City Council - Regular Meeting

to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'll make a motion to approve the absence of Mayor Moore. I'll second.

I'll second. Any questions? All in favor say an aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passed. Look for approval of the consent agenda. I'll make that motion. Council support? Any questions? Roll call, please, Sue.

Council Member Ritzema?

Here.

Council Member Salcedo? Yes. Council Member Eric Barkas? Yes. Council Member Burrow-Barkas? Yes. And Mayor DeVore is absent.

Make my name a yes. Well, no, I did forget roll call, though. So I did it twice.

That's all right.

For that, we'll move on to citizen comments for agenda items only at this time. I see none. There is no old business. We'll move on to new business, Riverside phase one construction. Engineer Mike.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. While Kent County approved the bidding for the Riverside Phase one construction project. The city is responsible for funding its construction engineering portion of the project. It must separately approve those services. Since Williams and Works designed the project, it is appropriate for them to also provide the construction engineering services. Staff requested and received a proposal from Williams and Works for this work. The total cost for engineering is $32,000. At this amount, $29,000 will be charged to the local street fund, and $3,000 will be charged to the major street fund, and then the total construction cost for Riverside phase one is $521,000. There is a change order for the island for $51,000 that's been approved as well as part of that project. I'm recommending the Lowell City Council approve the proposal from Williams and Works for construction engineering services for the Riverside phase one project at a cost not to exceed $32,000.

Any questions or concerns? Mike, you mentioned the island. Is that the island here, Monroe Island?

No, no, no, that's the Riverside Island, the barrier. Oh, okay, gotcha. Maybe I used the wrong term, but the barrier.

With that, I'll look for a motion to approve the Williams and Works Riverside Phase One Construction Engineering Project. I'll make that motion. I'll second. Any other questions? Susan, we'll look for a roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Salisbury. Yes. Council Member Eric Barkas? Yes. Council Member Burrell-Barkas? Yes. And Council Member Ritzema?

Yes.

Next item, River Trail Triathlon. The River Trail Triathlon will occur on Saturday, June 20th, 2026. The triathlon will include kayaking on the Flat River, cycling and runners on city streets. There's a request for street parking closures which were the same as last year. Street closures on Main Street from Riverwalk Plaza to Riverside This request is to ensure a needed lane for the cycling component of the triathlon. The next request is to close Hunt eastbound from North Hudson to Riverside, and Riverside to the Lowell City limit. The police department will provide no parking signs after midnight on June 19th. The parking lane will be marked with traffic cones and barrier tape before the race proceeds. They will also barricade and utilize the police scout car to close off Hunt Street, that's eastbound, and then Riverside Drive on the northbound lane. This still needs to be approved. We'll still have to submit the permit to MDOT for the Main Street closures and in your packet there's a map from last year demonstrating this. Is Grant here tonight? Feel free to come up.

Well, thank you for having me. This is the fourth year of the River Trail Triathlon. No changes from last year to this year. So the routes will consist of going up Riverside for the shorter portion of the bike, and we just want to make sure that all the bikers are safe there, which actually helps with those orange barriers being there this year. And then that Main Street closure of the parking over the bridge, that hopefully will pass as that's probably the highest incident piece that could be there if it's not there. Yeah, I just want to thank you guys for even considering this. I know it's our fourth year. We've raised over $10,000 for the Lowell community. Last year we raised over $5,000 for Lowell Area Schools Mental Health. So they're able to put that towards their initiatives. EndWorks has been a big sponsor, so I have to shout them out for sure. If you have any other questions about the route We want to set up a meeting to discuss fire and police and public works. We can do that as well.

I have a question. Last year I think I've seen the bikers riding up Riverside Drive with the construction.

Are they going to be going up there still? Yes. So I was wondering what the timeline of that construction is. So phase one you mentioned?

For Riverside? Yes. So the construction project starts June 8th. It's a four to five week, four to six week project. So it will be in progress with your event.

And I may have to go back to the drawing board on the bike route. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Yes.

The other thing is, granted, somebody does want to make a donation to the cause, how do they do that and how do they get a hold of that donation?

