Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

City Commission meeting held on Thursday, May 21st at 6 p.m. at the Municipal and Safety Building in Johnson City. I'd like to call the meeting to order. For the first item, I'd like to welcome Jim Hazelsteiner with St. Mary's Church for the invocation and the pledge. If everybody would stand.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, we give thanks to you and praise for your mighty work.

for our city, for our elected officials, the businesses, the churches, the families, and the individuals that make this city a great place to live. We pray for this city commission meeting. Give our commissioners the wisdom and guidance as they deliberate on the items before them this evening. May every decision be righteous in your sight for our benefit and your glory. Amen.

I pledge allegiance 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.

Mayor, the first order of business is to consider the approval of the minutes for the regularly scheduled city commission meeting held on Thursday, May 7th, 2026.

Move approval. Second. Ms. Laus.

Commissioner Fowler.

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz. Yes. Commissioner Wise. Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox.

Yes.

The next items are proclamations, resolutions, and presentation. The first item, 4.1, is presentation of recognition of city employees' scholarship recipients.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, commissioners. It's with great pleasure that I can stand here with the mayor and all of you and congratulate our scholarship winners for this 2026 year. The employee scholarship is completely funded through the generosity of the Johnson City employees. And since 1994, they have awarded 220 scholarships, totaling $182,610. And all that's from our generous employees. We do have two different scholarships. The first is the John W. Campbell Scholarship. He was a former city manager who created this scholarship in memory of his late father. This scholarship goes to Arianna Babb, daughter of Melvin Babb, Water and Sewer Services. She's going to ETSU and is studying radiologic sciences. Now we have the City of Johnson City Employee Scholarship, who will receive $1,000 to your college or university. This goes to Jacob Norris, son of April Norris, Parks and Rec. He's going to ETSU and studying criminal justice, so that's great. Jacob is with us tonight. The other scholarship recipient who unfortunately couldn't be here tonight is Caroline Singer, daughter of Jeremy Singer, Water and Sewer Services, going to Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology and studying cosmetology. Congrats to all these ladies.

Thank you, Ms. Rice. Wait for Ms. Ball to.

Mayor, your next item is recognition of the Johnson City Leadership Academy graduates.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. I'm Cooper Reeves, Special Projects Manager in the City's Administration Department, and it is my pleasure to be here tonight for the graduation of the third cohort of the Johnson City Leadership Academy. The Johnson City Leadership Academy was launched in 2024 to strengthen the city's organizational culture as well as intentionally prepare future leaders that are already within our workforce. This is a professional development initiative. JCLA provides employees with a collaborative learning environment focused on leadership, connection to the city's mission, and engagement with colleagues across all of our departments. The third JCLA cohort began in January of this year and it included 16 employees from a broad range departments and roles throughout our organization. Applicants applied or they were nominated by department heads, and then they went through weekly sessions led by city leadership, gaining meaningful insight into our city operations, our city functions, but also best leadership practice. A key component of this program is the class members' participation in a capstone project in which they identify an issue within the city, research possible solutions, and then they present those findings to city management. So this class has shown extraordinary dedication and passion not only for their roles here on our city team, but also for the community that we serve. Myself and Melanie Rice and Juan Cardona Santiago from our HR team have had the privilege of observing this group as they grew as leaders, strengthened their relationships, and then fully embodied the mission of JCLA. We are grateful for their dedication to the class, and we are also grateful and extend our sincere appreciation to the many city staff who give their time to come and teach classes for our JCLA program. Their time and their expertise are what supports this class, support their activities, and help make it possible. So at this time, I will invite our graduates forward as I call their name, and then Melanie will hand them their certificates, and Mayor, if you would greet them as they come up. So we'll start with Danny Arnett with our Parks and Recreation Department, Thomas Bayer with Juvenile Court, Jared Carlson with Water and Sewer Services, Kevin Collette with the Johnson City Police Department, Josh Collins with Parks and Recreation, Leanne Fama with Communications and Engagement, Alan Lark with Fleet Management, Todd Moody with the Johnson City Police Department, Corey Parsons with Parks and Recreation, Jolene Stallard with Water and Sewer Services, Reese Westmoreland with Public Works Engineering Division, and Benji Whitehead with Water and Sewer Services. We are also missing just a few class members who couldn't be here tonight. Marina Arbuckle with the Fire Department, Jimmy Bayesden with the Risk Management Department, and Shane Malone with the Johnson City Police Department. Three of them could not be here tonight, but we extend our congratulations to them as well for what they've done for the class. We want to say thank you to all of our participants. This is a lot of time. They spend just about all the workday on Wednesdays in class. And there are, like I said, the capstone portion of the class. They also have a service portion, which was yesterday where they went and packed food boxes at Second Harvest. It is a lot of dedication, a lot of time that this program takes. So we are appreciative of the time and effort they put into it. We are appreciative of the commission and city management who want to build an internal culture of city staff that focuses on equipping us to lead in the future. So congratulations to you all. And Mayor, I'd be happy for you to say a few words.

Well, thank you. And Cooper, you always do a great job. And really, there's no better asset we have as a city is our employees and you guys that step up and want to sharpen your skills and leadership and management. And it's a skill that you have to sharpen. And it's great to have our leaders inside the city working to teach other future leaders. So I hope you guys enjoyed it and learned something from it and carry it on to teach people that you're working with and take it home to and with your family. and different areas of the community that you're in. And if there's anything else any other commissioners want to add.

Well, congratulations and thanks for all the extra work you've been doing. I don't think we got to hear their projects this year, but I would love to when you catch us in the hallway, tell us what you've been working on. Great.

Should we get one hint of the capstone project? What the topic was? Anybody want to share? Yeah. Oh, OK. All right.

Yes.

Yes. So we had four capstone groups.

uh this cohort so one group focuses on the idea of developing a 3-1-1 call center for the city if there is a singular number that citizens can call to get an issue addressed we had one group focus on freedom hall civic center and how we can take such a unique and decades-old asset within the city and what we can do to kind of revolutionize that. And then we had two groups who focused on employee retention and recruitment, one focusing on employee work schedules and the other focusing on employee mentorship programs as well as employee benefits. So we were very excited about the hard work they put into it and we're excited that we have leaders within our organization who look down the road now.

Thank you. Give everybody a hand.

Congratulations.

Mayor, the next proclamation is for National Garden Week. Accepting this proclamation is Barbara Sims Fleener and Shady Oaks Garden Club members.

