Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Anybody there? Can you hear me? Anybody in the room? This is Larry. Is there anybody in the room? This is Larry. Anybody in the room there? This is Larry.

I can hear you, Mayor.

Thank you.

You're recording, Paul?

Yeah. Did you get that note, Cheryl? I'm pretty sure it's recording. Yes.

Call this 7602.

Father, we come to you today on Thanksgiving. Thank you for just you being there for all of us. Thank you again for the city. Thank you for the community. Thank you for the stakeholder. And more important, just thank you for the guests at times to Branson to enjoy Branson. Pray to continue to bless Branson as a destination for visitors. And thank you for the many, many hard work for the city staff to make this happen. Thank you for the mayor. I know they have been working so hard, right? The office, they're just trying to make this work. We thank you for the tireless effort that they have made to make this happen. I know we're in a broad stroke. We just pray that you give us wisdom and direction. And I pray that you give our midst of our position Thank you for all that you do, love, and as you continue to bless the city, pray all this in one full name. Amen.

Roll call, please.

Sure. So Chuck is present. Mike is there. Billy. Alex, I see at the end. The mayor is on. Alderman Williams. Is on. Who am I missing? Is that Brian?

I'm here.

Brian, yep.

Great. Everybody have a chance to review the minutes from the June 24, 2026 meeting? If so, I'd entertain a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Second. Motion to approve. First, by Mike. Second, by Billy. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say an aye. Aye. Aye. Same sign. Okay. Passed. Review of the CID financials. I know we've got a little... just give us a right now.

Yeah, I'll give you a right now on the financials. So these are as of June. I kind of rushed to get July's done, but there's some interest calculations that I'm going to do at the end of the month when I get those bank statements. So this is as of June. We've collected $2,704,840 in revenue. We've We are up 1.8% in sales tax revenue over this time last year. Then your expenditures are $101,149 as of June. Are there any questions about these fundings?

Anybody have any questions?

Ashley? I'm sorry, Allison? Yes. Did you say we were 1.8% over last year? Yes. Okay. And what percent in June?

This is out of June. We are 1.8% over the prior year.

Thank you.

Apple Apple, we are always behind. Yeah, we get a few months behind. So this is correct. Yeah. So actually, Brad's next.

Yeah, we're up 1.8% over the last year.

I'm going to throw out the same thing I said every time. Inflation is high. So really, if you take inflation into play, we're actually down year over year. And I think you have to take into consideration all the different price adjustments that people put in this topic. price in the industries we're doing, we can show that you're down compared to last year. Yeah.

We'll actually give our quarterly financials, and you'll kind of see that with traffic costs and everything, because we think the traffic costs are going to compare to revenue, and so that will be at the next quarter.

Yeah, another thing that I've been hearing a lot of people talking about is it could be that attendance is similar, but people are spending two days instead of four days. Okay.

Excuse me. I think we're getting into the weeds. My question, comparing this time to last year, was based on our budget. Allison, what did we budget for an increase going into 26?

I think we did a 2% increase. I'll have to verify that. I can't remember if we landed on three. But I think we ended up at two to be more conservative.

Okay. So, gentlemen, my point is we budgeted 2%. We're currently at 1.8, regardless of what the inflation figures are. I think the inflation figures factored in is another separate topic.

I'm just trying to make a statement of clarification. Anybody have any other questions on the financials?

Who was it that brought up the inflation issues?

Sorry?

I just didn't know who brought up the inflation questions.

That was me, Chuck.

Chuck, okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. All right. There's no other discussion regarding the CME Financials discussion of no-bid project. We're going to go to the bunch of others.

Yeah, you can go over the budget real quick.

Yeah, we can go over the budget.

So this is a proposed budget that we're proposing for 2027. So you can see that we have insurance in there. This year's insurance expense was $1,200. Next year we expect it to be $1,500. That's also what we budgeted this year. So we put $1,500 in there for insurance for 2027. Consulting, we always have that number really high in there, but we never expend that much. So I did move that down to a more reasonable amount of $25,000 for 2027's budget. um then you can see the admin fee the maintenance fee um and then label services we kept at 40 000 And then if you want to go to the capital in the next section, that's for the wild factor in the sidewalk. So it's not included in the bond. So those are separate. And then moving on to debt service, we have our fiscal portion. And then we have our debt service requirement for bonds for 2027. I know we see a surplus of $1,377,865. Their revenue is based on a 2% increase in revenue. And we can go back and make that flat. I did keep the interest income flat. I just So that just pays for the website. I'm going to come in a little bit under that per year, but it's right around that. Chuck, we also discussed

starting to update that website. In fact, I thought at our last meeting we all agreed to start updating it because I think it hasn't been updated since June of last year. So I think that's what those expenses have been set aside for.

Correct. And that was something in the city communications director report.

Yeah, and the Websites updated monthly. It always contains your minutes from this meeting, the meeting schedules, etc. So I knew board members were updated to the website, so it hasn't been overhauled, but it has been updated regularly.

I think the biggest thing is going to be the project updates, etc.

communications consulting in the 2027 budget. It's just primarily for the website. Or does that include, I guess, the frequent updates that are expected?

I just would like clarification on that. Can I say something? So earlier this year, we received communication from ImageWorks, who is the one that handles the website. And they were six months behind in sending us in with this year. So I think they're behind again in doses.

So you're saying the $25,000 consulting is

It used to be higher than that. If I remember correctly, Allison, it was more like $200,000, correct?

It was $100,000 and something, a little bit over $100,000 last year, but we've never extended that much. We've only stayed around $20,000 in the last three years. That's why we moved it down to $25,000 for 2027. But yes, it used to be higher than that. But in 2026, we lowered it because in 2025, it was even higher than that.

It wasn't specifically just $4,000.

So last year it was $100,000 in the budget. Now this current year it's $100,000 in the budget for communications and next year it's going to be $25,000. So we don't have a communications customer base. So then if you don't have a communications budget for the CID, who's then expected to do the communication?

I have an ongoing contract with the 76 CID, and I'm paid hourly. Because there has not been a project, and all I've done basically is see to the updates, the minimal updates to the website, and attend these meetings. I have not sent a bill this year and don't intend to until that work becomes more meaningful. But I do still have a contract, I believe, that's in place. So I... I stand ready to do more of that work, and I have a contract to that effect, but it has not been meaningful because the project has not been moving in any meaningful way for a couple of years now.

The point that I understand, you don't have a budget for communications, CID. Oh, not in the 2027 budget.

Not in that 2027, yeah.

Yeah, 2026, you need $200,000. Yeah, I'm sorry.

And that's why most of it wasn't used just because it's not all website debts. What were their monthly bills? Cheryl, do you remember when you got a couple? Yeah. Those don't vary much. Posting and yeah, minor updates they do.

Yeah.

So Ann, what's your contractual amount? It's an hourly amount there.

I was asking what Ann's contractual amount was.

I understand that. It's time and material is what I'm saying. It's basically an hourly amount, time and material. There is no contractual amount. Yeah, right. It's just based on hours.

Okay.

So we have $6,000. Are there concerns that we should probably increase that because of the amount of work going associated with the project being in full force?

Well, I was just thinking, right, if we're looking at the project timeline here going from a year to maybe two years, maybe add the communications. I mean, we can always bring this back, right, early 2017. I just wanted to flag the importance of We've got to change everything.

