City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. We'll call the meeting to order and welcome everyone to Elizabeth Town City Council meeting for February 2nd, 2026. And I'd like to ask Council Member Tim Isaacs if he'd lead us in the invocation, please.

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, the last few days been more than a little challenging. It is in times like these you remind us where our strength lies. That when we work together as a community, we are stronger than when we are alone. That adversity provides us opportunity for reflection and growth. Thank you for our public works crews that went above and beyond working around the clock in conditions we haven't seen in many years. We are thankful for our first responders as well that are always there for us no matter what the weather throws at them. But we are also grateful for community partners that reached out without being asked to provide extra support for the workers on the front lines, reminding us all just how blessed we are to live in this wonderful community. Lord, we pray for our good friend Lamar as he works through an illness and we pray for his wife Barb as we know that a sick husband can be more challenging than any sick child. We again grateful for all that you do. In Christ's names we pray. Amen.

Amen. And if you join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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.

Councilman Isaacs, I have to tell you, you've really paid attention to Brother Bell over the years. He's even taught you how to say a beautiful prayer. Madame Clerk, if you would please call roll. Yes, sir. Council member Bishop. Here. Council member Fulkerson here. Council member Issacs here. Council member Tyler here. Mayor, we have a quorum. Thank you, ma'am. And we will start with approval of minutes from January 20th, 2025. If I can get a motion in a second. So move. Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Seeing none, motion carries. First order of business will be the second reading by motion of ordinance number 32026 amending the official zoning map for 614 through 622 Pair Orchard Road. If I can get a motion in a second to read please. So motion second. All in favor? I opposed. Judge Howard.

This is a second reading by summary. This ordinance amends the official zoning classification for the property located at 614 through 622 Perchard Road from suburban residential R2 to urban residential which is R3 to allow for uses such as single unit homes or zero lot line duplexes. The change was approved by the Listown City Council as it was found to be in agreement with the city's comprehensive plan. Full text of the ordinance may be found by contacting the city clerk's office. As a second reading, it is now available for your consideration.

Thank you, sir. Any discussion? Need a motion and a second to adopt, please. So moved. Second. Madame clerk, if you would call roll. Yes, sir. Council member Issacs. Yes. Council member Tyler. Yes. Council member Bishop. Yes. Council member Fulkerson. Yes. Motion passed. Thank you all. We'll move to municipal order number 72026 accepting bid for Porter John services for parks and recreation. If I can get a motion in a second to read, please. Motion. Second on the port of John.

All in favor? Opposed? Judge Howard.

At a regular meeting of the city council on the date here out set below after first being read, a motion to adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded, and approved. Whereas the city prepared bid documents and publicly advertised the project and received bids that were publicly opened on January 30th of 2026 for the parks and recreation annual portagon services. Now be it ordered by the city council to accept the bid from C and C portables LLC for the parks and recreation annual Portage John services in an amount not to exceed $85 per unit with an additional $25 charge for second cleaning. The city will not be accepting the alternate bid. Be it further ordered that the mayor and/or his designate is hereby authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to perfect this order, including but not limited to signing all contracts, documents, and obtaining the necessary permits. Read, adopted, and approved this second day of February.

Any discussion? Need a motion and a second to adopt, please. Motion. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Seeing none, motion carries. Thank you all. Municipal order number 8, 2022, authorizing purchase of property at 501 Commerce Drive. If I can get a motion in a second to read, please. Motion. Motion. Second. All in favor?

I opposed. Judge Howard. At a regular meeting of the city council held on the date set out below. After first being read, a motion to adopt the following municipal order was duly made, seconded, and approved. Whereas the city identified the need to upgrade Commerce Drive corridor for many years and has awarded a contract for this road construction project. And whereas the city has budgeted funds for the expansion and extension of Commerce Drive from Executive Drive to its terminus at Springfield Road to include the acquisition of additional public street right ofway and the acquisition of utility and drainage easements. Whereas uh Matthew and Lords Randall own property located at 501 Commerce Drive and are willing to sell said property to the city for the Commerce Drive quarter road improvement project. Now be it ordered by the city council that the city purchase the property located at 501 Commerce Drive from the Randills in the amount of $25,000. Be it further ordered that the mayor and/or his designate is authorized to sign all agreements, contracts, deeds, closing documents, and forms to perfect this order, including having a title report prepared of the property to be purchased, read, adopted, and approved this second day of February.

