City Council - Regular Meeting

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Heat. Heat. Good evening. Um, I'd like to call the uh Hutchinson City Council meeting to order on January 20th, 2026. Uh, Mary, call roll. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Goss here. Bass

here. Mayors here. Pledge of 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.

Um, we have Pastor Tanya Winger from the First Menite Church to uh give us the prayer tonight. Please join me in prayer. Gracious God, bless our cities. Give us grace to join in creating cities where neighborhoods remain vibrant and whole, where all people find support and care and community, and where arts and culture and sports flourish. Make the diverse fabric of this city a delight to all of us who live here, to all who visit here, and a strong bond uniting all of us around common goals for the good of all. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Thank you. Next item.

Item number four, proclamations. There are none. Item number five, petitions for monstrances and oral communications from the audience. Um, this is the part of the agenda where where we hear oral communications from the audience. Uh, please limit your remarks to five minutes and to items not on the agenda. Um, audience members may address the items on the agenda when the item is discussed by city council. So, at this time, if there's anybody who'd like to come and uh speak in public comment, uh you can come to the podium and state your name and address. All right, I guess if we have nobody, then uh we move on to the next item.

Item number six, consent agenda. Um has everyone had a chance to look through the agenda, questions, comments? I have one question about the um planning commission appointment. Um uh Elaine Carter, this is her second three-year term. And is this she is this her final are they term limited? Yes, they're eligible to serve two full two consecutive full terms. So this will be her final term.

Okay. Thank you. No, I as always I appreciate people who step up to volunteer on these boards. Um it takes a great deal of time. I move to approve the consent agenda and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Goss, yes. Baz, yes. Mayers, yes. Next item, item number seven, public hearing and ordinance approving the Hutchinson Starbond project. I move to open the public hearing. Second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Bass, yes. Mayers, yes. Goss, yes.

Mayor and council, good afternoon. Tonight, you are considering an ordinance to approve the Hutchinson Starbond project plan. This is a required legal step under state law. It does not approve bonds tonight. It does not permit the city to spend any money. What it does is move the project from concept into the next phase allowed under the Kansas Star Bond Act. Star bonds stands for sales tax and revenue bonds. They are a state authorized tool used to finance major touris tourism and destination projects. The key is uh pretty simple. New sales tax generated inside a defined project area can be used to pay for public improvements tied to that project. If the project does not generate sales tax and the bonds are do not get paid. However, they're not backed by property taxes and not backed by the city city's general fund. Kansas requires several checkpoints before a city can use star bonds and tonight is one of those checkpoints. We're not we are now now at the beginning, sorry, we're not at the beginning of this process and we're not at the end. Uh so far, the city has created the starbone project district in 2024. So, that was thanks to uh council approval in September 2024. designated that district. Uh then the Kansas Department of Commerce reviewed that area and determined it qualifies under state law. They issued a feasibility study that was completed and reviewed. This allowed us then to come to the planning commission and review the project plan and found find it consistent with the city's comprehensive plan and other uh strategic plans that the city has. And so then we send notices to the public and then tonight we're holding that public hearing. After the closing of the public hearing, you'll decide on approval of the project plan. The project plan is a framework document. It defines the project area, the types of development allowed, the general scope of improvements, how star bonds could be used if used later.

However, it does not approve a specific bond amount. It does not approve construction contracts. It does not issue debt. It does not lock the city into financing. Think of think of this as approving the rule block but not starting the game yet. What council is approving tonight uh with this ordinance is first the city meets the legal requirements under starbond act to adopt the project plan. Second, the city intends to allow this project to continue through the next required steps. And third, the city preserves the its ability to consider starbond financing in the future subject to additional council approvals. If council approves the ordinance tonight, the next steps include finalizing the development agreement, continued coordination with the Kansas Department of Commerce, refining the project phasings and financial details, and returning to council with future decisions, including any bond issuance. For these three projects, what uh we are considering under this star bonds are improvements at the Cosmosphere. So, that's our major tourist destination. uh improvements to Memorial Hall in downtown and improvements to the landmark uh apartments, really the commercial portion of the landmark building on Fifth and Maine. Uh as well as uh per the request of the lieutenant governor, uh improvements or additions that help Hutchinson embrace its identity around space tourism. Um and so that was one of the requests. There's a million dollars for for that project. Um, we've talked about that project in the past, so I'm not going to go in a lot of detail into what it all entails. Uh, we do have the developers, uh, two of the developers here, as well as, uh, Justin comes from the city as far as department, um, memorial hall improvements. And then we have our bond council. If you have questions that are go beyond my limit limited knowledge, the bond council can

answer those questions, too. Um, and if all all else fail, it'll just go to Paul Brown and he'll be glad to answer any questions you have. Council, have any questions? So, you said that I just want to get some clarity on something that you said it's not backed by property taxes and it's not backed by the general fund. So what is the mechanism like the safety or control mechanism that ensures the bond? Okay. Yeah, I'll let our bond council address that question. Thank you.