Where do they make that donation? So we have a platform on runsignup.com. If you just Google search River Trails Triathlon, you can go to the website, and there is a push button for just donations. And all the donations go straight to this initiative for Lowell Air School's mental health, which has been very important to us. So if you want to get involved, you can get involved that way. We're also in the need of volunteers to keep the route safe and make sure that everyone sees a positive face when going through something like that. So if you want to volunteer, there's also options online for that. Thank you, Greg. Any other questions?

And I'll look for a motion to approve of those road closures as requested.

Can I ask a question on that? Yeah. If you have to reroute things,

Taylor to the 15th when we know more? Why don't we do this? If he makes, we could approve all the closures and then if, why don't we approve the closures as presented? If there is a change, if there is a change that he requests, both me and the police chief will look at it and make sure it's okay. And if it is, we'll approve it and we'll brief you on it. And then obviously we have to post it. THE ROAD CLOSURES OUT ON THE WEBSITE AND THE FACEBOOK PAGE ANYWAY, SO WE CAN DO THAT. I CAN GO WITH THAT. OKAY, THANK YOU.

WELL, I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE ROAD CLOSURES. I'LL SECOND. SUSIE, IF WE COULD HAVE A ROLL CALL, PLEASE.

MAYOR PROTOM SOUTHWIELD? YES. COUNCIL MEMBER ERIC BARKES? YES. COUNCIL MEMBER BURRELL BARKES? YES. AND COUNCIL MEMBER RIZZEMA?

YES.

Stop sign removal?

Yep, in 2023, we added the stop sign at Monroe and Marsac. This was due to new original calls regarding speed and truck traffic on Monroe. At the time, we had not installed the island at Monroe and Main, and we also didn't put the stop sign in Monroe and Avery. Since that time, those have been installed and have worked really well, improving the safety in that area. Once the island was installed, I had been contacted by residents and some council members regarding the removal of the stop sign in Monroe and Marsac. Since Monroe is a federal aid eligible road, I need to have an engineer review and approve the addition or removal of a traffic control device on this roadway. Since our previous engineers approved the road, stop sign row informed me they needed to do a short study before they could make a determination on the roadway. I had them conduct the study over a four week period and there's information in your packet, but they informed me based on their study that the sign could be removed at Monroe and Marsac. Based on this information, I'm recommending the Louisville City Council approve the removal of the stop sign at Monroe and Marsac.

Any questions? And I'll look for a motion to approve the removal of the stop sign. I'll make that motion. I'll second. City, we have a motion to use.

Council Member Eric Barkas. Yes. Council Member Burrell-Barkas. Yes. Council Member Ritzema. Yes. And Mayor Pro Tem Salcedo.

Yes. And Northeast Pump Station vent.

Ralph? I'll start. Oh, start, Tim. While investigating a deficiency identified during our Eagle Sanitary Survey, Ralph Bracken discovered an issue that indirectly contributed to the deficiency. He learned that the Shepherd Drive Reservoir has four six-inch reservoir vents that originally matched a single eight-inch water main when the facility was constructed in the 1920s. However, when a 12-inch water main was installed to the pump station in the 1970s, no corresponding vent upgrades were made. The concern, and Ralph will explain this in more detail, is that in the event of a catastrophic water main failure, the current venting capacity would be inadequate and could create an emergency situation. This restriction could cause an excessive internal vacuum, potentially triggering a structural collapse of the reservoir and resulting in infiltration and biological contamination. Ralph's going to explain it here in a second, but he did go out and get quotes for the work that needed to be done. He had three quotes. The first one was GR Central Iron and Steel out of Grand Rapids for $16,340. Custom Design Sheet Metal out of Lowell for $31,000 and W Soul for $46,800. We're not recommending the low bidder because we're concerned the vests may not be manufactured to the standards required for this application. Bill Dole from Custom Design Sheet Metals is well recognized for his experience in stainless steel fabrication and is also a local contractor. We're recommending the city utilize Custom Design Sheet Metal for the project. This isn't unplanned expenditure but it is necessary due to the critical nature of the water system and we can use cash reserves. to utilize this expense. I'm recommending for the Lowell City Council to approve custom design sheet metal fabric to fabricate the four-need advance to accommodate the northeast pump station at a cost not to exceed $31,500. So, Ralph, go ahead.

