City Council - Regular Meeting

18, 2026 regular meeting of the Holland City Council. I am Nathan Box. I'm Mayor Nathan Box calling this meeting to order. Brenda, would you please call the role? Okay. Uh, Clumparens here. Freeman here. Raymond here. Corbin here. Schultice present. Maren here. Rowan present. Sheay present. Mayor Box present. We have a quorum.

Wonderful. Thank you. We're going to begin this evening's meeting as we have for many years. First with an opening prayer uh this evening by council member Sheay followed immediately by the pledge of allegiance. And we would invite you to join us if you're so inclined. Almighty creator, send down upon those who hold office in this city the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice that with steadfast purpose we may faithfully serve in our offices to promote the well-being of all people. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Mr. Sheay. Next item on the agenda are our consent agenda items. Uh these items are considered to be fairly routine and have been reviewed by council members as part of our council packet and they will be enacted in one motion unless a member of the public or member of council asked to have an item removed from the consent agenda and then it'll be placed in its regular order on the regular agenda. But before I ask if anyone would like to do that, Brenda, would you please review the consent agenda items for us?

Yes. 4B. Approve the minutes of the March 4, 2026 regular meeting. 4 C. A grant of sewer easement for 740 College Avenue Rest Haven Maple Woods Cottages. 4 D. Grant of water easement for 50 East 64th Runway View and a bill of sale for 50 East 64th Runway View. 4E. Bill of Sale and Utility Easement at Home Flats Apartments. 4F. Board of Public Works fiscal year 26 capital budget budget amendment and contract for transmission main inspection pipe modifications. 4G, resoning request for 49 West 3rd Street with final adoption May 13, 2026. 4 H, request to vacate Second Street and to approve a public hearing on the request for May 13, 2026. 4 I claims filed against the city. 4J, Tulip Time Festival approval of the 2026 contract. 4K, annual liquor license renewals. 4 L the 2026 2027 road salt purchase. 4 M accept sidewalk easement for dwelling management LLC at 208 East 40th Street. 4N traffic changes parking restriction on 10th Street and Central Avenue adjacent to Central Avenue Church. 4. Schedule public hearing for Atlas Headrest LLC for PA 198 tax abatement request. 4 P. Fourth of July fireworks permit for

Great Lakes Fireworks. 4 Q award electrical services bid. 4R award mechanical services bid. 4 S award mechanical control services bid. 4 T. the December financial reports. For U, approve a participation in the six remnant defendants national opioid settlement. 4 V, approve the purchase of one snowplow dump truck with upfitting. 4 W, approve the lease agreement with Grand Valley State University. and 4X, a revocable license agreement for groundwater monitoring wells and soil vapor monitoring point in the right of way at 407 West 17th Street.

Great. Thank you very much. Is there any member of the public that would like to have an item removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda? Seeing none, any member of council that would like to have an item removed from consent? Seeing none there, what is the pleasure of council in regard to the consent agenda? Move to approve the agenda as presented. Moved by Verman. Is there support? Support. Support by Raymond. Any discussion?

Yes, Mr. Sheay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um although I'm not removing anything from the consent agenda, I just want to make my thoughts known on item 4 uniform. um uh that is to accept uh opioid settlement funding which I am full support of but I'm just want to restate my position that um as mentioned in the the uh item here that it will be going to pay ourselves back in effect for our crisis intervention team as we know that that's a really popular and successful program. I'd love to see that funding be um going to adding more uh in the in the way of crisis intervention. Um so I just wanted to share that and that'll be all. Thanks.

Great. Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Brenda, would you please call the role? Clumps? Yes. Reman, yes. Raymond, yes. Corbin, yes. Schulty, yes. Mayor Keane, yes. Rowan, yes. Shay, yes. Mayor Box. Yes. Motion carries.

Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is item number five, public comment. Under the Open Meetings Act of the State of Michigan, we provide the public the opportunity to address council in person at our regular meetings, our study sessions, and at every one of our board, committee, and commission meetings. We do have guidelines that we ask you to follow. However, uh we do limit the time to five minutes for each person who is speaking. There are three lights on the day in front of me. A green light, a yellow light, and a red light. Green light means that you're doing well on time. Yellow light means that you have one minute left. And the red light means that your time is expired. And we are strict about that. We ask that when you approach the podium, you please state your name and the municipality in which you live because it's important for us to know whether or not you are a resident of the city of Holland. Uh please also note that this is one-way communication. This is an opportunity for you to address council on any subject that you believe is important, but we don't answer con ask questions during this time, nor do we engage in discussion. But if there's a question that staff can answer after the meeting, they may be able to circle back to you at that time. Uh, if there's anyone here who would like to address council at this time, this is your opportunity. Please come forward.

