City Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good evening. The public comment period for city commissions called to order. Clerk, call the role. Mr. Rickettts here. Mr. Rigby here. [clears throat] Mrs. Tacket here. Mr. Wallace here. Mr. R

here. The city commission remains committed to creating conducive environment for constructive and productive dialogue and engagement for the community. Those wishing to speak must fill out a public comment card and provide their name and address for the record. A stateisssued ID and driver's license must be provided when filling out a card, and only those residing in Springfield and Clark County will be permitted to speak during the public comment period. Comment cards will be accepted up to 15 minutes after the start of the comment period time. Those who are determined to have provide false information on the card will not be permitted to speak tonight's meeting or the next regularly scheduled city commission meeting. We're committed to making this meeting an environment where people have the opportunity to share ideas, thoughts, and concerns. While we [clears throat] fully respect the First Amendment rights of all individuals, disruption or any any conduct that impedes the orderly proc progress of the meeting will not be tolerated. Should any individual need escort, excuse me, should any individual be escorted or asked to leave uh doing due to disruptive behavior on three separate occasions, they'll be notified that they are considered trespass in part from attending future city commission meetings. As a reminder, the city part citizen participation guidelines allow comments on legislative items. Each citizen may comment up to up to three times on agenda items per meeting with a total speaking time of three minutes for all agenda matters. We're going to begin our public uh comment time with Gary Armstrong. [clears throat] Since I'm an older guy, I grew up in an era where truth was everything. Cuz if you don't speak the truth, you don't have any goodness, whatever I want to say. cuz I don't go to people to lie. I don't tell my children. I don't tell my relatives a lie. So, when I come down here in December of 22 to just out a sitting

uh commissioner that built a 4un out of a single family house in 22 and nothing's been done in 3 years, is that enough proof to say it isn't working down here? that the truth isn't working cuz there are there's language for a me but I wasn't told that when I've sent the pictures of the four mailboxes and the three apartments that I had pictures online nobody in the city stood up for Gary Armstrong and said we're going to take care of that offender you put me off you played games with me you treated me like a fool and if you treat me like a fool you treat everybody like a fool that's how life works And I've talked to you straight in the face and you can look right back at me and say you didn't know about many things, the hotel appraisals, etc., etc. But my question is, when are you going to do something about O'Neal's 4unit that he built, that he's getting 4unit commercial water cheaper, that he's getting cheaper taxes? Well, he makes four grand and he's got five more apartments. He's done the same thing around nine block because you broke down the city charter and and the um ordinances division and the permits division. And when I say LLC's, you stand up because you're for the LLC's. I live in the neighborhood that is got a few molding two, three, four units, but I live there because it's for my residential. And you want people to come in and make money and stamp all over us who want to just live in a nice quiet neighborhood. And you've crowded up the streets with cars. You allowed them to build extra units illegally. On and on and on. When are we going to have a real conversation? And I've been waiting to hear from our three new guys because I knew when I came down here, uh, Crystal Brown wasn't there the night you voted on the hotels. And she

probably ducked out cuz she knew it was a crummy deal. But then I uh ran into Tracy who beat O'Neal. She's been honest. She's been straight up. And Crystal Brown was the only other two people out of this whole place that ever said, "Gary, what's that deal you're talking about, the 40 unit?" They wanted to know more cuz they care and they're honest. That is what we need more of. And I'm hoping all three of you can grab it because I'm sure you've been solicited by the power person to be on his side. His side and for the people. It's for rich people. for different entities and somewhere in the blend is a a mix that says this is the best decision that lets rich people make money but it benefits our citizens. That's called common sense and I'm for that.

Your time's up.

I I timed that pretty good. family. Daniels just start the clock, please. Hi, Diana Daniels. Heritage citizens of Springfield are tired. Tired of being dismissed and vilified because we disagree with the status quo. All we ever wanted was to solutions. You ignored us. You did not want solutions. You wanted continued chaos. Tired of having our real lived experiences with third world culture misconstrued and misunderstood. Tired of the entire local and native and n national media portraying only one side and amplifying the perceived fright of the foreign nationals. Tired of being told how much foreign nationals have contributed to our economy? If this is so, please prove it. Show the receipts. I want to see that big beautiful asset column attributed to the foreign nationals. Tired of hearing the screeching of people who do not live here telling us to love thy neighbor? The foreign nationals here are not your neighbors. They are ours. And we're tired of them. We're tired of every single one. We're tired of outsiders and perhaps perhaps locals using Springfield as a political football and many elites are just playing right along. We're tired from five long years of coping in once homogeneous neighborhoods infiltrated with foreign national neighbors from deeply third world countries who brought with them and practice their third world culture who do not share our language or values nor our morals nor have any affinity for things American. the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving. Tired of being subjected to and having to live with third world culture and behaviors, not only in our neighborhoods, but at work and while shopping. We are tired of wiping foreign

nationals getting pulled over time and again and receiving a slap on the wrist. Some foreign nationals have multiple arrests and citations and rarely, if ever, have their cars towed. We're tired of foreign nationals not being held accountable for their behaviors or simply being released because of a language barrier. Rules for me, but not for them. We are tired of watching new businesses and housing developments get massive tax property breaks which we the average average taxpayer have to make up for. We are tired of the platitudes for solar energy and data centers when we know the truth about these and the harm they will cause. Just ask new residents of Melody Park how they feel about having a massive data center right in their own backyard. We are retired but we will never recede. We will never seed our neighborhoods, our city, our country, our state, our county to third world scabs here to take American jobs for half pay or less and living off of government subsidies. My tax dollars. We are done. We are over it. You [snorts] would do well to remember that Springfield City voted red in 19 in 2024 for the first time in history. Clark County by a huge margin. It would in my opinion be wise to know who the majority are. We may be silent, but we are not idle. The fruits of our investigative labors are slowly being revealed and this is going to be such fun. Darling Elely.

