Board of Aldermen - workshop

I'm going to start relying on both of you.

This is our work session in preparation for our first meeting in August, which will be August the 4th at 530 here in City Hall down below us. But for the time being, we will call this work session to order. And we have two presentations prior to getting into our agenda. And I am, are we going to, are you going to, you want to go second? For the library, you want to go second? Yeah, we do. Okay. All right. Then we will let Ms. Trawick. come first and give us her presentation on the Mississippi Horse Park.

Where would you like me to be?

Right down there would be great. That way we can all have eye contact with one another.

Thank you. So my name is Dana Trawick and I am the facility director at the Mississippi Horse Park and I thank y'all for letting me come here today and talk about all that's been going on for Horse Park. So as you know, the Mississippi Horse Park opened in 1999 and was established as a partnership of the City of Starkville, Oktawaha County, and Mississippi State University. And the Horse Park couldn't be more grateful for this union. And what we have been able to achieve together over, you know, the last several years is just more than anybody could ask for. I think we've all worked really well together and have exceeded many expectations. We've always said that the horse park started off as just four metal buildings on a gravel road and that now we are the front row with the paving of Poorhouse Road and Hill State Boulevard. So we try to set a really positive first impression for everybody coming into town for our events and then just coming into town as well. We strive to keep this partnership going and with y'all's help, the horse park has flourished and become a salt actor facility. With a small staff of four, the horse park has been able to hold the same high standard that people have come to expect rolling through the gates. Each team member takes pride in their job and really has bought into the idea of promoting excellence in all we do. So in 2025, we had 147 days of activities and that did include the equine assisted services program that is taught through MSU. We started off the year with the Rotary Classic Rodeo, and this is put on by the Starkville Rotary Club each year, and it is their largest fundraiser as well as our biggest spectator event each year. And if you've ever been out to the rodeo, you can attest that it is a true community event, and you can tell by all of the local businesses with their sponsorship signs that are on the arena floor that everybody plays a huge role in making this a success. It is held in conjunction with the Dixie Nationals so this really draws top competitors to come compete at both rodeos. And over the last several years we have seen more and more contestants that will actually stay on our grounds for the week until they are up in Jackson and so they're really getting to utilize all the amenities that we have to offer. And this is just some pictures of some of the events that I'm going to talk about. But in the top left corner, you'll see the Cinch Challenge team pinning event. And it was held for the first time in 2024. But it had such a success that in 2025, they brought it and the Magnolia Showdown back in, like I said, in 2025. And both of those had contestants on grounds for three days. And then the Mississippi Wildlife Fisheries and Parks Foundation hosted two archery tournaments in 2025. because of the success that they saw in 2024. At the March event alone, they had 2500 archers and from about 100 schools. So they were bused in daily. And it's a really cool event because they had 100 targets set up on the arena floor. And so that was just a different event that people got to see. And then the annual Golden Triangle Kennel Club Dog Show had 309 dogs with contestants from 30 states and Canada. That's always one that draws contestants from across the country to compete. And then the Lucky Dog Barrel Race drew 342 contestants from 12 states with a payout of over $100,000. So even though the economy can be tough at times for people, we are still holding strong because we have such great promoters that we have established good relationships with. People know what to expect when they arrive. So they know they are coming to a clean, safe facility, and that makes it worth traveling across the country to come and participate.

Dana, I'm going to ask you a question. Sure. Where were they bused in from?

From schools all over Mississippi. OK.

So when you say that, you weren't talking about they came from the Holiday Inn in Columbus. You were talking about they busted the kids in from the school.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am. OK. Sorry. I didn't mean to be dense. No, no, no.

