Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Sometimes Thank you. There's nothing

chief. Sir, do you remember last year we did the square footage thing at the clubhouse? We did what? I'm sorry. The square footage for the Yes, sir. for the Did you ever get a a little sign to put up for what? We have them. Yes, sir. Are they out there? Are they out there? I have no out the clubhouse. I have no idea, sir. If you need one, I'd get one tomorrow. There's like 116, wasn't it? Mhm. Yes, sir. I can take care of that. I thought I remember seeing one, but I have no idea. I just I was out there Friday. Yeah, I just No, I didn't see one over

the square footage and the X's and stuff and everything and just we Yeah, that's how I deal with the

I just noticed that I didn't see one that thought I'd bring it up. I'd be more happy to see 116 people in there. Do what?

No, they don't need to. They don't have to. He's talking about for public forum, but you guys are on the agenda. So,

all right. Call the meeting to order. Take roll, please. Morgan Johnson first award here. Lucas Stansery second word present. John Lee third here. Daryl West fourth word here. We have a quorum. Mr. Mayor, please rise for a prayer and pledge of allegiance. I ask you with us tonight. Make good decisions and the right ones for the people of Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right on time.

All right. Can I have a motion to an acceptance of the agenda? Mr. Mayor, make a motion to accept the agenda as presented. Second. Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion pass. Have a motion for the consent agenda. Mr. Mayor, make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Okay. All in favor? I oppose. Okay. Motion pass. No one. Nobody on public forum. All right. So, we'll go to um item A, public hearing for de annexation. Can't say that word right.

You formally open ask if there's any comments and you will formally close it once it's done. Okay. How do I do that? Just say open for comment. Open for comment. Sorry, I got I know what you meant. Anybody have any comments on that? And then if there's not, you can close it. Okay. Then we close it, then move on to B, I'm guessing, right? Yep. This is the ordinance to follow what you just hear. You just All right. So, um, item B, approve ordinance for deanex. I can't say that word right. The ananization.

I think you said it right. This is for Mike Peak. We've discussed it several times. Um, and this is the formal procedure we had to follow to get it done. Office 1403. Mr. Mayor, I move uh make a motion that we approve the ordinance for the annexation of the Mike Peak property ordinance number 1403. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Motion passed. All right. Now we go. How do you pronounce her name? Her last name. Jeffy. Kathy.

I was going to say, but I want to make sure. All right. So item C is appoint and approve Susan Chaffy to the library board with a term of May 2026 to April 2030. Recommended by the library director. So you appoint and then council has to vote and with the majority vote they're appointed to a position at the board. Uh Mr. Mayor, I motion that we appoint and approve Susie Chaff to the library board with the term of May 2026 to April 2030. Second. Okay. All in favor? I opposed. I think that was an I. I don't.

Yes, it was an I. I don't think that was an All right. Item D. Appoint and approve Casey Brown to the library board with term of May 2026 through April 2030. Casey was also recommended by the library director. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we appoint and approve Casey Brown to library board with the term of May 2026 to April 2030. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion passed. All right. Item E, discuss storm siren activation procedure. Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council. Good evening.

Uh just wanted to u this last few weeks there have been some questions and answers about activation uh the city of Gerard on policies and procedures when we activate our storm sirens. Um, as this evening, each one of you should have been presented a protocol and how that is within our city limits as well as a copy of the county's um their alert system on when they alert this torna tornado sirens within the city or city and county as well. I shouldn't say I should say county. Um base in point is uh over a week ago we had a severe storm head this way and I was monitoring that storm as it was approaching uh from my home in this area ready to respond. Um that storm the trajectory was headed uh the aerials was headed towards Gerard where it was pinpointed but as you all know if we were watching that storm system it dissipated. It lost its updraft and just dissipated which means you know it died down but then it picked back up and shifted from northeast to south or from northeast to southeast. Well, as it came across into Crawford County, um that's when I believe uh with the dispatchers who I have here, the stakeholders this evening, and also our county emergency management, a tornado warning was issued for our county. Per Gerard's policy and our procedures, how we activate it, anytime there is a tornado warning within our county, we activate our storm sirens. Reason why is we give people plenty of notice for them to gather their families whatever and head to that storm shelter if need be to seek shelter. So there was some questions uh arised um you know the storm was way south of us. Uh there was questions you know we probably shouldn't have set them off. Uh you know there was people upset

that we set them off because the storm was not near us. Um, as my position with the chief here in the city of Gerard, I will side on the air of safety and per our protocol, you know, for the people we serve and protect and with our policy, it coincides with the county as well on the setting off the storm sirens as well. And like I said, I'm open to any questions. Um, I have the emergency manager here for the county as well as our uh supervisor for the county dispatch and her assistant assistant supervisor. So if there's any questions or concerns on procedures anywhere from when they're county, we can answer those. Uh Chief, I sat there and uh kind of wondered because I was watching the news as well.