Okay, we have heard so much about how the Haitians suffer. Uh I just want to give an example of the opposite side. I have permission from the writer of this to read it tonight. Maybe I'm just over emotional today, but a couple years ago, my step niece, who was fighting cancer, had to quit her job. She has a large family and her husband works, but they needed help and were turned down. That's when it got to me when I was witnessing able-bodied Haitian men filling their carts full of groceries. My anger began. Then, seeing the amount of homeless folks set up camps all around the park and in Springfield due to the influx, well, it's beyond anger. It's hurt and pain. Then my granddaughter lost her job and many others at Amazon as they were having orientation for a couple hundred Haitians paying them way less. Modernday slavery. It broke me. Amazon emailed her recently. We miss you. How disgusting. To make the long story short, we lost my steps today to her cancer. 44 years old, five children, and a host of family who cared. I cried all the way home from being out of town. How was it okay to turn her down yet help illegals as they used their magic cards? This was all our local, state, and federal government's fault. They certainly have blood on their hands. Thank you for listening. I pray for our country to do better, and foreigners come to our country the proper way and have a desire to properly assimilate and love America. And like I said, all we ever hear from you guys, from the news, everybody is how the Haitians are suffering. Yet nobody interviews people like this. James,

good evening. Been a crazy couple of days. We don't need Okay. I just uh I just had a couple thoughts and then I'll have a question at the end. Uh so we uh we've watched for uh I have watched for a little over a year and it seems like this commission governs most cases by reaction instead of proaction. I would consider something like this. This town has several districts with uh precinct captains and I'm one of them and we're volunteer. there's no pay, but we care about our our city. So, I was saying about maybe not monthly, but maybe quarterly to have some kind of a roundt meeting with you guys to talk about what the neighbors tell us. And maybe you guys can tell us something that's going on that, you know, they may not hear normally. and maybe even some kind of a type of like a report card type deal to give us some updates on projects and plans that you guys have going on at the time or in the future. So that's a suggestion. So I think Springfield would be its strongest when its citizens feel valued and safe. A city grows when its leaders govern with courage, clarity, and compassion. Not just for some, but for all. Great cities aren't built by perfect leaders. They're built by leaders who are willing to listen, learn, and lead with heart. When we protect our dignity of every

resident, we protect the soul of our city. the city's resolution [snorts] that you guys did a couple weeks ago. I I have a problem with it because you you you let us know where you stood and who you stood with. Now, I don't have a problem with the badges being shown because most law enforcement do that. But we all know why they mask up. It's a dangerous world. It's a dangerous job they do. They they want to protect their families. Would you guys like people protesting at your house? You don't. So if they can't wear a mask, then they have to worry about what's going on at their home. So to me, it's just common sense. So I ask if you could amend that resolution and take that mask requirement off. I know you guys, it's not enforced. It just lets us know where you stand and keep the badge ID. whatever. But the mass thing I think should be amendment.

Couple things, James, your time's up. [clears throat] Um, one, as far as the uh information that can be shared, uh, neighborhood associations exist all over the community and that is a place where we have uh, some of our city staff, law enforcement, uh, attend those meetings and do share information that is going on the city and want to hear from residents. Many times, one of the city commissioners are invited to attend these meetings. Uh, and so those are things that happen. Um, you are engaged by coming down here and I know you pay attention to what happens in these meetings and project plans are shared because they have to be voted on here first. So you you do a good job of keeping informed with this. So just want to make sure you know that and that's that's where one of the things you can do to to see these things um come together. And then uh as far as the resolution, when when I had protesters at my house last year, they were masked and it would have been nice if uh they were not, but they were masked cowardly. And uh so the reason why um we ask that any law enforcement that's in our area doing an operation follow local law enforcement policy is for the safety and security of our community, not for an individual group or people. It is for the safety and security of our community. because unfortunately those individuals that are trying to do the operation with dignity are being uh interrupted by people that are are operating illegally. So and they're masked many times. So and we've seen that uh in different places not for against these operations but that was just one of the reasons why we asked through a resolution that uh these federal agents would follow this. So wanted to answer your question. Thank you for speaking tonight. S Sandra Holland. Yeah.

Sandra Holland. Sandra. Sandra. Sorry. Sandra Holland. I'll refer to it. At least for me. Um I don't live on a sandy beach. I live on a sandy beach. So that's why Sandra Holland.

Yes. Thank you. So, last time I was here, I went off my script and did not look at my phone like I should have. These are maybe broken records, but I have questions again on certain things. When purchasing the village in and the executive in, who did the appraisal and expression? What business plans were presented to make these supposedly homeless shelters that failed? How much in the negative did both of these built properties cost the city? Why was work not started immediately to get them to code instead of leaving it vacated or moving people in and then moving them just right back out? Bomb threats again, same story oversee emails, but we really don't have a clarity on what is going on. Um, I know it's still an investigation with the FBI of Cincinnati and that we don't, but maybe somebody from the FBI could actually come here to the city and speak to us. as you know, so we don't be afraid. I didn't know anything was going on and I was a block away from where I work at and that's scary on my own fact that nobody bothered going to my building and saying, "Hey, there's a threat. Maybe you should go home for the day." Um, my son, he was here. Um, he still is in the army. I just wanted to make that because I am a proud Army mom and you made the assumption that he was not still in the army. And I'm a mama bear first. So that's why it always comes to me. He did say two decades and you said you're trying to develop but you have push backs. I would like to know what those push backs are for developing because I do see business loss and I do see I have to go travel to other counties or something like that to shop because it's not here and I hope we can get some of it back. And as someone who has lived in the county and city, I much

prefer the county at this moment. And you say enforcement of the t tickets and enforcements because that was something enforced these landlords to make sure the shoveling I have pictures that show how high the shovel was or that they did it on the city street. It was awful. I mean, we've got to do better. Nobody should have to try to walk up that high of snow. And those people who are trying I you can if you can resolute so fast why can't you make a code so fast the say and find people that could be profitable for our city find them I don't care find me if I would do anything wrong that's what's supposed to be thank you

thank you a couple answers to your questions um while we'll start at the end um we wanted to bring attention to uh right now we have an old ordinance that the only way to enforce uh sidewalks to be cleared is through a uh misdemeanor violation which is a criminal violation. Um and so that's the only ordinance that we have to do that. So obviously uh what uh the city manager did and and it was a conversation we had together and uh the commission agreed that we need to make sure that the uh community needs to know these sidewalks need to be cleared. We haven't seen snow like this in 20 years, obviously, but when we have seen 6 in of snow or something like that in the past, sidewalks still aren't getting cleared. It is dangerous. I believe it's dangerous. We believe it's dangerous. Uh I'm going to um um ask the commission to consider uh in the law director consider some sort of civil finding uh for businesses and and people's sidewalks and aren't clearing them out because there needs to be safe passage. It's not something we can do very quickly at all. We can do a resolution but we cannot do a code enforcement or an ordinance uh quickly like that. It needs to go through a process. It's just a different process. Resolution is not a law. It's not a law and an ordinance is. That's why there's a different process. Um any information you want to share on the appraisals? Uh Miss Kitty?

Certainly, mayor and commissioner. So, both hotel properties were appraised by independent HUD qualified licensed appraisers and the city through our procurement process issued an RFQ to qualify those appraisers. And speaking of those two properties, one property was used temporarily for emergency shelter during the CO 19 crisis. Um, it was never intended to be permanent housing. Um, commission did not approve a contract for an operator. Um so that use ceased after that did not pass. The second property um was also evaluated for redevelopment after no viable responses to an RFP for redevelopment of that property. So now um both of those properties um support the development of a new fire and EMS station and long-term economic development across key corridors.

