City Commission - Regular Meeting

very much like to call this meeting to order for the city of Battle Creek, Michigan and the Battle Creek City Commission meeting of April 21st, 2026. It is 7:07 right now. We thank you for your cooperation and patience while we got our technology in sync. I believe they uh reset all of our passwords and we didn't realize that today. Um this is also a special meeting because this is our assistant city manager's last meeting after several years being with us. But we'll have some positive comments at the end of the meeting um about TED and some of the experiences that we've all had with TED. Um at this period of time, I want to check to make sure that Commissioner Simmons is with us. Uh yes, good evening. I I'm on.

Thank you, Commissioner. Uh next item on our agenda will be our invocation, and we'll have a moment of silence for our invocation. Then we'll have our pledge of allegiance. I'd like to call upon Commissioner O'Donnell to lead us in our pledge. Sorry about that. Please stand if you're able to for a moment of silence and then our pledge by Commissioner O'Donnell. Commissioner O'Donnell. 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, liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Commissioner O'Donnell. Next item on our agenda is our roll call. Madame Clerk, Commissioner Katarski Smith here. Commissioner Lacass here. Commissioner Lance here. Commissioner Morris here. Mayor Beni here. Commissioner Reynolds present. Commissioner O'Donnell here. Commissioner Sippins here. And Vice Mayor Sophia here. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is proclamations and awards. We want to start off with a beautiful Battle Creek. I'll call upon our city manager to read them and Commissioner Carla Reynolds will hand them to me. So, we're ready to go.

This evening we have four beautiful battle or five or I'm sorry, four battle beautiful battle creek awards. The first is NPC 1 W 2, Alyssa M. Ferry and Edgar Valdez Perez. How does it feel to have the most

273 Maine 273 over there. That family's back in the back.

Cool. All righty. Yes, it's a beautiful house. Got three stories. Yes, they've done a lot of great work in restoring and keeping it up and it's on a busy corner. So, I think they deserve, you know, acknowledgement of the hard work that they're doing. Okay, that's not the one I was thinking it was because it's on um Yale Street and it's got three stories from the bottom all the way up. Amazing home. We're going to have to look at that one. Yes, I agree.

Good. Um we really appreciate our Battle Creek um beautiful Battle Creek Awards. Once again, this is the way that we can one house at a time transform a neighborhood and revitalize our community. So Jim, on behalf of the city commission, we say thank you uh for everything you do as the MPC chair and revitalizing Post Franklin. Thanks. Thank you. God bless you. Our next one is NPC11, Ward 4, William Wilson and Kathy Wilson at 24 Adams Road, Battle Creek. Well, thank you, Commissioner.

We look forward to the story on this. This is a beautiful home. Thank you. He's gonna hand this to me. I'm gonna hand it off. I don't I don't need a mic. All right. Well, thank you very much. We moved into this house nine years ago and it's been a labor of love. We're at the corner of Dunham and Adam's Road. Um, and I give all the credit for the gardens to this guy. Um, but every year it looks more beautiful. So, we appreciate it. We love all our neighbors and it's a great place to live. Thank you so much. So, this is directly across from the fire station number six. That road is right there. Yes, we hear it. Yes, that is probably the busiest fire station.

I'm so used to it now. Well, thank you very much. On behalf of the city commission, we say thank you. Thank you very much. God bless you. Thanks. Our next is PC10, Ward 2, Lake View Middle School.

Okay. Access Vision, are you on top of things? We're getting we're getting text messages up here. All right. Thank you. Well, on behalf of Lake View Middle School, we want to say thank you for a beautiful school. I mean, is it totally done? Could you share? Yes, it is totally done. And we only hear positive things about the school from from all the community members that come in, the beautiful office, the new classrooms, the grounds, everybody. Library. Tell us about that.

It is gorgeous. It's a two-story library. Lots of windows, natural light. Yeah, it's one of our favorite spaces to bring all of our staff together, our student body together. So, new auditorium, we have new seating in the auditorium. Really comfortable. So, and I see it's called a fifth and sixth grade wing and then a seventh and eighth grade wing. Yes, that is correct. So, we've got the two twomies or 56 academy 78 academy. So, how many total students are in there? Um about 1,200. Oh my god. Yes. About 1,200. Yes. Yes.

