City Council - Regular Meeting

And then they show us in the stands and stuff like that. That's cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, sir.

Welcome, everybody, to the City of Farmer Springs City Council study session for Tuesday, June 2nd. Our first order of business this afternoon will be public comments. I don't have anybody signed up to speak at this meeting, so we will move on to study session items. Item C1, Review and Discuss Consent and Regular Agenda Items. Councilwoman Gonzalez.

Nothing for me, Mayor.

Councilman Bennett.

Nothing for me, Mayor.

Councilman Reed. Nothing here, sir. Councilwoman Villafranca?

Nothing for me, Mayor. Thank you.

Councilman Neal?

Nothing. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Item C2, receive an update on the minor home repair program.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council. My name is Derek Hall. I'm the community services director, and I have the privilege of providing a presentation this afternoon on the minor home repair program. Just by way of some background information, the program was created to improve the sustainability of our homes and particularly our residences here within the city in need of assistance in making some essential repairs. There had been some revisions to the program, primarily focused to revise the eligibility, prioritizing individuals with the highest need, and enhancing the overall operational efficiencies for the program. As we call it in short, MHRP, or MHRP, yes, utilizes our average market home values as verified through our Dallas County Central Appraisal District. It also requires verification of the homestead exemption, which should also be on file. Primarily, our homeowners can be qualified to receive up to a $5,000 grant. And this is for expenses related to any repairs that are needed to bring the home up to code. There are some general program requirements. I'll cover them shortly. But by and large, this is really a need to address some of those home repair issues that are needed. One, the home itself needs to be owner occupied. There can't be any liens on the property with except the primary mortgage lender that's on the home. That's if the home is mortgage. If the home is owned outright, then there can be any secondary or additional liens on the property. The property values cannot exceed what we call the average market value, and again, that is determined by CCAD, DCAD. There can't be any code enforcement issues unless those code enforcement issues will be addressed by the proposed rehab being funded through the project. Residents must agree to remain as the owner occupant for up to three years, and the grant itself is not provided to the homeowner, but we have contractors that will prepare to do the work. I want to share with you a bit of a progress report as it relates to the work that the Community Services Department has engaged in as it relates to implementing the program, particularly starting off in fiscal year 2025. we were able to complete nine projects across the city. As we are now into fiscal year 2026, we've completed six projects with one that's currently underway and two more expected to get started by July 15th. We spent approximately $20,000 of our allocation for the six projects that we have. We have a balance of about 54, 55,000 that we're gonna look to spend over the course of the next four months. So what's next for the program? Clearly, one of the things that we want to do is continue to engage with marketing, targeting specific areas within the communities where we know that this program can be beneficial for, and continue to vet the applications that we receive as we're doing our targeted marketing throughout the city. We're also looking at enhancing our awareness through partnerships, particularly with many homeowner improvement businesses and community organizations to help address a broader neighborhood need. And then finally, with any program of this magnitude, we want to continue to do program evaluation just to make sure that we are looking at the effectiveness and then offer recommendations to adjust to make sure we are targeting and hitting more and affording the program for more of the residents that are in need. And this will be done by looking at some input and some data as we collect the information from our residents. Looking at expanding the contractors list, and we'll be working with a team of other departments to issue requests for proposals to obtain additional qualified rehab contractors. And this will assist us in addressing more of the rehab efforts within the neighborhood. And then finally, identify homeowners who do not qualify based upon the criteria of the minor home repair and connect those particular homeowners with our volunteer groups that we identify with Code Cares. And so with that, Mayor and Council, this concludes staff's presentation and I'm here for any questions.

Thank you very much. I'm sorry, thank you very much. Councilwoman Gonzalez?

Just backtrack real quick. So you said we've used 20,000, and then we have about the 54, 55. That's not promised to someone yet, right? You're just hoping to use it all by the four months coming up?

Correct. We do have one project underway, so that project hasn't been closed out, so that amount hasn't been reflected in this. And then we're looking to have two more projects to start by mid-July.

Okay, and I feel like that's a lot of money. Do you know if people just aren't applying because they don't know, or has it been difficult to be approved?

It's not so much a difficulty of being approved. Right now we have one contractor, and so we're doing it project by project to make sure that we can initiate the project, inspect the work as the work is getting completed, and then start the next project afterwards.

Okay. Is this something that they can combine with the garage conversion? So if someone has an issue with their garage that they need to fix... can they also apply this program to kind of help get their garage up to code if that's an issue?

It can potentially be used with the garage conversion. Again, one of the premises, though, with the program is to ensure that we're addressing a code issue. So if it is a code issue related to the garage itself, that it could be addressed.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you so much. Yes.

Councilwoman Bennett.

