City Council - Regular Meeting

Bye.

I will call the football city council meeting for Thursday, June 4th to order.

May I have a roll call, please?

Councilman Baji? Here. Councilman Walker? Here. Mayor Wheaton? Here. Vice Mayor Eldred? Here. Councilman Gilbert? Here. Bye, Preston.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to ask those that wish to do so to stand for the invocation given tonight by Pastor Jason Stanford, Breakthrough Church, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Father, we come before you tonight. We thank you for the opportunity, Lord, to be present in this room. Father, we pray blessings over all those citizens in this great community. We pray your favor and your wisdom be given to all of our council members. You said, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that you would supply that, that you would give that. And so, Father, we ask for wisdom for each and every one of our council members, that they would have a clear mind over the best way to make decisions, the best things for our community, meet the needs of our community. and projecting forward to what our community needs and what is best for it. So, Father, I pray your favor would just surround them tonight. I pray that you would give them the clarity and focus of mind. And, Lord, bring unto them the ways to see the problems, see issues, see solutions. So, Father, for the betterment of this community, Lord, and I just pray that this community would continue to prosper, to grow, and to be blessed. Father, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

long that's personal thank you master item three consider approval of agenda as presented are there any changes yes ma'am we have two changes now we want to add two items under new business first is seven h consider approval of amendment to the professional service agreement with asa engineering for the completion of a master plan site civil design plans and construction documents from 39 depot area and i'll be sponsoring that item second is seven eyes consider approval A final balance change order for the Cane Creek Parks and Prevent Project, which included the splash pad, playground, and parking lot. This is the Leisure Services Department, and Director Chad McDonald will be sponsoring that item. But I request you to amend it to add those two items.

Thank you. Here's a motion on the agenda as amended.

I move it.

I have a motion from Councilman Gilbert. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the Council? Okay. I move the agenda as amended.

All votes correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. 4-A, consider Resolution R-26-0607, honoring Judy Jennings for her 22 years of service to the city as a member of the Goodwill Municipal Planning Commission. Mr. Ward.

Yes, Mayor and Council. So, Ms. Judy Jennings has served on the Planning Commission for 22 years. She was appointed in 2004 and she submitted her resignation from the Commission and also our Historic Zoning Commission. We thought, I think, where our records reflect she's the third longest serving member to ever be appointed and serve that length of time on the commission. And to honor Miss Jennings' service, we prepared a resolution to be considered by council in recognition of her longstanding tenure on the commission. So I'm happy to read that, or if you want to, you just let me know what we would like to do there.

You got the mic, I'll let you go.

Okay. So whereas Ms. Judy Jennings has announced her resignation from the Cookeville Municipal Planning Commission, having been appointed in 2004, serving the citizens of the city of Cookeville with distinction and honor for the past 22 years. And whereas during her tenure as a member on the Planning Commission, Ms. Jennings was elected vice chairman in 2016 and faithfully served in that leadership role while also contributing her time and expertise as a member of the Historic Zoning Commission since 2024. And whereas through dedicated service on the Municipal Planning Commission, Ms. Judy Jennings has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the orderly growth, development, and improvement of the city, providing thoughtful leadership, sound judgment, and valuable insight on matters affecting the community. And whereas Ms. Jennings has devoted countless hours to reviewing development proposals, participating in public hearings, and helping shape policies that promote responsible growth while preserving the quality of life enjoyed by the current and future residents. And whereas the citizens of the city have benefited greatly from Ms. Jennings' professionalism, integrity, and dedication to public service, and it is fitting to recognize and express appreciation for these significant contributions to the community. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of Cougville, Tennessee, that on behalf of the citizens and employees of the City of Cougville, deepest appreciation is hereby extended to Judy Jennings for her esteemed service and best wishes are hereby extended. Now, therefore, be it further resolved that this resolution shall be duly recorded and filed in the city clerk's office. And I recommend your approval of the resolution.

Do I have a motion to accept the resolution? Move to approve. Seconded by everybody else. Any discussion from the council? Any discussion from the fellow?

I've had the privilege of working with Ms. Doody on the uh planning commission and the wisdom and uh institutional knowledge that she brought on the table on the key decisions we had to make the plane perspective uh has proven invaluable enough definitely had a uh privilege of working with their free chair on purpose

I had the privilege of working with my first term on council and, uh, I just, I'd like to say she's a. Perfect community member, um, has done great things serving our community in that role. Uh, for as long as she did, uh, how long was her term? Do we know 22 years? It was 2004 when she was appointed. Um, that's just an incredible amount of time. Um, and it's really important in planning to have that long term vision and in long term understanding of things. So I just, I really do appreciate everything that she's. The city of our community.

I think I had a unique perspective where I worked with her not only on the planning commission a few years ago, but I was also oftentimes a builder presenting to her. I know she's not here tonight, but hopefully she'll get the measure of gratitude that I'm thankful. Anytime she was reviewing anything, you knew she was always interested in doing what was best for Cookville, and her wisdom was always appreciated.

I want to say since I worked with Judy for more than 15 years when I was a planning director that she brought a lot to this community. Judy was never afraid to speak her mind, and that's the kind of people you need serving on planning commissions. She wasn't timid. If she didn't agree to something, she let you know that. I very much appreciated that, somebody to be honest and express their opinion. But I'm really appreciative of her service to my community, and we'll miss her.

All right, we've got a motion and a second. Any more discussion? Actually, go ahead and take your vote.

All votes correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 4-B, since Ms. Jennings is leaving, we do need another appointment here. So we've got an appointment to consider for the planning commission.

Yes, Mayor and Council, so as you said, due to Ms. Jennings' resignation, we do have a vacancy on the Planning Commission. The current term of Ms. Jennings is set to expire this next January, January 1st, 2027. Mr. Bob Fallhaber currently serves as the Mayor's representative on the Planning Commission. His appointment will expire upon the conclusion of the upcoming Council election. Mr. Fallhaber expressed his desire to continue serving on the Planning Commission. Appointing Mr. Fallhaber to fill the current vacancy would create a vacancy in the mayor's representative position until the incoming mayor makes an appointment to the planning commission. We anticipate that would be in August or September. The planning commission recommends appointing Mr. Fallhaber to fill the current vacancy created by Ms. Jennings' resignation. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Ellison, seconded by Councilman Walker. End of discussion from the council? I have said if you need to fill in. I will. Got you on speed dial. But, yeah, I know Bob has been a great asset and big background. So I'm excited to see him be able to continue to point the ball. Any other discussion, comments? All right. See you then. Bye.

