Council - Regular Meeting

meeting of December 1 of the city of Orange City. Please join us in opening ceremonies. 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. And join me for a moment of silent prayer.

Amen. Okay, agenda item number three is approval of tonight's agenda. Um there's going to be one change, agenda item 16. Um we are going to table that until um December 15 for um there's some additional questions that need to be answered and that's concerning retirement health insurance reimbursement. So, with that one being tabled, um, is there a motion for approval? All those in favor signify by saying I

opposed. Motion carries. Agenda item uh, four is a time that's provided at each meeting for citizen comments. Um, it is suggested someone's someone wants to speak on a non-aggenda item. Uh, we also ask that you um live in the city limits of Orange City and keep it to three or four minutes. So, I don't know if anybody's here to speak on any. We have a nice crowd to speak on um any non-aggenda items. Great. Not seeing any. We'll go ahead and we'll move on to agenda item five, which is exhibit one in your packet. And that is uh approval of minutes from November 17, 2025.

Just one one one small change on that. Okay. The on the electric position I reported that we hired Chase Edwards and recommended that as Dr. Chase Williams. So we we specified in the minutes as it was stated and we'll be requesting a change to that. Chase Williams. Chase Williams. Okay. But but so with that uh change, is there a motion to approve the minutes from November 17th? All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Motion carries. Agenda item number five or excuse me number uh six. We have Shane Schwarz here to representing the gas department. He's going to provide updates on the the department for the past year. You're welcome, Shane. Thanks for coming. Well, I promise I'll keep this really short. That's good.

And it's been a busy year uh being down to two of us for the last half a year here in 2025. Uh we started the year out with uh operator qualifications. Uh Lewis had 26 of them. Uh the on call personnel had 22 and I had 51 of them. Uh we then me and Lewis went to the welding qualification class in Emittsburg. We both got qualified to weld on our uh gas system. Uh then we did a little maintenance on the equipment. Uh then we started in with our spring stuff where we do uh business leak survey for all the schools and churches and we inspect all our rig stations and uh reliefs and then we do the valve inspections which is where we turn all of our underground valves in town. Uh roughly we have 135 valves in town. Uh then we do our cathotic inspections and uh line patrol we do four times per year. Uh leak survey we did the southeast part of town and coordinate we coordinated that with the atmospheric corrosion in the southeast part of town. Uh moving on to the mains that we put in. We put in 1,800 ft of main roughly which was by the old school in the uh new development there and finished up the North Wland edition up there this spring. Uh services, we had 37 services, uh moved one service and cut off one service.

uh locates. Uh we thought we were going to have a slower year with locates, but then ended up having all the trees go down and for every tree that went down in town, there was a locate for it. So, uh we installed three new big gas meters in our system at uh Smithfield, Staples, and the college. uh had our inspection on October 7th through 8th and did pretty good. Just had to clean up a few paperwork items and the stuff out in the field. He uh yeah, didn't find too much. We got to had to change a couple bolts out that weren't sticking through quite far enough. So, that went really well. Uh yeah, help other departments when we have time with leaks, concrete, storm cleanup, and yeah, projects that we're looking forward to next year would be probably the Grunawake project on Ironwood and the Providence expansion and puddle jumper trail. extension oftent. That would be all I have.

Any questions for Shane? Who does your inspections? That's the IUB. The guys do a really good job. I've I've seen their before and after photos that we have to submit for our report. I've seen those on IUB presentations. Oh, and other state associations. So, they do a good job and report well. So, we know you've had a tough year and we just appreciate everything you guys have stepped up and done and thank you and think of you off and so thanks James. Thank you. Thanks.

Okay. Agenda item uh seven is each year we ask affiliate organizations of the of the city of Orange to be present to renew their requests for funds which assist in the operation of their entities and today we have representatives from the Orange City Arts Council and also Lance Merit Golf and um Orange City Arts Council we'll start with and I'll introduce Sharon Fouchy as president right of the board.

She's president of the board so she's going to handle the other introductions. out there's here. That's quite pretty. Maybe going on a trip. Oh, there we go. see the same thing.

I think what you're going to see on the screen is pretty much what you have in your packet. Um, my name is Sharon Fudy and I am the current president of the Orange City Arts Council. OC Arts has had a year of significant change. The board members that I have with me along with our interim director here, none of us have been part of this for more than two years. So, we we're all pretty new to the to this work. Um, we do have several new board members and we're currently searching for a new executive director, Alicia Halber, who was the assistant to our former director. You probably are familiar with Amy Andrew Levich. Um, she has stepped in and has done a great job, but we will be saying goodbye to her also at the end of January. So we um yes we are continuing to see some change but exciting things ahead I'm sure. Last spring under the direction of our previous director Amy we underwent a two session uh strategic planning exercise and at the end of that exercise six priorities were identified for the arts council council by the board. They are number one identifying and securing a permanent office space. Two working on securing and strengthening our own unique identity. Three is working on funding strategies. Four creating and maintaining a bank of volunteers. Five increasing art education activities. And six would be outreach including regional outreach. We have formed committees which were not in order when I first came on the board to work at addressing each of these goals and we're doing it in a very deliberate and consistent way. And that's exciting to see this board um divide up the work

and work that way. Um another major focus has been communicating and finding ways to collaborate with some of the other groups in our area. So far, we've secured ways to work together with the Dutch Heritage Boosters and the library, and we're in communication with the O with OC Recreck Department and the Dutch American Heritage Museum. So, I'm excited to see how those collaborations will work to um support what we do and to enhance our community. The board of directors is up there. You can see me. Leanne Bonacroy, who's here, as our vice president. April Benson as our secretary. Ryan Visser, our treasurer, Alicia Halbert's our interim director, and then we also have Dennis Rockill, Julian Young Kang, David Platter is new to the board and as is Marissa Larris. Is that how you say her name?

Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we've got a variety of um actual artists um people that work in the arts as well as some um very strategic and uh thoughtful thinkers. We pulled Ryan in specifically for that. At least that's why I asked him. I'm not sure why he said yes, but then we dragged him to a board meeting. Anyway, so we're we're excited about the work that the board's doing. We're um a much more active board than it was when I first joined. So, that's exciting to see. We are grateful for the support of the city of Orange City in the past and will continue to work to enhance life in the Orange City area by working to accomplish our mission, which is to enrich our community by showcasing artists, facilitating arts education, and supporting local creative talent. Now, I'd like to introduce Alicia Halber, our interim executive director of Orange City Arts, and she's going to tell you a little bit about our activities. Awesome. Thanks, Sharon. Hello everyone. I get the pleasure of talking about this previous year and all the things that we've done. Um things that we've done in the past as well as new things that we've started this year and we plan to continue in the next years to come. So first off is our onstage season. Uh a lot of you are familiar with this season. Almost everyone I talk to knows about the concerts in the at Windmill Park on Wednesdays during the summer. That's June, July, and half of August. This year we had 12 free um music performances scheduled. One was not able to happen because of the weather. We did have some struggles with the weather this year, but luckily the Unity Night Center is flexible with us and we're able to go in there anytime that there's weather if possible. Um so we were able to have some of our showcases in Unity

