City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the April 15, 2026 regular meeting of the Holland City Council. I am Mayor Nathan Box. I'm calling the meeting to order. Brenda, would you please call the role? Clumps here. Freeman present. Raymond here. Corbin here. Schultz present. Mayor Keane here. Rowan present. Sheay present. Mayor Box present. We 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 followed immediately by the pledge of allegiance. And I would invite you to join us if you're so inclined. Please join me in prayer if you're so inclined. Lord, thank you for these wonderful days. Spring is sprung. The city is alive with color in anticipation of the days and the weeks and the months ahead. But Lord, we have work to do this evening. We have your work. We have the people's work. Some of the most important work that we do. Please keep our attention focused on what's best for the people of the city of Holland. keep our conversations productive and our work moving forward. In your name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The next items on our agenda are consent agenda items. These are items that are considered to be fairly routine and have been reviewed by council as part of our council packet. And 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?

Okay. 4 B, approval of minutes from the April 1, 2026 regular meeting. 4 C, oaths of office. 4 D, reappointment to the water system advisory council. 4 E, Metro Fibernet LLC pole attachment agreement. 4 F, a grant of utility easement for Liberty Court Association. 4G, a grant of utility easement for Trillium Condominium Association. 4 H, Board of Public Works, Declaration of Surplus Materials in Spring. 4 I 16th Street water main lining and capital budget amendment. 4J, a claim filed against the city. 4K, drone show with pyrochnics request. 4 L, charitable gaming license for Lifeline Ministries. Adopt a resolution. 4 M. Special event liquor license, Boat Works, Waterfront Restaurant. Adopt a resolution. 4N. Annual business license renewals for the 2026 27 year. 4 O. Set a public hearing for the 2026 27 CDBG annual action plan for May 13, 2026. 4P. Approval of a Michigan brownfield redevelopment program grant agreement to support the establishment of Pickicket Fence Floral and Design at 148 East 32nd. 4Q appointment recommendation of Dan Borsma to the Alagan County Material Management Planning Committee. Uh 4R set a public hearing for the Holland Energy Fund budget for May 13, 2026. 4 S, accept the Arts and Humanities

Touring Program Grant. 4 T, declare transportation items as surplus. For U, approve the purchase of two 2005 solar tech message boards. And 4V, a revocable license agreement for 645 Southshore Drive. 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 that would like to have an item removed from consent and placed on the regular agenda? Seeing none there either, what is the pleasure of councel in regard to the consent agenda? Move to approve the agenda as presented. Move by. Is there support?

Support. Support by Raymond. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Clarence, yes. Raymond, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Schulty, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Sheay, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries.

Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, item number five, 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 each and every one of our board committee, and commission meetings. But we do have guidelines that we ask you to follow, and are fairly strict about those. Uh first is we ask that when you approach the podium podium, excuse me, 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. Each person is limited to speak one time and for five minutes. There are three lights on the deis in front of me. There's a green light, a yellow light, and a red light. Green light means that you're doing well on time. Yellow light means that you have one minute left and the red light means that your time is expired. If more than one person approaches the podium at the same time, you are limited to still five minutes total for those people. If you want to speak individually, you have to step away from the podium. Also, please note that this is one-way communication. It's an opportunity for you to be able to address council on issues that you believe are important. But we don't answer questions during this time or engage in discussion. But if there's a question that staff members may be able to 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? Please come forward. And would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Sure. My name is Nancy Honor. I'm a resident of Holland Heights. I am here on behalf of those of us that work, play, shop, and live in Holland. I'd like to quote from the Holland uh values. First, I would like to highlight three of them. Uh we will continually improve channels of communication both internally and externally especially being mindful to be inclusive of all people and groups in our community. We will encourage participation in the development and improvement of services. We will strive for excellence and satisfaction in the provision of public services. That's from the value statement. I came to encourage city council and our city manager to evaluate the mission, the process and best practices of the traffic committee because this is where decisions get made regarding our streets. They have done an excellent job leveraging the experiences of city employees and I think it's time to let residents participate. What what is the process for submitting ideas for safer neighborhoods? It may be challenge challenging to implement the 2019 approved non-motorized transportation plan. Those challenges can be managed and prioritized rather than delaying plan implementation citywide until infrastructure construction. My experience before retiring was working many years as a project manager in commercial construction. I dealt with these construction challenges. I am also a licensed general contractor. City residents who are aware of the non-motorized transportation plan and of our growing awareness of pedestrian and non-motorized traffic are ready for the city city to implement and enforce stopping at crosswalks. This is not hard nor complex. Further, Devon Sha's small bets proposal would address over 70% of the suggestions that I have heard from residents. How how do decisions get made regarding public safety suggestions that somehow make it to the traffic committee? There doesn't seem to be much consistency implying criteria. An example is the request to upgrade signage at the 16th

Street crosswalk for residents to go retail shopping at at Meyer was denied. I did not get what I wanted. Contrast that to the four stop signs and one city block on Sixth Street where there is no housing. The perception is being created that expediting traffic movement outside of city center is what is important. A lot of decision-making like signage can be standardized and simplified. Who makes road and traffic decisions? I have learned that the traffic committee is a staff committee which means no elected officials participate. The only oversight of this committee apparently is through city council's supervision of the city manager. According to the city's governance framework and process manual, city council's sole official connection to the organization operations is its achievements and conduct are through the city manager. While city council is ultimately accountable to residents, it was apparent apparently unaware of this powerful committee existed until I brought it up. It appears that the committee has complete decision-making autonomy given that level of city governmental responsibility. By definition, the traffic committee as a public body and is subject to the Michigan Legislature Open Meetings Act. Section 15.262 is the definition of public body. Section 15.263, all meetings must be open to the public and the public must be able to make comment. 15.264, 264. This is a public body and must publish notice of meetings. This public body must also publish meeting minutes. Given that the traffic committee is subject to the open meetings act, the committee is also subject to the Freedom of Information Act. I will send these comments to city council and to the city manager for resolution while and will await a response. In the meantime, we have 17 petition circulators representing every ward in the city and they have hit the

streets to collect signatures. We are asking for transparency in our city government and we want to participate. Keeping everyone safe on our city streets is a mutual shared goal between Holland City Council, Holland City staff, and everyone that enjoys our city. We are all friends or at least neighbors. Let's work together on how to accomplish that goal. today. Posting the traffic committee's meeting minutes on city website and public dashboard would be a good place to start. Let's uphold our city values. 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?

Martha Capistani Holland. Um, first off, I'd like to thank the council for your service and especially Mayor Box for declaring April as faith month for the city of Holland. In honor of Faith Month, I'm grateful to still be able to speak openly about matters of faith and pray for our city and our council. Two weeks ago, I shared a few remarkable insights about the Bible. For example, there are over 69,776 cross references throughout the text that directly or indirectly unify the book. Consider also that it was written by 40 different authors over a span of 1500 years across three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and three different in three different languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. And yet, it tells one consistent cohesive story that is difficult to explain by chance alone. And I think that points to something or someone greater. Tonight, I'd like to go a bit deeper into science and faith. Modern science widely accepts that the universe had a beginning, often referred to as the big bang. This understanding is rooted in the work of Albert Einstein and his theory of general relativity. However, even his theory breaks down at the exact moment of origin, that singular point. The laws of physics no longer apply and science cannot explain what caused the universe to begin. So, we are left with a profound question. What was the first cause? If the cause of the universe cannot be found within the universe itself, then is reasonable to consider that it must exist outside of it. Outside of time, space and matter. And when we think about God, particularly the God of the Bible, this is exactly how he is described, existing beyond time, space, and matter. These three elements, time, space, and matter, are inseparable. They must come into existence together. You cannot have matter without space to contain it, or space without time for it to exist within. They are part of a unified system. Interestingly, the very first