You guys come on up. How are you? It's good to see you. Now I know why your yard always looks so nice. Well, I would love to read this to you. Whereas gardeners have a passion for nurturing the beauty and resources of the earth through sowing the seeds of the care of plants, and whereas gardening is a challenging and productive activity for citizens of all ages and experience levels, including those just learning and those having years of experience, and whereas gardening promotes a healthy lifestyle that reduces stress and teaches that rewards come from diligent efforts. and whereas gardening adds nutrition, beauty, fragrance, and splendor to our lives through the growing of herbs, vegetables, foliage, and flowers, and whereas gardeners beautify our community, enhancing our quality of life for our citizens, and whereas gardeners advocate the importance of creatures, large and small, and their role in a balanced, productive ecology. And whereas National Garden Week encourages members of garden clubs across the country and worldwide to enhance quality of life to serve others in the communities where they reside and work. Now, therefore, I, Greg Cox, Mayor of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim June 7th through 13th, 2026 National Garden Week in Johnson City and urge our community to acknowledge the importance of gardening and the numerous contributions of gardeners.

Yeah, thank you.

Is there anything you guys want to share?

We're having a garden tour tomorrow. You can go to Shady Oaks Saturday. Saturday, sorry. Go to Shady Oaks Garden Club and find out information about it. It's going to be beautiful. Eight gardens around this lovely city. So we hope you'll join us on Saturday.

ShadyOaksGardenClub.org or find us on Facebook.

Thank you all.

Good to see you.

Mayor, the next presentation is for the Junior Council JC2 Accomplishments for 2025-26. And Keisha Schaun and the Mayor will be presenting those.

I wondered who this smart looking crew was sitting back there.

Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager Ball, good evening. I'm Keisha Schaun, Public Affairs Director, and it is truly my privilege to introduce our 2025-26 Junior Council members to you. We have Owen King, Avradeep Chanda, Lake and Andes, Amy Lee, Nevaeh Kipp, Akshay Vashist and Abram Helton. They are here tonight to tell you about what they've worked on this year. As you remember, we started the Junior Council two years ago in partnership with ETSU's Roan Scholars Program to help our local youth get more civically engaged and understand local government, but also to give you an opportunity to hear their voice and perspective on issues that matter to them. So they're going to tell you about their term this year, and then when they're done, Mayor, I'll ask you to come down and join me in a presentation for our students.

Is that you?

To move it? Sorry. Perfect. Perfect.

Thank you, Ms. Schaun. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. My name is Amy Lee. I am this year's co-chair of the Johnson City Junior Council. And to start off, I just want to express the council's gratitude for your support and your encouragement for our work this past year. I personally am a two-year member of the council, and so I've really been able to see how we've all grown as not only a council, but as individual leaders. So we're just excited here today to show you all what we've been working on for the past year. So to start off, I want to discuss our mission statement as a junior council, which is that the Johnson City Junior Council seeks to elevate youth perspectives to strengthen our community. So we try to do this through things like community surveying or community service. But at the end of the day, our ultimate goal is to uplift youth perspectives and to improve quality of life for young people in Johnson City. So I'm going to pass it off to my other co-chair, Akshay, for these next few slides.

Hello everyone, my name is Akshay Bashees. I'm also co-chair of the Junior Council. And specifically, the first thing we did with Junior Council was Council Camp. Now with Council Camp specifically, Our goal was, first of all, how does municipal government work? A lot of us here, we actually didn't have any experience with local government before we joined the council. Two years ago when I joined, local government, it was almost this tangential thing in my mind. You see political elections on the major stages, but local government is more intimate. So we had to learn, okay, first of all, what is local government? And then after that, so we did this during the summer, what we wanted to do was our planning meeting. Now in the planning meeting specifically, what we aim to do was we understand what local government is, but how do we as adolescents, how do we as young people with our own certain perspectives impact our city in the most beneficial way? And we did this through committees. So through this planning meeting and various high yield strategies to obtain what areas, what parts of the city, what facets do we want to impact? We were able to come up with several committees that I'm going to let my fellow members talk about.

So out of that meeting, we formed four main committees, our education, homeless advocacy, policy, and social media committees. So first we formed our education committee and we met outside of the main meeting and we formed two main series that we wanted to focus on. The first was a three-part panel series in collaboration with the library here in Johnson City. And so we formed three panels there, one consisting of the members of our council, another in collaboration with the Rome Scholars Program, and a third in collaboration with the young professionals of Johnson City. And so that was there to answer a lot of the questions that we have and we know our peers have about different transition phases in life, especially for those in the youth. In addition to that, we created a civics presentation for Liberty Bell Middle School and the middle school students at university school. And so that was to promote civic awareness, to talk about the importance of local government, and then in addition to that, helping them form their own policies and just talking a little bit about how policy creation works. And so now I'm going to turn this over to Deep and Owen, who are going to talk to you guys more about our Homeless Advocacy Committee.

We also identified at our planning meeting that homelessness was an issue that we all cared a lot about. And we collaborated with Fairview Housing's Women's Shelter. And we had a painting day, as you can see with the picture of deep painting. And we were able to raise $300 through church fundraisers that we were used to provide material support. And, which was just yesterday, we were able to make a dinner for them, which they very much enjoyed. And we all found that this was a very impactful issue and that we could help as a council. And now to Deep to tell you a little bit more.

Yeah, so in addition to the Fairview Housing Project, we have also been able to work with Good Samaritan Ministries on a variety of projects, from preparing their own food pantry, passing out hundreds of meals, and volunteering in their annual Christmas gift-giving event. Now, throughout all of these experiences, we have learned a lot about how these nonprofits work behind the scenes, and we are very thankful to be able to work with such amazing groups. We have also been able to create an advocacy video series with the help of our social media committee. The goal of this video series has been to help educate the youth and our peers on what homelessness is. Now, just this past Friday, we were also able to host a pickleball night at Metro Kiwanis Park. We use this event to help connect more donations for the Fairview Housing Project in the form of hygiene products. And it was also our way of celebrating the end of the school year and kicking off the summer. I'll be passing it over to Akshay to discuss our policy committee.

So specifically with the policy committee, one thing that we identified was policy is such this very important thing within our city. It's the foundational sort of text that dictates the day-to-day operations of citizens within our area. But as a teenager, I'm not actively going into John City's policy and searching for loopholes, et cetera, but it's this important thing that we have to maintain as citizens and as commissioners and as community members. So one thing that we did specifically was we wanted to identify policy to where either if we could make suggestions to clear up language or to use grammatical errors or syntax, all of these things that we as adolescents can contribute. So what we identified specifically was fire policy. And we coordinated with the fire chief and all these individuals within our local government. to sort of provide suggestions. And oftentimes, one thing that we found was some of our suggestions, they weren't necessarily, sometimes they wouldn't be pertinent. They were all these high yield sort of concepts and maybe we didn't understand. But once in a while, we'd catch something, maybe a spelling mistake or some sort of grammatical error. And from that, we've actually had a few of our policy suggestions actually in the process of ultimately being adopted within these sort of policies. So it's so fascinating and it's so great to see that our adolescent perspectives are having an impact within our local government.

