Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Afternoon. I call the meeting to order of the city of Frankfurt Board of Commissioners. This is our January work session. Today is January 12th. It's 300 p.m. And madame clerk, will you please call the role?

Mr. Richardson here. Mr. Present. Mr. May here. Mr. Smith Willis here. Mayor Wilson present. And uh no ceremonial or recognition to start off the new year. We do have uh citizens comments next. I believe we have one that I saw. Is anybody in charge of that? Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson, would you like to step forward? I I saw a name on there. Maybe there's more than one, but And I'll remind you come to the podium and state your name and we give you five minutes and we'll give you a one minute warning.

Okay. So, I didn't plan on something so formal. Uh, my name is Andrew Ferguson. I live on 221 Code Stream Drive, Frankfurt, Kentucky. Good. All right, you have the floor.

All right. So, I'm not here really to complain, but kind of looking for solutions, right? And it's not just me, it's other people. I mean, I have my moments where I'm like, I wish they'd put a speed bump here, or I'd wish they would do this. And and most of the time I talk myself out of I'm like, you know, it's not that important. Um, I've hit a I had a few problems. Like, I have eight people that live in my house. I have four children and another child that lives here and then three adults, right? And we hit a we hit a problem when it comes to trash. And I've done everything I can and I'm looking for help on it. Now, I've worked with people I've called the people down at the the uh solid waste department and I've talked to them and trying to find out options and I'm hitting the wall there. Um, over the years I've been here since I bought a house here in about 2009. I've lived here roughly 2007, 2008, whenever it got whenever gas went astronomical high back in 2008. Um, over the years there's been changes. We've got trash cans now. Used to you just put out whatever and uh we uh used to be able to have a bulk pickup three or four times a year. you can just put out stuff and now you got to call and schedule it. Um, you used to be able to have leaves and and branches like that. I think it still does. It didn't pick up my stuff last year, but you can call and schedule it. When I call to schedule stuff, it's usually a full voicemail, right? And I do get through every now and again. Like I think we called for about two weeks, we finally got through, scheduled the bolt pick up on it. We do have four dumps like be able to load up our trucks or whatever and take to the dump four times a year. I usually use all four of mine since I found out about that. Um, if there is too much trash, you can go to Kroger and buy blue bags, right? And that is a viable that's a viable answer.

But the problem I have is even if you get up, my trash runs on Friday morning, by the way. Even if I get up at 6 a.m. Friday and put my blue bags out, we have uh we have raccoons and foxes and all kinds of stuff. And I will have to go clean up my neighbor's yard almost every time. So, I I called I was like, "Hey guys, how about I go to Lowe's and buy one of these big trash cans. It's exactly like what you guys have. I will put the blue bags in there. You guys can dump that. That way, you don't have everybody picking up and it's easy for your trash can to get it. But the rule is it's only one trash can per house, no matter if it's two people or eight people. And I will get fined if I put my trash can out there." So, I could put 20 blue bags out there and cause the people walking around picking up the bags to throw it in, which I feel bad. Feel bad doing that. Or I could take it to the dump. But it's only one four times a year only on Sunday from like 7 to 11, right? And I and I got suggestions. I mean, we could have a a common dump area. If you've ever lived in Tennessee, I've lived in Albuquerque or New Mexico, Tennessee, Whitley County. I've had a house in Lexington. I've had a house here. So, I've lived a little over creation at this point. So, I've I've seen it where there's a common dump area, right? Or uh or a common bulk area you can take stuff to to put in the trash can. I mean, I ideally I'm I'm a little lazy. I wouldn't mind just going and spending 100 bucks and getting a bigger trash can that they can grab with their truck and dumping, but I understand if it causes problem with neighbors and stuff like that. But, uh, any kind of thing, any kind of solution would would work. I just I don't like cleaning up trash in my neighbor's yard, and I I don't like causing people work extra in the morning because I feel like they're a little short-handed.

And that's it. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson. I'm on the public works and infrastructure committee. Those meetings are open to the public. Um, I would like to hear your suggestions. Um, I'm rather newer to the council, but I really would like to kind of have like that open, transparent conversation about what you think would be more feasible for your community and your household. Um, so I just wanted to throw that out there because I'm willing to kind of just talk through it because I don't have all the solutions myself, but I would like to hear kind of where you're coming from. And then also, Commissioner, so I I think we have a really open door policy, but thank you for putting this um out in the front and center, and I would like to work with you to hear your suggestions. So, thank you for coming in. Okay. Thank you so much.

Right. And thank you for bringing up the customer service too because we want we take pride in that. We want to make sure when people call that we get back to them or at least answer the phone. And well messages

when you call you can be a little heated and I do my dangness not to do that because I know they just work there. They probably get all kinds of nasty people calling but I even called the lady back. I was like, "Hey, if I sounded mad last time, I'm sorry. I know you didn't do it. Can we please work through this and find find a solution?" because uh yeah, I think uh I Yeah. So, I I had a a mattress I'm trying to throw away, so I rolled it up and stuck it in my trash can. That's not acceptable, by the way. You're not allowed to do that. Which I'm We got that. We finally got through and got the bulk trash scheduled to be picked up. So, in next next Friday, it's going to get picked up. But yeah, it's bulk stuff's not so bad. It's when you got bags of food, that stuff will get ripped up every time. So, anyway,

thank you, Mr. Ferguson. Right, moving on to staff reports. We have a staff report. Uh Kenny Hawkton's going to talk about the wastewater treatment plant update.

Good afternoon. Uh not a whole lot on the wastewater plant yet to date. Uh we're still very early in the preliminary stages. We're going through different processes to figure out uh what's going to work best for us long term. Uh and then we have to consider, you know, cost options that go with those and and then just move forward from there. Uh we are looking to try to use a smaller footprint uh with uh some additional processes to help uh keep it more compact. Uh but we're still I I'll say it's really early right now. Uh we really haven't even started, you know, the plant design, the formal design yet. We're still just looking at different processes on how to move forward with those things. So, we're still at least a year out before we would have significant uh information to bring back to you all.

And uh I'd be interested to know what I guess how who's involved in that process. Is the city manager involved in that process?

As of right now, we just keep him up to date. He's not been heavily involved. Um, we have went to several different other plants to look at their processes, talk to their operators to see how these different processes run, how they operate. Right now, the process that we have is very m maintenance intensive. And for lack of better terms, we're spending a lot of money on just keeping things running. And long term, we don't want to have to do that. We want to make sure that the new plant has a a system that is much more reliable, uh much more energy efficient, and we don't have to worry about the breakdowns that we have now. If I if I recall when we did the uh the EN rail study three or four years ago when we were talking about going 100% renewable, the one of the things that they brought up was the wastewater treatment plant uses a significant amount of the city's energy. Well, that's a big contributor to our energy usage. Is there any uh I just want to be mindful of that is since I know we're not very far down the pro the road here to explore those options. I know other cities have uh looked at or put in systems that are not totally self- sustaining. they still rely on on energy but you know in times of well when energyy's down or the electricity is down I should say that they're they could they could island for a while and and keep keep running.

One of the things uh bioolids is one of those things that uh has been a very hot topic here lately for POS uh you know the microplastics. So as we have been looking at that we wanted to go to class A which makes our bioolids a soil supplement. So you can mix it with mulch co compost and all different things and it just helps add nutrients back into the ground. But until we know whether they're going to make the microplastics a recrochemical or not that we have to put that on hold. We we can't sit there and say, "Okay, we're going to land farm and landfill all this stuff and then in 10 years it gets uh designated a record chemical and then the land owner is now responsible to clean up every bit of microplastics that's on his or her uh land. So, there's still a lot of regulations that we're trying to work through, but that's what we're in that right now. we're in that planning stage so that we're we're looking at each process and how we can make it the most efficient of what we can and not waste as much energy. Unfortunately, wastewater it's not the cheapest and you're going to have you're going to use energy to to make sure everything is treated. So UV is one of those that is going to reduce our uh electricity because we'll be able to ramp the bulbs up and down and only use exactly what we have to have instead of having our our generators for our ozone system running full blast all the time. So that is one of those things that we will be using less and you know it's kind of a balance. We can use chemicals or we can use electricity and you know we actually get a very good deal on our electricity. So we try to use the electricity more than we do the chemicals. Any other questions? And for the record, how how we're expanding the plant. That's the whole purpose of this, right? Upgrading it and expanding this, correct?

For future growth. We want to double the capacity of the plant. That way, we have more room to grow and for 50 years, we should be good for any economic development or large facilities that would like to come in. That's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Hawk. Discussion items. The first item in discussion would be the Capital Plaza and County IRB pilot program. We're going to have Gil Johnson come up and present to you all on this.

Thank you, Mayor Jason. Uh, my name is Gil Johnson. Um, I'm bond counsel for Franklin County connection with the proposed industrial revenue bond financing for the Capitol Plaza Hotel. Uh, just a little brief history. Oh, by the way, I should introduce Russ Osman. He's uh he's one of the principles with the uh developer and it's here today.

So much for taking time to work with us. But uh in any event, this morning uh we there was a finance committee meeting uh at Franklin County Fiscal Court where we reviewed the industrial revenue bond uh proposal. Uh I think it's fair to say it received a favor favorable u response although they don't vote on that until January the 20th at the fiscal court meeting. But the bond that we propose to uh or they propose to issue will be in an amount not to exceed $33 million and it will be for the complete and total renovation of the Capitol Plaza Hotel. Uh various upgrades etc which I think have been the subject of some conversations in this community both city and county for the last u probably last year. Um but in any event uh we we propose to issue that and the benefit of doing that is to provide a local incentive and that local incentive is the abatement of property tax. Um and that's what I am here today to kind of either answer your questions and present to you what we're asking the city to do and what we are asking and what we've asked actually the school district city independent school district to do that they've agreed to. Um so first of all the pilot agreement is exactly what it is says. It's a payment in lie of taxes. Uh the structure of the transaction will be that the plaza hotel property will in fact be transferred to the county albeit temporarily for a 10-year period of time. That is in accordance with the Kentucky statutes uh to provide this particular abatement KRS 103.285. And once that's accomplished, then they will lease the property back to the uh to the developer. Developer will then proceed with construction. Uh they have invested, I believe, about $6 million in the property. That's with the

acquisition of the property itself. Um and there's an additional roughly 2728 million u that would be added into that. we put a few extra dollars in the bond uh proposal or bond resolution so that in case we had any overruns etc. Why that would be covered without us having to go back through this process again. Uh as I said we have proposed to ask the city to join in in the pilot agreement u and we ask or the county asked also that there be a preparation of some financial analysis. I'm not a financial adviser. don't purport to be one. Uh but I do believe that you have in front of you or certainly was in the package that I delivered. Um the projections based upon information that Compass Municipal Advisors had secured and I I'm just going to hold that up. It's in memor. Okay. All right. So, I I want to start with with the school first because the school uh has agreed um to a one-time payment of about a million63,000 that will cover a period, it's intended to cover a period of 10 years when they don't actually assess the tax. It's a literally a payment in loo. That's probably more accurate to say it's about a 9-year transaction because of the way the calendar falls. Um, but it's a million63 that will be paid upfront to the school district. They will receive their entitle their their entire amount of of tax, property tax. That's all I'm talking about, property tax for the year 2026. So, the whole transactions intended to start as of January 1, 207. And even though the property would be transferred sometime in 26 because it's

on the property tax roles as of January 1 of this year, um it's it's subject to the tax. So it won't start until the 27th. Um I'll go through what I think is the city of Frankfurt's current um tax situation with the property itself as it stands today. Uh it's a $6 million um valuation on the PVA's books and it produces uh about $11,800 in real property taxes to the city each year. Uh in addition to that um which is not covered by the property tax is but the following taxes are not. Occupational tax is about 29,000 and the transient room tax is about $107,000 and your current parking revenues which obviously aren't taxes are about $11,700. So that's roughly what you're collecting right now would continue to collect uh if the project does not go forward. and West Banko is providing the financing to the developer uh and has indicated as has the developer that the project will probably not go forward without the issuance of industrial revenue bonds. It's the incentive uh that they get from the property tax that that makes it attractive I guess to the to the bank. If we go through with the project for the years 27 through 2036, your revenues increase dramatically. First of all, you don't get any property tax. So, you go from 11,800 down to zero. You come up with an occupational tax which would move from 29,000 up to 503,000. That is for the entire 10-year period of time. I don't want to indicate otherwise. And then over that 10-year period of time, your transit taxes would be 2,113,000 and change. parking revenues would go up

because of the operation to an estimated $4,15,000. So, the investment that we're asking the city to consider is roughly an $11 million $11,800 um abatement of property tax in exchange for the additions in occupational trans tax, the transit room tax, and the increase in the parking revenues. Um there is one other item that's in this particular uh uh pilot agreement and that is uh the developer has in fact given us for lack of a better word a guarantee that we will we will hit 43 full-time equivalent jobs and 60% average daily occupancy beginning with the period January 1, 2030. they would be required under this agreement to provide a certificate of the number of employees and certify the uh the occupancy rate daily occupancy rate uh for for the annual period of time. So uh that would be for the year 2030 and if they didn't accomplish that then a portion 50% of what you would have received would come back to to you in the form of payments. So, uh, basically what it is, I can answer any question about the revenue bonds, any question about the pilot, I hope, and, uh, any other questions you may have. And if some should be directed to Mr. Salisman, I will turn around and direct them to him.

We'll open it up for discussion or questions for Mr. Johnson and team. Commissioner Richardson. Commissioner, Commissioner Richardson, you got the floor. A lot of numbers. Yes, sir. I'm trying to write this down as quick as I can. Okay. Well, I'll go I'll go back through it. The 5 and three 53 thou uh th,000 over the 10-year period. It It would equate to around 50,000 a year, which is greater than the 29 we're getting now. Yes, sir. I'm just trying to compare apples to apples. Does that make sense? No, it certainly does.