words of the Bible reflect this idea. In the beginning, time, God created the heavens, that's space, and earth, that's matter. All three introduced simultaneously. Even within creation, we see patterns of unity. Time is past, present, and future. Space is length, width, and height. Matter is solid, liquid, and gas. A kind of order and structure that's consistent and meaningful. Think of it this way. Maybe when someone creates a computer, they are not inside the machine trying to make it work. They exist outside of it designing and directing its function in the same way a creator of the universe would by definition exist outside of it. So the question becomes, how could a text written so long ago align so closely with ideas we are only now beginning to understand? When you consider the precision required for life to exist, the exact conditions of our planet, the complexity of human life, the countless variables that had to align, it's hard not to recognize it as something extraordinary. Many would call it a miracle. And if the creation of the universe itself can be seen as miraculous, then perhaps we can consider the idea of other miracles like the resurrection of the historical figure Jesus Christ. So, I'd like to close in prayer and feel free to join me if you'd like. God, I believe you are God of miracles. You forgave me and changed my life through Jesus' great sacrifice and resurrection. I am so thankful for that. And I pray for anyone here today or listening online who may not yet know you that you would begin to work in their hearts stirring a desire to seek you. God Holland is a beautiful city unlike any other, especially during tur tulip time. It was founded in 1847 by Reverend Alberta Christian Vanalti. Reverend Van Raltty was instrumental in building the local church schools and establishing the Christian liberal arts college called Hope. We pray and ask that our local council and government

continue to recognize, nurture, and preserve the history of this wonderful place. And we ask for your continued protection and blessing over the council and the city of Holland and the surrounding communities. And we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time?

Good evening. And you are one of our Hayak students. And I always want to make sure everyone in the public and everyone at home knows who you are. Uh Hayek is our Holland Youth Advisory Council, high school students from area high schools who work with the city in various areas. And you get to come and visit us at a council meeting and speak. And and the mayor always has four additional pieces of information for you guys. And I think that you've probably been prepped on this, but just so everyone knows, we would love to know what school you go to, what grade you're in, what you're doing with Hayak, and if you have any plans for the future, and as I always say, if you don't have any, that's fine because I didn't have any at your age either. But welcome.

Thank you for your time. My name is Aubrey Pertton. I am a junior at Holland Christian High School. I am on the environmental environmental committee and of Hayak. and my future plans. I'm not sure what college I'm going to, but I want to go in for occupational therapy. Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about Holland and just the area we live in. Growing up in Holland, I've always loved Lake Michigan and felt that is that it is such a privilege to live here and to have something so wonderful. Saying that, I have learned a lot in my science classes specifically about the environment and how it's been changing and how humans impact it. Living next to Lake Michigan, I realized how amazing it is and how I would really love to make a more of an impact of helping the environment, which is why I decided to join the environmental committee. In science class, we learned how we can make a difference in a positive or negative way. I felt like this generation needed to say more than just we can do it, but actually step in and do something about it. So, I decided to join the environmental committee so that I could make more of a difference and take care of this place that we live in and that we call home. Um, I feel like this generation needs to step up and make sure that we're putting actions behind words and taking care of this place. There's so much that we can do in the world, whether good or bad, and I feel like it is our duty to always try to do our best to to make the world a better place. Thank you for your time.

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?

Good evening. My name is Matthew Vanzettton. I'm a resident of the city of Holland on 18th Street. And I am here tonight with Wendy Medma. Uh I represent uh Tulip City United Soccer Club. And Wendy is one of our interns for the summer from Hope College. And another board member here you might not know about is Tim Marquin who's a board member of Tulip City United as well. Um, we are a grassroots nonprofit soccer organization driven to bring the people of Greater Holland together in one place so that we can um, enjoy the our shared love of soccer in this great city. We showcase the best regional talent and adult level soccer um, and play teams throughout the state and even Indiana. Um this will be our fifth competitive season for our men's team and our first competitive uh season for w our women's team and Wendy here has been a driver of creating our women's team and doing a lot of research and work and so um she's been a true pleasure to work with and so uh thank you so much Wendy. Um, we play at the Holland High Soccer Stadium and try to create a positive family-like, uh, carnival-like atmosphere for our community. And we average anywhere between 250 and 350 fans per game. This summer, uh, we'd like to highlight something that's really new beyond our women's team starting its first competitive season is that we have partnered with Tulip City Bar and Grill to create, um, uh, World Cup watch nights. We are f North America is hosting the World Cup this year and we are going to be hosting uh watch parties for all of Holland for the men uh that from the Mexican team from the Dutch national team and then of course from the United States. That's 12 nights of great rockus times that we'll be having at Tulip City Bar and Grill. And we want everyone to know about that and to come

and enjoy that. Um uh last um I have a calendar here of our home games for you and a couple tickets. I'd like to give that to the clerk to distribute if I could. Certainly. And we'd love to see you out this summer um at a game. Mayor Box has flipped the coin uh at one or two games in the past year. And so we'd love you to stay for our 90 minutes and have a good time. So thanks so much.

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?

And Henrikson Zaland. Um, thank you so much, mayor, for your declaration of National April Faith Month. And we happen to be the organization that is sponsoring the National Day of Prayer. That is our biggest event. That will be April 28th. We can't have it on the national day of prayer which is May 7th um because tulip time occupies the civic center. So um we are really expecting a great deal of people on the 28th and we want you to join us. The theme is tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. First Chronicles 16:24, glorify God. So, um, what some of the things that will take place that evening, we're hoping for a thousand. So, we want to pack it in. It's free. We're going to have free refreshments as well for those that leave work and just come right to the event. Uh there is intercessory prayer uh led by pastors of the community at 5:30 and that that'll be in a separate area. In the great room will be um theater seating. So there won't will not be a dinner as there's been in the past. uh what will begin with the posting of the colors by the safety officers of Holland and um that's always quite a ceremony to see the silence and the honoring of our flags and then the national anthem and God bless America will be sung by Calvary Christian School and Evergreen Commons. So, it's got both generations. Um, and it'll be a delight to hear. Then there

will be worship and prayer. Um, and then the speakers are Dan Seaborn and Massie Campos. Massie is a pastor, a theologian, but he's also an expert on American history and how our country was founded, on our biblical beliefs and how our laws are also constructed through that. So, we I have invitations for all of you to be there. It's April 28th. It's a Tuesday starting the doors open at 6 and um everybody here is invited as well. Any anybody online um you don't need to register. You just need to come and we have a lot of volunteers that'll help you and it'll be a wonderful evening. So, thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? And you are also one of our Hayek students. Welcome.

Hi. Um, my name is Riley Sakorski. I'm a senior this year at West Ottawa High School. Um, this is my first year on Hayak and I'm on the environmental committee. Um, following graduation, I plan to attend Valpreso University on a 5-year accelerated physician assistant pathway. Um, for my time today, I wish to talk about a place where I volunteer at. Um, it's called Renew Therapeutic Writing Center. Um, Renew is a nonprofit nonprofit therapeutic riding center that offers a plethora of equin assisted opportunities to help foster physical, social, and cognitive growth. Um, providing a positive life change with every horse experience. So, they also offer additional programs for children in foster care, for those with physical or cognitive disabilities, for those experiencing grief or stress, or events um like Renew Roundup for those just looking to get involved. It's they're just really there for the community and offer a ton of different ways for people to get involved. Um I've had the privilege of volunteering there over the past two years as a sidewalker. Um I assist the therapeutic riding lessons by walking alongside the horses or providing a heel or a thigh hold for the riders. It's kind of catered to the individual needs of each rider which I think is really cool. Um but this opportunity to volunteer there has truly been a blessing not only to be able to give back to the community but to support an organization truly committed to serving others selflessly. Um, it's been a bucket filling experience when I look forward to each time I walk through the doors. So, I would encourage anyone to check it out or get involved if you're interested. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great evening.

