City Council - Regular Meeting

It's four times louder to the human ear. So we've got that potential situation going on as well. So really, there's already a couple statutes in Elko City Code that could address this. I'm not going to go into the statute numbers. You guys all have them in the handout. Really, my request is to respectfully ask the council to act on the concern. through one or both of the following. Either administrative controls, additional enforcement by the police department, particularly during the evening hours at this particular four-way stop, or engineering controls, which could be speed bumps, raised crosswalks, driver feedback signs, et cetera, something to discourage the sustained full throttle acceleration through that Mountain View Elementary School Zone. I do have a video, and this is just one typical example. I don't know if it's ready to fire up. So what you're going to see is a truck that's approaching the intersection there at Argent. It doesn't come to a complete stop. So, you know, as I said, you know, full throttle acceleration by a truck, particularly modified, you know, that's the speed, you know, as it kind of crests, you know, past the south parking lot at Mountain View could be 50, 60 miles an hour. So this is just one of the many videos I have. I did get a call from the lieutenant this morning. And he assured me that he's going to be requesting additional monies for a traffic enforcement unit. And I just fully support that effort to get our traffic under control in Elko. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Real quick, Steve. I mean, I did talk to the chief a little bit about this, and he says that they are getting on, like you just mentioned. But one thing we do, you know, we thank you for this because, I mean, it's something we don't see. It's out of sight, out of mind to us. But I do also say, you know, if you can, if you do have an event, Call the dispatch for them, and that will help them out too.

Yeah, I have called dispatch a few times, and there just hasn't been a resolution. So this is one method, but I now have a better contact to the lieutenant, which I will use. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. All right.

Do we have any other public comment? Remember, please try to keep it under five, okay? Thank you very much. I want to keep it quick. Of course.

Hello, my name is Erica. So I live on 641 Ash Street, so right around the corner from the city cemetery. And I noticed that there's tons of decorations there which are beautiful that people have left their families. But there might have been an oversight. Every votive is in standing water. And when you lift the flowers out of the water, it hits you in the face like pond water and infectious. So it's a serious cause for concern if you drive by the cemetery. Every flower arrangement that you see is literally standing in stagnant pond water. And it can be vectors for different mosquitoes as well as different algae booms. And I think it was just an oversight. I certainly never would have expected that either, but when you walk through. So I'm just recommending a cleanup of the flowers there. So not only that, because it would kill the grass, and we don't want any rot or standing gross water on top of graves. That would not be good. And there was one other thing that I noticed was that the new tombstones have holes that are drilled into there specifically for placing LED lights and for flowers on top of it. And with the sprinklers, because we don't really get much rain here, but with the sprinklers, it accumulates standing water in the tombstones, like in the tombstone of the grave. And it smells really bad. And that's where different things like, you know, we hear the chikungunya coming up from South America. Those are the breeding grounds in which pathogenic parasites, I guess, flying parasites, I don't know what you would call them. So I'm just trying to do my assistant's duty here. But it's very concerning. So I would just recommend, I just want to bring that forth, that the new tombstones with drilled in holes accumulate this water that can be very pathogenic. for the grave, as well as for the neighboring environment, the high schools right there, and the neighborhood. And I would just recommend against any of the decorations, because not only that, but it kills the grass. And yeah, so it creates a breeding ground for this stagnant fresh water. Thank you.

We do thank you.

Do we have any other comments? The next item. All right, we're gonna next have the consent agenda. We do have two items on there. Any comments from the public on that consent agenda? Do we have a motion or do we have any changes or anything from the board?

Mayor, for Tim, I move to accept the consent agenda as written. Second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well.

While you're on that, I just want to say thank you to Stephen Beck and Mr. Irish for continuing to serve. Absolutely. They worked really hard and appreciate what they did. We do appreciate that. Thank you.

All right, well, we have a little presentation here.

All right, Chief, if you'd like to join, please. Thanks for planning this for us.

All right, what we have here is we've got a recognition of the fire chief, James Johnson, for graduating.

Hi, this is US Senator Catherine.

Hold on, OK. Graduated from the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program and matters related thereto. Information only. Alright, Fire Chief Johnston recently graduated from the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officers Program. in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the flagship program for the U.S. Fire Administration for executive level fire and emergency medical service leaders. The program is designed to strengthen leadership, support strategic problem solving, help senior officers develop policy solutions, and improve community safety and resilience. The recognition acknowledges the policy, recognizes Chief Johnson's professional achievement and continued commitment to leadership in the fire service. Now, what we have here, I got a little more information, a little more background on it. And the executive fire officer program is considered the premier executive leadership program in America. And the EFO designation is one of the most respected professional credentials in the fire service. EFL program is structured to empower executive officers to develop, maintain, and expand the following proficiencies throughout the career. Demonstrate social responsibility within self, organization, and community. enhance personal and organizational ethics integrity accountability and performance to secure public trust unless there's other ones here but i don't think you really want me to get into all of those i'm sure you probably appreciate it but the thing that really stands out the most on this for me is that this program was established in 1985 okay 40 years of existence there's 4825 graduates We have 62 in Nevada. We have one of them, which is huge, in Elko, which to me stands out out of all of these stats and everything like that. It's a huge commitment for this. It spans two to four years. That includes two-week trainings, three one-week trainings, and each person must complete a capstone independent research project. The students must complete and present for themselves. So, Chief, I do thank you and commend you. And we do have a short little video message from Senator Cortez Mastro. Hi, this is U.S.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. I am thrilled to congratulate Chief James Johnson on his incredible accomplishment of graduating from the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program. This is a feat not many Nevadans have achieved, and Chief Johnson is making us all proud. Beyond his service protecting Elko from wildfires, Chief Johnston is a fourth generation Nevada, a long-time leader in the community. He is the epitome of battle for war. He's truly an inspiration to all of us. And I have no doubt that he will continue to serve with honor and dignity as an executive fire officer. And now that the hard work is over, it's time to celebrate. Congratulations once again, Chief Johnston. You've earned it.

Thank you very much, and Chief, we are very lucky to have you for the citizens, for the city, and your staff is very lucky to have you. I do congratulate you. Thank you.

Thank you. I obviously couldn't do it without permission and the ability to go. So thank you so much for the time to make it all happen and for my family who allowed me to travel 16,000 miles over the course of a two and a half year period and a couple of shutdowns. But it was an amazing experience. It was really cool to meet people from not just all over the United States. chief officers from UAE and other countries. It was a really cool experience. And hopefully, there'll be another entry in a couple of years. And we'll have Joel in there, too. So thank you. Thank you.

Congratulations.

All right. Let me get organized again. I apologize.

All right.

On to the next item. We've got item B, update on the proposed rail project by Nevada Gold Mines and matters related thereto. Information only. Non-action item, Jen. Or who do we have?

Sorry about that. So we have Matt Miller here to present. Oh. Okay, I'm going to introduce Matt Miller because I know him. And he's the one that requested to be on the agenda about their new rail project from, I think, Cortez to the Carlin property. So anyway, there's Matt.

Thank you, everybody. We'd like to provide, like Jan said, a brief update for you. I have with me Luke. He's with our permitting team. He's the subject matter expert for the project, and he will be providing the update.

