City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah. You know, he'll reach out to them. He's a walker. He'll suggest, you know, What do you think? You know, we are learning something that doesn't go on something that was not there. You know, you know, it's not something that you know, she's going to touch it. In some ways, it works. I mean, it's heavily charged. You want.

Still just 5.30. You're good. You're not late. All right. I will call the Cookville City Council meeting for Thursday, July 16th to order. May I have a roll call, please?

Councilman Bodgie? Here. Councilman Walker? Here. Mayor Wheaton? Here. Vice Mayor Eldridge? Here. Councilman Gilbert? Here. Five present.

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to ask those that wish to do so to stand for the invocation given tonight by Pastor Buddy Pearson, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mayor, Councilman, would everybody pray with me? Grace and Holy Father, we're just so thankful, thankful to be here tonight. Lord, we're thankful for the wonderful city that we live in. Lord, we just pray that you'd be with the council tonight, Lord, that you guide their decisions, that you give them wisdom and discernment, Lord, and everything they do glorify you. Lord, we just pray that you'd be with the citizens of this great city, Lord, that we seek you first, but we also treat each other with love and respect, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Lord, we love you, and we just pray that you continually bless those of us who live here, and Lord, that we make you proud by being great citizens and being faithful followers of you. But we love you, and we pray these things in Jesus' precious name. And everybody said, Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Pastor Pearson. Item three, consider approval of the agenda as presented. Are there any changes?

Yes, Mayor. We have several changes. I think you may have some changes, too. But first, we need to add item 7C. Excuse me. First, we need to move to consent item 6H, which would consider approval to purchase one 2026 Ford Bronco Sport. for the community development department and we need to add item 7c which is consider approval to purchase one pierce enforcer 107 foot ladder truck for the fire department chief young will be presenting that we also need to add 7j which is considered authorizing city manager to execute an addendum to the memorandum of understanding with chm coble llc for the pavement paving of green gate lane mary beth will be presenting that Then we add 7K, we should consider approval and authorize city manager to execute an addendum with Kimley Horn and Associates Incorporated for right-of-way acquisition services to include closing services with OR Colon Associates. This is for our West Jackson, South Willow turn lane improvements. And then finally, we need to add 7L, consider authorizing city manager to execute change order number one for the interstate drive roadway settlement repair project. And Ms. Elroy will also be presenting that out, but I asked. What now? Oh yeah, we also, this is not in the, In addition, we switched items A7A, which consider approval of the 39 Depot Master Plan, with 7B, which consider the resolution adopting the plan, excuse me, which gives the authority to acquire property to implement the plan. So we switched those around from what we reviewed on Monday. But I ask for those changes, please.

And then I've got two minutes that I need to make. We need to add an item 4B, a proclamation that we're going to be doing. And then I guess it's going to be item 12. We need to accept the report for the city manager evaluation.

Add it to 9.

Add it to 9. Okay. Add that to item 9. We have to accept the city manager evaluation reports. Anyone else want to add anything?

Okay.

All right, do I have a motion on the agenda as amended?

So moved.

A motion from Councilman Gilbert, seconded by Councilman Baggi. Any discussion with the Council on that? Okay, seeing none, we'll all note on the agenda as amended.

All votes correct. Yes, motion carries.

Thank you for a we've got appointments, proclamations, presentations and awards. Our first one is to consider appointment to the football regional medical center board of trustees. Those who don't know every year, the city council is responsible for pointing a member to the hospital board. This is a very in depth. uh seven year commitment so anyone who is even willing to consider serving on the board we are very grateful for and um after discussion and having people who have said they were interested we have great well i'm going to be nominating mr braden smith he is the director of ema i think this is official title um he's been in this community for a long time has had work with and obviously multiple emergency situations logistics uh you know that kind of stuff and working with the hospital i think he'll be a great addition so i'll be nominating him to serve a seven-year term uh for the hospital board seconded i've got a motion in a second from councilman walker any discussion from the council on that next thing then we'll vote on that appointment

Although it's correct. Five yes, motion carries.

Thank you. On to my added item 4B. I've got a proclamation. As most of y'all know, I will be out of here in It's 34 days. But all that to say, there are definitely some people that I'm going to want to recognize these last few weeks that I'm in office. And the first one tonight that I want to recognize is someone who is not going anywhere, at least until August. After that, he can go wherever he wants to. But I want to recognize Mr. Dan Rader.

I don't know if you knew this, but I wonder if you recognize half your families out here.

why they're here. Like I said, he's not going anywhere. This is just me taking a moment to recognize someone who for the eight years that I've been on city council could not have done it without him. Not being an attorney, having a brother who is an attorney. I appreciate what y'all do. I would never want to do it. So I have a proclamation for you that I'm going to read if that's okay. Whereas Daniel H. Rader III was appointed city attorney for the city of Cookeville in July 2007 and has faithfully served the city of Cookeville with integrity, wisdom, and unwavering dedication for nearly two decades, providing sound legal counsel to the mayor, city council, city managers, city departments, and the citizens of Cookeville. And whereas throughout his tenure, Mr. Rader has been a trusted advisor whose knowledge of municipal law, steady leadership, and thoughtful counsel have helped guide the city through significant growth, major public infrastructure projects, economic development initiatives, public safety improvements, legislative change, and times of change, always with the best interests of the city and the citizens at heart. And whereas professionalism, fairness, patience, and commitment to ethical public service have earned the respect and the confidence of elected officials, city employees, fellow attorneys, and community leaders alike, making him an invaluable asset to the city of Tocqueville. And whereas during my eight years of service as an elected official, including four years as vice mayor, and four years as mayor, I've had the privilege of working alongside Mr. Rader and have relied upon his counsel, guidance, and steadfast support through countless meetings, decisions, and challenges. His wisdom, call and demeanor, and a wavering commitment to doing what is right have provided a foundation of confidence and stability that has benefited not only me personally, but the entire city council and the citizens we serve. And whereas many of Mr. Rader's contributions occur behind the scenes, his influence can be seen in the strength of our local government, the soundness in his decisions, and the continued progress of the city of Cookville. His dedication to public service has helped shape the community we enjoy today and has left an enduring impact that will benefit generations to come. And whereas it is fitting and proper to recognize Mr. Rader not only for his years of exceptional service since 2007, but also for his continued commitment, you hear that, continued commitment, to the city of Cookville as he faithfully carries out the responsibility of the city attorney with the same professionalism, integrity, and dedication that have defined his distinguished tenure. Now, therefore, I, Lauren Wheaton, mayor of the city of Cookville, Tennessee, do turn back to express my deepest appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to Daniel H. Rader III for his extraordinary service, trusted counsel, unwavering professionalism, and steadfast dedication to the city of Cookville. I further recognize and celebrate his enduring commitment to public service and thank him for the wisdom, integrity, and leadership he has provided throughout my eight years in elected office and throughout his distinguished tenure as city attorney. His contributions have strengthened our local government, enriched our community, and will leave a lasting legacy for the city of Cookville.

So we've got this and not only this, I found a key to the city.

And I want to present you, we all at the council want to present you with this proclamation and key to the city if you'll accept it. If you don't make a picture, but on social media didn't happen. Okay.

That's before my time.

You have to come down. Y'all can say right there. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. One, two, three. Perfect.

All right.

You want to say anything, but you can't tell us what you're talking about.

I lost my voice today, but I moved here 52 years ago on August 1st, and I could not be more proud to be a member of this community and a member of this city. For the last, I've been the city attorney formally, for over 19 years, started the 20th year after July 7. And it's just meant the most to me to be able to try to give back to the community and help all the elected officials. They're the ones who do the real work. I'm just behind the saying that this city council and the several before this have just been superb. And this particular council, as I think you'll see as this evening wears on, they have accomplished more than you can ever imagine. And we have so much to be proud of, Delivia and Kootenai. And I just, Buddy gave an invocation. And everybody, just every day of your life, just thank God that you can live in a place like Kootenai and have the friends and support that we all have here. It's just an exceptional place. So thank you very much. And thank you very much.

Moving on to old business. 5A, consider approval of minutes of council meeting held on July 2nd, 2026. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilman Walker. Any discussion from the council? All right, we'll bet on that.

All those correct. 5 yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 5B, consider on second and final reading, Ordinance 026-0611, amending the Zoning Code Section 227.3, for an adaptive residential multifamily reuse of the use permitted on appeal, special exception, to the Zoning Code Section 234, for permitted uses to include adaptive residential multifamily reuse. Mr. Ward.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So this ordinance was passed on first reading after hearing some comments from Council. The ordinance has been revised to address several of the concerns you guys have shared. The revised version of the ordinance retains the original purpose of allowing adaptive residential multifamily reuse as a special exception within existing buildings in the CI commercial industrial mixed use district. The definition of the use, the requirement of BZA approval and building code requirements and annual reporting requirements remain unchanged. The revised draft made four primary changes. First, affordability requirements were increased. The original version required either 20% of the units to be occupied by households earning more than 50% of the area median income or 40% of the units to be occupied by households earning no more than 60% of the area median income. The revised version increased those thresholds to 50% of the units that are below the 50 AMI number and 60% of the units that are below the 60 AMI number. This change ensures that a majority of the units within the approved development will serve income-qualified households. Second, the revised ordinance provides a more specified method for calculating the maximum rent. The original language generally limited maximum rent to 30% of the AMI for applicable household size and stated that the owner paid utilities would be included as part of the rent. The revised language established that maximum monthly gross rent would be calculated using the applicable HUD income limit adjusted for household size and divided by 12. Gross rents will include the base rent and any mandatory recurring fees. The revised language also provides an allowance of up to 35% of the applicable income limits for one, two, and three-person households when utilities and furnishings are included. The limit remained at 30% for four-person households or above. Third, accepting of housing vouchers is now mandatory. The original version stated that the development may accept HUD housing choice vouchers and Tennessee TNHDA project-based vouchers. The revised ordinance change may accept a must accept. This ensures that otherwise eligible tenants cannot be denied solely because they intend to use an eligible housing voucher as payment. Finally, I revised draft added a minimum lease term of 90 days. This provision was not included in the original ordinance. The new requirement helps distinguish this adaptive residential reuse from a hotel, motel, or short-term rental operation and reinforces the units are intended to provide longer-term residential housing. So with these revisions, we strengthened the affordability component, provided a clear and more enforceable maximum allowed rent calculation, required the accepting of eligible housing vouchers, and established that 90-day lease term. So we had some discussion about that, and Mr. Rader had some comments relative to changes, and if these are material changes, if we need to revisit these through the process, and it wouldn't be appropriate at second reading. But I'm happy to answer any questions from council on the ordinance as revised.

