Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting to order and ask everyone to please rise for pledge of allegiance and prayer. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. John, if you lead us in a prayer, please. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, Lord, and we thank you. We thank you for your son and we thank you for his work on the cross. We thank you for this community that we live in. For those that are attending tonight, we just ask that everything we say and do brings honor and glory to you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Next up, roll call. I am present. Alderwoman Dent, present. Alderman Kinsey, here. Alderman Whan, here. Alderman Lechworth, present. City administrator Burbridge, present. City Clerk Culler, present. City attorney Weber, present. Public Works Director Payne, Chief of Police, Chase, Finance Director Stacy Houston, Economic Development Director Gary Sutterfield, and we have Melissa from Park and Recreck. Any other city staff? No. All right. Next up is the approval of tonight's agenda. I make a motion to approve the agenda. Do I have a second? I'll second the motion. I will call for the vote. Alderman McKenzie? Yes. Yes. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Lew, yes.

Alderwoman Dent, yes. Next up is the consent agenda. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? Make a motion to approve the consent agenda for tonight. And do I have a second? I'll second. I will call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Kinsey, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes.

Next up is public comment. We don't have no one for public comment tonight. Uh, moving right along. Next up is new and miscellaneous business. Uh, the annual net metering report. Okay. Okay. So, the net metering report, this is required to share with you all uh this report once a year. So, this is for the last year for 2025. Um, we have three customers currently who have solar systems on their homes. So, customers A, B, and C. And it's on here. It shows you the installed capacity, kilowatt hours, uh, kilowatts on those systems, how many kilowatts they used, so what we sold to them for their usage, and then how many kilowatt hours they placed on our system. That's that last column. So, total installed capacity is 26.71 kilowatts. total energy received from the three customers all of last year was 14,663 kilowatts. Um again this is our you know when we talk about those caps that we have per state statute and per contract uh that's why we keep track of this. Um I will be sharing this with utility committee tomorrow night also. Again this is just the once a year where do the systems [cough and clears throat] how they're performing. So okay any questions on that?

No. Okay. Okay. Just needed to give that report to you all. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next up, uh the engineering firm recommendation.

Okay. So, as you all are aware, we um submitted a request for qualifications back in I think November. Um our contract with Archer Elgen was up February 2nd. So, we've been we've had a little bit of a gap there, but again, you know, without short of an emergency, in which case we could go to Archer Elgen or one of the firms who's interested in our business um to see if they would assist us in that. Um like I said, their contract was up February 2nd. Archer Elgen, we submitted a request for qualifications out. We had four companies respond. Uh their information is in your packet. Uh we asked for a letter of interest and their statement of qualifications. Um just a second and I will I will scroll down to the actual request packet. Here's the scoring sheet for that. The four firms who submitted were Archer Elgen, Great Rivers Engineering, Tothan Associates, and Woodard and Karan. And then you'll see right below the engineering firm's names, you'll see we broke out our request for uh qualifications into 10 engineering categories, 10 different sets of services. Um Archer Elgen was the only one who submitted said they could provide all 10 services. Great Rivers could provide everything except electric engineering. Um toen Associates could provide everything except architectural and then Wood and Kuran only does water and wastewater. So, like I said, given the Archer Elgen has provided all of them in the past, we were looking for, you know, what's that best what's the best fit for the city. Um, in our request for qualifications, we did make it clear that we may choose more than one firm to fill all of those needs. Um, we interviewed all four of those firms

after this. This is the scoring after the first round of interviews. Okay, after that first round of interviews and understanding that Woodard and CrarAran only provided water and wastewater um as the interview committee there were five of us total um we asked Great Rivers Engineering and Toten Associates back for a second interview um and then based upon that second interview and you can of course see comments from the interviewers on each of those firms. Um, I said I'm not going to go through those line by line. You all have them. Um, but after those first round of interviews, we, like I said, called the two firms back for second interviews. I offered both firms the option to do a Zoom session because we'd already visited with them in person. Um, Toth and Associates responded with, "No, we will come back in person." Um, so long as the weather allows us, we'll come back in person. Great Rivers chose to do the Zoom option. um he said completely their choice. After the second round of interviews, we then also checked references and project follow-ups. Um and it is staff's recommendation to the board that we enter into contract negotiations with Toten Associates. Um

where are they from? Springfield. As mentioned, they don't offer architectural services. Um at this point, we don't have any major building projects in in the plans. Um, and so we felt like if something arose and we needed those services, we would just go get those services as a standalone for a specific project. Okay. And of course, like I said, though, there there uh the request for qualifications that we issued is here in the packet. You see there issued November 13th. It was due December 11th. Um, and then also further in the packet, I won't scroll through all the pages because there's probably 100 or better. Are there actual letters of interest in statements of qualifications from all four firms? Good.

Okay. And I would happily answer any questions that you might have. You know, I just had a little bit of time before the meeting to to kind of go over it and and so are we in a rush if we if I was to ask for a motion to to table to the next meeting so that I could do some more reading on on it or do we need to

I mean, that's really up to you all. Um, we have I mean we have a I won't say a long list. We have a short list of projects that we were kind of holding waiting till we kind of made whatever decision we were going to make. Um, there's one in particular that we've discussed that's on hold until we select a firm. But I mean, as far as any major projects held up, no. And and also keep in mind the projects that we created task orders and have open task orders with Archer Elgen on, they will remain on those projects through the completion of those projects.