It's very important.

And you guys get all those bills too. So if we do go ahead and pad that line, like we have in here, we just move it down here because we haven't spent it the last few years. We won't spend that without your guys' knowledge and everything. You'll see all those invoices that come through. Sorry, I'm talking so fast.

We're also looking at, you know, I think it's going to do possibly bi-weekly updates right on our steady website. And so I think it's so cool to hire someone to do pictures, to take, I mean, there's just some really historical parts of this whole project does shovel ready, right. Ready to go. And, and every business is going to have the opportunity to be included in that once they're, they're on it. So I just, But to really double down and get the right team in to, you know, do the B-roll, do the video work, do the, you know, some of it's playing defense, right? Making sure we're, because I'm sure there's going to be some type of project delay or rain or, you know, that knows what happens. But also just really positive. stretch than just the normal city stuff. So I personally really like to see a really strong communications effort in consultation with the 760 ID board. Because I know on the city side, we're going to really want to push hard, but there's a certain bandwidth, right? Okay.

Paul, question for you.

I don't think this impacts the bond rating or the ability to market the bonds.

Thank you. I was interested in anywhere on our website

that we have announced the news that this board has approved the bonding move forward, the construction bids to move forward, just some kind of announcement, maybe to the community, but to others saying that, look, we are making movement. And I don't think that's anywhere on our existing website.

It is not. Maria and I met right after the last month's board meeting and put together a little summary of our plan for communications. And the first big announcement was scheduled to be when bids came in. That seemed to make sense to us and be a significant milestone that would be exciting for the community. So when that didn't happen immediately, That media release, of course, did not happen when we didn't get bids. So that was the plan moving forward. But there are certainly other updates we could make to the site, and we need to start doing that, to your point, Mayor.

If we could, the sooner the better, because we approved that, was that two months ago? And I know we've had city announcements on, excuse me, we've had these announcements on our city site. And I think Maria put those up there. So anything we can do to get up there, the sooner the better. Anybody looking for that information will feel better. Hi.

I think we can't hear you.

Can you guys hear me now? Yeah. I'm not aware of any reason, Todd. We made it public, right? That's correct.

Can we just float over that information again? And please read it as well if you don't have it. And that way they can put something together and get it on.

Was that to me, Chuck?

You or Todd, whichever one wants to send the quickest email.

Yeah, I'd be happy to forward that. Who was it that it needs? Was it Ann? Is that who it needs to go to?

Yeah, Ann and Maria.

I can send it on to her.

Okay, just send it to Ann and Ann's going to send it on to Maria. We'll get you guys the contact email from Maria as well. Thank you. Going back to the budget, if you guys are good, I wouldn't be opposed to bumping it up to 100 grand.

I'd second that if that's a motion.

You made a motion, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Seconded by Mike. Any questions or discussion regarding consulting fee up to 100,000.

Obviously, if you like, that's a good start. I think that's great. I would like to eventually try to, once the project gets launched, I'd like to maybe revisit our 2026 budget and see if there's other resources that make sense or a better breakdown of the 100,000 where it's all going, just so we know if it's an exact basis.

All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor, state by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Do we have a resolution for that tonight? Well, we could probably. We need a resolution sooner than later.

So we just got the budget a few hours ago. There's a resolution. There's also other budget message that goes with this. So it'll have to be formally approved and funds appropriated at the next meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. Any further discussion regarding the budget? Finally, the other comment is the numbers we got from the capital improvements, besides the number of weighted improvements and the wild factor, those are just lags. Just guesses. The engineer asked. Okay, great. Just wanted to make sure.

communication conversation. I appreciate that. We learned so much from the downtown project. It's huge.

It's definitely huge from a city standpoint. The role we have in the project, not too long ago, with somebody that's in segment two that had no idea whether we were going to be free or not. That was last week. Being able to kind of inform them. If not, then no, I think it's too important. So, yeah. All right. Moving on to discussion.

Before we move on, please. I'm sorry. I missed the two figures. The figure for the wow factors that came in and the figure for the bond rating.

So, wow factors The proposed budget is $599,500. The one that's on the screen is different. Yes.

Yeah, I sent an updated one right after that that included the wow factor. We had got that number an hour after we sent this one out. And so we wanted to make sure we included it so you guys had a proposed budget in front of you.

So was there a new figure?

Yeah, it was sent out. Yeah, it was sent out. And Mayor, I can get that to you if you weren't on that chain of emails. But there is a figure for the wow factor of $599,500 on that updated one since we got those figures in right after we sent out this one.

And there's a $500,000 for the sidewalk and the roadway improvements on the intersection as well. I don't know, combined, a little over, right at 1.1 million.

Okay, thank you. And what was the bond rating?

I don't know. Well, I think it's going to go through the natural path of saying it. We'll figure it out, right?

Well, we can. I mean, Todd can share the information. I mean, it's totally possible. I don't see any point in that, right? Todd, do you want to go ahead and share that information, please?

Sure, I'd be glad to. So the bond rating that was assigned by Standard & Poor's is BBB+, which was on the high end of the range that we were initially considering. So we think that's favorable, and that will help as Baird gets ready to market the bonds.

Thank you for that, Todd.

Yeah. And maybe one other thing, just real quickly here, the way S&P does their ratings, there's triple B was kind of considered investment grade. And then from triple B, it goes to A rating. AA and AAA. So like the state of Missouri would be a AAA rated entity. And then kind of goes down from there. But in this instance where it's a single purpose entity with the CID 1% sales tax being the only revenue stream, getting into that single A category would be very challenging. So given the the situation here and the circumstances, we're very pleased with the BBB+.

And Todd, do you have a corresponding interest rate based on those factors that you'd feel comfortable with?

Probably not at this point, Mayor, we did. worked with Baird two weeks ago on getting some updated numbers for the preliminary official statement. And the market has moved. July was not a good month in the bond market with rates going up. So I'll be prepared. I can send something around after I speak with the Baird folks, kind of follow up on that item.

Todd, I don't know if you fell off. I'm comfortable following your lead. I just didn't know if you had a feeling.

Yeah, I mean, I can tell you the numbers that we – I mean, this was just an estimate from a couple weeks ago, but we were at an average – rate, let me get to it here. We're at an average rate of just a little above 5%. You know, my concern is given the volatility in the market that it may be higher today, a little higher. But I think suffice it to say that, you know, it should be somewhere in the five to five and a half percent range.

Okay, well, I know it doesn't matter, but I was, in my mind, I was really hoping we were going to be closer to the four and a half or four and three quarters, but the market is what it is.

It's not very good. Moving on to discussion of no bid for projects.

