Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we're going to kick off tonight's meeting. Um, appreciate everybody coming out tonight. We have all three board members present as well as Alyssa, the clerk treasurer. Um, again, thanks everybody for coming. Um, we have another number of things to get through here tonight, so we'll kick off right away. Um, we'll start by the reading and approval of the meeting minutes from February 3rd. Has everyone had a chance to review the February 2026 meeting notes? Yes. I make a motion to approve the February 2026 meeting notes. I second that. All right. All in favor? I I February meeting notes have been approved.

All right. Uh, town department reports. I don't see Josh here. He is not present. So Josh is not present, but he has submitted a uh list of items for review. I have them displayed on the screen. They'll also be available on the town website. He also wanted to inquire about batteries for the speed signs on road and approval to order the golf cart stickers for 2026. I would say we should order the golf cart stickers and batteries. I would say so on the batteries as well. So yes and yes. Yes. Here we go.

All right. Um also I don't see anyone here from the fire department. They also have submitted a report regarding the month of February. I'm displaying them on the screen for the public. They're also viewable on the website. Any questions from the board? All right. We will move on the gym and civic center. I see Richard here tonight. Richard, give an update on the gym and civic center.

Uh whatever 17 rentals at the gym and uh this is pretty good for this time of year and pretty typical for for the winter. Busiest times at the gym are usually in November through March. We got a lot here. Uh civic center was one rental last month and a couple more scheduled. So that's the report the uh but then we also uh we had some meeting I don't know whether you want to deal with this now or later the meeting we have regarding the agenda.

Let's see let's talk about it now.

Okay. Um on on last Friday, uh Josh Kim and I met with uh K the director of the county foundation and our primary issue was talking about and we got a lot of good information from her and what came from that is I think that my recommendation I think Josh and Kim can comment on it, but we should probably write a letter of intent. They have a a they call it a large I think they call it a large grant and their large grant I think maxes out at $20,000 and we need to identify the specific things that uh need to be done to at least get move the gym kind of phase one and look at this as a long-term project to improve it including everything from where we started with the uh restrooms there being changed and cleaned up and the water lines We're back to looking at the stage. I found two old bids. I mean, they're five years ago, but still this is the place to start. And I found a bid for uh and then we have a bid already. A Melissa has for I think it was for uh to replace that secondary furnace. So, that was the discussion that that would be a good start. We need the restrooms. We get the stage repaired and that secondary furnace going. We'll get things back to where they should have been. And we could probably do all of that under 20,000. T the board's already approved 1,500 for the for the restrooms and things. And then we can look at other longer term projects like I found a bid too from a pace company to do the uh do

the front again that was five years ago. you know, the prices have gone up since my price has gone up since the meeting. Uh the uh that's that's what uh recommendation is from that from that meeting. She said it's it's a doable thing. There are some issues behind that. One is on 2028 it will be the 100th anniversary of that gym. And you know, historically speaking, that's towns don't have gyms anymore. they don't have a school. And uh so that's unusual. Uh the town spent $500 this year and bought the the gym and and all of the acreage, the park and everything that's associated with it. And it's a it's a good thing to look forward to on 2028. And uh I think the indication was that if we can get something going in that direction from the foundation is that they would be supportive of that.

That's what I heard. Yep. So Tim, I think you obviously were not there. Um but to echo what Richard said, I think we have the opportunity to write a letter of intent. Tammy indicated that you know almost anything we wrote hearing what we're saying would be approved. Mhm.

Um so we just need to submit a letter to them requesting um to be included in the grant application for their large grant program which will be $20,000. We don't have to have perfect bids when we write the letter of intent. We have time on that. Um and so at there we have until March 6, today's the 3rd, so end of the week to just submit a basic letter of intent. Um, well, I I think we probably should move forward with that. I also to tag on to what Richard is saying is I I think there is larger a large potential much larger project that could happen at the gym to upgrade the facility, make it nicer long-term, add air conditioning, ret mentioned tuck pointing, you know, just overall improving the gym. Um, I and Decator County Community Foundation would be interested in participating in that long term. um we just have to kind of go down the path and they would maybe do that not via their standard large grants. They would look at doing it potentially with a capital campaign um which could make us eligible for a larger portion. We would they prefer to have some other grant or some other money matching community things of that nature. So that being said, I think, you know, I like committees, but I can also sometimes hate them. But I think if we got a a small group together, um I would be willing to participate in just generating a committee where we can kind of divide, conquer, hey, let's create a long list of, hey, here's things we would like to do and then we can set them by priority. Um I think it would be good to obviously I think Richard would be critical to that. Um, but I also think we have a number of people that rent the gym on a regular basis, some of them young. I think having some young person representation on that would be ideal. Um, but I I would not think more

than five people that we should kind of get together and try and set a general path forward on the gym. And then if we community foundation likes that because if you have a committee that's focused on it, has spent some time, there's lots of representation. um they would be more supportive of that. So I think two things, one we need to decide tonight if we want to put a commit committee together um and then two if we want to move forward with the grant application um or the letter of intent. I would be in favor of moving forward with the letter of intent. Cam.