Thank you Devon Hendricks. Um, what's up? First, I want to say I probably got to talk to the um the county, but uh we need a we need a a protocol for the evacuation when something happens like this at our schools cuz uh it was a mess. It was a mess at the school. So, we need to figure out how we could do that smooth. Um want to point out that somebody said we she always speaking she saying we she don't speak for the majority. She speaks for probably like 2% of the people in Springfield, you know, the racist people. Um, and I'm it's going to I hope for your sake that you're not alive when you see that board full of Haitianameans on that board. You know what I mean? Because that's what you going to see. You going to see these people that you talking about in power.

Divine, you want to make sure you address the commission myself, please. Thank you, sir. Sorry, but you you know I'm not speaking to nobody in here. Speak to directly to me.

So, I would like for these people that get up here and speak to know that these tables will turn and these same people that you talking about will be the same people that you have to bring your problems to, you know. Um, it's sickening. I wear this I wear this red hat because it's a sign like this is what I see when I see this hat is hate. like make America hate again. When I make America great again, like I see hate, hate, hate, hate. When I Anybody that got this red hat on is full of hate. I mean, show me different. You know, I would love to see I would love to see y'all to prove me wrong, but I haven't yet. So, schools that um Yeah, that's it. Yeah. When this short film comes out, Make America Hate Again, I want y'all to go see that. Yeah, for sure. Um Yeah. Yeah. And it's about how you could be consumed by hate though. You know what I'm saying? And and you could just be consumed by all this hate and and you could do some things. You get what I'm saying? So everybody take a scale back. It's like my mom used to tell me, you know, treat people how you want to be treated because them tables will turn. Thank you. Hey, uh Devon, uh to speak about um the city schools in the process. Um I think they all agree after trying their best to get everybody safe and out um especially on the the high school grounds. There's three schools and with social media and people with access to stuff, so many things get twisted and agenda and temperatures rise and you get everybody coming in at one moment and getting them out. Um, I know they are looking back and reflecting on the situation of how they can do it and they are definitely

working on it and recognize that it was a fiasco especially in certain areas and a lot of it is on us as parents. I'm a parent as well and when I got all that I was like no give me my son now I'm ready to you know I get that. Um but it's it's very important that we all try to stay calm with it. But I know as a cabinet for the district and the school board I know they're definitely reviewing and seeing what different ways they can do it. Maybe staggered times or different things like that. But even if they do change it we as the community and parents got to stay calm and orderly and listen to how they want to operate. But I think on their end, they're really trying to get that uh rectified. Appreciate that. Thank you guys. [clears throat] Amanda Richardson.

Um, Mayor. Uh, so a couple quick questions I'll run through real quick. You can write them down and then I have Mark. First question, are you guys going to use the um because I think you've used it in the past, but last time I checked, there haven't been any updates in a few years. The Ohio checkbook to upload all the like fiscal stuff because like all the state agencies already report into it automatically. I think counties and city governments it if they can if they're AR um I said architecture accounting system can connect to it and kind of dump that information. Um, second question, and this just occurred to me because of all the stuff that happened yesterday, and this might be more of a question for Clark County EMA than you guys, but I assume you're probably involved because of the shared building, right, where police, sheriff's office, and the jail is. What is the is there some kind of plan that they have that they can handle like evacuating the folk in the jail? Not just the staff, but like the poor folk that are in there in case there's like a serious issue and they need to get them out. I would assume there probably is, but I'm just curious to hear about that because it's honestly something I didn't think about until they had to look at evacuating that building. Um, last thing I wanted to say was just to talk about TPS for a minute. So PPS was passed, the PPS program was put in place when Congress passed the immigration act in 1990 and it was really precipitated by during the cold war a bunch of these people can escape communism and come here, you know, the Cuba like one foot rule and that changing all the time with all the stuff in the cold war that happened after World War II. And so then Congress wanted to kind of codify a program for something like that and that's where TPS came from. The reason the judge was able to stop the expiration of TPS is that according to the law once a TPS designation is entered for a country the

default if the secretary of DHS takes no action is um that it will be extended. So when the secretary goes to uh cancel TPS for any particular country designation there needs to be some reason for that. So the basically the three actions are Secretary Gnome could extend it, Secretary Gnome could say it's going to [clears throat] expire or Secretary Gnome does nothing and then by default um it extend it it it's extended. So I just wanted to share that information with some folks in the community who I think may be confused because they think temporary just means yeah it should be temporary like for Haiti. Why has it been you know 16 years? But the temporary has very specific reasons in the law for how that's identified um how that's codified and then what the process is to revoke that status.

Thank you. Uh two of your questions you had, one was Ohio checkbook, the other one's plan evacuation. I'll start with plan evacuation because it is every organization has a plan eva and planned evacuation and it was up to the sheriff to determine when that plan was to uh initiate within the jail and so uh they were ready I'm certain but they decided not to and uh with good reason they there was there was cleared before they had to. Do you have anything more on that?

Yeah. Um so again the county sheriff is ultimately in charge of the jail. Uh I do know uh there were conversations of whether to do it or not. They do have plans in place if they had to evacuate it. Uh but ultimately that is the uh sheriff's call on that decision. And then on the Ohio checkbook,

certainly with Ohio checkbook, that is one of our goals this year. So, um, as you've heard me talk about over the last couple of years and commission has been very supportive of us replacing our legacy ERP system that did not allow us, um, with easy means to transmit that data um, to the state of Ohio. So, since implementing our new ERP system, we are working with them, understanding that transparency is important, and that is one of the things that we hope to accomplish this year. The city made uh, significant investments in the accounting system. We went from a green screen just about a year ago, final green screen left. Yeah. Yes. Just a couple months ago actually with you.

A couple months ago to a system that actually allows the city to uh prepare documents that will actually help uh finances to be shared more transparently. It's not that they weren't before, it's just it's much easier to put reports together and share information. So, uh it's been a big investment, but it'll be good for the community. Uh I have Larry Barnett. Mr. Mayor, Madame Vice Mayor and Commissioners, thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. Um, as he said, my name is Larry Barnett and I want to help become so polarized that we can't communicate with each other. That needs to stop. Those that are talking have a lot of talk and no bite behind it or no action behind it. This city needs to heal. We've placed oursel in bad positions. I'm uh learning the new things for me in the city government. So, this is all brand new to me. But I know what my heart tells me and that's what I'm trying to share with you at this point. This is not an us versus them moment. Okay? It's how do we move forward? ICE will do whatever I is going to do and when they're gone, we're left with the pieces to pick up. We need to start taking a proactive approach and looking at these things of how we can reach into the community, how we can bring people together again, how we can convince each other to quit talking so much and listen.

