Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, it's five o'clock. So, uh, call this meeting of the planning commission in order on October 14th. Um, can I get an approval of the minutes? So moved. support. All those in favor say I. I. I. Anyone oppose?

Okay. All right. So, communications from the audience. This is for items that are not on the agenda. Um, so if you have an anything you'd like to cover, um, please step up to the mic. Seeing none, we will u move on to new business. Um, Mattow area coordinating council safe streets for all presentation. I'll uh I'll call them to the stage. All right. Thank you. Thank you. It's nice to be here. Nice to be invited places. All right. I'm Jason Leam, the director of of the MAC. And uh Pam Blazel. I'm with AECOM and we were working on the uh safety action plan.

Yeah. All right. So, we're going to jump right in. If you have everything loaded up, I'm assuming you do. Maybe. Yep. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Well, thanks again for having us. Before you get too far, make sure you lean into the microphone because this is being recorded and people are watching at home and they want to hear every word you have to say. Fantastic. Thank you. I love it. All right. The battery thing is blinking. Is that good or bad? I guess if it's blinking, it still has some power.

It's got a little Yeah, it's got enough. It's got enough. All right, so we're going to talk Safe Streets for all. Um, this was a pretty pretty monumental, in my opinion, effort. uh on on our part. We uh jumped right in with this once uh once we received the grant. And again, it was a competitive grant uh $300,000 and we were awarded uh just over a year and a half ago. Took a while to get everything uh up and running, but once we did, we said we need to get a really amazing team put together. And uh we did. We did just that. We got AECOM on board. And um the the whole point of the safe streets for all is just that, helping communities develop safe streets and a safety action plan. Um and obviously what you need when you're doing that is you need public input and you need data and and and that's what we did. That that was pretty much what the study was all about. So the safety action plan that was the outcome and I I'll let Pam jump in a little bit on the safety action plan and we're just going to go back and forth if you guys are okay with that. just slide after slide.

Okay, so hopefully I'm close enough to this mic. Uh so basically, uh like Jason was saying, it was funded through federal funds. Um there's kind of eight required components with the funding that had to be part of the plan. Uh so we made sure that we touched on all those, but it was very heavy in the data analysis side of it. So we looked at the historical crash data for the entire MAC region. Um and throughout that we looked at both segments and intersections. uh and we we created what is called a high injury network. So that is those intersections and those segments where there is a disproportionate number of those more severe crashes. So the fatal crashes, severe injuries, people are leaving, broken bones, ambulances, things like that. Um but we took it one step further as well. We did a high-risisk network. So we looked at what are the road characteristics of those high injury networks, those segments and intersections and where do we have similar type of roadways, similar volumes, uh adjacent land uses and put together a high-risisk network and we kind of brought them together to get the overall high injury network for the region. Um and one thing to note about this is it's meant to be a subset of the network. So basically about 21% of the total network, all the roadways. Um, so this is MD DOT, city, county, all the roadways. U 21% of that roadway system accounted for 77% of all the fatal and serious injury crashes. So really it kind of helps narrow down where where should money be prioritized um as you're looking to make those improvements. Uh so we looked at everything from um the traffic patterns that were out there, the environmental factors around it. Um and then we we made sure that we we were looking at countermeasures and things as as well for those locations.

Is that working? Perfect.

Yeah. Okay. Um so as part of this uh like Jason mentioned, there was a public input uh component of it as well. And I I think Jason's actually going to get into that a little bit more later. Uh but there was online engagement, there was in-person engagement. we'd have a public open house that was well attended as uh for people to come and tell us uh we did it early on. We wanted to know what is their concerns so we knew what the data was telling us, right? But what are their concerns that maybe haven't showed up in the data? So where are those near misses? Where are the locations that they don't even attempt to try to cross because it's so bad, right? Um, so we took that and incorporated that when we were looking at that project list as we went through to help us kind of prioritize uh what kind of projects should be done and where those should be done. Um, and then as well in the safety action plan, it did establish uh some goals and some metrics and I'll let Jason talk about that.

