Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to Mount Juliet Board of Commissioners. We're here to conduct a public hearing to consider the following items on February 9th, 2026 at city hall. There's four items for this public hearing. I will read these. The first is an ordinance to amend the city of Mount Julia code of ordinances chapter 2 regarding residency requirements. The second is an ordinance to amend the preliminary master development plan for the Providence Central Plan unit development ordinance 201312 located on map 97 partial 25 and 75.07 07 in the city of Mount Juliet the third is an ordinance to amend the preliminary master development plan for the villages at Pleasant Grove plan unit development located on Pleasant Grove Road map 76 parial 37 37.1 R 01 and 40 in the city of Mount Juliet and the fourth is an ordinance to amend the preliminary master development plan for the Bender Cove plan unit development located at 771 Bender Ferry Road map 49 parcel 69 and 69.01 69.03 3 and 69.09 in the city of Mount Juliet. The public is invited to attend and comment. If you would like to address the board of commissioners and make public comments to us on any of these four items, I will open the floor up and I will invite you to come forward. Give your name and address for the record and you will be recognized for three minutes. Snow. No one. All right. With that, we will close the public hearing. We'll reconvene for a regular meeting at 6:30.

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Mount Juliet Board of Commissioners. Today is February 9th and I'll call this meeting to order. We do have a quorum present here, all five members. So, I want to thank you for uh for attending for if you're in the audience, if you're following along online, there'll be agendas available online. There's agendas here at the doors. Uh and that's kind of our template for how we will follow the meeting tonight. And our first meeting, our first item on that agenda besides call the meeting to order is the setting of the agenda. Uh be as we get started, I'm going to propose under set agenda that we split the consent because 8A is requesting a deferral. So there's no need to read those under consent. There's only two items. And then 10B, uh the sponsor is will be pulling that for for consideration tonight. 10B 10 as B as in boy. Any other changes to the agenda? Any objections to splitting the consent? All right. Hearing none, we'll set the agenda with the consent agenda split and 10B will be pulled for consideration tonight. The next item is the invocation and pledge of allegiance. I'd like to ask our city manager if he would be so kind as to lead us in our invocation and pledge.

Yes, sir. Mayor, everybody bow your head for me, please. Dear Lord, as we meet today, please be with us. Guide our thoughts and ideas, decisions. Bless abundantly all who are present. Come be with us, inspire us, and lead us in our time together. We ask this in your holy name. Amen. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America. Thank you, sir. Up next is the approval of the minutes. We have one set of minutes for consideration tonight from our January 12th meeting. Is there a motion?

Motion. Motion and a second on that. Uh we've got a I'll say an amended copy here with a couple of items in red. Is there any objection to adopting the minutes with the uh changes? That's it right there. I think it's just two corrections on votes on amendments. Commissioner Giles, you're recognized.

Yeah, I and while I would have voted for it, I had actually stepped out to the bathroom and I didn't get to vote on that. Does that say that? I don't know if it said you went to the restroom. No, I didn't. That's not what I meant. Well, I don't But it says four. That'd be the final vote. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. I understand. I understand. I asked that before. All right. Any other changes? All in favor of the of the minutes as uh amended, please signify by saying I.

Any opposed? Minutes do pass. That may be the longest set of minutes I've seen in a while. The next item is citizen comments. Uh we will open the floor. This is your opportunity to address the board of commissioners. We can't necessarily answer questions from the floor, but this is opportunity to uh make your comments on any any item that you would like to bring forward. just ask that you come forward to the podium, give your name and address for the record, and you will be recognized. No, this is Tom Smith at 135 Guil Road in South Mount Juliet. Wanting to get a little bit more of a clarification on what this change is on what they call it?

Providence Central. Providence Central. On Providence Central. I can tell you that the uh applicant has requested deferral, indefinite deferral tonight. So, so meaning we're going to push this several months or if it's indefinite deferral, it's deferred indefinitely until it's brought back for reconsideration. There's no time limit on that. Okay. All right. Thanks, J. I I can't promise you that it'll get the support, but that's generally does on these type of things. So, is the are we looking at an industrial type of situation? Are we looking at multi-use type of situation?

