Town Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Good evening everyone. Welcome to the October 7, 2025 Ron Oak Town Council meeting. I call the meeting to order at 6 p.m. here. Any objections? We uh next up on the agenda is the September 2nd, 2025 town council meeting minutes. I need a motion to approve. So I need a second. Second.

All in favor? I. All opposed. All right. Next up is the September 22nd, 2025 executive session meeting minutes. I need a motion to approve those as written. So moved. Second. [Music] All in favor? I. All opposed. Next up on the agenda is the Baker Tilly Financial Consultants discussing the wastewater updated rate study. And I believe we have have Jeff Jeff on the phone from Baker Tilly. Yeah. Good evening. This is Jeff. Can everyone hear me? Okay. Yes.

All right. Well, good evening. I appreciate you accommodating uh me participating by here. So, um yeah, we just wanted to provide kind of an update. I know um met with uh with with Sarah there um to kind of provide her an update uh here just a while back um on some sort of new new developments with SRF. So just kind of wanted to share that and then um kind of share what the um updates in terms of rate impact might be. Um so just as a sort of a a recap here um you know up to this point we've been really trying to pursue SRF um we've applied the towns applied for funding and was scored and ranked um unfortunately and we scored ranked uh pretty far down the list uh was actually scored ranked as seth on the list out of I think it was about 85 um that were actually scored and ranked. Um so the the top 10 about approximately the top 10 or so uh were awarded funding within the the programs what they call the traditional funding programs. There's a couple different programs within SRF and and what we were originally hoping for is to get in the traditional funding which we didn't. That was about the only the top 10. Like I said, that's sort of the the lowest subsidized interest rate program that SRE provides or offers. Um the kind of the second option within SRE program is what they call their pool program. So typically every fall and spring, uh SRF issues what they call a pool bond issue.

And so they invite uh a select few uh communities that didn't uh fall within their funable range, meaning their traditional program, and they offer funding through their fall pool program. And what the pool program is is the state issues a a large kind of lump sum bond issue and they select, you know, a handful of communities to participate in that bond issue. And so they would get this the same interest rate that the state would get given its AAA bond rating. So the interest rate under the pool program is not quite as attractive as the traditional program, but it gives communities opportunity to to still access funding. Um fast forward to where we are now. Um the SRF has received so much um requests, I guess you could say, for funding through their pool program. So there's there's a lot of projects out there that didn't get selected for traditional funding. And so now you have a lot more communities requesting funding for their projects through the pool program. And they based on information or feedback from SRS is for this current fall pool program which we were not anticipating you know being ready for anyway but they are overs subscribed meaning there's more communities that are wanting to be part of the pool program than uh than they have ability to to fund at this point. So we also talked to them about well you know what about spring because based on you know timing of design of the project um I know we were anticipating town was anticipating maybe going to bid and securing funding you know maybe late

spring of of next year and the answer we got wasn't uh super um uh encouraging in terms of our chances of getting funded. Um, and basically that's because again there are so many communities that are asking for funding and SRF at this point is really just kind of going down through their project priority list and they're selecting communities based on where they were scored and ranked. And so since we're so far down the list at this point, um you know, they just couldn't couldn't guarantee us that we would have the fund the funding would be available in the spring kind of like we had originally hoped or anticipated. So um that still may change. We don't know for sure, but what we wanted to do is have a backup plan really just in case. And um you know there there are not a lot of other funding alternatives out there but there is another funding program that's through the rural water funding agency and um that that program um really originates out of the state of Kentucky but it's not just for Kentucky projects. It's it's really open to, you know, any any borrowers whe you know whether you're in Indiana, Kentucky or or other states. So, um, couple things about that program is, you know, it it's not a it's not federal money. It's not state money. Um, Royal Water has a kind of a partnership with Raymond James who's an underwriter. And so, they've sort of established this program to help kind of more rural communities access funding um that they could, you know, couldn't otherwise get on their own. Um and so one of the advantages of of the Royal

