City Council - Regular Meeting

suspens about an accident. Was he in an accident? Right. So then they did our uh our police officer ran and hit his wife. Me too. I'll take him down. Yeah. So then it was the water man where I was at while ago went this way. I got that. That's what the those are cover pipes. The gas ran in. Oh So we you know we cut the electric conduit and then had to run connected to the tea ran a sleeve and then did get that to work. How you doing, Merl? But we didn't have to take this apart. Fantastic. Go. Okay. You can't see it now, but when we dug it up, this line went here, the tea, and here it was like it was at push.

Where's your suit coat? Suit coat. What the? You better go down there. Yeah, I can't hear you. Height fitter. Got time. The guy was there from Gateway and this Brian Ditch knew him. So, he was there like all day long. He kind of did the repair. He did. We had two laborers there to do it, but he's like, "Oh, no. This is I have to do this." And we're like, "Well, we got to pull that tea back." And they're like, "You're allowed 7%." None of us have any options. So, this 12in water line can go and then go into a tea at a 7% angle. Our guys are like, "We wouldn't allow one or two." He said allow seven. Oh, the the across the street

cuz you stood back and looked when the water went the other way. We're building an outside seating activities area. Okay. Oh, look. It says hello. Not to mention, I got a new iPad. I had a hallway. Everything we dig out. And then you bring They are nice. You got to go get one. I know. Not working last week. Yours and everybody else's 13 years old. Mine's not that old. Oh, you got a new one? Oh, so these new ones are real nice. Yeah. Greg had broke his and the whole screen was shattered. Oh yeah, I remember he let his he let his grandkids play with it. No, I know. Well, I mean I always

Yeah, they'd throw it around and think that's going to happen. Throwing things out. That was just one of those utility things. Yeah, never know what you're going to find. That's right. Open up the hydrant and drain the line and then Yeah, I sat over there then. So, I feel you. Uh, hi Chan. How you doing? You feel you guys win? You want to also? Yes, we did. Awesome. Thank you. No, I'm sorry we didn't. Who' you play? No, we didn't. We thought the four out. Oh, wow. The third time we played him this year. Did you win any of them?

Close. Here we go. Gangler. Regular meeting of Washington, Missouri City Council, Monday, February 2nd, 2026, 7 p.m. Bear here. Briggs here. Coulter here. Hydridge here. Colt here. 4540. Jeff here. Here. Senprop here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sorry. Will all the council members answer if they have or have not read the minutes of the council meeting dated January 5th, 2026? I'm sorry, January 20th, 2026. Bayer, yes. Rigs, yes. Coulter, yes. Hydrri, Immer, I. Pat Key. Yes. Pepsi. Yes. Motion to approve.

Second. Say yes. Yes. Sorry. Siri interrupted it. Siri was talking to me. I lost all control. Unbelievable. All right. We got a motion and a second. Did you get I'm sorry. Who made the first? Backy and Holm. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Done. Approval and adjustment of agenda including consent agenda. We have the change order number one Jefferson Street roadway and ADA compliance STP 6406607.

I just have a question for Charles. I know it says in here for it changes in grades and aprons and etc. Was it a matter of a because it's a pretty big number.

Yeah. Um there was a portion, you know, when we had to move the sidewalk in, you know, we actually narrowed the street. Um so we moved the sidewalk in. That kind of messed up the grades on the backside, so we had to go further back in some driveways. Um we also went further back at the intersection of A Street um and Jefferson kind of helped that intersection. There's there's a bump when you're driving through, so we took that back further which added um sidewalk and ADA ramp um some concrete and asphalt work. Um, and then same with 14th Street. We actually added an apron and tried to to bring that back out further to kind of help with the bump that you were experiencing before. The bump at 8 Street. And 14th Street for sure. 14th Street is really

really good. You drive through 14. And there there was a dip in the road at um just south of 14th there that was holding water, you know, all these years. Um, and we took that out, but that, you know, was 6 in of asphalt that we had to add through that whole couple hundred feet stretch. Okay. Um, so multiple things on the project. This is the final change order. This encompasses everything. So, all right. Thank you. Questions, Charles? I'll make a motion. Second. Motion by Hydrates, second by Bear. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes.

