City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank Yeah. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Hope everybody's doing well. Tonight um we've got our February 23rd, 2026 meeting is now called to order. And what we want to do is we'll have invocation and pledge. But before we do invocation, want us to stand and do a moment of silence for um we have a council member served one term. Uh coach, we call him coach Robert Jackson senior. So we'll have a moment of silence, then we'll get into our prayer. I know he served on the council for one term out of district,

should have been district four. All right, let us stand for those moment of silence. First in prayer, then pledge. Let us pray. Gracious God, we come before you tonight thanking you for what this meeting represents. It represents trying to make a little bit more progress for our city and just guide us in a spirit of working together in a spirit of progress. Be with each and every one of us here and not not just up here but everybody who's in the building. We even thank you God tonight for a portion of our youth. youth that are here within the city of Nacatus having something to say about a very valuable program. We thank you that you'll give the speaker boldness and clarity as they share with us some insights about the mayor's youth council. Thank you for touching each department head that they would execute in their jobs in a way that's not only pleasing to the residents but that's pleasing to you and for all city employees for that matter. God, we also ask that you would strengthen and comfort the family of Robert Jackson senior. Many people affectionately know him as coach who was one of the few individuals who helped to compose the Nagatis charter the constitution that we uh follow so diligently and faithfully serving on the city council. We thank you for his many contributions to the city of Nagatish.

We thank you for giving his family that comfort that they need. We ask these and many other blessings in your son Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right. Now, would you please join us reciting the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you all for for that. Look, just want to we read this all the time, but ask that you take a moment to silence your cell phones during this meeting. The city council encourages public participation. Comments are limited to 3 minutes per speaker. However, this time limit may be reduced if there are numerous speakers on a particular item. Uh to ensure efficient proceedings, all persons addressing the city council shall state their name and shall speak in a civil and courteous manner. Speaker shall address the agenda topic only uh to which they are speaking on and shall not be repetitive. Members of the audience, please respect the rights of others. Do not create any noise or other disturbances disturbances so as to disrupt or disturb persons who are addressing the city council. Council members who are speaking or otherwise impede orderly conduct of the meeting. And thank you for adhering to those instructions. Before we go any further to um our uh item number four, Councilwoman Washington, Eli Zay, anything else you wanted to say about our former councilman? I know he represented and served in the district that you're serving in right now.

Uh no, sir. You um councilwoman, do you want to say anything about coach? But I don't have anything um to say. You said it all and I greatly appreciate you.

Yeah. Thank you. I would just like to add that he was an avid worker in the community. He and I worked for many years in the community on many projects uh trying to help people be uplifted and recognized in Nakish. Uh so so many people of our race were overlooked and I've worked hard with him over the years working for justice for people in the community. That was his his insight hindsight to do that and he will surely be missed. Um, I just want to say he will surely be missed. Certainly was a wealth of knowledge. Um, and I agree knowledgeable.

Um, he will in fact be missed. All right. Um, next we've got the reading and approval of our minutes from our February 9th meeting. I would like to make a motion that we dispense with the reading of the minutes of February 9th, 2026 and that they be adopted as recorded if no corrections. Second.

Motion made and seconded to um adopt and accept the minutes from our February 9th meeting as they have been recorded. Um is is there any comment or question about this particular motion? All right. Seeing Mrs. Stacey, roll call vote. Eli, yes. Nelson, yes. Smith Kirkind Doll, yes. Harrington, yes. PG,

yes. All right, that motion carries. So, we've got special guests here tonight. We have the Mayor's Youth Council and they have some numbers here. Um, I think they've already had two meetings this particular uh term or session, however you want to say it. But I think there's a particular spokesperson we have. Okay. Okay, great. We will just ask that um y'all will go to the podium here and um whoever speaks first, state your first and last name. Then the next person before you get into your remarks, just state your first and last name. Um Ameilia Willis. Okay. Good to have you here tonight, Ameilia.

