City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, Allan, are you coming up or Kendall or both of you or all of you or in none of Eric or I didn't see Eric. I'm sorry. Guy was in his way.

You're in the wrong store. Princess But you have to read that. Yay.

Yes, sir.

All right. All right, good afternoon. Um, wanted to kind of just go briefly over um kind of our budget requests um for this uh budget season. Uh we kind of looked at the budget and uh talking with Laura uh we had some additional items that we had placed in our operating budget and uh we have since um kind of reconfigured some of that. So I think we've we've adjusted it about uh close to $30,000 on uh our initial operating budget. Um,

what'd you cut out? Uh, we end up cutting u some out of training uh some equipment and uh and I'll have to look and see what the other I know that was the two major ones. Okay, was training and equipment. All right, was that it? So uh that next

so what we we mainly have looked at um of course the equipment need is always there u trying to to make sure it's updated but u the additional responsibilities and services that uh that uh we've been asked to try to try to pick up and help assist for is uh uh the rescue squad. um uh the amount of of course uh people and everything that's moving in the medical calls, MVAs uh those such things have really really increased uh that number. I think our emergency calls were up about 18%. So that's one area that we have uh we have looked and and uh staffing uh of course to answer not only the calls that we've been doing but these additional calls is is definitely a concern uh for us. So we've kind of pushed uh to the front of u of course you can see what NFPA is recommending. This is this is just on structure fires and and I've given you all that information too that you can look over later. But uh we're closer by the last staffing adjustments that you all made. We were able to hire the six people and u and put them on the rescue and that's been such a great benefit for us. Uh it's worked out really well. But uh when we when we have either a structure fire or a uh MVA that has u a wreck and and we have to end up doing extrication, um we're we're pulling two to three trucks for that. So we're always concerned about that next call that's going to come in. Uh having adequate staffing for that. Um, of course the the squad u we've worked with them on some new training. Just done a bus class here a few weeks ago and went really well, but u they uh they still have the whole

county also. So we want to make sure if something happens inside Greenville that we're able to to handle it inside. So that is the reason that we've started doing additional training and uh uh our training hours I think it was around 2 uh 86 hours per person additional uh last year and that's all the technical side of the rescue whether it's ropes or water confined space whatever it may be uh it's going to take a lot of lot of training. So, um, one of the items that, uh, kind of like when we did the rescue, we, uh, we asked you all for money to do a study, gather data to see if those personnel were going to be, uh, you know, a a good bang for for the taxpayers's uh, buck and and it was. So, the data came back, it was really good. Uh and now that we've instituted that, it is confirms it uh it's it's going well. So, we're asking for the $85,000 to and it'll get us about 6 months worth of data that we can see how effective it will be with this staffing. Um if uh if it is of course uh our solution to to that problem is to gather data up to six months on call volume, personnel and equipment needs and bring that information back to you and we would ask that at that time if it is positive to apply for a safer grant. Um that grant would allow us to pay some of those salaries. uh first two years they pay 75% of those salaries and the third year they'll pay 35%. So it really helps out on on that need.

What is 18% mean? Does that any extra? Yeah, that was the increase. But I mean is it do we have 200 visits a week or a month or a year or I don't know. Yeah, the 18% increase. You remember how many calls

additional or 400 total? Additional. Additional.

And and one thing too that uh we're looking is the development is on the east end. So the more that development is pushed to our outer limits, um it gives us increased time to get there. Um so that's that's definitely a concern of ours is being able to meet those needs when that development comes in. I think eventually, you know, we we'll have to look at at having facilities on that east side to to handle not only our needs, but probably police department also having having something out on that end.

Just a little bit of a breakdown, of course, right there of just this training and what all it entails. And in your packet, there's a lot more information on that. Um Kendall's been able to uh to get a relationship with Sevirville. We've helped them out on some training and they've they've returned the favor to us and it has been a huge cost savings for us to get that additional uh training there. So that's something that we're working with them to reduce the initial cost. the uh the next thing of course and and we've I think we've had this in now maybe maybe this is a second or third year but u actually adding a uh assistant to the fire marshall um with all the development everything that has come that has come in um it's just it's just taken more to go out and do those inspections and um some inspections that we were wanting to do um in like our restaurants and and different uh places that uh we have a lot of gathering of people. Uh we've not been able to do just because of all the development that's coming in. Uh David stays really busy with plan review and the uh the amount of inspections, you know, that's that's currently ahead of us. uh we pull some people off shift to help alleviate that, especially in in kind of the fall months when we have to go around and anybody that sells beer, they end up getting an inspection. So, that's a lot of inspections to go in and do at one time. So, it's it's helped some, but u we definitely would like to would like to look at it. our capital um kind of laid out the way it is right there and and of course we know what the

the board is facing as far as uh the upcoming budget. Uh we uh we've talked and I think we would try to forego the extrication tools and the the thermal imaging camera this year and uh and uh if there was any money to to work on our portable portable radios because they are coming up I think on 12 years. So, they're they're coming up to the point of u not sure when Motorola will stop supporting those, but instead of hitting it all at once, we're trying to replace some of those. How many is is port that 80,000 is that?

That is seven. I guess it's either six or seven radios. And how many do we need all together? Six radios. How many do we need all together? What's the total radios we have now, Kindle? So, we need to be replacing them every year. Yeah, we replaced some last year. So, we're trying to work and replace them a few at a time so they're not going to hit all at one time. And the staff vehicle, I think it's approaching 100,000 miles on it. We're still utilizing it for emergency response. Some So,

are you going to find one for $52,000? Well, I think we I think we can I think uh I think Kendall will have and we're able to to put some of the equipment on it. So, okay. Y the the last one that I'll mention is the the parking lot at station three. Um that's something that that has really bothered me because um and I don't know when it will happen, but I I feel eventually um we will have to move that station on out to the east end to cover that.

Is that the one um like across from the pizza? Yep. Commons there. Yes. Um but we'll have to definitely look at that with all that development continuing out on that end. Um, so going in and spending and this is this is an estimate I think we looked at over well over a year ago. So that number I'm sure has greatly increased to go in redo that whole parking lot. There's a lot underneath. I think it's going to be recompacted and things. So you know that could be well in excess of 300,000. But

are you just talking about traffic time to move that east? Yes. Our response time, it's getting out of our mile and a half range. So, you're not going to get any further. Yeah. We're as far as we're going to go, right? But I mean, it's response time and I know what the traffic is. Yeah. And uh and I was said eventually you get a ding every time that that that something is outside of that that mile and a half and now your response time and your your times are getting longer and longer to get to there. So, uh, we definitely don't want to back up. Um,

there's emergency lane from from station three all the way to city limits, right? No, no. The median goes in to Tuscal Boulevard. Roof Taylor, I guess. Yeah. No, before that. Yeah, I believe it's before that. Yeah. But, uh, you never know if they're going left or right. I want to back up a second. Assistant fire marshall. Is that going to be a step for someone? And how much more that is that going to cost? That that will be a a step for someone uh with which goes from 2448 to fulltime. Yes. Which is going to cost what? Yep. Dollars on their insurance. Okay.