Priority items, mayor's presentations, appointments, and reappoints. Police department appointment. Good evening, council. I'd like to introduce Lauren Zifel. So, you were correct, Aaron. We had bets on how to pronounce your name. I I talked to her ear. Yeah, we did.

See, there we go. Um, so Lauren comes to us with about three years of experience um with the St. Louis County municipality. Um, but she's a native of Union, so she's local to the area and she's actually one of our former Washington police explorers. So, we're happy to have her apply and and I would like to recommend her as a full-time police officer. Motion to approve. Second. Motion by second by Hydrri.

All those in favor say I. I. I. Welcome to the force. Welcome aboard. citizens comments. If anyone is in the audience that would like to make a comment uh that's not on the agenda tonight, please feel free. Thank you. Go ahead, Sherry. Report of department heads storm water MS4 annual update.

All right, council. Uh this is our annual storm water update that we have to do as part of our MS4 permit with DNR um and EPA. So just kind of going over the different things that we did did this year. So um a couple years back um May of 2024, we did the uh code updates that included some water quality improvements um and different things there. So we got those implemented. We're starting to see those get um you know put out and uh people starting to put in new water quality um post construction uh facilities. Um we also did the erosion assistance program that you guys all approved last fall. Um we've been updating the storm water web page trying to get more notice out to the to the public through um social media and stuff. Um, we also had a storm water survey survey that we've put out multiple times in uh flyers through the utility billing um out online through our social media try and gauge people's uh public input and opinions on different storm water topics um and how they could get involved. Um we do bi-weekly storm water posts on our social media. We call it Water Wise Wednesday. Just helpful tips for different storm water things people in the public can do to help. Um, we've been tracking our sites and inspections for um, grading permits and con construction sites. Um, more city inspections. Oh, sorry. There we go. Um, we did a bigger community Earth Day event last year. We did it in conjunction with the sunset at the riverfront. Um, we had a lot of um, positive feedback, a lot of people that came out for that and um, we had we had different booths and different things. things. We had the high school get involved as well. So, it was it was a really good event. We're hoping to continue that this year. Um we were just talking earlier. It won't uh be able to

happen at the sunset at the riverfront because of the construction that we'll have down there at the riverfront, but we'll we'll do it again at the farmers market like we've done in the past. So, um storm drain murals. There were three storm drains that were uh painted by the Washington High School and the students came up with the designs and did them. So, um, if you're driving by, you can see those and they just kind of bring awareness that the water that goes to our storm drains goes directly to the the creeks without being filtered. So, um, and and then we had two developer trainings uh and designer trainings. So, in March and October, um we put on some presentations for local developers, contractors, um kind of educate them on some of the new code updates, and then just, um uh the October one, we actually had DNR come out and and give a presentation on um construction site runoff and stuff like that. Um and we've been putting up educational signs and different things. The the parks did the infiltration trenches down there at the riverfront, and we have an educational sign there that kind of explains that. and um bio swales and different things. So um and then last as part of our uh audit the other uh a year ago um we needed to get operating permits for the compost center in the airport. We have those now and running with those permits. So just some background, we got audited back in November of 2024. Um, and that was to follow up from our audit in 2022 when we were found that we needed some a lot of improvements to our program. So, uh, the audit in 2024 showed great improvement. DNR was was happy with that. They weren't going to put us into the um consent abatement order of consent um, which included monetary penalties. They just wanted to see us do um, quarterly reporting for this last year. So, we've been keeping up with the quarterly reports, and the last report

will be at the end of February, which is our annual report. And if everything looks good after that, they'll take us out of uh essentially probation that we're on. So, probation is right. We got our hands slapped that night, that's for sure. Yes, we did. Jeff still remembers that, right? Girls were mean.