Good afternoon. My name is Luke Barrett, and I'm permitting specialist with Nevada Gold Mines working on the rail project. So we have just a couple of slides here about it. So if you want to jump to the next one. Just a quick overview of Nevada Gold's operations. NGM is a joint venture between Newmont and Barrick and primarily consists of 12 large properties across northeastern and central Nevada. Next one, please. With the formation of the joint venture, it has given NGM a lot of flexibility in choosing where and how to best process the ore that's mined to suit that chemistry. So a lot of the ore that is currently mined in the Cortez area is either double or single refractory, and therefore is best processed in autoclave or a roaster. Those facilities are currently not present at Cortez, but are at NGM, both at the Gold Strike and Gold Quarry mines. For that reason, we started doing a significant amount of over-the-road trucking, and we're using those trucks that you see in the bottom right of the screen there to haul that ore from Cortez up to the Carlin processing facilities. Next one. Basically, since we've started doing that over-the-road trucking and even at Barrick prior to the JV, there's been evaluations on both better and safer ways to move that material. We've considered numerous options, including private haul roads, hybrid options of hauling over the road to like the Biowawi area, and then doing a private haul road to Carlin from there, and multiple iterations of that, as well as a rail line. Following the conclusion of those studies, it was determined that rail is both the most economical from a business standpoint, as well as the safest from the safety standpoint. So with that, we've started permitting the rail project. You could see there on the map that effectively will consist of two segments, and you see there in green. One segment would start at the Cortez mine down in the south. and continue north near Bialawi and tie into the UP main line just a little bit east of Bialawi. There would be a short jump on the UP main line up to the TS power plant and then the rail line would continue north from the TS power plant up Boulder Valley to the Gold Strike roaster. Both segments together are about 55 miles, depending on which alternate alignment would ultimately get selected or authorized by the Surface Transportation Board. We anticipate an alignment width of around 50 to 100 feet. And we anticipate one train per day. So it would be a single loaded haul starting at Cortez, going up to Gold Strike, and then more or less an empty haul coming back to Cortez. And that single train round trip per day would replace all 480 over-the-road truck trips that are currently occurring to move that oar. Some of the ancillary benefits of that is, one, reduced carbon emissions. 480 round trips is a lot of diesel that's consumed, and that would be a significant environmental benefit there, as well as just noise, congestion on the highway, and then nuisance complaints like chip windshields and slow-moving trucks on I-80. just one thing to note is at the very bottom there the proposed new rail line is proposed to be a common carrier rail and that acts similar to a public utility the rail is there for public use and benefit anyone would have a legal right to tie into it if they so wanted to and the reason that ngm needs it to be a common carrier rail is to facilitate that jump on the up main line We're choosing to do this disjunct option to avoid the environmental impacts of having to bridge or tunnel under both I-80 and the Humboldt River, being that the UP rail line already bridges both of those features. So for us to make that jump between Biolaoui and the TS power plant, we need to be a common carrier rail line. And so that's why we're proceeding with common carrier rail. Next one, please. So with that, we have started the permitting process. Because it's common carrier, the lead agency is the Service Transportation Board, Office of Environmental Analysis. The BLM, in this case, will be a cooperating agency, and it's our goal to have the NEPA analysis to be sufficient for both the STB to authorize the project, as well as the BLM to then tear off of that NEPA analysis to provide the right-of-way for the rail line. There's currently multiple rail lines that we have proposed. They're all more or less or similar Cortez to Biolaoui, Biolaoui, or sorry, TS Power Plant North Boulder Valley. But ultimately, the Surface Transportation Board will select which alignment, if any, gets authorized for the project. Just a little bit on the schedule. The NEPA for the Surface Transportation Board is a little bit longer than BLM NEPA. We anticipate this to be an environmental impact statement. And as such, that will be a two-year process from the NOI. We anticipate that NOI or notice of intent to kick off the project hopefully later this fall into early winter. And with that NOI will be a scoping period. And so there will be an opportunity for interested individuals or agencies to comment on the project with that NOI. That said, two years after that, the Search Transportation Board would have the ability to either authorize a project or authorize a no-action alternative, and that would basically wrap up the permitting phase. Are there any questions or comments on it? Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.

I was going to say, you said that you guys have started the whole process and that once you get your NOI, it's still two years. So from today, what is your intended date? Thank you very much.

Yeah, no, thank you very much. So right now we're in the pre-NEPA phase, and basically the Surf Transportation Board is reviewing our baseline information and seeing if we're ready to have that NOI issued. So from now to the NOI issuance, it's really up to the STB to review our data and say, are you ready? So we can't provide a solid timeframe because it's ultimately their decision. But once that NOI gets issued and that scoping period starts, that's what really kicks off that two-year clock.

Thank you.

What a great forward-thinking situation. I mean, thank you. That's going to be much more efficient and safer and save all kinds of emissions and everything else. Absolutely.

We definitely think it's both a smart business as well as a safer option for the communities. Thank you. Matt mentioned that I overlooked the construction. If we do get authorized for the project, we anticipate the construction to be about two years as well. So in the most optimistic scenario, it would probably be about four to five years before an operating rail line would be in place. Anything else?

I'll be honest with you. That surprised me. This hasn't been... started earlier i mean a long time ago i thought that was something a long time ago when they originally started with nevada gold mines doing taking over everything i thought i thought you guys would probably do this a lot sooner the the analysis has been long time um you know the baseline for this occurred in 2021 and 2022 um but oh yeah ultimately it's a large business decision and a lot of absolutely well it's a great decision in my eye so thank you very much thank you appreciate your time all right All right, brief presentation and possible acceptance of a renewal proposal from the Nevada Public Agency Insurance Pool. and approved for payments from fiscal year 2026 to 2027 funds in the amount of $977,602.82 and matters related thereto for possible action. As a member of the insurance pool, the City of Elko owns a share of equity in the forms based on the financial strength. The agenda packet includes an overview of coverage offered for the 2026-27 fiscal year. The City of Elko's total program costs for fiscal year 2026-2027 is $977,602.82, which represents a 4.56% decrease over the current year.

Thank you. So we have Dane Neriardi with LP Insurance, who's our broker. And then we also have Steve Romero with Pool Pact here. And he's the one that just handed you the coins. And so go ahead, Dane, if you want to present the renewal.

Thank you, Jan. Dan Uriard, ELP Insurance, 555 5th Street. So as was mentioned, there was a pretty decent insurance decrease this year. Steven will give a bit of a presentation on how the pool accomplishes that. As you've probably seen in your personal or business insurance, that's not necessarily the landscape we're working with right now. But as I say, that's the power of the pool. There was also, I'll let Steven talk about that piece. We were able to have a lower insurance cost while keeping the same deductible, which is huge. Some of the other local entities we've, to help mitigate, we've been taking on a lot more risk. So to be able to stay flush where we were, that's a good thing. And then I don't have the printout, but I do feel like the city has been doing a better job every year at utilizing the pool, as they are more than just insurance. They have risk services, trainings, HR help. It's a good resource if you use it, and then it helps make everybody safer, and it's a built-in cost benefit to the city as well. So with that, I will pass it over to Stephen, who is the broker for the pool.

