Planning & Infrastructure/GIS Committee - Regular Meeting

Tomorrow tomorrow afternoon. He's got to give me.

Oh yeah. No, he's raised by John. What time is this? How you doing?

I said I shall not be moved. I got my

up back on Saturday. Let's That's okay.

in my usual chair. would like to uh call the uh planning and infrastructure uh GIS commi um committee to uh call it to order. Um, thank you all for uh coming and uh we're going to get started with first of all public comments if there are any public comments anyone if not then we'll just uh any other members have any uh comments that you all like to make?

All right. Okay. So, we'll start with the update on the water quality. Understand that Brandon is out of town, but uh Mr. Dark, who you say you have? Uh Kiana Maple, who runs the water plant, is here. Okay. Okay. Y'all need to approve your minutes while she's Okay. Yeah. I I forgot. I'm sorry. Uh do I have a motion to approve the minutes August the 26, 2025? Moved by Councilwoman Bowman, second by Councilwoman Taylor. Uh questions not all in favor? I Okay, thank you. Now we'll move to the uh update on the water qual. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Kiana Maple Lars, uh superintendent for water purification standing instead for uh Mr. Brandon Sneed who's not here today. Um just a brief update. We are currently moving into our um higher demand and our warmer seasons. So, we've already made adjustments to our treatment processes to accommodate those things that typically uh lead to taste and odor issues, adjustments to our chlorine dioxide, to our um newly reestablished uh carbon feed system. And so, we're just monitoring everything. Um I know some of the things that have been of note in the past are taste and odor and of course the manganesees. Manganesees is normal. We're monitoring that as usual. Um do any of the members have any other additional questions related to water quality? Thank you so much for for being here today. The one thing that I wanted to ask um as we saw yesterday on the agenda regarding the 42 in and the 36 in

has that had any impact on our water quality thus far after the break? No, we've not seen any impacts to water quality. We've actually been producing some of during that time, I guess, because it's a lower demand. The quality in the lake is a little bit different. some of the best water quality that we've seen in a while. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Maya. No problem. Anyone else? Thank you. One other thing while she's walking away, there was some discussion during all that about we have a project to begin replacing some of the older the dual 24s with a with a 36 inch main that's out to bids right now. I believe bid date is in about 10 days to two weeks maybe. So, we should be seeing that one coming up.

Right. Thank you. Uh, next we will have an update on street projects. Got David Smith and Chris Ericson here. Between them, they should be able to answer your questions.

Uh, Chris Ericson, uh, program manager for Burns McDonald. I was think between David, you know, David can handle any of the capital projects.

Sorry. uh between the capital projects. David can speak to those and I can speak to anything in the uh geo bond. Um so far so far we have about four projects that are currently in construction. 10 10 that are in various levels of procurement whether they're being advertised or whether they are uh whether that we have we have bidded and we're going to uh we're contracting with with the uh the parent low bidder. Um, still to come, just in 2026, we have seven named projects and then 44 uh neighborhood projects that we are anticipating to bid in 2026.

So, do you have how many you have ready to go now? Uh, right now we have 10 that should be that should be bidding or have just bid. Okay. You got a list of those with you?

Uh, let's see. Uh, Curtis Lane, Gilbert. Oh, no, no, sorry. Kennedy Drive. Um, those have just bid. Um, Southfield Road, uh, Midvale, Frances, uh, South Lakeshore Bridge, Stoner Bridge. I may not have hit them all on my spreadsheets, so I apologize for this one. Okay. Do you have an update on uh Monk House? Uh you want to Monk House?

And and before he comes, can he tells me what South Lake bridge? South Lake Shore bridge because it's two of them. So which bridge? It's the larger. Get get in front of the mic. How y'all doing? David Smith, city engineer. uh to South Lake Lakes Shore Bridge. It's the one closer to Yardboro, just east of Yard Brook. There's a a big one there by I believe it's a gas station. Yeah, there's a rehab coming for that. Okay. And on Mon Go ahead, ma'am. So that side of that that entire bridge is the city of Shreport because I know like the tributaries of water, some are regulated by the state, some some district the rightway is is the city. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Thank you. And uh Councilman Green for Monk House uh we are getting close to getting 90% 90% plans. Uh they have recently sent us a draft of some ideas on what we might do for a sign city of Shriport sign and the uh the landscaping the trees and what sorts might be there. Believe we've passed that to your officer. I can get that to you again just for some discussion. They'll need to know that. need to get our feedback to finalize those set of plans, but 100% are expected in July and then four months after that we should be looking towards construction.

Okay. Yeah. Um Mr. Morgan brought me the uh the sign deal and I picked out the one that would be uh great for that area. Okay. Thanks. Go ahead. Okay. Um the project we have on Bunkham Road, um the heavy equipment in the process of fixing that part of Bunkham, the 7,800 block, the area right before that is some damage there. Um I know an ordinance that I put in that they was they would have to repair that. Are we going to make sure that's repaired?

Uh yes, ma'am. On Bunkham Road specifically, I don't know that streets and drainage has a project. It may be a water and sewer, but we'll look into that. Uh we also if that is the case get a a good understanding of what the road looked like before. Okay. And and then bring that to their attention if it is significantly damaged. Right. Well, it's a Bunkham Road. Hob Street. Oh, at Hobs. Yes. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Yes. So, if you look at that 7,800 block, they did a bunch of damage on Bunkham and I would like to see that repaired because if we're fixing this street and damaging this, we're not getting any further. Okay. Yeah, certainly if it's part of the project, we'll get it repaired. I'll follow up with you on that. Thank you, Councilman Green. Yes.