Any discussion or questions? Need a motion and a second to adopt. Please motion. Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Seeing none, motion carries. And Mrs. Graham, I'm going to go a little bit out of order here before we go to the public comments section. I'm going to invite our public works superintendent director, Don Hill, if he'd come up and ask him if he'd come up and give us a snow removal update. Mayor, council, good afternoon. Uh what I provided to you, you should have a copy of is a chronological order of the activities of the Department of Public Works, Natural Gas Department, and Parks and Recreation. Uh it'll be in summary. Uh did not cover the activities for sidewalks and parking lots. The parking lots were strictly done uh and by the parks and recreation department on the municipal lots, including emergency services lots, sidewalks. We repurposed equipment uh to bring downtown. a lot of manpower. Uh took brush loaders and picked up large uh accumulations of snow where we had cleaned up. So, just wanted to touch on that just a little bit to say thank you to the natural gas department for working in our neighborhoods and to the parks and recreation department for the work that they did and continue to do for us. So, thank you for that. Uh I'll start with uh pre-planning. And so, the week before the winter storm firm came in, there was a lot of pre-planning. And so we had multiple meetings with the administration and the leadership team for the multiple departments in the city. Uh and then there were several meetings uh with public works internally with our staff. And then all the the results of those meetings uh if the mayor and the city administrator were not there, they were communicated to them as well. So communication was paramount throughout this event and it continues to be with updates to the administration and the mayor uh to anybody that public information officers uh Amy and Chris Denim with the police department. So we wanted to make sure that we were communicating the activities, what the priorities were and what the plan for the next day was so we

could keep uh the public and the citizens of Elizabeth Town informed through social media. And so in saying that, I'll start with what happened on Saturday, uh, January the 24th, which that was when the storm came in. And so we're looking at, uh, the temperatures. The street temperature was below freezing. The ambient air temperature was not conducive to treatment. And then the the accretion, as Amy likes to say, came in. It was a mixture of snow, uh, freezing rain, and sleep. And as this progressed through the night, it became evident that this was going to be a very challenging event. And so certainly uh kudos to the staff, kudos to the support, uh from the city council, the mayor, administration, and all the staff that was involved. So we knew that. And so I can tell you the activities uh was a very strategic, a very tactical approach to tackling this event throughout last week, the event last week uh and continuing into this week. So I'll start off to say that on Saturday and Sunday, there were two uh operations of plowing uh for the street network, the entire street network. Two applications of salt treatment to the entire street network. And then on Sunday uh once we got through the plowing and the treatment of the entire network then we focused on uh using steelbladed equipment on the arterials and the priorities because we we saw immediately that the result was going to be very slow uh the results were and also uh the impact that our treatment and our efforts was making. So then we had to strategically say, okay, what makes the most impact? And so we focused on the arterial streets. So neighborhoods and they could drive and our our goal at the time was drive a quarter mile or less to get to a passable street. Uh neighborhood streets, you have less traffic and so it

does not react to the treatment. We tackled and or battled u below freezing temperatures sometimes getting into single digits or zero. Honestly, every day was a reset. It was like uh I think what was it? Groundhog Day. It felt like Groundhog Day uh every day because the efforts of the day before were refreezing and so we we had to take a different approach to that. So we were very fluid in our operation but we were very determined and we were very focused. And so in saying that, so starting Monday, January 26, uh we knew that the rubber tip blades on our trucks uh was not making any headway at all with the ice and the hard pack. So we started focusing on steel bladed equipment. And so we had road grader out. We had rubber tire loader out, which there are large pieces of equipment. And then we put crews in neighborhoods to work with skid, steers, and back holes to try to at least remove material to get to where if we did get a break, if we had a 20 degree day or if we had sunshine, then we would see results from the treatment in the efforts prior to that. And so on Tuesday, uh what we realized is that there were multiple agencies working and we have interconnections with county and with state roads. And so the focus on Tuesday, uh, January the 27th was clearing intersections because when you saw the amount of debris that was building up in the intersections and then so if you if you had a city street that was passable and then you got to an intersection and you couldn't get your car over the accumulation or the debris that had piled up. So we spent Tuesday focusing on that along with plowing the arterials and working in neighborhoods with crews. On Wednesday, uh what we did was u I'm sorry, let me back up. Tuesday, January 27th, the entire street network was treated again. So that was the third time that we treated the network with salt. Wednesday, January 28th is when we utilize steel bladed