Thank you, Council. Mike gave a really good general review of it i put together this powerpoint unfortunately our player wasn't isn't working so the general public can't see it but um i don't take this lightly coming to you and asking for this my money unless it was a true emergency Fortunately, nothing has happened yet, but it could happen. And if it does happen one time, we could lose a reservoir worth quite a few millions of dollars. Either a catastrophic failure, collapse of the structure, or the degrading of all the seals in the concrete structure where biological contamination comes into it. Either way, you're losing your entire reservoir. And that's half of our, well, about 35% of our reservoir capacity within our water system. So it's a great concern. The vent design, I designed and I got it approved by Evo, the state of Michigan, for the design. It actually is going to address three different issues. Not only is it going to address the undersized vets, which was originally designed for the single eight-inch water main, there is also an issue with the height that's in your council packet. The state of Michigan and the 10 state standard states. They require a height off the ground of a minimal of 24 inches. So part of this design is going to be a stainless riser along with the top. So it takes care of the 24 inches and that will become a permanent base. The top and the vent assembly will be to fix a venting error. And then incorporated in this vent is a special screen on it. reservoirs have a tendency in the winter time with the warm humidity coming out the water to freeze and it's got a screen that's much finer than your average door screen and that likes to get froze over and then it clogs up the vents so this has a double active door in a sense that can either go with pressure and push down and open or in a vacuum a second door can open up so either way it's covered and prevents any damage to your reservoir That being said, like Mike explained, we're not recommending the low bid, and normally I would, I can't ever think of a time in my 25 years of not really recommending a low bid, but due to this outside and the potential contamination, biological contamination over the years, if one or the welds cracks and the whole thing is going to be welded together, it could allow rainwater to enter into your drinking water reservoir. And so there's a balance between cost and public safety. And over the long term, these vents will probably be in operation hopefully 60, 80, maybe 100 years from now. But stainless has a tendency to crack, and it is quite tricky to do if you're going to put welds on it the full length, all four corners, It's quite a lot of welding. And it's got to be watertight. They're going to hydrostatic test it after it's manufactured. And that's one of the reasons why the two of the higher beds are what they're at. I know Sentinel-Iron quite well. We've done a lot of business with them. I'm just very concerned of their lack of experience. They've never built anything like this, and this isn't a good getting-paid project to start on, especially when you're talking about your public's health. So that's the main reason why I would recommend Bill Doan. He is... decades of experience in stainless steel. He's done numerous projects for us, for the water plants, and he's a fabulous fabricator. So with that, I'll answer any questions that you might have.

I have a question. I thank you for doing the drawings and everything. It looks great. And I don't understand stainless steel, but you explained it well, so thank you. Are these, is this a part that will be tested by an outside source or just inside the company that's making it? Because it's hard for me to stomach double the price or almost double to go with not going with the lower bid. So you're going to have to win me over on that one.

Yes, the companies are going to test it, but I will physically be there. The Sol, they manufacture high-pressure steam pipes and different stainless pipes, and so they're very accustomed to it, but that's one of the reasons I've had. Jim Sol, he's done work similar to this, and in stainless steel fabrication, so he has decades of experience. It's tricky. I'm well-versed in tool and die. Before coming here, I was a machinist and tool and die operator. I've worked a lot with stainless. And I've built fabricate parts for the city, and I even hesitated. And they have to all be TIG welded together, not MIG welded, which is kind of tricky in itself. I had TIG welding experience, but I didn't feel comfortable myself fabricating it. And I thought about considering doing it to save the city money. But as I looked at this and the amount of welding that's got to be performed, the whole thing's welded together. You have 10-inch vents. that come up and curl back down. Each weld probably close to three and a half to four foot on each corner. So you're talking 16 feet of weld there and then where it melts the base all the way around and then the lid. About 20 feet of weld probably in each vent. Besides manufacturing the very complicated door mechanism so it doesn't bind. So it's not an easy project. Just looking at the bids, if you look at the two companies that are skilled and they have experience doing it, there's kind of a reason why they're charging it. And that's kind of an indicator there. Typically in our positions, we start to question if there's an outlier. Why is somebody so much cheaper than everybody else? And I even contacted some other... fabricators constructive sheet metal and they're a very large company a lot of work and they didn't want to touch it they've seen the complication and they just said no we appreciate the chance but they didn't even bid on it and they're a large company out of grand rapids they do a lot of work for king milling so it's a complicated project thank you ralph i have to ask if it you designed this piece yes as far as the mechanism and the

