Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. Um we are going to call the April 14th meeting of the common council to order. Um just want to note that it is 7:17. We were late because of the weather. So um I will ask our clerk to call the role. All the person wrote here. Turner here. Waggle here. Risham Wagel here. Gro here. H here. Alverson here. Keane here, Novak here, Noling here, 10 present. Okay, a quorum is present. Please rise if you are able and join us in the pledge of allegiance which will be led this evening by Alderman wrote.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty andice for all. Thank you. We'll move on to part D, public hearings. We have one item this evening and I will ask the clerk to read that out. Conditional use permit for family one a proposed group child care center use at 5408 West Electric Avenue. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Mr. Sher.

Thanks, Mayor. I'm Steve Sher, director of city planning. Uh, good evening. And uh this first uh hearing is for a daycare, a group, a children's daycare um on 54th and Electric Avenue. Uh it's a former office warehouse building in a light industrial zone district. And um

sorry, Steve, if if you're supposed to be showing slides, they're not up. Okay. Yeah. Thanks everybody.

Here we go.

So, this is a former uh office warehouse uh 5,000 square feet and it is zoned light industrial daycarees uh within the city of West for you know group daycarees where children are required to have a conditional use permit um uh throughout the city uh whether it's commercial or industrial zoning district. So that's the purpose for our meeting this evening and this hearing. Um they are seeking to u take care of up to at least uh 30 uh actually 25 children per shift. This sh this will be um an aroundthe-clock operation um seeking to support parents who are working non-traditional hours. And this is a uh image of the site plan. Basically the the building fronts Electric Avenue. There will be a drop off and pickup area along Electric Avenue itself out in front. Um and then they will be requesting a loading zone um from the city engineering department as part of this conditional use permit. Uh the play area is going to be located in that yellow area behind the building. Uh this is immediately off of an alley that runs north south north of Electric Avenue. Uh that play area will be uh fenced uh with a 4ft high fence and then ballards along the alleyway um for some added protection. There will be some parking for staff uh behind that play area. Uh but all parents again will be parking in Electric Avenue and then walking their or carrying their their kids in the front door of the building. Um the play area will feature a uh play surface. Um and again we'll be protected. There'll be some landscaping up in front as well. And within the front yard area there's a small grass area. Uh the refu area is is proposed behind the building that will be screened from view. Um and then this is a um example of the um of the floor plan. Um the entrance being on the uh right lower right hand corner where those arrows are. Um and you enter into a lobby, office area, and then uh you have the the different rooms for uh

children's daycare uh you know by age um within the building. And the overall space is 5,000 square feet. uh they are not proposing a um transportation service at this point in time. So um they will rely on parents dropping their um their children off at this facility. The plan commission has looked at this and they have recommended approval subject to the conditions here. Um all of these have primarily been for the most part been taken care of. Um items three, four, um five u are just sort of uh standards as part of the uh uh process of occupancy and those will be taken care of at a future date. Um, so there have been no objections to date and um conclude my public hearing with that and entertain any questions. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Are there any questions from any members of the common council on our public hearing this evening? Mayor Divine. Go ahead, Alderwoman Keane. Steve, where did you say did you say there was a parking lot or parents would just park on Electric Avenue? Yes, parents will um park primarily on Electric Avenue. There is a a small parking area shown um behind the building, but that will be for employees. It'll likely be an um an ADA parking stall back here. Um something along that line, but likely for uh just employees back here. U parents would park along Electric Avenue uh where there is ample street parking. Yep, sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from the members of the council?

Mayor Divine. Go ahead, Alderman Wel. Um, Steve, how many 24-hour daycarees do we have? Do you know? I'm not aware of any. Um, I know we've had applications for them in the past, but they just didn't fit in the neighborhood. And I mean, I I don't think it's a problem. Yeah. I mean, uh, I think just from the standpoint of, you know, is is that is it common? No, not necessarily. Um, it does require staffing and, you know, around the clock, but but I can I can see where it would definitely fill a need um within the community, within the region. Um, and the applicant is here this evening, too, if you need further clarification, but yeah, I was just curious. I just didn't I couldn't think of one anywhere, so this is likely our first. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Any other questions from the council?

