City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll call this regular workshop meeting of the Jacksonville City Council order. Council, you've been provided with an agenda for tonight's meeting. I'm sure you've had time to review and I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. So moved. Second motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hear none. All in favor signify say I. I. All oppose. Next we have the adoption of minutes. And there's five consent items on the agenda. Minutes are the March 17, 2026 regular meeting. I make a motion to approve the um the minutes and the consent items.

Second. Have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Go down to number six. This the recommended F527 budget scheduling and presentation format. Josh, you'll be presenting this item.

Thank you, mayor. We have a lot of information on four topics tonight that we're going to present to you. So, each of these has a significant value about the things that we're doing. The first item that we are going to go through is the presentation of the FY27 proposed budget. Uh, city council's been given two books this evening and in those books, one is going to be the proposed budget and the second is going to be your CIP. And I'm just going to walk you through the highlights of that budget and the calendar for the dates that are coming up. And then we'll schedule we have the next meetings. We'll talk about the next meetings and the opportunities that council will have for dialogue as we move forward through uh the budget cycle. So with the budget, it North Carolina general statute does require that the council adopt an operating budget by June 30th of the calendar year or the fiscal year and that would be June 30th, 2026 for us. Our fiscal year does go July 1 through June 30th. We're not like uh the state where we can operate on a on a two-year cycle. We approve a budget every year. The schedule that we go through with the council is a year-long planning process. A lot of communities go through a process that is typically uh three or four month window where you're reviewing the budget. What we do is we present items to the council year round so the council can provide feedback and we're building a budget based on the feedback that we receive. Council goes through a postbudget retreat which this year will be at the end of August, beginning of September. Uh then we have a planning retreat where council sets the initiatives for the next fiscal year. Today is the April 7th date where we present the proposed budget to council. And when we say this to the community, uh this is the first delivery of the document so that council can now review it. This evening the document will be available online. So anyone can go on to

the website, they can contact the clerk and they can get a copy of the budget or they can just review this entire document that has been delivered to council on the website. Uh so you'll see those posted. We also post at the public library because we feel that's a good place where people go and and view and can make copies of the budget. The next council meeting is April 21st. We'll have a public hearing on April 21st. Uh the city council determined to have a public hearing early on in the process so that citizens have the opportunity to provide feedback that council can consider prior to adopting a budget. May 4th at a regular council meeting that is a Monday. Uh the typical meeting is on May 5th, but due to scheduling this next month, we have moved that meeting to Monday, May 4th, we will have council discussion and review on that agenda. And then on May 19th, we have it scheduled for council to consider adoption, and that will have us completed well before the June 30th deadline. The budget highlights are on the first page. Uh there's a few items that I want to draw to your attention. Total budget this year is approximately $134 million. The current FY26 budget is $142 million. So that's about a five or 6% decrease in last year's budget. The proposed tax rate is 60. That's the property tax rate. We have priority investments in employees. Those are based on the priorities that the council has set. We also have the uptown Jacksonville investment. The public safety investment is approximately 34.46 million. We do have change in business practices. So, how we deliver services, review of our efficiency and effectiveness, and trying to improve the way that we deliver services. Water sewer rate increase of 1%. Uh some people may recall we've operated with a 2.25% increase over the last four years to stabilize those revenues and to

monitor the expenditures. This year the proposed rate increase is 1% as you've seen in the water and sewer rate model. And then the last bullet point is uh we do not have rate increases proposed for sanitation on the residential side. However, we have commercial and small business rate increases due to a proposed increase on landfill charges by Enslo County. Uh that's something that we have to consider every year. That's a large expense for our sanitation services. And so when we have information from that service provider, we have to include those into our overall rate schedule. Uh, next year we hope to show you a model on sanitation services as well, just like the water and sewer rate model. Inside of that budget book, when you're going to go do your reading, you're going to see the budget message. It's going to include white papers. The white papers have highlighted areas, uh, blue headline, and then in red, you're going to see whether there's an action requested of the council. That draws your attention to some of these areas we want you to consider. You'll have the budget summary and analysis which breaks down each of the funds. You're going to have individual department budget summaries. And then in the back of the book, you're going to have the fee schedule. It's the proposed fee schedule for FY27. If adopted, it will it will go into effect on July 1, just as well as the approved budget. And what you have in the book is any changes that are being proposed are redlined. So you only have one version, the current version, redline changes that you can consider. At any of the next meetings, we can review any of those items during the council workshop or the council meeting so we can look at it. And as we put on the screen, your book number two is the capital improvement plan. Uh for uh for reference here, the capital improvement plan council considers the next year's

projects in the proposed budget and then the other year's projects are just there as a planning tool. What you'll see on the next presentation by Sabrina is how we're going to turn that CIP into an active document that shows the impacts to revenues and expenditures over the next 10 years by using the data created in the capital improvement plan. General fund total revenues are projected at $71 million next year. Uh the main revenue sources are the adalorum tax at 39 million and the sales tax at 17 million. uh inside of your budget document, we we have a page that discusses the property revaluation this year. That was uh it's a big process for us and we've talked about it in two previous meetings where the county completes a property revaluation for all property owners and then the revenues received from that are generated through the tax rate that the council sets and then you have those revenues to operate the general fund. Then the sales tax is $17 million. That's an estimated decrease in sales tax for next year. I will point out that the Enzo County chooses to use an ad valorum method to distribute sales tax and they have two other options available to them. One being the sales tax or one being the uh per capita method and the other being a blended method that was granted to Enzo County through the general assembly. So, Enzo County this month of April, they will submit their selective method to the state and say, "This is how we're distributing sales tax for FY27."

Mr. Ray, remind us all of that wonderful figure that we're losing every year in tax right now. Potentially the estimated for next year on the Advilum method, it would be approximately 17 million. If they went straight per capita, we would receive approximately $28 million. That's an estimate based on the numbers that we've received from the state, but 10 to 11 million difference based on the method of distribution. With the hybrid method, it would be roughly 3 million to 6 million depending on if they use the hybrid method.

And Mr. with the um discussion that's currently going on with the general assembly about um capping at valorum taxes. So, you know, let's just play devil's advocate. If that does pass, then how would this now impact the city of Jacksonville? If your Avalor taxes is going to be taxed for so much, then what do you think the possibility that the county commissioners would use? Would they still do strictly affily? Or do you foresee possibility going back to per capita?

Dr. Mark, just in general, if the I believe if the state put a restriction on how the property reevaluation process happens or on a cap for joined city and county tax rates. I believe that would push the county towards being in an adorum sales tax distribution. they would stay at the method they are because they would lose those revenues. Um there's a couple other challenges that the state's considering this year and both the House and the Senate have a subcommittee that are reviewing property taxes evaluations and any type of limitation or restriction they put on those numbers would have an impact on our budget. Hypothetically, if we're able to approve a budget before they take an action on the current proposal, then our budget would not be impacted by the action that they take if they take it after. But that's hypothetically based on the language we've seen in a proposal. I I don't think I would bet on that. I would say we move through our process normally. And if they make a change that happens at the end of May or the beginning of June, then city council at any point has the opportunity to amend the budget document as you do at every meeting as you did today to start the meeting. So the budget document is very valuable. It's a great way for us to start the year. Uh but the ability for the council to pivot throughout the year uh really goes back to your resilience with building a healthy fund balance and being able to provide those projects that are deemed important.

If I could interject something here, uh we're talking about sales tax distribution. It seems a little I don't know contradictory to me that the state statute requires the state of North Carolina to redistribute sales tax that's collected on a per capita basis back to the counties and I just don't understand why that doesn't trickle down. Uh maybe at some point somebody could help me understand that. I don't think anybody's going to be able to help you understand that mayor. Um I know Dr. Washington asked that question at the last meeting and uh and fill in attorney Raz said in a long explanation there's really nothing you can do about it

except lobby. Well, one would think that if um the state of North Carolina was changing um or contemplating about putting a cap on um at Valorum that there would be other adjustments um that would come along with that in their discussions particularly with with the counties. You would hope so.

And mayor, we'll stay active with the league, with the Association of County Commissioners, and with our representatives during this short session to dialogue with them. We talked to Senator Lazaro last week. Uh we talked to Representative Gable today. We will do our best to have Mr. Yiro speak with Representative Shepard as often as possible. um they work well together. So hopefully we can create that dialogue to create some kind of it is kind of interesting with the per capita basis that comes to us and part of that part of it for every citizen is they get so much sales tax back and and because we have that avalorum method it goes to other communities and uh really it really affects our really affects our community and how we provide services. May, last comment I'll make on this one for you is just today the city of Wilmington had the same type of discussion yesterday. The story came out today. They're having the same kind of comments with New Hover County. They operate their sales tax in that way. They're looking at their at their property tax rates. Uh they have to do things that provide for long-term capital improvements, the employees, and for their health care costs. These are all things we have to consider every single year. So, it's no different from community to community. So the last item there are the fees. A lot of people ask what are these other things that you have. So you have fees that you charge for services. Those are services that are not provided through your general fund revenues uh of sales tax and of the adalorum tax. They're provided for service. So not everyone has to pay those. Yes sir.

Has the North Carolina League of Municipalities taking a have they taken a position on this on the per capita versus Avalon? They have not on this item. They're only working well they're working now on the rebound and combination sal uh property tax rates. They have not taken a position that I'm aware of in our conversations on sales tax distribution. That's a discussion we ought to have with them. Well, it's kind of interesting and and Laura's been to both the county association attorneys and the city attorneys meetings and there's two different stories here. So the county association will be lobbying for they want to do it how they want.

The league's going to lobby for hopefully they're going to step out and say we need this. So uh we need them to take a stance. We've listed it as one of our one of our priorities that we've sent to the league every year since and we talked last week with them as well about this is a top priority. Back to to Miss Edward's comment, 10 to 11 million is a real number. Even when it started, mayor, you said it was 2.6 or so. So, it's always been a real number. It matters to where we're at. And just so public know, that is our official organization for lobbying at the legislature.

