City Council - Regular Meeting

I appreciate that.

All right. Just a reminder, if you have any public comments, uh, please sign up on the sheet. It is

Oh, I've got the sheet right here. If anybody else would like to sign up, come up here and see me. We're good. Call to order the Florence City Council meeting for Monday, January 5th, 2026. Please rise for the pledge.

I aliance 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.

Roll call, please. Councelor Van Hton, here. Councelor Mgleman, here. Councelor Gardner, here. Councelor Stone, here. Councelor McKinnon, here. Mayor Wolf, here. First order of business, we have some presentations.

City Manager Good after. Good evening, council. Um, I'd like to uh ask uh Black Hills Energy to come on up to the front. We are super excited about today. Um, this council falls right in with our this year plan. um Black Hills. They have generously made a monetary contribution to the city of F of Florence in support of our municipal pool, our beloved pool. The act uh this act of partnership demonstrates continued commitment to fostering community wellness, recreation, and collaboration across Fremont County. The city of Florence extends its deepest gratitude uh to Black Hills for their ongoing support and investment in the future of our shared community spaces. And thank you, thank you very much. This helps continue uh the pool for years because it allows us not to have to pull our cash out of the bank. This will help supplement those projects. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You're very welcome. [applause]

First of all, thank you for your service and congratulations. Congratulations to you as well. I just want to say that this is an absolute pleasure for us. We were fortunate enough to be in the room gave a present with meerson who And also relations. All right.

Thank you.

[snorts]

Next, we have a presentation regarding a dam safety recognition award to the water department and to public works. Ren,

we would like to invite uh Mark Perry up. Mark is with the state engineers office of dam safety. Um he is here uh to represent the engineer's office of dam dam safety. Um he is going to present us with an award of excellence for dam safety to the water department and uh public works. The award recognizes the city's proactive e efforts and long-term commitment to exceeding required standards in the improvement, maintenance, and operation of our five hazardous dams. Thank you, Lori. That's a hard act to follow. I did I did not bring a $25,000 check. So, but we brought a letter. So, all right. If it's okay with the council, I'm just going to read our letter. And like Lori said, she gave me enough from an introduction, but just for the context, I'm with the state engineers office dam safety. We regulate all the 2,000 plus dams in the state of Colorado. Um, dear city council, whereas Colorado's statute and dam safety regulations require that dam owners are responsible for operating and maintaining their dams in a safe condition and may be liable for damages caused by dam failure. History has shown that vigilant dam owner care is critical to protecting water infrastructure and the downstream public from catastrophic dam failure and life loss. The city of Florence owns and maintains five jurisdictional size high hazard dams as part of their water supply and flood control infrastructure. The city of Florence through its water department and public works department has accomplished the following significant dam safety improvements. Rebuilt Florence South Reservoir number two dam to address unsafe outlet conditions. Constructed a new crossover pipeline from South Reservoir number two to number one. line Florence North

Reservoir number two to prevent seepage and bring it back into service. Rebuilt Dry Creek flood control dam to address embankment cracking. Investigated geotechnical conditions and installed pometer wells to monitor seepage conditions at Florence South Reservoir number one dam. Investigated and inventoried all pipelines active and abandoned in around the south reservoirs. developed standard operating procedures for emergency draw down and control of all reservoir levels and tested their standard operating procedures. Cleared and maintained trees and shrubs from the city's dams. Created emergency action plans and dam breach inundation evacuation maps in case of emergency incident at city dams. and regularly performed monitoring inspection of all city dams, including sounding pisometer wells, performing movement surveys, measuring seepage flows, and reporting the same to the state engineer. So, if it sounds like they've been busy, they have been. Okay. And in accordance with the state engineers statute responsibility to regulate and evaluate safety of dams in Colorado, we hereby wish to formally recognize the effort of city of Florence water and public works departments by name as staff are recognized. Brandon Harris, regional water superintendent. Samston, director of public works. Kevin Wartzbog, regional water assistant. Aaron Wood, Aaron Jackson, Dan Kelso, Jonas Betetti, Amanda Reer, Brett Hess, Marco Martinez, and Dave Windbury for their high standards in operating and maintaining the city's dams in a safe and conscientious manner are a benefit to the city and its water customers and to the safety of the downstream public. Please accept this expression of recognition with pride. Signed, sincerely, John Beck, uh, the chief of Colorado dam safety in the state engineers office.

