City Council - workshop

Savannah City Council members. Van R. Johnson II, Mayor. Carol Bell, Post 1 at Large. Alicia Miller-Blakely, Post 2 at Large. Bernetta B. Lanier, District 1. Dietrich Leggett, District 2. Linda Wilder Bryan, District 3. Nick Palumbo, District 4. Dr. Estella Edwards-Shabazz, District 5. Curtis Pertee, District 6.

I wanted to, as we get started, I wanted to thank city manager and members of council, team Savannah, for what I called our march through equity, our equity march throughout our city as we continue to make sure that all neighborhoods, all areas of town have access to state of the art facilities we know That march is long. We know it's continuous. We know that it's all income passing, but it's still something that we must do. And so $25 million in six days. We started off with Alderman Pertee in District 6. Folks are real happy. As we broke ground on the South Side's first ever community center and Jim had a 91 year old right 91 stand next to me and she didn't look nowhere near 91 then we went over to district 3 come on now And all the women, Wilder Brian, again, a gem that did not exist before there, adding on to the park and the services that they give. Promises made, promises kept. And then we moved further. And... No, no, no, you can join. Okay. Look at you.

There's any meat in there?

Oh, those were for me, Helena.

Then we moved over to

cut the tide to town, which was money that we all contributed, but Nick, District 4 contributed to get it completed. We now can go from Lake Mayer to Daffodil Park. Seven more miles available. And I wanted to say, just as a matter of setting the conversation, setting the table for city managers, that what people saw was the continuation of the combination of work that takes years to get to where you are. It just doesn't happen like that. We don't just go to a place and say, all right, we're going to break ground. No, you have to get to a point of breaking ground. You have to get to the point of a ribbon cutting. And so, again, for the ribbons we get to cut, for the ground we get to break, it represents the work of hundreds of city employees all doing their profession, all at the top of their game, getting it done and they don't get to cut a ribbon. But their fingerprints are all over and it does not happen without them. So many of them in this room, I wanted you all to give them a round of applause. And y'all please don't take the credit yourself. You go back to your teams and thank them on our behalf for the work. We all play our roles. We all do our parts. And at the end of the day, Savannah is where we live. Savannah is where we serve. We serve hard. There's only one way, Mr. Manager. What way is that?

It's the right way.

So lead us in the right way today, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Thanks for everybody's flexibility in this kind of differently scheduled Council Day. I think we have a really exciting workshop today. I don't think we've done this in my tenure, but we're going to give you the next five years of groundbreaking and ribbon cuttings that we have got underway because of the investments that you're making in all of our different goal areas. And before I turn it over to our Chief Operating Officer, Sasha Carlisle, who's been working to kind of bring us into a process of capital improvement management across all of our sectors, I want to ask Christy Lawrence to please stand up. We're going to hear a lot from Christy Lawrence. But we need to say, Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you.

Christy Lawrence.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Why are you at work?

Happy birthday.

That song always ends real awkward.

Happy birthday to you. That's how you end it. Okay.

We do have a cake to celebrate Christy Lawrence's birthday upstairs after the special call meeting is over. We'll hear a lot from Christy. 6 to 3 p.m. She probably wanted to take today off, but she had to be here to give this workshop. So with that, we'll hear from her later, but let me turn it over to our COO, Sesha Carlisle. Sesha.

all right good afternoon mayor and members of council So we're gonna breeze through a lot of information with all of you in the next hour and make sure we can get you back into chambers on time for your next hearing. So I'm actually kicking off our presentation to you today. Our capital portfolio within the city of Savannah has never been larger. We're gonna talk to you today about specific projects. We pulled all the projects that are $1.5 million or greater. in our portfolio. And we'll have individuals from three of our service centers and numerous divisions talk to you today about that.

Flipping right ahead, this is our agenda.

I want to talk to you a little bit about how we're being more deliberate in how we execute our capital projects before we dive in. There are four deliberate steps we've taken to improve the execution of our capital projects portfolio. One, as you know, we've invested in the right organizational structure and we've developed our strategic plan, GPS. And through that plan, we have actually realigned a number of our functions, including combining our full life cycle of real estate under one senior director, Christy Lawrence, who now oversees real estate, capital projects and facilities. So that is a big change we've made under Savannah GPS. We have also used the GPS framework and under the leadership of our assistant city manager, Taffney Young, we have set up project goals for many of these projects. We track our progress monthly in meetings with the senior directors and our chiefs. And then fourth, quarterly, we have a quarterly review process with our city manager on these key capital projects. So we are actually doing a lot deliberately this year that we have not done in prior years. And this is really helping us to move these projects in a way that keeps them on time and on budget.

ultimately where the public gets to see this in real time as well. Because we get asked, well, what is this? What does that mean? I mean, ultimately, with the work, you know, OpenGov and all things we were trying to do, ultimately, you know, it shouldn't be a secret. I mean, Jay, I know you have thoughts about that, but...

No, I think you can talk about we have capital projects dashboards in the works for public viewing, and we'll be publishing our quarterly status reports as well. Thank you.

So I'm going to quickly move through some numbers just to give you all a sense of magnitude of this portfolio, and then we're going to hand off to a number of our senior leaders here who are going to talk to you project by project. So I'll go quickly, and we'll get right into the projects. So this is an overview of our capital portfolio. As you can see, we have planned over $2.1 billion in capital projects. This is our current budget scope. This is the largest capital plan in the city of Savannah's history. We have 287 projects in this plan. And you'll recall from our briefing on the ACFER at the last meeting that the city of Savannah held over $2.9 billion in assets at the end of 2025. $1.9 billion of that $2.9 billion are your capital assets. That's a really big number. And that number since 2023 has grown by over $300 million. So you are investing in the capital assets of the city of Savannah. So that's an important thing to know. Our 2026 plan. So that is money deployed in our current 2026 budget just for this year alone is $203 million. In 2026, so you're looking at that plan, we have over 75 active and underway projects represented here in over 13 key categories. Our five-year capital plan, so that runs from 2026 through 2030, we have 110 projects that are or will get underway. A very, very important part of our capital plan, as you know, is our SPLOST program. This is a significant contributor to our city's capital assets. To date, for the City of Savannah, we have collected $263.6 million, and I know that's to date because I called our Senior Director of Finance last night and he gave me the number to date. This slide represents the remaining SPLOST balances and the 34 projects it currently supports, so this work is still underway on SPLOST 7. As you know, we now have SPLOST 8. We're going to start those collections in October, and those will run for six years. And the expectation of SPLOST 8 across all the recipients, including the city of Savannah, is that we'll raise $700 million worth of funding. And Savannah is expected to receive $268 million that supports these key projects. So I'm going to end there in the spirit of efficiency, and I'm going to hand it over to our Senior Director of Capital Projects and Real Estate, Christy Lawrence.

