Council - Regular Meeting

Discuss the needs of the city. We are thankful for the beautiful city that we live in and all that is about that contributes to the community. And we pray that you will be with us as we counsel together. And as we work through those things that need to be discussed and decided upon, help us to always remember that those that we serve and that as we serve them, we serve you. We are grateful for your love and your care and for Jesus Christ, the one who saves. And we say these things in his name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance.

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

Mr. William Williams, please.

Council Member Henry.

Here. Council Member Dixon.

Here.

Council Member Bolling. Council Member Spence, here. Council Member King, here. Council President Simmons, here. Madam President, five council members are in attendance and a quorum is present.

Thank you very much. At this time, we'll get the approval of the agenda. However, we did remove item from the consent agenda, item E, if we can get an approval for the agenda as presented.

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence. Second by Mr. Dixon. All in favor?

5-0. All right.

At this time, we will have a message from Mayor Tyler.

Thank you very much, Ms. Simmons. I have several things that I'd like to update the council on, one of which happens to be, this is one of the formalities, is a certificate of appointment to the Planning Commission, and I have appointed Ms. Emily Stutz to serve as a member of the Planning Commission, and her term will take effect immediately. So I have this for Ricky. I also have a few things that I'm going to give to the clerk's office, we talked a little bit about the Falcons against opioids during the work session, and I have a copy of that presentation and some comments about that, as well as my comments that I'm going to make here in just a moment. So, Mr. Williams, I'm going to set this aside for you. We'll get it to you here in a moment. There's several things that I want to update the council on. First of all, and I'm going to ask Chris if he would turn on the screen. There's been a lot of conversation and talk already about the blight issue here in town, which seems to be a recurring issue. And I have some comments somewhere. Or I thought I had brought them all for you all. Maybe I didn't. That I would like to pass on about, I do, right here, about the City of Florence blight mitigation process. And I'll pass these on to the council and I'll add some of these comments to you as well, Ricky. On there's a graphic that outlines the process. From the very beginning, and I'm going to get this to Rachel, and she can put this out on social media as well. From the very beginning of us realizing that there's an issue with the property to the very end where you have successful redevelopment, where we take a rundown, blighted property and can get it back on the tax rolls, and it becomes used for productive private use. Hopefully, we build a house on it, and there's a family that lives there, and it adds value to a neighborhood. I want to show you there's about 11 steps in this, and I want to point out that this entire process, from the moment we realize a piece of property is blighted in a disrepair, If we were to follow all of the legal steps with cleaning it up, and I'm going to go through this in just a moment. We clean it up. We assess a lien. We pursue foreclosure on that lien if it's not paid for, and then we try to get it and sell it at public auction. We're looking at about a 36-month process. The council is going to vote on some properties, I don't know if it's tonight or if it's in two weeks, on declaring some a nuisance. These properties, we could see, if we ever wanted to take them and get them up for public auction and foreclose on the liens, we may be looking 36 months from now. That's how long this process can take. And I want to walk you through that. You see that there's The inspection and voluntary compliance. We find out that there's a nuisance there. We send the building department out to inspect it, and they have to give the homeowner an opportunity to mitigate that issue there. If they take efforts to mitigate it, fix it, it always restarts the clock. Then you have to do this due process. We have to follow the steps of that. We're going to send a certified letter to the property owner. We're also going to