Mayor and Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

please stand with us we'll be led in prayer by alderman gallagher please remain standing after that for the pledge of allegiance led by alderman large george payne heavenly father we're so grateful for you lord and everything that you do for us in this life we thank you for your son jesus christ who died for us lord so that we could uh be with you in heaven one day if we choose to accept you lord lord i want to pray uh for our children as we start the new school year, Lord, that you would just be with them and have a constant hedge of protection around them, Lord. And Lord, for what's going on in the Middle East, Lord, I pray for peace, Lord, that the two sides could come together, Lord, and have peace. In your name we pray.

Amen.

First on the agenda this evening is the approval of minutes for the August 18, 2026 meeting. So moved.

Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Hoots, second by Alderman Jenkins. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please.

Alderman Crane? Yes. Alderman Jenkins? Yes. Alderman Hoops? Yes. Alderman Jerome? Yes. Alderman Gallagher? Yes. Alderman Wheeler? Yes. Alderman Flores?

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is the presentation for our proposed FY27 budget and tax millage. And then we'll also open up a public hearing. But for now, Caleb, would you come forward and start us off, please, sir? Caleb Flowers, the director of finance for the city.

Good evening, mayor and board. So tonight we're going to have a public hearing to go over the proposed 27 budget. A few weeks ago, we did this in pretty good detail at the budget workshop. There's no substantial changes to that. What we went over a couple of weeks ago tonight's purpose is just to put the summary in front of the public. So I'll be brief with this and the full documents are available for anyone that wants to review those. So it is a balanced budget proposal tonight. It's made up of our department requests and our FY26 projections and revenue. So our total general fund budget in 26 was 83.3 million. FY27 is showing 87.9 million, so an increase of about 4.6 million in our general fund for next year. Debt service is going up. Tourism, amphitheater, sanitations and utilities. Those budgets are reflected there. They're outside of the general fund, but they're there so you can see the full FY27 budget in total going up 4.7 million. Our departmental budgets here in the general fund. So we have finance and administration, an increase of 164,688. Municipal court, this is the only one in the general fund that's dropping just a bit, 33,320. That's a net change from revenue and expenses. IT departments going up 571,000. The city clerk's office, slight increase of 27,000. Facilities is an increase of 671,000. Planning and development, increase of 111,000. Police Department, an increase of 1.9 million. We'll talk about some of these components that make these up as we go through this. The Fire Department, also with an increase of 963,000. Public Works, an increase of 1 million. Parks and Rec, 880,000 increase. And then our general expenses, also an increase of 939,000. So some of the notable budget components, and again, this is your second time to hear this, at least by now. But again, so what's a part of our 27 budget proposal is a police pay increase and fire pay increase of 6%. Also with the fire department is a new ambulance in the budget. So that's $360,000 request there. City-wide, we have a 5% pay increase, plus there are some additional increases as requested by department heads to other personnel. A PERS increase of 0.5%. Street resurfacing, we were able to increase that from 7 million to 7.5 million, so an additional 500,000 going there. Public works, we added a couple of new positions there to help our public works team, one admin position and four laborers. And also we added sidewalk and guardrail maintenance line items. Those are 200,000 each into that public works budget. Animal control has also requested new positions. We've got three new positions coming into animal control. IT has two new technicians and three vehicles as a part of their budget for next year. Parks has requested a concessions software upgrade. That's $150,000, so that's built into their budget. We have a flagpole beautification project that we're also including. A couple of honorary displays. We're wanting to make some new line items in this year's budget. So honorary displays for the Tribute Hall and the Jim Green Memorial at the Snowden Amphitheater. Facilities emergency repairs. So this is the top of page two. This is another new line item for this year. This is to help facilities prepare for emergencies, 150,000 that we're putting into their budget. And then this next list of items is facility renovation projects that we're also wanting to budget for next year. So the total 750,000. The individual projects are a police generator, spring fest cottage renovation, police security fencing, IT generator, fire station number four's roof, city hall LED lighting, arena air conditioning unit, and fire stations one and three parking lot resurfacing. So again, those projects add up to the $750,000 renovation line. So then the key facts just takeaways from the budget. So it's a total budget increase from 125 million to 130 million. The general fund budgets increases 83 million to 87.9. General fund revenue and expenses are up 4.5 million. property tax and ad valorem revenue increases. So we've got that increasing from 34 million to 35 million and sales tax revenue increase projection from 21.5 million to 22.3. And there's no millage rate change reflected in next year's budget. So inflationary remaining effects, this is something you've heard a couple of times now. But essentially, when sales tax goes up because of inflation, we don't get to just recoup all of that. The amount that we get to recoup is very small in comparison. PERS volatility at the state level, that still impacts us. The police and fire budgets, they equate to 49, roughly 50% of the total general fund budget. So that shows our emphasis on public safety still. The police budget is up and the fire budgets are up from FY13 by comparison, roughly 9 million each to 26 million and 17 million. The police and fire personnel for the city equate to 61% of total employees. And then also a couple of things, minimal increase to property and casualty insurance is expected and No medical insurance rate change for FY27. So just to reemphasize, it's not a new plan we're putting in front of you. This is what we went over a couple of weeks ago. And this is just informational tonight. There will be a hearing next Tuesday for the board to review and adopt this budget. So that's it for me, Mayor.