Good evening. And you are one of our HAK students. And I want and we all know who you are, but we would I always like to make sure the public knows who you are. Uh we have the Holland Youth Advisory Council, which are high school students uh who engage in local government. And I have four additional questions that I always ask and I know you guys are prepared for this. Uh we all like to know and we want the public to know what high school you go to, uh what you do with Hayak, what grade you're in, and if you have any plans for the future. And as always, if you don't, that's fine because I didn't have any at your age either. So, welcome.

Hi, my name is Amanda Stall. I'm an 11th grader at West Ottawa and I'm part of the recreation committee. I wanted to talk about the importance of a program at West Ottawa called PALS. PALS stands for peer assisted listeners where the students get matched to a middle and elementary school student where we meet every other day. There are two different classes for PALS. There's PALS in training which I am in right now where we learn the importance of social and listening skills and we not only learn this but we better ourselves through the knowledge. There's also PALS in action which I will take my senior year where we get to use the skills that we have learned while helping the students that was recommended by us. This is so important because it teaches the students taking PALS about ourselves and how to be more compassionate towards others. we face real world issues with within adolescent mental health. It benefits the students that we advise because they get to have a true mentor that they can relate to, letting them know that they aren't alone and that they have a support system who cares about the issues that they are dealing with and their well-being. We they get to open up to someone there to strictly listen and I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time?

And you are also one of our Hayak students. Welcome.

Hi. Um I'm Hello Council. I'm Miles Wilkinson and I'm a senior at West Ottawa High School. After high school, I plan to go to Depal University and I'm undecided on what I'm going to major in. Um, I want to take I plan I'm sorry I like to use this comment to talk about the great things that we're doing at the in the environmental committee, which is the committee I'm in at in Hayak. And the first thing that some of the people on the environmental committee did was help out with the annual tulip planting, tulip bulb planting uh in Centennial Park. And I feel like this was a great experience for me as it helped me connect more with my city and its history and heritage and also the nature environment that we live in. And another project that we've been working on is the producing a video for social media on behalf of Hayak and the environmental committee. We've been trying to spread more awareness on the pollution that normal people do and uh and how they can curb that and become better for the environment. And another project that we've been working on is another future plan that we have is a beach cleanup in like exactly a month at Tunnel Park. We've been trying, we've been scheduling these for a few years now and we just want to make the beaches, which are one of the highlights of Holland in my opinion, a better place for everybody. And a lot of this has been inspired by the book club that we're in right now. Uh Dan Boursma wrote a book and each meeting we we read a third of the book or we talk about a third of the book that we read and how we can implement that into our plans for the future. And I just wanted to thank Joan and all of you guys for this great opportunity and Joan for all the stuff that she does. Thank you very much. Um I don't normally comment but Dan Borisma that you mentioned his Brook city staffer head of our sustainability committee here or he's our director of sustainability at the city and you guys did a fantastic job. Thank you. Um anyone else who would like to address council at this time

and would you please state your name and municipality for the record?

Yes. Yes. My name is Malik Brandon and um I I've been in Holland for a while now. Um lived in Holland High, played football there, actually worked for the city for good, four or five years. So um I want to say good evening to everyone once again. My name is Malik Brandon and um I am presenting today the first of its kind opportunity for the city. Um th and this is a professional prom boxing event for May 16th, 2026 at the Holland Civic Center Place. This will be the first ever pay-per-view boxing event in the history of Holland. And so this is putting this beautiful city on a much larger scale. So, with following all sanctioning guidelines, it's a professional sanctioned prom boxing event. Um, hosting local and regional athletes all the way from Detroit, um, Louisiana, Texas, and of course, our hometown. We have our hometown fighters available as well. It'll be very organized and structured. They're very uh strict on providing safety for our fighters and having doctors and AMR where you have a contract with them to be ringside as well during the uh during the event. what this does and what it's going to do for the city economically. It will increase traffic for uh restaurants, hotels, small businesses, um vis visitors traveling of course from uh everywhere that have never been to Holland before. So, not only will they get to see our beautiful city, but be a part of history.

