City Council - Regular Meeting

Let's call the meeting to order. Indivisible and justice for all. Roll call. Miss Curtis. Mayor Sasha here. Council member Morford here. Council member Erdialis here. Council member Caper here. Council member Garcia, he's uh Oh, yeah. Yep. Absent. Yep. Council member Boyette here. Council member James Sparks here.

All right. Next on the agenda is public comment. Audience participation for items not on the not on the agenda. Public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. Speaker must sign in at the sheet next to the podium and address the council from that podium. The council will not take action um at this meeting in response to public comment. Anybody seeing none? Next on the agenda, presentation and possible action by revol resolution on bids for the construction of the aquatic center. Mr. Underwood.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, so tonight I bring before you the the results of our bid for the construction manner management slashgeneral contractor services for the new aquatics facility. Um, essentially this is who's going to build it. This is the nuts, the bolts, the uh concrete, everything from the design uh to get us to where we want to be to build the community pool that'll serve us up to 365 days a year. Part of the process, we did go out to bid on January 8th for this to which we received six proposals. After receiving those six proposals, we turned around as a group and using a variety of factors including experience, timeline, cost, staff availability, references, and just overall rapport. Uh we came up with a short list of candidates to which we interviewed uh resulting from those interviews. Honestly, it was three amazing groups that all three of them could have turned around and built this facility for us. But that being said, there could only be one. So tonight, we're here to request council approval to accept the GH FIPS proposal in the amount of 27 million 260,55. Big number. For those of you who don't know, GH BIPS was the general s uh the GC the CMGC for the fieldhouse project. So there is a good familiarity number one with them. uh a lot of the same group, a lot of the same party will be in this process. Again, uh they've also been there and done that. For those of you who remember, Fieldhouse was a project that successfully met budget and actually came in under budget. So, as much as we feel any of those groups could have done the job, it's pretty nice to know that someone's also proven it as well. Uh so, with that, I'll entertain any questions about the process or how we came to the conclusion. Any questions for Matt?

Um, what is their history as far as pool? I didn't catch that part. Have they done construction of pool facilities?

Yes, an extensive history. All of the groups obviously I don't think you take on a project like this without knowing that. Uh, their project superintendent in particular had an extensive background in it. And tell you the truth, he was probably one of the biggest factors that put him up put him over the edge for us. Uh he's done every project from Woodland Park to Fort Collins to Windsor. Uh they've done nitoriums which is similar to what we'll be doing to high school swim facilities to hotel pools. Uh ghips obviously being a large company you know across the US. So more than comfortable as far as their familiarity with any kind of project of this scope.

Thank you. Do we have a time set for start? Which aspect of just digging a hole? Uh digging a hole. Not quite yet. If we go by the essential time the the timelines that we have currently in place. Uh we would be looking at somewhere ideally perfect world schematic design cost estimating all hits exactly where we want it to hit. We could be looking at October of this year.

Uh we could have construction drawings everything starting in on that. Uh some of the money you'll see here allocated, the bulk of this is going to be 2027 expenditures, guys. Uh the biggest bunch of this money that'll come out will be probably pre-ordering of materials with long lead times, but we would be looking right now as far as that goes. Uh for knowledge sake, you'll see in the timeline that I included in the packet that they right now tenatively have a March 2028 opening date for the pool if we hit that. Uh that was always kind of a big goal of ours because realistically we don't want to get two pools ready at the same time and we don't want to lose any additional services. Uh if things go great along the way, lead times, we get another ridiculous winter like we have this year to where we can do construction without any kind of issues. Hey, anything can go quicker. But we felt very comfortable with their timeline because they were honest about it. Other groups had earlier ones. They said those were aggressive and we were probably biting off more than we can chew. Projects like this, we want honesty from individuals who are willing to push back a little, but also know in the end that Brent's the boss.