Thank you, Caleb. And again, this budget, as we've seen in other years, it's geared for the priorities of public safety. You see by the numbers here that the majority of the money does go to police and fire. Police and fire hold most of our employees and infrastructure improvements. We've been committed for years and improving our street conditions and so many other things. And so going up to seven and a half million dollars for annual streets that are not involved in any debt. That's just a recurring amount of revenue that's placed on your streets. You're not going to find many cities in Mississippi that do that. that it's extremely important. And after doing that for so many years, you can ride the city yourself and tell. I mean, it's noticeable. People tell me that all the time. When they come into the city of South Haven, you can tell that the streets are in better condition. It's very important, not just obviously you want streets that are smooth to drive on, but it says more than that. It says about it's a first impression of your city. It gives a message to the people that choose to live here. Some we want to live here, some we don't want to live here. And the conditions, the way you take care of your city sends a message to everybody. So that's extremely important for that reason. The other thing is this budget includes significant pay raises for our employees. And I'll say this, no matter what organization you're with, your people are always your most valuable asset. And we've got to pay our people right, and we continue to do that and stay competitive in all of our positions. So it's a solid budget. I appreciate the board input at our workshop. Being able to maintain the same millage rate is obviously very important. And we just, I believe we checked all the boxes with this. So I think we're in good shape. Any discussion among the board before we open up the public hearing?

Mayor, I'd like to thank you and the department heads and Caleb for putting together a good, solid budget, taking care of our employees and making sure South Haven keeps growing.

Thank you, sir. And Caleb is doing a great job. Caleb has been thrown into the fire this year. So he is he's he's doing well. So we appreciate Caleb's work. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Caleb. And now, is there a motion to open the public hearing?

So move.

Second. Motion. Waterman hoots. Second bottom of Wheeler. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no eyes have emotion carries. The public hearing is open. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak about the budget? Now you got to be kidding me now. All all the comments on social media and we all get together to welcome the whole city to talk about the budget. And nobody wants to talk about the budget? Where is everybody? Anyone want to speak about the budget? Or does everybody love it? Wow, it's silent in here. Okay, one last time. Anyone want to speak about the FY27 budget proposal? Okay, no one wants to speak, so is there a motion to close the public hearing? Got a motion, Alderman Hoots. Second, Alderman Jenkins. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Ayes have it. Motion carries. That will close the public hearing. We will have a special meeting on next Tuesday night, September 8th, to officially adopt the budget. Okay, and we'll move on from that. So next on our agenda is our engineering work authorization. And this will be for... Police Fire Training Center.

Mayor and Board, this is authorization for the Civil Link to move forward with the police and fire station, or the new police and fire station facility training facilities for the Engineering Work Associated. It's part of their contract. It is over the $5,000 threshold, so they have to get that work authorization tonight to proceed with that project.

I'll make the motion, Mayor. Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Jenkins. Obviously, the first thing we've got to do, we've got an undeveloped piece of property, so we've got to do the drainage, all the engineering work there, and then look at having a road. You've got to have a road to access all the property first, so that's our first step. Okay, so is there any other discussion about this work authorization? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hoot. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is the renewal of our general engineering contract.

It is renewal with Civil Link Park. or just our general services engineering contract, the exact same terms as our prior contracts. It's just the amendment to renew it via contract for an additional two years. New authorization for the mayor to sign on the same terms, same contract renewal for engineering services.