I know we do have some discussion that we'd like to have. So to get that going, I do have a motion. I got a motion from Vice Mayor Aldridge. Do I have a second?

I'll second this. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just, yeah. Yeah.

I have a second. All right. Discussion.

Yes. Any comments from the public first on this item? Any comments from council?

I'll go first. I've got some concerns, but still with the rates, I do think, John, you've done a good job of opening up more units. I mean, ultimately, just in layman's terms here, you know, you've got a property and we're going to allow it to change from its existing use to a new use, and that's multifamily. And so it's going to enter, it's going to go away from being a hotel to being an apartment. And Ultimately, when you do that, there are certain services you likely give up, I would think, such as maid service, continental breakfasts, things like that, that you don't have to maintain your own room, do your own laundry, pick up those services. The HUD published rent rate for fair market rent in our area for an efficiency unit, which would be similar to a hotel room, is $752. That's the fair market rate. Under this current maximum rent, we start at 30% cap for the HUD AMI number. So to explain that, if it's one person income on the unit, that's about a $36,000, $37,000 income, $36,780 income. 30 of that calculated out on the 60 area median income would be a max rent of 919 before utilities and so if if utilities are included in that rate that goes up to a thousand seventy two dollars so this is still $250, and that's just for a one-person household, $250 above the fair market rent for a high-efficiency apartment. For a four-person unit, know if you have if you have a situation where there's you know two adults or a mom and three kids you've got four people living in that household um that actually raises what's allowed now these are just the allowable max rents now whether they charge less they can charge less to market standards just get the room rented but the maximum they could charge a four-person unit is um 35 if they include utilities and that's 1533 a month that's more than double what the fair market rent is because when we actually only use the 35 rate for one two and three person households so the four person household was the thirty percent rate at thirteen fourteen Okay, so it stays at 1379? 1314 for the four-person household. Okay, so it would be 1379. Just to make sure that everyone understood that that was in there. Okay, so we held short on utilities for a four-person household.

Yeah. Okay, is that because you can't put four people in there? No, that was just based on feedback we've received from the property owners trying to come up with a model that worked. um here for what the city's trying to achieve with this proposed change and what the property uh owner has said that was necessary to function okay so that puts our let's put our maximum monthly rent for four-person households which is the highest amount of rent

And this is just on perhaps 50% or 60% of the units. The other units will be as they rented. That would put them at $1,314 and $1,379. And $1,314 would be the cap of utilities. $1,379, if you go down to like three people and utilities were included. That's still $600 more. And so... I think the problem here is that we got into a situation in Cookville where it's most expensive. The most expensive living is for our poorest people. than the people with the lowest incomes. And that's just insane to me. And I think when we support this type of thing, where it's too high of parameters, if we do not set guidelines, if we're entertaining setting guidelines, I'm not necessarily in favor of creating a situation where we entertain that affordable housing is created. that maybe fair market is a better way to handle it. But when you pay too much for these hotels to do long-term stay, you have two different things going on, and we don't have any middle ground. We have hotels that are daily maintained, staffed 24-7, people on site. Then you have multifamily units that are typically much less staffed. They may take situations like this may have a little bit higher risk, can't get as much security deposit as your normal apartment, but still there has to be some kind of guideline or barrier to that. My recommendation just to get this even closer would be to amend this amendment to 25% maximum rent and 30% with utilities included. But I'll open up the discussion before trying to make an amendment to hear what anybody else would think. That would move that a little bit closer to $919 maximum rent for a one person without utilities or 1,072 for one person with utilities under that 60% median income range. And are we doing the max rate only under 50 or 60? Remind me.

It would be whichever you chose for eligibility, right? So if you're saying you're doing 50% or households earning at 50% AMI or less, or if you came in and said we'll do 60% at 60% AMI or less. Yeah, so the lower AMI. Whichever you decided to use as your eligibility determination.

Yeah, so if you do drop the AMI, if you do less units, at 50 percent AMI, and you allow, in theory, lower-income people in, then you do drop, in this scenario, to 30 percent, which would put you at the lowest maximum rent that we would allow is at 766, which is more in line with fair market rent. if you have electricity and utilities paid for through the rent. And so that's why my recommendation would be to go to 25% for without utilities and 30% with utilities for the maximum rent.

So I mentioned last meeting, this is trying to find where on the paradigm this thing is. This is the greatest thing ever. We headed a disaster. So I've had some opportunity to study it. And what I was trying to do, and I think I was able to do it or get comfortable for myself at least, was find our market average rent. And then with some adjustment that we're doing, are we coming in underneath that? And broad strokes, I was able to sort of get there. To me, if you take it in totality, these are small units. It's hard to use a metric of price per foot and all these things. A lot of those things go out of kind of chopped off the end of the bell curve whenever you consider size of unit, the particular product we're discussing right now. There's some unique things about this. Undoubtedly, this is a little bit of a hybrid. And after having a couple of weeks to reflect on it, thinking about the space that this particular product operates in. We have other situations like this in town. Now, they have the fortunate positioning to have the entitlements that come with our zoning code, and they get some of the things that have been requested of us to consider for this property with those classifications. We already have that need being met in a sense within that window of the ordinance. For me, broad strokes, this is just a request to go ahead and give what is ostensibly functioning that way of kind of an outlier. It's kind of giving them the nod that, hey, you know what, you're entitled to the same functional advantages that the other products have. And so, and then on top of all that, we have a sponsor who's willing to, to try and help give a little discount on top of that, which the other ones aren't. And I like that part of it. And then it also makes it eligible for vouchers and some other things, which as we have all been requested of affordability is that, that seems to be that equation. We're all trying to find a way to solve. And this, this seems to the spirit of this seems to be headed that way. So I like that. And then I guess to put a bow on that, again, we don't need to put our thumb on the scale of what works for him or works for us. So we've got to be really careful doing that. That's not our job. We have somebody who's brought us up what seems to be a reasonable idea and says, you know what, in addition to you considering giving me the entitlements that these other people are operating under that have product just like me, I'll actually throw in a little bit of effort to put some affordability in the equation. And I like all that. So my preference for probably going back to my problem, my point about, hey, we don't need to get too caught up in what model works for him or what the city feels like they want in terms of percentages. we can't make them all affordable and we can't, we can't let, and he has offered not to, he's not requested to make them all market. And so I would prefer to go back to probably the original ordinance as proposed with a few of the semantics, maybe in the language that you might recommend we incorporate. So that would be my preference.

Yeah. I kind of lean the same way with Chad. So to go back to the original, because you got to, I've talked to some people and I said, we got to quit looking at the lens of a, of a of an apartment or looking at the lens to helping individuals um we we've we've done this before in the sense of even today thda just awarded 600 000 to highland residential to continue and get the housing for homeless individuals going and hopefully be done by spring of 27. so that was a great thing this too is another great thing that we have going it's not going to fix affordability but it's given an option it's given another option for people because there's not a renter that will take away the thousand to two thousand dollars to pay up front they're giving us an option to help that this helps there's some potentials that this could help it could help with the waiting list at island residential I've talked with Highlands Residential today. They've got a waiting list. We could potentially see who could fit that mold and go over there. This could help when the hospital also needs somewhere to take somebody and they don't have nowhere to take them. This gives that option. The elderly that are at Oak Tree Towers, it's full and there's 55 and older. It gives that option. I know you already have people there. I know you have veterans there. I know you have families that have 27 kids. This also helps with the homeless and what we're trying to do with working with them with some stuff that I've been working on and we're working on some other people. This also helps with someone who has something happen, a fire or something like that. And yes, like Chad said, everybody's been talking about cities got to do something about affordability. Well, we've been working on that. You just got to be, you just got to understand what we have been trying to do when, especially with THD and now this, we are working on those things and It doesn't hurt anything that doesn't hurt us. There's nothing. Let's try it. See what happens. It don't work. He's willing to take the fall on that, and I appreciate that. And he's willing to go away from nightlies, and he's willing to go away from weeklies, and that's a big help. And even our own chief has even said the calls have went down a little bit over there, and he can attest to that. Sheriff Ferris has even said, and some of his people said, so I don't see what's I say we just, we try, we go with it. I'm totally fine with going back to what we had originally, especially after talking with you more and me and you having good conversations. I'm totally fine with doing that, giving an option to people because there's not a renter in town that will waive that. There's not a renter in town that will give an option to somebody who has a history to waive that. Landlord sorry renter. You know what I mean? There's not a there's not a landlord. He's willing to to do that. So, I, I say we go back and we give it a shot.

Yeah, okay.

Oh, I was just gonna say. I like the idea and I like the original proposal last reading as well, particularly because I think it addresses a lot of the barriers that these families have to overcome when they're trying yes now they'll have an address they'll be able to get that subsidized income they're able to use that voucher and get that assistance that they need because now they actually have a physical address a mailbox those types of things which have historically been the barriers if you've gone through any of these workshops That's one of the key pieces in the formula, or as far as barriers, is, hey, I don't have a place to get my mouth. You know, I could get this assisted, but I don't live in the right time. Questions.

The amended version that has the changes in the percentage of units and the AMI, my understanding is that newer model might not work. It's correct that that is not a sustainable model.

Some of the feedback we've received from the property owner, right? I mean, we've been trying to come up with something that would function, you know, where we would achieve some of the goals we're trying to do with this conversion. I mean, what the key difference is, this is commercial industrial property. That property does not allow multifamily residential development, just like Chad focused on.

Any other multifamily residential or hotel that's doing this type of lease rent agreement. We do not oppose any of those, any of these restrictions.

They're in zones that allow multi-family development and hotel motel development. And that's the difference. And we don't want multi-family residential development in our commercial industrial zones, right? And when looking at this property, it's more appropriate to remain commercial industrial mixed use. It's where it's at. It's everything that's around it. It makes more sense that way.

Which is why this is an exception.

which is why we went down this exception route. But, you know, the property could also be rezoned because I do think that it's compliant with the future plan to get a general commercial zoning designation. It's a commercial slash industrial. It's best suited for commercial or industrial uses. So that has been interpreted as compliant in other areas for rezones.

