City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 6:00. If everyone would stand, we will call this city council meeting to order. At this time, we will have a word of silence. Thank you. I would ask Mr. Stone if you would lead us into the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated.

Good evening and welcome to Georgetown City Council as we conduct business for the city of Georgetown for Monday, March the 9th, 2026. Uh, at this time, Madame Clerk, if you will call the role. Mr. Stone here. Miss Table Sams here. Miss Leslie Mitchell here. Mr. Minky present. Mr. Hampton here. Miss Hamburg present. Mr. Chris here. Miss Wilkins here.

Everybody. Everybody's here. Good. Thank you. Uh item number three, approval of the minutes for February 23rd, 2026. Uh at this you all have received those and uh at this time I would entertain a motion. Before we do that, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a just a brief change or a suggested change, make a motion for it. Uh, regarding the discussion about the uh legacy park, uh, I'd like to suggest that we, uh, amend it when I recuseed to, uh, before any discussion began. Council member Chris recused himself from this discussion and any possible action relating to the proposed item.

All right. So, you have hear the motion. Uh, second. Do you have a second? Yeah. Second. I'll second. So, I also had a a request for a modification. Okay. Well, let me get his first. Okay. I'll second his amendment. Yeah, let me second his amendment first. So, uh you have heard the request from M Mr. Chris and I had a motion from him and a second by Miss Sams. Are there any questions and or comments? All those in favor of this amendment? Okay, just the amendment. Okay, that's the amendment to that. Signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Now, uh, Mr. Mr. Mankey.

Yeah. So, under, um, section 11A under old business, um, I had covered three categories of of requests. Two of them were in the minutes, but the third one was not. I did go back to double check and make sure that I said what I thought I said. Uh the third category or third point uh made that request for the a listing of the historical properties historically significant properties, vacant properties and city properties were also included in that. Okay. So we need a a motion to amend that portion also. Do I have a motion? I made that motion.

Motion made, but you have a seconded m by Miss Mitchell. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of Mr. Mickey's uh amendment to the minutes signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Let the reflect that those amendments will be uh amended to the minutes. Thank you. Item number four. You need a motion to approve the minutes as Excuse me. I'm get to hear myself. Now we need a minutes. Uh a motion to approve the minutes which we just had. All right. Motion made here. Second

by Miss Hamri. Second by Mr. Minky. Now, are there further questions and or comments? All in favor of the motion now for the minutes with all the changes signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay.

Now item three is passed. Item number four uh received of the check registry. You have received those and have viewed those. If you have, please raise your hand. Let the record reflect that all has received it. At this time, item number four, public comments. On public comments, you will have four minutes in which to state your business before council. Once again, uh you will be able to uh state that. Uh madame clerk will time it. At three minute mark, she will let you know that three minutes has elapsed. And then at the end of four minutes, she will let you know again. And at that time we will ask that you be respectful and take your seat so we may continue with business for the city of Georgetown. Uh we at right now we have uh Dan Hullman for Georgetown municipal GMSWSS and parks. Hi there Dan Hullman Georgetown. So yeah, I just wanted to make um a couple comments related to GMWSS and also just in parks in general. Um so yes, there's been this discussion recently about the cabins at Royal Spring Park and about Royal Spring Park. And so on the uh agenda tonight, so apparently, you know, they were going to go uh back to Clearary Construction and asked them to move the pipe the sewer piping around the cabins. And apparently the design engineer who I guess is that's Bell Engineering apparently said that that should be able to be done at reason at minimal cost. But then when they actually took it to the construction company uh as Chase reported I think last time or no he report they he reported in the memo that's in the packet they are saying that's going to be an expensive cost like more expensive than anybody expected and so that now they're asking them to justify that cost. So there's kind of an appearance that maybe Clearary Construction is just

trying to, you know, milk milk uh so you want to make sure they're not just milking you for more money. Uh and it's good that GMWSS is asking them to explain themselves. But really at this point, it also could be like you all as the council who's who's in charge of all this could just tell Clearary Construction that we are considering cancelelling your contract and finding someone else who can do this um you know who can get this done. Uh so so one option and I sent an email to the council earlier today and I also posted this email on the Georgetown KY water complaints Facebook page if anybody wants to see it there. But that was suggesting that frankly this this project should have never should have from a perspective never been in Royal Spring Park from the first place. Like a year ago when this all came up that's the time that we should have been having the public discussion about the park and the cabins and all this but that didn't happen. Um Chase actually sent an email a year ago. So, I did some open records requests and he said, "Should we um check with city council about their approval to move the cabins?" And then the response was, "Let's call you on from the mayor's office. We'll call you on the phone to talk about it." So, Chase actually maybe was trying to get this to you all a year ago, but the mayor's I think it's the mayor's office that didn't want you all to see this. Um but anyway, could So, one we need, you know, in Georgetown needs innovation. One thing we just don't that we maybe need some improvement on is being innovative. So, one innovative way to approach modern-day sewer projects is trenchless uh trenchless digging. So, I sent in the email uh just an anam a request or a suggestion to uh put out a new a bid for a trenchless contractor to come in and just go underneath Water Street. And then there's videos and things you can see online about how that works. So that would be great if maybe as part of the discussion you all could consider this and Georgetown municipal could consider this. And then frankly also in the future uh GMWSS probably overstepped their bounds in making this decision. Uh they're not the parks and recck department. So their their job is to just lay out options and to say

here's what you need and lay out options and it's your job to decide what options are chosen. But in this case it seems like they kind of chose an option and then brought you only one option. But but it's not Okay. One minute. So, uh, also related to GMWSS, people have been calling for a long time for more, um, reporting about these billing spikes. And so, the I think they're slowly working on that one state, so we just need some some actual statistics. Um, could, uh, it was stated that this mayor and everything wants to partner with Georgetown College. Could you get a statistics professor from Georgetown College to sort through their billing data? and you can run all kinds of statistics reports and find patterns and things that's worth doing instead of saying that this is just a very manual process and there's a limit to what we can do. Related also to parks in general um the beautifification committee uh is a good committee. I think it's mainly about inmates cleaning up cleaning up public spaces but also it doesn't want to overstep its boundaries. It's not the parks and recck department. It's its job is not to like form new parks and name new parks. So they kind of this idea about the Clayton and Broadway land that should probably be turned over to parks and wreck to name it and to design it and then Thank you.

All right. Okay. All right. Is there anyone else who came in late did not get an opportunity to sign the signin sheet for public comment and would like to uh do so at this time? If you do, I if you want to do that, I can add your name to this. All right. If not, we'll move on to our next item, the events application, and we have Southern Knights of Central Kentucky, Carl Cruz in.

