Board of Mayor & Aldermen - Regular Meeting

us, Lord, as leaders tonight. Lord, do our due diligence and exercising our abilities. Lord, we pray for the citizens of this city, the citizens of this state. And Lord, we pray for calmness. We pray for understanding. We pray Lord for one thing. United we stand, divided we fall. In Jesus's name. Amen. Amen.

I want to thank everybody for their attendance here tonight. Item 1.3, approval of minutes from the regular meeting board of Marin Aldron held August 19th, 2025. Have a motion by Alman Troder. Have a second by Holman. Any questions or comments? We're ready to vote. Let's vote. Anyone care to change their vote? You tally the votes, please. Motion passes seven to zero.

Very good. Item 1.4. We're entering our public comment period. I believe we have four people here that would like to speak in the public comment period. I will call your name. You will come to the podium there. You'll have two minutes if you would speak up where everyone can hear you. We'll first call David FA. Uh my name is Dave Fel. I live at 402 Bourne Street. Uh, I just wanted to uh come up here tonight and uh show support for the proposed legislation discussions y'all have had on the um South Main um and cafe overlaying sidewalk obstruction uh legislation. Um I'm a big proponent of downtown walkable spaces, especially ones that are unique. Um one of the main reasons we picked Springfield when we moved to Tennessee was for the square and for the um the beauty in it. And um additionally, the city itself has invested thousands of dollars in the in the 5 years we've been here for ADA improvements, uh city beautifification from banners to um crosswalks to decorations, new signage, landscaping. Uh and these downtown business owners are simply adding to that ambiance as well as creating lively and attracting pedestrian traffic and business to the downtown. Um, in the last few years, we've seen substantial private investment with, you know, four local restaurants that have thrived downtown. Um, numerous stores that have made it more than a few years, a ton of renovation downtown that with no input from the city outside of, you know, the investments we've already made um, in the infrastructure. Um, just a couple comments that you guys had last month. Uh, you know, the ADA accessibility, that's that's kind of regulated by the ADA. I don't, you know, we've done a lot of ADA improvements already with the the crosswalks, the intersections. U I've seen plenty of people in wheelchairs and and walking

side by side when these uh decorations have been out and not been affected. Um the risk of theft, I don't, you know, I don't know that there's ever been a report. Um at least none of the businesses I've seen ever lock up anything outside and nothing seems to go missing. Um, and then the excessive signage is already regulated in those sign signage ordinance. So, I don't see that being an issue. Um, but I really think before this crackdown, there wasn't really any issues or fears that had manifested. Um, this is simply just bringing up uh to code something that should be adjusted and and we could look at amending the cafe overlay zone and and a zoning ordinance to amend that. Oh, sorry. Uh, thank you for your time. All right. Thank Thank you, David. Next, if Jessica H. Hearnden would come up,

you can kind of track your time the screen there, Jessica. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Jessica H. Hearnden. I'm the owner of Public House here on the square. Firstly, I want to thank you for representing us and hearing out your con constituents, which is so meaningful in a small town. You've likely noticed several citizens, business owners, and interested onlookers here for the same reason. We are discouraged, disappointed, and panicked over your latest vote against allowing signage and decor. This is not a political controversy, and we are not here to prove a point. This is a whole town begging for immediate change. Um, let's see. This is a petition um started by my dear friend Jessica Davis containing,00 signatures in support of this movement. Did you know that a substantial fraction of walk-in business comes from our curb appeal? We know this because small business owners are interacting with our guests daily. Have you talked to any small business owners you represent lately about these struggles? If you have, you know, our walk-in sales have taken a hit already. We're seeking action on this today. Many of the businesses on our square may not be able to make it 3 months or even 30 days to see a prolonged deliberation on this matter. TABC regulations and ADA compliance will still be met even with their signage and decor. We have heard arguments ranging from there not being enough space for multiple wheelchairs at once, which as you can see, if that is the standard we measure by, the city building has some updates to do. profane messages or images on our signs. That would certainly be counterproductive to welcoming guests. And lastly, that there may be an uptick in police resources of items stolen from our displays. Um I have yet to find evidence of any report of that nature. Mr. Hubard, Troder, Greg, Harris, Mrs. Bradley Hollowman and Mayor P. Your prompt attention to this matter will directly impact every small business on our beloved square and may even make or break our success or failure. I implore you to help our small

business community by immediately voting to make this change tonight. At the very least, do not enforce this penalty, any penalty upon us for decorating our business to attract guests. Thank you. All right, Mr. Kenneth Huckabe is Kenneth here. We'll move on to our last speaker, Mr. Sam Ramsey. Are you here? Yes. Would you come forward, please? Sam, you can track your time there on the screen.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. I thank all of you for the hard work you do for the city and for what you are uh entertaining tonight. Uh as you many of you very well may know Sandy and I used to own Betts or I should say I was the maintenance man. She owned Bets. We're still in the building though and that's where public house uh as Jessica just in uh indicated that's where she is now. And obviously we want to do everything we can to be successful to have Public House, have other merchants, have other restaurants be able to thrive. We've been here before. Uh I can't remember the year. I'm sorry I'm sleeping every once in a while now and as a reg as a result I've forgotten but at one time we came before the mayor and alderman leaving the city uh the merchants in the the city for the overlay and at that time uh sidewalk uh sidewalk tables uh and also sandwich boards were discussed and where sidewalks can accommodate that then we said okay or more importantly the city said okay you can do that and so that's been going on for some time now and of course obviously that has changed. So, you know, clearly the merchants, the restaurants want to to drive and and and drive sales to increase business to be attractive. Uh, as as our city and downtown has grown, you've made investments. So, we as as of course entrepreneurs and and private owners of of businesses. And so, as a result of that, St. and I were trying to recall Betts over our 20 years raised about uh I think about $75,000 in sales tax uh over that 20-year period, business tax, utilities, etc. These other businesses today are doing even better, I am sure. So, we humbly ask you to consider and support this change. Thank you.