post a letter on the property itself saying you are in violation. There's a problem here. When they don't respond to that, those properties will come to the city council for resolution declaring them a nuisance. And you kind of see that you all have a first meeting and declare these properties problem properties and they're a blight to the community. After that, we can go in and we can have the street department clean it up, whether it's we mow it or if we tear it down or whatever it is, and that comes with a cost. There's an actual cost from the street department doing it, but there's a lot of cost, soft cost, I'm going to say, that involve the building department, that involve the city attorney's time, that involve the council's time. I'm having meetings with it. It'll come back to the council to establish another final cost of how much is it that we have spent on this particular property so we can assess a lien on that property. That lien is then added. That's, you know, Lardale County Courthouse. It's added to their tax bill. If they come in and they pay the tax bill. That property goes back to zero, all right? Resets the clock. At any point here, the property owner can reset the clock, start it over if they just take some efforts to recover this. Let's say we have a property owner who does nothing. So they have a lien added to their tax bill. They don't pay it. They become delinquent in that. You have to understand that if it happens in November of one year, I think they do property assessments, tax assessments maybe. I hope my dates aren't wrong in October. Justin's here. It may happen in October when that happens. If we miss that deadline, you have to wait 12 months before you hit that again. So it's a very long time. If they get delinquent on it, don't pay the taxes, and we have a lien out there, we're going to have to have our building department do a title search. They're going to have to find out if there's a mortgage on it. They have to notify the mortgage holder. We figure out who it is, and then we're going to try to foreclose on that. We go through the legal steps. We have to post public notice. We have to have a foreclosure auction. We have to advertise the sale of a certain number of weeks. It's a long process. At any point, the owner can come in and go, hey, that's my stuff. I want to pay it, and I want to keep it. It goes down. I can't see number 10 over there, and I'm sorry. Once we sell it out on public auction, you have a new owner is there. We have something in the state of Alabama that's called the right of redemption. The owner has this right of redemption even after – that we have sold it and all of that is done. The state law allows the original homeowner 180 days post-auction to turn around and buy it back. So if you're a developer who's bought it, you're not going to do anything for 180 days because the reality is somebody could come in pay what they owe, and they can reclaim it. So most of the time, when it finally gets all the way to the very end, you're looking at another year before a developer wants to take and redeem that property and start spending money on it to try to revitalize it and get it out there. It's a long process. It's arduous. It requires a lot of time and attention from the building department. The easy answer is this. Everybody keep your property up. Cut the grass. Sell it if you can't do it. Let's do that. But those that are our problems, I have talked with the building department, have talked with the city attorney. Let's move forward as quickly as possible. Let's assess the lanes. Let's put it on the air. If they become delinquent, let's move forward with the foreclosure. So I know there's a lot that we're dealing with in the city. It is a long, arduous process, but we're going to start that when we can on those properties that are regular problems. But just because we start the process on a property today, it still could be three years before that property is ultimately back in the hands of a private developer. for houses now we can tear it down and we can start cutting the grass that's not what we want we want to put it in the hands of somebody who's going to build a house but i want that out there and i want you all to be aware of that and i have given the council a copy of the that blight mitigation process and mr williams will have a copy of that as well mayor is this on the website not can you send it We will get it up there.