Good evening, council. I'm Marcia Smither. I'm a member of the Southern Knights of Central Kentucky. I'll also take care of all the vendor sponsorship that we use at our big car show in October. But we would like to do a proposal, and I know we've done it a few times, um, of doing some car cruise things out here on Main Street from the corner up to Malberry. Um, we have on average about anywhere from 100 maybe to 150 cars that come. Right now, the big push for a lot of these car clubs and things like us are doing the downtown, so they get the downtown experience. Um, we have three dates that we would like to propose. April the 11th from 4 to 7, July the 11th from 5 to 8, and September 26 from 5 to 8. Um, and these people that we deal with with these cars, they come from all over. So, they kind of like coming to the downtown areas and seeing which Georgetown is one of my favorites because they have it. It's decorated and there's flowers and everything. So, it's one of my favorites and people compliment that. Um, so we would just like to propose that we could possibly do those those three dates. Um, I'm not sure if you all have questions. I'm not sure what else I need to talk about. Um, Southern Nights has been a part of Georgetown since 1989. It's where it was formed. Um, we do from our big car show we do in October, we do make donations to the Georgetown Fire Department or Scott, I think it's Scott County Fire Department for Toys for Tots. Also, some of the or one of the police department organizations, we do make donations to them as well.

All right. Um, I have a question. Okay. Is it okay? Yeah, go ahead. Um, for Lori, is has all the paperwork been turned in? Yes. Okay. Well, I'll make a motion that we pass this. Okay. Motion is made by Miss Mitchell to uh to accept the proposal here to add these dates to the calendar. Uh do I have a second?

Ask again. Do I have a second? The I have I have another question. So I'll second it so I can ask another question. Okay. Now motion second. Now questions and comments. Yeah. So the uh Okay. I'm a car guy. Okay. So no question about that. Um, so one of the one of the things that we put in place is the pavilion behind city hall to be able to help off um load Main Street for long chunks of time, right?

Especially on high volume times and things like that. So, I guess my question is, can the pavilion accommodate that? Uh, there's lots of parking back there and and that's where the farmers market is and you know, it it does these kinds of things. We have events and things like that. So, is there a reason that we can't offer that as an alternative? Possibly. I'm not real sure. I would have to talk with the rest of our organization. They just like the atmosphere of downtown.

Um I know we've got some other [clears throat] areas that we travel to that people just love the downtown atmosphere. Um so I know we've done it down in that parking lot before, but I think I feel like we ran out of space the last time we did it. And I know we've did some overflow down there as well when we ran out of space. That's definitely something that I can Okay. I can check on Mayoroses.

And um by the time that you would have at least the July uh dates, the parking lot would be bigger because the construction would be over. So, it would be my ideation as well that that would be a better spot and it would be the least interruptive for downtown traffic. Okay. Can I? Yeah. I was wondering I I like the pavilion idea also, but maybe one of their events can be maybe on Main Street and then the other two could be in the pavilion. Give them one Yeah. S or is it Saturday? One of the one of the follow on Saturday, you know, downtown.

One one of the follow-up questions I also had was given the construction activity that's going on the back of city hall and things like that. I know there is restrictions right now. Uh, and I know we're going to be getting more detailed information on the [clears throat] timing and the completion of the back of city hall, restoration of the parking lot and all those kinds of things. Um, so I I too, you know, think that, you know, that could potentially be an alternative, but I think the the intent was the the pavilion to be able to minimize the amount of disruption into Main Street. Um,

the and one thing that that was one of the biggest reasons that it was built was to take events off of Main Street. We there for a while. We shut down Main Street. Mhm. Every other day and it doesn't need to happen. State Road and it, you know, it needs to remain open. It affects the businesses downtown. Have you spoken to Lori Saunders about this? No. Without her approval, I won't vote for it. Okay. And she's at Come on up. You may come on up. [clears throat]

I have tried calling her four or five times. I left her a message uh last week for her to call me. [snorts] I don't want to interfere with anything that's going on with her. I did check on some of the dates and some of them does not interfere with her, but I I couldn't get an answer on what time that the you know the streets were closed cuz that's what I don't want to do cuz I know that's where we had problems. But for

you've got April. I don't know if there's any other events on Main Street for April, but I do know if you look at your July because you got Fourth of July is the weekend before that. So the streets will be closed and activity going on and then in September should be the festival of the fourth falling in there. So that would be those two dates in particular are probably not good for Main Street, okay?

Because there'll already be something going on Main Street, but I don't know what's going on if there is an April one. So, um I wanted to say too though that one of the things that we asked was that they uh if they were going to have an event on Main Street that it did minimize closing of the businesses and the fact that it is um up in the afternoon on a Saturday instead of all day I think should be considered. Um, if it could work at the pavilion, I wonder if 150 cars could fit down there. And if they did were able to fit, how would people walk around down there? I I just That's the way they do it at farmers market.

Well, there's not 150 cars in the parking lot at farmers market. Um, I mean, there's not. And uh maybe we could just look at the um first one since it is right around the corner and then um see see how it goes for July and September. What do you think? I'd like to know if there's any other events for April, right? If there is, then I would be inclined not to. If there's not, then maybe we can close it one night, but that was the whole problem before. It's too many. It ended up being the same month, same time, too many interruptions. Yeah, I I know she's called Lori, you know, but um I still would like to have Lor's input on that.

So with this, I know we got a motion and everything we probably go on, but a suggestion would be that having that discussion with her and then bringing it back to us as soon as possible and then doing that way with that work uh uh probably be the best way. That way we you have already made contact with her. You have more definitive information that that you can bring to us. So, okay. But, uh, but we got I guess with a motion here, unless somebody want to declare that we got and let me just ask too because April 11th is we have uh one council meeting before that. Is that enough time for Yeah. If we do if she if we bring back on the 23rd, I think that would be enough time, you know. So, there's another council meeting the 23rd.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Right. Right. All right. We'll get with her and then we'll make a plan to be back on the 23rd.

Yeah. I I think to Karen's point though, I think it would be important for us to have in one place a calendar of the things that are going on downtown and at the pavilion so that we have one place to look because that's one of the things I also did. I went and had to go to like four different locations and still wasn't comfortable. I was finding all the things that I thought were going on uh downtown. So, that would be one of my requests as well is that we we establish some calendar that can be attached to these applications uh or someplace we can go to to check and see what's there so that we can minimize the the time downtown. So,

mayor, could I make a motion that we uh table this until the next council meeting? Yes. Idraw. So withdraw withdraw your other motion then. Okay. You want to withdraw your motion. So withdraw that motion. So now let's look at you want to make a another motion to table this to the next one or you just want to I just withdraw. Okay. That's fine. You just come back to the next meeting. Okay. Thank you all. I think Deb I we think we on our go ahead Deon. I'm sorry.

We at the county. So, if this is uh if there's a different process that you all want to talk about, that's fine. We can. But as of now, anytime an event application is approved by the council, Tracy sends you a calendar invite so that so it on your outlook, your city account should live on your calendar there. So, for example, the 4th of July event was just approved. So, if there's a way that that we need to improve that, we can certainly talk about it. But, as of now, you all should have on your calendar any events that have been approved. So, I don't see any for April at this point. Um the only one I think that's been approved in the kind of tranch of summer events so far is is July 4th, but we'll confirm that before the next meeting and kind of make sure um everybody's comfortable with that process

because didn't didn't um tourism did they preschedu their concert series? They typically do. I'm I'm trying to remember if they did this year. If those invites if those invites haven't gone out, um we can check on that. But that's that's generally the process where you guys can see those events on your calendars. As soon as the events approved, the the next day you'll kind of see those calendar invites come in through Tracy's office, but I will confirm on the concert series. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Our next is item number seven, mayor's comments. Uh first item up is police academy graduate Pton Vitto. So I think assistant chief Nash going to come and introduce him to us. I know Mr. Vidito very well, but former student of mine. He he is now carrying a gun. That's scary. But uh [laughter] I didn't do a very good job, did I? Katie. All right. Go ahead, Chief.