as well this year. So we're really grateful for that. So we had 11 performances including the one on arts on central. Um we had youth theater workshop and performance this year. Um it's happened in the past but this one was a part of onstage which has not happened in the past. So we were able to have uh Lean Ponroy and Amanda Leny um directed that um trained them for about a week and then we had a performance and it was amazing. four pre-event activities this year. So, um this was before the onstage performance. We opened up from 5 to 7. We had kids crafts. Um sometimes we had like vendors there, so artists selling their work. We've had um like inflatables there, food trucks, variety of different things during this. Um those were well attended. I think that people weren't used to it. So I would have liked to see more faces. Um but it was a fun event for them. Youth art show in St. Centrum. This happens every other year. So it happened two years ago. Um we had another one this year. There was 33 kids involved in that. Three featured artist shows in Stentrum. So these are artists from the community and the regional area um who were able to put up an art show and display their art there. We had two youth tie-dye workshops which were um very well attended. I think that we could have had a third or even maybe a fourth because there was so much excitement with this. So, every kiddo came away with some skills in tie-dye and a little backpack. Um so, I'll show you that later on in the slideshow. And then we had Arts on Central U partnership with uh the Chamber of Commerce. our side of things. We had some crafts, face painting, bubble

stations, and a musical scavenger hunt and a DJ. Um, so about 6,000 attendees over on stage and mainstage. So, here's Main Stage. Um, we just started this year's Main Stage. And unfortunately, last week's event had to get rescheduled. So, we're still in the process of getting our first like real true event going. However, we did start um fall and winter art workshops. So, you can see there's some photos from workshops that we've had. We had some watercolor. Um and then in the bottom left, you'll see a thrifted painting and we made it all sorts of fall vibes. It was really fun and um people really like that and we're asking for a winter one. So, um very well attended. people really seem to enjoy those and that is kind of one of our focuses this year is that art education. So that's something that we're going to expand on every year. Um we have a partnership with the Dutch Heritage boosters um coming up with center class. Lyanna is kind of spearheading that craft. Uh we have artists in the school program with per musical performance. It's a public performance that'll happen a partnership with Copper Street Brass and um different a couple different schools in the community. So that will be happening in February. We have our um an evening of dance which happens every year. It's a dance showcase with regional dancers including people from Sheldon and Lamars and Sue Center. Um, it's pretty well known and honestly our most well- attended event and it's always exciting to have that. And then we are also going to have a talent show uh fundraising event this year and that will happen this spring. So, we're excited to see

what that'll look like. We're working out those details. And then we also are going to have a cultural wooden shoe project with Dutch shoes. Um, and then we're going to create some sort of sculptural display and we're going to have talks at the tulip festival. So, this is going to be something where we work with kids and underreach populations um, and also cultural diversity. Um, so we're going to have different ethnic backgrounds in this display too to kind of showcase all of the different cultures that are in Orange City on our 85th film festival. So, it's really exciting. And then we're hitting the education part, which is new to us this year. It is one of our focuses to bring art education to the community. So, we had that um summer youth theater workshop. We had that those tie-dye workshops and then our fall and winter series. I listed out some examples there. We had some sewing, acrylic painting, watercolor, that thrifted painting, and then this um spring we're also going to have ceramics, a couple of different classes with that. I just was talking to Amy from Northwestern on that. So, that's going to be really exciting. Um and then some pastels. So, more soft pastels that we're going to bring to the community. Um, I could also see um more acrylic and watercolor paintings coming this um spring as well. This is a list of our sponsors and um the grants that have supported us and we just want to say thank you to all of the businesses that supported us through our onstage season as well as our grants that help us make our bigger programs possible. And now I'd like to introduce you guys to Ryan Visser who is our treasurer and he'll take away the financial report for you.

Thank you.

All right. I'm a whole few months into this so see how this goes. Um I don't get to talk about all the fun activities. I have to talk about the the finances. So um go through a few slides first to just give you a sense of where we were at. Uh this is a couple years ago the budget for 2425 uh city gave donated 65,000 that year. Uh as you can see um you know income and expenses were a little bit out of whack that year. Uh had a pretty a couple of decent or one decent donation come in as well that helped uh kind of even that out a little bit more. But that'll give you a sense of where we were uh 2425 and uh just to give you a picture of where all this goes. So yeah, obviously the big uh income for us as a city donations or second grants I think keep in mind with grants that those are typically program specific, not just for general expenses, things like that. Uh so if there's an opportunity to use a grant to do a program, that's that's kind of how that usually goes. Um then the sponsorshipips are typically the summer programs um and admissions. So those are the big ones. Uh expenses are biggest one is obviously usually payroll, artist fees. So those programs that came in during the winter, um those are those fees kind of keep going up every year. uh advent expenses, the expenses associated with that like uh the facilities and and advertising, all that kind of stuff goes into into that kind of thing. Office admin uh is probably the fourth biggest one there. Uh so our budget this year, this is what our budget was. Uh so the city gave

again this year 65 or committed to 65,000 this year. I think that's paid over three three times throughout the year. Uh so this gives you a sense of where we're at right now. Um yeah, it's just this is through um July 1 through June 30. So um just a a small piece of that basically and then I'll probably I'm sorry I'm going through these quickly. If you have any questions just chime in. But uh the main thing we want to talk about I'll very quickly go through go through this as well. Balance sheet very small. I can't even read it. Um I'm probably not going to highlight much in here. Just give you a sense of of what we're we have right now. So we basically have I think 9,000 in operating net net operating uh in our accounts right now. So yeah, that's that's the main part of that. uh then our our budget for or for the 26 27 year. So we're p you know we're picturing in in the next year starting uh July 26 through uh July 27 uh what our budget could look like. So what we did was, you know, we looked at the last 5 years basically what what has been our income, what's what's been our expenses, um, and try to estimate what that's typically been. Uh, year to year is is we found out is pretty different. I mean, income other than city uh, donation, you know, we're thinking about donations and grants and things like that, that varies quite a bit. So we're we're kind of picking numbers that we think are probably average or median. Um you can see here we're asking for the city uh for a donation of 75 this year. It's been a couple years of 65. Um I think we would probably show that

expenses can continue to increase. We've looked at the last few years and the expense budget here um is a reflection of what we are typically been spending the last couple of years um what these uh programs actually cost. artist fees have been going up event expenses, that kind of a thing. So, um I would probably also highlight in the payroll, we're obviously looking for a director. We we're looking to have um hopefully a a salaried position, uh a good director that can really lead this organization. So, we're looking to invest in that and and have stability there. Um yeah, you can see uh total income and total expenses are off at this point. This is this is tentative where after we have a number uh from the city and what this what that's going to look like, we obviously have to make some choices on what do we want to do with expenses, how are we going to generate additional income, generate donations, things like that uh to uh make sure we can uh line those up well. So, uh, I think that's it for me. Any questions before I move on?

Oh, that does not Yeah, there's a asterisk down there. We'll talk about that next. But this does not include any kind of rent or utilities, which is part of our vision, which we'll talk about next as well. I miss anything? Right. Thanks very much.

