Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Associates Incorporated and JJ Cain Exchange LLC with a city property by public auction.

So on that, the actual document, that name will be corrected to the mayor's name. So they said to be adopted.

But otherwise it is. So there is a correction to the document itself. Just one second and I'll report it out to you.

To make sure that the court of venue is Dent County.

So we had been auctioning stuff through Purple Wave and Brandon Schmidt had been working at Intercounty and he said that they've had better experience, better return on equipment like the lift equipment and stuff. So that he wanted us to try JJ Kane auctions this time around, so. I figure it's worth a shot. He said from what he saw, it's a better return, so hopeful.

Is there a big difference in between that and Purple Wave? I don't believe so. I know they're both auction sites. Does one do better than the other? Do they have more to offer?

My understanding is JJ Cain focuses more on the larger equipment.

Oh, okay. Or Purple Wave focuses on, like, smaller vehicles. Right.

They have the larger equipment, but it sounds like JJ Cain focuses more on it.

Which the bulk of what we're selling this round is lift trucks. Okay.

My only question was if the attorney had looked at it, but you answered my question with that, so...

And so the reason you don't have the update in your packet, again, we had to get agenda packets together Friday, so a little earlier than what we normally do, and we just didn't have those amendments back from the company at that time.

No questions? No questions. All right. This time, do I have a motion with the amendments?

I'll make a motion to approve 12-2026 with the amendments added.

Do I have a second? I'll second that. There's no further discussion. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Next up is resolution number 13-2026.

Resolution number 13 dash 2026, a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign acknowledgement of the renewal for health insurance from United Healthcare for employees of the city of Salem, Missouri, as required by the Affordable Care Act. And this is just pretty standard every year for our health insurance.

Any discussion from the board?

What is the cost of the employee's contribution to the health insurance?

The employees? It depends on which plan they pick.

Like if you'd like single person or family?

Yeah. So the city covers $550 per each employee. This year, for the core plan, they pay $4.06 a week out of their checks. better plan, the choice plan, they call it. It's I believe it's about $23 out of their paychecks. They can pick which one that they want.

Okay.

Anything? No questions for me.

Yeah.

All right. Give this time to have a motion. I'll make a motion to approve resolution number 14-2026. That says 14. I'm behind. I'll change that.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

There's no further discussion. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Lutchworth? Yes. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Next up is a request for reimbursement for the six-unit teenagers.

So we thought we were finished with the six-unit T-hangers, and actually the last request for reimbursement that we did was marked final. But come back, and this piece, because it wasn't through the main contractor, this was directly with InterCounty to get the electric run for the new T-hangers, this piece kind of got overlooked. So this is the final, the actual final request for reimbursement. for funds, and it is reimbursement for the cost of $3,409. That's the reimbursable part for getting the electric to those T-hangers. So this is just approval of that request to submit the request for reimbursement to Modoc.

All right. Any discussion?

No discussion.

No questions? All right. Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the request for reimbursement in the amount of $3,409. Do I have a second?

I'll second that motion.

If there is no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Next up is the aviation appeal for the airport.

So Brent Young our street supervisor emailed me this asking me to put this on the agenda for they need to purchase fuel for the airport and it does say that this price is good through Monday night so I emailed Brent back and asked him if they could extend it to tomorrow so that we would have that price and he said they they cannot because the fuel prices change every Monday. And he said if they change, then he just buys less so that he's within the amount that you approve.

That was my question that I had.

So what volume? I don't know. Sorry.

Quite a bit of an increase. Yeah.

That's what I was looking for.

Like $2. Yeah, $2. From last year's $2 increase per gallon.

Steve, do you know how much fuel that Brent was looking to purchase? Here we go.

It said 100 LL per 1,700 gallons. Yeah, 1,700. So for a total of 9,775 gallons.

So basically, if you all approved that amount, he'd purchase however much that would get us.

Okay.

And it may go down. He said the price may go down. It may go up a little bit. They couldn't extend it because it will change.

So what happens if he can't purchase 1,700 gallons with what we've approved?

He just purchases less than the approved.

And would he make a secondary purchase later if it's needed? Like how long would that 1,700 gallons last realistically?

I don't know when the last time. Do you know, Steve, when the last time we purchased fuel was?

Last year. A year. It was about this time last year.

