City Commission - Regular Meeting

. Well, I always hate to interrupt the friendly chatter in the chambers. Chambers, but it is time to start our business meeting. It's great to see my colleagues again. Fairly empty chamber. We had a committee of the whole meeting at five o'clock and got a very good presentation. About the proposal. This could be on the ballot on August 4th. For childcare millage. So if you have any interest that's been taped and that'll be out there. Yes. Thank you so much. So let's get to work here and get this. Meeting going. I'm officially calling to order the Kalamazoo city commission. Meeting for Monday, May 11th. 2026 clerk, boing, please call the roll. Commissioner Hess, present Commissioner Hoffman, present Commissioner Praedel present Commissioner Slavey present Commissioner Wilson, present vice mayor Duncan here. Mayor Anderson. Here. Thank you so much. Clerk Boley well, we are blessed this evening to have pastor Jesse Herron here with us from the new life. Fellowship church of God in Christ. And I'm gonna be asking him to come forward here to provide an Invocation. So please, if you would be so kind to everyone, the chambers stand for the Invocation and then remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Pastor Herron. Thank you. We are blessed. Just to be here on today. We are as we start this meeting. A prayer of Invocation. To our Lord and savior. Let us pray. Heavenly father, we pray. That you will be glorified tonight. We thank you for our. Mayor and city manager. All those council members that are here today and staff.

And even the community. That we see and understand how we are. All connected tonight. Lord, give us. An ear to listen. And to consider one another. Give us Lord. A way to work together. Touch our hearts. Lord guide our will. And. Enhancing the lives of those. That's in our community today. We pray for those that. Are vulnerable and marginalized. In our community, Lord empower us. Touch our hearts. Hearts and Lord strengthen our hands. To lift each other in these times of uncertainty. We pray for wisdom. For strength for courage. To do what is right. And good for all citizens of Kalamazoo. We thank you again, Lord. For this council and for our mayor and public officials. We thank you for our public safety. And all the first responders and all those that's in our communities, leaders. And individuals that help. Individuals that are marginalized. To bring them up and to make Kalamazoo a better place. Father, we look to you now. That you will come in or God that you will touch this meeting guide us. Lead us. Bless us. As we go forward in this meeting. Show us the wait Lord, we need you Lord. Without you, we can do nothing. But guide us in this time. In this moment as we go forward. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance allegiance to the flag of the United States, United States, America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible Liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much again, pastor. Harrin for being here and getting us started. Well, once again. One of the things I do like about our Agenda is we have proclamations recognizing important and positive things. And it is a nice way to get started for any business meeting. And it is no different this evening. We have four proclamations. And the commissioners are set up. Someone to read each one. And I'm gonna come down with a proclamations themselves. So first one. World migratory bird day. I see Gail Walters here and friend, I think. Great. Thank you, mayor. Right proclamation on world migratory bird day for May 16th, 2026. Where is migratory. Birds are an essential part of our natural heritage contributing to biodiversity ecosystem health and the beauty of our community. And whereas these birds travel thousands of miles across continents and oceans each year. Connecting nations, cultures and ecosystems. Ecosystems and whereas migratory, birds face increasing threats from habitat loss. Climate change pollution. And human-made hazards such as buildings. Buildings lights and infrastructure. And where is the observance of migratory bird day raises awareness. Of the need to conserve migratory birds and their habitats. Habitats through international cooperation and local. Action. And whereas our community recognizes the importance of protecting natural spaces. Promoting bird friendly practices. Practices and supporting conservation efforts that benefit both wildlife and people.

And whereas residents, organizations and institutions are encouraged to participate in activities such as birdwatching. Habitat restoration education programs and conservation initiatives. Initiatives now, therefore on behalf of the 56 city commission. And mayor David F Anderson, the city of Kalamazoo do hereby proclaim, May 16th, 2026. As world migratory bird day in the city of Kalamazoo. Thank you very much. Mr mayor and the rest of the city commission and we invite. All of you and everyone in the community to join us on. This coming Saturday, May 26th down at Upjohn park. From nine to two for our celebration of world migratory bird day. And Mr. Mayor for you. I also have. A little bird buddy in English and Spanish to let you know that you are now a buddy of birds. Thank you so much. All right, we're going to move on to the next proclamation for period poverty awareness week, May 11th through the 17th, 2026. Whereas half of the population will likely. Tate each month for decades of their lives. And whereas menstrual supplies are necessity each month for people who menstruate. And whereas lack of menstrual supplies known as period poverty. Can adversely affect the health

and wellbeing of menstruate. And disproportionately impact. Black and Latino women. And whereas national studies report that two in five menstrual have struggled to purchase menstrual supplies due to lack of income and more than one in three menstrual, miss work or school as a result. And whereas period, poverty, exasperate exacerbates. The vicious cycle of poverty by forcing menstruate to withdraw from daily life, losing pay or missing educational opportunities. And whereas period, poverty is a public health and health equity issue and addressing access to period products for all. People can lead to improved health for menstruate and economic opportunity for individuals and communities to thrive and reach their full potential. And whereas local state and federal entities can take action to address period poverty and ensure equitable access to period products by providing products in institutions. Such as prisons and jails, including menstrual products in public health benefits and poverty programs and making products available in public restrooms, public schools and homeless shelters. And whereas this week is design designated to recognize the importance of a addressing period poverty to promote health equity across the city and ensure. The health and wellbeing of all people who menstruate. To thank organizations, committed to resolving this fundamental issue in our city and to encourage Kalamazoo residents, to donate to period supply banks. Product drives and organizations that collect and distribute period products for those struggling with period poverty. Now, therefore on behalf of the 56 city commission and David Anderson, mayor of the city of Kalamazoo do hereby proclaim May 11th through the 17th, 2026 as period poverty awareness week in Kalamazoo. Hello, my name is Sarah. I work at care collective of Southwest Michigan.

And I am here for your annual reminder. That people have periods. Periods and care. Collective is a basic needs bank and we distribute free period products to young people, young adults, caregivers, and those who need it in our community. And I'm gonna share with you. Three quick ways that you can support menstruate. Right now, the first is that you can advocate. Advocate for free period products in the bathrooms where you work, where you go to church. Where you hang out. Access to products helps those experiencing period poverty. It helps anyone who menstruates, who is caught. Unprepared and helps reduce stigma surrounding those products. Products. The second thing you can do is you can follow care collective. On social media or our newsletter to learn about. Being many ways that we have to get involved and support menstruate. You can volunteer, donate. And learn more on our social media. And the last thing you can do is actually the easiest. One of all. Is to keep talking about periods. Periods. It's why I'm here today. And the more that we talk about periods, the more we chip away at that stigma. And the easier it is for folks. Who need it, especially the youngest kiddos in our community who are starting to menstruate. The easier, it makes it for them to ask for what they need. So thank you for having me.

Mr Harron, please come to the podium. national apprenticeship week. Whereas national apprenticeship week annually raises awareness of the vital role of registered apprenticeships that registered apprenticeships provide in meeting critical industry demands. And. Whereas registered apprenticeship programs developed a highly skilled workforce that employers need and create pathways for Americans to catapult into in demand. High paying careers and whereas registered apprenticeship programs are. Industry driven high quality career pathways that enable employers to develop. And train their future workforce and individuals can obtain paid. Work experience with a mentor. Receive progressive wage increases. Increases classroom instruction and a portable nationally recognized credential. Now on behalf, therefore on behalf of the 56 commission. And David F Anderson the mayor of the city of Kalamazoo. I do hereby proclaim, April 22nd, sixth. Through May 2nd, 2026 as national apprenticeship week 2026 in the city of Kalamazoo. Hello everybody. Good evening. My name is Jamar Herron. I'm the apprenticeship success coordinator for Michigan work. Southwest work with my brother drew. Drew, just like to thank you all for your support. We celebrated national apprenticeship week. As it says, April 26th through May 2nd. Supporting area employers to create. And maintain apprenticeship programs. Programs in Fort county region, including Kalamazoo. And we just take time to help those employers. And not only employers, as you know, Michigan works works with. Many of our individuals

in our community to find jobs. So we're putting those two together and we're trying to. Create these strong career pathways for. Individuals looking for careers. Careers. So thank you. And last but not least. We have childcare provider a appreciation day. Who is here for the childcare provider. Appreciation date here is we have a proclamation. Whereas high quality. Early childhood education is foundational. To children's long-term health. Social emotional development. And academic achievement and the dedicated professionals who deliver this care are among the most important. Contributors contributors to our community's future. And whereas the city of Kalamazoo is home. To 157 licensed childcare providers. Providers whose small businesses serve as economic anchors for working families. Enabling parents to participate in the workforce. And whereas childcare providers in the city of Kalamazoo nurture. Educate and care for the youngest members of our community. Creating safe environments. Where children learn, grow, and thrive. And whereas childcare providers have demonstrated. Extraordinary resilience and dedication. Adapting their programs to meet the evolving needs of children and families.

While maintaining the stability and consistency that children depend upon for healthy development. And whereas the average cost of care for an infant in a childcare center is over 14. Thousand dollars per year. In Kalamazoo county, well, above the recommended 7% that a family should pay for childcare. And we're as low wages across childcare industry and insufficient public investment. Have led to workforce shortages. Shortages declining quality in infant and toddler care. Reduce capacity and long waiting lists for families. And whereas the childcare workforce. Disproportionately composed of women. Including black, brown and indigenous women. Is among the lowest paid in the state. With average wages below $14 and 50 cents per hour. And under 1% of workers earn enough to support a typical family. And, or as the Kalamazoo childcare coalition. Composed of parents, childcare providers, and community partners, including higher education. Economic development, philanthropy and municipalities. Have demonstrated the economic impact of the lack of access to affordable childcare on families. And whereas it is both fitting and proper that we pause. To express our deepest gratitude. And recognition to the childcare providers whose commitment. Creativity and compassion. Make the city of Kalamazoo. A better place for children and families. Now, therefore on behalf of the 56th city commission. And David F Anderson mayor of the city of Kalamazoo. I do hereby proclaim May 8th. As childcare provider appreciation day. And encourage all residents

of the city of Kalamazoo to join in recognizing and honoring all childcare providers whose work strengthens our community. Each and every day. Thank you. Thank you. He always pushed me to the microphone. So I'll take it. Thank care providers in the room too. So the. Childcare provider appreciation day is always the Friday before mother's day. And the Monday after mother's day is the national day without childcare. So recognizing that the folks here in this room spent all day to day with children so that the rest of us could go to work and go to school and go to doctor's appointments and do all the other things that we rely on. You for as a society. It is you know, every single day parents. Are praising their childcare providers for the care that they provide for our children. And we just wanted to take the opportunity. And so thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you Commissioner for recognizing. Them and their service to our community.

Thank hold us. Turn. Come on up. Come on. Once again. Thank you sir. Very much for everyone who took the effort, came down here and made sure we were also aware of the IMS important things going on in KMZ. Zoo and worldwide that we wanna recognize here. Commissioners. We are down to see the adoption of the formal. Agenda. Are there any items on the consent Agenda? That you would like to have to move that you'd like to move to H the regular Agenda. Okay. Scene none that the Agenda. Stands next communications. Manager Hankins. Thank you, mayor. Just a couple of things. City of Kalamazoo is holding its public services week. And wanted to invite the public out. To participate in the open houses that will take place on May 19th. Tuesday May 19th and Thursday, May 21st. And so this is the opportunity for residents to come out and. Learn more about the work that the Kalamazoo public services.

Services group, does they tour facilities? Meet the public work staff. Public services staff and learn more about the maintenance, forestry streets and stormwater operations. So it's a great event. There will be food. So we invite everyone out to, to experience that. One other update. Bike week in the city of Kalamazoo is may and may is national bike month. And so the city of Kalamazoo is rolling out a variety of events to celebrate cycling. The 15th annual Kalamazoo bike week starts Saturday, May 9th, which already. Took place. This year's events takes place from. 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM from the downtown mall. Yeah, just the bike rodeo will. The annual bike rodeo will also take place from five to 6:30 PM on May 13th. So this year's events for the bike rodeo will take place at a new location at the Kalamazoo farmer's market. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much manager Hankins. Hankins. We are now to item E on our Agenda, which is public. Comments. This is an opportunity for anyone here in the chambers to comment on any item of their choosing. You'll have four minutes, please state your name. And whether you live in the city. Hi, I go by Kay. And so I don't even know where to start, but I'm gonna start with the. Article for the two way conversion. From ancestral trails to two-way roads, how Kalamazoo streets keep changing with the times. It really feels like a cheap shot, a romanticizing, the history of Kalamazoo, the violent.

