Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, it is 5 o'clock. We will call the meeting to order for the Board of Works and Public Safety here tonight. It is August 10th, 2026. Here in the council chambers, we'll start with roll call. Dan, would you lead us?

Dan Lipke, Board of Public Works and Safety.

Jake Vissing, City Attorney.

Justin Greenmeier.

Sally Haddeboe, City Clerk-President.

Warren Jones, Board of Public Works and Safety. Okay, we are all here, present and accounted for. So please, council, board, I'm multitasking and not doing a very good job, am I? I think Sally took a piece of paper, so I'm going to blame her until I find it. Okay, if you will, board, please, the minutes of July 13th are on page one and two.

I'll make a motion to accept the minutes of July 13th, 2026.

Dan makes the motion to approve. Warren seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Okay. Nevertheless, I'll proceed. It is here. Mayor's comments. Board, I just want to share some updates and some obvious visuals. If you've noticed and been up and down South Main Street, Phase 2 looks a little different. It is same as done. When I say that, there are some punchless items, but by and large it's done and it turned out extremely well. Happy with how that looks and flows. The lanes, they marry up really well. And so outside of just a handful of things to finish and go back and correct, no, it's pretty well wrapping up. So good news there and very proud of that project. And again, it was done ahead of time. We had substantial completion was still a little bit out. So we actually beat that and got done before school was in session. So that was a nice added benefit. Ideally, any of these projects, we want to get them done and ahead of schedule. That one, the rain and the weather helped us out. We didn't have near the issues that we were afraid of with weather, so that was good to go. On that note, hey, we put out the press release last week. As a reminder, I'll say again tonight, we weren't done with phase two, and that was something we promoted some time ago. As a refresher, a note of interest, phase three in succession is then a segment of the south main from the bridge abutment south to plus or minus the Bexmill Road interchange. Different little scope of work because there are fewer conflicts. Not as old, that's a good way of saying it, not as old in some of that section as other areas were in the phase two, not as near tight. So the work area is a little easier to dig in, relocate, transition, all of the above. So the scope may be a longer linear foot, but the actual work shouldn't take as much time or be as tedious. So in that, there was already some repairs done. We had slipped and slip lined, pardon me, board. We had board several feet already of new utilities. So again, it's not as much to do there, but that's the first step. As always, we've got to get our conflicts out of the way. So there's some water and wastewater conflicts that are being addressed. As you see today, there's actually a few indications as Mr. Jones indicated. So they've been there. and they're going to deploy and get started on that. Nothing has been announced on the road bid, so the contractor here today is strictly a utility contractor. I know there was some confusion already on who that was. That is a firm called Copper Ridge. Copper Ridge is out of the Jasper area, and they're the successful bidder on that project. So if you see them, take note. That's who is here. That's who's working. I'm anxious to get to know them and see what else they might want to do for us in the future. When the road letting happens, that is truly an NDOT announcement, and so they'll take that lead as they had the other two, and so that's forthcoming. So we don't know who will be the contractor on the balance of the work until they do that. Changeover, hey, this week, plus or minus into next week, We talked about the next CCMG, the Community Crossing Matching Grant on Jackson Street, that section. Plus or minus Elm Street going out to Highway 160 is that scope of work. That should start any day. There's not a hard start date, but it is time. They've got notice to proceed. Again, as a reminder, that's a less intense project because, again, the parameters on the old roadbed that was a state-owned property. So there's a lot of right-of-way. There's a lot of clearance. There's a lot of area to work in. We've got some stormwater issues to address. Those should not be too hard to make corrections on. That does come with a center turn lane as well. So all things considering, that should go quick. The big thing there is to keep in mind public safety, and we know Webb Street and the county jail certainly needs to be open and accessible, and we're working with those agencies. Those two items, road worthiness. Board, just want to remind you this Friday we've got another On the Bricks event. Baked on the Bricks is this Friday. All your pies, cookies, cakes. What are you making, Sally? I'm not sure we got you down yet.

I'll think about it.

All that good stuff will be there for the local bakers to present themselves. So Friday, 4 to 6 on the bricks will be the next one. Okay, that's all I had under that tonight. We'll move on, please. Reports from departments. Brandon, your wastewater report.

