Board of Public Works - Regular Meeting

meeting of the board of works. We were out on our regular day because it was the first. So today's January 8th, 2026. It is 10:00 a.m. Uh please note that going forward, all of our meetings will occur at 10:00 a.m. on the first and third Thursday of every month. We will begin our meeting as is our custom with the pledge of allegiance. Please join I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let the record show this meeting is being live streamed by production multimedia. We'll have our Let the record show that all board members are present as well as our deputy clerk treasure lyans. We have an agenda that's been provided. Uh there's only one amendment. We're going to delay the Deborah Files Commission for 25 years until the next meeting. Um I can get a motion to approve. Motion by Thompson, second by Maggie Wild. Any other edits? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. That's unanimous. We have our business. Standing business includes our minutes from December 16th, our current claims and our payroll allowance docket from December 8th to December 28th. Need a motion to approve.

I'll make that motion. Maggie Wild makes the motion. Ernie Thompson seconds. Any questions or edits? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous.

I don't think we have anybody sign up for public comment. Um and no old business. We'll move straight into new business. I'd like to invite up Brenda Wilson and Jenny Leam um to discuss upgraded blessing box on Green Alley. Good morning, ladies. Good morning. Thank you all for having us. My name is Jenny Laam and as you said, this is Brenda Wilson. We are here to request permission to replace and which would include an upgrade of the blessing box on Green Alley behind the Charlestown Pizza Company. So, the one that is currently there is very, very small. It is very unnoticeable. Um, and we recently had a new one built in and placed next to the parish office on our grounds over at St. Michael Catholic Church. Um, it is much nicer. It's easier to work with. It's very beautiful, very visible, and so we would like to have one very similar to that placed where the one currently is on Green Alley. Okay. So I had asked Blaze to come forward just because we've had a situation in the past where either whether it be blessings boxes or the free libraries they get placed and then the the people who place them stop attending them and then they end up into a state of disrepair or vandalism or anything else and it becomes kind of a nuisance for and we end up having to remove them. So um that said they are willing to

monitor this, build it, monitor it, maintain it, all of those things. all. And we would also like to note that um the one that is currently there has been there for several years. Um our parish has maintain the blessing box on um our grounds as well for we asked the parish secretary. Um she told us 3 to four years though we're not exactly sure of the date, but they have been maintained consistently during that time frame. Yeah, I've seen the one on on yours and it's very well done and maintained. And I think that the original I think the previous owners of the pizza company actually put this one out. Okay. Um at one point and you know so I don't know that it's been maintained. Um but all right um I'm happy to make that motion if I can get a second. Okay.

Second by Thompson. Any questions for them on this? What you do? All right. All in favor say I. I. That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. And you'll remove the other one that's there. Correct. Thank you. Yes, I will. [laughter] All right. At this time, we have a few recognitions for years of service. Um, three 10-year recommend three tenyear anniversaries from our police department. At this time, I will call up our assistant chief, Jonathan Rotor, to present our chief, Eric Cruz, with his 10year service award. 16 words. Hello. Good morning.

That's all he can speak. [clears throat] 16 words. So, we'd like to recognize Chief Cruz this morning. Uh, Chief Cruz, myself and Corporal Brand Line, we all got hired together December of 2015. So, we all just hit our 10 years. Uh, and Chief Cruz's time he started off as patrol officer. Uh, he got on SWAT team. He got promoted to sergeant, got promoted to lieutenant, and now is obviously our chief of police. He's been a great leader for us and we just want to recognize him for his 10 years of service. That feels better when I get to come up. Thank you, sir. Turn around and smile for a photo of each other. Okay.

Stand closer together. So, your arm around. Yeah. You end up with me like right in the middle. It's really weird, guys. Sorry, maybe we need to start moving them over to the side a little bit. [applause] Chief, I just want to say you've done a fantastic job these these past couple years with the department. Uh you really um stepped up things. I think you've reached all of your goals that we talked about when we became chief in the first year and we we're having to start new goals and so you know you have done a fantastic job. It's a joy to have you with the 10 years of service in the city. We appreciate you. Well, I appreciate it. I'm writing another 20 pages for you to read. So, don't worry. I'll be doing that anytime soon.

Yeah. All right. And I'll leave it to you for the recognitions. All right. Brandon. John. Now, your turn. You don't come up. I'll wait till you don't talk. Wait. We don't have walk up music for you, Brandon. I think that's what he's waiting for. Oh, there's no red carpet or anything. Yeah. So, as John said, all three of us got hired and sworn in on the same exact day. I think it was December 21st, wasn't it? Y 2015. Um, Rotor started off as a reserve officer here October 2014, right?

So, he spent some time as a reserve officer. Brand got hired in December of 2015 full time. Um, that guy back there, JB Jason Brody, he's the one hired us. So, everybody thank him. We're done. Um I don't know if he knew what he was getting into but [laughter] um and little note all of us went to school together too. So uh we've kind of grew up with each other grew up with each other here at the department as we became adults and just gotten old in our olden age now. So um but Brandon's now the SRO the Charlestown Middle School uh where he does there and teaches the constitution and uh just maintains all the relationships with the kids. So um Of course, John's assistant chief, so we'd like to recognize them for their 10 years. Plaques are on the way. UPS supposed to drop them off in an hour. So, but we did get pens for you guys and then certificates. So, you're welcome. [applause]

Oh my god. [laughter] Excuse me now. This one better.

I got my energy drink. Oh my gosh. [laughter] Just looks like I'm a stalker in the background. All right. Thank you all for your years of service. Next up, another uh uh merit award, Chief. All right. Next one is recommendation to award Detective Sergeant Trade Grace with um Charletown Police Department award of merit. Uh so Trey, you want to come on up? Wait, did he leave? No. [laughter] So, no, he's just blending in back there. Yeah, this is your award. So, you get it.

