Town Council - Special Meeting

Good evening and welcome to our town council special called meeting. I will call our meeting to order and before we actually move into our next items, I'm going to ask Steve Sullivan to do our prayer and Heather, I'm going to ask you to do pledge. You'll stand with us, please.

Bow your heads, please. Dear Lord, thank you for today. We ask that you be with our proceedings, Lord. We ask that you continue to bless our town, bless the people of our town, and bless our community, Lord. We thank you for your providences in our lives and in our community. We ask that you believe with these proceedings and that everything will be pleasing to your sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Heather. Okay, Amber, if you'll do roll call, please. Yes, ma'am. Councilman Dempsey.

Here, President.

Councilwoman Peebles. Here. Councilman Cole.

Yes, ma'am.

Councilman Short. Councilman Sullivan. Here. Vice Mayor Atkins. Mayor Reed.

Here. Okay. We will move on to approval or corrections of the minutes. We are approving the minutes of the June 9th, 2026 special called meeting of the town council color.

These in order, the minutes are in order subject, any additions or corrections from the council tonight, we would like to pull item number five from tonight's agenda.

Okay. When we get, when we get to the, Oh, for.

for the special call meeting. Got it. Okay.

Okay. Any additions to the June 9th, 2026 special called meeting? Seeing none. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes?

Motion to approve a motion.

Do we have a second? Second motion is second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And it's passed. We'll now move on to old business. Tonight we have two public hearings. Our first one is consideration of the amendment for ordinance 26 dash 27 adopting the final revenue neutral property tax rate for fiscal year 2627. Hey Sierra.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So by now, most people have received their assessment notices in the mail. It has sparked a lot of conversation and confusion. Most people just want to know how that little piece of paper is going to affect their wallet. So I put together a slide that will help illustrate how this whole process affects the average person's bottom line. Okay. These notices are the result of what's called the reappraisal process. On the slide, this is a section by the House icon. We're talking about the appraised value component of the calculation. Virtually everyone's appraised value significantly increased. The reappraisal process is actually required by Tennessee state law. It's required to be completed at least once every six years. Rutherford County is on a four year cycle, which is the most common. The purpose of this process is to update property values to reflect current trends. If you believe at home that your reappraised value is much higher than anticipated, I would encourage you to first look up comps in your area. If you've been out of the market for a while, you may be surprised at the going rates these days. If you still feel like something's off, you can call the assessor's office. Just Google Rutherford County Property Assessor's Office. They're easy to find. The next part of the calculation is a certified tax rate. This can be confusing, so I'll put emphasis on the most important parts. On the slide, we're now talking about the second section with the little calculator icon. Okay. The calculation of the certified rate is also required by law. The purpose of this law is to guarantee revenue neutrality on the aggregate basis. So this means individual taxpayers may still see some increases or decreases depending on how their specific percent change in appraised value stacks up against the average. So the calculation of this rate is required, but the adoption of this rate is optional. According to the law, adopting this rate is the equivalent of not raising taxes. Even if you at home as a homeowner, if your specific tax bill changed, this is still as close as we could come to not raising taxes. Adopting any higher rate, adopting any rate higher than this calculated rate would have constituted a tax increase. So for this example, homeowner, Their appraised value shot up by almost 24%, but at the end of the day, the impact to their wallet for the, um, total Smyrna tax bill is only 56 cents to close and summarize. Yes. A lot of citizens received significantly higher assessment notices. However, the town is adopting the certified tax rate. Therefore, most citizens won't see a significant change in their tax bill. And as always, remember that this slide only demonstrates the Smyrna's portion of the tax. Your tax bill also includes county taxes.

So when they got their taxes probably yesterday or today on the form, it's going to show at the top appraised value and then it'll drop down to the bottom and it shows assessed value. They're going to take that assessed value for 2026 and they're going to multiply it by the .004258, which then gives them what they're going to pay in taxes for the town of Smirk.

That is correct. You are taxed on every hundred dollars of your assessed value. Right.

So I just want to make sure they know to take that assessed value and multiply it times the point zero zero four two five eight. Yes. OK. And if you want to know what your portion would be of the county, you would do the same process, but instead of the .004258, you'll use the county rate. And I don't know that off the top of my head. I don't either. But I actually went and calculated mine just to see as well. And I'm sure the property assessor's office will be happy to walk you through that process if you have questions.

Yeah. Mayor, the new rate for the county is 1.4885.

So they would multiply it times point 014885 11.4. Yeah, but you multiply it by times point zero one and move it because you got to move the decimal point two places. Yes.

So which is what they did up there.

Yeah. So okay, Sierra, we really appreciate that. We've also put that out on our social media. I know it can be really, really confusing and sticker shock when you first read that your value of your home has gone up that much. So but thank you for putting that together. Okay. Are you ready to talk a little bit about the public hearing the public hearing of the consideration of the amendment? Oh, okay.

So let's see. Sorry. That's okay. It's for the tax rate. Okay. So we are adopting a tax rate of 0.4258. This is the certified tax rate. It's a change from the current 0.5257 and staff is recommending approval. Perfect. You did good.

Any questions for Sierra on this? Okay, this is a public hearing, so we'll go to the public to see if there's anyone here to speak for or against our new certified revenue neutral property tax rate. Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing and go to council for a motion.

Motion to approve.

Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion?

Are we going to have this on the website?

It's already on all that.

When was that put up?

Today. What time today? A couple hours ago. Before lunch? Okay.

It wasn't put up today. That's fine. This stuff, yes. That is not on our website, but we did put it up on social media. I don't know, noonish? okay but the agenda is on the website i mean you have to just kind of search through the agenda to find it but this is actually on there the agenda but it probably does need a freestanding but this this specific slide is on social media yeah but we can and it also appears on our home page of the website because the social media feed is there but if you would like we can also get that just on the website too yeah i mean i've had several people ask me okay

and rather me doing the math every time they call me it'd be nice to send them to the webpage okay i just think we've got to make sure they understand this is only smyrna's and that the counties is you know what i mean i think sometimes they forget if they live in the town limits that there's two actual tax bills but you know with the county and the town both being revenue neutral i mean it's yeah yeah down the roads where it's going to be a problem Okay, any other comments or questions? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Our next public hearing is consideration of an ordinance to approve year-end budget amendments for fiscal year 2026.

Okay, these are our routine year-end amendments. Just like with the regular budget, all of the amendments need to be balanced. Increases in expenses are either offset with decreases in other expenses or increases in revenue. The largest aspect of these amendments represents the estimated year-end transfer of excess revenues to the capital projects fund. The remaining amendments relate to updated personnel projections for police overtime and fire salaries. unbudgeted contractual services for software implementation and the purchase of brush trucks and additional drainage improvements. Staff recommends approval.

Questions for Sierra on this before we move to the public hearing. Seeing no questions, we'll go to the public to see if there's anyone here to speak for or against this item. Seeing no one, we'll go to council for a motion.

Make a motion to approve the amendments to the budget.

I have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Motion is second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item five has been pulled from the agenda. The last thing is a public comment. The town's public comment.

Just talking about the item, there's some confusion out there. I saw some stuff online that talked about what the Greater Nashville Regional Council is. And they were, people were implying that we were going into a deal with the city of Nashville for this project. And I just wanted to discern the difference between the GNRC and the city of Nashville. And I didn't figure there was anybody to talk, anybody better to talk about the GNRC than.

So it is made up of 13 counties and it is where we regionally come together to work on aging and development. We work on infrastructure, all sorts of different umbrella fall under the GNRC umbrella. And one of the things that GNRC does is you can work with the GNRC for them to do projects within your community and so we are going to be contracting with the GNRC the Greater Nashville Regional council and for them to be looking at and helping us prioritize the road projects and it's not that we haven't been doing this all along but this just fine tunes that same project correct they're going to take things like the all of the studies that we've been doing over the last year or so and putting those we've been working on that five years which which roads we're going to work

The west side of town, all of that.

But also looking at the study that we just did, Safe Streets for All study, the mobility plan, all of those individual studies. Corridor study. The corridor study and compiling all of that information to then bring back to us the priorities.

And they have specialized. I went through the whole process and they were linking it to the city of Nashville and had to explain to them it's an independent thing and they have expertise that will help us prioritize those and get more bang for our dollar.

And the other thing I think that is really important is it allows our staff to continue the day-to-day operations that they're having to do while GNRC staff is working on this. So we are waiting for that contract to come back. I did talk to Michael Skipper today, and he has been... out for a little while, and so he is on it and understands the importance of getting that back to Dave and staff as soon as possible. Thank you, ma'am.

And Mayor, if I may add, because this was on the workshop previously, our request would be that if we do get that, that we are able to add it to the agenda as well. I'll update the council on and provide that documentation once we receive it.

And since you were kind of talking about that, I even got an email that implied because I was just recently voted to be chair of that committee that we were choosing to use them and I can assure you that was in plans long before I became chair of that committee actually I wasn't even supposed to be chair of that committee

They recognized your exceptional talent. Yes.

Well, I'll tell you what it was. The mayor, because I was treasurer and then should have moved to vice chair, and unfortunately the mayor that was vice chair moving to chair got beat in his primary. So he will not be on the GNRC anymore. I just also want to squash that as well because I can assure you there's one thing I wouldn't do. I would not be going into contracts because I served on a certain board or not. So actually I was a little bit disappointed with the email to be quite honest.

And also talking about that, we are actually paying them for what they're doing, but had we not done that, we would have had to get another consultant to help us to coordinate all of the different studies that we've done.

And then also maybe explain some of the relationship that GNRC has with TDOT.

So one of the committees that falls under the GNRC is what used to be called the MPO and is now the Transportation Policy Board which TDOT is also a part of and that's where the funds flow through for all of our state roads and so that is probably the best way that we have in working with TDOT to get projects done on our state roads in addition to the relationships that staff has also built. Okay, thank you both for bringing, or all of y'all for bringing that up because I do think it's important to let people know what these organizations are about. Amber, do we have anything for public comment tonight in the special called meeting? Okay, then if nothing else for the special called meeting, then we are adjourned from the special called meeting. can leave now no and so now we will get started with our town council workshop for june 25 2026 to set our agenda for our july council meeting and tonight we have a presentation by barge design for the industrial drive access connection evaluation project hey how are you

Doing well.

Great.

