City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good evening everyone. Glad you could join us tonight. Uh briefly, the committee meeting is just going to be a state of the city. I was actually going to give this in January. It was going to be on the night that uh we got snowed out and this was the uh next meeting I could get it in on because UCA wanted to visit with the council last week. So, this will be very brief. Good evening everyone to our city council meeting uh members, city staff, community partners, the people of Conway. Thank you for taking the time to join us tonight. The state of the city is an opportunity to reflect on where we are, recognize the people who make the city work, and look ahead to what we're going to do. Conway continues to be defined not just by growth, but by purpose. This administration, you guys there remains focused on ensuring that amenities, infrastructure, and public safety keep pace with the new residents choosing Conway for its quality of life. where Conway stands today. Conway is strong today. We are financially stable, responsibly managed, and positioned to continue providing the level services our residents expect and deserve. Growth brings challenges, but it also brings energy, ideas, and investment. Our goal has been and will remain to manage that growth in a way that protects our quality of life while preparing for the future.

public safety and city services. You have to have a safe safe city. Our one of our core responsibility is public safety. 2025 was the first full year of operations for the Conway Emergency Operations Center since becoming a fully consolidated PAP. It went very smoothly and I would like to thank Judge Alan Dodson, the Falner County Quorum Court, this body here, and our committee who helped make that possible. Our first responders serve this community with professionalism and dedication every single day. This year, we've asked a great deal of them. They've responded to severe weather and performed well in moments of crisis. Since I took office, we have added 16 new positions, and you guys voted for them. We've added 16 new positions to the Conway Police Department and 13 new positions to the Conway Fire Department. In the last three years, we have increased the police budget by 7.2 2 million in the fire budget by 5.7 million. We have invested in $1.3 million in equipment for our police department and $5.8 million for our fire department. Those investments are produ are producing results that we're going to see. They're measurable. Since 2021, overall crime in Conway has decreased approximately 32%. Property crime has declined 36% during that time and violent crime is down 10%. Most notably, the strongest improvements have occurred over the last two years. That's a tip of the hat to Chief Harris. U the violent crime rate has dropped 12% and the property crime rate has dropped 25% during that time. That is real progress and reflects the commitment of our officers and our community partnerships. Our crisis response team has been extremely successful. As you all know, it started off with a grant and you guys put it in the police department's budget. stray from my notes here just a little

bit. Historically, in the past, when someone was having a mental health crisis, their their loved ones or or someone who saw them would call 911. We would dispatch police, fire, and streets. I I'm police, fire, and EMS, streets. EMS. Not everyone realistically needs to go to the hospital, and not everyone needs to go to jail. Sometimes these folks just need a helping hand to reach out to them. And that's what our crisis responses team uh crisis response team does. It reaches out and helps those folks who are just needing a hand up. And that's the great part of it. The the budgetary side of it is it's made an impact to the positive about $1.5 million to the city of Conway and that we're not responding officers, fire trucks, and EMS units all at one time. We're just responding that and uh we've had so many so many positive comments about that and that it's truly a successful program for the Conway Fire Department, the city of Conway and I appreciate you guys uh giving that money to keep it running. Public safety retention remains a strength for our city. Both police and fire are operating within healthy nationally competitive turnover ranges. Retention aligns with national benchmarks for career departments, a sign that our compensation structure remains strong. There's been a lot of talk about retention rates. Here are some facts. Last year, we saw an 8.5% turnover rate at the fire department. In the last four years, 32 firefighters have left. 18 have retired, two have left the fire service, six were terminated, and six went to other departments. In the police department, we had a 14% turnover rate. Uh last year, in the last four years, we've had 60 officers to leave. 10 went to other departments, 12 were terminated, 19 retired, 14 resigned, and five left police work.