I'd like to say one thing. I agree with Holly and Luke. I think that having a source of a building for people to go is important. I mean, having mailboxes and even having an affordable housing multi-use option is important. Honestly, I think if anybody's operating as a multifamily unit, they ought to have mailboxes. And so those people can make sure that they get their addresses updated and services from the government that they need and everything updated. But this would all still do all of those things, but it would just cap the mending of it, cap the rent at a fair market value. So you get all of those benefits. We're not changing any of those benefits. we're just setting the rent at a fair market value. And the problem with that is, is that if a property owner can't meet fair market value, perhaps the deal on the property wasn't that good to begin with. It shouldn't be on the backs of the renters to support that. And we're developing these allowances and efforts. And honestly, when people go over and they pay exorbitant amounts for hotel rooms, exorbitant amounts for long-term stays, they are fueling that across the whole city because there's limited availability of that. And if you don't negotiate those prices down, and perhaps that becomes a problem in the future, I don't know. I mean, if you need $1,300 a month for 270 square feet for multifamily, that's not sustainable. I don't see how that's sustainable in any realm whatsoever. of business and and i don't for cookville that i mean if you've got a large loan on this property it won't sustain that at those rates and and that's a that's a 40 a square foot rent rate per year our other apartments in cookville are below 20. i mean they're they're as low as 12 a square foot And so when you compare these two things, I mean, I understand that we're waiving security deposit, but when the rents double, well, if it's first month security deposit, it's included. I mean, you're paying it. If the rent's $1,400 a month and it should be $700, well, you just took care of the security deposit and the first month's rent. but then you're taking care of it in the second month rent, in the third month rent, in the fourth month rent. And I think that I understand that like, I don't want this to become a thing where whether or not we pass this ordinance will mean whether or not this property succeeds or fails as an affordable housing property and solution for Cookeville. Because I don't believe that this ordinance will have that measure on it. It's currently operating as a hotel, it has an option to go to an affordable price. Now, if they've already traded on a higher price and they didn't trade on a price that met multifamily standards, that's a business problem, not a weed problem that we're specifically intending to solve. And that's why I think that this is a difficult situation And we have several hotels that are going to be in this difficult situation, and especially because they've been propped up with other sources helping pay these rents over time and helping pay these higher rents over time. So if these properties have transferred hands and moved from source to source, then the cost of these properties has inflated, which has inflated the cost of rent. And so I just, I can't get behind saying this is an affordable solution for cooked milk when it's really just saying, okay, we're going to allow this. Here's a way to allow multiband housing. and CI zoning. And we're going to say it's affordable housing, and we're going to put these really high caps on it so it works for them. And I appreciate everything we've done. And John, I know you've done a lot to increase this. It really comes down to the rent rate that's being charged. And if they can't make that work, then we gotta figure out a new, we have to fix our housing problem. And this highlights our housing problem more than anything.

You don't have the utilities, which is roughly about 30%. And this includes the utilities, furniture, and those types of things. Then the upfront cost for a typical first month's rent and security deposit and application fees, it's roughly cost around two grand upfront that they would have to come up with. And you can extrapolate that over time. Divide that over 12 months, that's an additional $166 a month that they're not having to pay either.

Oh, this takes care of utilities. It's written up to be, well, the version John presented is written up to be 30% without utilities and 35% with utilities. So the utilities are accountable to them.

But the up-front security deposit and that kind of application fees, those types of things. I mean, the reality is that many of these people would never bid two grand up front.

I think the biggest thing we've discovered, one, is that this is a complicated situation and that there's no easy solution. At the end of the day, what I'm trying to bring this down to is that I'm not a property owner. I'm not a Lisa, I do not have the knowledge to break it down into percentages of what the unit should be and what AMI. What I'm looking at is, is this, is ordinance perfect? No. You know, I'm hopeful that we can, maybe we need to do some changes to it, things like that. Not material, just, you know, smaller ones. If that comes up, we can discuss it. But at the end of the day, this is something we do not have. this is in some way someone trying to present quote unquote more affordable housing um and for me it the pros outweigh the cons uh and i think that's what you have our job is not to determine race our job is not to determine rents that's not what a city government does and you do not want city government doing that um we are here to create opportunities and to try to solve problems for the community And I'm willing to take a chance on this. We could be wrong. Have I made mistakes? 100%. But this is one I'm willing to take a chance on to try to find a solution for a very complicated problem that no one has the answer to because if they did, there wouldn't be a housing crisis with there. So that's kind of what I boil it down to. My understanding is that the amended version does not fit a business model that would be successful. And I certainly don't want to put someone who's trying to It's a problem out of business. So for me, going back to the original, which does seem to be a model that is sustainable enough to try, would be the best option. And that is... what I would, once the discussion is done, we'll .

I'd just like to say one more. I just want to make sure that this, it gets highlighted and framed. This isn't a unique use. All that's being asked is the, hey, I want to do what these other properties are doing in this particular zoning code. And it's not automatic.

It still has to go through the BZA.

Yet we don't want to allow multi-family use in CI. We discussed that. It's effectively functioning that way now. That's one of the pain points we discussed at first reading is that it's the hotel-motel taxes that have to be paid for 30 days in the city, 60 days in the county, sales taxes that have to be paid for 90 days or 180 days. Those are the other... issues that this designation would remove from the expenses that folks pay in the rooms. And I'm not arguing, Eric, you definitely have more expertise than I on the rent rates in Cookeville, right? But this does offer a unique opportunity for someone that doesn't have options otherwise. They don't have options otherwise to get into some type of housing. Is it transitional? Does it help people get on their feet, get established where they can, go put a lease deposit down, sign a lease at a different property? That would be my hope, right, that this would help someone get on their feet or transition into something else. But it is an option, and it's being used that way. It's been used that way for years. It's been an extended stay. It's had these longer-term occupants. It's been used through programs like UCHRA. I mean, there's different people that have been utilizing this property like this for years. It's not competitive anymore in that nightly realm, right? And I think that's one of the bigger issues with the designation program. that you that's under consideration here, too, is just it's already acting this way.

Right. Just almost just a little bit of a restate of what you said, which was spot on. I think as a council, we have to be agnostic to the rent and to the market. The market is going to set the ceiling for this. I think you almost have to look at this ordinance as though he may sell it tomorrow. And you have to you have to you have to work within a framework that says, you know what, it's not so complicated. We can't We can't pass it, monitor it, make sure it is what we want it to be. But you have to assume he's gonna get all he can get and no slight intended there. But in the context of that, he's come along and saying, hey, I'm just like every other product that's functioning like this. He's functioning like that now, but he's saying, but I'll do this. I will offer this concession that says, you know what? I will operate like everyone else. I want you to consider me with the entitlements and allow me to within the ordinance as a conforming use. But you know what? I want to kind of cooperate. I want to offer a part of this that helps with some affordability. And in totality, I'm like you, the pros outweigh the cons. Is it perfect? No. But like you said, perfect doesn't need to be the enemy of progress. And that's where I'm at.

Yeah, but the designation changes. From hospitality to multifamily, you can get a cheaper loan. That's the reality here. And if you don't lower the rent rates, you're just benefiting from a cheaper loan as a landlord.

But we're putting restrictions in here that do require there to be rent that is at a lower rate.

But they're not any lower than what they are with this hospitality rate.

I do feel like that is a little bit of a subjective feel. There's multiple statistics and studies out there that show what is affordable and what is not. Again, if there was one set number, then everyone would be doing the right at that for affordable housing. I think there is too much of subjectiveness to this. And at the end of the day, it is a zoning code that we're amending or use that's already happening. Or use that's already being done in other locations. And so. That's why I'm willing to consider the units at a lower rate for the people who we know need this, where it's already being done, and they're already doing it, and let's see what happens. I think this is something that, again, if it doesn't work, we can go back and see what we can do. Just by the... Sorry.

No, no, no. Go ahead.

So for...

the 35 which is what was been proposed by john at 1379 under the 60 area median income the the three household rate rate is 1379 and the four is 1314. the advertised rent at this hotel is 350 a week So that's $1,400. So the hotel rate and the rates that we're allowing are the same rate. And so the only benefit that is going to be seen is a multifamily designation to the property, which allows us a smaller loan. Now, we hope to see that's passed through to the tenants.

And that's what we have to do. I mean, we can't legislate everything. We have to. There is freedom of choice and freedom of saying, here's what we are presenting to you. So, and yeah.

Yeah, so this week alone, I have helped assist a lady with over $1,300 in her rent, 300 to bring that down, $1,400 roughly. If she could get a break on that for 400 bucks, she wouldn't be asking me for help. And then turn right around, I just helped another girl with her family to get a 300 something dollar life bill paid. And so there's another $400 ish gap there. And if he's going, we're going for $1,400 to $1,100, you know, or whatever. It's a benefit. Mayor, can I call for a motion to amend? That amend is, or honestly, or do we talk, we've talked, we've talked a lot. I'm not kidding. Does it make the amendment? I mean, it's up to the mayor.

Okay, so right now we have a motion and a second on the

As presented in the book. That's an amended version. That was a revised version, yes.

Yeah, so we've got a motion and a second on the amended version. So if we do not want this and we want to go back to this, we would vote no on this. And then we need another motion to go back to the original.

Or to move amended back to the original. Okay. Is there any more discussion that anyone needs to have before they can vote?

Okay, seeing none, we've got a motion and a second on the amended ordinance, and that would be to keep it as the way it is in your books with the changed phrase. We will have vote on the ordinance as amended. This is Matthew Richman. You follow me?

I'm following you. This is as John presented, not any amendments, right?

No, this is for the amendment.

This was revised from first reading, so that's what makes this an amended version. Presented at this meeting. Yes, that was what was presented today.

Although it's correct. Five no, motion failed. That's my first five no's.

to go back to the ordinance as originally presented with the numbers in the first reading.

move forward with what was the original that we did first reading on the first reading.

Okay, so we've got a motion from council body and a second from vice mayor Eldridge in discussion from the public on that one.

Yeah, sure.

And this, uh, not going how I expected, but in a very pleasant, pleasant way. Um, I wanted to be brief, so I made sure to write things down.

We do have a three-minute time limit.

Yeah, no, absolutely. We, number one rule, our mission is do the right thing. If there's somewhere else that's better, we actively market those solutions. So this wasn't even part of what I was going to say, but people brought up, oh, fair market rent, all these things are $700, $900. Man, I got to tell you what, we've got hundreds of people that would love the addresses of those apartments. I will give those addresses to those people today. The reason that they are here with us is because those places that are calculated into the fair market rent are not available. They are on wait lists. They have credit requirements. They have deposits you have to meet. They have background checks. So, again, if there was another option, I want people to do the right thing. I want people to better themselves. A single mother with a kid in a van at Walmart is not bettering themselves. There's a reason why they chose to be here with us that are paying upwards of $1,600. That includes $300 in taxes. In Putnam County, with all of the taxes, it's one of the highest combined tax rates in the state of Tennessee at 20%. We have a mother with a child in a van coming to an apartment getting taxed at 20% extra. That's the difference. If we didn't change our rates at all, that is $300. That is life changing amount of money. You might as well told that person that they won the lottery. That's a person who doesn't know how they're gonna get gas today. They don't know how they're going to get food today. $300 is a huge stimulus boost. And to your point, you brought up that we can actually now get cheaper financing. Absolutely. Which then allows us to lower the base rent even more. So today we have a simple, very simple path to $500 cheaper per month for someone who is previously living in their car. Now, yes, I can't go $700 a month cheaper. The model is razor thin and the operations break. But we can give them $500 a month. And it sounds like that's what we're going to be able to do. And you're going to have a lot of people that you just changed your lives. You'll be able to go home and tell your family, hey, I was a superhero today because I literally saved people's lives. Thank you so much.