Well, thank you very much. We appreciate everything that the Lake View School District has done to revitalize and reinvigorate um their school systems. I when I drive by all of them, they look great and u we thank you for everything you're doing to educate our children today. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate the honor. Thanks. God bless you. Next Battle Creek Award is NPC 5, Ward One, Family Farm and Home at 1675 West Michigan Avenue. And I heard Kathy is going to take the presentation and we're going to have a farm day out there.

Kathy, tell us a little bit about family farm and homes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, the Urbanddale Neighborhood Planning Council has a committee that goes around and selects a beautiful uh Battle Creek Award uh for a homeowner and for a business every month. And we're pretty diligent about it. Um, and we do it for a couple of reasons. A, to reward the folks that are really doing a great job, like the Wilsons, and in addition to encourage other neighbors to step up their game a little bit. Um, and one of the reasons we chose, I believe the committee chose the family farm and home was because of the beautiful flowers in the spring and the lovely landscape plants that they have around. And quite frankly, if you walk into that building early in the season, um the chicks peeping is another attractive uh feature of that building. You might not see it, but it's appreciated.

Kathy, we appreciate you representing um the Urbandale residents and the Urbandale businesses. I think this is a great uh opportunity just to thank people really for what they do to improve Battle Creek. Thank you. Thank you, Okay, we have another for NPC5 W one, Don L. Horning, 85 Babcock Avenue.

So again, I just wanted to make sure we acknowledge Don Don Horning um for the work that she's done on this cute little resident house that we have in Urbandale. Um, thanks Don for doing your best to keep up uh the neighborhood and setting a great example for your neighbors. We appreciate you. Appreciate you being here representing both these parties. Thanks. Thank you very much.

We have one for NPC3 Ward 4os Hernandez in Utilita Compost at 215 Burr Street, Battle Creek. Thank you. There are Hernandez and Compost family, right? Could you share with us? H Ola, could you share with us a little bit about some of the things that you've done in their property? Sure.

Good evening everybody. Um I really appreciate everybody. Um we we really don't know how this happened. We just been working and working. You know, we got that uh six years ago and it was total remodel inside and outside. How many years ago? Six years. Wow. It's been six years and it's beautiful. It helps you know my wife keep cleaning and trying to everybody works all my kids and here we are. A really congratulations. That that's what a family's all about is improving and working.

Yes. Yes. And I think we are doing good. You know, everybody tries to keep, you know, stop away and trying to clean and plan on buying another house to move into after some amount of time. We are. We are. Actually, we already got another one where we going to move next, but it's going to be surprise. Oh, thank you very much. I hope we didn't ruin the surprise. Now I get more motivation because of this of the awards. See, that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate you guys. No problem.

We have NPC 10, Ward 1, Greg and Dawn Daniels, at 138 South 26th Street. And we have NPC 11, Ward 4, Lux Care Pharmacy, 253 Capitol Avenue Southwest. Luxeare Pharmacy. Okay. Is that it? I think um we have the NPC11 chair here. Maybe he could accept on their behalf and then present to them. Absolutely. But he's gonna have to tell a story. What kind of story? Well, let's talk about Luxeare. They're a new pharmacy in Battle Creek. Yeah.

Um again, uh thanks, uh part of MPC1. I happen to be the chair and congratulations to the Wilson family. That's a phenomenal house, too. I just have to to say that as well. Um, our group goes through each month and we pick out not only the residential but the business and it's real important. We stress the importance behind picking out both of those understanding that it all rolls up here and the importance behind it for the whole city. So, this is one um that the actual group came up with the last time. And if you look at MPC11, we don't have a lot of businesses. So, as we go through that, we got a little bit of Colombia. Um, we've gone through and we've picked out um quite a few of the the call them churches. Um, gosh, we've done Grand Rapids Country Club, I think it is. We did Miller Foundation. So, we're ended the Capitol strip right now. So, we've done the McDonald's and everything else. So what we're up to is we're up to Luxare and they do a phenomenal job and everybody came back and said, you know, we got a couple people as part of MPC that get their pharmacy needs met there and uh so that they came up and uh that's how they got elected.

