Town Council - workshop

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Good evening. I'd like to welcome everybody to the Smyrna town council workshop for July 30th, 2026. Before we begin the meeting, I'd like to ask a councilman short to lead us in prayer and councilman cold to lead us in the pledge. If you'll stand with us, please.

Father, my God, I thank you so much for this day, Lord. I thank you for the blessings that you've bestowed upon us, Father. We thank you for living in this town, Lord, and we thank you for the the ones that have worked in this town for years to help make it what it is, Father, and we thank you for those that are here now and ask you to bless them. Father, as we go to this meeting, we ask wisdom to do the things that you want us to do, Father, and things that are pleasing in your sight. Lord, go with us now, Father, and forgive me when I fail you. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Jerry and HG. Before we get into the works of our agenda tonight, we have a proclamation for our National Wellness Month. And we have Matt and Lisa from our Wellness Center with us this evening. We're going to have them come up and talk a little bit about what they do. And we've got a little proclamation. We're going to have Amber read for them.

Yes, sir. Whereas the health, well-being, and quality of life of the citizens and employees of the Town of Smyrna are of paramount importance to the Town Council. And whereas National Wellness Month is observed annually in August to focus on self-care, creating sustainable, healthy habits, managing stress, and inspiring individuals to prioritize their holistic, physical, mental, and emotional health. And whereas the town of Smyrna proudly champions these principles through its vibrant ECHO, which stands for Employees Choosing Healthy Options Wellness Program, which actively empowers employees and families to lead healthier, more fulfilling lives. and whereas the success of the ECHO program is driven by a dedicated three-person team consisting of a wellness coordinator, a wellness specialist, and therapist who provide comprehensive targeted support focusing on the nutritional, fitness, and emotional aspects of wellness. And whereas the town of Smyrna's commitment to workplace wellness has earned prestigious national recognition, including the Bronze Award from the Wellness Council of America, demonstrating a strong foundation for a healthier workplace environment. And whereas the town of Smyrna has further distinguished itself by achieving the Cigna Healthy Workforce Designation Gold Award. representing a premier level of dedication to well-being, organizational health, and comprehensive wellness initiatives. Now, therefore, I, Mayor Mary Esther Reed, on behalf of the Town Council, do hereby proclaim August 2026 as National Wellness Month in the Town of Smyrna and extend our deepest appreciation to the ECHO Wellness Team for their outstanding service while urging all employees, families, and citizens

to prioritize their health and celebrate the incredible achievements of our town's wellness initiatives thank you amber so i'm glad you're holding this here because you're hiding my lack of wellness actually so i know and lisa can tell you i was in the program for a while was i not so yeah past tense past tense but i'll i'll make an effort i promise you so i want to give the microphone to each one of you just tell a little bit about the wellness program that you have here at the town and what you're doing to bring people in to do that. Introduce yourself. Sure.

Thank you. So my name is Matt Rogers. I'm the new wellness coordinator here with the town. Uh, first off, I'd like to thank the mayor, Dave, Jeff, and Lisa for making this proclamation happen. So, um, obviously August is national wellness month. We take it pretty seriously. Obviously we're in the wellness division. We take it seriously, but the objective is simple. We're just trying to cultivate a healthy workplace by offering programs and resources that make the workforce healthier, disease mitigation. We want that to transfer from professionally into their personal lives as well so they take that home with their family. We actually know people here who have a catalog of an eco wellness recipe book that they actually have in their kitchen. So the program's serious, it matters, it's changing lives, and I think this is a significant step for the next direction of the program as far as its scope and utilization. So really grateful for that proclamation. So thank you to everyone for that.

My name is Lisa Winters. I've been working here for about four years now. I'm the wellness specialist. I've met with individuals, employees, spouses, dependents. We have a really great program here. I'm really excited to be working here. And it's been really, really well. I've seen a lot of employees really thrive, seen a lot of weight loss, seen a lot of different things. So it's working really well here. Good.

We appreciate both of you trying to keep the employees well and council well and all of our staff well. I mean, look at Tom out there. He looks like he's in shape.

Tom's been to class recently.

Well, there you go. Heather, would you get these guys to stand up and join us in a photo with these people?

I appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Thank you. I just received an email from Jeff Craig today, and just to show the proof in the pudding of this program, we had a discussion, or actually Jeff had a discussion with our healthcare provider, Cigna, today, and our medical and prescription is trending at 3.7% better than last year's claims. while Cigna has also seen an increase in their book of business of about nine to 10%, which means that overall we are about 14% better than the rest of their clients out there, which I think is a testament to our program.

