City Commission Meetings - Regular Meeting

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE STAND FOR THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Commissioner Wicke, would you lead us in prayer? Sure.

Let's pray. Lord, we come to you tonight and ask that you would lead us and guide us in this meeting. Pray that you would bless our city, that you would use us to make wise decisions to help our community. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Commissioner Burr? Here. Commissioner Boring? Here. Commissioner Wicke? Here. Commissioner Smith?

Here.

Commissioner Abbs? Here. Commissioner Miller? Here. Vice Mayor Mullins? I am present. Mayor Perez?

Here. All right, moving on with the agenda of the proclamations and presentations. There is none tonight. We'll go ahead and move on to the visitor section. There's a visitor that would like to make a public comment for items not listed on the agenda. Please step forward to the podium, state your name and address, and you'll have two minutes. I see no takers. All right. Next on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. So moved. So we have a motion.

Second.

And support. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Next on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda.

So moved.

So we have a motion. Second. And support. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? So moved. Next is unfinished business and we have none tonight. So we'll move in straight into new business. I will get started with the wastewater treatment plant biosolids land patient bid. Mr. Brandon, welcome tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, city commissioners. I'm presenting to you tonight a proposal from Wheeling Brothers. So the wastewater treatment plant produces approximately a million gallons of biosolids each year. These require proper disposal. These are the disposal methods are regulated by EGLE EPA standards. The preferred method for this disposal is to recycle the biosolids onto agricultural land for conditioning the soil and providing nutrient value for the crops to be grown. This method requires that the city contract services for the removal, transportation, and the land application of the biosolids. Staff published an invitation to bid July 20th. Exhibit A, which is included in your packet. basically outlines the spec and everything that is required for the land application process, who is required to fulfill what role. This is a four year contract that we're looking at, that we went out for. We've done shorter term contracts in the past. It just seems like It's a lot of legwork to get constant contractors come in and to turn around and then replace it out. So we've had success with the 4 year contract. Bids were based on a per gallon. I'm out so 1st year 2627, which will be this fall. So 5.7 cents per gallon. So we're looking. and then about 2% each increase each year after that. And then a one-time sludge storage tank cleaning for 11 cents a gallon. August 20th or August 10th, we received one bid from Wheeling Brothers LLC from out of Fowler, Indiana. Wheeling has had the previous contract for the four years prior. We've had great success in working with them. We've had Good feedback from the landowners, from the farmers who work the fields that we're applying on. So I feel like we should definitely consider this bid, considering it's the only one also that helps. But we've had great success with them in the past, and I look forward to another four years. The bid contract amount is $300,000 respectively. There is a bid breakdown by the year, as you can see here. Other than that, open to answer any questions.

Any questions for Brandon? Nope.

So you said this is a four-year process?

It's a 4 year contract, so basically they'll have this, they will sign the contract. They will be the ones applying for 4 years consecutive years.

How often do they do that?

We land apply once a year once a year. Yep. About a 1M gallons once a year. So, typically the contract spells it out that they're supposed to be done before November 30th each year. That way it keeps us out of the frost. It keeps us out of spring application and. Basically, as soon as the crops are off, they can get in there, they can land apply, and it sits for the winter. Nice.

I know I said something to Andrew in the past. I'd love to see our community have something that would burn the biosolids, and then people or other communities would sell it to us as well for electric production. That way we're Maybe possibly at some point making money off of it instead of losing.

Just a thought. So I don't know if you get familiar in the past. We have looked at different, I guess, ways of handling the biosolids. And to get to a dry process, as you're stating, would take a pretty significant amount of capital for that to happen.

You'd have to have a dryer or something like that.

So your first step is your dewatering. So you have to get it down to a certain consistency percent solids. And then from once you get to that dewatered state, then you can move on to drying. And then from there, drying, that opens up the different opportunities if you're talking incineration of some sort. We didn't go down quite as far as what that would look like. We pretty much stopped at what it would look like for the dewatering and then for the drying process. The numbers were pretty substantial, so that's kind of where we looked at.

Gotcha.

Any other questions for Brandon?

Mr. Mayor, I move that the Sturgis City Commission approve the bid for Wheeling Brothers LLC in the amount of $300,000 for land application and biosolids.

So we have a motion. Second. And support all in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Brad.

Thank you.

Next on the agenda is the 2027 Sidewalk Repair Program. Patrick, welcome.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, Commission?

The engineering department is working to implement a new sidewalk repair program for 2627. The program includes replacement of damaged sidewalks and trip hazards. And it says where there are no current sidewalks. To clarify that, some of the sidewalks are so damaged that the homeowners are actually picking the sidewalks out and they're leaving them large gaps. So that's what's also in this packet. We are requesting that land and resource engineering LRE provide bidding services for the project, as well as limited construction observation, construction material and testing. The proposal will be for LRE to prepare a limited bid package sidewalk removal replacement across all four cities or all four wards across the city. Using the information provided from the engineering department, we have a full list of the sidewalks in the city of Sturgis where they are needed the most across all four wards. And the engineering department will also be handling all of the right-of-way permitting. During this LRE will be six biweekly visits over 12 weeks in the 2027 year. Construction materials will be handled by the contractor and the proposal fees from LRE are $7,500 for the project cost and then up to but not to exceed $12,140 to oversee the construction process of the project itself. Um, I have Neil here, uh, with and, you know, come up and introduce yourself. Hi, good evening.

