City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We are now about to begin the Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 meeting of the Manhattan City Commission. Chelsea, will you please call the roll?

Mayor Adamczak? Here. Commissioner McCullough? Here. Commissioner Fox? Here. Commissioner Morrison?

Here.

Commissioner Von Lentl?

Here.

Mayor, we have five commissioners present. The quorum of three is met.

Thank you. Will you rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We have a very short agenda this evening. Is there anyone who'd like to make public comments on any item not included in tonight's agenda? Seeing no one approach, we will close public comments. Commissioners, have you any? Yes, go ahead.

Well, I'd like to note that our absence of Katie Jackson, our city attorney for a good number of years, has departed us for parts to the east, unfortunately.

Yes, I understand that there were several recognitions of Katie for her service last week. She will be missed. Rachel, we will look for you for guidance over the next several months. Thank you. Anyone else?

Sunflower summer has been extended one week. And so this is the time to go to the zoo and the Discovery Center. And there are 16 other things you can do in Manhattan. So that means one adult and their children get in free. This is a great way to see some things maybe you haven't and to save a lot of money. And we'd like to see you there.

Thank you. Andrew?

Happy Election Day. Thanks to everyone that voted.

And if you haven't, you have approximately 58 minutes to dash out of here and get to your polling place. Thank you. I have no comments myself. We will move on to our consent agenda.

Mayor, I'd like to pull item F. Miscellaneous all right in the consent second.

Are there any other items that you would like to have removed? Chelsea would call the roll please Oh public comment on well Yes, is there a public comment on any of the other items on the? consent agenda Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I move we approve the consent agenda, excluding item F. Second.

Thank you. Chelsea?

Commissioner McCullough? Yes. Commissioner Fox?

Yes.

Commissioner Morrison?

Yes.

Commissioner Von Lentl?

Yes.

Mayor Adam Czach? Yes. Motion carries five to zero.

Thank you. Commissioner Fox, would you like to raise your issues, your concerns about item F?

So I'm on a housing board, and one of the projects they've been trying to get off the ground is a required installation of a sprinkler system in the high-rise at 5th and Leavenworth, and this says that the carryover amount is earmarked for the 5th and Leavenworth intersection and waterline project that project has experienced delays and may not be able to fully expand the balance. I guess I'd like an explanation or an update of that project because it is impacting the required sprinkler system that needs to be installed in the high rise by the end of 2028.

Sure, good evening, Stephanie Peterson, Director of Planning and Development. We're probably going to tag team this. So we are planning to use CDBG on the public portion of that project. We have had this project in the works since 2021 for a variety of different reasons, trying to get another federal source on top of CDBG. Among other things, this project has experienced delays. I was actually just reviewing the bid documents today for it. This project is moving rather quickly. However, there is a decent chance that we're not going to be able to spend $950,000 by April 1st. And that's not spending it by that date. It's actually having our draw into HUD by April 1st in order to spend down enough money where we don't lose future allocations of our CDBG grant. Maybe Brian knows an additional update on this?

Yeah, that project is actually going to go out to bid here.

I'm really sorry. Item F has to do with playground equipment. Larry, can you?

It also has to do with CDBG dollars, yes.

It mentions the 5th and Leavenworth Intersection Project that it's been delayed. So they're using the money for the playground equipment.

Yeah, basically what we're doing is we're just flipping the projects, going to do the parks first while we finalize and finish and bid the 5th and 11th project. That project is going to go out to bid here within the next week or so. We just don't know, like Stephanie said, if we can expend the dollar, get the dollars back and collect the dollars before April. We're just flipping the order, is what we're doing.

Well, bottom line, that water line project is holding up.

We didn't anticipate, that's part of the delay. We didn't anticipate doing the water line project with 5th and Leavenworth. That was kind of an add-on later. And then we also added on some storm sewer work. So the project's gone from little to big.

that's why plus we've also got a bus stop in there now too uh with some further dollars coming in so we've we've taken a pretty small project it's become pretty big so is all 900 000 being spent on the playground equipment it doesn't say how much has been spent uh it does not we are getting those finalized quotes right now i'm guessing it's going to be about 750 000 for the playground equipment for those two um we will still have Kind of depends on how quickly some of the 5th and Leavenworth can move forward. But we still have a decent chunk of money to put towards that project when it does get off the ground. But we do have to spend about $1 million by, we have to have that draw into HUD by April 1st of 2027.

So how is it we have a $1.65 million balance from previous years and we don't dump this back into that?

Dump it back into, I'm sorry. So we can only carry over one and a half times our annual allocation. Our annual allocation in 2026 was, I think, $515,000. So we can only carry over about $700,000 and I don't know what that is, $60,000. So that's where we have to, we've been saving about $900,000 for 5th and Leavenworth. And this year, we received a note from HUD saying, you have too much carryover. You can't continue to carry this balance. And so that's why we're in a position now to have to spend these dollars more quickly than we had planned on and to find additional projects outside of 5th and Leavenworth so we don't forego future allocations of CDBG.

