City Council - Regular Meeting

order. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please bow with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening um for warmer weather um we just pray that tonight as we work through the agenda that you would give us wisdom and help us do what's right in your sight. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. And I believe there's someone that might want to make an amendment. Uh Mr. Mayor, before we approve the agenda, I'd like to make an a motion to add F2 for staff recognition item to the agenda, please.

Any comments, questions? We have a second. A second. All those in favor say I. I. Okay. passes by zero. Uh now I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda with the addition of F2. I make a motion to approve the agenda with the addition of F2. Second. Crystal's made the motion. Only seconds. All those in favor say I. I. Motion carries 5. Item D. Citizen comments. Which one? Yep. microphone.

Oh, we've got one there. Really listen to her. Well, okay.

We'll just consider that the first citizen come in. So, uh if anyone would like to open citizen comments, three minutes to speak, we'll listen and uh and we'll uh entertain an open citizen comments. Going once. Going twice. Okay. We'll close citizen comments. Uh exparte conflict of interest declaration. Just a chance for the council members to uh identify any conflicts that they might have in terms of visiting or discussing any items uh in tonight's agenda. Any issues? Done here.

No, we're good on that. um appointments, probability, recognitions, nominations. Um this evening, uh I would like to uh recommend that, uh we appoint Pam Dehuff to the senior advisory board position. Um Pam was recommended by the senior uh board, and I think she'll make a great addition. I didn't tell her, but she has to make a 10-minute speech after this. But that's all not a hill for a climber and then she former teacher. So, um I would make the motion that we approve that. I second.

Christa seconds. All those in favor say I. I. Motion carries 5. Congratulations. Appreciate your willing willingness to serve. I'm looking forward to it. I think this is your second time in here in the last month, right? Uh, I have been here a few times. You're up here getting recognized for a few things. So, congratulations.

All right. So, for F2, I'll just go ahead and keep that offline. So, um, citizens of Goddard City Council, within our midst, we have someone who is recently recognized by the Witchaw Business Journal for CFO of the year. And tonight, what we would like to do is recognize you publicly for this. So, City Council mayor, would you like to join me up front? And would you like to please join us up front?

Oh my gosh. We'll come to you. Rick here is kind of a big deal to get recognized in the business room. I hope that you guys all read the article that we bought you a few things to recognize you. Oh, wow. Go ahead. There we go. Okay. So, Miss Nash says Miss Nash says CF no because Craig has told us many times that she says no. So, it does say CF no. Now, the question is, is is this the best picture? That's There's another picture. There's a better one out there. Okay. Well, I I I almost

Okay. Well, thank you. Oh, and then there's probably one other thing we should do since you've got we got a couple other things. So, we did see in the article that your favorite uh pastime in a day is to walk along the trail and eat a big breakfast at homegrown. So, there you have a homegrown business card. And then some flowers. Thanks. Sunflowers. Uh, I've done this sometimes with seniors in high school, but all hail the CFO. One, two, three. All the CFO. Congratulations. Yeah. You're going to wear it around the office tomorrow.

That's okay. the sash and the whole thing. Wow. Thank you guys. We really loved public recognition and you like being the the spotlight. So,

I did mention to the other four that, you know, after we did this, we had to get back on with the agenda. So, I think I think we're okay with that. So, moving on. Moving on. Items consent agenda. I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Chris has made the motion. Cory seconds. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. We got that. No one unfinished business. That moves us on to I1. Mr. Cross.

Hello, May City Council. Your city administrator Craig Crosset here. It's my pleasure to uh be the first one up on new business uh for this evening's council meeting. We've had several action items related to this project. It's the Gutard City Center uh/ Evanbuilding uh company development agreement. Uh we do have an agent for the applicant, Hunter Lemonion with Petra, as well as Mr. Bill Johnson, the owner developer for the project are with us this evening. and I'm sure they'd be glad to share any conversation with you should you like to make an inquiry with them. So, uh just a quick background here on this project. So, uh we've have a development agreement proposal that uh came from Evans Building Company uh for their light industrial/commercial project. It's near Goddard City Center. So all the acreage north of the pipeline around Casey's with the exception of one lot if you're wondering the general area project consists of a construction of approximately 45,000 square ft of new building space to support industrial manufacturing warehouse distribution flex space andor office uses with an estimated $5.7 million in private investment here in our community. The development agreement that was attached in your agenda packet establishes the terms under which Evans Building Co. will construct the project and uh the city uh could provide certain industrial revenue bond related incentives to facilitate development. Uh per the agreement, you'll see the recital in article 4. We can issue IRBs to allow the sales tax exemption on the construction materials for the cost of constructing this facility and there is a declining property tax abatement schedule on the property for up to 10 years. So you will have seen the fiscal impact analysis uh statute requires that when cities issue industrial revenue bonds they must have a uh benefit analysis conducted. We typically use Witchaw State University Center for Economic Development and Business Research. In there you can see they highlight the $5.7 million capital investment. A very conservative

estimation on the new jobs. I believe uh they came up with that 25 number by simply taking the square footage of the facility and dividing it equally and then assuming I think it's five jobs per space. So that could be wildly varying. I think 25 is relatively conservative as far as a benefit input is concerned. Uh they come up with the estimated payroll based on the types of jobs that they feel could be included in the space along with the quantity of jobs. Um, so this represents new commercial activity and employment growth within the Gddard City Center area, supports Goddard's broader goal of expanding the tax space and activating the corridor, which we'll look at the GDDARD business plan and the goals that are outlined in it later. I think this is well aligned with it. As we look at the property tax abatement, uh, it comes out to 75% over 10 years. it's frontloaded a little bit to help with risk premium on their front-end investment as they uh work to fill this space. I think that one of the things that staff likes to mention whenever we're contemplating an IRB and a property tax abatement is it's important to note that right now that is an empty field generating absolutely zero economic value to our community. This project uh although there'll be a level of abatement for sales and property taxes initially um it will provide an immediate economic uh benefit as well as a significant economic benefit over a 10 and 20 year term. You'll see the uh standard municipal protections that our bond council Kevin Callen and city attorney Ryan Peek typically include in our development agreements uh for some protections for the city and accountability uh for the project and remedies if performance obligations are not met. Guess I should advance the slides. Uh one of the other probably the primary

importance uh as we look at uh issuing these types of incentives is the benefit cost ratio. Um anything over a 1.0 is a uh benefit to the city over the cost. So you'll see in the first uh 10 years about a 32% return on investment over cost. Then obviously in the uh long term over 20 years about 117% benefit over cost. So again, anything greater than one indicates the project generates more public revenue than public costs over the analysis period, which we look at the 10 and 20-year increments. Our legal team has approved this to form and the staff would recommend that the council approved the development agreement attached in exhibit A and authorize Mayor George W. Leeb to execute the agreement. So I'd be glad to take any questions. Uh, as I mentioned earlier, we have agent for the applicant, Hunter Lemon with Petra, as well as Mr. Johnson himself, the owner and developer.

Questions?

I don't have any questions. I just um we went and looked at the building concept that you have out north um and I thought it was really nice. It's not just your typical building. So, I'm pretty excited about the project and I really love um that we've done this benefit cost ratio and how you uh walked us through that earlier uh today and how that works with I think anytime uh that we talk about IRBs, you know, going forward, but it's important for us to do this and understand um how that works and how we get that return on investment. And so, thanks Craig for walking us through that. I know that's important when we're talking about RVs, but for me, I think this is a pretty exciting project and so I appreciate I know we've kind of been talking about it for a while, so it's exciting.

Cory, any comments? Yeah, I guess I'd just say I I think this one has been moving pretty quickly, but I think it's been efficient and I think we've done a good job. Hopefully, uh, you guys have impressed with the way Craig's been able and the team have been able to help execute on this one. So, um, I just say good job to everyone involved in this. I would echo that and just say that this is something really exciting for Goddard. You know, not too long ago, we heard how industrial was really important for Goddard and so I think that this is a a really big win for us, a really big project. And so, I'm excited to see what you guys do with it. And yeah,

I'll make a motion to move to approve the development agreement attached to exhibit A and authorize Mayor Lee to execute the agreement. I second. Cory's made the motion. Christa second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries 5. Appreciate it. Looking forward to watching that thing pop up off the ground. So, me too. Mr. I'm going to film the consultant and conference in that represents the firm. All righty.

Chief, how are you this evening? I am great. How are you guys? Good. So while we're waiting for her to pick up the phone, this agenda item is about the proposal for consultants for emergency operation and continuity of our operational plans. You want to tell them who she is?