Any other discussion from the public on this?

I want to publicly thank everyone, John, and our council for all your work and great conversations with everyone. And I greatly appreciate opposition because I think to make something good, you must throw bullets at it. It's the way our company culture is to keep shooting things because that's the way you improve yourself. I wanted to share something with you guys because one of the things I learned coming into the company was... the stigmatism that comes along with the extended stay in the weeklies and things that go into that. And our company has structured inspections and working with the sheriff's department, the police department as ways to make clean, safe and affordable housing. But I think sometimes what gets missed and what I missed when I first came on board is we are in a very unique spot in the extended stay situation. We're in the crack. We're kind of like right there in this crack between the affordable housing. They refer to hotels and motels as a transitional place. You go on vacation, you're transitioning to that location or a business, and then you're transitioning back home. It's the same for our business model. We're a transition, just like we've mentioned here about people moving to a different situation. We've developed communities among our extended stays where they're attached to resources and there are School resources, there are food resources. We have the great state of Tennessee that provides medical resources, the city of Cookeville, the county here. Everyone works together with nonprofits and county agencies to help people. We get to provide a place to land as they transition. And it is temporary, even if that temporary status is one, two years or five days or 30 days or whatever it may be. But I had a situation happen just a few weeks ago, and I got a telephone call very late at night, and I happened to be picking up the telephone, and it was a woman crying hysterically. That happens a lot. Okay, that has happened a lot. But what happens in the conversation is I find out that this woman is crying. not your typical person to call an extended stay and they weren't she wasn't out of a job she has a very good job she serves the public in a county role and she found herself in a very bad situation of which she felt she could not go to her friends that she worked with or her superiors because how could a woman of her stature be in that situation? How could she be in the unsafe environment at home with two teenage daughters and now suddenly have nothing but what was on her physical debit card because her husband or the perpetrator in the situation controlled the money, controlled the thing. And she had found home, friends' homes to put the daughters. She needed a place for herself. She needed to pivot. from somewhere. She had to be at work the next two days. She has to pivot from somewhere. I spent a very long time on the phone with her and we didn't talk about rate, availability, cost or anything. It was about the ability, can I find a place to land tonight, right now, that I am not paying 89 to 100 or $200 a night to get that breakfast in the morning. I need a clean bed. I need a place to take a bath, get ready for work, and I need a place that I can pivot from for the next couple of days till I figure out mine. It made me feel so good that I got to be a part of that moment of being able to get her into a safe place that night. She did not have to pay anything but the rate. that night. And then she was able to get her paycheck and pay that discounted weekly rate and know, and she's happy now. She's brought her daughters to the place. She's become a part of the community. She's been very helpful to us over the last couple of weeks, just doing her role. She found a safe place, a quiet place, a private place to fall. And she's got herself on four wait lists for apartments that she can afford. She's in that high, I mean, yeah, I'm sorry. So I'm just going to say this. Thank you for doing this. No, no, no. I just want to say, I think sometimes it gets missed that we are the transitional housing. We're not that affordable apartment. We're the place that they go before. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to hear the whole story afterwards. Any other comments from the public? Okay.

Jeff King, Putnam City resident. Been here for a couple years now. I just wanted to take a moment. I've nearly stood up and talked a couple of times on this issue. How enthused I am to actually see this council having these discussions and focusing on these particular issues. It's an important issue and I just want to thank you all for the time you're putting into it and My statement on it itself, I sat here and considered this several times. I struggle a lot in this realm of I'm going to compare it to the subprime lending. Subprime lending is for those who are not lucky enough to have really good credit ratings. Some of us have managed, nothing's ever gone wrong in our lives and we have great credit. We can afford lots of things. This is a similar situation. In the subprime market, I see a lot of predatory at times. There's clearly predatory activities. I get no sense that that's here. And that was my one comment. I'm in support of this and I do not sense that this is predatory, although I won't claim to be an expert, but I do not sense that this is a predatory situation.

Thank you. Any other comments from the public? Any comments from the council?

Before we vote, were there any points of order in the ordinance beyond Was there some wording that was referred? I think the motion represents we want to move forward with the percentages as presented last time. Were there any points of order that needed to be tweaked?

There were some questions about the max, the cap. We had capped it at 30% last time.

I'm good with that. Any of the whereases and therefores, any of that?

mean the only other thing was the I would want to include that that lease term of 90 days that wasn't in our initial one the lease term was added establishes a minimum 90-day lease term because we were trying to address this short-term aspect of it I think that was fine with the with the property owner And we had the vouchers as may before. And if we wanna make that as a shall, they've indicated they would accept vouchers. We feel like that the property should accept vouchers. But I think they've indicated that they would accept vouchers. So I don't know why there would be a problem with requiring that.

I think with that too, because most places that will accept vouchers have to have a certain standard. So if it's a shall accept vouchers, are you willing to say we will make sure they're at that standard?

No, we do that already. I think the only issue is the amount of the vouchers. So some public authorities will basically allow you to use the voucher and then allow the tenant a difference, assuming that they fit all those different things. So as long as we can get it to the same amount, we would absolutely love that, and that would be a huge win, and we should be –

I'm comfortable as long as it's a shall and then they would adhere and make sure they see what they need to do. Is that material?

Yeah. You're going to have to.

I've already got a motion to approve it as it was presented last time. You're going to have to either vote that down or amend that motion to include all these additions.

I'm going to amend that motion. Is it material?

While we're still having discussion.

Wait, hold on, wait, Bert.

Yeah. That's what you want.

You want to make a motion to go stand. The item. Okay. Then you make a motion on the item.

Does that rise to the occasion to have to have a new hearing?

Yeah, that's the way you have to do it. No, no, here.

No, no, sorry. Yes, we can do it. We can't say. That's immaterial. Okay.

all right but now we also the old the old ordinance from last time didn't include defining the rent maximum it did it established it at a 30 ami for for household size um but it didn't reference the the ami category yeah so that was an issue because it could be interpreted that it's just whatever percentage You know, it could be just 30% of average median income, which is not a reduced rate. It really wouldn't matter at that point.

You're saying which food group?

I mean, if you're trying to accomplish it, just take out the rent maximum. Just do it where it's occupancy only because that's effectively what we're doing anyway. I mean, I'm not for that, I'm not behind that, but we are giving, we are granting a property owner a use that they are not entitled like all the other property owners at Google and CI Zoning. We're gonna give them something, we're gonna give them this unique use to do something, which is gonna enable them to go get a better life. That's a matter of making more money. There are other products functioning that way, but okay. Not in that zoning.

So wait, what are you wanting to change?

So in your maximum monthly gross rent on the old ordinance, and I don't have it in front of me because it's been changed since, it did not reference the AMI qualification.

It did, but it wasn't, you know, we clarified that some with the change, but it, yeah, it's.

You're nearly getting to the point where I want to consider postponing it. let all these changes get put in writing and then bring it up at the next jump and we keep wintering it off, it's gonna be . Are you getting this, Terry?

Previous language said maximum rent should not exceed 30% of the area's median income for specified household sizes, but we didn't tie that to the 50%, 60% set. We didn't tie it to the mark. And we said utilities were part of the rent if they're paid by the property owner.

But it's tied to the HUD index.

Not the index. We didn't tie it to the specific. We didn't tie it to a specific index, right? I mean, there is a HUD index that has all kinds of different numbers on it. I thought it was tied to the HUD index. Well, that was our intent, but we were challenged on that. And that... Our property owner felt like that it was referencing Putnam County's median income, which is $89,000. And that's definitely not, you know, that's like a $2,200 per month number.

Well, right now, let's look at the capital of the original fund on first reading. If you're going to want to change it in any way, We need it.

Yeah, we need to be on its time into the head. And that's material since we already have done it.

That's so okay, so we can make it so we can amend it to say 90 day lease. We can amend will say, you know, chow that will take about 3 hours. And then

I think the 30% AMI number is a problem, right? I mean, that starts getting you down. You know, if those one-person households, you're getting down there below what the property owner says is feasible based on what he's got.

And sorry, what's the – forgive me if I do not – no, what does that do? What does that – Well, can I answer that? Yeah, yeah. What is that?

So I think the reason we, you know, voted no on the last one, you all made some amazing comments about not controlling crisis, right? So now we're kind of coming back to, well, wait, now should we be controlling crisis and how should? I think ultimately at the end of the day, I can't, I can't, I could say, hey, it's $10,000. I'm never going to rent that. There's a reason why our occupancy is 77% and not 100%. And it's because our prices are already too high. The biggest piece of that is the tax. It's the 20% tax. If all you did tonight was relieve these families of $300 a month, we'd won. We don't have to overcomplicate it.

All right, so we've got the 90 days, lease, and shall.

Are we still in discussion?

Yeah, we're still in discussion, yeah. So do we want to, the discussion is adding the, tying it into the definition of the AMR component, right?

Well, thank you. I thought of that.

I would, we can remove it as Eric had stated, or we can tie it to the number that functions in the area that we've heard is necessary. And 30% AMI for a one person household would get the rent numbers down. And I, you know, I provided you guys with a spreadsheet there. You know, that's 766.25 for a one-person household and 919.50 for a one-person household at 60% AMI. However, we're only going back to 20 or 40% of the rooms. So as long as you provide that, you know, that may be a model that works, you know, with these folks. I would just leave it as it's written. That's what I would recommend if that's what... With the 30% AMI number.

With the 90-day lease and the shell. Yeah.

With the 20% and 40% numbers, I think that there'll be enough four-person households to qualify based on the requirements set forth in the ordinance.

I agree. I think we're starting to get too much into the weeds again of defining a set rate, which we cannot do. And again, we're not saying this is perfect. We're willing to try. Or at least I am.

So... Do I need to resend my motion?

Well, does Eric want to add? If you want to add, we can vote on that.

Well, I mean, that's kind of...

I would like to add a lot of things, but right now, I think y'all are trying to vote on another motion.

Okay, so then right now... Right now, the motion is for the first board to pass.

