Board of Public Works and Safety and Common Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to call to order the June 22, 2026 Board of Public Works and Safety meeting. Roll call, please.

Call.

Here.

Becker?

Here.

Felder? Morrow?

Here.

Gustenberger?

Here. Thank you. Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting. Emotion a 2nd, any further discussion on payroll? Say, aye.

Aye.

No, suppose. Thank you. All right, let's jump right into it. Um. How do you have anything this evening?

I have not been my job.

Dan.

And I'm not going to get any.

This.

Thanks.

Chief?

I have nothing, Your Honor. Thank you.

Chief?

Mr. Collins.

Nothing tonight, Your Honor. Very good. And Mr. Shealy.

Nothing tonight, Your Honor. Thank you.

Good. Then we'll just skip on down until we get some requests. It's going to be quick.

Okay, your first request tonight comes from Mary Beth Listenberger, and I don't believe you told her that she needed to be in attendance. It is a request from the Marshall County Relay for Life requesting permission to place purple ribbons on light posts on Michigan Street to recognize cancer awareness and the annual Relay for Life event. Revenues will be placed on the polls for the month of September 2026.

Motion to approve. Okay.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.

Second request this evening. i'm not sure if those are getting any attendance for us enough from jlbs construction they would like to request a refund of their building permit uh residential new 26-0024 in the amount of 192.70 the permit will be voided Her emails from the building commissioner, Dennis Manuel, JLBS Construction, will then resubmit an application to replace this permit with another building application with similar fees. The applications are to continue building in the remaining lots of the blighted Briarwood neighborhood. Is Joe Peters here in attendance? Or online? I'm staying here. He is not, but Dennis is here to speak on this.

I actually just received an email. You should have also. Joe asked if he was added to the agenda because he said he did not receive the link to log in. So I don't know if you guys would like to table this until next meeting.

Assuming his request, I mean,

Um, basically they started applying for permits and the permit in question, he actually submitted that group of permits. There was seven permits in total that he submitted within a 12 hour period. I reviewed all of them, sent five of them, picked five of them back to him for more information. approved two of them this one one of them being approved was the one in question he then sent an email saying that they actually went to the site and there was 14 permits that he had to resubmit because their architect supposedly did not look at the sites properly and some of the plans that he submitted did not work on the sites that he was planning on building one that he had in question he never put in the next email that he wanted that one changed so i approved it sent the request for payment they paid it and now they want to cancel that permit to basically start all over right right yeah and i told them at the beginning of the process being that rgis coordinator went through all his problems assigning all the addresses. I did all the reviews. This was on their behalf that they did not do their due diligence to inspect it. I don't feel that we should have to refund any payments that were made. So my stand on it is they can cancel this permit out I'm not refunding it unless you guys order it to be so. And then he could submit a new 1 and pay for a new permit. But I'm willing to table this until the next.

Yeah, and if I was going to say, do we want a table and then if he wants to speak on it, you know.

Do we have any examples of something that we ever come across this request before in the past? Do we have any records of that? Most likely not.

Most of them will get stopped before they get paid. The ones that I invoiced and were not paid, I canceled out the invoice and resubmitted a new invoice. This one, I submitted the invoice to him, he paid it, and then said he wanted to cancel it out.

So we have a fair amount of administrative costs.

We have a fair amount of administrative time cost into it. I wouldn't say a whole lot of cost, a lot of time into it.

Yes. That's funny. Yeah. So we'll make a motion. We table this until we hear.

Yeah. And if he wants to come and speak. All right. All right. We have a motion. Do I have a second? Table it.

No, she did.

I'll check it. Can I second it? Yeah, you're voting. So we're going to split. Okay, we have motion in a 2nd. Any further discussion. I just thought we would just give him an opportunity if he did not receive that link. Why why was that that he didn't have.

yeah otherwise he'd be here probably website you would be able to access that as well but what's your email say exactly he's not able to get online no he said he would he did not see the link for the media and then in his request there is not an email for us to send the link to

I was supposed to send him a link Thursday. I got busy. No one shot an email reminder until tonight. So I forwarded to him. I don't know if he's going to join, but I would recommend tabling it because it was kind of my fault on that one.

So let's do that. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. And those opposed, nay. Okay, so we'll table it and you talk with him. Make sure he's here next time. Yeah. Okay.

Very good. Moving on. Approval of claims. Motion to approve the claims that was in our packet.

A motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Number nine. We have a motion. Second. Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion to adjourn. Very good.