Yes. Uh on the line we have Erica Carter who represents the firm that staff are recommending to the council for the emergency operation and continuity plan. She represents IP parametrics. Um so as a little bit of background on this issue, the city of God's current emergency operations plan is a minimal basic document that does not adequately reflect the city's um current uh structure organizationally and operational capabilities or the best practices in modern emergency management. As our community continues to grow and the municipal operations become more complex, it is imperative that the city maintain a comprehensive um actionable and compliant emergency and continuity plan to ensure life, safety, continuity of services, and coordinated response during disasters or major events. To strengthen the city's preparedness posture, we've solicited proposals from four qualified firms to provide the following services. Update and expand the existing emergency operations plan. develop an initial continuity of operations plan and create a quarterly training exercise plan as well as prepare documentation to facilitate the city's first four exercises. Two firms of those four submitted proposals. Iparametrics and emergency management partners EM partners. Iparametrics is who we are recommending. Uh they are a national cons consulting firm sorry specializing in emergency management resilience continuity and operational readiness for public and private sector um organizations. The firm supports jurisdictions and institutions across the country and by delivering practical standards based training planning and exercises that strengthen preparedness, improve coordination and support for effective leadership decision making during complex incidents. We've conducted staff have conducted a Microsoft Teams meeting

with IP Parametrics who we've on the phone with leadership to review their approach, confirm understanding of the city's needs and evaluate project fit. I parametrics comes highly recommended from Sed County Emergency Management, which I feel is very important. The scope of work we're wanting them to do, if approved, is the city's existing emergency operations plan will undergo a comprehensive review and refinement process to ensure it's accurately reflected uh reflecting current operations, our government's structures, and our risk considerations for what we have here in GD. The effort will improve clarity, usability, and operational revolence, relevance, and so the plan can effectively guide decision-m and coordination during emergencies. who have will align with EOP with current city function, staffing and infrastructure. Incorporate updated hazard threat and vulnerability considerations. Clarify leadership roles, authorities, and coordination mechanisms. Strengthen integration with regional, state, and federal partners and follow nationally recognized emergency management standards and best practice practices. Scope of work continues. Following the completion of the EOP update, the city will establish a structured quarterly training and exercise program to ensure the plan is remain familiar, relevant, and operational. It will reinforce the roles and responsibilities outlined in the EOP, emphasize leadership decision-m and interdep departmental coordination, use realistic scenarios to test procedures, and document lessons learned, and incorporate improvements into the future plan updates. EM partners proposes a comprehensive planning, training and exercise effort aligned with FEMA, MIMS and HC standards. Their team highlights national experience and extensive staffing uh capacity. While EM partners does offer strong credentials and national experience, their cost significantly exceeds available budget capacity for this project.

Financial aid cost will be allocated to the general fund discretionary line item miscellaneous consultant fund 10 to 108530 IP parametrics is who we are recommending at $34,780 not to exceed the partners would be 99 just shy of 100,000 not to exceed pinning reviews legal considerations there if approved the staff will enter into a contract with the selected firm referencing the submitted proposal and the city's mandatory contract provisions. It is recommended that the city move to accept the proposal from IP parametrics seen attached in exhibit A and authorize city staff to enter into an agreement for the scope of services pending final legal review. Any questions on that or do you have any questions for the representative from IP metrics to sum it up? It would take a big burden of time and effort and not having expertise in that we're sending someone who deals with that is professional but also local and I think it would be very well used.

I think it's important not to while we want community input, you know, from officers, I think it's important to have somebody that is not inundated with the day-to-day of Goddard. um in and having that kind of persuade the way that you put your plan together. Yeah. And we will still have input as to giving guidance as to what we are made up of, what we have, what we can do, and and what we've done in the past for certain situations. They're just bringing a a large portfolio to the uh to the table.

I um I don't have questions, but I do just want to share this. This is something that I have shared with Craig several times. Um I think that there is anything that um you know we do here this is one of the most important things I think that it's human nature for a lot of people to operate on the basis of well if it happens um or that will never happen to me um and for those of you who know me like it can happen to you and and it will if you're not careful and um I I think that it's really important not only at the end of the day that we as the city have a plan in place. Um, and you know, Craig and I talked about this today. I have no doubt that if a tornado blew through here tomorrow or we had a mass casualty, you know, in a local business that our officers and our city and and the staff would pull together and they would get this done. However, um, I think that this is also about making sure that our community is prepared and that they understand that we have a plan in place. And I also think that in in it's human nature in instances like that, you do not know how you're going to react to fight or flight. And I think it's really important to have a very well doumented plan in place for our officers and their safety for our staff and their safety for any volunteers that we have. Um, I know we've got like emergency weather planning um, classes and things coming up, but just making sure that we have something in place that tells our community that we do take those safety seriously and um, that were prepared should the unpickable happen.

It aligns with, you know, specifics that boxes need more than just being checked on for FEMA standards, right? We're not just doing the bare minimum. Yeah. I guess I would like to ask Erica if she could kind of maybe just give us a little timeline summary of uh the process, how long it'll take. I think she said a week. She's listening to her. Yeah. Well, got her attention. She was listening.

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that. Um yeah, so t Thank you so much. This is Erica Carter. Um it typically takes um between six and 12 months to write a plan. And um part of the reason for that to the council woman's um point there is that we really want to make sure that we're eliciting feedback from the community and that we're making sure that this plan is reflective of um the city of Goddard and the way that you all operate and the resources that you have there. And so, um, we're looking at about that for our timeline. Um, obviously depending on some of the other things that the community has going on, um, we will make sure that we are, um, flexible to what your needs are in that way.

Erica, this is Craig. I I think when we talked, we thought probably the better part of this year it would take for us to complete the plan. And one of the things we asked is if we could uh not really start until 1 of March because February is teed up pretty well already with other to-dos. And so kind of have that initial kickoff meeting in March and then uh take what we think could be the better part of the year to complete the process because the work the final work product will be very comprehensive couple of documents. Um, and as Erica shared, there'll be some community engagement aspects of this which take time. Um, so this isn't going to be quick. Uh, but it it will be diligent.

Well, you know, I know in some of the conversations we've had about this that, um, we have a pretty high reliance on Cedric County's emergency preparedness group. And I think this will help document how that handshake and how that fits uh in an emergency process. And um as the city continues to grow, it's important that we continue expand and develop the processes and things that that we're responsible for. And I think this is just another part of the grow growth of our community. Um I think Craig told me we've just wiped out the consulting budget for the year with this. So there's a little bit left.

There's no work over there. No, CFO said no. Anyway, but uh I do think I mean this is a really basic block and tackling and it's one of those things it's only important when you need it. And so I'm just appreciative that you know you've worked on this and this is kind of another step forward in the growth of our community. So,

mayor, I I want to add one other thing if you'd allow it. And I I appreciate Councilwoman White's comments uh in that she and I think the governing body and hopefully most in the community would agree that uh they do trust that we're ready and prepared today as is. Um you know, we are going to uh trainings all throughout the year. Uh in fact, we had an all senior staff uh training on uh senior appointed officials for disaster preparedness and response uh at the Sydney County Extension Office just a couple of months ago. So uh we try to hit those a few times a year so it's always fresh. Um so we we are training on this stuff. You know, we we just went through a pretty mild weather event, but that kind of gets the wheels turning on response and preparedness to some degree. So, um, while while we know we could handle disasters today, again, we need this, uh, to be on the books. That way, we can build public confidence and, uh, that our citizens and everyone knows that there is a plan in place and we can just point them to it. And it gives us something to practice internally, which is something I'm really excited about. I I want to do tabletop exercises quarterly, which you you don't see that happening in a lot of communities, especially those of our size. So we'll be one of the better prepared communities when it comes to preparedness and response after this process is over.

And this has been a topic of discussion with the western sed county mayors here recently. So the whole idea of sharing resources uh across communities uh I think that's another important aspect of this is that um to be able to support each other whether it's in machini or andale garden plane manage so anyway

I just have one more comment and I kind of throw inside of left field because this is not something I mentioned earlier but it is something that I kind of thought on I think the only thing that I would ask upon approving doing this is at the end of this, and maybe this is something that's definitely in the works, is that um we do some sort of community engagement at the very end of this so that our community is prepared should a tornado come through or should a mass casualty come through or or something happens like they understand the the pieces of the plan that they need to know. Um you know, we just watched Andover, thank God that this was not worse for them a few years ago. But just having that in place where our community, anyone who wants to know knows, hey, if this happens, like here's kind of our hub. Here's our our game plan on where you can go if you don't have cell service or you don't have internet, you can't we can't get those updates out to you on Facebook. And so I think that would be my only request is that we just make sure we're engaging them at the end of this and that they're gaining something from this, too. Absolutely. Any comments?

Um, while we got Eric on, maybe she could just speak to one question I had on reading through the proposal. Um, it says cost of the travel be passed through directly to the city and any travel will be approved to the city prior before scheduling. Is there no plan to have anyone come visit here? It's all remote.

So, we we did talk about this a bit during our team's call. I would like Eric to Erica to be in person at least three or four times during this process, but I think a big amount of it can be done remotely. Um, while we shared that she's local, local is a relative term. Compared to the other four firms, she is local. She's in the Kansas City area. So, the cost of travel is probably quite minimal compared to if we

flying someone in and putting them up overnight, so to speak. So, I would think that um I'm just going to guess no more than a couple thousand bucks uh for the mileage and then if we have to put her up, you know, overnight a few times and and that's probably being conservative to with that number, you know, well, we could feed her while she's here, but I guess some of these would probably be during lunch. Hey, you know, that sounds like an absolute win to me. Yeah. And we just need to talk to Kod about keeping the turn prices low and you know we'll pass the savings right on. We'll get right on that. Great. Thanks. I appreciate it. I

was going to say I know some shortcuts to get around those K dot charges coming from Kansas City. So they're not very short though and then then take 50 on down to 77. Oh man, it's the scenic route. Yeah, she wants to get hard and get home. It's not like the speed limit is 35 miles an hour out there running at 65 and I'm sure you wouldn't speed. So, are we good? Are we good? Okay.

