Village Council - Regular Meeting

That's why we Oh, yeah. [snorts]

Amen. Sorry. I bet you are about two hours better. Two hours a lot less than that. 35 minutes. What do you got to do? Oh god. [snorts] Joking.

I don't know. I see that one. How many questions?

There's a phone ring. evidently the phone at the switcher has been disconnected. I've tried three times and it's telling me that it's no longer in service.

So, we will be live on YouTube, but we will not be live on media content. speaker. [laughter] [clears throat] [clears throat] Okay, we're going to get start. Thank you for coming tonight December 15th village council meeting and we'll start with prayer and pledge. Pastor Steve pray

Lord uh we just uh thank you um for your love and your grace and Lord continue to give us guidance and wisdom as we move forward end this year and moving into next year. Lord I continue to pray for the men and women that serve our community. Lord give them wisdom and knowledge in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Roll call. Cheryl here. Here [clears throat]

All right. Thank you. Um tonight we have some special guests. We have five individuals who have um sent in letters of uh interest for the open village council seat seat that starts the new term of January 2026. And I asked them to be here tonight and and introduce themselves maybe give us a little bit of background and why they're interested in the seat. So with that I think you're all here right all right? Everybody's here. We'll start with uh comp here. Thomas Lutter. Tom, you want to step up? Come up to the microphone, please. Tom's [clears throat] Flutter. I live on X over there. Been living here for 20 some years retired from camel soup with over 40 some years in total employment. I've had a little over 50 years and decided to retire. Um, I uh help at the uh food pantry at the uh lifeline and serving the people helping them get stuff [snorts] along with my wife and and the pastor. Anything else you want to add, Tom? Or why you're interested maybe in the seats?

Well, I'm interested in seeing how stuff is being ran and seeing if there's any hope of getting uh new people to come in as businesses either storewide or something in that order. Anybody have any questions? Thank you for uh petitioning to be of interest for the seat and we'll move to the next candidate. Thank you. Boyer Gwick.

I didn't hit that, did I? No, you're good. [clears throat]

Hi, I'm Gwick. I go by Boently, but um a little bit me. I moved to Hicksville when I was about 12 years old. Before that, we lived in Washington State. I have a one-year-old daughter. She is the coolest kid in the whole wide world. Um, and I work full-time at Park Regional in Fort Wayne, and I am also in the Air National Guard. I'm the ammo unit, so we get to build the bombs and do all the fun stuff in the background. So, it's fun thing that I get to do. Um, the reason I'm interested in the open seat is because my number one reason, the most import to me is that I have one-year-old daughter and it is important to me that I raise her knowing that she can do hard things and she can do anything she sets her mind to. And I think that's something important that this position would be able to help me with that. And the other reason is I don't have any outside invested interest other than just supporting my community, getting involved in my community, and seeing how everything works from the inside out instead of just showing up and seeing things on the outside and not understanding the whole background of it. And I think I have a that I could bring to the table with ideas, opinions, thoughts, and being respectful and understanding that everybody has a right to their opinions and everybody's feelings are valid. And also knowing that Hel's a great community and it takes everybody sitting at this table to continue making the community great. And I don't shy away from doing what's right. I don't shy away from, you know, standing up for the people who need it, even if that affects me. And I just think that that's what I can offer. So that's all I got.

Would you have time for There's a lot of meetings, not just here, but during the week. Would you have time for that?

Yep. Um, with my drill job, I only do one weekend a month and then I do have deployments that come along with that. I, uh, just reup my contract actually this past weekend. So, um I plan to do 20 years in that, but it is only a one weekend a month requirement with the exception of the um uh deployment every now and again. And then we do have two weeks a year that we have training whether sometimes it's in Fort Wayne and sometimes they send us to different parts of the country to do two weeks of training at a time as a group. Um but I have those things pretty scheduled out and then my park view job I have day shift so I have my evenings and weekends open with that. the uh the deployments are those lengthy

uh I've I've been on one before. It was supposed to be a three-month deployment. It turned into almost six month deployment because of where we were at. Um I was in Saudi Arabia where we were it was right when all that stuff went down with Israel and um Palestine and we were right in the center of it and it was right when that all went down. they didn't have the ability to move us out out safely while also bringing the new group safely to also continue getting this mission done. So, we did have to get extended for that, but generally it's three month deployments. And we do have thankfully it's 2025. We do have um access to internet and things like that if need be. [snorts]

Well, thank you for thank you for serving. I mean, that was quite an accomplishment. Yeah, it's fun. I I enjoy it. Very good. Thank you.

