Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This February the 17th, 2026 board of alderman meeting is hereby called to order. We're thankful to have Pastor Morris Stevens from Cooper Chapel CME Church to lead our invocation tonight. Pastor, thank you for being here. After pastor leads the invocation, I'll lead the pledge of allegiance and then we'll continue with our our order and our docket from there. Uh pastor, please come forward. Please stand. Let us bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we come at a time that we are thankful for all the many blessings that you have given not only to us as individuals, but to our country, but especially to this great city of Olive Branch. Lord, as we come together as elected and appointed officials and concerned citizens, we ask you to bless this meeting and let it be the way you would have it to be for the betterment of this city in a time, God, that we really need you like never before. Bless our mayor, our board of aldermen and alder women, and just bless this entire olive branch. Lord, we thank you for what you have done for this city already. We thank you for what you're doing and we believe in our hearts that is okay to thank you now for what you're about to do for the good and welfare of our great city. It's in the name of Jesus who we believe. Amen. And thank God.

Amen. Thank you, pastor. Salute. I aliance 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. Be seated. Administrative announcement. Uh this meeting is broadcast live on the city's YouTube channel and archive for playback. I want to make all participants aware of that. And also those of us with microphones, the microphone color should be on green so we can be heard uh when speaking uh at any point in the meeting. Miss Stewart, if you will conduct roll call. Aldridge here.

Collins here. Dickerson here. Earhart here. Gamut here. Hamilton here. Wallace. Thank you. All present quorum established board. We have before you the minutes of the regular meeting of February the 3rd, 2026. Any questions, comments, or motions on those minutes? Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Miss Hamilton. Second, Mr. Collins. Any discussion? All in favor? All opposed?

Motion approved. We're fortunate to have with us tonight several members of the West Cancer Foundation. Uh and the president, Miss Leanne Sen, is going to address uh the board communications director Jay Nichols and I had the the priv privilege of meeting with Miss Sen uh and other team members uh couple weeks ago and a very positive program for our community and for patients, cancer patients. And uh if you will, Miss Sen, please come forward and and address the board. Anyone who speaks tonight from the podium, if you will, give your name and your address so the clerk can capture your address for the minutes of the meeting. Thank you.

Leanne Soden, president of West Cancer Foundation. My address is 3045 Devonshshire Way, Germantown, Tennessee, 38139.

Thank you, mayor, so much for the opportunity to come and speak. Um, why am I here tonight? Well, one thing, I love Olive Branch because I'm from a little town much like Olive Branch called Holly Pond, Alabama. Uh so it feels very homey to be here and be around wonderful people like all of you. I just want to take a few minutes and talk about West Cancer Foundation and what we do and and why I'm here speaking is honestly because we want to spread the word about all of the services that we provide. We work with all providers in Shelby County, Dodto and Kittin County. And our name is West. You may be familiar with West Clinic, but we work with all patients and serve all of them. Um, our mission is to break barriers to cancer care. Um, we all know in our area here there are a lot of disparities, uninsured and underinsured folks and we don't think there should be barriers and your zip code should not dictate what kind of care you you can receive. Um, so I'll just briefly tell you a little bit about the programs that we offer. All of these are donor and grant-f funded. A patient never receives a bill from us. Um the first program which is the largest is our transportation program. Um that last year we um gave almost 7,000 rides to patients. Um and these are life-saving rides because you can't miss especially if you're an active treatment, you can't miss a single uh treatment because it does affect your outcomes. Um and that's been proven by research. So we really strive to make sure we keep people going to their treatments. radiation can be 5 days a week for anywhere from 6 to 18 weeks. Um so we feel very good about the fact that we are saving lives by providing that service. Um the next program is our breast cancer screening program. Uh in our region breast cancer um has some of the highest mortality rates with black women black women and breast cancer. And