So at our planning meeting, we had made our other committees and we needed something that we could have to platform or share our progress, our events, or just our projects. We made the social media committee. And through that, through Facebook and Instagram, we've engaged 24,685 accounts worldwide. total with 33 posts and these posts have ranged. They've been simple holidays whether that's city or federal. It's been videos with Vice Mayor Brock and Mayor Cox. Thank you both for allowing us to work with you and or just simple things that we've been up to like keeping up with the month and through that we've been able to share civics with our peers and just help more people know especially our age about what the local government does. So I'm going to start off with our experiences we've made from junior council. My name's Laken Andes, and I'm a first year member. Before junior council, I was someone who thought I loved and knew a lot about government. It turns out I only knew a lot about federal government. I did not know much about local government at all. And so through that, I've been able to learn more about each of your duties, such as what the commissioners do, what the city manager does, even all of the departments. And it's not only just increased my passion, but made me want to go into local government as a career.

Good evening, my name is Nevaeh Kipp, and I'm going to share my experience on the Junior Council. I have always been the kind of person that has wanted to be involved in my local area. However, as a homeschooler and somebody who is not native to Johnson City, I had no idea where to get started. So when the council fell into my lap, I knew I had to jump at this opportunity. Through my time in the council, I have been able to kind of build a network and get more involved in the things that I care about. Most specifically, I helped plan an event at the library, and I have been attending events at the library since about 2022, but this was a time that I was able to almost give back to the library. I have also, through my encounters on the council, I have gained confidence and taken leadership roles in things I'm already involved in. I'm leading a committee through Girl Scouts. Furthermore, being a part of this council has further driven my desire to help. When I joined the council, I knew I wanted to go into advocacy in the future, and now I'm even more certain that advocacy and local government is something I want to be a part of.

Thank you, Nevaeh. Again, commissioners, my name is Amy, and I'd like to close off our experience portion for tonight. I want to circle back on what Lakin had discussed about the council's impact on individual council members. And I literally believe that junior council has altered the course of my life. So before junior council, I was very much like a nerdy STEM kid. I was taking AP chemistry, AP physics, and I wanted to study biochemistry in college. However, after only a couple months working in the council and working with Ms. Keisha and other public officials, I came to realize just how valuable it was to be able to go within your community and to have a place where you can decide policy, where you can listen to community voices, and where you can truly make that type of impact. Junior council made me realize how much I really care about local change-making, about local government, and more specifically, how much I love people. So I'm excited to announce that in the fall, I will not be studying biochemistry. Instead, I will be studying political science with a focus on public service to hopefully take it into local government in the future. So that's just one example of how junior council has impacted individual council members' life courses. And it's to speak on how junior council will continue to affect future council members. So that closes out our presentation for tonight. Again, we just want to extend a huge thank you and a huge hand of gratitude for you all for encouraging us in our own paths with local government and for giving us support to continue this project. I'd like to hand it back off to Ms. Keisha to formally end for tonight.

Wow, that was extremely impressive. Keisha, I'm going to come on down. You guys did a wonderful job presenting, and were super engaging the whole time. There's a lot of good skills in life, but being able to do public speaking, which I'm just now working into, is really impressive. You guys, and I'm sure a few guys may something after, but let's go ahead and...

and hand out certificates. Is this on? Okay. Yes, thank you all so much. As you can tell, these students are incredibly passionate about our community and have done incredible work, and I'm just so grateful to have been able to spend time with them. Our seniors are founding members for two years, and... happy that we will have Laken and Owen and Abram back with us next year in leadership roles along with the rest of our cohort, which will be announced soon. But if I could go ahead and get Owen. Owen King is a rising senior at Science Hill. And then we have Abram Helton. Abram is a rising senior at University School. And Lake and Andy's, a rising senior at Science Hill. And then for our seniors, we have just a little something extra. We have, I know you remember at our panel discussion at the library last time, we had a young professional who mentioned We have this as well. This is from me. So that's my gift to you. The gift underneath is a little something you heard that young professional say, to never enter a room and not be prepared to take notes. So we have a little pad folio for you so that we're setting you off on the right foot. And then that's from me just to wish you well as you go move your mountains. So . Great job. Amy Lee, Nevaeh Kipp, and Abra Deep Chanda. Thank you all so much for everything you've done for our community.

While you all get ready for a picture, does anybody want to share a few words? Ms. Brock, I'm sure you have some great words.

Always, always. How impressive. Actually, my message is to the adults in the room, we are in good hands. What do you think? Give them a hand. And good luck to everyone. We will see you, I'm sure, in Nashville and Washington and hopefully at the local level as you plan your careers. Thank you.

And I'll follow up with that, too. Just when I was, you know, I thought I was engaged, but I still had no clue really how the city commission worked on a local level. And, you know, we found our little niches, but I just love seeing you guys here and just hearing different areas of the city that you have different passions about. You were at the library or different things at Parks and Rec or policy and focused on the fire department. And it just shows there's so many different areas of the city that you can find a passion, even if the overall, you know, there's little nooks and crannies, the arts committee that we have, public arts, the aquatic community. I mean, there's a place for everybody in local government. And so thank you guys so much for getting involved and paying attention.

I'm so sorry. I would have lost sleep if I hadn't mentioned our members who aren't here tonight, who couldn't be here tonight. Addison Pumphrey, Inslee Baker, and Lila Catron, also members of this group. They just couldn't be here, so thank you. I'm sorry.

Well, I'm glad you said that. And we'll wind up there. If anybody has anything last to say, but I'm really impressed by you guys. Thank you.

Commissioners, the next item up is public comment for items on the agenda. And signed up to speak, we have Sylvan Bruni first.

Hello, Mr. Bruni. I'll just, if you don't care to come up, state your name, and just a reminder, you have three minutes, and your timer will be started.