Girls were mean is right. So, that's that's where we're at is and we'll we'll do the annual report and hopefully everything's good and and we'll kind of be back in good standing. Um, we did get a notice of violation um back in March of this year uh for not failure to escalate enforcement of a developer that was having some issues with storm water runoff. Um, we responded to DNR in May. Ultimately, that situation ended with uh different enforcement and ended with a stop work order and then got the developer back in compliance. Um so, we were found back in compliance for that violation in November and DNR was just out here last week to check on the developer side and and was getting them back in compliance. So, um definitely uh improvements were made out there at that site. And then looking ahead, um just continuing to work towards compliance. Um emphasis on documentation. DNR is big on that and as part of our permit. Um we have our high street basin retrofit project that's going to start here in the next week or two. Um and that does include an educational sign that'll be posted there for the public to see. Um and then we're hoping to do our Jefferson A Street project here at the end of the year. Um we have training. We'll continue those trainings and presentations for developers and designers. We got some good feedback and and good attendance at those. Um our Earth Day event, continue that. Um working with the high school students that seems to be um the ones we have seem really invested in that. So, we'll try and continue that and maybe grow it to other schools. Um and then just follow through on our procedures and the new codes that we have implemented. So, any questions or comments? H

how did the uh the training go? Did you have a lot of contractors or just a few? I'd say we any questions?

We had most of the bigger developers and contractors, not not too many of the smaller ones. So, it would be good to try and target some of the smaller contractors. Um yeah, some definitely some questions um some feedback. That's why we had the one in the fall kind of more geared toward actual, you know, BMPPS and and silt fence and different things they can do out on their site that's a little more um applicable to what they're doing. Um and and there were lots of questions for DNR when they came out in the fall. Um I think that one was really good. The feedback we're hearing now is maybe more real examples or even maybe like a site visit and kind of going over some of the things to try and work with them on, hey, if these things are failing, what can we do to, you know, improve the situation and stuff like that?

Anything to make a change in the code? Anything as far as code changes? I I don't think we have to make any code changes. It's I I think the code changes we did are really good. It's just education on what the sites need to do, what they can do if things aren't working, stuff like that is probably the biggest things we're seeing right now. But I'd say overall in the last couple years, we've seen uh a positive trend towards, you know, these these construction sites having the BMPs out there really making an effort to keep the sites cleaner and and maintaining. So,

I would just like to commend Charles and his staff. I mean, this is not an easy test. This is all new stuff that the city had to go through and um he picked it up and and like I said, got it got us to this point and we can see the end now, which is really good. And I mean, there's there's much more of an awareness of it, which is good. I think that's what DNR wanted. But, um, at least we've gotten a path of how do we get in compliance and now we know. So we don't have that fear of are we doing the right thing or not enough or you know so kudos to staff. That one infected our funding too if we went if we got out of compliance. Correct.

Correct. Well you probably you might have been looking at some cities are looking at fines basically what you get down to. Good job. Thank you Charles. Thanks Charles. Thanks for covering up for nil. That's all I know. Had a boy. But Neil just couldn't do Charles has done well. Are you watching that, John, on YouTube? I'll call him and tell him. All right, you call him. Jeff, would you like him to request the ladies to come back to give you a good report? It's okay. I'm happy we're in compliance. We don't want him back.

Ordinances and resolutions. An ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the proposal from Gurald mechanical contractors for the city hall council chambers FTU replacement hydro reduced by as um Chad and Lori described at the previous workshop or whatever this is to go ahead and help with the council chambers here. This is the next step to kind of upgrade those units in case anybody has any questions. There we go. Okay, good. No further questions or discussion. Second reading, Sher.

An ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the proposal from all mechanical contractors for for the city hall council chambers FTU replacement. Solent, yes. PKY, yes. Pepsil, yes. Hydrri, I. Coulter, yes. Holmeer, I. Briggs, yes. Fair, yes. By your vote, ordinance 7A passes. B, please. An ordinance authorizing and directing the execution of a contract by and between the city of Washington, Missouri, and Vulkar, Inc. for engineering design services for the East Fifth Street roadway and ADA improvements project STPG 6400632.

