Board of Mayor & Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Board of Fair and Honorment for March 17, 2026 is now in session. Would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Our father, we are indeed thankful for this opportunity to gather here tonight to conduct the business of this city. We thank you for the city of Springfield, for those that serve and work for the city, and for the residents that live here. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to be here and to do what needs to be done. We pray that you guide us tonight and the decisions that are made. We thank you for your love and your grace that you extend to us every day and for this season of the year that we're about to celebrate, the Easter season. We thank you for uh your shed blood that you give for each of us. Father, we pray that you bless us tonight. Through your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. We'd like to thank those in attendance tonight. Our first item on our agenda is item 1.3, approval of the minutes from the record meeting of board of mayor and alderman held February 17, 2026. We have a motion by Alderman Troder and a second by Alderman Bradley. Any questions, comments? If not, let's cast our votes. Would anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Moving to item 1.4, our public comment period. You will be called up by our role here. You have two minutes to speak. Speak loudly and clearly. Our first speaker tonight is Amy Gallagher. She lives at 2201 Masters Drive, Springfield, Tennessee. Miss Gallagher, would you come forward, please? I will.

My husband and I bought property from Joe Moore 41 years ago in Morland. At that time, he assured us that property would remain residential with single family dwellings. When Walmart was built on Highway 431, it increased the traffic and the speed at which traffic came through our neighborhood. It has it has really done a number on the walkers, the runners, the people walking their pets, strolling their children, and it has even affected property damage ranging from mailboxes being knocked down numerous times to vehicles losing control and running into and onto our property. Reszoning this property would only escalate those problems. A home is one of the most valuable assets a person can own. From my research, when you put a re a commercial property in a residential neighborhood, it not only increases the traffic, but it devalues the homes around that property and throughout the neighborhood. Also, when a property is zoned commercial for a specific purpose, there is no guarantee that's the purpose for which it will be used. So, with that in mind, I'm asking that you vote no on the resoning proposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Gallagher. Our next speaker will be Mr. Timothy Parker. Lives at 402 Trevino Trail. Mr. Parker. Good evening. I'm Tim Parker living at 42 Trevino Trail. I feel the same way as Miss Gallagher about this traffic. We already have too much traffic. You know, the city spent city and county spent a lot of money making a bypass, but they forgot they already had one right through Morland cuz that's what it is. It's a bypass to get by the red lights. And we've added another red light since then that gives them even even more reason to bypass it. And if we put a bank down there, there's all those people are going to come through there. So that's just going to add to the tyranny that we got. Now I walk in the neighborhood every morning. And some mornings it's like I I wear a bright yellow shirt just so I don't get run over and I wait till daylight to walk, but I mean the traffic so bad on Nicholas uh Eagle Trail, all that. It's just it's terrible. And if the bank and the other thing about the bank, I don't understand why a bank would want to come and build a new bank when we already got one building that's set up to be a bank that's empty and fixing to have another building that's set up to be a bank that's going to be empty. If I was a banker and was looking consciously at the money, I would get a building that was already built and save that money for my investors and move into one of those other buildings. I think the bank thing, my personal thoughts is it's deployed to get the lot turned over to commercial. And once it's commercial, there's no telling what'll end up on it. Another vape shop or another gas station and everybody knows we need more of them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Parker. Our next speaker is Mr. Raymond Francis. He lives at 403 Eagle Trail. Mr. Francis, Mayor Ottoman, thank you for your service and happy St. Patrick's Day. I want to go over about three reasons I'm against this reasoning, if I may. First reason is because this is one of the best neighborhoods in all of Springfield. It's very diverse. It has senior citizens. It has young people. It has children. It has dogs. It has everything in that neighborhood. And if you go and drive through it in the evening, you'll see people walking. You'll see people pushing baby buggies. You'll see people walking with their dogs. So, it's one of the few neighborhoods left in Springfield that is a good quality neighborhood that brings residents into Springfield. Second point I wanted to make is that we're good taxpayers. Our properties have increased 30 and 40%. That won't happen if you bring a bank up there on the corner. You know that and I know that. So, we're very good taxpayers and we think that we deserve to keep that property residential and let them build a big house there. Now, we have no bad intentions for a bank. Let them go where they want to, but don't punish the good taxpayers to bring a bank in and set it on a corner. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Francis. Our next speaker is Mr. Melvin Carr. He lives at 318 Travoli Trail. Mr. Carr, would you come forward, please? Well, I live at 314 on Taboti and I own the house next door, 314, and I'm concerned about additional traffic and safety in our area. We do not have sidewalks. It's a residential area and for a business to enter and exit on Nicholas Drive in a residential area just doesn't make a lot of sense. And so we have had a number of accidents and we have a lot of walkers in our area. I just appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carr. Our next speaker is Mr. Matt Bernett. He lives at 4002 Mile Parkway, Willisville. Mr. Bernett, how you?