Okay. Awesome. All right. Entertain a resolution. Your honor, I'd like to make a resolution to accept the bid from GH FIPS proposal in the amount of 27,260,55 for the management/ general contractor of the Fort Morgan Aquatic Center. Second. All right, we have a resolution by Jim Parks, another one by Lauren Boyette. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you. Stat. All right. Next on the agenda is I

I think those two boys in the back wanted to speak. Oh, did we miss you? Yeah. Sorry. Oh, well, come on up, bud. Just sign in there at the podium.

I'll go over the rules again. It's just uh give you three minutes and and uh Yep. The trap door hits and you go away. Okay. The floor drops out. Y.

All right. You guys ready? Uh, I believe we're ready.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Diego. This is my partner, Aldi. We're part of a nonprofit organization called Kids at the Rest. I'm sure many of you have heard of us. Um, we are both currently Americanore members at Kids at their best. I'm here to talk to you guys about an event that the Northeastern Rural Philanthropy holds about every two years and of course a couple sponsorship opportunities that we hope to take forward on. Kids at the Best is a nonprofit organization based off the northeastern plains of Colorado. We have many different programs. Our summer program, our STEM program, we have 13 pantries throughout Morgan County. 11 of those are schools. One of them is a senior center and another one is our East African pantry that actually my partner here Abby runs. Another big program that we have where I at the rest is our NYHPD. It's where we help youth and homeless try to pay with housing. We help help them pay with renting etc. And we just want to promote the philanthropy days. For more than 30 years, the CRC has conveyed a real witness and statewide grant makers to the philanthropy days to improve communities just like us. And it it brings a lot of benefits. The sponsorship demonstrates your organization's civic engagements, commitment to supporting the vibrant nonprofit sector across the northeastern region, and it's just looking for sponsorships. like my partner Diego said.

And we have a couple flyers we're hoping to hand out. Thank you, sir. You guys have any further questions for us. That wouldn't be answered on the flyers. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. You're welcome. Thanks. Yeah, Bill.

All right. Yeah, Bill gets everything. All right, Sandy, you're up. Establishing a Main Street Board. Yes. Proving the bylaws. Yes.

Good evening. On July 15th, 2025, the Fort Morgan City Council passed a resolution supporting the application to the Department of Local Affairs for the city's participation in the Main Street program. This was after several public presentations attended by Fort Morgan merchants, businesses, and interested parties who enthusiastically supported efforts to move forward with a formal application and that had input from the community as to the direction that they that they felt this organization should take. In January, it was announced that our community received its official Main Street designation. We are one of 31 Colorado communities and 1,600 nationwide to be a part of this community-led revitalization program to cultivate a vibrant downtown that honors its heritage, champions its unique businesses and historic properties and enhances the downtown experiences that makes Fort Morgan a great place to shop, work, gather, and thrive. The next step is to create a formalized Main Street board for the facilitation and management of the memorandum of understanding requirements for participation in the DOA's Main Street program, which involves a resolution to create the board and approve the proposed bylaws that were included in your packet. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Anybody have any questions? So when do we go out and get uh people?

Yes. So we actually put together an application process and so this has been going on all year. Um, we've had several community businesses um and interested parties that have filled in applications and they've actually been participating over the past several months um just informally um with the strategic planning process of the board. So, we have several of those individuals uh lined up. Um you will notice that the proposed bylaws allow for eight um different um board positions. One being the city manager, but then the other seven um appointed by you from the interested parties. They all represent uh various stakeholders um that have a significant I guess uh interest in having the downtown area kept vibrant. um it's made you know this is obviously a community-led um and communitydriven type of of organization and so the stakeholders include uh business owners b building owners which could be the same and but yet could be separate but all have different you know interest. Um, Fort Morgan large businesses that have a lot of employees that might shop or live or participate in events in the downtown area. Uh, Fort Morgan Chamber of Commerce, the Historic Preservation Board. Um, and I'm probably missing uh what? Oh, Morgan Community College. So, those they're spelled out um in the bylaws as far as the areas that will be represented. And um of course we did um

also allow for uh city council liaison um to participate in the board as well. They would be non- voting. Okay. All right. All right. Do I hear a resolution? Your honor, I'd like to make a resolution to establish a Main Street Board and approve bylaws. Second. I have a resolution by Jim Parks, a second by Brian. You're in Dallas. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you. We're excited.