Oh, that's correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. And 4-C, consider appointment to the Historic Zoning Commission, Mr. Ward.

Again, this is a vacancy due to Ms. Jennings' resignation. Ms. Jennings was appointed to the Historic Zoning Commission as the Planning Commission representative with the term expiring on April 4th, 2029. Ms. Kay Starkweather has agreed to serve the remaining term on the Historic Zoning Commission as nominated by the Planning Commission at their May 2026 meeting. Members serve five-year terms and are appointed by the mayor with confirmation vote by the City Council, and we recommend appointing Ms. Starkweather to fill that vacancy on the Historic Zoning Commission.

Thank you, is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Baggi. Any discussion from the council on this? Okay, we'll go ahead and vote.

All votes correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 5-A, consider approval of minutes of council meeting held on May 21st, 2026. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Walker. Any discussion from the council? I'll vote on that.

All votes correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. On to the consent agenda. 6A, set a date, 7-2-26, for a public hearing on Orchard 036-06-11. Amending the zoning code section 227.3 to permit adaptive residential multifamily reuse as a use permitted on appeal, special exemptions. And the zoning code section 234, charter permitted use to include adaptive residential multifamily reuse. 6B, consider awarding bid for three 500 KVA pad transformers. And 6C, consider awarding bid for 20 30 foot aluminum poles as a motion on the consent agenda. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, is there a second? I cannot see.

Second.

Thank you. Second by Councilman Gilbert. Any discussion on the consent agenda?

All votes correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. On to new business. 7-A, consider Resolution R260608, approving the Putnam County Growth Plan. Mr. Ward.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So this is the final step in the proposed amendments that we've recently been processing for our Urban Growth Boundary Amendment. Council held two public hearings in December relative to these amendments, and those were forwarded to the Putnam County Growth Committee for consideration. As required by state law, the Growth Planning Committee approved the 2026 updates to the county growth plan in May of 2026. This process was completed without the need for any mediation among any of the local governments, so everyone agreed to the proposed changes. The updated plan incorporates the agreed upon urban growth boundaries and is reflected on the map titled Putnam County Growth Plan 2026 Update, along with a separate exhibit detailing Cookeville's urban growth boundary. This amendment adds approximately 4,342 acres to the city's UGB, bringing our total urban growth boundary area to approximately 13,905 acres. Approval of this resolution formally ratifies the updated growth plan and authorizes the Putnam County Mayor to submit it to the Local Government Planning Advisory Committee for final approval with the State of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. I recommend your approval. Happy to answer any questions from the Council on this.

Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilman Bocce. Any discussion from the public on this agenda item? Discussion from Council?

All votes correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. 7-B, consider approval of MOU with UCHRA to support the integration of certified peer recovery specialists with the Cookville Coast Department. Mr. Mills?

Mayor and council members, as we talked about on Monday, Chief Winfrey and I recently met with representatives from the upcoming Human Resource Agency to discuss this collaboration between their agency's Certified Peer Recovery Specialist Program, CPRS, and our own police department. The purpose of the collaboration would be to enhance response efforts for individuals experiencing substance use disorders, mental health crisis, and other related challenges by providing peer-based recovery support, resource linkage, and follow-up services. And the follow-up services, I think, are a key part of this. This proposal would work in conjunction with what we believe is our very successful CCR program, Couple community response program. She went through, and I believe the program will provide the police department with another method to help individuals in crisis. Support services would be provided to individuals identified by the couple police department. Then the specialist would assist those individuals in access and recovery services and community resources. conduct follow-up outreach, support diversion efforts, and maintain accurate documentation, and also to promote recovery-oriented systems of care. So before you is an MOU that's been prepared, Memorandum of Understanding, prepared by UCHRA, which provides for a one-year partnership between UCHRA, the City of Cobble, which would begin on July 1st, 2026, assuming your approval, The MOU can be terminated by either side within 30 days notice. There's no immediate direct cost to the city for this program. However, the MOU does provide that the city will work with USHRA in the future for future funding of the CPRS program. But I would consider this first year of the trial to be a trial where we could determine if it's something we want to continue to pursue and consider contributing funding towards. But I recommend your approval of the MOU and for your authorization for myself and Chief Winfrey to execute it. Scott's here if you have any questions for him. Scott, I believe, is a supporter of this, at least trying to see how this works. You know, and again, I think this is another step that the city is proposing to take to help people that are in crisis in our community. And we'll mention this later, but our CCR program is getting recognition nationwide. And we're one of the first that have done this. And I can know that Chief Young can confirm this, but we've helped dozens and dozens of individuals that aren't getting it in other places. So I'm really proud of our efforts. I think it's another step forward. And I'll also note this, that Chief Young's working on an additional program where we can help even more people. So I'm really proud of this, and I know our Chiefs are too. But Scott, do you got anything to add on this?

I concur with everything you said. These programs, the CCR program that approved this MOU and with UCHRA, it just enhances our ability to help people and allow our officers to conduct law enforcement. So I definitely would suggest you approve the MOE.

Thank you. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion paid by Vice President Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Walker. Any discussion from the public on this agenda item? Discussion from Council.

I'm excited. Oh, sorry.

Everybody's so excited.

Yeah, I'm excited to see this. Of course, this is down my road for the longest time doing this for a decade. And we've done this, worked with the Chief even before I was on Council for years, trying to help people. But the need is getting lower. We see that. And what's just great is that we're going to continue this and hopefully add more. I'd love to see down the future do so. Because more and more people are needing help. So I really... Appreciate what you're doing. Appreciate what UCHRA is doing and partnering with and doing all this together. So that's the way we're going to be able to help people. So I'm so excited for this.

I was going to take just a brief minute and you can expand on this, but it's 30 seconds of just for those who may not have heard of the CCR or this program, what they do. It's instead of a big fire truck going out and responding to a call that's not appropriate for that. It's a more efficient way to reach these people that are in a particular crisis that doesn't need like Chief Winfrey said, a police officer or an immediate fire truck where we were getting those calls anyway. But now we have this method of going out in a more efficient and better response.