You quote it. I just want to make sure the public knows that. I mean that five 503 looks really good, but when you break it down, it's still going to be, you know, we're still looking at about a $21,000 increase. Yeah, that that's correct. And that's why exactly I said that the 10-year period because somebody can look at that and say, "Whoa, I went from 30 to 500." So, yeah, I agree with you. Okay. And and the parking u I'm assuming the parking revenues are based on your estimates of the of your occas occupancy rate that you're you're kind of quoting. Is that kind of where that number's coming from as well? Yes, sir. Not only is that where that number come that number comes from the developer. Now, I don't represent the developer. I'm not here on behalf of the developer,

but that number comes from the occupancy because if you're a guest in the hotel, Yeah. you're paying that parking and they are paying you. Okay. Okay. So, I just want to know where that I just kind of figure out where that came from. No, no, that's where that's where it comes from. uh because of the increased occupancy, you know, they're going to change they're going to change the u uh the rooms. Uh there will be, you know, improved. There's going to be two or three restaurants in there and then they'll have facilities for enhanced banquet facilities. Uh which I would think would would be a positive development for the convention center if if that goes through. Yeah.

So, um whoever's parking there to eat dinner or to stay overnight or whatever, that does increase that parking revenue. Okay. Intended to, I should say. Right. Thank you, Commissioner May. My one question was answered in that conversation. So, thank you. It was kind of more about some of the parking stuff. So, I will say u I'm excited that this project is moving along and that we're having these conversations and I'm excited about the opportunity to see uh what we know is a crucial part of our economic development structure in Frankfurt and Franklin County and the surrounding area. So, it's a it's an exciting opportunity. U there's a lot for me in this chair to to digest right now. Sure.

Um but I can say that, you know, I'm committed to keeping the doors open here right now and uh talking as we move along this and just want to say I appreciate the the interest and the investment so far in our community. Sure. And and and if I could just comment to what you just said, Commissioner, uh our schedule at or their schedule right now in mine is is that the county will take up the the IRB resolution on January the 20th. I don't know when your all city meeting is, but whatever that next one is, we would ask that you consider 26th. Huh? 26th.

Okay. We've asked that you consider that the school board has already negotiated and has agreed to to what I just indicated earlier. So there won't be any revisions there. I don't know when they meet. I think Michael George told me it was or Sher Slatter told me it was February the 9th I want to say. Okay.

It may be January 26th but because that date was in my mind but that might have been the cities. But in any event, u February 9th and then at that stage once that's done, the documents would be signed and we would proceed to closing. Now, I still have to go to the Department of Local Government for their approval because this is a hotel. I do not anticipate any issues. We've done this before. I've done quite a few of hotels, excuse me, in the western part of the state. So, I don't anticipate that being an issue based on what I've seen in terms of the documents. But I got to take that step. County has to take it. Um, actually, if you all were doing it, you'd have to take it even though you're not subject to DLG jurisdiction. But, but

so that's that's the schedule. So, I anticipate probably a March closing of the bonds. Okay. Uh, it also depend on West Banko. I don't think I mentioned this, but West Banko is the financial institution. um they are the ones through through the developer that ask for the industrial revenue bonds. Um and quite simply, I mean, in all cander, the the tax rates at at the city and the tax rate property tax rates at the county are are somewhat insignificant. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense, but when you compare them to the school district, it's it's it's a small dollar investment in my my opinion.

Sure. in ex especially in exchange for this and with some guarantees that are in the pilot. But absolutely. Thank you. And we're going to go to Commissioner Anger.

Thank you. Um I wish I was there with you tonight. I appreciate you coming to present this information to us. Bill, um I am excited for the community. Sounds like it's a it's a winwin for everybody. I appreciate you working with independent school system as well on that. Um coming to an agreement there. Um I was wondering I think my only concern is um if staff could um maybe we could discuss uh any additional safeguards for those 2030 uh date numbers. Um, I don't know if we need to do that right now, but um, just if if for some reason those numbers for the 43 full-time or the 60% average daily occupancy doesn't happen, what what does that look like? So, I just wanted to mention that, but thank you so much and I'm excited to work with you guys.

Well, let let me address that. I those numbers did come from the developer. Um, the 43 number, uh, well, maybe I got to admit it came from me because when I asked their lawyer what what the full-time equivalent jobs were, he said 40 to 45. So, I said, "Okay, 43." And and so I I'll take responsibility for that. the average daily um occupancy uh was stated to be a little bit high higher than the 60% number that that it's in the document. Um but the judge uh or judge Mueller had indicated that he did not he he thought that was a little high and and so I went back to the developer and the developer came up with what I think the judge thinks is a more reasonable number for I don't want to put words in his mouth but that's that's the way I heard it. So the the 60% uh I think is a very good number but it's an aggressive number. Uh that's why you give them three years to get out there. And 43 is probably more than doable. Uh I would say with part-times, you're probably going to get as close to oh 50 or 60, but that's just what I've been what I've seen, but I can't make that representation.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Smith Willis. Um the one question I had Commissioner had already asked and then you had answered it, Mr. Gil, I just I think I wanted clarification on the timeline one more time. I was just trying to also digest the numbers. So, we're technically just waiting for the county for their meeting and then this will fall back in our court. Correct. Correct. Yeah, I think that's correct. And then is there a specific was there a date that he gave that we need to like really kind of lock in on? They requested the 26 for our voting meeting. Got you. Thank you. So my questions and I think you touched on it on the occ what's the current occupation occupancy rate?

Have to look that up. I'm gonna I'm say it's probably 40 something like that. But let me can I get back to you on that mayor?

Yeah because if you're if we're putting a a target out there that you're already hitting it's not much performance clause. Uh, and I was, you know, there's nothing in there in terms of of us, uh, what if the renovation doesn't happen and and then we're going to sit here for 10 years and not collect taxes on it. I'd like to have some assurance that that I mean, technically, could you just rent out the rest of those apartments and still hit your occupancy goals? Well, that would be virtually impossible from from the lease perspective because the lease and now that's not an agreement with the city, that's an agreement with the county have to operate a hotel. That's number one. Number two, uh that's the department of local government as well. And as you may be aware, the general assembly passed a new provision in industrial revenue bond financing that allows for multi-ousing financing. we would be outside that realm. So the short answer to that from that perspective is I don't I don't think that's an issue. Thirdly, and probably more important is West Banko because I don't think they're going to finance this if they're going to change their business model, which is which is what that question kind

and I don't Yeah, I don't know if it was well because I know it's it's a mix right now of of residential and it does have some apartments and I don't know what they're supposed to do with that.

And my other question, this is for 10 years. After 10 years, this do what does the city have to do? It's a max of 10 years, could be less than 10 years. If for any reason they sold the property, which they'd have the right to do, that collapses the transaction. You're now at a let's say they spend $30 million, you're at a $30 million facility. Because what the PVA will do, he it will come off the tax roles for tax purposes. However, he has to provide an appraisal on an annual basis every January 1. And so as money is spent that goes up. So by 2020 78 that property would probably maybe say January 1 29 that property be up at the $30 million mark or whatever they spent.

Okay. And this so far what's been negotiated requires the city to go in on this. Suppose the city did not. What happens? This is and the county chooses to. What what happens then? Well, one of two things happens. I still have to go to the Department of Local Government, but the Department of Local Government's going to insist that I get some sort of letter from the city indicating that they are in favor of this project, whether you sign the pilot agreement or not. If I did not get that letter, um, in all likelihood, the project would die because we could not get approval from the Department of Local Government. And I doubt seriously that that they'd ask to appeal it. And the second uh well that second alternative to is you know if you agree to it we we we go forward.

If we let's say we did that and I know I'm sorry but I'm but these are the technical questions. So, but you're the attorney. You're here. And so, if we didn't go along with it and we sign, you wouldn't I'm sorry. You would not get any tax dollars at all anyway because the property is owned by the county. Therefore, it's tax exempt. That's what I'm getting at. I'm sorry. Did misunderstood that. That That's what I'm getting at. If the county passes this, does it matter? I mean, besides it's I mean, from a tax standpoint, we're not going to get it anyway. That's correct. No. So, unless you, please don't take this in a negative sense, unless you decided you wouldn't give us a letter for the Department of Local Government, in which case the DLG may not approve the project.

Right. Okay. Right. But no, you you're out the you're out the 11,800. That's that you're absolutely correct about that. That's what I was like if the county does it and we chose not to it's because it's now a county owned property. We don't get tax on it. So, well, that's a that opens up a whole lot that's a lot of other issues I think we'd have to think about in the future. Um, but you know, you know, even if you did that, it doesn't affect your transit tax. It doesn't affect your occupational tax and it doesn't affect the the property re I mean the parking revenues.

Parking revenue. Yeah. because we did just going back, you know, the three of us were on the commission the last iteration and we approved a tiff uh district along with the county for this area and uh with the intent and we built the parking structure to enable the development of this area. And so we're we're we bonded uh to build the parking structure. We have an annual note and the idea was we were going to get increased property taxes uh to you know offset that note and with the increased value of everything that gets developed.

Sure. And then within three years now we're waving some of those additional property taxes. But I do realize there's other indirect benefits and those are all important and we want to support you. We want to have a vibrant thriving community. But that we are waving some of the property taxes that we were three years ago, four years ago counting on to make this thing happen.

But remember that property is at a $6 million value because that's the purchase price. I suspect it'll hold that value for a period of time. And that property tax revenue coming in is 11,800 $11,800. And so it's frozen at that deal. And and I guess what I'm saying is you're giving up that 11,000 to increase the transit, the occupational, and the uh and the parking. Yeah. Oh, I get I get that. That's and that's what I'm looking at. the other. I realize the parking may not happen, the revenues unless there's a a revamped hotel. Um, I think that's uh that's all I I have. Anybody else?

Oh, Commissioner Richardson, let me clarify one thing. The mayor's kind of I mean, I understand where the mayor's coming from. It's our job to protect city, right? Our our interest, our our community. The real risk is the property tax is the 11,000 that we get right now. Correct. Yes, sir. That's it. That's it. The rest of it, even if we did not do this, uh, and I just for the public, you know, during this IRB, it looks like the the bulk of what we would receive comes from our parking garage. Uh, almost a little over $4 million. Yeah. And I understand that there were negotiations at some point in time between the city and the developer regarding that. So, I have nothing to do with that.

You tell me the numbers and I just plug them in. Oh, I don't plug them in. I do want to point out I looked at some of your numbers and I just broke this down a little bit. You know, we go from total of 62 63,000 per year total what you the numbers you gave me. I'm just I just kind of roughed that up on my on my little calculator up here. um to over the 10-year IRB to 672 cuz you know you just divide that total the 6 million7 6.7 million by 10 we go to um over $600,000 a year roughly. Yes sir. That's the way I read it. Yeah. Again I want I did do the numbers but

I'm just I'm giving I'm just what I'm trying to do for those that I'm sure this is going to be reported on. I I am 100% with the mayor. It it I don't want, you know, I I won't lie. I was not on this board when the parking garage was approved. There was a lot of community up up about that. I was one of them. But now that I've gotten the true picture of we needed to do that. That's that's part of it is to I'm imagining from the parking garage that benefits uh benefits you. Correct. 100%

100% and brand new parking garage. So, uh, it's kind of like it may have not went like most people build the the the hotel, then they build the parking garage. And trust me, I I I don't, you know, maybe the it was the cart before the horse, so to speak. But I just for the public, I want them to get to get clear. Uh, it's not an easy decision, but it from from what I see, it it looks very beneficial for both the county and the city. uh especially when it comes to revitalizing downtown and we're in the midst of trying to get a convention center, meeting center, whatever you want to call it. Um you know, I I I I'm sure everyone on this board remembers when the hotel was very it was thriving down there and all of that uh brought you know, not just you, especially during this time we have leg our sessions in, right? And we would love to keep our legislators right our

downtown right downtown in our home and that used to happen. So, uh, but I just kind of those numbers, um, you know, in the same if we did nothing, if that stayed the same, I do want to point this out. You know, you've got that a little over 6 million. It's 6.27 million. If we did nothing from the numbers you gave me, we would only receive about a little about a million and a half in that 10-year period. So, if if if both you and the county did not and you all said we will not support it. I mean, you wouldn't give me that letter. You're about a million. That's that's absolutely correct.

1.6 million. So it's right at it. So I just kind of want to point those number out to the community. Uh that it on the surface I don't want any anyone to take a hit that hey you you you the parking garage we we really needed that that um that property tax, but this this this looks like a very good uh partnership with three entities here in in

I think so. You know, and and and let me add to that just a little bit. I don't think I'm violating any trust here. it. The mayor said this before and I think the uh I know the judge has because I I represent the county. Uh they were concerned about the independent school district and that's a legitimate concern and and uh I they really worked with them. The developer worked with the school district and it and and I assume it was favorable outcome because both parties agreed to it. But you know what compromise is sometimes. But but but yeah, I I think you're absolutely right, Commissioner Yeah, this is good. Any other questions for Mr. Johnson?

Sorry about my question. It's all right. I don't Yeah. Thank you for your time and u without any objection, we'll look to the voting meeting on this. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you,

Mayor. I did verify the number while he was speaking and it we average this being coming off a slow period we're between 35 and 40% not including the uh apartments. Okay. 35 and 40% occupancy. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you all. Thank you. Item number two under discussion, we have the 2025 annual report from fire and EMS. Uh, I know Chief Carpenter has had some uh family issues and won't be presenting, but Chief Kyle is here and he has a whole bunch of people with him.

Hello. Yes. Uh, Chief Carpenter sends his regrets for not being able to be here tonight uh or this afternoon. So, we just want to give you a kind of a rundown of all the things that have happened in fire fire and EMS through 2025. Uh, we'll start out with just going over our run volume uh for this year. Um, this appears to be not the this Do you have the uh PowerPoint, Jud? Not the uh Do you have the PowerPoint slides?