Great. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? And you are also one of our HAK students. Welcome.

Yes. Hello. My name is Shaza Ben and I'm a junior at Holland High School. Um, I'm on the teen court board and this is my first year in Hayak. And after high school, I plan to go to Michigan for political science and a minor in pre-law and further my education to study criminal law. During my time at Holland High School, I discovered the teen court program during my sophomore year. As someone with a strong interest in the justice system, I immediately joined. However, what I initially expected to be a student jury addressing a wide range of youth offenses has largely become focused on repetitive minor drug use, specifically nicotine, among students. While I do not condone illegal behavior, I have become increasingly curious about why my peers are repeatedly engaging in substance use that can often be preventable. Through observation and research, I have noticed that in Holland, there appear to be a limited visible effort focused on preventing minor drug use before it actually occurs. Yeah, we sometimes have assemblies or short presentations about the harms of drug use, but we never dive deep into things that would actually influence an audience of teens with an utmost impact. In some environments, substance use among teenagers has become normalized, making it more socially acceptable or overlooked than addressed early. And while this may not be always easy to recognize from an outside perspective for students inside these environments, it's a consistent reality that I see daytoday. Teen court is an important and promising first step in addressing youth substance related offenses in a restorative way. However, I believe its impact could be strengthened by placing greater emphasis on prevention and root cause intervention rather than primarily focusing on repetitive incidents that have already occurred. Research consistently shows that teen substance use is rarely caused by a single factor

like peer pressure alone. More often it is linked to underlying challenges like mental health struggles, unstable homes or social environments, trauma or untreated mental health conditions. Because of this, I believe that schools in Hollands along with programs like teen court can improve outcomes by expanding from a punishment centered approach to a more support and interventionbased model. For example, this can include earlier identification and referral systems within schools for students allow for students showing signs of substance use or any emotional distress. Along with that, we can have greater access to school-based counseling and mental health services, including reduced weight times and proactive check-ins and constant service rather than things we have to request. Another thing could be a restorative diversion pathway through teen court where students are connected to mandatory counseling, substance education, or mentoring programs instead of only receiving punitive consequences for shorter periods. And along with that, partnerships with local mental health and youth support organizations to ensure that students have access to consistent care outside of school because they actually see that it's real and not something that's just being talked about among adults. By shifting focus toward early intervention and support, we can address the root causes of teen substance use rather than only responding after patterns have already formed. Although we can never fully stop drug use among minors and people as a whole, preventing drug use for those without fully developed brains is a bright step towards a future to prevent addiction further. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? Hello. And would you please state your name and municipality for the record? Uh my name is Ellie Styr. I'm also a high student. Oh, I'm sorry about that. You're welcome.

Yeah. I was unable to attend the dinner, but I'm here now. Um, I'm a senior at Black River High School, and next year I will be attending the University of Michigan to pursue a degree in arts and ideas in the humanities. I'm on the environmental committee for Hayak. This is my second year. Um, usually Hayek has been kind of one of the few ways that I feel like I'm very involved with the community of the city of Holland, but this winter I had the opportunity of working at the new ice rink as an ice monitor. And it was a really lovely experience um to be able to see the impact that the ice rink has had on the Holland community and bringing people together. And I'm very excited to see where it continues to go. I'm also very grateful that the city's providing job opportunities to high school students. Um, a lot of the staff was people that are um that I go to school with are just among my peer group, which was a really cool experience and something I'm grateful for uh with college coming up and those uh tuition bills. But um although I won't be around much next year, I am so excited to come back to the ice rink during my winter breaks. 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 7B, community and neighborhood services economic development PA1 198 tax abatement request for Roa Technologies LLC. Mr. Van Beek. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councel. I'm going to ask Juan Gnum, our economic development CNS director, to come up and he will introduce this matter. We actually have two requests by the same company and I know we have representatives from the company in Lakeshore Advantage and I'll let you do those introductions.

Wonderful. I'll have them come up in a second here. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the city council. Uh I'm here to introduce a couple of action items for your consideration this evening. both industrial facilities tax exemption certificate or tax abatement requests by Roa Technologies. Uh Roa Technologies is located at 72 West 64th Street in suite 300. And in in just a second here, I'll have the two gentlemen representing the company come up to give you some background on the on the company. And also have Jennifer Owens, who's the president of Lakeshore Advantages, come up as well. But I I think it it would be uh it would help be helpful if I gave you a bit of an explanation about the nature of this IFT. Couple of weeks ago, we had Atlas uh come in for a buildout IFT. Uh both companies are actually in the same building. They both they occupy different suites within a building that's owned by a company called Electric Steel. Electric Steel built this um industrial facility a few years ago and some of you may recall the city council approved an uh a speculative if on that building. Well, that basically holds the space and reserve for a company like Roa Technologies to come and apply for a tax abatement from the city. So basically what we're talking about now is converting the speculative IF on the space that's basically sat vacant for a couple years and now converting it and essentially awarding the certificate to roto technologies and that's why it's called the speculative IFT and you'll notice that the in your packet the length of the IFT is only seven years that's because it has to coincide with the length of the lease agreement for obvious reasons. So with that introduction, I'd like to invite uh

Rodney Mchman, who is the chief financial officer, uh Dan Burgorst, director of manufacturing for ROA, and of course Jennifer Owens, who's the president of Lakeshore Advantage. Welcome. Thank you.

You want me to start? I'll start real quick. Okay. Um, so one of the things I want to mention about this company is one of the key industries that we're looking to expand and have such a great base in our community is food processing and aggra business. So this company is an excellent example of a niche in that industry. Also um, smart manufacturing automation. So they couldn't be a better complement to what our community already has and is looking to expand. And with that, I'll have the team introduce themselves and share a little bit more. I'm Dan Burkhorst um director of manufacturing. So ROA is a as its core a machine build type company in technology. Um our biggest niche would be in the egg processing. We probably do 90% of our work in egg related things as well as some outside of that field. um servicing all of the local companies, the five larger egg producers in this area as well as across the country. Uh we do anything from integrations, design, um robotics, anything that kind of relates to the process and that can help them along along with vision and AI type stuff.

I'll add a little bit to it. Um, we kind of started as more of a service based company where we service machines and it's now grown into us finding new solutions to help make better processes for egg processing and other fields. So that's kind of our goal is to make the, you know, best processes that we can. um seeing what's there of it now and how can we improve it, how can we build upon this. Um those are really our main goals is how can we make things better. Um and uh yeah, that's us.

So there's not a whole bunch of eggs at ROA. We don't process the eggs ourselves. We help all the farms with their processing needs. So we sell all sorts of equipment to all the farms. We we go in, we you know, they have some issues, we go in, we help them fix them. Um, and then like I said, we have our our own little stuff that we've come up with that we integrate into their systems and kind of just make everything run smoothly. Any questions for for the applicants? Mr. Corbin,

do you have a research and design element to your company as well? Um, yes. As far as researching just needs of our customers and most of that's done by our service team. There's what is there? Six guys. Yep. Six service techs. Um, and needs come back through them. We do all our own design and yeah, from the ground up. Other questions? Yes, Mr. Sheay.