Yeah, that's why we're an active member consistently is for lobbying our state. Uh the next page here, mayor, this is going to break down just your general fund expenditures by department. It's important that you see how the general fund dollars are dispersed evenly. There are much better slih pages inside of your budget document that'll show this analysis and review, but this is these are the areas where we spend and it shows where the priorities are for our community. Our priorities are and have been public safety and we continue to spend our dollars there. Um, in terms of total expenditures, water and sewer fund, you'll see last year's amended budget approximately 36 million. This year's proposed budget 34 million. That's even with the rate increase of 1%. What you're seeing is a movement between projects and efficiencies. And that's what you're going to see across the board when I consistently say we're looking at change in business practices for the solid waste fund. Same concept. FY26 amended. That means all the changes you've made throughout the year, 11.8 8 million. FY27 proposed 10.4 million. And so council has taken a very aggressive action over the last three years to increase those rates to make sure that we have the revenues we need. At one point, we thought we were going to have a different plan this year that the county may change the way that they fund their landfill operations. They've pivoted to to a different option. So, we have to pivot as well based on an expense that we have. It's a large expense within this overall budget, but we're still able to reduce our operational expenses based on whether we're buying vehicles or how we're delivering services. A lot of capital improvements are included in FY27. Uh we talk about having the Uptown Jacksonville project and how that's a priority. We do not want people to think that those are the only projects that we have. You'll see within the document and you'll see

within the CIP there are multiple projects that are that are planned out. You have pedestrian improvements every year the regional sewer project is one of the biggest projects that we've ever undertaken in our city. Uh roughly a $70 million project and we're constantly working through that. It'll uh be a value ad to us in terms of all of our services. Jacksonville Station phase two um and then the Northeast Creek wetlands and shoreline improvements. If you recall a couple years ago, our team received over $16 million in grant funds to improve these systems. Recently, we've had some concerns about the shoreline improvements over at Northeast Creek. They're scheduled. The funds are there. It's going to be amazing once we can get these projects moving forward. They've been planned now. The revenue is there. So, you'll see those projects happening this year. Uh you also see the Miracle Field, which you'll hear from Susan tonight. and uh she has uh another project to talk about tonight. So, we're really excited about moving multiple projects forward for the year. The next steps we have April 21st public hearing. That's a vital piece. Not only is it required, but the city council has taken a proactive approach to receiving input. It's not the only time you can receive input. Hopefully people will talk to you and in email, text, phone calls in person and they'll be able to provide comments about the budget documents. So I encourage people to check the website, but then on the May 4th, it'll be a workshop in here again. We'll have dialogue here. If you have any comments, please share that with staff. And then May 19th, additional discussion and the opportunity for council to consider adoption of the budget on that date. Um, if there's any other meetings that council wants to have in the meantime, we can schedule those meetings with proper notice through the clerk's office.

Mayor, that document is what you have in front of you. We also want to make staff time available. So, when you look at information inside the book, please schedule a call or a meeting so we can review it. Miss Smith was not able to be here today because of a prior engagement. We were able to go through her budget book yesterday. So, unlike the rest of you, she didn't have to wait till today. She had the first reading and swore not to tell anybody what she saw. Um, she got an hour version, you got the 10-minute version. So, we just encourage any citizens that look through us, if they want to talk about it, to give us a call and then to be ready for the next council meeting to to discuss.

I I do have one question. It's about employee pay. Um, and I know that there's some uh outliers of that. I'd like to see with that 5% is that going to you know especially in public safety is that going to uh solve our issues with being competitive in the market.

Yeah. And that's that's great in terms of overall in terms of the pay plan. The the good thing we can show you on a report is from the action in 2022 when council started an aggressive pay plan and a new methodology and defined the market. We can show you the improvements that council's made year-over-year and the impact it's had on each position within the defined market and our pay plan. And so we can share that information with you. I I would love to see how how we compare especially with police, fire, and and I know there's some others out there as well that need to be adjusted and how that 5% is going to help us do that.

Yeah. And remember there's three plans that the council approves. So when council considers this 5% increase that's of the overall salaries line item salaries and benefits. So you have a market increase that will occur in July. You'll have a merit increase that will occur in end of January, beginning of February. So employees have two two opportunities to receive an increase in their pay. And then after that, any funds that are remaining are utilized to solve any areas of insufficiency in the pay plan that may still exist. So, back to Mr. Janeiro's comment, if you see an area that is still low as compared to our defined market, we use those funds to raise those positions and to to impact the people inside of those positions. So theoretically, there are three periods throughout the year where we're constantly analyzing the pay plan to make sure we're getting to that point. And I go back to that to the statement from the mayor three years ago. We have to figure out how to continue this until we get to a point where we're satisfied with the market and then we can maintain that level so that we're attractive and we're being that employer of choice that uh that people want to want to come to. today. The dialogue we had earlier with uh Chief Phelps's team was it's great to have people that are interested in our positions and that want to join the team and bring their talent. So, it may not always be entry- level position. If we're bringing people in with talent, experience, and skills, then that increases our overall value as an organization. So, we'll provide that information and talk more deeply about that meeting.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Other questions before we go move on.

I have to leave my glasses on so I can see, but I have to be close enough to see both fire and close. Challenge these. Good evening, mayor and council. Thank you for having me this evening to go over the capital planning financial model. Just like the water and sewer model that we're all familiar with, this is an internal planning tool to help us determine how our decisions today impact the city over time, specifically related to capital and debt when we're talking about general fund. And although the model does um include all of the projects related to general fund, there is some focus tonight on the one city center since that is the project that has the following So the capital plan model brings everything that's general fund related together in one big picture. We forecast the revenues and expenditures and then we add to that the capital plans which come from the capital improvement uh capital improvement plan the CF and then we add to that the debt service. So with those all of those items we're able to see the bigger picture of general fund. Can we afford what we were planning long term, not just this budget year, which is important. We're able to test different scenarios with the model, different projects, different borrowings, different types of borrowings, um changes in revenue, uh just competing projects. We're able to do all that to test long-term sustainability. With every financial planning model, we make some assumptions, quite a few of them. So the assumptions in this model are that revenues are going to grow at 2% annually which is fairly conservative as we normally are. Um we have expense escalation factored in from 1 and a.5% to 5% per year based on different

categories. Those categories could be personnel operating cost um contracts. We use the FY27 proposed CIP which includes the projects that in your book you have tonight through 2036. I do want to say that it says some projects and the reason for that is for the purposes of this scenario. We do have turned off in the model um other recreation related projects because we do have the 400 acre project that is a large recreation project and it contains a significant borrowing. so that we can see what happens in the model. The projects for the New River boardwalk expansion, Wilson Bay Seaw Wall, um Commons Trail Rehab, and the city parks improvement program are four large capital expenditures that we have turned off. And we can talk more about why that is later. We also do have the $50 million borrowing to fund the one city one city center construction and additionally the model assumes that we are transferring from capital reserve fund to support the debt service for FY28, FY29 and a portion of FY30. And the reason that we are doing that is because if you recall we did reallocate some ARPA funding to the capital reserve fund a year a year maybe two ago um with the anticipation of the one city center. So we set that money aside and the model assumes that we are going to use that funding to pay the debt service for the first two and a half years. Additionally, it assumes that the 4 cents that we currently transfer to capital reserve each year from the property tax rate will end in FY28 and will be reallocated to pay future debt service.

And it also assumes that the tax rate remains set at 60 cents which is included in the budget as well. So for the financial metrics, our main goal is to determine um if we hold the tax rate, if we have all those scenarios in and hold the tax rate where it is, what does that look like for the city financially over time? And again, not just in the next year or two, but long term. You can see that um the most significant impact to the city is projected debt service levels. We would be expected to ex exceed current levels by approximately 4.8 8 million um in FY32, which is when it would be at its highest point. So, if we're thinking about the pennies that we talk about, the pennies of our tax rate, to give you an idea of scale, right now, we estimate generally we're at about 6.06 cents of our tax rate. So, that means of the 60 cents right off the top, 6.06 cents is going to debt service. Well, when we borrow the $50 million, when we get to FY32, we'll need that 6.06 plus the additional 7.23, which is where the reallocation of the 4 cents comes into play to help bring that down a little bit. And then we're just looking for, you know, a few things in addition in addition to make that disservice payment.

So, what we're doing is we are shifting funding from projects to funding. We're shipping capital reserve funding future projects to funding debt service. And then you can see that the debt service starts to reduce after 2032. And that is not because we're paying off the new borrowing so quickly, but it's more that we are paying off the older debt that we have. We have the 2017 lob which is the borrowing that we did for the public safety center and the um and sturgeon city that was in 2017 that will be paid off in 2032 and that annual debt service is about $1.5 million a year. So that's why you see the decrease from the 7.23 down to 5.04. Additionally, in the model, we have included annual borrowing all the way out through the model for um vehicles and equipment because we do typically borrow for that every year. And that is factored in at about $3 million annually. Another important uh financial metric that we use is debt service to operating expenditures. Um maybe I it feels like everything happened last week, but I know it's probably been about a year. We had the city council formerly adopted a debt policy and within that policy our city council decided our debt service to operating expenditures will not exceed 15%. Um it's important to note that is also the same uh metric that the LGC uses. So when we do go to the LGC to borrow they would require that we can show our debt service to operating as less than 15%. we reach a maximum with this borrowing of 13% in FY28. Um even though that is the highest

point, it does remain at or right below that level for 5 years before that the lob is paid off and it's decreases a little bit. Again, this is not a red flag, but it's definitely an increase from where we are today, which is below 6%. So, it's something that we all want to be aware of and monitor going forward. Another important financial metric of course is always our fund balance. Again, we have an adopted fund balance policy. It says that city council will maintain a fund balance of 25% or greater. And you can see from looking at this particular slide that we are well above those targets. I do want to caution with this slide um it does not distinguish unassigned fund balance. It is all of the fund balance and um as you know sometimes our restricted fund balance can be quite high. I think it was $16 million last year. So um this does not necessarily mean that although we see the graft is getting bigger each year that everything is fully funded going forward which we can we'll get more into.

