Council - Regular Meeting

Wait a couple days. It'll change. You're not charged. Huh? Well, almost. I got a little bit on the 12th.

I think that's the way we do. We open it up. They swear in we will. Say goodbye to you, Vanessa.

I think that would be funny. Do what? I think that would be funny. Just a big sigh. Yeah. Or that or a Oh, boy. You're stamping like I I confess like this is what we get to look forward to.

Okay. Yeah, I saw that. Now, how do I get rid of it? Dump truck. I know. We just laughed. Cheers.

Well, this is all my search history on my phone. Weird. It's so dry everywhere. Yeah.

How do I put drop blocks on my You were using less water. The price went down. We're at golf course. No, in general the water bill was a little bit probably because of the golf course, too. I was I did all the line items over last week or whatever. And I mean, we're spending like triple our water at the golf course. I don't know if it's because we watered the fairways maybe this year. So hopefully next year that'll be less. We seated so we had to I bet Yeah, I bet we watered a lot.

Did they fix the the lines? so that we aren't flooding certain areas. And no, I don't think so. I don't think Why would we do that? There's that pump, Bill. Whenever you're ready, Nick. I got 459.

Heather, would you do a roll call, please? Vanessa Arthur, first here, second, present. Third, present. West, fourth, here. Mr. Mayor, thank you. at this time to do the invitation. Lord, be with us tonight as we go through our meeting that we may do what's good for the people in the city of Gerard. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

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. Could I have a motion for acceptance of the agenda? Mr. Mayor, motion we accept the agenda with one amendment to regular business. Letter D wish to be a 15minute session instead of seven minutes. Second that. All those in favor? I I I

opposed. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A motion that we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. No one. No one for Nobody for public forum. We'll go on to regular business. Item A, consider priority power agreement.

We have had numerous discussions with those folks and We suggested amendments. They suggested amendments. I think we have it's not a perfect agreement, but it's one we can live with. And so I think we're at a point where it's ready for passage. We negotiated and talked about all talking points and I think everybody's satisfied with where it's going to end up. There were issues that I had concern with and it was explained to me. And so in the context of the agreement and the definitions of the agreement, I think we can probably go ahead and pass it. So, we need a motion to at this time need a motion to accept the agreement

and it's in your folder for signature. Mr. Mayor, a motion we accept the priority power agreement as presented. I'll second. All those in favor? I

opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Item B, consider recommendation of golf course committee to raise all season passes by $10 except youth and make youth season a flat $75 and eliminate 10 and 20 round pass cards. The recommendation is we're the cheapest golf course for season tickets in the area and they only want to go up $10. So that's what we passed and asked for and shouldn't have to p the youth pass was $73. So it just made sense to make it on a nickel, you know, so make it 75. And then uh we have sold I believe it was one maybe two of the 10 and 20 round passes in the last three years. So there's really no reason to even have it on there. So we just wanted to eliminate that. And that's pretty much it. There's nothing else that I think I need to unless somebody has a question.

I see in here you guys discuss um other fees and season, but did you decide on raising any other fees? Just a normal? No, these are the only uh things we they wanted to raise or recommended to raise. I'll put it that way. Everything else would stay the same as it was the year before because we had already raised everything else the year before. Last year we raised him. And I have a question. Do you guys Because you passed in the consent agenda that we can go ahead and start advertising for a golf course manager position.

That's always been 15. We talked about doing 18. Can I advertise for 18? Because I mean they do inventory, they do scheduling. We added on the activity center. As long as that's in their range, I would think you could hire at whatever. Yeah. Okay. 18's fine with me. So, as long as it's in that manager range, you shouldn't have problem. Okay. Um I was just considering that we've talked about golf carts and the trouble with golf carts and things like that, but I thought maybe you discuss they brought that up, but they decided they didn't want to discuss it till the next meeting in January. So maybe you'll discuss pricing again on

Yeah, we have a meeting I believe was January 16th or something like that and then they may approach the subject then but as of the last golf meeting we didn't discuss golf carts at all because we had discussed it before that and it was shot down so they said let's just leave it alone don't want to exact words they were They said then uh but really that's all there is to it. Just raise the season tickets 10 bucks and and $2 the youth $2 to 75 and then eliminate the 10 and 20 round passes since we don't sell any of them.

Mr. Mr. Mayor, a motion that we approve the recommendation from the golf committee to raise season passes $10 except for use, raise them to a flat rate of $75 and eliminate the 10 and 20 round pass cards. A second. All those in favor?

I both motion carries. Item C, consider contracting with Earles Engineering for KOT sidewalk project 0560. We have phase two of the sidewalk projects that we started with pathways years ago coming up this spring and we had to go through the QBS process for that the quality based selection. Heather and I, the mayor and Jackie were all on that committee. Earls was the only one that responded to the request for qualifications. Now we are in the negotiation stage. Um, per K dots and the federal government regulation timeline, we're supposed to pick someone by January 6th. I don't have their rates back. Um, you guys have seen Earl's engineering contracts before, whereas coal trains are 80 pages. Earls are usually two two and a half. They're usually pretty simple. Um, I asked him if the rates were were going to be comparable to 2025. He said they did raise their rates a little bit. Um, so I don't know if you guys want me to try to just get this on at the next meeting and it'll be a little late. I think they would be fine with that or if you just want to go with Earl's with Steve's review or

will K do accept that with the money we spend. Will they accept it if it's not the lowest bid? Um, you're not allowed to accept the lowest bid with engineers. I believe they have a very good lobby. That's why we have to do qual. We're not allowed to ask about money. until the second stage. We can only ask about their qualifications and we have to choose based on qualifications. Well, we know. So, unless Earles gives us something outrageous, which they never have before, um we have to go with Earls. Then, I mean, then let's go with Earls. I mean, they've they've done us good every step of the way. If they do come back with something that's like double their rates from the last sidewalk project they did, then