All right. See none. Are there any questions from the members of the audience on public hearing number one? All right. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. And that wraps up part D of our agenda. So we will go to E, which is public participation. This is the opportunity for members of the public to address the council during this 30-minut period. Each speaker must please announce your name and your address for our official record. And please limit comments to one statement of no more than five minutes. Uh the council cannot take action on um topics raised by the speakers and we cannot discuss the items, but um we listen. So, I also just want to mention there there was indication just by some of the emails and phone calls that we all received that a lot of people may have show up tonight for item 30 which regarded uh which dealt with feeding stray or abandoned domestic animals. That item is going to be withdrawn. So, that is no longer going to be in front of us tonight if that impacts any of your um comments. Therefore, anybody wish to address uh the council under public participation, please come up to the podium. And if you could please push the button on there to turn the microphone on. Thanks.

Okay. Hope everybody is well tonight. I wanted to speak on uh Sir, can you start with your name and address, please? Okay. First name is Brad. Last name Bradley. Address is 2568 South 90th Street West Ellis. Thank you.

And why I'm here is I'm going to talk to you about garbage collection with commercial and for family units. And uh one of the things is we're going to start out I guess with the key benefits for the municipality. The uh municipality extending commercial style service pick up to four family units is often the threshold between the strategic and operational benefits. While smaller properties, the one through three which are able to get municipal pickup for some reason for family is held away. The state mandate states that the uh benefits of the five family units are commercial and they bear the cost of the city service or private haulers. For some reason for family like I said is uh held out on their own. Some of the benefits are reduced financial risk for the municipality which is because of the rising cost of private haulers who may increase prices frequently. And I boy I'm experiencing that on the commercial pickup uh through GFL in particular. Uh the tenant attraction I don't know so much about that. I don't know if tenants are are checking that out when they come and rent from me. They might, but the uh dumpster is kind of unsightly. It's right at the corner of the parking lot and you can't miss it. The uh code compliance using the municipal program automatically aligns the property with the local ordinance reducing the risk of citations or improper container layouts or missing

recycling labels. The dumpster that I've got is an old one. It's starting to get holes in it. they don't maintain it properly. It It's starting to look kind of rough and I can't get GFL to uh move on this thing. Also, the the tenants are more apt to separate the garbage. And I I've been experienced this quite often where I I'll go and dump something in a dumpster and I see cans, plastic bottles, all things that are recyclable are thrown in a dumpster because it's too easy. And also I got people in the neighborhood who are dumping commercial waste in there because they can. I guess uh it shouldn't be happening but it does the uh ease of disposal for city crews. They're already there and and they already have my recyclables. It wouldn't be any any difficulty to pick up those garbage units if they give me four of the containers. I think they're 96 cubic feet, but I may be wrong. But uh so as and and this gives me full access to my parking lot also cuz right now I'm down two spaces because of the dumpsters sticking out and during the winter I'm on a dead end alley and it's really hard for the city crews and my private snow plower to move the snow around adequately and still make access for this dumpster. and uh you know it gives me more stabilized billing. The paperwork I would hope would stabilize rents but that's neither here nor there. The uh benefits would be you're classifying properties one to

four units as residential which will improve the efficiency in line with state mandates that encourage the higher recycling rates. And I think this would be a a real benefit to the city because it isn't used adequately when you have a dumpster. And at the end of my speech, I I'd like to be able to hand you out a handout which shows you an alley picture with no dumpsters and it has four recycling containers and it's so much Bradley. I just want to let you know you're got about 30 seconds left, but I'll let you finish up. But just so you know, appreciate it.