For the record, I'm Steven Romero with Pool Pact. Do you need my address as well?

OK.

I wasn't sure on that. I hadn't heard that one. But hey, I handed you all out a coin. And these coins actually came from, in November, we ended up having a strategic planning meeting. And with that strategic planning meeting, there were some things that came out of that meeting. And if you look on the edge of the coin, the edge of the coin actually has Proactive, accountability, responsibility, strength, stability, service, and safety. There are seven words. And what we, as you know, these are called challenge coins, but we actually call it an opportunity coin. We give you the opportunity to take one of those words every single day and strive for it. You have, and I actually gave Chief one of these coins because he did that. He did that just recently. Fantastic job. That's incredible. Amazing that we have one person in Elko that is on that list of, what was it, 84 you said? 83. 83. Got it. 60. Sorry, I didn't write that down. So again, we pulled that out of our strategic planning meeting. We actually gave those out also at our annual board meeting to all of the voting board members that were there. And we had the same exact conversation, which is, here's your opportunity. You actually strive to meet all of these for your community just sitting on this council. And we congratulate you for that. So thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for being part. And again, take the coin. It represents the pool on one side, which is 39 years old, and PACT, which is the workers' compensation part, which we just turned 30 in PACT. So longstanding on both pools. At that strategic planning meeting, some of the things we also spoke about was, what are we going to look like down the road? And it isn't just five years. It isn't just 10 years. Let's go for another 30. Let's go for another 39. This is going to go way past my job. So with that, we ended up making some changes within the program itself. And as Dane talked about, you ended up seeing a decrease this year. I go out to market every single year for your reinsurance. I am the broker for the pool. And I go meet with the markets. We go over to London. And in London, I know it sounds like all fun and games, but it's actually in two and a half days, we have 16 meetings that we go to. In those meetings, we meet with syndicates. We meet with underwriters. We sell ourselves. What do we do best? public entity in the state of Nevada. We're strong at that. In those conversations, we talked about we've always had a $300 million limit per loss. We talked about what would it cost to increase that to a $500 million. So for the first $300 million, it was costing us right around $5.5 million. We were able to add an additional $200 million on top of that for $150,000. So we ended up doing that. Right after that, I go to conferences and I talk with our liability carriers. I also met with our equipment breakdown carrier. Our equipment breakdown carrier, we've had 100,000, or excuse me, 100 million in coverage with them as well. I spoke with them, what would it cost or what can we do maybe to go to 150? We were able to do that at no cost to the members. So we ended up boosting that by another $50 million. We made some changes within the liability program. Overall, when it was said and done, and why you ended up seeing that decrease was we were able to take the reinsurance part, the reinsurance costs, and year over year save almost 17% year over year. So I'll leave it for questions.

Personally, I'm just excited that we got a deduction compared to the last couple of years. Two years in a row, we were kind of shocked, I guess, is the way I would put it for me. But it's just nice to see that we do have some deductions.

Yeah, and that definitely is... Some of the things that, you know, the property market in those last few years has just been crazy. Right now there's a lot of capacity out there, which means that the price has come down. So we were able to save a substantial amount of money on our property program. We took almost $9 billion worth of property to London with us this year. So that's, when you talk about the power of the pool, that's the power of the pool. When you take that much risk and they're able to spread it over the entire state of Nevada, we're able to negotiate better.

Any questions, anybody? I really didn't expect a decrease, but that's nice.

It is nice. All right. I did give Dane also a coin to give to the mayor.

Perfect. All right, do we have any public comments? Any comments by the board?

We have a motion. I move to approve the renewal proposal for Nevada Public Agency Insurance Pool and approve the payment of fiscal year 2026-27 funds in the amount of $977,602.82.

Where did the 82 cents come in?

Right out of my pocket. Some parts of our program are surplus lines, so we have to pay the surplus lines taxes and fees.

I'm just curious. It just seemed like an odd number. I'll second. A motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you, and thank you, Elko, for being a part of the pool and act. We appreciate your support.

Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you very much.

All right, on to appropriations. Review and possible approval or ratification of warrants, hand-cut checks, and matters related to or possible action. Do we have regular warrants in the amount of $1,173,473.12? So moved. I'll move a second. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. I vote aye as well. Negative. Okay. Motion passes. Then hand-cut checks for $198,770.40. So moved. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well.

All right, we got item B.

Consideration review and possible alteration for staff to rebid for the FAA Airport Improvement Project number 3-32-005-064-2026 API 64 rehab terminal sidewalks and matters related thereto for possible action. On June 9, 2026, City Council did not accept a bid for this project. Staff is now asking to re-bid at a future time. The project focuses on rehabilitation of the existing landscape sidewalks and miscellaneous site features surrounding the terminal buildings to restore functionality, maintain the terminal's aesthetics, and improve long-term serviceability. Landside Pedestrian Facilities. The project will rehabilitate the landside terminal area of pedestrian facilities by removing and reconstructing approximately 1,150 square yards of existing sidewalk pavement, including curb and gutter, and by replacing the existing drainage structure in kind as needed. Subgrade disturbance is expected to be limited. It is expected that there will be features that will not be covered by federal funds. A total of two schedules will be included as schedule one or schedule one federal and schedule two non-federal.

Thank you. I know that was long and I probably could have shortened it up since it was just last meeting that we didn't accept that bid. But yeah, we're just looking at a future date just to kind of get this off the table to rebid this. We don't really have... A date in mind probably sometime in the fall to winter to get it back out on the street Hopefully the FAA will have some additional funding available. We're able to work it out Where we where we didn't lose that that idea funding that we talked about or we were going to give up about 416 thousand dollars and give it back to the FAA. We're able to work with the FAA Keep that money and not lose any additional funding and add to our overall amount of money that we have to spend. So it worked out really well. We were able to allocate everything for those other two projects. So this is just, we're just getting this out on the table so we can go to read it at a future date.

Thank you very much. Any comments by the board? Do we have any public comments on this? Okay. Do we have a motion?

Mayor Pro Tem authorized staff to re-bid for FAA Airport Improvement Project 3-32-0005-064 2006 AIP 64 Rehab Terminal Sidewalks. I'll second that.

All right, got a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right, unfinished business. We've got review consideration of possible approval of a revocable permit number 1-26 filed by Paul Stemak, owner of Cowboy Joe Roasting Company, on behalf of Iva Christensen, trustee of the Pamela... Caldwell Family Trust to occupy .206 acres of the 12th Street and River Street right-of-way, adjacent to 1246 River Street, referred to as APN 001-630-010, to accommodate landscaping and assign matters related thereto for possible action. The applicant has submitted multiple applications to the City of Elko related to the proposed development of a drive-through coffee business on the subject parcel. The landscaping proposal within the public right-of-way is intended to enhance the appearance of the property and is not being credited towards landscaping requirements.

of the landscape light industrial li zoning district kathy mr mayor pro tem members of the council thank you you have included in your agenda packet a copy of the license agreement to occupy the right-of-way this would be for the 12th street and river street as it does going to a little bit of the river street right-of-way as well The license agreement will be with the property owner, although Mr. Stimac was the applicant of the revocable permit, the license agreement will be with the property owner. and that would be the Pamela Caldwell Family Trust. This is to be very similar, if you recall, several years ago we did a revocable permit to occupy the right of way on the other side of 12th Street and River, on the other intersection, for landscaping and a sign. So this would be very similar to that, and staff does recommend approval of that, and I'm here for any questions if you have any.

