Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

work session on March the 13th in preparation for our recess meeting of March the 17th. And while we're at it, I'm going to make note that this is a five Tuesday month, which means that we are going to have uh our next meeting won't be until um April and that is post Good Friday. That's after Good Friday. So, I want to make the announcement that we won't have a work session on the Good Friday prior to the next board meeting. And also that Mr. Smiley is is instituting a slightly different pickup. So, we're going to uh keep in mind that the citywide pickup will be Thursday prior to the Good Friday. And so, we're going to see how that works. So, if if your neighbors and friends ask you, we'll put it on. So, if your neighbors and friends ask you, uh it will be a citywide pickup on that Thursday prior to the Good Friday holiday. So, we'll just, you know, let our folks know so we can we can be prepared. And while I'm at it, let's remember that we are still voting for the uh best small town in the south uh USA Today bill and we are currently sitting at number one. And so I encourage everyone to continue to vote. You can vote using your phone and your computer and your personal computer and you can vote that. So please feel free to do so and encourage your friends

and if you have multiple emails. I'm sorry. Multiple emails work too by the way.

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. I thought I was voting but all right. Anyway, so we'll take that into account because we are currently sitting at number one and so having that three years in a row would be an amazing achievement. So uh all right, having said that, one of the things that I have asked uh to be done for our our work session today is an update on uh our existing grants. And if we recall after our last board meeting, we had a discussion about the CDBG grant. And lo and behold, the next day I didn't get a letter from the governor saying that our CDBG grant had been approved. And so, Miss Benson, bless her heart, was kind enough to come and give us a little bit of an update on that and exactly what that means. So, I'm going to let the floor be yours, Phyllis. And I'm going to try to keep my talking down to a minimum unless I'm unable to do any whatsoever. So,

well, good morning. I I will let you know that I have worked with public utilities to pull a PowerPoint presentation together. So, I'm going to give just a brief overview on that project specifically. Uh, it's been a long time coming. You know, over the years, I've worked with the city in trying to take sewer into areas that weren't currently being served. And those include, oh, golly, if I think back to Rock Hill, Roundhouse, Bluefield, um, Babylon.

Exactly. Babylon. It's we're slowly but surely whittling away at the outskirts of the city which have now been taken in and uh you're we are now at Sand Road and Henderson Road. Uh it's I I've submitted that application two times and unfortunately last year it scored enough points to be funded. However, due to some unfortunate problems with your audit, not being big problems, just timely completion, it kicked your application out. So, we geared up and backed up and ran again with it. And this year, uh, it received a second site visit. Uh, the state of Mississippi recognizes that this project fits HUD's mold exactly. uh the people of that area will receive a new sewer collection system because of the low to moderate income requirements of the program. Those people will be hooked up at no charge. That doesn't mean they're not going to have a monthly sewer bill. It means that the grant requires anyone of a certain income to be hooked up at no charge. we will take a service line from the trunk line to their house and actually hook it up so that they're they don't experience any additional financial hardships. I you know I I'm fortunate that I've always had a home with that was hooked up to city sewer and I didn't know the hardships of dealing with uh a septic tank especially a septic tank in a lowlying area that stays continuously wet. So these people are very deserving.

We are pedling that bicycle just as quick as we can. Um I'm glad that the award notice came in when it did. I wish that it could have been a little bit sooner, but unfortunately the Mississippi Development Authority is running it just a little bit behind. I've started the environmental review process. I've been working with um the Stark Octivah County School District to make sure that all of the deeds in that area are current. This is 16th section property and it is going to throw another monkey ranch in there for us to work with. But uh hey, the vice mayor and I have worked all the way around this city and we have we'll we'll get through this one too. So did I are there any specific questions that you have?

Thank you very much. Did you say that the hookup will be free? The we will run a service line from the house from the trunk line to their house. We will actually physically hook in to their house. The grant requires that that take place,

right? They won't be exempt from a monthly sewer fee. And we tried to explain this whenever we had we've had several public meetings in the project area. The church was gracious enough to allow us to conduct the meeting there. Um but it's it's been the same way on all of the projects. if they met the income requirements of HUD. It's not my income requirements or the state of Mississippi. It is HUD because every year Congress appropriates money to the different uh federal or federal organizations,