Yes, sir. But then uh my wife was like scared to death and uh she's like, "Put everything in the lock box, you know." Yes, and at least she had time to feel better that she got everything gathered up and then if it did get bad, then she still was able to head to the seller with her with our all of our stuff. So, I don't mind it. You know, it's better to be safe than sorry.

My point of it is standing from this point is, you know, you're danged if you do and you're danged if you don't. And my philosophy in standing on this procedure is that I just assume sit in front of a TV station interviewing explaining why I did it. Other words and stand up there and explain why I didn't do it in the f and explain why the fatalities I have and I didn't do it. So you talk about side on the air of safety. That's what I'm here to do. Take care of the people we serve here in the city of Gerard. And

Yes, sir. And I have I mean I'm open to questions. Like I said, I invited dispatch here. They verified that because I did go back and verify that information as well as with our county emergency manager as well. Now, Chief, can you I had a question. Sure. On the counties, this is more just for individuals because I'm I might understand either. The county has outdoor warning siren system and we have a storm siren. Do we still consider ours outdoor warning? Also, it is only there. Yes, sir. I'm sorry to interrupt. They are for outdoor only use.

Um, that is for people outdoors. People call in say, "Well, I'm sitting inside. I can't hear it." That's not meant to be heard inside. Um, my my where I live at, I have a storm siren where I live in my facility, three blocks away, you know, and to be honest, it sounded the other night where I hit I took my family to the basement. I could barely hear it. They're not meant to hear on the outside. They're or inside. They're only outside.

I'll step in here. Yes, sir. Uh it's just Quinton Parsons, Crop Emergency Management. It's just kind of how you advertise them. So, some people just call them storm sirens. Uh we went on we just changed all of our terms to outdoor warning sirens because again, they are meant to hear and outdoors. Um we don't like we're getting new storm sirens for the county, but even with the new technology, you're still not allowed or really able to hear them indoors. So, uh, that terminology is really just getting pushed out for outdoor warning warning sirens instead of just storm sirens. So, same thing. It's just a different wording. Okay. And you guys recommend a weather radio then for

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you can get weather radios for 30 bucks. Um, actually, I'm trying to get a get a grant to buy a bunch of weather radios and then maybe pass them around the counter county. But that is you sign up for the Genesis alerts we offer in the county and those are free for anyone to sign up for. um or you get a weather uh weather radio or you know watch the news Doug heady whatever you want to watch but they will keep you updated but we recommend getting multiple ways of communication to get storm sirens or storm warnings so but are the genesis alerts text messages or

yeah so you can do a text message email or phone call um it doesn't matter and you can uh on the Crawford County Emergency Management P Facebook page it shows you how to sign up and then also on the Crawford County Emergency Management uh website on the county website. It's it has all the information there as well. So I recommend everybody getting that because you will get an alert. And so how the National Weather Service works, it gets in polygons. Um so when the storm warning, it doesn't matter what it is, it it Genesis uses your location and if it's touching that polygon for the National Weather Service, that's when you'll get that alert. Again, that problem with this storm we had last last week. Um it was just such a slow moving moving storm. It really wasn't going to get to our county at all. And then it changed trajectory like chief said and it started headed toward MUN and then it's the same storm that put a tornado down in Columbus. Um so we didn't really know it was going where it was going. It was supposed to just kind of go up in Oklahoma and then ended up hitting the edge of our county as well. So uh you look at that radar and it just slowly started coming up and then went right back down. So

So did the does the county turn their sirens on when when a tornado warning is issued? Yep. Yep. So we there's three no matter where the storm is. if it's in Crawford County. She will answer that. So, yeah, we can do it for um tornado warnings, we automatically issue it. Uh severe thunderstorm warnings that are producing a a dangerous amount of wind or anything that like that we will issue or turn on our sirens or any other public safety threat, we can turn our sirens on and if you hear them, you know, seek shelter. Um and we'll like same with the Genesis alert, we'll push that messaging out on our text messages. So, okay.

