City Council - Regular Meeting

3. We're going to call our road work session to order. We'll do the pledge of allegiance at our actual meeting. Uh Susie, can you call roll, please? Council member Furl Barkcus here. Council member Salo here. Council member Ritzma here. Council member Eric Barkus here. And Mayor D'Vor, I'm here. Motion to approve the packet for the work session. I'll make that motion. I'll support discussion or changes. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Hi. Okay. Public comment for the seven-year street plan. All right.

All right. Good evening. Um, wanted to uh give you an update on on our on our steep street improvement plan. Um, I really started thinking about this probably about a year ago um when the uh when the legislature was talking about uh increasing funding for local roads. Um originally the original plans projected the city would get about $1.3 million um in road funds. um that did go down um once the uh once the legislation was actually put into law by the governor, but we did get a substantial amount of um amount of funds uh for for the four local streets. But um what also was what also was going on is honestly we have done more streets in the plan that we had approved back in 2022 than we've actually than than um we've done more streets than we planned up to this point. And um it got to the point where it was like, well, we we probably need to re-update the plan because I'll I'll walk you through it, but it it there are some things that it entails that allows us to to get um the streets done. So, I kind of want to go just kind of want to go through some history here. Um I went back to 2007 um to determine what our um what we spent for expenses for road construction. And when I talk about I'm talking about engineering and construction period. And um if you if you look uh a lot of those early years there wasn't a lot of uh investment. Um frankly we had no money. Um and uh we we did we did a lot of we we we didn't do a lot as as we know. And um around 2015 2016 there were some

increases to Act 51 that allowed that brought a little bit more money in. At the time it was helpful but it really wasn't solving the problem. Um what really obviously catapulted us was the increase of those funds but the marijuana the the marijuana revenue. Um if you look at some of the out some of the last couple years uh our road investment has gone up quite a bit. Um, and I also broke it down from all the different funds we utilize. Local street, major street, the DDA, they've contributed to a number of streets in the district. Um, and also, uh, I did account for the USDA loan. Um, because a portion of that was for the road even though it was part of the total utility project and that is something we're going to have to pay back. So, I did mark those as as expenses. So, I did break it down a little bit more for you. So, um the total amount that we've spent on road since 2007 is just over $7 million. From 2007 to 2016, we're about $1.1 million um in that 10-year period. Uh, I became city manager in fall 2016 and since that time we've spent 5 over $5.9 million, but really that push has come since 2020. Um, where we've spent $5.3 million. Um, we've and and and as you know, we've done a lot more streets than we've had in the plan when we've had extra marijuana funds. We've added more streets. Um we're we're doing pretty good. Um from the revenue side, um this is what we received from all the funds for roads. If you recall with local and major streets, we get we get an allocation from the state. But remember that's not just for road improvements.

Anything we do with the roadways, storm drains, our our employees filling potholes, snow removal, salt, all of that, that all comes out of the lo that also gets all gets charged to the local and major street funds depending on whether the street is a local street or a major street. Um, we've also for a number of years have always made an a general fund allocation um to the general to the uh from the general fund to the local street fund. Um and and if you see on that list, it's it's gone it's gone up quite it's gone up over time. Um we did reduce it back back around 2021 once we started getting the marijuana money. We did we did cut it back a little bit. Um last couple years we've been putting about $150,000. But what we've also done is when we've had um budget surpluses, like for example, couple years ago, we put an extra $100,000 in out of the general fund for roads. And then if you look in the marijuana funds, all of those funds are used for roads. Um there were a couple years where they used the LCTV fund for roads. Um and then at the DDA, they've contributed for a couple of projects. um since I've been here they've done um the big the big one was Broadway they contributed for and then they also um the other they did Valley Vista a couple years back and then I believe they did Ottawa as well. Um so they have they have they have kicked in um their share of of streets if it's in the DA district basically to alleviate the local and major street funds so they can um they can address other needs throughout the city. Um through that time um we've had about $12,000 $12 million we've generate we generated from the state from from these in road revenue. Um why do we pick 2007? Because that was the first year we used

