Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

on Facebook live for our meeting um that is in preparation for the first meeting in May um which will be our regular meeting. So um hi everybody.

Um so we have a couple things on the agenda prior to going over the um our work session agenda prior to going into our agenda for that board meeting. And we are we are graced today by our new look on your face by our new uh link executive. So Ian Basy has said he will come visit with us a little bit, introduce himself. So you'll have a face to go with a name and a job description. So Mr. Basy, thank you. Welcome to Starkville. I understand you are also a resident in Starkville. Yes, ma'am. And we're excited about that. So glad you chose to come our way, but please introduce yourself and share as please do feel free to the board members. So,

hi, I'm Ian Vasy. I uh joined the it's about six weeks ago. Um joined the link as the new chief executive officer and um for one to have a quick summary, I've been involved in economic development on the public and private side for over 30 years. more recently up in Oregon where I was working with the primarily with the air force doing converting an air force base to from F-15 step 35 but also uh previously led the economic development group in South Texas which is uh in Corpus Christi and before that in Baton Rouge where I was a competitor of the link in this region for a number of years. Um, I'm trying to get I feel like I'm trying to get on a moving train right now. And you know, it's uh it's one of those things that uh you don't know what you don't know until you get up to speed. But I've been doing a lot of uh listening and talking to folks and just trying to understand what priorities are and the limitations and the where we go from here. Um, traditionally the the link has been involved in some of the very large industrial projects along the highway um and working in things like the steel plant and then the you know the the the mega sites that are out there. But one of the areas that I'm I'm seeing as an opportunity for the link is to work more closely with uh Mississippi State um you know kind of transition from just the manufacturing jobs to how do we get those higher paying knowledgebased uh research type of jobs and uh the university has been very gracious in working with us to to help partner with us on on that moving forward. So there's opportunities in defense techn uh technology, automotive, um supercomputing and some other things that can provide, you know, value and highpaying jobs in this community. And then obviously we're working with with your team on the Northstar site as well as some other projects that are that are

in the area. Um another piece that the the link really hasn't spent a lot of time in or leaned into is working with the military um as a regional group. This is a that's a huge military economic impact for the entire area and people live you know who work on base live all across the entire region including in the city of Starkville. So, um, we know that with the transition of types of aircraft of that are coming to that Air Force base, we know that there's going to be several billion dollars in spending over the next couple probably next decade, I would imagine, um, to as the T7 comes online because you don't just fly one aircraft away. You have to replace repair and maintenance facilities. You have to repair replace simulator buildings, um, things like that. So those are some of the things that I've really been trying to to get my arms around to understand the potential economic impact from some of those. And then the the last piece of the the puzzle and this is something that's I saw a presentation a number of years ago and it kind of stuck with me is that in economic development we really are involved in planting trees that we will never sit under the shade of. somebody came up comment about that and I thought that that's really a good kind of summary about what economic development does is we build infrastructure. So you know I was running models about where our population growth as a region goes and you know there's some models that only show 1% 2% population economic growth over the next five years. But let's take our, you know, let's put that aside and and think about what would it be like if our economy and our population in in the cities and the counties and the region as a whole. What happens if it grew 50% in 25 years? And then what are the things we have to do to get that? you know, what are the infrastructure improvements that we have to to start thinking about and incrementally improving water, sewer, um the school system, and if we're going to be able to continue to grow and and secure some of

these high-paying jobs, where are we going to put those people? You know, let's say a 500 employee um company shows up in in one of the business parks somewhere, where would those people live and what kind of stresses would it put on the school system? So almost kind of like project forward this is a potential growth trajectory in 25 years. You know what's it going to be like in 2050 and then what are the things we have to do collectively together because we've got three large cities working together in this region. three counties working together and how do we kind of steer that and and coordinate and collaborate among the entire region because you know rather than competing internally our competition isn't with each other our competitions with you know other regions other states other countries even for major projects. So, those are some of the things that that I've been hearing. And the other thing I've been I've been hearing on a consistent basis when I when I talk to folks is, you know, especially folks of, you know, my generation and and older is, you know, we there are folks that have to, you know, jump on a plane to go see their grandkids or go for the holidays. What are the things we can do as a community to make sure that they're the type of jobs are available so when a kid graduates from high school or community college or the university that they're the attractive jobs that are here for those folks so that they'll make a decision to stay. So those those are some of the things that I've been thinking about and listening to from the community is as I'm trying to get up to speed. So