My name is Neil. It's a planned resource engineering. Um. So, yeah, I worked with Barry a little bit before he left trying to put this proposal together. I think maybe a year or 2 ago approached by Patrick, maybe about a couple of months ago. Kind of to bring this back to put to put a proposal together, put a bid package together to get it. The program on its feet, understanding that we want to use public dollars as efficiently as we can and not put all that into engineering and try to put it into the sidewalk itself. Um, so we, we've kind of, um, we're gonna partner up with Patrick and his staff as well to make sure we get the best product for the city. Um, do have some history of the city, uh, used to work with fish back for 15 years and did a lot of the brick roads around town. So. Do you have some familiarity with the city? Um, but, yeah, looking forward to, um, successful projects and, um, a new opportunity for us work on the city. Any questions for Lee?

I have a couple of Patrick Neil. Yeah. Um. Is this all the whole list that we received is that. It's all of that to be done in this calendar year in the next 2027. no, sir. Okay. So that's just what we've identified as needing to be done all over the city. But how much of this would we complete in the next year?

So right now we are looking at about $200,000 for the actual construction portion of the project itself. I would have to get back with you on what the linear footage is or how many squares that is because right now we're actually identifying about $30 a square foot. And then all of the sidewalk repair is our math is based on four by four by four inch thick. But to answer your question, not all of that is going to be done this year. We actually are trying to budget every other year for $200,000 for the sidewalk program. So have you determined where you've started yet or anything?

Areas to hit first?

Right now, we're probably going to try to attack the worst areas, biggest trip hazards. Obviously, the last storm has ripped up large chunks out of the ground itself. We want to make sure that we get the worst ones, the biggest trip hazards, anything that's definitely going to create any sort of safety issues.

Okay, but you haven't identified exactly which ones you're going to, that's still in the works, where you're going to start and what areas you're going to hit?

I guess you don't know that yet then? We just want to do the worst. So the packet that we actually have has, you know, three inch gaps or two inch gaps. We want to do anything that's probably the worst safety hazards right out the gate.

And then 1 question about the list, there's, there's many of them that have. There was 1 on the 1st page for 301 Chicago had, like, their property listed like 6 times. It had 2 different owners. I mean, I see a lot of these in here that have no longer the owners of the properties. I don't know where this information is coming from from the list that was compiled necessarily. Um, but. I see a lot of those have like corner lots that we're looking at two different street sections, but some of them are just short distances, like 211 Virginia, for instance. They're listed three times or three different amounts. Why are they listed multiple times?

I'd have to double check that. That list has been in engineering for years. So, you know, obviously we want to go back through and clean that up.

So this isn't something that you can file recently.

Not currently.

No, we've had this.

Certainly before any letters go out, you know, they will acquire the information from our sensing database.

I've seen, I saw some names in the property owners having been property owners for years on these properties. And I'm like, what's going on with this stuff? So if there are some that are listed like three times, like 211 Virginia street, the short front, And we've got three lines. There's only going to be one line on their property line when this thing is completed?

Correct.

I didn't know if you had one line for repair, one for replace kind of thing. I didn't know how that worked before.

So right now there's going to be quite a large list as far as a lot of them have like tree roots underneath them. So it's not just going to be we're going to go and take the sidewalk out and then replace the sidewalk. There's going to be root restoration on some of those, which is going to obviously cost a little bit more than just having somebody else repair a four by four foot section of sidewalk. ultimately we're gonna try to take as much cost into consideration and make sure that we can get especially for the first go-around as much done as we possibly can you know the worst ones

Well, that explains a lot that this is wild.

Yeah, it's been many, many, many years. I know that we've been trying to do a sidewalk program, or from what I understand, we're going to try to do a sidewalk program for quite a while now. So now we're trying to implement the sidewalk program.

So I'm guessing this list doesn't include the ones that were recently ripped up by the storms.

They could not or may not. I'll have to double check that. Okay. So Dan may have updated that over the last few weeks. So I'll just double check with him. And is there any reason why some are bold and some are not?

Is that just from the old listing? That's from the old listing. OK. All right. Thank you.

So what was the criteria for your repairs, like one inch lift in the sidewalk, two inch? What was the minimum?

So the minimum sidewalk repair, I believe, is an eighth of an inch for any sort of trip hazard. Yeah, correct. We have some that are hinged, you know, four inches. So we're going to want to take care of those, you know, four inch ones before we do any half inch ones. Yeah. We have a lot of decrepit sidewalk. So I think, again, for the first go around for, you know, the $200,000 that we're going to spend, we just need to get as much done as we possibly can to kind of show that, you know, we're doing our best for the city.

Now you're also, I saw that on some of the address there again, since it hasn't been updated yet, which I went out and noticed that On my street, on my block alone, there was nothing listed, and yet there's probably at least five houses that have noticeable cracks that need to be mediated. So hopefully we'll get that finished before you start on everything else, plus the storm damage. I think hopefully it should be done this year.