They do a great job down there. The time that I've been down there, they've always been on top of things and trying to keep us all well, so. All right, we will move on to items for discussion, and we have a semi-short list tonight. We're hoping to move through it rather briefly for you, so I'll start with item number one, the approval of the terms of authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with Ward Diesel for exhaust filters for the fire apparatus. Chief Goss?

Yes, sir, as we enter the exciting

diesel particulate removal. One of the initiatives in the fire service nationwide is reduction of firefighter cancer, which is the number one killer of our firefighters. So one of the first things we do, of course, is look at our PPE, the equipment we wear on the scene, and also inherent risks within the fire stations. And currently, Smyrna has three fire stations without any type of diesel particulate removal system. So when we start those up and pull them out, obviously that fills the bay and then makes its way into the living quarters. Not to mention contaminating the gear that is also stored in the apparatus bay. So doing some research, there are three basic types of diesel particulate removal. There's station-based direct capture. Some of you have seen the hoses that hang from the ceilings and hook from the tailpipes. There's passive capture, which is like what we have in new station four where it's an air exchange type system. and uh... tailpipe mounted direct capture which is what we're proposing today this is a product by war diesel it installs on the apparatus rather than in the station so our firefighters are protected rather there in the station on the front ramp or operating an emergency scene so it's working one hundred percent of the time it works with the uh... emission control system inherent to the apparatus to remove ninety nine percent of particulates and we can be quick all apparatus from those three stations for the same price as retrofitting one of our stations with a direct capture system so uh... eventually we would like to uh... equip all of our apparatus with this whether the station is equipped or not for those reasons and uh... we're hoping working with us to get a grant to do the remainder of the fleet as well. So the manufacturer tells us that essentially you can breathe the air coming out of the tailpipe once these are installed. I'm encouraging my people not to do that, but there are advantages certainly other than something that's just installed in the station. So happy to answer any questions you might have.

Did the new trucks come with this?

No, the manufacturer will install these at the factory if you request, but of course there's like a 15 to 20% upcharge. So we buy them direct from the manufacturer and they send people here to install them on our premises.

So we wouldn't order them with new vehicles?

Wouldn't order them with new vehicles just because of the cost savings, yeah.

Is there any maintenance on these or?

their life expectancy? The life expectancy is the life of the apparatus. You used to have to replace their filters every three to four years. With the new generation system, these filters regen when your diesel engines regenerate. So when your apparatus goes into regen mode to burn those particulates out of the exhaust system, it also clears these filters. So they're maintenance-free for the life of the apparatus, and they could even be removed from one and installed in a newer one when you get it. It's a pretty remarkable system.

Any other questions for the chief? All right. We've got eight items for the consent agenda. Item number two, approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute the robot zoo exhibit agreement with an exhibition group, Inc., for the Smyrna Outdoor Adventure Center.

Mike? Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. This is a new group that we're requesting to use for our rental down at the SOAC, and it's a little bit different. We're asking for a six-month rental instead of a three-month. We've done this a couple of times over the years, but we're requesting the rent of the Robot Zoo for a six-month term instead of the usual three-month term. And it would be starting in January and it would run all the way through September. So that would, a couple of ways that helps us, this particular exhibit is good for field trips, families and everybody that comes in there. But it also keeps us from having to take one down and set another one back up. So we sometimes lose a week or two right there around May, which is a busy time of the year for us. And that's why we were looking at this. And we would be looking at the, if you looked at the exhibit information, we'd be looking at the 2,500 square foot version and paying most of this out of the budgeted funds we have and then a little bit after July 1 on the next budget year just because there's some remaining time on the exhibit.

Mike, is there any cost savings by doing a six versus a three month?

It usually is. Yeah, they take down. We try to keep everything around 30 or less on our rentals, and this was higher. But when you do that, they don't have to look for another renter for several months too, and we don't either. So there's some cost savings on the cost and definitely cost savings on the freight because we pay for the outbound freight.

With school starting back here shortly, this ought to be a big hit.

Yes, sir. And this would be for January. But, yeah, we have some good ones coming up. The one in there now.

But January through a six-month period. Oh, yeah. So it will run through the school year.