We have uh Tori Dford. [snorts]

Hello, I am Tori Guilford. I own Main Street Studio um right downtown here in Hixel, Ohio. I have [clears throat] lived here for a majority of my [snorts] life. Um I am very passionate about our community and um just seeing it thrive. Um I want to advocate for businesses that have downtown locations um and I want to be involved and I feel like this is the best way for me to do it.

Thank you, Ed Garmin. Hello. A lot of you know me, most of you don't. Ones that don't. I'm Ed Garmin. I was born and raised here in Hicksville. I graduated from Hicksville in ' 84. When I graduated, I joined the service. I was in the service for seven and a half years. I was a squad leader for the time that I was in the service. When I graduated or when I got out of service in ' 92, I hired in at BF Goodrich. I worked there for 32 and a half years. I finally decided after the service and working [clears throat] I it was time to retire. So, I decided to retire. I just retired in February. I have plenty of time. And this is the town that I grew up in. I grew up here in the 70 and 80s when this place was booming. And some of the stuff that's been going on in the last 10 years I agree with. Some things I don't. I'm not a yes or no sir person. I don't sugarcoat. I say what's on my mind. Some people like it. Some people don't. I want to see businesses come in here because I'd like to see this town booming like it did before and this is the place to start.

Thank you. I appreciate it. We have a Brandon Alman. [clears throat] My name is Brandon Alman. Um, little [clears throat] background on myself here. I work at Menard's Distribution Center in Holiday City. I am a fleet mechanic supervisor. I've been there for 18 years. For 15 of those years, I've been a supervisor. Um, I am also a youth pastor at Restoration Felic Church. I've been doing that for six years. Um, guess what I bring to the table here is uh caring about the community. Uh my wife and I moved here three years ago, so I'm I'm still new here. Um but that that's just it. We fell in love with the community and decided to move our kids here. You guys have a great school. I will brag about mixville school all day long. Um yeah, what I bring to the table is I'm I'm that outsider, I guess.

[snorts]

That's all I got. Well, thanks for moving here and thanks for uh all of you for putting your name in uh this position. Uh anybody got any questions for Brandon? Um, like I said, we're going to we every one of the council people plus the two new ones, Brian Zike and Mike Balena, uh, we sent your applications and your letters of interest to them. So, um, starting the first meeting in January, we're going to pick um have an open vote or a motion to nominate uh, that person to fill that seat. So, we'll have it open in public and everything so everybody gets to see how that that happens. So the plan is I appreciate they all have your phone number. So if they ever want to get in contact with you or have any questions, feel free to reach out to them um for these next what couple weeks here before that decision gets made that first meeting in January. So but again I think five five candidates for this seat uh that's nice to see. I appreciate everybody's interest in the community, how it runs and being invested in the community. You know we're a small town and uh we're here to care of ourselves, you know, at that sense and making the town better. So, with that, I thank you for your time and I wish you all merry Christmas. So, we'll move along with the meeting.

Thank you all. Yep. You have the um minutes from our last meeting in the packet. Any questions? Make a motion to approve as written. Second roll call. Yes. Yes.

Uh you have a approval of the bills list in your packet. I'll make a mot to approve

the uh charge for choice one engineering for the downtown concept. Was that just for the presentation they did for us? the three designs that they did.

The other question I had was there was something on here. [clears throat] I'll second Anybody guess it kind of is part of it. This one here was paid out and it was actually more than what he anticipated because he thought it was the same price. They charge same price for material but the labor was more $3700 more than he thought it was going to be. And then this one here was partially paid out because it was basics budget but they started up in 2025 so a portion of that

yes yes

yes We didn't have any boards or commissions meet uh council committee reports. You had a finance committee um minutes in your packet tonight. [snorts] Sure. You have an answer to that question about payroll. Can anybody explain why this happened?

One thing for sure is because when we did the budget 24, we did not budget for all the new employees. And you know how many firemen we hired and how many cheeseburgers we hired and every one of them cost money to hire. They'll have to have to have background checks and they weren't at all I can understand the 50 but I can't understand the 36. I was more thinking the police department they did what they did. if we can't cover their payroll.

