Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

I guess your middle name is Edward. Make sure this should have changed. That's

Oh, yeah. That's true. I didn't think about that, but yeah, by the end of day. I didn't even think about that. Pretty good. How are you? Don't worry, we're not talking about you. Do what? We're not talking about you. We promise. Trying to work on our cardio. On your what? Our cardio. On your cardio. Our four minute sprint to infern. Oh. Oh dear. Chambers. We'll just reduce this out. I'll go stand up and just

no sitting. They're out there. I need to look to see how well All right, we'll call the meeting to order. Heather, if you take a roll, please. Morgan Johnson, first board,

here. Lucas Stanbury, second board, present. John Lee, third ward, present. Daryl Wes, fourth board, here. We have a Mr. Mayor. Please allegiance. First 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. Please ask you tonight make the right decisions for the s. Amen. Amen.

All right. Can I have a motion to acceptance of the agenda? Mr. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to accept the agenda. Second. All in favor? I I oppose. Okay. Motion pass. Have a motion to accept the consent agenda. Mr. Mayor, I move that we accept the extent the consent agenda as presented. Second. Okay. All in favor? I oppose. Okay. Motion pass. Public forum, right?

No one. Okay. So now we'll move on to regular business which is item A which is executive session for n personnel to discuss employee discipline. Mr. Mayor I move we go into executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline. Recommend seven minute session to include mayor, city council, city attorney, city administrator and the fire chief. Second. All in favor? Okay. Motion pass.

They're producing. We're running about 125 and they're doing about 14.

I know. Yeah, everybody.

All right. Call the meeting back to order. M. May I move we go into executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline 10-minute session include mayor council city attorney C administrator and the fire chief second all in favor I pass after

I guess a couple years ago. All right, call the meeting back to Move on to item B, executive session for non-elected personnel discuss employee hiring. Mr.

Mayor, make a motion going to executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee hiring. Recommend a 4mminute session to include mayor, city council, city attorney, city administrator, public works director. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion pass.

So respons electric.

You should know four minutes. That was really quick. Four minutes. You all right? Oh, okay. Call meeting back to order. I didn't realize that. Sorry. Mr. Mayor, I move we go to executive session for personnel to discuss employee hiring. We'll do a six minute session to include the mayor, council, city attorney, the administrator, and public works director. Second. All in

favor? Motion pass. It was

Never forget my last 6 a.m. call with a lady who accidentally took a gummy and was not having a good time.

Wasn't She thought it was those gummies. Turns out it was THC. Me that ran there. We told her that they were thou fine. She's like, "Am I Yeah, there's no way this

are Very good. Okay. Call the meeting back to order. Move on to item C. Executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee job audits. Mayor make a motion go to executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee job audits. Recommend 10-minute session include mayor, council, city attorney, city administrator, and city clerk. Second. All in favor? I opposed. pass.

One thing we call the meeting back to order. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we go in executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee job audits. Recommend 10-minute session to include mayor, council, city attorney, city administrator, and city clerk. Second. All in favor? Okay. pass.

Good. All right. Call the meeting back to order. Move on to item D, District 4, fireworks fee waiver. Have to wait till she gets back. Oh, sorry. I thought you guys might just assume what was going on with this one because we do it every year. I have no

um district 4, we do a permit fee for people to sell fireworks and gener generally we wave the fee for district 4 because they provide mutual aid for our fire department. Yeah. And they already sent that. Yep. Need a motion? Yeah. Mr. Mayor make a motion that we wave the fireworks fee for district 4 for the sale year of 2026. Second. Okay. All those in favor?

I opposed. Okay. Motion passed. Move on to item E, schedule budget workshop for after June the 15th. Um, I say June the 15th because that's when I'll get um estimates from county on property tax valuations and what 1 mil is worth. So that's when I really and I'm hoping I'll have audit back by then. So I think I'll have all the information I will need to kind of present to you to get um some direction on how you want the budget developed. So you guys can pick a date and we usually do a workshop and um bring in pizza or something and I present you guys with a ton of information and then you tell me what you want me to do as far as budget before I start really getting into it. So I don't want it like too far after June 15th but after June 15th.

So Johanna, do you know last year how they had that basically the budget was did that affect your I mean they had a $700,000 issue. You remember hearing about that? Do you know anything about what? $700,000 issue. Basically, they I think there was some some stuff on the tax roll. Maybe it was just Oh, that didn't affect us. I don't think so. It affected county and it was a certain district and Gerard wasn't okay. So, it's just county. I think it was near the hospital in Pittsburgh actually because I remember talking to one of the commissioners about it. The t the house taxes thing. Yeah. it didn't impact Gerard residents.