So our diverse lineup draws, lineup of events draws a unique demographic to Starkville that may not would have traveled here otherwise. Many of our events are scheduled on what we would consider off weekends in Starkville, meaning that it's not, we aren't putting stuff when it would be a major MSU sporting event or where the city or the county have big events going on. So our events are what we would say are on off weekends where we're still bringing people to the hotels, local businesses, and restaurants. So what kind of an impact do our events have on the community? We have over 60,000 people that come through our gates each year and 90% of our business travel from 90 miles away or further. So since the majority of our events are multi-day, we have people that are spending the night utilizing the hotels or also staying on our grounds. But regardless where they're staying, they're schooling up here, they're eating in our restaurants, they're shopping in our businesses, so we're bringing new dollars into the community. Overnight visitors spend three times more than day trippers, and the horse park is a great way for people to experience Starkville for the first time. And we, you know, often hear on the people that come back for annual events of, we've got to hit this place or that place because they've just, you know, now they've found their little local group. But we also love being able to share what all our community has to offer with people that are coming for the first time. So the horse park has been awarded with many awards. recognized, you know, over the years and been featured in national publications. We are the eight-time recipient of the Justin Boots Best Footing Award which is a huge honor because it is voted on by the members of the Women's Professional Rodeo Association who actually compete there. So, it's not just a board that's like, oh, this facility's never won this. Let's give it to them. It's actually voted on by the contestants that actually compete in the Rotary Classic Rodeo saying that our ground is the best and safest to compete on. So when we won in 2025, it was particularly sweet for the current staff because it was the first time that we actually won something outside of Berkeley's leadership. So we have really strived hard to hold up her same level of expertise and standards. So it was nice for that to be recognized by others, especially for the guys that work so hard to keep our grounds up and to that really keep us in top notch shape. So 2025 was super busy and 2026 has been super busy as well. The first half of the year we were very busy and then the fall proves to follow that trend. So these are just a couple of the highlights that we have coming up. The Megan McCain Barrel Race, which is the top left picture from last year. They will be back next weekend so they will start rolling into town on Thursday and then they will be here for a three day event and that is an event that is free, which most of our events are free, so the public gets to come out and enjoy some of the things that we have going on. And it's hard to believe that we are about to be in football season, so we will start having RVs roll into town in just about a month away. The first game will be on Labor Day weekend, so I think that's September 5th. So we have people staying on grounds for home football games from Thursday to Sunday, so they get to stay there and utilize all of those amenities as well. And then the top right, that is the Maroon Invitational. It was hosted by Starkville Academy for the first time last year. And despite the torrential downpour, of course it had not rained in like two weeks, but then it had a torrential downpour the day of the cross-country meet, but it was a huge success. They had 22 schools that traveled to compete, and so they are doing it again this year, and hopefully we won't have the rain. And then Farmtastic will be back again in November. And this is a unique agricultural experience for schools to come in for a field trip, for second graders to fourth graders to experience the farm to table. So they will get to learn about how our food comes from the ground and how it gets to our table and the process of all of that. Last year they had 1,100 youth and adults attend from 16 schools. Then the picture in the center bottom, that is one from the equine assisted programs that Mississippi State teaches. So this is for special needs children, veterans, cops, and other people that need therapies through equine programs. And then we'll wrap up the year with the Mississippi Amateur Quarter Horse Association in December and take a quick little break from the holidays and start all over again in 2027. We've got a nice lineup for next year as well. So you can see we spend a lot of our time prepping and planning and staying very busy at the horse park and trying to produce family friendly events that everybody can enjoy. And we will continue to strategize and try to improve each year and find ways to bring things that everybody can enjoy and your support plays a vital role in all of our success so we just appreciate your consideration of continuous funding and as always we appreciate all you've done for us well thank you dana i appreciate you being here um so the 147 days that was 2025 do you have a projected number of days for 2026 it'll be really close to that as well okay all right and have you done i'm assuming that uh y'all geofence

your, your programming or not your progress, but your events. Do you do that? Do y'all do that? Or do you use somebody to do that for you by any chance? Um, no, no, you might touch base with the partnership. They have opportunities to geofence some of those larger events.

Yeah. Talk with page about some of the we have done a little bit of that with page and seeing kind of how what The fact that we have our hotels and all of that. Yes, we have done a little bit of that as well. And we are trying to track our numbers better. We had had an economic, I think I touched on this last year too when we were here, but we're still working on getting our economic impact template that we had used for Mississippi State. We have some good hard numbers to go off of. Okay. We're working on that as well.

Well, I think that, I mean, obviously, 147 days, 60,000 people, and 90% from 90 miles away, that speaks for itself. But having those, the actual numbers that, using whatever that formula is that they have, would be probably a really nice thing to be able to talk about as well.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Any questions of this program?

them all right well thank you very much and we do we do appreciate you being here on the weekend or having things available on the weekends that we're we're quiet it's just the same that kind of thing we try to do through our parks and rec system so we appreciate that yes sir we thank y'all all right thank you thank you so much um so mr stewart you ready now okay all right good deal while we're getting that up i'll

Thank y'all for the opportunity to work with you on another project. And thank you all for the service you do to the city. I really do appreciate that. This is, as you know, renovations of the public library. And I'm excited to present this to you. I think it's an exciting project for the city. And hopefully that will carry through on this presentation. So we're in schematic design. That doesn't mean anything to most people. we're about 20% through. And so what you'll see for plans and some renderings, which is just a word for color drawings, and kind of showing what the designs will look like. There'll be details that will change so many things as we go through this and get more details, more accurate cost estimates, there'll be some adjustments made. So don't necessarily get caught up in where the furniture sitting. But generally, you'll understand what we're talking to kind of do the building. So the existing library is one of those buildings that we're all familiar with, but we all pass by and probably don't necessarily take a hard look at because we're so used to seeing it. the front it's kind of looks like three buildings put together because it kind of is three buildings put together landscaping is a little overgrown entries aren't necessarily easy to you can find them but they're not you can't really see in the building very well signage is covered up the interiors are a little bit of a mix of institutional and residential maybe so The building's ready for, part of it's close to 60 years old, so it's ready for some upgrades, maybe. But anyway, I just want to show you, I know you all know it, but I wanted to kind of show you some pictures of that. This is more into your pictures. And there are some spaces that need some repairs. So the existing library, as I said, is from the front. want to share with you kind of my concept, the way I go through projects, try to think about things and organize what we're doing in design, is that the existing library is kind of the foundation we're building on. We want to respect that and keep what's good about that. We're adding kind of layers of spaces, both horizontally and vertically, and this idea that there's a lot of information out there in the library. It's not just a place that holds books anymore. It's more of a a place where we gather and we can exchange information, gather information. And so that kind of, in my mind, organizes what we're doing in the design. Maybe you can see that in some of these pictures. Existing floor plan. This is where the circulation desk is. We're removing that, removing this entry. to children's area and removing that glass wall is the front entrance now. We're keeping these arches and then some of the windows, most of the windows we're replacing. And this one, I washed out on here, but to give you an idea, this is kind of zones. The blue is the children's area. The new entrance will have a circulation desk and other displays or bookcases or tables in that area. And then the center becomes kind of the center part that we were talking about. It's kind of the heart of the library. And it's a seating area. You'll see an electric fireplace actually in that wall. These are more private seating areas, book stacks. This is a gear lab and then special collections. so looking at the floor plan coming in off of university drive this is the new entrance this is glass you'll see that in a minute the arches behind it circulation desk again and you'll see we're kind of replacing all the finishes but we're taking proposing to take out the ceilings and paint that with new lighting and upstairs we're looking at a couple different concepts of whether adding some private offices or furniture, but the main thing is we're adding this kind of glass wall with some doors to give them a little bit of separation from the rest of the library.