So you said we just have one contractor right now, correct? Correct. And so when are you going to RFP to attain more?

that's a very good question and the response is simple we are we've had a discussion internally I'm actually putting together the draft of the scope of work and then we will be sending that to the procurement department for review to get that underway I don't necessarily have a timeline but the idea is that it will happen fairly soon okay and then those contractors that are chosen they'll be trained

our permits, our whole process, to make certain that it goes smoothly?

Yes, and part of the idea of working with multiple contractors is to make sure that as we undertake the rehab projects, the city also has a role in this, and that is to help scope the work out and then make sure that the proper permits are submitted in tandem with the work that's going to be done.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Reid. Thank you. Just as a follow-up to the questions on the contractors, when you say sending out an RFP, is that just a broad RFP, or is it specific to the projects that we've approved?

The RFP will look at identifying individuals, preferably those that are local to our city, that can do basic rehab work. So this is rehab work that will include repairing windows. There's often times we see issues with window sills having eroded because of the tenure, the age of the home. Door replacements. fixing basic things like shutters on houses, those cosmetic things that we know, you know, we are limited to up to $5,000. So, you know, the repairs will be in tandem with the amount of money that we have. But those will be the types of activities that we're looking at local contractors to assist us with in making sure that they can do these repairs.

Okay, so it's basically a broad request, and they're sending in their resume, so to speak, of their capability. Correct. in repair and rehab. Yes. Excellent. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I just want to confirm that it's not income-based. It's all based on the value of the home in comparison to DCAD and what the average home value in farmers' branches.

Correct. This is not income-based. I think initially when the program was started, and then later iterations of the program, it was shipped back, the crime was pulled out, and so now it's based strictly on not exceeding the average amount of what comes back from DCAB.

Okay, so it's a great opportunity for someone who's buying buying a home that they plan on living, a young couple perhaps or an individual that needs some touching up and gives them access to $5,000 basically to help them out. So it's great from that perspective as well. Lastly, the partnerships that you referenced, whether it's with organizations, businesses, or even like Home Depot and Lowe's and companies like that, how do they get recognized for their participation in the program? Because obviously, if there's some sort of marketability for them to participate, that would obviously draw more people and be beneficial for all parties.

We plan to, at the time that we have the official launch of Co-Cares, leading up to that, we plan to do an extensive outreach to the community. There have been individuals that have expressed interest in participating on a volunteer basis. We want to make sure that we hit every sector of the city, so for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations. Those will be our targets, but we certainly don't want to leave anybody out in terms of making sure that if there is a volunteer component to your organization, you have an opportunity to do so at the city.

Okay, and follow up the point I was getting to is how can they be public or will they be publicly recognized? Is there a way to do that?

Yes, and with the. We're working through the parameters, shall we say, of coming up with our initial kickoff, and that is gonna be one way that we're going to recognize those individuals, but we will, through the city manager's office, we'll discuss an appropriate way to identify those volunteers once we get a list of those individuals that are gonna come and bring forward.

Perfect. Sorry. Perfect, thank you very much. Councilwoman Villafranca?

Thanks so much for your update. I actually just requested three packets from the city manager's office this week. This is a wonderful program that I think people really don't know about it. So there is up to $5,000 available for all of our residents here in Farmer's Branch. that you can apply for it. You do need to be approved. You can apply for it, and you can be helped with roof replacement, your fence is falling. There is one family who has a daughter that is... handicapped, and she is applying for a ramp. And so there are many reasons why you can apply. And I encourage everyone out in the community, even if you're not going to use the service, if you see a family that maybe can use the service, that you take advantage of this. It's a great program. Appreciate your presentation. Great job. Thank you.

Councilman Neal.

Thank you, Derek. Good job. I just have a few questions and clarification. It's my understanding that currently the program is closely tied or related to an existing code issue to address an existing or known code issue.

It can be. One of the things that we look for, and again, the city has an active role in also identifying what the actual repair is going to be. We don't leave it up to the consultant to just determine.

Yeah. Okay, where I was going with it is if there's not yet a code issue on a property, and a property owner would like to use the program to address something that might become a code issue. Are they excluded from the program because there's not yet a code issue? Do they need to have that code issue first?

They're not excluded. So part of what we want to address is the remedial.

Okay. I misunderstood. I thought you'd said earlier that it's tied to code issues. So thank you for that clarification. Also, and if you don't know, I'll maybe ask the city manager from a historical perspective, how long has this program been available here in Farmer's Branch? Do you know or anybody here happen to know? If not, we can follow up and... come back to that. I'd just like to know the historical perspective over the past four or five years, how much money has been budgeted, allocated, utilized, what sort of efforts have been put forth to notify the residents of this program, because obviously some residents are not yet aware of it. So I'd just like to know historically where that turned out. So final question is, if there is a a project for which a resident wants to do that's well beyond, say, the $5,000. For example, they do a roof. Maybe that roof is $15,000. Would they still be able to apply for the $5,000 perspective of that larger project, or is that not an option? Yes.