I will say I spoke with Mark different times on it and at our meeting I read the email where they had turned bills in on November 25th because Cheryl had asked them to turn in by December 1st so that been paid out of this year. Uh and when I talked to Cheryl, she was going to talk with Jen and Mark and they were going to try to buy some of the items that with leftover money this year and have that taken out of next year's budget. So that's why they had the big chunk of money spent by the sounds of it at the end of this year. And also the $3,700 more than what not expected because we were under the impression it was going to be the same cost.

I can live with that. But if we can't meet their pay insurance wouldn't cover any of that flood insurance. We don't have flood insurance. Can I address this? Yeah. Can I come up?

Uh, so Mark could not be here tonight, but he wanted me to address council regarding the finance committee meetings included in your packet tonight. And there are several things that he wanted you to know. First of all, the finance committee or attendees have not brought any of the mentioned budget items to our attention, nor have they discussed them with us. To address some of the issues in the minutes, the police department was told to have all bills in by November 26 or they would not be paid out of our 2025 budget. We were told we would there would only be one December council meeting. And even though all of our bills were turned in, they did not make it all into the paid bills list for the December 1st meeting. They were split between December 1st and this meeting. Regarding spending so much in November, we either had to wait or we chose to wait until the end of the year to make numerous purchases. For instance, we were told to hold off on fixing our lobby and flooring until November. We hoped to hire a new officer to fill our open position, but that did not happen. So, we chose to spend the money on our current officers. Regarding the budget, we have had our budget proposals turned in by September. Since that time, several things have come up and we have chosen to spend our money differently. Mark chose how to spend our 2025 budget. We have not overspent. On the contrary, every month we get our appropriations and look at how much money is left in our seven main categories. We have not overspent in wages. As of the end of October, we had $158,000 left in the line for wages. We spent approximately 40,000 per month. That leaves 78,000 left at the end of December in wages. We have not overspent in those areas. The budget proposals we turn in do not list everything that we spend our money on. It lists anywhere

from two to eight main items per category. However, by no means does it list everything. We purchase things that were not listed and we move purchases to the next year. Mark as the department head manages our funds and he allocates what we spend in our budget. Yes, we purchased some things this year, but we re reprioritize items into next year's budget. The village offices did not go through our 2025 budget to see what items we have not yet purchased. They have not talked to us about spending or our budget and just reducing our budget amount for 2026 without talking to us is unjust. They are unaware of new items and issues that have come up that we need to purchase. One of those items is a new server. We just found out that our three-year-old server is already at the end of its life and they no longer make parts for it. Our routers are not intelligent and they will need to be updated and there's numerous other issues that have been brought to our attention. We also have an opportunity to send a new student to the academy and he would in turn work for several years. That's something that Mark would like to propose. These are just a few of the things that have come up after our budget was turned in in [clears throat] September that Mark is considering. These things happen every year and we do our best to work within our budget with what we are allocated. But again, just taking money away from our 2026 budget because we purchased something this year without talking to us makes no sense.

You said finance committee has not met with you guys regarding purchases made this year about the changes. I mean, if it was in your budget, we don't Yeah. We don't meet with any department to go over line item. If you have money in your budget for items and your department head seems that it's necessary to purchase it, we don't do not micromanage and look at every purchase that you guys make, whether it's a Glock or a dog cage. If it's in your budget, it's in your budget. We So, that's why we didn't meet with you because we don't we don't do that. That's how we feel it should be. Yeah. But yeah, according to the minutes, because we purchased something this year, now you're going to take money out of next year's budget.

There was items that were listed like uh expenses. Let's just say it's a car, it's a dog cage, it's guns, it's tasers, and they were in next year's budget. But we said, well, if we have the money this year, let's spend buy those items this year because money is there and then subtract that money because then you don't need to make the purchase in 26 for those items because they were already purchased in 25. But there are things that were not purchased in 25 that Mark rep prioritized for 26. Never. Nobody's ever told us any of that.

