Council - Regular Meeting

Well, that's very normal.

All right, call the meeting to order. Heather, if you'd take a roll, please.

Morgan Johnson, 1st Ward. Here. Lucas Stansbury, 2nd Ward. Present. John Lee, 3rd Ward. Darrell Wostoff, 4th Ward.

Here.

We have a quorum, Mr. Mayor.

All right, please rise for the prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Bow your heads. We make decisions. What is best for the people of New York. Amen.

indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Can I have a motion to acceptance of the agenda?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we accept the agenda as presented. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed. Motion to accept the consent agenda.

Mr. Mayor, make a motion that we accept the consent agenda as presented.

Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed.

No one for public board.

All right, go on to regular business. Item A, executive session for non-elected personnel, discuss employee position, organization, and wage.

Mr. Mayor, make a motion to go into executive session for non-elected personnel, discuss employee position, reorganization, and wage. Recommend 15-minute session to include mayor, council, city attorney, city administrator, and public works director. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Okay, much passed.

Okay, well, you can go to this.

And they actually have live encounters. Well, she fed the giraffes. My grandson, I thought, wasn't afraid to help her. You fed a giraffe? Yeah. At the drive-thru zoo? Oh, this is, no, at the walk-thru. They actually are on this deck, and they come up to you, and they... In Springfield? Yeah.

Oh, that's... See, I went... We went there... My daughter has Good.

Okay, so call the meeting back to order.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the interim director of public works job description as presented.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the project manager job description as presented.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed.

That was it, wasn't it? Mr. Henry.

I can do the next one. Mr. Mayor, I move that we.

I'm going to say that first. Yeah. Project manager?

Yeah, sorry. The second one was the project manager as presented. Approve it.

Okay.

And then, Mr. Mayor, I move that we hire... Sorry. I can't find my stuff here. I'm actually doing that, are we?

Do what? So we're just doing the salary? How are we going to do that? I don't... How are you supposed to...

Just make a motion.

Yeah, we'll grab for a second. Let's make sure we're doing this right.

I think you just make a motion that it goes to salary and what the wage is. I think that's what you do.

We'll find out. We'll make sure. That's what I thought.

Well, just because we're changing. I know we've done it before, but make sure we have it right.

Get a commercial.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we appoint Eric Bailey

to interim director of public works as a salaried employee with 54,000 a year.

Second. Okay. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay. Motion passed. Move on to item B executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline.

So may remove, we had going to executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline, recommend the five minute session to include mayor city council, city attorney, city administrator, with Captain McAtee on call. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, most passed.

Yeah, especially with the driveways we're going to be tearing out. The ones we have to put back. I'm just disappointed.

all right call the meeting back to order move on to item c project updates whichever one you guys want to go first i guess you're the closest so yep we'll

All right.