Yeah, we have an EMT, an employee of the fire department, and a clinician that's an employee of Volunteer Behavioral Health, a trained person, individual, that when the police department, we get calls about people in crisis, and it's either going to be mental illness or even a drug intervention, but This goes back, and this is something we've worked on. I want to give Ken Searcy, retired from the police department, he led the effort on this. We've been working towards this for several years. Actually, we're in our second year with the CCR program, aren't we, Chief? And Ben can speak on this more. But we've helped a lot of people. But where it benefits us is not only just helping the people, but police officers aren't trained as social workers and they can, to help an individual like this often takes many, many hours. That's where this dovetails with this new program, because this new program helps people. It's not just a crisis at the moment, they help them long term. I think they work up to a month with individuals to get them through programs. But this helps alleviate, lets the police department do police work and get people trained to do this type of work out there to people who need the help. So again, we've been There's numerous success stories. And I'm going to talk more about our program at the end here. But we're just really proud of it. And, again, this is just another step to try to help.

I know we're going to be here a long time tonight, but it's worth mentioning the police and fire department, the percentage of calls that you all get for this that are not fires and are not true police work is enormous. I don't know if the public appreciates this. And the relief to that pressure that this provides is what's exciting.

It keeps that endless cycle from being incarcerated or taken to the emergency room, which doesn't accomplish what these people need.

I've actually had other mayors reach out to me asking how we do, yeah, because they knew this was a program that we were doing. So I think that's a huge compliment to y'all that people are looking to us for the example. So thank y'all for taking time to do this. Any more discussion?

I just think, James, I mean, I know we've worked hard with Tennessee Tech evaluating this stuff and really getting deep on this program and it's become kind of a beacon in the state for how other municipalities can, any counties, any other form of government wants to mirror this, that would be A great thing, not just for Cookville, but spread around Tennessee and handle this problem elsewhere as well. And for that to originate here and James to have the vision to see that through and our chiefs to make sure that that's going to happen. I think that's really impressive for Cookville. And it's good to be a leader on something. And I appreciate all the hard work that the city has done on that.

Any more discussion? All right, we'll take a vote.

All votes correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. Now on to Bunsen. 17, what a public hearing you consider. We needed to go to the bathroom. You're in now. 7C, hold a public hearing and consider on first reading. Ordinance 026-06-06, amending the fiscal year 2026 budget for the City of Cookville, Tennessee. Ms. Neislander, take it away.

Mayor and Council, this ordinance amends the current fiscal year 2026 budget for eight funds. The general fund revenue increases $841,708, and expenditures increase $1,405,438. Of this amount, the expenditure increase, there's a transfer to State Street Aid to fund additional paving that we are budgeting. Then this fund, this fiscal year, over what we plan to pave in FY26, there's a total net decrease in fund balance in the general fund of $563,730. State Street Aid Fund has an increase in revenues and expenditures of $808,095 with no change in fund balance. Solid Waste Fund has an increase in revenues and expenditures of $20,000 with no net change in fund balance. The Drug Fund has an increase of revenues of $38,000 and an increase in expenditures of $60,600 with a net decrease in fund balance of $22,600. In the Economic Development Fund, we're increasing revenues $20,000 and increasing expenditures $60,000 with a net decrease in fund balance of $40,000. In the Debt Service Fund, we're increasing revenues and fund balance by $326,076. In the General Improvement Bond Fund, we are increasing expenditures for the West Stevens project but also decreasing expenditures on 10th Street Phase 3 due to not moving ahead with that project in the current fiscal year to have a net zero increase. or decrease and the transportation fund were increasing expenditures and fund balance by 426,076 dollars. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I recommend your approval to this amendment on first reading.

Thank you. Their motion. Okay. Second, I got some water. I discussed him in public on this session from Castle. All right, Brenda.

All votes correct. 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 7-D, hold a public hearing and consider on.

Am I supposed to do a public hearing?

On the amendments?

Yes, it's an ordinance. I thought you did.

Okay.

Did anyone want to speak to that? Okay. If they've done, I will close the public hearing. We voted on it. I apologize. I will get it together here in summertime. I have no evidence. On to 7D, hold a public hearing and consider a first meeting. Ordinance 026-0607, providing a tax levy for the city of football Tennessee for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2027, providing means for the collection of revenues and establishing the due dates and deletion dates for property taxes. Ms. Neisweiler.

This... Yes, this is the first of three ordinances to officially adopt our fiscal year 2027 budget. This particular ordinance establishes the tax rate for the 2026 property taxes providing revenues for the FY27 budget. The tax rate is currently 99 cents and is allocated per the slide shown. The estimated budget revenue is $12,243,550. This is net of a 5% allowance assumed as uncollectible for the first year. The certified tax rate will not be available until late June, early July. When we get the certified tax rate, we will be rounding up to the nearest whole cent as has been practiced for the last four reappraisals. As a result, there's officially a tax increase, but only to get the certified rate to the nearest penny. This graph shows the growth in the penny rate over the last 10 years. You can see the large jump from 2020 to 2021, which was our last reappraisal. The penny rate has increased 67% in 10 years, and we expect an even bigger jump when we get the most recent reappraisal numbers. This shows the 2025 property tax comparison with other municipalities in Tennessee. This will significantly change after the new certified tax rate is set. Here's a historical summary of the City of Cokeville's property tax rate going back to 2008. It also has the certified tax rate listed on reappraisal years before rounding. I'm happy to answer any questions, but recommend your approval on first reading.

Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion made by Vice Mayor Elkish. Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Councilman Gilbert. This is a public hearing, so we will open the floor if there's anyone who would like to speak on this agenda item. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing portion. Any discussions with the council? Just to clarify, no taxing?

Just rounding up to the nearest penny. No tax increase. No tax increase.

Ma'am.

The preliminary certified rate we've received is 60.94, and we would round up to 61, so that's a 600th increase, but it is a very slight increase. Now, we also want to say...

If that's the rate.

If that's our chart. If that's our rate, that's what's getting ready to start. That's a good chart. As people go through and get their... reappraisals, I know a lot of people have gone to Steve Pearce's office and are seeking adjustments in their reappraisals. That could affect that rate, not just for us, but for Putnam County. But that's the preliminary number they've given us. But whatever it is, if the engine is right, we round up to the nearest whole cent.

Thank you. Any other discussion from counseling? All right, same number. We will vote.

All votes correct. 5. Yes, motion carries.

