mean, if we were going to take part of it and use it for capital improvements at Road and Bridge, then I think that's how we should have campaigned it and wrote in there. But since we didn't, I' I'd really rather leave that alone, too. Um, I'm just I'm trying to figure out cuz I I think it's time for it to get done and it's not going to get any cheaper. I agree. But just cuz it's not going to get cheaper means I can afford to do it right now. Mhm.

So if we buzz all through our capital improvements, but part of it could go into 27, but we're going to encumber it. Now, anything else that came up would just

it's just going forward as as I've shared is one is we don't know what the rest of the furniture and fixtures for juveniles going to be. Um, excluding that, we've got about $2.8 million left in the capital improvements fund. So, this would take by far the majority of it. So, then going forward, um, we're in the range of just $860, $900,000 a year going forward for capital improvement items. Um that's we've got 360 uh 360,000 set aside for computerization which I don't think in my opinion we can fall back on or skip years there. Uh it's regarding security and you're on a cycle you need to continue to upgrade your computer equipment. Um so based on the projections of the sales tax revenue and we assumed a 2% annual growth for uh the capital improvement campaign. Um that leaves you around $900,000 a year uh for capital improvements going forward. We've got some general funds set aside um but we need those for reserves. Uh again, my concerns of the health insurance fund and the the law enforcement fund, the sheriff fund of where those go uh going forward. So, it's a good project. I don't have a problems with any of the project. It's just timing is this is the best time. But as uh Mr. Colorado said we're earning 3.5% on money uh invested versus

a 9 to 12% inflation rate on construction cost.

Yeah, I mean we we've been working on this plan really for 3 years. Finally got architectural and engineering work done on it and got it to the point where we can bid it out. Um, you know, I I understand budgets and and all that and I'm just asking for we need to make a decision what we're doing going forward. We've done what you asked us to do. Uh, come up with a plan and now we're at that point. Um, you know, I I've seen in my time I've seen other other departments much needed, you know, a lot of needs in other departments and all those uh get funded and you know, we we serve the public. um every department does and it's important that we make sure every department can do that to the fullest of its ability and we're definitely limited in what we got right now just with our facility. Ultimately, we need to build a new building just for the public works and this all be central maintenance. Um but we're not to that point. That could be 10 years, 15 years down the road, but to have a plan and we're working towards that plan. This is a part of that plan. So, um you know, I think it's definitely needed. It's something that we got to do and it's, you know, going forward. We just we need to make this decision um just to improve that so they can do what they need to do and start taking on um you know more more department needs as time goes on. So just comes down to a matter of of when really um you know we needed to sorry supplemented a little bit out of 211. I think we can roll that in um phase that in if we have to. But

I think we all agree this is this is a necessary project. It's just looking at at funding is is what

and if we got if we got a and I I hate kicking the can down the road, but if we got to wait a week and pull some more numbers together and just see see if there's a way to do this, then maybe that's the right way to do it. that um I don't want to say we'll just wait till the end of the year and then get to the end of the year and say well we can't do it and then have to wait another year because then we're then we're then we're starting to add money uh to everything uh which is not the intent and not why we started this process to begin with. So, I'm going to make a motion here in a second. Um and because of the difference between earning money um versus delayed construction cost increases, the efficiencies that will proceed we perceive will come out of this um that we go forward with this project now and do it now and and see where that takes us. So that's my motion is to is to uh go forward with the uh public works maintenance shop expansion. Now I think it dies for lack of a second.

I'll make a motion we table it until next week and let Eric work on some other funding to help with the project. Is that just to give them some time to play around with I don't if we need to table it or if we have I'll Yes. discussion. We're just going to bid this out. Okay. And it may come in low and great, we can do this. It may come in high and that'll answer our question. But before we bid it out, I just wanted to

I don't want to do it without you saying yes, let's bid it, I guess, is where where we're at. So what when you what what kind of a what kind of a notion or perception do you give to the biders when you go out um are you telling them we're going to do it at a certain time or how do they turn into a bid when they think well they're not going to do it anyway? I mean maybe that will run biders away. I don't know. It's a you don't as a public agency you don't want to bid something to say, "Hey, we're not going to do it now." Right? That never looks good because then when you come back the next time, how serious are they going to take you? Um so,

so when you put it out to bid when you need to be pretty sure. Yeah. When would the bids be due? Um our cycle it's just roughly 30 days. So that's true. So 30 days.

And if we meet again next week, then they would have a pretty good idea how serious they need to be on a bid. Yeah, if we meet next week and maybe we got to throw some numbers in there and um like like I said, there's there's some there's some work around the facility concrete wise that um maybe maybe we just put that in the highway maintenance facility and don't even include it in the bid. That's just something that goes in next year or something. you know, maybe we can finagle some numbers a little bit to stretch it into next year and that way we don't have to frontload it. Just just a thought. So, let it let us look at some options. I'm willing to sort of defer delay.