I need to tell you a quick story because there's a reason why that commercial strip didn't go any further north on Capitol Avenue. It's because of the MPC. They drew a line in the sand. They said there's no more commercial after the Pure Gas station. I don't know if you remember the Pier gas station. It was vacant for like 30 years and their goal was to get that gas station demolished, the MPC iss. And they finally got it demolished and that line's still there. Commercials not any further north of that. Yeah. Which makes it a struggle for us. So, you know, at times we say we should probably get two residentials if we can't get a commercial in there. But we'll talk about that later. Well, I think Ted worked on a LDDA plan that will grow the commercial on Beckley Road and that's part of I think

Well, yeah, we've got a a couple new businesses coming in. So, we have Jack in the Box. I don't know if everybody's seen that. That's going to open it looks like real soon here. So, I think this this week or next week. Yeah, everybody's excited about that. So, that's in our MPC. So, well, I've heard that you're a very active MPC. So, I thank you for being here tonight. It's a it's a great MPC. If you ever get an opportunity to attend, um you everybody's welcome. So, yeah. Good. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, that's it.

We got two more presentations.

We have, I believe, two proclamations. I'm going to call upon Commissioner Morris to help on one of those.

The manpower This is our Whereas on April 28th, 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect, promising every worker the right to a safe job. And every year on April 28th, communities and work sites around the world honor friends, family members, and colleagues who have been killed or injured on the job. The City Commission of Battle Creek wishes to pay tribute to the workers who have died or been injured or disabled in workplace accidents. We honor the contributions of Michigan's workforce and call for increased workplace safety. And whereas the city commission of Battle Creek renews our efforts to seek stronger workplace safety and health protections, better standards and enforcement, and fair and just compensation. And we rededicate ourselves to improving safety and health in every city workplace. I want to thank Commissioner Morris for contacting my office and just saying, "Mark, is there anything that we can do to get this proclamation read?" And it really does bring out to our community some of the information that we need to concentrate on. So, on behalf of Commissioner Morris and the Battle Creek City Commission, we thank her.

Thanks, Dad. Arbor Day. Do we have some city employees? Yes, we do. I'm going to ask you to talk a little bit about where the tree planting will take place this year and how many we're going to plant. Thanks.

Very good. Yes. Um I'm uh Bessie Plug. So I'm uh work at DPW. I'm the assistant to the field services superintendent. Um so this year Arbor Day is going to take place Friday. We partner with Kellanova um and the Laya Arboritum and then our streets department's also involved in delivering materials. Um Kellanova purchased eight trees and this year we picked McCrae Park. Um so we're going to plant eight trees kind of spread out throughout the park um to uh give some more shade for the parents who sit along the edge uh enjoy the baseball games. Um, I notic that we have new picnic tables and a little park area.

Yep. A new pavilion as well. Yep. So, the the pavilion off with the blue top, that one is degrading pretty fast. So, that one will probably de be decommissioned. So, yes. Okay. Um, I'd also like to take the opportunity to recognize that Battle Creek is Tree City USA certified again uh 26 years. Uh last year we planted over 2500 trees within the city of Battle Creek and that encompasses over 3,000 volunteer hours. So it's pretty awesome. Well, thank you very much and on behalf of the city commission would like to present this proclamation. Thank you and good luck at becoming city USA again next year.

Absolutely. Thank you, mayor.

Next item on our agenda is chair noting any added or deleted resolutions. There were none. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is petitions, communications, and reports. There were none.

Thank you very much. Next item on our our agenda is public comment regarding any remaining agenda items. If you'd like to make public comment regarding any remaining agenda item, please raise your hand and we will acknowledge you to come forward to the podium. You'll have four minutes to make your comments. Please state your name and your address before beginning your comment and indicate which agenda item you are speaking to. Are there any public comments at this time? Are there any public comments? Seeing none, next item on our agenda is commission comment regarding meeting business. I move to approve the consent agenda. Second.

Been moved and supported to approve the consent agenda. Is there any item or question that uh a commissioner has hearing? None. Would you please vote on the consent agenda?

Yes. Oh, yours took. It did take.

All right. Um, consent agenda has been approved and my voting tablet's not coming up. Sorry. We'll move on to the first resolution, resolution number 371. Madame Clerk. If approved, this resolution would amend the city's adopted Title 6 non-discrimination plan, designate the city of Battle Creek Title Six Coordinator, and incorporate the city's most recently updated limited English profic proficiency or LEP plan. This resolution also adopts the amendments to the LEAP plan, which reflects the title 6 coordinator designation, incorporates the most recent US census data for the city of Battle Creek, and includes additional language access tools. Move to approve resolution 371.