Yeah. Okay, there we go. All right, so with me I have the uh admin staff, Rick Frank, Cody Rich, Matt Marshall, and Kenny Barnett. Each one of us will be doing a little represent of our topics. U so for fire calls in 2025 we responded 1,186 fire related calls. 102 of them were building cooking vehicle grass fires. Uh we had 248 rescue and EMS fires. Uh we responded to 113 hazardous conditions and 302 false alarms. As far as EMS calls, uh we we responded to over 9,000 calls for service. Uh 2563 of those were in the county and we made 101 responses to other counties for mutual aid. And we assisted with EMS calls 66 times throughout the year. That's a total of just over 11,000 runs for the three crews for the year 2025. Uh, next I'll have Rick Frank or Cody Rich come up talk about fire training.

Thank you, sir. My name is Cody Rich. I'm the the fire training officer. Uh, we had a very busy year. Very productive. Uh, we have accumulated over 20,725 fire training hours in the last year. Uh, we conducted our own in-house recruit class. We have four personnel from there. Um, each of them have now graduated and they're now online. Uh last year we conducted an IFSAC driver operator course, a hazmat technician course, and a rope rescue technician course, all with our own instructors in house, which is pretty cool. Uh we conducted multiple officer development courses, which we're going to use to strengthen our leadership skills for our our officers online. And we have had multiple firefighters uh complete the IFSAC firefighter one and two, fire officer one and two, and fire instructor one. Thank you. All right. Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Uh, for those that I don't have the privilege of knowing, Rick Frank, EMS education coordinator here at the fire department. Uh, so with EMS training, so we're EMS training center. We do EMT, we do paramedic classes. EMT is an essential part of our jobs. Obviously, you saw by the numbers that Chief Kyle presented you. Uh, also a minimum requirement. So, we're constantly running those programs. We ran two last year. uh currently in a paramedic cohort right now. We hope to have that one done by June and have you some smiling new paramedic faces out there by maybe uh latter part of this year actually out and functioning. Um so that's all that one there. So 10,000 EMS training hours. Um right now I said the paramedic class is going on. We have 13 enrolled in that. 10 of them are in-house personnel. We have three from neighboring counties that are uh interested in the program as well. So they're going with that. Um we have also started a critical care paramedic prep course. So the state changed their guidelines late last year uh requiring us to uh go with critical care and

advanced practice paramedics. Uh we have been very very blessed to get these courses up here. And the last two courses we've run, I've taught a couple of the classes, but for the most part we're getting physicians, uh nurse practitioners, nurses coming in from Louisville, Lexington, and they're all doing it on their dime and their time. So, uh, you'd be hardressed to find anywhere nationally that would have that type of program come in and we're blessed here in Frankfurt to have that. Um, also we have the CPR classes that we do in the community and, uh, we're constantly getting requests for those. I got a request today right before we walked over. Uh, we've also had personnel that have went on uh, through what they call the internationally board of specialy certification to get their critical care, their flight paramedic, their tactical, their wilderness, and community paramed. uh which are all extremely extremely difficult tests and we have had people that have went on and achieved that and we're so very blessed to have those people on staff. Pass that over to the fire marshal. Well, like Rick said, you know, in case some of you don't know me, I'm fire Marshall Marshall. So, uh, yeah, in the fire marshall's office here at Frankfurt Fire and EMS, uh, I just I kind of wanted to brag because my slide's kind of short, but really it's long. Um, we're just so proud of the department, the men and women here in Frankfurt because we had a historic year. Uh, but we didn't waver. We didn't waver for the commitment to them community service and the outreach. Uh we were devoted to fire prevention with the schools, our partnerships with the nonprofits and uh we continue to be um serve in a capacity of fire prevention education, community outreach and over 90 different events. Uh we continue to do fire inspections of commercial properties and residential commercial properties of over 1,700 130 different pre-plans. Uh we had a graduating class of uh six uh citizen

fire academy uh alumni community members including one um city commissioner. Uh we also reviewed uh more than 20 new commercial properties or site uh pl site job sites for the the I don't know huge growth in this city which is uh fantastic. We installed over 101 smoke alarms uh three bed shakers. We provided 160 free fire extinguishers for residents. We also um partnered with KSU for a 911 memorial stair climb and then we also partnered with FRMC for our third annual fire safety night which was massive. It's huge giant crowd. Um I could continue going but I just wanted to say how proud I am of this department and this community still. We we do a whole lot. Chief Kyle.

All right. Um, back again. We, uh, so since September 11th, hazmat's really been a big thing within the fire service and even before that, but mainly since 2000 2001. And during the time frame I've been here, we've had really strong hazmat team. Then we dwindled down as hazmats didn't become much of an issue anymore as far as our concern. And now uh we feel that is more of a more of a impactful situation. So one of my goals as assistant when I came over as assistant chief was to strengthen our hazmat team's knowledge and abilities. And since then our hazmat team's gone from about 10 to 12 people who are kind of dedicated to it a little bit to uh a team of 12 members per crew. So we got about 36 members on the hazmat team now. It's kind of a blend of volunteers who have taken personal interest in hazmat and then there are some that just have to be on the team by virtue of their position if they're at station two where our hazmat truck is. So, so we got a kind of a blend of of people. The rescue sergeants have also need to be on the team by virtue of their position. And early 2025 asked Captain Eric Simpson to step up and to lead the team. um he gladly stepped up and we instituted a rigorous training schedule for our team members. So we uh trained 4 to eight hours a day uh every other month get them uh trained up and so they can rehearse coordinated incident command supplemented by monthly crew trainings. Uh so that months we don't do the team training, we do crew training. Um, so looking ahead in 2026 now, we're going to do the team training is going to be monthly instead of every other month. And we're going to just going to try to specialize and focus on newer developments such as dry decon, which is a new uh form of decontamination that is, you know, sweeping the country. So

we're going to try to tackle that. So we just hope to keep the momentum throughout the next year. Um, next we got the technical rescue team. So, as you know, in April, we had historic flooding and uh during this time, our technical rescue team led the way with uh uh historical responses. Uh we evacuated and rescued at least 160 people and uh countless animals. Uh we helped utility company restore electric and internet through several areas throughout Frankfurt. And this team also it trains monthly for eight hours a month as a team and then they go out on the other months and train the other uh firefighters up to the same level. So um some members of the team were deployed three times to throughout the state for different disasters. Uh we have members receive certification in all rescue disciplines which is rope rescue, swiftwater rescue, trench rescue, confined space and vehicle rescue. Um, let's see. All right. Uh, this year marks a historic achievement for our department where we had a few members Chris Hosted and Cuddy Rich were accepted into the Ohio task force. Matt Stevens was accepted onto the Alabama task force and Chris Hosted, Cuddy Rich, Anthony Poor, Matt Stevens, and Tabitha Tabitha Barnes were selected to be on Kentucky task force once one and once it becomes operational, they'll be leaders in in that uh group. Uh this is the first time in our department history that members have been accepted to these prestigious teams uh representing both individual excellence and department pride. PPC fire program. Kenny Barnett.

How are you all?

I'm good. I'm Kenny Barnett, captain training specialist with the fire department. I've also been the one that kind of stepped up and took over the CTC fire science program. We currently have 51 students that are enrolled within the program over the course of uh 2025. The students completed roughly 4,990 hours of training. Uh, and that's training not only classroom stuff, but that's also hands-on training that we do side by side with the other members of the fire department. We had a field trip that occurred back October 30th where we went down to the fire training center. Spent about five hours down there that day and they done everything from uh jumping out windows head first on the ladders to repelling off of the top of the uh ConX container. So they had a lot of fun. uh we have been fortunate enough to be able to put them through a lot of the CPR classes and the FEMA IC classes that are necessary for fire department function. We also have uh as of this year we are participating in the skills USA which is a nationally recognized program and these students are going to compete at the regional level and hopefully move on to the state and I hope national level but you never know. I think they only selected one from the state to go on to nationals but hey it is that's my goal. Got to set it high right. Uh fortunately, uh there's no other fire science programs within our region, so we automatically qualify two to three to go on to state. So, we know we're at least going that far to start with. Okay. Uh any questions about this? I mean, al obviously I could read, but I don't like reading. So, we got to uh I also got accredited with the uh BCTC this year. So, the classes that I am teaching are also going to be dual credit. So, they're getting college

credit hours for taking any of our fire science classes. Commissioner Smith with us. You just answered my my second question. My first question is, and I might not ask it the correct way. I know you said you have 51 students enrolled in CTC. I was curious what the recruitment and retention rate is for them to like graduate and then cross over because you have to be 18 to be a firefighter, right? Correct. Correct. So, what's the do you how many people have done this program and have transferred over to our actual fire department?

Well, this is only our second year with the program. So, we haven't we haven't really maneuvered that far in. I can tell you that currently we have two of the seniors that are also co-oping with the city fire department. Uh so, I do feel like at minimum we're going to have two applicants come out of uh this class uh when they graduate in May. But I also feel like we're going to have a few more because I've got a few other seniors that that have transitioned uh quite well into the into the role of being within the fire service. Now, obviously, it's going to be fall before we're going to be uh able to put the first people through fire four, which is the, you know, end of the road, if you will. So, we're still really new, but we're we're growing leaps and bounds. And we're even looking to throw EMT class in there for the the fall semester as well, just to try to help better prepare them for applying to the department.

Are there Sorry, followup question. Are there any incentives to like just cross it over like after you like like once they do do that fire for or is there I guess I'm wondering what does like your education track look like in terms of the CTC to actually bringing them bringing working employees to the city and then like what is those incentives are really terrible word to say be like a working-class citizen but like what are the incentives because 18 you're still rather young and like you know what are you all doing to really want them bring them over to the city? Well, for one, once they become a member of the fire science program, they're issued a state fire department number just like anybody that gets hired in with the fire department. So, all of the training hours at almost 5,000 hours equates directly over into the same hours that they would be receiving during a recruit class. So, they are very far along in the path of fire recruit, if you will. Now, granted, they're not 18. They can't participate in live fire training yet. So they still have some stuff they've got to do, but what it does for them is the state fire incentive is not very far out of reach where we have people that come on with nothing. They have to reach that 300 hour level before they can get their state fire incentive where these guys are going to come in and only going to have to have a handful of hours before they're ready to get that additional $4,000 $5,000 incentive out the gate. Plus, then like I said, if we can get this EMT program started and go ahead and get them through that, then we're going to have them that much further along, ready to put them on an ambulance and ready to start making runs a whole lot sooner than, you know, somebody that we hire that has zero training at all.

Cool. Thanks. All right, any other questions, Commissioner Richardson? How many hours uh does that equate for BCTC with him? Do you know? Uh it's kind of it's kind of a weird setup. And I say that because

while we have it set up as a dual credit when they come in, they take fire 101, it equates to uh 101 college level class, which is a three-hour class. So they can essentially if they complete 101, 102, 103, and 104, they're going to have approximately, you know, 12 12-ish hours of college credit. However, on the flip side of that, there is also what they call reciprocating credit with these kids as well. So, if they didn't sign up to go to the dual credit route and they just take the classes, they can still go to BCTC and they and BCTC is going to throw a whole bunch of hours, roughly 30 credit hours at them that way. Whereas, if they go the dual credit route, they can take those hours and go to say an EKU or something like that and they transfer in,

you know, hour for hour there. And then the other thing I I think I'm getting where Commissioner Smith Willis was. So the 51 folks that you had in this were they they're all Franklin County Frankfurt Franklin County. They're either they're either uh they either go to Franklin County High School or Western Hills currently. Yes. Um I'd like to keep them. That's my goal.

So maybe you work an incentive in there, right? I'm just I'm I'm just spitballing here. if we're going to have this force science training and we put all this effort in and this work in them especially if you you know I'm sure there's a handful I I'm just you know where I come from right I'm just looking at this you know if if the police department had it I wouldn't want these people to go to you know to Lexington or to uh you know Georgetown so I don't know maybe that's something to work in later u yeah

sorry to interrupt one of the things I had been talking with Chief Gardner I know when you put an application in for the city, you know, you're giving, you know, if you're coming in, you're already a paramedic, you get so many points, you know, in the point system for, you know, paramedic or EMT or having your fire hours or military or whatever. There have been talks and like I said it's very preliminary currently but if we can have people come out of this CTC program maybe incentivizing that by using that as a some points that we can throw their direction to kind of keep them here at home because I want to promote keeping the kids here. If they're if they grew up here and they go to school here the likelihood that they're going to remain here and work here is, you know, pretty high.

I like the way you're thinking cuz that's that's where I was going. Incentive. I didn't necessarily mean monetarily. I just meant like, you know, for hiring process, right? That there, you know, I can remember way in the early 90s, you know, when you applied to a police department, you got you got if you were a resident of that city, you got extra extra points for something just just from merely residing in that city. So, uh, I like the way you're thinking. The stop the bleed and the CPR, are those things that you all teach in the fire your fire citizens academy? the the stop the bleed. We don't necessarily teach that specific class specific class because that's more to a lay rescuer. Uh but the the CPR class that we that we teach, it's the same one that they have to have to be on the on the department. It's the American Heart Association. I teach the healthcare provider level,

okay, class to them. That stop the bleed is just so important. the trooper that was shot uh a few months ago. I mean, think about the folks that rolled up on that and they knew how to stop the bleed, which is so important uh with a wound that is profusely bleeding. So, uh I teach that with some folks as well from DOCJT. So, it's a very good class uh even just for the common folks out here that dayto day. Yeah. And then maybe this is for the chief, the par I got all kinds of questions. Go ahead. the paramedic class. Do we offer that for outside agencies or is that just for just our folks?

We do. We offer outside agencies the ability to come in to uh to be a part of our class. They pay a siphon in order to be a part of the class to cover their their portions that would cost us to have them in the class. I'm just curious. I knew we I knew that was done when I worked here. So, I just want to I appreciate you continuing that. That's that's really good. Any other questions? Mr. Commissioner, sorry it might not be for Oh, sorry. Whoops. Go. Go ahead, Commissioner. Is that okay? Yeah.