Yes. A week, right? I was either saying no today or Yeah. Well, give you a week to come up with some other ideas. Say no next week. Well, I think we all agree this this is a a worthwhile project needs to be done. It's just funding it. So, um well, we're we're the these times are a little different than they were.

Yeah. I don't want to get put in the same position the state's been put into or put itself into with the $600 million capital fix for better way lack of better words that now they're thinking of dipping $200 million out of that 600 and if they have they have a facility over there that's not ADA compliant and it's embarrassing and cutting March is is embarrassing for sure, but to see us back into some situation where we've gone ahead and spend it somewhere else.

So, but I will second your motion to move to next week's okay agenda. Any other discussion? Okay. um you'll vote and then so for next week I'll come with maybe some line items on options that we can get the initial price down a little bit and maybe phase it into next year's budget a little more and yeah we got to wait to find some grants I guess well we're good at finding grants for our public works projects buildings on the other hand that's a little

tough on that we got 2020 26 capital requests. We had 43 million in some change requested. We had what 5 million to work with. So, we've got a lot of projects out there and I just hate saying no to it, but you sometimes there's things that you got to figure something a different way out. So, you can work some numbers together. Before we completely leave discussion, when we talked about the 8515, why can't public works be part of the 15? Well, that's where I thought some of this is

the capital is the 15%. Yeah, this is the this is out of the 15% but it's not out of the question is could any of the funding come from the 85% and generally that has been spent just on roads. Got it. Okay. But we just got a blessing from the the public two weeks ago that said for we're going to fund things for 10 years. Yes. And that on that bottom part of the sheet that I provided is the the funding stream and projected expenses uh that we shared with the public in support of that 10-year extension. Okay. Okay.

Okay. So you got to vote now for that question. All in favor? I I All right. Thank you. Uh tax sale surplus funds release. Is that LV on that property tax or the sale on the steps? Yes. And this was a bit unusual because the ovaries was as big as we've ever seen. Yeah. The significant amount was

I don't know. Springfield check that question. I'll go into the Go ahead and do the next one. I'll see if I can find the email. See if we can get down to

discussion of 911 upgrades. We did receive anou from uh Chief Wy from the city on uh the Enrado, but we need more information, more documentation on these upgrades. And uh you know, this wasn't in our 2026 budget. And so, uh, I would I would probably just suggest we table this, um, until we we get more, you know, information on it. You know, we I didn't know anything about it till I read about in the news tribune. So, it's, you know, we need to talk with the city. We we need to have our two departments work on this. And this is not uh I don't think we're prepared to sign theou yet. Now I'll throw Brian under the bus to the IT department and have them maybe make sure what we're looking at having to do at dispatch with EMS. will actually if they will talk to each other if are you comfortable working with that looking at that?

Yeah, I think aren't we supposed to have a meeting over this project between me, yourself and Mac or something? Oh, this is a a different project, but the the request was made today, but this is 911 phones. So, I will definitely have Mac reach out to you and make sure that you get a look at this. Okay.

Okay. I just don't think we have enough information on it. It's a five-year, but again, this was not in our 2026 budget. Um, so I I'm not prepared to to act on it. I would just suggest we table it if that's all right with the two of you.

Yep. Yep. Okay, I found a email from collector that he is requesting that the treasurer issue a check in the amount of $67,737 for the redemption uh on parcel number 4-01-12-00004 dash 002 dash 003 dash. It's just a space is all I see.

Why are 6506 on the end for Are you looking at the same? Yeah, I'm looking at the same email. That doesn't look right. Forget that last four digits. Stops with 003. And this is because the property that sold all taxes were then paid there is the amount of 67 737.09 left send to the prior loaner.

And then he said that the treasurer usually cuts the check to the treasur's office and the collector's office acts as a middleman to be sure the funds go to who they're supposed to. to complete the redemption. So, he was requesting that the treasur issue a check in that amount and that I guess that we approve the action. I think we always approve. Yeah. So, and maybe he didn't realize we had actually put it on the agenda either. We may have just said, you know, it's so I think she was invited to here.

Yeah. I don't I don't think he's here. He and Janice aren't here today. Okay. Okay. Motion's been stated, I think. Okay. So, that was your motion then to approve it. I'll second it. Okay. All in favor? I If you need a copy of the email or something, let us know. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Yeah. Forward to now. You didn't get them number written. D4. How many zeros? I know. Yeah, please forward that email. I appreciate it.

Oh, okay. EMS discussion of point of care testing with epoch. EPO.

It's epoch. Yes, epoch. So, just a quick update on the capital budget and make myself a copy. So, you'll have the member Do you mind? No, I'll I'll get you something.