Water program is, you know, if we were to participate in their program, and by the way, it's not a competitive program. So if if we need the funding, you know, there it's it's pretty much a shoe in that you can get the funding. It's just a matter of going through the process. Um but they they their bonds when they go out to issue bonds they would get a you know it's like a double A rated rate which is again not quite as good as the state you know the AAA rated as pool program but it's still more competitive and a better interest rate than the town could get if we were just just go out on our own and and sell bonds on our own based on the town's credit. So, it's still a it's a competitive rate. Again, not quite as good as SRF, uh, but still competitive and better than what we could get on our own. Um, couple other things about the program is we could go in terms of the length of the loan or the bond, I should say, um, we can go as long as 30 years without really having any restrictions. Um, so that's actually positive here. I think that we're able to stretch this loan out further than what we, you know, what we would likely get through SRF, which was probably something closer to 20 years. Um, and we may be able to stretch that to to 25 or 30, but we may, you know, since this involves the treatment plant, we really can't go beyond useful life for the treatment the new treatment plant when we're structuring the term of the loan. So um you know maybe a maybe a slight advantage there over ESR program. We can take this all the way out to to 30 years. Um one I I guess I'll call this a negative.

I don't know if it's a negative. I guess it is because we it would be adding cost to the project but in order to participate through the world water program there are some additional program costs. So they charge 1.6% of the PAR amount of bonds that goes towards covering their program cost. And then they also um charge an underwriters discount which would be the Raymond James piece of the transaction who's the underwriter. Um they would charge a 1.5% underwriters discount. So it would be if you you total those together, you know, it' be adding another $500,000 or so to the overall project cost. So uh back last time we met when we ran numbers looking at SRF, the total project under the SRF scenario was about 18.7 million. Um total project under the RWFA, we'd be looking at something closer to about 19.2 2 19.3 um when you added those fees. So a little bit higher in terms of fees um but again not you know not a competitive process which would be good for us.

Um I think another advantage is we would have more flexibility in terms of timing.

So rural water we could close on a rural water loan. You know they well let me say it this way. They they do closings um I would say once every few months or once every couple months. So we're not tied to you know sort of a spring or fall pool like we would be under SRF. We have more flexibility in terms of um you know scheduling on closing around the time that we're actually opening bids which like I said is anticipated to be sometime uh late spring. So a little more flexibility in terms of timing, a little bit higher cost, a little bit higher interest rate. Um although there there would be I guess one positive here is since these dollars are not state dollars or federal dollars you don't have some of the same hoops or requirements that you have under those other programs meaning like BABA um prevailing wage some of those other requirements. Now, that's not to say that, you know, your contractor may still pay prevailing wage, um, but there wouldn't be any by American American requirements associated with this um with this program. So, you know, that could potentially help save a little bit um on on construction costs perhaps. Um, so if you kind of take all that into consideration, a 30-year loan, um, under the the Royal Water Program, slightly higher project, um, we'd be looking at, um, about a about a 10% increase in rates over the 35 year loan uh, increase that we showed uh, last time. So to put that in terms of uh total total bill, you know, if we're

assuming a 2,000 gallon bill, which I think is your minimum, um under the real water program, we'd be looking at a a bill monthly bill of about $126. Um, and if we're looking at a a 4,000galon bill, we'd be looking at a bill of about 142 $143 per month. Um, so it's about 111% increase if we're if we're to look at it in terms of percentages. Um, if we go back to the SRE program again, you know, we we sort of bookended our analysis last time, looking at, you know, either a 20-year loan or a 35-year loan. And if it was the 20-year loan option that we had to go with under SRF, then we would be looking at 137% increase. If it was the 30, if we if we were able to stretch that out to 35 years, um it would be closer to 100 101% increase. So, we're still within the same sort of range in terms of of rates that we were looking at under SRF um uh under the SRF program. So, that's kind of where we're at. Um, I know I'm I'm throwing a lot of information at you here verbally and I don't I know I don't have the uh I don't know if you have the report in front of you. You may or copies of the report, but I'll just kind of pause there and and um wait for any questions or or thoughts that you have. So Jeff, just to clarify, in the numbers that you gave us, the fees that you're talking about for the rule water, those fees are included in the documents that you sent us. Correct.