Okay, so I'm gonna call, okay, so I'm gonna call the vote for us to vote on the original ordinance as presented in the first reading, not with the amendments that we just, that we just stated, if that makes sense. The original amendment, or the original ordinance. I do wanna add, okay, we can add that, okay. I can add nine items.

Do I need to? Do I need to make an amendment? Make a motion to amend. Motion to amend.

With 90 day lease.

With a 90 day and the show.

I'll take that. I've got a motion on that. I need a second.

We need a motion to vote on the amendment. And a second.

Can you second?

Second.

I've got a motion by Councilman Gilbert to amend the original ordinance with the 90-day lease and shall. And then I've got a second. So we need to vote on that. And then we will vote on the entire ordinance as a whole as amended. Been doing this for eight years. I should be able to get it. Y'all, I'm not making this easy.

I thought I should put the post out of here, but no. All right. So we've got a motion and a second.

for the amendment added to the ordinance. All in. Discussion? All right, all in. The councilor.

Oh, that's correct. Five yes, motion carries.

Thank you. Now I need a motion for the ordinance, original ordinance right on first reading as amended that we just did. Do I have a motion? Motion. Motion made by Dr. Eldridge, second by Councilman Boggi. Any discussion from the public? Oh, yes. If you give us a name, where you live in 30 minutes down.

My name is Aiden Harrison. I'm 17 years old and I've lived in Cookeville my whole life. I think that the fact that the entire council and Walker have spent an hour at Heads Together shows that this discussion needs more thought. before moving to a vote. I think it should be just postponed.

Thank you.

If it's postponed, I go back to Cookville tonight and tell families it's still an extra 300 bucks a month in taxes. We couldn't figure out, it wasn't obvious enough that a single family with kids living in a car shouldn't be charged 20% in taxes. If that's the only thing that we gave to these people tonight, that is a massive, massive win. And to everyone that said it's not going to be perfect, Absolutely, it's not going to be perfect, but you know what's going to feel really stinking perfect to those families? $300 in their pocket, effective immediately, once we get the BZA approval. And that's what I'd like to see happen.

Thank you. You know, this order is going to be back for 14 days. Yeah, well, that's why it's in the BZA. That's why it's in the BZA.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heather, I'm a resident of Tennessee.

I'm a high school member, but I'm also a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. This needs more consideration because right now this is only servicing that group of families, which they do need. These families need consideration in Cookville. I personally know a man who is homeless. He's working 40 hours a week. He can't even get into a hotel.

this needs more consideration so that it's not just servicing them but every person in cookville who needs consideration for their housing that's it thank you any other comments yeah i mean you as a hotel you can charge if you if you'll sign them up for more than 90 days you don't have to charge them tax so um you know if it's a long-term stay you should and i dare correct me if i'm wrong on that No tax after 90 days?

Taxes stop getting collected after 90 days. Okay.

So for sales tax.

So the occupancy tax collect and pay to the city for the first 30 days. County is collected to pay for 60. Sales tax collected and paid to the state for the first 90 can get a refund after 90 days.

That clause should restart if you want to, if they want to transfer. So that clause should be forever if you want to conform to training reviews.

Any other comments on county and state?

You did say, though, that you were going to do six-month to a 12-month lease. We just can't do that right now. Right. So that's the verbiage you have said, so. Yes. Instead of nine, it would go to six months to a 12-month lease.

I think 90, I mean, satisfies the act. I know it does. Situation, you know, there's a minimum we're proposing. It's not a maximum, right?

We'll be prepared because I'll be sending a lot of people to you with the work that I do.

So we've got the motion on the table for the original ordinance, right on first reading, within minutes, a 90-day lease and shall accept vouchers. Any more discussion?

The last thing I'd like to say, I do hope you're successful in lowering your rents if you get a mortgage and helping people. That is not any intention here. I just think that when we inflate pro formas and we barter on more expensive properties, we create the barrier. And when that property trades at a higher price, that barrier continues. This property sold for $2 million in 2022. and sold for 5.7 million dollars in 2024. that's why the rent's so high i think it's we're the same with the buyer so well i mean that's why you're you're interested there is no but she thought it would be so uh so yeah but that's why the interest is so high and the cost to run the property is so high and that's it's it's a simple business problem and you know, the more we support that or allow that to this property, it will stay in that realm to operate. And I'm not saying that's his fault. That's not any property owner's fault. They are working with the best they can with the loans they can and the expenses they can.

That purchase threatened Volto before they put $20,000 in the unit into the product and then sold it. So the purchase price was three renovation rates.

That would have been $4 million. So somebody made some money here at 1.7. So anyway, the point is that... the money has already been made off this property and that's why the rents is high. And I think that the reality here is like, unless the market can correct this, And the market likely will correct this. Unless the market can correct this, we're going to continue to see extremely high rent rates for the lowest income people in our city. And it's probably something that this council does need to look into and try to understand how our hospitality hotels and multifamily units are being used. And not just in CI, but in general commercial as well. Sure.

Well, I think we've done a good job at providing funding to public housing to help them get that going. So we've done work for, we did that a couple of years back and then doing this, and there's other things we could look at, but also I thought the public housing thing, they're in risk, maybe seeing how there's a partnership that we could do. So we'll back down the line at some point.

So we'll say, yeah, there's no more discussion. Every discussion has merit, but yeah, I'll go ahead and call for the vote.

All right, can you clarify? We have passed the amendments and we are now voting on the original ordinance with the amendments. All right.

With the nodding. Yes. And shall. All right. I just want to make sure we're good. All the better.

All votes correct. Four yes motion carries. Thank you.

I don't think that was the longest item I've ever discussed. It wasn't a presenter report.

Way longer than the budget.

Yelling at me. Yeah. Jenny, you're off the hook. All right, so we will keep moving on. If people need to leave for your family, please feel free to leave. If there's nothing else that y'all want to discuss, if you want to hang out, let's keep going. On to the consent agenda, which I get to read through all these. 6A, consider approval to pay year two of the three-year contract with Sancerre approved by the city council on 4-3-2025 to provide GPS back cameras. 6B, consider approval to pay record management software, RMS fee. 6C, consider approval to purchase one CAT 305 mini excavator with H65 hammer, buckets, and trailer utilizing the statewide contract number 225, contract ID 072878. 6D, consider awarding bid for 63 screw and fountain foundation. 6E, consider awarding bid for two 150 KVA pad transformers. 6F, consider awarding bid for one 225 KVA pad transformer. 6G, consider awarding bids for AMI water meters. And 6H, consider approval to purchase one 2026 Fort Bronco sports utilizing the statewide bid contract number 209, contract ID 88762. Is there a motion on the consent agenda? I move. Second. Second by Councilman Gilbert, seconded by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the council?

Thank you for Fort Bronco, right?

Thank you for Fort Bronco, yeah. All right, let's go ahead and vote.

Do you notice it? Yeah. Thank you. Under all the five votes, direct. Five yes, motion carries.

Thank you. On to new business, 7A, consider approval of 39 Depot master plan. Mr. Melvin. That's not Mr. Melvin. Mr. Melvin.

Mayor and council members, in September of last year, the city council approved a professional service agreement with Ace Engineering and Consulting to develop a master plan for the 39 Depot area Which includes the five acres of property purchased by the city last June. the master plan proposal divided the project into four phases which is depicted on this slide although this has been amended somewhat and i'll explain that the phase one included the completion of a boundary topographic and utility surveys preparation of a traffic study the development of a preliminary master plan and the final engineering design for a parking lot utility relocation grading design and erosion control plans phase one has been completed and we hope to go to bid on the new parking lot in the next few weeks so what has changed phase one on the parking lot plan has extended quite a bit uh up into phase four and that is the big change from this um the whole golf for phase one was 220 thousand and five hundred dollars also changed on the phase that you'll be looking at in just a minute is we've added an area to the north that would include um If you can see on this map on the screen, it shows that potential retail area and gas department. That area has actually been included in the plan and will be done in a later phase. Under phase two, ASA was to deliver the final master plan and civil design plans for the street network, including any realignments. And you can see those on this. That's basically the same. arrangement for the streets. The total fee for page two is $230,000, which is $55,000 for the master plan, and $190,500 for the street engineering and design. That's still to come. But tonight, Kevin, you're still with me here. I've got a bunch of oil left. Kevin Tackle with Ace Engineering is here to present the final master plan for 39 Depot.