Go ahead. It's all uh we discussed this at the workshop. Um, is there any any more questions with this? Okay. Second reading. An ordinance authorizing and directing the execution of a contract by and between the city of Washington, Missouri and Vulker, Inc. for engineering design services for the East Fifth Street roadway and ADA improvements project STPG 6400632. Centrip yes. Pepsil. Yes. Hydridge. Hi. Hter. Yes. Holm. Hi. Ranks. Yes. Bear. Yes. By your vote, Ordinance 7B passes. C, please.

An ordinance amending the 20 2026 budget of the city of Washington, Missouri. Homemared by this, this is to cover to the cost of the change order that you just approved on the consent agenda. This would be an increase in the transportation sales tax fund. Questions or discussion? Ready? An ordinance amending the 2026 budget of the city of Washington, Missouri. Solent, yes. Packing, yes. Psel, yes. Hydrickch, hi. Coulter, yes. Meer, hi. Griggs, yes. Yes. By your vote, Ordinance 7C passes D, please.

An ordinance vacating a portion of Front Street right away in the city of Washington, Franklin County, Missouri. Coulter produced by Coulter. This is for the front street uh underground burial project. This is the actual rightaway vacation that we need in front of Mir Sham so that Amron can take an uh place their easement and put their um transformer there um where the sidewalk is currently. And then the the following ordin ordinance is for a pedestrian ingress and egress easement through that new vacated portion that essentially will go back to Miran but allow us to have the sidewalk open to public access through there. So

Mark, just to be clear, I know it's not on this ordinance, but uh the next one, this will give us u access this that pedestrian ingress and egress. Does that also include utilities that may need to be located there in the future? No, it's just an ingress and egress easement. Charles and I talked a little bit about that. We're going to need a utility easement. Okay. We'll get we're going to get that later. So, we'll have that for the next meeting. Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sure. Sorry. I know this it's ongoing, but this is you got to do this, then you got to do that, and you got At least we're working in the background all the stuff. So, we should still should be on track for for getting started here in March, hopefully. So,

sorry. Sorry. had a damper. We just balls in the air. Yeah, I know. I know. Questions or discussions. Second reading. An ordinance vacating a portion of Front Street right ofway in the city of Washington, Franklin County, Missouri. Solent, yes. PY, yes. Pepsil, yes. Hydrick, hi. Coulter, yes. Holmer, hi. Rigs, yes. Yes. By your vote, ordinance 7D passes. E, please. An ordinance authorizing and directing the execution of an easement deed by and between the city of Washington, Missouri and Missouri Mir Company. Coulter introduced by Coulter.

Any questions with this one? You're done. Yeah. Does it have a YouTube? No. No. We'll have one later, but you can keep walking past it after this one. Second reading Sherry an ordinance authorizing and directing the execution of an easement deed by and between the city of Washington Missouri and Missouri company yes yes yes I yes I yes yes by your vote 7E

ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington Missouri to accept the quote from heavy duty equipment for the purchase of a 2026 Laser ZX series mower. Introduced by Pepsi. Uh, this is for the two 2026 Laser ZX series mower equipment replacement that we introduced at the council workshop meeting. Have any other questions? Okay. Thanks, Lauren. Second reading, please. An ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the quote from heavy duty equipment for the purchase of a 2026 laser ZX series motor. So, yes. PKY, yes.

Peps, yes. Hydrick, hi. Coulter, yes. Meer, hi. Ranks, yes. Yes. By your vote, Ordinance 7F passes. G, please. An ordinance authorizing directing the execution of a source well purchasing contract by and between the city of Washington, Missouri and landscape structures for replacement of the fairground arena and motorsports bleachers. Patk. Um again this is for the motorsports and sorry the fairground arena and motorsports bleachers. The one set of bleachers that we are uh replacing this year from source well purchasing through landscape structures. Does anyone have any other questions?