My understanding is it's just a small tweak for retail to allow outdoor sales. So, we're getting a Home Depot. Well, come on, just tell me. If if I owned a Home Depot, I'd put it right there, but I would. All right. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else for citizen comments? All right, seeing none, we'll close citizen comments and we will move on to uh commissioner comments and report. Uh Commissioner Giles, you're recognized for five minutes there.

Yeah, I just want to thank um I want to thank public works and um I know Vice Mayor Melons was out. I mean the by city manager Jer Melons was out and other other uh departments during this freeze and it was just you know they were keeping us informed and I really appreciate it. I feel bad for the people who had lost uh power. Uh we had people from our city. We had city personnel who didn't have heat and it's just um it it's terrible and that wasn't anything that that city staff or or anybody done here. But I just felt for him. I'm very sorry about that and the other people wasn't even here. But I appreciate the city doing the best they could. I I was on that that um that thread where you know you were going and talking to NES and all the stuff and I know that was your district down there but it's just it's terrible. It's just it's just terrible. So I appreciate all the the help and everything that our city did. It was makes you really proud. And then and then second um you know it's like a black eye. Of course, I didn't vote for it cuz I wasn't here. But this this whole thing out here at this boat dock and what happened um weekend before last, I guess it was when it was. I want to commend our PD for such um an incredible job of securing that area and and um taking care of that. And it it's a sad thing, but I am so glad that we have a police department that's not scared to do the job and they did the job and and thank y'all so much. Um, and I also want to say dealing with the police department, um, the, um, the, for

better words, the grand opening, or not grand opening, but, um, the the, um, drone took off, I guess, last week, and, uh, and so we're really excited about what that's going to do to help prevent and solve crimes in the city. So, thank y'all. Thanks for everyone that got out again and and and kept us safe here in the city during that that bad weather and and I know the fire department was was out too. So anyway, thank you city for such a great job. That concludes my my minutes. Thank you, Commissioner Jiles, for recognizing the vice mayor for five minutes.

Thank you, mayor. And uh I'll I'll mirror that also, Commissioner. Um, first of all, before I get into that though, uh, just thanks for the people that did come out tonight for the uh, for the public hearing for the downtown potential projects. It's good to hear the citizens uh, voice their concerns as well as uh, get a chance to see what um, could be coming to our city, whether if it's something you want or you don't want, but it's good to voice your opinion out there. Yeah, this uh this this past week. Um I've heard it uh again, I wasn't here. I think they heard at 90 1994. Uh apparently storms were just as bad or or close enough to it, but uh um I was up in Cincinnati back then. I remember how bad it was uh being a kid back then. So, um, but this time right here, uh, just between all the first responders, um, our public works, our storm team, uh, our city staff, uh, the pre-planning, uh, that our, uh, that our police did, they did an amazing job at pre-planning, getting the citizens notification out, uh, the work there between public works and then the storm and sewer and then, of course, our PIO officer, it all came together. It was like a beautiful puzzle. Um, and that just goes back to our uh our leadership here between our city managers. So, thank you, sir, for uh it's like you're the one conducting all the uh the directions and you got a great team behind you. So, thank you. Um, also, when we get down to it, uh, for all the groups that were out there, um, I will tell you this, uh, it was my district. It, well, most of my district is NES, unfortunately, um, that lost a lot of power. We were still getting residents this past weekend and that were still getting power back up two and a half weeks later. And uh I could imagine dealing with that. But uh but there was one gentleman that went without power for I think 11 days. And uh and I stayed with him and those three town homes um

that had I think there was over 40ome people there. And our uh uh police department, they went and uh did a door-todoor um just a uh just a a wellness check, I guess, is what we call it. and just wanted to uh just just thank them for doing that because you know um what's interesting is um and and our police chief just left because I was going to ask him if he could be able to come up just briefly and just tell us this but uh but I heard there was a couple residents that actually did not know that they should not be putting their generators in their house while they're running and uh that is just u that's a missed opportunity um you know for residents not to understand that but but I appreciate that and then of course the outages NES. I've been on all the calls with NES um that have basically um gone, you know, line by line with um all the tabletop issues that they had. So, mayor, if it's okay, can I have uh our police chief just my last two minutes if he can give us a quick little update with my two minutes to share what they've been able to accomplish. Is that okay?

