Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to our Town Council workshop for May to set our agenda for June. And before we have our presentation or move into our agenda, I'm going to ask Steve to do our prayer. And tonight's pledge is going to be... Make Tom who? Who? Who? Who? Bert? Okay, Bert's going to do the pledge.

Tom, he served you. He saved you.

He saved you. Please bow your heads.

Dear Lord, thank you for tonight. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the community. Lord, we ask that you be with these proceedings and everything that's used and said here tonight that would be pleasing in your sight. We ask that you continue to bless and provide comfort to those in need, Lord, and bless our community, our state, and our country. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Thank you Steve, thank you Bert. So tonight we have our annual gas safety public awareness presentation and Bert has been working on this for a whole year.

It's been three years since we met. Has it been three years? Yes, ma'am. That's the frequency that's required. But obviously I get the chance to see you all out in the public at a lot of our different events. And we'll talk about our public awareness program and our events as we go along. Excuse me. You'll notice the first slide, I have changed it up quite a bit this year. This is the backbone of the gas department. These are the men that you'll see out there in the trucks, connecting services, repairing services, answering the odor calls and things of that nature. We're very fortunate that they're willing to answer the call any time of day, 24-7. They are backed up by six wonderful ladies, handle just about anything clerical that we have to throw at them. signing you up for service, handling your bills. They take the phone calls for the odor calls, and they handle all the things that we need done here within the building. The rest of us, we're backed up by Mike Strange, our utilities director, Mark Parker, our assistant director, and myself, I'm the coordinator of safety and compliance. But we know who really pulls the wagon, and it's these people. We're very proud of our system. And we have been a winner of what's called the SOAR award for many years now. SOAR stands for System Operational Achievement Recognition. In the past, we have reached the level of silver. We have tried to reach the level of gold. We haven't been that successful. They changed the parameters a little bit on us. And unfortunately, there's a criteria that is not exactly something that's functional for our department. But it's highly weighted on the scale at a federal level. But we still keep applying, and we still try to abide by those standards and reach for those standards. Tell you some things about our system. We are up to 315 miles of main line. Main line would be of two inch, four inch, big lines. Those are the ones that go around your subdivision, up and down the main highways. We have 12,594 customers. 3,900 of those or so are in La Verne. 83% of our system is polyethylene pipe. What that means is it's not metal, and that's a good thing. It doesn't corrode. It doesn't rust. We don't have as much of an issue with that. 92% of our customers are served by that PE, polyethylene pipe. We had 22 hits to our system in 2025. and we were down from 27 hits in 2024. That number has trended down every year for the last five years. And that's a testament to our public awareness program, our staff members who are out in the field, our construction inspectors, and to you all for having good constituent services and talking to our residents and our contractors about what to do properly in terms of digging. We had 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas that we purchased in 2024. give you an idea of just how much volume we're running. Some things about the growth in our territory. Nobody knows it better than you all do. But since 1990, we have grown by more than 4,200 customers. Square miles for the town of Smyrna increased from 21 to 35. Laverne has 25.1 square miles. The reason I bring up Laverne is because they are a big portion of our service territory. Smyrna's population, of course, increased from 13,647 to 60,302. We know that changes literally day by day, week by week. Laverne's population is up to 40,760. Housing permits, this is a little bit old, but just since 2000, we've issued 9,382. And I limited that to single-family homes when I did that research. The Laverne housing permits, they had done 5,152 since 2000. What are some things that we do to work on damage prevention for our system? We do the leak surveys. You see a couple fellows in our gas department that you saw in that first picture riding around, and we've got a side-by-side now. We used to have just a golf cart, but you see them riding around. pointing some machinery out there at the ground and at meters. They're not playing around. They're actually looking to see if we have any leaks in our system. And when we do get leaks, we categorize them. Grade three to grade one, we do not leave our leaks on the books, as the expression goes. We fix them. We fix them in a very timely fashion. We also do what's called cathodic protection surveys. The cathodic protection is an electrical charge running along those steel lines that we talked about. Remember, you put steel in the ground, you've got dirt, you've got water, you've got air, that equals rust. You run an electrical charge along it, and that keeps it from rusting. We go out and we paint the meters, and we've incorporated that in with our cathodic protection survey now. We have regular regulator station inspections. We have 12 regulator stations in the town now. Wait a minute, I think we may be up to 14. I take that back. But we have 12 to 14 regulator stations in the service territory now. And those two men that I talked about that do leak surveys, they have a standard pattern that they have to go around and regularly check those stations. And again, they're looking for rust, they're looking for leaks, they're looking for failure for the odorant to be in there, something like that. What are some other things? We're very big advocates of Tennessee 811. We want you to understand that before you put any kind of equipment in the ground, whether it's a hand shovel, whether it's a backhoe, please contact Tennessee 811. And what that does is you tell them where you're gonna be excavating and they'll come out and mark the utilities within that territory. And it's not just our natural gas. They'll mark the water, the sewer, they'll mark the cable service, the electric, provided those companies come out and mark their utilities. You don't want to be that guy. You don't want to be the guy that hit the utility, cut off the cable service for everybody, and you don't want to be the guy that hits the gas line either. Tennessee 811 is supported by member utilities such as us. Call them any time you intend to break the surface. Utilities in the area, as I said, they will be marked for free. It protects all of your underground utilities, protects your property, And importantly, it protects your life and your neighbors as well. Show you a little bit about what happens. I'm showing you this video for two reasons. It brings to light two things. If you don't call, what could potentially happen? And when you do call, you'll have markings in the ground. And those ground markings don't necessarily indicate exactly where the utility is. You have a two foot tolerance on each side of that marking. Let's say it's a paint marking. That means within four foot area of that paint marking, you might have the utility. And there's no way of knowing how deep it is. So when you get in that spot, you need to start doing what we call proper excavation techniques. And that is hand digging, using spotters, things like that. If you don't, you could end up with a hazard like this. I believe this video was in the San Francisco area, looking at the architecture of the buildings and so forth. The other thing you could have, you could have a fatality. I'm sure the individual on that backhoe was not very happy, provided he made it through there. I really just don't know. How do you know if you're dealing with a leak? We put a rotten egg smell in natural gas. It is not natural. It's a product called mercaptan. And since we're a distribution territory, we have to put it in at the odorant stations when it comes into our distribution area. You might have a hissing or blowing sound. You might see dead vegetation, and you might see bubbling water on the ground, and you might see frost on top of the ground. Now, frost on the top of the ground in February, that's okay. It kind of makes sense. But you walk around in July and you see frost in an area, we might possibly have a leak. And keep in mind, natural gas will follow the path of least resistance. And it will go through cracks and crevices and things of that nature. So what do you do in the event of a leak? Call these numbers 459-2553 or 911. We get an awful lot of calls, odor calls dispatched by way of the police department here, our 911 department. Call from a safe distance. Not many of us have landlines anymore, but we do have a cell phone. A cell phone can be a source of ignition, so we encourage you to get away from the area of the odor. Clear the area immediately. I heard an odor call coming in the other day from one of our larger facilities, and sure enough, they were evacuating the occupants of that building. They knew exactly what to do. Don't hang up a landline if you are using a landline. Remember, every time you pick up that receiver and hang up that receiver, it has a clicking motion. Don't flip any switches, don't start any vehicles, don't open the garage door, and don't open the windows. The last one's kind of hard to adjust to because you think, I need to ventilate, I need to get the air in here. You could also cause a friction ignition, so you don't want to do that. And if you have a 63 Corvette with a split rear window, don't try to move it out of the garage. Okay? Public awareness, what are the things that we do? You'll see us out at the Easter egg hunt. You'll see us at the fireworks celebration, Halloween in the park. We'll do speaking engagements. We've talked to senior citizen centers. We went to a nursing home last year. We'll talk to anybody that wants to hear about natural gas. We've been taking on career fairs the last couple years. You'll see us at the golf scramble. And I've attended a couple events in La Verne. One is the La Verne Fall Festival and their Police Night Out Against Crime now. So we'll go wherever they ask us to go. Some other things that are a benefit to us, Channel 3. We're very, very fortunate that we're a municipal system and we have a great cable channel. And I saw it was coming through the other day and Patrick was running some of our call before you dig messages. So that's a very big asset that we have. We're part of the Tennessee Broadcast Association. They do radio spots for the Tennessee Gas Association. Our bill insert. Our bill insert will be going out in the June bills. And it gives you information on what to do in a natural gas odor situation. And then, of course, our town website. They do a wonderful job including information on there for us. Going to close it out a little bit here. When you see something, say something. It's cliche, I know. But this is your system. And we need to protect it. And we want to protect each other. And I thought about something at the beginning of this. I meant to say this. We're here to talk to you because the federal government, one, says we have to. It's part of our public awareness program. But honestly, we would do this even if we didn't have to because it's in the best interest of the residents of the community of Smyrna. And we want to make sure we take good care of them, take care of each other. Now, brought up the federal government, so you have before you a little survey that I've handed out. And if you will, when you get an opportunity, complete that and pass it back into Amber for me. I'll collect those whenever she tells me they're all ready. But that's a way of an accounting that we did our presentation, that we spoke to you. And you also see in your handout a couple things I want to go over. you'll see a map of our distribution system. And you'll notice that our distribution system is in yellow. And as I mentioned, we have polyethylene pipe. Most of the time, natural gas pipe is either yellow or it's black with a yellow stripe through it. So if you happen to be digging, you see some yellow under the ground, it might be us. You'll also notice we have an example of the insert that will be going out next month, that little blue booklet there. And we also have the properties of natural gas in there. But the last information that you have, if you ever wonder what is the criteria for our staff when they go out to answer an odor call or an emergency, those last few pages come exactly or directly from our emergency response program. And so that gives you an idea of how the guys have to deal with something in certain scenarios. I know it went fast. Any questions? Any concerns?

Bert, you did a great job. And Heather, you may know this. Does Laverne also have a Channel 3? I'm not sure. They do. Do they run the same things that we do, or do we need to make sure they're doing that?