So I I don't know how that would break down. Well, it's an idea, right?

It could be an It's probably I'll stop. But the the parking lot um that I was speaking of right now till till I guess we we can see we just had it patched. Public works has been so good about coming in and and we have a whole fallout. They'll come in and and recompact that and and and patch it back. Um, I think the the one that they just repatched, it probably has lasted a few months, but uh, but that's kind of what we're doing to to get by for now on it. But I just hate it to see us go in spend $300,000 and then maybe we end up moving that station.

How much will it cost to build another station? Haven't got any numbers lately exactly, you know, where that's at. It's what 3 million. Yeah. But it's sort of it's special. It is. I mean, we've got classroom space, but I mean do what? 4.4. 4.4. Two or three million. Two or three station. Yeah. Course it would be a lot more condensed sizewise. And the station 3 property would would bring us some money.

Do we have any idea what that would be worth? No, I've never gotten any appraisal or anything on it. But there any real estate agents out there? That's different than an appraisal. That's true. Is there any appraisal people know about? There it's definitely a a good piece of property that put back on the tax rolls.

Questions? anything I hadn't covered. So, did you have those improvements in your budget now that you're going to take out? Yeah, there this is all capital. I haven't capital budget, but this is what's planned in the CI for each one of these departments. Okay. Everything's probably not going to make the list, but this Well, thanks.

Thanks. your men do a great job, men and women, and um just appreciate you and I know that it's a a challenge to run into fires. So, thank you. And I I I think we really need to talk about all the things that we do. I um Leanne Sprdlin came up to came up to you and talked about a visitor coming in there and you having three people and spent two hours with them putting in um seats. Car seats. Yes. Because they're not easy to put in now. They're quite challenging. They are.

And she would uh Leanne was very very appreciative of how nice everyone was to the lady because it was it was a good thing. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. Hello, Chief. How are you? Good. How are you? It's heck.

Going old. Growing old is not for existence. I I appreciate y'all being here today to listen to the budgets and stuff and know that everything that we put in here is going to be able to allow us to fulfill our mission which is protect you, your family, and our community. So, um overall, if you look at it, we we went down in operating expenses 6.49%. The only uh up there is the 2.98 in the step. So, we came down quite we we we cut some stuff out and um operating operation of vehicles. The contracts went down a little bit for some reason. I'm not sure exactly which contracts went down. And then in office equipment, we dropped quite a bit too. Over the last couple years, we've been able to get what we needed. So now that we have gotten what we've needed, we lowered that cost back down just because that's not something that we didn't want the money just sitting there obviously. Uh overall from last year we were about 14% call uh calls higher. So uh we were about 24,000 calls and like we talked about before 44,000 almost 44,000 individual units that were sent out last year to calls of those almost 24,000 calls to service. So our our calls are going up and know that we all we did that while training 11 new officers which is that's probably unheard of to go up in that many the amount of calls. It's about 2900 more calls. So um but everybody got trained and now we're right back to where we were. We're about about to have to hire some more because of of people retiring and stuff. But uh part of growth people are looking forward to the new new roles that

they'll get to take. But uh overall that that those are our operational expenses. Now we did have some capital expenses too. And uh I'm going to let my other officers my captains come up and explain each one of the capital expenses to you. U I'll start with Eddie. He he's going to explain to y'all about the vehicles that are no longer in our budget. They went into the capital expenses and and how we utilize those vehicles on a daily basis. Do you you said there was a 24,000 additional visits. How many calls does an average policeman make a year? Do you have you looked at that?

I can do math.

Okay. broke it down into 63 calls a day. Basically have four people about four people by the time there's seven people on each shift. Uh but you al you always have somebody gone, somebody in training and know that of all of all the things that were done in the entire county between EMS, the volunteer fire departments, the sheriff's department, the EMS here, uh fire department in town and us of all the calls that went to 911, the Greenville Police Department answered 38% of those calls with far less officers than the sheriff's department answering. or 27% of all the calls in Green County. I think they've got a 10 or 11 per shift and we've got seven. Our guys are out there humping it, but I I'll find out that number for you.

That's That's good enough. And just how long does it take on an average visit? Is there is there an average? No. And there's no way to put it because every call's different. Okay. Uh it we've got about a 4 and a half minute response time and that's with the traffic now. That's that's went up a couple of minutes. Uh but as traffic gets more congested, that time's going to come down, go up higher. Yeah. Uh but we may be on a call two hours, we may be on a call 10 minutes.

Gotcha. Okay. And and also you look at when I give you all those calls to service numbers, that's not touching my officers just in a routine day getting out and making contacts. But a lot of times we don't put calls to service in. If they're somewhere and people ask them about things, they'll explain stuff to them from a law enforcement standpoint and go on with it. And that's just never documented. So, I mean, my officers are probably making 10 to 12 contacts extra a day, not counting the calls to service at 911. Those are phone calls to 911 that they dispatch out. This is just police interaction throughout the daytime. So, we're doing a lot more plus all the special things that we do for the community with what we do in the department. We're getting around pretty good on the uh vehicles. The police department operates 62 vehicles in the operation. That don't count the support vehicles that go with the EOD or SWAT or any of those special operations. Uh if you'll notice, we have 13 vehicles with over 100,000 miles. Uh eight eight vehicles are getting close to 100,000 miles. Uh and 31 of those vehicles are over seven years old. If you'll remember, and Councilman Teague probably remembers, in 2019, we purchased 13 vehicles extra because we got a pretty good deal on them and we started the take-home car program. Well, those vehicles are starting to come to to age. Um, so we're we request four to five vehicles a year. Last year, we were awarded two vehicles in the budget. We got two additional officers, so that was flat. There was nothing extra. Uh on top of that, we horse traded and got another vehicle, but we totaled two. So we ended

up losing vehicles. Uh one was because a tree fell on it, so it was no no fault of anybody's. Uh but it ended up being totaled and not repaired. Uh precoid we could buy vehicles for 49,000. That's fully equipped. Today it cost us 82,000 to buy a vehicle and fully equip it and put it on the road. Uh, so that's that's kind of tied our hands on on buying some of this equipment. Uh, and then I've gave you all handouts with the breakdowns of where they're assigned. We don't have many. You you see vehicles sitting on a lot, but that's for auxiliary to drive to ball games and special events and for uh fleet vehicles for spare vehicles if we've got a vehicle having maintenance because we have to have vehicles. Uh, so we don't have a lot of spare vehicles sitting around even though it may look like it sometimes. also know that those when it comes to the lights and stuff on cars. I know you look at them and think light on those cars. We're mandated to have lights in all directions. So, it's not that we just put them on there. They look cool and look nice, but we're trying to follow what state of Tennessee have to do. Yes,