Good evening. Dominic with Gilmore Bell. So really the the safeguard here is the underwriting process. So what happens uh following a project plan approval is an underwriter is engaged and that firm is going to put together a revenue study and they're going to make their projections. They're going to work with a third party provider to do that and they're going to size a bond issue that's appropriate to what they feel the district will generate and pay back over time. And so there's a lot of due diligence that they'll they'll do for that process. And uh you know that's that's their job and and what they do every day is is selling bonds. they have a lot of customers that they work with and so they're not going to have any interest in going and selling a a higher amount that then can be reasonably returned through through incremental sales. And so it's really that process that gets you to a right sizing of a bond issue. But yes, generally uh you know the star bonds are there's not a property tax pledge or anything of that nature behind them. So, if we're trying to kind of put this in terms that people, normal people use every day who aren't attorneys, bond attorneys specifically, essentially the revenue study that we have already completed, I think it's called revenue study, feasibility study,

feasibility study, um that we've already completed is kind of like having your home assessed and or appraised. And this would be the actual underwriting that you go through during the like loan process, right?

Yeah. So they're kind of two separate tracks. So that what's been done already is is the statutory process to help the state and the the city and the project partners feel like, hey, is this something worth our time to consider? Is this something we should continue to explore? And once you do that, you know, and we get through this project plan creation, project plan approval, and then you bring in the underwriting firms and they're going to do a little bit deeper dive, right? they're going to they're going to have to put together a study that that they can go sell bonds on and sell them to their customers at a rate that uh that again that will pay back and and meet the project needs. So there's still, you know, as as Dave mentioned, there's still a ways to go, a few more steps to be taken. Uh but this is kind of step two of the of the larger three-step process of a STAR bond. We had district creation which you mentioned was completed in 24 project plan approval and then you come to your bond issuance would be the the next step.

And so if the revenue study and the feasibility study are apart in numbers how is that made whole or how is that made right? It's a so it'd be negotiation amongst the the project partners as far as you know what is the bond issuance anticipated to to you know generate in terms of a project fund and then how is that

you know haircut for each each party if necessary. Um and then they you know there's also would be an ability to have uh you know kind of on the backside if it overperforms right they want to be conservative so they want to sell bonds at a level that would be paid back. So hopefully if they would be paid back then maybe on the back end there would be ability to to capture some of that as well just depending you know we we we can't know that now but as time goes on that's what we would set up through that development agreement process that that Dave mentioned as well. So that's part of that kind of next step as also is get that underwriting study going. Let's get a little bit better little sharper pencil on what we think this will generate from a proceeds perspective and then see how we're going to divvy that up between the several project partners on this one. So at the end of the process when the star bond let's say that the revenue study and the feasibility study are in line and they're the same number approximately and there's no haircut given and um then we're moving forward essentially at that point it's safe to say that this project has been completely and fully vetted by the department of commerce by the city by our legal staff by your legal staff by the bond underwriters and by I don't know six different layers of bureaucracy, if you will, um to where we know that we have a solid study, give or take. There's always a wrench that could be thrown into it. Knock on wood. But we know that we have a solid solid plan at that point. Is that safe to say?

Yeah, there are there are several guard rails that that have to be met along the way. And by the time uh you you go to actually sell the bonds, get the money in the bank, all those have to be overcome. Thank you. I don't have any additional questions. Anybody else from council have comments, questions?

Um okay, I'd like to open up to the public if you guys have any questions or comments. Um you can come to the podium. name and address. You guys are an easy crowd tonight. I usually don't like to speak, but uh yes, I do. Um my understanding that at one point Enrio said that uh we were going to use the sales tax to help out to alleviate the increase in wastewater. I don't know if I remember that correctly, Enrico, or not. Uh but it was mentioned that we would use the sales tax as a way to help alleviate uh our water bills. I can't remember when that was said maybe 3 4 months ago or whatever.