Conway fire, the Conway Police Department responded to had that number a little over 51,000 runs last year. I did not get it broken down between patrol and uh C. I did get fire runs broken down. The Conway Fire Department had 10,600 in total responses in 2025. Chief, you remember when we had our first 365 365 runs back in the 80s? We thought we were we were big time then. Fire calls were 204, which represents 1.92% of all calls. Structure fires were 36, which represents uh 0.34% of all calls. Medical calls, excluding vehicle accidents, were 7,26, which represents 67.85% of all calls. And those calls saved people lives. AEDs, car wrecks, it makes a difference in people surviving, a huge difference. Vehicle accidents with injury were 301, which represents 2.83% and vehicle accidents with no injuries, uh, 240 or 2.26% of all runs. Total medical calls represent 74.6% of all runs. Shift gears a little bit. In November, voters approved two new sales taxes. 1/8 cent dedicated to street and drainage and one quarter cent dedicated to public safety capital improvements. Both will take effect April 1st of this year. The quarter cent investment ensures that public safety capital remain will remain a top priority for years to come. Employees also want to employ uh recognize the many employees who serve this city outside of the uniform. Their wake work may not always vis be visible but it is essential. They're the ones that are processing permits, balancing budgets, maintaining systems, answering calls, repairing infrastructure, adopting animals. What Spencer Clawson and his team are doing out at the animal control center and the number of live adoptions they have is is

truly amazing for a city our size uh and winning grants and and uh keeping daily operations running. And we're speaking of grants, Robbie Albertson, Robbiey's right here behind me in 2025. Robbie, the city of Conway, Robbie Wen was awarded a $3,620,000 surface transportation block grant for the College Avenue Bridge. Working with Kurt and Jacob, he uh got a uh street light conversion for 1,530,000 and a Best Friends with Animal Society for $20,000. Robbie, that's good work, man. Keep that money coming in. Uh our employees as you all know is our most valuable asset. We remain committed to offering strong benefits including gym memberships, a strong pension package, an employee assistance program, affordable health insurance and continued cost of living adjustments. Speaking of our benefits package, for health insurance, the city has absorbed 14% of increases of the employee portion of insurance. And that goes directly to you guys here because we were given cola raises and had we turned right around and said, "Yeah, we're going to give you a cola raise, but insurance has gotten so high, we're going to have to help. You're going to have to us pay for it." Then our employees would not have have gotten a true color raise. So you guys have absorbed 14% of that. Last year it increased $800,000 and youeded to absorb that so that our our employees wouldn't. We pay 97% of an employees health insurance and 78% for families. The city pays 24% of a police and fire salaries towards their retirement. That is required by state law. And for non-unifor employees, we pay 10% of their salaries towards retirement. Jump real quick to the last two or three

things. Probably be quick. Transportation. Now, you know, everything on Facebook's true. We all know that uh for those that think we can take roundabout funding and use it for other funding in the city, we cannot take state turnback money designated for street and and its use for anything else. In other words, the funds are restricted by state law for street related projects. You guys all know that. I'm talking to the folks at home. As Conway continues to grow, we must continue investing in transportation infrastructure. This year, our transportation department moved into a new facility that will allow them to operate more efficiently and serve our residents more effectively. We're proud of the new Salem uh bridge at Tucker Creek, the roundabout at Hogan and Highway 64, and the roundabout at Prince and Country Club. Miles of asphalt overlays. I hope if you've driven in Conway lately, there's a lot of asphalt going down and ongoing efforts to improve sidewalk infrastructure across the city. Uh we're also looking forward to getting started on the connect Conway Greenway Trail, widening Salem Road from College Avenue to Dave Ward, upgrading East German Lane and Oak Street, and adding a new roundabout at Salem and Med. And evaluating the next steps to enhance public traffic, just to name a few. And while we're talking on transportation, I've said it once, but uh our transportation did a bangup job during Snowmageddon. I mean, they they got out there and got it done. I guess they learned it all from you, Mark. I don't know. But Jacob and Kurt and their crew did a tremendous job. Quality of life. Great cities have great parks and recreational infrastructure. If you don't have it, you don't have a great city. Our parks are a major contributor contributor to the su success of Conway. This council

and Mayor Townsel saw that and y'all move forward with it. A huge part of that success is AMP funds that make it possible. Like our street funds, those funds are restricted by state law. They can only be used for tourism, i.e. parks. With the Conway Soccer Complex and the Conway Community Center coming online uh last year, we've seen tremendous participation. You know, we we tout our our competitive sports. We tout, you know, our competitive baseball and and soccer and and everything else. And those are great things, but you know, our parks are also for recreation for our kids here in Conway and locally. Uh more than 850 kids have enrolled in soccer this spring, recreational soccer, and we expect over a thousand this fall. And since we opened the Conway Community Center, we've processed over 44,000 check-ins. Our baseball and softball leagues are so popular that some age groups are having to wait. They have waiting lists. That kind of particip participation speaks for itself. It reflects that this is an active, engaged, and growing community. and we are grateful for the people that helped make it possible. Looking ahead, as we look to the year ahead, our priorities remain the same. We will continue to prioritize public safety. We will continue planning responsible growth. We will continue investing in infrastructure and we will continue to take care of our employees. More importantly, we will continue to take care of our citizens. That's what our job is. And you guys all know that. I know that. Closing Conway success is not the result of any one person or anyone department. It is the result of a community that cares, people who stay engaged, employees who serve with dedication, and leaders willing to make thoughtful decision for the long term. I'm proud of Conway. I'm confident in its direction, and I'm grateful to serve alongside this city council because you