Awesome. So, hi. I'm Ameilia Willis. I'm a senior at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, and this is my second year on Mayor's Youth Council. Last January, I'd only been living in Nacades for about a year and a half with El Smith. So, I still had a lot to learn about the places to go and things to see, and I only had two Christmas fests under my belt. Um, so I realized I need to be more involved in the surrounding community outside of just the LMSA and NSU bubble. So when I heard about Nakashesh mayor's youth council and the work they've been doing, I was eager to join. So last year our monthly meetings consisted of informational sessions and a visit to Fort St. John Baptist. But this year has been my favorite so far. Um in January we learned about the different parts of Louis we learned about the different parts of Louisiana culture and at our first meeting in January we met with the fire chief to learn how to make king cakes. Um, none of us were particularly fantastic at it, but the overabundance of sugar was quick to cover any insecurities we had about the success of our baking. Um, we learned about fire safety that meeting and we got to know about each other beside got to know more about each other in the cohort besides just our baking skills. And then around 2 weeks ago, we all met over at Legacy Cafe to make meat pies. This is what some of the photos are up here of the kingcake and the meat pies. Um, I'm not sure about anyone else's, but my meat pies were significantly better than some of the food that I have over at Elsa. So, that was a good bonding experience for all of us. Um, and then going forward, we have our April meeting centered on Earth Day and end of year banquet where we will recognize our seniors. So, Mayor's Youth Council isn't just a group of kids from different kinds of high schools. We're students committed to learning more about the community and creating last longl lasting connections with others. So, I'd like to thank the council for the opportunity to host our meetings and events as well as letting me speak here today. Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm Maria Kano. Good evening, mayor and council members. Um, I am a senior at Acade Central and I am currently in my second year serving as a member of the mayor's youth council. I am here tonight to give you a brief update of what we've been doing. As you may already know, the mayor's youth council meets once a month, each and each meeting focuses on helping us better understand the city while also giving us opportunities to serve and connect with the community. This January, we toured the city hall and the event center, which allowed us to take a peek at how the different departments work together and keep the city running. We also learned how to make kingake with the fire chief, John Wen, uh, who went over some kitchen safety rules with us. Um, it was a pleasure to have a community leader connect with the youth in a fun way such as this one. Um, in February, we visited the Legacy Cafe. In there, we learned how to make meat pies with the cafe's cook, Miss Karen. Um, some of us took some creative liberties and made meat pie dumplings and other shapes with leftover meat pie dough. To me, that experience was to me that experience was more than cooking. It meant culture and tradition through a fun hands-on experience. Looking ahead, we are planning to collaborate with the Boys and Girls Club at the Bendy Johnson Auditorium. We are very excited about it. Details about the project are still being finalized and our goal is to encourage involvement with the young children of the city. Um, overall this council continues to be valuable opportunity for the students across Nacadesh. Um, so far I have learned the importance of civic engagement and serving others. I have had a lot of fun and I've gotten the opportunity to work with students from other schools, students that are incredibly driven and invested in advocating for this community. Thank you all for your continued support in the in the youth involvement in our city. I am proud to be part of this council and I am excited for what awaits us in the future and thank both of you for speaking on

behalf of the group. You did a wonderful job. Look, my wife just made it. Um it's the mayor's youth council, but she really she'll be really the first ladies youth council. But um but also Aziza uh does well and when we need our department heads like Chief Wayne, he stepped in. I think you may have I don't think he's on any of the photos, but the king cake um activity, he led that activity and I think everybody enjoyed that. And no, you're right. Those there were some really good meat pies that were made uh as well. So again, we just appreciate the creativity really appreciate your willingness to do this um as well. So just each session we want to make it better and better and uh try to be as um as interactive as we possibly can be. But again, it wouldn't happen without uh my wife and Aziza committ their time to it. So again, um, one of the groups that, um, one of the initiatives that people communicated that they wanted to see back, um, in the city, I think there was a gap, uh, really of it not being in existence, but uh, we were able to bring it back, bring it back, and again, really any of the high schools in uh, in Agage Parish. So, all right, again, give them another hand. And thank you all for your presence. We will bring them back in May, right? I think they're coming back in May or April.

It may be the last meeting in April. We're trying to beat I think St. Mary's graduates first. So, it's always trying to beat that graduation. It just depends on when it falls. Okay. So, and I I say that to say we will certainly try to get a photo op then. Is that what we're doing? We're trying to get a photo up at that time. Okay. All right. Mayor, I just have one question I'd like to know. Uh who made the king cake? I didn't get any. It looks so good. So delicious. Everybody made one, right? I think everybody made everyone made one. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Great. Looks so good. Great job.