I can respond to that. That that is a different conversation than this. Okay. This is paid for with incremental tax increase that the state will get back. The increased sales tax that the state will have because of these new improvements to these these three projects. Yeah, that's all I that's the only question I had because I sort of remembered we were talking about the waste water at one time. Yeah, a storm water utility fee would go away with the sales tax. That really has nothing to do with this. Okay. Thank Thank you, Greg. that Duke, thank you.

But that's that's a good question. I feel like there's a lot of moving parts right now that people are confusing the the sales tax vote on March 3rd with the star bond um proposition with how are we funding the um wastewater treatment facility uh improvements and repairs. Um so I Duke, you're you're not without fault here. like the there's been a lot going on that um it couldn't be muddier honestly. Um we just happen to get paid the big bucks to keep our thumb on it. So

council I think it's always helpful to have an explanation because yeah immediately when you hear sales tax revenue bonds what people think is that we are increasing uh the sales tax percentage to pay for this improvements and that is not at all what happens with star bonds. Uh the best way I can describe it uh because the technical language is you we're using the incremental tax to pay for this improvements. What does increment mean? Uh let's say I own a piece of land and council defines that as a district. That piece of land is empty. So in theory it produces $0 in sales tax right now. If I make improvements to it, let's say I bring a second cosmosphere to it and uh it does really well. We have 200,000 annual visitors and the sales tax increases then to $3 million annually. That difference is what would help pay for this improvement. So now we're producing more sales tax revenue, not an additional tax, but just more revenue simply because we made some improvements. That's what helps pays for the public improvements and the uh improvements of the cosmosphere and the landmark. I hope that's usually how I best uh understand it. Um, and usually makes sense to me.

Yeah, thanks for that explanation. And it's really the same tool as CIDs or TIFFs or RHID or any of these other um programs or at least I I draw a lot of similarities between them. Go ahead, Jesse. Juma. Um, I just have a question. So, can you can anybody give us an example of what the star bond projects either here or anywhere or just give an example of what they've been used for already?

Well, the first thing I can think of is Stratica. We put an elevator in there and the star bond district was created and those bonds and I don't know I don't have all the history of how many dollar how much of a project that was uh but they were paid off significantly early earlier because that project was so successful which the state of Kansas is excited about our project because of the success we've had in the past. I have a nice lady on the front that could maybe explain that.

Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Rachel Woods. I'm the director at Stratica. Um, we actually have several of our friendly faces from the staff here. Um, and we're all excited to hear about all the expansion and things that are happening here in Hutchinson. Um, as you mentioned, uh, Stratica was a part of one of the most successful star bonds, um, actually in Kansas, and we had a star bond of, I believe, $10 million, and we actually paid it off early. Um, without that star bond, Stratica probably would never have come to fruition. So, um I think it's an amazing uh thing that they have here in Kansas and I am excited and optimistic to hopefully be a part of further expansion and um partnerships with the city as well.

Okay.

Thank you. and looking out um across the state um so I read an article that um the state the department of commerce wasn't able to provide like a comprehensive list of everywhere that had been issued a star bond and they didn't have a tracking of um uh exact dollars and success rates and what have you but um it we don't have to travel far to find successful star bonds Goddard Um there's was not too long ago 150 room class A hotel with conference facility, Olympic quality swimming complex. Um baseball, softball fields, retail, commerce, dining, um Salina has one that's fairly new. Um I that I believe passed um that was for a mall. Um they they exist all over all over the state. Um, and they they're essentially they create entertainment districts and places of tourism that people want to travel to, whether from within the state or from across state lines. Did that answer your question, Jesse?

Yeah. you know, and now that I think about it, since you brought that up, I think was the bowling alley um the same bowling alley that we have here. What's that called? Um the alley. Yeah, the alley. Um I think they use starbonds to I think they were a tiff. They t I remember it was not a star bond. Okay. Okay. But anyway, I know there are some places in Salina too that used to and and Witchaw has um one at least. Working on one working on one. Okay. Manhatt Manhattan they've had a very successful Star Bond as well.

Yeah. And Selena's Fieldhouse like it's there's a lot of Yeah. Sena has a huge downtown uh Star Bond. There's two in Witchita working on a third one. Um Salina's working on a second one. There's the one in Manhattan. Uh there is the Kansas Speedway was done with a Star Bond. Uh there's a racetrack in Topeka that was done with a Star Bond. Dominic has experience with Starbonds all over the state. So if you one specific about those, he might be willing to share some of those.