they do. One of those little bubble gum rotators. All right, tasers. Uh, we had this last year on the agenda and the tasers are now a year older than they were last year. The handout pretty well shows you we've got about a quarter of our deployed tasers are over 20 years old. Uh, the rest of them are approaching 14 to 15 years in age. To say we've gotten every bit out of that program that you can, I believe we've done a pretty admirable job with it. uh they don't support them anymore. They quit making them and and supporting them in 2019. Uh so the proposal that we had on the capital was through Ax and Taser is for an upgrade to 80 tasers. U that includes the new taser 10s. It's unlimited cartridges. Something that we've learned along the way with the taser cartridges is they have a bornon date on them. So they're good for a few years and then you have to rotate them out. So what we've actually done is to part of our reertification training for tasers, they have to take a shot with a taser. So we use our old cartridges that are out of date for our training. So we're getting the most bang out of the buck, so to speak, on those. Uh this will also include with this program the training software that comes along with it, uh virtual reality software and all the technical support that comes with it. Uh, like Eddie said, after COVID, all these companies, Motorola, Taser, everybody has gone to a five-year business model. They want you to sign on for five years. Doing so get you out of paying the annual 7% increase that you would do if you tried to go all cart and buy X amount a year to get you to that 80 number. If you uh if you go through this and we were to try to do this all a cart

and try to get 80 tasers in a five-year deal, it would cost us $180,000 more than what the deal is. And you can see on the sheet, it's about an annual cost of $100,000 a year over five years for a total of 500,000. That's including a 5% discount. Locks you into that price for five years. The end of five years, we own the equipment. Then if you want to purchase things all a cart, you can probably get 10 to 15 years. So you're looking at a probably a 10 to 15 year program with this if we're able to do it. How many tasers were deployed last year? Taser deployments. I'd have I have to look it up and get it back to you. Guess.

We probably average four or five a month. Four four to five a month. Biggest thing with the tasers and they work.

Yes, they are. They're more of psychological advantage for us than they are anything which keeps you forces down which keep us don't have to use. They don't. So when you can add in the psychological effect with just having a taser, you can watch people when they're dealing with officers and they think they may be going to jail. They scam, they look and see if they've got a taser. That changes their whole attitude. It's kind of like when I have my dog back and he was dropping the whole thing. Nobody wanted to go taser the same way. It's a psychological effect that keeps injuries. The officer down also keeps us out of laws.

Are these tasers the ractable killing somebody kind that spiral out. Okay. Not the uh I don't know if you call it radio frequency taser or not where it shoots out and it attaches to the like what what kind of taser are they? I guess the new one the ones we currently have are x26s and x26PS. They have two probes in it. Uh, and it's you're typically taught the hemisphere of the body from the belt up or the belt down. And it's got a probe that sticks in the person and delivers the current, right? To lock them up. Uh, the new Taser 10 has 10 shots in it. Okay.

Uh, and you actually can you actually can shoot you have to shoot twice for those hemispheres and everything, but if you miss with one, you can do a follow on shot. Uh, and the accuracy has gone up on it. They're they're far more accurate. They're quieter than these. When when one deploys, you hear it. It's everybody can hear it going off. They're a little quieter. Um the technology has just gotten to the point now that it's uh the accuracy on them is amazing. Uh if I had the video to show you, you can it's like an inch drop at 40 yards. You can you can deploy one. So, but you got 10 shots in this program. They're unlimited cartridges. right now. We buy cartridges and we literally we we count them and make sure we're being very sparing on them and stuff. We don't have uh this I don't know what does it cost for a box of 50 $2,500 for 50 something like that. It's very expensive. So this would this would include unlimited cartridges for five years along with it.

Thank you. Appreciate

Appreciate you. Yeah, it's kind of piggybacking on fire department. You kind of already heard heard that part, but um these cost $10,500 right for one of them. Last year we went to Motorola meeting and found out the police department carries APX 4000s supervisors and SRO's carry a 6000 or an 8000. Um we found out at Motorola that the Apx 4000s are Motorola's going into life with them in five years which I think is 2030. Uh so no more service if they break just paper weight. Um so the 6000 8000s um they have not ended them yet but best we can gather when we talked to them. They won't do it this year. It's probably look like it's going to be next year and they give you a 5year window. So, we got with Motorola, came up with just a couple options here just to kind of see what the what the cost would be as far as uh trying to replace these. So, option one, I think I gave this out in paper, too. Option one is to replace 60 radios, which would be every officer uh in our full-time officer in our department. and uh kind of go back a little bit further on the free part. Um when we signed our contract with our body cameras, um signed a 5-year deal in year three of that, which we're coming up to, they come and give us a new body cam, new battery, and all that. They have an upgraded uh body cam now that's

will obviously uh newer and will last longer as far as coming into life. Um that we got a quote that we can refresh those these for free um with the with the purchase of the N70 radios. That option is obviously $631,481 time thing. So if we option two there, I broke it down into 3% increase, 5% increase, and the 7% increase. When we talked to the Motorola rep, he said usually every year Motorola will go up 3 to 7% kind of just depending with inflation. So, I tried to get everything uh if if those if we were to go year by year and just replace eight radios a year, which would get to the 60 um in eight years. And you can kind of see it broke down year by year what it would cost. Um, so if you take the middle option at 5%, if you just replace the radios over eight years, that would that would equal 739,000 740,000, which is 108,000 more over the life of over the life of that 8-year plan. But you don't get the body cam with that. That would be have to be purchased separately, which is that second line. um which in total if you got the radios and body cam like for the middle option would be $1.2 million. um which is obviously 641,000 more than if if we bit the bullet and went with option one this year

expensive and unfortunately it's our lifeline and

reason why we went to the motor system to begin with our terrain It's horrible on the building was horrible. We found that out when a guy was fighting for his life in hospital one night. He couldn't get out a road system because at the time that's what highway patrol was using to put up a tower for system. And at the time they were making us we were having to pay a fee per radio every year to operate but then they took that away. The whole reason why we're with this motor systemic is our number one communications.

What does the fire department use? They they are you run the same I don't know what model you all run everything. Is there any way if you if we bind um get together and go in and make a proposal, do you think that they would would it help any if we're getting a hundred? And we can ask. It's not going to hurt. Yeah, we can ask.

Okay. The reason I was asking Kendall was going to get seven new radios for 80,000. You're going to get eight. Yeah. I wondered what the difference was. And I think that's probably just Thanks for going over my head, Kendall, because I didn't understand a little bit more. just because my own. Okay. Those APX 4000s that are going end of life that most most of the our officers have, they don't have the Wi-Fi capabilities. They can't Bluetooth and connect with Wi-Fi. So, if you go in the middle of a hospital, you've got Wi-Fi there. Not with the 4,000s. The ones you're to buy purchase.

Yes. Yeah. With those. Yeah. that they can connect with. Brian, you program that, correct? We have to program the radios with our Brian, one of our operators, the radio and then we get the Wi-Fi.

