City Council - Regular Meeting

Order. Stand and say the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. Roll call. Miss Curtis. Mayor Sasha here. Brian Erdialis here. I mean council member Erdrialis, sorry. Council member John Gaper here. Council member Bill Garcia here. Council member Lauren Boyette here. Council member James Parks. He's uh excused. Okay.

All right. Next on the agenda is public comment. Audience participation for items not on the agenda. Public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. Speaker must sign in on the sheet next to the podium and address council from the podium. The council will not take action at this meeting in response to public comment. Do we have anybody? All right. Seeing none, next on the agenda is approval by resolution on the minutes of the March 17th, 2026 city council meeting. Miss Curtis, thank you. Your minutes from the March 17th meeting are in your pocket as presented. All right. Do I have a resolution?

Your honor, I'll make a resolution to approve the minutes from March 17th. Second. I got a resolution from Caper and a second by Brian Yuri Dallas. Roll call.

Somebody. That resolution passes unanimously.

Okay. Next on the agenda is a proclamation recognized in April as child abuse prevention and awareness month. I think that's me. All right. Child abuse prevention and awareness month. Whereas the children of Fort Morgan, Colorado are most valuable resource and represent the future of our community. And whereas child abuse and neglect are significant public health issues that have long-term consequences for children, families, and the entire 13th judicial district. And whereas every child has a right to feel safe, protected, and supported in a home and community that fosters their health and well-being. And whereas Sarah House serving as our regional child advocacy center and sexual assault resource center provides vital forensic interviewing, advocacy and healing services to children and families impacted by abuse. And whereas a child abuse prevention is a community responsibility and effective prevention program succeed because of the partnerships between local governments, law enforcement, social services, and the dedicated organizations like Sarah House. And whereas during the month of April, we recognize the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect. We are commended. We are commending the professionals and volunteers who work tirelessly to support survivors. Now there therefore be it resolved that Doug Shazo, mayor of Fort Morgan, hereby proclaim the month of April 26 as child abuse prevention and awareness month for Fort Morgan. And we call upon all citizens, community agencies, faith groups, medical facilities, and businesses to increase their participation in our efforts to support families and prevention child abuse, thereby strengthening the

community in which we live. In witness thereof, I have here unto set my hand to cause the official city of the city of Fort Morgan, Colorado, to be affixed this 7th day of April, 2026. Good evening, mayor and city council. Thank you for recognizing child abuse prevention and awareness month. I have provided you with our fundraising agenda. This month we are preparing for Dancing with Morgan County Stars. We have a great group of Morgan County uh celebrities that are raising funds to assist Sarah House with emergency services for families and children. The event is scheduled for April the 22nd with doors opening at 6:00 p.m. at Riverview Event Center. It's an event you won't want to miss and it would be an honor to have representatives from Fort Morgan City Council. The other document provided shows you the stats of primary victims served in 2025. There were 280 children and adults served and in an additional 300 secondary victims served. 126 forensic interviews, 83 were from Morgan County. 26 forensic medical examinations and six strangulation assessments were provided. In total, 1,178 services were provided to members of our community. For example, we will prov provide seven forensic interviews on children who are victims of physical and sexual abuse this week. This number varies, but is very similar to most weeks. We work closely with our law enforcement and Department of Human Services to assist children in trauma.

This is a devastating reality and we appreciate your support of our work as a multid-disciplinary team in Morgan County. We have one of the best in the state and we are honored to be a part. Thank you very much.

Alrighty. Next on the agenda is business of the month and we're going to continue that till next. Correct. We had some unforeseen circumstances that came up with our business of the month and so we will just be delaying that till next month. All righty. Next on the agenda is presentation possible action on appointment to members to the planning commission board. Mr. Acre lay down.

Good evening, mayor and council. Uh the uh planning commission is actually missing three people on the board, but we've had uh only two applications. Both uh Julie Kogan and uh Scott Brian are wanting to uh continue their service and staff enjoys working with them. So, uh, we're here to ask for city council to appoint them to the plan back to the planning commission and we're still seeking one additional application. Okay. Do I have a motion?

Your honor, I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation for Scott Bryant and Julie Kogan to the planning commission as presented. Second. Who? Oh, okay. All right. Mr. Boy. Yeah. Mr. Boyette. Thank you. Um, all in favor? I. Any oppose? Looks like we go. Great. Thank you. You betcha. Next on the agenda is presentation and possible action on bids for the fire station 2 roof replacement project. Mr. Underwood.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. Uh so tonight I'm here seeking approval for the replacement of the three roofing systems for the fire station 2 buildings at our Burlington facility. Uh these are the buildings that house various pieces of fire response equipment as well as office space and some maintenance areas. Been leaking for 10 years. Uh severe rust across the board, tenth of an inch of rain and we got the Amazon in there. Needless to say, there's valuable stuff and we're looking to protect that moving forward. Uh we did put out an RFP on the city website uh February 18th and held a pre-bid meeting which 19 contractors attended on the 4th of March. And uh we received 14 proposals uh when we closed on March 20th. So tonight I'm asking council approval to accept the CND construction bid in the amount of $84,68. This isn't the lowest bid, but it is in that lower portion of all of them. Uh we're going this direction honestly because we like to focus local but also too you'll notice a wider range of bids or you know proposals. Um anytime we see that big of a discrepancy the idea of having history of someone who's delivered for us and know we can trust Yeah. always makes me sleep sleep a little better at night.