I don't know if they're running the 811 spots, but I can check and see. They definitely have a Channel 3. In fact, I made my presentation to them at their workshop last month, and it's the same as yours. It's broadcast over their cable channel.

Okay.

So, again, that's another great asset. We have these things run over and over again.

Right. Counsel, any questions for Burke? You said...

our hits were down. Does that just mean where people are digging and hit it?

It means that we're having few contractors. It's more than likely, I don't want to say that. The majority of those are individuals who are in a construction related field. We have maybe a handful that might be residents. And the number of times that that is occurring, where our pipe is getting busted and our pipe is having to be repaired, has gone down every year over the last five years. We are below the state average, and we are below the national average.

In years past, it seemed like I've had telephone calls going through this survey. Will we do that again?

Yes, sir. We've had some very deep discussions about that. We have tried some other alternatives. One of the inserts that we sent out a year or so ago, we had a business reply card on it. We did not get very many returns. Survey phone calls are getting more and more difficult. Folks don't answer an unrecognized number. And so the amount of responses that we're getting is becoming lower and lower, and therefore your statistical data becomes more difficult to evaluate. I wouldn't necessarily say rely upon, but it gets more difficult to evaluate. My college statistics is coming back in my head, and I'm remembering all the terms that the instructor gave me, and it's just, It is so difficult to get response information from individuals now because of so many different forms of media that we have. Now one thing that is trending, I should say, and Heather can back me up on this or correct me if I'm wrong, but what I understand one way of measuring interaction with the public now is hits, I would say, on social media and other things of that nature. You can track that. So we might have to go to that. We might be able to figure out a way to utilize that. But one thing the state inspectors and the federal inspectors that hits per thousand That's the biggest criteria that they look at in terms of how they measure us. Anything else?

Anything else for Burt? Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Good to see you.

You too. Okay, we will move on into our agenda items. Items 1 through 18 are items that are proposed consent agenda items. Tonight we have 30 items on our workshop. So we'll move into the first one, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Strategic Technology Solutions Division to accept the fiscal year 2024 DHS State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Award.

Hey, Carl. Good morning. Good evening, Mayor and Council. It's been a long day. So we were notified of an award of the fiscal 24 year three cybersecurity grant from the state. We have not received the contracts yet, but we did return the required documents to get those. And while they'll be sending the contracts through an Adobe sign, so we just wanted to go ahead and be proactive and get the approval for the merit to sign The agreement to accept the award will be getting licenses for both a cyber protection tool as well as cyber security awareness tool. And then we are getting $57,000 of funding for items we requested.

Questions for Carl on this? Okay. Item two is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with, is it Leidos?

Yes.

Leidos Dianetics Defense Sensors and the state of Tennessee approved vendor for the network penetration testing services.

Right. So periodically, about every two years, we like to run a network penetration test to try to make sure we're not opening up any holes that people could try to get at us with. And so this is a grant-funded request. We got the grant in the fiscal year 23 grant to fund this testing. The cost is $24,000, and we have $30,000 in the grant available. So this will be totally paid for.

Questions? Okay. Item three is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with S2K Consulting for telephone line audit services.

So we have a residual of about 52 AT&T lines that run some different services throughout the town. They're the old copper, plain old telephone system lines. Because they are the copper-based services, the vendors have been raising their rates. AT&T has been very aggressive in doing so. They are now getting very expensive and we need to figure out what to move these to. S2K actually helped Murphy's, no, Rutherford County move totally away from AT&T as a vendor and migrate their phone services to other systems. So they came highly recommended from there. We reached out and they will help us uh... help us figure out exactly what is the best option to move these lines to new services because each of them serves a bit of a special purpose and so we uh... are getting that service um... this is uh... fourteen thousand one-time costs normally a service like this they take your entire book of business they analyze bill services they take usually about thirty to fifty percent of the savings they provide. This is a bit of a different and they did felt this would be a much more cost effective way for us to do this and really it cost that's about what we're paying per month to AT&T so this will pay for itself quickly when we change and move these to lower cost services.

Questions for Carl on this?

You may have said how many lines are we talking about?

Fifty-two.

These are basically old POTS lines?

They're old POTS lines. Five of them serve the police. We've got some fax systems that go to the fire department. Some are utility lines.

I'm surprised we still have that many.

And they're going to tell us where to actually...

They're going to help us evaluate what would be the best place to move it, whether to move it into our set of phone lines that we have on digital technology, whether it's better to move them to a different vendor, a different type of service. So they'll help us do that. And the other benefit of using this company is they have a direct connection to AT&T. So when we put in a cancellation order with them, it'll be almost immediate where it would take 30 to 60 days to get AT&T to do it.

And they'll help us also be able to access the new service or whoever they tell us we should go with?

We'll probably end up doing that on our own, but they'll recommend it. If they have a relationship, that'll make that faster as well. Okay.

Other questions? Okay. We'll put that on the agenda and move on to item four, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with Turner Security for the purchase and installation of security cameras at Lee Victory Park. Mike?

Thank you, Mayor, Council. Carl may assist, so he's going to stay close on this one. We've actually been working on cameras for Lee Victory Park over a year now. Initially, we were working with RNC Technologies through Omnia Partners Purchasing Co-op. When we followed up with them, we found out that they got out of the install business. We really wanted help on that. So I signed Tyler Comer and Jimmy Stitt, along with Carl and his team, to work on this through getting some other bids or other quotes. And we started with Turner Security, and we also talked to Verkada. And Turner was the low bid or low quote at $24,966. And then your summary I put in there that was five cameras and really six total. It was actually five locations plus the Coos Memorial. It's actually eight cameras because some of them had double pole cameras. but they developed a plan to install security cameras in Lee Victory Park in the parking lot using existing light poles and one at the Coos Memorial. The project will enhance the security at Lee Victory Park, which also includes existing LPR the cameras at each entrance and a concession stand camera that the league, the fast pitch league controls up there. We do have access to that when needed and you kind of see the 180 degree cameras and they're, um, and kind of where they're located in the map. It's in the packet there. And also there's a, um, a camera at the Coos that would be sponsored by Turner Security. So Turner Security was the low quote, also local. Ricotta was obviously the next in line, but their support and licensing was way higher. And since our RNC Technologies does not do the install anymore, we kind of dropped them. But that was kind of our three people that we talked to. Um, but I do, I do think it gives us a stronger presence to leave victory park. That is our most visited park. Um, and, uh, we would like to build up, you know, have good security on those parking lots, which most of the time when something happens, it's in those parking lots. So I'll entertain any questions you got or let Carl crawl handled the technical part of that.

How long will we retain? How long does the NBR, I know it's continuously monitoring, but how long has it kept?

I think there was, could you go up to 30, 60?

We could go 30, 60, 90 days. It really, we should have.

I mean, obviously, is it cloud hosted? Is it saved in the cloud? Where is it saved?

So each of the cameras have a digital storage within the cameras, and those will be then sent up to a web location in the cloud that we can then monitor the activity from.

So we're not limited based on capacity there?

There is a limit, but the capacities are so high, I don't think it's going to be meaningful. I mean, really, we don't want to carry much more than 30 days. Yeah, I just want to make sure we're carrying enough. And if there's an incident, we're going to know. We'll pull that video off and aside and then move on to the next.

Yeah, okay. Will they be dormant until there's movement, or how does that work?

These will probably be motion activated. So around the victory, they're going to be active a lot during the day, but they won't be doing a lot of recording at night.

Michael, the ones that are close to the basketball, I know we've had some incidences at basketball. Will those pick up that area as well?

Carl, do you want to answer that? I think they'll pick up part of it. The main thing we were concentrating was initially was on the parking lots. Yeah. But I think it's going to pick up some because of where that pole location is.

Yeah, and Dave and I had a conversation that was one area due to, you know, some incidents we've had that.

did want to get a better view of and we may have to add a camera but Mike and I talked about probably next fiscal year we can add something yeah our mayor our goal was kind of to get this off the ground we budgeted $25,000 this year but we also budgeted in the FY 27 another 25,000 so I think we can fill the gaps but we wanted to we weren't sure where this was going to go the way we were doing this but I think we've got a good start but also see that we're probably going to want to put some poll-activated cameras out there when somebody hit a button, that type of thing, with a light on it, a camera on it. So I think we can hit some gaps where needed on the next budget year as well.

Can we get with the police department specifically on calls they've had at Lee Victory to make sure that we're covering when we look at the next round? Sure. Sure.

where we need to cover for the time being, or will you also look at the other parks and their parking lots?

Yes, ma'am. This, we started late victory just because of the $25,000 budget. And then we've kind of got a list, James Scott and Carl, we all worked together last year, kind of come up, Hey, where's next. uh, type thing, but we knew that this was the most visited and probably needed it more than anyone or anywhere. Um, but yeah, we'll, we'll keep, keep working to the hottest place and that's where PD comes in. You know, some of the places that we already know, um, you know, some of the trailheads that are, you know, the trailhead near Jefferson Pike. That's one it's people can go in, hit, be gone. So we might go there. But some of it goes back to infrastructure, you know, where we can look. Luckily, we're using the cell service on this, but some of those places that we can get connection there. But the other side of that is we do want to have most of these have some of these have lights with them where, you know, that they're, you know, that they're on. And we want to find out a way to do that, too. My main thing is prevention. Right. Instead of after the fact. So that's kind of where I'm going is most visited park and then work with PD on the next step.

Okay. Because I just want to make sure that for prevention for this park, but also not leave the other parks unattended as necessary.

Yes, ma'am. And I agree with you. I use them to use the parks and kind of got a good idea. But PD will have probably a better idea based on data. I can tell you that the town has done a great job by putting LPRs in most of our parks, and they've been very successful. Some of them are after the fact, but we have recouped some funds on some vandalism and major damage and caught people. within a couple of hours due to those cameras. In particular, Sharp Springs Park where the incident the winter before last, we found at about 5 o'clock by 7, PD called and told me they've got the suspects, and that was pretty quick.