You might want to go a little bit in depth about the different funds.

Yes. So the there's unassigned fund balance which can be used for basically whatever the city deems that we need to use it for. Restricted fund balance is going to be um things that are restricted by law. Debt service, we have to pay that first and that's why we allocate that 6 cents right to debt. Um and usually a lot of times you'll have grants and that restricted amount. Um com there's committed and assigned. So committed would be things like the law enforcement separation, things that council restricts that says we're going to pay. And then assigned would be anything that we have for capital. You know, usually it's capital projects. Um, and of course council can make decisions to unassign that and reassign it somewhere else. But those are the different categories that we have. And so for this slide, this includes all all of that. and restricted. Um there's restricted by state statute as well and that's really what causes the largest variances in our restrictions because this is getting very into the weeds, but if we get to the end of the year and we roll over a bunch of large POS, um those are incumbrances and and that becomes restricted because we have to pay that. So um that's how your restricted fund balance can go from 12 million one year to 4 million the next. I mean it can really it can really change a lot without we don't have much control over that other than you know if we lived in a perfect world and got all of our POS closed you know at the end of the year

POS purchase orders

yes sorry purchase orders yeah so the key takeaway from the model is that um there's no immediate financial strain with the borrowing we can support the proposed borrowing in the near term um if we you you know, continue with the tax rate where it is. Debt service does increase significantly. Um, $4.8 million annually for several years. Um, there are no future tax rates that are built into the model. We're not showing that, you know, in 10 years from now, we have there has to be a rating a tax rate increase, but current revenues don't always cover the future debt cost. So, some years their fund balance is bridging the gap. Um when you do look at the fund balance slide and you see that it is growing, part of the reason for that is that the revaluation and the revenue growth from that create temporary surpluses. So you have the revenue coming in from the revaluation, but the debt service hasn't quite ramped up. So there's a little bit of a timing difference there. And as you continue to pay up that debt, all of your other costs go up as well, but your revenue is still, you know, your property tax rate is still the same. Eventually, you're going to eat you you're going to be using fund balance to to bridge that gap. For sustainability, again, um the debt service, the $50 million, um the borrowing is sustainable in the short term. You can see the fund balance, the operating debt service to operating ratio, everything looks um looks good. Uh in the in the short term as we talked about later down the line there need have that's when the decisions have to start being made, right? Because we've reallocated that 4 cents that was typically used for capital projects.

We're almost at our 15% in debt capacity. So that means that projects then are cash funded from fund balance, which is okay. That's what fund balance is meant to do as opposed to ongoing operating expenses. But that means that any projects when you think about the 400 acres, the other phases like the rectangular fields or amphitheaters or if Chief needs a new ladder truck, large capital costs that aren't built in, all of those things then come from fund balance. So, those are decisions that have to be made later by council as to what projects will move forward because those long-term obligations will still be there. And then very long-term um it's it's more decisions about what moves forward and then potentially a decision about the tax rate later as more projects come. So, why do we talk about this today? Um, well, it's good timing because we are in the revaluation. You do have your budget with the proposed tax rate. The dis the debt decisions that we make today create long-term obligations. If we do the borrowing for one city center, we are creating an obligation that is 20 years. So, we want to be mindful of having all of the information. Um at the same time while we're making those decisions, the revaluation and the tax rate determines what that future revenue capacity is. So um it's important to do the have the alignment early between the revenues and those long-term debt obligations. Just like with the water sewer rate model and we have that um you know practice of doing those small incremental increases every year to make sure that everything's funded. This is very similar to that but on the general fund side. It allows us to plan proactively. As with any financial model there are

some risk because we are making some assumptions. So if revenue growth is slower than projected um if I project 2% and it's only 1%. or if the financial advisors um on the debt service have told me that they think we can borrow next year for 4% and we get to next year and it's 4 and a.5%. That's a you know a significant change in cost um increased operating or capital capital expenditures in the general fund. Um we all have experienced what's happened over the last few years with changes in cost that we would not have known you know before co um the operating cost of the facility. As you um all probably recall we brought in an operator early into the design process of the one city center to help build in revenue generation. But at this time um we don't have the revenues or the operating cost built into this model um because we're we're still moving along in that project. So we can once we get that additional information of course we can run this model 15 times it you know a month if we want to hopefully I don't have to do it 15 times but we can do it as often as we need to. And then our as always our largest risk is an over reliance on fund balance for ongoing cost. Again, you know, your fund balance you you want to have as a you know, a safety net for planning for projects um for emergencies. We tal we've talked a lot in the past about having reserves for hurricane, but you don't want your fund balance to be spent on paying salaries and debt service. you know, you you want to make sure that you have enough revenue to cover that. So, based on this um scenario in the capital planning model, we staff does recommend that we maintain the current

rate tax rate, which is in the budget. Um and we commit to um continuing to do the annual updates and evaluate all of our future capital decisions through the same lens just as we do with our water sewer rate model every year. And um overall it shows that we are in a strong position today and if we continue to make thoughtful decisions we can maintain that stability going forward. I'm happy to try to answer any questions. Well, one thing we talked about that 400 acres was, you know, once we start getting some development back there in the road and is selling parts of that off to help fund some of this. So that should hopefully relieve some of this burden. Right. And that I mean that is something that I know we have talked about before.

We can't bank on that currently but exactly and we can't it's there's so many whatifs you know to talk through but when we go to the LGC um to borrow debt the the main thing is that we have to show to the LGC

we're able to pay the debt even if we can't you know sell off whatever to a developer. So, but that is accurate to say what any additional funding that would come whether it be from developers or the county or the state um that would all be a benefit and then you you would re-evaluate the model, re-evaluate the tax rate and and do all this again. I want to say I appreciate the effort that you the staff has made in this because I think you know I sat through these for 20ome years and uh I think this was probably the best presentation that I've seen about about looking at it in a in a strategic way and making sure that we're uh that we're poised for for planning for the future. So, um, I certainly appreciate you and your staff and and the rest of the staff that's that's come up with this.

Any other questions? And that model is something that we'll present this year-over-year in an early planning phase so that you can provide input early on about direction where we're going. So, it's a a critical planning tool to have and it's it it really will change the way that you look at CIP moving forward in terms of project analysis and review. And just like Mr. Sosa's comment, if any other partners come in, whether they're public or private, in terms of funding, buying land, we will factor that in and show you the impact and then council will make a decision on how to use those funds and where to put them inside the model.

Thank you, Sabrina. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have some um um right on the heels of Sabrina on some projects. Um our projects are some good updates that are happening this year. So, you're actually going to see some things happening. We have some exciting updates for not only you, but for the public listening. Um so, you are familiar with the inspiration field. This has been pretty much four years in the making, but we are very excited. Again, just as a recap, this field is an inspiration field because it's a smooth surface. It is completely ADA accessible. It is something that we're able to provide all of our um you know, moy challenged uh children, adults, and those folks in the community that need that assistance, not just to be able to play recreation, but to be able to watch their children as well. Grandparents, everything is going to be completely accessible. So, we're really excited about that. So, as you can see, it's fully accessible. It is the size of a T- ball field, which is 150 fence foot line um distance. So, it's a smaller field, but it's perfect for what we're trying to accomplish on this uh uh field. It's going to include lighting. You all had um approved a uh contract with Musco Lighting a few weeks ago. Thank you so much for that. Uh we are repurposing the lights that are already there. You'll see a map in a minute, but we have lighting from our skate park that used to be there. And so we were able to work with that original contractor to say, "Hey, can we upfit? What can we do so that all of our kids can play at the same rate as the other kids that are in our community?" So all of our youth ball fields have lighting. And we just feel like that's really important for everybody to feel like they're being included at all points in time when they're um having a good time. Um it also includes a 20x 20 shelter pavilion so that families can celebrate all the good wins after they play. Uh and then the sidewalks connecting

everybody in an accessible manner um around and around the commons and onto the ball field into the shelter and so on. Um so this is a rendering here. As you can see the shaded out areas are the four youth fields that we have now. Um and then where the new one is proposed is right there where the old skate park was. This was property that obviously we don't have or we don't utilize anymore. So, we felt like this was a great way for us to repurpose that space, but it also means a lot um for us to be able to provide those services to kids at the same place as other kids that are recreating. Um it's important for siblings to feel like, oh, they might have a te-ball game on this field and then there's, you know, little brother or sister can also participate at the same location and they're not removed. Um we feel like that's what inclusivity is all about. I want to mention that this puts us in communities that are our our our peers in the state as Greenville, Wilmington just finished one and Wilson um the city of Durham has one. But this really this opportunity that other cities are providing puts us right there with them and I just think that's something that you all are to be commended with uh with moving us forward on this project. So very exciting. But the great news on this is we are we are going to be hitting the ground u next month. So our notice to proceed is May 8th. We waited till after our Jambbury event. For all of you listening, our Jambbury event will take place on that Saturday. And then our TE Davis is our general contractor that's been awarded the contract. We'll be ready to go hopefully that Monday. Uh we also have entered into an agreement with our Musco lighting I just mentioned. And so they're ready to take those lights out. We'll store them and then they can retrofit, upfit, and upgrade those lights when we're ready to reinstall them. So, uh, we're really excited. We're moving forward with this. Our, uh, grant funders have been great to work with, and we are only looking at a 220-day contract. So, we should be some,