Mayor, do you want this or I'd also like to have picture with everybody that you I think so. Yeah. Everybody that you talked about. So, if you were mentioned, come on up here and let's get get a big group picture. And Sam, that's you too. [laughter]

Wait a second. Coming. Thank you. Yeah. And from the council, we like to thank our water department, our public works as always because they work so hard and uh help make this a great little town. So, thank you guys.

Next, we have City of Florence Employee Milestone Recognitions. City Manager Get council. Uh, as you know, part of my hit the ground running and starting um, day one uh, employee recognition and milestones is putting that into place. The success of the city of Florence is built upon the daily contributions of it of its workforce. City employees uphold public trust through professional expertise, institutional knowledge, and consistent delivery of essential services, including public safety, water treatment, public works, parks, administration, finance, and community engagement. Employee tenure represents not only time served but also deepening investments in the organizational outcomes. Culture continuity, historic insight, emergency preparedness, and evolving community needs. Recognizing service milestones reinforces workforce morale, retention, civic pride, and the city's appreciation for those who serve behind the scenes to maintain Florence as a sta safe, efficient, and thriving community. So, uh, tonight we will be recognizing five employees based on those milestones of five, 10, 15, and 20 plus years. um super excited to do this as I don't think people realize how many employees we have that have been here very consistently and how many are homegrown

talents. So with that I would like to invite up here Dan Kelso, Kevin Wartzbah, Brendan Harris, Sam and Dave Smith. Come on, guys. Don't be shy. Don't be shy.

And this is really exciting because it's the directors and the supervisors recognizing their people. So, uh, as you know, we have a whole program now based on those milestones. So, uh, Brandon, I'll let you start with, uh, Mr. Keelso. So Dan Kelso has been with us over five years at this point. Uh he has grown a lot, learned a lot, and gotten a lot of experience with us. In uh this over five-year time period, S uh excuse me, Dan has been able to achieve uh and become a class B certified water treatment operator, which is no small feat. um better than a four-year degree. Uh a four-year degree will get you like a a C operator's license. So, this is no small feat for someone of Dan's age and caliber. We just want to thank him for his commitment and service uh to the city of Florence. And we hope for well over five, five more years. I say,

I want to get a picture of you guys. Come here. You get a cool bag. Oh, I get a bag. You get a bag.

Stay right there. You got Kevin, your number two guy.

Kevin Wartzbah is my right-hand man. Uh none of none of this would be accomplished without Kevin at my side and and helping me with everything. Uh Kevin came on in 2015 with us uh already existing as a class A water treatment operator, the highest level uh achievable. And I can't tell you how much he means to us in our department. and uh hope hope we get him to stick around a little while longer. But uh we want to thank him also for his commitment uh to the city of Florence, all the hard work he consistently puts in and everything he brings to the water department.

Okay. Hey Sam, can you shuffle out of the picture? All right. Um, I got the next one. Brandon Harris. Uh, he's been with the city for over 15 years. And what did you start out as, Brandon? Labor.

Yeah. and uh working in the pool and all kinds of stuff. So, Brandon, he's got a big job, an important job, providing safe water to a lot of people, and he takes that very serious. Um he'll take on anything I've given him, and I've given him a lot. He's really understood and embraced the word teamwork, and I'm so so very proud of him. Um, so thank you, Brandon, uh, for all that you do, all that you will do, for training these guys and and pushing the certifications, um, for them to be better. Um, because when we you are better, we are all better. So, thank you very much and, uh, no retirement anytime soon. Sam, you want to do Dave? Dave Dave Smith has come on in the park department in ' 05, I believe. Right.

Yeah. 20 years.

