City Council - Regular Meeting

This conference will now be recorded.

All right, I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is our regular meeting of the Elko City Council for August 25th, 2026. Let the record reflect that all members of the board are here. And at this point, I'd like to invite Josh Carson to lead us in the pledge.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 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.

All right. Thank you for that. And this is the time for comments from the public. pertaining to items that are not on this evening's agenda?

All right.

Just real quick before we get going on to this real quick.

Because of some current concerns we had from the public last week, the Mayor and I were involved in a little phone conversation with Elko Heat. And Mr. Ira Rackley is here today to discuss some of the conversation that we had. We just know that some people are concerned about what's going on and things like that. So we just wanted them to have a chance to just kind of Give a little update and things like that, and we'll go from there. Mr. Ackley? Come on up, sir.

Good evening. Good evening. I'm sorry, ask me something. Oh, um, if you could say your name and address on the record and I know chief technical officer for alcohol heat company and live in Carson city. And here to Participate in whatever we're doing. We're talking about

I think the plan was that you were going to give us a quick little update on what's going on down here in Elko heat and things like that, if I remember correctly on our conversation.

Oh okay. Elko heat has been. changed in a way. The original owners that had it sold it about four years ago to an investment group that my son Tom and his investors purchased it. And they have been doing. a lot of checking on how to, well, they've determined that there's a geothermal anomaly, which we all knew is underneath this city. And they have some people that are coming in to see if they can generate power out of that geothermal anomaly. That is an ongoing event, and it's not been finished in any way, subtle form. But it is looking very positive that it would be a power. Other than that, Alcoheat has an agreement with the Miller Ranch. The Millers are... want to use part of their property with any industrial people that may come in once the power is determined. But there's no plan right now. The Miller property that's north of the freeway is probably going to be more used for power than anything else. But the plan is being developed. but it's not in a stage right now that we would bring it here yet.

Tom indicated that your group would be hosting some public workshops to inform the public of what the plans are and so forth.

Yes, we will be doing that. Yes. And we'll work with the city and get the public involved or at least let them know what's going on once we know what really is going on.

Probably the most noticeable thing everybody's going to notice, too, will be a big drill rig coming to town, which is about 170 feet tall. Yes. If you can elaborate on that for us, too, please.

Sure. When they when they started doing the geologic investor investigations that particular piece of property Elko heat purchased it from the lambs. And it's right where you have a east, west fault and north, south fault, they all fall in particular cross right underneath almost right underneath that property, that is what they call an observation well. it's being drilled in order to determine whether the geologic formations down have enough heat and. It it the first phase of that when they drill down to roughly 5000 feet, there is hot. rocks down there and the rocks are a type that. would would. hold. That kind of heat we need, however, during that green a a cross fault that you don't see it from the surface entered into the that whole it's a small hole I think it's eight inch yeah eight inch and. Before they could get the pipe in the a cold water aquifer was coming down in through that particular fault, so it kind of. Stymied up the temperature evaluation, however, that the kid the rig that is coming in now will be able to go deeper probably down to 12,000 feet and we will be able to block off that particular fault during while they are doing the drilling. The drilling on that, but on the second effort will take probably about three weeks once once it starts. The rig is coming in from Oklahoma. And it is high. We have the approval of the FAA for where we are and the heights and everything else. And we're working with Jim Foster at the airport, keeping him pretty well involved with what we're doing. Because it is not in line, but it is near the north-south runway. It's not within any area for the east-west runway, the commercial runway.

I had a quick question. I'm over here. So drilling there and for the purposes of power on the Miller Ranch there, what is that power going to be used for?

Any of the developments on the Miller Ranch, we have had interest by other fairly large industrial people that would like to come to Elko.

What kind of businesses?

Well, one of them is a medical bagging facility. Okay.

I've heard of that one.

And that particular one would be on the north side of the river on the Miller Ranch if all of this comes together. And it will be kind of a Western national thing. I didn't realize that we don't make our medical water in the United States. We import it from three different countries. And the military is very interested in that particular site. And if that comes to fruition and the power comes up, Dave Kuntz, it's likely that will have a large facility there yeah the i'd heard about that actually about a year ago.

Dave Kuntz, In discussions with the school district and different things and all that too, and then, and I guarantee there's about 12 people in here, you want me to ask this question will that power being used for a data Center use a data Center no. Thank you.

We don't have a data center.

I know they're going to ask, so I'll just get it out in the open and clear the dust.

We have had an entity that builds data centers.

Yeah.

They have come and looked at all of this, but they've decided that they would go to a different property down by Fern Lane.

Okay. One other question is, does Elko Heat, are they involved with the... What's the name of it? The R&R development that's hot springs development. Is that tied into that? Because they're using that same water?

No.

Okay. I'm just curious if that's part of it.

I have never heard of that one.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thanks for answering my questions. Tough questions, but I got to get them out there.

No, no. Bodie, do you have anything to add to what Mr. Rackley said?

Phil.

Oh, Phil. Oh, I'm sorry.

I thought Bodie was coming. You know, we're, we're open to any public questions on what we're, what we're doing. Cause really, you know, we're trying to figure out as well, how we're going to utilize the power and responsibly to, right. Cause I've been here 42 years. So we want to make sure that public's got their concerns out there and We're answering correctly.

Also, you may, if you could, real quick, cover the geothermal for the new rec center, possibly for the convention center, possibly. I don't know. Just cover that a little bit, if you don't mind. Because I know that's what Elko Heat originally did.