Rachel's going to be able to do that. I would like to start sharing that and explaining that process.

Yes, because there's a lot of questions, particularly this time of year, and that's why we wanted to get that out. A couple of other updates that I want to pass on. First of all, about the animal shelter, there is not a... A resolution on the agenda tonight to start the 90 days to terminate that agreement. Lauderdale County has been requesting some information and some documents from the city. Our office has provided that for their review. We're giving them this opportunity to review all of those, prepare some thoughts, develop some questions, and I expect once they've had an opportunity to do so that they will reach out and schedule a meeting that has not happened yet. pardon me, this is not necessarily unexpected. In fact, it really, it's welcomed. If we're going to ask them to provide some more financial assistance, it makes perfect sense to me that they would want to know what the additional appropriation is going to be for. You know, they may want to inquire about how we're currently spending money, what is deficient in current operations. I mean, they're going to ask some inquiring questions about, hey, what's going on? Why do you need it? And what's it look like? Makes perfect sense to me. I think they're engaging in some thoughtful consideration on what the next steps will be. So I think it's appropriate to give them some additional time. This type of discussion is actually in the current agreement. It says that the two parties at the end of each year should be getting together and having these conversations. That's not occurred up to this date, but it is occurring now. And hopefully we will move forward with some very important and valuable conversations in the near future. So that's a quick update on that. Second of all, I'll be very brief on this one. And I'm so sorry. I want the council to know you can anticipate and expect to see a budget amendment coming up the third quarter of this year. There's... we have to use what's called GASB accounting standards. It's government accounting standards board. You know, as public companies, they use this financial accounting standards board. Municipalities follow GASB standards. It's kind of a unique accounting method for public entities. And under GASB, it's the appropriate thing to do. It's best practices when we have line item transfers or department transfers of funding. that we manage some of those minor adjustments through a budget amendment. That's just common, should be regular best practices that we do. So after meeting with our general fund accountant and our treasurer and our auditor, moving forward, it's just gonna be an automatic requirement for us, something I wanna implement. And it will begin the third quarter of this year, but mid-year, and you'll see it the next few years while we're in office, mid-year and at the third quarter, We're going to sit down and do this budget adjustment or amendment to true up some stuff along the way. And it is a good best practices effort. I don't want anybody to be alarmed by it. We're just planning ahead that we're going to look at it mid-year. We don't look at it the first quarter because we'll spend a lot of money on equipment. And everybody will spend 100% of our equipment budget and everybody's budget looks like it's out of whack or out of compliance when really they've spent 100% of some of the equipment early on and the budget is doing fine. By mid-year, we'll have an idea of what revenues are doing, how expenditures are doing. So we'll do a small adjustment mid-year, and then we'll come back at third quarter when we really have an idea to track revenues and do it one more. So just expect that those are going to be automatic adjustments that happen, and you'll see the first one coming up, probably the first meeting in August. I wanted to put that on everybody's radar. The third thing I really want to – or fourth thing I want to mention is – Pine Street, everybody be aware, probably beginning Monday of next week, they will begin milling Pine Street. There will be some lane closures for a period of time. They're gonna begin milling that and the paving is gonna start. So I know that there's been some delays due to construction or some lane closures due to construction. Now we're transitioning away from stadium construction. Now we're gonna go to milling the road and then repaving it. And you're gonna start to see some of that come together beginning next week. So if you travel Pine Street, You need to know there's going to be some work, find an alternate route, or just expect some delays beginning next week. There's a quick update for that. We'll also get some of that out on social media. And finally, I want to mention something that has come to my attention. As it does, social media seems to be the start of all things. And this is about this year's Handy Festival. And the reality is... Our people work entirely too long and too hard on the Handy Festival for me to not give them the credit that's due. So I think the word that is out there right now is that the city of Florence is not a sponsor this year of the Handy Festival for the first time in however long it's existed. And I want to bring everybody's attention Well, there's copious notes where we could go back and document the entire process going back to September of 2025 meeting with the Music Preservation Society. We have copious notes going back to June of 2025 where we started to try to have these conversations to improve how the relationship between the city of Florence and the Handy Festival went. But I want to point out to everybody on the February the 17th, 2026 agenda, all the way back to February of this year, how the council passed unanimously a contract with the Music Preservation Society to allocate $10,000 to I want to see if I can go in and put my hands on it. But it was approved where we were going to do $10,000 in cash, not for four specific