Yep. And the one thing I do want to point out is that we do have that predictive piece um as part of the high injury network. And if you know anything about the engineering road world, um they they like data first. They don't like to say, "Well, that was a near miss. That could be a a problem in the future." They want to have facts. Is it a problem or is it not? Well, the nice thing about this plan is we could look at areas where we know there were problems. And then we could say, well, we have other segments that fit that exact same um characteristics in terms of turn lanes and and number whether it's ADT or anything. And then we were able to include other pieces that might not yet have as many accidents but still um part of that network. So that um 21% there a couple pieces of those don't quite have the accidents yet but we're we're assuming and predicting that based on those characteristics they might get there. So let's try to apply some of these um these features to to improve safety as we move forward. So goals and objectives, that's one of the things that we talked about with our stakeholders, certainly talked about it with the public. Um you you want that the people side. So who's using the network, whether whether you're on a bike, whether you're walking, whether you're in a car, certainly people focused. Uh so we we made sure we brought some of those um elements in. Uh obviously on the safety side, on the road, of course, that's uh one of the things that we dove into um using using the uh information that we had out there, which we'll see as we as we go through the plan. Um there's lots of safety improvements that you can um employ on the road network that that they've done the math already. They know if you add a turn lane in this situation, you're going to reduce accidents by X number. So, those are the kind of things that we did with within that safety network. And then um

certainly I think some of the things that I would love to get into but maybe that's a little bit further down the road is the um the uh post incident care and response time. Some of those things are um that technology is really ramping up ramping up where you can get your emergency vehicles and uh and those those things that have preeemption. they can get all the signals green, everything red, and you can get you can get the ambulance and the fire truck to where they need to go quicker than if if they have to stop and and and you know, go through the normal normal traffic, weaving in and out. So, u it was really nice to talk about that with the public because they were able to say, "Okay, yeah, you really want to know holistically everything that's going on and we you want our input with and we could kind of like walk them down uh all those things uh at our meetings. Let's see what's next. All right. So, engagement summit. Um, you can see there's a couple uh celebrities in that picture right there. Um,

I think the interactive mapping tool, 202 comments, that's pretty good. Like we we really wanted to make sure we got comments and and 202 that's definitely something you can start to work with. And the one thing I will say is the process that we went through and I know you guys did your corridor study as well. Like I feel like this complements it really well because your focus was hey this is city road. We're looking at this this uh particular corridor. Give us your feedback. Ours was hey there's safety concerns. What are you thinking? What are you looking at? And we were looking holistically but you are getting very similar comments. and we'll we'll hit some of those in just a minute. Um, obviously as part of that engagement opportunity, we developed a safety committee and stakeholder uh focus group so we could bring people in um at multiple times, not just one big public meeting, so we could really drill down. So key takeaways, do you want to jump in on this or you want me to keep going?

Oh, go for it.

All right. So the the key takeaways is distracted drivers and speed. That's what the public thinks is that's the biggest problem. And obviously if you're distracted that is a huge problem and speed I think speed kills. That's one of the things that we've we've heard in the industry for a long time. Um if you can slow speeds down that's going to be really beneficial. But we all know that we have a state law that we need to comply with and lowering speeds isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. So then that's where you're looking at the traffic calming that you're looking at things that whether it's planting, lighting, streetscape type stuff. Um managing your lanes, adding uh island refuge, all those things that help a driver go, "Wait a second, this just isn't for me driving in this vehicle. This is a a transportation corridors. I I should be expecting bikes. I should be expecting pedestrians." And that helps slow people down. So that that's a key key takeaway. Um, and we did have the our mapping tool, which is really helpful. You can see that a lot of the comments are within the city of Holland, which is really nice because that's uh obviously that's a one of our our uh denser areas. So to to get that feedback um is is really helpful. And like I said, it a lot of things that we heard complemented your study as well. So So that's that's a bonus. And I will say, we didn't say it right off the bat, but one of the main reasons for doing this particular safe streets for all project was to make sure that we opened up an entire new funding stream for construction projects. And the MAC supported the city of Holland's grant application um that was put in June June 10th, June 15th, right around that time frame. So, um, I was able to to put together a support letter, uh, and we actually approved this at the MAC policy board two weeks prior to that. So, it was an approved safety action plan. It

was supported by the local NO and it w it went to the feds. So, we should be hearing back. I say we because I feel like I'm part of it. We should the city should hear back hopefully in November. I think that's pretty that's what we're hoping. That's what we're hoping. All right. So, that's key takeaways. Um, let's jump to uh one other particular project I want to uh talk about real quick is as part of this project. AECOM said that they could actually do a a detailed cost estimate. Yes.