So, I mean, my guess is there'd be a new request.

All right.

I mean, it's up to you all. You can stipulate in your motion. that this is, he can purchase up to this amount, even if it's in multiple purchases or a one-time purchase up to that amount. So you all can make that motion however you would like to.

And in the past, boards have done that. They have agreed when we didn't know what the price was, they would amend their motion up to $9,775.

Is there any other discussion from the board? Nope. It's time. Now do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion for the approval of purchase of fuel in the amount not to exceed $9,775. Do I have a second?

I'll second that motion.

If there's no further discussion, I'll call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Next up, Delta Health Care Service Program.

Okay. So this is a partnership between the Denton County Health Center, the Merrimack Regional Planning Commission, and the City of Salem. This grant application is for workforce development funding, specifically for folks going into the healthcare fields. So the Denton County Health Center would be the administrator of this grant. And the bulk of the work identifying folks who might take advantage of this program, kind of working with them to get them into it, would actually be either the hospital or Denton County Health Center doing that. So the city would not be responsible for recruiting folks to this program. So part of this particular grant program is a... Sorry, it is a requirement that they have a consortium agreement. That's one of the documents that's requested to be signed this evening. And that, again, is between Denton County Health Center of the City and MRPC. And again, the plan of work for this really lays out, like I said, and it goes forward into the next few years, looking at setting up the programs, recruiting the folks into those programs, and getting them worked through so that we have trained workforce for those health care positions.

I'm just reading the part down here. It says a representative plans to be in attendance.

They were planning to, and then she was not able to. She did reach out to me this afternoon to let me know that she could not be here tonight.

So what's the city's part in this grant? Because it says there's no financial impact, but what... what do we, by signing and agreeing to this, what do we bring, how do we help?

My understanding is they have to, and I can call Felicia, if you'd like, Felicia Richards is the grant writer. I can call her if we would like to. They need a local government partner. The Delta, so this grant is through the Delta Regional Authority, so it's eight-state region along the Mississippi Delta, and they require that involvement for local economic development purposes.

So is there a time limit on it? I mean, something that maybe the board can probably sit and think it over.

We can get a representative from here to actually talk more about it maybe.

Well, their grant deadline is June 1st. So I can get Felicia on the phone if you'd like.

That's worth a shot.

Give me one second here.

I didn't have a ton of questions about it after I read it. I just didn't know what the city's involvement and why we needed to sign off on a grant between the health center and MRPC.

Okay. Give me one second and I'll get her.

Maybe. Telephone number 5735785004 can't take your call now.

At the tone, please record your message. When you've finished recording, simply hang up or press for further options.

Felicia, this is Sally Burbridge. We are in the middle of our alderman meeting. I will recommend that the mayor and board table this item until later in the meeting, and we can come back to it if you can give me a call while we're still here. The board does have some questions about the grant application. So you can call me at this number, and hopefully we'll hear from you soon. Thanks. Okay. So my recommendation at this time is that you table it until later in the meeting.

All right. I'll make a motion to table this item over the grant with MRPC and the Denton County Health Center until later on in this meeting or near closing of the meeting. Do I have a second?

I'll second the motion.

At this time, I'll call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. All right. Next, we've got the bids for remanufactured transformers. Come on up, Steve. Go ahead, Steve. Okay.

So we had put it, I put it out, request for bid for Transformers. Our guys are running short on 510kVA, 15, or sorry, 5 of each, 10kVA, 15kVA, and 25kVA. And we basically received one bid, which is usually our lowest bidder to begin with, Sunbolt. Solomon came in in the amount of $14,475. procurement-wise, this would come out of the electric department's line replacement fund. Fiscal impacts basically is the $14,475 for 15 transformers. They'll get us through until we get into the new fiscal year. We're just recommending approval to purchase these so we can – we've had to – put a couple of transformers in a little heavier duty in spots where they weren't necessarily needed at that level you know so we're gonna swap those back out and get things in order but um with brandon the way they were running through equipment and getting stuff uh put together and then we did we did have three transformers fail in one day it was a bizarre stretch but this would be super helpful so

All right.

I have no questions.

No questions.