That's administrative staff area, work area? Administrative staff area, yes. Okay.

And so here's the, looking from the intersection, we're kind of combining the roof lines with this metal panel. around the building to kind of give it a uniformity and building a defined entry space here you can kind of see the arches that are existing behind there this area is an outdoor seating area patio kind of area that comes off of that entry we're taking the starboard read the read sign and turn it into starboard reads and You'll see it again in a little bit more detail. And proposing to do a mural on this wall, and I'll show you that in just a second.

Are we actually raising the facade?

No, that's the height that it is. This part's taller. Okay, we are doing something. This part's taller here. This is the existing shingle roof height that's there now. We're just kind of boxing it out and covering it up.

make it look like it's one building.

Yes. So the entry here, you can see the arches in and see into the building, we're trying to create some visual interest of seeing people inside. This was the idea of the mural and this is in Kansas City. This kind of bookshelf and So that back to that side between the windows that are there, there would be a mural of books, possibly Mississippi authors. And, you know, could be historical authors, I don't know. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think that's a really cool idea to put that there. And that's on the, again, on the east side of the building. And as you walk in, this would be, you know, kind of your first impression walking in. You'll see the circulation desk to the left. And then to the right would be this seating area with a fireplace wall. And then back in the back there, there's these zen booths, which are little soundproof booths. And we'll talk about adding some more of those. And then there would be a computer lab area back there. And we're kind of breaking down the space by flooring and doing maybe some wood slat ceilings and some areas to define the spaces and give it kind of zones within the big zone there. This is looking from the circulation desk to the right. There's one of those, that conference room, they're kind of bypassing in. That space is existing. We're just kind of adding a glass wall and redoing the finishes in there. And that would be something that people could use for teleconferencing or meetings or anybody that needs a place to meet. Again, this is looking kind of stacked. We're wrapping the columns with wood to kind of give it some warmth. And again, this is looking back towards circulation desk. Circulation desk is moving. One reason it's moving is it gives them some visual of the whole library. They can see the majority of the space. And then also they can turn around and look back through these windows that you see there into the children's area. And so the children's area, what's now an outside door, becomes the place where the inside door is. And you can see that a little better here. There's a door there now. It's just outside. And now it comes inside. So we're kind of taking that porch area in. Children's area. Okay, caught up on the Dr. Seuss murals, but just showing that we could do some murals in there. There are some murals in there now. New finishes. We're using the same kind of lights, but doing it kind of a whimsical way for the children's area. This is in that conference room looking out. And this is one of the schemes for upstairs is opening it up for a workspace. Nighttime view. To me, I think it's important that we do some exterior lighting so that even when the library's not open, it's got some presence on the street and it's not just a dark shell at night when nobody's there. And there's a couple of videos here just walking through the space to maybe help you see a little better. And then again to the front. So that's that's the gist of it. We're shooting for a million dollar budget. Right?

That's correct. You think what's your contingency?

Well, we're working on it right now have to next week, based on these current drawings, I think we're pretty close. You know, there's some areas when they need to tweak all the ways that we'll know for sure or better by next week. Okay. Do you have any questions? Questions, anybody?

I think the, The look is just remarkably different than what's there now, which if you notice it at all, it's very institutional looking. This is much more inviting. And the other thing that I really, really like about having done the Needmore Center and the Key Parks Pavilion and this is there starts to be some continuity amongst city buildings. And so it's identifiable as a startable city building at this point. I love that.

I also think there's value going to the community market in multiple ways, but in particular I had a chat with a team there and she was talking about how much they use the library. And so one of the things that we're constantly hearing and seeing on social media is there's nothing for the kids to do. And by that, that age range that we're talking about teens. And so I was nicely educated. And so there's lots of things for them to do at the library. And we just need to make sure we figure out how to get it out there.

It's a very heavily used building.

Very heavily used building. I think that's great. So I appreciated that. And I look forward to this being even more inviting as it becomes brighter and more welcoming place to be. Cool. All right. Nothing else? All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. We'll look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks. Okay. All right. Mr. Huskisson is not here, but he did tell me that the minutes are ready to go, and Ms. McLauren, you'll validate that? Okay. So can we do consent for those items? The minutes? All right. Thank you. and then under mayor's comments I will mention I will mention the night out national night out because that'll be that night but let's also well obviously mentioning it here but let's also have it on the agenda just as a highlight okay anybody want anything they wanted to add from a board perspective of comments for posterity okay We've got one public appearance. Mr. Thompson is going to come. I think he wants to give us information about his organization, Starving Voices. So he's got the 10 minutes that are allotted for public appearances. So we'll be looking forward to hearing him. So we have Mr. Howard. You're first up with a variance from a fence height requirement. Anything you want to share about that particular item? Obviously, it's a public hearing, so.

Yeah, it's just a variance from a fence height. It's technically in the front yard. It's on a corner lot. Some of it was planted prior to UDC. They're just wanting to come into the front yard about five feet, I believe, to have a six-foot privacy fence. Okay. And more adjustment appeals, no, you can't. I absolutely recommend it.

okay this is not the first one of these we've seen so they seem to corner lots yeah okay all right thank you so we'll be having a public hearing on that and then we also will be having our second public hearing and the opportunity for consideration of those sections of the udc you want to go over those just real briefly um yeah again it's just mainly uh it's a total of 20 providers of events with four general categories

Four of them are corrective, 12 of them are updating existing requirements. One of them is in addition to the, or actually removing something from the technical codes. And then the new requirements is Required pedestrian scale lighting in four base code areas, establishing underground utility requirements for new developments and redevelopments, and then having some new standards for portable telecommunication facilities and special events, which is like a 5G thing that attaches temporarily to a pole.

That's what they did with the Docks and Derby this past year. Correct.

It was something that they did there, but it wasn't in our codes. They were just trying to catch up with the technology.

Absolutely. Okay. Have you heard from anybody on any of that?

I haven't had any comments. Yeah, for or against, just a question, general information.

All right. Anything anybody wants to ask or highlight from Mr. Patton on that? Thank you, sir. Next, we have a public hearing for Curry Street. There is a parcel that is, I have to tell you, and I'm sure, Alvin Vaughn, you're aware of it, but I was on Apple Street for one of the constituents down there to look at something, and so I parked at the dead end of Curry, and I was getting out of the truck, and I looked over, and I went, my word I believe that's house back up in there and nature had taken over I mean it was just totally covered up so all I saw was like what appeared to be a door frame and so anyway that's what this is this is that particular structure that's all covered up so yes okay anyway So we're looking at it, and I think nature would probably take care of it if we waited, but it seems as though it would be appropriate for us to go ahead and take action on it. So we will have a public hearing on that. And the next four items, for purposes of discussion and just as a reminder, with Ruth Road, if you remember, we had four addresses in one parcel. This is four parcels in one address, which is 305 Everglades, which is the Brookville Gardens. And so each one of these will be much the same in the sense that it is grass. And because it's not coming under the Sub 2 of 21-1911, because it is a much larger parcel and it would take more than the allotted $300 for each one of those to mow if we were to have to do so. So that's the reason each one of them has got to be separately done and then separately considered by the board. So it will be somewhat redundant, but the purpose of it is driven by the code and statute. So those will also be public hearings. So anyway, just kind of giving you a little background on that. And then we have, this is the first public hearing to calling for the first public hearing, not the first public hearing, but calling for the first public hearing to adopt a chronic nuisance property ordinance. And this is an ordinance that has been adopted. There's one at Tupelo. I think, Ms. Huskisson, did you tell me there was one in South Haven? In South Haven as well. So this is something that is of great concern, obviously to our community, but to the chief. that we are finding locations that continue to dominate our our police force and having them responding inordinately in the scheme of time over to these places and so you know when you're using all your police and they're focused on one section of town then that doesn't leave them free to care of the rest of the town and so i think this is an opportunity for us to adopt a slightly more stern approach to these properties that are causing us to have continual police presence and so that is this effort and again this is calling for the first public hearing so this is not this is not any kind of public hearing but it is asking for the board to approve calling for the first public hearing on the property ordinance. So can we do a consent for calling for that? I've had the conversation with the vice mayor, and he is supportive of the concept. Obviously, it's a draft, so we may be tweaking it as we go along for the purpose of the public hearings, but I think there's a consensus of support for the concept. So do we consent for that one? Okay. And next, we have the Leisure and Recreation District, which, you know, we have... interest in the block that is the Lafayette Jefferson block for whatever reason that was not included in the leisure original leisure and recreation district so that particular area would allow us to expand that district in there is as those areas develop which they are you know we're told that they're looking at doing i call it a mid-rise but that's probably a little bit too much but residential and restaurant and retail down in that area so this would ask for the board to consider including that as well as providing more specific stickers as it relates to gee there you are more specific stickers as it relates to the go cups in the district because right now it's a little looser than it needs to be so this is a date specific that the cup will be identified as being able to be used the district so that's that's the purpose for that one so yes Jefferson and Lafayette so that's just you know right now that's the only block have we got that pull that up but it shows it all as a picture yes it'll be okay all right so consent for that one for calling for the vote here all right thank you Then we have, this is the mowing advertising for bids, which we need to do to make sure our cemeteries are mowed. We call consent for that one. Okay. And then resolutions on the lot mowing leans, which is located at West Main and 200 Curtis. And then that should be in your packet as well, but that's what we do typically on the leans that we've had to go and mow those properties. So consent for that one? All righty. And then the same is true. For the lien on 245 Ruth Road, we did the dilapidated structure. We cleaned it up. And if you haven't seen the pictures or haven't been out there, it is a vast improvement over its previous existence. So consent for that one? All right. Thank you. And then last but not least, this is just advertising for bids. I don't know what it will cost. But I promise you, I would like us to be able to be prouder of our flooring. where the public is in this building. In this room specifically, there are stains up and down the halls and all over, so I would like us to at least be able to go out for bids and see what it would cost us to make the improvements to the building in the public areas up here and then as well as downstairs in the courtroom. So things that are less susceptible to spills and stains and that sort of thing. If we could do that, then we don't have to act on it. If it's too much and we can't afford it, we can't figure out how to pay for it. But at least we'll know what we're looking at. So consent for that one? All right. Thank you. And then, obviously, Ms. McLaurin has prepared the public hearings for the budget and tax millage increase, which we have to have. And that would make it August the 18th. And then with an opportunity to adopt September the 1st. So consent for that one? All right. All right, nothing for the airport. We're going to develop the courts and engineering. We have Mr. Williams. There you are. Anything you'd like to share about this? These are going to be, this is the TA. And we have to get some right of way in order to do the construction.

These are temporary construction easements. So this is to put in the sidewalk far enough behind the curb where it's comfortable to walk. We've got to redo people's driveways. And so this is paying them to be able to get on their property to redo their driveway.

And we've had conversations with those folks.

We have. We've started them on there. right-of-way tech company. That's what they've started on those pieces and parts. So we've talked to a few of them because some of them are condos with homeowners associations and stuff like that.

Okay, so this would be just compensation for that construction. Consent for that one? Okay. Then a permission to advertise for the concrete turnbid. A little more on that because we're used to the asphalt turnbid.

Would you share a little on the concrete turnbid? So it's mirroring what we do with our asphalt turnbids. Our asphalt It's done in a three to four year window with able to do it over and over again. And then what this will be doing is marrying it with our concrete bids. So whenever we have a sidewall that needs to be redone, those type things, we have a unit price for that. And so then we'll be able to bundle those up and say, hey, come to town. We're going to do this, this, and this. So the idea behind it is like last year we did our ADA improvements that we have to do with our proof paving and so this will be able to fall under that project.

Should give us a cost savings?

It should give a cost savings and then it also it'll streamline it so the asphalt turn bit really streamlined that process for us. This will do the same thing with this. So instead of having to quote out individual projects, now we'll have it all together and we'll be able to come as a task order. It'll take work off the engineering department as far as pulling those things together instead of treating each individual one as far as procurement goes.

Okay. All right. Consent for that one?

Yes, sir. On these just compensation offers, did you guys get that? Y'all have appraisals done on that?

So with the right-of-way, since these are all below $10,000, most of these are about $500 because all we're doing is coming up redoing your driveway putting it back. So there's not really a take to it. And so with it below 10,000 doing waiver adjustments is what it is. So we didn't luckily with how tiny this project or how tiny these and we didn't have to do those appraisals.

And then we have the tibby watershed draft theme of that review and that's worth a little discussion as well it is so the So I know everybody's known that the floodplain map updates coming.

This is the first part the city sits on a ridge So pretty much this is covering everything that's pretty much what we're sitting right now is the ridge portion of it So everything that drains to tibby creek so everything on the north half of town pretty much going that direction and So these are the draft plans. This is with Neil Shaffer. And so what we're doing is going through, we've gotten all the modeling data from them. And what they do is whenever you think about how large this project is, is they'll get all the LIDAR data from them. And I think this is 2024 or 2023 data. So what this is doing is checking all their models, seeing all their assumptions and seeing about trying to get everything as accurate as we can, because we'll be dealing with these for decades. So this is trying to catch it to where make sure that all our new floodplain maps are as accurate as we can get reasonably.

Okay, because it does impact people's properties.

It does and impacts building codes, it impacts all over the place as far as what it will impact.

Okay. Then our claims docket, which we will skip over. The next request for FOIA software. Would you like to share, Ms. McLaurin, with that?

This will help streamline the process. It'll shoot whatever department's responsible for the FOIAs. It'll shoot email reminders to them daily. It actually gives us an opportunity to make a little more money on our FOIAs because we'll take a deposit up front and whoever's working on that FOIA, it'll have their hourly rate on there and they can plug in and say they work five hours and it'll calculate and it will be able to invoice the person that is requesting the FOIA and make them pay it before they can receive the information. So it's an efficiency factor? It is, and everything could be paid online and done that way instead of having to come to City Hall.

