City Council - Regular Meeting

city council workshop meeting for January 8th. It is 6:02 and I'd like to call this meeting to order. Uh thank you everyone for being here tonight. We really appreciate it. Um it's great to see as many people here tonight as possible. Um with that I'll ask you to make sure your phones are turned off for on vibrate so that um everybody can hear the business being conducted at hand. And uh we have a quorum u the workshop with both uh all three of the boards actually. And uh with that, would you like to please uh say the invocation? Please stand for the invocation and the no invocation first. Our God, infuse us with compassion that can be put to an end to hate, with a generosity that can eradicate greed, and with wisdom and courage to put our focus and sorrows in their rightful place. Whatever our conversations are that we are most afraid to have, it is probably the one that we might need to have. And I also ask that everyone remember Tomzitz and your prayers as he is our

Amen. Amen.

Pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. I pledge allegiance 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. Now the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God, one and indivisible. Before we get started, um, again, I I said I appreciate and I know that there are temperatures that are hot, so let's make sure that we I can tell you there's more people up here that have probably seen the things that you do. That's the way you do. Um, let's make sure we stay respectful and [clears throat] nice and um, and understanding. With that, we'll start the public forum. Just as a reminder, I'm going to be calling you up as I received these. You have three minutes to speak. There will be a timer and we want you to state your name and your address just for the record. And just as a reminder, none of us can speak. We are here to listen to the public and consume what you have to say, but this is not a time for uh discussion. So, with that, and I'll I'll pull up the first person to speak, and then I'll say who's on deck so they can get up and go to the back of the room so they're ready. All right. First one I have is Megan Tuttle. Please come to the podium. And I have Lisa Gregory on deck.

Hi there. Good evening. I'm here to ask you carefully consider Oh, I forgot address. Sorry. Megan title 20. I'm here to ask that you carefully consider the future of the downtown community center before moving forward with the demolition. While the building may not meet the legal criteria for a historic designation in Texas, it has served as a meaningful gathering place for decades and holds deep sentimental value for many of the community members. There are not many communities with rich history that McGomery possesses and even fewer that still have buildings which have stood alongside that history for so long. The community center is one of those rare places and for generations it has been a setting for events, milestones and shared experiences that form the heart of our town. I encourage the council to explore all possible alternatives such as renovation, adaptive reuse, or partial preservation before making a final decision. Preserving places like this is about more than structures. It is about prioritizing the history, character, and sense of the belonging that makes Montgomery unique. Thank you all for your time.

Thank you, Miss Tuttle. Next up, [applause] Lisa Gregory with um Shelley Lane on deck.

Hi, I'm Lisa Gregory, 910 Clucker. Uh just recently completed construction. Uh I can say that one of the reasons that uh the decision was made to purchase property in downtown McGomery [clears throat] in the city limits was because the character uh the historical significance and honestly how can you separate McGomery from historical significance. That's that's what brings people to this city. It creates the charm. It's the draw. Uh, I also have an office in downtown McGomery that overlooks the community center. Um, and again, just going you you all by it during Christmas. You know, it it's it's certainly the building's important. The historical significance, yes, it's not 100 years yet, but it's getting close. Uh, and it deserves to be saved. Uh, as a real estate broker, I know that remediation is a [clears throat] possibility. tearing something down in demolition is not the way to go with this property. What if you need a and again I just learned of this today. So I'm I'm not sure what the specific plans are, but if you need a parking lot, if you need something else, there are other properties within the city that the city already owns that can be utilized with that. So, I urge you to definitely do whatever possible to avoid demolishing this building and this structure because it is central to McGomery, it's central to the heritage of Montgomery, it's one of the things that creates the charm uh of the downtown area and I think to turn it into something whether it's commercial parking lot in I I don't know what the plans are, there's so many other options and opportunities for that. So anyway, thanks.

Thank you. Next up, Miss Shelley Lane with Sorry, with Howard Andrews on deck.

Um, I said Shelley Lane from God. I just want to quickly speak. Um, this is a key piece of our history. Yes, we all have family deep ties, roots. It pulls on the heartstrings. But 1938, the civic club dedicated the land and the little brick wall as a park to the city. 1948, one of the first things Commissioner TJ Peele, who himself, his family have deep, deep roots in the town of McGomery. The key thing he worked to do first when he got in office was build community centers for Montgomery, Magnolia, and Willis to honor the men killed in World War II from each of those communities. Whenever you walk in that community center, that big black on that wall, those are not just names from Montgomery County. They're from the town of Montgomery. Those are boys, men that have deep family roots in the town of Montgomery. A lot of those names still have families in this community. They've used it for civic meetings. Lions Club Bingo. When those families walk in, they can remember their loved ones. And this is loved one. These are men who went out to fight for our country. They got shot down over water. They were killed in combat. Some were in prisoner of war camps. Some never got to come back home to be buried. Other families, it took two and three or more years for them to get their bodies back home. And so that plaque on that wall is a key honor and respect and memory for those brave men who sacrifice the ultimate sacrifice. And then of course we all know the land is very historical. That was the spot, the downtown center spot for the town. There's historical markers for that. And it was where one of our courouses was before it got moved to Conra. So both the land, the building has deep roots,