We've got a lot going on last month with all the new startups and everything that we got going on. We did have to replace a tap at 500 North Shelby Street. Had roots in it. There's an old clay line that we replaced. On the 14th, coming through the startup on the new permanent generator at Elizabeth Street Police Station. On the 15th, National On Demand hit our sewer main on West Mulberry. They actually dug it up and repaired it where they hit it. They let us know and they fixed it. Very good point, repair they did. We went through and had a camera all the way from Shelby all the way up to Cobble Street just to verify they didn't hit it anywhere else. All looks good. It's a real tight corridor through there where they were boring and they did not hit us anywhere else. Uh... On the 16th, we replaced the tab at 610 J Street. Same thing, we had routes in a line. On the 17th, coming to the startup for the permanent generator at Standish Street lift station. Those are all working good now. On the 27th, Link switched over the electric service at Martinsburg Road, Sparks Ferry, and Water and Emma. to the new service that they built so we could have a backup generator to be able to run those if we need be. On the 28th, Bill Anderson and Link Electric started up two different mission nodes to where we can, it's an alarm system to let us know if there's anything wrong at Martinburg Road and Colony Drive. On the 31st, we replaced the tap at 810 North College. We ended up having to move the tap because it didn't have enough fall to it. moving down the sewer line a little bit so we could get the fall we needed. On the 31st, Link moved the electrical control cabinet at West Market lift station to the new pad that they poured because they did the startup the following Wednesday. So it was on this month, but they did the startup on West Market too.

Most of that work, if not all that you're describing, is part of the wastewater upgrade the utility entered into with that contractor, and that is part of the collection system overhaul. And so getting those lift stations upsized, generator powered, or accessible for generator power is a big deal. Obviously those have a large job in their section of town, what they do. I'm glad to see that is rounding the corner and almost done.

We've got one more portable to start up, one more permanent to start up, and then we've just got to test all the different lift stations where they put the transfer switch on it for the portable generators. Right. And then we've got the new lift station starting up on the 24th.

Good. Good. Going to be a busy couple weeks here. Busy couple weeks on top of everything else.

Mm-hmm.

Board, any questions? Brandon? I have none. Thank you all. Thank you. OK. Water report is provided. Jennifer is tied up this evening. So please, board, she has presented that to us. And it is here in her packet. On her behalf, do you have any questions I can answer? Dan? Okay. Please then, if you will, your utility adjustments on pages three and four.

I'll make a motion to accept the utility adjustment to this statement.

Warren makes a motion to approve. I'll second that motion. Dan seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Okay. Unfinished business, old business. Kind of went through that. Board, is there anything omitted that you'd like to discuss tonight? Jake? Nothing for me. Sally?

Nothing.

Well, let's move on then to new business. Council, or probably, I keep calling you council. You are council, aren't you? Board, we don't have the first item. That will be pushed back one more month. So we will get our new hires here later. Next is an item. Sally, that's not in the packet, though, is it? It is not. So we need two approvals. Council, get it again.

Board.

Board. For some professional services that we enter into from time to time, we need one for some building work by trainer and one for some line location work by Clark Deets. So please, if you are good with those professional services, we just need a motion to approve. So we put that in minutes.

We have never had a problem before, have we? Nope. I'll make a motion to approve both. Mr. Jones, would you like to second? Yes, I would. I thought you might.

I had a look in your eye. Motion made and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Okay, please. Closure of Harrison Street during home football game, and that's what I was looking for. So please give me two seconds because I do not want to give the wrong date. Okay, Lord, pardon me. Once again, the home football game schedule is, or boosters are requesting for the home football games. The closure of Harrison Street, we've done this now, what, three years, four years? They've got a handful of dates here, including a scrimmage on August 14th, which is this Friday. So August 14th, August 21st, September 11th, October 9th. october 16th i thought i thought this week was that mitchell it it didn't say it just it indicated it was home so if it's not we won't but uh anyways the other the other five are four four yeah october nine and sixteen okay thank you so board uh again harrison at um homer and uh south until uh bristol i'll make a motion we allow that mr jones makes the motion to approve the closures i'll second that motion second it's all in favor say aye aye no same sign um likewise a little early but let's get it on the agenda and get taken care of ymca would like to advertise their trucker treat october 24th on the walking trail sidewalk in that vicinity, 4 to 6 p.m. Gang, you've done this before. Again, no issues from our standpoint, so if you're okay with that.

I do, please, sir. Make a motion to allow YMCA to continue with their...

festivities that they normally do on october 24th 2026 between the hours four and six pm dan makes the motion to approve oh second general segments all fair say aye aye aye post same sign okay uh if you will the utility vouchers of claims on pages 5 through 17.

I'll make a motion to accept the claim.

Mr. Jones makes the motion to approve as presented.

I'll second that motion.

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Okay, we've got a little miscellaneous to take care of. Sally, that looks like that's you. Page 18.

Yes, we have an employee, Darrell Brown, that has requested his bank sick time. And that is in your packet. He has 40 hours, I believe. Yes. 40 hours.

Make a motion to allow our employee his bank secret time.

Second.

Dan makes the motion. Mr. Jones seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. OK. All right. We had no one signed this evening. So that brings us to the end of the agenda. For Board of Works, you guys have been extremely efficient tonight. Jake, anything you want to add?

Nothing to add for me. Dan?

No, sir.

Warren? No. Sally? Nothing. Well, okay. It is 518. We seek motion to adjourn.

I will make one quick statement. It does help whenever you have all this material over the weekend. Sally, thank you for many years of that, and I know you'll keep doing it. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

With that being said, I think a motion to do so.

Okay. Common Council will convene at 530. Okay, it is 5.30. We will call the Common Council meeting to order tonight, August 10th, 2026, here in the council chambers. Please, we will start with our invocation, followed by our pledge. Everybody stand.

Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful for this opportunity to band together, O God, in service of you for this community. We pray, Father, wisdom and understanding. We pray for guidance, O God, that you would be with us in every step of the way, that we might be for this community what you would have us to be, and then the people, O God, will understand. We pray this prayer with faith, trusting in your guidance. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.

Can I have a face-to-face?

Thank you, Ricky. Thank you, Dylan. Okay. Let's start the roll call. Dan, would you please?

Dan Lipke, District 1. Dylan Moore, District 2. Jake Vissing, City Attorney.

Justin Greenmeier.

Sally Hadabo, City Clerk-Treasurer.

Ricky Main, District 3. Randy Lee, District 4.

Roger Pennington, At-Large. Hey, we're all here, present and accounted for. All right, we will start the agenda with minutes of meeting July 10th on pages 1 and 2.

Make a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting on July 10th.

Dillon makes the motion. So Roger made second on fair say aye. Aye. Same sign. OK, please, if you will. A couple of things on the mayor's comments. An obvious statement, I guess we talked about in the Board of Works. If you've traveled South Main, you will see nearly, if not 97% of phase two is completed. Happy to say it's just got a few items on a punch list, nothing of severity, but a few things to button up nonetheless. It is quite different in how it looks and how it feels. Certainly the joke I started some time ago, the camel hump's gone, now there's people that miss the camel hump. Yeah, I guess nostalgic reasons. Sally liked to play Dukes of Hazzard, so she got everyone a time or two. Anyways, so it is one flat surface now, one end to the other of the work, and so everything lined up well with the trail. Everything was addressed in that section, so anyways, come out pretty nice, albeit just a few things to finish. We'll get that done in a short order, and the nice thing was it did complete ahead of schedule, so The goal was to get done before school, and we did as far as certainly being able to maneuver and make that work. So I hope everybody's enjoying it. I do like the look of it. Maybe I'm a little prejudiced, but I do like it. It turned out pretty well. With that, as a reminder, as we've said many times, I've said many times here at this bench, to the media, to different press releases over the years, We were fortunate in our applications at Salem. So phase three has always been approved. Federal highway project for the next section. And so in doing so, that scope of work is right behind, if you want to call it that, the heels of this completion. So the south end of the bridge, working your way plus or minus to Bexmill Road, was the scope of that approval. and DOT did give us that award some time back. And so now it's time to move forward with timing. As we get to that, we have our own due diligence, if you will, to get our own utilities fixed, addressed, and changed. There are some, and I do mean some, wastewater conflicts. There's not many there. Storm sewer, not so much either. Again, there's a lot of gravity on that hillside, if you will. So storm sewer is not going to be so much. And a little bit of water. We've already done some water that was bored in and around the McDonald's section down towards the stoplight. So scope of work is actually a little easier. It's a wider footprint. It's not nearly confined. A little more room to spread out. And so adding and moving and separating some things makes it a little easier in that section. Overall, the work won't be as hard, but it is just as important as it is a continuation on that truck line. Just as a point of clarity, there was some confusion in the last few days, few comments here and there about the contractor. That is Copper Ridge. They are the successful bidder on that project, so you'll see some new folks in town. I hope to maybe do business with them again, but I think we're all excited to work with them and see what they can do for us maybe down the future. But they are the contractor for that scope of work. And so we get that done, they get out of the way, and then NDOT will have their process once again in selecting the bidder for the construction like they did on the last two phases. So anyways, that's all forthcoming. Good news is, again, there is no lane closures. It is lane deviation at best. Certainly all drives will stay open and accessible. So important work. I stand by that. We have to keep going and fixing and doing, upsizing, refitting what is no longer working in our favor. And so this is a great way of doing it. On that note, just an update on timing. The CCMG Next project, as you well know, I've said several times that the Community Crossing Mansion grant has been an absolute savior for Salem and our successful grant awards and what we've been able to do around our community with those dollars. The Elm Street section to 160 on Jackson is slated to start by chance this week, maybe next. Contractor doesn't have a true hard start date, but they do have notice to receive that looks like it'll be in the near future. Again, no closure, and keeping in mind with Public Safety Council, that has to be with the ambulance service and Sheriff's Department, the jail facility. So we know that, recognize that. So there'll be a lot of emphasis on keeping traffic flowing in that scope of work. So look for that coming up pretty soon. Lastly, I'll end on the on the bricks Friday night. Right now the weather, we're going to go with it. Weatherman's called for a little bit, but on the bricks is scheduled again with baked on the bricks. So all the home bakers, all the ones, cookies, pies, cakes, breads, and the like that want to come and set up. That was a great event last year. And so that's again this Friday. And so I'm looking forward to that. So please come out and patronize some of our locals and see what they have to offer. Okay. Please. We will start then with the financial statement on pages 3 through 10. Sally, anything to add to that?

Nothing to add.

Okay. With that, council would seek motion to approve. Make a motion to approve the financial statement as presented. Roger makes the motion. I'll second. Dillon seconds. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Same sign. Your senior center report, please, gang, that is on pages 11 and 12. As you see, they are mighty busy. Okay. Please, we'll move on the agenda. Council, we had unfinished business under the discussion last month of information to vet some considerations. Information only, there was no board action, no council action, and not asking for any action tonight unless there is the will of the council to move forward. The question was could we get some data and Friday afternoon i made contact with the right lady i just was having a hard time connecting found and i remembered who it was and so we got together she said absolutely i'll get you what you need dylan i think you know it was perfect pardon me danny had asked the question how many registrations do we have if you look in the yellow column and you total at the bottom uh 63 71 danny i At first thought that was low. I had to think about that for a minute, but that is all registrations within the city civil footprint. So I suppose that does make sense when you add the trailers in the second box of data. If you just look at the passenger vehicles, it's a little less, but anyways, So that was one of the questions. Dylan, my apologies. I think you wanted to know mins and maxes by chance. So there you go. If you look after that first column and then you look at the third and fourth column, $7.50 is your minimum on the municipal surtax and $5 on the wheel tax, which they break it out. It's actually It's two components, we just give it one general name, but there's your minimums and your next column gives your maximum. And so as you see, they're at the bottom. If you take the very third cell across the bottom, you talk about your road mileage, your allocation back to the city, what your minimum could be and what your maximum could be based on BMV. So you don't get to change that, that is BMV's data. if anybody had a discretion that they wanted to proceed, yes, you have the availability to do anything minimum through the total max. There's your allowance. But those are the two questions I think were the prevalent. Gang, I hope that answered it for you. And please, that's data, data only. If you would like to Conceptually, counsel, this is revenue replacement in what we face through Circuit Breaker, what we will face in the next few years with some tweaks to property tax credits. And so the idea is you would funnel this money into your MVH funds, so therefore your MVH funds get shifted to help Is this just an annual thing?

If the city were to adopt that, it lasts for one year and then you adopt it for the next calendar year, is that right? Or does this stay in place?

It stays perpetual, Roger. But your point's right. If you wanted to amend either direction, then yes, you would do it again by September 1. So then the next January rate would take effect. If you chose to leave it locked and not touch it, Case in point, and Jay can speak better, I didn't print this example, but 482.93, that's what we certify. That's what we turn in. And so they go off our road miles, but they use obviously the state B&B pools and the registration count. Thank you for the information, by the way. It is nice. They certainly said if any year, to your point, Roger, if we wanted more calculation next year, glad to do it. Or at any time, goodness. But to Jake's point, it's a little timely this time of year.