Well, we have vision, we have dreams. Um, we are a team that is a very active working team. Uh, loves to work together. Um, we have a vision for a new home. That's our biggest vision right now. One of the things we found out when we had that survey done was that we needed to have our own physical space. uh the physical space we have right now um is very crowded and not conducive to doing galleries, doing um visits, doing you know that kind of the kind of things that we like to do workshops. So we are hoping to um find a location that is near the park because we do so much in the summertime that would be helpful to be close by. Uh we also are envisioning a space that has room for a permanent gallery right now. Um, as even though we're very grateful to Northwestern for letting us use their facilities, we um move all of our gallery stuff to a place, but if we could set up a permanent gallery, it would be it would be wonderful. We could just have it there set up all the time. We could probably do more art shows as well, we'd have a place um with a name with our name on it that would um encourage people and invite people to come and just um see the gallery. Right now we are in Stoddin which we are also very grateful for but um people aren't used to it there. I mean it it's so many other things besides just Orange City Art. So having a home of our own which we probably would need to rent at this some point or lease. Um that is our dream uh for right now. If we're hiring a new director to have a space that's so cool would be just really inviting for someone new to consider being our director. um for the place. We hope to have a little gift shop. We want to be that welcome center uh for people when they come to Orange City that they can stop in and there'll be somebody there that can speak to them, direct them, um

talk to them more about what we have to offer in our in our town. So, um we uh the other ladies talked a little bit about collaboration, but there's so much more we could do with collaboration as well. doing um doing the like right now we're going to do something with the Dutch Heritage boosters. We're going to do Cinder together. Um just trying to get our community together just so everyone becomes visible, not just Orange City Arts, but but everyone and we all have our own place and um and our own vision. Um we're so excited to have these new groups that we have within our board, the fundraising groups, marketing groups, um the volunteer encouragement kind of groups. um that has been really a big helpful thing too for carrying out this vision and making this happen. But yeah, so anything I forgot but that's our dream. That's our big dream. Thank you.

Yeah, just thank you for allowing us to come and visit with you a little bit and tell you a little bit about what we're what we've been working on and where we're hoping to head. And if you have any questions or any time to answer I like the collaboration and working with other entities in in the city. I think that's good for everybody. Yeah, I really do. And we'll be doing budget in January. Is that when we So, it was a little challenging to try to come up with a budget when we're not even halfway through our budget year right now. So, we we dreamed a little bit, but

you know, that's why we have our numbers guy. He's going to say we can't stand up. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much. And now we'll um welcome up both Chad and Mallerie or you tag teaming it from Lansir Golf Club Golf Course. Thank you for coming. Do we have handouts? We Yes. I was talking about the fine print.

Oh, you're going to do one up here, too. You're

good. Power. Nope. All right. All right. We are from Lansburg Golf Club. I am Mallerie Simlink. I am the PGA head professional and I'm here with Chad Heslink. He is a superintendent. Um let's just go over a couple things. Um couple items that we had for this year. Um memberships. We were up seven over last year for for memberships. Down student memberships. It's kind of been a big hot topic of conversation um on getting students involved. Um we saw this past year that a lot of students just ended up just paying for green fees and cart whatever. Um so we didn't necessarily lose out on having those students play um even though they didn't get memberships. Uh for our PJ Junior League, we had 30 participants and 37 um kids in OC Wreck. That's kind of about where we've been the past few years. So that's good to see.

M is a student in high school show. Yep.

So you can see the rounds that we did. Um we're up record rounds. Again, I said three times, but I believe we've been hitting record rounds every year since CO, so 2020. So probably four or five years now. Um you can see every category um is up. Um overall we are up 7% over last year. And just kind of a fun fact um we had 10 less days of play this year, but we were up on average rounds per day, almost 10. So, uh the course is busy trying to get as much rounds in as we can and see kind of how that plays out. Um yeah, it's been really good. We had um for the clubhouse project, we did replace the back netting on the driving range. Um that did not come out of operations that was funded with the Betterment Land Betterment Association funds. Um it was a great uh thing that we did. I've never been so excited about a net um before, but it it looked awesome and it also helps um kind of just how the range functions and my staff picking up range balls and that sort of thing. It's a very minor detail, but it's also a very um very big thing on helping keeping the range balls in the range and not on hole number eight, which if you golfed kind of midsummer, you probably found some range balls out there. Uh this past year, we did celebrate 30 years at Lansmere. Um kind of had a little get together. Um I think it was mid July. Um, if you saw, we did do some flags for the 30th. So, you see the three windmills with three X's means 30 years. Um, yeah, we had a little get together on a Friday night, had live music. Um, it was a beautiful night right before we had some awful rain. So, our, you know, timing was perfect. We

even got to have a a beer uh brewed from a Sous City brewery specifically just for us. So, that was kind of fun. We hosted um Pork Belly Ventures this year for RagBry. Um they were here I mean they started coming in Thursday, Tuesday before. Most of them were Friday through Sunday. Um so 1,700 bikers and support stayed on our grounds. Um couldn't get a good picture of how many tents were set up on our range. There's I took plenty of videos of it. Um but basically our whole range was filled with tents. Um it's quite a sight to see. Hope you guys could see that. Um, but we provided meals on Friday night to Sunday A.M. Um, and that created a very good revenue boost or income for the club. Um, $10,000 between the Friday to Sunday uh between those meals, beverages, um, they bought stuff in the pro shop. So, and other donations that they did. So, it was a great um, yeah, great thing for for Lance to have that. Uh looking at a few of the financials that we um reported at our last board meeting, the cash balance on 1111 was 35,000. We did uh pay the city equipment fund loan of 56. Uh we did receive the allotted 150,000 from the city, which we really appreciate that. Um kind of with the 35,000 cash balance, it's definitely needed. Um so we appreciate that. Um, couple other things. We did implement uh the 3% convenience fee on credit cards or just all card charges. Um, and we will be increasing it to 4%. Um, there was still kind of a little deficit between what we paid and what we received. Um, so we're up to four and hopefully that'll kind of even that out a little more. Um, year-to-ate daily

income is up 47,000. Um, so that kind of goes back to how many uh rounds we did. Like I said, so many student rounds that we had um they all paid, you know, for that and that incorporates into that 47,000 which is a huge number and it's awesome. Uh food food and beverage income is up 13,000 uh which is a profit margin of 43% which is good. About 50% is kind of the average uh for food and beverage. So, right under that um is looking pretty good, especially when we're kind of grabbing on to that low hanging fruit, easy stuff for league meals, graband go um hot dogs, chips, that sort of thing for the golfers, um has worked out really well. Uh merchandise margin is also 43%. I'm taking out inventory of 38,000 that we currently have still in the pro shop. That is a little high. Um, but I do know that we did spend a little more in the pro shop this year, but it has had very positive response. A lot of people have been super excited about what we have in the pro shop, the amount that we had. Um, last year we did run out of inventory towards the end of the year, uh, when people needed to spend their credit. Um, so that was kind of not a good thing. So, kind of to offset that, we did have to spend a little more um, and have a little more extra expenses in the pro shop. Um so that's kind of what that is. Revenue overall is up 76,000. Um and yes, last year was 55. Um so that is great. Um revenue is up but that also doesn't have the other side of it is that expenses are also up as well unfortunately. So looking forward to 2026 not 25 um we will be incorporating a new cart lease next year. uh we will be upping 12 carts. This will um one increase the

lease payment unfortunately um but it will also increase the amount of people we can have for tournaments, the amount of outings we can have, the people you know have larger outings um and just be able to have more play during the day. Um before we had to have blocks to make sure that we would have enough carts for all of the tea times. um upping that 12 uh we'll be able to basically have a free uh t-shirt all day. Um and then just got an email yesterday that we will be adding the Midwest Honorflight Tournament again. Um we did that back couple years uh co kind of put a notch in that. Um but they have reached out and wanted to join it to partner up again. So we're excited to add that again to our schedule. So, any questions for me?

