City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the May 20, 2026 regular meeting of the Holland City Council. I'm Mayor Nathan Box. I'm calling the meeting to order. Brenda, would you please call the roll?

Clump Irons. Here. Vreeman. Here. Raymond. Here. Corbin. Here. Schultes.

Present.

Marroquin.

Here.

Rowan. Here. Shea.

Present.

Mayer-Box.

Present.

We do have a quorum.

Wonderful, thank you. We're going to begin this evening's meeting as we have for many years, first with an opening prayer this evening by Councilmember Shea, followed immediately by the Pledge of Allegiance, and we would invite you to join us if you're so inclined.

Dear Creator, send upon us and those in this city the confidence and ability for just and fair guidance and governance and please be with us as we make these decisions for our fellow neighbors and help us think of them as we go about our business, amen.

thank you Mr. Shea next item on the agenda are our consent agenda items these are items that are considered to be fairly routine and have been previously reviewed by council members as part of our council packet they will be enacted in one motion unless a member of the public or a member of council asked to have an item removed from the consent agenda and then it will be placed in its regular order on the regular agenda but before I ask if anyone would like to do that Brenda would you please review the consent agenda for us

Yes. Item 4A, excuse the absence of Council Member Vreeman. 4B, approve the minutes of the May 13, 2026 regular meeting. 4C, oaths of office. 4D, release of sewer special assessment for 24th Street, US 31 to Waverly Road. 4E, fiscal year 2026 James Street substation electric distribution capital budget amendment and construction contract with Newkirk Electric. 4F, budget amendment for fiscal year 2026 electric distribution capital budget. 4G, rezoning request for 721 East 64th Street with final adoption June 3, 2026. 4H, rezoning request for 1440 East 64th Street M-40, final adoption June 3, 2026. 4-I, claim filed against the city. 4-J, charitable gaming license for Community Action House, adopt a resolution. 4-K, approve the budget for city's portion of the Howland Board of Public Works 8th Street Water Main Replacement Project. 4L, accept three sidewalk easements from the development at 621 South Point Ridge. 4M, the Eagle Brownfield grant implementation agreement between Sarah Boatsma and the City of Holland. 4N, February financial reports. 4O, approve a grant application to the 2026 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program. 4P, declare items as surplus police operations bicycles. 4Q, approval of an emergency repair to the boiler at Windmill Island Gardens. And 4R, a revocable license agreement for 450 Washington Avenue for awnings.

Great, thank you, Brenda. Is there any member of the public that would like to have an item removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda? Seeing none, any member of council? Ms. Raymond, I believe you have one.

I do, oh, please.

Oh. Oh, thank you. Item O, item Oscar, thank you, Oscar, which then will be placed at item 12, echo 4.3 on the regular agenda. Any other member of council that would like to have an item removed from consent and placed on the regular agenda? Seeing none, what is the pleasure of council in regard to the consent agenda?

Move to approve with the one change.

Moved by Raymond. Is there support?

Support.

Support by Rowan. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the roll?

Klum-Barnes? Yes. Raymond? Yes. Corbin? Yes. Schultheis?

Yes.

Marroquin?

Yes.

Rowan? Yes. Shea?

Yes.

Mayor Box? Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Under the Open Meetings Act of the State of Michigan, we provide the public the opportunity to address council at our regular meetings, our study sessions, and at every one of our board, committee, and commission meetings. We do have guidelines that we ask you to follow. However, first, each person is allowed to speak one time for a total of five minutes. And there are three lights on the dais in front of me to help guide you. There's a green light, a yellow light, and a red light. Green light means you're doing well on time, yellow light means that you have one minute left, and the red light means your time has expired, and we are strict about that. We also ask that when you approach the podium, you please state your name and the municipality in which you live, because it's important for us to know whether or not you're a resident of the city of Holland. And also please note that this is one-way communication. It's an opportunity for you to address council on any subject that you believe is important, but we don't answer questions during this time. or engage in discussion, but if there is a question that staff can answer, they may be able to circle back to you after the meeting. Now having said that, is there anyone here who would like to address council at this time? If so, please come forward. And would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Yes, Mary Camara Hagmeier, and I'm in Park Township.

Go right ahead.