Um, David, you provide me an update on University Park. Uh, yes, ma'am. I might have to to ask Chris to get us the latest, but we worked with water and sewer, coordinated kind of the conflicts there and got a rescoping for the design engineer to include any needed water and sewer re relocations or repairs for the project. I I I believe we're somewhere's around 30% right now. Uh it's got a significant way to go. It's a very large project, but I can get you a complete timeline.

I I appreciate that. Same thing. If you can give us an update on uh the streets that we have all are out for repair in all of our districts, that would be great. So, we'll know where where they are and we can update our constituents on. Yeah. You may recognize this. Yes. Uh I passed this around. This is what's going in construction over the next 12 months. Okay. Um, so I I'll update that and send it out again, but if there's anything you need specifically, feel feel free to just give me an email and I'll get back to you.

Okay. Is there a way that we could um put the streets in each of our district if y'all could put them on the city's web so that people could go there to know that even though they in design or whatever that they'll know that something is about to happen in in the districts. Okay. Yes, sir. I think that would uh boost the morale of the people to know that something is coming that we're in design or getting ready to come out of design that put them on on the web. Okay. Certainly. And we've got the dashboard for all the bond projects. Yes, sir.

But I will there certainly is a lot going on in capital as well. And so we'll look to see what we can do simply to provide that in in a map or GIS type. Uh yeah, view. I think that would be great for our district because to let the people know that Sure. your street will be repaired or sure uh reconstructed like for an instance over in the uh Woodland area. We're going to have a lot of streets that are going to be uh reconstructed. So, I'd just like for the people to know that it's coming. Okay. Absolutely. Uh we'll work first. I'll get you that list and then we'll work on getting that a map view on the website. Yes, sir. Thank you. Anyone else? Any more questions, Mr. Chair? Yes, sir.

David, while you're up here, I mean, yeah. Um, just give me a brief update on Southfield, where we are on that in the contracting phase. Uh, I know it's been contracts have been sent to 3 Gen is the construction contractor. I don't know if they've returned them yet, but we're in the works of that. I expect construction uh June, July, if if I recall. Yeah. What is the date like day deadline for them to return or is it is do we have them?

Well, we've um I believe we have 60 days from contract award which has occurred a few weeks ago to get a signed contract. So, we we typically stay within that that time frame. It does take them two to three weeks to get bonds and return that. I don't know that they've been sitting on it to any means just yet, but we'll certainly follow up. All right. Thank you much. Yes, sir. Thank you. Baby, don't leave. I have another question for you. Chris answers. He passed it to you. Is Audrey Lane complete?

The roadway is complete. There's still some cleanup to be done. We We have been working with the contractor. There's a question on some some quantities and what you'll truly be paid for. So, beyond that, it is complete. I have not driven it lately myself to see that it is clean and with grass put back down, but that has been what we are pushing for. I I definitely want the grass that the homeowners had in their yards or to be replaced with the same grass that they ate.

We will put back soding uh to match each individual's grass. May be a little beyond our our stretch, but we'll put uh typical siding down within the rideway. Uh anything we disturb. So instead of just seating, we will put sod hard grass down. Okay. Your turn. Thank you. Thank you. All right. At this time, we'll move to the uh status on the uh fire stations. Well, fire or police are both together.

Well, if they can get along, they can come on together. He's standing up so we'll let him come on. Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon. You sitting there like I'm not going to offer any information.

Uh Steve, go ahead with an update on the uh uh the main station and also the station on u St. Vincent and 70th Street. work has begun on the uh new police headquarters. We are so excited to see uh that beginning. Uh it's going to take a while. I'm quite sure everyone understand the magnitude of a project of that nature. Uh my house drive substation is doing wonderfully well in u out in is that district L?

Yes, L. As a matter of fact, uh it's just unbelievable how uh that station is servicing our West Streetport community. The uh officers tell me on a daily basis there are people uh coming in and getting the assistance that they need. Uh and it is really really uh causing some positive change to occur along the Monk House Drive corridor. So, as a matter of fact, uh this very morning at 7:30 uh this morning, we began a commercial sweep where about 63 people participated, uh police officers, uh the department of of health, uh property standards, and everyone who are stakeholders. and we went from one end of Monk House Drive to the other identifying uh health hazards uh and other u issues where uh businesses or or structures may not have been in compliance. Uh we are so excited about uh the work that's happening that's all focused around uh that particular uh station. We've had uh some small community meetings there. It is really really servicing the community uh quite well and we have in our big vision some other uh improvements to take place on that property that's going to really really uh enhance that area. North Market substation is doing just unbelievably uh well. We could readily see in it as we've seen in the one in West Freeport that crime overall is reduced with the multiplication of police presence uh in the area. Um North Markets is is doing extremely well. Um

let me ask you this. Yes, sir. Also, we always talk about the uh substation on Monk House, but we don't ever give an update on the uh traffic right around the corner. Before you uh uh take your seat, talk about traffic and how that has uh improved uh you all's job.

