Board of Mayor & Aldermen - Regular Meeting

collectively. We pray that we continue to be we the people, Lord, in order to work and make a more prosperous city. Bless this city. We thank you. And we thank you again, Lord, just for the liberty of being able to conduct this business in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. [Music]

Beginning with item 1.3, approval of minutes from the regular meeting of board of mayor and alderman held September 16th, 2025. We have a motion by Alderman Bradley. Have a second by Ottoman Troder. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we prepared to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Hearing none, would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Now we enter item 1.4, our public comment period. We have five people that have signed up for public comment. I will call your name. You will come to the podium and state your name and you will have two minutes to speak. First on the items tonight is Mr. Jim Moore. If you would please right off the bat here, thanks for having me. Uh Jim Moore with GS Mo and Sun. Uh just wanted to talk a little bit about the uh parking uh ordinance and uh ordinance 25. I guess it looks like that is uh I think I think it's needed. Uh I want to say thank you to uh Carolyn Durham at the plan planning department for sitting down with us and taking some developer feedback on the front end was uh much appreciated. Um she worked with us on the cottage style developments. Um specifically if if building a home that won't have a garage. Uh right now garages um count towards the parking. Um personally I think that's somewhat of the issue is that people are filling up their garages with their junk and then parking outside and not leaving um anywhere else for for people to park. Uh you are calling for three spaces for a typical home. Um I know that there is also an ordinance that does not allow parking in front of the home. So anxious to see how that plays out. Um I I really like the idea of the parking pads dispersed throughout uh the new neighborhoods. Um but I will say at some point also I don't think it's necessarily the city's responsibility to legislate

um the uh you know if somebody has an issue in a parking everybody calls the city and I understand that's frustrating but at some point to do a neighborhood now you're required to have an HOA call your HOA if you're in a multif family call the owner of the property. Um and the second thing I wanted to mention um was 11502 standards for duplexes and multif family. Uh on line F each dwelling unit shall be provided with a separate meter for all utilities. Um I I can is that my time? Thank you. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Moore. Next, I'd like to call up Mr. Timman Welch. passes and children. Okay, we'll call your wife then. Elizabeth Welch, will you come up please state your name? I'm Elizabeth Welch.

So, I'm here for the reasonzoning of 501 Highland from commercial to residential. That's item 2.4. And I wanted to thank the planning commission for their time and thoughtful discussion. They really worked hard to find a path forward. They voted unanimously to recommend approval and I'm sincerely appreciative of that. When we bought this lot as a lot of record, we were told that we could build a house on it as long as it didn't exceed more than 40% of the total area. And that has always been our plan. It currently has a trailer on it that has always been used for residential. The lot doesn't make sense as commercial. It's surrounded by homes, located on a side road, and has no space for parking. It would not be a desirable or practical location for commercial. When I relisted to our last meeting with planning and zoning, a few points stuck out. The city manager mentioned that this was an unintended consequence of the comprehensive plan. The lot isn't a good fit for commercial use and probably shouldn't have been zoned that way. In fact, it has no real value or commercial value as everything surrounding it is residential. And if I grabbed one of your sentences out of context, I apolog. It was during an open discussion. It was also noted that this partial was this parcel was grouped into commercial by mistake and that this would be an opportunity to correct that error. So I hope that remains the case as this adjustment would be a positive step for us. We currently have a single wide trailer on the lot and we would like to remove it and build a home that fits the neighborhood. Todd Bowlinger has provided a survey showing how a house can be built within the required setbacks and we have that with us today. So, if you wanted to see it, it's not on the I tried to turn it in and they told me that they couldn't get it on it. So,

to pass out to each one of us. No, I just have one. The first one, it's hard to read because it's little. So, I blew it up. Okay. You just hand it to Alderman Harris and he'll pass it through. And that was it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Welch. Next, Mr. Ray Stewart. Stewart, state your name, please.