Good afternoon. My name is Brad Walshmit. I'm an engineer representing Bars Design Solutions and here to present on industrial drive analysis that we've been conducting with town staff. So make sure this click. All right. So we've been looking at industrial drive for the extents within the town limits on the west side, that's right at the city town boundary, just west of the target. And the eastern boundary is the Sam Ridley Parkway traffic signal. And the analysis is focused on three things, traffic congestion or traffic operations, safety along the road, and then managing access of all the places where vehicles can turn in and off of Industrial Boulevard. So as we think about traffic contributors, Industrial Boulevard, as you all know, is much more than just a commuter corridor. There are retail and restaurants. It's busy, if not busier, on the weekends. School traffic, all the industrial shift changes in trucks. And then, of course, with I-24 on a daily basis, the traffic on Industrial Boulevard truly can change every day. It was mentioned earlier, but the Safe Streets for All grant and the safety action plan that the town adopted ranked Industrial Boulevard 10th in the town for the high injury network. So safety was something very important for this. As part of this, we did a refresh and looked at some of the more recent crash data. And what we saw was on the Industrial Boulevard corridor between Town Park Drive Signal and Sam Ridley Parkway, that section of Industrial Boulevard has crashes that are almost more than one and a half times. the statewide average for a similar corridor. And then on the left circle there, that's the intersection with movie row. That intersection experienced a crash rate that's two and a half times the statewide average. And then to the right is that the team Boulevard intersection. It's very close to the same or at least signal almost six times the statewide average for crashes there. So that was really a focus of what we were looking at of how can we come up with improvements to improve not just traffic flow, but safety and managing access. One safety thing that is both safety and access management is shown here. The vehicles traveling on that yellow arrow want to turn from Industrial Boulevard on to movie row. At the same time, there's a car on that blue arrow wanting to go on Industrial Boulevard to turn into the old Hickory Falls restaurant site. That red area represents two cars going in opposite directions wanting to use the same turn lane. That's a potential for a head-on collision because of those offsets. So that was something we were also wanting to focus on to say what are some improvements we could come up with to address that. And so this is a very conceptual design. But what we have, just to throw the picture in front of everyone, what we have proposed or discussed with town staff is a raised median along the section of Industrial Boulevard between Town Park Drive and Sam Ridley. If we were to go left further west, there is some median already on Industrial Boulevard. This would continue that full access, right turns and left turns would continue to be allowed at Movie Row. But as we can see on Team Boulevard, the median would extend through Team Boulevard where right turns could still occur, but left turns would not be permitted. And part of the reason for that is those left turns, in addition to experiencing very heavy delays based on our modeling, also can be very challenging to turn left out. of Team Boulevard, especially with the backups from that Sam Ridley signal. And so what this would mean is on the south side, if cars couldn't turn left, they would use other accesses on Team Boulevard to the south to get through the restaurants or further west across from the target signal. On the north side, those vehicles could either use Chaney Road or actually use Grammer Lane and still connect to Industrial Drive using Movie Row. So we looked at three different options for if this traffic flow were to change and more vehicles use Movie Row. The first option we looked at were Movie Row is currently a stop sign. If you're on Movie Row, you have to stop and wait for a gap. With that added traffic, that really creates a lot of congestion if it contains a stop sign. The second alternative was if Movie Row became a traffic signal. That would help with the amount of traffic that would be using Movie Row. Additionally, with the sidewalks shifting sides on Industrial Drive right there, that would create an opportunity for a signalized pedestrian crossing right there at Movie Row. And the vehicle delay would be much better for Movie Row. The third alternative is still the traffic signal, but what the yellow arrow is meant to try to represent is, I'm going to go back here, a couple of sides just for the visual. That red area where that's the potential for a head-on collision, the third alternative we looked at was if Movie Row is a traffic signal, but if that driveway to that restaurant site could be moved to roughly where that yellow arrow is to align directly across from Movie Row. That would remove the potential for that head-on left turn.

Sorry. Yes. Before you go forward, I'll turn it to the other piece was construct an additional lane. Where's that additional?

Yes. Thank you. I have that. Thank you for bringing that up. So when we looked at the second alternative, which is all that traffic using move your own a traffic signal, the one lane alone, because all the traffic that would be using Team Boulevard to turn was using movie road, the delay was going to be too high. So if all the lefts and rights came from that one lane on movie road. So we are also recommending an addition to the signal, a second lane along movie road. So left turns and right turns would have their own lane. So that additional lane is along movie road.

So we do need towards the Panda Express.

Yes, that's correct. We did analyze it as a signal without that for a cost, a cost exercise, and the delay would be pretty heavy. So we really feel like that second lane with a signal would be appropriate.

Yeah.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Does that not negate the ability to turn left into Teen Boulevard going east there with the.

It does. Yes. So right now, if a vehicle is traveling east along Industrial Drive and they currently are turning left onto Teen Boulevard, they would now need to be turning left onto Movie Road. So an important part of this is if the town moves forward, this would be wayfinding. First of all, making sure motorists know how to get where they need to go with signs, but also making sure navigation apps know. That's a very important thing that we would be recommending the town also proceed so where flood turns can happen now. Make sure the apps people use are telling them they cannot turn left there anymore.

If you're coming from Sam Ridley and going into it, then that would only leave you the movie row entrance into that property, the Hickory Falls property there. Is that correct? Yes.

Yes. So if a car is coming from Sam Ridley Parkway and turned on to industrial and they want to enter the the former Hickory Falls site, they would have to go past it further, likely to turn at the town park signal, and that is a much more longer route. That is correct.

Unless we have an alternative three when we align the roads.

Correct. If that yellow arrow, if the driveway to that was realigned across from movie row, this concept drawing does not show it, but what this would be updated to show is there would also be a left turn lane that gets carved out in that median so cars then could turn left into that site. We don't have a graphic showing that, but that is what it would look like.

So I've got one question. with this scenario it seems like we're funneling a lot of traffic on the movie row okay and i know at one time with the sam ridley parkway project that we made is it cheney uh one way going from sam ridley um we we um to come right what's happening back out to Potomac and come out on Samaritan. You see that causing an issue as far as wiggling around through the back door?

it could but we're not overly concerned about it we do feel like more vehicles will use the movie row option uh to to get continue getting to to and from where they want to go when we when we built that drone we discussed and tom probably remembers this we discussed whether or not that should be a right out so you could still can't go left there but right right out there and i think that it was pretty much a wash one way or the other from a benefit at that point But with all this, it doesn't actually make it a better way to get out.

So one of the things town staff asked us to look at, and we did look at, was an option in which that Chaney Road section became two-way again. So we did also look at if not, if Chaney Road became an entry and an exit at Sam Ridley Parkway. And we found that it would likely work fine, however, with the backups that can happen on Sam Ridley from this industrial signal back through that Chaney Road intersection, especially when so many cars use that rightmost lane, because they want to get on that 24 to go west. We did feel like that was still a safety issue if cars were exiting Chaney Road. and maybe trying to get into a gap, you know, with people waving them, but other lanes are going. So we did look at that as Tom said.

Just that what I was thinking is while they came back to us and said that that wouldn't work today, with the improvements that are going to be made at that interchange with the Choice Lane project, that's something that could be reevaluated once that traffic pattern takes place.

Thank you very much. If we go forward with this, we're going to have a lot of cars stacking on movie row waiting a long time to get on to industrial.

And what we found is if this median were to be installed and movie row continues to be a stop sign, that's exactly what we saw, which is why we felt like a traffic signal would be a better way.

Because now the traffic backs up past Team Boulevard there.

Right. And that's one of the safety issues with the left turns from Team Boulevard today is with that backup and cars trying to figure out, can I get in? Can I not? So but that delay, that is what we saw. That's why we say the delay was unacceptably high for that alternative one with the stop sign. So that was the benefit of a signal as well as that pedestrian crossing, getting back to the safety action plan and vulnerable road users like pedestrians on option three.

Would we be better off on that to leave that for whoever might come and take over that restaurant that's sitting?

It's a very good question. I may want to yield to town staff on that question.

At this point, there is no development that have come before us. What was provided before was denied. So at this point, we have nothing. And I think it is incumbent upon any future development to realign that entry point and exit point so that we can make it a safer environment for all.

But if somebody chose to use the building that's existing, we wouldn't have any need to make them change that road, correct? It's only if they, uh, uh, I think that would be based off of the building.

I mean, could, couldn't we still do that as part of the site plan since, since the road has now is now different, I think we could still require them to move their exit or entrance just like we just made a change at ACE hardware where that exit is now right only. I think you, I think we would, I think we Kevin, can we require that? I don't think it has to be rebuilt.

I mean, we would probably, I think what you're referring to, Mr. Cole is if, if you have an existing building and they just want to occupy the existing building, often that site plan doesn't come back. I think anybody that comes in and talks to us about that property. Now we're going, if this is the alternative that is chosen, I think we would then we would want to bring that plan to in front of the planning commission at minimum.

I agree with you, Kevin, except for the fact of if you're using the existing building, then the traffic is going to funnel directly into movie row and you're not going to have a wide space to be able to disseminate that traffic coming into the parking. You're right. You're right. And then we've already talked about doing away with the the team Boulevard entrance. Well, coming from Sam Ridley, not from the other way.

Yeah, they would still be able to come from the back side. They could still get into that property without any issues. But yeah, I mean, I think my last conversation was with the current property owner. They were looking to sell that property now. They had decided that they're just going to walk away from it. No, that's just what that was a conversation with somebody that works there. So yeah, so they were looking to put it on the market.

so you know i don't know obviously we have no idea what's what would be coming at this point well another question i'm looking at vehicle delay acceptable and then talking about putting the traffic signal there um i mean i'm sure the traffic is still anticipated to increase as time goes on there and how much stacking can you do behind movie row or from movie road between movie row and sam gridley parkway there i mean it stacks up out there now so i mean we we looking at the traffic counts we've got right now are we anticipating anywhere down the road

Sure. So our models looked at if development does come in to the former Hickory Falls restaurant and five years further out with additional growth. That is what we analyzed. There is a lot of traffic on Industrial Boulevard, so I have driven through it myself. I've seen the data. I agree with the backups. This would not necessarily fix all the traffic using industrial drive, but we think it would make the turns on and off industrial safer. So I will say that that red circle movie row is around 500 to 600 feet away from Sam Ridley Parkway. and 500 or 600 feet in the other direction to Town Park Drive. Those are both signals. Normally that is too close, typically for two traffic signals to be close together. However, with this, with the traffic, with this concept that would be moving from Team Boulevard onto Movie Row, the delays at Movie Row as a stop sign were just too significant and excessive that we felt like proper signal timing could be coordinated on this corridor. And I know there's another instance on Old Nashville Highway. I forget the cross street, but it's northwest of Sam Ridley. There's another signal.

Rock Springs Road? Is that the one? Rock Springs and Old Nashville?