Thank you. And as Christy's coming, Mayor and Council, we're going to be moving through project by project. If you have a question about a project, let's just address it as we go. But just know we've got a lot of projects that we want to cover. So hopefully we won't spend too long on each project.

Okay. All right. Good afternoon, everyone, Mayor and Council. We're going to start with talking about projects associated with Goal 1 of Savannah GPS, which is increase public safety and our collective sense of security. The Northwest Precinct, that project is going strong. If anybody's been out to the Adams Complex, you can see it going up right before our eyes. That project is an $18 million project. It's to replace the precinct that we're currently leasing from Great Dane, and that will be finished in December, and we'll be moving the precinct over to the staff's... What's that? this year this year mayor december 2026 yes that that that one's going really fast additional public safety projects we have a fire training structures replacement we're putting a new burn building out at agonic road next to the fire training facility that's a 2.1 million dollar project We're also doing a renovation of the traffic and records, but what will be the traffic and records building at 5515 Abercorn where HR budget and housing was prior to moving to the landmark building. So that will be renovated. We'll be putting a new shed outside for the traffic vehicles. That will also be done by the end of 26 and it's a $1.6 million project. Yes, that's correct. That was today. So goal two of Savannah GPS is invest in equitable community development and resiliency. First project on that list is the Civic Legacy Arena Removal Project. That project is also underway under construction. It's a $10.9 million project. It's expected to be complete in Q2 of next year. Our community center at Windsor Forest. We all know we had the groundbreaking last week, so it is officially under construction. It's a $10.4 million project expected to be complete at the end of 2027. Eastside Gym addition at the Pennsylvania Avenue Resource Center also had our groundbreaking last week for that $5.5 million project, and that's expected to be complete by summer of next year in 2027. The Legacy Fairgrounds development, this is a very complex development project. Our development partner is P3JVG. Phase one of that project is 30 single family homes and 20 town homes. Phase two is 64 affordable LIHTC apartment units, low income housing tax credits. And phase three is future residential development. We also have quite a bit of public infrastructure going in to support this project, including roads, utilities, a pump station in Force, Maine. and some public open space. So the city is responsible for designing and constructing the city infrastructure. So that is currently under design. Project cost for that infrastructure is expected to be $5.7 million. We did get a One Georgia grant for $2.5 million that helped support that project. And that infrastructure is expected to be complete by October of next year, 2027. An additional housing project that is underway is the Dawes Avenue housing project for $2.4 million. Our Daffin Park Sports Field, this is gonna be a new natural turf sports field out at Daffin Park. Project cost is $3.5 million and expected to be complete in summer of 2027. The Daffin Park playground, that playground is gonna be complete next month. It's $1.6 million for the site work and the playground equipment there. And we're planning a ribbon cutting for a date in August. It's currently underway. Springfield Terrace School, also known as the Pearl Lee Smith School, located over on Stiles Avenue at Gwinnett. That project is currently in design. It's going to be a $3 million project. And we're planning to renovate the school to provide meeting space, local history museum exhibits, culture incubator space, and some flexible city office space. And then in order to provide restrooms, we're actually doing a separate building because to keep the historic integrity of the building, we couldn't put them inside the building. And that is expected to be complete by the end of 2027.

That was part of the hotel-related product we were able to use that fit the category. Where was the $50,000 grant from?

That was a National Park Service grant.

There's additional money. Please remind me. Um, because somebody pledged money to that particular project. It had something to do with the arena. And so I'm trying to remember what it was. Okay. Let's talk about that. Cause that might be something we can use for whatever enhancement the community might want. Yes.

Um, and council, uh, appropriated to Alderman Leggett's point, the $3 million that was allocated from the hotel motel tax resolution to this project in the last budget. We specifically talked about that, the museum piece. Thank you.

Okay.

There are quite a few other additional community amenities that are either in planning or underway. I won't read this entire list, but some of the highlights, we've got the pool bathrooms at Daffan Park, some neighborhood sign projects, some community center interior refresh projects, and factors walk repairs, to name a few. And then I will pass it over to Faye DeMossimo, our Chief of Planning and Economic Development.

Let me ask a question.

Oh, sure.

Yes, go ahead.

On the Fairground project, I know there's been a lot of questions that I keep hearing about. Is this the developer, this P3 arrangement here that was original? Yes.

So the P3JVG, the joint venture group that Council approved to enter into the development agreements, this is the same development group. The housing partners for them are, why am I blanking on his name? Gross. Gross housing partners. They were an original party to the plan. They're doing phase one and two, which are the affordable housing pieces. There's a LIHTC senior housing, and then there's the single family and town homes that are being built. So those are being built by Gross, but they are part of the P3JBG. Our portion is the infrastructure.

They also did win an award from GMA that same day for the work they'd done in South Georgia. Gross did, so.

And some of his projects here were highlighted. Right, they were, yeah. So it was good to see, yeah.

Thank you, Christy. I know Council probably feels like you've really got a lot of awareness of these improvements already with some of your recent actions to support both the vision plan for River Street as well as the MOA that goes ahead and transfers some of the funds over for the CID to take the leadership role on delivery of the refuse enclosures, the lighting, and the ironwork project elements. In addition, as we've reported on as well, The city is taking the lead on the assessment of the street portion of River Street for the construction, planned construction of a shared use path that will dramatically enhance ADA accessibility to River Street. We've also done an assessment of bulkhead maintenance for the entirety of River Street. And in the forthcoming budget consideration, you will see requests for improvements that are needed for ongoing repairs and ultimately maintenance of those structures. The lighting upgrades, the ironworks, and those pieces I think I mentioned already are with the CID. In addition to that, we have done very detailed survey work. that is underway now in phase one and phase two will be completed November 2026 that will make sure that we know everything that's under River Street where it is and so forth so that we know how to plan the project implementation that might impact any of those subsurface structures. And then we are that the RFP to design that shared use path is in development. We say the expected date here to advertise is in July of 2026. It will be towards the end of this month before that procurement is ready to go. I think that's it. Again, council has already approved the vision plan, has already approved the transfer of funds over to the CID for their portion, and we are continuing to execute these very important near-term projects out of the additional funding commitment that was made originally by council to River Street through Hotel Motel Tax. And then lastly, on the streetscape pieces of the project that are a little bit mid to maybe longer term, those will be done in phases. We want to be sure we get that multi-use path in place to really enhance accessibility for all and serve the entire corridor. And then the streetscape elements will come back and be done in phases all along. Those are not even yet in design, but you can see the concepts of those in that vision plan that council recently adopted.

All right, I'll turn it back over to Christy. Yes.

So, Jay, the $30 million is what we're on the hook for?