So I'm not suggesting that these cameras are the right ones for this, but when we were talking about ITS some time ago, we were talking about traffic cams that the community could access. Is that a capability that you guys are considering for maybe some of these park cameras, like a live access cam, just kind of that the community can access, see what's going on in the park, that kind of thing?

We haven't looked at that option, but that is something we could consider.

Yeah, since these are all web-based, essentially, it might not be, maybe something that it's a delayed feed or something that we could...

I mean, the Coos camera is going to be a nice setup because that will have some visibility into some areas of the park. What we've asked for is actually a PTZ camera for the Coos Memorial, so it can kind of shoot the memorial itself, maybe rotate off, show the airport. then maybe show the golf course, and I don't know if there's any other points of interest we can get. But that's the type of solution we're looking there, so it isn't just one static view of just sitting at the memorial, kind of seeing the airport in the distance. We wanted to be able to focus in on each of the areas. Yeah, okay.

And Councilman Sullivan, we've... Staff level, we've talked about some of the areas we'd like to do that someday. Soccer park's a great one just because of the magnitude or, you know, the rain or whatever. Having kind of some areas like that that may capture things people might want to see. We haven't really taken it any further, but I do think that's kind of what I was thinking about.

I was thinking about, you know, the tournaments and stuff going on. There's a lot of activity going on in the park. Right. You know, it'd be nice to be able to highlight that a little bit. Sure. give people a view and say, hey, look what you're missing.

Yeah, true, and it also gives us a view. Same thing as some of the things that might, you know, we have a lot of things we approve, and then we get a lot of things that we don't, and instead of having to drive over and see, we can dispatch from there.

I'm glad we've selected someone local. HG, what's your phrase, shop local?

Other questions?

Mike, I know we'll get ahead of ourselves, but if the data shows Jefferson Springs boat ramp, are we allowed to put anything there if we ever wanted to, or is that because of...

Yes, sir. Great question. Our lease, our Greenway lease, was an amendment to Sharp Springs lease. The upper parking lot is under our authority. The lower is under the Corps of Engineers still. So we don't have authority over that. I'm not... If we ever took that over, yes, but until then, probably not, unless we wanted to work with them on that.

Yeah, I was going to say we could probably make the case they would approve, I would guess, especially for security reasons. So I didn't know if there's no restrictions for areas that we do control, like we have the boat ramp at. Volunteer Park also often becomes a source of issues. So some of those areas would be really nice to have cameras. Appreciate what y'all are doing. Thank you.

I appreciate the help from these guys. Just in looking at the contract that you have, like the signature page was not scanned in for us to see, just FYI. The signature? There's no signature page on the contract that was scanned in. It ends at 17, but no signature line. So just for purposes of needing to be executed, you probably have it. It just probably didn't get scanned in.

Yeah, maybe so. And I'll follow up and find out. We'll have to have that either way, you know. Thank you for that. And thanks for the questions. I appreciate it.

Other questions. Okay. Next, we have approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with Chris Whitaker Construction to replace the metal roof and add wood decking to the Hilltop Rosenwald Park Picnic Shelter.

Yes, ma'am. The town went out to bid on April 21st for open bids. We got one contractor that submitted a bid for the project, which is Chris Whitaker Construction, submitted a bid of $34,732 to remove the existing metal roof and install a new metal roof with wood decking. The wood decking will minimize existing bird issues while enhancing the structure's appearance. Also helps with sound, that type of thing. So the town, I think the main thing is the town will schedule around existing rental schedule. Right now we've blocked off some dates, July 26th through August 7th. We've also blocked off August 9th through the 21st. There's already some rentals on the books. I've talked to Chris about this as well. This is part of the community development block grant funds that Todd and Dennis have worked on. So that is going to be funded through them. Usually when we get one bid, we may look out to bid another or rebid, but we did not with the price we got and the scope we got. I feel like it was a good bid. It was actually cheaper than what I thought, which is a good thing. Chris has done some work for the town before and also does work for the Rutherford County Schools here locally.

Questions for Mike on this?

There's a photo in there of the existing roof, the green one. Yes, sir. Is that going to be replaced totally, the roof?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

I didn't want to try to reuse it. We put that in, and we opened that part in 2003, so it's got some years on it. Really, it would be hard to put that back without –

And then you're going to put a wood, is it tongue and groove? Yes, sir.

That's normally what we do.

And then you said it will help the bird situation.

Yes, sir. Gregor Mill and this park work us over because it's two tiers. The birds come in and they just sit everywhere. The decking will get rid of those gaps where the tent is.

Right.

That's where they go. And so that should help us. It will help the look, help the echo. It gives it a better look. Shelter one, the rotary shelter at Lee Victory Park.

Has that and some of our other ones do on that tongue and groove really looks good.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir Okay item six is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an annual contract with wall Rollins excavating for concrete work Thank You mayor council

We have an annual concrete contract that we went out to bid for. We had three respondents, Roy T. Goodwin contractors, Grade A Construction and Rollins Excavation. There's some criteria that our group evaluated. These respondents on one was history and resources of the company, experience on similar contracts and projects, mobilization and response, as well as price. Based on the scoring criteria, the evaluation team ranked Rollins Excavation as the top respondent on this work. This work does include new sidewalks, sidewalk repair and replacement, as well as a curb and gutter.

Things such as that anything concrete related Yes Yeah, like three times the amount yes 658 per cubic yard or six yeah, whatever it was six six thirty And the other question I had it was like less than a cubic yard and was less than more than a cubic yard. It was just kind of odd.

Okay, questions for Tom on Rollins? Okay, we'll move on to item seven, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with the Greater Nashville Regional Council to model our existing roadway system and incorporate proposed traffic from approved residential developments in order to formulate a tentative schedule for anticipated intersection roadway upgrades on the west side of I-24. Tom?

I should have made that longer. I apologize.

Tom, myself, and Jason, we've been working with GNRC to develop a scope of services that they would provide to us to do exactly what that long title described. At this time, we have not received that scope of work. I was supposed to receive it last week. I will follow up with them tomorrow. It does indicate that the hourly cost for their services would be $110 per hour. My last conversation with them last week was that they're going to basically provide us with a menu of options that they can provide to us to complete the task that we want to see as part of this project. But really the end goal for me is to help us develop a long-range roadway improvement plan based off of our traffic data and our safety data.

So So I guess is there a limit to where it will come back to us to view again? If they come back and it's, I don't know, you know, 10,000 hours. I'm not comfortable just approving by the hour. Not that you guys would move forward with that, but I'm just saying, is there a cutoff somewhere where we'll see this again if we approve a $110 hour?

What I anticipate is that we will go through the scope of work with them, decide what the best plan of action is. They'll give us the level of effort hours needed and we'll base what I'd like to see as a maximum not to exceed

And you'll bring that back once you have that? Yeah.

And I hope that I have that back for you by the council meeting. Yeah. If not, we'll have to postpone this. Okay. But I'm waiting on GNRC.

Okay. Yeah, because what I was looking at, it looked like we were just approving a blank check, and I was like, I'm a little nervous about this. So, okay, got it.

So are they going to put the information into, like, a software that they have?

Correct.

Okay. And so who's going to provide them the information? Is that going to be you or Tom or a group?

Jason's actually been working very closely with them and analyzing some of the softwares that they have and the existing data that they have as well. So we'll be doing this in concert with them. They won't be doing this solo, so to speak. Our folks will be involved with this project heavily as well.

Okay.

Other questions? Yes.

How will we incorporate, I guess, the revised corridor study that we're going to do of Amaville Road, the mobility plan, and the Safe Streets for All? How will we incorporate that?

yes we've provided those documents to them and one of the things that they were asking about was well how are we going to determine which roadways should be prioritized and what improvements within those roads should be done and the good thing is is you all voted on criteria within that plan so that's what they'll be using okay okay

And then periodically will, as other things come online, will we be able to go back and use them and ask them to update and revise? Or is that something we'll do in-house?

Well, I don't know if we'll do that in-house or if they will help us, but we'll have that model created. So it'll just be a matter of adding additional information into it to make adjustments.

That will help us with the traffic impact studies that we get that says we don't need any improvements. And I said, whoa, wait a minute. The model says different.

Well, kudos to Jason. He's been starting to dive into the traffic impact studies that have been provided by developers and being able to analyze them for consistencies and or flaws.

And I like, I think there was some correspondence about one didn't meet certain standards that we expect. And I asked them to go back and revise it.

Is this a new service they've developed? Because I don't recall ever hearing anything about this before.

They do provide consultancy services to their member agencies. We've never used them in this capacity. And quite honestly, I don't think that they're asked to do this very often. However, there have recently been some other agencies who have asked them to do similar projects. after we had requested this.

So we'll be, we'll be first talking to Michael Skipper, um, who is over the GNRC. These are the kind of things they want to get out into communities and do more of. And so they were super excited to be able to help us with this and, and help to show others what, what all they're capable of.

So,

Okay, we'll move on to item eight is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with S&W Contracting to replace the existing traffic cabinet at the intersection of Sam Ridley and Weekly Lane.

So the traffic signal cabinet is an older cabinet at that intersection of Sam Ridley and Weekly. Since we added the permissive left turn arrows in there, sometimes it gives a conflict in that cabinet and the left turn arrow doesn't activate. That's happened several times so far. We need to upgrade that cabinet to a newer cabinet so that those problems don't continue to occur. We received a couple of bids. One of them that I got in time to you guys for S&W, they're $19,500. I did receive a second bid from Stancil. It came in at $28,930. So we're asking for S&W contracting to be able to perform that work.

Question for Tom on this. Okay, we'll move on to item nine, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a time extension with TDOT for PIN 125507 ITS phase three, four, and five to February 28th, 20, who knows? 27. To complete the project and submit all closeout documentation.

So you may have seen right out front the big spool of wire. They're running that new fiber that we've been waiting on for about a year to get approved. They're running that new fiber. We're getting it for free. So I want to keep throwing that out there. And otherwise, the project would have been done. But yeah, we're getting that free fiber put in.

You need 10 years to get it.

