City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to tonight's study session for the Kirksville City Council. Our study sessions are a monthly opportunity for the council to receive reports and feedback from city staff and from invited partners and help us in making decisions at future meetings. It's always a great opportunity for the community to learn about what's happening here in Kirksville as well. There's not an opportunity for citizens' participation in these meetings. However, there's always the opportunity to contact your council members to work with them and to address any questions that you might have at the next meeting. We have a full study session agenda tonight covering a number of topics. And our Deputy City Manager, Rodney Sadler, is going to be leading us through this evening's meeting. So good evening, Rodney. I'll go ahead and turn things over to you.

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you. Yeah, we're going to get right into it because it is a pretty full slate this evening. So we'll start by talking about economic development. We have some guests in the crowd tonight. We're invited to come and speak. Economic development is certainly an important function of any municipal government, and we're lucky to have great partners that we're able to work together with. Certainly the city's role in that is to provide staff support and time, as well as the city council provides financial support to these organizations. So I do want to make a correction in here. It says that Sandra Williams is the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. That, of course, has not been the case for a few years, that is. Marie Murphy is here this evening to be able to speak to the Chamber's operations. But we'll go ahead and kick it off with Anastasia. And if she wouldn't mind talking about both Merrick and KREDI. And SBDC. Yeah, and SBDC, knowing that we do have one new council member here and maybe another that will join us here soon.

Great.

Thanks.

Hi, everybody.

Good evening, Anastasia.

Hi. I'm Anastasia Tiedemann. I'm executive director of K Ready, Merrick, and also the center director of the Missouri SBDC in Kirksville. So together, these three organizations focus on business attraction, business retention and expansion, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and access to capital. And while each organization is a little bit different, they work really closely together to support economic growth in Kirksville and the surrounding region. So I know I gave you like five pages of stuff in your packets. I'll try and make this quick. I won't go through all of it. So K-Ready is, let's start with K-Ready, Kirksville Regional Economic Development. It is locally funded. So it is funded through the city, and also we have memberships in the community. So K-Ready's primary focus is attracting new investment in the community supporting existing employers, and ensuring Kirksville remains competitive for future opportunities. So, so far in 2026, we've promoted Kirksville, when I say we, it's really me, I was there, promoted Kirksville at national and international events, including SelectUSA. SelectUSA was a pretty big deal. It was an international conference held in the Washington, D.C. area, and in attendance, were economic developers, international entrepreneurs, growing businesses, funders, and site selectors. So it was like thousands of people there who are all in the economic development world. So that was pretty interesting. It was my first time there. I submitted Kirksville census tracts for Opportunity Zone 2.0 designation, which could become a valuable tool for attracting private investment. Continued to work on website enhancements and marketing tools. Hosted the Missouri Department of Economic Development's International Trade Office and connected them with local businesses. I'm working with Kirksville Area Technical Center and employers on career awareness and workforce pipeline initiatives. And I continue exploring community development tools such as brownfield redevelopment opportunities and the potential formation of a land bank. So I also want to kind of note that economic development is really a long-term effort. Most of the work happens behind the scenes through partnerships and relationship building, preparing the community for future opportunities and responding to project inquiries. And so far this year, we've got four, I responded to four project inquiries so far. So I think there's been about eight or nine. So that's K-Ready. Okay, so change hats, put on Missouri Rural Enterprise and Innovation Center, and that is state and locally funded. So Merrick serves a 16-county region and focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and tech technology-based business growth. So our current priorities are managing square one, which is our business incubator slash co-working space in the lower level of our building, strengthening the regional entrepreneurship ecosystem, participating in the Show Me Network, which is providing entrepreneurs across the state access to legal, accounting, technology, and business resources, hosting outreach events, workshops, and entrepreneur engagement activities, and promoting and managing our revolving loan fund programs to help small businesses access capital. So we do have a revolving loan fund. It was provided by two grants through the USDA, and we have seven active revolving loan fund borrowers, three of which will mature by the end of 2026. And one will be in January of 27. So that was our first tranche of funding. So that's pretty exciting. Okay, changing hats again. Missouri Small Business Development Center is federally funded through the SBA. The Missouri Small Business Development Center continues to provide one-on-one business counseling throughout our eight county service area. And as of mid-year 2026, we've already exceeded some of our goals. So we've got 100% of our business startup goal, 147% of our jobs supported goal, 190% of our jobs retained goal, and more than 100% of our rural client engagement goal. So that one's a little tricky, and I have to say that one's not too hard since all of our clients in our area are considered rural clients. So just being honest. So these results reflect the continued demand for business development, business counseling services, technical assistance, and support for entrepreneurs. So in closing, economic development is more than recruiting a single company. It involves supporting existing businesses, preparing sites, developing workforce pipelines, helping entrepreneurs grow, improving access to capital, and ensuring our community remains competitive. And so I thank you very much. I'm sorry, I'm probably the longest one up here. I apologize. But if you have any questions...

Anastasia, thank you for the presentation. Sure. I was looking at this FY25, and I mean, for a community our size, I mean, compared to a lot of communities, we're kind of more rural. So these numbers are actually, you know, 11 training events, 10 jobs created, 118 jobs retained. That's actually, per capita, that's actually a pretty good number there. So thank you for all your efforts. Thank you. I did have a question. Can you explain to me what a land bank is? You were talking about that for the K-Ready. Sure.

Sure. So a land bank is a mechanism. It is a – now, Ashley Young, please feel free to chime in here if I'm explaining it wrong. Okay. So a land bank is a mechanism where if you have distressed properties or properties that might be in some kind of ambiguous – trust or the owner has died and the heirs are out of state. So what do you do with these properties? You want them to become, you know, you want the people to fix them up, but there are barriers sometimes that prevent them from doing that. So what happens is if the property owner can put them in a land bank, deed them to the land bank. The land bank can legally remove all title deficiencies, tax liens, and things like that. So the title becomes clean and the property can then be marketed for purchase. In some land banks across the state and across the country, they fix the properties up as well. But I think that a mechanism like that would be really valuable in Kirksville and in northeast Missouri.

Thank you. Sure. There was some recent legislation. Is it still that allows cities to take advantage of that as well?

Yes, there was a change in legislation. It had to do with the chicken coop and all. Honestly, I didn't understand the whole thing.

Backyard chickens. Yes. Interesting.

But yes, it is. It is back in swing and we can we can move forward with that. Yes.

Do you want to maybe speak to your staff as well, both Bryce and Amy? Do you want to talk about their roles?

Oh, sure. So I work with Bryce Cardwell and Amy Konwinski. Amy provides administrative support for K-Ready and Merrick and SBDC and tourism. And then Bryce is our small business consultant, and he provides all of the counseling, schedules the trainings, and really is the boots on the ground for a lot of the entrepreneurs. That is the position that I was in before I was in this position. So I'm not doing as much counseling as I was before, but I still do help with some of the some of the projects.

Bryce was here recently for a small business.

I did have one other question. For the jobs retained, the 118, which is a great number, how do you determine that?

So when we have a client and they sign up for our services and they have to physically sign up for our services, we ask them how many jobs they have, if they've grown or anything like that. And our database, our CRM system keeps track of all that over the years. So that is really a buildup of the economy growing, of our entrepreneurs adding jobs year over year.

Okay. Thank you. Anastasia, I recently met with a resident who wanted to talk about a number of things. And he was discussing some ideas he had for starting a small business, but recognizing that that's challenging, that it's risky, that it is a hard thing to do. And he said, I just wish there was somebody who could help. And I said, boy, do I have great news for you. And to be able to talk about the suite of services that your team provides in all three capacities there was really uplifting for him in that moment. Instead, for him, I think a lot about our community in general, that we don't ask for folks to go it along when they're trying big things. So I want to extend my thanks to you and your team for your continued work on economic development here in Kirksville. and what that says about the character of our community. So thank you.

Thank you very much. And please send people our way. We are happy to help.

I sent him your way for sure. So he should be popping by to see Bryce soon, he said.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, we'll just continue in the same order that you see it in your agenda. So Marie, would you come on up and speak to the Chamber of Commerce?

Thank you. Well, in your packets, I did this little infographic, and as you can see, we have several areas of focus. One is advocacy, and so as part of the advocacy, we do the state of the city, the state of the county, the state of education, and candidate forums. We also, with advocacy, if there is a If there is a city issue or an issue with something in the city, it is, you know, it is something that usually will come into our governmental affairs committee. And then we, if we feel like it's something that needs to be addressed, we will address it and have on a couple of occasions addressed a few things. We also work with the Missouri Chamber on laws at the state level that will impact business. Obviously advocating for those that will be good for business and saying please don't for laws that would not be good for business. We are 282 members strong and this past year we have added 28 new members and I anticipate us continuing to do that. One of the services that we provide to our businesses is ribbon cuttings and we provide ribbon cuttings regardless of whether a business becomes a member of the chamber or not. It's an important way to celebrate those new businesses that come into our community and uh give them a a boost in um you know in publicity uh so we we do those ribbon cuttings and as you can see we did 26 which is over two a month uh now i will say that in january we seldom have ribbon cuttings it's just too cold um We also work with Truman State University, ATSU, and MACC on the student welcome every year. This year that student welcome will be held a couple of weeks earlier because we were the Sunday after Labor Day. because we also partner with Main Street on a number of things, not the Whiskey Turkey Festival, but we did realize that we were killing our businesses because there were several that would be doing Whiskey Turkey on Saturday and then have to turn around and work on Sunday as well. So we've moved that back to August 23rd. That way the students are still here. They've had a week to... you know, to get acclimated. And then they can come and enjoy those Hy-Vee hot dogs and visit with our merchants. The students have always been incredibly impressed. We get comments from students about how wonderful the people here are. And so I think that that speaks well of our business community. We also partner, we have several partnerships. We also partner with the Missouri Job Center, and we partner with them on two job fairs. In the last two job fairs, we have had... seven resource partners. The resource partners are people like DSS who help people like with vocational rehab and that sort of thing. We also had 25 employers total. Well, not total at each one. And then we had 231 job seekers. So that is one of those. In the spring job fair in particular, we held that on April 17th. And one of our employers hired two people on the spot there. And that's a fantastic service for the employers and those who are seeking jobs because they can come. We have a spot. located in macc's campus where they can do the interviews uh it's an interview room so they can do the interviews right there and it's it's been a really um phenomenal um uh thing that we do so um i i just wanted to touch on a few other things uh we do partner uh with um uh with truman we do partner with tourism too we uh we work with um you know uh the hometown holiday um And, uh, generally, uh, I go in and, and sing to Sharon, as she mentioned earlier, um, kind of keep her, you know, keep, keep her feeling good about life in general. I hope, um, we, uh, we, we have a KLI program and KLI is Kirksville Leadership Institute. That is something that we hold every year. Uh, we have probably a number of you have already been through, um, this year we have eight participants and, uh, This is another program that each year I receive comments from people, people who have been in, lived in Kirksville all their life say, I never knew XYZ. This is really, this is really interesting and good. It also, you know, we're helping develop their leadership skills as we go. So that's an exciting program that we will continue to have. And then another benefit that we have for our businesses is we have a chamber benefit plan through our membership in the Missouri Chamber. And the benefit plan is an insurance plan that companies can take advantage of. And what it does is because we have so many chambers that are members of the Missouri Chamber, we've been able to, through that, provide a group insurance rate for these small businesses. And that is so very important because there are so many small businesses that are operating on a shoestring budget. And when you have that and then... you're looking at the marketplace for insurance and it's going up and up and up. This really is a helpful benefit for us to offer our members. So we are fortunate enough that the city has provided us office space in the EDA building, and we really appreciate the fact that you have been so generous as to offer us that space. And we look forward to continuing to partner with the city on a number of