Any other questions for me? So no matter what city or anything, everybody does the countywide thing, right? No. No. So Gerard, Pittsburgh, Front Neck, Arma, Arcadia, and Malberry all set their own off. We have a grant to put Arcadia and Malberry on our our system. I believe we can switch armies of our system, but they're on their own system as right now. Um, but I think they're going to try to maybe go to what the county is doing as well. But but anytime there's any warning anywhere like a tornado warning no matter where it is, those go off is what? That's what I'm asking. Like no. So yeah, you guys write your own policy. What What is the other towns in

Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh doesn't shut theirs off unless they're it's in their Polygon Square. Um but they also don't have storm like public storm shelters. Uh Gerard is a has a public storm shelter at the school. So you are getting people from outside of Gerard to start coming to that storm shelter as well. Um, but yeah, Pittsburgh sets their own off as whatever their policy says. I don't know what their policy says. Okay, that's what I That's what I was asking like what the majority of the people did. Yeah. You talked about the school is a storm shelter that the courthouse used to be. Is it still? No, sir. It's not.

No, not not on record. No. Okay. I mean, not saying if we were, you know, if the courthouse was open or whatever, we would let people in. But not a public storm shelter that we would just open up. That's what that's what the school is for is they got a grant and they were able to fit a bunch of people in the shelter. So So the hat line where that grant was to build that new storm shelter, we can't use it, but they let us use their basement because their kids go to the new park and there's never kids in that basement. So that's the way it's been for years. Jessica who's the chief dispatcher.

Yeah. So, okay. I just want to introduce myself. My name is Jessica Markley. Um that is Katrisha Harrison. So, we co-supervise dispatch. You know, we're just think of us, think of the other. We're we're two in one. Um but I just wanted to kind of open the curtain of what dispatch does, right? So, we're we're kind of kept in the dark, especially since we're we're located in your city, right? So what dispatch does is when a storm shelter or a storm comes in. So Quinton's given us access to a very expensive radar that we watch. I am no Doug heady, right? But what I can tell you is my entire existence is making sure that my guys with boots on the ground are safe. But first and foremost, my responsibility is to the public and I want you all to remember that. Um when we make a decision to set off the storm sirens, it is never done lightly. Okay. So, I teach security awareness for Crawford County, um, as well as for all of our affiliates. So, Gerard, EMS, um, all of our, you know, fire districts. And we talk about a little bit about social media. And I kind of want to bring this up today. You're going to see a lot of backlash. That's natural. When you step into any kind of political situation and you're coming from, you know, a community where you're tightknit, right? Everybody in this room knows each other. Morgan and I went to school together. You know, we care about each other. But what you have to remember is a lot of those negative comments are coming from not just people being negative, but it's a lack of education. Um me and Jeff discussed the other day and Katrisha about opening up the public and doing a 911 public education. We're going to talk about things such as storm shelters. We're going to talk about what 911 is, what the services our county can offer. But what I really want to break this down, you know, and we would have talked about in the meeting prior is this is not done to upset anyone. Our first and foremost responsibility is to protect the people of not only Gerard but of Crawford County. So when I make the decision every, you know, and I tell my girls, "Go ahead and light the sirens up." And I was the one to pull up that screen and I pushed all of those

buttons. And I'm going to tell you, the one in Chipe didn't go off. And it it threw tones at me that I'd never heard before. Well, I immediately got up on the radio and one of my fire chiefs ran to that city, put himself, his family in danger, right, to go make sure that those sirens were going off. So, our people with those boots on the ground are risking our lives for your families because we care. We're not doing this for the pay, you know, we're doing it because it's our responsibility at the end of the day. So what I am going to encourage your council members to do is to really sit back and think about you know your wives, your kids, your grandkids, those are the ones needing to go to shelter. Okay, so this storm we were talking about as it was tracking it was throwing tornadoes outside of the storm radius. This storm shifted southwest. We haven't seen a storm do that in a very long time. In fact, one of the most recent storms and I've done some research that to do that was the Joplin tornado. Well, we saw this devastation right at home, right? I don't know if any of you went over and volunteered, but I did. I was a freshman in high school and I was over moving debris. That was one of the most devastating things I've ever been involved in. And I'll be darned if that's going to happen in my county and people don't know something like that's coming. So, I will always, as the dispatch supervisor, Patricia will always air on the side of caution and we will throw up storm sirens. And I encourage you guys to do the same. And I am confident Jeff makes that decision and setting them off because in Crawford County, we also had confirmed rotation at 590 and 140th. Well, that's 3 miles south of your guys's location. Well, what if it hit the ground, came our way? Where was what if the storm moved northeast? We don't know. You know, at the end of the day, God's in control of that. But what we are control of is being proactive rather than being reactive. And so I encourage council members to think about that when we're thinking about public safety and we're thinking about how we need to write these policies and continue doing. Would

