Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Kramer Children's Advocacy Center, I want to thank the city of Florence for its continued support of our mission at Kramer Children's Advocacy Center, located right down the street at 404 West Tennessee Street. As the city where Kramer CAC is headquartered, Florence has long been a vital partner in ensuring that children who have experienced abuse, neglect, or trauma have access to the services and support they need to heal. As a nationally accredited children's advocacy center serving Colbert, Lauderdale, Franklin, and Lawrence counties, Kramer CAC provides forensic interviews, medical exams, trauma-focused therapy, victim advocacy, and multidisciplinary team coordination for children who have experienced abuse, neglect, or witnessed violence. And all services are provided free of charge for the families. While we serve children throughout Northwest Alabama, Florence remains at the heart of our work. Last year, we provided services to 147 children residing just in the city of Florence. To date this year, we've already served 114 Florence children, reflecting a significant increase in need and underscoring the importance of maintaining strong local support for these critical services. The impact of child abuse extends far beyond the children and families directly affected. According to a 2023 report released by the Alabama Children's Trust Fund and researchers at the University of Alabama, child maltreatment costs our state more than $8 billion annually with an estimated lifetime cost of $871,979 per first-time victim. Lost productivity alone accounts for more than $6.4 billion of that burden statewide. These numbers are a reminder that childhood trauma impacts far more than a child's immediate safety and well-being. It affects long-term health outcomes and educational attainment, workforce participation, and economic stability for generations. investments in prevention early intervention and trauma-informed care through children's advocacy centers not only help children heal today but also strengthen communities for the future because of continued reductions in federal victims of crime act funding that's voca funding and the growing demands for services local support has become more important than ever As our home community, Florence plays a unique role in helping ensure that children and families have access to life-changing services during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Included with this request is our six-month report. I gave all of you highlighting the impact of your support across our service area. We hope it offers a closer look at the children and families being served through the work and the difference local investment continues to make. With gratitude for your continued partnership, we respectfully request that the City of Florence consider increasing its annual support from $5,000 to $10,000 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. This investment would help us continue meeting the growing needs of children in Florence and throughout our region while ensuring that no child is denied access to services because of an inability to pay. Thank you for your consideration and for your continued commitment to the children and families of Florence, and we'd welcome the opportunity to answer any questions. I know some of you have come over for a tour, but we'd love to invite anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to see Kramer in action to come by and see a tour of our center. Do you all have any questions about Kramer or this particular request for me?

All I want to do is say thank you for what you do for our community each and every day, Chelsea, and the whole team there. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. You provide a service for these children, and we know how important that is. Thank you, Chapman.

And I just want to say thank you also. I've been over there toward it, brought in some donations from another organization, and we just are really appreciative of what you do and the difference it can make when children are in such a difficult situation.

Absolutely. This council has been phenomenal to work with, and I'm so happy to partner with y'all. And just seeing the interactions that y'all have done just on social media talking about our work has really made a difference. So thank y'all so much.

Thank you. Mr. Jordan.

Good afternoon, everyone. We have one item. It's item F, and it's to pay an invoice for the grant received for the sound system at the Coliseum. The amount of $49,976. Okay. And I did make a mistake. I said that we had to pay $76 for this grant. So I think I put in my email that we didn't have to pay anything, but I'll correct myself, $76. But it was well worth the investment.

Okay.

Do you have any questions for her?

I have a question not regarding this, but could you give us an update on the campground at McFarland, please? People are wondering when that might be opening up.

Well, we were, you know, kind of moving along pretty well until we got all the rain, so that's pushed us back a little bit. So we were down there today and probably, depending on the weather, six weeks away. So unfortunately, we won't be open for the fourth, but the rain just pushed us back. So they're working really hard. They almost have all the concrete pads poured, which is a big step. So they're moving along. Yes. Thank you.

Mr. Coons.