Good evening, everyone. Madam Chairman, council members, thank you for this opportunity. ASA Engineering is very proud and excited to have this opportunity to share the master plan with you. For those of you that don't know me, I'm a citizen of Cookville, born and raised, so I wear sometimes two hats. I certainly have a lot of interest and desire about the project. At the same time, I am the land planner and landscape architect for the project. Kata Fisher is on our landscape architecture staff. She's been instrumental in working with us to put this plan together. So you'll see the plan on that screen. While I'm talking, Kate is going to point out the different facilities that we are talking about. Hopefully that'll be satisfactory for everyone to get a good idea. Certainly we'll answer questions at the end of the presentation. Just a short little tidbit. A lot of people don't know what landscape architects are really about, what land planners do. we organize activities and we create outdoor spaces just as an architect creates indoor spaces having said that i want to talk about the existing conditions first first and most importantly is the historic depot that is is the key factor of part of what this project is it's history The other part of it is the Broad Street buildings. Just an excellent example of, let's say, reclamation of older buildings that present a story of Cookville. And then we've got the train display itself, the locomotive. so popular attended by families and children very much enjoyed but we have a division between the two let's say northern part and the southern part of the park and that is the train track the railroad and then maybe the biggest issue of this project is the six-point intersection, malfunction junction, if you will. So those are the existing conditions that were fed into this project that were having to be solved. The challenges, and the first challenge, there's three parts, and Mr. Mills will explain recognize this and that was the railroad. RJ Corman leases the railroad rights from the Nashville Eastern Railroad Authority. So all of the approvals that we had to secure to get to this point had to be approved by RJ Corman. That started with, we want a new railroad crossing to make the circulation pattern work. And their first answer was, no, we don't grant new crossings. They said, now if you'll close two crossings, we'll give you one crossing. So we looked far and wide to see if we could find two crossings to close. We couldn't even find one crossing to close. But through a series of meetings and emphasizing safety, we prevailed and we were able to get the second crossing, which we call the new broad crossing. Again, we emphasize safety to achieve that. Then, we had the malfunction junction issue and certainly safety was an issue there. And then we heard through 11 different public input meetings, this would actually be the 12th meeting where there's an opportunity for input that the public wanted more parking. And certainly that was a challenge to satisfy, let's say, the southern portion and actually the northern portion as well. Then we wanted to make the park cohesive. We didn't want it to feel like that there's one part on the north and another part on the south. That was certainly a challenge. We wanted to make the park compatible to existing conditions. We wanted to create spaces that addressed needs. we wanted to provide solutions which stimulate social interaction influences positive economic impact so through all the public input meetings that occurred we tried to put on our listening ears and put our feet in everyone's shoes to understand what were the issues what are the what are the challenges and how do we mold all that together into something that can be successful So the park spaces, there's about 15 distinct park spaces within the overall complex of the park. And Katie will point those out to you as we progress. We have two parking lots to the north. One is just below the newer gas building that's presently occupied by the older gas building, which will soon be demoed when the gas department moves out to the new maintenance operation facility. And then there's a smaller parking lot to the west of the newer gas building that has also been identified and will provide parking spaces. The ultimate use of the new building is to be determined. There's no specific use at this point and that will be identified later. Below the large parking lot on that north side is a small plaza and then a green space. And to the west of that is an iconic sign that would identify people to 39 Depot or the West Side Historic District, whatever it is, a catchy name that we come up with for that. Then we have to the east of Oak is an event plaza with seasonal activities. So you'll see where the one-way road is that goes through there. That area would be on a mountable curb and that entire plaza could operate for seasonal activities. You might have a carousel in there for two months. There might be something especially seasonal for Christmas and Easter. Then the west broad buildings themselves, those will all remain as is. The existing sidewalk that is there will remain and the promenade will be built out from that existing walkway. So the merchants can continue to operate while the construction is ongoing. Then we have the depot promenade, which is a north-south axis that intersects with the east-west axis of the west broad promenade. And that ties the two areas together, the north and the south, with common amenities and hardscape. To the west of that promenade is what we call the choo-choo court. That's where the train display is. There would also be a gazebo structure there, some playground equipment and create a pretty much an exclusive area for children to play with the train exhibit and potentially include some train whistles and making it a little more, let's say, user-friendly. And then we have a large free play social zone below that area that would be artificial turf. There would be another gazebo structure there, bench seating. We would envision rocking chairs where parents could sit under the gazebo and watch the kids out on the artificial turf playing. Just to the side of that and along the depot promenade are restrooms that are centrally located to the entire park. To the east of that, of the restrooms, of course, is the depot itself. South of the depot is a multi-purpose entertainment plaza. We would have a small stage there. It would be themed architecture to tie in with the depot itself, providing music, catered dining, special events, storytelling, any numerous types of activities. And to the east of that is the oblongabout. The oblongabout would be another iconic feature to the west side. We would have three flagpoles there, the U.S. flag, the state flag, and a flag for the city of Cookville. And I don't think we have a defined flag for Cookville. We do? Well, there it is. Okay. Chad? I stand corrected. You can use those three. And that would have seasonal landscaping, some earth sculpture to it, and again, just kind of define the east end of the project. We have the large green space that you see just below what would be New Broad Street. That's a placeholder right now. That is a footprint that actually shows what could be a farmer's market, again, to be determined. And then south of that is the large parking lot to the south. So now we're gonna talk about the features of the park and what all is included. So we've got an improved safer traffic flow as a result of the Oblongabout. We had an independent traffic study that inventoried all of the traffic patterns and it was identified that this was the best solution. Now that includes a west to east one-way traffic route on Broad Street in front of the storefronts there. That'll have a one-way and a left turn only that minimizes conflict with the existing roundabout. If some of you don't know, Cedar is the north-south route to the emergency room of the hospital, so the oblong about accommodates that directional traffic, and it was a large determinant in how the traffic patterns were created. New Broad Street will be flanked with an eight foot wide sidewalk and continuous street trees. Again, putting safety first in terms of safe walkways, anticipating a lot of traffic in the park area itself. The New Broad railroad crossing and Cedar will both have railroad gates as well as pedestrian gates. And then as far as parking is concerned, we've created 376 new parking spaces. The south parking lot includes 258, and then the north parking lot includes 118. Now, presently, there's 80 parking spaces that are above the railroad tracks that serve that portion of the of the retail area that's a net gain of 38 spaces the other significant thing that we were able to achieve and again this is the result of a public input there was a lot of controversy i think i'm accurate in saying that about the six foot tall fence discussion This discussion, yes. The reason for the fence is to protect everyone from crossing the railroad tracks just randomly. So there's three points to cross. The promenade in the center and then sidewalks at the east and west ends. But through some careful negotiation and instrumental... Collaboration with the council, we were able to get that lower to four feet and also provide a designated walkway on the north side of the one-way Broad Street. There will also be a fountain along Broad Street Promenade. That'll be kind of the terminus point. So as you would be walking to the north, that would be the focal point at the end. An iconic feature identifying the Depot Park and at the East End with the traffic area, wayfinding and signage and kiosk for visitors, that would be throughout the park. Just the other day, talking to some merchants downtown, they made a specific suggestion. We need wayfinding for visitors that come to the town to find a certain restaurant or to find a certain street. So that'll be included. The architecture will be compatible with the depot itself. We don't want to deviate from that period in style of architecture. That'll include the stage, the gazebo, and the restrooms. We will have themed street furniture and coordinated paving. Speed and sound controls that will control the speed at a much lower level of speed and maybe hopefully find a way to control the noise of downtown. Can't tell you how many merchants and restaurant people have mentioned some of the loud vehicles that pass through down there. So that's something else that we'll look into as we get into the actual construction drawings of this and have more conversation. The restrooms, as mentioned before, will be central to the park, potential relocation, For the spokes arch, we're showing it to an area where the detention area is. We would provide a paved area there for bicycle racks. We would have extensive landscaping throughout the entire park that would feature the street trees as we mentioned before, just make for an overall park environment. And then additionally, there would be art and interpretive signage that would be displayed throughout the park. So that's the master plan. This came to fruition only because of public input and listening and working with the council to collaborate and put this project together. As a citizen, I'm extremely excited about what this will do in terms of just the overall image, the economic impact, and the fun and the just overall environment that it's going to create. At this point, do we want to entertain input?

We need a motion. So do we have a motion to consider the approval of the 39 Depot Masterplace? So moved. Motion not to give. And so yeah, so we at this time, let's not public hearing, excuse me, but if there's anyone who would like to comment on this, step forward. I will remind them to say your name, three minute time limit, and also remind people that this is a public comment section. We won't be doing back and forth questions and things like that. That's not how this is set up. If you have questions and want

to discuss that after the meeting if you're still here uh we will be happy to do that but if you do have any comments that you'd like to make about the design uh please step forward to the podium hi my name is keith lilly i've been working on rails and trails and the tennessee central trail for 36 years since i've been here i love the plan I'm concerned about the trail and how it's going to be threaded through there or if it's been considered. I like a lot of the features you have, but you've already mentioned the traffic noise over my 36 years of enjoying things around the depot building. The traffic noise has just gotten worse and worse, and it's less enjoyable. Even at Dogwood Park, it's an issue. So I don't know how we can address that. I'm concerned about the newly created bike lanes that are on North Cedar. Are they being tied into the complex? I was curious about the existing restroom that we built with the grant money for the trail to be a trailhead. Is it going to be demolished and then replaced at the new location? Let's see. Well, that's about it. Just a few comments. I like the oblong about. I'm looking forward to using that. Thank you. Thank you.

And I will just answer real fast. The trail, we've considered that. We've got discussions about that, the plans, the bike lanes. Anything changing with that, if I'm correct? Yeah.

There'll be a multimodal, that's always fun to say, multimodal study done. This is to get the template of the road work to the railroad so they can do their design, come back to us, and then it'll go through a grading plan design with your civil department, which will include a multimodal study and then all that implemented.

Correct. And what we envision is the bike lane will occupy part of the promenade that I mentioned on the north side. The existing restroom will be demolished as a part of this project. It was the only way to work the road alignment into the property itself. certainly a new restroom will be developed. And at the same time, depending on where the bike arch, the spokes arc ends up, that's kind of where we figured a rally point could exist under that arch where we show it on the master plan. So certainly we would like to have some discussion with you and understand objectives.

Next speaker.

So yeah, same concern with the bicycles. I think that this whole plan should have complete streets in mind. I think that that is pretty necessary for downtown, especially as we move forward. But my biggest concern is the parking. There's so much of it. Right now, the, which is the Institute of transportation engineers, they save about 3 to 5 spots for commercial. There's not much commercial development being done right here. This is mostly just realignment and building that building, which hasn't been sound yet. I think we could do with a lot less parking and that land could be used for economic purposes. We could put more housing, help the crisis, could put markets there, could put even another park there. There's so many options to do with that parking space that don't involve making our city look like an asphalt sea.

Thank you. What was your name again?

It's Matthew Crosby. I'm sorry about that.

Oh, no, no, you're fine.

All right, that's all. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Any other comments? We'll take some comments from the council. I know. I first want to say, A, thank you to Kevin. You have done more than enough. We have called you and asked you to do revision and look at this and that, and you've done every bit of it and more. This project would not be successful without you. So thank you so much for what you've done. I want to say thank you to the Council because everyone's come up with great ideas, pointed out stuff, and we really worked together on this project. I do want to remind people that a lot of this is potential to be determined. This is the main map for what we're going to do in terms of the traffic flow, what we want to accomplish. But there's a lot of stuff that is going to change. So no one place your bets on this. There are things that are going to change as we continue to move forward with this and see what the community needs. So just because you see that something says a farmer's market does not mean it will be a farmer's market. I just want to make sure to point that out. Also that we've had, like Kevin said, multiple studies, traffic studies, engineering studies, environmental studies. This was not done with AI. I mean, there might be some component to it, but I've seen your little drawings. No, this was done. Not for me. Look at that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this was done with the expertise of multiple people. So if you think that something is not going to move around that long about, it will move around that long about. I just want people to know the amount of time and effort that has been poured into this. Every single detail down to what is going to go in between the parking spaces has been thought out. So take that into consideration when you're looking at this. Know that this is a work in progress still, but we are very excited about it and we want to continue with the public's input. But I know on my way out, I could not be more excited about this. This is something that I think is going to be a legacy for Cookville, and I'm so proud to be a part of it. So I will shut up.

I'd like to just piggyback on that, too. And I know you mentioned it, but I thank the public and the business owners and their input because we wouldn't have gotten to this product right here without that input. So I appreciate y'all.

Y'all are spacious now? You've said it all. I'm excited, Kevin. You've done great. Yeah, I can't wait to vote on it.