We weren't given the opportunity. We didn't know. I mean, that's not exactly true. I had asked him at one of the meetings if he was okay with his budget. He said he would have to get with you and he'd get back to us. Two weeks later at 4:00 before our six o'clock council meeting is when I got an email and we were to vote and approve it that night. Like I can't you can't but the third reading he just got back from Canada because he called me before the meeting too that night. Yes. We talked about that. But we can't find out about that at 4:00 before 6 o'clock meeting where we're voting on it. And if I remember right, the budget numbers she had for 2026 were higher

than what he had even asked for in the first place. If you take all of your line items and add them together by 13,000. I don't remember off the top of my head. We were still short. No. Okay, hold on. It all it all depends on how they were taken out because when I questioned Cheryl about it, uh because you guys needed $20,000 for EK Technology. She only had 15,000 in there. Correct. And she said, "It's because they were trying to take it out of a different line item. When I pay that next year, I'm going to take it out of this one." And she bought that one all the way up to $50,000 and you guys only asked for $35,000. She was move she was going to pay it out of a different uh line item.

Yes. But when you added up all of those, like some the first seven categories that we don't have control over, the wages, the pension, the insurance, like a lot of those numbers got increased. So, a lot of the money that was increased in the budget was put into those categories, not the categories that we can spend out of. We don't touch any of those budgets. I know I emailed her specifically with Ken and every item on that whole list about how Mark asked for 30,000 for this one, 50 or wasn't 50. She bought that one up to 50. 15 for this one, 20 for this whatever it was. 10,000 for the She only had $10,000 in, let's say, for Lakers. It ended up being originally, but then end up being like close to 14,000,

right? But in the like the six c four to six categories that we spent on it, we were 12,653 short of what we'd asked for. Was some of that money already planned on being spent this year? No, it was because wages, pension, Medicare, and insurance benefits all went up, but I higher. Those are our priorities. And everything else is I mean, if it's not necessary, everybody's budget, you guys bring it to us. We kind of take out the fluff. We do that with everybody's not just yours. But we never talked about it in the finance meeting or in the budget meeting. Like we went over the the K9 at length

and we never agreement, but we didn't even hit any of the other budget items in that meeting, but yet they're they were all reduced.

I mean, I guess the numbers coming in higher. I guess I don't know. again the and I know we had [clears throat] talked about the fact that you guys approved the budget and that we could make appropriate changes to the appropriations after the fact that we couldn't make any changes to it until after that fact. So it was approved and we were told so we got lower in our active categories that we can spend out of and then we find out in the finance meeting that that you're trying to lower even more. Those eight items that are on there, all the other ones, if they're higher than like you said, you had 70 60 some thousand dollars in wages, they're all in your same budget, Cheryl can move that from one line to another to offset. Correct, Cheryl?

As long as it's in the same department, you go from line to line without having any kind of special uh approval by council, right? Because we talked about that at our finance brought that up finance meetings. So, I guess we're back to do they have money to make their payable after spending this six grand. They do. Okay. Well, you're the one that brought it up that was going to be Yeah. The two big ones that we were doing was the extra officer lieutenant investigator and the K9. We were the ones that we drastically either removed or cut and that wasn't our Well, you guys have you had donations. Yeah. That we were thinking. Yeah. But if we can,

like I said, line to line and I had a meeting with Mark and and Jennifer this morning and I said we need to have better lines of communication, especially if these things get want to get moved or changed. That way Cheryl can have direct communication with Jennifer. U she's keeping track of your line items and your budgets closer than our past um office managers out there. So, I think that's key as we go through the year because things pop there's popups, you know, unexpected things. It'd be nice for them if they had like an actual IPO where they know how much money they have.

We're moving to that. We're going to have a meeting. We're going to move to that. But from the meeting, the finance meeting notes, we felt that that was not an accurate representation of what we were doing because we were not overspending. Like I I mean, I can show you what I what we worked on. We actively At the end of October, at the end of every month, we're looking at our appropriations to make sure what we have left in the budget that you guys approved for us and how we spend it. We're not overspending. I know you guys were overspending that they were It looks like this that you guys spent a lot of money at the end of the year. And at that meeting, I said, "I was on parkboard for nine years, and you know what the parkour board did at the end of the year? You'll spend the money.

You use it or lose it. Use it or lose it." So they would stock up on pool supplies, chemicals, things that don't go bad, you know, whether it's dirt or turf. Officers are extremely happy to know that they have more than two pair of pants to wear. Yeah. But I talked to Mark today on the phone for 15 minutes or so. And I guess when you read it, you can read it one way. And the way I told we had a lot more discussion than what was on paper. So any other questions? Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you.