Hi. Good evening. Thank you. My name is Matt Bernett. I'm one of the four owners of this property uh on Nicholas and Tomson Highway, which we are asking for the commercial resoning. Uh all four of us are from Robertson County. We own several properties here, and we do pride ourselves in improving our buildings and bringing in new projects. uh we hear what you're saying and we understand and agree with a lot of what the residents here are saying and and so you know although this is currently zon residential I think we have an opportunity uh to improve this property to what we think is the best case scenario for the community and adjoining neighbors you know let me explain so this is zone residential but I can tell you nobody's going to pay $750,000 to build a new house on a major highway across from Walmart in a commercial corridor nobody's going to do doesn't make financial sense. No builder in town would bet on that. But what you might but what you could do with current zoning and would make money, somebody could build two sixbedroom houses. Now, you'd have to build them really cheap. But since you don't have any restrictions on these two lots, there are none. Uh these could be built block foundation, vinyl siding, no garage, big driveways and parking lot. Then we could rent these out to big families. You know, multigenerational housing is hard to find and is a big demand. So, we could put 12 to 16 people in each house, maybe six to 10 cars per driveway, coming and going all hours of the day, seven days a week. This is what someone could do right now as they see it. No approvals, just just go build the houses. Or we could allow Legends Bank to build a nicel lookinging, low impact building, low traffic, low noise, limited hours, professional appearance. You know, we understand the neighbors concerns. They're worried about their property values, traffic through the neighborhood, and unsightly appearances. And I ask you, which of these two scenarios would be a better fit? I think

the bank is by far better, and we are willing to restrict the zoning to bank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bernett. Our next speaker is Mr. Jim Gray. Lives at 102 Court. Mr. Gray, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm Dr. Jim Gray. I've lived in Morland Estates for 40 years and have property adjacent to the lots for resoning. There's an environmental issue here that many people are not aware of. Over the past couple of decades, there's been much development of property in this area. And the drainage from that area has created a problem with mud, silt, and debris being deposited into what was called Lake Guilford by Joe Moore's former secretary. This delta, which now forms displaces a significant amount of water that can be collected on the back side of these areas behind the property that's in question. Flooding in 2010 caused flooding under my house at 104 Player Court and to the street at 106 Player Court, which I now currently own as a buffer to keep from having additional flooding. This came close to reoccurring when Hurricane Harvey came through in 2017. I have numerous photos of what has occurred to this property with me. There have been sink holes at the south entrance of Morland Estates off the highway as well as several places where the sidewalks have buckled along the highway as well. I've spoken to Alan Ellis and Clay Moore about this problem over the years. No one seems interested in addressing this problem since the lots for reasonzoning extend all the way into most of the air of the lake unless arrangements are made to dig this area out to hold more water again. So flooding to the Jason properties does not occur. I respectfully request that you deny any changes for reasonzoning.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gray. Our final speaker is Mr. Mike Wilho who lives at 503 Eagle Trail.