So what we oftentimes say is it's up to $5,000. Anything above that amount will be the responsibility of the homeowner.

Okay, thank you. That's all I have, Mayor. I appreciate you, Derek. Thank you.

Thank you. I have one question. That is, it sounds like you're vetting potential contractors. wasn't under the I guess I was under a different impression when we started this program that the Resident or the homeowner would have the work done by possibly their contractor I didn't know that the city was going to be supplying contractors And so my concern is is the city liable what happens if there's a dispute about workmanship does that obligate the city to be responsible in any way for some type of dispute resolution.

So, Mayor, I'm happy to address that question. Right now, our process is we have a consultant that we hire that actually works and bids out each of the projects. But before we take on a project, the city does an assessment through our building division to ensure that the repair will meet the requirements that are needed to bring the house up to code if it's a code issue. So what the new change is, we have just one person that is doing that. So moving forward, the thought is to have a list of eligible rehab contractors that can work on multiple projects at the same time instead of one.

Okay. And so those contractors, in order to be, I guess, on our list of contractors, what is the process for that? Do they need to contact you or is it online? And so if somebody asked one of us, hey, how does my company get to be considered? What do we tell them?

So we have a robust process. procurement process that's led through our finance department. I actually had an opportunity to sit through that process last week, but in any general municipal procurement process, there will be a request for qualifications, That notice and notices will be sent out by the finance department. And then if there are individuals that we know locally, we will make a concerted effort to reach out to those individuals to just ask them to follow the directions in terms of submitting their qualifications.

So I guess again, if somebody reaches out to one of us, What do we tell them?

Go to the procurement location on the website, and there will be a posting for that on the website.

All righty.

It'll be specific to rehab contractors.

Okay. Thank you.

There may be a lot of other RFQs, RFPs there, but this is strictly for rehab contracting work.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I had. It's a pleasure. Anything else? Yes, ma'am.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Mayor, but was your question more of, let's say I hire, I get the program and I, you know, you bring the contractor. I don't like the way the contractor is working or he did this or that or he broke my lamp going in. Is the city going to be liable? Was that kind of what you're going with, Mayor, since we have to use the city's contractor, not a personal one?

Well, you have to use a city-approved contractor.

Right, correct. I'm sorry, but would the city then get involved if not? Now I'm having a dispute with this contractor that you brought into my home.

So I want to make sure everyone understands the city is involved from the beginning to end. So the contractors are hired to perform the rehab work, but it's the city that is determining what repairs are going to be done. And we do that through an assessment of the issues that we see are needing to be addressed. And we have an agreement with the homeowner that these are the issues that will be addressed as it relates to the repairs. Obviously, when we have contractors on board, they have their own liability insurance that covers anything that may occur in the event of doing that rehab work. So we are liable in the sense that we are ultimately paying for the work. Our contractors will be bonded and insured to make sure that they can address any issue beyond what may or may not occur as a part of the rehab project itself.

And then going back to bringing up roof issues, could the resident go through their insurance and get the $5,000 to help finish paying for it? Or is this kind of strictly like if I'm going to do my roof out of pocket?

So we don't necessarily discern how the additional money above $5,000 is paid. Once an invoice is presented, we just make sure that before the city puts forward any money, that there is money either set aside in escrow or set aside to pay anything that is above the $5,000 to ensure that the work can be complete.

Yes.

So on the Code Cares, that is kicking off on July 11th, correct, at 8.30 a.m.? Yes, it is. Okay. Thank you.

Anything else? Thank you very much. All right. Next up is Item C3, Provide Parks and Facilities Update Regarding the Facilities Assessment Study, Mercer Park, and Proposed 2027 Events.