Ray Stewart, we live at 508 Fifth Avenue East. And we love Springfield. I want you to always serve the city of Springfield first and its taxpayers and all your work. The Springfield growth plan is quite a lengthy document. A lot in there, surveys, a lot of numbers, and some detail about the city. One thing I did not find in all those 130 or 140 pages, it never asked elected officials or appointed officials to park their common sense and goodwill at the door. If you say you believe in beautiful open spaces, that you value safety, that you value what's best for your neighbors, then think upon these things. If there had been a part of the survey that said, "How would you feel about your neighbor changing their lot from medium density to high density and knocking down their house and building two houses beside yours?" Would you be for that or not? Nine out of 10 of you would say no. The 10th one probably didn't hear the question. The best quote from the October 2nd planning commission meeting came from Demetria White and her comment in a in a client that she was representing said, "I'm just trying not to mess over the neighbors." I think Demetria's comment was a good comment that night. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Next, we'd like to call up Janice

Janice Stewart. Hi, I'm Janice Stewart and I live at 508 Fifth Avenue East. And 12 years ago, we took a chance that Springfield would keep coming up and we bought one of the oldest, if not the oldest, house in Springfield that was abandoned. Um, she's actually 170 years old and we call her Grace. It's situated on a main street coming into Springfield and it has four blocks of oundredyear-old or older homes. Um, and we were told the historic district would um continue on and include us, but they stopped at Memorial. Please consider how you want our city to look now and in the future. And please show us some grace.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Stewart. At this time, we'll close our public comment period. We'll move to item 1.5, our public hearing. Ordinance 25-26, an ordinance amending the conditions of service manual for National Gas Services. Is there anyone here that care to speak to that? Seeing none, we'll move on to item 2.0, legislation. Item 2.1, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-26 on second and final reading, an ordinance amending the conditions of service manual for National Gas Services. We have a motion by Alderman Hollowman and a second by Alderman Bradley. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we prepared to vote? Let's cast our votes. Does anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Item 2.2, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-27 on first reading and ordinance amending title 16 of the Springfield Municipal Code relative to sidewalk regulations. We have a motion by Alman Hubard and second by Alman Hollowman. I think city manager Ryan Martin would like to speak to this.

Thank you, mayor. So this is an update from from last month based on uh what we gathered from the discussion at the uh September meeting. So you have in your packet uh an ordinance that looks similar but it but it has some different provisions. This has removed from the previously proposed ordinance removed the references to merchandise displays flags and banners and uh is otherwise substantially similar to what we looked at before minus those uh those sticking points. So, I'll be glad to answer any questions if you have any. Any questions? Any comments? If not, we're ready to vote. Let's vote.

I forgot my readers at home. Anyone care to change their vote?

Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Item 2.3, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-28 on first reading and ordinance reszoning property on Highway 41 from agriculture AG to multiple residential and office district MRO. We have a motion by Alderman Greg. We have a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments on this item? 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. Item 2.4, Four, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-29 on first reading an ordinance reszoning property at 501 Highland Street from Commercial General to high density residential. We have a motion by Alderman Greg, a second by Alderman Halleman. Ryan, you have Martin, city manager has something to say for this.

Yeah, thank you. So, uh, I want to kind of explain what's going on with this one, if you will, just a moment. And the speaker kind of summed up what my comments were at the planning commission level very very well, very very succinctly. This is a small parcel that is located off of Fifth Avenue. One parcel off of Fifth Avenue on uh on Highland Street. You can see that in your packet. That parcel sits right behind the parcel that sits on Fifth Avenue. At some point in time historically, this parcel was zoned CG. And the reality is that that at one point in time may have made sense. That does not make sense at the present time. That is a lot that should be and is surrounded by residential except for the uh um the parcel abudding Fifth Avenue in in the future land use map in the comprehensive growth plan. it was not feasible or possible to go parcel by parcel and identify what's currently zoned and what it was done basically by area. So the parcel in the future land use map has remain a commercially designated parcel. What the planning commission acknowledged and what the staff told the planning commission at their October meeting is that we cannot as a staff recommend approval of this resoning because it doesn't match up with the comp plan. Okay, we're not we're not able to do that. You all approved a comprehensive growth plan with the future land use map and we can't recommend that you do something that's in violation of that. What the planning commission agreed to do because we acknowledge that the problem is it shouldn't be like that. Right? So, the planning commission acknowledged an intent and a desire to amend the land use map to correct that issue. The m the mistake that word it was intentionally zoned that way at one

point in time. But it's it's erroneous in what it's classified at now on the comprehensive growth plan land use map. So because the planning commission did that, what they've done is they've they've recommended to you all to approve the resoning with the understanding that they intend to revisit the future land use map and uh amend that. But that requires some statutory provisions like a public hearing. So that will take place at the planning commission level. So, it's kind of convoluted doing things out of order, but the the planning commission was confident enough to go ahead and recommend that you all reszone this. And with that, with the planning commission's intent to amend the future land use map, the staff then is comfortable with recommending the reszoning as well.