I make a motion to move to accept the proposal from IP parametrics seen attached in exhibit A and authorize city staff to enter to an agreement for the scope of services pending final legal review. I second. Chris made the motion. Amanda seconds. All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries 5. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Erica. Thank you so much. Okay.

Russ Lone is representing us on the SJ County Fire Advisory Board. Going to give us an update. All right. Very good. Oh, I'll keep this under 45 minutes for sure. What is the fire council? What's its purpose? What does it do? You guys are new to some of this as well. Um, we advise our county commissioners at at the root of of our purpose, but we also fill in gaps because how many county commissioners live in Gddard? Anybody? Zero.

Zero. Um, that's the way that is. There's a lot of places that, you know, they cover the entire county and there's a lot of towns, townships, people, private properties that are in or out of fire district. So, we have representation uh through locals. I happen to be a business owner. I own real estate here and operate a business. So, that makes me qualified to to serve in this voluntary position. And the board is made up of nothing but volunteers. How many members in It's nine. Nine.

That said, uh examples of of topics that we've we've worked on or things that we've supported. Um first and foremost is what does the fire uh advisory council do? And we kind of had to defi define that. We have our rules and u minutes are our kept its open meetings record act applies to all of this. Anything that we talk about or anything we do it's fully public information. It's nothing that's done in a silo or anything like that. Uh some of the I'll just hit some of the the big stuff that that we've tackled or attempt to to have influence over and again purely an advisory role. We've talked about budgeting and try to understand how that process works. We brought in the CFO from uh county and it's some wonderful presentations to really talk about how all that happens and the process that that goes through when uh Chief Williams uh needs equipment or they need more personnel or the budget crisis or emergencies happen stuff like that. How does all that flow and happen? So that's more of an iterative learning process uh for everyone involved but it's starting to produce fruit, if you will, that we we have knowledge that we can better leverage our advice to county commissioners. Uh, another big big issue uh with the rank of thought, uh, they're they have a union. They are not recognized by county commissioners, and that's neither here nor there, but their request is that they are to be recognized. and we've gone back and forth on that and what advice that we've given commissioners and so on. I think that there's a lot of discussion that to happen on that. Uh more recent and probably the most

profound that's impacted me the the most is uh mutual aid agreements within the county and what that looks like. uh our neighbors outside of here. Not just because a town, township or city is within Cedric County, it doesn't mean that they're in fire district. There's a lot of history, a lot of emotional history, a lot of pride in in outlying towns. Um, at one time I'm sure, you know, Witchah and Goddard, we it's all we have is volunteer fire departments, which a lot of these outlying towns have, or they have kind of a hybrid, maybe a few people that are hired that are full-time, but the majority being volunteer. I said the words mutual aid and it's kind of this is a critical one that we kind of had to really define and understand and Chief Williams was was great for for helping our education in this and mutual aid loosely defined is if you represent town A and you represent town B, you all have about the same amount and the same type of equipment and the same type of training. It's mutual, but if your entire town were engulfed in flames, your equipment's not going to do it, but yours could come help to do that. It's mutual, and it's a give and a take. Some of our our challenges is with some of our smaller towns or townships that are not entire districts because the concept of mutual aid has fallen farther and farther apart. If you only have a truck, if you only have a garden hose, um it's not really equitable. It's not mutual. It's not on the same playing field. And maybe all of your staff and

volunteers are fully trained to the same level as full-time staff and say like I use Witchaw as an example or Cedric County Fire. All of those operators are are trained extensively. It's very difficult for anyone in a volunteer any organization in a volunteer scenario to have that level of credentiing and training and that type of stuff is becoming much more recognized and looked at. Everybody here be within city limits of Goddard and and I'll say city limits of Goddard because we're in fire district.

We all pay uh fire district millies. Um we recently were able to lower them by two points which was great. That's a good thing. And there's there's math reasons why all that was able to to come out. But the uh get get back to the there's there's a component in in all of this that is going to hurt some of these outlying communities and towns. Uh one of them being everybody gets ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 with an ISO rating. I believe we're in eight uh right now which is really really good uh where we're at where before a mutual aid entity we'll call them could kind of piggyback on our ranking and capabilities to achieve their their ISO rating so that their u their number could be up. It may not be an eight, but maybe it makes it to a five or a six or what have you. So, what does ISO do? Insurance companies look at this. They either reference it. I don't know of an insurance company that doesn't at least reference it. Others live and die by it. And there's, if you look at the coastlines, West Coast, East Coast, panhandles, they look at that ISO much more seriously than they ever have. Go to California. you. Everyone's heard about California fires and so on. Some of their ISO ratings have tanked because they didn't have everything that they needed for the the types of fires that they can have. Well, ISO goes in and looks at what is your training? Who showed up at the fire to go help them? What was their training? What was their what equipment came there? Was it the right equipment? You could have a hundred people show up, but if they're

not trained and valid in in what they're doing, it doesn't count. And that's from a from a dollars and cents standpoint. If I'm big executive insurance company, I want to know what the capabilities are in the area to control fire and to respond and for all the emergencies and I'm going to charge accordingly. I can tell you this, it's coming here. These rankings are being re-evaluated for what they do it about every four years and we're a couple of years into it. of some of these smaller entity towns that have been kind of piggybacking on central counties capabilities who are not in fire district. If they're not in fire district, that means they don't pay fire district. You do, you do. All of you do. I do so that they don't have to. This is the big deal. It's a big financial consideration. And honestly, it's it's time has come. My recommendation and the boards or the advisory council's recommendation to county commissioners and to Chief Williams was very simple. All the smaller communities going to give you an arbitrary date. Whatever date they they they decide, say January 1 of 2027, you're either in fire district or you're not. And if you're not, you're on your own. So, here's some financial considerations. We have Cedric County Firehouse sitting right over here. Everyone's familiar with that.

Three $3.5 million a year to operate that. If city council decided that they wanted to take that over, you couldn't do it for that price. It's a shared expense throughout the county with all the mill levies and so on, and you couldn't we just couldn't afford it. it would be much more expensive than that. All of these municipalities, townships, cities, they're all facing that reality. I'll I'll close with this uh for questions. Any questions if you have a neighboring county just went through this exact process. Took them about a year and a half. um Reno County, they uh went to every entity that was involved, gave them their options, gave them a a timeline as to when this was going to happen, and the emotions that were involved were it'll be a cold day in heck before we come into fire district. Well, where we sat as of January one of this year, every single entity, township, community, town, all came in the fire district. They all had the financial considerations that they had to look at. It was by far cheaper to come into the fire district. On top of that, it's fair to the people who have been pay who've been footing the bill. Everyone in Goddard is footing the bill for somebody else. It's not that it's a I don't look at it as an evil thing. We should help our neighbors,

but there's there's help and there's more help and then there's more help and then there's taking advantage of our financial situation. They're still our neighbors. They're still our our friends. They're still our family, but we need to come to a a new level of understanding and a new way of uh operating and doing business. And if they want to do it on their own, so be it. They'll still be our family, still be our friends, still be our neighbors.

Close with that. Russ, I know I've had an opportunity to go to some of these meetings and uh there's the history and the emotion u is one thing, but there's also a real issue about safety for the volunteer fire departments and over time the number of people that will respond and Cedric County has, you know, sends their people out, but they have two or three people in that community that they're going out to help based on their mutual aid agreement. uh who's in charge. Uh there's

there's there's there's a lot of uh there's a lot of issues that will be cleared up. And I think the big thing after that last meeting is everybody talked about the the issues the insurance issue for these small communities is probably the reality of having to face much higher insurance rates if you're on if they're out on their own. And uh and I uh I sure then well they will for a prize. I kind of think of like the Palisades. You mentioned California and you know a lot of them were dropped because of their fire risk. Their fire entrance was was dropped.

So this is an issue that that the county's taken care of and appreciate your you know your service and your input. Takes time and like everything pretty complex issues. You guys have any other questions? I do have a question. So in the Reno County example, if they all decide to go in the fire district, what happens with the firehouses that were volunteered? All that has to be detailed worked out. It it's it's tedious. Chief Williams and and commissioners, they they have plans.