deep times to Montgomery County. So I just urge city council u before you look at just quickly demolishing that as another building if that is the case. Um, I would strongly urge you to look at trying to save the building, renovate it, at least take the front of it. So when you look at the front of that building, you still have that historic nest there. You still have that fireplace in there, that plaque honoring those men. And so when people look at it, you still have that thing. You could easily expand out the sides of the back, but keep the integrity in the wood and the history [clears throat] of that building. Lastly, I just this is information on those men. This gives you their names, what they were in the military, some of their history, how they were killed. It's all the men on that plaque. There is also the articles on in 1938 when that wall was built. Articles on when the building was dedicated. Also, the last part of this packet I'm going to leave with the council is screenshots of comments from social media from the community urging and upset over the possibility of this building being torn down. And I do appreciate y'all letting me speak tonight.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Next up is Mr. Howard Andrews with Brenda Beavenon on deck. My name is Howard Andrews, 910 Cleffer. Uh, I basically just learned about this today and so if I'm up here speaking, it's because I'm passionate about it, even though I don't know how it arrived here or where it's going. But I can tell you this, every I I've had the ability to travel all over all over the world. And every small town that you go to that has a heart and a community sense has a historical and and and common place which everybody emanates out from. And to me, the city of Montgomery, it's that community center. I think if you rip that out, you really rip out that point in which this city emanates from. Uh, I walk my dog at least twice a day and I can tell you that every single day I walk around that and I walk through it and I see the people that go over there and stop and look at the goat at the at the well and so forth and read the plaques, uh, the jail cells that are out there and so forth. And there's a time capsule in there that I think would be a travesty for this town to decide to get rid of. I think there are many options as other people have said to renovate [clears throat] to remediate if there's an issue with the building. Uh you somehow in my opinion need to keep the integrity of not only that building but also the centrality of it in this town and what it means to a small community like this. That's what drew us to Montgomery and it's what what will keep us in Montgomery. All right. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Next up, Miss Brenda Beavenon. I'm Brenda Beavenon with Dian Lane on deck. Sorry. Am I okay?

Yeah, you should. Okay. Brenda Beavenon. I live at 5011 Passover and I'm here representing two parts. I'm here to represent McGill Historical Society who is firmly against the building being taken down. Okay. I think that's set on that. Uh, I also represent seventh grade teachers. Okay. Uh, Amanda Clark, um, Amanda Cook and my daughter Allison Fiola also asked me to speak on their behalf. Okay. For the last 26 years, we have done a scavenger hunt throughout the town. Thousands of kids have gone through and learned the history of this town. And to forsake this building would be, as someone already said, a travesty because it is important that these kids learn this. When I first started the scavenger hunt 26 years ago, I said I had three promps and one of them was to learn the history of the town to bring all these families in to to come and shop here. Okay, [snorts] we have 800 seventh graders now. And all of those seventh graders come through the town of Montgomery and they learn about the history and they learn about the economy of the town and they bring money to this little downtown area. So to take some of this away, I think you're going to see there will be a whole lot of parents that would be upset about this. In addition, we do a cookie walk. All right, that's been going on since I believe the 1980s. Okay. And uh every single Christmas on the second Saturday of the month of December, uh students from the two junior highs now because the school district has gotten so big, we keep it to the junior highs, uh they bake cookies, their families bake cookies and they go and they bring those cookies and then National Charity League picks them

up and they pick up the the uh you know the area and then the cookies are sold and it is the only fundraiser that the Montgomery Historical Society has. And so I, you know, for those reasons, there's a history here that cannot and should not be eradicated because we want to put up a venue. Historical society has no problem adding on to it to, you know, to fixing. Obviously, it needs to be fixed based on what you've you've seen, but we have no problem with that. We do have a problem with you tearing down the building. So, thank you very much. I appreciate Diane Lane with Miss Tracy Bulmer.

Yes, I'm Diane Lane, 2789 Den Road, Montgomery. I have lived here all of my life. Came well came when I was 10 years old from Louisiana. And when I came to this little town, I was shocked at how small it was and the charm and the friendships that were made. And then we had to move because my parents were in the oil field and it killed me. But we got to come back and I have been running around these grounds in these cemeteries at that uh community center all my life. And when you walk onto those grounds, it is a special special place. Um you know I was there he was there when they had a trail ride dance many moons ago and Happy Self played in that building. I don't know how we all fit in there, but we did. Um, everything everybody said so far, I totally agree with. We don't That is the heart of our town right there. I cannot imagine driving past that area. And I took my little grandson, you may have seen me in the last week or two. We going out there so he could see the time capsule and the building. And you know what he said? He's 10, but he's really smart. And he said, "Well, if that building's falling down like they say it is," he said, "Those maintenance men sure worked walked across the top of that building and put those lights up there and nobody fell through the ceiling." And I laughed, but you know, that's a 10year-old speaking. I know the building has got to have some repairs. There's no doubt about it because we know how old it is. Our prayer is that we can keep the little heart and soul of our city right there and we can do some improvements to the building and save our community center. I wish we had a courthouse like a lot of these wonderful little towns do. But we

got to appreciate what Anderson did to their courthouse and what Navasota's done. These old buildings like this, they deserve to have some TLC put on them. And this building, like I said, is the heart and soul of our town. And there's money to be made. And I think so many people are going to be crushed if it has to come down. Yeah.

Who's Tracy Bullwear?

Hello everyone. I'm Tracy Bware. Family's been here for several generations and we're on 149 South. Um, we have some this I love this controversy because it has generated so much interest and passion and it helps you get reinvigorated with the downtown. So, also it's gotten a lot of inspection work done to the buildings and I think that's good. I think that um all of this is really good and so it's uh inspired us to be creative on what can be done with the building and it's called adaptive reuse concept and um we've thrown out some ideas and we're going to throw out some more ideas. Um I restore houses in the Heights in Houston and we take houses that are 100 plus years old and in way worse shape and turn them into million-dollar homes. And so I know that this can be done and um we got some things that I think will be exciting for everyone to see and the uh I think that everyone with the city would be happy with some of the things that we come up with and I wanted to kind of just go over a little bit of what we were thinking about. Uh, we were talking about turning it into an vibrant open air gathering space that honors its stunning construction, embraces the local climate, and supports year-round community use without mechanical heating or air conditioning. I don't know if you've ever been to New Bronville, but there's a place called Krauss Beer Gardens, and they've done the same thing. They've re they're renovating their downtown and saving the buildings. Um, the worst fest, they've done the same thing there. So, it can be done. and you throw a little bit of a modern element on it. And what I mean by that is more of an industrial glass metal on the side. Again, the architects are going to think of that. Um, but I think the building can be preserved and um

have a nice little facelift and we can enjoy it even with its structural issues that are there. If it's an open air concept, then you don't have to worry about foundation as much or roof because that would get a new roof. But, uh, we want to preserve the historic character, reduce construction and operating costs, do as minimal maintenance and long-term risk, and, uh, resilient during power outages, and create a unique destination for events, markets, and gatherings. And one of my favorite things to do in the Bronals is to go to Cross Beer Garden where they have the farmers market every Saturday morning and it is a wonderful event to to be held. So anyway, um I think that everyone u being here is great and I think there's some design possibilities that everyone would be happy with and honor the history and the heritage. Next item on your agenda is the workshop agenda. All workshop items on this agenda are for discussion only. No action will be taken. Number four on your agenda. Discussion on the community center. So I don't know who wants to launch into this. I've got lots to say or did you want to go ahead Brent?