Well, sure. Did you um start with new software for people booking time? We did that two years ago. Um yes, this this will be I think we this will be our third year into that. Yes. Yep. Yeah. A lot of online bookings. It's been really nice. I love hearing all everyone y'all calling in, everyone calling in. But it's also nice to just have those tea times already booked and not have to have the phone calls. So, it's been really good.

All right. I will give an overview of the maintenance side of the golf course. Um, so, uh, start mine off. Last year, we thought we had a pretty wet year. Um, unfortunately, we decided to surpass that one. So, uh, average for our area is about 29 and 12 inches of, uh, total precipitation for the year. Um, last year, um, we were pretty wet beginning of the year all the way through about beginning of August, middle of August, then we went dry. Uh, we really did not see anything after that. Um, so that kind of hindered us a little bit. Uh, we were at 34.15. And then this year, the bulk of this rain actually came in June and July, which is not ideal for us, which is why Mallerie said we were 10 days less. That also had an effect on us. um June, July, we we had uh quite a bit of rain and then also the duratio that we all had to deal with. Uh so um we had uh what is that about three and a half a little more than three and a half um more inches of rain up to now um than what we had last year. So um again keep saying that weather is just crazy. Uh it doesn't help us by any means but we try to do what we can with what we have. Um, I think at one point during July, I ran out of stakes, ropes, signs, posts, anything I could just to get people out there to play. Luckily, people weren't too crazy out there and stayed away out of the areas that were wet um and do any damage out there. So, um, but we had a good year. So, um, people are definitely uh, excited about golf. So, um, updates on the course. This was the second year. Oh, excuse me. Um, I'll start with the first one. Uh, irrigation, pump, electronics, and computer were upgraded in June. Um I don't know if you guys heard about that, but that was um 23,000 I believe is what it was. Um

yeah, I guess I can mention that. Um the capital purchase in the budget um for the year is 28,000. I think 23,000 of that was to the irrigation.

So um the uh basically the brains of the irrigation was original to the golf course. Uh it was there installed 1995 94 95. um uh Thompson who takes care of my uh irrigation uh electronics for it basically told me from here on out we cannot get you new parts you buy refurbished used. So we as a board and the golf course decided to make a decision of we probably need to upgrade. Um so we upgraded the brains of it. Um now we have a up to date we can if we have something break we have new pieces we can buy instead of just trying to piece things together. So it was a big expense. It wasn't something that we were banking on. Uh but it was something that was a necessity. It was something we couldn't really avoid. So unfortunately um but uh smaller projects were completed or still a work in progress out there, but our main focus for about two years in a row now has been just daily playing conditions and consistent consistency, trying to give the highest quality of play for day-to-day. Um we haven't really taken on a whole lot in the last two years. Um a few things here and there, but just to kind of keep it easy on me and my staff is we kind of just focus on day-to-day stuff. So, um, we haven't committed too much right now. We're kind of in talks of what we're doing next year. Haven't committed to anything yet. Um, so I can't really report on anything about that, but that has been our focus the last two years. So, um, this just got um I Darren going to uh correct me here, but I believe it's been approved for the uh 2026. Um, Brendan Vanderswag has been working for me for about five years now. Um he is in his senior year at Iowa State uh going into grass and turf and uh we offered him the assistant position and he will start that role when he graduates in May. So um huge addition for us. He's a great kid. Um and uh he will be a huge help for us out there to uh keep things looking good. So um thank you again uh to our staff, volunteers, members, and specifically

you guys um and the city departments. Um this year, uh Noah and his staff and also Luke and his staff came out and helped burn um in March. Um they burned the native areas, the Creeks. Um and then Luke, who I probably gets annoyed with me a lot of times. Um him and Breen are huge, huge assets for us. Um he comes out and mows for us. They just do odds and ends things for us. They are a huge help for us. Um big thank you to those guys. and then Darren Nurl as well being uh being a part of our monthly board meetings and uh the interactions we have to have in between those. Um but you guys are a huge help for us as well. So thank you to the city for your support also and we will be asking for our usual 150,000 from you guys. So

questions for take somebody's position or he was a part he had been part-time help. Yeah, he was just I I've I've not had an assistant since I took over. Um it's just been he's kind of been gaining in that role uh for the past few summers. He's kind of been the assistant, but it's only been in the summer months. So, he leaves he comes there when summer starts. He leaves when obviously when summer goes, and then he comes in between Christmas break and that kind of stuff. Um he will take on the full-time for the first time. So,

anything else? Thanks, guys.

All right, I'll get my eyes checked. I promise. Can you send a bigger copy? I will.

No, I can't. I can't. Well, okay. So, that takes us through agenda item seven. Um, agenda item eight is time uh for a public hearing. um for the request of Vision Building LLC. I think is Kurt. There's Kurt. He's going to come up. It's exhibit three in your um packet and it's for uh reszoning the property. So, we'll go ahead and open the public hearing and I'll turn it over to Kurt.

All righty. So yes, on the request uh from Vision Builders uh for a project here in town along with the city staff um met with planning and zoning and vision was requesting lot 7 through 13 to reszone um R2 multi or shouldn't say multif family highdensity residential. Um, in that talk it was recommended that lots 14 through 19 also be reszoned across to the south across the road of 14th Street. We make it more uniformed and giving more opportunity for medium to high density uh housing. Um, in the past with residential next to medium, it's been kind of a hard sale for residential lots. So, planning zoning uh is recommending city council approve the reszoning of lots 7 through 19 and puddle upper trail 11th be reszoned to R2 medium to high density residential.

Have you had any feedback or anything from anybody? I have not received anything myself unless Matt or Shannon or remainer but my understanding so anybody here to speak on that one question I had somebody called me the south of that 14th street that those lots will be available for purchase for anybody correct it's just north of 14th street that's part of the vision yep lots of 13 are basically would be basically the second part of this next item so if it's zoned R2 they could still build a single family in one of those lots. Yes. Yep. And then we have lots 20 through 25 available as well. That's still single family.

Yes. Yep. Well, lot Yeah. Tech technically as of now lots 1 through six and then Yeah. lots 20 through 25 single family. Single family. Yep. And we have prices on those.

40,000 for the north side of the road and 35 for the south side of the road. Any other questions or comments? So, we can go ahead and close the public hearing at this point and then we need a resolution to approve the resing of the property. So, and it is a resolution. So, we will do a roll call. Sorry. Brett, yes. Yes. Olivia, yes. Aaron, yes. Rod,

yes. Excellent. Thank you. And now we will go to agenda item uh number nine, which is still Kurt. I believe it's exhibit three in your um packet. It's also a published time and place to hold a public hearing um before considering approval of the proposed final plat of the canal. second edition. So we'll go ahead and open public hearing.