Do you have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the bid in the amount of $14,475 for the purchase of 15 Transformers from Sunbelt Solomon. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

If there's no further discussion, I'll call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman McKenzie? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes.

all right we'll move right back to the item that we just tabled for the delta healthcare service program okay let me get felicia on speakerphone can you hear me okay felicia i can hear you yep okay all right so we have felicia on the phone what questions do you all have

So, Felicia, I had a couple questions over the grant, and I was just trying to figure out what the city's involvement is as to why we needed to sign off or agree to this grant, and does that tie us into anything? How does that help us or hurt us in any way? What are we doing with the grant, I guess, is what I'm asking.

Can you hear him? Okay, go ahead.

So the grant is a... The Delta region grants only individuals in the Delta region can apply for it. And it requires a consortium that is made up of either economic entities, academic research, or academic institutions. And so with the application being for Dane County, that leaves limited options of who consortium members can be. And so it was definitely thought of at the beginning to include the city from an economic standpoint and then Merrimack Regional Planning Commission because of their work and then the applicant state county health center from a healthcare perspective. And what the city's responsibilities would be to be kind of like a network member or a member of that consortium to help guide the project and help provide influence and decision making and not necessarily making the decisions, but providing feedback of what the knowledge that the city has regarding workforce and regarding that type of content to the applicant, which has been coming health center. So with that, and just helping to guide the project through is a two year project help guiding that project through the work will be done by the county health center. They're going to hire a program manager. So they'll be the ones, selecting, getting the applications out for scholarships and processing through those. And then this consortium agree members would probably have some type of feedback on selecting applicants. If there was to be a need, if there was like a ton of applicants that the budget doesn't support that number, or if there was a question on if the funding should be used for that, that type of role, the consortium would be able to have input on that. And so it really doesn't require a whole lot except for maybe some time from personnel. I think we've brought it in to be quarterly meetings. There might need to be, during those scholarship application periods, maybe more meetings as they're processing some applications and getting through those. And then just providing some feedback to that group on open positions, if there's openings or anything that you guys, from the economics perspective, is seeing down the pipeline regarding workforce and can help continue to just support kind of creating this workforce ecosystem through this project.

Does that help?

I know it's very gray.

It's almost more of an advisory type position.

Yes, that's a great way of putting it. So the Department of Agriculture doesn't use it. Typically, we would say an advisory committee for this type of agreement, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't use that terminology, so this template is provided by them So this is what they're looking for when it comes to the consortium agreement.

Okay.

Does the board have any other questions? I don't think that I have any. That's all right. I think that we got it covered.

Okay. So that concludes the questions?

Yes, that concludes the questions.

Okay. Can we let Felicia go? Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much, Felicia. Okay.

You're welcome. And if anything else is needed, just give me a call.

Okay. Thanks. Have a good evening.

All right. Thanks. You too. All right.

Bye.

All right. This time, do I have a motion?

I was trying to figure out how to word this. Move to approve joining the consortium and signing the documents required to partner with the Denton County Health Center and Merrimack Regional Planning Commission to apply for the Delta Health Care Service Program Grant for Workforce Development. That's a lot.

Yes. Do I have a second on what he just said?

I'll second that.

All right. If there's no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth. Yes. Alderman Kinsey. Yes. And Alderman Dent. Yes. All right. Getting back on track. We've got the second reading of bills. We'll start with bill number 3709.

Bill number 3709, an ordinance amending the City of Salem code of ordinances related to backflow prevention devices by the City of Salem, Missouri.

Any discussion from the board?

I have no discussion.

Nothing here. Do I have a motion?

Make a motion to approve bill number 3709. Do I have a second? I'll second that motion.

There's no discussion. I'll call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Letchworth? Yes. Alderman Dent? Yes. Next up is bill number 3710.

Bill number 3710, an ordinance amending the City of Salem code of ordinances related to backflow prevention devices annual inspections by the City of Salem, Missouri.

Discussion?

No discussion.

At this time, do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve bill number 3710. And do I have a second?

I'll second that.

There's no further discussion. I will call for the vote. Alderman Letchworth. Yes. Alderman McKenzie. Yes. Alderman Dent. Yes. All right. Next up, we've got the first readings for bill number 3713.

Bill number 3713, an ordinance amending the code of ordinances related to section 700.190 water rates by the city of Salem, Missouri.