That's correct. Yeah. Okay. And then Yeah. So that would be on page four. Um page four of the document that we had sent over. So it's the far right column that says RWFA 30-year loan. That that would be the real water scenario. So, if we were making a decision to move forward and we wanted to phase this in rather than all at once, do you know what the like we need a timeline so we can walk back and know when we need to pass our ordinances if we're moving forward with the 30-year?

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we could certainly look at phasing. Um, again, I think the expectation is that, you know, we we would be looking to and we talked with I don't know if Anthony is there. Um he's not

okay. So you know we we had talked with Anthony too and as we were talking through timing his thought was you know they would be in a position to have design completed and actually bid the project by you know late spring next year potentially early summer. Um and so whenever we close on the bonds that's when we would have to have the rates adopted. Um but that said, we could certainly start now and you know look at phasing at least a portion of that increase in between now and then and then we could also look at you know once we close all the rates don't have to be in effect but we have to have them adopted. So what we could also look at is you know can can we phase can we do a phase or two after we close so that we're not had to go, you know, directly to the 111% out of the game. So, uh, long, you know, long answer, long answer there, but the short of it is yes, I think we can phase. Um, but we may want to we may want to consider getting started now versus, you know, waiting until

we get closer to I think we're looking at if we started the first increase starting effective January, we need to we need a timeline to walk us back to what needs to be done between now and the end of December to make that in effect.

Sure. Yeah, we can do that. We can put together a timeline that kind of lays that out. Um and then we'll also be looking at uh you know well couple things we can talk through this some more obviously but you know we can do one increase effective January um and then wait and then do maybe a phase two or phase three once we get bids in hand or we can try to fit in another increase you know I don't know say March or something like that but then you're sort of, you know, it's in such a short tight time frame. I don't know if that's something the council would want to consider.

I think it's more of a January, July. January, July. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, we could we could adopt one now that would go into effect January and then we could have, you know, once we have biz in hand, then we could we'll have another phase that goes into effect at that point. So that would be right around, you know, maybe June time frame or so. And then we could also look at maybe doing a third phase after that that goes into effect, say 6 months after that, so that, you know, when we get to June, we're not having to take on the full increase, but maybe we can spread it out over two increases if that if that makes sense.

I think that's the more palatable option. So would these numbers then change, Jeff, if somewhere between now and then we um are awarded a a grant of some type uh that or we once we we finalize this we're locked in?

No, you're not f you're not locked into anything until we actually close on the bonds which would be after we bid. So absolutely if you're able to get some sort of grant um that we could you know help buy down this loan then yes these these numbers would certainly change. On the flip side and I hope this isn't the case but if you know once we bid the project if the bid comes in higher then our numbers may be higher but if it comes in lower it's come in lower then our numbers could certainly be a little bit lower. So, still a lot up in the air. You know, the bids probably being the biggest factor there. Um, but yeah, certainly if you were able to get grant money, um, that that would help change these numbers

and it also then lower the uh, program cost and underwriter discounts and stuff as well then. Is that a fair statement as well? Correct. Okay. Um, so what do you need from us if anything to move forward with preparing kind of the timeline to do the January, June, July, December? Yeah. So, in terms of timing, um, remind me what your um, council meetings are here. Are they still is it once a month or twice a month? It's once a month, but we generally will have two meetings in December. Okay.