Is there anyone who would like to make public comment on this issue? Again, seeing no one approach, we will close public comment. Commissioners, any additional?

I'd move we approve item F of the consent agenda.

Thank you. Chelsea, once more, would you call the roll?

Commissioner Fox?

Yes.

Commissioner Morrison?

Yes.

Commissioner Von Lintel?

Yes.

Mayor Adamczak?

Yes.

Commissioner McCullough? Yes. Motion carries five to zero.

All right. Thank you. We'll move to the general agenda. Our item this evening calls for the commission to consider awarding and approving a construction manager at risk agreement for phase one pre-construction services in the amount of $10,000 to McCown Gordon Construction. approving a professional services agreement in the amount of five hundred sixty one thousand four hundred and forty two dollars with Anderson night architects for design services and approving a project funding agreement with the sunset zoological Park and Wildlife Conservation Trust for the trusts full payment of the fees for pre-construction and and professional services for the Sunset Zoo, Lemur, and America's Exhibits Project, PR2510. Thank you, and I would like to commend the trust for your robust presence here tonight before us. Thank you.

Aaron. Evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Aaron Stewart, Parks and Rec Director. This is the Sunset Lemur to America's Exhibit. On April 7th, the Commission approved the solicitation for CMR, RFQ, and RFP. Tonight, we're bringing forward our recommendation from that selection committee. There were six proposals received. We interviewed the top three, and we are recommending McCown Gordon Construction to be the construction manager at risk. You kind of went over the financials, but I'll repeat them just to make sure. $10,000 to McCown Gordon for phase one services during the design period for the construction manager at risk. Anderson Knight Architects would be doing the design elements. Their contract is $561,442. And then the Sunset Zoo Trust has pledged the entire amount to cover both of those agreements for the funding. And that agreement is in the packet as well. And so this is kind of where we are. We're at the phase one design. We have the existing 30% design that we kind of showed you the last time we brought this forward. From this state, we'll take it from 30% to a 70% design. We'll develop a guaranteed maximum price, a GMP, for phase two of the project. That phase two would then include the remaining 30% to final design, construction documents, and construction costs. So there will be a later addition where we present a phase two to the commission for consideration and approval. In that, we do state both in this agreement that the zoo trust does intend to fund that entire project, and there would be an additional funding agreement presented at that time. Questions?

There's a slight difference in language where they intend to pay for it, and then if there isn't enough, then there will be a subsequent one. Is there a guesstimate of how much that might be for funding?

So the phase one, we're estimating at about $4.5 million. If you include all phases, I think we're looking at about $7.5 million, $8 million in the project. So we'll bring all that scheduled out. Obviously with them committing to the funding at that time, we'll be further down the road. They'll make sure that we're not going to ask for more than they can fund unless there's some other revenue source that we could identify. The intent to fund phase two has been stated and identified from the trust, and so it is their intent to fund the entire project.

Sounds like a good project. The question is, do we have the wherewithal, if they don't come up with funding, to go ahead and then not waste a million dollars in getting ready for something that doesn't happen?

So I can, I mean, the zoo trust is here if you'd like, I think, if they'd be willing to speak. If you'd like to ask them directly, but they have, they have the first phase covered from my understanding.

Larry, any comment?

I was just going to say, I don't think any of the phases would be undertaken unless they had the money and the pledges in hand.

Correct.

Thank you, Aaron.

Said that better than I did.

Thank you. We will open again for public comments. Is there anyone who would like to make any remarks concerning this project? All right, we will close public comment. Commissioners, any additional remarks or queries?

So I would just say this is kind of the second phase. I think the first phase was the Expedition Asia project that was very successful and has been a great draw to the zoo and I know the fundraising for this has been very aggressive and successful and I think this would be a great improvement to the zoo to have this project, so.

I'd be happy to move that we approve a construction manager at risk agreement, a professional services agreement, and a project funding agreement.

Second. Chelsea, will you call the roll, please?

Commissioner Morrison?

Yes.

Commissioner Von Lintel?

Yes.

Mayor Adamtrak?

Yes.

Commissioner McCullough? Yes. Commissioner Fox?

Yes.

Motion carries five to zero.

I would like to take my prerogative and just once again thank the trust for their support of the zoo. I personally sit on the foundation for the public library and I very much appreciate the community support that both entities provide as well as the Parks and Rec Foundation to supplement the funding that we as a community are able to provide to these institutions and I thank you for your service, for your support, and for your encouragement of utilization of these assets to our community. So thank you very much for that. With that being said, I think we set a land speed record tonight. Can we have a motion to... Yeah. Thank you. All in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Thank you.