Sure. So that just that's what I'm looking to justify the decision. Uh this is well below the $115,000 we had budgeted for the project and we'd be looking at a May install. Uh entertain any questions. Any questions? All right. Entertain a resolution. I'll make a resolution to approve CND construction for the amount of 84,608 for the repairs to the roofing on the fire station 2 roof replacement. Second. Okay. We have a resolution by Councilman Caper, a second one by or second by Bill Garcia. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you.

You're welcome. All right. Next on the agenda is presentation and possible action on bids for the 2026 underground infrastructure project. Mr. Seagel.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh tonight I'm seeking approval to uh get our contractor for our 2026 water projects. Uh this year we are looking at replacing uh State Street on the oneway section. Um we're looking at Gateway Avenue from Sherman to Cotton. Uh South Ridge, all of South Ridge from where we left off when we we did a replacement years ago. And then um Prospect Street from uh Plat Avenue to Riverview. And then finally, we're looking at Fremont from Sherman to Linda Street. Uh, an invitation to bid was placed on the city's website February 18th, 2026 and made available at city hall with one addendum. The bids were due on March 18th. Nine companies submitted bids. That's the most I've ever seen for any of our water projects. It was pretty surprising. So, after reviewing all of the bids, uh, staff is requesting council approval to accept the bid from Jess Backho to complete the 2026 water infrastructure projects for a total of $554,41. Uh, do I have any questions?

I do. You're okay. You're all right then. Yeah, you're good. Okay. Um, on the project B, uh, gateway to Cotton Street, is there a reason why we're not taking that all the way to Chestnut? Actually, I think it's a misprint. It's the whole way. So that's that's a misprint. We're going the whole way. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. No, I I put the wrong street on there. So that's a misprint on my I thought I might It's the whole thing. Yeah. So yeah, it didn't sound right, but it I just read it. So yeah. No, it's to chestnut. It's the whole way. That was the only one that I had question on. So Okay. I apologize for that. Okay. No, I have no other questions, your honor. Okay. Anybody else? That sounds good.

All right. Entertain a resolution. Your honor, I make a resolution to approve the bid for just backo service for projects A through E for the total project amount of $554,041 as presented. Second. All right. I have a resolution by Councilman Caper, second by Brian Dallas. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

I was going to point out this is kind of a common trend right now. We have a lot of companies coming in to bid on work right now. I think it's just a reflection of the slowdown in things and especially in the front range. We're getting a lot of companies bidding that are coming out of the front range looking for work. So, I appreciate we're able to stay local. It's important to be absolutely. So, yep. All right. Next one is uh on the agenda presentation and possible action on bids in the XL substation control building. Mr. B. Good evening, Mayor Council.

This is for the control building. This is the building that holds the brains of the substation and one of the last big pieces of the substation expansion. Um, it's a modular building. Everything gets put inside, shows up, gets set down, and then we hook our wires to the building. Um, so it's all put together like a modular thing. So, let me go through this quick and ask some questions here. Uh, this is for the construction of a control building for the XL substation expansion. This will also include a miscellaneous equipment with controls, relays, batteries to use inside the substation. This is a pre-fabricated 15x20 building that will be delivered to the substation. An advertisement bid was placed on the city website on February 5th, 2026. This bid opening was held on March 10th, 2026 with four companies submitting bids. The bid tabulation sheet from Crossy Engineering broke down all the bids with the recommendation sheet attached. Lakeshore Electric out of Bedford, Ohio through Border States Electric submitted the lowest overall bid prices for the construction of the control building. Staff is requesting council to approve and accept the bid price from the border states electric for furnishing the control building for the XL substation expansion bid in the amount of $498,775. Um if you look at the bid tabs, they they're pretty close. Uh we're looking at 30 35 weeks, which puts us in January now, just to give you a heads up.

Doesn't seem that far, but yeah. Where's this going to sit once you get it placed on the pad? Um the cement work will be done. It'll sit right where it should go on the foundation where um sorry relation to the current building. Uh it'll be straight west about straight east or east of the existing facility. Straight east about 80 90 ft. So if you can picture the substation it's going to mirror it. Okay. Um, so actually the shack will actually be like 20 feet, but the the the transformer will be about 80 feet over. Okay. So, right next to the other one. Thank you.

