Council - workshop

You got it.

What's up, y'all?

all right good afternoon everybody thank you for being here for our work session for the july 6th council agenda uh we do got one presentation this evening for mr dwayne hellams on the mpo so dwayne if you want to start us off

Good evening, council president, council. My name is Dwayne Helms. I'm director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization. So I'm just going to give you a brief update of what the MPO is. I know four of y'all are on the MPO policy board, but the MPO basically is conducted with running the transportation planning process for the six members of Decatur, Hartzell, Priceville, Trinity, Morgan County, and Limestone County. All federal funding, all federal transportation projects comes through that body. Decatur was made a MPO back in 1982 when the population reached 50,000 and above. That was a good while ago and the bylaws are a little bit different now because Flint City was part of that which Decatur inherited or annexed Flint City many years ago. But to give you a makeup of the MPO area, They, in 2020, population is 95,118. That's in the planning area. In that planning area, there's 41,000, a little bit over 41,000 households. And in that area, the roadway network is made up of interstates, principal arterials, which principal arterials would be like the Beltline, 6th Avenue, 2420. Then there's minor arterials, which would be like Spring Avenue, then there's collector roadways. We handle collectors and above, we don't handle local streets. So no federal funding can be provided for local streets unless it's a state grant or something like that. So all of these projects that you see that are done, they have to be on the locally classified roadways. Some of the projects in the past that Decatur's had in MPO is Church Street, the first phase. Carl managed that project. That was a total rebuild, so it had to go down to the base and work its way back up, and there was some utilities involved in that. That project was right around a little bit, about $2 to $2.5 million, somewhere in that amount. Next project is Church Street's second phase. Church Street's second phase goes from Somerville Road out to 6th Avenue. That project has been bid and should start before too long. That project does not have any utilities in it. That project's a little bit under a million dollars. They actually come in lower than the estimated cost. Another project that the MPO managed or provided funding was a causeway lighting. Almost a million dollars the MPO put into that project to get the lighting across. A few things that the MPO does. There's three major documents that we do. One is the Unified Planning Work Program. or UPWP, that's the budgets and the tasks that we have to do each fiscal year to comply with federal regulations. We do that annually each year. And y'all voted last week for the draft on that document. Next one is a TIP or the T-I-P, Transportation Improvement Program. That's a short range plan. It's four years. We're under the current one right now, 2024 to 2027. We will be updating that this summer or this next summer. So that contains short range projects that funding is identified for. So it goes in as a planned project. And then once all the engineering and everything's been done, it's authorized and then it becomes construction. The other one is a long range plan. Long range plans not every five years. Y'all adopted that draft plan last week. It's a draft document. It's now out for public involvement and we have two public meetings next week. One in here Tuesday night, 3 to 6, and one in Hartzell Thursday night, 3 to 6. But that's just a little overview. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer.

Any questions?

Dwayne, do you know how much it costs per lane mile?

You know how much it costs per lane mile to resurface? It's different if you use federal money, it's a lot more. Local money, it's a lot cheaper to use local money than it is federal money. If you're using federal money, we just put a project in on But it included some guardrail north on 6th Avenue or US 31. It was like $2 million for that portion of it. But there was some guardrail and shoulder work on that also. So federal, it's a lot more because they put asphalt down. It has to meet federal standards. But they're changing all the time, them numbers. I don't know exactly how much it is per lane mile. but it is a whole lot.

Yeah. Dwayne, when, you know, we talked to members from our federal delegation and they'll call and they'll say, Hey, we've got this bucket of money. Do you have something ready? That's usually on the tip, right?

It goes into the tip. Yeah. If we got something ready to say like, uh, we got an intersection project or CD has engineer engineer engineering going on intersection project. and there's a pot of money there, it's ready to go. It's shovel ready. So.

That's what we got to always be aware of. Yes. You know, with these long range plans that, you know, are in draft mode and then go out to the five, 10, 20 year thing. We always have something kind of in the hopper to where if we ever get that opportunity, we can jump on it.

