Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Well, welcome everyone to the people's house. This time the Orange board of commissioners regular meeting December the 16th. At this time I'll ask the city clerk Beth Davis to please call the role. Commissioner Jeff Sanford here. Commissioner Sharon Nith here. Mayor Tom Watson here. Commissioner Curtis Mager here. Mayor Pro Bob Glenn here.

Thank you. At this time, would you please stand and remove your hats for the invocation and the pledge with Commissioner N Smith? First, let's start everything. to always do the right thing to be aware of the needs of others. Keep our community and those who serve. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy and justice for all. Okay. The next item on the agenda is retirement recognitions effective December the 31st, 2025. Um the department heads are going to be reading the notes. First up, Mr. Jake Martin.

Chief Howard. Yes, sir. Brief notes, right?

Very brief. I'll keep it brief tonight. Uh uh but uh I'm here to speak on behalf of Jake Martin. Jake Martin began his career with the city of Owensboro October 11th, 2004 as a firefighter. He came to OFD as a new EMT excited to serve his community as a firefighter and his positive attitude helped him to build strong lasting friendships within the department. His caring and professional demeanor gave him an edge in treating patients in the field and his passion for patient care led him to pursue a nursing degree and to continue on to graduate level coursework even while employed by the city. He spent 21 years as a trusted advocate for those in need of emergency assistance. His heart and his high morale, even in tough times, will have a lasting impact on those lucky enough to have worked alongside him. Jake's most recent years of service were spent on third crew station 5 assigned to Engine 5. As a senior firefighter, he has consistently been a clutch team player, willing to step up for driving duties or to fill in as acting officer whenever needed. Jake will work his final shift with OFD on December 31st, 2025, and then he'll spend more time with family and seek new opportunities as he sets out on his next chapter in retirement. Jake, it's a renewal. Okay, all our employees retirees a certificate of outstanding service hereby recognizes Jake Martin and extend the grateful appreciation for your outstanding service faithfully

rendered while employed by the city of Orangeboro from 2004 to 2025. All those who reside in the city of Orangeboro are asked to join in this recognition of appreciation the 16th day of December 2025. You can use this one. I'll make it quick, too.

I just want to say I'm grateful for the city, the community, but especially the all the firefighters that I've had the honor to work with. But I've especially got to say thanks to Tori, the sacrifice behind the scenes, all that stuff she does. It wouldn't have been possible. And the rest of support from the family. Uh, it was an honor to serve.

Thank you. Let's hear it for Come on up, Vic.

I'm Vicki Pennington with the transit department and I'm here to recognize Mike Custard. Mike has been with the transit department since May of 2017. He's been a loyal and dedicated employee for more than eight years. He's chose to begin his retirement while he says he still feels good and is able to enjoy the many things that he looks forward to doing. Mike has a love for old cars and plans on spending more time working on those along with tackling household projects that he's had to set aside while he's been working. He will be greatly missed by everyone and his colleagues have shared that it has been a pleasure to work alongside him. His last day will be December the 31st and he will be truly missed. And Mike is here as well.

How you doing, man? I'm doing great. How are you? You retiring? Really? Yes, sir. You're young. Well, thank you.

Thank you. This is certificate of outstanding service hereby recognizes Mike Kuster and extends with grateful appreciation for your outstanding service faithfully rendered while employed of the city from 2017 to 2025. All those who reside in the city of Orangeboro are asked to join in this recognition of appreciation the 16th day of September oops 16th day of no of December 2025. Okay.

Okay. At the times at uh Owensboro Transit, I've really really enjoyed it. Have some good people there, good workers, good leadership. Kevin, Vicki, thank you very much. Um, I've really enjoyed my time with them. Thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm here to recognize Joe Hall. She is not with us tonight, but she began her career with the ownboro Police Department in 2006. And during her time with the department, she served in numerous positions to include a clerk with records, a secretary in the criminal investigations division and training unit, and an administrative aid in the support services division. As an administrative aid, she received the chief's award for her role in the hiring process, including testing, interviews, and background summaries. She always understood that recruiting and retaining quality employees for both OPD and central dispatch was crucial to the success of each. Joe has a strong work ethic and takes great pride in her work. Her commitment to the city of Owensboro and Owensboro Police Department has positively impacted countless citizens and officers. We thank her for her service to to her community. The next item on the agenda is the Cap Gardner employee of the year award. We were going to give it to Nate, but you know, he said, "What the hell?" U Cap Gardner served as mayor of from 1954 to 1958. A World War II veteran from the Navy. He was dedicated public servant and prominently and a prominent community figure and a devoted family man. To honor his legacy, the Capgartner employee of the year award was established in 2007 to recognize an exemplary employee, the city of Morrensboro. Each year a committee of members from the professional community, the neighborhood alliance, the Rotary Club reviews nominations. They're going that way, right? to select the recipient. Additionally, the iron na the honor's name will be added to a permanent memorial in Cap Gardener Park located at