Just want to make a quick comment. Um, thank you guys for presenting on this annual report. And, um, Kenny, I'd like to thank you for bringing a few of your students along for the Second Street School, uh, PTSA turkey and ham give out that we did this holiday. So, it was really great to see those guys in action doing some community service locally. Oh, um, and if there's any conversation we can help have to to work with the independent schools to try to get some students there as well, I would be happy to do that. So, thank you so much. Okay, Commissioner May.

Thank you to everyone that presented and everyone that wears the badge with the city seal on it. U, any first responder, we're forever grateful for. I want to say what I love about this program is that u and I've never been a first responder, but I've been passionate about something and we've all can share that feeling and that excitement of when you're getting going in your career, you're getting your ideas off the ground. But at no point was I passionate about the paperwork or anything like that that came with it or the required training. you all get to do some pretty I'll say cool things though that would get me more excited and having that opportunity I think when you're younger and getting your foot in the door is crucial to what Commissioner Richardson was talking about and everyone up here I think from the recruitment and retention standpoint I mean that alone would go miles for me as far as you know where did I get my foundational fundamental skills and start that's where I'm going to want to stay and feel that you know that support and the opportunities that you all provide with the continued education and going and getting these special certifications I think is just so important. You can you can start your career at Frankfurt and retire. You know, you can do all of it here and do all that without ever having to leave. And that I think is really worth shining a bright light on and letting people in surrounding agencies know those amazing opportunities that are unique to us. focusing on what makes us unique and how we address challenges by thinking outside the box and going with what we can do. We can continue to do these types of programs and I just want to say thank you and I appreciate that way of thinking and that approach.

Not a problem. Thank you, Commissioner. Sorry, this is my last my last question and it's kind of two-part. It might be for you, Mr. Frank. Is there and I think Chief Carpenter addressed it the last time he gave us an update on the new fire station with the recruitment classes and the new fire station coming and the critical care prep course. Is there a plan and action to expand those programs to other outside entities so we can kind of start doing those more often and expand and grow on those or like are we just waiting for the fire station to get done and then we go from there? And I could also ask Chief Carpenter.

Yeah. No. So, uh to expand the critical care and the specialty programs. No, there is still u we right now we offer that to outside agencies as well. Um so I think the past two critical care courses we've done uh we've had Georgetown Scott County has sent representatives from their agencies. Uh neighboring counties we've always invited. But yeah, the plan is still keep rolling, still keep on advancing. Cool. Thanks. And then one more thing, and it could be for anybody. Somebody did ask me a few weeks ago, do you all do car seat installations still? And are those like advertised or who does who does those? The hospital. I just want to make sure I get back to this person because I said I didn't I didn't know honestly.

Uh our department currently we do not do car seat installation certifications. It's just a lot of red tape that goes into it as far as uh liability issues and stuff. We generally uh refer people to go to the health department, Franklin County Health Department to get any kind of car seat installation stuff taken care of.

Thank you. And I just want to thank the gentlemen back here. They through all the hard work they do all year, we couldn't do all the we couldn't do the paramedic training. We couldn't do all the fire training we do. We all the inspections the Marshall handles. We just as a fire department, we wouldn't be able to do what we do and be as strong as we are without those without those guys out there every day doing doing all the hard work. And then the men women across the street making the runs every day. They're making the 12,000 runs that we're making a year, the 10,000 med runs. So, I just want to thank them for their uh contributions to the city and the department. Just out there day in and day out just doing all the grunt work. Thank you. Further questions? Thank you. Snaps all around. You are great. Good stuff.

All right. Next item in discussions, we have item number three, which is the transit services overview with Sarah Anderson and Jennifer Hall. I don't have that.

All right. Does it go this way? I think it goes this way. This way. Okay. Find out. We'll find out. All right. Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for inviting me to speak. Happy New Year. Um I'm really excited to tell you about some of our accomplishments we've had this year. and um also answer some questions and go over all that fun stuff. Um so just a brief description about our transit services. We have a demand response service which is our door-todoor service. It re uh runs Monday through Friday 6:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It's available to anyone who cannot access the regular route bus. Uh, it's a 24-hour reservation required before 2:30 p.m. And the cost is $2 per trip. We have a deviated fixed route, uh, which has dedicated stops along a fixed route, runs Monday through Friday, 6:45 to 6:35. Saturday, 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. It can go off route or deviate up to 3/4 of a mile um, to increase accessibility. The cost for the regular route is 25 cents and a deviation is 50 cents. And a deviation requires a reservation. We also offer a seasonal trolley that runs April through October, Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It has a the trolley provides a narrated tour downtown and it is a free service. And we also subcontract with Bluegrass Community Action providing non-emergency medical trips and we receive payments for those monthly. Some of our recent accomplishments, we have achieved several goals this year. First, the new transit center went into operation um or was completed in 2024. So, we've been operating out of the new transit center for a year now. When we opened the transit center, we focused our efforts on reband rebranding in order to promote ridership. The new logo f focuses on what makes Frankfurt unique, the Kentucky River, which connects the east and west sides. The

logo provides a sense of movement just as the river flows Frankfurt transit does too. The colors that we used um on the logo and also incorporated throughout the entr throughout the transit center mirror the Frankfurt, Kentucky distilled logo. We were able to secure funding from FTA um to purchase two buses in fiscal year 25. So those buses are already out running around town. And we actually received funding to um purchase six more buses this fiscal year. So you guys will have that coming across your table pretty soon. We're working on the order list for it now. Transit won the Kentucky uh transportation cabinet's efficiency award for the lowest cost per trip in the entire state of Kentucky. So, we were pretty proud of that accomplishment. And the Capitol City Museum won a Kentucky History Award for the Less We Forget exhibit, which is located, it's actually pictured here, is located in the Transit Center lobby. So, special congratulations to Ellie and Vicki on that accomplishment. The transit center is a very vital part of our operations. The center is located on the ground level of the city parking garage. I know that we put a lot of focus into the opportunity that that the parking garage itself gave to the downtown district, but I really want to focus right now on the transit center. The the center allows for passengers to have a temper temperature controlled transfer station complete with a waiting area, restrooms, vending machines, and a front desk attendant. The center also allows the drivers to have a central location for operations that houses every single thing they need. Dispatch stations, admin office, break and training rooms, and most importantly, restrooms. In addition, vehicles are now housed in a covered garage which protects the longevity of our vehicles. The center has truly enhanced the

transit environment for passengers and the city staff. So, thank you so much for the support for the transit center. Um, ridership data. So we have to produce ridership data for KYTC and FTA and uh every year and the total number of trips actually increased um 22,633. So that was quite an additional increase in ridership. We did have a couple of um columns that went down. Trolley ridership did go down. And the reason that trolley ridership went down is because our trolley was out of operation for a significant portion of the year. Uh so we were running that in a smaller van and sometimes people were coming and saying I really wanted the trolley experience so they weren't riding with us this year. Also our NEMT services went down and that was due to a lack of staffing. So um for a little while there we were only running one driver. We're now back up to two NEMt drivers. So I expect for that to increase this year. We also expect for our overall ridership to increase this year because obviously the paddocks are coming soon. We've got some industrial parks that are asking for some service. But I will say the increase in ridership uh is causing a little bit of a strain on our current route. So we will be looking forward to working that out in the in the future. And we also know that the increased ridership is indicating that the community is using transit. Um here's the nitty-gritty budgets. I'm really I'm going to do a very surface area of this. One of the items that I've been asked to discuss today is the possibility of going to a free fair system. In order to discuss that, I first want to I want you to understand

how the fairs are calculated into our overall co costs and grant reimbursement. There's a common mis misnomer that says that um decreasing fairs will decrease grant reimbursement or decreasing fairs has no effect on grant reimbursement. And so I wanted to go over those numbers just to show you what happens. So if you see from the first uh the upper chart there's $119,96. That is the total gross cost for that month. We've spent $119.99 $119,96. In our in my example, I have a cash fairbox value of 5,000. That means we receive $5,000 from from fairbox revenue. What happens is the net operating now comes down to 114,000. We will receive grant reimbursement now on 114,000. So we would we produce 50% of that. and the FTA is going to produce 50% of that. So FTA's grant funding did go down, but our local match also went down as a result of the fairbox revenue. So hopefully that makes So the second example shows if we didn't have that c that cash fairbox revenue. As you can see now, our local match is at 59,000 versus the previous which was only at 57,000. And while we're talking about budgets in in the future slides, I'm going to talk a little bit about incidental use and contract revenue, excess contract revenue. So I just wanted to go over the examples of what those look like financially. So once again, we have that same 119,000 of total cost. Now we have a cash fairbox of 5,000. And under that, I also added $5,000 in incidental use. An

incidental use would be something like our parking garage fees. Let's say we made $5,000 on parking garage fees. Parking garage fees are going to work exactly the same way as fairbox revenue. So that amount is going to come off of our net operating, which then means the federal is going to match less because it is less for them to have to match, but the local match is also going to have to be less. So now we're looking at $54,000 in match versus prior was 57,000 in match. Now in a perfect world, not only do we have fairbox revenue and we have incidental use from parking garage fees or washbay fees or whatever we may have, but we also have NMT revenue. That is our subcontract with BGCAP. So the best thing about contract revenue is it's counted as local match. So it's money that the city is putting in without having to go into the general fund at all. So in this example, we have $5,000 of cash fairbox, $5,000 of incidental use, $5,000 of income counted as local match, which brings our cash now, our local match cash now is only $49,548 versus the $54,548. But if you notice, our reimbursement from the federal doesn't change it. what we still get a maximum amount of federal reimbursement. Are there any questions about that before I move forward? Because I know that's a lot of dollars and cents. Are we we're all on the same page there?

Any revenue off of the parking garage would go toward that contract revenue? Uh, no. It goes towards incidental use. So, it will bring down our net expenses

above the line. So, some things that I believe we should consider before we talk about reduced fairs. Um, first of all, it's important to decide what methods of transit would you would want to have for free. If you want to do just the routes and take away the 25 cent fair, if you do that, then we also have to take away the deviation fairs because we're not we're only allowed to charge up to half of the up to double the amount of what our regular fair is. So, if it's free for for if it's free for um regular rights routes, it has to be free for deviations as well. Um also, you could also look into maybe right now it's 25 cents for everybody. It doesn't matter if you're 12 years of age and under. It doesn't matter if you're veteran. It doesn't matter if it doesn't matter for any other reason. It's it is what it is. So we could look into possibly doing lowered fairs for specific groups of people. Um so also you have to decide are you just going are you going to also make demand response for free as well and miss out on the two I shouldn't say miss out and decide not to do the $2 per trip and and how does that work? Um, so it's just something for you guys, I guess, to decide on what you would prefer to have if you did a free fair. Maintaining a fair reinforces that transit is a valued service, and it's essential that everyone shares the responsibility of maintaining the service. Essentially, are we are we okay to take away the passenger skin in the game? Um, I do think there is a certain amount of um monetary investment that I think is is great for our transit system. Experience also shows that once we remove the fairs, are we okay later on in the future to put them back in? And that's a little bit of a harder task, I think.

And while fairs do not impact our federal reimbursebursements, they do help offset our local operating expenses such as fuel, supplies, and daily service costs. And recent passenger surveys indicate that riders are generally happy with what they're paying with their current service. And I think our wrership data shows, I mean, with with 20some thousand more trips, I think at the 25 cent rate, they're they're willing to pay it. If we could, if we would like to add service technology services or technology onto the routes, that would come as a cost. Um, we've had passengers that have asked for an app, for example, that can find their bus. Well, that's going to come in a little bit of a cost. If we reduce fairs, are we okay to to accommodate that cost still? Eliminating fairs would require new controls to prevent all day riding and would increase deviation requests, placing some additional strains on our current routes. And also our funding partner, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, they do prefer a fair structure to demonstrate rider investment and system accountability. So we just talked about um incidental use. So, those are essentially non-fair revenue sources. Here's a list of some things that we could possibly do um in order to increase our incidental use. So, I did an estimated annual amount. I know you just heard about the hotel um and they gave their figures on the parking fees. We've only done parking for two months and both months we made about $500, but that is I mean I just found out they're at 40%, you know, and so I do expect for that to increase, but right now I put parking garage fees at about 6,000 a uh annually. We could do advertising on the bus shelters and on the buses. Um I looked into some areas

around us and we this was a a very low estimate of 165,600. We also do have the training room at the transit center. When we built that, we made it so that it was a separate entity on its own. So, it has its own restrooms, its own accessibility where if we wanted to, we could rent it out as a community room. We also have the old admin building that we're no longer using. That could be a source of income. And then we also have the washbay. Now, currently our washbay is in disrepair as far as the overhead. um we do need to put money into that, but once we did, I've got um a few bus companies, BGCAT being one of them, that are asking to be able to use it to wash their buses, too. And it's it's built for that. So, that would be great. We could charge them for it. Now, I do want to also make sure to to put emphasis on the contract revenue for is the NMT service. That's about 80,000 a year. That 80,000 is just with two staff. So, if we wanted to increase that, then if we had increased staffing, I have the vehicles. They're available. It's just a matter of the staffing for it to increase that. And remember, that counts as local match. That 80,000 would count as local match. I've been asked to speak on the bus shelters. So, our route currently includes 129 stops. I don't It's always shocking to me when I when I see it. Of those stops, 26 have shelters and 10 of them have benches. We've identified four bench locations that could already be upgraded to have shelters. Since 2020, we've been uh making very steady targeted improvements to rider amenities. We've added 13 shelters since 2020 and 10 and the 10 new benches. We've been focusing

on high ridership and priority locations. This approach has allowed us to improve comfort and accessibility while still being mindful of the cost and the physical constraints. Future bus shelters will need to be more vandal will be need to be more resistant to vandalization. We do have three bus shelters currently that have been kicked out. The glass is kicked out and we we cannot have them on on routes. So that is something we we'll need to look into for the future. The average cost to install a bus shelter, including the concrete pad that's underneath of it, is approximately $17,000 per location. This estimate is based on actual costs of our previous installation in 2022. And the figure reflects the shelter structure and pad only. It does not include any additional work. In some locations, shelters cannot be installed without first providing pedestrian access. This may include sidewalks or making ADA accessibility upgrades. Those access improvements are not included in the shelter cost estimate and require separate funding from the public works municipal aid. So, I hear all the time, we should put shelters at every single stop. And I would love to put shelters at every single stop. They're very important, but unfortunately, I don't feel it's feasible to have it at every stop. We have a large number of stops. first of all. Second, many of them face physical limitations such as narrow rideaway, landscaping constraints, and uh terrain challenges. In some cases, shelter placement would also cause a concern for visibility and traffic movement. So, I've given you some examples. This is just on the east route. So, obviously, this KSU stop is wonderful. We've got a pulloff there, but there's a large embankment on the other side. I I don't

know how we would fit a bus stop, a bus shelter there. We've also got a lot East Main Street's just known for. I mean, it has it's tight for pedestrians. Um the stop below that has a large drainage covert that we wouldn't be able to to get around. So, we have to take into account the feasibility of where some of those locations are at before we'd be able to say, "Yeah, let's do every single stop." Yes. You're on a roll. Sorry. And I'm not trying to cut you off, but my brain is my brain I have to ask the question. I'll forget about it.