We will get you a a list of improvements that the chambers got going on at the fairgrounds for your that was a question that was asked at the workshop. Second reading, an ordinance authorizing and directing the execution of a source swell purchasing contract by and between the city of Washington, Missouri in landscape structures for replacement of the fairground arena and motorsports bleachers. Solent, yes. Patky, yes. Pepsel, yes. Hydrickch, hi. Coulter, yes. Colm, hi. Rigs, yes. Bayer, yes.

By your vote, ordinance 7G, passes. H, please. an ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the bid from New Toys Leisure Products for the replacement of Kroak Park Playground and amend the 2025 20226 budget. There may be uh and this also was introduced at the workshop. This is for the Krog Park playground uh and for the amendment of the 2526 budget uh to purchase through source well uh purchasing contract through new toys leisure project products. Any other questions?

Uh second reading, please. An ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the bid from New Toys Leisure Products for the replacement of Kro Park Playground and amend the 2025 2026 budget. Solen, yes. Patky, yes. Pepsil, yes. Hydrick, I. Coulter, yes. Holm, hi. Rings, yes. Fair, yes. By your vote, ordinance 78. An ordinance authorizing directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the quote from Hawkins for the purchase of chlorine analyzers. Hydridge by Hydridge. Anybody have any questions of Kevin?

Okay. Second reading. An ordinance authorizing directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the quote from Hawkins for the purchase of chlorine analyzers. Solent. Yes. PKY. Yes. Pepsil. Yes. Hydr. Hi. Coulter. Yes. Folmire. Hi. Rings. Yes. Fair. Yes. By your vote. Ordinance 7 I passes. J. Please. An ordinance authorizing directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the proposal from Flynn Drilling Company for well number seven, pumping equipment repairs. Thank you. Introduced by Pat. Anyone else have any questions of Kevin? Got a moment on the first meeting.

Second reading. An ordinance authorizing and directing the city of Washington, Missouri to accept the proposal from Flynn Drilling Company for well number seven. Seven pumping equipment repairs. Solent truck. Yes. Py. Yes. Psel. Yes. Hydr. Iter. Hi. Riggs. Yes. Yes. Your vote 7J passes.

Mayor's report. Uh second council meeting this month you guys is Tuesday, February the 17th because President's Day weekend. Uh other than that, uh I've got nothing to report. We've been hard at work on the sales tax, both the transpo and the capital improvement. Uh we may be asking a little bit of you guys as we move forward, but for right now uh getting the verbiage down and our flyers, our presentations and stuff like that. I think are you given one tomorrow? Is there I'll be given someformational stuff. Not tomorrow, but there will be I'll I'll get to that in my report here in just a second.

That's all I have.

City administrator's report. Uh first item was just uh we had uh the ability to go ahead and get into the Army Reserve Center uh recently. Uh it was the mayor um Sandy Lucy who's the chair of the sales tax renewal, Lori and myself. And then there was two representatives from Ann Wagner's office that helped us go ahead and schedule the tour. Um the lady that works out there, she's been out there for quite some time. Um I apologize. I don't remember Sloan's last name, her first name Sloan, but anyway, uh she gave us the tour. Um the facility is has been uh maintained pretty well for actually not really being utilized a lot uh in recent times. Uh but um they keep up with all of the utilities. I think there was, you know, I mean, she showed us every every nook and cranny of the building. It certainly I feel will work uh for purposes of a senior center, something that you can work with. There's a large open space in there. There's several other open spaces where they can do other activities and certainly enough room for storage uh for all of their stuff. So, um we're still hopeful. I I think that I the good news is I think that um the folks that are out there encouraged they would like to see uh the city get it for such a such a purpose. And so, um, and we'll just keep you, uh, keep in touch with you if any, you know, anything we hear from, uh, Ann Wagner's office. They've been great to work with on this project. And, um, like I said, um, we're hope we got our fingers crossed.