So then now so we have to worry about that, right? And I think they had just reclassified like a nonprofit incorrectly. So it caused some of that because the way the budget sheets work, you kind of put in how much you need for that budget and it calculates how much property taxes you need. So since they didn't put the hospital in as nonprofit, it made it look like they were going to get a lot more from the property taxes. And I could I could be saying this completely wrong, but no, it was not an issue for Gerard. Now, so what about our public safety tax? We have a for better forecast on that, too.

Now, what? We should have a really good forecast on that for the next year. The only thing that really changes our sales taxes. Well, obviously, um, like if a business goes out or that's the biggest thing, don't you think? I mean, I think during COVID, we actually did pretty good better than usual with sales taxes because a lot of more people were shopping local. So, there's some things that you can't really forecast with sales taxes, but I think we can get pretty close. Okay. So, you want to do it on the weekend 15th? Um, what are the council meeting days in June 18th?

Oh, dang. That's going to be a lot of meetings that month. Do you guys want to do it the meeting between the 22nd and 26th because that's Or do you want to do two meetings? I don't If we do it that week, I think I'll have more time to have a little bit more information together for you guys. The 22nd. Yeah. If you guys want to do three Mondays in a row, that's fine. I'm just saying that's the week you're talking about though, right? Yes. Monday. I just prefer not do it on Wednesday. You don't want to do it on Wednesday. Bible study.

Okay. So, no Wednesday. I'm fine with Monday. It's just three Mondays in a row row. But it's just a workshop, so we'll all sit around the conference table. And I mean, the public can still come if they want, like Philip wants to come or whoever. Everybody good with the 22nd? Look, no, that's what I was doing here. No, Monday. Monday, June the 22nd, right? Would it be a evening?

And it's just a workshop, so you don't have to like um we don't have to have quorum. We don't Would it be an evening? Evening is evening's fine. What do you want, Lucas? No, I just asking. Okay. I might be working during the day. So you probably working. Yeah.

We could do early though. Like how'd you get that calendar? So is the 22nd? I'm good. You good? Do four. We can do early like four. Oh yeah, that's fine. Can you guys all do four? I can. These guys are talking about four o'clock. Get done earlier than usual. before we get off. Daryl four. Um, we do have to have a motion for a workshop even. It's not technically a special meeting, but Mr. Mayor, I move that we schedule a budget workshop for June 22nd, 2026 at 400 PM at the council chambers. Second. All in favor?

Opposed? Okay, motion passed. Move on to item F. Update on issues regarding RBH pickup line.

I assume you guys probably all know what that issue is. Maybe not. Um Jesse and Abby put something out on Facebook and it actually went a lot better. I think they're all lining up on Osage, but we were having a pretty bad issue with everybody lining up in the highway and it was stopping traffic and we have a lot of traffic on that road and a lot of semi-truck traffic. So, I know Jesse was going out there most days and basically walking up and down and telling them to move. I've done it in the past. So far, this whole last week, we haven't had any issues.

It's crazy that that didn't really help, but putting it on Facebook seemed to help. So, I think it's getting better. Have we talked to the school for a more permanent because could we do a sign on that street that says during school line up here or I could or I know there's other suggestions from the community that there's other locations too maybe for pickup. I mean we could probably even send out that little map thing that Abby made and give it to the school to give out during enrollment. How far back do they end up on Osage? when they go around. They go past my house a couple blocks probably. But better than the highway.

I was just wondering they're not going to make it over to 47. Oh, I hope not. Keep growing. I was just thinking if it's getting that far, but I mean at the beginning of this at the beginning of the school year, we could do something for them to give out to parents doing enrollment at the elementary school. regarding pickup lines be consistent. Yeah. And most parents once they get used to it, it's like a habit,

right? And we have this last week of school or a couple weeks of school to kind of see that it's working out better. I mean, it's working out better, right? So, we we didn't that we thought that might be something you guys were hearing about from the public, so we wanted to give an update. You have anything else? Good. All right. Move on to item G. Schedule meeting with business owners on square disc to discuss bumpouts. So I guess several the me do this. Joanna, are you good? Yeah, you go ahead. Do you know more about it than I do?

So I guess um several of the business on the corners um want to have a meeting. They contacted the chamber and then he contacted me. I've sent an email out to all of them. Couple of the emails didn't work even off their website. So, I'm going have to go around when school's out and try to get a hold of them. Only two of them have responded. They want um their opinion heard, which makes sense on um those bumpouts. A bunch several of them would like them removed. So, but that's also a cost thing. So, at least we have a meeting. We'll kind of know where they all stand and kind of go from there with that since we're all that's all work in project work in progress anyway. So, You doing that through the chamber, Nick?