Yes. And on the other side, there's another one. Forgive me, I forget the name.

Jeanne Lane.

Thank you. Yes. So, again, not ideal, but sometimes the road network and the traffic, that is what is most appropriate. So there still could be queues, backups on industrial drive either way, whether Movie Road is a stops on or whether Movie Road becomes a signal.

And I guess the other alternative, which you don't have here, is that we don't allow any left turns and that median continues. So movie road becomes right in, right out only. Now that becomes a nightmare for accessing certain businesses, obviously, but I think that's the only alternative if you don't put a light there.

Yeah. And so and we we initially looked at that. And if left turns were not permitted, I'm speaking more and more to the north side of industrial, all the land uses, if left turns were not permitted at Team Boulevard, nor were they permitted at Movie Row. That's very challenging for access for this business because there really is no other way out other than the Cheney Road Potomac that was mentioned. So our opinion was left turns need to be able to still occur at one location. And we felt like team Boulevard with how close it is to Sam Ridley, that crash data that we've presented, we felt like movie row also being right in between town park and Sam Ridley signals. That was what drove our recommendation.

Yeah, I guess what I'm, I agree with you. I think what I'm saying is that it's either we have stacking and acceptable stacking or we have challenges with people accessing the businesses. Right. I don't there's not really another option there one way or the other.

I think so. Our recommendation is meant to balance the access with safety for everyone who are driving industry and walking on industrial drive. I only have a couple more slides. I think we've spoken about most of them.

What does that do to the chicken place beside?

Zaxby's.

Zaxby's. What's it do for ingress and egress for Zaxby's?

So my text box is sort of blocking it, but the Zaxby's, there would be a median in front of there. So Zaxby's drive on industrial drive would become right in, right out. But our assessment is that The Zaxby's driveway parking lot does connect to another parking lot which has access to the Town Park Drive signal. So our opinion was that would be a way to manage access to and from there.

One more comment before we move on. So to Mary Esther's point earlier, Dave, about leveraging development there for some of this. My personal opinion is I don't think we could wait on the red light. I think we could wait on the left turn lane there and aligning the entryway to that other property, but I think the red light would have to be put in as soon as the medians went in.

That's not a state road, so it's up to us to put that there, correct? Yeah. I'm going to throw another question out there, and I apologize for this. This is great. Any way about this, this seems like a band-aid to it. Did you look at anything that is a real-life fix that gets radical to...

Try to think back to our initial discussions with town staff. I think one of the first questions was, can we limit how many cars are using industrial drive through the town? I mean, but let's think about everything, right? So because it's a public road, we didn't think that was reasonable or feasible. But that was one of the first questions, because that's really what's driving a lot of this is the increased traffic, making it harder to turn, making people turn left or right quicker and causing more crashes. So. There were some probably bigger picture, more creative ideas, but we were really trying to make sure we continue to allow access in some way for those businesses on the north side because they do not have a way to connect to Town Park Drive and the Target. There's that big rock face. And with the Cheney Road alignment, you know, we We want to be sensitive to that. So we did think of a lot of creative ideas. I think we even talked about some just off-the-wall things, but ultimately there are... That's kind of what I was talking about.

We talked about a roundabout. Could a roundabout be at Movie Road? Just turn the whole thing into a roundabout. So we looked at... We measured the one at Genie Lane, and that pushed the roundabout about halfway into the center of the building of the old Hickory Falls. So there were some, there's some real estate constraints as it relates to the ability to put in a roundabout as well.

To your point about reducing traffic on industrial drive. I mean, for all intents and purposes, industrial drive is a frontage road that connects Walden road and Sam Ridley. And that's where a lot of the traffic is coming through is they're using that as a cut through because I 24 is impassable or backed up or busy. So potentially that traffic decreases. If we fix 24 issues, people maybe won't use it as much or we treat this as a real frontage road and we widen this out to handle that traffic all the way between Waldron and Sam Ridley, which means a joint project with Laverne. So when you're talking about radical ideas, I mean, that's kind of the I think that's the long term fix is you would have a five lane here or four lane here connecting the two towns and let it be used as a frontage road like it's being used. But that's a huge That's a huge undertaking and a joint effort that I'm not sure we could get by.

And you missing friends, right? The one thing I failed to mention is Team Boulevard on the south side of Industrial Drive. It goes off the map, but it is a loop that connects again at the signal that is an underutilized public right away. The traffic counts were very low. And so one opportunity would be to really encourage that vehicles at least on the south side businesses to use that more almost as a package road to have more access using the team Boulevard connection points.

What happens when they come out team board there and they want to make a left off of industrial home to Sam Ridley. You've got three or four lanes to pass and it's almost impossible.

That was something we observed and we think that is part of the reasons for that crash rate being so high.

But I think it is a lot of what creates that is there's also people coming out of teams and there's people merging so many different places. So this might actually help make that a little easier because you've reduced where traffic is coming from while you're trying to make that merge.

Maybe. We'll see. So the next steps for the town, if they want to pursue this, would be to move forward with a design for this and develop some cost estimates for what that picture would look like in a little greater detail. Those movie row improvements, the signal, the additional turn lane on movie row, the managing access at Team Boulevard, and the median that we talked about. And I have questions, but we've had so much good discussion, I feel like, but welcome to any more questions if you have any.

My comfort level, if we go with the and the signal is to look at the Cheney Road there. Something with it, getting access.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I think alternative three is the right approach. And I agree with the mayor that we would leverage development at the Hickory Falls building to do part of that.

Other questions? Are you good with what we want to do to move forward?

Absolutely. You know, we are pursuing a safe route. SS4. I was going to say, yeah, anyways, but there are grant opportunities that I think we can pursue. This project being ranked so high within our high-injury crash network is... is really a good candidate for that. So we'll look at those things as well. But again, we wanted to make sure that as a result of not only the results of the study that we did for the Safe Streets for All, but the discussions that occurred as it related to a high traffic producing business that we that we looked at this. And I want to thank you for the work that you've done because it's been very helpful and enlightening. So thank you.

Sorry, one more thing. It just kind of look, I'm still looking at the map that you had up. We're talking about that Hickory Falls development or property. They're probably redeveloping soon in this map. It's kind of obvious there's five lanes coming on to Sam Ridley from industrial. and it goes from right there at team boulevard from two to five uh does it make sense for us to discuss expanding that five back further and taking part of that hickory falls property since it's about to redevelop taking part of that property to extend our lanes back and allow further stacking there while that's an option at this point if if they weren't about to redevelop i would understand the challenges but if there's something that comes in there it might make sense to go ahead and acquire some of that land

I agree with you completely because, I mean, as it is right now, it's hard to read where to go. And you come out of there on a dark night when it's raining and you can't see where those lines are. Let's bring Tom into the discussion. He's getting off light tonight. But is there a way, Tom, to, I don't know whether we just need to put some heavier plasticine markings on the road that make it show up better and also start it further back because it's just hard to know which lane to come in when you're coming off of those two and going into five or whatever.

It is a challenge. We've got some signage further up that tells you ahead of time that there's multi lanes coming up. So some directionals before you get to up to the intersection with Sam Ridley. Also, if you remember, we put signs at on the mast arms to indicate which lane turns left and right. straight through through there as well that's after you're up there and the traffic is so thick you already you get up there and it's like i'm in the wrong lane and you know i think even getting in there and i can talk to jason about it but It may be an option to indicate which lane goes toward the interstate because I know there's a lot of times that there's some interstate markings like that that indicate which one goes toward interstate. That might be a possibility. I don't know if we can put that type of striping on it just to call people's attention to that even more so. But, yeah, we'll look at that and adding some more striping through there or some more symbols.

I would encourage you if you could come at night and look. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Just to look and especially I know like when we used to pull out of Hickory Falls and stuff, it comes up on you so fast.

Right.

It's hard to.

know which which i've gone straight many times when i wanted to turn left but just simply because i was in the wrong lane okay i found that too so okay okay so are we looking at this for this year this

upcoming July year to start working on this?

No, we've already just adopted the budget. I'm just asking. Yeah, that's why I said I think this is ripe for looking for grant opportunities to at least get us started with design and it's my understanding that alternative number three is the preference of the council with looking at making a four-way signalized intersection when future development comes.

Okay. Well, something's going to happen to that building very soon. So I mean, at least we've got a semblance of our ducks meeting in a row when they come in and ask about what what it's going to take.

Yeah. And again, not to not to beat a dead horse, but also consider extending those lanes and taking part of that parking lot to.

So we're looking at condemnation. Is that what you're talking about?

Well, if it's for sale, we could probably just purchase parts of it.

And if we do do that, I'd like to ask, how does that affect People are trying to get out at Teen Boulevard there. If we're, you know, having the multiple lanes. If you're stacking, going back. Yeah, on past it.

Yeah. Will this light be on the ITS?

Yes. Yeah. We'll interconnect it. Well, the next one, what's that?

Well, the next one, what is it? Town?

Yes.

Town park.

Yeah. We'll all be interconnected back to our traffic ops. Okay.

Did you look to see a barge designed this 25 years ago?

I did not. I did not look at that.

Okay. Okay. Anything else? Dave, you good with what we're looking to move forward with?

Okay.

Okay. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time and coming to speak with us. Thank you. Okay, we will now move into our agenda. And the first 10 items are proposed consent agenda. Our proposed consent agenda items. Our first one is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with first due for purchase of a record management system.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This is approval of an agreement to begin a contract with First Dew regarding our records management system for the fire department. This contract is for phase one, and this was a budgeted amount in our upcoming budget. We've got an initial implementation cost for the design and building out of the of the program that's handled under the capital budget and then the contractual side for the actual services of it. And then phase two, phase one has a prorated amount for the remainder of the year and then phase two is the next full year and that's when the actual contract will begin with it. Over the past several months, about the past About since around this time last year, we began evaluating different vendors, different softwares, and different platforms that will handle all of our incident reporting as well as combine some other ancillary programs that we use to manage our assets, equipment, apparatus, personnel training, things like that. After discussing several different vendors and doing demonstrations with a few different ones. We settled on first do as the one that meets our current and projected future needs. Another benefit is that most of the fire departments surrounding us also use first do and one of the one of the things that they use with theirs is that if we respond with them or they respond with us, our programs will actually link up so we can see see their assets, their trucks on scenes. If they if they have any building information from their inspections or their pre fire plans, we can see those who will kind of know the hazards that we're encountering. And it all does that in a software collaboration together. The the contract It runs for four years. It was communicated with Mr. Wilson, IT Director. He agreed that this was a good software, and he is familiar with using it in one of his previous cities that he worked with. And the town attorney has also reviewed the contract terms and is in agreement with everything. And again, I want to stress this was in our capital and our operating budget for next year.