Because I know we talked before about... Yeah, I actually circled that number, too, because I think in our budgets, the projection is much higher. That, I think, represents the resolution number. But as you recall, some of the Hotel Motel projects, including River Street and the... waterworks building which we'll discuss next um increased in cost so um i think that's that's a resolution number and not a budget number i'm looking at melissa and that's correct so i think it's just a trans transposition there so we'll we'll get you the the correct budget number is in this year's budget i think it's 50 or 60 million dollars

And that is correct, Joe. We did use the number that was in the actual agreement because we're still working on the cost estimates. Okay.

Got you.

Thank you.

Okay. Now we're going to move to goal three of Savannah GPS, which is expand economic access, opportunity, and vitality for all. and the Water Works Building Stabilization Project. This project is underway and under construction. The scope of this project, there's lead and asbestos abatement, roof work, structural steel work, building envelope work to really just restore the structure and get it ready so that when we're ready to do a renovation of the interior, we can move right into that. It's a $9.63 million project, expected to be complete in quarter two of next year.

us to be tackling some of the work on the programming of the waterworks building as it relates to some of our real estate studies with the canal district now i'm going to turn it over to zach hoffman our senior director of stormwater i have a question yes ma'am

We're just talking about the 9.63 million for the waterworks building just to do the stabilization. That's right.

Yeah.

We have, we're going to have the total amount for that.

We'll have to get there after we do the stabilization and get a design for the build out. Um, but we were, I mean, we have a playing estimate that that'll also be $10 million plus 10 million. Additionally, I think is kind of what our working estimate is. Yeah.

think we might need a little bit more.

So that will all be based on the design and the programming of it.

Yes. So moving into goal four projects, I'll cover the stormwater management project specifically have a board over here in the corner as well as a handout with various currently active stormwater management drainage improvement projects that are happening all across the city i'll focus today on just two of them first is our springfield canal drainage improvements this is a regional drainage improvements the west side of downtown of town in general multiple phases of projects here. The first phase is really the wetland park you may have heard of within the canal district adjacent to the arena. In general, we're expanding the Springfield Canal, widening it, Creating an amenity with this 40 plus acres of city owned property, which has a lot of existing wetlands, which we are preserving and enhancing, but then also creating some open water ponds within this area, which will be the basically the foundation for a future park. Um, with that project, the pond adjacent to the arena was recently completed and we're moving across the canal, uh, near highway 17, uh, to work on that next pond expansion. Uh, also generating tremendous amount of storage within the lower reaches of the drainage basin. Uh, in addition, there's another phase, which is the historic viaduct bypass canal widening at boundary and Louisville road. We were wrapping up design of that. project and should be getting it out to bid this year for construction. Let's see, in addition, we have what everybody's aware of, the brick grant project, which was awarded by FEMA. We've been moving quickly through design of that. We did have to pivot a little bit, but with SPLOST funds available, which we were using to leverage that brick grant award, administrative change, we've now opted out of it. Now we're pursuing it as a GEMA HMGP. a hazard mitigation grant program project, um, which we are seeing success with that application. And as we're moving through the process right now, uh, fingers crossed for award on that, which is now a, a 90 plus million dollar, uh, potential grant out there.

So if you recall, we had been awarded the largest, uh, building resilience season communities, AKA brick ramp from FEMA. Um, but that grant program became, um, uh, those challenged. And working with our partners at GEMA, our staff, Zach, Ron and team, I think did an incredible effort to pivot and go towards, I think, a more secure funding that probably be more money for us and more flexible for us, which is the hazard mitigation funds that Zach was talking about. So we feel very good about that, and I want to just applaud staff's work to pivot and get to a better strategy on that.

Mr. City Manager, I just want to be really clear. So most of these capital things that are going on with stormwater, they're being funded by SPAR 7.

These big projects, yes, SPLOST 7 work. There is SPLOST 8 work as well. And then a lot of federal and state grant money, we hope, to be bringing into the mix.

I want to be clear about this. This VIP priority capital projects I've asked, for the stormwater projects in my district and i want to know where they fit in because i remember that people on council voted against this and i went really hard for this so i want to make sure that the people in the third district are represented by the person that went hard for the stormwater

And we understand council's desires on those. This is not the stormwater utility related work. Those are the small neighborhood project work. I will say, and I'm sure Zach was gonna talk about it, everybody's been left with a map of our current stormwater plan improvements. But as council directed with the stormwater utility fee, you know, half of the dollars that we'll raise there will be going to the neighborhood based, the small neighborhood based projects, capital projects, increasing culvert sizes, et cetera. Um, and then the other half is going to expanding our vac trucks and vac crews that go and, um, clean catchment basins, as well as increasing our, um, capacity with our hand ditch and canal cleaning crews.

Yes, sir. But again, We want to start with the district where we voted for this.

Thank you. City Manager.

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Yes. Zach, probably you would answer this for me. The Gwinnett Street improvement, will that help the Henry Street flooding also? Because I know we have the Waters Avenue pipelining and the Harmon Street pipelining. Will all that help with the flooding on Henry Street?

It will absolutely help. Those are two projects where we've identified degradation of the existing pipes. So we're going in and they have a lifespan and some of these have met their lifespan. So we're going in lining those pipes. When we line them, we're taking out blockages, we're taking out root penetrations into the pipes, so those pipes are going to flow much better than they did before.

I know y'all did a lot of work on that street, on Henry Street, all the way to Paulson, and you're still working on it. I want to make sure that all of that tie in, because at the same time, you can go back and tell the community.

It will cover much more than just that road it's working on because of the network of pipe systems and where it eventually drains to, so it it will provide an improvement now will it provide you know what a capital project you know would upsize in the pipe would you know there could still be some issues just to the historic nature of our pipes that were maybe installed too small but we're always kind of battling with that. Like, all right, do we do we really invest the millions of dollars over many years of development of a project? Or do we go in there and repair what we got and make it function to the best of its ability?

Yeah, I see that. I just want to make sure I'm just already answer the phone because I know a lot of these tie into our case of canal investment. So a lot of water will be pulled off from that side across Waters Avenue. Thank you. Correct. Yes, sir.

So real quick, the next project Midtown improvement, major, major project, KC drainage improvements, phase two. You can see the funding allocation for this goes back as much as spots three. So this has really been a focus for many, many years, well before my time even. I'm happy and pleased to say we were making tremendous strides with this. It took many years to get to this point, but We have now completed the first phase 2A, 54th Street, moved down to 56th Street, which is actively under construction now, and making quick final improvements there, getting roads that were closed back open. They were paving literally today to get another block open. I know it's been a little bit of an impact to the neighborhood. It's always tough working in a neighborhood situation like that. These improvements will outlive us all and vastly help drainage in that basin. We are also working on a phase two C, which is the deep tunnel project. We did get some SPOS eight funding for that. It's a tier two, so that money hadn't coming in until another two years or so, but we are at 100% design on that tunnel. We were able to complete that here recently. and we have the near surface drainage and then we will, we are also pursuing a HMGP grant for that as well to have the full funding to complete that project. So that's my two. Yes, ma'am.