Um for four or five locations. We didn't do one within the city of Holland, but uh talking with the city of Holland, this particular interchange um is is one that that is a ingress egress. this is how you get from US 31 into the city or potentially out of the city. And one of the comments was there's there's no um traffic signals or um or gaps created. Uh so you just kind of have potential free flow. So adding uh signals would help create gaps and potentially improve safety. So um the MAC did uh ask ACOM to put that together. So, there was two uh really really quick high level, but uh at least a um you guys were able to put together a cost estimate for mast arms or using span wires. Um and it's not terribly expensive, but that's something that that we can look at potentially doing in the future. It's not within the city, but then but should help help with that corridor. All right, next up. So, this is a we included all the projects within the city of Holland in the next three slides. I'm not going to go over them, but I wanted to have them uh as part of the presentation so you guys could you can share this with whoever you want and you can kind of see some of the um the projects that we were suggesting, some of the treatments that we uh have uh in the plan that we know will help reduce um severe uh injuries and crashes. So, that's just in here just so you guys can at your leisure kind of look at them, share it with other other folks. Um, I know that that you wanted to hit, um, the I'm coming to it, the Washington corridor a little bit more closely. So, um, how about I'll let I'll let I'll take a break and you can kind of cover a couple of the pieces that we have within this corridor and then we can talk how

it complements the the corridor plan that the city put together. Sure. So, the one that's uh that you're seeing right now, this is the Michigan at state. So, kind of I like to refer to it as the top the peak of the roof, you know, for the house uh to just to help people navigate. Um so, basically, we're looking at at that intersection there were um it is on the high injury network that was established uh both from an intersection standpoint in the corridors. Uh there are a lot of crashes. There are a lot of angle crashes. So, those are people hitting kind of at 90 degree T-bones. Um those tend to be the most severe uh resulting crashes. Um, so we did kind of go through and you'll see when you look at the rest of the the projects in there as well. We were giving short-term, medium-term, and long-term. Um, so what could be implemented really quickly, those are also lower cost really. So costs kind of factored into this short, medium, long. And so for that specific intersection, we gave you kind of three separate uh kind of things. So something that can be done in an interim with the concrete island out there just to make things more clear. We did have the traffic signal in there. um and then potentially a roundabout. And so what was really interesting to me was then looking at the the corridor plan um and they also came to a potential to a signal there as well and it did meet warrants. So you can really see that uh both when we're looking at as a more regional basis and when you're looking at corridor wise, you're coming up with the same kind of suggestions and solutions. So they really marry well together.

Yeah. Which is nice. And and I will say that we didn't do the warrant analysis. We didn't get into that level of detail, but certainly the MAC has that that ability to work with our members. And if there's areas that you'd like a little bit more information, a little bit more detailed analysis, certainly we can work with the engineering staff and work with others and potentially either find grant money or we could uh continue to work uh with local consulting firms to actually dive in and get that data for you. Okay, next up was Which one is this? This is the road diet.

Yeah, the road diet, which is really nice because it came it came in as a a potential in your corridor plan as well. And I don't know um off the top of my head if you guys ca discussed the the 211 scenario road diet versus the idea is that center turn lane. Um what what we showed was it could just be the straight symmetrical uh four lanes to three or we could kind of do two lanes in one direction, one lane in the other and then a center turn lane. So you it's still kind of four lanes. Um but adding that center turn lane that's the that's the key feature that can have um we have 29% if I see that uh correct as as a potential uh reduction in accidents but I know four to three lane conversions in the past that that I've studied can go all the way into the 60 to 70% reduction. Um, so it's it's a an incredibly positive safety uh improvement is having that center turn lane because you don't have traffic stopped in the middle of a of an actual inside fast lane

with the road diet idea. Is there Oh, I should probably not interrupt, should I? You can if you want.

I guess it is. Um, a quick question. Sorry, while you're continuing to move on. But thinking about that too, you know, with mixed modal transportation, has that been factored into any of that as well? Whether you think about like bike paths or bike lanes and on on that end of things as well? Yeah, we have in a couple like slides from now. That is one of those um treatments that we're saying from that 31 all the way north. We you you should we should look at uh a a multimodal approach having trails or certainly bike lanes.