At this at this time, we'll close our public comment period and we'll move into item 1.5, our public hearing. Our first item on public hearing is ordinance 25-15, an ordinance rescending ordinance 23-08 relative to the adoption of the 2021 building code. Anyone here to speak to that? Hearing none, we'll move to our second ordinance 25-16, an ordinance rescending ordinance 23-12 relative to the adoption of the 2021 conservation code. Anyone here to speak to that? Item three, ordinance 25-17 and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-16 relative to the adoption of the 2021 existing building code. Anyone here to speak to that? Item four, ordinance 25-18 and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-14 relative to the adoption of the 2021 gas code. Anyone to speak to that? Item five, ordinance 25-9 and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-10 relative to the adoption of the 2021 mechanical code. Anyone here to speak to that? Number six, ordinance 25-20 and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-09 relative to the adoption of the 2021 plumbing code. Anyone care to speak to that? [Music] Item seven, ordinance 25-21 and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-11 relative to the adoption of the 2021 property maintenance code. Anyone here

to speak to that item? Item 8, ordinance 25-22 and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-13 relative to the adoption of the 2021 fire code. Anyone here to speak to that item? Item nine, ordinance 25-24 and ordinance remending ordinance 24-10 regarding retail electric rates. Anyone speak to that item? Item 10, ordinance 25-25, an ordinance amending chapter 12 of the Springfield zoning ordinance relative to nonconforming uses. Anyone to speak to that item? Seeing none, this time we will close our public hearing. Moving on to our legislative branch. Item 2.1, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-15 on second and final reading and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-08 relative to the adoption of the 2021 building code. We have a motion by alderman Bradley. We have a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we ready to vote? Let's vote. Anyone care to change their votes?

Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero. Item 2.2, two, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-16 on second and final reading at an ordinance rescending ordinance 23-12 relative to the adoption of the 2021 energy conservation code. We have a motion by Alderman Hubard, a second by Alman Bradley. Anyone have any questions or comments? If not, we are ready to vote. Let's vote. Does anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 2.3, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-17 on second and final reading and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-16 relative to the adoption of the 2021 existing building code. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 2.4, discuss and properly take action on ordinance 25-18 on second and final reading. an ordinance rescending ordinance 23-14 relative to the adoption of the 2021 gas code. We have a motion by Alderman Hubard and we have a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. You ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Item 2.5, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-9 on second and final reading and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-10 relative to the adoption of the 2021 mechanical code. We have a motion by Alman Hover, a second by Alman Bradley. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Item 2.6, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-20 on second and final reading and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-09 relative to the adoption of the 2021 building code. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Bradley. Any questions or comments? If not, are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes 7 to zero. Item 2.7, discuss and properly take action on ordinance 25-21 on second and final reading and ordinance rescending ordinance 23-11 relative to the adoption of the 2021 property maintenance code. We have a motion by Alman Hollman, a second by Alman Hubard. Any questions or comments? Comment.

Citizens, please comply and clean up your properties. That's all I have to say. Very good. Any other questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 2.8, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-22 on second and final reading. an ordinance rescending ordinance 23-13 relative to the adoption of the 2021 fire code. We have a motion by Alderman Hubard, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Item 2.9, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-24 on second and final reading and ordinance amending ordinance 24-10 regarding retail electric rates. We have a motion by Alman Bradley, a second by Alman Hubard. Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 2.10, discussing property, take action on ordinance 25-25. On second and final reading, an ordinance amending chapter 12 of the Springfield zoning ordinance relative to nonconforming uses. We have a motion by Alderman Hubard, a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 2.11, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-26 on first reading, an ordinance amending the conditions of service manual for National Gas Services. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Troder, I believe, city manager Ryan Martin would like to speak to this.

Thank you, Mayor. So, this is an update to the conditions of service manual for the natural gas utility. Uh, a lot of these policies haven't been updated since the '90s, which means a lot of the fees haven't been updated since the '90s. Our gas director, Benji Davis, went through this, and you can see at the very back of your packet, should be the last couple of pages there, you'll see a cost analysis. um our rate payers were not getting the investment return on the investment in um because of the cost of steel pipe and plastic pipe has gone up and so we're recommending an overhaul to the conditions of service manual. Those changes are redlinined. I'm sure you saw in your packet and then the fees are broken down for you on the last the any fee changes broken down for you on the last page. And if you have any questions, we'll be glad to answer those.

Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? [Music] Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero. Item 2.12, discussing policy to take action on resolution 25-15, resolution accepting a tourism matching grant from the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Have a motion by Alderman Troder, a second by Alderman Hubard. Any questions or comments?

We have a lovely town and I've met several people who visited it and comment on it. Okay. So, let's just keep building Springfield. Let's just do our individual our individual part to make the city a nice place to come visit and to live. Anything else? Any other questions, comments? If not, are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. How much was that grant for? Anybody know off the top of their head that the matching grant? Yeah, $17,000. Okay, thank you. Item 2.13, discussing possibly take action on resolution 25-16, a resolution adopting an economic impact plan for the Vesper Village development area. We have a motion by alderman Troder, a second by alderman Huard. I believe Mr. Tom Trent is here, attorney for the development group. Would you come forward, sir? [Music]

Thank you. Hello everybody. I'm Tom Trent. I'm an attorney general and uh I practice um I've been develop and we're here to request the approval of the economic impact plan for the industrial [Music] development board that you set up uh a number of years ago has approved this plan and referring it to you for approval. And if you approve it then it will be referred to their approval at which time uh the tax plan will be adopted. The way these work just very briefly is that the city and the county uh upon adoption of the plan you'll be enabling the incremental increase in property taxes generated by the development minus the portion of your budget every year that's allocated to debt service can be used as an incentive to reimburse the development team for certain public infrastructure costs. So simply stated, no dollars that you currently have in your budget are going to only the increased dollars and only a portion of those. By statute, you have to retain the amount of pools currently under being received from the property and the portion of your budget every year as it changes it goes towards that split. So you keep that and then the amount over that we're contemplating a 7030 split.

30% of the amount in addition to those deductions and 70% of the difference to go to pay for it cost infrastructure. So what does that mean? simply stated rather than rebuilding the road that will connect us across this property and I understand you're well aware of it from all your planning and zoning effort instead of using new money to build that the developer has to come the cost take the risk that the development goes through the normal time frame that works creates the increment and reimbures them for those costs of that road end up being another public infrastructure cost which are things like parks, trails, but they're all public infrastructure under the statute and based on that we don't have to get state approval because the state is in favor of using this for public infrastructure. They changed the statute last summer so that the money can go for that industrial development after that. That is a project by itself very positive. It shifts all the risk to that. You don't have to issue your bonds for it. If the industrial development board then issues bonds that is nonreourse to the IDP, nonreourse to the city, nonreourse to the county. What that means is that if this doesn't work, you don't have to take that. It's all back. So these are very simple projects once they're approved because all the little that happens is you take your share of the money when it comes in base tax dedicated tax 30%. Remaining 70%

go to repay it goes to the IDB they put in their bank account and lender or the developer has the right to submit proof that they finish of the required infrastructure and then it can be repaid from pretty straight happens once a year and so it's relatively simple to pay. We also have in here that to the extent that you costs to administer this 5% of the up to 5% of the income the city will definitely cost which is under our statutes. So I I don't want to take too much of your time here in technical Virginia here, but that's the basic deal. If you've read the economic impact plan or the attached economic impact analysis associates, it says that they expect about a 5.2 billion, [Music] which is pretty impressive. and that the return on investment by the community is about $39 for every dollar put in. Now, what's interesting about that is that $39 would normally be per dollar that goes to the project. And on most of the bills, the project would be a manufacturing plant, an office building, a headquarters, a grocery store. Here, it's all public infrastructure that you want. Anyway, so it's really all the money is going in favor of the community. So, if you have any questions, I'd be delighted to answer them. We can I can give a lecture for three or four hours.