And with uh with increasing revenue that will also give other um staffing opportunities and we will uh also have local vendors and local partnerships that we also have uh were able to establish. So, by this being the first pay-per-view event in Holland, not only will we get regional visibility, but it'll be national. Um, and I would look I would like this to be not just for this night, but I look forward to having this having Holland become more than just our our beautiful tulip time, which I love, but also, you know, a destination for more more sports entertainment and venue and uh other events for from here on out later down the road. And so that will be like a year round entertainment hub for Holland. So this for as far as the the community here, it's very it's like a it's a big platform for local athletes, a positive outlet for young for uh for youth engagement, opportunity to partner with gyms and youth programs and other mentorship initiatives. So this is not just about fights, it's opportunity for discipline and community pride here. What I'm asking for the city is two key components. Sponsorship and partnership opportunities and permission for to to strategically place big uh signage around the city. And so this will support to help ensure strong attendance and maxim maximize economic impact. So the the future vision that I have

with with doing this historical event which I did my research this is really the first one very first one so the it's just the beginning so with the with the city support this can become an annual event bringing consistent revenue visibility and opportunity to to h for Hollander for year after year so I've committed myself to producing in a safe, professional, and high quality event that reflects positively on the city. So, I'd love to partner with you to make this history in Holland a great experience. And that's all I have for today.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address council at this time? Seeing none, I will close the public comment period. Next item on the agenda, item 6A, special presentations and recognitions from the mayor or council or city manager. Uh presentation on ice park year end. Mr. Van Beek.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council. Um I had indicated that we were eager at the end of a inaugural and a very successful um first year of the ice park to come and celebrate with you and talk about that a bit more. So Andy Kenyon is here to do that tonight complete with pictures. So Andy, take it away. We're looking forward to this.

All right. Excuse me. Thanks Keith. Uh thanks councel and Mr. Mayor for having me tonight. Um, like Keith said, we uh just wrapped up the first year of all the operations at the ice park and uh we had a great first year and um I'd like to talk about it a little bit tonight and answer any questions you might have. Um I'd first off like to start off with some uh great thanks to my team um in particular the recreation team. Um I'm gonna list them off so bear with me for about 30 seconds. Uh Garrett, an Emry, Brandy, Aaron, Case, Allan, Sarah, Saurin, and Kurt. Um all of those folks are um from the recreation program side of our shop. And um they took our collective vision um after we built the facility and turned it into a world-class high customer service operation in in a blip. Um they were spectacular all the way along. um the beginning of the year um had many of them working um upwards of a hundred hours the first few weeks trying to get um ice built. Um we spent tons of time u Matt and I and some of Garrett we we toured a lot of places over the last few years to come up with the vision to build it and we weren't we weren't sure exactly how to do it. um much like anything you try to practice to be a parent, be a grandparent, whatever it is, you think you've read all the books and you know exactly how to do it. Um and then the switch gets flipped and then we took it over and um it uh ran ran very very well. Uh some of those folks I mentioned were either in customer service. Um trained the roughly 35 to 45 uh different individual staff members that we hired for the ice park on customer service, taught them how to take care of the ice, told them how to clean bathrooms, told them how to do all of the things that take place to make a

place like this work very well. Um some of them did maintenance. Um they did all sorts of things and a lot of them it was their first jobs ever. So there was that wrinkle thrown in there as well. And um so we were excited how it turned out. And the picture, the first picture there was just kind of the kickoff right um at the middle of November. And going from that to what we have now was unbelievable. Um the team has um I'm going to I have about half a dozen pictures. So So not too many in there, but these are all photos that the communication team took um throughout the year. Um there's the over one of the spectacular overhead shots. Um, but they took that and they ran with it and we learned a lot of things over the course of time. You start with one plan and as you implement that plan, you get a few sessions in, a few weeks in, a month in, you have to change and tweak it to what works better. Um, and we did that all the way along and they did a tremendous job of um, rolling with the punches and adapting and things like that. They do that every day in their jobs. They're very good at it. Um, but this one was on a whole different scale. So, it was outstanding. Um, I did print off some a few stats. Um, Keith and Matt asked me to share a couple stats with you. I don't have a lot, but we have a few. As I said, we just closed down this past weekend. And as of a week ago, um, we had 33,685 individual skate sessions booked. So, um, that was unbelievable to us. We weren't sure what to expect. We knew it was going to be very popular, but that was nearly all of the sessions we had. Almost all of them were sold out. So, it was there was very few that weren't sold out. Um, so that was outstanding. Uh, the curling sheet, um, we had 213 different groups of people that came and had reservations for curling. Um, so that was very popular as well. We're not sure if it was because it's the Olympics year and people were watching curling every day or if it's just a really cool sport to get into. And I think it's