Thank you. 70 public hearing and consider on first reading ordinance. Oh, 26 06. Right. Authorizing appropriations to financial aid, public service, nonprofits and charitable organizations for the fiscal year in the June 30th, 2027. It's nice one.

Mayor and council, this ordinance appropriates $1,051,055 to various public service, nonprofit, and charitable organizations for fiscal year 2027. This amount is $84,885 less than last fiscal year. But if you remember last year, we had a one-time grant match to the airport for 120,000. So not including that amount, we're above last year's number by $35,115. Of the amount appropriated, $1,036,055 is from the general fund. $15,000 comes from utilities. $876,055 of the appropriations are being paid to governmental partners and joint agreements, and $160,000 is allocated to nonprofits as recommended by a committee. I recommend your approval on first reading.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Move to approve. Is there a second? Second. One motion and a second. This is a public hearing, so we will open the floor for anyone who would like to speak on any non-agenda items. Excuse me. Go ahead. Know the rules, name, city or county. Three-minute time limit.

Thank you guys. Trenton Stroh, City of Cookeville. I remember I came last year and spoke on this exact agenda item, and I've had a lot of nonprofits reach out to me personally, asking me once again to ask you all to please clearly explain how all nonprofits could be a part of this profit sharing mechanism that the city's put forward to assist.

Do you want to explain a little bit about how the... Well, there's an application process that opens up and we put it on our website. We open up the application process the month of... March? Yes. The month of February or March. I can't remember which. Yes. And so then after that time... They have to submit in their financials. They have to fill out the application. They have to tell how much, what they're going to do. There's their statement scope, what they're going to do each quarter. And then the committee looks at all of that information together, and then they make recommendations based on that.

And there's a certain amount of money to be allocated.

City manager and I decide how much, yes.

Limit on what we are willing to.

We sit down and discuss how much we're going to contribute before they sit down. And so they had, I forget how much to reduce it down to when they started looking at these.

And the committee is made up of the local residents.

Yes, in the city. So it's 200 and it was almost $260,000. They had to bring it down to 160 based on one. Yes. Yeah. Yes. There was $259,950 requested. And we only gave them 160,000.

So thank you for the transfer.

Sir, of course.

Any other comments from the public? All right, seeing that little funds without hearing portion in his session from the council. And then we'll go ahead and take it up.

Although it's correct. 5-yes motion carries.

Thank you. On to 7-F. Hold a public hearing and consider on first reading. Ordinance 0-26-06-09. Adopting the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027. For the City of Quickfoot, Tennessee, Ms. Neistat.

This ordinance provides for the adoption of our fiscal year 2027 budget for all departments and funds. The total appropriations for the city, including utilities, is over $244 million. Our priorities we try to address in this budget include the capital infrastructure improvements and capital equipment and employee wages and benefits. We went through in detail in the work sessions in May. To summarize, this budget includes a market adjustment of $2,000 for all full-time employees, a merit raise based on employee valuation up to 2%, up to the maximum range in their pay grade and offers a new benefit of a lump sum payment to those employees topped out in their pay grade. There is a pay scale adjustment to increase starting pay and all pay grades by $2,000. Our TCRS rate for legacy employees is increasing just over 0.51%. And health insurance is also increasing 3% for medical, 4% for dental and vision, which will be split between the city and the employees on the cost. Vision Insurance is employee paid only. We had no change in our medical plans this year. The impact of the market adjustment is a 3% increase in salary for about 68% of our employees. This budget funds three new full-time positions, one utility worker and public works concrete crew, one EMT in the fire department because the CCR van used to be grant funded. We technically have to add that as an additional person this year. One meter installer in the water quality control and one seasonal position in leisure services to assist the horticulturists with beautification of the city. We'd like to restructure one position in the general department. There was a full-time support service tech position and a part-time deputy court clerk position funded in 2026 that have not been filled. I'd like to make that one full-time position for the deputy court clerk. There were two meter readers positions vacated in FY26 that were not filled. So those two positions are being eliminated in this budget, leaving a net of one full-time person added to the citywide budget in FY27. Due to the implementation of AMI meters, we do plan on continuing to move meter readers to other positions throughout the city as feasible, including filling the water meter installer position and possibly the deputy court clerk position with meter readers. As discussed in work sessions last month here in fiscal year 26, we have a lot of projects that got completed. In FY27, we have over $30 million in capital projects, excluding the utilities. Here's a look at the general fund revenues and transfer. Well, I guess I should say, we'll start talking about the general fund. Here's a look at the general fund revenues and transfers in by source. You can see 52% of revenues.

Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped some things here.