I would like to ask you to be okay if Jason come up and tell you just a little bit more about what the required public infrastructure is. Is that okay? Yes, sir. Thank you, Jason. Jason, would you state your name and who you represent?

No problem. Jason R design solutions represent developer. Again, appreciate you guys taking the time to look at this with us and kind of move forward. So want to kind of piggy back on what Tom's already kind of laid out as a basis for how we came up with the cost ratios where things [Music] so we'll start off with just you know overall you know Tom mentioned it you know basically what you know the area so you go through plan where is the plan area it's the 512 acres that we basically reszone recently and put into PSP. Um so no changes there. It's just you know defining that's the area where we're going to get the uplift for that permit u from the current property tax that's on on those properties right now to what could occur in the future. Um so again Tom mentioned it you know I think you guys have seen this you know 5.2 2 million in fact. [Music]

Exactly. Exactly. Um again, 1700 over 1,700 jobs that'll be permanent uh with the development. Uh construction over 6,000 as it goes through. Uh new property taxes 136 million tax by city and county. Uh you know, all local taxes 198. So again, you know, a pretty a pretty big impact for this development. And one of the key notes here is that, you know, city and county property taxes right now are only $759,000. That's changing. The city side of that is only slightly less than 17. So when we start talking about some other numbers going through this, that's going to change to $3.1 million per year in city alone compared to the 16. So kind of looking through those over over a 20 year over a 20 year period. Uh I'm just going to stick with the city side on this for now. So uh real estate uh over that time frame you know new real estate property taxes $41.8 million. You've got basically local sales taxes from all the different aspects that come in 35 33.5 debt service dedicated 2.5 million uh other you know available you know taxes you guys are going to generate over that time frame 11.9 and again that annual projected property tax increase you know as we get to full buildout is $3.1 million every year going through time at current tax rate increase that that goes And we put in, you know, Rocks County, so there lots of other things. You know, how does this affect schools? You know, you see where they're getting their their taxes when it comes down to their, you know, their portion that 32.8 that's dedicated to come out. That's $31 million towards schools dedicated per their statutes. Right now, there's another $15.9 million for them to basically look at other school activities, whether they need more

sheriffs, whatever it may be. But there's another $15.9 million that comes out of that over that initial. So, so what are we here talking about? You know, it's the ask u you know what are we asking for with this with this increment financing and basically we looked at that ratio out there. Okay, 3:1 in this case 3.09. So, you know, so 3, you know, 3.09 to one, we're asking for your $1 invested, you're going to get $3 in some change back and that number is 272. So that's where the 27.5 million, you know, comes from. Uh because as we go to the next as we go to the next page, you'll see that just the construction cost for public infrastructure. So the boulevard, you know, constructing the boulevard, re regional traffic pattern improvements, re reable storm water drainage, extension of the greenways is $30.3 million. And that's not including engineering, land, any of the other costs that go with it. That is just the base construction cost. So, we're not even asking for the full amount. We're asking for a portion of it.

If we were looking at just the boulevard and we were looking at the land costs, everything else put together, it's a $24 million. So, we've got a little bit to play with afterwards to say, "Okay, we're going to get we're going to get some of the greenways payable. We're going to get some of the sidewalks paid. We're going to get some of the park stuff done." So, it is a minimal ask compared to the overall cost of the project. So, as we look at this and go what what's included, what's not. We want to make sure that everybody's still still there. So, this is this is the required instruction. We're going to build the boulevard. So, that boulevard is going to get built. It's going to get built in a 5year period of time based on the plan information that's in it. It's got two pieces that have to be built in the three years. We talked about that before, you know, first initial phases on the east and the west. So, those initial thirds uh have a three-year time window to get to substantial completion. And we're going to make sure we have a connection between those two. Uh, and if you go two slides, four, three, sorry, I missed it. We will make sure that that center portion of the middle portion of the boulevard is complete so that it goes all the way through. So in 5 years, there'll be a connection from 49 all the way to 431. And so that's really the, you know, the, you know, the topics we've talked about to say what are we going to do and what are the time frames? They're tied to this ability for getting some incentive to be able to do that in the time frames that we've been talking about to, you know, to basically incentivize us to get that built and get it moving forward. Um, so why is this good for everybody? Um, and the real thing, and I think Tom mentioned it, is this this is private money. You know, I know there's a lot of stuff out there saying, you know, it's it's, you know, somebody else, you know, it's, you know, tax money being given to them or anything else. That's absolutely not true. It is. All of this is being built with the developers money. They have to go out and borrow to pull it out of their bank account to build the boulevard. They have to build everything to move this thing forward. And as a

parcel or a building, and I'll I'll I'll go with a, you know, a motel goes up on the corner. When that motel comes up on the corner, things change. You know, the tax base, the property tax base of that corner changes. that increment going from, you know, we'll call it a h 100red bucks to $100,000 is that increment we're talking about that Tom mentioned that we can then attempt to tap into in order to pay back the developer essentially for that coming through. So that's kind of the that's the process here. And in the meantime, as Tom mentioned, you're still getting 30% to pay for, you know, new, you know, new new police, fire, everything else that's coming through. that's still coming in. The original tax base, you know, it didn't change. You're still getting what was there originally, but you're getting more. It's you're getting that 30%. And once that, you know, once that, you know, that particular parcel comes out, then it all goes to the city after that 20 20-year period that's been brought into it. In the meantime, you're still getting a mo, you know, this is, you know, still getting sales tax. So if somebody's in that motel and buys, you know, Coke and a, you know, and a package of crackers, that sales tax is, you know, is your motel tax all year, you know, not associated with the payback of the tips at all. So it's just really a good way to, you know, have a mechanism to, you know, basically get the infrastructure you guys are looking for without impacting the city or the citizens at all or the county. Doesn't impact at all. explain. So, I find it helpful for you to see this before I I finish, but I'd like you to know people who buy property in this that first slide in the gray area, the plan area, people who rent a shopping center, a haircut, nail salon. It doesn't impact

them at all because everybody just pays the tax otherwise. It's just how we're going to divide the tax up after it's paid. This is so in a pilot in a little tax deal, you're removing the property from the tax. This is the opposite. Instead of abating the tax by removing it, you're in essence rebating a portion of the tax to pay for the public. If you had borrowed the money to put this road in the [Music] the world interest [Music] and that means testing on your credit and you be responsible and that could cause taxes. This does not this is not on your credit is on the credit of the developer. So that's a huge difference. So we wanted to open this up questions if that's appropriate and otherwise review the resolution. [Music]