So on this item, again, this was discussed during the Utility Committee meeting that we didn't have a quorum for, so it was just discussion. So in here, you'll see two different pieces. The discussion from the Utility Committee had a little higher, but again, it wasn't voted on. We weren't sure if that was where everyone wanted it to end. but they kind of had landed on increasing the rates from $8 a month for the base rate and $7.50 per 1,000 gallons to $12 base rate and $10 a month per 1,000 gallons. Staff's recommendation that I know I have it down here. from $8 to $10 base rate and from $7.50 to $9.28 base rate and that we use the remainder. Staff took the perspective of about splitting the difference in half and pulling the other half from prior year funds. So that was staff's recommendation. you'll see if there's no rate increase, then the water fund would be reduced by $546,233 at the end of the year. The proposed rates, the staff proposed rates, would reduce it by about half that, $273.249. And then the rest coming from rates. And again, this is a first read, so there's no vote this evening.

I have a question. Who is staff?

It would be myself and Stacy.

Okay. Are you going to take this back to the utility committee to look at?

Okay, if we do, then that changes. If that's the desire of the board, then I need to know because that changes when it goes into effect and therefore changes proposed budget numbers.

Is that not proper procedure?

The past couple of years, when we've not had quorum, staff walks through it with whoever's there. It's publicly available for folks to listen to, and then staff makes a recommendation to the board. Because to try to reschedule all of our committee meetings is a quite onerous task.

My curiosity is to how much longer or how many more budgets can we do from borrow from prior year reserves where we have no prior year reserves to borrow from?

Well, and part of why staff recommends we go ahead and borrow from some this year is that when you look at our capital improvement plan, we have the big hit, the two big items from the water fund this year, which are rehab of the industrial park water tower and then the rehab of well number six. starting the following year, when you look at that water tower maintenance program, those costs start coming down. Now we will have some other projects that we're looking at in the future, the Roosevelt project, where we're looking at replacing the water line, the sewer line and repaving the street. So that's gonna be a costly project, but we initially had it slated for this coming budget year and put it off a year because we had these other large ticket items.

Yeah, that road needs to be fixed.

And, of course, the only portion of that project that would come out of the water fund would be the replacement of that water line. The others would come from the sewer fund and from the streets.

But if I remember right from our CIP, it looks like over the next five years, pulling from prior year funds will ease up a lot because the request coming from there, because everything gets smaller amount-wise. And so that's where I was reading that earlier. That's what I remembered from our last meeting. Right. So.

This is the first reading, too. Yeah. Right. Any other discussion before I move on?

Not tonight.

All right. I'm first on reports tonight. Thank you, Tammy. So the only thing I need to report on tonight is we finished up with our annual spring cleanup of two weeks of 171 tons collected. It's been about two weeks ago since spring cleanup has ended and we still have people continuing to pile loose trash onto the sides of the road and furniture. I work with my coworkers and try to get that cleaned up because it makes a public eyesore for our community. I personally try to take pride in what Salem looks like. That's the only thing that I have for tonight. Moving right along. Sally, do you have anything to report?

I'll report this evening.

Carrie, do you have anything to report? Good evening. Look happy. It's not the end of the world here.

I've got the smile in place. I know. Okay, so you have your report there, and it's in pretty similar format to the way it usually is. I just want to kind of mention at the more you know thing, it was just a little bit of a humorous addition with some data, kind of trying to present data in maybe a more attractive or humorous way, but the trends that we're seeing in Dent County is that we've actually experienced a population growth. So roughly between, oh, two 2% to 7% since 2020. So that means new resident, new energy, new ideas. So the idea is the next time you maybe see a neighbor that you don't recognize or the next time you uh see somebody coming in out of a place that you pass by regularly maybe introduce yourself and maybe engage with them to find out what if they are interested in engaging with the city and being becoming more active and doing some community involvement At the state level, Missouri is showing some steady job growth, especially in areas like health care and education. So that's exciting. And Missouri happens to be below the national average. So that's a good sign for Missouri. It shows continued stability. Moving on to the staff summary report that you have. So the return of the moonlight. I had a couple of community members come to me and ask me if there was a way that we could get that back, bring it back. This is nothing new to the people that have lived here for years and years. Maybe some of you were even involved in some moonlight madnesses. I think I remember a moonlight madness back in 1983. I'm not sure, it seems like that that was the first one, but I would have been 10. So I don't know if that was the first one. And then I think a more recent one was in 2018 when Freddie Whitaker, he did that and it was well attended and it was a lot of fun. So this couple of community members, they came to me and they asked me if it was something that we could bring back. And so what we're just trying to, what the board asked from me to you all tonight is that there's no there's no fiscal ask. I'm not asking for any money. I'm not asking for anything other than the authority to research and engage in our downtown businesses and community members to find out if there's interest or if it is a feasible possibility to bring back Moodline Madness. As you'll see on the event proposal, concept overview that you all have in front of you, whatever you might call it. It goes through and it tells about the history and then it refers to it as a ginormous family reunion and just everybody getting together. You have vendors and it just stimulates the economy but at the same time just fosters a community network and And you visit with maybe people that you haven't visited for a while, even though you live in the same town. We get involved in our own lives and our own things. And so that is what the ask is, is for the authority to simply look at the potential of bringing back Moonlight Madness. Sally, can you scroll to show the staff summary?