probably a pretty cool sport to get into. And the best one of all was the amount of hot chocolate we sold. And so that was 8,219 individual cups of hot cocoa. And if you didn't have the hot cocoa there, I suggest you get some next year because it was spectacular. Um, which was awesome. So yeah, we had a very, very good time. Um, we got awesome feedback from the community, from the public, um, about their experience there. And like I said, we used that feedback as well to tweak some things to make it even better than what it was the session before. Um, we look forward to what we're going to do there this spring and summer. Um, and then get ready to put this, it's not quite put to bed yet for the year. We've got a couple more things to do and a little bit more learning to do before we've flipped the switch on the ice and turn it completely off. But that's coming very soon and then we'll get ready for the next season and then next year we'll start it all over again. So, we're very excited about it. Very happy with how it turned out.

Any questions? Questions for Andy, Devin, and then Kim. I have a just a just a couple. First of all, awesome. Like I just you all nailed it clearly. I I was preparing myself like look, there's going to be chaos. There's going to be so many things go wrong. Remember, it's the first and honestly just killed it. Awesome. One quick question I have or two. One is um do you know if anybody tested a Spanish version of the website to see that it was smooth and well translated? I don't know that. Um I can find out about that though for sure. Yep.

Um the other thing I thought and now I'm getting into the weeds so please forgive me. Like truly. Um time slots. How did we think that went?

Yeah. So over the course of the season we added time slots. Um we added sessions. Um we increased the sessions too. So, if you remember when we started the first month or eight weeks or so, we had um 150 skaters on the ice at once. And that got increased by 30 to 40 people each session, which changed the dynamic. And it we found out, oh yeah, we've got enough room for 150, maybe not 300, but let's increase it by some. Um, and then towards the end of the season, we were able to actually have some ability to buy tickets day of or hour of. So next year we may tweak that again and have some tickets available for walk up times because we got that feedback. Um you know this allowed us early on to really control um what was and who was coming so we knew what to expect if it was 10 people which it was never 10 people or if it was full 150 which it always was. We knew what to expect.

Totally. That's awesome. Were you finding that the full session was being utilized? No. So most of the time people skated around for about a half hour, 45 minutes, took a break, sat down, watched other people skate, and then they come back on the ice and do the whole thing all over again. So it was it was kind of what we expected. We we weren't sure if people would use the whole time or not, and and they really didn't. Um, some people did. There was a few people that did hot laps like all like for the whole time, which was unbelievable. A lot too much work for me. I didn't want it to be exercise, but more fun. Um, but uh they did that. So yeah. Great. Well, thanks so much. Yeah, Keith

Andy, I think I have this right, too. One of the changes that you made through is you actually staggered the times. We did. Yeah. So, we had a pinch point at the beginning when people were picking up their skates. And so, in order to not have 150 people queue up at once, we did tweak that a half an hour. So, we'd have a session start at I'm making this up at like three and then the next one at 3:30. And we'd split that 150 people up into two chunks. So, it made it easier and better. Customer service helped out a lot. Great. Still got the same amount of time to skate. It was just pushed by half hour. Thanks so much. Yeah, Kim.

Yeah. Uh, congratulations on a job well done. And judging from the number of friends from Grand Haven to Southern Illinois, um, who were trying to get me to get them tickets and I was very grateful to say you can get them yourself and you can only get them at the website. Um, so thank you for that. That made it a lot easier easier. And I missed my um reserve time slot for the for the grand opening. So, I'd like to reserve one for next year as soon as possible. We can do that. We can do that. Um and then my other question was um Oh, it just fell out of my head. Um

oh, uh the temperature. I know there was a struggle early on in the fall with uh what is your temperature threshold or do you not have a sense of where it's going to be too warm for skating to happen um on any given day?