Thank you. Thanks so much for that's super interesting stuff. Um uh who are your clients? Are they typically local, regional? Um all all over. We definitely have some local um near Holland here. Um I'd say the majority of our customer base is in in the Midwest. So Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri. Um, but we do stretch as far as Colorado, California, Utah, um, customer in North Carolina, we've been in Pennsylvania. Um, so definitely nationwide, but mostly Midwest.

So, would we would it be safe to define this company as a primary employer? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Other questions? Yes, Mr. agreement. Um, how many people are you employing? Um, actually I had to write this one down. It's been growing fast.

Yes, we we've been, you know, we're growing. We're hiring as we go. So, um, like Dan had stated, we have we have six service techs. So, um, they're on the road most of the time. Um, Ross, he's in Holland part-time, but um, couple of the other guys, they'll come into Holland, our our shop there. They'll help with some of the manufacturing. Um, but in our shop in Holland, we have um one, two, three, four, five, six, six, six of them there and now seven with Owen number seven. And we have another part-timer that we just hired recently.

We have um utilized I'm not sure if you're familiar with route, the home kind of homeschool um what am I thinking? tech center that was started in Holland. Um give us more information because even if we are maybe the people at home are not. So yeah feel free. Yeah. So the tech center Ottawa County tech center is so busy. So the a couple years ago Jeff Ninheis and Jason Cochran I think started route which is a homeschool setting or for homeschool kids but more of a careerline tech center type setting. So, we hired our first student from that about a month ago.

Great. All right. Other questions from for the applicants. I I'm just curious because I as as Mr. Sheay said, fascinating stuff. I I never learned about that much about eggs in school and I never really thought that that was a career that you would go into is helping people figure out what to do with eggs. How does artificial technology fit into what it is that you're doing? Um, so like you, many others, they ask me, you know, what do I do for work? And I tell them there, no one ever thinks much about eggs. You go to the store, you get them off the shelf, and you take them home, you cook them. Um, there's a lot more to it. So, how does AI integrate into it? So, we've we've created some vision systems that um, so really the one that kind of kicked off ROA was a foreign object detection. So all eggs are traveling on conveyor belts through different machines to get washed, graded, all different sorts of stuff. Um, as they're on these belts, we have a camera on the belt um with an AI system that's scanning for foreign objects. So non- eggreated items. Um, that could be all sorts of different stuff that gets left on the belt. You know, I I've seen a lot on there. So um, could be you you know, you name it.

Yeah. you it it ends up on there. So, it essentially alarms that something's on the belt and an employee can then remove set item on the belt and reset it. Um, this the whole reason was created was things were on this belt that were going into the machines getting all twisted up, breaking things down. And so say a screwdriver was on the belt. Screwdriver goes through, you know, the next phase, gets it all jammed up, big problems, big shutdowns. Somebody's got to fix that. So

I I appreciate you. I the reason why I asked for the explanation is one I'm curious is two I really love I I love for the public to understand some of the amazing things that are being done at companies here in the Holland Michigan area that I think a lot of us have absolutely no idea is being done um in both in the in the autom excuse me in the autom automation sector but other places in ways that we might not ever have expected and the and the great people that are making investments in Holland. So thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. A little that little bit of narrative that goes along with that as well, I think is really helpful for folks. Of course. Any other questions for the applicants? Great. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

What is the pleasure of council in regard to item 7B? Move to approve the tax abatement request as presented. Moved by Vreamman. Is there support? Support. Support by Rowan. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Raymond, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Schultz, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries.

Great. Thank you. Uh, next item on the agenda, item 7C. And you referenced this before, Mr. Van Beek, that these are both for the same company. Are we are we going to do a a repeat of that presentation or how would you like to handle this? Seeing that we have a long night in front of us, I'm going to suggest that all the same people are available to answer questions if council has it. But again, as Juan um laid out, technically you needed to take two different actions because you have the first on the spec building portion and the second on the build out. Uh but otherwise after holding a public hearing or before we're happy to answer any questions or field any discussion.

All right. Uh council interested in hearing from the applicants again. All right. And and we do need to do a public hearing on this one. So we will I will open this up for a public hearing. Is there any member of the public who would like to address council in regard to this item? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. What is the pleasure of councel in regard to item 7c? And this is the buildout portion of this PA 198 tax abatement. Motion to approve as presented. Moved by Rowan. Is there support? Support. Support by that was. Sorry, this is Mr. Mayor Keane. Thank you. Thanks for the pointing down there. That's really helpful. Uh any discussion?

Yes, Mr. Sheay.

Quick point. Um I you know, I've looked through the all the both of these abatements. I think they're great. I looking at the uh quick facts. I love the quick facts. It tells us how much uh kind of we're um investing if you will, right? And um what that abatement is worth as a tax revenue. Um we've been mentioned to very responsibly, I think, to be keeping that in mind when we're talking about housing tiffs. Um, and I just want to make sure that the public knows that um, I at least am also very much paying attention to that aspect with industrial tiffs. So, I'm excited about this to move forward and I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Ch. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Schultice, yes. Mary Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clone Barnes, yes. Breeman, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. And I recognize now that I did not do the public hearing on item 7B. So, I'm going to ask our city attorney. I want to make sure that we cross all of the tees and dot all of the eyes on this. So, Vince, can you give me some instruction on whether we need to go back on that one again? I want to make sure that we do this right.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think you can ask if there is anyone who would like to provide comment on that and then I would ask the council uh probably reaffirm uh after asking that question and getting a response from the audience whether there's any public comment on that first item to just confirm that the vote would be the same.

I will I will do that. Thank you Mr. Thank you Mr. Duckworth. All right. So uh for those of you who are listening, I am going to open a public hearing on item 7B uh which uh again the tax abatement on uh on the initial part of this. Is there anyone who would like to address council on that item? Seeing none, Brenda, would you do me a favor and call the role on item 7B again? Okay. Um Breamman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, Schultis, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Mayor Box, yes. It carries again.

Great. Thank you. Just proving that we are not perfect, but we try to make sure we do things as well as we possibly can. Uh, next item on the agenda, item number nine, written petitions and communications. In addition to providing the public the opportunity to address council in person at our meetings, we do also have an email address where you can send us written communications, and those are received by all council members. Uh they are reviewed by council members as part of our packet and they are accepted into the record at our regular meetings when we have them. We don't read them out loud, but we do accept them into the record. We don't have any at this at this meeting, but I do always like to let people know that that is available. And that email address is public comment cityofholland.com. Again, public comment at cityofholland.com. Uh, next item on the agenda, uh, item 12, echo 2.1, residential solid waste collection services agreement for 2027 through 2031. Mr. Van Beek, that seems like a long way away.

It's 2026 already. I know. I know.

Well, welcome um to our presenters. I was I was stalling a sec. Good. Juan's back in the room, but thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. Um, yes, it is that time for some of us. It seems like we just went through the process of bidding this out and awarding this contract. But I'm going to ask uh both Juan Gan and then Dan Borsma uh to come up um give you um what I'm absolutely we have a recommendation that was in your packet. Um but also just to back up a little bit and talk about this contract uh the elements that go in the al the ultimate cost. Um, and of course the great partners that we have, not less, um, including the Highland Board of Public Works that does the billing because of so many of the utilities that we have. I think our residents really appreciate that they get one bill covering a lot of their their uh different utilities and services that they provide. So, um, it looks like Dan's up first.

I am. Welcome, Dan.