So, we save $600,000 if we buy them all at once. in yes right but we have to buy them all at once right then and that opt you're right that option one is uh you have to buy them all at once that's and that's just a guess probably because so that that was a quote I actually got we got a quote from Motorola um they'll nail it down for eight years well on increases that was just buying it outright and the increase yeah that one that one's buying out right that was actual quote I said you were just sort of guessing on what it's going to go up and that's why I did kind of different it's not going to go down

right why I kind of did different options that first year is is about right the 83,000 what what we need in order to to purchase a new that's a big savings just to go ahead and get them and then free cams then we just buy some body

so and that's why I was saying with that we get so we're in the year that they're coming in and giving us new body cams and new batteries for every two new batteries for everybody. That's just kind of part of their plan. If we were to get them this year, we're in that year where they're doing that for free. Anyways, we can upgrade to the newest body cam, which probably would push us out with radios and body cams. We're probably looking probably get I would say 15 years of use body camera he's talking about. It's going to be a body camera just like that because we're getting them

anyway. Yeah. But what he's saying is if if we go ahead and do the radio upgrade, they're going to give us the new body camera that actually has a mic on it that you can use. That would be your most time you see the shoulder mic, the mic will be on the camera. It would operate the camera as well. And it also has a translating feature on there. So it can uh you can hold a button and if somebody's speaking Spanish or Russian or whatever um it can translate so you can in the field in real time you can really valuable. Yeah. Oh yeah technology I'll say yeah it's a

it's growing. So for 15 years it's about $40,000 a year. just just seeing how good how good they are right now. I mean, we haven't had any issues with our radios. They are uh they are durable. Uh so, you know, I have no no doubt that I won't be long anyway. Can you turn those back in to get some rebate? These these obviously get kind of they'll get turned in as we as we go through. 4,000. If we were to get all new ones, we they do have a thing going on right now and get we can get some money back.

This is with the price of of turning it in and going through that. This is kind of a Sounds like a Verizon cell phone deal. Trade in for your upgrade. That's exactly everything's going to that only only a two-year contract. Yeah, we understand a lot of the things we need are expensive, but the companies have us unfortunately. I mean it and they're all going to that business model. Well, we really see software. It's just matter of time before hardware did it. So, and that's what's happening because they know they you have to have it. Well, they know we have to have it.

You have to have and it just like software that I use in my work. They used I mean I hate to say there used to be a time where they would take the officer's word in court but now they won't see the body camera right and if we don't have it sometimes we talk let go request well it protects you it does well it protects the other person too for us not saying and then it does it just protects everybody it keeps all professional still works with our software as far as the redaction software that we well they have they do have their redaction software in that and then we won't have to repurchase the other redaction software. So, how much?

There's some expenses that can be cut if we were to buy them all and we just have 3500 is what we pay for.

Okay, thank you. Good job, guys. Anything else? Just appreciate what you do. Throw some more money. Let me throw some more cost at you. Bring it on. Thank you. Bring it on.

Hello, Mr. Bowman. How are you? Good.

First off, thank you for letting us uh present our request for the upcoming year. tried to keep it pretty simple. So, we're pretty much just really basing everything just off no no actual ask for standard budget, just uh just some inflationary cost. So, we're trying to keep it to a minimum if at all possible. We do have uh some capital requests that we have um such as a a mower that we that we generally we get usually one mower per year. um tractor and then also a trailer that's a little bit bigger trailer that we can handle a Bobcat to move around to different areas in the in the town that we need to use uh for repair on on property wherever. Um we would like to keep the um the wall repair in the capital improvement. We've had that in there for several years, but we're having trouble

I think

having trouble finding somebody that will actually do the work or give us a price. So, we would like to keep that there. I'm not sure where that's going or or or if we'll get to that this year. Um, uh, around the maintenance shop, we are asking for for for that to be done this this coming year. Uh right now we have no security on on any of the equipment uh any of the vehicles that's at the shop and the park. Uh we do know that had some incidents down there with with some vandals and so we we'd like to have some kind of protection on on that equipment. Then we also been fighting a water leak for for several years. I think this has been in there in and out for quite a while at the pool. So, um,

have y'all looked to find somebody to do it? Far as the the as the as far as the leak goes, it's actually, from what I'm told, it's it's actually underneath. Um, it's something to do with the pipes that's coming out of the pool, and it's going to require some digging and I don't have all those details that's going to take yet, but uh,

uh, my understanding that's been asked for a couple years, we've just been pushing it off. We just been bandating it and we filled the pool up yesterday, started filling up filled up last night and we're really curious to see how much water got out of it last night into the day because it does have a leak. So, um but again, we we try to keep it pretty simple. Um try not to ask for too much. So, um, why is the, um, the pool cost up quite a bit from last year? The pool labor. Are you raising the rates or

talk about talking about the cost? Yeah, it went from it went up $21,000, which it's it's actually one of the line items. Uh, a lot of our it's it's actually with our pool salaries. A lot of our lifeguards transition over into gym attendants and they they work part-time throughout the year. So that line item, that's why that's raised. So we because we elevated that just a little bit to offset that cost. Okay.

Anybody got any questions? kind of tractor asking for is that like a mini excavator? Yeah, I think it's I think it's just like a a small I don't I don't want to say it's a farm tractor, but a a garden tractor or a little bit bigger. That way we can we can move equipment around or move trailers around if need be. Um that I don't have any detail on what kind that is. That's just an estimate, right?

Yeah. It looks on this one. There's a gator and a mower. And then the tractor and the trailer are for next year, aren't they? No. No. I'm sorry. I'm wrong. Thank you. Anything else? No. Thanks. Thank you, guys. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Keith, now he always asks for money. Well, he comes. That one over there,

Tony. Tony's going to for sure. We do have I mean our operating uh budget for streets this year this coming up year is generally a continuation of last year with with the expectation that costs are going to increase on operating vehicles, maintaining vehicles. There's also been some additions uh in our contract line item. I've now got the work the work management system in there uh which is about 18 18,000 a year. And I've also got a roadway along line striping contract I'd like to get in place for 25,000. That contract was in place um here before last. I believe it needs to be. We need to definitely focus on getting some of that done. Um, and also we've added a uh a landscaping line item and a line item that helps us keep better track of our our patching for the water commission. We were a little bit off on how we thought that was going to be handled this last time around the building that we we kind of were thinking it was going to come right directly to us and reimburse our materials account and that was not the right assumption. That's not and I I'm I've been educated on that now. So the line item that's in the operating budget for the water commission, we have it in there for 35,000 and then we will bill them back. So that money will come back to the general fund. it just doesn't come directly back to our materials account, which is how we thought initially it was going to work. Uh so that kind of caused that account to be a little bit strained this fiscal year.