I like this little project they've got up there.

And there's no timeline listed in there. So once they enter into this license agreement, it continues until ever revoked, if it ever is revoked. But they can install their sign today and do landscaping. whenever, or vice versa, however they want to do it.

Most businesses, I know they like the signage. That's important to them. Do we have any comments by the board?

No comments. OK. Makes sense.

Do we have any comments by the public? Now showing none, do we have a motion?

Mayor Crotev, I move to approve revocable permit number 1-26, subject to the execution of a standard license agreement between the property owner and the City of Elko.

I'll second that.

All right, we've got a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? I vote aye as well. Item B, review consideration and possible action on a request by Paul Stimac, owner of Cowboy Joe's Roasting Company, that the City of Elko waive the requirements for installation of curb, gutter, and sidewalk related to the property development located at 1246 River Street and identified as APN 001-630-010 and that is related thereto. for possible action. The property in question consists of two street frontages, River Street and 12th Street. The waiver request for Mr. Stimac is for curb, gutter, and sidewalk improvements along 12th Street frontage of the property.

Kathy.

I'm Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, Mayor of the Council. The Elko City Code Section 821.3 has two different ways in which an application can be applied for to waive curb, gutter, and sidewalk. The Section C is when the property owner applies for that waiver for the curb, gutter, and sidewalk. And the code currently reads that it shall be based on evidence that it is impractical to install curb, gutter, and sidewalk because of circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the applicant. So I have included in my memo to you some photos showing that there's really not a lot of topography concerns to the area. There have been pedestrian as well as vehicular traffic that has gone through the area as Western States Propane has put some barriers along their property line and along this pathway. to block any vehicular traffic going down this area, but there are pedestrians that do walk this connectivity between River Street and Water Street quite often. The hardship that the applicant has stated in the application is that it's a sidewalk that would go to nowhere. And that is true at this point. It would be a sidewalk along that frontage. You have to consider, although the 12th Street right of way is a bridge that is elevated and there's sidewalk on the other side, on the west side of that bridge, you have to consider this parcel is a corner lot. And any of our corner lots, when we develop a corner lot, they are required curb, gutter, and sidewalk on both sides of our property, on both frontages. We are recommending that the curb and gutter waiver be approved. because there is no necessity on having curb and gutter along that 12th Street right of way because there is no adjacent vehicular traffic, nor is there any requirement for a gutter to control storm drainage or any of that nature. So the sidewalk is really of the question here. Is it impractical to install? And we're talking about the installation of it, not is it impractical to even have. We're talking about the installation of this sidewalk. So that is the finding that we have to have is, is it or is it not impractical to install? The hardship that was listed in the application that it is a sidewalk that goes to nowhere, that is true at this point. But the adjacent property at Western States Propane could do an expansion of 400 square feet. They could sell the property, have sit vacant for 12 months, have a change of use. A variety of things could happen with that property. We can determine that. but if any of those happened then they would also be required to install this sidewalk. The sidewalk would be a connectivity between River Street and Water Street, which we don't currently have. There is a sidewalk on the other side as it goes over the bridge, but there is no connectivity along this frontage. So looking at this as a corner lot, That is one of our requirements in our code is that both frontages must have the curb gutter and sidewalk. Staff is recommending that we do waive the curb and gutter as it is determined that that is not necessary. But we do believe that in this instance, the applicant has not been able to show any unique feature to the property that would prohibit sidewalk from being installed. So sidewalk staff is recommending that the installation of sidewalk. be done with this development.

Can I throw a couple of things in? Absolutely. I remember when this code was changed. And the concept was that a lot of private property Private property owners generally did not want to put in these types of improvements. They cost money. But the city's policy at the time was to create connectivity, sidewalk curb and gutter connectivity, as properties developed throughout the city and to place the cost on developers so that it happened kind of in a piecemeal fashion, but eventually it would happen. The code was rewritten in 2019 so that there would be very limited circumstances when a property owner would be entitled to a waiver. That if the property owner wanted a waiver based on just it not making sense to have that improvement at that location, that it wouldn't come from the property owner, it would come from the development department. It was designed to give sort of that planning control to the city rather than to private property owners. I'll note that if the council is going to waive the requirement because the waiver request in this case came from a property owner, not the development department, That it needs to be based on evidence that is it is impractical as Kathy pointed out to install curb gutter and sidewalk or any of those any of those three things and The the council can break some of those out do a waiver for some and not for the others that is permissible but it's the installation itself that has to be impractical not whether it makes sense and

Thank you, Dave. Do we have anybody here for the developer? Come on up, sir.

Paul, STEM Act 875, 2nd Street. Do you have those photos? So what they said just changes everything I was going to say. I have some other photos I sent in. So if it's just a matter of can a sidewalk be put in, then yeah, it could be put in. It doesn't seem to make sense. So we'll just move on because this is across the street. They weren't required to do it. Keep going. This is what we're trying to improve and get that to look clean and nice like the other side. But if that's the case, then can we keep going? There's two other recent constructions where they weren't required to do this. And it was after 2019. And it was just as practical. So that's Eric Hart and Bullion. That's the sports center. And that is the Chipotle Red Wing. They don't require you to do it either. And on the opposite side, that's the sidewalk. That was empty for about five years. And when did they remodel it? A couple of years ago. So those two places were given an exception. And it seems like not. There's no code that can cover every situation. It seems like this would be a situation where it doesn't make sense. Yeah, can you build it? Sure. We can put a person on the moon. Sure. Is it practical? Does it make sense? Absolutely not. I spoke with the people at the propane place, and they said that they won't expand unless they can buy the lot we're trying to build this on. So it is going to go to nowhere. It's a sidewalk to nowhere. It's in a place where I think it would be a good idea to discourage traffic. It's a safety issue. The people that are going down there have to cross 12th Street without a crosswalk. And it's going to put them right in the way of the traffic that's coming in and out. We were denied the parking because of the potential danger. Well, we're putting pedestrians right in line of cars coming in every morning and in the evening. So again, every code does not cover every situation. And that's why we have to have these meetings. And I think this would be a good example of why there needs to be an exception.

Thank you very much. Any other public comments? Anybody have anything to add over there? Dave or anybody? Any board comments? I'll start this off too. To me, I think How do I want to put this? I've driven by this property every day for the last 30 years working at Western Nevada. That's how I come out, come out the back gate. Maybe not 30 years, but I've been by that a ton. I love to see this thing develop personally. To me, what Kathy's saying is it's black and white for us. Truly, it is. But is there anything we can do? Like what Dave was making the comment about, that they have more freedom than we do. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, that if the applicant applies for this versus it comes to us from the planning board or the planning development department yes yes the planning department we have a little more freedom with this

Absolutely. If the request for the waiver comes from the development department, I'll just read the third basis for a waiver into the record. Any other unique circumstances deemed by the city development department to be appropriate grounds for waiving any or all of the foregoing requirements relative to the installation of curb, gutter, and sidewalk? Any of the requirements, all of them or a few of them?