Sorry, Carrie, we didn't get this in here. Tammy and I talked about it on Friday. Oh, okay. Sorry, my apologies. Okay.

Don't they usually have the Moonlight Madness? It was like around fall time, wasn't it?

Yeah, it's slated, and unfortunately I can share.

No, I've got one. You've got one? Yeah, I think we all got one.

You have a stat somewhere? Yeah.

You've got a timeline for August 2027.

Yeah, it's slated. The idea is for August 2027, maybe the first weekend after school starts or something like that, so that everybody, teachers and students and people of the community, vacations are done, everybody's kind of settled back down, and everybody is here and ready. then it would kick off at that point. But it would be 2027. There's not enough time to plan an event of this magnitude this August.

I'd like to see people go back downtown. I'd like to bring that attention back down to it. Good to see.

And then real quick, before the business at the table, the first meeting series is tomorrow. And we are having Sherry Hughes come in with ACT Work Ready Communities. She's the regional manager. And she'll be here to talk about how We can use the assessment skills, the Work Ready Keys assessment skills, to find out how employees can more closely match those skill sets for potential employees to whatever the work is that needs to be done. So we'll be at the Armory in the Rotary Room tomorrow, 12 to 1. I've got some RSVPs, so I'm looking forward to a good meeting. And again, we're just kind of bringing it back. I'm going to attempt to do this once a month, kind of resurrect what Sally started for us when she was in this role. And I've had some good response. Some can't make it tomorrow, but they hope to make it in future meetings, which is fine. So I'm hoping that it will just grow organically and it will be able to reach more people and have more information put forth by given experts on workforce development and things like that.

What time does that start tomorrow?

12 to noon.

Oh, 12.

It's a lunch hour. It's a lunch hour.

Okay.

12 to 1. I'm sorry. I just heard that.

12 to 1. Yeah, it was like noon to 12, and I was like, okay. You were close.

Before you leave, I have a question about part of this packet.

Okay.

And it involves the community fundraiser that you chose to include in it. And I wish no ill will to this individual that you have included in this packet. I pray for him. He is a friend of mine. I worked with his mother. I understand the concern. But my concern is this. If we do this for this one person, and somebody approaches you to put something in the packet for somebody else, and that could happen because I talked to somebody about that today. Will you do that? Will you put something in a packet to support a fundraiser for somebody else that may not be a prominent citizen in the city of Salem?

I will not.

And the reason I will not is because you are raising this as an issue. No, it is not. You brought it forth. You put it in the packet, not me. I really and truly believe that all individuals need to be created or treated equally. And if somebody approaches you about putting something in a packet, which you chose to do, then they should get equal opportunity. How can you decide who goes in and who doesn't? Okay, if you will wait just a second.

The way that this works is you can ask me a question and then I'm going to tell you my answer. At this time you haven't allowed me to complete my sentence. Go right ahead. So I will not in the future. I did this without the knowledge of Sally, the Mayor, or any of you all. So since you have brought it to my attention, I will not do it again without the authority and the permission expressed to me.

That's the way it should be.

That's the only way it will be going forward.

Good.

Do I have anything else?

No, I don't.

Mayor?