our accounting system BSNA. So that was as far back as I could go on the computer system. Um so um if you break the revenue down since 2027 for the first 10 years it was about 4.3 million. Um since I've become city manager it's been about um 7.7 million. I didn't take into account the current fiscal year cuz we're not completed with it yet. And then mainly the last five years is where we've seen the the majority uh we've seen a very large uh share of revenue which is about just under $5.4 million. So we have been very aggressive um with with our road with our road funding and our in our road improvements. So I want to educate you a little bit on Act 51. I know a lot of you know this, some of you may not, but the way act 51 operates, um, we get a lump sum payment from the state, um, we are to allocate 75% of that to the major street fund, which is 6.89 miles of road in the city. The other 25% is allocated to the local street fund, which is the majority of our roads in the city. Um, in 2020, we were able to, this was a, this was a little trick we used in my former community where we found out we could do this. We would take 50% of the funds designated out of the major street fund and put them in the local street fund is that was allowed under Act 51 because the primary need in our system was local streets, but we didn't really have the funds for it. Um we then I want to say around that time um the state made modifications to allow for communities to establish street asset management plans that if we filed them with MDOT we can move those

funds any way we wanted as long as we're as long as we're fixing mo roads we believe in any manner we believe possible. So in 2022 we we filed the street management plan. If you recall, about 85% of the public roads in the city of LOL were rated as poor. Um, and then since the majority of the streets in the plan, as as I said, now we've done a lot of those streets, we got to update the plan. So, um, I just want to show you the map of what we did in 20 This is what we proved back in 2022 and and we go through 2028. Um all of the most of the streets in the color have either been completed or they're at least obligated. The only project that hasn't been obligated but is still slated as bows. Um every project in color um we have either done or is planned to be done and is obligated. Um so I I think there's a lot of uh there's a lot I I think there's a lot to be said about that um really in the last four five last five years of the number of streets. In addition, what this what this doesn't show you is the number of streets that we're that we're going to do or we have done. For example, if you look on the east side of the river, not all those street segments on the east side of the river were even planned. Uh when we when we put this in 2022, um once the marijuana money started coming in, we realized a lot of those streets in black um especially east of the river, we were able we were able to do on on the southeast side of the city.

We've done every street. The only street we haven't done yet is South Grove. And when we do Division and Avery, that'll get that'll get it that'll get added as well. We also did Shephard Street to the north. Um we also did um we also did some work on Hillside Drive, I want to say about 5 6 years ago. Um and to my knowledge, it's still holding up. Um and then obviously we we did some of the big ones. Grindle, Washington, Monroe, all those were in really bad shape. Um what we we'll be so we've we've continued to move along with this and we're we're in my opinion we're we're we're very far ahead. But what this map also shows or maybe it doesn't show as well, there's still a lot of streets that have to be done. And so, um, I I believe the count, you know, I know when I first arrived here, the council had always the pretty much the number one directive is get as many roads done as we can get done as fast as we can get done. And we've really, we've really took that to heart and we've really tried to do that. And, um, I thought, you know, we've been able to get a lot of grant funding. Um, this is an area where we can get grant funding. Um, and we've been very we've been very successful in that. So, um, I do want to talk real quick about the neighborhood road fund. So, this started coming this current fiscal year. The state of Michigan added an additional funding component component for local streets. This is not tied to act 51. It is a separate funding source and it's a lot there's a lot of different things that ti that that are part of it but part of it is it's paid for by the 24% marijuana wholesale tax. My understanding there's current litigation on that. I as to whether or not that's