Okay, thank you. Pretty broad. Yeah. Considering that, I mean, just thinking with that, I mean, we've got a, with our city, and we all got to admit it, we all got a stigma with us that's no, no, no, no. This is an opportunity for us to make a change on that. To me. And so if we can make this work by working with planning and the developer, get something done and fixed, I would love to see something like that personally.

The way it's agenda tonight you could You can't really do that because the request for the waiver didn't come from the development department.

Yes, but go to the future meeting So the recommendation we We could probably make a motion of some sort By doing saying like okay, we approve the curb and gutter agree to that but deny the waiver on the sidewalk, all right, but get with staff to come up with a solution? Yes.

Is it, and maybe I'm missing something, but is it impractical to install the curb and gutter at this location? I kind of, well, I don't know. Because that's the way it reads.

Yeah. I'm just trying to think how to word this right. I'm just somebody I want to try and make this work. I think that development down there would be absolutely wonderful coming off of 12th Street. And I just want to see, I want to try and continue to get this thing to work.

Yeah, and really the thing that is preventing us from doing more is the fact that the request for the waiver came from the property owner. Really, that's it.

So if we deny that, tell him, come back with another request, but let the planning.

If the request came from the development department.

Development board, come to it with us.

Yeah, work with the development department to tailor the waiver if there's going to be one.

Is that acceptable with you?

It just seems like if you can waive the curb and gutter and not the sidewalk, why can't you just waive all three? And I'll, can we horse trade? I'll trade you the sidewalk for the curb, right?

I wish we could do that. I mean, to me, this is what, because you came with us, with us, we're a little tied.

But we were able to waive the curb and gutter, right?

I don't think we have yet.

Oh, yeah, nobody's made a motion. Right, right. According, well, yes, but there's the Stafford suggestion.

Yeah, but no action has been taken on that, yeah.

And so... And staff's recommendation on the waiver, to approve the waiver on curb and gutter, is because it is impractical to install that Because there is no adjacent roadway. There is no storm drainage control methods. So we have findings to support that. There you go. For the curb and gutter.

But it is way more.

Based on what Kathy just said, it is.

It just knows two, not the other one?

Well, is it impractical to install a sidewalk at that location? And I'm hearing that it's not.

Where can we trade? Really? Do we have any comments over here?

Just to address the one question and the comment in regards to Express Car Wash is the frontage of Express Car Wash when they built that is 12th Street as well, but there is sidewalk along the 12th Street bridge on that side of the 12th Street right-of-way. So that's why they were not required to install sidewalk at the lower level.

Just a question. So how did the sports complex...

get around it and how did Chipotle's get around it? Chipotle's is in an end out right away in the sports complex. There's no sidewalk on the west side of the bridge. There's only sidewalk on the east side of the bridge crossing the bridge.

But that's the same thing.

So it would be impractical to build a sidewalk that went nowhere into a lane of travel.

The sports complex is exactly the same situation. The sidewalk is on the opposite side of the road, and they weren't required to do it.

It would go nowhere. There's no sidewalk on the west side of the bridge going over the bridge. So if we put a sidewalk there, it would go nowhere but into a lane of travel.

Mine's going to go nowhere also. So I'm not talking about, yeah, I'm just talking about the sidewalk around their parking lot off the embankment. Right? That's the exact same situation.

And that situation, it was not connecting street to street, such as this one is a connection of a street to a street. That is considered a corner lot.

I'm just trying to think how to word this thing. Anybody got any comments here?

From the council at all? It's about the only way is what Dave was saying is we can't exchange and trade horse trade. That ain't going to work. But the only way we can do it is to have it brought back with planning. Development. Development.

Development. I keep saying planning.

Sorry.

I said it three times now, I think. That's probably the best way if you want to try to get that changed is to bring it back with development and we'll just table it and redress it that way. I can't see any other way other than doing it the way it's recommended at this point. Be consistent.

I think you could take action on the curb and gutter.

We can approve that waiver. Approve the waiver. Like your suggestion was to approve the waiver on curb and gutter.

And then take no action on the sidewalk.

Yes.

And then we can look at that.

And we can have that. You could deny it based on the fact that, on a finding that it is, you know, the impracticality component hasn't been established. But, you know, if the development department comes back, it's not limited by that. You can make a finding that, just like I think the motion says, recommend denial of the waiver for the installation of sidewalk along the 12th Street frontage based on the fact that it has not been demonstrated that it's impractical to install it, and then approve the waiver for the installation of curb better and sidewalk along the 12th Street frontage. I think that would work.

I can still move that one. I can agree with that. Okay. Do we have a second?

Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

I'm going to be a nay on this one.

I'm going to go I on it as well. But please do come back with the development. Please work with them. I'd like to see this go back. I'd like to see this go. All right. So we've got three to one. Thank you. All right. All right. Next item. Let me cross this out. Sorry. All right. New business. I got to read it in if it's tables?

Yes.

Okay.

It's actually a motion to table. Okay.

All right. Review consideration, discussion, and possible appointment of one member of Ruby View Golf Course Advisory Committee and matters related thereto for possible action. Ruby View Golf Course Advisory Committee currently has one vacant position for a two-year term set to expire December 31st, 2027. During their recruitment period, staff received two letters expressing interest to serve on the committee, one from Jim Romero and the other from Don Dwyer. James?

Yeah, Mayor and City Council, I would like to request that we table this item. Notice to the two applicants was late in the game and neither of them could attend tonight. So I would just request we table this to the next council meeting so that they can be in attendance. Okay, thank you. Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion that we table this item to a future meeting.

Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well. All right. Item B, review consideration of possible direction to city staff regarding the future use of the Girl Scout House, including the following options. One, city retain ownership of the house for use by the City Parks and Recreation Department and related public uses. Number two, convey the house to a 501c3 with a revisionary clause. Number three, sell a house at auction or otherwise permitted by NRS 268063. Or four, enter into a lease. for exclusive use and matters related thereto for possible action on october 14th 2025 city council direct the staff to repair a quick claim deed to recovery ownership of two parcels of property apm 001-50-002 and 001-250-003, located at 561 VFW Drive, commonly known as Girl Scout House. From the Girl Scouts of Sierra Nevada, GSSN, back to the City of Elko. The process was completed and the quit claim deed recorded April 7th, 2026. City staff is now requesting direction from City Council on future possible use of the building. Options along with pros and cons of each will be outlined in a PowerPoint presentation. Jan.