that's very disturbing to me and that's something that my board and I are really working on to make sure that we people know we will provide the screenings. We'll provide transportation for the screenings. If if anyone needs a screening and they don't have a way to get there, we will absolutely take care of that as well. Um breast screenings are very important. All the women in here, if you're over 40, I bet you've had your mammogram, right? Yes. Yeah. Um, the second program is prostate screening. And, uh, when I talk about this program with men, they sometimes they look away and they, you know, like, I don't want to hear what she's having to say. And it's like, guys, it's a simple blood draw. Come on. Much less painful than a mammogram. Am I right, ladies? A blood draw. Um, so that's another program that we're really getting off the ground. We've been doing it uh in health fairs. Uh we screened over 100 men last last year and two came back with additional testing needed. Um the other program that we offer is mental health counseling. This is so important because there isn't anyone else in in our area that provides all of these programs for our region. And mental health, as you can imagine, if you have a terminal diagnosis for you or for your family members, that's very tough. I went through that with my daddy and uh it was difficult. I wish I'd had someone to speak with. So we will provide free counseling for patients and or their caregivers and very very proud of that program that we offer. Um the other programs that we have are postmasectomy when ladies have to have a masectomy bilateral or uh one then they can get a voucher from us and they can go to we have several vendors and they can be fitted for prostthesis and undergarments that go along with that is you know helping a woman feel whole again. Um the other program which is medically necessary is lympadeema compression garments. Many patients go

going through any type of cancer treatment can develop lympadeema. It's extremely painful. Your extremities, they swell, can get infected if you don't have these garments. Um, and they're expensive. Anywhere from $200 to $500 each, and they're specially fitted. So, that's another program we're really proud of that we can help anybody with. Um, the last program that is um is probably our smallest line item on the budget. However, it's um it's our favorite because we get to see the patients uh patient facing. We don't have that opportunity with the programs because we arrange for them and then the patients get there. But with our sweet wig beauty boutique, it's in our office and ladies come in and they can u choose up to three wigs, scarves or h hats. And this is wonderful to see them come in because they're they're you know scared, they don't feel well. uh by the time they leave, most of them they brought a friend or you know sister by the time they leave they're just they're so happy. You can tell it's just a different person than the one that walked in the door and that makes us feel very very good about what we're doing. So those are the free programs that we offer. Again, they're all donor funded um and grant funded. Uh since we have uh began doing programs in 2021, we have provided over 24,000 patient services. We're very proud of that. That's a lot of patients. We we've been able to touch their lives, whether it's through, you know, life-saving, getting your u transportation so you can get your chemo or it's um something like a wig, which is just as important uh to ladies. Our hair is our crown as we know, and that's something devastating that women go through when they've been diagnosed with cancer. So, how do we get the money to pay for all of these programs? Well, Stephanie Douglas, our VP of development, and Malia Tyus is our manager of development. They're the ones that have to go out and raise all the money uh for us to be able to provide these. So, we do that several different ways. Uh

grants, we apply for grants when it's u feasible. And we also uh receive major gifts, planned giving from, you know, grateful donors. Um but a lot of our money comes from our signature event called West Fight On. That is Stephanie's baby and becoming Malia's. That is a wonderful event at Shelby Farms. It's always the Saturday after Labor Day and it's a family fun event. You can come out and you can if you want to participate, you can ride your bike 20, 40 or 60 miles. You can run or walk the 5K or you can walk a onemile um tribute walk. We have a lot of patients that do the tribute walk because they want to be there but they can't physically exert themselves for the other um activities that we have. You'll also just come out to Celebration Village and celebrate with us. It's all about celebrating survivors that day and their caregivers. So, it's a very uplifting event. And u we raise a lot of money. Uh this year we hope to raise about 700,000, right? And then we also do two other cycling events. They're really like um they're not so much events, they're campaigns. Ride to Rosemary is uh the second largest and that's a group of 72 men who ride their bikes from West Clinic in Germantown down to Rosemary Beach 100 miles for five days and that has really grown um exponentially. This is their this will be their 16th year and they started with nine men and this year they're going to have 72. Uh and they raise money for us. It's not a lot of work on our end because they get the sponsorships and they do peer-to-p peer fundraising. We also have what started four years ago is something called she to sea ride and that's the ladies came to us many of them are um wives of some of the riders of Rosemary and they said well we want to do something you know just for the women so they started she seen very successful last year they