It really has. Uh having one great central uh location which is there for our entire traffic bureau uh their manpower and equipment that they need uh is just invaluable. The the whole site the whole concept uh is just just wonderful on a regular basis. uh we take people on a tour of the facility because they're interested in seeing the progress that the city has made. Uh and I'm so excited that those projects that were on our bond proposals are coming to fruition uh in record time and we are conservative, very conservative with uh taxpayers dollar. We're taking every opportunity uh to rehab to to use what's there uh and build something from it. So, it's it's working out very very well. Uh we lead the state uh in our traffic enforcement. Uh we take impaired driving very serious. Uh we lead the state probably in our arrest for driving uh impaired um across Ket Parish. And you know, I'll make a report. I'll show you the slide when opportunity prevails itself. Katau Parish is leading the state in fatality accidents. You hear me quite often say that the chances are good that you'll get harmed in an automobile accident better than than anything else. We must continue and intensify our efforts um to reduce impaired driving and ultimately reduce our fatality accidents. St. Vincent location is coming along well. Uh next time you're riding down 49, take a look over there. You'll be uh be quite impressed. It's coming along at record

time record at record pace and I believe it's somewhere in the range of close to 80% if not better complete. So we look to be relocating uh to that area very very soon.

What's the target date on the headquarters being complete? sometime in latter 27 I believe or the beginning of 28 uh there was some uh things discovered once they began that needed some uh professional removal and the building you know built back in the 50s I don't think probably anyone is absolutely sure of what will be discovered uh what's behind the brick walls but they're moving at a at a good pace absolutely Absolutely. Uh our location in Southern Hills on Kingston Road uh is doing very well. The uh Southern Hills community is excited about having uh our presence and we look forward to our continued presence out in that community. But everything is going well constructionwise.

Are there any questions? Yes, Chief. Yes, ma'am. Did we move all of the contents out of the uh headquarters? Are all of the contents removed? All of the furniture and everything? And if so, where do we store all of that uh furniture that we had inside of the main building? That which is still serviceable uh by what we seen and what we know, it all was moved to uh Monk House Drive and is stored inside of Foremost location. So, they actively constructing on that every day. hand construction is. Uh yes, ma'am. I see there people there working on a daily basis. Okay.

Uh there still was a lot of furniture and knick-knacks and things that we felt that were not serviceable that was left there, but we got everything out that we thought that we may could use in the future. Oh, those contents be demolished with the building. Those things that are not serviceable. I am not sure. Russell could probably answer that question. And I I feel that probably when we abandoned the location uh that everything that still remained was probably in the hands of the contractor to remove is that madam chair we actually have the project architect Mark Preville and Russell Delansancy from Spar here. So, if you have questions for any of them on any aspect of the project,

that's the question that I I have. Are all of the contents moved out of that building? Everything that we were going to use for that is has all of that been vacated. Good afternoon, Mark Po. I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, yes, ma'am. The uh contents of the building have been removed, including IT equipment as well as desk and just personal effects people had left. That's been cleaned out. So, we look to be on schedule as far as We're on schedule for August of 208. 28th, I'm sorry. Get your glasses on for this. 28. Yes, ma'am. Okay. August 28th. Okay.

Any other questions? Y'all not coming back until August the 28th. August the 28th. That's what he said. That's when we'll be back. Absolutely. Well, you know that that whole site uh our forefathers was part of a big vision for a government complex. City court is there. Sport train is there. Uh our vehicle maintenance facility is there. 911 is there. Our property and evidence room is there. Our city jail is there. So that's a place we plan to be from 9 to eternity. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Chief kind of skipped over. Hello, Chief. Uh Chief kind of skipped over it while it was up. They have some they have some ideas for what they'd like to do with some of the unused buildings out at Foremost. Okay. Some of those they've sort of drifted into moving in toward a little bit. Um, we're trying to help them identify whether there's anything we can afford to do out there because there's some things we'd really like to do. But a lot of it depends, frankly, on how the big headquarters building handles itself staying within money because some of that that's kind of where that might come from if we get to that. But I know they have moved their gym out there. There's some things that we'd like to do in the near future and we'll just be trying to work with Spar and the chief to try to see what we can do there. Okay. Thank you, sir.

Absolutely. Thank you all. Are you speaking for the fire department too, ma'am? Are you for the fire department? The fire department here yet? Uh, they they was at lunch. They were still cooking. So, I saw him at Brookers. At Brookers. All right. He agreed. They'll be home later. Getting some groceries. You can tell. They had three rigs at Brookers. I don't get that. He was getting groceries for this evening for the stone come. Yeah, they were hauling out some meat as last I recall. Chief, um I've had some constituents that are very interested in the and Mr. Po, maybe this could be yours as well. They're interested in looking at what the building could will be looking like. Where do I find that? The uh the new police headquarters.

Yes, I can provide that for you. Uh Mr. Pos and his group provided me with a rendition. Okay. Of what the exterior, the interior, the whole site plan. Uh, and I'll be happy to share that that I'd like to just kind of push that out so people can Yeah. see their buy in. Right. Not not a problem. Uh, it is it is modern looking. Very impressive. Uh, you you're going to love it. You're going to love it.

And I and I think if we haven't already done it and could could be out behind the the eightball here, but you know, this is uh the is so important that we do the show and tell. In other words, we get the money, we, you know, assign the projects, we build the projects, and we like the anticipation that our constituents are, you know, telling us like, "Oh, I'm excited about it. I really want to see it. I think this is going to be great, right?" And then I don't have anything to show them, you know. So, I mean, that would be that would be kind of nice for us to kind of push out through our platforms and so forth, you know, and said coming soon kind of things, you know, along with I get it soon. They provided me with an electronic copy. I'll be more than happy to share that with with all of you. Better to have more information than Sure. nothing.

Right. We appreciate it. Thank you both. Absolutely. Yeah. We're excited about it. Chief, we're going to go to the next item. Would you call and see how long they're going to be at Brooks? Hey, Brook. Absolutely. Right away. Well, they'll be running code here. You know, look out. And my son is there with them. So, I got a personal insight of where they're at. All right. We got Mr. and talk about fire stations a little bit. Okay, come on Russ. Come on Russ. Good afternoon.