Um, so as we approached this year, you know, you'll remember that we had uh the opportunity or the request to do uh an infrastructure project in Southridge. We decided to delay that uh to have a year of buildings and capital contingency before taking on that project. One of the the pivots to that was um trying to address some clinical needs uh within the organization. So, as you'll see there, uh the 2026 EMS budget had 365,000, I believe, in um capital money set aside to address some of these upcoming projects. You have a breakdown of where that stands today with the purchases and this project that we're talking about. So there's still about $195,000 and some change left after we would approve all of this. So um you know I don't think it's any secret that our agency likes to be um on the leading edge of prehosp medicine um and our capabilities. And there is just really one new frontier that we haven't really um taken on yet and that uh deals with point of care testing. And so when we go to medical emergencies, oftent times um we're using subjective means to um try and figure out what's wrong with our patients. We're using vital signs, signs and symptoms. Um and we are making our best educated decisions based on on what those things are telling us. Um however, as technology improves, there's uh the opportunity for us to make some of those subjective uh findings into objective findings. And that's by using point of care testing. And what that does is it'll take a small sample of your blood and run laboratory testing via a handheld device that looks like a a cell

phone basically. And it'll give us some findings related to um blood gas, your blood oxygen levels, um your electrolytes, um and some other markers in your blood that will allow us to further uh kind of differentiate your care. So, um, you know, one of the most important pieces of this is if somebody were to have a cardiac arrest, we get there, we're doing CPR on them. Obviously, they can't talk to us. We don't know a whole lot about their medical history. We don't know what their underlying causes are. And, and sometimes we have to make our best educated guess on what we think might be going on with them. Well, drawing this blood sample will take that thinking out and either yes or no. uh deliver confirmatory answer for what we need to treat in those situations. It's not a magic bullet. Doesn't work for everything. It's used in isolated um circumstances, but it's um a tool that will really lead us on the cutting edge. I I would uh assume that there are not a lot of agencies doing this in the prehosp environment. So, um there's a couple pieces to this project. One of them I'm going to ask to approve today and then the other one for the actual device will come next week once we get a final contract for them. So with doing this next level of testing, we have to do some regulatory stuff with the state um and uh CMS to make sure that we are doing this testing appropriately. Um, so this kind of takes us from, you know, just checking a blood sugar into doing some real lab testing. So there's another level of certification that the agency needs to take on to do that. Um, it's quite a convoluted process. Um, very detailed and not something that, you know, I'm not a lab scientist, so I don't have a lot of background in that. So we've

engaged consulting services. they came highly recommended to us and they will do all of that um regulatory work and getting us our certificate. Um they'll write our policies and and do our training, the programs and all of those sorts of things. So that agreement is the one that I have ready today. um that is a $2,500 retainer and then five hours of consulting at $500 per hour for a total of $5,000 to push us uh and get us that certification. Of note, Dr. Stilly is uh has taken the additional training to be a lab medical director. So, we have that which is usually one of the biggest hurdles. So, really this is some paperwork and u building policies and procedures. So, um that is with Lighthouse Lab Services and I'll ask you to uh approve that in a minute. And then the second piece of that once we get all that in place is actually purchasing the epoch or the point of care testing device. Um, and that is from Seaman's Health uh, suppliers. And the total would be for four devices uh, $28,79120. And that and so that is the device um, that will actually provide the laboratory results. In order to run a test, we need individual cards which you would place the blood in and then the card goes into the machine. And those cards are about $10 each. In the grand scheme of things, for everything that we do on uh a medical emergency, those cards at $10 a piece are are, you know, um one of the probably cheaper items that we would be using and those would just come out of our medical expenditures, supply expenditures moving forward. So, um, I apologize. I was not able to get the full terms and conditions for the

actual device. So, that will need to wait until next week, but I wanted everybody to have an idea of what the total price was and where we were going with this because it has a lot of different moving uh pieces. So, any questions on that? And then I'll get into the So, those four apparatus will be carried on our command vehicles then. Yes. Okay. So, they will go to all the highle calls um where we would, you know, be doing this testing and um machine's pretty quick. We can draw blood out of the IVs that we're going to put into people and it's a two to three minute turnaround time and we'll have those results right there in the living room. Are these devices on co-op?

Uh yes. So, I got your capital budget that I didn't have the updated agenda with the epoch on it. So the that's just the 31,000 and some change, right, that you're talking about today. So Okay. And then what kind of life expectancy does it have on them radios and things? I mean, how often do you have to swap them out and get them changed out or they become defunct? Are we switching gears? So, so, so the only the only line item you've already approved everything else. This is the only this is the epoch point of care testing is the one that I'm looking at. So, what is the

how often will we have to change those out? Are they going to say they last two years and we have to turn this again or this is a 5year? I I don't I don't there there is no I mean I'm sure there's a service life to them. However, it's annual maintenance. I don't know that they have a drop dead, you know, in two years from now, you're going to have to buy new equipment. Um, that's uh I mean, I'm sure they'll upgrade their device at some point in time and we'll be back to to the table of trying to decide whether we want to continue or not, but this is not something that, you know, in in 24 months that's going to be bad.