All right. Presentation of possible action on a resolution accepting the grant from the Colorado Aeronautic Board for the airfield paving maintenance at the Port Morgan Municipal Airport. Mr. Acre,

good evening. mayor and uh city council. This is a grant that the uh Colorado aeronautical division of sea dot grants to airports periodically really preserving the pavement that they have helped fund at the various airports across the state. This project would resurface and crack seal u the current runway and taxiways um and the portion of the aircraft apron that we're uh tying into with a separate project this year. By the end of the summer, we would have an airport paving uh system that looks brand new with the uh addition of the airport apron that we will do primarily first and then this would follow after we send it out for bids. The current runway in the pavement has a PCI of about 82 based on the last inspection. That qualifies it for uh maintenance dollars from uh Colorado uh Aeronautical. And the runway and the taxiways have some medium longitudinal cracking and signs of weathering indicating a need to resurface as well. Uh the grant is ready to go. They asked us to do a resolution to accept the grant. Um they told us at the meeting in uh January that we were being recommended for approval and uh we're ready to get going on it. With that, I can answer any questions.

Any questions for Tom? I just see that there's a 33,000. That's just like a 10% match. Yes. and we'll take that out as some savings within the CIP budget. All righty. Any other questions? All right. Enterain a resolution. Your honor, I'll go make uh resolution accepting the grant from the Colorado Aeronautical Board for the airfield paving maintenance at the Fort Morgan Municipal Airport. Second. Have a resolution by John Caper, second by Jim Parks. Roll call. That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thanks. All righty. Presentation possible national resolution amending the adoption adopt 20 2026 schedule fee. Mr. Sharp.

Thank you, your honor. Um about six weeks ago I was here to talk about some of the changes in fees as it related to the animal shelter. Um since that time we've learned a lot about the animal shelter and a couple things wanted to make a couple adjustments. So uh one of those things is that all animals now um have to be spay or neutered prior to being adopted out which we did have the fee set before at $50 if it was already sterilized $100. If not, we want to change that fee to $100 across the board because obviously there will be expenses for that spay and neuter as well. Um, and then we've got some grants and other things in the works to help offset those. The um, cat adoption fees we also changed a little bit. So, it's a $35 cat adoption or $10 for feral cats. That becomes a problem and we're trying to get those out of the shelter as well. Um, and then we added microchipping. One of our main focuses we want to do along with the licensing is microchipping and doing everything we can to keep these animals out of the shelter. So, uh, we found we can provide the microchip inhouse. So, we would add a $35 fee. So, if somebody were to come adopt a dog for $100, pay $15 to have it licensed and another um 35 would do a microchipping. So, for $150, we'd have all of that out the door. So, um, we added that microchipping fee there as well. The only other thing that changed, um, certified VIN fee has changed. The state now author allows us to charge $54 as Councilman Parks pointed out to us. So, um, listening to Matt talking about $27 million. We wanted to do our part. This will bring about $60 this year, I think. Um, so we're kind of chipping away at that 27 million.

All right. One certified bin at a time. Yeah. There we go. Any questions about that? No. Uh, just one. If, uh, somebody was to pick up a dog from another world and brought them here and get them licensed for Fort Morgan and chipped. Yep. Okay.