Russell Dance is far planning and development. Um I can specifically talk about fire station 15. They're in we're on schedule and it's coming quite well out there. They're hanging drywall currently and scheduled for completing in August this summer. So it's been a fairly simple straightforward project so far. When do we expect the fire station to open in Allenale? What's the location? Station four. Station 4 is when to open. Station 4 is open. So you all finish all of the Oh, yeah. Station 4 is open and operating. It's been open for quite a while. Oh, I thought I thought that's the one that had the the the mold didn't

the mold issue. The one next to Booker T. Oh, I am I'm sorry. I am sorry. When you said four, I thought 14. I apologize for that. Oh, it's it's currently under construction right now. They're wrapping up on that station as well. That's that's um I don't refer to that. That's lakes the Lakeside area in my mind. But yeah, it's uh it's going pretty well, too. We've had some change order issues with that station, but we're it's all under control and moving forward. When we got into the station, there was a little bit more work that we needed to do and but it's it's all going pretty well.

What about uh what about fire station 20? fire station 20 is um it's nearing completion as well. Um the I haven't been out to 20 in about two weeks, so I don't know its current status. I intend to go out there this week to take a look to review it, but to my knowledge, it's it's progressing quite well, too. Okay. We've not had any significant holdups on that one either. Okay. Um Russell. Yes, sir. Fire station out on uh Airport Drive. Did they ever finish doing the floors because we had some problem out there? Some of the floors had ambassadors in it. Did they, you know, if they completed that on Airport Drive? Mhm. What? What?

Fire station right by the airport. Oh, 16. Yes, sir. We did a full abatement out there when they Yes, sir. That we did a full abatement of the floors out there. So, we finished all those. That was finished quite a long time ago, actually, when they went in and did that remodel. Well, what happened during the remodel? They didn't do all the floors. Well, when we did a we did a remodel of the uh the kitchen and the restrooms. Okay. That's when that was discovered and we went and did an asbestous of all the areas that we were working in. There are other floors in that were not affected and that don't don't have an asbestous in them. Any other questions? There's a lot of fire stations around this town.

Okay. Russell, thank you very much. Russell, before you leave, I'd just like everybody to know that uh not only are you a great designer for all the city business buildings that you've done, but back in the day, most folk don't know that you designed Union Mission Baptist Church. So, thank you very much. And it's still being admired. Well, you were the main designer on that project. All right. Thank you. Um, now we update on Millennium Studio.

David, you might want to talk about Millennium for a second. We've also got Temple Phillips Gun here. Temple Williams, excuse me, from GU. You can come on up. Good afternoon, Temple as well. David Smith, city engineer. Yes, sir. What What kind of questions do you have? Uh give me an update on the the flooding and all of that stuff. Did we finish all of getting all of that done yet?

Well, uh we recently completed uh small update to the area included several catch basins, some trench drains and stuff around the studio site itself to uh to better collect the water, get it in the pipe faster. Uh we've we've done a preliminary report on what what else we could do, some alternatives, whether it be uh detention or upsizing the system. We don't currently have construction funds for that, but we are moving forward with evaluation of uh locations for those ponds and better cost estimates, uh capital outlay request for a project and such. But that so we're we're in the planning stages of anything else to happen there in that system that basin.

So is the capital outlay going to delay anything? Uh the request was for several million and that would be a a large upsize to the pipe downstream from the studio itself uh to alleviate to bring down the water levels in the basin.

So is the temporary looking to be workable? uh what we completed recently uh has not yet been put to the test fortunately and I hope it kind of stays that way but um in the near in the future we'll we'll see how it performs. There's still a risk there and an expectation that any 100year storm comes by that that may be issues. So we're planning contingencies on that and planning for a bigger the next project. So, with the recent storms that we've had, they've not you've not seen any water in the building?

I don't believe there's been any near risk. Mr. Temple could maybe speak to that better. He's usually on site there, but we're not aware of any issues since we've completed the work. Okay. So, if it if the storm come like today, you think that'll be a test as well, like they predicted it was coming? Every every storm will be a test. Yes, sir. We're trying to stay on top of uh maintenance of the system. We recently cleaned it again and did some more inspections. Uh so the system is operable and in in good shape. Uh but it it has its it has its boundaries. Yes.

So at what point do we release all this construction and planning and so forth and get it into production? Um, I mean, so where are we as far as turning over the whole complex? Isn't that what we're currently waiting on for us to do our job? And that'll be outside my purview. I'd have to ask Mr. Dor or others to to weigh in on that. From the engineering standpoint, we are pursuing funding to make the to lessen the risk. uh pursuing funding for construction that will lessen any flood risk to the area to the studio. And what would what's the funding? How much?

Well, capital outlay is what we're pursuing now for a uh capacity increase. And pardon me, I don't have the exact number, but it was several million. um the detention ponds or something upstream from the from the uh studio location may be uh cheaper but we have to find property acquire it and get further in the in the planning and coordination to make those happen. So they are are still in the planning stages. So are the are the retention ponds or will the retention ponds delay any openings because we're trying to see what the council is asking is will it be operable for them to go in Mr. dark

at to no risk of the occupants. Right.