Yeah. So that's even variable. So what what goes into play with it? Not just temperature, but the wind and if the sun is out. Oh yeah, I'm kind of sitting on the same picture. Thanks, Keith. Good. There's like four more. Feel free. Um but um yeah, so temperature- wise we were we actually had ice skatable when it was upper 50s. Um a week and a half ago when it was 64 and pouring down rain, we lost all of the ice. Um but if it was, you know, 50° and cloudy, you could skate and it would keep it cold um and frozen. And um it may be a little wet on top in certain spots in the afternoon sessions, but by evening it would it would frost over and freeze. So, you know, if it's not if it's not sunny out, I would say we could 55, 56, 57 degrees, maybe if you didn't mind getting a little wet, um if you fell down. Um but so that's that's about it. And once it gets that high, then it's too much. Uh last week when we lost all of the ice, the guys actually um came in at 3 in the morning last week. I'm going to probably get the day wrong, Thursday. Thursday morning um to make all brand new ice. Um we had a one of our team members out at the beginning of the year when we were making it. So it offered an opportunity for us to teach him how to do that and so they came in early in the morning to make new ice. So essentially we had a brand new sheet of ice for the last weekend we were open which was great. So

um and lastly my comment is that I don't think I think the curling is not a function of the Olympics having been um I agree. I think people are just kind of really into it. It's a cool sport. It's not usual for this area and I'm so glad that our little ice park can offer something so like of the times. It's cool. So nicely done and thanks for your hard work on that. Thank you, Tim. And then Tim. Okay,

Andy. Thank you. And just again kudos to your staff uh for making that happen. I was down there twice with uh family and friends and did the deal around the loop and it was just really really fun. Yeah. And I totally agree with everything you said. Now that the season is completed, can you go into a little bit of what's going to happen over the next six months?

Sure. So, we've got some recreation programming opportunities scheduled for there. Um they're going to have yoga there. Uh they're going to do probably some musical events throughout throughout the summer. And one of the biggest things we're going to do there is we partner with Vevel City Kids um anyway and they've been housed at Window in the Waterfront the last couple summers in a different part of the park. They're going to use this space as their hub for their kids biking program. So you'll you'll drop kids off there to bike. You'll have kids there that are learning how to bike. They're going to use the ribbon as a um spot to learn how to ride their strider bikes and and learn how to use uh traffic control devices. like they have little stop signs and they have yield signs and crosswalk signs just to make sure that kids know how to do that in a controlled space that's not dangerous and then they'll go from there and graduate out into the real sidewalk and you know bike lanes in the city. So it's it's going to be a it's tremendous place um to do that during the summer months.

Can I ask a follow-up question to that? Sure. Just well because you're talking about programming. So um it first of all are those registration type events like yoga for instance and where would people go to register for such yeah so hollandrecreation.com all of that information can be found there uh the bike programs listed there and you can check out city kids too their website it'll be it'll be listed there um it actually just came across my desk this week for the use of facilities form to approve it. So, uh, it's happening and, uh, it's it'll be a great it's it already is a cool program, but this is just going to enhance it and make it even better, we think. So, it's going to be awesome.

Thank you for yielding a portion of your time, Mr. Vman. The floor is still yours. However, we can serve better. All right. All right. Mr. Medakin. Yeah. Thank you, Andy. Uh, question. You know, early on there was a lot of resident spirited discussion and comments around social district expansion. Yeah. How did you feel that went? Fine. Um I have not heard of any that went wrong with that um at all and um usually we hear those things and I I didn't hear of any any issues. Great. And then a second question is maybe are you able to kind of uh sort through the demographics of the users as to resident non-resident um anything like that?

So that data is probably out there and that's one thing I didn't mention earlier. Um I can probably try to find out that data. Um the CVB actually we we work with them as a city all the time and in my department quite frequently as well. They offered some data that they collect through Placer AI um that they gave to me and Jeff Genova the downtown. They they look at that data a lot to see where people are spending their time um whether that's shopping or in hotels or at the ice park. Um and we can tell where they come from and and where they're spending their time. So I can probably filter through some of that that data to try to figure that out. um and or look at our huge list of 33,000 people that went and maybe I we can plunk that data out of that. It'd be interesting to see because to Kim's point, we had we had people coming from we know that they came from Traverse City, from Detroit, from Chicago, from Indianapolis, from all over the Midwest to come come here um specifically to do skating. You know, they saw it. They billboards were all over the state, too. If we were in Detroit coming back and there's a billboard for the ice rink there, there's one near Chicago. They're all over the place. So, people found out about it. So, yeah, it'd be interesting data. So, I'll I'll try to find that out.