handy events like we had done in the past. This year it was, hey, we're just going to give you an appropriation and let you spend it where you need it the most, not designated necessarily for four events. Hey, here it is. Back in September of last year, we started talking with the Music Preservation Society board that we needed to clean up some things and you know the way we did a handy festival 35 years ago is not the way we operate today and and it's uh so we put some some requirements in place so i'd like to just read a quick statement um that will cover some of the bases and and going back to february this year this council expressed their commitment to the handy event that we are going to give you a direct cash appropriation as well as we were willing to do lots of in-kind in support of the the handy festival But I want to say this, there's been public confusion regarding the city of Florence's role as a sponsor for this year's WC Handy Music Festival. And I want to make it clear to our residents and our visitors that we were, we remain, and we will be entirely willing and eager to be a formal sponsor of this very important community event. In an effort going back to improve how we supported the festival, the city adjusted its approach this year by moving away from funding those four particular events. Instead, we structured our contract, voted and approved by this council on February the 17th in such a way that it was going to give a cash appropriation to support the entire festival. While the contract outlined some expectations that we had sent to the organizers earlier in the spring, talked to them about back in September of last year, we were recently informed that the Music Preservation Society was not going to sign the agreement that this council voted on in February. We didn't hear a thing about this. No concerns, no questions, no issues whatsoever until about June of this year when we passed this back in February. Ample time to have lots of questions had there been concerns. Consequently, because they're not signing the agreement, they will not be recipients of those specific cash sponsorship dollars. as was outlined in the contract. It seems to be three points of contention. A couple of them are pretty easy. There was an insurance policy requirement. They had an insurance policy requirement last year. They purchased that. There was some delay. That's been covered this year. There was some issues last year and this year on our new online permitting platform. We call it eProval, and it helps the city track the events, figure out the dates, the times, the locations, helps us organize staffing, police, parks and rec, sanitation, what roads we need to block. We need some advance notice. Part of the contract gave a date. Everybody understands we need 30 days notice. We're still working on getting some of those come in and we're just, I don't know, 10 days, two weeks out from some of those events. The third issue seemed to be The organization did not want to submit copies of their financial statements to the city. That is an ongoing, regular, standard requirement for the city of Florence and for communities across the state and the country, that when we take taxpayer dollars and give it to somebody, that we require financial statements for that. And there has not been a willingness to pass on those financial statements yet. for the city's review. Consequently, those sponsorship dollars are not available. We stand ready for them to sign the contract now. That was submitted and approved back in February. So the city proactively attempted multiple times to initiate discussions with the Music Preservation Society Board. As I said, going back to September of 2025, regrettably, despite our early efforts, we have not been able to get on the same page regarding some of these changes. Nevertheless, let it be clear, the city of Florence's commitment to the success of the Handy Festival and the preservation of the WC Handy's legacy remains very strong. And to ensure that the festival thrives, we're still, even this year, in spite of all this, providing substantial in-kind support. We're going to allow the Handy Festival organizers to utilize the Kennedy Douglas Center as their headquarters for two full weeks. We're waiving standard park rental fees. We're absorbing municipal costs for police protection, for sanitation services, for all of the work that the parks and rec people do. It is far in excess of $10,000 of in-kind contribution. A strong sponsorship, I would say. So there's ample documentation that's available that illustrates the city's efforts over the last year going back to June of last year to secure this partnership and make it work and to clean things up. So we look forward to a better, more advanced coordination with that board in the future to ensure that we have a safe and successful event for all. I think the city stands ready and willing to help that event be successful. And our support goes back to this council voting in February. to approve those dollars. We just need them to, uh, to agree and abide by the terms of the contract, which is standard language, uh, for everyone. If, uh, on the February, the, what did I say? It was a 17th, February 17th of this year is when you passed it. And the contract, if anyone is interested, uh, if you think that there's something strange or unusual in that contract, it is from that February, the 17th, uh, agenda. And it is, uh, regular agenda item 12B. If you want to go back to February 17th, regular agenda item 12B, and you can see what the contents of that contract were, and it was passed, and this council expressed their willingness at the time to sponsor the Handy Festival. It's regrettable that we just have not been on the same page. Look forward to doing it better next year. That's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor Tyler. Do we have any reports from any department heads? Okay, standing committees. Okay, we do have one public hearing. Mr. Mason.