things any questions i feel like i talked really fast that was great marie anybody have any questions about chamber i know a lot of us have been to the chamber events and the art walk recently and there's a lot of things that's always going on and marie does a good job of updating their their socials to be able to let us know so very good marie thank you very much thank you yes All right. Next up, we'll have Sharon, our tourism director, come up and talk about all the great things that our tourism tax does for us. Also, I'll just give a quick plug to the Kirksville Insider, the monthly podcast that Austin hosts, and this month's guest is right here, live and in person, Sharon. So if you listen to the podcast, then you might hear some similar items. If not, then it'll give you a chance to sort of spend, I think it's 35, 40 minutes with Austin and Sharon, learn more about the tourism department as well. Go ahead, Sharon. Great.

Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. I provided a couple of handouts, so I'm just going to touch on that. Tourism continues to be a big part of Kirksville and Adair County's economy. In fiscal year 2025, the Missouri Department of Revenue calculated that visitors spent more than $57.8 million in Adair County. That spending supported our restaurants, hotels, retail stores, attractions, and other service industries and helped to sustain 1,100 tourism-related jobs. Tourism also generated a little more than $300,000 in lodging tax revenue last year, which helped funded projects and improvements throughout our community. Last year, we awarded more than $35,000 in tourism partnership funding, which helped to support 19 different events that brought visitors to Kirksville, encouraged overnight stays, and generated business for our local establishments. Part of the handout that I provided is the groups who we awarded that $35,000 to and the amount that they received. Tourism also invested in projects that benefit both visitors and residents. These included funding 70% of the most recent mural, the Kenzie Wolk mural project on the side of Beards Decorating. We replaced the Welcome to Kirksville and Points of Interest signs this last year and partnered with Parks and Rec to replace the final swim dock at Thousand Hill State Park. These improvements make Kirksville a more attractive destination while also enhancing the quality of life for the people who live here. Another highlight this year was the incredible success of another Special Olympics Summer State Games. The event brought approximately 1,500 athletes, coaches, unified partners, in addition to their friends and families from across the state into our area. Beyond the economic impact of filling our hotels, restaurants, and local businesses, the Games showcased the generosity and hospitality of our community and demonstrated what can be accomplished when local organizations, volunteers, and partners work together. The success of this event has strengthened Kirksville's reputation as a premier host community for major regional events and reinforces the value of investing in tourism and community partnerships. Tourism is much more than marketing events or attractions. It's about investing in our community, supporting local businesses, creating community pride, and bringing new dollars into our economy. And by continuing to invest in tourism, we're helping to position Kirksville and Adair County as a welcoming regional destination. Just a couple other things I wanted to point out on my handout. The tourism partnership dollars that I have budgeted this year is $48,000 and I've actually received two new partnership applications that I'm going to take to the board in a couple of weeks of groups who have hosted an event one year already, and now they're requesting for tourism partnership dollars. That's right. That is a rule, yeah. The group has to hold it one year before they can apply for tourism partnership dollars. And I am budgeted this year to fund two additional murals. The first one will begin in a couple of weeks, around mid-July, and it's gonna be on the city council, or it's not city council. The elevator shaft, yeah. City Hall, sorry, elevator shaft. And then the other one is dependent on funding from the Department of Conservation. We are asking to receive in their next fiscal year 90% funding for a mural. If we do not receive that funding, we may not be going forward with that mural this year. So any questions?

I think to me that $58 million number is fantastic. I mean, that's much higher than I would have thought it would be. And I think that's so important for us to continue to develop that. And we talked about the jobs have been retained by Merrick and the jobs have been created by this and just continuing to kind of build those things up. I'm glad we're getting a couple more applications for funding and the opportunity to continue to support those types of things. Because I think one of the things... that I see sometimes around here when folks are like, well, what is there to do in Carsonville? I'm sorry. Oh, there's nothing to do. There's a ton to do. There's so many things on our calendar, and I think it's continuing to grow, and I think we need to continue to emphasize that. So I really appreciate all the effort to do that. I think in my 15 or 18, however many years it's been that I've been here, there's a lot more now than there used to be. I'm thankful for that.

Yeah, there is. And it's definitely a partnership, right? I mean, you can't do it alone. And I'm so happy to be in the EDA building with the individuals who I work with, because we really are working towards the same goal, ultimately.

You had mentioned that the tourism tax brings in approximately $300,000. Can you speak to, it's each person that stays a night in a hotel, or can you just kind of explain that a little bit, how those funds are used?

So anybody who stays a night in a hotel or an Airbnb or a VRBO, has to pay 3.6% tourism tax on the end of their stay, up to 30 days. Anything over 30 days, they don't have to pay that. And then the hotels and Airbnbs pay finance or the city quarterly. So they submit that payment quarterly. And my department is 100% funded by the tourism tax, so.

Sharon, at the council meeting on Monday, I told Mary to extend my thanks to all the city staff for their hard work in making the Special Olympics so successful. And with you here physically present, I'd like to extend that thanks to you as well. Continues to be just a wonderful representation. of everything that this community can be. One of my goals over the course of the next year is for everyone in our community to recognize the amount of work that goes into that. I think sometimes a project like this can be done so successfully that people think it is accomplished easily. But from particularly a new vantage point in my day job and from here working with the city recognizing that it does take a great amount of work to pull something like that off successfully, which we should also be proud of in our community. So I want to thank you for that one.

Thank you.

Also, I had the pleasure for a council of working with. the tourism board this past year and I'm back on working with that group and that has been a really great way to learn about our tourism operations and I can say that that's a board with some some excellent people on there who really want to see Kirksville and Kirksville tourism be successful. So I'm glad that Sharon is joined by a board of folks who are focused on the mission as well.

I agree. Thank you.

Any other questions for Sharon? Alright, well then we'll move on to Main Street, Kirksville. We have their director, Lacey Cook here. Good evening, Lacey.

Hello, thank you. Starting off, thank you for the opportunity to share all of the exciting things that are going on in downtown Kirksville. It was just last year that I had been in the executive director role for only a month, and they said, hey, we need you to come and talk about economic development to the city council. So in that meeting, I brought up the line from the movie Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come. So tonight I just wanted to check back in how our building progress is going in the Central Business District in downtown Kirksville. So 2025 was highlighted as we began our building projects. We increased our partnerships by 1,650%. I love those big numbers. We broke a Missouri Main Street state record for participation in the downtown community survey. We updated our organizational bylaws, we improved our financial management systems, we launched a new website, and we expanded our volunteer recruitment through our JustServe platform. We supported and promoted businesses, we hosted partnership mixers and networking opportunities, and we increased our social media reach significantly, which we all know is very important in today's time. We held events. collaborated with tourism, our downtown live. Our largest fundraising event of the year is the Whiskey and Turkey Festival, which with Placer AI this year, we had over 6,000 attendees that first Saturday after Labor Day. So that's huge and shows a lot of growth. New events this year, we did the Merry Market, we did Toasty Trails, which were the s'mores fire pits in downtown Kirksville on some of the coldest weekends of the year, I swear. We also facilitated Restaurant Week, Fairytale on Franklin, and Halloween Town actually moved to the downtown area this year that deemed to be very successful. Our merchants extremely appreciated it. And just fun and exciting things going on downtown to bring energy. In 2025, we also completed comprehensive analysis to identify our strengths, opportunities and future priorities for the district. I always have the excitement going in and taking everything on at once. And you probably did hear that in my excitement last year. One of the things that I've been told this year is eat the elephant one bite at a time. So that's what looking into 2026, we said, let's make an absolute goal and what we truly want. to work on and focus on because there are so many things that we could jump in and work on. So in 2026, our goal became beautification as the primary focus. In the beginning of the year, we've held a successful annual meeting and elected new board leadership. This year, in 2026, we were also selected by the Kirksville Area Chamber of Commerce as Nonprofit of the Year. We were also featured in the Rural Missouri Magazine to have the Best Main Street or Downtown by the Reader's Choice Award. And we do feel that that was a collaboration, not just for Main Street Kirksville, but through the Kirksville Arts Association and tourism that works with us on so many events and bringing people to downtown and the energy that we're all hoping for. Something that may not be known yet at this point is our former president, Ryan Ratliff, did secure over or between two grants, $20,000 just last month. I've been sworn to secrecy and can't quite tell you about what those grants or money will be going for until our release date on June 24th that they're going to allow us to tell you what that money will be going for. So very exciting though to be awarded those grants that were highly competitive. So overall, with the beautification, we're just trying to strengthen the downtown identity. I'm sure you've all seen the beautiful flower pots that are downtown, the hanging baskets, the ones in the lower pots as well, and hosting cleanup days just to make sure that when people enter our downtown area, that it's a place that we're proud of. And I always say it's like inviting people into our home. So put your best foot forward. So we appreciate everyone's participation in that. And the city watering for us as well. That's huge for us with the hanging baskets.