any any questions Mr. Um do you have any update? Uh you know we've got two projects here. Yes. Um project jacket I think is what they're calling it now. One time I thought they call it spiral, but whatever. Uh and and that one seems to be proceeding. Do you are you uh up on what the timeline on that is? Um in a public setting, you know, that we're going to need to to have an idea on the road improvements and the there's a wild card out there being the rail crossings that are involved in that. But our understanding is once those get settled by the probably third some of it's in the public realm already but the the company needs to make a decision probably back end of this summer would be my understanding on it.

Okay. Well um I believe we we are moving rather rapidly. I know that our city engineer is getting a number together today for the uh street element of that so that we'll be able to share that. I mean, once we get the street number in, that'll go into, you know, MDA's, you know, the the deal book, the black box where it's they perform the witchcraft, and then they come up with with how they're going to value a deal. So, Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate that. Well, if if there are no questions, I just wanted to make sure that everybody had an opportunity to see you, visit with you, hear from you. So, thank you for taking the time. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. It's nice to meet everyone. Thank you.

All right. And then next we have a presentation by Stacy Hartman who bless her heart showed up at 10. Somebody gave her the wrong time. I had to send her on her way or I wrote it down. And so uh she's going to make a presentation for us uh on an opt out program for the power of change program that we're already have implemented um that would benefit our community. So Miss Park, you go right or Dr. Harman actually.

There are lots of titles. Um but thank you mayor and thank you board for inviting me to come back to you again to talk about um how the power of change program is going. We have really enjoyed working with Edward Kemp and he has been fantastic out there. We hosted an energy workshop at Trinity on Wednesday night and I always learned something. So please go to these things. They're fantastic. Um so what happened is we tried we rolled out the power of change program. We tried this for a quarter. Is my understanding that we had 31 people in opt in to have their utility bill raised to the next dollar. So just a snippet there is that that means less than $12 for a whole year. You can opt uh you you opted in to have your bill raised. No, no more than $12 for a whole year, but it helps the people in the community. Um, I'm kind of wearing two hats today. One is Startville Community Foundation that restarted the Helping Hands of Octavia County. So, through that program, we and we hosted at Trinity Presbyterian. So, I'm now the pastor there. So, that's a little blurry, but I come to wearing both hats. And um, so in that program, we help five people a week. And I brought before you the last time our vetting process that we do. We try to keep it simple. Here a snapshot of what's going on in their lives to create the the the trouble um where the output and the input don't meet. And um that has been successful. Start community that foundation puts in the first $15,000 for that. St. Joseph's Catholic Church puts in $650 a month for that. And uh the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection gives us the um benefits from their October Fest which is very

fun. So thank you for supporting that. And then um Trinity puts in money as well. So those are our major donors to it and we just shut it down when we run out of money because that's all we can do. Um and each week we help five people. So that's $1,250 a week. So if we run the program year round, 52 weeks, that's $65,000. So you can tell by those numbers. I just threw out there. That's not enough. Um, but in this first quarter that we ran it, these are our numbers we paid. Um, oh, I can't see my percentages. They might be at the bottom. Can you scroll down maybe? They should be at the bottom.

It's the bottom. Oh dear. Okay. Anyway, um, Startwell UT. Okay. Um, Startwell Utilities received 57% of the monies we've paid out this year and that's $10,233.73 cents and then you can see how it goes down from there. I do work directly with um child um protective services. So if there's an odd request in there, we help um get people into safe homes. So there's a hangout, there's Can I ask is that rent?