I'm not sure it's free. It's free to somebody. It's a version of free, OK? But, no, we've got about a month from now we'll be at substantial completion. By August we'll be through our, then we'll be in what's called burn-in phase, checking everything, make sure everything's functioning properly, and by August, in August we'll be done. This is just a contract extension just to be able to get those last invoices into TDOT so that we can get 100% paid back on it because it doesn't cost us anything for that other than time and a little bit of my soul. That's it.

When this project's over, are you retiring?

I wish I could.

It's definitely going to be a career project.

It's been good, and I'm really glad that we have this system in place now. Jason knows a tremendous amount about the ITS systems and It's going to be a great tool for him and Jonathan to work together and keep our system running as smoothly as possible.

Questions for Tom on the infamous ITS Phase 3, 4, and 5?

Okay, so I know that there are sticklers generally for the language on here. The only thing that I noticed was that we have Jeff Peach's name still on there. Is that going to be an issue, or will they just send us a new one with the new attorney's name on there?

They sent us a new one, and so that just came in.

Okay. It's just I sent that out before.

Okay.

Yes. Okay. Item 10, approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with TLC Pro Roofing to install a spray-on rubber membrane over the existing roofs at the building and grounds maintenance shop.

So this metal roof has several holes in it. We had a lot of leaks and some issues. It's causing some damage to equipment. So we went out and got a couple of quotes. TLC is the lowest responsive bidder at $15,311.77 to install a spray-on liner. It does have a 12-year warranty on the material, and I think it's two years on workmanship or labor.

Questions for Tom on this?

Okay, move on to item 11, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to approve the purchase of two single person brush trucks for $220,000.

So Rottlund's Excavation has a couple of brush trucks that they're looking to sell. Each one is $110,000, and you can see in there we've got two sales agreements on these items. We're looking to purchase potentially both of those vehicles. We're still evaluating one of them. One of them we definitely want to purchase. One of them we're still evaluating. We would like the opportunity to purchase both of those. And what that would allow us to do is we have $250,000 in next fiscal year's budget to purchase brush trucks. We will eliminate that purchase. And then we will be able to sell our 2017 truck use that money to put back into the stormwater fund. Also, we have $80,000 in the budget for next fiscal year to purchase, to replace a vehicle that we need to use to haul equipment. What we would do is take our 2005 brush truck, which is a heavier duty truck than our 2017, we would use that to haul equipment instead of purchasing a new one. So that would take $330,000 out of next fiscal year's budget plus whatever we can sell the 2017 truck for and then purchase these two for a total of $220,000.

So about how many miles do we put on our brush trucks a year?

That's a really good question.

Or even better, what's the 2017 have on it?

I do not know I can get that information to let you know.

When I was looking up these, the mileage kind of struck me a little bit as high just because it's just around town. A lot of our police cars that we sell don't have as many miles as these trucks do. So I was kind of looking at the Packard motor and what's the life expectancy. And they can go up to 500,000, but these are right at 100,000, so that's 20% life tops. But they can also die at 250, right? So it's got a lot to do with maintenance and how we maintain them. So I was just curious, if we're putting 100,000 miles a year on them, this is only getting us by for a couple of years, right? But if we're only putting 30,000 miles a year, this may be a 10-year purchase, right? So I'm just trying to gauge if we buy these now, it seems like a good deal, but if we've got to turn around and do it again in two to three years, I'm not sure it is, right? That's what I was just trying to gauge. So if you can come back with just the details of roughly how many miles we have on the 2017, because I think we bought that one new. Yes. So that's kind of a good gauge of what we put on it in the last nine years. And that gives us an idea of, you know, is this going to last us to $300,000 or $400,000 and give us 10 years, or is it only going to be a three-year purchase, right? Okay.

Yeah. I'll get that information. I'll probably email that to Dave.

I also looked up the value, and, I mean, that price is honestly undervalued. The low end of these is like $125,000 to $130,000, with the high end being up around $250,000. So it's a Kenworth, so it's a good truck. I mean, it's not. It's not a bad deal, I don't think, at all. When you say you're still evaluating, I assume you're having them checked out mechanically. Yes. Turbos and EGR and all that kind of stuff.

What would a truck like this be new?

Around $230,000 to $250,000 for a new one. And these are single-person brush trucks.

I've got a couple questions.

One, have the check engine light on. Who's evaluating these trucks? Is there a fleet manager going through them saying, hey, we feel good about that purchase, and do we know the history of their use was one, in which I guess once you get the mileage for the 2017s, we can compare apples with apples.

We do have the history information that Rollins provided for the vehicles. One of the vehicles, well, our fleet maintenance guys have gone through both of the vehicles. One of them doesn't have any check engine light on it. It's not a problem to purchase, and he feels comfortable purchasing that one. The other one does have the check engine light on. I think it was an NOX sensor that had gone off earlier. I told Rollins I'm not going to buy until it's fixed. So he sent that to Rush Trucking. I think it was Tuesday of this week. They're evaluating. They're going to make the repairs. But, again, that's why we have these separated out because I'm not going to buy unless it's fixed. And then once it's fixed, we're going to look at it again, evaluate it, and as long as the fleet maintenance department feels like it's a good purchase, at that point we would move forward with purchasing two of them. Otherwise, we would just end up purchasing the one. Yeah.

The other thing is I'm trying to understand this process of, you know, we're talking about approving a vendor, you know, and we're turning around buying vehicles from them. You know, the concrete work, they're going to be doing the concrete work. So did we solicit bids or was this just worked out internally? What's the process for this when you?

You're looking at buying used vehicles. We have to go out and look for comparable purchases in the marketplace. That's a requirement. That's what we did. And so we have the documentation to substantiate the price, as Council Member Sullivan also discussed. He looked at this as well.

So we have documentation on other vehicles we've looked at?

Yeah, we had to do that. Okay, okay. I just...

The process, the first look at it.

Not from a bidding perspective. But not from a bidding perspective. I mean, this offer was presented to us, but we had to do our due diligence to ensure that the pricing that was being provided to us was fair and reasonable.

Yeah, I think that's the key, too, is proximity, right? These trucks are local. They were used in Murfreesboro, Rollins. If we were to buy something somewhere else in the country, we may have shipping charges and other stuff on top of it. So that's the other thing is these are There's not a lot of brush trucks for sale in the immediate vicinity.

I just want to share and the comptroller to have that discussion next year. That's all.

So we didn't have to bid? Is that what you're saying?

That's correct.

Okay. And so the funds for this are going to come out of the stormwater? Yes. Rather than would it not come out of the general, not the general fund, but the public works fund?

It comes out of stormwater and the 250 that we had budgeted for the one truck for next year would have also or would come out of stormwater as well if this does not get approved or we don't purchase them.

So that's the intent is it's going to come out of stormwater whether we purchase new or whether we do the...

Correct. So we're basically getting two used trucks for the price or even less than the price of one new one. So long as these are sound pieces of equipment, I would support it. I would recommend it.

So it's stormwater, though, rather than the general budget? Correct. Why is that?

Because the operation runs out of the stormwater enterprise.

For the brush trucks?

Correct.

Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah, I think I asked that question once during one of their meetings, why it was coming out of the stormwater enterprise. It's like a separate utility. And in my simple mind, it's public works stuff.

I kind of see it the other way, is if this brush doesn't get picked up, it's going to end up in stormwater stopping up drains. stopping up ditches, et cetera. So that's why, to me, it looks like it belongs in stormwater, because we're picking up stuff before we've got to clean it up later.

Well, we've made those purchases in the past, and I guess it's past mustered.

Okay. Item 12 is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with Bush Construction relative to gas construction.

Hello. So this is our annual, it's time to rebid the gas construction contract. Bush Construction just finished a five-year agreement. They were the low bidder again. This was bid on May the 11th, and there were six bidders, and Bush was the low bidder, and we would recommend them to do the contract again.

Question on this? Okay, we'll move on to item 13, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with BH Homes relative to the emergency water line replacement contract.

Yes, it was time to re-bid this as well. BH Homes is our current vendor. Bush Construction was actually the low bidder on this. After the bid was done, which was April 29th, I got a call from David Bush asking questions on how this was done. What he thought was is that, let's say you have one service line that connects to two meters. He thought that he would be able to bill for two service lines. When I explained that, and he asked this post-bid, when I explained that, he said, I want to withdraw my bid. I can't do it for that price. So BH Homes was the second low bidder, so that's why we want to go with him. And they did a great job for us as well.

Okay, questions? Item 14, approval of the terms of and authorization for the Mayor to execute a contract with Industrial Facilities Solutions to conduct work needed by the water plant and the wastewater plant.

Yes, this is the annual mechanical and electrical contract. IM&E was our previous vendor, and they did not bid this year, so the plants both want to go with the low bidder, which was Industrial Facilities Solutions.

Any idea why they chose not to bid?

I don't know if they've got so much work. They had recently had a hard time turning stuff around in a manner that we need them to turn it around, like pumps and motors and stuff. I don't know if they're overrun with work or what's going on with them.

Okay. Item 15 is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute the water treatment chemical contracts for the water plant for fiscal year 26-27.

These are chemical contracts that needed to be rebid this year, so these are new bids on these contracts, and we'd recommend them for approval for the water plant.

Item 16 is approval of the contract terms and authorization for the mayor to execute a contract extension with DRT for lagoon sludge removal and the water plant.

Yes, DRT did the lagoons last year at the water plant. We would have to determine as they get through with one lagoon, there's two lagoons there, whether it was that they needed to go ahead and do the second lagoon or it could wait another year. It all depends on how much stuff's coming into it and what's settling into it, but they have agreed to keep their prices the same for another year.

Questions on this? Item 17 is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a contract extension with chemical vendors for the water and wastewater treatment plants for fiscal year 26-27.

Yes, ma'am, and these are vendors that have agreed to keep their pricing the same for another year to extend the contracts.

Questions on this?

So, Mike, item 15 and 17 both list chemicals. I assume they're different chemicals totally.