That is a great example of a partnership between pretty much everybody that's going to speak to it. Oh, absolutely. Because it started out as a KLI project. Right, chamber. Yeah, from the chamber, and it was purchased, and Sharon was on a committee of how we were going to – be able to go about watering those along with Parks and Recreation, and then it just continues, and then it's really expanded from there all the way to the rest of the recreation. It's been amazing.

It's a great example of that collaboration. Yes, absolutely. Downtown-focused programming. This year, we're adding the red, white, and barbecue. downtown on July 3rd, so it's that Friday night. So again, collaborating with United Way and the Kirksville Arts Association and just bringing more downtown that evening. We really just wanna draw visitors to the square and encourage spending in local businesses. If you've been downtown recently, you probably see the open signs or the open flags, and that's just an initiative to give people, shoppers or guests in the downtown area, a visual cue that says, hey, look at us, we're open here. just innovative ideas that we see other communities doing or bringing to downtown Kirksville to say, we can do this too. And why we are here tonight, the economic impact in 2026. So it was very apparent to me, I was downtown taking pictures and counting flagpoles for a different project this morning. But as I walked the immediate square, the four sides of the square, I can happily report that as of now, there are only three storefronts on the east side that are not currently occupied or have not been purchased to be occupied coming soon. Recently in the second quarter, we've added an antique shop and I'm trying to think Baker's barbecue building has been sold. Wine on Washington was just sold and there will be an owner occupied business in there. And recently this past week, Countryside Market has announced that they will be coming to the south side of the square for a little market. So I think all of this growth is very representative of us building it, and they are coming. So I feel that people are really catching the momentum. As we continue to grow. So we're, again, increasing foot traffic and visibility. We're supporting existing businesses and entrepreneurs, enhancing the attractiveness of downtown for reinvestment and redevelopment, promoting tourism and visitor spending, and strengthening community pride and quality of place. So all in all, I could say that the building progress is going well. And not only do I hope you guys see it too, but I hope you feel it. I hope you feel the momentum. I hope you feel the energy. when you're going into downtown Kirksville. A huge thank you to the city of Kirksville for enhancing the quality of life and for residents and visitors alike coming downtown. I know with economic development

Thank you, Ashley, wherever you may be.

We have the upgraded trash receptacles. So if you see the new black trash receptacles downtown, the landscape project on Elson Street, the facade program is something that we're continuing to work on, work with, create funding for that. The executive director compensation. Thanks, guys. And tourism partnerships. We've also received... Tourism partnership from the city for our whiskey and turkey fest again highlighting the flower pots and the public works Parks and Rec bringing Halloween town down So there are just so many entities that that are truly helping make downtown Kirksville what it is.

I Appreciate this presentation and and I grew up in this community and I remember I You know, Troester's was here and Bamberg's and we had Charlie Donaldson's barbershop. And downtown used to be a place where you could just, you saw a lot of folks just walking around. And I know there was a lull for a while, but I've also noticed, I mean, one of the markers of success is just foot traffic, right? How many people do you see down at any given time? And I have seen, I've actually been noticing a lot more foot traffic, a lot more events going on. Downtown's just looking better. And that flows downstream to, you know, we have the Truman kids coming in and their parents are here and that shows that. So thank you to all of you that are part of this. I know this is all a collaborative effort, but I really do see it and we appreciate it.

Thanks. Thanks.

Lacey, I've been leading a session at orientation for Truman students and their parents this month, and I have a working with the parents session specifically. And part of it, I have a panel of Truman students and I ask them to share with me what is one place on campus or in Kirksville that holds particular memory for you and why? And they're not prompted by me, but every single one of them, the panels, always has one student who wants to talk about downtown Kirksville and what that experience has meant for them, how welcome they feel as a part of that one, and recognizing a real sense of growth and development of what's happening in downtown. So to Main Street Kirksville, to our other partners who are helping to facilitate that, it's interesting to see, unprompted through somebody else's eyes, what we're recognizing that cool things are happening in our local Main street community. Thank you for your good work on that.

Thank you for that feedback.

Thank you. Downtown is never going to be an accomplishment. You're never going to get there right. There's always one more thing to do. I think it is important to sit back. I remember when I saw those new trash cans down there and I was like, those look Those look really nice. When did those get here? Or the flowers, you know?

Right, the smallest things.

Right, or the murals, like when the wings went up, you know, on the side of your building. And all those little things, and all of a sudden you look around and go, oh, this whole place is looking significantly different and better than it did before. And all of that is hard and takes time and takes a lot of effort, but it is appreciated, and we're very thankful for it. So thank you for what you've done with everybody's stuff.

Thank you, Lacey. Yeah, this is just a wonderful partnership between these partners that have come here tonight and the city. Next, Ashley, if you'll come on up, we'll talk some more. And you are welcome to stay if you'd like. There's going to be some great conversation. I understand. So from the city standpoint, Ashley runs the community economic development side of things. She's also the liaison for the with all these individuals.

It's true.

Certainly, that's the leg of that. Don't know if you want to say anything else about Community Economic Partners specifically, or we can move on to the next.

Oh, you know, I just put a capstone on everything that they just said, that community and economic development, and this evening specifically economic development, is definitely a team effort. And it is a community-wide effort. And we talk a lot about what we can do to set our community apart in the arms race, if you will, to distinguish ourselves. to attract new employers and to retain those employees, employers, and also students in our case as a college town as well. And that takes everyone working together and pulling in the same direction as much as possible while understanding that we all have our own areas of focus and what have you. So very fortunate that I get to work with these ladies that you heard from this evening and hope to continue to for some time.

You mentioned it as a community-wide effort, and I think what we're also seeing here tonight is an opportunity for folks in our community to utilize these services and resources that are there, that this is a place where it's not just about idea generation, but it's also a place where we're looking for folks who are willing to put in the equity, the sweat equity, the idea, the workload to make cool things happen, and these become platforms to be able to do so. I think sometimes we have folks in our community who are inspired to try out some new things, to try to shape our direction here. I would encourage them to talk with our economic development partners and all of their different lenses that they bring to this to find some ways to add to that tapestry.

Okay. Well, let's shift gears a little bit to communication in economic and community development. The report that's there was submitted by the former city planner, Sarah Knight, but Ashley is here. There's also some forms, both internal and external, that you're thinking about changing to be able to use just to improve some processes and so forth. We'll let Ashley discuss these.

Right, so that's what we wanted to focus on for this year. I mean, this is typically an annual report that we bring before you all. We discuss our communications approach and community economic development, specifically in codes and planning. And these applications hadn't really been overhauled in a major way for some time. And to be honest, this was precipitated by an event that occurred, a couple events actually, within the last year where two applicants, two separate entities, One was the First Christian Church here just next to downtown, and then the other actually was the former Adair County Sheriff Robert Hardwick. Both of them had items to come before the Planning and Zoning Commission and then the City Council. The first, I think, were the addition of more accessible parking along the north side there of the church. Let's see, that's East Harrison Street. And then the second was an Airbnb. And in both cases, scammers actually went to the city's website and mined our PDFs for their contact information and then created fake documents with our letterhead and everything and sent them invoices for thousands of dollars in processing fees so that their applications could be processed. And so they were running a scam and they were able to do that. Another one of which were successful, by the way, thankfully, but they were able to do that because those previous forms have that information on there. And so that event precipitated the creation of, you know, if you look at the report here right before or at the bottom of page 11, that project inquiry form, if you'll kind of flip ahead there in the packet, that is a form that would be an internal form. It would not be one that would be included in any of the packets that are sent out to the commissions and then put on the city website and ultimately make their way to the city council for your request. review as well so that is the kind of the the events that led up to the creation of that form and also explains why on the special use permanent application form the rezoning application form and then also the variance application form which is not in the paddock packet i'm not sure why but that also has we have eliminated those fields from those forms as well just for purposes of information security So that was what precipitated this process. And we thought, well, while we're at it, let's take a good look at these forms and take a good look at our process and think about what other ways are we communicating with folks and where do we have some vulnerabilities? So beyond the realm of information security, we also have an issue with agent authorization. So it's very common for someone looking to rezone a property or develop a property in any particular way to work with, of course, a real estate agent or maybe a developer or an attorney or, you know, any any some kind of engineering firm or any number of entities that might represent, as you know. I mean, you've seen these for years now and. That has always been a relationship and a process built on trust. But unfortunately, nowadays, that isn't necessarily enough, right? Let's be honest. And so that is the thought process behind the agent authorization form, the trust but verify. right and so if you look at that form the owner of the property or whomever is is actually applying can empower an agent and that's recorded in this form and then that form itself each agent their their you know name is is actually notarized as well so those are notarized signatures so so that we have something to fall back on. If there was ever any question as to, well, this individual has applied for this particular special use permit, whatever it may be, on behalf of this other individual, well, what do we have that says that they're duly and truly authorized to do that? And that form did not exist. So that's the thought process behind the creation of that form as well. So, having entertained any questions, but that is basically a short description of our thought process behind this and where we'd like to take that.

Ashley, on the agent authorization, I guess the goal is to... Hopefully that would reduce the amount of kind of wasted communication going back and forth between the city, the potential property owner, and the real estate agent. Is that right?

Absolutely. And not only that, but I think reduce any potential confusion or eliminate any question. You know, if you got to a certain point in a project and – you know, there was confusion about who was, let's say, who was saying what about any different aspect of a project? You know, you can always look back and say, well, no, you know, on this date, you have authorized this individual to speak and work on your behalf. And so having one point of contact, having documented, you know, proof that someone is empowered to speak on this project, to work on this project with city staff is important. And yeah, should ideally, I would think, make that whole process more efficient.

Thank you. So what's your rollout plan look like for this? I'm thinking specifically on the form we just mentioned, but your regular users, different contractors in our community, how are they going to learn about the changes of these forms, additional form that is available to facilitate that? What's your overall rollout strategy?