Good evening, Mayor. Councilor Robert Diaz, Parks Director. I'm finding a little bit of a cold. I want to make sure I've got my water with me. So what I'll be going over this evening, this afternoon with you, is kind of an update on the facilities assessment, kind of get us ready for budget. Also an update on Mercer Park and update on events. So we're kind of laying some groundwork for budget discussions. First of all, on the facilities assessment, so just to bring everybody up to kind of up to date on kind of where we are. We, if you all recall, there was some funding put in the current budget for an assessment and we contracted with LAN, it's an engineering firm, and they started the assessment. They actually did a site, they had a site team that came out and assessed 16 locations, 28 buildings. Took them a couple weeks to get all the assessments. And then what they basically did is put all that information, all the data they collected into a software, and that's something we'll keep as a deliverable for the project. So as part of that, they created a scoring system, and I won't get into really the, it's a lot of engineering speak, but basically there's what they call an FCI, which is a facility condition index, which basically takes the, there's a score that comes up for the condition of the facility, And then an RI, which is a requirement index, which is basically looking at if, say, you didn't do any improvements to that facility over a course of time, that dictates a score. So right now what we're doing is we are reviewing, staff's reviewing the data that we've collected. We had a couple of initial meetings to review some of the data. And what we've found is overall there's an average score of... The OSCI of a 19 for all of our facilities that we looked at in an RI score of 25. And just to give you a little perspective, that's in the good range. Typically, if you have scores between 11, they have an 11% to 50%. you're pretty much in good range. Now, of course, every facility has its own score, so some facilities are going to be better than others. Each facility has a separate score, but overall, the vendor's been pretty complimentary of our facilities and how we're taking care of them, maintaining them, very complimentary of staff, facilities staff, on how we're updating, especially some of the big ticket items, and all of you have seen what we've done over the years, the roof improvements, HVAC back, some of those big, we're actually right now in the middle of This year we have to replace quite a few HVAC systems, and we'll be bringing that to you probably within the next month or so that we'll try and do this current budget year. So all that said is that we'll have, this all has a budget impact. So we will utilize the data from the reporting to make recommendations for future years, the current budget year we're looking at. Just a couple of things I know that we're looking at. Some big ticket items are some fire systems, some life safety systems that we need to address in a couple of buildings, and those are big ticket items. They're not cheap. And so those are, I know, are going to be things in addition to some of the other just In addition to some of the things that land found, we have also just operational things that we have to look at. So we have some of those as well that we'll be bringing forth. We're still working through that with city manager's office to see kind of where we're going to be by the time it gets to you all. But this is the data we use to come up with that. Okay, so we'll move on to... Kind of an update on Mercer Park. So basically where we're at is we're at 60% plans. I've kind of to get it all on one slide. I wanted to make sure I split it up. So you have to your to the left side of the screen. That's the northern portion of the park. That's kind of between Brunswick and Chartwell Crest. um this is the area if you recall i didn't put the renderings in but the renderings call that that we developed early on after all the outreach and public this was back in i guess 22 when staff was out there this is before i came on board but they were able to get um collect some outreach information so the tennis court pickleball court is on that northern end and then on the south side you've got playground pavilion, we've located the basketball court, and as you can see on the south end, we've got that attached to the existing trail, which we already have. That was part of what the developer installed when we took the property. Those are the improvements that they needed to do. That whole south end, if you look at the Belgrade, Chartwell Crest, that whole corner, That is all usable parkland. That's where we went ahead and installed sod. We've got irrigation in there. And then, of course, the developer put all the trail in there. The parking areas, we have existing parking, street parking. The benches, we have benches in there. You see a few of them here on that right graphic. So it's kind of hard to see, and we've got another slide, but within the playground area, you've got, On the right side, you've got a themed kind of a ship. We've got a 5 to 12 area. That's the large piece. The middle piece is the younger ones, the 2 to 5, and then we've got a swing set. So all that, we've got fence around. We've got a proposed fence around it, plaza area, and... So, this is, just as we got the visual up, this is kind of our base that we're looking at. We're looking at, from the north side, the plaza area, which is what's in blue, the pickleball area, and that's pretty much primarily, and then just kind of developing the whole space, getting it graded, that kind of thing. The tennis court, as we'll see, the next slide, we've got some of the, you know, when we're looking at budget, I just want you all to keep in mind, that is a big ticket item. That's one of the larger big ticket items. So, And then on the south side, you've got the playground area, and that is a big focus. I know that was something that we wanted to try and put in this step. When you all looked at adding that funding at the end of the budget year, that was something we really wanted to hone in on, was try to get a playground and pavilion, and that's where we've got that located. And what's in the basketball court is there, and that's another one that could be... If we have budget, we can go ahead and put that in there. And then just to give you kind of an update, Park Board's looked at this a couple times, and they did look at it at their May 21st meeting, and we had to make a few tweaks after the first meeting. We made it, got it back to them, and they're okay with this moving forward at the 60%. So just looking at the budget... Currently, we're sitting under budget. We've got the, like I said, the base of the project is the playground, pavilion, pickleball court, and then the plazas on each side. I want to let the council know that because we're at 60%, we're refining the budget as we go. We haven't cut it. It's not completely nailed down yet. So, you know, we I just want that, you know, that, you know, we're not going out to bed tomorrow. So we still got to get the plans. We still got to get get it to kind of toward the closer we get to that hundred percent of all the plans. Then the closer we're going to be to where this the budget has to be pretty, pretty tight. But if you see this, you've got the some of the items that at this point. Depending on how we, I will tell you the one thing, all the alternates, you've got tennis court, basketball court, lighting, shade structure, that's the shade structure for the pickleball tennis area. That's why it's not as expensive as, say, a pavilion. It's more the shade cloth type. Landscape irrigation and then electrical infrastructure. Electrical infrastructure is mainly for the court lighting, and that's why it's a high dollar ticket item. I will tell you on the court lighting, we feel like we can do a little bit better on that in regards to, we're going to look at some options to see if we can get that down, that cost. So that's what I'm saying. I think we will refine this budget even a little bit more. In my mind, I feel like my goal would try to at least get the basketball court and the court lighting back into the budget to try to get those in if we can. So basically we'll push through to get plans done. We'll hopefully get everything probably started later this year and then hopefully get it open sometime next year. This is kind of the rendering close-up of what we're looking at for the playground. This is something Park Board was able to see. Just understand if this is not a There was a nautical theme regarding some of the renderings we saw, so this is kind of what we took from there. We are looking at more themes. I don't know if you remember Dutch Village was kind of the treehouse. We're looking at trying to do a theme from we're doing Squire Park as well. But that's kind of the thought process. And a park board was amenable to that look as well, and that's why we wanted to bring it forth. But if that's something, if the council wants to look at other options, we can always do that as well. I think that's all for this one. And then on events, just quickly on events, you know, this is the same wheel that we've shown the last couple years in regards to all the things we have going on. I will tell you we're still looking at primarily four large events. They're all seasonal. Gateway to the Globes in the spring. We have Independence Day in the summer. We have the fall event, which is going to kind of be retooled with the 5K and the One Mile Fun Run. and when staff was working with the vendor and getting that together for starting this year, and of course we had the Christmas carnival, I kind of, we got fish and fun as kind of a larger event, and I kind of, It's kind of one of those that's definitely grown. And I know, I think we had, attendance was a little lower this year, but well over 2,000 people. So I think it's definitely kind of moved up into a larger event. It's not probably to the scope of, say, Independence Day, but I think it's definitely, when we're looking at community-based events and really bringing the community together, that is really a good one. And like I said, we still do some outreach efforts with the school district. We also help support, if you look at the fall itself, we're also supporting National Night Out, even though it's a public safety event. Parks and Rec is still a big part of that one. So that's still kind of... And then we have all of our facility type events, like... you know, like a daddy-daughter dance and things like that. Some of the events at the senior center as well. So we're pretty busy. And this doesn't even include library events. I mean, they just had their summer reading kickoff last Saturday. It was really a well-attended event. So, I mean, you know, we have quite a bit for the community to take advantage of. So I know I've talked a lot, so I have answered any questions. I know we kind of skipped through a lot, so I can go back to wherever you need to and go from there.