Yeah. 20 years for Dave. You know, he was seasonal before and he got uh the seasons come up and he actually helped construct the water treatment plant, right? Yeah. He was out there remote construction. We brought him back on board in ' 05. He's my go-to guy for the parks and everything. He makes everything look and he's really dedicated. You catch him coming in on the weekends and stuff looking around. I got to move to tree branch and stuff like that. Sometimes you got to tell him nope Dave, you know, go be Dave, but I'm very we are very pleased to have him and stuff and he's looking at retirement in uh a couple of years. He's we just talked about it and stuff. So, you can't beat the guy. Sam, this says 20 plus years, but how many years exactly is it?

35 years. Wow.

So Sam when they when we say the word institutional knowledge it should be Sam because he knows every bolt, every meter, every road, every tree, every person, everything in this town. And that is something special. If if anybody comes here, just ask Sam. Uh Sam is uh the public works director, but he started out as a

oh a tra in the trash department and he worked his way up to public works director. And he's local, right?

We're all local. but you were you went to school here and all of that. So, he's a Florence High School alumni. So, that's exciting. So, there is opportunity here in Florence if you just work hard. You have the grit to stay and do what you need to do and uh you're a great team player. And Sam, none of us would be where we are without you to some degree. And let me tell you what, anytime I ask you for anything, you are right there. And you, even on your days off, I don't know if y'all know this, Sam wanders around Florence. When he retires, he's just going to wander around Florence to tell us what's going on. Um, so Sam will always be a part of Florence. He will always be the history. Um, he needs to he when he retires, we'll just find him at the river fishing or wandering Florence. So, we appreciate you, Sam. You are the definition of a servant leader. Um, if they look up that, they'll see your picture in there because you take that extremely serious. And a servant leader equals a public servant. And I'm so proud of you and I'm proud to be on your team with you on this ride called the city of Florence.

and Lori, thank you for for starting the recognition program. I we really appreciate that and and it's good for us. All right, next we have public comments. Um just reminder, threem minute limit. Come to the podium, make sure the green lights on, state your name, your address, and your subject. First, we have Steve Andrews. Good evening, council. Thanks for this opportunity. Uh, my name is Steve Andrews. I live at 257 County Road 119. As to your swearing in a little while ago, uh, you have my congratulations and my condolences. I know it cuts both ways. Um just a few comments from me on a on a topic that uh isn't commonly brought up here but is going to be covered by a fellow who's who's come down from Denver to address it in his three minutes and that's electric vehicle charging. Now my guess is that nobody in the room besides me owns an electric vehicle. Am I right? Does anybody in the room own an electric vehicle? No. So, um, I'm an I'm a a sample of one. Uh, I've owned one for a dozen years. Um, it's unlikely that electric vehicles will catch on here quickly. However, this town is is got a lot of draws a lot of tourists from the front range and those folks increasingly are uh buying electric vehicles. Just for frame of reference uh uh China now 50% of the new vehicles are all are electric vehicles. So this is coming question and that's the largest electric vehicle market in the world. This is coming. Uh how can you perhaps make it easier for visitors

from out of town? I think uh a couple of uh charging stations just two maybe two somewhere in the downtown area could make it easier for people. they could stop at a restaurant as well as going around through antiques stores. Uh they buy stuff and they get home uh easily from from a little charging help. Uh Salida is doing this and he's the fellow a little bit later. We'll give you the details on that. Uh I would recommend that you consider something called level two charging. Level one is the thing that's in your garage. If you plug that in, level two is like charges your car about the rate of a of a electric dryer. Uh level three is a very high charging system. Probably is not needed for here because this is not a long distance pass through like uh uh Salida is or even Kenyon City. These are destination come and and return. So, I hope you'll look at uh uh collaborating perhaps and getting a couple of uh electric charging stations here in town. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Okay. Yeah. Is it Is it Mickey?

Mikey with Drive Clean Colorado. Yes.