Any questions, comments? [Music] Thank you, gentlemen. We have a motion by Alman Troder, a second by Alman Hubard. No questions, no comments. Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Does anyone care to change their votes? Would you tall the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Moving on to item 2.14, discuss and properly take action on resolution 25-17, a resolution authorizing financing through the state revolving fund program for the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant. We have a motion by Alman Hover, a second by Alman Holland. Any questions or comments? City.

Yes, sir. So, this is uh you've you've all done part one of the SRF resolution, which was previously because you remember when we first set out to start the wastewater treatment plant, it was going to be a $35 million project. And so, the initial application that we had submitted to the state revolving fund was for a certain amount. Once the bid came back and it came back a lot higher than our original estimate, we've got to go back and uh you all authorize the application for the additional amount to be able to pay for the remainder of the plan. That's what this is for. Any other questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Yes, sir. Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes?

Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero. Item 2.15, discuss and possibly take action on resolution 25-18, a resolution of the correction for the fiscal year of 2026 budgetary exhibits submitted to the state of Tennessee comproller of the treasury. We have a motion by Alderman Hubard, second by Alderman Bradley. Any questions or comments on this item? [Music] Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Moving on to our administrative portion of our agenda. Item 3.1, discuss and possibly take action on the adjustment of the retail electric rates of Springfield Electric Department due to the wholesale fuel cost adjustments by the Tennessee Valley Authority. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Hollowman. I believe electrical director, Mr. Terry Reisha. You have the floor. Good. Any questions or comments from Mr. [Music] We're well pleased with the Lori.

We ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Item 2, I mean 3.2, discuss and properly take action on the adjustment of the monthly gas rates of the Springfield gas department. Have a motion by Alman Troder and a second by Alman Bradley. Gas director, Mr. Miy Davis. Purchase gas adjustment saw a decrease of.5 cents resulting in an across the board decrease of.74%. Good. Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. [Music] Anyone care to change their votes? Would you count in the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Thank you. 3.3 discuss and properly take action on an agreement in the amount of $350,000 with the community development partners LLC to provide administrative service for the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Mayor, have we have we already borrowed money so far?

No, sir. So that's the resolution you all just approved is for the remaining uh application for so the we're to fund the plant we're using a portion of ARPA funds. I think that's eight around $8 million. I don't have that budget in front of me but about $8 million. We're going to have to borrow the rest of that. There is some principal forgiveness on the SRF loan because it is an infrastructure upgrade project because the state has encouraged those uh infrastructure upgrades to take place. But the remainder of the of the funds we borrow not by the issuance of a bond, but through the state revolving fund. The interest rates a lot lower through the state of Tennessee revolving loan fund. So like this 350, would that come out of money we already have? It'll come out of that borrowed money. Out of that borrowed money.

It will. Yes, sir. Any other questions or comments? If not, are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Thank you. Item 3.4, discuss and possibly take action on a traffic safety grant from the state of Tennessee Highway Safety Office. Have a motion by Alderman Hubard, a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 3.5, discuss and possibly take action on a recommendation from the traffic committee regarding on street parking on Hillside Drive. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? Yes. Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Item 3.6, Six, discuss and possibly take action on an agreement with US Bank to participate in a purchasing card program under the Nashville cooperative p purchasing contract. We have a motion by Alman Hubbert, a second by Alman Hollowman, I believe city manager Ryan Martin. Yeah, thank you, mayor. So, this is a a contract to participate in US Bank's purchasing card program. This is something that several cities in Tennessee. It's the NASPO agreement is a purchasing collaborative agreement. So, it's like buying something off a state contract, right? Um, we are significantly and severely behind as most governments are. It is 2025 and we do not have the ability uh to purchase off of a card uh that doesn't have my name on it in my wallet right now. So, we we use my personal uh card for a lot of purchases. We use other employees personal cards and and the city reimbures them. Uh you know, used to vendors would take purchase orders, right? And we lived in that age in that era where vendors would take purchase orders. And as government, we operate off a operated off of a a three ply, three-part purchase order. You had the white copy, the yellow copy, and the pink copy, right? And and we just don't live in that age anymore. And now, if you don't pay for it, they're not shipping it, right? So, we're we're forced to do one of two things. Either uh we use our personal cards and get reimbursed by the city for a purchase, and sometimes that's upwards of three or $4,000, right? um or we end up having to buy a more expensive item which is not right by the taxpayers, right? That's not being good stewards of taxpayer money. So, uh most governments and and cities have moved to this, you know, a long time ago. We may be a little late to the party, but the purchasing card program is very it'll be very strictly regulated, very strictly confined. uh there is not an an employee will not be personally liable for backing anything but an employee who does who happens to make a purchase or something like that that's not uh that's be a disciplinary

action up to including termination so we will manage that very closely all employees will not be issued cards the tenative plan now is that there will be two cards per department that the department head and one design will be responsible for there will be a policy and a program where they sign those cards out exactly who has it and when uh to make sure that uh there is no mismanagement. There will be limits, a very tight limit on a card where a large purchase cannot be made unless it's a one-time authorization, right? There can be a one-time authorization to uh to raise the limit on that particular card for a purchase that needs to be made. But but we've we've noticed a lot of issues where trying to find vendors that'll take a purchase order and you kind of get laughed at nowadays, right? When you say, "Will you take a purchase order?" and they're like, "No, but we'll take a Visa or Mastercard or American Express." So, that's where we are. So, we would appreciate uh the board's consideration of of this agreement tonight.

Thank you, Ron. Make a comment, Mr. Especially, you know, for the conferences that we are sort of obligated to go to. Hotels are not taking checks. Um, correct. They prefer to have a guard. So, I'm glad this finally came down the pipe. Well, I wasn't going to use you as an example, but but your your conferences go on my personal card. So, so I appreciate you bringing that up. Any other questions of Mr. Tober? I do. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Any other questions or comments?