20th and J.R. Miller Boulevard. Here are a few excerpts from the nomination submitted this year. He has a very large and difficult task of mediating between all the departments and personnel. He embodies dedication, leadership, and commitment to the city and its residents. For decades, he has been behind the scenes leader, the person ensuring that everything gets done, no matter the weather, the hour, or the challenge. He is an unsung hero utilized by everyone in the city. He answers every phone call and with a yes and makes sure the issue is taken care of as soon as possible. He is one of the most reliable people I know. He's has a servant's heart. Whether it's plowing snow, assisting citizens complaints, addressing property maintenance concerns, or tackling other challenging situations, he consistently puts the safety and well-being of both his team and the community first. No matter the issue, sink holes, limbs, flooding, beavers, sidewalks, anything that has to do, he always has an answer. His leadership inspires us all. He is a role model with integrity, accountability, and support. Help employees give their best. He mentors, encourages, and celebrates the success of others. Our recipient and dedicated 26 years of service to the city of Orangeboro and its citizens. His compassion, reliability, and commitment to others exemplify the spirit of the Cap Gardener Award. It's my honor to announce the 2025 Cap Gardner award of the year and it goes to Deputy Director of Public Works, Mr. Kevin D. Grait.

I want to thank you all for this award. uh this I accept this on the behalf of public works, all the departments uh within the city hall, OPD, fire. Without those people, I couldn't do what I do. I appreciate those people and that's where my feet are standing on today and I appreciate them. They made me look good. Thank you all. Okay. City projects list. See the manager.

Yes, sir. Mayor, thank you. I know we distributed that project list for your review. Uh, really nothing to highlight in there. So, happy to address any questions should you have them. I will just comment that it's good to see the walls go vertical on the new senior center over at the corner of Second and Carter Road. So, good to see that. Other than that, happy to answer any questions should you have any. Any questions, Bob? I just got one. So, I drove over to the senior center and uh drove in and looked and it looks like we say December 2026, but is it possible they'll be done earlier? They're making tremendous progress. I don't know, Leland. I'll defer that question to you as far as the the timeline.

Get up there, but to me that's good news. Your question was timelines. Yeah. Yeah, they're they're making great progress right now and basically we're looking to have them moved in around September of next year. So, yeah, they David uh was very correct in his statements in the paper. They'll get to celebrate hopefully Thanksgiving and Christmas next year and the seniors are very excited about that. Okay. Well, I'm excited, too. That's great. Thank you for your hard work and the work of the group that's working on constructing it. Thank you, mayor. You're welcome. Okay. Next item on the agenda is 5A. Consider audit report McNail ATA PLLC. Call on Nate first.

Uh, yes, Mayor. Thank you. So, as you just referenced, today we will hear our annual audit report. This is required by state law for us to have an audit every year. that provides an assurance both to you guys as the board of commissioners and also to the public that all of our spending is correct and appropriate. So with us today is uh Mac and Mac is our lead auditor from ATA which is our audit partner. So Mac, if you would uh do the audit report for us this year.

All right. Thank you Nate. Can you all hear me? Okay. My voice I'm a little under the weather so I'll try to speak loudly. Uh I'm going to keep it brief and hit the high points where we could be here next week because this is a very lengthy document. But when we start out the audit, we go through a risk assessment process. We look at system documentation, how transactions are executed within the city, and then we assess various risk. And we have to look not just at the city as a whole, but we look at risk, not just the books, but we look outside as far as what what external things could impact the financial statements as noted there on the slide. Uh key risks that are facing most municipalities or ransomware, data breaches. If you read in the newspapers or the publications, it's not uncommon daily with the newsletters that uh I subscribe to that there's a cyber attack on a municipality or utility. And I think we're all aware of the financial and budgetary risk. Nothing's getting less expensive. It's costing us more. And there's also a risk politically with state and federal funding, regulatory risk as they relate to unfunded mandates and legislation and workforce challenges which I can attest to. There's labor shortages and we have difficulty as in my profession as well as in local government maintaining skilled professionals. Uh we go through the risk assessment. We look at the initial approach. We look at your control environment and the the big factor we factor in is monitoring how how well management and elected officials monitor the financial activities of the city and from our testing and review of everything the monitoring is very strong at the managerial and and at the executive level and elected official level than

