Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the March 23rd 2026 city of town country board of law meeting. I now call this meeting to order and would ask people to rise and join in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I would now ask the city clerk to call. Alderman Friedman here. Alderman Gerber here. Alderman Harter here. Alderman Hughes here. Alderman Canella here. Alderman Murphy here. Alderman Sawyer here and Alderman Schwear

present. Mayor Rang is presiding. We do have a qu for quum.

Before we get to the minutes, there's couple two three things I want to talk about. Um the first is to talk about the Mason Rated Garden Club who since 20 since 2002 the dedicated members of this garden club have begun caring and improving the gardens that is what what is now Long View Farm Park. Um and this has been a volunteer effort this many years led by Claire Joseph and it has transformed really what is a challenging space into beautiful gardens and it provides a scenic setting enjoyed by residents and visitors alike and number of times when I've been there seen usually young ladies getting pictures for their prom or for their engagement. Um, to me that's a testimony to just how appealing that area is to see all those pictures there. Um, my oldest granddaughter had her senior picture taken and I did not progress. She just said, she said, "Papa, this is the place to go to get that picture taken." So, and it's untold number of hours that that Mason Ridge Garden Club has contributed. And so therefore, this longstanding ongoing dedication has made that farmhouse a beautiful destination and this mayor, this board of alderman and the city of town and country are deeply grateful for the club's many contributions to the character and enjoyment of Long View. Therefore, I Charles R may of the city town and country Missouri do hereby proclaiming our appreciation for the Mason Ridge Garden Club in congratulate the club on its 25th anniversary to recognize a quarter century volunteer service community beautifification and

stewardship of the large park. Um I know that our citizens commented to me all the time about what what a jewel it is. So what I I would like is for our cler to come up and all the members of the garden club to come up and accept this proclamation individual one for each of the member and really ex accept our sincere our sincere thanks for everything that you have done for this city. I think lastation I think we should allow you guys

without without benefit of a microphone or a um just in my role and responsibility as chairman of the parks and trails commission. I want to echo what the mayor has spoken about and uh not only the residents of town and country appreciate all the work but people driving through the city will consistently talk about the curb appeal of Long Farm and the immediate um attractiveness of just pulling by it. That's a testament to all of your talents, all your efforts all these years. So thank you so much uh for your gardening expertise, your green thumbs and your sense of aesthetic appeal. So thank you all.

Thank you. I'm gonna say one thing because this is our 25th our 25th year and I'm looking at Barbara Hughes and 25 seasons ago, not exactly years but seasons. Barb called me up and said like in April Park was months months from being open. do you think your garden club would be interesting in renovating some of the gardens in the back back of the courtyard? So I said, I don't know, Barb, I'd have to go look at it. And I went and looked at it. The swimming pool was still there. It was just disgusting. It was so overgrown. I said, "I don't know, but I'll bring them over." And I brought them over and they said yes. And it took us six weeks, you know, the back courtyard's not that big to clean up the back courtyard. And everybody goes, "Well, what's going to happen next?" And I said, "Well, they want the back courtyard clean. It was historic created by Edith Mason, which was high society landscape architect back then." And everybody's like, "Well, should we go work in the front?" And I said, "Let's went and looked." And Barbara's like, "Hey, great job on the the back." And so we went to the front and it was so bad. It was so full of honeysuckle you could really couldn't see the house. And um we had to work in three-foot sections and we had to dig out plants that we knew were good.

And we were much younger women then and there there's three of us that were there from the beginning. We were middle-aged women. We we were we were 25 years younger.

And and we were covered in poison we were covered in poison ivy and we had I would go take a shower right afterwards. I could feel the chase on my back and it was just such a hard work. And Doug Hopkins was my guy back then. And every time I called up Doug and asked for money, he said, "No." He said, "No, we're not giving you money for that." And we got to know the people, the guys, the construction guys. And so Doug, I I want a turf in the front of the house. And Doug goes, "No, we're doing seed." And I said, "It's all got to wash away. It's going to rain." No, we're not. There's no money for it. Plus, it has to be it would have to be totally redone. You need a guy with a bobcat. I'm like, I've got a guy with a bobcat. So, I asked him, I said, "If I gave you a case of beer, would you regrade the front, the whole front of the house?" And he goes, "Yeah." And he did it. And I called up Doug. And I'm like, "Hey, you know, you need to come over to the park and remember you gave me you told me about that and and I wanted turf." And you said, "Well, you need a Bobcat guy." I said, "It's done." And I hand the phone to the bocad guy. He goes, "Doug, you need to get her her turf." And Doug came over and lo and behold, there was the turf. So anyway, Barbara Hughes, who is still here, is the one that got us.

No, thank you. Oh, going. Can I help you? So, I mean, it's hard to believe that this is how it started and the park wasn't open. We had months and months before the park opened and it was bar it was the phone call from Barb and I thought I thought there you guys don't even have it's so beautiful now. You have no idea. It was a mess.

Horrible. It was a mess. But anyway, thank you all FOR think over 11,000 hours since we started this project. So when you look at it think 11,000 11,000 hours is a lot of hours and it is the best. You ask anyone here and everyone will say it is the best thing we ever did. It's the best thing. It's the best thing. Even when I have arguments sometimes Dan and I might get into it and it is still the best thing I've ever done. And I don't know how many city administrators, mayors, and public works guys that I've been through in all these years. It's been a lot. It's been a lot. Thank you all for this. We all really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you briefly before we get to the minutes. Just want to remind folks that April 7th is election day and always encourage people to get out and take a vote and and I think most of the residents in town at least I got one um postcard we have our east cycle shredding event on May 2nd I think from 8 to 11 if I remember and um don't come late because I parked those up. That's right. So that's a wonderful situation. I just want to be sure that I pointed that out. Now, let's go on to the minutes from the March 9th, 2026 meeting. See a motion and second to approve. So, second.

Any discussion or amendment? All in favor say I. I. Unanimously. Um the city clerk, have we heard from any citizens who wish to speak? No sir.

Thank you. We do not have a public hearing. We do announce my intent to make the following appointments at the next meeting. For police, fire and EMS commission, Rachel St. for parks and trails commission Lauroka and for architectural review board Danielle Salt House. I now recognize the board's opportunity to provide reports. Arter Okay. For the PF commission, uh, on March 9th, we welcomed Officer Andrew Kaufman to our organization. Andrew comes to us with law enforcement experience in the West County area, and we are thrilled to have him on our team. Does that make us full staff again?

Close.

Okay. Uh then secondly, we recently launched our spring safety series campaign on social media. This will be a once weekly post to educate our community on our laws related to the relationship between our cyclists, which aren't that many, excuse me, uh scooter and ebike riders and the motoring club. We encourage everyone to follow us on social media and share this information. Then also we were awarded the Blue Shield grant through the state of Missouri again for 2026 and this is an amazing grant and it's a great resource to offset capital expenditures. I think we use some of that for the radar thing we did um last meeting uh not this one but previous uh typically so that saves us money. uh they're currently researching the most effective means to allocate these funds. And then finally, April 21st is our next PDF commission meeting, 4:30 in the community room. Everybody's invited, but I know no one will be there.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh just a reminder that this Wednesday, March 25th, at 8:30 a.m. will be our next Ways and Means Commission meeting. The agenda will be discussing some policy issues and RFPs for benefits. Uh should be very exciting. Everyone of course is welcome to join us 8:30 in the community. Thank you. Like all the commissions though always I'm super impressed with the committee members of ways and means and they take into their into their district Murphy.

Thank you chairman. First of all I want to thank the board and the members of the public here tonight who have been able to join us for our garden club meeting uh earlier. Special appreciation to Alderwoman Hughes for all of her work earlier on in the whole process. But uh to the near uh near and dear for all of us at Hearts and Tails Commission on the city's first concert of the season will be held on Friday, April 17th, 6 PM Town Square. The band will be hub and the heavy hearts. Uh they're going to be headlining. Uh they have a mix of St. Louis blues and southern soul. We'll have food trucks, shuttle service. Um, all those details are available on our website. And also the parks and trails commission will be meeting next Monday, March 30th at 6:30 p.m. at Long View Farmhouse. The commission will be reviewing the pedestrian pathway plan as part of an ongoing effort to enhance connectivity across the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. The next meeting of the architecture review board will be held on Monday, April the 6th at 5:30 here at the municipal center. The following items will be reviewed. A new home at 13309 Buckland Hall. A new home at 12334 Wildlife Trail. And as always, all are welcome. Thank you. Thank you. And next I believe we're due for facilities update. I'm going to ask Michelle to take that off.