Uh, so I'm talking on the 56th, 57th, 54th street. Correct.

They are in Reynolds Avenue right now, mainly completing that session. Then there'll be moving to Abercorn. The last block is along Abercorn and the project is scheduled to be completed by December. So there'll be moving out on Abercorn in August next month. And so there will be a multi-month closure along Aber corn there. We're hoping to still keep one lane of traffic south, but most northbound track, all northbound traffic will have to be shifted along a Habersham and that'll, that'll last from basically August to close to December. So yeah, that will be a big impact. Uh, so we were working with traffic engineering and, and trying to make sure we mitigate that as much as possible. But again,

big improvements to our recording has been needed for me

So as we move from stormwater to water and sewer, I just wanted to make you aware on the stormwater fee information, Anthony has left at your station some of the materials that are being mailed out to all of our utility customers for input. on the new utility. So please look that over and let us know if you have any questions or concerns or ideas about how we can continue to communicate that fee coming to residents.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and Council and Mr. City Manager. Anthony Katzen, Water Resources Administrator for the Water Resources Service Center. So I'm going to go over, Zach went over our stormwater VIP projects. I'm going to go over our water and sewer capital projects. So our first VIP sewer project or sewer related project is our Georgetown water reclamation facility. We are actually replacing our current facility with a new facility. Our current facility treats about two and a half million gallons per day. The new facility will treat four million gallons per day. And the goal for this really overall is for capacity, to increase the capacity, and also to meet state and federal regulations on the treatment process. This project cost is approximately $125 million. So our next goal for this is to complete the 90% design phase. We'll also be looking to secure bond financing for this as well. And then we will hopefully get the GMP, the Guarantee Maximum Price, awards out this year and then start breaking ground next year in early 2027. So this is one of our bigger wastewater projects that we're doing now. Our next project, it's also sewer-related as well, wastewater. This is one that I'm sure everybody in here knows at our President Street plant. It's our, we have one 60-inch... main that goes into the plant, it's a reinforced concrete pipe. We are replacing that with twin 60 inch fiberglass reinforced pipe, which the fiberglass holds up a lot better to chemicals. So our goal is for that one to last a little bit longer than this 50 year old pipe did. Right now, that is ongoing. That's been going since 2024. We're looking to get this done at the end of this year, 2026, which is really phase one. We are looking at potential for phase two, which would be on the south side of President Street because the current project is on the north side. The south side one would be an upgrade or an improvement of the connecting infrastructure to those 60-inch mains. We're going to look at maybe coinciding that with the railroad overpass project down there on President Street. All right. So switching from wastewater over to our water. So of course, I think everybody's familiar with this one. This is the IND Water Treatment Plant Project. It's part of our coastal Georgia regional water partnership with Effingham County and in Bryan County. This is right now we're doing immediate improvements. There are also going to be some more long-term improvements as well that are needed. So right now with the immediate improvements, it's part of that $146 million from the state that we were able to secure. So $69 million of that is going to GMP number one. which is under construction now, and then we'll award GMP2 later this year, or actually later this quarter of this year. Again, most of this is funded by state funding through GIFA. The immediate improvements include things like an upgrade to our chemical facilities, our chemical storage facilities, relocating some utilities, materials purchasing right now, and then site prep as well for that area. We are working, currently working or near development on our 25-year master plan for water, which IND project is a huge part of. So we're designing that out. And of course, the future projects will take additional funding and we're working on a funding financing plan on that too as well. The next project, one you probably haven't heard of, this is for our SCADA upgrade. SCADA stands for Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition. It's essentially the technology that we use that takes all the sensors and the monitors around our plants and all our facilities in water, sewer, and stormwater, and aggregates all that data into our computer system where we can control all these things or actually see readings and make sure the operations of our plants and of our infrastructure are going like they should be. So we are on a more I'll say it, an aged system. So we are upgrading to a more modern SCADA system called VT SCADA, and this is across the entire water resources. So we have one vendor, and it will all be integrated seamlessly across the water resources. So this right now, we're in the design and procurement phase of this, and our goal is to have this done over the next two and a half years by January 29th. I have a question. Yes, ma'am.

Garnie, I'm looking at this. That's the construction management. OK. Did that go with the original? contract that they did to do the IND plant or is that something separate?

Yes, for the IND plant, it did.

Right. Yes. So that was included in that package.

Yes, so we are working with them, but we also will be working with all of our other contractors and vendors when we put our, that BT SCADA in our stormwater and wastewater systems too, as well. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'll just remind on last council agenda, council approved a contract on BT SCADA as well. You see SCADA things come to your, to the council agenda quite often, um, for renewals and purchases.

That's why I'm asking because of, um, Garney, I saw SCADA. I didn't see.

Garney, that's why I was asking. Because they're the contractor over the whole project, we have to work with them or work through them. But C2I is actually the company that's going to be really planning this whole thing out and are really leading that plan and doing the implementation. And C2I is a well-known contractor when it comes to scale.

Are they using any AI? Any other questions?

Not right now. We're working towards that, though. But one of the first things we have to do with AI as an organization, as Jay has already said, is come up with a plan for that and policy on how we're going to use it. But once we do that, then we can also do that in water resources as well. Because, of course, that's one of those things where water, sewer, and stormwater you know especially water you don't want you know anybody from outside in or any type of interference in your processes so we have to uh you know review that very carefully but we'll we'll go after the lead of the of the city when we once we develop our ai policy i have asked and i really want this done soon for the city to have at least a framework of

I co-led a NLC committee of cities with at least a playbook that, because it's already out, we're behind it, Mr. Manager, Mr. Attorney. We need to have at least a framework for at least some acceptable use.

We just had that conversation at GMA as well. That's what I'm saying.

And then to be able to at least put together a multi-jurisdictional group of folks to kind of build it. Because if not, we'll find ourselves running behind it. And I don't want that to occur.

Are we behind it already? Oh, of course we are.

I mean, fortunately we're not the only one. But I mean, the fact is, you know, you have to have a basis for all this other stuff to kind of stand on.

We do have AI policies in terms of the AI that has been used in the city or is used in the city. We've had copilot licenses and other things. We have a governance policy. What we have to work on is a governance policy for how AI is going to be used in helping make decisions about operations and funding as well. I think those are the bigger points to an AI governance policy is where is AI appropriate, how is it safe, and where are human-led decisions and human-led review of AI material incorporated into those policies.

You got it, sir. We just need to kind of... Go ahead. I see you itching.

No, yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I get to work with AI implementers on a daily basis. I would be proud to draft a first crack at it for an ordinance.

No city has...

I'll show you the ones that we came up with. And let's, you know...

But to the topic at hand and for this workshop, Mr. Kasten, have these been sent out in the mail yet already?

No. So what you have there, what Alderman Blumbo is holding up right there is a neighborhood flyer. So we have distributed some of those to the neighborhoods that we visited and talked to folks about the stormwater utility along with the credits. So that is being distributed. However, the other one, the bill insert, which is double-sided, that is actually going out this week in bills in cycle seven. And those will go out over the next eight weeks, and folks will get that information prior to the implementation of the stormwater utility on September 1st.

Oh, good deal. And I may exhaust myself with this policy that I'm going to implement on myself, but if I can tell that it's AI, I'm going to ask every city staff person that delivers a presentation, is this AI generated? And if I can't tell, well, then you've gotten away with it. But for this one, pretty...

It started as that. However, we edit. I mean, Ron can tell you, we edit that kind of thing. Yeah.

Slowly.

a whole original piece, but it provided the framework, the idea to kind of get the juices flowing, and then we started it after that, so yes.

And for any implementation, it's worth its own workshop, and we'll certainly, we deserve to discuss this thoroughly about how we implement it, how we choose to do it, With pride at Team Savannah, we are a community of doers and makers, of graphic designers, artists, and creatives that are only a stone's throw away from City Hall to be able to implement every opportunity that we use AI as an opportunity to employ a local person, to be able to produce this, and for city staff to be able to embrace them and empower them. I understand the speed and efficiency, and if you want to use that as a placeholder, so be it. I'll make my peace regarding the environment. But if we're going to do something with pride and it's going to touch every household, we need to make sure that we're doing our best. So, thank you.

You didn't like how that looked or something?

No, you can tell. This isn't a Savannah street.

Let me see. Now, you ain't been to all the streets. A.I.

governance and policy also, too, has to include transparency.

Right, and just say what it is.

All right, go ahead. Our last project here is our ADVANCED METER AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT, AMI PROJECT, WHICH WE'VE TOUTED AS OUR SMART METER PROJECT. THIS IS ACTUALLY ON THERE, I KNOW IT SAYS WE HAVE 57,000 CURRENTLY AND ACTUALLY FOLLOWED UP WITH OUR PROJECT MANAGER THIS MORNING AND SHE TOLD US WE'RE OVER 60,000 NOW. So we're at 75% complete with that project. We like to say this is our quietest but best project in water resources. It's going off with very small minor hitches with impact and resonance. So it's been very successful. Folks really like the fact that you can have the app to look at your water live. It gives you updates every 15 minutes. So people really appreciate this program. But yes, this is 75% complete. We look to have this done in two years. But that might be actually further than what actually we get done. We might hopefully get done earlier than that. And it's really done wonders for our meter reading, too, as well. So that has really improved our service to our citizens and created a lot of transparency with the app that's available to everybody. All right, this right here, so all of those were our major, more city-wide projects. These are our neighborhood level projects within water resources. So we have broken down by stormwater, sewer, and water. But as you can see, and these are just some of the projects. These are not all whatsoever. We have way more projects than what's listed on here. But these are some of the more higher profile projects that are within neighborhoods. and that have a really great impact on those neighborhoods and in those sections of town.

Again, I see only one project, and we were talking about neighborhoods for Victory Heights.

Right. So on the third district, so you got no on the stormwater that you got the yeah, you do have the evergreen and downing road ditch improvement there.

Yes.

So we can we can we can definitely get you the city manager and so you can distribute it out to all the council members.

All the stormwater projects in there.

Yes, ma'am. Other than that, that is the end of our presentation. I will hand it out back to you.

I do have a question. Oh, yes, ma'am. The rain bow. Yes.

I got this for you. I was going to hit you up after this. We already got the flyer built out and everything. Really? Since you're the champion of this, I wanted you to see it first before we really distribute it out to everybody. Awesome.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, continuing with our goal four infrastructure projects, I'm happy to announce that DeLessip's Avenue Improvements Project is 98% complete. The remaining work to be done is a stamped concrete crosswalk at Cedar Street, permanent striping, and some traffic signal work, along with punch list work. So the substantial completion date is August 3rd, and we will be planning a ribbon cutting for that project as well. Thank you. Okay, Truman Trail Phase 2B. On Monday, we had our ribbon cutting for that project. It sure was a hot day, but it was a great day to celebrate the completion of that phase of the trail. Now we have continuous trail from Daffin Park all the way to Lake Mayer. 2B was a $10 million project. So happy that that one's wrapping up. And now I'm going to pass it to Steve Henry, our Senior Director of Transportation.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I have eight projects, so I'm going to do a quick overview of each. The first up is city multimodal trails. You see a list there, and these range from concept development to projected closeout and some that can be closed and operational.

Benton Boulevard.

Highlands Boulevard corridors. These are the city portion of Benton as well as Highlands from Benton to Jimmy Deloach will be widened from two lanes to four lanes. The GDOT portion of this is in planning and feasibility and the city portion is in development. Cohen Street, multimodal connector. This is progressing well, and we're completing environmental assessments and right-of-way acquisition. Light Up Savannah. Council approved this agreement back in May. We are awaiting GDOT's schedule of implementation. MLK flyover removal. We were in the early stages of preliminary engineering. It's progressing well, and we appreciate our partners with GDOT and Federal Highway. Savannah Department of Transportation has a rock star, and his name is Uncle Phil. And he gets more attention, I think, than any program we've had. And we are very proud of Uncle Phil and the progress we've made. Total repairs for 2026 of roadway defects is over 3,000 and that's just in six months. This past month in June, we actually tracked reported repairs versus proactive and through the pothole patrol, more than 60% of the repairs were proactive in part of the patrol and not reported. Also coming up is the resurfacing program, which you'll see come before council in the very near future, as we close a current request for proposals on July 28th. And this will include 61 street segments, many of which were in the 2026 budget, approved budget. Ultimately more than 50 lane miles of streets will be paved. And once it's awarded, the time of that project will be 11 months. Sidewalk improvements. It's also work based on a list of locations that was provided in the 2026 budget. There are six that range from completed, six locations that range from completed to more than 90% design or a couple locations that are underway. And Project Rent. Operation improvements are anticipated that have been discussed previously, anticipated as early as the end of this year, as well as I think the really important part is the boulevard right-of-way, which we are anticipating to start in May of 2027. Great news. I'll turn it back to Christy.

Uncle Phil.

Yes, ma'am.

Uncle Phil ain't doing what Uncle Phil's supposed to do. Because we have potholes all over the city. Do we only have one of those machines?

We have one, Uncle Phil.