I think we'll be iffy and bring it back. But if it's within like 10%, I think we could probably just go ahead and approve it. They've done all of our sidewalk projects. Yeah, we do have a new engineer with them though. It's not Elizabeth Hoff anymore. His name's Jason. So, we kind of just started working for him, but so far been good. Okay. So, we want to contract with Earls then for this. Mr. Mr. Mayor, a motion that we contract with Earl's Engineering for our K Dot sidewalk project 0560. I second that. All in favor? I oppose.

Motion carries. Item D, executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline. Mr. Mayor, motion we go into executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee discipline. Recommend 15minute session to include mayor, city council, city attorney, city administrator, and public works director. Second. All in favor? I I carries

Double One time only years ago. probably not

Call the meeting back to With no further business, we'll go to governing body comments. Vanessa,

just want to say this is my last official meeting. Um, so I just want to thank the city of Gerard for letting me do this for almost four and a half years. It gave me a great understanding of what the city goes through to manage all the different aspects and different groups of people. and I just got a glimpse of it in that amount of time. So, if you if you sit here and watch daily daily things, you'd be amazed what everyone gets done here. Um, but I just wanted to thank everybody on the staff. You are doing a wonderful job and you are pushing forward to make Gerard a great place to call home. Um, but I also want to thank everybody out there, all the citizens out there that do stop and do talk to us and do compliment the employees here at Gerard. Um, sometimes you guys don't hear that, but we do. We get to hear that. We get to hear about the water man break and thanks for getting it fixed so fast and the electric down and the firefighters and the police. We get to hear all those things. So, I want to thank every single one of you for doing great job. Um, aside from that, I'm going to put it out there. It's cold again. Please take care of your pets. Please take care of your neighbors. Watch out for each other. Um, if you see something, say something. Our police are doing a great job. I see lights going all the time, so I feel like they're up to par and they're doing great things. So, Jesse, thank you guys for doing that. Um, Chief, thank you for keeping us safe. Hopefully, your calls are down this time of year, but you never know. all those fireplaces are starting back up after today. I'm sure of it. So, um, thank you guys for what you do. Again, shop local. I know the holidays are getting over with and everybody had this wonderful Christmas, now everybody's broke, but that little bit of money that you do have, please spend it here in

town. keep our businesses local and keep those tax dollars local so that our fire and police can have that percentage so that they can have the equipment that they need again to keep everyone safe. Uh with that, thank you everyone. That's all I have. Lucas.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I just want to echo what Mamesa has said. U and additionally, uh shopping local, stay local. Sonic did a facelift, I believe, the last couple weeks that looks really good. Um they've had a crew in there painting, fixing the concrete and I believe just giving an overall facelift to the facilities and that type of uh activity in Gerard is really nice to see. Also want to thank Lanessa for your service to the community, your civic service the last four years. Um, Mickey, you also I know whenever I I know whenever I was appointed there not long after you were elected and enjoyed the last few years working with you and hope whatever you have next is enjoyable and you keep yourself busy. I know you will be and that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay.

Thank you.

I just like to say uh like Lanessa, this will be my last meeting. Uh, and so I'd like to mention a few things I've seen happen in this year that I've been here that makes me proud to be in Gerard. Don't forget we we got two new police vehicles this year, one very new and one mostly new uh for our aging fleet. That was a big step forward. Uh we got new street signs still going in. And uh one thing that uh struck me was that we I talked to Terry Ray about this. We seem to have shortened the amount of time it takes to get a property processed through the system if it needs to be condemned. So I thank the city for all their hard work and it may have taken more than a year to get get to that point, but that's a big step forward to me. And uh I'd also like to thank Mayor Mickey Pile for seeing enough in me to appoint me to finish out Bill Houston's term. It was an honor and uh I thank him and the staff for answering all my questions all year long. It's been quite eye opening for me and I wish everyone good luck. So thank you. That's all I have. Mr. Mayor,

thank you Darl. I just wanted to uh let Lanessa and Mickey and Dennis all know that uh we appreciate everything that you've done for your services. We may not always agree. We may argue a little bit here and there, but I know that everything that we do is for the betterment of the city of Gerard and the citizens of Gerard. And I want to thank you all for that, for your service over the last several years and year. And um that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, what I have I just want to thank everybody for what they've done the last eight years that I've been in here. I've enjoyed the time and stuff. Uh I'm probably going to get involved in something. I don't know what at this time, but I do appreciate everybody I've worked with. Uh, I appreciate the police, the police department, fire, electric, public works, and the clerks, you know, everybody up in the city, city administrator for what they've done. And all I just say is continue with what you're doing and stuff. And I want to thank everybody again, the public and the city employees. Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. Motion that we adjourn. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you.