Village Board - Regular Meeting

Will I will call to order the village board meeting of February 16th. Uh first item is to call the role. Aaron. Yes. Trusty Deman here. Trusty Hower here. Trusty Casper here. Trustee Saunders here.

We expect Trusty Saraban to arrive shortly as she walks in the field juice. Beju Beetlejuice Bugley here. Walk on. All right, moving on to the consent agenda. We have six items on the agenda. The minutes from the regular meeting, February 2nd. The check register for January, I'm sorry, check register and investment report for January 26. Temporary beer wine licenses for fish fry dinners to be held at Holy Family Congregation on six different dates. The strategic plan quarterly report and resolution 3195 for migratory bird day. Any concerns about the consent agenda? Otherwise, I would entertain the top motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Second, Sam. Any further comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to the report of the village officers. Mr. Village, nothing to report today, Mr. President. Oh, here comes a big report from our village manager who's been world traveler for a while.

Disney cruising. No, I will not talk about that. Um, so we are asking that everyone wait to rake out their leaves uh for the time being. There is rain in the forecast and we don't want the leaves to be going into the storm drains. Um, just a reminder, we are watching the weather. Um, and once that's above freezing, uh, and there isn't snow in the forecast for 10 days, that's when we will announce very loudly broadly so everyone knows the final rake out with the date that we're going to start the collection. So that way everybody can get those final rake or leaf in the meantime. They should say on the parkway. Yep. Correct. So in the grass area behind the curb. Yep.

Uh, and then secondly, um, this is a little bit random, uh, but we Energies does have a planned power outage. I guess they're moving a pole behind Village Hall and that's on Wednesday, February 25th and our power is out from 9 to 3. We do have a generator, but that only serves the um police department side of the building. Uh so we will be without power for an entire day. So very likely um we will not be able to provide in-person services those days. So we're still kind of brainstorming different options um but just to let everyone know to not come into village hall that day. Do you know if the server room is control is has on the generator? It's that's on the generator. Yep.

All right. Uh village president report. I have I have nothing to report other than the wonderful clerk is now more of a wind wind surfing pond. Um any miscellaneous trustee reports? Yeah, speaking of the server room, uh I would like to uh I can't speak for the staff, but from my point of view, I think that uh our uh technology, our IT transition has gone very smoothly. Uh from my I can already tell from uh just logging on tonight that our new uh Wi-Fi is amazing. And uh I love the new uh email system. It's a lot easier and a lot more userfriendly than than the old one. And so I want to thank everyone involved for those who um who planned it and who executed it. And I know it was a uh a very busy uh couple of weeks, but I think that it uh from my perspective it's gone really well. So I want to thank everybody.

You're here. Thank you.

Anyone else sports? Hearing none. I will then move on to petitions communications. This is an opportunity for anyone in the audience to address the village board on any issue that is not on a current agenda. Anyone here to talk about something that is not on a current agenda? Going once, going twice. All right, we will then close petitions communications and move on to general business. We have three items on the agenda tonight. The first is a presentation sort of discussion by the way school district on the facilities planning process including the community survey results and recommendations. Dr. Fckler, welcome to our arena.

Thank you. Thanks for having me back again. Uh before I get started, I want to just have our team members introduce themselves in case there are questions that come up. I'm going to give just a probably a four or five minute overview just for people who are in the audience or who whoever's online so they know why we're here and what we're talking about. Uh but I'll start with our team members here. So Brian, if you want to start. Hi everyone. I'm Brian Jason, director. I'm Nick Kent, architect partner at Blunk Race Architects, the architect working with the district and build resolve.

Sandy Sing, school board member,

our wing, director services, Michael Conor, director of machine learning and recently employed president. Oh, thank you. So, thank you to our team members for being here and we uh I know we shared out the presentation ahead of time that we had presented at Richards. Uh so, you saw about 55 or 56 minutes of that. Uh but I'll cut that down to uh like I said a fivem minute version here. I want to share an overview of our school district's upcoming facilities referendum. I know you have that uh up on the screen there. You should have hopefully received a handout like this in the mail uh that gives it's really a fact sheet of what's going on and what's uh proposed here. So our our district has a long-standing tra tradition of excellence uh but our physical infrastructure many of the buildings constructed between 1918 and 1955 are no longer meeting modern standards. So following a year of community engagement and a formal review by our facility advisory committee, the school board identified a comprehensive path forward uh to address our aging infrastructure, accessibility, and also our learning environments and safety and security. So some of the challenges that you'll see in that handout are across all of our buildings. So, while our maintenance teams do really incredible work across the district, many of our vital HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems have surpassed their expected service life. And our current building entrances, some of our current building entrances and safety systems do not meet today's accessibility and security standards. Specifically, the middle school, originally built in 1918, has undergone numerous additions over the last century. And our research has concluded that further renovations would cost nearly as much to build a new or more

efficient facility. And on that second page, um, if I can have you scroll on there, Kelsey, thank you. You'll see that timeline. And that timeline is really helpful in terms of what happened. it's in that middle of the page of what's gone on at that middle school, additions, renovations. Um, so many that we almost ran out of room on the page there to fit them. Um, so you can see the need, that proposed need there, um, along with some of the other needs that we have. So the plan though itself in total is $156 million in terms of that total investment. And it's a shared approach that we're taking and the district is committing $20.4 4 million in existing funds and then we're asking taxpayers in that in that referendum question for the remaining 135.6 million through that referendum on April 7th. The projects are split into two main areas. One is building renovations for 67.9 million. That highlights uh infrastructure, safety, security upgrades at Cumberland, Richards, Lidell, and the high school. Key improvements would include our fire uh sprinkler updates, modernizing HVAC systems, and improving our elementary pickup and drop off zones. For the middle school, this would be a new middle school construction for 67.7 million. And we'd be working to build a new three-story middle school designed for with flexible learning spaces and most importantly honoring the the history of integrating what is in that space either in the middle school itself with the Veterans Memorial or on the space where the middle school exists today. So when we take a look at our site plan and logistics, a big part of this plan is that a moving of our middle school and once a a new middle school

would be complete uh pending a successful vote, uh the old building would be demolished and there'd be room for tennis courts, reallocating parking, and that uh green space for community use. This plan ensures that there would be minimal disruption to student learning and that students would be able to remain in the current building until construction is final and complete in the new building. We also know that there's a tax impact. You see that on a little bit lower on that on that sheet. And we understand that this is a financial commitment that we're asking from our residents. And you can see on there, you know, for the average home valued at $685,000, the estimated tax impact is is listed on that form roughly. Um, what do I have here? Roughly $148 per month. Uh, and then we have it mapped out uh, as well. So, you can see what the impact is for the year, that annual impact in that middle column. And this in this would assume a 21-year borrowing per period. and accounts for the fact that we're paying off our 2009 referendum as well. And as far as that debt goes, uh so ultimately this referendum is is paced out to to match our the standards that we have for our students and our staff. And again, I'd like to encourage everyone who is a resident to reach out to us with questions, to visit our website. We have a QR code there as well. And we have a frequently asked questions page on that uh on that website. So,

if you're wondering, I wonder if my question's been asked, feel free to to visit that site. If you have a question that you'd like to ask, you can call us, email us, or fill out a form that we have online. And we've been turning those around within a day or two for people. And uh really proud of trying to get that question to the right person, some of those people in this room behind me, and some of the people that are not in our room that we work to get those answers for our residents. So we email them back and then if we see a theme in questions they'll land on our frequently asked questions page. So uh again with that I just wanted to give really brief highle overview of the project for people who are here people who are online and then open it up for questions that the village board may have and we have our team here that can answer questions and not just me as well.

Okay. Thank you. Who would like to lead off with any kind of questions for the school district and their entire team? I have a Sure, Jacob.

It's a general question. So, there's a referendum 2009 or 2026, 17 years. Do we just envision every 15 to 20 years there will be another large referendum or um are we going to rightsize our taxation so we can kind of smooth this out a bit? So, a few things and I'll I'll have Ben chime in as well, but when you take a look at the scope of the work, if you look just looking at the survey itself that came out in November, we included all of the potential project costs. So, it was it was a big number uh over 300 million. And so as we look at as the board has you know taken an opportunity to look at the scope of the work really for the next 20 years 15 to 20 years this is what they saw as high priority. This is something we need to address and take care of. When you take a look at those infrastructure safety security issues and also the fact that our middle school has undergone so many res renovations and additions. This is something that would be high priority first. the board could make a decision to go to the community before that 20-year mark and say, "We still have these other things to address," and they could go to the community again for another survey to say, "What would you support?" Um, it's hard to say when that time is going to be. Is it 15 years? Is it 20 years? Um, Ben, I don't know if you have anything else to add to that.

No, that was spot on. I think the only thing to add would just be the other thing that's unpredictable is just the state budget. um especially over the last 15 20 years for school funding. Uh every banial budget's looked a lot different in terms of school funding. So um if that shifts back in favor of school finance and we get more funding, there could be a lot more we could do within our budget. Uh if it goes the opposite way, obviously that uh results in us having to ask the community for more support. But to Jaime's point, it's just hard to predict 15 20 years what that'll

So and I know this is a capital referendum, but as you think about kind of your operating budget, do you see savings or efficiencies there that this might unlock? I'm thinking around utilities or or different usage just to give you some I guess some breathing room on that side of your your budget outside of the capital needs. Yeah, we haven't um broken it down exactly what that dollar amount would be in terms of the efficiencies, but we are, you know, estimating some efficiencies there, some savings and some utility costs and just efficiency overall. The biggest thing uh for us is just the the flip side of it is this huge burden of these capital projects and the infrastructure needs and what that could do for our budget long term. Um, if the referendum is successful and moves forward, it really eases that burden long term and we're able to focus most of our uh new revenue sources towards those things that have a direct impact on instruction. Um, teacher compensation, class sizes, all those different pieces um are some of the priorities for the board. Um, and so if we get that support through a capital referendum, that makes a lot easier to uh really focus on those areas as opposed to constantly trying to band-aid uh approach for our facilities. Okay, that was going to be my follow-up question. So, thank you.