Okay. Yeah. So vision builders is proposing a new final plat for the canal second edition. This would be west of St. Paul Avenue and north of Puddle Jumper Trail 11th edition. Um it would be lots or 12 lots or 11 lots, sorry, with one outlot. Um the lots 2 through 11 are being proposed as R1 low density family and lot one is being proposed as R2 multifamily. Um yeah so in discussion just recently um with Mark here um it's being proposed that from vision that outlot one that city council take into consideration of the city owning that for maintenance and if Mark can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this so that just yeah kind of came up so I know there was talk previously about being city that they said they would need approval from city going forward if we would relocate that on is that a catch basin detention area.

Yeah, it's detention for this uh development. Um and so I think correct me if I'm wrong, but the lot prices was used excluding this lot. Um so yeah, it would just be detention. Um and since it is connected directly to the city street um it would be yeah you wouldn't have to cross any property would be right adjacent to the street. So this would service just our street or does it serve the whole development? Uh both. Yep. So is it our practice to the city take that on 100%.

Or how do we handle those? Um the latest one would be like would be similar to what we did in North Wland's first edition when that all got developed. That that outlet is also owned by the city for maintenance. Yeah. I don't know if it'll be the same type of thing, if it'll be mowed or if it'll be just wild. I'm not 100% on that yet, but yeah, it's intended to be um yeah, mowed every once in a while. Definitely not manicured mowing. There's some millows in Grinder's Bama, too. Isn't there detention back here that we sort of take care of or my that's more of a drainage?

That's just a drainage outlet. Um only other one I know we've done them and obviously we own the property button like Proper Trail 10th edition. We have a detention that we retained um to keep for storm sur um and it's being more and more of a common practice to contain this water as much as you can. So it's actually encouraged you know in these developments. There'll actually be one east of your two if I'm correct. Yep. That they will own in the lot one. Um it'll be basically straight west of the street here. A smaller outlet also to retain water. I don't know if they do they flow into each other. I mean

yeah. So the smaller one will detain it. You can only do so much in that area. So it's doing partial lift there and then it'll go to the bigger one in Outlaw one. Um so since that is kind of central located within lot one um didn't feel like breaking that out and being that part of the city's maintenance didn't make sense for that one. So that will remain within the development um by outlaw one. So that just kind of I think vision going forward would like to know if we were going to retain that or not. I mean, it won't really affect the platting or nothing, but they Mark was just saying they want

I mean, confirmation from the city that we'd be Yeah, it would just be it would be deed um along with the right away when it's filed.

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So basically everything will be going forward but I just wanted to make sure that you know when we approve this that we know that we will retain with your guys's approval the outlot one or

any feedback on that from anybody or no um planning only did have a few of the people in the canals first edition of um come to the meeting. One basic one family or couple was enthused about it. I thought it was a great thing and the other one was just kind of more curious what was really the plan of it. So, but no negativity towards the towards the plan. So,

I'm glad they reached out to some of the sharing anything from anybody else. If not, go ahead and close the public hearing. No, we we need a resolution to accept the final plan. So move and once again it's a resolution and I'll start with you Daryl. Yes. Olivia. Yes. Yes. Yes. Brett. Yes. Excellent. Then we need a motion to approve the reszoning. Yes. Am I correct in that?

So yeah. So this platted area currently or this platted area is all zoned as R1 low density residential. So then with changing the plat or changing it to lot one as multi or highdensity residential, we just got to approve the reszoning of that parcel only to coincide with what we just did in budge and Troy Levit to connect them. Any questions on that?

Even though they're single family homes, the number creates the Yep. Because you can't have more than two residential properties on a lot. So this is to make that work. So I mean they'll still be all individual parcels by I mean legally I mean they'll take ownership in that but then yeah they'll operate as a HOA with the property regime basically. Any other questions? All those in favor signify by saying I. I post.

Motion carries. Agenda item number 10 is exhibit 4 and that's a Dutch front proposal and currently talking about that. Yeah, let's talk about that.

Okay. Um yes, the Dutch front committee uh recently met with Bryant Lengnes and Kevin Heis on the proposal for the Dutch front on RTI building. Um yeah, it started kind of backwards. Um obviously the structure was up to what we met. Um there's some miscommunication there. Um but uh the judge front committee I would say wasn't 100% on board with the total design of the building. Um they were willing to work with them. Um there's been some feedback back and forth on some signage and some lighting. Um colors okay and some colors of it. Um I guess at this time we don't have an estimated cost for the project. Um I was hoping to have that before the meeting but I did not receive that. Um and Rod can Rod was not at the meeting itself. He was kind of in correspondence afterwards. Um so with it not being in the area that's that it's required. Um, I would say my opinion from the board of adjust or not board adjustments, the Dutch front committee is they're willing to have council approve some funding for it, but I don't think they would be totally on board of it being like the total 50% match for the building due to the features of the building. Um, there is some Dutch aspects to the building, but they didn't feel like it was 100% acceptable for the max funding. Um, so

what is the max for one side versus the second side? Uh, it's 100,000 for the main front and then 50 50,000 for the adjacent and we have no idea what their budget is. I don't I just been in correspondence with them saying that what the max was and stuff and cuz then he said, "Well, we're not going to ask for much." And then I told him what it was and they said, "Oh." And that was kind of the end of the conversation. So I'm like, "Well, I really kind of need this, but Um yeah, so the committee hasn't gotten a number from them as to what the Dutch front cost. So right now we don't really have a way to calculate uh what we would be willing to contribute. Correct.

And this would be those numbers just wait till the numbers

or do they need something from us? I mean they're going to keep going forward. I think more of it would be is it the city council in favor of financing it some I mean funding it some way. I mean not giving a number. Um I don't know if it's something where council wants to say we we want input back from the Dutch front committee on what they think the proposal I mean what what part of this that they consider Dutch future that council would support. Um, and I mean, yeah, that's kind of the conversations we had. I know there's no estimated price and there's a lot of hesitancy on I mean besides saying that they would approve. I mean, they were fine with some funding and then just kind of put it unfortunately back to you guys on

the RPI group. They're they went into it expecting nothing. Um, I think they went into it knowing there was funding. They just thought it was at the end when they didn't know like the whole process and yeah there were some emails that didn't go back and forth that thought went back and forth that were still in the cloud. So certain things I mean if they would get something from us or from the Dutch front committee would that change how they finish their project? I mean I don't think so cuz I mean

finishes that they'd get more money if they chose this brick versus the other. Oh, cuz honestly, I mean, basically when they found out that they preferred brick, he goes, "I wish I would have known that because that would have been cheaper than the stone I put on the front of the building." So, so yeah. So, and they apologized. They said they they're not familiar with this process. And yeah, so so I guess looking for any recommendation on how council would want to move forward. I mean, I'd like a recommendation from the Dutch front committee. I mean, that's the position they're in. So, I think that's a good move. Yeah, let's wait for them and then have we had you get more. We've never had this before and I don't remember. Um

I mean if we had anything been like on maybe a smaller version of it wasn't a lot of fun. You know, we're not talking large dollars on some of those where it was borderline, but on something this you're talking pretty good investment from the city. Um possibly up to 150,000 if they proposed the max. Yeah. So I think taking it back they can we can do a little bit of work and come back with something. Okay, that sounds good. That works good. Thanks Kurt for all your work.