You want to go first? Go ahead. So um you go ahead. How long has these conditions been known and how long have we kicked the can down the road?

Well, that's a great question because one of my questions is I mean what what's the preventative maintenance look like? Mike, I don't if you're listening to me, but what's it look like and where I mean for where where has the maintenance been? I I know like Miss Fox um rented it and had to clean it before before she used it. And I went back and looked at a year and a half worth of uh departmental reports and it says it's cleaned weekly, but arguably I don't know if it's been looked at because of the of I mean why didn't public works report the mold or the problems with the ceiling if we're checking our properties? Um,

what I'm asking is if we've known about this, we we about the condition of the the building and we've had all these studies done to, you know, with with the streets, with the sewer, with the lighting, with the new signage. Why was not that put on those agendas so money could be granted or set aside for some of the repairs? So I Mr. Walker that tonight when we got here

pardoned that the earlier this summer we got a report from a a young lady that was renting the place and she had made a statement of the condition of the building and then shortly after Mr. Chilowitzes had brought up the smell in there which we knew about the sewer uh problems. That was what initiated us to start looking into to what all the problems were. At first we thought, you know, well, this is just a small problem. We can, you know, clean up the mold, clean up anything like that. But it got a little deeper and a little deeper and a little more issues. We see see there's some movement in the walls. There's some roof structure issues up there. So that's when we brought it to the MEEDC and we talked about the McGawan project, you know, and how could we add that in? We we were saving some money on the road road itself. So we were looking at that money. When we got there, that's that's kind of how we got here. Uh MEDC was looking at, you know, what could we save, what could we use, you know, what's the best use of the money that's available and where does that take us? you know, kind of like the beneficial reuse, save all the rocks or is it, you know, put a whole new roof on it. The two end caps themselves are actually the more structurally problematic. It's old terracotta with with plaster on top of it, which is not the best construction in the world. So, we found all, you know, all of this came a little bit little bit little bit. And the further we dug, the more problems we came up with. So that's when we started going, okay, we're going to have to come up with a with a really big idea how to how to either spend all the money to fix it or to, you know, find an alternate plan. Does that kind of answer what your question was?

Well, yeah, kind of sort of cuz I've been around here for a long time. Some problems these problems are I know through the years you could see it going. Yeah, it has slowly deteriorated. Everybody here has got eyes know it's going. So Mike again my question is how long have we known about these problems? Let me add to that. Uh I go back to celebrating my 73 14 years ago.

It looked like it looked then just like it does today. Nothing has changed. I as mayor I went and looked at the building. I did all I could. I painted the outside. painted the inside. I coated her up with lassometric cement to stop. Some of the vision you see of the stain in the tile was caused by ripples. And you know, like I said, we did all we could. That odor in that bathroom was there in 194 that odor hasn't went away. And we've sent as we could afford at the time. We had two laborers and we sent them over there. They dug a pole of plumbing and tried to tell us, you know, that they had it fixed. Obviously, they didn't have it fixed at the time. The wall along the west side south side of the building was the uh would be the souththeast corner of the building was sinking at a at a pretty good rate. It had settled to the point 4 foot windows. If you close the window, it was completely shut on one side and standing open three or four inches on the other side. Tell you how how level it was. I could not fix that. We didn't have the money to fix it rather than to come up with a cosmetic repair. AC was running all the time. We put sunscreen on it and actually had sunscreen made out of square. It would hide the fact that out of square the windows were. So, it's been this way for a long, long time. It's look just like it does now. I want to add that the foundation uh the the ownership I heard somebody talk about the ownership here. I don't know how the ownership floated back and forth, but the uh county commissioner actually contacted our city

administrator, Bill [snorts] Cotlin. I want to say it was in 2012 and I said, "We're going to we're going to make give you a present. We're going to send you the deed to the community building." We never know. We never knew we didn't have a deed, quite frankly. So, uh we we found out we did have ownership. the the restroom that's behind the uh sits in in the back now. That was the Lions Club had built that building for storage. We didn't have enough bathroom. Everybody complained about bathrooms in the downtown area. I went to the Lions Club, talked to them. They're very nice. They said, "Do with it as you may." That was a storage building. I got it converted to a bathroom. At the same time, I got some builders in the area to donate the bathrooms that's in uh both park, homecoming park and uh Park Cross Street. So, there's been a lot of going on here. Uh but it's always been it's been done when there's available funds and there haven't been enough available funds as we've grown. Croers came along. Some of y'all may remember I was very adamant about Kroger's. I wound up walking off because I couldn't get the rest of the council members to agree to that and which they eventually did. But because we had no money, we didn't have a Kroger's things didn't get done.

We're in a different phase now.

The money is managed right and things are laid out, planned and done. It would be much better. Well, you know, just to add to that, you know, the two paces out of the two can't put it back in. So I think at this point we find an objective plan that we all can agree on and move forward because I think that our own facility uh John maintenance company and you should have a plan in place quarterly for checks and you take those issues to whoever writing the check and say this is fraud and they have to prioritize that and not kick the can down the road say we need to get this done because one crack lead to a leak and it it just gets still a problem. So it's not it's at this point is not a blame game.

We as a community we got to come together and find objections to getting it done because we can look back years and see things that wasn't done. But we can do all things through Christ and what gives us the strength. We got to put our mind and our talents together to make sure that happen. And the community we love your appeal. Everybody have made valid points and you you're absolutely right, but I think from an assist standpoint, the bus stop with us in order to get it done. So, uh, football is four quarters. Go Texas. Football is four quarters. So, we right now right now we we two minutes. We got to have a Tom Brady moment. We got two minutes left. So, we we can't go out of bounds. We got to keep the clock running to get this thing done here.

We got to get out of our own way. That's right. Yeah. We can't We can't keep doing this like the studies last four or five years. We have to get a committee or whatever together and get it done. Yeah.