Well, again, we appreciate you all your dedication to it and we try to just do once a month because we know everybody's busy with other things that they have and just, you know, we expect people to try to be committed to that one. Yeah. Okay. Well, we said we would do it on um the last meeting in what is that? May, I think. Was that picture? Everyone while they're here. Okay, they're here. Everybody's here. Now, see, I didn't dress up in my suit. I supposed to have my suit on. But come on, I'll do it. I kind of did a laidback thing. Y'all want to do a picture? You want to do it? Let's do it. Okay. The layback thing. All right. They came prepared for this, didn't you guys?

Come on, y'all. Let's get in there. Come on. That's fine. Y'all already kind of know right here. How we doing? Yeah.

Okay. Everybody can look at us, please. One, two, three, go.

Thank you. Leave it alone. All right. Great work. Great work. All right. Next. Not that long of an agenda. We've got two ordinances that are for final, meaning we've seen them before. And the first one is read by Councilwoman Washington. Eli.

Thank you, Mayor. Ordinance number 001 of 2026 and I read title only because it was read at the last meeting's final. The ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Nagage Ronnie Williams Jr. to execute the agriculture lease for the city of Nagage in favor of Russul and Mary Edith Stacy forms of the property located between the South Louisiana Highway one bypass and the water well road being track B and D as shown as the survey by Glen D cannon date October 2005 and recorded at the map slide 569B and the records of the negligence Paris, Louisiana further provide for advertising and the lease public hearing and effective date. And I move to adopt ordinance number 001 of 2026.

Second. Okay. Motion made and seconded uh to adopt this resolution. All righty. Um Ed, I know we saw a few of these before. is um 001 and 002 kind of the same. Yes, sir. They're the same thing but just two different tracks of land. Okay. Where's the first one, Ed? Kind of a

The first one is behind Pilgrim's Pride Feed Mill. Between Pilgrim's Pride Feed Mill and Highway 478. If you're on 478, look back at the feed mill. It's the majority of all the crop land you see. Not all of it, but but the majority of it. Okay. Excuse me. Were these tabled previously? They were tabled pre at least three meetings ago, maybe four meetings ago, but they were introduced, Stacy, what two meetings ago. Yes. Cuz they skipped it skipped a meeting. It had to lay over and skip a meeting. We've already done that. Okay. Mhm. Cuz you had to have to do a little bit longer of a

the advertising. Mhm. Any other any questions about this particular ordinance? Okay. And I think that's pretty much you. You explained what it is pretty much. Yes. Right. All right. Mrs. Stacy, roll call vote. Eli, yes. Nelson, yes. Smith Kirkindall, yes. Harrington, yes. PT, yes. All right, that motion carries. Um, next we similar just a different part of town and it's going to be Councilman Nielsen.

Thank you, Mayor. Ordinance number two of 2026, an ordinance upon the recommendations of the finance department that the city enacted enter into an agricultural lease of a 96.82 82 acre track at which 69.11 acres is farmable and arable land more or less with Russell and Mary Stacy Farms and authorizing the mayor Ronnie Williams Jr. to execute said lease on behalf of the city of Nacades and to provide for advertising and I move that we adopt ordinance number two of 2026

second. All right. Motion made and seconded. We know the first one, Ed, is um behind the feed mill and near the feed mill. Where is this one? This one is um where shop is across from the fish hatchery. It's that narrow field and it goes all the way back towards runs into fairground road at the airport. It's that long narrow property where shop is. Yeah. There's a cell phone tower there, you know. All right. So, you have the fish hatchery, then you have panam shop a lot. Yeah. Right there by panam.

Okay. I know what you're talking. That's where there was going to be some caviar thing at one time and all that stuff. That's correct. Okay. Yeah. And I normally like to get pictures, but just thought about it. Um, did we get a motion to second? Yeah, I think I second. We did. Any comments or questions about this? All right. Just a different area of land in the city. All right. Mr. S, roll call vote. Eli, yes. Nelson, yes. Smith Kirkall, yes. Harington, yes. PT, yes.

All right, that motion carries. So, those are the two ordinances for final. This next piece is an introduction. All right. And it's handled by Councilwoman at large Smith Kirkindall.