Um there's a lot of strings attached to is this a donated firehouse? What is the equipment even serviceable to the standards in which the Cedric County Fire is held to? There's is it rented? Uh is it even adequate to do the job when you bring it up to standard and you put the amount of people that it needs to to have there? Can you even do it? So there's there's a tremendous amount of logistical strings to to work through in all of this and the additional services of EMS. I mean over time people have higher expectations right

in in those rural communities. I just thought real quickly that the six class two cities in the ring around Witchah uh Bair Goddard Hazesville Maze Park City all are part of the county valley center and uh Mulane uh have their own fire departments. I think Mulane kind of has a half their people there part time or part of the time they're not we're not fully staff 24/7. Uh then then you got Andel Bentley Garden Plane Keychite and Biola all are part of the county fire process and then Cheney Clearwater Kitch. That's an interesting one. uh Mount Hope and Sedick have their own. So there's there is kind of a in terms of number of cities it's about the smaller cities there's the majority of them are still operating with the volunteers.

I have two quick questions. One um you know we talk a lot about financials and I'm not going to place that talks about you know taxes and what that looks like. Um, when we kind of talk about insurance going up and the price that these homeowners and some of these other places will potentially be paying, um, do you feel like as far as taxes go that being a part of the county and paying into that tax could inevitably be cheaper for them than, you know, looking at what their insurance? If you follow any of the models on the coastlines, it's substantially cheaper to pay no levy than it is the insurance that you're going to take. It's it's coming.

And again, it depends on which insurance company that you're dealing with or who their underwriters are. They all reference it. ISO, they all reference that. Some live and die by it and others it's more of a it's part of the equation. So there's you're going to see some differences, but at the end of the day, up is the only thing that I'm able to to drive out of all of this that that's the only direction it's going versus

maybe up a little and and holding and and being in check. And now if we happen to have neighboring communities, which it sounds like, you know, other places have tried this and they've kind of run across, but should a neighboring community decide it's still just not for them at that point, is there like a level of incident that would still um call our our fire out to them or our EMS out to them? I think like firework gets called out for even pass all the time over accidents and other things like is there a line there where they say hey this is a critical

it's my understanding that there's always mutual aid throughout the state but that happens at the at the state level they can and then that can come down and you can kind of cross-pollinate those resources that's never that's not changing but the daytoday um we're not my garage is on that's going to have to be handled at at the local level. If you're on your own,

they'll have to come up with their own mutual aids, uh, which whoever they're working with, other municipalities, they can just say, "No, we're not interested in mutual aid." Because at the end of the day, if we cleared this firehouse out to go help someone who really isn't in a mutual aid true scenario and George's house catches on fire, and now it's an extra 15 minutes for someone else to come to put his house fire out, I don't think George can be real happy. I wouldn't be. So my wife would get home a new set of furniture something positive on this.

So I guess follow to my last question a little bit is with the Reno County example and if we were looking at something like that for Cedric County where like you said Clearwater and Genie I think have their own. if they get that option to either continue their own or come into fire district. If they both decided to come in, does the Cedric County Fire District look at whether or not they can actually respond to those two outlying cities? Absolutely. Okay. Because otherwise, would they need to potentially add a firehouse? All that's being looked at and evaluated. They have that type of stuff now, but again, how do you they're going to have to normalize that to the standards of which Central County operates. Okay.

Are they already doing that? Are they already responding? Cedric County, is Cedric County already responding to those to communities without and to a large extent you're paying for it? Yes. Yes.

And and they're not they're not paying the fire districts at all. So they're pretty much just if this were to go into place, they would kind of get rid of those mutual aid agreements, which it sounds like that needs to happen. Like I think that's good for the city of Goddard, what you're recommending, because uh when we have people that talk about our resources being strained because of the growth. Well, it's not really growth that's straining it because Sedric County, right, is um knows what they're doing when it comes to like this much radius per firehouse. Um it's really the communities that are using us for mutual aid but not paying the taxes and therefore not getting their own resources that would really strain it. I mean the growth probably has a little bit to do with it but as we continue to grow this only becomes more important

um for us you know because those resources are already being used twice as much or there's twice as much um housing and homes that they need to cover. Um, and so I'm grateful to you for being on this board and making a great recommendation for the city of Godard because I think it makes sense to me, you know. Thank you. Thanks for your time on it. Thanks for welcome. We'll let you come back some other time. Very good. Thank you. How long you You've been on the board. You've been on that thing for two.

It's coming up on I'm about to Okay. So, it's like four year fouryear deal. So, yeah. Well, appreciate your time you're investing on our behalf. Thank you. All right. Next item.

Guess one's back. fun. Our favorite yellow and blue sheets. Yeah.

So, this is new to a couple of you. I don't know if you were part of the CIP planning process that we did last year, but this is kind of our that we call this our matrix. So, I gave everybody one of these. Um this is kind of the Excel spreadsheet that we work off of um each year. Um started it last year. And so basically what what Craig and I and Jason have done is sat down and tried to review our 10-year plan based on what we did in 2025 um and what we want to do in 2026 and then start working through the budget and kind of looking at all the projects that we put onto this plan last year. There are some additions, some things that we moved around, some things that we combined, but at the end of the day, we need to um determine that we're in agreeance with um these changes to the CIP, and in a future council meeting, we will come back with a a resolution for you to adopt. So, um to get started, Craig and I are going to tag team this presentation. I'm going to do the first half and then he's going to do the annual goal setting session portion. Um and Our agenda for today, we will talk about why the CIP changes are needed and then we'll go through each one of the different subcategories that we had and we'll highlight the changes that we made. So you will be aware of what we've kind of adjusted. Um we've added a new section which we've talked about kind of intermittently when Kevin has come and and asked us to adopt a resolution to include certain developer projects into the CIP to protect our debt limit. So, we went ahead and added a section in this so we can kind of keep track of those things as well. Um, and then we'll talk about, you know, what's being asked to approve. Craig is going to go through an overview of, um, the goal setting session, our adapted goals, the old ones and new ones, um, our carryover projects, our 2026 action action goals,

and then question and any council directions that you would like to provide to add. So um why are CIP changes needed? Um we need to update cost estimates and project phasing. So you know we've kind of I mean this is a guide that's always changing. So you know we want to come back annually and make sure that that we're up to date with this. So there's been some cost estimates that's changed that you know time changes and we've got some better numbers in those. Um, one of the things that we've kind of omitted last time around was if we have a big project that we're planning for into the future, we need to factor in probably the year before or two years before some engineering cost and design costs. So, um, kind of a rough estimate that we put in there that's just kind of um, common is about 10% of the pro project cost. So, you will see those additions added into the CIP in years prior to some of those larger projects and we'll talk about that in a second. um project schedule adjusted to align with readiness and funding. So that just tells you that we have decided this project doesn't really have the funding right now. We're going to push it down the road or maybe we wanted to bring it up because something something changed. Um new growth related and utility infrastructure needs added. We identified a few different projects that need to be added in. Nothing in 2026, I believe, but everything in 2027 and future. So, we put it on this list hoping that, you know, when we go through a budget planning process, that's going to be key to, um, setting our 2027 budget. And then, like I already mentioned, um, we added the new developer projects, um, just to protect our debt capacity. So, under the administrative and facility project updates, these are the changes that we wanted to highlight um, from the last time this policy was adopted. um our comprehensive plan, which we all know fell out of fell out of the um budget number. So, we wanted

to at least update that on our list here. Um we expected to be closer to probably like 180, but I just went ahead and factored in a 100,000 this year and 100,000 next year just to give us a little bit of room in that. And you can see on the matrix I kind of estimated based on um the plan that they gave us in the comp plan just kind of juggling those situ those costs out to kind of equal out 100 um you know 180,000 for those two years. Um in the library and senior center expansion projects we went ahead and combined those projects into one. Um we the senior center was an addition to our CIP last late last year. We didn't have a cost estimate ready um for that and we still don't have one but um we went ahead and combined you know the library and senior center expansion costs together and added in $600,000 of engineering and design in 2028. So that was something that we did not factor in. Like I said those engineering and design costs were we're going to start putting this that on the schedule. Um, we did not change the total cost of the project. So, you know, that's still up in the air and it's still out just a little bit to 28 and 29. Um, we can true those up when we start getting closer to those um years. city hall modernization. Um we added 100k in 2030 um to account for the engineering and design and then added engineering design as well for the police and municipal court facility of 1.9 million. That's quite a bit for um but it is a large project. So you know again 10% of those costs are things that we need to consider.