Yes.

But I think you're going to improve the infrastructure, if I remember correctly.

Yes. We are having discussions with the school district right now, and we have been having discussions with them for probably over a year, year and a half. We are going to do an evaluation of their well. That particular well has been non-used for almost 14 years. And there's a question as to whether we could rejuvenate it or not. And once we get this drilling thing behind us, That particular group on the drilling will be coming up and evaluating first their well. Part of our discussions with them is to expand the Elko heat loop that now services the downtown district area. We would bring that easterly and get the school system pool Boys and Girls Club in particular are the ones that are really interested about having us bring that heat over. Now, naturally, building pipelines all that way is kind of expensive, so we're hoping that we can rejuvenate the well and bring that heat back. We do know that the well still has the heat that they originally had. And they, like our well, has a water quality that meets drinking water standards. both wells have a certain amount of minerals in it naturally as it leaches through the system down there and we don't know what the minerals are in the school system but that's probably what really was the demise of that particular system from a physical standpoint but the part that really got the school district is now back up 1982 sometime when we drilled our well the school district then about a year after that we we we exchanged all of the data that we had done back in the early 80s to map this particular anomaly then and that's how they picked the site that they did that particular uh when we got our permits elko heat got The permit to do a percolation pond after the system goes through the heating. The school district for some reason did not get that. And so they had an issue of you run the water through the heating loop, but then you have a return flow. With no place to go. And that is probably the biggest. hurdle that they had. They did take it to the water reclamation facility for a number of years, and Dale can tell you that one. But then I think the water reclamation facility did some improvements to it, and they just couldn't have that water anymore. And that was one of the other reasons that that particular system had to shut down. But their pipelines are in bad shape. because of the minerals that were in it. The alcohol heat system, we found that we had the minerals. We lined our pipes with a harder material, and we've been doing pretty good since then.

Mr. Rackley, I also understand that there's a number of rare earth minerals that you plan to mine as a byproduct, I guess, if you will, as well as some gas as well.

Yes, that's correct. Some of these are rare earths. Some are suspended. Some are dissolved. And we're working with a group in Utah on how to take those suspended out without losing the heat. And that's kind of a tricky deal. You could use centrifuges, but the centrifuge itself burns off the heat. And then you don't have anything left to put in your system. So we'll see what we get from the Utah facility.

How big a facility would this be? I'm sorry?

How big of a facility would this be?

Are we talking about a huge large building or something small? Or does the water go somewhere else and then you do it in a building where it's processed? Or how does that work?

It's not really a very big building to process it. It could require one centrifuge, for example, whether it's horizontal or a cone, something like that. And that's not a very big thing. It'd be a very small building. But it's the heat. I mean, the whole idea of these geothermal distribution systems is heat. Heat-to-heat distribution and heat delivery.

And so, thanks.

Anyone else. All right, you might want to hang around if if there's any public comments that you want to respond to you then.

Absolutely. Thank you.

All right. Anyone else for public comment.

hi i'm lexi reeve my i live in the hoa association my address is 2206 chisholm drive i wanted to take this opportunity to formally introduce our new group that we've created the name of the group is elko neighbors for responsible industrial growth our mission is to inform and connect elko county residents promote promote transparency and inform community participation And advocate for responsible policy and development that protects our communities resources vitality and legacy as technology and industry ball. What we do we inform provide reliable well sourced information about data centers and other emerging industrial developments and their potential impacts on Elko county. engage help residents understand local decisions and provide practical tools to participate effectively in the civic process. Research, learn from our communities across the country about industrial impacts and mitigation strategies and policies that protect our local interests. Connect, bring together residents, property owners, business and agricultural interests, experts, organizations, and elected officials, and advocate. Promote transparency, responsible development, and forward-looking policies that protect Elko County's resources and quality of life in future. So we've organized and we're really excited about it and we're looking forward to being involved more in the future.

Thank you. Before you go, I just want to make sure I wrote this down correctly. So your new group is called Elko Neighbors for Responsible Industrial Growth. Yes.

There is a Facebook page. We're on Instagram and TikTok as well. There is an acronym we're using. It's ENRIG, E-N-R-I-G. Thank you guys.

Hello, my name is Erica Wright. I live on 641 Ash Street. Town, City Hall, Elko hope to test the water and halt sprinklers pending water testing that are potentially damaging the roads, sidewalks, parks, trees, and collecting in stormwater runoff, killing frogs, mice, and potentially birds. and the trees, everything may harm humans. Caffeine test is a minimum rule out that's cheap that can rule out across contamination with sewage. That would be just kind of easy as a rule out. I'm also reporting orange spray paint on the dirt in the back alley behind where I live, 641 Ash Street, for unauthorized road work and many men pulling up with many vehicles. All of a sudden, it's across from the elementary school, so it's within the school district. And lastly, I beseech please protect Thomas Canyon for any potential construction, just being aware of potentially just anything going out there. I know you guys have limits to your domain, but it looks like they're ready to do construction to Thomas Canyon. It's a very beloved place that people hike and camp, and they might be doing something, I think I heard, at the end of September.

They're replacing the culverts. in the road, so the runoff can go underneath the road. That much I do know.

Okay, great. I'm just going to leave this. Thank you. Thank you so much. God bless.

All right. A couple of comments. Anyone else?