Well, and that's driven from staff. I mean, it is it's driven from staff. That's I mean, we can say we can approve everything, but if it's not happening within this building on a day-to-day basis, as we have seen, it it doesn't happen. And um we've got to get serious about it and make it happen. And I I want to say I mean nobody on council I don't think anybody sitting here ever said anything about demolishing the building. So I said that when we had our tour there. I'm going to say it again. Um not demolishing the building. However, um I believe every single one of us and every single one of you here, you're here because you do believe it is valuable and brings um a sense of community and it is a a a heartbeat of our town without a doubt. Is it broken inside? Yes. But I do think that remediation and Tracy Ver has got some beautiful renderings that she brought when we had our meeting there and even tonight. And I think too if it is a community, we did it when we did the whole comprehensive plan. We should have community involvement and listen and if you've got your chat GPT that shows you what to do, submit now. Don't get mad if it doesn't happen your way. But at the same time, look, this is all our building. It's not city hall's building. It's all of our building. So everybody should get a say. And I do think again, thank you for being here. and we'd love to see what your ideas are, but the building does have some issues. Do I think it should be closed down? Absolutely not. And I'm hoping by the end of the this meeting it gets open back right back up. Um, however, uh, I I think we're all on the same page if I'm reading everyone correctly in the room. So, what does that look like? I think it's it's it's community engagement. I think it's ideas. And I think um I thought I thought up until recently that

m I mean I was on the tour first part of December about McGawan. Um I don't know that we had money to do a re to do this and now that's being a part of it and um I just think that there's been lack of communication and then you know the rumor mill goes wild and crazy and it's fun to say salacious things that are not so and so I think we hear now this is our heartbeat and we want to keep it yes we need to address some things but we want to keep it here. So then what does that look like going forward? And I think that we have town hall meetings one, two, whatever it is until we get an idea uh shaved down that we can one afford, two continues to look like Montgomery, acts like Montgomery, and that we're all proud of,

which I think the the EDC has indicated to Brent that we're willing to pay for studies to look at different options, not just one idea. And part of that is looking at a baseline of what does it cost to demo it in that that I think that's how the rumor started is we do want to know what that cost is compared to renovating it is that to renovate is it three times as much four times as much we need to have that baseline to understand it not because we want to go that path but we want to have that information in front of us but I think that's where the EDC wants to go is let's kind of pause and look at the options get some renderings together of what different things you can do openhouse concept cept or just you know keep the building as it is and expand on it. all these different ideas and then have town hall meetings so that we can have numbers and visuals for everyone to actually tangibly talk about and discuss yes we don't like that yes that's a good idea or is it worth the community's dollars taxpayer dollars to do x y and z and I think that's where the EDC is wanting to go as a next step so

yeah and I will say that the problem that that I ran into you know because I was running with it as fast as I could I mean it took me a bit to get here. But when I brought out contractors to look at it after we kind of looked at it and said, "Okay, let's look at this is with the structural problems, they couldn't ever give you a real price yet because they were too afraid of, you know, what's going to happen in there, you know." So the it's not that it's going to fall down. Nobody ever said that. Um it's just that there there is some structural issues. You can see the cracking. You can see the movement, you know. So what is that going to cost to to resupport those walls or or you know whatever whatever the design is? That's why I think that that you know that last MEDC meeting we we looked at beneficial reuse or you know like I'm not sure who mentioned it the the front of the building you know so it looks the same from the road maybe adding out to the side. I mean maybe that's the answer. I you know, but that's what I need to know because that that'll get us the data that that we need and that'll give you money and and things that you can really look at. So, Brent, the last when we were all together at the community center, we had what five engineers there and architects. Um each each one of them felt that they they could accomplish what we wanted to do, which was save that building. And so I think right now we're just in that that phase where we're waiting to see what uh either WGA comes out with or with one of the other architects. Um there's plenty of enthusiasm for holding on to it. So it's just a matter came up with this bucket of money because we pushed the Macau project. Exactly. And so this all came to light because we want to develop that area and create a real town center that that has

tie it all together

that has a farmers market. I I spoke with him today that that has uh yeah that has multiple events going on throughout the not just on the weekends but throughout the week so that people can enjoy that center for years to come. So, our goal at the EDC was never, and I want to be clear about that, to demolish that building. I never ever ever said that. So, we want to save the building and we want to renovate the building and we want to make it a community masterpiece where people come to McGomery and when they see it, they go, "Wow, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to shop." So, we're all on the same page as far as the people with the money that are going to spend it to get it done. Um, we're in the phase now of just figuring out how to go about doing that responsibly. Okay, that's really all it is. And so, you you guys I'm so grateful to have you here. I mean, this is really really awesome. We love we love seeing the community come together for this. And now that we know that we got some passionate, you know, folks going to save this building, let's do it together. Let's come up with a plan that everybody agrees will be a remarkable showpiece for for our community.

And I want to add on to what you're saying. The EDC is all I think our main goal as EDC is to keep the downtown area alive and make sure we have people staying in downtown. We've got these, you know, we love the box stores. They have a lot of tax revenue for us, but we want to make sure people stay in downtown and don't go outside of the city. And so we're trying to see what can we do with the community building with Macau Street. How do we like reinvest in downtown and keep the downtown alive? And so that's our main goal. It's not to destroy history. I I live in a historic house in downtown. I love history. I know the importance of it and it keeps our community stable. We just want to know what's the best way, what's best use of our dollars and best way to preserve our city and downtown. So that's our heart and that's kind of the spirit that we're coming at this from. So

well and the and the community center wasn't even on our radar until just recently. I mean we were we've been doing Macau and I mean had the budget a lot of things have changed. I mean subsurface what we were going to do on top uh back and forth. All of a sudden it was presented to us and say hey we do the communities and gosh we can tie this thing together. So then we start getting and we didn't [snorts] I haven't seen these reports. It's the first time we've seen man's going to implode, you know. So what do you do with it? So save all the rock and maybe repurpose it like that. And that was the intent.