All right. Thank you, Mayor, Commissioners, for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Sylvain Bruni, and I serve as a community representative on the Johnson City Noise Vibration Study Committee, and I'm a member of the Johnson City Coalition Against Bitcoin Mining. So I'm here tonight in strong support of extending the I2 moratorium through December. To put it simply, the work is not finished. Over the last year, the city, staff, consultants, committee members, and residents have invested a tremendous amount of time and effort into crafting thoughtful, data-driven approaches to regulating data centers and crypto facilities in our area. And we are too close to the finish line to risk leaving this work incomplete. So the strategy under development rests on three key pillars, establishing a special exception process through the Board of Zoning Appeals for data centers, updating the zoning code to reflect that framework, and strengthening the noise and vibration ordinance for the city. These efforts have been informed by professional acoustical engineering studies, ongoing review of other legislation in other municipalities across the country, and close monitoring of the state legislation, as well as direct feedback and engagement with residents. I support this moratorium extension to be of six months instead of a shorter one. Our experience over the last year has shown that this kind of complex work requires time, and we are currently finalizing a draft of the ordinances based on the study results from our consultants and that will be presented to the regional planning commission in early June. The planning commission may request additional information, context data, or some potential changes. And after that, the ordinance still needs to go through the city process with three readings. And we have a target of getting all of that done in August, but any additional delay may push this into a fall. So any kind of shorter extension of the moratorium would create additional pressure and could compromise the quality of the work that we come up with. Six months provides that margin needed to finish the work correctly and avoid any kind of gaps in protection of our neighbors. That needs becomes even more important when we look at what is happening at the state level. Recent legislation, including HB 1847, falls far short of addressing the concerns of our residents. And it includes some provisions related to infrastructure costs, but it leaves very significant loopholes in protection of our neighborhoods. And it reduces the local influence over issues that directly affect our quality of life. So the regulations being developed here in Johnson City are among the strongest available to ensure local concerns are addressed responsibly. So I would like to leave the Commission with three questions. First, do you agree that it is better to take a few additional months and adopt strong, durable regulations than to rush the process and risk leaving some gaps? Second, if the moratorium expires before the ordinances are adopted, what protection would residents have during that gap period? And third, given the increasing tendency of state legislation to limit local control over land use and community impact, what consideration will you take to protect our health, safety, and welfare? Thank you very much.

Next signed up is David Adams.

Mr. Adams, if you don't care to come up, state your name, and you've got three minutes.

Do I need to press this up here?

You're good to go.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Cox and Commission. I'm Dave Adams. And like the folks who showed up today in the back, I'm here to urge you to vote yes on a denied 7.1. When this moratorium first went into effect a year ago, I think there was some doubt as to its necessity. But the past year has really shown its value. You don't have to look very far to see the vultures circling our area. Hawkins County is currently under attack by the Beacon Center of Tennessee. Vice Mayor Brock, you might remember that name from their bad faith opposition to Brightridge Broadband back in the day. Same group. I take folks like the CEO of Clean Spark at their word when they say they want another 1.5 gigawatts rapidly deployed in Appalachia. I hate to be chicken little, but the sky is really falling out there. That's not just national political rhetoric, it's a reality that's unfolding around us in real time. Luckily, this resolution gives us an umbrella policy until we can land the plane on real changes, and it comes at virtually no cost. I've had the opportunity to review the draft zoning changes coming out over the next few weeks, and while there's still some small areas for improvement, they are nothing short of amazing. One year ago, the prevailing opinion of this body, when faced with some deficient changes, was summarized in a quote by the former mayor, something is better than nothing. Today, the prevailing opinion of this body has pivoted heavily to excellence. The proposed changes coming out soon aren't just something. They're among the best in the nation in both intent and legal enforceability. written with the strong vocal support of residents. We are on track to do something really great here, putting Johnson City on the map in a positive light, and all it takes is a few more months to get there safely. So I'd like to think we're all already in agreement, but on behalf of the Coalition Against Bitcoin Mining and the thousands of everyday residents who stay concerned about the developments around us and across Appalachia, I respectfully urge you to pass this moratorium extension and help us keep Johnson City beautiful. Thank you.

Commission, the next order of business is consideration of the consent agenda.

I'll start to my right. Dr. Fowler. Vice Mayor.

Commissioner Wise. I've got my questions answered. Thank you.

If we could pull 6.3.1, please.

That'll be it for me as well.

Item 6.3.1 is a building system technology and division of Eagle Fire Inc., and additional security cameras for Lake Ridge, Fairmont, and Woodland Elementary Schools. And I think we have Dr. Wallace here with us, and it gives us an opportunity to say, Welcome and unfortunately, thank you for your service and you will be sorely missed by our community.

Thank you. When you get started, I do want 6.3.2 if you don't mind.

Okay.

Thank you, Dr. Wallace. Before my questions, I just want to thank you for your service to our community. You probably don't remember me, but I was once a brand new kindergarten mom that reached out to you with some questions and you made me feel at ease and my children protected. So thank you for the work that you've done for our community. So congratulations. Separating that from my question this evening, but on the same theme, could you tell us a little bit about this item and how it was identified that we needed some additional safety measures at these particular schools? And are all the other schools also in a posture that you think would not necessarily need this additional safety measure?

Sure. One of the things that we do every year is we evaluate our coverage. And so sometimes it's walked through, sometimes with some additional buildings. you know, the building projects that we've had that we'll recognize that we've got some additional coverage needs. Sometimes it's just a realization of something that might occur that we realize, you know, that's something that might provide some additional, some additional coverage is needed. So we did a walkthrough. We do walkthroughs all the time, obviously, but we did a walkthrough of these three buildings with our technology department and we identified these needs. As you guys know, you know, the high school, we typically work backwards, high school down. When we initially had the Safe Schools, Healthy Students grant, the Heroes grant, we were able to put camera coverage in all of our elementary schools. Some of those are starting to become outdated, so we're looking to upgrade those as we move forward.

feel comfortable with the other schools through this same process of doing the walkthroughs and identifying any needs.

I do, and I know Dr. Van Thornhout is going to be one of the replacements for me. One of the things he's talked pretty passionately about, because he lives at the high school and he lives on the cameras all the time, is having a very comprehensive program on how he reviews and identifies potential weaknesses.

Thank you so much. Congratulations on your retirement. Oh, thank you.

If I could have 30 seconds. Ms. Ball, Mr. Mayor, I would just like to thank you as a commission. You constantly see what Johnson City does as a school system. We were just recently in the paper, the second and fourth in the country in math and reading. On top of last year's, one of the top districts in the country, top 100 districts in the country on recovering from COVID after our scores from after COVID. None of that happens in a vacuum. We have a great school board. We've had great directors of schools. But you're our funding body, and you have continued to fund us appropriately and to allow us to be a Class A district. And just from a safety perspective, I tell people all the time, there's never been a big project that I've come to and asked for to be funded that you all have not helped provide those resources for. So just thank you from me. For me personally, I'm still a husband of teachers and a son that's still going to graduate from Science Hill. So I wanted to say thank you publicly.

And for those who are here, I think it's worth acknowledging the role you serve in the schools is two distinct roles. School security, so you get to worry about the worst case scenario. And then counseling and mental health, and you get to deal with the worst case scenarios. So thank you for your service.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

The next item, Mayor, you had some questions. Is the water SCADA equipment?

Just what is SCADA? Just thought that would be.