Thanks, uh administrator report was not able to be here tonight. Um but you could have put a thing down. Um you got an email out to explaining a couple things. So if you have any questions, give her a call. He's back in the office tomorrow. And then Abra is not able to be here today. Also, as you can tell, she But she's not.

No, she's not there. So, I just got a text about 15 minutes ago. So, we're at solicitor's report. Cheryl, you want to handle that one? Ordinance 2025-20.

I'll make motion to suspend the rules. Second roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Second final reading ordinance 2025-20 ordinance to amend ordinance. Second roll. Yes. Yes. Is that to change the number we were just talking about? No, it just happened to be the same amount. Okay. Yes.

All right. Thanks, Cheryl. Um, Chief's not here. Bruce. [clears throat] two things. Uh first of all, I read in your finance in the finance committee report, uh there was a question about a grant. The grant's there. Grant's there. I was just told that we weren't going to pay for it. We're going to pay for what? A medic. Who said that? We were asking a long time ago. We asked about the what $7,000 grant or something.

So, there was a there was a 50 $5,500 grant that we got at the in July um that we had to that we were going to appropriate some of that for paramedic uh students. However, everybody has Everybody that's taking the paramedic class is paying for it on their own except for except for Abby and she's doing the art of paramedic which is why it's only $3,800. Okay. Um the grant that we got will cover that class. I guess the big question was why is everyone else paid out of pocket but she's not? Well, why why don't they use some of that money towards like uh was it a Wilhelm kid Isaac? Because he was taking class too and that money could be spent towards his class, but he was going to get a loan or pay out.

We were going we were we were going to do that. We were going to do that, but during uh but during our the finance meeting, uh it was pretty much stated that we weren't going to pay for any of the paramedic classes. Um because they were like $12,000. And I said, "Well, we can always use the, you know, 3,800 of it to pay for to pay for uh atties because it was so much cheaper. If I had a grant to to pay for all their classes, I would have I think the question was you had Felix and Isaac were the two that were taking the class and was $5,500, you know, so 2750,

right, towards each of theirs because they're running for us every day, right? versus somebody that has taken a different job and has not been here since June. And why pay for somebody that hasn't been here to go on runs for six months versus people that are here every day? I think the big question which they're paying out of pocket

which [clears throat] why would that grant money go towards I guess people that are dedicated right now helping us out that are going to stick around hopefully. Well, I mean, we can look at it we can look at it like that. Um, or we can look at it as, okay, we we we're dealing with somebody that gave us seven years and is still on the department and wants to become a medic and once they achieve that, they will be more than be more than willing to run more. Right now, she's transitioning. uh she switched from Park Regional to uh Park Brian u in the ER and she's going to be transitioning to Knights. So, um there is a little bit of a transition period there. So, um you know, and I talked to her more than happy to have her sign a two-year contract with us for that. [clears throat]

Have you had anyone sign contracts up to this point? Because I know that that's been something we've discussed. Yes. Have you seen those Cheryl seen some we talked about with that training if they choose to pay for it themselves that's on they don't have to they can go they can go anywhere right if we're helping them pay through the grant and or taxpayers paying into it then they'd have to do a contract.

So here's a question this is just something that kind of came up in my head while this was all being discussed. The individuals that are out of pocket. Is there a way that we can like create a program that if they start doing a lot of runs for us, they can get reimbursed over time? That's uh that would be that would be a uh finance and a Cheryl question. I mean, I personally I personally I would not have a problem with that.

Cheryl's already after me about my question. So, I guess one of the big things is they sign these contracts and then if they don't go on any runs, [snorts] like what's the what's the penalty? I I've never seen the contract, but if they're paying out of pocket and then they come in and they start running an average of 5 to 10 hours a week for a whole year, I think they're entitled to get some sort of reimbursement for the training that they is that is it that is something that that is something that the council, finance committee, uh PF All the above is going to have to have to say, "Yeah, that that sounds like a great idea. I can't for them to run."

How many how many part-time or full-time employees this year alone have we approved at a council meeting that have never went on a run? Well, exactly. That's what I'm trying to say is the ones that go on the run should be somehow. The ones that aren't. Their budget we just approved for stuff to be rearranged to pay their budget. So, where would you like that money to come from would be my argument? Like, we're in the process. We're going to be renegotiating [clears throat] contracts in June with the townships. We're um getting more money back per account. Yes. We're getting a lot more.