I'd like to say, I mean, I think overall, Kevin's done a great job of putting together a master plan and telling the story for what our downtown could be. And this will take time. I mean, some things have started. The parking lot, we're actively making sure that goes in as soon as possible. And you'll notice that the parking lot probably had a slide up earlier, but it was about half that size when we originally looked at the phasing of this. And I think as we've moved along, the overall demand for parking in the downtown and a long-term solution to that, hopefully this will be the fix so we're not building parking garages in five years. And with that, I do think that the area kind of north of that where we're talking about a farmer's market, the reason that we're driving towards those things, for me anyway, is mostly because we have increased that parking area. We've made that public area. There's a lot of land to be redeveloped. Hopefully this entire development will drive our downtown to improve overall. And there may be a little bit of pain for business owners during that process. But when you come out of it, I think people can really appreciate the improvements that we've made in the gathering place that we've turned the west side into. And so I appreciate all your hard work, Kevin, and the public's interest in this. I know we had multiple meetings and discussions. And really, that information was necessary to fight the battles and get fences down to four feet and get things where we needed it to be. And I know that the next council is going to have a long road in front of them, or actually a short one with a roundabout, but they're going to have this in front of them.

A long roundabout.

They're going to have to work with it and try to make sure that this project proceeds and is the vision that we have for cookable. So thank you, Kevin. And thank you to everybody for being here tonight.

Yeah. Thank you, Kevin, for all you've done all the hard work talking to us, being with us and all the meetings we've been in. But also thank you to the. Business is downtown. As I've said multiple times, that is your front door. And so you guys have made the downtown. So to have your input here, like Mayor Wheaton said, there's probably going to be some changes. So if you see some things you don't like on that right now, you can still talk to us. But I'm excited to see what we're doing downtown. And I think it will draw so many people that will need this parking. And again, we may not see everything obviously come to fruition by the email with us. hopefully being on this next council but um i'll still be there to help you guys out if i'm well be maybe i'll come and be on this side to say what about this so um i'm excited to see what we're doing and excited to work with everybody involved appreciate you kevin and all the business owners

Let's clarify one thing, though, about what this does tonight. Because the next step in this is with our contract, they will begin design of the I Belong About and the rerouting of all the streets. So don't leave her thinking... This is going to change, because that's not. And it is this part of it. So all the infrastructure, the streets, all that is our next phase that we have already contracted with them for. They've been waiting on us to finalize this plan. So Rachel Trammell, and I want to recognize Rachel. in addition to kevin rachel's the engineer primary engineer on this she's done a great job for us i know mary beth and i have worn her out with all the different things trying to come up with the different for the parking lot but i want to make sure everybody leaves her knowing this this is the the skeleton of this the framework is going to be like this after we've approved it tonight excellent thank you yeah thank you about that let me also say about the farmers market I asked that to go on there because I went up to Key Sport in Johnson City. They got the coolest farmers market. If you've ever been up there, it's a brick building that you, of course that's still, y'all can change.

Maybe the James Mills one.

I think it's cool.

The Bill's Farms, yes. Thank you for that, Claire. Any other comments from the council? I'm saying none. We will be voting finally on the master plan for 3090. You can.

Although it's correct. You mentioned somebody else motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Thank you everybody that's been such a good session.

There has been a lot of stuff.

Okay.

We need a break for anybody. This John's kept us right in your hands. Did anyone need a break? We got a lot more to go.

I can get through this fast. I read very fast. If you want to get us to take a break, please do. We're going to power through this.

We've got B through L. B through L. All right, so 7B.

It's high. 13, authorizing the student manager to require by donation, negotiation, and eminent domain certain land rights relating to the 39th East Hope Project and construction necessary to connect Oak Avenue from Depot Street to West Broad. Mr. Mills.

Mayor, the approved, just approved 39 Depot Master Plan proposes, as you said, several infrastructure improvements, including street real alignments. And to complete these real alignments, we anticipate we're going to have to acquire some property. This resolution authorizes me to acquire whatever property we need by donation, negotiation, or eminent domain. I'd request your approval of Resolution 26713.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Councilman Gilbert, seconded by Councilman Bacci. Any discussion from public? Discussion from Council? Okay.

Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote.

Oh, vote's correct. 5 yes, motion carries.

Thank you. I will maybe actually... Take a break. I do think there is a photo off that maybe the family wanted of the Raiders. I know you just got there, Ben, or something. You forgot anything. If y'all want to take a picture with Mr. Raider, yes, and then let them go.

I think they won't go out and eat after a while.

They'll wait and buy more or something.

Make them all wait?

You want to make them wait?

Make them wait?

Huh? You want to make them wait or do you want to go out and take a break real fast? Okay. Okay. I tried. That younger one. Man. I know my son would be, oh my God. All right, we'll keep going here then.

I'm selling for the kids.

7C, consider if we want to purchase one. Here's PUC Enforcer 107 Ladder, utilizing the HGAC purchasing property. Mr. Chief Young.

Yeah, we're requesting permission to order a Pierce Enforcer 107-foot liner. It's going to be purchased through the HC by a cooperative. I want to go ahead and get it in front of y'all for your approval permission tonight because at first of the month I had a 3% increase. I've only had this price locked in until the end of the month. It's $1,999,998. So I'm The 3%, I think they actually over the year, 6% increase. So these things just keep going up, but 3% is locked in and we're good till the end of the month. But after that, it would increase. It's gonna be identical to our ladder four, which is on England Drive. you're probably familiar with installing around town identical apparatus we use these for our daily or routine emergency calls it combines an engine and a ladder so you get a combination of doing everything i always consider these like our toolbox right so we have all the tools on there together and if you can get an aerial and engine it's that much better so um We'll be replacing a 2018 model. Of course, by the time it gets there, it's 37, 38-month lead time, so that's going to be getting close to 11-plus years' time frame. It's an approved budgeted item. I don't know if you have an answer or any questions for you, but I'd ask for your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice President Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Boffey. Any discussion from the public? The staff thought you were getting out of the show.

Any discussion from council? I'm sorry.

Appreciate you negotiating that $2 to keep us under $2 million.

Hey, I did what I had to do, right?

Took the spinners off, whatever we had to do. That being said, just a point of order, we've invested almost $20 million.

Yeah. It's been a lot. Y'all have been great. We really appreciate it.

Yeah. And anybody who thinks these fire trucks just can last forever, we've got some old slicks you can come clean up.

Yeah. Yeah.

And they have to be replaced over time. And we do it with the right equipment.

I got motion and second. Any more discussion? Okay. All vote.

All vote's correct. 5-yes motion carries.

7-D, Chief Winfrey. I'm sorry about that. Consider...

I was just supporting. Okay.

Consider authorizing the City Manager to enter into a five-year contract with Motorola Solutions for the Smart Connect feature and authorize one-year payment. Steve Winfrey.

Mayor and Council, we're requesting authorization for the City Manager to enter into a contract with Motorola Solutions to purchase the Smart Connect feature. This feature allows cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity to the Motorola APX Next portables that we use. The contract term is for five years at a cost of $12,240 per year. There is also a non-appropriation clause that allows the city to end the contract if we need to do that. This is a budgeted item. I would be glad to answer any questions you may have, but I request your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice President Eldridge. Seconded by?

Second.

Councilman Bocci. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council? All vote.

All votes correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. 7-A, consider authorizing the city manager to enter into a professional service agreement with Thomas M. Bourne. Mr. Haynes.

Mayor and council members, this agreement would allow Tom Barnes Consulting to provide engineering services for various substation projects that we've identified for this coming fiscal year. Some of those are the West Coolville substation switch replacement. I'll actually have a bid for that one coming up in the next item. preliminary design specifications for the southeast substation that we're looking at that's probably going to need to be built in the next four to five years, as well as our 69 KV transmission line replacement that we're doing and other various engineering services that we ask him to provide through the year. We negotiated a work authorization to not exceed $40,000, and I'd recommend your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion by Councilman Baggi, seconded by Councilman Gilbert. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council? All votes.

All votes correct. Five yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 7F, consider authorizing city manager to enter into an agreement with TVA to relocate 161KV structure at South Jefferson Avenue and Neal Street. Mr. Haney.

Mayor and council members, this is a long-awaited agreement that we've been working on with TVA for the last few years. I think everyone's aware of the traffic situation that we have at Jefferson and Neal Street, especially with the concrete wall that we have there that trucks can't make that right-hand turn. So we've talked to TVA. We have got this agreement with them. They're looking at relocating that structure. You can see the... diagram on the screen up there. The large gray area is the actual footprint of the lattice structure that's there now. Just to the east of that you see two pole locations. The gray one is what they know is the minimum that they can move that pole to. They're hoping to move it even farther south to that red area, which would give us even more clearance from Neal Street. I think either one of those locations greatly improves the radius there that we can get for extra turn lanes and such for that. The cost on that, the estimated reimbursement cost of TVA was $789,187. We did do an initial deposit on that of $30,000 for them to start the preliminary design of it. uh that remain the remain balance on that was seven hundred fifty nine thousand one hundred eighty seven dollars and then the actual state of tennessee has allocated seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to help for this project so that would leave nine thousand one hundred eighty seven dollars uh that city would be left to pay at the end of the project and i would recommend your approval for this agreement thank you is there a motion moved to approve motion to have a councilman walker seconded by my smart elders any discussion from the public

Thank you. I like it. That was good. Any discussion from council?

Yeah, I'd like to say this is a big deal. We're going to move that tower that's hanging up these trailers just daily, almost down there. Most of that wall is almost demoed down there. But we need to be mindful of our state representatives and our senators and our congressional representatives who all work together to help persuade TVA to move it, and then specifically TDOT and our state officials to help us get this funded. Yes. Thank you.

This is an important part of making that entire area look better too.

Aesthetically, this will be a straight pole instead of that gigantic tower that you're used to seeing right there in the middle of our town.

And And the thing is, is with all the improvements to Interstate Drive and Jefferson and everything on that end of town that's happening, this will almost be a story poll. By the time this gets done, when you look around, you're going to see kind of what this council has been able to accomplish and push in that area. And I do hope the traffic's better when that happens. So if it's not, they'll have some more work to do. But we do hope that this is a greater plan.

At least we don't have to move the tower to get that work done.

Any other comments from council? All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote.

All votes correct. Five yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 7G, consider awarding bid to Davis HLA Construction to perform maintenance on the West Substation. Mr. Haney.

Mayor and council members, we have some maintenance that needs to be performed on our west substation, in particular some 69 KV switches that need to be changed out, some more removed, and a few more items. We put that out for bid. Those bids were accepted and evaluated by Patterson and Dewar engineers, and the recommended bid winner on that is Davis H. Elliott for $68,650, and I'd recommend your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Bacci. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from Council? All vote.

All votes correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. 7-H, consider approval of change order number 2, final balance 2024, period and place type project. Mr. Turner. Sure.