Moving on to the general fund, the primary operating fund of the city. This budget proposes revenues and transfers in at $40.9 million and a 1.1% increase over the FY26 revenues. $35.9 million of these revenues come from local taxes, which include property tax, sales tax, in lieu of tax, and business tax. Here's a look at the general fund revenues in transfer and by source. As you can see, 52% of revenues are from local option sales tax and 21% are from property tax. Sales tax is projected at 2% growth over what we expect to receive in the current fiscal year. We're budgeting $21,177,000 for fiscal year 27 in sales tax revenues. To show where our sales tax goes, this breaks down what we bring in during a fiscal year and what the city's net share is. In fiscal year 25, we collected $49.7 million in sales tax. After the state's fee in paying a portion to the county and schools, the net Cookville share is $19.9 million. This ordinance appropriates 40.6 million dollars in operating expenditures for the general fund a 2.84% increase over prior year and capital expenditures of four and a half million. This chart shows the operating expenditures transfer and transfers out by type 77% of our expenditures are in salaries and benefits. Next, we have expenditures broken out by department. Over 50% of operating expenditures in the general fund are for public safety. Police at 33% and buyer at 20%. Moving on to the individual departments, starting with the police department, this budget has $13,176,750 in operating expenditures, an increase of 4.79%, and $403,678 in capital expenditures for seven new vehicles and equipment installs. In the fire department, we are budgeting department operating expenditures of $8,246,550, an increase of 3.97% over last year, and $2,010,800 in capital to appropriate funds to order a new ladder truck at $2 million and then 10 portable radios. They have asked for a training facility as well that will be funded in the bond fund. This department has the position to fund the EMT on the CCR band that is no longer grant funded position. In Public Works, we are budgeting $5,560,635 in operating expenditures, an increase of 4.57% over prior year. $1.62 million is in capital. It includes a new building at the Lowe-Steven Recycling Center, a mini excavator, new grinder to replace the one lost to fire, and stormwater improvements to Jackson. They also have a new position for the concrete crew. The Department of Leisure Services operating expenditures budget is $2,968,215, an increase of 0.56%. Capital is $11,000 for a new mower at the sportsplex. There is one new seasonal position in this department to assist the horticulture's daily duties. In the Parks and Maintenance Department, operating expenditures are $2,201,980, an increase of 1.28%, and $286,000 for capital to repay of King Creek Park and for a new mower at the maintenance shop. The Community Development Department operating expenditures are budgeted at $1,711,955, an increase of 4.51%, with $80,000 in capital for a new vehicle to replace a 2012 Jeep in the codes division, a LADAR drone that's cost-shared with the utilities, and implementation licensee permitting software. Last but not least, of course, is the general department. We are budgeting $5,742,310 in operating expenditures, a decrease of 1.21%, and $121,500 for implementation of ERP software in capital. The professional services line item in this budget is for consulting during the implementation of ERP and will be decreasing as it should conclude during fiscal year 27. So that allocates for a lot of the lower percentage there. In general fund capital, we're budgeting $4.5 million for various projects. To summarize the general fund, revenues and transfers in at $40,955,728 and total appropriations of $45,307,028. For a budget deficit, reducing fund balance by 4.3 million, leaving us with a projected fund balance of 34.4 million at the end of fiscal year 27. That concludes the general fund. The state street aid fund. We project $5,364,770 in revenues and are budgeting $6,362,529 in expenditures. This will reduce the fund balance by almost a million dollars, reducing it to 1.1 million at the end of fiscal year 27. Since fiscal year 21, we've roughly paved 65 miles of streets We've made paving a priority since fiscal year 22, spending over $11 million, and we will continue to make that a priority. In the transportation fund, The main source of revenue in this fund is property tax. This budget includes revenues of 1.7 million and 4.2 million in expenditures and transfers out. In fiscal year 26, we have completed the Salem Church Road at the end of England Drive project and we'll have completed Henley Drive to Bunker Hill Road project. Next is the General Improvement Bond Fund. This is where we account for large projects funded by debt. The fiscal year 27 budget appropriates $18,055,500 in expenditures. Most all projects currently budgeted and ongoing in FY26 are planned to be completed in FY26. To fund these projects, we do plan to borrow about $18 million. The general obligation debt service fund is the fund that services our debt. This fund's revenues are from property tax and state shared sales tax. Transfers from the transportation fund support debt service on large road projects. The fiscal year 2027 budget appropriates $7.6 million in expenditures and proposes $5.2 million in revenue. and $1,368,838 in transfers in. These expenditures do not include a principal or do include a principal and interest payment if we do additional debt in the 2027 budget in the fall of 26. So if we borrow money in fall 26, we would have to have debt and that is included in here. If it's in the spring, then it wouldn't have to be paid until the next year. We currently have seven bond issues outstanding, excluding the utilities. We currently have $41,085,000 in outstanding principal, and we have maintained our Moody's AA1 rating that we had received in 2024's issue. Here you can see the current debt. This is the debt plus if we issued $18 million in 27. This shows the current debt in blue. The green would be if we issued $10 million in fall of 26. Purple is we did another $8 million in the winter and spring. The red line shows the inflows that fund this fund. In the solid waste fund, we are budgeting $3.2 million in revenues and $3.5 million in expenditures, an increase of 6.67%. We're proposing a new dumpster truck, side load truck, and... a front load truck, all of which have been approved by council pending the passing of this budget to be delivered after July 1st. The Economic Development Fund budget has $601,930, $601,930 in revenues for property tax and interest. We're appropriating expenditures and transfers out of $2.6 million in this fund, reducing fund balance to just under, is that $2 million? The quality of life has revenues from hotel motel tax and property taxes. We're budgeting a little over a million dollars in revenues and expenditures and transfers out of $1.3 million. Hotel tax collections estimate in FY27 are $900,000. Expenditures include a transfer to the General Fund for Visitors Bureau of $40,000, a TTU Stadium project of $500,000, and $200,000 for the Heart of the City Playground resurfacing, which you have already approved. We estimate the fund balance for hotel-motel tax at the end of fiscal year 27 to be $570,965. The drug fund is a special revenue fund. We project $47,000 in revenue and $43,000 in expenditures in FY27. These funds are restricted in how they can be spent by law. The health insurance fund is an internal service fund where we collect premiums from employees and departments and pay insurance to carriers for health and life insurances. Revenues are projected at 8.1 million and expenditures at 8.1 million as well because as we get money in from the departments, we pay back the, as we pay out the premiums to the carriers that the departments pay in and the city employees deductions as well go into this fund. Workers' Comp and General Liability Fund is an internal service fund. We pay workers' comp and liability claims from this fund and bill back the departments for claims paid. We have $685,000 in revenues budgeted and $650,250 budgeted for expenditures and claims. The tree board is a small fund. There is a fund balance of $12,279 in there right now. The general fund transfers $5,000 to this fund annually. They usually get a tape grant, which has a 50% match to plant trees throughout the city. We have budgeted revenues of $10,200, expenditures of $14,800, and FY27, leaving fund balance projected at $7,679. The Animal Control Board Fund is where we operate the Cookville-Putnam County Animal Shelter. Revenues are proposed at $642,140. Expenditures at $724,755 and FY27. You can see the governmental contributions. That is based on animals that are brought in from the various areas. Other municipalities throughout the county, and she does a good job of maintaining that, figuring it out and deciding how much needs to be allocated from each entity. The customer service fund is an internal service fund. This department is where utilities are collected and we do meter reading out of this. We project $1.8 million in revenues and in expenditures because the utilities are billed out for their portion of the expenses incurred with this fund. With the implementation of automated meter reading, we are eliminating two positions in this fund that were vacated and not filled in FY26. We plan to continue to transition meter readers to other positions in the CD as feasible. Finally, we have the utilities in the water quality control department, we have cash res reserves estimated the beginning of the year of 221.6 million expenses are budgeted 41.7 million and revenues and depreciation of 38.9 million for any cash reserves balance of 18.8 million. Planned capital projects are over $17 million and this budget does add one position to the water quality control department for a meter installer. Last is the energy department. The major projects include the building addition. This budget proposes no rate increase and no additional employees for either division of the energy department and no debt is being issued for their addition. In the electric division, beginning cash reserves are $17.8 million, power sales of $65.2 million, non-operating revenues of $2 million, and then add-back depreciation of $3.4 million, expenses of $74 million, and their planned cash reserves at the end of fiscal year 27 are $14.5 million. In the gas division, vending cash reserves are $28 million, operating revenues of $15.2 million, non-operating revenues of $600,000, add-back depreciation of $725,000, with budgeted expenses at $29.9 million, leaving their cash reserves at the end of the fiscal year at $14.7 million. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I recommend your approval on first reading.