We probably need to get one more because our streets are something else. I'm just being honest. We're a beautiful city, but we have an issue with potholes. especially in neighborhoods, like in subdivisions, the potholes are ridiculous. And I've put in work orders and what have you, asking people, uh to come and take care of these things and it's not happening so we might need to look into trying to get another machine so that we can fill these potholes we can we can we can add that to your budget recommendation list um i do want to note that you know we did 3 200 repairs so far this year

It wasn't even a whole year. Pothole repairs, I said so far this year. Yeah.

And just to note as well, 39% of those were in response to 311 request, right, for potholes or 311. But 61%. we're proactive. So that's the pothole patrol, what we call it, going out and proactively identifying potholes to be repaired. So I think that's a really good average. We're responding to our 311 calls and meeting our service level agreements there. And we're also being proactive. But I understand what you're seeing in the city and how we need to respond better. I mean, this is a, this is about being back to basics. Um, and, uh, and, and, and where we can increase our, um, and up our service standards for municipal services like pothole filling, we'll do that. So I'll add that to your budget request.

Um, 61 designated city street segments. How are we determining what streets get resurfaced?

So that's in your budget. So if you added that to the budget this year, so there would not be any um confusion about the street segments that are being resurfaced we list them all um in the budget how do we determine which ones get listed we determine that by the state of repair okay on the um on the road itself

a scientific side-by-side analysis. But I'll tell you this with all due respect. I know some people like to make it clear that I'm a New Yorker by birth. Until you went to New York, a place like that, you don't know potholes. People disappear in potholes in some of those places. We have a lot of roads. And they're very, very busy roads. And I think the best way is that, you know, sometimes we don't, I mean, although we might proactively address the mismanagers, I mean, you know, people complain to me about potholders. Did you call not the 311? No, just complain about the potholder. I think we have to make sure people know we have a way of addressing it more aggressively, and I think we have to utilize that. I think, obviously, if council wants to move forward.

They are using it.

Oh, I mean, well, you see, how many potholes did we're six months in? When did we go to Hodge School? I mean, not Hodge, Hubert to name. In the last year. It was last year? In the last year. Yeah, because, I mean, we filled the first pothole, like, right there, and it took minutes. So, I mean, you know, as far as, you know, as soon as we know about them, you know, I think we'll be able to address them.

Oh, one more thing. When we fill the potholes, are we filling them with – Do we try to make it look like the street it is? Because I've seen a lot of the potholes that have been filled that sometimes the filler is dark and the street itself is, you know, a lighter color or what have you. In one place in particular, it's, I want to say Paulson over there by the Lesseps Park. I think that's in your district, Alderwoman Wilder-Brien, the Lesseps Park, the street right there. If you ride that, what's the name of that street? Is it?

No, no, no, not.

It's the park. Yeah.

Oh, the park over there at Victory Heights. That's where we did the ribbon cutting.

Right. I think it's called the Lesseps Park. It's the street right there on the mess. It's on the message and then the street right by the park. If you ride down that street, the street is horrible. And I've called it in and I've talked to.

So pothole repairs don't often match the. the the color of the of the roadway. So and it's and it's not like fixing a a hole in your your wall at the house where you, you know, you fix the sheetrock and then you get the can of paint from the garage that you bought when you painted the room and painted over. It's a it's it's the point of filling a pothole is trying to prolong the life of the infrastructure and to make it safe for passage. I don't know of any jurisdiction that matches the color of the underground underlying roadway with the pothole fix. If that were to be the standard here, we would not be getting through 32 potholes in six months, more or less, 3,200. So I think that some of the understanding here is understanding an education around what is a pothole fix and what does it look like and what's the purpose of that pothole fix versus a resurfacing, which is something that is done to repair the full roadway and is gonna be uniform throughout.

the reason i ask that is when you look at these pothole fixtures in certain communities it looks really bad when it's all different colors and then you go into other communities and it looks really Like the persons who did it tried to do it to make it blend in with the street. So, um, okay. You said what you said.

Can I address two things? So, so one is the, uh, so potholes, the defects and the fields repairs we're making is related to what we call potholes, which is roadway failures or defects. I think anything that has been a work order that is taking longer than just a few days is typically associated with, uh, sinkholes. A utility repair is needed before that can be patched. And there are various kinds of patches. So Uncle Phil, he's a quick response. He's a quick fill, uh, pardon the pun, where you're filling that hole quickly and he's moving on to the next one where he's just putting in, you know, tar and asphalt and rocks. And then when you have other type of repairs where it required more than uncle Phil, where you may have to cut out a piece where you see saw cuts and clean cuts and that is asphalt field going in. Sometimes it's cold patch, sometimes it's hot bill. And that color of asphalt is going to be darker than a road that is faded. Uh, and then there's concrete street repairs, which typically match pretty well. And then as far as street segments, I know we've added a number of street segments that weren't on the list because of available funding. So we're going to do more than what's on that list. I know one area and street segments that you've brought our attention to that.

okay okay thank you yes ma'am mr henry um just want to thank you i pulled and asked for the amount of potholes that were repaired in my district and they were 66 and i think there's a total and i think that's a good average for one truck i know that i've contacted uh daphne and lita about some of the things and i know you're going to get there with that one truck but i wanted to tell you that i appreciate the ones that you have yes ma'am and because of uh of time you're never going to really get that color so some people got the same color when you patch it basically just want to fill those holes so it doesn't cause a problem with people's vehicle that sue us and stuff like that so so thank you for the job that you're doing yes ma'am yes ma'am

and west boundary and that's the drainage i know i know the work is being done i know the work is being done at the canal um where the dormitories are yes ma'am but is that connected to that so it is part so we that's part of what we've designed for the overall canal improvements and when scad was moving forward with that development there at 703 louisville we we were able to work out an agreement with them that they would put in

that infrastructure that we were planning as part of the overall project and luckily we had that permitted already and they could move forward with that whereas we were doing much bigger project where we needed more time to finish design and all that sort of stuff but as we conduct that work will it interfere with the road or will we be required to do any road work right there Well ultimately we're going to replace that bridge over the canal at Lewisville Road right there by the historic viaduct and we actually have to do kind of a bend in the canal to get around the viaduct because the viaduct essentially is a historic restriction on the canal flow.

We're not funding that now, we're just looking at the drainage piece, not the bridge piece?

No, we are wrapping up design. There's a little scour study they want to do for the bridge itself, but otherwise That design is about 95% complete.

If you recall, I briefed City Council on that roadway improvement and all the infrastructure improvement when we met several weeks ago.

Thank you. What I'm questioning is, we talked about Cohen Street, and I know that's a little ways off, but all of that area is about drainage and connectivity. because this is about connecting pieces. But where is the styles north of the track piece? I don't see that anywhere. And I know that was on the board way before this was even a concept. When we were doing the arena committee years ago, some styles north of the track. So we have styles. And then if we take styles north of the track, of course that empties into Louisville Road. And that is so horrible in there. And we're talking the roads and the sidewalks. So where are we with that? And where would that be?