No, I think we're all good for Moonlight Madness. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

All right. Stacy, you want to come out and talk to us about numbers? Let me warm up my calculator over here.

Okay, so just to give you an update on where we are at on our sales tax revenue, and this is what we have collected through April. Revenues continue to come in strong. Year to date, we are up around 2% over last year. So general fund sales tax, we have generated 2.8 million. Parks and Rec has brought in approximately $533,000, and capital improvement sales tax has brought in around $711,000. And then the graph below just gives a year-to-year sales tax performance comparison for the past three years. Any questions on sales tax revenue? Okay, we'll move on.

I don't think so.

This next slide is an overall look at the utility usage and revenues, and this is through April. Year to date of this fiscal year, we have built around 43 million kilowatt hours. That is up slightly compared to the same timeframe as last year, generating 5.8 million in sales revenues. Purchase of power, this is what the city pays to NPUA to provide power to us. We paid out $4.3 million. That is up 11% more than the same timeframe as last year. On water consumption, we have billed around 103 million gallons. That's down slightly compared to the same timeframe as last year. on water revenues generated is around 968,000. Sewer consumption, we've billed around 97 million gallons. And then sewer revenues, we have billed around 1.3 million in sales. Next slide. And again, this page lists all the funds that the city has. It shows the beginning balance of this fiscal year. Then any revenues and expenditures and any transfers between funds. And again, this is through April. And then the last column shows the ending balances in each fund as of April 30th. Then scroll down to the very bottom to show that the ending fund balance of all funds is 17.1 million. Next. Okay, then this last slide shows the total fund revenues and expenditures compared to what has been budgeted. And then through 10 months of the fiscal year, the city has brought in 69% of the budgeted revenues and 62% of the budgeted expenditures. Both revenues and expenditures are trending behind what we would have expected for this point of the year, primarily due to grant-related revenues and expenditures occurring later than originally anticipated. And that's all I have. If you have any questions?

No, I'll thank you.

Okay, thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right. Steve, go on. May I do a quick follow-up to Stacy's report real quick? Yes. So I just want to say something. When we look at these fund balances, it's easy to look at these fund balances and say, we should be spending these down. We shouldn't be sitting on these kinds of dollars. Because I understand $14 million, $17 million, that's a large sum of money. I understand that. But I also wanted to share with all of you and make sure that you're aware.

Two years ago, Stacy, was it, that S&P reached out to us?

Right at two years ago, standard and poor who rates companies and does bond ratings reached out to us, asked a series of questions of myself. I had to bring Stacy in and we answered their questions and they actually improved because of our fund balances, because of the policies that we were enforcing and had in place, improved the city's bond rating from a B to a B+. Now that doesn't sound like much. But we have a sewer bond that should be closing this fall. When Phase 2B goes out to bid, and we know what those final amounts are, that sewer bond will be closing. What interest rates we're charged are going to be directly dependent upon what our rating is. It's almost like a credit score for an individual. So to increase from a B to a B plus means we get better rates, which is better for our citizens and our customers in the community, because that's what we'll be paying on that debt for the next 20 years. And so, having these fund balances. I was told by the rep from S&P two years ago that if we continued the course we were on, which was increasing those fund balances, putting in place the different funds, the DNR, Depreciation and Replacement Fund, putting in the Reserve Fund, putting all of those things in place for each of our different major categories, so each of the three utilities, our general fund, all of those different funds that we function in, that we could be looking at another increase in our rating. Now, I haven't heard from them this year, but even that first increase in our bond rating lowers the amount of financing that the citizens have to pay back on that debt. So I wanted to walk through that and give that explanation as to why it's important that we have fund balances in place. Okay?

Thank you.

Thanks. Good evening. Wastewater treatment plants functioning as it should. I do have to, however, put out notice that as we move in Phase 2A, we move liquids from the oxidation ditch, the track, over to the reservoir for treatment. And the reservoir, while the track gets remediation, concrete work, and the new rotors, The new rotors will provide better oxidation for the bugs in the oxidation ditch. While that process is going on for the next roughly 30 days, the bugs aren't going to be as productive and that will cause the wastewater treatment plant to have a little bit of a different smell to it. Stronger. A little stronger scent. So, you know, apologies to anybody that lives in that neighborhood. If it drifts, we're just hopeful that we will get it, the contractor will get it done in a timely matter and we'll be back on track. Literally back in the oxidation track and that'll the rotors will provide better oxygen. It's gonna be way better than it was before so Just want to put that out there the water departments done several service line repairs electric departments been Working on several projects if any of the community are on the work order list for a new street light we are short of street lights right now what we're out so we are Going to have to work on getting a purchase in and hopefully getting some more.