Thank you Mr. Mayor Pro Tem and City Council. So I just have a quick PowerPoint where we kind of go through the options and I won't read it all but I just want to give you a quick overview. So option number one is to retain the city for city recreation and public use. So this would include, currently the city of Elko is using the Girl Scout House for our new recreation summer program. So this is happening a little bit already. And then the pros of this would be that other community organizations can use it. There'd be different programming. The Girl Scout troop could also have access to the house, supports the building, like I said, the recreation program. And then we could have other groups use it as well throughout the community. And, for example, like it says there, the Girl Scout troop and the Elks Lodge. And we've talked to both of these organizations about using the house, so that's why they are listed. Some of the cons is that the city keeps the maintenance and utility and repair costs for the house, and then we'll have to administer it and schedule. Go ahead to the next. then option number two is to convey to a 501c3 with a reversionary clause so this is similar to what we did with the Sierra Nevada Girl Scouts we conveyed that to them and then it had a reversionary clause so when they were no longer using it for the charitable use it was conveyed back to the city of Elko actually they just signed a quick claim deed but same thing And so this preserves the public charitable use, shifts operating and maintenance costs away from the city of Elko, and then it reverts to this city if it's no longer being used for the charitable use. The city will no longer have control. It could have possible reduced public access, and there'll be some oversight we'll have to make sure it's in case it needs to be conveyed back to the city. Option number three would be if we did a sale or lease at auction, and that's in compliance with NRS 268.058 through .062. It would give revenue to the city because it would go up for auction, eliminates future maintenance costs and capital costs to the city of Elko. And there's a possibility for an organization like the Elks Lodge to purchase for a permanent location. It would give a loss of public use and no future city control and likely no availability to the Girl Scout troop or other community access because it would be owned by an organization. And then the last option would be to enter into an exclusive lease agreement per NRS 268053. And so we would exclusively lease it to another organization, keeps the city owning the property, And the lessee would handle the occupancy and the maintenance. There's some flexibility for the city. It's an exclusive lease agreement, and so it would generate some revenue if we so chose. And the lessee would be a 501 . And it limits other uses because it is an exclusive lease and narrower community benefit. Go ahead, next slide. So we just want to include our staff recommendations. So we got together with the assistant city manager, engineering, planning, recreation, And facilities, I don't know if I said that. But anyway, they had gone over and inspected the building. And they were actually pleasantly surprised with the status of the building. It's in pretty good repair. And so after our conversation and meeting, we decided that our recommendation would be that the city of Elko retain ownership of the Elko Girl Scout House. and use it for the City of Elko Recreation Program, but also allow other entities to use the house as well. But we also would like a time period, like three to five years, to see if it works for us or if it doesn't. If it doesn't work, we'll come back to the City Council for some different options. But if it does, then we would continue that way. And I believe There are there are representatives for the Elks Lodge and Girl Scouts here today, and so, if they had any input then most definitely please, please do.

Hi, I'm Jessica Rackley, 378 Walnut Street, Elko. I'm with the Elko County Girl Scouts. Currently, we are sharing the building with the Parks and Rec Department and it's been going wonderfully. Parks and Rec is able to utilize the building during the day for all their youth programming and then in the evenings we can have our troop meetings, our leader meetings, anything that we need to do. We had our bridging ceremony just recently. We were very grateful for the shared usage because we were able to do it at the Girl Scout House. And we had a girl bridge into adults. So that was very exciting We feel Girl Scouts have all discussed it and we feel that this option number one is the best option for everyone involved Because it allows the city to bring in more youth programming with an actual location for them to do things. Right now if Parks and Rec wants to do anything at the parks, at the city parks and it rains, then they have to cancel the event. Whereas with the use of the Girl Scout house, they can do their activity. It rains, they can move it inside. So it makes it a little bit nicer, and it would allow for more activities for the local youth. As Girl Scouts, like I said, we have been meeting there, and we've seen really no difference. because we meet in the evenings and the city does everything during the day. But we would like option number one if it's possible please. Right now we are still part of Girl Scouts of Sierra Nevada. We have started the process of trying to find a new council for us that will be better for us. We cannot start our own council, as you need to be able to service a population of 100,000 girls. And there is not that population between Elko, Lander, White Pine counties. So we can't form our own. We have to stay within another group.

Thank you.

I think that Ben wants to talk.

There's a familiar face. Yes. Did we get it right? I almost said Mr. Mayor again. Too many years of habit. Mayor Pro Tem, members of council, greetings. Ben Reed Jr. of Lamoille, Nevada representing Great Basin Elks Lodge. 1472, and we've been instituted as an Elks Lodge and in the community for about 11 years now, not including the former Elko Elks Lodge, going back from the 1920s. I started to go through what all we do for the community and membership and all that kind of stuff, and in the interest of time, I'll just cut to the chase. I'm sure you appreciate that. We've been tracking on this issue since last fall or end of last summer, September, as we need a more permanent home than what we have now. We've been at two different places over the 11 years of our existence uh for great basin oaks and uh currently we're right next door we rent from the rent or lease or donate actually we donate monthly to the uh masons the masonic lodge and uh we've kind of overstayed our welcome and i need to get going actually and i've had talks with them and so we're currently looking for a place to be but also we toured the this facility Girl Scout Girl Scout house in in May May 6 was city staff to see if it would even work for us and the answer was a resounding yes from our leadership officers a few changes that we would suggest and then maintenance and smellable grease and so on and so forth you know basically try to make it at home which I would think that most organizations would do if they were in there. We have two meetings per month, actual scheduled membership meetings, and then we have special functions. We're looking to increase those special functions and our outreach to the community. Our outreach, by the way, is we've fluctuated between 110 and 130 members over those 11 years. Currently, we sit at 115, I believe. But we have members from Love Lock to West Mendoza. and everything in between. We have a lot of programs that have serviced not only Elko, Spring Creek, of course, but Carlin, West Windover, Wells, and so on, charity organizations that get into the minutia. So we've been looking to increase what we do as far as our programming and our meetings and trying to grow our membership and so forth. We are a 501c8 under the IRS code because we are a fraternal organization. It is based on membership. In other words, it's not just general public. And then we have talked about the possibility, back to the options that are listed on the agenda, we've talked about the possibility of forming a 501c3. And to be clear, that would only would only apply to our charity fund only. The lodge structure is national from the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, or sometimes you see that written as BPOE, and that is a C8, that's assigned by the IRS. We are a non-profit fraternal organization, but currently if you donate to us, we will accept all donations, but you can't write that off on your income tax return unless we were a C3. But reviewing some of the applicable codes with Mr. Stanton, it looks like that a lot of the wording applies to C3s as far as a lease agreement or other options. So that's it in a nutshell for us. If there was a path forward, that would be great for us because we do think it would work and work well. And further discussions would be in order, although we are running short on time to get our things out of the other facility and move along, and we are required to hold those two meetings per month. for the national organization. So we will be meeting somewhere come the fall, whether it's there or anywhere else. But there is a path forward for us if the council will decide to pick an option that would include other groups. We do, just to be fair, we have a liquor license. We do have a bar that has alcohol and non-alcohol that's during our meetings. So all of that would have to be locked up if there were youth utilizing or other groups utilizing the facility and we were sharing it. We want to be careful about that. We are, I like to say we're not a We're not a bar with some elks. We're a lot of elks working on charity issues that happens to have a bar that has refreshments, alcohol, non-alcohol. So we're not a bar business per se, but yes, there's alcohol on premises. And we do have a liquor license from the city. We have other things in there that we would want to secure or close off part of that building if we were to use it. If we were utilizing it and then there were other groups in there, just so that things wouldn't get vandalized and messed with, you know, officer stations and so forth like that, things on the wall, what have you. So that's it in a nutshell. It could work for us if there was a path forward. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, Nancy Davila, 854 Juneau Street here in Elko. I am a proud Girl Scout parent and I'm also a Girl Scout co-leader of Troop 234, which is the biggest troop here in Elko County. I want to say from the past, I've been a Girl Scout, we've been in Girl Scouts for six years. I've seen what this house means to our girls, and I actually was the first one to sound the alarm when we heard that Girl Scouts of Sierra Nevada wanted to rent it and basically kick us out of our home. Jessica, the leaders, we had, what, three days, four days to clean everything out, get a shed, move our stuff. We're meeting right now at Southside Elementary. We hope to come back. The city has graciously asked us to come back and we're hoping to schedule that here soon. We just didn't want to come to a situation where we're telling the girls we're back and then say, oh, never mind, we can't use this space. So we're being cautious with that. We are hoping the city... choose this option one. We are used to sharing our space. We love sharing our space. We have shared in the past with the DUI school, with square dancing, churches. I think Livingstone started there. So we have always been a supporter of other organizations using our space and we have gotten along well and We plan, we hope the city uses it to grow their youth summer recreation. We need it here in Elko. And if you guys can keep it, we hope that you let us as Girl Scouts continue. We hope to have our membership grow. and I'm just hoping you really choose option one. It would mean a lot. A lot of our girls don't have the typical home structure or may not have the connection, and you would be surprised what this home means to them and for them to come back home. So I hope you choose option one. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments?

