City Council - Regular Meeting

for March 23, 2026. Uh, Miss Ker from Employee Community Relations, go ahead. Thank you. Uh this is honestly a very simple straightforward uh piece of legislation and I had a conversation with the mayor earlier this you know last week uh to kind of talk about why this is necessary and and what it will allow the city to do. So uh Mayor Star if you are willing to just talk for a couple minutes on that. Sure. Thank you uh madam chair and councel. Um the civil service commission consists of three members and uh we've been having a difficult time trying to get them all on the same schedule. We've had to cancel two meetings already this year.

Thank you. For lack of a forum. Yeah. So, we're we're looking to add alternates to this. Um and uh thank you, Mr. Brewer, for putting forth the legislation so we can keep business going. And so, other commissions have alternates and so this seems like it would be an appropriate measure. And they have full voting privileges if they're there that evening. Yeah. They would only be attending voting response when the regular. That's correct. So just how does that work, Matt? If if if I know I'm not going to be there, I'm supposed to let the chair know and then they can make sure one of the ordinance will be present

show up in case. Yeah. Very similar to how the other commission municipal planning commissions will make sure our clerk would send out a Zack would be out a notification, making sure that we would have a quorum available. And if regular attenders couldn't make it, then that would require either a follow-up email or a phone call to make sure that we've got a quorum to be able to conduct business. And it would be done the similar fashion.

Are there any other questions? This one feels very straightforward. I I do plan to take this to its third and final reading tonight just so that we can get this uh commission to get to the point of functional. The mayor will have to find some folks who can participate in this commission. So that's still a process of having them be approved uh through council. Correct. So I I see no problem in taking this to its third reading and would like to get that done. So that's my plan and that's all the time I need I guess.

All right, we will adjourn that meeting and move on to Miss Kener again to talk about ordinance 05.

So this is the community development and public information officer and I've talked to um most of you in the last two weeks. Um we did have a job description that was in front of us at the first meeting. So I can find that during the break and get that over to you. So um one thing I do want to say about this position is I think that it is important to note that they will have to do an annual report. So that will be coming before us. I have asked um the safety service director to inform us of when this job gets filled so that at six months we can also do a check-in. Um, I think that something that I heard a lot of was the importance of the return on investment. And I think in this role, one thing that we're doing is we're we're marrying the organization that we have bought into for economic development already and the training that they provide at the end of, you know, the the time that we have with them. And I think that that's really important to tie this um candidate who who gets this role into what they offer so that we can see the return on investment just from from that investment as well. I think that using an organization like that for a limited amount of time and not having that cross trainining with our own staff, we miss out on a lot of things that um would be helpful. So, if anybody has any questions, I will do my best to answer them since Banner is not here tonight, but I have talked to most of you over the last week or two. Apparently, I didn't need 10 minutes for that either. But

I think Can I ask this isn't necessar I'm sorry. This isn't necessarily about the position. Well, I guess in a way it These people come and go from right. So even if we're passing this in an effort to get a person to be trained for those three years, are they training one person or will or will we be able to create some like institutional? I think that that role will create the institutional knowledge. They will they will take the training that they're able to receive from that organization. I'm sorry, mayor. What is the name of that group? Talking about the retail strategies. Yes. That's part of what what this position really trying is try we're trying to really build capacity. I didn't mean to hijack.

No, that's

we're really trying to build capacity and in fact create more non- tax revenues for the city, going after strategic partnerships, going after more grants. Uh we're we're we've been pretty successful at going after grants but it's not been in any kind of really structured capacity building way. Um however we are looking I mean we still like to develop naming rights in the parks. just not done well enough in our recreation department. We we think this is much better fit for that and scaling back the recreation um given other things. I digress. Uh anyway, so this is really about there are two parts of this. It's that that community development generating revenues and then those of you who have been through the governing essentials training through Morpsy uh and the um exercises and having a PIO in emergency committee comms is incredibly important. Um, so this would also be someone who it's very it's a highly specialized uh position because it's someone who's also trained in crisis communications be that face. This is a strategic position. It's capacity building position. Um it's it's less tactical and more it's out there externally facing So, I think that it will do both. I I think that the knowledge that they gain, they will build the institutions for Mount Vernon specifically from what they're able to find, access, and learn

and create those systems exactly as you mentioned the cross trainining and building. And I think it it focuses some of the the actions that have been done by a number of individuals, volunteers, council members, and employees, full-time employees into one one one body, and I don't mean physical body, but one one position. And I I think that that's important because like I mentioned things like um the Statue of Liberty when when that whole process was happening, it was very complicated. It was going through um the safety service director's office and and Brian's office and and council members were involved, but there was no employee who was making sure it was moving along. And so that process took quite quite a few years. Um, I think that the splash pad is another good example. And I'm sorry I'm only using examples that I've worked with, but I think uh Mr. Severs has also worked with a lot of grants that require focus and attention. And um I I think that that is is a big thing that this role will do and it will create the systems of of knowing who to talk to to get these grants to roll forward in a timely way. Just more efficiency, I think, will be plugged in there.

And I guess Based on the fact that you're introducing something bowling backs director recreation would be more recreation. You guys have been responsive to seeing that the need didn't or the position didn't necessarily it didn't pan out. We made a deal with you. If it didn't out okay that's that's that's another position. Yeah. I guess I'm I I guess I'm discussing it more in the concept of historically if if it doesn't work out it has

I I think administration has proven themselves to follow through when they have said they will do something regarding employees. Um so I feel confident moving this forward recognizing that in a year you know they will want to see return on investment as well. So uh I think that this will be a useful role and that we will be able to see things moving forward in a faster way. Any other questions? Because I think that Jay could use all the time he has. All right, we will adjourn that meeting and move to a little bit early. Yeah, Jay, you get an extra five minutes, Mr. Maym. So, we will move to discussion of the bond anticipation notes. Mr. Maym.

Yeah, council. Thank you. Um, uh, this is the third reading. Uh, we're going to come to a vote tonight. Um, it's a, in the words of several people. It's significant amount of money. Um, probably, you know, the largest pro project we may vote on, uh, at least some of these members of council. So, um, you'll be ready with your questions. we have uh the auditor is here and I before we start I want to say I really appreciate the work. Uh I was on the phone and email with the auditor over the weekend. He was very responsive. So thank you Dan for that. Um he's he's brought us some information. So uh uh Dan, how do you want to organize this? I know we have Andy here from Bradley Payne. We have you do you want to start us off and then call your call your witnesses? I mean your guest.

Uh yeah, I guess we'll just start it with questions and then I can bring up uh whoever and thank you for for being here folks. We appreciate it. So So uh Dan, one of the the things that uh we asked you to bring was uh there we have bonds that we're paying on right now that that are about ready to roll off. So yes,

what's about ready to roll off and what does that mean for the city's annual budget? Okay. So, kind of to set the scene, the city pays a little over $2 million a year right now in debt service. Um, it was 1.7 million up until last year when we took on the COOTC building, which is really a fabulous deal for us. Um, saved us a lot of money that we might have otherwise spent the other part of town. Um, so to kind of walk you through when stuff falls off here. So, end of next year, so this is coming up right soon. We have a chase bond which was for the water park and some other projects. Um 47% of which is for the general which affects the general fund. And then we have a loan with Park Bank. Um 48.7% um which is general fund and that that was from Mount Vernon Avenue Bridge. Um total the city spends on these per year is $759,000 a year. Um which will fall off our books into next year. Um the general fund number hit for that um or benefit I should say uh 362,000. So then the next big fall off for debt is two years after that. So end of 29. So both fairly recently. So now we're talking about three years down the road. We have another Chase bond falling off. This was for a wastewater project as well as a US bank bond which was for Blackjack Road. So total debt falling off in 29 will be um another $325,000. And the total directly affecting the general fund for that one is is also kind of close to half about 137,000. So between those two projects alone, you're you're looking at right around 1.1 million in the next three years of our total debt service falling off

and 500 500,000 coming off of our payments out of the general fund basically.

Yes. Yes. Exactly. And then as we move forward in time, we got July of 2032, we have a huge OD OWDA loan that we pay. OWDA, for those probably unaware with all the acronyms, is the Ohio Water Development Authority. Um, so they provide a lot of low to no interest loans for us for a lot of the projects we do. So, this one we pay $43,000 a year um on. So, that's that'll be another again doesn't affect the general fund, but there are ways which it could help the general fund, which I can go and do a little later. Um then in December of 2033, we have a a Zion Bank loan falling off our books, which is entirely a general fund incumbrance. It's for a bridge. Um and that'll save us another $211,000. Um then we fast forward to to our last big loan, which is the one we just took on for the COOTC building, and that'll fall off in, I believe, uh April of 2036. So, and that'll save us 323,000 a year.

Is that all general fund? Uh, right now it is. I think there's portions. So when water billing moves in there, um I think we could probably charge them a portion and then maybe we can figure out a percentage of administrative fee that could be assessed against water and wastewater as well to kind of come up with a a a reasonable number that would like legitimately reflect their their portion. I I don't imagine it'll be that much of that building. Maybe maybe 10 15%. How much was that one?

That one's 323,000 a year. So, all in all, there's I mean, we also have about four OPWC loans, Ohio Public Works Commission, but those are really small potatoes compared to these seven that I think between all of them is about 22,000 a year. So, and those I think all fall off in 2030. But but again, these are these are the big big bigger ticket items. And I think the big takeaway is that like about half of half of our total debt service falls off um by end of 29.

I think the uh the next big question was uh help us understand what is the borrowing capacity of the city and I understand and I thank you for your email and I Mr. Bozer from um Brinkman uh excuse me, Bradley Payne uh had some numbers for us. So, is this a good time to bring Yeah, I think he'll be able to and explain that. Um and uh sir, I I told uh Tanner and Dan to ask you to put this in kitchen table terms. So, I hope you got that message.

That's hopefully I can. Um good evening. Uh there's what I call three debt limitations that that the city has got in front of you. Um the first one which I think we've talked about before is your direct debt limitation. And uh you know that is a is a a limitation that's um in the state constitution that is five and a half% of your unvoted your valuation five and a half% of unvoted debt capacity of of what you can issue in in total. So, for example, if we issue a $29 million um note issue, theoretically the full $29 million would go against that debt limitation. Now, the direct debt limitation is one that is um you know, it's an interesting one because there's there's revenue sources that you can apply towards your financing that would exempt it off of that. And for example, if you do a general obligation bond for the wastewater system, but use wastewater revenues to pay it off, it's exempted off that. Same thing for water. Same thing for tiff geo bonds. Uh same thing on this note issue. We are applying the income tax revenues as a source of repayment. So it's exempted off for the direct dementation. Very common um in terms of the direct de limitation having exemptions. Nothing unusual here. To me, it's a it's a limitation that doesn't have a whole lot of teeth with it. Okay. Um the other two I think are much more important that that uh we watch. Um and that the other one is your indirect debt limitation. What they call sometimes a 10 mil limitation. And under state constitution uh you cannot levy more than 10 mills of tax without a vote of the people. So anything more than that has to be voted upon. So if you take that and apply it to unvoted debt, it's a theoretical allocation of your annual debt service

to make sure you don't go over 10 mills. Because if say everybody went bankrupt in this community, all the communities, then they have to go to the 10 mil levy a tax up to the 10 mills, which is being levied right now, but for operational purposes and other needs. On the theoretical borrowing side, it can't be more than 10 mills as well. And so um we cannot exempt out of that unless you do a strict revenue obligation. So tiff revenue, water, sewer revenue bonds and then income tax revenue bond would be exempt off the 10 mill limitation. We are doing a temporary financing here and so we're going to get through a year and then convert it to an income tax revenue bond next year is is the uh is the current plan. So we are using up some of that limitation um temporarily and then as we come forward next year um you know we'll take that off again. Now you share this indirect limitation with the other communities that you overlap with. So the schools and the county and the career center and sometimes a township if they you know if you're still overlapping. So you want to be a good steward. You don't want to chew it all up so that they can't do a financing. But I think I ran the numbers earlier today and um in terms of the county, there's about $65 million in capacity still left uh for the county. So um you've got ample ability to to do this. You know, obviously we wouldn't want to run the 10 mil up for on a permanent basis because we are taking it up to 8.17 mills at this point in time. So, we're using about the number was about um I shouldn't take these off. 4.34 mills of capacity for a year. Now, let's just say something crazy happens here and you guys say, "Look, we want to do another project." You still have capacity for another 11.5 million for the year because again, we're going to do that for a temporary basis. So, I

want to stop there for a second and see if there's any questions related to the indirect debt limitation at this point in time. Uh, I do have a question. Um, but it's about the and I I think I may be skipping ahead and I apologize if I am, but you referenced income tax revenue. Yes,

that's that's what you're getting ready to talk about. Um, I'm going to go ahead and since I I've interrupted you, uh, that does not necessarily that does not mean that we're going to levy new taxes. No. Or that the tax rates will go up in the city. I think that's incredibly important for everyone to understand this. We're not talking about increased rates or new taxes. This is within our current tax rates.

That's right. And and you know, the legislation talks about you levying a property tax for for the um for the for the notes we're issuing now. And it would be the same if we did bonds. But it also states in the legislation that if there's revenues to pay for it, then then the tax is not levied. And so that's really just that I talked about the theoretical side. If you had to levy a tax, it needs to be with inside the 10 mills that's already being levied and collected today. And the same goes for the income tax. Um, and so the other calculation we ran for you today was I think somebody was kind of curious of what kind of capacity that you have uh relative to the income tax bonds. You've got more capacity than you could afford to pay back. Number one. Um, and so the way this works on the income tax revenue side is we take um the income tax revenues that you're collecting currently, sort of average that out. Um, and then use a a factor because the bond investors want to see you not um have the ability to levy a one for one, meaning if you've got $1 million in income tax revenues, they don't want you having the ability to issue $11 million in debt service a year. They're going some cushion in there. So, uh, typical industry standards when it comes to income tax revenue bond, um, what they call coverage ratios would be two times or three times, uh, coverage. And so, that then again cuts down on your ability of how much bonds you can issue, right? So, we ran just for you, uh, two times coverage, which is really maybe a typical bond covenant that we would see with an income tax revenue bond. uh and you've got about 85 to 93 million dollars worth of capacity and theoretically that should grow right over time as your income tax revenues move up. Um so right now with this issue, let's assume that we go to next year. Um and you know we use again uh

two times coverage ratio. Your capacity is roughly about $5 millionish, five to six. Uh, and so right now you're looking at $83 million worth of capacity um to $93 million depending on what year you year you look at. So that $29 million looking at next year um still leaves you about $54 million of capacity left. But again, that that 83 that that's akin to a a homeowner, the bank will lend you really more than you can afford back. That's that's exactly right.

No charitable giving. You're eating ramen noodles. I mean, we do plan we do plan to have some um uh operational savings. The mayor and the safety service director, you know, we're going to enter a few years here of of lean and mean as far as our operation. But is that my understanding? Absolutely correct. Yeah, that's why we were pretty conservative on the budget appropriations. Could have gone more easily given the history of that, but we knew we were going to be taking on some debt, so we did not want to temp fate, if you will. So, we're going to be looking we're going to be looking for ways to to uh tighten up.

And just a reminder, you know, as we come through, assuming you pass this and you move forward and we go to next year, as we come with the uh renewal of the note and decide, hey, maybe it's the right time to go to bonds, maybe it isn't, uh you have the ability to pay money down. So, let's just say you have a, you know, a very tight budget that this coming year and you have excess revenues. Let's say you have $2 million. You can choose to pay that down 29 million and issue less. That's as you go through next year's budget cycle and look at all that

council questions. Um, Mr. Ber Dan, do we have anyone to talk about the building tonight? I apologize. Oh, thank you. I'm sorry. Uh, tell us where we are in the building. I don't I understand we don't yet have a guaranteed maximum price.

That's right. Hi, good evening. I'm Ashley Sam with Pazuti Solutions. We're your owner's representative on this exciting project. Um, thank you, Mr. Chair, members of council. Um, that is correct. We do not yet have a guaranteed maximum price. Um, the latest numbers that we have are based on 50% of your construction drawings. We do expect to receive 100% of your construction drawings hopefully on Friday. So, we'll be going through an additional pricing exercise for two to three weeks after that to determine what your guaranteed maximum price will be. I can tell you that based on the 50% CDs, we think that you are at approximately 26.2 2 million for the project budget, which is, as you know, south of the 29 that we are asking for permission to sell bonds for. That's really just a fail safe. We never anticipated that you would be at the full 29 million. We just wanted to give you that cushion and give you a nice round number. Um, do you have any other questions about the project? So you're thinking by the end of April is when we would have cost

I'm thinking that likely for your full guarantee maximum price that you will be legislating you will probably be sometime in miday. Right now the bid schedule is I believe that procurement should start probably mid to late April. That typically takes about a month for bidding and maybe a couple more weeks u for scope verification and to draft the GMP questions council. Thank you so much ma'am. Great. Thank you.

So just just so we would still have the option to say that 26 would be our limit or max that we're going to put into this building. What we will have the option to do is when they when the when the um not the owner's rep uh the project manager brings the list to us they will come with a number and we can say yes or no to that number. We can't say we won't go over certain number it'll be a yes or no on that number. Okay. what they're the exercise that they're doing is to prepare us for that and if the number looks too high to see what changes can be made before the plans are sent down to Columbus and approved so that we can get the number lower.

Makes sense. Andy, did you have something else? Yeah, I just want to talk about the schedule a little bit for the financing. we have pushed back um to coincide with when you get that final number to issue the the note and so we'll instead of issuing it you know I think the original plan was I think next week we're going to delay until they have that number and then you'll have a better accurate borrowing amount

if I can also interject there we do council you may have remember that sheet of paper that has a timeline of of the different things we can probably update that just make sure I think it's probably pretty close right now but u when when we meet again, which when we talk again, which I can't remember when it is next, but um we'll get that updated timeline for you.

Council, this is this is the third reading tonight. Um, so you know, ask your ask your questions because this is uh we're coming to a vote and it um we uh we want to do the right thing, but we also we need to get people out of the plaza building and we need dominoes to start falling over. So there's some urgency here.

I would just like to say that uh Dan, I really appreciate the the work that you've done and and I think that this helps a lot with the questions that I've had um seeing these debt services and when they'll fall off. I know that I had been asking back in December about these. So, I think that this is very specific data and I think that this shows a lot of where we are so that we can know where we can move forward. Um, I think that all of this really has answered the questions that I was having about our bond capacity and just being able to bond this without adding any taxes that are additional because I think that's really important for me to ensure that we are not going to have to levy a tax.

Yes. So, I appreciate that. Question. Okay. Um, is there any kind of anticipated date to where we would begin to break ground on this project? You guys, no pressure. Maybe a window or something. I mean, I understand there's a lot lot more dominoes that have to fall in place before then.

Sure. Yes. I would say that as soon as the uh GMP, which is the guaranteed maximum price, is authorized by council that your construction manager will be ready to break ground. So I would say very shortly after you legislate that. Okay. Questions? Dan, you feel just generally you're the auditor of the city. How do you feel about it? Well, I mean I think I think like a lot of you guys

I think like a lot of you all I mean the $29 million figure gives me pause and I think none of us would be doing our job if it didn't, right? Um but and hopefully the bid comes back less like uh like Ashley said. And I think but I will say the more I went through the numbers the better I felt about it. And I'll I'll explain that a little bit and our ability to do everything else we're trying to do as a city and make these $1.8 million debt service payments every year. So, as like we just went through with the debt service schedules overall next three years, we got about $1.1 million falling off. So, for back of the envelope math, little little more than half fallen off by the end of 29. Um, is it all general fund dollars? No, but about half a million is. So that reduces the load on the general fund from that 1.8 to closer to 1.3. Um, additionally there's a number of things we can also do to lessen the blow. So in the last year we moved EMS payments um out of the general fund into the service fund into the uh into the safety funds. Um so that moved about a million dollars out of the general fund and helped stabilize police and fire quite a bit. um so much so that they're they're doing pretty well right now. So um one of the things we can look at when you all prepare for our next budget is perhaps they can shoulder some of this burden. Um I think they're up close to a million in the last 10 months. So I think maybe maybe a decent chunk of this debt service could could go on police and fire. Um another I'll highlight. Um, so I'd like to go to talk a little bit about especially for the newer council members. When I talk about the general

fund and these other funds, it's not because you have an axe to grind against police or fire or water or whoever. It's just that that's where the freedom is. Is um in the general fund, you can you can kick the money to any of the other funds much more easily. Um it can't really come back the other way. um from water to general fund or from police and fire to general fund. Um as our safety service director likes to say, those shackles have shackles. Um but uh additionally, I've I've mentioned several several things for water and wastewater are also falling off and I've talked with other members of administration. There's legitimate administrative fees that we could levy on the utility to also bring the general fund debt load um down a bit. Um Also, we have tonight the first reading for kind of the retooling we're looking at doing for some of the percentages uh for the income tax allocation. So, every month when uh income tax revenues come into our office, um we divvy them up according to a formula that council prepared. I think I think it

I think it was 2018.

Yeah. Well, the there income tax comes in in three separate buckets. The first bucket is the 1% which is the unvoted and that's what the uh percentages are we're changing and the most recent time we changed that was in 2018 as the mayor said. The other two buckets are the two one and a half or two half percent voted income tax and both of those are restricted to police and fire. So that's why those go straight to them and there's nothing taken out of them for the general fund. So that's why they have the restricted funds and if they're doing okay such as whenever we added the uh EMS billing which is more than a million dollars I think.

Yes. Um that's why those funds are doing significantly better because of that infusion of cash. Um, can we also just touch on the the rainy day fund and that that is not at play here and how much is that? Oh, of course. Yeah. Um, I think David sent out our treasurer sent out in his last report. I believe it was just so we everybody hears that we have 3.1 million and I was going to ask if our treasur had any input on this whole thing as well. So,

yes. So, when when I heard like if we get tight, we have to eat ramen, noodles, whatever. But we we do have we do have the rainy day fund which is at 3.1 million right now. The LA the last budget really wasn't talked about like it was the year before, but um Dan and I talked and we just took what was matured at the end of the year and and did another investment for this year. So, so that'll keep that'll just grow over this next year. So,

and I guess your just your general opinion on where we're at financially, we have about three or four minutes left.

So, I think I think the income tax receipts are going to come in fine this year. Uh, again, so I don't see anything like like we did in 2122. You know, it's it's they're going to they're going to be pretty stable. So, and you know, as long as we have a atmosphere in Mount Vernon that people can work and and I think we'll do fine. Um I was um you know when Andy did his analysis and we have a maximum of 85 million. Of course, we're not going to borrow that, but it's nice to know what your max is. So that you know, when you're coming in under that, then um you know, also we have a lot of cash, too. So at the 29 million, we have sort of a buffer in there with with cash and um what we have on hand in the bank. So

can I ask a general question about this project? Um, I'm gonna apologize for the way I'm asking. Um, are we buying a Porsche 911 when we should be buying a Toyota? Like, are we is 29 million going to have like every bell and whistle that is our own? We have our Toyota dealership representative.

Yeah. Here for you. Well, um, thank you, uh, council member. I I can't really speak to what type of car I would classify this project as, but I can tell you that, uh, I want to reinforce a couple of points. First of all, you are voting to allow us to bond up to $29 million. Like I said previously, you are already vastly under that and we expect, excuse me, for you to stay right in line there for when the GMP does come in. Like I said, unfortunately, it's just the timing of the legislation. We'll know a little bit more in the next couple of weeks, but that really won't impact what your overall bond sale is going to do. If anything, I think that it's going to come down. Um, our team has done a really hard hard work exercise with the mayor and Tanner and other members of your administration trying to identify some value engineering items that would be acceptable to the city. And um, based on where we were when the 50% CD estimate came in and where we are now, I would say that we've been able to lower your costs quite a bit. Um some of that is, you know, could be deferred to a second phase if the city does elect to um make further investment in this property, but it will absolutely meet your needs day one when it opens. Um so I can say that we've been working very diligently. We we've been very mindful of the financial situation in Mount Vernon. Um what we've been committed to is delivering you a project that you can afford that will meet your needs.

I think as long as when it freezes and then thaws the rain doesn't pour through the offices. I think I will be happy. I will commit to that. I appreciate that. Yes. Uh we do want to future proof a little bit with this building too. So you talk about that a little bit. Yeah. I I haven't been as intimately involved in the design of the project as I have been in the financial side of it. But I can tell you that something that we always focus on is the ability to expand your needs in the existing footprint or on the site without further um further property acquisition. So I know that there is a plan for that. I can't really speak to the specifics of it at this time. I apologize.

There is extra space that will not be built out initially that will allow potential future expansion as the city grows and the need for additional police officers uh is there. So I mean so we are building a little bigger than we actually absolutely need right now but that is so that we have a 50 or 100y year building so that we're not in 10 years going boy we wish we'd added a few more square feet to the building. Yeah we talked about that a lot we've had many meetings over the last few years to talk about that. We have to be ready for some growth, right? I mean, even if you just think down 13, we're adding a whole new development of 500 residences. I mean, we have to patrol that now. And so there there will be some growth even even in just the square mileage of the city. That I think adds up when you have to think about residents coming in and those things and having a little bit of growth. We haven't we're not doing anything extravagant. last I heard confident that

I think that like we're talking about the impound parking lot being gravel not asphalt and I mean doing some significant I appreciate the question I think the public needs to know that but uh there are things I mean you can't just build a pole barn and put police I mean that evidence security you know there's a lot of things that go into a police station that you might not think just a regular commercial building so But that's I do appreciate the question.

If I can make one further point and I might get into a little bit of trouble with Andy because they're his members and not mine. But I will say that I was involved with um with Bradley Payne while they were running your model and it is a very conservative model. So just speaking to the council members thoughts on your growth that with that will also come additional income tax revenue and other revenue. So I believe that the projections that Bradley Payne used were pretty conservatively flat and with the growth that we have seen in Mount Vernon in the last couple of years and we continue to see your debt capacity will continue to expand as well.

Thank you folks. I really appreciate it. Um, so I I trust that you all will be friendly in the parking lot about that and uh I will apologize to ramen noodles because when I'm sick they are delicious. But uh I think that's all I really appreciate the information. I hope we we've given council and the public enough to to make a good decision this evening. So uh Mr. President, I am two minutes over. So

we are good. So that end that ends our committee meetings for tonight. Uh if there are any residents I want to just say that wish to speak on matters of city concern, please see Mr. Sherman. There will be a form to fill out to get on the agenda. So we will now recess and begin at 7:30 with the legislative session. Thank you.

7:30 and now time to bring the legislative session of the March 23, 2026 Mount Vernon City Council meeting to order. Mr. Sherman, please call the role. Mr. Miller, here. Mr. Severs, here. Miss Kener here. Mr. Mayhem here. Mr. Jacqueline here. Mr. Ruckman here. Mrs. Her here. Good. Thank you. Tonight we have the invocation. We'll be offered by Pastor Doug Pummel from Malbury Church and we will uh have the invocation and please rise for that and we'll have the pledge of allegiance right after that.

Thank you for being here.

Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you so much for so much. You've given us so many blessings. But tonight, oh Lord, there's several things we're thinking of. First off, oh Lord, we like to ask for safety for our troops that are overseas fighting. You know, there's a little pause, oh Lord, and we pray that we pray that that continues, but we still pray for the safety of our troops. And we pray for our leaders, oh Lord, as they they look for options on peace, oh Lord. We we pray for peace. Lord, tonight we pray for our city council as they talk about issues with our city. Ask that you bless them, oh Lord. We bless them in their lives. Be with them. Protect them, oh Lord. Keep their minds clear from other issues so they can concentrate on just the issues that are here, oh Lord. We pray that they hear your voice, that you speak to them, and guide them, oh Lord. For we know you've got all the answers and the best way to lead our people. We thank you for all these things, O Lord. We pray for safety in our right home as well. Your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, council, you received your we all received our minutes in our packet from the February 9th session. Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes? Pardon me.

March February. What did I say? March 9th. Yes, March. I don't know why I put that on there. All right. So, are there any corrections to those minutes? No. Hearing none. Could I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Mr. Sherman, there are there any petitions or communications to read tonight? No. All right. Council, we also received our committee meetings from Mr. Sherman to sign and return. Make sure you get those back to him this evening. Mr. Sherman, are there any proclamations this evening? No.

All right. I don't see any liquor control licenses and I don't believe there are any persons that want to speak on matters in city concern. So we will move into the legislation before us tonight. Are there any other corrections or additions to the agenda at all? Okay. The agenda will be approved by cons consensus. And so we will now move to the resolutions before council tonight. There are none for third or second reading, but there are four for first reading. And the first one is resolution 2026-29. Mr. Sherman,

a resolution authorizing the safety service director to advertise for bids and award construction contracts for the Blackjack Wetland project, EID1510202. Mrs. Hager, we're going to give it its first reading tonight, and I would like to request a 10-minute committee meeting for the next April 13th for next city. Okay. Resolution 29 receives its first reading. We'll go to resolution 2026-30. Mr. Sir Chairman,

a resolution authorizing the safety service director to advertise for bids and award a construction contract for the Veterans Walk of Honor project 25413000 and declaring an emergency. Mrs. Hager, we are going to also give this first reading and request another 10 minutes on the April 13th city council meeting. Thank you. All right. We now move to resolution 2026-31. Mr. Sherman, a resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to create additional lines pursuant to OC 5705.09F and declaring an emergency. Mr. Maym.

Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three readings. take resolution 2026-31 to its third and final reading. Second. Okay. There has been a motion and a second to suspend the rules. Any questions? Um, could you just state the reason, Mr. Britman? So, this is the motion on the amendment or Yeah. Okay. So interested in why we're I just like for the record why we're spending.

Oh, because well this is because it's tied to another piece of legislation that's going going to allow um several departments to spend um money that they've already received. Um so it just just enables things to move a little faster. So if we didn't, what would happen? then we'd have to wait probably a month and a half potentially. Okay. This is money that we've already received and so until we create the lines, we can't spend it. All right. Any other questions on suspension of the rules? Mr. Sherman. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Se. Yes. Miss Keener. Yes. Mr. Maym.

Yes. Mr. Jaclyn. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mrs. Hager. Yes, the role suspended. Mr. Maym, I move to adopt resolution 2026-31. Second, it's been moved and seconded for the adoption. Any discussion? Okay. Um, Mr. Brinkman, take it away, sir. We're going to We need to We've got some revenue. We need to park it into the lines.

Yes, sir. Um, so this is more or less a housekeeping measure that's going to allow u the subsequent piece of legislation that you're going to hear from next. Um, for first probation, um, received yet another grant. Um, so they they hit an incentive. So we're creating a line within their 230 fund that council created last year so that they can spend money out of out of this new 29,000 that they're getting. Um, for the second one, um, we're creating a line in the 7-Eleven fund. Um, so the 7-Eleven fund had basically no money in it. Was kind of zeroed out. Um, but it was within the 700 series of funds that we have for the utility. So, they're getting this money from OWDA for the design of the wastewater plant. So creating a contract services line allows them to spend this money that they're that they've gotten actually not for a grant. This is a loan. Um so they can spend that money on the design work for the wastewater treatment plant. In reality, we're renaming the entire 7-Eleven fund from it's currently sewer system replacement improvement and now it's going to the whole fund is going to become fund wastewater treatment plant uh OWDA fund specifically. And then within that fund grouping, there is this specific one for contract services to appropriately track the loan money that we're getting for that part of the whole loan that we're getting for OWDA

and it'll allow us to better track the grant as the director was saying and in 230 the the funding addendum language we're is we're required to use that language. Is that what I That's just what it's called. So yeah, that's that's what probation asked we probation says that the state auditor wants to see that in the line and so we can add the stuff which is what I did with the parenthetical to tell council that this is extra bonus money that we got because we met our incentives. Right? So, it's a fun incentive because it's a two-year grant.

And so, during the first year, we hit our incentives and they said, "Because you hit your incentives, here's some more money." And that's what this specific line is tracking the incentive money we got for hitting our targets in the first year of the grant. And will we be getting potentially more of that grant, the incentive grant? Well, they Yeah,

I don't know for that one. I know there's other ones within that 230 fund because they're the way the the state does their fiscal year, it kind of straddles our years. So, we created different lines last year as I'm sure you'll recall um that kind of help facilitate that. So, I think for one of them we loaded actually the figure that we're going to load in the next piece p piece of legislation is based on a year and a quarter or a year and a half that that we calculated that that they've got. So now they can hopefully spend it and they actually they parcel out the money over periods of time. I think it's quarters. So it's 29,000 at the moment. I believe that there may be additional money coming in as we go further into the grant because we continue to hit the targets and therefore earn the additional incentive money for the grant.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Sherman. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severns? Yes. Miss Keenan? Yes. Mr. Maymand? Yes. Mr. Jacquine? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Mrs. Hager? Yes. The amendment is or the resolution is adopted. We now move to resolution 2026-32. Mr. Sherman. A resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to make supplemental appropriations. Mr. Maym. Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three readings. Take resolution 2026-32 to its third and final reading.

Second. We've had a motion and a second to suspend the rules. Any questions on suspending the rules? I'm going to ask again, can you explain why it's beneficial to suspend the rules? U just so we can implement this and allow probation. And I mean for this one it would be probation um our public works um and most importantly for u wastewater because they have vendors that are probably close to needing paid um for some of the work um for the design services. Thank you. Of course, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severns. Yes. Miss Kener.

Yes. Mr. Maym. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline, yes. Mr. Ruckman, yes. Mrs. Hager, yes. The role is suspended. Mr. Maym, thank you, sir. I move to adopt resolution 2026-32. Second. We have a motion and a second for the adoption. Mr. Maym. Okay. So, we've uh created the lines and now we need to move some money into them. Take us through this, Dan.

Yes. So, two of those are that. So the number one and number three are dealing with the creation that we just did in previous legislation. So the first one is sending money to the 7-Eleven fund um for that OWDA loan of 2.3 million. So they can start spending that on the design work. Um the second item is for uh it's that is it's not money that we've received, it's money that we already have. It's carryover from a previous year that um council just hasn't appropriated. Um and that's into the 101 fund um for um for some pool equipment. Um believe it might be having to do with the slide uh resurfacing that they're going to be doing. Um the third item is the one we went over a little bit dealing with the uh CCA grant for probation. And then the fourth item is also with probation but a different line and that's just carryover that wasn't appropriated from uh last year. Any other questions?

Mr. Sherman. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severs. Yes. Miss Keener. Yes. Mr. Maym. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mrs. Hager. Yes.

Resolution 32 is adopted. That ends our resolutions. We now move into ordinances for this evening. There are two for a third reading, two for second reading, and three for first reading. And the first ordinance for a third reading tonight is ordinance 2026-04. Mr. Authorizing the issuance of notes in the amount of not to exceed 29 million in anticipation of the issuance of bonds for the purpose of constructing a police station and related facilities, furnishing and equipping the same, improving the sites thereof, and acquiring real property and interests therein as may be necessary in connection therewith, and authorizing and approving related matters and declaring an emergency.

Mr. Mayan. Thank you, sir. I move to adopt ordinance number 2026-04. Second, there's been a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance. Mr. Maym, council, we've had, this is the third reading. We've had significant time of uh committee meetings. You've heard testimony from our consultants and our treasurer and our auditor. Um, any further questions? I think we're ready to roll, sir. Mr. Sherman. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severs. Yes. Miss Keenir, yes. Mr. Maym, yes. Mr. Jacqueline, yes. Mr. Ruckman,

yes. Mrs. Hager, yes. Ordinance 04 is adopted. We now move to second ordinance for third reading tonight. That's ordinance 2026-05. Mr. Chairman, an ordinance establishing compensation, benefits, and terms of employment for the community development/public information officer and declaring an emergency. Miss Kener. Thank you, Mr. President. I move to adopt ordinance 2026-5. Second. There's a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance 05. Miss

uh we've had a couple of committee meetings on this and I I reached out to most of you in the time that I had in the last couple of weeks and hopefully I have been able to answer your questions or the safety service director has been able to answer your questions. But I do think that this is an important role at this point for the city. Any other questions? Mr. Sherman, Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Sevens? Yes. Miss Kener? Yes, Mr. Maym. Yes, Mr. Jacqueline. Yes, Mr. Ruckman. Yes, Mrs. Hager. Yes,

the ordinance is adopted. We now move to ordinances for second reading. The first one is ordinance 2026-6. Mr. Chairman, an ordinance to amend section 755.04 of the codified ordinances of the city of Mount Vernon regarding curbside recycling and declaring an emergency. Mr. Rockman. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to give this its second reading and ask for a fiveminute committee meeting at our next gathering. Ordinance 6 receives its second reading and it'll be nice to have that at our next gathering. We now move to ordinance 2026-7. Mr. Sherman,

an ordinance to amend chapter 133 of the codified ordinances of the city of Mount Vernon regarding civil service commission and declaring an emergency. Miss Keener. Thank you, Mr. President. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and take ordinance 2026-7 to its third and final reading. Second. There's been a motion and a second to suspend the rules. Any questions? Again, this is um taken to its third reading because this is a commission that is not currently able to function and the goal is to have some alternate members on this civil service commission so that the work of the city can move forward.

Mr. Sherman, Mr. Miller, yes. Mr. Se, yes. Miss Kener, yes. Mr. Maym, yes. Mr. Jacquellyn, yes. Mr. Ruckman, yes. Mrs. Aker. Yes. The role is suspended. Miss Keener. Thank you. I move to adopt ordinance 2026-7. Second. There's a motion in a second to adopt ordinance seven. Miss Kener. I think this one was straightforward and we had a short committee meeting on it earlier. Um so I just would ask for your support in this. Mr. Sherman. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severns. Yes. Miss Kener. Yes. Mr. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Jan. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mrs. Hager.

Yes. The ordinance is adopted. We now move to ordinances for a first reading. The first one is ordinance 2026-8. Mr. Sherman. An ordinance establishing compensation, benefits, and terms of employment for the services and resource coordinator and declaring an emergency. Miss Kener, I'm going to give this its first reading tonight. Ordinance 8 receives its first reading. We go now to ordinance 2026-09. Mr. Sherman, an ordinance to amend chapters 763 and 773 of the codified ordinances of the city of Mount Vernon regarding taxi cabs and declaring an emergency.

Mr. Rockman. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I am going to give this its first reading. And Mr. Mayor, do we think that 10 minutes to talk about taxi cabs in Mount Vernon. Talk about taxi cab meeting at the next legislative session. Interesting. I have this picture of taxi cabs in the old whatever. Mr. Roy, you think 10 minutes should probably do it? Yeah. Well, nine minutes of that's going to be laying out the history of the commission. But all right, Ordinance 9 receives its first reading. We now move to ordinance 2206-10. Mr. Sherman,

an ordinance to amend section 183.013 of the codified ordinances of the city of Mount Vernon and declaring an emergency. Mr. Maym. Thank you, sir. We're going to give this its first reading and we're going to need a committee meeting April 13th. Yeah. How long do you think we should ask for that? We'll go ahead with 20. If we run short. We'll yield our time back 20 minutes that this ordinance at our next gathering April 30th

first reading and that there will be plenty of committee meetings that evening. So we will be ready to come early. So that uh concludes the legislation for this evening, March 23rd. We now move to remarks from the administration and remarks from council. Um Mayor Star.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. and uh council uh appreciate it. I'm sorry I didn't get an update to you. I just kind of ran out of steam and ran out of uh of time uh with everything. So I I will I did save some some comments for this evening. Um thank you for your service on the Patriotic Memorial Committee, Mr. Maym, for for being on there. And u Mr. Mayan has stepped down because we have someone coming in his place. Mr. Jaclyn is going to be taking his his spot on that particular thing. and Mrs. Mrs. Hagar is going to chair this year and and uh groom the next parade chair. So, we want to thank Kathy Hirs for her uh two years three years two years two or three years of of of uh wonderful leadership that she's she's done. She brought a lot of structure and so uh we're looking forward to actually incorporating either reces or um um one of one of our one of our gov softwares. I can't remember which one we're we'll be using to help uh with the registration and getting this system in place to do the heavy lifting and eliminate the the dual data entry uh to make this thing work. So, uh we're going to we're going to experiment a little bit and see how this goes. So, anyway, thank you uh to everybody who's doing that. We are going to have our first meeting here very soon. That's coming up. Uh I also want to remind everybody about the Washington forum that's going to take place on the 31st. Um, we did have um my friend uh Steve Patterson wasn't able to make he's not going to be able to make it from the uh he's the mayor for the city of Athens and also past president for the National League of Cities, but in his place um Mayor Lori Jadwin from the city of Kahana is going to be taking uh his place and so she will be here along with former Governor Ted Strickland and former Congressman Bob Gibbs. Uh and if you're a fan of Hamilton, it is entitled In the Room Where It Happens. And so uh we will be

uh asking them uh questions and we'll have audience questions as well. That will be at the gathering place at six o'clock um on on the 31st. So hope hopefully you can make it. That should be a lot of fun as well. Um starting to do more states of the city addresses. Uh I will be at the uh the chamber is is sponsoring one at the Ramser Ramser um for center at the fairgrounds this Wednesday. Uh I believe there are 92 people signed up for that. That one is u is is happening and I I'm also getting requests from companies, churches and um colleges uh to provide on-site states at the city. and I'm I'm happy to take it on the road as many times as I need to so that uh the folks can ask me questions directly and I can answer them and it just saves a lot of headaches anyway. So, uh and then we'll also be scheduling them for the the city employees as well. Last year we did one at the fire department. It was a good turnout and so yeah, we'll be looking forward to that. Also on Friday um had the pleasure of attending the the middle regional planning commission's state of the region which was extremely interesting. Um we heard from Jeff I can't remember his last name.

Lindsay what? Greg Lindsay. Greg Lindseay. Greg Lindseay who is a futurist and talked a lot about where we are heading in terms of of development and central Ohio's got it going on. I'll tell you that. And so we we it's really really hopeful. We do have we do have a lot of opportunities in front of us and we do need to we do need to be uh smart about how we go about doing that. Uh but the other person came and spoke. It was the transportation secretary under the uh Obama administration. Um and Ray Hood yeah

Ray Hood u spoke and he was very passionate about this and he said this is one of those things transportation is bipartisan always has been. um there's not a Republican or a Democrat street. And so, um I'm I'm very very uh uh encouraged about the future of transportation and how this is just this is this is something that that that uh uh raises the quality of life for everybody. And so, I look to see some uh some some magic coming from Washington and and the state on transportation hopefully. I know that uh our region is growing by by uh another three million people in by 2050. And so that's going to be sidewalks, it's going to be roads, it's going to be bike paths, it's going to be um shared youth paths and so forth and uh getting from point A to point B. So um and rail rail's coming as well. So that's something that that's very uh very important. Anyway, um there are probably a number of other things, Mr. President. I'm just drawing a blank right now, but uh anyway, thank you very much.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. just like to comment on uh the police station and you know the process that you guys went through was very deliberate and asked very good questions and um you know we had some good advice from the folks that we were working with and and you pushing us to to come through with some answers but uh it's not it's not easy stuff and I'd say you know it is a big price tag But some of that is because it's been put off too long and now we're here and uh it is what it is. But the location's great. I think we're going to have a a really good station and um you can't move forward if you don't do this kind of stuff. So applaud you all for what you did.

Thank you, Mr. Mr. Brinkman. I'll just echo what said appreciate the feedback from council on things. Thank you, Mr. B.

Thank you, Mr. President. Prom. Um, one of the things I think council is probably a little frustrated with is the way we're sort of trying to get legislation out and both Zach and I are continuing to learn and figure out the new software that we've got. Um, but we're also going to encourage uh if you have requests or you need things to get them into us as early as possible so that we can turn things around in a timely manner. Uh second, tomorrow at 4 o'clock in this very room, the board of property maintenance appeals will have a meeting and one of the things on the agenda is what to do with the buildings here behind city hall and then wrapping around onto Chestnut Street. Uh by the time that meeting occurs, you will likely see um scaffolding and netting because parts of uh the building closest to city hall have been falling uh onto the sidewalk and into the street. And so we're having to put that up to protect uh the people here in the downtown uh area. So uh there'll be a lot of discussion about what's happened and what happening with those buildings and some photographs. Uh we've taken some people into there to see what's actually going on inside, but that's a public meeting and they encourage everyone with an interest in what's happening downtown to come. Finally, uh Mr. Ruckman noted taxi cabs and surprisingly enough, we have recently received uh interest from someone wanting to set up a new taxi cab company here in the city. So, I think that fin the mayor and I have been going back and forth for the last year maybe about about the various taxi cab uh

parts of our ordinances and this finally uh kicked us into gear to uh do something about it. But we're happy to talk about where we were and where we think we need to go. I could ask this at the end, but does taxi cab mean like Uber, Lift, other things? I can tell you specifically that the ride sharing platforms are very specifically exempted from local municipal regulation that happened in 2016 when the legislature exempted them. I hope there's Mr. Might be

Mrs. Hagar. Uh, I just wanted to remind everyone that the Mount Vernon Parks and Recreation is having the Jerry and Joy Easter egg hunt on Saturday. It starts at 9:30 and it will go probably at the tail end noon. U, but there's a staggered start for age groups. There's going to be a coffee and donut truck and of course the Easter Bunny will be there taking pictures with the kids. It's at Hayawaka Park this Saturday the 3. Yes, the 28th. Sorry. Uh the 28th and it's um 9:30 start. Um and we hope to see everyone there. Is that rain or shine?

Rain or shine. Yes. Thank you. I actually highlighted that I was supposed to say that. I appreciate that. All right, Mr. President. Prom.

Thank you, Mr. Maym. Uh, I want to thank council and administration um for the work uh on the police station and and all of the city facilities that has been done. Um, if if you just if you weren't paying close attention, you may think that we've gone a little crazy. when I first started on council um to now thing the plan was police station and and city hall and justice center and and we're going to have all those things but none of them are going to be where they were when I first came on council three years ago. So but the that is a result of uh I think the good intention and hard work of the people in the administration who were trying to find the best solution uh to meet the needs of the city, meet the needs of their employees um and do it in a fiscally responsible way. Um the the price tag three years ago was depressingly impressive. Um and it has come down and come down and come down um to something that that we really can afford. Uh $29 million is a lot of money. 26 and a half 29 you know whatever wherever we end up but as Mr. Stellar said it it's got to be done. We've got to get people out of five gay. We've heard the testimony regarding that building. Um, and uh, I just appreciate all the work that is has gone into this and it's I'm glad to see the dominoes start to fall over. Thank you for that,

Miss Yeah, Miss Gainer.

Um, I I think that you are right, Mr. Mayan. I think it was you, myself, and Mel on a committee a million years ago, and it's very exciting to see this come through. And I don't think that that would have happened without the administration being willing to turn on a dime and find the most cost-effective way to do this. So, I'm very excited about this moving forward. Um, I just wanted to mention that uh the Knox County CVB has their new official adventure guide out for 2026 and 2027. It has a lot of people that some of us may know in here and it is a great resource if you want to get out in your own county and and you're not sure what to do. It has everything. Um the director over there, Olivia Toth, has worked tirelessly on this and she has done a very good job and I think that our partnership with that organization is really great and I would just encourage everybody to go find one of these. I know they're all over the place. And thank you to uh Lenan who brought one for each of council. So

that's all, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Oh, I'm sorry. One question. Will the four o'clock meeting tomorrow be online as well? Zach says yes. Okay. Yes. And it's being held here. Yep. Okay. All right. Mr. Exactly. Um, first time I voted for something such a large price. Me too.

Little little breathtaking, but I understand that it it is necessary and that a lot of work is the other thing that I would like to comment on though is the resiliency of this community. After that windstorm, um I walked uh several neighborhoods uh my dogs and I I saw a lot of neighbors helping neighbors cut down large trees, move things out of the way. Uh and you know, it's very reassuring to see that in these times that people show up for each other. Uh so that's all I Thank you, Mr. Rock.

Yes, Mr. President. Thank you. I u really don't have to say this evening other than happy Easter since the next time we gathered together. Uh that will have come and gone. So that's all. Thank you. Yes, Mr.

Yeah, Miller. I also would like to reiterate some of the other comments tonight about the police station and um I sincerely appreciate all the efforts been put into it for many, many years. um after personally touring the building with the police chief back in December and refusing to enter the third floor because I was afraid I might fall through to the second floor um is very much needed and I'm very proud to be a part of it and very proud to chair chair the committee right now and to actually cast the first yes vote in adopting the legislation. Once again, I'd like to thank everybody that put in the work for the years and years before I was even here because I think it's going to be very very worthwhile.

That's it, Mr. President. Pro tip.

All right. You know, this this project is exciting. I can't wait to see us put shovels in the ground and get this moving because we have we have had a lot of meetings over the last I I've always said everything seems to take seven years and seven or eight digits to build and that's about what this has been. We've been talking about this since I came on to council in 2021. So, uh it's exciting to see us actually vote. Yes, this is a huge vote. This is I mean it's a lot of money, right? So, but it is exciting. And so, council, thank you for the support of that. I think that's great. The other thing I want to say is about the storm we had Friday night to thank our city crews and then just all the neighbors as Mr. Jaclyn noted, but our city crews to go out. Um, there were 13 15 trees across roads that were impossible and they were out there getting those trees cut up. So, thank you so much to our city crews. And if you don't know, which I have seen a lot of piles of sticks out by the road, they are they began picking up piles of sticks today and they will do that this week and they're only going to make one pass through the city. So, if they have not gone by your house yet, and I know they haven't done East High yet because I called my son today, and um but put the sticks that you have laying all over your yard, if anything's 4 in or less, the city will pick that up and and dispose of that.

No, four inches in diameter, excuse me. Yes. Anything larger than 4 in in diameter, you will need to take care of. And you probably got a neighbor or a friend who could use some firewood. So let him let them take that away. But again, thank you to our city crews. This is a huge dent.

And you know, these the crew, this is just not something that we plan on, but we have to fit it into the schedule because they're getting ready to start mowing and other things that when the grass is waking up and everything else in the city comes to life uh in the spring, they have a lot of work to do. But they had to throw this into, you know, about 10 days of work here extra. But thank you to our city crews. I I really mean that. So like to thank the media for showing up tonight. And I always want to thank uh Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Zimmerman. Yes. Sorry about that. Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. That's good. We have our recycling.

Why don't you come on up and mention that? That's going to be important. Public needs to hear that. Yes, this is our annual uh tire recycle. We'll have uh volunteers and groups there. Um you can bring automobiles and light truck tires. No semi, no tractor tires. And yes, I'm looking at you, Mr. Rookman. Um they are $2 a tire. There is no limit. Uh the time is 8:00 to noon sharp. and uh come out to the Aerial Foundation and we'll have some volunteers help you uh toss your tires up into the back of semis and we will get them taken care of.

I was a volunteer last year. It's dirty work. It is. Are you not coming this year? No, I'm I'm busy with the Easter Bunny. Well, go play with the Easter Bunny, then come over and help load tires. But um I I do believe uh I think we're going to get some probationary people there. where we've got some uh since you can't make it, we're taking all the other people, but uh we're going to have those and also I believe some uh some of the service groups here in town. We reached out to the NAS sporting uh sport team. So hopefully we'll get Ariel, right? Ariel. Yes. Yes, at Ariel. Great. I did the work that one year. It was raining the whole time. I was totally dead for about three days.

It is a few hundred tires. It is a good It is a good workout. It was unbelievable how many tires we collected last year. It was unbelievable. And if you work the event, make sure you know that there will probably be water in the tire. Oh, that is going to be nasty as all get out. Yeah. The good thing is the mosquitoes have not hatched yet, so there shouldn't be any larve or anything like that. You guys are really building up our

Actually, it was it was it was a lot of work, but it was actually very fun. And being property maintenance is one of my divisions in my department, please take advantage of this because there's lots of people that call and it's very worthy too. Like I I joke about the mosquitoes, but when it does have water, then the mosquitoes lay their eggs and then the larve hatches. So, it's something that's needed and it helps clean up your yard. And for two bucks, it's pretty reasonable. So, all right. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. No, you're good. Thanks again to the media. Thank you to our audio video guy, Matt. Appreciate that very much. I now call for adjournment of this meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved. Second. All in favor say I. Any opposed? We're journ.