Good afternoon. My name is Sylvie Doré. I live just outside the city limits, and I am a co-founder of Elko Neighbors for Responsible Industrial Growth. As you just heard from Lexi our mission is really centered around informing and connecting Elko county residents promoting transparency and civic participation. and advocating for responsible growth and development as technology and industry evolves we came together because we learned of the possibility of a large data Center. being developed here in Elko and as we began researching the issue. One of the things we started looking at was whether our existing codes are equipped to address development at this scale. One concern I have. And that many people have is that the current city code does not appear to define the data Center as a distinct. land use that means that if an application were submitted the city would first have to determine how that development fits within the uses already established in the code that classification matters, as you all know, because it determines the approval process. City Council Chambers, or smaller data centers the existing code may have been sufficient, but the hyper scale facilities now being proposed and built around the country. City Council Chambers, are fundamentally different in scale we're talking about facilities that can require hundreds of megawatts of electricity. City Council Chambers, have significant potential impacts involving water noise backup generation transmission infrastructure emergency response and surrounding land uses the existing code was not written with development of the scale in mind, so I have two questions for you. First, has the Council or city staff examined how a large scale data center would be classified and processed under the city's existing code if an application were submitted today. My second question is, is the Council considering amending the code to specifically define data centers and establish an appropriate review process and development standards for them, my concern is not simply whether data centers would be allowed. is it is making sure that development of this magnitude cannot move forward under regulations that were never designed to address it and without an appropriate level of public review. Thank you.

I think I can speak at least to the second question a little bit. It was discussed at the last city council meeting that Gail Johnson is working with staff and I believe our city attorney to come up with an ordinance if a data center were to be proposed and go through permitting process, and that's about all I can probably answer. But Dale probably can give you more of an explanation.

Currently, if a data center was proposed, it would run through our CUP process until we get a formal ordinance written. We are working with Elko County. There's a working group that's writing an ordinance for Elko County, but we have not started one for the city. We're just working through that working group at the county.

Is there a way to find out who is on the in that working group.

You could submit a public records request to the city clerk and we could get you that information wonderful Thank you.

All right, last call for public comment.

thank you mayor and council for the record scott gavorski 878 second street uh i'm actually rising on behalf of the elko county republican party and a couple of our other political parties here in elko um to extend an invite uh not only to the council but to the public for our second uh annual constitution week event which will be on wednesday september 16th at 6 p.m in the public arts uh our performing arts building over at the high school um we're In the final stages of putting together a panel discussion on the topic of the Constitution 25 years after 9-11. Looking a little bit here at some of the challenges we faced with that tragedy and where we stand on a lot of this. So we're hoping to have and be able to advertising format speakers and probably will be also inviting questions from the public for our moderators to submit to the and submit to the panel once it gets established. So a lot of that will be out here soon, probably right around Labor Day. But again, everybody's invited. We're really looking forward to the event. Thank you.

Scott, do you have a time for that?

Yes, 6 p.m.

Thank you.

All right. We'll go ahead and move on to Item 5, Consent Agenda. We have two items on there. If there's no discussion, I'm ready for a motion.

And move to approve the consent agenda as written.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any public comments or concerns on the two consent agenda items? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and take the vote. All those in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye.

And I also vote aye for approval. All right. Next, we have a presentation. And this is an update on the water and water modernization project and water meter rollout information only non action item.

Andrew, I can be honest, I've been looking forward to this.

No pressure. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, esteemed council, the leaders and Lawyer. Lawyer David. Sorry, David. Yes. I appreciate everybody. Thank you very much for coming specifically to this for the meter update. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Go ahead and play it out there. Don't look at the secret codes or login information. Super secret. This right here is just... a quick view or update on what's going on with the meters of the city. All the green dots are currently all the meters that have been installed or that have been installed throughout the years. And currently you see on the top left, that's kind of where we rolled out over in the Sundance area and just went around just north of the 80 going east and basically installing as we go. And the sporadic dots, the construction that they're a big group or just updated construction if there's a meter that needs to be installed perhaps a leak or anything like that that we've been able to install a meter some of these areas here in this area issue with just there's no it's that was used to be a county we we took it over and basically the everything sidewalks but there's just no sidewalks and just the way that the ground is. There's a lot of retaining walls and we've just, it's a bigger project that we've got to really get in depth to. It's all a lot of pits, but as you see, there are some pits that are in that area. Currently, we are in this area over by Riverview Drive, Griswold, and then going to the Colony area. That's basically where we're at, but of course, we're also doing sewer issues along the way. That's why we're not as far as we hope to be, Apparently, we have 3,158 meters, as you can see on this map.

If anybody has any questions, I'd be more than willing to answer.

So there's 3,160, did you say, meters installed right now?

Yes, add two more. I like it.

Okay. And so then... Did that include meters that were installed previously?

Yes.

And then how many have your crews installed since the inception of this project?

I will say about 2,000. I know that when I came here in the city many, many moons ago, it was about 400 meters in the city. But since this inception of the meter grant and everything going on, it's been about 2,000 meters. And then what's the ultimate number after every one? 10,000, a little over 10,000 meters. Still got a lot of work to do. A little work to do. Unscheduled leaks and whatnot do hinder us.

Yes.

How about like, is it because water leaks? Is it because they're Are they legitimate concerns? I mean, I guess, can you give us a little elaboration on that?