I think as I said, I'm very nervous folk. You have to forgive me for that. But I did have only I had one question, Mayor Rue. um when the Haitian migration has started, I don't believe you were the mayor at the time, but uh was there a plan in place before the Haitians got here that addressed the assimilation of them into the community. And I think that's all I want to say. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you for your comments. Um the the way it's been asked is that there was actually a start date of a um individuals coming into our community that were looking for jobs and working. I don't know that start date. I don't know of a program that was in place to do that. Um it was one of the concerns when um the realization was that there was a lot of individuals that were working here from a different community. um that my concern was uh we were speak talking about influx instead of integration. That was my concern with the previous administration that because of the immigration policy that I think needs reformed across the board and no no side of the aisle has touched immigration reform. Republican or Democrat has not really truly touched it. But I'll say that uh we were forced to to deal with influx instead of deal with healthy integration. Okay. And so that would be my hope that a administration would finally have a healthy approach to deal with immigration in such a way that it will continue to enrich the United States instead of swinging the pendulum so far to the left or to the right. We're not going to get anywhere. we're not going to be able to come together and deal with this because both sides will continue to get whiplash every four to eight years. And so that's been a concern of mine. That's something I've said from the beginning uh is that uh we need healthy reform, healthy reform. And so that's my hope. So no, there wasn't a start date. Um and u we just we we have been doing the best we can to help the people that are here. And I told you as as just as mayor, my uh anytime I've spoken about individuals, Haitian individuals, Latino individuals, any individual here, it's always been about they're a human being. They need to be treated with dignity and respect. And that's been the position I've come from from the beginning, not to make some

political statement. They're just human beings and uh we are just trying to be good neighbors. Okay. Thank you. Is there any other comments from commissioners? Thank you, Larry, for sharing out a positive message. There's so many people very passionate about our city, as we should be, and I just challenge more folks to come to the commission meetings and share out positive messaging about the city. Why do you love Springfield with as much passion as you have? I would love to hear more feedback about that. Um, the precinct captain, that's interesting to me. You had me thinking, um, if you're not familiar with precinct captains, it is political. Um, so there's Republican precinct captains and there's Democrat precinct captains. But as Larry said, we are so polarized and we need to bring people together and heal this community. I might be interested. I might be game for that. Okay. So, I'll get a hold of you. All right. No,

we're just we're just trying to we're just sharing comments individually. Thank you, sir. Any other comments? I'll talk to you after. I think um I want to urge people to go to the Clark County um Facebook page and I don't know where else they're circulating that survey, but there is a survey out by the Clark County Commissioners and we will get results of that. I urge you as a community to please take that survey. That is also an opportunity again to have more feedback on what you're thinking, what you're feeling, and making an impression on uh the direction of our community going forward. Did you want to say anything?

Yeah, it's uh on the county's website as well as their social media accounts and we also shared it for them. Okay. And I think it's till March 6th. That is correct.

Yes. So, I mean, we talk about 201. We're always asking for for feedback from people. This is another opportunity for us to listen to um Springfield and Clark County as a whole. So, I urge you to please uh look into that. And as we start to consider what to do about the snow, again, like Mayor R said, this was a ton of snow this year. Unprecedented amount of snow. It was not melting. They had to find a place to put it. It might not have been an ideal situation on where all that snow was at, but we do know people are walking in the street and that's unsafe. Kids and people are walking in the street. Um I know that the just the light conversation we had about it. Um when we talk about like I seen that Cincinnati has a fine out now. I think it's like 200 bucks on um if you don't uh clear your sidewalk. We need to be considerate of our seniors and what those folks can do. So, it's not an all or nothing. Like every I hear a lot of comments like this way or that way. They're either clearing it or they're not. Well, it's situational. Not everybody can do it and we just need to be considerate of that. Um, and then of course, as I said, people are walking in the street, students are walking in the street, and and we do need to do something about the sidewalks in the community with the snow. Thank you.

Comments from commission. [clears throat] The formal meeting for city. Excuse me. Let me clear this. Is there a motion to adjourn the comment period? So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk call the role. Mr. Wallace, yes. Mrs. Tacket, yes. Mr. Riggsby, yes. Mr. Rickettts, yes. Mr. R, yes. [clears throat] Now, the formal meeting for city commission's call to order. Clerk, call the role. Mr. Rickettts here. Mr. Riggsby here. Mrs. Tacket here. Mr. Wallace here. Mr. R

here. Please stand for the invocation and the pledge. [clears throat] God, I ask again that you uh just continue to bring peace to our community. We ask for rest in our town. Father, I ask that you be with citizens and the residents of our community in your name to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice. [cough and clears throat] Is there a motion to approve minutes?

So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Clerk, call the role. Mr. Rickettts? Yes. [clears throat] Mr. Rickby? Yes. Mrs. Tucket? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ruth? Yes.

Clerk, proceed with first readings by title only. Authorizing the city manager to enter into an LPA, federal local le project agreement number 41880 between the city and the Ohio Department of Transportation to provide the city with eligible costs of up to a maximum sum of 2,299,698 for the CLA MR1079/1078542 RSF. also known as CLA, Springfield Miscellaneous Streets Project, PID122845, authorizing an expenditure up to $574,924 to be used as matching funds in connection with the agreement to be entered into with the Ohio Department of Transportation and authorizing the city manager, law director, and finance director to do all things they deem necessary to implement set agreement. authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with the Shelly Company for the 2026 Northern Estates neighborhood paving project for an amount not to exceed 1,492,948. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Stenet Industries LLC doing business as cut to perfection lawn and snow for weed cutting and lot clearing services as needed by the city for an amount not to exceed $50,000. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with ET's Lawn Maintenance and Landscaping LLC for weed cutting and lot clearing services as needed by the city for an amount not to exceed $50,000. authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Four Corner Property Management LLC for weed cutting and lot clearing services as needed by the city for an amount not to exceed $50,000.

Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Mike's Lawn and More LLC for weed cutting and lot clearing services as needed by the city for an amount not to exceed $50,000. authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for the purchase of street materials with Highway LLC for an amount not to exceed $84,000. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with the for the for the purchase of Street Materials with Shelly Materials Incorporated for an amount not to exceed $419,525. authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for the purchase of street materials with A and B Asphalt Corporation for an amount not to exceed $431,000, authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for the purchase of street materials with Valley Asphalt Corporation for an amount not to exceed $422,400. authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for the purchase of sand and gravel with Shelly Materials Incorporated for an amount not to exceed $62,977. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for the purchase of sand and gravel with the Melvin Stone Company for an amount not to exceed $7,732.50, 50 cent authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for the purchase of sand and gravel with Mechanicsburg Sand and Gravel Incorporated for an amount not to exceed $195,600 authorizing the city manager to enter into a purchase and sale agreement with ODW Management LLC for the sale of certain real property located at 325 West Columbia Street, authorizing the city manager to enter into a Clark County City of Springfield geographical

information system 2026 to 2030 consortium agreement with the board of county commissioners of Clark County, Ohio and the Clark County Auditor for a shared geographical information system and to allow the county to provide GIS services for the city of Springfield, Ohio for an amount not to exceed $75,000 per year for a total amount not to exceed $375,000 for the 5-year term. and confirming and approving related expenditures incurred from January 1, 2026. authorizing the city manager to enter into a geographic information sharing cooperation agreement with the board of county commissioners of Clark County, Ohio, for sharing of GIS data between the city and the county and making the GIS data available to the public for an amount not to exceed $6,000 per year for a total amount not to exceed $30,000 for the 5-year term and confirming and approving related expenditures from January 1, 2026. authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Jess Howard Electric Company to replace taxiway EFJ edge lights at the Springfield Beckley Municipal Airport for an amount not to exceed $33,395 authorizing the city manager to enter into option to purchase contract for the contingent purchase of real estate with Babuk Development Company Incorporated for the sale of 501 West Uklid Avenue and 1020 29 South Plum Street which are owned by the city and no longer needed for municipal p purposes.

Thank you. Mr. A, you want to go ahead and explain several of these?

Yes. So, I'm going to start at the the first one there, which is the [clears throat] LPA local project agreement with ODOT. Uh this is the beginning of a process uh as we look to uh bring federal uh and state dollars back to our community to help with paving roadways. Uh this is specifically for High Street from Dayton to Yellow Springs, Mitchell from Belmont to Cedarview and John from Selma to Limestone. Um we are already starting curb ramp work uh in those areas. Uh water services uh in the um areas will happen as well that need replaced, specifically the ones with lead water services. sidewalk will occur, sidewalk curb, gutter will occur in 2027 and the federal funding that is allocated through this local lead agreement uh becomes available in 2028. So, we would look to pave in 2028. Um you saw that there was a match piece to that. We will look for potentially other funding sources too to cover that local match uh again to maximize as many dollars towards paving roadways uh in the community. The next project is actually our 26 uh neighborhood uh paving program, award company. Uh this is for the area north of Providence in Northern Estates. Um and then next year we will look to flip and do south of Providence in the Northern Estates neighborhood. The following four items are all interrelated. These are our contracts for mowing uh of code enforcement uh violation lots. Uh so when an individual does not mow their grass uh and they get um sent notice to do that, if they do not continue to to mow that, we send it to a contractor. We award to four different contractors um so that we can make sure that we're keeping up with the mowing depending on the mowing season. U so we authorize up to 50,000 with each.

We do not spend a total of 200,000 mowing lots and 25 we spent 75,000. Uh but again a warning to those four contractors which these are the same four uh that mowed lots uh for us last year. [clears throat] The next uh several items uh the first four are related to street materials. So for our street uh water and sewer uh the purchase of those street materials uh uh being available uh and then sand and gravel to fall with that. Uh on the street materials, uh all are within plus or minus 5% of last year's cost. Uh one note is asphalt is only a 1% difference. Uh so $88 a ton to $89 a ton. Uh you'll see again we award to multiple contractors so that we can make sure we have access to the materials that are needed uh for uh both our streets uh water and sewer. A great example is Highway Hi Wy LLC. uh that is where we can get our cold mix uh from that company. Um so we want to make sure we have access to that. And then the sand and gravel side of it um approximately a 4 to 5% increase on everything. But I will state uh the positive two of the materials that we use the most uh 310 uh is flat 0% and 304 material is a 1% decrease. Uh but again, we award to three different contractors to make sure we have access to all of those materials. Uh then we have a purchase agreement uh with ODW Management LLC. Uh this is 325 West Columbia Street or also known as the Executive Inropy. Uh a developer is offered uh to uh buy this property with the intent to develop a fast casual restaurant concept on that property. the two GIS agreements uh is a

long-standing collaboration that we've had with Clark County as opposed to we each separately paying for these services and employees and so forth. We partner with the clar county auditor's office uh to provide GIS services. I know from a public side uh it is a very useful tool in the public and being able to go out uh and search properties and so forth uh in those uh transactions. And [clears throat] then we have the airport project which is replacing uh edge lighting at the airport uh on taxiways located out at the airport. And then the last one is a purchase contract for a property 501 West Uklid to 10 and 1029 South Plum Street uh which is owned by the city. Many will know this as the Sunflower Field uh in the southwest quadrant. And this is a developer that's entering into an option to purchase this uh to develop uh senior housing uh on that property.

Okay. Are there comments from commissioners on first readings? Just a simple one. I never thought I'd be so excited to hear lawn mowing contracts be awarded [laughter] and not snow removal anymore. Yes. Other comments from commissioners? Are the comments from the audience on first readings only? You go to the podium, Miss Diane. A quick question um about 05626. Um since I live out there, when um when were those lights put in and they're put are they are they upgrading them to the new to the new digital lights with the automatic signaling to aircraft? Is that what they're doing? Do you know?

Uh this is taxiway lighting them. I actually have Tom Franen, who's right behind you, come up and answer the question, but he can talk to you about what they're doing. I would assume this would look at the enhanced LED lighting that uh you're probably referring to, but Tom, yep, you're exactly on the right track there. These lights are over 20 years old. They use the old incandescent bulb. Uh they fail quite often, plus it's fed by a direct cable that's been uh kind of [clears throat] damaged over time. So, there's lots of outages there. airport staff's having problems getting parts replaced. That was the big driver for this project. But, uh, she's exactly right. These are going to be, uh, updated with the LED lighting. Uh, and this is for, as the manager said, taxiway echo, Fox, Trot, and Juliet on the 15 end of of the runway.

A grant for this. Is that right? We did. And so, there's an emergency item on later in the agenda where I can address it more fully if you'd like at that point. Thank you. Okay, we'll continue with second readings. Amending the zoning map of Springfield, Ohio by reszoning 0.276 acres located at 313 West Mcright Avenue, Springfield, Ohio from PIIE Institutional and Educational District to RHD High Density Residential District. So moved.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. There are comments from commissioners from the audience. Please go to the podium. What is he doing there? That's the guy that built the whole new building without getting a permit and was held up a while. I don't know if what you're saying is accurate, but I'll ask the city manager to speak to it because he was held up by the building permits. Thank you. I'll get you an answer just just a minute. Yeah, he is building a three-story six-unit building there. Uh the reasonzoning, the reason for the reszoning is this property was formerly owned by Wittenberg University. They sold the property um and so the PI Institutional Educational District uh zoning classification is uh no longer matches with

[clears throat] uh the use of the property and so we um indicated to the property owner that he needed to seek a reszoning uh to the highdensity residential district.