Hi. Good afternoon and good evening. First, I just want to say congratulations for everyone sworn in, of course, but also just the accolades of this amazing workforce you guys have for all those years. Just remarkable, remarkable. Uh, my name is Mikey Guanipa. I am a project manager with Drive Clean Colorado. I currently live in Denver. So, made the amazing trip down here to see the town. Absolutely lovely. Wish it was more sun outside so I can do more exploring, but been here for a few hours and just absolutely love it. and main thing for Drive Clean Colorado, we advocate for really just expanding clean energy access in rural communities. So, as the recharge manager of this area, that's my main sort sort of duty to give you guys any type of access for capital, grants, incentives, and so forth to actually put this infrastructure. Uh, prior to speaking with y'all today, I know that the city has been looking into putting some EV charging in the public parks and potentially some businesses. So for that would love to offer my services to actually set any of that kind of stuff up. We have a lot of great partners around the state that can actually implement the charging but also give you access again to capital and the grant information and really just want to connect communities such as yourself to this kind of big technology that just gets more and more leveraged with each passing month and a special year. Uh currently I know Florence has no public EV charging. the closest station is actually located in this canyon city in PBLO. So that's about a good 10 miles or 15 minute drive actually going over there and for a lot of communities that and especially businesses and residents that does make EV charging impractical and actually traveling over to these areas. So for that means Florence does not have the means for those EV chargers uh users to actually stop by, spend their money, go to the museum, go to restaurants and so forth to actually

stay in the town. And that's actually something that was able to showcase with Salida. They actually implemented 11 chargers over the years and has made about $1,800 in revenue just from their newest one. So it has been seen as a very great success. and they've put in a lot of their downtown centers, parks, and of course businesses. Uh, with that, I think especially the charges would be a great amenity that would really benefit the tourism that seems to be a very big focal point to Florence. So, that'd be a lot of great benefits. And really for my closing statement to this council, um, EV charging's been shown just to be a great improvement for a lot of rural areas. It's not just something that can really exist only in Colorado Springs, in Denver, of course, and the state is doing a lot of big incentives to make sure that towns like this actually have the means and capital to actually get that kind of infrastructure. So, with that, I can leave some cards of course in the case study that actually was finalized today, just putting some new images and everything. So, it looks a lot nicer than it used to, of course. But I'd love to give you again my support for actually putting this kind of infrastructure and hope to speak to you guys soon. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Have a good day.

Yeah. And next we have Tim. Is it Adrian? Good evening, council members. My name is Tim Adrian. I am a one of your residents at 328 Arrowhead Drive. What I'm here to speak about is I received a what's called form 4056 from the postmaster Roberto Mooney. Now, this woman in her writing is asking me to violate title two of the American Disabilities Act. not only me but most of the residents that are on the east side of that sidewalk. She is literally asking us to remove the location of our mailboxes, place them in a planter with cement and put it on your city sidewalk. Complete violation of the law. So, this is why I'm informing you. I've already contacted the city hall before about this, but the time is counting down. She basically threatened us residents to no longer deliver my our mail to our mailbox by the 10th of January. I have filed with the Department of Justice a case against her. I have that document with me. I have also filed a case with the Inspector General. I have also filed a case with United States Postal Service Consumer uh Protection. I'll just let you know they were not helpful at all. Matter of fact, they're backing this woman temporarily, even though I made them aware they were violating the law with their order. And the funny thing is, I have the document with this woman's signature on it. So, I have everything to nail the case shut on her. So, I'm just informing you because

it's a violation of your own city code and how your sidewalks are built. And I don't think you're going to rebuild your sidewalks to do what this woman wants to do. She cannot supersede federal law and make up her own law. So, I know you don't have a lot of authority, but you've got a lot more political push than I do. And this is going to take political push and maybe a city attorney to send a letterhead to get them to find the errors of their way and do a cis and deceased order. Um, that's what it's all about. That's why I came to inform you. Don't know what prompted this. It's just out of the blue. So, that's that's the end of my spiel. If any of you would like more information about what I got, feel free. You can scan, copy everything I got. I'll give you more information afterwards if you'd like. Thank you for your time.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And Lori, this is something that we're aware of. Dan Dan's aware of it, and I know you guys are looking into some little legal aspects on our end. Yeah. And and we will be happy to do whatever we can. Okay. All right. And again, Tim, you said you were going to stay around after the meeting if anybody council has any questions, they can talk to you. Okay.

All right. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. And and Susie, I see you scratched. She you scratched it out. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay, that moves us on to item five, consent agenda. Consider approving the minutes for our regular meeting for our special meeting expenditures for December 18, 23, and 31st, appointing a proxy to represent city shares at annual ditch board meetings, and designating a city of Florence's official posting place. At this time, would any of the council like to pull any one of those consent agendas?