Thank you well Mayor Box valued members of the council thank you for your time today my name is Mary Camara Hagemeyer and I am a resident of Holland even though my sash says Miss Great Lakes Bay I have been competing in the Miss America program through Miss Michigan for about three years now and you're able to win titles across the state unfortunately we do not have a Miss Holland or Miss West Michigan, so this has to do. I'm here today to say thank you and also to advocate for the International Festival of Holland. My service initiative through Miss Michigan is all about art and connecting people. And I was able to attend the 2025 International Festival of Holland right downtown at the Civic Center this last year. I didn't even know that this festival exists, but apparently it's been going on for several years. And I have to tell you, as a marketing professional at Bissell, I found out about this through billboards on the highway. And as a member of Holland, I think that's kind of crazy. It took me that long to find out about it. So I want to speak today about continuing this festival and also making sure that it's well-funded enough to market itself so that more and more people can find out and come to this festival. It's something that's valuable not only for Holland residents, but also for people outside of Holland to come into this city and celebrate all of the different cultures that exist within Holland, especially as we continue to grow. I was struck by the fact that the ways that we usually celebrate culture and what's important to us is through a couple of key ways, food being a big one. music, art, dance, and I saw all of those things expressed at the International Festival of Holland. I've also been lucky enough to go around the state with my title and attend several different festivals outside of our city and see that they did similar things. These are sort of best-in-class examples of how we bring people together, celebrate our art and culture, and maybe meet someone new that in your everyday life you wouldn't come across. I also think it's particularly valuable to have this in a city where we are so strong on our Dutch heritage. I've seen that Tulip Time is an inclusive time where we all come together, people from all different backgrounds, even if you're not Dutch at all, which I am a little. You can see I'm tall. But it's still a time that we come together and bring people in from all over the world. I know that we have translated our pamphlets into Mandarin, into, of course, Dutch. and other languages because we have people traveling across the ocean to come here and celebrate Tulip Time with us. And I think the International Festival has that same potential to bring people together in a way that expresses and helps us understand that we are all valuable, we are all welcome, and we are all members of the great city of Holland. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? And would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Certainly. Hi, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is Katie Kuja. I live right here in the city of Holland. I'm going to take a break from my regularly scheduled programming and change it up a little bit this week. Now, last week, Keith, you gave a beautiful prayer, and I haven't stopped thinking about this prayer since last week. In your prayer, you expressed your gratitude for the safety of all the tourists and residents and neighbors during Tulip Time, and I thought that was great. My family is a Tulip Time family. Having grown up here, I honestly never thought that we would be a Tulip Time family, but my bank account for that week and 5.30 a.m. wake-ups to go get a prime spot to watch the parades prove that indeed we are, and I really do love it. I too am extremely grateful for the measures at which you take to keep everyone safe while putting on such an amazing and massive festival here in Holland. But again, that prayer stuck with me and it stuck with me because of that word safety. If I wasn't terrified of public speaking, I would have brought this up in the moment last week, but my heart was already through the roof just from talking about making our city a more pedestrian friendly place. Now, I'm going to tell you a story about my family. Just because this story is mine doesn't mean that this story is not repeated all over our city and each and every one of our neighborhoods. In fact, I'm 100% confident it does. So in a way, this story isn't just mine. It's all of ours. In 2010, I gained six new siblings who were not born in this country. Keith and Nathan You two got to have a front row seat to watch them grow up just a few hundred feet from each of your houses. Now these kids that you watched grow up, who watched your pets when you were on vacation, well, they're not kids anymore. They're adults now. They're adults who carry around their passports. They're adults whose friends and extended families are scared to leave their houses out of the fear that they will be picked up and deported by ICE. Those kids that they watched grow up between themselves, their extended families, their friends, many of them have had to quit their jobs that they've had for many, many years right here in this area due to fear that ICE would come to their workplaces. this is obviously just an extremely tiny sample of people right here in our community who live in fear each and every day i know the threat of ice doesn't even make the headlines anymore but that doesn't mean that our neighbors here in this beautiful city aren't living in fear every day my family is just a tiny example of it I'm asking you all as our elected officials what you are doing and are going to do and say to make sure that all of our neighbors who actually get to live here feel safe and protected from the threat of ice. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? Seeing none, I will close the public comment period. Next item on the agenda is item number nine, written petitions and communications. In addition to providing the public the opportunity to address council in person at our council meetings, we do have an email address where you can send written communications, and that email address is publiccomment at cityofholland.com. again public comment at cityofholland.com and when we receive those we accept those into the record at our regular meetings we don't read them out loud but accept them into the record we do not have any this evening but i always like to let people know that that email address is there for them next item on the agenda item 11 reports from special committees 11a holland youth advisory council update and farewell to the class of the 2026 scholars mr van beek thank you mr mayor and council

I think I speak for a lot of us that this is one of our favorite nights of the year and I think it reflects because it's one of the favorite activities that we have each year as our Holland Youth Advisory students join us in a variety of meetings So thanks for what you all have done, not only in your specific boards and committees, but also that y'all get to join us at least once a year. So I know Joan is gonna take us through this, right Joan? Oh, Joan's, Thanks, Joan, to you also. I'm gonna do this here because this is your last opportunity to work with these fantastic students, and we just wanna recognize you one more time. But otherwise... That was well-deserved. Students, take it away.

Hello. My name is Yazdyn Ochoa, and I am the chair of CORE Council and also serve on the International Relations Commission. Welcome to the 2026 Senior Farewell for the Holland Youth Advisory Council. CORE Council is the executive committee for HIAC. Each board member serves on a different committee and represents the committee to CORE Council. This year, CORE Council chose Ana Mangruido as the 2025 Youth Social Justice Award for uplifting marginalized communities amplifying youth voices, and promoting equity. Hayek students participated in a STEM night at West Ottawa. The Hayek students had as much fun as the younger students who visited the table to make a kazoo and a catapult. Hayek students again helped the parks department at holiday on the Van Realty farm serving hot cocoa and donut holes and directing traffic in the parking lot.