The is is there any objection to hearing from the chief? Hearing none, you're recognized. Deal. Winter storm, right?

Yes, sir. Wintertorm. So, you know, with any winter storm, we before it even hit, we met multiple times with uh city management uh Kenny, deputy city manager Michael Mullins, many other staff members to have a game plan, right? To understand what our resources were, what were we doing to pre-plan for it. And then when it hit, of course, it's all about safety on the roads. And then what we realized after that was we had some power outages where uh a good amount of our community was without power. I think at one point in time at peak it was around 2,000 customers and then it dropped to about 150 but the 150 were the ones who were without power for a long long time. Now it was difficult to get information from NES and you know one thing we kept requesting was the actual homes that were without power so we could go doortodoor and check on these residents which we eventually received. And you know, it was interesting while we were going doortodoor, we we found people in unsafe conditions. We found uh two uh homes in particular where they had gas generators running inside the home, which is extremely dangerous. And we're grateful that we found that. We called our fire department out to come out there and and help them through that issue and provide a better solution for them to get warm rather than doing something hazardous inside their home. Uh but uh we our officers staff went door to door to every every property that didn't have power just to check on them to be sure that they had what they needed. Those who we could not get door to door. We did make phone calls to them and check on them. And uh you know I heard stories during that process from many of y'all were out there checking on people as well. Uh which is always wonderful to hear about. Um but we got through it thankfully. You know I think West Division finally got power a couple days ago. Uh but uh it was a process where the whole city came together to

ensure that we were navigating through the storm to ensure everyone was taken care of. Thank you. Yep. Absolutely. Commissioner Hefner, you're recognized for five minutes, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate everybody coming out. Um and those watching online. Um, yeah, I'll echo some of the uh some of the comments that were made earlier about the ice storm uh public works. Fantastic job. You know, the guys in the salt trucks and the and the snow plows. Um, just kudos to everybody. I know those are the worst conditions to work in, but you guys stepped up and delivered. Uh, also want to thank all the linemen. They often go, you know, very thankless job and they often work in the middle of the night in some of the worst conditions. So, um uh I appreciate each and every one of them um that uh for what they do. Mount Julia Police Department, fire, EMS did a fantastic job and all the friends and the neighbors uh that stepped up to help other neighbors out. Um we actually um had some of our relatives that were ones that were without power and uh had them hosted them over at our house uh one evening. Um, thankfully their power turned on the following day, so that wasn't uh too bad on them. But just again, neighbors stepping up and continue to step up. Uh, I see neighbors cutting trees and helping other neighbors um fix their yards up and and whatnot. So, um, just kudos to everybody um out there that that was involved in in getting the city back to some somewhat of a normal level. Um, again, Mount Juliet Police Department, you know, they're excellent. I I expect excellence. Um I really do. Um but I'll never take them for granted. Uh the event that happened out at Cedar Creek Marina, probably some of the worst conditions, you probably could have ever responded to something of that nature. Um, so kudos to you all and whatever that robot whether it was a robot or what happened, but I know you we utilized all of our technology that we had available to us and uh thankfully nobody was um uh from Mount Julia Police

Department standpoint, nobody was injured uh or hurt because that was um you know that was pretty intense I'm sure for everybody that was involved. Uh and congrats to along the same lines, Flock 911. Um really excited about that. Uh we got that launched. It's going to cut, more importantly, it's going to cut down on response times and it's going to allow first responders to hear real time what's actually being relayed uh by a 911 call. Um and with that, I'll talk a little PSA announcement. Um um I had a pretty pretty bad emergency scare a couple weeks ago. Not not a lot of people probably aware of that. Jennifer shaking her head and I had no idea. So, first time I ever got to ride in an ambulance laying on a gurnie. um and spent the night in the hospital. Um long story short, I thought I had a heart attack and all indications um from my tests in the ER pointed to a heart attack. Um EKG came back was not good. Um my heart enzymes were through the roof. Um and all I heard that whole night was, "We hope your enzymes drop otherwise you're you're bound to have another heart attack." So, I was thanking God for the fact that I was actually hearing these words come out because most people don't realize they have a heart problem until they're getting wheeled in to a corner's office. Um, the good news is there is good news. Um, after a lot of tests, sonogram, stress test, the uh cardiologist who I saw the next day said, "Your your heart is absolutely perfect." He said, 'I looked and looked for something to something to to not be right with your heart, and it wasn't. So, here's a PSA announcement. So what contributed to the issue, the event that happened um that evening um last week was dehydration from not drinking water, very important, drink water, low blood sugar from not