All right. Hearing none, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda A, B, C, D, and E. Do we have a second? I'll second that. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. All right. New business. Item E. Consider approving a resolution to declare a war two vacancy within city council and to establish a process to fill said vacancy. City clerk.

Yes. So, um, as many know, following the November election left us with a vacancy in Ward 2. Um, so currently we have to officially declare that which is what is written in the resolution. As far as appointing a vacancy, there's not really any suggestions or um legal ramp like guidelines as far as what that looks like um in the statute. So really it's your decision on how you want that process to look. As you've seen written in the CAF um from former city manager Amy Nasta's um code revisions, we have created a process to appoint vacancies on our planning commission and our board of zoning and adjustments. So with my suggestion to follow that process, it makes it very fair and equitable for all who potentially apply. But again, the decision lies with the city council and this action is just formally um accepting and approving the vacancy in W 2.

All right. Do we have any questions?

Uh Courtland, could you explain that process?

Yes. Uh to the best of my uh memory, we we post the vacancy for a couple weeks. The city council will appoint two uh council members to serve on the interview committee. So we let's say we have five applicants. Those two city council members would conduct the five uh interviews and then they could report the comments or um experience back to the rest of the council members and then uh it gives us the city council a little bit of time to maybe voice any qualms about any of the applicants. And then I believe it just goes right into the appointment process via city council action. Yeah.

Go ahead. Okay. The appointment is by a majority vote of the council. Yes. Mhm. Would the same criteria be met that they would have to get the constituents in their award to the 25 signatures or is it just that process has passed. um that was to be a formal um applicant on the election process on the ballot. So at this point you're just appointing a vacancy. So they would have to be 18 years of age. They would have to live in the ward. Um and they would have to be a registered active voter. So it's just two city councilmen that make the decision of who to present.

The two city council members would conduct the interviews. Again, this is all just a suggestion. Um, it is your guys's decision. So, but that's just what the process is for when we have a vacancy for planning commission or BOSA. Yeah. And certainly additional steps could be added, right? The two could report back and then all of council could interview or otherwise, you know, explore the process, but that is a very common way to have done it. So time would be like two weeks out for um any interested party and then another two weeks

to review. And so we're looking at four to six weeks.

It could be more streamlined depending on how fast the council could interview, how fast they could get those notes back to the rest of their um council members and then just how it aligns with the city council meeting as well. So, it could go a lot faster, but as far as posting it, that would be a a firm two weeks or one week, how whatever the direction is. Yes. And you also could do a a special meeting and do it all together if that's something you all want to do also. So, that that could be I don't know if that's something you're interested in, but it's really kind of up in the air for what you guys want to do. Um, so that's an option, too. I mean, I'm I'm not sure if that's something, but it could be also, too.

Yeah. And [clears throat] I would also just point out again, the the item in front of you is simply to declare the vacancy. Um, I would presume if there's any piece of this sort of plan that that makes sense that at the next meeting you would potentially name or select your two um interview conductors, but any and all parts of the process could be discussed at that meeting and and a final plan could be announced or decided by you all.

So, I think I'd like to see maybe a oneweek post for the applicants. you know, I don't feel we need a two week posting. Most most jobs don't post for that long. I think seven days is plenty of post in my opinion. Um, and then that would give us time to look into the applicants. Um, I would assume you need to make sure they're registered voters. So, that process would have to go through you. Yes.

So, and then hopefully within within two weeks from closing of the applicants, we could make a decision. That's what I would like to see.

I would like I two two people seems a little slim to me. I think three might give you a little better feel for all the concerns. Yeah, the the and there is this isn't necessarily a concern. Three does require that it be an open meeting which is fine. It just requires publication and the public could be there. Uh sometimes for job interviews to the extent this is that um you would want to potentially discuss some sensitive things or some things that wouldn't be public. Keeping it to two potentially allows that. But again, they're they're running for a public service, a public job. All that could be in the open, no problem. But that the interviews been an open meeting.