guys believe in Conway as much as I do. Again, our employees are our most important asset. Their job is the service to the citizens of this con this city as their most important asset. Thank you. May God bless each of you and may God bless the city of Conway. Thank you. We will take a 15-minute break.

I don't think I was ever on a championship team. Were you? I don't think I ever got to play. [laughter] Good evening everyone. Welcome to our city council meeting. Uh we have three alderman who are out of state tonight uh due to uh circumstances beyond their control. We always proceed each council meeting with a word of prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Hawks, can I get you to word our prayer tonight, please, sir? Right.

Father, we thank you for today and we thank you for the opportunity to be in this wonderful city. Father, I thank you for a a great uh state of the city that we were given, Lord. And we are so blessed to live where we do. Father, let us never take that for granted. Father, we're so thankful for all the employees, uniformed and ununiformed, that serve this city. Father, I pray that you'll hold your hand over them and you will bless them and their families for serving. Father, I pray that you will uh guide this meeting tonight and be with its intended purposes. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, and justice for all.

Now call this meeting to order. Miss Herd, would you call the role, please? Mr. Grimes here. Mr. Spurgers here. Miss Mill here. Mr. Lead Better here. Mr. Hawks

here. And before we get started, we if you're from a student Hendrickx College, please raise your hand. All right. We have some Hendricks College students that are here tonight and part of their political science class is to participate in some form of government meeting. This reflects directly on Drew who actually gave me the opportunity to meet with this class and Drew was there as well. Welcome students. Uh when it's over, if you want to come up and ask the council questions, they are they are the people with a vast amount of knowledge on how this city works. So, welcome and thank you. Thank you, Drew. You should have received copies of the minutes from the February 10th, 2025 city council 2026 city council meeting. Any corrections, changes, or comments? Make a motion to approve as submitted.

Second. Have a motion and a second to approve the February 10th, 2026 city council meeting minutes as submitted. No further questions. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? That passes five to zero. Let's see. First up on the agenda, we have Mr. Winningham with our monthly financial. This monthly financial ends ended December 31st, 2025 and January 31st of 2026.

Evening council unusually large amount of business to tend to this evening since we got two months to go over. We'll start with December 2025 and see how the year ended up for us. We always start with the general fund. Uh in our revenue section, you'll see that as I predicted, we just missed our budget number on sales tax. Um [clears throat] but not to an amount that I feel like is severely detrimental to us. And then on the converse, we beat our uh budget number on uh property tax, our state turnback, our beverage tax, our franchise fees, our parks revenue. So overall, it was a good year for us in the general fund. um actuals over budget amount to 561,000 for the year. Down in the expenditure section, we have a a few departments that look like they overspent their budget, and I'm going to explain those. Uh the first one you'll see there, non-EP departmental. That one went over due to primarily due to the building insurance cost on the community center, due to the large value of that building and the pool and the aquatics and everything. the insurance uh property insurance on that building is quite expensive and we didn't fully anticipate that. So that's the primary reason there. Also the uh the interest transfers that we make monthly that the reserve account earns when we transfer that to the non-uniform at the Mr. Grimes' idea a couple years ago. That shows as an expense, but it's not something we budget because it's not an expenditure. It's not going out to another entity. It's just transferring funds. But for the accounting rules, we have to show that as an expense there, and that's not budgeted. And that's a little over $100,000. The next one is district court. That shows over budget due to a payroll coding error that we identified today.