Yes. And the ATRIP project is that state money through the gas tax. So if you've got a project ready for the ATRIP, you can put in for the ATRIP and it's ready to go. But a lot of these intersection projects, if you put one in on the front end, the MPO can pay for all phases, which is preliminary engineering, utilities, right-of-way, and construction. And it's 80-20, so it's always 80-20, 80% federal or MPO funds and 20% match, local match.

Speaking of ATRIP, we're going to have one ready in August, Carl, once that one finally bids, after two and a half years. Perfect.

But you can until the other one has been right. Got to wait at first.

Okay. Any other questions?

I appreciate it. We've got to work with you now for almost six years. You do a great job with the MPO. It's not the most known. uh, entity in the city, but I think I'll do a great job to have balancing your whole area. I think a lot of times it's overlooked that it's not just Decatur, but I know that all the surrounding communities that are part of the MPO appreciate the work that you guys do. So sure. Thank you. Thank you, Dwayne. Just give us that bridge. Yeah. Always gotta throw that out there. Just, you just keep plugging away at that.

We got money for whatever it's released. We'll, we'll go to the next phase of that study, which will be soon.

Yep, we're looking forward to the next phase. All right, we'll now move into the agenda. We'll have approval of minutes, approved June 8th, 2026, 5 p.m. Council Work Session, approved June 15th, 2026, 9.30 a.m. Council Work Session, approved June 15th, 2026, 10 a.m. Council Meeting. Any questions, comments on those? resolutions resolution number twenty six one eighty two approved tennessee valley archaeological research for archaeological survey for densmore slew trail project yeah we as most of you know we applied for a recreational trails grant for for this section of the bike trail and um...

In the environmental review process, the Alabama Historic Commission is requiring that we do this archaeology survey. And so this will be, they will do that whole span. And what we're going to try to do is, you know, Senator Orr, originally we thought we were going to have to move that fence for... AIDB. AIDB, but now he's given them money to move the fence. So the money that we'd budgeted to do that, I think I talked to Carl, and we're going to try to use that so we won't have any additional money at this time. So we'll get that changed on the resolution.

So this money will come out of the grant?

Yeah, what we've already received. yeah okay and i'll change that resolution because we didn't didn't know at the time that senator ward had got that money for aidb to move that fence all right any questions thank you alan resolution number 26183 accept change order number one for whistle bend park Yeah, on the park, if you remember, the residents that lives in those townhouses there that borders that had asked that we put a fence up, and that's what this change order's for. We think we've got enough money in the contingency to cover this, so we don't think at this time we'll need an adjustment to the budget. We just need to get the change order approved.

Okay, any questions?

And also you have plants, mulch and irrigation.

That wasn't part of the original or is this, well, no, it'll be additional because once they put that fence up, they'll do some mulching along that fence. Okay. Yeah. So this is additional. We've, we had, uh, landscaping, but this is some additional because of what they're doing with the fence. There'll be some additional landscaping.

All right. Any other questions? Thank you, Alan. Thank you. Resolution number 26184, authorize the mayor to sign an agreement with GovWell to utilize planning and zoning software.

yes uh... this go well software is something that we've been kind of reading for the past six months and we're interested in purchase of the software to be able to take in those applications that we typically deal with resumings annexations certificates et cetera et cetera uh... it also has a uh... plan review component that we are really interested in and for the cost of it which is much less than the city view software that we were looking at initially We decided to take a stab at trying to actually purchase it and use it. CityView software, we're offering us a price of about $58,000 to add on to what we already have pre-existing. And we basically just need the software to be able to intake, review, and circulate to other departments and help kind of expedite the process. It also has a feature on it that we're very interested in, which will actually service like an AI, the way we resolve just four-year questions regarding our zoning ordinance, you can actually type in the question. It will search our zoning ordinance and spit out all the things that you could do for your particular property in that zoning district. It ties to GIS. And again, we're just mainly looking at it to accept applications and be able to manage that process. And we were able to negotiate a price of about $30,000 instead of $58,000. And then the actual implementation time would be much less than what they're projecting for us going with CityView.

So this will replace city view essential or go in place of what we had intended to do with city view. Yes.