going to that's going to continue uh to go through. Um want to make it very clear this has not this does not pertain to anything with the excise tax that we've received. It's a it's a different task. Um but there are arguments in the in the um in the legislature about how how um or in the courts whether or not that is legal. So that'll be remain to be seen. If that happens, then I don't know what the legislaturator is going to do because they have committed funds um for for for local roads. I don't know what they'll do if if that happens, but um we'll we'll deal with that when it happens. Um, as of today, Treasury has not provided guidance yet as to how to spend the money. Um, what I had Sue do is I'm allocating it all to local streets for our projections because I think what the act I would I would assume once the state does put guidelines in, they'll probably be very similar to the Act 51, which if we have an asset management plan, we can use the funds as we see fit. Um so uh so there's that. Um a lot of the grant funding options that we have these are all ones that we've received. Um well the transportation improve imp improvement planning funds the tip it's called the tip that is um that is federal funding. It's an 8020 match where we pay 20% for federal aid eligible roads. The only roads eligible for this are Bose Monroe Forman and G. The city has never sought transportation improvement funds. Um, we'll talk about in a few minutes, but I do anticipate Bose around 2030 is going to be the project we submit the tip for because it's going to be a pretty expensive project. And um,

that would be a good project in my opinion for us to con to to submit to the to uh the Grand Valley Metro Council in the state for that. Um, the foreman that was just completed. I thought that used to

No, that's small urban. I'm going to talk about that. So, yeah. So, the next one is small urban grants. We've gotten a lot of small urban grants. Um Foreman and G were both small urban grants. Um when we we've done we've done those under the under the small urban program. Um we recently were informed that any road it was always tied to federal aid eligible roads. So once all the federal eligible roads were done, we had no more roads to submit. Um and uh we were then informed that uh by the state that any any road built before 1991 is eligible for these funds. So there is a allocation that comes every 2 years to the to the LOL area. Um, and between the city and the road commission, we have to agree to to use the funds on a, you know, on a certain project. Um, the county has been really good about us being able to use these funds for our projects, but I'm sure at some point they're going to ask to do one of theirs. Um, but it's a 2year it's a 2year every two years we're eligible. So, um, James right now is a it's obligated or it's going it's about to be obligated, but that's a 2026 um small urban grant. Um, in 2028, Hunt Street will be a small urban grant. Um, and the nice thing about that is it's a it's an 8020 match. It's I believe right now it's no more than $420,000 we can receive. Um we would if if we had a project of that level, we would have to put an additional 20% on it. Um that money if if the project comes in less, it's it's 8020. Um but it's a it's been a it's been a really good um grant for us to uh um to to to

be considered for other projects. uh the uh the MDOT transportation and economic development grant funds. This is really tied to economic development projects. Um however, back in 2020, we did receive this for AMD. Um and they did grant us uh they granted us funding under this under this statute. So that was uh I think that was actually probably the first grant we received um since I've been city man when I was city manager for roads. So, um, but that that that that funding category is, um, it's not it's really not we don't really have any projects right now that that would be considered under. Um, the MDOT category B funds, uh, we just received that for Brooke and Lorie Gale. Um the state of Michigan offers funding for um local streets um for for communities I believe less than 10,000 people. Um it's one of those grant programs you just can't apply for every year. It's one of those you got to every couple years because your score it's a score it's a scoring based system. So it's one of those where they you score better if you if you if you stagger your grant request. So like maybe you put in one one year and then maybe you come back like 3 years later um for another one. Those are ones that tend to um be how that tends to be how the state funds those.

Can you double dip on a project? What do you mean? So you got the tip money for Bose Road, right? Mhm. Why couldn't you then also get economic development funds for that too? So they usually only let you kick one.

Okay. And the other the other thing is too, every program has their own different requirements. If you recall, I don't if you remember, but back when we had back when we were doing Monroe, we initially received grant funding just to pave Monroe under the small urban. But the problem was that was such an that was obviously a very expensive project. It was water and sewer. If we would have took that money, it would have flown it would have we would have had to do the pro whole project under M dot standards and which would have their their requirements are would be more costly than what we would have done if we just bid it ourselves. Um there were obviously and then because that project also was tied to the USDA, there were a lot of different language conflicts where it made more sense for us to just not f use Monroe. That's where we actually took that money and we put it on foreman to do I'm sorry. No, we did that on for G when we when we we did G drive with those funds. So we transferred the funds to G and we were able to do that street instead. Um so that that was what that was what came about that. So that they don't really like you double dipping. It's you kind of you got to kind of pick the one most suitable for the grant. Um and then lastly, uh we do receive community development block grants. Uh we've submitted road projects in the past. Uh we did um actually I might be wrong on the TEDF. I believe we actually used AMD for the community. I'm I am wrong. We did use AMD for the community block development grant now that I remember. Um and then we also did Riverside Riverside Drive. all the and all the surrounding streets on Riverside Drive south of Foreman are all going to be part of that community development block grant and that's something that we can that that's available to us every four years. Um the