So, good evening. twice in under a month. Uh yeah, the uh solid waste contract for the residentials has up. The fi the current five-year contract is coming uh due at the end of June. Um we had an RFP that was sent out in January of 2026. Um we had a pre-bid meeting uh mandatory. We had four waste haulers attend that meeting at that time. Um, two of the um, haulers actually uh, submitted a bid after that. Um, and Republic Services was the lowest responsive responsible bidder in that one. Um, and the new contract would begin on July 1st. So what services are under that contract is the re weekly refuge con collection um every other week recycling collection that we installed five years ago. Yard waste collection which is an optional optin and project pride. And uh one thing that isn't on there is the managing of all of our waste carts and recycling bins um for repair and replacement. So, what is covered under under the residence though? We wanted to give you kind of a snapshot of what you're actually paying for when you pay your bill. Uh the refuge, recycling, and yard service if you opt in. Again, cart repair and replacement, project pride, BPW customer service that were in there. Um, and I will say just on a side note, they do an amazing job. I mean, it it makes my job a lot easier with the service that they give us just

hands down. Um, and then our uh the sustainability folks here at the city. So, I think you're up next. Yep. Talk about the numbers. You're up there. So, next to have

uh just a sliver of a massive spreadsheet that Dan and I prepared uh to go over this information with you all. But this is really where the rubber hits the road. What is the current contract price by service? So you'll see we've got a variety of services we offer our residents from bag service to 32 gallon containers, 65gallon containers, 96 gallon containers, and yard waste. So you'll see the first column right there, well actually it's the second column is the current unit price for each service address and and the bid that Republic Services submitted to the city uh for the following year. uh shows an increase on average of around 17 to 25% depending on the service category. Now the next page is the one that I think you'll most be interested in as will our residents. Um, so the way uh what we're showing here is we're showing the what we we're calling the BPW rate, but it's basically the rate that we charge our residents for the particular type of service. So you'll see there's a a discrepancy, a difference between what the unit price is and the rate that we charge our residents. Well, that's because of all the things that Dan just described, all the services that residents are getting, including project pride and then yard uh and then um the cost of uh cart replacement and repair. And then there's the cost of the overhead of having staff like Dan and Isabelle. And then BPW offering the customer service and being responsive to our residents needs. So, you know, when residents call, they're not calling Republic, they're calling BPW staff. Um, so we're very highly responsive, but we of course have to pay for BPW staff time. So all of that is rolled up into the rate that we charge

our residents. So the good news is is that over on the far right side, the annual increase, those are total for the year. So, if you have 96 gallon uh 96 gallon cart, which 3,86 customers have in the city of Holland, you're going to be paying year-over-year next year an additional $14.54 that service. And the the uh increment that we're going to have from Republic year-over-year for the next four years or five years total is going to be 4%. So, it's a it's a fairly reasonable increase. Um, basically, we are doing the best we can to absorb all of the costs. So, we're not passing along 20 to 25% cost increases to the residents. We're passing roughly 5% increase an increase to the residents. Um, that's because the department's working very efficiently. We're managing our overhead. Um, this is not dipping into the fund balance at all. So, that's just managing things wisely. Happy to answer any questions for you about the contract. We do have a representative of Republic here, Jack Brown. Questions for staff? Yes, Miss Rowan.

Um, this might be an unfair question, but just do you, um, as compared to other municipalities, do we where do we land if you know? You did the research on that? I did the research. Yes. So, we actually are are on the lower end of all the uh municipalities that I looked at. We actually did a full analysis on and of what other municipalities are doing. They were all over the map, but we're mostly on the lower end of it. And um yeah, on the lower end even after the increase. Yeah. And um again, if you know, are they also um utilizing the same Republic services or do they have the other?

They're all they either have priority. There's other services and and folks that are out there. Um we did that. We also took a look around our different townships if you were an individual person to go and get a different waist hauler and we're uh we are under those prices as well. Good. Thank you. Y other questions for staff? Yes, Mr. Schultice.

So, appreciate the bullet on project pride and I also kind of want to advocate and make sure that there's awareness about what that service is because it's not the routinely or the routine weekly pickup. Can you guys talk through what that service is for the residents and how they go about you utilizing it?

Sure. So, Project Pride is a program that was put in place many, many years ago, well before my time. Um um and it's a opportunity for residents who are uh part of the waste uh if they have a bin at their home, they're a part of the project pride and they can come and get two coupons a year here at city hall. Um, and what that will allow you to do is to bring about a thousand dollars worth of waste to um, uh, right now Republic Services uh, off of Grass Cup. I don't know what the street is past that, but um, so as a side note with the new contract that would go from a,000 pounds to 2,000 pounds. So you would have two two tickets per year to be able to utilize that program. So it will be an increase in tonnage or up to a ton now. So

cool. Thanks. And reminder for those watching at home that it's already paid for whether you use it or not. Correct. So it's a great thing to take advantage of when you have those home projects that you need to get rid of some stuff and it's not all fitting in your can. So thank you. A great segue to a statistic I think we should share with the council. What percentage of folks actually utilize Project Pride? Correct. Have access to it. part of the analysis that we did and why the 5% exists versus the 20 and there was 30% is on average what people use of the residents actually use their project pride coupons.

Mr. Van Beek know we've kind of referenced this and this is all fresh news to council but since we're kind of sending information out there to those in the viewing public um we've also been very excited to very recently uh really finalize all the elements needed to move forward with the recycling center. Um, and while not probably directly part of the analysis of this contract, um, I think the recycling center also answers some historic questions around this programming, um, and really is a way to answer some of those questions moving forward. So, I think it made staff more comfortable in making this recommendation that we have a more complete um, program and set of services available to residents.

Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. What is the pleasure of council in regarding regard to item 12, echo 2.1? Move to approve as presented. Moved by Schultice. Is there support?

Support by Rowan. Any discussion? I I just have a couple of comments. Um, as part of the exciting world of local government, residential solid waste collection services agreements, I think, rank right up there at the top. Um, but it's I know we're kind of chuckling to ourselves of goodness we're talking about we're talking about this kind of stuff, but this is something where it's where the rubber hits the road for the people that we represent. Every single week they expect to have their their garbage picked up. Um, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't get a lot of complaints in this area that I think that we provide a pretty good service at a pretty good rate. And while yes, we are passing along a 5% increase, we've been able to through good management absorb more of that increase that's that's impacting us. Thank you to staff uh for doing that. I think this is another great example of great work on the on the part of the staff. Uh also for those people who are watching when questions were asked, yep, I did the research on that. Yes, I know the answer to that question. That's exactly what we love as city council members when we're making these kinds of decisions to know that we can have confidence in uh the decisions that we're making because we're making them based on facts and making them based on research and making them based on good information and that we can provide good basic services to the people that we represent. And uh even though we chuckled, this is one of those important things that we do because if we didn't, we'd have a big problem on our hands. Uh, so well done and thank you. Uh, Brenda, would you please call the role?

Corbin, yes. Schulty, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clump, yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, uh, item 12, echo 6.1, gifts. Brenda, would you please review the gifts for us? The city manager's office is pleased to report the following gift. A donation of $600 from Pilot Travel Center for the Department of Public Safety Police Services Community Poling for the purchase of school supplies for the community's teacher.