You you on the agenda December the 9th, they gave a it was one of the line items that said MEBC request that city council demo the building. That was on it. I read it and the time I read it, I was totally shocked. But my big thing about that building is we need to make sure that we the the purpose of that building originally was to honor the men who died here. And I think that is to me very important. And that building may be not what they call historic, but it has a lot of history to me because I've been here 50 years. 70th birthday, grandchildren, scouts, brownies. That building had I had put my kids on that stone wall and watched the the riders go through, you know. So, but the main thing about that building is to to memorialize those men who lost their lives.

I think the only thing the EDC agreed to was to do a study to to move it or other options. We didn't agree to demo anything. That was I mean most Jeff wasn't there but I was there agreed to look. It was on the agenda. It was but it wasn't to demo. It was to do a study to Yeah. The way the way it was presented, Cheryl, I think you know this. I've talked to you about several times. We never would have agreed to that. I'm just telling you that's okay. So, let's just don't even put it out there because that that isn't true. Secondly, yes, it is. I wasn't at the meeting. I wasn't at the meeting. It was it was I know you got

Okay. So, what I'm telling you is Ryan's giving it straight. The heart of EDC is to renovate, not to demolish. Period. The end. I don't care what you're saying, Jeff. December 9th, we had a meeting here at city council. It was the first time I ever heard that we were even messing with the city community building. And we were told right here on city council that it was cheaper to take the building down and build a new one than it would be to fix it. That's what we were told right here at city council. I can tell you right now, I'm sorry that you were told that, Stan, because because we never said that. Okay. I'm just saying it was set. It was set. It's a black

because these people are here because they heard somebody say that this building is going to be demolished. That's why they're here. And they're also here because we're missing the other point. Why? I don't see any evidence of why we shut the community center down. I don't see any evidence. I want to know why we shut the thing down and you know why [applause] people come back. Hey Stan, I I'm I'm in faith. I don't like getting six-month old information right here when I walk in this building. I agree. Me and you are on the same page.

To tell you people out there to say what Ari says, the bug doesn't stop here. It stops right here in this line right here. and we will take responsibility. We will take care of the internal matters that need to be taken care of because people are not cooperating with us. But that's not your problem. That's our problem. I'm going to promise you though that this city council is not going to have that building just all of a sudden taken off the face of the earth. You know, if anything, it's going to be built back just like it was. And we're not going to change anything as long as I'm on this council. It's going to go back exactly the way it was. We're going to fix it where it's usable and people enjoy it and can you know, but you know, we're we this council itself has other issues that we have to take care of internally and that's our problem. But I'm telling you, I know why you're here and I don't blame you, man. I we we've made a lot of people mad by closing that thing down. And that's the point that I I don't have any information. I just got this thing. Just got it. This This guy was here yesterday, I think, if it's some guy I met because I happened to go over the building and just happened to find out that people were there to inspect it. I just happened to find it out. It was Nobody told me that they were doing that there. Nobody told me that we had a mole inspection back on August the 28th of 2025. Nobody told us that. Nobody in this council knew about this, you know, so you understand that we have an internal problem, but we will take care of it. But that, you know, don't and I'm not trying to shift the blame. We're going to have to do whatever it takes. If I have to start going to MEDC meetings and planning and zoning meetings to find out what's going on, I'll do it. I don't want to do it. I don't want to I don't want to pinhole my

the people we hire. I expect them to do a job. But when they do it and if it's serious about this city, they need to contact us because we're the ones that have to contact you. Not these people down here, us. We're the ones that were voted in. And we are going to answer to the people. We're going to do what's right in your sight and in God's sight. And we're going to preserve the historical significance of Montgomery City. [applause] I would have to say we've already had this meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, Sarah said we're not going to argue and did go into heated discussions and right now the temperature is high. So I suggest that we bring the temperature down. It is

okay. But we need to find out what the immediate thing that we can do right now to reopen the community center. What is the most immediate thing we can do to reopen that community center so that the people that live here can use it, see it, work on it, build whatever? What is the immediate thing? We're I don't want to leave here tonight without having a at least three points. What are we going to do in the next one week, two week, three week? Because we just had a meeting on Tuesday, the planning and zoning did. And what did we do? We pushed something back. We pushed something back. We got to wait on this study. We got to wait on this report. We got to wait on this this. It's here. It's here. I I do my I It's been 23 years and I had a child that was at that community center that had a fundraiser. 23 years and just like John said, 14 years ago. If you walk in, it's been the same thing. Bill brought it up right away. Why are we waiting? Why are we waiting? Cheryl's been here all her life. Why are we waiting? So, let's do something. Can we do something, sir? [applause]

And do something like let's just do three things. I think the main problem is that there seems to be, as you said, the law, you know, there's no urgency. Yeah. In anything that happens in this city. Yeah. Somebody said something to me. Look, I said that odor has been in that bathroom for 15 or 16 years. I sure Why not have somebody in my world needs to have somebody in that spot tomorrow fixing that? I agree. And no excuse.

We have been talking about McGawan Street till I'm sick of it. We've been talking for 20 years about McGawan. We don't get nothing done. We just talk it all to death. Quit study there. We got enough to do something. We have enough to do something. So, what is it going to take? I said this to you yesterday when we had our discussion. You autonomously didn't tell any of us that it was getting shut down. When I called you and said, "Why? What is it going to take to get it back open?" You said, "Council's approval." Well, if you can autonomously close it, why can't you autonomously open it back up?

I will let the attorney address that. But let me tell you what the options are and how we got here. This is again a process. So, we got the report. We went out and got the remediation cost. We from one company, we need three.