I asked him if he wanted to, you know, talk for himself, but he said he did not want to. Um Payton Vidau is our most recent graduate of the Department of Criminal Justice Training Academy. Um Mr. Vidito is a lifelong resident of Scott County. He graduated from Great Crossing in 2021 and he attended EKU University and uh has a bachelor's in criminal justice. Um he became a dispatcher before he became a police officer. So he is a transport from our dispatch center. And uh he joined us just a few weeks ago and he's on recruit training officer program. He did um achieve the uh most improved recruit at the academy for his physical fitness. So that's Mr. Videte. We're happy to have him. [applause]

Any tough questions for Well, just welcome. Thank you, man. Well, uh Payton, welcome to the city of Georgetown. And you know, it's always good that we see people who have actually grown this community actually come back and and take part and and want to live here and work here and being a public servant. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Uh a couple more items here for you. Uh just got to go down my list here a little bit. The um uh a couple of items here. the you received a change on your finance committee meeting changed uh we gave you an updated calendar as you as you see on your sheet there and the change will be that on March uh 16th we're counseling that meeting there and we are then going to have the special call finance committee meeting on the 17th at 4:00 uh at the Georgetown Police Department community room. So, that's a change to your uh schedule there and you should have a copy of if you have not received a copy, please raise your hand and we'll make sure you get that for you. Next, uh I had the pleasure of u yesterday of actually taking part in Reverend uh Henry Mitchell Daly. I don't know if you all know him. He's the pastor of Zion Baptist Church. uh he had he's retiring from uh his uh pastoral duties at the church and he also used to be the pastor at First Baptist Church in Stamping Ground and and he was been a very pivotal uh spiritual leader and community activist and for this community and so with that retirement uh yesterday of 55 years of of service to this community and so from the city of Georgetown we did a proclamation on on our behalf to him. I went yesterday to present that to him and uh so if you happen to see him out and about uh you know that was a great achievement for a lifelong uh person who has uh meant a lot to this community. um

work that uh we have put out on our social media uh lane closure uh off the connector near Dan Cumins dealership uh March 9th to the 19th they're going to be closing one lane uh due for the business hours so that's out there so so people will need to know that but just only during the business hour that'll be done um some update presentation for you to keep on your calendar. Uh the traffic calming uh which Eddie will bring to the council will be on March 23rd and the storm water uh maintenance and capital project will be on April 13th. Uh uh I think last week or week before uh excuse me last council meeting there was the update that was asked by council member Minky about the abandonment and belated properties and so on. We're getting that together. staff is working on getting that together and we'll get that to you all uh council as soon as possible. We also uh talked about some work date for a work session with planning zoning which you all had requested uh uh the dates to be keeping in mind will be March the 30th, March 31st and April the 1st of the three days. and they they're gonna have to have uh I think Holden's going to talk with his uh commissioners to see what date that works with them and then once that's done, we'll get you all a final date. So, and then get it out to our uh to the public to let them know. All right. And one other item here left. Uh uh I sent you all an invite today from Scott County United. They're having a ribbon cutting on the for the new location. It's on 228 Main East Main

Street. It's going to be on Thursday, March 19th at 4:00 p.m. So, if you want to come by that, that's what that is. So, um that is all I have for for mayor's comments. Uh next item number eight will be council committee reports. And on council committee reports, we have fire and police. And I will let fire folks go first. Thank you, mayor. Thank your mom. Uh we met um and uh the meeting date was February 26th at 300 PM and the mayor was there and uh also present fire chief Seth Johnson, Assistant Fire Chief Cam Johnson, Assistant Fire Chief Anne Willlet, Fire Marshal Corey Thomas, Fire Inspector Billy Calbertt, uh administrative assistant Donna Elsa, finance director Stacy Clark, and grant administ Administrator Karen Levers. Uh minutes were approved. Apparatus update. Chief Johnson said that the ladder truck will be finished sooner than anticipated. So, we're not going to be able to display as we had anticipated at FDIC, but the custom engines um will be finished shortly uh after the ladder truck as well. and department members will be going to Wisconsin to inspect both the ladder truck and the custom engines to make sure everything is the way we want it. Staffing, we are fully staffed. Uh that includes the three additional firefighters that were hired in anticipation of station number four. Uh he also introduced Corey Thomas as the new fire marshal and Billy Calvert as the new fire inspector. And um Chief Johnson stated that there could be several retirements

uh in the future that we will be made aware of. Uh a response trailer is being worked on. We're ready to move forward with outfitting that. Uh we have a grant from Norfolk Southern for $10,000. So that'll help considerably to get that up and going. Um the goal is to fund it entirely through grants. This response trailer is a privilege that we have been um elected to have and it can go all over the state to rapidly respond to disasters that might take place. So we're we're glad to be able to do that. Training center update. Um, Assistant Chief Johnson told the committee that the uh, department's waiting for three quotes so that we can have a stairwell um, on the outside of it. And there's also some interior modifications that need to be made and um, we've got some remaining funds from the uh, Kentucky Fire Commission grant. Um, there's also some lowcost training items that we might need to be able to add for a burn box. Sounds ominous, doesn't it? Um, for live um, fire training, place I hope to never be in. Um, 2025 training hours were very impressive and um, I think both of us were impressed with this. Uh, the Kentucky Fire Commission requires firefighters to complete 100 hours of training. across um lots of different categories and that's annual training um to remain eligible for state incentives. The Georgetown Fire Department sets a higher goal of 200 hours per firefighter. Uh but in 2025, we had a combined 13,000 training hours for the

fire department, which is an average of 250 hours per firefighter. So that is absolutely commendable. Um general discussion, Assistant Chief Willlet uh talked about safety day, which is April 18th. It is informative, but it's also a fun day for kids and families. And um there's a fundraiser for the Citizen Fire Academy, and they're trying to raise money for a safety house inflatable

to be used at fire department community events. So, that's one thing that they're hoping to be able to do. Um and the meeting was uh adjourned at 3:32. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Next, we have police. Thank you, mayor. Uh the police committee met on March 2nd and all the members were present as long as well as uh key department leadership and city staff. the uh four areas that we talked about uh staffing levels, compensation structure, dispatch technology upgrades, and ongoing community engagement efforts. Under the staffing, hiring and recruitment in our dispatch center. Um four dispatchers have graduated from the academy as of March the 2nd or 6th, I'm sorry. Uh we have five candidates that are in phase one of testing. Uh we have recently hired a new supervisor uh for dispatch and that still has seven positions remaining open in dispatch. Um let's see for the police department uh we currently have 69 sworn officers and one pending candidate. Um that is and then uh that brings staffing to 70 out of 77. Uh there were four applicants um from the most from the previous POPS testing uh that are in background checks. There was another testing group for POPS this past Saturday uh as well. So there's more in the pipeline. Uh recruitment is underway for two safety officers and an open records clerk. and there's a lot of strong interest in all those positions. Um unfortunately like in a lot of places you're seeing a lot of applications but the percentage of qualified candidates you know shrinks that number significantly. So just u for your information there uh Chief Algood also reminded us about staffing ratios. So