Okay. Anything by the board? Just full disclosure, I am a member of the Alps 35 years, four years. That will be very easy here. We can talk. I feel no problem to help discuss it.

My Girl Scout house has been a Girl Scout house as long as I can remember. So I would like to see it.

If we can use multiple uses with the Alps club and stuff or any other things, then great.

But primarily, it's got to be for the Girl Scouts in my eyes.

So full disclosure, I was a Girl Scout many years ago and actually went to that Girl Scout house. But I do love the idea of the city retaining that building. Real estate is obviously something that appreciates over time. And I think that this is a big community benefit, not just for the Girl Scouts, but also for our summer programs that we have worked really hard since COVID to bring back. and put the city and our Parks and Rec department kind of in the driver's seat of that. So having a space where they can use that and if the Elks Lodge and the Girl Scouts are amenable where that can be a shared space and we are serving all sorts of members of the community, not just the kids, the Girl Scouts and the Elks, I would be in favor of a shared space in the city retaining that and reevaluating that in a few years down the road.

I think, you know, option one is a great option and I mean, you'd have to rename it if it wasn't the Girl Scout House. But I think there's definitely access and something could be worked out that the Elks can also be involved there in using that on a Thursday night like they do. And it would be very easily to do that, even if it's even on a temporary basis. If it's not working for them, then they can at least have a place to get going, keep things happening. And if they end up finding another location, great, but I think we also want to make sure we watch out. I think we can serve everybody. I mean, that's a great thing, and it needs to be there for the youth. That's important.

Well, that was not a Girl Scout, I'll be honest with you. Um, to me, like Claire said, I mean, that's the only thing I've ever called that building is a Girl Scout house. So it's the only thing I've ever known it as. Uh, but I think if we, to me, it's more about a more of a community thing. So if we can keep them in it, I'm all for it. And as more of the community can get involved in it and use the building, it's in good shape. Why not? I mean, so let's, I'm, I'm all for that too as well. Any other public comments or any more by the board? Do we have a motion?

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, here we go. I just about got you on there. Mayor Pro Tem, I move to select option one as a decision to proceed.

You might want to describe what that is, that the city is retaining ownership for the City Parks and Recreation Department and related public uses. with the and you might want to also add with the One of the related public uses being entering into licenses for use of the facility by various organizations What he said And that makes sense the licensing would make it so then we can make it official So we don't have too many in there in place.

Thank you.

I'll second that motion. I

We have a first and a second.

We have all in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well.

Thank you.

All right. Review consideration and possible approval of resolution number 09-26, a resolution authorizing augmentation of the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget of the Recreation Fund, increasing appropriations by $600,000 from $9,210,422 to $9,810,422. to offer unanticipated revenues pursuant to NRS 354-598-005, and that is rated there, too. Jan?

Thank you. So these next two items are kind of housekeeping items, but I'll just quickly explain. An augmentation is where you have increased revenue and then increased expenses to follow, and the recreation fund has had additional revenue, partially because of Annette's audit, but also because the revenue from the recreation fund, the transient lodging tax has increased. So that's great. But with that comes additional monies that go out to the different organizations within the recreation fund, like the ECBA and Western Folk Life Center and some things like that. So that's what this augmentation does, is increase the revenue and the expenditures.

Any comments about the board?

No, I'd like to commend Annette and her crew, though, for hustling and getting those room tax and the money back into the rec fund. It helps everything. It's really nice. She's done a really good job and her staff, so thank you.

A lot of headaches on that one. Do we have any public comment on the item? Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 09-26 augmenting the recreation fund by $600,000 in accordance with NRS 354.598005.

Do we have a second? We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well. Item B, review consideration and possible approval of resolution number 10-26, a resolution providing for the transfer of appropriations between accounts within the City of Elko 2025-2026 fiscal budget pursuant to NRS 354.598005 and matters related thereto for possible action. This is the annual year-end housekeeping ITEM TO TRANSFER FUNDS BETWEEN FUNCTIONS AND FUNDS AS REQUIRED TO FUND ALL BUDGETARY CHANGES THAT OCCURRED DURING THE FISCAL YEAR. CHAN?

THANK YOU. YES, THIS IS ANOTHER HOUSEKEEPING ITEM, JUST BUDGET TRANSFERS BETWEEN DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS WITHIN THE SAME FUNDS, AND THERE ARE QUITE A FEW THAT YOU CAN SEE THERE.

QUITE A LIST. OKAY. DO WE HAVE ANY COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD? Do we have any comments by the public? All right, do I have a motion?

Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I will make a motion to adopt the resolution number 10-26, a resolution providing for the transfer of appropriations between accounts within the City of Elko 2025-2026 fiscal budget pursuant to NRS 354.598005.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? I vote aye as well. Okay. On to reports. I just want to remind everybody about the America 250 celebration going on Thursday. Starting at four o'clock down at the courthouse or in any building, right? Correct. All right. So just go on there and then they'll head over to sixth for the constitution. I want to remind everybody about that. Then also I want to thank James and his crew for a fantastic job they did on the baseball fields. They got nothing but compliments from all the baseball teams. They were very happy with that NCS tournament that went on two weeks ago that I ended up umpiring eight games, but I was tired. But it was a great turnout. They're expecting more teams and possibly two tournaments next year. they're they're hoping for about 50 teams so that's good so they were real happy with it they said they love the fields and love everything that happened with it so that was a good step for them and then we also have all the tournaments going on this week between the softball and the little league so if you guys get a chance go watch a little bit of baseball so it's a lot of fun so also i want to thank kathy for the great job they did on the stampede uh Your crew deserves it. So that's a big kudos for me. So great job. All right. Another fine job on that. So thank you. Anything else?