Okay, that was about Yeah. So the wastewater treatment plant upgrades phase 2 A and 2B, they will be with us through the completion of those. Uh the new well and tower, they will be with us through the completion of that. um the bone break center line, however that ends up going there on that through its completion. Um downtown project, this is the really big one. Um that task order was signed in, I believe, 2017 when I looked it up. So actually under Archer's previous contract, but it's still an open contract and it specifies all the way from Persing to MacArthur. So we'll be working with Archer for years to come. A long time. Yes.

Okay. So, [clears throat] so this would just be any new projects that we initiate. Okay. So, I said entirely up to you all. Um, I'll make a motion to table this uh vote on new architectural for new firm uh till the next uh till the following meeting next meeting. Okay. Yeah. Is there a second? I'll second. I will call for the vote. Alman Lechworth. Yes. Alderman McKenzie. Yes. Whan. Yes. Woman Dent. Yes.

All right. Next up, the new water tower paint color.

Okay. So, I know we discussed previously the water tower paint color. Um, I have put in here the results of the survey that we put out to the public. And of course, um I'm assuming you all have seen those results already. As soon as I get down there, my apologies. Um so there are the when asked if we did a tiger tower, which tower would that be? Um majority chose the water tower near Walmart. So there's that one. And then on the and it tells you percentages and how many votes specifically. um the bottle rocket tower or witch's hat or whatever you want to call it by Casey's came in second with 414 votes compared to 47. And then on the question of what color should the new water tower be? Oops. Of course, the option was blue. So, um and that's the public's input. Um I'm sure everyone followed comments that were online. um you know everything from I didn't realize Salem had that many water towers to yeah it was it was a vast array of of comments. So those were the ones that were put out the image that was put out with the color options. So um so anyway so that's it's really up to you all. I've shared previously why my recommendation why uh that was what it was. I do want to share one thing. This logo is roughly to scale. Um, as we've worked with the tank painting company. Now, in the staff summary that you all have, it says that there was an extra $4,000 cost. I actually confirmed that is no longer the case. that was based on previous

originally they were looking at two logos opposite sides of the tower and they were looking at three colors on the logo because it included catch the current on the bottom. Mhm. [clears throat] Um staff opted to eliminate the catch the current because that cursive at such a distance would not be legible. So we eliminated a color when we did that. So it drops it down to two colors and we told them just put it on one side of the tower. Um thinking the highway facing side of the tower and so that being the case this larger size two-color on one side of the tower there is no additional cost. So the cost is what? It's it's there is no cost.

No no there's no extra cost to it. It's the same as if we just went with the standard block letters. Yeah. What was the additional cost? one at $1,500 or was it more than that for? We've looked at different options. The most recent quote was 4,000. 4,000 and that was for logos on two sides and three colors on the logos. Okay.

But but I confirmed with that earlier this week that there's no additional cost with going with just the one on one side with just two colors. So anyway, I wanted to add that update. All right, board ready to make some decisions here. Well, initially I had voiced, you know, we had voiced our opinions as gold, but we also wanted the public's input and so it's pretty overwhelming uh for me the the color that that the public has wanted. So, um,

so I mean the other option to when we talked about it, I had recommended that, you know, we pick a color and then all the others as they get repainted would be that. I mean, it's entirely up to you all. They don't have to be all that. I mean, I probably wouldn't go one of each color, but I just, you know, it's entirely up to you all what you choose to do. It's not discriminate. So, So, you're saying we could you could paint [snorts] uh other water towers uh the blue color if you wanted. This one could be a one color and and that's no cost extra for for doing that. I mean, no, as we're going through like maintenance on them, I guess,

right? As we're as we're having to repaint them anyway. Um, what we've gotten back was the color of the paint for the tow. It's not an additional cost. And because this is not regular paint like you're going to pick up at Walmart or Sherwood Williams even, this is a special coating for water towers. And so, the color doesn't make a difference in it. So now I did throw in your packet, you know, the Walmart tower was the one everybody said, so I just superimposed the mascot tiger onto that one just to give you an idea options. Yeah, that's pretty neat.

So all right, sounds well. There's no further questions. Is that about a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the painting of the new water tower to be blue. And do I have a second? I second the motion. And I will call for the vote. Alderman McKenzie, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Alderman Whan, no. And Alderman Lechworth,

yes. All right. Next up is creek mitigation and walking bridge repair approval.

That's me.

We had a park board meeting this week. Um we've been waiting to get this going. We've tried to have a park board meeting. and we couldn't get a quorum. We finally got a quorum um to get this approved and to bring it along to you guys. We are looking to finish the FEMA work. Um in order to do that, we needed a budget. We need a budget adjustment to purchase um the rock to be placed along the creek and underneath the walking bridges to stabilize them. And so that is what this um agenda item is for. It would be $10,000. Um the street department is actually going to do the work for us. Um we will count all that um labor equipment and everything towards what we uh give back to FEMA and what the expenses are. Um but the expense that we're asking now is just for the rock to be purchased so that we can move on with that project and close up um the FEMA project. We still have the fencing issue at the playground, but um this is one of the things that needs to be wrapped up. Melissa, did we have did we have rock in in that area before the flood? Is this just replacing existing or

we're we're fixing the erosion that's h that's occurring. Okay. All right. What kind of rock are you using? Uh they're they told us to use 10-in rock and that it would all like when we place it, they like they hand place it in with their machines and that it'll all lock in. Okay. And will remain and prevent further erosion. Yeah. Sorry. This isn't just repairing where it had flooded and washed out. This is a mitigation to help prevent it from happening again. And so, yeah, funding comes from a It's still FEMA, but from a different pot from just Yeah. Yeah. This should help with the erosion part. Yes. Okay. Cuz I noticed that that's kind of It's in a lot of places, especially between the two bridges. Yeah. There's a lot.