True. Absolutely. And most of our field trips, although we're growing, are in the spring. That's when a lot of people take them. So that's kind of the time we hit. But it also will cover our summer camp season, which we're just finishing this week. So that's kind of the goal there.

All right. Any questions for Mike on this? Thanks, sir. All right. Thank you, Mike. Item three, approval of the terms of authorization for the mayor to approve the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation TDEC annual storm water report. Hello, Tom. Hello. You're looking awful fit.

I'm trying to be. They do a great job down there. I do appreciate the programs they got. a lot of fun, get in good shape. So this, every year we have to put together an annual report with TDEC just describing everything that we've done throughout the year, and we make that submittable to them. It has to be approved and signed off by the mayor to be able to submit to them. I do have a little presentation for, I guess we wanna do that now. Okay, so I was asked to put together a presentation on our annual stormwater report. So basically what this is, is the town of Smyrna was issued a NPDES permit through TDEC because of our population. Any municipality over 10,000 person population has to operate under an NPDES permit, which NPDES at the bottom you see stands for National Pollute and Discharge Elimination System. It's to be able to help keep... Our creeks and streams clean, which is our water source as well. So I want to try and keep those any pollutants out of that water that we're going to be drinking. There's six minimum measures that are part of our NPDES permit. I'll get into those real quick. These are our six minimum measures you can see there around that wheel going into each one of those. Number one, public education. We do that through our boat day. Uh, event, and, uh, also we go into schools, do presentations to, uh, kids on storm water. Uh, this last year we were able to include Laverne or Laverne, uh, uh, chose to help be a part of our boat day event as well. So, uh, this last year we had all the municipalities represented Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Laverne, uh, Rutherford County, MTOP at that event had, uh, over 500 people participate. Uh, in that boat day event and a lot of vendors, uh, showing people, you know, the positive effect of, uh, keeping our waterways clean. Uh, let's see one of our, our second, uh, control, our second minimum measure is public involvement. So we've got a couple of prod, a couple of programs that we run. One's called Adopt-A-Stream. We've been doing that for about 10 years now, and mainly that's focused on schools, elementary, middle, and high school kids participate in that, pick up litter along streams and creeks. Also, we have an Adopt-A-Roadway program. We mirrored that with the state of Tennessee to adopt a highway program, but just on our public roadways. Again, we have schools and groups participating in that as well, and just going out to different locations and picking up trash on the side of the road. And our illicit discharge detection and eliminations, our third minimum control measure, just addresses any illicit discharges we may have throughout the year. any discharges that do occur in the violations. We have to submit that in our annual report to let, uh, let T deck know what happened in Smyrna that year and how we were able to respond to it and get that resolved. Next is our construction site control. So currently we've got 106 active construction sites in town. That's anywhere from someone that's just breaking ground on a site all the way through getting that final closure and working on COs. It can be sites that are residential, commercial, or industrial all throughout the town. We have an environmental technician who goes out to these sites a couple of times a week to each of them. Like I said, it's 106 sites, about 1,700 acres, just to put it in perspective. Right now we've got a little over 1,700 acres under construction at some point in the town of Smyrna. That's how much work we have going on here. But he checks that for any erosion protection, any issues with that, soil sediments leaving the site, trash, chemicals, things like that, make sure that those are stored properly. And then what you have after the construction is done, one of our minimum control measures is to check permanent stormwater controls. That's our stormwater ponds. Now, it's kind of an interesting shift that Smyrna's had over the last few years where the price of land has gone up so much that it's more cost-effective for people to have underground systems. So there could be an underground piping system, permeable pavement, things like that. So those are required to be inspected. And as you can see, like on the picture on the right, we'll go out and do visual inspections, but it's up to the property owner to do inspections as well. And we notify them of any issues like major erosion, clogs on their, any outfall structures might be clogged, things like that. So then get that fixed. Uh, good housekeeping as well. Uh, we've got a pollution prevention plan that we operate at pretty much all of our facilities, especially places like, um, our shops that we have out in town that might have, uh, oils, greases, diesel fuel store, things like that. We have a pollution prevention plan for those sites and spill kits. You can see like anywhere near, uh, we have a refueling stations in a couple of places throughout town and it will spill kits there. in case there is any kind of leak or spill from refueling. So part of this annual report is we had to, every five years, we have to conduct a water quality monitoring for our impaired streams we have in town. We do E. coli testing, biological and visual stream assessment. We contracted with CEC Engineering Company to do that work for us, and that's in our report as well. Just the items that were found in it, and we were able to pull water inspections from like Stewart's Creek. Let me see here. Yeah, Stewart's Creek, Hart's Branch, streams like that. There's 11 locations where we're supposed to pull samples, but there's certain times of the year that we're allowed to pull those samples. We're not allowed to do it in like the spring through fall. So typically over wintertime, sometimes there's water in there, sometimes not. Sometimes they're very low water level conditions. So there have been times in the past We've been able to collect water samples at some locations and some not. TDEC is okay with that. And then we collect that information on E. coli, biologicals, and visual stream assessments, submit that report to TDEC, and that's a part of our annual report. But I don't know if anybody has any questions or anything about it.