Some issues, we've been on flat rate forever. So basically now we're metering. So we're knowing that water is actually going through. Some people have leaks in the sprinkler systems or in their main lines that they didn't know about that have been leaking for years. See what's leaking and And that's really been the issue is the disputes of, like, I'm not using that much water. And, you know, meter and system, if somebody wants to give me their address, I can go ahead and volunteer and look up their meter if they have one. It doesn't work for flat rate. Sorry. But we can see if you have a leak. And then you're just using water, you know, too much because you have a leak. And basically, it needs to get fixed. And that's what these meters. So we had some, or we have had some discrepancies, but it's just normal. I'm aware that people just don't know, right? Because usually at work when your sprinklers are sleeping, when your sprinklers are on and just don't see what you don't know.

So.

I live up in that.

I know what you're talking. I have a. I have no sidewalk, but it's going to be a raised bed on it, probably about 18 inches. You're going to be going down about six feet to at least get to the shutoff valve.

Yeah. Others have like a three and a half foot retaining wall and then four foot at least bury.

So they're looking pretty deep.

Yeah.

Well, I've got about an area about three feet wide where the shutoff valve is. So, we'll see. I'm not too worried about it. We'll get it in there.

All right. Does the public have any questions for water department manager Andrew Storla?

Thank you, Andrew. You're welcome.

Remember to drink water. All right. We have one Mayor Mrakas, New employee introduction. Mayor Mrakas, On the schedule this evening and Dale johnson's going to take that.

Mayor Mrakas, Mr Mayor members of Council i'd like to introduce josh Carson he's our new development manager i'll give him some time to talk about himself.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you Dale Mr Mayor members of the Council just want to express my gratitude for being here and. Look forward to working with all of you city staff and members of the community to fulfill the vision and the mission of City of Elko. So I look forward to meeting you all. Those of you that I don't already know, appreciate it. Thank you.

Welcome back, Josh. All right. Appropriations. Item A. Find my cheat sheet here. Okay, we have a regular warrants or fiscal year 2026 in the amount of $53,615 and 62 cents so moved. Their second. Second. All in favor of the motion say aye. And I also vote aye and then we have fiscal year 2027. warrants in the amount of $1,213,279.42 plus hand-cut checks for fiscal year 2026 and 2027 in the amount of $213,907.47. So moved. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And I also vote aye. All right. APPROPRIATIONS ITEM 8B, REVIEW CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE DIRECTION TO STAFF TO SOLICIT BIDS FOR THE HARP TRAIL EXTENSION AT THE 12th STREET BRIDGE AND MATTERS RELATED THERETO FOR POSSIBLE ACTION. CITY WAS AWARDED $90,000 THROUGH THE CONSERVED NEVADA PROGRAM GRANT AND THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVED ACCEPTING THE FUNDS AT THE AUGUST 11TH CITY COUNCIL MEETING. STAFF WOULD LIKE TO SOLICIT BIDS FOR THE PROJECT. DALE?

Mayor Mrakas, Mr mayor members of Council or just asking for approval to solicit bids for the harp trail project so it'll be to extend the harp trail from where it ends there at the 12th street bridge underneath the bridge and up to the apartments, on the other side.

I think that'll be a nice project to get that done what will there be lighting included in that for under the bridge.

We haven't included lighting in that but that's something we can look at.

Yeah, I think that'd be beneficial to take a look at that just for safety purposes.

Yeah, I have a quick question. Because I just noticed that it's $120,000 on our agenda today, but at last council it was $150,000. Can you explain the difference?

Yeah, those were the proposed costs when we first started the project. They came in at $150,000. As we did more research and our engineer looked into the project, Talked with some contractors about doing this type of work. They've revised the engineer's estimate to $120,000.

I love it. But my only other question is, we were coming with that grant, the $90,000 grant. The city was having to come up with the $60,000. So does that mean we only need to now hopefully only come up with $30,000? So we've decreased that?

That's correct. Yeah, the grant's for $90,000, and we have a 10% match. And then we'll cover the overage as well.

Awesome. Thank you for the explanation.

All right. Any public comment on this item? All right. Is there a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to direct staff to solicit bids for the Harp Trail extension at the 12th Street Bridge project. Is there a second?

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And I also vote aye. Item C, review consideration And possible approval of entering into professional services agreement with am engineering for design services for the flag view sports complex and matters related there to for possible action. Staff would like to enter into professional services agreement with am engineering for design services for the flag view sports complex the proposed project includes. parking lot improvements, curb gutters, sidewalks, valley gutters, ADA compliant pedestrian access, terrace seating and restroom facilities. AM Engineering has provided a proposal for the project and the PSA is attached for review and possible approval.

Dale. Mr. Mayor, members of council, we're looking for approval of the PSA. It's attached here along with the proposal from AM Engineering. Again, this is a project that's kind of been sitting on the shelf for about 10 years. In 2016, we started the roadway improvements for Flag View and then did the curb gutter and sidewalk on the northern side of the street. And AM Engineering designed that project and started this conceptual design back then. So we're just picking this up to try to get this design complete and put out the bid when funding allows it.

No, it looks beautiful. The conceptual drawings on there and it was such a huge improvement to get that street paved through there. And it's wonderful to think that Getting all that component is within reach.

And this will take care of the rest of the drainage towards the field and it's a nice seating. Restroom facilities, they still use blue rooms up there. Cool project.

It'll be nice to keep some of those parents off the field too.

So that'll be a nice job. I just have a, I know I'm going to be the pain today. I'm sorry. I have a couple of questions about the PSA. Number one, it does say an effective start date of August 13th, but today's 25th. Has he already started work or is this just, that's just when it got drafted?