we should be hopefully having a grand opening maybe by the end of the year or at least, you know, maybe maybe spring of next go around to open up the baseball season. So, this is going to be a really um a fun project. I'm I'm super fortunate. I appreciate everybody's um you know support in this, but I think it's going to be just a great thing for all of our families and our communities. All right, so the next one is a dog park. Uh we don't have a name for this, so it's just labeled dog park, but I know all of you have probably heard from your citizens on the the why don't we have a dog park? We get lots of calls in our office. Um this is one of our highly requested um amenities in the community. This is one that we've noted multiple times in our master plan. It has been one of those things that um we've addressed a couple of times, but we're actually moving forward this this time. So, we're excited. This one is going to be located at the Commons. I'll show you a map in just a second. Um but it is going to be off of the Commons. Really great location. It was recommended in our plan to be located in a in a large hub of ours because we just have a high population and we have other amenities that will serve well for something like this at the commons. It will be off leash, but it will be gated and every all of the clear rules and expectations will be outlined. So, I'm not going to I'm not going to even bother with the little pencil or all those good things, but this is going to be a small and a big dog park. This is actually right across the street from our new field that we just described. So, you're on the back side of the Commons. The skate park, I mean, the um inspiration field will be down here on the bottom. And then right across the street is going to be the new dog park. We felt like at all of our locations, this one is serves really well because we already have parking in place, so that's convenient. We also have restrooms located in the commons and we also have some really nice infrastructure. Fiber is already run out there. Lighting is going to be out

there. So, it lends itself really nicely to this development. Um, we're just really excited that we can finally let the public know that this is coming to your to your area and this is going to be something that I think there is going to be really well received um and that we can at least provide. It is a gated so you'll enter in off of the I'll say the left side and it will be an opportunity that they'll have to register their dogs. We still have some details we'll flush out, but that way the small dogs will go up to the to the top and then the large dogs will go to the bottom. It's a tremendous space. It's a really nice large space. I've already um talked with some of my peers in the state. Lots of other communities have been down this road, so we've gotten some great benchmark um opportunities as far as what we need, what we don't need, and how we want to move forward. But this is a nice large area, plenty of room for lots of dogs. So, we feel like this is going to be sufficient for our community and so far the ask that we've had from our community to say, well, so many dogs, we feel like this is going to really serve a purpose the size of this. Um, we've done a tremendous job. I want to give um some great kudos to some of our our crews internally. We're working this we're not contracting this whole project out. We're fortunate that Wallally's crews, Michael's crews have done a phenomenal job of already going in there and taking the trees out. So you'll see some trees have already started to come down and what we're doing is doing it phase by phase. So trees will come down. We're going to work with the fence company. We're going to work with the electric company to get lighting up there, the sidewalks and the pedestrian crossing. So a lot of this is going to get done in house which we are um confident that'll keep us within our budget that got reallocated this year in the budget process. So um this too we feel like we're going to get it done. So hopefully um by spring I'll say that that'll be a um that'll hopefully be enough of a window that we can have um a

good ground opening on on both of those projects at the commons. So um yeah that's it for some projects. Any questions on that? Will all the trees be gone or No. No. Great question. Uh we are definitely keeping it shaded. That's one of those things that we hear from our peers is you need some shade, but you want sun to come through to help with the biodegrading of some of those natural um excerts, I guess you could say. Speaking of the house, it doesn't get cleaned. And I guess

well, this is the benefit of having such a large space. Yeah. I mean, there's going to be some maintenance to it. One of the expenses will be to bring in some mulch as well because mulch is one of those it'll help biodegrade a lot of that. But this is a this is a large enough area that we feel like we've we're going to be able to really maintain it to a level that we we feel like all of the dogs will have plenty of room, if that makes sense. But yeah, it's going to be shaded and that's kind of what we're working through now is what trees are coming down, what trees are staying, and then that way we can be uh cognizant of some of those um the shading but not too hot and and and allow for everybody to kind of go in there and not swelter in the middle of the summer. Good question, Susan. Thank you very much. I'm excited to see the inspiration field come to life um for our kids, especially those who are mobility challenged or have other sensory issues and being in a regular environment is challenging for them. Gives them access. So, that's important. And I personally have several friends that I can now say, "Don't call me again if I have dog."

Yes. Thanks. We are very excited about that one. Thank anyway. I understand. Yes, it is officially out there. So, we can now tell people we have dog park coming. Anything else for me? Thank you, Susan. Okay, thank you so much. We got the uh discussion that's the Court Street project update.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Thank you for the opportunity to come discuss the Court Street project with you and as well I know we have some um local businesses here um to discuss the project as well. So, with that, um, I'd like to go ahead and get started with kind of a story of how we got here. Um, hopefully this will answer some of the questions that we've heard. Um, it's really not a new project, but it has changed throughout the years. Um, the the Court Streetscape project uh was envisioned actually many years ago. It started with Allison Platt um who developed some plans for downtown in the late 90s early 2000s um and that became one of the main focuses of that plan was Newbridge Street uh but it did have some renderings for Court Street um as part of that plan and with that um as we've gone through the years developed the CIP entered in with Newbridge Street and the um challenges is with that project and the time that that project took um we started reooking at Court Street and um for for lack of a better term we started phasing the Court Street project. So this is a view from Highway 17 looking straight down Court Street. Um, this originally started back in the 20 2009 2010 time frame with the planning and design of the center for public safety. Um, we moved in and completed the project around 2014 I believe. Um, but where this project started was um, looking at the Court Streetscape and the roadway and pedestrian access. And you can see um if you remember Merl

Circle was a very um uncomfortable intersection with 17 and it didn't provide direct flow into um down Court Street. Um so we re we realigned Court Street. We uh made improvements with pedestrian facil facilities. One of the biggest improvements that we made is pull the un the overhead power underground. Um and then we did streetscaping, streetscape, landscaping. Um tree wells on one side, a street lawn on the other. And then you can kind of see as we move down the street. Um we have pedestrian friendly lighting. We provided some b uh bumpouts with parallel parking along that section. Um so so the initial streetscape phase started with the center for public safety. Um we carried that a little bit further in the 2012 time frame with Tolman Street. Uh we made I didn't put a picture in here of Tomman Street, but we used the same type of lighting that is located along Court Street. We made pedestrian improvements and we added landscaping along uh Tomman as well. The big challenge comes when we get to the next block of Court Street. So, one of the challenges we have here is a very wide street and a very narrow pedestrian way right in front of the businesses on the left side of Court Street. Um along with overhead power and not a lot of place to put that overhead power. And one of the biggest challenges when it comes to overhead power in this area is the three lines that you see at the very top of the pole are actually transmission. They're not distribution. It carries the power into downtown along Court Street. Um so it is very expensive

to underground that type of power. Um, so that is one of the the challenges that we're looking at um and will be with the future cord streetscape project. Um, that said, the streetscape project actually goes all the way down to College Street. Um, but as we started looking at that um that project, we realized that we had some other opportunities. Um, one of the challenges with this block is that it is limited to one-way traffic. Um, with the realigning of the core street intersection at 17, um, there was a desire to have two-way traffic to carry traffic into downtown by the downtown businesses all the way to the river and to Sturgeon City, um, which is now a destination. Um so when we started looking at this we realized that there might be an opportunity to move this part of the project along. Um and with that we also started looking at this section of Cord Street with the brick pavers which has garnered so much attention recently. Um, so in the in the challenge in this section, I'll go into it a little more, is we're starting to we're we're really near the end of life of that brick surface and we're starting to see some failures in that area. Um, but the the unique challenge that we have in these two areas that we do not have in this area is the pedestrian facilities in front of the businesses are more appropriate. Um the street is slightly narrower especially um in the section. It's a lot narrower as you can see in the picture in the section um from Newbridge to Oldbridge Street. That's one way. Uh but the opportunity

that we have is to come in and do the street portion ahead of the streetscape portion. And one of the reasons for that is there's no drainage facilities along this road. Um, one of the big challenges that we had with Newbridge Street was we had underground stormwater infrastructure that was undersized. Um, we had businesses constantly flooding out. Anytime there was an issue, we delivered sandbags to those businesses. And in order to upgrade the infrastructure, we had to replace all of the storm water infrastructure along New Brbridge Street. Um and we put some major infrastructure 8 and 10 ft deep along Newbridge Street as well as we replaced um the water along New Brbridge Street which was um from the 60s or 70s I can't remember exactly um but that water that the water infrastructure needed to be replaced along Newbridge Street. So, with that, I'd like to jump into a little bit of the history of the Core Street area. And I'll apologize now. A lot of I was not present for all of this. I was actually in high school for some of it, which still makes me old. I realize that, but um it's the the timelines are built off of data that I could find that we had available, sets of plans um you know and and and I'll talk about some of that in a minute, but it's it's based on old aerials and information that I can find. And I know that Mr. Willingham was here for probably part of it, so we can add to some more specific.