And then there's room in there for future if we decided to get rid of one of the shacks or growth or whatever. So, there's a little bit of space in there. So, thank you. Thank you. I hadn't seen an overall picture. I've seen pieces as we bought things. Oh, okay. And that's why they know actual placement.

Yeah. When you when you get over there and you look, the substation's on the very corner. We left enough ground to double the substation basically to the east. There's still room for a maintenance road for traffic to go in and out of there between the substation and the solar facility. We put the the water fill station to the north of the substation. And then we have remaining ground over there that that is the proposed location for the future water tower that's been looked at in the water department. And then we also have room over there to put the Christmas trees after Christmas is over with our mulch pile and things like that. We left enough ground for us to still use multiple departments on.

Thank you. Alrighty. I hear a resolution. Your honor, I'd offer I would offer a resolution um to accept the bid from Border States Electric Furn for furnishing the control building for um the XL substation at $498,775. Second. Second. I have a resolution by Lauren Boyette, a second by Brian Dallas. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. All right, Mr. Bane, hang on. Yeah. Presentation and possible action on bids uh for on call utility repair and excavation for the electric department distribution and transmission system.

You're up. This is for our on call uh basically contractor come in if we need one pole, two PL poles replaced. It's not for big jobs. It's for miscellaneous jobs we can't get to what if we need a certain you know piece of equipment or something like this. Um we've done it for the last six years. Uh that way all the paperwork's in place. If we have an emergency, storm, tornado, thing, you know, uh something like that, we can get them in here right away and help us out.

So basically, uh over the past several years, department had utilized an on call contracting firm to provide emergency repairs to help smaller miscellaneous projects throughout the system. Due to the complex nature of some project with specialized equipment is necessary a contract with an outside power line company that has a required equipment with the expertise to complete such of these projects. Per the requirements of city procurement policy staff has issued request for proposals for the on call repairs for excavating services on March 3rd 2026. A proposal received from one company Altitude Energy out of Kingsburg. Altitude has worked with us in the past with the 15 KV feeder line rebuild and the large 115 KV transmission line rebuild that was previously the on call contractor for the past two years. Um I did reach out to some other contractors gave them heads up we're going to do this. They just didn't get it in time. So

So if um that these guys are local, we have like a bad thing happen or we just get moved down the down the totem pole a little bit. Uh, do we keep up there? Altitude's local. They're pretty local. Kingsburg. So, well, will they go run the Gley and do them? I wouldn't think so. Um, the reason I say that they're they have a a bunch of guys working for uh Morton County REA right now, too. So, they have a basically they're they have guys here. Okay. So, it's a good thing.

Altitude's a big company. They have a lot of crews and so they can they can keep people in different places. They've got projects all over not even in just in Colorado. They have projects all over the western United States. They're even though they're relatively close to us, they do have a lot of crews spread out and can respond. Awesome. Okay, I hear a resolution on that. Your honor, I'll go ahead and request a approval for the mayor to sign service agreement with Altitude Energy LLC for electrical on call services.

Second. I have a resolution by John Caper, a second by Brian Dallas. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. All righty. Next on the agenda, presentation of possible action on the extension of contract with Merrick and company for on call engineering services for the water treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant, and wastewater collection system. Douglas.

Good evening, mayor and council. basically all my water utilities. So, um I'm asking for a three-year extension with uh Merrick. They're our on call engineering service uh and uh they look at our water treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant, water distribution, and wastewater collection. Um they have a funding source of they have a line item in their budget engineering and consultant and uh they're found in each of the water and wastewater budgets. Uh the city for Morgan has both water treatment and wastewater treatment plants that have been in service for more than 20 years. Both facility operations involve complex mechanical and chemical processes. Operators at the facilities perform routine maintenance on all equipment and perform upgrades when necessary. For the past several years, the city has utilized an on call contract with American company, formerly Mclofflin Water. That was before Doug. That was DB during Brent. Anyway, um each department utilizes these services in in case there's an emergency or there's something they don't have the knowledge to uh fix. So, staff is requesting council approval for the mayor to sign an extension of the service agreements with American company for water and wastewater engineering services for an additional three years. All righty. Anything questions?

This is one of those that we just at times we really do need them. I mean, there's some stuff that we take care of internally, but we get into situations where we just need the assistance. Right now, why we're asking to kind of forgo our normal bid process is that we are in the middle of these huge projects that they are overseeing. And it just doesn't make sense for us to go through a complete process when we know we need to have Merrick on the hook for at least a couple more years until we get all the work out the wastewater plant done and get this this other reservoir finished and designed out at the water treatment plant. So, okay,

makes sense. All right. Entertain a resolution. Your honor, I'd offer a resolution u for the may approval for the mayor to sign an extension agreement with mayor and uh Merrick and company as presented. Second. All right. I have a resolution by Lauren Boyette, a second by Brian Dallas. Uh roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is a presentation and possible action on sole source bid for update body warn and incar cameras. Chief Sharp.