Yep. And before I do that, mayor, I just wanted to let the board know uh regarding the April 7th election, you all may hear about the fire district sales tax, which will be on a ballot uh in much of West County and the St. Louis area. However, obviously, town and country residents will not have that on their ballot because we pay the fire district directly out of the general fund. So if if any residents do ask, that's why it will not be on our ballot and you should be receiving sample ballots in the mail. But isn't part of town country in the district even though we don't they don't have to pay taxes?

They're not voting members of the not voting residents since they don't pay into the fire district. They don't vote on the fire district. Yeah.

Now we'll do the facilities. We have something here. As the mayor said, I'm just going to kick it off and turn it over to some people. We have a full agenda, full presentation, a lot of information tonight. Um, and David Bradley's going to start us off with uh our new maintenance uh annex. And then we're going to turn it over after David to Katie Ael who's also with Navgate to walk through city hall police renovation fire station and also with us is our chief architect on the project with Arch Images Roy Mangan. Um, before I call David up, I do want to recognize a few people and this has taken a tremendous amount of work as you all can imagine from most of the staff here, but uh, working on the public works maintenance uh, citywide maintenance annex, Todd Ray, Tim Randic, and Tom Thousand. They're not going to present tonight, but I just wanted to recognize that they put a lot of work into this to get us this far. Um, so one a few of the things we're going to go through tonight is the maintenance annex, new construction, and also David will talk a little bit about some renovations to the existing salt facility, city hall police, which are going to be Katie and Roy. Fire station be Katie and Roy. Uh, then we're going to go through the design developments, some obstacles, uh, financial update, schedule update, city financing, which will be Joanne. Uh, and then we'll go on to Next step, schedule questions. So, David, it's all you. I'll get out of the way. There's your

Thank you.

Hi, David Bradley with Navigate Building Solutions. Um, we we were hired to help facilitate the the procuring and facilitate the design and as Bob mentioned, Roy Min's here with the architect firm. So, this is a three-prong project. Uh, as Bob just mentioned, we've got the new maintenance annex, the police department, and then the fire station. So, first up is the new maintenance annex. Um, we've currently we have the uh construction documents 95% complete. We're doing what we call a constructibility review right now. We have a meeting later this week to go over those comments and once we have those, we will be able to we're targeting in April 7th uh to put it out on the street for bid contractor bids. So, we're pretty far along on the maintenance AIX. Uh if you're familiar with the existing salt facility out off of uh 141 on Salt Hill Road, um this building will be directly behind that. So, it's actually on a road. So, it's behind just south of the existing facility. Uh and then they'll also be beyond that will also be the uh a a storage canopy. Uh also a metal building canopy. part of this. What we want to do, you still access it from the same side. Come along uh the west side to the drive to get behind the existing building. We're going to widen that road to give the vehicles room to maneuver and back into the building. Uh and one of the key things about the storage canopy is there was quite a bit of storage in the existing salt facility. As we all know, salt deteriorates metals and corrods. And so, a lot of what we want to do is move those materials, that equipment out of that building into a protection under the storage canopy.

Quick question on that. I'm just I'm just certainly not my expertise, but man, I would think in terms of manual work, eliminating the need to load those salt spreaders manually, if I was the one to do it manually, I think that's a godsend, frankly. He's not asking. But no, you're absolutely right. They they will be suspended from the camp. So they'll be able to pull under, right, and and and put it right off the vehicles. Okay. Thank you.

You got it. Uh so the look of the the existing self facility building, we're not changing. We're going to do some renovations inside, but the look will carry across to the new building. Uh you know, 7 8 foot high will be that red brick and then we'll have a metal uh siding that matches the existing building. So it's uh should complement one another. When you get into the building, um, you do have the office bay. Uh, so we'll have the project manager, Tim Rande, maintenance foreman, Tom Thousand, and the two offices here. Shared break room where, uh, also a meeting room, double meeting room, restroom facility, mechanical room. Then we've got three bays for maintenance and storage. Uh if you're familiar with uh how the basement in the city hall is used now, uh that's kind of what that that area will be used for as well. Uh we've got a shop area which will also have a mezzanine level for storage and whatnot. So that's you'll see the ladder climbing up there. Also an exterior access. The last bay is a wash bay. So we'll be able to pull the vehicles in uh with with hot water power wash. both those vehicles and other departments will also be able to access the space as well. So it'll be a shared use. Uh so so the the intention is to bring uh not only move two personnel into this new building that vacates space in the city hall for for renovations with the police department in the basement also. Uh and and Katie will hit on this later. Um there's a right now to uh public goes behind the secure door down this corridor. Uh we're going to remediate that. We're going to put a transaction window on the public side so public no longer has to go back into the secure area. And again they'll show you that on the floor plan uh here in a minute.

Question please if you don't mind. in the wash bay there. Is there a plan within the drainage to treat the what comes off the trucks? Is there salt and grease and so it gets

Yes. So all all of these trench drains are connected and in front of the office bay will be a grease interceptor um accessible. So um all of that would be captured before it goes into a a force main and then ties into MSD. and and and again this this offers a centralized location for all maintenance uh where as right now it's not. Uh so the existing assault facility you can see it's just open now. So this corner uh we're going to frame in and it's going to become a meeting room uh for the various uh contractor drivers etc. So during storm events, winter events, they have a place to gather uh and meet. We're going to take the existing office and make it a little bit of more of a break room so they can again prepare their meals etc. and a separate restroom there. Um there's also discussions that this can double as a a potential for the police department substation. Uh they'll have access to this facility as well.

I think that'd be a great idea.

Uh so so budget you can see the the original or the concept budget. Um but I want to focus on the design development estimate. Those are the some of the numbers we're focusing on now. So, like I said, we're we're close to putting it out to bid for contract bids. So, we'll be able to verify all these numbers. Right now, construction, we're looking at $2.6 million fixtures, furnishings, equipment, um technology. We are carrying $152,000 contingency for the whatifs, for the unknowns. Um so, the the target budget was 3.7 million and right now our estimate was just under 3.5 million. So, we're we're tracking very well. Uh, with just a couple weeks to go,

what what are the biggest contributions to that lessening of the budget and diving in? I mean, I can see the numbers, but what do you really as you get into the microscop just just focusing in on on some of the design assumptions and just finally finalizing the design? Um, about 30% 33% of the cost is actually site work. So again expanding that road uh and and giving that access um at concept to design development we were able to go out for soil borings so we knew what we were working with. We've got very good soil we think under the road. Um so some of those risks have been lessened. So we were able to reduce some of those assumptions. I would say that's a big part of it. Uh so as I said um we're we're at 95% now. We're putting comments together uh quality assurance quality controls comments. We are meeting on Thursday to go through those comments and then we'll spend a couple weeks uh updating the drawings and by April 7th I'm hoping to be ready to put this out to bid with a three just over three week bid period. Um bids come in April 30th. We're allowing for two readings uh at at the board meetings with a hope to mobilize contract to mobilize in June of this year. Um looking at 11 to 12 month construction duration. We are going to let the bidding contractors provide a schedule so that they're held accountable to their own dates. Um but we think it's going to be in that overall 11 to 12 month duration

with the construction. Will the current facility have downtime, not available time or because it's done?

It it will not. I mean, we'll have certain days where we might have to tie over the water, the utilities, etc. But, uh, we're we are maintaining the access. Um, we are focusing on we want to complete that conference room and and and the salt storage building renovations first. um while we're doing all all the shop drawings and procurement we have to do for the new building. What that does is give an option for uh the project manager and the maintenance foreman to move into that facility which vacates their spaces in the city hall which could allow that work here to begin. So we do want to prioritize the salt facility. That's it for the mandex. Anybody have any more questions?

I have please. Um, so the you say the bids haven't gone out. Um, what if all the bids come back a lot higher than what we have here? That just just means it's up or do we tell them there's a ceiling when we send it back? If they come in higher than the budget, we'll have to have those conversations. Um, we can still look at some some potential costsaving value engineering ideas. Um but right now we're pretty comfortable um with the estimate we have and we've done similar metal building projects in the last 12 months that are in line. So we we've got cost histories to base our estimates on.

Right. Turn it over to Katie a Holtz for city hall.