History of how this land was taken to build these roads. It, it did begin with the, with natives who live here and their impact, which sounds like it would be central to this piece, given the title, but the passive language, white washes, indigenous people, as people who came and others came that turned trails into roads. Completely ignoring the removal act of 1840. And the history of indigenous people. And I just want that to. Be kind of the gateway to just hearing what, what we're, what the proclamations today were. The world migratory birthday. I heard about. Environmental environmentalism. Per per period poverty awareness. I heard about the Alice statistics where. It talks about how 67% of black households are living paycheck to paycheck. And 50% of Latinx households are in the same, in the same boat. And the things that people have to sacrifice to be able to pay their rent, which is over 30% of their income, sometimes it's period products. Products national apprenticeship week. What if we put some of the money that. That was used for Arcadia from the ARPA funds. The 1.3 million for KD PS retention and recruitment bonuses. Into national apprenticeship week. So we could expand these programs for the youth. What about childcare provider appreciation day it's we fall into the same. Categories as the Alice statistics here, I wanna put this into perspective because appreciation. Is important, but putting money. Into the, the programs and the people of this community is what matter matters most. Instead the ARPA funds were, were supposed to be used for the most impacted community

was used to renovate Arcadia, which is now the catalyst for the arena. Without the infrastructure improvement under the Arcadia. I don't know if the arena would've been possible. And so I just. Really, really, I didn't know where to start today because as this government. Starts to collapse on the people as gas prices increase. As we see the crisises y'all are not. Feeling it as black and brown people. Immigrants getting caught by eyes, kidnapped on the streets. That's coming to Kalamazoo. It's already in grand rapids. They're gonna get a fourth facility. In grand rapid. That is where, where. Our community goes to their, their appointments. They go to Detroit, same thing in Detroit. We're getting the data centers all over. Michigan is the big debate. While we have established Democrats fighting for the same things, fighting for the same optics and the, and the progressive. Liberals just feels like getting squashed, right? Talking about disruption. What do we have? Like, what are we gonna have left? In this community, when we didn't put funds that were supposed to be used for the community towards Dunn house instead. Arcadia was fenced off the whole winter. And Chris Nuri froze in MLK park, Martha Luther king park. When that could have been, that has been a shelter. And it has been known as a shelter for the unhoused by the Notre Dame study that was done. It said that unhoused people that was very vital to their survival, to their, there was a part of their. Community and still this city continues to ignore the people. And I just wanna put this sense of urgency. That is all I wanna do, because it is an urgent matter with Trump in office, with this administration, with all the politicians who are selling out to this, that. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else? Yes, please come forward. Caleb Leonard resident Kalamazoo. I hear, give us your. Are tired. You're poor. You're weary, yearning to breathe free. I apologize if I approach you that, but that's what I got out from you. I'm here and I'm going to read up some questions. I have a copy for the commission and the professionals here. Recently with the storms. And forgive me, I'm a little shaky today trying to still figure out this light thing. So I'm gonna start with that. Cause it's the most important and I'll have some follow up. So I submit to you today, a series of questions regarding the level of communication, support and coordination that the city administration, Kalamazoo public schools. Utility providers and any other organizations or persons who support. Support emergency safety operations within the area. We ask these questions because during recent. Emergencies, including a murderer in Davis park, recent flooding and the low. Well, there appeared to be a lack of communication. And coordination among these people entrusted with our children's safety. Again, this is not a hatchet job. This is how do we reflect and learn? Okay. After the shooting. Of Lonnie and Davis street park. Were any attempts made by the city? To notify K PS transportation. Of the danger of a murder at large, within 45 minutes. Of elementary school bus drop off. What were they, were you aware that the bus drivers were unaware of the situation? Where you are aware that the parents were unaware of the situation. Did the city initiate or attempt to initiate coordination referrals for mental health services for the middle school children who just witnessed a murder. Were any their non-city organizations contacted to provide these social supports. Supports moving on during the recent microburst floodings and other

weather. Rate related activities were any attempts made by the city to. Notify K PS transportation of the significant danger of down power lines. Falling trim lines, et cetera at all, to allow them to reroute buses. Buses, what were they was any communication with K P S able to be made due to their power and system outages that they experienced? Was any communication with Metro? The bus routes able to be made due to their power and system outages. Outages was any communication. Are you aware that both 9 1 1 dispatch. And consumer's energy emergency lines were backlogged. To over 30 minute wait times. Are you aware that that at one point a down line was reported and guarded by citizens? That 9 1 1 dispatch was told that consumer's energy was on the site when it was not. Neighbors had to flag down a firetruck after about an hour. We respectfully submit these questions and request that you collect answers from the appropriate agencies on behalf of our children. To ensure and assure there's ability to safely return home. Even when emergencies arise. We realistically expect the city will act as our agent to coordinate. Between all these various agencies. Even if it is not the city's direct area of. Responsibility, these scenarios and situations be discussed by the involved. Professionals an appropriate review of the events being conducted. This review, be used to guide specific and tangible corrections and improvements. These corrections and reviews ensure redundancy and effectiveness of cross organization coordination during emergencies. This process be open and transparent to the public. The plans of action, be communicated to parents and citizens. Citizens a presentation, providing an assessment of these questions, requests for a clarifications. Answers as practical a timeline, providing

answers to the remainder. So we seek the following move motion today. I move that within the next two business days, this council selects a member or members to work with the appropriate civil servants to address the questions and expectations outlined in the letter submitted by Mr. Leonard. On behalf of our thank you. Next please. Hello, there we go. I accept this platform with the humility of one who stands on occupied Anishinabe land stewarded by our indigenous community members. Who's wealth. You appropriate. I also stand here in solidarity with all axes of resistance that pursue true liberation here on turtle island. In Palestine, Sudan, the DRC and beyond. I do not be believe that awareness is an appropriate ask in an institution where action is supposed to take place. I say this with the utmost respect for those behind me who are truly leading the action. For the natural world for children. For menstruating populations and for the unhoused. Unhoused, all of these needs are ones that you could meet tomorrow. If you so chose. You can ensure that childcare providers are properly compensated. That every adult and child is housed and fed. So tonight, as you bask in the free optics that have been handed to you by your constituents. Constituents know that these accomplishments are not yours. And then until you step out onto the out of these chambers and onto the streets with your community, until you choose your people over a badge. They never will be. And again, I'm not thanking you for not doing your jobs. Thank you. Next please.

Hi, everyone. Again, my name is Tina McClinton. And I live in the lovely south town neighborhood, the south side of town, you know, the neighborhood that always floods. Floods this time. Normally after one point 38 inches of rain, we normally flood the storm drains, flood out the streets and then back up the sewers. Sewers the storm sewers. What I kind of find kind of strange is with this last Wayne. We got four or more inches of rain. We were able to get home. But a part of the north side, flooding no ponds, no water over there. And you declare the state of emergency. And you are already fixing the problem. So why can't you fix the problem? On the south side of town in my neighborhood. And the issues that flood our streets out has been happening for over eight years. Two to three times a year. You shouldn't be able to build anything in my neighborhood. Until you fix this problem. Cuz every time you build you flood us more. Every time you take away a tree, it doesn't help us. Every time you take away a piece of green space, I don't care if it's just grass. It doesn't help us. It hurts us more and more. Every single time. All we want. Is dry streets like the rest of the neighborhoods. Have we wanna be able to get home when it rains? Like all of you do. We don't wanna have to try to find somewhere to go. Or go through four feet of flood water. That might have sewage in it to try to get home. This has got to be unhealthy. For anybody. So please. Stop building in my neighborhood until you fix this problem. Stop taking away natural spaces, trees, mature trees. We are in

a severe climate change. And flooding will get worse and worse. It's time now as the rain falls, trees reduce water. Run off like a canopy, large trees can absorb eight to a hundred gallons of water a day. Up day. Why would you keep destroying trees? Your little trees don't absorb that much water. And why is there a big. Crane on bank and lake street drilling down to the groundwater today. They are taking a lot of water out. It would be nice. To be informed on what's going on in our neighborhood. To even have an ideal of what's happening. Don't have a clue. I doubt if it's something to fix something, it's probably something cuz you're gonna build there. And you gotta make it better so you can build. Bring back public call-ins so every neighborhood has a chance to speak. For some people can't get here. They're older. They don't have a car they're disabled. If they could just call and, and voice their concerns. Concerns that would be so important to them. And everybody would have a voice again. And another thing, the Portage road diet. That's a joke. Traffic is so. Backed up, go through there. When our, when the school is letting out. You can't even go down the street. You got cars turning in. You got cars waiting to turn out. You got one lane, but you got cars sitting in them. So you're just stuck there. And Len is too high. As much crime goes on in Kalamazoo and all the stuff that's not working. Right. And you charge that much for people for rent. No wonder nobody has a home to live in. They can't afford it. This is pictures. I didn't flood in my basement, but

this is pictures of the iron. That I promised you the last time I came. That shows how the iron came up in my cell phone and my neighbor had to clean it out to get the sub pump back working. This also shows you what it looked like. Thank you. Next please. Good evening to our mayor, our vice mayor. Commissioners city managers, city attorney. My name is Charla Davis with Isaac. I want to first start by thinking manager, Hankins and his wife and his family for again, making time. For neighborhood and community meet and greets this month. Our urban Alliance, family hosted, and then also our Kalamazoo junior girls. Organization hosted. They provided their location for our immigrant family members. The weather held for us at urban Alliance. So the adults were mainly outside around the grill with the DJ. Conversing. And then also our children were in the gym with a bouncy house. So during a difficult time for many our community members. Spoke afterwards about feeling truly heard by our manager. Some came, not knowing what to expect and not thinking that they should attend, but they did. And they were so happy. They communicated that they were so happy that they did attend and they took, and so thank you so much manager and your family as well. Also thank you to mayor. We were eagerly awaiting the new CRB member. And so we were so happy to see that on the Agenda. So thank you for that as well. I want to next lift the importance of oversight when discussing surveillance. I just wanna revisit the last meeting just a little bit. I heard from beloved community members. Family members who were concerned about the devastating shooting and crime in our neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods. I also heard about from beloved community members. Discussing the tragic actions of our federal government. Crimes against our immigrant family members, women seeking healthcare women. Getting away from abused partners. Partners and the reach of the federal government and the blatant movement. Of white supremacy. And for me, this is not an either or because either, or is a white supremacy culture trait, but it is a both. And we want all of our community members to feel safe, especially those who are in impacted in different ways. So, so no one needs to ever be sacrificed with our choice. All family members in Kalamazoo. Deserve to feel safe. And so oversight is important. As we know, all departments have internal checks and balances that's important, but then we also know that we cannot audit ourselves. That's not transparency. Many of us are looking to ex experts. Reporting best practices, lessons from other cities. Ones that keep community members. Safe build trust and transparency. There are many models, community focused with community members, elected officials, law enforcement. And we are also learning the importance of practices and written. Policies and we look forward to sharing more on this later. I want to remind you all as well. And I know you know this, but we're seeing the federal actions that continue to put our community in danger. Especially those who are impacted. So again, it's my hope that we shift to preparation. And not be only reactive. We see going on another note here, we see what's happening in the south with voting rights. It's time to prepare up here, up north as well for what's ahead of us. Lastly, last meeting, a wonderful board was lifted a city board.