Good afternoon. A couple of things on the agenda today. Invoice from Muscle Shoals Fire Extinguishers to repair and replace some of the fire extinguishers at the Solid Waste Department. The third thing is a contract with Muscle Shoals Fire Extinguishers to do general services for fire extinguishers at the Street Department. Any questions on those two? And then the final item is the landfill fence on the Cypress Creek side is actually coming to find out not on our property. Somebody bought the property adjoining it and did a survey, and it's on their property, not ours. So they wanted to do a land swap and all that stuff, and it's better for us to move the fence. This is a contract to move that fence back on landfill property. We think it's the best option and did get a couple of quotes on this, and this was the lowest of those. Any questions for me?

Thank you. Chief Holt. Okay. Mr. Towns.

Good afternoon. I am here to request payment for a service. We had some sides installed on a new machine that we have there. The sides weren't quite high enough to contain the dirt and the media that we needed in there, medium. So I'm looking to have this invoice paid for $1,850 for the cemetery department.

OK, thank you. Thank you. Chief Holt, I saw you walk in here.

Good afternoon. I only have one item. It's a resolution to donate a 2014 Dodge Charger to the town of Cortland. We're going to donate that so they can use that as a police car. That is one of nine vehicles that either have or will be from our inventory before October of this year. Any questions?

Is this something we routinely do?

It is. It is. This is the second one we've donated this year. We donated a couple last year. We have several. If it's something someone's interested in and we're ready to get rid of it, we do that.

All right. Any questions? Additional questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Balch.

I have item 11P on the agenda, another grant application with RC&D. This is for urban forestry to no match grant, $22,000 to purchase an RFP that we could hopefully put in at the median at Northcourt. Any questions?

The only question that I had, no, it's an easy one. It's up to 25, and I think we requested 22, didn't we, Craig? Since it's a no match grant, if we say we get 18 and these trees run about $1,000 a foot, can we just buy a smaller tree? Is that allowable in the way the grant is?

Well, I think in the grant, if we say we're going to purchase a $22,000 tree, we would have to purchase a $22,000 tree. So if we reduce the amount of the grant, we just have to agree with the invoice that we're providing when we purchase that tree to get reimbursed. Okay.

I didn't know if they may award a lower amount.

If they do, yes. If they do award a lower amount, then we would just buy a tree that would fit that award.

Yes. Okay. I just want to confirm that. Okay. Thank you.

I'd like to add, there's an expense with us going and getting those trees. I hope that if they lower the award amount, that we would still consider that 25-foot tree, even if we have to make up the difference. We spend, I don't know.

$8,000. It's about $8,000 a year.

$8,000 is already there that we have already done with that. And so whatever we get, I would like to apply some just to be able to get it. We don't want a tree that's too small in downtown. We want to have a tree that we're all going to be proud of because it's going to last 15, 18 years there. So instead of a Charlie Brown tree, we have a big tree that we're proud of. And again, it'll last us for a long time.

And I want to say thank you for doing this. And this is a no-match grant. I think we need to see that in the community, that this is a no-match grant. And why would we not take advantage of this kind of money?

Absolutely. Anything? We're excited about the tree. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

Ms. McDuffie?

Good afternoon. I just have one item on the agenda. We have a yearly contract with Swift Industrial Power. At our substations, they do our battery maintenance, and the cost this year is the amount of $4,750. Any questions on that? Thank you all for coming out and supporting the rodeo. It was a great event, fun time, and we had some winners, and we were excited about that, and we're proud to share with everybody what we have here in Florence. So thank you all for the support.

Thank you. We've heard nothing but great reviews from that, so thank you.

I would like to comment on that. It was an amazing event. presentation by the city or by the electricity department. And it was a lot of fun to watch. I mean, that's amazing. And it really kind of puts in perspective of what they really go through each and every day is really awesome. Thank you for bringing it to our city.

Yes. Thank you all. Anything else? Okay. Thanks.