Item 15 we had to rebid. We couldn't extend again. 17 are the ones that we can extend another year. Okay. So we had to re-bid the other ones because we couldn't extend another year because of the time frame.

And I guess what I'm trying to ask is the same chemical in each in the bid and the contract extension, are they different? They look different to me. They're different chemicals. Okay. Yes. I couldn't understand if it's the same chemical. Correct. No, they're different. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Item 18 is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with Safe Industries for the Fire Department Apparatus Service. Hey, Cameron.

Hello, hello.

How are you?

Not bad. How about you?

Great. Happy belated birthday again.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Yeah, because it was yesterday, right?

Yes, ma'am. This is for the approval for contract with Safe Industries to do our annual contract Apparatus service, they do it twice a year and annually they'll do our NFPA rated pump testing. We solicited bids. We had three responsive bidders. Safe Industries was the lowest bid and they have had our service repair work and maintenance work for the past five years. So we would ask that we sign the contract and continue on with Safe Industries.

Questions for Cameron on this? Okay, items one through 18 were the proposed consent agenda items. Dave, if you get the GNRC info, if you can get that back to us prior to meeting for the dollar, I mean, what you think?

As soon as I get it. I won't wait until the meeting. Perfect.

And then same thing for Tom on the brush trucks. I don't think there was anything else that we had major questions on. Okay. Item 19 is consideration of an ordinance updating municipal code title seven fire protection and fireworks chapter five open burning subsection seven dash five Oh one through seven dash five Oh nine. And this is a second reading chief.

Yes. Marin council. This is again, um, adding additional restrictions to our open burning ordinance title seven, um, in accordance with, uh, NFPA and other best practices. And there have been no changes in this recommendation since first reading.

Questions for Chief on this?

Well, I mean, I guess looking at the difference in residential yard waste burning and recreational fire.

Mainly size. Recreational fires are limited to seven square feet, which is basically a three-foot round. Again, that's per the code. burning brush with three acres or more does not have the strict size restriction.

I just used to have a neighbor who we called him Joe the Pyro, you know.

What kind of name do you think they have for you as a neighbor?

Back then or today?

Either.

Well, either one of them is pretty entertaining, but we'll talk about that later, right?

You get that information back, too.

Probably snitch from what it sounds like.

Good one. Nothing.

You didn't hear yourself, buddy.

Yeah, that one blew right past me.

Okay, we'll move on to item 20, which is consideration of an ordinance amending Smyrna Municipal Code Title 20, Chapter 2, relative to the possession of firearms in town parks, as well as amendments to Title 11, Chapter 6, relative to the discharge of firearms while lawfully hunting.

Mayor, this updates the Municipal Code to align us with recent changes in state law regarding firearms. The first one was a Supreme Court tribunal that more or less ruled that we can't ban firearms in parks. So we amended the code to reflect that. The second one was the state preempted local governments from making rules on lawful hunting and discharge of firearms. But they did allow for an exclusion and opting in kind of a halo of 500 feet around a school. Uh, so we could, uh, without this amendment, we would not even be allowed to have that exclusion.

Questions for Ben on this.

Can you describe what lawful hunting and the town limits is exactly?

It is what the TWRA says it is, uh, essentially.

Um, I assume that only applies in areas like our army core land, I think down by shark Springs and stuff like that. Right.

I mean, you know, it, It's, uh, it's, it's pretty expansive, you know, as far as I know. Um, I mean, you can hunt on private property within the town limits. They can, uh, discharge a firearm as long as it doesn't go over a roadway or something. There's, there's a list of exceptions to that, but they've preempted us out of the, uh, the TWRA, uh, regulations.

Could you just get us a link to those TWRA regulations you're referencing? Yeah, I can. Just so I have them. I'm just curious what counts.

This is one of the big items when Dave and I were in Chattanooga for the Think Tennessee that a lot of the mayors had a lot of concerns about what is that going to do within your community with people hunting.

Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking about, you know, we have these controlled hunts that happen on core property using bows and arrows. Does this open up? something else, shotguns or other or muzzleloaders or whatever, which I think muzzleloaders are allowed in certain areas already. So that's why I'm just curious, what is what does that really mean? Lawful hunting.

I will add that to to the agenda.

Perfect. Thanks, Ben. Okay. Item 21 Consideration of an ordinance adopting the budget for fiscal year 2627. This is Sierra's second reading.

Good evening, mayor and council. So this year's budget document is 166 pages long. Council has reviewed this information multiple times. We had a two day budget retreat, um, a presentation at a special called meeting and a presentation at the workshop last month. In case anyone at home missed those presentations, I do want to go over a few highlights. There is no tax increase, no new debt, our pension is fully funded, and we are budgeting $28 million in infrastructure improvements. There are a few changes between first read and second read. It is primarily payroll updates, and that comes from March evaluations and routine turnover when someone leaves and we have new people coming in, we update the salaries. We do have a few projects that were budgeted in FY26 that are not going to get finished, so we need to reallocate funds in FY27. And so far that includes Kevin's comprehensive plan, the monument signs, and improvements to Industrial Boulevard.

Questions for Sierra.

All of this can be found on the website, correct?

Yes, that is correct. Yeah.

So one question I noticed that, um, adjusted pretty much all of the tax revenues. Um, some ups, some down, is that based on the population estimates or what?

That's based on the population estimates. So, um, no, everyone has slept since then, but in the pre-retreat meetings that we had individually, I had a population. that estimate that I had calculated. And then we got an updated version of the comptroller. And then we have a sense updated version from the Boyd Center. So I'm a fan of detail. So you're gonna get the long version. But so I had updated the state shared sales tax to the comptroller's number, which was high, but hedge my bets and didn't update anything else. And so I'm just

That was going to be my question because I couldn't figure out how some went up and some went down if it was all based on the same number. So, okay, good. That was my question. And then the, the, we can take this offline, Dave, and I'm just bringing it up so that you can follow back later, but the gateway monument signs, what's the, I don't need it now, but just kind of give us an update at some point. Email's fine. where that's at, when it's going to move forward. I think it was something Charles had on his table, and I don't know if anything happened. I think we opened the bids yesterday. Okay. Okay. Great.

And last thing the Boyd sent was 63.3 for population?

63,321. Okay.

I couldn't remember the last two numbers. Okay. Questions for Sierra on this? Item 22 is consideration of an orchard. Oh, sorry. Yeah.

we're meeting there require 30% reserve.

Correct.

And it's more like 50.

Correct.

Okay.

Yep. Okay. Item 22 is consideration of an ordinance to approve year end budget amendments for fiscal year 26. And this also is a second reading.

So these are our routine year-end amendments. Just like the original budget, amendments must be balanced. Additional expenses have to be offset with something. The largest amendment on the list is our estimated year-end transfer to capital projects. This transfer will fund future equipment and infrastructure. The remainder of the amendments relate to updated personnel projections in police and fire. These are offset mainly with updated personnel projections and other departments. We do anticipate some additional changes once the dust settles at the end of May. You'll get an updated list for additional amendments. And so far, I have a running total in my head, but so far, some anticipated additional amendments is a parks mower that went down and it's the cost of repair is about as much as the cost of a new one. So we're just going to get a new one. HVAC repair at the event center, concrete at the firing range, and repairs to a fire vehicle.

Okay, questions for Sierra? Okay, we'll move on to item 23, which is consideration of an ordinance adopting the property tax rate for fiscal year 26-27, and this also will be a second reading.

To reiterate, there is no property tax increase in FY27. To offset the 2026 reappraisals, the town will adopt the terms called a revenue neutral rate. It is calculated by the property tax assessor and reviewed by the state. It is not available now and likely will not be available by the time we have our official meeting. If Amber has not already done so, I believe that she intends to notice the workshop at the end of the month as a special called meeting, and hopefully we'll have it by then and be able to pass it then.

Questions for Sierra on that. Okay. Item 24 is consideration and approval of the 2627 classification and compensation plan. Jeff, how are you doing?

Fine. Doing fine. Mary council in conjunction with the annual budget. Uh, what I've done is presented the classification and compensation plan for next fiscal year. This is the plan that sets the minimum and maximum salaries for each of the jobs in the town. There is a 2.5% market adjustment to this scale, so all the ranges are moving 2.5%, and this is presented for your approval.

2.5% plus any merit-based penalty? Correct. Okay.

Jeff, on the...

classification and compensation plan. There's two attorney listings, 21 and 24. We only have two attorneys and we only have one that's not the town attorney. So is that just an empty position in case?

So we did used to have a staff attorney.

Okay.

And that's on here.

But that's not been.

Actually, Ben, you're the staff attorney, correct? Okay.

So we don't have an assistant town attorney.

Correct. We did previously. So I can remove that. It's graded in case you want to use it in the future.

Well, the attorney and town manager aren't on this list because they report to the council.

Correct.

Okay.

Yeah. But, okay. I was just curious. I saw two different attorney listings and I wasn't sure what they were. So, okay. I don't, I mean, I'll leave it up to you. Is that a position that we may... utilize as staff, you know, is that give being growth or that position growth or not? I'll let you guys decide that. I just didn't understand why they were too.

Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Item 25 is consideration of an ordinance adjusting the pay for the town court clerk. And this is a second reading.

Dave getting there. Sorry. So for this item we did some evaluation of the town clerk position and it can be that the change can be made every four years after the election of the town clerk. So it was the right time to do that. So we went ahead and displayed that information to the town council of our findings and made a recommendation for an increase on that salary. Additionally, just to remind the council that you had asked that we evaluate, even though we can't make the change annually, to evaluate that on an annual basis and just inform the council with all the elected positions of where we stand just so that we can have visibility into that, and we intend to do that.

So how badly are we underpaid?

Grossly. No, I don't know. We'll go ahead and take a look at that soon.

One question I've got is can we include that, I guess, support documentation or the salaries for the peer cities in the packet? We could certainly provide that to you. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Item 26 is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of the Smyrna Municipal Zoning Ordinance Article 3, Section 3.180 regarding fences in residential districts. This is a second reading.