Thank you, your honor. For probably close to 20 years now, the police department's had incar cameras in our patrol cars and probably 15 years or so, we've had body warn cameras. Um, we started that as a protection for both the the public and the and the police department. It's been huge. But in 2020, the state legislators made it a requirement for everybody to have bodywn cameras. Anyway, so um we entered an agreement about six years ago with a company called Watchguard at the time, um that did our body cameras and our in-car cameras. They then sold to Motorola and Motorola took that business over. Uh they've changed their product and we've entered in a contract with them about three years ago, a little over over two years ago now. And that contract was good for three years. So, our our contract is up and we're going to be looking at product again next year. Um, we're at we went we didn't go to bid because Motorola offers us everything that we have now. Um, but also we were getting redaction software. We're integrating that into the new system that you'll hear me talk about a little bit later with our with our dispatch system and all of the integrations. So, it doesn't make sense to go to a different company and then pay for all those integrations all over again. Um, and this will do the redaction software. What we're The cost is $346,270.30. Um, that's spread out over six years is the way the payments work. Um, which is about what we're paying right now. And Brent and I talked about this. It wouldn't be any difference real impact on our budget. It's about what we've been paying over the years. But this would actually bring us license plate readers in every car. It would bring us um yeah, it would bring us AI software that will actually write your report and and um do a transcription of everything within seconds once it's uploaded in the office. It would also make the redaction much easier with criminal justice records. That's a big deal. Trying to

redact things out of it takes a lot of time. And this this does so much better for all of that. So they've we've enter we've worked with them and if we agree to do this, we can start this immediately. As soon as the mayor signs it, we can get this turned over. Oh, I I forgot to mention it'll also translate 40 to 50 different languages for us in that transcription. So um it we could do this now and take advantage of this throughout the year and then still have the the rest of the contract, but we would be getting it for free by upgrading to Motorola now. So our request is that you authorize us to spend just $346,270.30 over the next six years for that software and upgrade. Any questions?

I said that there's a significant uh discount also. There is it's 100 I don't have it in front of me, but they say $156,270.30, which I thought I I thought was really good. And then that's if we just continue the contract. Correct. Is that correct? because some of this stuff is awfully expensive.

Yes. And we actually with the cameras, the body cameras we have now, one of the advantages to this is they do pay for the batteries, any any repairs that need to be done. It's all part of that contract. So, we send them in and the the battery the cameras we use now will not change. They'll be the same ones, but it's the software on the other end that it uploads to that changes along with all of our in-car cameras. So, there's a couple hundred,000 worth of installs on all of those cars to be to be done as well. So, that's included in that. So, how does the uh in-car cameras? We don't even have those anymore, right?

Yes, we have them on all of our cars. Um, and they actually tie directly to the body warn. We have cameras outside the front, also in the back seat. And when an officer activates their body warn or their their lights, it activates all of them at the same time. So, if they pull a car over, turning on their lights also activates the body camera. Um, or vice versa. Have somebody in the back of the car and they activate their body camera, it will automatically turn on on all of the cameras at the same time. Um, and then with our new software integrations, an officer drives by, goes to a scene, it will automatically know which call is is and tie it to our call for service in in the office so that our records knows to send that to the district attorney's office also because it all ties everything together for us instead of having to go through and manually label all of those.

So, this integrates with a lot of upgrades that you have made in the office. Yes. Just just got just recently, right? Yes. We'll talk more about that. Some of the other stuff will also do a lot more, but it's definitely going to say there's a lot of a lot of labor, you know. Yes. All righty. Any more questions? All right. Turner entertain a resolution. Make a resolution to approve action on the purchase with Motorola Solution camera system and software for the cost of $346,270.30 as presented. Second.

All right. I have a resolution by Councilman Caper as second by Councilman Yur Dallas. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. All righty. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh Lauren, are you going to recuse yourself on this one? Yes. Okay. Do we need to say why?