Oh, sure. It's fairly simple. I mean, after this evening, these are internal. We can just update them and then distribute them as they're requested. I don't know that there would be any real point in sending them out ahead of time, right? I mean, you don't really need one until you need one. And so just moving forward as project inquiries come in, as we're working on projects and folks are looking to bring authorized agents on board, as they're making these applications, we'll just roll that out over time.

coming forward, the opportunity to say, by the way, we're using an authorization form now, and here's why that's in place, and here's why you should go through those processes on that. That's the strategy on that.

Absolutely.

No I guess the question for me would be, is having a heads up type of situations like contracts and stuff like that, is there any way to put that on the city website?

Oh, sure. They would be uploaded on the website.

So they don't walk in and be like, hey, last minute, it's like, oh, I got to go get this notarized, things like that. Yeah.

Yeah, they would be on the city website. Typically, when someone comes in and they want to do a project of the scope that would require an authorized agent, this isn't something that's going to be used for a simple remodel permit or any number of the building permits that we would issue and those kind of things. This is kind of next level.

Any other questions for Ashley? Well, he doesn't get to go anywhere. That's right. The next topic, we're going to talk about Kirk Tran a little bit. We're into the third year now of being the, since 23. In the third year, yes.

In the third year, yes.

And it's that annual time where we're getting ready for their agreement to come up. And so Ashley has a report on that.

Yes, so Oats Inc. has sent us a proposed agreement for fiscal year 2027, which would start actually July 1st. That's the fiscal year that they are on. And they are proposing a per hour rate of $25.25. The current fiscal year 2026 agreement is at a per hour rate of $20. So this is a 20% increase over the current per hour rate. And justifying that, of course, they're giving a 16% increase in fuel costs that they are seeing. And then maybe even more significantly, a 30 to 50% increase in auto and general liability premiums, respectively. And also, lastly, an increase in day-to-day expenses for maintaining the vehicles, of course, that run CrookTran, right? And I guess to take a half step back, kind of just rushed right into this, but we have two new council members, my apologies. So... We manage Kirk Tran, Oats operates Kirk Tran. It's probably the easiest way to think about that. This agreement formalizes that relationship where Kirk Tran utilizes Oats' drivers and buses. And we have our own buses in the sense that they are Oats buses and they're branded as Kirk Tran so that they're obviously Kirk Tran buses. But they... They operate, you know, the deviated fixed route and the demand response systems and utilize their drivers and whatnot. And all of that's governed by by this agreement. And so in any case, their day to day expenses for operating those buses are increasing along with with everything else, as we know right now, I will mention that. The last paragraph here in the quote that I included from their Northeast Regional Director stated that at this new rate, a reduction in hours will be necessary unless there is an increase in the amount of the contract. I've asked for clarification on that. I have not yet received it. Not sure why I'm not getting clarification on that. Still haven't gotten that. I will still attempt to get clarification. I mean, certainly before this is approved, we need clarification on that statement. But they're estimating that the total compensation for services under the proposed contract would be $156,000. Well, that is only, well, in fact, Yeah, that's only $348. I worded it differently in the report. It's only $348 more than we actually budgeted for fiscal year 2026. And our fiscal year, which is a calendar year of 2026, will only include half of this new agreement if approved annually. ALL OF THAT IS TO SAY THE BUDGET SHOULD BE JUST FINE. APPROVAL OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 PROPOSED AGREEMENT FROM OATS SHOULD NOT NEGATIVELY IMPACT OUR BUDGET IN THAT WE SHOULD NOT EXCEED THAT AMOUNT THAT WE PAY TO OATS TO OPERATE CURTRAN AND THEN WE WOULD JUST REQUEST YOU ALL TO HAVE THAT RATE FOR FISCAL YEAR, OUR FISCAL YEAR, 2027, CALENDAR YEAR 2027. and which would would not be much of an increase although typically in working with lacy and calculating those numbers we would anticipate that they would also increase their rate for fiscal year 2028 but we're getting ahead of ourselves in any case any questions on that particular part of the report yeah i did have a quick question i'm looking at this it says um

The 20% increase in the rate is largely due to the following reasons. The first one, having have seen a 16% increase in fuel costs in just the past month. I mean, oil is volatile right now. I mean, it was over a hundred, now it's down 85, $90 a barrel. So how much of this is actually like this $5 extra an hour are they using based off of one month of data where there has been kind of fluctuations?

That's a great question. Yeah, so of the 20%, what percentage of the 20% is due to the 16% increase in fuel costs? They didn't give me that breakdown.

I see that in other contracts that come across for public works and other things, if we're renting some piece of machinery or something, that sometimes the fuel prices, because they are volatile at times, will affect that. And so that's not unheard of for contract language, especially because they have to give us something at a certain... They have to have a point of reference in the year, so...

And they're going to protect themselves. They're not going to operate at a loss. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. But they did not give me that exact breakdown. Okay. No, no. This is just what they used to justify that 20% increase.

Okay. And I suspect they're going to be applying this across all the municipalities, whoever they work with, whoever they contract with.

Well, I would assume if there are other relationships in the state... I am not sure how many of those there are, though, actually, to be honest. Yeah, we really are pretty unique here.

The only reason I bring that up is because, I mean, we operate at a very small margin in terms of what's budgeted and what's actually sent out. So even a $5 an hour rate increase is pretty substantial. So when I say we have one month of data... and this is justifying this i get the business side of why they're doing it but i also i'm asking that because To me, that's not enough information to justify it. They have more data behind it to justify that.

I think most of their conversation regarding the increase had to do with insurance. More than fuel that they threw that in there. I think if this had been two months ago, that probably wouldn't have made the list. I can request from Oates a more detailed breakdown. Certainly, Hopefully, we'll receive that. It would be good to see it. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay, well, then we can move on to the next part of the report. So the deviated fixed route, just very briefly. The updated deviated fixed route started just two weeks ago on June 1st and joined the mayor of the Derrick County Health Department. They actually worked with the Curselary Chamber of Commerce, right? So it kind of dovetailed in our earlier presentation on that. and did a ribbon cutting for they were they were that excited about being a bus stop on the deviated fixed route that they organized their own ribbon cutting and we intended and it was a nice little event and then as soon as we were done here came the bus and it was perfect and so the media was able to see that in in action and in operation and there was actually a rider on the bus and everything and so it was a it was a nice little morning but so far um everything is working as it should. We haven't received word of any issues with the updated DVD fixed route. We are still getting all of the bus stop signs in place. Some of them required, you know, locates, you know, the dig right, you know, locates to be placed. We want to make sure we follow our own rules and everything, not just start driving big stakes in the ground and that sort of thing. So we're currently, you know, still working through that, but all is well thus far. So we'll keep you posted on how that affects. Well, the next topic. in the report which is ridership numbers which is not necessarily a positive conversation frankly so year over year first five months of 2026 versus 2025 we've seen a 31.39 percent decrease i think that's largely due to the changes at the former sheltered workshop And the folks that work there utilizing Tertrand, because since November of 2025, those numbers have bottomed out. And since November of 2025, the numbers that per trip or trips per month numbers have been between a range of 732 to 771 and have stayed in that range ever since. Of course, all of those numbers are also before the updates to the deviated fixed route. So hoping that those changes will improve ridership and improve our numbers as well. But not crazy about those numbers for obvious reasons. Hopefully we will turn that around.

Ashley, are we charging like $3 a ride?

Yes, $3 a ride, and then $4 a ride if you are headed out of town within 15 miles of Kirksville, which would include the regional airport as well as the Amtrak station in La Plata. And you have to, of course, schedule that like 24 hours in advance, but that's only $4, so still a great deal. Yeah, great deal. All right.

Any questions? All right. Thanks, Ashley. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you. The next two topics will be with Chief John Cook, so you can come on up. First, we'll talk about emergency medical service program. Some of you may or may not know that the fire department does require EMT licenses, so that's part of what we'll talk about, right?

Absolutely. Mary asked me to come and just kind of describe the emergency medical services that we do provide. You know, EMS has been a core service of the fire service in general for many, many decades. We've provided it here in Kirksville at some level for over 40 years. Emergency medical technician certification has been required for over 30 years now. And when I meet with any class of new employees that we have, one thing I always tell them is the importance of EMS is not just something extra that we do, it's one of our core services that we provide. And if they spend a career doing this, they will absolutely provide more positive impact on citizens and visitors to this community running EMS calls than they ever will a fire and rescue call, just simply based on volume. So we've provided that service for a long time, you know, nationwide. Far more EMS is provided by the fire service than any other type of agency total, when you include EMS, emergency medical first response, like we do here at the fire department and ambulance transport. And about 40% of all ambulance services in this country are operated by fire departments. So, you know, it's a very common thing. You know, I always impress upon people when they ask about it. It's a value added service for the community. You know, we, Kirksville has invested in a career fire department since the late 1800s. There's a little bit of, it was either 1879 or 1885, you know, there's a little bit of uncertainty there. But, you know, for a long time now, we've invested in a career paid fire department. And the vast majority of the cost to provide that service are the personnel costs. So this year, about 82% of my budget are personnel costs. Those costs are gonna exist whether we run one call or 4,000 calls. About 65% of our call volume is EMS related. That is actually, quite a little bit below the national average. Uh, the national average is usually over 70%. Uh, some places is upwards of 90% plus as EMS related, but we're, we're about 65%. Um, and our staffing levels are based on effective fire and rescue response, not medical calls, whether we, if we ran one medical call a year or the 2000 medical calls approximately that we run now, our staffing level would still need, still need to be the same. Uh, Because it's all about being able to provide an effective firefighting force on a fire call within the first few minutes after it's reported. That's what dictates our staffing levels, not the number of EMS calls. But by maximizing the utilization of the crews that we invest in every day, the community is getting the most bang for the buck by keeping them busy. So anyway, you know, we have a pretty good system here. I would say... Aside from a unified system where ambulance transportation and first response is provided by the fire department under a unified system, uh, we probably have about the second best, um, um, system that you could have. Um, you know, the, the average American, uh, you know, a two person ambulance crew cannot effectively and safely treat somebody having a medical emergency and safely and effectively remove them from their home. Um, With just two people. So if we didn't provide first responder services, the ambulance district would have to increase staffing and pass those costs on to the taxpayers through increased tax rate, you know. So two people isn't enough to do the job in the first place. So if we weren't providing that service, that first responder service, somebody else would have to. So it's a good service. Yeah. We've had paramedics, you know, of varying numbers on staff at the fire department for over 20 years now. In 2023, we finally got an emergency medical response agency licensure through the state and an agreement with the Dare County Ambulance District that allows our paramedics to actually provide advanced level care. So that's been in place and we've been able to provide multiple advanced life support level interventions prior to ambulance arrival since that's happened. Even if a paramedic isn't on duty, multiple times a year, our careers provide life saving care prior to the arrival of an ambulance, multiple times a year. So it's a great value added service to the community. Again, the vast majority of the cost to provide the fire service every year, our personnel costs. Even if I attribute 100% of our fuel costs and 100% of our vehicle maintenance costs to EMS, it's still like a little bit under 2% of our budget every year is spent on EMS. So, again, it's a great bang for the buck, and it's a really good service that we provide. And, you know, we did get lucky. We did apply for an assistance to firefighters grant last year for paramount trains. We have five... employees in paramedic training right now um they will be they're in their didactic training now to be completed uh last quarter of this year and then they will go on to their clinical phase next year so late in 2027 we should have enough paramedics to um to fully staff 24-7 ALS response. And those EMS demands are increasing as the demographics of this country age, but just at higher, higher demands on the EMS system. So a good cooperative effort is a really good value to the community. I will say we do have one additional, employee that wasn't selected as one of the five, but chose to take it on himself. So he's funding that out of his pocket. And it is a, you know, career minded folks in the fire service. EMS is part of that now. That wasn't always the case. 30 or 40 years ago, people got into the fire service and they didn't necessarily expect to do this EMS thing. But that is an expectation now. So for career minded folks, Career-minded folks, you know, when they're looking at a fire department to go apply for a job, they want to be able to do all of that. And we're able to provide that now. And I think, unless you have any questions, I think that's all I've got. I have a question.