There are awesome community members and staff member members who are on these city boards. So I want to just honor them. I want to ask too, from you all before me, that you please lean into equitable conversations about shared power and decision making. With our city boards. That's not something that just happens, but it has to happen intentionally. It has to come together and be drafted together collaboratively. And then you have to keep it up ongoing as well. And so what we do want is that whatever the purpose is for the city board, whatever board it is, that that is achieved in an equitable way. So that community members definitely trust. What's coming out of the boards and again, a special thank you to the city board members, community members and staff as well. Thank. Thank you. Is there anyone else at the chambers? See, no one else that wants to take advantage of Public Comment. I want to thank everyone that took the time, made the effort to come down here. And share your thoughts and comments with us. Next is the consent Agenda. G manager Hankins. Thank you mayor. For consideration and approval. Items G one. Approval of contract extension with K and B asphalt for crack. Seal and city streets in the amount of 116th. Thousand $910. Item two approval of a contract supplemental and change order with Corby energy services. Services Inc for sanitary sewer lining in support of wastewaters. Wastewaters asset management plan in the amount of $216,796 and 30 cents. Cents item three approval of a contract

supplemental and change order with west wind construction and development. For the Abbey 42 private water filtration and plumbing upgrades, any amount of $414,447 and 28 cents and approval of a budget amendment in the same amount item, four approval of amendment memorandum of understanding with Cooper township and the Georgia Pacific party for water connect. Connections item five approval of the mayor's appointment of Keisha Dixon. Dickinson to the civil rights board for term expiring on March 31st. 2027 item six approval of the following appointments to boards and commissions. The appointment of Katie bloom to the environmental concerns committee. For term expiring on January 1st, 2027. The appointment of Elizabeth crotch to the parks and recreation advisory board for a term expiring on January one. 2027 item seven approval of a request from the Kalamazoo country club for a permit to publicly display fireworks at 16 0 9 whites road on Friday, July 3rd, 2026. Item eight approval of a request for the Kalamazoo growers to publicly display fireworks. Fireworks at Homer Stryker field on May 29th. June 12th, June 26th, July 4th. July 10th and July 31st, 2026. Item nine approval of the minutes from the city commission meetings on April 20th, 2026. An item 10 approval of a purchase agreement. With Esteven and Linda French for the purchase of parcel number zero seven dash 27 dash two 80 dash 12. In Comstock township, any amount of $57,000. Thank you. Very much manager, Hankins commissioners. The requested action is a motion to approve items. One through nine. And postpone item 10.

Until May 18th, 2025. And authorized the city manager to sign all related documents on behalf of the city. Is there a motion? So moved motion made by vice mayor Duncan. Support supported by Commissioner SLA. Slaby Kirk barley, please call the roll Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners. The items on the consent Agenda are approved. We are now down to H the regular Agenda. First item city manager, Hankins. Thank you, mayor. H one adoption of a resolution adopting a project plan for water water system improvements. And designated James J. Baker. PE as the authorized project representative. Thank you, manager Hankins. Is there a staff report on this item? Yes, mayor. There is. I see think director baker is gonna give us a brief presentation. Welcome director baker. Good to see you. Thank you, your honor. Thank you. City manager, city commissioners. Good evening. And thank you for the introduction. We'll go ahead and get right into this here. Give you some project background on this funding opportunity. We're gonna talk through. Project description and justifications. We're gonna look at examined alternatives. Alternatives cost and debt repayment. Impacts and actions to mitigate those impacts. And there'll be a time for Public Comment. As well, give you some background. The city is applying for a drinking water state revolving fund coming, refer to as DWS R F. This is a low interest financing. Instrument that allows us to provide. And partner updates and upgrades infrastructure. Of the water system at

rates that are more favorable than. Our open bond. Network. So we're able to get lower interest rates and we're able to get loan terms that are more. Advantage for the city, which translates into lower rates. For rate payers, the DWS RF is a federal financing program administered at the state level. So these funds are state funds that are managed by the department environment, great lakes and energy or Eagle who administer the program. To be considered for this funding application. The city must submit a project plan, which describes the projects that we intend to finance and explain why they're necessary. Also note that the project plan is available online. If you're able to use a web browser search en engine, you can just search for city Kalamazoo. DWS RF 20, 26, and El pull you to our project plan. Page where all of our project plans are listed. Those project plans are then scored and prioritized. Based on need across the state of Michigan. We'll say that there's a fixed amount of funding available. So it's very competitive. And these are competitive programs. So city Kalamazoo's competing against all the other. Water utilities across the state of Michigan. Part of the requirements to be considered for DWS R F. SRF as to have the public, be able to view that project plan and be able to comment on that. That's why we're here tonight to receive comment for that plan. We're also here to address any comments that do come up. As of today, we have not received any written comments. Comments about we'll continue to receive comments and comments made here tonight will be incorporated. In the project plan when we submit that to Eagle. We're just talking through the project. Descriptions and justifications, how do we.

Decide which projects to bring forward in the project plan. Some background on that is that back in 2016. The city submitted an asset management plan. To the state of Michigan, that asset management plan was then updated. Updated annually. The asset management plan is a, a big kinda overarching strategy that looks at all the infrastructure assets within the drinking water system. It looks at asset age. Asset condition, criticality of failure. Probability of failure and it kind of ranks these projects and then prioritize them in our capital improvement plan. Our capital improvement plan is brought forward to the planning commission and the city commission on an annual basis that creates kind of our work plan plan and drives our budget for rates that we bring forward. You. Over year. So as we look across that, capital plan back to the asset management plan. We prioritize specific projects to bring forward. To in this funding application to the state of Michigan. And that has to deal with making sure that we're competitive in this. Application and making sure that we're implementing work that's needed in reference to our asset management plan. This project plan is really specifically about. Lead. Service line replacement, which also includes galvanized. Pipe replacement. So Eagle has specific definitions on what constitutes a lead service line. You may also see us refer to lines as non copper. So those are lines that. All include lead. Galvanized galvanized previously connected to lead and that can include street side lead or yard side lead. The area of the map that you see in front of you here is the area. Of our project plan that is being updated for 2027. So it includes many city Kalamazoo neighborhoods. Neighborhoods kind

of south of downtown and then. South and east of stadium drive. And then kind of south of. The Kalamazoo river there and bordered on the south by I 94. And then up in, up into the city. In terms of examined alternatives, the project plan requires us to look at what potential alternatives. Alternatives could be incorporated and compared to the project that's selected. So one of those is no action. We, we don't think that's a viable option. You know, we. Would refer to the state led and copper. Rule, which requires us to remove all lead service lines that are in the ground. So this is work that needs to happen. And we don't think that. No action is a viable alternative for this. We also looked at regionalization as an alternative. However we already are the regional provider. Of providing water to 11 surrounding jurisdictions. Jurisdictions and the action of creating a regional utility, which we already are one that still does not address the issue to have. Individual led service lines to individual homes. Homes. So it still needs that work to happen. In terms of cost, we have kind of a, a present worth analysis that compares. Compares future cost for all the alternatives. Again, we're really only looking at two comparisons here. We're looking at replacing the lead service lines or not replacing the lead service lines. So, this is kind of a, a moot point here in that we still recommend moving forward with the project. There's also an environmental evaluation that has to be conducted on each project. Alternative. So when we look at mitigating those. Impacts.

We're really looking at. Utilizing construction methods means and methods that would. Reduce the impact environmentally on that work. And we've got a lot of good experience with this. So to kind of describe that process. The majority of all lead service line replacements are completed. Without major excavation in the front yard. So we dig a small hole in the street over where the water main is. We dig a small hole, usually in the sidewalk. Where that curb box is at. And then we go inside the home. Pull the meter connect a pulling device to that lead line. And then we actually pull that lead line out and we spool in new copper. Inside. So that copper pipe's connected to the lead pipe that we're pulling out. And as we're pulling that out, we're pulling in new copper. So this technique, it was something that city crews have been doing. Here since the 1990s, that was also something that. City crews learned together with crews from Lansing, the Lansing board of water and light uses that same technology as they did their work. Cost for the project and, and debt repayment, just to talk overall about what, how this project would impact rates. Our current rate study would anticipate a rate rate increase in 2027 of around 7%. So that's kind of looking at our whole capital plan. Looking at all of our operations. This was presented last year in November and it still can continues forward. So we've got a multi-year of five-year plan and strategy with in regards to the capital program and the rates to fund those programs. Programs. And so this project would be a, a portion of that. Depending on where we come in on the grant. What the principle forgiveness. May or may not be, or what that final.

Interest rate is, would impact. The actual final amount of the, the debt repayment. The scope of the project is about 19 million. So that's what our ask is. That's what our funding application is for. If we took that 19 million and we applied it to a 20 year loan with a 3% interest rate, the cost for that. Specific work would be about a dollar 55 per residential equivalent unit per month. Or about $4 and 65 cents per residential equivalent unit. Per quarter. So are you, is it just another way of saying a household. It's utilized terminology. In accordance with this funding application. So we use ARU to kind of compare apples to apples. Apples, the actual impact to a household will be based on your metered volume. And again, this is not a rate recommendation. This is just. Providing some concept of how a 19 million. Lead service line replacement project would impact. Rate payers across Kalamazoo. It's important to note that we don't charge individual households for that lead service line replacement. Lead service line replacement costs about $10,000. We don't give a bill to that household for $10,000. That work is covered by the utility. And network is supported across those 11 municipalities. And programs such as this really help to. Leverage this work and these funding opportunities to continue to accelerate our progress. Looking now at some larger issues of. Environmental public health and, and other impacts. So we're looking at. Impacts across an entire project and how we may mitigate those. Some of these may apply to the project. Some do not, as you kind

of go through this list here, there's a lot of things that may not. Be specific to just replacing lead service lines. There is still a requirement for us to go through this and make sure we're mitigating those impacts. I can just look at a few of 'em and kind of lift those up. Endangered species, for example. Will reference Indiana brown bat. And our work that we do with trees. So if there are tree removals, those tree removals have to be scheduled in accordance with. The schedules outlined to protect the Indiana brown bat. So that's an example of something that we're doing to mitigate. Any environmental impacts. All this work will have to go through. Historical review and environmental reviews. So those project areas that were referenced will be studied to make sure that we're not gonna impact any. Cultural social. Impactful things as we're doing that, that work, that led service line replacement work. Continuing along the discussion of impacts and mitigation. Now, this is specific to the construction itself. So during construction, you'll see some impacts to traffic. We're doing a project very similar to this we're in Edison neighborhood right now, doing this work. So we're doing a, a lot of these things right now, you see. Impacts to construction traffic patterns. Patterns. We are putting up soil erosion. Prevention your individual home. When we come to do the work, we're there between six and eight hours. So it's about a full day. And during that time period, you'll have no access to water. At least from your city water. So. That's something that we do schedule with homeowners. Homeowners. And we asked that, do you use a filter? Before, and after that help protect you and your family from any particulate that could

get dislodged when we're changing the most surfaces out. That's my last slide. I introduce back over to you, your honor. And we'll open the floor for Public Comment. Thank you again, director baker. Commissioner's questions about this plan and. Request to apply for this source of funding. Commissioner SLA. Slaby thank you. Thorough as always. I just had, I know that we've had. You know, some considerations about how we market this and do the outreach to residents and also create that feedback loop. So if something does come up, they're able to provide that feedback to the team for you guys to promptly respond back to. And, you know, there's been hiccups, you know, along the way. With any given project. Could you tell a little bit. Explain a little bit more about like the focus on outreach. For this next phase and. You know, how are we thinking about language access? I know we've done some partnerships with town square media. In the past around interpretation, are we gonna continue that? With this, and maybe some lessons we've learned along the way that will incorporate this time around. Thank you Commissioner. That's certainly great questions. Just to jump right into it. As we look to increase our footprint in the neighborhood, and we're really starting to pick up this work. There'll be letters that go out. In, in those letters or make sure that. We're we're providing access to. You know, folks that that may have other than English language. So they're able to communicate with, with folks. Those letters would go out that reference. The works coming up, we'll identify the contractor and notify the resident that a contractor will be.

Reaching out as well, the contractor then will be required to also send letters out. So they'll be kind of a series of letters that will be showing up in the mailbox. Once that occurs, we'll also be doing. Door to door. What we call door hangers. For folks to really wa raise awareness. For the project, the project contractor will be required to have a scheduler so that somebody that works on the contractor. Contractors side that is really just focusing on. Connecting families to appointments and being able to work with families to. Make sure that they have access to that. Those resources. Resources. We also, if we, if we have to. Due to schedule we're flexible. So we, we can come in and, and do after hours scheduling with. Specific families as that need arises. Arises and we'll be communicating. On the radio as well. So. We do have radio partnerships, or I should better clarify those as advertising partnerships with town square media. That is includes radio. Also social media and other types of advertising to get the information out there that we're doing this work. And to expect to, to hear from us in letters and in, in door hangers and to see us. In around the neighborhood. Also note that we are. Really looking at homes that have lead service lines and we, we know where those are at. So if there's a neighbor that didn't get a letter or didn't get. A card, you can give us a call and we can look up the material in that home and just verify. That that home, you know, does or does not need a lead service line replacement. Thank you, director baker, other questions for director baker at this time. Commissioner Praedel sure. Hey director, be here. Thanks for the presentation.