So moved.

We have a motion by Alderman Gallagher, second by Alderman Hoots. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hoots. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is a resolution for a governmental transfer.

Yeah, this resolution will authorize South Haven Police Department to transfer a van, which is no longer needed and no longer used by the South Haven SWAT team, to the town of Walls. The town of Walls will accept it as is. and it'll take the expense of maintaining the van that's no longer used by the city, from the city, and authorized walls to receive the van. We're waiting on them to sign their transfer contract, but tonight we need to approve the resolution to authorize the transfer, and then once they sign the transfer contract, it'll be placed in the minutes.

I'll make that motion, Mayor. I'll second.

We have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Jenkins. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne.

Yes.

Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hughes. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is a final change order. and close out for Whitworth Water Plant?

Yeah, this change order will finalize the Whitworth Water Plant. It results in a deduct, the change order, in the amount of $14,434.67. And there's also, as part of it, a closeout document needs to be signed for the close of the program out, according to the MDEQ regulations for the MCWI program. grant. So tonight need authorization to approve the final change order in the deduct amount of 14 for 3467 and authorize the final documents for the closeout to be signed for the MCWI program, which is required by MDEQ.

So moved. Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Wheeler. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hood. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on our agenda is resolution for the filing of assessments.

This resolution just authorizes the city to file liens for those properties that were cut in accordance with the speech 21-1911. Chair move.

Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Hood, second by Alderman Payne. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hoots. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is a resolution for an amendment to city ordinances to make an official citizen agenda.

Yeah, this resolution is just authorized. We've always had it in practice how our citizen agenda works, but this resolution will actually set forth the parameters along with the stipulations and rules um which are new or content neutral specific rules um required for the citizens agenda it sets forth the you know being on the agenda by noon on friday also uh three minutes is codified in it in addition it limits the citizens into 15 total minutes for each meeting we haven't had that issue in a while as far as you know that many people on the citizens agenda but it just sets forth those requirements. In addition, it requires, if you have any documents, those be submitted by noon on Friday, too, so the board can have those. In addition, you have to address the governmental authorities, not individual members. Obviously, no profanity. Must only speak to the topic that you're wanting to speak on. Tonight, we can either approve or just have it for discussion for further review by the board. but did want to bring this to the board for consideration as far as the citizen agenda and then the quorum for the audience requirements for the, I guess, the conduct of those in the audience as well, which is consistent with most governmental entities as far as the conduct requirements. So tonight, I'm happy to answer any questions along with we just want to discuss it, or if you want to have more time to review and put on next agenda, that's fine as well. But tonight, did want to bring this for consideration. It gets more consistency along with also providing it in an ordinance format so that it can't be changed unless it's changed by the board through another resolution or ordinance.

And there's, sir, go ahead.

Go ahead.

I was just going to say, like Nick said, we're already doing all these things. We just want to formalize it. We've been consistent and fair, asking everybody to do the same thing. The other reason is it's efficient for us to handle city business. If people will let us know, it's like when somebody reaches out to City Hall, the first thing we do is we try to solve their problem. I mean, if they, you know, Christy takes a call or if I get it or whatever, we immediately reach out to the specific department that Can resolve the issue and I would say 95% of the 99% of the time we solve it. I mean that day so Then if it's something that we can't do Maybe it's illegal for us to do it or we can't do it then we explain that to the person requesting it and if they still want to speak and we we put them on the agenda they can come talk but it's much more efficient if the people will reach out directly to the city team and uh rather than come to this meeting because if you come here y'all heard me before say well tell us what the issue is and then i will start delegating that to the people in our departments that can solve the problem so it's much quicker if you just reach out to city hall let us know what the issue is and uh most of the time we can solve that quicker for you but if you still want to come speak i mean that's we're not denying anyone the right to speak if you want to You want to come to the meeting? If we have this agenda, it gives everybody a fair chance to come say what they want to say. So again, as you all know, looking at what's going on around our country, there's a lot of disrespect going on in so many ways. And all that we would ask is that as Nick stated with some of the guidelines of the ordinance, that you would be respectful, be polite, be courteous. And we've had many people over the years that have come to that podium And they have done it the right way. They have a legitimate concern and they have expressed themselves and we have solved those problems. And our goal, I can just tell you from a day-to-day operations standpoint, my department heads will tell you that I commonly say my goal is to put a smile on faces. If I can say yes to you and I can solve your problem, we are going to do that. And like I said, 99% of the time, we're able to do that before anyone comes to the agenda. But again, if it's something we can't do, they're still gonna have the opportunity to face all of you and share whatever it is that they wanna share. But like Nick said, if y'all want to wait until we can, but what he said is that's what's in there. It's basically what we're doing now. There's nothing new that we're not already doing, is there, Nick?