Yes, ma'am. I remember when I went and visited with the fire department, and the one thing that you said is there's a lot of burnout now because there's so much expectation.

Sure, yep. Um, you know, that is a challenge that we, that we always face and we've always faced. Um, I think the key is, um, doing everything we can to streamline the system. Um, you know, we, there's a, it's called emergency medical dispatch. We have a system in place. Um, that's a 911 dispatch center. They essentially triage calls. Um, it's as good a system as exists. However, it is flawed. It looks like all of them are flawed. Um, So do we respond to calls that aren't life and death emergencies? Absolutely. That doesn't mean the caller doesn't think to their life and death emergency. But the way that we really try to improve, sometimes we get repeat callers. So the way that we try to intervene in that is if we have, a lot of times it's a point of education for the community members and the callers, and we try to work with the ambulance district and try to intervene in some way to kind of take those individuals that you know, from time to time are really high volume and we just kind of try to figure out how to work them out of the system. So they're not using 911 as that crutch. So that's really the way that we try to avoid that. We've really worked really hard to reduce the other non-emergency demands on the crews. We used to do a lot of things I keep them busy. And those were expectations from, you know, and that's when we, when the fire department ran six or seven or 800 calls a year, now we're running 3,500 calls a year. So we've tried to do things smart, not hard, not do things just for the sake of doing them, make sure the things that we do when it comes to inspections and, and pre-planning and that kind of stuff is impactful and it's, and it's useful and not just to check a box just to say we did. So that's the kind of ways we tried to balance that. And yeah, burnout exists. You know, we've got a really good EAP program, employee assistance program in place with with a with a one specific provider, but her organization specializes in first responders. And that's been very, very helpful to help, you know, when you have somebody struggling, that they we get them into that system. They really has really been very helpful. Yes, sir.

A lot of investment into the employees that you have. Are we keeping the employees? Well,

As good as we ever have. We've had some turnover recently, but it's not outside of the modern norm, I'll say. We I will say 20, you know, 15, 16 years ago, maybe 20 years ago, had a real chronic problem with turnover. We would, you know, they'd come in, they'd get trained. As soon as they get trained, you know, they're off to some other department. Usually bigger departments that provide more services like, you know, paramedic or what have you. So we've tried to intervene in that and make sure that, you know, You know, they have what they need and what they could ever want to look for in a fire department. So it's better, you know, all, you know, 2020 and COVID really was a big shot in retention for all kinds of emergency services. And we weren't immune to that. But in general, we fared relatively well in general. Thank you.

John, I appreciate your description of this as a value-added service, right? To recognize that we already have personnel costs in there. We already have equipment and facilities on place for that one. And the conversation today is, I think, largely and basically, because there's been some conversation about the value of this. The same conversation you're sharing here is what I always share, that this is a real opportunity to provide more at minimal cost to the people of Kirksville in ways that are highly impactful. So I thank you for that. I recognize that a fire truck arrives quickly and is able to provide this care that is incredibly meaningful and in many circumstances, life-saving. So appreciate not just the service, but the training that goes into that in order to be able to provide that one. That takes a lot on behalf of your team. We appreciate the work.

You know, and we have worked while we're expanding the service, we also work to reduce the cost for that. You know, we've brought everything, of course, paramedic training we don't provide, but all training for new hires, if they're not already EMT certified, we provide that in-house. all continuing education costs. You know, we provide all that in-house for both EMT Basics and for paramedics. So the cost for that is next to nothing. And we brought all that in-house. I've been a paramedic for over 20 years. I've worked in systems big and small, be it fire, hospital-based, third service ambulance like we have here. And, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to be in a place that didn't have a robust first. I've worked in those systems. And as an ambulance provider, as a paramedic on an ambulance, those are very, very challenging places to work. We've had other people who have worked similar systems that don't have as robust of a first response networks we have. And it's tough. It's a very tough thing. And luckily, citizens here don't have that problem.

Thanks, John. We'll switch gears to John's other role. He serves right now as city's emergency manager. Two things here. If you could discuss what the city's role is for disaster declaration, that's what the report's about. But then also talk about the most recent storms and sort of explain how all that happened.

Will do. So every incorporated municipality or county government, whatever, incorporated government is required to have an emergency manager. That has been an additional duty of the fire chief in Kirksville for... Forever, maybe. I don't know. Ever since its inception, possibly. A couple of times it's been the police chief, but that's just usually because there was a transition with a fire chief headed out and a new one coming in. So it's been a role of the fire chief for a long time. So the two ways that I interface with FEMA the most, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are kind of the two big disaster response grant programs. One is IA, or Individual Assistance, and PA, or Public Assistance. So... They are after a federal disaster declaration. You know, those are the two big things that come into play to help with recovery. In my time, we've never qualified for individual assistance. I'll kind of touch on why here in a little bit, but we have for public assistance many, many times. And it's kind of, the names are a little bit funny. Individual assistance is assistance to an individual whose home was damaged. Public assistance is to governments or certain nonprofits. for damage to infrastructure. So public assistance is actually, I won't say it's easy to qualify for, but very clear-cut standards. Right now, they evaluate, first of all, there has to be their per capita limit set at the state level and then the county level. So Estimate the amount of damage. It's just shy of $2 now for state. So they take whatever, you know, 6 million people in the state of Missouri. So that per capita level. And then they look at each county. If the state meets their threshold, then they look at each county and each county has to meet. It's about $5 per capita, just under $5 per capita. So both the state threshold has to be met. And then the county threshold has to be met. and then you qualify for public assistance and then you're able to enter into the program if you apply it's not automatic you have to apply So I think one important thing with the PA program that it's important to highlight is that the thresholds are county-level thresholds. So they don't care what Kirksville's threshold is. Our damage counts to meet that threshold, but they just measure it on the county level. So what we've encountered, you know, in two out of the three times that we've qualified in my time is that Because of the sheer miles of roads and lesser amount of infrastructure in rural parts of the county, lots of road tubes get washed out. They have... they can easily meet that threshold, but within the city limits with stormwater structures and what have you, our damage is generally significantly less than that. So there's been a couple of, you know, two out of the three where the county level was met, we qualified for public assistance, we applied, but the actual amount of damage that we had that was eligible was, in a scheme that was relatively small. But we went through the process, and we got whatever level of funding back that we got back. Switched to individual assistance. That is not a clear-cut program. It's very subjective, apparently. We have never qualified for it here, and it varies. There's just a lot more in-depth, and I don't know. In the three disasters, nobody in the state qualified for any individual assistance. So that's your overview of those two systems. Really, the reason that I kind of had this to bring to you guys It's an extreme administrative burden. It's a very complex program. And again, in two out of those three times, I would say that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. You know, and overall in the FEMA PA program, it averages about 25 to 50% of the total cost of the disaster are administrative costs. And in smaller disasters like we now, and that's a hurricane-level incident, smaller disasters like we deal with, oftentimes it appears as though that the administrative cost to deliver is actually more money spent to administer the disaster than is actually delivered to recipients. So, you know, I kind of want to gauge your interest in for us setting caps, if we don't meet a certain threshold, even if we qualify to not pursue that just simply because of the extreme administrative burden. You know, not 2023 was pretty significant. That was obvious. Obviously, we needed to pursue that one. The one prior to that, I believe, was the 19th. It might have been 21. Anyway, you know, we got a couple of tens of thousands of dollars out of it. And it takes a year of administrative work to try to get there. So I'd just be interested in your feedback if you were agreeable to us setting some sort of a even if we qualify in those circumstances where our expected return on that on that. um, investment is really, really low as to not pursue that. Um, and you know, leave those funds. Cause at the end of the day, they're all our tax dollars going to do that. So, uh, I'd be interested in any, any feedback on that. Um, As I was preparing this, then last month, this paper popped up. The president commissioned a study basically into FEMA and what should we change about it, basically. I will say that there are... It was interesting. I read through the whole thing. Obviously, the intent of it is to kind of help blunt some of those administrative, you know, extreme administrative burdens that we've experienced for sure. Now, whether any of this will actually happen and what actual impact it might have is yet to be determined. But kind of the things that I pulled out that to me would be interesting, they're really going to – the intent of it was – reduce the role of FEMA overall, push that, you know, greater responsibility on state and local governments, which has always been the mantra, you know, as long as FEMA's existed since 1979, but over the years, obviously it's grown and grown and grown. One thing they recommended is streamline the Federal Disaster Assistance Program. I'm not quite sure how this one would play out. So when there's a public assistance, we submit all of our damages that we say were caused by this disaster. They go through and they look at it and they decide this qualifies, this doesn't. They sift through it and they tell us what's what. Instead of doing an actual damage-based reimbursement, they recommend a parametric. So basically based on wind speeds and whatever the problem was, just block grants based on those things. So what would that do? Well, it would streamline the funding, but the expectation with the total amount of funding would be reduced pretty significantly, but it would make it happen faster. One other thing is, you know, I don't manage the National Flood Insurance Program, but we do participate. So one of the recommendations was to push more of that onto the insurance industry versus the federal government. And again, and one thing that could be beneficial to us is increased funding for state and local response capabilities. Instead of the bigger federal actual response capabilities, provide additional funding for state and local level programs. response to take care of everything as close to home as possible so again these are all just recommendations some of them could be done by executive action the majority of them would take legislative action so it's hard to say what actually will shake out of all those um it could be some positive things could obviously could be some negative things but i'll kind of keep uh keep tabs on it keep you guys updated as we as we as it moves forward see if anything actually comes to be any questions on any of that