I had uh one question that that that I have and I've kind of I' I've heard this echoed a bit, is how did we get here? Um, I mean, outside of the the middle school, which is is is understandable, and you've done a nice job explaining that renovation would cost just as much as a new school. I look at some of these some of these these infrastructure issues that that you talk of and is this is this a matter of deferred maintenance? um you know cuz it shouldn't I I guess it's not a surprise that HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical, those things age. What why is now as part of a hundred plus million dollar referendum the the time to address this as opposed to taking more of a stepped approach to um these this a this aging infrastructure.

I'll start and then I'm sure Ben will have some to add on to that. Uh when we take a look at how our district has operated over the past 20 plus years, our school board has been very fiscally responsible. And when you look at the updates and the changes that they've made, um it's really been in the best interest of our staff, our students, and the taxpayers. Uh you can see that we're one of the few districts that has not gone to referendum in, you know, since 2008, 2009. And so there's there's something to be proud of there and of that. And then also on the flip side, some of these updates are so interwoven together. It's uh it's difficult to say, well, five or 10 years ago, would that have been the the time to do it? Um it's difficult when you take a look at your own home, you're always making decisions about what can I do right now and what can I look down the line u that that's going to be more efficient or better when I have a couple of projects coupled together. So when we look at these projects in their totality, a lot of them are tied together and you could have done those pos potentially 10 years ago. Um but right now we're looking we've taken a look at our facilities. Back in 2023, the board president made a diligent effort to say we need to look at what our facilities plan is as we move forward and being responsible uh being fiscally smart about how they steward uh steward their positions and the money that were allocated. Feel like they made a really really good decisions along the way. Um could there have been other projects and other things you could do along the way potentially, but um we're at the point where we're at right now. we have a really sound budget. Uh we that's why you see that sharing of the of that burden in terms of allocating $20 million towards this. You don't really see that from school districts uh who are going towards a referendum. It's really unprecedented.

So I'm really proud of the work that the board has done to get to that point and um they're difficult decisions we make all the time um related to those efforts. But Ben, I don't know if you have any Could you give me an example of an one of these interwoven projects?

Yeah. So any So when you take a look at that at that sheet that you have some of the projects uh dealing with infrastructure and accessibility. So for example, our our front entrances at the elementary buildings. So they're someone comes up and they're not able to walk up those stairs. They have to go around to the side of the building. So it first of all it's an accessibility issue and then secondly it's an infrastructure issue. So we need to take a look at what are the surrounding pieces around that main entrance that need to be updated or changed. So are there heating and cooling systems that are also tied into that front entrance that if we take down those walls, we're going to have to address that as well. And you can look at that across the building, whether it's HVAC updating and changing some of those spaces. Uh you see projects that are tied together like that throughout the building because they're old buildings. Um soon as you start pulling walls down and things apart, there are other pieces that can be solved with that. And that's what we've looked at with some of these projects that we see.

So you're talking interwoven within one building, not districtwide. Well, and some of them are within the building and some of them are really across the district. some of the similar types. Can I can you give me an example of one of the district ones? I'm just curious, right? We do have another mic if anybody wants to sit down and take a photo, have a cocktail. I don't really think okay that's

so so a couple of the things that um that are more interwoven are like if you think about the high school for instance the high school is on running the majority of the high school HVAC is running on a 1950s steam system so it's it's become more of an issue of not not some of the components of the system but more of a a systems itself systems upgrade thinking about when we're when we're doing a lot of this work and looking at how fire safety and the uh fire sprinkler systems and fire alarm systems fit into that safety infrastructure. When we have a lot of these spaces opened up and when we're renovating a certain level of of these buildings, that's the prime time to upgrade those those systems. um our our sprinkler systems, for instance, our 2010 edition, so our Richards and Elementary or Richards and Cumberland Elementary School greats are are sprinkled. Our our music wing and our auditorium at the high school are sprinkled. Um no other spaces in our schools are sprinkled. Nothing at the middle school, nothing outside of those 2010 additions at the other schools, nothing at Lidell. So that would be a a prime time to do that. It would be not necessarily a district level piece, but essentially a district level piece.

Okay. Dr. Fckler or Ben, could you explain how referendums work for school districts? So, for instance, the village board, this audience would be very familiar with how we borrow funds, which historically has been $8 million every two years as a way to try to ease that tax burden um for the residents. your structure or state restrictions are quite a bit different than that. So could you just explain that might be helpful for them?

Absolutely. Um so all school districts in Wisconsin work within the revenue cap and so we are only able to collect so much between state aid and the tax levy each year based on a formula from the state. Uh once we get to that point, the only way to exceed that or get an exemption is through referendum. Uh districts can do that through operational um so they can do recurring increase their revenue limit u for a set number of years or definitely or they can use a referendum to exceed the revenue limit to issue debt which is what we're pursuing here for April. Uh that's really the main uh avenue for most districts to lose um take care of larger capital projects just because the limitations within that revenue limit. Uh and then that goes through the process where we bring it uh to vote to the community. Uh there's, you know, restrictions that we have to work within in terms of what that looks like as a whole. Um if a community approves a referendum, we have 5 years to issue that debt. Um there's a cap in terms of how much debt a district can issue based on the property um wealth in the community. It's about 10% of total property value. Um and then we can only issue desk um debt issuances up to 20 years per issuance. So kind of working with all those pieces, but um you know 99% of districts that are having these larger capital projects will take the referendum route just because of that that revenue cap or that limitation.

So municipalities have a levy exemption for debt where school districts do not. And so any even if they were going to borrow $2 million or $8 million, you likely would have to go to referendum. I would imagine there's a way to issue debt within our revenue limit, but then that just takes away from our operational. So, if we had a debt issuance, it was $2 million a year payments, we'd have to find that within our operational budget to to pay for that. The only way to do that outside the revenue limit is the referendum route. I think you might have just answered this, so I just want to clarify. Is that how you landed on the 21 years for the tax burden?

Yeah. So the estimates based on two issuances, one for 26, one for 27, each in 20 years. And so 21 years from now, um based on that, so and that's all to be determined still. Um you know, if the community approves the the referendum, uh that board would have a discussion what that looks like. Like I said, you can you have up to 5 years to issue that debt. Um previous projects I've been a part of, um in the past, uh the one in Cedarberg, we took on three debt issuances over three years. that was right during the pandemic, so we didn't know what to expect. So, we kind of stepped into it, if you will. Um, so there's a lot of flexibility of what that could look like. Uh, I know in previous meetings with um the village, we've talked about uh just that balance too with what you guys might be doing your end and what we might be looking at long term as well. Uh, and since we have that almost onetoone boundary equation, um, it makes a lot easier for us to have those conversations as opposed to other districts that may have six or seven municipalities within there.

Can you stretch that out to longer than 21 years just to make it the longer you'd be able to do it as if you borrowed in that fourth or fifth year and then that that 20 years. So, but then that just incurs more interest costs for the community. So, it's it's finding that balance of trying to uh factor in, you know, what's that long-term tax impact look like? Um the next conversation will also be what does the state budget look like? There's a lot of conversations about property tax reliefs and so all those factors the board would look at if the the community approved the

one additional do um so so it seems like this kind of split into two concepts. There's the renovation of the existing buildings then a new building. Um so obviously there was a choice made to match those two. Can you just speak a little more about why you decided to go for both at the same time? And then does the interest rate environment right now kind of factor into that at all or did you did you think about kind of current rates versus where this might be in in the future when you did your calculus?

So I can talk about costs and interest rates and so we're very conservative on our estimates for the debt issuance and tax impact. Uh we estimate a five to five and a quarter% interest rate. Um if we went now we'd probably get three and a half 4% and it seems like rates are trending to drop. So, we're optimistic that with our strong credit rating, we'd be able to get a lower rate. We just like to be conservative because it's better to come back and say, "Oh, by the way, we came in lower than higher for that." Uh, as terms of the project costs, all those are built in based on uh inflationary increases as well. And so, that's all part of that um estimate in terms of determining the total project cost. And so, um obviously it's an estimate for inflation, but we have that built in with the project. I was just going to respond to that first the first question about the two projects are taking a look at them separately. Uh so the board had the opportunity to to gather that feedback back in November from the community and heard that the community would support a referendum. The safety, security, infrastructure and accessibility rated very high on that. Also the middle school, also a new middle school. You saw that in those results. And so they paired those together and then came up with that. Um some people would say,"Well, why don't you just have two separate questions?" Um and the board talked a little bit about that. Not very long. Didn't it didn't last because uh they looked back at the survey survey results and also the need. Um, so trying to update that middle school infrastructure-wise wouldn't wouldn't make sense at this point and uh would be uh wouldn't be a a thoughtful next step with that particular building.

Yeah. So, are these funds subject to shared revenue that that I mean I I have my very I'm trying to recall, but I do recall at one point you had to raise a$1.7 for every dollar you wanted to spend and the seven went back into the pot. Is this subject to that as well? And is it still a dollar sub?

Um, so, um, these costs would be part of our shared cost that factors into state aid. And so, um, it's important for us for White Fish Bay because we're considered property wealthy compared to other districts in the state. So, the more we spend, to your point, the less state aid we receive. And when that happens, the more we have to rely on the local tax levy. Uh, doesn't increase or decrease our revenue limit. It's just that balance between stating and the tax levy. um all that has been included in it and part of the projections that we have in there. And so if you looked at the actual forecast for the debt um borrow and that what that estimate looks like um there's a balance that occurs with that in terms of that that loss of state aid from the initial borrow or the initial debt payments and then how that balances out and then um stabilize for the rest of 20 years. Uh the local the use of local district funds is also part of that conversation as well. Um, some of those local funds do not impact shared costs. They're specifically designed for capital projects to not impact that. Um, but our operational um, budget and using those dollars would have that. So, we'd have to factor that in in terms of the when those costs hit and then what that looks like for state aid for the following year. And then my second question is that the things that I hear scuttlebutt about and I'm old so I'm not kindergarten line anymore but the things that I'm hearing scuttlebutt about are more like class sizes and concerns you know u operational concerns and I'm wondering was there any conversation at all about maybe going for less of a capital and having and going for a share you know for an operating referendum in order to address those or are you thinking that this is going to somehow result in enough that you're going to be able to address those concerns that I am hearing fairly repeatedly.