That was rent for that one. Um um but anyway, we have changed all these things. Edward and I keep talking about how we're going to how we're going to dovetail the program. So, it just goes to start with utilities and I'm also trying to work with for county with how we can get there around because they have an opt out program too and they do different things with their funds. So, I'm trying to talk to Port County as well, but they do but start with utilities gets the majority of our money right now. So with doing um the optin program, we had 31 people. Many of you are around this table right now who who supported the program. So thank you. That that generated $2,300 and that's not even two weeks worth of help. So if we could move to an optin program, I mean an opt out program, then that creates the flow that we need.

And you're saying that's what F County has is an opt out? They do have an opt out program. They said that they had maybe 12 people call to opt out. I personally would like to know who is the grumpy person that called and said, "I don't want to pay $12 a year for to help people." But and let me let me let's let's not say $12 a year because you've got to be the most unlucky person on the face of the earth for your bill to always been be one cent over. So more likely you're talking about five to six years dollars a year to six dollars a month.

25 cents one month, 75 cents another month. that's that's really the more realistic range. But when you um when you use that force multiplier of all the accounts that are out there that that becomes a really meaningful amount that can help people who are struggling with utility bills, right? Right. Start with utilities has done a great job doing an active um you know program to push this pro power of change. So since the 31 that we're at the beginning of the year, we now have 50. But that still generates about $650 a month, which doesn't even cover one week of helping people. And one week is five people. One week is five families.

And did y'all select five is just your number to help or is just budgeting just based on they have different Oh, we feel 300 calls a week. Um, my phone is blowing up right now from Fridays are really bad and and people are desperate and we I mean it's just a hard season I think for everybody with with uh prices going up.

Um, and that's what we decided we could help. We have had conversations about decreasing the amount we pay so that we could help more people, but in reality when people bring us their electric bills, they're typically around $200. So, with with capping it at $250, that helps that that takes care of the bill. That takes one thing off of them. We have moved to where we do not help with rent at all. Um, and that's a complicated topic I can talk about, but I just wanted to try to keep it simple to show you what we are doing with the money and how it is coming back to Startwell Utilities. And if they are in support of this being an opt out program, I would ask that the board be in support of that so that we can then really sit down and talk about how we can make sustainable changes in people's lives.

Well, and the opt out piece of it is th that those monies that that are going from start with utilities will go for start utilities, right? Yes. They go back to start utilities, right? But it also could create like we have people who come in and they've had a water leak or we've had a water leak, you know, and they have to then pay for the plumbing. So, if we could get creative with those funds that would go back to start with utilities to help fix whatever the problem is that's causing the spike in bill. Um that would that's just one possibility that I see as a way that we could use those funds because they

and I think that depends on how how much is generated through through the program. I think the first first and most immediate need would be helping struggle utility customers with utility bills. And if over time that that grows, if it's if it's a larger number than we're anticipated or for some reason the demand for that that need goes down, um then then you can like like you said look at other things that can be done. And I think that's what for county has done with a lot of theirs is fund grants for various projects. But but it's it's early days and and the question would be do you want to do the opt out program or not?

So my main ask is could we please do the opt out program so that we'd have a chance to help more families. And what what does it take is is it just for the board to approve an opt out program? Is that all it takes for us to do from your perspective, Edward?

Yes, ma'am. just a just authorization to change that on the billing side. We think it's probably a 2 to four week process to go through a reprogramming in the billing to essentially change that. Obviously, if the board chooses that, we would want to communicate it out to all the customers with sufficient amount of notice um and then just do our training for our own personnel. So, I'm thinking we could probably activate it in a couple of months um you know or so. So, and he's not on this agenda, but I think probably with Stacy making or excuse me, making a making a presentation. Um, is this is something we could you work up a an agenda item and a cover sheet real quick so that Joanna Joanna could insert it in the Sure.

into the agenda? Okay. Is we willing to consider that? You can pay You can pay what you want in if you want to. You can put more than a bottom if you want. Oh, yeah. Some of us have done that. Yeah. Well, I yeah, someone said that and a lot of the questions I get that Edward and Rachel and I have talked about are um if they're on an automatic draft, how do they get get in and do it? And so, this would alleviate. I think a lot of people want to support it. I think they just are having trouble figuring out how to how to

and and that's been that's been my experience in talking with people about the program and and utilities has done a great job of pushing it out on social media and other other ways. But we all know that no matter how hard you try, not everybody hears what you're trying to tell them. Um, but a lot of the people that I've talked to were either unaware of the program, weren't clear about how they would opt into the program. I think people who don't want to support it will quickly find a way to opt out. It's just how people would it be just a phone call to opt out or just a something like that? Phone call uh email or they could do it themselves through smartphone.