That was his proposal, drafted, yeah.

My other kind of questions are, He put a claim in their A&M engineering put a claim in there of a savings based on 10% of the typical design fee. I was just wondering how he came up with that. Is that just because of the total cost of the project and he's saying, hey, I'm saving you money.

He puts that in all his proposals as a way to show that he's trying to save the taxpayers money and things like that. I'm not sure where he comes up with his He does put that in all of his proposals.

One last question. Basically, we do have the 265,000 in there for our it says complete engineering professional services. It says through construction, but do we anticipate that he's going to charge us additional fees and it's going to cost us a lot of money. Basically, what I'm asking for is the additional fees would be for construction administration, if there's inspections, RFIs, submittals, change orders, or anything to close that out. So are we anticipating? I know we have a budget of $300,000. So is there any anticipation that that $265,000 from the engineer is going to increase based on additional services that he would need to provide throughout that project?

It depends on when it goes to actual construction. We're not foreseeing this to go out to bid. Any time soon. There's some couple projects that parks department have that are ahead of it in the queue, but we wanted to get out in front of this and get it designed so During construction, there probably will be some special inspections for sure because of all the concrete work. And things like that.

Thank you.

All right, questions, comments or concerns from the public on this item. Mayor Mrakas, All right here and now i'm ready for a motion.

Mayor Mrakas, To bear a move to approve PSA with am engineering for design services for the flag view sports complex for $265,000 right is there a second.

Second okay. Mayor Mrakas, All right, we have a motion and second all in favor say aye aye. Mayor Mrakas, And I also vote for approval right item D review discussion. consideration and possible authorization for staff to solicit bids for the ruby view golf course pump replacement project and matters related there to for possible action. The design engineering and bid documents have been completed for the ruby view golf course pump replacement project staff is requesting authorization to solicit this with the goal of constructing and installing a new pump station for the purpose of irrigating the golf course. The project was approved in the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget and will be completed by the spring of 2027. Joe, are you handling this one? And James?

Austin.

Oh, come on up, Austin.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. So yeah, we're just requesting to be able to go out to bid for this project. We started out horrible this year. First day of firing up the pump station, three motors out of four for the pumps blew. Two of them was very impressive. And with the help of Jim Kerr, his crew, the water department, we had to pull those pumps and have them overhauled ASAP. And that was a pretty expensive, unforeseen repair. I've been there for almost four years. And every summer, the pump station has kept me awake at night And this year, my biggest fears became reality. It's old. About 10 years ago, the city spent somewhere around $2.5 million-ish for a new irrigation system. But nothing was done with the pump station. So essentially, we built a Ferrari and put a 77 Ford Pinto engine in the Ferrari. And so the old irrigation system had roughly 900-ish heads. We have doubled that with the new system. This new system is going to cut the watering in half, our window. Greg Baer, he was going to join us via phone. He is the engineer, Greg Baer of Baer Design. If he is here, he could answer any technical questions.

He is online.

OK, awesome. Thanks. So yeah, basically, we're just trying to get our nice irrigation systems to run how it's designed to run. I have men's and women's league always after me about starting the irrigation later at night but then the flip side would well then I'd have the early birds mad at me because irrigation would still be running. We can go from 11 to 12 hours of watering at night cut it down to about six because we're gonna have four motors pumps plus a VFD pony pump So instead of at the max, at the peak of running like 105, 10 heads will be probably 150, 60 heads plus running at once, which will shorten that down. And it will benefit the quality of the course. And with that, we're going to put in a fertigation. So I'm always leery of depending on outsourcing the course to be fertilized. because we almost did not have it fertilized this year because of the company that does it. They cut back and weren't sure if they wanted to come out to Nevada. They're a great basin out of Salt Lake. So with the fertigation, I can pump what I want into the system. If I want nitrate, if I want iron or whatever I need to benefit the course, we can do it ourselves. If anybody's got questions for Greg there.

This will also help out to get the water to the high point, which is 13, 14, correct?

Yes.

You were tied into it this year, wasn't it?

Yeah, the first half of the season we were.

Austin, this will draw the water that are in the holding ponds then?

Yeah, it's still effluent. That all is the same. It's just we can power We have the ability to power 19 heads instead of 900 efficiently. All right.

Mr. Bearer, are you online? Is there anything you'd like to add to that or any pertinent information for the benefit of the public?

I am present. This is Greg Bearer, Bear Design Group, 10674 North Sage Hollow Way, Boise, Idaho, 83714. I'm the irrigation consultant and designer of this pump station. Um, and I also designed the irrigation system back, you know, I think we put that in, in 2015, we, when we designed the irrigation system, we designed it around a six hour water window. So the main line and the plumbing and the control systems are all set up to distribute water, uh, with the goal of irrigating the golf course in a six to seven hour water window. And, uh, you know, at the time for budgetary reasons, we were not able to replace the pump station and it currently provides, I think it, well, when it was operating at best scenario, I think it was providing about 1200 gallons a minute. The new pump station will provide about 2500 gallons a minute. Um, and it'll increase the pressure output by about 20 PSI. So it should resolve, you know, some of those low pressure issues that we're seeing up on the high part of the course there. And, provide better coverage and as a result, hopefully use a little bit less water overall. The city in an effort to keep costs reasonable on this project, the city is stepping up and basically disassembling the existing pump station, removing it from the pump house. and prepping for the installation of the new irrigation pump station. The new irrigation pump station is a prefabricated pump station that would be built off-site and then delivered and set in place by a crane. And then the installer would also connect the new pump station to the existing main line and power supply and fire it up and run through the startup process and train Austin and his team on how to operate the system before they leave.