Thank you very much, Robert. Councilwoman Gonzalez?

I'm sorry, could you go back real quick to the playground? Yes. Can you explain the lighting again that you're trying to budget in? Is the playground at least going to have lighting right now, or is that something you're trying to budget in? Does that court lighting include courts and playgrounds?

Yeah, the electrical infrastructure is mainly the court lighting. We'll have some security lighting as part of it. It just wants some of the... The larger, it's just the court light, if you look at it out here, the tennis courts we have, that light is a little bit different than just, say, a regular security light. So that's why the conduit's bigger, so the needs are a little bit more. So that's why that structure, but we'll have some security lighting for sure out there.

Okay, thank you. Councilman Bennett.

That was one of my questions as well, not understanding why some things weren't considered basic infrastructure, but Ben did explain that to me, or I guess you did, when you replied to my questions. So when we do the fall festival, I did want to, and I know you know this, but to share with the council, somebody did approach, a business did approach that is a resident asking for a car show, and I sent them to Ben, not knowing what would come of it, and I guess they had their meeting on Monday, and they will be sponsoring and helping find sponsors to help cover some of the event. So it won't come out of the budget for the city.

That's awesome. I appreciate it. Councilman Reid. Number one, congrats on getting the facility score that you guys did. You and staff make and do with what you have, and Staying on top of things, you guys do a fantastic job, so thank you very much and congrats on that. Going back to my pride and joy, Mercer Park. As far as the irrigation, that's in addition to the irrigation that we already have?

Correct, and mainly the irrigation we're looking at is, and that's irrigation and landscape, so The irrigation primarily is going to be the north side, because where the courts are, that's all territory that hasn't been touched yet. So everything we irrigated is along the south end and along the trail along the creek.