We worked together previously, so I remember this So, but um and I did find plans and certifications where the water was was redone. The water lines were redone along Court Street. I mean in um in the early 90s and we tied into that water when we did Tolman. So, we've actually replaced the water in the '9s along Court and um in the 2000s along Tolman Street. Um, in the mid90s, uh, the plans were actually dated in '89. So, um, and they weren't sealed and there were comments, so I don't have the finalized plans, but they were do plans and nothing moves fast with DOT. Um, but DOT actually extended Old Bridge Street from Court to East Railroad. So, that happened sometime between the early and mid90s. Also, in that time, the um oneway was added. It used to be, matter of fact, I I found a lot of plans that showed um the two-way street that Court Street used to be. Um and in sometime in the mid '9s, um mid to late 90s, Court Street was made one way. Um some of my staff guessed that it may have been with the courthouse renovation, but I don't know that for sure. I don't know if you know that. So, and then um also in the mid late 90s the bricks were installed and I do I'm I'm more comfortable at that time frame because I have staff that specifically told me they helped on that project. So, uh part of that project was done inhouse. And then in 2021, we started the plans for the reinstatement of two-way traffic on Court Street. And um those those plans were part of an overall larger transportation plan and

it was actually done by transportation services and um it was that portion of the project was grant funded. So I really don't um I don't have a lot of history with the design and the development but I do know that it was done as part of an overall larger uh transportation project that the design was grant funded. And then in 2022, in fiscal year 22, we added the CIP project for the two-way and brick resurfacing of Court Street. So that's the first time that it actually shows up in the capital improvement plan. and it showed up with funding in I I believe it was fiscal year 24 um for some design work to finalize in fiscal year 25 um to begin construction and then um in fiscal year 23 the court streetscape project um was adjusted the timeline was actually adjusted and moved out and I believe it was um adjusted to fiscal school year 27 to begin planning and design. And it is in your it has been in your CIP since then and it is in your CIP that you're reviewing um with as part of your budget. And then in fiscal year 24 u the project was like I said it was designed with overall larger project. So, transportation services turned um the design over to public services and engineering division to um pull the specs together, put all of our details with it, finalize it, advertise it, um award the contract, and then move toward construction. So, the project was advertised in December of

25. It was awarded awarded to CM Mitchell in um February of this year with uh construction to begin in April of this year. So this is the project limits. Um again, it's the section of Cord Street from Newbridge to Railroad and then from um Railroad down to C uh College. And you'll notice I did not on purpose circle the intersection of um Old Bridge Street. It's because we will not be working in Old Bridge Street. We won't close that street off. Um that street was recently redone by NC DOT and um they repaved and did made pedestrian improvements with um bulvouts um along that section of street from um the old bridge which is is that one the Popkin Bridge um to um all the way up to old uh Court Street. I apologize. So, we won't be working in the in the street. So, here's the project scope. The project scope is to restore two-way traffic um along Court Street from New Bridge to Old Bridge Street. Um and to resurface, we'll install a new curb line uh following existing elevations. And behind that curb line, we will have a utility strip that will just be landscaping. Um and we're doing that. We're not we're not in installing any new sidewalk. We're not adjusting the sidewalk that's there. Um there will be areas we where we have to take um some sidewalk out that runs all the way out into the the existing landscaping to widen the road. Um but we're going back

with um basically just landscaping after we widen the road. And the reason we're doing that as part of this plan is to allow for that future streetscape project to handle the landscaping, the lighting, the overhead or hopefully undergrounding of power um and then the um the lighting, the pedestrian friendly lighting of that area. And then it also includes the removal of the medians um which do have some turning challenges as you're uh maneuvering from Old Bridge onto Court Street and it would remove the brick pavers and then it would resurface both blocks and the current contract does call for asphalt. It does not call for new brick pavers and it does not call for um concrete or anything like that. it is to go back with asphalt. So there has been a lot of discussion um regarding the brick roadway. Um so I did try to capture um facts about brick roadways along with um some of the things that we've heard from the business owners and u what we heard and what we've I mean we've received dozens of calls at this point as well. So, um the campaign has been very successful. Um and we have documented those people that have called that are in support of um the bricks. They do have an a historic appearance. Ours are not historic, but they do have that appearance. Um and they've been called charming and aesthetically pleasing, and we recognize that, you know, it the brick does add to that. Um and then you can see some other things um that have come up. I won't go through everyone in the interest of time. Um but one that I

kind of wanted to point out is um a brick system is a modular system. It's it's basically indep independent. The uh integrity comes from the base. The brick does not provide integrity. It's it's what's under the brick that provides integrity. And the great thing about that is um they do a very good job of hiding whatever's underneath unless it starts to sink, move or fail. Um and then unfortunately again they're independent so they start to do the same thing. Um there are some challenges associated with bricks. Um they do settle and shift which is kind of what I They do a great job of hiding what's underneath them, but over time they do start to to settle set settle and shift. Um, and then they're they're they loosen up. They're prone to ruting. They can come out. Um, they create hazards um both to trip walking and to motoring. Um, and then one of the things here that, um, you know, we'd like to point out is that they are more expensive to install and they are more difficult to maintain. And admittedly, you know, we haven't we haven't done a lot of maintenance. Um, a lot of the maintenance we do because we cover, you know, we cover 166 miles of streets. One of the way that we clean them and maintain them is street sweeper. and you don't run a street sweeper across brick sections like this because it does lead to additional damage. Um so I just wanted to talk about a few areas. Um the bricks are nearing the end of their effective life. Um you know at this point they're over 20 years old. Um

I would say they've held up very well um for that time period. But as you can see on the the left picture, there's areas that are starting to depress and as you can see um you know those bricks start to separate. They they lose some of that interlocking bond and they start to have challenges which lead to kind of the picture on the in the center. Um you can see that in that area bricks have actually started to come out. What's interesting to me in that area is you can see it's near an expansion joint. So, when we put that in, we did have expansion joints that were cocked. Um, I don't know this, but I'm guessing that they probably followed um the expansion joints that were under the part of the concrete pad underneath. Um, but it that gave area for expansion and contraction and it was it was cocked, so it was done right. But if you'll notice, it's a full brick on either side at the top kind of left hand side of that picture. But on the bottom right hand side, you can see the expansion joint material is just barely visible, but that gap is much wider. There wasn't a half brick in there. It's just where bricks have started to move. Um, and then I I also included the picture on the right because, you know, this kind of shows one of the better areas of the street. What I'll point out is, you know, there's still life left in that in this section. Um, but if you look at it, where the dark area is is where the that's the will path of most vehicles. And you can see that it is starting to rut a little bit, starting to depress. And if you look at the cracks around the bricks, it allows them to start opening. So, while this section hasn't failed yet, it they are starting to move apart and open up, which could leave to lead to future

shifting and moving. Um, which kind of leads to why we were looking at resurfacing this section some of the this, you know, we talked a lot about Port Street. I did want to share that there are a lot of other planned projects in this area as well. Um, so this is just one of those many projects. We do have the downtown um transit transfer station that it is that is in um planning and design now that we're working on. Um we are currently working on additional um parking opportunities. Matter of fact, um we're looking at a public private partnership for parking um kind of like the Rotary parking lot that we did along New Bridge closer to Court. It's not right on Court Street. Um it would be kind of off of college, but it is closer to this area. Um we're looking at um and planning for the installation of removable ballers so that it does help with that downtown being able to block a section off and hold a festival or a jamie or October Fest or something along those lines. Um and then we have um we're looking at and planning for the reconstruction of um the parking lot at East Railroad and Street, which is um the parking lot that is behind the Bagio's building um which is a city-owned parking lot and that parking lot does need attention. Um and then we have the overall Court Street project. And again, the the idea behind that Court Street project is to continue um some of the vision that we had along the first block of Court Street down to Cheney throughout the rest of the section. I expect that each segment will

be a little bit different. We haven't done any of that planning yet. Um but each each section brings its own unique challenges and and opportunities. Um looking at that that um that project, you know, I talked about that we have um very narrow um probably not um accessible to the point that we would like to see it. sidewalks along um the Court Street section between Cheney and Newbridge. Um because it's so narrow through that area. Um so we we need to take street to widen sidewalk in that area. But if you get in front of the attorney's offices across from the courthouse, there's some very unique old brick pa in there also. Um that provides some opportunities. So, I don't know what that section would look like, but I'm sure that that's something that we would discuss.

And then as you move to the next section where the brick is the sidewalk, especially on the left hand side of the street, on the um the Bagio side of the street, Bajio building side of the street, it needs to be replaced. Um so that that sidewalk is starting to deteriorate deteriorate. Um the aggregate is coming to the surface. Um, so that's, you know, how we would address that. The tree wells, the pedestrian lighting would all be part of that streetscape project. So, with that, I'll I'll jump back to this specific project that we're looking at. Um, it was awarded to CM Mitchell. The contract price was right at $180,000. Um, the construction period is very quick. It's 4 months. Um the contractor is ready to begin. Um and the I said this before, but I'll say again the plan is for Obridgeidge Street to stay open to through traffic and all pedestrian facilities to remain open. Um, and when we say that, we're talking about the also with Old Bridge Street, we would make sure that we try to keep the crosswalks at the intersection open. Um, so that pedestrians can get from the courthouse to the the businesses and the attorney's offices and vice versa.

Yes, sir. When was the contract awarded? The contract was awarded I won't cheat and go back. Um, I think we actually awarded the contract in December because that's when it closed. Um, and with um I should have put that on the other slide. I apologize. So, and it was awarded in February. It was advertised in December. I apologize. Just open that one there. Right there. Go back there. that uh this those bricks really look bad there. That's the lower end beside the county parking lot. If you're talking about the center section,

is there a lot of pedestrian traffic there? There is not in that section. Not in that section. I was going to say because I see a liability there since that street belongs to us to to the city. You agree with me on that? For sure. You were talking about the base. Is the base uh is the base solid? It's starting to fail in areas. So, is that going to be repaired when we do this?

So, what we'll do there's a So, we did um geotechnical borings along the section of Cord Street. We actually did on the other section, too. Um what we found is the concrete thickness varies. Um the thinnest we found it was just under three inches. the thickest was just over almost 3 and 1/2 in. Um, and ironically in a couple of the areas they tested, the brick v the brick thickness varied also, which I found surprising. Um, in the section, one of the cores was taken very close to the section in the center picture. Um, and the brick thickness there was at 4 in, I think. and in the center of the street further up the brick thickness was like 2 and 1/2 in. So I don't know what h I I don't know why that was done. I don't know what happened. Um but the plan is to pull the bricks up and then evaluate anywhere that it looks that like that concrete's failed. We would take that portion out, put in um suitable back fill and then pave over top. And um the plan currently is to go back with 4 in of asphalt. So we're going back with a heavier duty asphalt.