So I briefed council on all of that work, including styles phase two, when we met on a real estate item recently, um, uh, style phase two has some money that was left over from the styles phase one project. We're also currently going after a grant for that work as well. Um, so we, and I, um, and I can reshare those information styles phase two is absolutely, um, a project that is, um, that's on our to-do list for the canal district.

What my concern is I'm looking at a completion date for coin that we just thought about the other day, uh, for August 27 and, and with no date. from South, and we pushed so much. So much of our Reddit was about connectivity, connecting neighborhoods. That's why we're doing all this. That's why we're spending this money. That's why we're bringing this trail of connectivity. And I'm not seeing that when it comes to connecting the investment to West Hanna.

So we're also, if you recall, um, when council considered and debated the additional funding for the arena parking lot, finishing, um, the, what we were able to do is also include the multimodal Cohen extender into that parking lot as a part of that budget work and not dip into funds that were allocated specifically for connectivity in and around the canal. So we're trying to preserve all of that funding for that connectivity piece that I think is your priority. And the reason that the Cohen Street extender is an ability now is we were able to include it as a part of that work because it is a part of the operation of the parking garage. We are able to do it within the budget that council allocated and reappropriated to that work. and the mobilization was already there on site to be able to do it. So you just had a confluence of opportunities to be able to get that work done and not take from the allocated money that was specifically designed for neighborhood connectivity.

And that's good, but I'm not seeing style as a priority because it would be here if it was a priority capital project.

I think what we, I understand that. It's not a budgeted item right now, but it is a priority project and we'll have it included on the next CIP.

Why wasn't it budgeted? I'm just kidding.

Well, it isn't, it's part of, there's funding available for it. We're going after a grant. I'm looking over at Fay so I can get... on Stiles Avenue Phase 2. We're currently going after a grant to be able to also supplement the work there so that those connectivity dollars can go further, because there are grant dollars available for work like Stiles Phase 2. It's also eligible for impact fee dollars. It's eligible for the connectivity dollars associated with the hotel-motel tax allocation. So we're blending these funding streams together to try to make them go as far as we can. Styles phase two is a straight up and down roadway improvement project. And so we're going after some state and federal grants to be able to help us pay for that as well. Where these other connectivity projects that we want to use this money for to connect west side neighborhoods are not straight up and down transportation projects. There are more limited grants available for those that

Have you already filed the grant? Have you already submitted?

We had filed a grant, but we were notified, and I apologize, I hadn't had a chance to tell the city manager that one was not successful. However, we've been in by two other grant opportunities, and we're already pushing styles into those. And they're all straight up roadway.

And I invite everybody to ride through there. Most of us have to do one, two, and three times a day for years and years and years.

One other thing that we're doing related to that is for your awareness issues. of railroad crossing and so forth, and a more sort of industrial, but on the other end, there's residential area, and we're trying to make sure that what we carry forward into these grant applications reflects that there's different, even in that sort of shorter piece of style, there's still different things and so forth, and that's what we're trying to pursue

Before you, Mr. Mayor, in reference to this goal here and this last bullet point, which is the Gamow Building renovations, I just want to... always be a high performing government that is what uh mayor johnson coming in as the mayor and us being here is council and saving the gamble building it and i took a tour yesterday in that building and I just want to thank you all for us saving that building. It was so many memories of just because I worked in that building and with the renovation and looking at the stripped down walls seeing those rafters, those beams that are exposed and seeing the wood that never will come back again, seeing the stairway just in an open space that I used to go down. It was just it was absolutely awesome. So I just want to thank us as a council and mayor and city manager, Jay Dunn and Team Savannah. I don't know if anybody else took the tour. I took that tour and went home and went to sleep on that thing. And it was good. Thank you, Mr.

I think we also learned some lessons. I mean, I remember I was against us selling the B&B. Some of y'all went for it. I'll get into that. But the same thing that we thought was trash now like the dang hotel and I mean now I mean it is night I'm walking I'm like this is the freaking B&B I mean, it is a significant building. I'm glad that the Gable building did not suffer the same fate. And I'm glad that we are now retrofitting this building to fit our current and future needs. We learned that. wasn't going to work. Our staff ended up all over the place. We rented buildings, buildings we didn't own. It was just a failed experiment. I know it was before your time, but it just did not work. And we could have invested the same money and had a state-of-the-art building in the midst of that downtown area. But if y'all have not been by there, I mean, I'm sitting here thinking I'm having a drink while I used to pay my water bill. I mean, you sit there, you look around, it's like, you know, it's still the same bones of that building. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to make my comments now because we're running out of gas and we're running out of time and we're not getting the most valuable portion, which I think is the feedback and the discussion. And I'll be very clear about my feedback and this discussion because I've noticed the projects that are placed on this list and I noticed the ones that are missing. I noticed that some are funded in hotel-motel tax and are underway and are getting into implementation phase. But I noticed that the Tier 1, Priority 1 project of Montgomery Crossroads, Other than the bullet point, 35% is a no-show. I think that's unacceptable. It is the people that demanded for Hotel Motel tax to be passed to get dollars out of downtown and throughout the city to prioritize this trail. And to put Haversham Street at 1%, I'm guessing that this workshop is the 1%, and I find that also unacceptable. The largest capital expenditure that I see in the 4th District is $3.5 million for turf replacement for Daffodil Park, which is important, but it is staff-driven. And if I had the ability to direct those dollars, I could promise you I would direct them elsewhere. I would direct them straight to the trail and mobility and for sidewalks where people are getting hit and killed south of Durant Avenue because as I said in the latest workshop when we talked about this walking south of Durant Avenue is like walking on the moon. Take a look at the equity placement of sidewalks throughout our city and you'll notice that we're at about what 28% coverage for the entire city of Savannah on one side of the street and I find that unacceptable. I appreciate the amount of investment that's coming to the Canal District and downtown, and I know that that's where a lot of activity is, and they have to be taken comprehensively because so many of them are tied together. But I've got outside, I have at the northern terminus of my district is the Southside Precinct, which is in a borrowed space and an old movie theater at the Oglethorpe Mall. Leaky. Yes, it leaks water in the roof. I understand. Great job that we did prioritization for our downtown headquarters in the northwest precinct. We were getting kicked out of the other one. I get it. But if we're taking a look at the next five years, I notice that what's not included in this $885 million in the next five years is a map of where they're going to go. And I find it unacceptable. My colleagues at the table, I'm asking for your help to help prioritize these things. I just said it. Yes.

I know you fought for that hotel-motel tax, and people fought against it. We should have a priority in the stuff that we voted for, pushed for, and put our necks on the line when other people didn't.