Yeah. Um so that's all been part of that discussion we've had especially as we start to develop the budget for 2627. Um the hardest thing we ran into this year is we got a lot of new students right after the school start of school which is frankly um it's great. I mean it's great to see that especially since school finance is really driven by enrollment.

Uh but it did present some challenges halfway into the year to what did the the classes look like. Um at this point, um the board's already committed to four additional class sections at the elementary level to address some of those pieces. Uh and then our next piece is really look at teacher compens compensation and staff compensation as a whole. Um like I said earlier, the biggest, you know, concern I have long term is um you know, if we're not able to address some of these expenses for capital through a project like this, you know, that puts a huge burden on our local budget. um we would have to probably make some budget cuts in the future just to make sure we're keeping up with our critical infrastructure needs. So the the avenue is really we think we can take care of a lot of those critical infrastructure needs through this project where be able to um give us some latitude and make us easier to focus really on those operational pieces where operational referendum may not be necessary.

So in your mind's eye there isn't a plan for there to be an operational referendum in the next 5 years or not currently. You know, we had some discussion at the board level and um you know, there's limitations with that and too um you know, like I said before, you can go indefinitely or you can just do for a set number of years. You go for a set number of years, what happens at the end of that those years and how do you account for that? How do you account for inflation? Because 10 teachers now will cost different five years from now. So, our goal really is to try to man maximize our local budget as much as possible. Um because the operational budget referendum would obviously have a tax impact as well. The number I've always heard is 80% of any school district budget goes to salaries. Is that about right still? That's pretty accurate.

Yeah. Okay. Thanks. I

have a question for you about uh the the the entire package is about 155 million. Um the referendum is 135 plus 20 of three different fund balance u amounts. Can can you speak to the concept of having $20 million in a variety of of fund balances? How how it is that high and how it doesn't harm the financial position of the school district to spend that down? Um I think also in that answer is do you have a a sequencing of dollars in mind in spending borrowed money versus fund balance money?

Yeah, good question. Um when looking at $20 million amounts, it's really coming from three different sources. Uh community service fund that we have uh that mostly supports Lidell. Um one is uh for capital improvement, long-term planning for that. So a very specific fund used for capital projects and the other one's our general oper general operating budget. Uh between those three uh we'd probably prioritize the community service fund and the fund for the capital improvement trust fund first. uh fund 80 or that community service fund directly for Lidell. I mean those that's kind of what those funds are for and we'd be using that for that building anyways long term. Uh kind of the same thing with our capital improvement trust fund as well. Um those dollars are really earmarked for projects we're scheduling out for the next 10 years. Uh what we're trying to u maximize with this project is some economies of scale. Um, so while we have this larger project, can we do some of these projects at other projects at the same time at lower cost or trying to minimize that as much as possible? Uh, and then our operating budget, um, trying to use those funds to help support the project as much as we can. Uh, fund 80, uh, that community service fund is really has been built up over over the years just from participation fees and community programs. Um, that's probably the main driver for that fund. um fund 46, which are our long-term capital improvement fund. Uh that's been money that the district has set aside long-term to take care of some of these long-term, you know, these capital projects, smaller in scale. Typically, they're uh roofing projects, asphalt replacement, windows, stuff like that. Um but again, these are projects where we can really maximize if we're doing a larger scale project. So really funds that we said, okay, we're going to use this in the next 10 years. Let's us do it all at once now to try to maximize it. And then our operating budget um that's occurred over the over the years um you know having a surplus and putting money towards it determining how much we can use from those funds. Obviously we went through that process where we're having a discussion with the board. Uh for operating budget there's that

balance we have to find. Um for school districts our expenses are pretty stable from month to month. Most of it's going to be staffing u but our revenue come revenue come in big chunks um through the tax levy or through state aid. So, actually most districts, not most, but a lot of districts in the state between November and March have to short-term cash flow borrow even if they have millions of dollars in their fund balance. Um, so that was something that was the first thing we really want to make sure we're okay with if we're using dollars from our operating budget. And so that's how we kind of got to that number, which is about $7 million from our operating budget. Uh, we also have a schoolboard policy that says we have to maintain a certain percentage of our operating costs for fund balance to to keep that um maintained from year to year. it. So the fund balances are currently higher than that number and

once you've spent the 20 are you then at that number or below that number? I mean uh there's a range in policy. uh if we spent this we'd be at the high high end of it uh which is 32% of our fund 10 and our 27 which is our special education fund and and so has have the bond rating industry uh you know executives commented on the concept that you're spending a lot of your fund balance before a large or I don't know if it's before or after a large borrowing you know like go ahead

um so if we got to the point um we're issu doing, we'd have a um couple of meetings with Moody's credit rating. That's typically what we use. Um we'll obviously provide a lot of financial information with them, but um part of that conversation or part of that meeting also is a conversation about what this budget looks like and what it means for specifically Wisconsin school districts. Um for example, you know, going through similar processes in the past about this, you know, if we just grabbed our accounting statements, it looks like um we're running a deficit because we're actually contributing to different funds for long-term planning. So Moody's looked at like, "Oh, looks like you're running a deficit." And then we explain, "Nope, it's a planned contribution going from one fund to another. It's not that we're structurally running a deficit. It's just managing these funds for long-term planning." Um, so I imagine that would come up. They'd look at that, but just seeing our strong our fund balances remaining strong even with spending that down um would work in our favor. Um, and then just our long-term history of having strong fund balance, balanced budgets, stuff like that would all factor into that conversation. I mean, kind of tying into Trusty Saunders comments about um doing projects as they go as the years come along. Um it it it's interesting that you have $20 million of spendable resources. Um is was there a school board policy to to to build that number up high until there was a referendum to add more to it or like it seems like that's a lot of dry powder. is can you talk to why that's a large number and why you know was that a schoolboard policy?

Um no specific policy that I'm aware of. Um I think a lot of it was just trying to plan for some of these not really large scale projects but those other projects just to make sure we have the funding available long term for it. The the other planning that goes into it is just making sure some of these are spaced out a little bit. Um you know if you ask Ryan if we said I have all them I have all the money to do all the roofs all at once. you'd say don't do that cuz spacing out a little bit has its benefits as well. Uh because when they come due, you want to have a little bit of a a stepping into that to make sure you're able to manage it rather than having every single roof expire at the same time. Um regarding the question of how the balances were built up over time, being my second year white fish, I can't say all that all the pieces went into that. Um but a lot of conservative budgeting and forecasting. Um

we can say go ahead go ahead was part of that. So, um, just making sure those funds are available for some of these projects. Um, we just see higher costs having older buildings with once we open the walls, there's it can just lead to higher costs compared to other districts. So, I do have one other question, but does anyone else have

I guess kind of t combining uh President Buckley's question and Trusty Hower's question. I know you guys, you know, weren't around 15 years ago, but for everyone in the village who is, I'm hearing a lot of, you know, here we go again. And what what steps can be done or that in 15 that's more of a stepby-step process versus as trusty Hower said in 15 years are we going to go through this again? I I I guess that's I I'm having a I'm having a really hard time figuring out why the lump sum versus trying to, you know, trying to in trying to increase the levy in smaller chunks year by year. cuz in one of the, you know, in some in in uh one of the graphics that was sent, it was clear that we were the lowest of the Milwaukee County uh the Milwaukee County municipalities. Then for four or five years now, we've been below the state average when it comes to the levy. I I'm I'm I'm really trying to figure out why the lump sum every 15 years versus trying to parse that out in other ways. I that's that that's kind of that that's a hard thing for me to figure out.

Uh so going through this planning, our facility uh group identified all the needs across the system. Um and through that process, they had to divide um just over $325 million of of needs through all of our buildings. And so that was the number we really started with in terms of here's the needs across the system if we wanted to go all for it. Uh that number really was what the driver for that um that tax tolerance in the survey if you remember that it was 125 and then $50 million increments all the way up to 325. Um and so looking at that, knowing that the district has over $300 million of facility needs long term, um addressing, you know, a good chunk of them at this point with referendum 135 and then additional funding from 20 million um is trying to take care of as many of those needs now. Um so long term um that future need um can be decreased hopefully and maybe there's some projects that we can do within our budget long term. Um, but just getting to a point where we're starting to to your point trying to reduce that overall burden rather than having one big number out there that we have to go forward down the road.

Okay. I just want to add to that a little bit. We have information now from the community through that survey as well with prioritizing all of these projects. So when Ben mentioned that 325 number, we have all of those outlined and now we have that information for the board to be able to say, okay, what would be next? Where where does this map out beyond even 20 years for the district so that we can think further ahead um and not just say we're just looking at the 20 years that we have in front of us. Thank you. So one quick question.

Uh so as you said, we both work for basically the same residence, village of Whitefish Bay. Um, and for those that don't know, we we're talking about kind of doing a land swap for the land that we own in the south side of Henry Clay to the land on the north side of Henry Clay. As a part of your plan, the referendum, do you, how far do you plan to take the north side? Are you taking full responsibility for the new parking lot, for the new, you know, uh, tennis courts if they would be there, the memorial, is that all a part of your budget, or are you going to look back to the village to to cover those costs?