And by grouping these smaller multifamily units with single family homes, the city can provide a consistent taxpayer supported service to civilian households. So, with that, I yield back. Uh, am I able to do a handout? Yeah, you can hand it to Alderwoman Grove on the or attorney Decker even is easier and then we'll make sure we all get a copy of that. Thanks for your comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Does anybody else wish to address the council under public participation this evening? All right, seeing none, we will close public participation and we will move on to section F. Our standing committees will be meeting during recess. They are listed on the bottom of page one. Therefore, if you are here for a license or a permit or some type of business with the city, uh please take a look at the bottom of page one. And if you are not sure where to go when we break for recess, please ask one of us and we will make sure to get you to the right place. Um, moving on to item G, the mayor's report. I just have a few things to touch on this evening. First is, as a lot of you may be aware, the city of West Dallas was entered by one of our outstanding city planners, Emily Wgner, into a contest by a national organization called Strongtowns. and we were selected to be one of 16 applicants to participate in the competition. And I know a lot of you probably saw it on social media, but if you didn't or if you're watching at home and have not seen it, we uh made it to the final eight where we defeated the city of Spokane, Washington. Then we then we happily defeated much to the much to the glee of Alderman Hos, we defeated Chicago and then we went to the uh final which was against Madison which was a formidable opponent. But we found out last Monday that we won and we are going to be getting a um a mini documentary made about the city. We're going to get uh talking points and bragging rights for years to come and we're going to get a trophy and I believe some members of our planning staff are going to be attending their conference in Fedville, Arkansas. They we want a travel stipend and some

tickets to this conference. So, I just want to thank everybody, not only everybody who voted, but also um everybody on this council and everybody working for the city and everybody in this city who did something, no matter how small, to make West Dallas such a formidable opponent in this competition. It's uh it's a team effort and it goes well beyond me. It goes well beyond this council. It goes into the staff and it goes beyond the people that work in the city buildings, but it also goes to the residents that make change, that are active, that do things and that make a difference and make this community better. So, this is something that we all should be very proud of. And um it was quite a fun experience. The other thing I want to mention tonight or the second thing I want to mention tonight is a few weeks ago the West Dallas Police Department had an awards ceremony here at city hall where they recognized um several employees that um had exemplary service or problem solving or bravery or just tons of categories. And I just want to congratulate all those winners. I think we all up here know that we have a very very good police department, but it was fun to kind of showcase the the um cases where their their skills and their um excellence was supreme. This afternoon, uh we had the grand opening for the Pickler, which is a pickle ball facility on Highway 100 in the old Dunhams. And when that uh closed, when Dunham's closed after their 30-year lease ran out, I think some of us were kind of worried on what we might want to get there and what people might be looking to put there. And when the pickle ball facility came into the came into the departments, we were very excited. Uh Alderman Ro and I were there, but neither one of us played yet, but I'm might propose a challenge someday. Um but no, we just want to welcome them. It's a great reuse of an

empty retail shop. And if you haven't um tried pickle ball, it's taking off and they've got a lot of cool things to offer that might be worth looking into. And the last thing is I just want to take a minute to recognize two people that recently retired from the city. Uh Sharon Roy was with DPW and then the se the West Dallas senior center and she retired I believe it was last week or the week before. And then a lot of you may also know um Detective Jessica Wink who retired from the West Dallas Police Department after many years. So, I just want to thank them for all their years of service with the city and wish them well in their retirements. That does conclude my mayor's report. We'll move on to part H. Are there any reports from the other persons? Mayor Demine, otherwoman Grove,

I just want to make sure you didn't catch it in yourself, but I just wanted since there was an election last week to acknowledge and thank all of the city staff and citizens who helped make that happen. That's one of the first ways I got involved uh in uh the city is by working elections. They work really long days. Um, and I just wanted to thank them for their diligence. Good call. Thanks very much. Any other reports from the older persons? Mayor Divine. Alderoman Gisham.