You called it a trap door. It's a two-way door. You are very qualified, but does this need a professional engineer to sign off on this?

St. Michigan has fully approved it.

So you run it through the state? Okay, that's great. And your design is excellent. I mean, I'm used to looking at blueprints, and it's quite good. Thank you.

And I don't have a full, I don't have a real CAD program. I just did it on Microsoft Visio, so it's not perfect, but thank you.

Yeah, good. The testing, can you tell us a little bit more about what's required? You said leak testing. Is that required? Water or air and is Bill Doan going to do that or do we do that?

Yeah, I talked to Bill personally. We went over it very thoroughly. I told all three that it's going to have to be like a hydrostatic pressure tester. I said it absolutely cannot leak a crop.

Bill does great work. I know him also, but can he pressure test this large vent?

Yeah, he didn't seem to have an issue with it. I'm taking his word, but I thoroughly discussed it with him, brought it into our office, showed him the design. We talked about everything, the trapdoor, and so he thoroughly understood it. I didn't want to. I didn't want anything to spring up unexpectedly with any of these contractors or fabricators. I wanted to know that they knew exactly what they were getting into.

But it sounds like the pressure testing is pretty important. Have you or Bill or anyone done that previously? How do you seal this off and do this?

It actually doesn't require a lot of sophisticated equipment, simple pressure gauge, and you put it under a Probably in this case, you're probably running about 25 PSI over a certain amount of time. I have a lot of experience here with water mains. That's how we do all the testing. Sure. And so I have to certify all the new water mains when they go in service. And I set up the whole test and I time that and conduct the test with the engineers on site and the contractor, but they're not allowed to touch it so they can't see the results. It's similar to that. You just cap the ends, you pressurize it, full of water. So you're also looking for leaks, any visible leaks, and you're looking for a pressure drop over amount of time. That's a typical hydrostatic pressure test. And it's very similar to what they do with the hydrostatic pressure test.

Yeah, you've explained it very well. I mean, it is double the price of a low bidder. It's a little hard to understand. I just looked up, they've done a lot of CNC metal welding in that. So have you visited there? Did you consider them at all?

Oh, I know Central Iron very well. I've been going there for well over a decade. So we actually buy a lot of material from them for the city. And so I know the equipment they have and the guys and stuff. And if they were qualified, I'd be the first one to say yeah. And I don't mean to say that in a bad way. This is a very unique fabrication. It's either gonna be a 304, a 316, a 300 series stainless, like the surgical stainless, the most rust resistant. But it is tricky to weld. It's easy to crack because of very low iron content in it. And a stainless like that is prone to cracking, and that's one of the problems. And so there's a danger, too, that it could look good at first, but then in a couple of years, it could crack and start stressing the stainless. So you've really got to know what you're doing, especially when you're running that long of a bead. It's one continuous bead all the way around on all four corners. around the base and then multiply that by four so it's it's complicated and so any other time like i say i would be i would be approving the lowest bid as a good deal for the city but the public risk and safety versus saving some money and if this was to get contaminated drink water reservoir We can make the local, if not the national, moves in a way we don't want to, besides having to issue a one-law advisory to your entire city and then possible residents getting upset with the health implications.

All right, thank you. One thing I probably should have asked for, I usually look through all the bids and it's the actual material that they're listing to do that. And I didn't actually see the physical three quotes. Are they using three-eighths inch stainless steel, you know, stuff like that. So I couldn't compare what the difference in cost and that could be some of it, some of the materials they're using versus what the other guys are using to make this safe for all of us.