He just You've announced that he's recusing himself from this next topic. So, Alrighty. Yep. All righty. Um, next on the agenda is presentation and possible action on a resolution amending the independent contract service agreement with United Way of Morgan County for services related to countywide affordable housing solutions. Mr. Nation,

uh, yeah, needed to come back to you. This is a kind of a unique sit situation where we've we've received some DOA money and we've um have that in the budget this year and we're working with United Way to look at different um housing situations and help us with housing assessments and things like that. Um through the processes that we've jumped through, DOA has made additional funds available to the city of Fort Morgan because we followed through with some of the initial steps of this LPC process. And so they want to get us that money immediately. And then there's the chance that we may um also receive the money that was being allocated towards Log Lane Village as part of this regional effort for housing and everything. So in order for me to be able to receive the money and expend it, I need to basically have permission to extend the contract. And then you guys acknowledge through this resolution that we'll be receiving additional monies and then we'll extend the contract with United Way to then expend that additional DOA money towards additional efforts that we're looking at with this housing. And so it just was the cleanest way to do it. It's not the, you know, easiest to explain, but that's um the nice thing about it is is that it's pure 100% grant money. There is no match or anything from any of us. This is just coming from Doolo with no match requirements whatsoever. So, um, good thing for us and so we just end up doing the paperwork is all that we have to do. So, so what you have in front of you is just a simple resolution that allows us to extend all this and make this happen. So, happy to answer any questions.

No questions. All right. Entertain a resolution. Your honor, make a resolution to amend the independent contractor agreement with United Way of Morgan County for services related to countywide affordable housing as presented by Mr. Nish. Okay. I have a resolution by Councilman Caper. Second by Councilman Dallas. Roll call, please. That resolution carries unanimously. That's okay. Yeah, I voted for him too. Mark him down this All right. Make sure I got the right you wanted me to vote yes for that. Okay. I want to go home.

All righty. I hope so. I was just making sure everything uh loads up to the right one here. I want to read one.

Okay. Next one is um council action. I'm sorry. Next on the agenda for public hearing is or to consider a request for a setback variance at 10:25 and 1031 Main Street. This is a public hearing. Please keep public comments to the issue before council. Each speaker is asked to limit their comments to three minutes unless the speaker represents a group of citizens in which the event additional time may be allowed. Please respect these limitations. I reserve the right to limit public comments to the or to what is inappropriate under the guidelines or otherwise improper. I also reserve the right to limit testimony or questioning that is repetitive, communive, argumentative or not pertinent to the issues and set a limit on the duration of testimony if I determine it to be necessary in light of the number of persons who have signed up to testify. Uh first is the issue of legal notice. Miss Curtis has uh been properly noticed.

It was posted on March 23rd on the city website. Okay. Uh next, the presentation of the applicant, Mr. Acre.

Good evening, mayor and council. This is a request from uh Bevish Battel who's constructing the restaurants at the corner of Riverview and Maine. um looking at his site plan uh to make it really work within the site. He's requesting a 5-ft variance from the rear setback towards the alley. That will allow him to fit the building and the parking on the site to where it's adequate and really does not impact the alley movement or any of the surrounding properties. It's a It's a request that will allow him to continue developing that that site.

Okay. Thanks, Tom. Um, next, will we hear comment from the applicant if any? Does the applicant wish to address the council? He's here, but he doesn't wish to address. That is his choice. Uh next we'll hear any public comments. Is there anybody who wishes to speak on this issue? Seeing none, uh if there's none uh in the public who wishes to speak on this, I will ask the city clerk if any oral written comments were submitted to the clerk's office prior to this hearing. I'd receive none.

All right. We'll now proceed to council discussion. Are there any questions from council or any discussion of council? What was the finding from planning?

So, this is one of those that comes straight to you guys. You guys are the only say in a variance request. These do not go to the planning commission. So, um Tom has lined out in your packet all the relevant information that goes along with one of these. And so, this is new. I had this discussion with the mayor as we were getting ready for the meeting that we haven't had a variance request come in front of council in quite some time. And so um yeah, this is one of those that just come straight to the council for decision.

Correct. So Tom, any um fire department concerns with that? It seems like that that corner would still have plenty of access for all the businesses there for trucks and everything else in an emergency. Is there any issues? None have been raised to me. Yeah, the alley still remains you very usable. I've talked to JW about sanitation. They don't have any issues with it either.

Thank you. I was going to say something about food service delivery, but I think we have the same problem with that alley as we will on 200 block of Main Street for food delivery with Cisco and all that. So, I don't I guess it's not really a mute. It is a mute point. Um, that was my other concern, but we have other areas in the community have the same issue with parking in the alley, taking up the whole alley to deliver food food. So that was my only pickup. We haven't had any problems since we did that, have we? Downtown. Not that I'm aware of. It haven't been brought to our attention, though. It's not like we fixed it then.

I think so. I think so. All right. Anybody else? And and and you you plan to they plan to start this one of the recommendations was to implement this variance within nine months uh that the construction would be right. I've talked to the applicant and discussed he's currently in design. He feels confident that he could start the actual construction, okay, within 69 months. He's been uh in with the building department talking about foundation and overlock grading and needs to demolish the house that's at the south end of the property.