eating, and over 1,600 milligrams of caffeine in my body, which you know, I drank coffee all day long and finished it off with an energy drink. I don't think is important to name the one, but finish it off with an energy drink about 5:00 in the afternoon. Um, that's what triggered the heart issue. That's what triggered the dizziness. So, my PSA is hydrate, folks. Eat throughout the day. Um, caffeine in moderation. Um, so, and stay away from energy drinks. Um the ER doctor said the the vast majority of the kids that come into the ER are there because of energy drinks. So not a fan of them. Um I've swore off of them. But I do want to thank our EMS a fire um that showed up at my house that night. Um just tremendous job all around. So thank you again. Uh and then on a lighter side, go USA. The Olympics are going on. So just cheer on the United States, right? Some gold medals going. So anyways, that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Commissioner Mle, you're recognized for five minutes.

Well, I am glad you're feeling better and you got some good news out of it. So I did say prayer for all right. So bear with me and just have a few things. Um, just a shout out to Middle Tennessee and I I hate that happened with U Nashville Electric, but um, Middle Tennessee over the years have kept the trees trimmed. So, um, that's good. I think that did help a lot and public works for all their hard work. Um, I think that, you know, you do an awesome job with the with the, uh, salt or whatever you call it. Um, let's see. the last meeting of this month on the 23rd at 5:15 we have another public work session and that'll be midyear budget review and hopefully the numbers from Christmas will be in just hope they're good. Uh let's see starting March 1st there is I'm scrolling so bear with me here. Walk Across Wilson. Um, begins Sunday, March 1st, and will end on March 28th. So, if you don't know what that is, um, all you have to do is register and log in your daily activity minutes. It could be walking, it could be pickle ball, could be, you know, any kind of activity like that. And school and community based teams are encouraged to participate for bonus rewards. So, um, you know, you could do any kind of fitness exercise that gets you moving. So, Walk Across Wilson is an annual event to promote fitness in Wilson County. The goal is to walk or exercise 30 minutes a day, six days a week um for four weeks. And that's the equivalent of walking 36 miles across Wilson County and while improving your health. So, um,

they're having a kickoff on the 28th, day before on the Saturday. Uh, but that's in Lebanon. You can find out more if you want to follow them on Facebook. It's Walk Across Wilson. Very easy to find. All right. Uh, let's see. There's a fundraiser for our animal shelter and that'll be um the last Saturday of this month, February 28th. It's called a a spaghetti fundraiser and it will be held at Mount Juliet Community Center uh from 11 to 2 and it will benefit the shelter. Let's see. So, let's see. Uh the Mount Juliet Community Center is in Charlie Daniels Park. So, Southern Rhyme Cattle Company will be catering the event. So, come hungry and ready for an afternoon filled with good food, good people, and a great cause. Um, there are more details coming. So, just watch for that. Make sure I don't overlook anything here. I think I got everything. I think that's it. Okay, that's it. Oh, one more. The grapple trucks. Um I know that we have so much tree damage from these storms. Um so this week zones two and five on the grapple trucks we have two running uh are finishing up zones two and five and then in numerical o uh order they move to the next zone. So we have eight zones. If you're not sure which zone you're in um you can find find out there's a map provided under on the city website. If you need help, just give me a call. Um, so anyway, it seems to be averaging about a week and a half now per zone with running two trucks. It's hard to say because there's so much debris to pick

up. They have to go dump it, come back, that kind of thing. So, that was all I had. Thank you, Commissioner. I'll add um boy, a lot's happened since our last meeting. Um, happy birthday, Commissioner.