Question for you for the, the D w S R F funding request with the state that you're describing. We've had multiple of these before. I was wondering when we're adding these continuations. Do you find that it's actually helpful in our odds of getting them because they can see that we have a vision and a long-term plan. And we're continuing to aggressively tackle the lead service lines. Or do you think there are any odds or potential that because we've asked for so many that it could hurt our odds? I mean, what is, what is your general thought or. Obviously you don't have a crystal ball, but was curious. To your thoughts on that? Sure. I'm I'm trying. So the scoring criteria. Is statutory. So there's, there's a law. I can't. Can't tell you, I can't reference what ally is, but. The scoring criteria have been kind of set in stone, so to speak. And I, and I can't recall directly. If there's continuation points. To continue this, this work. I, I can say that. Projects that are phased. Phased are scored as continuation. Although our, our applications have been independent every, every single year. Yeah. We have been very competitive in this work. These funding programs have really kind of carried the day. For our accelerated lead service line replacement in Kalamazoo. Right now, our numbers as of today are, are 6,715. Replacements. And if you look at that with a goal of 10,000, that puts us at about 67%. Completed. We've got work happening right now. That's getting. Ready to it's bidding out right now. We'll be back before you get to award. Under previous DW, S R F ask. And that work is gonna put about another thousand. Lead service line replacements in play. We've got work happening right now. That's gonna continue through this year. So we've

anticipating with this grant application, this funding application that's in front of you. This should carry us through our program. So there's a few more steps involved with this. It would be determining the determination from Eagle. Whether or not, we, we get the funding that would come in the intended use plan in. Late summer to September. We'll know when we come forward for. Your water rate recommendations, usually in November. Where this project sits, this would then bid out next year, an award and probably take about two years. To complete out. So if everything goes as planned, somewhere between 2029 and 2030. City Kalamazoo should at that point. Be completed with all lead service line replacements. It's amazing. You're you are so good at answering these questions already answering some of the questions I had for you, which, you know, I mean, one of the things I wanted to make sure to mention. And applaud you and your team, as you talked about, you know, $4 and 65 cents per quarter, just for this segment. To be done on a typical bill. And this is not the first time we've, we've requested one of these, these grants that. Are the bond rates would be significantly less than what we could get at market. And in some cases could be forgiven completely. And so when you add all these up that we've had over the years, I mean, that is a significant. Savings to rate payers in the community. And shows that we're not only great stewards, but we're trying to do our best to, to. Avoid any more significant increase, cuz we know that it's already been a strain on folks. So thank you for that work and those efforts to do that. Question for you, you would mention that there are about 1900 lines with this, with this segment.

Do with, with those 19 hundreds lines, have those already been identified? I know in a number of the neighborhoods that you mentioned. So Millwood Southwest edge, Oakwood, windshield, west main neighborhoods, and a number of those neighborhoods. It's not just across the board. Every single home is lead service line or non copper. So I know in Millwood a couple years ago, the, they were out a assessing each home on a home by home basis. So were all of these 1900 homes already identified and. As for sure led locations. Locations. That's correct. And in, in my response to this, I want to lift up and, and. Congratulate our assistant city engineer for water. And a Crandal and has really run this program. Since inception as she's done just an amazing job. Of project management and just doing this work. Really kind of rolling her sleeves up and, and boots on the ground. Really heavy lift to carry all this work forward. In, in talking with Anna this afternoon and Anna's showing me her, you know, different maps and, and things that, that she uses to plan this work. And she's got a map of got little red dots on it in all that area in the red, red dots are. Anna's dots of homes that are known to have led or. Believed to have lead based on that work that we did a few years ago to identify, and we've gone and dug up homes and we've identified, you know, where those lead lines are at. So as you look at that map, in fact, I'll pull it up here. It's a pretty big area. And as you go south and as you go west. The age of those homes and age of the infrastructure starts to span outside of what we typically would consider. Homes that would have lead service lines. And so the density of where Anna's red dots are.

Are not as prevalent in areas as you move south and west, but they're, they still may be there. And so. For example, we're in Edison right now. And in many, in most streets. It is every single house, all the way down, both sides of the street. As you get south and you move kind of towards. Towards the west, it starts to be more sporadic and there may be one on a street or two on a street or, or something. But the densities are, are much less. Yeah, it's impressive. I, I will say, and I mean, as one of the homes that was, you know, surveyed or sampled as well, I was really impressed with. Just the outreach. I mean, you got the letter. There was like a personally delivered like poly bag that was hung on the door handle with instructions on what to expect. You know, and it's, it's a little intimidating to have somebody, you know, come and say, Hey, we're checking for. For potential lead in your home and whatnot, but you know, I, I think there's always room to grow, but I, I was quite impressed. Wanted to also just make sure to emphasize and, and clarify as well. So I listed off those neighborhoods that this portion would cover. But just to, to make sure the public understands this isn't like, you know, a prioritized neighborhoods or anything. There have been a number of neighborhoods that have been tackled. Even you mentioned that were currently working in Edison right now, but we've already. Al already tackled east side, north side as well, correct? That's correct. We have completed alled service line replacement in. East side Eastwood. Parchment Northwood north side. West Douglas and Fairmont neighborhoods. We are right now in Edison and will continue to be in Edison this year. So. If you've got an interest to look at where we've gone and, and the work we've done. We have a webpage dedicated to lead service. In lead service line replacements and just our lead program in general, you can look up your house.

What material you have at your house, and then there's a track progress. Page or, or dropdown on that page that shows a map and actually shows all the little dots. Dots of completed homes. And so we can kind of get down to the address of yep. My home was done and tells you what year oh, it was done in 2022. And so you can kind of see that progress, all that work we've done over time. We started. On blood blood levels of children. We worked with the local health department and said across all Kalamazoo across all these zip codes, where are the blood blood levels? The highest. And the information that we received at that time was that they were the highest. In east side in Eastwood, in Kalamazoo township. And then the numbers kind of declined. Declined going towards the west. And so for us, we said, okay, let's start in east side and Eastwood and then move. To the west and move south and we just continue to follow. That, that progress. Hmm. And again, just to give, I, I share this each time this comes up, but we had the federal administration here to celebrate our 5000th lid service line, which felt like it was not that long ago. I think the thing that was most notable and that was celebrating 5,000 lead service lines. And you just said that there's 6,715. Lead service lines completed are 67% of all of our lead service lines in our service area. Which is astonishing, but the thing that really stood out when the administration visited was that they particularly chose the city of Kalamazoo to come to celebrate because at the time. There were 180,000. Lead service lines replaced throughout the entire United States. So that includes every major city in the United States. In 5,000 of those were in the city of Kalamazoo. I mean, that's quite astonishing for our size, you know, definitely punching above our weight. So thank you for that. And then not to

mention, I mean, when you add this 19 million, I don't have the exact number, but I. Suspect it's gotta be hovering close to or above a hundred million invested in our community. Removed said led service lines and we have stuck with it. Every step of the way. So thank you for that, those efforts. And, and I'm grateful that we've been able to, to do this at such expedited level. It seems like your team continues to, to exceed the, the, the target timeline to complete the, this work, which show how motored and passionate your team is about doing this. Thank you. Yep. You Commissioner Praedel questions. Questions for director baker. All right. Just quick question from me. Smart meters are, are those being installed when you're doing the lead service line placements? Yes, they're a great point. That's what. Kinda shifting gears, talking about smart meters. We have a gold to incorporate. Smart meters in our system. So I'll bring it in more meters meter replacement. We're always looking for. Opportunities to kind of coordinate between projects. So if we're gonna be in a home to replace the lead service, that opens up a great opportunity for us to replace that meter as well. So all this work will also be partnered with. Our smart meter program and we will be replacing meters. So good news. You get a new service line and you'll have a new meter going forward. Awesome. Thank you again, director baker. Appreciate it. Is there anyone here in the chambers who would like to comment on this item, this item H one. If so please come forward to the podium. Give us your name and what you live in the city. You'll have three minutes. See, no one commissioners to recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion motion? Seconding motion made by Commissioner. Slaby supported by vice mayor

Duncan. Any further discussion commissioners. Scene none. I just do wanna make a comment. I wanna follow up a little bit on Commissioner. Proles thoughts. Thoughts, but fortunately, or unfortunately, I, I'm not sure how you would categorize it, but for example, when you have a campaign run for the city commission, sometimes the biggest thing you talk about isn't water lines necessarily. It's other things. But I just wanna remind all of us that. However, providing safe water is one of the most important things. In our most serious responsibilities that we. Do for each other here in this community and not just the city of Kalamazoo, we serve thousands and thousands and thousands more households than just in the city of Kalamazoo. Kalms zoo and it is. I, I think it's just very important to me when we talk in terms of equity as well. That we are looking at the fact that it is our older neighborhoods. Neighborhoods talking about Edison, where that's, where these line lines were installed. And so what we're, the work is making sure that everybody, no matter where they live. Still does not have to have a concern about the quality of the water that comes into their house. And. That's not something you just smack fingers and do. That's something that requires. Requires all kinds of planning. I know Anna has been deep into this amazing person. Here at the city. Undertaking this huge thing. That 20, 30 years ago, I, we was not even on our radar. We didn't even contemplate that this was gonna be something we're gonna be doing and, and suddenly. Engineering determined, very efficient ways to put. Install this copper and finding ways to finance it. And continuing to do it year in and year out. I mean, to me, this is.

Some of the best it can be as it relates to local government and local. Public services. The recommended action is the motion. Oh, we already did that. So discussion's over clerk Wallen, please call the roll Commissioner. Praedel yes. Commissioner Slaby yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Huss. Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners the motion. Passes next on the Agenda is item H two city manager, Hankins mayor. If I could on, on the last item, I just want to reflect that this doesn't happen everywhere. So when you can have your cities say that you're 67% complete. And they had waterline replace it. I'm telling you I've set in meetings in other communities where. You're just trying to find a few thousand dollars to do a few. So I don't wanna make light of it, but this is a great example of the work that the city is doing. So thank you. Item H two adoption of a resolution. Approving contract number 26, 50 78 with the Michigan department of transportation for the four to three lane conversion of Portage street with bike lanes from cork street to Stockbridge avenue. Any amount of 1 million, $39,000 for, excuse me, $1,039,402. Which includes 75,000 in federal grants and a city share of $289,402. Thank you, manager Hankins. Is there staff report on this item? There's actually a brief presentation from a person you're familiar with while he's walking up. I'll say that, you know, we focused on making streets safe for pedestrians, reducing excessive vehicles. Speeds. Speeds and reducing crashes. And that continues to be a focus of our traffic engineering group. The Porter street, four to three lane conversion brings. Brings some proven strategies to the table.

And solutions to enhance safety. So I'll hand it over to director baker to go forward. Welcome back director baker. Thank you, your honor. And, and thank you for the great introduction manager Hankins. Good evening city commissioners. We're gonna talk now about the proposed and recommended action for the Portage street court to Stockbridge m.com the four to three lane. Conversion project. So, you know, what is a 43 lane conversion. We kind of talk you through. What these street cross sections look like, how we make changes and how those changes impact. Safety overall, if you look at the photo here or sorry, the picture, the illustration, you've got kind of a typical. Four-lane street. This is two lanes of vehicle in each direction. That has a lot of. Points of conflict, those points of conflict. Create speed. Differentials where vehicles are passing one, passing each other. In the roadway. Cross-section, you know, vehicles maybe turning right. The vehicles that are approaching behind them will pass them and go around them. But something else is also happening in this left lane is that people are turning left and when people turn left, oftentimes they're stopped. And so we have kind of this very. Dangerous conflict where vehicles are actually speeding to go around vehicles that are. Going slower than they would like or turning. Right. And then they often find themselves. Approaching at a high rate of speed. Into the, the rear of the vehicle that is attempting to negotiate a left turn. We also see a lot of high impact high angle crashes, where vehicles are crashing into each other. Side swiping vehicles may not realize what lane they need to be in when, when they make a turn. Maybe they just turn

down to the street in their, in the left lane and they're gonna turn right. And they don't see the car, that's approaching them in their blind spot. That's also. In the right lane. So we have done this work all across the city. On many other streets, including whites road, Oakland drive. Verdict Kilgore, Parkview east, Michigan. Just to name a few. We've also done this work on cork and had a lot of success with it. This has resulted in city. Specific data that results in a 42% reduction in total crashes. And a 24% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes. Here's a cross section. Of Kilgore. So this is what a typical. Four to three lane cross-section will look like. You're looking at here, a three lane cross section where the middle. Serves as a left turn lane and then you've got dedicated. Through lanes. In this example, you've got a eastbound in a westbound and then there's additional room on that roadway. To which we've incorporated a, a bike lane. This is a kind of a top down view. This is a pretty busy, a pretty busy. View of what's going on here, but this is Portage street kind of showing you going around. The curve kind of there by the bakery. We've got Bryant street. Going off to the top and bottom, which translates to the west on the top and to the east on the bottom. And then you're approaching lane Boulevard. And so you see. There's been a lot of work to go into this, to bring in. Those lanes, bring those vehicles more to towards the center. To improve the site distance. I know folks that have shopped in this area or folks that have driven in this area. They're trying to turn out from some of these side streets. Have a really hard time

seeing around that curve or vehicles are kind of hiding behind buildings. Buildings. So the engineers did a lot of work to increase site distance in and around these areas. This project also incorporates. Pedestrian refuge island. So there'll be pedestrian refuge islands. Islands very similar to this. This is one that's in Parkview. These will be set up nearly. Nearly every one of those cross streets, including. Cross streets in your bus stops businesses and neighborhood destination. So this is a, a huge impact. We've heard before from community members that, you know, trying to get across some of these busy roads where we've got. Four lanes of traffic. We've got cars in, in multiple lanes. We've heard that referenced as to like Frogger trying to get across the street. And so this really helps to clean that up. It helps to eliminate all those points of conflicts. Conflicts, it gives pedestrians the ability to. Negotiate one lane of traffic at a time. Also bringing in those rapid flat, those push button activated rapid flashing beacons, also with lighting. So the lighting will be part of this project where we're enhancing lighting at these cross crosswalks and lighting at the at bus stops as well. Just want to highlight some community engagement that we've been working on prior to this project. Going back to last November. Last December. We've also had a, a presence online and with social media. And which has resulted in, in thousands of sorry, hundreds of comments. Commas and reaction. So happy to take. Any questions and kind of jump into this here. And we'll turn it back over to you, your honor. Thank you again, director baker questions for. Director baker on this item. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Thanks mayor. Thanks director baker. So I was personally impacted by the in 2023 whites road project.