Right. And I saw so also he was having a little bit of an issue with the with the state for for access. I think we've finally gotten through that's not part of this that's not part of this. So okay. So that that's not part of the discussion. Okay. That's the only thing. All right. If no further discussion by council, I will entertain a motion to close. Motion to close, your honor. All right. Motion to close by Caper. Second by Boyette. Lauren Boyette. All righty. We're going to need to vote. See if I catch up. Vote. All right. Vote to close. Vote. Vote to close. All in favor?

I. Anybody want to mess with it? Talk some more. Okay. All right. That's my question. I motion to close. Um, now we go to uh Mr. Wilson. Mayor and council, you've heard presentation of the request for a variance. Proper action is by resolution on the request for variance for setback regulations at 1025 and 1031 Main Street. All right, I'll entertain a resolution. I'll make a resolution on the request for the variance for the setback regulations for 1025 and 1031 Main Street as presented. Second.

I have a resolution by Councilman Caper, second by Councilman Dallas. All in favor? That motion carries unanimously. All right. Thank you. Get to going. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Next one. Next on the agenda is public hearing consider request for a setback variance at 508 Walnut. The same rules apply as the first one. Uh first is issue of legal notice. Miss Curtis, has this hearing been properly noticed? Yes, it was posted on the city website March 23rd.

All right. Next is the presentation of applicant, Mr. Akre. Okay. This is a variance of requesting a setback variance of the front setback of the property. Uh when uh Mr. Calhoun came in and applied for a building permit. The building official and I looked at it looked like the front porch that he's redoing encroaches on the front setback. And to make it clean in the future with any sale of the property, any questions, the applicant agreed to request a variance of just under three feet so that you could have the front porch on the front of the house.

Makes sense. Any questions? Next we hear what? Oh, sorry. No, go ahead. Oh, sorry. Uh, next we'll hear comments from the applicant. Does the applicant wish to address council?

Okay. Okay. Uh, next um we'll hear any public comment. Is there anybody here wish to speak on this issue? Seeing none, uh, there's none in the public who wishes to speak on the issues. So, I will ask the city clerk if any oral or written comments are submitted to the clerk's office prior to this hearing. There were none. All right. We'll now proceed to council discussion. Are there any questions from council or any discussions of the council?

I have a question. Um appears to be it's going to be an open porch area. What can we do to make sure it remains that it's not turned into a closed off and turned into bedrooms or more living space in the future? How do we address that in the title? If I'm correct and I'll look at the applicant, this is an replacing an enclosed front porch and that's what he's replacing it with as well, but encroaching further into uh larger footprint approaching about the same footprint as the existing house. This is just cleaning up the distance and making it legal from a planning standpoint to encroach into the front setback. So the footprint is not any different.

No. Okay. I misunderstood that. Thank you. And my assumption is that this has been on the building for a long time. We right we just couldn't find any record where it had been approved and varants given. Okay. Probably because it was built in 1918. Yeah. We couldn't figure we couldn't figure out and determine for sure that it was existing with the original house. So if so by the age of the house it's over 100 years old. So of course we probably don't have the footprint and all the stuff by code and they're just going basically they're doing the same thing,

right? We're just cleaning it up so that in the future when they sell it if anyone asks if it's within code we can say yes it's within code. Okay. It's been granted a variance. Okay. So, so he he'll he'll he he'll have to bring any construction he does will have to be brought up to CO. Yes. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you. Nothing further. Um if there's nothing further discussion by council, I'll entertain a motion to close or continue the public hearing. Motion to close. Oops. Sorry. All in favor? I. Anybody say no? All righty. Next on the agenda here is Mr. Wilson.

Mayor and council, you've heard presentation of this request for a variance. Proper action is by resolution on the request a variance from setback regulations at 508 Walnut Street. All righty. I'll entertain a resolution. I'll make a resolution to approve the request for variance for setback regulations at the address of 508 Walnut Street as presented. Second. I have a resolution by Councilman Caper, a second by Brian Yurellis. All in favor? I roll call. Roll call. Roll call, please. We got you all confused tonight. That resolution carries unanimously. I got to start over. Yeah.

Thank you, David. Thanks, Donald. You can go stand in the bathroom. All righty. Needed to say it. There we go. All right. Reports. Okay. I don't know how to follow that up, but I'll try.

Okay. Um couple of things tonight. Um did want to um let you guys know we received a award um for the Barllo Road project last year. Uh this is presented by the Colorado Wyoming chapter of the ACPA who's the concrete pavers association for our area and so got a nice little award recognizing the quality of the job that was done out there on Barlo Road with with that repaving and then we'll get one on Main Street. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. After we completely repatch Main Street. Um that was the other thing I was going to just talk about. We are um obviously if you've noticed we now have two crews working on the storm sewer project. Um we still have one crew that is getting closer to completing the the enzyme portion of that. They're getting real close to being able to connect into where everything starts with this project there at 8th and enzyme. Um and then the crew started um their work last week um down under near the interstate. Uh traffic control um didn't go smoothly. I'll be completely honest. Was not smooth. Um I'm getting text messages from my buddy that lives north of town talking about all the people that are driving around the the road closure.