Questions for Cameron?

Cameron, I've got a few questions. The first one, there's a hydrant management advanced in here section, and will the hydrant management feature be integrated with or shared with utilities as far as information and GIS mapping?

It works similar to what we use with ESO now. So typically the way that we'll do our hydrant inspections is we'll go out once a year and do the flow testing. And then we can, we put that data in, anytime we find repairs, Chief Lawrence will export a file and share that with utilities for any repairs.

So this new software, they'll be able to, the utilities department will be able to go and pull that.

They'll either be able to pull them or we can pull any of that paper, any of that report. The reason I ask that, there's, with all the development and the fire code,

There's a lot of, you know, questions about what can I get out of this fire hydrant or that fire hydrant.

So I just wanted to make sure it was available to utilities to share. And the way we run our hydrants is we will test them once a year, and we're in the process of that now, and we update the flow annually. And then if anybody needs a special flow in that, they'll usually have a third party come out. If our flow reads too low, they'll have a third party to come out and get an actual...

But just get an ideal to see what that area is doing rather than them coming out and having to actually do a flow test. Thanks. I noticed there's AI enhanced reporting. I guess my question, after AI writes these reports, you do review them and edit them?

The AI portion doesn't write the report. What the AI function allows them to do is, this also has a mobile app that they can use with it. so they can actually dictate their narrative into it and the AI portion will actually pull out parts of it and help fill out the rest of the report and then the personnel still will need to review it but it will kind of help fill it out and ensure that we're capturing all the accurate information for the report.

You answered my third question about legal reviewing the contract and the fourth one Were there other bids or quotes or is this only software we looked at?

After an evaluation, this is the one that we decided to go with that met our needs. This was one that we had evaluated in the past when we switched to ESO about five, six years ago when our previous one was sunset. This was high on that list as well. But in communicating with several other departments, many of them spent 18 to 24 months evaluating them. And this one is more designed for fire departments, whereas some of the others are kind of smaller and then end up getting absorbed by other vendors or their EMS softwares that were just kind of adapted for fire use, which is kind of what we were running into with the ESO is that it didn't really fit what we needed.

Um, because this is what 42,550 annually. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

And it runs January, December. Is that why the half was only 22 for June through now? It was prorated.

I'm not sure exactly when their typical contract starts, but they prorated it for the remainder of the the end of their typical contract cycle. And then the next one would start after that.

And there is a 5% annual adjustment, it looks like.

Other questions? Okay, we'll put this on the agenda. Item two is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute contracts with vendors related to the annual bid of materials for gas, water, and sewer.

Yes, ma'am. As you stated, this is our annual bid of materials. There's a lot on here, and what we try to do is... get the prices locked in for a full year where we don't have to you know go back out to bid for meters regulators stuff like that especially the higher priced items so this we do this annually questions it was extensive bid tabulations and whoever went through them I'm sure they spent some time doing it and

But I did notice some, like if there was a bidder in one section and they only completed two line items, y'all went to the low bidder that had all the line items.

Typically what we do is take it as a section and we don't cherry pick the items.

Other questions? Okay, we'll put that on the agenda. Move on to item three, which is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute final change order number one for the golf course waterline project.

Yes, this is the final change order for the project and it resulted in a net savings of $9,858.86. Just a note, I put it in my weekly report, there has been some settling there and the company is mobilizing and coming back in to correct those issues.

Okay. Questions for Mike on this? Thank you, sir. Item four is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a contract amendment with SEC incorporated relative to the Stewart's Creek gravity design.

So when we did the contract with SEC for the Stewart's Creek, the scope of work has changed pretty significantly. A large portion of it is due to the redesign for when we met with TDEC Environmental and had to lower all the crossings and the lines of foot below the creek. There is some other things, staking, redoing some of the easements and exhibits. The Corps is making us do the archeological survey. which wasn't included. So all these have been checked and verified and are legitimate changes that we need to make for SEC's contract.

Questions on this?

Yeah. This is just for the engineering part of it, correct? Correct. What do we think that it's going to do to the project as a whole as far as, I mean, because we're going to be digging deeper, the entire thing deeper, correct?

Cost is going to go up. We had to add a lift station.

Can we go back to SRF?

We've already applied for SRF funding for the project, so we're in that process now. Don't know if we'll get approved. I think we were number six on the priority ranking list, which is really good. So things look good, but there's been no approvals given or anything yet.

But we can change the amounts that we're needing.

We already applied with the new stuff. With the new stuff.

Yes, ma'am. I thought you meant with the old stuff. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Now, these changes, remember, all the design, the appraiser, review appraiser, and negotiator falls under the SRF planning and design loan we already have.

Right. Okay. Does it change much with the acquisition of the right-of-ways and stuff like that? I mean, is there...

When we had to lower the line, it does change some of the easements, and they had to redo the exhibits, so the appraisers had to go back out and re-look and do the reappraisals on those that had to change.

I've got a few questions. I think I talked to Mike and Dave about this. When the project was originally designed, they did several aerial crossings above the creek. And then, I think you said there was 22 creek crossings. 26, I believe. 26. And then when TDEC reviewed it, they said, no, you need to design the pipe where it goes under the creek and not have aerial crossings to block the water, logs, trees.

What they said was... what we were doing, they considered impounding water. So you had two options. You could go to a bank and try to buy credits. We had one of their people look at that, looking at eight to 10 million bucks to buy these credits. You can redesign it and put it below the creek.

And I guess where I had concern was, you know, why was it designed that way in the first place? Because, I mean, standard design is to run it under the creek with a minimum one foot coverage. And for us to be sitting here looking at change order to correct a design, kind of got a little heartburn with that.

The easy answer is to try to eliminate having the large lift station that we've had to add because we lowered it below the creek.

And then there's the ARAP permit. Was that not in the original contract to apply for it with all the crossings? I'm not sure, but I think it changed. Okay. and then verification of existing manhole inverts. That's a $21,000 thing. I'm not sure about that one either. I'm not trying to pick your brain, but I'm just saying.

part of should have been part of the i will say what i did when this came to me i sat down with mark parker right he had reviewed all these and been talked to sec about these and said these were all legitimate changes that wasn't included in their original scope and i appreciate you and mark looking at that and what was and i think you sent it to me but i can't remember the initial contract amount for this I sent you the sheet. I didn't total it up. It was 700 and something thousand for design. Plus there was the bidding phase, the easement, so much per easement exhibit.

And they're charging us $24,000 to break it up into three phases to bid out.

Originally, we had it as one project. Mm-hmm. it was easier to break it up into three phases which obviously phase one goes from where the big lift station is to burnt knob then we can tackle the other two as maybe multiple contractors on to do a little bit faster and so that you know we get a hundred and ten thousand dollar change order on a seven hundred and

whatever, $1,000 design. And in my mind, with having the experience I do, a lot of this, in my mind, should have been part of their original contract. And I don't ever recall me going back, if TDEC reviewed anything and made comments, and me coming back to the client asking for more money. So that's kind of where I'm at with it.

Other comments or questions? Was the portion that... Did we have any indication about having to go deeper and having to do the other stuff with the archaeological stuff? Did we have any idea that that was going to... No, ma'am.

Not until we met with TDEC Environmental. That's what lowered everything. The archaeological survey... The Corps considers this a navigable waterway, and that is standard practice with a navigable waterway for the Corps.

Other questions? So it wasn't a navigable waterway before? When did they decide that? I guess because you said they weren't doing the archaeological until they determined that.

This just happened recently, the archaeological thing, the core. We were going through the process with the core just like we always do. Now remember, this is totally different. This project will be similar to Olive Branch but bigger. The core wasn't involved in Olive Branch because they didn't consider it. They jumped in on this and said, hold on, we need to look at this. So they recently sent the thing that I forwarded to Mr. Santucci and you guys about, hey, we're having to do this survey. We'll pull it under SEC's contract. They've hired the expert to do it, and we'll move on from there.

I guess what your question was, We did not know that.

Until the court got involved. Correct. And then they told you. Okay. I'm following.

Other questions? Okay. We'll put that on the agenda and move on to item five, which is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with Icon Custom Masonry Incorporated for construction of two monument signs to be installed along Lowry Street State Route 1.

Thank you, Your Honor. Mayor, Council, I went out to bid for the two monument signs that I think you all evaluate, looked at that and approved those at a previous meeting. ICON was the only bidder on it, came in at $81,655. The engineering estimate was $130,000, so we felt that even though we only had one bidder on it, but they're coming in below the engineered estimate, that would be acceptable.

Questions for Tom on this?

Yeah, I've got a couple questions. I did speak with someone that they do this work exclusively and they thought this was a good cost on it. But my question is, it's hard to read this PDF. What's the physical dimensions? I'm not sure what they are off the top of my head. I've tried to blow it up and just...

It's fuzzy.

I was just trying to get a perception, visual of how wide and how tall. I know there is a drawing in there that shows it to the car lanes.

Council Member Dempsey, we can get a better version of this particular page so that it's clear and get that information to the council.

Other questions? So this is the cost for both the signs?

Yes.

Okay. I would ask in the meantime, the current sign that's out there, the bush that's up, it's almost over it. All right. Under the bottom.

Okay.

Like underneath.

Do you want us to go and take that down with these coming up?

No, or at least just cut the leads that are under it.

If you take the sign down, you don't have to worry about the books. Exactly.

What is the timeline on getting this bill?

I think it's 120 day in the bid. So from the time of notice to proceed.

Will you come to the mic? You're good. Just so the public can hear too.

I've on this the the manufacturer said as soon as he gets he this is a two-day job for him so he's gonna come in we have to test the soils and do it I'm assuming that once he gets the notice to proceed it's going to be less than less than 40 days is it gonna be lit yes

Jason, is this going to be dry stacked stone or is it going to be just a veneer stone?

It's going to be a veneer stone, but it's going to be locally sourced stone that's going to go on it. They do a single pour and they actually ship these on a flatbed and we'll lay them down

on a compact soil it's neat i think this is just like the entrance this side entrance to lee victory park isn't that what that's done mike moss similar yes you know which one i'm talking about when you come out of yeah yeah i guess they're going to build this have a prefab foundation they put and then set it on that uh if it's two day project yeah correct they they yes okay

And do you know the dimensions?

I don't want to lie to you. I think about this call about that.

Why?

So from the road bed, I think it's 11 feet, but I'm not 100% sure on that. And the width was somewhere around eight feet. But don't don't quote me on that. And that's going to set out of the safe zone. Oh, yes, sir. Yeah, OK. It's it's it's it's outside of the clear zone. OK.