If not, are we ready to vote? Let's vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes 7 to zero.

Item 3.7, discuss and possibly take action on sidewalk obstruction regulations in the Springfield Municipal Code. Have a motion by Alman Troder, a second by Alderman Bradley. I believe Alderman Hollman, you asked to put this back on the agenda. Would you like to speak? Thank you very much. Um I I did ask for this to go back on the agenda. I think we've had a couple of months of discussion about this and um when when we declined to approve the ordinance last month, we had a big outpouring of public opinion and support and kind of as you can see I see a lot of friends and neighbors in the um audience today. We have a community that's very much in uh need of us tweaking what we have. um whether or not the proposed ordinance from last month is the solution. That's for the board to consider, but I think it's very clear that we need to revisit that conversation and perhaps take a look again at what we're doing with our sidewalk ordinance. Um my understanding is that what what was happening, not that our our wonderful police weren't doing their job, but perhaps we weren't heavily enforcing because there were items that were out on the sidewalks. And so what's happened now is that you know we are enforcing the ordinance as it is and it's disrupting our um small merchants and um I am very passionate about our small downtown and I know most of you all are too. I mean we we we love to see it on the first Friday nights and um you know going there during lunch during the days. I mean it's the heart of our community and I don't think it's intent of anyone on this board to cause harm to it or detract from it. So, I just wanted to kind of revisit this conversation to see if there are concerns with the ordinance that was proposed, how can we address those concerns um and put something back on the table that will solve the problem and um empower uh empower our small businesses. So, I would love to hear from the other board members. I know um

uh Ryan provided us with a copy of what was previously proposed. Um, I have some thoughts, but again, I I I think that one of the things that came up as a concern was, um, how do we prevent there being inappropriate banners or political banners and things that might uh detract from our public spaces? Um, and I did want to mention, I think David Fal, thank you for for bringing this to my attention. Um, but we do have a zoning ordinance already that prohibits and limits um, uh, religious, political, other sorts of signs like that that could be controversial. So, in the event that that did happen, and I'm not aware of it being an issue so far, but if it was an issue, we already do have something in our zoning ordinance that would restrict that. So, that was one concern. Um, and obviously the ADA compliance is already in place. That's something that's a federal law. We have to comply with it. So if anyone isn't complying, it's already going to be addressed. And I know we've had history of having that happen and it is being addressed appropriately. So I would just love to hear from the board about any other issues or concerns that you had with the ordinance that was proposed or um if there are any other ideas of how best to move forward.

Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir.

Talking for me. I you stated the two main issues that that I had concern. I do not want us to get off into a political uh obnoxious type of crap placed on our on our city streets. Okay. And also my other concern is let's be cognitive about the ADA issue. And those are the only two two things that that I'm really concerned about. And last but not least, I love Springfield. Been supported over 30ome years. Okay? And so I want us to grow, but I want us to work together. That's all.

Thank you, Mr. Anyone else comment? Go ahead. Tim, Mr. Paris.

First of all, I don't think there's any member of this body that doesn't want to see our city succeed in business, residential wise, or any other uh aspect of a of a prosperous city. Um had the opportunity to visit the Franklin Square this past Saturday. They have a very vibrant downtown um business. As I was telling city manager, there's a some type of pizza establishment there that there was over 100 people outside waiting to get into it. And uh but also in in noticing I think when this was brought to us, it probably some of their code may have been in part of what was presented to us. Um so going up and down the various streets that they had there in Franklin. Uh there were several of the businesses that had the the beastro tables and the chairs outside. Uh several of the businesses had the sandwich board advertisements. Um did not see very few flags or banners from that aspect. As far as the merchandise end of it, there were two businesses that had um I I guess you would call it a rack of clothing or something of that nature, but both of those businesses had an inset to their entrance and those uh racks were in the inset. They were not actually out on the sidewalk as far as seeing any tables or anything of merchandise or anything of that nature. Did not did not see that. Um, when this was brought to us last month, I think that I made the statement then that parts of of the presentation I did not have problem supporting. I did have problem supporting some parts of it. Um, from that standpoint, the municipal code that is currently in place, and the city

manager can correct me if I'm wrong, this code has been in effect for many years. Uh nothing has changed from what code has been on the books. Is that correct? That's correct. It hasn't changed. This has been a code also that probably has not been strictly enforced as it is written. Um because I think as it's written, nothing really is allowed to be out on the city sidewalk at all. Is that correct?

That's correct. It's not been a code that has been strictly enforced uh unless something has presented itself that has required that the codes department or the police department or or the city hall take action on it and then that part of it has been done. Um, I think somewhat over what's happened the last couple of weeks. It has come about in my opinion that it looks like maybe this board instructed the city manager to go out and start enforcing this code. That is not what happened. uh a member of this body came forth to the codes division and asked that a sign be removed from a particular business. They asked that a table and chairs be removed from a particular business and they asked that something else be removed from a particular business. So in doing that, the city manager was placed into a situation that he could not remove, ask that those items be removed from those three businesses without fully enforcing the code as it is written. And that's what took place from what was requested by a member of this body. Um, I think this body wants to see the city be successful in all in all in all avenues, but none of this stuff the last couple of weeks that was asked to be removed would have have had have been asked had this not request had not come to the codes department. My understanding was it did fail last month by a vote of 5 to2 and that it was probably coming back to this body in some other presentation uh for approval. Again, I will state I don't necessarily have any problem supporting the planners and that and that's the way it was presented to us first two months ago. I believe that we were talking about some

planners and then when it was asked that it be brought back to us then it came in with the other items that were in there. I don't have any problem supporting the planners. I don't necessarily have any problem supporting the I believe you referred to them as sandwich boards for the advertising partners if I understood that correctly. They go out when the business is open and they go in when the business is closed. I don't have a problem supporting the small beastro table with the chairs as long as everything stays within the ADA compliance that we're required to abide by. Um some of the the language of any law that you do and and and the society that we live in in this day and time, anyone can be sued for anything that for any reason. Um, I think part of the language that was placed in there that it would be strictly the responsibility of the business owner that the stuff was out in front of, but if we fall into ADA non-compliance, then the city's going to be sued over anything of that nature. And I I don't think we've had that problem over that part of it. But um there are aspects of it that I I don't have any problem supporting. But I just I think we all need to understand why the city manager all of a sudden started enforcing the code cuz he had no choice but to enforce it as that. I'm I'm perfectly open to uh to discussing it again and supporting any aspects of it. I'm personally myself, I would rather see us stay away from the banners and the flags and I would rather see us stay away from merchandise tables and stuff like that out on the street. I don't I don't think that's what we're looking for. The planners, the the advertisement, the sandwich board signs, the beastro table. As long as that stays like it's supposed to pay stay, I don't have any problem with that. But I don't I mean it is a business area both retail both legal both you know offices

everything of that and and to stay within the contour of a beautiful downtown area that that's what my opinion is on Thank you Harris. Any other comments?