And was this a special meeting or was this your normally scheduled meeting? Normally scheduled meeting. Okay. So, it's the uh what am I looking at? The first Tuesday. First Tuesday of every month. Yep. Okay. All right. And then in December, um what would your two meetings be in December in case we need them? We typically would do the the the 1st and third Tuesday of December. Okay. So 9th and 13th it looks like. No, the first and third second 16th.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. I I think that's all we'll need other than you know when we're and I don't know if you want us to work on the ordinance. Either way, we'll need to um provide the rates to you know your local attorney is going to prepare the the ordinance. That's fine. But we will need to know what percentage or dollar amount you want to go with with this January increase. Um so we will need to know that. Obviously you don't have to make that decision tonight, but we will need to know that number. And then we'll at the same time kind of map out a timeline here and all the the tasks that need to be accomplished in order to have that adopted and in effect by January. We'll we'll send that over to you once we have that prepared.

So if we would make a decision by the November meeting, then that is that give you enough time for the December? Uh yeah, we'd be looking at adoption in December. We could certainly do that. Um, if you were able to make a decision before then, you know, we could uh introduce at your November meeting because we'll need it. The first step will be introduction of the ordinance. So, we'll need to know the increase you want to go with so that we can have an ordinance prepared and then introduce it at your November meeting. Do we need a motion?

We could hold a public hearing at your December meeting and adopt it after the public hearing. Do you need a motion for the percentage? Probably wouldn't hurt. Um, probably wouldn't hurt. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, you're not making a decision tonight. We just need some sort of, I guess, consensus, for lack of a better word, on what percentage you want to go with. And then you know the the the council action will be taken at your November meeting when we introduce the rate. You're you're lower than I am.

My recommendation for us to consider tonight is that we go with a 34% increase for January and then see where things shake out because then there's two more phases. So it end up being a 333 instead of a a half. And just so I'm clear on this too, just numbers he's throwing out are the million gallon plant, right? Because he's still like the $20 million project and I think we're looking considerably less. I think it's it's more than just the numbers. Yeah,

this is the number with all the fees and everything. It comes up that's what it comes out to. So my recommendation personally is the 34%. I don't know how you guys feel. I'll second that. My number was higher, so all in favor. I All opposed. Okay. 34%. Jeff, 34. I got it. Okay. Well, that's helpful. I app I appreciate um I appreciate that. So, we'll we'll go ahead and get the rates calculated. And um I you know honestly I don't remember if we prepared the ordinance the last adjustment ordinance or if you had your local attorney

I thought ice miller was involved in that as well for some reason. So I'll have to look at it and see. Okay. Yep. Yep. And we'll we can check our files too, but I guess whoever prepared it, it's probably best just to have them prepare it again. So if you're okay with that, that way we don't have to Yeah, that's fine. Reinvent the wheel. Okay. All right. Well, we'll we'll get on that. We'll start um moving forward with that ordinance and we'll put together a time timeline for the adoption uh that gets us adopted then in in December and effective in January. 34%. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff.

You're welcome. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Byebye. At this time, I'm going to close the regular schedule meeting and open up the uh adoption hearing meeting for the 2026 budget, which is ordinance 2025-05.

You had the public hearing already. This is just the adoption the adoption of it. Yes. Public motion to adopt. I'll make a motion to adopt. I'll second that. All in favor say I opposed. Has passed. All right. At this time, I will close the adoption hearing meeting and open the regular scheduled meeting back up. And uh next on the agenda is citizen comments. I ask that you please limit it to 3 minutes. And when you get up, please state your name. Anyone want Rick? Three minutes.

Three minutes. Rick.

All right. Thank um wanted to kind of get the approval for a change of date for rolling going from the end of July from the last meeting. We talked about September 12th and finding out that leap year pushes Labor Day every three, four, four years in deeper into September. So want to make a correction that we follow the fall festival. So whatever the weekend after fall festival lands, we will be. So that makes it September 19th next year. And then our rain date would be the 26th of September. And then after that it would revert back to being like the second Saturday of September, third Saturday as the rain day. So I wanted to make that clear on the record.