best the best chance of funding that's a scoring based system as well. If we if we if we put a request in every four years we tend to score higher and um we tend to get grants. So that that's how it's worked out for us in in the years past. Do we score lower because we do so much? Like do they go to more? No, but not cities.

No. No. It they usually a lot of these are pretty good about because it's not like some of the other ones that you know like for water that is exactly what happens. Doesn't necessarily always happen that way with the road funding because one with the small urban grant we always we already have an allocation every two years. Um, category B is designed for smaller communities and the community development block grant is just it's designed for the non- urban areas of Kent County. So, there's not a lot of money. I think usually there's only like $750,000 a year um in CDBG grants from the county. So, they try to spread that out amongst all the different jurisdictions in Kent County. Um, whenever we apply, we always apply for the most that we can get. That's why we tend to we tend to we tend to get those, but we time them. We have to time them just right so we can so we can get them. So, that's that's what we've done. Those are the really the grants that have been available to us and will continue to be available to us going forward. So what I also wanted to share with you, so I've I've done some I've done some I've done a lot of projections um and I have put together the upcoming street projects that I believe we can do for the next till next to 2032. What I believe I believe this project these projects can be done and I believe that every street as once this is completed by 2032 if it's completed by 2032 every street in the network will have been will have had some work on it since the 1970s. Um we have streets on this list that have not been touched since the 1970s. Um and um we we h we have as you see we have a lot of streets. We still got about $8.2

million worth of uh uh of streets um that had to be done. Um what I did with this too was I did identify if you see where utility costs are, I did highlight them. I highlighted them in your packet, but I also highlighted them on this graph whether or not they're um there's an aligning water project or sewer project or a water and sewer project. So, some of these do have some sewer work. Um some of its pipes, some of it lining um on the sewer end. Um there is a waterline project that has to be done along Main Street near West we we we do West Street which would be projected for 2031 2030 2031. Um so we try to we try to take those into account as well but I can just kind of go through some of them. Obviously, we have projects that are that are going to be um this year and next. Uh Riverides Riverides Al Riverside Alen the Hunt is going to be this year. Um part of it may not I'll mention that in my management report tonight because there's there's some there's some hangups slowing us down on the uh on the uh Riverside project with the with the with the county. But it'll get it'll get done, but maybe phase two doesn't get done. Um, Elm Street, um, we did Elm Street is also another project's going to be done on the Major Street Fund. Um, obviously all the cross streets between Hudson and Riverside, um, they're they're slated to be done. Uh, we have Division and Avery. Um, and then we'll add South Grove to that project in 2627. It's in your budget for next year. Uh, James and High, it's already budgeted, but it'll be obl it'll be obligated. It'll be done next. It'll be done in the spring. Um, we did ask the DEA this year to uh to fund uh

