City Council - Regular Meeting

Hearing none, we'll vote. Schilling, yes. Yes. Ke, yes. Bowen, yes. Matson, yes. Carlson, yes. All right. Any bills, Karen? No bills.

All right. Any public comments? Anything that's not on the agenda? We have a 705 hearing. Of course, we're way ahead. So, can we jump down? Let's jump down to the resolution 2026-1. It's down a ways, but we'll go back up to the garbage trucks here in a second. Is this a subdivision one? My Oh, we could No, that Okay,

we have to do that as a first reading, too. The subdivision, too. That's a hearing. You're right. the 2026 one the resolution you could do that the contingency adjustment Y okay someone knows what page it's on let me know I'm operating it's a waste oh boy yeah I'm getting there too sorry does anybody need explanation on by the time I get there we'll uh it'll be 7:05 okay it's on well I've got something like that I got 30 but I'm on the money we've already spent It's on 38 39. 38. Yeah.

Okay. I'm close. All right. We have a uh resolution 2026-1 is a contingency transfer for 2025. Staff's recommendation is approved background summary. Teresa, you want to give just a little bit of so basically throughout the, you know, we have a budget that we work off. The budget is just an estimate of our expenses throughout the years. And obviously things change. Either things are added into the budget by council or things aren't paid out or for some reason our estimates off you know we go over. Basically every year we put 50,000 in what is a contingency account and that money can be used to make budget adjustments. Um so we can transfer from this contingency account say to the parks or the streets or some place where we need to adjust the budget because we've gone over for some reason or another. These are mostly small transfers because they're only 50,000. Like I said, these this are just budget corrections. They don't spend any money. It is just basically fixing our budget because, you know, we do our budget in September of the previous year. So, like I said, things change, you know, by the time you go a year and a half almost later. So, this is just making those shortfalls in our budget and correcting our budget. No transfers of money. [snorts]

All right. Motion to approve resolution 2026-1 contingency transfer for 2025. Second. Any more discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. Carlson, yes. Matson, yes. Bowen, yes. Ke, yes. Harach, yes. Shelley, yes. How we doing? We're close. Oh, we're close. Um, do we got enough time to do that next one, Teresa? I I think so because it it kind they kind of runs hand inand with a contingency adjustment.

The next one is basically first reading of ordinance 769 and this is a supplemental appropriation. Works very similar to the contingency adjustment. It just adjusts budget. Um but you can't use contingency funds if you need to adjust a budget in say the um wastewater treatment fund or if you need to in the water fund or the sewer fund. you got to do a supplemental appropriation and that's what this is. Like I said, very similar. It it's covering shortfalls in budget for one reason or another. The explanation was in your packet where the shortfalls came through. Um like I said, we can't use constituency funds for this a transfer for that. So, we need to do a supplemental appropriation. [clears throat] Just adjusting budget, no spending of money.

Make a motion to approve the first reading of ordinance 769 supplemental appropriation for 2025. Second. Any other discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. Shilling, yes. Project, yes. Ke, yes. Bowen, yes. Madson, yes. Carlson, yes. All right. And oh, we're at 705. Right on the money. Let's go back up and catch the approvals of the past it. Five. Is it page five?

Sure it is. Okay. There we are. Every year we do uh renewals of our garbage license garbage haulers. So tonight we have approval or to we need to approve renewal of seven garbage applications for service providers in Hartford. Has this license fee always been this or when's the last time? How does how is that based? What is that based upon?

It's been set by the council and it's um it's in our fees and fines. It gets reviewed every year by the council. It's been this amount for quite a few years. But that is something Michelle that if we want to when we when we have our discussion on all of our fees we can sure take a look at it and see if that's a look and it it's been that way you know just okay [laughter] quite a few that was aggressive

that was aggressive you know I I just look at that and I'm just like okay we're charging garbet I'm not going down this road Travis But, you know, what happens if we charge every electrician, every everybody that wants to do business here? I mean, it's just something to think about. Why are we charging the garbage people? A lot of municipalities do. I know a lot of new a lot of municipalities do a lot of things right. A lot of them do a lot of things wrong. I mean, it's I'm just it's just a [clears throat] conversation of I think with how do you pick what you want to do? It it I think it's it's harder [clears throat] on the streets because they have very heavy equipment. It's just more wear and tear on the city streets. So I think that's how why it's available. So 250 per person covers that. That's like have to come in.

No, it doesn't cover them. But but here it doesn't it's really not need I mean it's really not but I think that's where it mostly derives from is that they have a lot of large equipment, heavy equipment on our city streets whereas on them faster. So there's a fee associated with that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. just hypothetically, you get a somebody in town um with an unmarked vehicle picking up trash, hiring, you know, ex-convicts or or or just maybe somebody who hasn't had a background checked. [clears throat] This at least provides hopefully a little bit of um legitimacy to the to this industry. I mean, not that the industry needs it.

Yeah. But we're not monitoring who they hire. I mean, it's a good it's a good plan, but we're not monitoring who they hire. I think it's like the golf cart fee. They need to approve. You know how I feel about that, right? Every time they address any property. That was a bad example. This will let you know who's allowed to be in town and what the companies are. If you didn't have this, it'd be a free-for-all. You wouldn't have any control over. So, it' [clears throat] be a true capitalism. Hey, who's ever going to provide the best service is going to get the most business. Okay? Just like any other business, you know, it's any other business. Why Why would like I said, we're we'll move on and we'll accept this. I'll make a motion to But every other business can operate freely. Every other business can operate a motion on the table and a second second

to approve the uh any other discussion. Well, Sean, were you here when we u noticed uh there was somebody in town that wasn't a licensed trash hauler? They were. Was that the one of the that was uh right up there where they had a rolloff sitting on a driveway? Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean it would maybe make a person think that they didn't know the rules, right? So, our hey, we want that person to be licensed. Here are the, you know, the weight limits of our streets, those sorts of things. But at any rate, yeah, any other discussion? I see.

Hearing none, I'm I'm vote. Carlson, you're still Yes. Matson, yes. Bowen, yes. Ke, yes. project. Yes. Chilling. Yes. All right. Second up under uh ordinances is first reading of ordinance 768, the amended subdivision regulation. Uh this has been uh recommended by PNZ. First reading tonight. Thought we already did this.

Well, a year ago, we reviewed our subdivision regulations. We went through with ISG. We actually did our design standards, our technical standards, and our subdivision regulations. And all the suggestions are the changes suggested for the subdivision regulations we did approve and we were good with except the park space contribution, which is that when a developer comes in town, they've got to dedicate 5% of their land for park or open spaces or they got to pay as of now a $1,000 fee per acre. So PN was comfortable with all the other suggested changes. So were you guys except for this public space contribution. That's why that's the one we're really kind of looking at now and approving. That's the one where PNZ changed the wording on it and this is the suggestive wording from PNC. Basically like I put in my report. We were running into some issues. You know our current subdivision regulations like I said you either and it was an either or situation the way it was worded before. It's either land or paid the fee, but the fee was only $1,000 an acre. So, guess what developers want to do? Land is worth a lot more than $1,000 an acre. So, hence, we weren't getting any land. It was all coming down to paying fees. Well, that's not particularly what we want, especially new developments where there's not a park close or whatever. We want land for park spaces and neighborhoods and whatnot. So, kind of work with ISG. We tried to figure out, you know, what is that fee amount? what's fair, what's, you know, okay for the developer to pay, but still, you know, gets us some, you know, more funding for parks. And really, it came down to and which we kind of pushed the getting that park master plan is okay, let's identify where we need park or open spaces, which we did the park plan, and that's identified in that plan. And so now we got a document we can go off and say,

"Okay, if it's what this says is if in the master park plan it shows that a park is needed or open space is needed, then we're going to require you to give a land contribution. If it shows that, you know, it's not needed, say it's close to an existing park or whatnot, then we want monetary so we can use those funds for other places that need, you know, the park or improvements or bike trail or whatnot." So, and that cost if it is a monetary donation is going to be fair market value. So, we're going to and it's going to be at the time that um they submit their preliminary plan. So, it's going to be a dollar amount on undeveloped land. So, it's not like we're going to be pressuring the developers, you know, charge them for developed land. It's going to be undeveloped land, egg land. So, it's going to be a lesser fee for them. That's basically what it boils down to. helps identify where we need either land or funds and then those funds if we need funds are going to be fair market value and all this is going to be pointed out right up front when we do the preliminary plan for and approve that so everybody knows in the forefront you know what they need to do is donate land or is it donate funds to the city

I assume this is not unusual open space contribution I think all cities around it have it Um, I said I think a lot of them are very similar to our current wording now. And like I said, they're they're already into the trouble of, okay, that $1,000 a acre just isn't cutting it. You know, this has been a topic of discussion for PNZ for as long as I can remember that I mean like the very first year I was on planning and zoning, this was discussed, you know, and so it it's kind of a moving target and and it needs to be reviewed. um regularly. So

yeah. Oh yeah. And like every document we do, we view these on a regular basis, you know, go through them and and when we when it came up last year to review the subdivision regulation, we knew this is one section we needed to re review and take a look at just because we weren't getting any land donations where we probably need them, you know. So we just want to ensure that we're Yeah. like we've heard with other, you know, that feedback we get from time to time like no one else does this. So that I think I just wanted reassurance that we weren't going to be um No, we are not the only one that requires open space, you know, donation from a developer land. Yeah.