Thank you, mayor and board. One of the advantages of going at the end is every I echo everybody's sentiments that live in the neighborhood. I met with Joe Moore 40 years ago next month. Bought a lot from him. Before I purchased that lot, he and I rode Morland, which at that time you had Fairways Trail, the only paved road there. The rest of it was a cow pasture. Lots were set out, staked off. Mr. Moore rode me in behind where the Hampton is in is now down to where behind Chipotle in the graded lot is and told me in the future this will all be commercial. everything from the Sonic all the way down to where Chipotle is today. The purpose was if you want to buy a house backing up to it, I'm telling you on a front end is commercial. We rode down to Nicholas Drive where it is today and he looked and said the big house with the fence around it, the Stansel House residential will pick back up there, go all the way down to where Watson Road is or the hospital property is to include these two lots. These two lots have been residential for over 40 years. They need to stay residential and I'd request that you vote no on the resoning. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Will Hoy. At this time, we will close the public comment period. We will move now to our public hearing period. Our ordinance, first ordinance for public hearing is ordinance 26-04, an ordinance amending the Springfield Department of Utilities Practice Policies. Is there anyone here to speak to that item? Seeing none, we move on to our second item. Ordinance 26-05, an ordinance amending title 11 of the Springfield Municipal Code pertaining to non-compliant buildings or other structures. Is there anyone here to speak to that item? Seeing none, we'll move on. Item three, ordinance 26-06, an ordinance reszoning property at 411 Memorial Boulevard from commercial services CS to core commercial CC. Anyone here to speak to that item? Seeing none, we'll move on. Ordinance 26-07, an ordinance amending the conditions of service manual relative to the time frame for water tap installation. Anyone care to speak to that item? Seeing none, we will close the public comment period. We'll now move to our legislative

mayor. Yes, sir. Without objection. 2.8 on our agenda tonight is relevant to the reasonzoning that has just been talked about and most of the people in the room are probably here for that tonight. And although you're welcome to stay for the entire meeting, I doubt that you want to. So, I'm going to make a motion that we move 2.8 to this part of the agenda. I second. We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose signify by saying no.

We will move to item 2.8. Item 2.8. Discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-11 on first reading. An ordinance reszoning property at 1801 Nicholas Drive from low density residential single family RS10 to commercial services CS. Do we have a motion? We have a motion by Alderman Troder. We have a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions, comments?

I have a question. Just for the record, this particular piece of property that we're discussing in the in our current growth plan, which was made, what 2024 was the last time we revisited this? This is currently zoned residential. Correct. So, three things, uh, Alderman Bradley. So, first, it is currently zoned residential. It is designated in the future land use map in the growth plan as residential. Uh, and it's also platted in the Morland Estate subdivision. Both of the parcels are Any other questions?

I'd like to speak. I just wanted to thank everyone who's here. Um I received probably nine emails from various um citizens and I just wanted to say thank you all for speaking up. Um as someone up here who's voting, it really I appreciate hearing from you and um I just wanted to say thank you for being here. On clarification, if we vote yes, we are in favor of the res. That that's correct. So the ordinance that's proposed is the request to reszone the property. So a vote a yes vote would be in favor of reszoning the property. A no vote would be in uh denying the request for the record. What was the planning commission's recommendation?

Planning commission's recommendation was a negative recommendation not to approve. uh they've made the recommendation to you all not to approve the resoning based on uh the items that were just brought forth with regard to the inconsistencies with the growth plan as well as the lots being platted in a residential subdivision. Any other questions or comments? Comment Greg.

History lesson. In 2023, we the city of Springfield hired Reagan Smith ferm to do a comprehensive growth plan. It was about a 13-month study. During that period of time, the citizens of Springfield were allowed to have input into this growth plan and the growth plan was adopted in 2024. We have been going by that and we intend to stay by that. So, this does not need to happen.

Any other questions or comments? If not, if we're ready to vote, let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion failed to pass on first reading 0 to six.