Second. Been moved and supported to approve resolution 371. Are there any comments or questions by the commission? See none. Would you please vote on resolution 371? I will vote yes. Resolution 371 is approved. Next item on our agenda is resolution 372. Mayor, are you joined in the meeting? He's on the wrong screen, though.

Oh, okay. All right. There you go. Should work this time. He was on the home page. If approved, this resolution would authorize staff to submit an application to Eagle for the Water Resource Division grant for Dickman Road storm water improvements. I move to approve resolution 372. Second. Been moved and supported to approve resolution 372. Are there any comments, questions, or concerns by the commission? Commission Commissioner Lacaus.

So I understand that um you know this is for a grant and that 80% of it would be covered by that that remaining 20% um that would be a local match. Would Springfield have any part of contributions to that? I'll ask Mr. Scy to come up.

Yes, Springfield is participating in this as well. Okay, thank you. Yep. Any other comments, questions? Seeing none, would you please vote on resolution 372?

I vote yes again. It's not popping up. I see that. And Commissioner Simmons Uh, yes, it did not pop up for me. All righty. Thank you. Resolution 372 has been approved. Next item on agenda is resolution 373. Madame clerk,

if approved, this resolution would permit the city manager to sign a contract with Mesmerize Media LLC for bus advertisements. The advertisements are for a public health education campaign to help the public become more aware of the effects of lead on brain development and the importance of getting lead blood tests for young children living in housing built before 1978. The bus advertisement campaign is funded by the fiscal year 2025 le hazard reduction grant. I move to approve resolution 373. Second

has moved been moved and supported to approve resolution 373. There any comments by the commission?

See none. Would you please vote on resolution 373? Yes. Resolution 373 has been approved. Next item on our agenda is general public comment. If you'd like to make general public comment regarding matters over which the city has control, please raise your hand and wait for us to acknowledge you to come forward to the podium. You'll have three minutes to make your comment. Please state your name and address prior to beginning your comment. David Moore. Well, Tad, I guess this is the meeting you've been waiting for for the last 25 35 40 years. I we had known you for a good many years. Like I said, I say a couple weeks ago, you run, you were mayor, you were running for state representative, and you you and Sue Balman did. And um all the things you did here as a assistant city manager. And I do want to wish you the very best, Ted. I'm going to miss you not being here all these years. You've been with us for a real long time. So very best wishes to you, Ted.

Thank you, David. Are there any other public comments? Yes, Kathy Anta.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, commissioners, I'm here just to remind you all that we have a fabulous resource in town. It's called the Share Center. Many of you may have heard me talk about it before. Um, a little piece of information that might surprise you. Since November 1st, the Sher Center has operated at night as an emergency overnight shelter on more than 66 nights. 66 nights. That's amazing. since since November 1. And I want to make sure that I acknowledge and thank the commissioners for their efforts along with the executive director, Robert Elkurt, in pursuing the emergency overnight shelter designation because that's what it took for us to do that. Uh, yes, it costs a lot of money, but I don't think there's anything that we can uh any dollar amount that we can put on the lives that we saved because undoubtedly lives were saved from freezing to death with that emergency overnight shelter. So, thank you um commissioners. I appreciate your support in that. Um I also I had some numbers. Sorry, it's in my phone. I forgot it. But I want to say that they um there were like at least 60 people every night on those 66 nights. It wasn't 60 new people every night. A lot of repeat uh customers, but nonetheless, um I just want to acknowledge the the benefit that the emergency overnight shelters had to our community. Um, also a lot of folks are asking me about opportunities to help out or to support the share center. Um, the first thing I would suggest is that you go to our website and that's sharecenterbc.org and on that website you will find an opportunity for volunteering. Um, we are always recruiting volunteers for meal service. We serve food almost every single night at the share center. Uh, and we have a um uh we have a meal service schedule set up so you and your pals can volunteer and I guarantee you you're going to have a lot of fun doing