So this will be for future uh subdivisions. Yes. I mean, yes, it can only take, you know, we can't do anything retroactive. it once this is passed and effective then it's going forward. We we can't do a retroactive or existing developments. It it then we determine if it's park or money. It's going to be we're going to reference our plan and see if it's identified there and that's what's going to determine do we need land or do we need money. Okay.

Yeah. Like I said because right now they basically have the choice. The way they're going to read is you do land or in lie of that you can have this donation. Well, everyone's doing a,000 bucks an acre cuz and we can't go out, you know, as a city and buy a thousand land for a,000 bucks an acre for a park. So yeah, really, you know, we have a few um a one for sure, you know, prominent developer on the PMD board and we've talked through a lot with him and he feels that it it's fair to the developers and rule there the how we come up with this.

How would this play into developers that maybe they have a bunch of land they're sitting on? So is this just like it's when they develop and submit a preliminary okay plan for development. Okay. I mean they can own land and sit on it but it's when they submit their preliminary plan for development they have to either identify land or we have to come to an agreement of the monetaryation. So it's when when they're going to develop it you know. Okay. Not just because because they have land. Yeah. [snorts] Make a motion to approve the first reading of ordinance 768 as recommended by the PNC board.

Second. Any more discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. Shilling, yes. Rochek, yes. Keel, yes. Bowen, yes. Madson, yes. Carlson, yes. All right. Now, we got to skip way down again, right? Yes. 47.

Is that where it is? Okay. Um, next up is resolution 2026-2. This is to appoint representative to the SMGA advisory board. Um, I have been filling this spot last year or so.

Your desire to continue? Yeah, I can sure I can sure stay on uh with uh with some of the things we got going on with SMGA with them uh handling or administrating the regionalization uh project. I mean, we got a lot of stuff going on. It's good to I think it's good to stay in there and keep our finger in the pot, so to speak. U motion to appoint represent or mayor argent to SMG advisory board.

Second. Any other discussion? Teresa is the alternate, right? Yeah. And Teresa. Oh, yeah. For some reason, Artic go. [laughter] Oh, volunteer. Okay. [laughter] Well, hearing nothing else, we'll vote. Carlson, yes. Matson, yes. Bowen, yes. Gil, yes. Yes. Sheling, yes. All right, we're down to reports. First up, Deputy Jonah. How's it going tonight? Good.

All right, so this month we had 229 calls for service, which was an increase of 55. Uh there were eight accidents, all without injury. Um eight arrests, which was an increase of three. 36 case reports, 21 citations, and two warrant services. It's 11.

Maybe not paying attention, but do the case reports go up and down that much? Like it was up 20. Uh yeah, like last month it was I mean that report was taken from J uh from December or that have been November. So November 1st to the 25th. So this one's a little bit bigger just a longer. So but typically not really they kind of stay around the same. Any concerns you have or pretty much it's not scooter although I saw a scooter with their headlight.

I did see a kid driving a scooter to school this morning and I was very surprised. I saw one with headlight on last week at night sidewalk like like this. I don't know where. I mean it was dark that you just saw. Wow. I didn't really see any over the Christmas break. There's a kid riding a little dirt bike around, but other than that, I haven't seen any scooters. Nobody brings it up. I just have to comment on it. We haven't seen him, so I guess can't let it die. All right. Any other questions for Jonah? If not, we'll kick him out of here. See you guys. All right. See you.

All right. City engineering report. Most exciting time of the evening, Mr. Michael. Uh good evening everyone. The report is in your packet. Um aside from the water model uh study not much to update. Um water resource cover [cough] getting that getting that work towards closing out. Um boards are in our city's hands. We're waiting on schedule from them but once we have that be able to provide that to the city. Um Western Avenue hold for for winters to weather. Um and items remaining uh city water we'll talk to after these other projects. And I mean Nicholson wrote shared use path um did reach out to Logan the DOT after the holiday just for stats of it and that is still in their court. They are working on some internal approvals uh giving it their internal project number um but they are moving it towards um reality also. So happy to answer any questions on those projects otherwise we'll uh dive into the water bottle. Anybody got any questions for Michael before we talk water? All righty. Far away. All righty. So, I've been talking about it for a little while. Citywide water model um began kind of as a discussion just with some of the developments that have been going on uh recently just with the need as as Hartford grows want to ensure that providing adequate water service to to all of residents and and really building a strong base for the future. Uh so quick outline here just going through the project need overview of the modeling the calibration process uh reviewing the existing conditions uh what this city is currently using uh then going into the proposed scenarios uh recommended improvements um additions and so forth um and then and then finally wrapping up with the conclusion and uh estimated project costs. Uh so the need really stems from Hartford's growth. Hartford has seen 3% growth each year since 1990. Um the current water

tower was built in 2001 I believe. Uh at that time Hartford was half the size it is today. So uh if you'll note that that uh Google Earth photo is from 2010. So it's only 15 years ago and maybe a little hard to see but there's been significant additions to the city since that aerial was taken. Um as it currently stands the the farthest service point is is over two miles uh in a straight line from the tower. So even further by Maine. Um, and then looking just looking ahead, there's there's several developments under construction now, a couple phases that we anticipate moving this year. Uh, and then a couple others that we've had, you know, discussions with developers on where they they plan to move on those in a couple of years. Um,

and the towers being the white tower, correct? The white tower. Yes. Not the blue tower. That is not

the blue tower is uh an intended tower essentially. It is it is not actively used to supply the water sustainable. So, uh, if we just look here, maximum day, uh, based on 2024 billing data, um, month of August was the biggest month at 510,000 gallons a day average. Um, but the average day, um, throughout the entire year was about 220,000 gallons, which is pretty close to what we're seeing at the water treatment plant, which uh, that noise is really good for uh, inflow and infiltration, showing that there's not a lot of ground water getting into the sewer system. Um but then in the winter see a further decrease uh just with you know a lack of of lawn watering uh primarily down to 170,000 gallons per day. Um so model creation info water was used to uh build analyze and optimize this system. It's an Autodesk product. Um they're very large firm. They have they have several projects. So it's pretty it's uh industry standard to to use them for this application. Um, nice thing about that is it's it's GIS based. Uh, so we're able to directly import the city's current utility information into that. Uh, as well as, you know, the the water main location services, hydrants, and elevation data to to build the model, you know, as as accurate as we can without a lot of of field, uh, survey. Um, water demand into the system was based on previous year's billing data. Um and then demand patterns were approximated based on available data and and trends you know typically seen with cities the size. Uh and then those those trends for you know usage throughout the day is is verified uh through testing um calibrating the model. Um Craig and Jesse uh spent the day with uh testing meters um uh throughout town. Uh a couple different tests were performed. One was an extended pressure simulation test meaning and meteor was just left on a hydrant for about a week or so just to see the the eb and flow of you know uh

water tower levels throughout the day what that does to pressures um how that uh impacts the system overall. Um and then additionally there were steady state or fire flow tests that were conducted uh just to call it stress the system see what happens when a hydrant is open when there is a fire uh because that is that is a very important criteria for uh for our system. Uh so these the readings that were taken in the field were compared to the same simulated conditions in the model. Uh and generally uh results were aligned very well as you can see in that graph. Uh typically uh for this for for situations like this you want to see plus or minus 5 psi. Um so that's what those two dash lines at the lower left graph indicate. Um is that is that five plus - 5 psi range. Uh there was one outlier uh that was one that uh was noted as either just an incorrect reading or a test type got flipped or or whatever it may have been. Uh but um considering the all the other data points that that outlier was um was not of concern. So um looking looking pretty good so far. Um next the existing just running into the existing conditions uh based on it um photo came through pretty poorly. uh apologize for that. Um but looking at pressure uh the graph really really tells the story. So we wanted to have our pressures in that green range uh on the graph. Um so the blue is the minimum and red is the maximum uh on the peak day and the winter uh scenario. Uh so the lack of really fluctuation between the called the minimum day during winter and the peak day during summer really shows that the system is not stressed by the fluctuations and demands. Um uh and generally you know pressures range within town from from 50 to 90 which is an acceptable range. There are some that are slightly above some that are slightly low. These are these are