So, we haven't had extensive conversations with our board. We've had uh more conversations with our subcommittee which we have two board members who are part of that and our intent and I can safely say this is that we would incur those costs as far as repurposing that land uh and then looking to to settle you know what that what that would mean between the village and the school district. Um but again more conversation to be had about those other logistical pieces but uh but we would that that cost has already been built into what we're asking. I I do have one other question and that's um it it it requires some context and hopefully it will be maybe instructional um in that the the village from a municipal standpoint uh has has gone through um a process over the last nine months or so um whereby we hired Ailers to be our financial management uh um consultants uh giving us you know lots of spreadsheets and presentations on our that 5 years, 10 years and over uh with expenses, revenues, levies, levy limits, etc. And and one of the inputs that uh we gave them was we have a wonderful new six-year capital improvement pro program that we that our staff has worked thousands of hours to to create and I'm sure the school district has done somewhat similar um work. One of the things that uh Aaylor's came up with was beyond the spreadsheets of of all that was to discuss our CIP projects and and I won't go into any of them except for one which is kind of the elephant in the room uh with lead lateral pipes and just to you know give you the examples that uh we have about 3/4 of our uh homes have lead lateral

pipes and the current estimate uh to to resolve this is about $50 million. which is a giant number. There's also a smaller elephant perhaps the same size uh with our water manes that go down the middle of the roads and you're doing one project you should probably replace these 70 to 80 year old uh water manes. Um, one of the things that Aaylor's did for us was a something that we had asked for, which is can we do this, right? Do we have the debt capacity? Um, but also how how expensive is this for residents? And one of the things they came up with was uh several spreadsheets on affordability. And what they did was they they scheduled out the next 10 years of uh water rates and what a a typical wifeish bay family would pay and and increased them for all the debt we were going to take on for for these projects. And then they figured out a affordability index which apparently the American Waterworks Association has come up with a 2% of median household income uh number and and spoiler alert we we ended up uh they're at two 2% ours is currently 085 and we're going to 1.15. So, as policy makers, it was nice to be able to say, okay, we've we've kind of got some cover in that nobody likes to pay more for their water service and sewer service. Um, but we can at least look back and say we have some data that that it, you know, there's a index that suggests that this is an affordable charge. So my my question to the school district is has any kind of analysis like that been done for our current property tax situation plus a referendum? um you know and I guess if it hasn't

been done could we get something done like that where where residents can look and say okay it is affordable and and we can you know figure out our vote based on that they're so we work closely with financial advisors too we use beard and uh PTMA uh I've never seen a breakdown that uh based it off of um owner owner income or anything like that uh usually we're looking at that is uh really how do we compare with other districts in the area? How do we compare with the state? Uh how do we compare with other line items within a tax bill? And just trying to find that that balance between those pieces. Um but I think that's something we could look at. Part of that credit rating looks at specifically meeting household household income. Um and so kind of doing that analysis could be part of this. I just haven't done it before. So

yeah. Yeah. I I I think it would be appreciated by lots because I've been to a number of your meetings and obviously you know a certain portion of the people who grab the microphone say this is really expensive and you know and and affordability is a moving target for everybody and so having that data might help you. Any other questions? Um, I'm actually going to open up to the public if anybody in the in the audience has any questions for the um school district that they'd like to ask. I know and and this would be the opportunity to tell what are the dates of your upcoming uh public information meetings that in my

anybody I think there's one tomorrow right at the yeah high school

all right so yes tomorrow at the high school in the link uh six o'clock is the building tour 7 o'clock is our presentation and Q&A Okay. February 19th, we'll be at Lidell and the Center Gym. So, that will be a 1:30 p.m. building tour followed by a 2:00 presentation and Q&A. February 24th will be in the Cumberland great room, 6:00 tour, 7 o'clock presentation. March 4th, we'll be in the middle school gym, 6:00 p.m. tour and 7 o'clock presentation. And then April 6th on the eve of the election that would be at the middle school gym again six o'clock tour 7 o'clock presentation and then we also have some other other uh events that are going on that will you'll see you'll see us you have me and Ben and perhaps members of our team at different events at the high school and throughout the district. Um just there to answer questions at a table for residents as well. I'm hoping these building tours are backstage access, not boring. We're going to see some really cool parts of the school. Yes. Go ahead.

You want to see some cool stuff? All right. That's tomorrow, right? Are you going to be showing people all the broken stuff that needs fixing? Yeah. Are you going to be showing people all the broken stuff and be like, "This is where $120 million is going." Half of that is for the middle school. Sure. Showing the middle school. All right. It's old. Yeah, it's old. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. We will then let's see 107. That's not bad. We'll then move on to a discussion on the CloD warming shelter renovation or reconstruction design firm request for proposals. H I think Matt, you're you're up. Do you want to do you want to first introduce um No, I think Matt We'll go with it. Yeah. Yeah, you you see it up. And

all right, so uh this as President Buckley has said, this is one of our many uh CIP items in front of the board. Last, uh village board meeting, I think there was 10 items that probably pertain to our CIP in order to put this in motion. So, it's been a really good road map not only for staff um make sure that we're checking the boxes based on agreeables but also for the village board to see what's pending for the next uh two-year borrow cycle and beyond for the full six years. So looking back uh as far as the Cody Park warming shelter discussion, this actually originated back with our comprehensive outdoor recreation plan and over the last two years we really uh funneled in and itemized what deliverables were part of that um corp plan as they call it. And over the two years, I think we got a lot done. And through that process, anything that was not done was basically institutionalized into our CIP and the board had uh given recommendations as part of that process in order for us to fulfill a majority of those corp tasks and deliverables. So, one of the big items on the docket is the Cody Park warming shelter. And anyone that's been there or been around that facility knows it's tired and there is a need for something to be done for that facility. So, not that far from now, we're looking at a renovation or replacement for that uh warming shelter based on the CIP, that $1.5 million uh has been slated uh in 2027 for something to be done for that facility. So, this will be the first out of two. And in 2029, it's slated for Cahill to have the same dollar amount, 1.5 million, in a future borrow. So, this will be the kickstart for our facilities, for parks, and for our infrastructure to really give guidance of what it's going to look like uh over the next probably several

decades with this project. So before we jump in with both feet for village staff, we wanted to make sure that the village board was on the same page as far as guiding principles of what you all would like to see out of Cody Park before we make those assumptions with the request for or proposals with a design firm because just like we did with our onem water mane and lead service line, we want to make sure that we have um a great consultant at a fair price, right? So, an RFP really opens that up to uh qualified firms to see who's the best match for us to do design, public engagement, and construction oversight activities. So, with that, um we do have a bunch of questions uh for the board. But I think before then, do we want to open it up to our one of our main presenters of the evening?

Sure. So, um a little context here. Uh John Wilson, that's your last name. uh and I uh were flooding the rink at Clo for many hours one night and and shoveling it as well and I mentioned that we were going to uh do something at the Clo warming house and he said that his daughter had some ideas and so tonight Henrietta if you could come up to the podium and maybe we could uh get your presentation ready and first let's go to the table so she'd be perfect. That might be great. Yep. here. That'd be great. Good idea. And do do we have the um slide thing for slide the Who has the little or

well not not a laser but the clicker for the next slide there. There we go.

All right. So, first you need to state your name and your address. Can you can you speak into the microphone there? There you go. I have like a also pull it off like this if that's more helpful. Okay. So, what's your name? Let's start with

Okay. So, my name is Henrietta Wilson and um I'm in sixth grade at White Fishbay Middle School. I am interested in interior design and architectural design. So, recently Mr. Buckley invited me um to come up with the design for Clia Park warming hut. Um so, this is not a school project, but it's it has been like a really great learning experience and I'm excited to speak to the members of the village board. Okay, my goals for this presentation. My goal was to listen to the community and identify important design features to consider. My goal was not to design the building, but to help me understand what the community needed. I used a design method called design thinking. Um what is design thinking? I researched design thinking in two sources. The think company and no without borders. Um, design thinking is all about creating innovative solutions for the user at the center, which involves turning ideas into tangible things that can be tested and improved. This human- centered approach translates to impactful and dynamic solutions that evolve with the user. Okay. The design thinking process. Step one, empathize. To create meaningful benefits, you need to know the user and care about their lives. Step two, define. Define the challenge of or the problem based on the needs of the users. Step three, ideulate. Brainstorm solutions to the user's problems. Step four, prototype. A prototype is possible is a possible solution that allows time for feedback. Step five, test. Now we engage our idea in real life with actual users. How I use design thinking for the warming hut design. Step one, observation. I spent an afternoon at Cody Park and in the warming hut

observing how people use the warming hut area. Step two, interview. I had over eight interviews with stakeholders about the warming hut and how to improve it. And then step three, discovery. I thought about all my interviews and used like post-it notes to group together what I learned. I had a list of problems and turn them into solutions or design features for a new warming hut. Step four, design. I put the design features together into a floor plan with the goal of meeting the needs of the stakeholders. Step five, present. At the end of this presentation, I would like feedback from the board on the design. Okay. Who I learned from. I wanted to know what the people who used the warming hut thought about it and what they wanted. I held interviews over the phone and in person with Cody Park stakeholders. They include Cody Park neighbors, parents, grandparents, soccer coaches, musicians, village president, ice skaters, village elders, and then the Whitefish Bay Civic Foundation board. What people value about Cody Park? views of Lake Michigan, green space, open views, sounds of kids and activity, community events such as Fourth of July events, live concerts, beer gardens, ice skating, soccer games, playground, run the bay, and pickle ball, and the beach. What pe Oh, wait. I already did that. Okay, so the reoccurring complaints um about the warming hut, there's like nowhere to sit inside or outside. There is very small bathrooms that are only single use. And then there's no storage for boots, skates, cleats, and bags. And then the windows are too small to watch kids play on the playground and young skaters, which is a safety concern

especially. And then the bathroom and warming hut are dirty and old. And then the warming hut is too small for events and group exercise. And then we also need to provide more electricity for concessions and musicians. And then there's lack of safe equipment for storage spaces. So, this is the bathrooms, and you can see that they're pretty old and um outdated, and they're also only one person can use it, which is not really handy. Um, this is like a spectator at the window and then the clutter like and the floors that it's a tripping hazard especially. And then there's also another person who's standing at the window. And that's why I think it could be important to add a place to put um like to have people so they can sit there and watch the ice skaters or people on the playground. And then the White Fish Bay village village board goals. When I interviewed Kevin Buckley, he had the following ideas for the warming hut. He said he to add a permanent stage and band shell to Clo Park for live music and other events. And we would also orient the band shell towards the south. And then we also wanted he also said to make the bathrooms bigger, make the warming hut bigger, possibly twice the size, have more community events at the warming hut and Clo Park and then find ways to use the band shell throughout the year. Important features to consider bathrooms. Expand the building footprint within the length including the bathrooms. Make bathrooms more open for multiple users. and then face entrance towards inward for privacy. And then