right? The federal programs. Sorry. Yeah. Vice Mayor and I were just talking about how long I've done this and it's showing now obviously but uh they they appropriate money to the different federal agencies. It's then distributed among the states utilizing a formula. The state of Mississippi receives about 24$25 million annually which is a lot of money in Phyllis's bank account. But unfortunately, when you think that every local unit of government, that being county or municipality, that meets the minimum threshold requirement, $25 million is just a drop in the bucket. So, it's a highly competitive process. We try to structure those applications so that it best meets the need of the people in the community. But we follow HUD's guidelines and I brought manuals to show you that there are rules and regulations and that if anyone wants to attend the upcoming implementation workshop. It's in about a week and a half. It will be conducted in Pearl and I'll be glad to get you information about that. our office will be attending and they are requiring that the city of Starkville as a grant recipient send someone to that meeting in addition to me. So, uh

we will have someone there. Yeah. I just think you appreciate all that you've done 27 years a long time. I know you've been doing it way long, but I'm sure the people on appreciate it very much. But still I think uh I think it'll be very need for us to set up a call town hall meeting with them to let them know some of these things that you just said. Okay. So I I would work with them and try to schedule a meeting to set time so they can hear theirel just coming from. Sure. Sure. Thank you so much. So

you're quite welcome. uh if if you will wait until after we attend the workshop. So, you know, there there's always the possibility that something new comes along and uh you know, we're in a new administration and we are seeing changes. So, let me attend that workshop so that we can give them the latest and the greatest and I look forward to doing this project. It is uh very worthwhile, very much needed. So, and it is in conjunction with some work that is going on at the look just down the road. So,

I'll keep I'll go ever leave be closer to you. It's just a me a message from this. Yes. Where coming from it's coming from water and sugar. That's part of our bonds. We have we have bonds that rule support

the uh it's a highly competitive application process and in order to be competitive first of all you have to match it at least 10%. Uh the state of Mississippi is not going to give you that kind of money without some buy in. And uh in order to make it more competitive, you you've got to match it almost dollar for dollar to gain enough points in that particular category so that your application will score high enough to get funded. it. You know, when I said that the state has 24 to 25 million, they split that in half between public facilities and economic development. So, really, you competed for about $12 million. So, uh that to me speaks well for the city's efforts. I also want to give you kudos because you put these applications together. And so without a good application, we would not have gotten all these CDBG grants that we've gotten over the years. And so that rests on your doorstep. And for that, we're very very grateful.

Well, I it's been my pleasure. I appreciate the city giving me the opportunity as job security for me, but at the same time, I can put my head on the pillow at night knowing that I've done something to improve the quality of life for people in this area. And that's important to me. So, I've been out there as well as you have, Alderman Vong, and it's it's a collaborative effort. We all work together on this to get it funded. But if you've been out there and you've seen their situation, they deserve to have better. I've seen the tears.

So, anyway, that's our goal. We're not setting the world on fire. We're not curing cancer, but we are doing something to improve the their quality of life and that is the mission. Thank you. You have a presentation.

Yes, ma'am. I just have a recap of all the grant funded projects. Of course, the CDBG won't be one. And I also want to brief the board on a recent application that we made to Congressman Guest for some community funding as well. This is the mayor asked us to just kind of compile a list of all our ongoing grant projects and we tried to include those here. As you can see, quite a number of grants. Phyllis is helping us with a a number of these, specifically the CDBG and the ARC funding ones, but we also have some other ones that we're uh managing as well. And I want to give thanks to Mary Williams who helps take the lead on a lot of these. On the left hand side of the screen is all of our wastewater related projects. On the right hand side, you can see the water. there's just not as many water uh funding opportunities out there right now. Um but we continue to to do those. I was going to go through each of the ones that are indicated in black in just a second and and give you an overview on each one, but I did want to highlight on this slide the two that are highlight uh indicated in blue. And those are the recent applications that we made to Congressman Guest's office last week for the uh community funding. On the wastewater side, we got uh an application in for $4 million for wastewater collection improvements. Those will be around the in the community. That would be uh gravity sewer lines as well as lift station improvements. And those are in in addition or alongside the um the recent word uh authorization that we got from Army Corps of Engineers. So, it would be to fund that program. And then on the water side is to um ask funding for well number 10. We're under in design for well number nine. We hope to have that online by the end of this calendar year. Well 10 was also indicated in our overall water evaluation that we will need in the next several years. Both of these projects are projects we think that we will probably not see the full application and the funding and construction started for a 3 to five

year time frame. So we feel like both of these line up well for that. Um, so you can see both of those, four million for wastewater and two and a half million for well number 10.