They would need to be if there's more than two council members involved. That's why there's two. Yeah. And and again, I don't I wouldn't want it to seem like the two are running the process or selecting the candidate. They're more the initial screening and getting the final candidates to the council. So that makes sense.

Yeah. And a staff me staff could be involved. It's really kind of your show. I mean, you could vote right now, but I think this is a more robust and kind of best practices kind of approach. And going back to what James said, you know, to me 10 10 working days seems a a good amount of time to post it. Um, but then does that would that be four day, four day and two day or would that be a two weeks? Probably four day. We could do five day. I don't have a preference.

Yeah. I mean, I think if if the goal is to Yeah. Yeah, I mean essentially unless you want to have a special meeting, it's almost like your next council meeting would sort of set the natural timeline to bring you candidates or applicants. So you guys I know James, would you like to see who who has applied at the next the next meeting possible? When do we post this?

Uh, I'd have to review the municipal code, but I believe it's posted online. Uh, we send it out via constant contact, and given probably the s the seriousness of it, I'd probably do a publishing in the daily record. Any other thoughts on timelines down here? No, I agree with the short that James said, but by the time you go through all these steps and you get that would be next meeting and it would be but by the time you do all the steps so then the 10day out period could give us to the next meeting and then we know and then

so I I would think I would like to see a good applicant list by February 2nd. That would be two days, right? Because it's January 19th and February. So all of this, what we need to do as the process, I think needs to fit into that equation. Yeah. Yeah. And that was my thought, too. I'd like to see us make the appointment by February 2nd at that meeting. That's when we when we fill the the vacancy there.

Okay. All right. Since this is the first in a in quite a while, we've given you some some timeline instructions there. Um, and again, remember, we can we can talk here and you can, you know, communicate with us. Yeah, I'm not a superstitious person, so I hope by saying this I'm not jinxing it, but I think you should also consider and granted to run for an election as you've all done is a cumbersome process, but you you did not have anyone. So there is a chance that even with a posting, you do not get qualified candidates and you just would want to think about what you might do if that's the case.

All right. All right. All right. So, that leaves us with some things to think about between now and next meeting when we can discuss things. But we want to approve the resolution now so we can post it. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Do we have a motion to adopt resolution number 1226? I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 1-2026, a resolution declaring a W 2 vacancy within the city of Florence City Council and establishing a process to fill said vacancy. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councelor Gardner, yes. Councelor Stone, yes. Councelor Vanhton,

yes. Councelor Mgleman, yes. Councelor McKinnon, yes. Mayor Wolf, yes. Okay. All right, council updates. I know it was it was a busy time, but then it wasn't a real busy time for for some all city stuff, you know. So, um, Brenda, I just want to thank everybody on the Christmas stuff, the chamber, the merchants, everybody. It was really nice. I'm sorry that the wind destroyed everything and the city employees for everything that they do. Thank you. Okay, real.

Well, personally, I did the same monthly duties, the FEC, and the city planning. Important thing about the city planning is we're in the home stretch on the master plan and that should be coming into the final votes here in the next few days. So, glad that's that's been a major job. And I would also like to say thanks for the Christmas. Um, there was a lot that went on between the chamber and the merchants and the city crews and works. I would also like to think, and I had nothing to do with this, but it went on all around me, the project they did with the kids in the shop with the cop. Uh, came in here one day, tables were all set up. Somebody had asked me what all the sirens were about, and I couldn't tell them. But I walked in here, the minute I saw the big tables with the decorations and all that, I knew what it was. And our city police and the sheriff and state patrol, I don't know how many kids,

10 kids.

Take 10 kids into canyon and let them do Christmas shopping for their parents. And uh those kind of things are just kind of magic when they happen. And one thing I would like to do because we had a meeting here last year about our giving out funding to nonprofits and we had some people stand up kind of going off about this and that and I said I wish people were more exact about what they were going to do and how they were going to spend this money. And the one person that took that to heart and hit a home run was Joan Elliott. And I would like Joan to stand up. And I would like to thank her for a holly jolly Christmas in Florence. Thank you,

Tammy.