acceptable serviceable um zones but don't fall where any uh corrective action is necessarily needed at this time. Uh looking at the available fire flow um once again uh map came through a little blurry. I'll make this I'll make sure this is available to Teresa so you guys can see this as well as the full report. Uh but generally uh looking at 1,500 gallons per minute for 2 hours to provide fireflow services to residences. Um and then 4,000 gallons per minute for 4 hours for larger industrial or commercial users. Um however, I will say sprinkler systems which are typically required by the fire code do uh lower that requirement. So, uh, looking at the looking at the map in the graph, uh, over 95% of the hydrants throughout the city of Hartford, uh, exceed 1500 gallons per minute capacity to provide that residential fire service, um, with most of them shown, uh, on dead ends, which which is which is expected. Um, and then lastly, um, these aren't necessarily full boore flows. These are flows that um when open they don't reduce the pressure within any part of the system below 20 PSI and that's important because if you have a complete loss of pressure in the pipe um you can have actually the pipe collapse because the soil pressure will press down and collapse it uh and then additionally you can't have those soil pressures that actually um could lead to some contamination within the pipe without breaking it. So maintaining that pressure keeps the pressure uh you know outwards uh which which uh prevents you know costly breaks and and contamination wers all of that. Uh lastly this is this is more on the engineering side admittedly um but pipe velocity head loss are also a good indicator for how the system is operating. Um the blue indicates that the height loss per thousand feet of

pipe is less than one foot. Uh essentially that's um that's how efficient this system is operating. So you want to see lower head loss um to to allow for uh greater transport of those. Um there is one small section just to the west of the tower to note that is yellow which is in that 3 to four range. That was one that was identified as incorrectly sized pipe. So that's just being revised to 12 in. So, I would anticipate that to move into the a better range since the larger pipe does convey water a bit better. So, overall um you know, not too many concerns with head loss as well. Um the velocity is another thing that's directly tied to head loss. Having a lower velocity in the pipe leads to less surge, which um leads to less strain on the pipes, extending the life of that pipe because there's not the surge pressures that are slowly fatiguing those plastic pipes over time. Um lastly looking at uh on the existing conditions looking at the storage capacity. Um there's a lot of ways to look at storage capacity of a tower. Um based on a a multitude of things uh you know from reliability of the source water to the likelihood of contamination. Um the state of the infrastructure. Is it old infrastructure that's prone to cracks? Um natural disasters, earthquakes, you know, [clears throat] flooding, tornadoes, whatever it may be. um you know use requirements for industrial users. I mean the VA and soualls they have their own water tower because they need to maintain a very very specific level of water. Um and then just the number of water sources available. Those things all play into kind of what the recommended storage is um based on where Hartford sits. Um the recommended uh storage volume for the city is the 2-hour fire flow uh which is uh noted as 2500 gallons per minute for 2 hours. So that's 300,000 gallons plus the average

daily use uh which puts us at 520,000 uh gallons. So uh it's typically recommended um to have that much storage in it just to maintain water turnover but not have too much water age. Um so with that in the current 500,000galon tower to the north there is a very slight um deficit uh in the city storage. Uh so just to summarize uh the existing conditions the the pressures within you know AWA guidelines which that's the American Waterworks Association um residential fireflow coverage is is very good over 95% hydrants. So meeting that at least velocities are well below the recommended limit [laughter] uh and there is that slightly deficit of 20,000 gallons. I'll stop there. That was a lot. Any questions on where the system currently sits?

So we don't need a new water tower right now. Not immediately. Defined immediately. Likely not within the next 5 years. Okay. Touch on that. Trust me. Uh any other questions? So it looks like to me what you're saying is that we're at max right now, but we can still run that a little bit because we have a growing population.

Correct. So, so the the the fire flow is something that likely could very well be discussed with the the fire department to we that that could be backed down. Um 2500 is a very typical number to use. Uh 2500 gallons per minute for 2 hours is a pretty typical number to use. However, you know, depending on the fire department's capability, how quick they'd be able to, you know, put out a fire, you know, there's a lot of parameters where we could we could shift that. And also if there would be a huge fire in town, we can contact real water. They can bump up our gallons per minute to come to town. So we would be able to keep up with that. Yeah. So the city does have contracted water for 1500 gallons.

1500 gallons per minute, which is 2.2 million gallons per day. So the city's currently using 10% of that. So with all the storage in the tower plus that rate, um there's a very little likelihood of a fire, I would say, draining the tower completely. So even when we had our tower down to paint it, we were down for about 2 months without a tower running off real water's pressure system. So and it didn't very people didn't know that we were even down. So looked at a couple different scenarios here for proposed conditions looking ahead. Um these are 20 to 55 so 30-year projections call it. Um so as noted target seen 3% growth over the last oh 35 years. Don't anticipate that to to slow down. Um so looking at 25 20 55 population nearly 8,000. um based on you know current water usage per capita be looking at about 1.86 million gallons per day of usage. Um and then looking at scenario two, um very similar. Uh however, this does add, uh look at, you know, some potential industrial areas south of the interstate. Um just kind of in line with what the council had decided for the water treatment facility went with that uh increased capacity just, you know, looking looking ahead at future industrial users. Kind of want to make sure we evaluate that on the water side, too, because um don't want to hamstring the city. have lot of wastewater cap capacity but limited water availability. So it's it's nice to have those balanced have that excess excess capacity. So um pretty typical to see 500 gallons per day per acre. So with those thousand acres we looking bumping up another 500,000 gallons per day to 2.36 million gallons per day. So um as it's shown there is um I'll get that as we go. So, uh, looking at the

recommended improvements, it's pretty similar between the two. Um, so both scenarios will have a parallel main running down Mickelson Road from just north of Highway 38 down to South Street. Uh, in both scenarios, that is proposed to be a 16-in water man. Uh, basically kind of providing a backbone for the city. Um, as noted, that larger um pipe has less head loss and convey more water. So, even though it's um not the entire length of town. It's still providing a great benefit by by allowing a more free movement of that water. Uh secondly, there is the proposal for a second tower about a mile and a quarter west along Western Avenue. Um for scenario one, the just just call it residential growth in the city. Uh this would be a 500,000galon tower uh with a 12-in pipe uh leading to it and connecting into the existing system. For the uh scenario two with the additional industrial area, this would be upsized to a 750,000galon tower with a 16inch pipe uh connecting it. So um

same place sim.

Yep. Similar place. So um location was chosen truthfully due to elevation. Uh as you go west, you know, elevation's a little bit higher. Uh and the benefit to that is be actually be feasible to have the water elevation in that tower at the same elevation in the existing tower. And so the city wouldn't need to have multiple pressure zones, which probably makes Craig's life a little easier. Jesse's his [laughter] but uh makes makes that life uh a little bit easier to maintain a single pressure zone um there. solid. Um, and then looking at the pressure maps, little little tough to see, but really really with the extended uh area between one and two, uh, within what I I'll say is currently the town, there's really very little pressure difference between the two. Um, it's it's just what's that industrial area is providing. Uh, what was modeled uh, generally is the worst case scenario. So um point here quickly. So um I know it was currently this this 12 in that the [clears throat] city just upsized here for for beach development south. Um that was that was not modeled. You know we're looking at kind of with this whole area trying to centralize that uh and get it given in there. Um you know the intent would be if if this developed or this developed look we'll have look at selling that across to do it and then you know some point in the future moving that um and then similarly you know over here with this land um there is no long here preliminary discussions with the Craig um especially with the fifth and second street. uh maybe if this is developed in the near future, maybe the main thing would start off down um Second Street there and that would be the service connection for it as well as as well as it's currently street. So these as noted are in some ways worst case scenarios. Um but the

benefit of the water model is that it's it's in GIS. It's something that could be updated as the city grows, as developers come with a preliminary plan or even prior to that. we could look at water pressures, look at their preliminary layout, anticipate what that would be and then make a you know a data driven decision or recommendation from there um on you know maybe the first phase or how they have the water laid out. So, um, fireflow maps are very similar. Um, one thing to note, the south west side does get a little light. Uh, on fireflow, those two on the left side are about 500 gallons per minute. So, pretty um pretty limited foot on there. Once again, that is due to that worst case. I would anticipate those would be higher with that uh main connection from Rude Trail. Um, but um just wanted to centralize that that connecting main. Um so um conclusion uh you know Harvard the current distribution system is sitting in a in a very very good spot. Um there's actually just that slight deficit which depending on you know which I'll say engineers analyzing what the storage needs are that that may very well balance and shift a little bit. So um no no major cause for concern there. Um however due to the storage deficit and as well as the city's growth and the city's I'll say appetite for you know trying to entice an industry um very likely recommended to have a tower in the next 5 to 10 years. Um additionally uh I noted it briefly about the pressure plains. Um really anything kind of to the west of current city limits like if you if you look at that left side I'll say of the map that that elevation starts to go up. So should a development occur there uh the city would likely operate in a low pressure for some time

uh until you know a trigger point and then that would be the creation of a second pressure plane. So that that was analyzed that was a recommendation or port but um just based on past growth really more eastward um kind of focused our entries there at this time but as noted once you know if a developer comes with with plans for that they would certainly be able to we'd be certainly able to analyze it at that time. Um and then cost assessments are provided. Um did base the power costs on past years bidding data. We work very closely uh with a couple of manufacturers reach out to them and these are um their estimates for for various tower types um anticipated to keep that pretty simple like the the current ones. Um so uh and then the the water main costs are just for the various sizes and the lengths. It is about two and a half miles of pipe. Um, so it's it's it's not a small project by any means, but wanted to provide the uh provide this for for your review. Happy to answer any questions on our forward looking analysis.