So So when you talk about, you know, one of one of one of my concerns is you're going to close the street now and then you're going to go back and raid the sidewalks. What's that impact on the businesses and how can how can those be minimized when we talk about that streetscape project? So it's a great question. We did something very similar um along Newbridge Street because we can't do we can't do the the street work and the the sidewalk up work at the same time. Um so why is that?

I think because it it just creates challenges because you eliminate all access. So if on on Newbridge Street, what we did is when the when the sidewalk was closed, we provided access along the street. You we kept oneway traffic open the whole time and we had pedestrian access that moved along the street. Um and then we only closed the areas where we were working for in front of the individual businesses, but we maintained full access to the front entrance at all times. So, in some cases, we built wood ramps to get people in. Um, so we do coordinate it, but it we found that it just works better if you do street and then sidewalk. We did the same thing in New Brbridge Street.

Are the sidewalks that are currently there ADA compliant? I don't I know that the section in front of public safety building. Yeah, those definitely are. Um, these if if I can go back to this, they're wide enough. They're definitely especially you can see um I believe Mr. Aragona said he replaced the sidewalks in front of his business when he remodeled, but you can see the stark contrast. And um I haven't put a level or anything on them for cross slope. They look very good.

I was talking about for for ADA, but the other side is not, you know, sir. But part of the streetscape project is that whole project and and uh my understanding is that you've hired an architect to help design part of that with the multimodal center um and the uh the parking lot and the alley behind it. So could you kind of elaborate a little bit on that on the overall the bigger projects?

Yeah. Well, and Wally mentioned that earlier in terms of the uh the transportation transfer station. You look at the phases of the first projects and being able to keep sections of downtown open. Phase one being the new bridge street project, phase two into the court street project, and then phase three into the transfer station. Part of that goal is to not close off entire sections to complete those projects. So when we get into this phase of the design now for the transfer station and for the parking lot, you want to have this project completed. So when you move into this area, you have the flow of traffic that can move in and around this area. Back to back to Mr. SA's question, the ability to come in here and start working with the power company to decide what we're going to do with the electric and then if we're going to have the ability to do that lighting, some of these other challenges, that'll be a next phase after you get into the transfer station and the parking lot areas. So it's it's all part of those simultaneous larger projects to redo this whole area

and part of the reason to re remove the uh medians there is to to be able to facilitate that and just facilitate deliveries and when while you're doing that project. Is that correct? If you close off the back parking lot, then having the area currently, you don't have a lot of you don't park on this street, but you can still have front deliveries. If you open up the street a little wider, it's still not going to be that wide. So, if you park a delivery truck up front that's coming in for Benny Keats or somebody that's going to deliver food to any of the establishments there, you don't have the ability for someone to pass. You know, even on New Brbridge Street now, part of that dialogue is people can park in the center lanes that were designed out that way so that you could park in that space. For here, it's a maintenance issue for the medians as well. But if you open it up, then you create more opportunities for vehicular traffic through that area. Not to mention if you're going to have street festivals in the future to open that whole area up to have additional walk-in space. I mean, we like that design and think there's a value there to have it completely opened up.

So, what's the possibility about us using uh doing the concrete stamp to make it uh make it appear to break? Um, and can we do a change order to to accomplish that? and maybe talk a little bit about the dyed uh the dyed brick, you know, because I I think you know, we we did that at the uh at the range building and uh it's held up very well the past 10 years. So, could could you kind of talk about that a little bit and what that cost would be or So, we did look at um options. So, we we said basically there's there's three options for you. Um, we can continue with the construction as we have planned. We can replace the two-way section and move now and change order to move the resurfacing um of the brick area to the future project. Or the third is as you mentioned replace the brick with dyed and stamped concrete. Um, we did ask about asphalt. The contractor that we have has not done um stamped and dyed asphalt. Um but they have done and have um completed projects with stamp and dyed brick. And they we did ask them for a quote sorry concrete. Thank you. A brick pattern for stamped and dyed concrete. Um and the quote that they gave us was b it would basically double the cost of the project. It's right at about $200,000 to do the the concrete. Now, admittedly, that's a change order. So,

change orders are usually larger. So, they can do that project with a change order and still begin the project on time and work within the same four month phase that we have now with the existing project. That would be the change order process. You allocate that, we'd move it forward. But when they dye the brick, I mean dye that concrete, it's it's that color all the way through. So you're dying the entire material. It's not it's not like it's not like putting a paint on or anything. That's correct. So you reduce So it chips

you reduce the fading. You reduce the chip showing a different color. You're you're dying that entire material and it goes through the depth of that surface. So how much how much trouble will it be if you were to go that route? You said the brood bed underneath the bricks are bad. Wouldn't it be bad for the concrete also?

So, we actually we had them look at it and in order to do the there's not enough space to adequately put stamped in when I say space thickness to adequately adequately put back um a concrete monolithic surface. we would need to take out the um existing concrete that is there and this quote includes that with a I think it's a 6 in thickness um concrete all the way through. Um and then it of course it would be stamped. The one thing I will say is um the good thing about a a surface like that is it helps spread loading. Um, but I I do want to concrete cracks. So, I want to make sure that, you know, it will crack. It'll crack in the future. It doesn't. The good thing is it'll be reinforced. So, um, the crack won't, you know, it's not like um it'll crack and separate, but it will crack like a driveway, right? Um, that's just the nature of concrete. So, it will add to the character over time. Um, but I did I didn't want to I think it's important to know that upfront that you know we can we can do that and it will be structurally sound. Um, but over time it will likely crack.

Well, you know how much of the cost of that 200,000 is for the substrate the the part of that versus the actual you know more aesthetic top. There is I don't like to do math in public. So there's a there's basically that's about 55,000. So there's about 55,000 in subgrade preparation. Okay.

And then there's money to remove the existing um the existing concrete. And I will say that um one of the things I was surprised about is they actually put on here in writing that the contract time would not have to be changed. Do you know I know we heard from um Councilman Yuriro that they've used this and it's held up well for 10 years. Do did the professionals give you any kind of you know life span of what we typically see this you know in a roadway? No. And I didn't do that kind of research. When we did the range, they said that it typically is 20 to 30 years. But

so that's a good long span. I mean, if you were to put brick back in there, that's about the same lifespan you'd expect brick doubled up. 20 20 20 plus years. Yes. And can we A lot of downtowns do this where they just say like no heavy trucks or certain types of trucks on roads. I mean, we could reroute like, excuse me, axle weight. Yeah. Axle weight. I mean, we could do that. I mean, like try to keep garbage trucks. I mean, that happens a lot in downtowns all the time. I mean, that's not really unable. is your street. So you would be able to set limits, no through trucks, no deliveries. We could sign a truck route using chain. Governor Newburn does that a lot and so does the Wilmington and their downtowns to kind of preserve some of those roads.

Mr. Hansen, you said if we went with option three, it would be double the price of the current project. Yes, ma'am. So, if it's going to change that magnitude, would we have to put this out for rebid again just in case someone could do it cheaper? I don't think so. I you can because it was not part of the original um scope of the project. The North Carolina what was not part of the original

doing stamped concrete was not part. So, it's it's an unexpected change. Um, if we had talked about doing that up front, then you couldn't change order it in, but North Carolina law will allow you to change order it in. Um, the great thing is either way, it keeps the project under the formal limit. So really, state law doesn't apply. It's um purchasing policy, city purchasing policy that applies. And that man right there has the authority that you've given him. Doesn't apply. It just applies a different standard. Okay. Unfortunately, state law always applies to whether we wanted to or not.

I stand corrected by the attorney.

I really like, you know, personally, I know we're, you know, just hashing out options, but the aesthetic of those bricks in the downtown area is part of you were you use the word charming. It's part of the charm of the area. It does add a pleasing aesthetic piece and and to remove that and replace it with more gray asphalt is just a little bit hard on the you know hard on the souls of the folks who like a pretty unique walkable downtown experience. And one of our priorities has been downtown redevelopment all along. That's why we've invested everything we put in the infrastructure underneath new bridge and in all the other places that you've mentioned and have more on the docket to keep investing so that we can fix the not just cosmetic issues but the infrastructure issues that support business and life downtown. Um I I personally would just hate to see that all go away and be nothing but asphalt.

I know it's a bigger it's a bigger price tag, but it's not something we're going to have to do every 5 years. It's, you know, how how often would we have to repave an asphalt road about every what, 10? Yeah, we're we're not doing them as quickly as we should. And some of our asphalt roads are lasting 30 to 40 years. Well, I I think putting asphalt there would be ridiculous. Anyway, if you're trying to maintain some dignified charm in your downtown area, you know, I I think either you replace the bricks or you do use something that's similar to to the brick surfaces down there that, you know, would be just as appealing and serve the same purpose.

What happens to all the old bricks? They just going to rip them up? Yeah, we would just haul them off. There's something else that could be done with them. Will there be a way for maybe them the the ones who are broken to be set aside and not trashed? I know that they're not the stored bricks, but they are red bricks people might could use for some things. I'm sure we could salvage some of them. Now, if you replace the brick with the dying stamped concrete, you're not going to have to go back in there and work on sewer or when you do the streetscape, it's not going to affect the it's not going to affect the integrity, and we're going to have to dig it back up and go back again. I am really scared to answer that question. Yeah, that's that's worse than math.

But the start of the start of the presentation Wally gave says we've The reason it's different from Newbridge is those lines were a lot older. These are newer lines and so the risk of failure theoretically is lower than it was for the other projects. And so that's why that project had a longer time span than this one. So these lines are newer. We've we've looked at the construction dates. We would guesstimate with guess being the big part here that you do not have to do any of those repairs. Doesn't mean as soon as we do the project it we could have a sewer line break within 3 days and then you've got to do something. But this is the strategy we've changed on all of our street reconstruction projects is to go in and do the infrastructure work before we do the street overlay so that we don't have those scenarios. And that's why it's delayed our process. Now, we need to do the line repairs first, then we do the overlay.