No, it's just codifying it, and then it does limit to 15 minutes. But in the event we do have more than that, we can always give an exception to that.

Yeah. And the only reason we do that, obviously, is, you know, the meeting is designed to take care of city business. So, you know, we got to have a limit to that. I mean, you can't have an unlimited amount of people come to speak, you'd be here all night. So yeah, I'm able to approve. And before we do that, I'm sorry, before you had it.

So I was going to suggest wait till next meeting. I was listening to a couple recommendations to Nick and to yourself. But you know, don't go ahead and vote on it. Go ahead.

Do y'all want to do that?

That's fine. Just send them to us too.

Okay. He said send them to everybody. Okay. So if you'll send that out. So we're not in a, I mean, we don't have a reason.

We can't just wait until next time. That way it's just presented tonight for review, and then we'll look at it next meeting. And then just as a clarification, it doesn't apply to public hearings. So if there is a hearing and there's 400 people here to speak,

foreign people can speak we're hearing it's just for the citizens so yeah but um we'll have this on the next agenda and then hardman's rome has suggestions i will put those in as well so thank you okay thank you okay next on the agenda is a resolution to clean private property so move second we got a motion modern hoots second bottom and pain is there any discussion is there anyone in the audience who has a financial interest in any of the properties who would like to speak Hearing or seeing none, roll call, please.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hughes. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on our agenda is our planning agenda. Our planning director, Ms. Whitney Cook.

I guess the first item we have on the agenda tonight is an application by MZX Tech. It is for subdivision approval for the one lot subdivision you see highlighted here in orange on the aerial photo. I'm sure everybody recalls the training facility that we once owned is now under different ownership, specifically MZX Tech. It's two parcels of property. What they're wanting to do to clean up title work and to make an easier transition for the project is to basically remove the middle parcel line and combine it into one large heavy industrial lot. It does comply with all of the regulations set forth in the ordinance for a commercial or industrial lot and was voted unanimously in favor of by the Planning Commission.

Mr. Mayor, move we approve item number one on the planning agenda. Second.

On item number one, we have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Wheeler. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderman Payne?

Yes.

Alderman Jenkins? Yes. Alderman Hughes? Yes. Alderman Jerome? Yes. Alderman Gallagher? Yes. Alderman Wheeler? Yes. Alderman Flores?

Yes. That motion carries.

Item number two is associated with the same project. There is a roughly 660,000 square foot data storage facility to be located on this site. You'll see it right there in the site plan that's up on the screen now. Site plan applications go in front of Planning Commission last night. It didn't meet all the bulk regulations for a heavy industrial area and a storage warehouse was voted unanimously by the Planning Commission. What you have in front of you tonight is a simple design review package where they show their metal buildings in a white and black facade. They did present to us the fencing proposal and a landscape plan on it. What we did suggest for them to do, which you have the revisions there, is to double up a streetscape design along Stanton Road to help prevent the visibility even more so than just wrapping the fence line. We also had them do a horizontal slat black decorative fence line around the entire perimeter of it. They have some internal perimeter landscaping there and normally they would submit photometrics but since it's heavy industrial and it's warehouse district that is not required. The changes that were recommended in the staff report were agreeable with the representative from MZX last night and was voted unanimously in favor of with those comments.

Mr. Mayor, I move we approve item number two on the planning agenda.

Second.

On item two, we have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Jenkins. Is there any discussion?

Yeah, I've got a few statements I'd like to make on this thing here. I mean, I think in the big scheme of things, the XAI projects are good for the city, but I personally and my constituents and my ward would like to see then complete some of the stuff they promised they're going to do. You know, like right now we're still suffering from the noise from the temporary turbines. And, you know, now they got another extension for another year to get them all swapped out and that kind of stuff. And I just would feel more comfortable if we pumped the brakes. I know it's not probably the consistency of the board, but I mean, I'd like to see them finish something before they start more and more and more stuff. So I can't support this myself tonight.

Whitney, is this design review?