I think we need to give you a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you.

We need some motions, though. So moved.

Second from Vice Mayor Eldridge. This is a public hearing, so we will open the floor to anyone who would like to speak on the budget agenda. Okay.

I do want to add something to before. If there is a nonprofit that missed the opening and they wanted to, they are more than welcome to email me, and we will add them to the list, and we will email them when we open it next year for applications, and we'll specially let them know and send them the application.

I appreciate you explaining all of that to us because the amount of calls I've gotten, I'm like, I don't know anything. So I really appreciate you explaining that. I think there's a lot of groups in Cookville that would appreciate the opportunity. And a lot of them get looked over, glossed over, or may not know where to go in this case where I really feel like. And so I appreciate that.

send the list out, the application to them when it opens next year.

Thank you. And just for the record, I believe you all are doing everything that you can to assist these nonprofit organizations in doing that, even though we have to decrease funds and money isn't, you know, grows on trees, as they say. So I'm glad that you guys are being good stewards of that and helping out the groups. But I'd hate to have you click back to all of these, and I'm not going to make you. But on one of these slides, one of these slides um it's showing a decrease in value that we're of course spending more money that we're taking in and some say we're down a little bit in the balances is that correct or not oh most of the fund balances are decreasing this are decreasing thank you so i want to make sure that we have built up fund balance and we have we are very conservative in our revenue projections yes

Especially this next coming year, we don't know what's going to happen with everything, especially sales tax dollars in uncertain times. And then also expenditures are up, and we had to add a lot for fuel because of fuel prices right now. That is part of my amendment this year. There are two departments that I think are going to go over and fuel this year. So, yes, a lot of them.

I'm glad that you're explaining that because I'm sure that's on a lot of people's minds, so thank you.

Yes, a lot of them are going.

Jenny, it's not intentionally. We build our fund balances up so we don't borrow the money. We've got money in the bank to pay for these things.

Yes, and we wait until we have a surplus.

If you look at our financial information, typically communities have two to three months in fund balance. We've got most of them close to a year. Of fund balance to cover expenses. So it's done intentionally so that we don't consistently borrow money because it's borrowing money is expensive.

And that is to be celebrated. I don't think there's anything wrong with conservative stewardship of taxpayer dollars. My question is, though, however, is. And probably goes back to a couple items that as the council considered a penny increase on top of the property tax rate for the city of Cookville. If so, what would that go out to help towards so people could understand that? And if not, then why not? Why the penny rate is so high? Why do we not consider going up a penny two or three on the property tax rate to bring in some additional revenue for the city to use in other places?

Well, we believe we have enough revenue now to currently to do the projects we need to do. We're not proposing to increase this year. We did increase seven cents last year. And so we believe we're in good financial shape and be able to handle the growth that we're going to have for the foreseeable future, but who knows in the next couple of years if we continue to grow like this, and we had these discussions at our work session, we're gonna need more people. I'm gonna need more police officers. We're gonna need more people in public works, more people in utilities. That costs money, and we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there, but we'll have to look at different ways to fund that. We've been very, very fortunate here. We're very blessed in this community that the vast majority of our revenue comes from sales tax. And we have two large big box facilities getting ready to open up in October that we think will bring in well over a million dollars a year in sales tax. That's several cents in property tax. So we depend on that. Sir, your time is up.

He's the man that needs to answer all the questions, most of them. He knows I don't know.

You're telling the good stuff. Don't cut him off.

Go ahead, Mr. Wheeler. We don't think a property tax increase is necessary at this time.

And I think that's something worth explaining to the public. They need to know that you guys have made that plan in place last year with that property tax increase, what's coming into the future as well. My next question, this is my last question, is what would you need from the state of Tennessee to help assist in some of these costs?

I'll let you answer that question. I'll let you have all three minutes, Mr. Mayor.

Three minute time limit. It works now.

Something will never get back. There you go.

It's your opportunity. We appreciate the additional revenue, additional assistance from the state. We've put in requests, multiple requests for the last many years. Our big thing is we would like to have A small portion of the sales tax that's collected here and sent to Nashville return back to us more than they currently do. How much is that? I calculated that there's probably more than $150 million in sales tax generated in Cookville. That's just of the total sales tax. And we get back from them, Jenny, you can correct me, but it's a very small amount. And we would like to have a little bit of that back. Now, we realize that that's the primary funding mechanism for the state. That's how they pay for state troopers that make a lot more than my police officers do. That's how they... We'll continue to ask that they bring a little bit of money back here. But my point is that money is generated here in Coble. And why is it generated here? Because we provide the... The infrastructure, the atmosphere that attracts businesses to come to Cooper. And that costs us money. It costs y'all money. It's taxpayer dollars. That's where we spend it by wanting a return. And we're just asking the state to give us a little bit more. And then we can do a lot more. I can pay. We can pay police officers, firemen more. All our employees more. So anyway.

And that, Mr. Mills, would be the job of our elected officials at the state level, which would be our state representatives to go and advocate for those things for the city of Cookville. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Thank you.