And just to let you know in my opportunity to give uh some um kudos to both both Edward's team and and Cody's team, we got the notice to meet with uh Congressman Guest on Friday of our last work session and then they had to have this turned around and to them by the next Friday. So it was a just a fiveday turnaround. So, these guys worked overtime to make sure that we had good applications. And I'm due to go to uh Washington in April to highlight these items for our legislators to take a look at and make sure that we're getting uh hopefully a positive result from from these applications. So, just FYI. Um first project is our wastewater aerator and electrical rehab project. This project's about halfway through. Uh these some of these photos are actually from this morning from a drone shot. You can see uh ditch one there on the top is completely drained. We've been working on the construction of the peers. The concrete that's going to support the new aation system. And then the bottom photograph on the right is our new electrical building pad. And you can see that the generator and transformer are already installed there. Um this is a big, you know, our first major project at the wastewater plant over $10 million. We had about 700,000 of that was from the leftover Stark hospital extension road money. The 700,000 we had about two and a quarter from ARPA with a two and a quarter match from MCWI. So essentially about half funded through some type of external funding. Um y'all obviously know a lot about this because we've been talking about this for several years. You can see the photos at the bottom just show the extent of the electrical that's needed for the uh for the plant. the duck bank there and then some additional photos. So, we're still on schedule for that to be completed in the fall of this year. Had a progress

meeting on it yesterday and that that that schedule may actually move up to the end of summer of 2026. So, we're we're trying to push that as much as we can. Our influent lift station project, this is one that Phyllis has helped us with through ARC. Um that project is underway. Um we we've gone through quite a long lengthy design period on that because there was a lot of requirements for by America that kind of got us hung up for a period of time. $720,000 grant with a $850,000 match. A great project for us um includes the replacement of some pumps that are badly needed, some valving that's going to help our operators. uh renovation of our wet well to extend the life of it and then also provide us a much more robust bypass connection um for the times when we need take the station down. So we'll have this project done according to our schedule in the next 3 to 5 months and it's progressing well. Same contractor by the way who's doing air raator is also doing influence. So it's some synergy there. Stark Road, another project Phyllis is helping us with. We were awarded this project um probably about a year and a half ago and it's taken us quite a while to go through the environmental process. We just got approval of that uh earlier this year and now have moved on into the the applica the full application uh stage. We got a $750,000 grant for this. It's going to require about a $950,000 match to do the full project. And this is replacement of a a force man along the entire length of Stark Road from 182 to Highway 12 that's original and it's in need of a replacement. We usually have a break over there at least about once a year or so. Major uh transmission line that that basically transmits the waste water from the north part of town to the south um part where our our wastewater treatment plant is. So hoping to have this one uh designed going

actually on this agenda. We have the approval for Clearwater Consultants, a local engineering firm to do the design and hope to start construction on this next year. Uh the Josie Creek lift station. Um this is one of the sta the major stations that actually feeds into the Stark Road Force main. We are proposing to move this station um which is currently on private property and an easement onto the north uh west corner of OA's property at Northstar Park. This would also upgrade the station there to allow for future flow. Um and so we estimated that to be about $2.7 million. We have some MDA funding that was left over from the park that has been allocated about 700,000 and we're procuring the final amount of funding there. So, we're about 30% through with design on this and we anticipate having this done about the same time that we have phase two of the airator of the wastewater treatment plant done which is around summer fall of 2027. But this will be a great project just to allow for future economic development growth in that area as well as growth of the north part of town. Henderson to Sand Road. Uh we just went over that pretty extensively. Just wanted to highlight our local funding uh amount that Ottoman Bon had asked about 590,000 will come out of uh water and sewer capital improvement funds to make this project. We're anticipating we'll have a full timeline for you along when we have our time when we have our town hall meeting. as we know the requ the new requirements that are going to be coming from CDBG we'll be able to put together concept on that but right now we feel like it's feasible that we'll start construction in 2027

yes sir how long's construction timeline anticipate I would say we we should be able to complete this in six to nine months would be my guess is that was my question what part of 27 will Again, Miss Kim, we'll have to coordinate with Miss Miss Phyis. Uh, it's a great question. I'm not exactly sure about Could you get answer to the mayor so she can let us know? I think we'll have a better idea after we go through

after we go through the workshop, we'll have a better idea. Um, there a lot of the regulations at the federal level are changing and it's just going to depend upon how long it takes to work through those. uh the MDA was particularly concerned about the 16th section property and that's why they even before it was awarded they've had me pulling deeds and they've reviewed them all and we're working like I said with the school district uh in the past that has been a hangup with HUD funded projects and uh the bureau director has seen this area. She happened to be in town one day. So, I said, "Well, if you've got just a few more minutes, let's go look at a potential project." I've taken her down Sand Road and Henderson Road, and she agrees that she feels as though it was a worthy project, and uh but she is concerned about that 16th section lease and it's slowing down the project. So, we're going to have to stay with it and be very diligent. So I I'm going to charge you with the responsibility of calling me continuously.