Yeah. Actually, Jim today called me and was talking to someone at a property that he was doing a meter service for. and texted me today uh to add her to the to the list so we're gonna go out tomorrow and look at her sidewalks too um you know we get calls probably two or three times a week um about sidewalk replacements cracks lifts especially again from the storm um so it's gonna be It's going to be an ongoing thing throughout, you know, forever, probably, you know, as especially as we're as Sturgis is growing and adding subdivisions, you know, you're only adding more and more sidewalks to the city of Sturgis. And I mean, you can walk around right now. There's there's a lot of sidewalks that definitely need repair. Um, so ultimately again, for the engineering side, you know, we want to get this kicked off. Um, we're probably going to have a couple of bumps, you know, it seems like this is a new project for us. Um, but ultimately it's, it's to get some stuff done, make sure we're doing it, uh, adequately, adequately correctly and, um, and learn from anything that we get out of this one so that when we come back and do it back in, uh, 2029, um, you know, that we can learn from our mistakes and, um, and get even more bang for our buck.

The other question is, why do we have to have an engineering firm to repair sidewalks?

Ultimately, they're putting a package bid together for the $7,500. The LRE, from what I understand, has been successful in doing Grand Rapids. Right now, we have... I think 16 projects going right now and engineering, um, with 3 of us, uh, and that's that's. Not, um, that doesn't even count, like, what we do with the mistakes or our daily routines. Um, so we are extremely busy. We just can't handle. Uh, in the engineering department right now taking that on.

Basically, so you just need someone to send out the bids.

So what we need is we need somebody to put the project package together. We are going to handle the letters that go out to the residents. And then as the project is going, LRE is going to come down every other week and double check all of the work that's being done by the contractor.

Seems like an awful lot of money to come down every two weeks to check on progress.

I agree. I just feel like in engineering right now, we can spend our time in a different manner.

Well, right now we're having sidewalks repaired sporadically with, I think it's Mr. Miller's concrete work. he's done a lot of work for the city over the years, very reliable. I assume you're gonna take off the lowest bid in the contract, maybe we won't get him again. But there's not a whole lot to do to take out a piece of sidewalk, form it and pour another one. So I don't, and there's, You're going to want to hire the contractor that's probably the closest to the area that's going to be able to, you know, minimum travel times, lower the cost and all that. So, I would just think that the city could do it a little bit cheaper than spending $20,000 for an engineering firm.

I appreciate your opinion.

Yes. Can I interject?

Yes, sir. You can.

The idea is that design services is 1 aspect or 1 component of this contract. The other is the construction. Which would include inspection and. 1 of the things, because we have so much sidewalk. It makes it more efficient for us to perform this. Way, as opposed to having staff. Divided up where we're doing other projects. So the idea is in, I would agree with you that years ago that would have been a typical way. That we approach sidewalks is to just to try to find a local contractor. Fill it in, but that means that we have to take somebody out of our office. that could be working in another area. So we have to rely on LRE to be that fifth person out of the engineering office. So when we measure the efficiency of having that extra firm do the design and inspection or design staking, it really is more efficient for us to do it that way.

When you come down every two weeks to inspect how many yards have been poured, how close are you actually checking?

Well, and again, if we have to enforce, if something's not acceptable, they will be the firm telling the contractor, pull it out and do it again.

I've poured a lot of concrete in my life. But you don't know what's underneath that either. Well, it's they felt with rocks right now. I'm not saying they would. I don't think that's not worth their time to do that either, but I just. Come down and see that the, the sidewalks are. Maybe level or that they are properly screened or brushed or whatever. After 2 weeks. I mean, if they're not done, they can tear them back out, but the damage is already done.

And you're well noted on that. I think as we move forward, if this. Body decides to move in that direction as Patrick had said. I'm sure that he's going to have to refine. Along with the way that we do things. If it doesn't turn out to be a cost saving measure for us. Then we'll have to resort to another approach.

I mean, I guess ultimately this week is a really good example of why we also need to have extra resources. This week right now we have crack sailing going on. So I have one of my gentlemen out doing misdigs all day. It's a busy time of the year where everybody wants to do fences and driveways and all of that good stuff. We're trying to do cities, you know, upgrade different things in the city um so he's gone for the full day uh dan and i have been you know watching uh them do the crack ceiling and making sure that they're doing everything on a you know a competent level and then on top of that you know i've got you know my directors i guess a director's position to where i'm making sure that everything is all still moving forward with all of the other projects that we have uh making sure that some of the companies are getting all their water hooked up all their meters done Um, so for me in the engineering department, we are just very limited on resources when we have a lot of projects going that we need to be also on this, like boots on the ground. So it's, it's kind of one of those things where I agree with you. Um, if I could have extra resources in my office, that would be amazing. Um, but we just don't.

Well, and that had been discussed with Barry retiring.

I mean, we were going to be short-staffed in that department, so that was already something that we had discussed.

Weren't there three people in that department? Is that what you said? You have three people in the department?

Myself, Dan, and Trey.

Trey, just explain what you're doing. So going back to the off-topic on this, going back to the crack ceiling, having to go down, so I drive down Mechanic Street, and I notice that your crack ceiling down Mechanic Street But, yeah, cars parked all the way down the road on the side of the street and it's just like, why did the city notify the residents not to park on the street? Um, because underneath all the cars, of course, that's where all the oils and. This is going to leak in software statement and it's going to happen. But because all the road, all that side of the road is covered, you guys can get under there. So. I thought, oh, why weren't they notified about that?

I believe the city was notified. However, with that being said, I think we're doing 90,000 pounds of cracked ceiling in a week. To move the city around of cars on the streets I think would be a pretty tough ordeal.

Well, I mean, just send them a letter to say this week for cracked ceiling, don't park on the street. It's like, if it's a snow emergency, they don't park on the street. We're not supposed to, but. Just asking for a friend.

Thank you any other questions for Brandon.

CITY COMMISSION PROPOSAL FROM LAND AND RESOURCE ENGINEERING IN THE NOT TO EXCEED AMOUNTS OF $7,500 FOR DESIGN ENGINEERING SERVICES AND NOT TO EXCEED $12,140 FOR CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING SERVICES WITH AN HOURLY WITH AN HOURLY IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE BUT AS PRESENTED NOT TO EXCEED SECOND MOTION AND SECOND ALL IN FAVOR

Hi, hi, so move.

Thank you.

Next on the agenda is the. 69 KV transmission line bids Mr. Chris.

Oh, Chris, you need mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. In this year's budget, we do have actually next year's budget. We have funds budgeted for the 69 KB transmission line. Uh, in preparation for that, and because I wasn't for sure if the line is going to be acquired by the time we get substation done, we just moved this head to to be done early in in this next budget year. So a request for. For proposal for the construction of the street 69 project was posted on on the website and 5 bids were received on July 27th. A summary of the bids is included in your packet. The bids were reviewed for completeness and conformance to the documents that were posted. The low bidder was Extreme Power Line with a bid of $429,091.07. Extreme power line has not worked for the city previously. So a list of references were requested. It was requested for them to provide references from municipal or co-op utilities. But the references provided were only for large investor owned utilities. An attempt was made to contact references provided and only 1 reference responded to that request. There is also cause for concern because of how much the little bitter. How much lower extreme power lines bid was from the next lowest bidder and the average bid price. So that could indicate change orders in the future, or maybe they didn't give us a complete bid. So. Next, Newkirk Electric was the next lowest bidder with a bid of $660,000.88. They do have a history of successfully completing these transmission and distribution projects for municipal utilities. And they are also the contractor for the state line substation project. Staff recommends approving the bid from Newkirk Electric in the amount of $660,000.88. I did include an overall project summary as well in the packets. So we were well within the budgeted amount. We have budgeted funds of 2,200,000 for this project. With the purchase of poles, engineering and construction. The total so far is 794,277. I will anticipate another cost coming in and that is for tying in this line to the state line substation that has not been engineered or been out yet. So. As a state line, sorry, Southeast substation, which is currently in use. So.

Any questions for Chris.

Uh, with what we've got left and what we've got left to do, how are we. I mean, how are we add on the budget? You said there was going to be an additional cost.

Are we where we should be or I think we'll come in under on this specific project for that transmission line. Um, that tie in, I don't believe is going to take up the remaining budget item. So I think we'll be sitting pretty good on that. So.

Thank you Chris going going with the lowest better for 29. About 230,000 and savings if you will correct.

My concern and, like I said, are concerned they are not from from Michigan. They're out of state. Our concern really is that they didn't. Did the entire scope of the project or know what the project was, even though it's explained to them our concerns that they come back with change orders by not including certain items in and their, their bid. So, with that coupled with, I mean, you can see the average of the other bids. I mean, that looks more in line. to us as well. We've worked with CC Power, we've worked with Newkirk, and Camp Power, all three of those we've worked with in the past. So we would assume that their bids are pretty good bids and really know what we're looking for. The nice opportunity is that Newkirk is currently building our substation down there. They would be able to pull their crews and work on this and do the entire project, which I think will Work well for a workflow and then, you know. Coupled with hopefully not a ton or any change orders, but. Project to the sides, you know, just don't know what you're getting into. So.

Okay. Any other questions for Chris.

Mr. mayor, I move that the Sturgis city commission approved the bid for new electric for the suite. 69KV transmission line construction project in the amount of $660,088 as presented.

So we have a motion. Support. And support. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Next on the agenda is the railroad crossing closing the bedroom.

Right? So, with the state line construction, the state line substation south of the city, this will be fed 2 ways. The, the. The line, or the 69 KB line, you just approved construction of, but then also the line that we did finally receive that final agreement from signed about 2 weeks ago. So. It worked out it was close, but we finally got it done after 3 and a half years. So, with that being said, we need to cross the railroad tracks with those lines from AP to the substation. So, with that. We had to get with the railroad and the attorney worked with the railroad and got this addendum that is in your packet. To the master agreement that we have with the city that we just add this crossing as an annual fee to the city and allow us to cross that right away. So, permit has already been obtained for the construction. That cost was 5500 dollars has been paid and approved by Newkirk as part of that project for the crossing. This is going to be an annual field. 918 dollars and 62 cents to. Continue to cross the railroad. So.

Okay. Any questions for Chris?

Mr. Mayor, I move that the Sturgis City Commission approve the sixth addendum to wireline crossing agreement and approve the city manager.

So we have a motion. Support. And support. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Chris. Thank you. Next on the agenda is the digger truck installment purchase agreement.

Good evening, commissioners. Back in May of 25, the commission approved the purchase of a DH50E dual axle digger dirt truck to replace the current 2013 digger truck, an amount not to exceed the $450,000. In October, it was adjusted not to exceed $460,000. This unit is used to dig holes and set poles and large transformers, and it is on a 12-year replacement cycle. The final price came in at $452,128. So in order to purchase this equipment we're seeking, we have sought financing options under an installment purchase agreement. We've sent out an RFP to local banks and received in your packet was what we received back in terms of those bids. And so we're seeking approval for an installment purchase agreement with Southern Michigan Bank and Trust at a rate of 4.13% for 10 years. So included in your packet was also a resolution that outlined that agreement. I believe there were some questions around the total amount of interest that would be incurred between the 7 and 10 year rates. That would be roughly 34,000 dollars between 7 and 10 years difference. So.