But then, but same with the uh streetscape with the sidewalks and everything. You're not going to have to go in there and tear that up to do that to redo that. If you w if you narrow the street and widen the sidewalk, you would end up having to make a cut and remove some of that concrete and put the curb where in the area where you remove the concrete so that you'd have more space behind the curb between the curb and the building. But it would be done, you know, on the sidewalk side. You can cut, you can saw cut, you know, a concrete road like that.

Well, in terms of October Fest, this this will be done by o by the time October Fest comes around. That is what we were shooting for. Is there penalties if they don't? There there are penalties associated with the contract. Okay. Even if we do the change order because they've said that they can do it in the same timeline.

And I want to emphasize those are just negotiations. say something. Um, we there's an additional option. Um, I was in Florence, Italy, and the brick and cobblestone roads are 700 years old.

And we have problems with 20 years. This is disappointing to me because um doing this is disappointing because when we had our retreat, we tried to come to consensus on some ideas of a way ahead. One of the things that I discussed was the uh task force that the city and the county had with Barbara Iikner, um Jack Bright, Paul Buchanan, uh Michael Lazar, myself and Ron was uh supporting and we talked about coming together. We talked about the development of downtown and one of the things we talked about was closing from uh New Bridge Street to um railroad and making that a pedestrian mall. Okay. This does nothing for uh Jacksonville Harbor. the concept of making that an attraction. You gota you're opening the street to two-way traffic for what? To get people from the public safety station to Sturgeon City, we get there just fine. When we you talk to the people that live there, when we come out of the area where I come from, if we going northeast, we going Cheney Avenue, we go New Court Street, I mean uh Court Street. You can't now, but we would go that way. When we go Southwest, we go An Street. That's what we do. That's what we're accustomed to. Um, that street was a four-way street back in the day. And I have a little longevity of Raleigh.

It wasn't to get people to Shoreline Drive. That wasn't why it was four-way street. It was a four-way street because we had parking on both sides of the street and two-way traffic. So, four lane is what I'm saying. And it worked because we had parking and the parking went to the businesses. On Court Street, you got parking for the businesses. There will be no parking in this. It's just to try to get somebody from one end of the street or the other. And we wanted to be so busy that you can't easily do that. We wanted with pedestrian traffic patronizing the stores over there. So part of our discussion when we had the committee was to have some sort of extension of Riverwalk Crossing all the way to New Bridge Street. You all know how much people appreciate how walkable it is for the community. You can go through there at 300 a.m. and see somebody walking a dog. We want a walkable community. This car traffic does nothing for that. It does nothing for the small businesses. Where's the ice cream shop? We could develop this as what it should be a town center. Go to town centers. It's not about through traffic. It's about pedestrians patronizing the business and and multiple use. But this concept of just this road is particularly disturbing to me because y'all just let this on the in February. Well, when we did the retreat, we talked about a whole other options that make this feudal. So why would we be wasting money if we can do more with closing the

street? Rosie sitting there. I applaud her effort on um the developers that designed uh architects that designed Riverwalk Crossing, but some of us knew that was going to be a success. We haven't failed with our downtown um uh housing or this and it's a destination. This does not enhance that in any way. And I don't know why we're so wedded to opening the street and given that we had our retreat to let the the let the con the contracts and kind of a surprise to me um as a council member I know some people in the community were were surprised but I just think that we can do really we can have a town center. Y'all going out in Williamsburg to put a town center fine. It's going to be a success. Okay. But this is where town centers should be and they should be walkable and pedestrian friendly. And we're talking about three blocks that don't matter as enhancing a traffic flow for for cars. It just doesn't matter. The reason is one way is because the district another result of longevity um the district attorney contributed uh the opinion that uh it would make easy access from their offices to the court uh to the courthouse and it made sense to us. The landscaping has kind of gotten out of control but um I think we need to look at what will really benefit that community. And when we talk about the things that some of us have talked about and some of it is um a close session, when we talk

about these things, it needs to be in a comprehensive planning way. And if you give away one part that could be critical just because of this project, I don't think it moves the overall project forward. Okay.

There's a couple challenges just to base and I've never been to Italy. Uh but I have been to downtown Charleston which is one of the best downtowns in walk walkability that allows for the traffic and the difference between Italy, Charleston and Jacksonville is our soils. So we don't have cobblestone road and we don't have the same soils that they may have that are 700 years old. And so the construction that Mr. Yierro asked about is the subsurface. We do have challenges with subsurface and how do we build streets? It's a thing that's a fact. It's a way of doing business. The the pictures that are on the walls and Bellagios are of dirt roads and those are beautiful and they look like they have great horse parking on those dirt roads and they have great wagon parking and some cars parking. It's a really cool concept and that I agree if we can get those ice cream shops to come back that would be amazing and that's a great plan. The other side is you know sometimes we have to pivot. So whatever council tells us to do we're going to pivot. The one thing that we're pivoting on is that section of Court Street that is one lane. It did not create a revitalization or resurgence of downtown business. So if we look at a different plan then I think this is part of that plan. We see a success at Newbridge Street when we did this project. The growth that we're seeing now with new businesses on Newbridge with this project, it's been a success even though it took longer. So, we're hoping with some of these other projects that we can do something. And I would hope that the county would be a partner in downtown revitalization, but I don't feel like it's a priority that they have. And and we've seen that over the last four years. It's not a priority of the county. They're working on other projects. So,

I don't know their priorities. I talked to some of them and they seem interested and we're talking about an effort, but um I'm not wedded to the the bricks. That's not it. It's the opening of the road that's my problem. And we put bricks in Riverwalk Crossing. And you want to make light of the little section in front of the district attorney's office. We never had a downtown redevelopment plan. When I got involved out of service, AD guy was the mayor and the redevelopment plan was the parking lot beside the sheriff's office. That was our downtown redevelopment plan. Okay. So, we've never had the plan and somehow what we were planning got pushed aside for the a town center in Williamsburg and that's a concern.

Yeah. I don't I don't mean to make light of that area. One of the things in talking to the business owners that we've had in this and this has been for the last two years is opening up with Court Street has been something that they support. So that's not been a push back we had. So this is why I said in terms of the direction of council, you know, we understand that that can change. And with a new council, if you change it, you just tell us and we make the change. I mean, we pivot based on the direction of council, not on on um our desires to push something forward.

This is my last thing. If be before you talk about opening the um court street, please Google Lincoln Road in South Beach, Florida, Miami. Do that. What was it called? Lincoln Road. Lincoln Road. South Beach, Florida. Let me ask you one question. You talked about the Ballards are putting Is that that part of this project? Is that infrastructure? It's not part of this project. We would do that separately.

So I think there needs to be I mean so when you put those in place you would have an alternate traffic plan. You would make sure that the roads are sufficient improved around that area, everything properly signed. Um so it's the simple thing is the engineer design to go put the ballers in place. And there's some that you know you can purchase that you inset and and so it's not just the system itself but it's the other pieces that come along with it. So my when my son was in Jag school in uh Charlottesville

um one of the things that they had was that downtown but they had these ballards where they closed it in the evening opened it in the daytime. Is that is that a possibility for us to do this in in in this project?

So that would be the goal. So when we talk about there's multiple things in play there. When you talk about uh social district and and this is this Lincoln Road, if I'm looking at the right picture, Mr. Winham is amazing. Just what I'm looking at is beautiful. If we're trying to close it off to pedestrian friendly areas and to have a social district where you could create some some uh foot traffic in the evenings and some celebration space, you want to put the ballards in so you can continue to move traffic and then create a closed area. So yes, you would be able to do that. Theoretically, you would create that district that would go from the evening of, let's say, a Thursday that would go into a Saturday and you would have that open and then you'd still have traffic flowing one direction or the other, but you'd have safe areas for the for pedestrians. This is kind of the the world we live in now where we have concerns with parades and we saw this at Rock the Block. chief and chief had to secure all these side roads to make sure that our people were safe for 10,000 people. Same kind of scenario here. The ballards, if done correctly, would create that. So, unfortunately, they don't they wouldn't get installed here, but we would install that in a in a separate project that's not a couple hundred,000 project. We'd want to get that we

What would be the timeline for us to do that? because I could see that as you know closing it in the evenings, putting the ball ballards up and giving giving those businesses, especially the restaurants, the opportunity to use the entire street during those during those hours. Yeah, you could set tables out and extend tables and do some other things. How hard would it be to to include those ballots as part of the project even if we had to uh to look at some alternative funding to do that? Yeah. The only challenge with this contractor is to be able to go back and ask them and then see what they would do in terms of the the contract amendment. Can could we do that? We can definitely ask them.

Yes. Is there any penalties for pumping the brakes on the on the project all together? Well, not like for long term, just to regroup, I guess you would say. Well, that's where we're at now. So, if you go for if you're looking at the time frame, they're going to come back and they're going to say it's a time extension and therefore there's a cost on their side for doing the job. So, theoretically, u if they're delayed, then they're going to come back to us and they're going to submit us a change order saying it's going to be $50,000, $60,000 for being delayed any longer. And this is something we see on projects. This is consistent language we would say on projects. So yes sir.

And the other part would be that it could affect uh some of the events that they have planned downtown as well. So we we wouldn't want to interfere with those events because uh as I've learned over my career,

you know, you stop one year and then it it it's it's it generally dries down and you have to build it back up again. And I think they got some momentum there. So, you know, if there's a possibility for us to look at at having what uh what Mr. Willingham said about about closing the street, being able to close the street um especially in the evenings to generate that pedestrian or even at noon or or different times of the day or you know noon on uh on the weekends to give them that uh to give them that effect.