I would say the it's nice to hear that the pressures are all very consistent. I mean, I do hear on occasion that the pressure on part T is low. But you didn't you didn't record anything. Does it reflect that? Yeah, we did record um we had one over on the far east side where Colton Road or where um RT and Ninth Street came together. We had a one on there for actually a week. We had one on there checking pressures. Um we did some up at the tower. We had him scattered around town. Sure. And he's in I think that did show up in that 40 PSI range consist pretty consistent.

Okay. And I actually did put some uh tests on Judamman's quite a few years ago and that area and they came back at that. I think the lowest is like 38 or something like that. I got that like I guess. [clears throat] Sure. So I will say I will say that north side of town is is where pressures are lower just because it has is at a similar elevation to the to the water tower. Um, I mean, yeah, looking at these, we kind of I think we all looked at them, we kind of went, "Oh, duh." You know, the pressure follows the topography, so it's pretty high down by the creek, but then as you get further up, it's it it's lower. So, it's it's it's a function of the elevation. So,

so with our um growth projected to go east towards Sou Falls, I was surprised to see that the proposed tower location was west. We were WE ALL [laughter] we see the report. Okay. Is it because it's a similar elevation and if we put that tower east it it would be such a dramatic you have to have a tall tower. We keep the pressure zones the same. Right. And the pipes that we've got in the ground are capable of hauling, you know, getting the water to where we need to that end in town without causing any problem. So west of town tower can be quite a bit shorter and save a lot of money. Okay.

Yeah, it's either it's either a higher tower or a shorter tower where there's a lot more valves to limit limit the pressure zones. Um maintain that that that pressure so that you know to the east and down by the creek they don't have excessively high pressures. Yeah. This model showed that [clears throat] with all the looping that we have in town that we really don't if you put on the west side of town it's not going to affect the flow on the east side. Sure. Is there a water tower a little further west that we could tap into or buy and utilize? Get another tower for a dollar. Yeah, that that Yeah, that be certainly something to keep your eye out for.

Okay. But to find a 500 or 75 is going to be really tough. The ones you'll find for free or the 100,000gallon tanks and something like that. Sure. You'd hate to put 10 of them up. Tank tower form. I don't know. Do we have to get rid of the old one that's not in the No, they would be they would be used in tanning. Oh, yep. But you mean the really old one tower? Yeah, the old tower is not even hooked up to the water lines, right? Do we ever get rid of it or we have cell towers on it that we're getting revenue from? So, but like he mentioned, it's it's a cell tower basically.

And looking like a water tower. Depending on how old that is and when it was last recoded, there may be there may be concern paint. It's been recorded since then, so we should be in good shape. For older powers, that is that is a concern. Is that So, we can actually sell that tower to somewhere. You just would have to give it away cuz what it's going to take to take it down and move it and rebuild it. They would be if they got it like we got the one over here for a dollar from Sou Falls because it was cheaper for them to give it to us for a dollar and for us to rebuild we saved probably 100,000 or something back then. Didn't it come from Cliff Avenue? Cliff like 33rd and Cliff somewhere in that area.

I want to say it was I can't remember where came It was up by 26. You just got I think it was up by 26 then on the east side of uh 229 somewhere in that area. I want to see where So is that the next step then to put in this on our capital improvement plan or I think I think we should have a recommendation down the road. Yeah, it's going to be five to 10 year but it'll be one of the future projects that we definitely got to keep in mind as we grow. Yeah, because five years comes pretty fast. When we start talking about the wastewater plant 10 years ago, [laughter] yeah,

this this model is something that could be updated yearly with, you know, data from the city. We have to look at what what the actual usage is in the tower. Um, see where the system's at and see, oh, do we need do we need to bump it up or can we push it back? So that's I mean that's something that can be an annual check and you know an update with with developments or industries that come down. Certainly would this cost [clears throat] uh this year's dollars or five years? I we don't like to anticipate what inflation of the market is going to was the amount on there. 10 million was one and 11 million.

11 million. The wastewater just a few years from original. The top one was 10 million. The bottom was 11.8. So y All right. Any other questions or comments for Michael? If not, we'll keep uh moving forward. I have one question. Are there tower grants? You know, are there grants to help fund these loans? Always out there. We always try to look at grants. Grants are getting less and less as the years go on. But um today lots of free money. Yeah. [laughter] Seven years.

I mean definitely stuff to look at. I mean that's always the first line of looking at financing. All right. Anything else, Michael, or is that wrap your uh That's That's a wrap I got. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we'll move down to Craig's report. Public works superintendent.

Uh just a couple things to add. Um decorations, we'll be taking them down tomorrow. Got a real nice day, so we're going to be removing those. Uh future facility um or facility out there. Um cabinets did show up yesterday. I think it was yesterday. Um they are the guys in some think they're too short. One base and one up.

Oh my gosh. So, we might not have we'll have some counter space back and things like that, which we'll be fine with, but so they're they were looking at what they think they're too short. Um, also today, uh, Taylor with ISG came out and helped us with the skate system. We we've been finding little things here and there that we just want to whoever the new operator is out there, we want to have everything lined up between the different screens and that stuff so it's easy for him to understand and read without having to guess and wonder what's in the stuff is. So, we've been slowly finding things like that, writing them down, and he's been coming over and get working on things, getting it taken care of, or working with IPS to get it stuff together, right? So, everything will be easy for somebody to come out there and run it without having to have a lot of training on the facility. Um, park bathrooms, the pickle ball court bathrooms is coming along good. Hopefully, within about a week or so, we'll start getting the utilities, the plumbing, and the electrical done in there. So, it'll be ready for spring. And that's all I got in my report. I guess

you got one action item. It look like there. So, as hard as it's always been to find a decent used truck, um, we've got money in budget. I'd like to get permission that if I find something to go ahead and purchase it, we've done in the past. How much do we put in the budget? 35. 36. Oh, 36. Okay. 35. 35. 35. 36 35 with $1,000 [clears throat] in accessories. Yeah. [laughter] 36 is in the budget. And what's the um use I mean obviously we'll be looking for another utility one of the boxes and stuff like that.

So once we get somebody hired out there, we'll be short the truck again. So out at the treatment plant. This will this truck would actually go to Eric so we can load it up the way he wants it for construction more. So yeah. [snorts] All right. action on this item. Motion to approve the purchase of a new public works truck for the budgeted amount. Second up to the budgeted amount. Any more discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. Shilling, yes. Yes. Gee, yes. Bowen, yes. Matson, yes. Carlson, yes. Thank you. Anything else, Greg? Nope,

that's it. Thank you. And you guys have any questions for me? Uh, anything for Craig? Going to get the street sweeper out soon. I mean, so nice. I looked at it today thinking it'd be nice freed up to get it out. Yeah. Think that's going to jinx us for snow. Look at his west side. Get all the leaves. [cough] [clears throat] Yep. Thanks for hosting that tour yesterday. Does everyone stop back out? It's always open to you guys cuz um let's see any feedback on the radar sign on M Colton Road.

I haven't heard any feedback, but I think it works real well because I've been we go out to pump station out to read that there usually vehicle in front of us and soon as they get to that 35, their brakes are Yeah. Yeah. I hadn't come in that way for quite a while and um was through there last week and it definitely um yeah, it was kind of just too a little long as they say. It got my attention. Someone put thank you on your end. It does say it'll say slow down if you're going too fast and it'll say thank you once you get in the speed. Oh, there you go.