All right. There's no further questions. Do I have a motion? Let's see. Make a motion uh to approve the budget adjustment in the amount of $10,000 uh for the mitigation of erosion. All right. Do I have a second? I'll second the motion. I will call for the vote. Alderman Lechworth, yes. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman McKenzie, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. All right. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. All right. Next up, got bids for construction [clears throat] crew cab utility bed truck.

Good evening, Mayor Alderman. Good evening.

So, our construction crew has a 2005 Ford F450 with 131,000 mi. This vehicle has had extensive repairs in the past and currently has developed a bad oil leak. An oil leak that would uh have to have the cab removed to get the to the high-pressure oil pump for replacement. This repair would take extensive time and efforts and our mechanic cannot perform those type of duties at this time. You know, with the different weather events and stuff, he's keeping the equipment on the road. So, uh the cost to have a shop to do it, like I said, would be 8K. We feel the truck is beyond its expected lifespan and needs replaced. Um, [clears throat] we had all these vehicles listed out on the capital improvements and some of them, you know, you try to give it your best guess and this truck's just exceeded our um estimates of how long how long more life we could get out of it. So, uh, we went ahead and put it out for bid just to see what kind of costs we might incur trying to find a vehicle. I put out the specs for a 3/4 ton or ton pickup, crew cab, utility bed, gas engine, uh, condition, new or used. Um, a lot of times there are lots that have trucks that are two wheel drive that would suit our purposes and cost maybe $40,000 for a truck that's of a quality that would last. Uh, those lots will not put bids in. I mean, we ask they won't they won't go through because the truck could sell tomorrow and they don't want it being

tied up. So, we received two bids. One from Govmark, a used 2021 Ford with a utility bed and 112,000 m on it for $44,848. The second bid was from Bellman Dodge, which is actually uh one of our source contractors that we could openly purchase a vehicle through, but we went ahead and had them do the bid process. They have a new 2006 Dodge truck crew cab with a utility bed that they will mount on it uh with 21,000 mi for $61,879. And uh yeah, basically we Sally and I are the thought processes that a new vehicle is the better route to go. Obviously, you know, 2026 is going to have a warranty.

Um, failure to replace this vehicle could result in a breakdown around Salem. That's that's not a huge problem. Um, but it does um cause them problems doing their tasks because they haul their tools and the utility bed of the truck that they utilize. They're using a street street truck right now that doesn't have a utility bed and they're just chucking stuff in the back. The funding for the truck would come out of capital or I'm sorry would come out of uh prior funds capital improvements, sorry. Uh we had allotted $110,000 to pay for pock parking lot work over at the ball [music] fields at the park.

The construction crews taken that task on and that's going to cut those costs down to um I want to say roughly half of that. Yeah. So what we did is we had budgeted 110,000 out of park board funds and 110,000 out of capital improvements to redo that parking lot by doing it inhouse and doing it concrete instead of asphalt. Um there will be considerable savings and it'll be less than half that what we anticipated. And so that's what we're proposing for funding to use to pay for this truck. Um, this truck was slated to be replaced next in next budget year, but it unfortunately isn't making it to next budget year. Okay. So,

so, uh, recommendation from from our crew and and myself would be to purchase the new truck. Uh, it should last us a good 10 years just or as longer than this truck did that they had prior. So, Steve, if I may. Yes. So, you have on here it has 21,000 miles on it. I thought it was just like I thought it was new at 21 miles. I've uh I'll have to take Okay. That's what I was thinking. I thought it was 20ome miles is all it had. My apologies. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. So, is it 21,000 or 20ome? She's got the sheet there. If we could just look right on the bid sheet. Oh, in the bid packets themselves. Sorry. Sorry. [snorts]

21 miles. 21, not 21,000 miles. A little bit off. I am under the weather today. So, [clears throat] I just wanted to make that clarification. So, it is a new truck. Okay. I'm curious about what the warranty like the mileage warranty on it is. Is it like 36,000 mi or are they giving 100,000 miles for it? Uh, you know, I don't have that written down, but I do have the website I could pull up and get you an answer. Yeah. I Yeah. Do you want that now? It's not going to be in the bid documents, right? No. Okay. I just looked at it today. So,

because I know usually they come with the factory like a factory warranty of like 36,000 miles or 3 years, something like that. Yeah. It's usually 30,000 or 3 years.

Let's see. We are talking approved standard specs, standard features. I'm not finding it readily available. Standard features. Apologies, mayor. I No, it's fine. I'm sure it's a minimum of

I'm sure it's probably got the factory warranty for it. Oh, definitely. Okay, that's all I was looking for. I should have had that written in my notes. Apologies. I'm looking at the window sticker. Here it is. Uh, we are Nope. That's XM radio. That's not going to help. Here we go. Warranty coverage. 5year 60,000 mi powertrain limited. All right. Good. That's a good deal. Threeear 36 for basic. Yep. Good job.