Okay. So, with with this point in particular, when was the last time I guess a study was conducted to to I guess give the feasibility of these stops? Like are those stops ever upgraded? like are the the spots the stops are have they ever been talked about being moved so this could be a thing and I see also the next slide as in how much it'll cost but in terms of just to entertain the this part of the conversation are these stops just set in stone is this something that we can never change is this also something we should be talking about in the public works committee like I'm just that's my question

the stops are not set in stone I will say we have the stops that we have based off of what the passengers have requested for the most part. Um we are trying our best to get into all of the areas that are predominantly used. Um we do have some that have requested other additional areas and we'll be talking more about that in the future because we actually have a we'll talk about more in in this further on. Um some of the stops can be moved a little bit here and there, but for example, the froggy stop, we call it the froggy stop. It's over on West Beno. We get we we get people all the time that want a shelter there. And I would love to put a shelter there, but if you look there by West Banko, we had to move that stop because where we had it was next to um Froggy and Bourbon on Main and Goodwood and all that. There's parking throughout there, right?

Well, our bus drivers were not seeing people. They were they were on the sidewalk and and then if you get a wheelchair that needs to get on, you don't have a place to to deploy your wheelchair lift. So, we moved it back to the little island that's kind of between so that way we could see it better. Well, now we've got landscaping in the way. But that stop services usually about 30 to 40 people monthly. So, I think it's a very important stop. I just don't know how else to move it so that we'd be able to to still service it and deploy lifts and things. So, um have we done a study? No. We have done passenger surveys. We just had our last one in 2024

and we have another one coming out now um to get kind of what the riders are seeing, but I haven't had a a survey done by a an engineer or anything to look at every stop. No, I guess that's that's just something that I guess I would like to say out loud. I mean, I would like to meet the people that are doing these surveys where they're at to make sure that we are being accessible in all areas. Um but I just think that would be something what that looks like in the future. I'm not trying to misspeak on where money is going to be spent, but I do think that would be really nice to see somebody that has that level of like that eye to see where we can have some middle ground at because I do think that that is

the coverage and although the glass is being broken out, which is another conversation I feel like it, but I feel like people should have shelter because I feel like that would prevent somebody from either getting to work or being able because you know we also don't have a big drive for Uber and Lift in our town either. So, where are the other options at for people to be able to get to their get to the shelter safely and be covered? I guess is my only thing.

And I will say this though, not even Lex, Tran, Tank, TARK, none of them have every stop sheltered. They have a large part of their stops sheltered as far as where their highest ridership is. And we've done our best to do that as well. Um, it Frankfurt's also unique, too, because we've got cliffs and we've got, you know, it's it's just it's combating that. But I absolutely agree that we can look into every single stop, I guess. And I mean, that'd be a good thing to do to look at.

Not every single stop. I'm not trying to like reach for the stars. I'm just saying if we can just like the point that you touched on, you know, whoever the highest the point that has the most highest um foot traffic, I guess you could say to just try to maybe rep prioritize how we are making people and I feel like if somebody's watching this and they're like, why are they talking about covering something or having somebody sit down? If you don't if you don't, you know, use the service that we offer, this is something that you might not be thinking of. But I would like to make sure that people are comfortable when it's 4° outside but they still have to go to work when it's torrential downfall rain. you know, always making sure people are comfortable.

Yes. And thus far, that's how we have determined where we put our bus shelters is based off of we have um tablets on board every bus and we count where we pick up our passengers and I can download that information so we know exactly where we are picking up and dropping off our passengers. And those stops are our priority stops for shelters if if we can feasibly do it for sure. Thank you for throwing off.

No, I love it. That's great. Thank you. Um, so bus shelters are considered a capital improvement, which makes them potentially eligible for federal funding. In some cases, capital projects may be funded as as much as 100%. Funding requests must be submitted during the grant cycle. Hold on, I'm sorry. I missed a slide. Hold on, we're here. Okay. Um, if we were to install shelters at every existing stop, the estimated cost would exceed $1.5 million. The estimate assumes shelter installation only and does not improve any of the sidewalks, utility relocations or sight specific challenges. This highlights why a priority and phased approach like we were talking about is is so important. Uh this picture here is actually an example of what I would suggest for our next shelters. Um instead of having any glass, they're actually metal. I also would suggest a canal lever style such as this. It gets the opportunity to put them into smaller locations, which is what we need for our sidewalks and it also makes it so that um motor vehicleists can see a little bit easier past those type of stops. So that would be my suggestion, but it's always up for discussion. So, uh so bus shelters are considered a capital improvement, which makes them potentially eligible for federal funding through the FTA. In some cases, capital projects may be funded up to 100%. Funding requests must be submitted during our grant cycle. The next deadline is April 1st. So, I am currently working on this right now. So, your input is this is great timing. So, um project scope and priority locations must be identified in advance. FTA funding is competitive and it's dependent on the project readiness and prioritization. Moving forward, staff will identify feasible and high impact shelter locations, focus on writership

accessibility and safety. Uh we would have to refine our cost estimates, coordinate with the city departments as needed and prepare the funding requests for the next grant cycle. So you will see that coming up in the future. Now we do have future possibilities for um transit. These are these are not proposals. This is just kind of a hey, if we could reach for the stars, what what kind of things could we do? These ideas reflect community needs and requests, regional partnerships, and long-term mobility goals. Any of these options would require additional planning, staffing, and funding before they could move forward. They are presented to show where transit could grow and the resource if resources and priorities were al were to align. Some of the possibilities such as expanded route, extended service hours, and additional NMT services would directly improve access to jobs, healthcare, and services. Others focus on partnerships and first and last mile connections to strengthen the overall transportation network. So, we've got to dream big. So, this is kind of our dream big list of things. of the many future possibilities that were listed on that previous slide. I would like to give uh to provide a cost analysis for two of the most requested from our passengers. The extended evening hours and the Sunday service. This slide outlines some of the cost to extend route service from 6:45 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. That is our number one when we do passenger surveys. Our number one is they want it to go longer. Um and that makes sense. You have people that are, you know, working in the food industry, for example, and they're not going into work until noon, and then they get out at 10:00 or 9 or 10, and now they don't have a ride home. We got them there, but we can't get them home. Um, I would suggest the evening service routes be adjusted to just two routes,

just like our Saturday service. So, instead of five routes, I would suggest we just do two for for a little bit, at least provide some accessibility. This would decrease the number of drivers needed. Um, in addition, I have provided cost estimates using full-time staffing, not just part-time staff. This is because it's very hard to find a part-time evening CDL driver. So, what I would do is use those positions to also enhance our demand response and our N&T services to make it a full-time um, driving position. We would also need to hire a full-time dispatcher because I do need a dispatcher available to them to to help with that. So, as you can see, I would estimate the annual cost to be about $199,181. So, about $200,000 a year. That estimate is based off of um full-time fair or I'm sorry, full-time salaries, the vehicle usage that we would have to do, the fuel cost. I did not include benefits in that um estimate, so it's a little bit lower than what it probably would be, but that's about where we would be, which is about $8 per additional passenger. I would expect based off of what our s our Saturday wrership is, I would expect we would probably have about 25,000 additional trips per year if we were to run this program or extend these hours, I should say. The second um request that we received from our passengers is to expand to a Sunday service. Currently we have no service on Sundays. Uh so I took the exact same numbers just re revamped the hours. Um and obviously the miles would would be a little bit different because it's only for the two routes on a Sunday service. And I I estimated the cost to be about 147,000

a year. So, please note these are just cost analysis. They're not recommendations, but it's a tool to help evaluate some of the trade-offs between service expansion, cost, and community benefit. I'm very happy to discuss at any time enhancing our how else we can enhance our routes. So, that's just my contact information for anybody. You guys have it there. I also gave you a brief summary of what this presentation was and if you have anything else. Commissioner Richardson, I was trying to write down all my questions cuz I you were on a roll. I almost stopped you for a second, but I scrolled and saw we were almost to the end.

The quote you gave us like the one I'm just spitballing numbers. The 199 the 147 from the Sunday and that is that something that's would be 50. Let's say we did that tomorrow. So that's reimburseable. Half of that's reimburseable. That is absolutely correct. All right. That was my one question. Um because I have heard the number one is from folks within our community, especially from business leaders that own businesses that I've talked to is they have a lot of people that ride the bus and extending that time, especially uh Monday through Friday and Saturday. Not so much I've heard on the Sunday, but that makes sense. Um

the shelters, I've heard that. But actually what's funny about I've said the same thing. I do like these new shelters because one of my complaints about our our community at times we develop neighborhoods and we put these nice little shrubs and then 10 years later the shrubs and the trees impede the vision which causes car crashes which you know as well as I do. I worked many of those within the city. So I do like the new shelters.

Um something I do want to ask a question. How many you may not know this I'm going to put you on the spot. How many cities of our size have a bus service like ours that is run by the the government the government entity and not a private entity and you can't include Lexington, right?

No. Um there are several Paduka is one of them. Okay. Um Owensboro has one. Um, so there there are there are some I will say a lot of times they start off as city entities and because their ridership they they take on the NEMT contracts, they do the incidental use, they um they they almost become a lot of them graduate into their own agencies where they no longer the city will the city will back them where they'll say, "Hey, you know, if you need us, we're here for you." but they also run basically independent of any local funds because they've received enough income that they don't have to.

And the reason I asked that is is this is one more thing that is what I look at is kind of a quality of life that we as a city provide our community uh a bus service like this. Um I I all hands for the buzz word. I got it. I get it. Uh and then we do our service does extend to the county some correct or not correct? We do in a couple of areas. So Monoplast for example is in the county when we do go out into the county. Now the NMT transport we can go um under bluegrass community action is our broker. Yeah.

Under their authority we can go anywhere that they go. So and they do go out into the county. Yes. And with the how just a question is staffing staffing levels is that an issue? Uh uh knock on wood so far. Yeah, we finally are at a really good spot. Okay, I will say uh we we are trying to open up a purple two route. Um and that would allow So we've got an east one, east two, west one, west two, and purple one runs only every hour. The other two buses run every 30 minutes. So that purple one cannot tie into an east two and a west two if that makes sense. Yeah.

So I would love to open up a purple two. And I I would also love to we that's part of I didn't go over that in this and I said I would. CTAA um is our it's the um community transit something something. Uh we're a membership of we're a member of them and caught me off guard but um we have anou with them. they are for free going to look at all of our routes and look at ways that we may be able to I I need to accommodate more areas. Um Thornhill has Thorn Thorn Hill Learning Center has asked for us to go there. I know we're going to have the Paddocks coming soon. I know that there's more in Topi for example, we could go out to there and we do not

but I need I need route help. I've gone to the to the extent that I can do. So, they are going to help us this year to revitalize and reimagine those routes. And that may require additional staff. Okay. And uh right now our budget is 24. I I need 25 even just to do the purple two route. Um so right now we're kind of we're we're good. We're just kind of at a standstill for growth. There's no more growth available right now. and the old admin building. Are you speaking of the building that's over at the city garage? Yeah. Yes. Baldn. Baldn. Just curious.

Yes. Commissioner. And I quoted that at a dollar a square foot, by the way. That's where I got that figure, which is kind of the going. So, that building, could that building be used for another city entity? It would have to still be incidental use charge. Okay. But we would still have to charge them. Yes. So if another city entity just turned around and gave you the square the average going per square feet going rate, they could use it. Absolutely. And they could renovate it and do whatever they wanted inside. Yes, they could. Okay.

Commissioner Hunger, you have a question. Um, I was just going to say thank you for all the information. I would love to discuss some of those options for um, you know, extending and maybe even doing Sunday. I would just like to go over some of this in the public works committee and have some good conversations about it. So, thank you so much for bringing this to us. Absolutely. And I wish I was there in person.

I also just wanted to um, echo Commissioner Anger. Thank you for the lowdown on all this. There are so many big numbers today in this meeting. So my brain is trying to retain everything. My one question um that I have for you is for you in particular in a perfect world. Oh lord. And if we do the purple two route and then we do that study that with the CTAA, right?

We do that. We get feedback from them. We want to expand the purple route and then we take also the community survey. How many people would you bring on part-time, full-time to have a perfect route? Like is it because I see in the slide in the PowerPoints on on a couple of the slides it said two full-time, one part-time. Is that combined four full-time, two part, two part-time, four? I'm trying to say how many how many do you So, if we did Saturday and Sunday, it would probably just require the two full-time and the well, the two driver and dispatcher because I could do a Saturday, Sunday and and incorporate their full-time hours to do the full weekend if that makes sense. So, I don't even think my question made sense, but thank you.