Mr. Cole.

afternoon i have a couple of items on the agenda the first is um the next phase of our high pressure gas valve replacement uh this will be phase three uh this is this was uh awarded to uh we recommend we award to tj construction in the amount of three hundred and eighty eight thousand eight hundred and eighty seven dollars and seventy five cents and these will these valves will be um in the industrial park area course these are valves that we've identified that are in need of replacement that are on our high pressure system and you know we continue to kind of progress to these each year so any questions about that one from budgeted funds right correct yes sir thank you and then the next item is the late edition this is a contract with water street communications in the amount of fourteen thousand eight hundred and twenty nine dollars and fifty six cents this is to lower the fiber optic cable that's going under Rickwood Road that ties our facilities together, the north to the south. Construction has began, and once we noticed the depth that they were removing in order to create the base that they're going to put in, it only allowed a little bit of room for error and so we felt it was best instead of that being hit and us potentially being down for days so our crews have made a bore they've actually performed the board put the casing in and this is to replace that cable and get it at the correct depth there sorry go ahead and there's no responsibility for our dot for any of this no sir it Not to my understanding, there's not. We were told everything was fine. We've moved the water, we've moved the gas. But it's just, if we get hit, it's gonna cost more downtime and we would be out a whole lot more than the $14,000 and some change. Whose responsibility was it to locate everything? Well, the locates were done, but this would have been in the engineering phase.

Okay, and in the engineering phase, I'm sure we knew how deep they were going together, correct? Yes. Did we know at the time where our...

That's just the thing. We knew, we kind of had an idea of where our depth was, but then once they started digging, and I don't know that any of the depths have changed from the original specifications as far as the construction is concerned, but it was just one of those things. It's a little too close for comfort for us. Was it something that y'all, like the gas and the water department, It's something that we should have called, yes. Well, I guess. To answer your question.

Well, is it something that you caught in this process or was that, should have been in the engineering phase?

I mean, it could go either way. I mean, it should, we knew there was a private, what we deem as a private fiber optic, you know, cable. Actually, there's a couple of cables in there and we're going to go back with a, instead of having two, we're going to go back with one. We're going back with a cable that. basically exceeds the capability of what we need in case we have any expansion. I think it's a 24 strand, whereas now we have maybe a couple of six or eight strands. But yes, I mean, it should have been caught either in that phase or, you know, before it got to this point, you know, because there We've been, of course the weather plays a part in all of it, but you know, they're potentially going to be in front of our offices sometime next week. Um, so that's the reason we rushed to get all this done. So these water street communications has worked with us. They're going to come in, uh, Friday and Saturday because of course we'll be off for the holiday Friday. So this we'll get all this done and won't have any downtime. And our end of it is already complete. Our guys have, have completed the board and have the case and everything in place. I don't know if that answers your question.

Well, it does. Is this something that we can try to go back? and recoup some of the money from the state. Because I feel like this, you know, obviously, in my opinion, something failed in the engineering phase. I don't know if it was on our end or their end or what. Because I know this project's been in the process for a very long time. Yes, I've been told they've been working on it for decades. Close to a decade. Yeah. But I just – I think it would be great if we can try to go back and try to fight for some – I know we're upgrading some things, and I think that's okay, and that should be on us because we are upgrading it.

Right.

But as far as, I guess, not being located properly or whatever, if we can somehow try to get them to – Play it with us or something. Yes.

We'll look into it and see if there's anything. I mean, even if they would be willing to split the cost or something. Yeah. Okay. We're certainly open to it. Okay. Yes. We'll definitely check into that.

And what is your time frame looking like getting that done on record?

Oh, getting the cable corrected?

The whole project.

Oh, I don't know about the road. I'll be honest with you. That's not in my lane. I know, but I do remember from some of the pre-construction meetings, you know, they were going to hit it really hard this summer because school is out to try to minimize the amount of issues that they create once school goes back in session. But I don't know the expected completion date. Sorry.