We will never know about Dr. Tim Barn he was trying to string all the 16 heard us when he left you working. What's that like? It's a team. It's a team effort and if you will just help me stay on track. I will. Thank you.

Great project though. Um we also rewarded from uh Congressman Guest. We were notified this here in the last month or so um about a $ 1.5 million grant for the wastewater treatment plant. Um the the exact project of this is is still kind of being coalesed out. Again, this will be a project that it takes a while to go through the federal um regulation requirements, but this will be through EPA and specifically the STAG program. So, we're looking at a project probably in the 3 to five year range of when it actually will be constructed and completed. But obviously, a lot of needs at the plant will we will be able to find a project to complete that with and it does require $300,000 match. Bluefield. This was another project that we received from Congressman Guest um prior this was the first one we actually got the stag grant and um this was the one of the first projects that actually went through the stag process. So it's it's been a learning process for not only us but also for EPA who is administering the project. Um this was a $ 1.9 million grant. The purpose was to improve and consolidate some of the the main water lines out in the Bluefield area. So this is the map that we actually put together for them probably about in 2022 2023 when we actually made the initial request.

If you recall this is the one that we share with county. Yes, that's right. The front they are they were the awardee but but have kind of transferred the project to us. Yes ma'am.

Well this include the main home life. We are going to to make those $ 1.9 million dollar stretch as far as we can primarily focusing on the main lines first and then going to the secondaries first. So you can see the new light road this map is actually turned. So blue bluefield road is at the bottom and then new light road is shown there in the blue one. So everything initially intended but again back in 2022 when we put together the cost estimate I think we asked for over $4 million and we were awarded 1.9. So we will we will certainly try to make those go as far as we can with the highest need and new light is one that we're having a lot of breaks on. So I feel like it's going to rise up pretty high in the priority list. We haven't even really started the design on this one though yet. So that's we're we're currently been accepted to submit an application. So that's kind of where we are with that one. So just to recap and uh total projects that we're currently working through is grant funded in some form or fashion is over $20 million with a uh almost $8 million mash. If you take out the first project, which is the air raator project, those are what we would consider typical grant funded projects. The CDBGs, the stag, we're essentially getting 75 cents for every 25 cents we um we use. So essentially, we're getting a project for 25 cents on the dollar. A good investment of time, a good wise use of the rateayer funds in my opinion. And we will continue to try to do that to make these dollars stretch as far as we can. So that's all I have. Thank you very much. Uh and just tag to your your presentation, we have a request in obviously to the state legislature. I have no idea projects this year. They did not last year, but if they do, these are priority projects for them to be uh helping us

with. So, I'm hoping that they will they will u come to the table this time around. So, we'll see. Cody,

good morning. These the the these are the projects the engineering department submitted for CPF. This is not an all-inclusive list of our grants. This is just ones we put in last week. But there are questions about anything else we're working on, we can answer those. So the first project we put in for is the old West Point Road bridge. This is you look at the red circle. This is just north of Gared and northwest of the Dodge dealership. This was called to our attention last year during the rain events and when we investigated the bridge, the wing wall, which is what you see here on the right side, had fallen off of the bridge. So, it was going to be a fairly expensive repair and I didn't feel good about making that repair until I knew the bridge was good to begin with. So, we had a bridge assessment completed. And what the bridge assessment found is that the steel piles, which is what you see on the right hand side, that's what supports the bridge, by the way. it holds the road up. Those have lost about 30% of their station which means we are imminently in danger of having to load rate the bridge that would impact school buses, garbage trucks, vehicles to the landfield. And so it's a it's a project that needs to be completed fairly quickly. You will see on the left hand side it had jeopardized the road. Mr. Black with the street department has stabilized this so we're safe, but we we do need to take the bridge seriously. So we have applied for this as part of our grant CPF funding and this is where we are. We have completed preliminary design and the bridge analysis that's done. I will be bringing before the board in the next few weeks the final design and then all of the FEMA permitting that goes with this and then what we ask for from the federal or from congressman guest the CPF funding is the construction and construction engineering and inspection. So this is an 8020 uh funding source. It will effectively remove the bridge, install a

box cover, which is much reduces the maintenance long term, and provide the inspection and testing. That's estimated to be $1.25 million. And so if you break that math down, 8020, that's a million dollar request to the CPF funds, a $250,000 local match. And if you combine that with what we have already obligated to date, that's a local total expenditure of 370. And so we get a $1.3 million bridge for about $370,000 if it hits.

