City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the December 15th city council meeting. Um, good to see everybody tonight. We're going to start off with our prayer. Uh, Pastor Hearns, can you help us out?

I see you hiding back there. Let us pray. Blessed and eternal God, we bow once again before your presence, giving you thanks for this opportunity to exercise governance over this portion of your vineyard. Lord, we ask that you guide our council and every decision that they make. That everything that is said and done on this evening will be with your sanction. We ask Lord that you grant each and every one of them your personal protection and keep them from hurt, harm, and danger. And we ask that you lead them and guide them so that they will be able to exercise the duties of their office for the betterment of this entire community. This is our prayer in Jesus name. Let us all say amen.

Amen. Thank you. Continue to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Madam clerk, roll call. Mayor Nolan, present. Mayor Pro Tim Chisum, present. Councilwoman Rutled, present. Councilman Bishop, present. Councilwoman Scott, present. Councilwoman Howard, here. Councilwoman Richardson, here. Mayor, you have a quorum. Great. Great. All right. Everybody had a chance to look at the agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? Some move so far

and probably moved and supported. Any discussion? All those in favor the to retain the um add item F. Oh yeah. Yeah. We should put that. We got to add the item F. What we did in close session. Oh, retain. Yeah. Okay, let's add that item F. Now, do we have a motion to approve the agenda? So, move support. And probably move to support it. Any discussion? All those favor say I. I. Oppos say nay. It passes. We have no presentations tonight. Anybody want to sing and dance? Anybody want to volunteer?

Okay. No public hearings, no consent agenda. Some move support been properly moved and supported. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppos say nay. Passes. Boards and commission. I'd like to reappoint Tim Williams to the aging commission. Okay. To what now? The commission on aging. Second. Okay. It's been proply moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppos say nay. Passes. That's all I have. Any other nominations?

Okay. No. F no ordinance first or second readings. We're on to new business. Consider authorizing the administration to pay the required posts site fee in the amount of $14,175 to participate in the Michigan Healthy Climate MHC fellow program. This fee is necessary to secure fellow who will begin service with the city in January and support ongoing sustainability infraure infrastructure and workforce development initiatives. Some move. Second. Properly moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Oppos say nay. Passes.

Consider authorizing the director of DPS as a representative of the city to make an application to the Wayne County Department of Public Services for necessary annual permit to occupy the right of way of Wayne County roads on behalf of the city of Ingster. to make an application to the Wayne County Department of Public Services for necessary annual permit to allow temporary closure of certain local and county roads for specified period in ordinance in accordance with all general and special conditions of this permit on behalf of the city of Ingster to make an application to the Wayne County Department of Public Services for necessary annual permit to occupy the rightway of county roads on behalf of the city of Inster. consider adopting the attached resolution to be submitted to Wayne County as part of requirements to submit the permit applications.

So move properly moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. Passes. Consider authorization authorizing the department of DPS as a representative of the city to make an application to the Michigan Department of Transportations for the necessary annual permit to work within the state trunk line right away on behalf of the city of Ingster. Also consider consider adopting the attached resolution to be submitted to MDOT as part of the requirement to submit the permit application. So move second.

Been properly moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. It passes. Consider authorizing the administration to enter into an agreement with a qualified architect engineer to provide professional design and construction administration services for the development of a of a new city animal shelter. So moved. Second. Been properly moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Oppose say nay. It passes. Consider the recommendation to award the general contract to Coran Construction LLC in the amount of 933 mill,76 for the renovation of the former city library into the new cultural center for the city of Ingster. So move second. Been properly moved and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppose say nay. It passes. Consider approval to have attorney Todd Perkins to retain Dr. Dragovich. So move forward. We probably move and support it. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. Oppose say nay. That passes. All right. Before we move on to public participation, I want to introduce you to someone you already know. I want our new commander Sean Smith on to please stand up. Say hi to everybody. HE'LL be working 24 hours a day. Uh also an Insta resident, so there's a plus there, too. But we welcome him back. He obviously worked for us, retired, and now he's coming back in a leadership position. All right. All right. So, now we have public participation. James Richardson.

Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Good evening to the mayor and council. Good evening. I come to address the trash pickup, but I talked to Bivvens about it. He didn't want me to dress it, but I feel I have to dress. Are you fine? Well, I feel I have to dress it anyway. Well, the trash they doing major construction on north of Michigan Avenue between Middle Belt and Inksa Road. And most streets are real major. And my my street is major. Isabelle and trash hasn't been picked up since Thanksgiving Day.

So, this is the third week. And I asked Bivon about it. He said the contractors going to take care, but there's a overflow of trash and where can we put a overflow? That's what I'm need to address. Can you hear all that? Yeah, I know. I'll meet with Paul in the morning. Okay. So, we need to come up with a solution. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Nathan Newsome.

Good afternoon, madam councilman associate. Good afternoon. I got a I got a big problem with deals. I I want you to record this. What I'm saying got with the state. The deals and took over my yard and using the bathroom at all my hedges. I put flowers down. They come out and eat them. Every night, every morning, summer or winter, they got cracks all over my yard now. I'm sick of it. Something got to happen. So, I want you to record it. So, when when when he actually call here Mhm. or the governor, let them know I'm complaining. Okay. And I know a lot of other people in here too got problem. The deal lower Ru Park cuz all the deals just right down through there. But we have a lot of deer.

The deals are digest horses. My next door neighbor I told you about in her backyard. She went there, didn't know it back there. He chased her back in the house. She fell down and skin her arm. I told you about about two months ago. Wow. And I had she called me over to running monitor. So I want y'all to know about it. It's too much. Yeah, it's a lot. Unfortunately, DNR will not let us do anything to the deal. Well, we cannot. Well, I got something to do to him. Not until February 1st. I didn't hear anything. I didn't hear nothing. I do like Venice though. Gabe Henderson.

Hello family. How y'all folks doing today? Okay. Okay. I want to speak on the good good good fellas or first of all I want to you know I won't forget this though you know Mr. uh Willie Willie Johnson passed away right no Mr. Johnson Councilman Johnson you know Mr. Johnson. Yeah. 100 years old. Okay. I just want to say that he was 100. He was 100. Oh, wow. Yeah. He passed away. Yes. Real.

Well, yeah. I got You want to see him? He look like Roy Rogers on on this phone. Yeah. I'll show it to y'all. Want to see anyway. Well, anyway, same kind of unifor. I want I just want to, you know, thank everybody who helped the uh Insta Good Fellow organization and uh we still trying to raise money right now. I think we going to be able to, you know, give gift certificates to about 400 kids um and hoping toys or tootss come in, you know, and supply us with the toys. And uh like I say, of course, you know, our president, you know, uh Barbara Cooper, you know, she's been really, you know, trying to get things straight now for her husband with a with a Cooper, right? With that, uh uh like I say, uh and uh and M Mr. Mr. Perkins,

yeah, you know, I got a chance, you know, here hear Mr. Perkins, you know, uh this Sunday, you know, wonderful guy had I give you a shout out on that one. Yeah. Okay. And thank you for your your cont and thank for all y'all for your contributions, you know, helping us along. And it's not too late. If you got any few more dollars you want to give us, you know, to help us along and we can increase the, you know, the value of this gift certificate. Right now, we looking at about around 20 $25 a piece, you know, for the kids. Yeah. So, and uh and uh Mr. I want to thank you for, you know, all the goodies that you gave me that I we're going to give to the good fellas some of the things that was left over from Friday night, right?

Yeah. Thank you for that. And uh I know was something else. Yeah, I think that that's probably about Oh, yes. Okay. And I want to say about the good fellas, we need some we need some help. Well, 20ome years ago, 23 25 23 years ago, it was a guy he went up. We had a city council meeting over at the rec complex. He got up and he started crying.