It's it's just it's just the cost so we could get some cost. We talked to two contractors to look at what it would take to bring it back to usable because you know when they do the remediation it leaves it in terrible condition. They chop a lot of stuff out. You get So then when we talked to them they said well there's problems up here. There's problems with the walls. We can't really give you anything. So we were kind of stuck there. That's why we went to the EDC and said well here's what I'm running into. You know how can we move forward with this? So if you want to use the building like it is, you know, Allan can speak to that, but if you want to remediate it and move forward with with whatever that project is, then then that is the second

that's going to take a timeline. So let's open it. I mean, I've said and I said this to you yesterday, nobody's grown a third eye or lost an appendage. And and if they need to sign a waiver that says if I get sick, the city's not liable. But open the dad gum thing up. Can I make a suggestion? I don't know if it needs remediation for it the way it is at the moment. The mildew does need to be addressed. Um but to I think the next step would be to take um approve of some architectural renderings and then that way you have a a vision for it,

right? So, but my point is let's open it up. Let's people enjoy it. It's not going to fall on anybody's head. Then while we're doing these studies and h moving this this along because now we got a lot of eyes on it and which is great but in the meantime let's continue to use the building because this was all a gut punch to us and I got the email and I'm like wait what? And then you know all the hate mail and I'm like I don't have any answers. I can't respond because I don't know. So and when I went through this like I said to you I googled the mold that's in there. Every one of us have this mold in our yards. There's nothing in here that's gonna

So, also on the bathroom smelling, um, check and see if there's a vent pipe. And a lot of buildings back in those days, they didn't put vent pipes on the um, toilets and so they dug it completely out. Yeah. Yeah. We dug it completely out. Oh, no. I mean, a vent pipe to the attic. Okay. Yeah. And so, that might have been it, but I mean, and there's also things like, you know, the house the building never had uh three strand wire. In other words, it didn't have a ground. So, you wouldn't end up with any kind of electronic equipment, you can plug it in, wouldn't work. So, we had to go in and ground certain outlets with what phones we had so you could use electronics. Yeah. Well, now the money's here and that's a wonderful thing.

Listen, I mean, with your experience, my experience, you know, my wife and I have been in the property management business for over 20, 30 years, ourselves, too. and manage properties that are dirty and nasty and need to be cleaned up. You know, this whole thing can be renovated and clean now. Get rid of the mold. Wipe it down. Get it rid of it. Open it up and fix the bathroom as soon as you can. But those are two main. It ought to be open. There's no reason not for not in my in my opinion. There's no reason for it not to be open.

Can we ask for it to be reopened? whoever that power may be. Check out the bathroom exhaust to get rid of the smell. Check on the grounding wire and check on the maintenance to get it cleaned up uh for the the mold that we have quote unquote somehow found. There's three things right there that we can do. Can't be that much. Until we get a plan together. I mean, it's it let's leave doing something like, okay, it's got mold. Let's figure out how to do that in an economical, healthy way. I mean, because this whole remediation thing may take three years. I mean, we shouldn't have it shut down for three years. No.

And Alan, can we not have them sign a waiver that they won't sue the city if they get a runny nose? You could. Um, the the mold report, I looked at it, too. It's not a a not a huge number over the background. I mean, so I would think that, you know, for the short term, pretty good deep cleaning. And it says that the uh air quality is acceptable right here. It says the air quality inside the building is acceptable. So, who who's our maintenance crew that's supposedly going up there cleaning it? Mike Laroy. Public works. Public works. Yeah.

You're sending people that are not qualified to do it. You need to get people who know how to clean, have the property equipment to clean. I thought the one right there behind me stay

right here. Right here. Let's ask you. So, are you saying that spend money on a third party to clean it? Let's go. [laughter] I would think uh I mean EDC's got I don't know if it's EDC money. I don't know whose general fund. I don't know. I I don't know whose money it is, but it doesn't really matter at this point. Let's get it cleaned up and opened up. I can get I can get you three different companies to come in and give you three quotes. Um there's there's a few of them that we use cuz we it can't be that that all encompassing the houses that I restore. I mean, you wouldn't park your cow in them if you but in the shape

if you'll if you'll do that for us. EDC's got another meeting coming up when next Tuesday. I believe in you know public works they don't have the equipment they don't really have the knowledge that yeah public works can so I don't think anybody blame public works for having a nasty building I really don't because they don't have the equipment nor do they have the the chemicals and stuff to do it I think a professional needs to yeah that folks that's all they do and so I can't speak for my entire board but I can pretty much assure you EDC would have more than to fund it if we if we can and they're economic for

res to the podium besides Kevin. Yes. Thank you just for the me. Oh yeah, if you want to if you're not finished I'm Kevin Barnes. I own 401 call right across the street from and um this may sound like heresy but you know what's wrong with that building? Mm-m. It doesn't look good from the street. It looks It's got a a roof on it. It looks like it was put on the 1950s when they put it. [laughter] So, since it already leaks, let's take it off, put a high gabled roof on it with corbells on it of the period, make it look like it's a historic building.

That's a good idea. That That would help it so much cuz the sides of it look great. Well, EDC is definitely taking in design concepts right now. We have two engineering firms that are working on how to make that happen. We just picked this project up a few months ago and because we moved money from the Macallen Street project over to the community center so they could line up with the new uh downtown city hall and police station. So, totally agree. We just want to we just want to renovate it and update it, but we have other things that we want to do in that area, you know. That's great. I'm offering to be on whatever committee you guys look at. Absolutely.

I have good ideas. I think my opinion and anyone else that's interested, join us. We would love it. Yeah. And we're going to have a discussion. I think we'll get it on our agenda for our EDC meeting coming up in two weeks from now. And so that would be a great time to come in and present some good ideas. Okay. Yeah. Something. Hi, I'm Selinda Simpson and my question is we know about the building and I've heard just hearsay about permits being pulled for the grounds like for the long start for Saturday. Is that to be reopened?

That's what I'm hoping. They don't even use the building. They use the public bathroom. So, um, that was just Yeah, I told I told them last week they could use that or the other lot uh that the EDC owns. I don't know what you call that lot. It doesn't have Wait, you told First they could use it on Saturday and they chose not to use it on Saturday. That was a permit problem. What do you mean a permit problem? They didn't renew their permit and so the permit expired and yeah that wasn't nobody told them they couldn't use that um I special used permit for 6 months

I actually run lonear Saturday I was told what 3 days before the holiday that my permit was pulled no one ever said it was expired [clears throat] um if I'd have known it was expired and I actually have a copy of it is not expired. So we were told we could not shoot put up our market there at all. So we scrambled. We found another place to go and everything such a brewhaha over that. But we were just definitely told we could not be there. So I don't know the lady's name. I know the lady's name. It's not, you know, permanent at this moment. But

yeah, I didn't know about it till after the fact. I I didn't even know why you moved it over. How does nobody know what's going on in the same when we're just a couple offices away? Debbie, are we are we going to have first Saturday in February? Yes, we are. Are you coming back? Yeah, please. Yes, we are. Um and I'm working on permitting and whatever I need to do to get that in line cuz that's a that's a detriment to the people that set up those tents there, their vendors, and that's a detriment to downtown. Absolutely. They had a very much lighter showing this weekend.