John, going to your question, I think it's worth the cost benefit analysis on that to figure out what's worth applying for, right? Because your time and energies have a cost that come with them as well. And while it's always good when we can bring in additional funding from outside city coffers to work with things, sometimes that's at what expense and for this council greatly supports grant operations for example but we've also said that it's worth examining what are the grants that are worth going after and what are the ones where we recognize that the time and intensity to go in for that for the small dollar amount that would come from it there would actually in the long run be costing us more so I'm not sure tonight that I or the rest of the council have like a set number for you but I think it's worth examining Because we need to be smart in all of our decisions, even when it comes to seeking what might seem like free money.

There are costs that come with that. And I kicked around trying to come up with a set guidance, set parameter. But I'm not sure that that's the right answer either. I think it's probably a case-by-case basis and evaluate it as we go.

John, really quick. If there is some kind of benchmark, I'm going to call it, Is that something that would have to collaborate with the county on in terms of how they do it?

No, we would still, I mean, we would still go through the, it's called, they're called preliminary damage assessments. We would still go through that process regardless because we have to do that to understand what our damage really is.

Okay.

So it wouldn't impact that. We would go through that process anyway. Once you qualify, it's up to each unit of government to determine whether they choose to apply or not. So, you know, we would always go through the preliminary damage assessment process, you know, so we would participate in meeting that threshold. And then we would just determine based on what we actually find, do we pursue it, do we not? And our decision would not impact accounting in any way.

Okay. I see. But the metrics for how something's eligible is at the county level, but the individual entities can decide what they want to.

Correct. Correct. So we would always go through that preliminary damage assessment process that determines where that threshold was met. But then there's a fork in the road. You decide, yes, I want to pursue it or no, I don't. And we're independent on that. It's not impactful to anybody else that would want to do that. So at that point.

Thank you. I think the grant comparison is an excellent one, really. If we're looking at doing a project, and it's come up to you many times, about an environmental review process that takes six or nine months longer than we thought it would because it was just added, or putting in a sidewalk had we just decided to do it on our own, may have already been completed and done at a similar cost, whether or not to So understanding whether or not all the time, and I get to see some of the things that John has to put into these, all the time that goes into it just to maybe three or four years later get a little bit back after we've completed those repairs. Obviously, like you said, we'd like to stretch our funds as much as we can, but sometimes it is quite burdensome.

Yeah, that it is. You want to talk about the... Yeah, recent storms, so... So last week, we did have an EF0 tornado just south of Kirksville. You know, we do put spotters out. I generally, you know, obviously we deploy under certain parameters. We do deploy the on-duty fire crews out, the police officers are out and about and station themselves in certain places. And then... I generally go out as well and I get further out to give additional advanced warning. And if I'm not available or I'm not in town, I do have somebody else that does that in my place. So we did that last week. We did have spotters deployed. This one was a little bit different. That particular storm had been tornado warned to our west. National Weather Service actually hadn't tornado-warned it. It was a severe thunderstorm warning, but it hadn't been tornado-warned for quite a while. And then we had spotters that reported a rotation, and we activated our sirens, and I haven't deciphered the actual timing, so I think we activated sirens here locally about the same time or maybe even a little bit before the National Weather Service initiated their warning. I've not followed up with them. They've been pretty busy, but I'm going to try to do that. Hopefully... this week after Wednesday anyway. Try to follow up with them and just, you know, try to sort out the inside a little bit more and see how the whole thing transpired. But in general, you know, I say this every opportunity I get, you know, Kirksville is in a radar hole. So we are far enough away from all the radars that, you know, obviously we're in the Kansas City, the Pleasant Hill forecast area. So that's our primary. But all the other joining radar, St. Louis and all the others, you know, we have there's this big old. right over the top of Kirksville or kind of right in the middle of it. So their ability to provide warnings based off of radar is limited. They do it, but they're looking way up high in the storm. So our experience is that things that they're warning, It doesn't always translate to that level of weather on the ground. So, you know, a lot of communities, if the National Weather Service does a tornado warning, they automatically activate their sirens. We don't do that locally. You know, we look for ground trees. We look to have spotters, and we want to make sure that, you know, that warning is legit. We want it to be the next level, the next threshold. But we don't want the, you know, cry wolf sort of thing. We don't want people to get accustomed to tornadoes, sirens going off all the time, and then just ignoring them. So...

John, with that, though, I mean, there's the federal government bringing in hopefully a radar service in novelty. Downing.

Yes, in Downing.

I thought it was originally for novelty.

Downing is my understanding. I'm not sure. I believe it's supposed to come online this summer. I don't know a date yet.

Okay. I thought it was going on the Greeley Farm novelty.

I can follow up. I understood it was Downing, but I can verify.

I might be wrong on that one. But either way, something's coming locally to help us with our radar issues. The federal government's working through that.

It could be very beneficial. I'm getting called out. I'm going to have to go here in a hot second.

That's okay.

If you guys have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them real quick. John, run.

All right. Thanks, John.

Just to continue a little bit, there was a little bit of water at the fire station. You probably saw the press release go out. We are currently doing a stormwater project in front of the fire station, so we're hopeful that in the future maybe some more water can be diverted from that area um and in addition to a miles well further up so um but just a lot a lot of water and uh john would have told you that it really had to do not the total amount of rain but the amount of rain in a specific amount of time that's doing that so it's just getting really heavy rain um in a short amount of time is what ends up doing that but The staff was there and did the best cleanup as they could. And I think this is the third time it's happened in the last three years or so. So it's certainly disappointing, but something that they're working through. And he is collecting data on all of the various repairs and things and the minimal storm damage that happened from last week in case that there is a disaster declaration. So he's currently working on things from the current storm. Okay.

I wanted to quickly say, just from last week's storm, they did a good job of getting those sirens out because, I mean, I was watching storm updates and one of the analysis done was that it was actually being downgraded. They didn't think it was going to be that big. But then I hear the sirens going off, so I get the family safe. Shortly thereafter, I find out that it hit just south of Kirksville. So I think the city did a good job alerting with those spotters and Please pass that on. They did a great job.

They do. We have fantastic staff that are trained in those kind of things.

Do we have a place in the city, public place for people to go to? Is it all just private places they can go to when they don't have somewhere to go?

Nothing specific municipally. I mean... For those, our staff that are working in locations like this, we would go to the basement. Same thing at the Aquatic Center. There are certain areas on the interior walls and the bathroom that have been rated for such storms. The new airport, the same. But nothing specifically like a large shelter building or anything. Also, I've read rumors about the armory building many years ago and things like that, but nothing specific. The sirens are for those individuals that are outside to go inside, right? That's the purpose of the sirens, not really for us to hear it inside. You will at times, depending on how far away you are, but it's really to go inside and, you know, hopefully individuals, if they know that a law will make good decisions to maybe have a neighbor next door that has a basement or something to go to. And many people do make those offers around the community.

Thank you. That sounds good on that report. Thank you, Rodney.