Thank you. At this time, if there's anyone that cares to leave this meeting, you may do so now, but please do it quietly and efficiently. Head to the lobby. Be quiet,

children. We will move on to our legislative section. Item 2.1 discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-04 on second and final reading an ordinance amending the Springfield Department of Utilities Service Practice Policies. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our votes. Does anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero.

Thank you. Item 2.2, two, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-05 on second and final reading an ordinance amending title 11 of the Springfield Municipal Code pertaining to non-compliant buildings or structures. We have a motion by Ottoman Bradley, a second by Ottoman Troder. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, let's cast our vote. Does anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 2.3, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-06 on second and final reading, an ordinance reszoning property at 411 Memorial Boulevard from commercial services CS to core commercial CC. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Yeah, I need I have a question. I just need to know the destination between those two not being very versed in this difference between a court between CC and Sure. So your your commercial services that's kind of the the distinction there is core commercial is going to be like your downtown district. Okay.

So that's what separates that. Your commercial services is going to be those along Memorial Boulevard. Generally speaking your core commercial is going to be your u walk-in off the sidewalk. the the lower setbacks and the uses are generally similar but the setbacks and the character is different. Any other questions or comments? If not, let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 2.4, Four, discuss and properly take action on ordinance 26-07 on second and final reading. An ordinance amending the conditions of service manual relative to the time frame for water tap installation. We have a motion by Alderman Bradley, a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we ready to cast our vote? Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 2.5, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-08 on first reading. An ordinance rescending ordinance 25-02 in its entirety and establishing a new schedule of fees and charges for play at the Legacy Golf Course. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Hollowman. I believe city manager Ryan Martin has something to add to this.

Thank you, Mayor. So, another slight increase is proposed. It's a few dollars. Again, I think that's kind of the general trend that Cornerstone has been proposing each year to keep up with cost of operations, cost of doing business, cost of equipment. And so, if you have any questions, Chad Frasier, who's the general manager of the course, is also here and available for questions. Any questions? Not. Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 2.6, Six. Discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-09 on first reading. An ordinance amending the fiscal year of 2026 annual budget for the city of Springfield by amending certain general fund and utility fund operating budgets. We have a motion by Alderman Bradley, a second by Alderman Troder. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 2.7, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-10 on first reading. an ordinance amending chapter 13 of the Springfield zoning ordinance pertaining to the appointment of members to the board of zoning appeals. We have a motion by Alderman Greg, a second by Alderman Bradley. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 2.9, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-12 on first reading an ordinance reszoning property at 1300 Adrian Drive from medium density residential single family RS10 to high density residential R7. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 2.10, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-13 on first reading. An ordinance reszoning property at 200 Bates Drive from medium density residential single family RS10 to high density residential R7. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you c would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 2.11, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-14 on first reading. An ordinance amending title 17 of the Springfield Municipal Code relative to refuge and trash disposal. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Bradley. I believe city manager Ryan Martin has something to add to this.

Thank you, Mayor. So, this is has come to fruition what we talked about several months ago. Robertson County Solid Waste has instituted a fee of $15 per mattress. You'll notice in your packet that we collected $462 mattresses as part of bulky waste junk pickup in October. Uh we do that twice a year. That's about $15,000 of of unbudgeted funds that our sanitation utility quite frankly can't afford without a rate increase. So, we are recommending removing mattresses and that's the uh ordinance that's proposed to you tonight is striking mattresses from the items collected in the junk in the bulky waste pickup. Any questions or comments?

So, that if somebody puts one out there, you just leave it there. We would treat it as improper junk the same way we do items that we can't pick up like tires or something else. That's right. We leave a note or anything. Okay. what we do if if they if they don't pick it up within a certain amount of time, we give them, you know, we write them a letter, let them know we can't pick up this item, it's not allowed, and that sort of thing. I think it's all on folks on social media also. That's right. Any other questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Could you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 2.12, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-15 on first reading. An ordinance amending the conditions of the service manual relative to natural gas infrastructure in new developments. Have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Kelly the votes please. Motion passes six to zero.

Discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 26-16 on first reading and ordinance amending title three of the Springfield Municipal Code relative to city court. Have a motion by alderman Bradley, second by alderman Greg. Mr. City Manager Ryan Martin, you have something to add to that, I believe.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. This is not changing anything. This was kind of this is a cleanup. When we modernized the municipal code, we had recently passed an update to uh title three that affected municipal court in the modernization. The new ordinance got lost. And so this as we've discovered that and as we transition and and fully publish publish that modernization, we just need to clean up that language and get what you all properly uh passed into back into the municipal code because technically we threw it out with the modernization. Just a cleanup provision. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 2.14, discuss and possibly take action on resolution 26-03, a resolution in support of the city's application to the state of Tennessee for local parks recreation matching fund grant. We have a motion by Alderman Greg, a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 2.15, discuss and possibly take action on resolution 26-04, a resolution authorizing the formation of the Springfield Electric Authority pursuant to the Municipal Energy Authority Act. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris. We have a second by Alderman Hollowman. I believe city attorney Christy Barti has something to add to this. just wanted to say this is a resolution for you all to adopt to move forward with approving the electric authority. Um we do as a or you all as a board have some things that need to take place to talk about the number of members to come in and talk talk about some of the terms and conditions that you all want to see with the authority. Um, as we discussed in our strategic planning discussion, I think the most appropriate way for you all to make those decisions is for us to schedule a work session and to any questions for Christie comments. Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Moving into the administrative section of our agenda, item 3.1, discuss and possibly take action on the adjustment of the retail electric rates due to the wholesale fuel cost adjustment by Tennessee Valley Authority. We have a motion by Ottoman Troder, second by Ottoman Bradley, electrical department director. Mr. Secretary Risha, what do you have for us, sir? 4.6 lower. Lower. Any questions or comments? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 3.2, two discuss and possibly take action on the adjustment of the monthly gas rates. We have a motion by Alman Troder, a second by Alman Greg. Now, gas department director Mr. Beny Davis, what do you have for us, sir?

See any questions or comments? Any other questions or comments? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes six to zero. Item 3.3, discuss and possibly take action on a five-year master plan addendum for parks and recreation. Have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Autumn McGregor. Any questions or comments? That's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 3.4, discuss and possibly take action on a professional engineering services agreement with Vulker Engineering Incorporated for the hydraulic design of the relocation of the storm water pipe near Greer Drive. We have a motion by Alderman Bradley, a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions or comments? Let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Item 3.5, discuss and possibly take action on a contract with Axon Incorporated for the purchase of bodywn cameras and dash cameras for the police department. We have a motion by Alman Hollowman, a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions or comments? This funded through budget or to grant? Both. Both.

So, the front end, it's a pretty large and substantial contract. It's a five-year agreement. The first $400,000 of the agreement are going to be paid out of the VCIF grant, which was the million-dollar grant that the police department received earlier this year, and then the rest of it will be spread out over years two through five. Any other questions or comments? Let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Could you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero. I'm sorry. Motion passes six to zero.

Item 3.6, discuss and possibly take action on an interlocal agreement with the Springfield Industrial Development Board relative to the construction of a new fire station. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Troder, city manager Ryan Martin, I believe you have something to add to this. Thank you, Mayor. This is for the construction of the station. The original agreement covered the design, the first $500,000 and for the design. So, uh, this is the followup to that. We've progressed such to the point that a new interlocal agreement is necessary. The industrial development board approved this earlier this month and it's now presented to you for your approval.

Any questions or comments? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero.

Now we enter our consent agenda. Item 4.1, police department request for approval to purchase one 2026 all-wheel drive Dodge Durango police vehicle in the amount of $44,715 from Columbia Dodge of Columbia Tina C utilizing SWC number 209. Have a motion by Alman Troder, second by Alman Bradley. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote?

Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes six to zero. Item 5.0. Mr. Ryan Martin, city manager, your report, sir.

Thank you, mayor. So, the first item I'd like to do is introduce there's a new face in the room. I'd like to introduce Mr. Brian Price. Um Brian, if you'll I mean they're going to know who you are, but because you're the only new person sitting down there, but um Brian is our new water and wastewater director. He comes to us from Portland. He is a professional engineer. He was originally a city engineer with the city of Portland, became their utilities director where he oversaw water, wastewater, and natural gas. A lot of years of experience. He's jumped right in. He started a couple weeks ago. We're really excited to have him. I'm particularly excited to have him um to have somebody on board um because I've been filling that role for the last couple of months. So, we're thankful for Brian and uh welcome welcome him. Our next item is our TVA agreement that you all approved the compliance agreement back in October is fully satisfied now. We we had a uh February 27th deadline I think on that and so we satisfied everything in that agreement according to their February deadline. So we are check that one off the list which means our local rate adjustment we just got confirmation will be effective on April the 1st. That's an local rate adjustment that you all approved also back I believe in in July or August. Our budget preparation is going on. We'll have uh we'll be shooting some emails to you to try to get a budget work session scheduled before long. We usually shoot for for those that are new first week in May for that. I think you were here last year. So but first week in May we'll try to do that. First reading of the budget will be at the May meeting. Sales tax collections are still running around 2% ahead of budget. That's not bad news. That's not great news, but it's uh it's 2% growth is uh I think we're just entering into a more realistic period now where we saw 15 to 20% increases year-over-year before. We're now seeing 1 to three or 4% increases year-over-year. to follow up on the interlocal agreement that you all approved with the fire station design. We are finished with schematic design on the fire station. Kind of what that schedule looks like moving forward is in

May. The chairman of the industrial development board, Mike Basher, will be here and we will hope to present to you a fully uh designed fire station to kind of keep you informed that that the industrial development board will hopefully have approved earlier that month for us to move ground and start or move forward and start breaking ground. We anticipate that construction to begin assuming that the maximum the guaranteed maximum price comes back. Okay. We want to break ground this summer and hopefully have a fire station by middle of next year or fall of of next year in 2027. Work session. Uh we mentioned I think Miss Barti mentioned a work session. It's also needed in April. We'll get an email going uh for that to try to see what a date looks like. We have to make sure we schedule in enough time to advertise that to the public. Make sure we do that properly. And then finally, we've received a lot of calls from citizens and customers that have not received their bills or uh some at all. Uh some receive them a day or two before the due date. We and I'm not saying this to pass blame on anyone. We understand that we got behind a little bit with the snow and ice, but we also understand that the postal service has had some issues. Uh we do use a third party billing processor and we're not really sure. We do know that an entire cycle of bills were lost in in the mail and that we had to wave a lot of late fees and and address that issue. What we're encouraging folks to do, we offer an e billill service where the the bill just can get emailed directly to you. And I was comparing with with Vice Mayor Harris today. We're in we're on the same route, the same cycle. He got his bill in the mail yesterday and I got my e bill 11 days ago. So that's the difference. So when the bills go, you you'll get your bill in a more timely manner. We're encouraging as many folks as possible to sign up for ebilling. You can contact city hall to do that. So if you have any constituents that reach out with with concerns about when they're getting their bill because the the problem for that particular cycle is

folks are getting their bill today and the due date is the 20th. So uh that's that's a tight time frame for some folks to turn around and pay their bill without a late fee. So we we want to do everything we can to mitigate that issue. So, please encourage everyone to sign up for the e billill service. It's free. It just emails the bill directly to you. Same way you probably get some other bills and and that makes it quicker and that's gener you'll receive the bill a lot faster that way and ensure that you receive it. Mayor, that's all I have. Thank you, sir. Any other questions, comments from anyone? Do we have a motion to adjurnn? make. Thank you.