Wonderful. Thank you. What is the pleasure of council in regard to the gifts? Motion to um accept with appreciation, credit the appropriate account, and an expression of gratitude be forwarded to the donor. Uh motion by Rowan. Is there support? Support. Support by Verman. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Uh next item on the agenda, 12 echo 6.2 to proposed fiscal year 2027 budget for review and to set a public hearing for May 13, 2026. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Um, always interesting when we do this each year because, uh, we ask you to accept the budget, set a public hearing, and then we go immediately into two nights of lengthy meetings going through the budget document. Lynn, like 500 pages, right? Just

498 probably, right? Um, so, um, one thing that I just want to make sure that the public is aware of, and I'll use this here, is that anyone that wants to read the just shy of 500page document is welcome to do so. That has been published since last week. Um, but also in that document, there are shorter versions of that, an executive summary and in particular a budget and brief that um, we're always very appreciative of that Lynn McCann and her staff puts together. Um, so the intent tonight is not to go into detail of the budget, of course, because we're doing that the next two nights in public meetings. Um, but then really just to set that public hearing. But with that, um, I know Lynn is available. Lynn, here's what I'm going to do is just I just talked about the bud budget in brief. That's the first page that talks about um in this case are all funds that includes the utility funds of the Holland Board of Public Works. Uh but within that of course quite often city council we spend most of our time right on the general fund which is just from a cost perspective a relatively small percentage of that all fund budget. Um and then just a reminder that um as we'll talk more in the couple nights that I kind of proposed quite often we kind of have a theme for the year and this year it's working together just cross departments and uh with Holland Board of Public Works and certainly with council uh just a lot of projects that we've had ongoing and continue to work on that are not just one department or just city projects but that they're

projects that um require partnerships. Um with that, unless Lynn has anything else to to present at this point, um the viewing public again, you can go and view all these documents and and council, yes, we're going to be talking about this in much greater depth the next two nights. So, that's all I have. All right. Great. Thank you. Any questions for staff? All right. What is the pleasure of council on item 12 echo 6.2? Motion to set public hearing for budget review for the proposed fiscal budget 2027 items 12E.12.6.2 as presented.

Motion by Corbin. Is there support

support by Rowan? Any discussion? Just a quick comment. Yes, this we are for the next two nights immediately after this meeting and then tomorrow night at six o'clock going to be doing budget review sessions. Those are open to the public. Those are study sessions. We won't be making any dis decisions during those meetings. But for those people who are interested in learning much more about the nitty-gritty of the budget, that's a great opportunity. I've been inviting people all week and nobody has taken me up on it yet. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but uh I I thought that I would not like this when I first became mayor of having to sit through these budget sessions, but they are incredibly informative. Uh and of that 500page budget, uh there's lots of pictures in there, too. So, if people are interested in looking, you can actually see pictures of the equipment that we're purchasing. Uh, and I do highly encourage people to take a look at the budget and brief. It is an amazing and award-winning document. Uh, if if you want to talk about transparency with local government and finances, the budget and brief is a perfect example of that if you want to know what's going on with the finances in the city of Holland. Uh, having said that, Brenda, would you please call the role?

Okay. Schultis, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clumps, yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Uh, next item 12, echo 6.4. Amortization extension agreement with the municip municipal employees retirement system of Michigan, otherwise known as MRS 63. Oh, see, I wanted to get rid of that one. All right. Item 12. We'll bump back 12. Echo 6.3. disposition of escrow proceeds from the sale of city property to dwelling place. No, I don't want to get rid of that one. I do want that one. Yes, Mr. Van.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I will be taking this one and then also want to make sure Jacob her from Dwelling Place is is here. Um, first let me start with getting on the right screen, but just making sure what the suggested motion is, and it's that city council approve the request of dwelling place and direct the city manager and the city attorney to then proceed with taking all necessary actions to enter into a further agreement that directs the final disposition of escrow proceeds um from the sale of 345 Colin Park Drive to Dwelling Place. Okay, let me step back and explain what's what's happening here. Um, in March of 2023, city council after taking various actions and studying this in study session took action and approved a sale a purchase agreement a sale of 345 Colin Park Drive to Dwelling Place. And at that point we were familiar with a project that dwelling place was um partnering with us because we were as I'm going to outline we were making an investment in this because it was partially on former city property but it's also partially on um former property of community action house and together they were looking to build um apartments and to make it more interesting and confusing perhaps. It was a scattered apartment um project that was getting getting um other funding sources. That's partially um with the Hope um church project um on Pine Avenue and then also

apartment complexes that were on Col along Colin Park Drive. Um just as a note and Jacob probably will give us an update on that. If you've been noticing both of those projects are in construction phase. Um additionally um at that point we knew that there were and those apartments by the way are rental units. There are additionally town homes that were that um were proposed to be built and the plan is to continue to build those. that would be a for sale product. Um, we had background agreements and language in all of that that when we looked at it and I dealt um talked with Vince, it had a requirement um for a certain level of availability and it kind of um dovetailed over to the town home portion of the project. Um, and the investment that the city made was instead of selling this property at the appraised value of $150,000, we agreed that we would pay it at 60 um, sell it at 66% of that value or $99,000. um as things proceeded and things in the market changed um dwelling place and Jacob again if I if I say this wrong he'll he'll correct me in a moment but basically said as we all know things in the market changed including interest rates and those types of things. So their initial plan of selling those town home products to people in the 80% AMA AMI range um actually would have resulted in trying to sell a product to people that that they would have been cost overburdened by buying that product. Um so they actually approached us and

said we really feel that we need to change who the kind of the AMI structure of of who we're sending it um who we're selling it to. Um the discussions that we had um were not that necessarily staff or council would necessarily be against that. It was just that we had an agreement in place that really without further action by city council um we wouldn't be able to sell it at the $99,000 amount. Other things got going where you had parcel splits and you had to uh move forward with the apartment project. Um and that was the priority of dwelling place at that point. Um, so we had further discussions and we act we did um proceed with completing the sale and because there was $51,000 that really needed to take further action by council or not um what we did is and with Vince's help, thank you. Um, basically what we did is we put that $51,000 in escrow to deal with at a date later date. So, at this point, um, Dwelling Place has come forward, um, outlined what they propose to do with that property. Um, from a staff perspective, um, while I'll say I hesitate to say it this way, but while the original deal outline changed some, um, we are still very comfortable that the the underlying premise of that dwelling place is bringing affordable, attainable housing to the community. um which is the public benefit that we were looking for by making what I'm going to say is that $51,000 investment in the sale of that

property to them still holds. Which is why what you have in front of you is a recommendation of a motion to empower Vince and myself um to complete um the disposition of those escrow funds that have been set aside. Um, so I'm happy to answer any other questions, but I would ask Jacob to come up. Um, say Keith, you got that wrong or or otherwise. And Jacob, I think it would be helpful, too, just to give us all an update on really kind of the larger project and and where things stand.

Absolutely. Thank you, Keith. And, uh, good evening, council members. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight. Um, just to give a brief update on the overall project. Uh, construction is moving along well. Uh we we have had a few delays with material deliveries, but uh we're working to mitigate that and we're still projecting completion uh of the Hope building octo in October and then the uh Column Park building next February. Um as far as the the Hope building, we're moving right along. You can see progress if you drive by it, but we got the the roof completed. Uh the rough framing is completed. Uh we're starting on the interiors, setting the bathtubs and doing roughins, working on hallways. Uh at the Colum Park site, we've got the site utilities are all in place. Uh elevator and stair towers are in and you'll um the um some of the panels have been delivered to the site, so you'll start to see framing going on soon. So, moving right along and and uh really excited to see the the progress there. Um, in terms of the the request in front of you today, uh, yes, th this essentially allows us the flexibility to increase the pool of buyers that we can sell to as well as increase slightly the amount of uh that we can sell the the town homes for. Um, they will still be affordable. They will be sold through our community land trust, but it's just kind of moving up the the AMI band that we can work within. Um, we're really finding a need for that. Uh we're doing a lot of work uh in Grand Rapids right now where we're seeing that um it's very difficult for an 80% AMI buyer to to afford uh some of these types of products and we we have been able to do that. We've been successful in some ways but it's required quite a bit of subsidy uh both either from us and or from the city of Grand Rapids. We got some ARPA dollars that that helped with that. Um, so you know, if we were to do the same thing here, we we can execute that, but it's going to take quite a bit of time uh to to uh raise the funds that we would needed to close that gap uh for folks. So, we're still going to be

seeking those dollars and we're going to be trying to get folks that are lower in the down the scale into into homes and provide uh opportunities for folks that uh that may not normally have it. But, uh we're just asking today to have the flexibility to to go above that if if we need to. um as we work through this and the the intent and the goal here is to get these built uh relatively soon and and be able to start on that to to deliver the product that uh we know that folks want to see and and have that home ownership opportunity available uh for for folks. So happy to answer any questions and again appreciate your time this evening. Any any questions from council?