Thank you. when he uh was caught without the permit, did he tell you what he was trying to do then? Because there certainly isn't enough. He's compromised both foundations that they took a retaining wall next to the building next door. They've uh unstabilized the front wall of that house and if he has six units, that mean he put six bathrooms in there and got that little bit of of parking for those people. that's not appropriate to our standing charter or um zoning for that. I'm surprised that that was okay for any shape or form because you're adding a lot of travel in another old area which you guys want to crowd those areas and like when you were talking about the

Could you ask a question without making an accusation please Mr. Gary? That's not accusation. Okay, we're going to get you an answer. You're done. You're letting people stuff that's not appropriate. You're done. You have an answer. U Gary, I'll have our building permit uh department as well as planning and zoning contact you. [clears throat] Thank you. Is there any other comments? Clerk, is there a uh clerk call the role? Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mrs. Tucket? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. R?

Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Brinag Midsouth Incorporated for the purchase of sodium hypocchlorite for use by the city's wastewater treatment plant for an amount not to exceed $177,600. So moved. Second. [clears throat] It's been moved and seconded. Are there comments from commissioners from the audience? Cler, call the role. Mr. Wiggsby? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Rickettts. Yes. Mr. R. Yes.

Confirming and approving renewal of the contract with Maxolve Environmental and Safety Consultants for Environmental Consulting Services for an amount not to exceed $300,000. So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Are there comments from commissioners? Brian, can you explain this, please?

Yeah, this is consulting services. Yeah, this is a contract uh with a consultant that provides for phase one and phase 2 environmental assess assessments of properties. Uh there are several uh obviously we are a uh have a lot of industrial sites, vacant industrial sites and so reviewing these properties for both phase one and phase 2 environmental is important to see what contaminants may exist there and may need to be remediated. We've been able to work with the county land bank uh to get grants to help cover the cost uh of these uh assessments and then the hope is that we can then in turn leverage that into additional brownfield dollars that the state has in a program to help actually clean up these sites. But you have to have phase one phase 2 environmental assessment work completed before you can proceed with that.

Thank you. The comments from the audience. Clerk, call the role. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mr. R? Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter into amendment number two to the purchase agreement with Clark County Clark County Land Reutilization Corporation to remove 15 properties from the purchase agreement. So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Are the comments from commissioners from the audience or call the role? Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. R?

Yes. Authorizing the exercise of the city's option to renew the contract with Dayton Sweeping Service Incorporated, doing business as DSS Sweeping Service Incorporated, now known as Katsum Property Services for Street Sweeping Cleaning Services for an amount not to exceed $232,570. So moved. Been moved and seconded. I was wondering if Mr. Moore could explain the importance of having a street sweeping contract.

Sure can. So, we uh we own two sweepers that we get out really every day we possibly can that the weather allows. But when the winter ends, it is important for us um aesthetically to make everything look pretty and from environmental standpoint to get out there and and sweep up all this stuff that's in the snow that's just sitting there and um polluting our our streets. So, we have a contractor come in who can focus solely on sweeping streets. They don't get called away for emergencies. They come in, they sweep from the very beginning. um till the very end. It takes get goes from about March 23rd until the end of June. And we we do this because anything that goes in those drains eventually can end up in our waterways and we want to make sure to get a good clean sweep to start the the spring and summer out.

Thank you. Mandy, a question for Chris. Um, we also have some mandates from the EPA uh that in essence kind of require us to to remove as much stuff as possible before it goes down to storm drains. Could you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, that's part of the the good housekeeping standards that Ohio EPA puts upon um industrial properties and municipalities. And it it's really we've got to we have to keep good records of not only how much we sweep our streets, but how much we sweep our our different like our our service yard. Um you anywhere where that there's um you know heavy duty activity that things can get into our waterways, we want to make sure we're sweeping as much as we can.

Thank you. The reason I asked the question is because before I even started looking at contracts and was on commission, I would have thought the only reason for street sweeping was to keep things looking nice and neat. But I also ultimately know that it's going to cost the taxpayers more if these drains get clogged and there's there's uh dangerous material that goes down our waterways. So that's really why I wanted you to explain it as well. So thank you for [clears throat] doing that. Other comments from the audience. Cler, call the role. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. Rue?

Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter into an amendment to public crossing agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company in connection with modifying the quiet zone along the North Polek Southern Railroad corridor and authorizing a maintenance fee and an amount of $99,088 for 2026. So move second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there comments from commissioners from the audience? Cler, call the role. Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Rue?

Yes. Authorizing a three-year contract with Striker for Propair Maintenance Services for an amount not to exceed 57,216.90 [clears throat] per year for a total amount not to exceed $171,650.70 for the three-year term through Sourcewell pursuant to Sourcewell contract purchasing cooperative program in accordance with the provisions of section 9.48 of the Ohio Revised Code. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners from the audience. Call the role. Mr. Wallace. Yes. Mrs. Tacket. Yes.

Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Rue? Yes. We'll continue with emergency ordinances which require a supermajority which is a four out of five vote to pass. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a plat agreement. subdivision development between the city and Sycamore Ridge project one LLC for phase 2A and 2B of the Sycamore Ridge development and authorizing the city manager, law director, and finance director to do all things necessary to implement said plat agreement subdivision development and declaring an emergency therein. So second been moved and seconded. The city manager want to explain uh this please.

Yes. Uh so this is the development that is at the corner of Bernett and Leel. Um the developer has already started and and done phase one work. Um and so they're ready to move on with phase 2 A and 2B of this housing development project. And so we enter into a PL agreement that covers all the public infrastructure uh that will be put in place by the developer. Um again this is a single family residential development. Uh and the home builder is Dr. Horton. Thank you, Brian. How many units will go? I believe this project is approximately 220 single family homes. And did they have like an end goal date? They wanted to have it all built out by

uh typically they run on a 3 to 5year cycle. So depending on how home sales are going, uh this is a good indication because uh Dr. Horton just started putting up uh the model units and so forth in that first phase. uh which if the developer is moving forward with 2A and 2B, they're fairly confident that uh the de or the home builder is going to take down those lots and be able to build on those. Excellent. Thank you, Brian. Is is this you may know or not, is this county like school district? Would this be county?

This is inside Clark Shauny district. uh the developer did. So, this project does have a TIFF uh in place, but the developer worked directly with the school district uh on how to help uh alleviate some of the issues as it relates to tiff. Gotcha. Thanks from the audience. Cler call the role. Mrs. Teet. Yes. Mr. Rickettts? Yes. Mr. Wiggby? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. R? Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for acidest removal at 325 West Columbia Street with H&H Environmental LLC for an amount not to exceed $6,500 and declaring an emergency therein. So moved.

Second. Been moved and seconded. Are the comments from commissioners from the audience? Cler, call the role. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. R. Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract for free demolition cleanout at 325 West Columbia Street with all things truck hauling and dumpsters LLC for an amount not to exceed $2,500 and declaring an emergency therein. So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Are there comments from commissioners from the audience? Clerk, call the role. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Mr. Ricketts. Yes. Mrs. Tacket. Yes.

Mr. R. Yes. Confirming and approving the federal equitable sharing agreement and certification with the United States government, Department of Justice, and Department of Treasury for the period January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026, and declaring an emergency therein. Second. It's been moved and seconded. You want to explain this, please?

Yeah. Uh so this is an annual agreement that we have in place. Uh specifically we have uh partnerships and relationship uh with federal uh law enforcement agencies uh in this case uh the drug enforcement agency, US Marshalss and so forth. And so where there's joint operations and there's a a seizure of assets and so forth, there is a a formula of how that uh gets dispersed among all of the agencies uh that are part of uh those uh individual matters uh in cases and so this sets forth how that money is distributed between all parties. Thank you. The comments from the audience, call the role. Mr. Wallace, yes. Mr. Rickettts. Yes. Yes. Mrs. Tacket.

Yes. Mr. Riggsby. Yes. Mr. R. Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Clark County Emergency Management Agency to accept up to $44,996.75 as reimbursement [clears throat] for the purchase upgrades to the city's robot. Authorizing the city manager, law director, and the director of finance to do all things necessary for the execution of the memorandum of understanding to comply with all relevant local, state, and federal legal requirements and declaring an emergency therein. So moved. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Brian, could you explain this, please? Yeah, first um I just want to speak to 100% grant uh which is great and again us leveraging federal and state tax dollars. again our tax dollars as well back into the community. Allison, why don't you uh speak to the IOR robot and and why this is important.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good evening, Mayor Rue Commission. Thank you for this opportunity. Uh so, this is an existing robot, a piece of technology that we have and understanding that technology and equipment is very expensive. Uh we are very grateful for the opportunity to be able to uh add these upgrades uh whether it be technology and some additional features to this robot that we do have. uh just understanding we we recognize that it's expensive uh but having this grant funding and having this opportunity we're very appreciative and with our partnership with the EMA and the federal government um providing these funds. So essentially with this these upgrades obviously it allows us to be safer in our operations. Uh it does not put additional um officers or the public at risk. So uh well again technology is expensive but it definitely keeps us all safer. Thank you.

Thank you. Chief Elliot, can you share out what is the EMA exactly? What do they do?

Yeah. So, [laughter] I don't want to speak for our our local EMA director, but it's a partnership that we have um with the county uh with all the surrounding jurisdictions and essentially they help to assist in providing resources uh planning assistance on major operations, but they also assist us with situations like this when they have federal funding or grant funding that is available coming through the federal funding and through the state. uh they assist us with finding these local opportunities and we have been able to take advantage of these opportunities over the last several years because of the partnership that we do have through the EMA. And the EMA, they were really active and helping with the tornado situation, right?

Yeah. A lot of a lot of uh disaster relief situations and and planning um and and just providing additional support to local public safety entities. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments from the audience. Mr. Larry. Chief, did you tell us what ICO means? It's the name of the robot. No, I'm kidding. What's the name of it? I come here. What is it? It's It's a It's the brand name. Um, our our SWAT commander explained that to me here just briefly. He just briefed me. [laughter] Thank you. Other comments? Clerk, call the role. Mr. Rickettts. Yes.

Mr. Wallace. Yes. Mrs. Tacket. Yes. Mr. Riggsby. Yes. Mr. Rue.

Yes. Authorizing the city manager to enter into a grant contract with the Ohio Department of Transportation, Office of Aviation to accept an Ohio airport improvement program direct grant for state fiscal year 2025 in an amount up to $374,399 for the replacement of taxiway E, F, and J edge lighting and cabling north of runway 0624 at the Springfield Beckley Municipal Airport, authorizing an expenditure of up to $71,314 to be used as local matching funds. Authorizing the city manager, law director, airport manager, and the director of finance to do all things necessary for the acceptance of the grant and to comply with all relevant local, state, and federal legal requirements and declaring an emergency therein.

So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Uh, do you want to have Tom? You offered to explain this to us. So,

certainly. Uh, so we described the project a little bit. The replacement of those lights on Echo, Fox, Trot, and Juliet. Uh, total projects 445,713. So, this is an ODOT grant that's going to pay 84% of the project. A lot of the projects we bring to you, we like to brag, are 95% funded by the FAA. The ODOT grants are a lot more competitive. And so what they do is they encourage you to provide a little bit more match. That gets you more points and makes you more uh competitive in those grant rounds. That's why we're paying a little bit more [clears throat] of our match here. But the city's portion of that is 71,314. So still good leveraging of of the state funding there that's available to us. But that'll allow us to upgrade these lights, which is sorely needed.

20-y old light. 20-y old lights. Okay. Thank you. Other comments from the audience? Go ahead, Miss Amanda. Uh, since it's a state FY25, is that actually going to be done by June 30? Like, is it a small enough project that only take a couple months or like what do you guys do if it runs over? Is that already in the agreement?

I'm sorry, just the answer I was not in the microphone. We have a year to complete that project. Most grants that we receive have a timeline, a start and finish timeline. Okay. Thank you. Cler call the role. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? [clears throat] Yes. Mr. Rue?

Yes. authorizing the city manager to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation for participation in the drone first responder pilot program and to accept up to $250,000 as reimbursement for the purchase of unmanned aerial vehicle system assets and related training authorizing the city manager, law director, and the director of finance to do all things necessary for the participation in the DFR pilot program and to comply with relevant all relevant local, state, and federal legal requirements and declaring an emergency therein. Moved. Second. It's been moved in second. Can we hear more about this, please?