Yeah. So, we we would be happy to do that. They'd be required to be licensed if they live in the city of Fort Morgan. We we purchased some uh pretty cool little QR code things that anybody can find it. Again, we don't want our code enforcement to have to find it. So, if you find if your animal's licensed and anybody were to see your animal, they could use their phone. Don't need an app. It'll give a QR code, tell you who the owner is. Give them their phone number and send a GPS coordinate to the owner through an email immediately to let them know where their animal was just scanned. So, hopefully we can get people to return those animals without even having to call the police and get a ticket and the shelter fees and all the other things that go with it. So, we're focusing a lot on that part, but yes, we would be happy to do that for anybody in the public because that would leave our shelter empty. Hopefully,

that's a good thing. All right, any more questions? Entertain a resolution. Your honor, I'd like to make a resolution to amend and adopt the 2026 schedule and fees. I got a resolution by Jim Parks, second by John Caper. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. All right. Continuing with cheap sharp um annual report.

Okay. Um I know you all got a copy. I know you've all read it. Covered a end already and probably have no questions. But the only thing I really want to point out I always look for things that are that are positive in some areas that we could improve. And I think it's interesting to see for I believe the fifth year in a row our crime has gone down. Um looking at group A offenses basically to simplify it. little oversimplification, but group A is any offense that's a felony, most serious offenses. Group B would be more minor offenses. Our group A offenses continue to go down um considerably for the fifth year in a row, which is great. This year, our group B offenses also went down marginally, not as great. On the other side, our clearance rates decreased just a little bit. They were consistently going up, meaning we were clearing more cases with good outcomes. um they dipped a little bit to 48 point basically 49% which is still well above state and federal but that's a place where we want to focus and try to see if we can continue to decrease the crime and increase those positive outcomes. So otherwise I think you know there's the staff did a great job and it really highlights all the work the staff does throughout the year because I think um they're doing a great job in a lot of areas that most people don't even realize exist in a police department. So

awesome. Good job. Any questions for Chief Sharp? Alrighty. Consent agenda, Miss Curtis.

Thank you, Mayor. The approval of consent agenda 9A and 9B are the approval of the dispersements and payroll for February and approval of minutes of the February 17th, 2026. Approval of the minutes of the March 3rd city council meeting. All matters listed under item nine, consent agenda, are considered routine business by the council and will be enacted with a single motion and a single vote by roll call. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is deemed necessary, that should that item should be removed from consent agenda and considered separately. That was a mouthful.

Yeah. All right. um entertain a resolution. Your honor, I'd like to make a resolution to accept the consent agenda A and B. All right. I have a resolution by Jim Parks, a second by John Caper. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously.

All righty. Next on the agenda is reports by official and staff. Mr. Underwood. Uh not a lot not a lot of major things to report tonight. Obviously Brent will be out for the next three days. He'll be back sometime Friday. So we're doing our best not to bother him and uh keep his belief that we won't burn the city down in his absence, you know, but doing well so far. We got day one out of the books. Uh just as a reminder, next council meeting, a few of the highlights to uh keep an eye out for. We'll have a couple uh variant setbacks that will be coming as in the way of public hearings as well as a few bids that we'll be bringing to council including fire station two roof replacement, the east railroad a and Sherman Street traffic signal uh water infrastructure projects as well as the final one for the XL substation control building. Um, one other thing just for knowledge sake, circling back to the aquatic facility in probably May, we'll be coming to council just for a general update on where we're at. You know, get we'll have the SDS schematic design done at that point and we'll be able to kind of give you guys the highlights and the bare bones and let the public tune in to kind of see where that process is going. Uh, so just keep a lookout for that. But beyond that, that's all we got.

Awesome. Thanks, man. Sure. Oh, yes. I have a question. Oh, get after. Y sign project 9. How's that going?