Thank you, Ryan. Question Harris. We u pass this. I'm assuming we would have to amend this to make this contingency part of it or is that how you have it written? That's how we have it written. Okay. The the the planning commission's recommendation before you all tonight is contingent on the approval. So, if we do approve it, how long is it going to take them to make the changes that need to be made for them to build what they want to build?

The reasonzoning would become effective upon your second reading next month and then they would be that the it would be officially reszoned. Um, unless you all wanted to wait until and make the resoning effective. Um, and actually I think it if you look at section two of the ordinance, let me let me make sure I get this correct. Section two of the ordinance that's on page two in your packet. This ordinance shall become effective upon its second and final passage as required by law and upon adoption by the board of mayor and alderman of an amendment to the comprehensive growth plan concerning the future land use designation. So the planning commission has to come back with a public hearing and their recommendation to amend and then you all have to approve that. So it would be December. Am I right, Miss Durham, on that? It would be December, not November before they could start.

Correct. Yeah. I guess how does all the persons feel about that? That's It seems logical to me. I I think is looking at the map and what she's presented with. I mean, this is just a logical conclusion to make that residential. That seems I mean, if it's where I think it is. I mean, the picture's pretty building in front of it. So, I want to think Miss Walker may have lived there in the trailer at one time. And if you weren't looking for it, you probably wouldn't known it was there, right? It was tucked in behind that other building.

Since that kind of hood my ward, you know, I concur with what what you guys want to do. Okay. I wanted to get rid of it years ago. Just so ugly. This is the right thing to do. Yeah, it is. This definitely is. Holland, I just wanted to say thank you all for your patience. I know when you purchase that, you didn't anticipate this hurdle and um I I think we're going to hopefully be able to address that and I just appreciate also the city and the planning commission's ability to acknowledge, yep, we're not perfect and maybe we uh have a slip up here, but we can fix that. And again, thank you all for your patience and being here tonight.

Any other questions or comments? She gave a very compelling argument there. But if everything falls into place, they should be able to start something in December. In December after after our meeting in December. Any other questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Ready to vote. cast their votes. Anyone care to change their votes? I do. The votes. Motion passes seven to zero.

Very good. Moving to item 3.3. [Music] I got it. Moving to item 2.5 discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-30 on first reading. Need a second.

An ordinance amending section 11-812 of the Springfield zoning ordinance entitled sidewalk cafe overlay zone. We have a motion by Alman Hubb, second by Alderman Greg. I think city manager Ryan Martin has something to say to this.

Thank you, Mayor. This is uh we talked about this before and I told you this was coming. The planning commission did evaluate this and and recommend that you all approve this um as well unanimously. This is extending the sidewalk cafe overlay zone. This goes to and is connected to the discussion we had about sidewalk obstruction, but this deals specifically with with restaurants and cafes. This deals specifically with tables and chairs that are only eligible um for to those who are in the food business, restaurants only, cafes only. That boundary will now be extended to encompass the if you all approve this ordinance, the entire square and also take the boundary on South Main Street where it was from Fifth Avenue to 7th Avenue. Take that all the way down to Central and also include the section of Bats Boulevard north of Central Avenue. So it encompasses all of downtown, if you will. Before there was a section of the square that wasn't even included in the in the overlay zone. It was just 6th Avenue instead of West Court Square. So now all of of downtown, if you will, from South Main, from the South Main perspective, is uh is included in the sidewalk cafe overlay zone in the proposal. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

Any questions? Any 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 seven to zero.

Item 2.6, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-31 on first reading, an ordinance amending section 11-203 of the Springfield zoning ordinance relative to the definitions of substantial compliance and submission date. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alderman Greg. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. 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 2.7, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-32 on first reading. An ordinance amending the Springfield zoning ordinance relative to vested property rights. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Bradley. Any questions or comments on this item? 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 2.8, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-33 on first reading. An ordinance amending the Springfield zoning ordinance relative to residential parking requirements. We have a motion by Alderman Hubard, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? hearing. None. Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their votes? Would you count the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Item 2.9, discuss and possibly take action on ordinance 25-34 on first reading an ordinance reszoning property at 506 Fth Avenue East from medium density residential district R10 to high density residential district R7. We have a motion by Vasmeer Harris, a second by Alman Hubard. Any 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 six to one. Item 2.10, 10. Discuss and possibly take action on resolution 25-9, a resolution accepting a grant from the state and local cyber security grant program. We have a motion by Alderman Troder, second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions or comments? Comments for me is accepted because I'm looking at the SL situation and I don't want us get caught up in the same City Band, do you have any comments on that? Um,