This is design review, correct.

So there's no construction approval of any of this? This is just design review?

Yeah, so the use in and of itself is permitted by right. So this is just basically the aesthetics of what the building is going to go vertical with.

Okay, thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Alderman Payne?

Yes.

Alderman Jenkins? Yes. Alderman Hughes? No. Alderman Jerome? Yes. Alderman Gallagher? Yes. Alderman Wheeler? Yes. Alderman Flores?

Yes. That motion carries.

Our third application is a three-tenant retail building to be located on the north side of Goodman Road, just west of Malone, where you see it highlighted right there, actually next to the existing Taco Bells. they have designed it to have one bay for a drive-through expect buildings we don't have the actual entities in there but design review had a very attractive solid brick building with some copper and metal accents are raised very roof line flat roof line some extensive landscaping we did make some comments on that and there was some questions about HVAC locations to see if it would be screened by a parapet on the roof or would it be ground mounted. Both were agreeable to the applicant. We did have them adjust some of the size of the landscaping and have them adjust the decorative lighting plan but the representative was agreeable to all those and what it was represented well by them. Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of it.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve item number three as presented.

Second. Well, item three, we have a motion by Alderman Wheeler, second by Alderman Flores. Is there any discussion? One question.

That last line?

There is one on the hard corner. It's got a little bit of a hardship on it because it's got some overhead power lines. And, of course, our sign, they feel, is blocking them. But there is one lot essentially left.

Okay. I'm just kind of curious what would go there.

It will have no direct access to Goodman Road and probably not to Malone Road either. So it's not exactly a desirable one. Yeah.

And just for the record, the sign was not going to allow there to be an entrance there at any time. So the sign is really, it makes no difference. Right. I just like the fact that it's going to be green. Yeah. Just leave it alone. Okay. Any other discussion on item three? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hughes. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries.

So our final application is for a one-story 5,600 square foot restaurant building to be located on the south side of the new DeSoto District Drive just south of Silo Square. You'll recall probably two meetings ago we did approve the two buildings on the north side of this property very attractive buildings this will match that one again a lot of brick a lot of the metal facade used for accent patio features this is the same gentleman that did the Provost on Nail Road there's a lot of the characteristics that are mimicking on this, so we actually had no comments on it. It was a beautiful building. He already knew the landscaping rules and regulations. He's matching all the decorative photometrics, so it was voted unanimously in favor of with no comment.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve item number four on the planning agenda as presented tonight. Second.

On item four, we have a motion by Alderman Flores, second by Alderman Wheeler. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne.

Yes.

Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hoots. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Torres.