Yep. So, a year older, a year wiser. So, that's that's why we delayed the meeting to get a year wiser here. So, worked out well. Commissioner Hefner, glad to hear that you're recovering. Um, I should I too should probably drink a lot more water and a lot less diet, Dr. Pepper, but that wouldn't be as fun, I don't guess. But I don't know how much caffeine I consume a day, but I'm sure it's too much. So, Boy, we've had a had an ice storm, ice apocalypse. I tell you what, public works, police department, uh parks, I don't know who all was in this involved this city, beautiful staff, uh all out there pre-planning the efforts to put into it. and and Justin and I were talking about some of the stuff that we were gonna, you know, say to send out, you know, the pre meetings and this stuff like we're talking about really is how experienced y'all have gotten with these over the last couple of years. And I see the stuff out there and somebody's like, "Mount Julie don't own a snow plow and it's not really a plow because it's a pickup truck with a blade on the front and I'm like, are we really debating on what kind of engines behind the thing? If it'll get snow out of the way and ice out the way, let's just go. Let's get the job done. And the next question is, how much taxpayer money do you want us to set aside on on specialized equipment that we can use maybe once or twice a year? So, they do a great job of balancing that and serving the city as well. Um, fire departments got uh operations running out of the new station. I'm excited to see that. Uh we'll have the actual holes uncoupling uh coming up at a later date, but I I do want to be the first and I know there's been a lot said about the outages and you know how one one utility responds versus the other utility runs and all the planning behind

that. And that's that's an important discussion to have. But I don't want to ever lose sight of the men and women that have been on the front lines working I don't know 16 18 20our days in freezing cold weather to um work continuously around the clock to get us back on online and get power restored. Um I'm one of those families that we we had a minimal outage over it spread over multiple days less than 24 hours. So, I'm very thankful for the the little time that we had down compared to some because there's so many that are that are still and I know there's areas not far from here where there's still power out and I just encourage everybody to keep those people in their prayers and if there's any way you can have check on your neighbors still on these things. Um, I did sign a a state of emergency proclamation for the city uh back on January 30th which will allow us to hopefully take advantage of some outside funding on help with the cleanup on this. So, that's in the process and it's a it's a lot. I mean, I feel like I feel like my yard alone could fill a grapple truck and and if you don't believe it, ask my back on cleaning some of that up. But was able to help the neighbor and I still got some more work to do. had a little mishap with a chainsaw. Um, got to spend Saturday night in the ER. Well, not related to the chainsaw, but still it's been a lot going on on here. So, I just want to again say thank you to all the staff, everybody who's worked so hard, the linemen, the men and women who have done so much to to make this as uneventful for many of us as possible and going well above and beyond for those that were wound up in very unfortunate situations with the way this has played out for some with the lack of power and with the brutal cold temperatures that we don't normally see. So, conclude my remarks and I'll

recognize our city manager for 10 minutes. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor. Thanks, commissioners, and folks that are here tonight, those watching from home. I echo the sentiments of the elected body. Uh the team is phenomenal. Unfortunately, we've had a lot of experience in recent years, especially with snow. We had a lot of snow last year, and they've become masters at it, especially with Brian and all the different things that they've got to mix up. And um I want to thank the commission for getting us the two extra plow trucks. I guess that's what we refer to them as. That played a big difference this year, big time. But them getting out ahead of it uh speaks volumes. It goes back to the grapple trucks. You think about uh this commission stepped up and we didn't have grapple trucks until the 2020 tornado. U they'll be out in force. Uh I think they're they've worked on a grant. We'll be getting a grant for some reimbursement. So it'll probably be a private vendor out here real soon. But I want to thank the public works team, the entire team, city. I don't think Mr. Marty's here tonight. Of course, police, fire, and EMS because you're right, Mayor. they're the ones out there having to work in it uh when it's treacherous and you know everybody else is in a safe location. We continue to pray for those that lost power, those that had damage. I had some damage myself and I think a lot of other people do. So I'm not that not in that alone. But I want to thank this commission because if not for the tools you were some of you were calling off some of the things that we've gotten. You think of some of the technology the police department needed at the dock at the marina or you think about the drone or you think about the adaptive signals. You think about all the different things that we've done with LED lighting at the interchanges, lighting along Lebanon Road with the street lights, lighting along Mount Chip Road, the upgrade to LED, all the little things I was sitting here looking at. Um, you know, the greenways, the sidewalks, things we didn't have in this city 36 years ago that we have all those things now. It's one of the safest, most advanced cities in the state of Tennessee, if not behind. So, I think that's something to be very proud of and it just continues to to get better. For example, if you've got an issue out there, you see a pothole, you can go to cclick fix and report that and public works get right on that. We know there's going to be a lot of that. It's supposed