So, I think that there's potential. We're talking about other ways that we can generate money for fire. So, I think that there's potential there, but like just at the numbers we look at now, that would be my only that would be my that would that would be my only and I that's a great that's a great idea. I would love to do that. Um it's like I you know that that's just another feather [clears throat] in the cap of bringing people here. I just got another email today from another paramedic that wants to come here and work.

Okay, here's my opinion. Isaac and and uh Felix, they took it upon themselves. They volunteered to pay for it themselves. You as the chief have decided this is what you're going to do with $3,800. I think just take care of yourself over there. Don't come here. Do what you want to do.

What do you do with the rest of the grand? [cough] So we bought uh one of the things that uh we were able to uh get reimbursement for is called easy IO needles. It's like when I have to drill you in the leg to give you a medication, we can get reimbured for that because those are $150 a piece. So you had already found grants for the paramedic classes, right? Because No. So

I thought that they were not going to be as expensive. So, we were trying to get we that that grant that I just got for that basic class. Um, they would not cover the paramedics. So, yeah, I was I was I was doing whatever I could to to try to get that covered. Yeah, I think most of the dialogue we had at the meeting was really what happened to the grant because we never heard where it went and then that that bill came across where Okay. So, it can be used for this,

right? Um, last but not least, any executive session tonight. Personnel, I'm already done. You can't fire me. We'll give it all to consideration. Yeah. Don't let Don't let Bailey uh [laughter] Any other questions?

Yeah. All right. Thank you, Bruce. Um, fiscal officer report and the November utility income tax collections, the November mayor. I have an email from state fire marshal. It's [snorts] time for the annual certific. [laughter] [clears throat] I have a division control in place of two bandits for not done. Thank you. Question for the insurance committee. Can you make sure that you committee updates on what you found?

Very good. says you have to do a report. This is the last report of the year for me.

So, um, National Re across America recently, uh, this last Saturday puts on, um, the graves of veterans at our local cemeteries. This is a national thing that they do uh every year. They ask for donations and then volunteers to put the wreath. So, it's a nice uh time of remembrance during the holiday seasons that they go out during this cold weather and place Ree on um our families, friends, loved ones, and those who have served. Um but I want to thank all the people that donated, volunteered, and helped with this special meaningful day. It's nice in Virginia. This is our second year, I believe, or third year they've done this. About 180 degrees.

Yeah. every year is growing. Um, and they want to keep it growing and spread out. So, um, like I said, the volunteers and everybody that does that, that's pretty cool. So, um, I know I mentioned this during the, um, Christmas dinner we had, but, uh, employees years of service this year. Uh, Alan Skoolie had 20 years of in the street department. Tim had 20 years in the fire EMS department. Chris Taylor had five years in the police department. And Hannah Kirkman had years in the fire department. So, every year we recognize those milestones of years of service for our employees. So, we thank you for all the time and energy you spend on in those departments. Um, something else that's coming up for this next year. Uh, Defiance Health Department is working with Ohio Northern University Healthwise program and providing a mobile clinic to area residents. Um, they're planning on bringing it to Hicksville twice during the summer months. Um, I believe everything is free. They do a lot of different types of screenings, um, cholesterol, blood, different things like that. Um, and get you more updated on the services and the dates that they will have that mobile clinic in town. Um, especially with the current health situation we have in Hicksville. I think that's a nice gesture for both those agencies to bring that mobile unit to Hicksville. So, I think they're planning on we're doing the Hicksville summer festival again, Heritage Festival. So they were thinking about bringing it that weekend [snorts] and another time. So I want to thank them for that. Um and at this time that's all I had really questions for me but we have a couple awards I want to present before we end the meeting tonight. Our last meeting of 2025. So I will start with that.

[clears throat]

Robert Bailey, I want to thank you for serving on council. You should stand up. Come on, buddy. Almost two years, Rob has been a part of our council. You took my seat as when I became mayor. Um, but uh got a nice little plaque for you. Two years of service. Thank you for your time, your interest in the Hicksville, and we're glad you're part of it. Thank you. [applause]

Who's the other one? Mr. Martin. Four year term. One term, huh? Four and a half years. Four and a half years. Four and a half. Yeah. You took a seat, too. That's right. Yeah. We've had a lot of changes and different things over the years, but uh spelled my name. I did. [applause] And last but not least, right, Mr. Beverly, I think part of the come over there swinging. 24 years. Yeah. Right. My gosh. That is a lot of time. You've seen a lot of changes. You've did a lot of things.