And just to circle back around timewise, um you estimate that there's about these these uh grants have a have a uh a timeline you can get, you know, results from them and it's generally about two years. And that's what we were estimating that this bridge would serve us for hopefully another two years at the very least. Yep. Three to five. probably being the best case. And so one of the things that makes the grant a lot more appealing to the the people that are reviewing it is if you have shovel ready plans. And so that's why we've made the effort to go ahead and start the design now. Greatly increases our chances of success. So how do we expect that?

We anytime we get something like this, there's a few of these in town. I put it on the calendar for a quarterly check-in. So we go by every every three months if it if if we've had heavy rains, we'll try to do that more frequently. Yes, sir. So this this all came about actually last June whenever we had I believe it was June when we had the the Geared Road ditch failure, the emergency repair station. We found this out all at the same time. We've been working diligently since then to get started. Any other questions on that one? Okay. The the second and last project we applied for is the north downtown revitalization. So this is the quadrant of of north downtown is what you're looking at. And this is a very current view. You have 182 up here on the top. You see the construction phase. You have Main Street here at the bottom. They're working here in front of the cafe. And so when I look at this image, what I see is I see we're about 55% done with the build project. We're around 44 45% done with Main Street. And so within a year and a half or so, we're going to have two really nice streets. And so the next thing I think of naturally is everything in between. So that's Dr. Douglas Elconer Drive, Lafayette Street, and Jackson Street. I don't know if any of you have walked down here on these streets recently, but they're not great. They're not in great condition. We have a lot of the overhead electric. We have utilities that are in poor shape. You see here in the middle what's serving as a sidewalk for our people walking. And so in my mind we've got two we will have two of the best streets in town connected by some of our you know less desirable streets. And so I think the natural step is to take a stab at trying to make the entire area better. This not only provides a better experience between the two streets but it helps with some of that infield development that we've missed downtown, some of that commercial development. And so what we have done is

we have enumerated these projects. It's Dr. Douglas Elcon Connor, Lafayette, Jackson, and Jefferson. And if we were to snap our fingers tomorrow and fund all these, it's around 10.5 million. That's that's the effort, which is a pretty big bite. So what we have applied for is a CPF request that would effectively reach out for two of these projects and treat this as a phased approach. And so it's a request of $4 million with the local match. And here's what I'd say about the local match. We if you go back to the old West Point Road Bridge, that project is built into the capital improvement funding. We have that money dedicated to spend it entirely by itself. If we get that grant, I will be able to put a million dollars back in the bank account because that's what we asked for. And then that million dollars would pay for this match. And the the way these grants work is they ask you to prioritize the importance. So we put old West Point Road bridge first. So there is no scenario where I get this grant have not gotten the old West Point Road grant which effectively would pay for the match for this this project. So that's that's the way we've set these up to to be successful. And that's that's really the summary of what the engineering department has applied for. So any questions?

Mr. M. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Engineer, what is the specific plan for uh Dr. Douglas Elcon drive the 2.6 million. What What do you propose? Yes, sir. I'm sorry to mention that. So, for each of these streets, including that road, this is a complete overhaul. It's similar to what was done on the build project and main street, that's new water, waste water, storm water. It brings the electric underground. So, all your utilities are taken care of. And then you wind up with the streetscape, which is your ADA sidewalks, curb extensions, new parking, things of that nature.

Thank you. Yes, sir. and and as you know, I think we've we've all kind of mentioned it that we've got a lot of investment is starting to happen in that particular set of blocks. And so, um I think that that what we wanted to have happen with 182 and with Main Street is beginning to happen, which is that people are looking at investing in those areas in positive ways. So, um I I think it's appropriate for us to at least look at the future and what we can make this this entire area be as part of our central business district. So, as usual, the engineering department has has a lot of design uh ideas and uh they you know, if we could if I could snap my fingers and make it happen, it'd be it'd be amazing. It'd be amazing. So, any other questions for Mr. Bernett? All right. Well, thank you everyone. I appreciate that. I think it's always good for us to know kind of where we are on that. And also uh Joanna keeps a running list of our of our C grants and I asked her to provide that to to y'all just so you'll have it and see what we've got see what all we've got going and a good understanding of why a grant person is very helpful in this process. All right to our agenda agenda items first we have two sets of minutes are those prepared to go if we're happy Mr. hustle some police consent for those. Okay. And then I'll try to remember to say something about Good Friday and pick up and I'll sort of do this on Tuesday. So, um if there's anything anybody wants, we have introductions too, do we not? If we do that introduction,

and we have the uh high school basketball parade next Thursday. No, we don't. No, we don't. Uh thank you for bringing that up because I forgot. Okay. So, I got a call um Tuesday, I guess it was. Dr. Behe said that uh there is a coach and a couple of players who will be unable to attend. Okay. And so they have decided to change the date. I do not have an Okay. Thank you. But as soon as we do, we will put that out there and and put but Dr. said he's going to make sure everybody's able to attend on a date that they choose. So we just will be sitting on the go. Okay.