it be easier to appease everybody and make everybody happy? Absolutely. That's not a perfect world. Okay? We live in an imperfect world and we live with human beings and that's who we serve. And so we need to remember that when we're writing these policies, we're maintaining that public safety, that we're looking at all the stakeholders in the room, and we're remembering who are we impacting, and that's our family and friends. That's all I have. Does anybody have any questions? Same thing with like severe thunderstorm warnings. That's all like those text mess sent out. If there's one anywhere in the county, that's why they send those out, right? Absolutely. So the same kind of thing if there's anything in a county.

Yeah. The Genesis alerts. Uh so the old system what was it? Uh NIXLE it it didn't matter where it was in the county if it was even touching a little corner of like M. It would send it to every single person in the county. With our new system it it does the natur that square. Um or you can have the the Genesis app on your phone and it will do if you're driving through even if you're driving through like Kansas City if you're in a a warning area the app. But yeah,

with the new system it only does the polygons. But with the old system, it was anywhere in the county and that's what our dispatchers or honestly we switched this new system last year and that's what they were used to is they got an alert. They get alerts on their screens from the National Weather Service saying, "Hey, Crawford County is in a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning." doesn't really tell you where it is until you get farther down and that's where that comes from. Right. So you have to read like when it they show up and you have to read Yeah. So right at the very beginning it just says severe thunderstorm warning for crop county wherever however many counties and Missouri.

And the bad thing is if you if you don't know we get all of our weather information from the National Weather Service in Springfield. Um that's our office. Well, then Witchaw, we're we're just in a really bad area, Crawford, Bourbon, and Cherokee County. So, we have we kind of hit the edge of three radars. We the edge of Witchdaw radar, Pulson radar, and Springfield's radar. Um, so when we're trying to predict these storms, we're looking at all three of these radars and you can never really tell. Like, you can never tell where it's going to end up. Um, we've been very fortunate in the last couple years to not get a major storm in Copper County. get to the county line and just kind of spread out and come back together over there in Barton County. Um but yeah, um but yeah, so it will do the polygon square. So if you sign up the Genesis app, but with the National Weather Service since just me and then the girls dispatch, it just says a warning whatever it is and then you'll have to like kind of decipher it where the actual locations of the cities are.

So it doesn't it doesn't separate the cities either. when you read it all, they will tell you like Pittsburgh, Carl Junction, Aurora. So, you have to kind of go through it and like look to see if Pittsburgh or Gerard's on there, right? And the reason the policy is written that way is because, you know, people have their KOAM apps or Acura weather, whatever you're using on your phone, and we can all, you know, pretend to be the weatherman, but at the end of the day, when you're looking at general public safety, so you're not just looking at a couple hundred people. You're looking at thousands of people, what is the best decision for all of those people? And the best decision every time is going to be on the side of caution. Absolutely.

And also, the information we get from the from National Weather Service through NCIC, it's delayed and so sometimes we're getting those messages as a storm is coming into the county and so we don't have that time to give people time to get to shelter if we wait for those. So that's why we're using those external radars now instead of just what we get from I didn't know that. That's that's yeah the three radar we're just in a weird location and it doesn't matter if we went to the Witchah office or switch we would still like to be in a bad spot unless they put a new or weather service site closer to us which they never do

right because what I was like I was texting her and and I'm like well like according to what I saw the tornado warning was like south of Pittsburgh and I was like I don't understand why these are going off. It makes sense now the way you guys explained it, but the communitywise we want everybody to kind of know why we did what we did, whatever that is. Yeah, absolutely. Where people understand that because I was like, well, there's nothing here, but those are going off. Like, one of the Facebook comments, you know, they made mention, well, it woke my kids up and we had to go to the shelter for 15 minutes. What if something happened that 15 minutes could have saved your life? 15 minutes of someone's time is someone else losing a life somewhere else. We all have to think about that. And also it falls back on the individuals whether how well they take it or serious or not.