Brick can I add a little color to this? Sure. Um, so the timing of all of this is really contingent upon the amortization or the maturing or more simple terms when the star bonds are paid off. Um, there's a couple of variables involved in when that may be. I think the best case scenario is probably end of 2028. And at that point, uh, we unlock roughly a million dollars a year that is currently unallocated towards anything. It's just an extra million dollars a year that we'll have that could be utilized to finance around 12 to 15 million worth of capital projects. The thought is that we could utilize that to service debt on the library/cenior center and the police station and one very large general obligation bond. I do not believe that the $1 million a year in additional sales tax revenue that will come online will be enough to pay for those I'll just call them two projects. I I think there is a capability to have the library and senior center in one facility. That's not uncommon. U City of Derby had done that for a number of years, but now they have a separate senior center. Um other communities do that. And I think there's a priority to try to keep those facilities downtown. And for that to be a real feasibility, you probably need them in the same building. So, um I don't think the sales tax revenue alone is going to cover it. The council will have to make a difficult decision as to whether they uh want to ask the public to an additional sales tax, maybe a quarter or a half cent or more uh to combine with that additional million dollars a year in

sales tax revenue that will come off the star bond or look at the mill levy. Um, I personally, this is my opinion, being a few years away, would speculate that it would be more sensible to look at asking the public to approve maybe a half cent sales tax for these very specific projects that would have clear plan identified. We'd already have preliminary concept designs. There would be confidence that that funding would be going towards those specific needs. Uh the reason I would prefer a sales tax versus increasing the millie is because Goddard is a regional tourism attraction. When you consider the 30,000 vehicles a day that drive through our community, the several hundred thousand visitors that come to Tangana Wildlife Park and the nearly 1 million visitors that go to the Genesis Sports Complex every year, all of those people that are visiting our community can help pay for these things. To me, that is much more palatable than asking the rooftops to increase property tax allocation. Let's let the people coming to Goddard help us pay for our needs. So all of this, this is why we look at the CIP and review every year because while I think today the best case scenario is the Starbond matures or is paid off at the end of 2028, it could be 29 or 2030. So we'll be back here every year just kind of fine-tuning this. So that's just some uh insider baseball, so to speak, as far as how staff is thinking we might pay for some of these things. Um, it really is contingent upon the STAR bonds being paid off, unlocking that really large source of sales tax revenue, and then the citizens will have to seriously contemplate how badly they want these projects and if they would vote themselves to approve maybe another half

cent worth of sales tax to combined with the Starbond sales tax revenue to service the annual debt on the police station and the library/ senior center. the city hall modernization that comes at the very tail end of all of this. Uh because of the way phasing would need to work, we would need to have the police station built and operational. Um and then we would be capable of moving our staff throughout this entire building. They would need to be gone first, right? Um so

again, speculating. We're a few years out from all this, but this is kind of how we are thinking it could unfold in the next three to five years. I want to add a few things to that. Um I would like to see the uh preliminary work on the police station split into the two sections and the first part of that work and maybe not dollar for dollar but start that in 2027. Uh, I think we have I would prioritize the police station ahead of the library and the senior center expansion. The million dollar uh based on current interest rates would uh generate about $13.6 million in the bond indebtedness. Uh, another 260,000 would get you another 3.4 million. Uh so uh a million $260,000 you could borrow basically $17 million. Uh and and so that project I believe could be completed without increasing um property tax or the sales tax. And I think um I think it's important that I mean half of our budget is tied up in in police protection. Uh, I know we talk about our public works facility being embarrassing. I think the staff and where the police station is working out of that small space is really kind of embarrassing, too. Yeah.

And uh so I would I would maybe look at that money from the star bond and identify that as the potential for getting the police station done and uh we can start on that a little sooner. Um I I think that um there's I know there's interest in the community for senior center and a library. I mean, they're both the the library is a tremendous facility. I saw the numbers that Carrie put out today. A lot of activity. The senior center uh activity has been tremendous. Uh we've got through a little blip with the meals. Uh but I think in terms of prioritization, uh there's a way to do the police station without the 1 cent or half cent sales tax. And that doesn't preclude us from from making that, you know, an opportunity, but it's going to take a community, you know, involvement. The other issue as it relates to that is, you know, twothirds of the people that use the library come basically from and within the school district. And there's nothing right or wrong to any of this. Um, and uh we've got some people coming to the the senior activities that are outside the city as well. No right or wrong to that, but I think that um we owe it to our staff to have adequate working spaces and right now this our police department is locally in that area is inadequate and uh I think we should be a little embarrassed. I would say more than a little. And I would also just say that it's inadequate right now with the amount of officers that you have working in there. We got

to do a tour a few weeks ago. Um mortifying uh but also as we're talking about growing and just how quickly we're growing and the amount of officers that you could need over the next few years. If it's inadequate now and we're talking about adding, you know, one, two, three more officers at a minimum like that. Yeah, I would agree with that sentiment that they need a bigger space. I really appreciate untethering a core service from a ballot issue. I think it's appropriate that we're able to do that with the sales tax that we're already

would already be receiving when the star bond pays off. So, to me, this makes a a lot of sense, mayor. And if the rest of city council agrees with you, I think it's a great way to move forward. I do see a uh challenge in reality of um making sure that we have the cost that we need in 2027 to start design. Um I think we could probably get like onethird of let me find it up there. The 1.98 million maybe we could budget for about onethird of that so we can get a design a preliminary design. Uh, by the way, we already have a preliminary concept, so we have something to work off of. Maybe we could budget three or $400,000 uh in 27 and hopefully make up the rest in 2028. But you're going to see some other stuff for 2027 that you'll want to weigh against what will be a significant cost to do a portion of that design in 2027. So, um, just want to bring that reality to the forefront, but that's something that we can work through if if we want to start taking bigger bites of that design apple in 2027.

And I'm going to take all of this back and and put it into, you know, my spreadsheets and look at it, just these recommendations and tell you what I think we could do um, with the 2027 budget and then the projections out from there. You'll get those as well. So, with that noted, I can we can work it do our best to do what we can with that. So,

I just think it makes more sense to use the taxpayers money toward a public safety facility and a one cent sales tax incentive for um the library and senior center that other um people are coming to our community for. So, I agree. I think we could even do a quarter or a half on the library. Well, it doesn't preclude us from working towards getting those things done as well, right? Yeah. But I I just priority. I think it's a a priority and uh

and sooner the better. I mean, I always Sorry. Sorry. I always like to ask for some clarification on the numbers. So, just as you're doing this, um, I agree with the sentiment that kind of passing that on for the amount of people that come in or the amount of people that come in, even just for our events, you know, we're looking at those numbers. I would like to know on average kind of what that looks like for a family of four, family of five when we're raising the sales tax like in the city, just kind of what that looks like for them as well. So, we kind of get the cost analysis on that. Um, I know that that's obviously a ballpark number, but I would hate to see an increase like that affect our families in a way that they start meeting God to go um, get their groceries or

Yeah, I would we we would definitely have all that data available prior to a ballot issue. Um, but just speaking anecdotally, if you think about the time and fuel and that kind of thing, I think most people were still going to be money ahead to shop local when you're talking about a half cent. Yeah. You know, on $100 that's 50 cents, right? Yeah. Anyway, uh food that's a discussion for another it is taxed by municipalities, just not the states portion. So, but that could all change the worms.

Yeah, as the folks that were in Topeka last week know, there's a lot of action going on in Topeka right now. We'll see how it all boils down in early April. So, oh, I was going to say the one thing I was going to also mention is we're not saying just a police station. We're saying and the court facility, right? That whole project. Something I want to highlight that talking with the chief is on court days here, the line is out the door is Tuesday nights. Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's it's benefiting more than just what we're using the police station facility, but also freeing up the court facility. Yeah. video court in my office. Are you inviting us? Love that. What?

I said, "Are you inviting us to video court?" Well, I I'm not there. That's scary. If there's a sales tax increase though, that would be something that would be on the ballot that the community would It would be correct. It would be their choice. Okay. Yeah. All right. I've noted that change. We'll update that.

All right. So, moving on to the next section is our parks and street project updates. Um, starting with our North Park community enhancement project. Um, we've increased this from on our sheet from last year from 5.0 to 5.9 million. That was because we added in the pond and walking trail restoration, but we were able to put some better dollars in for the grants that that we are we feel pretty confident we're going to get this year in 2026 of 1.2. So those numbers have been updated. Um the means park playground project, we budgeted around 150k for that project in 2025, but it it didn't get completed. So we we're just going to go ahead and push that out to 2027 since we feel like we got plenty of park projects to do and things to do at this point. So we're just going to push that out just a little bit.

Brook, can I make a note on North Park real quick if you don't mind? So conversation around North Park will really be heating up over the next 30 to 45 days. I just want to be really clear that we would not recommend authorizing the um you know the full amount with all the ad alternates um without having contractual obligation on the $1.2 million in grant funds. Um about two weeks ago the state told me that within 30 days we'd have the grant amendment in front of us and they told me that they're already setting up the funding streams and lot they gave me lots of confidence that it's nothing to worry about. So at any rate sometimes the bigger agencies uh it's a big ship small rer it can take a little bit of time. Um, but we would not uh be making a recommendation in excess of that that original budget amount without having that grant amendment contractually obligated. Street projects um the five and five major street program that's in place in 2025. We I increased it um just to give you actual numbers. We ended up spending 1.3 versus 1 one million. So, we're actually kind of ahead in the five and five program at this point in time. Um, went ahead and and and used a million dollars going forward and we're going to try to stay within a million dollars of that. Um, one thing to also remember is when when we do do that five5 program, we are also bidding out the annual street maintenance piece of that as well. Um, which is usually about $250,000 at this point in time. So, they kind of get put together there. um the Crown Drive growth and roundabout projects. Um we combined those two projects, the the Crown Drive and a roundabout that we had on the list. We had that separated, but we combined that into two projects or into one project.