And so we had some requests from board members that are here in particular. And so these are the new renderings and the new locations for the kind of selfie spot that is there, or anything like that, we would need that. The idea behind it and the importance of talking about it today is we thought we were going to have a bid for the other segments being segment one and two, and we're not trying to muddy the waters by having this discussion, but this one is on the heels of the other one. So I just want to make sure that our time together is spent productively and we can show some more of the movement that we're doing on the next project. We also wanted to update you that from both of those locations, one on Cheddar's side and the other one straight across the street. We're exploring the dumps that were put in there from Todd that's here today. So are there any questions or concerns with the renderings that we're happy with? We are happy, staff-wise. We've got the colors and the plants kind of figured out a little bit better. Of course, it's always a rendering. You can see little glitches and things, but overall. The other thing that he said here for a half second is we wanted to talk for just a moment and what what the engineer record did there uh from cjw is is they bumped up the eagles culture allowances the flag allowances the metal allowances and then of course we added this with your brands and local sign allowance so um that's basically uh setting you up for those numbers that we gave you and gives you a lock-in point for that uh probably talk about a little bit later on segment one and two about some of the verbiage that we put in the jsp to protect uh the city city's interest the bid We felt comfortable in sharing that, and that's where we are now. So there's a highlight, I think, once we get a bid in for this, that as soon as we get the bid in, we'll release the next one. And just want to continue to make you aware of the progress on the other segments that aren't forgotten or asked.

Any questions? So, Michael, what's the spitball number?

spitball number on the whole intersection is north of $2 million. We'll just leave it at that.

North of what?

North of $2 million. By the time you put in, you'll have a signalized intersection that's there, so on and so forth. But the bidding process will wash out that actual number. The numbers that we and crosswalk improvements that the CID would cover. And then, of course, the Wow experience that's there. You have almost a million dollars in for a signalized intersection improvement over that area.

I like that. I agree with the photo opportunity, with the logo, the city of Branson there. That's awesome. So it's a lot of things that you made of this, but we want to do that.

It is offset to the left a little bit. We've made that decision in terms of safety and what does that look Okay, sounds cool. With that, if you're all good with that, those documents look very similar to that one, and we'll keep on rolling along there, and you'll see those bid items go out, and hopefully we get a successful bidder.

Quick question, can I have those renderings, and can they be shared publicly now?

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you. Please send them. They are yours.

I have them in a folder. Thank you. private for that. All right, so the next items that we're going efforts that the city went through and steps that we did. Right off the bat, as soon as we knew we had a no-bid situation, we had heard humbling, so there were some concerns during the bidding. We did get some documentation that was included in an addendum from Emory staff asking questions about project timeline and concerns about 12 months and a 10-month incentive that was there. We sent out the letter that you all have seen on the board and tried to get a with us about it to know where we were standing. Following that, we went back and we took the list of all the plan holders that showed up. We had a lot of plan holders show up and they had to show up in person. It was a great meeting. They asked a lot of great questions as we went through that. That's a little bit of an update about the steps that go through that. Great River Engineering, Todd and myself and their whole staff were here. And we answered a lot of the concerns that were working through that. 35 bid planners, companies that are large enough to bid this. So they had to be on the MoDOT cooperative bid approved list. So that means that they have performed well enough in the state of Missouri to do this. That is kind of a nice thing for the city to also use that list, but that is part of our funding with them and the government's money that's there. And they come into concurrence with us. So keep going straight. So super excited about that. Super excited about the people that showed up. Awesome questions. project that's here. Unfortunately, the timeline, the materials that are there, the materials that are open are saying, just like downtown, that 12 months isn't acceptable. And so we heard one of the bidders straight off the bat say it's minimal of two years, or other people, three years, so on and so forth. So we let it play. That happened, and it's sad, but it's there. We immediately sent out this letter that sits in front of you, and what we tried to do was give the contractor a, and Matt can hold up for those that are on line to go down to skip six signs of that, so scroll up, but it should be on there.

Yeah.

Okay. So, perfect. So, those that are online can see that. I apologize. We were finishing these things and didn't send them out ahead of time. So, we sent out this letter and said, hey, Monday, Tuesday of this week, bid we did on the Friday when we got no bid went straight to MoDOT asked for confirmation said we had no bid and asked for permission to bid again and we're granted that on Friday which is awesome because that's the fastest turnaround MoDOT's ever done so highlighted in yellow, the things that somebody checked a box for that said, this is the reason my company decided not to bid. And so we asked them, and it was hands off, and sent it back in and said, hey, if you have time, can we meet with you? And so ESS, Rademacher, KCI, and Carson Mitchell all clicked, scheduled, and above ground, but we can't do below ground. And we said, well, what does that look like for your company? And we met with them about partnering up with somebody. So it kind of gave them project size or complexity. Again, they were worried about the utilities underneath the ground, so that knocks them out of that. Contract terms or risk allocation, ESS brought up or checked when they brought it back into us. Utility right-of-way concerns, ESS Great River Engineering did a great job with that, and we answered the questions that were there. We did have five addendums as we were going through that. That's a huge lift that you're answering those questions to go through, and we cleaned up some documents. And the goal is with the city and Great River Engineering is to compress that all into one clean sheet and go back out. We did receive a couple comments from landscape forums and then, of course, on the front page. And we basically talked about, here's where the city and the 76 BCID board is. We know we were going to meet with you today. We were going to make a proposal to you for your consideration to get back out and move back forward from that. And can you tell us, based on what you turned in and what it was there, Spencer and Todd can tell you that it was a great conversation. It was very open. Lots of companies said, wow, this is really and they put it out a bit again and they don't care and finally they figure out hey we got to change some things and instead you're taking the opportunity that is allowed by moda and by our own rules the statutory rules and questionnaire rules that we can sit down and have those conversations so um we are sharing sharing that publicly too but we reminded everybody that of course you know anything that you say can be and all the things that are there. I am happy and Todd's here and Spencer's here to answer any of the questions about the things in there, but I don't want to see labor all those things and make sure that we address Spencer as principal, as you all may know, he's here too. And I'm super thankful that, you know, that they're basically out of money and didn't know we were going to come into this and work with the city and made sure their staff had time. This was a city led effort.

And then we said, Hey, by the way, if you want to come to a Monday and Tuesday, clear your schedules.

And then we were super thankful for that. So what we did find without just continuing to belabor it is the completion of

You talked about 35 people at the pre-bidders conference. How many companies did that represent?

That represented, I think our total gain was 20, roughly. So yeah, you had a couple of twos and threes that were in there as far as bidding up, right? Oh, I understand.

Yep.

Sorry to say it that way. That's not the clearest way to say it, but yeah. Okay.

Can you offer me the incentive package that you put together? Yeah.

leave that in play and we don't want to adjust it um what it was was a two-month incentive for a half a million dollars um that's what this proposal is going to be to you here if we do need to go and change the incentive disincentive package uh that's something you all have to vote on and then we would have to take back to moda um back through the appropriate boards there to get that approved to put it back out to fit but if we leave that incentive disincentive alone at this time done in 10 months they're none of them uh but one of the comments written comments was uh you guys don't know how long this takes just in concrete work the stamp concrete for sidewalks is eight months that's a mile each side so two miles long once you're waiting for all those things uh the other kind of major concerns and conversations and we did a good job when the the plans were out we had a uh a meeting there was some concern about what what come and go when they please. A hurricane can come and the people are gone. And what was the commitment with the utility companies and Great River Engineering? Ourselves had kind of like an emergency meeting with all the utility companies and made sure that they were all there. And the bidders pre-conference that they all had to come to, unfortunately, Liberty was not there to kind of stop some of those waves of, hey, Why we move something around? How many can you do at a time? Because they're thinking about logistics of if I get delayed by a utility company by a month, what does that look like? Especially on a 12-month contract. And we heard that and heard that loud.