Well, then we're going to move on to one that I'm going to give on the Health and Wellness Advisory Commission. It's something that was brought up by a council member a while back. There's been a few short conversations on it so far. So I just want to sort of explain how we went about evaluating it. And the time that I've been here, I don't know if we've evaluated the idea of a new advisory commission. We've We've had our existing commissions for a long time. And this would be separate from what would be done internally, right? Internal health and wellness for our employees. That's more of an operational function of the city manager and passed on down. So this is really for the community as a whole. So what we did was we examined the role of health and wellness just community-wide, responsibilities of existing governmental and community organizations that we have, Practices by other Missouri communities. I thought that was an important thing to look at. What are other neighboring communities or communities of similar size doing? The structure of our current boards and commissions to evaluate if this type of work could be done with what already exists. And then partnerships that currently exist throughout Kirksville. So I will, I guess, report that we benefit from a very strong network of organizations focused on health. Some of these include the Adair County Health Department, Northeast Regional Medical Center, and a host of other medical providers. I mean, the medical profession is really a staple of our community here. Truman State University, A.T. Stoll University, the school district, YMCA, our local parks and recreation department. And then we have various nonprofit organizations and faith-based organizations, volunteer-led youth sports programs. I mentioned them all in the report that really come together to provide these services. And in most cases, these organizations have... the trained and expertise of individuals that are really their staff to provide good and solid health and wellness advice. Health and wellness is not a core municipal function of the city of Kirksville, right? We maintain utilities and we provide services for the quality of life for our residents, like tourism, parks and recreation, emergency services, like you heard from Chief Cook today, and the police department provides an E911, and then a host of public works-related services. And, of course, our community and economic development that you talked with all of our partners today. and the work with Ashley's department, codes and planning, and then some internal services and finance and human resources and administrative services and things of that nature. But health and wellness is not one that's very common for a municipality to really take on. So, I guess I'll move on to what other communities are doing. Looked at Sedalia, Warrensburg, Moberly, Marshall, and Mexico. A lot of M names there. They're really some of the more northern Missouri comparators in size and operations of what the city of Kirksville does. Those communities have a lot of health and wellness initiatives that are supported by various county health departments and health care providers, parks and recreation departments, many of the same sort of providers that we have, but they didn't have any specific health and wellness commission. I did find it interesting, expanded the search, and like, does anybody have this type of service? So City of Kansas City was an interesting comparator in that they have a health commission because they operate a large municipal health department. So they have, instead of the Adair County Health Department, they would have their own internal health which makes sense, they're a large provider, right? City of Columbia also has a city-county health board, and that is because there is a consolidated health department between the City of Columbia and Boone County, so it also makes sense. A community much smaller than ours, interestingly enough, Lexington, Missouri, Has a health and wellness committee so that was the closest thing that I could find But but by ordinance read through their municipal ordinance and know a little bit more about the city of Lexington it was created because they had a new contract with their their primary hospital and that awarded certain grants to their community that was part of the agreement that if this hospital provider was going to come in, they were going to do some small community improvement type grants. And so that committee itself would get together once a year and vote on who's going to be the recipient of those. Outside of those three specific examples, I couldn't find anybody else in Missouri that was doing a specific health and wellness commission. So looking at our existing structure of what we have, the Lakes Parks and Recreation Commission certainly entertains health and wellness initiatives from time to time, whether it be the North Park Walking Trail or all the great programs that you can do at Parks and Recreation. That's certainly something there. And then if you think about it, planning and zoning and the Airport Transportation Commission, they all play parts in the community's health and wellness. It's just, I don't know that it's specifically mentioned in Maybe Parks and Recreation the most. Okay. Also, we have lots of strategic planning meetings public engagement processes where we think about health and wellness certainly in our think 2040 comprehensive plan and we put that together a few years back and There are sections of the strategic objectives do talk about health and wellness initiatives. And the ones that were prioritized were certainly assigned to different city staff or commissions to work towards, and we continue to make progress in those. I'm proud of that comprehensive plan. I think that we continue to make great progress, especially in the Parks and Recreation side of that. They're really sort of checking those off, and they do review that with the Parks and Recreation Board. So thinking about creating a new commission, what would it take? Obviously some staff resource and time. We'd have to recruit and appoint new members. Some of our commissions have a good response rate to openings, others don't. So it would be a new commission where you have to find new individuals to come and whatever the structure of that would be, find a meeting time that would work for individuals. and then assign a staff member to go and set up the agendas and take the minutes and keep that moving. And then it would be existing coordination with other organizations that are in large part providing similar services. So we really have a real problem with Potentially duplicating services, which is what we we don't want to do You know, I think that we've had discussions in the past of from a health and wellness center itself maybe adding a those kind of facilities in the community and when you look at the providers that we already have that do that with the YMCA and they're looking at doing some expansion in the future and Thompson Center for ATSU and Truman's own rec center, there's a lot of providers that do that. So we paused and we're not moving forward right now with those sort of actions. I think it's a similar discussion when thinking about from a commission standpoint whether or not that's needed. So a couple of recommendations from staff. I think we can continue to strengthen the partnerships with the organizations that are already engaged in this type of work. Certainly there's been some council work sessions with some of these providers in the past. I think that there's been varying levels of success to that. Those that come and attend Fantastic, right? It's just getting all these organizations and their leadership in the room at the same time to have those quality conversations with the council. That can be a struggle at times. And then if there's a specific issue that arises, I think those can then be... Funneled into an appropriate place or a group to take that on that doesn't exist Maybe there's a specific stakeholder group within an existing Commission that could So a few years back the Airport Transportation Commission there was a member that was concerned about some sidewalk safety in a specific area of the community and A sidewalk safety or I believe it was a sidewalk study group was created. They went and they did some research on that and reported back to the ATC. I think that information was then passed on along to the city council. And then that work group was then eliminated because the task had been done. That can be done in similar situations. So if there's something specifically related to health and wellness that we wanted to tackle, whether it's childhood obesity or something like that, and we wanted to come up with specific strategies to meet some achievable goals in our community, then could a stakeholder group or something within an existing commission take that on? Those would be the staff suggestions. Now I'd like to open it up to discussion for all of you to see what you think.

I have a presentation on this.

Sure. Go ahead, Sunny.

Okay, my idea is from a totally different perspective. It is that you're talking about very official sort of things. I'm talking about common sense, and the common sense is a community The health and wellness is important to the vibrancy, and I don't believe we should be comparing ourselves to other cities or worrying about the legalities. It's like the main focus we'll be having on health and wellness is that people, when they feel safe, they will start communicating in their own neighborhoods. And right now we have a big problem that there are certain neighborhoods that it's not as safe and people can tell they're not up doing what they need to do to keep their spaces clean and they just don't have the energy. And when you don't have the energy to do those things, it just doesn't happen. And how you start doing that is when people feel connected to each other, they feel safe and they feel connected and they feel like they're heard and they feel like they have value, they start to live differently. And I think that Kirksville has plenty of places that don't feel that way. And I think that to start that out, you could just ask how, you know, we have a new communications person, ask how many people in Kirksville feel safe? If you don't feel safe, nothing works in your life. It's on an individual basis. It's not this big, broad thing, because the big, broad things, people don't feel welcome many times, especially people who aren't doing well. They just don't go to any of those things that we have to offer. You know, tonight people presented wonderful things, but... If you don't feel good, you're not going to engage. But if you go neighborhood to neighborhood, you know, there's much more engagement with people. And then they start like one thing I heard is that people. went out, they got the neighborhood together, and then they found who in that neighborhood did something that they really enjoyed. And so then they started to connect, they started to feel good about their space, and that's what I'm talking about. And I think there is a huge opening for that if we look at it from that perspective.

i would recognize you know a lot of the things that i think you're talking about cindy is about interconnection yeah and recognizing on that one um and i would i would hope that we would continue to utilize some of the strategies that are already at play for that one and encourage communities to focus on it more i think about the chief's work on neighborhood watch programs that have really been effective in building out some neighborhoods and a sense of identity within them the bringing communities together several of those that have been implemented are Looking at the aims you're exactly talking about right there, starting to build a sense of interconnection on that one. So I'm hopeful that we continue to leverage some of those existing things to address exactly what you're speaking to.

Rodney, I don't think the council is part of this where they can go, but they still have those, is it annual meetings with different people? Mark Twain and all the healthcare facilities. Do they still do that?

So I think we officially stopped the organization. The council is still invited to go to any. That we have, but yeah, there was individual staff members that were put in charge of continuing those. So specific to the fitness facilities and the health, it was, you know, the YMCA and the state park and those providers would meet. And I think Robin did meet with that group fairly recently within the last couple of months. You know, and yeah, but there were different sections based on health care, education and I think it was really around downtown or local business, small businesses. And so we had those for a few years. And like I said, it was, I think I attended many of them, many of you, it was whether or not it was well attended by those other individuals. One thing that you mentioned, Cindy, that I think that we have tried and had pretty good success on has been the neighborhood block parties in those parks. And it has been limited to those individual park areas. Did expand to North Park in a way as part of the Red, White, and Blue Festival and having games and things up there and then adding bands and food trucks and trying to offer some other sort of ways for connection. But I certainly, I hear what you're saying with the specifically about being able to get a specific service whether that's a wellness center or mental health help specifically clinically you're talking about just being knowing your neighbors better and being a part of the community and that is and not just staying in their homes it's like when we had COVID people got out you know like they used to and talk now

You don't even see your neighbors. Everybody stays in their own house and does their own thing. And I'm talking about feeling more connected with people and not so depressed. You know, they wouldn't have this many people. I don't know if they've ever done a study on depression, but I don't think that's what's important. I think it's seeing people as humans and not as just, you know, oh, they fit into this block or they fit into that block.

And it may be individual neighborhoods throughout the community. I'm fortunate that I know my neighbors personally, but it's that I've taken the effort to go and introduce myself. And even when somebody moves in that's new, this is my family, this is what sort of services. I also get to put my city employee hat on and say, hey, you're new to the community, so here's what there is to do. But I could understand that in certain parts of the community that can be a little bit more tough, or if there's a larger base of more transient residents with college students coming and going all the time, it'd be hard to build those relationships when they're there for a short amount of time.

I see a couple things on this. You know, Is there a role for a new city municipal commission on that? I'm not sure there is. I'm not sure that Rodney's research and looking at other communities is about helping us to see what is traditionally a municipal role and what is the role of other governmental agencies. And this is where I see, if we're looking for a governmental agency to have a stake on this one, you talk about surveying, for example, That's where I think our partners at the Adair County health department really become our allies on this 1 and really that they have this as their bailiwick instead of ours. They're the ones who have participated even recently in some surveying of the community to maybe understand what some of those needs and aims are. where i would like to see the city move in we've had a really great example of that recently is how can we partner with the health department to offer the things that we do uniquely well to benefit their aims and being the folks who have oversight and guidance for health in our community i think about the recent stuff that came forward on the kratom laws right and our ability to work with that group which was doing good research which was bringing in public health practices which was bringing in research of other communities and how they were addressing that from a legal aspect be able to involve our local police department as a resource to bounce ideas off of to help draft that legislation and then for us as a council to be able to put things into law in a way that's going to help support what the health department's going to do i would love to see us continue to find ways to support the health department and really champion them as the folks who lead these efforts in ways that will make an impact in the lives of folks the way you're talking about so i'm not sure i'm on board with this moving forward with the commission but anything we can do to support those folks who already have that responsibility i would love for us to continue to do that in ways that we as the city of kirksville can uniquely provide Yeah, I think that we have. Go ahead, John.

I'm sorry. I think one of the biggest impacts that we have, I just hear what you're saying, is we get out and get around our neighborhoods. We're walking through the neighborhoods. And even as a local church, I've taken some young people in our local church, get out and talk to people. And actually, we've had opportunities to pray for people, but just talk about, hey, how are you doing? And just begin to get in the community that way. And offer them help in things they're doing, maybe services, cleaning the yard, whatever, things like that. So that's how it's going to change. It's going to be people getting around the community You know, talking to people, seeing how they're doing. Most of the time I just walk in, hey, how are you doing today? And people will just open up. They'll just start talking. And that's everything about their life. As a faith-based man, it's like, hey, what can I pray for you? Is there something we can do for you? And that really encourages people and helps people. So I think it's more individual efforts than it is creating a commission like you said, Zach.