raised $125,000 and they only had uh 22 people last year 22 ladies and they may expanded this year up to about 27 but those are incredible events that really show that's how what we do and the passion that these writers have and for what they do for us. It's unbelievable. Um a lot of people know Ride to Rosemary because they see them a lot and you may even know some of the writers. Um everywhere I go people seem to understand and know what this is all about. They have their pink jerseys and they're always doing their training rides all over. Um but that's a really emotional event. It's sort of a spiritual retreat for the men and the women. Uh it started with one gentleman who was going through a tough time and he um when he sort of got through his tough time, he told his buddies said, "I'm going to ride my bike down to Rosemary Beach." So I just want to clear my head and get down there. And they said, "Well, we want to go." Uh so that's the nine gentlemen that started this and it was truly was a spiritual retreat then and it's remained that way. It's a great great program and they raise uh $350,000 a year for us. That's all I have. I would certainly welcome any questions or comments.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss S. How can we help other than we have these at our senior center. We have them in our lobby, our reception area. We're going to pulse this out on our social media channels. How else can we help get the word out because this is an awesome program and a lot of people can benefit from it?

Absolutely. Um we will get you as many of those cards as you want. Uh, another area where uh, if you can do it, churches, they're some of our best referral sources because men and women may not listen to their doctor or their kids or anybody else, but when their pastor tells them go get that screening, they're more likely to do it. Then also, uh, PCP offices in town because they see so many people that may not have insurance for any additional screening and they are a really good resource for us as well.

Mr. Nichols, next time we have our our meetings with our advisory committees and our ministerial advisory, let's make sure to invite this group back to update them as well because they'll represent the various churches in the city. But excellent program board. Any questions or comments? Do you all get a lot of financial support from the national organizations like American Council or Not yet. Um we're still fairly young. This is our seventh year of operations and we um are now able to apply for state and federal grants. Uh but we're looking for a grant writer right now, but that's certainly a goal of ours is to apply for those grants.

If nothing additional, can we have all three staff members up and have a picture with the board? I'm a very positive program and we want to push this information out and help however we can. So, please come up to the platform area, please. Maybe right up here. And we just stay where we're at board. Jay, is that doable? Get you wide angle over here. George, you going to take that 500 mile bike ride? Maybe about do the bike ride. Our heart wants to do the bike ride, but our knees just can't take the bike ride. That's a great I know a friend that does have a friend. That's amazing. You got us all, Mr. Nichols.

Yeah. Here we go. One, two, three. Got it. Thank you very

Okay, we appreciate it. Excellent. Foundation board. You have the consent agenda items 1 through 16. Items 1 through 16. Any comments or possible motions on the consent agenda items? Motion. Mr. Collins. Motion. Is there a second? Mr. Wallace. Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

All opposed? Motion carries. Board. The next item under planning commission old business are are two items that uh we want to have tabled. The second one tabled indefinitely uh and the first one but both of them tabled indefinitely. These we're in the process of noticing and there's some possible property ownership changes that are going to take place that might uh save the city some money from having to take this one home down that would be very costly. And asking for the board to consider a motion second and vote to table these two indefinitely. Motion to table and definitely Mr. Gamage motion. Is there a second? M second.

All in favor? All oppose? Motion carries planning commission consent item. Uh first revision on the acory plan commercial subdivision. Uh you've read through that very straightforward dividing changing the boundaries of two different lots. If the board's comfortable with that as a consent item, please uh make a motion and vote on it. If not, we'll go through it. Motion to approve, Mr. Dickerson. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Second, Mr. Wallace. All in favor?

All opposed? Motion carries. Under new business, consideration of recommendation to approve change order number eight on the contract with A and B construction in the additive amount of $26,472.34 increasing the contract amount from $8,783,967 to $8,810,3791 and increasing the contract by two calendar days, making the substantial completion date April the 17th, 2026. six for the project referred to as Olive Branch Public Works Complex. Mr. Swim, just a highlight of that change, please.