All right. Thank you, Steve. You're welcome. This time, do I have a motion? [snorts] I make a motion to approve the bid from Bellman Dodge.

Do I have a second? I'll second. I will call for the vote. Alderman Lechworth, yes. Alderman McKenzie, yes. Alder woman Dent, yes. And Alderman Whan, yes. All right. Next up, reading a bill. Second reading bill number 3695. Bill number 3695. An ordinance amending the annual budget for the city of Salem, Missouri beginning July 1, 2025 appropriating funds pursuant thereto. Thank you.

So now these budget adjustments do not include the ones Melissa just spoke with you all about. any questions from the board? I have none. Okay. Okay. I have a motion for bill number 3695. You need a motion, sir? Yes. I'll make a motion to approve bill number 3695. And do I have a second? I'll second that motion. This time I'll call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes. Alderman McKenzie, yes. Alder Dent, yes.

Next up, first and second readings. Start with bill number 3696. Bill number 3696, an ordinance approving change order number two for the Salem Wastewater Treatment Facility Phase 2A Improvements Project. Permission to read second reading by caption only. Yes, please. Bill number 3696, an ordinance approving change order number two for the Salem Wastewater Treatment Facility phase 2A improvements project. Thank you.

This time, is there any questions from the board? I have none. I have none. All right. Do I have a motion for bill number 3696? I make a motion to approve bill number 3696. Do I have a second? I'll second. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman McKenzie, yes. Alderwoman Dent, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes. All right. Next up, bill number 3697. Bill number 3697, an ordinance approving change order number two for the city of Salem water system improvements contract B, elevated storage tank project. Permission to read. Second reading by caption only.

Yes, please. an ordinance approving change order number two for the city of Salem water system improvements contract B elevated storage tank project. Thank you. At this time, is there any questions from the board? None for me. No. No. All right. Do I have a motion for bill number 3697? I make a motion to approve 3697. Do I have a second? I'll second the motion. I'll call for the vote. Alman McKenzie, yes. Alman Whan, yes. Woman Dent, yes. Alch, yes.

Next up, bill number 3698. Bill number 3698, an ordinance approving change order number three for the city of Salem water system improvements contract C pitless well project. Permission to read. Second reading by caption only. Yes, please. Bill number 3698, an ordinance approving change order number three for the city of Salem water system improvements contract C pitless wall well project. Thank you. Any questions from the board? All right, man. Nothing for me. Okay. All right. Do I have a motion for bill number 3698?

I'll make a motion to approve bill number 3698. Do I have a second? I'll second. This time we'll call for the vote. Alderman Whan, yes. Alderman Mackenzie, yes. Alderman Lechworth, yes. And Alderwoman Dent, yes. All right. Next up, reports of city official boards and committees. Um, I guess I'm up first. Is bill 3697 not being discussed? Just we voted on that was 3698. We voted on We just voted on We did 3697. Right before. Yeah, right before.

Can we check? Is that right, Tammy? Didn't we bring Who who who did the uh who made the motion for 3697? Alderman Kinsey and then Alderman Whan. Okay. The vote was Yay. Kenzie Wayan Dent Led. Okay. [clears throat] Okay.

All right. I guess I'll do my report first. Okay.

All right. Uh, I want to first and for foremost thank all of our city employees, especially our road crews, uh, cleaning and doing all the road work that they did during this last uh, winter storm. Um, really appreciate you guys being out there. I also wanted to thank city staff for closing off Four Street Hill like I asked for the sledding and uh, everybody that was involved to clear a side road for some of the business owners that live over there. Um, I also want to thank Charlie Sue Jadwin from S C Sue's Custard uh for providing hot chocolate for all of our sweaters. That was really nice. Couldn't ask for a really nice lady in our community and the great work that she does. Uh, Monday, February the 16th, city offices will be closed in observation and president's uh day. And my last note is going to be for the Salem Rotary Club. They're going to have their annual p uh pancake day, their rotary breakfast. Uh they'll have milk and coffee Saturday 14th or February the 14th from 7 to 11:00 and it'll be at the Salem Middle School cafeteria at 1400 Tiger Pride Drive. They have uh tickets available. They're $8. Um so everybody come on out. It's great great to sponsor. Next up, we'll move right along to Sally's report.

Okay, just a second. So, I have a doozy for you tonight. Um, so after the cold snap that we had where we had the peak alert go out, um, like that following Wednesday, we had an IMPEP committee meeting. So, Imp is our power purchase pool that we're a member of. Um, so I wrote up a shorter synopsis. The entire MPEP agenda packet is in your packet for your reading pleasure. Um, but I'll quickly go through kind of what I thought was noteworthy. Um, so the first two slides, and I'll I should have printed this out so I had it. Um, talk about this peak event that happened when it turned so cold. Um, so these slides deal with wintertorm fern as it's called. The first slide I'll kind of talk I'll kind of read through this with you and then I'll go to the slide itself and walk you through it. In the first slide, the small blue triangles are what was projected to happen. So forgive me. I should have had this on a I'll see how much I can do from memory here. Okay. So the this this top line, the little blue triangles is what was projected to happen. They were projecting um natural gas costs or not natural gas cost, electric cost to go as high and higher than $500 a megawatt, which is huge. Okay. Um fortunately that didn't happen. Um what actually happened was more the dark blue line. You can see where it peaks there on the 26th. Um, we uh yeah, so that's what happened kind of in the markets. Now, when you look at this slide, I'm going to take it up just a little bit more. Now, I've talked to you all in the past about where our power comes from.