And that's a good question. Actually, the prints that I wrote up, it's very specified in each panel, the gauge and the thickness. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, so it's very apples to apples, and I was very strict with that. The only discrepancy I gave them was either the 304 or 316 stainless, which are virtually identical. The 300 series stainless is what you would think of as most rust resistant, and they explained that it's going to be outside in the weather and the environment for decades. so but that's the only variation and when i talked to pretty much all of them they said there's really not much of a cost difference between the two they're like i said they're primarily they're practically the same material okay any other questions

With that, I'll look for a motion to approve the second bid of $31,000. I'll make that motion. I'll support it. Excuse me, if we could have a vote, please.

Council Member Burrell-Vargas? Yes. Council Member Ritzema? Yes. Mayor Proton-Salzweiler? Yes. And Council Member Eric Varkas?

Yes. Board and Commission reports. Eric, I'll start with you. Coming up with nothing right now. Everything comes up later this week. Mark?

We had a parks meeting last week and we went through what's been done at rec park. It's fantastic. I mean, where the rodeo was, it's all leveled out. They're getting ready for the trails to come in. They're talking about making more fields. The barn, that was just awesome. And they redid the kitchen in the old pool building. It's a fully certified kitchen. Got approved by the health department the next day. They're going to have food there for kids to use. It was fantastic.

Awesome.

Most of my meetings are a couple weeks out, so stay quiet.

Yep, same as mine. Mike, manager's report.

First, I want to welcome our new public works director, Jacob Cape. He's here tonight. Jacob's first day was today, and maybe he'll come back tomorrow. I don't know. He's going to be drinking out of a fire hose here to start, but he was, when we interviewed the candidates, he was In my opinion, he was the best fit for what we needed here and I'm really excited to bring him here and I know he's looking forward to working with everyone and has a lot of experience, obviously more on the road and street side, which is obviously a need for us. We've already talked today that he's going to help me with some things that we've looked at, estimate why it's going forward. So also the Riverside Street project will begin next Monday. It's slated for four to six weeks and hopefully there aren't a lot of issues on that project. The trail bid letting is this week through MDOT. MDOT will open the bids and award them. I anticipate proposals for construction engineering at your next meeting since we are the We are the prime, even though the city, it's really been a layer of project, the majority of the grant funds and MDOT funds are tied to the city, so we had to seek the engineering out of it. So we'll have that in your next meeting. The public art, I've been working on the public arts policy with Lowell Arts. I anticipate bringing a draft to you here in the near future regarding that. Also, Fromm will be at your next city council meeting to give you an update on the project that they have and some of their future projects. Today we submitted our drinking water state revolving fund applications for both the lead line removal project and the water looping on Division and Avery. I can tell you that from a scoring standpoint, because we have to submit a scoring sheet, the higher the score, the better you qualify for grants. I will tell you that our scores aren't that high because we don't meet certain criteria. A lot of the criteria are that, you know, We have public health issues with our water system, which we don't. Deficiencies in our water system, which we don't. Financial issues, which we don't. We're not deemed financially overburdened yet, but we're very close. And so there are a number of different categories we had to submit, so hopefully we'll qualify for grants, but I'll be honest, I'm not betting on it. It'll probably be a loan interest loan going forward. And then lastly, we will have a work session on June 15th at 5 p.m. to go over, to continue the conversation in March regarding the water and sewer rates and we're also going to be talking about what I presented to you at the last meeting. So that's all I have.

Okay, with that we'll go on to citizen comments for items not on the agenda.

And state your name and address. Hi, I'm Christy Gingrich. I live in the city of Lowell. I just want to take a moment to thank Mike and Eric for spending some time with me to answer some questions about the water. I know lots and lots of things. I understand it more. I do want to make sure that Eric got the information we had sent over. I did. Okay, great. And then I was going to just ask a couple of things. If it was possible to include in the monthly manager's report an update on anything to do with the, part of the sub-grant agreement is you guys have to give monthly information back over to the right place, so I was just wondering if that could maybe be included in your manager's report when we start tracking that, as well as some kind of update other than like, oh, it's about 95% done. On the wastewater, the wholesale, like just where we're at in the wholesale water with the township and that situation, I mean, I know you can't disclose a lot of details because of negotiations, whatever, but just something would be nice. And then... I think I asked this last time, but I'm just going to ask again. If it's possible for the city to just let the public know when they're meeting or having conversations with Microsoft, even if it's outside the board meeting, especially if it's outside the board meeting, just a simple like, hey, here's who met, this is what we were, you know, why and when and where, just so people don't feel like you're pulling wool over their eyes or doing anything. You shouldn't be.