That was Book Doer. That's when I joined. I'm not saying he had an onion, you know, that brought them tears and all that, but he went to tears. Do I have to cry? I We need We need some help. We do really need some help. some younger folks, you know, to help us even on the paper sales, you know, and just overall overall, you know, and uh yeah, we need some help and thanks for allowing me to say something with the good fellas and uh that's about all I have to say. I have a question. Okay, thank you Mr. Anderson. Yes, sir. Um does the good fella still have any electronic options for contributions set up? I know in the past that barber she can probably five. Yeah,

I know in the past we did cash app but I didn't know if there's anything else. Yeah. See, I'm I'm I'm a way I'm old old school. I don't know nothing about stuff like that. Right. And I you know I you know I I I did talk I I I gave m Mr. uh Mayor a gift. You know you know he got he got he got a he got a game out called Byron. Yeah. I found it. I say you said it's it's a town, right? City. What what state? It's a small town called Byron Center. Byron Center and they did kind of what we did when we did the Instster Monopoly. They did Byron Monopoly. Yeah. You know, look at here.

Mr. Hson found an actual game never been used. Rap still wrapped in the plast wrapped it up and gave it to me for Christmas. Anyway, okay. I love y'all. You know, every I wish everybody a happy new year, you know, and uh you know, you know, I mean, a merry Christmas and happy new year. Happy New Year. And uh you know, uh that's all I have to say. Love you. Thank you. Okay. Octavia Smith. Yeah. Bring this in. Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council um residents. Um just to come up and give you guys a reminder that tomorrow um December the 16th is the trusted connector program and this program is going to be able to strengthen businesses visibility and growth strategically. Um this is not for new startup business but people who have already started a business. So if you only have if you have a LLC, a small business or something like that, we're helping those business who have already started to reach their goals. And one of the goals that you will receive is you will connect with trusted businesses, business experts, and local resource partners. Um you'll learn how peer growth and learning circles can accelerate your success. Um, you will have access to funding opportunities, grants, and chamber memberships. You will gain practical tools to strengthen and scale your business. Build meaningful connections that drive opportunity insters community. Again, this is tomorrow, Ingster Recreation Center, 6 5 to 7:00 p.m. And we've shared the flyer on social media everywhere. So if you have a small business that's already developed, we are just asking you to come and see all the wonderful resources we have available for you. So thank you for your time. Happy holidays everyone.

Thank you everybody. Yeah, we lost two Willies this week. Uh like Mr. Henderson said, Mr. Willie Johnson who used to be sit on city council years ago and he regularly came to our meetings for years and years and years. Got to keep you in check. Yeah. Yeah. He kept us in line as a question. And we also lost Reverend Willie Cooper last week. So, uh, we want to have a moment of silence for for both, uh, our Willies. Cooper.

Okay. City Cler, I'm just continuing to process the business license. They are coming in um, daily. So, which is a good thing because I'm renewing for the 2026 business licenses. So, that's all. Okay. Mr. Treasures.

Uh good evening, council mayor. Um just wanted to remind everyone um the winter tax bills have gone out. Um we are um taking payments on those. The deadline is uh February 15th, but we can take payments up until uh the end of end of the end of February. Um in March, they become um delinquent, but uh all the tax bills have gone out. people can pay at city hall and online or or mail it in or use the dropbox here at city hall. Um, additionally, we are um and I don't know if the mayor's going to make an announcement, the uh cashier's office will be closing along with city hall uh beginning on Friday. Friday is our last day. Um so if anyone wants to make payments in person, uh that needs to get be done um on Friday by the middle of the day because we have the employee Christmas party as well on that day. Um otherwise we won't be taking any in-person payments until the new year January 5th. Um the last thing is want to give council an update on the um uh water bills. We have sent out uh payments for the month of September. Um which means we are behind with October and November the payments that we would normally be working on. We are working on doing a double bill uh for the months of October and November. will be combining those. Uh we expect to get those out by um hopefully by sometime before Christmas, but they should certainly be out um by the end of the year um this month, if not before Christmas. Um and the deadline for that will not be until January. So, we just encourage everyone to pay any outstanding bills. We're holding off on late fees. Again, this is all due to the um uh new meters and the new billing system and and some of the um transitions between the old billing system and the new billing system. So, um any questions, feel free to come up