We learned from KCI, one of the contractors that was going after the project. They talked to White River, Joe Donovan. They said their amount of work that they need to do for relocation just for the overhead electric, which they're one of the most impacted contractors. utility companies on the corridor, but their work alone was 16 months right there. So that's just the electric side of it. So that goes to show you kind of what we're dealing with. You know, granted, they're going to be involved with the project basically from start to finish because there are going to be other work going on. But until the duck bank is in place, they can't really abandon their facilities. And then they've got time behind them to take out the holes and stuff that are in conflict.

We did talk that we're going to move back around as we have from the very beginning. And when I got here in 2022, we had the first utility meeting. I will always remember that. I was like, wow, there's a lot of people here. So they're all well aware of that. And I also wanted to highlight that Liberty Utilities. responsibility of the contractor. point, but with the amount of driveways that we're relocating and a street that we're actually relocating a little bit, that's not feasible in this project to do with that.

I'd just like to thank you for this board, right, of putting out a project scope and a set of incentives and other structures that are really what the downtown right we put out what we had heard and all the feedback we received and the best possible solution right for the business community and i think that was done through this so i personally look at the a failure that we didn't get bids i looked at it as kind of a first effort to put out the best case scenario that works the best for this project and you know this community leaders in this board so i just want to see what you recommend for going back out to bid but I commend you a lot for taking the courage and putting that together. We had a lot of good feedback through it. But again, I just hope it doesn't get lost. 70s of business owners that's the stakeholder side of things wanted as part of this project and so now that that it didn't come back that way contractors weren't able to get that done things are gonna have to change there might be some compromise here um but i i just i want michael i want to give you a i know you take this very very seriously very personally and i know getting getting getting no bids for this project probably was crushing to you um

I thought I was mentally prepared for it. And there was one person in the room and I'm like, oh God, oh God, please don't be the only bitter because this

The first time the contractor can see the plans is after it's been advertised. So we can't share this information with them prior to it. We can't bounce ideas off of them. I mean, we're engineers, you know, we do our best to come up with an estimated schedule, but end of the day, it's the contractors to say whether or not they can build it and whether, and they're judging risk, you know, reward, stuff like that as well. But with this schedule, you know, they saw the plans, they saw the utility conflicts, everything. They were just not willing to, it's a great project and they all, They all echoed that. They said this is a great project, well put together, but we just need more time. You know, they need more time to look at it. And I know Michael early in the process was hoping there was a way we could get contractors to provide input prior to going out to bidding. But we weren't able to do that because the funding sources with MoDOT and the Federal Highway Administration as well. So this was really a first look. Now, when we go back through the rebid process, the contractors are already familiar with the plans. You know, we just changed the terms on the JSBs up front as far as the completion schedule. And so it'll be a very quick process. We can already incorporate the five addendums we had. Those are already incorporated in the plan set. So we're already starting ahead of the road. As far as the bidding process. So I think it's going to be a lot like downtown where you go from having no bids to having four bids. And so I think this next round is going to be as long as we schedule it right, have the incentives right, which that's why the conversations were critical with all the different contractor teams. I think we'll be successful going forward.

I just started to hear Grumman. to address that? I don't think it's a failure.

This is part of the process. I mean, I hate to be going into something that realistically in a year from now, we're in trouble. And then also, we're going through this. It's going to take two years, by the way. I think this is a big project, and they've done really good in terms of the detail, really good about managing and the process. It is what it is. I talked to Jonathan, Joe, at the Water River. He's behind a lot of the projects I'm working with right now. So it's not like they are all, this is not the only project that worked. They've got so many things going on right now. You know, the Brent tomato and all that stuff going on. It's just, no, I think this, I don't see, I've never seen something. is to get there the question is how do we get there and then i think another question we would ask i know you probably already thought about it if you go to two year period what is the impact and cost because general condition and overhead is going to be twice as much okay is that a is that a 40 some million dollar project you know 46 or something but uh but i think uh in term of I know you gave me something, but I don't know if you want us to ask him now, but as you go through this thing, you know, there are things that are going to limit itself. It's too big a project. He's pretty honest about it. But this is, like you say, it's a project they want. The question is, it doesn't fit. There are things in there that realistically it didn't work real well. So the question is, you know, I want to... HAB-Masyn Moyer- Ask them probably more anything else I know you've talked to us from all the stuff that the first two pages, you share with us as any additional thing that you want to share with us that. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Maybe you know, because I don't think that this is the law, this is part of the process yeah the question is, is anything else, since you're asking the question. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I want to hear from them what some thought that may be, you know you concern, are you what are your thoughts.

HAB-Terry Palmos- Well, I know we have one thing that we have to ask the board is. It's going to be a little bit later on if we moved on, but some of the concerns that we heard that we need to eliminate risk is the gateway. On the gateway, one of the contractors that we met what is this thing how many letters are on there we talked about this recently and the the concerns that i saw there a couple of the two of the contractors brought up specific about how can you limit that risk and today at your meeting today can you get a congruence from the group to say hey we turn it out and provide kind of what you all have done before is feedback back

Yeah. Yeah. And it was a resounding, like from all the contractors that was scheduled. I mean, they were all in the 18 to 24 months, like minimum to get this done. And even some of them were skeptical about 18 months. Um, I think the more I've gotten into it, I would say yes. If you were to shut down 76 from the stoplight at Shepherd of the Hills all the way to Ripley's and give the contractor the ability to do all that work at once, they should have no problem getting that done within a year timeframe. But... Since we have to have vehicle access and pedestrian access, you know, you got a lane in each direction for vehicles and pedestrian access and keeping entrances open, working with business owners. I think the complexities of that, coupled with all the utility coordination that's required there, it is just way too much in one year. And so that's where it's come to come out. And that's what really what's shaken out exactly what Michael has said. And, you know, we did, we, we don't know that until we put something out on the street. And so unfortunately we put it on the street. We couldn't make the changes just because there's four different packages and it would be, it would have been a significant change. And it really brings us back to the table to, to interview all the contractors that were plan holders that were interested in the project. And there is a ton of interest in the project. I mean, that, that is resounding like we're going to get some really good bits once we get this thing time framed correct uh i there's no doubt because they these contractors have already put a lot of effort into putting the pricing together like literally they have their packages put together and it's just a matter of it hits the street what's that new schedule time frame what's the incentive package look like which the incentives like michael said and the disincentives are going to stay similar it's just going to be stretched out a little further Once once we all get to an agreement on what that what that schedule looks like. So, Spencer, I don't know if you have anything to add.

They were very enthusiastic about it. I mean, they and they all started with this. And they said, we don't want to enter a contract that we can't make that commitment and disappoint the city and disappoint the public. And so they don't want to have a bad reputation. They don't want that spilling over onto the city. So let's, let's establish them.