Second that statement.

Yeah. So um we have had multiple law law enforcement agencies trying to be there to keep people from just bucking the traffic control. Um, but yes, this is the traffic control plan that we worked with C DOT for almost a year to get figured out and make sure that everybody was happy with it. And I just realized I I tell people I said it's not convenient. It is not convenient, but we have to get this project in the ground. And we're just asking people to be, you know, just bear with us. Um, we're hoping that the contractor moves on schedule. um if everything goes the way they want it to this week, we should regain the use of the ramps on the interstate that are on the north side. So instead of having to divert all the way down to Dodd Bridge Road to get back into town, you would be able to come up to the ramp, go down to Log Lane, get off at Log Lane, and come back into town. That's the hope. And then as we move further under the interstate next week, we then will regain access to the ramps on the south side. It's just a slow process. This pipe is 20ome feet in the ground in areas. Um right now they're back in groundwater because we're that much closer to the river. So we're having to do some dewatering and everything. But we are making progress. They've got 30% of the pipe in the ground um to this point. Um but we still have the toughest portions yet to go. So, we're just asking everybody to bear with us and let us get this done. We tried to remind people that there's been a lot of homeowners on Enzyme Street that have been waiting, you know, decades for this to get done and we need to get it done so we can alleviate the flooding over there. And so, this is just one of those that's tough. There was not a good time of the year to do it and this was when we did it. So, bear with us and we will get through this. So, okay. hoping by Friday they'll have access to the

Well, that's what the that's what the hope is is that by the end of the week they should be able to move that and allow people to get back on the interstate and head west and so that'll help a lot. So that's what we're hoping for. So and then uh so you could pop it in and then turn right on 144 then connect on Main Street. So that's going to be yeah until we start tearing up 144 for that half block in there. Yeah. But at least then you'll be able just to divert around the city block and then be back where you go. But

yeah, we need to get the interstate ramps back to where they can be used. So I've most of my phone calls that I've been receiving are people that are completely from out of town that have had to divert around. Um, I've had a handful of locals, but um, I've talked to an over the road truck driver that drives from Chicago to LA, and he was upset because he had a 40minute diversion in his semitr. And then when I explained to him what we were doing, he was all like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess I can understand why you're doing it." And so, and that was kind of the end of the phone call. So, but um, next, uh, meeting, I was just going to hit on some of the stuff. So, April 21st, um we should um we do have one applicant that has indicated he'll be bringing his application back to us for the uh replacement for u council member Morford's position. So, we will go through all that. Um and if we have more than one, there will be a vote and we'll run you through all those procedures on the 21st. Um we'll go ahead and make the final um appointments to the main street advisory board and make that all official. Uh we also have then the two C council liaison positions that we will make official. One for the parks and recck board and then one for the that main street advisory board. So if you're still lobbying, lobby the mayor. That's not my decision. So, um then we will have bids for the demolition of the buildings behind us here that we're tearing down so we can um finish turning majority of that side of the block into a parking lot. Uh we have um we'll be bringing in the 22nd interim agreement for the NES project. Uh we're kind of finally at a point to where we know who's participating moving forward. uh there's uh nine of us that are now in the group and so we will all move forward and so we have a a 22nd interim agreement that we'll bring to you for

approval and with that is an associated bill that Northern wants for that. Um and then we will also be bringing this is not on the management agenda. Uh we'll also be bringing the bonding ordinance for the wastewater bonds. Um, get yourself some popcorn, a comfortable chair, and I expect you to stay awake as you read all 67 pages of this ordinance. So, it will be in your packet for the next meeting. It is very thorough. Um, our bonding attorneys and financial adviserss and everything, it's there's a lot that goes into this. And so, this will be the first big step that we take on acquiring funding for the wastewater project. But little bit of light reading for you there on that one. And then we'll also um at the end of the meeting, we'll kind of retire to into a work session setting and we'll have a discussion about some of our capital plans that we need to talk with council about what direction you guys want us to go as staff. So, and that's all I got for you tonight.

Mr. Sharp, you're up.