Great project. It's, you know, it's improved our neighborhood significantly on that street. But during the construction, it was kind of annoying to get home. I'll be honest. Considering that there's some commercial properties, you know, in businesses on this segment that we're going to be working on. Here, do we have any sort of plans for. I guess making sure that. There isn't much disruption to those businesses. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And, and thank you for this. It's a great question. An important highlight. Of the type of work. So going back to that White's row project. That we did a few years ago. And then also that west inch project that was. Very very impactful to businesses that was very impactful to traffic. Very impactful for homeowners and property owners that, that live there. Both of those projects were water main projects where we had to dig. Very deep and replace water main. So Weich involved us digging right down the middle of Weich and kind of cutting off. Access to all sides in a total closure for a very long distance in the area that. Didn't really have adequate detours. Detours, very similar story with whites road, we dug a, a giant hole probably in the middle or the front of your house. And there was no access around it. We were. On whites. We were flipping cars to the other side. And so we were running two way of the traffic. On one side and then we had that huge hole on the other side. This project doesn't involve any of the deep excavation. So this project is not a water main project. It's not a sewer project. It's just kind of the, the road surface. So our plan with this project really is to do most of this work under traffic. So we're gonna allow all the traffic movements. We're just gonna shift folks around. So they'll be cones and things out there. To to move the,

the traffic to one side or the other. There are several businesses. There's a grocery store. So we are very keyed into that. Our engineers are, are talking to folks and make sure that we're maintaining access to those properties. So we're gonna be reaching out certainly to those businesses, making sure that we can get trucks in and out. Make sure that we're able to, to do the work and make sure that we're able to let everybody know that you can continue to go to those businesses. And continue to access that all being said, this project is completely different in scope than what we saw on whites and west. It's wasn't it. All right. Thank you. Could answer other questions. Questions vice for your talking. Thank you. You know how I feel about the bike lanes? So, what is the possibility of us looking at this project? In again, taking the bike lanes out of the street. And possibly, you know, doing a dual sidewalk or extending the sidewalk. So this project, as it sits right now is already designed. It's already bid, we've got a contractor ready to go. So we're kind of ready to move on on this street on this cross section. We've got a lot of confidence in this cross section. It's proven. It's worked very well all throughout a lot of those other streets. A lot of care was given to. Pull the alignments together so that we could improve site distance. And it does provide connectivity to existing. Bike lanes that are on Portage to the north. So from Stockridge going north, we've got bike lanes and we also have bike intersecting with some trail areas that all being said. There continues to be opportunities for. Off off street bike facilities. In this corridor kind of picking up where we left

off. We've got a spur that goes all the way through. The farmer's market. We go down Reed court. Were right on the edge of Reed street. And we're ready to go south from there. So there's certainly a need for. That corridor to continue to see development from. A non-motorized off-road infrastructure perspective and that work continues. We are working on that. We're just that that's gonna be a different project moving forward at a different time. Thank you. Judge baker, Commissioner sleepy. Sleepy. I think you answered my question. I was. Going to ask kind of how this fits into the larger. Bike network. And so you kind of spoke to its connections. To Porter street going north. Is there any other connections? Certainly. So the bike connections as we're navigating that, that Portage street corridor. When we get to Reed. Bicyclist could kind of go off on Reid and then from Reid could intercept. Intercept that off off-road by network that I talked about. Following Portage up to Stockbridge where we picked back up on bike lanes. Again, those bike lanes will carry you all the way up to pitcher all the way to ransom street. So there's a lot of connectivity there. As you pass that route, you're passing off several. K V R T connections, K V R T downtown connector. There's a connector right now that, you know, depending on where you're going, let's say from. Pitcher Portage split. You can get on a connector that

takes you up through Harrison. On a, on a paved trail. There's a connector that takes you. Down through Bronson's campus. KV cc's campus. What about, what about. When it gets to cork. What does that look like? Sure. When it gets to court, we've got east west routes on cork. That will take you. Each direction. We also have the ability to, there's a bit of a gap, but we've got a project we're working on right now that we'll bring you forward in 2027. That provides westbound. Bike lanes on cork that will connect you to whites. And from whites, those bike lanes will connect you to Oakland. They'll also connects you to Parkview. And then from Oakland, you're on our. Kalamazoo. Partnership with Portage on, on the trail that goes. At an on-road trail, but goes from Portage. Two Kalamazoo all the way up and down Oakland drive. So with that split, when it. You know, Portage goes into cork street and then kind of goes into lover's lane. You know, how does, how do we navigate those bike lanes on either side? Of that triangle. Sure. So. This will bring you right to that triangle. And then you'll have bike facilities to bring from. Portage then west. Then south again on lover's lane. So that's certainly an option there. When our cork street project's done, you'll have the ability to go. West on cork all the way to. Oakland, if you desire and continue west, even on Parkview, if you want to continue to go that way. Certainly as we connect the route, there's more connections available on the route. You all set Commissioner Sibi other questions, Commissioner. Praedel.

Director baker. I'm very, very excited about this. Just long overdue and I, I feel. Very confident that there will be lives saved. Not that other road projects haven't been important and could impact safety. But I mean, I have, I have. Seen scenes where people have been struck. I know there have been children hit on bikes, even on 4th of July. Last year, there was a, a person on a moped who was struck. Right around like Stockbridge area. And so this is gonna make a huge difference. I know there are gonna be some people who complain. And will talk about how it's more congested, but I mean, no offense. That's kind of the point. You know, at the end of the day, we're, this is gonna slow people down and this is gonna save lives. I'm looking at somebody in, in the audience here who quite some years ago was talking about how, how unsafe it feels for folks that heritage community, when they're going northbound. And Portage road to try to turn left. And there's a larger population that now lives in those apartments as well. And so I would imagine this is gonna help with that as well in that segment as well. With that addition of a centered turn lane there. That's that's correct. You reference in the intersection. With Miller drive and that will be within this project area. Yeah, I'm just thinking through, in my head. I mean, the areas, so heritage community is gonna be huge. Bryant lane AV avenue. Tho there's a curve to, to Porter road there that is incredibly dangerous. Many people are trying to make left-hand turns there. I always worry about the school and all the crossings, a Washington writer's academy and that segment. And so, I mean, there's also a bus stop right outside is S K. And family health center where there's a number of people that cross there as well. People go way too dang fast. And we saw evidence of that not too long ago. When a driver collided into twine urban winery.

Going over 70 miles per hour. And even though that's further down, just slightly past the stretch that we're talking about here, you can guarantee you, they were building speed. Traveling on that segment that we're talking about here. I was wondering if you could also talk a little bit about, so this is not gonna be a full. Typical repaving, or like you said, digging up all the, the utility guts underneath. So it's described as a crack fill and fog seal. Project. Can you describe a little bit about what that looks like and how, how that is done? Sure. This is very typical. And I, I don't know if of folks have a, a memory back to work we did on Burdick some years ago. We did a very similar project where we've gone out. Sealed up all the cracks. Cracks and grind off the stripes and we come back through and we apply. A layer of emulsion, which is essentially like a, a tacky tard material. And then rocks on top of that. And then we come back through and, and sweep off the rocks and then ply another layer of emulsion or like attacking material mm-hmm down. So that's like a new. Black roadway. And then on top of that, we'll paint all the new lines and all the new emblems. So it doesn't remove the pavement. Certainly no big digging holes. But then it creates kind of this, a new wearing surface. As it's described and then new paint and everything goes on it. We did a very similar project on Burdick street. From Stockbridge to cork in. Around 2017. I believe mm-hmm . For the refuge islands are those meant to be more like visual refugee islands, refuge islands, like you see outside of. Lake Bronson park across. I guess it'd beyond like rose street or would it be more like the elevated ones like you see on Oakland? And like, park view. Some of those are gonna be more visual. Things like ballers, things like that. They will all have the rapid flash

and beacons with 'em as well. So some of 'em will have kind of a, a bit of a balance between. You know, kind of the, the, the, the two features. Features of that. And, and certainly, I think there's also an opportunity. In the future. As we coordinate. Big construction, work, water, main replacement, that sort of thing. It's really harden up some of these improvements. That we're looking to make on Portage. Yeah. And then one last question. So say if you're going north northbound, again, like you just passed Reid, there's the park to your left. You're going. And then there's the. It kind of like the lane. Diet that happened. So you have to kind of merge in, or I'm sorry, the left lane merges into the right one. Will that just change and become just one lane on that stretch? That's correct. That will just kind of blend in to match this cross section, which is a three-lane we'll then. Match the three-lane cross-section north of Stockbridge. So. That merged section will go away. That's just Arthur Reed. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Krisha Praedel Commissioner Hess. Sure. Agree with Commissioner Praedel so much, but I think it's an impressive reduction in crashes that we've done so far with these road diets. And I appreciate that. I'd like to highlight the. Need though of our drivers. To to understand why we're doing these. And, and the need for education. Of drivers the other day. Right here on church street in west Michigan, rapid flashers going off. There's three lanes of traffic, just trying to speed by a woman in a wheelchair was trying to get across. Two lanes stopped. One lane just kept going. She's just like waving everybody go. I can't get by. I can't get by. So like, we really need to educate the drivers.

About the seriousness. Of of pedestrians in the roadway. Just my thought there. I will say that I was impressed with what Ann Arbor did with south Maine. Right next to the football stadium. It used to be four lanes, two lanes each way. They, they put the, the same row diet on as we're doing here in Portage and it moves along just. Fine. This is one of the more busier. In, in and out ways of Ann Arbor and it moves along just fine. And there's bikes happening in there because the bikes now trust. That the, that the drivers are going to. Recognize them. So just wanna say that change is good. Change is good. And on behalf of safety in Kalamazoo, thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Hess, Commissioner. Slavey. Slaby. I mean, I think. I love RO diets. I mean, studies after studies show that it can reduce. Crashes by 80%. And we know this because the, you know, these, the dedicated, left turn lanes. Is really what saves lives. And I think a lot of times people think it's counterintuitive that if we're taking away. A lane then that means. More delays more congestion. When really what causes the current congestions and delays. Delays is people trying to make that left turn lane and people are still trying to go straight and now they've gotta get around. Now, people are slowing down when you have that dedicated, left turn lane. That's only for that movement. And so that lane now is just. Full on, you know, straight or take a right. So truly it, it should allow traffic to flow better. My question is that, you know, Commissioner Preto brought up that intersection near heritage. So like Miller road, we have that. Additional lane that we put there for people to take those right turns. And so I'm

curious, I know what we did on east main, where we actually shut that. Mm-hmm one off. To car traffic, but it's still open for. Pedestrians, but also bikes. Bikes. Is that gonna be the case for this? And if not, how do we, how do we. Navigate that with the, the bike lane that would run through that area. Sure. I actually didn't look at that. Page of the plans. I apologize. Usually I have all the details, but I can't answer. That specific one. So I have to just be honest and. Tell you I'm coming up short on that one. You can always follow up in an email. Thank you. Any other questions? Questions. Thanks Mary Duncan. So to my understanding, there will not be a dual sidewalk. Expanding for this project for the bikes, it will be shared with the streets. That's correct. But they're may be future plans to change that. There may be future plans for. An off street. Trailway three to four blocks. To the west. Closer to Portage Creek. So Portage Creek runs north and south. Essentially Portage. And Portage street runs north and south. To Portage. We've got many different plans and iterations of plans that. We continue to progress on. Albeit slowly to connect. Some sort of facility off-road. South along the Portage Creek corridor. There are some opportunities. There for some partnerships, there are some opportunities there with existing infrastructure. And that continues to be something that we.