Darren, did did they say anything about acreage? Um, you know, we were just talking about that before. I can't remember what that was. I want to say I don't think it's I want to say it's like three acres. We could look it up, right?

It's I don't know. We could look it up. I'll get it to you, though. There is there's room. I guess the other good thing about it is we looked at the accessory structure as well. That would be great. Is that if that was what you were going to ask? Um it would be great for the parks department, I think, you know, or other uses. It's a u it's a heated shop that they did maintenance on their vehicles. I mean, it's and it's been also maintained very well. Um so close proximity to all our other facilities out there. I just think it's a a great opportunity if it unfolds itself for us. So, and I think we we and through discussion we know or we've learned that the feds have a chance to purchase it first and then state and then county and then correct it goes down that

office has taken care of a lot of that but

I don't think I I the only thing I would correct on you on that Jeeoff was I don't know about the county but I knew definitely know it goes from the fed to the state and then local government. So I think in in this case um it's just like the uh post office when that was uh turned over uh we had the opportunity but since we didn't the city directly didn't want it and Downtown Washington Inc. did that's how it got you know evolved for them to go ahead and acquire it. Um yes but it's the same process. I have not heard one way or another of any other federal agency or state agency that's uh expressed any interest, but it's very early in the game because they haven't officially declared that they want to move out. They just know it's coming. So, it's still early in the game. But so far, all the reports that we've heard um that you know, we're hopeful.

It's four and a half acres. Thank you. It is that I didn't think it was that close to five. Four and a half. Joe, do you have a question or comment? I think you had about the accessory building. Yeah, the building's and parking is there. You'd probably have to do some improvements for parking. Um, as you all can drive by there and see there's a gated portion of that parking lot as well. So, whatever if we wanted to keep that or move that or whatever, that's that's easy. Yep.

Uh, the second item I had for you on the agenda was what the mayor was talking about a little bit, sales tax. I think Eileen from our office sent you an email if you didn't check it. It's got a list of all the dates coming up. I think they've pretty much got them all set for uh February. I would just have you keep in mind not all of those are open public meetings at different they're just different groups. Um like Sandy used to say about eight years ago, it's like where any two people gather, we we'll go ahead and do a presentation on it. So um the committee though is has got those dates covered. uh all of February I think is pretty much covered uh with a lot of dates also as well in March. Uh but uh there will be a presentation as Doug was asking me uh at 3:53 on Wednesday morning at 8:00. We will present that to them at that time. We did our first one with in front of the Industrial Development Authority. Um, just so you know, they pledged uh $2,500 for each proposition campaign as well as um WCIC has also done the same.

So, and there's if you want a more detailed list of of um commitments to those uh campaigns or whatever, uh JB can give you a list of those. So, but a lot of people uh have recognized the need. I you know it's so far but we're very early in the game.

So Darren and this is this comes from the committee email list but from Diane Jones. There's a difference between what city employees can do as opposed to members of the marketing committee. Both can prove valuable in forming in public. But this is the question I asked at one of those committee meetings. We did this eight years ago and there was a certain the council members were not allowed to do certain things. I I know at that meeting everyone looked at me like I was green, but I remember that specifically and now it's getting talked about. So, when it comes down to it, what can members of the council or city staff do or not do in leading up to this marketing process? He put the T-ball on the tea for you. Perfect.

You you can't spend public dollars to advocate for or against the ballot proposition. You can spend public dollars as long as it's purely forformational purposes, but not to say vote yes for this or that or vote no for this or that. Okay. But as far as council members when they talk or as far as uh because uh in this instance we do not have any races uh moving forward with for our council seats that are open. um they can go ahead and and certainly discuss that among or advocate for those taxes for the renewal of those. Correct.

There you go. How do you finance the campaign then?