Thank you, sir.

Any other questions?

Questions? Okay.

210 days was the timeline. That's correct. Yes, sir. I think so. Just on the cost, Tad, if... Would this have qualified as utility relocation had we caught it early on?

To be honest with you, I don't know. I couldn't honestly answer the question since it is a private line. You know, with the other, with the gas and the water, of course, those are public utilities, so it's a little different situation. But with us owning this piece of infrastructure, I don't know that it would have qualified. But that's something that, you know, we need to... I could check into as far as this project goes, but it's something that we will definitely look into with projects that, you know, come up in the future. It's one of those things that's kind of an oddity. We don't have a lot of private, most of our infrastructure is public anyway. But this is just one of those things because of the communications between each side of the road. It's kind of an odd thing.

And you relocated the gas and water. Was that last year? Correct, yes, sir. So would the cost have been – is the cost more today than it would have been 12 months ago?

Potentially a little bit. It shouldn't vary a whole lot. Just with inflation. Yes, yes. Did we rush this and the cost has gone up because of rushing it, or is it – No, I think it would have been – if we would have done it a year ago along with all the regular – the other utility relocation, it would have probably been in the same – I mean, it may have been slightly cheaper with inflation, but – But I'm still thinking it would be in that $13,000 to $14,000 range anyway, had we done it then.

Okay. All right. Thank you. No more comments. We need to – Ted has requested that this be added to the agenda, making it to the regular agenda, item 12C. So yeah, we've become item 12 C on the regular agenda. Kelsey, y'all okay with that? Okay. It's Jones. Put it on the regular. Does it matter?

I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Lighty. Carry on, Ms. Jones.

Good afternoon. I have two emergency repair invoices. The first is to CNH Cooling for an emergency repair of the condenser fan motor on an R2 engine. unit rooftop unit number two this is the first unit closest to the controller um in the amount of two thousand seven hundred two thousand nine hundred seventeen dollars and 93 cents any questions Second is our famous emergency repair for plumbing. Thanks to a Kong that went down one of the drains at the shelter, which Kongs are now banned in large dog holding. while we try to come up with replacement drains because they're plastic when the shelter was built and not holding up well seven years into our stint. So we had an issue and thank you to all the city departments who came to help us resolve it without digging 30 feet into the ground for a heart-stopping $30,000. So luckily it's only $3,725. Okay. We jokingly are all going to take second jobs to try to help fund the shelter. But anyway, any questions about that?

Is the problem now corrected?

Yes, they did advise us, and you can see it on what they gave us, that they noticed that the sewer line has slipped where it ties into the main line. And that's ultimately what hung up the Kong. It would have kept on going were it not for that slip. So they did advise us that there could be problems in the future, depending on if that continues to drop away from the main line. However, we're going to do our part not to contribute to that, so... Um, we're just banning toys for right now until we can figure that system out. So yes, it's been solved and everything is working very well.

I had two questions, but you answered the second one. Um, I'm assuming Kong is a toy.

Yes.

Okay. Yes.

And it's actually, so when they came in the second day to, to work on it, they wanted to see what it was and it's actually a little one.

Okay.

Not one of the big ones. Um,

Yeah. Okay. My first question was, so this is a seven-year-old building, correct?

Yes.

And the unit's only, it was a brand-new unit, correct?

Yes. They are a high-maintenance unit.

I understand. But is there not any kind of warranty or anything? I mean, I would think on a seven-year-old unit, we shouldn't be having as much trouble.

I asked those questions. We're on our second hot water heater. The first one lasted, I think, about four years. I talked to the guy at CNH, and he said— Are they the ones that installed it? No.

Okay. No. Do we know who installed it?