First off, with the traffic safety issue, it it is something we've received a lot of complaints about. but we're enforcing it on our end. Um, many of those people, as Brent said, are not from our area, but it's well signed. I mean, it says road closed, traffic going one way, clearly marked. Um, so we're doing our part to help pay for that project by writing tickets to all those people that are driving around barricades the wrong way. Um, but it's not having a huge impact when they're not from our area anyway. It's so hopefully we can get that under control a little bit. But um otherwise, as you know, the shelter the city took over the animal shelter last Monday. Um as to be expected, it was a little hectic that first those first few days as we were uh getting it cleaned up and repainted and some of that stuff and then not really knowing what to expect and trying to get in there. I think the ladies there have done a great job and it's we're pretty well established. Um we were able to adopt the first animal today. Actually, Mr. Paul got the first animal that was it was brought in last week and uh we had it spayed yesterday and was able to get it out today. So, we've had a few lot of success, a lot of uh lot of people reaching out and bringing donations. So, it's really appreciated. We got a lot of positive feedback on that. Um but it's not without hiccups. So, we're still working through some of those as we go along. Central Square is a project we've been talking about for about three years now. Um, it's our new computerated, not computerated, that's CAD, that's different CAD, it's our dispatch system. Um, and then also our records management system, the jail management system. All of those things that go together. We switched from a company called CIS that we've had for 30ome years, 40 years probably before. CIS was another company within that same group called PIMS. Um, but we're switching over and it's far more advanced, far more uh user friendly, I

would say, than what we have. It's going to have a lot more integrations. I will tell you that a lot of the software we currently use, we have many different companies that are doing it, a lot of that will be able to eliminate those other companies and put it into this system. So, in the long term, it's going to save us money also because we're paying a lot of money for other software. This costs a little bit more than what we're paying with with CIS, but all that other software that we can eliminate will will be cheaper. So, um, definitely bringing us up. You know, I think six years ago, we didn't even have computers in the car and where we are now, it's it's definitely brought us up. So, it's today was the day they implemented that or put it into service and it's been uh very positive so far. We just about 2 o'clock this afternoon, probably patrol started being able to use it, but it's it seems to be going smoothly. The company's here through the rest of the week to make sure we iron out any issues that may be coming with that. It's a countywide system. So, um, we're excited to get that started after several years of that project going on. And that's all I have.

I got a question. So, the OCIS, does any of that transfer into the new or does it start off new? So, we didn't pay for that for a couple reasons. One is it's very expensive, but we're told you lose about 25% of that data anyway

and we when we try to convert that data and then also there's a lot of bad data because because of the way it was where now we use scanners to put all the information in when you run somebody through the computer system and takes their driver's license information, it already puts it in the system. In the old days when you would take it and you would write it on your notepad and then type it on or write it on a field note and then somebody else would type it. There's human error. So we have the same person in the system multiple times with different numbers and all that. So we eliminated all of that. We'll start over. Um so we have to keep CIS for some period. Our department will over the next year start migrating the data that we need from CIS that's required by law to maintain and we'll put that in the new system so we're no longer having to pay for CIS in the long term. That's our goal. I think county wants to keep their portion of it for a while longer but that's where we're going to go with it.

Okay. I have two things you're um chief on the car computers uh data security and how you transmitting data from that. So is it Wi-Fi or cellular? So yeah, there's a I don't know what they call it, but essentially a hotspot from Motorola that sits in our back parking lot and as the cars get close to it, it automatically uploads into that system. Um from the car also the and from the camera they can sync them or inside there's a charging station that also syncs to the their cloud. So, it's secured through their system. Okay. And then, um I know you approached the uh QR code for the shelter, the for the tags, the licensing. Yes.

Um I've not seen a lot on that. And I think that would be a really good selling point. Yeah. And I think maybe if we did like a video and actually show how it works so somebody could actually see how it pulls up if you find a stray.

Absolutely. that that's on the list of things. We um at this time we're still working with finance and shelter love, the company that would take the payment to be able to do payment. So um hopefully we'll have that done in the next couple days. There's been some communication issues there. Once we can take the finance or the finance financial part of it, we can get a credit card in the system. We will be putting that out. We've just been kind of slow rolling that because we don't have the capability of doing mass registrations at the moment. But hopefully by the end of the week we'll be good with that. And then we're looking to put together some type of a licensing clinic on the weekend. Shelter is going to be open on the weekends. So we'll have a licensing thing on the weekend and have an event so we can get people there to see the shelter and license a bunch of animals.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Bid meetings and announcements. Miss Curtis. Okay. We only have one bid to announce right now and that's the demolition of the streets and sanitation projects that Brent mentioned will be on the next meeting. But it closes this Friday at 3 p.m. All righty. Oh, no. I have more. Here we go.

There is some meetings also in April. Um, tomorrow is the airport advisory board meeting at the Fort Morgan Municipal Airport at noon and April 9th. This Thursday at 4 p.m. is the historic preservation board meeting. April 13th is a scheduled planning commission board meeting and the 16th there should be a golf course advisory board meeting at 3:30 and then we'll back here again April 21st for this meeting the city council meeting. Do you want more? I have more. You got more? Oh yeah.

Okay. All right. Anybody else? Anybody in the back? No. Sandy, you want to give them talk? You didn't get your chance today. Okay. That's Oh, all righty. Well, seeing none, this meeting's over.