Okay. We have a public hearing to, for the adoption of the 2024 building codes. And those are the 24 building code, international residential code, property maintenance code, plumbing code, fuel gas code, mechanical code, existing building code, fire code, and then the 2023 national electoral code and national electrical safety code. Are there any questions from the council? Okay. President Simmons, I recommend at this time we open the floor for comment for the adoption of the building codes.

Okay. The floor is now open. Do we have any comments from anyone on my right? Want to speak for or against? In the middle? To my left? There be none?

Okay, I recommend we close the public hearing.

Public hearing is now closed.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. All right, at this time, we will have business from the floor pertaining to the consent and the regular agenda items only with a five-minute time limit. If you will, you'll come to the podium, state your name and address. To my left, in the middle, to my right. Okay. There will be none. Mr. Williams, if you would go with the agenda.

All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Florence City Council for reading and study, are considered to be routine, and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no separate discussion. If a separate discussion is desired, that item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda by request.

Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. King. All in favor of the motion?

5-0. Motion passed. All right.

Regular agenda?

Item 12A is an ordinance to adopt Chapter 5 buildings to the Code of Florence, Alabama as amended, sponsored by Justin Mason, the Building Department.

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration?

So moved.

Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. Dixon. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Motion for the adoption? Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Ms. King. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

5-0. The motion passes. Item 12B is an ordinance to annex approximately 19.06 acres located at 263 Skypark Road, as requested by Janita Romine and Carrie Barnett as executor for Dennis Davis, sponsored by Melissa Bailey Planning Department.

Do I hear a motion for immediate consideration?

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. Dixon. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Do we have a motion for the adoption? Motion.

Second.

Motion by Ms. King, second by Mr. Hendricks. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

5-0. Motion passes. Item 12C is a resolution authorizing the city to appropriate $100,000 per year over a three-year period from the city's opioid settlement fund to the Florence City Schools to be used for the Falcons against opioid education and prevention campaign sponsored by Mayor Tyler.

Do I hear a motion for immediate consideration?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Hendricks. Second by Ms. King. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Do we have a motion for the adoption?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence. Second by Ms. Dixon. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

5-0. Motion passed. Item 12D is an ordinance to amend Section 9-66 of the Code of Florence, Alabama, sponsored by Chief Anerton.

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Ms. King. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Do you hear a motion for the adoption?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. Dixon. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

5-0. The motion passes. Item 12-E is an ordinance to adopt certain building codes sponsored by Justin Mason of the building department.

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. King. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Do we have a motion for the adoption? Motion.

Second.

Motion by Ms. Dixon, second by Mr. Hendricks. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion.

5-0, motion passes. Item 12F is an emergency contract with Shotcrete of America LLC for sewer replacement of two-barrel box culverts located at 711 North Broadway Street for a contract amount of $22,750. Do I hear a motion for immediate consideration?

Motion. Second. Motion by Ms. Dixon, second by Ms. Simmons. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Do we have a motion for the adoption?

So moved. Second.

Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Mr. Hendricks. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

5-0. Motion passes.

General business?

Yes. Item 13A is a resolution to approve an alcohol beverage license application for Compass Group USA Incorporated doing business as Chartwell's 10 Champions Way, Florence, Alabama. This is a Schedule 160 special retail, more than 30 days, licensed with on-premise liquor, beer, and wine.

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration? Motion.

Second.

Motion by Ms. King, second by Mr. Hendricks. All in favor of the motion?

5-0.

Do you hear a motion for the adoption?

So moved. Second.

Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Mr. Hendricks. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

5-0. The motion passes.

That was it. We had some board vacancy reappointments that we finished, we appointed. For the building and property maintenance of appeals, we had one alternate vacancy, and that was with Mr. Bill. Mr. Griffin, Bill Griffin. And on the Historical Preservation Commission, that was with Ms. Kelsey Dempsey. Ms. Kelsey Dempsey. And on the Board of Adjustments, we had two reappointments, and they were eligible to be reappointed, and they both wanted to be reappointed. In the Library Foundation Board, Council Representative Jackie Hendricks was appointed to that board. So that's it for the boards. Everything is currently filled at this time. So at this time, we will have business from the public with a five-minute time limit. Come to the podium, state your name and address. We'll start with my right in the middle to my left. There'll be none at this time. We'll have council members report starting with Mr. Spence.