Any other questions? The city spends amongst all the pump houses that we have somewhere in the order of about a million dollars a year on electricity. Will this system, if it's run in fewer hours, I'm hopeful there'll be less power draw.

Yeah, I mean, I don't have that calculation for you, but theoretically, yes, the system as a whole will be more efficient. But, you know, all the way out to the sprinkler heads with increased pressure out at the sprinkler heads, Austin or the irrigation system is going to provide better distribution uniformity. So, you know, run times of the sprinkler should be reduced. While there is more horsepower on this pump station, it will operate nearly half the time. So because of the efficiency gain, yes, it should utilize less power.

I think that's everything, unless I missed someone.

I think this is something that should have been done years ago. Unfortunately, the money wasn't there to do it then, and they've had a struggle getting the water on that upper end for years. This will really help the golf course, especially on that north end.

All right. Any comments from the public on this item? All right. I'm ready for a motion then.

Mr. Mayor, I move to authorize staff to solicit bids for the Ruby View Golf Course pump replacement project. Second.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. And I also vote aye for approval. All right. Thank you, Austin.

Will this improve your golf game, Pooch?

No, not my game.

I've tried that. Nothing works.

The good thing is it'll be watering the sides a lot more, so I'll just be in a lot deeper rough.

all right uh new business item 9a review consideration and possible acceptance of a deed of dedication granted to the city of elko by michael r warner apn001740011 for slope easement and permanent right-of-way for public roads and streets and public utilities and matters related thereto for possible action this portion of south 9th street represents the final right-of-way needed to complete the connection to air cart boulevard and provide the necessary utility connections to support future development slope easements are also necessary to facilitate construction of the right of way due to significant topographical challenges presented within portions of the parcel kathy mr mayor members of the council thank you um you know this has been an uphill battle for about

almost four years now to get this last little bit of right-of-way. If you recall seven, eight years ago when Mr. Tipton dedicated Eric Hart Boulevard through his property, he did the extension of South 9th Street through his property, and it dead-ended at Mr. Warner's property. And we started negotiating with Mr. Warner. It's been a long process. We finally have come to this agreement and have this deed of dedication in front of you. So there's not been a lot of times in my career here at the city that I can say, wow, we finally accomplished something, but we did. This is really important for long-range planning. This opens up all of that south portion of our community with Eric Hart and with 9th Street. This property that this dedication comes through will create an intersection there at 9th Street, close proximity to Southside School, right there by our fire station. And it just opens up for future extension of our sewer. It's very necessary to sewer out of that area, that development, to have this South 9th Street. There was a lot of slope easement that needed to be dedicated, and that was really kind of the heartburn that Mr. Warner had was, The amount of dirt that needed to be moved and the the slope easement was 2.24 acres. And so we we explained to him that you know he was been trying to sell the property and it just wasn't selling and. People couldn't visualize it they didn't want to go to end dot and try to get a permit access permit off of the moral highway there. They just couldn't visualize it and we could have waited until the property sold and then, as it developed. then get the dedication off of it. But this is a really necessary component for our tie-in to AeroCart and the remainder of AeroCart construction, because now we have an opportunity where we can steal some dirt from this slope easement area and use it for filling some of the AeroCart area as well. So extremely important for long-range planning, and we're glad we have it. And if approved, I'll be recording it myself at at eight in the morning.

It's been a long process. Let's get that signed before someone changes their mind on it. Questions or concerns from the public on this item?

I do have one quick question, Kathy. In the DDIF dedication, it does say that Mr. Warner was given valuable consideration. Was an appraisal done? How did you guys come up to that amount?

There was no money exchanged for the dedication. That's what I was getting at. So thank you very much.

All right, I am hearing none. If there's no further questions, I'm ready for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move to accept the deed of dedication for South 9th Street right-of-way and slope easements.

I'll second that.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. And I also vote aye for approval. All right, new business. Item 90 review consideration and possible approval of a request from Nevada behavior and autism to close the downtown parking corridor. Between fifth and sixth Street on Saturday, October 24 2026 from 4pm to 8pm for a trunk or treat event and matters related there to for possible action. Nevada behavior and autism is requesting to close the corridor between fifth and six streets for a trunk or treat event, the organization would like to make this an annual event and that Thank you, Mr. Mayor members of Council.

Yes. So Nevada behavior and autism. They want to do this event for the kids and I have some pictures up here and crystal from from there. She should be here. So if you want to come up and explain your event, let me get a picture up here. And then they would like to make this an annual event. But she did get everybody in that area downtown around that corridor, they've all signed off on it. So that's a good thing. And like I said, if we try to make this an annual event,

we would need to have that in the motion let me let me throw something out though you you you can't bind future City Council's just so you know that so that as you consider this I know they want to do it every year which is fine but future City Council's can change that I don't care I'll be gone this is for everybody else not you okay

Hi my name is Jade and the address of our business is 524 Commercial Street. So last year we kind of did like I want to say like a mock trunk or treat. We did call the city and they let us just have one area of the parking lot to see if it would work out and it was a really huge success. We even had other families from the other autism center here that showed up and participated. But at the end of the day, I feel like, you know, there's not a lot of events here that do support autism because we do autism, Down syndrome, and fetal alcohol syndrome. So just kind of having a day for the kids to feel safe and obviously closing down the street and making sure people are able to cross the street safely. And we do plan on having, you know, a couple of vendors, candy, and then kids that can't have candy, we do have a special setup for them as well.