it. Our customers are really appreciative when they see smiling new faces looking at them and serving them meals. So I certainly would help do that. And if you do meal service, you're going to deal with me because I'm going to be training you. Um, also on the third Sunday of each month from 1 to 4 pm, we have a volunteer work session where we do maintenance chores, deep cleaning, and other tasks that are in support of the hardworking staff at the Share Center. Um, and of course, we are always accepting donations. But folks, please make sure they're travelsized containers. If you think about it, and you're carrying all of your worldly goods on your back or in your shopping cart, which is what the unhoused will do, they don't want a full-size bottle of shampoo. They don't want a full-size bar of soap. Please give us, if you are able to donate these items, please give us travel size items. Um, and you're more than welcome to talk to me about what's needed coming springtime, sunscreen, insect repellent, especially tick repellent, and lotion and aloe lotion for sunburns. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Kathy. Quick question, Kathy. Can you just give us the times like you would need for meal services? There's like lunch or dinner, something like that.

Thank you, Commissioner, for asking that. Yep. Our meal our mostly we need dinner meal service because in the evenings our day staff is gone. Um, and there's only one person usually running the kitchen. So, dinner meals, we would anticipate volunteers are there from 4:30 to about 6:30 at night. And that's um Monday through Saturday nights for the most part. Please don't just show up because we need to kind of know that you're coming. Um and if you go to our website again, it's um sharcenterbc.org. There's um a signup genius link there. Thank you. We do Saturday lunches as well. Okay. Oh, thank you. Yeah. All right. Anything else?

Is there any other public comment at this time? Oh, sorry. John

John John Kenneovic 234 South Avenue. I have two subjects that I want to talk about right now. First, before I came here, I was watching Facebook and you might want to look on Facebook or the news. The Cadillac has been way flooded. I saw pictures of that. They described all power out including the septic uh pumping stations that moved the sewage which means chalera might happen there if they don't take care of this soon but they have lost power in that area. I wonder if they had a army corps of engineers flood control channel in there that might have solved that problem. So that's my first thing. The second subject, and you're going to have trouble seeing this, is I did a little survey, and I had this map, and I know it's very difficult for people to see. If you can see it up there, but I showed the center of two circles. One was fire station number three, and one was fire state, the new fire station that you're building on Dickman and Warren Street. The distance between the two, I drew circles where they would meet if it took the same amount of time. of each fire station reacted and took the same amount of time they would meet at just above on EMTT Street on the south end just above Mary Street. Same time period. I drew a circle with the same amount of time, the double the distance for um Cliff Street station number three. It covered not only the Franklin area, but it covered the entirety or 95 plus percent of the post edition. Double the time period would cross for the new fire station, leaving 23 of the time wise, twothirds of the post edition at risk. It would take almost four times the time

period for the new fire station to get to the far end of the post edition, probably causing a lot of additional fire problems. I talked to a fireman today and he said that it takes anywhere between 30 seconds and 60 seconds for a fire to double in size, which means it's going to take four times that distant time period for the fire new fire station to get to an area, which means you'll have most likely more than one fire at one house, but more than that. So, congratulations on putting a fire station further away from a concentrated area of the post edition. For what reason? I have no idea why you put it that far, away from serving the people of Battle Creek. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Is there any other public comment at this time, Joe? Joe Harris, Battle Creek. Um, I haven't been able to come to a number of meetings because of work and time constraints. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to last March's meeting. Um, due to work constraints, but I know what happened. Um, I've always been consistent in regard to the commemorative flag and policy, no matter what side, left, right, middle. I've always said that we've had to fly the American flag, the Michigan State flag, and the Battle Creek flag. And my reasonings are pretty sound. It's equal for everybody. Everyone's represented in the same way. The United States flags represents everybody. Um the stars on that flag are are fact that every one person's representative, every state. Um, it's it's kind of ironic to me that individuals that voted against the life flag in January are probably the same ones that voted for the pride flag in March.

Let's uh based on let's not criticize people on how they vote. No, I'm telling you not to. All right. I'm not criticizing. All right. Thank you.