When we purchased city view, um, other departments like building predominantly uses city view. We didn't have access to it. They didn't create a module for us. So we will have to pay additional dollars to get our own module. So in lieu of that, we decided to go with this.

Will gov will communicate with city view.

Well, um, it doesn't necessarily have to, cause all we'll do is use it to submit information to other departments to review and they'll go in with their own user license and communicate and share the information, draw on it, make corrections, edit, it'll go back to the developer or the applicant.

And it's not in a way it doesn't have to necessarily, I guess my concern is not duplicating any other software.

No, not for planning.

I just see that in the private sector a lot. You end up with a new suite of software, and then multiple departments are using different software. They don't always, you know, come together. Or you end up where you have multiple, you know, you're just spending money on multiple different softwares that are not needed. But it doesn't sound like that's the case. I just wanted to be sure.

That's it.

All right. So let me ask, too, on the price. It did have a discount if signed by June 19th.

Yes, they were discounting it by $7,000. Yeah.

Now, obviously, it was on the resolution it's signed. They accepted that even without council approval? Yes.

I'm saying basically once council approved, they'll agree to go with that price. So we had to get something in writing saying that they'll commit to that price. Okay.

Yeah, I asked Herman about that earlier. There's a non-appropriation clause in there.

Okay. All right. Any other questions for Chad?

All right.

Thank you, Chad. Resolution number 26185, accept donation of equipment from Dykin America to Decatur Fire and Rescue. Chief?

Good evening, Council. This donation is, Daikin of America offered this up when we supported the Daikin Festival this year, and so this is some equipment that will go on Marine One, our new all-hazards vessel. It includes some enhanced sonar equipment and two bilge heaters that'll help for cold water protection for the engine compartments.

I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I didn't hear you.

Yes, ma'am. So the equipment will be some sonar equipment that will enhance the equipment that's already on there, and then two bilge heaters that is for cold weather protection for those engine compartments. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

All right, any other questions? All right, resolution number 26186, authorize the use of funds from the Alabama Fire College to replace AV equipment at the Public Safety Training Center.

I'd like to just give a quick overview of our public safety training center. We have many of our federal, state, regional, city, and county partners that use that facility. It's a revolving door, and we replaced this equipment around 10 years ago, and just with technology and the usage of it, it's just worn out, and it's time for it to be replaced again. So moving into that, another thing that we host at our training center is we're a regional training center of the Alabama Fire College. And with that, in 2013, we signed a cost-sharing agreement with the Fire College, which means for every student that comes, we get 30% of the tuition. And depending on if we provide the instructor or they do, there's some parameters in there that we earn funds every time we host a class. So basically the fire college keeps those funds down there and then we request them, they cut us a check and then we bring it to you for the expenditures. So what we'd like to do is take some of this money that we've made using our facility and reinvest it into that auditorium equipment and completely redo the AV equipment for that auditorium.

Thank you, Chief. Any questions?

So this is almost 30,000. How much more is in that fund, do you know?

Right now, we have about $42,000 in there right now, and so this would knock that down a little bit. We're able to use this fund for a lot of different things. Some of it, when we host classes, we can pay our own tuitions, books, things of that nature. We've bought other systems in the past that have helped facilitate us hosting other classes. So we try to reinvest it back into the facility every chance we get.

All right, resolution number 26187, thank you, Chief. Resolution number 26187, award bid number 26019 to Defense Pest Solutions for Pest Control Services.

Hey, everybody. Jeremy Sherrill, procurement. This bid opening was held on June the 4th with two vendors responding, and we're recommending Defense Pest Solutions based on the bid tabulation.

Okay, any questions?

I did bring up that I noticed Old State Bank is not on the list for termites, and it already has maybe previous termite damage, but there's termite damage there. I was wondering why that isn't on there. Also, if we need, speaking of older buildings, if we need the Carnegie and Princess Theater on there, I don't know if we do or not, but if we can look into that and make sure we protect buildings. Certainly.

I did confirm with our Parks Department that that That building has, Old State Bank specifically, has been treated. It's not on the contract. We do have language within the contract because we're always adding buildings, removing buildings, that kind of thing. We have language there that we can add as needed. So if we feel that we need to add that, we're happy to do that, and we can do that.