We've had a few bumps in the road. Uh, not to be expected. Uh, not to be unexpected, I should say, when you're talking about depths that we're talking. Uh, staff has done a good job being on top of it and working through it. You know, always remind everyone, we've got a lot of smart, capable people out there. Uh they're keeping their eyes on it between Tom, Doug, street department. Uh right on top of it. Would we love to tell you that we're way ahead of schedule right now? Yeah. No sense starting off my first meeting lying to you guys. Uh like I say, some bumps in the road, but the staff's basically got a plan. We know where we got to go with it, and there'll be more updates to come with that. It's an impressive thing to when you start thinking about those kind of depths, though. Uh, anytime you get to see an excavator pick up a skidster and drop it into a hole, uh, it's something else to be seen. Uh, it's just unique, you know, but it is it is going the way it needs to go right now. They're making progress. And, you know, a lot of the time with these projects, those subcontractors, they got to learn the they got to kind of learn how they're going about this. They got to feel for that clay sand mix down there. They've got a feel for how tight that road gets really quickly and it's going well though. Uh but yes, learning curves with projects of that nature. Thank goodness we don't have to do these type of ones every day.

Thank you. Is it going to be that deep all the way down Main Street, too? Uh obviously elevations change because it's grade. It's my understanding that some of the shallowest parts will be some of those areas that are going to affect like ramps and stuff like that, but they'll they'll it'll change along the way. But again, uh, they're putting in 52 in pipe. Yeah.

I mean, double the size of what was down there. And so, just to get that done. But it's going to get it's going to get harder before it gets easier, but it's also going to get, you know, better before it gets worse. It's all just the process. And again, that's where you just know you've got qualified people from a city end and subcontractor in that know what they're doing. and we'll put that thing back together and a wink of an eye, they can all yell at us about something new next year, right? Well, it'll fill up with water quick here shortly. Yes, it will. Yeah, hopefully. All right, Chief Sharp.

All right, March 30th is rapidly approaching. That's the day we take over the shelter. Um, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing at this point, but we're well on our way. Um, we have been doing interviews this week for the shelter tech. Started those today. Actually, we had over 100 applications for a part-time shelter technician. So, that's very positive. We had some really good applicants. There's some good interviews today. I think I'm confident we're going to find good people there. Um, code enforcement also, we had well over 50 applicants for that for that part-time position. So, um, we're we're well on on our way to finding good quality candidates for both of those. So, I think we're going to be well prepared for that that change over when it comes. Um, I think that's really all I have.

Um, your awards are like April 1st. April 1st. Yeah, we're going to have our awards ceremony and then a department picture on April 1st. Okay. All right. If you guys didn't get the invitation, you will. I think. Okay. All right. I just trying to remember. So, I will send that out in my report. I didn't send it out last week when I was on vacation, but you'll get it this week on that off week anyway since we have an off week. Okay. All right. Bids, meetings, announcement, Miss Curtis.

Thank you. There are quite there's a big handful of bids. Uh, we have the on call services for electric utility repairs and excavating projects which is open until March 20th at 3 p.m. The Fort Morgan fire station 2 roof replacement project is open until March 20th at 3 p.m. The demolition of streets and sanitation buildings is open until April 10th, 3 p.m. The railroad and Sherman traffic signal is open until March 27th at 3 p.m. Water underground infrastructure projects is open until tomorrow, March 18th at 3 p.m. Then we have pipe gate valves, MJ fittings, and fire hydrants, which is also open until tomorrow at 3 p.m. Benefit consulting services is open until March 30th at 3 p.m. And on call services for electric utility repairs and excavating projects is open until March 20th at 3 p.m. The next meetings that are coming up are March 23rd, a planning commission meeting here in the council chambers, the Museum Heritage Foundation at the library museum community room on March 26th, and then our next city council meeting is April 7th at 6 p.m.

Awesome. Allan, Pete, this is your chance. You got to like crowd tonight. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Next on the agenda is executive session for the purpose of discussing and purchasing a yeah a quest acquisition

the acquisition lease transfer into the sale of real personal or other property interest interested under CRS section 246 4024A and for the purpose of determining positions relative to matter that may be subject to negotiation developing strategies negotiations and/or instructing negotiations under CRS section 246424E and for the following additional detail provided for the identification purpose and discussion of negotiating parameters surrounding the potential purchase of local real property. Do I have somebody want to go into a executive

I'll make a motion to go in executive session. Do I second? Anybody oppose? I don't know. All in favor?