All right, agenda item 11 is our engagement agreement with Allers and Cooney and Kent is going to talk to us about that.

Yeah. Uh I think Janet's got the agreement. It's just this is something that allers we're going to start the process of doing some geo bonds and so what all ours requires of governing councils is to agree to it that we're engaging them to sell our bonds eventually and be our disclosure council. So we just need to that's our very first step in regards to doing some bonds. So, I just we just need to go through the motions of if you have any qu like I said in my notes, they're basically the bond council and our disposal council uh for for the go bonds that we're planning on issuing here uh in the next couple months. And this is obviously the largest shares in regards to our aerial ladder is what it's for.

Oh, okay. the fee for both disclosure and bond is what I said in the notes is 31,500 which is yep what it's that's what it was it's kind of based on size a little bit but it's pretty much what it was a year ago when we did issues as well so that's all I have so you're asking for a motion to approve that agreement we need yep thank you mayor yep any other questions or comments all in favor favor signify by saying I I oppos. Motion carries. Agenda item 12.

All right. So, this is where we're starting the ball rolling. And like I said, uh we need to do the agree engagement agreement first. Now, we're going to set a public hearing uh in regards to the 2026A uh bond go bond issue. Uh like it says in the notes, this is basically uh for the aerial ladder uh for some infrastructure costs, utility costs with the canal second edition and then some possibility of refunding some 2019 hay bonds. And what I mean by possibility is we're basically including it in the uh public hearing and part of the authorization uh level, but when we do the actual purchase agreement, uh we might throw it out the the refunding part just to see because the savings on that right now is right at if it's worth it or not. So, I'm just saying right now we're going to include it and if the market gets a little bit better in the next 30 to 60 days, we'll maybe do a refunding. Otherwise, we'll just throw it out. So, but for the purposes tonight setting the public hearing, that's why it's 3.3 million. Um, and we'd like to have December 15th as our public hearing.

Okay. So, we just need a resolution for that. I'm sorry. Thank you. And that is a resolution. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Excellent. Thanks. Then agenda item 13 is the annual urban renewal report for fiscal year 2025 2026 and that exhibit five is the

that is the summary page. Yes, I emailed you forward and uh so I just wanted to go over uh this is a report that is due to the department Iowa Department of Management every year. Um and so what it is basically is accounting for our tax increment dollars, TIFF dollars um that we take in and spend during the fiscal year. And so I will just and so this when you just to relate like when you look in the treasures report uh the treasury report there's four tax increment financing uh cate there's a category called tax increment financing there's four parts there uh it's our housing tiff which is like our puddle jumpers that's a tiff area our event center which is kind of along along highway 10 our downtown which is like the Hawkeye where Brads is and stuff that we We developed a tiff there and then our industrial park. So those are the four areas that we are collecting and spending money in for our tax increment financing. Okay? Or tax dollars. So uh first what you see on your summary sheet you can see there the tiff revenue dollars that we took in for fiscal year. Again this was la 2425 fiscal year ended June 30 of 25. We took in $657,63 in TIFF dollars in tax increment dollars. Those are made up of the following. Our housing tiff took in 355,428. Our Hawkeye downtown took in 51,291. Our event center um along Highway to uh Highway 10, excuse me, took in 125,127. industrial park took in 75,606 and then also uh part of the highway 10

is we call it our eighth street. It's Casey's uh the strip mall and then also uh Joiner and um American uh perspective insurance that took that was 47,000. So that's what made up our 657 657,000 that we took in. So uh how it works is within those tiff areas if we have projects we spend the money and then we collect the money to repay ourselves back and so some of the as well as rebate. So some of the other So that's the 657 is the revenue. The the second line down there under asset sales and loan repayments. Those are basically lot sales. And so we had 43,595 and puddle jumper housing lot sales. Next line these are now related to expenditures. So now rebate expenditures was 121,373. Those make are four of them. We have four rebates. Uh, one is the Hampton Inn, that was 96,102. Corver, uh, the ENT, that was 10,800. Uh, Roadhouse, uh, was 4571 and the Dennis Joiner Resort was 99,00 added up to the 121. Then the non-rebate expenditures are kind of our uh, projects within those areas in regards to city projects. So we've got 14th Street Extension wrapping that project up uh basically in the uh fall of you know this was 2425 fiscal year. So this was 24 expenditures and then also shelter house and pickle ball courts were also part of that 171,000. So, that's really the I just wanted to give you the breakdown and then um obviously we're still working on some of

those projects inside of those urban renewal areas as well. And so, um it's it's just a constant moving money in, money out for different projects and rebates. But, um that is what made up 2425 fiscal year. So, there's your cliff to approve that motion. Yeah, you need a motion to approve. If you would, that'd be great. Then I will send that to the Department of Management tomorrow. So, okay. Appreciate it. Was that a motion there, Darl? Yeah, I'll make a motion. Any questions for all those in favor signify by saying I

opposed? Motion carries. Thank you so much. Then the A4 begins concerning ordinance number 861.

Yes, this has to do with commercial centrum. So about a year ago, we actually created the urban renewal area for commercial centrum. Okay. And then what all with working with all ours we decided by project when we will do our uh tax districts. Okay. So a district is a project that gets built and then we can capture the value of that particular project and receive tiff dollars. So this totally has to do with commercial centrum and obviously the project out there is quickrip. They're open and so we are now establishing that parcel as a district and capturing the tiff dollars from that for the next 10 years. And so um that is what this ordinance is doing. 861 is establishing the TIFF district that will get filed over at the courthouse uh for the next fiscal years to come in the future here. So, I just need uh like I say uh is it a motion or

it's a first reading? It's a first reading with the possibility of waving the second and third. Yeah. Yeah. If the council but it's totally this is not nothing that needs to be done by the end of the calendar year. There's no, it's totally up to you guys if you want to wave it, but I just threw reason we would. I guess I have a question. Yeah. Quick trip. The legal name is Quickar. Quick start. Oh, did they at the open house they referred to both? Yeah. They do Quick Trip. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think they're It depends on parent company I think is Yes.

Okay. I didn't know. I just didn't want to That's a good catch. I asked somebody at the open house or ribbon cutting today and it's kind of and Matt and I were talking about it's kind of when which what state you're located. Some are called Quick Trip, some are called Quick Star. We're Iowa's Quickar. Is that correct, Darl? Is that what you kind of So, I don't know who decided that. Check on that. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say but even the owner kept referring today quick trip quickar and I mean they used to inter both. What's that? Quick trip parent parent in Iowa is quickar.

Okay. So good. Thank you Ryan. So hope that right. But yeah I can check. So it probably goes to the parent group. So whenever another business goes out there, they can get added to the same district. Yeah. So there's the commercial sententrum is all the area or at least at least where we put the road in. So basically the west half is so we got about 14 16 lots out there and we're kind of doing projects like so an ordinance is a text tax district and so when there's another new project that's going to require a tiff dollars then they'll come in front of the this board again for another ordinance.

So it doesn't matter if it's 5 years 10 years. No it does not start the clock what we use. So that's why we're doing it by project because of the clock. Okay. Yep. That's correct. Thank you for pointing that out. Whatever the council prefers if they would like to do approval of the first reading. So vote support questions. All those in favor signify by saying I I um and then it's up to the council if you want to wave the second and third readings. I'll make that motion. Okay. Questions? All those in favor signify by saying yes.