I I will add to that. I will I will say getting that center left turn lane whether it is the symmetrical four to three or if you do the unbalanced that really pushes that forward, right? because now you're creating that space for that refuge island. Um, best case scenario is you actually make a concrete island there in the middle where you want those midblock crossings. So then your pedestrians are got a shorter crossing distance. We're only looking at one direction of traffic. Um, and then that brings into play other kind of traffic control devices, whether it's the the rapid rectangular flashing beacons or is it an actual kind of half signal. Um, so it really sets you up to bring all that multimodal in. If you go to the four to three um then that does bring in the possibility of bike lanes uh on road. Right now the speed is pretty high out there and the volume is pretty high. So I believe in our plan we recommended if you go to that route that you actually did a separated a buffered bike lane with the miards. Um best case would be to have them fully protected and I think that's what the corridor plan actually recommended was getting them off the road altogether. Yeah, with that traffic that ADT, you probably need to you can't share too much of the road with that amount of traffic.

All right. Did we cover this one or did I I don't know if I advanced. This is the next one, I think.

New glasses. Um, so intersection safety. So, this is uh 21st Street. Yeah. Yeah. And that's adding again adding that uh pedestrian refuge is is one of the things that uh that we thought would be a safety improvement. And I know um that the safety improvement those that that math that's been done. I mean that that's in the book. You guys can go to that uh Brian has it. We you know we can all go to it and say this is how many uh accidents we hope to reduce if we if we actually apply this here. But like I said, we didn't dive into the details. You do need that that engineering study. You do need a little bit more information in terms of how many turning movements and those kind of things. Pedestrian counts um are are key and that's one of the things that we're working on at the MAC, getting pedestrian counts um all throughout the uh two city and seven township area. So, that's something that we could help with. If you guys wanted us to start picking up some of those at certain times, let us know. We can get our counter out there and start working on those kind of things. All right, last might be the last one. Um, so 40th Street. Um, and this is pretty pretty simple, but uh the just how signals are actually um constructed the box span. So, uh right now uh you'll see the diagonal wire that goes across and it tries to to capture all the all the lanes. Box bands are easier to see. So, that's that's another thing that we threw out there that if if you could put a box band in, whether it's mast arms or just the wires that are actually, you know, shaped like a box, um it's it's just easier for the motorists to see, which then brings up just pavement markings, lane markings, and signage. That's huge. That's one of those things if you can get good reflective uh pavement markings and signage, there

there is a safety benefit with those, and that that's pretty low cost. Um but certainly once you realize how many miles of roads you have and how often you have to do it and what you have to do it it is it does get expensive. So with that said I think that was the o this is the overall for the entire corridor looking at the um pedestrian refuge uh within that corridor to set yourself up. Um how do you want to have the um separated um paths? where do you want to have the cross crossings? Um and and that just comes down to a little bit more detailed study. But uh certainly it's a safety benefit that this this corridor would um it would it would fit nice with. And I think that's all we all we had. Yep. That's all we had. We we thought we would kind of take some questions and and see where we go from there. But um I guess the takeaway is this did open up another funding stream. Um, and it was a pretty robust uh data dive as well as uh public outreach and and interaction. And I think it complements what you guys did really nicely and kind of sets us up to continue to work together to see how how the MAC can help you and and how we can support you guys in and what you're trying to do. But, uh, that safety safety improvements. A lot of people talk about towards zero deaths. um you do have to take some of those big leaps and you you do have to spend quite a bit of money to to make some of these changes to really get get some of those benefits. So, with that said, I'll stop talking. They said I could talk all day.

Could Jason, can you give an example uh in this area? Say maybe in Park Township of a road diet. Yeah, we uh a road diet was just done in in Park Township. And I guess you guys have one here, too. But uh that was the unbalanced with two lanes um heading uh on Douglas heading towards the east, one heading west, and then the center turn lane. So, that's something that we can take a look at from we can pull uh crash data. Obviously, we have the historic stuff, but over the next couple years, we can start pulling it and we can we can share that information with folks. Um, I know I did one I presented at the MAC for Napier Avenue down in in Baton Harbor and that was one of the busiest roads in Bering County and we went from four to three there. We were able to add this the shoulders which bikes can use and um and that did reduce I I have one year of data and that did reduce it over 30% accidents.

Wow. Any other questions or comments? I yeah, I have a comment. I'm just excited about this and this is kind of my neighborhood that and I have small children that I don't let cross Michigan. So, if the traffic was um slowed down a bit and as they get older, I would feel a lot more comfortable with that. So, we hear that a lot at public meetings and I know we did the uh the business loop 196. We were doing a pedestrian study over last year and we heard just that. I won't let my kids cross.