Okay. Secondly, one of the things that I did a ride-along with the city manager and deputy city manager, and... This was a little while ago, and one of the things that we had noticed, and some commentary I get from other places that have pickleball courts are that they can be loud with the people and all that, and I don't know if we actually thought about the fact that it's going to be right at the back door of the new townhomes.

It's actually the front door.

Front door. Okay. The front door. But there's still balconies there as well. So I'm just wondering if there's something we can do, whether it's some sort of noise barriers or relocation or what. I know you're working with a tight footprint and it makes it real tough, but... I just wanted to bring that point up.

The one thing I would caution, because say you flipped, say, the court and the playground, I think you'd get just as many complaints on the playground as you would on pickleball because then that becomes a focus of the neighborhood, and you'll have just as many people out there enjoying that and making – I mean, cause it'll be great fun and it'll be a nice playground. And I think so, cause I've had that in previous experience has taught me where you, if you don't have a playground currently and you put one in and this is a brand new park that, you know, you could have, um, you'll have people that love it and people, and I think pickleball is kind of the same way. Um, I will say with pickleball, the one thing you, We have three courts. Maybe you could have a maximum of, say you had doubles going on each court, and that's probably not going to happen all the time. So you're looking at... You know, that's 12 people total. And if you have a playground like we're looking at to put, I mean, you could potentially have 20 to 30 people on a playground. So I think they also looked at this when they did the initial conceptual drawings was because topography wise, too, this made the most sense. Right. But I understand your concerns. I mean, at the end of the day, and that's one of the things when you talk about lighting, is this something we really want to light? I mean, it could just be a dawn-to-dusk park. And, of course, that would save on budget as well. But that could be something we look at. But I do know, especially summers, you're going to want to be playing in the evening just because that's the better time to do it. And that being that area, I would think... you know, with the type of demographic you have in that area, I would say you'd have quite a few players out there in the evening. Now, and also if we don't want to do... The tennis court, and that just becomes open space, that would be a good buffer. Where if we just said, hey, we're going to just do the pickleball and maybe the rest is open space, people can do frisbee out there, just hang out. We could actually eventually maybe put in another larger pavilion out there or something like that that's more passive. You know... That could be flex space where we could do a tennis court later at some point. We could do a pavilion. You could even do another type of playground element. There's all kinds of choices there. If we were able to do all that, that would be a lot. If you had tennis going between tennis and pickleball, that would be... We want it to be active, but that would be a lot going on. That's just a thought as well.

It was a concern that had been raised, so I just wanted to make sure that that's being considered, which it sounds like it is. Last question, the 1.74 budget, does that include the funds that we had set aside at the last meeting?

Correct. So we basically had seven and a half or 750,000, seven and 40,000. Then that adds the, the million dollars that was at the, the fund balance that was added to it. Correct. And so that's really what has allowed us to do. I mean, the playground is going to be a, it's, it's, you know, just to give you all perspective, the Dutch village was 500, $600,000 for that playground with the shade and the port in place foundation. You know, so if we're looking, um, I mean, that million's going to go a long way to at least putting that in there, and that was, I know, a big part of why you guys did that.

Okay. So, just, I don't want to sound thick. So, the base budget is the 1.61. That's basically already been spent and allocated.

Well, that's what we're looking. I mean, we haven't allocated anything yet. That's what we're proposing is to do those elements, and they would add up to about that much, which puts us under budget.

Oh, okay. So the 1.61 is part of the 1.74. Correct.

And then the alternates, I just did what those specific costs are for each of those.

Okay.

And that would be anything above the 1.61. Understood. Got it. So we're under budget basically right now, and anything else we want to add to it, say a basketball court. would you know we would and like i said we're still refining the budget so um like i said if say say on the lights it says you know two hundred thousand we'll say i get that for a hundred thousand and then but then say the playground costs come in lower you know then that's we're still not quite refined at all right what i'm trying to do is get it under that 1.74 keep it under there is what we're trying to do excellent something real quick

Rob, you haven't added any of the money from the last council meeting that I just parked in general. No, sir. Okay, that's the clarification he's looking for.

That's what I was asking. Okay, no, sorry. I was going by the fund balance that we did last time. That was the million that we added. All right. That's included in this.

Fantastic. Sorry. Better news. Thank you. I'm good.

Councilman Villafranca.

Thanks for the detailed update, Robert. I kind of like the idea of removing the tennis court and having a buffer space so people can play, kick a ball, just be kids without having so much structure. And we'd probably save some money, too. I like that thought.

And if it's something that's there, if we want to put it later, we always can do it.