boys bathroom gets three urinals with privacy partitions and one stall that locks. And then the girls bathroom should get four stalls that lock. And then also add a water bottle filler and water fountain at bathroom entrance. And then also add diaper changing stations to both restrooms and add hand dryers and handrails and make the bathroom wheelchair accessible and also American Disability Act compliant. and then include design features for easy cleaning. Okay. Important features to consider. Warming hut interior. Um benches mounted on perimeter walls. Large windows for visibility and safety. Parents want to watch ice skaters and kids on the playground from inside. And then bar with stools for parents to sit and watch ice skaters. Cubbies beneath benches to store boots, skates, bags, and cleats and get rid of clutter. And then sturdy floor mats for ice skaters that aren't a tripping hazard. And then wider space for other activities such as exercise groups and parties. Um a gas fireplace like Kill Cahill Park. And then large dry erase board for teams and groups such as soccer teams. And then um and then important features to consider for a new band shell. provide a roof for protect to protect bands from the rain and sun. And then also we need to provide a raised concrete stage. And then temporary scaffolding for production lights and speakers. And then no walls on either side. The walls will block the views and are bad for sound quality. Access south entrance of warming hut from stage. Clearance height to be able to use the band shell for other activities such as open air movie screens. Important features to consider. Warming hut

exterior design materials um should match the park environment to blend in. The building structure should avoid blocking views or changing the feel of the park. We should also add native landscaping around the building and be consistent with new plants and use evergreen and dudishious and due and deciduous plants to soften the building including plants that flower at different times during all seasons. And then I this is a floor plan that like for the idea of what the new warming hut could look like. So, we have the girls and the boys bathroom on um the east side and then a bigger utility closet. And then also on the right side, we should add benches, cubbies, and a whiteboard. So, um like people could put their storage there and they don't have to worry about putting it on the ex on the um outside walls and we could avoid clutter. And then there's also a fireplace on the west side um because I think that would be a really good um gathering space. And then of course um on the south side facing um the ice skating rink, we could add bar stools and a high top so then parents could watch their kids and make sure they were safe. So, okay, thank you so much for this opportunity and I look forward to your feedback and hope to support the board in this process. And then also I have some other um bandshells that Mr. Buckley pointed out in our interview that I think was very helpful. So this is like the sister bay bandshell and then

okay and then heart park bandshell and then the Monomin Falls bandshell and the interior of Schlitz Ottabon which I think is a good um natural tone that I think we could add in the um exterior and interior of the new warming. So, thank you so much. Well, that was amazing. Well done. Thank you so much. Um, we probably need your address to send the RFPs to I was going to say Joel texted me and asked if um you wanted a job. So, I think you're hired.

Could you let us know when you're old enough? And I have to say uh to Dr. Feckler and the schoolboard team. Um, you should probably have some kind of design competition for sixth graders uh for the middle school because middle Yeah, middle school. Boy, imagine what they could do later on. We we this is fantastic and it really moves us forward in thinking about, you know, what we're going to do with that um facility. So, thank you so much. Thank you. A round of applause. Oh, try to top that, Matt. Yeah, not doing it. Let's see your drums.

Sometimes you just don't want to try after. So, um, the next part of the memo and this agenda item is basically just leading the discussion, I would say, as far as if anyone's done a little bit of homework, thought about this over the weekend. Uh, but I'll just go line by line if it's okay with the board and just engage in conversation as we go. So, the first one being, does the existing warming shelter location work best or would the board like alternative locations within the park to explore? Yes, I think it works well. Yeah,

I think it works well. Although, I would argue that we shouldn't necessarily face it to the south. I think we should face it to the lake because I think that there are people who live right there who didn't buy a house next to a bad shell and it might be nice to direct sound away from houses given our recent sound issues at Clooney. I I would take that a step further and say that I don't think that the band Shell is a good idea. I disagree. Um and and it's because of all of

all of the noise issues that have come before us. The difference in Whitefish Bay versus Sister Bay, Monomony Falls, Hart Park, and Lake Park are there are no homes within hundreds of yards or quarter mile of those band shells. And I think that and while I would personally love it, I think it's a fantastic idea, I don't think it works for Clo Park because of all of the neighbors. And it doesn't matter what direction you face it, there will be issues involving noise for more than those neighbors. You know, the you know, I I just recently met with one of the neighbors on the pickle ball situation and they said, "We understand the beer garden. We understand the Fourth of July. We understand, you know, occasional um times and, you know, times where and events where there is going to be extra noise. We get it. But it's the constant that that they worry about. And while this wouldn't be an everyday thing such as pickle ball, this would invite more noise making situations in loud noise situations. And like I said, I personally think it's a fantastic idea. I don't think it works at Cloyd Park.

Say we have a dozen concerts at Clo Park already. We don't have to call it a band shell. Just call it a stage. Right now they're putting a PA system in the mud and they're like, you know, I mean, if it's a little moist out there, you see like the PV speaker starting to tip. It's like just give them a raised elevated platform and let them play no differently than they do now. It wouldn't increase the amplification. If we designed it as an open air setting, it would just provide a stable environment for musicians to play in. I don't think it has to be a grandiose or some sort of like amplifica amplified like you know I I wouldn't expect that we would want to budget for a permanent PA system. I just think it's a stable stage shell gives it a certain connotation

because if you think too though that having something like that invites I mean I understand what you're saying there's 10 and people don't complain but if if you build it they will come potentially. would we be inviting like an every weekend concert? And I I'm not necessarily I just have the same kind of concerns. The the one example I can think of that it works and I don't know I haven't heard over the years of neighbor of many neighbor complaints would be Humbult Park where they have um chill in the hill during the summer and it's a very very very permanent structure where they do where they use it for more than just chill but from my experience in working with county supervisors in the past in the h in the Bay View Humble Park neighborhood. The neighbors don't have the same comp don't have a lot of complaints when it comes to that permanent structure.

I guess I'm not trying to be snarky, but if we're going to have parks, we should use them. I mean, we should those should be places where people gather and congregate. Those should be those third spaces that we bring our families to and we enjoy the weekends at. And anybody who moves in proximity of a park has to know that that's going to be there, right? They they should understand that there will be a flurry of activity from time to time. And it can go up and it can go down and pickle ball is in vogue and then it'll be out of vogue. Like I'm just saying if you move near a park, there should be an expectation that you will interact with noise and activity on on the regular. And

I don't I don't disagree with you. If we're going to have parks, let's utilize them to our fullest extent. We are a land poor village. We don't have a lot of space. So every square inch of village owned space, I think, should be maximized in that. But also the other place that we do it is library park. We do the community bands that we do on a pretty regular basis throughout the summer. And I don't believe that we have a lot of, you know, push back from complaints from the neighbors. And this isn't meant to be like an every occurrence. This is to your point. This is on a very occasional. And just to add on to that concept, I've spoken to neighbors around Schoolhouse Park, particularly around Pumpkin Festival because that's pretty loud. I mean, you've got

a thousand people there almost every night and and bands that are blasting right out into, you know, that's 75 ft away from homes. And and by and large, those neighbors are pleased with the pumpkin festival. They love having this, you know, action and activity in front of their homes. And it's five nights a year and and plus another, you know, six concerts. And just my last statement is simply um the concept of if we build it they will come like I would hope so like that is that's my position. I would hope I would hope so. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Well and that's all I was saying is I I guess I don't want to run into this without

I I want to make sure residents are aware that this is something that we're thinking about doing because I I agree with you that using a park is something but they didn't move in next to a a venue, a music venue. They moved in next to a park. So living next to a park, you expect sports, you expect, you know, kids on the playground, you expect the ice rink, you expect stuff like that. And I'm not saying that everyone's going to be opposed to it, but I just think it's something we need to get the pulse of the neighbors on before we go whole hog into developing a concert venue in the middle of White Fish Bank. I agree. I think we just didn't know. And but think about but think about all we did about sound for that.

You know, we spent a lot of time thinking about sound and thinking about the impact on neighbors because they didn't move in next to a concert venue. I'm not suggest I'm not saying that I'm an absolute no on this, but I'm suggesting it's really important that we get the pulse of the neighbors before we go forward with something like that. I agree with what everyone said so far, but I do believe that we need an ordinance or something ahead of time with the sound or what kind of amplification or what I know we have noise ordinance, but more dedicated to this. Um, when I lived in Cedarberg, I was near the park that held summer sounds and that was awful. Like your Friday night was just it was loud. to their people. I mean, it was you want that, but it's to a certain extent. And I knew other people who lived around there who needed to go to bed for work the next morning and they weren't sleeping. I mean, it can get ugly fast. I think

yeah, put it so many people loved it that it's like, oh, can't say anything about summer sounds. You know, it is amazing to think that we've had this convers. I mean, that's that's apples and oranges. We're talking about indoors versus outdoors. And I I get it. It's just that we were always thinking, "Oh my goodness, the neighbors will be so upset by this." And then they totally weren't. Oh, we asked. No. Yeah. And we should absolutely nobody's against that.

And by the way, comparing Clo to what we do at Schoolhouse Park is also apples and oranges. It's four nights a week with bands for pumpkin festival. And I'm sorry, but the White Fish Bay Village Band is not making the types of noise that that con that concerts and other things of that of that ilk would make at a at a proposed venue. So, let's And and by the way, we've already started to we've already set a precedent that noise at Clo Park is such a big deal that we are going to make drastic changes to how we how we allow people to use the park. So let while while I think that this is a fantastic idea, I we can't we've already set a precedent and I I think that that we're talking out of both sides if we if we say the band shell is a fantastic idea. Let's bring in a bunch of Let's hope we get a bunch of great, you know, shows and music acts and oh wait, but no, you can't use the park during these hours and these hours and these hours because it makes too much noise. We can't. We can't have it both ways.

I'd love to have it both ways. We can't. Well, while I agree with you mainly, I would push back a little bit on the quality of the noise between what we're talking about and the elephant in the room is pickle ball. Noise is noise. No, no, no. The the decibb or decibb? I thought so, too. But uh decibb or decibb. If something is loud, something is loud.

Let's get some other opinions here. So, I see this as a way to improve events we already do there. Um, I've set up for those events. It's very difficult. This makes those safer. It makes them higher quality. It might make those events better sound quality. I don't see this as something that's going to explode park concerts. It's possible that happens, but to me, this is designing for what we already do there to do it better. And that's So, to me, I think this is a good idea. Um, I would improve the electrical with it to to facilitate some of that, but much of the park I feel like is already used throughout the summer for beer gardens or other smaller events. I don't really see that changing. I just see the quality of it improving. And ultimately, we have control of what we allow to happen there in our park. I don't know that we would allow a concert circuit throughout the summer if it was becoming that issue. I think we have control, but I would design the building to support the events we have.