I want to go through some of the projects because, um, we have water plant. That's like going to be about a two and a half million dollar rebuild. It's not got much done on it because we, um, I haven't had time to put the time into it. That's the reason for the changes tonight to give me more time to do it. It will require some engineering. because it's going to require KDOT approval on some things, but it's fixing to start. I've got some scopes written, but I haven't finished them, but now I should have some more time to do it. The water distribution, they're promising they're going to start doing locates next week. So theoretically there should be a shovel in the ground the week after. But we've been promised that before, but I think this time they're pretty close. If anybody's been next to the Adair building to see the pipe coming in, there's gonna be a tremendous amount of material coming in over the next week or two. And then I would say the third week of June we'll be off and running on that project finally. Some of the things we're gonna do is get with the engineering. Set some project meetings so we can give better updates the golf Club pump house I've been working on a Design on that changing some stuff the way we were doing it. Hopefully this week or next we'll get those The plumbing in the ground so we can go ahead and get that slab board and get that started I'm going to begin ordering material for it Sign replacement I'm finally back to full staff with the hiring of that, uh, Cody tonight. We still have, I bet we've only done 35% of the signs, but we're, we're, we're talking about working in a, a one day a week to have almost everybody working on it for one day. And then maybe the second day of the week, uh, We'll do like the pump house, put everybody on it for a day. The problem is right now we have so many priorities at once trying to, we're just jumping from one fire to the next. Theoretically with this, that the water line breaks have slowed down. So we're allowed, but, The culverts have been neglected for years and we had to divert, start fixing culverts. We replaced one today. Some of these roads where they're sinking down is because the culvert has failed underneath. So that's one of the things we're working on. Streets, we're gonna begin working on utility cuts. We're trying to work it in and we're gonna, where we've cut across the road or cut holes, we're going to start patching those. I don't know why in the past the crews did not use hot mix asphalt, which we have available now close by. So we're going to use that and we will start doing, right now we're only pothole patching, but we're going to start doing larger patches. The interconnect with Bone Creek, We're waiting on Midwest, not a word. We got an email back from them last week and they said that they were working with Bone Creek, which slowed them down. I mean, I talked to Bone Creek and said, we haven't heard from them in months. So we're just waiting on them to make it a priority and get it done. Bar screen removal. I'm gonna try to plan that. It's a high, a high priority project because the bar screen is failing continuously now. I'm going to be working this week on trying to get maybe panes or somebody with a boom truck. to reach up and grab that build and snatch it off and then unbolt that bar screen and pull it out and buy new grates. I've got KDHE approval that's pending. I was working on that today a little bit. I think somebody mentioned when were we going to get to that skate park backboard? We have it. We just haven't got the tape on it. We're going to use tape instead of paint because we bought plexiglass, so it can't be shot out like the other one. But we are working on that one. Another project which we have nothing to do with, but you guys might be interested in, the railroad crossings. I don't know if anybody noticed, there's been a lot of material being staged up and down the railroad tracks, so that's coming pretty quick.

Oh, did they put one up?

Okay. I hadn't seen that, but I saw a bunch of tracks today that I hadn't seen, prefab tracks, and I've been seeing the piles of gravel. So maybe we won't go on orbit going over there. 47 crossing. Um, that's just a real brief update. Any questions? We're trying. We're, we're, um, a lot of things happening this summer. The grass is greener than it's been normally. It's not dying out. There are some positives for some reason. Uh, water production is down significantly. Um, Last year we were producing two to three times per day. I, I wonder if it was that mile that we replaced that mile and they had so many leaks that nobody knew about because they hadn't come to the surface. So, but water plant, uh, I'm worried about it. It's got some, it runs great, but it's got some major issues sitting there that we've got to get to, or we're going to have problems. So, all righty.

Thanks, Jackie.

Thanks, Jackie.

Mine's gonna be a lot shorter than that. We've had 19 call outs after hours. on power outages. We set 13 poles around town and five transformers and running gas line for the new cat generator. We finished up on the highway project, setting all those poles and new lines and got everything done. So I got to turn that all into the state so we can get reimbursed for all that. Um, The new projects that we're going to start is we got the solar is going to start in June and the cat generators in October. Challenger Construction is going to be a subcontractor for the mowing for the solar. That's going to start tomorrow on the mowing and the 18th they're going to start piling putting the piles in the ground. And then on the 24th, the electrical's gonna start coming in and we're gonna have to set the poles for it. And then the racking's gonna start on the 25th and be done by October, hopefully.

It's gonna be a little more positive. Yes, it is. So it will be done.

It will be done. Well, I guarantee you.

They've been on time.

We have meetings every Thursday. And they are really good.

Agreed.

Hey, Cliff, what about your fence?

Yes, it is.

Cliff, what about the fence for the poll yard?

He should have already started on it. I haven't got back with him. But he said he was going to start back in, I think, April. But, yeah, he hasn't came and showed up. He was going to do a locate on it. He called me and said he was going to do a locate. I don't know where he's at right now.

And he was built his fabric a negate was that correct.

Yeah, he's got it all he got everything we got everything okay, that's ready.

It's just getting it done now.

They will be a problem with the solar or anything that be because they're going to be doing their things too. About the same time. They got the chain link fence exactly what I got. They wanted the manufacturer and everything that we got so it would be the exact same. I said I wasn't too worried about it going to be the exact same because it's going to be out there in pasture. Nobody will see it. All right. Thank you.

Thanks, Cliff.

All right, move on to item D, consider, excuse me, Earl's proposal for SRLF tech memo.