So some people can look at it that's their choice. You know whether they want to go or not. They look at a radar and like it's South County. I don't need to go. That is their choice. But as far as us air on the safety side, we're given that opportunity. We're we're ahead of the game sounding that warning for you to seek shelter. If you choose not to, that's going to be up to you. But you know I will sight on the side of air on the side of safety each and every time.

Yeah. Again the county policy is severe thunderstorm warnings that are producing a lot of wind or damages and this storm was producing a lot of wind and then hail and you were either getting nle size hail but size hail just depending on where you were. So we we didn't know what the storm was going to produce. That was just a weird day for storms in general. It dropped three tornadoes in our region. So

my residents I we seek storm. I I waited cuz I was on my way here. My wife asked me to, you know, if I'm going to travel. I said, I'll hold off. Well, I did and they sounded our storm sirens in my hometown and we seek shelter and we had marblesiz hail and damaging winds and it just went south of my subdivision. So, and everything, but you know, again, like I said, it's how people in perspective take the serious and take the warning how serious they take it. But if you're pre if you're proactive as a council and proactive as a city, your citizens are going to follow suit every time. And you have to think about that. You you hold, you know, I've talked a lot about responsibility. And I really didn't realize the responsibility it took to be just a dispatcher until I stepped into the supervisory position. But at the end of the day, not only am I liable for my employees, I'm liable for everybody that calls 911, everybody that needs help. every time I send a deputy out on a call or an officer. You guys are responsible for the citizens of your city. And you have to think about that. Yeah. Would it be nice to know and not be so proactive, you know, and scare everybody? Maybe. But at the end of the day, if you're looking at it liabilitywise, you know, and you talk to Steve, it's always better to be, you know, proactive than reactive.

Anyone questions? She sends me a lot of places. because you communicate with all those spotters and stuff, right? All you guys do. Yeah, absolutely.

Yep. We we page out the spotters. And actually, I just went to a fire association um and discussed with them why it was so important to continue fire or excuse me, continue weather spotting education because that's kind of gone to the wayside with technology. But what people don't understand is I sit in a room just like this, four concrete walls. I don't have a window. I don't have a skylight as many times as I asked for one. So the people, the only reason I can see outside is the guys I have on the ground. And so in order to keep informed, having those storm spotters, having that connection, you know, that tornado rotation came directly from the Gerard Fire Department. And at that time, whether it's a liable source or not, we knew this storm was weird and we had to act.

So there's a with our what she's calling our storm fires or our fire departments, our public safety aspects. They have direct contact with them.

And then the National Weather Service has a it's called the NWS chat um and it's stores fire chiefs emergency managers dispatchers from across the actual it's actually just Springfield so across this whole area but then I can see which office so county as well but it's registered storm spotter with national they're actually it's not just fire chief it's actually like ham operator personnel things that have been trained in in storm water or stormchasers they're called but we have I have access to as well ination and if I see anything on my side, I will get dispatch so everyone can hear as well.

Council, any more questions? Nope. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Thanks.

And you bet. And like uh Jessica said, we're we're going to work on this system setting up, you know, a meet and greet. We talked about the 911 system and storm responding. Um, like I said, try to be proactive um, and get the system out, you know, and educate. Uh, that was one of the things that was brought up, trying to get that information out, educating the public. That's the biggest thing. The outreach program, as long as we can get it posted and get it out there and educate people might calm this down a little bit more and they see your through your eyes and our eyes what what we're actually doing and why we're doing it. I think just the fact that you made the point that the sirens will go off when a tornado warning is issued for Crawford County. If you could just get that point out to all the public would help immensely.

Yes, sir. And this is a good start to do it here. And we'll continue on this and build on this and make it better. But yes, we will be working diligently on that and getting that out to everyone. Any more questions? Mayor, council, thank you for your time.

Yes. Thank you. All right. Now, we're on to item F, overview of procedure for service line replacement. This is for the USDA project. Jackie, do you want to discuss the parameters for the uh service line replacements? I I posted something on your guys' Dropbox, too. It was a copy of an email.

Well, I wanted to give you an update on the water project. I think we lied last time when they said they're going to start May one because, well, I've been saying July one, so I think I'm still in the running to be accurate. Uh, that we did line locates and then come to find out they don't have the material they need. They're waiting on valves and pipes and realistically I it's going to be in June sometime. I don't know. Uh we talked to um or Eric called the inspector that's going to be on the job and he said it's going to be in June. They're still waiting on valves and so it's going slow. But in an effort to get ahead of some of this because I know these questions are going to come up and I don't think um how should I say this? I wasn't I don't think the um engineering firm is on the same page as we are. So, we reached out and said there's been all along the project has said we're going to replace service lines, but we never I never heard a definition of what that was. So, I contact I talked to KDHE and I talked to um I sent a note to the engineer said, "This is what we're going to do." Because I didn't get a response back from them. So, I just said, "This is what we're going to do. Um, the bottom line on the service line replacement all ties back to the lead and copper rule that the EPA mandates that lead and copper uh lines be replaced. We have this massive spreadsheet that we have to update continually and this is an opportunity to um get information to update it. But what I'm

what I was talking about was I don't see a reason to replace lines that don't need replaced. Another thing that they weren't doing that uh I work with Steve and Johanna and we came up with a waiver because they were just going to go on private property and replace the service line. And I said, "No, you can't do that." Well, we do it in the county. Well, we don't do it in the city. So, we have developed a waiver and this says basically we're going to replace your service line if it meets these certain parameters all the way up to the house within one foot of the foundation. I had five foot, but then I talked to uh KRWA and KDH and they said the new rules coming down say one foot. So, let's just get ahead of the game and do one foot. Basically, you have about five types of pipe. If it's PEX or PVC, there's no reason to replace it. There's no reason for the city to have the expense of replacing that line. If it's galvanized black steel, um, we need to replace it. If it's lead in the connections, which there is lead out there, then if it's copper, if it's roll copper, we're all right. But if it's soldered copper, we need to replace it. So, as we expose these service lines, Eric and I and the inspector will confer and decide whether we need to go to the expense of replacing that service line or say, "Oh, no." But first, they need to sign the waiver. And if they don't, they're on

their own. I mean, or if they want it replaced and it is a PVC line, that's the the contractor probably will replace it, but that's between them because we're off the hook. The reason for all this is the lead in the lines. If it's a galvanized or steel line or some copper downstream from that lead, we have to replace it. Um, but if it's not, let's not go to that expense and tear up yards. So, the the thing to know or the what I wanted to in part because you guys are the ones going to get the questions. It's going to be a casebycase uh evaluation of what's there. Um, if it's a brand new PEX line, there's no reason for us to replace a new line. If it's a PVC that has no danger from lead, then there's no reason to replace it. But, and we also want to get that waiver signed before we go on their property. What the waiver says basically is this is a one-time. We're not buying an easement. We're not paying you anything. We're just saying if you want your service line replicaced and you agree to let us come on your property then we'll replace it up to one foot

meets the parameters right as long as it meets the parameters

u because I don't think it's fair to be replacing new lines and having the city that's 500 services we're talking about but in an area and I can I know which areas are at risk that I strongly suspect there's numerous lead lines. I think we need to replace all the way to the foundation. We're going to be very proactive on that. We're not going to leave anything to chance. But this massive spreadsheet that we work on continuously um asks us on this spreadsheet and it comes from the EPA and administered by KDHE. It says what is their service line material? What is the main material? What's in their house? Well, we're not going in their house yet. Wait till the government gets it finished doing it. Maybe we'll have to someday. I don't I I don't know. It's just hard to say. But now I go up to a house. No, lead was used because up to the early 50s, you could get it in a 20ft stick and you could move it and bend it. It was easy. And that's what they used to go around corners. Um, so I expect there's going to be houses that have lead coming out of the foundations. What we're going to do in a case like that is we're going to I I thought we would take a tougher stance on it, but KDH and and and K and KRWA says, "No, you can't shut their water off, but you can point it out to them. make them aware of it. And then there's some other stuff we have to do to follow it. Even though it's not our line, it's their line. We have to do certain things, but that's the reason we have to be

very actively involved in what's going on. I I I think um I'm not going to rely on our engineering staff and their inspectors to give us the information. We developed a a worksheet that every single line is going to have this worksheet filled out. What's the material? What's the main? What's this, that, and the other? And it'll be on file. So when KDHE and the EPA say we're going to change it again, we h we'll have the documentation so we don't have to chase it. I have heard that there has been uh talk that if we do not know what's in the ground even on the customer side, someday we're going to have to pothole it and find out what their lines are. So if we do it now, we're going to save ourselves tremendous expense later on. I I think we're looking at the rough figures I've seen is 44 to 50% of the city is cast iron lines and those usually have lead connections or copper connections coming off of them. Those are going to get replaced. So, we're going to be sitting pretty in a couple of years compared to everybody else if we do our homework and document all this stuff and get it into that form because we have seven years to replace all the lead lines. We have to do a seventh of them or we have to do seven% every year or something. I don't know. I don't know. Some kind of crazy formula that they'll change. But,