We got that corrected. So, they have not they've not spent outside of their authority. That's just an error that we found and and we fixed. Uh the other one, the the fire department, it's showing over spent in the over under budget column, but it's not enough to trigger that far right column to be over 100%. What's going on there is incorrect coding of an expense for their firetruck payment. And then once we get that corrected, they will then be under budget both in dollars and percentage. So, I've excuse me, I've identified everything there and and we've got corrective actions to do and in place to fix those. So, I have no concerns there. Overall for the general fund, our results compared to budget were favorable for the year. Our results when you compare our expenditures to revenues don't look favorable as favorable, but that's due to the outlay that it took to finish the community center. And that's something we've talked about at various points through the year that council was well aware of and appropriated funding for that. If you look on the balance sheet, the third page in, you'll see that the general fund ended the year with $12.7 million in operating cash and our true reserve has maintained its $2 million balance. Have any questions or comments on general fund before we move forward?

One question before we move on. Um, looking at the city attorney's office, uh, 86% of expense expected there. What's the variance? I don't know for sure. I'd have to look into that for you. I'm curious if we had a position there that was open and not filled this year that we budgeted for or something that would lead to Mr. Frankenbinder. I know I know funding has been a concern in your office and so I was kind of surprised to see that at 86% of the expected expense. I can't explain that. Okay. So the peril coding error in district court also affects Mr. Finener's office. Ah

so Mr. Finener's investigator his salary for the whole year was coded as district court whereas it should have been city attorney's office. So when we make that correction, it'll reduce the expenses in district court and it'll increase the expense of city turn. There we go. This may not Spencer use your mic for folks online, please.

All right. Uh on the insurance costs that we weren't looking at for the community center. We weren't able to project it and understand I have assets and insurance was higher than what I wanted it to be. Um what is the process of us looking at you know are we competitive and working with our insurers to see you know what those projections are going to be in the future. Is there any process that we have for that so that we can maybe budget for that better in the future. The insurer we work with is Arkansas Municipal League. So it's a property insurance program they provide for every city in the state that

would like to participate. And my guess is nobody could really find private insurance that would match them as far as what the premium cost is. Uh our deductible is fairly high. I think it's $10,000 for an event that happens to a building or property. But that's who we've used as long as I've been here and and many going back. So, uh what we do every year is we send out a list to the departments. Here's your buildings we have. have you done any major renovations to them? Do you think the contents are worth more? And then the departments reply back to us and say, we think the numbers are good or we think we should raise it here. And since the community center was under construction during that part of the year, that just was that question wasn't asked nor answered.

But I'd be interested too to see what maybe other cities deductible amounts of, you know, cities of the same size are. Uh, you know, $10,000 being a deductible. I think if you're in the municipal league it's 10,000. So it's just with you work with the municipal league. That's that's what it is. Yes, sir. I believe so. All right. Thank you, sir. One quick question with under the non-EP departmental with the over expense there and that was where you you referenced the the building insurance. Is are all the building insurance costs included in that line item or are they distributed? So like for example, we have the new street department building. Does the street department pay their part of that? Yes, they do.

Okay. So, so the my question is is the community c center's insurance cost in their line item, not in the non-EP departmental line items. All the general fund building and property insurance we record in non-EP department. The departments do budget and pay for their own vehicle insurance. But we've kept property insurance under non-depal but only for things within the general fund. So if it's streets or sanitation for airport or airport it would be right costed over there.

Yeah, that'll be on those financials. It would be under their other operating in that category. All right, moving on to street fund. for the year. So, not counting the activity around the Connect Conway grant, uh the actuals beat the revenue budget by $411,000. Um, [clears throat] that's not right. We beat the budget by 411, but that does count that revenue. But where I was going with that is I think at maybe the first meeting of this year, I think we had an appropriation ordinance on the agenda to accept the grant revenue and appropriate it back into their budget. That's not reflected in these numbers yet, but I just wanted to point that out. So, uh, once everything is audited for last year for 2025 for the street fund, that will be reflected that the budget was amended for that grant because it was significant. Uh, there

it's over a million dollars, wasn't it?

Over a million in expenditures, I believe, for the year and then 664,000 in revenue. And I believe right now it's 100% reimburseable. So we just have we'll have a receivable booked at the end of the year for the difference between and uh your expense our expenditures look over spent again because we had not yet accepted and appropriated those grant uh grant revenues. Uh our actual results not great. We spent uh $105,000 of our fund balance, but again, if you look on the street fund balance sheet, you'll see we ended the year with $5.9 million in operating cash. And uh that that's been able to build back up a little bit since we purchased the Conway Court property where the transportation department moved to. Question or comments on street fund before we move forward. Just a curiosity, what 1.8 donating and deferred revenue on street. What is what are we considering deferred revenue on the balance sheet for the street department?