And it says something else. It says something else faster. [laughter] They do work in other towns and that where I've been daydreaming. Oh jeez. You know. Mhm. Yeah. That's great. That's good. All right. All right. Nothing else for Craig. We'll move on. Karen, you got uh some information for us, it sounds like.

Yeah. Yep. Teresa and I visited with both banks in town. Um just kind of it hadn't been done in quite a few years, so we just wanted to see if we're getting the best or who has the best services and just check them both out. So, I provided a comparison in there um of both Reli Bank and First Interstate Bank. As you all know, we're with First Interstate Bank right now. Um, service-wise, they're both fairly the same. I offer a lot of the same programs and products and whatnot. Um, fees, um, Interstate Bank is kind of on a per item basis for the monthly fees. Um, we average over the last year at like 175 bucks a month. Um, Rely Bank is proposing a flat fee structure of 250 per month. So, there is a little difference there. Um, but I think the biggest thing is the interest on the revenue side. Um, Rely Bank is offering a higher rate for their money market account and their certificates of deposits and we always shop those. I mean, we go with [cough] the best [clears throat] rate, but Reliab has been consistently better in those rates as well. So, I guess when you look at it all, um, what we'd make in interest outweighs the additional fees we've had, so we would have with them. So, um, in our opinion, looking at what they're both proposing, it would be better financially to go with the lie bank. We have a couple of loans with Reliant Bank, too. And when we got those loans, once again, like Karen says, we shop those around. Relia Banks always come in with a lower rate on the loan. So, I mean, they've been very good to work with as far as, you know, giving us good rates.

And it was around 35,000, right? Which is our current balance. Yeah. and our balance will fluctuate, but you know, regardless of what amount you have in there, if you're getting a higher interest rate, you're you're going to make more money. Yeah. Well done. I think that was good shopping. Is that a motion? Yes. I would like to approve the bank to rely. Second. Any more discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. Carlson, yes. Matson, yes. Bowen, yes. Ke, yes. Yes. Sheling, yes. All right. Anything else you got, Darren? Nope, that was it.

Thank you, Teresa.

Um, yeah, my report. You got the updated projects, you know, from the engineer. Um, I just want to point out that, um, and I had sent you a note on this. We did get the community access grant from the state for Western Avenue. So, that's a plus. It's a 600,000 grant. It's an 8020. So, we will be getting $480,000 in grant funds. that does doesn't need to be paid back. So, that will help our our balance on our Western Avenue. So, I said that's a good thing. Obviously, we've got a paperwork and stuff to, you know, fill out and complete and kind of get that process all done before we receive the funds, but um that will help that um fund there. So, that's a good thing. Um just a couple other notes. Uh the wage study update that we're having done, uh Western Group thought they'd have it done kind of mid December or whatnot, did not receive anything. So after Christmas, I contacted them. They're about 92% complete. She said she's still double checking some numbers. So hopefully we'll have it sometime this month for us. So um we can get that and um at least have that information as we move forward. um the cyber security assessment like you know we are working with um homeland security and Dakota State University to kind of do an evaluation of our system you know our IT system and to make sure that we're secure as possible being a government facility there's a grant out there that if you do need upgrades to your system whatever that may be software hardware this grant pays for it so it's a great time to do this evaluation um Dakota State's going to come in February and do their assessment. I'm actually meeting with uh Justin from Homeland Security on Thursday. They kind of got a each a different assessment process that they kind of go through. So, um I said DSU kind of does their thing and then Homeland Security's got their process they do too. So, I'm meeting with the gentleman from Homeland Security and one of our IT guys on Thursday to start that

process as well. So, that's all in the works. Um just want to update you on the Windsor TIFF. We are working on, you know, now that we've got the boundaries developed, we need to move forward with approving their tip plan, which has already been presented to you. Just doing a final approval on that, and then a development agreement, which is a little more specific of when they're going to do what, you know, give some time frames and some more details on it. They submitted a development agreement to us. It went to Tom. We suggested a few changes. They're reviewing it right now. Uh I'm anticipating to have that to you guys at your next meeting. So to review that. So um once it it's that's all agreeable once those two things are approved then that TIFF is basically created and in existence. So those our last steps on that after all of our back and forth with it. Um and then just the other things I have on my report. I just gave you a couple updates of where we're at in working with SEO for that safe streets grant. We're just starting that grant process. It's that study to see, you know, if there are, you know, issues we have in our streets and if there's any problem areas or whatnot. We're actually having a meeting this month. The mayor, ISG, Jonah's going to be part of it to kind of just sit down with the Houston engineering doing that study, sit down with him and do a just have a conversation of what we see, where do we see problem areas where not and give them ideas of where to focus and and what the issues are here in Hartford. So, we're actually having that first meeting. So, that's kind of our kickoff of that process. And then, um, give you just another update on Dakota Main STEM. Um, they're basically moving forward. We, um, we're going to get the, uh, we're tomorrow we're having a meeting in the morning, the board is to actually do a final approval on the appraisal study. And this study is basically needed to

get your feasibility study to go to the Bureau of Reclamation to get some financing. So it's all a process. So this is the first final first study needed to get approval to move on to the next step. So um that's all moving ahead as well. And then I just kind of give you an update if you have any questions. I sat down with um Jay Buck House. I mean, we all you've all seen non-European bills. The electrical rates are going up and they're going up everywhere. Um, it isn't just Sou Valley and it's mainly because their suppliers um are basically doing increases. A lot of that is um the demand basically most of it is the demand is just increasing. But with that, you know, some of their infrastructure needs improving, you know, and so they're going to have to invest dollars in that. So that's where kind of this whole rate increase is coming and um you know over the last few years they've been little rate increases this is probably a more significant one and he says we probably can look and of course this isn't set but next year maybe about the same. So he kind of just kind of gives analysis of that. So just just some added information for you guys so you know what how that affects the city.

Yeah. We're only budgeted 3 to 5% increase each year. Yeah. And so back in September this surpasses that. So, we're probably going to be over budget. So, we'll at the end of next year kind of supplement that budget too because things like this come up with these are unknowns back in September to the city. And yes, so yeah, speaking of power, just a as a aside, I'm on the member advisory council for Valley U as a representative for Hartford. So, if you have concerns or questions, let me know and I'll take that uh to those meetings that we only have those twice a year. So, well, try and get us a cheaper rate. [laughter]

That horse has saddled up and rode away. [laughter] There you go. So, [clears throat] yeah. So, yeah. Any questions?

Anything else for Teresa? All right, we're going to move to new business tonight. We're going to have discussion on Gateway Hartford, Inc. Um, there's been a lot of interest, a lot of talk about this and uh it's finally kind of exciting that we can start talking about it and uh let the public know what's what we're doing. Uh I'll start with background. That'd be good. You can jump in Travis whenever you want.

So when we first decided to build the uh we meaning the city decided to go forward with the wastewater treatment plant, we knew that at some point our lagoons would be [cough] of no use. Once the plant went online last fall, um we started to we shut the pipe off first, shut the water off. Craig uh worked with DNR, state department of natural resources, got approval to dump. We've been dumping water out of there as fast as we possibly can. There was discussion amongst the council, several people probably for the last year and a half, couple years about how are we going to move forward? What are we going to do with the lagoon land? uh the decision was made to set up what is called a special project entity SBE which leads to the name that we uh came up with Gateway Hartford. The reason that we've done this is this is a specific one project entity that will deal with the transferred land to that group to market and sell it. If you know anything about state uh law, quantified law, cities can buy everything they want. They can't sell anything because when they get into the sales business, they're competing with the public. So, you need a nonprofit five in this case, uh, Gateway Hartford is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. The land will be deed or transferred over to them. they will then handle or work on those sales and that development of that area. So um to give you a little background on how much thoughts went into this, we are

going to contract to have a master development plan put together for the lagoon land and working in conjunction with CNC Ventures uh a area or a total area plan of about 150 acres. up there right next to the interstate that will be uh developed and this is not an overnight deal. We're talking five or 10 20 year 20 years. Yeah.

So um the so the question is going to be asked why did you guys set up this special entity? We set this up with specific guidelines that direct it. the board that was put together understand their sole purpose in this deal is to facilitate the sale and development of that property property period. We're not going to be doing other development. They're not going to be out buying other land. And really their first goal is to work on getting rid of our 70 70 acres and turning it into money. Second thing, biggest point that we did the special project entity, we set up in the in the bylaws of this entity that when the everything's said and done, all the checks are written, everything's done, finalized, our 70 acres are sold, if there's money remaining in their accounts, that reverts back to the city. Now, is that going to happen tomorrow? No. I don't know that any of us sitting here right now will probably be there when that check's written.