Yes. Opposed. Motion carries. And then we need a motion to approve. Ordinance 861. Correct. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Okay. Okay. Number 15. Commercial center urban renewal.

This is uh fixing a like it says in the notes. This is uh we're going to put a notice in the paper for public hearing for the 15th of December. This has to do with a development agreement between the city and Orange City Development Corporation. Uh so these tiff dollars that we're going to be getting from this uh location quick Orange City Development Corp. is the one that actually is the developer took the infrastructure cost did the did the project. And so what we're doing as an agreement between the city and Orange City Development Corp is we're passing those TIFF dollars on to OCDC for 10 years. And what that basically does for the city, so we enter into a development agreement between us and them. The dollars generated from QuickRip will go to OCDC that will get applied to their loan at the bank and reduce our interest costs in the end. So that is why we're entering into this agreement. But we need to go through the process of having the public hearing first.

But that is what the de development agreement is at. So next meeting will actually and you'reing the public hearing on the 15th. What's that? Public hearing on the 15th. Public hearing on the 15th. Mayor, any questions in regards to the development agreement otherwise before that or we can talk about it too on the 15th. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. So, is there a resolution to set the public hearing for the 15th questions? It is a resolution. So, I'll start with you, Darren. Yes. Yes. Brett, yes. Darl, yes. Andy, yes.

Okay. Excellent. And then we're going to skip over to uh 17 and um project authorization on Madison Place Southeast. Then Matt is going to um lead us in that.

Yeah. So um working with Mark a little bit on um development here. This is the zipper 9 and 10 areas and Kurt put this map together to show the the sold lots that we've had um in this area. And when we did the southern half of this Pumper 10th, we put in sewer and did the grading for Madison Place. So, it's pretty um low hanging crew. Pretty easy pretty easy street there. So, we're um that was a a pretty telling map that we've had quite a bit of success out in that area. And um would like to continue on with Madison Place, basically moving Seventh Street, extending that to the east, and then doing all of Madison Place. I think there's 24 lots is what we um determined there. So, um

I wouldn't get done till summer 2027 or probably good get a long way next year. Yeah, I think we could. Yeah, depending on the summer we get. Um like Matt mentioned, the sewer is in and that makes a big difference. Um, so we're just doing water, storm, and then paving. Um, and like you mentioned, most of the grading work is also done. So I think it sets up well. I mean, it's a lot of linear feet. Um, but the actual work I think should go pretty quickly. So, so you would prepare documents to bid out this spring already or

Yeah, that would be we would have to push pretty hard to make that happen um with the snow, but we're like right at that. If we get the go ahead today, we can make that happen. It would be great if it could be open like in September and get the fall build. Yeah, I think we could push as for that. Or we Yeah, we could also look at doing phasing and saying that this half needs to be open. Um maybe it's the north half. You have to have this paved by the state. Um and then you can complete the south half. There are some options there.

So we just excuse me a motion to authorize that project. Is that correct? That would be part of the existing tiff district proposing would take care of that cost. That is correct. Great. Make that motion work. Any other questions? All those in favor signify by saying yes. Yes.

Opposed motion is making it guys. Um 18. Earl is going to give us a strategic plan update. I think he left stuff for us. Earl should uh should have found um just some updates. We've been doing these quarterly updates since our strategic planning last December. Um so it's fun to see uh many of these things uh uh coming to fruition and hopefully it'll set a base for you of where you're at today. so that when you start your strategic planning um in January, you kind of know where you're at on the uh current project. So um the old MLC Floyd Valley property, a lot of work went into that this past year. Um the utilities and alley are installed, so they're ready to go with uh when they're ready to build. Uh I think it was reported that they had four lots sold. um and al potentially looking at uh um more of a speck house maybe on the uh on the north side of that property. So great to see that moving forward. Uh as mentioned to Ryan, we're going through baby steps on this uh vision builder porches development. So appreciate the council's continued efforts there, the work that Kurt did with planning and zoning. I think um our last two steps are um some uh setback variance on the uh in the lot one area and then finalizing the the final uh execution of the uh of this sale um which we hope we can get done uh in December yet. So um then they'll be able to roll um going into the spring. So nice mix. We've talked about that different kind of housing mix in the porches area with the uh multif family, the the smaller homes and also the single family. Um Salem Avenue, you know, um Ryan and

Matt have had a lot to do working with that. Uh um Kurt as well, you know, finally moving forward. There's dirt moving um by R Perry up on the Salem Avenue project. So fun to see that. Um, North Wland development I think is going to be a strategic decision that the council is going to have to make on how to move forward with more of the uh um custom type homes and uh is that possible to continue in that uh property owned by Orange area health system. So that's an ongoing and I think the uh the council is going to have to make some decisions there. Um, so I, you know, a big part of our strategic planning a year ago is what are we going to do about housing? And we see a lot of these things coming together more recently, the Grunow development, talking about larger lots, the idea of um that potentially being zoned RS1. So Kurt has started the annexation process with that. What Matt just uh shared with you and still up on the screen is that Madison place. Um, so we're getting a nice mix of the different kind of housing that people can do. Um, and especially in this area is is an area that's been interested by our spec house builders. Um, so it gives opportunity for our local builders to continue to make those investments as well. So it's a little highlight on housing. Any questions on that? Um, seems to me that there's been some really good movement to uh, set us in a good place for the next couple of years um, in housing. Uh, it would be fun to see how that moves forward and maybe if interest rates go down a little bit, maybe a little bit more movement that happens in all those areas. Uh, parks, trails, and amenities. Great to see the uh, St. Paul Trail complete, the uh, Vets Park Trail complete. Obviously, still a lot going on in Windmill Park. There'll be some work to be done early in the spring uh to be ready for that uh kind of grand opening

of the uh of the uh additions to the windmill park and the Vogle contribution there. Of course, all the tulips are planted, the sculptures are in place. You know, they need to get grass growing and some final things on I'm going to call it the vertical infrastructure with the gazebo and and the entrance and finalizing the pump, but really fun to see those coming together. and then you had approved the uh replacement of that playground piece will be really nice. Um so it's always a great draw with young people, young families in that park. Um so that will be fun to see as well. Um yeah, the uh Walter Family Park, uh shelter house, restrooms, pickle ball courts all finished. Uh Noah got the signage in uh on the disc golf course. So, um, really not a lot more to do there except for some of the the work that needs to happen on the surface of the pickle ball courts next spring. Um, so fun to see those, uh, come together. Kind of longer range. We've talked about, uh, trail projects. What are you going to look for in the future? Um, we still Mark had done some of the engineering work, but we didn't finalize that work on the uh, sidewalk safe route from Dutch end to Puddle Jumper Trail. So, that'd be something that I think needs to have some attention maybe in strategic planning. Uh, how do you want to move that forward? I think we're in a much better place than we were a few months ago. Um, and then just looking at what's the rest of the uh the connections of trails. Um, it's been very difficult to get the dumb up to puddle jumper trail thing done, but maybe as the DOT continues to look at highway 10, how can we um actually connect those? So, kind of a challenge the future councils to maybe keep that on the agenda to say how can we make that that happen someday. Um, yeah, we made some improvements to the pool uh with the filters and those things. Again, you're dealing with a 30-year-old pool um and thinking about

what the amenities might be that uh may be attractive uh for that pool going forward. Be ongoing uh conversation. Nothing really new to report on the Center for Healthy Living. um still out there. It's still in conversations. It's the kind of thing that um I think um an enhancement for our community. If you're looking at quality of life things, that kind of facility would still um be something that uh we could um have in the future ideas of how we would move forward. You got updates on from Lansir today. I'm not going to go through any more of that. Um we had discussed often in the past the downtown um central avenue corridor uh never really got the traction to say hey let's move to the next step there but we've kept that on this list of things to consider. Um, we've had some, I'm going to call them, um, just smaller upgrades to city hall that have been in process, but continuing that bigger picture of, uh, um, really the police department is um, wofully inadequate as far as the space that they have. I'm not sure if there can be adjustments to this building or another space, but I think that needs to stay on the uh, um, attention of council going forward. Um, of course we're looking at the ladder truck coming soon. Um, when does that be coming, Dan?