Yes. That motion carries. Thank you. Next on our agenda is our mayor's report. I want to start with everyone's favorite topic right now, data centers. And so obviously, South Haven, Mississippi was one of the trailblazers in the United States, not with data centers, but the new... the race to compete with artificial intelligence. And so last year, when this was first presented to the city, and I've told everyone this before, all the concerns that have been raised about data centers, the first thing I started doing is doing my homework. Like the questions, every question that's been asked are questions that I asked. And I brought in experts, asked them the questions, researched that. This is long before this was ever announced. And that's how economic development works. And so everything that's been brought out, and this is not just a local thing. Y'all know this. This is a national issue. Everything that's, the questions that I asked, everything has proven to be exactly like it was presented to me in South Haven, except for one thing, except for the noise issue. And I've made this clear. I would like to know just how many, know emails and uh times i've said this over and over um i i recognize the noise is an issue and um so spacex ai has heard that from me uh there are things that are happening now uh many of the comments that are made that it's a 24 7 noise issue that's not true i can promise you i've been out there whether you saw me or not i've been out there At any hour of the day, I've walked the railroad tracks. I've done my own personal investigation. That's simply not true. But with that being said, I've expressed this to them over and over and over. Like I do with everything in the city, I always put myself in the citizens' shoes and say, if I lived right here, would it bother me? When they keep the decibel level below where I've asked them to keep it, the answer is no, it would not. I could live there, I could live everything that I do at my house, I would do the same thing there, I would live there. The problem is, is that The movement on these projects are so fast that these companies are also dealing with unknowns. Companies have never done projects this big before and this fast before. So there have been challenges that have been their challenges as well. But they've responded to everything we've asked them to do. And the problem is that they do have spikes in the noise. And it's unacceptable. And I've explained that to them. It's unacceptable. So there's been a lot of work done on it. There's been a recent announcement that they just removed 11 of the turbines, took them off use, so they're not being used at all. We all know, we've talked about it, MDEQ approves these things for 12 months, the temporary ones. The permanent turbines have to be permanent, which they are. They've already been approved by MDEQ, which obviously is the administrator of EPA laws. And so all that is compliant. And so they're addressing the noise issue. They have specialists that are in South Haven that are from other parts of the country actually where they – lift off space rockets. That's what SpaceX started with. And so these people are acoustic engineers. And they brought these, per my request, they brought these people in from all over the country. They are in South Haven, Mississippi as we speak. And they are looking for ways to mitigate this noise issue, make it even lower. And so I just want everybody to know that We deal with what's real, what's factual throughout this whole development. And so that leads me to my next thing. So all along this process, I've expressed to SpaceX AI that they should be telling the public. What's good about them being here? Y'all heard me say this. Everybody's heard me say this in every media outlet because I did my assessment of it. Is this a good thing for South Haven, DeSoto County? By far it is. Even with the noise issue, we're going to resolve that. But it's not my place to explain this to the world. And it's SpaceX AI's place to do it. They should have been doing a better job with their PR campaign. So they've heard me loud and clearly. I don't know if y'all have seen the recent announcements. They started a new PR campaign to put the facts out, to let the people know what's real and what's not real with this. And so that has started. You're going to start to see more of that. Not only that, if you start to pay attention to everything going on around our country, data centers have been the newest political football. If you look at, and I said this from day one, I said this is a politically charged issue. People are gonna dig their heels in based on their political beliefs. And that is exactly what's proven to be true. It is the number one political football in our country right now. And so you go on any media outlet, they're all talking about this. This is not a South Haven issue. But what SpaceX AI has failed to do, which they're in the past but they're now doing, is to explain the significance of the South Haven project. And it's important for the people of South Haven to know that what is going on in South Haven is not just some new industrial development that came in and bought land on property that hasn't been used most of it in 50 years. This company has set records for what they term compute power. So what they've been able to accomplish in South Haven, Mississippi, and the whole Memphis-South Haven connection has never been done before. And so you say, well, OK, big whoop. Why do we care about that? because the project has national security implications. So what is happening in South Haven, Mississippi is a key part of the AI race against China. And I know some people say, well, I don't believe that. Okay. So that's everybody's belief, but that is exactly what's going on. There is an AI race with China, everybody in this room, everybody watching this video tonight, you have used AI today, whether you know it or not, You have used AI. It is already here. It is the next industrial revolution. It's not the first time that people thought change in our country. We could go back this morning at the department head meeting. We had some funny laughs about some of the things that people thought change about, that they didn't believe. They didn't think it was going to become real. And it's funny to look back at history and see that this is not the first time that something was a threshold moment for the country, like something is big time changing. But I'm telling everybody that, considering all that I know and I've learned through this project, this is the next industrial revolution. It is. You're using AI. The country is using AI. The United States must use AI to compete with China. And so the message to the people of South Haven is, you should have been told this a long time ago. It's not really my role to tell you. SpaceX should have been telling you. But what is happening in South Haven has national security implications for the future of the United States. It is truly a patriotic project. Now, does that minimize the noise situation? Absolutely not. And we're going to stay on that. We're going to resolve that. But I think it's important for everybody to keep this in its proper perspective. This is not a South Haven thing. This is a national thing. And you can see that it will prove to be the next industrial revolution for our country. But I just think it's important that everybody you know here's my perspective on that because i have been in the middle of this from day one uh there's things that you know that i know that i've tried to communicate all that but there's um you know i've been like i said i've been in the middle of this from day one i just think it's important for the public to know that so anyway that's that's enough of that for tonight um now the next thing i want to share with you is again Much smaller scale than that, but still a great thing. So this board, years ago, invested. We made a decision to fight for the tourism tax revenue. We got it extended, and we made the decision to bring soccer full-fledged to South Haven. We had a few soccer fields, but we made a huge, I believe, $5 million investment into soccer. And so last weekend, we had... the largest soccer tournament in our history we had 123 soccer teams so anyway it's just um it just speaks to the diversification of our parks and recreation program and the successful results that we've had from the investments there last thing y'all know it's near and dear to my heart um We have fought, the whole time I've been mayor, we fought many challenges at Cherry Valley Park. I don't have to go in and tell everybody the whole history of that, but the park started, it was one of the first parks ever in our city before the city was a city. It was built by volunteer moms and dads, and it's a special part of our city, it always will be. the city made the decision when Snowden Grove Park was built that Cherry Valley would be converted to an all football complex. It was done that way many, many years of successful football and cheerleading operations there. Some years ago with the concussion scare and the enhancement of soccer, the prevalence of fall baseball, which I hate, and I'm a baseball player. Love to see kids playing other sports. But all those things contribute to our football league, the participation going way down. And so we've done everything we can do to try to bring that back. But y'all will see it on the news now. There's still concerns about concussions, things like that, which I can just tell you from coaching and playing myself, kids up to 12 years old do not generate enough torque to cause any kind of brain damage. That's just a fact. I mean, that does not happen to age 12. But either way, I know I'm not the expert on that. People disagreed, and so our football has gone down. But after football started to minimize, then we started seeing vandalism problems at the park, just everything that we would go do. And I could tell you just a long list of things that we did, just ridiculous things that we did and had to fight vandals from coming in and messing everything that we invested over there. So I just had a moment talking to some other people, and then I just finally – I looked myself in the mirror one day and said, we can either do one of two things. We can give in to the circumstances there or we can say no and we're gonna fight and we're gonna preserve this special part. And so we have chosen to preserve this part and to do everything that we can do to keep it special and to keep it protected. And we're going to do that. Whether any person walks in that park or not, that park is going to be in pristine condition. And my report to you today is the Cherry Park renovation project is done. You'll start to see some photos of that. But everything that's been done out there, all the buildings have been repainted. New walk-in trails have been implemented throughout the park. The parking lot's been resurfaced in strife. Security cameras with the police chief, parks director, Dan Cordell, We wrote an ATV out there and went in every ditch that we could get in and out of to find ways to stop the ATVs from coming in and vandalizing the park. They come in, get on the fields, they destroy everything. We have... We put fencing like you will see on the interstate, the secure fencing that keeps cars from going off the roadway into the other lanes. That kind of fencing has been placed at all the entrance levels of the ATVs. We put security gate. We've got security cameras out there that are going straight to dispatch. We have added new lighting out there. And so if you haven't been out there, go check it out. Obviously, we did the bike park and skate park. The football fields were repainted, the goalposts to yellow or gold. Took down the old rotten press box, new scoreboard, everything. It looks great. And so my message to you is that I'm committed, and I hope this city always stays committed, whether we have football going on there or not. that we keep Cherry Valley alive. We keep the memories of so many citizens, countless kids, countless parents, countless friendships and memories that were established at Cherry Valley Park. And I'm just asking whoever comes behind me and whoever comes behind y'all, you know, please don't let this investment go to waste. Let's keep preserving Cherry Valley Park. And that's all I have tonight on the mayor's report. Next on the agenda is a personnel docket.