Yeah. No, that's okay. You know, um, so and I, you know, it's up to I guess it would be up to you guys on how much you'd want to how much you want to do. I mean, do you want to do you want to increase NMT revenue? Add a couple drivers to that. Do you want to um you know do advertising? Then maybe I might need an additional office man office staff to to facilitate that. Do you want to do evening services? Okay. Well then I need another dispatcher. I mean do you want to have the transit center open all the time? Right now it's only open Monday through Friday until six o'clock. I don't have it open on Saturdays. Do you want to open it for the weekends?

We need we need we need an admin to be able to do that. I need a front desk attendant. So, you know, it's just I guess it's just a matter of how much there's there's room for growth. It's just how much and how fast do you want to go. And one more follow-up question. I noticed on your future possibilities, you had the the Kentucky State University list as a partnership. What does that partnership look like? Is that more so how we wanted to look or is it just in lie of with the university itself, the stop that they have, which I even think I talked to somebody at the university and they they specifically the students have asked for a crosswalk directly. I think across which that has nothing to do with us in particular but what does that partnership look like in the future with Kentucky State University? Do you have any ideas of how we can

work with them work with the students and the staff better to get them around town? So what I have tried to talk to KSU about in the past is I would love to do a regular student fee that's put into their annual fee and then all the KSU students could essentially ride for free. It's it's just included in their student their annual student fee and I can do that at a discounted rate. Thank you. Mr. May, thank you so much for this information. When we spoke back at the lunch for uh Christmas break, I was self admittedly would not have guessed the amount of stops we had. Yes, I would have been off. Um

I should have made it a trivia question before I started. Um, one of the things, uh, because I was one of the people, right, with the dream of I'd love to see every bus station covered. Okay, well, we've got 150 plus. So, like 129. Let's get that scaled back a little bit. In my mind, as I'm thinking about it,

the the question is, how many riders are getting off, waiting at a stop, and then getting back on the transit to continue their route? Does it help to think about u prioritizing not just how many people are using it but also along the journey you know if you just spread it out would you rather put four here or spread it out we have those numbers we have three trans those are called transfers where they're getting off at a stop and they're picking up a bus at a stop. There are three transfer locations within our oper within our entire service area. One is at the transit center. Wonderful. It's beautiful. It is covered. They have restrooms. It's amazing. The other is at the uh we call it the Cole stop. It's the jet stop and it does have a bus shelter. And then the other one is at Eastwood Shopping Center over on East Ma or on Versailles Road and it does have a shelter. So, every transfer point is sheltered.

Trans. Okay. Okay. And uh the transfer I'm just spitting. I just looked at the numbers. It was a little over 1,200 trips was what we had just at the transfer locations. Thank you. Mhm. And thank you. I'll I'll be real quick and and Sarah, you're you're hanging in there. But this is this is good. It's been a while and uh and I'm very interested in this and I I I do have a couple of questions and you've answered a lot. the So you mentioned like well I understand we can't put shelters everywhere. We can't put benches everywhere. There's a lot in front of houses. I'm sure

people don't want to a bench right in front of their in their yard. But uh but have we ever done an inventory or at least have a we have a spreadsheet somewhere a wish list of if if we had if money were no object and it was it was it was just logistical. Do we do we know how many more benches we would want or how many more shelters we would want?

Yes. So, the only feedback that I've received other than the 13 that we've already installed is there are three additional locations that have benches currently. Um, one of them is at uh Riverbend Road over by the chiropractor's office. They've asked for a shelter. We could do that one very easily. So, we just need to get the shelter. Um, there's also a HMBB Circle next to Baptist Health. They've requested one and that would be a location that could get it already has a has a pad so we can update that. The other one I don't know if we could do it. We'd have to look. It's over by uh the old CVS and now it's the Dollar Tree.

The thing I worry about is vehicles coming out on Winding Way if they'll be able to see very well. So, that's something. Um, and then I have received a request for Powhattan. We have a stop on uh Powhattan and Stemantown from passengers. That was part of our passenger survey that that was one that they had requested a few times. Um that would be available. So there's some movement. Also, Home Street, Chuck's been working great at incorporating transit into Home Street. So I know of at least two or three that are going to have bus stops through there when it's revitalized. And and are those going to be part of the grant request that's due in April?

Yes. Yes. and the benches. I know we you mentioned or someone mentioned the West Banko. On the way over here today, I saw someone because there is that landscaping there. There's a ledge and and everyone sits on that ledge and it seems why don't we just put a bench there? Yeah, I think it's because the sidewalk access, but it's something we can maybe work with best West Banko and they would let us go into We've never We've never asked though. No.

And have we? Yeah. I think just it just seems natural. People sit on the ledge and we just put a bench there. But then on um do do you have is this something where we need to hire an outside or is there software is there third party software like a route mapping software that optimizes where we should go and you know for efficiencies. Is there anything out there like that when you

That's part of what this consultant is actually going to do because it talks about all improvement. I know we have ArcGIS, which also uh we have all of our bus shelters actually mapped out on ArcGS GIS already. Um, and I've got some really great engineer friends that I know that um can always help me too. So, I don't think that we necessarily need a consultant yet, but I mean it's if it's if it's something you're interested in the future, then I'm I'll take all the help. No, I'm asking you. We have to rely on you. You can tell us what what what you need and what you think is what we

I think baby stepping it. We could probably get let's pick the lowest hanging fruit first. See what we come up with and then kind of go from there and see if there are any additional stops that are a priority to the passengers because on at the end of the day honestly I I respond to them. It's they they're the ones who dictate what we do in a lot of ways. And I had a request for Thorn Hill also. I don't think that was um I think that's all. This has been good. Commissioner May,

this might be a question more for city attorney Milm. The legality and ethics of if we can put an ad on a bus, can we sell a permanent sponsorship for a pad for the shelter? So, if if somebody in the industrial park specifically is just saying, "We really want it. We know it's 175. If you write us a check for 175, we'll put the shelter there for you and it can have your name on it on the side permanently. We've worked in partnership. VFW, for example, they paid for their shelter. Okay. Um, so we can private money. Yes, we can work. I mean, not to take away from Laura, but we can work in partnership. We have, at least we have in the past. So, there are there are ways to do it. There are ways to do it. Yeah.

Okay. Commissioner Richard, I would second Commissioner May. You know, the largest annual income estimate you've got are advertising. Mhm. I think there are I think that is a, you know, a win-win for our our community, right? They can advertise their business and and it supports our transits. I mean, you know, so well, in future thinking, I've always put in a display case in every bus shelter that we have already. Yeah.

So, it they're already ready to go. It's just we would have to go out to bid to get an advertising company and, you know, all that. And then um the buses are a little bit more difficult because you have to decide. What I would prefer is that they would have to use our own wrap person because then we make sure that our buses are being respected and you know that we can take it off easily or whatever to look like a NASCAR. Exactly. Exactly. We want to be respectful. So um you know like NASCAR my brother up in Michigan's on the side of a bus. So that's great. Yeah. So, we're always like when he goes by, I'm like, "Look, I want a different

No, it's all good. I just really wanted to say thank you for this." I mean, it I sw I swear every meeting I say I learned something new and I really do and I really appreciate this. Um, just give me all the information I needed to be able to communicate to the community as well. The people that ask these questions specifically about the shelters, which I'm glad we touched on, I'm glad we now have a more tangible kind of plan in plan in motion. Um, and I would actually like to see a site and operational assessment. What that looks like, I don't know. I'm just throwing out what I would love to see in terms of being proactive instead of reactive. I understand taking baby minuscule steps, but when something else approaches, I would love to have kind of just that in our back pocket of what to refer to. So,

I agree. I'll work with CTAA and I'll see maybe after we get the routes kind of finalized and finished, we can look at that. That's another reason I don't want I don't think I'm ready to do much with bus shelters placement now because what if the routes change with this new um you know with this mou then um you know I don't want to change something and not and have a pad on the wrong side of the street or something like that. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. break. How about we recess? Second. Okay, we got a motion to recess. 5 minutes. All in favor say I.

I. We'll be back in a minute.

We want It's stupid. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

I don't think Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. down. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. recess. Thank you all for waiting. And now we have uh

discussion item number four. I'll turn

item number four is the sewer ordinance proposed amendment changes. Uh I kind of threw this uh we've kind of been talking for a few months now on sewer changes. The ordinance we made one minor change. We said we'd come back to you all with some recommendations. Uh we've gone through all different ways looking at different ways of doing this and we kind of come up with three proposals. I'll let Kenny kind of dive into those, but we cover annexation, uh, a fee for properties that can't be annexed and a, uh, increase of fees for county residents to cover those county projects. So, we'll let Kenny kind of dive into these the best he can, and I'll help as well. All right. So, the current ordinance uh, requires all new sanitary sewer extensions outside of city limits to complete an application. that part of it is actually going to stay in place. The application is great. It allows us to really the developers to give us an idea of what they're looking at. Plus, they don't have to go into a huge engineering study to figure it out. They can just kind of put it. We have it all prefigured. So, they just have to fill numbers out, give us a capacity. We look at it and they can get their approvals. Uh right now we would be bringing every sanitary sewer extension application back to you all for approval which is not what we want to do. Um so annexation uh we would say that it would be voluntary annexation where it's available. As you can see on the map there's not a whole lot of u contiguous annexation. There are some uh but there's not a a whole lot of those. Uh so if they are contiguous we would we would request that they annex into the city. If not then we would add a city administrative fee that is equivalent to what the the TAP fees would be for their proposed project. So, if they're going

to say um propose a 100 house development, then they would have a $100,000 fee that would come to the city based on what it would be the equivalent of what our tap fee would be for that. But if it's an industry, then it would be based off of what their potential water usage would be. And so, it would be it would just match with our tap fees. and instead of a tap fee it would be a city administrative fee in l of sewers. So that's the first one that we had discussed. Uh the second one would be talking about an increase in sewer rates for the county to cover the the projects that are happening you know the sewers that are already in the county and the maintenance and everything that goes along with those sewers. So it would just be a flat 10% fee uh based off of our current rate schedule. You can kind of see what the county rates would be. And then out of county would be a 15% and then that would increase. Uh you can see the increases that those would be. not a not a ton of increases, but uh based on what our current sewer rates are, if we started at January 1 of this year, we would be uh recovering almost $400,000 off of county customers for our uh sewer projects, which would be a great help to us in helping pay back the the large amount of loans that we are taking on for all the projects. So, those are the three scenarios. one, you know, if they're contiguous, we can get them to annex. If they're not, then we can ask them to we can do a city administrative fee and then the additional uh county fees for county customers that are already on sewers.

I think the and Laura can kind of clarify this. The language we're still kind of hashing out uh it'd be anything that we can legally annex into the city. Not really a voluntary annexation, but a legal annexation. If we can legally do that and it is approved by and accepted from the commission would be step one for annexation. As you can see on the maps, there's not a whole lot, but there are some. And then we think that uh that administrative fee would cover those that aren't eligible for annexation on compensating the city for the administrative fees that we have to do with Laura's time with sewer and things like that. And with all these projects that we're expanding, these $180 million in projects are all county projects. And this that increase on fees in county and out of county would just help sewer cover those those that debt service that we're carrying on right now. And that's kind of how we want to propose that ordinance change. We would want to have this language kind of work through in front of you guys as soon as we can to get that ordinance going.

Commissioner May, I don't know what is the what do the county customers currently pay for using the same rate as the city customers currently. Currently everything is one one flat fee. Okay. I might add that this is common practice that utilities charge more for county uh the plant board does as well. The plant board charges more for county users for water. Correct me if I'm wrong. Are they at 16%. They're about 16%. Yes. 16 16. Yes, sir.

That was my question as well. I mean, I know I sat with the mayor of Somerset and I know that Somerset, they that's exactly what they do. If you live uh outside of they, you know, their M ser utility services, you're going to they're going to pay a little more. What percentage? I don't know. We didn't delve into that. Um I mean, we've seen it some places in the state have it almost to 80%. Is what the county c Yeah. I mean, it's very common for 20, 30, and 40%. That's it's all over the board. It just depends on how their individual structures are set up. Smith Willis,

is this also going to be um how do I ask this? Is this is that rate that's going to go up for the county users? Is that going to be like a rolling rate that will increase or is that something that will um kind of stay put or does it make sense for that to increase for the county users and to stay at a flat fee for the city? Does that make sense? It made more sense in my head, but the uh the current ordinance has it going for 10 years. I believe we cover the current ordinance. So, it would just that those percentage increases will go up 10% per per county for those next 10 years. So, it just kind of roll. So, the county rate will stay 10% of whatever the current city rate is. 10% above.

10% above. Yes. Got you. Okay. Thank you. I don't see Commissioner Hunger, but I'll just say this goes back to we're just modernizing this policy. For a long time, we had a a policy where we just extended sewer without question. And really, we were obligated for some period of time to do so, but that under that consent anyway, whatever that obligation was that expired in 2001. It was the EPA funds that they took to help build the wastewater. So, we're just bringing this up to well, yeah, 2026

and annexation was the practice prior to that. And I think as you can see in the boundaries where we stopped that, that's why it's it's just not a thing anymore. It's harder to do now because we're we're locked in by the county around things. And did we get a copy of that presentation? Yeah, you have a copy of the uh You did not. I can send one out to you. Send that if I didn't. We'll give that to you. Um, Commissioner, do you have anything you want to add?

I'd like to have a copy. It's on there. The map the map is on there and the the numbers, but minus that 15% were in the memo that was sent, but we'll get the presentation out to you. I did want to add though, this is not something like again, it's I agree with the mayor. We're modernizing modernizing this. It's not going to we the more customers we have on our on our sewer, it spreads that liability and it's better, you know, financially for the sewer department. Correct.