Is this, I understand your target audience, but is it open to all children?

Yes, it is.

Sounds like a wonderful event. All right. Any questions or concerns from the public on this one? All right. Board members, any questions for them or if you have a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the request from Nevada Behavior and Autism to close the downtown parking corridor between 5th Street and 6th Street on Saturday, October 24th, 2026 from 4 to 8 p.m. Second.

All right. All in favor of the motion signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. And I also vote aye. Thank you very much. And you understand, unfortunately, you'll have to come back each year for this. We can't. Every year. Every year. OK.

Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you.

All right item 10 a resolution and ordinance review consideration possible approval resolution number 1526 resolution waving the business license application fee. Business license renewal fee home occupation fee and work permit fee for ride share or taxi service businesses in the city of Elko for a period of two years and matters related there to for possible action. resolution 1526 would waive the business license application fee business license renewal fee home occupation fee and taxi work permit fee for eligible ride share and taxi service businesses for a period of two years the resolution is intended to encourage the establishment of ride share and taxi services within the city of elko and to improve transportation options for residents City Council Chambers, Visitors workers and local businesses city of vocal has not had an active taxi service business for approximately two years in the City Council desires to support the reestablishment of this service by. City Council Chambers, Reducing startup costs for small businesses, providing ride share or taxi services with the Indian Community now.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, Mr Mayor members of Council so i've brought this back and we've. me the changes that you guys requested by adding business license renewal fees to that, of course, this will be for two year period, so our current three. ride shares that we have and actually I think they're going to be coming up for renewal here in the next month or two, so they will have those fees waived right.

And I do see we have a couple members of the media here. Please put that out there, rideshare drivers wanted. We want as many of them as we can get, and we're trying to help encourage that by waiving these fees for them as they get established in their first two years. All right, comments from the public on this item? Council, anything, any questions?

I just hope we get somebody that steps up.

I hope so. I'll be unemployed in a few months. So who knows, maybe I'll be picking you up for a ride. You and Claire aren't going to be doing too much. You guys might as well step up.

Yeah.

All right. Is there a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 15-26, waiving business license application fees, business license renewal fees, home occupation fees, and work permit fees for rideshare or taxi service businesses for a period of two years.

Second. All right. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

And I also vote aye. All right. And I think that covers everything thus far on the agenda. We'll go to reports. Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital had a nice a ceremony celebrating their 25th anniversary on Saturday. And unfortunately with some of these late afternoon storms that we've been getting, I think that hurt the attendance a little bit, but it was great. They had like about probably eight or nine of their first day employees there that have been there for the full 25 years. And there was one employee there Lynn Pappas, who was with Elko General Hospital, and she's been with the organization since April of 1981, which is pretty astonishing that she's still working, obviously loves her job and is very well thought of up there. Please mark your calendars for September 4th. That's a Friday at 10 a.m. That'll be the dedication of the Veterans Administration Cemetery up in the north part of the city. There'll be dignitaries coming in from out of town for that, including Senator Cortez Masto. And I anticipate, although I haven't heard it confirmed, that Amadei and Rosen will also be there. I do know that the undersecretary For veterans affairs Sam brown will be there at that event and then that's at 10am the parade will be starting a half hour late that day at 1130am to accommodate the attendance at that ceremony, just so the the VFW can participate in in both of those events. hopefully the police know about the the change on the parade schedule okay all right and then National League excuse me Nevada League of Cities meeting the annual meeting will be in Reno this year and it's at the beginning of It's the first full week of October on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Regrettably, I had a conflict come up. I will not be able to attend that, but it's not on a council week, which is a real blessing. And I really hope that we'll have a good showing from the city council members as well as staff. I don't know if you have staff members planning to attend that.

I haven't heard from any staff, but I plan on attending.

Right. And let's see, I think, I think that's about all that I had anyone else.

I had the privilege of going to Ely this weekend to be a steward race to work nearly and just hopefully it's an indication what we're going to get here, but they had all full course field so hopefully. We have full races for the fair this year and we get a good attendance, which is good as long as there's five six horses in every race that it makes for a good race and it's good for the economy. Hopefully, the same way.

All right, the leaving tomorrow for some legislative meetings in Reno and we did have a housing summit scheduled there, but unfortunately has been cancelled due to the fires. So I will get everybody some updates on that legislative meeting when I come back. And then I just, as a little public comment, wanted to invite everyone. My daughter will be hosting business after hours through the Chamber of Commerce for Lostra Aesthetics Thursday, September 17th from 530 to 7 at the Lostra Warehouse parking lot. We're doing some things also in conjunction with the Hot Air Balloon Festival. So we have a couple of events going on at the end That area at the same time, but she's got business after hours from 530 to seven. So free food and drinks, please stop on by. If anybody knows Kennedy, she's going to have some sparkly pink cocktails.

And you'll have the whiskey wagon.

The whiskey wagon will be out. Come on by.

All right. Just a few things going on from the event center going on. Of course, don't forget the fair kicks off this weekend. And then, of course, next week's ends the big deal. And that will be happening in full force. Followed before our next meeting is also the car show is gonna be out here of course for that's three days straight How did we do on flags for that?