That was quick.

good evening and welcome to the june 22 2026 common council meeting um we thank you god for this beautiful day we thank you for this opportunity to be of service to you and also to our community

We ask that you give protection to all those who serve in the capacity of our city. Give them guidance to be where they need to be and know that others are supporting them prayerfully and they hear the call to help. Be with those who are in our midst today who know or need a special healing or have special concerns in their lives. We lift them up to you knowing that you hear all of our cries and our prayers. Please help us to choose words now that will encourage and support and to follow your insight to love one another, even though we may not agree all the time. We give this time as we work together to make our community as best that we can. We ask for your guidance and your forbearance. We pray for those who are all in leadership in our local government, in our state, in the United States, and in the world. We ask that you give us protection and show us the way to live according to what you have us do. We offer these things to you, and we all say amen. Amen.

Thank you. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the city of Hawaii, Thank you. Well, Paul, please.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Actually, is that the same view we've had for quite a while? Is she frozen?

No. She's not moving. She's not moving at all.

I think we lost her. She's muted. Her screens.

Check her pulse. OK, I'm going to say that. Builder? There is. Oh, she's gone. Builder? Pardon me a minute.

Okay, she's not going to have much success moving down the highway.

Okay.

So here.

Listen, burger here.

Yeah, she's frozen again. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting. Please.

So moved to open the minutes.

Second, we have a motion and a second. We're not counting on her, are we?

She is not online anymore.

Okay. So she's not here. Okay. So now we can all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, nay. Thank you.

Okay.

Public hearing time. Motion to open the public hearing.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Second. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Thank you. They're in public hearing mode.

Public hearing for additional appropriations. There are 2 additional corporations. 1 is for city properties. For 45,000 dollars for other services and charges for contractual services. This is to bring in their advisors for. Ownership owners rep services for the public safety projects. The other is for $25,000 for the Opioid Settlement Unrestricted Other Services and Charges for the Marshall County Safe Housing that was approved by a council on March 12th, 2026. And there was not an additional operation done at that time. Is there any questions?

I would mention that we have David Rainey with Veritas Group. He's in the audience right now. If anybody has questions for him, we talked to everybody. I think I've talked to almost everybody about this, or Jeff has, about hiring an owner's rep for the fire slash public safety building, police station construction. And we're at the phase now where we're putting together an RFQ to hire a bot team. And we feel like at this point in time, it's best to bring in an owner's rep with the expertise to help us through that process and choose that team. And they're well known in this arena and know all the players. And so that's what that was about. You guys recall that, right? Okay. And he's here tonight. He drove all the way up from India. If you have any questions for him. We appreciate that, David. Absolutely, sir, you'll hear more about the services of these days after we get going down the road here. Okay, anything else on the other. Appropriation okay. So move those. Okay, we got a motion in a 2nd to close the hearing any further discussion. Hearing none all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay. Thank you.

So you want me to introduce the ordinances and resolutions or are we going to? Go right ahead. Okay. All right. We have an ordinance for second reading. Ordinance number 20262262. An ordinance to vacate a portion of the alley east of Dora Lane and south of Illinois Street. New York Street, east of Dora Lane and Hoover Street, on second reading.

I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 2026, bed 2262 on second reading. Second. Third.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

From what I can tell, this didn't change from our last discussion, right? No. Apparently it's still the same. Yes.

Anything else? All right. Hearing none, all in favor will say aye. Aye. And those opposed, nay. Very good.

All right. Ordinance number 2020-2026-2262, an ordinance to vacate a portion of the alley east of Dora Lane and south of Illinois Street, New York Street east of Dora Lane and Hoover Street on third reading.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on down, we'll have an ordinance on first reading tonight. Ordinance number 20262263, an ordinance amending the fee schedule for the Department of Aviation for the City of Plymouth. Was not required.

You don't have to go away. I just. What we're doing is working with city attorney and my board of aviation commissioners. We've been trying to give a little bit more teeth to our tenant lease agreement to try and. make it easier to get rid of aircraft that are derelict that aren't doing anything but using us for cheap storage so the fee in this is upping the fee more than double to try and discourage people just using this for cheap storage because it's not going to be cheap anymore so that's what it's all about

all right and now we have resolution number 2026 1206 a resolution for an additional appropriations for additional appropriations that we have the public hearing on motion to approve resolution number 2026-1206 okay we have a motion in seconds any further discussion

We'll call vote please.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. No, there is absent. Yes, yes. 1 month, any update?

I'm going to, you know, we skipped over Linda has a question under new business.

Business.

So, Linda, the floor is yours.

um i have had some contact with one of our constituents that's mr eric anderson he's in the back of the room right now he brought it to our attention um at indiana street and jefferson there is a limited visibility and eric do you have anything you want to say if you want to come up you may

Number one, I have not spoken publicly for 20 years.