So, the bar graphs that are stacked, there's kind of the reddish orange on bottom and then purple and then kind of the teal blue. So, Syden is a coal fired plant. That's that reddish orange on the bottom. Okay. Um, there's no green in there. You'll notice the next one says plum. That's plum point. That's a natural gas fired plant. They actually had an outage um uh kind of a mandatory they had a death that happened on site

and because of that they didn't know the cause when they found the individual and so OSHA shut it down for a while till they could investigate what happened. So it was not online at all during this cold snap. Um which of course did not help. Um dogwood the purple you'll see that's the next kind of color band that goes up. Uh dogwood is a natural gas. Sorry, I got that mixed up. Plum point is coal. Son's coal. Plum point is coal. Dogwood, the purple band, is natural gas. Um, AECI is associated electric cooperatives. So, we do have a contract with AECI for capacity. So, when we are short of all of our other resources, they can kick in. It's not our first option because it's some of our more expensive power. Okay. Um, and so we only use it as a last resort. So that's to kind of let you know where our power was coming from through that time period. Um, one other thing of note, uh, we did have a few folks who saw MPUA had posted on their Facebook page that MISO MISO was had some predictions for some really high power. So that blue line that I said that's closer to what actually happened. That's the MISO information. MISO is a transmission authority, okay, or organization. They serve more generally the northern part of Missouri, Iowa, all places kind of farther to the north of us because of where we're located. Some of our power comes through MISO. So what dictates that is where is it generated and where is it going to here in Salem. That's what dictates what transmission authority it travels through. So some of our power comes through MISO. More of it comes through SP or AECI. They have their own transmission as well, the cooperatives. Okay. So our power comes from three different routes, so to speak, because of the different generation facilities

it's coming from. So I'm going to move on down here. These were estimated cost impacts. So what at our M I MEP meeting and these numbers have stood that weekend cold snap um came out to an extra $4 million in cost to our pool. Now we put out the peak alert at the city. Unfortunately, I do believe quite a few of our customers pay attention to that. Mhm.

The last few times we have put out a peak alert, we've avoided hitting a new peak. And so again, if we hit a new peak, we have higher costs for the next 12 months or unless we hit even a higher peak. Okay. Fortunately, we didn't hit a new peak. And so what's going to happen is we're actually I guess our last peak, Stacy, is that right? Was hit February of last year. So we're actually going to ratchet down to the next highest peak for the next 12 months unless we hit something new. So that's good news for us. Um, however, because there was such high demand for electricity during that cold snap, the costs still skyrocketed for that short event and that's what resulted in the extra 4 million. Now our I did not put that in. Um, we got our bill our bill from MPA for last month after I had kind of put this summary together. um they are going to go ahead and hold out and I forgive me I don't remember the exact numbers. Do you have those Stacy? Any it's it's over 500,000. So I've seen our bills our highest bills in the winter run 450 to 500,000 and some for a month. Um so they're going to hold out a little over 500,000. Our our electrics paid on automatic payments. So it comes out of our account every month automatically. And then there's another 300 and I want to say 60some,000. Don't quote me on that exact number, but it's in that ballpark. That's on top of that. That's our share of this 4 million. So, our total bill was like 990,000

for that month for last month. Yeah.

And it's because of that cold snap. Now, we've worked over the last three years, as we all know, to rebuild reserve accounts. We have that in there. I'll be discussing with utility committee tomorrow night about how we want to address that. So in the meantime, MMEP, the our power purchase pool had to pay that bill. So we didn't have 4 million in our reserves for IMPEP. So we used a line of credit that IMPEP has to cover that for right now. So each of us member cities will have the option. We can choose to either pay it in a lump sum or we can spread it out in payments. Now, those payments, and you'll see here the kind of the recommendation was over 9 months, um we're looking at 8,000 roughly if if we do the payments, 8,000 in interest charges. Okay. Again, that's part of the reason we built up the reserves for these types of events. Um we have it to cover that. Um but those that's an option that we have. Just of note, we have four remaining payments from the February 2021 event. were still paying off. That was a 0% loan because of the emergency that that created. By contrast, the February 21 event, the extra cost to the IMPEP pool was $10 million in contrast to the $4 million for this cold snap.

Okay. So, anyway, so like I said, those will be discussions tomorrow night with utility committee about how do we want to cover our share of this. Would it be possible [clears throat] since this loan is for the 2021 storm is going to be up in June. Mhm. Would it be possible to take those payments and put them in like the electric reserve so that no kind of um electric increase would be done in the future?

I mean, well, we can't ever guarantee no increase, but I mean that, like I said, that's certainly something the committee can consider tomorrow night. So, so you're saying whenever those payments end, just start using that to replenish because that will be part of the discussion we need to have. We don't have a mechanism automatically in place about how we replenish our reserves if we need to use them. I'm just thinking that maybe that could cover like an event in the future.