So, it's not like we're not encouraging uh growth or this is not I I want to make sure that that it's very clear. This is not discouraging anything. It's just, you know, you're getting a city benefit not not being in the city limits. Uh is that fair to say? Can I say that? Yeah. Is that Is that We're a city utility. So,

I'm all I'm all for the growth. I am. And I don't think developers I I know I've talked to a few. I think developers are okay with that. Uh and I do think we have some skin in the game as a city. Um obviously we have a lot of skin in the game, but um I do think I I think these rate increases are not something exorbitant we're asking for. I think it the uh we're asking I guess the people that are benefiting from these incre these these projects the sewer department has to bond those projects out. So we the city has the sewer city department has a fee they have to pay

and we just need you know this is a way of of helping cover those cost uh where it's where it's needed and where where we're benefiting the the county residents. Everybody good? All right. So, uh, we want to look at this for January 26. We would love to look at this as long as we can get that language right. We'd like to look at this for a first reading in January meeting. All right. Everybody good with that? Y. We'll get those presentations out to you and try to get the language to you as quick as we can so you all can review before that meeting. And that was was that part of the packet that those slides there? I This was not. Okay. This is just something I put together real quick today. I have uh I have an updated one I can send you all that has all that on it. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Item number five, we have solid waste services update with Sarah Anderson and Byron Roberts.

Hello again. Hi.

Hi. So, I'm going to let Byron kind of get us started, but we're going to talk about two different things. One, the first one being kind of an update on where we stand right now. Um, especially since we changed uh recycling to every other week, and then um after that, we'll get into uh the RFP responses that we got. So, I'll let you kind of start out if you want. Well, just to give you a kind of a recap in and look at some numbers 20 in 2024, we picked up 10,425 tons of trash in from inside the city limits. 2025, 11,238 ton, but 78 78 ton of that was from the April flooding. So that puts us back down to 10,529 ton which is about we've seen an increase ever since 2020 of about 100 ton a year. It's been we were at about 8 to 900 ton 8 to 8 to 9,000 ton a year up to about 20 then we jumped over into 10,000 ever since. The recycling uh we've seen actually seen a steady decline since 2020. We were at about a,200 uh 1,200 ton a year average. Excuse me. 23 we averaged 989 989 ton and 24 is 630. We haven't got our paper reconciliation papers back from Lexon yet. They do on a quarter basis and they're still behind from the holidays. So, so but the tonnage is down low from in 24 and 6:30 due to our fire, you know, ever since then. So, we've been we have seen a drop in it, but it is it has picked back up. We won't really know for a few months until we get some more consistent numbers and more consistent collection. Excuse me. Currently, uh we have one superintendent, one assistant, one code enforcement, and 15

techs. I do have a vacancy pending now. So, 11 of those guys do have CDLs and I only have four,000. And I got two that are going on the 26 to take their CDL permit test. Hopefully they'll start and get the process going there. And my state of the fleet is not the best again. Uh we should have nine automated on the road, but we'll have four. Five either broken down at our garage waiting parts or at the dealership waiting parts and or repairs. And I have no spare ASLs at the moment. I'm still short one ASL due to the fire uh in this past September. six uh in my rear loaders. I'm actually in decent shape. Six total rear loaders, three on the road, one at the garage, and two spare. So, we've been running been having to run an additional rear loader in place of the small side loader for the the weekly recycling collection.

Just a note on that, whenever we're if we have a route that's meant to be run with an ASL and we're using a rear loader instead, that obviously requires an additional human, right? Because there has to be at least one tech riding the back and the driver.

Yeah. And what it it hurts me in the staffing because my policy and is probably one of the stricter uh vacation policies in the city. Right now I'm only allow I only allow one tech off on vacation during uh for a full week or a day. That uh that way I can compensate to someone does call at six. I know people have emergencies. It it happen everybody. It happens to everyone. Um, if somebody else wants off that week, it's it it I base it on me and my assistant superintendent base that decision. We work on what route it is, you know, are they a full-time driver or are they just a part-time driver slash, you know, tech for the back of the truck. There's many times during the year the guys want off uh multiple times, multiple guys want off and I just I have to be the bad guy and then don't let them. I mean, spring break, fall break especially, we try to we try to help them as much as we can, but every time a side loader goes down, that means another guy on the back of the trucks by himself. And we've we've been working pretty hard that way for the last really since September of 24. So,

okay. Um, so this is about recycling currently. Um, well, all services provided. We're currently running weekly curbside trash as we always have. So that requires six trucks. Ideally, that's three automatic side loaders and or automated side loaders and three rear loaders. So that's 9 to 12 texts depending on, you know, ideally 12 two on the back of every rear loader, but occasionally occasionally we cannot. Um, and we are currently running bi-weekly curbside recycling that requires two trucks per day, two ASLs, um, two drivers. Okay. Um, we were asked to talk about what it would look like to have to go back to weekly recycling or yeah, to reinstate weekly curbside recycling. Um, it would mean kind of like we talked a few months ago, it would mean the addition of one more truck, ideally a small 14yard ASL, um, and one additional tech. Um, so when we talked a few months ago, this is this gap is why we when we reinstated curbside recycling, why we went bi-weekly instead of weekly because we just didn't have right now. I think it's more the trucks than the drivers. Um, at the time we were also having trouble with licensed drivers, but we have a lot of licensed drivers now. We're in pretty good shape there.

Yeah, because with that small 14 yard truck being down, it's it covers a lot of South Frankfurt downtown, a lot of the small small areas that are that we can't get our full size side loader in. So, now that driver's having to drive that truck with with another tech on the back. So, we have to use a rear loader in his place because it's currently down. So, yeah. So, we started doing the bi-weekly on October 27th, right? So, it's been what? Two two and a half months.

Yeah, two and a half months. And in that time, we went back today and we looked at all of our work orders that we've received, all the work orders we've put in for actual missed pickups that were reported to us for recycling. So, in that 11 weeks, we've had 20 reported actual missed pickups. We've had several several more that reported as being missed, but when we looked into it, it was they were just on the wrong week.

So, we've done a lot of um educating, re-educating, continuing to educate. Um and most people once they call in and they're confused about A versus B week or maybe they weren't aware, um most of them go, "Oh, oh, okay." And so we get them straightened out and we don't hear back from most anybody, you know. Um so anyway, 20 actual missed reported pickups in 11 weeks. So less than two a week. Yeah. Um and we have circled back and gotten all those. So we're not

according to what's been reported to us and what we've responded to, it's I don't think it's a very bad I think it's a pretty good track record. I will say it's still we're still pretty new in doing it, so I feel like it's going to get better the longer we keep doing it. But um we haven't gotten near as many confused.

No, the phone calls have definitely very few phone calls, emails in lately. Um, so moving forward, if like we were saying, if we are to continue what we're doing or switch to weekly recycling, um, one, I I I personally don't think it's a good idea to switch to weekly recycling right now. I feel like we just made this switch. People are just getting used to it, and I I think it would cause more confusion. Um, but if we were to do it, we would need a small ASL and one tech to kind of do it smoothly.

Definitely. Um, in terms of other services, um, if the city's going to continue operating the way we have been in the past, um, we are going to need a new boom truck at some point in time. We're currently operating on a 2004 model truck that is in fairly constant need of repair. Um, and it's a small light duty truck. It does not handle the larger stuff that we run into a lot. So, um, if we're going to continue providing services, we do need to get back on a regular, um, cycle of replacing vehicles, fleet vehicles. Um, we went several, this is before your time, but we went several years in the past with no vehicles. So that kind of has

either no vehicles or one, but two is uh two is really what we need to be at because ever since the new a lot of the new emission stuff early since 22, it's been a um they're always broke down. It seems like it's always something with the the the federal mission regulation stuff on it or well the service life seems to have gotten shorter. Very much shorter. It used to they had a 10 year lifespan. Now they're we're lucky to get a fiveyear. I mean, just like us say the fire department, you know, we're at a 20-y year schedule lifespan prediction and now they're roughly 10 years.

Um, we'd also like in the future to look at um adding an additional tech or two to again so that so that the guys aren't stretched so thin and so that we can we can run the routes we need to run um in a timely manner. Uh we'd like to look at routing software to see if there's any efficiencies that can be made in our current um routes and then camera upgrades. Uh a lot of our trucks have cameras, a lot of some of them don't. Yeah. Some of them don't and some of them that do have cameras, they might work, they might not. Yeah. And there we have like three different brands in there. I would like to consolidate to go to one brand and one

uh one of the routing softwares that I've spoke with, you know, they they integrate with some of the camera systems. So, I think I would just like to have an all-encompassed system that works with everything instead of having to look at two their different softwares. Yeah. Um, so for that part of the discussion, where we currently stand, how recycling is going, any comments, discussions, questions? Commissioner Smith Willis, this is just me being lazy. Ballpark. Okay. about with all the future the the needs in the future. You know about ballpark how much that'll cost collectively to just knock that out. Uh oh gosh we had it on an old presentation. We can get that.

Well a new side loader probably in 27 new model 20 20 27 model year there's new federal mission standards and everybody that I've talked to manufacturing dealers have u their 20 to 30,000 increase on the chassis side alone. And usually I always budget when doing budget numbers I always budget 5 to 8% increase. And that's seems like for the body side of it I would say uh two two ASL two large ASLs is probably 850,000. Say it again. 850,000 because a smaller ASL right the last quote on it was 368 I believe that. So the 850,000 is just for the trucks.

Two too large too large as this is not including the software. No, the software the boom truck software uh the one I just talked to that seemed like it's a preferred one a yearly cost is about 30,000 with the first year in first year cost of about 6,000 for this training and you know the all the information and luck with that company the it is through the source well so we do get a better pricing on it and they allow us to buy our own tablets for the trucks instead of them forcing us to buy some something they're jacking the price up on so we can buy our own equipment.

Last I'm sorry, last follow-up question. I just want to know and I guess cameras in the scheme of things and where I've never I have not taken my field trip yet, but when I take my field trip, what are the cameras for? Like what are we is it like a necessity for the cameras on the trucks? We would like to integrate it with the routing and uh software. That way if u you use you know you call in say your house is missed, I can go back and look. Oh, okay. Right. And say cuz it could be set up on a geo fence. Um if I know it takes 8 seconds for a side loader to double pan at that house. U they use Rob. I'll have to use Rob as an example. He's on he's kind of on the corner. If he sets it on the one corner,

we don't geofence it there. We know he sets it out on his main road side every week. When we go by there and we don't stop for 7 to 10 seconds, we know either the driver didn't see it or it's not out. Then we can go back and look at the camera. Then he calls in and said it's out. Then we go by look as his c as our camera catches it and it might been on the other side. So we didn't know it was three feet apart too. Yeah. It's also good for insurance purposes. If there's um an accident, if somebody says that we damaged their property, it's really easy to verify, yeah, we did it or yeah, we or no, we didn't. The camera system had saved us once before on a motor vehicle accident. The lady said we came over on her and you could clearly see

the yellow line in the truck never crossed it. So, so it's a so it's so it's definitely a necessity. Okay. I just Plus it gives the driver a 360°ree view of the truck. You know, but down both sides plus our side loaders they have one in the in the hopper so they can see what's being dumped out of the cart whether it's on the recycle something illegal or trash that's illegal like paint, batteries, you know, motor fuel. Cool. Thank you. That was my question. I won't name my relative, but he had yard clippings in his herby and they found that one and he got a nasty and was going to be fine. Does the camera capture what we're collecting? Yes. Yeah.

They we do see it. Some of them do record. Some of them do just we we've got just so many. What's funny is this particular family member didn't understand why. Yeah. It was probably in the recycle cart. It was It was because of fire. Yeah. Um, and and that's a that's a real thing. I know that from talking to fire. Um, and my I had to educate my family member. They don't live here. But, uh, Commissioner Smith Wells made good. What? What? Give me a just I've got the trucks. We've got the software and the cameras. Uh, the two additional techs. What would that um what do our what do our guys start out at? 40ish.

Yeah, 40 something. So 100 grand. Yeah, probably with benefits. Yeah, benefits. Yeah. And I understand about not the recommendation to not go back to weekly recycling right now, but what about keeping it at bi-weekly and just having everybody picked up on the same day and eliminate the A and B? But that how much logistical it's the same as going to weekly except it's on one week off one week. Um but it I mean we we talked about it a lot. Um still would need a truck. Still would need the attack. Yeah. Because without the trucks we're going to u we would we will get in overtime plus working the guys a lot more than what they're used.

So like right now we've just got the two trucks to run recycling. Like that that's all of our vehicles. So and there's there's three recycle routes per day if you're doing it weekly. Um, so they would go and run their routes and then they would go to the third route and start from opposite ends and meet. Um, which is doable, but then it's just you might as well go weekly as well and get the if you're going to make the investment and Yeah. Yep. Okay. So, this is one part of this presentation. Is there everybody good with this part? Okay,

throw it back up there. He's gonna get it up there. Oh, no, thank you. Okay. So, um, as you guys know, we put out an RFP for, um, potentially privatizing our solid waste services. We received responses last last Tuesday.

Last Tuesday, um, we did get three responses. Um, we're recalling them, we're calling them responder A, B, and C up here. Um, two of those responses were complete. The third one I think is incomplete. Yeah, I would consider it as well incomplete.

Um, but this this table kind of goes over the high, you know, the the high points of the responses. Um, so we've broken it down. We asked them to give us prices for bi-weekly recycling and weekly trash and weekly recycling, weekly trash. And we asked them to give us prices if they build the city and prices if they build the customer, the residence. So that that lighter colored block is all the prices for if they were to bill Frankfurt directly. Um and then the so the let's just start at the first one. So $18.99 that is the cost per household per month for the city if we're doing weekly trash and bi-weekly recycling for an annual cost of 2.4 million. Um and then for weekly it jumps up to 2125 per house per month for a total of 2.7 million. And then for responder B 2.7 and 3.2 to um the prices quoted for billing directly to the resident were $19.99 for bi-weekly or 2450 for bi-weekly and 2225 and 28 for weekly recycling. Um that's we haven't there's a lot of other things to consider in the RFPs that we receive. They talk about customer service. They talk about uh rolloff containers that we can use for um emergencies, etc. Um but this is kind of the highlights just to let you guys know initially, you know, the kind of bigger picture what it looks like. Um

so what have included like bulky item stuff? Correct. Yes, there is. Yes. So responder A and responder B did include prices for bulky items. Responder A uh said one free per week and $25 for each bulky item after. And then they specifically defined what a bulky item approximate size. Responder B said $40 per bulky item and had a list of acceptable items.