I'm not familiar with with anything in Leverne with cyber security to us is extremely important and there are a few specific things that are outlined in your packet about what this grant will go towards. We're grateful for the state for awarding the grant. Multifactor authentication is one of those things that we are trying to implement citywide. Unfortunately, you putting in your password just isn't good enough anymore. and and there's got to be someone to make sure that that's actually you or something to make sure it's you on the other end of that device and that protects our uh critical infrastructure here. We're I say it often and I I don't mind I mean I told you all a thousand times we are the constant target of cyber threats. Why is that? Because of our critical infrastructure here, our electric grid, right? We have a water treatment plant that supplies a drinking water for about 60 to 65% of of the county. And so we are we can see those threats uh that that try to penetrate our networks continuously. So cyber security is something that we train our employees on. We have mandatory cyber security training um and and we try to make sure we protect that uh and and to be good steward of the resources that we've been entrusted with by the taxpayers.

Reason why I made my comment lever is still going through they were hit and and they're going through a struggle. their, you know, water supply. All all the main grids and stuff were hit at one time, so they were off. So, I just wanted you to comment, let the public know that we we're on top of it. Absolutely. I know it's very difficult

sometimes to to stop it, but it's this this is going on. We have these I'mma label as antisocial people who just want to disrupt municipalities. 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 seven to zero.

Item 2.11, discuss and possibly take action on resolution 25-20, a resolution declaring certain property surplus and authorizing the disposal of such property. Have a motion by Alder Mhammed, a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any 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 2.12, discuss and possibly take action on resolution 25-21 on first reading, a resolution annexing and zoning property on William Batson Parkway to multiple residential and office district MRO. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Vice Mayor Harris. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, are we ready to vote? Let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Moving 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 wholesale fuel cost adjustment by the Tennessee Valley Authority. We have a motion by Alderman Hoverard, a second by Alman Hollowman, Mr. Electric Director Terry Reisha. Let's see you. Any questions or comments? You you've been generous over the last few months, so I can't complain.

Any other comments or questions? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero. Item 3.2, 2 discuss and possibly take action on the adjustment of the monthly gas rates of the Springfield gas department. Have a motion by alderman Greg. A second by Alman Bradley gas director Mr. Vench Davis what say you? Purchase gas adjustment decrease 1.9 across the board decrease of 2.77%.

Good. Any questions or comments? favorable weather, no hurricanes and stuff like that has made the southeast the southeast really the gas prices really go down. Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our votes. Anyone here to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Item 3.3, discuss and possibly take action on a recommendation from the traffic committee regarding on street parking in Queen and Court subdivision. We have a motion by Alman Hubard, a second by Alman Bradley. Any 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 seven to zero.

Item 3.4, discuss and possibly take action to issue a certificate of compliance to Good Habit located at 508 South Main Street. Have a motion by Alderman Hubard, a second by Alderman Troder. Any questions or comments? Are we ready to vote? Let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Item 3.5, discuss and possibly take action on change order number three from J. Come be construction incorporated for the water treatment plant high service pump upgrade project. We have a motion by Alman Hubard to second by Alderman Troder. Any 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 seven to zero. Item 3.6, discuss and possibly take action on a proposal from IOA Water Technologies LLC for raw water intake and removal. We have a motion by Alderman Troder, a second by Alderman Hollowman. Any questions or comments? May I just That's in particular the Red River. Yes, sir. Plant Any other questions, comments? If not, let's cast our votes.

Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero. Item 3.7, discuss and possibly take action on an application for the violent crime intervention fund zip codes grant for patrolbased activities for the police department. We have a motion by Alderman Troder, a second by Alderman Hollowman. I believe city manager Martin has something to say to this.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. So, that's not a typo in your packet. That's actually a million-dollar grant from the state of Tennessee from the violent crime intervention fund. And uh so patrol-based activities, those things that that prevent and deter violent crime are eligible expenses. And so the PD is uh this was uh this is a huge award from the state of Tennessee. It's it's a it's a it's a big deal to um to get that amount of money. So, we're identifying the uh and all of the, you know, the things that the the PD we talk about at strategic planning, right? That the police department uh is has in their strategic plan. So, identifying and evaluating those in in a priority. I can tell you that one of those priorities is going to be additional barriers, right? the um the archer barriers that we have downtown for events. We'll have additional additional ones of those will be purchased with these funds because we don't have enough to cover some of the when we do certain events to cover some of the areas and we have to use either personnel or vehicles or things like that. So, we'll look at purchasing additional barriers and there's some other things and so we'll we'll let you know about that. This is approval for the application uh that we have to officially submit. that we've been awarded the funds, but we still have to have your your approval to apply for that and receive those funds.