Yes. Uh, first I'll say and then I'll have Tom speak to this program, but we are one of 10 communities in Ohio that have been selected as part of the pilot program for this. Um, and I just want to commend the staff from city manager's office, police, fire, uh, working collaboratively together uh, on this grant application and and making it possible for us to be one of those 10 communities in Ohio to receive that. And, uh, Tom Franen who's uh, been at the forefront of it. If you want to talk a little bit just what this program is and what's more to come and then we'll probably do a work session uh, on this as it further develops and plays out. Uh thank you, Mr. Manager. You're exactly uh right. We're very excited to be part of this this project. Uh it was a lot of work with with our staff, and this is really to to benefit uh the first responders. Uh we just talked about a robot. Uh this is further technology that will enhance uh efforts of our first responders as well as make it uh safer and more efficient uh use of their time as well. So we already utilize drones in a lot of our operations. Uh the real advantage the techn technological advantage of of this program is these are docks that drones will be sitting in the ready and can be launched uh once a call is made to 911 and our officers decide that it it would be a good use. so it can be dispatched to the scene, provide uh eyes on that scene so that they officers or firefighters know what what their what scene is going to be when they get there. So, uh it can be used in lots of different ways. We can talk a lot about that at our work session uh when that comes up. But, uh the grant is up to $250,000 and it's a 100% grant. it will pay for all of the uh the UAV uh components, the drone components, and all the software uh to do that. But uh I

wanted to just take a moment too to thank uh Representative Bernie Willis. Uh this was authorized or initiated through House Bill 96, which was a bill that he championed uh uh representing here in Springfield, as well as Representative Adam Holmes. Uh really two big champions of aviation advanced air mobility for the state of Ohio. without their uh pushing this would not have happened. So, we're very excited to do that. And the other thing is it leverages uh the work that we're doing down at the airport around advanced air mobility. So, a lot of the companies that are supporting this effort uh have office space down there in our uh AMC facility as well as do testing out there at the airport. So, it it's really great to be able to integrate this now into our community, kind of showcase our capabilities, but also the capabilities of the testing uh that we have out there at the airport. So I think it's important from that uh standpoint as well. Um the timing of the of the project just to uh we have a vendor day February 17th. The state has pre-seelected four vendors that meet all the requirements of the grant program. Uh they're going to be displaying uh their technology. our folks are going to be out there uh meeting with the vendors as well as being able to ask questions to other departments around the state that are already operating uh this technology because there's lots of best use cases already out there. So, we'll be able to learn from that. Uh our procurement window is tight. So, there's a 90-day procurement uh timeline from March uh 1st to May 30th. So, we'll need to follow our normal procurement. So, we'll be coming back to commission to select whatever vendor it is that we decide to go with. Um and then we'll have the uh operational installment of those uh drones and then deployment time frames around June. So it's moving quickly and then start collecting data, sharing that data back to ODOT and to the public uh on how those drones are being utilized. Uh we'll be happening through July 1st through June 30th of 27. So it's about an 18-month program uh

pilot program to kind of demonstrate the technology as well as uh collect data. Uh our thought would be is after that procurement as we're nearing the end of that procurement is come to the commission with the work session uh with all of the vend or not excuse me not the vendors but the partners as well as uh our fire and police folks talk about how we're going to utilize excellent comments from commissioners from the audience Diane

this is one of the more exciting things that has come along in a long time um I'd like to watch um videos from New York and they use drones a lot with their fire department. Um they deploy them first before the firefighters even arrive. And just imagine if we'd had the drones available during the catastrophe with the uh um with the tornadoes, how quickly we could have gotten EMS on site. In addition, I was um I I happened to help somebody plow snow and I'm just um they use drones in Riverside after a snowfall to make sure the streets are open and then they send out six plows and the entire four lanes is completely done because the drones scrutinize the intersection to make sure everything's clear. So, this is a this is a real feather in our cap to be able to do this. The only question I have is it going to be shared with the county? Um, so this is these are drones for our safety forces for the city. County does have they do utilize drones. Law enforcement utilize drones and also our our fire department also has

two drones, three, four drones. So our our fire department is well versed. There's about 20 individuals, I believe, that have licensing to operate drones right now before we even have them in uh like at this capacity. So, it's it is exciting day and I do agree with you. It is going to save uh it's going to be safer for our first responders. It's only going to save time which will save money for the taxpayers. And I do look forward to a work session. Cler call the role. Mrs. Tacket. Yes. Mr. Riggsby. Yes. Mr. Wallace. Yes. Mr. Ricketts. Mr. R.

Yes. [clears throat] providing for supplemental appropriations within various funds and declaring an emergency therein. So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Are the comments from commissioners from the audience? Clerk, call the role. Mr. Riggsby? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. R? Yes. confirming purchases and obtaining of services for the city and providing for payments therefore and declaring an emergency therein. Move second. Been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners from the audience or call the role. Mr. Wallace, yes. Mr. Ricketts, Mrs. Tacket,

yes. Mr. Riggsby, yes. Mr. R. Yes. And there was there was one item added to the agenda. Consenting to the appointment of Sarah McFersonson to the Clark County Convention Facilities Authority Board of Directors and declaring an emergency therein. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Once again, thanks Sarah for continuing to serve. Those are comments from the audience. Clerk, call the role. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mrs. Tacket? Yes. Mr. Wriggsby? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. room.

Yes. Uh commission announcements and acknowledgements. I just want to start by saying uh many people are going to be experiencing as I did and got a big flat tire, but potholes are are really really large right now. [snorts] This didn't happen in our city, but there are many potholes out there. The best thing you can do is inform uh us like you would see a stop. Well, let me see what else. Anyway, inform the city on the contact page uh that there's a pothole at the corner of whatever. I mean, there's a lot of them out there. The city does know as much as they can know, and they're going to get after them as quick as possible. Actually, we approved a cold asphalt pack to be able to go after these. Is that right?

Yes. [clears throat] One of our vendors provides that cold mix asphalt that can be used.

And again, do not assume that we just because you've hit it or see it, do not assume that we have been there and seen it as well. So do call uh 525-5800 or go on our website and report that. But just don't assume because you've seen it that we've seen it as well. So you just got a practical reason why we want to know why the city would want to know the government is because our first responder vehicles are going over these streets constantly and they're the ones that we're going to have to replace these vehicles and tires and things like that. So we we do want to know where these potholes are. Um especially the really large one that can be dangerous. So, please let us know and also encourage your neighbors and businesses that haven't shoveled their sidewalks to do it. Especially the businesses who have contracts to make sure their lots cleared, their sidewalks need to be cleared. Kids need kids and people need to be able to walk safely down the streets and not walk in traffic. Okay. Announcements. Other announcements. I I just want to give a quick shout out to Miss Jeffers and her flawless reading on all these [laughter] readings. Excellent job.

My shout out's going to go to the service department for keeping the roads safe. As you know, I hate the snow. So, thank you very much. And of course to our first responders, especially this week. Uh we support you and thank you for everything that you all do. Thank you. Other comments or announcement? Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded. Cler call the role. Mr. Rickettts. Yes. Mr. Riggsby. Yes. Mrs. Tacket. Yes. Mr. Wallace. Yes. Mr. R. Yes. Thank you for coming.