Resubmitted to NBOT to stay compliant with the ADA in order to stay eligible not only for your CCMG projects but also for your federal funds. federal project so anything with anything with any federal dollars on it it has to be this has this this document along with your title six and your goals and accomplishments have to be submitted the ADA plan we've gone over the overview three years ago if you look at the document now versus with the high priorities and then work his way down and then you will also see an appendix C is your right-of-way reports this i did it block by block so it's the same as your pamph i did not do a schedule in this because the schedule that you'll typically follow with this is what you would do with your pam and we all know that your pam changes according to your budget yes it is a five-year plan we all know that they're not always followed Um, so there is no schedule on this, but you do see an estimate on your right of way for your sidewalk and curb ramp repairs. This estimate is a estimate for next meeting. And then along with that one, that's when you'll sign the title six and the goals and accomplishments. And then we will get that submitted to end up prior to the deadline of October 1st to keep you guys eligible.

And, and just reiterate that, um, becomes a living document as we've done a lot of this and part of our CCMG work goes back to our goals and accomplishments so we can check some boxes because every time we touch a sidewalk it does become compliant to today's ADA language and so What you have found with us and what we've done, some of our sidewalks may not have been that old, but they're already out of compliance. So when we touch them, we've got to fix them to today's grade level with all the things that go with it. According to NDOT specs. Sometimes it looks like we're being a little redundant, but we're not. It all has to match when we go in and touch it and start changing. And that's what's been good about this. It's kept us on track, and we've been compliant then because of it.

And then not only with your goals and accomplishments, we're not looking just at your sidewalks and your curb ramps. If you guys go into a building and you add a ramp in there or you add, like I was noticing on your agendas, there's no ADA statement at the bottom saying like, to get ahold of your ADA coordinator. If you need an ASL interpreter, if you need any of that, that ADA statement is not there. So that is a goal to add that. And then that would be an accomplishment next year. So not only is your right away, you know, one of your, those are big, I mean, those are big accomplishments and goals. I am, you know, I totally am not knocking that at all, but there's other little things that I do add to your goals and accomplishments as well as not just, You know, you've updated your website, you've added, you know, the coordinators information on your website. That's an achievement that's, you know, so there's other, there's a lot of things that we can put on there that doesn't cost money. Some things are just paperwork that we just have to

I see that's a lot of what's in here. It looks like a lot of paperwork and terms that need to be on our website and on our forms and stuff like that.

And then going through, it's called WAVE. When I run that, it tells you like compliant, like your color contrast, you know, it needs to be more contrast. You need to be able to hit the screen reader. And I did find there is a way to make any website to be able to be screen read. with just hitting a few commands, and then it can be screen read without having to buy another program to add to your website. So that's another thing that we can, takes two seconds to add that to the website, to add those controls that they can, then it becomes, and that's an accomplishment. So anything little like that, and like I said, this is a living document, so when you guys do update the sidewalks, we will update this document. And then I'm not saying every time we update something, we need to re-update it on the website, but we need to have a current copy in the coordinator's office to where if anybody from the public would want to see an updated version. And as you can tell, it went from, I think, what, 50 pages to over 101 pages.

In case those . This is how thick it is. Yeah. It could be thicker. Yeah. Yeah.

Katie, is there a goal that we should reach for? Is there something you're looking at percentage-wise that we should be meeting every year to improve this? No.

No. I have not. She's not. She's not giving me that much of information. I am. Taffany likes to give us the, she won't accept the minimum. So I am trying to go above and beyond that. And that's why this document I have just put in a lot of work in updating it and trying to add anything I possibly can. The only thing that I could see her going back and forth on me with is I did not put an actual schedule. Like if you look, I just have the ballpark pulled up here. Let's see, if something's out of compliance, I didn't put another... column saying like oh we'll have that fixed by spring of 2026. i put in there just a blanket statement saying that the ada coordinator is going to take this he is going to mark down everything that's a high priority come up with like a rough estimate for those high priorities address the board for for money and then kind of go from there um because we all know you have money today and tomorrow somebody else needs it for something more important And then lowering a countersink height is not as important as fixing something else. But that is one thing that I would suggest to kind of look at is maybe budgeting some monies over two. ADA compliance and not, I mean, yes, you guys are doing that. The right of way I would not worry about with your sidewalks and curb ramps as you're doing that with CCMG funding. I would look at budgeting however much money you want to the other items, like your buildings, parking lots, restrooms. So if you think about it, anybody, what I measured and what I took a look at was anything that public has access to. If the police station, the public pretty much can walk into that front office area, that's all I measured. I did not go beyond that because in order to go beyond that, they would have to be invited in. And that's then covered under your building. Building inspector would make sure that was compliant beyond that scope.

So this is draft?

This is the draft, yes.

This is the one that we will let?

um sit for two weeks you close that bring back final thoughts to our september meeting okay okay yep and then at the september meeting i will also have the title six with me as well um and that's when we'll sign the title six and the goals and accomplishments um and then like i like the ada is due every three years the title six and goals and accomplishments are due every year and all deadlines are october 1st of every year So it's a big document. I know, but if anybody has questions, comments, please feel free to reach out.

Excuse me. I'm just kind of interested. Um, you said any public building and would that include churches?

No, they are not city owned.

Okay.

Anything that is owned by the city that the public can. Like your wastewater treatment or anything like that. I don't because you're public.

There's no reason. When you said any public building, I thought, well, we're in the city.

That's where it becomes a gray area. And I've not got a hard response, a hard black and white response from Taffney. Part of me thinks that she wants me to do hospital schools, churches, all of that. But to me, that's not like, if you think about it, the city wouldn't pay for a church to update something or a hospital to update something that would be on that entity to provide an update that as they see fit. So that's where it's like I said, it's a great area, but thank you very much. And I do have it in a nice little binder if this is the one you want to put in. That would be perfect.

Thank you, Katie. You're welcome. We will see you next month. All right. Please, counsel. Next is Sally, Ordinance 2016-13, Transfer Ordinance. Sally, what do we have here?

That is, again, just in housekeeping, just moving it from one line to another line. No new budget, just moving the funds to another line.

Make a motion to approve ordinance 2026-13.

Roger makes a motion to approve. I vote second. Randy seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Okay, you have an odd timed board appointment. It falls off with an expiration outside of our normal first of the year with the library and so that has come due and they have submitted the name that they would like for your behalf. Mrs. Dawn Smith has been recommended to be the one. to go in. Mrs. Robin Deaton is coming off and so we want to thank Robin for her many years of volunteer and being willing to sit there as one of our representations and so now Mrs. Smith has been asked to sit and so council that would be at your discretion.

I'll make a motion to approve Ms. Smith to replace Mrs. Deaton. Mrs. Deaton on the library board.

Okay. Bill makes the motion to approve.

I'll second that move.

Dan seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Okay. Council, if you will, counts payable vouchers on page 15 through 52.

I'll make a motion to approve the claims as presented. Yes.

Dillon makes the motion. I second. Randy. Sorry, Ricky. Seconds. We've got several R's. Ricky, second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Okay. Sally, did you have anything of miscellaneous? No. Jake?

None for me.

Okay. Please. We're down to comments by citizens. We have one. Please. Kelly Simmons. Please, Kelly, would you take the podium?

Oh, I'm sorry.

The I is long. Oh, I see. There's one of them.

It's okay. People that are Simmons actually get called Simons. It's really interesting. Thank you guys for having me. Do you just go, or do you want to ask me anything?

Well, correct address, 202 Walnut.