Okay. Sure. Okay. Um, so, uh, let's put that on the Jonah, you good with that? Edward, you good with working up a real quick agenda item? Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. So, we'll we'll see that edit agenda and we'll put that under more business. Okay. All right. Thank you so much for letting me come speak. Are there any questions? Yeah, I was I was about being dismissive. Anybody have any questions of Dr. Far? Anything further? Okay. So, so, so there's real possibility that by the time we, if the board approves this, that by the time we hit summer, high utility bills that there will be monies available to help a lot more people. And

you think July, ever? I think July is a realistic timeline. The um and and I would envision the utilities department escrowing this, transferring it over periodically, too. um the foundation and I would like a a a a subcommittee that that's really looking at how we do this realistically to help people not just be a band-aid. We started this in in conjunction with Startwell Strong so that we would be the band-aid and they could walk with people out of of poverty and um and the need is just great. So, um, and yeah, so

well, we can work on the, um, as long as we get the the consensus on the on the program support, then we can work through the details of what happens with the actual dollars as they and we'll begin to see how many what that means. Sure. All right. Thank you so much. No, thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. We appreciate all your good leadership. All right. That goes for everybody in the room. Okay. Well, and and you do not have to stay if you don't want to. I didn't mean to leave you hang or you're welcome to go. Entirely up to you.

All right. So guys, let's go to our um agenda for May 5th. Um so we have first a couple sets of minutes, Mr. Hson, Miss McBar, all all good. So we'll put those on consent. Yes, sir. Okay. And then I wanted to mention under mayor's well mayor's comments won't matter on Tuesday for this but I put myself a note so that I can mention for today tomorrow is touch a truck so that will be at sunup it goes from 10 to two we've got all of our departments participating to um you know be able to have fire department the police department etc. They do have, I think, three popular sanitation department.

The sanitation department. That's right. Uh, we've got three hours of quiet time and apparently one hour of noise. So, if you end up with the one hour of noise, I suggest earplugs for you because it is it it is noisy. But what time? 10 to 2. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Mhm. And that's at Sith. In fact, one year they had a helicopter. I don't know if they've managed to helicopter again this year or not. Probably depending on the weather. But anyway, it's a it's a really wonderful event and it's gotten to be hugely successful over the years. So, um, anyway, just just a note of something something going on tomorrow. Um, and then, uh, we don't tournaments. Well, yeah, baseball, but depending on the weather, whether or not it'll make play. Okay. All right. Well, and I say that because I think there thunderstorms tomorrow, so it may or may not, but it's kind of a grudge match for my son's team. They said we're playing.

Oh, we're good. Good. Y'all y'all go for it. All right. Well, having said that, unless there's something else that we want to highlight that won't be relevant on Tuesday, we will move on. So, we will have the uh one public hearing on this is a variance, Mr. Havlin can give us a little bit of an update. This is a pretty straightforward variance request for extra height on fence that they're proposing to do. Board adjustment appeals heard the case and they voted 6 to1 to approve. Okay. All right. So, obviously we're having a public hearing on that one. This is on Gillespie Street. Yes. And it's it's a side fence. It's a side fence in the backyard. They want to go 9 ft instead of eight. So it's just a 1 foot barrier. Yeah. Okay. Do we normally do that?