Yes. And I think a a stage, whatever we want to call it, I think is is a good way to do that. And I would face it into the park or or away from the homes definitely. Yeah, I think at least. Yeah. Where the big open green space is, that's where I would face it. I mean, that's where people tend to gather. I I mean there towards the lake. I don't know. I wouldn't face the pickle ball court if that's what we're thinking. That wouldn't make sense on that side of the park. Just thinking of if we're thinking of where the noise would go, I think it would go into the affecting the least number of people, right? Potentially. That's all I was suggesting. But also, I just want to be sure because we did get caught a little flatfooted with pickle ball that

they're good questions to ask now. I agree. Exactly. We got a plan for and make sure that we're getting the input that we didn't have before. Makes sense. I did love Henrietta's suggestion that um we make it multi-purpose like we do movies in the park. I know they do that downtown Milwaukee or they'll do it over at um Bayshore. Green Greenale uh Greenale does it in one of their parks too that is home adjacent.

Yeah, I think that'd be a really easy way to get families together and yeah, that's build some core memories. And if there were windows, you know, if I mean, if there's a band shell, there's going to be a solid wall behind the band, I would assume. So then windows out the back of the building might be where where you'd have ice, you know, where you'd have things that you're observing. So if we were to orient it a little further east, then you'd still have the green space that you're observing. Are we getting too detailed? I think I think we are. I think this is good, but we have a lot of questions really really quick on question number one

on this in particular. I 100% agree. My I the idea that I had in my head was very similar to what Trusty Deppman just laid out that I've I've often thought that Fourth of July the when it comes to the when it comes to the stage when it comes to the the electrical and plumbing the fact that we can only bring in uh food trucks um that that there are a lot of ways to there are a lot of ways to make what we already do better. I I don't think that that that something that something grandiose is is is is the way to is the way to go. And there are ways to do, you know, smaller concerts that aren't, you know, making a ton of noise or the movie nights. I think those are all fant I mean, Cumberland does those in their parking lot and they are I just I I don't want anyone to take this as I think we shouldn't use our parks. No, we've already established that we're not okay with our parks having tons of noise. And I'm sure the Cahill baseball folks would totally disagree with that, but um that's just that that's my initial thought on all of that. Do do we have any data on the amount of rentals that we have for the CO warming house?

We do through I don't I don't have that off the top of my head, but we can provide that to the board. But it is substantially used. Even over the weekend there was probably six rentals. Like they're back to back. That's kind of my point is like what if we added and did another Kah Hill and you allowed the rental of this facility similar to Cahill. I we have a lot of groups inside White Fish Bay that want to meet in places other than people's houses. I mean to open that up and add another venue for that I think would be great. I think you had a lot of really good ideas in your plan. I agree with probably 90 fireplace 90% of what you said. I agree with fireplace as well. Yeah. I wrote I wrote down community room. Community room. And potentially there's a way to to close off the bathrooms from the community room portion so the bathrooms can stay open longer hours. And Exactly. Like that's exactly

Yeah. Exactly. I got a couple others. Do you want to go down your list or should Please. Oh. Um, so interior too. some kind of like a a small kitchen or concession window just as an option I think would be a good thing to add too. Um whether it's for events or or just use at those rentals. It doesn't need to be again grandiose but just to have that infrastructure there I think would be a good addition. I like Maslowski Park has a window a small kitchen. You can operate it. It has an operator but they also rent it out for families groups. Right.

Yeah. We're going to do a party in the And you want to have a a kitchen essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Not a commercial kitchen necessarily, but there's a sink. Yeah. So, something a little more than that. Electric and electric and plumbing upgrades. similar to what the similar to what the Argo has up upstairs where it is not a fully functioning commercial kitchen, but like you could bring in your own things to warm up or have you know things of things of that nature I think is would would be something I would envision for both Cloia and Cahill.

And there's a lot of talk about windows. So, I mean, I agree integrating windows, but like I I'm thinking of some parks they have the concession window if a group wants to have an event there and do concessions or a food vendor does. It just gives you another place to do it to set up. It's a little more organized.

One of the qu I just want the sense of the board for this. Um, one of the questions lower is is basically about a budget number. And I think in the beginning it's, hey, we're just gonna make a a a slightly big slightly bigger room uh with more bathrooms and kind of the same layout with, you know, a concrete stage. What has now been discussed is to expand that into a community room, right? And so what is the sense of the board in terms of either going that direction saying we want something bigger and more like Heyill versus no no let's let's it perhaps get two different concepts one that's just replacement and a better replacement of the warming house versus one that's a kahill light right so who who who's on that which team at this point

and the other question that's on here is reconstruct a remodel I I I my guess is that everybody's going to say raise it and start over. There's nothing there's nothing to remodel. That would be my recommendation. We already Exactly. That's what I was saying. So number two is the brick. How about this? Let's give Henrietta a sledgehammer and she can just put put a pin in my question and and let's just go through the rest of them and just keep in mind your thoughts on Oh, I'm sorry. You were you I was just going to say I'd probably be on team Kah Hill Light. I think a community center. I think the rental income could be fairly significant. And if Mahalite is another half million and it's all about let's see what that gets you, I guess.

But if you're actually able to get revenue from it that way. Well, fortunately, we've got a probably a designer in the audience, so we could probably get three designs. Does she also do fundraising? um who would you know cuz right now the recreation department is responsible for all of the rentals of Kill. Um uh I don't want to throw this on staff, but I I we should be making that money.

Yeah. I mean, this has been brought up. It's something we'll have to circle back with the school district about. Um, obviously I I want to say it was like 30,000 in revenueish, right? That was has been generated historically annually, but our staff is that or is that is that I mean because once you take out how much it costs for the people who actually do the rentals and all that is it

so they facilitate the actual rental process, like you pick up your keys from them and such, but our DPW workers are the ones if there's an issue, they're the ones that do all the checks. um they're the ones that are calling in with twohour minimum in um on call times if there's anything that pops up. Yeah. Um so I don't know. We haven't tracked it that way to know how much it costs on our side. Okay. But but it makes sense for us to take it over probably. Yeah. I mean I think our expenses are pretty significant um in in comparison. But but in terms of workload, does anyone have the capacity to add that to

I I haven't figured that piece out yet, but I think it makes sense. And so it's something that we would have to consider. Sam, do you still have some more on your list? Oh, the only other thing I was going to say is if we can think about adding some kind of covered outdoor seating. So, one of the things that Cody is that seating's pretty limited. Um, and I think similar to what we added at Kah Hill or we'll be adding with just some shade. Anything we can do to kind of provide some outdoor covered seating, I think would be a good good add-on. Maybe you do it as an add-on to the building, but just to make it a little more I don't know friendly to people who are visiting. Yeah. Side of it that isn't the band shell. Yeah, I was thinking the towards the playground side of it probably.

Matt, I think we're on question number three.

All right. So will the board want additional improvements to be bundled into the project scope? And this is important because architectural firms would have to have a separate contract agreement with maybe a civil engineering firm if there's a wish to do something more for the parking lot. For instance, that we all know the parking lot is smaller in size that accommodates the tennis court pickups, uh the playground, and then a larger capacity. If there's going to be rental space, that's going to be a lot more room. So, it's good to let the consultant, the architectural firm know who they're bringing along for the journey if there's going to be potential add-ons of electrical or parking lot. So, is there anything else that the board feels would be musthaves or at least to look into the the design concepts other than like my example of the parking lot?

I'm going to ask Jacob. Well, I would I'm probably alone in this. Um, I'd actually say get rid of the parking lot alto together. Wow. Um, I actually like I mean it fills up. It's got like what eight spots or something like that. It get fills up right away, but it's so close to so much activity.

And I just don't think there's that much need to get that close uh to the park. And so my personal like if if I had a magic wand, I would turn that into additional green space, picnic tables, whatever else, more seating, and then just let people park on the perimeter and then walk in. It's not a far and it's not a big park. Uh and so that is what I would say. Um, I understand that obviously there's probably some ADA stuff that we would have to figure out, but um, where the parking lot is now

there. I mean, it's so much better now that we've redone Clo and there's a fence separating the playground from the uh from the parking lot. Still, yeah, some of these vehicles, you know, you get a Escalade or you get a Yukon and people are trying to park in there and you just can't see the four, five, and six-year-olds who are running through there. So, my personal thought is fewer cars in that area, whatever it whatever that means. I would disagree with that in that um I'm thinking of the young mothers taking their kids to the playground

and little Sally has forgotten her juice box and now my car is a half a block away and I've got two screaming kids with me as opposed to just right there in the parking lot. you know, that that would be and I I understand what you're saying about where it is, but I think we need to have some parking close to where the playground is where people are hauling kids back and forth. Yeah. I guess if if I were to redo the parking, I would I don't know what road it is, but uh short drive. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And I would I would maybe do some angled parking there. Yeah. Um and then I would I would just that parking space can't lose those bushes though.

Well, it can't lose the bushes. No, absolutely not. Um, but just that the six to eight spots in between the pickle ball courts and the park just have every time they seem problematic and you get people who are bad at parking and so then it's even fewer spaces because they're parking right in the middle and it's just it's kind of a free-for-all and it's just not designed for I don't think that parking lot is designed for the size of cars we drive today or people. True. I I have to object that um I think it was like 2015.

We had a committee uh with uh Grafe, we had you know a bunch of citizens who sat down around a table trying to figure out the master plan for for Cody and and the consensus of that group at the time was it was crazy to have Shore Drive bisect the eastern and western halves of Clo. And so the the concept was in and and we used the phrase like in 50 years, in a hundred years, what's the park gonna look like? And we thought it's nuts to have a shore drive going right through the middle. And instead it was going to go off a lake drive by the tennis courts, wind around, and then connect to the neighbors um in the northern section of Shore Drive. So your concept of getting rid of that parking lot was going to be made even worse really with the concept of a road being next to the the the uh tennis courts like somehow winding through the parking lot.