I'll be brief. Uh I don't have any problem with the beastro tables or anything. It was the banners and the flags I was concerned about. I I mean I like some of you will probably find some of the flags and banners offensive. I didn't want that to happen to anyone. Now the the banners the tables be stro and the planters I'm I'm good with that. But I think we should have been real careful about the flags and the banners that would be hanging out and and to insinuate that this board was against downtown merchants was totally wrong. We were not against it. We're just being careful. Thank you.

If I could just jump in, I wanted to ask the um city manager. I know we do have the overlay that addresses flags and things of that nature. Is there any way we could revisit this proposed ordinance to um address I know flags and banners is a very broad statement and I know some I think one business had a banner out that just said sale. So obviously that's not of an offensive nature, but is there some sort of uh language we could add into the ordinance that really restricts flags and banners to be strictly linked to merchandising of some kind or what would you recommend perhaps as a

so the the and you mentioned the the political part on on that that is and that's covered under the zoning ordinance. This proposed ordinance from last month would have carved the CC district out of that. Right? So those general zoning regulations would not have applied to the CC district. I think that the the if there was a way that the city attorney could help us craft language in such a way that it limited those things to sale only. If you get past that, and she would probably add on to this too, if you get past that, uh then you're probably looking at uh regulating content of speech. And that's when you're going to run into the first amendment issues. Another thing comes up is is is art. Art and and this is a conversation that that we had is is art. So say it's I think in the proposed ordinance I think it talked about art or Yeah. in the flags and banners. Well,

you could maybe disguise something offensive in the form of art, right? And and so I think that was part of the flags and banners concern since it was carved out of the general zoning regulations because I think that's the way Franklin has theirs. U but yeah, I think if you could if you could figure out a way to narrowly tailor that where you could advertise a a sale and I'm she I'm giving you time over here to think of of um but I think if you narrowly tailored something language that did not regulate the content of speech because that's where you run into the first.

Absolutely. That makes sense. And it seems to me that that would be something that's very important to the board and for probably good cause. So I would be interested um if that if that could be addressed to see that brought back with that caveat and if it's not something that can be freely and easily addressed. I mean the sandwich board signs is is primarily what I've seen folks use and it hasn't been problematic to this point. So that may be sufficient. Um, I guess I'm looking out to my folks in the audience to talk to us if you know after after the meeting. Not right now, but just to tell us if there is some other um use that I'm missing here for flags and banners, but I would be interested in seeing if we could carve out an appropriate use that's limited to merchandising specifically or or sales. I would just be curious to see that.

And you mentioned the overlay and I want to address that for the board also. You may be aware you all will will be seeing that come to you next month. I believe it's going to come next month. So, we do have the sidewalk cafe overlay zone. The issue with that is the boundaries stop at 7th Avenue, right? So, there are some businesses that are eligible to take advantage of that. There's some businesses that aren't. What is the sidewalk cafe overlay zone? That's a a zone that's carved out downtown that allows for tables and chairs to be out in front of the business. And I'm summing up short summary of the ordinance so long as ADA requirements are met. Right. The issue is that uh the business that had tables and chairs outside fall outside of that overlay zone. So what you all are going to see next month, I've been in contact with them uh talked to them and said, "Hey, there's this available. We need to extend these boundaries and get you in that." And so that's going it has to go to the planning commission first. It'll go to the planning commission in October. And then you all will see that in October also. And what that'll do is that'll take care of historic perk and allow them uh to have their table and chairs back out because that's separate from this. The proposed ordinance from last month has nothing to do with tables and chairs. That's squarely for restaurants and cafes and covered by the sidewalk cafe overlay zone. This this is merchandise displays, decorative items, sandwich board signs, and all the things that you all have mentioned here tonight. So hopefully that answered your question.

I just make a comment. I I didn't want to fussing for it, but it's it was very offensive to me of whoever called Fox News for them to twist it as though I want to just totally destroy growth downtown. So, I've been a champion for a long time with the revitalization of downtown Springfield. And so, it's very offensive to me and I let them know that. Okay. And for whoever's putting out all this stuff, come talk and let's reason together. Don't try to trash somebody who has always been pro downtown. I'm saying it nicely. Okay. All right. I have a question. Um, am I am I is my memory correct? Aren't the code aren't the codes that we submitted last month voting, are they not identical to what downtown Franklin's doing? I

think that language is borrowed. A lot of that language is it's tweaked. Just to be clear, we love downtown Franklin, but we want to have that here, too. So, the majority of that language is borrowed from there were a few cities surveyed. I think most of the language that was in the proposed ordinance last month was from the city of Franklin. I want to make sure I remember that correctly.

Not only Franklin, let me give you an example. Spartan, Tennessee is about the size of Springfield. They have a nice quaint downtown area with with with with those little little sidewalk cafes and stuff like that. There's still enough room where where people that have disabilities can come with wheelchairs and stuff. So, it could work. We just got the reasons together and and uh let let tempers cool and let the reasoning prevail. That's all I'm saying. I have another question. So, while we're laying Timbers cool, at this point, we'd have to wait three more months for these merchants to be able to put anything out. Is that correct? For for third reading, if we started over next month, it would still be 3 months. Is that correct?

How long would it take? So,

that'd be October and then it' be November. So, they would be able to put stuff out in December. That's really, really late for the retail world to be doing things for the holiday season. Is there any way that this board can So, my understanding, and I I I'm jumping in here, I think that if and Laurian, correct me if I'm wrong, but if our board is in agreement to move forward with modifications, then we can choose to not proceed with enforcing the rules as written when they are in process of being modified. I don't want to see if we got a turn on that. I may not have said that well, but I think there is a way that we can make this work for the merchants. You're not out of time because really and truly the Christmas season starts in about two weeks.

True. And for them to get their products and stuff sold and all and stuff. So, Mr. City Manager, what whatever we can do, let's do that. Mayor Quest when he's done.