currently our Georgetown Police Department is at 1.79 officers per 1,000 residents. As we continue to grow as a city, the Kentucky average across all U agencies is 2.2 officers per thousand and the FBI standard is at 2.4 officers per thousand. So just to give you some sense, we would have to have 14 to 33 more officers than we currently have based on our current population just as a benchmark for us to continue to look at. The second category we talked about was the uh paystep floor process proposal. Uh, Assistant Chief Nash uh has been working with Megan uh addressing some issues uh to correct pay compensation between ranks and uh ensuring progression for years of service. Uh the key points out of all this I think for us all to remember is the the 2023 compensation study u set starting pay but did not address promotional activities and then the gaps that are there. Uh so they're working on a new model to improve recruitment retention and internal equity amongst our officers. Um we we are basing that on the 2024 Kentucky League of Cities wage study. So that's part of the the background that's being used for that. And there'll be some more of this coming before the budget committee and then to ultimately to council. But um we're looking at that and providing some feedback initially before it comes to the the finance committee. The third category that we had was prepare by Axon. Uh this is the program that I talked about the at their last update. Um Jennifer's been working

with them and um basically there were a few questions that we had and those have been answered. Uh and I believe she has a brief presentation for you tonight as well so that to give you some sense of what this is about. And we did make a recommendation to uh bring this to the council for approval. Um this will go a long way to help in training and dispatch and making dispatchers more efficient and effective uh with their technology that they're using. Um and I won't steal any of the rest of her thunder on that. You'll hear from her on that. But um the concerns or the questions that we had around risk management and KLC from an insurance perspective were all addressed. So u and then the fourth area that we talked about um was just general department updates and um uh we met the one graduate from our program uh here tonight. There are four offers officers waiting to get into the academy now uh that are on on staff. They did start the uh citizens police academy began their first session on March 3rd. And I I want to make sure everybody's aware uh if you haven't seen it on their face on the Georgetown Police Department's Facebook page, the Criminal Investigations Division has started a community crime education series. It's a monthly series. The first one they did was on fraud uh fraud prevention and this is being held at the Scott County Library. The next session is March 19th at 6 PM. It's a openhouse kind of setup so you can kind of come and go. But the next session is on internet safety and cyber cyber crime. So I would just uh invite you all out there. There's no cost. It's open to the po anybody from the public to attend and participate.

But uh please do check out the Georgetown KY police department Facebook page for those updates. That's all. Mayor, thank you. Mayor, I have a question. Yes. Um and I don't know who can best answer this. Maybe can answer it later, but um it says seven positions in dispatch are open. Does that mean that we're having a lot of um overtime? Uh Jennifer is here and Jennifer can answer for us. We do have a lot of overtime right now. Um fortunately we also have a lot of open openings right now. So we have the the money to leverage that um with our salary. Um but

so is it a matter of not being able to recruit enough candidates? Is it the pay structure? Is it um that's a lot of openings. It is a lot of openings. Um and we lost uh we lost several at one time. Yeah. Um, and part of that is actually part of what I'm going to talk about tonight. Okay. Well, we can wait then. You want Okay. Okay. We can wait. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. You may ask questions. All right. Next is item number nine, planning zoning. Planning and zoning and zoning ordinance. Uh, you know, we, you know, uh, just kind of a followup. Uh this council asked for a work session to work along with uh planning zoning uh as to uh addressing some of the concerns that the committee that was put together and we're trying to put this uh work session together. But going to [clears throat] need some input as to making sure you uh let us know exactly on for to form an agenda as to what that agenda will look like. you know, if there's basic questions or basic things that you think need me put on there, we can discuss it here. And if not, if you still got something that comes to your mind, you can email me and let me know what those are and I'll make sure staff gets those. But trying to get an idea of what you want that to look like. Mhm.

So, mayor, if I could, the uh since we the committee worked on that and pro proposed and and sent to the council, our findings from that are our report. Would it be beneficial for that report to be forwarded to the planning commission as a as a potential or does that create maybe more confus? Yeah, we can do that. You know, I'm just asking. Yeah, we can do that. I can make sure that Holden gets a copy of that and then move it on to you all

because I I would hope that in addition to that that the planning commission would have be prepared to uh bring additional things to us uh from their perspective. I know they've the planning commission has the the seven uh amendments or or changes that they had proposed, but if there's anything in addition to that because that was part of our discussion as well. So, okay. All right.

So, that would be a request if if they had anything in addition to that. So, uh, so what we'll do with that is we'll make sure that, uh, Holden gets a copy of that and also he can he can, uh, he can, uh, get it back information back to us on that. Okay. All right. All right. Item number 10. Evening. Um just a quick update tonight. Um something we talked about at the last city council meeting, a regular meeting uh related to our work in Royal Spring Park to Shay and Water Street interceptor sewer. The um council uh had action that that directed me that we wanted to work around both of our cabins that are there, both the cabins. Um and just as update tonight, not requesting any action, but um we did receive a preliminary number from the contractor. I did advise council at that meeting that I thought that would be a minimal change uh increasing pipe and a couple extra manholes, but other than that, the work is pretty similar to what's in the scope. Um contractor has submitted a preliminary number than me uh to me that is not minimal. um $226,000. I have um requested a lot of additional justification for that because uh I'm I'm not quite sure where that is, but we walked the site with the contractor. Um he's pointing out there's quite a quite a bit of difference in trench shoring um in slope sto uh slope stability um on the east side of the cabin uh in that slope that goes up the street toward the sidewalk on uh south water. So right now I'm just waiting on that justification that still asks if we're going to consider uh this

change order then we we will have to take that to the board at our next meeting then bring that back to you for your consideration. But um even even if the best of negotiation, I don't know that I can get that down to what I think is a reasonable amount. I think the contract allows us to move the cabin out of the way of construction, then we can move it back. I think for $226,000. I think um I'll be recommending to the board that I've um that that we need to stay with the contract as is. However, council has uh taken an action at the last meeting, asked me to work around those. So, we'll just have to have that discussion um pending what the board decides. I don't know where where they'll land on this, but just wanted to keep you updated. Mayor Jenkins asked me to not let uh another meeting go by without at least letting you know where where we're at on this. I did also meet with park staff and we discussed what what we talked about here. also is while we've got a contractor there, while we've got equipment there, what are some things that parks would like to knock off the list? Um while while things are in in disrepair, what are some things? So, we made a list and and they're going to kind of finalize that list with uh their architect and send that over to me. Uh if you're asking me, I' I'd like to see this move the cabin out of the way, out of harm's way. Let's put the sewer in, move the cabin back to its current location, and then we can use that money on um Parks' list that that we talked about. Then I put some some of the things that they mentioned to me that they'd like to see done. But um no action. Just wanted to give you that update. If you have any questions at this time, all I can say is I'm I'm working to make sure we have proper justification for that number that I think's a monster. and we'll see if we can uh we can revisit this that that we can still do this in a manner that gets the project done, gets it done uh while we're being uh observant of uh rate

revenue that's supporting this project, but also keep keep our um community landmarks safe and also out of harm's way. So, happy to take any questions. I have a question. Yes. Uh Chase, when you say moving the cabins,