All right. Thank you. Absolutely. All right. Anyone else? Uh, Mr. Van Beek, that's you down on the end. Yes. Because I know the light mayor sometimes likes to have last word. Just two things and kind of prep Andy for this one. Andy, do you know off how many how many school groups did we end up getting an approximately number of kids?

We we had I I don't know the exact number of approximate number of kids, but we had over at one time it was over 40 different school groups that came out to skate during the day. They got bust in from their school and they're from all over the place. You know, Holland kids, Holland Christian, West Ottawa, Zilan, Sagatuck. They all they came to skate and they learned how to skate if they needed it. they spent and they spent their session zooming around, got back on the bus and went back. Um, and that was really cool to watch, too. Lots of energy in that group. So, it was it was a lot, but it was it was awesome. So, yeah.

And I just wanted to highlight that and turn that back and thank you, council, because that was one of the things, you know, there was years and years and years and years of planning and work and thoughtfulness and engagement with the community before we got to the point where we opened this. And one of the things in the commitments that we made is we wanted to make sure that we had school groups that were able to get out here, get exposed, no cost of doing that. Um, and we just had a lot of partners that helped doing that. Hope College had the agreement too where they were out here. So, um, just a lot of positives. Um, I will add also still doing some of the finals and everything, but we'll get to a financial report on all of this also. But Andy, I think I can comfortably say you've seen this. Um, I think it's appropriate for you to know and for the community to know. um while we had unbelievable participation in paying for the capital cost of putting this together then you have okay what is the first year of operations going to look like right um and we were confident

and Lyn McCaman has trained us well where we you know underestimate on revenues and overestimates on expenses and then you kind of go and quite frankly the first year you're like I don't know I hope we're right right Devin you know those types of things and I can let you know that um we did well um so we'll give that report back but this is something that is not going to be a a subsidy to the city um this is something that is able to pay for itself now largely that's because we had a lot of um sponsorships for it each year too and I think many of those were multi-year and I think we have no shortage of people that are been knocking on our door and saying Hey, like next year is this available to us? So, we appreciate that. And I want to also emphasize though going handinhand with that um we think that this continued to be an affordable option for our community. Um, while you always have some people with different opinions, overall what we got, I think, is is overwhelming feedback of that this was a very appropriately priced product. Um, and that we still have the Sal Perez scholarship program. um that a lot of people in the community and employees contribute um you know paycheck so that if it if um price was ever an issue uh for someone in the community to be able to use this um that was taken care of. So we'll have more kind of final information when we kind of do the budget review sessions and we talk about next year and then we can kind of reflect back on this year. But I think it's important for you to know too that financially as we're still sorting through it, it it was a good year.

It was great. So I we even bought a little baby Zamboni if you you approved it. But yeah, so it was really nice. So could afford that. Mr. Freeman, just one follow up too. I know I complimented the staff, but the um the student staff that you guys hired, I knew many of them through all different ways. Um, and it was just really fun to see them a use their abilities, customer service, all the different things that you guys trained them in in that job. And so, thanks for making a great place of employment as well. Yeah, you're welcome.

It's awesome. It's we we hire a ton of seasonals up to 300 some in our in our office um each year and um to see them grow from where they started and walked into their orientation to get trained to where they were at the end this year was unbelievable. So it was very professionally done and uh they did a great job. So anyone else?

There is not enough time for me to express my feelings about this so I'm going to do my very best to keep it short. I cannot express enough my admiration and appreciation for all of the hard work your team has done, everyone on staff has done, everyone that has been involved in this project from the very beginning, uh, including Frank Cry. We cannot leave Frank out and as I have been saying for the last several months, Frank knew Frank knew what this was going to mean for this community. And I think that we are just beginning to see the benefits that this is going to have for the city of Holland and for the people of the city of Holland. If anybody wants to know what success looks like, it's this project. It absolutely is. You guys knocked it out of the park. Yes, it's going to be a financial benefit for the city. Yes, it's a great place to go on a Friday and Saturday night. Yes, it's going to have economic benefits to the community. Yes, kids are off their phones and skating. Yes, families are together. Yes, the hot chocolate is delicious. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is fantastic. Thank you. Thank you to everybody on your staff. Thanks for the hundred week 100 hour weeks. Um, when I drove by a week and a half ago and I saw that all the ice was gone, I thought, "That's it. We're done. That's it for the year." And then when I drove by again and the ice was back, I thought, I cannot believe they put the ice back again. Um, as many people know, I live right next door. I have been by the ice park dozens, if not hundreds of times. It's like a Hallmark movie when you go by there. Um, whether people are skating or not, it is an absolutely fantastic addition to this community, to the Midwest, to the world. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you very much.