She sent it to you. So yeah, we won't be talking about that other than to say it's been postponed since I was so quick to announce going on whether we had plans. So all right um no public appearances and we have our first public hearing on the synthetic crayon and cradle products and the determination of if we do what we do with that. And so I have not made any changes to the ordinance that that I had drafted as a proposed ordinance. I have uh uh dropped all of the emails that I've received and I've received some from all my sister. She sent me some and so we put them all in a packet for people to look at. There's some that say, you know, ban it. There's some that say ban the synthetic stuff, not the natural stuff. So, I think we need to parse our way through that. And as a part of those discussions and and the opportunity to talk about it more, I decided not to not to mess with the ordinance as it was originally drafted until we had had some of that feedback. And so, uh, we will have hopefully a a board discussion as well as listen to public comments. And then I'll I'll make some changes based on what we what we hear and what I hear from the board as we as we move forward. So, obviously not a not a up or down thing. It's a it's a public hearing. So, um, anyway, we'll we'll have our first one. And the next one is the 21 1911 which is uh going to be a public hearing obviously on uh location down on Lafayette Street which is the purple building. Um it is in such a state of cleanliness to and safety actually that uh you'll be able to see the picture and things associated with that in the packet but that one will be a public hearing. Um and then we have special exception Mr. Cassie u Mr. Havlin is all celebrating his anniversary. So we don't want this.

Yes. Which which special exception I'm having? Uh this is the 26-04. 2604. Okay. So this one's for 24 Lindberg. So there is an existing structure behind the house that they're essentially looking just to add on additional space. Um they're not actually adding any additional bedrooms. This is pre-existing our current code. So when they came to us, we basically noticed that they needed to have the special exception for the accessory dwelling unit and for that addition. So they were voted unanimously by the planning and zoning commission for approval. Um any questions regarding questions about obviously the public hearing so the next one is a 2605

2605. Okay. So that one's going to be for 760 Eastley Boulevard. Um this one actually is an accessory dwelling and it's actually still inside of the existing footprint of the structure. It's in uh kind of they live on hills, so it's on the basement. They essentially were doing modifications to the home and during their building permit, we noticed that they'd rather a have to add in a stairway to this addition that's underneath the house uh to rather have it a part of the home for internal circulation. They didn't want to do that because of cost and other reasons. So essentially, they have to get the ADU accessory dwelling unit. So that way since it's a separate space, it can exist. The planning and zoning commission did unanimously vote for approval. Okay. And then the next one is a 2606.

All right. That one's for wear street. So this is just over here where they did the duplex before. This is for two more lots. One lot each lot will have one additional duplex on it. So in total there will be with the previous exception three duplexes, three lots. Um and it's just approval of use. The site plan I know that that came before the board before was modified for it. So I think the the one that's already been approved is now two stories and I believe we've gotten that one completed all the way up to the point of the fire sprinkling system requirements of the fire department. Okay. But unanimous approval. you're using that. Yes. But unanous approval from the planning and zone commission. Okay. All right. Thank you. And last but not least, we got a U.

Yes. So, this one is for um Globe and that one is for the warehousing, distribution, and wholesale. Uh the use exception basically being that essentially if they were to ever transfer ownership or ever leave the site, it no longer is allowed to exist. But it's just to basically sort of expand within the initial inside footprint of the existing structure their already existing operation of warehousing and distribution for the globe and that was unanimously approved by the uh recommended for approval by the planning and design commission. All right. Thank you. Any questions about any?

Okay. Well, we will look forward to seeing those on Tuesday. Uh and moving the mayor's business. Um, I have not received any feedback regarding the adoption of the parks master plan and so I thought it was time for us to take action on it one way or another. Do I have any issues with it? Um, that would include consent. We need consent for that one. Okay. And then uh a grant agreement with NDA for the Henderson Stand Road CDBG grant project. Consent for that. Okay. And then under board business, we have discussion consideration advertising request qualifications for professional legal services for the city. Vice Mayor, do you have anything you want to add to this at this point in time? Not today.