I think that I can't I don't know if you'd call it a bifurcated park but like uh but having it kind of split can be problematic but at the same time how much are we willing to spend or how what's what's to spend and it's well and what would it cost to relocate that road? I mean, think about it. If you relocated that road, you could put a small parking lot further on the west of where the play So, it wouldn't be in the middle of everything. Um, you could pull in and have a parking lot here to the west of where the playground is with nothing on the other side. We would un unfortunately eliminate the pickle ball courts. But um but

so subtle probably getting a little too far ahead of us. But but I like the idea actually of not having the road running partway through the park and and moving the and moving the parking a little bit away. So when I say that options are available to potentially look at either relocation of parking, alternative parking options at a conceptual rendering may be part of the project. Well, are we Hold on, Anna, please. She was raising. Sorry. Sorry. No, you're good. I just didn't see your hand

this out here and see if anyone sees this as a possibility to do anything bigger and greater like a senior center or wreck sort of thing, gym type, you know, workout equipment. I don't know, just make this a big wonderful thing because we're working on it right now. I just wanted to hear opinions if like Anna be quiet or something. Personally, I would do that at Kill. Yeah. Um, but that's just if I had to choose between the two, that's where I would probably do something of that. Um, although there's more space floaty basic floaty to open up. That's true. Yeah. I mean, Kahill is prettyightight tight. There's not enough space to

thought it was more centrally located to other things, but has a little more parking right now already, but not currently. Yeah. But I mean, that's just off the top of my head. If I had to choose between the two, that's where I'd go. But I I see your point. Yeah, it's not a I'd be glad you asked the question.

We need to ask it on the front end because what I would hate to happen on the back end is it it gets clunky along the way. But I guess to the question about more of a recreation center, I guess if I jump ahead, 1.5 million's in the budget. If we start to go too much into altering drives and larger parking lots or recreation center, we can design whatever the board wishes to design, but the 1.5 would not be a realistic number for a rec center that you minimally quadruple that number if you're talking about a rec center. And then staffing and what goes into that that like me working for Milwaukee County, that was a full-blown department to manage that. So, not only the capital improvement side, but if you do, you know, your gym and your programming, then it's a collaboration either with the school district, which is a thing in its own right, or be for the village staff to have to manage not only the capital investment of probably 10 million or something like that off the back of the napkin plus your annual levy cost of operations. So, again, it it's an idea, but I just want to make sure there's realistic expectations with budgets. Well, to to I mean, I guess we it wouldn't need to be a full-fledged rec center, but I mean, it if you look at Lidell, they they have rec department programming there. You know, if we're looking at increasing the size of the increasing the size of the building and making the community room bigger than it is at Cahill, there's no reason that we couldn't, you know, think about, you know, maybe not the full-fledged rec center that you're talking about, but to have, you know, programming available there. Um,

so between Cody and Cahill, the village will obviously be making the most significant investments in the park system that we've made I I would guess in decades in a very long time. And given the discussion, I wonder if there should be consideration for like a needs assessment or some more formal process. I know master plan and everybody kind of groans, but the conversation that's being discussed is is really a needs assessment of what amenities are available through our park systems, through our partnerships with the school district and other entities versus what desires are there currently and into the future of the community and can you incorporate those elements into these projects? The only thing I would say about that is that I mean the court plan really did go in and really break down what do we have, what do we need, what are the I mean and maybe we need to go back

sure and look more closely at that rather than spend money on a whole another document that does essentially the same thing. Just a thought. I not to mention we we have Kahill, right? And so we we have th that functionality already. And so it's it's I I think about having some kind of survey and more public input where where what would they say? Well, we want more of that. And then well, how much more and what are you willing to pay for that, right? And so I I I am interested in getting a project moving forward.

I Kevin, you use the term I think Sam, you said it as well, but kahill light. Um, I think if we can design something where you can hold a birthday party, a Bible study, a wine club, something along those lines. A senior club.

A senior club. Yep. Whatever. I think it's going to it's going to book solid for nine months out of the year. We're going to get some revenue back from that. It's going to take a little bit of burden off of Cahill. And I think I just think that makes a lot of sense. I really like how Sam put it. You know, I think this project should just be to design, we should try to do what we do now, just make it a little better. And so, it doesn't have to be a grandiose band stand, but just a safe, stable stage. You're right. It just doesn't have to be a a huge new building. Um, it just needs to be a slightly more functional building.

Yep. And to your point though about using it for birthday parties, using it for clubs, using it for I do think that we need to be mindful of parking then because I will say I watch and I did it myself. I mean I rented Kah for a million birthday parties and the amount of stuff you're shleing in and out. I mean to have the parking way over on the street that then people are going to go, "No, I think I'll

I figured I' I said I'd be alone." And I I would say I would say that I mean to to the point that Matt was trying to get resolved. Um parking safety is is definitely something that needs to be an analyzed and that's actually why I was pointing at you because you're you're at that u facility more often than I am. Um so parking lot safety is definitely something that can be looked at. I I side with needing parking there. And I I would also say that um the concept that oh there's only eight spaces that probably satiates demand 90% of the hours that we have and so like that's enough.

And I'll echo what I said before. Um putting the fence at Clo has made a huge difference. It is it's been remarkable the because before you every day you were there you're like oh my gosh I'm surprised like no kid has been squished yet. like um and now it's just you know they're not tall enough to get over the

I guess I one question I have is why are we talking about Kahill light? Why are why not Cahill adjacent? Um, you know, if we're going to make an investment, why aren't we making an investment to make it as big or as fancy as kale? But I as functional

functional like I I don't I I don't understand why we're tossing the term light around. Why wouldn't we want the exact same thing at both parks? Um, I don't know. Especially because we have a lot of I don't want to call it dead space, but I mean, we have a lot of space that we're not using productively. some I mean not to say that it's not productive to have green space but no there is a lot more space there to have the smaller park building at the park that has more space isn't is counterintuitive

my thought of Kahill was always that there's just a lot more going on there so there's tennis courts there's a basketball court and there's a baseball field so when I thought light I just meant this is probably not a sporting park or that it's it's a building that does what Cahill does But it's not the same level of activity was my guess. I guess that's how I thought of that. It could be except I don't think I don't think the warming house is used to those activities.

It's it's not used for baseball. It's not used for the tennis. Well, that's not true. The tennis courts, the the high school does store tennis gear inside the Cahill Waring House, but um it's Yeah, it is it's an amenity of the park. It's not part of the other amenities. Okay. Staff would also like to use this for elections potentially. Sure. So, we'll put that on the list. Yeah. You probably need more parking on Yeah. We'll have to think about it.

But we you know, we could probably go on for another hour on on all of these. So, let's stick to the bullet points. And your next bullet point was site amenities, furnishings, and lighting. Correct. I think we covered

but I guess exterior lighting I know there was some public feedback especially with ice skating over the last couple years. So just throwing that out there if like we want to enhance lighting for exterior. We talked about the the concert venue Fourth of July. So it makes sense for those types of things for like a stage and having that lighting. But the actual skating rink is if there's a desire just wanted to throw that out there that should be included. Yeah, I was saying so firstly, yes, there were several comments about having some kind of flood lighting and I think those are pretty basic. You know, mounted somewhere up that you can, you know, flood the area with light. But also, um, the 4th of July after the fireworks, it's very dark, people are moving around, it's hard to get through there. So, you'd flip them on at that point. I I don't know if there are other moments you'd use them, but for a couple of flood lights, I think that would be appropriate. Not to mention that the site itself should be attractively lit.

Well, and and also for security like Kahill Kahill, those are motion detector. Well, and and this is probably the time to put in security cameras. That would be another amenity. So, the lights you're referring to are mounted. You're not talking about like pool. No, not just Yeah. Okay. in indeed there are plenty of people skating at 8 o'clock at night anyhow um in the in the moonlight and so adding a little bit of light would totally help them out and and let's face it our skating rink lasted about three and a half weeks so did it get used a lot oh a ton absolutely a ton it did okay moving on

we captured a lot of number four as far as musthaves so I appreciate the comments and feedback um so regarding uh rental and community space. I think that was great input, but then there might be a conflict when it comes to the warming house for ice skating if it's going to be a rentable space versus open to the public space. So, I guess keep that in mind as far as a mixeduse space for just a gathering and you can use it during the winter season to take off your skates and to have the cubbies and those types of amenities. But if it's one open space, then you can't program it, rent it in advance then, too. So, that might just be a discussion. It's not a today problem by any means as you design, but keep in mind that it can only do so much with that.

At that point though, I think you could block out those times. I mean, if that's an issue, it's going to be ice skating during this time period. Those are dedicated for ice skating. Yeah. When I when I moved in, that was Kill. I mean, it was all set up and it was all winter long. They had benches and the fire going and the mats and you just couldn't rent it for other stuff, right? Not not to mention just a comment that um we didn't have everything ready this for the ice rink and so we didn't have any place to change your skates

and so I we got the picnic tables and the mats installed but before that for about a week people were just changing their skates outside so it it's not like it's if you if there was an event in there like people would still survive it would be okay and the bathrooms would be accessible from the outside yada yada yada so I think it's a problem for tomorrow. Absolutely. Okay. Um, so $ 1.5 million budget sounds like there's a lot of different ideas. It very well based on the discussion today. We we'll work with the designer when it comes to that, but is $1.5 million like hard number to the board or is there a willingness to at least discuss alternatives if it exceeds that 1.5 million? Yeah. Yes, I think so.

Okay. I think so. I mean, you know, in the end, we'll come up with well, you'll come up with the first draft of the RFP, perhaps give it to the public works committee. We'll noodle over it. Yes. Does that sound about right? Y and and then, you know, tweak it and then you can release it to Henrietta and she'll start designing it. Yeah. Especially if there's revenue generation, I feel like that changes the math a little bit.

Maybe. Yeah. Just to clarify, if we put out the RFP, would you want to review maybe the consultant that we've se before we select it? That's typically how it goes with that versus reviewing the RFP itself. I just want to make sure I clear that up because that would be one more meeting, another month before we finalize RFP. Put it out there, which typically adds a month for them to review and respond back. Well, I mean, if you think you got enough data points from all of this, hopeful for then then go for it. And I don't know,

the the public works committee, the village board would be able to approve the selected consultant and interview them, have that discussion, making sure that the the goals and the vision of the project are shared with that consultant. So, there will be an opportunity before we approve it through the village board to go through that process. Whatever you think is right there, okay? you know, just want to make sure we trust we trust you pretty far. Okay.