Absolutely. Can we look at the 2027 events slide, please? I just want to point out all of the wonderful events that we have every year. And thank you for all of the work that you do with it. Your staff does an incredible job. There is something for everyone, every age group. And if you're not finding something to do, come talk to us, and we'll help direct you or have them talk to you. I mean, I'm just so impressed with all of the work that you do, and everything is top-notch, well done, and fun. I appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Neill.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Robert. As we start to turn our minds towards budget, I have some questions regarding some of the numbers, one of which regarding that playground. When you mentioned playground, playground is not just the ground itself, but this theme, this nautical pirate ship or whatever it is, is part of that, when you say playground.

Yeah, and if you look at, let me go back, it's hard to see in this graphic, but the picture on the right, the ship is kind of that top piece, and then the middle piece is a smaller two to five, that's the lower.

Okay, so I just wanted to clarify that bullet point, that playground means everything within the program, within the playground itself, not just the dirt that it's on. And then I'd like to know, do you have any idea of what an ongoing maintenance cost might be for this park once it's all completed, or do we have any projections or ideas or...

Well, I mean, it's, you know, with 31 parks, this goes to 32. So, I mean, I think we are doing quite a bit of maintenance already out there. I say, you know... And if you don't know, maybe you can report back to us when we do our budget. We don't have the exact numbers, but we are taking care of the south end currently with the trail.

I'd just like to see what those numbers are as we start to get into our budget discussion so we can say, okay, well, this... This project's going to cost X amount of millions with an ongoing expected maintenance cost of whatever.

And I will just also point out, and I'm glad you brought it up, is I don't know if you recall, we did add some staffing for that west side medians that we added. And so that would be typically the crew that would take care of that. Right, I remember. So we've somewhat addressed it.

Okay, thank you. And then just turning to the diagram of all the events, I think when we just saw this last month or two ago, we saw the same diagram. I had asked at that time for some sort of a breakdown of the costs for each of these. Is there a chance we can get that breakdown prior to our budget sort of kickoff so we kind of get an idea? These are all wonderful events, just so that the community is aware of how much money we're spending on each of these events. Great.

And, yes, we're still working through details with management on, I mean, we want to make sure they're okay with the budgets, the numbers, but we'll have all those numbers for you.

Great. Thank you, Robert. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you.

Robert, just one question, please, and that was, was any consideration given to sort of setting, using Dutch Village as a new standard for what some of our neighborhood parks look like and maybe cloning that at this location or even maybe some of that at Squire Park?

Correct. You're exactly right, sir. That's what we're looking to do. So Dutch was kind of the test case. We were... And I would say even for Mercer Park and for Squire coming up, Once these designs are done, you know, we were able to do Dutch Village with a contractor, and we assisted, our staff did with, I mean, they did most of the heavy lifting, but we did a lot of the touch-up work, save from having a GC go out there and do a lot of that stuff. So I think that's a good model for us to go forth. You know, when we're looking forward to, especially Squire and Mercer, both parks being somewhat designed around the same time, you know, just economy of scale when we're looking to do the flat work and concrete and trail. We can maybe have one vendor do that for possibly both parks at the same time. I mean, there's some things we can do, but yes, in regards to design, I think that's a really good... And really, Hoya was even the master of all of it because that... That is kind of really where we built off of that. And we had our staff, Mark Moffitt, especially was heavily involved with that. He wanted to bring that to the smaller neighborhood parks. And that's kind of what we did with Dutch is kind of just a mini version of what we did at Hoya.

Yeah, it just seems to me like it makes sense. So I don't know if that would replace that ship with something that looks more similar to what we have at Dutch, but it was just a thought. I don't know. I guess my question was, did the park board, were they even considering something like that?

Well, what we told them, I know the first time we brought it to them, we didn't really have any designs picked. And then when we brought them back to them, we had the ship that you all are seeing because we were basing that on the renderings that had been shown already. And they were fine with it. And basically, when we said it's the same vendor as the Dutch, they were amenable to that because they're like, okay, well, we know what they can do and that type of product. But like I said, we can look at whatever design we need to. From a... Parks perspective, we thought it would be good to lend itself where we have different themes at different parks, and that's kind of what we're looking at.

Okay.

Yeah.