It's always the following Saturday after break is what you all prefer. Fall festival. Fall festival. Would I say fall break? There you go. The fall festival. The August meeting I got approval for the 12th and we didn't realize it until Leanne Smith realized when she did an ad for next year. fall festival that this kind of happened. None of us caught it. That the 12th is going to be their weekend because the leap year pushing it labor to the 7th. I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. All those in favor? All those opposed. Okay. Thank you.

Yes. Hartland. Question regarding leash pickup. Are we short of help? It's certainly not being handled the way it has been in the past. So, there's probably 95% of the leaves still on the trees. We've got other things to do. Later this week, they're'll start getting curb lines, but we I don't have 100 people on staff that they can be out every day. Have all you need to have on staff? Yes. But they don't do it every day. That's all. That's all that matters to me is you've got the people. Mhm. And you'll get to it. They'll be out later this week to start getting some curb lines.

I've looked at mine for an extended period of time and lo and behold, when I backed out of the garage tonight, it was gone. So, it was a miracle. Now, one other thing, and this is a different subject. Sometimes we have kids that have no clue of what they're doing in life. Other times we have parents who have no clue of what they're doing in life. As I was coming north on Main Street about two weeks ago at the speed limit of 30 m an hour, first street passed the first entrance into Ronok Village. Down that hill came three kids on razors. parents clear up at the top of the hill. One of the razors, fortunately, without a child on it because somebody convinced her to bail, that razor was under the front end of my car. That would have been a dead child.

Yeah. But the parents are the fools in this thing. how anybody can think to let kids go down that steep of a hill on one of those things and not be under control, not have the kids under control, it's completely beyond me. That's what we face in this world today. Had I been doing the 40 or 50 that most people do going north on Maine, that would have been a dead shot. That's all I have to say about it. Thank you, Rick. other citizen comments. I do have one other one. You had a minute.

Do I get a refresh? Refresh.

I brought this up a couple times and I just wanted to think too again. We asked um about at uh what is it? Fourth and seminary the three-way stop about changing that to a four-way stop. And I know it's always been because of the winter time and you can't get up the hill. Today's cars are allwhe drive, frontwheel drive, and very little snow. But whether you do it or not, still should be, in my opinion, look at maybe labeling that it is a three-way stop cuz there is still a lot of new people coming to town, a lot of events. It's insane how many people do not understand it's not a four-way stop or something to do with cross traffic something.

Yeah. Yeah. something because it's it's not the locals all knew it. Now there's so many more people coming to events or other things. Nobody has a clue that they don't have to stop. And then there's been a lot of close calls cuz I drive it a lot. That's my in-n-out seminary 400. The other one I see a lot close calls is where it splits on Main Street going to 24 or like the American Legion that split again. They don't know who has the rightway. That's just bad driving. It's bad driving. There's a lot of bad. They can't fix stupid.

But I didn't know if there was something there. Again, a good sign to incoming traffic. I'm just throwing that out there. But this one on fourth and seminary is kind of the worst one. Well, I was I was getting it confused because eighth has a cross path sign on and fourth and seminary has three-way stop beneath the stop sign. Where's it at? Apparently, I didn't notice that. Alert you to what kind of stuff you're You can't Yeah, you can't fix stupid because I had an incident almost got hit the day by someone who didn't know what they were doing. But they're already labeled. That's cool. Yeah.