Mr. Mayor, move we approve the personnel docket as presented on the state. Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Flores. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne? Yes. Alderman Jenkins? Yes. Alderman Who? Yes. Alderman Jerome? Yes. Alderman Gallagher? Yes. Alderman Wheeler? Yes. Alderman Flores?

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is our city attorney's legal update. Nothing. We'll move on. Next on the agenda is a utilities billing leak adjustment docket.

Mr. Mayor, I move we approve the utility bill leak adjustment docket as presented.

Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Jenkins. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hughes. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is one claims docket.

Mr. Mayor, I move we approve the claims docket in the amount of $2,371,060.43, including demand checks. Second. We have a motion by Alderman Payne, second by Alderman Flores.

Is there any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Alderman Payne. Yes. Alderman Jenkins. Yes. Alderman Hoots. Yes. Alderman Jerome. Yes. Alderman Gallagher. Yes. Alderman Wheeler. Yes. Alderman Flores.

Yes. That motion carries. Next on the agenda is the purpose of determining the need for executive session. We have a motion by Alderman Gallagher, second by Alderman Hoots. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say no. Ayes have it. The needs this evening, potential litigation, economic development within the city and interdepartmental personnel with no action. Is there now a motion to declare executive session?

So moved. Second.

We have a motion by Alderman Hoots, second by Alderman Wheeler. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Ayes have it. Motion carries. The mayor and board will now enter executive session.