Um and again, we added in that 10% of the engineering and design cost and it's estimated to be in 2029. Downtown beautifification and streetscape. Um we moved that out a year from 2029 to 30. Um added in 200k for design and engineering. Um and again that total project cost there um in 2030 will be about 1.9. Um we don't really have I mean that was kind of in in the works right now. I know you guys have some committees that are kind of working through all the logistics of that. That's kind of a more long-term project that we have on there. the roundabouts at 183rd in Maple. Um, still planned for 2029, but again, we added in our engineering and design cost in there as well.

Brook, I want to throw some more comments in. I'm sorry to keep interrupting.

Um, th these three projects. So, the five is real, really quite firm. Um, and we've we've even got the roads pretty much scoped out all the way through the end of it. that could change a a slight degree, but the crown drive growth and roundabout project that is very much so contingent upon uh acquiring either access management from funds from KOT or funding from Witchaw area Metropolitan Planning Organization, WAMPO um whichever would come first. We're we uh have all the traffic data on the 199th and US 54 uh TE study. The engineer is working on putting together some recommendations and compiling that data. Um, I think one of the options that leadership has identified through conversations with some of their council, um, is that potentially one of the solutions, uh, instead of investing money to improve 54 and 199 on all four corners, maybe the Crown Drive extension is the project you go after. It would be a bigger bang for your buck, especially if K would be willing to pay for it or Wampo since it is such a regional project. When you consider the freight component, when you're tying it into the industrial road, when you think about the tons of out of town visitors to the school district there on Pawne, the roundabout is on Pawn and Crown Drive. Um, and then again, regional connotations when you discuss the access to the Genesis Sports Complex in the Starbond District. WMO and KO want to fund projects with regional impact. Um the roundabout at 183rd in Maple, uh the county has really uh turned the heat up on the discussion regarding pavement of 183rd between Maple and Central. And so they're actually going to start designing perhaps this year. We've had lots of conversations with them about timing that project up so that we could get economies of scale uh a cheaper roundabout if we are lumped into their

contract for both design and construction to pave 183rd from Maple to Central. So you could see some variability that 28 may become 29 or could you know we we'll see how that uh that 29 become 28 excuse me. We'll see how that kind of shakes out. And the downtown beautifification streetscape project is really driven by whether or not the downtown stakeholders are willing to put some skin in the game because we don't have one point about $2.1 million. Uh I don't anticipate having that funding available in 29 or 2030 from what I can see today. Um there's several different opportunities for community improvement district out on retailer sales tax, transportation development district, out retailer sales tax, tax increment financing, perhaps some grant dollars, but uh that project probably doesn't happen without some skin in the game with the with the downtown property owners. Um, not saying they're going to put the bill, but if if we want to get this to to a mode where it's actually capable for us to do it around 29, 2030, there's going to have to probably be some skin in the game because I don't really see a source of revenue for that project at this time.

And what do you what do you mean by scanning and what are you what are your just thoughts? So, not holding you to a candle. I know what to do.

The So, I mentioned the community improvement district and the transportation development district. That would require an additional three cents for every dollar spent downtown being collected to help pay for this project. Tax increment financing is a method of financing capital projects where the increase in property value above the current baseline, so what the current property values are would be reallocated towards helping finance the project. So there would be there would need to be some skin in the game and maybe the main street committee and the downtown property owners say that's just too much skin. We can't put our pound of flesh in. And so then it probably gets pushed out to the end of the CIP or maybe the 2034 to 2045 CIP. I um I just want to I guess make a note on this from someone who you know does a lot of good community events and um enjoys downtown and just joined the main street steering committee because I I think that it's got so much potential. Um I would really like this to maybe go in front of that committee um sooner rather than later. And it doesn't have to be like write this in the next couple meetings, but just sooner rather than later um because I think you have a lot of great people on that committee who um if someone's going to write, you know, for a grant or someone's going to do it, you've got a few people in there, you've got some of the businesses that are in there as well. But also, and I know obviously we're talking pennies on the dollar when we think what our community events bring in, but I think Danny just in what she's done in her first year and what we've dealt with Fest and other things, what that potentially could look like in the future. I think um our community events have some skin in the game there as well. Uh we really want to not have to mark every single time we have an event

um with chalk in our hands and um having a beautiful clean even road uh I think is really important as well. So, I think that there's some skin in the game, per se, to be passed around and just maybe what that would look like if we um discussed what it would look like to fund from those things or get the Main Street Steering Committee to to start looking at some grants sooner rather than later, even if we had to do little bits at a time and we weren't then filing that to just the businesses on on Main Street.

Absolutely. I think the capital stack that funds this will have to come from quite a variety of sources. Hopefully grant funding is a consequential amount that can help support it and our matri committee is really doing a lot of heavy lifting on getting its bylaws and its vision and mission and all that. I would say right by second quarter we could probably take a closer look at this. Um because that'll give us a few more meetings under our belt to really get organized and I appreciate the the governing body members who contributing time and effort to that such as yourself. Well, and to piggy back on that, we're getting ready to start our comp plan, which should really feed into all of this, right? And yes, by the end of this year, when we get that in place,

it should complement what the main street committee thinks is important. It should complement what we think is important for the police station and sport. So, I think all is coming together in the same year. This might look a little different at the end of this year, but we'll have a more solid plan and everything in place to help back why we have some of these things budgeted in the later years. Yes, I agree.

Things will continue to get more clear as we advance through this this these 10 years and continue to engage the community and figure out what our financial capabilities are and what the taste is for paying for some of this stuff. Next section is our sewer and storm water projects. Um, five and five partner sewer main upgrade. On the CIP schedule, we had it budget we had it listed for 75K, but I actually budgeted 100K when we did our budgeting. So, we just kind of upped that because I think that's more realistic of, you know, the cost that's going to be associated with that. um a new project was added um to the CIP for 2027 and this will be something that we will also talk about again during the budget planning sessions we have but it's a wastewater treatment plant strategic capital improvement program um estimated at around 77,000 um 2027 I don't have description but if if Jason wants to give a description of what that's all about spot

yeah No big deal. So yeah, the strategic capital improvement program for the wastewater training plan would be something along the lines of looking at what our current facility is and gauging what needs to be done in the future. Um and also that if I remember correctly I had asked also about an operating and maintenance program as well. Um so that we can have a further idea of the systems of that that treatment plant to allow us to have further ideas of how to run it more efficiently. um than what's being run now. So, it really is an overview of the plant to give us an idea of what needs to be done and what we can look at for those future costs as well as how to better operate the plant as they do. So,

it's coming up on 15 plus years old. So, some of the original equipment is starting to show its end of life, and Jason's done a great job of getting a cost together to what it looks like to start replacing some of that equipment into its next life cycle. And you would be looking also at the possibility what expansion of that because I know it was expandable.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that's something we can bring up as uh the plans being developed and and looked at. Um because yes, with the growth that we're having, uh that is always something we looking forward to our water projects. Let's see here. Our partner water main upgrade. So, this is this is just sort of kind of confusing and I don't know. I I'll help. Yeah. Well, I know you you

Yeah. So this there's been some vacasillating with the water main project. So um in 2025 I should say 2024 we did a significant amount of water man replacement. We call it the partner because it was the mains underneath the roads that we've been replacing as part of the five and five street program. Um we are financing the cost of the 2026 waterline projects within the water looping temporary note. um because there there's a lot of pressure to try to do all that in-house with the street contractors coming in right behind. So um the 267,000 is u a line item within the water looping projects and then staff will be um completing the 2027 partner projects in house but they'll be doing that this year. Um so that that's what's going on there.

I might have got that backwards. Two the 67,000 um is going to be paid for uh this year buying the material for the water lines that'll go underneath the streets that'll be replaced in 2027. So, it is a little confusing, but we we we promise we know what we're doing. The key part is is that we're not just putting in new roads without addressing the stuff underneath it. We're relining the sewer mains and we're replacing the water lines and getting them out from underneath the road and in the front yard right away. Um that way when you have a main break, you're not digging up a brand new road and you shouldn't have a main break anyways because the lines will be new.

Uh and all the lines in Oldtown are 60 70 years old. They're old transite pipe and they're probably past their useful life. When we did the 2026 budget, you might remember we didn't have any capital projects really coming out of either the water or water reserve fund. All of the oper out out of the operating there. So what he's talking about, what Craig's talking about was financed with the tent note um for the water leaking. So we really don't have any capital projects per se for the next few years just based on on that. So, um, our smart meter installation, um, and infrastructure, we moved that from 2026 out to 2028. Um, that project has increased, um, from about 900,000 to 1.2. So, we just feel like we probably need to push that out a little bit. And I think Craig's kind of thinking about timing that with with um a bond that's being paid off around that time to maybe lump it with another um temp note to cover the cost of that. But I think we'll cross that bridge when we get there and and readjust probably make sure those costs are still what we expect them to be.

Do we expect that all to come out in the same year?