I just What about the What about the be there? Any Well, you have to stop it if you're coming back from American. You're going north on me. You have to stop. It's the split choice. your stop. Yeah. Right. And but they're crossing the street. Yeah. It would be the same as waiting to turn left. Yeah. But it's again, people just don't realize who has the right away. That intersection he's talking about is further down. There is no cross there. That's Locus. Locust. No, but I mean, if you're in if you're if you're in the right lane and you're going to make a it's a left turn

like you would any other street. You have you have to at least look. I I go on that street two or three times every day. It would I think a little extra signage something there if you evaluated what would be the appropriate signage couldn't hurt. There are plenty of people that not they don't know what to do there. Yeah, it main street it feels like straight going to an American Legion not locust is Main Street is the rightway but it's not. But that makes you think it is though. visually makes you feel the street markings don't say that at that intersection the street markings say it at that intersection the signage would be so far to the right and you're putting it up people will still

they're not going to look to the it's it's two lanes so my recommendation is we'll get Jim and Aaron and us involved and see if there's anything and then kind of get the feedback yeah if you want to do any kind of analysis But so we we've done this before in the past to to let you all know this. It you can't just go slap a sign up because you want to. There needs to be a reason. Well, what I'm saying is is other councils in the past, it's it's been brought up before. And again, the signage is just so far over to the right. Is that a double yellow line right there or is it just [Music] I don't think

Can you just look and see what we have? like I'll but just look and see the markings cuz if it's double yellow you have you can't just we'll take we'll take a look at it and see if there's anything it could be done I know it's been brought up it's just you're seeing more activity more new people that get confused and you see this you know shaking of the fist at each other but yeah eventually something bad could happen and anything that would change the flow I mean you guys would have to pass an ordinance Sure. We'll take a look at it and see. I went over my three minutes. I I Any other citizen comments?

Thank you. All right. Uh park department. Any updates, comments from the park department? The telephone delivered? Okay.

Okay. I can say one thing for the park department. Um they have received They have received a one-time uh legacy donation uh from Ernie and Judy Nine. Our name is $10,000. It's going into their budget, but um they have a really robust five-year plan. So, I'm sure that this money will be used to um they have some great projects listed and like I said, it's really robust. So, this $10,000 will help. And they've also set their calendar for next year. They'll begin meeting with them in January and then every other month after they'll be meeting here at town hall. What's the schedule meeting?

Second Tuesday. The second Tuesday of starting in January every other month. Second Tuesday and it'll be posted just like our meeting. I was going to ask you after the meeting, but since it's brought up, is the um 50/50 grant uh patronicity grant being looked into from our last meeting discussions? I have not had a chance to look into it. Okay. I know Dave has been coordinating with Matt. It is okay. Your time's up.

But related to this, that is important part that you brought up today. Sorry about that. Resist. All righty. Moving on. Superintendent operations. Updates. Comments. Oh, I missed the board. Sorry. Well, you and I already talked yesterday. Sorry. Next up is the police department. Updates and comments. I have three words look like. All right. Thanks,

See. Now, Aaron, superintendent of operations, updates, comments. Uh so the first thing I got the community crossings grant for 2026. Uh last month you guys approved our financial financial commitment letter. As they were going through things getting ready to submit it this week they had the mileage wrong. So the uh local match is going to go from 89,120 to 123,680. [Music] So looking for approval for that. So, we're going from 1.38 miles of road to 1.86. And we have that fun that in the budget.

I make a motion to approve the change. I'll second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Uh lift station, they inline the wet well two weeks ago. They're still in standing still waiting for the control panel. Um the other thing other thing I got um like for your guys permission to approach Rock about extending the water man on 24 from Dollar General down to Little. So right now it just crosses from the Geer Complex to Dollar General stops. So nobody over there, no restaurants.

So are you looking for engineers assessment or actual design? Engineers assessment. I'll make a motion to approve Aaron pursuing Mueller for engineering assessment extension. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. I don't have anything else. Okay. Thank you.

Councilwoman Tanisha Wel. Um just as anformational purposes after our last meeting conversations with lot Mueller and others I scheduled a meeting for Friday um with lot Mueller Commissioner Tom Wall Senator Andy Z and the RDA to discuss the ready grant and see if we can push forward even though we've kind of been removed from the list get added to the list in some form dollar amount double just as an FYI. All right. Anything else? That's all. Okay. Counciloman Terry.