So you just reallocated basically. Yes. Yeah. So, we put we went ahead and we like I say, we established a a landscape line item for 15,000 for downtown um just to cover everything that we're spending to get that done. And then the u the new line item for the water commission reservicing landscaping materials. What you're talking about for downtown? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Where I don't have that. Where is it? that in that thing you stole from me. I'll give it back now.

Okay. Yeah, I've read through that. That's fine. Thank you. How much is the work reporting system? While they're looking for that, how much was the work reporting system? So, the the annual on that is $186.95. And I can't remember if we had talked about this, but didn't we used to share cost with a work reporting system with the school system? Yes, we did. And what was that price comparison? And then also what was the I guess the the benefit of the the one that you're currently using as a when you made the switch, I guess. What was the rationale for making the switch? Comparison, Kathy, I don't remember exactly.

I want to say probably 8 to 10 somewhere around there. Assets essentials when we had that one. Kelsey, do you know? Um the only issue with that one was some of that was becoming outdated like it was and I and it was really that particular system is more geared towards facilities maintenance not so much roadway and and public works. What I like about the the one we have now it's a much better fit for what we do for our business model for what the work that we do. Um, we did do a little bit of work in asset essentials trying to make that work and it just didn't it just didn't seem like a good fit, right?

Um, so that's why we went over to that and really um given the fact that the the usage on this system is unlimited. So we can spread it as far across the town as we want and uh and not pay anything more for it. It's really not not a bad deal for right right for that annual cost and that's all the support we need any modifications that we need them to do. We just get in contact and it's it's pretty well done. So, right. I don't think the school system uses it any longer either. I wonder if they what they're using and have you talked with them to see if they might could use what we've got. That was where I was that was that was where I was headed next

to see if there's an opportunity. I don't know if public works is tracking what they're or parks and recck what's tracking what they're doing. So it might be we could look at that too. So I'm sure is it like a license agreement? Is that like a it's just it's more or less an annual maintenance agreement. It's it really I think more is is is hosted first of all. So all the data is is hosted for us. We don't have to maintain any servers or anything like that which is a a good kind of a cost reduction and overhead type thing, right? And then the users are unlimited on it. There's no set number where we get locked in to only having 100 users in public works. It's it's not that way. So

yeah, I'd be piggybacking on what the mayor said. I think it would be kind of interesting to see like is this something that school system could use. Is it something parks and w could use and if it's parks and rack for sure. Yeah. I mean and somehow share that cost a little bit because I mean obviously if it's doing what it needs to do then that's great but if we can you know spread it a little bit further and if it's unlimited users the historical data that it keeps is has been very useful even with the previous system that we had already been beneficial we'll talk about that kind of in the MSW side one of the

things we've already been able to do with it that kind of shows something we already knew too. But um on the capital side, I'm sorry, for street lighting and utilities, that didn't really change. The repairs, just looking across the board, our our traffic signals and and lighting um hold up pretty well. We haven't had that many issues. So, actually reduced the repair side of that just a little bit. utilities. We expect those to increase. Looking at the FY25 utilities, it was substantially higher than the year before and I was expecting that it'll be same for this this fiscal year coming. So that's why I went ahead and increased it. So cover for our capital side. We do the traffic uh signal cabinet every year. Um we're trying to maintain a good stock. We need um whole mount cabinets. And so getting one of those every year is not a bad thing. If one gets knocked down, we have one ready to roll. And then on the improvement side, I'd like to go ahead and start the the building. The facilities that we have over there do need some repairs. Um don't have an exact estimate on that on the scope, but there are some leaks um that we know about that need to be addressed. And I'd also like to do some security upgrades. Um most municipal buildings that I've been exposed to are are generally secured and ours is really not. um we don't want to make it a a place where the public can't get in, but we would definitely like to have a

little bit more control um to over who gets in and when. So, um and not only that, but to allow the staff in and out on the weekends and holidays and when nobody's there that has an actual key, um going over to something like a card access would be very helpful. So, that's not a necessity, but I went ahead and and put it in there. Well, that's the cash flow. So, on the state street a the main plan for that is uh obviously the paving I know there's been a lot of discussion about that. We actually I have a paving list that I'm trying to actually get in place and maybe get something done before the end of this fiscal year, but we're taking a little more time and cross referencing what we're doing with the water department. And what we found is out of about the six segments that I've put out, um there's actually rehab that needs to be done on five of them. So, um, it's worth taking the time, and I know that's sort of slows things down, but I really want to take pretty much all the available street aid coming at us here in the near future and put it toward the the paving that we've talked about. So, right now, I think we're planning on about 500,000 a year uh for for paving, resurfacing, contract resurfacing.

Did you say you're going to contract the paving out? I would say the majority of it. That's not to say we won't do any, but if we want to do the longer line, um, knocking out sections at a time, that's that's contract for us. On the MSW side, the solid waste, uh, really the main increase there is just operating the vehicles, the maintenance that we know is coming. It's been a year this past fiscal year so far has been a lot of challenges with some pretty expensive maintenance items. Um so I did bump that up for the next for the coming fiscal year. Um that being said um going back to the to the work system we were we've started keeping track of the pretty everything that we're doing. And so we're able to look at the expense on rolloffs. And one of the things that came to light the last time the rolloff rates were considered or reviewed were for the polls was back in 2010. So our rates are considerably behind where they probably should be. And we were able to determine that we're charging for instance $75 to pull a roll off in town when in fact it's costing us about 120 to do it based on a vehicle and the manh hours. So, um, in order just to bring that up to date, I've suggested a increase in the poll charges for both in town and in the county would amount to right now it's 75 for for in town that would go to 100 at county's 95 that would go to 120. And just doing that based on the last year's worth of of rolloff pulls that we've done um would bring us another about another $54,000 to help offset some of these other

increases that we've had. So um that doesn't necessarily put us where we should be, but it's an incremental step to getting us up to where we need to be in terms of the real cost of what we're doing. And we didn't adjust the rental rates on the rolloffs, just the just full charges for now. So, thank you. Requesting that we do that. Anyway,

on the capital side for MSW, we are right now we've got the the hand stop. We got two hand stop trucks, but one is very old. Um, it's pretty much near its end of life. the newer one is doing just fine, but if it breaks down for some reason, then we're kind of out of out of luck on the hand stop. So, we do after talking to the staff, um they feel and and I agree that the small another small automated side load is probably our biggest uh capital request right now if we're considering.

Thanks, Do you um do we still have a street sweeper? Does it work? Okay. Or it works. It works. Okay. Okay. I give you that. Is there anything we could do to make it work better or do you I think you've got one in a couple of years. We We're actually looking at possibility of being able to acquire one a little sooner.

Okay. So, I think that that we're we're going to be looking at some that are u similar to what we have. The one we have has been kind of refurbed a time or two already. It's it's pretty much it's getting close to the end, but it'll still pick up just general dirt and rocks and things like that, but Okay. Thanks. Questions. appreciate what your guys are doing. The the increases in stuff is incredible. We appreciate the time and understand the challenges.