That's all. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anybody else?

Hi, my name is Gina Ladner. Excuse my voice, allergies are really bad. Thank you for, oh, City of Lowell, did I say that? Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come up and speak. I missed the last meeting because I was at my son's middle school, my grandson's middle school play. And I was a little disappointed in the voting on the Right Way project. And I just want to do a reminder of how precious our water is. And in the master plan, it talks about that the goal is to supply drinking water. I don't think the data centers drink the water the way we're thinking. It does drink a lot of water, but not the way we're thinking. And it certainly is not helping us survive a clean, healthy life by giving them all our water. We've got some wetlands that in the master plan, it states that the main goal is to protect them. keep them vibrant, protect them from contaminations. Again, that might be going on the wayside too. When you do decide to make any decisions on a possible data center, please, please, please keep our water in mind. We've got such a beautiful city and it thrives on water. And I actually had a customer come into my store, from the other side of the state a couple weeks ago because they wanted to walk along the river walk and look at the show boat and stuff because they had heard about it. So we do get some tourism from our beautiful water. So thank you for your time. Thank you.

Hey there. Betsy Lopez-Webner here with Residence United for a Healthy Lowell. Again, just want to echo Christy in thanking Eric and Mike for your time. I think it's really helpful and valuable when we can continue to have these types of conversations and just, I think the great value that you all gave to Christy and to our other counterpart was just fantastic. And so, yeah, just echoing Christy the request that those kinds of updates be shared. Also, just want to make note for you all, I know that you don't often go to the other municipalities' meetings because they often coincide with those that are happening here, but there is going to be, the Lowell Charter Township is having its planning commission meeting on Monday. Again, that's going to be over at the Grand Agricultural Center. It is anticipated that Microsoft will be presenting. I do think that it's important that to the extent possible, obviously not as a quorum, that there be some presence just to make sure there's that continuity and care and information that you all have as you're continuing to steward work, not only on behalf of those here in the city of Lowell, but on behalf of the whole Lowell community, which includes Bergens and Lowell Charter Township. Also want to make note that we know that some of you all have expressed interest in when you can come to our organizing meetings or can learn more information. from some of the experts that we bring in to be able to speak. We do have a Residence United meeting on June 12th that will be at the Lowell Library from 6.30 to 8, so for those that would like to come and hear more from engineers, hear about water infrastructure, and hear about air quality and air pollution as attributed to this proposed data center, but also based on the facts of these types of AI hyperscale data centers that are popping up, warmly welcoming you all. And then the other update is really just that under the marquee, we are on June 14th going to have a rally, a great opportunity to bring community together. So perhaps you don't want to rally because you haven't quite made up your mind where things sit with the water sewer agreement. However, it is a great opportunity for you all to come and just hear from families, hear from people of all walks of life in a really nonpartisan setting. where we're able to stand in community united, really for, as others have mentioned, as Gina mentioned, the water protection. We're thinking about our night sky, we're thinking about our public health, and we're really thinking about the quality of life that we have, not only here in Lowell, but across our Great Lakes region. So again, thank you to each of y'all for your time, and looking forward to maybe seeing some of y'all in the coming days. Thank you. Thank you.