I I think that uh Stratacas was the first successful star bond and especially with how early it was paid off. I think two or three years early and it may have been the first bifurcated

um star bond in the state. And so I think we have a history here locally of pulling off successful large projects. Um that is a testament to the Hutchinson as a community um but also the things that we want to place value in. And I think when I think of all of these locations that we've talked about, they're all huge, amazing facilities that people travel from all over to go see. I mean, Stratica definitely being one of them. Cosmosphere being one of them. Um, so I'm I'm super excited about um this Starbond. I think it's a has a lot of really awesome pieces to it. Just a little history, it's taken two years to get to this point and this is a big hurdle like you said, step two out of three. Um, you talk bond council about being sure that we're able to sell those bonds and that they're they're able to pay them back. There's already been many many calculators hard at work to make sure that this all makes sense. Um, and I look at it as like we're we're getting state tax money. The majority of this is state tax money coming back to our city. Um, it ensures that we get that that portion of that state sales tax back in our city for projects that we want in our city. Anything else?

I have one final point. I just was trying to check my email one last time. Um, so I speaking to the confusion that I think surrounds the topic and the um complexity of the issues that we're diving into in the past couple months and the upcoming months. Um I have received zero emails um against this. Zero phone calls, zero text messages, zero Facebook messages, zero um pigeons with a you know carrier pigeons. So um I have I have no reason to believe that um that there's any reason not to move forward with this. And I just wanted to make that very clear because there are people who complain on the internet on Facebook about well literally everything. But um this was a topic today and absolutely none of them took it upon themselves to reach out to me and I would imagine everybody else sitting up here also is in the same boat.

You want my editorial comment? Yeah.

I I look at Facebook. I take no stock in what people say on Facebook. Zero. My I have a public phone number. I have an email and you can show up every other Tuesday evening at 5:30. If you want to speak to me, I'm going to listen and we're going to find some common ground. And and I do speak to a lot of people and we disagree on things, but we can usually find some common ground. So, you know, you can complain all day long behind this keyboard. talk to us. There's five of us up here that'll listen and there's a whole staff of 420 people here at the city that you can contact. There's my editorial comment. Thanks.

You're welcome.

I'm kind of the same way, Greg. Um, so I seen some of the same stuff on Facebook today, people against it. So I've been searching pros and cons, and I mean, from what I can see, I think it's all pro. I mean, yes, there's there's some times it could fail, but Stratic is a prime example how it's positive. And and again, like Stacy said, I haven't had anybody reach out to me. And you know, I'm asking down the road, if anybody has questions or concerns, please always reach out to me because I'm the new guy up here and I'm trying to sort through all this. And I I do have one question, Dave. So it basically what we're doing is we're voting to get this started, get the project going so that it can go on to the investors and all that. Is that way I'm understanding it?

Yeah. It's giving staff and essentially authority to move forward with a development agreement uh to engage with the underwriters uh to eventually issue those bonds. Uh so yeah, what started the project was the uh designation of a starbond district. So that happened in 2024. Uh really this is like the middle of the process to help just move towards that next door step. Yeah. Now when the uh when they actually get all the bonds ready, will we revote on have a final vote on that or does that just go through? Yeah. So you'll have a vote for the development agreement and then I can have Dominic kind of explain the process for the bond underwriter as well.

Yeah, great question. So, we'll be back essentially two more times after this. Uh, one would be for what we call a sale resolution, which means go forward, get all those documents ready, get everything, the offering document prepared to sell those bonds, and go price the bonds. And then we come back after pricing of the bonds and say, here's the final terms, here's what they were able to market them at, here's the final interest rates and amounts. And, uh, then you would you would have that approval as well. Okay. How much longer does that that process take from now till then? That's the million-dollar question. Yeah, that's a that's a great question. It's a great question. I hope two months.

Yeah. So, the the the underwriting firm really will drive that and that'll be driven um further by their whoever they contract with for that revenue study. And so there are there are a few, you know, variables at play there. and then also the timing of of cash needs for the three components of the project. And so it's, you know, getting all all the right people in the room and trying to line up all the calendars and see where it makes sense. But yeah, it's it'll it'll be another couple months. Okay.