I think I think that should be part of this project. We're even all day on the weekends. The courthouse is closed. I mean a lot of traffic's minimized from all that stuff. So you have more, you know, restaurant, bar going, that type of Yeah. You know, breakfast for church for church goers and things like that. The installation of the ballard is part of the streetscape portion of this, right? That's already in the plans for the next phase.

The streetscape project, but what Mr. Nero is asking is, can we talk to them about being able to put it at these intersections for this area? you if you were put it here, you would capture the College Street side and the old bridge side and install there. You just have to uh you would get it around that crosswalk section. That's how you would do it to effectively close off to keep it safe. I'd looked at I'd like to look at the diet and stamped concrete and then also looked at at the installation of those B ballards because I think when when you got when you got it finished it would give a lot of options to those businesses on Court Street to uh to expand their their footprint and encourage people to participate in with some of the other things with that you know what you're doing it. It could be a uh um it could be a benefit. And then when you start working on those parking lots and have some issues with the, you know, the sidewalk, at least you'd have an opportunity to use that street, close off that street during that time and give those business owners the opportunity to be out in the be out in the street with it closed and give them um give them the opportunity to have tables out there that that are that are nice and um where people can enjoy dinner and lunch and things like that.

You certainly can't use the sidewalk. It's too narrow. Yeah, it's hard to walk past. But I mean, but I could see that as being a really great thing for them, especially on the weekends, closing on Friday night and opening it on Sunday morning or Monday morning and giving them that whole street to uh to put tables and um

festival. Like I said, when I was in Charlottesville, I I mean, I was surprised. We drove down the street one day one one morning and you know went back there to eat dinner and the uh the street was closed with those ballots. So I think that I I think that could help us at least start that start that process to to create that pedestrian lot. So I'd like I'd like to see that. Well, those are things that can be do done without having to push things down the road. Right. Right. Yes, sir. Okay.

It looks like I I skimmed the pictures. It looks like they use a lot of stamp and dot concrete, maybe some painted, too, depending on what they did in the black and white checkered sections. On another note, as far as those hideous looking overhead power lines down there, what was the estimated cost to bury them? uh the section from it was a h it was I think it was a half million dollars to do the section we did back in 2012 or 13. It is significant. The problem is the transmission means our cost power company won't pick any up right because it's a it's not a

functionality. Yeah. It's it's not a we're structure is aesthetic. Yes. So part of that next phase planning mayor would be for us to have that dialogue with them about undergrounding or relocating some of those lines. And so that'll be part of the discussions now that Wally's team would go ahead and start having with with Duke Energy about how can we achieve success on that area. But we wouldn't do that after you've already changed the street the undergrounding. Yeah. You wouldn't underground

for there. You'd go through the sidewalk area or in that utility space that we're talking That's where it is in New Brbridge. It's under um if you if you go down New Brbridge Street, you have the the concrete sidewalk and then a brick area. Um which the B business owners did point out that they did like that look. That look it it is there for those utilities. That's where the power is. Um we have our water meter set there. So that's what that brick area is for. And it's made so um that you can it's not really made to walk on. is made so that you can easily remove it. It's low maintenance and we put it back.

That next phase where you're hiring the architect as well, you're going to give the business owners and the people downtown an opportunity to discuss all those things in this process. Yes, sir. They have some and we would do that much like we did the new bridge project which is why we ended you if you remember we ended up with discussing everything from parallel parking to angle parking to backend parking to full medians to split medians. Um so yes we would have that would be part of that

that's in the next year isn't it? it. The funding planning starts in 27. That's and that's in the capital improvement plan that you're reviewing. Yes, sir. Okay. And so there'll be some public comment. There'll be some Yes, sir. There's about a I think there's a a year, maybe it's 18 months for planning and design for that project. And that's that's taking that long time period is because we know that it takes time to and I like I said I expect different solutions for different segments of Court Street.

I app I appreciate Mr. Willingham's comments about closing the street and I think you know doing the ballards now can really benefit us. I appreciate your consensus building. That's what it's all about. So we need to get these numbers and then we need so we can vote on it by what next meeting to move this along. Is that correct? Or so right now you have we have the numbers for if you want the die stamp concrete you would tell us to move forward with that and because they're starting on April 15th. The project starts on April 15th. So

would it be possible to execute that portion and get the ballard pricing as a potential add-on so we don't have to delay another two weeks? We could do that if you want us to do to start on the one phase. We would do that change order. Then we would bring back that ballers if they can do that for us and we bring that back to you as well. That sounds like a good way to do it especially if you want to make that October Fest deadline, you know, to have that celebration out there.

So you kind of hard to do it direction. It doesn't require action, but you could still receive direction and you can do that in any number of different ways. It's of course subject to the public meeting law. All those all those want to move forward in that direction, please indicate by raising your hand. Okay, we have a consensus there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. And we do appreciate the business owners. They were very welcoming and they're very honest about sharing their concerns. We can get more get more from them how we finish the rest of it.

I guess we do something about getting rid of the bricks and sell them off right. We want to make sure as I'm correcting the finance director is also I'm having them turn around. Yeah, we want to be really careful of brick. I'm sure that all the bricks on there surplus. It could be that we reuse them or save them for the streetscape front. I feel like that would be a good idea. Well, you you used the stamp con the stamp brick out front here, didn't you?

Yes, sir. We did use stamped concrete that in kind of see what it looks like. Yes. The one the one thing I don't like about this one is the dye did not go all the way through. I think it was a surface dye. It wasn't a paint. It was a dye, but I think it was a surface dye. So, I think it's only an inch deep or so. If you if you kind of look at the outside edge, you can see it. We'll make sure that we're getting the right stuff. Well, that's the difference in this estimate. This estimate, as we answered earlier, is a complete die for the entire surface, the entire uh material that goes through. And that's back to your question.

Yeah. So, even if even if it cracks, it's going to or if it gets a red color. Yes, sir. Thank you, Wally, for the history and the facts and the research and the timeline that you put together so we could get a better picture of what's going on down there. Thank you. Hopefully appreciate it. All right. So, moving along, we have a closed session scheduled for this evening and at this time we're going to go ahead and recess the regular meeting and take it out. Well, do we do the one city stuff and get that out? Yeah, do the one city stuff while we got people. We do have two, mayor.

So, we do have two. Uh the first one Wally uh commented about earlier. The Rotary parking lot is a public private partnership. It's a very awesome project for us. It's part of downtown revitalization and it was good lengthy process for council to work together with the Rotary Group to utilize a space to create public parking for a minimal amount without creating a challenge for a property owner. So when Rotary purchased this property, they wanted to redo their parking lot. The city said, "We'd like to have public parking." Uh we worked together. Council approved an agreement. And then we created this project for two parking areas, two different parking areas. This is behind the Rotary building. And the second one I'm going to show you is right next adjacent to the Rotary Building. This shows you a street scrape area that our parks department did. the uh contractor resurfaced this area. We have landscaping all around. And if you know what this pro parking lot looked like before to what it is now, you can see it's a fantastic change to that area. Uh this area right here is going to be adjacent to Newbridge. So you'll have a lot of access parking here. Let's just think about a street festival. You may have food trucks that are in this area. They could utilize this space. You could utilize it for parking. You could have a stage here. Uh you can have any number of activities which we saw in rock the block. So just want council to see the efforts of our our street team of our parks department and the work that was done to make this happen. Uh thanks to the Rotary Club for making an opportunity. Now we have a 10-year public parking area uh which the total investment was a little over $125,000. So for 10 years, we have public parking access that we'll use for all of downtown

and you can rent that building out and to help do something amazing there to generate their own revenue. It's an awesome opportunity. Before the parking lot was not conducive to that.

And the other thing we have this week is what we call CD uh CD week. That's community development week. Uh today we had an open house on an street for the same area that we were talking about earlier that Mr. Willingham was referencing, we have two new homes on An Street. And so for everyone that was present, uh the best part about this area is the the young lady closest to the mayor purchased one of the houses on um Cox Avenue last year and then the young lady on the other side has the house on an street. So we have someone from last year and someone from this year and this is the house behind the team here that uh was doing the walkth through today and hanging the wreath. So you look at it again we have repurposed a an area and gotten people into new houses. Home ownership is an amazing feat especially with the challenges we see. the stories that I was there earlier and the the stories that these two told about their properties simply beautiful and so I hope I encourage you to be able to talk to them if you're walking the street you can you can engage uh with them please check it out uh these two look really deep in conversation and I think Bishop Smith posed for a picture thank heavens Terrell was telling a story but um what a what an awesome opportunity for us to have these you know we're a little skeptic when we think about rebuilding building houses in different neighborhoods, but the goal that that council's talked about is not just building two houses a year or four houses a year, but building six or more houses a year. That's the way we're going to have an impact in a lot of different neighborhoods throughout the city. And and for this location here, it's fantastic. Uh you see our our neighborhood improvement services team here with uh

with Pamela and Debbie and Lean. uh they're active here in support these this is the team that's working with our citizens to get them into these houses. They have to go through the program. They have to obtain their full financing plan and then they have to become u basically homeowners and they got to manage this property. So, uh great opportunity. Tomorrow we will have recognition for the partners for our uh community development team. So, if you're available, I believe it starts around 11:00. We'll have our uh CD cookout tomorrow. You're encouraged to live. Don't show up tomorrow. You're getting nothing tomorrow.

Tomorrow's Wednesday. Show up on Thursday and you can either cook a hot dog or you can eat one. So neighborhood cleanup. Tomorrow morning, neighborhood cleanup. It's a very active week. That's all I got. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. All right. With that, I'll entertain a motion to go into close session to discuss land acquisition. So move. All in favor? All right. No.