Okay. So, two things. First, uh we're talking about enforcement. Before that, we're talking about effective date. So it would be and this is just a clarification. It doesn't change the ball game that much, but the ordinance would be effective upon passage. So whatever the third Tuesday in November is, if you all did agree on something tonight that we could bring back in the form of a legislative document next month and pass on first reading and then pass on second reading in November, the effective date is going to be that night upon passage on second reading. Um, so it wouldn't necessarily have to wait till December 1st to be effective. Right. Secondly, yes, there there are there are times when when the board signals an intent to change an ordinance, we're not going to go out write a bunch of citations on that ordinance when we know the board no longer desires for that ordinance to be in effect. Now, we didn't write any citations last time either. It was I called the chief of police and I said, "Hey, we've gotten complaints that we need to go enforce downtown. let's just can you just walk through have some folks walk through and educate people on the sidewalk construction ordinance and I believe that's what they did um is just to just kind of educate folks on hey this this is our ordinance this can't be there so we would we would with the consent and permission of the board knowing that the legislative intent exists we could we we could we could do that a as long as we had clear direction from the board on what that was. I mean, are we what that enforcement needed to look like?

I I think it could be done immediately. Uh the chief uh and his officers u I think they're they're reasonable guys and they'll go along with it without any enforcement actions until until it's clear. As long as there's no flagrant no flagrant things. Okay. Harris, the

but we go back to the way it was. I don't think we have any business that's wanting to do anything right now that they weren't already doing before. And again, I go back to that point that that would not have been enforced had the requests not come to the coast department for these other three businesses for these items to be removed. That's what started all of this being enforced. I don't think anybody has a problem to going back like it was until we can get this worked out if that member wants to remove their request on those other three businesses for that items to be removed because the city manager had no choice but to enforce it throughout the throughout the whole area because that was what was being requested.

To be clear though, the reason why that has brought the whole thing has been brought up because one merchant wanted to put some earns out and the city said no. So what if it's not fair for one person, it's not fair for everybody. That's why the codes have to be changed or the codes have to be enforced. What's fair for one is fair for everybody. So we're at the point we're at right now that nothing can be done because because y'all didn't pass anything last month. So So I mean here we are to that. So calm down a second. What can we do moving forward right now?

I hearing from the alderman here, it seems to me that a big concern are the flags. So, I would propose that, and I don't know if I need to make this in the form of a motion, um, but I would propose that um, we bring back the ordinance next month addressing the flags and the banners. If it's appropriate to have a carve out, we can. If not, then just take it all out because I don't think that's been an issue at this time to make the other things go forward. I think we can just remove flags and banners if that's not going to work. Um, I think one other thing that um, uh, Alderman Harris had mentioned being a concern are outdoor merchandising. I feel I'm okay personally with the limitations that are in here. However, I'm open to discussion. I didn't know if any other alderman had positions on that or if we need to clean that up in this proposed ordinance before bringing it back.

Craig, number one, I'm not anti- business. I realize that we need the tax money coming in. I'm not in favor of tables and racks because I don't want the street to look like a yard sale. The planters, the ta the beastro tables, the signs, I'm not opposed to those. Not at all. Anything that can help your business is great. But there's a lot more that was brought to us than what we discussed. We started talking about plants and planters and things and then next thing we know we've got a dozen things that we didn't talk about. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

I'm in agreement with all Holland. I think we carve out what we think we need to remove and bring this thing back and go forward with it. May Mayor, can I make a Yes, sir.

a suggestion. Okay, everybody pull up that draft ordinance in your packet. Let's work through this real quick together. And if you look at so let's start with section 16-82. I'm on page three I guess of the of the document. Okay. Section 16-82. If we strike number one number two and number seven. Okay. And then we go to uh section 16-83 and we strike outdoor merchandise displays from subsections one and two and anywhere else it appears. So it's in section 16804. We can we if we just cuz what I'm gathering from the board is we want downtown to look good and we want to support the businesses to do that. But so far there's not a consensus on uh flags and banners. Flags and banners seem to be a concern in merchandise displays. Not that we can never do flags and banners or never do merchandise displays, but just to get something going in the meantime, right? Yes.

Uh and get something moving forward. If we just pass the ordinance that the board pass the portions of the ordinance that all of the board members agree on and revisit the rest of it, you know, when there's more time to do so, how does Mayor I'd like to know how the board feels about us bringing that back next month? But if we voted on it tonight, would that count as first reading? It would not. You have you have it in here though to discuss and possibly take action. Correct. So can we not take action on it tonight?

No sir for because it requires legislative action which must be done by ordinance and the only ordinance we had failed last month. So we don't have an ordinance a numbered ordinance for you to that's just one of those is Robert's rule of order technically um for reconsideration to be addressed then the prevail a member of the prevailing vote would have to had to have made a motion last month to reconsider at that time. Effectively, our session closed at adjournment last um last month. So, it does not qualify for a motion to reconsider.

Would the board consider just just stopping everything then and let let people put their sandwich boards back out in the meantime until we know with intent we're going to vote to put their planners back out, to put their sandwich boards back out, to put their I'm not sure what else has been removed, but their their beastro tables back out. Would that be everybody just act like we don't know till we get to vote on it? coming. I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I was about to say it seems to me that that was what um our city manager kind of said we could do is if we are clear and it sounds that we are clear perhaps that if we eliminate the outdoor merchandising on city sidewalks um and I emphasize that cuz I know there are some private sidewalks and um eliminate the flags and banners. Um then I think it sounds like our board is in agreement that we want to have this modified. We just needed to come back properly before this board for two readings. So then city manager, would we not be able to say let's not enforce this ordinance as written currently?

Thank you. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd like to address enforcement very briefly. So let's let's talk about the enforcement approach. So I've heard things u and I've talked to several business owners. I've talked to a lot of folks in the room. Why didn't you enforce this before? I think Vice Mayor Harris has pointed out why the why the the visits were paid by the police department. U recently we did enforce it before. Okay, it was and and I don't want to I'm not going to use the selective enforcement is a bad term. I've heard that term used. That's a bad term, too. Um the the analogy I've given to some of you that are in the room that I've talked to and some that aren't in the room. The analogy I've given to you is it's kind of like going 32 and a 30. Is that a violation of the speed limit? Yes, it is. Right. Is that where we're going to focus all of our resources to stop every vehicle that's going 2 miles per hour over the speed limit? No, it's not. Right. Uh what we're going to do is make sure that those folks that are um you know, we're going to the folks that are creating an issue, right? And so that's where we were on the sidewalk enforcement. If you if you had a planter out and you were creating an ADA issue, we did not focus our resources on going and making sure we wrote you a citation and told you, you know, and that sort of thing because we wanted downtown to look good. There were tables and chairs out at a business that was outside the sidewalk cafe overlay zone. Now, we did have a couple of issues come up, particularly in the last few years, particularly on the west side of South Main Street where the sidewalk isn't quite as wide, where there were some issues there with brick businesses. Some aren't here anymore. Uh that created an ADA uh clearance issue and that's when we did go and enforce. So, the the ordinance in the code has been enforced. It's been enforced when there's an issue that created the need, right? And so I have no problem directing my staff to to do that. But right now, the situation that we've