And is 1869 across the board what we are going with?

Yes.

Okay.

I'd just like to make sure. Did someone question that? Well, some say 1915 and some say 1869. We lost our charter. We lost our charter over alcohol.

So there have been some shirts had different things, but I think the police department's patches have 1869 on them. And I think... no but on their patch it's on there too is it yeah and then i think the bridge has 1860 does it have 18 okay we have that discussion i just want to make sure we're consistent okay any other questions okay item six is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a time extension request for lowry street phase two pin one two nine eight three seven

So, Lauer Street Phase 2 is a sidewalk project that goes from, it picks up on Lauer Street Phase 1 that ended in Jackson Street and it takes from Jackson Street to Hart's Branch. There's sidewalks on both sides of the road, also some of the planters that you've seen before are going to be installed. So, right now we're in design phase. They have resubmitted to TDOT. We're waiting for approval or review comments on the design plans that are in place. Once we get those, we'll be getting notice of proceed to right away phase after that. So this is a time extension to take us through that next section of work.

Other questions for Tom on this? Okay. Item seven is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract extension for roadway patching with Sessions Paving Company.

So Sessions Paving has our annual contract right now. So this is in one year extension from July 1st, 2026 to June 30th of 2027. They handle all large pothole repairs that we don't have the capability of being, well, we don't have the time and capability of getting in and handling some larger pothole repair. So we hired them to do that work.

Questions for Tom on this?

Is Sessions the same one doing it this year? Yes, yeah, this is the existing annual contract. We're just extending it for an additional year.

Sure, so, and I guess, Dave, you've talked about some of the work they've been doing.

That's water grass. That's water grass.

So we have two different ones.

uh the one on rocky fork and rock springs road yeah there were some there are some work that we after inspection had them go back out and and and correct that on rock springs road i think from what tom told me yes yep okay yeah i just want to make sure when they i say they've got compaction they've got the roadway

based on the binder and everything down. I just want to make sure because I know we've done one three times out on Rocky Fork Road and I'm sure it's from the dump trucks out there. We're not paying three times for it, are we?

No. Okay. Especially with the, we had, yeah, we had a couple that we didn't pass our inspection and they had to go back out there and take care of that on their own cost.

Other questions? Okay. Item eight is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a time extension with the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the Florence Road sidewalk project to April 30th, 2020.

So currently, yeah, leave that blank. But currently we have, we're in right away phase. We have three of them, three of the four contracts signed with the land owners out there. And I think we got a fourth one getting ready to be signed, which is an addendum to it. And so hopefully we'll get all three of those signed and start, paying everybody out, get the right-of-way, submit that to TDOT for approval. We have been submitting to TDOT with each time, every time someone signed to get their approval on it. And next, we'll be getting notes to proceed to construction phase, finally.

Is there anything else we can do to move this project along?

Honestly, no. I mean, it's in the hands.

It was what, a $200,000 grant? Was that what it was? $500,000. Was it $500,000? Okay. It's been forever ago.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I know a lot of it has been with things that happen nationally and then with the state and all that. So okay, questions on the sidewalk. Okay, item nine is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a one year professional services agreement with Rex Gaither for financial consulting services.

Okay. Good evening again, Mayor and Council. As you know, Rex Gaither retired as finance director and assistant town manager in 2025. He had a 30 plus year career at the town, serving 14 years, 14 of those years in the capacity of finance director. His experience is an asset to the town. Rex will provide consulting services on a variety of topics ranging from purchasing and balancing various utility financial metrics with large upcoming relocation projects.

questions for Sierra on Rex, keeping Rex on as professional services and consulting. Okay, we'll move on to our last item. That is proposed consent agenda, which is approval of an authorization of a list of items to be auctioned through online surplus sale with gov deals.

So before you is a list of surplus items that need to be sold at auction. The list includes a seized vehicle, a fire safety house, several items of office furniture, and other items that are no longer needed. The town seeks permission to conduct an online auction to sell surplus items. It will be advertised in the Murfreesboro Post on the town's website and on Channel 3. All items will be sold through GupDeals, and the auction will be July 21 through the 28th.

Questions for Sierra on this?

In what condition is that car in?

I'm not sure. I have not laid eyes on it.

Sierra, did we do something different in regards to advertising with our last one that we've not done before? Did we do Facebook or something with it? Did we see any increase with that or do you know?

The ladies who handle this didn't mention it.

I was just curious if that made a difference. Okay. Questions for Sierra on any of these? Okay. Then we will put that on the agenda. Okay. Item 11 is consideration of a resolution to approve funding for nonprofit organizations for the fiscal year 2027.

The town of Smyrna has determined there are several nonprofit organizations that make significant contributions to our community. And these are the same organizations as prior year. Almost all organizations on the list are receiving level funding. The primary difference is the $250,000 contribution to the child advocacy center for a building. And you do have updated information splitting that out. Now it shows the capital contribution separate from the operating contribution.

Okay.

Yeah, I've got I've got a couple of questions. So this is a total of nine hundred and seventy seven thousand two thirty seven totaling all the all the nonprofits. And I should know this, but do we have a committee that that is set up that makes these recommendations or or what's the process of this?

So normally the process is we have I think I look back from 2021 to current. We have pretty much the same exact organizations that we contact to see if they are going to apply for funding again. And my office, in conjunction with the clerk's office, has looked back to try to find original agreements with these organizations. And it's very difficult to find information back that far. But the primary items on the list are the library, the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, and the Child Advocacy Center.

And so to elaborate a little bit further, a lot of these are, there's some that are just based off of agreement, that being the library for one, and then the Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency is also based off of an agreement that we've had in place since, I'm trying to find that. I think 2007. Yes, 2007.

Along with the other municipalities.

Yes, yes. It's a shared cost amongst all the municipalities. But a lot of what these represent are historical contributions to... other government agencies or not-for-profits that provide services to our residents that we do not have to provide because these various agencies exist yeah you know like sister city sam davis memorial association i'm just trying to figure out

Do we just continue to select nonprofits because we've done it in the past, or is there a process that it's submitted, we review it, and a committee makes recommendations?

So that was what Raquel's committee on the Charity Assistance Fund, that is a committee that's made up of citizens for the 35,000, and then Raquel and her committee will take application from non-profits to divide that money out.

But that's just the last line item of $35,000. Correct.

The other particular agencies are not, there is no committee that has been put together to determine those. what uh cost these individuals receive it's only the ones that we have the shared agreements with that have set amounts that we know we're going we will have to honor the rest of them are not chosen by a committee i've never known there to be didn't we just move it on here no we moved we moved um

The Sam Davis home we put on there because it was a revenue generating for our community and that one got moved to this area rather than falling under where they had to apply each year through the committee. The child advocacy moved under this. It used to be under the police department budget, and it got moved here. And emergency management, we're contractually in with them. The library association, once we give an amount, we cannot lower that amount, and that's through the state. Yes, now the rest we can choose not to give to if we choose not to give to.

It's not about giving to them or not giving to them. It's the process that I'm trying to figure out. I know at Rotary We have grant applications. We review all the financials. The board scores them independently and then gets together. So I'm trying to figure out what the town of Smyrna's process is in the funding nonprofits. That's all I'm trying to do.

So the process is the finance department contacts all of these people, or they contact everyone that we gave money to last year to see if they want to reapply. They send us – so we have their budget and – Financials? Yes.

Okay.

And then we put it in the budget where it's discussed at the retreat. So I guess that would be the closest thing to committee discussion that there is for that.

I was just wondering, should we discuss a committee?

Okay.

I mean, that's not a question for you, Sarah. You know, I know you're presenting the numbers and everything. I appreciate that.

I'm just trying to wrap my... For me, where I'm at, I feel like, with it being the health department, the library, the pet, you know, for picking up pets, those sorts of things.

Those are the intergovernmental.

Correct, correct. And the rest all fall under the charity assistance, which we did appoint a board... The charity assistance fund.

What do you mean the rest?

Okay, Rutherford County Health is intergovernmental. The library system is. The chamber does bring each year how much they request, and we can choose to give that amount or not give that amount.

Who chooses?

Dave brings it through the budget.

And their amount has not changed... for several years. It's at least been there the same since 2023. And in my meeting with the chamber this week, I think it's been, the amounts have not changed in over 10 years.

I would just have a better comfort level if we had a committee, you know, reviewing these and making recommendations.

And I guess for intergovernmental, I have a more comfort level with our staff doing that and bringing that back and the local nonprofits still falling under the charity assistance.

So these local nonprofits, though, don't come before. The ones that are on this list don't come before.

No, I'm talking about just your fund. I'm talking about Smyrna Charity Assistance Fund. Those are the ones that all go through. Yes. But the rest go through staff, and staff brings that. And I'm comfortable with that with intergovernmental. Now, if y'all want to put Sister City to fall under that, Sam Davis Memorial... But I feel like the intergovernmental ones, I'm comfortable with staff doing that. I would rather leave the ones that we currently have continuing to do. But if it's the wish of the majority of the council for the rest to all fall under the Smyrna Charity Assistance Fund.

You said it earlier. All of these things are mostly made up of organizations that do things that can handle it as a group rather than us trying to take it on. which would cost us who knows how much money, say, just to pick up the paws, for instance. And the latest one that I think has been added to it probably is the Child Advocacy Center. The rest of them have been there like traditional. It has, too. It has, too. It's just been in the police department budget.

But, I mean, so... Jerome, would you rather see the Charity Assistance Board looking at more at about $700,000 and them making that decision?

I would. I would. I mean...

One thing about this in the past, this was used, and I'm going way back, this was... Well, you've been here a long time. Well, I mean, back in the day, it was kind of a political favoritism. Big time.

And... And that's what I'm trying to get to. You know, what's the process?

Yeah, yeah. And so you wanted to not be an issue of...

I've got no issue with none of them. It's just the process of how we get here.

And that's staff bringing the recommendation to us of what, other than the ones that are contractually.

So if there's other non-profits that wish to have contributions from the town's budget, what's that process?

To apply to Rock Hill's?

under the $35,000.

Under the $35,000. But it's not equal to what he's, I understand what you're saying. You're saying can they just come and get on this, be one of the agencies that we're considering intergovernmental or non-profit and have their budget added to this number, not under the charity assistance. That's what you're asking, correct?

Yeah, what I'm hearing, if they're not on this list now, they can't get on it. Unless they go $35,000.

Any council member could bring, any council member could say, I'd like to see this added to the one that's continuing to be done. I mean, if we want to go through each one individually or if council wants to move all of them to fall under the charity assistance fund, I just worry about, I worry about a appointed board member knowing and doing almost $750,000 worth of contributions.

A couple things I was going to say. Let's say we went that route and the Chair Assistance Board was responsible for all of this. Playing devil's advocate, what happens if the recommendations we get from the board the council doesn't agree with? Do we kick it back to them and say we want you to redo it, or do we just modify it? That's what happened.

That's happened before, and the recommendation wasn't what everybody wanted, and it was modified according to what was wanted.

And then to your other point, Jerome, about Charity Assistance Fund, it currently is $35,000, right? There's nothing that says that couldn't be increased if that was the recommendation of the Charity Assistance Board and the council agreed. So if you guys accepted more applications and this year said we want to fund $50,000, there's nothing that says we couldn't do that. It's just always been this $35,000.

No, it hasn't always been $35,000. That's actually the most. It was actually less than that in several previous years. Just in the last couple of years, it's been $35,000.

So I think that's the point. I just didn't – when Jerome said they have to be inside this $35,000 – I think that's the number we're kind of using right now, but it doesn't have to stay.

Well, I'm looking at these two categories. If we've got intergovernmental agreements with, you know, 721 through 765, we're basically saying, okay, we're committed to that by the agreements. I'm talking about the nonprofit community development and the nonprofit other, you know, that a committee would look at.

What's that, the non-profit what commute?

Other. Other.

You're talking about the charity assistant?

725 through 764. This.

Oh, you're looking at the, I'm sorry, I'm looking at the wrong.

I'm looking at the other sheet.

So say that again, Jerome.

So since we have agreements, With the line items under intergovernmental contributions, 721 through 765, we're basically committed to that, right? The other two that we're not committed to are the nonprofit community development line items, 725, 767. and also the non-profit other which is line item 762 through 764 those i would feel more comfortable put putting under a committee i'm not saying none of those are not worthy or mores worthy than other i'm just trying to develop a process that would be i think considerate and be independent of what the tradition has been in HG where you said that it was political and stuff like that. That's all I'm getting at.

And one of the other things is we had a lot of people that said we don't want our tax dollars going to a non-profit that I can...

I've heard that. Well, they also threw out their... We're giving you this money. We don't want you giving away our money. Right.

But I will say this. If that's what we're looking at, then I'd like to move Child Advocacy Center back under the police department because that is something that our police department... And I'm not saying that.

I'm not going that route. I'm just saying let's develop a committee process that makes recommendations that comes to us so that we, rather than

There's no favoritism in this consistent way of using these dollars.

I mean, every organization I've known has had a committee to review applications for nonprofits. And I don't think we should be any other way. Not that I'm not trusting staff.

I mean, the only thing that really would be considered a non-profit are the charity assistance thing. The rest of them are services.

They're non-profits. They're listed as a 5013C. So, I mean, that's my opinion. If I'm scrambling eggs here, then I'll continue to scramble at home by myself.

I tell you what, we've got a year. I'd like to talk to you more about it. Agree or disagree with you. I'd just like to see.

You'd like further discussion. Absolutely. And then, Steve, you talked about raising the number. I actually looked at We talked about that, and at the time I had brought it up about whether or not there could be more money included in the charity assistance fund. Then when Dave and I talked about that, he was going to go back and look at some of these before making a decision. And I don't know that you had a chance to actually look at these, but that was one of the things you and I talked about. So, I mean, that's something.

Do you know how much y'all have been, like last year's, how much you were asked for?

We usually get around $125,000 worth of ask. How many of those, are the majority of those Smyrna? Yes. Okay.

And there's criteria that they have to meet in order to show the value to the town. I would offer that some of them that are classified as non-profits simply because they are not a government but they do provide direct quasi-governmental services to us that being the chamber of commerce and the transit alliance of middle tennessee as well as the child advocacy center so there may just for the conversation there may be a distinction there with those and perhaps just it's the nomenclature of the title in which we have there that puts those into this this conversation of being a nonprofit organization similar to those that may fall under the Smyrna Charity Assistance Fund.

Is the chamber a nonprofit?

Yeah, it says it is.

Sure. It has its own designation. It says it's a 501 C 6666.

Yeah, but it's still a nonprofit.

Yeah. But now, OK, The capital for Child Advocacy Center, that one goes away after this year, correct? Is it a multi-year thing?

It is going to be a one-time expense. I'm not sure when those proceeds will be provided to them. I've been working with Mr. Evans here to develop an agreement so that we can ensure that that that money is distributed at the appropriate time and under certain circumstances. And so I'm sure that I'll be hearing from them soon as they were made aware that this was going to be budgeted for them. And then at that time I can have those discussions and ensure that we are protecting those dollars for their intended use.

But then it goes back to the $24,000. Right.

So, I mean, I kind of agree with what everybody's saying, honestly. I'd like to talk about it some more, but also see the point Jerome's trying to make. And I also see what Dave's saying. The Child Advocacy Center, I mean, we use them when there are difficult situations and we need them to meet with children and work with them. The police department level. So I wouldn't want a committee to cut them. But I guess we could always say, if that came back, that we could always say we're not going to do that.

But I also want us to remember, one of the things that we've tried to do, and I don't think we've come back a lot with Raquel's board to change that, I think we've tried to stay out of that so that it could be decided on by the committee and so I don't want us going back and changing that.

But I think that would change, right? If we put more stuff back in there, we would have to scrutinize it more when it came back because there's going to be a lot more money at risk one way or the other.

And just be devil's advocate here, how many times have these came before the council and somebody says, no, no, no, we're giving too much to that one group, let's adjust it and go to another.

Or don't think it hadn't happened.

Really? Oh, heck yeah. Like, can you recall a specific? Don't want to.

mean they would have to come before us and I mean they would have to get up and present and then we would have to go through individually and make decisions about which ones that we wanted and how much well I mean that these these don't do that now the library doesn't come to council specifically they do submit today budget and so let's let's not occupy more time I think we

We need to discuss it. I know I'm one voice up here, but I'd like to get a committee to oversee where all this money is going rather than we've done it in the past and we're going to continue to do it in the future.

Do you want each one of them and any organization that wants intergovernmental or anything that wants. So do you want them submitting something to us each year?

I think, you know. Can we talk about it? Yeah.

I feel like this would be a good work session. Yes, work session for us to talk about how to address all of this.

Okay, then we will. Dave, can you get that set up?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Okay. Item 12 is consideration of a resolution authorizing the photographic or electronic preservation of subsequent disposal of permanent paper records of the town of Smyrna.

Yes, ma'am. Good news. I'm not gonna ask you guys for any money for this item. So this is just a standard resolution. We are in the process of digitizing the town's record. And through Tennessee statute, it authorizes the governing body of a municipality by resolution to authorize the photographic or electronic preservation of records and subsequent disposal of paper records so I know for me personally I intend to move towards more of a digital record paper storage I think is going by the wayside so this resolution just gives authorization through you guys to maintain that digital record moving forward and once we have that digital record to subsequently get rid of the paper record

I've got one question on that and you know getting rid of the paper records going to digital I think it's a great idea but how do we distinguish what has some kind of historical value you know if we've got early documents that some of the early mayors or more folks have signed off on how do we how do we determine digitize it do away with paper or digitize and keep the paper

Okay, so a lot of the records that were sent off, I can tell you there was about one filing cabinet that was full of the older bound books of the minutes. I would say those are probably the only historical thing that would be of any relevance. They did have to unbind those books in order to digitize them. We could ask for those to be returned to us, we would have to have them rebound. But I would say personally, the rest of it is just three ring binders of paper that's been printed and bound.

Because I know there's a push to get a museum.

Sure.

And some of those documents might be worth, you know, going through at least Whoever knows, you know, the long history of Smyrna. But I don't want to, at the same time, add a bunch of unnecessary work and expense.

Sure. I'm sorry, Dave.

Go ahead.

The only permanent record that we have to keep that doesn't follow a retention schedule through MTAS is the actual bound packets and minutes. So that's what you would be. Okay. That would be the record that would be considered historical is the minutes and the actual record itself, which are in those bound books. And some of them look pretty dated.

As old as HG. Older than me?

Older than him. But, yes, they did have to unbind and take those books apart.

1869. I agree with you. I mean, I love going through that old stuff.

I think he just volunteered himself.

What?

You just volunteered yourself to look through some of it and help us figure out what is historical and what's not.

You did. You just did. Jerome will help me. I will. I will.

Problem solved. There we go.

I think we have, down in the basement, we have maintained a lot of historical... We have to wear hazmat suits to... No, it's preserved down there. But we've maintained a lot of documentation, artifacts of that nature. I think, for me, I think when I think of historical significance, I think of documents like maybe, you know, deeds of property, proclamations, super, you know... I think what we're talking about here are meeting minutes, invoices.

Some of them could still, you know, the first fire truck, you know, invoice. I don't know. You know, that's just off the wall on the example.

Jerome and find out about the nonprofits and where the money used to go. Yeah, probably could.

The good thing about this new digital record is we'll be able to text recognition search and we can stick the word nonprofit in there and it'll bring up every time it's in that digital record. We won't even need the book anymore.

You know, just like You know, we're redoing the event center, all the photographs on the wall. You know, are we keeping those or those? They're there. They're here. They're there. OK.

They're actually here now in the large conference room in those cabinets underneath.

We took Sam out of the closet and put him in the event center lobby. OK.

So are we good to move on with that one?

I think so. I will check with them. about the condition of the books and if those that they had to unbind because they were the big bound books if there's a way to reconstruct and put those books back together and if you guys wanted those returned then that would be about the only thing from my perspective and seeing what went out that would be about the only thing that maybe and just because it's a neat looking old book okay

Item 13 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. This is the second reading. Ben?

Yes, ma'am. These are a couple of changes to the municipal code that aligns us with current Tennessee law. in accordance with changes that have happened recently. The first is a Supreme Court tribunal that essentially said we cannot ban guns in parks. So the language in the code is preempted and unenforceable now. So it's just removing that language from our code. The second is The legislature has disallowed us from making the discharge of firearms per se illegal if it is otherwise involved in lawful hunting. They do allow us to opt into a 500 foot halo around school properties. So we would also like to opt into that. So those are the two changes that would be made to the code.

Questions from, nothing's changed though on this.

No, ma'am, this is the same. I've not changed anything. This is the same that we've reviewed a couple times. Okay.

Questions for Ben on this? Okay. Item 14 is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of the Smyrna Municipal Zoning Ordinance Article 3, Section 3.100 regarding detached accessory structures, and this is a second reading.