projects on Water Street and Chadam. They're both in the downtown district. Um, then uh in 2027 28 we have Hunt Street. That'll be all of Hunt Street from um Hudson to the to the culdesac um near the trail. Um that project has already been approved by MDOT as a small urban project. Um, Beach Street, uh, Beach Street, Birchwood both planned for 2728. Donna Valley Vista, um, North Northwest Street, um, they're all they're all slated for 2829. Ridge View is for 2829. 2930 is Chadam. Um and then 2930 we're also looking at Elm Lincoln Lake uh pretty much all of Lincoln Lake, Mercer Spring, that area uh that area those those streets are looking really bad and they do need I mean they they need to get done and so um we have those slated and then 203031 we have Avery. Uh 2030 to31 is Bose Road. Uh that's about a $1.8 $.8 million project estimated today. Uh and then um 2031 30-31. We also have Center Street Division. Uh and then Southwest and and then Sibi. Uh I did I did slate Sibi as a small urban project for 2132 mainly because of the cost. Um it's about as in today's dollars it's about $700,000. Uh so um I broke it down in different in the different funds we would need to utilize all this. Um I I do think this is a uh I do think this is a um this can be done. Um I'm going to show you some of the budget

numbers. Um let me share those. You have questions there? I do. Mike, I'm just trying to understand when you say engineering estimate and then city cost. So let's take for instance Bose road $1.8 million. Then you say city cost is 360K, right? So is the tip funding paying the rest of Yeah. So the 360 would be our share. Gotcha. That's how I accounted for that. Good. And then second question, I know Washington and Monroe needed a bunch of, you know, utility work, huge millions of dollars.

I don't with the exception of Southwest, I don't see any major utility work here on this list, right? Is do you know that the utilities in the west? At this point, I don't know. I I don't know. I mean, I I went off the list we had from Saw. That's I know you had the saw done in 2020 I think. Yeah. And saw showed these to be correct. Saw showed those but that doesn't mean there's not other issues we don't know about

and if we want to evaluate we have to rent plumbers they have to rent the we don't have a camera so we have to go through and and evaluate. We have to we would have to we can evaluate that as when we when we engineer when we plan these we can evaluate that and if we have to do it we should consider doing it cuz I mean we don't want to do what we don't want to do is put a road down and 5 years later we got to rip it out for a water man right we'd like to we try to avoid that. So this is this is really good. I'm just honestly I'm a little surprised there's not more utility work needed but that's that's good. So

there may be I mean I'm just I mean you know the the it's been 6 years since we did saw so I mean I don't know what's come I mean there's a lot of unknowns um but based on the information I have uh that we should I mean we shouldn't have we shouldn't have we shouldn't have issues well who knows I I can't predict the future but everything I'm that's telling me is that those are what the utility projects that we have to Now, Bose, another issue with Bose is eventually when we do expand the water treatment facility, we're probably going to have to up up up part of that is we're probably going to have to update the transmission line coming out of the plant. I don't know what that's going to entail just yet. Um, and at this point, it's still we're we're still speculating as to what what needs what will need to be done. Um, but every indication I have uh at this point is that those are the only projects we have. My staff has I mean my staff obviously the water and sewer guys they pay attention to that pretty well and they have not really brought anything to my attention other than other than the areas that we've had that we they were already kind of planning for

where you've had a break where we've had a break. Yeah. I mean west is kind of an area we've had issues in the past. Um so I know that one's going to have to be done. Um there's a there's a lot there's probably be some water work when we do the division 83 project on main on Main Street. I know there's some issues there. Um but that's really been it. Are these all today dollars or did you adjust for

No. So what we those are today dollars. That's kind of how we utilize it. Um what we did what we did do though was we kind we were I was a little more conservative with the number. So normally what we used to do 5 years ago and we used to do 10 years ago was to do a preliminary estimate I would we would just say we would we would say $200 a foot. Um that would include all your cost. That's like that's just a ballpark estimate. Um that would include your engineering and your construction costs. Um I did update everything. I did tell I did say I did say when I g what I did was I did estimates I took all the streets I measured out just through Regis how many feet each street was and I gave an estimate to row and I said okay I'm estimating this at $225 a foot. Is that right? And so they came back and they they actually modified the estimates. They must they modified them over time at 215 a foot. Um those numbers might change a little bit obviously over time, but that's kind of what we use to to gauge it there. If you run it through roadsoft, roadsoft can give you a little more of a updated estimate, but we didn't we didn't run this through road at this point. We might we probably have to when we when we submit the street plan, but these are these tend to be in line with what we've been seeing.