So, Mr. Anderson, I need you to say your name and address, please.

My name is Eric Anderson, 401 East Carroll, beautiful downtown Plymouth.

Thank you.

At the intersection of Indiana Street and East Jefferson, there's a planter with a connection that has a billboard up higher up. For a while, there were butchers there. The butchers went away. No problem. For the most part, it's not too bad getting out onto Jefferson from Indiana. But when it's kind of busy, you're blocked by Felipe's restaurant that's down there, and the signs, temporary yards signs for businesses. Now the businesses are listed up on my key, but they're also listed down below. Problem I'm having, my car is not tall enough to see above the signs. I look right at the signs, I look to the left, look back at the signs, I still don't know what happened in between time. I don't have enough time. I'm out there itching in the traffic because I can't see. I've been told take a little walk. I'm too damn old to take a little walk. I think we all have copies, so.

Yeah, Bruce. He said the frequency.

When you get down here, you've got signs up and down. They're not doing anything evil. Don't make me think that. Nobody's doing anything evil. They're driving around in an SUV, and you don't see the problem. You're driving around in a sedan, you don't see anything. So that's my problem. I don't know what we can do about it, but just for common sense, and I'll tell my neighbor, she's already about your size, she can't see a pest either. But I'm speaking, she's not. So it's an accident that happened. The building in the signs or just those signs, the sidewalk and the signs are right here in the streets and they're going back. Not very far. Maybe 310 feet. But the, but the marquee up high about 8 or 9 feet.

So what you're asking is you just want the signs of the planter taken down?

The temporary yard signs taken down. Not the planter.

They're in the planter.

They're in the planter and it's there and it's convenient for that. However, it's not convenient for me because I have to drive into the pedestrian walking zone to see if a car's coming on my left.

In fact, the pictures that were taken were taken by Lynn, our city food treasurer.

and you uh asked uh councilman uh longanaker and myself to consider it so we are glad that you brought it to our attention don't do anything wrong because that's that's that's someone's gonna hurt and that's that's what i'm saying i don't know what do you mean so this is speaking of this too i drove my halftime pickup not my big recorder for my halftime bucket still same issue That you're so it's just not your sedan. It's also my pickup truck. Okay. I'll pick up the other side.

So then point of view, I'm looking at walls.

So we just brought up another thing that I started noticing. So I decided to drive around a little more that evening and have noticed that it's not only this location, but in district four alone, I saw a ton of signs in the right way, not on the right side of the yard. that are the sidewalk as over in the States, there's a ton of signs just in my district alone that are either businesses or some kind of whatever, garage sales, everything. So again, the sign ordinance means that we need to put a statement out again because it's not just this location, it's all over the city. Countless numbers of signs that are out there. Everybody that's doing a roofing project throws a sign in in the right away right away and and uh so so just not this business um so not let me yeah we're kind of picking on a little bit here but it's not just them yeah so okay wow so I'm glad you brought it to our attention but again it that triggered me I just started driving around for about 15 20 minutes and then uh so I'll just tell us countless numbers of signs that's it's out of control again and it's not even political season so

Well, thank you for listening to me.

I appreciate it.

Yes, have a good day.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. So I've, yeah, I'm unclear on all the ordinance that involves that sign right there. I'm going to, Ty's going to look into it. We have a temporary, I'm not even sure. I don't know what it is.

I know you're not allowed, especially when we're out campaigning.

Yeah, that's what I go by. It's definitely something we can take a look into and get a better understanding of what's within the organization. Then we can also look to see what sort of amendments may be of interest to put within the ordinance itself. I do want to caution that sign regulation is very much a 1st amendment issue. And so we've got to tread lightly, but also protect those that are in the traveling spaces as well.

That's our biggest concern.

I'm not saying there's a separate setting ordinance besides. It's only about right.

So we'll coordinate.

Yeah.

I used to think there was a timeframe for, like, political signs that, for example, right under states in the right away. Never.

But even outside of that, there's a certain 30 days before it used to be 30 days before when they go in and then they had to be out the next 3 or 4 years.

And every elected official that runs receives a pamphlet. If I remember correctly, that also has those regulations. whether or not they follow that piece to that. Speak for yourself.

I don't know. We'll take a look into it and see what we can do. Speaking of you. Yeah.

I have a couple other things.

Oh. Yeah, go right ahead.