the city. So when that's strong, uh, things run a lot more smoothly as far as finances go. Uh, within the report, it's very lengthy. There's a transmitt letter, management's discussion and analysis that the finance department puts in there to help explain why the numbers are the way they are. The financial section is a financial statement. And then the statistical section, uh, underwriters such as Moody's and Sters and Pors that rate your bonds, that those statistics are in there to assist them, uh, in doing their due diligence. Uh, the financial highlights, it was a unqualified or clean opinion. Everything was in good order. Uh, one thing, you have a very solid unrestricted fund balance in the general fund, which is very good. uh your net position increased 22 a.5 million. Uh it's uh went from 135 million to 158.2. Your total assets of the city and deferred outflows are 431.4 million with liabilities and deferred inflows of 273.2. So basically what that says the city's on a very solid financial footing. Uh good news is the unfunded pension liability has decreased somewhat. But I think that's stabilized is the CS board has taken steps to uh to uh stop the bleeding. I know that that has increased exponentially over the last few years. And as far as the unfunded OPED or the health insurance for retirees, that liability has gone down immensely over the last five years. So that's good to see. Uh the governmental funds of the city have a combined fund balance of 98.9 million. 43.4 of that or 43.9% unassigned and available p at spending

at at the commission's discretion. Uh the general fund has 434 million that represents 200 days worth of expenditures and that's very solid. um for the the fund balance increased by 700,000 for fiscal year 25. And that's eight consecutive years of increases in the general fund balance. And on a good note, your long-term debt decreased by 11.8 million to 129.4 million in your bonded debt. And the other thing is if you Moody's, they look at your fund balance trend and cash balances. carry a heavy weight when they look at all the factors when they do their bond rating. You have a very strong rating of A1, which is excellent. So that that means that the city is very sound financially and a low credit risk. If you look at the trends, you can see where the revenue expenditures were. They've been relatively on an upward swing on the revenues and the expenditures increased this year primarily due to some capital expenditures. that were budgeted. Uh if you look at your fund balance change in fund balance trend, it's been very steady the last few years, very solid in 2021 and 2024 and in 2023. So you've been blessed. We we wrote out COVID and thankfully we're coming off the cusp of that now. But if you can see where back about 2021 is about 26 million in fund balance and it's up to 43.9. So that's a good trend and it's nice to have those reserves available because Murphy's law is always working. Sooner or later you're going to have to dip into it. There'll be something happened. Uh the day's expenditures and fund balance. Uh you can see the line there

is the government finance officers association recommends a minimum in your general fund of 60 days. You exceed that of 149 days. You can see you're at 209 days. Again that's very very solid and reflects good fiscal management. Uh the tax revenue trend you can see that's been on a steady upswing. And then the large one, the orange one is the uh local income taxes. And you can see that's a result of an approved economy. Over the last four years, the local economy's been very steady and growing. So that's impacted your tax revenues. So that's another good trend. Uh your net pension and oped liability, as I talked about earlier, that's come down substantially. uh it was in excess of 90 million collectively in 2021 with actions taken by the the CRS the county employees retirement system. Uh the health insurance has been coraled under control and they've taken measures to to fortify the pension fund. So that that liability as you can see has been stable the last two years where if you look back historically it just escalated each year. And that's not anything you're going to have to address in one year. Uh actuarily that's something the city would have to retire over a 30-year period is how that's built in. Uh and I just alluded to these the improvements made. And you can look at your governmental fund balance. You can see that's very solid how everything's allocated. You have things committed and assigned. But again, you have a lot of free fund balance or unrestricted or unreserved that that you can uh use in the case you needed to dip into those funds. Other areas we looked at, we have to perform compliance over your federal grants. That's known as a single audit.

There were no findings and we have nothing to report in our governance report or any compliance. We make no significant audit adjustments. You're a rarity. We have probably five out of a hundred audits we do here in Owensboro that we don't make any adjustments on. And that speaks very highly for Angela and DA and the finance staff. And we'd like to thank Angela, Da, Whitney, and Carrie Indiana. They make our job a lot easier. We're very demanding when we're on site. And I know nobody likes to see the auditor show up. I tell my staff, you may think that I would hurry up, get out of here. But anyway, u if there's any questions, I'll be glad to entertain them.