Questions for Tom?

Tom, I've got a couple. Thank you for the presentation. That's very informative. In the report, I noticed you had a list of new hires. Are we just going to pull out who you're using in the stormwater department, or do you submit the entire list of new hires for the town and submit it to TDAC? What do you mean by new hires? There's a whole list in this report. of the town's new hires for the fiscal year. And I'm curious why we would be submitting a police officer to the TDAG stormwater guys.

I believe part of that is we just, that's part of the education outreach is just letting them know that the new hires have come in and then we make people aware of part of our, one of our control measures is just the education part of it. Just making them aware of, um, educating them on stream quality and water quality and storm water. But that's one of the requirements TDEC wants us to let us know, let them know who the new employees are. So we make sure the entire town know about it. Yes. Okay. I just find that unusual. Yeah.

You know why they'd want to know about a police officer or someone. Um, the other thing on the, um, stream assessments, um, um, you know, any deficiencies and I looked at it, there were a few, is there any, are we required to do any measures to try to improve those deficiencies or do we just report it?

We just report them. There are some that do show up like with E. Coli and a lot of that's more associated with of course, um, any older, uh, septic tanks, drain fields, and then of course animal waste, things like that. And so, uh, And E. coli has actually gone down significantly. We look back at some historical data, and I think it was from 2010 to present, it's gone down significantly for E. coli. It's still a little bit higher than they need it to be, so it's not an impaired body, but again, that's more, and a lot of that with E. coli is more based on TDEC rules regarding septic tanks and drain fields. Unfortunately, we don't allow those in the town of Smyrna, but you know, water comes from outside the town and it brings anything like agricultural based or septic tanks and drain fuels that may be failing out in the county that may be coming through some other streams. What are the strict when you can test? Uh, I'm not sure exactly why, why that is. I don't know if they want something that's more of a lower flow condition or what they're looking for. I'm sure there was a reason.

Yeah. I just found it kind of interesting that they dictated when you could test and when you couldn't. So,

All right. Any others for Tom?

We'll move on. Good. All right. Uh, item number four, approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with premier fence to replace a handrail on the sidewalk along rock Springs road between Imperial drive and the entrance to colony square apartments. Tom, you got this one too.

Yes, sir. So, uh, the existing handrail that's out there is rusted through in several places. Also, there's some issues with some visibility with people who drive lower vehicles. Sometimes when they get up to that intersection, the vertical slats line up and they have limited visibility. So we're looking to replace that with what's called a three handrail system where it's just like tubular. You have the vertical pieces that are the structural pieces and then you have three. pieces that go horizontally on there to protect people from falling off that sidewalk and into that ditch because it's so steep and so close to the sidewalk.

Is this the rust fence that's been there since it rusted pretty much like a month after we put it up?

Something like that, maybe a week.

So the new one won't be able to rust?

No, it'll be a much better quality, thicker gauge material and paint, much better paint. Powder coated?

I'm not sure if it's powder coated or not. Now, was that fence part of the public works project or was it part of that development? The development, the town homes. Okay.

And so we're replacing it. We accepted it. Now we're replacing it. Yeah. It's in the public right away.

Yeah. What about the landscaping out there? I know we've talked about that.

You want to talk about it again? Yes. It looks just as bad as it did last time we talked about it.

Yeah. I don't have anything to do with that. Yeah.

Dave's not answering here.

I can certainly have code look at that and see if we need to.

Yeah, I mean, it looks deficient.

I'm just wondering if they have irrigation. Yeah, I'm sure they don't.

I'm sure we didn't require it.

Yeah.

All right. We beat that up pretty good. Any other questions? All right. Moving on to item five. Approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an annual agreement with Rollins excavating company, LLC for stormwater and concrete work.