Just out of curiosity, it'll drive me crazy if I don't ask it now. So, going back to paving for a second, I know, correct me, like the town, we have paving equipment. We do, right? So, just for general rationale, why contracting over using our equipment and our people? just a general just I'm just curious.

So, generally speaking, a a a paving crew usually consists of about 16 17 people. That doesn't include the folks driving the dump trucks, hauling the asphalt. So, if we take a 16 person crew, which gives you the traffic control, all of the rake, the rolling people, everything that you really need to have on on site, we take that 16 and we add another three, maybe four to haul asphalt, that's 20 people, that's over that's over that's right about half of our staff on a good day. So, it's just the efficiency thing, being able to plan that, uh, and being able to have that staff to resource it for if it takes a week, however long it takes, that's the main challenge. Um, it just is not. And the fact that we're only doing it every so often. If we did it all the time and we had a constant paving crew, it would be different. Different store. That's what I had in Tampa. We had a dedicated crew for just paving and that's all they did. They got good at it. If you swap people back and forth constantly, you just never really establish that rhythm and the flow and the experience level that it takes to to do a good job. I mean, we do a great job with the resources we have, I think, but um it's just not as it's not as efficient and when we do it, we shut everything else down pretty much except for garbage. And that's over the longer term, it just doesn't it just doesn't work. So, we do have the PA, we have all that stuff, but unfortunately, if without a dedicated crew really to focus on just that, it just isn't efficient. And then we'd probably still have to contract out the milling in that case. And a lot of times if you mix if you get it all together with one under one scope of work, it's it's a little bit cheaper.

And well, it was your crew that did the uh the road in front of the partnership. What is that? You all did that one. Looks pretty darn good. They've done a lot, man. They do a great job. Don't get me wrong. It I was going to say it looks good. That's It really does. It's just But it takes just for that small um a lot of a lot of stuff. You know, we may still do some of the smaller areas that a contractor just won't want to go to. Mhm. Um but in the bigger scheme of things for just efficiency sake and getting everything done, I think the contract side works a little bit better. I was just curious that was a question that was that was bubbling. So I appreciate it.

Boils down to having a dedicated crew to do pretty much nothing but that and and the hauling and the milling and everything else that goes with it. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Oh no. Hello Tony. Round two. Okay.

Hey, I'm not asking for much at all this time. Not yet. Um the only real increases is u just our cost and hauling and um and what we'll do is we'll we'll up our rates a little bit. We have the um professional service costs that go with developing the landfill. And that's probably they're asking for a lot of that this year. And um but I've asked them if we can spread that out if we need to. We may not really need to. We may just go ahead and and knock it out and get all that prepared and everything prepared for T deck. Um, we're still in the developing stages. They're still doing the geotechnical work on it. So, everything looks like a go so far. So, really this year we're not going to see a whole lot of changes. It's the years to come when we get closer to running out of space, which might be another year or so. But with that being said, we're just adding a little bit on salaries there and and we're up in the tipping fees to kind of match surrounding areas. You've got some places 65 a ton, some 61 a ton. So, we're kind of going to meet in the middle on 62 and the MSW stay the same. So, that'll help cover those professional service costs. And then when we come into bond payments, if we decide to go through with the landfield, that will uh should take care of the payments on that. Um,

and far as capital goes, we're going to purchase some of the police department's equipment so that we've been using for years anyway so that we can modify it for uh landfill purposes. They don't have the final drive uh guards and all that. and we'd like to do a few upgrades on that, but we'll purchase it first, then worry about that maybe the next year. I I don't want to make too many equipment purchases right now. We're going to make do with what we have because what we're facing in the future. So, we'll just see what we need. We'll see how this year feels out and then go from there. See what our needs will be. We've had some talks about um maybe people from the outside the county coming and bringing stuff here because it's cheaper.

Yes, we've Is there any way can we stop that? Could Should we talk about stopping that? Is there a way to do it or is it once they pull back there? Is there no way to get out?

Yeah, there we're doing taking small steps. I cut tires out because you can't cover. They'll peel out and roll down the hill and all that. We cut that out. The county's hauling their own demolition u Thursdays and Fridays. That'll that'll help the impact a little bit. So that'll probably knock us back to about 20,000 ton with what we got. And to answer your question, we probably could do some of that, but we do need to kind of study that for a while and see how it's going to affect our budget. But I I guess the more closer you're running out of room, then you have to take drastic measures.

Yeah. If we can if we can extend it another year, we might be able to have it completed. Maybe. You told me you're gonna get it done. I'm trying. We're working at it. It the ball's rolling. uh you hear where we should have a plan from different people but there is a plan in progress and there has been for about two years so we can say that for ourselves but there is a plan equipment are you wanting to buy from the police from the police department the D7 dozer I thought it might be a couple of their old tasers

well it might happen that way before it's over Yeah, our our increases, they'll we'll present that later on, but you'll see they're right where they'll need to be compared to the surrounding counties. So, and that'll get our budget where it needs to be. Do you plan on looking at that every year or just Yeah, we may do a escalator. We talk to Laura about that. Maybe, you know, however the economy's doing, base it off that or however GFL's doing theirs towards the city and the county.

Okay. Thank you. That's easy enough. It wasn't too bad, was it? Are you going next, Bobby? Oh, okay. You can ask for some

storm water. This is a big one. But we've u we've got this uh this is for this portion right here is for operating budget for storm water for a potential new uh department. Um so one of the you know storm water is a huge animal. It's just like streets or anything else. I mean, like all other utilities, and I know you all heard this a ton, but this is something we've got to try to start addressing. And we got a couple of issues there. I mean, with the storm water, we have um we have the the actual physical system that the town operates and improvements we need to do there and maintenance on that. But then we have the other side of it. We have the permit with the state that we're under that we're operating under and they're sort of they're two completely different things but they're very integrated. So the permit just a little quick super quick thing on this the permit operates like this in a in a the most basic way. So assume that you're all the where you're all sitting up there is is one of the streams or creeks in the town. This podium is the town of Greenville storm water system. little table would be a development. Any development or anything that discharges water here into the town of Greenville system then into a stream, we are 100% responsible for. But if you have a development over here that discharges directly into a stream and doesn't go through the town system, we're not responsible. That's the state's responsibility. Our problem is we don't know how much of either one we have. We don't know what we're responsible for and what we're not. So that's a big problem and we've got to really try to start addressing that by figuring out what we have and what we're responsible for. So part of this under just the