Am I doing it through? No, I'm kind of doing it on my own now. Well, I mean, is the chamber is But was Scott helping you like get all the information? Yeah, he gave me all the information. Then a couple of the emails didn't work. So, I went on their website and they still wouldn't go through. So, I just copied and pasted them. I don't know what the deal is. So, I was going to talk to them individually. So, are we waiting to do the thing in May? Rip everything out until we talk. I don't think so. Okay. I was curious because most of them want them all removed anyway from the way I understand it. You're talking the greenery.

Yeah, because they're supposed to cut that out on May the 26 or whatever. Cut it out, pull it out, whatever. I I don't think that needs to be stopped, you guys. To me, they won't especially those trees need out of start. Anybody have anything else? All right. So, I'll continue to try to get a hold of all those guys and set up a meeting sometime, hopefully the end of this month, 1 of June, and then once we find out their opinions, we'll bring it back here and we custom discuss some more options with that, we can figure something out.

All right, we'll go to governing body and comments. Morgan, you're up first. I'd like to start by saying thank you to the all the city employees for always going going above and beyond. Thank you to the fire department, police department also for everything they've been doing. Uh I was out driving around. The facilities are looking good. I've been seeing people out playing disc golf and at the skate park. Golf course has been busy. The weather has been great. But this time of year, storms can pop up anytime. So, be prepared. The water project's getting ready to start, so please keep an eye out. And that's about all I got, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, Lucas. Mr. Mayor, I'll just echo what Morgan has said. Ward one, thank you, city employees, the work you guys do day in and day out. Um, also with the weather getting nicer and the facilities opening back up, remember that the facilities that we do have available in and around town. And if you ever have questions, I I do know that uh we're redoing the website soon. Hopefully, we'll have a lot of information on there. And there's other facilities too that are available um that are indoor because we do have the activity center now that we have the weight room. It's I think it's almost been two years now if I can recall the right time frame. Uh I know the skate park has a couple things that over time have we've had to fix. We're missing one of those backboards still, but that is something we'll be talking about in the ne in the near future just to make sure that our facilities are that look good, but also remind citizens to help help us clean it clean clean them up, keep them in good shape because some of those items have been because of vandalism. And it's never fun to have to put money into something that's not needed or, you know, that's never never fun never fun to put money into something that is u an act of vandalism like that because a lot of our citizens do use those facilities and they're nice to have especially, for example, the restrooms at the skate park when they're open and working. It's nice for the individuals that use those facilities. That's all I have, Mr. Mayor.

All right, John. I'm just letting uh everybody know that the golf course does have a restaurant and they do serve hamburgers and fries and stuff. So, if you want something to eat besides Sonic or something like that, that's a good place to go. We have some upcoming storms coming up tonight. So, there might be some sirens. I don't know. But if they are, be aware. You know, it's all for our safety. So, everybody be careful tonight and it's all right. Daryl.

So, I thank all the employees for what they do. Uh, office, public works, golf course, cemetery, electric department. I did have a couple of questions that I wanted to put out, but the public works director left. So, what I'm trying to find out is what the timeline for the pump house at the golf course is, and the street sign project has been going on for almost a year. I just wonder what the timeline on finishing it was. If someone could mention that to him and they see him, I'd appreciate it. if I don't see everything else seems to be going fairly well and uh like they said before got some storms coming through and just remember that the uh policy of the storm siren policy I guess would be the best way to put it is if there's a tornado warning in Crawford County the sirens will go off and to uh get your weather radios or wherever you can find an alternate weather channel to watch and uh so that calls on you on yourself, but you will be warned if there is a tornado warning in Crawford County. And that's all I have. Thank you.

All right, few things here. Um like we talked about a second ago, public works be removing all the landscaping around the square in city hall May the 26. So some roads will probably be blocked off. Um the patchwork schedule, they're supposed to start working on those in July, early August. And then um the website we get, I'll cut off the right word. The the contract we have with the place is now up June the 2nd. So there will probably temporarily be a one-page site with all the links and everything on it starting June the 2nd until he is completed has time to complete the full web page. So, but all the links to pay your bills and everything will be on there. Just be one page. All right. Can I have a motion to adjurnn, please?

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we adjourn. Second. All those in favor? Opposed? Okay. Motion passed. Who' you put down? Have you got it? Did I hear he's been trying to beat me these He's got just a little