I have a question for you, sir. The so there's a lot of talk coming out of Topeka about gutting the star bond and the authority that gives municipalities to go after star bonds. If that were to happen during this legislative session, where would that leave this star bond as it's in the middle of

Yeah, good, very good question. Uh, so currently the star bond act expires at the end of uh June of this year. it's faced various expiration deadlines in the past that have always been, you know, renewed in some form or fashion. If it were not renewed, um, you know, by having our Starbond project plan approved, certainly we have full authority to act throughout June of this year, right? and and can and and can go move about the cabin just under the current statutory regime. If they, you know, renew it and try to have some sort of retroactive application, we would just have to see what that legislation said and and and how it looked. Um we've we've worked on some in the past where there was kind of an impending deadline and we we went ahead and had a star bond issuance, you know, kind of up right until that deadline and never had any any difficulties with that. Once the star bonds are issued, that authority is there to continue to collect segregate those taxes for repayment. And so I I don't foresee that there should be, you know, a large issue that we wouldn't be able to handle because we do have, you know, until at least the end of June, probably longer, but who knows? Uh and if there is some sort of legislation that comes down, uh we we track that pretty closely and so we would, you know, be talking with Enrico and Dave and the team to make sure we had a good plan in place.

Does your firm engage with a lobbyist? We do not engage with lobbyist. No. And I might mention we have two years to plan to spend that money. The money doesn't have to be spent in two years. We have to have signed contracts within two years. There's a Yes. No, not bond sold work work contracts.

Yeah, there are there are a few different uh you know kind of there's some federal tax laws that come into play and things of that nature, but but absolutely absolutely right. there's there's time after you sell the bonds, you don't have to go spend the money the next day. You have time to properly plan out your project and and your cash flows. So essentially, if the um star bond legislation is not renewed or extended passed um this summer, we would need to have bonds sold by June 30. there there's probably some more legal analysis there that that we would we would get into and make sure that we were uh you know depending on nuance to that question.

Okay. But, you know, worst case scenario, we'd sell bonds by June 30th so that they were already in place. I I don't foresee that to be an issue. Um and and I think that there's going to be good ways to plan around that from a strategy perspective to make sure that we're in good shape. Thank you. And I've asked that question to others, Stacy, and I was told that it's since this was approved and the feasibility study's done that the legislature can't take it away from us. But that there's a whole lot of nuances probably nuance. Yeah. But but that's a fair question. I asked the same thing.

I think our own legislature is going to try to take this away from us. Okay, I got some questions. I sit here and be quiet and I think about all this stuff in my head. I'm not a financial officer. I'm just a working little guy that goes to work every day. The bonds, say for instance on Stratica or whatever we're going to build, say $6 million to build what we're going to do. So now that now we sell those bonds, am I right? The bonds got to be sold. Maybe we sell two bonds at $3 million a piece. And correct me if I'm wrong. I'm trying to get this straight in my head. Say we sell to we go out to investors who buy these bonds. Correct. And they buy the bonds and then the bonds after we somebody buys the bonds, the investor itself, do they get make the money off the bonds off the interest off the bonds? How do they make their money back? How they

how they the bond purchasers? Yes. So what what would happen is these sales taxes that are generated the increment that Dave discussed when that's generated the department of revenue segregates that okay into a you know we call it a a bucket the increment bucket right and they'll send that over to a bond trustee okay who will utilize that to make payment to the bond holders okay first they'll get paid the interest component on that and then as more and more comes in then they'll start chipping away at the principal amount of that

I got you just just as any other loan is repaid, it'll have a principal component and an interest component and all that incremental sales tax that's generated will go towards paying that down. So like Stratica, they're the ones that the bond was for when we had Stratica. So the stratica when they when you go in there and buy a ticket from Stratica as part of that what they sold that ticket for do they have a separation that this the ticket is $3 a $150 goes to the sales tax for us and then $150 goes to the bonds is that pulled out of the money separate

no so there is no additional cost imposed right you would pay the same amount of ticket whether it's in a star bond district or not and all those calculations as to what gets segregated, what's increment and what's base. It is all done at the department of revenue level. Okay. So the department of revenue will come in and say hey we have reached our base for this year. So now anything we collect goes to increment which goes to the bond holders or we have not reached the base this year. So nothing yet is ready to go to bond holders. Instead it needs to go to the taxing jurisdictions as it has in the past. But there's no additional tax imposed. It's a it's a tax redirection. Okay.