operating budget would be to put in a storm water technician person that can do a couple different things. they could help us start collecting some of that information. But one of the things we're responsible for in this permit is anytime there's a development any over all over town where like through planning or something, we approve a storm water detention facility. We have a maintenance agreement signed with that developer saying they're going to maintain this in the way it's designed. That's part of this permit compliance. We have that. We have the document, but we don't follow up on it. We're supposed that's supposed to be inspected every year. They're supposed to send an inspection into the town once every five years by a engineer to certify it. I'm not going to say it doesn't happen, but it virtually doesn't happen. So, what I'm proposing is if we had the we have a staff member, that staff member, it actually start going out and we can we already have the structure in place with a few tweaks that we could start charging a stormwater inspection fee. We could send them out to actually inspect all these facilities. it's any commercial development or any industrial development. So, we are in we're in compliance with that permit, but also that can help generate some revenue to help offset this salary. We if we can determine what that permit fee is, which we haven't looked that far yet, but I think there's a way to help offset some of that, but this is just the first step in trying to really get a grasp on what we even have because we we had a uh initial survey that was done uh way back in like 2014 2015 when we first come under this permit and we this is the third iteration of the permit the states or the town's under which I think that's 12 or 14 years into this and we're still trying to get everything in compliance. Luckily, we we haven't got hit with the audit finding on some of this stuff, but we're very fortunate

that we haven't. And so, we had this survey that was done back then that Brad had done, and I think that's what he was told they were do at the time, and we had uh funding for it, but essentially, it just located things that were on public rideway throughout the town, a pipe or a ditch or whatever, but there's no info. I don't know if that pop's 6 in big or 60 in big. I don't know if it's falling apart or if it's in perfect condition. We have no information other than I can look on the map and say, "Yeah, there's a ditch over there." So, as far as the storm, the other side of this of trying to figure out how to make improvements or how to fix things, we have no information. So, it makes it, you know, almost impossible to try to do anything. So, we've got to try to figure out a way to start tackling this problem a little bit at a time. So, this is just an initial push to try to establish some form of uh personnel that we can start trying to do this and we can try I was trying to set this up so we can maybe do this and help generate some revenue to help offset some of the cost of it so it's not just a pure dead cost. So, that's that's this part of it. Um, and for the capital part, what we were asking for one so some of this stuff goes hand in hand. This is public works the you know one of the big problems or the big challenges with the storm water system is we got to keep it clean for it to function what we do have. So that means street sweeper keeping the street swing clean vacuum truck which is used to clean the storm drains out. We've got to have that basic maintenance equipment. This I think the truck Scott they've got now is in desperate need of a refurbishment to get it to work. And that street sweeper is sort of on its last leg. So that's what we were talking about too. And then uh the other part of this would be some survey equipment to actually allow that staff person to start collecting some data on this

stuff. And then we're in desperate need of this uh van system with a an inspection camera system. We're currently using the water commissions and they're you letting us use that when we need it. But I think, you know, they it's something it's a big risk to them to let us use that equipment because their system is way more expensive than what we're proposing. Their camera system they have is about $300,000. And if that thing gets hung up in a pipe somewhere, doesn't matter if it's under this building, they're going to go dig it out to find it. So, it's a big liability for them. And I don't know how much longer they're going to continue to be, you know, allowing us to use that equipment. So, we're looking at something on our own. we can have something to try to inspect some of these facilities, some of the ditches, culverts, you know, uh buildings because we just we don't have that equipment right now. So, that's sort of the basics of of that. I mean, and we put together a and I don't know if if I think like we sent this in, but we put together a long range um I did I did a lot of research tried to put together a long range sort of storm water capital improvement plan for the 10-year plan, but this is purely, you know, estimates because we don't have any real data to go on. We really don't know what we've got, but probably about $26 million over 10 years. And of that, 24 of the 26 is actual turn and dirt construction projects. There's a very minimal I put in there as far as engineering and design. The majority of it is actually infrastructure. Um, and you know that could fluctuate up and down. That's a that's a huge u huge thing to try to tackle when you don't have very good information to base it on. So, and we did the best we could. Do you think um somebody like Rotorooer with their cameras could help us a little bit? Not just anybody that has a

camera like that. Yeah. I mean the the issue is that this is a storm drain system is different than a regular pop. You got a smooth pop. You can slide a camera down. You know, you got corrugated pipes and things. So this is different. You have to have different equipment to try to get it to penetrate very far into that those pipes. So it's more of a specialized type thing.

So that that's you know we there's a lot more capital needs than this but we sort of scaled that down and this was what we're looking at and a minimum and setting up a fund that amount on the bottom just we know we have repairs that we need to do. We don't know exactly where they are and how bad they are because we don't have good information but we know we need some funding to do that. And Scott and I talked a lot about this. One of the things we really would like to do is try to get some immediate areas of concern identified and try to get some repair or get some engineering design done on a few of these. So we have a a project sitting on the shelf ready to go. So if we have the opportunity to get some grant funding, it's ready to go. We don't have to wait on it. We've got it already prepared. So that's sort of in our plan, too. If we can start moving that direction. Is there some grants out there for this?

There are for some of the We got a good opportunity here, I think, for some grants for major capital improvements because we've got if we treat the whole flood basin or flood plane with FEMA, we're not just looking at just the storm system. We're looking at the entire flood basins of the areas that are in the city limits. And we try to make improvements to all of those because we've got a bunch of streams. because we know we have flooding issues on those streams that aren't necessarily tied to storm water. So, if we look at it, the whole thing of trying to do a comprehensive review of all of it, there's a lot more funding options out there for grants to try to do improvements if you're improving the whole, you know, storm or the whole water flow basin, drainage basin. From whom?

From whom? There's a lot of those that are actually through FEMA themselves and through the through the state. Uh FEMA really wants to push stuff that we're doing uh more of a regional detention. That's one thing that I had sort of proposed in there. We do we look at that would be so you take a is it prime example is the the pond at Harden Park that storm water feeds into that. It holds it. It's a public recreation area but then that discharges out slowly. If we can look at systems like that possibly around town then that would help mitigate some of that storm water and slow it down and control it. and it provides also recreation, other areas. Those are the kind projects that really are up there on the list to get funding opportunities

for the position that you're that you're recommending or proposing. What are the basic qualifications that you would be looking at or eyeing? I mean, for that position, are you talking about like a like an engineer or No, no. Like a Scott help me. He's probably got Scott's got a better idea than I do. I know there's like certification programs for like I think UT and TEK have a partner program storm water management program like is that would you want them to already have that or is it that would be something they would get I guess when they come in or is that something they you'd want them to have at all or

I think probably at that particular salary range you you would get more of a technician kind of an advanced technician that we would then either have the erosion control certifications through the state or we would send them for that. um they would need some GIS experience, some storm water experience. I mean, it's just be kind of someone who's maybe been a technician. And there's a lot of those other municipalities that have regular storm water departments have technicians that do this type of stuff. Um they're not engineers. They may not necessarily wouldn't require a a degree necessarily, but maybe a two-year in a technical field. But really, this person would be that hands-on out in the field, data collection, field inspection type thing.