I'm only 33 [laughter] years, right? We won't be probably sitting here though. Let's hope. No, I won't be sitting here. So, there's there's guard rails uh with built into that too to keep any board members from benefiting financially from any of that development out there as well. Right. Uh we're very clear to What is that state of that trans? Uh if you look at the uh I can I can show you Benjamin after in the in the bylaws in four it says right in there no board members get any compensation of any okay but yet your article of incorporation three paragraph four down at the bottom of the page it says can or it says you are compensation

those are can those are can bylaws and then we tighten up so we tighten up the parameters of those with in the bylaws in the bylaws that's a else could be changed at any point in time. It happens. Yeah, you know. Yeah, I understand that. 5 years from now, if you let art and finish, there's other barriers if we don't do something like this. Well, yeah. No, I'm just saying what happens 5 years from now, this board that's currently on on there is completely removed, you know, resigned. new people are in there. They decide well I'm going to change the bylaw where I receive X dollars, you know, from the final sale while I'm on board.

You want Yeah. There's two things here. One, let Arden finish. Two, you should probably come to the podium. So the people watching at home can Yeah, sure. the mics. Yeah. Yeah. So, I know that's your question. Can I you you want me to keep going or you want to Well, I was just asking what happens in the future, you know, because the bylaws you guys set them up, but the next group of board members have can change the bylaws to where they can I will tell you I as the specific question I asked, can you in any possible way bulletproof this deal so it's forever can't be changed? You know what the answer they said? No.

Can't do it there. So there you know, right? We're trying our damnest and everything we've done is to set this thing up. So 100% agree with you doing the reclamation on the lagoons out there and selling the land and giving the city back. But that's the part you need to hear more about. Yeah. You know. Yeah. But he also has a I mean I get it. Yeah. And I understand your point. But even if we can't guarantee it, there's still reasons. Yeah. Yeah. I understand. It's just I mean I got to present it out there because people are already questioning it. I get it. Just tonight you guys pointed out, you know, which I wasn't aware of that there was already a post out on Facebook. Oh yeah, this you know. Yeah. So I mean if I ask the question now that eliminates you know

I understand but I can tell you and I would tell you every time you ask me there's no way we can bulletproof. We really cannot bulletproof

the only way to bulletproof it. I mean, and like I said, I think you we had a I've been talking to the mayor and all that on that specific topic that you brought up, which I think is a good point to bring up on the articles of incorporation is, you know, it gets kind of difficult and I know there's probably people listening right now online and you can sit down. I mean, you can always come up, but I I'm going to go on just like a a one minute rant here because until I got on council, you never I never really understood and maybe when I was on the de on the development corp had a little bit of understanding is, you know, we've got this prime real estate land that the city owns and um you know, we don't want to put shops up there. We don't want storage units. We don't want you know, whatever else to to be turned into industrial. So, there's a couple options. We can go and auction off the land, then we lose pretty much all control.

We can't. You can't put it up for auction. Well, we could. You have to give it to the lowest. Not as it currently sits.

Well, you Yeah. Yeah. But you know this is and this is a common I mean the SP is a little is new for Harford but if you look at every town around us whether it's Colton Salem Montro I don't know about Montreal but for sure Salem Dells they all have development corporations or development foundations which helps maintain for for the city to maintain some level of control over city-owned property. Now some of those uh corporations uh you know keep going and going and going and that's fine but I think it's good just for the listeners all of us in this room probably know that but um we want to set something up to where it's project focused where um and also in those bylaws and correct me guys if I'm wrong is that they are and like you said yep those can change at any time right okay well we better appoint the best damn people we can that have the best interest of Harford, but they have to abide by our master plan, right?

Um, and so there is a high level and I know all the people on that board pretty pretty well, some not so well. I know every member of the board personally. Yeah. You know, I have no objection with the elected members, the appointed members or anything like that. I think it's a good thing for the city of Hartford to do, right? I mean, because we need to reclaim those lagoons and we need to utilize that interstate footage, you know, and and it's a crime for a retail, you know, um industrial. No, we don't want to do industrial right on the interstate, you know, that draws people in off the exit, you know, when they can see your stores and stuff out there. All right. That gives them a reason to come in. Are you good? Cuz I want to keep I got some other stuff. Unless you got other stuff

question that that I saw come up and I'll ask I'm just asking this because it's on Facebook. You know why is it Gateway Carter registered to your home address, your physical home address? Because I'm just asking because it's Yeah, that's the devil's advocate here. You know, I will tell you, we're sure as heck not, we're not trying to hide anything or do anything different, but we had to have an address and when we were setting this up, we sat at that table and we said, "Well, why don't we use the mayors?" That really that that was the discussion. So, and there's more to it. You can't use the city's website, the city's address because the as we apply for the brownfield grant, that's who we haven't gotten to yet. Right. There's there's other things that are coming.

I was just asking the question cuz it's out there. Correct. So, I was just playing devil's address. We needed to have an address to use. Making it publicly known so you can publicly answer isn't associated with the city, so we couldn't use the city's address. Right. I understood which, you know, my thought was a pill box. you know, they need a physical address. I believe the requirement was a at least initially was a physical address, right? I think a lot of the questions will be answered as you why do I need to do [laughter] this? So, he's got good questions though. I mean, this is right. I don't I'm not against the questions. I just think yeah,

we haven't had a chance to explain something that will answer something.

Okay. So remediation, we'll talk about that. So part of the part of the requirements when you're going to and grants was mentioned here earlier are their grants. There is a huge grant available right now through the EPA for what they call brownfield remediation. Here's the here's the basis. The city was the poller. So the city cannot apply for the grant. which if you want to talk about something that doesn't seem like it makes any sense, doesn't make much sense. So our entity special our special project entity Gateway Hartford has to be in place. The land will have to be transferred because they are applying for the grant not the city. Gateway Hartford is applying for the grant. We have uh our city engineer ISG is going to help assist Gateway Hartford with the application. Uh Teton Ridge, which is Steve Watson, which has been helping us as a development consultant, will help with that process. Here's the other thing. That grant application is due in by the 28th of January. We've been talking about this for a while. It seems like we're stepping on the gas right now, but partially why we are because we don't want to miss the window for this grant

because if we could pick up any money from that grant and remediate that lagoons, it's going to make this thing just easier easier. It makes it makes it marketable because the land is usually the cost to uh develop it drops significantly if we can get the grant money, right? The remediation is millions. Three and a half or Yeah. 2 point something was the 2.8 million to remediate it though. That's a lot of money and get rid of it. And then that makes it less attractive to develop because the cost of land if unless the city just wants to.

So don't want to lose money like or pay money uh out of our budget to remediate it and then give it away.

Yeah. So our initial uh our initial board was established or the initial board for Gateway Hartford is Keith Matisen is the president. Uh Mark Brenamman is vice president. Dylan Peterson who is sitting here is the treasurer. Travis Keel will sit on the initial board. And if we get past number one here and you guys uh decide to appoint me, I will be the fifth member. of that board. We the one piece that we have to do at our next board meeting is what do you call it? Draw straws or whatever this figure out who's doing one year, two year, three year, right?

We have I mean we got some uh housekeeping that has to be cleaned up. But all in all, uh the group's in place. The group is in the meeting. Got a separate attorney. We've got a separate uh accountant. Um we've got a master planner, you know. Um so yeah. Yes, sir. Marcus, will those funds go anything towards that water treatment plant that the citizens I know everything got between the payments and all that, but just where will the funds go? Will that be like donated to the city? Will any of that go back to the water treatment? That's a great question. or what was

the funds at the end of the project that are in the Yeah. What's the appropriation of the funds going to put forwards? We have not spec that's a great question. We have not about earmarking. Yeah. But much to um Benjamin's point, when that money comes back to the city, we don't know who will be sitting in these seats and they will have control of what it's used for. I guess my main question was there like any plans in place for just any idea But we've talked about some ideas. You know, it's um I know it's hard to say something.

It's hard to say because this could quite literally be literally 20 years out cuz like you know cuz that group is going to take capital. It's going to take money to cuz they have to pay for I mean there's a lot that goes into this. So if you equate it to a similar uh development uh which they refer to as the Golden Triangle between 57th Street 29 and 229. Yep. Down in that area. That that development is a business park. so to speak in that area has taken about 20 years to develop, 25 years, maybe even a little longer. So, it's a long play. There's um but if it were me and I had any say in it, when that money comes back to the city, if we didn't have a a new city hall or we didn't have a community event [clears throat] center,

swimming pool something back to the that everybody in the community could appreciate, right? Yeah. There could be who knows there could be so many uses for that money that you know and yeah our needs may come up when they when it comes back in you know totally you know depending on what that timeline is you know we talked about this capital improvement plan and the water tower would go on there maybe we have it back before we need to build that and it can be you know appropriated to that hopefully maybe we don't hopefully the wastewater treatment plant is paid for by them as well you Um, good point though.