can you explain where they'll be moved to? Yes, ma'am. So, the contract stated that we're going to take the leech cabin, the northmost cabin, or let's let's start with the southern cabin. That was the one that I think has some maintenance issues where that was just going to be moved elsewhere. Uh Mayor Jenkins was working with me on whether it's just needs to be disposed of if there's another place we can move it to or um how it could be surplused. Um we're not going to do anything with the southern cabin now. That's going to stay put. We won't touch it. Um, but we were going to move that one and then move the leech cabin down to that that location of the southern one. Uh, what we can also do that contractors said they would do because they think it's the same work is we don't touch the southern cabin. We'll just move the leech cabin off to the flat part. Uh, it'll be closer to the stream. They'll go and do their sewer construction. Then they'll move that back onto that same pad, rebuild the the um the CMU foundation, and then put the the dry stack rock around the base. They said that is what their bid is based on. So, I feel like we can uh we can do that. They did say that um working around the southern cabin with it not being there, that will cause a slowdown in production. I don't know what that cost will be, but instead of having access on both sides, they'll have a cabin on one side that they're not going to touch. So, they did they did uh foresee that there'd be a slowdown in production related to that cabin not being moved. We can deal with that. um we can deal with that at a later date, but that's kind of update that I have. And that's so I think um what we'll plan on doing though is just related to the leech cabin is as an option council's council and the board's decision, not mine, but um we can move the leech cabin to that flat area, get it protected, put the sewer line in, then move the leech cabin back. That's what they're saying their bid is representing.

So just moving one cabin, moving one cabin two times and leaving the other one in place. And is that in the scope of the contract right now? Yes. Other than what I think that they will ask for is some slowdown in productivity numbers. And I I don't You don't have any idea what that is? I do not. Okay.

And um Chase, I would say that uh I'll speak for myself here that um it sounded like a great idea, but uh seeing the numbers um I think that we need to relook. I'm I'm not like we we ask you to move forward, but I wouldn't be in in favor of you moving forward at that number personally. Yeah. Um if there it and I I think there was some misconception too and on some of our parts as well or at least mine that when you said move the cabin I don't know that we understood that you just meant moving it down the you know

moving it 50 ft away move it back in that's and so there's a lesson there um that you know um and and from what I understand the way that it will removed is the way that it was brought in to begin with. It has a believe that's correct. And and I've I've not gotten into that detail with the contractor yet on how that will be done if if that's the route that's chosen to take. But I would imagine there there's going to be probably two or three steel beams under it. It'll be lifted, set down, then lifted back up and and put on that uh because it's on a modern CMU foundation and that's uh that'll have to be rebuilt. And that's that's what's in the and that's in the scope of things

because if they moved it to the southern part, they'd be doing the same thing there. Gotcha. Mr. Minky. So, um, so Chase, I'm a little confused because it sounded like in the original scope and what I read in the scope that the southern cabin was going to be gone and the leech cabin was moving down and that was the contract. That was what was in the scope and in the contract. So moving the leech cabin 50 ft doing the sewer line then moving it back that would have been a change. Correct.

I think that what they're what I'm trying to convey is they're going to do that for the same amount that is in the contract. Okay. And then the the third item, you know, similar to what Tammy was saying, I think we were, again, I'll just speak for myself. the the understanding was that it was minimal cost for that. So I think the the actual cost should be reooked at and re-evaluated um because the vote was based on minimal cost. So and that was what I presented

no no question there. Um the third question that I would have is what does park say about this about the cabins and what's their preference in you know should the southern cabin still be removed the leech would move back down there was that part of their original thought as well or where where are they in all this? met with um Drew last week and uh that was when we were discussing the um the improvements and I I hate to speak for him but I'll say just what I took from the conversation is that if we want to

um do something else relocate dispose of dedicate uh surplus whatever it is with the southern cabin I don't think Drew as only him that I'm talking to had an issue with that. However, if we want to leave it and make sure that it's not touched, that's fine as well. U I think that he has confidence that we could move the leech cabin out of out of the way and then move it back. Um so I think um I I didn't I didn't sense any any drawback from Drew, but um I again I hate to speak for him, but that's that's what I took away from the conversation. So I think it's important that we hear from them on what their interest and vote for lack of a better word in in this process uh as one of the stakeholder groups

tourism with that I think if if it's changed that much I think it's something that we need to revisit and you know if if the scope has changed that much based upon what we voted on I think we bring it back and relook at everything you know u not saying that they're not doing a bad job but I know that it's there's a lot to that but along the same lines it's still a lot of extra money to look at and

I I would again and this just what my recommendation to the board if they justify their numbers I have a a hard time recommending $226,000 of rate revenue going to that change order when I feel like we can get to the same end um with what we what we've already agreed. Yeah, Mr. Chris and Chase, you may have touched on this last time u that that you presented about this. Of course, you've got the two cabins. What about the covered pavilion in the middle? Is that We won't touch it. Okay. And it seemed in one of the earlier plans it might be close to where the trenching was going to happen or or

we'll go right adjacent to it, but based on how they'll use trench boxes and shoring um we won't we won't have any issue there and if we do then we'll fix it. Okay.

Um that was something I'd also ask um parks if if there was anything and is that part of something that we need to look at and I think that he felt like um the the pavilion we're talking about was in pretty good condition. So, um, he kind of had listed what I listed in the memo as, um, maintenance to some of those dry stack rock walls, uh, overall turf improvement, landscaping, and, um, some, uh, not swing set swings, but, um, he had a better term for it and I'm forgetting, but, relaxing relaxing swings, not let's go as as high as my daughters would go swings. Yeah. So,

right. Okay. And and then just to get ahead of it, what if one or both cabins during the move just collapses or has some major structural issues? What's kind of We've just got to fix them. Um we we fix it. I mean, there's there's parts that you see that are are not original, whether it's and I'm talking about the leech cabinets, the one I've looked at more is uh I mean, that's mortar is it's concrete. It's not the old mud and whatever it was originally made with. Uh um if something breaks, which I can't promise you it won't, we'll fix it. So, yes, Mr. Hampton Chase, what is your u is this throwing you behind the contractors is throwing them behind? Not at this point. No.

Okay. All right. I I'm guessing what you're going through is what is in my memo. I'm eager to spend that um federal funding before it expires. Okay. And that's in December, is it not? or pause end of the year, but I think you have to have your last pay app in at the end of November. Okay. I'm confident we can spin that down, but um we will be watching the schedule very closely. Okay. They're already working on the other end of take a look and see a lot of a lot of pipes strung out and they're starting on their bore [snorts] pit for going under um under bridge.

So, uh this going to take a little while anyway before we get to the stage of those uh cabins. So it gives you some time to uh have conversation with uh uh tourism and also parks and wreck and uh have a conversation with them and uh letting us know where you are with that and um everybody coming together on that. Okay. I I hope um our our board meeting this month we have a strong recommendation to the board and then um come back to you all at your next meeting with the recommendation as well. Okay. All right. Thanks, Chase.

All right. Uh, next item number 11, city engineer municipal order for Sims Road landfield drainage pipe CCTV inspections, cleaning and repairs.