We've actually discussed this several times. This is for the workout by the Lagoons that we're trying to get done, and we are going to apply for some funds through KDHE for it. I already did the initial application. It's finished. If they accept the initial application, then you have to have a tech memo to do the full application, I guess. This is the one that we got a proposal from BG, and we didn't like the identification language in their contract. So we also got proposals from Earls and Bartlett and West. And Earls, not only does our city attorney approve their contract with no changes, but it ended up less money. Nice. And I think that's who Jackie recommends we go with is Earls.

Jackie came out and talked to me about it, and I have had different ideas since we've talked about it, but it still falls within the scope of what

We need a motion.

Yeah, and motion to approve the agreement with Earls.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the agreement with Earls Engineering for a proposal for SRLF Tech Memo.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion passed. All right, now we're on to government body comments. Morgan.

I'd like to thank the city employees, like I do every meeting, police department and fire department. Jackie said earlier we're starting to see some pipes show up, so it looks like we'll get stuff moving this month, the water project. And I would like to congratulate the high school baseball team on their big win. That was cool. That's about it, Mr. Mayor.

Hey, Lucas.

Mr. Mayor, I want to echo what Morgan has said.

I thank the employees like I do if I remember, but I do appreciate you guys every day coming in and doing your job day in and day out. Summertime, this is one of my favorite seasons. I don't mind. I'd rather sweat than freeze to death. And we got all the amenities that are open. I picked my daughter up from the pool yesterday. I think it was last week, but I saw a lot of smiling kids and looked at a lot of people having a good time. So don't forget about the pool, the skate park, the courts. We got the golf, the disc golf. Just several things that Girard has that you as a citizen or if you want to get out and enjoy the weather. Also, like you just saw from the updates from the other two directors, there's a lot of stuff going on in the city. The water lines, it's been a long time coming, but we're excited it's here. There will still be a lot of, I don't want to say mess, it's just construction. So pardon our mess, as the saying goes. But if you do have any type of questions or concerns, you can obviously reach out to any of the council people. And I know that that project is going to take some time, but we're going to try to do it the best that we can. That's all I have, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Thanks, Darrell.

Well, I'd like to congratulate the baseball team and also some of the track athletes that went to state and medal. I know there were several. I don't have a list, but I would read the names. Thank the employees, as usual. I spoke with one of the guys on the road crew with the Crawford County yesterday, actually, and they're on schedule to come help us with the streets sometime after the 4th of July, so that's good. And one thing that I've noticed, especially since I live within a block of the swimming pool, is kids on electric skateboards and e-bikes, they don't pay a lick of attention to traffic or to stop signs or to left or right turn signals or anything like that. So be aware, these little kids, some of them no taller than this, are buzzing as fast as those things will go and they don't stop. So I'd like people to just be aware that they're out there and I don't know if there's anything we can do scare them into using their head a little or not but i've seen several real close calls right around the swimming pool so just keep your head on a swivel especially the summertime kids everywhere walking running electric bikes electric scooters whatever Other than that, I don't have anything.

All right.

Thanks. Thanks.

All right. So the front city hall remodels supposed to be done this week, right? Supposedly. Cross your fingers.

Are they shortly?

Shortly. Are they shortly? So we can open back up up there. um jackie and those guys got the um bump outs all everything torn up on the square so i'm thinking for that we're still in planning phase what to do with that hopefully by next meeting i can meet with um some of those business on the corners and listen then we can come up with a plan hopefully shortly of what we need to do with that um Then the City Hall up here after they get on with that, they're going to start tearing the landscaping up. So it'll be another construction thing for a little bit. Up here, Girard Main Street has changed leadership. So the plan on the south side has changed a little bit. And what they're terming it is placemaking community driven. So the plan right now is beginning stages. They hope to be started in the next year is to have like a pavilion, a small park, and a like stage area. and some other stuff in there. And hopefully that'll get started. There'll be some stuff done with that within the next year. The website will officially move over to a temporary page tomorrow, correct? Yep. Supposedly.

I know.

Okay. And until we get the new page done, so it'll look a little different. Supposedly it looks better than the other one. The temporary one does. I haven't seen it. You seen it?

Yeah. That's good.

So we'll have a temporary page. You'll be able to find everything on there. And the new one, full one, ought to be done in the next couple months. All right. Can I have a motion to adjourn, please? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed.