Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

good evening everyone we're here for a public hearing i'll read the notice the board of commissioners of the city of mount juliet will conduct a public hearing considering the following on june 22nd 2026 at 6 15 at the city hall located at 24 25 north mount juliet road there are two items here for the public hearing one is an ordinance of the city of mount juliet tennessee to adopt an annual budget property tax rate sewer rate and a fiscal year beginning on july 1 2026 and ending on June 30th, 2027. The second is an ordinance to amend the land use plan for the property known as Lockbox Self Storage, located at 12337 Lebanon Road, Map 53, Parcel 46, from Thoroughfare Commercial to Light Industrial. The public is invited to attend and comment. So if you would like to comment on either of these two items, I'd invite you to come forward, give your name and address for the record, and You will be recognized for three minutes.

Yes, sir. Good evening. Stephen Heckendorf, 393 Page Drive. So the increase does come as a shock. Mount Julia is now asking residents and businesses to pay three and a half times what they paid in fiscal year 2025 for city property tax. Sitting in this room for most all the meetings, and the first time I hear the Board of Commission wants to increase taxes another 60%, It was when Commissioner Mullaly made the motion. It did not get a second. And then Mayor, you made the motion for 28 cents. I know the news has picked it up thinking it's a decrease. So far, the record has not been corrected for that news article. So the state adjusted rate was gonna be 0.176, and that is being gonna be raised to 0.28 cents per $100 assessed. At this time, there was no real discussion at that meeting last week. There was no real discussion about the thoughts and the reason why. Obviously, I attended the work session, so I have heard some of it. But I guess my issue is the first time I heard about the AAA bond rating being an issue was last meeting. The first time I heard about the costly communication system that we need for the first responders was the budget work session. And my question is, why are the citizens not being told or clearly ahead of time that this is gonna happen and that we are on a financial cliff? Because if we're gonna lose our AAA bond rating, that's a cliff that should be communicated previously. After last meeting, I discussed with Commissioner Bill and WD City Manager, For the public, we only have the documents made available to us publicly for work sessions and the meetings. On last meeting's documents, this property tax was not forewarned or suggested by the city manager. It wasn't even requested publicly as it listed the adjusted rate of 0.176. The work session had 0.2 from the city manager. but that was adjusted even today's meeting. The public record shows a city manager isn't requesting an increase. If the city manager is not requesting the increase, shouldn't the Board of Commissioners explain to the public why they believe there should be an increase? Because that wasn't discussed last meeting. The citizens of Mount Juliet put everyone in the seats and you in turn work with the city manager to run the city. And the citizens who directly or indirectly hired you deserve that complete transparency and ahead of time. There shouldn't be no surprises. We should know that we're going to have to increase 60%. At minimum, like most businesses, quarterly one- to two-page executive summaries should be sent quarterly and given publicly so it's clear and precise so someone doesn't have to drive through 50 pages of a document to really understand what's going on. I would like those notes.

Sir, your time has expired.

Yep, and the citizens deserve that the city is on track throughout the year, and I believe those quarterly reports would suffice. So I appreciate your time.

Thank you, sir, for your comments. Is there anyone else who would like to address the Board of Commissioners? Seeing none, we will close the public hearing and we will reconvene at 6.30 for our regular meeting. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Mount Juliet Board of Commissioners. Having a quorum present, I will call this meeting to order. Today is June 22nd, and we're meeting here to conduct the business of the City of Mount Juliet. All of you in attendance, I thank you for taking time out of your schedules to attend. We have some agendas in the wire baskets if you would like to follow along. The actual setting of the agenda is our next order of business. And I'm going to propose some changes. 9A, which is the budget, I propose moving to the heel of the agenda right before the appointments. So that would be read last. And the reason I'm proposing that is I believe we need to read 10A because we do not have the budget amount allocated to fulfill 10A. I'd like to read it first to see if we're going to pass that. before we consider the agenda. The other change I would propose is moving 10B, C, and D to consent. If there's no objections to those changes. Any objections? All right. Hearing none, we'll set the agenda with the changes. 10B, C, and D will be read on consent, and the budget will be considered at the heel of the agenda before the appointments. And we do have a considerably long packet to get through tonight. I think it's like 661 pages was the agenda packet to go through tonight, but I think we'll go as quickly as possible while being as thorough as possible at the same time. Next, I would like to ask our city manager, Mr. Martin, if you would lead us in the invocation and pledge of allegiance, please.

Yes, sir. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, everybody bow your heads, will you please? Dear Lord, we come before you today with grateful hearts. We ask for your guidance upon our leaders. Please grant them the wisdom to navigate the complexities of our time, the integrity to act fairly, and the courage to make decisions that best serve the needs of our community. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Thank you very much, sir. Next item is the approval of the minutes. We had a work session on 6-8, and we had a regular meeting also on June 8th. a motion any questions comments changes all right hearing none all in favor of the minutes but signify by saying aye any opposed the minutes are adopted next item on the agenda is citizen comments uh this is your opportunity to address the board of commissioners if you would i'd ask you to come forward to the podium give your name and address for the record and you will be recognized for three minutes Name and address, please.

Yes. Hello again. Steven Heckendorff, 393 Page Drive. Thank you. On January 12th, I came to this podium as a citizen who attends essentially all the Board of Commissioner meetings. My reason for speaking was asking for your thoughts on three things, growth, taxes, and cutting waste. I appreciated the range of responses at the time, but they offered no true preview of what we were to expect this year. I specifically called out the idea that you do not want to raise taxes, but how do you follow through on that? I believe that was the opportunity for everyone to share their concerns and preview what is happening today. Citizens should not be surprised by an increase like this. Combined increases for fiscal year 26 and 27 will amount to a three and a half time increase what Mount Juliet residents were paying in fiscal year 25. Personally, I'll be paying $240 more this fiscal year than in 2025. To put that in perspective, for a family who loves baseball, Mount Juliet Christian Academy camp was $85 for four days. Strike Zone Academy baseball camp was $100. It may not seem like a big dollar difference for some, but for families who are forced to live within their means and unable to raise their own income at their own choosing, this is a big deal for them. The city is voting to raise the city's income by levying higher taxes. on folks simply for owning property. Do you truly own your property if government can tax and take such land? Property tax revenue is 7.8 million more per year than fiscal year 2025, $4 million increase this year proposed. By the end of fiscal year 27, Mount Jewell will have taken directly out of the pockets of citizens and businesses $11.5 million more versus fiscal year 2025. Correct me if I'm wrong, but even with this vast increase in revenue, the general fund balance at the end of this fiscal year is projected to stay about the same. Fiscal property, for example, our fine police department. It is a fact that when excluding new hires, the budget personnel costs are increasing 1.1 million this year, about 13%. While that number will likely be larger next year, let's use this year's proposed numbers and tax rate. 1.1 million would amount to another 10.8% property tax increase next year. And that's just one budget line item. How will next year's increase be paid? It's just a question. Or will property taxes have to be increased double digits again? The more I review the budget, the more I'm skeptical that the last two years were outliers and I'm very concerned that it's becoming the rule. If residents are being asked to fork up millions and millions of dollars, which they cannot use to shop local, then I believe at minimum we deserve to hear everyone's explanation as to what happened this year and what will happen in the future years. I believe I can speak for many concerned citizens that we love our city, police, fire, and other departments, but we must be made aware publicly at an irregular cadence that where the city is financially and how that impacts the property taxes we will be paying. I'm aware my comments today are not gonna change how you're gonna move forward tonight, but I do hope that the city of Mount Juliet will commit to the executive,

quarterly memo summary for the citizens on the behalf on the basis of full transparency and awareness thank you for the few extra seconds appreciate it thank you sir is there anyone else to address the board of commissioners all right seeing none we will close citizen comments and we will start with commissioner reports commissioner giles you will recognize sir for five minutes

yeah um well for those that uh even though it's belated uh happy father's day to those out there thank you all for coming in to um to uh our our meeting tonight we uh you probably know that um starbucks has opened on the corner of of mount juliet road and division and uh many of you like me are very are very excited that like starbucks coffee so i invite you to go there Their actual ribbon cut, unless it's changed, is in the morning at 10. If I'm not mistaken, today was the full day of business. They had friends and family yesterday. And so, anyway, I encourage you to go out there and see the new business that has opened, as well as shop locally, obviously, when you can. And, again, thank you all for coming out. And, Mayor, that concludes my comments. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Vice Mayor Trevitt.

Thank you, Mayor, and thanks for the folks that are coming out here tonight each and every week and as well as the folks that are online. Yes, happy Father's Day to all the folks that are out there. I got an opportunity to actually have all my kids in the car this year. It was kind of nice because my oldest daughter has grown up and moved on and started her own family. So it was kind of nice to be able to go out and celebrate Father's Day with all the kids back in the car. So that was a blessing there. Obviously, we got 4th of July right around the corner, and happy Independence Day for all the folks that are going to be out there celebrating. Just think about the safety. You know, it comes down to our kids and even our neighbors that may be letting off the fireworks. But for the folks that may be looking to celebrate Independence Day with a group as well as our – Our local businesses are sponsoring the Circle P Ranch, 4th of July, starting at 5.30 until 9 p.m. Looking forward to seeing everyone out there, for the folks that do want to make it. Our parks team, as well as our city staff, has all worked together with local businesses to pull together another great year of celebrating our independence. um also for the folks that have reached out to me over the last couple weeks thank you there's been a lot of communication for uh for the folks out of my district where we are looking at uh new development that's going to be coming up um some more homes again between hickory hills and uh willoughby station so we're looking at almost 1800 homes within that area so very concerned about safety concerns is traffic and again uh our schools as well just overpopulation so uh you know again want to stay under my five minutes but uh For the gentleman that comes up, Mr. Stephen, thank you, sir, for always coming up and discussing. Yes, I think that's a great idea to look at every quarter. However, when it comes down to it, when we start looking at growth taxes and cutting waste, I'm a big fan of that and I mean you've talked many times about it and I'll just say this. Our department heads are being each and every year looking for every opportunity to save as well as cut back. As our city grows, so does the demand of services. So each and every time that we show up on Monday morning, we head into work, our roads are clean. from a busy weekend of folks that are out there just passing through, patronizing the businesses. So we've got from City Beautiful to our first responders, to our fire trucks, to our EMS, to even the folks that want to come here and do harm to our community. So everything that we are trying to do, which is make sure that we have got a safe place, a clean place. And then, of course, the most important is infrastructure. So this commission has done a great deal of investments along with investors and different builders. We're doing everything we can to count every penny that is being brought into our city. I'm a taxpayer. I live here just like the rest of us and I pay those taxes too. And it is frustrating. 100%, but at the same time, that's one of my jobs up here is to make sure that we have the right staff in the right place to be looking at every opportunity to save money, as well as use the money that we do have coming in wisely. So always open for other opportunities for infrastructure, but I think that's the biggest concern right now is infrastructure, road improvements. And I believe this commission has done a great job at, you know, uh taking on those requests and uh and providing a good service um i will say just because i only got a minute and 25 seconds left several years ago when i first came on to this commission the biggest concern was safety and our ems and fire since i've been on this board i will say this is that uh These staff members, first responders have developed some things that most cities has never done in years past to develop such a robust fire department and EMS. Our response times are cut down to, I think, you know, anywhere between four to five minutes in past years, you were talking between 25 and 30 minutes response times with, uh, our County services. So when it comes down to, uh, you know, whether if my kids or your kids are the ones being called for 911, because like, uh, you know, some emergency happens, I know what type of staff that we do have. And I know our police officers are cross-trained as well as our firefighters along. Also, those folks are cross-trained. So, um, I am taking every, um, everyone's, um, um, concerns into consideration through this budget year and uh doing my part and uh checking every box so we'd love to hear uh for the folks that are online and also in the audience you guys have access to my phone number my email please send me an invite and i'll do my best to uh to make sure that my time is available and it works around your schedule so

mayor that concludes my report and thank you thank you sir we'll recognize commissioner heffner for five minutes thank you mayor appreciate it appreciate everybody coming out uh this evening and those watching online uh as always uh and also happy belated father's day um i got i was surprised Probably one of the biggest surprises in a long time. My wife flew my daughters in for Father's Day this weekend. One's coming from Arizona and the other one from California. So I appreciate my wife for flying them in and really appreciate them for taking the time out of their busy schedule to visit their old man. The budget, speaking of budget, we'll get into more of this later on, but we don't, as I said the other, you know, last meeting, we don't take this lightly. I certainly don't. These are very hard decisions that we have to make up here. And we often rely heavily on advice and counsel from our city manager, deputy city manager, who is fed numbers and the needs and the wants from their department head. So it's hard for me to speculate when certain pieces of equipment are requested, who am I to second guess a fire chief or who am I to second guess our police chief? This is not a full-time job for me. It's not a full-time job for anybody up here. So I rely heavily on what is being suggested in the budget. and the suggestions and recommendations that come through from our city manager. So everybody did, I think, a good job on this budget. I know it's tough. A lot of requests were cut. I don't know if some of those are going to make it back in tonight. I certainly wouldn't be in favor of those. But these are hard decisions. PD, fire, I've said it before, EMS. I mean, we're the fourth safest city in the state of Tennessee, and I think that's two years in a row. I know at least this year or last year we were. And that comes at a cost. That doesn't happen for free. The debris after each storm that gets picked up, that doesn't happen for free. We have those resources. We are a service-oriented business. We provide services. Our customers are the citizens of Mount Juliet. And we're looking at another tight budget this year. And yes, it is looking like property taxes tax rate compared to last year will go down. But tax property tax dollars spent are going to go up certainly unless we adopt the 1778 tax rate. Um Fourth of july is coming up. Um I don't think we have a meeting before then. So I want to wish everybody a safe and happy fourth of july. What? One more. Oh yeah, true, true, true, true. So I want to wish everybody a safe and happy fourth of july.

So that concludes my comments. Thank you, sir, for your comments. Commissioner Mullaly, you're recognized for five minutes.

Okay. Thank you for everyone coming out tonight. And, Stephen, appreciate your comments always. August 6th is an election. It's federal and state primary, and it's also county general, a very important election. So we've got school board. We've got county commissioners. We have county mayor. We have governor. Register of Deeds, I don't remember them all. Anyway, our county elections are very important. That's where it all starts, is in the backyard. August 6th is Election Day. Early voting starts July 17th and goes through August 1st. Please, please, please, this is a very important election. Please get out and vote. So July 4th is about to come up, so people are going to be shooting. I know they're already buying. Just want to remind you, there are three days to legally shoot in the city. Chief can correct me if I'm getting this wrong. So the 4th is on a Saturday. So we had three days. So that would be the 2nd through the 4th. Is that right? Okay. So you got three days to legally shoot. And July 4th is the last day to buy or sell in the city limits. So in July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th from 5 to 10 o'clock. Not all day, just 5 to 10. So that's our new code. So please, I know in my neighborhood, people have been shooting already. So that's not legal, whoever you are. Let's see, the Senior Center, we're at least the old police headquarters. It's on Charlie Daniels Parkway. They had hoped to be open for activities today, but they are in. They're open, but the activities, they've had to delay just a slight bit. So this week, they're still organizing. And... So the activity center for memberships and everything, I think that'll be effective on the 29th of this month. So if you're a senior and you're looking for a place to go, it's right now on Charlie Daniels Parkway behind the headquarters. Let's see. So we are very blessed here. I think here in Mount Juliet, we are a very patriotic city. I'm proud to live here. We have three events coming up. Vice Mayor mentioned one. This coming Saturday, June 27th, is Freedom 250 Celebrate America in Charlie Daniels Park from 3 to 7 p.m. There will be food trucks, music, entertainment, face painting, and more. It's a free family event, so all are welcome to come out and celebrate America's 250th. That's sponsored by the Wilson County Republican Party of Tennessee. It's not a partisan event. Whoever you are, it doesn't matter. They're inviting everyone to come out and celebrate together. There is two events on July 4th. So it's already been mentioned that the city event will take place on July 4th at Circle P Ranch, and that's down West Division. And let's see, the... festivities begin at 5 30 and will end at nine uh there will be you bring your chairs where you're red white and blue there'll be food trucks and everything the other one is needums is sponsoring uh citizens of mount juliet for 250 fireworks blast behind um first baptist uh church on north mount juliet road behind there where christian mount juliet christian academy is is where the uh it'll all take place. Now that begins at 7 p.m. The address is 735 North Mount Juliet Road. There will be bounce houses, food trucks, family fun, and Mount Juliet's largest fireworks show that will begin at 9. So bring your chairs, family, friends. And so pick one of the events to go to. They'll all be very exciting. Now, oh, I don't have much time, so I just jotted down some notes from Steven. First of all, the city manager does not recommend rates, okay? He's over operations, not the budget. He submits to us, when all the department heads submit their budgets to finance, then when they do their thing, it goes to Kenny. Kenny presents to us a budget. I will say I'm out of time. The one who recommends the rates is the finance director. If we had passed that budget last year, we would not be having this conversation now. I can guarantee you that. So I'm out of time.

You're out of time, Commissioner.

I am. I'm sorry.

Well, I'm sure we can talk more on the budget.

Okay.

All right. I will say, Commissioner Mullaly pointed out that it is legal to shoot for three days. I do want to preference the word shoot with fireworks just to make sure we're all clear and specifically illegal fireworks. So we'll make sure we're all on the same page as far as terminology when it comes to that there's a legal period in Mount Juliet where you can go shooting for three days. Make sure that's fireworks. in case you're tuning in and uh wondering what the city's up to so i do appreciate everybody i want to say happy father's day to everybody as well i have got a daughter myself who is coming home this evening and last time i checked she seemed to be on golden bear uh gateway so she's getting close so maybe i'll get a chance to have dinner with her tonight before bed but got a big agenda to get through but i do want to thank everybody again for coming out i know a lot's been said and a lot of stuff's been made about the budget i will point out that i believe it's commissioner heffner said that we are the fourth safest city uh for our cities our size in the state of tennessee and we're gonna we're gonna stay i think it's for safest overall or overall for safest overall i don't want to sell a short on that We had some, I'll say, quite public activity that went on in the early morning hours with some signs becoming broke. And I'll say they were political signs, and they were at the hands of a young man. And I don't think he got to live on the lam for at least 12 hours before he was rounded up and taken to prison. Lebanon to stay at the County jail. So that's part of the good stuff that you get here at the city of Mount Juliet is the safety that you get, the stuff that we do, that we continue to invest in. And I would be. I would be failing to make my point if I did not point out that you do it at the lowest property tax rate of any city in this county. You can go to a lot of places in the state of Tennessee and pay a lot more and get a lot less. And this city has continued to go above and beyond and provide services at a rate that is really a bargain when you compare it to other cities for the services that we get not just services but some of the best services out there than in the state of tennessee and i'll thank our city manager staff and this board for the investments that they do continue to make in this thing We knew coming into this, I think all of us when we sit at this table know that we're sitting in a growing city and we've got things that need to be addressed. I don't think there's anybody in this city that's going to drive from point A to point B and wherever that point A to B is that you want to make, if you go very far, is going to argue with the fact that we need to make some investments in infrastructure and we are making investments in infrastructure and those things come with a cost. We sit beside Davidson County and you can It's no secret what the crime rate is and what it looks like out there, and we directly border them. But we have a wall here in the city of Mount Juliet that we stay to keep you safe. You can go live just a few miles. I can go two miles from my house, and the crime rate from where I sit in my living room is dramatically different where I can go just two miles from my house. I don't even know if I have to go two miles to get to see the difference between it. And it's remarkable what the city's been able to accomplish and do. I don't know if there's ever been a group that's done so much for so many with so little. So I'll leave it at that and recognize our city manager for his comments.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Thanks for everybody coming out tonight. For those watching at home, it's nice to meet the Hefner daughters. I'm going to try to sneak away and give them a little something to take back home. I think that brings the light. Sometimes we forget about it, about our elected officials. And it's something I can speak to because when you've worked somewhere and you're in your 37th year working somewhere, Mike, you've been here 30 years. Moses has been here a long time and remembers what it used to be like. Commissioner Malay, you moved here in the 80s. And it's just only gotten better each year. Property values have went up. and the things you have to do when you do border a town like Nashville. It's only about 30 square miles and sometimes I think people forget that and you realize the amount of infrastructure. For example, when you've worked somewhere a long time, you don't see the infrastructure where it starts. That's why I want to give a shout out to Public Works and all that they do behind the scenes. probably another another city and put into context i think we're the fourth safest in the state there's 346 cities in the state of tennessee and the only probably the other three above us are smaller towns where there's probably just not a lot of activity at all and they definitely don't border major metropolitan areas. For example, when you think of the LPR cameras and what we have across the city and how it was able to help us solve multiple crimes that even won this morning, that's not a one-time cost. That's an ongoing cost every year. I think of Toby in the back, our main mechanic, and I think of cars and tires and wheels and roads and things of that nature. We put $50 million just toward the Central Pike interchange. So I look at those things and I'm thankful because I always say a town is just a town. it's just a place on a map without the people that call it home and to us that's very important so i'm i can speak from experience that what we do here is a lot more than the other city we partner with more businesses i just here recently i had three thousand dollars just in american flags that were donated to the city and i think i'm real close to getting a permanent sponsor we don't think about a flag one flag on a pole at i-40 is about 600 bucks We take great pride in flying those because it's the greatest country on the face of the planet. It's the greatest state and it's definitely the greatest city. So I'm very proud of that. But I do understand and I hear what everybody's saying. I just wish sometimes folks could see behind the scenes how hard our staff works. And there's a lady that's not in the room, but she's next door and her name's Miss Dana. She's our finance director, and when you see the numbers and the mental gymnastics that she has to go through to put a budget together or to do the things that we do, and I give the commission great kudos for that because they expect a lot of us and a lot of this team, and I think we do that. You'll see sometimes department heads and elected officials out pulling limbs, digging stuff out of ditches so water flows, you name it. It's almost like Mayberry in modern times. But we're not Mayberry anymore, but we sure try to act like it. I'm very proud of this city. And if you want to make a difference in your budget by doing anything or in your taxes in your city, and I can't emphasize this so much because one thing I was blessed with is two big ears. And I hear people talking all the time about where they spend their money. And it seems like sometimes it's selfish when I say, please spend it in your city. It's 30 square miles. Literally, if you can buy it in the city limits and you live in a city, it will benefit you immensely, far more than you realize. If you can't buy in your city, at least buy it in your county, somewhere in this county, because then it stays at home and helps schools and things of that nature. And I can't overemphasize that enough. uh to the department heads thank you for all the work that you guys do we expect a lot we push push and push we go through we turn lights out after somebody leaves a room around here michael go check his office right now his lights out we do everything to get into the weeds to save every penny we can and i get it and i appreciate citizens that come and hold us accountable and and look for ways to partner and brainstorm make our city even better so i'm very thankful for that i just want people to know that i'm thankful for this commission and for the tools that you give us because i hate to imagine what we'd be like as a city right now uh if we didn't have the things that in line for our city for example one of the things that we had to put off today and i apologize for that that's on me is mother nature didn't quite agree with us today we're going to have a basically a groundbreaking for the hard work that public works in this city has put forth the wide no diamond dirt road that's been many many years in the making back in my police chief days i can tell you about wrecks i worked over there where there was fatalities And that's again about safety. And we may never see the return on investment, but how much money can you put on one life or a serious injury for somebody? So I'm very thankful for that. And there's a lot of that going on in this city right now. And I'm thankful for that. East Division, Old Lebanon Dirt Road, Benders Ferry Road, Golden Bear. I mean. Matt White, special shout out to you, brother. He goes to all the meetings that it makes more sense for him to be at, and we get more projects than anybody else in the state for the most part for cities our size, and that's because of the team and how hard they work. So I'm very thankful for that, and God bless everybody, and hope everybody's safe going home, and hope you have a good night. Mayor, that concludes my report.

Thank you, sir. First item up is consent agenda, which is 8A, a resolution declaring the City of Mount Juliet's Fire Department mini pumper truck as surplus to be sold. 8B, which is a resolution authorizing the execution of Verizon Wireless customer agreement under the State of Tennessee Department of Services contract. The next item is 8C, a resolution approving a supplement to the agreement between the City of Mount Juliet, Tennessee and the Dawson for design of the Central Pike Widening Project and authorized the mayor to sign the agreement. The next item is 10B, which is a resolution approving the agreement between the city of Mount Juliet, Tennessee and the Federal Highway Administration for the safe streets for all implementation projects and authorize the mayor to sign the agreement. 10C, which is a resolution approving the award of the construction contract for the Creekside Drive Interceptor upsizing process project and authorized the mayor to sign the agreement. 10 D as a resolution approving the award of construction contract for the Winfield Pump Station Modification Project and authorized the mayor to sign the agreement. Have a motion motion in second. All in favor of the consent agenda, please signify by saying aye. Any opposed consent agenda does pass. The next item is 10-A, which is a resolution approving a contract with West Wilson Utility District, WWUD, for the relocation of water lines located on Golden Bear Gateway for the city's widening project. I have a motion and a second. All right. The item's on the table here. Mr. Martin, it's under your sponsorship. Do you have a comment?

Yes, Mayor. I just ask for support of these items.

Okay. And Mr. Watt, could you come up? And this goes into the next fiscal year, of course. Correct. And we don't have enough money allocated for it.

If you approve this agreement tonight, you'll have to add, when the budget comes up, you'll have to add $3.3 million to that Golden Bear line item in the budget.

3.3 million.

Yeah, a little bit about this project. It's for the Golden Bear widening project. And when utilities are in a private easement and our row widening project is causing them to have to relocate, then we're responsible for all the costs associated with that relocation. So that's what this agreement is for.

As opposed to 11 Dirt Road where we did.

Well, 11 Dirt Road, all the utilities were in the existing right away. We didn't have to pay. They have to move at their own expense if they're within the existing right away. These were in their own easement. Correct.

And so we get to flip the bill.

yeah so if we're wanting this project to get shovel ready this is the last thing that uh we'll have to spend to get utilities uh out of the way and this middle tennessee electric's already moved piedmont's in the existing right-of-way so they'll move at their own expense our sewer uh relocation has just started recently and so west wilson's the last item to get the project shovel ready and this this is a prerequisite for

The road widening of Golden Bear Gateway, correct? Correct. Just to make sure everybody knows what we're talking about, $3.3 million up here for. Commissioner Mullaly.

Is this general fund or? Yes. This general fund?

Yes.

Commissioner Heffner.

How much of the $3.3 million is going to be spent in this budget year?

It'll be all spent in the upcoming budget year. So the one we're voting on? I'm saying that you think it'll get done. I got somebody from West Wilson here that they'll have to go acquire, once this agreement's approved, they'll have to go acquire the new easements where the water line's going to go. And then once that's done, then they can start construction. It may lap over to the next fiscal year. I don't know how long it'll take them to acquire easements and things like that.

How soon are we, if this is done, how soon will we be ready to start the widening?

As soon as they move and Piedmont moves, we'll be, well, it's not Piedmont anymore. I think it's Spire is the gas company. uh those are the last two they'll have to move for it to be shovel ready um i anticipate that'll be the next budget year is when we would be ready to start construction not the one coming up but then the next one the 2028. hey since we're talking about budget just uh ballpark what was that construction cost again uh it's around 20 million 20 million okay

mr martin mayor these items are just a perfect example of how much emphasis the elected body and cities put down infrastructure for the city all right thank you sir you have questions or comments smiley i'm just curious why i wasn't put in the budget already

it was when i submitted my budget to dana um it was in there it was and then kenny was looking for things to cut and he asked well since we don't have an agreement yet with west wilson because they were still working on the agreement he said can i cut this and then once we get an agreement from west wilson bring it back to you all and then if y'all approve we'd we can add it to the budget so that was the what happened

Well, just to make sure we're all on the same page, if we approve this agreement, which is a prerequisite for widening the road, West Wilson's not going to let us widen over their lines, I don't guess. That's correct. I'm seeing a head being shaken back there. So this is a prerequisite for construction. If we approve this agreement in order to fund the agreement, we'll have to amend the budget when that's considered. Any other questions or comments? All in favor of the agreement, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that does pass the next item, which is 10 E, which is an ordinance authorizing the abandonment of the existing aid in lane right away via instruments to the Winfield HOA motion motion and a second. Uh, any questions or comments on this?

Oh, I have meant to hand these out. This is the signed letter from the Winfield HOA agreeing with the abandonment of the city right away, saying that they will take over the little section of property to maintain it so that they can move forward with the connection, which will come out in Bradford Park on Aiden Lane.

Commissioner, I know you've been working closely with all the parties. Are you in favor of this agreement?

Yes, it has to be done. It was a condition added 2017-18, something like that, to the project. And Pulte knows they have to do it. So it was a condition added. The only thing remaining was the Winfield agreement to sign off.

Very good.

For maintenance.

All right. Any other questions or comments? All in favor of 10E, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? 10E does pass on first reading. Is there any objection to considering 10F and G simultaneously? All right, hearing none, I'll read both for the record, which is 10F, an ordinance to amend the land use plan for the property known as Lockbox Self Storage, located at 12337 Lebanon Road, Map 53, Parcel 46, from Terrifier Commercial to Lot Industrial. 10G, which is an ordinance to rezone and adopt the Preliminary Master Development Plan for approximately 4.1 acres of property at Lebanon Road, Map 53, Part of 46 from Commercial General. to restrictive industrial planned unit development. A motion and second. Questions or comments on either 10F or G? Ms. Mullaly.

All right. So... On the ordinance for each, the land use and the rezone in the preliminary plan, if you compare... the ordinance with one with the other shouldn't they match basically what can you explain a little further i'll give you example uh on 647 this is the ordinance under the land use number three Okay, I'm missing that page. Anybody got where that would be page 650? Anybody got a page 650? I had that. What happened to it? Page 650. Well, you got part of the ordinance here on 651. You got 652. I thought you said it was a 661 page.

Yeah, maybe.

Well, in the land use ordinance under number three, planning and zoning.

Thank you. My packet is 666 pages. Yeah. Yeah.

Anybody got a 600 or page 650? Nope.

Okay. Does anybody have page 647?

That's it there.

Yes. Okay. All right. 650 under planning and zoning. Just swipe. Okay. Number three, you got, now this is under the rezoning the preliminary plan. Number three under planning and zoning. You got Article 9 parking regulations waiver was granted. But if you compare that to the ordinance on the land use, page 647 number three says article nine parking regulations shall be adhered to to accepting any waivers uh granted by the board of commissioners i mean shouldn't they just match we i think we've discussed this before 647 is our staff report that went to planning commission so then the ordinance on 650 51

is the result is after the effects of the planning commission meeting so those conditions aren't going to be the same but is that not part of the ordinance because the ordinance starts on 640. uh 6 640 and 641 are the land use amendment ordinance uh-huh and then starting on six

650 is the starting of the PUD.

644 is the staff report that went to Planning Commission. And then 650 on is the rezone ordinance. So the conditions in the rezone ordinance, 650 forward, would be the conditions as they were finalized after Planning Commission.

okay so 651 is part of the ordinance for the rezone in the preliminary plan yes yeah okay so um but would this not be included in the land use as well the ordinance no these would just be conditions for the pmdp okay so what's in the ordinance under rezone and deployment that stance got it okay Because they weren't exactly matching. They were kind of saying the same thing, but not exactly.

Some of them were written before planning commission.

Okay. And the other thing was the plan itself. There was a question about the six-foot sidewalk. They were asking for a waiver. There was some confusion on where this was going. And the question was raised that the... These sidewalks are being done anyway. So really, where would it go?

I might have to defer to Public Works. I do recall there was some discussion. I don't know the details, though.

OK.

Yes, sir.

Yeah. So the, the condition would be that the sidewalk along Lebanon road be constructed by the development. Uh, we do have a incoming sidewalk project there, but if the incoming development takes care of that, that alleviates some of the burden on the city.

Okay. Um, that's fine with me now, the one I talked to was the representative. So, um, can I invite him up here to explain the confusion?

I'm Darren Raines. I'm the owner.

Name and address. Can you get your address, too, please, for the record?

1230, 12337 Leavener Road. Um, it was brought up when we had 1 of the meetings at the city, and I don't know the county or state, or what was receiving some funds to build it. And there was a. So talk about it, maybe being wider for bikes. So, we were just saying, if it was going to be funded and done. I don't know what the current regulations are. And another concern was just how you cross that busy drive going into our place and needles. And the width of it right there on the top, it's probably maybe this wide. I've mowed it a lot of times. I know it's pretty steep grade there. So all those things take some way to just find out what they're wanting to do there. And we're not saying we wouldn't want to contribute to it or whatever. Just understand it better.

All right. Can we work it out here? Do y'all go back to your meeting room? At what point do we kind of work out the confusion?

Yeah, I was just talking with Mr. White here. And it seems like it's more likely than not that the grant project to build the sidewalks comes in first, at which point there'd be a sidewalk and the development would not need to construct it because that condition would already have been met. In the event that they come in before that project, which seems unlikely, they would have to build the sidewalk.

This is first reading. Do you want to take a stab at some language to maybe codify that? You build it if the grant doesn't come or something to that effect between now and second reading? Absolutely. We can do that.

Let work commissioner to clarify are the sidewalk project is currently out for bid. So I imagine construction will start in two months or so, two or three months on our project. So I think we'll be ahead of them.

So very likely. Yeah. Got it.

Yeah.

All right. So what kind of should we add some language?

Well, we can Let's let them bring back some suggestions. Yeah, for a second reading. Second reading.

Get it nailed down then. Is that good? Okay.

Any other questions or comments? All in favor of 10F and G on first reading, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? It does pass on first reading. The next item is 9A, an ordinance of the City of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, adopting the annual budget, property tax rate, and sewer rate for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027. Motion. Second. I have a motion and second. The item being properly moved and seconded is on the table. Commissioner Mullaly. Actually, no, go ahead, Commissioner.

OK. I would like to motion that in the utilities, Tim's department, his crew that's already in the budget at 3% be increased to 6%.

and commissioner i need i need to stop you on that to make a motion because when we we deferred this with a motion on the table is that correct we deferred it okay so that motion then falls off and she's free okay just making sure you're okay carry on all right i motioned that um

Tim's Department and Utility, it's already in the budget for 3%. I motion that that's increased to 6%. And there's three utility positions that are state certified. They need to be separated in pay. I motion that those three positions are at 9%. And then I motion that Public Works that had been talked about before at the work session, Matt's crew is 6%, except for the two positions mentioned in this printout. There's two mechanics. Yes, two mechanic positions would be 3%. The rest of the public works under Matt is 6%.

Let me make sure I've got this summarized correctly. Mr. Forkham's department will get a 6% increase.

An additional 3% because 3 is already in the budget.

Oh, so a total of 6?

Yeah.

Okay. But three positions that are state certified will get a 9%? Yes. And then public works would get a 6%? Or is that 3% on top of the existing?

No, they're not in the budget.

Okay, so 6% for public works, except for the mechanics, which is the 3%.

Yes, two positions.

Okay.

Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Giles is second. The amendment is on the table or on the floor. Excuse me. Commissioner Giles, you're recognized.

Yeah. So basically your proposal is what we have at the table where it says proposal in the middle here. on the back page yeah that whole proposal which is even less than what i had made in the the previous in the workshop um and so i'm so anyway i think this is needed i i and i also won't um and we we may know this that um uh hr i mean um finance when the finance or hr Both did this survey. Am I saying that right, Dana? PACE study back in January, we got the results, if I'm not mistaken. It was emailed to us. Is that right? Yeah. So this was done, professionally done. It wasn't that, you know, not that it wouldn't have been professional if a department head had done it, but I'm just saying it was done by them. So there's nothing skewed about this. This was done by them.

All right. Commissioner, are you just before? No. Commissioner after.

Thank you, Mayor. Showing total general fund expense of $106,000. What's our current call it? Deficit. So it's going to add another $100,000. So we're raising property taxes. Now we're going to start spending money. think that's a good idea i know they're hard workers and i wouldn't mind taking a look at this in january just like we did last year to see where we come in actual revenue versus doing this now when we're already we're already looking at a a budget that's not balanced so um sorry to the guys i know they're hard workers um and i know they probably well deserving of this raise but i i just i can't support it

I don't really see this as a budget amendment, even though that's what we're effectively trying to do is allocate the money of $106,000 to the expenditure here. But it seems like it should be more of a comprehensive philosophy or discussion on the salaries. in general because the pay study involved 135 city job classifications of market rates and on that study it found 123 positions to be below market average it found 12 positions are at market average and it found one position to be above market average That to me means approximately 91% of the city positions are below market. According to the, um, the study, um, I think what I read in there was, you know, for the, for the deputy city manager's assessment on this is he really couldn't validate, validate the, how the assessment come by and made the statement that it was, it happened before he got into the position. Um, I don't know how the positions themselves were compared on it. I'm not saying they're wrong. I just don't know. I don't know the job descriptions, how well they align to other positions on this stuff. Uh, I'm kind of inclined to agree with Mr. Hefner that, um, maybe we should park this on it just to make sure we review the whole thing and come up with a game plan for what we're going to do. And so just doing a budget amendment here tonight, um, I know they're a hardworking group, and it's two groups that I depend on quite heavily to be successful. But I have trouble just addressing one element of this, knowing that there's maybe 100 more that are not being considered at the same time. That's my thoughts. Vice Mayor?

So, Ms. Dana, so with the actual pay study here, the mayor said, was it 123 you said that were below?

Yes.

And then 12 at and then one above. With that being said, so these folks are still getting the 3%. It's just in addition to the additional 3% is what's being asked of tonight. And that still puts us there. So I guess my question would be, And I'm not. This is going to be a. curveball for you or not but that 123 obviously there's been some discussion there do we have a number of if we were to bring those up to at least uh at at average so we don't even know that number yeah i didn't know if maybe you had already said okay well one of the other commissioners or mayors already talking about it just throughout a number so i didn't know that'd be great to know what that number is so that way we can be able to look at those in the future um and then this was the study that was in january is that is that correct now with that being said uh there was another one that was done what uh three years ago or was it two years ago that we just looked at this because that's what actually projected all of us Okay, so it was 2022. And then that was when we found out that we were below market again, and that's when there was, what, between 23% and 32% pay increases based off of the standards?