I would like to reiterate on one of your questions. I mean, that's why we weren't raising property tax another penny to pay for more stuff. And I think it's important to understand, like, I can speak for myself, and I didn't support much increase other than rounding up for the next Senate on property taxes. Mostly because, I mean, it's, it's a hard time for people in the community raising property taxes directly goes back. To the residents, you know, if you, if you pay your taxes and you own your own home, or even if you rent. That your, your rent will be increased as the. Person you rent from has to pay more taxes and many times when you rent, you actually renters pass through more tax to their tax at 40%. If they live in like a multi family complex or something like that. So, a penny, another penny to get for more things actually cost people more money directly. It's not coming out of sales tax or other funds. And so gas prices are high right now. I think we did a very good job with this entire budget. And most importantly, we spent hours asking questions about this at a public meeting at the gas department. And so it's really important to understand that keeping the tax consistent with this year is a very important thing that we wanted to do for our community and i think we found a way to spend the money very appropriately that helps cook will grow take care of business and get get everything take care of thank you anyone else from the public did i speak sing that we'll close it any more comments from the council

I'd like to say one more thing. I want to thank Jenny, as we already have done, but I also want to thank all the department heads. Each department prepares their own budget, submit it to Jenny and me, and myself, and Jenny does the bulk of the work. I'm just overseeing, but They did a great job this year because we tried to be very, very conservative, just addressing what Eric talked about. We didn't want to look, we know what's going on in the economy, like y'all do, and we're trying, it's hit us, you know, the fuel cost that Jenny touched on. But I do want to thank every director here and Jenny on exceptional work this year in preparing a budget.

I want to echo that and point out, too, what you've done is no small task. Just for perspective, this is a quarter of a billion dollars that we're managing here, and Ms. Nicewater has helped give a really good accounting of, so thank you for that.

For those dollars, there's a lot of line items behind there. Yes. You know. You know.

You know. You know.

You know.

Just any other comments from the group?

I'd like to echo that. Good job on your first budget. I think it's very impressive, and we're really lucky to have you and your experience in the city to build these shoes and help our city move forward appropriately.

And you can be proud of yourself. You did that in 28 minutes.

Yeah.

That's been really bad.

You were trying to get. Yeah, you guys understand.

And for y'all, we do a meet in early May. It's normally scheduled as public meeting. I saw a lot of faces there early to midday. Yes. Yes. And I will not. Well, I don't know. I may go. Depends on how y'all feel about it. I might need to show up and listen, but I will be able to ask questions. Because we do go through every single page of the budget and talk about what's being funded and what's not being funded. And we take the time to... really make conscious decisions on how we are going to grow Cookeville and what is needed in Cookeville and how that affects residents of Cookeville. And I think that's the most important thing.

As we discussed Monday night, there was a change to where we increased how much we're spending in state street aid from the budget work sessions in May to... give more money towards the battery backups for traffic. Yes, we made a change this year to make money for next year.

Yeah, it's always an ongoing thing and it's really important that we manage these dot drive properties and make sure that it's all balanced in the end. So, good job. Thank you.

Any other comments? I think we have a motion and a second. If we don't, we will discuss. We'll go ahead and vote on the budget.

All votes correct. IBS motion carries.

Thank you. Sorry, it's like a regional queen. We should make y'all go first so you don't have to stay for the whole thing. But thank you for being here. We are on to 7G, hold a public hearing and consider our first reading ordinance 026-06-10, adopting the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027 for the football regional medical center.

Thank you, Mayor Wheaton. Tonight I'm here to present Kootenai Regional Medical Center's budget. So as you can see up here, the facility is budgeting $21.9 million in net income for FY27. That's compared to the projected net income of $10.1 million for FY26. We continue to maintain a self-sustaining, healthy financial position with a consolidated budget operating margin for FY27 of 4% compared to the projected FY26 consolidated operating margin of 2%. The facility is budgeting a 7% increase in net patient revenue for FY27. This is driven primarily by increases in volumes, new positions, improvements in length of stay, and improvements in cash collections. The facility continues to invest and be committed to building a healthier community as uncompensated care is projected for FY26 at $36.5 million and budgeted for FY27 at $37.8 million. The facility is budgeting $536 million in operational expenses for FY27 compared to a projected expense of $513 million for FY26. Major components of the facility's expenses are salary, benefits, purchase services, and supplies. These categories make up approximately 85% of the total expenses for the facility. During the current fiscal year, the facility invested over $5 million in our greatest assets, which are our employees, for various market adjustments to retain staff. Salaries, wages, and benefits are budgeted at $236 million compared to $225 million, which is projected for FY26. The facility will continue to invest in employees next fiscal year with salaries and wages increasing approximately $11 million for workforce growth, merit increases, bonuses, and market adjustments. Purchased professional services accounts make up $21 million of the total expense with an increase of $6 million over the projected FY26. This increase stems from various increases in subsidizations for various professional services due to shortages in the market and provision for specialty services. Supplies are budgeted at 171 million or 7% more than the 160 million projected supplies for FY26. Primary contributors to this increase include volume increases, inflation, pharmaceuticals, and non-capitalizable equipment. So consolidated expenditures is $536,976,052. The facility's capital budget is at $88 million, $28 million in departmental capital, and $60 million in expansion and renovation projects. The construction budget is $60 million, which reflects the facility's continued growth and expansion of services. Some of the larger projects consist of the following. Our inpatient rehabilitation expansion, which is a joint venture with Encompass Healthcare. the completion of the implementation of our new electronic medical record system, EPIC, and the renovation of our endoscopy center. The facility has outstanding bond principal payments as of June 30th, 2026, totaling $39.6 million, where FY27 principal payments on the bonds will be $3.8 million and interest on those bonds is estimated to be $2.4 million. That concludes the hospital's overview of their 2027 budget, and I recommend approval of this 2027 budget.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Thank you very much, Councillor Gilbert. Thank you very much, Councillor Walker. This is also public hearing. Anyone who would like to speak on the hospital budget, please do so.

this is my bread and butter right here all right so hi nice to meet you my name is trent distro city of cookville hi miss buffy how are you i can deal with you with more than nuanced questions that i have um on this later but with the hospital i would love to know i know the city has put out applications in order for folks to sit on different types of boards here i personally have put in my own application to sit in on the hospital board is that as well Are these public meetings that you have with your board of trustees or the meetings that you have with the board of trustees public so that way the community can have their input and say on these as well when and what times are they and what types of discussions are being made in those meetings so that way the future of the hospital is somewhat more transparent for the people of the city of Cookeville?

So we do have public meetings. The public meeting for our board is on the fourth Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. And there is usually a public meeting for planning the Tuesday before that. And I believe that starts at, is it 4.30 or 5? 4.30. 4.30. Okay. And those are public meetings, and the public is welcome to attend. They're held in the conference room right beside the employee cafeteria on the first floor.