Any other questions? All right, resolution number 26188, award bid number 26018 for sand and fine aggregates to Terry Equipment Company and Vulcan Materials.

Yes, sir. So this bid opening was held on May the 28th. Two vendors responded, and as you can see on the bid tabulation, one of the vendors would would offer a certain item and another would offer another. So what we're going to do is split the award or what I'd like to do is split the award line by line. So, um, line items one, three, and four, I'm recommending to Terry equipment and line items two, five, and six to Vulcan material.

Yeah. I was going to ask that. Um, not often you see it like that, but obviously it works, um, is the best deal for the city. So any questions? All right, resolution number 26189, approve surplus of obsolete intercom system at City Hall.

It's old. I saw it. And the mayor's recommending that we move that and declutter some. It's not in use. Hasn't been for quite some time.

I'm looking around. Herman's not here. He would be the one that I asked. But I don't know the last time it was actually used. I'm sure he would know. Yeah. Yeah, a little elevator music. All right. Any questions on that one? Thanks Jeremy.

Yep. Thank you all.

Resolution number 26, one 90 approved to cater historic district sign replacements by Macomb group.

Yeah. I've been asked to replace some broken signs and, uh, this is a cost from a con group to do that. I don't did not have that in my budget too. So I'm asking for those monies.

All right. Any questions?

So one was damaged by a car accident or something. What?

I'm not sure what caused the damage. Okay.

Okay. All right. And one was weather related. I think I thought I read that somewhere. Okay.

All right. Uh, resolution. Any other questions? 26, one 91 approved Wilson Morgan park access improvements.

Yeah. We bid out removal of the frontage road and doing the crossover improvements and turn land into Wilson Morgan. And we're just recommended awarding the bid.

Okay, and this one was $98,000, $99,000 under budget. Correct. Underestimated budget. Correct. Good to see. The one thing, and I actually talked with Mr. Murrell about it, was that there's no contingency in there. But with this being a unit-based rate bid, there's some ways to control that. And so if there was an overage, they could just come back to us if needed instead of setting aside a contingency that we made. correct is that you agree with that yes and that way you know you're getting paid for the quantities you use if they don't put down as much we spend less yeah if we put down more we'll have to come back for a change order potentially you could build a contingency through the project all right any questions on that all right resolution number 26192 approved decatur's 2026 street conditions proposal with first step pavement management

Yeah, this company uses an AI type software, cell phone pictures that the people would drive through town and then capture the data of the distresses of the roads and in turn it calculates back and basically gives us a rating using AI and it takes the human element out of doing that. So if I look at a road, my opinion of it might be different than y'all's. So this takes that human element out and puts it out there for us, and it's accessible on the website.

Yeah, I think I brought this up in a finance meeting at one point, but we had this done in the past, many years ago. Just wasn't using AI. Yeah, it was not using AI, but it was a physical study done by humans, and so I think it's good to do this every few years. to use kind of as like a roadmap, uh, no pun intended for the paving plan. Um, but also to, you gotta coordinate this with D use pipe bursting plan. Mm-hmm um, but we, we continue to put a lot of money at paving. You wanna make sure that you're getting to the, the worst streets first and work your way through the plan. It's always subject to change and there may be some things that, that go on, but, um,

And if we like their services, they have other services where they can rate curb and gutter, sidewalk signs, I mean, inventory things. So it's expandable. It's just right now we're going to focus on the roads.

And we actually got to meet this vendor at the league for those that were there. I know the mayor and I talked with him there, and I think they'll do a good job. They showed their product. You can certainly check them out online. Yep.

thing thank you carl will this be something that we put online because i can't tell you how often in previous years somebody would call my understanding yes well i think we could have it forward facing the public i think the old one's still on there now and we try to we keep we try to update it but we're updated and yeah we're updating it internally through GIS, so it just takes a little time. But a yellow road. Go here.

A yellow road from five years ago is likely not yellow anymore. Maybe dark yellow.