I thought we had some still on order that we're waiting on.

I didn't I had Brandon hadn't told me that okay, they may have so I'll double check on that They've been prepping vehicles for auction for the JJ Kane auction Set more new service poles or seven homes being built around town. So that's Keeping them busy with new poles Removed and restored the Salem heritage sign as you come over You're coming by the highway 19 Roadside Park it had a

It's a historic marker.

The historic marker that talks a lot, you know, Salem's history. So they, the frame was had been poorly modified to hold that sign it was faded it the lighting didn't work so brandon took it on they took it down um danny yates has been repainting it and you know had a lot of a lot of story on there so from what what i've seen so far it looks great they're using steel that we had in the back lot and they're rebuilding the frame we've reported better plat uh Stand for it our guys electric guys went over and actually trenched over and got power new power ran to it So they'll be relighting that and putting it back together here soon. So Pretty excited about that. And they also did some demo on the old alderman chambers down here in City Hall in between their other work. Construction crew poured that new pad for the restored Salem Heritage sign, poured concrete around the bridge at Salem City Park, replaced various missing pieces of sidewalk citywide. And they're starting to run low on their concrete money as we get close to the new fiscal year. So streets, patched asphalt, dig out citywide, conducted citywide cleanup sweeps. I think that was a success this year. I don't know if anybody else has noticed, but I just feel like there's a lot of people taking their yards more serious this year. It's kind of been a treat this spring to see people taking pride in their lawns and stuff. The guys scooped up all that mess as best they could. They maintain the yard waste lot out there. That stays busy around the clock with folks dropping off brush and stumps and, well, all kinds of assorted things. But it's supposed to be yard waste. They mowed citywide to include the airport and cemetery. We welcomed our new mechanic, Brandon Hunter, this morning, showed up at the shop. And we're hopeful that that's going to work out well. Cemetery crew are working hard to keep the cemetery in top condition, assisted with funeral setups, moved a headstone with the help of the street department as well. I wanted to put out, again, I get, sometimes I'll come into my office and a lot of times I like to be out and checking on the crews and checking on progress and making sure they have what they need. So I'm not always in my office. And unfortunately, folks will call and they'll leave a semi-emergency call water line or something on the Public Works phone. And they need to, if it's after hours, they need to get ahold of the police department. Once again, 729-4242. Or the main office admin ladies up front to get someone over there to help. It just expedites the process. Did you have any questions for me tonight?

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Melissa, do you got anything tonight? That busy season.

Good evening. Good evening. Just to update, pool is open, splash pad is open, and games start June 1st. So we're well on our way into summer. And also, water aerobics will also start June 1st, because I know there's lots of interest in that. So it's pretty popular. But another thing, too, if people want to make reservations for the pool or sign up for swimming lessons, please call the pool during pool open hours. We were closed today due to weather. But it's 729-6228, and that is the way to contact the city pool.

You can also reserve pavilions, too, right?

You can reserve pavilions, but you need to call the city admin office and select utilities, and the ladies at the front desk have that master calendar.

All right.

Any questions for me?

No questions. Pretty quick.

Yeah. Easy peasy. Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa. All right. Next up, board reports. We'll start with you, Alderman Wendett.

community involvement committee met at the fountain area at the junction of 3272 and out of several that were there three of us ended up with poison ivy after we got every kind of plant out of there that wasn't necessary but it looks better we can't plant anything until we can cut back what is growing there, like the roses and peonies and stuff right now. But as soon as that quits growing, we will plant some flowers, and hopefully it will be pretty. And that's it. All right.

Alderman Woodford? No reports. Alderman McKenzie?

Nothing to report.

All right. Well, that leaves nothing but adjournment. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Do I have a second? I'll second that motion. This time I will call for the vote. Alderman Kinsey? Yes. Alderman Letchworth?

Yes.

And Alderman Dent?

Yes.

Thank you all for attending tonight.