Pursue looking at funding, looking at adjacent property owners, looking at those partnerships. But ultimately that's something that we continue to look at. From a, a large wide angle perspective of connecting. You know, a, a trail that folks are gonna truly feel comfortable on from all ages from eight to 80. Is that off-road trail that provides. Provides that unique cycling, non motorized experience. In will the speed limit on this street after the changes be staying the same? Or reducing I believe it would be saying the same. Thank you. Thank you, vice mayor. Other questions, commissioners. I don't see any, Hey, just a reminder that 2017. Verdict I think was called an urban chip seal at the time. And I think that was. Maybe one of the first times that had been done, I think we won. Some award for that. Working perhaps with the Kalamazoo county road commission. If I remember right. That's correct, your honor, that, that application of that pavement preservation technique. Hadn't previously done in the city of Kalamazoo or hadn't been done on a long, long time. And so we took kind of a known. Thing that is done quite often in the county made some changes to it used a little bit smaller rock, and then we put. That emulsion or T material on top of it as well. And then we kind of named it an urban chip seal. Chip seal something folks were familiar with and we've got a lot of wor you know, support out of that. Seemed to work very well. So we've been bringing that back and using that in other areas of the city as well. Yeah, those you've been doing that. Remind us, how many miles of roads we need to take care of in the city of KMSU. So we have about

265 center center line miles. Which means that, you know, if you just took a, a measurement. In of every road, that's what would come to, but some of our roads are more than just two lanes. So if you look at Michigan avenue downs, downtown by. The church St. Augustine's cathedral. There's seven lanes. So there's. There's a lot of pavement there. So there's a lot of roads. A lot of roads, city. I appreciate being creative about it. Cause we certainly have. Recognized in the past with. With so many road miles and the expense per mile. For even Miller resurface or further. Deeper construction. It it's almost, we really can't keep up. Without deploying some more creative responses that extend. Road life at approved surface. So I think this is one of those. Responses, which people were a little leery about at the beginning. I remember hearing a lot about that, but I, but I think has served that purpose of extending road life. And it was also. Obviously vastly less destructive over the long term for. Anyone who's using those roadways. So thank you for continuing to take advantage of that. Thanks. Stretcher baker. Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on this item, this item H. Two good evening. I am the one who lives at heritage community. Thank you, city Commissioner. Praedel. Heritage is right between Portage. Street and Portage Creek. And there are hundreds of people living there. Many of whom are still drivers. Plus many dozens of staff that come. In and out every day for the senior living.

Community, which is like a college campus with so many buildings now. So we are very grateful. I'm speaking, not just for me, but we're very grateful for this road diet for the. The center left turn lane. On Portage road. And I asked Dr. Baker separately, but I'd really like to know where those. Island pedestrian refuges are going to be located. We have a lot of people living at heritage who are crossing near the Miller road, traffic light. and it's very awkward. The way the road is configured with Phillips, the main entrance into heritage. Not being aligned with Miller. So there's not a traffic light at Phillips, and it's very close to Miller, but the same. Traffic comes speeding around. From downtown area downtown. Direction around. Towards towards Miller road. And right past the end of Phillips, it's very hard for drivers to get out of Phillips safely, even if they're turning right. Not just turning left. So I talked with the traffic engineer. In December, I think it was at the Edison. Neighborhood community open house on this issue. And the engineer was very interested in looking at how to. Put an additional traffic light, perhaps, which I know must be expensive or some other way of dealing with safety. Of that Phillips road intersection at the curve, which is also difficult at Bryant because of the curve of the road. The

site distance is terrible. so thank you for progress on that. I also wanna say. We are right next to the EPAs. EPAs collecting all the toxic sludge from the paper mills. Mills a long Portage Creek. And that's the reason that there's no. Trail Commissioner Duncan. Yet along Portage Creek. We thought the EPA thought they were gonna be done in 2023 or four. And now they're saying 28. They're still finding more places. Where sludge was dumped. And so it's very frustrating. You really hoping have connection. Between farmers market and we all the way trail. And I hope the city will be ready. Donut as soon as the game is done, where. Thank you. There's anyone else that would like to comment on this item item? H two seeing no when commissioners, the recommended action is a motion to adopt. The resolution. Is there a motion, motion, motion made by Commissioner Slavey. Slaby support supported by Commissioner Hess, further discussion commissioners. Commissioner Slaby well, I just wanna follow up with Toby's comment is that we could get a start on this off-road trail. As we continue to work with our residents in Edison and Edison, resident scholars, and the Kalamazoo literacy council. To pave what we already have from Reid to Alcott. So that can be something that we can get started on now. As we await the next leg of that to be

opened up by EPA. And then I guess I would just say that. I appreciate the work that city staff has done on this project, I'm really excited. Again for a road diet. I, I truly have not seen where a road Dr. Road diet has failed. It's only. Has saved lives. Considerably. And I think the questions are like, I think what's interesting is when you think about, you know, the city had promoted this project. I think like when we were having those open houses. And the first thing we said on the posts on the social media posts was. This is not about bike lanes. And then went into talking about the road diet with bike lanes. And so the first thing people read. Was like, not, not about bike lanes, but like, oh, bike lanes. And I think we need to figure out a better way to message this because ultimately. We're not doing this to ad bike lanes. That is not the driving factor in this. The driving factor is to slow down traffic and narrow the street with a row diet. But what happens as a result is you have that extra lane width. So what do you do with it? You could just not put that bikes in on it. But bikes will be using that because bikes already use the road. And so then the question is, do you not make any visibility to the drivers? That bikes are using that road. Or do you just, you know, leave it up to the user to figure out and negotiate that with cyclists. Cyclists. So there's an opportunity that since there's already going to be that extra space, to ensure that it's a safe as possible. And I appreciate vice mayor. Duncan's, you know, questions around. Investment off-road cause I do think that that is one

of the answers to creating. A viable transportation network for all users. When we get to that point. So I think it's interesting, like sometimes there's these construction projects where the driving factor is to add bike lanes for the purpose of. Creating this more connected network, but this is not the case. And I think we need to do a better job at messaging this so that people understand that this is less about bike infrastructure for this and more about slowing down traffic for the road diet. And we lose people in support of the road diet because they think that that is. Completely tied to this idea of continuing to add bike lanes. And I'm not saying bike lanes are bad, but I just think that we need to get that buy-in for these other safety measures that are super important for all users. Thank you Commissioner Slaby. Sleepy, any other discussion? See none clerk boiling, please call the roll. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. No. Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman. Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Thank you commissioners. The motion passes next on the Agenda is item H three city manager Hankins. Now thank you, mayor adoption of a resolution accepting 3 million, $225,000 in funding package and including a railroad. Excuse me, including a railroad crossing elimination grant. And state incentive payments and approving a budget amendment in the amount of. $3,225,000. Thank you, manager handcuffs. Is there a staff report on this item? You know, as you might guess, there is, and there's an individual. Who's coming forward as he's coming forward. I will say mayor that we have great opportunity here with MDOT Amtrak, Norfolk. Southern and grand elk and several other agencies to.

You know, to alleviate congestion in our downtown area. And so this grant gives us an opportunity to start that process through the planning process. And I'll hand it over to director baker to explain what that looks like. Thank you manager. Hey kids. I presume you sit way in the back. So you're gonna get your steps in, right. That's correct? Yes. Okay, welcome back director baker. Thank you, your honor. Thank you, city manager and thank you city commissioners for this opportunity to, to. Give you a brief presentation on our proposed. Railroad crossing elimination, planning grant. Just first of all, to talk about. What, what the grant is. This is a, a grant with a federal railroad association. It helps to build on established relationships. With MDOT. So you see in your packet, there's some specific language from MDOT that dealing with railroad crossings themselves. Also includes the partnerships with several other agencies. We've got MDOT, MDOT rail. Norfolk Southern Waco. Grand elk Waco is the company that operates the grand elk railroad. We've got Amtrak in Canadian. National railway. So these are all. Rail or transportation agencies that we will have to work with as we work through this. Planning grant, what is, what are we trying to do with this grant? What is this grant? This grant really seeks to provide. Dollars for planning to work, to identify. Solution alternatives. Alternatives to solve this inefficient outdated rail network. That we have here in Kalamazoo. So we've got some significant. Impacts to environment health and safety. For all of our community members. We've got some details here to talk about. What kind of carbon emissions? Emissions that result in, you've got over 1900 kilograms of carbon emissions. Emissions

per Trane event. So that's. That's more than 15 times a typical vehicle. Every time it comes through. Town here. We've got a track layout from the 1840s to 1890s. So with this references, is that. That east west railroad through Kalamazoo. That's the old Michigan central railroad that came through Kalamazoo in the 1840s. We then have the north, like the north south railroad that came through Kalamazoo in 1867. And then those railroads kind of built in. Side spurs and there are other. Yards and, and all that kind of fit together. So. That was all built at a time. Before the automobile and we. Now have been with the automobile. For quite a while. Well, over a hundred years, I think I'm not gonna quote you what year the model T came out or what year? That was first in Kalamazoo, but it's been a long, long time. And so. We are in a different place today with transportation. We're doing a lot of work with our straight safe streets for all. We've got a lot of great work. Planned starting this summer on Kalamazoo avenue. We've got a, a plan in place to. Really change and update the entire transportation. System in downtown. And we're still challenge with these traffic delays from trains. This photo, that's not a file photo. I didn't Google. Traffic congestion. That is MI that is Michigan avenue. At a one of our favorite train crossings looking west. So you're actually kind of looking west down Michigan avenue and that's all the one way traffic. Looking back at the camera,

looking at the train, wondering. Where, how are they ever gonna get outta that delay? So why is this? I talked about that the north-south route from the 18 hundreds east west route from the 18 hundreds. Hundreds train, freight trains that are coming. To Kalamazoo from grand rapids, that freight line, that freight line operates between. Elkhart, Indiana. And grand rapids with Kalamazoo as a stop in between there. Those trains that run north south have to. Back up line a switch. And then they have to then get clearance from Amtrak and then they have to take kind of this curve. That you see here and go onto the Amtrak line and then into the rail yard. So the rail yard is accessed via MDOT rail and Amtrak operating line. That rail yard is owned by Norfolk Southern. And it's also operated. By grand elk railroad. And there's also kind of some interlocal freight agreements with Canadian national railway that also have track. Rights of track trackage as, as well. So. Imagine yourself kind of trying to drive through what is essentially a trained parking lot or the train is trying to back up and find a space. And I, I know we've all experienced that on our shopping trips on the weekend with our community members, but we at a community, our experiencing that with trains sometime. Sometimes every morning. So really the, the work, the, the planning grant. Seeks to, you know, really. Study two alternatives and alternative that would. Identify a location for a new yard. Somewhere between Kalamazoo and grand rapids, we would refer to that as like a, a. North north

of the city location. Another alternative would be a location. We would refer to south of the city, which would be somewhere between Elkhart, Indiana, and city Kalamazoo. So when I say north or south, I'm not talking city limits. Limits. We're really referencing areas that are. Away from the city of Kalamazoo. This is just a, a view of the rail yard. You've got kinda the Kalamazoo river to the south. Almost out of view is the growlers stadium, mayors riverfront park there. And then to the north is east Michigan avenue. So. You see that having the rail yard right. Downtown certainly has been. Impactful for our residents for well over a hundred years. It's also impactful from an environmental perspective. This rail yard does flood it's in the floodplain. And so every time it floods, we could only imagine what sort of contamination is washing. Up through the rail yard and then on, back into the river. So getting this rail yard. Relocated to an area that would make better sense for train movements, better sense for those trained customers and better sense for the community and our transportation in around Kalamazoo. You know, this, this planning grant really represents that, that first step to solving this problem. This is a. Decades old infrastructure problem dating back. Years and years and years. This is really something that. From a economic perspective is. Beyond the financial means of the city itself. This is something where we definitely have to have partners. We definitely have to have. Federal partners in this work. When we look at who we're trying to work with here. City Kalamazoo. MDOT Amtrak. Amtrak Canadian national railway.