If I may, we we released the property. It's a triple net lease. We released the property to Gunit Film and Television Louisiana. Um you know, over over a year ago, um there's nothing from our side that prevents them from being able to use the property. They accepted the property as is. That said, there are discussions about them investing substantially more into the property and those discussions have uh involve financing and that financing involves um underwriting risk. And so um as far as the city is concerned, we have turned that property over um as is. the the continued work over there is is um takes practical considerations into account. Um but there's nothing legally preventing there there's there's no um we have not not released the property to them for their use. The property has been released to them for their use

as as is, which means relieves us of any future construction, add-on, repairing, whatever. I mean, if it's asis, then I'm accepting it, just what it says, as is. And if there's anything that needs to be repaired going forward, I I fund it. Not the city has to find money to fund it. That is correct. There are some caveats to that in the lease. Uh I don't believe uh drainage work is one of those things. However, there was uh prior knowledge of some flooding issues. Um so that's something that has been taken into account.

Prior knowledge of GUNT or prior knowledge of the city before we leased it to both. So that was expressed. Yes, there was a you you will recall there was a um flooding incident in June of 2023, right, which took place in the middle of the negotiations. So, it was very much um acknowledged by both parties. Mr. Chair, yes. My question is this. Um Gunit does not own the building. We did not sell it to him. That's correct.

So, I'm not understanding how a 30-year versus a 99-year lease should be tied to finances if the building cannot be used as collateral. I I keep hearing loan large investment initial contract was 30-year with the renewal. There's no reason why we wasn't going to renew versus 99 years and they're still stipulations where that lease could be voided if I'm assuming deliberals are not met. But I'm keep hearing tied to finances like they'll be more willing to finance versus a 99-year lease or 30-year lease, but the entity still does not own the building.

Um, you know, some of this some of this I'll I'll ask Temple to kind of talk about the interests of the of the other party. I want to speak for Gunit. What I will say though is that just just as a practical matter um oftent times a bank considers a lease over a certain amount of years to be functionally for the purposes of the bank the same thing as a conveyance because of just amortization schedules. Um that is going to vary based upon the property itself, the amount of money that we're talking about. But you can get all that said, you can get a loan on a lease hold under certain circumstances. Um I say loan, I don't know what their financing structure is. I do know that the state is involved through LED. I know that there are some um various incentives including some tax um uh credits and that sort of thing. But um um in terms of why a 99year lease is more attractive to GUnit than a 30-year lease with a 15-year extension, I I would allow them to sort of speak for themselves.

Temple, would you like to have discussion? Good afternoon. Thank you. Temple Williams, uh, GUnit Studios, 300 Douglas Streetport 71101. Temple, if you can answer that question. I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question?

Yes. So, we're entertaining a 99-year lease and and the calls I'm receiving is is why the initial contract was 30-year with a renewal phase. Um, but just solid contract. Um, I initially asked Marcus yesterday, you guys initially asked for a 99-year lease and we was told that we couldn't give a 99-year lease and so we gave the best thing we can 30-year with a, you know, up to 30-year extension,

which all parties agreed. We felt like that was solid contract. Um, now we're, you know, a lot of work has not been done. So, we're back here asking for an extension and it and it looks bad timing and and so I need to I need to be clear to be able to say why is this is this an ask? Is this a need? Is is funding tied to it? Is is is do we have documentation from a bank that says we won't approve a sizable loan without having a 99-year lease? I I I want to support but I I need more information that says we have to do this versus we want to do this. Well, honestly, I can't speak directly to what a financial institution has told our ownership and management, but I can say in my in my cursory conversations with institutional lending that a ground lease or 99-year lease is a requirement in terms of being able to finance certain operations requirement.

That that's in and again, I'm speaking anecdotally. I can't speak definitively, okay? But those have been in conversations that I have had with lending institutions that that would be a requirement. Mr. Chair, yes. Um, so this is not just for Temple. I've got a question, but first off, I need to get back to this water situation. So, um, both parties were aware there was some flooding going on. I'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth, but remodeling has not been started due to the fact that if you start remodeling, then there's going to be issues if it floods again. So, we need to get the flooding remedy. Is that is that pretty much a true statement? That's correct, sir.

Mr. Edwards, yeah, I will let Jun speak to the steps that they've taken. So, what has caused So, this building is older than than most everything around it. Has this building been flooding for some time or or is this contributed to Bayu Grand and the and the and the uh planning and design of Bayou Grand?

Um we had a drainage report done uh when we were kind of starting these discussions. I think I think if I remember correctly uh like with most engineering documents I think the answer was something like yes and it was um um sort of the topography of the re of the area itself um in along with some of the development around the area. I mean there there's a lot of sort of um moving parts as to why the the the sort of water runoff happens the way that it does in that area at the speed at which it does. I think and I think this is speculative but I think what we found is that the drainage system in place is sufficient for the um the sort of drainage that happens in the area in terms of capacity. But we had questions about the speed with which water was entering into the system which is why there were some steps taken to increase the number of inlets and catch catch basins so that the water would enter the system more quickly. There was ponding taking place in the parking lot um with um as Temple showed me on a couple of occasions, a whirlpool of uh of drainage taking place with the ponding where the water would enter into the system, but it would it would sort of back up first. That backup um to the extent that it uh would approach the front of the building was a concern. And so we um first had a drainage study done and then took some steps to try to get the water into the system more quickly. We have not since the completion of that work, we haven't had a rain that um we felt that we feel as though has tested those improvements.