Right. Yeah. It's like

but we have seven years to do it all. So if we go in there and do it through this project, but I guess I wanted to where you guys come in is the comments have been made and I had never had really heard a definition of we're replacing service lines. I wanted to define that so everybody knew what lines were replacing because I don't if I have this bad feeling that the way these things have been stretching out, if we try to replace 400 service lines, we don't have to replace, we're going to be short of money. So, and that's 400 yards we don't have to tear up. Um, also if somebody doesn't like what theoretically if I'm going here to there with a line and they have a flower bed there and they don't want it disturbed and they want me to go here to here, well, they're going to have to pay the extra. We're going to go the most direct route. It's going to be up on them if um if they want to change the route because we can't do that. But and most of it's going to be open trench. So each we're going to have to approach each person ahead of time and say this is coming and we suspect we're going to be your line needs replaced and these are the hazards because sign this and if they say no you're not coming on my yard we'll document that in our lead and copper report and move on tie into the old connection. I'm saying 90% or more don't do service lines on the private side. This USDA grant is unusual and it's good for the citizens, but it's an unusual action. So anyway,

I got one question. On the streets where we're not or the lines that we're not replacing, will that still be in effect to check the lines or No. But where we're not replacing lines, we won't we're only going to do it where we're digging up the main and we're having to make a new connection. That's the ones we're looking at. But if it's a PVC line, that usually indicates it's probably 60s or newer and they had stopped using lead by then.

The main thrust of this is get out, get the lead out as well as the lines are failing. So, the ones that we're not replacing are most likely PVC, you're saying? Yeah. And the PVC from the line to the house? Yes. Okay. But if it's copper, roll copper. KDHC said roll copper is okay. If you roll it out, it's okay. I'm going to ask that question, too. I've got a friend who just replaced his like three years ago, and he used to roll copper.

Yeah. The reason copper, lead and copper is because the copper in the old days was soldered with leadbased solder and that's what they're trying to get out. Now, unfortunately, the way the EPA and KDHE view this, that's the reason we have asked several times to get these questionnaires back from people and we keep having to send them. We're required to send them every year until we get an answer from everybody. If if I say I I'm not helping Gerard out. I'm not filling this out. I'm I don't like them. I'm not doing it. It defaults to lead. Even though it may be PEX, brand new PEX. EPA says it's lead because they didn't answer you. It's lead. Um we have a little get out of jail card on that. If we have a public works employee who can say or a plumber who said, "No, no, that's I can tell you what's in there." We can take their word for it. But if the land property owner, land owner does not want to give us that information, it defaults to land. Therefore, they're going to get a mailer every year because we're required to do it. And we sent out four or 500 not long ago. in and this year we'll send another 4 or 500 out because on that spreadsheet if I don't have on it we know what that material is. It's lead. It's lead. It's lead. So this is all you can thank Flint, Michigan for all this, but it also is this is a really good opportunity to clean up the water. I mean cuz there are some old lines out there. that you

look at them may break. And this is and cast iron is not the material of choice anymore because it's past its useful life. and getting rid of the cast iron. Cast iron will if if I have a lead pipe here and I have cast iron down there or I have the metal, it will it will form on the sides of the pipe and then something happens where the pH in the water changes, it will release the lead. That's the reason we're replacing downstream lead and copper. So anyway, just want to give you an update and the bad news. Maybe by July we'll have some a shovel in the ground. I hate to be, you know, negative, but the supply chain for this material is just not there. They're waiting on We did order a bunch of meters. Um, so we're starting to order stuff to have on hand, but I'm not allowed to have any extras. Um, the USDA grant says if you buy 50 water meters, you put 50 in. Don't buy 51 and put one on the shelf. So, I'm not in a big hurry to buy a lot of them until we slowly go through and see what we need and then we'll keep adding to them. So,

Jack, are we marking the service lines we replace? What do you want? Are we like are we keeping track like the service lines we replace? Are we going to well put them in the map? There's no reason not to. We have that um subsurface software system

and we have this little little probe that we sit in and GPS it and I'm pretty sure the inspector will be doing that. They have the same system as we do and it immediately downloads onto our map. So, we're going to do that while we're at it. Um, I believe we're also putting um tracer wire. I don't know about on the service lines. That's I'd have to ask them. I hadn't even thought about that. But all the other lines are going to have service are going to have tracer.