Some of them. There were a few that were higher, but were that high, but then most of them were low. And there was a 6% across the board for everybody. And then there were several positions that were increased. Okay. About that.

right thank you so much again i'll probably be reaching out to you tomorrow to talk about those other numbers but thank you yeah commissioner giles yeah but if i'm not mistaken didn't we increase some salaries last year on some departments okay and public public works was not in that okay but yet they found 275 000 off their budget this year so and i'm not sure about the the other departments there but uh i do know that one so you know some last year and then did we increase those in this fiscal year after we just talked about last year at the budget we look at them later did we increase those later well then somebody got some increases last year but some of the others didn't

Yeah. There were some pay adjustments that were done last year.

Do you know ballpark on how many?

I know police and fire got together on their pay scales to sort of bring them into balance. And then there were like a handful of like, I think parks got their facilities, maintenance guys got some raises. I can't think of any others.

Okay.

Questions or comments? We're ready to vote on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, please signify by saying aye. Any opposed? That does carry. We're on the budget as once amended. Commissioner Heffner.

um mr martin where are we at with the city property project or can you give us an update across the board and what's in the budget what's not in the budget what's

Yes, sir. You're talking about the RFP as far as the contract?

Yeah, and the other city properties. I think some of them we're closing on. I think we've already maybe. Yes, sir. There's one we just closed on.

I believe it was last week. And that was a little less than $2 million. That was for the Sutton property. That has been closed on. And Miss Dana has the check and has invested that into the bank.

I don't have that check. That went to the bank.

yeah immediately good answer yeah the other is of course the properties here the acres it's here at the city it went to the planning commission last week the next stop will be at the city commission on the 13th of july for for review of that so we got the contract done and we're reviewing it in july getting getting close to it yes sir there's still a little bit of negotiating going back and forth about some tying up some of the loose ends between now and the first reading okay

When is he, if it passes, when is it expected to close?

It would take right at a year, a little less than a year is what we're hoping. So it'd be in this budget year and Dana may be able to speak to how she, sorry. Yeah, it should be right at a year.

Before they close on the property?

That's for them to get all their planning pieces in order. So they've got a contingency clause in there. Yes. So they're just buying it on the front end. They want to make sure that they can get entitlements, I guess you'd say, for the property. Interesting.

Okay.

I look forward to looking at that contract. Yes.

Thank you.

We've got some other changes set here before us. Some budget amendments for second reading. The first being the number one, one label number one is the drug fund. General fund is to remove the new K-9 position from the drug fund from the move to the general fund. which is to reduce by 15,000 to 26,000, which is line item beginning in one 23. The other one is the line item beginning of the one 10, which is to include crease it by 15 to 86. And that, if I recall the story was that has to go into the general fund in order to be able to receive against the donation for it, which the donation was just to cover that. So, really an increase of about 15 000 to that line particular line item 110 36 710 i know reading budget line items doesn't make for good tv or audience participation but We've got to account for this some way. So I'm going to make a motion to accept this first one here to increase $110,36710 by $15,000 to move that expenditure into the general fund to accept the donation against. Got a second on it? All in favor? Yes, Commissioner Hepner.

When's the donation? Is there going to be a budget amendment to cover the $15,000?

this well if you put this in the budget there doesn't need to be a budget amendment for it it's already the revenue is already recognized oh the donation is already in to cover the 15. this yeah that's what this amendment got it okay thank you good question all right all in favor signify by saying aye any opposed so that does carry so we're back on the budget as amended two times

and we have the second item on here which is to remove the fire department rollover of po for suv arriving earlier arriving before the fiscal year and that is one one zero four two two zero zero nine four four to reduce it by fifty five thousand to thirty thousand Motion and second. Ms. Heyer, does this have any ongoing expense tied with it, or is it just a simple one-time amendment?

It's just a simple – like, they had it budgeted this fiscal year, but they didn't think they were going to get it before the end of the fiscal year, so we rolled it over to the next fiscal year. But FIRE called me last week and said they are going to get it before the year end, so we don't need to budget it for next year. It'll be paid out of this fiscal year.

Sounds good.

And that's the same with number three as well.

Okay. Perfect. Any questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That does carry. So we're back to the budget as three times amended. The third item Ms. Heyer just commented on, which was to remove fire department rollover for PO for tools arriving before the fiscal year. I guess that actually means year end. which is item number 11042200940, which is to reduce that line item by $68,611 to bring the total to $190,000. Motion. Motion and second. Questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed? That does pass. We're back on the ordinance as amended four times. And then number four, which is the general fund fire department, increase the fire department payroll to cover staff changes on new apparatus, which is 110-422-00, personnel code 111 and 147, which is an increase of 44,000 on that. There was a motion. Is there a second? Okay, that does not receive a second on number four. We're on the budget as four times amended. We've also passed an agreement to be approved in the upcoming fiscal year for West Wilson Utility District to relocate a water line, and that's going to need an increase of $3.3 million. So I will make the motion that we add the 3.3 million. I'll ask Ms. Hire if you could give us some guidance on where we might record that 3.3 million.

So I believe that's going to be under the Capital Projects Fund, and it's going to be under line item 300-43171-910. Can you read that again after 300-43? 43171.

one seven one nine ten nine ten all right so i'll make the motion to to um increase that line item by 3.3 million that's item number three hundred four three one seven one nine ten is your second second all right we got a second almost like this higher

Yes. So you're going to have to increase transfers to the Capital Projects Fund to cover that or increase the borrowing in the Capital Projects Fund to cover that expense. Because right now, the fund's not going to have enough of a balance to cover that.

What line item would need to be cut if we just did the borrowing?

That would be... Actually...

actually do we want to vote on this and then have a separate discussion on whether we want to do borrowing or take from the fund reserve is that correct that would be the other opportunity okay all right let's let's hold that and i'll so we got the 3.3 million dollar increase on the line item we're kind of doing it backwards here but um any questions and comments on this All in favor of the increase, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That does pass. So we've got a $3.3 million. And Ms. Heyer, will you give us our options for the funding of the 3.3, which I'm assuming is fund balance or borrowing?

Yes, it's either going to be transferred from the general fund or increase the borrowing that's in the capital projects fund already. There's an $8.1 million borrowing under 303.6920.

So if we did a borrowing that would increase that, we'd need to increase to 11.4?

11.4.

OK. Yes, Ms. Blayley.

What does that do to the bond rating? Anything?