Waco. There's a whole bunch of players that have to be. Together at the table to all make this happen. In the future. Once that rail yard is identified. The the the project identifies. Identifies deliverable items for public and stakeholder engagement. So there's a very large line item for bringing folks together with the understanding that there's gonna be folks that are outside of city Kalamazoo as well. If we're LA locating or proposing to locate rail yard somewhere else, we're gonna want to engage. Folks and community members, wherever that may be. This work. In scope, this is 50 to a hundred million or more. Of actual work once we're beyond the planning stage. So I really want to highlight. The scope of this and the cost of this and, and. Where that, where, where that. Compares in respect to the financial capacity of the city of Kalamazoo. That concludes my short slide presentation on that. Happy to go into details, answer any questions folks may have and, and go to some discussion. Thank you. Ken director baker. We'll start with Commissioner Slaby and then Commissioner Hess. Hess. Okay. Thank you. Super excited about this project. I have a few questions. Questions starting with okay. So we got those two scenarios, either eliminate 10 or eliminate 42. Is there a scenario where they decide, you know what, we're leaving this here. Sh sure. That's a do nothing scenario. Yes. That's that certainly isn't our. Objective, our objective is to. Work in a way that identifies. Identifies a solution concept. A or B or there may be some other ones that are not shown here. But certainly recognizing

that those train movements. To get into that yard where it's located. Does not work very well for the city with respect to transportation, environment and safety concerns, but there is a possibility that. The location that potentially might be south of us or north of us. May not work out. And so we're stuck with trying to figure out that new location, like that's a possibility. Sure. I, yeah, I, I think it's, it is. Would would be very difficult for me to firmly say that, you know, one of these situa one of these locations is gonna work out, given all the work that has to go into it. I think that's what. A lot of that planning grant focus would be to verify. In plan where a solution might be able to be feasible. Feasible. So thank you. So. With this being said, if it gets relocated, this opens up considerable amount of land. Right. Particularly along the riverfront. What's this transition to ownership look like. Does Norfolk still own that? Does that get transferred over to the city? Does that become brownfield? Sure, great questions. We, we don't have that lined out yet. I think those are all great questions that certainly. Gonna be part of that, that study. There have been other yards owned by Norfolk Southern in the city that we're talking about, that we've got. Development plans that we're definitely looking at. So. There Norfolk. Southern has been very good to work with in areas now. That still Novo yard, those other locations, none of that has progressed. A lot of that is involved with this work as well. Also involved in this is making sure that those railroads can serve customers. And so that customers can continue to

be served into the future. That all being said, the railroads have had positive track records working with cities, not just city Kalamazoo, but other cities across the nation. Where these projects are successful. And they're successful in all the things that you just stated. So I think really the balls in the city's court of what, what becomes of that. And, and I don't know what that is right now. And then speaking of reuse the rail. That will remain there. Is that in consideration? Like as part of like a rail to trail program. Is that being left there for. Depending on how the . Race goes potentially you might see some high speed rail investment over the next couple decades. So, I mean, what are the thoughts on. Once that rail, once that yard is relocated. What happens to those tracks? Tracks. Sure. Great question. So. There still is gonna be east west Amtrak. Amtrak rail through Kalamazoo. They're still gonna be north-south freight rail through Kalamazoo. So the, the big movements are gonna continue to happen. I think what we're looking at is if that yard goes away, if that yard goes to a place that makes. Better sense from a train movement perspective. This spur this, this curve go away. And with this curve and some of these sides. Go away. And the mat might be a little hard to see you've got kind of the red. I'll call it a caterpillar up there. That doesn't represent all the trackage there's and look, it's gray, but there's a lot of other tracks in here. And so some of those. Could maybe go away. But there is gonna continue to be north south freight. There's gonna continue to be east west passenger. So the big pieces

are gonna continue to be. Here in Kalamazoo. So we still will have to wait for a train, but not as many. You won't have to wait as long. And you won't have as many crossings. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. Just a few more and I'm done. I promise. I think about wow. Long term. This is great. Have we thought about the initial impact to potential job loss. This might have to that area. If the rail yard is relocated, I don't know how many jobs are there on site. And then is, has there been discussions around what that looks like for, for those people that may be locally employed? Sure. Great question. So a lot of this we've been working with grand, a Waco railroad on a, a lot of this work with MDOT rail. There's no proposed reduction in jobs. There's no, no proposed reduction in services to rail customers. So if we've got. A Kalamazoo business that relies on rail right now. We're not proposing to take that away. We're not proposing to reduce any levels of service to any customers. Customers, and we're not proposing any employee cuts for any of the railroads. It's just a matter of where the yard is located and locating that in a better location. That can better serve grand elk and Waco. Don't folks Southern and Canadian national rail. Well, there might not be a clear job. Loss. If it requires a relocation to somewhere closer to Elkhart or closer north to grand rapids, that might not be. Like that might result in a job loss for the person that can't relocate. So, okay. I see what you're saying. So if there's an employee right now who works. At that rail yard at that rail yard moves north or south. In a way that impacts that employee's ability to travel there. Sure. I don't have an answer on that. Got it right

now, but thank you for that. Yeah. Thank you for the clarification as well. Last question. Maybe this might be answered when there's public comments, but I was just interested in seeing the list of. Partners here that are in support. We even got bike friendly, Kalamazoo. AVB tray star. So I'm just surprised that we didn't see some of our neighborhood. Groups in that area, such as N a C D, or I know this is technically the city, but even just hearing if there's there was a presentation to N C B D a about this project, I'm, I'm sure there's been updates, cuz this has been long conversation coming, but just curious if there was a more recent presentation. Leading up to this one before the commission. That's my last question. Sure. That, you know, that's, that's a great question. I think. You know, this grant announcement came. I believe about a year ago. We've been, you know, kind of working behind the scenes on. Working with all those. Agency partners, you know, kind of a. The main agency partners that we're, we've talked and referenced with. And looking at the grant, the content of the grant. Are real focusing community. Public in stakeholder engagement. Would come once a grant is awarded. So we really want to help. Work with the community, build these alternatives and to be able to bring this back to the community. And, you know, let the community roll their sleeves up and really provide input on. You know, which, which crossings are priorities, which. You know, which alternatives are, are priorities. And so our team we've gotta go back and do some homework before we're able to bring that out. So I think that's certainly something that's gonna be. More down the road or in the future for us. Thank you. Commissioner Slaby Commissioner Hess. Hess. Sure. Thank you. Thank you for those. But question on, so the three, th this grant. Is a planning grant.

And what is a timeline on that? How long. Would the planning process be. Until we had ideas of. What's gonna happen in the future. So the current structure of the grant is programmed over a three year period. If as working through that, if we need some more time, we do have the ability to. Restructure some of that we anticipate. Three years, but it, it, it wouldn't be. Outta line to anticipate up to five years. So I would say it's three years is the plan right now. But depending on where we went with things. It's possible that that could extend up to five years. Okay. And so the city is the fiduciary for all of this. Work with all of our partners. Partners that's I would have to confirm with the. Management services, director, CFO. SA who exactly the fi fiduciary is. Or what the, the extent of the grant, some grants are like draws. We submit. And then get payment back or sometimes we just get the funds outright. I, I don't recall. What form, what format this is. Okay, but so, okay. So like we, we plan and we have a plan. And then it's gonna cost 50 to a hundred million. Dollars to build whatever it is we plan. Correct. So the next steps is that. Apps our job to find that 50 million. I'm just wondering, like who pay, who's gonna pay for that? Is that up to the railroads? Who, who, who pays for that? So, this is somewhat similar to the processes we went through with our streets. We had. Planning and design grants. And then we finished those and we submitted back. Under those grant opportunities for then CE grant construction grant. So. Our same process would be utilized with this is that

we would go. Apply for obtain and then do the grant work for the planning aspect of it. And then come back with that results and then resubmit for CE grants. Grants that being said there, some of these railroads are for profit companies. Some of these railroads are not. In the United States, some of them are other countries. And so I think once we get to that point of we're ready to construct it. Certainly that is gonna involve another. Application of, of federal resources. Resources, state resources, also looking at those companies to. Pull their resources and for us all to work together. Collaboratively in a way that really provides. Provides the, the, the best funding scenario for the city of Kalamazoo. Okay. So, you know, good things happen when we pull together and collaborate. Let's continue to do that. So tonight you're just saying we're seeding hope. Certainly I would highlight that. Some of you may have heard the Canadian. Canadian fast Canadian Fest, Canadian Fest. Yes. That is held in Kalamazoo. And is hosted by the Canadian national railway. There are some the primary sponsor. Yep. Sponsor. Okay, cool. Let's work on 'em. Thank you. Commissioner Hess, Commissioner Praedel. Director Begar you, you have it noted on there about the Michigan incentives for cross enclosures. That was approval in 20, 24. Can you just speak a little bit more to like actions taken by the city? So up to this point, as part of this process, sure. Working with MDOT rail, one of the partners on. On this project were offered incentives. Every time we can eliminate a highway grade crossing. And so. Those incentives. Provide up to $200,000 per highway. Grade crossing that is eliminated.

And so when we're looking at our transportation plan, a lot of the work that we've done on micelle to kind of rework. The, the transportation system through there, we're also looking critically at. Where we can close rail crossings to improve safety. And so that is also kind of part of this. Grant as well is working with MDOT rail on this work. As we look at the overall transportation system. So if there's an area where we're making changes such as we did in . And we're looking to improve safety. We can also rely some cash incentives for that, which can be put to this work and put towards. Towards future work as well. The other thing just for the public's sake. So, you know, I remember a couple years ago there was I think, a box car that tipped and I mean, the major throwaway was delayed. And people were held up. I mean, for, I think it might have been for hours. And so, you know, we, as a city have very little to no recourse when that happens. I mean, effectively we're, we're stuck. We're in complete gridlock when something like that happens. Correct. That's correct? Yeah. There was a, a trained derailment that trained ele derailment occurred in this kind of curve. Linear portion. If you look at the, the red line that's towards the east. That was where a train movement was occurring in a derailment did happen. That Dera did block traffic on. Michigan and Kalamazoo Ave. And that was over. Well over a day into the night. And I know public safety was out there. A lot of folks or public services were out there and we were out there for more than 12 hours. During that event. And so. That was very challenging events. Thank thankfully nobody was hurt. There was no, you know, chemical releases or anything like that. So it

all went very well. But that continues to be a concern and, and eliminating that train movement. Would help to prevent future events such as that. Something I learned in the packet description as well. It talks a little bit about how in the 18 hundreds that a typical train length was about 2000 feet. And then in 2023, surveyed that most were over 5,300 feet long. So the ex explains a lot about why that rail yard while there, why they have to do the, you know, backup. Up and drop and back up and drop. And so. We're not built for the way things used to be, if you will. And that doesn't even take into account. Like you said, you know, the fact that when this was all established, there were no autos in auto congestion in our downtown as well. So very interesting to see that history and how we, you know, this, this mess is, you know, well, over 150 years in the making. Thank you. Yep. Thanks. Thank you, Christian. Praedel. Other questions, commissioners. Thank you so much. Once again, director baker, I will just say. Looking at our partners here, I think is interesting. And we expressed the idea how there's. There's the partner list could be much, much longer. And I'm sure it will be. It makes sense at Browns, the hospital or Branson Bradford's hospital is here on this list. I'm actually a little surprised that life EMS is not on this list. I don't know if there was any. Effort to reach out to life, Ms. Which has their, you know, main parking garage vert, very close. And as a person who used to work as an emergency medical technician on an ambulance. I often when I'm sitting. Waiting for this traffic. To move. And seem that the line is blocked. I, it makes me concerned. What are the alternative routes when there's emergency? Services that have to be provided. I mean, obviously right in real time. You might either have to try to get somewhere or another out of a traffic