I got a couple questions. Sure. in regarding do we know how old our current sewer and water systems are in these neighborhoods or the streets that we're looking at? Are they in the last 50 60s? Do you have anyation at this time? And what do we expect that?

I would say the maj So your Valley Vista was built in 70s. That's your newest area obviously with the exception of Highland Hills. That's your newest area of of water and sewer line so to speak. Um you had um you had a sewer separator project um in the you had a you had a project in the 50s that was done and then you had a separation project in the '7s. That's where pretty much the majority of the sewer lines in the city were replaced. I believe a lot of the water lines came around in the 70s as well. Some did go back to the 50s. Um Ralph could tell you more about that than I can, but we do have I mean we have a aging infrastructure. There's no there's no getting around it. Um the biggest area of the aging infrastructure was Monroe in Washington. Biggest issue on Monroe and Washington was was obviously the INI, but the other the other issue we had in that area is we had 4in water mane going up both Mineral and Washington. You would have an 8 in then a 4 in then an 8 8 8 in 4 in it it was the the flow was very low. When you have 4 in lines that is not that is something that has to be replaced. Most of our lines in the city are 6-in lines, which is adequate um or at least mains that those are adequate size mains and depending for residential use, obviously depending on usage, but we don't have a lot more 4-in water mane, which was obviously the biggest culprit. Um but yeah, there's there's aging infrastructure. There's no getting around it. My my second question is do we share this information with lowline part of what our road is so that if they're looking at a future project they

can say oh 2032 a capital project we could maybe put yeah we can we normally when we do engineer project when we start engineering project we always include them in it because a little bit of time frame we could you know we could do that I don't I mean I'm not sure we did that I mean quite honestly there really was never a plan before until um until a couple years ago though that I was aware of. Um and uh so yeah, we can do that. It would it would help. It would help. Yeah, I mean we do I mean we communicate with them all the time and with Charlie all the time, so I I don't have a problem sharing that with them. I think it'd be a good thing to do. Yeah, I have a problem with that.

Mike, I have a question, too. I drove around today and looked at a bunch of these roads just to see. to be honest coming into this I was thinking oh we can just push these roads off but they are really bad there's some really some really bad areas u question for you you even mentioned that the Mercer um you know Mercer is really bad it's really bad um Lincoln Lake um at the connection of Elm it seems to be during at those diversions but we're looking at 2930 on those those are a ways out when I go up the list I see some roads that are actually in better shape. How firm is this list and can we can we make some adjustments there?

It's fluid. It just depends on how much money you have. I I try to I try to be very deliberate in putting money putting projects with where the money is. Um and I also like to separate I like to put them together because if you put if you do more streets together, you do have cheaper costs. So Sure. You know, if you don't it it doesn't make sense to do one block here. Absolutely. Then, you know, let's say do a block over in on East Side of the River, then do a block over in Valley Vist. It that doesn't make sense. It makes more sense to try and um lump the projects together when you've got it. Absolutely. The ones I was specifically looking at were the Mercer Spring. Yeah.

Um the intersections of Elman Lincoln. Um when I drove down Donna and Valley Vista, honestly, they're in really good shape. Or I mean, I'm sure there's spots. Um, I have a friend that lives there, so I I know she wants to have her room done, but it looks way better than Mercer does.

Yeah, there's some areas of the of that stretch that do have better paser, but I always look at it as it makes more sense to just knock them out and be done with them. I I no matter what road you pick, as as I've said for the last 10 years, you're going to be wrong in somebody's eyes on how you've done this. And so what I've always tried to do is is I I try to do a section at a time. I try to or at least when when we when we when we plan these, we try to do it in sections.