Okay. All right. Um and then we have consideration of a resolution sale of the $15 million general obligation improvement bonds for uh streets and related improvements. Is it for that one? All right. Uh under the airport we have uh embro Lincoln anything you'd like to add to that know the total local matching funds is 9 it's 9.2% % of 45,000 the city's portion of that 15,000 542 house two okay push the J also that would be lovely as well so I like seeing them come in I want to use our people consent for your list um and then we've got the Mr. back up again. This is an LW2601 landscape waiver.

Yes, this is the landscape waiver for uh 48 48 in maple and this is at 71 Lewisville Street at the intersection of Mississippi Highway 12 and Lewisville where they're basically looking to put a car wash. But essentially, this tree is located in the one area where uh they're able to put the drive in to meet the grade requirements for the fire department not exceeding their 7%. They can't do access off of Highway 12 because MDOT controls access. I'll let city engineer speak if if I'm saying anything wrong. Um, but essentially this is where the drive has to be and for that drive to be located there and meet the fire department's requirements, uh, this tree would have to go.

And did the landscape uh advisory board provide any feedback on replacing the tree? Um, so not necessarily just because in our code we basically require them to pretty much put in more trees than what they already have. So there where that tree is. I think there's like eight more trees going, but that is a strict code requirement. Not even necessarily I'm making up for it. But they did vote unanimously to approve after spending quite a while scratching her head if there was an alternative regarding

unfortunately. I don't think there's an alternative or else it'd be I still want to think about it. Okay. All right. believe I think what there 30 if I'm not mistaken what over 30 trees on that but there's only two that are in issued or 13 of them but two over yeah there's there's 58 that are protected on the site uh which 13 are proposed for uh removal and and and that site's actually fairly large as it goes back and down the side. So part of that is actually where their uh detention area is is located in the back lot. All right. Can you hear it? Mr.

Yes, ma'am. Uh, the first one is a summary change order. This is to pay for about a 10% overage on this project. Um, this is the this is the entrance there. Almost drove your ward to Bent Brook where there's a drainage issue. So, this this pays our bills. Okay. All right. And then it's the same thing for the next board item for the South Jackson Street. This was an 88 complaint there near uh Domino's and so we fixed it slightly over the thought amount so it's pay the contractors.

Um yes ma'am this this is actually Chris Williams handiwork as was the downtown project I I talked about this is to do a survey of the block I showed the board from Dr. in Oklahoma Connor over to Jackson and it's locating utilities all it's an existing condition tobo survey and it also gets the boundaries which is fairly important as far as land acquisition and development so it's a really good step forward for not not too much money yeah and that also allows us to take a look at what's back there in terms of the fun of that and also all that there that's right thank you for mentioning that consent for that one

and then the last one is for a bus stop. We do a couple of these a year in in partnership with Mr. Dumis at transit. This is near Son of School. It's it's on McGomery Street. We've called it the Southern Stop. He he mentioned us there's a natural and and high need for a stop there. It's near the children and things of that nature. So, this will build a a bus stop there at the corner. This is not a shelter. This is just the bus stop. I believe it is sized for a shelter. It's sized for it. It doesn't include the shelter. The those come from from the transit. They don't have a decision on that one.

They haven't. But it's it's done to where it's big enough to if they want to put one there. We've got the spot right now. What we've been doing is putting benches, trash cans, bike racks, but it's room enough that if they want to put a structure, they can.

Okay. For that part stops. This would be uh we got finances. those groups and then uh they discovered that they work discovered that there is a need for us to um monthly um acknowledge the privilege licenses and so we will be seeing that going forward but consent for that one for the time being for the months of January February we'll see okay and then HR we have uh these are replacement folks okay Um we have sanitation worker. We have um two sanitation workers. One is one. Did we not put them together? Okay. It doesn't matter. Consent for those consent. Okay. And then uh police officer for academy consent for that one. And let's see dispatcher parttime and then fulltime consent for that. Okay. Um let's see. Two interns. is the student metering and billing for the utilities department. And these are not the these are not the high school design.

These are college students, right? Consent for those, too. Okay. And then engineering co-op, which we have had incredible luck with our engineering co-ops. They've been a huge help to us. So, for that one, all right. And then, oh yeah, the workbased learning. This is for the student high school juniors and seniors. This is a wonderful program. So that's for that one. All righty. Um I should let you talk about all this. Uh those are my uh and then hearing renewal of the current support services.