Gotcha. Now, this is a question that might be away from the budget. If we don't have time for it, that's totally fine. But I have high school students and those from Tennessee Tech who are looking for somewhat of more direct pathways to employment at the hospital, seeing that this is our regional hub hospital. Are there... partnerships with those two entities, Beverly Putnam County Schools and or Tennessee Tech University to provide more of a local pipeline for the workforce here.

Yes, there are. And Buffy may want to speak more to that. But we have junior volunteer programs where people can put in applications during the summer and they can work in various places in the organization that would kind of give them exposure to different areas. And I don't know if you want to speak more to any other.

I will just respect everyone's time. If you want to answer that real fast and then we'll just stick to budget questions. Yeah, just that's why.

That's why I want to thank you.

But you got a good question. Yeah.

And that was my last question.

Yeah, yeah, we can be that. Great.

Anyone else is like, yes, I'm like, I said, I know I'm having fun. Any other comments from the front?

That's a member of the public. I just want to thank Tommy Renee for the work that she does with the budget. It's an extraordinary amount of work. I was going to do the same. Mile on. Because I've done this for six years, whether on the hospital board, she is really... Just unbelievable, which I've told her several times. I want to say publicly, I've never shunned her with a question. No, you haven't. I really appreciate all the work that you've done. I really appreciate all the hospital and it's always a pleasure to get to work with you.

Any more comments from the council?

I would echo Benny. I just want to say, like, the past few years working in the hospital, I mean, we've worked together for eight years now, and I just love where we're headed. It's like there's a bright light in how the hospital is being administrated, and I think we're really proud of what you guys are doing, and I appreciate that a lot. And so, fond of the second biggest part of our budget, we'll get this thing cleared up.

Any other comments?

Just a heartfelt thank you for all the work.

We have a motion and a second. We will go ahead and vote.

All those correct? 5-yes, motion carries.

Thank you. That concludes the budget portion of our meeting. Everyone got through it. Congratulations. We will continue on and finish this out eventually. 7-H, consider approval of Amendment No. 1 to the Professional Service Agreement with ASA Engineering and Consulting for the completion of a master plan, site, and civil design plans and construction documents for 39 Depot Area, 5th and Mills.

Mayor and council members, believe it or not, this past September is when we first approved our agreement with Ace Engineering to develop a master plan for 39 Depot. If you remember, the... proposal divided the project into four phases. We've contracted for the first two phases. The cost for the first two phases was $430,000. Phase one was the development of a preliminary master plan and the final engineering design for a parking lot, utility relocation, grading, drainage, and erosion control plans. Phase two was the final master plan, but we can't have the final master plan until we complete what we're going to do about the parking lot. So, you know, we've had numerous public meetings around back and forth. What are we going to do? So we believe we've come up with the final proposed design of the parking lot. The original parking lot design provided, I believe, was $190. eight parking spots, 192, this new design, the latest design, increases that parking to 252 spaces, 258 spaces, eight of those are ADA compliant. But to do this expansion, ACES requires additional funding for the civil and engineering design. So I'm asking for your approval to execute and approve and execute an amendment to the agreement for additional site and civil design work for the expanded parking lot for a fee of $20,000. $500. It also provides for an additional six weeks from the executed amendment. So the total price would be, assuming this amendment's approved, for Pages 1 and 2, it's $450,500. So I recommend and ask for your approval of that. And let me also note that we are hopeful that in the next few weeks we'll be ready to submit have for your consideration the final master plan. And we also hope within the next several weeks to be submitting once we have this new design and engineering done, a request for approval. We'll have to bid it off, of course, but to actually build the parking lot. We'll ask you for your approval and authorization.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion made by Vice Mayor Eldridge, seconded by Councilman Bocce. Special from the public. Special from Council.

All votes correct. 5 yes, motion carries.

Thank you and 7 I consider approval of final balance change order for the Cane Creek Park improvement project slash playground and parking lot.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I am happy to announce that the Cane Creek Park Improvement Project, which includes the splash pad, playground, parking lot, sidewalks, is substantially complete. As you know, FTM and Recreational Concepts served as contractors on this project. This authorization deals with the FTM portion of the contract as they served as general contractors working on the parking lot, site prep, sidewalks, and infrastructure. There were three change orders in the course of this contract. The first involved modification of the curb style, resulting in a credit to the contract of $17,100. The second involved upsizing the water line, adding additional connections, increasing the line size from one inch to two inch, and that added $13,700 to the contract. And the final one was the addition of sod around the splash pad that added $8,000 to the contract. Net impact of all these changes is $4,600. That changed the original contract amount from 800,582.45 to 805.182. The general contract was originally at $800,582.45, like I said, and the project was originally budgeted at $876,000, so we're still substantially under budget there. I'd like to thank you all again, once again, for your support of this project. I think the positive public response since the grand opening, which has been tremendous, demonstrates the value of this type of investment for the community. So I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, but respectfully request your approval.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion moved. Motion by Councilman Botchie, seconded by Vice Mayor Eldridge. Any discussion from the public? Question from Councilman?

Chad, can you, you may have said it at the ribbon cutting and all that, but when were the bathrooms going to be done?

I've had questions about that. So we've received the plans today. Okay. They'll be out there working tomorrow. So it's an eight to 10 week project, maybe more. All right. Our crews are doing that work. Yeah. That's on the budget. Yes, that's in the budget. Thank you, sir.

All right. We've got a motion and a second. Any more discussion? Okay, I'll vote.

All votes correct. IVS motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes the agenda portion. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to the council on any non-agenda items? Seeing none, I think Mr. Mills, you've got a...

yes i want to continue to brag on our departments and i'm going to use this opportunity to let you all know that we received notification this week from the tennessee municipal league that we have received the award for excellence in fire service i don't remember any department from the city ever received an award from the tml that we may have but it's part of me but anyway the tml represents all 300 plus cities across the state of Tennessee. So this is a very prestigious award. We are specifically receiving this as a result of our CCR program. So as the mayor alluded to earlier, this program is being recognized not only just in this region, but statewide and we believe across the nation. And again, I want to go back and credit Ken Searcy with the police department. I hope Ken's watching. He's retired, but I doubt he's watching this.

That's why the last three days...

But he actually was a leader in getting this started four or five years, three or four or five years ago. Scott was involved with the get-go. And Benton, Chief Young, has taken this thing by the horn and turned this into a fantastic program. It's just awesome to get recognition like this about a program that's bringing recognition to the city of Kufu. Absolutely.

Any other questions?