They didn't want to set that, that standard of like what happened on the downtown project when the, the LDs were not, they, they could have just scheduled the LDs, you know, basically just drawn the project out six months and say, Hey, we'll just pay. We built in six months and we put in damages, but we're not going to do that because this, Like all the stakeholders would be furious about, and it would make everybody look bad. Plus these contractors, they go after MoDOT work, which MoDOTs go on design, build, construction management at risk. These are like, this type of funding mechanism and the way they'd structure projects, it's heavily qualification-based and not necessarily price-based. So qualifications are important. And one of those questions are, have you ever been assessed liquidated damages on a project? For contractors that are large and work on these statewide projects, they do not want to say, yes, we've been assessed liquidated damages because that checks a box and then they can't even go after that project. These are the level of the contractors that are looking at this. They're great contractors that do work the right way. They understand Branson because public perception is everything on these projects, especially for this downtown project, the strip. These are critical projects for them and they don't want they don't want it to be a nightmare for, you know, two years or whatever. So they want it to be a successful project for everybody. And I appreciate it personally, because it's not just about the money, because they could have they could have priced. They could have given us bid and priced in a year worth of liquidated damages, knowing that, man, we are going to we are going to be. At each other's throats with all the business owners because they're going to be furious. And they had that ability. They were not out of respect to everybody that they worked with. They said, we're not going to do it.

And hats off to the communication that we get in downtown and the communication your own board does and the reputation of Branson for promoting a business that was there. Much of them brought that up. The other thing that we highlighted, too, is the possibility of 24-hour orders. months to two years to two years plus and so we we really ask the hard questions and i and you don't want to give the contract to somebody and make it so easy that work and then let you all work through it and just basically give you the pros and cons of the work. The reason we put this together was to give you a baseline. So the contract means on the first line would be 20 months that's there. The incentive is the two months that you already have built in. And then we gave you a monthly calendar and a yearly calendar there to take a look at 24 months, that there's the incentive they're going to chase a little bit, but it's not a guarantee. And there's also not a guarantee that they may not go two months shot. Todd highlighted with you that we had a couple of contractors let us know that they could have bid at $6 million higher and got it, but they didn't want to go through the With that said, 24 months, every single of all the contractors and companies that we interviewed, almost all of them said yes, it could be done in 24 months. A lot of them said 22 months plus or minus two months. I did use that term a little bit with it. They're going to figure incentive and disincentive in there. They're probably going to and what you think is reasonable. Realizing that option three will open it up to the most amount of possible bidders, which will drive down your costs.

If you go to 24 months, what additional contractors would be added to this thing?

So I would, based on my, you know, being on the same calls and everything and working with contractors and having, you know, very familiar with a lot of these contractors, I would say, Michael, you're spot on. You're going to get it. down to 20 months with a two-month accelerator on you're probably going to get half of that so maybe i mean i know you'll get one for sure um i can see two maybe three but what you're going to see is a couple of the contractors slightly team up yeah yeah they'll team up together so right now right and it's important that we pay. You won't have as much. The more time you give them, the less you have to worry about over time. The less likelihood that the contractors are going to want to be calling Mike and say, hey, can I work weekends, nights, that type of thing. Night work is going to be very tough because if you're just on a speed steer or anything, you're going to be disruptive to the hotels and the apartments and everything that are over in that area. We didn't have to deal with that on the downtown project, but If we did, if there were people living downtown when we were working at night, they would be calling daily to see, hey, this has got to stop. We're disrupting everybody. So something to be considered. I mean, I understand the importance to get it done fast. The middle ground, that's not as appealing just because you've got to look. the landscape plants are going to be planted. So you've got to look at planting seasons. So really, you don't want to plant anything from June 1st to probably September 1st, from basically Memorial Day to Labor Day. So that really kicks out that number two. So you really look at number one or number three, so you don't deal with one. Because you don't want to be planting all your sod and everything in June for an August opening because it's not going to survive. Especially with, I mean, how many plants do we have? 25,000, something like that? Yeah. So, I mean, that's a lot of planting. You're talking a couple months just planting plants out there. So you want to set that up for success. So either you get it to where they're getting completed, you know, in June time frame,

rains or you get delayed to 24 months and then you're looking in you know October time frame so you have September October you can get those plantings and I thought about it from a point of view of if I was a business member and my sales that are there we know September October November is very good too but also in this area you got the ferris wheel you got the you know you have the toy museum that's in there and I would think that their revenues would be higher during the summertime than the fall and some of the shows benefit the fall and so building that out that's kind of where we sat and so Todd suggested because I'm going to make one is one two or three

I mean, for my – I would personally go with one because I would want to – I don't think they're benefiting much from going to 24 months because of the seasonality, but I think it's a good compromise because the contractors are going to ask for as much time as they possibly get because they almost like – it just – it reduces the sense of urgency on their end. I think that one is going to be something especially that they're getting in and out of there. If they get the full incentive, for instance, they're getting out of there, you know, before spring break. So you still have the summer. Sorry, not spring break. Sorry, my bad. But you're going to still have the summer season in there because you've got properties, like Mike said, that are critical. The summer season is critical. Yeah.

So you're suggesting number one. Number one, yeah. Is that realistic to the contract? I know you've talked to everyone, and right now, even it's 20 months, is that really...

The $100 will probably...

And Billy, I think they were edging their back when they were giving us their number. I think they were being conservative with their ass.

They're edging, as Spencer's highlighting, for least risk. Of course, you're a contractor, and of course, we'll probably watch this, and they want the least amount of risk, but I still...

be honest with you. This project's a little different than you compare it to Grant Road up in Springfield because those utility companies did not have an incentive to get out of the way. They didn't have agreements in place. They weren't getting paid to move their stuff. This is different with those utility agreements. There will be incentive for the utility companies to get out of the way. Some of that risk has been eliminated, but trying to explain that to contractors that are coming out with that great project, it's very difficult

three years and still not done and so we we don't want to hear that so we did a lot of work it's also the responsibility of the contractors to get the easements on that grant yeah i know i like that we'll do that next time you know this this thing i don't know in terms of this kind of schedule i know when i build building on a theme park i know it's easier but on this kind of stuff I know there's a stretch of, I don't know how many miles, six and one and two, okay. But it's not like we're going to shut that thing down for 20 months, okay. I mean, there could be sections that could be done that won't be in fact, like say, we might not have the landscaping, but there's going to be open and You know, it's not like they're going to be back close to a 20-month gain. It's just, yes, there's a whole section of stuff that's done. It's got to be buried. Lions got to be through this. But, you know, we're getting a part of our balance. I mean, we're going to be done, but... The east is outside I don't care if they're not done yet the pain, you know the pain, it can be done later on, whatever about just this flow during operation, but this thing here I don't know what that is in terms of you know you guys, you know, I mean it's. Your brother's.

Like. train and so um a couple of them said like middle out one said to each end one said from one end to the other they do the underground and they just keep moving along and then they come back and then they do the next layer on top and come back and just keep going in a circle and so

They're not building right up on businesses like we were downtown. So it's a completely different. You've got a little bit of a buffer there. And so, and there's, you also have the meet the meet the turn lane going down the middle to shift traffic. You know, you want to have all three lanes open, but you'll have two of the three lanes open. So you'll have, you know, traffic.

Really, that thing too is that access to every driveway is maintained during construction. Never close in a driveway and always maintain pedestrian accommodations.