Thank you, Mayor uh, council. Um, so the Sims Road landfill is the old city dump. It's been closed down for 30 years. It hadn't accepted any new trash for a long time. However, it's something that we still have to maintain. And um we uh uh there's a collection line that runs around the perimeter and the purpose of the line is to collect groundwater uh that is contaminated with with solid waste lee and it sends it to a pumping station which is pumped into GMWSS's uh to the treatment plant. So, it's a it's a pretty sophisticated system and uh it's in need of some maintenance and repair and um uh we uh uh put it up to bid and got several bids, got three bids and this was the low bidder um for the project. So, I asked for approval of the contract with Buchanan Contracting.

Mayor, I'll make a motion. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Hampton, second by Miss Mitchell. Are there further questions and or comments? All right. All in favor of the municipal order for Sims Road landfield drainage, pipe CC, TV inspection, cleaning, and repairs signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Let the reflect let the record reflect that it's passed. Thank you. Thank Thank you, mayor. Uh item 13, uh fire municipal order contract for fire station that

Oh, excuse me. Uh my bad getting a little ahead. Uh dispatch, uh municipal order for Exxon prepared. I think Jennifer is here with dispatch and she's going to give us a little presentation on this. So, excuse me, getting ahead of myself.

It's okay. Um some of you I know, some of you I don't. I'm Jennifer from Dispatch. I brought Kayla with me. This is our assistant coordinator from dispatch. I don't know if you want to wave. Um so to answer your question, we have noticed that um there are a couple things affecting our turnover rate. Uh pay is always going to be an issue. Um it's hard to compete with other places. Um we are so close to so many places like Covington and Lexington that are bigger than us. Um but Lexington does it very different. Lexington has call takers and they have dispatchers. They don't intermingle. Um they they pay different. They pay more than us on both parts. Um but we do everything. We're not big enough to do it like Lexington does yet. We probably will be one day, but we're not there yet. Um, but the other thing is it's really really intimidating to walk into that environment and see the amount of multitasking that goes on. Um, and to see the the stress level and the amount of everything that's happening in the room. Uh, and a lot of people just they can't do it. like they walk in and they see everything that's happening and they just kind of they may spend a week there, they may spend a month there. Um they may not come back the next day sometimes. Um but I did put together a a presentation. Um if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. Well, just as a followup, Mayor could

Yes. um if there are things that um we can act upon to help that process, um I find it concerning. So, let let the council know. Well, this is one of those that I'm hoping will help. So, one of the things that personally I've noticed, and I've been doing this I won't say how many years, um a long time. Yeah. [clears throat] is that over the years we've gotten a lot more technology and technology is fantastic. It's great. But as we've gotten more technology, we still only have we still have two hands, right?

So, you get all this technology thrown at you, but you get busier and busier and busier, and you get more phone calls and more call volume, and you still just one person. Yeah. Um, so now you got more calls going on and you've got more technology to use, but it's just more things to do. So the goal is to find more apps that we can more applications that we can condense into into just one platform. Um, so with this application, that's kind of what we've done. we can take at least three or four things that we currently use

and they've condensed them into one application because I I know a lot of you have not been in dispatch. I know Todd Todd can probably um attest to a lot of it. Um but we have currently one two three four screens right now. um with the possibility of having eight. Am I right? Um with the hope of having eight um is a lot. I mean, it's a lot. But you need those eight screens. We probably could use more than eight screens. Um because it's it's too much to flip back and forth to try to try to look at at all of the different screens. and and I'll and I'll show you that in this um in this presentation. At one point, you see we've got literally 15 tabs open. Uh and we need all of those we need all of those open so that we have everything at our fingertips that we need.

Um but the hope is that this takes a little bit of the burden off of the dispatcher. So it's not it's not doing the dispatcher's job. It's just another tool, but it's hopefully a tool that lightens the load just enough to take away some of the burnout. Mayor, if I could, [clears throat and cough] one thing real quick. When do you all do your presentation at Citizen Police Academy? We haven't done that in a while. I don't know. That's a mistake. I went through it. I went there when I was police academy. Yeah. Yeah, it's important for people to see because what you all don't understand, you [clears throat] saw

what they do. I've lived what they went through. They have to listen to domestic violence on the phone, shootings on the other end of a radio, shootings on a phone, stabbings on the phone, stabbings on the radio. There's no way for them to go and decompress because guess what? next phone call's coming. The officer needs help. Somebody else needs something. So to answer your question, what's the disconnect? Or as much as stressful as a police officer's job is, that job's 10 times more [snorts] because they don't get to walk out.

Police officer can go go find a spot in park and go, "Okay, I need to get myself back together." They don't get that opportunity. That's why they have such turnover. They've been on 12-hour shifts before I retired and I've been gone since n 2014. Yeah. So, getting people in is not easy. So, yeah. No, thank you. Well, you're welcome. Thank you.

And I won't say it's more I won't say it's more stressful, but it is a very very stressful job. Um, and it's one of those jobs where you you have you have to be passionate about it. You have to love what you do to be able to do it. Um, sometimes you can still love what you do and get very burned out on it and have to just walk away and we understand that. Um, but our goal is to um just take a little bit of the pressure off so that people don't feel that and want to stay. Uh, there's too much technology out there right now for them to be having to work as hard as as they are working currently. Mhm.

Um there's too much help to not take it. So, thank you. Hopefully this is what hopefully this will help. Hopefully this helps our turnover rate. Hopefully this helps our morale. Hopefully it helps the whole everything. But I don't know who I'm supposed to just say next slide.

All right. All right. Get my notes here. Okay. So, next slide. So, for those of you who don't know, this is what our CAD system looks like. This is just our CAD system. This is two screens put together. On the top screen or the top of the screen, the top picture, it's what it normally looks like. These are calls going on. These are um obviously we've got addresses and stuff blurred out. the bottom screen here. If you look in the very middle on the bottom of the screen, there is a rectangle, a very small rectangle. That is our 911 cube. That is where the that we can see the 911 calls that come in. We will click on that little blue part and that will open this screen to the left. That is our call. That's our 911 call that opens. Um, that's how every call starts when it comes in on 911. The old way of finding out the address, you had to click on a little bitty little bitty box up there. It would tell you that it was maybe 5,000 feet from an address, maybe five feet from an address. We've we've came way past that now. And next slide. And now we have these two uh screens at the top. Rapid uh we have rapid deploy and we have rapid SOS. Um those are our two go-tos for locations. They both work exactly the same. They have a couple little different characteristics. Um one of them or both of them Kayla will show us if another agency is on the line. But it's SOS.

I I think yeah, one of them I think it's Rapid SOS or it may even be both of them. I'm not quite sure. Will show us um if it rang in close enough to our agency, it will show us that maybe Lexington is on the line with them. Um these are much better locations, but yet we have to go to a different screen on the internet to see this. Um the bottom left is going to be our e medical dispatching. That's where we're going to give all of our pre-arrival instructions, code 500s, choking, anything like that. Yet again, go to a different screen. On the bottom right, it is a picture of our flock uh flock system, but better yet, the circled part at the top that that's just a image of all of the things that we have to have open to be able to function during a shift. Um, it says 9 plus. There are actually, not including the email, uh, there are actually 15 tabs open. all that are needed and we're only talking about getting trying to get rid of four at this point. Um, but four would be a drastic change for us. A drastic change. Uh, next slide.