Right. Right. And we have elementary school on one side, neighborhoods on the other. So parents have to drive. It's only three blocks, but they have to get in the car. They have to drive across because they won't let their kids Yep. Yep. across. My kids like to play basketball at Maplewood and I have to drive them there because there's no way I'm going to let them cross. So, right. This is this is a would be a great improvement. Yeah. Slowing traffic down, getting really good crosswalks, getting getting that that infrastructure in place to let drivers know that this is this is a multimodal corridor. this just isn't my commute to work and I got to get there as fast as I can, right? Yeah. No, it sounds great. Thank you.

Y one other example I'd really love for you to share because there's there's a lot of data here and there's a lot of numbers here and sometimes it's hard for people to envision what this can mean. Um, and you and I were talking about Union Pier earlier this week. Could you could you share that story about what just making a simple change in an area can do? uh to to change an entire neighborhood.

Right. So, if you guys are familiar with uh Union Pier, Michigan, it's it's uh Bering County, just a little bit north of uh New Buffalo. And that was red arrows what was I94 before I 94. So, it was four lanes. Um and Union Pier is a skewed intersection half a mile from the beach. And there's a post office, a little grocery store, a little a little kind of mom pop bar kind of, you know, restaurant. and um talking with the townships, it's also a border border road. Um the east west road is uh red arrows north south, but two townships said, "Yeah, if we could do something there to to help slow traffic down and uh the county was adamant that we couldn't go from four lanes to three, that was impossible. Couldn't happen." I said, "How about safety improvements? We need we need a left turn lane." And I as we were studying it, there was actually an accident that a car was turning but was not in, you know, in the middle of the travel lane. A car had to, you know, swerve to miss it. Ran into a building, but there was nobody in the building, thank goodness, because it wasn't open yet. It was the bakery. Um, so long story short is making those safety improvements and adding that turn lane and then doing the streetscape. Uh we added lighting, we added the trails, we added trees, and now when you drive through there, you actually feel like you're in a in a nice little village. It's a very small village, but but you have created that sense of place. And uh speeds went from probably speed limit was 55. It probably people were I would say maybe 60. Um and now it's it's much closer to I think it's posted 45. But I when I drove through the two cars in front front of me were going 40. So they were going less than than the posted speed which was really nice. But it's it's a sense of place. It's infinitely safer. And now you've changed the character of that road and that that

neighborhood for probably the next hundred years because you're not you're not going to wipe all that out to try to get more more traffic through. Especially when you have a six lane freeway a half a mile the other way. you know that that's that's the commuter route. You know, there's a lot of these roads, especially around here, that that that's not the interstate. This is these are neighborhoods. These these are where kids go to school, they want to go to the park, they want to go to the playground. They're they're neighborhood streets. And I think if we we kind of cater to that, you'll get the right speed, you'll get the right placemaking in and and and you'll get the drivers to to react accordingly, which is nice. Thank you.

Yeah, just a quick question. Jason, can you just comment on the amount of funding that this program unlocks for the region, realizing each grant maybe is a little bit different? And um maybe just make a comment about our application. And I I would assume that if our corridor study and the safety action plan are in alignment that that would give us um a good chance right at funding.

So I will say my I'm not a negative person, but I'm going to go on the negative side. It's it's competitive. So we're competing against the entire country. Uh so to to be able to get the 300,000 that was huge. Um, and I think there's one year left uh on the transportation bill that that allowed this to happen, but I think it's so so important that you're going you got support from both sides. So, I feel like the next transportation bill is going to have safety projects in it and safety programs in it. And I I really do feel like the safety action plan is is your foundation for moving forward. um the last year of the bill, do you know? I mean, it's billions of dollars, but the problem is um