The worst thing in design is you have all these driveways, but the best thing in construction is you have all these driveways. So, I mean, we can work with property owners. I mean, it truly is because they have multiple points of access in these businesses. And a lot of them you can get into from the backside that all of us locals benefit because we don't have to fight the traffic out there. So we come in from the backside. So there's multiple ways to egress. And so I think, you know, we weren't getting contractors coming to us saying, oh, well, we should do this like downtown where you should just close off whole block and just give us, you know, a block at a time because that was different because it was more constrained. This is why. Yeah. Yeah. And remember, we designed it to keep traffic open and build it a half at a time. But then they came back and said, well, what if we did this? So Michael and I had to go in front of property owners to see what they would be willing to stomach. And they chose how we built it. And it just got in return. It got done sooner.

you're planning the opening of the summer and, you know, you're opening the doors, you know, spring, you know, it's just everything. But, you know, if it really simply is hard and you won't get that disqualification, what you call, you're going to be removing someone of people that you want to be working on this thing you know then you got to think about that also because we're talking about two or three months there and i don't know we're not shutting down 76 okay there's still people you know i know that at the end it's the it's the lipstick that we're putting on yeah it's not going to be you know without the final uh you know checklist is not punchless it's not going to be so i think that looks great, but then the question is, is the 24 month really the thing that you need to do? Because sometimes you do something, you regret it, you wish you would have 24, and you say, well, I wish we would just bite the bullet and try to figure out that, or I don't know. You guys don't know.

The risk with one would be if you did 20 months and you said, hey, we're going to be done That's the last I'm going to say.

Don't you need more bids? I mean, you said you do want bids for auction two or three. We've got help with price and we can be a little selective of what contracts we want and what... I mean, there's negotiations, right? There's no negotiations. I get that. What I'm saying, though, is if you give them the 24 months, we have a little bit better relationship up front with them. little bit of flexibility throughout things. I mean, I guess I just, if you get more, if you get more bids.

That's why y'all make, but it's going to, it's going to cost you. Yeah. Correct. You're not having to pay as much over time.

You're going to pay a premium for a shorter duration.

You're going to be paying extra for general conditions and things like that. But

All right, with that, Todd and I will back away from this conversation while you guys work it. I love this part.

I know we don't have numbers because we can't really tell whether we're close to the number that we're at, okay? But we just know that there's a lot of complaining about the schedule and the difficulty and the risks. Going back to what Alec was saying, my question is, since we don't have any numbers to go with, it's hard to imagine, okay, at 20 months, this is the kind of number you're going to get. And at 24 months, this is the kind of number we get. Now, if I knew that, But you won't get it because they're bidding. So you can't see it. That's the problem with all this. But also you can see generally that, I mean, you guys have done the numbers before. This number came from you guys. Okay. So hopefully we're not that far off. Okay. So the question is, Bud, you've been talking with these guys. So you know the general feeling where they're at. But you don't have any clue whether you're not going to be off or on.

Let me ask these guys. When we were on the phone, if I'm remembering this right, was there just one contractor that was pushing 24 months? No. So.

And I think the one that was. Who was that? It's on your list.

It's on your list. I'm trying to pick.

It's been a long time.

And I think they're a partner with somebody.

I think even at that, even at two years, they're going to partner. Yeah, they had 20 to 24. And they, they, he has said, how far can I go?

So then Robbie, just partner with some spouse.

What did you say? Yeah, they did. Carson Mitchell was not in the game.

They would have to join somebody if they didn't have a partner. From our interview, they didn't have a partner yet.

Who did number three?

Tom Hoist did the water line. And Carson Mitchell did the pedestrian improvement.

And the rest changes in that because you had underground and overground. But it makes a longer project and they got to work together.

So are you careful with 10, 14 star dudes? If we do, we walk the next thing. If we get this.

Yeah, we'll walk the next pages that are coming. You'll have it set here. And if you choose one, two, or three, it just affects downstream a little bit. I don't agree with this. Too much.

And Michael, you shared that start with me.

I got a feeling that the 21st sounds like only one company that is best for 24, but all of a sudden, just at least they stop talking to you. You know, I think that's the part of it. I think that we have not eliminated a lot of people. There may be people that are eliminated, but, you know, now there's 20 or 22 like that.

That's awesome. You have to remember, too, by putting it back out, there may be people that came to the meeting, kind of like what you highlighted, where they were partnered, and they're like, well, now that it's this long, I might not need to be partnered up.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good point. It's probably, I think, the difference between the 20-month and the 24-month is whether they go it alone or they partner.

Or somebody that did bid, looked at it, opened it up. We did have one that was like, I'm going to be honest with you. We were like, how are the prices? How are the plans? They're going to be like, honestly, we opened it up. Our owner said there's no way. And they stopped looking at it, right? And then they took another look. Interesting. I mean, you have to take a risk.

Yeah. It's similar to the downtown project. So when you went out to rebid downtown, what was that experience? Did you add months on the timeline or were there other factors?

So when it's their time to spring opening at spring break, then we came back and they bid it for a longer period with the two month incentive that was on had that ability to start in March and we actually chose to start in April to allow for spring break injection of sales and so that that's where that was a little of a perception of that was about what that was.

Does this 20 months include like any like losing day because there's no day?

contractors also brought up that no matter what you hear online, they all read the same stuff we do, is that the plants aren't open to make asphalt. To open a plant to make concrete in the winter and do heated water and keep running at that time, and things like that. But if you don't go there, it shows up.

in the long term, is it something we're going to have to replace in 10 years instead of 20 years? That makes a big difference.

Always remind people there won't be foundation companies if there weren't a lot of mistakes all the time. Look at how many Thrasher commercials you see. There must be a lot of money in fixing mistakes.

Yeah, we went from 12 to 20 months, at least eight months. I think they're much more interested. I think this is like, even if I mean, 12 was pretty aggressive and will be well on the board.

I'm just saying, oh, they're going to do it. So I would lean towards the 22 month. I'm sorry. I would lean towards the 24 months. The reason why is that gives them time to get the two month incentives. You're at 22 months regardless. But if you run the competition risk of them going out of the loan and or getting more bids, I think that's healthy for the project then.

decades right 203 months here and there yeah i mean you're looking for some of the last problems 30 to 40 years and have 50 being born so what i like about what you say is basically we don't have enough right now yeah so you get more numbers when you do the 24 and like you say if you get the incident that's 22 months yeah what if you get a visit yeah yeah yeah it's way

And with that, him and I have a direct question.

And we would like you all to. I did. I said one. I said one. And you all make your decision. We cannot change the incentive package without going back to your note on all those steps.

that you had to get approval from the duck and dash to say another all this all congruence it's a city uh what it's a city the governor is money that's what happens when they're the holding the purse strings this is really off the wall conversation but instead of starting in october so just thinking of the 24 months one you look at accelerated which is 815 can you get that uh you know, 5, 15, and 26 by messing with the, because obviously one year automatically you're going to be working in the summer involved, right? Automatically, it's just getting 12 months. The second, the last month of the project, you're going to be possibly ending.

They could always possibly end early.

I think what we forget is that last month, you don't feel the huge impact on... and it was back open to people being able to walk into businesses and people being able to drive. Then we had two months of, oh my gosh, let's get all these plants in here and get everything crushed up.

Michael, if you mess with the start date to try to gain that last year's worth of construction during the summer, is that at all worth it? Just the start date. Yeah. I don't know if that's even possible. I don't think that probably is possible, right? Just the start date. Two months either way?

starting December, then you're hit. It's August. It's still June in my mind. I'll be honest with you. It really is. Hold on a second.