Um so yeah, there's a a lot of different things to look at. Um, I think what we'd be interested or would love to hear from you guys is if you have specific questions that because we can we can go back to the responders and have conversations with them um about like to clarify their responses um or to you know to better understand what they're proposing um I think that'd be good for us to know what kind of how you guys are thinking Um this was just for um comparison purposes. Our current operating costs like for this budget year 2.15 million. This is for personnel and other operating expenses. It does not include uh capital purchases. So no vehicle purchases, no building upgrades. It does not include our insurance premiums. It does not include workers comp. Um, so when you go back and look at the quoted annual prices, like if the city were to pay 2.4, 2.7, it's not terribly different than what we're currently paying. Um, yeah. Yes, sir.

How what would be is there a contract like a So the 2.4 I'm just using the 2.4 2.7 for example. How how long? Fiveyear contract. Yeah. So, when we put out the RFP, that's a good question. When we put the RFP out, we said that our intention was to enter into a five-year contract with the selected responder with an opportunity or ability to extend that for an additional 5 years. I will also say that responder A and responder B, um, responder A said that annually on a 5-year contract, they were looking for a 4 and a.5% increase to believe or four and a half. I think it was 4.5. And then responder B had a

an increase of 50 cents per household per service. So a dollar per household per month increase every year which ends up being like 4.65%. So very similar about the same. Very similar in my head. Yeah. Yeah. Um and did we take did these did they take into consideration buying our current equipment? Yes. Yes. So, responder A indicated that they would be interested in purchasing our fleet. Responder B actually gave us a quote for each vehicle that they'd be willing to purchase. Um, and that ranged from 1 million to 1.4 million. Yes.

And I I'm putting the they quoted 1.4 something, but the 1 million was if we were to keep a truck or two, you know, taking those out. Um, but yes, they indicated. My next thing because obviously um I I personally I would want to keep a truck or two because there are things that I think we still could you know we still would need to pick trash out. Correct. Special events downtown bus stops like well back to generally bus stops we pick up all the ones with shelters we pick up every even some without shelters we pick up we service every one of those. Y

and then this doesn't take in all these numbers there's hidden and I want to point out there's a lot would you say that in your opinion that the garage our city garage spends that's an excellent point yeah every Monday is dedicated garbage day unless it's unless it's a snow event or the fire department's had major breakdowns over the weekend and and then as needed throughout the week. So, I mean, I don't I don't have a good um or a solid idea of exactly what percentage of their time they spend, but definitely the garage would realize some additional time other vehicles. Well, I mean, I noticed still one there. The way previous slide you had they were at the garage. So,

yeah, we've got some at our current garage waiting on parts and we've got some out at outside dealers at uh waiting on repairs. Commissioner May,

mine's more of a logistical question in regards to uh residential versus municipal build billing. If the resident is responsible for they'll get that in the mail or digital, whatever they choose to do on the bulk pickup items and things, they would be responsible then for the $25 fee that comes in. What do we do? Uh if we're doing if someone decides they don't want to pay the bill, then the company that we go with starts taking that up individually with the house. Yes.

And can they refuse trash and recycling services? Um I believe or what do we do if someone goes I'm not I'm not paying I'm just not paying it. I know in our previous orders we had the head pa throw. We had some residents refuse it and then it it became a legal issue. Okay. The responses outlined a little bit kind of how they handle customer service including billing and people who don't pay and um I believe I believe and I'll look into it more that they mentioned like a right of refusal a right to refuse service. Um, yeah. But then ultimately we as the city are going to go pick that up, right?

If we would have to at some point there'd be a almost like putting a lean on a property. It' be similar is an important current. It's always ordinance. If we send a service fee out to a resident and the or to the property owner and they don't pay and we service it and they still don't pay in the 45 days, then we will go put a a lean on our property. Just like be no different not mowing your grass. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. We It's I believe it's pretty close to the same language as what Eric I've read it. Trust me those

and I will say, you know, the responses that we got back were just that they were responses. If we do choose to go this route, we will of course choose, you know, select a responder and hammer out a contract with that company. So all of this, we do have an opportunity to address all of this. Yeah. But that's why the the questions are good because if we go down this route, we need to know these things. We need to be thinking about it and putting it in a contract. Yeah. And I just want to know the answers. I'm not I'm not really concerned that we're going to have a lot of people in our community if we were to just say I'm not going to pay. I'm just throw my trash shop in my front yard. Most same people are going to be doing that.

Uh but there's always I do want to know at the end of the day, yeah, what the contract will read and who is going to bear the ultimate responsibility in the price tag.

Yes, sir. And I guess I'm I really just want to make sure just for people that are watching that might currently work under public works. I guess the the main thing I'm sticking to is in the RFS that they're not absorbing the employees and I mean every single one of them or what that looks like. I'm really not on board with it. So did did any of them besides responder C, responder A or B, did they talk to that at any point? Um just to make sure that we are taking care the people that currently work for the city of Frankfurt, you know, are are is it being what does that look like? I guess is what I'm asking. So, and I'll let Jason correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think the intention if we go down this road would be to not keep any current employees. That said, both companies did indicate that there may be a need for for them to hire additional drivers and that they would be happy to talk to our employees if anyone was interested to explain to them what the you know cuz as they they know these people are you know our guys are they're good. They're already licensed. They already know the area. They know how to operate the equipment. So, um I'm sure that both responder A and B would be interested.

Yeah, there was trying to coach some there was language in both of them that they would be interested in. Yeah.

And I guess we're going to and we still need to keep people on the staff that we have as well. So, as long as whatever that makeup looks like, whatever the percentage ratio between privatization and keeping them on with the city, I just want to make sure that everybody understands that that's something that I'm not willing to negotiate on is people's jobs and especially their quality of life. That was another thing I wanted to touch on was I personally feel like, you know, with you having to choose between which tech is going to be able to take some time off work because you only have so many that are working. You know, that's something that I really would like to possibly work through is, you know, with staffing is making sure that people are that work for the city of Frankfurt are still, you know, being able to enjoy that quality of life with time off with their families. I just feel like if one takes off, I feel like people other people should be able to take off work, but that's just me. But I also understand, you know, the business need as well. That's something that I definitely would like to

and we have a service that has to be completed. So, for sure. Yeah. And couple of questions. Financial one that did you mentioned a boom truck is on the horizon and is that something we would still need to get regardless of this decision? Um maybe. Uh I think it depend. Go ahead. It would make it easier on the guys to pick up like piles of brush, flood debris or whatever because it's it could be used in our department plus it as well. Um it's a very and what I was going to say is I think it would depend on what exactly we do with yard waste and brush. Um but he's not wrong. A boom truck can be used for a lot of things. Um yeah.

Yeah. Well, this would be a lot easier if that number 2.4 for was less than what we're spending this year and but I do but there are the other costs that I don't know how we quantify but I would if it's possible to make a more apples to apples comparison estimate what the insurance cost the workers comp cost the garage cost and then also we're we're still going to our budget now at 2.1 million includes the special events right includes those things that picking up that it does

that a private company's not going to do. So that would you we're still going to have some expense there additional to this right to the 2.4 or 2.7 or whatever we choose to go. So if there's a way to do that we have insurance cost. We do have insurance costs that was 75,000 if you go off uh claims over the past several years where last year counting the the one it was over a million with the fire but yeah typically we're I need to put it in a spreadsheet and look at we'll get we'll get all that

and then and then if we could go back and look at our cap so for me the you know when I look at this and think is this attractive or not it's that we we know those capital costs that we we just talked about we're not going to be doing that at near the same um well we might get some trucks for something but we're not going to be buying like we have been but I would like to know over the last however many years I don't know how far back to look can we average out what are we you know what's the capital cost for solid waste on average you know what and then and then what's been the max in a year you know what what's been the max because that's the potential here if we if we go this route with private we know we're not going to have these big spikes and

right we could focus our capital costs on other things. So I would like to know that and uh what's our deadline? Our deadline um so the RFP language I should have had this ready to go. I think it was I think we said that all responses Lauri you can tell me if I'm saying the wrong kind of language. I think we said we had 90 days to I can look and verify. It might have been 60. Yeah, I believe it was 60 day. I believe it was February some 23rd, I believe. Basically that their they had to they had to honor their their prices, their quotes up to that date. And you're probably right. It probably was 16. I believe it was to February 23rd, I believe.

I don't think we put a date. We the February 23rd was when we said we expected we might have um a selected responder if this is a route that we go, but we require them to honor their prices for I believe 60 days. 60 days. So that would be from the date of bid opening which was last Tuesday. We could do further discussion at the at the uh regular meeting if that's and we can get that other the spreadsheets and maybe reach out to some of the respondents for those additional questions. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. Just for our next meeting um I'll well never mind. I'll save that for whatever. Yeah, I'll save it for later. Okay, never mind. Thank you.

Yeah, I I may I appreciate this. I do. And I may have started this ball rolling, but I mean I'm just the communities I visit and we have fine people. I know fine people that work there that that and I'm going to go back to Commissioner Smith Willis. No one's talking about getting rid anybody. We just had a a 4hour strategic planning meeting and talked about beautifification of our city. Um, I'm with the mayor. I'd like to see the numbers, but I know that across and I've been been advised by several people that have way more experience sitting on boards than I do that um you cannot compete, government can't compete with the privatization when it comes to sanitation because of the cost. Uh, and you know, case in point, our recycle wheat, we collect it, we it goes to our center, and then someone else picks it up.

So, we're kind of the middle person. We are. So, that's my point. When we're the middle person, it adds that level of cost. And, and again, this is no fault of anyone that works there. Uh, it's just I'm just basing this like I would my house. It's true efficiency and the best bang for our dollar. Especially when I know that we have some large expenditures. I know your capital uh improvements. I know the fire department's capital improvements, the police departments, the street. I mean, we've got some things we really need to consider. And unfortunately,

I wish we had a money tree, but we don't. Or fortunately, I wish we had money. We don't. Uh, and we've got to really look at the way to to take every dollar we have and make it work the best we can. That's why I I really appreciate all the time you put into this. But again, it has nothing to do with our We have great staff. I'm not against I don't want that to come across as that. I mean, I just I've done a lot I've learned more about sanitation. and tell you all about uh stuff within the police department, but I've learned way more about sanitation than I thought I ever would. But uh but it's very good to to really realize, you know, the interoperate operation of what you are doing there. And and again, I think you do a fine job, but but I think when it comes down to it is the efficiency of what how we're spending taxpayer money.

All right,

last thing. I'm sorry. And I also just want to piggy back off of Commissioner Richardson. I I think when this conversation came up last year, it was um I also wanted to entertain it. I based off of our strategic planning that we had. I think we're all very aligned with just the quality of life here in Frankfurt and making sure that everybody is can make everybody happy, but a large percentage of our community. So, I just wanted to say, you know, I appreciate the education aspect of this. Um, I I believe in transparency, but I also believe in exploring all options that makes the most sense for the longevity of our community. So, um, you know, if if people are watching this and you know, the newspaper, I just want to make sure that we're covering all bases and not just one or the other. So, I just really wanted to thank you all for getting this out there and receiving the responses. Responder C, I don't know what happened with them, but I appreciate responders A and B kind of giving us all the information for us to be able to discuss at our regular session. So, thank you all. Okay. And I think that's a good place to end and we'll well it's a good transition too. We'll talk about the discussion of the next agenda which um we'll put this on there at least for discussion maybe. Well, we'll see about action but at least discussion. We have the industrial revenue bonds. We have a sewer ordinance. Is there anything else besides the normal consent calendar things and Okay. Any unfinished business? I don't think there's anything from December from last year. Any new business to come before the board? Commissioner Richard,

can we get an update on the meeting center or kind of where we're at on that? The Oh, yeah. Event center or I'm I'm sorry. I mean, event center, convention center, whatever we call it. Meeting and event center. Meeting and event center, you know. Yeah. You want to update at the regular meeting on that? Commissioner Smith Willis

and maybe just to um Mr. Ferguson's point earlier today and if solid waste wants to loop back around. I really would like to and I'm also me and Commissioner Anger are on that committee but it might not be it might not the meeting the next meeting for that committee might not come before the regular session but to just explore his um his suggestion you know I understand it might be in the Laura forgive me if I'm wrong the code the ordinance in itself about that about what he touched on but for larger households how are we making sure that they are able to um you know they have way more trash than what me and Milo would so like you know how are we like what are we doing for those households outside of that outside of him having to go buy trash bags and then have to clean up what you know so what can we do I guess um in that instance to actually follow up with Mr. Ferguson or I could myself. I just want to know if we can explore that option for larger households.

Okay. Any other new business? How about board comments? We'll open it up. It's a new year. Commissioner Smith Willis.

I'll be the one that It's funny because on this paper it says request for updates or information, but I'm just always like I want to give flowers, but I really just wanted to kind of take the time to hold space for this commission. Um, I'm really excited to jump into the year with you all. Um, and I'm excited to learn and expand on um, making Frankfurt the best that it could be. Um, and then just for the record if anybody at on this commissioner in the community um, has any recommendations or suggestions like Mr. Ferguson had today, um, I think I have an open door policy, but I think I speak for all of us. So, I just want to say I'm really excited to work with you all this year and can't wait to see what comes from it. Thank you. Same happy new year everyone.

Happy new year. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor of adjourning say I. I. We'rejourned. Hi Lisa.

Hi Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.