jam, which study even looked possible. Sometimes J jammed up on Michigan. Or find a, a route to get around all that. So I think that's another important consideration, particularly considering, you know, we've got beacon on one side of the tracks and, and Broughton back on the other side of the tracks. So. Another important partner. I think in this whole evaluation is what it means for. Emergency services here at Kalamazoo. So thank you so very much. No more, no more questions for me. So now is the opportunity. Is there anyone in the chambers who would like to comment on this item? This item H three, if so, please come forward. State your name. Whether you live at the city, you'll have three minutes. See Nolan. Thank you so much. Commissioners to recommended action is a motion to adopt the resolution. Is there a motion? Motion made by Commissioner Hoffman. Scored by Commissioner Wilson discussion commissioners. Commissioner Praedel I was just gonna mention really quick. I mean, this is very promising hopeful, but again, wanna reiterate don't expect anything. Instantaneously, you know, for anybody you ask in city of Kalamazoo. I mean, how many of us have been late to a job late picking up a kid? And late to an important meeting or job at interview or something because of this. I mean, if you've lived here long enough, you have experienced one of those scenarios. I think the biggest question is gonna be is what is gonna be our excuses residents of the city of Kalamazoo when we have you used for so long are major excuse. I got held up by the trains. So you're not gonna maybe have that excuse in the future, but it is a, an odd, uniquely Kalamazoo experience. And it, it just doesn't seem like it needs to be that way. And I'm some, I'm grateful that, that we're gonna try to do something about it. So I'm eager to support this. Other discussion commissioners. So, so

okay. So I will just add something here. It seems like. I'm I, I don't know. Well, I know why it is cuz I've been around for a while. I'm the one that reaches back in the history book. So I just wanna talk about how long this has been. And there was a city manager in Kalamazoo. His name is Cheryl Scully. Who started to city manager. Yeah, she I'm sorry. Oh, okay. That's. 1984 is when she started work here at city manager. And this is one of the big projects she tried to work on. That was 42 years ago. As a matter of fact, she couldn't make any progress. And I think that contributed. To her making a decision to move on in her career. And she did, she put, spent a lot of political capital. Manager Hankins into trying to address. To address this crossing 42 years ago. But that said Sheryl Scully went on in her career. And ended up being the city manager for the. City with the largest. Manager commission form of government. In this country, which is San Antonio, Texas. And that's where she. Finished out her career, starting from little old. Kalamazoo. This is where she was first. A city manager. So and as a matter of fact, there's other names I could list of people who have gone on to much larger cities starting here at Kalamazoo. And who knows you Sal with this one? I don't know. What's next New York. Not going anywhere. So I work for Cheryl in Arizona by the way, too. Okay. Great. So that said here we are. The work continues. And the timeframe stretches out in front of us. For those of you here on the commission, several of you who were not even born when this work started.

So. Wow, Crip oiling, please call the roll. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Vice mayor Duncan. Yes. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Hoffman? Yes. Commissioner Praedel. Yes. Commissioner Slaby. Yes. Thank you commissioners the motion passes. Passes next reports in legislation manager, Hankins. Thank you, mayor vice mayor members of the commission. Last week, we had the opportunity to celebrate our employees. Our more than 700 employees here at city Kalamazoo for the work that they do working in public service can sometimes be very tough work. And so it was a great opportunity to get with staff and. Just come together and have some moments to recognize the hard work that folks do. We also celebrated milestones for people. Many of whom have worked for the city of Kalamazoo for up to 35 years. So. Just again, just wanted to acknowledge that this is. Good work. We have committed people in this organization who do this work every day. Segway an example of that is our response to the weather events. You've heard some folks mention it here tonight. I will say that the most recent wind event. That was not a small task. So we had more than 60 down trees reported in our community. 10 of which were reported to be down on people's homes. Homes. Everything's a pressing issue at that time. But our public safety staff and our officers and folks were prioritizing. Getting people out of trapped homes and making sure that people were safe. And so we also have as a, just a way of information for the public. Our, our emergency management team has a. Corresponding position in our chemistry, public schools. So they do engage with each other in the process. Hearing kind of the conversation tonight.

Of course, there's opportunity for us to look at how we can better coordinate. But I do want it to be known that we do have staff who communicate with our school district during these weather events. Events. So I'm gonna go into one or two other things. First I, I want to give another, thank you to. Community and folks who have helped coordinate. My meet and greets in the community. I, I laugh when I told 'em, the last time I pulled up and music was playing and I was like, I don't know that I've ever come to an event where I was smiling. Before I got out of the car. So. Thank you. I appreciate everything that folks are doing to connect me with folks that I probably wouldn't have had an opportunity to get to. As easily, and that's not been something we've taken lightly. So I have a lot of good videos of my kids dancing and playing in jumpy houses and, and enjoying the community. So that's helped our transition as a family. So thank you for all those. Who've been a part of that. And finally you know what. I'm gonna close with that mayor. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. That's good up note to close on anyway. Thank you very much. I, I just wanted just to follow up on that, I'm gonna just your last comment that. It, it does to engage a new city manager or it does take a village. And a lot of people are stepping up and. Organizing those kinds of events on their own. And I really appreciate that so much. There's nothing like getting to know your community, you know, and, and, and the best way you can if few short months. So I also. Say thank you to all who have put effort into that. Now we are two Commissioner comments, commissioners. Anybody has any. Comments for the evening. Commissioner Hess. Sure. I'll go.

It's been, what three weeks has that been? Three weeks since we've met. Yeah, we had a, we skipped a week for that, for that election. And so a shout out to clerk, boing and his crew in. In the city clerk's office for running once again, a smooth and a fair election. And I'm sure it's only gonna get bigger and better. As the year goes on. So thank you for your work and thanks to all the people in your shop. Thank you to Kalamazoo department of public safety. I I visit a fifth grade at Woodward. And those fifth graders were treated to a, a visit. To station station two over in the Edison neighborhood. Where they got to see. What Sergeant work actually. Be a professor of, of public safety. In, but thanks to chief. Thanks to ACG day for saying yes to this officer Barlow officer Gnet, officer Messman, officer Bagley. Officer Brower and officer crooks all there. Helping the different groups of kids. See the equipment that we use. In public safety and they were fascinated and they got to like hands on, like touch all the gear and. Answer get their questions answered. And they went out of there. Just. On on cloud nine. So to, to K DPS and to saying yes to the fifth grade at Woodward and to Ms. Walker. Thank you so much. Seema our neighborhood activator is. Did the first of what is what I hope our many neighborhood connect meetings prior to our committee of the whole putting in our committee of the whole. Second, we had neighborhood meetings before commission meetings. Meetings and those didn't happen anymore. So this is an attempt to get those neighborhoods together and talk to each other. And that was last week. So a shout out

to sea for, for creating that. And all the people that were involved in that. And then to see pets for community planning and the imagine Kalamazoo you've been hearing us talk a lot about the imagine Kalamazoo process and the planning on that. There was a, a. Kind of a, a last. Effort for the imagine, Kalamazoo for engaging all the people about downtown and downtown is our city living room. It really is. It's where people gather, it's where people join and everybody should have an, a say in that. And so for those events between April 28th, and I believe it was May 1st. A lot of participation, a lot of folks coming out and giving their, their thoughts about downtown. And that was wonderful. So thank you for that. And then lastly, I, many of us were able to be at the opening for the landing place. Out on Kilgore road where the city did put in $1.2 million. For this turning turning a, a hotel. Into a family shelter. As a transitional family shelter for 80 families. Or 80 units. It's the largest. Family shelter in the state. So it's for families with children. And moving, helping them move into permanent housing. And I just love that. Thank you to the county. And thank you to everyone that partnered and collaborated. And worked together with that housing village to get that thing open and. I pray that everyone that goes through those doors ends up in their own permanent housing. Thank you. Commissioner house other. Yes. Vice Peter Duncan. A couple things. Thank you, mayor one. I will be partnering with Isaac. July 1st, we will be holding a gun violence summit. Due to the increased violence in our city. And I've been attending the partnership

meetings. Thank you to public safety for hosting those. But we, we have a problem. And it is increasing this year and I want to bring awareness to that. So we will be flying people here. From south America in international partners. Partners to talk about gun violence and. How there is a study that's been released that shows that. 80% of firearms used in murders. Murders south of our border come from five gun manufacturers in America. So we'll be diving into that. And I want to thank Isaac and I'll Concilio who will be providing the translation for that event. I want to say happy belated. Mother's day to all the mothers and mother figures. Figures what an incredible holiday. To honor and celebrate those who step up in the household. All the time. And as a foster youth, it's even more important to me, cuz it's always been. Essentially kindness of strangers that have kind of raised me. I also want to lift up. I appreciate everyone that showed up to city hall for national day of prayer. It was an amazing event. Mayor gave comments, tons of people came out on. The city hall steps and pray for sheer prosperity in safety in this city. In, you know, as always, I just want to thank everybody that came out tonight and pays attention to these meetings. Thank you. Thank you very much vice mayor. Smear Commissioner Praedel. I think just to put a marker in tonight, the, with the. The plan tonight with the lead service line replacement, we set in motion like the completion of all the remaining lead service line, or basically almost all the lead service line replaced in our community, which again,

you're comment, city manager, Hankins at mean Eddie to the, like the content of how big of a deal that is. I just am so grateful. That we're in that position to do so. And I really hope we have great luck with that. That grant proposal. The other thing as well. I mean, again, I can't emphasize enough, like Portage road. Scares the crap outta me. And I mean, part of it is cuz my offices are right off of Portage road. And so, I mean, I'm driving that constantly coming to city hall, city commission type functions up and down nonstop and just. Just the wild rodeo stuff that you see along that stretch of there is that is going to transform lives. And I, and I still contend it's gonna save lives. So I'm, I'm super grateful for that as well. You heard earlier about public services week coming up? I believe next week on Tuesday and Thursday. It, it, it is a, a great place to take the family. If you're looking to take the kids, you know, it's not every day that your kids can sit in the snowplow or go up in a, a, like a, a bucket truck as well. And so it's, it's pretty fun. My kids always look for, to it. And then for people who have not been out to the wa wastewater plant as well, it. It's it's truly impressive to see that as well. And then lastly, I don't know if you remember a while ago, there was a young person named Jude who came up to the podium. Which I would've been horrified to do that at that age. Had a chance to host. Jude and their brother Alec for a pizza last week to talk about the ideas of doing a, you know, a youth council or something where youth can provide. Input and through the discussion, it was really kind of special cuz talking to them, I think. Really what their goal is, is just recognizing that young people. How do we inspire young people to want to do what we do? You know, someday. And so a lot of really good ideas out of that, that I'm eager to share with the city manager. Next time we have our one-on-one, but I just. Felt pretty good after meeting with a couple young people that already have at that young of an age. Ideas about ways that we can motivate more young people. To get involved and not become

empathetic in, in today's environment. So, so thanks. Yep. Thank you Commissioner Praedel. All right. We're all set. So just a couple things for me. First of all, I, I do want to. Thank the vice mayor for taking care of a mayoral responsibility, which is one of the most stressful ones I do during the year. And that is standing in front of several hundred people. In age of what? Five to. 80 and throw in the first pitch at Millwood little league. So I could tell you, the last thing you wanna do is throw it way over that catcher's head. Or dribble it to the plate. And you did not do that. So. I, I think you did practice a little bit before. Which I suggested because I do, I will admit that I, I'm not gonna go out there cold and throw that first pitch. And nice shop. Thank you for that. Another thing. Well, which, you know, just happened here recently is since we met last is the opening of our farmer's market. Really one of the jewels, one of the great things about the city Kalamazoo is our wonderful farmer's market. With now that new building there, the Don Cooney cultivation center. And I had been getting a, a lot of concerns. I'm sure all of us have related to the fact that we went through. An RFP and selected a different market manager and that sort of thing. And I, I understood those concerns. Things were pushed up. Close against opening day. It was a worry. But I just, I do wanna say. The market was packed first morning, it was open. What was that? The second, I guess. And a lot of people there take advantage of really quite a beautiful day. I I saw once again, Dr. Washington from Cal valley community college and the first lady from KVCC there often

see them there early. At the market. So just a great place just to cross paths with people. Even if you're not doing a great deal of shopping, just to see other good people here. And I do wanna say. Thank you so much. It, it took a lot. You know, good people, Kiara Tom and Paul. From Midtown fresh and park street market. Really really jumped on board with, you know, getting this, going, doing the best. They could little bit of a, a, a little Rocky on the transition there, but I think they really stepped into that place. And I would really wanna recognize the work they have done at park street market for years and years. And. Years and, and Midtown fresh too. And I'm so happy to have them. More engaged in the community is great. Marcus Collins, who many people know is the market manager. I'm. I don't know why I'm a little bit surprised about that. Maybe it's because he's done. So many things and been good at so many different things. And I think that that. That commitment to doing a good job is gonna carry right over here. He's a very approachable person and. You know, so great to, to have. That up and running again. I love you. Kalamazoo. We're adjourned. Honor. Yes. I'm not gonna be in town. Neither reach out to your honor. Okay. Good. Great. Okay. So just to keep it in