So we spoke with Robert Howard and They're going to have a civic project and bring the flags for 9-11 Are we doing any kind of an event out there heard rumors?

There's counties might be doing something out there

I don't have any information right now, so I'll have to get that for you. Oh, right here.

Brian Riley, 6651 Horse Haven. The American Legion and some of the VFW, we are going to do a ceremony out here for 9-11. I'll be doing a speech, and we'll have the veterans out there. We haven't had a time yet, but when I do, I'll tell you about it.

Very good. Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. That's awesome.

All right. And then one thing I forgot, I just remembered that thinking about this, the fair board started a race to honor and celebrate the veterans. So during the race on Saturday, they have one race dedicated to just veterans or just be military. And they got someone to donate some added money. So it should be a great race. And it'll be the first that they've ever done like this. Supposedly, they might still have a flyover. I'm not sure yet.

All right.

Yes, absolutely.

And then we did meet with Senator Cortez Masto on Saturday and I'll let Jan report on that.

Thank you. Yeah, so it was a good visit with Senator Cortez Masto and her staff. We went over some of our federal issues or subjects that we've been going through. In particular, Union Pacific Railroad and Section 18 and the lands bill and the airport. And they were very receptive and gave us some resources to look into. And I think it was a good meeting. Do you think I missed anything? No? It was good.

Anything? No report.

No report. Yeah.

Yeah, I just want to clarify that it was actually Scott's crew, the WRF crew that helped the golf course out. As much as Andrew wants to take that, Scott's crew is the one that helped out. All right. Unless anybody has any questions. Okay.

Thanks for that clarification. Duly noted, Andrew. Make sure you correct the record, too. All right. Captain.

The only thing I have, it's a little ways out, but wednesday september 23rd we're hosting a coffee with community leaders he'll be at mud hut on east idaho so we're welcome everyone out from the community just kind of get some feedback open discussions uh things we're doing well things we can do better um and just have some conversations what time is that going to be that will be 7 to 8 30 in the morning yep and then is there going to be a first tuesday meeting coming up There is one on the first. It will be at the county commissioners building. It's being hosted by emergency management.

And what building did you say?

The county commissioners.

Oh, OK. All right, Jim Foster. Wesley, what's going on new at NGM?

I think that'll make everybody happy. And then as far as the parks go September pretty busy month with the car show, hot air balloon festival, and a little bit of help delivering a few things to the airport for the Sky Fair, which last year was super exciting. So we're super happy to be helping with that again. But other than that, we're looking forward to some fall weather and some pumpkin spice lattes and hopefully a little cool down coming up. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks.

So it's been quite a weekend especially for our county. The drawdown on the county resources is significant. The state EOC which has been activated for 10 days now. Our focus in Elko County is now statewide. So there's a strike team coming from Las Vegas with five engines and the city of Elko is going to be a part of that strike team. So we're staffing an engine with them. to support county measures. The good news is that it's all state ran. They're completely, they're tapped out on their resources as far as the fires that occurred over the weekend. And then the big Otley fire, which is by Wells, 8,000 acres right now with zero containment. We're really hoping that we get some resources from Reno. They had some good progress today. They're reported at 35% containment, but I suspect that'll jump up in the 80s today because of the work they did. They don't really have a lot of active fire line on the Hawk Fire, which was 15,000, around 15,000 acres and 40 structures. But all those things are adding up to a very long and progressive fire season that's probably gonna continue into August unless we get a change in weather. So we're happy to be a part of the strike team coming. It's quite a resource tap on us as well, but we're staffing it within the city. So we won't lose the resource other than specific structure fire calls within the area that supports the county. So we're pretty fortunate to have that ability to keep the resource and then also kind of manage the Las Vegas engine that comes for the county side of Elko. There'll be five engines total, two will go to Wells, Two will go to Spring Creek and one into the Elko area from that strike team. If you have any questions, I can...

They must have had some help from the wind with that Hawk fire. Were the winds a lot lighter?

I'm not sure. I didn't follow that day by day, but just the statistics. The last two days have been very fortunate for the air attack that allowed it to go down and had several aircrafts on that fire, which... made a pretty significant change in the containment size.

Thank you.

All right, Scott.

All right, Andrew, you're on probation. Josh? Sarah? What about Paul? I just saw a SNC vehicle come by here. Are they almost done?

Did they spray paint my car? Stripe?

Yeah, I think they're... I see they had Bullion Road done. It was one of the bigger ones. It would be Vista, College Avenue. Those are most of our big ones. They might have a little bit left tomorrow. And then the thermoplastic crew doing stop bars and crosswalks. They'll probably be here for a few more days, maybe through the week. I think they mostly work I think they start early and just end before when it gets hot because it takes too long for that to cool. But I see they have a lot of stuff laid out out there. So it should progress pretty quick.

I've had zero complaints about that project. So that's a good thing.

One of the smoother. It's always pretty smooth. But this one went really smooth, a little bit smoother than previously.

Thank you. Kathy? Yeah. All right, Andy.

No report.

No report. How we doing on room tax collection same old I'm actually I'm in knock on wood.

It's going great right now. Everybody's been paying so Wow, that's a good thing. I don't want to say that too loud.

All right, Nicole, you have anything. All right, final public comment. All right, hearing none meeting adjourned 520pm. Thank you, everyone.

They did counsel the flyovers.