to be up to nearly 70 tomorrow. So, there's a lot of thawing going on. So, please let us know about those potholes or anything else that you got. Public works staying proactive throughout the year and doing a lot of cutting back in our rideways makes a big difference because a little ceiling or sapling may be this big today, but then just you'll blink and it'll be big enough and be into the power line. So I just want to thank the commission for buying the things and our citizens for supporting the things that we need uh to be a very advanced uh city. Uh that wouldn't be possible also without our businesses. So we encourage folks to please please please as Commissioner Mle said for us the biggest portion of our budget comes from sales tax. So please shop at your local businesses your mom and pops and all of our new businesses. For example, there's a rooms to go that just opened. There's a furniture be open soon. We're working on a new car dealership and all the other businesses we got here. If you need something, you can get it here. And another shout out goes to Lowe's because I was communicating during this uh winter storm with the manager at Lowe's uh and he had made a special order from Mount Juliet for generators ahead of time and then during the event when they ran out. So, I think that helped a lot of folks to get those generators. Appreciate the chief um making mention of how to properly use them and to use them safely. So, I just want to thank this commission and the citizens again uh for all that you do to give us the tools for somebody that's worked here for 36 years. I can tell you it wasn't always that way and uh it's very much appreciated and it wasn't because somebody didn't want to. We just didn't have the means to do it. So, all that comes because of a collective thing that we do with our citizens and I'm very thankful for that and God bless you all. And that concludes my report. Mayor,

thank you sir. Next item of next item on the agenda is number 8A. A an ordinance to amend the plinary master development plan for the Providence Central Plan unit development ordinance 201312 located at map 97 parcel 2575.07 in the city of Mount Juliet.

I have a motion and second. There's a request from the applicant for an indefinite deferral. I'll move that as a a motion. You had a motion and second on indefinite deferral. Any questions, comments, or discussions? All in favor of indefinite deferral, please signify by saying I. Any opposed? That item is deferred indefinitely. The next item is 8B, an ordinance to amend the preliminary master development plan for the villages at Pleasant Grove planned unit development located on Pleasant Grove Road, Map 76, parcel 3737.01 and 40 in the city of Mount Juliet. A motion. Motion and second. items on the floor.

You're recognized. All right. If we could have references presentation come up. I I just have a quick question.

Is the vintage fines um which is pertaining to this amendment, right? The vintage vines. Is that Papa Joe's house, is that the same thing or is that separate? So they are all part of when we uh came back through and expanded the pud um in 2023 I believe. Um the we brought in there was three portions of that addition and it's Papa Joe's house uh the vintage vines multif family and the uh there's a commercial parcel as part of that also. And so all all of that is so vintage vines is just the multif family component. And so the the change is tied to the multif family, not to Papa Joe's house. Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah, I was getting those confused.

Totally. Fine. Is that the only question? Yes. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments? All right. All in favor, please signify saying I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? 9A. An ordinance to amend the city of Mount Juliet code of ordinances chapter 2 regarding residency requirements. Motion. Motion second. items on the table. Any questions or comments? All right. All in favor of 9A, please signify by saying I. Nay.

Any opposed? Nay. That does pass 4 to one and and 9B. An ordinance to amend the plary master development plan for Bender Cove plan unit development located at 771 Bender Ferry Road, map 49, parcel 69, 69.02, 69.03, 69.09 in the city of Mount Juliet.

There a motion. Is there a second? Okay. Hearing no second. Uh 9B will not be heard. The next item is 10A, an ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget ordinance 2025 2035 to accept insurance proceeds and appropriate funds for a new police kine. Motion second. Questions or comments? All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That does pass on first reading. The next item is 10 C, an ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget ordinance 202535 to appropriate funds for street lights. Second.