All right. Thank you. Uh my name is Katie Aholtz also with Navigate Building Solutions. So, I will be giving you the update on the city hall and police department project um as well as the fire station. So, I wanted to recap what the last update that was given to you all in regards to this project. It was back at the end of October of last year. Um at that point in time, the schematic design um was completed as well as our initial estimate based on that design. Um schematic design is usually about 30% correct um of the the project's design effort. So, still very early on um in the overall design timeline. Um if you'll recall, the scope of work had been revised from building additions onto this building um to a basement fit out. And really that was due to conflicts that we um uncovered with the site survey um showing setback requirements. There's some water and fiber optic easements that are in the way and also some existing utilities. So, hard to see on here, but this was the uh the slide we had presented at that update. All the squiggly lines represent those things that were kind of tracking in the same areas that we were looking to expand this building. So with that, the schematic design then um kind of reallocated the space in the basement. Like we said, the maintenance annex will get the public works and project management staff out of this facility, freeing up some of those spaces. Um at the the October meeting as well, we did present that the project was tracking on budget, so it was right around the $5.1 million mark. Um but we want to highlight tonight that it took about 1.65 million in scope reductions at that point in time to still maintain the budget. We did that various um ways. It was really refining the footprint um evaluation of systems and kind of deferring scope that we we couldn't accommodate at the time. So since October we have been working through the design development phase of the project. Um this kicked off in

November shortly after that meeting. Um probably the biggest component of this stage has been the development of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems. So at schematic design, these are really just narrative formats that give the intent of the system modifications but they don't get into the detail of how those systems fit in the space, the distribution occurs and all of that. So a lot of the design effort in this stage has been around the the systems itself. Um, also since um, October, we've completed some additional code analysis. Um, we went through an extensive effort to confirm the location and what's required from a structural standpoint um, to modify the building for the new elevator. Um, minor, more small details with interior finishes, door hardware, mill work design, all of those reviews have been completed. um and ARM images and team presented um a design development package to us at the end of January that we then use to um redo or update our estimate. Um kind of simultaneous to that, there's been a lot of due diligence activities. Um we know this building has a lot of um aged infrastructure and things that we needed to kind of get to the bottom to of to understand how we could fix it or upgrade it with this design effort. Um some of those things being the underground plumbing lines in the basement. So, we had a company come in and camera and inspect those lines. They were actually blocked, so we had to get those jetted clear um and reinspected. Um we're aware that there's some locker room cracking um potential settlement um downstairs in the basement that we've been investigating. You know, is the water leaking part of that issue. Um we've been investigating that. Um another big effort is what we call retrocommissioning. Um so in this case we have brought in a third-party mechanical engineer to evaluate sort of the existing issues here. We know there's a lot of um temperature fluctuations. Um we've heard from the maintenance staff that there's a lot of difficulty in maintaining some of the

mechanical systems plumbing as well. Um so third party has evaluated um the systems um and has given us a list of recommendations of both improvements that can be made immediately um as well as additional improvements that need to be accommodated in this design effort. Um again, in addition to that, we reviewed the existing fire alarm system, the fire protection systems, and really have determined um what's able to be reused versus what needs to be supplemented um in regards to what the current building codes require. Um and then lastly noting um that we have studied the need for an electrical service upgrade to the building. Um so with the project, we are eliminating the solar panels on the roof. Um, also adding new building electrical loads for the elevator and um, air handling units. Um, so with that we were able to determine that the electrical service existing today is undersized and will need to be upgraded with the renovation

on the plumbing underneath. What was blocking it? Was it just dirt and you were here for that? Was do we know what was blocking? Are there roots going into it? there. Yeah, it's it's just buildup, sediment, sludge, things washed down. But for the most part, the pipes were in aged condition. It's cast iron show deteriorating. I had a question. You said you're going to lower the cost by removing panels from the solar panels that are up there. Is that what I heard?

Uh, no. So, the the panels right now are generating electricity that offsets the building loads. Those panels are planned for removal. Yes. So part of the project includes replacement of the roof itself. And in order to do that, those panels will need to come down. And according to her and Shiffron, our mechanical engineer, electrical, the age of those panels, it's not worth putting back on because they would outlive the cost to reinstall the older panels. As you all know, we now own those panels and have already had some maintenance costs for them.

I had a question. In your first um slide, you had mentioned something about um reducing the scope down 1.65 million. Uh by reducing that scope, is that hinder hindering us from doing anything futuristically wise? Like why was that reduced that that scope to get the cost down? that impact anything if we want to do any type of adjustments or additions later. I don't know what the scope was that it was reduced by or what the reasoning was behind if you just touch that screen there. There you go.

There it is. Okay. Um the majority of the value engineering as we call it um so when we moved from the building additions to fit out of the basement, the basement is actually a fairly large space. So, we planned for the police department to relocate down there. Um, and it took up more square footage from, you know, a space standpoint than it needed to. So, we were able to work with the chief to kind of squeeze in and maintain operations and functionality in that space and a reduced footprint, I think, was the majority of that savings. Um, there are some other things um that were kind of are they in, are they out? Um, so they were taken out at that point, but they're back in today. So the number that we're presenting you today kind of takes into consideration like the roof, you know, there was discussion about should it be part of the project, should it not, should it be funded separately. We've rolled that all back in. So tonight you're going to see a comprehensive number. I don't think we feel that there are any things that have been reduced from a functionality or operational standpoint at this time. Um, also we're picking up all the cost of the deferred maintenance and the things that we've uncovered. Okay. Okay. So, next I'm going to invite Roy to come up and speak a little um more detailed about the plans.

Uh thank you again. Roy Mang with Arc Images. Um I was here at the last meeting kind of gave you a quick overview of the plans. Today we refined them a bit to where we can give you a little bit more detail on what we've got shown. Um in the lower level is the the basement plan that you're looking at here today. As Katie said, the uh the public works facility moved out and now we are able to put the police area in this center location where the where the open garage was located. Uh starting along that back wall, uh we have a single entry door for the sally port itself. Uh that is contained in that area. Directly off the sally port, we come into the police uh cell area. were able to come into the staging where the booking occurs and then they can then take them from the staging area after the booking has occurred into each of the two cells. Um there is a shower component, toilet component for for needs and then some storage area here on the bottom part. In the center is the booking area with the the countertop facing the staging area to allow the the uh policeman to do the booking process with the support that they need. Right behind that area is what we call a hard interview room. If some of the detectives or somebody needs to talk to the detainee, they have a place to do that in a secure environment. The other areas that we are looking at uh renovations to are the locker rooms in this back area here along with adding some lockers to the female uh locker room facility, creating an ADA component uh because the existing restrooms do not have the facilities to create an ADA locker room. So, we are allowing the city then to uh meet that need by creating that separate uh restroom. Off to the side, we have an unsecured area for the report writing for and then a locker system for the police uh evidence

and then the evidence is then brought through to a secured evidence storage area in the center of the facility. The remaining areas surrounding this area are getting minor uh work done to this. Uh we are leaving as much as we can in place uh with the mechanical systems and the duck work and stuff and utilizing those with our new systems. We are coordinating off a couple of areas for storage facilities to create better control of that area.

A quick comment just because I think it's fascinating even in this age of everything is on computers. There's a fair amount of room that entire space that's for document storage. you know that um it you know I think that's I mean it's just a comment that is just somewhat um fascinating that not everything is in the cloud or you know stored electronically we still that's a pretty big amount of space and believe me I get that we need to I'm not arguing that but it's just it's impressive that we need that much space for it but it's understandable

mayor for that If I can just add for one second because I just made eyes at Bob to ask. Um, what we're doing there too is combining the police record storage with my record storage over here on the city side. So, we're going to get a secure area that only certain people will be able to go in that'll house litigation files, police files, criminal justice stuff, personnel things. Um, and then the huge document storage area is what exists today for courts. me public works planning and unfortunately we will always be pushing paper. We have to retain so many originals um and the vault is only so big. So this gets us some growth as well for both things.

And then a quick question to the chief because cases sometimes get messed up and chain of custody falls apart. The way this is set up for chain of custody, you're you're happy with everything, chief. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. This is this is probably the the the best thing going right now. This is going to be much better than what we're currently working on. Thank you. And I feel like that report writing room must be one of the officers least favorite. Go ahead. The footprint the footprint itself is that being altered just the perimeter and all that?