It's mostly uh an accounting entry equivalent to property tax. So we acrew since you pay your property tax a year in a rears. We essentially have on always have on the books a whole year's worth. Okay. As an asset now, we won't receive it until Right. Okay.

Moving on to sanitation. uh results compared to budget were favorable for the year. Uh 111% of our budget received in revenue only 79% uh of our budget spent. Our results when you look at revenues versus expenditures are not that pretty because of the landfill expansion project that the department started. So that's been a significant expense. And you can see on the page following this one, I don't know, probably didn't print on yours, the council appropriated funding for that during 2025. And then on the balance sheet, you'll see that sanitation ended the year with $15.7 million in operating cash. questions or comments there. Our last fund we'll look at is airport. They had uh I believe Jacob said they had the highest fuel sales ever uh in gallons I think is primarily how he tracks it, but that equates to dollars. Um and it's still a positive effect on our bottom line. And you'll see they ended the year with $467,000 in operating cash. What is 25 they had a good year. That concludes my comments on December 2025. Before we move forward to January 26, I'll be more brief there. Starting off at the general fund again, if you look at these budget numbers and compare them to the budget that you passed, you'll see some differences. Uh primarily due to two things. Number one,

the revenue section in the budget that you passed had a $600,000 fund balance appropriation for operations at the community center. That is not reflected here. We don't show the fund balance appropriation as a revenue. We just show on the page two. We show the total of fund balance appropriations as they're passed through the year. That's not reflected on here. If you want me to get into why, I will, but if not, I'll move forward. Uh the second main reason these budget numbers look different is in the expenditure section. Every year we have uh purchases that were approved at the end of the year, but we for whatever reason don't get those invoices in and don't get them paid for until January and sometimes even February. So when those pills get rolled, the budget gets rolled with it and that causes an increase a change in the expenditure budget. Our first month sales tax uh was up 3.8%. Which is very very good. um 2,493. That's what we brought in in January. If you look back to January of 25, that number was 2,43. And January was a tough month this year because it was we had three payrolls. So otherwise, our bottom line would have looked a lot better in the general fund because of that. that bottom line $240,000 of a net revenue. Our cash balance at the end of January is very close to where we were also at the end of 25. Nothing significantly one way or the other on that. Our street fund January, they look like they're kind of off to a rough start, but they went and bought something big and cool in January. They went and bought a new street sweeper that was 277,000. That was part of their budget. So things on the up and up there. It just kind of hurt right off the bat.

And our sanitation fund, not much to discuss there. They're off to a typical start. Our airport fund also looks like it's off to a less than stellar start, but like the winter weather event we've discussed here already tonight, that excuse me, I feel like that probably affected their [clears throat] fuel sales. That concludes my comments. I guess most of those don't remember off the top of my head. Yeah, I think the ground leases are are paid annually. T-H hanger rent maybe monthly, maybe quarterly. I'm not sure. Any more questions, Mr. Winningham?

Council, I'll take a motion. Motion to approve the financials. I have a motion and a second to approve the financials for December and January. Any further comments or questions? All in favor say I. Any opposed? Thank you, Tyler. Uh, next up we have the community development committee. I will handle it tonight for Mr. uh

Hawkins. Thank you. Uh, we're going to skip item A1 uh since we do not have a quorum to wave bids. First up, we have a resolution setting a public hearing to discuss vacating a portion of Brew Street for the University of Central Arkansas. Uh we'll now I'll now declare this public hearing open. If anyone uh would like to speak for or against closing this portion of Brew Street for UCA, uh the date will be March 10th. I'm sorry. Yeah. Setting the setting a public hearing. Okay, y'all are right. Listen, if you knew everything I've been reading today,

let me start over. Next, we have a p a resolution setting a public hearing to discuss vacating a portion of Bruce Street for the University of Central Arkansas. This uh public meeting will be held March 10th at 6 pm. I will take a motion to approve this request. Move. Second. Have a motion and a second to set a public hearing for March 10th, 2026 at 6 pm to discuss closing a portion of Bruce Street. Any further discussion? Missurd. Resolution R2606. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

Passes five. Y'all be sure and tell Mr. Hawkins I miss him. Next up, uh we're going to hold this next one uh as well. It's an ordinance to approve the updated 2026 permit fee schedule. I would like for us to have a full council for that so that everyone can can have a chance to ask questions. Uh, our next item would be a resolute. Do we need I'm sorry. Yes. Second. Have a motion and second to hold that that's in committee the 2026 uh permit fee schedule until our meeting two weeks from now. Missurd. All in favor say I. Any opposed?