The weather was perfect and all. site, not a mine. And we, you know, we draw people to all the small buildings in town. I mean, we're not a huge market, but you know, they come and buy from us and then they go down and have coffee, lunch, whatever. Absolutely. So, um, it wasn't a matter of permits because I pulled my permit and I know when when it was signed and when it was approved. So, thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Thank you. So, have we decided that we're going to do three things? So, we're not So, we're not I mean, this is just for open discussion. We can't take any action.

Well, can I bring up one more piece of this just because it needs to be discussed. So, back to the how things happened. Again, when we initially saw the mold and we looked at the mold, the drop ceiling is really the the main issue if you look at it and it's specifically two areas. And there's parts of the drop ceiling that are just starting to come down, which are not good. But even if we go in and and remove all of those tiles there, we're going to have to repair that that drop sign because it it's in bad shape.

Yeah, it is. So, so it needs to be part of the conversation at least because it's I'm not saying it's not safe, but part of it looks like it's going to fall and the wires are broken up there. So, it's easy enough to go in and replace tiles, but we need to, you know, consider the entire roof and and making it functional. Now, that's not going to last forever because then we go back to the problem that the roof is leaking. So, you know, eventually we're just going to have to keep replacing the tiles until we get to that point of, you know, like he said, you know, replace the roof or whatever the case may be. Whatever that design is, is as long I think everybody understands once the renovation or whatever happened starts, it's going to be shut down,

right? But is that 3 years, two years? I mean, that's the problem. So, our thing is here tonight, let's do what we need to do to keep it open till we shut it down. Right. But then give us a timeline. Yes. Timeline. Well, yeah. To say in 6 months, y'all are going to have to go find someone's runway. You say you you met with some architectural firms. U Yeah. They were all out uh when we reviewed the property with Sarah and Brent and Miss Bo and everybody. Did they all have good ideas? Oh, yeah. They had some great ideas, are they? Okay. Mostly engineers, but her. Yeah. Most of them are engineers. She wasn't an engineer, but she's

I'd like to use that specializes at the heights and the and historic restoration. Is there is there one that stood out? So, we didn't interview. We didn't Well, I'm just There there there is there is a couple of ideas that are that are really What I'm trying to get by with is these two or threeyear studies, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies. Yeah, we're not going to do that. Which could go back into the building.

WGA is here right now. They're working on actively pursuing a couple of different paths. One would be to open up one side of the building to create a staging stage so that we could host events with bands, live music. Um they're talking about uh maybe some some permanent uh awning structures around uh to be able to put first uh first Saturday and and farmers market booths around there with electrical and things like that. We're talking about adding uh uh restrooms to the building itself and expanding it out a little bit. What I'm talking about is not getting another consulting firm in here. Just No, we're not doing that. You've got our own engineer.

Why would we get an architect to do a full study? We're I mean, we have WGA, but they're just an engineer. They don't do renderings and stuff like that. That's what we talked about is maybe getting someone dedicated to who can have a vision, an idea of what historic building looks like. We do that. No, we haven't done that yet. I think that's like the next step. And sometimes it takes time to have someone who has expertise to look at it and give us ideas. None of us none of us know what we're doing. Well, that's what we can't just pick one, but our next EDC meeting, we can we can easily bring in the public and get they they know now. I mean, we're bring them in. Let's we'll put it on our agenda. Let's get some open opinions, get some some ideas on what people think might have a festival and I have a hat. One, two, or three.

Yeah. Yeah. And then maybe Ryan we you we go ahead and take it to an architecture firm and get them to work on I think that's what I talked to Brent about. So yeah and that's I bring in the architect to meet with them and he can I mean the process might take I'm 3 months and this is architectural design. The things that drag out are design approval.

Yeah. So if you can get concepts that you like and then narrow it down to XYZ and then pick and then the engineering firm that we use for all these historic buildings, they're used to it. They're used to all of this and both of them are very economical um considering um all you anyway their prices are good and they do excellent work and you can I you know I think it' be a lot of fun to actually get the community involved in helping make the decision as to what final design we do. Let them be a part of that's part of the town hall. That's part of that whole thing though.

Yeah, I agree. I I agree. And you have to start out with something for people to look at and then narrow them down community and get excited about part of the the actual process. Let's get seeing people. Let's get the mold and everything cleaned up. Get it open. Yeah, we'll do that. Gone down. I think we open it and then do Yes. Yes. In other words, use it while we're thinking about it. Yeah, we'll use it while we're thinking about it. Right. Yeah. And Alan, does somebody need to sign a waiver or are we good to go just to open it immediately? You can add some statements to your existing waiver form. Okay. I can't hear.

Okay. Go ahead. We can add a statement to your existing waiver form that you use for rentals property. Perfect. Keep going. All right. Safe to say we're open for business because we could do that by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and then start taking So Grant, what [applause] do we need to Can we soul can we select an architect or do we need to do an RFQ? I mean, I know we talked about how long things take, but that's because the state makes us do certain things. What's the next EDC? Yeah, we we could potentially see if they're part of any of the co-ops and then we could bypass some of that, you know, RFQS and that. Yeah. Um

we need to have something to give them to bid on. Yeah. I mean, or scope of work. Yeah. At least scope of work. Yeah. I mean, as far as the studies and and that, you know, we've got the basics here now, which was the structural architect telling us, you know, I mean, there's some issues. He identified them.

We won't know those until we actually tear down the drop ceiling and really get inside of there. That's just the outside visual. But that was really, you know, the the whole holdup of of making the decision on exactly how to move forward. I mean, to tell you one wall is going to fall down or something, that's, you know, one thing versus, you know, how are we going to support these things if you just put it back exactly like it is?