We had um both um a credit on labor and material for drywall work. We had uh additional costs for testing and inspection and electrical um adding two two days in the amount that the mayor mentioned. So, we do recommend payment for this. Any questions on that or motions? Motion to approve. Mr. Collins, motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Second, Mr. Earheart. All in favor?

All oppose? Motion carries. Item two, consideration of recommendation to approve change order number nine on the contract with A and B construction in the additive amount of $3,554.25 25 increasing the contract amount from 8,810,3791 to 8,813,93326 and increasing the contract by one calendar day making the substantial completion date April the 18th 2026 for the project referred to as a city of O branch public works complex. Mr. Swims,

this is um change order nine. The first one was change order number eight. This one is a smaller amount is basically it has to do with changes I think that it negotiated through it for changes to the exterior door at the new public works building. And we do we do recommend payment for this. Thank you. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Dickerson. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Wallace. All in favor?

All oppose? Motion carries. Number three is consideration of recommendation to approve the facility use agreement for the light the way ministries. This is our independence day celebration that be held on Jan excuse me July the 3rd on Friday July the 3rd uh for this light the way ministries I believe this is our fourth year Mr. Pickles our fifth fourth and then followed up by the fireworks show for Independence Day after that. Any questions on this item? Make a motion to approve. Mr. Earhart motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Collins. Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

All opposed? Motion carries. Item four, consideration of recommendation to approve change order number two on the contract with Alexander Construction LLC in the additive amount of $3,900 increasing the contract amount from 1 million $11,000598.38 to1,15,498.38 for the project referred to as the pickle ball facility. Mr. Yes, sir. We have lighting just a lighting. Is that what that

it a small change that we made on this one allowing that our players to come out there to turn on a switch to manually turn on the court lights and I think they would go off after an hour. So we do recommend payment for this. So after dark instead of them just remaining on indefinitely and maybe somebody not cutting them off, hit a button, play an hour. If you're still playing, hit the button again. If not, they'll turn off and not burn 24/7. I a couple nights. I thought maybe the parking lot there is quite dark. Okay. The main parking lot by the tennis courts by the pickle ball court. Okay. There's many people playing it.

There's a bunch of kids out there and some parents watching from the vehicle. Okay. But I notice if you're walking through there, Mr. Should be lit up like the city needs to be lit up. Just a little bit of light. We can sure look at providing additional lighting for that parking area as you pull in right to the pickle ball court. Quite dark. Okay. It may be a bulb out somewhere. I didn't see it, but it was dark. We We need to look at that because we haven't had anything in that area for a while other than the volleyball and the sand, volleyball nets. So, we can sure look at lighting. I'll make a motion to approve as well. Okay. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second.

Second, Mr. Collins. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Number five is consideration of recommendation to approve a proposal from Civil Link for a fixed fee amount of $63,500 for a roadway and maintenance plan board. This is in essence what we did five years ago where analytics were taken on the CCTV of all the of the streets you know and decided instead of us looking at them one through 10 or seven let the analytics do the judgment on it uh this would give us that again for an update after the fiveyear period is we can update and go by for several more years. Will this be done after our paving this year after you know so they'll have them?

It'd be before wouldn't it Mr. Swims? That's true. That's that's We're going we'll take that into consideration. So, anything that gets paid will end up getting the highest rating probably that the city has. So, that'll all be incorporated into it. Okay.

And I do want to make a a change on the the memo and I apologize. It says 79 more miles. That's not correct. Um we we've gone probably additional 10 miles that I think that's been added on to it. Um, and what they did was they basically had added on a percentage each year to our road network based on subdivisions and so forth. It's a fixed fee that we're we're trying to pay for this. So, uh, only about $2,000 more than we paid um, in 2021. So, um, it is, uh, I think a pretty good deal for the city. Give us a good tool for us to be able to look at all our city streets again and see what conditions they are and get recommendations that we can assist that they can assist us in helping picking out roads. So, we are recommending payment for this.