Yeah. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. John Layton, Director of Water Streaming Services. So the item before you is It's SCADA, so Supervisor Controls and Access. So it's pretty much the controls to be able to remotely see what's going on, kind of the eyes and ears of what's going on at the station. So what's before you tonight is Microcom. We've been working with them for over 20 years. They're based in Olathe, Kansas. So we have a series of sewer pump stations and water booster stations and plants that all have SCADA, which is just the access controls that you see there. So before you tonight is adding access controls at two of those locations. So C station off of Boring Chapel Road and H station, which is kind of behind the fairgrounds. H station is currently in construction and C as in cat station is actually the one that closed out by commission under budget. So both of those are kind of moving forward. And if you approve them tonight, we're getting access controls at both of those stations.

And that's really where you guys can really control a lot of basically all over town from a centralized location and make sure your sewer capacity can handle the pump stations that's coming in.

Correct. So they're a live feed that our operators can see 24-7, 365. So there is a concern. We can dispatch the crews in the amount of time to get there.

There's a lot of interesting science communication and all of that, so I appreciate you being ahead of it.

Yeah, you're welcome. Any other questions?

Move approval. Second. Ms. Laus?

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Commissioners, item 7.1 is to consider approval of a resolution extending the 12-month moratorium on accepting all new industrial land use applications and the issuance of building permits for new construction on the I-2 zoning district for additional six months.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. My name is Heath Martin. I'm a planner with the City's Planning Division, and I'm here this evening to request an extension of our moratorium for the I-2 Zoning District to further our research into revising ordinances for zoning and noise. So we're overviewing progress. So we are still under the current moratorium. It is expired June 5th of this year. We do have the field component of the noise and vibration study complete. So right now we are reviewing the draft review of the technical report to look at the data and further understand what it explains to us as Johnson City administration as well as to the citizens of the city. So we're exchanging comments back and forth with the consultant right now to make sure that the final report is complemented well and represents the work that was done. The ordinance amendment phase for I-2 and NOAA's ordinance is still underway. We do have draft test amendments for both, and we are adding noise and vibration study parameters to the zoning district itself, as well as we are revising analysis methods and compliance reporting for the NOAA's ordinances on that end. So again, we want to understand more about the types of noise data centers emit, vibration included, as well as to understand the parameters of the studies we're going to be asking for on the front end and on the back end, and as well as for a compliance initiative on the backside for noise, if there's a complaint or concern, how does codes enforcement deploy out there and actually do a proper assessment and report that, those findings. And this request would be for an extension of six months, which would push it to December 3rd of this year. So the reason for a more term extension is to further our data analysis from a noise study for noise unordered adoptions. to expand our definitions and comprehensive compliance methods, and to finalize the North study parameters for ongoing BZA compliance protocols under I-2. So where we are today, we did have community meeting this week with a group that spoke to you earlier this evening. We do have the June 5th moratorium expiring soon. That is also the same day we'll be pulling down the online survey that we have open to the public to receive feedback from the public about the work that we're doing and the direction that we're headed. And moving past the moratorium date, because it's extended, we'll move to June 9th for planning and then on through city commission with the anticipated third reading on August 6th. And just to compare Johnson City with other areas regarding moratoriums, we did canvas the area counties and cities nearby Johnson City. And there are a couple, there are There's five that have more terms were included in number six. We are within 12 months and you can kind of see those that are still ongoing. So we're not alone in this. We just want to ask a little bit more time to further our research just to make sure that we've had this as down in as well as possible. And the more time we've had to work on this, the more we've learned. This is a quickly evolving subject across the country. And as other governments do start to make their implementations and ordinances in place, we're learning from others as well. So we just wanted to continue to have a little more time to further glean from others, working together to figure out where we want to land at Johnson City. So again, this request is for an extension of six months for the current moratorium and to allow us to formalize text amendments to the Atchisonia District and the Norris Ordinance. I'm available for questions as well as our staff attorney, Megan Bell, if the commission has any questions.

As we discussed in the workshop, there's the potential that you could get the text amendments targeted and done in August. And so presumably would that then allow the moratorium to be revisited sooner than the December date you're asking for?

That's a great point, sir. So, yes, so our intention is if we're at the third rating, if it is approved, then that would, in essence, sunset the moratorium extension.

I'm sorry, wait. I would make a motion to approve. I think your work is consistent with the commission's objective all along, which has been we can't outlaw a legal business, but we certainly also don't have to allow it to come into our community and have a negative impact on its neighbors and neighboring property. And this is such a different technology and use that the kinds of framework we have for dealing with traditional commercial or industrial uses, this is just a very different use. And so, um, I think the work you've done allows us to have a better understanding of what those margins need to be so that if that sort of business chose to locate here, it would not have an impact on neighbors that was undesirable or inappropriate. So that would be a motion to approve. Second the motion.