Is part of the entity um community policing? Is it going to be part of it where you visit the neighborhoods and do you remember you've been a long time back is that you remember the community policing type of situations we used to have where you really find the pockets that are of the community that might be subject to have high crime that we intervene with different strategies and and and I would just say PR type of setting.

Is this going to be part of it? That's what I'm asking. This particular grant doesn't cover that. I don't believe this particular grant covers patrolbased activities as far as goods and stuff, right? And so we're talking about items that um to to be purchased. Not this particular grant, but but we still But you understand what I'm trying to Absolutely. you know because we used to be really really good at that you know can be used to purchase LPRs. Yes. Okay. Boots on the ground in those areas that we consider weak. Right. I have a quick question. This is for violent crime intervention. Correct.

How do how do we get to spend the money on barriers if it's not violent crime related? Uh, well, I believe that somebody plowing a vehicle into a crowd would be Well, I was if I was to think of it from a different kind of Right. Yeah. I didn't understand. It's it's a broad I think it's a broad very

um but it's anything any violent crime. I mean, that's what we're trying to do is is deter an event. whether it's a violent crime like that or whether it's um Alderman Troder mentioned uh LPRs to to prevent and deter if you have a homicide suspect that flees a scene in a vehicle and you can you can have that that license plate. So it's anything that can prevent deter and force correct violent crime is my understanding. Any other questions or comments? But was my comment wrong about intervening? No, I understand what you what you were saying. This this grant covers okay something a little bit different

because I'm I'm kind of noticing in some of my areas I'm not comfortable with Park Street. I see kind of buildup of of of undesirable type of behaviors and stuff that might be going on. So people lounging around and and I know that that criminal activity could really come off from that. That's what I'm talking about. Okay. You have 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 seven to zero. Item 3.8, discuss and possibly take action on on street parking in Saddle Brook subdivision. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Harris, a second by Alderman Hubard. Alman Harris, you have comment. Each of you have a letter in your packet from me because I thought I was not going to be in town tonight, but those plans changed about a year ago, probably in November, if I remember correctly, this board, we honored the request of the HOA and Oakland Farms to make all their streets no parking. Mhm.

Um it was my oversight as part of I thought all of that was part of Oakland Farms in that area, but it's been brought to our attention by one of the residents there that lives in the Saddlebrook subdivision part of that that they are not part of Oakland Farms. They do not pay any HOA dues. They do not have any privileges to their um room that they have or the pool that they have of that. And they are asking that uh we remove them from what we passed last year. So, we reverted back to what the original recommendation was from the traffic committee to make one side of the street uh no parking, which would probably be the side that does not have any fire hydrants, I believe, is what Mr. Martin said. And then there is one street that one side is part of Oakland Farms, the other side is part of Saddlebrook. So, if that street of Saddlebrook has fire hydrants and we pass it, but that would be the side that there would probably be no parking on either side of that street from that. But um I I see no reason not to honor their request. I think it's going to come at some expense to uh some signage that will have to be changed, but uh it's not that great deal of money that I would ask everyone to honor it if they would.

Any other questions or comments? 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.

Discuss and possibly take action on an agreement with online information services incorporated to provide utility customer credit and collection services. We have a motion by Alman Hover, a second by Alderman Greg. Any questions or comments on this item? We ready to cast their votes? Let's vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Would you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero.

Item 3.10, discuss and possibly take action on an easement acquisition for the Highway 257 waterline replacement project. 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 vote? Would you tally the votes, please?

Motion passes seven to zero. Item 3.11, discuss and possibly take action on a change order with Groves Electrical Services for the district substation upgrade project. Have a motion by Alman Troder, second by Alman Huard. Any questions or comments? If not, let's cast our vote. Anyone care to change their vote? Paying attention here. You tally the votes, please. Motion passes seven to zero. Item 4.0 is our consent agenda. Mayor, without objection, I move take his one. All righty. Second.

We need a second. Yes. We need a second for that. Gotcha. All right. Are we ready? Any questions or any comments? If not, let's cast our votes. I think we got to make a motion. It's not letting us The motion needs to be reported first.