Mayor and members of the council, this project is just wrapped up, and this change order adjusts the contract units to what was actually installed. It's a deduct of $30,931.80, which brings the total contract to $1,918,402. I recommend your approval. Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Gilbert. End of discussion from the public.

Discussion from Council? Okay, all vote.

All votes correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 7-I consider authorizing City Manager to execute change order number 7, final balance for 2023 South Jefferson Avenue water line replacement I-40 to Reagan Street as returned.

This is similar to the last one. This project is finished. This adjusts the quantities to what was actually installed. It deducts $18,394 and brings the final contract amount to $6,837,339.40. And again, I recommend your approval. Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Councilman Baggi.

Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from Council.

Hey, while Barry's up there, tomorrow's a huge day for our water quality control department. We have a ribbon cutting for our seven and a half million gallon expansion of our water treatment plant. Is that correct, Mr. Turner?

Yes.

Excellent work. So ribbon cutting, 9 a.m.? Is that right? Yes. You can find your way down there. It's a long way down there. Come on down.

We got a motion and a second. Any more comments? All right. Go ahead and end on that.

Although it's correct. But yes, motion carries.

Thank you. Seven J. Consider authorizing the city manager to execute an amendment to the memorandum of understanding with CHM. So LLC, the painting and bring it like this.

Mayor and Council. If you recall, you entered into a memorandum of understanding with CHM regarding the Willow Shopping Center in March. That was so we could assist them with our annual paving bid for $115,000 of topping and binder. Since the project has started with the paving and the binder, they have gone into some overruns. So we are needing to amend that top out amount of this $115,000 of paving and binder to $150,000 not to exceed value. All of the original agreement for the memorandum of understanding will remain in effect. This is just a pass-through cost. The city of Cookeville use our annual bid rate on our paving and binder to pave it and then we will pass the invoices straight to the CHM developer and be reimbursed for this. So if you have any questions on that, I do recommend your approval of this addendum.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion made by Councilman Baggi, seconded by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from Council?

All votes correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. 7-K, consider approval and authorize the city manager to execute an addendum of Kimmelinghorn & Associates for right-of-way acquisitions or assistance in closing services with O.R. Coleman & Associates. Mr. Ward.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm seeking approval for an amendment with engineering firm Kimley Horn for right-of-way acquisition and closing services for the South Willow Avenue West Jackson Street Improvement Project. This project will provide dual northbound left turn lanes on South Willow Avenue and add a dedicated westbound right turn lane on West Jackson Street. In May 2024, Council approved an amendment for right-of-way acquisition services with ORC. This addendum would include closing services for the required right-of-ways at a cost of $26,835.37. These services include the preparation of deeds, research and verification of any outstanding property taxes, coordination and scheduling of closing appointments with the property owners, recording of those deeds, and most importantly, the submission of all these required documents to TDOT. This project is funded through a TDOT service transportation block grant funds and the statewide partnership program. The city has no matching funds in this project. So I recommend your approval. Happy to answer any questions.

Is there a motion?

So move. Second.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Walker. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from council? All those?

All those correct. Yes, motion carries.

I'm not there. Hold on. Hold on with me. Seven elements that are authorized in the city manager to execute change order number one for the interstate drive roadway settlement repair project. Ms. Elrod.

All right. I don't know if Darren can help me with the slide here. So, Mayor and Council, we have started our roadway repair project for the settlement. The primary contractor, Remco, has been drilling all of the primary holes. Those are... five rolls of seven they are on the last row this today and tomorrow and they uh this geotechnical engineer that we've hired um as the engineer of record on this project we all knew in the bid that we may need additional secondary holes and so we added those in the bid as a bid alternate ad for an ad per each hole and some mobilization charges uh the uh engineer of record has recommended to us that they may need approximately 8 to 12 additional secondary holes to get the grout results we need in the dip and that would also equate to approximately three additional days of drilling so we did not want to hold this up we don't want them to demobilize we want to have them finish the drilling hopefully next week or the following week get them out of the way so everyone can get back to starbucks So this change order is to add approximately 12 additional secondary holes and three traffic control days using the bid alternate unit prices in the original contract and bid. This will equate to an increase change order of $76,800, bringing the total contract price up to $396,000. And I do recommend your approval on this project. And this does not add any additional days to the contract. As you can see from this, the contract time started on July 6th. We are 10 days in. They expect to finish drilling in about two weeks. And so we do not need any additional days. We have that contract end date as October 25th in case something unprecedented came up. But it hasn't so far. So knock on wood, that is moving well ahead of schedule.

Thank you. Do I have a motion? Motion approved. Motion made by Councilman Walker, seconded by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the public? Discussion from Council?

I would just say I've been there, through there a couple times. They're doing a really good job at keeping things. It is difficult and frustrating sometimes, but they're doing it right. You can get through. So infrastructure, baby.

We emphasized of the, and they're doing a very good job with it.

Any other comments? Okay, then we will vote.

A vote's correct. Yes, motion carries.

Thank you. That concludes the agenda portion of the meeting. Is there anyone who would like to speak to the council on any non-agenda items? I see none. We do need to accept the city manager's evaluation if Mr. Rader will present that.

May it please the council, Ms. Mayor. Each year this time, the council does an evaluation of the city manager for the last year. This evaluation is done, each council member does this confidentially. We submit the findings to our office, we compile it. So each councilman knows what they did, but they don't know what the other councilman did. Last year, Mr. Mills' evaluation came back at 4.93. And personally, I didn't think he could ever beat that because that's almost 100%. Well, he beat it this year. He got 4.96, which was 5.0 on community council relationships. A 4.87 on community relationships, staff and personnel relationships, 4.97. Leadership, 4.97. Business and finance, 5.0, which is perfect score. And strategic planning skills, 4.95 for a total performance evaluation by this council of 4.96. And tonight, I think everybody saw it. the work that has been put in over the last year to bring all of these projects uh to completion or well on their way and so uh the council's worked hard mr mills has worked extremely hard and everybody has worked together i think you can see that in these and these evaluations that the council has submitted so that's the report miss mayor

Thank you, and I know we do need to vote on that. So do I have a motion to accept the report?

So moved.

Motion made by Congressman Eldridge. Second by Councilman Gilbert. I'm sure we'll have some comments. Sorry, keep going.

I'll be brief. The scoring speaks for itself, James. Enjoyed working with you. Appreciate all you do.

Yes, James, appreciate everything. You keep us in line and you're not afraid to share your opinion, which I really appreciate. And it's very satisfying to have somebody that's very transparent. So I do appreciate that.

I mean, I never had a 4.96 GPA. I was pretty impressive there. We could not do this job without you. This city, again, this city is in such a great state because of you. We push the button. You're the one making sure that we have all the right information to make the decisions. I will start getting weepy if I talk anymore. So well deserved. Thank you for all you've done. I knew it without you.

Glowing remarks, big guy. That's impressive. I don't know that... That's a very high score, and the city's very lucky to have James and his leadership here. I hope it doesn't go to your head, but there's a little bit of room for improvement. there but we do greatly appreciate you and your guidance to this council and our guidance to you of course but but really your knowledge expertise and uh efforts in this role is is uh is actually unbelievable and been a huge asset to the city and community thank you james the bad part about going last is there really isn't much to add but i will say that

the city is blessed to have you in your position. And because you put the right people in the right spots, you make very level-headed decisions. I think often you've probably kept this council out of the ditch a few times, just simply with your wisdom and institutional knowledge. And we really appreciate it and we're fortunate. And it's certainly been a pleasure.

Well, I've got like a two-faced feature. I consider this, that's a great team. I really appreciate each one of y'all, each and every one of y'all, and I think for Eric and Lauren, for the last eight years, and what I've done with you, and then The rest of you guys for the last four, it's impressive what you've accomplished. You make my job fun. You really do. I enjoy it most of the time. Most of the time. But you really do. And I appreciate the glowing remarks and the compliments. I really do. But, you know, I care about this city. And it's great to work along with other people. And I know you guys, Google is important to you. And we care about this community. But I appreciate each and every one of you. And I've got a couple of announcements before you close the meeting.

So I think we do, I know we've made a motion in a second, but we need to amend the motion.

Yeah, I'll amend the motion and give our city manager a 3% increase. We do this for all of our employees. And with this kind of performance review, it's well-deserved.

A second. Okay. So I have a motion and a second to amend to accept. Can we just do the one thing then? Okay. All right. So I've got a motion and a second to accept the report with a 3% increase in, as amended with a 3% increase in Mr. Mills' pay. We'll go ahead and vote then. Sorry, Darren. I think I messed that up for you.

No, no. Okay.

Excuse me, although it's correct by this motion. You're gonna miss that. I'm not gonna miss that.

all right we've got a couple of quick announcements yes so we've received our certified property tax right for fiscal year 26 27 and our rate will be reduced from 99 cents to 62 cents per hundred dollars assessed value on the screen if you go on the next we are going to be distributing the property tax revenue at the same percentages that we have in the past Jenny's worked this up, and as depicted on the screen, depicts how we will distribute that 62 cents of property tax revenue. Next announcement is that the Comptroller of the Treasury has approved our budget for 26-27. And I want to announce that, and this is all due to our Finance Director, Jenny Niswander. Excellent job. Stand up, Jenny. Stand up, Jenny. She received an distinguished submission. So she is distinguished. A commendation for a distinguished. So I'm very proud of her. Last thing I want to announce. So there's rumors going around out there that I plan to retire. I think my wife started them. But I have no immediate plans. I've had phone calls. I don't know where else it's coming from. So... But, you know, I have no plans to retire unless the next council asks me to do so. So we'll see if that's up to the next council. But I'm going to have to at some point. So in the meantime, I want to announce tonight that I am creating the position of an assistant city manager. And that person will help me, assist me with the day-to-day management of the city and will represent the city when I can't, when it's necessary. Now, this doesn't mean that that person that I choose for this position will be the next city manager. but of course that's up to the next or a future city council but i will i do believe it will provide a viable candidate and a minimum provide somebody to serve in the interim until somebody's selected now if this is going to be a while i'm not leaving anytime soon looks like i said i'm going to be leaving in august with the new council i don't know but i hope to fill this position very quickly and our plan is to announce at our next meeting who the next who our first assistant city manager is so thank you very much

Well, guys, it has been fun. I'm going to...

No. I want Benton in the fire department. Our award-winning fire department. Benton and myself, James, we went to Tri-City area this weekend. Yes, Kingsport, of course. And congratulations to you and all your team and well done for receiving the TML Excellence in Fire Department Award. And anyway, congratulations.

Two more comments. Meeting is adjourned.