No, there is no criticism there. No, I'm just making a statement, sir. Bottom line is this is that flag policy needs to be changed. Um and uh you know our own our the own the the the city policy states that no time will the city of Battle Creek display flags supporting discrimination, prejudice or religious movements. And if you look at um what happened in March um it is a religious movement. You can look online u the Wesian uh the United Methodist Church as a pure as a good example um 2024 they're split right down the middle upon those very ideological beliefs which were put into their doctrine. So it is a religious movement in that sense. I'm not saying that to to bash one thing or another. I'm saying keep everything equal across the board. Doesn't matter what side. Um, as I said, I've been constant. Um, doesn't matter to me one way or another. What matters is that division and exclusion be stopped, that the flag policy be changed because in reality, there's only a select few organizations, viewpoints, and religious beliefs that are benefiting from this. Um, I commend the few commissioners that are understanding that. You know, we are all Americans. Bottom line, we are represented by the American flag as United States citizens. We are represented by the Michigan state flag as Michiganers, the Battle Creek flag as citizens of Battle Creek. That's just it. So, thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you for your comments. Are there any other public comments at this time? Any other public comments? Seeing none commission comments, we're going to call upon the vice mayor to start us out.

Thank you, mayor. Well, the year was 1993. The original Jurassic Park was the movie to see. And right in the season of votes and of cheer, a bright, eager fellow stepped up to serve here. from mayor to city manager and everywhere in between. The experiences you've had and the things that you've seen. Oh, the years that you've given. Oh, the work that you've done. For the city of Battle Creek, you are second to none. You have toiled and toiled and toiled and strived, starting before 8 and working past five. All for the progress, the growth, the success. Because frankly, dear Ted, you always impress. Through the papers and plans and through meetings galore, you pushed and you prodded and opened each door with a pen and a grin and a mind sharp and spry. You kept things on track. You aimed ever high with a h and a well and a scratch of your head. Soon the pieces were in place just like that. So it spread from budgets to bridges, from sidewalks to signs. You wrangled the details and straightened the lines. You've done all the work. Every little every last little quest. And now comes the moment, the time for your rest. What does that look like? Where will you go? Will you hike in the meadow or ski in the snow? Will you tinker? Will you travel? Relax in the sun, or dream up new projects just for the fun.

Though the words aren't mine, they fit you just right. They ring loud and clear with purpose and light. Congratulations. Today is your day. You're off to great places. You're off and away. Now, Ted, I think that I'm a better person having met you and having worked with you. I would encourage you to take some time and get that honeydew list kind of whittleled down a little bit. Battle Creek is better for having you here. And I'm sure that we'll see many great things coming from you in the years ahead as you find alternate ways to make Battle Creek the best it can be. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your leadership and congratulations on your retirement.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Really appreciate that. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Appreciate it. Are there any other commission comments at this time? Is Commissioner Lass?

I just wanted to say thank you, Ted. Um, as a newly elected commissioner, you have been a huge, um, advocate for us and, you know, your breath of knowledge spans so many different areas because you've, you know, served as mayor and everything from that to, um, city manager to CEO of the chamber. So, that's been a huge advantage for us and I appreciate, um, your infinite patience. as I asked questions non-stop when we first started. Um, and I very much appreciate that. I also wanted to um, just let everybody else know on a different subject about Starbase. I went and toured there recently. I did not know about Starbase until I went and toured and it's an amazing um, organization. It's over at the base and it's for fifth grade students. Um, different teachers can bring their classrooms there for different steam training which is um, science, tech, engineering, art, and math. They also have summer camps and that's free to kids. Um they just have to bring their own lunch snacks, things like that. But they have robots, drones, and it's an amazing amazing place for kids. So, just want to let everybody know about that.

Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Carlo Reynolds. Yes. Thank you, Mayor Ted. I too want to congratulate you and thank you for your service. Anytime I call you, you return the calls back. you know, um I could always look to you for answers. I appreciate your your kindness, um your thoughtfulness, um your knowledge, basically. Um you will be missed. Thank you so much. Happy retirement and blessings to you and your family. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner O'Donnell.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, one thing is that at the last meeting I was uh talking about the elections and I I did say something misinformed there. There's no 10-day early voting because it's a city vote. So, I want everybody to know that. But again, the the vote on May 5th was just a way to ask the community if we wanted to do four-year terms. Has nothing to do with anybody's agenda. All the other cities except for one in Michigan have four-year terms. So, that's what that is on the ballot. and but you still have absentee and voting on May 5th. So, I encourage everybody to go out and do their thing and vote. Um, and then the other thing is is our MPCs, they showed they they shined really well tonight with our Battle Creek, beautiful Battle Creek Awards. Um, keep doing that. We also have a a little citizen award. If there's a citizen, they may not own a house, but they're out doing stuff in the neighborhood. Please put them in and and get their recognition, too, if you could. Um we had a couple uh do that like the post group a couple months ago did that from cleaning up in the post neighborhood stuff. So and then the last thing um but truly not the least is is Ted thank you for all your service for all the years of Battle Creek. You've always been there the helping us out. Um one time we remember when the serial festival wasn't happening and we really appreciated you stepping up and helping us keep that tradition going here. Same with the mayor and I. we all met and kept that um one of our shining uh festivals that we have here in the city. So again, that's just one thing that you've done behind the scenes and in the forefront of helping keep promoting the city. Thank you. And you you've well earned your time off.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Smith. And then commissioner, I just want to say thank you, Ted, and I hope you enjoy your retirement. And um yes, coming on as a new commission, that was difficult. And you were always there to answer all the emails, all of my emails, I feel like. So, I really appreciate that and um all the information that you've been able to give and everything that you've given to Battle Creek. Thank you, Commissioner Morris.

Thank you. Um Ted, I just want to say thank you for your time. Um, in the time that I've known you, you've been extremely dependable, extremely outgoing. Um, you are somebody who I can always count on. Um, when I don't know things, you're one of the first people that I come to. So, I really appreciate your service and thank you for making me feel welcome and come into this role um, with such understanding. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jan.

Tad, congratulations. Obviously, it's welld deserved and and I'm sure you are looking very much forward to uh to your days ahead of you. uh like everyone, you really have uh been a unbelievable resource for for not only the commission but for the city and u I think you know at least from from you know that we've been able to uh see um you really really were the backbone for for the city in that in that position and big shoes to fill and um and you will be missed. Thank you.

Thank you commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. I would like to conclude by just sharing with the commission um Ted was elected in 1993 and served in two until 2000. Since his election in 1993, um there have been 55 various commissioners served after uh Ted has. So that puts it in perspective of how many commissioners have come through here. Uh Ted is the 68th mayor of Battle Creek. um and they give a distinction to each mayor as they serve. Um during Ed's uh Ted's u period of time, it it probably was the greatest years of governmental spending in Battle Creek when it comes to TIFFAS. Um there was a $76 million um package that had to be completed u because of proposal A. And with that, um we saw the expansion of the uh Veterans Memorial Bridge. That was a $14 million project. Then we had full blast which I believe um was just shy of 20 million um altogether. We had a um at KCC we built a swimming pool which is no longer there. Uh but the city of Battle Creek did pay for that. Um there was other projects too. The youth building, we saved the youth building during that period of time. I could go on and on. Um a lot of the um linear trail was connected. Uh so it went from the north side of Battle Creek all the way to the south side. So clearly uh Ted was in a period of time where there was a lot of growth in government and a lot of growth in um our park system. So Ted, I want to thank you for all your hard work, especially this past year um when we hired our city manager. I think you kept us on track, especially when we ran into some difficult decisions to make as a body. And I appreciate your advice and uh the way you just tracked everything. Thank you very much and I look forward to

still seeing you around town. Oh yeah. Thank you, Mayor Vicki. Just remember Commissioner Simmons also. You may want to say something. Um Chris, do you want to say anything? I think he might.

Uh thank you. It's pretty late here, but uh yeah, I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there for uh Ted's uh retirement uh celebration, and uh I wish him the best. It's been a pleasure working with you, uh for uh many years, and thank you for your u first and foremost, I think, patience. Uh working with commissioners, I'm sure it can be difficult at times. you always did it with a smile on your face and and uh very diplomatic and uh you've done a lot of great things for the for the city over the years whether it be in the elected or in and your position there and with the city managers and especially the economic development. I don't think uh you can say enough about the the work Ted has done on that economic development side and he will be missed but uh if he's going to stick around town I sure we can uh try to plug him in and uh and various uh boards or committees that that expertise would be uh very useful on but uh best wishes for you Ted congratulations.

Thank you.

Okay, that will conclude our meeting. I thank you very much for attending. Our meeting is adjourned. Hello. Test test test. Test test test. Jeff testing. Jeff. It's not it's not audio yet. Hello.

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