Yes, Mayor and Council, this is a text amendment to the zoning ordinance. This is one that was discussed at our last joint meeting of the Council and Planning Commission. This would amend Article 3, Section 3.100 Accessory Use Regulations to do several things. The maximum square footage allowed for detached accessory structures would be increased for most lot sizes. The area calculation would now include all floors rather than only the ground floor. The maximum height and size allowed for a structure would be tied to the height and size of the principal structure so that no accessory structure is taller or larger than the principal structure. And then the maximum building footprint would also be tied to the maximum lock coverage that is already within the zoning ordinance. The language to be removed is struck through in red. New language is highlighted in yellow. We've also included examples showing the maximum detached structure size for the various lot sizes on real world lots that lie within those ranges. Just so you can see kind of what they would look like. The Planning Commission did review this, did recommend approval unanimously. Staff would also recommend approval. And nothing has changed on this since you looked at it on first reading.

Questions on this? Okay, item 15 is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of Smyrna Municipal Zoning Ordinance Article 4, Section 4.030 regarding the mobile food vendors. This is a second reading.

Yes, this is another text amendment that was talked about at our last joint meeting. This would amend Article 4, Section 4.030G, Mobile Food Vendors. Currently, such vendors are required to get an annual permit but are restricted to only 40 days in the calendar year at any one location. They also must leave every night and can set up on properties on C2 and C3. The proposed amendments would limit such uses to property zone C2, so it would eliminate C3 as an option. The permit would be issued for up to 30 days instead of an annual permit. The requirement to leave at the end of the day would be removed. A single location could be utilized for no more than 90 days in the calendar year. and that would be by the same vendor or three different vendors. The owner of a property where a mobile food vendor wishes to set up would also be required to get a separate permit, which would be valid for not more than 90 days in any calendar year. This is similar to the requirement for a property owner to obtain a permit for any transit vendor to locate on their property. Again, the language to be removed is struck through in red and new language is highlighted in yellow. Planning Commission did recommend approval of this unanimously and staff would also recommend approval. And again, nothing has changed since you looked at this on first reading.

Questions for Kevin on the mobile food vendors? Do we know, and this may be more of a Christy question, do we know how things are going with the transient?

The transient vendors? Transient vendors. I think we've had one property owner that I'm aware of that did come in and get a permit to have them located. I think that's the only one that's come in at this time.

I don't know about y'all, but I've not noticed as many. It doesn't seem around town on the weekends and stuff yet, so maybe it's working. Okay, we'll put that on the agenda and move on to item 16, which is consideration of resolution relative to a plan of services for property located on tax map 26, partials 31.00 and 32.00.

This is the plan of services for the item that's the next item on your agenda for the annexation request. This does put in writing the services the town will be providing upon annexation of this property. which would be all services except for water, which would be provided by Consolidated Utility District. The Planning Commission held a public hearing, reviewed this plan of services, and would recommend approval, and staff would also recommend approval.

questions for Kevin the only question I have is extending the sewer over there what's what's the I know there's going to be a lift station in Forest Lane but where will that tie into that'll come underneath I'll have to extend it underneath

840.

And then how big will that be sized? Will it be sized for a specific area or just for their development?

I'm sure Mr. Parker would require it to be sized for the full basin. That's typically what we would do.

Other questions? Okay. Then we will move on to item 17, which is consideration of an ordinance relative to the annexation in C2 and I1 zoning Of properties located on tax map 26, partials 31.00 and 32.00 requested by Hollings Head Land LLC containing 70.08 acres. The properties are located at 4657 and 4665 West Jefferson Pike. The request would include the annexation of the existing right of way of West Jefferson Pike State Route 266 from the existing town limits Eastward approximately 298 linear feet, as well as the existing right of way at McCormick Court from West Jefferson Pike State Route 266 southward, approximately 475 linear feet. And this is a second reading, Kevin.

Yes, Mayor and Council, this is a request. It is on the east side of 840 there along Jefferson Pike. The landage plan for this area would support the 840 Gateway character area, which would support a mix of hospitality, retail, restaurant, high-density residential, and industrial warehousing uses. Trending zoning is RM, CN, and LI in Rutherford County. This is completely surrounded by Rutherford County. The town would be providing all services, as I said earlier, except for water, which would be provided by CUD. This is two parcels that do total 70.08 acres. The front, approximately 5.21 acres, is requested to be zoned C2, with the remaining 64.87 acres requested to be zoned I1. We did, if this is approved, staff did recommend and Planning Commission did concur that the existing right-of-way of Jefferson Pike from that current town limits to McCormick Court be annexed, as well as the right of way of McCormick Court, which is an existing county road, the entirety of that right of way. That has been recommended primarily because this property is proposed to be accessed through that adjoining property to the east and access it to at McCormick Court. And so we felt like that was important that we have the ability to control that if any traffic study improvements, those kind of things that might be necessary. The annexation of that Jefferson Pike Railway would also include the annexation of the two signals there that are on those existing signals at the two interstate ramps. We already are maintaining those in agreement with Rutherford County. As I said earlier, extension of sanitary sewer underneath 840 and sewer lift station on the east side of 840 that would be required to be installed. That would be something that would be done by the developer. Access to this site is currently available from Jefferson Pike in two locations. One access is for a TWRA access trail. It's located on the core property immediately to the west. And one is to these two properties. There's a 50-foot wide access easement recorded for the property to utilize across the property immediately to the east to access McCormick Court. That's proposed by the developer. that the two access points to Jefferson Pike be consolidated into one. There'd be a right in, right out only. And that's subject to TDOT approval. It's also proposed that all truck traffic from this industrial portion of this development would access McCormick Court. The fire department has a concern regarding the two access points shown for the development on the concept plan. Those are too close together, so we'll have to work through that if this is annexed when the site plan comes in. The traffic study would be required, and so we have to look at those improvements at that time. The developers representative did state at the planning commission meeting that it's their desire to install a signal at McCormick Court in Jefferson Pike. That is also pending to approval. The Planning Commission did review this, did recommend approval with the requirement that truck traffic utilize McCormick Court for ingress and egress. Well, there was also some discussion at the last council meeting about some of the site studies that were looked at on the west, probably on the west side of 840 and something similar. I did hear from the developers representative today. They are working on that. They do not have it ready yet, so it's not in your packet, but they would have that well in advance for the council meeting. So I will certainly, as soon as I receive that, I will forward it to you all as well as put it in the packet for the council meeting. That's all we got.

Questions for Kevin?

Yeah. Kevin, you've included or someone has site plan from the Speed Track Market. That's correct. We're not considering that.

We're not considering that. That's just some additional information that we asked that is for the immediate, the commercial property that's in the county. That is something that's not been built yet, but it hasn't been approved.

Has that been to planning yet? The speak track.

That is, it has been approved by the Rutherford county planning commission. That's on the property immediately to the east of where the C2 zoning is shown on the map.

So this won't be on the property that we're going to annex?

That's correct. That's on the property. That's just to show, just to give you additional information. It also does show that 50-foot access easement. It's actually on the trucking company property, but it also shows that easement. That's just some additional information for you all. That's not something that's a part of the development of these two properties. I see.

So you said it's on the trucking company property. Do you have your little clicker? Can you show me where you're talking about on that property?

Yeah, it's that area that's on the other side. It would leave this property across that adjoining property. We're not proposing to annex that. That's not something that that was requested to be annexed, so we can't. But this this acts their concept plan that they had to show show that that again showing it again accessing to McCormick Court.

So I guess those tax dollars would go to the county.

For for the that's the true the market, the plan. Yes, that would unless they decide to request annexation, they would go to the county. Yes, sir. Again, that was something that was approved within the past year or so, I think, at the County Planning Commission. Right.

I'm assuming, obviously, they have some sort of solution for sewers up there, which would be...

They have an on-site septic system shown, yeah.

Now, what if they came in and asked to tie to this sewer there, extending...

That's something that we would consider.

Would we consider annexing then? Absolutely.

As a property owner, we're concerned that they could request annexation at any time, sure.

Other questions? If you get that information prior to the packet, will you go ahead?

Absolutely.

Okay. Item 18 is consideration of resolution and memorandum of ordinance 26-34 relative to the annexation in C2 and I1 zoning of properties on tax map 26 partial 31.00 and 32.00 requested by Hollings Head Land LLC. We will put that on the agenda. Our last is public comment. The town's public comment period should 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. Additional comments may be submitted in writing. Okay. Todd, anything? Cameron? Sarah? Yes.

I thought you had enough by now.

I'm going to quickly recap my slide. Don't worry, I have pared it down. So the question is, how are all these assessment notices going to impact the wallet of the average taxpayer? First year appraised value was increased to realign with current market trends. This reappraisal is required by state law. As you can see, adopting certified tax rate offsets this increase. In this example, the homeowner experiences an almost 24% increase in appraised value, but their total tax bill is almost exactly the same. Taxpayers can take their assessment, plug in their new appraisal value, and complete the math exercise. They can then, again, repeat the exercise with the Rutherford County tax rate. That's all.

Anything for Sierra? Thanks. Pierre? You're good. Christy? Mike? Kevin? Tom?

all right uh i was asked to come give a presentation or a little quick snippet on front street traffic honking project so next week as we're getting ready for the fourth of july celebration independence day celebration all our guys can be focused on getting everything looking great in front of uh along sam ridley setting out barriers so the only we were finally able to get all of the material in to do the signing on front street So since we're not able to do next week, we want to go ahead and kind of jump into it and get it done tomorrow. So guys can get out there pretty early in the morning around 630 and get everything set up to start putting the pedestrian signs down the middle that race meeting that you saw go in. and through some of the crosswalks between College, starting on College, going up to Division Street. Also, we're going to be adding a couple stop signs, one at Division and Front Street, and then one at the other end of College and Front Street. So it's going to be a three-way stop at both of those intersections. We're going to have some blinking lights, some flags out there, just to make sure people see that and are aware of it as they go in. We're going to start that early tomorrow morning, about 6.30, try and get that done as quickly as we can. No road closures with it. There might be a little bit of lane closure as we have a vehicle in there to help protect the guys as they're working, but we'll make sure we have flaggers to get people around safely.

Did you let the businesses know you were going to be there tomorrow?

Yes, ma'am. I emailed them earlier today. Okay.

Other questions for Thomas?

Where the imprint is, they'll be filled in with something, correct?

Yes. We have Front Street Signs cut some, I think it's acrylic, and they gave all that to Rollins. He's got to do a little bit of routing around there to kind of clean up some of the concrete. We're going to pour some thinset in, putting that black lettering in there, embossed. It should dress it nicely. It should look real nice, real classy.