Uh, July 1st.

July 1st. So, that's a major investment the city's made in the in the fire department. We had the TE study done. Um, with the changes happening at Northwestern College and the the corner with Molder Oil. That was a a pretty big part of the TE study is that's just how can you improve that intersection. It might be something the council is going to have to look at make an investment to improve that as well when the council when the college is ready to move how to partner with them um on that commercial centrum you talked about you created the tiff district um you know downtown visioning I don't know exactly when they're going to be making that report sometime um either in December yet or uh in in January I think they're moving forward with that but it's really fun to see when you look at the developments that have happened with the old TC building, access real estate just north of of city hall here, continued Dutch fronts, alleyways. Um Ryan's and uh OCDC been in a lot of communication with Cortiva, Old Masters, Sekasui, all with potential expansions. Um that's in the O OCDC districts. Um willing as to move forward on their commercial condos on the next phase, so continue to see development there. Highway 10 development. We talked a little bit about the RTI building and the Dutch fronts there. Floral market of course new and I mentioned the colleg's uh changes. Um we made progress on uh the old airport redevelopment, but I think that's another like okay how can how can this work? we've kind of turned into a little bit of a storage area for a variety of different businesses and and the debris from the trees and so on. But as far as uh commercial industrial development, the old airport property probably needs to stay in the uh um sites as well. City

infrastructure, just some updates there. Talked to Matt a little while today. Diesel generation, we probably are getting some numbers from DJR that can give you a little bit more information there. water towers in the future. Town border stations probably slid back just a little bit. Not quite as demand as we saw maybe two years ago. Um not not saying it won't happen, but um probably a little more of a concern that's come up more lately is the uh dealing with sanitary sewer upgrades and uh what kind of plan can come from DGR to help us with those lift stations and moving moving things. So that's a little bit on the infrastructure side of things. wonderful partnerships with Sou County Regional Airport. Um, and just a reminder of the pledges that you've made and a little bit of where you're at on those pledges um that help the schools. So, hopefully just give you a little bit of a update. Um, and then I'm not going to spend much time on this, but um like to go through just highlight some of the team accomplishments. You've got a wonderful uh staff of employees that are committed to the city that do good work and it's fun to see all the things that they've accomplished over the last year. Some of them get done in a day, some of them take weeks and months to accomplish. Um but yeah, you when you got events like uh Tulip Festival and Ragbr, it's the whole communitywide. See, Mike's here with uh you know, you you get the tool festival steering committee, the the committees that uh uh draw a lot of volunteers together with those different events that are held downtown. Um continuing to work in the cemetery. Um you know, obviously Heritage Group's done a lot of work there. Janet continues to work on the mapping system. Um that'll be a great addition when that's uh completed. zoning things that we've talked about with these developments. I think I counted that we've had nine new employees or position changes. Um so out

of 35 employees, that's quite a bit of change. Um and uh a lot of good young people that we've been able to hire um this past year to fill many of those positions. So, um, when we were looking a little bit at the, uh, um, renewals for our health insurance, um, and we were able to stay kind of at the same thing. Well, it's kind of a reflection on the fact that we got some older people going off and we got a bunch of 20somes and low 30some people uh, on our employee roster. That makes quite a bit of difference. Um, so lot of lot of new hires, some of them yet to get started. So, just highlighted a few of the things that people have been working on. Many of these things we already talked about. Um, so I'm not going to read them all to you, but um, yeah, just want to say again, you have a wonderful uh, group of employees working for the city and uh, appreciate the opportunity to work with them and work with you over the last number of years. So, thank you.

This is your last This is my last council meeting. So, yeah. Thank you for all your work. appreciate you so much. Takes us to administrative reports. Matt,

yeah, just looking at uh upcoming meetings um rendered by the employee recognition dinner in a couple weeks and also as you can see there's a budget process coming up. So, special council meeting in a few weeks or in January as well. So, uh just make you aware of that. We're at a quick start grand opening tonight. So um or this this afternoon and uh a nice honor for the uh fire department and police department. So a couple large checks there. And as I look around the room, I think most of the people in here had an impact on that project and just a good reflection of what it takes to to get a a project like that uh to the point where it's at. So thanks to everybody for for their work on that. Uh we wrapped up a few projects here this past uh past couple months. Um one being the asht tree removal was complete just in time for the snow this past weekend. So the Tuesday working through that will be working on some public works director interviews over the next few days. Um so moving that process forward and then also a reminder to to vote tomorrow. Oh, um, here in the community room

and it's Yep, you're right. Thanks for Jim. Good honor for you, though. Like Matt was saying to uh to Jim and to Dan, it was they're the right kind of company to have coming in here who want to give back to our community. So, I think that's that was great. K. I'm not gonna talk to Earl because he he knows I'll cry. So, I'm gonna not gonna do that. I cry anyway. Ryan, Mike,

Chief Dan really appreciate what you do. I hear him. Um, you do so so much good work. Um, and I'm I'm glad that you're on board. I'm talking about our little little lady there working on her on her um on her what do I want to call social media? Yeah. So, um staff council, anything from you, Brad? Darl, no. You guys got one more though, don't Lydia? Darl,

no. Earl, thanks a lot. Appreciate it. It's been a great 16 years for us serving together and just appreciate all you do.

And we and we have your phone number so don't worry about that. Um before we we do have to go into a close session per Iowa code section 21.5J concerning the uh potential sale of property real estate. There won't be any um decision uh made come out. no action will be. So just so that you know that it's just mainly a kind of a discussion. So um and then when we come out we will adjourn. So oh one thing I want to say we got two nice notes here. One a thank you um from the Junior Potam uh family uh in honor of Jim's dad a plant that was sent and also a very nice card from the staff at the Orange City Christian School. And as Ed said at Owen City Council members, thank you for your generous support of our OCCS building project. Your investment in our students and community will make a lasting impact. We are grateful for your partnership and we appreciate your commitment to our community. Nice uh signed by all the by all the staff members. So that was very nice. So, um, we need a motion to go into close session for Iowa code section 71.5.1J. So, move

and that is a roll call. Who did I start with? You left. No, no, sort of. Oh, yeah. Me did start with me. Rat. Yes. Rat. This