I I think you know for me when as we talked about how do we do this? So the city has a few options. One of there is just let it sit there. I I don't even know if we can do that but I suppose we could. We won't be able to sell it. We won't be able to use it. It literally would just sit. The other option is to cough up $3 million ourselves out of a budget we don't have funding for right now to remediate it ourselves. And then what do we have to do? Auction it because we can't Yeah, we can't directly sell it. Tampa, we have we can't sell it. The city cannot. That's a state state law. And it's also

um we can't develop it even if somehow we right. And so this is also um no different than what the city's done in the past with city owned land. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it it's different in the context that it's an SPE. So it's very it's project focused. So this is not an on and I know we know this but I know there's people tapping in tonight but we have gifted other city land over to you know we have a development fund. So we've done that in the past. Y um and so I think that's also good for people to know is like this is how cities have to operate with city own land.

We we've made the decision as a council um that you know what we want to do something different that is hyperfocused on this prime real estate land and uh so it's no different yeah which no different than what we've done in practice. I I would say too despite you know the questions about being able to guarantee you know how well this goes where does the money go at the end where I don't know that we can guarantee any of that but of the options we have this is still the best option. Yeah. Yeah. And I agree with that one proposal everything just just a question I had. Um,

I'd love to I I'm not going to say that cuz I don't want to be on council in 20 years, [laughter] but I'd love I mean it would be so fun to be able to be on council when that happens and actually have um what should be a decent amount of money without a loan and without having to, you know, to be able to put into our community. It should be really exciting when it whether it's 10 or 20 years. Yeah. Thank you all for your input. Oh, you bet.

And then one other thing was with the uh population and the uh like the not town homes, but those apartment complexes getting put up on 38 there with that tank and all the other improvements. Would that be passed? I I guess I don't know if you did anything that turned them off. I'm sorry. [laughter]

If we kept voting or kept getting apartment complexes built on on the water system that is yeah on our current water system we'd be in good shape. Yeah, we'd be in good shape. That'd be something we'd be able to model certainly. There's different different demands for for different uses. So definitely something on all the power. You turned the TV off just stand. [laughter] What the heck? I don't know. All right. Thanks for Thanks for speaking up. Appreciate it. Yeah. I do have one more. Yep. One more question. That's online. Who's paying for all of Gateway Hartford's expenses in the meantime?

That's on the That's number two on this list. The city is going to uh give them some money. Yes. They're not going to do it for free. I mean not the or but the consultant the people that need you. Oh I understand it's just a question who's who's going to build I will I will speak as as mayor. This is this is an investment in the future. We're trying to get this land sold. We're trying to get the lagoons remediated. We need to do this. We need this group uh Gateway Hartford to help us and get this done. the investment we're going to make from a city standpoint is great dollars spent and we did budget for community

for development so that's my I'll say it so that can be on hardford happenings and every year we do budget funds for development and we've done that

yeah and Ben can I I want to say something to that point because it it is a good question um I and I I've I think and I think I made it clear when we've talked in the in the past um kind of you know setting this thing up is like what I what I don't want to see is and I think with the right people at the wheel on this thing is like there's going to be some money up front but what I don't want to see is if I'm on here next year which I probably won't be um but what I don't want to see is five six eight years they're coming back every year asking for money okay so what I want to see is um that that's that's my that in a perfect world that's my vision. Hey, let's get this thing going. Let's do it right. Let's sell some land,

right? Let's sell some land. And hopefully, Lord willing, this thing can be self-sufficient. Now, it's going to take time, but that is my vision of that. That's my idea of this. And if you're on council next year, then you'll you'll be you'll you'll probably see the other side of it, you know, but that's um I think I Yeah, I mean it's it's it's unique to the city in terms of that, but I really want to see this group do well and to be self-sufficient.

Y I want to see the group move forward with done just, you know, again, I'm just playing devil's advocate. I have a verbal voice for those listening. Well, and I think we have a history of spending money on economic development. So, you know, when they ask online and they're like, well, I just brought the question. Yeah. Yes. Oh, thanks for bringing it.

You know, allocation in every year's budget since I've been on related in different ways um to economic development and I think this is just one more way to help um do that. So, I don't know that it's re reasonable. So before we move on to our action items, I just asked Dylan anything you want to add or anything you want to uh No, thank you Ben for the questions. I came to clear the air on some of that stuff and it was already addressed. So I think it'll be a good thing for Hartford. We're going to do our best uh to carry the torch and make sure it's carried out accordingly. And I guess you have my word for that as long as I'm on the board and there's a good checks and balance system. We got Mark, uh, Travis, and Ardan, and Keith, you know, so it's not just just our council members on the board. Wanted to clear that up. Ardan's not the president. His mailing address of the LLC is irrelevant. Basically, as a necessity at the time, that's all I got. Thank you for being a part of

and Dylan stepped and uh Dylan's on there because we were Can I say that? Well, it sounds smart. They said you go find some young guy. Somebody to sitting here said I don't care. I said I'm like a little diversity. We need to get a little diversity on there. I'm all about it'll be a good thing for Artford's image and attracting people and businesses in the future. That's our goal. Yeah. And as far as what the money goes to, we don't know how much money it's going to reinate. It'll be 20 years from now or whatever we said. Yeah, it's a hard question to answer. You know, hopefully we we get the right people in and instill the the values that we want and the next members. Uh,

you know, the the council members or the board members of Gateway Arford will probably change every three to five years, I imagine. Yeah. People will phase in and out. So, you know, if you're out there listening, if you're have a keen interest, you know, maybe maybe uh take that in consideration in the future when that time goes. You bet. Good. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. All right. Anything else that I should have covered, Travis? What? Anything else you can think that I should have covered? I don't I think I think that's a good kickoff kind of. It's a nice kickoff. There'll be a press release. I mean, there's going to be more information to come. Yeah, but that's a great U. So, foundation

before we move into the action items. [cough]

Um, the third one on our list tonight is uh Lagoon Land transfer to the entity. We are not going to do that. We're going to have to uh uh delay that or postpone that off to a future meeting. Um because of the city's wanting to, how do I say this? Craig and the guys need to get in there and get the rest of the water out and take care of the lagoons until the remediation process started. So once we trans we're uh we're confirming with DNR that once we transfer that land to Gateway Hartford that they can for a dollar or whatever lease it back to the city for a period of time so we can get in there and continue working. So that that those paperwork is not ready to go and so we cannot act I don't want to act on that until we have that in place. But we do want to act on appointing you to the board and releasing some funds. Correct.

Correct. I think we can do those two tonight. Okay. All right. Um I'll make a motion to appoint Mayor Ardan uh to the uh board of Gateway Hartford Incorporated. Second. All right. Any discussion on that? Hearing none, we'll vote. Schilling, yes. Haraj, yes. Peele, yes. Bowen, yes. Matson, yes. Carlson, J. Yes. New guy. New guy. New guy. [clears throat]

New guy. Carlson. I said it. All right. And then the second one is uh funds that will be provided to Gate Gateway Hartford to pay for this init some of this initial cost. So, we got application fees, we got professional fees, um, got CPAs to pay, master plan. Yeah. Yeah. Um, we don't have that number in there. I was going to say, yeah, it's Yeah, all you have is approval of the contract right now. Um, so, do you want to tell them? You want me to tell them what we're thinking or what they're

I think it's going to take uh 100,000 a year for three years. And so whether that you feel I'll let you guys decide how you want to allocate it. Um but I think at a minimum it'd be 100 uh this year to get get us through the end of the year into next year um to have that seed money so to speak to keep the ball rolling with you know attorney fees, CPA fees, master planner those fees. So that's is that good summary? I think that's a great summary and if and I would I would add to what Travis said if we want to do a h 100,000 now and then when we come to budget time this summer then we can make the decision and just say hey we want to line item this for the next year or two and do it then but I think for for the for 2026 I would say 100,000 will get us a lot into next year I would say.

Yeah sure. So, and we did talk about in budget uh more than 100 actually for economic development or was that in the general fund that we pulled that extra hundred from? Where is this coming from? I mean, this would come from the general it's budget in general, how much money do we have in the is it the third penny? What do we have in that Karen? Sorry to put you on the spot, but you knew it was coming. Oh, maybe that's a next year, you know. Yeah. Do you do you want to know what actual funds are in there or budget funds? Funds to date.

Fun to date. Funds. Yeah. Yeah. Funds to date for cash.