Good evening, everyone. I want to thank everyone for being here tonight, those who've been in attendance and those who are watching. Yeah, you too. Also want to thank our city employees for all they do each and every day, continue to support them and, you know, and what they do for our city and to keep it going, serving and just putting out the fires. And we've had a lot of things happening lately. So we really appreciate you all. I want to say First Fridays was a great celebration. It was great from First Fridays to at McFarland. Great representation. I mean, First Fridays was awesome. It was amazing to see those streets full of community and people interacting and being involved and sharing and talking with one another. special thanks to um our florence police department and fire department and even our city employees who participated who were part of these events and worked overtime and were there and you know dynamic farland whatever they were doing we really appreciate them and what they what they did um I actually like to make some congratulations in the Florence City School System to Dr. Thomas Castile. He was the Harlan principal, but he was actually appointed as a curriculum director for at central office. So congratulations to him. Also would like to congratulate Ms. Lori Fowler, who was named principal at the Florence Middle School. And also Dr. Jennifer Colvard Davis, who is the new principal at Forest Hills. And Harlan Elementary will be looking, and I think they're currently doing interviews related to their new principal. But congratulations to them and like the partnership that the city is doing with our Florence City School System and their board and the city council and everything. I also want to welcome all the new businesses in District 5. We had several, and I've been recognizing them on Facebook, and we really appreciate them. And I think Melissa has and Rachel have been recognizing them on the city Facebook, social media, things like that. We really welcome them and want to be supportive of them as well. And also, as I end, I want to thank the council president and the support of the council and the recognition of being appointed to the 911 board that, you know, I'm grateful for that and very appreciative of that. So if you need me, please reach out anytime. You're available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Spence. Ms. King?

Hello, everyone. Thank you for all that came out tonight and all those that are watching from home. We had an amazing celebration at First Fridays, 250 years. We should be very proud of that. And I feel like a lot of people went the extra mile this year. I enjoyed going out to Oak Hills, Plantation Springs. Hunters Ridge and all the other neighborhoods, Creekwood, that invited me to come out for their special events. I enjoyed getting to be out there and to see the people I haven't seen in a while and actually meet new people. And while I was out there, I found some issues in different roads and some things that we will be getting fixed. I appreciate everyone who always reaches out. I love to hear your feedback, your support. Please reach out to me, 256-956-9621. And just like Mr. Spence said, thank you to all of our city employees. We appreciate you. We went to the roll calls, all four of those, over the past two weeks, and we plan to get to other departments and just talk with the employees, see how they feel. Listen, we are here for you. Please feel free to reach out. And if you haven't been to First Fridays, that is something that you're definitely missing out on. So please come those Fridays, the first of the month and enjoy downtown Florence with us. We have an amazing city. And again, thank you for tuning in or being here tonight.

Thank you, Ms. King. Mr. Hendricks.