Gotcha. And you know the next thing that we'll be discussing in IMPEP is the need and and I mean we kind of brought it up just for discussion but with nothing no action taken we need to increase our reserves to be able to cover without having to do a line of credit or something that costs extra. So that's something that will and we just not long ago paid off where we were paying extra into those reserves. So that'll be something else we'll need to be looking at. Okay. So that is that part of my report. The other part of my report I just started listing just so you guys have an idea um what I call external meetings. Let me come back there just a second. Um, [snorts] so external meetings, not staff meetings, meetings with other individuals who maybe aren't part of the city or are other committees that the city has membership in. Let me get to them here in a second. Um, so I just kind of listed those. This has been since January 1st. I'll start including those in my report just so you guys have an idea. Um, other entities and individuals that I'm meeting with. So, so unless anybody has any questions on any of that or questions for me,

I don't. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Stacy, would you like to come out and give a financial report for us?

Good evening, everyone. Good evening.

Good evening. Okay, so this is an update on our sales tax revenues and this is what we have collected through January. Revenues continue to come in strong. Year to date, we are up 2% over last year with general fund sales tax generating 2 million. Parks and wreck sales tax has brought in approximately 376,000. Capital improvement sales tax has brought in around 502,000. And then the graph just illustrates a year-to-year sales tax performance over the past three years. Okay, this next slide is an overall look at utility usage and revenues and this is through January. Year to date of this fiscal year, we have built around 30 million kilowatt hours. That is up slightly compared to the same time frame as last year, generating 4 million in sales revenue. Purchase of power um is what the city pays to MPUA to provide power to us. We have paid out 2.6 million. That is about the same as what we paid out last year, same time frame. Water consumption, we have built around 74 million gallons. That's up slightly compared to same time frame as last year. Water revenues generated is around 692,000. Sewer consumption we build around 6 69 million gallons and sewer revenues build are at 924,000. Okay. Okay. This next slide is a list of all the funds that the city has. It shows the activity for fiscal year 26. It shows the beginning balance of the fiscal year, then revenues and expenditures, any transfers between funds. Then the last column shows the

ending balance in each fund as of July January 31st. The total of all funds comes to just over $16 million. Okay. And then this next slide shows the total fund revenues and expenditures compared to what we have budgeted. So through seven months of the fiscal year, the city has brought in 46% of the budgeted revenues and 42% of the budgeted expenditures. Both revenues and expenditures are trending behind what we would expect for this point of the year primarily due to grant related revenues and expenditures occurring later later than originally anticipated.

And that's all I have if anyone has any questions. No, nothing. Thank you. Thank you, Stacey. All right, Steve, come on up. [sighs] see what's going on in the world of public works.

Thanks. I'm going to keep it short as best I can. Wastewater treatment plant. The daily testing continues. Your plant's healthy. Phase 2 A continues. Bidding for phase 2B should be in early March. They're trying to they're let they're uh waiting a little bit so that hopefully they can net more contractors that bid uh with the ARPA grants and funding. There's a lot of projects going on around the country in the state as you could imagine. So, uh it's hard to get contractors at times. Um Josh Hunt, that's lead man over the the wastewater treatment plant says that uh he's really impressed with the crew down there that's doing the work uh for us. So, water department, I'm going to keep it short with them. They uh repaired several water service lines. Obviously, over the freezing cold snap, uh things shift and and get crushed and open up. Uh they did water mane repairs and new taps were conducted as well. So, kudos to those guys. They're they're really putting in some hard work out there in some uh not so perfect weather. [clears throat] The electric department has released uh replaced over 11 poles in the past 30 days. hiring. Uh I can't I can't say enough good things about hiring Brandon Schmidt. I mean, he is going to town. Uh the changes inside the electrical shop are impressive. Uh clean up and just reorganizing and setting us up a lot like inner county to function uh smoother uh more efficient. And he's teaching these guys, too. He's bringing his skill set of pole replacement over here and teaching our uh new premise linemen. Um, yeah, he's uh he's got big plans. So, we're really hoping to to get some more poles replaced soon. So, uh feeder line contractor will start in early March and

ramp up their tree trimming uh through neighborhoods and whatnot. So, we'll be putting out information when they start coming back out. Our construction crew finished stairs over at the park. [cough] uh began building pole bunks at the electric department. Uh for years we've had kind of a hodgepodge of poles cut up and and put it, you know, laid out so that they could set their new poles on it. And that's just not really sufficient. You know, it it can contort the poles. So, uh they're making three runs of concrete like inner county has to set up the poles better and make it safer for retrieval and good drop off.

Street department. Uh, I I big kudos to those guys. That really comes from experience with a snowstorm like that. Brent watching the weather, Brent Young and Dave Shelton and all those guys uh just hitting it in the right stride to make sure that they they get the whole city knocked out and uh get us cleaned up. [clears throat] So, really appreciate that. There was a lot of kudos. Uh there was a couple of complaints. I immediately forwarded those to Brent. Brent sent me photos. Those complaints were null and void. They um they were the streets were cleared so to the uh standard. So

Steve, do you want to talk about why the froze in the middle of the street? I know we had some folks, citizens who didn't understand why we did it that [clears throat] way. So what Brent does is if there's anticipation of a second wave of snow coming, they'll do the wind row down the middle of the street and push some to the center versus putting a big burm in your driveway then the second snow comes and we put another big burm in your driveway or whatnot. So it's just kind of a system and they pick it up when they as soon as they can. Sometimes that takes a little bit longer if we we do several streets like that. And they do they do that with heavier snows as well. That way it doesn't Yeah. trap cars parked on the side of the street and yeah block driveways. So

So um anyway hopefully hopefully the next round goes as well. So did anybody have any questions about any of that? I don't know. I have a question about the snow and I know that you heard about the complaint filed by the revival tabernacle about the street and that's like a deadend street of Washington Street. So, and it's been a point of contention for years. Um, is there is there something we can do about that?