Hello, my name is Luke, and I'm chair of the Social Services Committee. We started off this year by volunteering at Community Action House Resale Store, where we sorted clothes and put them on hangers. Since Community Action House was opening a new resale center on the north side, we decided to have a clothing drive to help them with their kickoff. The students also volunteered at the Community Action House Food Club where they sorted fresh produce and organized the shelves in the market. And we also cannot forget about the seniors at Freedom Village where we got the opportunity to play bingo with them and get to know them better. And for environmental, each week throughout the last summer, the students watered and weeded the native plant garden at Jefferson School, where two baby bluebirds hatched in the birdhouse that two HIAC students made. The garden will supply bees, butterflies, and birds with essential food and shelter. The Environmental Committee started the year with HIAC on Kayaks, where they partnered with Kelly Goward, the Outdoor Discovery Center's Conservation Program Director, and learned about the watershed around Lake Makatawa. On a cold, windy Saturday, students went to Tunnel Park for beach cleanup. The Environmental Committee also made a video about what and how to recycle. The video was distributed to the local high schools and shared with friends on Instagram. The students also read and discussed the book Practical Sustainability.

Hello, my name is Owen, and I serve on the Recreation Committee. Again this year, we helped at the Farmer's Market at their Fall Fest. The students played games with the kids and handed out prizes. The Recreation Committee sponsored a car for the Trunk or Treat at Black River School for Halloween. The theme was Wicked, and the trick-or-treaters hopscotch down the yellow brick road to get their treats. It was the fifth year that we decorated Christmas cookies with over 100 kids at the Boys and Girls Club. We'd like to give a shout-out to DeBoer Bakery for donating the cookies again. It was also the fifth year that we sponsored a scavenger hunt following the St. Patrick's Day parade. The weather was perfect for a fun activity in downtown Holland. The students held the Easter egg hunt at the Boys and Girls Club. First through fourth grade students were thrilled to look for eggs. The Easter Bunny made an appearance and took selfies with all the kids.

Hi, I'm Layla and I serve on the Human Relations Commission. This past year the HRC accomplished many things. We once again put on a very successful social justice awards night and even featured the winners in this year's Saturday Tulip Time Parade. And that was with the hope of better advertising for more recipients next year. We are continuing to strengthen our relationship with Holland Public Schools by making our resources more known and available at community events such as parent-teacher conferences. Currently, we are working to gather data on rental application fees to better help reach and support a lesser known issue in the community. These past years, I've served on the Human Relations Commission, and I am so thankful for the time I was there, the people I met, and how I was able to support the community. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Henrik and I serve on the Downtown Development Authority. This year, the DDA focused on reworking downtown parking to improve accessibility and make it easier for visitors to navigate the area. They also reviewed and approved new businesses, helping support responsible growth and development in the downtown district. In addition, they worked on optimizing existing downtown businesses by encouraging improvements that will enhance overall activity, visibility, and economic success.

Hello, my name is Doreen and I serve on the MAX Board Transit. This year our committee focused heavily on budgeting and financial planning in response to the government funding cuts we had this year. We also reviewed and updated several policies to better support and accommodate our workers, helping ensure a better and effective work environment during this challenging year.

Hello, my name is Anne, and I serve on the Police Community Relations Commission. PCR has been working on developing a program called CRAZE, which stands for Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events, which aims to teach schools and businesses proper protocol for emergencies. PCR has also hosted events like Shop with a Hero, helping families in need, as well as the Junior Police Academy, fostering community and teamwork. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jaslyn Campos and I serve on teen court. Teen court has heard a total of 11 cases this year, all involving minor possession with THC, vape and disorderly conduct with two defendants. We've also had the honor of introducing Emily Evers to the teen court board. She is an assistant public defender with Ottawa County. Teen Court is scheduled to meet as a board again on September 8th, 2026. Thank you.

Hi, everyone. My name is Maggie Telgenhoff, and I served on the Parks and Recreation Commission. This year, the Parks and Recreation Board has been hard at work upgrading facilities, building new opportunities for the citizens of Holland to enjoy the outdoors, and hosting programs for youth and adults alike to get involved. We renamed Lakeview School Park to Luger's Park and updated the grounds, opened the already beloved Ice Park, and continued to host popular events such as youth basketball clinics and adult softball leagues to help the community of Holland thrive.

Hi again. I have had the pleasure to serve on the International Relations Commission for the past three years. Over this past year, we continued our annual practices of the International Festival of Holland, which was a success, and we also had our real-time film series. This year, we did something special in which HIAC Corps Council got to have a youth pick, and we chose the film Dear Future Children. Other than that, we are still in the process of strengthening our relationship with our sister city, Ciudad de Queretaro in Mexico. And furthermore, we revamped the process to make that sister city relationship. Niall Leonard from, he served on the West Michigan Airport Authority, the airport board completed the north taxiway project. They purchased a broom truck to keep the runways plowed during the snowy winter months. And the airport management also found sponsors to purchase a golf cart to enter into the two-time parade. The golf cart will be modified to resemble a balsa wood airplane. Xavier Murphy served on the neighborhood improvement committee this past year. They focused and prioritized several strategies. The first one to improve social connection and engagement of residents. the second to improve the sense of safety and comfortability of using all forms of active transportation, and the third to provide ongoing oversight of the annual process of planning for optimal use of community development block grant funding. As a part of the effort to improve active transportation, the NIC has been engaged in an effort to add approximately 15 resting benches to the central neighborhoods of Holland in order to enhance walkability and particularly for the benefit of those with mobility challenges. Here are the seniors of the Holland Youth Advisory Council. Please stand and remain standing after I call your name. Amaris De Leon, Andrew Legg, Ann Chung, Anu Mangruido, Angeli Polanco, Brianna Munoz, Doreen Sun, Drew Rothstein, Ellie Stimmer, Juliana Mandrigal, Joseph Lee, Kai Gracia, Katelyn Willey, Kailina Sanciak, Leila Sundararajan, Maggie Telgenhoff, Maggie Rothstein, Miley Knapp, Miles Blinkenson, Owen Baer, Regan Bestman, Riley Sigorski, Tan Tran, Xavier Murphy, Yamalit Collin, and Yazan Ocha. Thank you so much and congratulating seniors.