Thank you, Madam President. And with your permission, I may go a little long tonight, but I think it's to be under five minutes. But I do have written remarks, which usually I don't. I want to echo some of the things the mayor has talked about the last council meeting and again tonight. But the The first thing I want to point out to the general public that our city is in an excellent financial position. We are nowhere near our bonding capacity. We do not have a cash flow problem. We do not have an asset problem. That said, we are required to run a balanced budget, and the balanced budget, as you all know from this last budget, is a very tight budget. So it's budget season, and I'd like to express my concern about our upcoming general fund budget. My concerns are due to inflation, employee pay and benefits, and our much-needed capital purchases that we're going to be facing not only this year but in the years to come in this term. And the easiest solution that I see moving forward to meet these demands is for us to simply grow our economy. to grow and collect more sales tax, which I want to point out represents 69% of our general fund revenue. 69% of our general fund revenue comes from collections of sales taxes. So to do that, this involves cultivating developer investments, business and industrial investments, continuing to support UNA's growth, and capturing tourism dollars. Um, to me, this is why, uh, at our next meeting, um, the industrial development incentive vote, uh, on the hotel Wilson is so important. And, um, and for it to send the right message, uh, that Florence is open to business and is development friendly because we're going to need those partners to grow this economy. Um, The IDB incentive is the third of four potential incentives a developer in this situation will likely pursue. Those four incentive bodies are the city, the county, the industrial development board, and then finally the state incentives, if any of those are available. So now I would like to share some numbers. I called and got our current leakage rate with our hotels. So our current leakage rate is an astonishing 151,500 room bookings per year. That's an average of 415 room bookings every day that we're missing. Um, and this is why we're being told that we could easily support two more hotels. Now, obviously those stack up during the busy season. So it's not, there may not be 415 tonight and, and I want to make that clear, but we know we have a huge, huge problem with leakage with our hotel rooms. So, um, The local annual guest spending based on the Hotel Wilson's occupancy rating forecast will be almost $31 million, and that's money outside of the hotel. This means that the net annual city sales tax collected annually, $1.2 million before any local multipliers are added to that. However, What's more important is the amount of new dollars, and I want to emphasize new dollars that are brought into our economy from the hotel and the two to four times those dollars flow through our economy before leaving because we collect four and a half percent every time those dollars turn over. These new dollars will come from leakage capture and from the hotel sales team actively marketing the hotel and its meeting space to clients outside of the Shoals. And I called, and currently their marketing budget for that is $150,000 a year. So I think with that commitment and a $45 million investment, they're going to work pretty hard to bring those new folks in here. So what does all this mean? If only 25 to 50% of their guests bring new dollars into our economy, the direct annual impact on our general fund budget is 1.2 to 2.5 net new dollars per year. And should it reach 75% of that number. it grows to $3.8 million annually. The approximate $60,000 annual incentive that the IDB has offered them represents only 2% to 5% of these new dollars that this hotel would generate in our economy. And so to me, for two things, one, the $60,000, you know, we're hearing $1.2 million out there. Well, that's over 20 years. So that's a $60,000 a year average. But yet the annual average of new monies straight into our general fund budget is $1 to $3 million. And to me, that's the big picture that as a city that we need to continue to focus on. And with that, sending those right messages to our developers and our investors that, again, we're open to business and developer friendly. So in my closing, I will, because you know I created a spreadsheet. When I get home tonight, I... We'll send the mayor and the full council a copy of this spreadsheet. It has links on it to all of my sources. And then I will also post a copy of this on my social media for the public to view for the transparency that you all like to have so that the public has it. as well. But that's kind of what I spent my 4th of July weekend doing with some of that fun stuff when I had some free time and I wanted to share it tonight. I think it's so important. I'm excited to see in President Simmons' district, the fence go up around the hotel and yours. We'll each have one going up soon in both our districts. That'll be our second hotel. Love looking at those numbers as well. And should they go the state route, which I would expect them to do with Sweet Home Alabama, we'll do some analysis on that as well. But I think these are all positive things. Thank you, Ms. Simmons.

Thank you very much. I believe you trumped Mr. Spence tonight. It was a joke.

Okay, Ms. Dixon. Okay, I'll make this quick because I know we've already talked about First Friday, but it really was great. And I especially loved... pictures of the history and the QR code and everything. So I did just want to say, give a big thank you and a shout out to all those who worked so hard on all of our celebrations this past weekend with First Friday and then Spirit of Freedom. I mean, I know a lot of time and effort goes into that. So thank you. Thank you for all those that were involved in that. Thank you for those who came out and and took part in it and celebrated with us. So that was really great. And thank you to our police and our fire and our first responders. We need you and we appreciate you and thank you for everything that you do on a day-to-day basis for our city. Thank you. I already thanked Tad with the water department with the major water issue we had over there by the hospital. They handled that very, very well. It was challenging and they just did what needed to be done. And they were professional and they did their job. So I appreciate that. I actually was going to talk about abandoned properties today, so I didn't know you were bringing this up. So thank you very much, Mayor. District 3, I have started collecting from those within my district properties that they know are abandoned. And so District 3, if you know of properties that are abandoned, your next door neighbor, your whatever, two houses down, whatever it is, This is how we start. We have to start with the properties that we know. As Mayor explained, this process is very, very lengthy. So just because you report something doesn't mean next month the house is going to be taken care of. It's a long, long process, but we have to start somewhere. So let's start with... making a list in my district. So please contact me. I'm even going to throw out my number, 256-956-9654. You can text me the location, send me a picture, whatever you want of the property. Also, I'm going to just put in a little plug for the 5K run during the Handy Fest. Florence City Cross Country will be part hosting that and putting that on and is a coach for Florence City Cross Country. I just wanted to put that out there because some of those proceeds come back to help support our program there. And we want the community out there. Bring your family. We have a 5K. We have a one-mile fun run or walk, whatever you feel like you can do. Bring your littles out. I know several of us participated last year. Maybe he will this year. So come out and support that and have a good time. And all the other things that will be going on with the Handy Fest. It's a great time to get out in your community and partake of what's in our community. So that's