So I think think where I'm going with this is if it's a design flaw in Bayou Grand, have we looked at that any closer? Because I'm going to be honest, I I've got major drainage needs in my district. And when when I hear the city engineer saying that we're going to have to spend millions and millions of dollars for retention ponds and all this other kind of stuff, if there was something that was done or an error and an emission by the engineer or whoever designed this and if this has come secondary to those to those buildings being done, is that something that the city can look into? because I'm going to have real heartburn uh giving a building away for 99 years and fixing a drainage issue that may or may not be the city's problem whenever I've got houses that are flooding along North Ferry Road. And I'm being told over and over again that there's nothing we can do about it right now because we don't have the money. So, is there anything that we can do as a city to to look into that? Well, I we also don't have the money for for any additional

Well, I I get it, but we've got a we've got them asking us for a 99-year lease. And I would think that that would be contingent upon, you know, if you look at it from a lending standpoint, is a lender going to loan him any money on a building that's going to flood. I mean, the flooding is going to have to be fixed. So, I mean, you're looking about, well, you know, they're only going to they they'll only loan the money to them if it's 99 years. Well, if you've got,

you know, I mean, if it's going to flood and they loan in the money, what's so I I just think that we really need we need to look at is there any recourse we have because from what I'm hearing and and I've not looked at any of the reports, it sounds like to me that this issue didn't start until those apartments were built. And if that's the case, have we looked to try to remedy it? Okay. Recourse against so that I can uh look into it. Recourse against whom? That's us. Yeah, but it's but if the engineer designed it and we built it to standard and the and the engineer was wrong, then it's on the engineer, right? That's correct. Correct. Okay. I think that's us too though, right? But the flood happened in the middle of negotiations. Correct.

That's correct. Okay. So, I'm just trying to I'm just trying to figure out a way that the city can get this fixed because if I were a lender looking at loaning GUN money, unless the flooding is fixed, and David just listed a whole plethora of things that have to be done, is a bank going to loan them the money on a building that's going to flood? Okay, to be clear, I don't think David listed things that have to be done. I think David identified potential further improvements to the drainage system in the event that what we have already done is insufficient. Well, I think but we don't know that.

Yeah. What I what I think that Councilman Butcher is saying is that do we take just like with our water system and they messed up the piping and all of those things right there. Do we take recourse, any sense of action against the engineer who did all of the design work when it comes to that? Because drainage with the apartments and was surrounding it, those studies of course had to be done because regardless if Gun didn't want the the building or not, it is obvious that a flood came and it happened and that's not on them.

But I think we have to document first that a problem an error was made. So, I think we need to go through that recourse, but but but at the same time, Millennium Studios is it's all of our babies and and that is an extremely valuable baby, not only to Gun, it's valuable to the city of Shreport. Um, so I'm I'm agreeing with Councilman Butcher in the sense that we got to fix the problem, period. Um, I understand money is a concern, but we we we have to fix the problem because this is this is a valuable partnership.

Okay. So, so just so that I'm clear, a drainage report was done. The drainage report does not um clearly identify a particular cause of u flooding. It identifies several um contributing factors that um create some you know the the current state of the system. And so um and we can share that report. We can kind of talk more about it, but I don't think it's going to clearly answer any question about recourse or about directing um any potential um steps to find additional funding or to blame any particular um entity. I think it is I I think it is like a lot of engineering reports. It's a lot of data. It's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of contributing factors. It's a lot of and this is how we got here. Um,

but we're saying that we're leasing a building for 99 years that we know that has the potential to flood and so we're taking limited action or no action because when was the drainage report done? Was a drainage report done prior to these particular apartments being built so it would know how it would affect the the area? Was that in the notes as well? because you talk about the 100redyear flood or whatever, we know that it's right there in that particular dip. So, were those reports done? Uh any other environmental or assessments that were done at that time, David, as well? I'm just trying to get the clear understanding or we have production companies that is coming here with Gunit and this is what we're looking at. So, I'm just looking at if all bases are covered at that time to make the building operable. you wouldn't take these particular steps if there wasn't something that needed to be done on the city's end.

Yes, ma'am. So, what I'll say, I'll back up just a bit. Um, in the drainage report and what our engineers have looked at was each so each development, each set of apartment buildings, uh, we have requirements for detention and we reviewed that and all of them met our our standard at the time. We have since heightened that standard uh across the city and of course in hindsight that would have been something that would further help the situation. U in a 100redyear storm lots if if not all buildings risk being flooded. None are without risk.

Uh what we seek to do was lower that risk consistently with the funding that we had. Um, like I said, those those apartment complexes met the detention requirements they were bound to at the time. Um, not to say each one of them isn't another drop in the bucket, so to speak, uh, in in the large basin that that drains through there. Uh, originally originally we found some obstructions in the pipe and some repairs that needed to be made. Those were the first things we completed, but then we evaluated the system itself. So, uh we believe we've done the best we can to lower that risk. And we have not yet pinpointed anything that may uh heighten that. And like I said, to further reduce it, we're looking at further improvements. Now that could be done anywhere in the city but understandably this area and location is of a importance and so that's why we have dedicated that time.

So um how many times is a building flooded? The building itself as I know the the only flood that needed abatement uh was the flood in 23. There's been water in that building in subsequent rains. And so this is why David and I But it didn't it didn't require any abatement. You're talking about didn't require abatement, but there was water inside the stages. But you've been in there. I've been in there. There's water inside the stages. There's water in the foyer. There's But you know, we're the the the project they did the abatement and they left the walls open.

Is anybody So when did we buy this building? We bought it in 2021, 2022, something like that. I believe it was 2022. So, prior to that, did anybody do any kind of inspection of this building to see if it was flooding or if there was prior knowledge of flooding prior to that? I don't know. Is it was the deed was the deed as is with no recourse? I I that was before my time. I don't I don't Can we check on that? Sure. Yeah. Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Counciloman, go ahead. Go ahead, please. M

Mr. David, on the repairs that you were referencing, do you have a price tag on that? What those repairs would cost? Yes, ma'am. We uh it was three three phases, three small phases. I want to say we're somewhere in the ballpark of 250,000 that was spent around the area and in the basin to this point. Okay. So, the additional repairs that you just talked about, you have a price tag on those additional repairs. Well, and just so I'm clear that uh there's no repairs to the existing system that we're aware of. The funding that would be uh that was requested in capital outlay would be to increase the capacity of the entire system.