Early Services is who installed the units for us, and we have a two-system system. One half of the building is run by one system, and the back half of the building is run by these Aeon units. And the second Aeon unit pulls in fresh air to give you the number of exchanges you're supposed to have in a kennel environment to keep the... desired amount for animals so that you keep fresh air. And so we had early services and Alabama controls in the beginning doing them. Early services did our maintenance and they were good at doing it. They came out of Decatur, but the tech that was there when units were put in left and the subsequent tech wasn't as good and we had a major failure. on the units because he didn't service them. So we left early services and went with CNH and the monthly maintenance went from 500 a month to 277.72. So it was a cost savings and he does, they do a good job. They're just expensive units and they have microcontrollers and condenser coils that have to be cleaned regularly. And the filters have to be changed monthly because of the concrete plant next to us, because they suck in everything from all around us. And they just, they require a lot. and so no apparently there was a very limited warranty with those which i was surprised because i figured like a commercial like a home they would come with an extensive one but they do not yeah well i mean also the manufacturer um you know i mean i know we don't

work with early services anymore, but do we know the manufacturer of the unit? Like what brand unit it is?

They're Aon's.

Aon, okay. Have we reached out to them to see if... we might have a manufacturer warranty or if there's any recalls or anything like that.

I believe they did in the beginning when we had to do, cause we've had to replace some major parts to them. As a matter of fact, we have one at the shelter. Um, We have a condenser that we purchased from early services when they failed to come and put it in. We purchased it from them because CNH had already gotten one to put in. So we have a backup should that part, and that's a pretty expensive part, should that part fail to be able to do that. But we can certainly reach out to them again. And early services would come back. It's just that we would go from $277.72 a month back to $500 a month.

Yeah. Well, I mean, no, I understand that. It's just, you know, I feel like we probably should do a little bit more digging into the manufacturers to see if there's any ready calls. I mean, let's be honest. If you're a service guy, you're wanting to come out and service people. um, you know, the product and you're not really worried about if it's got a warranty or not, you're just going to replace the part. But, uh, I think on our end, we should probably look in to see if there's any kind of recalls or anything like that, because, you know, I mean that $2,900 is, and I understand some emergency fix, but, um, you know, if we can see if there is some kind of a recall, then, you know, on that part, then, you know, we're, we're able to take care of it that way. I'm done, sorry.

I don't want to talk over you. Tell me about these plastic grates that were the initial problem.

We have a French drain at the shelter. At the old shelter, we had a hole in the floor. you know, three-inch hole that you just had to cover with a round cover. We have French drains now at the shelter, and they have a grate, so to speak, that goes over it. But it's not metal. It's plastic. It's a heavier plastic, but it's still plastic. so if you have super chewers um they were able to chew a corner off and that corner was big enough to allow that kong which you know wasn't any taller than that to go down so um do we have plans to replace those plastic ones yes yes we are trying to find either where we purchased the original ones from or if we can have something made that would be sturdier than those Because they have to screw in. And so it gets to be an issue having to, you know, put them to screw them in and out. We'd like to just have something we could snap in and not be able to have to, you know. screw it in every time you needed to remove it because we have to clean under those and make sure everything stays flowing because we didn't put in a flush where you'd have like water that you put on at the end that would flush everything down to the one kennel that has the big drain in it.

What about a 3D printer? Like somebody that has a 3D printing company to make you something that would work? It's possible. We'll look into that.

Yeah.

Cheryl, I feel your pain. My dog pulled my downspouts off my house, so I know exactly what it's like. But my real comment is, you've already said it, but I wanted to echo it. I really appreciate Tad and Will, who's back there working with you. If I recall, I think this was on a Friday afternoon. Yes. The timing was bad. But for them to get the camera out there, they sent the pictures to us on the council over the weekend to figure out what the problem was. And then also work with the plumbing company to come up with solutions together, along with your departments, really, really save the city what could have been a much, much larger bill. And, you know, y'all kind of took a

a chance that hey let's try this it worked and here we are so thank you for that and barnett was very agreeable to do that too not all plumbing companies would be yeah so we appreciate it very much thank you again guys