Thank you, mayor. This is ordinance number 007 of 2026, an ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Nagish to award the bid for water treatment facility improvements phase number two for introduction. Whereas resolution number 002 of 2026 was passed by the Nashville city council on January 12, 2026 authorizing the mayor to advertise for bids water treatment facility improvements phase 2 bid number 0682. Whereas this bid was advertised in the Nakish Times on January the 15th, January 22nd and January 29th, 2026 in accordance with law. And whereas three bid proposals were received and open as follows. The Le Moine Company LLC out of Lafayette, Louisiana bid was $6,250,000. Dixie Overland Construction of Sibling, Louisiana bid was 6,413,000. Sin-law utility contract is LLC of Alexandria, Louisiana 7,237,810. Whereas on February 12th, 2026, the appointed committee Smith, finance director Ed Lee, director of purchasing Tim to sec utility department and Eddie Harrington, Councilman re reviewed the bid proposals for the water treatment facility plant phase 2 bid. And whereas the above appointed committee members unanimously recommend that the city award the bid to the lowest bidder being the Le Moine Company LLC in amount of $6,250,000. This is for introduction only.

All right. Um we knew that this was going to happen. Uh phase one is um nearing completion and I want Tim can say something about that in just a moment. I will say I've seen most of this before. I don't know council if y'all been there but that and I don't have a little um bread um what do you call it t to pointer to show you but that fourth p picture on the I got them over here. Okay. Yeah. That y'all that's that's what it is. Oh no. Go back. Go back too. Yeah. So I remember going there. Yeah. That's that's what's holding the floor together. that I mean that's the floor.

So I I assume it was some metal type floor first.

Yes, that plywood is what's covering what was left of the floor. There was no floor left. We were falling through it whenever we would go in at vacuum cylinder in the uh middle right there. That is what actually pulls the vacuum on plant three. If you look at that first picture right there, you see plant three is overflowing. It's not supposed to do that. We can't even get it to hold a vacuum anymore. It's too far gone. That whole centerpiece is rotten. So, the phase two is actually a rehab, a complete rehab of of plant three after plant two gets rehab. The uh tube settlers and the filters in plant two get rehabbed and put it up to about 2.5 million. We're still going to be short. We're still going to be pushing pretty hard to be able to take down plant three. But if you look at that third picture right there, plant three is what we kind of believe is starting to put some of this brown water into the system. That is sludge in plant 3's clarifier. There's no plate settlers left in plant 3, but we cannot shut it down without additional gallons per minute. Mhm.

And that's plant 4 being all the way up. That's right. If plant 4 will give us 2.5 million, which is yet to be seen. Is it up yet or? No, it's still got about another month. Another month to go. So, this project really won't start until plant four is all the way up. That's right. Plant four has got to come online. and they have to get all the bugs out of it and then it's got to be producing water for several weeks, good water for several weeks before we can take off plant two. So to speak to the bid a little bit, who won the bid? How many companies stuff like that?

Le Moy Company won the bid u out of the three that was actually there actually submitted the bids. Le Moine is the one that's doing the phase one part of it and it was right at 6.2 million. So this that originally we were funded for 17 we had funding for 17.6 million. We took out some extra addendums on the U second part which is going to leave us $872,000 left over after the U funding for phase two goes through for anything that we see arise during the project.

So that's a little cushion then. A little cushion. Okay. Well, I mean I it needs to work. Yeah. Any any any comment council questions y'all got? Big project. That's a lot of dirt. I would just like to know I know uh you said we're This is plant four. This is plant three. Three. This is plant three. Okay. And and we you mentioned plant four. Plant four is the brand new plant that they're building right now. Okay. All right.

Got to get that to work. So, what do plant three uh service? That's plant three serves all the city. Plant all the plants serve the city. Service. The plant three can push out about three and a half million versus right at 2 million for plant one and about 2.5 million for plant two. Um, plant two years ago was able to push 4 million, but somebody decided to turn one of the clarifiers into a thickener, which cut its capacity in half. Okay. I know it wasn't me. No.

Yeah. Uh, it's a needed project. It's a needed project.

What's the capacity of four again? 2.5. So you got 3.5 for plant three. If we push it really hard on plant one, we can get close to 2.5. And if we plant push plant two, it's 2.5. That second picture is the tube settlers on plant two. If we push it too hard, those tube settlers will fall out will blow out of the clarifier. It's just too much clar too much water flow. Okay. How many companies uh put a bid on Tim? Sir, how many bid? We had three bids. Three bids.

Three bids. Okay. And I think it's been good so far working with Le Moy. Yes. Le Mo has been really good. Seems like uh the engineers and you all were excited about them winning it. Yeah. Okay.

Again, this is just introduction. So, we got another couple weeks to if there are any questions, but it's showing that progress of this needed infrastructure in the city to produce good water for our residents and even those who live outside the city. So, all right. Um, we've got three resolutions that we're dealing with. Looks like two of them are with the airport. So, we'll hear something from Ed in a minute. But this first resolution um 009 of 2026 is Councilman Harrington.

Resolution 009 of 2026 is a resolution authorizing Mayor Ronnie Williams Jr. to enter into a task order agreement between the city of Nacades and KSA engineers for tea hanger taxi lanes design at the Nacades regional airport. I move to adopt resolution 009 of 2026. Second. Second. Motion made and seconded. What What we doing?

Okay, this is our existing tea hangers. I mean, those are built. They're at the airport. They're in use. They're completely full. So, the we're proposing and trying to get a second set of tea hangers constructed. So this is the first step the FAA is paying for and it will be uh all the surveying the environmental study and the design of the taxi lanes. Once that's done then you would move into the design of the hanger and then we you'll have either one or two construction projects but this is the first step. So in reality, we're a few years away from actually being able to build a set of tea hangers, but this this is the first step and FAA is funding it. So you're talking well over a million dollars for a set of tea hangers and it will house probably those house 11 airplanes. There's 11 units in that one. It will look very similar to what you see. Same color scheme, same layout, but it's much needed. We're we're full at the airport.

That's good. And not costing us a penny. It won't cost us any money. Go ahead. I always like to bring that up. And before anyone says, "Well, it's costing taxpayers some money because FFA's pay." They're going to pay for it somewhere else, so we might as well get it here. Well, that the FAA the money you get from FAA is from taxes collect on fuel cells. So when you fly on a commercial airline or even airplanes that fuel up here at Nacades, there's a portion of the your taxes on the fuel cost that go to fund the FAA and then in turn they put it back in projects. That's great. And our airport has been very successful with getting

true getting money I mean every year. All the time. all the time and we keep it here in the city instead of it going somewhere else. And actually, this is something that's low priority for the FAA. They don't they don't let you spend money on something like this until the taxiways, runways, your navigation aids, all of that is in tiptop shape. So, we're fortunate to be at a stage where we can use their money for something like this. Otherwise, they wouldn't even entertain it. They turn you down. That's great. That other important infrastructure is improved. And that's right. That's future fuel sales right there.

Yeah, fuel sales have been up considerably, too. That's good. Yep. Right. Any any comments or questions from anybody? Oh, yes, ma'am. Can I get you? Deborah Thompson, my question is, so this money that's coming from the FAA is from the whole state of Louisiana. So if we were to fly out of Texas, it would not come to us. No, it it's uh countrywide. Oh, countrywide. Yes. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you.

All righty. Any other comments or questions? Right. Saying no. Mr. Stacy, roll call vote. Eli, yes. Nelson, yes. Smith Kirkindall, yes. Harington, yes. PT, yes. All right, that motion carries. Next resolution. The next resolution is read by Councilman PT, but we're going to hear from Ed again just a moment. Go ahead, Council P.

Thank you, Mayor. Resolution number 010 of 2026, a resolution authorizing Mayor Ronnie Williams Jr. to enter into a tax order agreement between the city of Nagades and KSA Engineers for a fuel facility improvement at the Nagades regional airport. May I so move to adopt this resolution number 010? Second. Motion made and seconded. This is actual pictures from our airport, Ed. Yes, that's correct. Go ahead.

And this one in particular is the fuel tank that's closest to us in the photograph. The other two fuel tanks you see on the right hand side are they were a project six or seven years ago, but they did we we were selling enough fuel that we couldn't that we were frequently in danger of running out and we couldn't order another truckload of fuel until a tank was empty so you could put it in. So we needed an extra fuel tank and that is for jet A. So two of those tanks are jet A fuel tanks and one is uh 100 low. So we needed the capacity cuz you know we we're selling a lot of sell a lot of fuel and this resolution in particular is for additional engineering. We had to add pumps and motors. It didn't it didn't work exactly as designed and so there had to be some additional engineering to work out the kinks. And again, uh Eddie, this is FIAA funded. This this one doesn't cost us any money.

Always like that. That's great. So, look, we're selling the fuel and we're doing more. That's great. Just curious as to is it um prop dusters? Is it just people with personal planes? What the what's happening?

A operators are a big part of it. But the big thing that I see is you have your flex jets and your net jets. There was a time when we we had very little jet traffic. But now if you wanted to, you know, if you wanted to fly somewhere or some of the even the business folks that come here for whatever reason, they might they might not own an airplane, but they'll go to Flexjet or NetJet and they'll rent one for just a trip here. And so we're seeing a lot more of that kind of traffic and it's really picked up on our fuel sales. It's it's almost daily that at least one jet comes to the airport. Sometimes it's two or three and and they burn a lot of fuel.

That's good. Ed, do you see any opportunity, excuse me, in the future of receiving bigger jets?

We can go uh up to I I'll say for people that don't know like a Gulfream 5 or a Challenger, they're maximum loaded weights 90 to 100,000 lbs. But we can't handle the large commercial airplanes. One, we don't have enough people to, I guess, guess justify the commercial traffic, and two, our runway needs to be longer. So, we are hoping to one day get in a position where we could extend the runway, but that would be a a major project. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but we're trying to get in a position where when it does happen, we're ready. It's kind of like these hangers. You got to have everything else done.

Yes. Okay. Hey, Ed, the the uh jet that you just mentioned, how many passengers can that hold? You said a Gulf Stream.

They're configured differently. Uh you know, any a Gulf plane like that, 12 to maybe 18. We have had a couple times basketball teams that played here at Northwestern fly in like on a commuter type airplane. I've seen 30 people get off of one of those. But they're they have their the turbo props are like a twin engine turbo prop like trying to think of an example. Uh like more of these regional airplanes. They don't use them too much anymore, but it was the regional type airplanes. You would fly from Alexandria to Dallas or Alexandria to Houston, that type of thing, but they were turbo props. Yeah. So that that's about as big as we can handle due to runway length.

All right. Any other comments or questions? Okay, seeing Mrs. Stacy, roll call vote. Eli, yes. Nelson, yes. Smith Terall, yes. Harington, yes. Peachy, yes. All right, that motion carries. And the last res resolution, excuse me, of the of the night is read by Councilwoman Washington Eli.

Thank you, mayor. Resolution number 01, the resolution authorized approving of the execution of the equipment lease agreement with the West Fargo equipment finance inc for the proposal of the leasing of the do of the city of N utility department and I'm going let Mr. Ed Lee take care of this. Thank you. Or Tim, which one? Tim, you both of y'all. I was I was the one that worked on the lease. Okay.

Uh this is an existing dozer that we have been using for three years as a a rental. So this time it's now technically going to be a lease instead of a rental. We got prices for a new one to start with a a new dozer and it was $3,000 more per month. So we asked them to rework it and see if we can lease this dozer for four years. And what would it be? and it's $2,620. It went up about $120 per month just to continue leasing that dozer. It's low hours and in good shape. Plus, they're going to add a tail winch on it. So, in case something like a bucket truck gets stuck, we can use a dozer to pull it out. But, we saved a good bit of money by just continue using using this dozer.

It's a lot. But, we were renting now we're leasing we're renting it. So technically, I suppose Wells Fargo will now hold the title to the dozer with whatever arrangement Scott Equipment made with the with Wells Fargo for this particular dozer. So we'll begin paying Wells Fargo monthly on this. And after 48 months, it's over done. They'll come pick it up and we'll have to find a new lease or look at buying one at that time. maintaining

well minor stuff the city does something major we call Scott Equipment and they they have their own traveling repair shop and if it's major they'd pick it up and take it back to Alexandria and work on it the question was who's maintaining yes the dozer okay yeah and Tim you're using this to what are y'all doing

public works has been using it to level out behind MLK rec center and we use it mainly to push the sludge that we take out of the water plant and put it out by Sibly Lake. We level all that off mostly. We use it during storms whenever we have to pull in and out bucket trucks and digger trucks and 365 hours on it. It's brand It's still brand new. Okay, quick question. Is there ever opportunity to like purchase after like the lease or contract is up?

There is, but not on this one. You have to if you go out for bid, you have to bid it with the option to purchase at the end. U bid law won't let you do a lease purchase unless it's actually bid out. This one has not been formally bid out because it's a pure lease. Gotcha. Can we in like in the future look at purchasing one? We can. Okay. I think that'd be a good idea to look at that. I'm assuming Ed and we didn't talk about this before. Have we owned one before one of these or we've always kind of had this? If we have, it's been a long time ago.

So, it's basically I'm not thinking about situation. Tim may know of something. Yeah, we don't know of any own one. always leads to bulldozing. Okay. Now, the question is that is that a it says for a total of 48 months, 150,000. Is that monthly? I don't know. No, no, no, no. The the 150 is the asset cost. That's how much it would they're valuing that do dozer at the 48 months is at it would come out to about 125,000. 48. Okay. Per month. Okay. I got you. Yeah.

Okay. Any other comments or questions? All right. Did we get a second to do we get a motion second? Second. I don't think we did. Second. Okay. I thought I did, but okay. Never mind. Question. Eli, you motion. motion second. Okay, that's okay. So, I heard Council Nielson or PT, either one. PT PT. All right, Mr. T. Roll call vote. Eli, yes. Nelson, yes. Smith Kirkindall, yes. Harington, yes. PT, yes.

All right, that motion carries. Next, we get to hear from our finance director. Thank you, Mr. May. Financial report. All right, so we have the sales tax report for January. Uh if you go to the first slide, you'll see the pie chart where it shows us um how it is divvied up.

It's not up there. Oh, okay. Well, I'mma talk you guys through it. So, sorry. Um so, for the month of January, uh we collected $1.4 million in sales taxes. Um, and I'll just kind of just narrate my my slides, but looking at January for the past 3 years, we were up 1.12%. Uh, which equates to about $15,600. So, from the last three Januaries, uh, 24, 25, and now 26, we are up $15,600 comparatively. Uh, and that equates to 1.1%. um just taking a different look at it. Um as far as te sales tax collections um same information it was just in a different format so I won't um repeat that information again uh they do give us still looking at our fiscal year knowing that our fiscal year starts in June and goes through May they give us the data in our fiscal year as well. Um so um based on our fiscal year we are up um 1.2% for this month uh in sales taxes which equates to about $17 uh,800. So this particular slide will be showing you comparatively um to our fiscal year uh rather than just the calendar year. Um the next slide just shows you an accumulated amount uh versus just for the uh one month and uh for our fiscal year. So um we are up over the entire fiscal year we are up 3.2%

which equates to $311,000. Um so we are up 311,000 from last year. uh total uh collections to date is $10,65,000. So uh sales taxes are definitely uh trending in an upward manner. Again, that second slide just gives that same information to you just in a different way. Um the next slide you would have saw would be the tiff district information and uh based on uh comparing last month I'm sorry last year same month to this year uh tax um tip district hotel occupancy a we collected $4,74 a little less than 1% increase there but still an increase uh for 10th district um hotel occupancy We are up 37% uh which equates to about um $8,400. We collected a total of $31,000 583. So tiff district C the hotel occupancy tax is trending upward and we are up 37% when we compare same month, same time last year to that time of this year. All righty. So the next slide you would see would be some of the economic development district collections. And for EDDDA we're up 10% uh from last January to this January. For EDDDC we are up 17% uh from last year, same time to this year. Uh for EDDDA we collected $7,800 and for uh EDDDC we collected $49,14261.

For the economic development district D, we're up 4% with a collections for January of $7,321.88. For economic development district E, we are up 53. Yep. 53%. That's correct. 53% and we've collected $12,748.3. What you want to say for E? E. Did I say the wrong thing? No, you say E. Okay. Okay. Where is E? Well, hey, you know what? I will I will quiz you guys. Where is E? Because I gave you a cheat sheet the last time. I forgot my

See, so you can't quiz me anymore. I get to quiz you. South E. No, Texas. Texas. Texas Street, I think, is uh the Yeah, that is South Commons. Well, yeah. South Commons is ED. Uh-huh. Is it E? Yeah. Yes. You have the cheat sheet. D. Uhhuh. Oh, it is. South Commons is D. D. Yeah, but the one that was up 17% is What is E on your list? 53% I mean 53%. Was E. I don't E is River South Commons. We're not going to confuse the public.

Have A B C D F. Yeah. Yeah. E is Riverside Commons. Mhm. Cuz F is the mill district. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, Riverside Commons was up 53. Mhm. That's a lot. Yeah. Last year, the same time they collected 8,320 and this year we collected 12,780, I'm sorry, 748. Okay. And EDDDF is up 9% which would be Mill District Goodwill's.

And uh we collected $3,961.50. So the next slide you will see and I think this was a I think this is the one that was asked last time. Uh so they did include the DMV reports um but they included up to December. They don't have the stats for January. Uh but we are slightly down 5% um from 24 to 25. that equates to about um 200,000 um from 24 to 25. So DMV uh motor vehicle sales are down. Um I'm saying Dway.