Congratulations, and you all never cease to impress us. The fact that Joan had you all do that presentation yourselves speaks volumes. We have had the opportunity over the course of the last year to watch some of you grow and mature over the course of this last year, some of you for multiple years. And as you know, every time one of you has to approach that podium to address council, I always ask you four questions. And the last question is always, do you have any plans for the future? And I always say, if you don't, that's fine, because I didn't have any at your age either. But what I've always been impressed with with each one of you is that Many of you have been accepted to colleges that I don't think I would have been able to be accepted to at your age, and I know that you are going to have incredibly bright futures ahead of you because you have already started that here. This is not just a program for you. This is a program for the entire community. We ask you to be part of this process so that we can learn from you, so that we can get ideas from you, so that we can get help from you, and so that hopefully you will take what you've learned here and maybe come back to Holland after you've gone and done other things. and help contribute to this community and certainly to other communities that you may live in in the future. Thank you, thank you for taking that big step forward and being part of HIAC and being part of Holland and making this a better place to live. Congratulations. And as Keith said, this is one of our favorite nights of the year. congratulations guys and as joan asked me to remind you and joan we are going to miss you dearly the students love you we're going to miss you as well but i know that the the students and their family members and their friends and loved ones don't want to sit through the rest of this meeting and and hear what we have to say so joan has cake and refreshments out for you in the rotunda and so we're going to excuse all of you if you want to stay you may but my guess is you don't, so we're gonna give you a few minutes to head out there for the reception, and congratulations, and have a wonderful evening. Thank you all.

Oh, we do have an action item?

Oh, I'm sorry, before you leave, you gotta come back, I'm sorry. This is exactly why we have a chief governance officer, because the mayor forgets things all of the time. We do need to do an official farewell and accept them, and I would be remiss if I didn't say, what is the pleasure of council in regard to this item? move to extend our appreciation to the 2026 holland youth advisory council and recognize the graduating seniors for their service to the city moved by raymond is there support support support by shea any discussion seeing none all those in favor say aye aye all opposed same sign motion carries congratulations now you may go have your cake thank you it's official well done thank you

Thank you.

They're being so quiet, I think we can just continue on. Let's move on to the next item, which is item 12, echo 4.1, recreation center bonds, notice of intent resolution. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. This is another step in a process. It's not the final step. It's not a step that we can't step back from, but it's a very important one and one that I know that a lot of staff and I think you all are excited about also. I forget, quite frankly, if Matt's going to start or Lynn's going to start. So Lynn's going to do the financial, what this means, and then Matt is just going to give everyone a reminder again about what the project is. Sorry, I forgot, Lynn.

Thank you, Keith. Good evening, mayor and members of city council. Yes. This evening, we're going to talk about the notice of intent to issue bonds for the recreation center. And then Matt will share some fun, fun updates on the project itself. But just a little background, we've been talking about this and planning for it for the last several years, and we have included our financial analysis every year as part of our long-term financial forecast, because we always want to make sure that if we want to take a bond, we know we can repay those with no impact on the rest of our services. So we've now gotten to the point where we looked at it again in March when we did the financial forecast, and then we saw It included in the budget that was just adopted last week. And so this is a first step, as Keith mentioned. And what you're doing tonight is you're approving a notice of intent to issue a bond. That doesn't mean you're going to actually do it, but we have to do this first. This is the first step. And then it authorizes a publication in the newspaper that lets our constituents know that that is the intent as well. And the amount is up to $22,000. million and up to 25 years again that doesn't mean we're going to bond in fact we really estimate that we're going to have a project that would need 20 million and not 22 million but bond council has advised us that it's it's more appropriate to always just set that a little bit just in case something happens in the financial markets that we're not expecting and uh So they didn't mention bond council. The city does work with bond council and a financial advisor and all of these types of issues. So, um, that's where we get a lot of our information and guidance from. So before I hand it over to Matt, I'd be happy to answer any questions about.

bond process as far as i know without legal counsel here any questions for staff mr shea um well taking in consideration your uh statement about what you can answer is i appreciate that i just so if i throw something at you that's not for you i apologize um do you know that if we're expected to spend any cash before the 45-day referendum closes it says that we can spend

money to pay ourselves back right so this is an important thing so this date if this is approved as of this date should we incur any costs on the project itself that we would want to be eligible use bond proceeds from this is the date that counts right because then we could reimburse ourselves And while we don't anticipate it for this project, because this project was fortunate enough to have a $5 million donation in prior years, so we do have money, but there are times when we have a project that we need to start with the design and so forth, and that's why we do that. But again, that's part of just the generic legal language. But in this project, we don't see it, but again, it's just an important part of the debt issuance process.

Great. Do we also have, have we gotten a projection for the total debt service?

For the total cost? Yeah. We have detailed projections, several different versions. So, and again, it's, it changes about, we get updated versions every few weeks, especially as we get closer because the, you can tell the financial markets, the bond rates are really kind of changing these days.

Do we have kind of a, Do you feel comfortable saying where we're at or what we're looking at or no?