No, the building itself. We we have we have eliminated due to the items that Katie had mentioned earlier the uh additions to the building. we ran into some physical obstacles and we were able to then design the building within the existing envelope of the building itself today. One of the things I forgot to mention which is probably one of the most critical items is in here up on the upper portion of the center is our new elevator location. We have an elevator there with a elevator uh equipment room in the back. uh with with us architects and our structural engineers, we kind of combed the building, so to speak, to find the best structurally safe place to put that elevator location. And I think that works out really well for both the the operational uses and the ability to have that elevator in that location. So, moving up to the uh upper level. Um again, here we are focused on uh I'll start in the back where that elevator comes up to this corridor here just behind this wall. Um so, we are reworking that. We're working a couple of offices back here. Uh in the in the police department area, we've got our our uh excuse me, our conference room and roll call room and our watch commanders. As we work our way down, uh, we've got the mayor's office, IT, Bianca's and server room, and then the police administration, uh, location in the center of this area here. We've got a couple of workstations and a couple of areas, a work copy area. In that location, the corridor then is is perimetered by some additional offices uh, for the chief and and his crew. And then we've got a work or a break area uh in the center location of that. Off to the other side, we are looking at putting a report writing area in. The lower area was for more of the uh of the evidence storage and evidence

processing. This will be more of the report writing uh facility. As we look at what used to be the existing sally port, we are converting that into a storage component. Because we are adding a mechanical unit to the outside that is uh allowing us to do the renovations and do the work downstairs, we needed a shaft to be able to put in here. And then we've got a um uh the duty bags and the other support space for the police uh located in that area. Worked out really well for them on that. Mr. Megan, the uh the elevator is a big investment. Do you know roughly how much that investment is? They are tracking.

Is that a good misclo

I think for the record we should so people know that elevator is mandated. It's required. Yes. An ADA requirement. Correct. since we're going to have occupancy in the lower level.

So to answer the question about the cost on a future slide, we have a category label ADA improvements which includes the ramp here in the chambers, the elevator, and then the restroom cost down below. So we've anticipated that those improvements together um total $250,000 plus for ADA improvements. And last but not least, we are reworking the uh front entrance vestibule to allow us to bring the uh public within this area. We did include a secondary door to the side and the um metal detector off to the side of that of that area to allow better functionality and better operations of people going in and out of that message. So we think that'll help that situation.

Do I circle back to the transaction window? Oh, I'm sorry. I miss you. Sorry guys. Uh we did add a transaction window here. Um what was happening before is the public would have to come into the back area to to do some uh interactions with staff. We are bringing that function to this area here creating a transaction window. It's very similar to the ones we've got down lower area to allow for that to happen without the public getting back behind. We call it secure area. What are the differences? I guess Bob was doing the transactions in that window and the other one.

So currently they just the a contractor or whomever anybody can go get buzzed back into the building department and then they're back in this area here. Now the door will be secured and not go back and forth with public and there will be a window just like we have for court. you just move on down and so all of your transactions are happening right there in that hallway. So for contractors, correct? They'll drop off people are dropping off plans and that type.

Okay.

Right. So when Bob kicked off the agenda, he mentioned we had to talk about a few obstacles and opportunities here this evening. Um so the process we've gone through like I said we we've done a new cost estimate on the design development set of documents and also a total pro program budget update. So the total program budget includes the construction cost and all other soft costs we call them associated with the project. So this effort wrapped up in early February. Since that time, we've still been closing the loop on some of those due diligence items and really trying to make sure that we've got all costs captured um in this update to you all. So, um we have seen some significant variances um from concept design to schematic design and then now to where we're at with the design development estimate. Mentioned already the ADA improvements um total about $250,000 worth of cost. We have determined a lot of infrastructure upgrades from the due diligence like we mentioned. Um some of these being the boiler replacement um and also some additional mechanical repairs that have been identified as a result of the micro commissioning activities. Um in order to fit out the basement space, we do need to add another air handling unit um to the building to support the air flows and cover cooling and heating um for that space. We've talked already about the underground plumbing replacements. um the electrical service upgrades all added cost um above and beyond what we were anticipating earlier on in the design stages of the project. Um again, we mentioned the roof replacement. This was something that had kind of moved in and out of the budget when we were trying to reach our target number of 5 million. At this point, we put that cost back in. We know it's a real cost the city will incur, so it made sense just to roll that into this total program budget update for you all. Um, and then the last item on here is the antenna system for fire response. So, as part of the building code, there is a requirement for first responder radios to work throughout your facility. So,

since we are building the police department functions into the basement with heavy masonry walls, we're anticipating that there will be areas of the building that the radios will not work without this antenna system. So, we've added that into the budget as well. So in total about 50% of the construction costs um at this time are associated with the HVAC, electrical and plumbing system upgrades. Um so of the budget we're presenting tonight, over $2 million of the construction cost alone is going just into system upgrades. Um we are happy to report is that we have done a fair amount of pre-planning in the design phase. We've hopefully identified a lot of these issues um that would have been unavoidable, you know, had we gotten into the project and had been unknown um during the design. So, these could have been if I could. I'm I'm thrilled to see that because

when I became mayor, Town Square was finished, but there a lot of unhappy campers about the cost of town square. And so, I I really went into that in depth. There were 12 change orders uh for town square. um at a change order like let's put a walkway on Brookton Road is not inexpensive. Um and so not having as few change orders and once you come to a price and where we are and what the cost is to have a minimal number of change orders as we go through the process is is a very good thing critically. So I'm glad that you've done this research and gotten ahead of it and changed the things that need to be changed before to get into the construction and now surprise surprise those don't go over

agreed I hate to come back and present those

yeah I'm looking at the line item related to HVAC electrical and plumbing and all that were you guys able to find quantify the waste that we have as a result of our current systems and the potential impact on just operational expenses for us moving forward Are you talking about from like a utility cost standpoint? Um, no. We really haven't gotten into that level of detail. We did mention that we know we are increasing the electrical service size. I think it's going from 600 to 800. It's not a big increase. Um, we are adding the air handling unit and the elevator which will have electrical costs, but a lot of the new equipment is more energy efficient. So, um, we haven't done a a thorough analysis of that, but yes, I think there there is the anticipation that the loads are increasing due to the additional occupancy of the building.

Yeah, I hope so. Given the size of the project, is 200,000 I mean, is that even 5% of the project?

Are you talking about the contingency line on the next one? Yes. So, um, I'll walk you through that here. So this is the updated total program budget. You can see um the SD estimate column. That was that October update we gave to you. So right now we're looking at the next column over the DD estimate. Um we are showing that there is a variance on the construction cost of almost 1.35 million. Um in that construction number we still have budgeted I believe 12% contingency. Um that is what we call construction contingency. It's not intended to cover additional design items that come up. So yes, we do have additional contingency outside of that bottom line 200,000 that you're seeing. Um we refer to the bottom one more as soft cost contingency. So sort of the next layer of discussions we need to get into are more related to the technology cost. So making sure we're working with your IT department on what it's going to take to support this um from a low voltage infrastructure standpoint. So um within that construction number there is additional contingency.

Was the original one in October also include contingency? Yes, that's correct. That's constant.

So you can see here um kind of how it breaks down by category. The largest of the the change is in that construction um line item. Um there are some other small increases along the other categories. So about 130,000 across um special construction um FFN professional services and technology. So I think the the biggest things to note there are we went through an extensive effort of reviewing all of the existing furniture in the facility. So the intent was to reuse as much as possible. Um we've identified a good portion of it that can be used, but we've also budgeted um to fit out the spaces where we don't have existing items able to come back in. We do have actual furniture um vendor pricing has been built into this. Uh we also have built into this the cost for the police um system. So like the evidence lockers and um some of the things that support the the police operations themselves. Um mentioned on technology, we did add in the cost. You'll see the $50,000 increase there for the antenna system for the fire response. So, in total right now, the project is tracking um just under the $6.5 million mark. So, definitely an increase where we left off last time, but hopefully I've been able to describe to you the the changes that have occurred um that have increased that number.

One last question. Um the the underground plumbing that's just that's main sewer. Is that is that going to be replaced in the main or is that just Yeah, the underground plumbing lines that are being replaced are with under the building slab in the basement. So, they're cast iron lines. We did camera all the way out through the foundation wall. And I think David, we said it's PVC. When you get to the exterior, just assuming five feet out, it changes to PVC. So, we won't have to touch that, but it'll be 5T or so outside and then inside.