There it is. I guess the one thing I would have and I because this number's I mean just I want to make sure I'm not missing something here. Right. That requested number is not in the packet. No, it is not. No, because it wasn't talked about. I wish I wish it was. Um just obviously so so in the third what we have for reserve actual money in in the third penny we have 317,000. Yep. And so just to clarify that third allocated to that. What's that? Say that part again. Nothing is allocated to that. Right. So we've got 317,000 in this third penny and we can use that third penny for marketing andor economic development purposes. Correct.

Yes, you can. And so right now there is nothing where that money is going to right now. That money right now is not earmarked for any specific project. We have stuff budgeted this year. $50,000 of it was budgeted. Yeah. There's money budgeted for it, right? Like you know. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I I just I I asked because um I know when we did budget maybe we did call out that another 100,000 for economic development planning in the general fund but if it's sitting in third penny which is restricted what's the con of pulling it from there

really isn't any con either way and we can't use that for sewer You can't use it for

third penny is more restrictive. It is for like marketing or economic development, land purchases, um community halls, buildings, you can't but you can't use it for water. You can't use it for sour sour sewer, um streets, parks, none of that can come out of there. So, it is more restrictive. So, we have 317,000 in there for actual funds. 112 is budgeted for going to like the chamber that 50,000 you know various things that we have in budget. So you still have a balance in there of 200,000 [snorts] that is unallocated. That's kind of what I was I mean I mean I I'm open for discussion on this obviously. I mean I

I mean I think and I've been involved you know all this well except for a couple of newer people. I mean, this is an extremely exciting project and um it's going to have a major impact on the city. Um I wonder if there'd be an appetite for the council to do maybe we start off with 50 and reevaluate in six, seven, eight months. Maybe we do the 100. I mean, I I want to I guess I want to cause some discussion is really Yeah, I'd be I'd be okay with the 100. I think where I would want to dig in is when we go to budget. Yeah. Um because if you know we're not going to run that, but just like any other organizations, we want to know how it's being used. Yep.

And that we agree and are supportive of the purpose. Then we'll have some track record too. So then we'll know what what you've had. We'll know probably a better plan of where you need to go. [clears throat] I mean, I know 100 sounds like a lot field. We'll have some master planning stuff to present. Yeah, absolutely. And that discussion is only a few months really. Months away. Yeah. I mean, it's no secret that I want I want I want a plan. I want a business plan. I want to know where money is going. It's I when anybody comes and asks for money for budget, yeah,

I I'm not going to approve it unless I know where that money is going. So I could be on more with you know because this is a project that's just starting out. Uh but for future I will want I will want specific yeah we're going to request the same thing that we request from I'm going to be just as hard harsh on asking for a fully where is this money going and you know as any other organization that comes expect nothing less right [laughter] that's one of Dylan's duties as other duties as as assigned

deal with Michelle [laughter] the opening with me. I think three of your projections are on the agenda for the next meeting. Um because if I'm not mistaken, handing out money without an actual I need to know where it's going. When we put in our application for our for our 501c3, I think we have to supply a three-year budget. Isn't that correct? Yeah. For the tax and Yeah. So that we don't have it at this minute, but that's coming. Yes. Y Okay. And then it's coming from the third penny because it looks like it's designed for that you can use. So it's not restrict. We're not

you can use the third penny because that's a viable economic development. So then we're not restricted in the other funds in case we need for something else. So that this would almost be a perfect use for it. So you need a motion? You bet. So 100,000 for the uh Gateway Hartford for their expenses uh to be reviewed again in is it June next budget budget next budget year and uh to be taken from the third penny account second. Perfect. Thank you. Any discussion? Now's the time. Now's the time. Hearing none. We're going to vote. Carlson, yes. Madson, yes. Bolan, yes. Keel, yes.

Parach, yes. Shilling, yes. Okay. And how should we do that? Should we table that third or item? It's on the agenda. So, I would just table it to future meeting to the next meeting. I'll make a before we Okay. Do we need this contract or does Gateway Hartford need this contract? This is the Teton Ridge City. Oh, that's the next item. And Gateway Hartford has one. This is just for the city of Hartford. Okay. The next item. Yeah. So, let's table the transfer of the land. Get that. And then the next item is this Tish contract that we can talk about. So,

but let me get this straight. The transfer of land has to happen before the grant. Yeah. So, like that'll be on the next meeting because that and that grant is needs to be submitted by the 28th. And this is a large the potential. You never know if you're going to get a grant, right? This is a great grant. Yes. That hopefully they've got quite a bit of funding that Do we know? I tried to get the I really did. I tried to get this paperwork done and I could I just couldn't get the attorneys pushes the Attorney attorneys take vacations. They take vacations. You know, you got to work with their attorney and our attorney and so I just could not want to make sure I was clear on those dates.

Yes, we are. So, so we will making nervous, [clears throat] believe me. I try. So, all right. So, let's make it let's take action on that. Did you make a motion, John? I was just going to make a motion to to table um the right the transfer of land. I was going to make a motion to table that topic until the next meeting. Y second. And there's no discussion on the table. So, we will vote. Shilling. Yes. Parach. Yes. Ke, yes. Bolan, yes. Matson, yes. Carlson, yes. Okay. All right. Did we cover everything that we should have on that?

Thank you for all your questions. Dylan, thanks for being here. Thanks for all your comments. And I would venture that we'll have people asking us questions. All right. The last item on the agenda tonight uh is to approve a contract with Teton Rich. So, this is totally away from Gateway Hartford. This would be uh the city contracted with uh Teton Ridge to help us through some of this initial process and some of the uh economic development that we've been working on. Uh, I'll just say I feel that from a city standpoint, at least for the next year, if we could keep Teton Ridge under contract with the city to help us with any unforeseen uh, snags, I guess I'll call it that, cuz he's going to be working independently with uh, Gateway Hartford on their application, on the development plan, on the remediation. That's all separate from the city, but I would like to have the ability, if the council uh agrees, to be able to use Teton Ridge when we uh have economic development opportunities maybe would not be the right word, but questions and uh issues that we need him to help us with. Does that make sense? You want to add anything?

No. No. [clears throat] The summary that Teresa's provided is a snapshot of of what uh Teton Ridge can do. So, and has done I I guess I just get so when we say it's consulting services to support Lagoon, the city's not going to do that is what correct said. So, that's why I guess I'm asking. Oh, I see. Yeah, that's Gateway Hartford. Yes, I see.

Right. But it's so supporting the lagoon remediation through Gateway Hartford. So any you know that that back and forth between the city and Gateway Hartford as far as getting that remediation done um would be facilitated potentially by Teton Ridge. Okay. So another question on that. So, um, cuz obviously I want to make sure. So, where So, typically if we're working on a pro. So, typically that'd be like our engineer, wouldn't it? Like in terms of Well, I guess I'm just trying to think cuz Teton Ridge is going to be working spec specifically with Gateway Harbor. Correct. Correct.

So I think if you if you go to the the last um the scope the engage state and federal stakeholders to help with economic development outcomes um you'll actively go out and look for grants and other opportunities for the city to maximize its just improving just like what we did up there. Yep. Yes. Yep. So that would be an example where we got an 8020 grant. It was a private non, you know, was a private development or Yes, it was. Okay. I I would think fairly quickly though, this would end up being more with Gateway Harford. Gateway Harford would have a contract with Ton Ridge,

right? I'm saying I wouldn't expect a lot of services, right? And that's why we set had him set it up and give us a give us a per hour. Yeah. Not to exceed, right? And just so we had and even here at any point you feel like those services aren't being justified. 30 days will 30day right now. It's capped at Yeah. $600. So I don't think you're going to get too crazy with that. No. With a consultant and $11,000. We're not I mean as a city we're I mean we're not gay. Hartford isn't going to utilize those those contracted hours either. That's going to that's going to be directed from Teresa. Yeah,

it's going to be limited, but there will be things that will pop up. I mean, we do need to work with the land. The city needs to work with Gateway Harford and probably have that conduit to because we still need to go in there and finish out carrying out, you know, our lagoons. Uh, we need to through with our billboards. We I mean, there's things that we're still going to need, you know, like I said, to work with Gateway Harbor and have that conduit to kind of help us through that. So, all right. Does that make sense? Yes. All right. Make a motion to approve the contract with Tcon. Second. Any more discussion? Hearing none, we'll vote. Carlson, yes. Matson, yes. Bowen, yes.

Ke, yes. Paracha, yes. Chilling, yes. All right. Anything else? I don't see anything else on the list. Can uh is everybody up for another 10 minutes if I say we want to go in for a few seconds for what? Economic personnel. Economic development personnel. Okay. I'll make a motion to go into executive session for economic development and personnel. Second. All in favor? I not connected yet. No. [laughter]

Good. Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. I'd make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I.