Um not very common we get one. Most people have uh 8 ft, but they had some specific reasons in their request that u I'll present on Tuesday. They have some things that need to be shielded from the so that was the reason for the request. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Um and then we have a resolution for a lean where we um did a clean up at 12900 Mississippi Highway 182. That's it for that one. All right. Thank you. And then uh the non-binding resolution to adopt and allocate funds for the fitness court. Uh oh, this is kind of you want to talk about?

Sure. The the fitness court is an outdoor exercise area um fitted out with an assortment of of equipment. it there's a small grant. It requires a fairly substantial amount to actually build the court out. Um it is a non-binding um grant in that if we have not secured enough exterior funding to make it viable um by by midocctober. We would just say we appreciate the but we can't get there

but it's not working for us this year. There are two possible locations for the for the grant. One is at um JL King Park and one is at McKe Park. And if we were somehow to to um manage to raise a good bit of money, we could do one at each of the parks. They're starting they're starting to pop up in various places around the um around the state. Now, Oxford is doing one this year. Um Jackson is doing one. Okay. And this is a 60 year old program. This national fitness campaign just now just now popping up with us. Well, it pretty slow in Mississippi. Oh, okay. All right. So, um, consent for that one.

Okay. All right. And I'll put the we'll put the opt out program, but since it's not on the agenda now, we just move that one along to take it up on on Tuesday. And if somebody wants to put on consent agenda at that time, you can do that. Um, all right. So, engineering, Mr. Oh, there you are. Okay.

Help go over some of this. I'll be happy to do the first one is for uh professional services for easily. This is a task for survey and then item actually jump down. Item two is also for easily. So what this is is some preliminary work for hopefully our next transportation alternative. Ask us the MDOT grant. We we get about every year and we're looking at the east to provide a better pedestrian bike connection. If you were to count feet in a community that that street probably has the best feet anywhere. And with the new high school coming online, we're trying to master plan all the way from campus up to the new high school to make a connection. Probably can't build it all at once, but we can write it off the chunks. And so this gets the survey data and then it helps us develop a concept design where everybody should be.

This is a shared with MSU, right? Because it touches MSU, they want to share with us. So that would be one of those partnership shared um opportunities that we've we've used in the past. This is not a grand request. These are just just some this is an actual cost. Get this out of the way. Okay. For those two. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um consideration task order for Neil Schaefer on a survey for Jackson Street. I'll probably let Chris cover this one. Okay, Chris.

So, this is the Main Street Association, the grant that they got for $500,000. This is to do the survey to be able to do um the engineering work for it. Um depending on our workload, we'll try to do the design in house. And then we went ahead, this survey goes all the way down to Lampkin and kind of takes care of the tea as well. Since we have two projects, they're on the southern end. They're looking at hitting pretty soon as far as development pressure. Um so overall trying to make it to where we can design our street lighting for the whole corridor for that piece. Okay. So this survey will serve probably two to three projects.

Yeah. And this is really exciting, guys, because we're watching our downtown transform itself in in our ability to go underground with utilities or certainly to make it more um business friendly and development friendly. And I think these are real opportunities. So, can we do consent for that one? All right. Um then summary change order for the bus stop and $425. That's I don't know if we can afford that. So, we could do consent for that one. All right. Thank you. And then next one, Cody. Okay. So, was that one you too? I'm sorry.

I was taking care of this one. We were we're having on that one. So, this is for um the Spring Street North. So, this project runs from Chick-fil-A to Russell Street along Spring. The sidewalk that we're trying to build as far as the TA grant. So, this is the phase three of that project. The to get the sidewalk in, we have to redo the driveways to have a flat sidewalk to meet ADA. Now, we have to go into private property and be able to get a temporary construction easement. And so, with that, you have to follow all the federal guidelines and the federal rules. And so, this company specializes in the um temporary easement. Um so, even though they're just temporary construction easements, you still have to follow all the rules like you're buying property from them. And so, there's a lot of detailed um requirements for that to make sure that you follow the correct rules.

Okay. Well, this will be critical because we've got some residents there that are going to need to have access into their property in a in a way that doesn't create problem for them. So, tips on that one.