Okay. Do you have a price tag on that? Uh, not one good enough I could tell you here, but I I think that's important because we're talking about things that need to be done, but if we want to move forward, if we knew, we could see exactly. I mean, because it's hard when you got somebody that want to come in and move in a building and take ownership. But if we have flooding issues that happened before, I would like to know what would it cost. I mean, it might not be as bad as we think it is. Okay. We can get you some numbers. Okay. Yes, sir. Okay. So, so let's talk about the they're not they're not repairs. They're mere enhancements now. Correct. Correct.

I mean, that's what we're doing. And we're we're asking to spend more money on enhancements that we really don't even know we need because we haven't had enough water to actually put what we have to the test. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. Yes, sir. So, so here's just follow my thought here. How much water do we need to test what we have now to ensure that we have done everything we can not to do this anymore, not to add anything or move forward and do the lease or whatever it is. How much water like for instance in 2023, how much water do we estimate came through and flooded that place there?

How many inches of rain? How many inches of rain do we need? I'll get it I'll get you an estimate or an answer on that and some of it and some of it is the speed. It's not just the amount of rain. So follow so follow me here is that I know in let's just say for sake of argument that I know how much water is pushed for drilling. Now imagine if we did the same thing, got enough water, pushed it through wherever this is occurring and do a test, right? Is that inconceivable?

Yes, sir. It we're talking millions of millions of gallons over uh it's around 160 acres that drain through the basin. So it would be somewhat difficult to replicate. Now there are estimates on storm severity. you know, the the topofthe- line storm, your gold standard is the hundredyear rain event. Now, I you could equate that to so many inches over so much time. Uh but truly the intensity is what matters. So, if you've get a very short rain, but it's very intense and heavy, it could cause the same issues that a long uh And it's your opinion that we can't replicate that? No, sir. That

because we're not really talking about a 100red-year flood. I mean, why talk about something we don't even know is going to happen, but we know that if it does happen, everybody's out of luck. Yes, Councilman, I would I would suggest that when when engineer Smith uses the term 100-year storm, it's a misnomer because we've had events of that nature four or five times since 23, right? Well, I mean, I think that Temple said that it's holding water. So, I mean, it's it's going on all the time. It's not just from that particular Well, Councilman, I I do want to say for the record that Engineer Smith and his team They had taken some iterative steps early. This process that they initiated four or five months ago has been far more comprehensive.

Good. And is very much to our liking. It's just as he says, we don't have enough sample size yet. And until we do, we can't say with any assurity that those that it is an inlet problem and not a systems problem. And that I think is the fundamental question here. to your to your point I guess I guess I'm just at a stalemate here because a confused mind always says no and I'm still confused on we've done all what we need to do and I appreciate all the work that's been done it's just that now we're like okay we'll just have to wait and see and then push forward and we're no further along on making this a um productive part of um you know our landscape

am I not correct I mean we're just sitting at the same. We've done the improvements, but we're still, it seems to me, we're just stagnating, waiting on I'm not in charge of weather to come along and see if we've done our homework. Yeah, I'm not in charge of the weather, so I can't uh No,

it's not help. I mean, I understand that. Neither am I. But but I I listen I I think that I believe as the person who's closest to that that the steps that have been taken are materially better than what we had previously in the in the rains that we've had you know in the past few months we have not seen pooling in the same magnitude. I do believe if we we just haven't had a big storm in the way that we have in the past few years and in the past few years we've had several where there's been standing water to the tune of two two and a half feet in that first parking lot. So Mr. here. So, if we get through this rainy season, which spring is typically rainy and fall's typically rainy, we get through this, would GUnit have a problem as what has been raining so far moving on with construction and doing what the pictures that we've seen?

I believe so, but I would need to talk to ownership and management of the company because that's what it boils down to. I mean, it it boils down. I mean, we can talk all day about water coming in and everything else, but do y'all feel like it's been remedied enough for y'all to move forward with the project? If you hadn't,

then we need to go back to square one and look at it because it's going to be the risk is going to be on y'all. I guess my biggest my biggest fear is that we get this all out in the open, which I think we've done now, and when y'all say, "Okay, we feel good enough about this. Let's move on." Because we don't know. I mean, you could have some weird event that floods all of our houses. you just you don't know. But I think what I need to hear from y'all is okay, the city has remedied this to a point where we will go ahead and start our construction and begin filming there. That that's what I need to hear. Mr. Chair, yes. Um Tim, two questions.

Uh can you speak on any type of insurance that may help soften um in the inst that that's there? And then second thing, the bigger issue interrupting a project. And I think if something is going on and it floods and you got to shut down a film, I I can imagine how much money that may cost. And that is that is that is a primary issue.

Okay. in in addition to if we're talking about putting millions and millions of dollars of technical equipment into these facilities that we want to ensure that they're not going to be damaged by flooding. I do believe that it will be difficult for us to find insurance on this until the repairs are done in a way that will appease the insurance companies, but that may be the way for us to break this log jam is to talk to the insurance companies and and have them prepared to bind.

Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Tim. Thank you. Thank you. Um at this time, we move to discuss the amendment um to the garbage dumpsters loading uh restriction ordinance. Um Mr. D, you want to explain that? I didn't put it on the agenda. I had no idea what you're talking about. So, I'm gonna hope some one of you did. Okay. I'm sorry.