to city hall or you can call the city's uh water department. Okay. I was just going to say someone had reached out a resident reached out to me, a couple of residents have, they were just asking how to read the meters. One gentleman, I was able to get him the information, but another resident reached out and asked if maybe we could have a presentation at a council meeting. Okay. For representative to show that for everybody to be able to uh tune into just cuz the newer modern stuff is a little confusing for everybody. Great point. We we'll work on that uh beginning of the year. Okay.

Everybody got the same question. So yeah, we can do that maybe at the next meeting. Just explain how to read because it's different from the old meters. So Okay. Councilwoman Richardson. Yes. First, huh? You first.

I just want to emphasize again, I do have flyers again for the Red Cross that offers free smoke alarms. Um, you keep hearing on the news, people are having fires, children and people are dying. Please, these are free. They will install them free. All you have to do is call and they they cover every level of your house, top, medium, basement, and they will install them. So, please, if you don't have an updated alarm, please call the number, and I did put flyers there, and there are flyers in front of the city, the clerk's office. Also, uh the arrangements for um Willie J. Cooper um are as follows. Uh she will have a viewing on January 2nd at Pentecostal Temple Church uh at 300043 Parkwood and the viewing will be from 1 to 7:00 p.m. The funeral will be on the 3rd, next day, family hour at 10:00, homegoing service at 11:00, also at Pentecostal Temple. Um, let's keep her in prayer. Uh, you can also go on the site of husband's funeral home to get the information if you weren't able to get this. Want to wish everyone a very happy new year and a very merry blessed Christmas. Be safe. That's all I have. Councilwoman Howard,

I just wanted to say um hope everyone have a safe holiday. Um it's a lot of people who are in need um it's kind of sad, but hopefully we can all get together and you know make and just enjoy the holiday. Um and just have a safe one. That's all I have to say.

Oh, thank you, Councilwoman Scott. Um, okay. Well, one, thank you for everyone who reached out regarding um my baby's birth. I appreciate if I haven't gotten back to you, I promise I will. It's just adjusting to the no sleep. So, I will text you or call you back. I promise. Um, and have a happy holiday as well. Councilman Bishop, just uh everybody have a happy and safe and blessed holiday. See you guys in the new year. Councilwoman Red.

Um, the homes for Annapolis Point have been delivered. I encourage everybody to go over there and take a look. It was amazing. Um, but they were delivered last Thursday and um, you should really go check it out. It's off of Bridgeport and Irene. And then I'd like to wish everybody happy holidays. Um, be safe out there and stay warm. April 10th. Happy holidays, everybody. We've had a lot of great events uh over the last week or so. If you missed the community Christmas party last Friday, it was fun. We had a good time. Thank Chuck Sad for hosting us next door in his warehouse. Lots of kids. Lots of toys. I don't know how Chief came up with all those toys. Looked like Toys R Us in there.

Wow. The kids got a huge bag and they were like, "Fill your bag up with toys." That's how many toys it was. That's nice. So, it was a great event and we had an event at Bliss yesterday. Uh, Commander Smith on myself stopped by. Um, again, another toy giveaway. I think the Omega Sci-Fi fraternity and the owners of Bliss and then Paige, I think, put it on. Uh, great event. Kids were having a ball. Um, so it's a great time of year. It's good to see uh, kids having fun and families having fun. So, everybody be safe and stay warm. It is cold, cold, cold out there. And we'll see you guys in 2026. Have a good night. You got to make you got to make a motion.

Move the second discussion. All those in favor? I didn't even pay attention. Hey, we didn't do something. window up. We did it.