Well, we at least have a we have a we have a vision. We have a a place to go forward. We're going to open it up. EDC will work hard to try to get architects in and get them expedited to get uh some visions put together, let the community be a part of that uh process. And then at the end of the day, maybe this time next year, we're all sitting in a beautiful historic structure that we can all be proud. If it if it's if it's purely the architectural and and maybe some engineering and stuff like that's professional services. We just need to get the design that we we like. We don't have to we can go out for RFQS. That's just qualifications. But we don't have I mean professional services we don't have to bid that out. When we get to the actual design of the project then we'll have to bid that out.

Right. Okay. So at the next EDC meeting are we going to have something on the agenda to make a decision on whether we're selecting an architect or selecting going for RQ or I guess that will be clarity you'll provide at that meeting so we can make a decision to plan basically which shouldn't take very long shouldn't take years. It should take a few months. We're just looking at ideas, markers, and renderings and maybe some costs. Yeah. With a cost and you can, you know, you can engage more than one, but or you know, pick who you Does this hold up Macau though because we keep getting

No, we keep getting people complain about us holding up Macau, but we're so anxious to get it done. Can we just move forward with that? We're really close. Zack and Zach can answer to that. We're we're pretty close on going out to business because I don't want to hold that up for the community building. That was kind of the original. No, we created we created that as a second stage anyways. Yeah. So, totally separate. Yeah. Like we've been at that study forever, but because we had to figure out what's going on underneath before we could finish what's going on top and then we had some admin issues before, but yeah, we're anxious just to move forward with that without the board. Oh, and government moves at the speed of We can circle up on that.

What was that? We can I was just asking if we had the exact time on the bid. I know they're close to getting it ready. Yeah. I just want to make sure because we at the when we were at the community building was like, well, let's tie all this stuff together. Like maybe we don't. Maybe we keep this two separate things since the community center is going to be delayed a little bit. And it was set up that way. It was it was set up in stages. The only part that was looked at as part of the McGallan was just redoing the the parking lot paving because it's in such bad shape. So that's just, you know, saving some money cuz it's going to be the same type of concept. So would we be going to college and stopping at college now? Is that the idea?

Well, you just wouldn't get on. You would just wouldn't get on to the community center property and stopping at college right there. Yeah. I mean, college already has that brick. I just want to make sure we we're not jumping college and moving on. We're stopping Macau at college and letting community center be something else later. There's been that was purely for the Oh, yes. We're doing a city hall and all of that, too. I know. We want to tie it all together, right? But that's going to probably take eight or nine years. It doesn't go quickly. Well, we we've uh finally kind of figured it out on EDC. I'm in third term here and uh we've been talking and talking. We finally hired some professionals because we're volunteers. We have jobs, right?

But, uh, there's been a lot of stuff done in the last year, year and a half, two years. Things are moving forward. We're we're there. I mean, it's we got all new wayfinding signs that are starting. Uh, they'll be on your next So, yeah, we we've got final approval. Yeah. So, we're we're we're done. So, beautiful monument signs are coming to downtown area. All the way finding it took forever, but we finally got it done. This is this is a no-brainer. We're going to save this community center. We're going to make it beautiful and and and and and I think the community needs to be a part of that because I'm glad to see people are passionate about bring people back downtown. Yeah, we're going to get them back downtown again. So, yeah, stay tuned. That'll be fun. Okay. So, are we reopening the community center? Yes.

Just adding verbiage to all they're adding adding verbiage to the current Okay. paperwork. That's hopefully that'll be done by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and then uh we can start accepting uh reservations again. Okay. So, when are we cleaning and then what Lion's Cup could come back? Hey, when are we cleaning a mom at the door? If that's going to be a third party, I don't know. I mean, Brett, when are we cleaning it? Like, what's we going to interview third party people that clean here? Are they going to clean that? What's that look like? I think we need to first look at what it's going to take to clean up the visual mold, drop ceiling, the stuff in the kitchen. That's the main areas cuz the two the two support walls in there, that's where the water leaks and that's where the problem.

So, public works continues as the dayto-day until we get not that I I don't I don't want Not that stuff. Not that. No. Well, I think we'll look at somebody to do deep cleaning um to to really clean the bathrooms depending on what the usage p you know path is. They can take out the trash and do all of those things. But I'm talking about deep clean. We have a contract with uh you know a young lady that does the city hall here. She might be interested in doing that as well. What are we going to find that out? There's no excuse for having dirty towels. When are we going to find out about the deep clean? Well, concern is is you deep clean. He's contacting the current people that we have

um on that we pay that we contract with to see if they can do it and if so, what's that look like? Can't state a date until we know who's going to do it and for how much. When are we going to when are we going to address that? At the city council meeting or at the NEC [laughter] meeting. Well, Brent, I think you could just go forward and do it without any administration's doing it before. No, just do it. So, did you hear that? He can just go ahead and do it. We don't need anybody to vote on it. And we understand that cleaning it is going to bring all the other problems, the ceiling, the mold, the, you know, I mean, right now, if we're just trying to clean, like people can't get sick from it, a few tiles is not going to hurt until we get in there and get dirty and start doing the re uh rebuilding it.

No, I I'll bring it back to the EDC. I'll look at what it's going to take to fix the the areas that are actually just hanging down. Okay. uh what it'll cost to buy enough tiles to replace the ones that are really bad. No problem. The kitchen once it's scrubbed and and wiped all down, that that'll disappear there until you know it rains again. Gets wet again. That's an area where water comes in quite often. Okay. So, reopening and we're going to clean. We got two things. Okay. Replace tile. Can we stop? Does anybody else hey one meeting please? Both of you are talking.

Does anybody else have anything else to say? Okay, we'll move on to council inquiry. Council have anything have anything? Um I do have one comment. Mike, the Texas flag at Homecoming Park is upside down and has been since before Christmas. If we could get that flip back, that would be huge. Um, and outside of that, if there's nothing, then I will entertain a a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Miss Fox to adjurnn. Second. Second by Mr. Simpson. All those in favor of adjourning, say I.

Those post say nay. The eyes have the motion carries at 7:12 and we will adjourn this meeting. Thank you very much for showing up. Yeah, that's [laughter] how you

touch the button. second job.