I actually have a couple of announcements in regards to the downtown arts dedication. We do have one this Thursday. We also have a second piece of art that will be coming in with a tentative dedication for the other piece that will be coming on July 2nd. We will keep everyone posted with that. Unfortunately, the artist had a medical emergency, so we're kind of at her mercy. We also have with our arts and culture advisory board one vacancy. There is one person on the board who is not renewing their term and there is a potential of a second vacancy. So if anyone is interested I believe it's on the Elko City website to submit letters of interest to join that board. We would love to have anyone. And then congratulations, Steve, on your graduation. I was in DC and tried desperately to make it over there between planes, trains, cars, friends, cousins, all that fun stuff. And poor JJ went through some things with security and I was trying desperately to make it to the graduation and I missed it. So I am very sorry about that, but want to congratulate you on what an amazing accomplishment you did. And then one last thing, like I said, I was in DC, so I just wanted to update you guys really quickly with some of the things that we talked about. In regards to we got to meet with our legislators, Catherine Cortez Masto was actually one of the ones that we got to speak directly to and got to chat with her about some financing issues. We're having issues with move manufactured housing and not being able to obtain FHA financing on that. So she's got a direct access to FHA to try to get that overturned. So we're working with her on that. We've got bills that we're working on for more homes on the market, which is going to address the capital gains tax on home equity. So if you go to sell your home currently, Level of tax is for a single person two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a married couple It's five hundred thousand dollars anything above that equity or tax with capital gains tax It did pass with bipartisan support, but there are some obviously some details that need to be worked out there So it's not into law yet, but we're really hoping that we can get that to go. We also have our 21st century Road to Housing Act which is where at a federal level they're trying to come up with some things for affordability, modernizing, sorry, can't talk, some of our housing programs, reducing regulatory barriers and increasing flexibility, even all the way down to a local level. We also have one in there for revitalizing downtown and main streets, and that's literally the name of the act, where they want to take downtown Buildings which are in need of rehabilitation and turn them into some sort of housing community whether it be apartments condos townhomes or even hotels But they would like to turn it more into residential housing and they're going to provide some federal assistance to do so We have a bunch of stuff for fair housing assistance programs And then we have an act in here for self-employed individuals in which we would like to provide them health care so those were our top priorities that we were working on while we were up there on the hill and And hopefully I'll have more information in the next few months. And Kathy did a great job on Silver State Stampede. Top notch events.

Claire? I'm good. All right. Chip? Good to be back. Nice little break for a minute. And so it's good to be back. Just a couple of reports. The California Trail Center event was a huge success. We were able to count through the convention center just adults because we don't count anybody under 18. About 700 to 800 people. Now, I think that event, there was all kids too, so there was probably 1,100 plus or more there. Great event, really was good for them. Nevada Gold Mines Friday has their annual... bike rodeo for all the kids junior high K through 12 basically free helmets and all they're doing they put this on and it's a great event to be sure people attend and get the word out there and they do it every year and it's just It's just a killer event, so I want to make sure people hear about that. And yeah, Convention Center, the Mine Expo just was the records. I mean, it was just beyond belief there. It did well. It's already booking out for next year. People are already at over 30, I think it's 39 more tents out here. And people are very happy with it. The vendors are very happy. Brought in a lot of room tax. That's good to hear. And the golfing was, I think you said 160 golfers? Mm-hmm. They had to bring in 40 carts to make the event happen. It sold out in seven minutes when they opened it. Anyway, they're working hard at that. Another piece with the fair board, they're working hard getting things together for the fair. It's going to be a really cool fair this year. A lot of special things are pulling off with honoring the military. And the veterans and each department, they're going to have a race for each branch of the military. That's going to be kind of cool. Some new things that they're working hard. Chief, you just keep doing better for us. Thank you. You're an example to the people you work with and the community. And it's, you know, thank you for what you're doing and your example. You know, you've taken things in the years since you took the helm. There's just nothing could be said better. So thank you.

That's it.

One thing I haven't noticed, Chip, since you got back from Italy, you're talking with your hands a lot more. All right. All right, Jan.

Okay, so she's not expecting this, but I just want to make an introduction. So the Elko Daily Free Press has a new person at the newspaper, and her name is Alina Khan. And anyway, I wanted to introduce her because I'm sure she'll be reaching out to all different departments within the city. And she comes to us from Texas, I believe. And so, Alina, would you like to get up and say hello?

Come on, you've got to prepare a speech. Come on.

Sorry, Alina.

Hello, my name is Alina Khan. Hey Elko, how are y'all doing? I am from Houston, Texas and yeah, I've been here about a month I moved here for the job. I'm going to do some local reporting for education and government. I just want to say that coming from a suburban area, I hear a lot about the small town, small city atmosphere. Elko definitely has that, which is awesome. And everyone has just been really kind and respectful, especially with everything going on with the press right now. It's really nice to... build rapport and trust with everyone. So, yeah, I mean, I will be contacting your department sometime in the future. But, yeah, thank you so much, and thank you, City Manager Baum, for the introduction.

Welcome.

That was a really great impromptu. She's a reporter. Yeah, she's good with words. And just the other thing that I wanted to mention and just give some kudos as well is at the RDA meeting, there was some talk about some different things, but I just wanted to make sure and recognize our Parks and Recreation Department. They really hit it out of the park, no pun intended, but they do an amazing job, and I get compliments about the job you do all the time. And so thank you, and keep up the good work.

No report. Dave? I think you've heard enough from me.

The attorneys are the ones more worried than reporters. Andy? Chief? Gabby? Kim? Thank you, temporary mayor. Doesn't Andrew like to follow you? Substitute.

Substitute mayor, that's better. With last year's budget, we were authorized to purchase a new boom truck. And we brought that boom truck up here tonight. So it's sitting out back.

If anybody would like to go walk around it and take a look at it after the meeting, it's there. So thank you very much. Can we take it for a ride?

We shouldn't have brought the basket.

That's with you, Scott? Is it down with you right now, or just you just wrote that? I just wrote it down. OK. All right. All right. I was the one who just wrote it. All right. We got Jeff. Andrew.

Justin.

The new road to . Perfect.

So first thing I want to talk about is the month of June. June is now going to be Elkova's going to be famous for baseball and softball, I think. So pretty much this whole month, we've had tournaments every weekend this month. We're currently in the last week of Little League All-Stars, which is the boys' section. We just finished up the girls' softball today, actually. And Little League All Stars for Boys commences tonight. So our crews are pretty tired. They've been working seven days a week for pretty much the whole month of June. Sorry about the overtime costs, but they've been working their guts out. And so kudos to them. We've had so many people come in from out of town, and it's been so cool to hear them talk up our facilities and what we have here. So the visitors of town love Elko, just saying. I'm hearing it a lot. And then the pickleball courts are going well. We're in the surfacing phase right now, both at Southside and over here at the main city park. So I think in a week or so, you're going to start really starting to see what the finished product is going to look like. Got a little bit to finish up down on the south side with fencing and the net install, but we're this close to being done. And I'm happy that we're going to finish a little earlier than anticipated, just in time for the senior games to kick off the inaugural pickleball event down there. Thank you.

Paul? Jim? Sarah? Cole? Did I miss anybody? All right. All right. Do we have any final public comment, please? None? Showing none. All right. Meeting adjourned at 5.50.

This conference is no longer being recorded.

Claire's mad at me right now because I didn't go fast enough.