been in is we've been in we've been paying visits to businesses. So So what do we need to do? Just move forward now. What do we need to do? I would suggest if the if kind of what I laid out a few minutes ago with pulling some of those things out if that's a direction that we can get from the board tonight to to move forward to push forward if somebody uh mayor and uh Miss Barti I believe wanted to put that in the form of a motion to direct us to bring that back next month I think that would be proper that allows us to get moving that signals for us the intent of the board the legislative intent so we know how to handle the enforcement side of things over the next couple of months, right?

How do you want the amendment stated? I would have a motion for session. You got it. Go ahead. I was going to make a motion if I may. Um I would motion that we take the draft that was presented to us in the last um meeting, remove references to um or or mentions of outdoor merchandise. remove that and remove the flags and banners unless that can be tailored specifically and remove those and bring us back a proposed ordinance next month. I'll second it. Hold on. Y'all click continue. Hold on two seconds. At least this should get

Do we need a new motion and a second? We need a second. Hold on just a minute. Hold on just a second. Emily, will you hit a man? Yeah. Hit a men on your screen. Okay. Not doing anything. Hers is broke. It's not letting her do it. I think it's because the motions have already come up. Oh, you've got it in. Yeah, she's got it. Okay. Well, you did it. Just didn't know you did it. Manager, can I ask a question? Okay. Now, somebody needs to hit the second.

Okay. We have a motion by Alman Hollerman, a second by Alman Bradley. Have discussion with their second. A question for you, Mr. Martin. Would it not be possible for us to have a special called business meeting so we could skip another month after our first next month passing that and then come back the next week or whenever was everybody was available. I'm not trying to hurt these people at all. Yes, sir. I think that's a possibility. That's certainly at the will of the board if they wouldn't do that. I think kind of what we've agreed on tonight is Yeah.

Is again, not that we selectively enforce an ordinance, but if you all are going to change an ordinance and and make something and you've signal that legislative intent, then that's the way we'll operate for the next two months anyway. [Music] So, I was just going to say I think that's a really great idea and if the board is interested in doing it, I'll make myself available. I would take.

All right. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Any questions, comments? So, by doing this and what you're saying you're going to do, then the stuff in the last two weeks that was asked to be or towed to be removed, it can go back. We will not be based on the legislative intent that you all are signaling tonight. We will not be we will go back to the way we used to enforce the the sidewalk obstruction ordinance, which is basically to ensure the ADA clearance is made. Are we all in understanding of the motion? Let me go ahead. But

just mayor, one more clarification. Now, were that to change next month and you all vote that down, right? Um something were to change and you and you a change of heart, then then we would have to go back to enforcement of of the sidewalk construction ordinance. But based on the legislative intent that I'm gathering from you all tonight, we will revert back to not focusing our resources on on things that are out so long as they don't create a material obstruction on the sidewalk. Everyone good with that? Okay. Are we ready to vote? Yes.

Yeah. Cherry was ready to go home. Let's cast our votes. I got to sweep my sidewalk off. Anyone care to change their bucket? It is, but it's cool. Everybody's Would you tall the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Be disciplined. Moving on to our consent agenda. We got 3.8. 3.8. We have 3.8. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Oh, we just we 3.8 has been moved removed from our agenda for tonight. All right. Yes. I move to uh to accept the whole second. We have a motion by Alman Hover. We have a second by Alman Bradley. Any questions or comments? We're ready to vote. [Music] Yeah, just I was waiting for

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Ready? Ready. Yes. Let's cast our votes. What's your You've been censored. Anyone care to change their votes? Motion passes 70.

Very good. Thank you everyone for being with us tonight. Thank you board members. Thank you to everyone. I'm so sorry. City manager Martin has.

Thank you, Mayor. That's okay. I know everybody's ready to go home. I'll be very brief. So, just to give you an update on the Gardener Street playground, uh Garner Street Park playground. We do anticipate that opening very soon. A lot of discussion. Um and I, you know, I don't do Facebook, but I hear there are some rumors on Facebook and um it was that we had the contractor replace some stuff. There were some things that were put in the part we opened the playground. There were some things that uh Mr. Martin didn't like. He asked me to come down there. We looked at it together. We didn't like it the way it was. It's not the way it was supposed to be designed. So, we had them fix that. And so, anytime you have that happen, it has to be reinspected. So, we were kind of waiting on the work to be done and then we've got to wait on a reinspection from the state and I believe that's going to happen in the next week or two. So, we're that playground's finally going to be open. As you know, Mr. Martin has extremely high standards and uh and I'm okay with that because he didn't like the way it looked and I didn't like the way it looked either. It's not what we thought we were getting. So, we're fixing that and uh and the contractor was was acknowledged that hey, yeah, we we need we need to make this right. So, we're doing that. our um our sales tax revenue is uh is is coming in a couple about one and a half% ahead of budget so far. We use that obviously as an economic bail weather as an economic indicator for for kind of how things are going. So it's not that that's not the the pace that we've seen uh in those you know those 2021 22 23 years but but one and a half% is still uh ahead of budget. And finally we have our final first Friday night market or excuse me first Friday event. I can't call it that anymore. First Friday event uh coming up on October the 3rd. Tenure your town will be the band. One of the our favorites for our first Friday goers. Happy to report uh we finally got to have a first Friday. We almost got again we almost got to have the whole thing. Um almost we almost got it in. Uh but we had we're able to track the numbers of folks that come downtown. And there was about 4,000 people downtown for that one. Even though the weather didn't look great at times and of course the

lightning and I know that people some people left early because they saw the lightning coming and and uh we had Terry Martin go stand out with a lightning rod to draw the lightning away from the the crowd. But um but hey, we're looking forward to that. Hoping for good weather because we know what that means to our downtown merchants and um and what it does to the downtown economy having 4,000 people all converge on downtown on an evening. So, thank you all for your support for that event and we look forward to having the last one here in a couple weeks. Mayor. Yes, sir. Citizens, remember, we work better together if you communicate one with the one with the other. Thank you. That's We stand a journ. Thank you very