Anybody else?

i guess we'll close this section of the meeting and we'll start with council comments tonight oh i've got a couple um first of all thank you for all who commented it's always good to hear from all of you so thank you let's see um mike thank you for exploring the water grants and that type thing i think that's really important that we look at all of our options for each decision that we make Speaking of decisions, the stop sign being gone, I'm sure we're going to hear some positive on that. I'm surprised you all didn't come up and say, hey, the stop sign's out. But the Marsack and Monroe sign is gone. And I was very impressed with the way Roe handled that traffic study. I was not involved in placing that sign there. How do you know that? But I hope in the future we will. do more of that i think that might solve some of the problems with some of the discussions we've had and making the right decision and finally ralph thank you for your thorough answer on that my brother is a high highly skilled machinist and fabricator and so obviously you are too so thank you for clearing that up for us and that's all i have mark well i want to thank everyone for coming here it's nice to see

about a third to a half of the seats taken. Sometimes we don't even have that, so thank you all for coming and making comments. We had the Memorial Day parade last week and we marched in that from the start to the finish and it was really nice. Watched the band and everybody split around the aisle to get back into it. But it went nice and it was a beautiful day and that's all I have.

Eric? I've got five things. First of all, Jake, welcome. So glad to have you on board. Great to have your talents and energy. Thank you. as far as lowell little league dan peterly was here two weeks ago and there's difficulties with the little league securing fields it's a smaller field than the usual baseball field and i just want to encourage him he has contacted mike and mike has given him some options as far as securing playing fields for little league as far as maybe changing creekside or something but i just encourage dan and the little league to continue rec park Maybe full now, but let's think about next year what we're going to do a little differently so that we all can use the fields. The water and sewer agreements, thank you, Christy, for mentioning those. Our attorney just sent us the draft agreement on Friday, us meeting the council. That's the first I've seen of it this year, so I'll be studying that very intently. The attorneys have been working on that in the background, but that's the first the council has seen it. So I can assure you as we learn, as we go through that agreement that I, what I can share, I will share with you there. As far as Christy's comment about the meetings, I made it a commitment in any meeting as far as the water and sewer agreements that I'm in, I will tell you as soon as they're going to happen or after they've happened, I will keep you as informed as I am on those. And to sit in that respect, Microsoft has asked for a meeting this Wednesday morning, a video meeting, with Mike and I, Mike, city manager, I'm the representative from council, and Brian Van Muelen. A video conference just for the city. The topics in general are going to be the water supply needs that they've presented, align some offsite water and wastewater infrastructure scope and cost sharing framework, and they want to confirm some next steps. So the first meeting that I was in a month or so ago was actually quite general. This meeting, I'm not sure what's going to be discussed, but they have asked for a second meeting and I will attend that and I will share after that meeting as much as I can. Lastly, e-bikes. I've had some close calls with e-bikes recently. that I'm walking down the sidewalk and they just fly by. So I don't know if anyone else has had those troubles, but I've seen them frequently and I think ultimately we're going to have to do something about the e-bikes. Thank you.

And regarding that, Eric, your comment regarding the parks and the baseball and lacrosse, our parks are becoming increasingly more and more popular. We need to see some expansion to handle all kinds of sports. I mean, actually, you know, pickleball will be a varsity sport, and you'll be looking at pickleball, more of that than all the other sports that you see out there. I saw one the other day that they were shooting archery at each other with these big tips. It was a universal sport, and I couldn't believe that they were shooting arrows at one another. They were fully protected. They weren't the type of deer hunting, Another question that they brought up, I was going to bring up, is that e-bikes. A couple weeks ago I brought it up at our last meeting, and since then I've gotten between 12 and 18 residents asking what are we going to do about that. I was going to contact Chief and Mike and see if we could set up an appointment. Maybe we'll bring in some residents as well of what we can do. I talked to my nephew down in Illinois who does a lot with that. He actually builds them. And they now require in Illinois that you be 16 years old, need to have a license, need to make sure that you pass all kinds of safety laws and know that you need to stop at a stop sign. A good example is I was pulling out of McDonald's and I'm glad I looked twice and this young gentleman must have been going at least 40. On the sidewalk, but not on the road. He just came out of some bushes and trees and lucky I looked twice and that part of it. But it is starting to become more and more, but they're becoming more and more popular. They're just all over. I mean, if you got them on Mackinac Island now, as the workers take them, if you've ever been out there lately, they allow them up there for transportation. But again, it's something we have to look at that. Other than that, that's all I got. So I'll look for... Motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. I'll support. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Motion passed.