how much is left? How much is left? Well,

yeah. So, they did review and and pull back some of the previously awarded projects through uh Safe Streets and Roads for All. Um they did come out with a list of things that were cleared to move forward. Um and in Michigan, I believe for the the previous year, it was like nine of 12 were on there. The other three were still going through the grant agreement. So nothing was just fully cancelled, which I think is a good sign. Um, what it did open up though is five billion over five years and they're doing about 1 billion a year. So assuming that they do a billion in this award that you guys submitted an application for last year, um, there would be still $1 billion left in that last year. Um, so and you can always apply every year. you can do one application. Um, so even if you received that funding, you could apply again for a different project, different quarter. Obviously, there is some local money tied to it though. There's a 20% match uh to keep in mind. Um, but it really is unprecedented funding, federal safety funds too that go directly to the local agencies. So, it is not going through the state department of transportation. Uh, it doesn't go through their local agency program office. it it doesn't go through any of that. It's money direct to the local agencies for safety. Um, and then it also allows a lot bigger projects, too. So, the safety funding that you typically could have access to from a federal standpoint that comes through the MDOT uh was about 750,000 max per project, right? This program opened up to 25 million for that application. And I don't remember how much your final amount was of your application, but I know it was a handful of millions.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, the one thing I will say when we did the uh pedestrian crossing study over in the Zealand area, uh we were turned down on that construction project. And the one thing that was a little bit disappointing to me is as they reviewed that application, they didn't go into the the safety piece yet. They they kind of did the first round just based on what they felt. So they didn't use data as they went through the applications. So that kind of turned me off on on some of the this process of of really federally competing with everybody in the country because to me I it felt like they really are kind of, you know, trying to spread things out and trying to move things around. And I thought, well, why wouldn't they just go to the safety data first and then just say these are the top top 20% safety projects and then let's let's go from there. But when I asked them because we're allowed to get um debriefed afterwards and they said that they didn't look at that first and I was like well that's the whole point of the just is for the safety and we had a really good time and returned on our safety numbers. So,

but that was not SS4. That wasn't it wasn't safe streets for all. But so it's I guess what I'm saying in a negative way is you just really don't know. But I feel like we have a really good um plan that was put together and and our coordination was was really wellreceived and I think with your corridor study and what we did, it has to score well. It just has to. So I have my fingers crossed.

I just want to reiterate how good this plan is. Not that I'm biased or anything about it, but it it it truly does unlock just an insane amount of funding that you need this plan to be able to go after for. So, uh, it's a great document. If you look up the Makatawa area coordinating council safe streets for all planning document on there, you can give it a deep dive. And there's so many good numbers and there's so many good graphics and things to touch on that we could be here for two hours talking about. But again, yeah, kudos to Mac staff and AECOM for putting this together. Well done, Pam. All right. Anything else? All right. Thank you.

Thanks for having us. We appreciate it. Great work. All right. Moving on to communications and petitions, scheduling of public hearings. It looks like we there's anything listed. Uh communications from commission members. Nothing. All right. Um, communications from staff.

Sorry. Sorry. Just skipping down to the second bullet point, November meeting. So, I mentioned earlier that we'll have the hope project there for the public hearing. And I know we have a slight conflict um at least with the staff um ice rink soft opening. So, there might be a couple of us missing. I just wanted to really get confirmation that we're going to have a quorum for the November meeting because if we do need to move it, we Miranda sort of uh gave us a backup date for Thursday if but we'll need to get those notices out um that the meeting is going to change if we need to do that. So, I was really hoping that you guys could let us know, you know, by the end of this week if you can um plan on making the November meeting um that would be the only item. That's the public hearing for next month.

I'm out of country. I will not be here. I will not be here. All right. I think decisions made already probably. I'm I'm available. 4 to 14. Yeah, I'm I'm available on Thursday. I I can be available that Thursday if needed. Yep. Okay. Well, maybe if that's all right, maybe we'll just go ahead and slide it to Thursday then if I'm seeing a bunch ahead. All right. Thank you. That's all I had. Sorry, Juan Gnum. Am I am I getting that last name right?

Nobody gets my last name. Gan Ganon is our new department director. So I guess if you wanted to say anything I guess I take this opportunity to introduce him to everybody is our I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself. I don't know if I should approach the bench on camera. Yeah. Introduce yourself to the public.

Okay. Uh yeah. My name is Juan Gnum and I've been on the job for nine days. I'm thrilled to be here. Uh Holland has always been an aspirational place for me uh from long before I've been a planner. So I feel like I'm among my people. Um I started as an entry- level planner actually for the Southwestern Michigan Regional Planning Commission back in 1995 after I graduated with a degree from Michigan State and then went on to pursue a public administration masters. um and ended up being the city manager for for the city of Bridgemond just down the coast for about 10 years. I really love what I do. I'm thrilled to be working with this fantastic staff up on the third floor of this building. Uh we've got four of them here with Miranda and Mark and Steve and Anna. Um really it's a pleasure and a privilege to be here. I'm looking forward to meeting the council tomorrow evening and uh and learning a lot more about Holland than just looking at it through a visitor's eyes, you know, for day trips and uh and that sort of thing. I really want to become intimate with the community and just become wellversed in everything it has to offer. So, thank you all. It's been a warm welcome.

Yeah, welcome. Thank you. All right. I guess we'll make a motion to adjurnn. So moved. All those in favor say I. I.