Granted, the east side has gotten the most of it in the last couple years, but obviously there I mean if you the majority of the streets were on the east side of the river and so that played that played a role in it. Um obviously we had some utility work that played a major role into that as well. Um, I mean, we can look at I mean, we could look at moving I would I would I would hold off I mean the 28 projects because we already got Hunt Street allocated. It it probably makes sense to keep those together if we can. Um, you know, the road all the all those roads are bad. I mean, they've all they were all built around the same time. And I mean, we can we can look at different options, but

the only I mean, at this point, I mean, part of it, too, it's like, well, yeah, I get it. They need to get done, but it's like the roads been sitting there not developed for 60 years. What's another year? I mean, it I hate to say that, but that's kind of, you know, it's kind of what we deal with when we when we when we when we deal with it. For sure. just the ones way out to 30. I mean, that's that's another Yeah. You know, you might want to I mean, you could possibly

Yeah. And the other thing is when these are done, in the meantime, too, while you're doing these roads, the other thing to think about is we have maintenance on all the other roads. Um, we've upped our maintenance budget, especially with crack sealing, now that we've been doing the roads, because we want to keep the roads as as good a ch kids as we can. One of the issues that comes up that's going to, you know, that's going to cut a chunk into the money to do these streets is um is the maintenance aspect of it because we have, you know, there's there's crack sealing that has to be done. There's there's probably streets that are going to have to have a micro seal at some point. Um there's

Yeah, Jefferson's that's one of that's going to Jefferson's going to probably have to have some mainting. So, that's good. I mean, it happens. There's a lot of wear and tear, but yeah, I mean that road going on 10 years old the street 10 times a day. Yeah, that road's going on 10 years old. It's going to need some maintenance. And um so I mean it we're doing best we can with the resources we have and absolutely and that's what I you know it we're a lot better off than we were 5 years ago. That's for sure. For sure. Good job. And so I wanna for the third time I want to thank you for moving Lori Gale up on the list

and I'm sorry but that is just atrocious. I'm so happy that it's that it's going to be done soon. Good job. But I will echo what Murl has mentioned. We drove these all of them and Mercer is just terrible. Mercer is bad. So, I I understand that you thought this through, but I guess I'm just going to just Mercer is of all these roads to see Mercer at 2930. It really hurts me if there's and it's not that much money. It It's the one with the diversion. So, if there's any way it's $70,000 each way, I just going to make a personal plea and just think about Mercer.

Yeah, we can we can look at it. I mean, I'll look at I'll be I'll be glad to I mean we might have I mean that might be one you know maybe you want to t I mean the one nice thing is you're you know as you have as you have um if you if you look at your capsule I did give you cash for some reason it's not coming up on the screen I don't know is it because of did this get turned on what do you mean um screen the brightness of it I don't know I I have it here it. It's not coming. It was not coming up on the screen. I had the

Let me just try and reboot it here. All right.

Yeah. More brightness.

Yeah. It's weird. is not coming up. But um I mean we could if you I gave you your cash flows in in the packet and if you look at those are local streets you could I mean one of the things that you you if you look at the local street funds for every year we're going to need to use every dollar that's coming in for these projects. Um, as we as we you as you look at the as you look at the local at least at the local street fund, one of the things you'll you'll see is that with the general fund transfer, it's going way it's going down. That's because marijuana revenue is going down. Um, and uh we took into account just some inflationary increases with the neighborhood road fund act 51. Um, and there, you know, there might be some years where you have extra re what what I'm probably going to suggest to you in some years is if you have extra revenue uh for fund balance, put it to the roads. Um because then it will cuz that might actually help you if you want to move Mercer up that might help you in in in doing that. Um if we have

the argument also be that if we move the smaller, less expensive streets up now. We're saving that cost plus the 3 to 5% it's going to go up every year.

It could. Yeah. I mean, you could you could do that. I mean, we could the the only reason I pulled did the Valley Vista project was because I already had um you know, I had what did I have in 28? I did cuz I I was trying to do Ridge View and there were a couple streets in there that needed that I was trying to get done. So, I figured I was trying I I could do it. I mean, you could, in essence, you could probably move the 28 28 29 projects. You might be able to flip those with the 20 with the at least with the 2930 projects. You might be able to do that. I mean, we I could I could play with the numbers and see how that that looks. If we want to get

if we want to get if we want to get Mercer, you could move cuz like I said, I'd like to do them in in blocks where you're doing larger areas. Um, but you might, you know, you could look at the 28 29 projects. You could move them to 2930. The only the only issue was with Lincoln Lake that's going to there's going to be some sewer. I was trying to keep I was trying to keep it for that year. If if you see what I'm if you see what I'm trying to do. That's why I kind of I tried to spread out the utility projects to like one a year if I could. So I wasn't jamming the the sewer fun come out of a different fund.