That's what we're going for. Tom, hi. When I was coming in today, uh, are we doing the right of ways of Lee victory parkway across from Smyrna? High D on the opposite side. Yeah. Just along Lee victory parkway. Yes. The right away. Yeah. We move out with our tractors. I noticed that we're grinding, grinding down the embankments rather than mowing the grass it looks like we're getting into it pretty seriously with the blades on. It's all exposed soil in one area and I didn't know what was causing that.

So with the rain that comes in, it's on a steep slope. It gets kind of muddy. We try and get up in there because we get complaints about high grass. We try to mow it. Sometimes we get in there a little early, too early before that dries out. But then sometimes we have no choice to get in there a little early. I didn't know if the blades were getting into the embankment or what. It's really rutting with the tires, and then that brings it up, and then it runs over those ruts that we create. Okay.

Other questions for Tom?

Thanks. Jason?

I was asked to talk about Lowry and Sam Ridley. The state has gone in and realigned those intersections. They turned them on without striping. Uh, and then, uh, and then we, we got them to get out there quickly on Saturday and do some striping. Uh, we, um, our, our staff went out and quickly threw in some timing plans in there. We do have plans to go in there and put in a little better timing plans and what what's in there now. But, uh, matter of fact, uh, we are in the process of modeling the whole town for traffic signals. We've got, we've got it all. Our base model almost finished. So for the whole, for the whole town. Okay, good. Good.

One of the things Dave and I talked about, and I know, Dave, you talked to, was that young man's name, Patrick?

I couldn't recall. Okay.

If you are coming from Smyrna headed towards La Verne to get on Sam Ridley and you make the turn, there is a wrong way sign for the other lane. And I'll be honest, even though I've traveled that way many times, I about had a heart attack because I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going the wrong way. And it's really for the other lane. Is that something that has to stay or can it be turned?

I think that the appropriate signage there should be a keep right. There should be a wrong way sign there eventually, but I think the appropriate treatment for that should be a keep right. We do have a punch list that we're getting together for TDOT. Be a little patient with us. We'll get it in there.

Okay. Is that spot right there where you're coming off of Larry and getting on to Sam Ridley, is that designed to be a merge or is it a stop and turn?

I mean, it's a little confusing. The striping there is, I want to be kind, you know, be kind, right? I think it could have been done better. But it's... I think it's meant to be a yield condition merge. That's what I think it's meant to be.

well and you know one of the things is generally on an on-ramp you follow the concrete yes and and it's just confusing i mean uh you have to follow you have to follow the line yes concrete because there's one in the middle right it's from the old it's wide it's visually confusing um there are some issues there that we can address with with paint

It is built to the plans, so I don't know if we can ask the contractor to do anything like that.

Fine-tune it as time goes by? We'll all live with it? Or just hopefully nothing serious happens there in between?

Yes. We will get it right. I was a little surprised.

I like your bulldog outfit too.

I was going to say the same thing. I was going to say thanks for the purple and the gold tie. That's a go Tigers. It could be both.

More talk later.

I still appreciate it. Okay, anything else for Jason?

Thank you, sir.

Jeff? Mike? Heather? Chief? Amber?

Yes, ma'am. I've got a slide tonight. Um, we've got the top gun night run coming up in September. We have been fundraising hard for that and, um, have reached a pretty good goal so far. So we're not going to turn anybody away, but, but we've got a good head start. So inviting everybody to come out to that annual event, which has quickly become, um, a favorite that shares races on September 11th, um, which is Also, the 25th anniversary of 9-11, so we're going to throw a tribute program into that event. We're going to organize and put on a tribute event at the beginning of the race, but as always, it'll be a good time. It's for a great cause. Rubik's Groove will be out there that night playing, so come out and join us for that. That's it.

Right. And we're going to get probably pictures of the shirts and the medals sooner rather than later this year because I think y'all are really going to like them. They're definitely unique compared to what we've had before. Dave?

Well, first I'd like to introduce our police chief, Jason Irby.

That's listening to the minions.

Earlier you had mentioned the transient vendors and I also want to just make you where you probably saw. We've seen some of our problem donation bins have been removed. So I want to thank Christie and her team there in codes enforcement for staying on top of that. Not that we want them to go away. We just want to ensure that the business owners are complying and we're not seeing illegal dumping out there. So that's getting cleaned up. A couple of slides that I was not able to do during our candlelit. Council meeting last time. Just want to recognize Mr. Rose and his team for the great job that they did over there at Boat Day. Also included in there were our Parks and Recreation Department. We had over 46 volunteers in total, and we're also supported by Murfreesboro MTSU's Middle Tennessee Outdoor Pursuit Program, Rutherford County, La Verne, Rotary so I think we had record numbers this year we had over 541 participants and obviously they do such a great job putting that on for the community great opportunity to get out there on the water and it's growing every year. Also this year we also had our Fire and Police Youth Academy So that one is down and through the books as much as I think the folks that run that camp look forward to it every year. They're very happy when it's finally completed. And so thank you very much to the fire department and the police department for investing your time and sharing that experience with those children. And then, as mentioned earlier, I just did want to recognize you, Mayor, for being elected as chair for the Greater Nashville Regional Council for 2027. This recognition certainly highlights your leadership in your role in GNRC for all these years and certainly helps us in our advocacy for TDOT and GNRC. So thank you.

Kyle, anything?

Nothing for me tonight, Mary.

I don't know that we got our money's worth out of you tonight. You did approve the minutes.

I did. Just for the record, my phone didn't go off. Oh, boy. Seems like battle lines are gone.

Oh, good one, Charles. Yes. fiscal year is that going to be posted somewhere or we just going to keep it internally well the list itself will keep that internally but as we get out and start to pave those roads we'll certainly make sure that those announcements go out to folks that they know where that paving will occur okay I do have a public service announcement so the vision Smyrna 2045 Comprehensive Plan Update Survey. We need residents to go and fill this out. It's a 17-question survey, and it's basically asking how do you want to see our town in the year 2045 and growing from this point. So, you know, go do the survey, give us your input, and I know so far we've been The success rate has not been that great, sort of like our census that we were doing, Amber. So I just want to encourage everyone to go fill that out. Town of Smyrna is beginning an important update to our comprehensive plan, and we want to hear from you. This plan will guide how. community grows and evolves including decisions about land use infrastructure and public services for years to come take a few minutes share your thoughts and priorities by completing our community survey at town of smyrna.org that's it man thanks

So there was a slide. Okay. So on this past Saturday, we joined the community in celebrating the Juneteenth event at Hilltop Rosenwald Park. And I'd like to thank all of the different departments who helped with putting that together, fire, police, parks. And planning was out there with the booth for the survey. So thank you to everyone who participated with that. And also, I'd like to thank the team who put together the monitors. I know they've been up here for a couple of meetings, but this is our first time using them, so thank y'all for that.

And that's all I have. The event was great. I mean, it was huge this year. Y'all have done a great job on that event. HG?

First off, I don't have the words to express my appreciation and pride in living in the United States of America. We've got a first day coming up next week, and it's going to be epic. I very well remember the one 50 years ago. How about that, Jerome? Are you sure it's not 100 you're remembering? But, you know, like I say, I love living in the United States, and I believe that it is the greatest country on earth and has been for a very long time, and I hope it stays that way for a very long time.

It's been interesting seeing the Facebook reels from people from other countries here for the World Cup that are figuring out what some of the things that we have here in America.

Well, you know, along those lines, the United States plays Turkey tonight at 9 o'clock, and a lot of us are really looking forward to that. We've got a team that is amongst the best that we've ever had internationally. So go USA.

So at 9 o'clock, everybody call HG every five minutes to make sure he's walking.

That's just fine. Technically, this game doesn't really matter.

We have one in our division. You're exactly right. Our group belongs to the United States, which has never actually happened before. But also, you know, along the lines of... Loving the United States of America, I also love Smyrna and I appreciate all of the folks in this room right here and our citizens out there. And the citizens are loving where they live. We hope we're going to keep Smyrna litter-free. The sunshine of my life. I'm cat sitting and she wants to know how her cat is. Just, you know, y'all needed to know that, didn't you? So love where you live. Keep smart and litter free. And recycle also. You know, it's so easy. I saw where the the solid waste Rutherford County solid waste won an award for having good trash. And so let's let's keep that going also. Gosh, Mary Esther, just be kind. All right.

Yes, sir.

Steve, I have a slide for the Smyrna Depot farmers market. The depot is each Saturday from 8 to 12 at the train depot. Fresh goods is what it says. Fresh vegetables is what I go down there for. And live music begins at 9 a.m. If you haven't been down there, there's a plethora of nice fresh vegetables and strawberries. I think we're kind of running to the end of that season, but there's still some available. Last weekend when I was there, So a lot of the fruit are starting to come in right now. So cantaloupe, watermelon, all good stuff. So good time to go down. My son's 27th birthday was June 17th. So happy birthday to Kevin. And I think that's all I got. Oh, thank you, Todd. I know you had a lot to do with it. I know Pierre had a lot to do with it. And I'm sure Carl did too. But the... I don't know what I'm trying to see. Cabinetry and the recess monitoring looks really nice and it's very functional. So we really appreciate it. I've been using the monitor for a month or two now, maybe three. And it's a huge difference for what we can see up here. So thank you.

Okay, two things for me. We recently attended the Simply Smyrna celebration and we were honored to present a proclamation recognizing the 15th anniversary of Simply Smyrna and Carpe Artista as well as their years of service, dedication, and contributions to our community. We always enjoy that event. It's kind of the kickoff to the summer season. Don't forget, Thursday, July the 2nd, we will celebrate America's 250th anniversary at Smyrna's annual Independence Day celebration on Thursday, July the 2nd at Lee Victory Recreation Park from 5 to 9.30. You can enjoy an evening packed with live entertainment from the 80s band Rubik's Groove, over 50 vendors, live music, free inflatables, a dump tank, and a spectacular fireworks show after dark. So bring out your whole family and enjoy the patriotic fun. There's also stuff that takes place at the event center as well. We've kind of outgrown the park, and so we've kind of moved a little bit down to the event center. But it will be a wonderful event. I know the fire department has been working hard on the fireworks. Correct, Cameron? So something we're for sure looking forward to. can't think of anything else that we have tonight anything that we missed or anything we need to add um councilman short gets to be one that was the yeah that was um yep jerry is um had a little surgery and so we hope that um i would bet he is home watching Or at least listening to it. So, Jerry, we hope you feel better.

I tried to be entertaining for him, didn't I? For sure.

For sure. So, I hope you all have a very safe and happy 4th of July. And if there's nothing else, then we are adjourned.

We've got an hour and 45 minutes.