Second. In favor, indicate by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thanks, Max. Well, thank you, Mr. Merry Commission and I wish everybody a merry Christmas and those of us at ATA. Merry Christmas to you as well. Thank you. Okay. The next item on the agenda will be consider approval of minutes December the 2nd uh 2025. Make a motion to approve. Could I have a second? Second. Any further discussion?

Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. At this point, we'd like to consider the board appointments. Alban Area Neighborhood Alliance appoint Ailia Strad to a two-year term effective December 16th, 2025. Orangeboro Sister Cities and Regions Board. We appoint Leanne Typton to a three-year term effective no December the 20th, 2025. Grad Regional Transportation Committee reappoint Kevin Culligan to a one-year term effective January the 1st, 2026. Grad Council on Aging reappoint Darla Barker to a three-year term effective January the 1st, 2026. Orangeboro Tourist and Convention Commission, uh we appoint Andrea Binky to a three-year term effective January the 1st, 2026. and the senior citizen center of Orangeboro on Davis County Board to appoint Melinda Cornell and Joe Terry to a three-year term effective January the 1st, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please?

Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. We'll go to item 5D. Consider board appointments. Greater Orangeboro Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors reappoint Curtis Maglinger to a one-year term effective January the 1st, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Any further discussion? Mag, you want out? You want in? All in favor indicate by saying I. I.

All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Ordinance, second reading. Roll call vote. Huh? I was choking.

Ordinance 20-2025. An ordinance amending the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026. And amending ordinance 6-2025 to carry over an appropriation from prior year. to appropriate additional funds for capital project and various building construction to provide funding for a grant match to receive and appropriate grant funds and to appropriate appropriate funds for a land purchase. Read for approval on second reading the 16th day of December 2025. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second please? Second. City manager.

Uh yes, mayor. we discussed in more detail, but uh just in summary, this is second reading of a budget amendment ordinance for our current fiscal year. Like most amendments, this includes various items that uh we've accumulated over the last few months. For example, various grants that we've received are incorporated into the amendment so you can approve both the receipt and expenditure of those grant proceeds. Most significantly from that regard is a grant we received to offset the cost of adding an additional police officer. Uh so this amendment for example includes the receipt of the grant funds and the associated expenses for this additional officer. In addition, the amendment includes various other items you've already approved such as a carryover from last year that I missed. Uh and overall it's a fairly standard amendment with a hodgepodge of items.

Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve this ordinance. Please we have one. All in favor indicate by saying I roll call. Excuse me. Got too many words and I got confused. Sorry. Commissioner Sanford. Yes. Commissioner D. Smith. Yes. Mayor Watson. Yes. Commissioner Maginder. Yes. Mayor Pro Tim Glenn. Yes. Motion approved. Item seven, please.

Municipal Order 30-2025. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute an application for transportation alternatives program funding authorized under the surface transportation block grant through the fixing America's surface transportation act in fiscal year 2026 administered by the federal department of transportation by and through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in an amount not to exceed $500,000 the proceeds of which will be used to fund programs and projects defined as transportation alternatives. A 20% match is being required of the city. Read for approval on one reading the 16th day of December 2025. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second.

Thank you. City manager. Yes. This is a Miss Florida authorizing a grant application. The application is for $500,000 for various sidewalk projects within the Apollo area neighborhood alliance. We use the funds for sidewalk repair replacement and to add it to certain places do not currently have sidewalk as well. A 20% match is required if our application is successful. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate say I. I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you, Miss Davis. 7B.

Municipal order 31-2025. a municipal order authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a statewide emergency management mutual aid and assistance agreement by between the city of Owensboro, Kentucky, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Division of Emergency Management, under the terms of which the city agrees to provide emergency aid and assistance to other Kentucky cities and counties that have approved and adopted this agreement and who request assistance in the event of a declared national, state, or local emergency or disaster. and further providing that each recipient of emergency aid and assistance shall be ultimately responsible for reimbursement of all eligible, reasonable, and documented expenses incurred by cities or counties providing assistance. Read for approval on one reading the 16th day of December, 2025.

Okay, I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second, city manager.