What we're discussing tonight, yes, absolutely. So I'm here representing Lifehouse Living in Freedom Every Day. I'm familiar with some. I hope some are familiar with us. Um, we have been spending some time with the town of Pekin who opted into opioid settlement funds. Um, as you, the city have as well, they have restricted and unrestricted funds. Um, in June, we met with them to request $15,000 for sprinklers. And they, we spoke many times after they asked very thorough questions, they discussed it very thoroughly. And ultimately we went back in July and they said they would disperse part of it if the city would disperse the rest of it so and they had a lot of really valid points they we compared how much is in the city's opioid settlement funds the restricted account which is the one is it's not allowed to be used for anything except what's in the exhibit e abatement strategies so they felt like our population is bigger the house is here they felt like the city is more equipped and should be more responsible in the means of amount. So we're asking for the city of Salem to fund the additional $10,000 from opioid restricted funds. Now, that being said, I can give you a little history or backstory about what life house is and what the money would go for. Um, we have to install a sprinkler system. It's important. It's to keep the residents safe. We need it. Um, it has to be done per building code from the Department of Homeland Security. We went without it and they sent it back and said, you got to do it again. So we did. And we actually got a sprinkler company called Integrity Fire willing to do it for a very low rate. So you can imagine $15,000 is not a lot of money for a sprinkler system. So Lifehouse will house initially eight women who are coming out of incarceration, who do not have stable housing, who are in that early phase of recovery where that's been a challenge in our community. It's a huge gap in our community. We do not have this kind of support here. Women completing treatment, transitioning from incarceration, or seeking recovery often have no access to structured recovery housing within their own community. Without safe and supporting living environments, many people who have substance use disorder return to circumstances that actually increase the risk of relapse, overdose, homelessness, and continued involvement with the criminal justice system. So ultimately the goal is to lower our recidivism rates in our community, something we really, we struggle with based on evidence and data that's been collected over the last few years. So we came to ask if you guys would consider funding the rest of our sprinklers so that we can get those installed out of restricted funds. Because I know the unrestricted can be used for a lot of other things. But this, our program, it technically, it's the Exhibity Opioid Abatement Strategies included our expanding access to recovery housing. strengthening recovery support services, and creating sustainable recovery infrastructure that will benefit Washington County for years to come.

Well said. Thank you.

Jake, please. So for public comment purposes, they might take and think about this, but probably not garner a vote on the appropriation of that this evening. Okay.

Could I ask a favor?

You can.

Please, would you put this in a formal request? Yes. Sally, whether the council has good vibes, and I think they do, she would have to know who the invoice would go to, how that would read. We would need some basic information. If you could put that together and get to her. Oh, wonderful. Okay. And so, and then I... Other than that, Council, that's the only thing I had to add. I think your request was novel, so I have no problem proceeding with getting the information.

Yeah, absolutely.

I've worked very closely with Kelly on this project. I've been on it from the beginning. I'm a huge supporter of what they're trying to do. I think it's important for our community, and if we could do it tonight, I would be more than ready to do it tonight if we could.

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that, Roger.

Have you sought donations? Yes.

We have, absolutely. So the project itself is very significant. So it's the 202 Walnut Street. It used to be the Legacy Life Church. So there's a lot of work to be done. We are repairing the inside of it so that it's inhabitable. It's not that it's not. It's just not suitable for what we needed it to be. We went through the use variance. Our drawings through the architectural firm we used were expensive. um the general contractor all of that so a lot of our raised funding and grant funding that we've already received have been specific to those things so we had a fundraiser last year we used that for the down payment of the property yes we have we're having one in november come see us it's going to be a great time jake i have a question for you is is her request within the scope of the restricted so that's something i would have to look into a little bit greater detail um but you know restricted funds they're you know it

You do have to make sure it falls within that category. There are some recommendations from the state about the types of expenses that could fall within that designation. So that's something, again, we recommend to make the request, reach out to the clerk treasurer's office and provide that information, and we'll review it. I appreciate that. Obviously, I have to come back here to this body.

Yeah, we will. So if you want to lay eyes on the exhibity document, it's available to all of us online. um there's actually almost not i think there's eight accounts in washington county so every city minus livonia i think opted in for these so you have two accounts for each city and then the county has their own as well so you can see those documents online i really encourage you to look through them they're um these are really it's a really good thing it's not a situation where it's been it needs to be decided if we need to use these money

that has already been decided these are lawsuit funds not taxpayer dollars so we really need to use them for exactly what they are intended for and i think this is a really good opportunity would you be comfortable jake if we as a council decided to tonight make a motion upon pending your review of this to proceed so i mean i think do you want me to table it for next month i think it would be yeah i think i think the appropriate

process would be to allow the application the formal request to be submitted so it can be reviewed and then vetted and then you know brought back out for consideration of both so we definitely want this on the agenda for next month so do you need a motion to table this for next month or you just want to know because it's not it's it's not an item to be tabled at this point i value your all's time so much thank you thank you thank you

And please, whatever you can leave to help start the, please.

Yes, yes, yes, I will. I have the application and I have the executive summary and everything. Perfect. I would like to make sure I have contact information. Oh, okay. Because when we went to the town, they emailed tons and tons of questions, and we want your questions. So if you have some, please feel free to send.

Thank you. And thanks, ladies. OK. Oh, my glasses. Here we go.

So, council, we have reached the end. I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Dillon makes the motion at 6-11. Second? Second. There we go. Thank you.