All right. And then we I love this one. This is the precision concrete cutting to remove the areas of the sidewalks that are trip hazards and on these places. And we did it last year. We'll continue to do it uh in the years to come just as a planned approach. So, consent for that one. Right. Um then we'll move past the claims docket HR. Um so this is this is the um the program with the with the kids with the high school kids. I think those are I for whatever reason those just tickle my neck out. I mean particularly since we were hiring we hired a high school person who then became an employee employee. So um consent for these this is um let's see.

I'm sorry. I hope those decision. Well, I have a question about three because three has got two of the Sorville High School, but then it's got one intern. Is that the project piece intern for HR or is that just another intern? That's the college. We have a HR intern because that's a budgeted intern. Does it piece? It doesn't. But I tell you what, next time we do it, let's do it. Not that it necessarily happened this year, but next time we do it, let's spread or divide those up so that there's a clarity to it. Yes, ma'am. Okay.

All right. consent for that. Um, and then we have hiring a police officer pre- academy and then a code enforcement officer. So, ready for another code enforcement officer. I'm excited about that. Consent for that. Okay. And then um what are we down the community learning center grant interns for utilities consent for those? Okay. And then um another consent I mean another um intern opportunity. So consent for that one. All right. um Jack Miles to chief water treatment operator and start with utility. These were combined in the original uh agenda that y'all received, but we split them out for clarity. Again, wastewater treatment and water treatment. So, you've got two both utilities, but in this case, one's a water treatment operator promotion. And this is to an existing where you have existing sorry existing position

existing position promotion promotion. Consent for that. And then uh wastewater treatment operator class and that's a higher and that is a a position need to be filled open position. That's it for that one.

Okay. Then parks we've got uh this is going to be our um July 4th show and this is the 250th anniversary. So I actually have asked Mr. Owens to take a look and see you know what the order of magnitude of the next next size up of uh fireworks just because it's a you know it's a celebration year. here. I have not heard back from him, but this at least allows us to move forward pyro shows for this level, which is the same one we've done for years. So, um, consent for that one.

All right. Thank you. And then Soul Source C again, precision concrete cutting, and this is for the trip hazards that have developed at Cornerstone. Consent. Okay. Um, utilities are not off the hook yet. um soul source quote for CCTV for the cable because it was damaged. It's Yeah. And it it is in need of replacement, right? And apparently they have fairly short lives. It's about a three-year-old U so it's probably just a routine repairment. All right.

All right. Um bids for construction well number nine and revertise it came in. What was the diff? What were we expecting? What was the difference? it it was almost double what we were expecting. Um so we're we're and it had a very aggressive timeline to try to meet this calendar year um after discussion with those contractors and their current workload. Um we're we're recommending um to push it to give more time. So looking at middle uh to end of 2027, we feel good from a production capacity standpoint based on the improvements we made on our existing well run times. There's a graph of that in your packet and they're currently as we speak working on uh Curry well yay

right now and we hope to have it back online and in full service production in the next week or two. So that is again going to lower our overall well run time. Again this project well number nine will be a priority for us but there may not be as quite of a highest sense of urgency from a timeline standpoint. So, we're just really looking at at trying to time the project with uh contractor availability. Okay. And this is also one of the projects that we proposed to the uh our legislator about assisting us with. So, all right. Consent for that one. Yes, sir.

Okay. Uh amending the grass maintenance agreement for everyday land management. That's to cut a little more frequently in in a couple of or several of the areas. So, that's it for that one. Uh all right. this is your basic surplus and apparently this this mower has been sitting out there for forever. So it's it's time for us to do a little cleanup. So Mr. Kim, kudos on you for that. So consent for that? Uh software renewal licenses. You want to share something about that in particular? This is just our um software that we use for all of our system maps for both electric and water. Just a renewal of that.

Okay. All right. That's it for that one. And then the everpresent uh source of supply. So that's it for that one. It feels like we did that. I know. Tell me about it. All right. And we have nothing for the second show that should complete unless there's something else from good to go. So, everyone have a great weekend. And the owner that just left the room has a birthday. Remember to wish her