Thank you, Ms. Dixon. My comments, I want to thank everybody for being here, for tuning in online. I want to say, we did, we had a spectacular first Friday, so I want to say shout out to DFA and everybody involved who made that happen. The highlight of mine, of course, was you guys, was the community, all of the pictures, and I loved the parade. That was fabulous. And the weather was just fantastic. So thank you and kudos to everybody. You know, Chris Stengel and his team, they work very, very, very hard to make that happen. And so everyone can come out and enjoy throughout the Shoals area and abroad. I want to say thank you to the District 1 community for always inviting me to share with them on the 4th of July. I've been doing that with them ever since I've been in office, and it's just a fabulous time. It's a split between District 1 and District 2, so Jackie and I, we walk those hot streets with them, but it was all well worth it. It was fun. I want to say thank you to Mayor Tyler. Thank you for taking the time to explain the blight process again. But I guess we'll keep explaining it and explaining it until people truly get it and fully understand that, the process. It's not that I have neglected or anyone up here has neglected. It's just a lengthy process that it takes. Trust me, I've been fighting this battle since I've been in office. And if it could have been fixed then, I can assure you it would have been. But it's just a process that we have to go through. I don't like it. I'm sure nobody likes it, but it is what it is with that. And also, thank you for taking the time with all of this. Information that I was faced with today on social media and getting all these texts and calls and screenshots in regards to all of this information about this Handy Festival. I do appreciate you taking the time and dissecting it down to the wire so people can understand that. He's given the facts. What you do with that and don't want to receive that, we can't control that. But he has laid it out there plain. If you still have questions, Call me. I'm sure call any of the council. I'm sure the mayor wouldn't mind talking to you either if you have questions in regards to that. Listen to the replay of the blight as well as the things that he shared with us, how the process derived how we are where we are today in regards to that. Love Handy Festival. He come out of District 1. If he had come out of any district, I still would have loved him because he's such an icon to our city. So... Everybody, go out and support it. It starts next Wednesday. It's getting longer and longer, but go out and enjoy it as much as you can. If it's getting hot, make sure that you stay hydrated. And Florence is a great city to live in, and I am so honored to be able to represent. As Mr. Sam Pendleton called me just the other day, and he told me to tell everybody, so I'm going to say this. He says it's his legs and not his head. In other words, he's saying that he still... He's still fluent. He's still vibrant. He just may not can't get around the mobile part of it, but his mind, he's still there. So he wanted me to make sure that every citizen in Florence know that he loves you and that he missed you. And he's still out there and he's still calling me. Trust me. And sharing his ideas. He tells me when I do a vote good and tells me when I vote bad. Well, he thinks it's bad. Let's clear that up. Mr. Pendleton, I know you're going to go back and listen to this. But anyway, he wanted me to share that with you. You know, Mr. Pendleton served here for 20 years. And so I definitely honor him and respect him for that. I put something out on social media in regards to blight properties. I still stand. I've already turned in a whole community. I'm not even going to say streets. It was a whole community, and then I still got many, many more to go. But you can call me, 256-349-3879. And if there's nothing else, we will stand, and Mr. Spence will pray us out. Thank you all for coming.

Let us pray. Father God, we love you, Father, and we just thank you for this time and just for the time that you've given us for our beautiful city to serve and to serve you, Lord Jesus. I just pray your wisdom, your discernment over the mayor, the council, and decisions that are made, Father God. That you lead us and you guide us and we just look to you vertically for your guidance, Lord Jesus. We give you all. Well, I'm going to also pray for Josh Bowling that's away from us in this meeting and serving and doing your mission work, Father God. We pray your protection over him, Lord Jesus. And we also pray protection over our city, Lord God. And we just thank you for all that you do for us and what you give us, Lord Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen.