Council - Regular Meeting

1.7 million.

like dinner or something. All right, it is 5:00. We will get started with our work session tonight. Thank you to everybody for being here. Um, we've got two presentations tonight. Um, up first we've got the landfield and recycling departments. Come on.

Good evening. Wanda Tyler, Landfill Recycling. Hi. We're going to present to you um the Decater Morgan County Regional Landfill. Um, Bill H. Good. Well, William Hey, good. I'm sorry, Bill. uh William Hood who oversees the landfill operation will talk first and then Justin Picket will then take over and talk about the recycling operation. So if y'all have any uh then I'm going to come back and tell you about a special project uh that uh I'm very proud of and um we'll go ahead and get started. I look a little nervous.

Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council members. Good evening. How are you?

Great. Bill Hood, landfill manager. In 1965, a partnership between the Morgan County Commission and the city of Decatur was formed to develop and operate a municipal solid waste landfill. On December 9th, 1980, Morgan County Regional Landfill began operations where the acquisition and development cost were shared equally between Morgan County Commission and the city of Decar. Morgan County Regional Landfill was designated to operate as an enterprise account, allowing all expenses and revenues be the responsibility Morgan County Regional Landfill, ensuring all cost, acquisitions, and development were repaid to the Morgan County Commission and the city of Decar over a period of 20 years. All municipalities in the county pay standard disposal fees based on quantities disposed. Summarily, the existing concept of local collection, transfer, and transportation facilities funneled to major disposal, green waste shipping, and recycling at the Morgan County Regional Landfill. Residential and solid waste collection, transfer and transportation for waste generated within Morgan County is provided primarily by the city of Decar, city of Hartzell, and the Morgan County Commission within their governmental boundaries. Commercial and industrial waste generated within Morgan County is disposed of at the Morgan County Regional Landfill with some waste making its way to BFI landfill in Lawrence County, Alabama. The objective established with the partnership between Morgan County Commission and the city of Decatur is to provide capacity within the Morgan County Regional Landfill for all residential, commercial, and industrial waste generated within Morgan County to be disposed of at Morgan County Regional Landfill with a diversion rate of 40% recyclables from the municipal solid waste site. In accordance to the state of Alabama regulations, commercial and industrial waste in Morgan County is collected by multiple

privately owned and contracted haulers and has been disposed of at Morgan County Regional Landfill. In 2021, Morgan County with a population of 119,52 residents produced a whopping 81,479 tons of waste. That's approximately 1.46 46 tons of waste annually per per person. Currently, the Morgan County Regional Anfield is permitted to accept 3,000 tons per day. We are currently operating at approximately 54% capacity with a remainder of roughly 6 million cubic yards of airspace. Cell 17 on the MSW side is currently under construction at this time to help accommodate for future growth Morgan County, city of Decar, and the city of Hartzell. As the waste at Morgan County Regional Landfill decomposes, a waste water known as leech aid is produced and discharged to decatered utilities for treatment. We also have multiple groundwater sampling wells on site tested on a regular basis to aid in the prevention of groundwater contamination in accordance to the state regulations. Fees at the Morgan County Regional Landfield fiscal year 2023 had to be adjusted from a rate of $26 per ton to a rate of $29 per ton plus a dollar per ton state imposed fee to assist in the cleanup of illegal dump sites across the state of Alabama. This adjustment was to accommodate for the rising cost of operations and we are on schedule for another fee adjustment in the fiscal year of 2027. The Morgan County Regional Landfill also operates a CND landfill on site to accommodate for construction and demolition within Morgan County and surrounding areas. The CND site is under expansion and will save approximately 1.5 million cubic yards of airspace within the MSW site. Construction of SLB will soon start and contractors will be

invited to bid on this construction. We al also operate a green waste chipping site providing a green waste reduction of materials like tree debris, grass clippings, pallets and leaves for the residents of Morgan County, city of Decar and only the only planned green waste reduction site within Morgan County is at the Morgan County Regional Landfill. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council.

Good evening, Mike.

I'm Justin Picket. I'm the manager of recycling for the city. Uh, in this the city of Decar constructed a 13,000 square foot material recovery facility in 2010. The facility received a grant from ADM and the recycling partnership in 2023 with assisted in the in the funding of a 30,000qt expansion. This facility currently receives paper products, cardboard, cans, and plastic, aluminum tin, and steel. All of which is collected from a bi-weekly curbside pickup from over 19,000 residents in the city. The city of Hartzell operates a curbside recycling program as well for over 5600 residents. Material collected is the same as before. Paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, and metal. The material is transported to Decar's material recovery facility at 625 Lfield Drive to be to be sorted and bailed for resale. As of 2024, the city operates a robust regional materials recovery facility or MURF that processes mixed paper number one and two plastics, cardboard, and aluminum from the city of Decators, over 11,000 households, businesses, and approximately 47,000 households across Morgan County, 5,600 households in the city of Hartzell, 6,370 households in the city of Athens, 300 households in Lawrence County, and 1,854 households in Coleman. We also support the recycling efforts of the Decatur City School System and industrial partners such as Indorama and commercial entities such as Belulk. The Decater Morgan County Regional Material Recover Facility is a 9600 square foot capac square foot facility with a capacity of 300,000 tons of material per year. The following is a breakdown of the tonnage we received from our partners with the city of Decatur bringing in over 2,000 tons, Athens with 537 tons, Coleman curbside with 177 tons, Hartzel with 378, the Decar City

School System with 47 tons, and Morgan County with 253 tons. Waste reduction by improved disposal methods and concentrated recycling efforts is a major part of our solid waste management plan. As a hub in this region, we offer a number of benefits to adjacent municipalities. Not only do we provide stability, we provide greater efficiency and are able to command better market prices due to our volume. By eliminating duplicate efforts, smaller communities do not have to establish expensive processing centers in order to market their recyclables. Our program also includes an automated collection system for the city, over 19,000 residents, a monthly hazardous waste program for residents, and a partnership with Indorama in the public in the Decar public city schools for public education and outreach. We operate with funding from the Decar Morgan County regional landfill and from the sale of commodities. In 2020, 3,300 tons of material were handled at the facility and 2,300 were sold in the commodities market. Below is a breakdown of the materials by type that were processed by the MURF. In 2024, 4,260 tons were accepted into the MURF and 3600 of that of the tons were sold. The following are some of the vendors that process our materials. Westrock that handles paper and cardboard. Metal Exchange that handles handles aluminum and metal. American Fiber handles newspaper. Indorama handles plastic. And for scrap management, we have a company called Scrap Management handles HTP out of Charlotte, North Carolina. KW Plastics handles HDP out of Troy, Alabama. And TMS International handle steel cans out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently, Morgan County provides 14 dropoff locations throughout the county for recycling materials to serve all municipalities except for Decar and Hartzell. All recycling collected at these locations are brought to the materials recovery facility. Special recycling programs are also a part of Decar's effort to recycle. Household chemical collection is held

the second Saturday of every month from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at 1802 Central Parkway. Decatur will take household dry cell batteries, motor oil, paint, household cleaners, gasoline, kerosene, oil, field aerosol cans, pool chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. And we also provide cardboard trailers from around the city for certain businesses. Thank you. Thank you. So these gentlemen just told you about what we do. No shortage of items to collect.

So but one of the most important parts of my job over the past six years has been about a cemetery that's located on our property, the Lao Cemetery. Um, our property was once a plantation and um, I I know some of you have been out with me and I've shown you the cemetery. Uh, a few years ago, I got a phone, well actually uh, a visit from Scott Owens. He's a resident in Trinity, Alabama, who told me about a story when he was a little boy. He and his father used to go rabbit hunting on the property and he would always pass a cemetery. So when I first started with the city, I used to see the gro the gravestones. I used to see these markings and I was like I think we might have a cemetery. So anyway, so we worked with uh pure male get the uh the uh graves located and the rest is history. Um we have a cemetery. We I don't know if you have the other photo. We we protected it of course. Um the LA family, you know, they'll call me. they'll come out and see the different uh um you know they'll come out and see their families and everything. And I know this is one of the things I thought was interesting about the cemetery was the fact that not only are the slave owners or uh or and their families in here, but also the the slaves at the time were were also buried in the uh in the cemetery. So anyway, that's one of that's our property. I mean that's you know so I think it's something to be proud of and we try to we're good stewards of of of the landfill and so do you all have any questions?

No questions but I would say I appreciate everything you do your team as well. Um you know there are a lot of things that can happen in the city that we'll get calls about. Oh yeah. But I promise you if garbage and recycling quit getting picked up we all get a lot of calls. Um, it is a very critical service, but y'all do a great job. Um, you know, I've I've had it everything from one house was missed and y'all responded immediately and issues at the landfield, y'all corrected, but have done a great job and and really managing the landfill. I don't think many citizens are aware of how much work goes into that. It's not as simple as, you know, you guys go out there and and dump the garbage and cover it up. There's a lot that goes into to maintaining that. And, uh, definitely

appreciate the work that you do. Thank you. The staff out there, every time I've ever been out there, um, everybody's helpful seem happy and willing to to talk to you and and that that goes a long way as well. So, appreciate your work with that. And if you would just take a moment and update on recycling.

Oh, uh, recycling, the the park came in, the ram, and also the bars came in last week. Uh, on May 4th, we got the technician Midsouth, uh, that will be here to fix the ram. Uh hopefully I I was told the week of May 11th the new Baylor will be in and um I think it's the third week in June the uh AI robotic system will be in. Yeah. And we are recycling for Decar Morgan County and Artsel. Yes. As of right now using a small bor. Wanda was able to get the people that we that purchased the stuff from us to take the small bales from us. Mhm. So, good.

Um, we're back up in those in those locations. Yes. All right. All right. Thank you very much. Great job, y'all. All right. Up next, city clerk.

Good evening. How are y'all doing? Good evening. Did you have a slideshow presentation? No, I do not have a slideshow presentation. And if I put the drone up, it would just be going in circles in the She gives us a presentation every Monday. I I I know, but I like to have break my neck over here looking at this. Keep it simple. Sorry. Sorry.

You know, I will keep it simple and short. Okay. The city clerk department is known for being the hub of city hall at the first point of contact whether a person's is comes in the office, phone calls or emails. The city clerk department is responsible for various items that reach all fashions from from every city department to citizens of Decar. Uh we consist as a small department consisting of five employees which include myself, assistant city clerk, two accountant positions and one accounting technician position. We're known for the keepers of the records. So anybody that needs ordinance resolution or contract, they see me. Um, and she will find it.

I will find it. It might take me a minute depending on how long it's been. Uh, we are in charge of the council agendas, the minutes, as well as, uh, the meeting schedules for council as well as for the boards. Um, and with being the keepers of the minutes, we also have the public records requests that come in on a seems to be daily basis here recently for one thing or another. Uh, another thing that we do is all of the city departments that receive funds, all the pe park and wreck facilities, point malard facilities, landfill recycling, all of them that receive funds, that information has to go through our office in order to be in inputed into our financial software. So that is a daily ta uh daily task daily job of getting everybody's information inputed into the system making sure that the information from the bank matches the reports that we receive. Uh in addition to that we also receive other payments from the state and federal government and we have to match those up and get those entered correctly as well. Um, and y'all heard a couple of weeks ago about finance, how they process invoices. Well, once they get the invoices inputed in the system and processed, they're required to come to the city clerk department where we review and approve. And from there, um, once the check run is completed, then we do we do the finishing process of payment. Another thing is the tags for all the city vehicles that comes through our department as well. So even with the new system of enterprise and getting the vehicles from there, we still have the same process of getting tags for those

vehicles and as well as any items that get surplus that require bill of sale andor the tag and title or excuse me the title that comes through our office. Um, one of the main things that happen every four years, of course, our elections, which we just finished one, so got a few more years before we have to get started again. Uh, and that will would be in August of 2029 would be the next election date. Uh, a couple of things that are on a daily basis, especially during this time of year, yard sale permits. You're allowed two yard sale permits a year, up to three days each time. It's residential only. It's not for businesses, apartment complexes, duplexes, the quadlexes, they're all required to get a an approval letter from the manager in order to have them. Um, and then there are the solister permits which are going on hot and heavy right now. Uh, just got two or three calls today about uh, people being out going door todo and not having their solister permit. We've gone through the process, contacted who we needed to contact, and we will continue until we can get them either solicited or get them their permit for soliciting or um possibly hopefully not fined. Uh and just to give an update, um there's been some people ask about the zoning rewrite and the short-term rental that was approved. it was sent to MUN code in order for that to be up in uploaded into our system and they said the project should be finished in June. So that was just a quick simple easy

some of the things we do uh end with and all other things that are required. Anybody have any questions? I would just say thank you. We've we've got to work. Well, I guess we Carlton and I hired you um last term, but we were working with you even before then. Um I don't you know, a lot of people don't understand that as far as public interface goes. Your department

probably does the most at city hall. Um a lot of people come in those doors to see you. And so you and your department, um y'all are the ones dealing with the public a lot. And uh we appreciate the work that y'all do. You're always u helpful and patient. And I'm certain um there are days you should probably be less patient um with some of us when it comes to council agenda, but uh we appreciate your your organization and your efficiency um to keep us moving forward and getting things done. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Great job. Ditto.

All right. Uh we will now move into the agenda. We will start the meeting with a proclamation of the historical preservation month. Um, and then a recognition of the Decator Fire Department to recognize Pastor Ted Amy with the church at Stone River and Decatures Resident Leah Glenn for their help after an apartment complex fire. I don't think anything to comment on those right now, but um, then we'll have approval of minutes. Approve April 13th, 2026 5:00 p.m. council work session. Approve April 20th, 2026 9:30 a.m. council work session. And approve April 20th, 2026 10 a.m. council meeting. Anything on those?

Okay. Uh, we will set three public hearings. Ordinance number 264644. Approve reasonzoning request 144726 south of 4021 Saddle Horn Bin Southwest to residential single family RS5. I don't think uh planning could be here. They're they're at training. So, but this will just be to set the public hearing. One of one of the portions is now town houses. This will combine. Okay. Single. Okay. When we setting these four uh it would be the date would be is it the one in June? June. Madame city clerk keeper of all things be June 1st.

June 1st. It'll be set for June 1st. Um the next is ordinance number 264645 approve reasoning request 144826 intersection of Norris Mill and Bird Spring to residential single family RS5 and ordinance number 264646 approve reszoning request 144926 southwest of 3405 Danville Road to residential single family RS7. Anything on any of those? All right. Those last two are

okay. And again, those three public hearings will be held on June 1st. Um resolutions. Resolution number 26094, approve MUB yield reduction payment. Um this is pending a board approval. Um Ray will speak to that, but they will vote on this on May 4th, uh 2026, and then we will vote on it that evening following. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Uh, as uh, President Kyle mentioned, we we interact with the clerk, uh, quite a bit when we need items on the agenda. They're always she's always extremely accommodating and we appreciate the work that we have with her. Um, this item has to do with bond indebtedness of the utilities. Uh, as you know, all long-term debt associated with operating the utilities is in the name of the city of Decar. That's what brings us to this. Uh, we issued a tax exempt bond in 2021 uh related to water and wastewater uh upgrades. And as those proceeds earned interest in in interest bearing accounts, we earned as much interest as we were eligible to earn plus some. And so the rules of that require that we refund that to uh the bond holders through the US Treasury. So uh that's called arbitrage, but I'm going to let Mark give you the more a little more detail about that. And that gives me the opportunity to introduce you to Mark Abernathy, who's our new CFO uh as Lisa Terry uh glides towards retirement here in the next month. Uh so I'll let Mark come up and talk a little more about that. adjust this a little bit. Thank you, Ray. Uh, good evening, council mayor. Uh, yeah, as Ray uh, alluded to, we uh,

have a resolution to request approval uh, for a yield reduction payment in the amount of $600,650.93. Uh this payment represents a yield reduction uh as a result of arbitrage calculations that um to to Ray's point essentially what arbitrage is is borrowing at a lower rate investing those proceeds and earning a higher rate u than what the IRS allows. So this payment is to do two things. is uh to be in compliance with the federal uh IRS, our IRC revenue code. Um be glad to give you that code section if you would like to read it uh tonight.

Um but also in accordance with our bond documents. Um and the the other thing I would note on this is since these are non-t taxable bonds, this is a requirement, the payments required for them to stay non-T taxable. So, I'll be glad to ask answer any questions you may have um at this time. Well, first of all, welcome to DK Utilities. Um and to the city, I will say you're you're joining a highly effective team um and a and a great group at DU. We appreciate the work that they do. Um

but you know, summed up, you you maximized your earnings um and so we're going to pay a little bit of that back, but you you do have the funds for this. Correct. Correct. I think make sure people understand that completed an interim calculation in May of 2025 and acrewed based on the it's the arbitrage group is who we outsource that work to to help us with the calculations. We acrewed all that in fiscal year 2025. This amount is about 40 grand lower the payment that's actually due versus what we acrewed. So the funds have been set aside for that. Any other questions? All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Next would be resolution number 26095. Approved special use permit for Verizon Wireless to install a temporary cellular facility at 3536 Gordon Terry Parkway for the upcoming Rock South concert.

Good afternoon, President Council Mayor. David Andrews with CMS. I'm the city's consultant for wireless telecommunications. Uh this is a little different than we've ever dealt with. Uh we actually did deal with one of these sites that was used at the the Fourth of July festival over in Point Mard last year. U and what we determined at that time is we would issue a special use permit since these are going to be temporary towers. So I'll kind of tell you about what Verizon's doing. Verizon's requesting to move in a cell on wheels or what they call a cow. It's basically a cell tower on a trailer. They're going to roll it up on site there at the Rock the South Festival and they're going to raise it up. They're wanting to do that May the 29th and it'll be on site all the way to June the 26th. They won't use it for the entire time. They're only going to use it for the week or 10 days around the festival, the Rock the South Festival. So, why is this so important to the city is Verizon's network is not designed to have that many people in that area using cell phone all at one time. So, there's going to be major issues if they don't put one of these sites on on on scene. So, it's going to do two things. It's going to allow the Verizon customers to be able to use the network and any public safety that uses Verizon will be able to use this network and have preeemption just like any other site. So all of the public safety that have Verizon is going to allow them to be able to use the network as well. So this is a standalone unit. It's not going to require any other building or electrical permits because they're going to it's got a self-contained generator on the truck. I mean, it's completely self-contained. Um, so CMS has reviewed the construction drawings and review the plan and we recommend approval by the

council. In a few weeks, I'm going to come back before you with the AT&T Cal. Same exact thing, but it's going to be a little different. So, they're going to be establishing power. So, they're going to have to go through the building electrical permitting process to where this is going to be a truck. They're going to pull up. They're going to use the truck for that amount of time and drive off. Okay. So, any questions? You do anticipate Verizon AT&T, the major carriers probably trying to

We've only been contacted by two. Verizon AT&T. Uh, T-Mobile has a site in Trinity that they have service and I'm assuming that the T-Mobile engineers think that that site can hold that capacity. I'm I'm would not be confident in that. Uh, Verizon and AT&T are prepared and they're going to they're they're actually going to put a back haul system in Trinity for the Verizon tower. So, so they're going to have a redundancy built in here to where this this actually they they cover all their customers and public safety. All right. So, being on the back of a truck, it's going to be on the back of a truck. Did you say

the tower will actually be on the trailer? So, they'll have a box truck and a trailer. They'll pull it up and it has downriggers just like a like a fire truck or so it'll actually sit down on the ground and they'll raise the mast up. So the tower will only be um I'm not sure it's only like 40 40 or 50 foot tall. So it's not going to be like a 300T tower that's going to be sticking up in there. So it's they're going to raise it up. It'll sit there till they drive off with it. So yeah, that was that was going to be my question. How tall is it? And it's going to be secured. So yes, ma'am. It it is completely secured. Okay.

All right. Any other questions? Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. All right. Resolution number 2696 approve ALDOT permit for removal and replacement of turnout into Wilson Morgan Park from AL67. Bring this way down. Um this is just a standard alot agreement. uh to make sure we can remove and replace the turnout for our frontage road project. All right, any questions? All right, up next is resolution number 26097. Approve out permit for landscaping after removal of Beltline frontage road from Sandland Road to Central Parkway.

Same thing. They want an agreement for everything. So, we're touching their landscaping. So, we got to put something back. All right. So, you're basically doing two of them at once. You're doing the the turn in turn out and then the landscaping right at the same time application. How long do we anticipate that taking that? I don't know. We're talking about ALDOT. That's what I'm asking. Yeah, I don't know. I understand the the service rate is going away. Yes, I know. But it still could take 9 months for them to Never mind. Thank you. No comment on

resolution number 26098, award bid number 260003 to Hood Contracting for Money Lane Widening. Uh yeah, the bid from Larry Hood came in at $477,114. They were the lowest bidder. Okay, any questions? All right, resolution number 26099, approve traffic signal removals for the intersections of Fourth at Grant and Fourth at Johnston Southeast.

Uh this is just the cost for Temple to go in and remove the signals. Uh some of the poles have to stay due to power and street lights. Um and then we'll go through the same process close similar to sixth a we'll have to flash the lights uh bag them and then take them up and that that could take up to two months. Will we refresh those crosswalks at those intersections? We can. Thank you.

All right. Resolution number 26100 award bid number 26016 to BCA for renovations at Kerry Matthews Recreation Center. Good afternoon everybody. Um filling in for uh Jeremy Charelle this evening. Uh but this is to award uh bid number 26016 uh to BCA Contracting for the renovations of Carrie Matthews Rec Center. Uh the uh they were lowest responsible bidder at 1 million uh $866,500. No, I'm sorry. Yep. 1.866500.

Got it. Any questions? Any questions from the council? Yes, but I'll wait till later. All right. Resolution number 26101 approved budget amendment for the purchase of audio and video equipment for the council chambers. Mr. De Mester. Me council. uh at the request of the mayor. This is just a budget amendment for us to be able to fund some of the audio video um items that you see on the proposal that's attached to the resolution. Okay. Any questions?

My opinion, this is probably long overdue as is the original chairs and um carpet. So, thank you. Uh resolution number 26102 declare item surplus no longer needed by the city of Decator information services department. You going to do it? Sure. Uh this is just standard surplus. I believe it's a lot of uh outdated IT type items. Uh we're required to come to council to surplus them. So that's what this resolution will do. Old computers, monitors, printers, things like that. But these are going to be taken for recycling, not sold or correct.

Yeah. Well, and actually some of them they pay us for and some we have to pay them. So, all right. Thank you. Resolution number 26103 accept community foundation of greater Decar DeCar Animal Services Advisory Board donation to animal services for the brick memorial. Council mayor, how are y'all this evening? Good. Did you?

Pretty good. Pretty good. So, we have a pretty straightforward request um for the city to uh accept a check on behalf of the Greater Foundation, excuse me, get the name correct, the community foundation of greater Decar um that they want to donate uh to be able to do a brick memorial project on the front line of the Decatur Animal Services uh uh landscape there. So, okay. Any questions? Now, so you're going to be um selling bricks. Is that correct? That's correct. To go Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Sure. Yes. So, um right now we have a projection of about 1,300 bricks that will be available uh for the entirety of the project. Um that could fluctuate a little bit based on the design that we're doing, but that's the estimate right now. Um, and at 1300 bricks, um, you've got a cost analysis in front of you that explains that each brick is going to be $100, uh, for sale, and that's going to allow for the company to come out, pull the brick, do the inscription, and then put the brick back in place and seal it. Um, our cost per brick is about $80. So, we're not making a very big profit margin, but the point here isn't necessarily to make money, although we will make enough money to uh refund the project. will also make a little bit net profit, but the idea is to have some nice aesthetic and then give something back to the community to be able to do a memorial for a lost pet or something to that effect.

Okay, thank you. Next resolution number 26104, apply for a safe street grant. Safe street grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation. Yes, this is a safer street grant that we will apply for for from ALDOT. It is a $250,000 grant. It will require a $50,000 match. Uh I do not anticipate this being awarded before the budget uh next budget cycle. So, we will put that 50,000 in a grant match budget. So, this is just to allow us to apply and Kimberly um Horn will Kimberly Horn will do the

they're going to do the u the project. Okay. And it's basically a plan. It's a safer street plan is what it's a grant to do a safer street plan. All right. Any questions? Yeah. Can you describe um or what what it's going to safer street? I don't know what that actually means. What what would that be used for?

Help me with that, Courtney. Um they're going to look at like intersections, just problems we have with our traffic flow and stuff. Um and Kimley Horn is also working with the state on the belt line, so they'll be able to like better merge our project with their project for the traffic signals. Um I've already given them a list of all of our like projects going on in engineering so they're aware of what we're changing. Um they're looking at the rest of it. And what this will allow us to do is once we get this then we could go out and get we could apply for grants when they're identified as as pro as yes problem. This just identifies the problems it doesn't fix anything and then we apply.

It just identifies those problem intersections and then we can come back and apply for the grants for those. And in a lot of grants, it will not allow you to apply for those until you have a plan. So that this is where those you that you've identified those. It doesn't just identify the problem, it gives you the solution for it as well. Right. The engineers. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Thank you, Cory.

Thank you. Resolution number 26105 accept Alabama Department of Conservation grant for Highway 67 bike trail from Country Club Road to Wheeler Wildlife Refuge Welcome Center. About a couple of months ago, y'all approved the agreement with the Department of Conservation for a million dollars. Um, this will replace that agreement. It's 1.5 now. Senator or got us an additional 500 for this project. Um, we are we still do not have a cost estimate uh from Purite Menali. They're working on that. I've talked to to them just last week and they're working because I think everybody wants a, you know, a real good number. So, they're, you know, they're going to make sure that that what they give us is, you know, just not an estimate. It's it'll be uh a really good number we're thinking and I've got all the confidence in the world in PU right that they'll do that. Um this is not a match grant. It's just the 1.5 million. But anything over whatever that project cost would be the responsibility of the city. But we they still feel confident in that original number that they give us back a few months back. Um, they've got all their reports back from Fish and Wildlife. So, I mean, they've got all of those, they've got everything together. Now, they just got to get the numbers.

Okay. And if y'all recall last time when we y'all voted on this, we wanted to wait until we got numbers from Hugh Wright before I actually signed the agreement and sent it in. So, do you all want to stay with that or or that's something we need to talk about whether we want to continue that away or sign it and send it on in? And as soon as I sign it, send it. They're going to send it back. Yeah. Yeah. They as soon as we get this agreement to them, they're going to send that initial payment. But I do think that this is just an, you know, what our u what we were thinking that our commitment was going to be will be reduced by this 500,000. Mhm. So I feel much better about the project.

I don't see any need in waiting. Um yeah, especially with another 500 on top. Yeah. So that's just me. And for some reason I thought we discussed we weren't even sure that withholding the signature would really change anything. The only thing that again really the only thing that it's us to getting the grant funding not funding the portion of it. Yes. And really the only thing that it would potentially that they're going to send us that original they're as soon as we sign this they're going to go ahead and send us the 500,000. Correct.

And if we didn't do the project we would just have to refund that to the state. But I don't think that's I I do not believe that that in my estimation and from talking with them I don't believe it's going to be an issue. I think this is a great project. I think we'll all be be pleased with it. So, and it will go and you know it'll be able to connect with the other that and I always say it wrong. Sleuth DL Dmore Sleuth. Um and we've got word back from um a DECA that I think we're we're going to get approved for that. So, so this will just connect to that one on the other end of the trail. Great. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions?

Thank you, Alan. All right. Resolution number 26106 approve Wilson Morgan Rec Center OCO number eight. This is change order number eight for the rec center uh which is the prequel to nine that we passed last time. Um this gives us a $8,720 credit. Uh there's a few different items on there. Any questions about anything on there? This is money back to us on this on this weekend. 720.

Great. Yep. All right. Any any questions? Thank you. Resolution number 26107, approve proposal with DC Strategy Group LLC. Um, this is a we're currently uh in an agreement with Mayor Nexon. Um, our lobbyist is Dane Coutrol. He is leaving Mayor Nexon um to go with his own firm DC Strategy Group. And so that's what this would do um would be to enter into an agreement with him. I think I think Dane's been a great asset. Um I know the mayor's got to work a lot with him already um and many of us up here. So we're very very pleased with what he does the commitment from the city.

Yeah, it's it's it's essentially the agreement is almost well really is identical. Different different name change. Um, so all right, any questions on that one? Resolution number 26108, approve purchase of Civic Plus software for city clerk's office.

Man, there are years you go without coming up. Years. Hey, I got to tell you this. Everybody else, I tell them to hold it to 5 minutes. Her presentation, I told her she had to stretch it to five. Stretch it to five minutes. She did. I I was watching right on five. Yeah. With a little conversation in between. Did Did a good job there. So, did I do what I was supposed to do by padding it so you can talk long?

Excellent. Excellent job. Uh yes, right now we currently have our current uh agenda software and then we also have boards with it and we also have another software that handles um the information request online and this would be going moving from what we currently have to civic plus. It would be all under one umbrella under one company. It gives more functionality. It gives um I'm going to say ease of use not only for the departments but also for uh anybody reviewing the agenda items or um filling out a request form through their uh next request system for records. Um and with this they were in agreement uh when I spoke with them and we went through everything that if approved they would hold off payment until October. So from now to October there would no pay no cost to the city and then the full amount would be due in October which would also include the implementation of the items. Um the total being $34,538 and with that um it would be around 75 let's see it's 7250 is the total on the implementation that's for the agenda the next request system the historical import which will be up to 500 meetings as well as board implementation. What do we pay now?

Currently, we pay right now uh for all of it $39,24 as well. So, uh with this, we will be saving some money as well. This is a very they made a presentation very impressive interaction. I think the general popped up with Joe also gathering information

and in addition it also will connect to mini code which is lists our our codes that people like to go and read. Uh so if you type in whatever you type in in the system looking for an item for an agenda it will also populate from the community code section. Good. I always like seeing these upgrades. um made to make things easier. We've had a lot that have come through. Um so, okay. Any any other questions? Okay. All right. Ordinance number 264643. Approve annual advalorum tax levy for FY27. No new tax.

No new taxes. Um we are just required to approve this annually. Um board's committees appoint Kelly Terry to the animal services board with term expiring October 31st, 2030. Uh there was one position on board still open and worked. Okay. All right. Any questions? All right. That is it for the agenda. Do we have anything else directors

for next week about Brad? All right. I guess what he's saying our is director Brad Phillips is retiring end of the month is his last day with us. Okay. Brad's been around for a long time. So well deserved. Many many years been around. All right. Anything from the council mayor? No. All right. Thank you all. I couldn't even come up.