Hispanic Council, this is just a request, or I'm sorry, a recommendation to amend the zoning ordinance with regards to fences in residential areas and just to limit the materials that can be utilized there as well as completely enclosing vacant tracts of land would not be allowed. So this is not something we had talked about at our joint meetings with planning commission or anything like that. It's just something we as staff, added to the agenda for the Planning Commission last month. Nothing's changed on this since you looked at it on first reading.

Questions for Kevin on this one? Okay, we'll move on to item 27, which is consideration of an ordinance relative to the rezoning of property located on tax map 28, part of parcel 12.02 to go from C2 to PCD. It's requested by SEC Incorporated on behalf of CSC Properties, LLC. The property requested to be rezoned contains approximately 2.21 acres and is located on Lee Victory Parkway. This is a second reading. Kevin?

Again, this is something you all have looked at last month several times. This is on Lee Victory Parkway, strictly across from the intersection with Harold Lee Drive. It's about three-tenths of a mile northeast of the intersection with Alamoville Road. Land use plan would support the 24 Gateway character area in this area. This is a PCD to allow a quick service oil and lube business as well as other uses that are allowed in the C2 district. The concept plan does show the second use as a bank. Access would be via an existing private drive, which also provides access to Parkway Baptist Church. A single access would be constructed from the private drive to access both lots. Offsite water and sewer improvements would be required to provide access to both utilities. The proposed elevations for both buildings do now meet design review, as we did revisions for the bank as well, so they all meet design review now. The entire property does lie within a 100-year floodplain, so this would require a floodplain development permit application as a part of the grading permit. A traffic study was done for a previously proposed development plan, which did show that the intersection of the private drive and Lee-Victory Parkway would be at LOSF. Necessitating the installation of a traffic signal that was has been updated with a revised signal one analysis And just show that that this signal is still warranted That has been submitted to T dot by the developer and would be of course as we talked earlier would be subject to T dot approval to install that signal Would be installed by the developer There were some questions about the road and the flood elevation the current flood map does show a flood elevation of 534 531.4 feet above sea level the flood map in effect when the private row was actually installed was the older map we should have a flood elevation of 532. so the map revision from it was approved in 2023 did lower the flood elevation six tenths of a foot but did not really change the boundary there. And that's what all the property does to lie below that elevation. The road was built at elevation 530. I have included the pattern book, as well as the updated signal warrant analysis, approved plans for the access road, and then the agreement between the church and the current property owner for access to that private roadway that was signed in 2022. The Planning Commission did review this, should recommend approval. Three conditions. The proposed building elevation on Lot 1 does not meet design review and is required to be revised to meet design review, which they have since then done. The entire property is in a 100-year floodplain, and a floodplain development permit application is required. And then the signal warrant analysis does show that a traffic signal is warranted and is required to be installed pending approval by TDOT. That's all that I've got.

Questions for Kevin on this?

Kevin on this, and I'm sure Tom will look at it, is if this entire site's in a floodplain and we, you know, add to get the building elevations and up out of the flood elevation, is there enough room on site to compensate a balance?

Yeah, I think there was, let me see if I can go to, yeah. This map shows a little better. The property is on the north side of that access road, which is right.

Where it says C2.

Where it says C2, yeah. That is all part of the same owner. And that's actually my understanding. We haven't seen the actual design yet. My understanding is it would be borrowing from there to fill on the other side. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Item 28 is consideration of resolution relative to a plan of services for property located on tax map 50, parcel 13.02.

This is the plan of services that is for the next item on your agenda, the annexation request. Does put in writing the services the town would be providing upon the effective date of annexation, which would be all services for this property. The Planning Commission held a public hearing, reviewed this plan of services, and did recommend approval.

Okay, item 29 is consideration of an ordinance relative to the annexation and I-2 zoning of the property. We just discussed about plan of services that's on tax map 50, partials 13.02 that's requested by Smyrna River of Life Assembly of God containing 54.5 acres. The property is located at 8200 Safari Drive and is a second reading.

Yes, Mayor and Council, this is one, and there's no changes on this since you looked at it on first reading. It is at the end of Safari Drive. It's about 720 feet north of the intersection with Tridon Drive. The land use plan here is also the 24 Gateway character area. um surrounding zoning is c2 and i2 in town rm in rutherford county um the town would again as i stated earlier would be providing all services upon annexation there's an existing church and school on the property but they're all located in temporary structures that are to be removed by june 1st of this year um so that is an important part of this as the fire department does have concern about those structures and use of those as well as the building codes department A concept plan for the proposed industrial development was included. A large portion of this property does lie within the floodway, 100-year floodplain or 500-year floodplain. This is very close to the property we were just discussing. It's in that same area, the same floodplain area. So this would require development of a floodplain development permit application. The large floodway and floodplain area does include all the area that borders the RM zone properties to the north and east, so those areas are heavily wooded and would be undisturbed. A traffic study would be required prior to approval of a site plan, and any improvements recommended by that study would be required to be installed by the developer. uh there is an existing six inch water line on safari drive that would be required to be upsized by the developer to a 12 inch to meet fire flow requirements the planning commission did review this request should recommend approval unanimously questions for uh kevin on this yeah

Only question I have, we seen a floodway map in here, Kevin. I didn't see a floodplain map. Um, maybe I overlooked it, but just based on the flood way, it looks like a lot of the property is going to be encompassed with a floodplain.

There is quite a bit. Most of the, the, the area with the Creek kind of goes around all right. Almost all sides of this property. And so that's, that's where the floodway is. And the majority of the floodplain is bordering that. There is a small area that would be in effect, and this is mainly where there might be some changes. It's kind of in this area in this area right in here. It's where there is some floodplain in that area. There might be some fill. That's really the only area of floodplain or floodway that's really going to be disturbed.

Any other questions on this? Okay. Item 30 is the consideration of a resolution in memorandum of ordinance 26-29 relative to the annexation and I2 zoning of property located on tax map 50 partial 13.02. That's our housekeeping item and we will put that on the agenda. Next we have public comment. This is the town's public comment period and shall be reserved for those citizens that have signed up to address the town council or a board or a committee at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting pursuant to the town's public comment policy. Speakers are limited to three minutes and additional comments may be submitted in writing. Amber, I did not have anything showing any, so we have none tonight. Okay, we will move on to anything that directors, department heads have. Scott? Chief? Chief? Oh, are you sleeping back there now? We're going to have to move you to the front row. Oh, wait, I forgot. That doesn't matter. Right, Chief? Cameron, anything tonight? Sierra? Carl? Christy? Christy? even though you're not with us yet. Kyle, anything tonight? Okay, just so you know, if you do, they get really upset. Okay, just letting you know. Casey Liu? Mike? Kevin? Jason? Oh, see, look. Oh, yeah. Dave's saying it was his request.

Yeah. So next week we're going to be shutting down front street again from college to right street. We'll be keeping the long parking lot open. This will be the last week of closures where we can come in there and they've already saw cut. They're going to be doing some dig out and putting the concrete back in the two white stripes down. the size and then it's one foot wide each and then a four foot wide stamped red center down the middle just to create a little bit of a lane narrowing through there and help people slow down a little bit but that's going to go on next week what about filling in of depot district that's going to be done with the black I'm working with Front Street Signs. They're getting everything cut out, all the letters cut out, and then Rollins is going to come back and they're going to put that in, but that won't require any kind of lane closure or road closure or anything like that. And we do have some signs that's going to be going in as well. We've got those ordered and they probably... You've probably come in already. We're going to be looking at time to put those in, but again, that's just going to be installation, no road closure or lane closure. Perfect. Great.

So then you can use the stop signs next week or later?

In the next couple weeks, we're going to get those because we have to have those specialty mounts for them, and I think we've ordered those in. We have ordered those a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure if they're in, but we'll be putting those stop signs in as well. Okay. Hopefully in the next few weeks.

And are you putting up? awareness signs to get people ready for the stop signs that are going to be placed there? Because some people may not realize that there is now a stop sign.

So what we do, we'll put it out on social media, and also what we do is we put a blinking red light on top of it, flags, and retroreflective tape on the front of it just to make people as aware as possible that there's a new stop sign there.

Is there only new one at Division?

There's going to be one at Division and one at College. So both of those ends are going to be three-way stops, and it will have some other signs that indicate certain cross streets don't have a stop condition.

Okay.

Other questions for Tom?

Hey, Tom, this cable app here, I'm up to date calls.

Oh, millions, but it's free to you.

Other questions for Tom? Okay. Mike? Chief? Heather? Bert? Todd? Amber?

Yes, Heather made me a slide tonight. And a perfect one to follow up behind Tom because he promises he's going to be out of that area for the Simply Smyrna celebration that is coming up on Saturday, June 13th from 5 to 930 in that historic depot district. It's a free family friendly event, live music, vendors, food and fun. There will be seven live music stages, international folk fest dancers, local vendors, and activities for all ages. So it's a great event. Hopefully the weather holds out for us and come out and join us. Is that it, Amber Lou? Yes, ma'am. Dave.

Okay, a couple of announcements today. Very fortunate to be a part of this celebration. We're very proud of our Smyrna Fire Department personnel, Allison, Wesley, and Daniel, along with the dedicated Rutherford County EMS and medical staff. They were recognized earlier this month at the Star of Life Awards Ceremony, and as Chief put it, this is a once-in-a-career situation. Their compassion, teamwork, and life-saving response made an unforgettable impact on one local family and earned them a well-deserved 2026 Outstanding Achievement and Neonatal Emergency Response Award. So they were responsible for the delivery of a, it's not even a premie, it's a a pre-premie, and that birth missed the Guinness World Record by, I think, just a couple of days. And so this was the second recognition that they received. They received one at Stonecrest, our local hospital, and just very proud of their efforts and what they do every day. Last week, we're proud to recognize and celebrate the hardworking men and women of our Public Works Department who keep our community running every day. From maintaining roads and cleaning our streets to ensuring reliable infrastructure, their dedication often happens behind the scenes. But it's certainly recognized by me. And thank you for your commitment, your professionalism, and the service to our community. Your work really does make a difference and increases the quality of life for all of us here in the town. So thank you so much for that. I also want to congratulate the administrative captain, James Scott, for completing the 155th Administrative Officer's Course at the University of Louisville Southern Police Institute. He's a 30-year veteran with the department, and since joining the department in 95, he's served in various roles, currently He oversees the Crime Investigation Division, Communications and Records Division. He told me a lot about his experience at this particular, it wasn't even a class, it was more like a college curriculum and extremely difficult curriculum. In fact, I'm sure he'd be happy to tell anybody about it. But yeah, he did a wonderful job and represented the town really well there. So congratulations on that. Lastly, I want to congratulate our Smyrna Natural Gas on being named 2026 American Public Gas Association SOAR Award Bronze Level recipient. This continued recognition spans from 2018 through 2028, reflecting the department's longstanding commitment to operational excellence, safety systems integrity, innovation, and workforce development. The SOAR program honors public gas systems that demonstrate industry-leading practices and dedication to providing safe, reliable services to our community. So congratulations to them as well.