Michael, is there any discussion? Michael, is there any discussion needed on receiving the state's money?

Oh, the state money, everything is locked in and good at this moment.

Were there timing concerns with their money?

We have to go back to rebid. We're in the new fiscal year, so we are in good shape. Your fiscal year starts in July.

Okay, thanks.

You're welcome. But it was a concern recently. We got over those songs.

Any idea on percentage of cost? That's going to be a 10% increase in cost.

Labor is up on 44 and 70. So good luck driving as you go across the state of Missouri over the next three years. So the updates are there and the screen will soon be big things too. So, you know, labor to get people to show up.

But we did ask when we were talking to the contractors about, is there anything else happening in the market, new projects that are coming up that would deter your impact schedule on this? And they said no. They did say no.

I mean, that knocked out one of the biggest players that came to us. They have to get the I-44 project.

So they're like, ah, your little project there in the back. They were awarded a half a billion.

Enjoy your drive to Oklahoma. We're going to have that for a minute. And Sanford Springville, if you haven't been out there recently. It is one fun drive. I asked you all to motion one or another today so we can keep moving. Or you table it.

I don't know what we're going to say, but I think we've heard a lot from you guys. I do need to hear from everybody. I'd like some people on board.

I think there's two things we have to look at. The tax payer dollars suddenly gone. 25% increase on costs. A big thing. process. We would want to definitely increase the budget and make sure the contractors have in their budget plenty of signage for businesses that are there that are being affected. But from my standpoint, I was 73 when Todd and I worked very closely on 73. And we didn't have a back entrance. Everybody was coming in through the door. I think that's kind of the play here as well, is while we say everybody has a back entrance, not everybody does. People on the west side have the back entrance. People on the east side, not so much. They're not as easy to access here. I hate the idea of going into two summers, but I hate the idea of spending 25% more to give.

Well, you're not spending 25% from the 20 month to the 24 month, right? You're spending, because we went from 12 to 20, it may be up to 20% higher, right? So that's the key. That's a different story. The other question is that, And it is we're not an expert in something we we were given a bunch of. Information from the expert here and they also they're talking to the contractor and we're not talking to the contractor. I mean, we all love to have the shortest months. That's the most obvious, you know, and it sounds like from you guys, you feel like that is a doable month, the 20 months. And I believe so, too. They're playing a game because they went from 12 and we added eight months to it, which is pretty critical for me when you're talking about, you know, foreign companies, asphalt, landscaping, and all that stuff. You know, I'm only one voice, Chuck, with that. I would just go to the 20 months is what my recommendation is. I know what Alex is saying is true, but these guys are already in it. We're the guys, the real guys, going to stick around and try to build employment. And you're right, the question is, because we don't want to have numbers, and we don't want to risk, and we don't want to do this, but somewhere in there. So these guys are also put contingency into their, they do that. And so they can do fast tracks, you know, and it's a big project.

And if one releases city resources too, then your resources can start working on the next sections.

So a couple of months here or there, I don't sound like we'll pull up, but we're not going to be doing the stuff on the next session for all those measures. Well, I think if the way it's kind of, yeah. Maybe we could.

You know, what Jeff was saying earlier is interesting because it is, you're talking about taxpayer money on the side. It is the 20 months and the 24, it's the full month that we're paying someone else. And if they can get it in 20 months and they can bid it, but then they couldn't be comfortable with it, which they don't do. So you'll see, you might have one or two. And they have to be creative also, meaning partnering with some of this big dog to make it happen. And so I think those are the things that, you know, I think 20 months is, yeah, I like to speak. I tend to go for 20 months. Even if you go to 22, and they have the incentive, you hit it before the summer. It's due to 15. But since you guys are the ideas, I might as well split the point each other in.

At least 20, any other? I would say 22. 20. Because I really, I don't want to say to someone we can't.

I mean, the experts are saying 20 months. And the cost is by a little bit, I think.

Mayor, Brian, Alex, any comments from any of you?

Just something for me. When I look at Segment 3 historically, it looks like that was, and I think it'll help to hear this. Would you guys say that Segment 3 was more or less complicated if you ignore just sheer size and scope of work? Less complicated. less complicated. So if it's less complicated and it took 16 months to do it without counting the break in between for funding problems, I just don't know how you could reasonably expect that the 12 months would have come out. And then I don't know how you could get behind the 18 months. So I just, I don't know if it's that simple, but just looking at that literally did take that long when you count the months and you read the history on it. So even if we don't want to hear that it's going to go longer, I'd rather go with common sense and and just go off what we already know, then keep guessing and keep kicking it another 30 days. Cause if we wait and we do the 20 and nobody bids again, is it effectively another 30 day delay?

It's 30 days every time you don't have a bid.

So that's just thoughts I have. When we look at this 18, 20 and 24, how are those options generated? I guess if I missed that earlier on in the call.

So those were generated from the conversations, exit interviews with the plan holders about why they did or did not bid. And then we had the conversation with each of them, what they would like to see and then what was physically possible by their company. And so the least we heard was we can pull it off in 18 months. We heard that a couple of times. And so we put 20 and put the two months bonus there to ease that, to get more bidders in there. Spencer, you would say it's pretty accurate or something.

Strategy. And the other thing too, I think, you know, you've said it in our meetings is for, you know, for you to get the return on your investment is to get this.

And that's what we discussed with them too, is you're all buying money and you're going to be sitting on a lot of money. There were quite a few questions about saying, we're going to do this work, and they want zero delay. And I know, Jeremy, a long time ago, we talked about that. Once you turn that engine on, you can't stop. And so we said, hey, you guys were well on bombing. That might disappear in the actual JSPs that are in there. But that was to protect the city's 10-minute count, too. And so I don't know if anybody can try to.

And if I missed it, are you guys as staff, as city staff leaning into the 20 month option or are you not leaning into any three of them? I heard you talk about each of the three, but which one are you actually asking for?

City staff is saying one for the business. 10 months down time was a long time. So two years is a really long time. And we definitely told the contractors we would not entertain anything longer than two years, period. So that's unreasonable. Not with the amount of work we put in. And that's where that conversation about Grant Street three years came up. And I think we mitigated those concerns.

And you feel like the 18 months, although ambitious, you feel like you have buy-in from exit surveys that will substantiate that people will actually take that on? I mean, it's what you want, but is it reality?

It is the contract, just so we're super clear in case this gets brought back out somewhere else. It is a 20-month contract with an incentive of two months that they could gain. So they could be done at 18. No sense is the city saying 18 months with a two-month improvement on there. It's 20. Possibly, if all the moon stars, weather, everything is good, you're at 18. Same with 22. Everything is all good, you're down to 20. 24, you're down to 22. So we're going no longer than two years of incentive is chopping off opportunities. How do we want to look at it?

So option one is what you're leaning into.

Yep. City staff is in Prairie River as well. And they were independent of us. Actually, I didn't know what you were going to say. Cheers. We like to try to deliver profits.

Don't like to have too long a leash.

Then you'll have somebody writing about, well, there were seven days out there and I photographed it and that's anybody who was there.