What would the payment price be?

Roughly roughly 18,000 a year. A difference between the payments. Okay. Yep. 1500 a month. So, kind of thinking forward to the purchases we have upcoming, particularly in fiscal year 2028, we have the fire truck, which will be over a 1Million. And then we have slated for. Another bucket truck, and those are the 2 big things. So kind of forward thinking of cash flow. In that regard.

Okay, thank you. And you're recommending a 10 year.

I am. Okay. And based on the, the replacement cycle. Of that particular vehicle 12, I think that makes sense for time. Yeah.

Any questions for say.

Mr. Mayor, I move that the Surgeon City Commission adopt the resolution authorizing installment purchase agreement as presented.

So we have a motion. Second. In support? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Thank you. Next on the agenda is the Airport Access Road and Terminal Parking Lot. Mr. Thompson, of course. Welcome, Tom.

Evening, Mayor and Commission. Included in your packet is the contract for redoing the airport terminal access road and parking lot. It's a real easy read. City's cost is zero dollars. This is 95% Say no more.

It's 95% federal monies and 5% state. So the commission approved back in April of 25 contract engineering.

with Beaton Hut and so this is what's included in your packet is the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act or ISA grant to do that project so I am our budget is $196,324 we're estimated bids came in low it was bid out earlier this spring and so we're sitting right around $104,408 for the project costs and the plan is spring of 27, because we weren't for sure when the monies were gonna be released. So we've already determined spring of 27 is our construction season for this project. But what I need from commission tonight is your approval to allow me to sign the documents as part one of the grant assurances.

Okay, any questions for Tom, just a quick question.

Tom was projected at 196. it's going to cost 1 for. And this is fully funded by. Other sources, where does that extra money go to? We can, can we use it for other things?

Yes, we can apply it. We can add to the project or use the. Funds on another project, I'll have 3 years another 3 years to use those spots. towards another project, and I have more projects coming up.

Like a taxiway on Wenzel Street?

Absolutely not. I'm sorry. I have, there's strict grant assurances, and those were included in your packet.

Mr mayor, I move that the Sturgis city commission approve the Michigan department of transportation for infrastructure investment and jobs act. Grant for rehabilitation of the first municipal airport access road and terminal parking lot. In the amount of 196,324 dollars. And authorized airport manager. Tom, of course, key to sign all necessary documents. So we have a motion.

2nd, and support all in favor I pose. So, thank you. Next time the agenda is the service young entryway project. Mr. Dan.

Thank you. Good evening. Mayor commissioners as as at the March 9th, the regular commission meeting commission staff presented the bids for replacing the interior and exterior entry doors and windows at the center for the arts on the front of the building along with budgets for structural steel, electrical and software restoration. Commission approved the bid from reliable glass installers, and they were awarded the project in the amount of 94,470 dollars. Structural steel work estimate was also included in the budget cost spreadsheet for that project. And the information on included in that budget was provided by the structural engineer who had reviewed the original drawings of the building. The project was scheduled and determined with. The plan was to remove the interior set of doors so that we could review and and. Verify the structural steel information, the interior doors were removed a 3rd week of May. It was then determined that the ceiling would need to be removed in the areas of the airlock and just. Part of the interior ceiling to get a better look at that existing structural steel. Once the ceiling was open, the structural steel supplier visited the site and it was determined shortly after that the original documents provided by the structural engineer for the installation of two new steel columns in place of the existing three was not going to work based on the original steel framing, how the original steel framing was installed. Staff then reached out to a structural engineer to determine the appropriate course of action. That structural engineer site visit took place on July 23rd. New engineer documents provided to staff on July 28. All addition and additional steel beam and. Different columns were specified as part of this new process. And it would be necessary now to remove the existing steel columns, obviously, to place the new requirements to shore the roof up. To hold things up in the while the other work took place. Uh. Staff reached out to Frederick Construction for assistance with this scope of work. Frederick then reached out to the structural engineer along with the steel erector to provide a complete scope of work for that work that was necessary. The breakdown provided by Frederick Construction can be found in the bid packet. The doors, let's see. Oh, along with the timeline to complete the project would be they, they estimated that they would have. New structural steel would be installed. We'd be ready for the glass installers. Around the 1st week of October, and then the new windows would be installed thereafter. As with all of the projects that the city has worked with Frederick construction on any unused portion of their contract would be credited back toward and not build to us to the city of service in the final billing. Um, staff's requesting the approval for the for the proposal from Frederick construction to provide construction oversight completion of the additional demolition, shoring and foundation work and restoration of the interior ceilings and finishes to complete this project in the amount of 55453 dollars. The additional work will put the overall project over budget. Uh, by about 41,888 dollars. And that can be seen in the budget cost worksheet as well funds to cover. This overage will come from the Frank's fund donation for repairs to the service young center for the arts.

Any questions any questions for Dan 1.

Thank you in the proposal. Contingency in this particular 1 here, right? Is that. What their overhead and profits at 15% is that's in there.

That no, that wouldn't be the contingency. That's actually just their overhead profit. That's their. That's the cost of their service.

Okay, so we don't anticipate any additional once we start.