I only feel comfortable in that we plan to really issue around the $20 million. But again, that is just speculation and very preliminarily speculation.

So that $20 is including the debt service?

So that is the principle of the bond. It does not include the interest on the bond.

I think I'm good for now. Thank you.

Ms. Raymond you noted that you put an announcement in the paper yes are you obligated to just do the paper what's the what are the rules around informing the public so yeah we have to put it in a Brenda probably can help me

a publication of what, something like general, we can't just put it in like the Alaska News Democrat, right? We have to put it in a publication. So we do the Holland Sentinel, right? So it's something with circulation. Sorry.

Mr. Corbin. Just because you threw a few numbers around, I wanted to provide some clarity to those who are listening. You mentioned something about a donation. You talked about a $22 million bond, but you also talked about the need to only use $20 million. So what is the numbers that we're speaking of here?

Okay. So the project itself is budgeted at $26 million. So we need to come up with $26 million. And again, these are budget numbers, right, subject to change. But $26 million was in the approved budget for this project. So that's what we plan to spend. So where are we going to get the money for the $26 million? So we anticipate we already received $5 million for the project. we anticipate using a 20 million dollar bond and that other million dollars we have in the MCIF available to use for this project and the MCIF is our overall municipal capital improvement fund and we get other sources of money into that fund and we go through the process in our 10 20 and 50 year outlook our planning and we um make we allocate what we're going to use that far so we had allocated a million of our general mcif funding towards this project as well so yes those were not the 22 million so how we get to the 22 million dollar number in the it's kind of when you're taking a mortgage out and you want to buy this house so we want to buy a house for 26 million we don't quite know what the interest rate is going to be And that will impact how much net money we get after the cost of issuing a bond and the interest rate because it could sell at a premium or discount, which are legal bond issuance terms. But we just are putting that $22 million in this intent because once we say it's up to $22 million, we can't go above. Like if it turned out to be $20,500,000 and that $500,000 covered our closing costs, we couldn't do that if we limited it at $20 million. So, again, we always are on the conservative side. Since I've been here, and I think historically, because bond counsel always suggests that, to put it a couple million above what you plan to issue, but then when you have the full details, like we haven't even bid this project yet, that could be another variable that changes. So if we bid the project and we get really great bids, we might only need to borrow an 18 million and that's all we would borrow, right? So, but we wanna just put that 22 million on the advice of council so that there is no issue with the goal of getting 20 million.

Thank you. Mr. Schultheis.

it Lynn thanks for teeing up the process aspect of this the notice of intent is does not obligate us to issue a bond we have a ballpark estimate on the timing of when we would see a recommendation on actually issuing the bond is this weeks away months away things like that so right so we can't legally do anything for 45 days after it is appears in the newspaper

So that's our soonest we can do it. But we are thinking it's going to be more in the fall, probably September, October, probably October at this time, and that that's dependent on the project itself because we need to kind of have some better numbers for the project costs. And Matt will be talking about that a little bit before we go out there because we don't want to borrow too much and we don't want to borrow too little, right? So we kind of have some wiggle room, but we don't want to have too much wiggle room because there's all kinds of IRS, actually, regulations related to that process.

Thanks.

Any other questions for Lynn?

Great.

Thanks, Lynn.

All right, Pat's turn.

Mr. Van Dyken.

Yeah, thank you. Just to kind of piggyback on some of the stuff, you know, we've done this a number of times with a number of different projects. And just to remind council, it's kind of the process that we go through. You know, those budgets are created as preliminary project budgets, right? We don't go through an entire bid set, bid out when we create those numbers. So, as Linda mentioned, we get cost estimates. That's why we hire a construction manager, right? They do a preliminary check, and we're doing checks along the way, so we get better numbers as we get closer to the end of the project. But let's be honest, those cost estimates are estimates. Until we get a hard bid in our hand, we do not know exactly what the project cost is gonna be. We've had that happen a couple times. We've had that happen to the negative, where the project cost more than we had anticipated, and we've had it happen actually to the positive. We are seeing some indications out there that there are people that are looking for work in the time frame that we're looking for. So we are hopeful that our bids, when they finally do come back, will come back to the positive. But until that day happens, there are still unknowns with any kind of a major project that's bid out. there is a possibility due to the site being what it is that we could bring some piece of a package to you in particular there's some soil work that's going to need to be done it's a possibility that that could come back as a preliminary package we've talked about that with a construction manager but that would have to be a very small portion of the project we would never want to come and have you approve one part of the package and then come back with another part of the package that was well in excess of what the estimates were. So just talking kind of through that process as we go through. But this is the recreation center. This is in Smallingburg Park. Actually, the mayor was just out here earlier today giving a television interview. So it is roughly at this point an 83,000 square foot recreation center that consists of four gyms. for basketball that can then easily be converted into volleyball, futsal, pickleball, that kind of thing. We also will have on the second level of the facility, there's actually a little like a mini gym, if you see that in the lower left hand corner, that's for really, really small kids that can't quite get a basketball up to a regulation size rim. So some space for them that can also be used for flex space. in kind of preparing for today I actually took a review of our recreation programming and was really pleasantly taken back by the variety of things that our rec department provides you know we have adaptive programming for folks with disabilities we have ceramics classes we have ukulele classes along with sand volleyball basketball, youth soccer, little kickers, all these little things that we do that currently are done over across 13 different gyms and so many different facilities across the city where this recreation center will bring it all into one space where they can provide that programming. People know where their programming is going to be. It's always going to be at the recreation center or mainly at the rec center. Really solves the problem of working through all those different facilities. So We have gone through some value engineering pieces already with this and we think what we have is really what this community needs to provide that programming for its youth and for its adults I'm looking at Tim and I remember playing volleyball with Tim 27 years ago in a Holland recreation that dates us both and I apologize Holland recreation programming and just you know ways for people to interact with each other in a community Just some more of the rendering pieces. Very large, very open space that will be netting between the courts that can block things off. You can see that we're actually dropping down a little bit in this space. So it has a lot to do with ball control. Ball's not coming off of the court. And then spectator seating is above. So the parents and spectators, grandma and grandpa are up above. Youth is down on the main floor, and even those spectators really aren't even allowed in the same areas. So again, just some renderings. This is volleyball. It's volleyball, basketball, heavily. But also a building that has some architectural features. You know, this is immediately adjacent to Hope College. College has a lot of buildings with a lot of mass This is gonna be a very big building with a lot of mass, but we also understand that it's directly Next to a neighborhood so needs to be kind of pleasing to everybody. We actually do it's kind of hard to see but if you look in the Far left hand side of the image. There's a bus drop-off that would be on Fairbanks Avenue. So the buses can pull in kiddos can get out safely and then the buses can move on to parking you elsewhere and And yes, it does have some orange accents to beautify the building. But really, that's it in a nutshell. Very large facility, but built to accommodate all kinds of multi-use programming. three-on-three basketball, drop-in basketball, volleyball, futsal, all of the different things that we can do. And then you can just imagine a basketball tournament going on on the main floor and a ukulele lesson going on in one of the flex spaces. So I was just fascinated by the ukulele. I don't know why.