But, uh, yeah, we have a a very good GPS mapping system. Um, unfortunately it's not as accurate as it can be because we had a different system that somebody bought somebody out and it's old software, but they uploaded it and um I don't think the care was taken in the past to make sure it was updated. But with the software now, there's no reason not to. I mean, I can we bought that locating equipment about a year or two ago. I can actually as I locate the line, it maps it onto the map. It goes directly onto the map. So, at the end of the day, it downloads it. It's all up to date. So,

any questions? Thank you. Not as exciting as tornadoes, but we're All right. Now we're on to item G, executive session session for contractual to discuss easement, acquisition, negotiations. I can't talk. Mr. Mayor, I motion for executive session contractual to discuss easement acquisition negotiations. Recommend five minute session to include mayor, council, city attorney, city administrator, and public works director. Second. All in favor? I oppos.

And I was in the right lane and car was passing normal passing. I'm blind and I can see him in the rear pass. So, but I'm looking ahead. I look back over the car and the car was drifting over my lane. I'm not kidding. It was that close. Our mirror almost touched. Oh my gosh. Swerve out the way. He kept coming over and then swerved back over

I'd be honking and I've been let off the road. on that stretch. Yeah. And he wasn't he was passing. He was going to go around the car, but he wasn't paying any attention to where we were. And we weren't in a small car. We were in a SUV. I was in the That's what the go. You have 65.

Yeah. You are past your time. So yeah. Okay. So call the meeting back to order. Move on to item H, executive session for attorney client privilege to discuss contractual negotiations for water sewer engineering contracts.

Mr. Mayor make a motion we go into executive session for attorney client privilege to discuss contractual negotiations for water sewer engineering contract recommend session to include mayor council city attorney city administrator public works director second all in favor motion

called Animal. Oh, Pittsburgh. Oh, okay. Gota land. Yeah, there's

my water.

It's a fun. Yeah. All right. Call the meeting back to order. Move on to item I. Executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline.

Mr. Mayor make a motion to go into executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline. Recommend 10-minute session and mayor including mayor, council, city attorney, city administrator, public works director, and city clerk. Second. Okay. All in favor? I pass.

We good? We're good. Okay. Go call the meeting back to order. Go to governing body comments. Morgan. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would like to thank the city employees and all the first responders for all the hard work everyone does day in and day out to make the city run more smooth. The weather's been starting to get nice. I've seen kids at park, skate park, out playing basketball, and I just want to remind everyone to pay attention and slow down. That's about all I got, Mr. Mayor. Okay, Lucas.

Mr. Mayor, I just want to echo what Morgan said. Thank all the same employees. I do like I do like this time of year because the weather is getting better. I don't like the storms, but as we saw tonight, the county and the fire department, uh I appreciate the information that they gave all of us and also looking forward to the I guess they said um the public education coming up, 911 thing.

Yeah. So, we'll keep that in uh we'll keep that in mind as we move forward through the summer. Also, the facilities around town I know are open again or getting ready to open up like they were. I drive by the disc golf course. I don't want to say the Frisbee golf course every so often. It looks nice out there. Thanks, Jackie, for keeping that up up and I see people using it quite a bit. So, that's all I have, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Okay, John. Um, I went to the uh city dump drop off that the city provided. All the people were really friendly, really helpful, and so I appreciate all that. I had some stuff that was kind of heavy and they said just drop it and they would uh get it in there for me. So, I just appreciate that. Appreciate the city of Jer doing that for everybody. Thank you. All right, Darl.

I just want to thank the chief and the county emergency people for coming by and kind of explaining how the siren system works. So, everyone hopefully will pass the word that uh when there's a tornado warning, the siren will go off. So, that will help I think immensely with complaints in social media. U thank the employees for all they do and that's all I have. Thank you.

All right. Okay. So, Jackie, correct me if I'm wrong on this. Okay. So, May the 26, public works is going to start um tearing out the landscaping stuff up on the some of it up on the square we talked about last meeting and then the stuff around city hall. So, those roads I'm guessing be blocked off, right? More than likely. And then we have a lot of other projects starting soon. Water project, sidewalk, landscape thing we talked about. And then road projects that the city and county working together to patchwork um some roads and also the city hall front office over here remodel is still going. Um that's all I got or have I guess I forget English. I have a motion to adjurnn.

Mr. Mayor motion we adjourn. I second the motion. Okay. All in favor I motion pass.