Okay. So, this slide here then speaks to kind of the next steps and where we're headed with the schedule. Um so after this evening we are anticipating that we will be heading into construction documents. Um so this will be the final set of drawings and specifications developed um that will be used for bidding. Um we're also developing a plan to move forward with the retro commissioning improvements. So I mentioned um there's a handful of things that are intended to be resolved with the building control system kind of head of the project and then any of those items um that are required for change out or require construction will be rolled into the design itself. Um also coming up we will finalize the project sequencing. So we've had a lot of discussions about how it would be phased um how we intend to work through the building. So now that we've kind of finalized the scope, um we'll be able to to come to an agreement on how the construction phasing will be accomplished. Um from there, we will do the 95% documents will be completed. And similar to what David mentioned on the public works project, we will do a full constructibility review. And really the goal of that is just to make sure we have everything covered um that we don't see scope gaps in the drawings, that there is clarity provided in that set of documents for the bidder. So again, you know, the goal of that is to reduce anything um that we can see and on paper um from change orders that could happen during the construction process. Um from there, we'll finalize the documents and move into permitting which is anticipated to be completed this summer. Um so in terms of bidding and contracts, uh we are targeting August to have this out for general contractor bidding. Um just kind of walking through the timeline, we'll then receive bids in September. um bring those back to you for approval in November is our target. Um and then construction mobilization we're anticipating will be early next year, early in 2027. Um again about a 12 to 14 month um construction duration to get things wrapped up. So most of the

work will potentially be completed by the end of 2027 with some of those items and sort of the last end of the phasing um completing in early 2028. Quick question. Did you anticipate a fair number of contractors entering into this bidding?

Yes. So, um, one of the things Navigate does ahead of bidding is call the list of contractors that we know are capable of completing projects of this size and complexity. So, if they know it's coming, they kind of hold time in their bid schedule. Um, we generate interest. We do find too that a lot of times the contractors like working with us because they know the process and the expectations. So yes, we will begin um sort of making those calls and letting those contractors know that the project is coming. Um our goal is to get, you know, five to seven bids on every project. This one may be a little tricky um to get that just because it is a complex renovation, but yes, absolutely. Thank you.

Question. You probably said this, but I I on the one page it says that the variances are 1.05 million and the other page it's 1.4. 476. Yeah. So, this the goal of this list here was to just kind of hit the big ticket items. We didn't go into variances on every line item. So, with this list, we were able to account for um 1,ion25,000 of the total variance. So, um we didn't account for every, you know, flooring change or, you know, cabinetry change. That was just kind of those big ticket items that we were able to total up to get to the bulk of the variance.

Last question. Do we pay ourselves for permitting? How does that work? I know electric employment goes to the county, but

yeah. No, we would not pay ourselves. We would continue to pay the staff who does the permit and review. But to pull the permit, there's no fee. We would hope we are still singles county etc. move on to the fire station if there are any other questions. Okay, so again um kind of recapping at the end of October um a schematic design update was given to you all again along with the cost estimate. Um the scope of work for the fire station is really heavily focused on again the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems um and building insulation improvements. So the primary goal is thermal com comfort improvements um for the fire staff in that facility. Um again we had initiated some uh initial design investigations at that point and they had triggered the same thing. We needed to do some retro commissioning of the mechanical systems prior to advancing design to really understand you know, why was it so hot at the ceiling or why are they having issues with um air flow in some of their spaces? So, um those efforts have all been completed at the fire station as well. So, again, at schematic design, um we um worked through some more minor scope reductions than we did here at this building and the budget was tracking just over that $2 million mark, which was our our threshold for the project. Um so, again, this slide just kind of shows what the scope of that project is intended to be. So, there are some select improvements to windows and doors, some exterior maintenance improvements. Again, heavy focus on the thermal insulation in the sleeping quarters. Um, new apparatus bay doors, HVAC improvements. Um, and then anything else kind of beyond that, toilet toilet

room finish upgrades that were able to accommodate within that budget. And and again, the budget for that is about where we thought it would be. Correct. Yes. Right.

Yeah. We've definitely um kind of slowed our pace on the design um of the fire station. So since the schematic design um we had to really dig into the retro commissioning report that had been issued. So this came out um in early December. Um what the report identified is that there are several mechanical system issues that are related to the controls. So not necessarily equipment issues, but you know the way the signals are sent, the things that are being monitored, how they respond under any sort of given condition. So, for the last couple of months, we've been working with um the building automation control system vendor. So, this is a vendor that's managed um by the fire district itself to try to bring resolution to a lot of these issues. It's very technical um so I probably won't speak to them very well. Um and with that report as well, the there were several building envelope issues that were noted. So, again, we knew thermal cover was a big a big problem for the occupants. So, you can see in the photos, this is a heat map. Um you can see the dark areas are cold. Um the the orange areas are hot. So just things like the building structure is transmitting, you know, heat and cool through the space. Um this photo here is an example of the bunk room. So the ceiling um air at the ceiling is coming out at like 115 degrees and it's too hot to settle down. So all the warm air is at the top, the cold air is at the bottom. Therefore, as they're sleeping, they're cold. So it's it's a mixing issue. So again, it's going back to the controls um and the way that the equipment is being signaled to operate. So those are the things we're working through right now. Um the vendor is implementing a lot of these recommendations. Um we're trying to close the loop on a few things that are outstanding and then we're going to send the retro commissioning agent back to check those things and make sure that the adjustments he recommended have made the improvements um that were anticipated. So um we really need to wrap this effort up before we can proceed with design. Um that way we understand are there any you know adjustments that need to be made to the

original thinking around the mechanical system um before we just replace equipment or things that may not need to be done um for those improvements. J question if you don't mind. Are you thinking about the newer speedy uh garage doors? Yes. Because that obviously has a big impact on HVAC. Correct. Yes. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. So, in terms of next steps and schedule here, um we're kind of marking April um as the timeline to get some rectification of those building control issues. Some of this stuff has been difficult too because it's seasonal. So, in the summer, you know, they may have hot issues. In the winter, it's cold. So, um we have been able to kind of work through several seasons now to see how the building um operates under those various outdoor conditions. Um so in April we're anticipating that we will have enough information from the retrocommissioning effort to approve or to proceed with the design development drawings. Um we're we're hoping by summer um we are through that phase of design as well as our next estimate update um before we proceed again into the 100% construction documents this fall. Um so right now the timeline's a little bit more loose. Like I said, we want to make sure we're resolving um all of the issues during design before we proceed to bidding. Um but again, we're anticipating this fall we'll be ready to bid that project. Um receive those bids and bring those back for your approval. Um construction mobilization could potentially be a similar timeline. Um again, more to be figured out when we confirm the scope of the project. Um but all in all, um early 2028 is the projection for that that scope of work to be completed as well. Um, why don't we, if you don't mind, we'll go to Joanne. She if you want to keep swiping and set her up. There we go. And then we'll bring Katie back up because finish up on this. It'll tie anyway. Joan's gonna tell us how we're gonna pay for it. For those of you who attended our board retreat in July of 2025, you'll recall that we first introduced to you these three facilities upgrades with the

proposed financing. Since that time, we are continuing to provide financing updates using the same format with the same projection philosophy. These projections have remained conservative for all of the four funds that are part of this presentation tonight. More specifically, revenues are calculated with 2% increases year-over-year from 2027 and forward from that point. And expenditures are calculated with 5% increases year-over-year from 2027 and onward. There are exceptions to this and I will show you those later. And when I reference financing, I don't really mean financing is in loans. What I mean by financing is how we're going to pay for these expenses. And because the city has a comfortable reserve or comfortable fund balance level, we can use those reserves and avoid issuing debt for these items. So, I want to take a look first at the general fund, and that's the top one. And I don't know if you can see it very well, but I want to show you that um with the general fund, um 81% or actually over 81% or $9.75 million, um of these funds from the general fund will pay for these three capital projects over the 4-year period. So, if you look at the transfer out column, you'll see that money right there down below in the capital fund is where it is transferred in and paid for. Back up at the general fund, and I'm going to try to make this big. So, if you see the fund balance, you can see that even with the substantial sharing of funds, the fund balance percentage of the general fund never drops below the

50% required minimum. We get close at 52%. But we never fall below that. So I want to speak to you a little bit more about these projections. Um so in the 2025 line are those um before when you saw this these were not actual revenues. They were estimates. Now they're actual revenues at year end. They may change slightly based on audit adjustments, but I'm pretty much finished adjusting numbers at year end. Um, and hopefully soon you will see end of year financials for 2025. With 2026, that's different. These are all budgeted numbers. However, they're not the budget general that that you approved that you adopted at the end of December 2025. They're actually amended budget and what that means is you have some items in here that were encumbered in 2025. So we were holding money aside for those projects. They weren't finished at the end of 2025. So we had to roll them over into 2026. Well, what that means then is we're holding this bunch this encumbered amount. Well, we have to have a budget to tie it to, you know, to match it up against. So then the monies from 2025 that were budgeted for those move to 2026. And so that's why your numbers change in 2026. That's generally the reason for the changes in 2026. But there is an exception to that too which I'll point out here shortly. Um let me just there are some times where we uh when I was mentioning the 2% increase in the revenues and the 5% increase in

expenditures. If we have grants on the revenue side, I'm not going to increase then the next year by that 2% increase because that just doesn't make sense. I pull out that grant piece and then just do the normal increase from the prior year's revenue to the new year. And I do that on the expenditure side, too. So, if we have a large grant that we're going to be expending money in a some fiscal year, I'm not going to say, "Oh, we're going to expend that same amount in the next year." I'll pull that out, do the increase just to that other portion, and then put that amount still back into that total amount. So you'll see as you look through these annual expenses, for example, right here in the parks and stormwater fund in 2026, you see this $4.6 million. I'll explain what that is in a minute. But basically, it's some carryovers of projects for 2025. But all of a sudden looks like, oh wow, we have all these expenditures. How are we going to pay for them? Well, they were planned for and we we can pay for them. But with capital expenditures, um it's not like the general fund where there's generally an increase of 2% or 3% from year over year, but with capital uh funds like the parks and stormwater fund, the capital fund, the road funds. Sometimes you have smaller capital projects in one year, other times you have much larger capital projects that you have to budget and plan for. And so then your fund balance is going to uh be reduced at end of year.

So can we if you don't mind can you remind me again what was the effect of the grocery tax cancellation if that were to happen? Was that two million thank you? That's pretty pretty devastating. Yeah. Exactly. So then the 2% 52% wouldn't be enough credit for our we would be in trouble if we don't have groceries tax. That's hugely important to us. Yeah.

It's our understanding the legislation is not going anywhere this year. And any of those bills that have been proposed were phased. So they wouldn't immediately say local government you no longer get $2 million in sales tax revenue. They would gradually phase those if that got approved. So Bob, you're thinking that by the time we hit that 52% number, it probably wouldn't have pushed us under. If if you're talking about if that grocery tax, for example, would have been Right. Right. should phase it. Yeah. And give cities the opportunity to have other sources of revenue that cut expenses. Still, it's close. Yeah.

I had a quick question. I'm a very simple person and so I know a simplistic kind of question. Um, basically in recent years we have had expenses of roughly a million dollars more than our income before the property tax. Yes.

And with the property tax which nets us around two million a year. So it covers the million dollar deficit plus another million. So I the way I'm simply thinking of it is that it's not exactly how we're funded, but it basically will take 12 years of the property tax to fund the 12 million that this project costs. That's not our our projection is not I don't believe it should take that long to pay it off basically because of the way we're spending down some of the reserves that have been built up. Right. Again,

yeah, in the capital and in the general fund really is what it is. So on the general fund 26 fund balance 92%. Could we cut into that more? Concern would be then that takes you down below the 52% the next year. Right? If you start spending that money then your fund balance didn't carry over and you're down below 50% in the following year. And we don't have we don't have the invoices yet in 26%.

How about in 28? You got 70%. And you've already passed that period of time. So at 28 we're already finished then. And uh let me show you in just a minute. I'm going to show you the next slide that goes through 2030. So you can see where we are at 2030 if you don't mind please. Sure. So at the bottom of the slide then I want to just show the funding for the project costs of $12 million how they're broken down. And so you can see that the general fund does pay $9.75 million. We're hoping that the parks and storm water fund will provide $2 million and then the capital fund will provide the remaining $250,000.

We're paying that $2 million that given a long time.

That would be, I believe, what the board anticipates doing. And in prior years that uh Joanne will show you, the uh capital fund actually received transfers and the park stormwater fund received money from the capital fund and then paid back at least some of that money. So this isn't cutting edge. This has been done before the other way around grants. Again, you were saying you budgeted without the the grants as far as the revenue. So if you get a grant for something that you could apply towards something that would be an increase of revenue, then it's not accounted for at this point.

So yes, it is accounted for. But what I'm what I was explaining, and I probably didn't do a very good job of it, is when I'm doing the revenue piece, if I say there's going to be $2 million in normal revenues, then I calculate the 2% of increase on that 2 million. Then I add to that what I think is going to be that grant revenue. But I don't apply that 2% to I don't do like 2 million plus 1 million grant and then do a 2% over the total. I just do 2 million plus 2% of the 2 million plus that 1 million. So how do you see what I'm trying to say?

So does that grant then the the grants that you're budgeting are those typical that you then receive or Yes. I we only I only budget for the grants that I anticipate us to receive, but it's just one of those things where maybe I don't put it in here. Okay. Thank you. How do how do these three buildings total at 12 million? How does that impact things like uh sidewalk projects, those type of things?

Whatever we have projected in our 5year CIP is still planned um for in our fiveyear CIP. So then on the second slide here are the projections through 2030. And so you'll see then the general fund um again and by the time we get to 2028 um you have seen that it was a 70% fund balance percentage and it fluctuates but it's very close to that in 2029 and 2020 2030. Then park storm water fund um has some flip-flops back and forth, but then by 2030 it's all the way up to 92%. Now, as I mentioned before, you'll see where there are certain large fluctuations in those expenditure numbers. And um for the 4.6 million, it shows um I just lost my spot. Um, it has various things including topic 2A. Would you like to explain?

Okay. Talking 2A and these are on the left hand side of the screen at the bottom. The Long View parking lot resurface which was originally budgeted in the 2025 budget and is rebudgeted in 2026. Preservation playground construction counts for tunnel repairs. Replacement of an F350 truck with snow plow and salt spreader. North Mason Road sidewalk concept and South Liz Mill Road sidewalk concept. So on the parks and storm water fund I don't see it transferred back in. So $2 million out to contribute to the buildings and I think historically we have transferred back in or

it wouldn't be the same year though. Yeah, just to clarify,

a lot of the transfers and it's on the next slide that the board annually approves to transfer out of the capital into the road fund which has exceeded 9 million, right, doesn't ever get repaid. And if we had not been transferring money out of the capital fund into the road fund to fix streets and sidewalks and things, you'd have had the money to do all these facilities. Uh however, we do anticipate that the board's going to want to allocate some money out of the general fund back to Park Stormwater at some point. We're allowing the board that flexibility to to determine how much and when you do that as your cash flow. We're not tying your hands to anything in here. And that's exactly what they did before when they took money out of capital and put it into park storm water. They said, "Okay, now we have enough in the capital or in the stormwater pay back some of the capital."

Excuse me. What is the funding source for the capital fund? Is it just sales tax?

Yes, the capital fund. Yes. And then down at the bottom there's uh more information on what comprises that 2027 uh cost for 1.9 million which is Conway sidewalk design storm water maintenance project southwoods mill grant application and then 2028 is 3.6 million and that is an illustration of those for the parks and motor fund as well. We also noted what is not in the budget which includes South Woods Mill sidewalk construction which is estimated at $100,000 right now. Um North Mason sidewalk construction which is I64 to Conway West County.

Oh with the county. So these are again these are all just projections but these are anticipated what the city's portion would be with grant funding and with cooperation from St. Louis County on Mason Road. Uh and then again, Clayton Road resurfacing, you know, we know we're going to at some point need to do that. Estimate approximately 500,000, maybe more. But you can see you're going to have plenty of money as your fund balance grows back up in the capital fund for these. Before I forget, Robert, are we keeping Chief Saddler in the loop about what we are doing for his fire station? Absolutely. And the timeline and all that. Talk to him today. Okay. He's on board. He's satisfied with what we're doing.

Correct. Okay. And they're they're a major player because they're contractors are the ones that uh because they run those systems that are having to get in and do these adjustments so we can try to figure out what's going on. Since we're sort of an unusual situation where we're not in adjust fire department, keeping a good is pretty paramount. You're absolutely right. The overhead doors that Alderman can sell mentioned are a big plus to them. The high-speed new doors. Okay. Great. Right. Thanks. I have a question. How much money are we saving by not financing any of the any of this?

We have that number and I don't we could get it. We'll get it. Would financing also allow us a little more flexibility? Well, before you would ever finance, I would look at where your current funds are. No, no, I'm just curious. Yeah, Joanne got some numbers from a financial advisor and just the issuance alone and the hassle of going through borrowing that money is time consuming and a challenge and you don't want to be issuing debt if you don't have to issue debt from municipality. I mean, I would assume this TNC has never issued debt ever. Uh, we did to pay for the park improvements.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You issued bonds for parks for long view and reservation trace. Yeah. Okay. Short-term bonds though, right? Well, it depends on the terms. I mean, you can get shorter term general obligation bonds, but you have to get voter approval to do that. But if it's general long-term bonds, you got to get approval. If it's a short term, well, are you talking about you may be speaking about something called certificates of participation? Yeah, that's what we got. I heard parks get me. Those have just a bit of a like a 1% higher interest rate than the general obligation.

Try to get a feel for the confluence of criticality on this. It's three significant projects running all at once. and uh you know things like the firehouse we've known about those issues for a while you know um it's an just a philosophical question I'm sharing with the audience of uh why do all three all at once yeah um this is Joann's question because she's obviously has the numbers I gave her a break David uh could speak to it much more but some economy of scale Uh we learned with topping road we tried to put a pause on it during COVID. We did put a pause and then to get everybody jinned back up. We had to pay more because they had to get familiar with the plans again. You have new consultants and players. People change. Uh studies change. So it ended up costing us more to delay it. So we're like if you're in it, let's do it. The chief is ready. Uh the staff is ready. Our consultants are here. And we've got a good team. Uh and beyond them, we've got Horner and Shiffron. We've got mechanical, plumbing, electrical people. We're ready to go. And now's the time to get these contracts. And we may even find a good contractor who would be working on all three facilities. So, we would say let's do it and get it done and then be able to move on and start paying back your funds and maybe reducing your property tax if that's what the board decides.

Is that answer? that's still out there right to go for sure. Yeah, I I love the way this approaches. You guys do projects all the time. And by the way, that gate only is a rather municipal local government. So that's what you have. Yes. So wouldn't it be similar to if you're getting a tree, you have three trees that can get taken out of your yard.

You do one this year, one next year, one next year. That's going to cost you a whole lot more than the guy comes out one time, knocks all three trees down and takes it away. I like to say you're all you're all already there. So the sum of the parts would be much greater than the whole if we just do it this way. Would that be certainly think so? Yeah. So it's the mobilization cost is what gets you every time they have to bring their equipment back out and Yes. Yep. You pay multiple times as well as the architecture and all that other stuff.

Yeah. So one thing yeah I didn't point out in the estimate is we do factor in escalation. So when we do our cost estimates we use unit pricing for what we know today's cost to be and then we have a um a historical database where we're constantly tracking escalations and things. So what has been budgeted in this is escalation through the time of bidding on each project. So if the timelines for bidding shift out these budgets really don't hold true anymore because that escalation has not been factored in. So, um, time is money is really the the simple way of saying that. So, um, the sooner you do it, the more cost effective we think the project's going to be.

I hear you. I understand the philosophy and yeah, I I get it. You know, do them all at once. I guess where I'm looking for, maybe it's embedded in this stuff are those efficiencies. So, we've got two detail relatively, you know, 20,000 foot detailed uh budgets on the um salt mill public works building and here. And you know, I'm seeing the public works building coming in under budget. Yay. You know, congratulations. Good stuff. Um and I'm seeing drops or flatness on technology, for example. And yet here at this building, I'm seeing a rise in technology of 50 grand. So if we are looking at things, you know, to lump things all together, would it have been 70 grand of an increase if we haven't had those efficiencies of multiple projects going on at once? I'm trying to get a firm grasp on where are those efficiencies of multiple projects at once. A little hard to do the comparison with the uh the firehouse because you don't have this snapshot. you know that you graciously put in here as well. I agree. I get it. Yeah. Doing them all at once, you're gonna it's going to be more efficient and it's going to be 2027, 2028. Who knows what's going to happen with inflation, all that kind of stuff. But I'm trying to get a feel for the efficiencies that you get from that um from the economy of doing multiples. And the other thing I want to get a sense of is longer term what efficiencies this creates for the city. You know, be it as my earlier comment on the HVAC stuff or the energy cost, those type of things. Where are we wasting money now based on old infrastructure and where could we see improvements and reductions in in our operating expenses in the future so that we could look at things in 2030 2035 and say you know what you know by

doing these things we saved x amount of dollars and now we're able to reinvest those into whatever it might be that and we currently and just see

repair cost for facilities here. We had to tear out some of the plumbing in the basement. We had to maintain and at the firehouse because we agreed in our renewal with the fire district. We pay over $5,000. We start splitting the cost and we incurred money last year to maintain and and just keep these this equipment running that we would continue to have to pay if we don't replace it. So Tom pays those bills and sometimes arranges for the contractors all the time. So he knows what that let me add this too. I think one of the concerns I would have is that you're almost commissioning a study of the inefficiencies of two 40y old buildings. And I don't know that I'd want to spend a bunch of time and effort measuring how much loss we have in these old structures. I think a good example is the the plumbing discovery downstairs. That was not something that Katie and her team would have said up front. I could I could tell you what that inefficiency is. It wasn't until they stuck a camera down there that they recognized that that's where a big inefficiency was and it could have become a more emergent uh plumbing problem that we would have had to spend a tremendous amount of money repairing. Fortunately, it was caught before there was a breakage. Could be worse.

I don't I don't think it's a big study. Like, let's look at the plumbing thing. I don't know. Do we have episodes where we had backups, you know, in the last year or so? Could we look at like the water usage? So, how much was all that plenty this building is inefficient. I'd like to tear it down. I want to move out. I want to go somewhere else. This is a terrible structure. my team is not comfortable. They can't sleep at night. So even two years ago when I met when I was talking about it, he was saying that this this place needs a lot of work for me and my team to be efficient. And so I'd be careful that we're not,

you know, running backwards trying to figure out how bad was it. Recognize that they're old efficiency study per se. I just think that we should be able to have the numbers, you know, relatively at hand in terms of how many plumbing projects we got into that, you know, that we shouldn't have run into. I see nodding heads here. Um, you know, those type of things just so we could say, okay, here's here's a snapshot, you know, we're wasting x $100,000 on this stuff, proving the point that we need to move forward. And then when you get into the new systems, they'll have effic efficiency scores, you know, and you can apply that to um, you know, kilowatt usage, megawatt usage, whatever we're going to do and kind of anticipate we're going to be what we're going to be benefiting. So I don't think it has to be a real cautious though, you know what we're asking for. I think one of the things too is the list of ADA requirements is something that's important.

Sure. and you're not going to find a number that is associated with the inefficiency of not having those in place. So, I think one of the things you have to look at is the public's perception of what we do up here. Um, right now we're a third of the way through 2026, roughly quarter maybe through 2026. At the latest, this will be done by early 2028, which is will be here before you know it. And for to be able to say in early 2028, all of the projects are done, completed, the salt build, the firehouse here, police, all of it is done. As opposed to stringing out one project after another, year after year, and this, you may not know this, but sometimes people get critical of public service and their idea is that, hey, how inefficient are you guys? You know, I'd love to be able to say that, hey, by January 15th, 2028, we are done. This entire $12 million project is on time, done, and we were very efficient about it. I I think I think how we how we're perceived by the public isn't always um a pretty picture, frankly. And anytime that we can run something on budget on time um and I'd rather know that we have some budget overruns because I thought initially this whole project should be about 10 million so it's 12 million um we know it up front and and I think there is something to be a little sensitive to public perception of whether or not you're running a city that's competent or incompetent because there's a general tendency for people to think you're incompetent. I mean, the ones who email us or emailed me, you know, that is for sure. So, I I I actually love the timeline. I love the

fact that all of these projects are done by early 2028, assuming we don't have a tsunami or something. You know what I'm saying? Assuming the weather is reasonable. Um, so and I and I I super appreciate the update and I super really I think it's very critical as we go forward assuming this is approved that um we get timely updates on how we're doing and timeline time frames. I mean the worst thing that could happen is that we have significant the worst thing is significant cost overruns. The second worst thing is significant time overruns. time overruns, people can go a little more, but cost overruns, you know, all a sudden, well, you know, with 16 million and we're sorry, but we got a month of property tax won't go over too well as it shouldn't. I mean, as it should. So, I appreciate this update for sure. I certainly want to make sure we have timely updates as as to to know that we are on track and that we are going to finish on time and on budget for sure. And again, you all see in those schedules where we'll be keeping you busy um in the next few months with contracts and bringing for you and we would have updates at all those times.

Thank you. Thank you. And again, the the entire staff has been absolutely fantastic. Uh Joanne doing the financial numbers, Ashley and the chief meeting ad nauseium with these guys uh trying to make adjustments and make it work. So I appreciate and Tim and Tom everybody's work. I doubt there's a city municipality in this county staff. I agree. I absolutely I agree. Honestly, one of the great pleasures of being mayor is getting to know the city staff and the men and women of our police force. Absolutely. Thank you for the reports. You all are welcome to stay, but you don't have to unless they're building.

Well, let's go on to unfinished business. Bill number 26-8 sponsored by Alderman objection the city clerk this bill the second time. Bill number 2608 is an ordinance approving a boundary adjustment flat for the adjustment of permanent open space on lot one of Belfrest Estates flat 2 in the city of town and country and authorizing the boundary adjustment flat to be reported in the office of the recorder of deeds of St. Louis County. Thank you. See a motion and second to approve second. Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion or amendment? Would this any call for roll? Alderman Gerber. Hi. Alderman Freeman. Hi.

Alderman Canel. Hi. Alderman Hughes. Hi. Alderman Harter. Hi. Alderman Schwear. Hi. Alderman Murphy. Hi. And Alderman Sawyer. Hi. The bill passes unanimously. Becomes ordinance number 4736. Thank you. Exit bill number 26-209 supported by Sawyer. Without objection, would you read the bill for the second time? someone back then. I'm sorry, sir. I just have a question on that. Isn't that Bell Reeve Country Club subdivision? Country Club ground drive subdivision.

I think she said Belrest. Maybe I'm wrong. I hearrest. Yep. The first one that we just did was Belfrest. Now we're about to read Bel. Oh, thank you. I didn't know you made a mistake here. Sorry. That's fine. I'm sorry. Um, we start without objection. The city clerk read bill 2609 for the second time. Bill number 2609 is an ordinance approving a boundary adjustment flat for one and two Bell Reef Country Club Crowns Drive in the city of Town and Country and authorizing the boundary adjustment flat to be recorded in the office for the recorder of deeds of St. Louis County. Thank you. I seek a motion and a second to approve.

So move second. Thank you. Any discussion or amendment? I would ask the city clerk for a roll call vote. Alderman Murphy. Hi. Alderman Sawyer. Hi. Alderman Schwear. Hi. Alderman Friedman. Hi. Alderman Harter. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Hi. Alderman Hughes. Hi. And Alderman Canella. Hi. The bill passes unanimously and becomes ordinance number 4737.

Thank you very much. Uh, next bill number 26-10 by the full objection of the city clerk read this bill for the second time. Bill number 2610 is an ordinance exempting the city of town and country from the provisions of section 311.2026 RSM relating to the hours of operation of liquor licenses during the 2026 World Cup. Thank you. Seek a motion and second to approve. Second. Any discussion or amendment? I would ask the city clerk for roll. Alderman Harter. Hi. Alderman Murphy. Hi. Alderman Schwear. Hi. Alderman Friedman. Hi.

Alderman Canal. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Hi. Alderman Sawyer. Hi. And Alderman Hughes. Hi. The bill passes unanimously and becomes ordinance number 4738. Thank you very much. Next is bill number 26-11. is sponsored by Sawyer. Without objection, would the city clerk read bill number 26-05 for the second time?

Bill number 2611 is an ordinance amending the 2025 budget by transferring appropriations amongst expenditure accounts in the general fund, road fund, capital improvement fund, and parks and stormwater fund. appropriating funds to cover increases uh for the opioid remediation fund, federal equitable sharing fund, and public art fund expenditure accounts and to provide for a transfer of funds from the parks and storm water fund to the capital improvement fund. Seek a motion and second to approve. So move second.

And before I go on to any discussion, I was wondering if our CFO would like to make a few comments. So I thought it might be helpful if I explain what this is about. Thank you.

So section one of this basically gives me permission from you so that I can go to the um the budget accounts and adjust those. So we're allowed to go over budget in in line items as long as it's not over budget in the whole category. And so in some situations in the personnel category, we're overbudget. So I'm asking if you'll help me and let me adjust these. So what happens is it's basically a wash because in some accounts I'm actually asking to increase the budget for those particular particular line items. And then in others I'm asking to have that reduced in the budget. So we're not asking to adjust the fund balance. We're not taking money from the reserves. We're just switching back and forth from line item to line item on the budget. That is what section one is all about. And that's for the four main funds. So the general fund, the road fund, the capital fund, and the parks and storm water fund. Section two, three, and four are different because that's where total expenditures in these funds exceeded the budgeted allocations. And so in those situations, I need to ask you to let me take it actually from the funds fund balance in order um to get it. Uh so then the budget amount is equal to the amount of the expenditure that's incurred. And then finally, section five is the request for that fund transfer. And that's where we've had a lot of conversations about it. This one, you'll recall, was um in the fiscal year 2026 in the column for estimate of 2025, but it actually was not budgeted in 2025. And the reason it wasn't budgeted in 2025 was because the facilities projects

hadn't been gotten to that point yet. So, there was no budget allocation requested in the budget. But now I'm asking for it at this point so that I can get the funds to be transferred appropriately and I can get the 2025 numbers finished so that the offers can begin the audit. I think a little thank you. Uh and just to reiterate a point that was talked about earlier is that a future board uh meeting could include discussion of replenishing those monies back into the storm water fund. Correct. At a future date. Just want to make sure that was clarified.

And also just so you know I put in the budget document on the line items we have this particular detail about when the money was transferred, what it was transferred etc etc. So we have those details. got Can you explain how um I'm looking in section five and it seems that the parks and storm water and the capital improvement both of them are increased funding. Yes. Because one is a revenue account, one's an expense account. So, um, so in order for that to work out, they also they both have to be increases

in other and I know that's confusing because in other situations, um, they were just expense accounts. So, that's why I named them against each other and they're some positives and some negatives. That's a good question. necessary or roll. Alderman Sawyer. Hi. Alderman Canella. Hi. Alderman Hart. Hi. Alderman Hughes. Hi. Alderman Friedman. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Name. Alderman Murphy. Hi. Alderman Schwer. Hi. The bill passes 7 to1 and becomes ordinance number 4739.

Thank you very much. Next, moving on to new business. Um, approval of a purchase order to Jim Trinary Ford for a 2026 Ford Bronco Sport in the amount of $30,661. I see a motion and second to approve to move. Second. Any discussion or amendment. All in favor say I.

Carry unanimously. Thank you. Next is resolution number R03-2026. Resolution of the board of alderman approving the placement of a cell on wheels tower by AT&T at the Bell Ree Country Club between July 15, 2026 and August 31st, 2026. Seek a motion and second to approve. Second. Any discussion or amendment? Just a curiosity then mayor. This cell on wheels is going to be put on the Hunter Engineering property or is it on Belg?

All in favor say I.

Just a quick little anecdote about that. So on wheels, they also are called computers on wheels which were on patient or on these things that on these platforms that would be in patients rooms and they would they were called cows and they didn't sit well some patients so we don't use that term in the hospital. All right. Bill number 26-12. Um perhaps Alderman Murphy would support this one. Without objection, the city clerk read the bill for the first time. Bill number 2612 is an ordinance authorizing a supplemental agreement with SWT design for add additional services associated with the preservation park pickle ball and bike playground project construction documents and construction administration and amending the 2026 budget by increasing a parks and storm water fund expenditure account and appropriating funds to cover the increase.

Thank you. This bill number 2612 was continued in the meeting of Monday, April 13, 2026 with a second reading and consideration. Next is another purchase order approval of purchase order toy board for a 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe Police and the amount of $66,289. I seek a motion and second to approve. So move second. Any discussion or amendment? Sir, Chief, could you answer this? But you've got the uh 2017 Tahoe that's got 109,000 miles on it. That's the one you're going to keep.

And then you got a 2019 Durango, a two-year younger vehicle with 100,000 miles, and that's the one you're going to get rid of. So, the 19 I hope that wasn't a typo. The 19 is a Charger, so it's a So, it's a um car. Yeah.

Uh the resale value isn't as well on those. Uh, it also isn't exactly the type of vehicle we wanted it to be when we purchased it. Uh, it just didn't come with as many things as we had been accustomed to getting from at the time, Kansas Highway Patrol. And most importantly, they become they become somewhat of a maintenance issue. There's certain parts that are very difficult to get. Most recently, a fuel door that we almost had to take the vehicle out of commission. Uh, we finally found it, I think, at like a secondhand parts place. So, and in relation also the Tahoe that we are keeping has recently had a transmission replaced, some major air conditioning work done. So, essentially it's it's it's in better shape even though the age and miles wouldn't maybe outright look like that.

I see what you mean. Yeah, thank you. I I you're right. I misread that it is a charger on the All in favor say I. I unanimously I do not have any other business up to the discuss hearing. None. I now seek a motion and second to close the meeting pursuant to section 610.021 and revises of Missouri to discuss legal actions personnel and attorney client privilege communications. Any discussion? Uh can we get a first and second on that? Second move. I got you.

Alderman Harter. Hi. Alderman Pinella. Hi. Alderman Friedman. Hi. Alderman Gerber. Hi. Alderman Schwear. Hi. Alderman Sawyer. Hi. Alderman Hughes. Hi. And Alderman Murphy. Hi. It carries unanimously and the board will not return to open session. I was just check.