Motion second. The items on the table. Commissioner Hefner under your sponsorship. Would you like the floor? Sure. Yeah. So, um I don't know if we got anybody from public works here that can discuss it, but it's these are lights um coming through the Clear View Estates. uh neighborhood uh that's often used as a cutth through. Um so we I was out earlier last late last year with public works identify and middle Tennessee electric to identify some areas some dark spots um that are in that neighborhood. So that's what this is. Let's put the street lights in. Commissioner Mandy.

All right. Um, the city doesn't really do street lights, so I'm confused on why it's costing the city $3,000. My understanding is there's an amendment for the city to pay for these lights.

Why? I mean, well, okay. Um, I don't doubt these lights are needed. I think lights are needed around the city in many different places. We also have lots of needs, signage. Um, so I don't doubt that it's needed. So, as far as the budget, um, we have no surplus. We're in reserves. So, I really can't see that this is an emergency. Even though you think, well, 3,000 bucks, that's not much, but still, we're in reserves. Um, I don't know why this couldn't have been brought up last budget and the new budget is only four months away. Um, to me, why not do a citywide uh, you know, survey? Has a citywide survey been done about where lights are needed or anything like that? I mean, you don't have to come up. I just threw that out there. Um, so you know, again, the new budget is just four months away. I don't understand why they can't wait. Um, at the end of this month, we don't even know the numbers where we are in mid year. That's not even coming up until this month. So, we don't even know where the numbers are going to fall. Um, again, it I don't see it as an emergency. Um, so I I'm not going to support us just spending. We just don't have I'm sorry.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner.

Anybody else have comments on this? Commissioner Jiles. I think that we need to assess the city on where areas that are are needed for this. uh originally I mean to earlier today I was thinking about um about this one and and I thought you know I I I'm sort of in agreeance with with Jennifer Mley but the more I thought about it because I was I was thinking one time she brought up something I wasn't here she brought up something you brought one to put down I think on Woodridge in some places and there's some there's some dark places through there too but The difference I started thinking this afternoon later, the difference between there and where Commissioner Hefner is bringing is there sidewalks and there's no sidewalks there. So, you know, that's when I think about that and these people out walking, I I just I have to think about it. And I know we're in reserves and and but we we need to budget it and some for some cy for some lights in some areas at the budget coming up. I think that we need to do that. I think in the meantime, this is not too much. So, you know,

I know we do I don't know what our current budget is right now for street lights. Don't have the budget in front of me, but we do budget for street lights on think Juliet Road and Lebanon Road is and there's a few others around Providence area, I believe. That's

and Golden Bear. That's the other one. Okay. Yeah, I'm kind of I don't have any doubts that these lights are needed, but at the same time, there's afraid this is kind of like don't know what the total cost is going to be. And there's also this is a budget ordinance without a fiscal note attached to it. So, I don't know if we can even consider it without the the note by resolution, but um Yeah,

but I don't know if we should do like a bigger study on this or because there's probably a lot of areas in need. Commissioner Hefner, I thought there was one. I thought there was a study going on a citywide. Did I just drain that up? Mr. Martin, I thought we were looking at the city. Probably the study we did for the Lebanon Road corridor. Okay. And we went down through the middle. We went middle Tennessee electric because once you get down close to the county line, it converts to NES and they don't have a similar program. What that's probably what it was. It's probably the Middle Tennessee uh pathways that we were doing the study for the Leman Road corridor. Okay.

Now, we could do a comprehensive one for all the subdivisions in the city to see. I mean, there's a Yeah. Pick out trouble areas. I think I think a study would I think it needs there needs to be driving factors, no pun intended. Um, yeah, for you know, roads that are cut through roads that have are high traffic. I know that that road that these lights would are being put on or I know it's a cut through road coming off of Old Leader Road to get to

um to get to the school or get to uh South Moduli Road. Um, and I appreciate you pointing that out. There are no sidewalks in that neighborhood. And there's a lot of neighborhoods that don't have sidewalks that have I'm sure similar problems, but this is my district and I'm going to advocate for neighborhoods in my district. So, uh, but if it's, um, you know, if it's better suited to to to discuss this as a budget item, I'm happy to defer it um and just push it down till we have budget discussions in June.