Any discussion? Ms. Laus, will you call the roll?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Item 7.2 is to consider the approval to submit the 2026 Annual Action Plan for the Community Development Block Grant to the Department of Housing and Urban Development Public Hearing.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Commissioners. I'm Wayne Lyons, the Community Development Coordinator for the City of Johnson City with the Planning Division of Economic Development. This evening, we are looking at the 2026 Annual Action Plan Submittal for the City of Johnson City. And to preface that, just to explain kind of why we're here and to provide information for the public during this public hearing, I want to explain just briefly what the Community Development Block Grant is and how it benefits our community. The Community Development Block Grant was authorized under Title I of the Housing Community Development Act of 1974. Its regulations can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations at 24 CFR Part 570. But primarily the purpose of the CDBG Community Development Block Grant program is to develop viable urban communities principally for low and moderate income persons through decent housing, suitable living environments, and expanded economic opportunity. And these three primary goals have to be met through three national objectives, which are benefit to LMI persons or low and moderate income persons, aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight, or to meet a need having a particular urgency. This chart shows our typical allocations, well, our actual allocations as we've received them since 2016. As we see, they do fluctuate, and these fluctuations are based on primarily funding at the federal level in the federal budget, but also based on formulas, two formulas that HUD uses to calculate these allocations to municipalities. In the current fiscal year that is before you tonight for 2026, our allocation is $605,351. And this has decreased slightly from last year, which was 629.77. This could be partially funding at the federal level, but also that formula takes into account different economic conditions of the communities. So it could be different factors as far as fewer people that are at that poverty level, could be better housing developments that are coming into the city. There's several different factors that come into that calculation. So the beginning of this process for this five-year period was the 2025 consolidated plan that the city commission approved last year and was submitted to HUD and then was approved by HUD. And that steers our five-year plans or our annual action plans for the next five years after its approval. And so currently this will be our year two of that five-year plan that's being steered by that 2025 consolidated plan. Community needs were identified through that consolidated plan as we consulted various service agencies and had public meetings to receive public feedback for that plan. Identified needs through those consultations were construction of new housing units for homeownership and for rental, homeowner rehabilitation, supportive housing and homeless services, and public infrastructure and neighborhood revitalization. Some of those agencies that were consulted through that process included city staff, Eastern 8, Community Development Corporation, Johnson City School System, Appalachian Service Project, Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness, First Tennessee Development District, Mountain Home VA Medical Center, as well as Bright Ridge was consulted for the broadband portion of the plans. and comments that we received at our first public hearing for this annual action plan back in January correspond with those needs that were identified within the consolidated plan. For this year's process for the 2026 annual action plan, the application period was opened up on January 9th and closed on February 6th, during which we received applications from 10 different organizations. We received 11 different applications total from different agencies within the area, which included ETSU Community Outreach, Second Harvest Food Bank, Johnson City Housing Authority, ARCH, Holston Habitat for Humanity, Eastern 8 CDC, Appalachia Service Project, Frontier Health, Fairview Housing, and First Tennessee Development District. And this was about almost triple the amount of applications that we normally get for this grant. And I would credit the communications and engagement department for that as this was one of our first years or it was the first year that I've been involved in the program that we've actually pushed on social media to advertise this program and to actually receive applications through that method. Typically we receive between three and five applications for this grant. And in part of that process, as that slide states, we also had a public hearing that was held on January 22nd to provide feedback from the public to see what needs they wanted to see addressed in the plan and what types of projects they wanted us to fund. So out of those 11 applications for different projects, these projects were the ones that were identified and approved to move forward in the annual action plan by the Housing Community Development Advisory Board and are for consideration this evening. They include 120,000 for grant administration for the grant, 100,000 towards the First Tennessee Development District for homeowner rehabilitation and reconstruction, $96,603 for homeowner rehabilitation reconstruction for Eastern 8th Community Development Corporation. $61,000 for Appalachia Service Project for homeowner rehabilitation reconstruction. $173,886 for Habitat for Humanity for affordable housing development. $146,837 for shelter reconstruction for Fairview Housing. $87,025 for Frontier Health for public facility rehabilitation. Now, as you can tell on that, the total exceeds our annual allocation at $785,351. And this is because $180,000 in carryover funding from the previous year that's been applied to this year's allocation. And that came from one subrecipient. It was a project that was postponed that is actually on the plan again for this year, which is the Moreland Drive development for Habitat for Humanity. So to go through that timeline, I won't go through every step because we've already covered a few of them with applications being, or the application period opening up, the public hearing on the 22nd. But just to cover kind of other steps so far, we had March 5th, 2026. We had a public housing community development advisory board meeting where they voted on proposals based on estimated allocations from HUD. But then on April 8th, we received our official allocation from HUD, which prompted us to have to have another meeting. to amend those projects. That meeting was held on April 23rd. Another public housing community development advisory board meeting where they voted to actually approve these projects at their level based on our official allocation from HUD. And then on May 11th, we opened up our public hearing or public comment period, as well as the ad for this public hearing was published in the Johnson City Press that day. And that's whenever our public comment period began and runs through June 11th, 2026. And of course, tonight we're here to hopefully move forward with the submittal of this plan through a resolution. So the decision tonight would be the staff recommends the approval of the resolution allowing Mayor Cox to sign documents to effectuate the submittal of this proposed 2026 annual action plan following the closing of the public comment period on June 11th, 2026. And I'm available if you have any questions.

Mr. Lanz, first of all, thank you. That was a great presentation. CDBG funds are very important to the, to the citizens of Johnson City who are in need for these kind of funds. What do you see as the outlook in the future for CDBG funds to stay at least at the same level they are right now? Are we anticipating that they may dissipate somewhat?

Vice Mayor Brock, that's a good question that a lot of us are asking right now. A lot of people in my field are asking. Of course, last year in the President's proposed budget, CDBG was eliminated. That did not pass as it had been proposed this year. The same thing has been proposed that it's to be eliminated along with the home consortium funding that was on the consent agenda for that three-year renewal. Both at the present time in his proposal are eliminated.

I would think, Mrs. Ball, that we want to at least get word to our Congresswoman that we really are in need of CBBG funds to help this community with not only affordable housing, but the repair of houses to get people in a better standard of living. And so I would just say that as an advocate. The second question I have is of the projects that these providers that have that have been granted the grants. What is the main type of projects they'll be doing? Is it rehab or maybe ASP and all that or new homes? But what are we going to see the output of this?

The majority of the projects listed were for rehab and reconstruction, with that being First Tennessee Development District, Eastern 8, and Appalachian Service Project. All of them mainly are doing emergency repairs and rehabilitations. I don't believe any of them actually had reconstructions. And CDBG, with its heavy regulation, only allows certain types of agencies to build new housing. So those would be community housing development organizations or CHODOs, as well as community-based development organizations, CBDOs, which Holston Habitat got that certification last year so they could develop new housing.

This is public hearing. I've got one or two more questions, then we'll open the public hearing. And you just kind of followed it up. I think this is a significant amount of money, and if you're – finding areas of need that have low cost, high impact, like a leaky roof or a water line that needs to be replaced, a service line and toilets that need to be functional. What is that mechanism to really identify people that need it? And I know we're probably relying on these organizations to find it, but like you said, the social media campaign, has that really helped

The social media campaign helped with different qualified organizations to know the funding was available. And it did result in a few phone calls to my office from people who were in need that I was able to actually defer to those organizations to meet that need. Primarily, there are quite a few people that actually come through our code enforcement office for they identify homes that need repair and then they defer them to some of these agencies as well as people who are aware of the missions of those agencies and then apply to them directly for funding.

Okay, great. Just because sometimes people that need it most have the hardest time getting out and asking for... Yeah, so just want to ask that.

If I may, that's also one of the really positive things about having this type of public hearing here at City Commission. This is, as you guys know that have served on this for a few years, this is the first time we've done a public hearing for this at City Commission. We normally hold it at Langston or one of our community centers or even sometimes here in the admin conference room, probably around noon, sometimes a little bit later to try to promote people to come in. This type of meeting, being as public as it is, hopefully shows a few people that weren't aware that this funding was here that it's available to them if they need it.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, just a few churches, I mean, usually your really close-knit communities are the ones that know where the biggest need is. With that, I will open a public hearing. If anyone wants to speak for or against this item, please step forward. if you don't mind to state your name and who you're with, if you don't mind.