Yes, sir. This municipal order approves a statewide mutual aid agreement. The agreement standardizes and formalizes the way fire departments in Kentucky share resources for their mutual benefits. The nature of the agreement is it will be used when local resources in one particular jurisdiction are overwhelmed and need assistance from another agency. An assisting agency, however, is not obligated to respond, but can do so when they have resources available. In addition, the agreement streamlines administration and reimbursement from disasters. And you probably recall we do this whenever we're uh have the resources available. We've sent staff from OFD down to I remember Mayfield when they had the tornado to Dawson Springs. We sent some to Eastern Kentucky for flooding and swift water rescue folks. So we try to be good neighbors and this just formalizes the process for doing that under the opices of the state EMA office to coordinate.

Thank you. Any other further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. opposed. Motion carries. Item eight, city manager items. Yes, sir. Mayor, first, if you would acknowledge Angela Winger to present the November financial report. I do acknowledge her.

Thank you, mayor. So, uh, for the financial report for the month of November and the year-to- date November, uh, we're going to be discussing the general fund activity. So, for the month of November, you may refer, oh, you may refer to page three of your financial packet for all of this information. So for the month, actual revenues of a 11,348,327 were greater than budgeted revenues of 11,321,079, resulting in a positive variance of 27,248. This is primarily due to higher property tax, which is timing occupational withholding and net profits, offset by lower insurance premium license fees for the month. For our next slide, it reflects the five months ended November. Total actual revenues of 38,263,130 were more than budgeted revenues of 37,42,079. This is a positive variance of1,221,051. This is primarily due to higher property taxes, occupational withholding, and net profits offset by timing and not receiving the TIFF receipts from the state and the Riverport dividend. And the TIF receipts is just a timing issue. Um, in fact, Commonwealth Economic reached out today and we're going to be I think they're going to be going to the Department of Revenue for those cities that haven't received their Tiff funding yet. Uh for the next slide, for the month of November, we have actual expenditures of 7,71,589, which was more than budgeted expenditures of $6,48,295 for variance of 1,23,295. This is primarily due to timing of an incentive payment and the transfer to

OMU offset by savings and personnel services. For the five months ended November, actual expenditures of $31,128,991 were less than budgeted expenditures of $34,488,534 for a variance of $3,359,543. This variance is primarily due to timing and maintenance and supplies, incentives, transfers to transit, and savings in personnel services. For our last chart, this one demonstrates the cyclical nature of the city's monthly revenues and expenses. The uh that's the nature of our expenses and and revenues. The expenses are depicted by the red bar. Revenues are depicted by the green bar. As you can see, revenues are higher in the months of November and October due to collection of property taxes. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to file financial report for audit. Could I have a second, please? Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? I just had one question. Uh based on the audit report, uh he talked about how our obligation for the pension has gone down significantly. So just in a basic how that helps us makes us more flexible financially. Um, do we anticipate that trend is going to continue because the state is eventually going to get rid of their state income tax and I'm wondering if possibly that's going to change our obligation. I know we got about $83 million based on what he reported left to pay over 30 years.

Right. I don't know that the uh income tax really is driving anything with the pension, but the state has their own actuary and their own studies and they've got investments made and they've got 20-year lookout period. And so in order to um fund this liability, they have developed the CRS rates to accommodate that. But as we have uh seen the with their investing and and prudent uh oversight, uh the CS rates actually come in lower each year than what they have projected. So the state's handling all that and it's all paid for by us through the CRS or or pension rate. Okay. And again, I want to thank you and your staff for your incredible job that you've done managing our finances. You're you're superstars and we appreciate you.

Well, we appreciate that very much. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I

I oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 8, please. Personnel appointments probationary full-time non-ivil service appointment of Alexander Bickus refuge truck driver with public work sanitation effective December 28th 2025 contingent upon successful completion of all post offer pre-employment requirements for probationary full-time non-ivil service promotional appointments we have Jacob all Dylan Brown Hall Brandon Harden Steven James Kobe Smith Matthew Stadfeld and Zerk Wells fulltime um excuse me, fire driver engineers with the fire department effective December 28th. And then regular full-time non-Ivil service appointment of William Olawinsky, maintenance equipment operator with the street department effective December 30th. Uh mayor, commissioners, you'll notice a lot of driver engineers there in the fire department. Six of those were additional positions that we added in the budget this year. Two of them were just vacancies we had at the same time. If you remember that discussion about how we transition six positions from firefighters up to driver engineer. So we're glad to get those new positions filled and provide a more clear promotional process for them.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. The manager comments. No other comments.