All right. So, number six, uh, what level of community engagement is expected? I think this is an important one because we've talked to a few consultants and that's really where it becomes timeconuming going through a community-led process and we want to make sure the expectations of the board survey community engagement what does that appear to be as far as do you expect a survey open house focus groups with like a civic foundation public works committee of course going through that process to evaluate maybe concept A versus concept be so it could be open-ended uh based on you know the desire of the community how much public feedback there is but it's always good to give a consultant some parameters to work with so then they can budget accordingly based on the hours for deliverables based on that community engagement section of the AR

uh I I wrote in my notes I wrote civic foundation because let's be honest the high holy holiday in Whitefish Bay is the 4th of July Um so I think that the foundation definitely should be involved in these discussions to what extent I I'm open to that but if uh they I I think that they need a voice cuz I think if some of the other things that we are discussing if they come to fruition the civic foundation will probably be involved in those things as well such is a movie night something or movie nights something along those so I think we definitely need to consult the ST foundation um we're I've been frequently referring back to the our community survey that we did year and a half ago now um having another one in the next year or so I think is a good idea how we combine community survey questions with CL facility questions I'm I'm not prepared to decide that today, but um Survey Monkey is so easy to execute and and get a lot of data from. So I think that that would be a relatively lowcost way of getting public input. Um and then finally having public works committee I would I would just route um you know public discussions through the public works committee with a final at the village board obviously. So like open houses that design shetss any of that necessary outside of public that's done by the public works.

Yeah. When we when we designed the Kahill playground we gave options and said kind of weigh in on those options. That seemed like a good way to go. Maybe if this comes to a couple different options. You can pose that to the public. When we get there it focuses it a little bit more but still give some input. Yeah. Sound good? Yeah. That's very helpful. Yeah. that the consultant was saying, do you want a lot of input at the beginning in terms of the functionality of the building or more once you get to the actual concrete ideas where people can weigh in? And what I'm hearing you say is more when we get to different ideas that you can visualize to get their input on what they like and don't like.

That being said, I I feel like it would not be a bad idea for us to put something in the newsletter that says, "Hey, we're talking about Floyd. We're you know sure that so that when we come to having three designs we don't have everybody going wait what sure you know absolutely yeah just like a public comment that could be in next week it it could I mean that way if you want to they can be please watch the village board you know y okay

and then the last item that wasn't on the list but because we're doing Cody and Kahill and at least my experience in Sussex is that there's a lot of design synergies by hiring one design firm and then keeping them throughout because they learn the community. You can have cohesive designs. It just is cheaper and I'll say smoother to do it that way. My thought is to release the RFP saying we have this Clo project and we also have longer term the K Hill so that way if we don't like the CL we'll cut them but if we do then we can just kind of seamlessly move into the Khill design. Good. Okay. Yes. I agree.

Okay. So that's all the questions I had. So if there's anything else or is we have our notes and we know how to move forward. Any members of the public? Henrietta, do you have any extra comments for us? Any guidance? Did we do okay? Did we do okay? It's good to hear. You did okay, too. All right. Uh then I'll close that and we'll move on to our last item of the evening is discussion action on the 2026 to 2030 village communication plan. Interesting to think that in 2031 we'll need a brand new communication plan. This will elapse in we know with the DOJ at this point.

Oh, so as you all know this is the result of the strategic planning process that we went through and one of the strategic goals from the process was a connected community and this initiative reaches that goal. the framework for how the White Fish Bay will communicate with residents, businesses, employees, and other stakeholders, as well as emphasizing awareness, engagement, transparency, trust, and equity in all outreach is laid out. The plan outlines core communication goals, increasing awareness of village services and decisions, fostering two-way engagement, enhancing transparency, building trust, like I said, and promoting equitable access to information, and clarifies that village communications must remain neutral during policy development while clearly explaining decisions once village board acts. The plan inventories existing external channels which you are familiar with the website bi-weekly e newsletter, social media, public meetings and YouTube recordings, community events, direct mail and emergency alerts and then proposes initiatives such as building a consistent visual brand, enhancing the website including AI search, interactive mapping and dashboards, ADA compliant digital digital accessibility and online permitting. strengthening social media content and responsiveness, adding a quarterly communications insert to the utility bills, and creating an elected board community event program. One thing I want to dive into a little more is the digital accessibility transition plan. This is something that communities are having to undergo. our size of community. By April 26, 2027, the village is required to meet the new technical standards for web and mobile accessibility that the DOJ adopted from the web content accessibility guidelines developed by the worldwide web

consortium. So, I've been diving into this uh this was brought to my attention last at the end of last year um and I've started to dive into this. It is going to be a bit of an undertaking because we have to build in processes to become compliant going forward. Then we also have to deal with like past archiving and it's not only for the website but also social media content as well. And so managing that across the content for all of our platforms. You have to do all the you have to do all the archives as well. We have to bring them into

and this is a heavy initiative. I I'm dealing with this at work right now. It's it's a heavy lift. Yeah. So, I I started um reaching out to CI Boston. I've done two demos. I've been in talks with other municipalities about what vendors they're using. But that's going to be part of the the transition plan is figuring out what we can do and what integrates best with our website. So, does it make sense to adopt this now given Okay. Yeah, because this is just the road map to actually implementing that. To give an example, for like social media and the website, any image has to be labeled. So,

text, yeah, alternate text. It's the the nice thing for us is that because we're a smaller sized community, the larger communities are doing this now. And so, I think there's a lot to be learned and hopefully they'll push the market. Um, what is your deadline? What is our deadline? It's 2027. When you just of April. Yeah. Is there not anything that says we have to make progress by April of 26 or is that a different Not that I've seen though. Not that you've seen. Okay. For us, it's a large community deadline and a smaller community deadline. Okay. It's 50,000 population of 50,000 or less.

Um I'll just continue. And then for internal communication, the plan focuses on improving coordination and culture through existing uh communications with the weekly administrative updates, regular cross department meetings and tools to for collection and work order tracking and then a DPW call triage flow along with more employee focus efforts that will be new and ongoing including universal village email addresses, state interviews, an employee subcommittee, a new hire They are welcome back and a centralized internet for information sharing.

Uh quick question about it. You have a bullet point for employee email addresses. So with all employees so that's currently not the case. So it it it just happened uh with our email integration. Um, we have now established a standard where all employees are going to be receiving employee information including their payub through their work. Okay. Um, how's that going? I I just email tends to be something that gets missed and not read, especially from people who don't normally check their emails constantly. And obviously we've got probably 50 different people who may not ever check their emails.

So and and so now we have teams like did you consider instead using teams instead of emails for that? So Bayside it went over and they worked with every DPW employee to make sure that their email is integrated into their phone and they know how to access it. Private phones though, right? Yep. Private phones. Um, and then in terms of each member has the team's integration. I'm still working with Anthony on building out the back end. What it looks like if we can do like a group posting that then it's like kind of a an ongoing board or thread or

I guess all I'd say is you probably will need to be flexible on how communication goes out to such a diverse uh group of people because you may find some don't ever read their own emails. I just speaking like uh my wife's a teacher. She's sending out emails to parents all the time. They can never get read and it seems like instant messaging and texting is the Yeah. thing that grabs our attention. If you say that the official communications I agree. I just email. Yeah. Not not only that

HR and legal documents that we have to send out and we have to have documentation that those are sent out and a lot of times they're long and not able to be sent through the chat. But to give an example, DPW, if we send something important out, we have monthly meetings with them and we go over and we walk them through it. We still print things on occasion if they're forms and stuff. So, you got it. We know. Yeah.

Not only that, but Anna mentioned the having intranet um which can be uh I can speak from experience an invaluable tool. Uh but as Kelsey mentioned some of the things that we're that we're talking about in this plan such as um you know accessing your payubs I would assume uh at some point you be looking at W2s and other tax information like that's that's something they can only that that you can only do via email and that instant messaging wouldn't wouldn't create the security that that email does.

Um, could I go back to number five for just a second? I've been a part of two organizations that have done a a switch in visual identity. And I think if you if we work with a firm that helps us develop a brand with the logos and the typography and whatnot, a lot of times they push you to these um more obscure fonts that are like, "Oh, this like speaks to your brand because you're by water or whatever." Uh, and I would really just encourage us to pick whatever the standard font is in Word because otherwise this such a compliance issue and everybody's trying to download these codecs for these like wonky fonts and it's just a mess. So the simpler the better. I couldn't agree more. Also along with that that that's an accessibility issue as well.

Yeah. So making sure that it's readable with a reader and I I think that when simple Yes. w with because of who we are. I mean it's different than what say the library did which you know they you know the you know the the library is a different animal like the the the the colors and the font change and the everything and the the wow factor. We don't want a wow factor for a government website. We want the basics

as a piece of history. Uh the wave fish logo which is technically owned by the civic foundation. Um that was I I I feel like there was a village board aspect to a community effort to design that in 1980 or something. So that fish logo was actually chosen. It was chosen by the village board. That's what it was. Um but the civic foundation adopted it and uh that's how we we've got that. I don't know if we want to do that again, but um that's how we came up with that. Do we even have a white fish population anymore? Is it It was decimated, right? We can't catch a white fish. You You check that out of course. I'm pretty sure you got to go further north for white fish now. Okay, I'll find out. Damn.

Uh any further questions on the communication plan? Any members of the public?

I I'm sorry. really quick. I I just want to um say publicly what I told Anna in email form. Uh I think this is fantastic. Uh it serves the purposes that we need uh as a government entity. Um, I think it brings us um into the into the 21st century and provides new ways to communicate with all of our stakeholders, both internal and external. Um, I I think when Anna sent it to me, I think I had like two notes. Um, you know, and this is something that, you know, I come up with plans like this for, you know, that's what I do day in and day out in some cases, and this is fantastic, and it it uh it I think that needs to be said.

Well, then maybe you'd like to make a motion. Oh, why by all means? Uh, I move the village board adopt the 2026 through 2030 communications plan. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you, Sam. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. And Mr. President, I move to adjurnn. There we go. Do I hear a second? Second. I'll give it to I. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you all for sticking around for 2 hours and 5 minutes. So those