Can you turn the mic toward you?

Sorry. So with this uh prepared we would be able to consolidate three plus current applications into one because with prepared it would have not only the mapping on the screen on one screen. It will have it will be able to transcribe the 911 call on the screen. It will be able to translate a call a foreign language call onto one screen. Uh we can track our callers movements in real time. We can use mapping overlays to get better uh better locations, transcribe the calls. It'll with AI power non-emergency call triage, centralize all of our call data into one platform, and it'll give us real-time call summaries. All right, next slide. So the real time call translation for audio and text. It'll pick up 200 languages to support non-English speaking callers. And the best part about it is that it never misses a beat. Right now, if we get a Spanish- speaking caller, any language, we have to trans we have to transfer them to our language line. We don't have to do that. As soon as we say hello and it recognizes that it's a different language, it's going to automatically start speaking to them in whatever language it recognizes, it will type to us whatever whatever that person is saying. We can type back and it'll speak it to them. So we don't have to we don't have there's no delay. There's no delay in service. There's no delay in

getting help. There's no delay in nothing. Um currently a lot of times we will transfer the call and people hang up because they hear that click and a dial tone before it transfers and they think that we've hung up on them. So they just hang up and then we have to get the translator on the line and they have the translator call them back and it takes forever. Uh next slide. This was again showing that you can track your caller's movement. Um it has enhanced Annie Alley which is Annie Alley is the location and phone number just for 911. Next. So, this is where it transcrib transcribes our 911 calls in real time so that no key details are missed, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but if if we have a let's say we have a structure fire going on, there's also a maybe an injury accident. Dispatch is really really busy and we're on the phone with 911 as well. There's a lot of of of radio traffic going on already. Um, maybe you think that you have missed one digit of a of a house number. You know, you've got to ask that caller to repeat. You know, sometimes maybe a couple of times because you've got so much traffic going on. But if you have the ability to just look at what you're look at what you're you're hearing, maybe you don't have to do that, you know, or if you think you've heard something, you can just kind of verify it. It's just another tool to kind of build confidence in what you're hearing, which is also great for the trainees that we have coming in because sometimes that's really all they're lacking is just the confidence in what they're doing. Next slide.

Um, this is probably the most exciting part of it is the AI powered non-emergency called triage. And this is also probably the part that is going to help dispatch the most. So, this is only for the non-emergency calls. We do have to build it. They call it um intentions. They say it doesn't take very long, and I'm going to take their word for it. We did a virtual tour with um I can't remember the agency's name, but it was right outside of Boston, and he said it took about a month. Um, but we can build this to where if somebody is calling in and they want to know about fireworks for the 4th of July, we could have a pre-recorded message ready to go and the AI would answer the non-emergency line and as soon as they said something about fireworks, it would direct them to this pre-recorded message. And it could be about anything about maybe the county fair or the festival of the horse or for whatever. Um it can direct them to any other department or any other city hall or or whatever. But the best part is that it has built-in features to where if it hears violence in the background, if it hears cursing or loud loud language or keywords like gun or fighting or anything like that, it's going to automatically push it back to 911. Um, so there are safety features in it to where it's not going to miss it's not going to miss something like that. Next slide. on the um on every one of the calls on the 911 calls, you also get a summary with it that you can just copy and paste straight into the um call for service.

So the officers can also see this as well. It also gives you a highlight that will if it hears like a gun involved or something like that, it will actually highlight it. Next slide. Um these are just some of the highlights for supervisors. It'll prepare provide documentation for post incident review, searchable call records, automated quality assurance, keyword triggers and anal analytics. Uh can help identify trends or areas for improvement. Supervisors get real time visibility into call center operations. You can see call transcriptions in real time versus just post call recordings and AI powered training simulations for traininee for trainees. And I'm sorry that was for the QA portion of it which is also another great option. Um the QA portion is real time which we don't have time to do right now. Our idea of QA right now is um open records which is unfortunate um but that's all we have time for. Um, the best part for me of the QA is that it also comes with an AI simulator for the trainees. Um, that we can narrow down to either calls that we have already had that are in our system. We can narrow it down to the zip code. You could narrow it down to a section of town. You could you could narrow it down to anything. Um, but you can put your trainees on it and instead of having them do real 911 calls, you can have them do maybe real 911 calls that you've already had, but they're simulated. Um, which is

exceptionally ideal. It's way better. Next slide. This is more about the quality assurance. Um, it just it breaks it down to you for you. Um, it can tell you exactly what areas every one of your people needs work on or what what areas they're doing well on. Um, next slide. Um, this is more about the security of it. It tells you just axon as a whole. Next slide. This is just a very short video. I think it's it is less than two minutes. You want to play it? 112.

911. What is your emergency? My name is Dana Smith. I think I'm watching a [music] breakin. Someone just knocked on my door and then I saw them cross the street and go into a house that's not currently occupied. I understand. What's your location? I live on 475 Church Road. 911. What is your emergency? I just saw a man Chris. You need to send help.

Where you located? Oh my god. It's showcase.

I can see the caller location. Dispatching drone now. Ma'am, help is already on the way. Take a deep breath. You're doing great. Obviously, we don't have the drones or anything like that. dispatch in the way. Um, that's it in a nutshell. We're hoping that it helps. I think it will. I'm very hopeful that it will. And obviously, anything that helps us in dispatch, um, in turn, we hope helps every other agency in town and the county as well. So,

any questions? Thank you, Jennifer. Okay. Um at this time you the uh item 12 the municipal order for axon prepare. I need a motion. I'll make a motion. Go ahead. [laughter]

It was a unanimous motion. [laughter] Motion made by Mr. Minky, second by Miss U Miss Ham. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of the municipal order for Axon prepared signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say nay. Thank you. Item number item 13 uh fire municipal order for contract for fire station number four design services.

Yes. Um we issued a request for qualifications for the fire station number four design received 11 responses. Our scoring committee met on February 19th and Brand Carol was the highest scoring proposal. Uh you have the A1A contract and the fee proposal in front of you and right now we are um have a fee proposal of 224,000. We will come back when it is time for construction admin to bring in that portion, but overall it is a 7% fee on a estimated cost of $4 million.

All right. All right. You have heard the request. Uh at this time, I would entertain a motion. So move. Motion made by Miss Ham. Do I have a second? Mr. Chris, uh are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of the municipal order for um the contract for fire station number four design services signifi signify by saying I. Those opposed say nay.

Let the record reflect that it passed. Thank you. Item 14, police department, municipal order for Axon additional hardware slashs software. Chief Nash, we uh we have this is a pre-budgeted item that was approved in July. We're just asking for this to go forward uh to fulfill the vacancies. As we're filling the vacancies, we're going to need that equipment to uh put on our police officers. So that's why we're coming back with uh this municipal order. All right. You have heard the request. At this time, do I have a motion?

Motion made by Miss Mitchell. Second. Second by Miss Sames. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of the municipal order for Axon additional hardware software signify by saying I. I. All oppose say nay. Item 15, council discussion, old business. Council discussion, new business.