Hey there. I'm Laura Kelly. I reside at 510 West Poplar Street, representing Holston Habitat for Humanity. Hello, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. I thought I would just provide an update on the long-awaited project, and I appreciate your patience in this project coming to fruition. So you saw in the proposal tonight by Wayne Lyons that we requested, and the recommendation is for about 173,000 to go towards three new homes on the Moreland Drive or Morrison Meadows Neighborhood Project. That project has morphed over the years as we all know that you all conveyed the property to Holston Habitat for development. The preliminary plot that we have now and are moving forward with, we have four single family homes and four duplexes ranging from two bedrooms to four bedroom homes. In this first phase, we will build five units. In the second phase, we will build seven. As a part of this request, again, this year for CDBG funding, this will be the only time you see us requesting CDBG funding for new units attached to this neighborhood. So this represents 5% of the total neighborhood budget would be the CDBG funding. So I just wanted to thank you for your consideration. And just an update on the timeline for this project. We hope to be moving dirt sometime in July. Right now drawings are in the hands of the Development Services Department. So we're doing some back and forth there. But our contractors are ready to start moving dirt this summer. We should be framing something before the holidays and we are anticipating the first wave of families to move in sometime next summer. So I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. That's great. It's happening. Thank you all very much.

Thank you. Can't wait. Thank you.

Is there anyone else here to speak for or against? With seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Commissioners, any other questions for staff?

Second.

Discussion? Ms. Lausch, will you call the roll?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Commissioners, the last formal item on the agenda is under ordinances for first reading. This is ordinance number 4939-26. This is the first reading for an ordinance to amend the Code of the City of Johnson City to increase court costs by amending Title III, Chapter 2 of the Code of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, and repealing all ordinances and parts of ordinances in conflict herewith.

Thank you for being here, Mr. Watson.

I appreciate that, Mayor. That's what I'm paid for. Mayor Cox, Vice Mayor Brock, Commissioners, City Manager Ball, administrative staff. My name is Blake Watson. I'm the senior staff attorney for the city of Johnson City. And as Ms. Ball just said, for your consideration tonight is the first reading of an ordinance that would authorize the municipal court to increase court costs assessed in cases before it. Just a little bit about court costs. Tennessee municipalities are granted statutory authority to administer court costs. They can be non-punitive in nature, so they are administrative, and these costs are assessed in addition to the fines that would also be assessed relevant to the various violation. In FY 2006, or since then, Johnson City has collected $50 in court costs on JCPD-generated citations. So the current breakdown of these court costs, these were added by ordinance in 2012. Previously, the municipal court ordinance in Title III did not have a court cost portion. The way that they are broken down in there is $1 is for a continuing education expense. That fee goes to the administrative office of the courts. $3 in electronic citation fee, of which the municipal court clerk retains $1. Those fees were specifically Granted by statute for municipality to offset the cost of transitioning to an e-citation or PDA citation format. And then, as you can see, once you get down to the brass tacks, there are $50 is what ultimately goes to the city. $30 currently goes to the general fund and $20 goes to the John City Police Department Technology Fund. As proposed, the court costs would be increased to $102. $2 of that is the continuing education expense that was increased in 2025 by the General Assembly. Again, that is just remitted to the administrative office of the courts. The city keeps none of that money. The electronic citation fee, as currently proposed in the ordinance, would be repealed. And then that would leave $100 for the City of Johnson City to be broken down as $50 to the General Fund and $50 to the Johnson City JCPD Technology Fund. So what is this fund? What does it cover? The City of Johnson City formally established this fund in fiscal year 2009. Prior to that, there was an earmark for this particular fund in the general budget. but it was formally established as its own fund to be managed by the police department in FY 2009. This covers items like traffic homicide equipment, radars, databases, body and in-car cameras, as well as the associated software that is necessary to have them operate appropriately and record, and then computers and printers for the records department. So where do we sit in comparison to surrounding municipalities? And you will see, if you remember from work session, there might be a jumble here, but Johnson City hasn't moved off of our spot, which is at the bottom. We currently charge $50, and you can see there, all the way up to $115 when you're looking at Bristol. Commissioner Brock, you did ask, sorry, Vice Mayor Brock, you did ask earlier which ones are passed by ordinance, which ones are passed by resolution, how can we do that? And that actually resulted in the jumble. The MTAS schedule that we were using when I was pulling back some of these ordinances turned out was a little outdated. So Kingsport is at $85, theirs is passed by ordinance. Bristol increased theirs last year, and that was by resolution. And then Bluff City is by ordinance, and Elizabethton is as well. Now other fees that are contemplated in the ordinances drafted and presented for the commission approval are the state litigation tax and the local litigation tax. The state litigation tax is mandated by the state that in every case in municipal court, this litigation tax will apply. That is $13.75. On assessment, the court clerk retains 2% of that fee. The local litigation tax is permitted to be imposed by a municipality based on the current rate of the Tennessee state litigation tax with the caveat that we cannot exceed that litigation tax. Currently, we have our set at the maximum, which is $13.75. And then finally, the pre-court citation payment, which is the cash bond of $13.75. That is assessed on an individual who pays their citation prior to court. And then upon appearance in court, that $13.75 is refunded to them. If they do not appear in court, that bond is forfeited and then remitted to the state with 5% staying with the municipal court clerk. Just as an example of what a citation breakdown or what a citation would look like if paid on the court date, you can see there the total would be $179.50 with the two assessed litigation taxes. And then if paid before court date, it's $165 with the understanding that the $13.75 cash bond would be remitted back to the individual or citizen or citation payor upon their appearance in court. So with that, any questions or questions?

Mr. Watson, there were several state, the TCA code, those are amounts that the state's requiring us to collect through the court cost system?

Yes, ma'am, that's correct.

Okay, so they're kind of mandates then that we have to set the court cost so we can meet those mandates, and that goes back to the state, is that correct?

So the $2 goes to the... The $2 goes to the administrative office of the courts. The $100 is retained by the city. And then that would be split $50 and $50 to the city general fund and then John City Police Department Technology Fund.

But that's a mandate. So that's why the court costs have to be calculated in a way to be able to meet those requirements.

So, yes, ma'am. The litigation tax for the state is the mandated tax that would be assessed on an in court or if paid on court date citation. And then the two dollars is the fee that is required to go to the administrative office of the courts. The local litigation tax is the tax that we are authorized to impose up to that amount of $13.75. But that could technically be adjusted by us, and that is retained by us to the general fund. And then the $100 is set by the city. So we are actually the ones driving that car and deciding how much we're wanting to set those court costs at.

How much relative to the cost of maintaining a municipal court, what's the ratio of what we recover by way of fees to the cost of maintaining municipal court?

That is a great question. I do not see budget director Thompson here, but we can definitely have that information for you at the next reading.

I mean, I'm assuming our judge would be paid out of that. I mean, we've got a cost of judge, cost of facility.

So I know a portion of it goes to that. I don't know if it's specifically earmarked in the general fund, but that would be something that our budget director would be able to address more succinctly instead of you speculating.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you. And then just if this is first reading, if there was a way to have maybe the cost schedule changed, written into this where it could be a resolution. I don't know if we want to have any other discussion about that, but I'm okay to.