This is for Councilman Bowling. Looking at the Aon website, it does look like parts warranties for this company. I'm not familiar with them. 12 to 18 months. A compressor is five years is what it's saying. So this is not specific, not language, obviously, to what we got, but this is their standard warranty on the compressor fan motor in particular was 12 months.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm sure that when we—I had nothing to do with looking at it when we bought it, but I'm sure because it exchanges the air like you like it to, that was probably the biggest selling point of it. We just had no way of knowing how much, you know, fan motors would last and how often they'd go out. Yeah. And RTU2 seems to be the one that gives us, we have two of them, RTU1 and RTU2. And RTU2 is the one that has given us the most issue. Now that I say that, I'll take that back.

Anyway, anything else?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We appreciate you. Thank you. Ms. Bailey?

Good afternoon. We have a public hearing tonight for rezoning and also the ordinance as well for 2636 and 2632 Cloverdale Road. We've been working on this one for a little while simply because the applicant had to do some work for Aldot because Cloverdale Road is an Aldot right-of-way. They have fulfilled all of those requirements to get a preliminary approval for their permit, which was enough for the Planning Commission to not only recommend the rezoning, but also to recommend their plan approval. So that has been done so far. It is a unanimous recommendation to you all. This is obviously a commercial zone with it being on Cloverdale Road across from the current Walmart area. So, taking questions. It's kind of an easy one.

Do we have any idea what kind of business they want to put in?

We do.

You can't share?

I can. I wouldn't want that to, you know, sway a decision in any way, but it is Belterra Partners, and they typically build service stations. Yes. Of course, with it being a B2 zone, then it's my obligation to tell you that anything that's allowed in a B2 zone would be allowed on this property. They do not have to stick to that particular use.

Good. Any more? Okay. That's it. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mason?

okay i have uh six invoices for the city hall building um 11 j k and l are all invoices for crouching signs and those were plumbing repairs water leak repairs uh to city hall is there any questions on those three The next invoice 11 M is Sunbelt Reynolds and that is for the chiller. The temporary chiller and temporary transformer that we're using to cool the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor on the short court side for City Hall. Any questions on it? 11N is an invoice for Barnett Plumbing, and that was to repair a water leak on the first floor. And then there was a commode on the third floor that was overflowing and running down the wall into the second and first floor ceiling. So they repaired that. Any questions on that one? And then the last one is 11-0, an invoice for ServPro, where an office was flooded from a water leak, and they came and removed the water and the mildew. Any questions on that one?

So that water leak, did it have anything to do with the impact of all this rain that we've had? No, it didn't.

Yes, it was water lines.

Being with all of that rain that we had, especially, I think, not this past weekend, the weekend before, did any flooding occur with all that?

We didn't have any issues with the, not that I've been, not that I have been told of yet.

Okay.

So, so far so good.

Okay. Good deal. All right. You have anything for me?

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor Tyler.