Nothing. We'll have to see how much we actually need to borrow once we get into the fiscal year and it starts going and see what the needs are. It may not be that much. But then again, it could be. But it shouldn't affect the bond rating.

if we did the borrowing and there's like an agreement set up with developers along the way to help cover some of that cost um that can be received in in place of that at a later date yes okay uh commissioner giles did you you know what if if it was that amount we didn't have any of that repayment back do you know what we would be paying monthly on that after we borrowed it well i mean approximately yeah um

It depends on how we set it up. I try to keep our debt service even, but it would probably, honestly, $40, $80. Yeah, a little more than that. Probably under a million.

A month?

A month?

Yeah.

I'm sorry. No, I said a month. Repeat your question.

I thought.

Oh, no. Repeat your question again.

How much would our payments be on that if we borrowed that amount?

Oh, we don't do that by month. Okay, then a year. We do it every six months.

So it would have to be a million dollars a year?

Probably not quite that much.

Okay. For three, four years?

No, it would probably, if it was a project, I would go out farther than that. I would probably do a minimum ten.

Okay. Okay, for three million dollars.

No, I'm talking about the entire amount.

I'm just talking about the three, how much that would increase our payments.

I got you. I would probably do a note on that point, and it would... how much would you want to pay? There are, there's, there are lots of options that I have to look at rates and that's a hard question to answer. Okay.

Okay.

This higher in your professional opinion, uh, would you recommend the fund balance or the borrowing increase?

Um, if you do the fund balance, you're at a deficit of three, 4 million again.

Yes.

Um, I would probably, you know, you could probably do the transfers because depending on the timing, we might be able to, like I said, we may not spend it all. So this fiscal year, if it came down to it, we could always come back and do a budget amendment for a borrowing.

So you recommend then taking it from the fund balance? Yeah. Mr. Mullaly, just motion to do the borrowing.

We can't keep spending our cash reserves. We just can't.

Is there a second on that? I second. Okay, got a second. Any discussion on borrowing beyond what we've already discussed? All right. All in favor of borrowing, please signify by saying aye. All right. Any opposed? That does pass, though. So we've got... So the direction will be the borrowing. Ms. Heyer, how should we word this for the budget?

I would say increase the borrowing in the capital projects fund by $3.3 million. And that should cover it.

I'll make that motion to increase the borrowing by $3.3 million. Motion second. Any questions or comments on that change to the budget itself? All right. All in favor of the administrative change, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? That does pass, and that puts us to the budget as six times amended by my count. Let's see if my city recorder is agreeing. All right. Mr. Martin.

Sorry to interrupt. I understand the discomfort to some of this. spending for the road project but there are some there is some good news from some developments that we're working with on that road i think this lays a perfect foundation for if we get all this work done out of the way on the front end especially with utilities uh especially with some of these what i feel like our opinion develops that we can help them offset a lot of the other costs that will go with this road winding project that that might also bode well with the state uh to show that we're trying i get it we're driving more traffic down to 70 and getting them there a little bit quicker it shows we're making efforts toward infrastructure which i hope will bode well with the state and some of the grants that we're applying for there i commend you all i know it's i know it's tough yeah thank you sir commissioner hefner um did we say it was 20 million dollars to do the construction

portion of it we're just moving the water lines right now the last phase of it sorry go ahead Matthew white public works director yeah I estimate the construction be around 20 million for the actual construction of the road widening project and we're just talking about the water line relocation and where is that money coming from and this is a loaded question so don't answer it's kind of what i mentioned the workshop we got to have a plan to fund these projects that you're wanting me to deliver so we got 20 million dollars to build this road like kenny was saying there's uh potential big developments coming in that area first time i've heard that so so

okay and with the new the idd stuff we could potentially use that that's a friday recent to fund the construction of that road project at no cost to the city there's some tools out there i look forward to the projects when they come in but right now they're not here so we're gonna make the comments tonight very true um but with all projects there's pros and cons so i have to be carefully weighed

Vice Mayor.

Mr. White, just ballpark. If we were to put this project off, what would it cost the city or the taxpayers? I mean, obviously, I mean, like they're already constructions there. The roads are being shut down or let's just say, you know, constructions there. They're going to slow down traffic, right? There's already work there. So if we were to put this off until the future, just ballpark, what would that cost us? Is this a savings or is this?

Yeah, if we delay it any, the price is going to go up. I talked to Wes Wilson, and I asked him if we push this off another year, would costs go up? And they said, yeah, definitely. Their costs and their materials and things go up every year. So we'll definitely be paying more for the waterline if we push it another year or more. I don't have an exact number. I didn't come up with the estimate. It was from West Wilson Utility. They definitely said the price would go up. Thank you.

Commissioner Giles.

Matt, would you tell everyone that's watching on TV and in here how far that widening is and from where to where?

Yeah, it's basically from the bridge over Cedar Creek, which is right next to Jackson Hills, where the road's currently five lanes, continuing that five lanes up to the four-way stop at Palermo Curd Road.

Yeah.

If you think about it, it's just to that four-way stop.

Yeah. We haven't started a design.

It's just to that four-way stop. If anybody's ever walked that, you know, so you can see how expensive this stuff is.

Yep.

Yep.

All right, any other questions or comments? I'm going to look at page 66, and I hope Commissioner Mullaly will forgive me for this, but I'm going to move to strike under the Belinda Parkway pedestrian signal crossing there. with $30,000 of engineering and then $150,000 for construction. I'd like to recapture that $180,000 of saving. That's going to be my motion.

Yeah.

It's across from Ashley Furniture to Red Robin.

Is that correct?

Oh, page 66 is the very bottom item. Yeah. My motion was to strike that. Was there a second? Commissioner Heffner seconded, I believe. Any questions or comments on that? All right. All in favor of striking the project, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That does pass. That puts us back to a budget as amended seven times. Any other questions or comments? Amendments?

Discussions?

All right. All in favor of the budget as amended by seven times, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That does pass. So public safety will continue to be funded along with all these other projects. So appreciate everybody and the work that's going on. I appreciate everything that's been done. The city of Mount Juliet was going to lock in the property tax at 28 cents, still the lowest in Wilson County by far. So our next item is an appointment. I'll recognize the Vice Mayor for his appointment.

Yes, Mayor, and thank you. The appointment that I'm going to be bringing up is Joseph Eskoski. I already spoke to him. He's willing to sit in this seat here and be my representative for my ethics.

All right. The name has been put forward. All in favor of the appointment, please signify by saying aye. Aye. He is appointed. All right. With that, we've concluded the business before us. Is there any objection to adjournment? Hearing none, we are adjourned.