Councilman Brian. A couple of things. I sent all of you the quarterly reports from the fire department. Uh I only had time to briefly look at this today. Um but it seems like they're getting thinner and thinner. So, I think we need to talk to the fire department probably when we do a contract and specify what we really like to see in those reports. I don't know if they're just kind of playing loose because we didn't give specific guidelines, but that's something we need to look at. Yeah, looks like what they gave us the generalized QuickBooks reports is what they did,

right? But I felt like three months ago or last quarter and quarter before that we were getting better reports. We were getting listings of what they paint and to who that type of thing which I did not see this time around. Yeah. So I feel like when we do our contract for next year we need to address that. Okay. Still ask for it. Yeah. I don't think it's inappropriate to even ask now any uh um we we need a transactional listing as well. Okay. Because otherwise we just have the summary numbers which doesn't really say anything to us. No, they don't really where the money came from. Correct. Yeah.

Mhm. Okay. And then my other thing, I had a conversation with a resident and um I think we're going to have to have some discussion about it. I'm not sure Mandy and I have talked before. We don't really want to be an HOA and tell people in town what to do with the properties necessarily, but there are a few properties that have derived cars sitting in front yards or on sideyard. And um we according to Jim I believe this is your say we do not have an ordinance that specifically addresses that. So if that's something we'd like to address we would have to put an ordinance together

if if the car is legally plated. There's as of right now we have nothing we can do whether it runs or not. Right. Well whether it runs or not unless we can see that it doesn't have a transmission or motor. Okay. that is in the ordinance. If it doesn't have a transmission, doesn't have a motor or but if it's legally plated, there's nothing we can do about it. Okay. Is that similar in sim similar towns our sides? Yes, ma'am. But if you had an ordinance that said you can't park the car in your front yard, then you would you would have a law, right? We have an ordinance.

Mhm. But we don't have anything that specifies in a driveway or front door. It's just as long as it's legally plated. As long as they're not parked on a sidewalk or something.

Exactly. You can't park on a sidewalk. That's all. And I have nothing at this time. Clark treasurer Sarah Milton. Um the only thing that I have is the employee handbook quote. Um I received some information um regarding the handbook certain things not being in there. Uh examples of Americans with Disabilities Act and its amendments. Um military leave information. Um supposed to have full policy of the Family Medical Leave Act. There's just a lot of things like missing out of it. And so I'd like to recommend that um we actually have um I believe it's HR contact, but um it's $6,000 to have our employee handbook redone completely. Um and I would like a motion to approve to have that done. And I was thinking a third out of general, a third out of water, and a third out of sewer just to split it up. Um and because we don't have these things, we're out of compliance.

Correct. Correct. She she gave us I poured it to you all. There's a lot of things that are missing a lot. Yeah. Well, it would help clarify some other issues that we've already brought up ourselves. Yeah. And this was a topic at um one of the conferences that I was at um employee handbook. A lot of people struggling with where to go and who to use and um so she just came very highly recommended. a lot of towns and cities and so I reached out to her and she gave us the book. So and then when this is done each employee would receive a handbook and then they would sign that they've received the hand. Yeah. They would be required to to sign off.

How long does it usually take her to update it? Um she said that if I did get approval that we could have it done within 6 to 8 weeks. So, she would, yes, she would, regardless of when it gets done, um, want to talk with and get feedback from the council, what you would like to see, um, either changes or added or, um, she definitely would want to meet with you guys and and go over that at some point. I'll make a motion to approve the uh hiring of HR New Focus HR LLC to uh develop and redesign our employee handbook. All those in favor say I.

I. All those opposed. Okay, that's all I have. Okay. Any old business? All right. Presentation of bills. We need a motion to accept the presentation of bills as displayed. I'll move to make that motion. Any second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Sarah, do we need to do a motion on the allowance docket? Okay. All righty. And then I make the motion to adjourn the October 7, 2025 meeting. Second. All those in favor?

All those opposed. Thank you all for attending.