Very good. Anything else? All right. All right. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next up is item C4, receive an update on the city's capital improvements projects.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. I'm John Roach, Special Projects Manager for the Public Works Department. I'll be filling in tonight for Corey Lawson, who could not be here tonight. We're here to provide an overview of the ongoing capital improvement projects, along with proposed project types for the upcoming fiscal year. So under the heading of current projects, we have, as you can see, the B Street Pipe Bursting Project. Pipe bursting is a method where a missile-like object is sent down the existing clay pipe, sanitary sewer line, and it actually bursts the old pipe in place and then drags new PVC pipe behind it along the same center line as the old pipeline. This results in less disturbance of the easement or right-of-way, and then as a follow-up, sewer connections are then tied in individually. Denton Drive roadway improvements at 3.6 million this was basically roadway reconfiguration and improvement of pedestrian connectivity to the station area on street parking and And the intersection at Valley View will also will have a we are having a traffic study being conducted by consultant as part of the project and Josie at Rawhide intersection improvements is essentially new traffic signal and related ADA ramps. And regarding the FBOP lift station, FBOP stands for the Farmer's Branch Office Park, which is located at roughly the northwest quadrant of LBJ Freeway and the Dallas North Tollway, adjacent to the Sheraton Hotel. The work's ongoing right now. A lift station takes wastewater and moves it via pumps from a lower elevation to a higher elevation where it can then continue flowing by gravity. The rehab includes a new motor control center, new pumps, a new generator, and electrical wiring, and it includes moving all of that from an in-ground vault to an above-ground shelter. All right, and then in the upcoming fiscal year, we've got... Water wastewater improvements, I think you've seen previous presentations on that various locations throughout the city and Street improvements which is part of our annual program to improve To do street rehabilitation section repairs and overlay throughout the city and that all that's at 4.9 million then we also included 200 000 or so for uh traffic signal improvements 225 000 traffic signal improvements all right and then for stormwater um looking at about 5.7 million uh including reach two and reach four um reach two includes the installation of large gabion walls for creek bank stabilization encasement of sanitary sewer and reconstruction of storm sewer along Farmer's Branch Creek near Lost Valley and Bryncrest, and REACH 4, which is substantially complete, includes the installation of large gabion walls for creek bank stabilization and to reduce flooding bottlenecks, and also provides for long-term protection for sanitary sewer north of the creek. And, of course, we have Valley View drainage improvements, which is the project we've all had lots of fun with over the last year and a half out here, which is sorely needed, and it's reaching substantially complete at this time. And then there is a potential phase two for that project, which comes up on our next slide, which... Which shows not necessarily for 26-27, but we wanted to put it on your radar just because we are talking about it. We are working with DART as far as the potential for implementation of this. This would end up going in a north-south direction between the station area and the apartments. And again, a lot of that depends on funding, availability, and DART's reaction. So far, so good regarding that. But that's a project that will be for the future. In the interim, if you're wondering how phase one ties into phase two, it goes into essentially a junction box, and we'll be using sump pumps to get the water from phase one to the existing pipeline that then flows into the creek before we go to phase two construction. Other projects... Farmer's Branch Creek, Rawhide Creek Erosion Repairs, and we have an ongoing master drainage study currently that will result in projects yet to be determined and costs yet to be determined that will probably go into out years 28 through 30. And that's about all I have at the moment. I'd be happy to answer questions. And I've also got staff here to help me out if needed. We've got Craig Hong from utilities, Will Hines, and then also Eric Mueller, our stormwater engineer.

Thank you very much. Councilwoman Gonzalez.

No questions, just I appreciate you guys. I know sometimes we get, we by residents get a little frustrated with all the construction, but it's needed. So I just want to say I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Councilman Bennett?

I, too, appreciate you guys. This is all on the website, correct? So if the residents wanted to go look at the projects that are going on in the city, they could find it?

Yeah, it should be updated on the transparency portal and that sort of thing, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Reid? Yeah, it's great to see all these improvements and repairs and everything coming along in the city. So glad that we were able to move past Valley View over here, so that's great. And I know it's not under your purview directly, but I-35 is starting to take shape. So this area alone has improved dramatically, and it's great to see that expand out to other areas within the city. So thank you very much. You bet.

Councilman Villafranca.

Thank you so much for all of this detailed information. I do have one question, and it might not be the appropriate time, and you can tell me. The street light at Rawhide and Josie, I'm receiving sort of feedback about the timing of the lights, and do they know what they're doing, and is that light going to be timed with the golf ring green light, and is it going to cause havoc, and are you able to speak to that at all?

Our street superintendent is not here tonight with us, but I can let you know that we do look at that. Timing is one of the big things they do. I believe it's going into flash here pretty soon, which is what you normally would do with a new traffic signal. But yes, they will look at timing. Yes.

Councilman Neal.

Mr. Roach, thank you very much. I echo the same sentiments of my colleagues thanking you and your team for all you do. I don't really have any questions right now. Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, John. Appreciate it. At this time, I'm going to read us into item D1. The city council will convene in a closed executive session pursuant to Texas government code section 551.074 personnel matter to receive and deliberate information and updates from the city manager regarding personnel and operational matters. So we will do that and recess and be back out here at 6 o'clock for the start of the regular meeting. Thank you all very much.