And that's and we've got some pretty decent budget in there for training because we know there's a lot of training certification we got to have for this. Uh but yeah, I feel the same way. It's more it's this is a boots on the ground person out there in the field. I mean, that's what we're lacking right now. We we've got to get we've got to get eyes on inspecting this stuff and seeing what we've got. And I just feel I mean this is the kind of thing that could be subcontracted out and it we could look at all these different things, but I personally feel that we're better off having somebody that works for the town here that's out there looking at this instead of relying on a paper written report by somebody else that looked at it. We need we're way behind the eightball. We need to be able to get that information as quick as we can.

Thank you.

All right. uh development services. Um this one for the budget the salary I think on this year that I think last year's it didn't really that was before my position came I mean this sort of started last year and I don't know Laura can expand on that how that was but I mean we've got there was another person in there budgeted for this year that we haven't hired yet also and I've really pushed that as far as we possibly could to try to save some money this year. Uh so but we're in the process of that but that's where that budget the salary I think was the the operating expense the increase there um basically is to cover um a computer for a new person office furniture some a big chunk of it is GIS. We we put an extra about $3,500 in there for GIS to increase the our ability with the provider to to provide more information on the website portal to make it more user friendly for the public. So that encrosses an increase in that and we have a to add another user to the GIS software and to replace some other software that we don't have. We got a lot of basic engineering software that we had previously when uh Brad Peters was here but after he left those subscriptions went away and we don't even have basic software like we have AutoCAD or anything that we can't even open drawings. So there's a lot of that's basically like what that is to get basic operational software back so we can actually try to do our job on that. Then on the Capitol thing, uh really the only thing I'm ask I mean I'm out every day two or three times a day honestly. I'm driving my own vehicle and I don't care. It doesn't bother me. But I don't we really need to start doing inspections on a lot of stuff that I'm really pushing outside inspections and I don't know it's not really fair to our staff to have to have them use their own vehicles. We are

desperate need of some kind of a vehicle for this department. Glad to answer any questions if you have got some challenges. Opportunities, not challenges, opportunities.

Okay, that's everything we have today. Uh, any questions for anybody before we adjourn? Hey, Angelo, that's a lot of You got any questions? Are you sure? I didn't recognize you. I think this is the first time I've ever seen you in something other than Po uh Jim Pans. Okay. Thanks for coming.

I'm sorry.

Oh, no. That's fine. I was just checking with Bobby to see what he needed. Um this is a lot of information between last week and this week. That's basically our general fund departmental budgets kind of as a whole. Um my plan at this point is to take um sit down with Kathy. I've talked to each one of the departments, these major departments about capital projects. We know there's some things that townwide need to happen. So Kathy and I will sit down and look at the capital budget and have a reasonable one prepared for you. We'll just email it out just so you can look at it ahead of time. Um the entire budget will be presented the first Tuesday in June. The next session that we have on budget is May the 12th. That Tuesday afternoon will be any of the nonprofits that have submitted applications. We'll talk about hotel motel tax. Um Erin will be here to talk about the library and then Ellen and Jason and the town staff are going to do a brief overview on the school's budget and where they're at. So that'll be on the 12th. And then um as far as additions, things that people have talked about today, I will try to get a comprehensive um list with maybe some options and some priorities. Again, I think Kathy and I will sit down. We've spent a lot of time with all of our departments, especially the bigger departments, trying to get a handle on what do you absolutely have to have? What can you live without? Can we put something off another year? Um, and it's there's a lot there's a lot that we need beyond what we've already got in our budgets. So, um, we'll talk about that and some funding opportunities as well. Um,

for example, um, we talk about the increase um, in the solid waste fund and they need that truck. So, I've got a couple a question for our auditors on maybe a particular way we could fund that. We could also that debt payment. Um, we could issue a capital outlay note and that debt payment is just about the amount typically of what that um, increase is. Um if we look at information um like short-term notes or things um for the police department or the fire department or group some things together like that that creates spreads that cost over a period of time, but you've got to have funding to make the debt payments on those capital notes. So I'm not about borrowing on a lot of things. Um especially right now rates are still pretty good based on what I've heard. Um, but we've got a lot of stuff that we need to look at um, in this budget. So, I'll try to get you a list. Um, and then as far as Kathy and I are concerned, once we get you the list either before the first meeting in June or we can talk about it at the first meeting in June, just kind of need to know what to add into the budget beyond what we already have. Any questions? I won't say a little comment. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

So that is Thank you. That that is a option. Just I'll take the tasers for example of what what could be spent right now and saved over eight years. I wouldn't be against a shortterm note for something like that because that's going to pay off. Yes.

Big time. And that's why when um I had strategy sessions with almost all of these okay larger departments and we talked through those kind of things um and that's why I asked them and they had offered that information to me which I asked them to share it with you what the options are paying for things upfront versus spreading it out over time as far as cost savings and does that make is it enough of a difference um even if we borrow um does that cost savings Well, that's a big difference. Six, seven% short-term note versus saving.

Our short-term notes right now are the short-term notes, the interest rate on those right now are still hovering at a little bit right about five or between five and five and a half. So, they're still really good considering um and there may be some things we have to lump in. We still have a little bit of capacity. We have a big debt roll off. We've talked about it for years in 2029. And that's the one of the last payments on the last big school debt. That's high school rolling up. Is that right? I think that was the middle school, I believe. Middle school, I think. So, they just paid off the high school. Anyway, so there that's conversations. There'll be options as far as how how to fund some of these things. We just need to wait to hear back from you.

Yeah, we'll get you a comprehensive already about

We will. We will. And just FYI, I know this is a lot to think about. I do want to make you aware that we are required by the state of Tennessee to publish our budget 10 days before that first meeting in June. And it in 23 years of budgeting, it has never been correct. By the time I publish that and we get to first reading, something's already changed. So, um it's as close as we could possibly get. So, I'll try to have some of that information um gathered up for you at least before I publish it so we have an idea of where we are and what that looks like. Um change it on first reading before first reading, you can change it on second reading. Um if you're not sure, we can have a special called meeting and work on it till June 30th. So, um, this is probably the toughest one I've had in 23 years. Um, it's just a lot. And, um, but I do appreciate all of our departments. Um, we tried to get use the best format we could for the best use of your time to convey what they need and what they have. So, any questions at all about anything that they've talked about today, if you think of something, either reach out to the department heads or Kathy or myself and we'll try to get you an answer. just appreciate everybody

and it is there's lots of things going on as Tim was talking in our GA meeting. How much is it for that? Way too much. 55 million. How much is it for that one substation? Oh, it's going up in the 18 millions, I think. And it's it's been there for 60 years

down the road and it keeps going up. So, I mean, transformers have gone up from million dollars to four million. I mean it's it's ridiculous what costs have done since 2020. But everybody knows that. I mean that's but just going back to what you just said. It's can't be kicked down the road anymore if 30% of our customers are out of Tuscalum substation and it's 60s. So we need to take care of our people and our people. Hey, we appreciate your time today. Thank you so much.

Oh, and also real quickly guys, um Jenny's going to be out next Tuesday and Matt's going to be out next Tuesday. So, we're going to cancel a meeting on Tuesday so y'all can play golf.