Uh, so in 2025, there's not much we can say about the case cuz it's still active and ongoing right now. Um, but Trey took over as u underneath Jason Brody as a detective and he's done an incredible job so far. Uh this was his first major case. It's a fraud case. Um just a little bit about it. The the hard work that he's put into is probably hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours this past year and they're still working on it today. So um but as of right now over 34 search warrants and subpoenas on this case, 23 actual victims that have been identified. Uh and victims range from all the way from Indiana to Ohio, Illinois, all over the country. Um three additional victims were just identified in the past few weeks. Um so as of right now, it looks like approximately $726,000 in actual fraud money loss right now in this case from victims uh with another 71,000 in attempted loss. So I was told that all the paperwork on this case that he has done has written and along with uh Jason Brody back there is 223 gigabytes worth of paperwork just the paperwork alone not counting the like digital stuff. So that's a lot. It's a lot of work. I know he's he's done incredible job. So um one of the proudest things we do is be able to put him in that position and where he's flourished. So we want we'd like to award him for merit.

You need to vote on that. Uh, sure. Thank you. That motion. Second. All right. We have a motion by Mandy Wall, second by Ernie Thompson. All in favor say I. I. I. [applause]

Open your eyes. Here you go. Stalker in the back. Look at her photo. Wait, bro. Get up here. Get one of them. You're his boss. Get up here. I see you every day. You're the boss. [clears throat]

Good work. I do want to say this about Trey Praise. I remember I remember your interview and I remember you sitting there um with me and and and Tim Wolf and fresh out of criminal justice school and I remember you talking about broken windows theory nice

and I thought well let's hope this guy can take this schooling and actually translate it to real work and you have impressed me all along the way Um, from the time that you were watching and and noticed something weird about a car that went by and ended up stopping the suspect that had just performed a violent shooting from the time that you had enough forethought to go to apartments because you thought that a a crime would be happening there after what report you had heard. Um, it shows that you have an intuition for what you're doing and I think you're in the right spot and I'm glad that you're with us. Thank you very much. [applause]

All right, chief. You're still up. All right, where we at? Stop sign. Yep.

So, other not so exciting news. Um, this this would be an official recommendation for uh traffic control change at the intersection of Hij Jackson Road and Christianity Parkway. Um we was asked to review this, reached out to um all the officers on the department as well and got feedback from um Corporal Grand Alliance Becker as well as well. I went out there and observed the area for quite a bit of time. Uh it's need to say it's probably we need to have some of that three-way stop sign um placed at that intersection. Now, especially in the dark time hours, you can't see when I turned off Christianity Parkway first time I was out there almost got hit because there was a car coming up the hill. So, um, I would highly recommend placing stop signs at this area. There's already one stop sign on Christianity Parkway, so we just need two, uh, one on each side of the hide accident.

And we will also make sure that because of the hill and the approach there on both sides, that there is a properly lit caution sign before the stop sign. um similar to what we did at Bethany Road where it's lit around to draw attention because that's it's an area where people can gain speed rather quickly and want to calm that traffic through there. So it'll help slow traffic down for coming towards middle school too. So y do we have a motion? Motion Thompson, second by Maggie Wong. All in favor say I. I. We'll get that ins.

I think that's it. Um, up next is time for us to for the executive office to update the capital improvement plan. Um, this is a a a plan that is done periodically. Um, it's used for our income tax money that we receive. It's where our economic development income tax goes into and it sets the standard for the types of projects that we're going to be focusing on for the next 10 years. This usually involves some mix of quality of life, infrastructure, technological enhancements, and property improvements. Um, and I have asked Baker Tilly to offer us an engagement letter for working us through that process of updating the capital improvement plan. They are our financial advisor of record. They have sent an engagement letter with their rates, their hourly rates, and a not to exceed amount of $20,000 for this service. They only bill what the actual time they work on it is, but it will not exceed 20,000. I've confirmed with um Domark, our treasurer, that this is um needed and that we have the funding to cover that for our financial analysis and I'm asking the board to approve that engagement letter.

Make that motion. Motion by Maggie W. Second by Ry Thompson. Any questions on that? All in favor say I. I. That's unanimous. Thank you. that another page. Uh, and then I have parks department with a couple of contracts. Good morning. Good morning.

All right. I know this is going to sound weird, but I have my Santa contract for 2026. Have to get them locked in. Um, so it's basically the same contract uh that we use that Perry has already approved before. It's the only thing that we did different is the dates just changed. So we will take this money out of our revenue fund. Like we'll go ahead and process it and get it out of the way now. So we're paying him $2,400 and he is here like 13 days.

Could we save a lot of money if we could get Tubby to do that? Listen, I got to have Tubby for electric traffic anywhere else so that I can put him. But everything is the same. I have the contract, the W9, and the insurance waiver. And Lacy and Perry has looked over everything. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Motion Bernie Thomas. Second. Second by Maggie. All in favor say I. I. That's unanimous.

All right. The second thing we have here is our art classes that we use Redheaded Princess Designs. Um this what we'll do is Brian creates a job form for us. We collect the money and then we turn around and pay her. We will u make a little bit off of each one to kind of cover our costs because we do like like refreshments and stuff for these. These classes will range anywhere from 25 to $45. And the dates will be March 8th, May 17th, July 19th, August 23rd, and November 15th. And I have her contract insurance waiver and W9. Do we have a motion? Take that motion. Motion by Maggie W. Second. Second by Ernie Thompson. All in favor say I. I. That's unanimous. That's all I got. All right.

Thank you. You're welcome. Um I think that's all we have on our agenda today. So we just need a motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. Motion by second. Second by Maggie. All in favor say I. I. We are. There you go.