So, I Yeah, I did. I had a gentleman call and uh yell practically yelling at me on the phone about not clearing the street. Street was cleared. The street had two clear lanes. [snorts] I could show you on a map, a GIS map. I can show you the photo of that Brent went out and took that morning. Unfortunately, I think so. If you were standing there looking down the street, the pavement runs this way. To the right, there's there's what would be sidewalk normally. Uh it's pavement and stuff. I consider that sidewalk parking area. So, my guys knocked this out. And I actually even talked to the plow driver. He said he had seen where um coming out of the building they had shoveled some little walkways and he said I I could have shoved one more time but I didn't want to put a three-foot burn in their little walkways. So my guys took care of it.

And the thing is is that on Google Maps that dead end portion is shown as Washington Street. Right. Gotcha. Right. I mean yeah the guys took care of it. in the in the gentleman's photo online, it you could see it had been plowed. And I I can I've got the photo the next day of it being plowed. So, it's just it's a Would I like to plow more for everybody? Sure you would. So that you know it's safer for everyone or parking areas are accessible better. Um yeah, but the reality is if I do that, you got to do what you got to do. I

Yeah. I tell people it's a slippery slope in this job and a lot of times it's a lot of this job is saying no and it's hard to say no but if I don't do it for you or if I if I do it for you I have to do it for on down the line and I'm not in that business. So I know a lot of places they've hired people in pickup trucks to come and plow like what was it First Baptist was one of them. Yes. [snorts] Uh what is it? New Harmony, I believe. But that's like private property. Yeah. Is it not? Yeah. There's a difference there. You tell the public street and

right to make sure that they have like people that get to their church or something like that. I mean, [snorts] they take that extra step. I didn't realize it was a street. I thought it was a parking lot. I see them parking on Washington Street though where it is. You have to be kind of careful because the [clears throat] asphalt's right there and it dips off. That's you have that concrete drain right there. So if you're taking a plow blade right through there that goes right into the church on Washington. So I I took I took the first complaint on February 2nd and I had Brent go take a a photo for me. So right over here if you get over there too close with a plow blade, right, the guys are going to tear that plow blade up because

I understand that. But I think that they were talking about just this part in general. Oh yeah, there was two different photos. the one that was posted online and then the ones that wasn't showed after the guys have already did the work. So to address that complaint so there I know and for the record I don't appreciate people calling me and telling me that they're going to have me fired. Well, this is after it's melted. Uh so I'll continue on if we're good.

I'm good. Uh the mechanic [sighs] repaired maintained multiple pieces of equipment over the snow cold snap. Obviously that the dump trucks and the different equipment have hydraulic failures and such. Keeping multiple departments in business. The cemetery crew were instrumental in snow removal digging and setting up a grave site function for one of our large um uh [sighs] a big pillar of our community. So they they took care of that and helped out up out there. So, uh, multiple cleanup projects also at the cemetery. So, that's all I've got. I really like to keep it short. I, uh,

if nobody has any further questions for Steve, I'd probably like to let him go. He's not feeling well tonight. Yep. I'm good with that. All right. Thank you, Steve. Have a great night. You, too. Go get healthy. Okay. All right. We got anything from economic development, Miss Carrie? No, sir. All right. Melissa, would you like to come up and shine a little bit more?

Good evening. Good evening.

So, right now we have soccer registration open till Friday. We have a late fee right now. So, it's $45 to register. When I left the office, there were 202 people registered for soccer currently. Last year, there are 262. So, we have a little bit more to fill that gap, but a lot of people wait until the last minute. Don't understand it, but it happens. But, I'll keep pushing. The registrations open until Friday. Um, basketball just wrapped up. It was successful. We only had two dates that we had to cancel due to the weather, but I already pre-res uh reserved the gym for two additional days. So we were able to move that to the same week. So we we got it all all games played within the same same month. So it was good. We got it all finished. Um we had 127 athletes um for basketball. That was only down two from the previous year. Um something I do want to state is we had a great group of coaches this season. They did a wonderful job. Um it w it ran very smoothly and I really appreciate um the volunteer coaches that step out and volunteer their time to teach them the fundamentals of the sport and to keep a positive attitude and to make it fun for these kids because if it's not fun, they don't want to come back and we want to make it fun and we want them to learn and we want them to be active. So I was really excited about that. Another big thank you is to the Bank of Salem because they sponsored our shirts and sponsored our season. So we [snorts] are very appreciative appreciative of that. Um, I've been in contact with Lieutenant Counts. Uh, we will be opening the bid packets for the security system. He's worked very hard on getting um uh in like bidding stuff out to figure out what how we needed to do the bid packet and what kind of equipment we needed for the park, but also that the PD would have direct access to it and and kind of an alert system popping up on their screens when um after dark and in incidents it would happen. So, I'm very

thankful to him. the packet should be opening closer today for people to to come out and bid for uh the security systems at the park. So, I'm excited about that and I greatly appreciate his effort and help. Um, we did have a park boarding park board meeting Thursday. A lot was discussed. Um, we did go over all the FEMA. Uh, we have a few things to wrap up with FEMA. I don't know if you know how FEMA works, but they kind of packaged uh not all projects were individual. Some of them were kind of lumped together. So, you heard me say something about the fence. I saw your eye go and I was like, I'll get you. Um, so there's fencing around Billy's playground and we had all the the chopped wood that came over and did a lot of damage and and kind of sheared some stuff off.