Well, the ch Well, the chamber is the one. So, one other thing I guess I should say too, right? And this is getting back. So, if you want on your list of stuff, what has the chamber done for us lately? Uh so just so you know, they have put together uh pledged $7,500 for the capital improvement sales tax and 7,500 for the transportation sales tax as well as those others that I told you. I think right now the the committee uh would like to go ahead and raise up to 20,000 for each one of those campaigns. Um and they're actually well on their way. So we've gotten a lot, like I said, we've gotten a lot of support. But back to his question, we just can't, you know, we can't city can't spend public dollars. I have been at I will I intend on being at 90% of the presentations just to go ahead and have any information if anybody has any questions or regards to it. I did the one for the transportation um uh at the U IDA meeting the other day and I'll do it again probably for 353 on Wednesday. So there's a lot of information. We're trying to work on condensing it down. Um, so like when we go to these, we got tried to do 15 minutes for capital improvement, 15 minutes for transportation, and we're really having a hard time staying within our allotted time frame, especially if there's questions. But if there's questions, we want to answer them. So

So just to reiterate, Mark, that as a council can advocate for it. Yes. But we can't approve to send any money from here. We can't we cannot give money to the chamber for that marketing process. Them as individuals could, could they? You can't use Yeah. As an individual, you can make a donation to the chamber. You can't use city postage meters. You can't use print on city paper. You can't There you go. Okay. So, we So, it's okay to say to our citizens as an individual on the council or mayor, yes. Will you please vote for this issue? Yes. Okay. I think that would be expected that you Great.

Correct. But I just want to make sure we clear to with everyone we're the same that everyone knows what we can and can't say or attend and not attend. Um so and then I guess in in the same regard I guess we just learned last week that the county is now putting a use tax on the same ballot. It is my understanding that yes they have put a use tax on the same ballot. I think uh the purpose of the use tax would go towards funding of their 911 based on what I've read in the Missouri. That's correct. And the school district is still uncertain yet. No, they they have put it also on the ballot as well.

So, it's my understanding. I guess I don't know about the the property tax issue.

As of right now, it's still on. So, if that stayed on there, I think it would read, just so you all know, and Mark, correct me if I'm wrong, I think you have um that that that tax issue would be first. You would probably have the county and the use tax would be second on there, our propositions, and then the school district proposal somewhat in that order, unless the county clerk's office needs to move that around due to spacing of the ballot. to that point. It's a little more difficult this time having all these um ballot issues on there as it was. So, education is very important to everything we can. I think it goes without saying it's imperative that we have it. It's just I think it's a little more difficult listing the other three has a total of five on the ballot.

So, education is key.

Eight years ago, we had Prop P that was on there as well. So, I mean, so I I suspect in the future you're probably going to have at least at the local level more at the municipal elections in April, uh, just due to the fact of, uh, you know, voter turnout that that that is there. And I think they usually have a tendency to go if you if you want an issue to pass, you get a b better favorability of it passing in April than you do in the general election or in August at the primaries, right? But we've never shifted off to my knowledge off of the April election for all of our renewals that we've ever done or asked for for those. The others have joined our party. Let's just put it that way. That's all I have.

Yes, we our parks department has some people in a skills competition. They got first place.

Hey, Laura, you want to go come on up and give them a tell them what what it was? So, we had some of our staff from the parks department attend the um MP, which is the Missouri Parks and Recreck Association uh maintenance rodeo this last week and um they compete they competed in quite a few few different activities. They did um something with a backpack blower, they a skid steer with um zeroturn mowers, things like that. and our crew took first place. This was a regional competition. There's three different regional competitions. Um, and what that means is they will go in February and compete against the others in the state and the two other regions uh to see who will take home, I guess, the prize. Not really a big prize. It's a trophy. Um, so they'll get a trophy that the first day they're there for uh taking first in the regional competition and then they will um stay for the expo and the next day they'll compete with the other regions.

So, we're really proud of them. Very good. Yeah. Very nice. Great. Now they got a new lawnmower to work with. Yeah. Electric mower that they probably should have said that before you had your discussion with wide tires. Yeah, those wider tires. No flat tire. Anybody else? Move to a journ. Second. Unless I'm rushing you, Jeff. Second. Okay, he was quick on second. All those in favor say I. I. We done. All right.