Can you make the motion? Make it again. [Music] Now we can. We got a motion in a second. No. Any discussion? Let's cast our votes. Anyone care to change their votes? [Music] Could you tally the votes, please? Motion passes seven to zero. Good. Item 5.0, Zeros City Manager Ryan Martin's report.

Thank you, Mayor. So, a couple quick things uh just a one reminder and then a new date for you. So, October the 27th, that is this coming Monday at 10:00 a.m. is going to be our groundbreaking ceremony for the new wastewater treatment plant. That's out at the very end of Lawrence Lane, as far as you can go. Um almost as far as you can go. U and we'll have the new groundbreaking out there. period. You know, that's the largest project in uh city of Springfield history and as far as moneywise. And so that's a something that will last uh outlast for or last for generations, a couple generations to come. Uh so we hope to see you there October 27th, 10:00 a.m. Markdown uh November the 5th, excuse me. That's a Wednesday at 2 p.m. we will officially open or have our our ribbon cutting ceremony. It's open already. Ribbon cutting ceremony for our upgrades at Garner Street Park, including the playground. All the final touches are done. We're waiting on the sign to come in. The signs in now. Uh the floors are are done in the bathroom facility. It's just a nice lot of nice upgrades out there uh at that park. If you haven't dropped by to see that, please do. And we'll see you on Wednesday, November 5th at 2 o'clock for that uh event. Want to introduce somebody in the back. If Cole, if you'll if you'll wave your hand, Cole Webb is our new IT analyst. Uh he started with us a couple weeks ago and we're excited to have Cole with us to uh on staff now. So you'll be seeing a lot of Cole. If you have any issues with your iPad, he's uh he's an expert and he'll be able to take care of of all of those. As far as the TVA agreement goes, we've skipped that two months in a row. uh we we put it on the agenda so that way we can satisfy the notice requirements uh in hopes that we have a finalized version of something for you all to approve. As of this afternoon, Miss Barti and I kind of agreed that that we didn't we weren't comfortable enough with some of

the revisions that came back and and we want to make some more revisions to it with TVA. So, those discussions will be ongoing. You'll see that again in November and hopefully have a final version for you to approve. Lastly, I want to make make note of one thing that is that is becoming an issue that we're doing some research on and may require action of some sort. May not. We don't we don't quite know yet. The county Robertson County uh solid waste is now charging us $15 per mattress that we deposit at their facility. Uh we understand, hey, it's expensive. So that this is not a gripe or a complaint that uh that you know about that. We understand that trash is expensive and we have a solid waste crisis in Middle Tennessee. For those that don't know, we have a solid waste crisis in Middle Tennessee and it's and it's going to get worse before it gets better. U not just Springfield and Robertson County, but but all across the region. The the difficulty there is that has greatly increased the cost of our junk collection that we do in April and October. We are we set out this month to absorb those costs of the mattresses to try to see what that did to the budget. Uh as of today, Mr. Moore estimates we've spent over $4,000 in depositing mattresses. So, as you know, so that's that's unaccounted for funds or unallocated un unplanned for expenses uh with our free junk collection because that we provide that service to our residents at no charge. We pick up your junk in April and October. So, we may be looking at a crossroads of where we may not we may have to exclude mattresses from that in the future.

We think

and uh because I believe that that'll probably be $5,000 or so before the um before the uh the month is over with. So, just want to give you a heads up that that that may and if anything is needs to be changed from an ordinance perspective, we'll bring that to you all. If not, we may administratively make that change by by the time April comes around. But we will try to uh Mr. Moore and I have already talked about uh how how we would want to make sure everyone is notified. We we certainly don't want somebody to take a mattress out of their home and set it outside and have to take it back in, right? So, we want to make sure we if we have to make that change that we notify everyone. So, uh ending on some good news, our uh sales tax for FY26 is coming in. We're about 2 and a half% ahead of budget uh as of this month, which is great. Not because we just want tax money, but that's a bellweather of our economy, right, of how much people are shopping locally. So, when those numbers and projections look good, then that means our economy is strong. Uh that also means that we can fund the services that our citizens uh want from us like fire service and police service and the new playground at Garner Street Park and all of those things. So, mayor, that's all I have. Thank you all very much.

I know we missed our park director. Is is he well? He's he's well. He's uh he's on some family time uh this evening and uh and so he he's well he's he's a it's a shame he can't be here to get his uh get his glory. Yeah. On behalf of our board to extend our condolences to Kim Bless and death of her father and also be in prayerful vice mayor wife is in the hospital so we pray. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Set your All right.