And it even has potholes on here, too.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, they can pick up potholes in all the distresses that we look at in roadways. Oh, and to answer your question about about 75,000 per lane mile, if we do the work. City. City funds. Yeah.

It was 50.

Yeah, that would be milling and paving.

In 2020, it was 50.

Yeah.

Wow.

Prices have gone up.

That gives you an idea. It's increased 50%, and we don't have 50% more revenues to put towards it. All right.

Any other questions for Carl? All right. Resolution number 26, one I three approved increased funding commitment for county community college sports complex. Um, what that is is there is a utility line. I believe it was a sewer water line that was running through that property, uh, that PR McNally originally had planned to design around. Um, once they started working with the property. They realized they were not gonna be able to build around the line, so this will approve the funding, I think $700,000 to move that line to accommodate for the sports complex. Any questions? I can try to answer. All right, resolution number 26, did I miss anything, Melissa? Yeah, you're filling in for Herman, so I had to make sure. All right. Resolution number 26194, approved donation of personal protective equipment no longer needed by Decatur Fire and Rescue to Archangel Group International. Chief? Chief?

So this is some equipment, some personal protective equipment that we've accumulated over time as we've replaced it with new. Most of our equipment has about a 10-year shelf life from date of manufacture. So this is what we've collected over time, and it's no longer of use to us. We can't do the NFPA compliance standards. And so we reached out to Archangel Group and to see if they would be able to utilize it over in Zambia with that mission. And Jonathan said they absolutely could. So they're very grateful for the opportunity for you considering this donation, this equipment. It would really help the Zambia Fire Department over in Africa.

Any questions? Thank you, Chief. Resolution number 26195, approve MCEMA agreement regarding TVA Browns Ferry. Herman? This is the same contract that we're under here. It just is time for renewal. Yep. Any questions on that? Okay. Obviously pretty critical. Our resolution number. I think the chief you're probably, well, both chiefs are probably involved in that to some degree with EMA in regards to Brown's ferry. So, um, all right. Resolution number 26, one 96 approved relocation of district three voting center, precinct four, three, uh, from point my grill to the point Mallard events center located at 2901 D point Mallard circle Southeast. Any questions? That one has been moved multiple times. And just to clarify, people do receive mail notifying them of the change in location. I think I'll also post a sign. So in this case, it'll be posted.

we don't expect any changes in location following this hopefully be settled in at the new event center

All right, resolution number 26197, approve sanitary sewer calls for conditional commitment with BCS Decatur Partners LLC. This was at the request of the developer. This is a hotel on Beltline Road to extend some sewer to that property. They also have additional property there on site that they intend to develop out into, and so this would cover the utility, the sewer line for that. I can try to answer any questions if you got anything on it. All right, resolution number 26-198, approve Pew-Wright-McAnally's agreement for Decatur Youth Services' new facility.

Good afternoon, yeah, this is just the agreement for the design project.

All right, any questions on that? Another step forward. That's it. We're getting closer. All right, thanks, Johnny. Boards and committees, reappoint Tom Counts to the Municipal Utilities Board with term expiring June 30th, 2032. This will be Mr. Count's second full term. Any questions? Reappoint Donna Rainwater to the Library Board, term expiring June 30th, 2030. This will be Ms. Rainwater's second full term. Any questions? Reappoint Marshall Wise to the Library Board with term expiring June 30th, 2030. This will be Ms. Wise's first full term on the board. Any questions? Appoint David Lively to the Decatur Downtown Redevelopment Authority with term expiring June 2nd, 2030. This will be a partial term for Mr. Lively who is filling a vacant position. Any questions? Reappoint Jackson Parker to the Decatur Downtown Redevelopment Authority with term expiring June 21st, 2032. This will be Mr. Parker's first full term. Any questions? Reappoint Marlee Schmidt to the Decatur Downtown Redevelopment Authority with term expiring June 21st, 2032. This will be Ms. Schmidt's second full term. Any questions? All right. Again, our meeting will be next Monday, July 6th at 6 p.m. Is there anything else from departments? Pretty good. Council? All right. See you all next Monday. Thank you.