2018 through 2028.

Yeah. I don't even know how you can get a 10 year award with two years to go. I recognize that I was reading it too, but I'm sure Mike could explain that.

We still reapply every year to try and get better and better. Okay.

Other questions? All right. Ben?

I left my slides in the truck.

Oh, okay. Jerome?

Yeah, one thing.

Dave, this is probably for you. The fuel pumps behind Town Hall. We get frequent emails about, can we find a dependable fuel pump?

It's not a dependable fuel pump that we need. We just need to correct user error out there at the pumps. Okay. We have cameras out there, so we know exactly who does it. Maybe a training class. We take care of it internally. But, yeah, there's been some issues out there. Okay. All right. Thank you.

I have two slides. Celebrate America's two – whoop, wrong one. Okay. Whichever one. Back up. Yeah. Yes. We'll go to that one. Celebrate America's 250th anniversary at Smyrna's annual Independence Day celebration on Thursday, July 2nd at Lee Victory Recreation Park from 5 to 9.30. Enjoy an evening packed with live entertainment from the 80s party band Rubik's Groove over 50 vendors, live music, free inflatables, a dunk tank, and Mayor, are you going to be in that? And a spectacular fireworks show after dark. Bring the whole family out for patriotic fun, exciting surprises, and a night full of fun, sponsored by Smyrna Utilities. I tell you, this event gets bigger and bigger every year, and I know we have some special things scheduled. If we can go to the Vision Smyrna, yes. The town of Smyrna is beginning an important update to our comprehensive plan, and we want to hear from you. This plan will guide how our local community grows and evolves, including decisions about land use, infrastructure, and public services for years to come. Take a few minutes to share your thoughts and priorities by completing our community survey at townofsmyrna.org. The survey is open through June 5th, 2026. And, you know, we need to get a lot of people to participate in this because if we just get a small cross-section of the population, we really don't know what's important to them. So I would encourage, and I've taken it. It's probably a five, ten-minute survey, 15 minutes. So I encourage everyone to take it.

Do you know how many currently have responded? About?

Started with 80 when we did the last public engagement. When we did the video, we saw a huge spike. We're looking for more creative ways to get into the community to do this. I've actually talked to Mr. Spearman today about that. So we want to make sure that we do get that public engagement. And I say that to say we may delay the project a little bit to ensure that we get it because that's a crucial step of all.

I used to hang it at red lights because everybody's got their phone out.

Okay. Um, have we looked at like the senior center and rotary had like Jerome, have y'all posted it at rotary? Yes.

But we, we need to announce it more rotary.

Yes.

Right. We're also going to be looking at some of our upcoming summer events too, because with the amount of individuals that come to those events, we think it's a great opportunity for us to get more engagement.

How much is it to get one of the things, you know, the, What do you call them? Oh, we've got one that has the scan code on it. I wonder if we need to put it down at the events. You know what I'm talking about? They knew exactly what I was talking about.

The pop-up.

Have we put it at the event center on Fridays? Yes. Yes, we have. Perfect. Got it. Got it.

Heather also got me the information, and I've got it scheduled to go out through Seek, Click, Fix as well, so all users that have registered through that, I think we've got it scheduled for, what, June 1st? So it'll push that out with a link to it to all those users as well.

Perfect. And then HG said he would be happy to stand out on private property and twirl a sign to... In a chicken suit.

Wouldn't be any problem at all. I'd be nothing out of the norm. You know, I want to do my part.

That's why I said chicken suit.

Anything else, Jerome? No, thank you. Raquel?

All right. Moving on class of 2026. Congratulations. So we are proudly celebrating the achievements of our town graduates, as well as the town of Smyrna family graduates. Um, so we have a list. I don't, can y'all see that?

Yes.

Okay. Cause I was going to read the names to give everybody some acknowledgement. So Nemuel S Houston, J R Duke, Gabriel Peebles, Ross Riley, Shannon Rose, Samantha Parker, Statum Welford, Anaya Hill-Woodbury, Colton Huey, Casey Huey, Shaylin Eldridge, Alyssa Robinson, Mason Gisellman, Keaton Lane Barrett, Jayden Stitt, Lauren Manning, Haley Johns, Lily Anderson, Jareen Bilsma, Richard Whitehead and Haley Mangum to each one of you. Congratulations on graduation. All right. And then secondly, the sixth annual Juneteenth celebration will be held on Saturday, June the 20th of 2026 from 2 PM to 8 PM at the historic Hilltop Rosenwald park located at five 65 Mason Tucker drive. This is a free family, Friendly event. It will feature live entertainment, guest performers, dance groups, food vendors, kid activities, music bingo, and special appearances celebrating freedom, culture, and community. Bring your lawn chairs and come enjoy an afternoon of fun and fellowship. So hopefully you all can come out on Saturday, June the 20th.

Steve has asked to borrow my chicken suits. He'll be at that event when the chickens.

Willie. Okay.

And that's all I have. Um, group of the council and people from the community went to the grand wash, uh, express carwash on Alamoville road. Really nice operation they've got out there. And, uh, You know that little area out there is growing very quickly and lots of things to do in that area. So go try the Grand Wash Express. And I also have a Love Where You Live slide. Keep Smyrna litter free 2026. Let's also look at recycling. I was out at the recycling center one day this week, and I think that they just have recently added that you can take TVs and small appliances out there also. You have to be very selective about where you put them, but they do accept them. And let's also shop local and also be kind.

Thank you all.

Jerry?

Well, if you haven't been downtown on Saturday morning, the Smyrna Depot Farmer's Market is going on. It starts at 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday and ends around noon at the depot. You can get fresh vendors, I don't know, but fresh food. Fruit and local goods and live music begins at 9 o'clock. So if you are open or available on Saturday mornings, I highly recommend that you go down there. It's a lot of good stuff. And that's all I got.

All right, I also have a slide. This past Monday was Memorial Day, and we celebrated Memorial Day at our Coos Memorial this year. The town of Smyrna gathered in remembrance and gratitude of those that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We had Dr. Clark Harrell from Stewart's Creek High School, who's also Lieutenant Colonel Chaplain retired from the United States Air Force. The mayor and the town manager, Dave Santucci, all spoke, as well as Commander Darrell Burke from Post 8422, the VFW District 6. Appreciate you guys putting that together. It was a great event. We weren't sure we'd make it in between the rain, but it went off perfectly without a drop, so... Thank you very much. This is one of those events that I enjoy probably more than some of the others just because of the remembrance and the honor that we're giving to a lot of families that sacrifice so we can do the things we do. I also have a couple of families here in Smyrna that lost a loved one in the last week. Um, a couple of high school graduates, uh, or, um, Smyrna high graduates that we probably all know carry hand graduate, I think in 87, um, had an unexpected passing on May 11th. I saw him at church just a couple of weeks ago and, um, we talked about getting together to play golf. So it was very unexpected and, uh, want to keep his family, uh, David and Mary Francis and his, uh, his son Alex and Declan, and keep the whole Hand family in our prayers. Also, I think he was a 1990 graduate, David Montgomery, also passed away just a couple days ago. Larry Montgomery and Jennifer and Nathan are all been in Smyrna for nearly 40 years. Larry's been involved in a lot of community activities and different services around. So the Montgomery family, David's son Austin and his daughter Savannah, we keep them in their prayers as well. I grew up across the street from the Montgomery's. David was a little younger than me, and I won't tell you some of the stories I could tell you, but I'll just tell you that David was always a good friend. He got me in a lot of trouble, but always a really good friend.

Thanks, Steve. Okay, a couple of slides. Join us for the 18th Annual Boat Day at Jefferson Springs Recreation Area. It'll be June 6th from 9 to 1. It's free to all ages. You can enjoy kayaking, canoeing, crafts, and fun family time on the water. Second, we're pleased to welcome Kyle Evans as our town's new attorney. He'll actually start on June 2nd. He brings a ton of experience in law enforcement, legal counsel, and public safety leadership, having previously served with Shelter Insurance, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, a graduate of the FBI National Academy. He also served with the Murfreesboro Police Department in several leadership roles and has taught criminal justice at the collegiate level. We want to welcome Kyle. Congratulations to Stewart's Creek High School state champions in softball. Division one class 4A state champions. We are super proud of you. We need to make sure that we get that posted on our signage coming into town going both ways. Also, even though they're not in Smyrna, congratulations also to Eagleville Girls Softball, who won this year as well. And actually, Chad Lehman, mayor of Eagleville, is the coach of that team. And they won last year as well. So congratulations, Stewart's Creek, and to Eagleville High School. Last but not least, on Memorial Day, we reflected and we also are approaching the 10-year mark of a tragedy that happened here in the town of Smyrna. Tuesday, June 2nd, 2016, U.S. Navy Blue Angels pilot Captain Jeff Koos tragically lost his life during the Great Tennessee Air Show. inspiring remarkable unity, strength, and the shared purpose throughout our community in getting the memorial built. The town has released a short documentary highlighting the incredible grassroots effort that this town took on in building the Captain Jeff Koos Memorial. From local residents and veterans to civic leaders and businesses, our town absolutely came together hand in hand to turn shared grief into a lasting monument of honor. And I think it is something that we are all really proud of. And we hope you'll take the time to watch the documentary, whether on YouTube, the website, Channel 3, any of our social media channels. Amber and Heather and Patrick did a wonderful job and Dave as well in making sure this documentary got done and you all did a fabulous job. And Amber, I know that you have heard from Janet and Christina both.