Not a tax addition. So, Steve, another way to uh for to illustrate the point, and it's very similar to what Dave described, um but let's just say that the project naturally before any enhancements were made, before you fixed it up, um say that generated a baseline of 5 million in sales tax revenue. Okay. with the star bond project and the enhancements that were made instead of the base of 5 million it becomes 7 million that additional 2 million that was generated goes towards paying off the star bond.

Okay. So it there's nothing new created but rather than it is the the local economy has been um injected with uh just new projects, new vitality, you know, but there's nothing new. Uh no new sales tax or anything like that. It's just the the increment above that base. Well, that's why I ask these questions because I know a lot of people out there just like me are sitting here and going, "Do I agree with this? I want to fully understand and you've helped me a lot right now already." That's how I learned it. Okay. On the bond issue because we we sell it to the public that the taxpayer is not going to pay for this. It comes out of the sales of of whatever we're helping. Am I following me?

Yeah. There are no additional taxes that are imposed. That is correct. You they will pay the same rate whether it is in a starbond district or not in a starbond district. And then the department at the department of revenue level, that's where the increment calculation is made and that's where the bond holder money is uh segregated. Okay. Well, that helped me a lot. I mean, I'm supposed to represent the people. I got to understand it before I can represent the people. And I know there's a lot of people out there don't understand how it works either. So, I have to be uh enough courage to sit there say I don't understand it. That's why I got to ask questions. Absolutely. Great questions. I help. Thank you. That helped me a lot. Yeah.

Thank you. So, I can back it now. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, well, if there's nothing else, there's great questions to get to more clarity of so everybody understands exactly what we're trying to accomplish here because I know there are some things that with the sales tax and the storm water, all that. So, we just want to make sure that everybody understands exactly what we're trying to do. So, um, if there's nothing else, I'm looking for a motion. I move to close public hearing. I'll second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Goss, yes. Bass, yes. Mayers, yes. Next item. Item number nine, new business. There is none.

Item number 10. Nope. Number eight. Item number eight. Aa 8a. I'm sorry. Item number eight, ordinances and resolutions. Consider an ordinance adopting the Hutchinson Star Bond project plan and authorize mayor to sign. I'll move to approve an ordinance adopting the Hutchson Starbond project plan and authorize the mayor to sign. Second. Truan, yes. Garza, yes. Goss, yes. Pass, yes. Mayor, yes. Next item. Item number nine, new business. There is none. Item number 10, report of city officials council. Um, we'll start with Mr. Garza again.

You're so easy to pick them. I know, you know, this bondage has it sort of started to come up. I do believe, now tell me if I'm wrong and then they say that on the Kansas City Chiefs, they're going to use star bonds to build their stadium. Am I wrong or right? Is correct. Partly. Yes.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's great. And also, um, in my neighborhood, everybody a couple weeks back, I had a lady come up, my neighbor who was my cousin, started talking about the water problems they had over there. Well, you know, the water guys came out there and replaced a lot of water lines and some valves and so and I walked around my neighborhood and asked everybody how they did. And everybody except for maybe one neighbor told me they did a great job. I wanted to make sure you tell the water department. The the attendants in my neighborhood where I live told me they did a great job. a little problem with the water when it came on, but that's they say it was dirty water, but we know dirt gets in there and replace the lines and it's uh they all said they did a great job. So, make sure you tell the water department that my neighborhood was happy.

I'll pass that along.

Okay. Also, if you can't tell, the city's moving. The city is moving. We're moving stuff. We're getting along. We need you citizens to back us and tell us that we're doing a good job. I mean, we're not up here for nothing. We're up here to make the city go. And I guarantee you within 5 years, you're going to see a different city. You don't understand all the stuff we have that we know on back of our minds that we can't tell you what's going on. But here, I'm the oldest council member here, this age, too, but also the one sitting here the longest, that this the city is changing, and we're going to change it. So, you got to help us as city commissioners. Tell us if you don't like something, tell us about it. I don't mind hearing about it, but we got to know what you think. And I appreciate everybody coming out here, man. Come out here and listen what's going on. If you want to know something, there's two ways. Come to the city council meeting or come to my meeting that I have. My meeting will tell you everything that's going on in the city. So, I'm telling you right now that the city's moving and you're going to see a lot of improvements in Hutch. There's we got jobs are going to be coming. We have areas coming with jobs. Everything you asked us to do, we're doing. We improved the streets, but that costs money. And and so us five people have a lot of responsibility on our backs. And just so you know that these commeners go home um and think about we read papers, we read all these documents. We're going to have a budget hearing, right? Discussion. And it's not fun being a commissioner up here, especially when people want to they're not they're not u jumping on our backs. There are a lot of times that people don't understand what's going on. I didn't really understand the bond issue. I was going back and forth listening to everybody. Now I do. Now I understand what's going on. It's a great thing. So it's a great place to live in Hutcherson, Kansas, and you're going to see Hudson change. So we need your backing. I love living Hutch. You guys