Right. Great. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Yeah, Mr. Mayor Keane, sorry about that.

No worries. Yeah. Uh, thank you. Um, I'm just going to just share, you know, prior to u being on council, I worked at Catholic Central and so very familiar with the work of dwelling place on in hardside and, you know, next to the cathedral and just the work that you did was appreciated and certainly I love seeing that you're going to be have a footprint here too. I guess one of my things and I guess it's a question for Vince too is is the agreement tantamount to a contract? Uh there is already a contract uh in place and um the escrow agreement uh simply suspends that uh escroed amount until further action by city council. So city council can direct a further contract essentially or an agreement. Basically, a title company is holding the the escrow and they're not going to release it unless city council authorizes the city administration to sign something that that releases uh that and obviously dwelling place would have to sign off on that as well. So, it would it would be a a separate sort of agreement

related to the 120 versus 80% the language change. Does that require a new or revised agreement? It requires something in writing that that we can certainly uh put together if council directs that this is how you would like to go and that it shouldn't you know it's it's from the 80% but no no higher than the 120% AMI. That certainly can be a direction and then we can encapsulate that into an agreement for city administration to uh present the dwelling place as well for direction to the title company that's holding the escro. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yes, Mr. Schultice. What other options for the escort amount were considered and how did we land on this one? Um really it was and following up on the on the last question also um it was really we had an agreement that we wouldn't have had to put the 51,000 aside because we had an agreement to do the 99,000. So when I engaged with dwelling place on discussions um really I I think it's fair to say I challenged Jacob to say hey you need to make your case that ultimately the bottom line that what council looked for what we needed in effect a public benefit to come back to is that there is still a level of affordability in the overall project, not just as it related to the five town homes, but also related to the other apartment um you know, apartment units that were there. Um and I'm going to say it this way, it wasn't at any fault of dwelling place. I think there were a lot of moving parts and they were really focused on the apartment units. Um, so we agreed to basically park this 51,000 for a period of time until they felt comfortable that they actually had kind of a plan moving forward and what was encompassed in that. Um, and as he said, you know, um, and I, and maybe this is a question also to Jacob, um, I think that for other purposes, you're actually capped at you can't sell it for to anyone above 120% AMI or is that incorrect, Jacob?

That that is correct. We are our programming and our our mission and uh, we're selling these through a community land trust. So there's also a public benefit there and that the the homes will remain affordable into the future because it it uh caps the amount of appreciation and value uh and reduces the sale price going forward as well. So so so there is a benefit there. I did also just want to mention um in terms of the the restriction and kind of how we got here. Part of this is an artifact of when we went to close the apartment deal. Mishta puts on a regulatory agreement on the property that restricts us to 80% or below for for the rents on the apartments and and a lot lower in some cases. So, uh so that is in place, but um basically we didn't want to have that cover the town home portion because that would basically you can't have a rental project and a forale project in the same parcel. And so when we went to close, Vince to his credit noticed that, you know, the the regulatory agreement from Misha only covered the apartment building. It didn't cover this chunk of land that we were going to build the apartments on. So we would have had to pay the full 150. And so we just need to work out a deal where we have some sort of restriction on that property, but but we' asked for it to be higher than 80% AMI because um because it's for sale versus rental. So Mike to be give you a more direct question to your answer to your question. I think as we went through this and I was having conversations with Jacob, I think anything was on the table at some point. Um but as we came full circle and he gave kind of the case that I tried to outline in the memo also from a staff perspective we felt that we still are getting um basically the agreement that council was looking for at the beginning. Um, now council has the ability to take any

action of splitting that $51,000, making it less or more, but from a staff perspective, we felt that we're still getting the public benefit back that we were looking for. And that's why the recommendation is to dis to disperse all of that those escrow proceeds back to dwelling place.

Any other questions? Oh, yes, Tim. I guess I I understand and appreciate the public benefit. It just seems that once again the public benefit is removed from those that can least afford it. So I'm thinking there is quite a jump from 80% to 120%. So we are again to my opinion marginalizing a a large group of people in Holland that need this housing. And so to that point, I certainly hope uh that our colleagues who were a part of this a few years ago um as we approach further uh tiffs and things that we just really take a look at what affordable housing means and that it means a lot of different things to people and that um cost burden isn't just on the poor, it affects everyone. And so to say that housing is that they couldn't afford this house is akin to saying that there's a moral or sort of failure on the person. So I I would just like to share that as my point of view.

Any other questions? Great. Yes, Miss Ron. And then I would just like to echo um or follow up on that comment also that um that point taken. We also still we do need to balance um attracting builders and um organizations such as dwelling place to want to build something. I mean an empty unimproved lot doesn't house any more people either. That's all. Any any more questions at this point? We once and once we get a motion on we can do more discussion too if we if we need to. Any more questions?

All right. Great. Thank you. Uh what is the pleasure of council in regard to item 12 echo 6.3. Move to approve as presented. Moved by Rowan. Is there support? Support.

Support by Raymond. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. Sheay. Uh yeah, I want to apologize. There's a little bit of sausage making to do here. Um, so I just I meant to contact my colleagues uh before this vote and I dropped the ball, but I just want to let everyone know that I do serve as a volunteer on the real estate development and asset management subcommittee for dwelling place. It's a volunteer role. Um, I do not have any authority over financial matters. I just wanted to disclose that to everyone. Thanks. Any other discussion?

I've I've just got a a couple of comments to make in this regard. One, this is a project I'm incredibly proud of. Um when when we first talked about this uh we talked about the city making an investment in housing one in affordable housing too. And in all of the discussion that we've had, I'm not sure that members of the public are really 100% clear on what it is that we're doing. But essentially what we're doing here is making an additional $51,000 investment in this project for a public benefit that this council sees in this project in both the apartment portion of it and in the town home portion of it in both of them together. And without in my view without that investment I'm not sure these projects would have happened at all. Um, and not only are these affordable housing projects, one of them, especially the Colin the particularly the Colin Park project is affordable housing with a view of Lake Makatawa, which when I say that to people, they go, "Are you kidding me?" Matter of fact, someone in the audience just raised their eyebrows and went, "Wow, there's affordable housing. We're build they're building affordable housing with a view of Lake Makatawa." Absolutely 100%. because we want to make sure that people not only have housing in this community, but they have good housing in this community. And not just in marginalized neighborhoods, but in the best neighborhoods in this community. Both of these projects are core city neighborhoods, walking distance to parks, walking distance to downtown, walking distance to all kinds of amenities in neighborhoods that are very, very valuable neighborhoods, highly soughtafter neighborhoods. And I see this as an investment that this city council, this city is making in this community for the people of this community. Um, and I could not be more proud of this project. I drive by the Common Park site on my way to work every

single day and am happy to see the elevator towers go up, the stair towers to go up. I did notice the panels were there and I thought, "Thank goodness." I drove within a block of the the Hope Church property and thought, "Wow, they are really making good pro progress on that as well." for members of the public who have not been involved in this this process on this project or on others. This these are difficult difficult projects to make work financially. And if it weren't for organizations like Dwelling Place, like Habitat, like Jubilee, our our nonprofit partners, um our help at the state, help at the city, help at the federal level, these projects would not happen. Um the numbers simply do not work otherwise. Um, as Miss Rowan was saying, you know, that you can't get a developer to build a project like this because it's not profitable. Um, so there has to be some sort of investment. And what I see us doing tonight is yes, making an additional investment in this project because we see that there's public benefit here for this project. Um, and without it, this project might not happen. So with that, Brenda, would you please call the role?