I get it. Y'all do a great job. You're doing a great job. And look, that's on us for failing to prioritize the needs in my district. So I've failed you. I have failed you by not speaking up loud enough or being the squeaky wheel or being angry enough or going to the mat in the city manager's office. But it shouldn't take that. It shouldn't take that and it's not the first time that I've asked for this request to be prioritized. So see it not that the danger of having a comprehensive presentation is that it has to be comprehensive. And I don't see it in my district and I don't see the priorities that we need. And I appreciate all the hard work that you guys are doing. But when I'm looking at DAP and sports fields, and I'm looking at other projects that were funded at the same time as implementation, and the best that I have to show for it is a project that was voted by the voters in SPLOST 3 that we're still implementing today, I know that we can do better. So this is our time to recover. I appreciate you listening to my feedback. And I know that we can do better than this. Thank you. Mr. Manager?

uh feedback heard on the haversham street protected bike lane as you know that's a a spa state um project and we just started collecting spa state um and uh it's also a tier two project on spa state the same with the south side precinct so luckily for both of those projects there's sploss funding um coming down for that i know that um the priority on the Montgomery Crossroads and the Middle Ground Road sections of Network Trail. We've talked about it at length, and they're not included in this presentation today, and I'll take account for that. But I know that you know because we've briefed on those and prioritized those sections together. And I think you have a good sense of where we are on there. And I know that you want us to be further along and we'll do our work to get there. There we do not include every project on this on this list. A lot of these are, you know, that we prioritize them based on budget, try to hit every goal that we have capital projects in and give a sense of where we are on some of our big capital projects. So we'll be sure in the next one to be more fulsome about our projects. And I wanted to be able to share this as we go into budget season so that council has an understanding of where you prioritize dollars and how they get done. And I will also, and I know that all members of council are aware that some projects require more than others. And where they get budgeted in some years doesn't always mean that they'll be the first out of the chute because of different complexities or federal funding that's blended in that requires other types of environmental reviews and et cetera. And we'll try to provide more information and clarity about why timelines are the timelines. But we want to be able to give this information so that we can hear feedback like that and make sure that we're prioritizing towards council's feedback.

Mr. City Manager, Mr. Mayor, I just want to express upon what Ron Felder's model is. And he said, let's find a way on how we get to yes. Y'all need to find a way of how we get to yes, and these projects that are coming in and the priority should at least have our input. Great, great presentation, but it's like, that's y'all's. We vote for this, we know what our districts want, and we'd like to get more input on that. Thank you.

a public-facing opportunity for us so people can track it independently. It also holds our feet to the fire about when people can expect to reasonably think that something is going to occur. I want to prioritize only as far as saying that it's important. There are, like you said, funding, there's technical things that, well, this may not be able to happen as quickly as this and this and that. So I think, obviously, that's a meeting of the minds. We tell you what we really think is important. You tell us what you think you can get done first, understanding the realities that we don't understand. And I guess we're not charged to understand it. but to communicate to us so they were able to communicate it to those that we serve. Because it's funny, for every presentation, and I hear two things. I hear one district saying, you're not prioritizing us. Well, we're not being prioritized. But yeah, I see things everywhere. And I think for us, it's just a matter of being able to communicate very clearly that, hey, this is a high performing government. Y'all are moving the needle. Projects are being done. we are seeing dollars turning into projects that we can see and enjoy. And we just have to be able to make sure that we're communicating it better. So to your point of saying, I mean, obviously it was 287 projects. I mean, you couldn't go over all of them. We didn't go over all of them.

You said at the beginning. 287. And it is important to note that this is the largest capital plan the city has ever had. Right. By some multitudes. And a lot of that is because of the leadership and policies that this council has made in diversifying revenue streams, in prioritizing. infrastructure and back to basics. A lot of it too is with the skill of our civil staff who take those directions and go out and find state and federal grants and try to schedule these capital investments in a way that maximize our dollars as well. Our takeaway is that we've got more work to do to fine-tune that prioritization project, to fine-tune the way that we're communicating that to council and to the public as well.

But I do really want us to get back into the project management space. In the last administration before me, they got rid of it because they didn't think it was going to be helpful.

But we do have, you are back in the project management space.

I mean, but really in a way that allows our professional staff

you know, to and you are so our transportation is now all of our transportation projects. That's why you saw some of the projects that were ending. You saw capital projects give the update and some of the projects that were newer in the in the pipeline being briefed out by transportation because we have a different project management portfolio and transportation. That's and we have a whole team of project managers on our transportation. That's why you saw water and sewer and stormwater projects who also have project managers as a part of those large scale infrastructure projects as well. And our capital, our local capital projects team that focuses really on our municipal buildings and our municipal vertical spaces. So that's why they're briefing out on our community centers, our police precincts, the Adams II building, and the Gamble renovations as well. That's where their portfolio lies.

It's a lot of juggling. It's a lot of moving parts, a lot of balls to keep in the air, and you can't let any of them fall.

I know we keep track of the SPLOST projects on the website. Do we have an area where we're keeping track of capital projects on the website at all for the city? All of our SPLOST projects are tracked on the website. Okay. He's asking about, like we were talking about capital projects. We were talking about capital projects, right? SPLOST projects are on the website about every capital project that we have. Like we're going over today, I think, you know, we talk about transparency and all that. I think it's easier... to help guide the public to places where that information is shown and stored because i can't remember like this is a lot and it's not everything right so you know it's it makes it easier if i can just say hey go to the website or i can go to the website and say all right we know that in 2027 q2 this is when this is supposed to start we will we will provide all those links to council and follow up to that we do track we do publish

Um, they're all of the capital projects as well. Um, all have a capital project description as a part of an appendix to our budget. Um, that's published every year, um, which goes into detail about the capital project, the funding blends, um, and the schedule for them. So we'll provide to, to counsel and follow up where all of that information lives online so that people can go, um, and, and, um, and look through all these materials themselves. We're also working on, I call it a pizza tracker because I used to order a lot of Domino's pizza back in grad school, but something akin to that that can be more user friendly when you or the public want to check in on more real time data on where these capital projects are.

Really good presentation.

I mean, it's good work. Great work. We want to lean more into it. Good job, team.

All right.

City manager.

We got, we got, go ahead.

Two minutes. I see a lot of the capital improvement projects and what have you, you know, on the north side of the city, the west side, east side. And I don't want us to forget about the south side. There's not a whole lot going on over there, and I don't want it to get to the point where that area goes down in order to keep the other areas up. So, yeah, we don't want to get, like, West Savannah.

No, they can't really get their first $10 million day first ever. But anyway, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a meeting. $10 million what?

Huh?

$10 million.

Oh, you're talking about the?

Community Senate.

Okay, that's.