Absolutely. Yep. Next item on the agenda, communications from the city. Oh, no, I got one more. Item number nine, written petitions and communications. In addition to providing the public the opportunity to address council in person at our meetings, we do have the give you the opportunity to address us in writing. And we do have an email address where you can do that. It is public comment cityofholland.com. again, public comment at cityofholland.com. That email will reach all council members. We review those in between our regular meetings and then we accept them into the record at our regular meetings. We don't read them out loud, but we do accept them into the agenda into the record. We do not have any tonight, but I always want to make sure that you know that that's out there. Again, public comment at cityofholland.com. Now, item 13, communications from the city manager, Mr. Van Beek.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councel. I'll be quick tonight. Uh, one, let's just leave the picture up there. That's your leadership team celebrating at the end of a day out at the ice park. Matt decided he was riding driving the Zamboni that day. I I don't think he ever actually moved it forward. He just acted like he was sitting up there, so that seems appropriate. Um, happy to be back from vacation and diving right back into it. A lot of things going on. Very, very, very heav he heavy budget process right now. Lynn and her team in particular are doing a fantastic job. So, rest assured by time April 1 comes, you will have your budget in brief documents and then soon thereafter you'll get your um depending on how you like it, either a great big binder or a mini hundpage PDF document uh to prepare you for doing budget review sessions in April. So, thank you to her and all of those teams. Um, study session next week partly on on kind of that budget process of doing long-term financial forecast as we know that that's kind of the cornerstone of our budget process. And Brian is also going to be doing um a presentation on process and other information that we're preparing on the non-motorized plan and uh that item around town. The last thing I'll just let you know that Juan um Gnum, CNS director, um is really um doing exactly what I expected, taking the bull by the horns and actually a wonderful partnership, great timing on this. Lakeshore Advantage has added a full-time position at their shop um that represents obviously the city of Holland, but the entire service district that they serve, which is Ottawa and Alagan County, specifically taking a look at the issue and the item of um

housing and workforce housing in particular. So, uh, they just have a new gentleman that started there that came from the MEEDC at the state Michigan Economic Development Corporation, um, that has some great background and is jumping, I'm going to tell you, full into that overall, um, topic and we are doing a lot of work following up on the study session that we had with all of you about our housing policy. Um, and we're going to have what I'm calling some live projects that we're going to bring forward that kind of tease out the housing policy direction that you gave. Um, as we have no shortage of projects that are coming to the table right now. So stay tuned. Uh, those will be coming to you. I don't think we'll necessarily get to them by middle of April, but by end of April, May, um, we're we're gonna we're going to be keeping you busy. So, um, a lot of work going on right now, and we look forward to a busy summer. And that's all I have.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Van Beek. Uh, next item on the agenda, appointments and communications from the mayor. Uh, I will have a lot in two weeks, but I do not have anything this evening. So, I'm going to move right on to the next one, which is item 15, appointments, motions, communications from council members. Anything from council members? Miss Raymond? Yes. Um, I would like to

Yes, I would like to, um, invite everyone to an event on March 24, Tuesday, March 24, um, on the topic, what makes a flourishing neighborhood? And uh this is sponsored by the uh neighborhood improvement committee and they have invited Lee Hardy a professor emeritus of Calvin University who will speak on the seven built features of flourishing neighborhoods. Uh it's from 7 to 8:30 at the Midtown Center second floor study hall and there'll be a Q&A session and some some uh conversation around small tables at the at the end of that event. So I would encourage you all to to join us and it's free. So no excuses.

Great. Thank you, Lynn. Anyone else? Seeing none, there's just one more motion I would entertain at this time. Move to adjourn. Moved by Vman support by Rowan. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. We arejourned. Thank you.