And all I want to say is I think it's a terrific, terrific project, and I think it will help the functions of that office a lot. Just be aware that this is one year and impacts future budgets.

Yes, sir. The annual cost of $10,000, are we getting that kind of cost for that kind of information that is costing that much?

We get a lot of FOIAs.

We get a lot of FOIAs associated with the police department, and that's a huge amount of time that she's spending. Have you ever tried to document what kind of time you're spending on FOIAs?

sometimes I know Brandon does yes and it takes up a lot of his time and the base fee we're charging right now we're not getting what we should and this will help streamline it and get more revenue off of it

So it should pay for itself and something.

Hopefully. Balance out if nothing else.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Will it be revenue neutral? I mean, I see it's paid $10,000. We're generally getting $5,000 worth of cost.

Well, I think you factor in some efficiencies and some accuracy element to it, too. Then you might be able to actually get to that point. So, anyway. Anything about that one? Is that it for that one?

Yes. We've looked at doing this with multiple softwares over the years, like last year and the year before during budget time, and we just never could find anything that worked with what we had.

This is with Civic Plus, and that's what our software studies said.

to the question about how many of them there are, I know that it's not like there's two every week. There are probably some weeks that there are 10, depending on what the hot topic is that week. And then there are weeks that are not. And so managing your regular workload with another thing coming in like that does become tedious.

Well, and that's one of those things you don't want to drop because then it creates that much more of a problem for other reasons for us to be. Responding to things so okay in the advertising for sources of content consent or not I thought I heard all of them on seconds in I thought I did I'm sorry yes consent So the advertising for the source of supply Obviously we do that so consider that one sort of a All right HR mister is mister Okay, there you are. I was looking for the big end on the sheet there.

And can I say something? Yes. On the front end, because it impacts multiple ones through here as you're thinking about this, but anytime that we're dealing with hiring people, making salary adjustments, that sort of thing, that's obviously the rest of this year, but it impacts future budgets as well. So just felt the need to say that.

Yes. um and so the the three additional fire well chief let's let you come on up here and share this this is not an insubstantial request or change so we'll let you make a little presentation if you would talk about what you wanted to do thank you mayor uh vice mayor is absent board of alderman we have requested a read our structuring of the fire department which includes adding three new firefighters six sergeants and three lieutenants

and in your packet there with the agenda item we have supported documentation that breaks down the cost of each area so if you have not had any time to look at it I can go through it if you need me to you can go through it and now you can chime in at any point if you feel the need to okay okay last year when I was pointing to the Raiding Bureau came, was coming in to do our raiding assessment. They do it every four to five years, and they were coming in at that time, and we got to looking at it, and I spoke with them before they came in. We were kind of running a little behind in a few areas, and they gave us grace to make that time up, and what we did, one of the things we did, we talked to the mayor, and she gave us permission to make sure that we keep 18 people on shift every day. And once you fall, the manpower is a large portion of keeping the rating. So we kept those 18 people on shift. Therefore, we were asking for three additional people so that it would take some of the stress out of trying to keep 18 people there. From an overtime? From an overtime purpose. The overtime, at that point, when we went to the 18-person shift, we spent over $350,000 in overtime. And the hiring of those new firefighters, three firefighters, it would cost about $204,000. So that would somewhat help. It'll help tremendously with maintaining overtime and staying within budget in overtime. When you have 19 per shift, they look at the average of 18. So some days we can run 19, and some days we can fall to 17. That means we're going to have to hire overtime for that day. So that really will help in this process.

And can I jump in there? And I was just going to say, during our budget reviews and that sort of thing, we've talked a lot about the pressure this will create for Chief to manage his overtime. Because even having 19 people on staff, there's going to be some days that you've got two people out on military leave and somebody out on FMLA, and you're going to drop below your ideal staffing and so there will continue to be some overtime but so we're not we're not proposing to eliminate unscheduled overtime we're just going to reclassify the majority of it to um to personnel but but we do anticipate that there will continue to be some and chief's going to manage to keep that in budget and so yes sir by maintaining 19 of staff that will control

Yes, sir. The more people we have on staff, that helps with the rating. The rating is set up in four different categories, I believe. Manpower, which is the largest portion of it, is manpower. Then you have your water supply. You have communication, which is 911, and training. All of those, and your public education, how we go out to the schools and keep up with that as well. All of those things are important to maintain our rating.

But the only thing we don't control out of that is the 9-1-1. Because we control the water, and we can control the training, and we can control the public piece of it. But it just for... We've got two pieces.

You've got your overtime and your rating. That's right. If we approve this, it will be 11-7.

Sure. No, I don't think it will actually be revenue neutral. But I think it certainly will tamp down the requirement for overtime. And just for further discussion, just because I think this is important for us to know and to factor into these things when we make these decisions, the majority of our fire department spends 80% of its time doing medical, for which we get no credit whatsoever. I mean, the fire rating bureau doesn't care that we're doing medical, but that's 80% of what our guys do along with Pafford Ambulance and stuff. And I find that I struggle with that because that's what we spend all our time doing, but we're chasing a fire rating I just struggle with it. And I want us to have a three. I'd love us to be a one. But at some point, when what you're doing is the majority, and I mean not a little majority. It's not 55%. It's 80% doing medical activities. I just find that to be disturbing that we are not getting the kind of credit we should get for the efforts that y'all are putting in for that kind of work and that kind of service.

And that's not unique to Starkville. Every fire department in the state, the bulk of their work is medical, and none of them get credit for it.

Yeah, thank you for that, because it isn't. I mean, it's nationwide. So anyway, I just find that something that's fascinating for us to factor into our considerations as we're trying to maintain that three rating, which we're very proud of, and which we worked hard to get. So anyway, I appreciate it. Ma'am, anything you'd like to throw into that discussion?

No, I think he has it covered. When it comes to the three firefighters that he wants to add additionally, when we did the cost analysis, if you look at the comparison in the overtime that they're spending and what the cost is, I think that portion of it will be budget neutral.

okay all right well we know we have the promotions that go with it so anyway do you want to put that off the table and this is the staffing and the promotions okay yeah and so just be aware that the promotions will be a budgetary impact

year over year over year.

And you've had this problem for a while. You've just had the current ones. They've been acting up and assuming those roles. So this has been a problem as far as we've been needing to do the promotion piece to make it right for the fire department.

That was another part that we did. As we tried to maintain the 18, we could get an extra few more points. If we put an engine beside the ladder. And it actually has been beneficial. We did that, and those guys, I asked them to do it. They've been doing it since February of last year. Okay.

Well, and thank you to them. Yes, indeed. You know, you guys have stepped up big time. From the training to the public involvement, it's been really good. So thank you for that. All right. Thank you, Chief. I thought I heard you say that. Yes, consent for that one. We have Lisa Carter to the position of assistant city clerk, deputy clerk. And Ms. McLaurin, anything you want to share about that?

I just think it's important to have someone, if something were to happen, you know who to go to. Right.

And this one is budget neutral in that that position was budgeted this year and it'll just roll forward.

She is very well qualified. Thank you. May I have anything to add to that one?

No, ma'am. I got it.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. And the next. Yes. Thank you for that. And then Mr. Sykes is going to come back and help us with concrete. So he has been, we lost him, but we're happy to have him come back in and do some really good work for us, because that concrete skill is well needed, so.

And did you say his resume?

Yes, that's it for that one. All right, thank you. All right, the other folks here that we have, Mr. Ashford, any of these, these are all filling vacant positions, is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

They are replacements. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I did. Well, actually, we are missing a custodian, but different kind of deal. Yes.

We're having to move the money from construction.

Yes. So, thank you. Thank you for that clarification. We had to relieve our existing custodian from their duties for things we won't talk about. And so... Job performance. Yeah, job performance. So consent for those? All right, thank you. All right, IT. Mr. Clements, would you like to share with us a little bit of information about these wonderful things that we need to do?

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. As I mentioned in the budget work session, we've been informed earlier this year that our current phone system is end of life and being deprecated. So we have been taking the last few months to research and evaluate other options. I wanted to bring this before you today so we could get ahead of that a little bit. And it's an excellent phone system. It's one that's cloud-based. The cost over time can be very predictable since it's not hosted on premises. With this agreement, the service support And call recording, which is important to our our business process is all included in this price that as we let those other third party products go away, and also with the, you know, a couple of years, we'll have to refresh our environment, we won't have to factor this into that. So the environment will be a little bit smaller or network environment. So This is essentially, again, budget neutral over time and much more predictable. It's a great system as well. Cisco is one of the industry leaders, and so I think it's going to serve us very well.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Broken record here. You said budget neutral over time. Is it budget neutral next year? And that's important for us to know as we're making decisions.

The second item I have, too, speaks to that a little bit separately. We typically look to do an environment refresh, and what that means is we're buying new servers, new switches, new network gear that powers all these applications that we use in the city. So we're a little over three years into the previous environment refresh, so we've got a couple of years to go on that. So as we evaluate that in another year or so, as we start sizing that and evaluating that, we'll be able to size that down a little bit. It's not budget neutral right now, but so over a five-year time frame, it becomes budget neutral. And we had built this into next year's budget.

We had it in our budget that we talked about during the work session. And I just wanted people to be sure that if they were looking at making cuts, when you make these votes to approve these sorts of things, that's something that you take off the list of items that potentially could be cut.

That's right. And then moving into that second item, that is the warranty renewal for our current environment and so that's just our insurance policy if something goes bad wrong we have we have dell service and support with a four hour standby 24 by 24 by 7 availability so that just helps us ensure high availability and uptime throughout the life of this current environment and as i recall from our budget discussions over the years

This particular lease agreement with C Spire, our phone system is about to go Toes up, so to speak?

That's right. We're nearing end of life on the current system.

Yeah, and it won't be supported.