All right. I see Joel. I'm going to let you go. Yes, ma'am. We've got the purchase of the final 10 cameras. This is the capstone to our two-year police camera deployment project. So, we're excited to receive these 10 cameras and get those deployed. And then we have a yearly renewal for some software. This is uh the time of year where we do our renewals. So, this is a piece of software that's integral to our to our operations and uh just renewing that. Okay. Can we consent for both of us?

All right. Thank you. And then under parks, um Chris, you want to take this one? So this is to lay out our south main loop and for the arboritum project. Um so what this does is it'll make it where we're laying out the loop. Then we'll take our contract that we have for our forestry mowing along with utilities has some rideways through there as well. And so this summer whenever it dries out, we'll be able to forestry mow our trail in, be able to start working on our trails.

Okay. Professor, we're getting some really good uh PR um both both directed from us and to us about the Nom Mo March. Uh that's been really good. So, um I'm excited to see that people are being receptive to that. Had a headache. Let's just say that. Okay. Um All right. Police, we've got Chief. Hey, there you are. Okay. Um, that's not good. Talk about the This is the uh replacement vehicle that we couldn't we didn't get because we missed out on it. Is that correct?

Okay. So, this would be the vehicle that we approved last time, but but unfortunately we missed out on it because someone else had had made the purchase. So, this is replacement for for that one. So, consent for that one. And then uh auto sales for remanufactured engine for that one. All right. And then utilities that she Yes, ma'am. First item is to just replace two electronic butterfly valves at the at our Montgomery plant. These are the last two remaining older uh air control valves with electronic valves. So standardization we're trying to do across all the plants. Okay.

Item two is uh purchase of our um additional costs for the well motor for Curry Street. This is with the vendor who currently has our motor and has been assessing it along with our pumps. And so he's uh proposing to do this. Um and it's very difficult to get a second quote since he had the motor broken apart. Um so they would have to reassemble, transport it to another vendor to get a quote. So we're proposing to use the same vendor who's going to be um installing it all back uh together at Curry. Okay. and Joanna that meets with the state statute. Uh, can I ask him a question? Sure. Edward, I got a question. So, I'm assuming parks is the one that took it apart to assess it, right?

Yes. Do we have to get a second quote with that? You would think that when they took it apart and they wanted to rebuild it. So, is that something we have to go and advertise a second quote for? That's just

procurement requirements of any purchase over $5,000 requires two quotes. It is very difficult with pumps. We we encounter this a lot with wastewater pumps too. Large pumps. Um we'll go and send it off. They'll break it apart, do a full assessment, and they'll say, "This is wrong. This was wrong. This was wrong. This is how much it's going to cost." We have done emergency purchases in that instance because then in order for somebody else to assess it, you have to put it all back together, send it to the other vendor, then go through the same exercise. And it really more than anything, it's a time. That's what I was just going to say. The the need for it by having to go through that.

The there is that that Mississippi State statute that's referenced there does allow for provisions for utilities um to to do that out of need for a time. Be nice if they raise that. Well, I think they are planning to team, right? Yeah. I have no idea if they've done it. Still would help us in this item three is to uh to purchase two booster bumps. Um, these would these would work at either airport or Bluefield. Uh, we have one pump that's currently down and the second one would be a backup uh that we could use to have on on standby. Okay.

Uh, item four is the the lowest and best bid for we advertised for a used bucket truck, digger derek truck for the electric division. Uh the primary motivation to you go with a used one was out of again out of time to because to purchase a new one is a two to three year lead time from when you make the order to when you get it delivered. So we were able to get one that met our specifications um and and actually was a we think is a cheaper price than if we were buying it new. So we we feel good about it and recommend to proceed with that. It has a decent line for you. Yes, ma'am. It's a 2026 model.

It's a 2026 m. Was it back in circulation? This global rental, they they pre they have a basically a standing order with Altech and they buy so many per year and they rent them out to utility companies short periods.

Right. Right. So they they essentially have a you know they'll probably order 10 units this year and so they put those orders in way back. So Uh item five is to what I was referencing earlier about the Stark Road uh engineering design. Uh Clearwater consultants help us put together the preliminary engineering report. We're to the point where we're ready to engage with that consultant. So we're recommended to proceed with them. And last but not least, and the last is some uh networking equipment that's needed for our SCADA water treatment SCADA system. Hello fail or is it just

these are actually going to be upgrades. Right now we're doing some our communication on water is through radio signal and so this will upgrade it to fiber connection for that one. Yes sir. Yes sir. We do too everywhere. Thank you everyone. That that concludes our work session and we look forward to having a good weekend and see everybody on Tuesday. Thank