I have one thing. Um, I was called, actually, it was written, I was in a telephone call. I was messaged about a sign that is on Kelly Avenue that's been up maybe a couple of years. It's an orange work sign uh and also side road and the it's on the owner's property who would like it removed since nothing is happening. Yeah. Do you know if it's related to

Thank you. I think it's I think it's mostly likely related to the when the state resurfaced 460. Um is it close to to Main Street and 460 where they started all the way? It's on the Erdley property. Yeah. So it's a couple houses down

like the Yeah. Right. Right up here up. Yeah. Um, and I have requested those signs be they were put up by the state as part of the paving to tell people, you know, there's there's paving activities going on. And for some reason, they haven't taken them down. And I've requested it two or three times to have them take them down. And they keep telling me, "Well, we still got something else we have to do, and we like to leave them up till we close everything out." And I will request that again. But, uh, seems kind of silly. Can we Well, I guess we can't think of it. No, I thought it was all done, too. Yeah.

Uh, unless they have some miscellaneous cleanup work or or um, you know, some other site work that that I don't know about, but I will I will request that again, but they were put up as part of that state roads resurfacing project. All right. I've had I've had calls about that uh uh before. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Eddie. All right. Any other new business? Yep. Mr. mayor. Yeah.

Yep. Um the news graphic a few days ago did a really great article talking about downtown parking. I don't know if you guys saw that. It was really fascinating. Uh the article, some of the highlights of it said that there were 688 parking spaces uh in downtown including lots and and along Main Street. Uh only 15 handicap spaces. That was kind of surprising. Uh I received a lot of feedback from people that thought we should have a little bit uh more. Um as we started to dive in and talk a little bit about parking, uh a lot of our constituents uh reached out and wanted to know uh what the status was of any short-term or long-term parking garage plans. And I just wanted to see what what your thought was of that. I know over the years everybody kind of starts talking about that. Um, so I don't know what does anybody have any comments or thoughts about one?

Well, I'll tell you that's something that we've been talking about and you know, think about it. You got to figure out where you want to put it, cost of it, who's going to manage it and so on. But that is that is still on the on the uh conversation list and you know, and we'll continue to do that and hopefully if we can come up with something, we'll bring it back to let you know.

Great. And one last mention about that. I think it would be really great if we could do some sort of study as formal as possible uh to find out how many people live or work downtown and then that way we could look at that number, look at the available parking spaces and just get an idea of how big of a need it is. It might be a bigger need than what we think it is or it might not be. But if there was a way uh we could go about finding out that information, I think that'd be helpful as we move forward.

I I can look at that. I don't know if we can go through tourism. They probably have an idea of who's down there and what business and so on, but uh I will I will contact uh first of all, I will contact Lori and see where they can help with that. Okay. So, all right. Any other new business? Council comments, Mr. So, thank you, sir. Um,

hope Devin doesn't yell at me. Uh, first off, I want to say that, you know, the comment I made earlier about the dispatchers having a more stressful job than PD or ESO. Um, don't get me wrong, the police department and sheriff's office, any law enforcement agency has a very stressful job, but as I said, they get a chance to get away and get a to a place where they can decompress. Dispatchers don't get that. They they go right to the next call. and and one dispatcher one night had to listen to me talk to officers on the east end of town when I had a wreck on the west end of town, but they couldn't hear me here. They could hear me out there. So, that really bothered a dispatcher. We've had them that have listened to officer involved shootings, you know, so it they go through a lot. So, uh, anything that's one area that I think we really need to step up and improve greatly is the dispatch center. Um, and dispatchers in general, uh, if it comes to money, that's we have to do that. That's something we need to do, but that's something we definitely need to look at in the upcoming budget season. So, and then uh had um uh stop sign at North Main Avenue in North Hamilton um there at M Mr. Fernando Thomas's house. The stop sign keeps falling over. People keep edging over and over and over into the grass and it's so we may have to look at probably setting that in concrete or something to get

I would I will get public works. Okay. if you can send me the address and everything and and now what I'll do I'll make sure that public works get gets that. Thank you. Yeah, not a problem, sir. That's all I got. Miss Mitchell. Oh, good. Mr. Hampton, uh, [clears throat] excuse me. The only thing I have, mayor, is I just want to thank everybody for the calls and texts while I was out and uh, really appreciated it. Glad to be back. Well, we're glad to have you back. Thank you, Miss Brent. I have community announcement. I am a representative of the city for the friends of the park. Okay.

So, two dates I want to let the public know. On March the 20th, we're partnering with the Georgetown and Scott County Parks and Rex for a park stargazing event. So, at 8:00 p.m., so bring out your children, adults, come out and enjoy the night at the Sky County Park. And then we're going to do a cleanup on March the 28th from 10 to 12. and the friends of the parks provides the grab bars, the trash bags and gloves. But I invite everybody to come out, bring your kids, and come clean up the park with us. Uh, what is the time on the 20th? The 20th is at 8:00 p.m. And the time on the 28th, 10 to 12. Thank you.

And that's all I have. All right, Miss Hamick. Um, does dispatch have um do they have access to the um the program that we have for stress mediation? And they do, right? Yes, they do. Okay, that's what I was thinking. So, that's good. Okay, that it, sir. Yep. Mr. Minky, nothing tonight. Thank you, Miss Sains. Uh, just a just a couple of things. Did I think all the council received the email from [clears throat] the young lady that's out in Falls Creek, the back of Falls Creek? I've already responded back. Okay. And already been taken care of.

Okay, great. And then just the water company, it's still I still get people coming and saying that their water bills and the problem whether it's true or it's not true, whether it's their issue or not their issue, it's just so much of it that we didn't have a few years ago. We didn't have any conversation about this, but now we do. So I really feel like we need to have more than a five minute conversation with the water company when they come up here to see if there is something going going on because a few years ago you didn't have that conversation that nobody came up to say that there was anything drastic unless they filled their pool or water their lawn or something like that that would actually cause that problem. But uh I don't know. I just think we need to figure out something else that we can look into it and give the citizens more because it's becoming an it's becoming an issue whether it's just because Facebook has got it on there [clears throat] and people are talking about and then other people are thinking, oh well then I've got the problem too kind of thing and maybe it's not legit. But if people are talking about it then the city council needs to take it serious to try to figure out what's going on. Right.

So, I I kind of would like for the next meeting maybe to put that up as an agenda topic and or I'll just bring it up next time in new business or old business and talk about it more. I Yeah. uh talking about the park, Royal Spring Park, uh with the water project with, you know, um it's it's for a lot of us are history buffs and really into Georgetown and it's always great thinking about that area because, you know, Royal Springs more than just a park. It's basically where Georgetown began, right?

And uh the Leech cabin, the early settler cabin. Uh once this project is complete, I would love to have conversations uh open conversations with the public and see if there's any way we could even for a limited time open the cabins down the road uh just periodically here and there, let let tourists take a look at them, let the community enjoy them. Uh, I understand a few years ago it was a possibility to do that and then maybe they got in rough shape and and then, you know, one of them has bourbon barrels sadly empty in them now. But once the project is completely done, I think it'd be neat to discuss that if it's feasible to to let the public see inside the cabins.

All right. Okay. Any other comments and or suggestion? If not uh be brought this uh council is meeting is adjourned.