equipment to clear the intersections. On Thursday, we focused on the main thoroughfare streets in the neighborhoods because then it's like, okay, we're not seeing any results on the secondaries, which is in the neighborhood. the street may be in front of your house unless it was a a cutth through street or a main thoroughfare street. So then we focused again using steelbladed equipment to do to to work on those and also uh on Thursday was road salt was applied to hills curves and overpasses. So that was a partial treatment but so that was the fourth time that we applied salt to to areas in the city. On Friday, the efforts on January the 30th was plowing priority streets continued and focusing on efforts uh in the neighborhoods. So again, crews and equipment was utilized in neighborhoods. Now, if you think about all the neighborhoods in the city limits, we couldn't get to all of them in one day. This has been a very progressive approach, and we're working on the outskirts, the north, the south, east, and the west, and working our way in to downtown. We also had a group uh with trucks that were working in the downtown area or the neighborhood surrounding the downtown area. Saturday, because of the temperatures, that was a period of rest. We took the day off. Mayor and Ed, they they would have loved for us to have continued to work. I'll say that. But the efforts with I think the high on Saturday was 17. You would not have seen much if any results of having a crew out and having the equipment and the vehicles out Sunday. uh because the sun came out, we're looking at 20 degree temperatures. We uh mobilized a crew. Uh we had all of our trucks out and they were out plowing, try to remove as much material as we could on these streets. So today's activities, which was a plowing and another salt application. So now we're on the the fifth application of salt uh in treatment on the streets. So we we figured yesterday when we got out that

we whatever material we could remove that it would make an difference or an impact today. Today we're seeing streets that were frozen thawing out. We're seeing asphalt on some of the streets that all last week we did not see. Are they perfect? No. Are we going to continue our efforts? Yes. And tomorrow morning we will start plowing again and to try to remove as much if not all the material that we're seeing. One of the efforts today was also widening streets because if you if you got a street that's been treated, people drive on it and if they see anything coming off the street, whether whatever direction it is, if there's nobody coming, they will drive in those same areas. And so they beat down one side of the street and the other side of the street, even though it's been plowed and treated, it doesn't respond because they're they're driving on one spot of the street. So today's efforts was also to widening the streets out and trying to get the most effect we could out of the plowing and the treatment. Uh and also today uh the supervisory group continued to monitor and assess the condition of the city streets which was that was an ongoing uh process every day of last week. Got a few statistics and then I'll answer questions. I'll answer factual questions with factual answers. How's that? uh statistics. So fuel usage and this is throughout the city. This is any vehicle in the city that uses fuel uh was diesel. We use 1752.6 gallons costing $4,2624. And diesel would be your fire department. Uh their vehicles used diesel and unled as well. But all any equipment that you have, graders, skid steers, back holes, whatever it may be, equipment uses uh diesel fuel along with some of our trucks. Uh unled, we used uh 3,820.9 gallons uh for $7,68.6866.

So for the total fuel used since last Saturday, the 24th, $11,274.91. Salt usage uh before they went out this morning. $383 or $383 tons, $122 per ton, $46,726. So that was that is all for this event. And so uh we have we do have some salt ordered. I'm I'm hoping to see some trucks this week. We are not at a critical level in our salt storage, but it can be concerning because we know we have an event coming tomorrow and whatever else we have to use. But we're going to replenish that. Uh the supplier has told me that we should anticipate delivery uh middle of the week. So I'll keep Mayor I'll keep you and head posted on that as well. Labor, which is just for public works, uh from 124 to this morning, regular hours 1,682 hours. Overtime hours 862 hours. So for this event, a total of 2544 hours. I do not have a dollar value for that because we're working on our spreadsheet. Uh hopefully we can submit uh to FEMA and get reimbursed for some of that money or expense. Um that's just accounting for public works. It's not accounting for the gas department yet, nor parks and recreation or any other support staff that has been involved. Um I am very proud of the fact that uh the people that I work with, they thought outside the box. We repurposed equipment. We retoled this morning because we realized that rubber uh rubber tip plows were not working. Now, you don't get the down pressure on the trucks that you do on the equipment like a grater or a wheel loader, but we removed the rubber tips. We're using steel plows today. Uh we to instructed our team members to be careful because you got a manhole in the middle of the street. If anybody's ever seen a video, you hang a plow in a in a manhole or

something that doesn't move, you you just roll that plow up underneath the vehicle and also somebody could get injured. So, we certainly safety is paramount. We felt comfortable with that approach today because of the thickness of the ice in some of the neighborhoods. Are there any questions? talk a little bit about uh you mentioned it with the down pressure and the steel blades, but also a consideration explain is how we want to leave our road network after this event is over and you have to be careful and not chew up your roads that you've recently paved being as we do about 15 miles a year.