And I actually want to share a little bit of their sentiments that they've expressed since watching the documentary. The first one is from Christina. She said the impact the documentary has had on us the last few days is tremendous and hard to articulate. I am overwhelmed with love in the most beautiful way I think is possible for a human being to experience. Jeff was so special. You all are that special too. His love lives through you all and I feel it in my bones. Thank you could never adequately cover how deep the gratitude and love are flowing for my family and so many people who loved our big guy. You all are an absolute treasure, Smyrna. And she put like six exclamations behind it. She went on to say, thank you for showing my babies more of their papa and how deeply loved all of us Cooses are. Smyrna is helping us work through things that we have been trying to articulate for a long time. My sister would also like to extend her thanks for giving her children a real glimpse of their uncle that they never met. Thank you. Janet has reached out, and it takes her a little more time to process, but she did express that although she couldn't text immediately after watching, she was moved to tears and felt so much love. Both of them have reiterated to especially express to Patrick how much that they loved his video and, quote, unquote, he knocked it out of the park.

Agreed. So Tuesday will actually be the 10 year mark of the accident. The fire department will place the wreath there that day and then at sunset take the wreath up. But I hope this community is proud of what the entire community stepped up to make happen. I know so many with staff had something to do with it, but also the town of Smyrna itself. I mean, it was from change to that largest donation. And so thank you for everybody that made it happen. Two other items that I have. I actually have talked to Dennis Johnson only because I was driving by and sent him a picture, but I do think we may want to have some conversation. I think the bins that are meant for veterans and other people, which are great intentions, are starting to become areas in which rather than items they can't take to the dump. I think people are starting to put those outside those and I've gotten quite a few calls and emails and pictures sent and it's not just one location. People are seeing it. It's all over town. And so, um, just something that we might want to have some discussion. I don't know if anybody else on council has gotten any comments about it, but they look horrible. I mean, there'll be couches and mattresses and box springs and just...

The one that was posted, I think, today, I was by there on Monday. And there was a pile out in front of it. And then the picture showed up today on Facebook. The pile is now double the size. So it just continues to grow. And it's couches and TVs and baby beds. And these boxes are designed for clothes and jackets and coats. They're not designed for furniture. Stuff to go inside the van. Right. So it's a community issue where people seem like, I guess, maybe they don't know what to do with their stuff or they just don't want to go to the dump. I'm not sure where. but they're basically dumping trash, things they just want to get rid of instead of actually things that are beneficial. I don't really understand it because a lot of these things could probably go to the goodwill, but maybe not. I don't know. I think it's definitely an issue. I know that it was a few months ago I called you about one, and I think the person that rents that property decided to have the box removed because they couldn't keep up with it. People continued to dump stuff around it and they were having to constantly clean it up.

Well, and sadly, that's who's left responsible is the landowner is who's left responsible and they're the ones that will be cited to court if it doesn't get cleaned up. And, you know, that's something that could be a daily occurrence. They could clean it up one day and the next day it could all be back again.

As something that might be regulated through zoning, would you like us to analyze this and maybe take that to the next joint meeting?

I think that would be great and see what other communities are doing because I think a lot of citizens are getting frustrated with driving by and it looking like a dump.

I mean, it's possible that the conversation is with the property owners that, you know, it's a great purpose. If you're going to agree to put these here, you need to understand that you're taking all the responsibility for maintaining it. And that means every day if needed. Right. And I think that's the part that's failing is the property owners aren't doing anything about it when they see it. They just see it as a place to, you know, they're probably just giving somebody permission to put a box and not thinking about any responsibility they have.

Well, I know the one that we were, that you saw the picture of, that landowner doesn't even live in the state. And so they're not able to see it. And more than likely, the tenants don't want to go out there and clean it up. So unless they're contacted, they don't even know that it's taking place. The last thing I wanted to ask was an update on Lake Farm. Do we have any updates as to what's going on or where things are?

In regards to the glaring lights, I think as we mentioned last meeting, our municipal judge, entered an order finding them to the maximum where allowed for their violation. Since then, they have installed shields on the north side of the lights. It appears there's still an issue with the lights that are glaring from there. They installed the the shields on the Northern side that are actually facing out, but there's still the West and East side. Um, I took a site visit with codes just so I understood exactly the precise lights, what's going on and, and, and able to, uh, relay that to their attorney. I put that together, um, I believe either end of last week or started this week, uh, exactly what needed to be done to continue to completely cure the issue. Uh, sent that over to their attorney's office. I left a message for them today to see where we were on that. So, uh, he's given me assurances that there, you know, that it was a honest oversight, um, and that they were not aware of that additional issue, but hopefully we can get that resolved. But I've made them aware that, you know, we will in short order have to take, take that to, uh, a higher court for injective relief if, if it's not, uh, remedied very shortly.

So help me understand, is there do, would they have to go back to our court? to show that it's fixed, or was that it with our court in regards to the lights?

The courts, the order had a provision where it is an ongoing violation and fine to the maximum we're allowed until it is remedied. So as of today, unless something's changed that I'm not aware of, they still are incurring those fines, but the fines are the limit to what we can do about it. um in order to get any injunctive relief we would have to go to a court of higher jurisdiction and there's some drawbacks to doing that so we're hoping we can get it resolved pretty quickly there is not uh as it stands right now um i'm waiting to hear back from their you know their attorney because i Uh, I think they did show a good faith effort, uh, uh, putting those shields on the lights, but however, um, you know, the, the West and East side lighting needs to have those.

So a couple of things with that one is. their good faith efforts don't seem to be fast enough, um, especially for homeowners that are having to deal with this. So I want to make sure we as a town, even though there may be some drawbacks to go into a higher court that we don't drag our feet and allow it to keep going on because they think, eh, they're not going to do anything with it. So I just want to make sure that we don't, we're not having this conversation again in another two to three weeks. So then where are we with the noise? I know the last time we talked was that there was bad weather and all that. So have we been able to have the amount of time we need to to deal with the noise machine?

With the noise, we were able to get some preliminary numbers with the instrumentation that we purchased. We've had a long span of bad weather, and when you have bad weather, you can't deploy that instrument because it will pick up, one, you don't want it to get wet, and two, it will pick up a lot of ambient noise with rain and or high winds. So we'll continue to do that. However, there's another... thing that we need to do and what we've realized is that the noise instrumentation that is out today measures in decibels. For whatever reason, our noise ordinance measures in hertz. It's not a measurement that you do in today's in today's world so um we've had discussions with that myself ben codes planning to discuss what we need to do so we're looking to amend that ordinance so what we're doing right now is while we still get all that noise information we're going to be able to get some good baseline data to understand if there are really violations right and so once we do amend that ordinance which would take two readings, we'll have enough data to know whether or not there are violations occurring to a noise ordinance that we would make a recommendation to the town council for. What I will tell you is that right now we haven't seen significant noise um consistently over there that would trigger uh a noise violation that would be consistent with noise ordinances that are around us typically what you'll see is that you know long drawn out uh violations of noise that's one thing but that's not what we're dealing with we're dealing with banging quick things of trucks and things of that nature so what you, what you're typically going to see in an ordinance, um, and a modern ordinance and one that we would propose to you is two to three of those within an hour's timeframe. So that's what we're going to be looking for. That's what we're going to be looking for up until the point we, we get this ordinance in front of you. And then, um, after that, we'll, you know, and at that time we'll know if we're seeing those and we'll be able to enforce at that time.

How quickly until you can get the ordinance in front of us, do you think?

I've asked that we try to bring that to the next next council workshop.

Is it something that could? Does it need to go through workshop? And then can we not ask for it to be put on for our next meeting rather than waiting?

I can't say I'm not going to be the one to draft the ordinance.

And it's substantially drafted looking at other municipalities and what they've done and getting the best idea of what we think. It's kind of a... somewhat of an overhaul of that section of the ordinance. Franklin was not aware that that was an issue until it was brought to our attention after the readings were taking place. I've been looking at other municipalities. It's substantially completed, so I feel like that would be probably next week. I'd feel comfortable, and I'll get with Kyle and just make sure he's comfortable also with the changes.

I would like to see that put on our June meeting for us to have first reading at the June meeting, if possible. Council, how do you all feel about that? Yes, yes. I don't want you to bring it if y'all aren't comfortable bringing it to the June meeting, but if possible and it to be done how we want, I'd like for it to be brought at the June meeting.

And I think we could bring it forward as it stands with, with the understanding that there may be a couple of tweaks to it that between first and second have some input on it. So, but I don't think that would make an issue with the, uh, with moving it forward. Okay.

There's another there's one more thing relates Lake farm which is there was a rumor out there that they're coming forth with a with a fence permit and they want to do barbed wire chain link fence on the residential properties that was actually the case and then for whatever reason they came forward with it with a another. design proposal or layout of the fence, which is only on the industrial portion of their property. So that's what they came forward with. Have we approved that yet? Yeah.

Which means it'll be on that back.

It'll be on the back fence line on the industrial, on the industrial. Okay. Yep. Well, they would be allowed to do the six foot chain link fence with the barbed wire on top being an industrial property. Correct.

Other questions?

Yep.

Okay. Last but not least, kids are out for summer. While you're out tooling around town, be observant and watchful. They enjoy being out for summer and sometimes they'll dart out before you even realize it. Teachers, enjoy your summer as well. We appreciate everything that you've done for us. And anything else? I've got one more thing. Sure.

I was in a small fender bender yesterday and had Officer Tucker respond. Very professional, very timely, and I just wanted to give him a shout out.

Great. Okay. If nothing else, then we are adjourned.