Thank you. Um, this is actually more of an experience I had today. Um, and it has to do with our traffic within the city as you know. Uh, this is construction season. It is a lot of orange cones. Uh, National Avenue being one corridor that's being uh, redone. And my experience today was very scary. And this is a plea to not only those who live in our community, but those who visit our community. I was heading eastbound on National Avenue where one lane was um closing and I had to zipper in. The individual who was right there sped up, which I'm sure you've all experienced. I had no way but to get in. She was so frustrated that it turned into a road rage sit situation. She veered in the intersection past two people. That one car bagged off. I made sure that I was behind for a while. Well, I caught up enough. She hit her brakes and I came within literally probably inches of rear ending her. And it just made me think that I don't know where you'd have to go that fast or why you'd get that frustrated um just being on the road. But I just caution everybody that when they're going through our city to please be mindful that um doing something like that can change somebody's life immediately. So I just wanted to share that experience.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other older person's reports? Mayor Divine. Alder Ke. Um this Saturday the Conrad Gardens Neighborhood Association is having their annual cleanup. They're pairing with uh Wilson Elementary School. Starts at 10:00 a.m. goes to 11. You don't have to be in Conrad Gardens neighborhood to participate if you just want to give back and clean up the neighborhood a little. Uh again, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. meeting at Wilson Elementary. Thank you. Any other older person's reports? Mayor Divine. Alderman Hos. I move for approval of the March 24th, 2026 common council minutes.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Are there any corrections or changes to the minutes? If not, um, all in favor, please say I. I. Anybody opposed? The eyes have it and the minutes are approved. Uh, item J. We have no standing committee reports. Mayor Divine. Move to item K. Alderman Hos. Do any council members wish for separate action on any of the items in our consent agenda? Then seeing none, I move for approval of item K, our consent agenda. Second. There's a motion and a second. I'll let the clerk figure out who got the second.

Um, if there is no discussion, I will ask the clerk to call the role. Other person wrote I. Turner. I. Wiggle. I Gisham. I. Grow. I Hos. I Halverson. I Keen I Novak I Noling I 10 in favor zero opposed. Motion carries. Mayor Divine. Alderman Hos. I move that the common council stand in recess until the conclusion of our committee meetings. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? We are in recess.

texted. I'd still be sitting there watching the meeting from 12 minutes ago or whatever. I have not been live. Well, thank you for the text. Good evening. We'll call the council back to order and I will ask the clerk to call the role. Alder person wrote here. Turner here. Wigel here. Gisham here. Gro here. Hos here. Halverson here. Keane here. Novak here. Noling here. 10 present.

We have a quorum. Uh we will begin with the administration committee. I'll ask the clerk to read out that report. The administration committee recommends approval of item number 18. Adoption of item number 19 and directing the city attorney to settle matters as directed in close session for items 20, 21, and 22. Mayor Divine, I move in accordance with the committee's report. Thank you, alderman. Is there any discussion on the administration committee report? If not, I will ask the clerk to call the role. Other person wrote I Turner I Wagel I Gisham I Gro I Hos I Halverson I

Keen I Novak I Noling I 10 in favor zero opposed. Okay, the motion carries and we'll move on to the public works committee. The public works committee recommends placing on file item 24, adoption of item 25, adoption of item 26, and adoption of item 27. Mayor Divine, I move in accordance of the committee report. Thank you, Alderman. Is there any discussion, questions? If not, I'll ask the clerk to call the role. All the person wrote I Turner I Wiggle I Gisham I Gro I Hos

I Halverson I Keen I Novak I Noling I 10 in favor zero opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. And then next up is the economic development committee. The econom economic development committee recommends granting of item 28 with amended hours and approval of item 29. Mayor Divine, I move in accordance with the committee report. Thank you. Any discussion on the economic development committee or any questions? If not, uh, all in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries and then we will move to the public safety committee. The public safety committee recommends placing on file of item number 30. Mayor Divine, I move for approval of the public safety committee report. Thank you. I will assume no discussion. We've had plenty. I will uh ask the clerk to call the role. Other person. RH I. Turner. Hi. Wigle. I. Gisham. I. Ro. I. Hos. I. Helverson. Hi. Keane I Novak I Noling I 10 in favor zero opposed motion carries Mayor Divine Alderman Hos

I move that the council stand adjourn until our next scheduled meeting Tuesday April 28th 2026 second there's a motion there's a second all in favor I any opposed we are ajourned