Right.

We have had so much trouble trying to find that same exact type of fencing. I contacted a fencing distributor. They or the fencing company. They're trying to get a hold of the distributor. Um, I contacted the playground people that uh installed the playground. They can't get a hold of people that did the fencing. We can't get the fencing. Uh, speaking with a fence company here, it's an aluminum fence. They're not really sure why an aluminum fence was placed there. It's very hard to maintain. It bends, breaks easily, and then it's very hard to repair. We can't find a replacement for it currently. So, I'm getting bids on what it would look like to replace it completely with steel. Um, we have fencing that's very similar to that around the ball fields that look similar, but it's a it's a a stronger metal. I believe it's a steel fencing. So, I'm looking at that to move forward. So, I may have to come to you again with a different budget adjustment here in the future just to give you a heads up so we can get that project moving forward. But, we do want to do what whatever we do and since we're dealing with FEMA, we can do the mitigation part. We don't want it to happen again. So, if it does flood, and we know that aluminum is very brittle when it comes to circumstances like that and bending. Um, and since it's been broken, it moves

and there is more damage. Imagine, right, with being able to move. Um, so I'm hoping that we can look to making it better and stronger moving forward. Um, [clears throat] I want to thank the electric crew because they came out and replaced a pole that I have complained about for many years that leans over. Um, I always get lots of comments about it. But not only that, they they fixed that pole, but they cleaned up the brush around it and that is um helped clear that sidewalk and I'm just super thankful for that. Um, another comment, the um construction crew, I greatly appreciate them. They've been doing a lot of work for me lately and they're doing a really good job. We do have a new uh set of steps that go from the armory down to the blue field. Um when that new sidewalk was put in, they took that out. It never got put back. And that's a big complaint I have from elderly and people that are maybe not in a wheelchair but need uh a little assistance getting somewhere in a and a long walk down the ramp just is too much for them. So adding that steps adding that set of steps is is very beneficial. Then they've added a second uh second set of steps that's on the west side of the armory to help utilize that street for people to park and walk down. Um that's not quite complete. The concrete hasn't been poured yet, but they they will be getting to that very soon. The next thing, it's a big big project, but I'm so glad that they took it on because I think that helped them buy their pickup truck, but it just it benefits us too because it's cost savings and if they can do it, I'm really happy that that we can keep it in house. If people are parking there, we have a lot of people that um park there frequently throughout the day. If people can avoid parking in that T-ball parking lot for the foreseeable future until that parking is complete, I would greatly appreciate that. And it would be safer for their vehicles, too, because we'll have a lot of machinery and equipment over there here in the near future until it's done.

Barricade, they probably can. I mean, if it's a problem in Santa, you're Yeah. Right now, they're trying to do h like sections of it as at a time to kind of leave some of it open, but there will be big equipment in and out of there. And I like as a risk, I would just people not being parked in that area. But anybody have any questions for me? I do. This way. Um, it's my understanding that you changed the name of the Civic Theater back to city hall. We haven't changed anything. We're looking to do that. Okay. Have you looked into um maybe putting this building on the National Register of Historic Places?

I have not. Okay. Might be something that you want to look into because you might be able to get some money with regard to that. So, upkeep. Perfect. Thank you for the suggestion. Anybody else? No. Or Mimes. [laughter] Nope. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's get on to the board reports. Alderman Lechworth.

Uh just one thing. So, I recently uh became a member of the advisory board of a a [clears throat] program called Good Dads. Um, and so, as I learn more about this and I'm I'm going to an orientation, I think it's going to be a good benefit to the community to to help with classes and things like that. And and so I'm excited as I learn more about it and get more involved with it to be able to share that to hopefully help some folks in the community uh kind of step up. So, anyway, that was my report. All right. Yeah. Awesome. McKenzie,

I just want to say I appreciate the uh team in the city coming out and shutting down the fourth street during the snowstorm so that kids can come down and slide down that hill after a day or two. Got a little bit slick. You know, the ice built up pretty quick. Um I do like the idea down at the end where they kind of built up a little bit of a burm. Um not only for, you know, making sure that traffic doesn't try to come up through there, but um that's kind of like a safety net, too. some some people were picking up some speed going down that hill. So, I just want to say I appreciate every uh all the team's work on that. Also no report on [laughter]

since we last met I've had meetings with people [clears throat] about utilities. That's an ongoing thing. Um solar property. Um, I talked with Arrivac about the lighting on the water tower. Uh, I talked with Tyler Naramore about the lighting on the water tower. Um, it's been been really really interesting. And, um, the beautifification committee finally got their mod permit to cut down the trees in the fountain and beautify out there. So, that will be taking place. [snorts]

All right. Well, that's it. Next item up be close session. Attorney client privilege real estate personnel and contracts. I move that we go into close session. Do I have a second? I'll second. I'll call for the vote. Alderwoman Dent. Yes. Alderman McKenzie. Yes. Alderman Lechworth? Yes. And Alderman Whan? Yes. Thank you all for attending tonight. Thank you. And alder