Thank you. Any questions of Mr. Swims or motions? Motion to approve. Second, Gamage. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Second, Mr. Collins. Any discussion? All in favor? All oppose? Motion carries.

Item number six, consideration of recommendation to approve change order number two on the contract with W&T Contracting Corporation in the additive amount of $6,11.20 increasing the contract amount from $5,666,169.30 30 to5,672 $5,672,180.50 for the project referred to as fire station number six. This deals with an added wall in the kitchen area that uh was looked at by staff after the plan

moving an entrance in the day day room area. So, we do recommend payment for that as well. This was a Chief Clark recommendation. We're not going to pay roll deduct, but he did want that done. So, it's $6,1120. Any questions by the board? Make a motion to approve it. Mr. Ear Hartman. Motion to approve. Second, Miss Hamilton. All in favor? All oppose? Motion carries.

Item seven, consideration to authorize final payment in the amount of $18,941.83 83 cents and accept the project as complete for the project referred to as the gas regulator station at Center Hill Road. As the board knows, this regulator station was just invaluable as the weather got as cold as it did for that twoe period and uh people that were starved for natural gas for their appliances last year, year before. That did not happen this time. The regulator station made a big change and we had zero uh concerns called to us compared to probably several hundred the year before. One call Mr. Riker received and that was thanking us for putting it in because they had no issues in the HOA. They were used to getting those calls. He said he didn't have a single call in that area. So good, good to have. And if the board approves this final payment, that'll close that out.

Make a motion. M Mr. Collins motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Second, Mr. Dickerson. Any discussion? All in favor? I. All oppose. Motion carries. Item eight, review status of local emergency declared on January the 23rd, 2026. I think Mr. D is going to speak to this, but this is basically to uh cease or to stop the emergency that was declared uh during the ice storm and to pay the bills accordingly.

Yes, sir. That's that is correct. Uh you have the proposed order in your uh packet and you'll see that there were essentially four expenditures that were out of the ordinary uh that were lawful during the course of the emergency. And this would be the board per state law declaring that the conditions warrant uh the termination of the emergency which would return us back to to normal from a purchasing standpoint uh and otherwise. And it would also if if approved the board order would uh ratify or approve uh those expenditures uh which were made. You've got one for material removal. I think that was primarily ice not debris but ice. Uh and then you had hotel stays for three employees uh who lived out of town were unable to make it back to their home. Uh but they were employees that were essential for the emergency response. That's right. And no meals included. Lodging only for those employees. Any questions or motions?

Motion. Second. Motion to approve by Mr. Wallace. Second by Mr. Gamage. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Item nine, consideration of recommendation to approve an application for infrastructure investment and jobs act, a com competitive grant project.

Yes, mayor. This is a uh opportunity that arose late. So that's why it's a late addition to your uh packet. This is an opportunity for an FAA grant for the airport. Of course, my understanding mayor and Mr. May is that it would be a Mr. Brocker be a no match grant. Uh and so it's a good opportunity for the city. Uh but the deadline to turn that application in is uh immediate. So that's why it was a late ad to your agenda for tonight. Are the funds restricted to any use on the airport or just for any general? Are there any restrictions?

Okay. And we received notification on Thursday and it needs to be in today very candidly. That's kind of unique, but we don't want to miss an opportunity to get any or all of 250,000 with no match. Mr. Mr. Collins motion, second, Mr. Wallace. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries. Is there a motion to leave regular session with the intentions of going into executive session to discuss items one through four? So moved. Mr. Earheart motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Collins. Second. All in favor?

All opposed. We're out of regular session. Is there a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel matters in the police department, personnel matter in the animal control department, personnel matter in the ambulance department, personnel matters in the fire department? Is there a motion to go in executive session for those items? So move. Miss Hamilton. Motion. M. Second, Miss Aldridge. All in favor? All oppose? We are in executive session.