I don't think so. I think based on all the conversations that have taken place thus far. We feel pretty good about it as with any building that's 75 years old. We run into these kind of things. That's why I wondered. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't include a contingency. I'm never going to bring another project without a contingency. I can tell you that.

Any other questions for Dan.

Mr. Mayor, I move that the Sturgis City Commission approve the proposal from FedRip Construction for construction oversight and labor for demolition, shoring, foundation, and restoration with the Sturgis Young Center for the Arts in the amount of $55,453. So we have a motion.

Support. Support. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Thank you, Dan.

Thank you.

Moving on to commissioner staff comments, we'll go ahead and start with.

None for tonight. Thank you.

Mr. Rob.

Next meeting, we'll cover a application for some of the polymers if you've driven over there. It's the bigger building that it used to be. So they're going to do that. So, at 4 PM, we'll send out an appointment, but if you have the time, you can see what they did.

Is that like a tour and stuff? Yeah, just tour the facility.

When's that going to be? Right before the next meeting. So we'll do that 4 p.m. What's that, the 9th, I think?

Yeah, September 9th.

Okay, but we'll send an appointment to them. That's it.

Okay. Chris, do you have anything?

Yeah, just getting an update. The substation is moving along with construction, but also with the battery storage project. They did receive loan documents from the SBA. I have not got a timeline as far as when we anticipate that to be online, but hopefully next year. So things are coming together. Also, as an update on the generated project, the 1st page has been made as you all can see. So those are on order. Those aren't anticipate to be here in May. Those units on site, so they're, we're working through. NOW GETTING THE SITE READY. YOU DON'T HAVE AN UPDATE ON THE SOLAR FARM. I SEE SOME TRUCKS AND PERSONNEL OUT THERE. YES, THEY'VE BEEN WORKING ON THAT. THEY GOT ON IT PRETTY QUICK AFTER THE STORM. WE DO AND ARE RECEIVING POWER We were about 6 megawatts, the 15, so they're about 15. Or 50%, sorry they are working with. Insurance company, it was an insurance claim, just trying to get. The pieces and parts together and repairs made. Um, they will be solving some new trackers on there. Hopefully. Uh, mitigating some of the issues that we've seen with the character, obviously. I don't know exactly which lines are working, which ones aren't. I anticipate the ones that are moving are the ones that are . But they are working on that. I would say, you know, they haven't told us when they anticipate it to be fully operational again, but I would anticipate that hopefully shorter than that.

I'm assuming .

THANK YOU. WILL, YOU GOT ANYTHING TONIGHT?

JUST TO TAG OFF THE SOLAR, SO THE PLANNING COMMISSION HAS BEEN ASKING FOR A MONTHLY UPDATE FROM THE SOLAR GROUP.

OKAY. CHRIS AND I HAD A MEETING WITH THEM A WEEK PRIOR, TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY CONCEIVED, AND WE'VE BEEN PROVIDING UPDATES TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION, AND EVERY OTHER MONTH WE'RE ASKING THE GREEN ACTOR, WHO IS OWNER OF THE SOLAR SITE, TO PROVIDE UPDATES TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION. OKAY. GREAT. DAN?

A COUPLE THINGS. I'M CURIOUS ABOUT THE VEHICLE CHARGING STATION. WE ARE SEEING INCREASED USE EVERY MONTH. WE'RE SEEING THE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL OR DIFFERENT USERS. USED IN THE LAST MONTH, WHICH ARE 33. WE'VE ALREADY EXCEEDED THAT, BUT ALSO EXCEEDED THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT . OTHER THINGS, WE'RE REPLACING THE CITY HALL SIGN UP FRONT. THIS IS ABOUT WHAT WE WANT, NOT EXACTLY THE IDEA, I GUESS. BASED ON WHAT THE NEXT DOOR, SOMETHING SIMILAR TO A MODERN SIGN. IF WE DID ANYTHING, WE'D PROBABLY I KNOW THERE WAS A QUESTION ABOUT, OH, LET ME FOLLOW THAT UP. THE COST OF THE SIGN IS ABOUT $16,000. And we received about $11,000, I believe. We both received about $11,000 in insurance. We did incur about $4,100.

The old wall of the foundation was much deeper than we were.

And we were able to restore it back to that form. There was a question about the electronic messaging sign. Uh, possibility, I mean, it's always a possibility, I guess, I, I think. Based on what we paid for the auditorium electronic, this is designed for 40. The cost for that site today would probably be around 35,000 dollars.

I WOULD THINK THAT A MESSAGE SIGN WOULD MAKE THAT INTERSECTION AWFUL BUSY. MESSAGE SIGNS.

YEAH, BUT... ON EACH SIDE... DOES THE SCHOOL HAVE ONE AS WELL? NO, THEY USED TO. THAT'S GONE NOW? OKAY.

I THOUGHT THERE WAS ONE OVER THERE STILL.

I WAS LIKE, ON THREE SIDES, THAT WOULD BE KIND OF BUSY. THAT'S BEEN GONE THAT LONG?

SHOWS YOU HOW MUCH I PAY ATTENTION. SO WE GOT $11,000 FROM AN INSURANCE COMPANY FOR THAT OLD

Wall yeah, because because of the way it was constructed, it was a lot. It's been a lot wall for labor and put that all back together. Right. Okay.

Also venture kind of cheap. I'm surprised.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay.

I think the lighted sign would be a good idea.

The LED sign?

The LED, the message board sign. That was my question because it would be a good idea just for the sake of announcing meetings and things like that. Because I looked in our website. There was no place in there that give the agenda or anything like that. It didn't announce the date. But it never said anything about an agenda or anything at least that you can announce the date. The library could use it for their special events. And there's no better time to do it.

And now, when the other ones tore out, and we could use it for overflow of attendees here, it fills up and they sit outside and watch it live.

WE NEED TO BRING IN THE FIRE TRUCK WITH THE BIG TV. THAT'S WHAT WE NEED. THAT'S WHAT WE NEED. THAT'S WHAT WE NEED.

THAT'S WHAT WE NEED. THAT'S WHAT WE NEED. THAT'S WHAT WE NEED. THAT WOULD BE NICE.

I JUST BOUGHT A TWO BY EIGHT, TWO OF THEM LED SIGNS FROM MY OFFICE. I DIDN'T SPEND THAT MUCH. BUT I THINK A MESSAGING SIGN WOULD BE KIND OF GREAT. CLUE THAT UP TO YOU, DOUG, I GUESS.

I think mayor and commissioners, what are your Dan and I, the opportunity to look into this a little bit further firm up some costs. And bring back some conceptual designs. Before we were to move and again, if we were to decide to go that route, we would have to incur the approvals of the planning commission.

Yeah.

Okay, thanks for the update. Wouldn't that be an thing? I THOUGHT WE HAD TO GO THROUGH THAT.

NO.

WE DIDN'T? OKAY. I THOUGHT WE DID.

WE'LL GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS.

THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT WE SHOULD HAVE SPACED A LOT OF PEOPLE PART OF THAT PROCESS.

I'D HAVE TO REVIEW THOSE.

I mean, they might, they might benefit from it too, but there are events on there, you know. Give us the opportunity to look into it. All right. Thank you. Anything else? Tom, you have anything. No. Brandon, do you have anything? Anything from public safety? Mike? Not tonight. Not tonight, no. No go U of M football coming up in a couple weeks? Anything from our city attorney? Not tonight, thank you.

Our city manager? We attended several meetings, the airport advisory committee, Tom and I met last night, had a really good meeting with them, went through some proposed hangar sites and some discussion, attended a community foundation. And then, of course, the Sturgis Young Center for the Arts, we're looking for a new director. We're advertising. Richard and I attended their advisory board meeting. That was a very good meeting that we had. And that's about it.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Adams.

Yes. I just want to make the comment that I'm certainly not sure all of us are very grateful that Frank's gone and picked up the difference. Yes. For SYCA, $41,000 a month.

IT'S HUGE. SPEAKING OF CHAT, IT JUST HIT ME AS I WAS THINKING OF ALL THE THINGS GOING ON HERE AND HEARING DIFFERENT PEOPLE SHORT IN TIME AND PROJECTS AND LOOKING AT SADIE GOING

Do we have something out for HR director?

No, we are looking at a total. We're always looking at improving our process. We're always looking at. Our needs, um, there are things that concern me and I. For example, today Ryan had informed me that in fiscal year 25, we had 188 ambulance runs. We haven't even finished this fiscal year, and we're at 288 last year. We're at 218 right now, and we haven't finished that. So, it lends me to believe that we want to keep our options open. I think we're already down an officer. I'm not convinced of what's going to be the requirement for an ambulance. In the near future, and that the public safety aspect of what we do is paramount. That that's number 1 for our citizens. So. There are other areas of the city that when we hear complaints from our citizens, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? We're trying our best. To address those needs and Tom's particular case. He is looking at adding at least 2 and a half more people. We're down 2 and a half people, so we want to make sure that we're competitive there. We're looking at hiring another building inspector, so we can accelerate some of the inspection. That need to take place. I think Chris is okay for right now. And I think we're okay, but again. In the areas of public safety, this is where we're concerned. Plus the fact that we're going to probably start experiencing retirements next year. That is also a major concern of mine. We have, we have great employees, great staff. But it, we are going to be probably short. In trying to meet our citizens needs, and that is a concern. So, going back to your original question in HR director. Right now we have Tracy in there as our payroll clerk and handling HR. To a certain extent, the rest of it is filled in. By the department heads myself, and of course you would. So. That's where we're at. So I hope that you can all appreciate that we're trying to be strategic in who we hire and where we're hiring.

Just to ask about that, Doug, when you're talking about shortage, I know there's a Tom Short couple out there. You said the police was down one?

I believe they're down at least one officer. Thank you.

They are 1, 1 had left 1 left there and the hiring process for refilling.

We talked to him at some point about. What's coming up in that department and as I mentioned wanting to start fishing out for. Pulling in people whenever they're available. Is that still our.

So our philosophy is. We're not going to wait, we're going to be proactive if we identify a candidate that meets our qualifications. My orders are bring them in. Okay, bring them in. Let's enhance the cadet program. Let's identify those potential candidates because. Next year from what we have found our employment census would indicate that we're in line for a lot of retirees to leave. Not that they will and hopefully they won't. But we have to be prepared to deal with that. And so that's that that's Ryan and I are on the same page with that.

With with the hospital closure and additional ambulance stuff, are we doing the same on that side of the building? Right. Are we looking actively for any more bodies right now, or are we still kind of wait to see how things.

I think the idea is that if we could identify somebody. Yeah, we would bring them in or fire. Yes. But again, part of the problem is what we've seen it. All the trades everywhere. Is there is a severe shortage of those qualified. And so it's a concern. So, if we identify somebody. Knowing that we're going to see retirement, I told Ryan. Let's seize the opportunity if they meet the qualifications and. Can meet the clearances?

Yes. I want to make sure that was still in the books.

Yes, it needs to. So.

Today is probably the most important day in the history of human evolution.

Today is National Toilet Paper Day Paper has been around since the 7th century BC, but the first recorded use of it cleaning people's backsides after they used the bathroom was in the 6th century. Before then, there was a variety of solutions employed to handle the job. In ancient Rome, there was a communal stick with a sponge on the end of it that people used to clean themselves. When one person was done with it, they'd simply rinse it off for the next person.

Wow. Other solutions included. You've got more?

Other solutions included rags, bamboo, and even corn cobs. So let's all be thankful today.

Commissioner Smith, that is a concern shared by this administration too. Yes.

So, thank you.

All right. It was also a national dog day from what I understand. That's where you're going to go. And I didn't realize. There was another national day today, so thanks for the humor. Downtown tree, false bakery. There was a solution.

So here's what we're doing, just to give our citizens a brief history. When the state of Michigan gave us downtown development authorities, and the concept started in the late 60s and continues, the idea was to add trees, green, in urban environments. Those trees that we've planted have reached a certain maturity point. And talking to our DDA administrator today, what we're going to do is start looking at other communities to see what the trend is today. It might not be trees. It could be decorative grasses or some other type of floral plantings. One of the things that we are going to look at is the science. We're going to ask all of our property owners downtown what their thoughts are, where we need to go. There's other varieties of trees we need to stay on top. But the tree that we took down in front of Holt's Bakery probably was probably close to 40 years old.

No. No. No, we just planted that.

Then that would have been a very mature planting because we usually plant within two to four inches. If you take a look at the stump out there, it's close to a foot. Wow. I thought all the trees were put in when the road was done. I mean, maybe not. I don't remember.

Definitely, it went in in 2005. 2005, I thought.

About 20 years old.

All right, 20 years. So I guess the thing is, when we plant something, we expect it to mature. And it did. And it got to a point where maybe we should have done a better job of trimming it, whatever. But the fact is, trees mature. So what we need to do is work with our property owners and the Downtown Development Authority Find out what is the latest trend to help bring in businesses into our urban downtown. So, I do believe we'll use good science and find out what the standard practices are in other communities.

Very good. Thank you. Well, I know I know that Folsom was very happy. Um, you know, I have visibility and I hope it does increase the traffic.

We did talk to the owners in that block, asking them what their thoughts were. So there was some science. And if you remember, they did present a pretty strong financial and scientific case for its removal.

Other than that, just shout out to Will and his partner. We got a nice little thing that Doug shared with us on a compliment you guys received from, I don't remember who it was, but it was a very nice message from someone that how pleasant you guys were to work with and how good you guys were at your job. And Tom, same thing with you guys out there on DBW, DBS. With the cleanup, there's been a few people that I've talked to. They're very happy that you guys were able to help them out in the situation as well. So, thank you guys. Your department's going to look at, um.

I do have 1 other thing to address to you. Um. We looked at some of the stumps, I believe time was there 12 12 years. How many? 10. 10. Tom had informed me that what we'll do, because some of those stumps are so big, we don't have an excavator big enough to remove them. So what we'll do is we will contract out and probably in October start removing those stumps with a contractor who has an excavator big enough.

Are we talking about just ones that have uprooted? Yes.

The big ones.

CAN WE JUST BLAST THEM? DRILL IT OUT, CHARGE A DYNAMITE IN THE CENTER, MAKE LITTLE PIECES. THAT MAY BE PROBLEMATIC.

ALL RIGHT, I'LL END MY TIME WITH THIS. YOU NEVER KNOW HOW LONG YOUR WORDS WILL STAY WITH IN SOMEONE'S MIND, EVEN LONG AFTER YOU'VE REGUIDED AND SPOKE TO THEM. SO LET'S JUST ALL BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER.

ALL RIGHT, IT'S MY TURN. YEAH, TOM, I DO WANT TO ECHO SOME OF THE COMMENTS THAT VICE MAYOR MULLINS SAID. I DID GET A COUPLE CALLS FROM FOLKS. Very pleasant with I don't know if you went back again to do some more cleaning, but. Very happy that your crew was out there and cleaning that up. So kudos to you and your staff. I also have a kudos on. Doug, our city manager, got a few calls from folks that you're working with, Doug, and very happy and pleased with you. So I just want to share that with you. Thank you for what you're doing. Was it Anita? I don't know if it was her, but there's a couple. And then I also want to do kudos to our police department. My daughter had an incident and called me and wanted me to go assist her before the police got there. And I said, no, you'll be in good hands. And first time accident, 17 years old. And when I got home, I did the usual dad thing. gave her a lecture about having an incident accident and I asked about her experience with our police department. She said the police officer, she did give me the name, but I'm bad with names, said that he helped calm her down, helped her find her insurance paperwork that was in the glove box. And as terrified as she was, she said, She said, you probably don't want to hear this, Dad, but I had a good experience with the police department. I said, no, that's great. That's what our guys are for. The officer must have known that you were a fairly young driver, and so he was there to help you in that process. So kudos to our police department as well. And with that, I hope all of you have a great rest of your work week. Meeting adjourned.