Thank you, Ms. Simmons. I have one item on the consent agenda, and that is item 11U, a resolution to approve a contract proposal. I'm going to add the word renewal between the City of Florence and Swatek, Vaughn, and Bryan to perform lobbying services for the City of Florence. This will be the seventh such renewal. We have been under contract with them for seven years. This is not a new contract for us. For seven years, this all began, many of us may or may not remember, back when some of the TVA, in lieu of tax monies, were taken and removed from our budget for a different project. Shane is not here. I don't remember. It was an over a million dollars, I think, at the time that was that was removed from our revenue. The administration at the time reached out to to Swatek, Vaughn and Brian and and contracted for their services. Since that time, they have continued to work for us and advocate for the city of Florence in Montgomery. Having a lobbyist represent our interest in Montgomery for a community our size is not only It's not uncommon. In fact, we would be the exception or the oddity for a city our size not to have representation in Montgomery. Over those seven years, they have helped advocate for us with ADECA to obtain grant funding that is applied to the Florence Port, to city parks and rec, for police and fire assistance through ADECA. Most recently this past year, they monitored our interest in some of the discussions regarding the CETA bill. They have represented our interest in Montgomery regarding our utilities. They have fought against us losing further TVA in lieu of taxes for other projects that we use as part of our operational funds. There's been assistance that they've advocated on our behalf for law enforcement regarding law enforcement-specific legislation down there. They have advocated for our fire department in particular. It's the... I want to say it's the firefighters, the term Bill of Rights. I think it's Municipal Firefighters Bill of Rights they have advocated for us. This past year, they were advocating regarding a bill that came up. We were on the losing side of this where... Previously, on a transaction that involved a credit card, sales tax was charged for the full amount. They were helping fight for us. That transaction fee was removed from that. So when you purchase something using a credit card now, you're not paying sales tax on the credit card fee. That will impact our overall sales tax, you know, up to 3% of every transaction. So there's a hit there. The league opposed this, and this group opposed this for us. There's been several other bills that they have fought for us when we've needed an advocate, and they fought against it when we were opposed to those bills. With a new administration coming in, a new governor, a new Senate, a new representative trying to respond with a governor, we expect some other bills to come up this year that we want to be ahead of, and we need somebody who is down there on a full-time basis advocating on our behalf. So any one of these bills, particularly losing in lieu of tax dollars, could potentially cost us millions of dollars a year, not just over the long run. So this is an insurance policy where we have somebody monitoring these. These guys don't just monitor bills. Obviously, we do that as well. But they work on outcomes for us. They're advocating for positive outcomes when we support a bill. They advocate for... for negative outcomes when we are opposed to a bill. Did I say that the right way? But they are representing our behalf when they are down there in Montgomery. So I would like for us to renew this. It is 12 months, and we will continue to monitor for the progress to make sure that we're getting a return on our investment with them down there.

It is highly recommended, especially a city of our size, have a lobbyist advocating for us as well.

That's important. And I just wanted to thank you. When I first saw this come through, I thought, well, what have they done for us? And that was my first question. I called you and I said, well... Is there a report? You know, I'd really like to know what our money is going towards. And also, I questioned, is this something that we could do in-house? Could we hire this position out locally? And it's just from your explanation. I'm sorry. From your explanation, it's very clear that we need somebody down there that is down there all the time who is very experienced in what they're doing. And it does sound like they have done what we need them to do for us. So I appreciate you looking into that. Thank you.

I've spent a lot of time in Montgomery over the past few years down there watching what they do. And it's almost like, I feel like it's almost like an insurance policy for us to protect our, you know, assets now, our future. And I just feel like it's something that we, that we need for our city.

Any other additional comments? All right. Thank you, mayor. Did you have anything else? Okay. All right. Next we have, um, Upcoming board vacancies, we have one for the Building and Property Appeals Board. We need one alternate, one for the Tree Commission, and two for the, well, we have two reappointments members for the Board of Zoning Adjustments. Oh, our nomination's open.

Mm-hmm. I'd like to nominate Shannon Wells for the tree. For the tree. Commission, please.

Any others for the tree? Nope. I'll say everybody's okay with Wells for the tree. Commission. Commission. Yeah, okay. All right, Ms. Wells for the Trade Commission. Do we have anybody for the upcoming board appointment for the building and property of Board of Appeals? We need one alternate. Okay, what about the Board of Enzone and two reappointment members? Any nominations, anything? No?

Okay.

We just got Ms. Wells. Anything else for the council before we

This might be a good time to say, you know, we want to encourage everybody out in our community, those who are attending or whatever, to, you know, to apply for these committees, these boards, whatever it is, you know, just go on the website, you know, and look at that and try to apply. We encourage that. We want that. We want participants from, you know, from our home, from our whole city. So I want to encourage that.

Thank you. All right. We'll take a break and we'll start back up at five o'clock.