What's that? The sewer water would come out of a different fund. Not necessarily this true. But I was also trying to be mindful of water and sewer rates because that, you know, because if we if we load them all in one year, then we're going to have to cover that cost through rates. So I was trying to do it so in alignment with obviously the water and sewer rates we've had to go with walk with Monroe in Washington. You just made a good point about the the money we get from the marijuana excise tax, right? as we lose more and more facilities in town and let's just say they all went out but we as a city still opt in would we still be eligible for any

no you get paid per license

you get paid per facility under the statute so I anticipate you're going to you're probably going to have at some point you're probably going to lose another facility another dispensary it's probably it's going to Okay. Um what you're what I not cuz this I I did kind of go into the weeds on this a little bit with uh with the revenue this year. Um what I noticed is there's still sales went down. What I noticed too was there were more facilities than the year prior. So that all pays in that all pay that all pays into your revenue. What I've noticed though is more cities might be just getting their one facility. Um, but what I'm also noticing is a number of the communities that received large excise facilities, large large money through the excise tax. Obviously, a lot of them were the were were your were your urban areas, your your Detroits, your Ann Ar those those were. But another big one, big driver for the number of facilities were were cities that opted in next to the Indiana and the Wisconsin border. And if those two states are talking about legalizing it, a lot of those facilities are going to go. Um, and so I think that that's going to be the next thing that happens with the revenue is that those once those facilities go, the sales will still continue. Um, but you'll probably start at some point you'll probably start getting more per facility. I think this year we had $56,000 per facility statewide. Um, it's gone down a couple thousand a year every year. I do

anticipate at some point that flipping a little bit um as the market corrects itself cuz I've heard consumption is up but the overall cost of that consumption is way down. Right. the the product cost is way down. Yeah, that's that's causing a lot of it. But like with facilities,

I when I looked at that list, I was like, well, it's that's like where's all the money going? Cuz it like cuz I see there's all these facilities. There's a lot more facilities. I I pay attention to all that. And the only thing that the only thing when I look at those list that the thing that I think is going to h be the next thing is is once those states opt in a lot of those a lot of those facilities are going to go away. Um I mean if you go like I just drove to New Buff through New Buffalo there's like right there in the highway

right there's like there's like 15 facilities um right along you know in that area along the border. Um I'm pretty sure that if Indiana opts in that's not going to happen. They might have couple um but you have that all the way along the state line and then if you go like to Monomony they have like 11 facilities and once Wisconsin offset that's going to go away. Do you think that the legislature would ever change? Because I I look at it, okay, say we had two facilities in town and each did $50,000,

but one of them closes. So now the one's doing 100,000, but we're only getting paid for one shop. You think they'd ever turn around and look at the the dollar numbers coming in like say, you know, like that. See the So the legislature isn't going to be able to that was constitutionally um put that was constitutionally put in and voted by the people. So that was part of when it was voted in. So the only way the legislature would do that is if I believe you have to have 75% of it. It's either 66 or 75% of the legislature to agree to do that. So I I'm not very optimistic about that. I just it was an idea.

Oh, I've thought of a lot of ideas, but yeah, I don't think they'll work. Um, but if you look at your but the other the other thing I didn't account for at least with the major street funds it is at some point we're going to have to do Hudson again. We split the cost with the county on that. I don't know when that is but I mean I'm starting to notice it probably a couple years from now we'll probably have to do Hudson. So that is a major street expense that I don't have accounted for in here. Um, if you look at the major street fund I'm going to show you something I propose. So, this is the major street fund.