Mayor Keane. Yes, Rowan. Yes, Shay. Yes, Clump Barnes. Yes, Breeman. Yes, Raymond. Yes, Corbin. Yes, Schulty. Yes, Mayor Box. Yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Now, next item on the agenda, item 12, echo 6.4, a mortization extension agreement with the Mun Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan, otherwise known as MS. Mr. Van Beek.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councel. I'm going to ask Lynn to come up. Um, we both worked extensively on this, but I will freely admit that uh Lynn has a level of expertise that right rightly so goes further than mine. Um, really with this this is a project that you've heard about that we've been working on and been working with MS for quite some time. Um, and really I'm just going to say for the bottom line, not because we we somehow couldn't afford paying for this benefit that we have with our um retirees and employees that hope to retire someday. but rally rather it's a smart move to manage um from a financial perspective moving forward um with all of the other balanced things that we um get to pay for and provide services to citizens. So Lynn, you can give the more detailed explanation of what this recommendation covers. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and uh members of city council. Uh yes, we've talked about this several times as we um did the forecast a few uh weeks ago. U went into some detail, but basically what it is is another step in our um city's uh commitment to managing our uh pension and postemployment obligations. And so we had discovered that because our plans are closed, our defined benefit plan is closed, it is considered a mature plan. And what that means is that it is subject to much more volatility when you have things like changes in actuarial assumptions or a year where you have a a negative investment return. So um it has been challenging to say the least when we budget from year to year because it is not a predictable uh amount that we would have to pay uh because it's something we rely on the actuaries to compute each year. So we um looked at it with MS as our partner and asked for options on how we could address um our pension obligations so that we could have a more predictable flow and also be mindful that we um are good stewards of the citizens dollars. So we okay, excuse me, we came up with a a plan that has a couple different um things that we're going to do. One of them is we're going to uh commit funds for an additional pension uh contribution. We did that in fiscal year 26 and we'll see that in the projected uh dollars when we start reviewing the budget. And then this is another component of it. We looked at the amortization schedules of those closed plans and we had the actuaries uh do an analysis to make sure that the um we looked at possible extensions and um they looked at each plan the demographics of all the remaining employees in the members of the plan. And so they came back and that's what this part is this action tonight is to actually um revise a couple of those uh extension amortization extensions and

that's all kinds of actuarial speak I know but it basically just um talks about how long you have to pay your uh uh defined benefit plan payment and uh an additional thing we're doing um which is not part of this necessarily but it's related is we are moving to uh um a level payment plan and what that does is if you think about it it actually makes the um payment a little higher in the beginning for because like on your mortgage, you want to pay the same amount each month if you can because it's predictable, but also then it starts chipping away at that principle a lot sooner and reduces the interest on the long and the early side. So, it kind of saves you money over the course of the um loan payment. So, that's a lot of information. Sorry. But um so tonight you're asked to look at this approve this agreement with the amortization extension specifically, but I wanted to give you information so you know that we are it's only one part of our continued commitment at the city to manage these plans um with the uh best use of our dollars that we have.

Right. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Wonderful questions for staff. You explained that so well no one has any questions. Great. Well done. Well done. Thank you. What is the pleasure of councel in regard to this item? Motion to approve item 12 E 6.4. Correct. Correct. Or 1.644. There we go. You were right first. You were right the first time, Mr. Corbin. Okay. Motion by whatever I was right with. Okay. Motion by Corbin. Is there support? Support. Support by Schultice. Any discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Clump Barns,

yes. Freeman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Schultz, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Mayor Box, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, item 13, communications from the city manager, Mr. Van Beek.

Two quick things. Thank you for the long night tonight. Um, I suggest we'll take a brief break between this and then we'll reconvene upstairs in the training room and then tomorrow night we'll also have dinner for you prior and then we'll start the budget review session at 6:00 again up in the training room. And next week for study session, uh, the Frost Center from Hope College will be here. Um, I haven't seen the report yet, so I hope to get it in in the uh, packet ahead of time. No promises, but uh they'll be going over the results of the citizen survey. Um and then Juan especially, but Juan and I have been working on housing support policy. So, we'll continue those discussions next week. That's all I have.

All right. Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, uh item 14, appointments and communications from the mayor. Uh I do have a couple of appointments tonight. I would ask that I am recommending councel uh that we approve the appointments of Eric Castellic and Derek Mackey to the historic district commission each for a three-year term beginning on July 1, 2026 and expiring on June 30, 2029. It is also recommended that city council approve the reappoints of Audrey Hislip and Kim Coffee to the historic district commission both for their second full term expiring June 30, 2029. And I would be looking for a motion in that regard. So moved. Moved by Schultice. Is there support? Support.

Support by We'll give that one to Freeman, I guess. Uh oh. To Clarn we we'll make that one clamps. Uh any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I.

I. All oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Uh and I do have a proclamation this evening. Uh proclamation in regard to the National Day of Prayer. Whereas we recognize the vision of our founders understanding that religious freedom of expression was fundamental in the formation of our great nation. And whereas these freedoms have helped us to create and sustain a nation of remarkable religious vitality and diversity across the generations. And whereas the United States of America recognizes devout persons from every nation have come to America seeking the freedom to worship free from persecution. And whereas we acknowledge our local history is closely bound to the privileges privilege granted by our constitution as early settlers in Holland, Michigan under the leadership of Alberta's Christian Venrali came to Holland to find the freedom to express their faith according to their conscience. And whereas prayer has always been an integral part of American life. In every city, town, and rural community across America, people of every faith and religious denomination gather to worship according to their faith in churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. And whereas people of faith lift our voices and our hearts in prayer of thanksgiving for the blessing of freedom. And whereas in times of crisis, we pray for courage, strength, wisdom, protection, and assistance to better serve our community. And whereas we pray for peace in our communities across America and nations who are facing challenges in their way of life. And whereas we confront the crises and challenges of our world today. And we can call upon the power of prayer to provide courage and uplift us for the work ahead. And whereas on this national day of prayer and every day, we reunite with the purpose and resolve and recommmit ourselves to the core freedoms that help define our nation and by extension our community. And whereas we celebrate the blessing that we can

exercise our convictions freely no matter our faith or beliefs. And whereas let us find in our prayers the determination to overcome adversity, rise above our differences, and come together as one to meet this moment in our history. Now therefore, I, Nathan Box, mayor of the city of Holland, Michigan, call on residents to reaffirm and celebrate the role of prayer in our community and to honor the religious diversity of our great nation on the National Day of Prayer celebrated on May 7, 2026. And I encourage our residents to join in prayer in their own manner, seeking strength from God in the face of problems of today, requesting guidance for goodwill among all people, and giving thanks for the rich blessings that our community and our nation have enjoyed throughout our history. Given under my hand in the seal of the city of Holland this 15th day of April, 2026, Mayor Nathan Box. And that is all I have today. Uh, next item on the agenda, motions, communications from council. Is there anything from council this evening? Seeing none, just one more motion I would entertain at this time. Move to adjurnn. Moved by Vman. Is there support?

Support. Support. Support by Raymond. Uh any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. We are adjourned. Thank you. Uh we will be uh reconvening. Hang up.