Yeah. Tanner, you want to come up here briefly? Oh, is uh is Stephen here? Oh, Stephen, you you changed spots on me. Okay. So, um this modification of the the current ordinance that we have is came as a result of multiple complaints and concerns that I received from my residents. And so I can only imagine that um other council members may have residents that are experiencing the same thing. And that is the distance that is currently on the books for um the emptying of major dumpsters um close to residential areas. Currently the footage is 150 ft. As you well know that 150 ft really isn't a lot of distance to put between a dumpster and um a resident. And with that 150 ft gives them the give them the gives them the latitude to empty all night long. In other words, all hours in the morning. So I got with um I got with Stephen and the uh city attorney's office because I really didn't know where to go. I was going to contact the dumpster owners to see if they would be willing to okay,

you know, modify their dumping schedules to um to not make it at 3 and 4:00 in the morning. And as you as anybody knows, when a dumpster is being emptied, you can hear it for a long way. And so this is when I got together with Stephen and um they come up with um they did their homework for me and they came up with instead of just modifying the hours uh more the modification of the hours from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. to 6 a.m. we also increas increased the distance from 100 ft to 300 ft. Stephen if you want to elaborate on that at all.

Yes. when you first approached us with that, you know, this is this is not in the UDC. It's in the the code of ordinances for city of Shreport. That is why the city's attorney's office is working on the draft. But we are one of the two entities that can go out and enforce that. SPD is one and the others at our inspection team. Uh what makes this a little bit difficult is that the measurement is from the dumpster location back over to the where the residence is. Uh we wanted to try to study that through GIS. There wasn't any way to identify exactly where the dumpsters were or through aerial photographs, aerial imagery. Uh so what we were able to do is where we were getting some recent recent complaints to to see if uh the ones that we were dealing with were outside of the uh 150 but they are within the 300. So we would fix the ones that we were getting some recent calls out and I think it would probably take care of some others. Uh but we did not a were able to do a a comprehensive assessment of where how many these would affect and and where. What we did come up with was if we if this ordinance was changed when during the site plan process when the dumpster is shown in the site plan we will be able to determine whether or not that is within the 300 ft and we will be able to alert the applicant at that time that they will have to fall within those modified dumpster uh uh hours pickup hours. Uh so that's what we've done so far. We did do some cursory uh we looked at uh different cities across the nation. Um there were various types of solutions. Some of them were very extensive. They had to deal with where trucks could go in routes and very very complicated. And then there are some that just used the 300t distance and that's where the 300t distance came from was from doing looking at other jurisdictions throughout the country and that was a

that kept coming up as a as a distance that was fairly common. So that's the reason why we went we got back with uh with the city attorney's office and looked to see if we could we could do this and if we could uh test it the way we talked about through the site plan process and this is what we arrived at. So if you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them.

Yeah. Our goal was not to penalize the um waste management people or businesses but what it was to give our residents for instance um that live within the the 150 the old 150 ft and live right across the street from a strip shopping mall or a strip mall and still you know they which would allow the dumpster management companies to continue emptying the dumpsters at all hours in the morning because of the short distance. So that's one of the reasons I decided that you know we could connect with Stephen and his team and they had done a great deal of research uh to come up with instead of changing the times and putting a lot of limitations on them um the dumpster companies is that would just increase the distance which obviously the research shows that a majority of the areas that they studied they got they got complaints over fall well within that 300 foot level. So 300 ft and um so therefore they would be protected um from dumpster management companies being allowed to dump to empty the trash receptacles at all hours of the morning. And

so on that note is that a lot of those those calls may come in even before we have teams out. So SPD could enforce them and and it's written that either one of us can enforce. So obviously if we get the calls we'll enforce them and SPD would do the same. And I think that uh we just work together as a team to make sure that this issue is taken care of.

And we did determine that if if a complaint did call come in, we pretty much know from the 100 block of the area in anybody's district what dumpsters are located where. And it would be easy to track that dumpster company down and say, "Hey, you know, this is a copy of the new ordinance and so forth." I really wanted to give time for um enough notification to go out there so that uh a d a dumpster companies would be somewhat aware you know of the change in policy. So what would happen if we if we did this and we had a complaint that we go out and measure to make sure that they're within this 300 foot and then then we could we could first just get cooperation first to change the and modify and in some cases even move the dumpster. It's going to be difficult to move it too much because you're required to have it in the rear yards. a lot of things when you have the back of the businesses go up against towards the the neighborhoods, there may not be an option except to modify the pickup times, but we can just work on this on a case- by case basis as they come in. And uh like I said, between us and SPD, we could work together to see that people are in compliance

and it was just some place to start, you know, because the complaints kept coming in and I really didn't have a recourse. And so that's when I brought the team in. I appreciate your effort. Okay.

Um I I have a question. Attorney, we're at the end of this agenda, but uh Mr. Michael Corbin is here and SWPCO has taken an aggressive um process on trimming trees at this time. Would it be out of order for him to talk about that? Uh would he have to come back to the council meeting? I see how aggressive SWEPCO is trimming trees and that's will save time on electricity going out and all of that. Would we be out of the scope if I had him to come and it would be but if you would um ask Mr. Corbin if he could hang out for about 20 minutes and invite him at the beginning of the council meeting. I think you could probably um have him as your guest.

He was on his lunch break right now. That's why I was just checking. Mike, will you be here for council me? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. No problem. If nothing else, this meeting is a June. Thank you. Come on. Hello.

I don't want no cookies. energy. Is that what All right. wasn't mine.