love being Hutch. Come to the meetings. Get involved. Get involved. See what's going on. So we have a great city manager. We have a great city council people. So, you have to get along. That's one thing about me. I don't I'm not bashing people. I don't understand something. I don't care if you think I'm dumb. But I'm being dumb. I'm answering questions that you want to ask. You know, you want to ask and tell me. I'll tell you what, when there's a question going on, should I ask it? Should I not ask it? No. Hell yes, I should ask it because I'm representing you guys. So, that being said, Hutcherson's going somewhere. Thank you, sir. Thanks, Steve. Daisy.

Yes. Um I was excited to see a few potholes that I reported um that were patched. I don't know anybody who gets really excited about potholes, but I do. Um I would assume that these are u cold asphalt and they'll be dug up if needed once we start making asphalt. Um I reported a couple issues at Rice Park. Um some piles of dirt and ruts in the trail. The majority of my questions I got answered talking to staff before the meeting. Um but as I was reading um the CC click fix reports um I noticed that one of them mentioned um parking in front of Salt City Brewery. So it's actually perfect that you're here sir. Um, I will say that um it seems like there's always large trucks parked in front of there and um I don't know what the guidance is on when we should have um like a compact only um but it seems like with the large trucks parking in directly in front of the entrance um cars are either hitting their brakes because there's cars right next to them or they're swerving in in the other lane. Um, and it it it's an issue. Um, would that could you come up here for a second, Steve?

Would that be something that you would entertain limiting that parking right in front of your entry to I I guess at the moment I don't know enough about it to even com I I don't know why we would object to anything like that if it's a public safety thing or something like that. We've got parking in the back, right? We've got a parking lot available. We maybe could do a better job of directing people to the back. Maybe some We've talked about doing some signage back there. Maybe we need to get that done. So, yeah. Okay. Well, we I I I know of one act I mean, I'm not saying it's the only one. I know of one accident where ABC agent actually was backing out of the brewery and got hit by somebody. So, that's the only one I'm aware of, but there may be other.

Okay. Well, we we'll be in touch to talk about how we can just make sure it's smoother and um make sure people feel safe um pulling around there. Um another question that I got was or that I saw was um about the city impound lot. Um I know we've talked about it over the past couple of years. um getting that lot prepared for sale. And um I know as we transition into a new city attorney, I just want to make sure that either there's explicit instructions on how to go about that sale or is that a project that you intend to wrap up before you get out of here? Okay. Okay. So, it'll be on the market before Okay, cool. That'll be You heard it here, folks. Um, and then there's another city property out on East Forth

West West forth, sorry. West Forth across from Silus behind Silus that we levy system part of our levy system that is hunting ground. I won't comment on that one publicly folks. Okay. Well, we can start an email thread about that one. Um, and I won't steal anybody's thunder about the big speech tomorrow. So, that's all I had. All right, Darren.

Well, still trying to get uh get my feet wet. I uh attended a couple meetings within a Rico last week at public works and department head and learned got to meet a lot of people and learned a lot and just uh kind of want to Mr. Gar has said, I just encourage anybody, especially if you're watching on YouTube, come to the meetings or if you have questions, please ask. And, you know, I I'm good with guidance on how the community wants us to uh rule up here. If there's issues, let us know your opinion and go from there. So, that's about it. Thank you, Greg.

Um, we had a Woody Seat progress meeting the other day. uh last Tuesday to be exact. It wasn't heavily attended, but uh we did talk through some things. The the east westbound of Avenue A and the traffic signals will be turned on probably Monday, a week ahead of schedule or thereabouts. Um that should help with traffic a little bit. Um just making progress there. Um, I did notice that uh the street department was out pre-treating our streets. Thank you for that. I'm sure they're geared up for the snow that we may or may not have. And um anyway, that's exciting to know that we have people taking care of those things. Um I was reading the department head uh weekly reports. HPD um usually weekly has somebody writing in um complimenting the department for something they did and thank you for that. You know, I'm sure that that officer was just doing his job and probably doing what he was supposed to do, but people notice when that when we're doing what we're supposed to do. So anyway, thanks for that. Um Stacy mentioned this, but uh we have the state of the city address tomorrow at 7:45 a.m. at the 1861 club. The chamber hosts that once a year. Um Stacy mischaracterized it a little bit. It will not be a speech. It'll be a sit down nervous

back and forth uh with Enrico and I about what's going on in the city. Hopefully, it'll be a relaxed time and uh and maybe you could learn more about what's going on at the city. And again, thanks staff for all you do. That's all I got.