Communication from elected officials. Commissioner Glenn. Uh just want to wish everybody a merry Christmas. Uh and uh want to thank a lot of the cultural groups that had wonderful events like the Messiah and ODT, the owner of our dance theat's performance at Nutcracker. End of those. Thought they were great. Um and uh just generally ask people to exercise caution if you go to parties and drink and drive or buy to be safe and get a get a ride or or ride share if you need help home. And that's it. I wish everybody a happy merry Christmas and a happy new year. Mr. Sanford.

Thanks, Mayor. Uh just a couple two three little comments here. Uh I was invited to go to the empowerment academy down on uh Ohio Street. I believe it's uh it's a facility for displaced students and kids. And the the thing that's pretty uh that I was impressed with is they teach them a lot of life skills. So, it's just not somewhere for someone to go and stay. You do go and stay, but you're expected to learn some things on cleaning and cooking and and and and basic things that you need to know to be successful once you once you graduate from this place and get out in the community. So, that was really neat. Also, I wanted to make mention I think last time I said something about two football teams going to uh the state tournament. We had uh both teams very successful. won uh won the state championship which was senior highwensboro High School. I want to congratulate those guys as well as Owensboro Catholic. That's uh whether you you win it or you you fall just short, it's something that the uh school the kids and their parents and the community uh those kids will come back one day and uh talk about that for a long time. I was fortunate to have a have a child that played basketball at Owensboro and they won the state championship in 15. It's something he he and his friends get to talk about for and I've seen them do it. They remember when this ended. So, it's it's really really a cool thing. Uh and uh I'll end it with just merry Christmas to everybody up here and uh and everybody uh and I want you the staff and everybody just merry Christmas to you guys. have be be safe, have fun with your family and friends. That's it.

Thank you, Commissioner Mag. Thank you, Mayor. Just real quick, I wanted to uh congratulate Randy Lannel and Parker Malone for being selected to uh represent Owensboro in our show off our blueg grass capital world at the White House uh open house Christmas event. I think they were the only uh people that played that that that whole day. So congratulations to them and then want to thank every citizen and uh our first responders military far near a merry Christmas. So thank you very much mayor. You're welcome. Commissioner Smith

I could just say ditto that. So we we've hit lots of spots. I would like to give an extra shout out to um there's been several h things happening just that have come up from local people, local businesses, individuals to help with uh to make sure everyone had food, especially when there were some questions on the benefits that they would get from the government. um organizations that are doing uh some of the things we're familiar with like uh Christmas Wish, all of those things to make sure that we remember those that may not have as bountiful Christmas as you and I might have under our tree. And also uh really uh pleased with the downtown businesses doing their individuals, the holiday stroll. Uh, I know the city helps with that some and also the fact that individual businesses just doing special things to bring people out and for them to see the lighting. Uh, I've said before I I get a lot of comments from people out of town and they're truly amazed about the city of Orangeboro and what we do for our size. So, uh, congratulations to all those who make that happen. Kevin, I know that's a big part of your department on it. And I see your I see your gentlemen sometimes and ladies in the bucket trucks hanging those Christmas lights, especially having to take them down in the ice and the snow. So, thank you all and everyone, merry Christmas.

Thank you. Um, I have a comment. I'm kind of confused a little bit about the naming of our indoor sports facility. I contacted each one of the commissioners individually and no one really had any real information on how we came about that name. So, I just curious if you have U any input on that city managers mayor? Sure. Because that's not been released publicly yet, I think. Uh so it's still an internal name at this point. Uh but I think it was largely picked by our communication staff in consultation with the people who operate the facility.

I kind of hoped we'd put that out for the community to have some input. Take the top five suggestions and and let us kind of decide what to call it because I many field houses that are in the middle of the downtown area. So, just curious about that. Uh, next item on the agenda, open public forum. Members of the audience may address the board of commissioners on any matter of public concern that was not on the agenda. Comments are limited to issues within the scope and responsibility of the commission. Commission meetings are held to conduct city business on the b for the benefit of Orangeboro citizens and taxpayers. At this time, anyone who wishes to address the city commission, please make their way to the podium to be recognized. Speakers must state their name and address for the clerk's record and limit the remarks to three minutes or less. Any takers? Okay. Well, we'll go to item 11. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Could I have a second? Second.