That's correct.

So we won't have anything to fall back on. That's correct.

All right. It's very necessary, and it's baked into the budget that we saw at the work session.

Okay. All right.

Joe, how long is that warranty period for?

This is a one-year warranty, and so we'll need to do that one more time before we refresh the environment. Okay.

All right. Consent for those? Okay. Good. And then under parks, we've got the stacking chairs that we had been intending to order for a while, and so now we have the quote on those, so consent for those? All right. Police department chief, all of these... There you are. All of these grants, you've got reimbursable and then this is, I don't think, yeah, local match, no local match. So all those you're comfortable with. All right. So when it's no cost, it's always a positive. So consent for those. And then under the code enforcement, these are the cleanup lists that we have for the parcels that they have been sent. been able to send letters and had the time to do that. So consent for that one? Okay. Sanitation department? Mr. Smiley, you're going to get rid of some surplus stuff? Where are you? There you are. Get rid of some surplus stuff and advertise for sale, and hopefully we'll have a little revenue coming in there? Yes, ma'am. That's right. Okay. Have we gotten rid of all the old containers yet? Yes. you've been cleaning up over there well kudos because it cleans up the entire lot and then utilities department Kemp you want to share some information on these items sure item one is for our jonesy creek lift station

rehab or really replacement of that. These are the long lead items, long lead time items for the project, which is three of our

Did they come in about where we thought they would?

Yes, ma'am. They were competitive bids. We had two bids. The other one was very close, $208,000, so within 5% or so. We recommend to go forward the pumps that are proposed are flight pumps, which are really good quality pumps, and we're happy with the bids.

And this is the project that OCEDA is assisting the city on to help pay for the?

So we'll go ahead and order those, get them in the queue so when they get delivered we'll be ready for them.

Okay. And then outage management proposals?

This is just to advertise for proposals. We will evaluate those. But ultimately it is to try to stand up an outage management system that all customers can then have either on their smartphone or computer or tablet and see when we have a widespread electrical outage. You can see the map of what it's impacting. You can get down to estimated repair response times. We can also do planned outages either for water or electric using a polygon or area particular neighborhood. So it's just an opportunity to provide better service and communication with customers. Yes.

So this would be a global notification online. And so I would have to look to see It's not going to push something to me by text or email or anything like that. There will be options.

Obviously, different software vendors, but yes, it will be an option to get a text. If you have that checked and your contact information is up to date, we're aware of a power outage at your location of this meter. We have the AMI metering system, so it sees it real time if that meter is hot or not. So it will ultimately prevent people from calling and flooding the phone lines if we're already aware of that.

And it's electric and water.

It's electric and water, so the algorithm on the electric side, obviously, is going to be much more rapid. The water will be, I would say, the best tool for that. It's going to be planned out. Exactly. Or if we have a major water break that's going to impact a customer area, we can send out a notification right away. So it's going to be less automated and more manual. Okay.

Do we not already have a way to do that with the SCADA system and our new billing software? No. There's not a way to do that at all?

Not an outage management system. There's no way to push out communication through that.

But we've got the Smart Hub app that we get text through.

Yes. So it'll integrate our customer information system, which is going to be customer info, but it has to integrate into our GIS map. And so it has to have an algorithm built in to where each meter, each switch, it will know what's downstream of that. And so it will be able to start seeing some of these meters or switches go offline. And so it will predict, hey, we think that this entire circuit or this entire section of a circuit is off right now. But there's no capability. our current one of our our current software vendor that has our cis platform has a oms module and i'm anticipating that we will be evaluating that one but we don't we don't currently have that capability it's getting close to a one in chattanooga where everybody got a handle that it shows you

Yeah, you can.

Yeah, you'll be able to see a real what that looks like. They do a lot of a lot of the local power companies are moving towards that. Yeah.

What are they?

I'm not sure. I'm not sure what's up. Show you where it's at. Right.

well I really want to be able to push that information out as opposed to requiring you to go out I mean do that yeah but but if they've signed up for it then they should be able to push it out yeah the only way we're pushing out information right now as you all know for outages is through social media platforms and obviously when people call for big large outages we're trying to communicate that via phone

Okay. All right. Consent for that one? Consent. Okay.

I've got questions. I want to, and I'm not saying, I just want to ask you after this, if that's okay. Yeah. Okay. So, no.

Okay. All right. Quincy, air compressor is our place to donate. Yeah. Okay.

Air compressor at one of our water plants. Okay. We don't use or need anymore in the carpentry center.

Well, I think that's great to get it to the career tech center. So, consent for that one? Yes. And then a low quote for non-potable pump for the wastewater treatment plant. Yes. Okay, that's a replacement?

Yes, there's a pump that has failed, so it's a replacement. We did evaluate repairing that pump, and it wound up being $9,000, so we're just going to pay the extra to get us something new.

Okay, all right. You all set for that one? All right. And last but not least, we have an executive session item, which should be, I think, in your packet somewhere else in your electronic packet. And this is as it relates to an economic development project. So all good news. All right.

Thanks, everyone. Have a great weekend. Thank you.