Yeah. I can't heartfelt congratulations on the number of years you've spent on council. That's a long time. I think one of probably the longest term ever by any council person in the village by far according to the board of elections.

Yes. Uh it's amazing what you've done. We appreciate your time, your energy, and the council. I know you've been to a lot of meetings, talked to a lot of people over the years, and we thank you for all that you've done for the community. I know it's it's all about the community. When we sit in all these seats, we all work to do what's best for the community and work hard to uh accomplish that. Um, sometimes I might not see that from the outside, but I've said everybody that sits at these tables, our staff, our employees, our council, we're all here to try to make the community better as a as a whole. And we might not agree on some things at times, but at the end of the day, um, that is our goal is to make the community stronger each and every day. Ron, thank you for your 24 years. God bless you. [applause] Let me show you. I want to show you the neat. We got him a beautiful plaque that had 24 years.

I want to save the best for last, right? Title is a new.

You didn't make the other guys work. Wow. [snorts] Congratulations to your retirement only retirement presented to me Ron Beverly Senior in sincere appreciation of your dedicated year of service with the village of Hicksville. We hope that you enjoy your welldeserved retirement January 02 to December 25th. [applause] Thank you. Huh? She said it's because we love you. [laughter]

This is a special. I didn't know it was something I wasn't supposed to. It's one of those things that your face get Wear it with pride. [laughter] RB has left the building. [laughter] Hey Ron, now you can start going again. [laughter] Streak yellow.

Thank you very much. I appreciate [applause] I guess there's something else. There you go. I'm sorry.

I got fixer. The calming scent of retirement. [laughter] Gay. It's hair remover. [laughter] Michael Landon, right? Yeah. Michael Lander.

There's something else in this. salt shaker for my heart condition. The perfect match cigars with cigars around my wife.

Okay. Thank you so much. I should have quit years ago. And so the adventure begins. Yeah. $100 bill stuck in there. Thank you. [laughter] I'm losing hair. Thank you again. Thank you for all your time and dedication. So

retirement this way. Wake up smiling. Go for a walk. Read a book. Travel the world. Make memories. Take naps. Visit family and friends. Be grateful for the day. All signs point to a happy retirement. Congratulations. And it's signed by all you folks that tolerated my outbursts and and good thoughts for all these years. He laughed at the good thought. [laughter] He didn't laugh at the outburst. Those were behind closed doors. Nobody else [laughter] meetings in the garage and everything else.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I thank you all so much.

And all you new folks coming on, it uh some days you're going to think, man, I don't want to do all these meetings. I don't want to have time for this. Take the time, take the abuse. People will give you out on the streets because you're a member and tell they tell you how how you should have do done things and and uh just smile. Tell them, "Yeah, well, we'll see what we can do." And because it's not as it's not as fancy and charming a title as what some would think. I'm sure you you know the ladies really go for you because you're on counsel, [laughter] but I hope you uh hope you all continue to press forward uh to get things accomplished here in town. Um I was talking with Corey today. Uh I hope uh when that hostel comes up for auction which is going to uh I hope somebody goes to the auction um years and years ago when Eric first came on so eight years ago or whatever nine years ago nine years ago uh we tried so hard to uh and Eric got a bunch of figures together for building a new municipal complex because we've got so many different buildings all scattered through And uh the main thing that everybody complained about at this table was where you going to put it? There's no place in this town to put it. Well, there's eight, nine, eight or nine acres down there that they're going to sell at auction. We need to have somebody there. Whether we buy the building or whatever, buy the ground, let it set. Look forward. Don't just work on what's going on right now. Look forward. Make a plan. I've talked enough. Thank you.

Thank you, RON. [applause]

And with that, we'll close the meeting tonight. We appreciate you everybody being here, the candidates, um people that serve uncomfortable. I know. I know. I'm just going to wish everybody a merry Christmas. uh have joyful during this time of giving and uh recognition upon this Christmas season and be safe out there and thank you for all you've done. So, thanks for coming tonight. We appreciate it. I want to leave everybody with this. I'd like to make a motion for executive session. [laughter]

No, I'll second it. Cheryl Brian say

how you doing? Just lovely. I don't know. February. Hey, how you doing? February. Enjoying every minute of it. Now the coming app. Thank you. Stay on the franch.