Yeah, I want to also thank Joan and the Chamber of Commerce um for the Christmas um festival and all the citizens that volunteered to help um and then the merchants also. Um, I also want to really thank Chief Humphrey for stepping up and helping us with our city manager. Um, I really appreciate it's nice to get to know you. Um, [applause] um, I also attended the planning um, commission update and um, yep, it's the next next meeting. I think they're going to maybe officially adopt it for us. Um, it's really good. If anybody hasn't read it yet, I encourage you to do so. Thank you,

James. No report. Okay. Gale.

Gee, after all these thank yous, it's like I Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. Agree. Agree. The recognition. I love that because nothing makes you feel better than just say thank you. Just two words, thank you. I don't care if I get on a pedestal. I don't care if I get lights. I just that those two words, thank you. and to recognize all of the years of hard work that our staff has done and and who would have thought 35 years Sam you know and then we have five you know this is a beginning of of what you can do and it's a great place it's a great little town thank you Bill Price for coming up with those words but it it's great and just that recognition for our people, our people, our family. I love it. And so, yeah, uh thank you for doing that and thank all of you for being a part of making this a great place to live.

Thank you. Again, I was going to say thanks to everybody, too. You guys have filled that all in. Um, if people haven't noticed, we we've started the sidewalk program and I'd just like to thank Sam and and the sidewalk contractor that we have that we we did one little project, got it completed before the end of the year. Um, if you get a chance to look at it, I know it's one thing that has always bugged me is that corner right out here by city hall. Um, it is has been redone. uh increases, you know, you got the place for kids to walk now to school. Um it just just it was a good project to start the sidewalk. Uh you know, putting in the new sidewalk. So, it worked that turned out really good. Um what else do I have here? I've been contacted by Loaves and Fishes. Uh they want to come over and talk with city staff about homeless situation. And so we're going to try to to talk about that and see they want to make sure we know what support they could provide out there. So that's the other thing. Okay, that's all I have. Same.

Thank you, council. Um just a few updates from my report. Um and then if you have any questions, I know I bombarded you guys with a lot of information. um with uh planning and the working on my 100 day plan and all of that. Um you'll get two job descriptions next council meeting. Um one will be to replace myself in my old role and the changes and then uh one for the water. So be on the lookout for that. Um we are asking for a workshop next uh council. Uh so be on the lookout for that. My new uh newsletter I we're going to start a newsletter. Me and Courtland have been really been working hard to get this newsletter as part of uh sharing information and transparency. We have a rough draft. So potentially we can have that to have y'all look at that next council, but I want to go live on it February 1. So, I'm super excited about that newsletter um because I want information to come from uh city hall from the right sources um because I sometimes think information gets jumbled or uh all of that and the city hall uh staff should be where the source comes from. So, I'm super excited about the newsletter that's coming. Um sidewalk assessment, we're hoping to get that to you guys soon. so we can get that program implemented. And I do have to say, uh, Ashley and Sam, that sidewalk is so pretty. And I'm so happy for the kiddos and everything and, uh, that get to walk on that and use that. And it just helps the facade of the city when we take care of those things. So, I'm

very excited about that. Um, I have two very exciting things I want to share with you guys. Um, Project Pothole. Now, let me tell you where Project Pothole came from. Me and Chief went and walked downtown and we talked to everybody that would talk to us. Every business, every uh, adult beverage business, every business in Florence we talked to that was open. We spent quite a bit of time down there and everybody talked about the potholes. So, potholes are a problem, council, and we all knew that. So, Project Pothole is going to be um Courtland's going to bring it up. It is live on the website. Um Project Pothole lets us know because there's a lot there is a lot of potholes and there's not many eyes. So, project pothole will allow a person, say I'm going for a walk and I see a pothole and I want to make sure somebody knows about that pothole, which Sam may or may not know. So, you can take a picture, upload it to the website, and it'll go straight to myself and Sam. We're going to rate the pothole. The pothole is either going to be woo, emergency, it's a sinkhole. We're going to take care of it today or within the next uh three days based on when we can get equipment and supplies or it's going to be a batch pothole. Batch potholes will be done when we get a lot of asphalt. So those may be the little bitty ones, not the big oh my god potholes level one. So that e when you do that form, it goes straight to me. I will see it. me and Sam will go through them or Martin and uh we then will give a response to the person that put it in.

Um so it's really a a a fun way to get everybody involved and get rid of our ugly potholes. So it is a work in progress. Uh I don't know if Courtland's got it up yet, but um if you if something happens and we have to adjust, we'll pivot. But I do think this is an easy way. Is it showing up? You guys got a flyer. Um, but uh I urge you all to just go to our website and um check it out. It's on the front page. It's on my page. It's there. Project pothole. Sam, I'm sick of hearing about it because I've said it 12,000 times.

So Lori, I looked it up. It looks really nice. It's nice. Yeah. Um but one question is if there if two of us um fill out it and say a pothole, are you gonna have a list on there? So we Oh, absolutely. I'm so we don't have to keep like three people don't have to do the same pothole. I will keep a list. I got a spreadsheet because my last job was all about spreadsheets. So I'm going to continue that. But it will be on the website so that Yeah. the same. Okay. Yes. And I'll figure out how to report it on the website and I'll probably put it in our my city manager report uh to let you know how it's going. So, that one uh I'm hoping people will have fun and remember it and go, "Oh, I need to do a project pothole. There it is." Yeah.

So, Tammy, you were talking about So, I'm going to go report one and it's at 313 West 4th Street. Oh, I see it's already been reported. Yes. Yes. I'll try to update them. Now, remember, it's business days. The city hall is not open every day. I do try to check my email every day, but um it is business days when I'll get back with you. But um I'm really excited about this because this can we can win at potholes. Um and the for now they come back.

They they do come back. Sam did tell me that uh that they're they're living. Some of them are living. Um and then uh so the other thing that we heard a lot about is um I don't know who to tell this to or people are not available or people don't get back with me. So I wanted to make an easy reporting of of things to let me know. Um number one, this is not an emergency line. Do not use this reporting for an emergency life saving because nobody's coming to help you at that point. Please, please do not do that. Um, but 81226 is we're calling it because y'all familiar with 811 and all that reporting. So, this is 81226. So, it's a simple way for residents to let us know about issues, concerns, could be a code violation, it could be a down, a tree branch, it could be anything that they want uh to let me know. This will also come to me in the form and I will get that, assess it, and if you need me to call you back or you just want to let me know, just let me know and I will get back to you within so many business days. So I will also keep track with the director so we could kind of see what everybody's thinking and doing or we can just ample answer simple questions because I do think a lot of things get skewed. So this will will also help and uh you don't have to email, you don't have to do that. You just snap it, show me a picture, tell me what you need to and uh I can keep track of it. So we're super excited about this. Tell me the good, bad, and ugly. I want to know it all. And that way um we can uh make Florence better better. And

I I'm assuming I'll get lots of things at first and then eventually um there may be some good. So that's uh 81226. So those two exciting fun things. Um so they're on the website.

Uh all right. So, I want to remind y'all about FEDC banquet that is coming up. So, make sure um I'm excited about that to get back into that. And I want to thank Ashley. Ashley um she got us a grant for the Mountain Park fire mitigation. Yes, we do do grants in Florence. we are going to to do grants again. We're just going to manage them and get ones that make sense. Uh so she got a grant for the mountain park uh from COSWAP for $12,700 to help us mitigate the mountain park with fire. We got it for $12,700. All we have to pay for is the portaotties. So we are super excited. Thank you, Ashley. And with that, did anybody have any questions from my report? And the calendar that is from the meetings with the citizens, the nonprofits. We've got those scheduled. We've also got uh one for the first responders. Um and I've got one also scheduled with the uh superintendent. uh that came after the calendar came out. So, I'll be meeting with him again to see how we can build that uh school relationship again.

So, um any questions on all the stuff I gave you? I gave you guys a lot. No, we appreciate it. Thank you. The attorney, anything? I'm not following that. Okay. All right. Any other any other reports from anybody needs that? All right. Any need for executive session? Hearing none. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Have a second. I'll second. All in favor? I.

Any oppose? All right. Meeting adjourned at 7:30. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. A lot of people attend.

How are you? Yeah. Perfect.