And mayor, I can definitely do that. I'm hope I can get with Middle Tennessee Electric. we can pull up a grid and commissioner is right though a resident had reached out because this particular road where we had added the speed humps had asked for some safety enhancements so we met with Miller Tennessee electric on on site and where we already had existing transformers is where we felt like the most troubled areas which is where we went with the five lights makes sense yeah I can I can get more you and I mean sometimes there's confusion about this because there are several neighborhoods in this in the city that do have street lights in them but I would wager that most of those are paid for probably by HOAs. I don't think this neighborhood has an HOA at all. So, Commissioner Giles.

Yeah, and I was thinking about that too. One of the things that and it's not just in some of the subdivisions. There's some places where some apartments are and then when you come out on the street there might be some some dark areas and that's needy too because those people have to walk. And so one of the things that we do at BPAC meetings, we discuss areas in the city where that they've been um maybe well connectivity obviously opportunities, but also if there's some damage to the roads or sidewalks where people are walking and bicycling and stuff and we try to to to make a list of that when we talk about that. One of the things I was thinking while we're talking about this, we might be we're getting up this walk across Wilson. We make can put that on our list for people to walk if they would. I will um through areas to to try to determine where those some of those dark areas are. Um because definitely walking, you're trying to take care of the pedestrians. So I'd like to do that and I'll introduce that to BPAC and see if we can't get some participation in there doing that and identifying some of that. We can turn that into you uh Kenny to to put in that

in the interm I'll get with me electric. Yeah, I thought it was pretty um commissioner five lights. Sorry. Relatively speaking, I mean I thought the price tag was going to be a lot higher than three grand for five street lights. Um in a lot of places. Yeah, especially when we have existing transformers. We don't have to carry that cost, put transformers in because that can get pretty pricey. But we've got an existing. They're they're literally going to just put the light right on the right on the pole and tie it right into an existing. So for $3,000, you're getting a lot of getting a lot of bang for your buck. You're lightening up. You're lighting up a it's pretty dangerous road with no sidewalks on it, which are pretty dark areas. And again, I'm sure there's

That's the thing about Oh, no doubt. Correct.

Commissioner Mlei. Yeah, because I live in Glenda City, so you know, we don't have sidewalks on the sidewalks or even halfway down Glenda Parkway. So, but and this is not a street light necessarily, but down some of the side streets, you know, you I guess they're called security lights where um and I I don't know, they've been there forever. So I don't know how that works as far as electric company like if neighbors called and want a pole put in the uh because we pay a monthly fee like I do my neighbor maybe another house for the security light you know so I mean that might be a possibility if if the neighbors over there reach out to the electric company. I know it's a a fairly common practice, I believe, in the Willoughby Station neighborhood where either an individual pay just pays for an outright light or it maybe a group of neighbors.

Yeah. Then sometimes that neighbor moves away and Yeah. they call me and want to know why the light got turned off. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I don't know what the So, just a thought. Well, I motion to defer to the um next budget. I'll second budget passage or budget discussions. Budget discussions because we don't even know where we are. Um if the money's in the budget, then you know maybe but

it can at least be discussed. defer to after next budget discussions. I'll second that. Discussions in February this month. No, that would be uh in June. Okay. June defer to June budget discussions. Regular budget docs, work sessions. All right. like you could submit it, you know, for the next budget and then when we have the work sessions if the money's there, then it can be discussed and then we can approve it or not approve it. Okay.

Well, we I mean we can still vote on it and I can always bring it back as a budget item, but um happy to defer it. Any um I've got a motion to defer on the table. Any questions or comments on deferral to after the to defer to June budget discussions? All in favor of deferring to June budget discussions, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That item is deferred to after the budget discussions. The next item is 10D. A resolution declaring the city of Mount Juliet vehicle as surplus to be traded for a service vehicle. Hear

a motion. Second and a second. Any questions or comments on 10D? All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? 10D does pass. Next item is an appointment. This is for the Mount Juliet Parks and Greenway board appointment. I'll submit the name of Carolyn Christopherson for uh the parks parks board seat. Uh and she's she served in that role in the past, so I put her forward for consideration. Carolyn Christophersonson. Oh, okay. All in favor of appointing Carolyn to the to the board position, please signify by saying I. I.

She is appointed. The next item is adjournment. Any objections to adjourning? Hearing none, we're adjourned.