I'm of the mind that if you have design professionals that are getting comfortable with it, you guys have had interviews with people who applied in the last go around. I mean, it's a good show of faith to the stakeholders that we're going to do everything that we can to keep the fastest timeline without rushing to failure. I just, it would suck to go with option one and then you get a no bid situation again and delay another 30 days. But if you have confidence there without not being able to personally guarantee it, I, I think it's prudent risk if you have the feedback.

I definitely cannot guarantee that if we choose one that we could have it no bid, but I think one bidder, two bidders said that we're definitely getting at least two. Might lose one.

Perfect. I wouldn't expect you to. That's why I said without expecting you to personally guarantee it, but taking a little bit of prudent risk, that sounds like the way to go then.

Mike's LLC isn't going to be a good example.

You know, Todd and Spencer and myself and other staffers and Cheryl, we don't want to do this again. This was a lot of work. So get that way. We still do 10 minutes of true, like, here's the next steps that you all know. It's just like you did before and stuff. WHICHEVER WAY.

THIS IS THE MAYOR WITH A FEW QUESTIONS. THE DIFFERENCE, AND I KNOW WE'RE TALKING, I THINK WHAT I'M HEARING EVERYBODY DISCUSS IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 18 AND, IS THAT RIGHT, 18 AND 20 MONTHS? 20 AND 24. 20, 22, AND 24. OKAY, 20, 20.

WELL, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 20 AND 24 REALLY IS IN THE

dead of winter months, isn't it, when we look at the calendar?

Well, it's taking another summer. July, October, July, August, September, October.

So you think the start date would be in October?

They're projecting. That would be to proceed to the contractor. That means the clock gets smashed or turned off, however you want to look at it. The clock begins within a few days or something crazy.

And so 20 months would get us close to the beginning of the summer season, correct?

Yes. Yeah, so 20 months would get you

So, Michael, if you threw the dart, where would it land?

That we're going to have a successful project. They're going to finish somewhere between 20 and 18 months, and we'll have better or two or three. I think best case, from the exit interviews, which we're allowed to do because bidding was closed.

Make sure I put some caveats in there. With that closing, you'll have all four of them.

All right.

You guys created a really unique, awesome project.

Should be proud of what you have there. The blend of heavy construction versus more finesse construction. It's a little bit of a blend.

Yeah. All right, Stephen.

I think we owe it to the community if we can have some degree of certainty to shorten this, the better, but not walk into it again and have a no-bid situation. That's what comes to mind for me. I don't think anybody at the table wants to forego a second summer, but if you have to because common sense says it's probably not going to be viable, then you wouldn't do that, but you've done the due diligence and talked to these guys, so one would think that there's a way to bid this thing out, keep it on track, and not cost two summers.

So, Michael, the other thing, we'll get feedback. We'll have another briefing.

We'll get feedback there, too. So there's another temperature check.

Yeah. So Alderman Williams, if you didn't hear Spencer, we do have another temperature check that comes back when we open up and talk to them again and the bids are open. They can ask questions again. Pre-bid. Or pre-bid. I'm sorry.

Which is great for them. I'm guessing more or less the actual businesses and the stakeholders within the CID itself that would be impacted, not the guys doing the work. That too is important, obviously, for their feedback. Unless you're referring to the people bidding, correct? Not the stakeholders feedback on this discussion?

Yeah, the bidders on there. Unfortunately, the feedback we got from the When the business community and the timeline was there, this is why we're in this situation that we are today. And, you know, we did talk to Modal a little bit about what they thought that but they also don't put huge timelines. They don't do what we do today on every project, so they realize that it drives bosses you all talked about.

Brian, you got anything?

No. I mean, I'm kind of with you guys. If we think we can get it done in that 20-month contract, then we need to try to do that. I hate thinking or knowing that we may pay the premium for that, but it's worth it in that scenario only to try to capture that whole summer. As I'm looking at, you know, 22 month or 24 month, 24-month puts us in a window where, you know, if you look at attendance figures for the town as a whole, there's really not a big difference between mid-August through the mid-October timeframe. So I think we've got to try to go for one, and hopefully we can get more than one person betting on it so that we we can kind of gauge you know what's a fair number there thank you brian any other comment discussion before we entertain so if we go with one i mean we go with one and say there's only one bid we can move forward i just go with one bid

Yes, for the most part, unless the costs are so out of line that the suggestion would be no. For instance, if you're...

They came in at $80 million.

There you go. You can reject the bid on that point. We always want two, three, four bids.

Yeah, to compare, yeah.

And so does Lodoc. They prefer... They don't want us to just do one bid. They don't like one bid either. It's like the authority of the group with the option one. I would get a motion. I'll take a motion to do number one. Second. There you go. First by Billy, a second by Mike. Do we have any further comments or discussions regarding this motion? Hearing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. the same sign. Okay. You're out of direction. Awesome.

I appreciate that. So your bond pricing. So we're going to just kind of pick up, we'll rebuild the same thing that we share for every meeting recently, showing our timeline that's on there. So the 76 ECID meeting, that's the meeting we're in today. So we postponed and paper and modot are advertised on 8-13. Bid period starts on 8-14. General contractor virtual pre-bid is set up for 8-21 at 10 a.m. And then there's Labor Day. So that's where we were originally shooting around and we were hoping for for shovels in the ground uh right after labor day on the 8th 14th you have the bid opening on that monday which is actually 32 days we we didn't think we were going to open on a saturday or sunday um and we were going to request today that we have a special meeting with you all the wednesday the the third week and a resolution is what we would be after to recommend the contractor uh with the open bids and we will also He gives us Monday and Tuesday to make sure that our engineer record and firmly approve that. And congruence with that, the timeline to turn it back around, like you all talked about, is can you really turn it back around and get it back to that point? We're going to run them all in parallel. There's a little bit of risk to that because maybe your board says yes. We said yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we went. We still have the Board of Aldermen. together. The Board of Aldermen meeting is in green on the bottom there. So October 13th or 27th, their meetings are set. And I know if we really, really need it, they could do a special meeting. We think we can make that 10, 13 meeting work in there. Once that happens, we'll ask for a double read to our Board of Aldermen. I'm grateful for two of them to be some questions on that. The resolution for bonds and As you see there, at midnight at the power of 614, if they're not done, they start paying us. And so we don't want to be there. We hope that we're not there. We believe that we have a strong team and a strong teamwork. We're working in a relationship with you to put this together. With that, I will be pleased.

Everybody look at your calendar. Make sure you go.

So Michael, did you say that this will be on this Tuesday's Board of Aldermen meeting?

Yes, it's well beyond. Yeah, it's well beyond this Tuesday. It will not be on this Tuesday's meeting. It will be in October.

And why wouldn't it be on this meeting?

Because we don't have a bidder yet. We have to get a bidder in place and a contract in place for the board to execute.

I'm sorry. I skipped a step. Or I was putting more pressure on you to get a bid.

Yeah. That'd be a miracle if we could pull that off.

Anything else you got for us, Michael? That's it for today. Thank you so much. Good work, guys. Thank you, guys. Great work. Board members, have you made a good cause? Very good. I entertain a motion to adjourn. Second motion to adjourn. First. Second by right. All those in favor, say it by saying aye.

Aye. Perfect. Thank you guys for coming in and spending the time.

We appreciate it. Thank you guys. Thank you.