That would be the plan. So, we have a a general obligation bond that matures in 2028. I think it funded one of the above ground tanks. It may have been the distribution line from the wells or both. Um, at any rate, that clears up about $85,000 a year worth of debt service capacity that we would plan to use to finance putting these meters in. Um, what the the pressure that we're facing here is that what currently is in the ground is becoming obsolete. software companies love to threaten that they're not going to carry this stuff anymore and you know it's going to be a big problem for you if you don't spend a bunch of money to upgrade. They started giving having those conversations with us about a year year and a half ago. Um we figured out a way to be able to keep it going until for the next few years. Um and I've dealt with before meter companies water meter companies no longer supporting their stuff and now you're having to work through third parties and find people who know how to fix it. uh or or where you can go get the material. So, we do need to get it all done at once within the next few years. And so, we're hoping that uh we can do it in 28. Um and the cost won't grow further past that 1.2. Um and we would likely bundle that with uh financing the cost of the area well expansion um for the Everly Charles well project and the the distribution line to that well site. So you're looking at we'll be contemplating a a $2.5 million worth of debt around 2028 2029 out of the water utility. Uh supposing that we can afford it.

I answered your question in a really long roundabout way. So hopefully there was an answer in there somewhere for you. There was, but it leads me to another question. Yeah. Um where where does the estimate for the area well expansion project come from? because it's increased.

Yeah. So, uh I want to say that that is partially engineering and design. Um we kind of looked at doing that all in one shot. Um and then it's really just the cost of the well itself, which I think digging the well is really an inconsequential figure. It's getting the 15 or 18 inch pipe, whatever size it needs to be, a couple miles away to our um water tower and into the system. So, um, I I'd have to go I'd have to maybe have a conversation with Harlon and Jason to remember why that that went up, but I think it was engineering though.

I think maybe last year when we put this on the CIP, it was a rough estimate and I think you got numbers a little closer to what we expected to be now. Yeah. Carla, what do you think? Are we in the ballpark? Uh, for the whales, certainly don't know about the transformation. You got the pipe. That's what you're considering the transmission line. Yeah, all within that 1.3. I think I've got a number. I could maybe go back and see if I can find that. I might put together a year ago or something. I thought that's where we got this and then we tweak tweak on it a little bit. But anyway, this is why we update the CIP every year as our costs become more more clear.

Then we added um a new project in the water category. Um some generator equipment for water well number four and number five. Those are about $125,000 a piece. So, we're going to try to spread those out um and start planning for those possibly in 27 and then another one in 29. Currently, no.

We have a uh toe behind that can that works. We've made some efforts and investments into resiliency for these wells. We uh when I first got here, they were on the same circuit. uh the two batteries of wells where we invested in separating them so if you lose power to one you don't lose power to both. Um so we've done that and we do have a pull behind. I'll also mention that it's not uncommon for communities to be down to one or two wells uh while others are being maintenanced or you're fixing an issue that happened to them. So, um, if it's like a a mild day or not a July hot day and there's a lot of water being used, you know, we can we can run the town on one or two wells. Um, if there is an emergency situation, the contractors are pretty generous about loaning you something off the shelf to get you back online to to get you a fix to a pump or whatever it might be. So, u, but we would like each well to have its own generator. That way, um, we can run all four at the same time on a hot summer day if we lose power.

So, that takes me back to the area well expansion project. Is there a generator in that 1.3 million? We would certainly not build a new battery wells without a generator.

Buy once, cry once. I heard a guy say before. So, we would include that in there. Okay. Um the new section that I mentioned earlier is our developer projects. Um the purpose of this new CIP section separates growth related infrastructure from city at large debt and prevents developer projects from impacting our debt limit. Currently um we have the maple tree edition street sidewalk and electrical um that we've included. the Rachel Burke estate. I believe we did that last week or not last week, but last time we were Yeah, we've we've got a another step or two. Okay.

Till we get the temp notes in the bank. But yeah, we're it's moving along. Yeah. So So that's that one. And then as as they come on, we would we would add these on there. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. So what is council being asked to approve tonight? Just basically I I made the note of the one change that you have. Um if you guys have any other changes before the next council meeting, we could probably visit about that. And what we would do is probably draft a new CIP for adoption with a resolution saying that you know this is our plan for the year. Um one thing that you you should know um this action does not approve construction final project cost or spending authority. All projects do come back to you. Um you can deny them, accept them individually as we as we always would, but this is just a plan. Um bond rating agencies love that we have a plan. It helps with our interest rates and our rating that we receive. Um so you guys have any questions, any other additions or things that you would like to talk about now, I'd be happy to or like I said, we can we can visit later and we can make any adjustments before the the adoption.

When we come back at the next council meeting, there won't be this whole long process. It'll really just be here's the resolution with the changes you we talked about tonight. You can approve it or not. Any other questions? Any questions? Just thank you for taking the time to put these things together pretty well. When we get it all cleaned up, we'll revise the book and we're starting, if you go to the city website, we're starting to get it on there.

So, there's two projects listed that you can click on. They needs a little work yet, but we're learning how to get them on there. So, the comprehensive plan and the Tyler technology project, those are on there and they're live, so you can see the costs where we are, and it will be up to date. North Park's going to be up real soon. We just got to iron out some numbers. You can also subscribe to each project. So, if you're really interested in a specific project, you hit a button and you'll get an email every time there's an update to the page there about the project or a notification or there's a meeting, anything we want to do a shout out, we can do that if you subscribe and then you'll get it. Yeah. Thank you so much.

All right, Mayor, we're approaching the witching hour, so I will try to be brief here.

We got 23 minutes. some of the stuff you guys have seen before. Um, just a quick background. So, when I used to present this, you know, you you'd get a really brief glance at like the 2014 strategic plan and the 2015 comprehensive plan and then, of course, the gutard business plan, which you can still see on the wall over here behind our city attorney. And uh moving forward as we get into this year and now we're doing a new comp plan. Um I'm not referencing those old planning documents anymore. They've really become obsolete. I do still have some reference to the business plan because we have done some small updating over the last couple of goal setting years. Um and I I feel personally like it's still relevant to some degree. if you don't feel free to to share otherwise. But um the 2026 goal framework, we're going to be looking at the ongoing adaptive goals. Adaptive goals, if you're unfamiliar, it's not something you can just do like with one or two steps. There's process and variable goals and it takes time to get those done. Uh there's some carryover goals from 2025 and then some 2026 action goals. Action goals are some goals you can create in a more compressed timeline and maybe fewer steps than an adapted goal. The outcome of this is we're hoping that our priorities are reflective of the city council as you guys drive all of this. Our job as staff is to execute uh your vision. Um we want to make sure that the initiatives and the issues that are targeted for the year align with what the city council wants. So, uh, looking at adaptive goals, number one, again, this goes with the GDDARD business plan, amenities and entertainment, trying to develop that Starbond district, encouraging development of the 54 corridor, identifying and recruiting restaurant and retail brands that align with Goddard's market. I think we did that to some success in 25, and we are starting off hot out in 2026. We've got some really awesome projects coming down the pipe that align with that business

goal. Next one is high quality parks and recreation. I think we hit the mark on that as well. We did the linear park expansion last year, the trail connectors, the linear park lighting project, and we improved storm water at Means Park in 2026. It's the project that's been contemplated for over 10 years in our community that uh finally we're going to uh put into play with the North Park investment. U so we're we're pretty excited about that. Um developing stronger partnerships between organizations that coordinate recreation opportunities, community activities. I'd like to think we work pretty closely with the North Park ad hoc committee in advancing that project. Beautifification of public spaces, improving the visual appeal of the community with public art. Certainly uh something to be desired there. U we've applied for the a mural grant a few times now. Just got released again, so we'll be taking our third crack at it. We know where we score now, so hopefully that'll give us a little better opportunity. uh or since this is a priority, if we don't get it this time, maybe the council just wants to move forward with that project if that's something you guys want to do. Community connectedness. Uh I think that these two items will be uh within the comprehensive plan. Of course, the 10ear CIP is uh aligned with this. The next one is housing. We've got about 68 class A apartment units uh coming online within the Starbond District. Um, I'm proud of the way the council and the planning commission have collaborated a little more closely over the last year or two. Uh, there's been constructive disagreement, but also unity. Unity doesn't mean that we necessarily agree to everything, but that we're coming together to discuss it. Um, we've also brought the school district in. We had our first try meeting uh last year and we'd like to do that again this year as well. Infield development uh and upzoning in key areas. Uh there's been some uh achievement with that if you've seen uh you know we we brought in a new dining

and restaurant that was an infill project and then we've done lots of changes to the zoning and subdivision regulations. So uh we're going to continue to try to address that in the years to come. Uh this was a new goal that the council established last year. Acquire additional water rights. Um I think there's a lot to be proud of uh with this project. uh about 35 million gallons of additional water rights acquired with our partnership with the rural water district. Um we have uh acquired about 137 million gallons uh of additional water rights through the Everly Trails Edition that's already been secured by the state. The testing of the new well uh there's a they drilled a test well over the last few weeks. Um so far those are showing positive signs. We'll have some uh samples back here in the next few days, I think, um to to know, but everything that they've seen so far is indicating that we should have good water there. Um and then we've we had a we had acquired about 42 million gallons over our existing wells, but it was only for two of them. So, we wanted to go back and try to get that additional I think it was 45 additional over all four wells. And when we did that, uh, this created a little bit of a setback. They're asking for a little more paperwork than they did the first time through. So Harland is, uh, given a given that his, uh, best shot and we're trying to help them, too work work through the state. So um, we had success getting that 45 million gallons. What was it? 18 two 18 months two years ago, we actually went to PA. Um, but again, there's been a small setback with that one, but I don't think it's going to be anything that's going to be too big a barrier requirement. Here's some of the carryover projects from 2025 to 2026. You guys have any questions about any of these?