Tom again. Yes. So this is our annual contract. We went out to bid. We received three bids, one from pavement restorations, Rollins excavation and Jarrett builders based on the, uh, an evaluation committee. This was not a low bid item. So based on the evaluation committee, um, Uh, Rollins excavation got the highest score on it and recommending them for the work. Questions for Tom.

Yeah. Is this different from the concrete that we annual contract that we awarded them last month? Yes. Or is it different? It's different. Yes. And this is just to do with stormwater here. Yes. Okay.

Others. All right. Item six approval, the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with E Evan Cope PLLC for legal services related to property acquisitions necessary for the Stewart Creek gravity sewer project. Who's got that one.

Kyle. Okay. Thank you. Um, as you're aware of the legal department's, uh, responsible for, uh, real pro obtaining real property interest when we have town projects. like construction easements, as in this case. And with the Stewart Creek Gravity Sewer Project, it includes quite a bit of pieces of property, and we're starting to see in our negotiations hitting some roadblocks, and we anticipate quite a bit of litigation that's going to come as we move toward acquiring some of those easements. And so we would like to have Evan Cope's office handle some of the lawsuits that are associated with this project they also do Laverne and Murfreesboro's litigation in similar situations. So they're very well familiar with this process, our courts, and we feel like they can help move this process along, help us meet the deadline.

Any questions for Kyle on this?

Yeah, will this be coming out of utilities budget? Yes. Yes.

Any others? Item seven approve the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with Wayne's pest control to provide routine services.

Good evening. Um, this is our annual pest control contract. We did have an additional extension with Wayne's, but they let us know that they were not able to continue service at the current price point. We put it out to bed. They were the only better. Um, so the new contract is for two years with an additional two, one year extensions. Um, the price went up a little bit, but it is anticipated to be absorbed in the current budget.

Questions for pest services. Thank you. Item eight approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a reimbursement agreement with Gutierrez plumbing for emergency sewer repair.

This company had an unfortunate incident with an excavator at Neal Avenue. This incident resulted in $62,000 worth of expenses related to bypass pumping and repair work. I met with them, and they are agreeable to paying it, but they requested a one-year payment plan, and this is what we came up with.

Questions for Sierra? Thank you, Sarah. Item 9, consideration of a resolution authorizing the assessment of franchise fees on 2% revenue collected by TDS Telecom pursuant to TCA 759305.

So we received notification from TDS Telecom that they intend to expand services into the town of Smyrna. They have what is called a state-issued certificate of franchise authority, so that means that they applied for that through the state. and they don't have to apply for franchise authority in every individual city that they operate in. But they are required to notify each city that they operate in that we have the right to assess fees. The last time this happened was when Google came in, so this is based off the agreement with Google for 2%.

Questions for Sierra? Done. Thank you, Sarah. Item 10, consideration of an ordinance amending the fee schedule approved by Ordinance 2626 regarding the adoption of certain new fees relative to the Planning Department pursuant to House Bill 0375, Senate Bill 0988, and Ordinance 26-33.

So we did just adopt the fee schedule with the budget in June, but this amendment updates the schedule based off of. The town ordinance 2633 that established the property owner 30 day mobile food vendor permit. Um, and also relative to house bill Oh 3 75, which required analysis and justification of development fees. Staff found that the final plot fees and preliminary plat subdivision fees exceeded actual costs. Um, the fees were the fee amount was updated to a set fee and the per lot amount was dropped.

Any questions, Sarah, you must be doing really good explaining everything tonight.

I guess I've never had this much on the agenda before.

All right. No questions. We'll move on to item 11 consideration of an ordinance amending Smyrna code title 12 chapter six relative to an amendment to the residential code. Hi Christie.

Hey. Thank you, Vice Mayor and Council. We've completed our state residential audit, and there were a couple of things that needed to be corrected. This is part of the corrections. This is minor changes to just a couple of parts of the Energy Code amendment.

Minor changes?

Minor changes.

All right. Any questions for Christy? Thank you, Christy.

Thank you.

Item number 12, consideration of a resolution authorizing the identity of certain cybersecurity vendors to be confidential pursuant to TCA 10-7-504-3C. Hi, Carl.

Hi, Vice Mayor. How are you, sir? Wonderful. How's everyone tonight? Thank you for considering this. Tennessee state law now allows us to keep certain information about our cybersecurity vendors confidential. We need to pass an ordinance in order to adopt that state statute. So this is our request for you to do that. And I'd like to thank Kyle for all his work in helping put that ordinance together for us.

All right. Questions for Carl on this ordinance? Which vendors are we going to keep copying into?

I can't tell you. You're at double secret probation now.

Carl's secret agent man. I was afraid you were going to start telling me.

Turn off Steve's priority.

All right, Carl. Thank you. Any questions for Carl before he goes? Thank you, Carl. Last item, number 13. Consideration of an ordinance relative to the rezoning of property located on tax map 49, parcel 2.01, owned by Woods Properties, containing two acres from R1 to C2. The property is located at 10-5-10 Old Nashville Highway. This is a second reading.

Yes, Mayor and Council, this is a rezoning request. You've already looked at it on first reading. Nothing's changed since then. This is on Old Nashville Highway about 500 feet northwest of the intersection with Pioneer Drive slash Stewart Valley Drive. The land use plan would support medium density in this immediate area with the old Nashville corridor character nearby across the street in that area. The townhomes, attached residential, and other multifamily would be appropriate as well as neighborhood scale retail and personal service uses. The surrounding zoning is a mix of R1, C2, and the villas of Stewartboro PRD. There is an existing house and detached accessory structure on the property. A sewer line is stubbed into the property from the northwest in two locations. Water is provided by a consolidated utility district. If this rezoning is approved, a type C buffer would be required where this property borders residentially zoned properties when it is developed beyond the residential use it already is. A planning commission did review this, did recommend approval. Staff would also recommend approval.

Questions for Kevin on this? I know planning's looked at it, and it's been through the first reading through council. This is the second reading. Any further questions you might have for Kevin on this?

Yeah, Kevin, refresh my memory on the Type C buffer.

Yeah, Type C buffer is, it's not our most extensive buffer. Type D is the most extensive. It's basically the same as the Type D. Type D does require berm. Type C doesn't. But basically it's two rows of trees and rows of shrubs as well. The trees are being planted kind of offset from one another. Does it have a certain width or just? It's 15 feet.

Okay. Yeah. Now. And the other question is, on that R1 that the church utilizes, would that buffer be required there since it is zoned R1?

Typically, yeah, we would look at that as requiring that buffer as well. Because it's a commercial product? Because it's a commercial product next to the R1, yeah, even though it is a non-residential device, yeah.

Kevin, is that required to be maintained, or is it just initial, and if everything dies, they can't do anything?

No, it's required to be maintained. They have to maintain. Did you hear that? Maybe we need to require irrigation in there. I don't know. But it is required to be maintained. If they plant it and it all dies, we've had people that have to go back and replant buffers before. Certainly that's something that's just one of those property maintenance issues that they have to do.

regardless if there's any kind of HOA involved or not.

Right. Yeah, obviously there wouldn't be an HOA here.

Right, but in cases we've had that before.

Yeah, in cases we've had that before, yeah, an HOA, sometimes it's charged with maintaining them, sometimes it's one individual property owner.

Yeah. All right, Kevin, thank you. Is there any other questions for Kevin? All right. I've got a comment to read here real quick. This is regarding public comment. The town's public comment period, shall be reserved for those citizens that have signed up to address the town council or a board or 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. So that's my public announcement. That's all we have on the agenda. Any staff out there have anything they need to add? I'm looking around the room but they all dropped their heads. None. Amber, happy birthday.

Thank you, sir.

I know you want to go out of here tonight as quick as you can.

Great birthday present. Let's keep it up.

Yeah, we've kept you in meetings all afternoon, and so happy birthday to you. You have anything you need to add?

I do. I have a slide tonight, and I will be quick. We are six weeks out from our Top Gun Night Run. This has become a fan favorite event around the community. We are already trending ahead of where we were this time last year and we sold the race out last year. So we already have more participants day every day from this year to last year. So get your sign ups in. We will be having a special tribute event because this event does fall on the 25th anniversary of 9-11. So we're gonna add a special tribute event to the beginning of our Top Gun Night Run. So kind of two events in one. And then also we have Rubik's Groove who played at our Independence Day celebration. They will be back to play on the Top Gun Night Run stage. So yes, a fun filled night. Get your registrations in. Or if you don't want to run and you just want to come out and enjoy a night of community in the park, we invite you to do that as well. So that's it.

All right.

Happy birthday.

Thank you.

Dave, what do you have for us tonight? Just an announcement of our summer cool-off that will be occurring on August 14th from 4 to 7.30 p.m. at Cedarstone Park. This event is going to be put on by our Parks and Recreation Department. Come out, bring the family. We're going to have food trucks out there, be able to cool off with our fire department and enjoy some of the vehicles and equipment that our departments use on a daily basis. You get to see those and check them out. So hopefully everyone can come out and enjoy that day. That's it.

That's it. Short tonight.

Okay.

Kyle. Nothing for me tonight. Nothing at all. Okay. Public service announcement guy. Yes. Yes. I have a public service announcement.

Walking Through History. Join the Smyrna Library for the Walking Through History, an American 250-year celebration of on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. And that will be on, what date do they have that on? August 1st. This Saturday. Great. The Rolling Thunder Color Guard will be performing. The hot dog guy, HG, will be serving up delicious hot dogs. That way you can go downstairs with Echo and work it off. and Signs of the American Revolution will host a reenactment and have a cultural heritage exhibit. See it all and more on August 1st, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Smyrna Public Library. That's all I have. Mr. Cole?

Yes, I have a slide. Surprise. Surprise, surprise. Surprise, surprise. Love where you live. Tom, I don't know if... Staff's doing a better job keeping the town picked up, or if our Smyrna citizens may be doing a better job of not throwing trash out. But as far as the trash part of it, it looks pretty good. I hope that when people pick their trash up that they are taking it out to the convenience center and recycling it also. That's an integral part of keeping the trash mountain in the other end of the county from getting any bigger. The other thing I would say is simply be kind. I know it's tough for you, Jerome, but be kind. Especially sitting next to you.

That's right. Well, we'll move on on that. Thanks, H.G. Jerry.

All right. I have a public service announcement as well. Join us for the Defoe District Barbecue Fest on Saturday, August 8th from 6 to 9 at Front Street. Enjoy barbecue, live music, family fun, and vote for your favorite barbecue. It's all free. We go out there every year, and it is always a fun time. So come join us. A week from Saturday night, and I think you will be glad that you did. So, Amber, happy birthday.

Thank you, sir.

Is that all, Jerry?

That's it. Steve? Also, I have a public service announcement. I don't know when it is. It's Tuesday, August 4th. We have Smyrna Police Department's National Night Out. You can come meet our police department, the officers that will be there. You'll be able to tour the department, enjoy music, exhibits, giveaways, and more. Last year, I remember it was miserably hot. I'm hoping this year maybe it won't be. Today was kind of nice, so maybe we can get another day like today. It is 6 to 8 p.m. at the police department on Eden Springs Road. So bring your kids out and let them check out the new Bearcat. That's the highlight of the visit, I think, for everybody. Amber, happy birthday. I assume Dave gave you the day off, like gave you a day off. You'd be wrong about that. I don't know how he got the top workplace award if he's not even recognizing birthdays. I'm just saying. You know what? As soon as Mark gets done, we're going to let you go ahead and go home.

She gave me a clock tonight. She actually did, so... Is that all, Steve? Yeah. All right, thank you. I'll have a slide come up, too. Tax-free holiday, July 31st through August 2nd. Exempt computers for personal use must be less than $1,500. Exempt clothing or supplies must cost $100 or less per item. HG likes to say shop local. I know Sierra does too. So get out and get ready for school. That's another thing I've got on my things to mention tonight. We've got school starting back. I can't believe it. But we need to keep our teachers and our traffic guards and our bus drivers and our students and everybody, kind of keep them in mind and help a teacher when you can. They always like a hand up. Um, also, um, I wanted to mention a couple of weeks ago when we met, I mentioned that Harold galleon was not feeling well, many in the community knows Harold knew Harold and Harold did pass away between then and now. So to the galleon family, we just send our condolences. A lot of people in here know who joy galleon is. If they didn't know Harold joys to sit right out there at the chamber desk. And she was such a sweetheart. So. We're praying for joy in the family and just wanted to mention that tonight. Last thing I've got, I had an email, and I don't know if others got it or not. I think I talked to the mayor. She'd received it as well. Some questions about Mapleview. So it may be something we want to look at going down the road again. I know last time we looked at that, it was kind of a touchy thing. But some things going on at Mapleview out there I think people are getting concerned about. So I just want to put that on your radar. Any other things tonight? All right, we're adjourned. Thank you all.