Well, if it saves lives, then I would think we would continue. I I just don't I I know where you're going and I don't have a definitive answer. I can certainly get that for you, but I don't think that this is going to be a $28,000 expenditure every 3 years or something like that. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going down that road and well, okay, none of those devices are out of date now. You got another 28,000 from us. You know, I think, you know, the intention would be is that these devices would we'd have them just as long as we have our other medical equipment that 5 to 10 plus year window. You don't ask the patient if he wants an epoch. We we do not. Okay.

So, is sheriff still here too? He can use them for blood checking blood alcohol.

We It does not test for alcohol unfortunately. Um, so really the the only action that I would have today is to approve the master product service agreement and consulting hours with Lighthouse Services so that they can start getting working on our lab uh regulatory work. And that is uh a $2,500 retainer and then $2,500 in consulting hours. I'll make a motion to adopt this epoch program for EMS with Lighthouse Lab Services LLC.

Second. All in favor? I I and then I will come back next week with the final agreement from Seammens for the actual purchases of the device. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Unfinished business. ADA compliance update on document remediation and we've got

good news. I have good news. So, um, yesterday the ADA, uh, gave an extension of one year for compliance, so pretty happy about that. Um, we're already in pretty good shape. We've still got some work to do, but it's something that is not, I think, is daunting over a little bit more time. we're we're not stopping what we're doing by any means. We just don't have to like rush and get it done. Um so, uh one thing that you know the year will give us time to kind of get um some other things hopefully implemented. Um, one thing of concern is to me is um, our staff, me included, when we were learning the office products, we weren't learning how to use it to create accessible documents. We were just trying to make nice word documents or Excel spreadsheets or whatever. Um, u, making accessible document is quite a bit different. It's not harder, it's just different. And I think any of our staff that is creating documents needs to be trained on how to create accessible documents. Any documents that are created could potentially be put on the web. Um I would assume so or be requested by somebody in an accessible format. So, um, just going forward, I just want that in the back of people's minds that like I think it's a it would be a good idea for us to have some kind of training in the future in the near

future for staff on how to create accessible documents because it will also help make the remediation process easier. When these documents aren't accessible, it takes quite a bit more time to remediate them even with the tools that we have. So that's my spiel. Well, this does give us some breathing room. Um I suggest that we not require you to update us weekly, maybe not even monthly, but perhaps quarterly.

Okay. um as to the progress being made and to prove that I uh listen to my physics instructor in high school. Newton's first law of inertia, objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Yes. So, we need to keep the inertia going. I agree. I don't I don't like stopping when we're kind of already at a good pace and like there no no reason to to kick kick the can down the road. We need to get it done. We need to get these habits

right of creating this stuff accessibly. So, and maybe you can check off to us that sheriff's department compliant. Yes. EMS compliant. Yes. auditor questionable.

Yeah, but like I said, the training I think is the next big thing going forward. So, I I don't know what that would look like with the offices. Um, we haven't talked about it, but I think it's really important that our staff is trained to actually do these documents in accessible format. So, that's all I have. I want to thank you for everything you've done. You know, we thought we had till the 24th. So, I really really appreciate all the work. Waiting till a week before to give the extension. Yeah, I I can't thank you enough. Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you for your support.

I agree. I don't think we need once a quarter, you know. So, we're in April, May, June, July. The first first meeting in July October. If you don't really have anything, you can say, "We don't have anything." Yeah. I mean, we we do need to I mean, pay attention and we can't wait till the last until March of next year to say, "Where are we?" Yeah. No sense having it on there every week. We're ADA compliant now. We've got the extension and then the departments are working on their pages. So, yep. Still working on it. Okay. Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay, you out of another meeting.

The senior tax freeze update. And I just I like to let everybody know that that you know we are beginning May 6th. So it'll be Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays through June 30th. So, all of those who are turning 62 who haven't applied may apply. Uh those that didn't apply last year who want to apply, uh we'll be doing it up here in the commission. So, anything else, Jessica?

No. Okay. Okay. And we're not going to uh public projects. Do we have anything else? I would entertain a motion to go into close session. Pursuant to section 16.021 of the revised statutes of Missouri, the commission will go into close session to discuss the following responses to bids and negotiated contracts section 16.021. 021 start section 12. Second roll call, please. Jeff, yes.

Sam, yes. hearing.