And what's what's interesting about that some months like March is was up 20% and then next April 12, but then you do have some negative months. Yeah. So it's it's definitely a up and down game. It's definitely up and down game. nothing really consistent when you're looking at these, but I wanted to include I think it was axe the last time. Um I did request the um online sales cuz that was not in our report. So um hopefully I can have that the next time cuz that's definitely always interesting to see how they're collecting taxes on the online sales cuz that's a newer one that they've done a really good job on collecting taxes for.

No, it's a lot better. A lot better. Thank you. Good. Good report. Really, the only negative was the auto sales. Everything else is trending upward. Yeah. Going up. Okay. Thanks, Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Brown Smith. Thank you.

I got you. Okay. All righty. Uh, our next meeting is on March 9th. We just always encourage y'all to download these apps. I hope people actually do it and don't just have me talking up here. Um, few announcements we want to share that we we basically pull a lot of these out from the Go Nagage app. Um, I think we did this one the last time. So that's on tomorrow. Seems to be really geared towards students, but from 10:00 to 2, um, they're having the career fair open to all majors at the student union ballroom. So having it on Wednesday is the Go Nagadish Awards and uh you always see a lot of lot about this on social media. They kind of put out that they're um honoring Dr. Steve Harden, honoring Cla Primus with two different awards. I don't remember the name of them, but you kind of get to see those before the actual event. But the event is on this Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And um so they've got the ticket prices there. Third annual women's day. Uh Jennifer Bramley has kind of led this effort for us. So it's got a conference going on and uh more inspiration, empowerment, connection as we celebrate women in our community. Um March is um International Women's Appreciation Month or something. I don't know if the word appreciation is in there, but um it's recognizing women and the contributions that they make to uh society as a whole. So this is going to be at 9:00 a.m. at the Nag Event Center. Uh that she says seating is limited and RSVP by today to reserve your spot. All right. Blooming on the Bricks is going to take place on March 7th from 9 to 2:00 p.m. So I think things are going well,

Shauna, with that. So um but we're looking forward to another great Blooming on the Bricks event and we'll certainly see more advertise as we get closer to that. So BOM 20 years u 20 anniversary. It's got to be they've been here they've been around longer than 20 years, right? Maybe the financial services part. I don't know. But I thought they've been long. But anyway, they're doing a ribbon cutting schedule for 545 at 860 Washington Street and Chamber of Commerce going to help to present that. Then there's another one I think Steve we have about BOM. Um they're going to have their grand opening and this is their many of you may have noticed that Kaiser building um right next to the cemetery there by St. Mary's Church on Kaiser across the street from the uh bowling no skater ring. Skate ring. There we go. Skater ring.

So that's where that is and uh they've kind of re remodeled it and they're taking some offices there. All right. March 12th, reading on the river is another as we get ready for springtime event that happens. And uh free admission 10 to 1 is when that's going to take place. We love to take uh part in uh reading on the river. Uh my family and I books they give books away. Uh but Kane River National Heritage Area pretty much leads this effort on the riverbank. So it's a good one. So, the pub crawl um is the 11th annual have their title sponsor there and it's going to be on March 14th uh from 4 to 10:00 p.m. And I believe it's this year. Fauna is taken. Maybe they took over last year, too, but this year for sure, I know they're having it. You see the um you see the little dog and cat there. So, that's uh by design. All right. That's it.

That's it. Okay. All right. Those are the announcements. Oh, yeah. Come on, Chief Win. We're having our groundbreaking on March 3rd at 10:00 a.m. for fire station number three. It'll be there at 3600 University Parkway. Please come and attend. We'd love to see you. If you notice, there's a big sign out there, too. Ride by and look at it. Wonderful. That's right. Sign is up. Building looks really good. That what in terms of what it's going to look like. So, um, and we'll get some flyers out. We'll probably have a flyer out tomorrow, but I think Chief sent out some emails already. That's March 3rd. March 3rd at 10 a.m. 10 a.m.

March 3rd at 10 a.m. So excited about that project. Goodie, council, anything else? Nothing else. All right. And seeing as nothing else, at this time, the chair will hear a motion to adjurnn. I so move we adjourn. All right. Second. We got a second. All right. All in favor? I meeting is a