Well, if I could ask, if you move to approve this particular ordinance as written, I would ask that you in your motion move to approve it subject to that particular change, just so that way it's clear for the record exactly what you all want to move forward and approve. So if I understand you correctly, Mayor Cox, your request is to change the particular language that would be in the first sentence of the ordinance that would read to the effect of, subject to commission approval by resolution from time to time or however that language would be. Is that a fair characterization?

It is. I'm going to leave that to Vice Mayor Brock because it was a good suggestion that she had.

Yeah, I think it would be more efficient if we did it and we reviewed it every year. That way we know and kind of bring ourselves up to date on what it is and if there are changes that need to be made, I think it could be more expeditiously made. But I would ask you and City Manager Ball to kind of look at it between now and then, make sure you're comfortable with it and just get that wording right so it gives us that flexibility.

I would encourage you, as Mr. Watson said, to include that in your wording so that it gives us flexibility to be able to do that.

So just to be clear, the motion you're asking for is to approve this subject to the modification of the schedule per resolution? That's correct, Commissioner. I would make that motion. I will second that.

Any discussion? I'll just say it didn't change for, it looks like, 20 years, and I guarantee the cost to operate that court has changed. So thank you for bringing this to the attention. Ms. Lassley, call the roll.

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

That is all the official business that staff has tonight.

Thank you all.

I'm so sorry. We do have item number nine, which is a public comment under other. I'm so sorry. We have Susan Collins here to speak under other. I got ahead of myself. I'm sorry, Ms. Rollins.

Ms. Rollins, if you don't care to come up and state your name and once you get. We've said it three times. Yeah. Yeah. After you get started, the timer will start. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Susan Rollins, Johnson City. Good evening. I'm here to ask the city to take a practical approach to aquatic facilities in Johnson City. My request is simple. Repair Freedom Hall pool immediately and continue to plan for a regional aquatic center. These are two separate issues and they should not be combined into one decision. The question of repairing Freedom Hall Pool is separate from the question of building a new aquatic center. Supporting repairs to Freedom Hall Pool does not mean opposing a new aquatic center. In fact, I strongly support both. I believe a new aquatic facility is absolutely a necessity for Johnson City. Our community is growing, our schools, swim teams, families, and recreational programs are growing. And communities across the United States are investing heavily in modern aquatic infrastructure because they understand the value it brings. A modern aquatic center with a true competition pool would expand swimming opportunities, attract regional swim meets, increase tourism and strengthen Johnson City's ability to recruit businesses, professionals and families. Quality of life amenities matter in economic development. Businesses looking to relocate or expand evaluate communities not based only on roads and utilities, but also on wellness opportunities, youth activities, and amenities that attract and retain employees. A new aquatic center would be an important long-term investment in Johnson City's future. The future needs should not prevent us from addressing the community's immediate need. Freedom Hall remains an important public asset. Although the pool has primarily been used by swim teams in recent years, it still provides critical aquatic access and has tremendous untapped potential. Until closure of Freedom Hall pool in April, the pool was used mainly during the week, very early in the morning. and in the afternoons from 3 to 7.30 p.m. On weekends for scuba, lap swims, party rentals, and other activities. This means there are substantial hours during the day when the facility could support expanded programming and be productive to the community. Johnson City can repair Freedom Hall now, preserve current aquatic access, expand community programming, and still move forward with plans for a future regional aquatic center. And where's my time? I can't read it. These are complementary steps in the longer, long-term vision for aquatics in Johnson City. Johnson City is fortunate to have existing infrastructure in MPCC, expanding the MPCC swimming pool infrastructure and services, which are currently weighted towards recreation and therapy, would contribute to making a regional swimming venue and impact tourism. I respectfully urge the Commission to move quickly on Freedom Hall pool repairs while continuing thoughtful planning for the new aquatic facility that our growing community absolutely needs. I did it. I did it this time. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Owens. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. With that, I think that's the end of our agenda. Is there anything else?

Well, we have Memorial Day coming up. I think there are several flag ceremonies in the area. One, I believe, Saturday at 10 a.m. at Tannery Knobs for the big flag. They're going to put up a new large, large flag that they just recently got in. So I hope some folks can come up there. And if you're holidaying over that weekend, just be very careful. I think there are probably a lot of activities around town. They want to have picnics and some festival type atmosphere. Oh, the farmer's market's back. Yes, I've been one time. Yeah, can't wait for the tomatoes though.

mayor we do have a science hill graduation on saturday also where we'll have a lot of people in town for that to see so looking forward to another graduation ceremony on memorial day weekend i think we also need to congratulate our our colleague the vice mayor who was recognized by northeast tourism for a lifetime achievement award so it was a beautiful tribute to all the work that she's done for our community so

They listed amongst her accolades the Christmas trees in the park during COVID. That and hand washing are the only two good things that came out of a pandemic. The Tweetsie Trail and your advocacy there. Your ongoing and current advocacy around Buffalo Mountain and getting it designated as a state natural area. The turkey trot. There are a lot of things that happen over the course of a calendar year. that are just sort of part of the fiber of Johnson City. But the reality is they started somewhere with someone. And there's quite a few things on that list that someone was the vice mayor. I think the key to being a good city commissioner is not what you oppose, but what you support and advocate for. And there is no better example of that than the vice mayor.

It goes all the way back to fifth grade when I got fitness award. These ageist comments offend some people. I had to get to 10 push-ups. Well, she was a college student, but she started a fitness program.

Well, let me just say thank you. That's very kind for the recognition. This is a great place. I mean, this is our city. This is your city. And if we all do just a little bit, it's even going to be a greater city. And so... At some point in time in the near future, I'm going to have even more time. So I told Kathy I'm leaving my five-year plan, but I'll still be out there. And I could not be more proud of this city and what we do here and the quality of life that we have for our citizens. As you all know, I grew up here, but I left for a long, long time and have lived in numerous other places, including overseas. And people ask me, where's the greatest place you've ever lived or been and want to go back to? And I say, Johnson City, Tennessee. It's just a beautiful, wonderful place. So I'm glad you reminded me, Commissioner Wise, that this weekend, if you're looking for something to do, hike up to Buffalo Mountain. This is a special place as they're beginning to realize that there are certain species up there that don't exist anywhere else. And so as this national designation moves forward, I think we've gotten the approval. It's just going to take some legislation to get it completed and buttoned up. But this is something that all of us in this community are going to leave for the future. So if we're talking about a legacy, leaving Buffalo Mountain pristine. And I love development, but we don't have to build everywhere. And we can protect it. And to make it... I always say it stood guard over Johnson City since Johnson City's first building ever was built here, and it still stands guard over us today. So now's our time to protect it. But thank you all for your kind comments, and it's quite a surprise today. They were describing this person, and I'm going like, who is that? Thank you.