It passes five to zero. Now we have a resolution to approve the bid and enter into an agreement for the Oak Street and East German Lane intersection improvement for Conway Transportation. Hey, come on up here, Kurt.

Good evening. Okay, so this is uh the project that would make improvements to that intersection at Oak East Oak and uh or I'm sorry, yeah, East Oak and and East German. This was one of the projects that came out of our Oak Street overlay uh study that was done a couple of years ago. Uh one of the recommendations what we're what we're proposing doing out there, what we've designed is adding uh dedicated right turn lanes off of East German, both the uh northbound and southbound uh sides of East German. Uh the plans like as the mayor mentioned, we have bid the project. We had uh two biders. The low bidder was Hard Rock Construction out of Russville um with a bid of $928,391.40. Our engineers estimate was 1.3 million. So, this came in well under our uh estimate. Uh we've reviewed the bid. It looks good. So, we're recommending that uh this be awarded to to the contractor. Motion to approve resolution R26-07. Is that right, Miss Herd?

All right. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve this resolution to approve the bid and enter an agreement for the Oak Street and East German Lane intersection improvement for Conway Transportation. Kurt, while you're up there and folks are watching on TV, just a really brief overview of what you're looking at doing there.

Yeah. So, so what this, as I mentioned, this will actually uh will add dedicated right turn lanes um off of uh each leg of the of the East German um legs of the project. It'll it includes all new signal equipment. It will um you know, and and uh and and wheelchair access throughout the intersection there. We've acquired all the rottway that we need and the utility relocations have been completed. Uh based on the the uh Oak Street ahead study uh that was completed, this will improve improve the efficiency of that intersection by approximately 70%. So, uh, we've got some other, you know, looking ahead in the future. We've got some other projects that we're looking at on maybe some of the other intersections over in that area, uh, that could uh, you know, potentially benefit those intersections as well. But this would be the uh, this would be the first step in helping some of that traffic congestion over there on that side of town.

What's the timeline on starting and how long to finish? So, we are um we're we're we're ready to start. I mean, as soon as as soon as we get approval and get the contracts executed, uh for the contractor to get bonds and everything, we'll what we'll let me back up. We'll we'll schedule a uh pre-construction meeting after after tonight. Uh once the contractor gets his bonds and everything, we'll execute the contracts uh and likely get started as soon as possible. We the city went ahead and we purchased all the signal equipment ahead of time. We ordered that. So that wasn't actually included in in the bid. Um the um and that was because that equipment has a long lead time and we wanted to go ahead and and be ready to start as soon as we got it. So this should be about a uh I I think we had 120 days in there for this contract. I think it was a six. Yeah. About 120 days. Four month project. Four or five month project maybe.

With util. You mentioned the utilities have already been moved. So that takes a big Yeah. So we're we're ready to go. We're ready to go. Like I say, all the rideways been acquired. Um it's just a matter of um getting the getting the contractor scheduled to start and and move forward with the schools on either end of East German. I I've seen the backup. Yeah, it'll it'll it'll it'll have a significant impact particularly on the on the uh northbound traffic in on East German coming up that leg there. So, um it should um yeah, we should should realize a like I say a noticeable increase in in efficiency of that intersection.

You expect pain there for school traffic during construction? Uh I mean obviously it'll be a construction zone. Of course, we went we we just went through a project here not too long ago with the improvements uh to East German there on that uh on that south leg and and uh it it won't be any worse than than what we experienced with that project. But yeah, there, you know, there will certainly be some some normal construction activity delays there associated with the project, but it shouldn't be, you know, we're not going to be closing anything down or shutting anything down during the project.

The sidewalk work that that you guys did out there was a tremendous help safety wise. It's been a huge benefit. I think, you know, we've gotten lots of positive comments on that. Um, we have to and you can thank Mr. Finenbinder for kind of getting that project going. He he's the one that I I I still remember the day he called us out there and wanted us to look at that and how we could possibly get some get some sidewalk connectivity down there along uh East German to the school and and that evolved into a complete, you know, street project with with with sidewalks on both sides of the street and drainage improvements and brand new street for that area. So,

you know, he's dual educated. He's not only an attorney, he's a he's a civil engineer as well. He's a he's a he's a [laughter] he's a he's an idea guy for sure. His his phone's going to be a little busier tomorrow with traffic complaints that [laughter] there will be no pain on traffic. You know that

it it'll be it it shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. I mean um it most of the work or a lot of the work will be outside the normal driving lanes because it is adding lanes to the project. So there, you know, traffic disruptions are going to be minimal. But anytime you've got construction activity uh in an area, it's I mean there's going to be slowdowns uh just just as you know people exercise caution as they're moving through a construction zone, which they should, but other than that, don't expect any you know, we're not going to be closing roads down or anything like that. Yeah. Any other questions? is heard. Resolution 2607. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? Passes five to zero. Thank you, Kirk. You next up is consideration approve conditional use permit request to allow up to 12 dwelling units per acre in R2 zone for property located at number three Susan Lane. Miss Tucker.

Yes, sir. As the mayor said, this is a conditional use request to allow up to 12 dwelling units. Um, I say that because we're not sure exactly how many will fit after SDR and drainage and all those things have been vetted. Um, but it is in an R2 zone and the property is located at three Susan Lane. Um the applicant intends to develop the site up to up to 12 dwelling units if he can fit them on the single lot which is not allowed by right in the R2 zone but can be allowed via uh conditional use. The entire lot and adjacent property were reszoned in February of 24 from R1 to R2 for the intent of two family density development. Um, this specific request, this is for the the biggest lot that is in the group that we reszoned. It's lot uh 17 of Maxwell Villa's subdivision. And it was always his intent to develop it at at a little more a little more densely than um than it called for, but MF zoning just didn't quite work there. We didn't feel like, so he left it at R2. So based solely on the acreage, the property can accommodate up to 12 units if it's developed at is as is shown on the submitted site plan. The applicant has accounted for required fire approved turnaround green space parking um and drainage. That has not been completely vetted yet, but it will be. And Mr. Pennington um texted me and he's been unavoidably delayed. He is on his way. So, if you want to table it, you can or bring it back at the end of the

the Oh, how far out is he? Yes. How far out is He didn't say. He just He just said, "I'm I'm headed there now." Where is he coming from? I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah, I think that's I think so. Yeah, I'm comfortable. I assume from his home, but I don't know exactly where that is. So, I'll move for the adoption of the resolution. Have a motion in a second to approve this resolution. Use rather use conditional use uh permit request to allow up to 12 dwelling units per acre in R2 zone for property located number three Susan Lane. Any further discussion? It's heard. All in favor say I. I.

I. Any opposed? Passes. That passes four to one. That enough votes, Charles. Okay. You'll have to vote to make it five. Yeah. Majority of the eight member council would be five votes. I will vote. Yes. Five. Very much.

Tucker, what was the one opposition at the planning commission? What was the reason for that? There was a lot of people there that were com that live on Hutto Street that were complaining about um some drainage and there was some issue. They felt like they should have been notified of the CUP but they were not within the 200 ft. They were notified for the reszone because they were but this is just a small part of that reszone and it so there was there was some hard feelings and you know we tried to assure them that that uh the engineer would make sure that the drainage and and Hutto has had some problems. They they've had a lot of problems.

Uh I will get with Jacob and Kurt and as you we all know the eight cent for streets and drainage uh did pass. So maybe we can help the folks out. That would be great. Okay. And that'll that'll all come out in SDR though. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Any reason for my vote? I'd just like to see the person here that

Thank you, Mr. Lar. Uh the next two items are under public service. Uh both of these items will be removed from the agenda and bring back at a later date. So, I'm assuming council that is all we have for tonight. That was a abbreviated meeting and I was all over the place, but you know that happens every now and then. We did get through it. Mr. Hawk, I didn't realize he how much pressure he takes off of me. I'm have to be nicer to him. There is a possibility we may have a couple of uh committee meetings in March. I do not have enough information gathered yet to uh to let you guys know, but we will let this this body and the public know just as soon as we uh have all of our facts together and think and we need to have a committee meeting, we will do so. With that, I will take a motion to adjurnn.

So move. We are adjourned. Yes, ma'am.