I think all of it's advancing nicely. A lot of it's in construction. We have groundbreaking schedule on some of this stuff. Here's a continuation of those projects carry over from 25 to 26.

Did the park get done in that housing edition? No, they're they're put they're working on putting together that right now. So, they think they found the piece of equipment that they like to put in there. We have a grant out to KDHE to that will pay for the um bench and picnic table. So, I mean, we only approved that a couple of months ago and weather just hasn't really allowed for it quite yet. So, um I would think that that would be a really good spring project. They'll be doing that in house and building those new fences around the wellhouse. So, good spring work. The community center approach um it just says no progress today. I was just curious like if there is a hiccup going on there or where we're at with that.

So, we we haven't really budgeted for that project. Um I think it's something that we could probably handle in house for a nominal cost and find a line item to plug it in. Um Jason's working on gathering quotes right now for the um Main Street crossing at First Street. another project that's unbudgeted for um that we could contemplate completing this year, putting it on the schedule for 27. So, um we'll have to decide what we want to do with those two projects. We're going to get you the quotes and look at doing them in house. Um to see if it's something that council wants to take down. Brooke and I would look at where maybe we could sneak that in if if it's a possibility. He's already shaking her head.

You guys gave her the sash. Okay. Can you describe what pedestrian island trail crossing is? Yes. Uh so pedestrian island is basically a hard to describe a concrete oval in the middle of the street and there's a little gap there. So when you are crossing the street you have an area where the pedestrian is safe. Um, we don't have What's that? Yeah, there's kind of one at the Arut. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. It's kind of like a median just for pedestrian refuge. So, if you cross one lane of traffic and there's another car coming and maybe they don't see you, do you have a place where you feel a little bit more safe? So, this is was a park in Maine or uh we looked at doing one. We're looking at doing one at uh first in Main Street. We wanted to do one at Walnuts and then yes at the trail crossing on Maine. It also acts as street calming for traffic. Yeah. So if the road is open, you feel more freely to drive faster. If there's a

median or signage, uh very bold, blatant something there, naturally people are going to slow down a little bit. I think it's nice as well just because um there are times, you know, I'm leaving Iron Nutrition a time or two and you go a lot, but when when Main Street is full of cars, I would love to say that I can see cars coming every time, but you just you can't. And so you're kind of guessing as you edge out there. So I think something that is slowing them down, I appreciate that. So yeah, it's really it's like a small medium that has a gap in it where the pedestrian can walk through, but it's right in the middle of the road.

It's great for our kids. Yes, absolutely. People abide by the 20 speed limit, too.

Nothing beats natural traffic caling elements. They pay attention to that a lot better than they do a speed limit. So, remember that when staff is recommending you narrow the road and maybe move some parking to somewhere else. So, it's not usually a popular decision, but it's safer. Okay. Okay. Now, uh looking forward to 2026 goals. Uh this these are all items that uh I believe have been budgeted for that Brooke and I in consultation with our senior staff have put together. Um the splashpad computer system, the current uh one is shot. So if we wanted to change the hours that the splash pad runs, we couldn't. Um luckily it's still programmed to run at the hours with which it's supposed to be. But um there's an issue with that. So imagine the dash on your car that changes the AC and the radio station. It just didn't work. And there were a few other options to make changes. So um our park u our park attendant Allan, he has a new title, so I should have said that. I can't remember what it is, but he's been working to uh get that project done. So hopefully relatively quickly. We mentioned the Russ Creek uh playground, the in-house water man replacement, the five and five partnered u several projects at the wastewater treatment plant. We'll have the sewer main relinings uh some GIS mapping and then the in-house fence construction at our water well sites. Um the next one is our annual roadway uh for from our five and five. So, we spend a million dollars on roadway reconstruction and then $250,000 on the annual maintenance, which includes like resurfacing, patching, utility cuts, uh chip seals, slurry seals, crack seals, seam seal, seam fills, things of that nature. Um, of course, we approved the emergency operation continuity of operation plan tonight. Um, then you've

got some of the capital projects that are being financed that we talked about a lot. Um, you see some of these other ones that are TBD because um, they haven't been budgeted for or we don't have do not have an estimate for them. The Canado/Martens drainage improvement, I don't consider that to be a project of financial consequence. Um, and we have storm water utility funds budgeted for that. The Stroo Locker South Mural, it's unbudgeted, but um, it's an $8,000 project. Four of it was going to be covered by grant. the other forge fairly inconsequential. We could find that if needed. You know about Tyler Tech and Clear Gov. So, those are all approved and included. This is way shorter than in previous years. U there's been direction from council that we want to try to keep it tight on some of the smaller uh I maybe this is negative to say it. I call them pet projects, but maybe try to focus on just executing on what's already been planned and budgeted for this year. We have some really big capital projects that are going to take a lot of staff time. Um they're big investments. We want to make sure we get them right. Think about the North Park, the public works building, the water looping, the we're migrating all of our software to Tyler Tech, the comp plan, emergency operation program. Those are really big time consuming projects. So really the focus needs to be on executing those well. So on previous years we've had slides and slides and slides of goals and I think we've done a good job of knocking those down. This year it's two slides worth of goals. Questions and council direction.

Fire hydrants.

Fire hydrants are within the water looping project. So Jason's team has started knocking off as many of those as we can in the house to save on the water looping project. But we're paying for that out of the 10th note. So probably saving I don't know a third on each of those that he's able to take down before we advertise for bid. Um little bit of a concern with that project. Uh we've got three easements that um we have a little less confidence that we're going to be able to take down without condemnation. And it's my mistake that I thought that we could do the condemnations a lot faster, but I'm told that it may be another 3 to four months on some of those. And so now you're having some pretty significant delay. It's not the end of the world. We only have this tent note open for maybe a year. We have three or four years until we're making debt payment. So the project's done by then. We're fine. um actually it's just generating interest revenue for us the more balance that's in there for for a longer period of time. So um but it might be a little might be the second half of the year before we actually have a um pipe in the ground for that project. Now, we have a really good consultant that's out aggressively pursuing those easements, and I wouldn't be surprised if maybe he's able to tackle a few of those. And Ryan Peek has done a phenomenal job of putting together individual easement agreements for each property owner who has a different special request as far as what they would like to see uh to restore their property. But um I received that news today that there could be a quite a delay with that project. 3 to four months perhaps because of a few of those easements outstanding.

It's just a little time. Yeah, it's not not the end of the world at all. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Well, you guys are busy. Rick did a phenomenal job and thank you for the compliment, the senior staff of helping put all this together. So, she formatted it beautifully. It looked really bad and I got my first draft done. So, she shaking her head. Yes, she she's nodding back there. She's like, it was really bad. I did not. She did not. I did not. But it was bad with the camera.

She needs her own camera for counsel. Maybe a mic too because with that you seen the office you know where it just kind of pans over. We can use the video court camera that's in our office.

Any do we need to do any tweaking to that document? We'll be back in front of you guys in probably two months or three to review it and give you a progress update. I tried to do that quarterly. Usually it happens about three times a year. No, I would just say with us doing the comp plan this year and having a very itemized clearcut plan for what we get done this year and do it well set us up really well for years to come. And just touching on that, like you know, I know that there has been concern in the community of the money that gets spent or approved. And um I know that these are a lot of really big ticket items, but I think that everything that we are approving and we are doing works pretty flawlessly together and is going to set us up for a pretty major success in the future. So I just want to, you know, note that. and it's really getting after what the concerns are when people come here about our infrastructure and our amount of water as we grow. I think this shows the community if they're watching that you guys really are thinking about those things and not only thinking about them, we're act actioning on them, have actioned on them and are still actioning on them. And so hopefully if they're watching um you know they can see that it's something that it's very important to the city to take care of that and you're in you know actively doing that. So maybe it will come there in certain we promise you are being heard. These are conversations that are being had and I think that everything that we're doing here and the city is doing really shows that this year. So I love the transparency. Yeah. I that was my end note, but like kudos on that. I love that you can go look at or you will be able to go look at anything and financials when it comes to I think that

that's a huge win. So, you should be doing nothing on that surprising because I feel like we've gone like those talking about we've been talking about all of these things over the last year through the budget process. So when I look at these goals and the things that you you've accomplished and are like nothing absolutely nothing on here surprises me that's not surprising me because of because of how well um that you guys communicate and how beautiful the products are and easy to read and all the things. So yeah, there wasn't anything that surprised me. Thank you.

They're pretty great. I don't know what they think about me, but All right. Thank you guys. Next time in here. See you at turning on.

Good evening. Good news. I only have 45 minutes.