Correct. Um the amazing thing that I have seen uh throughout this past week and today was the first pothole that I had seen. And so if you know if you're plowing a street with metal blades, obviously you're taking asphalt material with it as well. And certainly we're sensitive to that. But today I saw the first pothole. Now doesn't mean that once the ice goes away and uh the streets start to deteriorate, but we've certainly got a plan for that. One of the other focuses today was uh clearing drainageways in lowlying areas because with the event tomorrow with uh the temperatures I think on next Sunday I think we're going to see 52 for a high then you're going to start seeing water pond and so we're sensitive to that. We've got a crew dedicated uh couple crews out dedicated to that removing uh debris and and ice from the curb inlets on the curb and gutter streets. And so that is a focus. Uh next focus will be in the next few weeks is we'll start removing big piles of snow and again we'll use the equipment that is designed to pick up brush and whatever other equipment that we have available. This has been it's been a all an allout team effort multiple department and certainly it it's makes you proud. It really does. I'm very proud to say that I work for the city and work with the people that I do and the support that you all have provided the mayor and Ed and and all the support staff uh Amy Chris Denim getting the message out there. I think even there was a you know some one of the concerns that we've heard is uh you're blocking my driveway when you plow. So, uh, we provided a diagram to Amy that says, "Okay, here's what you can do." And realizing there's limitations, but so here's what you can do. And so, there's a little diagram. It says, "This is what you can do prior to your driveway in the area, you widen it out, and then when the plow comes

through, it does not get in front of your driveway." So, the mayor was very clear uh in PSAs before is that, hey, we're going to say we're sorry at the very beginning of this. We're sorry, but this is um you know, this is just a side uh result of plowing. And so the focus is to get the streets open uh first for emergency vehicles so they can get to where they need to get, but also being sensitive to the needs of our community. Whether it's work, whether it's I need to go to the store and buy groceries, whatever it may be, we are very sensitive to that. Um the days that we didn't see much progress there was probably I know the community was disappointed but I can tell you the people that I work with were disappointed as well. And so that's the focus is to get those streets clean, get them passable and get everybody back to some sense of normaly uh at the first of February.

Any questions? One more comment and I will elaborate on what Don just said. Our guys take great pride in what they do and their job. And I think most of you that have been around here for a very long time know that in all the other previous winter storm events, especially when it's mostly snow, two, three days tops, we've got this whole road network open and you can see black top everywhere. And so, not to make excuses because we don't do that. And Don is an absolute perfectionist and runs his department that way. They want results and they want things done correctly. But what I'm going to tell you is, and I saw a great description of the storm that we got, four inches of ice that was welded to Blacktop. That was a great description, I thought. And so this is a oneoff. I say a one-off. We see something like this every 15, 20 years. And so this has been a challenge. They've worked tremendously hard at trying to get these roads open. I know all of them aren't ideal. I was driving around through some of them today, but I will at least say that people can get to where they need to go in the city of Elizabeth Town. Sure, some of them are still white, some of them still have ice all over them, but people can get to where they need to go. And I think that's a credit to your crew because this is a unique storm event that has welded ice to the black top. And until we get some temperatures that will cooperate with us, it's just going to be tough for us to get all that up. And if anybody's been out and shoveled their sidewalk or their driveway and they're honest with themselves, they can multiply that by 176 times two lanes

and know what our guys are going through because I promise you, nobody wants these roads clear and and black top showing as much as our guys do. And they've worked really hard to do that. And so I appreciate you, Don.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, C. Okay, we'll go to public comments. Anybody have any public comments? Then we will skip back to city council information items and the next city council meeting will be held on February 9th, 2026. Do y'all have anything you want to talk about? Well, that makes it easy because we will go straight to adjournment. We do not have anything to go close session about. So, I need a motion and a second to adjurnn. Please motion. Second. Second.

I know you all like this place, but I thought we could adjourn. All in favor? Opposed? Seeing none. Motion carries. We are journed. Thank you all.