Questions for Mr. Van Dyken? I've got a couple for you, Matt. If you could go back to the first slide that you had, what is that, those two lines that are going off to the upper right, the two diagonal lines that are heading off of the site. Do you have any idea what that just seemed weird, like a property line there?

Oh, no, that's actually an access road driveway in the cemetery.

Ah, okay.

Okay. One question down.

And then I've got one other one, if I may, Ms. Rohn. Okay, good. Thank you. There are a couple of other current uses on that site that we've received some questions about. Could you speak to that?

Yeah, sure. So there's a playground right in the middle of that parking lot currently. That playground, talking to Andy in the Parks Department, is about 20 years old, which is about the end of its useful life. We will dismantle anything that we can use and likely replace that when we redo Bow's Pool in 2028. So if you remember, your municipal capital improvement fund for 2028 has $2 million. earmarked for Bouse Pool. The other feature is the existing skate park. That skate park we met with Spawn Ranch, which is the name of the company that helped us build that originally about 15 years ago. There are some pieces of that that we will be saving and moving probably to that, there's actually two tiers of level closer to 16th Street. Move that equipment and rebuild the skate park eventually in that corner.

Great, thank you. Ms. Rowan.

Thank you, I already know the answer to this question, but just for emphasis and for some of the folks who might be paying attention to this meeting, I had some constituents reach out to me to ask about why are we building a rec center and there's only four basketball courts. It sounded limited to them. As compared to Holland, I think it's in Holland Township, the old Yonkers store, which is now like a facility, a gym, a facility. I think it's to like you pay a membership fee. So you've already addressed it but just for emphasis, can you address it again to distinguish this facility versus something like an MVP or that Holland Township facility?

Yeah, so the Holland Township, they decided to put in one basketball court in their facility, and then they have six dedicated pickleball courts. So they have two dedicated spaces. We made the decision that we want the place to be flexible for a variety of different things. Those four gyms actually give us a lot of use for, like, Gus Macker style tournaments within this facility. four gyms in one spot is actually quite a few in one spot but we really wanted to make sure that this is a multi-use facility everybody that lives in the city can i can guarantee this can go on to hollandrecreation.com and find programming that they can do or would want to do and this facility as we have it designed currently can accommodate all of that

And so would you say that the primary purpose of this facility is for organized programming for the city?

It is, and you had mentioned like an MVP or a Planet Fitness. We have a lot of facilities in the city close by. We have two Planet Fitnesses now within four miles, three miles, that really do that working out kind of thing very, very well. We had conscious decisions of... We're not going to be able to afford to have the space to do that really, really well for $15 a month. So let's make sure that we're focusing on what we need and what we've identified that this community needs to support our recreation programming.

And one last question or comment. I think early, early on, before we even had a plan to talk about when we were just talking about this as a concept, and we were talking about location, this was a specific location that you studied, isn't that right?

That's correct.

And then what were the benefits of that?

So what we've learned, especially with Bow's Pool, is there's an advantage to this. Well, A, we already own the property, right? That's one thing. But what we've learned with Bow's Pool through the years is that the people, especially the kids, but it's people, all people, that live in the central neighborhoods in Holland can walk down here or bike here, right? but also the kids that live up in Holland Heights can actually cross and get to Bow's Pool. Most of the traffic that is in summertime, and again, it's especially kids, but it's foot traffic. So we really think that that's important that kids can get to the recreation center without having to be driven to the recreation center. I mean, the far west end, of course, but really, it's in the neighborhood, it's where people can get to, where the kids can get to, to really take in that programming.

Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of all of the consideration that went into choosing the location, choosing the structure, choosing the accommodation inside the building. And it was very interesting to learn that some of the sort of alternative programming that go on there too, that's a great shout out to those programs. Thank you, I have no other questions on that.

Any other questions?

Mr. Shea so obviously this new building will fulfill the needs of the current programming correct do we see ourselves a little more headroom for increasing programming or is there a need or can you kind of speak to that so I in this

especially with the multi-use stuff that is going on here, we have a lot of flexibility built in. So you can see the training room, that youth room. This is listed here as kind of the cardio room, but really that's flexible space. It gives them the ability to do different programming. I think most of us feel that youth soccer and youth basketball and youth volleyball, some of these more traditional sports, will continue. But it does give them, just kind of like the ice park did, the opportunity to expand that programming to what really I think people don't think of much as typical recreation programming. But kudos to our staff for saying, hey, typical recreation programming means recreation that can serve every single person in this community. And I think we've done that with this by accommodating that flexible space that really anybody can use for really just about anything.

And I love that we laughed at you for the ukulele, but that's a great example of something that I would have been super into more than shooting the J.

But the other question quickly. Nope, it left me.

It's all good.

Any other questions? Yeah, Mr. Go ahead. Tim, go ahead.

Yeah, I love this project. I think it's great. I'm thinking of back in the day, and my knees are still paying for it. But nonetheless, my big thing, I think, is just thinking of expanding design and thinking of color palettes, that it's OK to go to something other than orange.

Mr. Corbett.

So just a quick clarification. This goes beyond the youth of the city of Holland, right? This is a Holland area facility, correct? All right.

Any other questions? Mr. No? Okay. We're all good? All right. What is the pleasure of counsel in regard to this item?

Move to approve as presented.

Moved by Rowan. Is there support?

Support.

Support by Clumpharts. Any discussion? I just had a couple of comments. One, it was mentioned in Lynn's presentation, the $5 million donation that was one of the catalysts of this from the Heringa family was an incredibly generous estate gift. Talked about it this afternoon that the only stipulation on that gift was that it be used for a singular project. And this was the project that almost immediately came to mind when we looked at that. But I continue to be amazed at the generosity of this community to this city and entrusting us to be good stewards of those gifts. We have received, just during my tenure as mayor, millions and millions of dollars in donations for projects, including the ice park, including this, including the DeGraff Nature Center. have given us the ability to do projects that we would not have been able to do otherwise for the benefit of the people of the City of Holland and we do not take that lightly we are we always want to be good stewards of those gifts and I think that this is a great example of that any other discussion Brenda would you please call the roll okay Corbin

Yes. Schultheis?

Yes.

Marroquin? Yes. Rowan? Yes. Shea? Yes. Clump-Irons? Yes. Raymond? Yes. Mayer-Box?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Great, thank you. Next item on the agenda is the item that had been removed from the consent agenda, item 12, echo 4.3, approve grant application for the 2026 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program.

Mr. Van Beek. Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. I did get a notice that someone wanted to talk about this. Thanks, Lynn. Not more questions, but more just kind of reminder of process. And we have two great people that have worked on this because this was a really important one that we applied for last year. and got some feedback and have worked on it. So I'm going to ask both Brian and Connie to come up, and then I'm going to let them decide kind of like who's going to give a quick overview on what we did last year and the tweaks that we made to hopefully increase our probability of success this year.

Is there a slide? There is. Matt?

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR BOXX, COUNCIL MEMBERS AND MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TUNING IN REMOTELY. Yeah, maybe just a little bit of background. I know I've talked about this at budget time on a few different occasions, but this really dates back to 2023, 2024, where the Safe Routes for All program was initially rolled out. And in order to qualify for construction dollars, you needed to have in place a planning document. And so we worked with the MAC on an area-wide basis to get that put in place, and that was done in 2024, completed in 2024. And then we didn't have a whole lot of time to put together our first grant application for construction dollars, but we went ahead and put something together in 2025. We really used a wide net, cast a wide net on that one, And that project included improvements along Washington, Michigan River, that main north-south thoroughfare, along 17th Street, between South Shore Drive and Columbia Avenue, which also a portion of that is part of the U.S. Bike Route 35. And then last year, we also included 24th Street, which you'll note on the map here, In the feedback and in just our deliberations, we decided in order to make the grant a little more competitive, we've removed 24th Street from the project, and we're putting forward just 17th in the north-south corridor. And one of the things, one of the criteria that the grant is evaluated on is the return on investment, and they actually basically tally up costs of the project or benefits of the project based on the number of crashes. In this case, the more crashes you have, the more benefit you get, right? So counterintuitive, but that's the way the grant process works. And 24th Street, as you can imagine, is a little lighter, lighter crashes. So we decided to just focus on those more major areas in 17th and in Washington, Michigan. So maybe I'll let Connie talk about the next steps here, but we're getting close to being ready to go for the 2026 application.

Hello, everyone. As Brian said, last year our application was well received by the Department of Transportation, so this is a federal grant. This is an approximately $20 million request that we'll be putting in, so it's a big one. And when we received our feedback last year, we were recommended for funding, but we were not highly recommended for funding So they had some small adjustments and comments that we've taken into account As Brian mentioned the removal of 24th Street for the return on investment being one of them So we feel that it's a stronger application But we've really focused on that non motorized network and making transportation for people using bicycles and walking much more safe And with 17th Street being part of the U.S. Bike Route 35, helping bicyclists connect up to our new bike park on River, which is also along that route, was something that we took into consideration too, knowing that that's coming down the pike pretty quickly. Right now, we're wrapping up the final pieces of the application, and we're feeling pretty good about it, getting all the data together. So it's a federal grant, so it's going to take quite a bit of time before we hear back on it, but we're optimistic, and we feel like we're in a good spot.

Great. Any questions for staff? Yeah.

Can you, Connie, just name a few things, a few components of the plan? Yeah. What the upgrades will look like?

Yeah, and Brian can chime in here, too, because I know we've been kind of going back and forth on some of them. But like along 17th Street, there's currently no bike lanes in the one area. So we're adding some bike lanes to make that safer for people traveling along US Bike Route 35. We're adding a median. Yeah, Washington and Michigan. I don't know. You want to hop in with some other ones? Yeah.

A lot of signal work, too, includes a lot of that work as well, where those crashes tend to occur, upgrading those signals. And in some areas, I think you may all be familiar with that 27th Street in Michigan, where the hospital entrance is. It's a four-lane section. We're looking at including just a turn pocket there in order to allow those left turns to occur more freely. And I think that's really going to be

just one element a good benefit there for everyone any other question are you good you're good Lynn okay yep any other questions great thank you so what is the pleasure of counsel in regard to this item move to approve move by Shea support by Raymond any discussion seeing none Brenda would you please call the roll

Schultheis?

Yes.

Marikeen? Yes. Rowan? Yes. Shea? Yes. Klump-Barnes? Yes. Raymond? Yes. Corbin? Yes.

Mayor Box? Yes. Motion carries. Great, thank you. Next item on the agenda, item 13, communications from the city manager, Mr. Van Beek.

Quick tonight, you'll all rejoice. First, tomorrow Community Foundation luncheon, for those of you that accepted, and if you didn't but maybe can make the time, let us know, because I think we still could make room for one. Memorial Day next week, Monday, you have the instructions for those that are able to walk. No study session next week, so you have that time off. But I will let you know that in the next two weeks, kind of fun events and partnerships that we've been working on is the Bike Park Grand Opening on May 27th. And then the splash pad at the Courtyard by Marriott grand opening on June 4. So all of that is always in my Friday communications out to you, but continue to look for that. And just wanted to highlight a couple of them that I think are really cool, positive adds to the community in partnership with neighborhood and business groups. That's all I have. Thanks.

great thank you item 14 appointments and communications from the mayor i'm going to keep it short tonight as well a reminder about memorial day parade 9 30 on monday morning if you're able to attend we'd like to walk in that and then attend the ceremony that takes place in pilgrim home cemetery and a big thank you to our parks department staff especially who have been working diligently to make sure that the cemetery and all of our parks look great it has been this is always an incredibly busy time of year for them between tulip time and the turnover of downtown and to have Memorial Day come this quickly thereafter and of course Community Impact Day last week as well with multiple projects taking place and then also on May 30 the tulip day taking place So lots and lots going on on their agenda, but they make sure that the cemeteries look spectacular as they should for Memorial Day. So thank them for that. And that is all I have this evening. Motions, communications from council members. Ms. Raymond.

Yeah. Just a couple things from the Neighborhood Improvement Committee. Jaslyn was kind enough to note in one of her presentations about the Neighborhood Bench Program. This has been an activity of the Neighborhood Improvement Committee for the last year or so, a couple years. and they have succeeded in in placing but they will place them with the help of the parks department and a partnership between private and and the private businesses and churches around the community to place 14 new benches all around the city in places where they have identified a need for you know a place to sit while they're walking along and that's only the first phase the next phase will come soon and we'll add another 18 benches around the city so that has been a really great project and really really successful partnership between the community and the city and thank you to the Parks Department for really jumping on that and creating those benches also they are they always have a work group around the neighborhood connections you know those are those neighborhood those community or neighborhood groups around the around the city that focus on improving those neighborhoods and there are six there are six now and Maplewood is getting organized and they had a meeting they've knocked on 724 doors interviewed 103 people in the Maplewood neighborhood and they had 45 people come out to their last informational meeting which is really a great turnout, and they're focusing, as lots of people are, on traffic, and there's a school closing in that neighborhood, so they're talking a bit about what's going to be happening in that neighborhood. So lots of exciting things happening up in Maplewood. And there's a map here of where the neighborhood benches are going to be. Wonderful.

Thank you, Lynn. Yes, Mr. Medekine.

Yeah, and just piggybacking on what Lynn said, we have some fantastic organizations in Holland doing some great work in connecting our neighborhoods, and one of them is having an event this Friday. It's an informational gathering for our neighbors of West Core. It'll be at 7 o'clock on Friday at Upside Down Coffee, so I encourage and invite my colleagues, staff, city staff, and residents to attend.

Thank you. Any other motions, communications, appointments from council members? All right, then I would entertain a motion to enter a closed session to review and discuss a written opinion from the city attorney's office with the attorney.

So moved.

Moved by Rowan. Is there support? Support. Support by Schultes. Any discussion? Brenda, would you please call the roll? we will be entering closed session we'll take a quick five ten minute break in between the two and just want to let the public know uh this is where the video is going to end and we are not anticipating that we will have any action following this uh so if if there if there were you could check city hall tomorrow but with a video will not continue and We are not expected to have any action at all following this. So thank you. Have a great evening.