Lend a spark by interest in tonight. Well, on my way in tonight, I did see a golf cart driving around our River Park Square on the trails and everything, and Chief was able to be on site to address that situation so i do appreciate that and then i have heard that um there's a few folks that have come in because they were stopped and warned that they needed to have registration so i do appreciate the thought that you guys are making the effort to to get this out because it's been one of my biggest complaints here lately but i'm glad we're addressing it and i think I think once the word gets out that you're doing something, I think it'll clean up some of that and help police itself. I truly believe that that will happen. But I appreciate you taking care of that situation tonight. And then I had a constituent reach out, and I don't know what the concern is or what the resolution would be. They had a walking down the sidewalk on Baker Street and tripped on a sidewalk that is not where the new Edward Allen homes are. They had to take a section of sidewalk out to put the utilities in and when they put that in, it's not even, I don't know really what, What you do about it just was a concern that, I mean, I know the city has done sidewalks where we've ground down one side or whatever to make a ramp. We still have problems on LaPorte Street. Very aggressive. The same thing on LaPorte Street, you know, you can walk through and the grates are still kind of an issue because I was out on Friday, went downtown to the thing and I noticed that we still have an issue on LaPorte Street and the sidewalk and those grates, so. And if you have this, you can say whatever. I'm just saying that's a concern.

I went and investigated tonight, took pictures of it. Okay.

Yeah. I just, it was brought up to me. So, and then the other thing, I know we've had a lot of rain lately, and I just wanted to follow up with the fire chief. Are the roof goods still, like, are we still out of leakage, or did that get taken?

It started just a little bit. trying to get that ended up.

And then as far as I know, I mean, what was the warranty again on that? Is that like a 10 year or something?

No, I think it's like 30 on that coating that they put on. It's just basically trying to find where it's not quite sealed yet.

Okay, so they're working on it.

I have a couple more things, just briefly. On Third Street, the viaduct that we've They worked very hard at getting that sidewalk established so people could walk and not have to walk in the street under the third street viaduct. It's washed out and it's all over the sidewalk and we see people walking in the street again. So it's just a continuous thing because of the railroad and the rocks and the topography. And then I did have a nice compliment for our parks department. The person who frequents Price Memorial Park was very happy and said that the people who were working out there, especially the young people, were very courteous and friendly. And she appreciated that. So we pat ourselves on the back of that. That's it.

I had some compliments as well. So I went, my family and I went to the summer kickoff last Thursday and they had 75 maps that they were giving out. And the thing started at four o'clock and went till seven. We were there a little after five and all 75 maps were given out. So we're getting traffic going throughout downtown, which was wonderful seeing people and businesses. Everything was looking really great. There's pirates, all kinds of scary things. And then the Plymouth Runway Mile, I talked with Bill earlier and he said there was 200 runners, participants from young children to older adults, which is great seeing the community out and about. They've raised $3,000 for flight school, which is awesome. So just more great things coming in the community and they're traveling.

Yeah, that was... I was out of town, but, yeah, my sister said it was pretty nice. So, yeah. Anybody else? Only compliments from now on, though. No complaints. All right. Well, thank you all for your participation. Nothing for one Marshall County tonight and nothing for Comprehensive Planet tonight. Privilege of the floor if anybody else has anything they would like to add. Again, no complaints, just complimented.

Why don't you give an update on.

Well, I think he wants that public. Well, it's good news. Great. Yeah, he is. He's. Each day getting healthier and we hope on July 13th, he has an appointment with the doctor and that after that point, he should be. free to come back, maybe limited at first. I'm not 100% on that, but we're hopeful. And so, yes, he's doing really good. And this Saturday is a, we've got lots of activities going on around our community this weekend. And Saturday night alone, I think there's four or five events going on. And one of them is a fundraiser for Jim Marquette. And we're doing a, at the Knights of Columbus event. they call that now it's uh columbus columbus club yeah nice columbus um so anyway they're doing a fundraiser there and i think there's still tickets available um so i'm cooking the pulled pork myself so uh And so, well, lots of food and lots of entertainment going on and fundraiser. So, like I said, he's doing really good. So, looking forward to getting back to work. And so, he'll get that viaduct cleaned up for you.

He does. I have one other thing that just occurred to me that there is a parade on July 4th commemorating the 250th birthday of our country. And right now, it's kind of small. But they're still going to have it. So if you have scout groups or small groups or, or a church group that would like to, um, be in it, um, we're encouraging it. Just contact Sandy at the library, Nelson Shipman, or Sandy at the museum to say that. And, um, uh, Mike Miley also a member of that committee. So I think it will be nice trying to start out at Webster school and come come down michigan and turn right by the reese and go to river park square so good old-fashioned if you play an instrument i don't think there's anything that's good all right uh with that um i'll entertain a motion to improve the acceptance of communications so moved second

motion a second any further discussion there are none all in favor will say aye aye those opposed nay thank you randy