Yeah. And maybe it was like, you know, I'm not necessarily thinking about doing that, but I want to put that emphasis on the city to what we're really trying to do is get individual people. I mean, I think it's great to have all those things, but if you're isolated, you're not going to go to any of those things.

Do you think it's that they don't want to go or that they don't know about it? Because we can help with that, right? We can continue to expand the ways that we communicate what the events are.

No, if you're at home and you're living by yourself and you don't really know people in the community because you started to isolate more and more, you know, maybe you're depressed or something, they don't feel comfortable going.

Okay. The loneliness epidemic.

Yeah. You know what? Remember when one of the cell phone companies, I think it was USL, actually, they had this slogan. It's like, you know, take 30 minutes off the phone. It's like, you know, because people spend so much time on their phones. It's like, maybe we could do things like that, put some things out there. Hey, you know what? Take a walk. Go visit a neighbor. Just encourage people to do those things in those places. I don't know.

But I would say to folks maybe who are listening to this meeting, you know, to John's point, what are the things that we can all do in our own communities that don't take necessarily governmental intervention, but might use some government support, right? For folks who don't know, Cindy's a couple blocks away from me over in the neighborhood. And I've had an idea and started talking with some of my neighbors around me. I've never lived in a community with an alley before, but I've got an alley behind my house. So we're starting to put together the idea of hosting an alley party at some point this fall. I want to call it Alley Cat. We're going to make t-shirts. It's going to be great. You're going to get an invitation for it there. But the idea is that we're going to just set up a long table and have a dinner together, right? But I have no idea what it would take to close down a public alley for an event, right? But the city of Kirksville is who we would go to for that. So... Again, that's something that my neighbors and I have been talking about and that we'd like to do for anybody who's watching. How might the city of Kirksville use its resources and expertise to help facilitate something that you want to do in your own neighborhood and community? You look good in an alley cat shirt. We're going to get you one.

We do know what it takes to close down an alley. You do exactly. And people have done that before. They've requested to close out of public street to have sort of like a, you know, a cul-de-sac party of sorts to have their, you know, to get together a little party.

And I think also, I mean, going back to the health department, I mean, We have an abundance of professionals in terms of mental health. We have Cornerstone. We have Mark Twain. And those are... Centerstone. Centerstone. Yep. Cornerstone's the church. Right. Centerstone's the... It was preferred. Yep. Anyways, that's me getting older. But we have a lot of knowledge there. So those are opportunities where they can collaborate and work together. There's a lot of experience there with them. So...

I guess that's what I was thinking. It's like I even went to the website and there's all kinds of representation. But when I called a person, you know, said, well, you can come over here to this, you know, which is great. But it's like nobody is doing this together. It's like I'm here and I'm here and you're here and you're there. And we're not talking about, you know, great ideas and ways to get people together like that. Like John said, just saying hi. If someone says hi to you that day, it could just make someone's day that you don't know.

I agree. So I'd say let's continue to look at what are the ways that we can leverage what the city does. Rodney, I appreciate you putting together that long list of folks who are doing this kind of great work already in our community. And when we can find ways to support that, let's do it. When we can find ways to inspire our community to do cool things, let's do that. And as individual council members, we have an opportunity to inspire folks to do that as well and celebrate those things that are really cool that are happening in our community.

John, do you have anything else on the commission structure itself?

To me, for this, a commission doesn't really make sense. but i think we are talking about connection i think we're talking about loneliness and loneliness is a serious thing and we have devices in our pockets that are trying to increase that quite frankly yeah i agree you know i think john's point about putting it down go talk to a neighbor you know or go help someone you know is there's always good things okay

Well, I think there's some things that we can continue to think about and plan on, but we'll move away from the specific commission. So, I believe there is one other report that's linked. It's just on administrative warrants. So, I spoke to Reed Yardley earlier today. It was still none. That's the short and sweet version of that, but he'll continue to provide those reports on a final report. every six-month basis. So that's all I have on the study session. If you want to move into the newsletter? Yeah, let's move into the newsletter. I appreciate that. Very good. So some topics of note. The audit correspondence. So this is sort of a late edition. So City Council, you guys are aware of the scope of work and what the audit is each year. It may be that you received a letter from Sikich individually.

I'm not sure I have yet. Has anybody else gotten a letter from Sickish? I don't think so.

And if you do, you don't have to tell anybody else. It's fine. But if you choose to fill out that information, fantastic. We can't force you to do that. But if you do, they may send you a specific letter about fraud and things like that.

nature so sickage is our auditing firm that we bring in and one of the things that they do is they are reviewing city records they're going through everything and absolutely for years the city has had a wonderful report come back on that one but part of their work is to reach out to individual council members and we're not uh day in day out staff and so if we were aware of some sort of fraud there's an opportunity for us to talk and share that I've received that letter each year. I've always been happy to report that I am not aware of any fraud. But we may receive those, and we should fill those out independently as we receive them. That's an important part of their analysis.

It gives us a comprehensive review. Mm-hmm. Fantastic, okay. Let's move on to essential air service award. Just that at your last council meeting, there was an extension of a contract for contour. I did get the order officially. So at your next city council meeting, there will be a new contract that will be for your approval. That's all that has to do.

When you say extension, but it's with the new look.

It was an extension with the old who happens to be the new. So there'll be a new contract that will make the extension sort of new.

Well, our extension was on use of facilities last time. This is the

If the extension allows that the new facility to be used before the new contract is in point, so that's a good point there and Yes, and so I think the idea is Actually, the new terminal is going to be June 24th as the move date and then 25th will be the first flights out of the new So yes, it's getting very close. We're getting very excited.

So so when they start in the Texas flights, I

I believe it's advertised for August 1st at the new date of the new contract. So I haven't checked. I would assume they'll start advertising those very quickly. So might be able to hop on a flight in August to Dallas if you'd like. All right. Battle of the Badges Backpack Edition. So another great collaboration between different departments and organizations throughout the city. They are accepting some donations for back-to-school backpacks. So if anybody would like to participate in that in the community, you can drop it off at any of the listed organizations. Some of those include the Kirksville Fire Department and Police Department. So if you'd like to make some donations. What's that? Anywhere at all.

Anywhere at all.

All right. Some council members of ours were in the MML magazine, so that's exciting. Both John and Cindy, council members Hanley and Mayberry, you guys were both featured in the Missouri Municipal Review. So they have an annual issue on new swear-ins with council members and things of that nature. So congrats. and then the last thing I'll mention anytime I'm here I'll probably talk about a Parks and Recreation event just as a little kickback but Finding Nemo the musical tickets are on sale now I will say that whenever I was hired to be Parks and Recreation director in this community I came here I one of the first events I went to was out at it was like a small wedding barn out on um Rainbow Basin and they were doing a it was like a little medley of comedy stories and acting and it just blew me away that the quality of that program and then there was a partnership that next summer where we did a full play it was Adam's family or another one at one of Truman's facilities that the Parks and Recreation Department of a community of our size that puts on the quality of theatrical performances that we do here and it's unmatched statewide, I guarantee. There are many great theatrical partnerships where cities partner with other existing theaters and things like that. I mean, Macon has a wonderful set up. But to do that internally, wow. So if you have kids that are interested in participating in this, there's a camp that's coming up really quick, I believe, to participate and then There's I think they've already been having rehearsals for this, but it's a shorter one I think it's I think it's about an hour, but it's finding Nemo a family musical so encourage everybody to go out and see that Hopefully just a lot of people pack the pack the room for that and we may be in the future Using the new facilities at Kirksville School District, so it'd be nice as well So there's some other things listed here if you don't have any questions. I'll wrap it up, but I have a presentation Okay

Is it—otherwise you're done?

Yeah, the newsletter review is finished.

Okay. Tonight I want to bring a message from God. It's tired of all the confrontations, fighting, and trying to overpower each other. In the schools, young girls are being mean to each other, competing and not feeling and acting— being able to be at peace with themselves. Instead, they're always acting like they're better and bullying other people rather than being kind and building each other up. And I know that a lot of the people, especially on our board and stuff, they do not, you know, you don't hear that, you don't see that because it's, you know, it's undercover. But people come to me and they talked about that. And The chaos of the political state of the country fighting Trump instead of asking God for peace. Fighting just causes more problem and amps up people. When you start fighting somebody, they push back. This is the peace. It also is asking for that... I'm sorry, not... making it difficult for many to eat and the prices of everything just going up. Some people don't have money for food and I know that everybody here is very aware of that. They don't have housing, they're homeless, but that's all through the country. And so homelessness has risen and things are more, when you're in fear, of anything fear is the if you don't feel safe you can't be okay and so the violence brings crime and drugs and alcoholism when you don't feel safe you want to have another way of being heard and that's what you go to it is time for peace tonight god is bringing peace All people's bank accounts will be altered to providing equality for all. All jobs will pay the same amount. Tonight will be peace. When people feel safe and secure, then you can see in the world as kind and lovable. Loving kindness is the important feature for peace. And it's the most important thing in our lives. And instead, we try to compete. We try to worry about finances. And we do that from young children. We program them to be afraid of everything. We become so technical in our heads and fearful that we forget what is most important. God can't continue to watch and sit back and do nothing. Life is becoming less safe and is feeling not safe. Media amps up the negative and negativity destroys people. Whereas positivity and compassion, like talking to your neighbors and that sort of thing, kindness, And feeling safe is the basis for safety on an individual basis and a community basis. Our role was focusing on knowledge rather than loving kindness. We worry about what others think because we have been programmed. to feel that we have to prove ourselves, but we don't have to prove anything. The fact that we were born means that we are worthy. We are worthy of everyone. Everyone is worthy. We're all living under the same sun. And if we started just becoming much more kind and not so worried about procedures and all the other stuff and just went back to the basics. Not our worth based on what we can produce, how we can show ourselves, how we can be special. It's just being. If you're alive, your life is worth something. And we should begin to believe that.

Well, thank you for sharing.

Thank you.

That brings us to the end of the agenda. We've gone through the newsletter. Do I have anything else on the slate for tonight? Nope. All right. As a reminder, we will be meeting next week for our regular session meeting.