All right. Thanks. Um I again, I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight. I like seeing a full crowd, so it's uh good to see that. Um we uh a couple of us went out um last week with David Foster to tour the new YMCA building which we've been seeing that building go up for a long time and it's really exciting what is happening in that building. I am really excited and the community should be excited for as well. Um when that bu when that place gets opened I think it's going to bring bring a lot to our community um for our kids, families, um youth. It's just we talked about so many things out there that are just exciting for what's going to happen with that uh that property. So, um I'm really excited for that to open up. Um next thing I wanted to kind of echo a little bit on the um sales tax and storm water runoff fee uh conversation. Um I I do the same thing. Kind of look on Facebook and see people. So, I reached out to numerous people today. Give them my phone number to call me, contact me, and like we've said, our numbers on the website. If you have any questions, comments, don't hesitate to call because we'd rather get you the correct information um so that you make sure that you know we're trying to pass a sales tax. We're not trying to raise taxes. We're trying to get the tax so we can actually um trade it out for the storm water fee um so that we can use that money for where we really need to use it for for the um fixing the the stuff above infrastructure so we can fix the street as well the infrastructure and not be so limited to it. So, it's it's going to be a benefit, too, cuz all of that money that currently we pay with the storm water fee that everyone pays. Um, we can now take if we if we raise the sales tax, eliminate the storm water runoff fee, then we can have anybody coming to Hutchinson, um, whether they're going to Stratico or the grocery store, the gas station, whatever they're paying for sales tax, that's going to go towards all of that that need we need for our infrastructure. So, if anyone has any questions, I just don't want any miscommunication of of people not knowing um that you know what we're what

we're trying to do because we're up here trying to do great things for our city. Um we're not trying to be up here misleading people, misinformation. We're trying to be very transparent. So, again, all of our numbers, email addresses are on the website. Do not hesitate to contact us. Hey, Scott. Um if I get a call, I'm going to be very kind and nice. I probably got a little excited with my comments about Facebook, but call me. We're going to find common ground. We're going to come to some kind of understanding. I promise. Sorry. Well, you know what? It's great you get excited for that, though. I mean, well, it's just like I'm not going to legislate based on Facebook, whatever.

No, but it just concerns me sometimes when I see that. It's like to me it's misinformation that I'm like, if they would contact us, we can have a conversation. And maybe they're not going to agree with us% of the time, but but we can have a conversation. So, I I'm showing my age. That's what I'm doing. So, and then uh in in regards to your comment on the worm farm, Stacy, um last council meeting, I have talked to Dan um and there'll be some more information coming from for that um on progress for that that building and property. So, um I think that's all I have. Enrico,

uh just a few items uh worth mentioning. Uh one uh the comment made on uh assistance um with the wastewater bills. Um the utility billing assistance program has launched. Um so that is up and running. Um so I do want that to be known. And then in talking with uh uh the mayor and uh several department heads um for the budget study session, uh the preference was to have it in this room because there's more space. Um, and so not everyone, depending on how many people want to go into that room, could be left out because not everyone can fit in there. Um, so for the budget study session, it seemed easiest to just have it in here. Um, so that's what we'll do.

That all you got? That's all I got. Okay. So, um, I guess I'm looking for I I want to mention one thing. Um, 806 North Plum. Um, I have driven by a bunch of times in the past two weeks. it is gone today at 5:00. It's no not there. Um and I just want to give kudos to staff for um all of the hard work that I know we've ran them through the ringer on all the the hearings and um compliance stuff over the past year and um it's paying off. I appreciate it. So, I'm going to look for a motion for adjournment, but we are going to have a study session uh five minutes starting what 6:30 or you sure

start at 6:30 after this. So, you're more than welcome to stay and uh listen to our budget session. So, I'm just looking for a move to Truan. Yes. Garza, yes. Goss, yes. Basters,

yes. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat.