City Council - Regular Meeting

But I don't know what that one is for. It says NA. Jimmy, that is a nice pink shirt you have on back there. All right, good morning, and welcome to the August 26th City Council meeting. We will begin with the invocation followed by the pledge by Councilwoman Darkbanks.

Please bow with me. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you today and ask you to fill this room with your presence. We thank you so much for the blessings you have bestowed on our wonderful city and every precious soul that you have entrusted to this community. Father, thank you for the men and women who serve as first responders each day, our police, firefighters, and EMS personnel who put the needs of the community above their own safety and well-being. We also thank you for the men and women of our armed forces and veterans who have sacrificed to protect our freedoms. We thank you for their commitment and service, and we thank their families for being a part of that sacrifice as well. We thank you for each one of them and ask your special blessing and protection over their lives. Thank you for everyone who serves our beautiful city in any capacity. There are so many unsung heroes that do things we never see, and many don't have an appreciation of their service because they do their jobs well with care and concern, for their fellow residents and without fanfare. We ask your blessing over them as well. Lord God, we know you are near to the brokenhearted. So I also lift up those in our community who are struggling today. Those who are sick, grieving out of work or carrying burdens that we may never see. We ask for your comfort, healing, provision, and peace over their lives and ask you to show us how we can be a blessing to them. Father, we ask you to be a part of these proceedings today. Give us wisdom, discernment, and the courage to do what is right and pleasing in your sight, and that will do the most good for the people here in Tyler. Father, I thank you for my colleagues here the mayor and other council members. I know their dedication to integrity and service. I ask that you would bless the work of our hands today and guide us to do what is best and right. Thank you for Tyler and every person here today. We ask your continued blessing and a hedge of protection be placed around Tyler, Texas, Lord, and that we would be a community who does what is good and pleasing in your sight. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

Thank you, Councilwoman Dark-Base. All right, we'll move on to the minutes. We'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the minutes as presented.

Do I have a second? I second. We have a motion to approve the minutes as presented by Councilman Nichols and a second by Councilwoman Marsh. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, minutes are approved. P1.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Good morning, Chris. Water Business Office Manager, and I'm here with Council's permission to introduce Mr. Chris Eckert from NewGen Strategies, who's going to give a brief presentation on the proposed redesign of the stormwater fee.

Thank you, Chris. Thank you.

good morning mayor council chris eckert with new gen strategy solutions pleasure to be with you i know you have a packed agenda today i'm going to try and keep this as brief as i can but happy to answer any questions as we go along through this day i know some of you have seen this information before so this may be just a refresher as we look at the storm water utility i really want to spend time today going through your current method of charging for storm water related charges talk about what changes we're proposing and then really look at those customer impacts associated with this so as we move into the presentation today just reminding you your current stormwater ordinance this is in section 1967 of your code of ordinances the way you charge for stormwater right now is as a percent of the utility bill so whatever a customer receives in terms of water sewer potentially irrigation charges They pay a percent of that bill for stormwater. Right now that bill is set at about 7% is the way that percentage is set. There is a maximum charge for residential customers at $25 a month. That's about $300 a year. On the commercial side, you have a maximum charge under that ordinance of $208.33. So that's about $2,500 a year. There are exemptions in that ordinance right now if you have a wholly sufficient drainage system on your property, if you can manage every bit of runoff on your property who are not charged stormwater charges. If your property is in a natural or undeveloped state, you are not charged stormwater charges. Federal, state, county, and municipal properties are exempt. School districts are exempt, as well as higher education facilities are exempt. Some of those are mandatory exemptions under the Texas local government code. So some of those, that's just written in by the state.

Others are discretionary here for the city.

So with that, as we look at the local government code, this is how we come in and this is what gives us the authority to establish a municipal drainage or municipal stormwater system. And I want to point you to some of this language here. It says that you can charge for stormwater on any basis other than the value of property, but the basis must be directly related to drainage in terms of the levy that you're charging. So another way to read that, there must be a rational nexus between the charge for stormwater and the benefit received for stormwater. Right now, again, you are charging as a percent of the utility bill. The rational nexus here, the assumed rational nexus, or what is implied is that stormwater runoff is related to water consumption. That may not necessarily be the strongest nexus in charging between the utility bill and the benefit received from stormwater service. So what we are recommending is that the city consider changing the charging basis to be on impervious area. What we mean by that is if you were a bird flying over a property and you look down on that property, any type of surface that creates runoff, whether that be a roof line, a rooftop, a sidewalk, a driveway, a parking lot, anything that creates runoff, that is impervious area. Under this method, what you do, you go through and you measure that impervious area and you charge based on that impervious area. You see on the screen we use an abbreviation ERU. That stands for equivalent residential unit. The way this charging system is set is you go through and you look throughout the city and determine what the equivalent residential unit is in the city. You then state a fee based on ERU, and then when you come to your non-residential properties, you measure out the impervious area, you calculate the ERUs multiplied by the fee, and that is what the monthly bill becomes at that point. So we're maintaining the equity in the charging system by looking at this impervious area. So as we look at this approach, what we are recommending is that you consider charging $4.90 per ERU. And as we look at our specific class level, the way this would work out in terms of administration, in terms of method, is that any residential customer with one to four units, they would be charged $4.90 per ERU. We're recommending to ease the administration of this that you round to the nearest whole number, and I'll explain what that looks like here in just a second. In terms of your apartments, commercial, industrial, these are your non-residential customers charging $4.90 per actual ERU, but then also setting a minimum bill that no customer, regardless of their actual surface area, would be less than $4.90 a month, so keeping everybody at that minimum bill. Our recommendation is that you consider this effective January 1st of next year so you have time to communicate this information to the public and get this new system in place within your billing system. So as we look at that ERU definition, we've gone in and looked at all of the residential properties within the city. We're recommending you consider an ERU value of 3,454 square feet of impervious area. Again, we do this with satellite photography and machine learning to go in and look at each individual residential property That histogram you see on the right-hand side actually maps out the impervious area for your residential customers in the city. So we strike that average. That's how we set that ERU value to maintain the rational nexus within this charging system. So as we come to that $4.90 fee, how did we come to that level? In fiscal year 25, you generated a little over $3.5 million in stormwater charges. Recognizing that our cost has increased since then, also recognizing that We're recommending an implementation in January. We lose several months of the new fiscal year under this charge. So we have established that $4.90 fee to generate approximately $3.9 million over the entire fiscal year. really charging this fee from January through the end of the year. So that's where the $4.90 comes from. Again, it is to represent that cost has increased since 25, but also recognizing we need to generate the revenue that we have over that shorter period. I'm going to move now into some other tables that really start to demonstrate customer impacts. And what you see here on the screen, I want to point you to that table kind of down towards the bottom half of the screen. We've broken this out in looking at what is the impact across all of your residential customers, all of your commercial or non-residential customers. At the median level, really your residential customers would actually see a slight decrease under this method. It's about 83 cents a month. The median customer going down 83 cents a month. At that lowest end, that first percentile, some customers would see a decrease up to $9.47. On the other end, you do have some residential customers that will see an increase. Again, right now as you look at this, if you have higher utility use, you pay more for drainage regardless of the size of your property. So that's why those at the top of this list in the green, likely they are heavy utility users but they have smaller properties. Those at the bottom of this list likely are lower utility users but have larger properties. So that's why you see these trends working. in this way. On the commercial side, we would see for that median non-residential customer increase of $4.45 a month. What this system of charging does is it does shift some revenue generation from residential to non-residential. Again, that is logical. That's where we establish that rational nexus because your residential customers don't have parking lots. Your non-residential customers do have parking lots. And so when you think about that and the runoff that's created, we begin to achieve that rational nexus and tie that benefit to the charge. Again, about 90% of your bills fall between that bottom fifth percentile and that top 95th percentile. So that captures the majority of the city in terms of the impacts that you would see from this change. One thing we were asked to look at was the zoo. Obviously, if you think about the zoo, we have enclosures for the animals, we have walking paths, things of that nature. There is impervious area there. So we were asked to look at what this method would do for that property. Right now, that property pays four different utility bills. That current monthly bill is about $221. Under this charging method, that would increase to $7.10 a month. I would remind you as a council, you set policy, part of setting that policy is coming in and determining where exemptions may need to be granted. That said, if you grant an exemption, that is foregone revenue. You cannot go get that revenue from another customer. You can't go and raise another customer to make up for that revenue. So any exemption you grant is foregone revenue as long as that exemption exists. But we did want to be responsive to the request to look at the zoo, and that is the impact. A few more examples for you, especially in how this rounding works that we're recommending on the residential side. About 63% of your residential parcels fall at that one, basically one ERU range. That would take them all the way up to about 1.4 ERUs Anything up to 1.4 ERUs rounds down to one. So that would be $4.90 on the monthly bill. If you get to 1.5, you now round up. And so you do have some larger residential properties. There's one very large residential lot, 2.7 ERUs. That monthly bill would be $14.70. Again, that's rounding up to three. On the commercial side, you see we're not applying the rounding there. It's easier to administer non-residential without rounding because we have less non-residential properties. So again, this is really just to try and take a little bit of the strain off your staff in terms of administration on a going forward basis. So looking at the revenue generation, as I said, under this $4.90 per ERU fee, we're estimating about $3.9 million in overall revenue

for stormwater drainage related services.

In 2025, you generated about 3.5. But what I want to point your attention to is the shifting that you see here between residential and non-residential. On the residential side, you actually reduce residential charges by almost $300,000 in a year. On the non-residential side, you see that increasing over $670,000 a year. That's where the shifting begins to occur under this charging method. So I do want to point out, again, the largest increases. What we put together, we've identified on a parcel basis your largest commercial increases and your largest residential increases. And again, this is on a parcel basis. So I will point out as we go through this, there are some of these that pay multiple bills. And so that parcel is actually split amongst multiple customers. So I do want to point out we are looking at a parcel basis here. The largest increase here, this is the train residential system site. This is one build location, so this entire parcel One bill, right now, they pay $250 a month based on their utility use. Under this method, that does increase over $2,000 a month. But again, you see the size of the property. You see all of the impervious area generated here from this parcel. Our next property is Broadway Square. This is a shopping center. There's right now seven different build locations on this property, but the total bill for the property based on utility use right now is $568 a month. This would be an increase of over $1,600 a month between all seven of those build locations. Our third largest increase here, this is the Village at Cumberland Park. This is a shopping center. There are 11 billed locations right now. The total bill for this entire parcel right now, $347 a month. Again, you see over an $1100 increase between all 11 of those billed locations. So that increase would be split amongst all 11 of those locations. Our fourth largest increase, this was Walmart. Again, pointing at that picture, you see that's a giant parking lot. There's a lot of runoff there. Right now, they pay $76 a month for stormwater charges. This would be an increase of $975 a month. Finally, our fifth largest commercial increase, this is the Delac Refining property. There are two build locations. Right now they're paying $30 a month. Again, you do see a large amount of impervious area on this property. This would also be a fairly substantial increase. But again, we are reaching that rational nexus, tying impervious area to the charge to these customers. The final thing I have for you today are some large residential increases. Again, as you look at these residential properties, a couple things I do want to point out. The bill right now is based on utility use. It's possible these properties may have a septic system. So in terms of utility use, their utility use is very low in terms of how they pay for stormwater charges. Some of these properties also do have either naturally occurring or naturally dug or ponds that have been dug on these properties. Right now there is not a retention credit built within your system. That's something you could certainly look at where if you show that you can fully retain drainage on the property, if you can fully retain it and never discharge, you're exempt. But if there's a way to retain it and slow the discharge, it's possible you could come up with a credit system in that case. So I do want to point that out. That does not exist in your ordinance at this time. So as we look at these properties, again, these are not to scale. So these are not equally to scale when you look at them. We are looking at impervious area, which is the roof line, the driveway areas, or the sidewalk areas here. This property pays $5.47 a month. They would increase to $39.20 a month under this system. Our next property pays $7.38 a month. Again, you see the large roof area, you see the driveway there towards the bottom part of the screen, $7.38 a month increasing to 39.20. Our third largest increase is this property, $3.66 a month is that drainage bill right now based on the utility usage. This would increase to 24.50 based on those ERUs. Our fourth largest, 1807 is what this property pays right now, would increase to 2940. And our last largest residential increase, 1413 right now, would be charged 3920 based on those ERUs. Again, those pictures are a little hard to see. They're not all zoomed in exactly. They're not scaled perfectly correctly, so it is hard to compare those side by side. We did go in and we wanted to look at what was the impact across the entire city here. And so what we did is we mapped out the increase in bills and the decrease in bills. It does appear just based visually that most of the increases in the bills are centered on the southern part of the city. But again, I'd remind you 66% of your residential customer base actually sees a decrease from this change in charges. Finally, we did try and correlate property values with the idea looking at those that have a higher ability to pay, do they pay more under this system? Unfortunately, there's not really a good correlation here between property value and the impact on the residential bill. That correlation is very weak, but again, just trying to be cognizant of affordability to our customers, I would remind you, as I said before, 66% of your residential bills actually come down from this system. So I know I've thrown a lot at you this morning, a lot of charts, a lot of graphs, a lot of pictures, but happy to answer any questions you may have for me today on this proposed change.

Chris, thank you for your presentation. I'm glad you touched on it because I know at our last council meeting we kind of raised the point of why we are doing this and you touched on it quite a bit that this rational nexus that we're looking at is going to reduce the burden from the residential users and then shift it to where the actual runoff is taking place. So I appreciate you addressing that. And that was going to be the bulk of my questions. So you preempted those. I appreciate that. Anybody else have any questions? I know Councilman Nichols is our resident stormwater drainage. I'm sure you're just chomping at the bit. Yes, he is.

No, sir. I'll tell you, I've got a great question for you. It just came up. Just look at the train property and knowing how the people at the train think. We have a large amount of property there that can be used for trying to bring all their drainage, let's say, bring it in-house so that they've got retention ponds. But you're suggesting or you're saying that we would need to create ordinances for this?

So if you're going to do some kind of on-site retention or detention credit, we would need to come up with that method for how that credit should be administered. There are other communities that do this. There are models that we can follow on that. It's just a matter of setting that up and getting it into the ordinance.

Thank you. Anybody? Yeah, I got a few questions.

Go ahead. Okay, so you just said the $4.90 per ERU, and it sounded like that was due to we're only going to have nine months on the next fiscal year.

That's correct.

So is that a number that's, are we reevaluating that number each year?

is that shifting or you you can certainly reevaluate it every year so again your storm water charges are very akin to your water and wastewater charges where you come in every year you look at your budget you determine what your need is going forward and you set those charges storm water can be the the very same way in our experience throughout the state of texas most often storm water is not charged at the level that it really needs, when you really start looking at operations and maintenance and capital and everything you need to maintain the stormwater system, there is often sometimes a split between what's funded out of the general fund and what's funded out of the stormwater fund. But that said, we also recognize that stormwater is a In terms of utilities, it is newer, I guess is the right way to say it. It hasn't been around as long as water and wastewater utilities. But that said, you can certainly revisit it every year as your needs change.

I've got a couple more questions. Yeah, go ahead.

So as far as the property owners, this is probably more for the commercial property owners, but is there any way for like a protest might not be the right term, but if there's a clarification issue with the amount of impervious square footage, like what does that process look like?

So what that looks like within your ordinance, you do have a protest procedure where a property owner can bring in their own study, their own engineering to say, this is our impervious area, this is how it should be determined, and they can challenge that value with the city. So that is included in the ordinance. If somebody feels that there was a mismeasurement, they definitely can come to the city and challenge that. I think one last one.

Along that same line, whenever you have the impervious square footage, would that be something maybe during the application process for a new development? Is that like maybe a figure that either the civil engineer or the architect could calculate so that way early in the process we have that number and we're all kind of shooting at it? Static.

Absolutely. So as you maintain this system going forward, you do have to come in when somebody is coming in in the development process and calculate what that impervious area will be. So that has got to be part of the development process in order to administer this system.

That's all my questions. Thanks. Anybody else have any questions? Yes.

Yes, so looking at the Caldwell Zoo example, and you talked about it's possible to put ordinances in place for nonprofit exemptions. Did you guys do any sort of modeling of here's how much property is owned by nonprofit entities within the city to see what that impact would be?

We did not. We only looked at the zoo. So yeah, that would be another level of effort to go through and based on property records, identify what is owned by nonprofits versus for profit entities. So we did not go through that exercise.

And so along that line, then have you seen for some of these customers like a nonprofit or like a train that are going to go from this to this? That's a very, very big jump. Do you have have you seen or made recommendations in other markets to tier that upward to give them a little bit of time to adjust their budgets to that? Or do you typically just take it from A to Z and hope for the best?

We have seen some municipal entities come in and establish a maximum bill and then increase that maximum bill over time. Again, if you establish that maximum bill, you just have to recognize that there's foregone revenue there. You cannot come in you have to maintain the relationship and the equity within the system. So if you establish that maximum, then any revenue above that is foregone for that year. And so you're going to have to balance that type of limitation with what your needs are in order to provide stormwater services. Sure.

Thank you. So one more question for me, Chris. So we've been talking about this for a couple of years. I know your first presentation was to us about three years ago.

Yes, sir.

What percentage of municipalities are sizing up in the state of Texas are using these types of measurements, the ERU, for being able to charge their residents and their commercial properties?

I don't have the exact percentage because there are some cities that have not adopted stormwater systems. They are more common in larger metropolitan statistical areas, more urban areas have typically adopted these, whereas we see in rural communities stormwater utilities are not that common. That said, the majority of municipalities that have adopted a stormwater system do charge on a per ERU basis. I'm going to be completely honest with you. You are the only city that I'm aware of right now that charges in the manner that you do here in the state of Texas.

I think I see an opportunity here as we move forward with our development code to incentivize developers with new developments to put in retention, detention, and be more creative with their runoff versus just showing how we're going to get the water off the property, not concerned about downstream, upstream, just getting it off. So I think that's the best part of this is we'll start looking at properties in a different way when we're in the development phase.

Yes, sir.

That's all we got.

Anybody else? Well done. Chris, thank you for your presentation. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it.

All right, P2.

Morning, Mayor and Council. Good morning. Good morning. Luke Alfaro, urban forester with the Parks and Recreation Department. Today I'll be going over two grants we received from the Health Foundation of East Texas, totaling $150,000. The first is a $50,000 grant to create an interactive nature trail for youth along the Rose Redmond Trail. This is a free and accessible outdoor learning space with a focus on creating opportunities for youth to interact with nature and just learn while they're at the trail. So the section that we focused on is between Legacy High School and Hubbard Middle School. It's a little stretch that runs through the woods. And this gives us a great opportunity to incorporate local schools and teachers into the project as well, since it's so close to those schools. So as you can see on the screen, we're going to be adding educational stations featuring trees, wildlife, nature, along with hands-on interactive elements. Just something so when you're on the trail, you're not just walking or running. You can stop, slow down, and learn something about your surroundings and the environment around you. Additionally, we'll have trail journals available for kids to use. Something fun to do. They can color on them and match the colors to the leaves and do all these different types of activities while they're out there. These will be free of charge. And then we're going to start a nature walk every April with Arbor Day to take kids and youth out there and teach them about nature. And then lastly, this is just a really good opportunity for people to come out and kind of put the cell phones down, put technology down. That was the whole purpose of this grant, is to try and get youth connected with their community, but not through the use of technology. So the second one, this was applied to by Candace Johnson, the recreation manager with the Parks Department. This is a $100,000 grant that's to expand youth-focused summer programming throughout the city. This will help us provide more screen-free activities and opportunities for kids and families to get outside and spend time together. We'll be adding new programs, including Camp Connect, Park Play Days, and we'll also be surveying local teens to get their input on what kinds of programs they'd like to see. At the same time, this funding will help us expand existing programs, movies in the park, summer camps, and swim lessons. So the goal is simply just to give kids and families more opportunities to be active, get outside, and connect with each other in our parks and with the community. So between these, we have $150,000 that we have been accepted. And so it is recommended that the city council consider approving the acceptance of $150,000 in grant funding from the Health Foundation of East Texas and authorize the city manager or designee to take all actions necessary to receive and expend the grant funds.

Thank you, Luke. Anybody have any questions for Luke? It's marked as a presentation, but it still has action items, too.

Move to approve.

Move to approve to accept the $150,000 in grant from the Health Foundation of East Texas.

Second. I have a motion by Councilman Nichols and a second by Councilwoman Dark-Bays. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. P2 is approved. Thank you, Luke. Thank you. Zonies.

Good morning, Mayor, Council Members. This first item is an annexation request. It is located along Crow Road. As you can see, adjacent properties are zoned with a mixture of residential and commercial. The property is currently undeveloped. Future land use would be a community activity center. The applicant is requesting to annex approximately 1.77 acres of land adjacent to the present boundary limits of the city. The applicant is requesting a C1 light commercial district to develop a fitness facility. The applicant is needing to extend city utilities to develop the property. Consideration is needed for the new boundary of the city limits, the new boundary of city council district number two, the boundary of the Tyler ETJ upon consent that the city manager be authorized to sign a written agreement for provision for city services per Texas local government, amendment of the future land use map to reflect the community activity center, and establishment of the original zoning for C1, which is our light commercial district. Of the notices mailed, no notices were returned in favor and opposition to the request. The Planning Commission, by an anonymous vote, recommends approval of the requested annexation and associated changes.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions?

I'll do. Just a minute. Just so I understand correctly, the city services, let's see the agreement. Who's paying for this? In other words, I mean, that's just as far as the utilities. Are we paying for that or is it a shared cost?

The utility extension is typically done at the developer's cost. Okay. For where our line ends and then they need to tap it on the property.

All right. Thank you. moved to approve. Second.

I have a motion by Councilwoman Hawkins and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, Z1 is approved.

Kyle.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Good morning. Kyle Kingman, Planning Director. This next item is a zone change request from R2 to Family Residential to C2 General Commercial District. This is for Highland Dairy. As you see here, the surrounding properties are zoned from north and west or zoned for residential use and are generally developed with single family homes. To the east, east and south is the current Highland area facility. And so this request is for the purposes of expanding the facility specifically to allow this property to be developed with the administration office for Highland Dairy. This request would amend the future land use guide from residential to innovation mixed use. Like I mentioned, the applicant plans to build an office building on this site with parking, associated parking. The current properties, well the property right now is currently undeveloped. And in previous years, the applicant has made changes in this area to facilitate the expansion of the facility, which the growth of Highland Dairy also accomplishes economic goals for the city. As you see here, this is the current image of the site. We did provide public notice to property owners within 200 feet. We received four letters in opposition, as you see there on the map. Generally, the concerns were about additional high intensity commercial development, traffic, truck traffic, things like that. The actual proposal here is to develop the property with an office building. rather than some of the other things you see on site, which in the east there's truck parking, the industrial facility to the south. That is not the plan for this site. And so the total percentage of protest calculation you see there is 16.25%. The Planning Commission reviewed this application and recommended by a 3-2 vote to approve this request from R2 to C2.

Thank you, Kyle. Anybody have any questions for Kyle?

Well, I just said go back to the pictures. There's two properties on those, or is it just one? Is it on 3 and 13 are those properties there, or is that a shadow in 13?

Those might be. Three is no longer there. I drove by yesterday. I don't believe that house on lot three is there. Correct.

I believe it's completely.

Same with 13, I believe. The properties are currently owned by Highland Dairy now.

Okay. So three and four would be the parking lot and 13.

My understanding is the office will be on three and four and the parking will be on the south side. That's the plan I saw.

Kyle, do you know the ingress-egress plans as far as how this is going to flow on the block?

My understanding is they plan to have access from both Locust on the south side and through Clayton on the east side.

Um, so the house, is that a house? Um, I guess it would be like 15.

So is that a house or is that a, there is, there is an existing house, uh, that will be, uh, amongst the development there.

So there'll be a house, there's a house on each side of what could possibly be a parking lot.

Correct. And I, um, forgot to mention. So with it being zone C2, the development code does require. landscape buffer yards adjacent to residential properties. So that would range between 10 to 20 feet of green space with trees and shrubs. Also, wherever there's a parking space that faces a residential property, there has to be a solid screen like a fence. So the code does have some built-in requirements to soften that adjacency between commercial and residential. about the lighting in that parking structure right so the lighting they they will not be able to shine on to any adjacent residential properties um per code and so they they will have to have down shielded lights and probably probably have to look at them very closely so they don't have any spillover

Thank you, Kyle. We do have a couple people that have signed up to speak on this issue. It looks like the first one is Patrick Moore. Would you like to speak on this issue? Come up, state your name and address for the record, please.

Uh, my name is Patrick Moore. Uh, I put my address down as 200 fuller. Uh, that is Highland dairy. Um, I work there. I'm the plant manager.

Okay.

And so, uh, what the gentleman did say is that number three and four, that is for an administration building. And then. The parking, from what I understand, will also be in that general area, more towards south on that section. I think on, I can't see those numbers on the bottom two. Is that 13 and 14? I believe that's for future use and that there's not a lot of construction that would be on that particular piece of land at this time. We do plan to continue on with the walling that we have in place now. So that's a solid surface for noise control and so forth. And as far as the lighting, that will be in place as we have on the property now where it doesn't shine onto the neighbors.

Thank you, Patrick. Anybody have any questions for Patrick?

Patrick, how many approximately, how many square feet is the office building and how many employees do you anticipate having there?

So I believe that they are looking at around, I believe it was 10,000 square feet on the actual administration building. And I believe it was 100 parking places.

Anybody else? Okay, thank you, Patrick.

Yes, sir.

Next on the list, Ms. Franklin. Is there a, Christy, there she is. Name and address for the record, please.

Morning, Mayor and Council. I'm not Christia Franklin. Due to her health condition, I'm her cousin, Sharon Moore. I spoke at the planning and zoning meeting. My background is I'm from Tyler. I have witnessed the encroachment of Highland. And, you know, it's not going to stop. She is in lot, I guess someone said 15 on the corner and that is probably prime property that they want. And I would just, uh, encourage the city to be mindful that the people that you still, you see standing, still standing on those properties. That's their livelihood. That's their residence, their home. This is not about money. I know it is economics for the city, however, This has been a journey for the last two to three years. My cousin has, she's bedridden, and she calls me all the time. She's panicked because they've harassed her. They've done all these things. It hasn't been kind. Even after the last meeting, they wanted to talk to us, but it wasn't in good faith, okay? I have discernment, and I know when someone has concern and care, they show it and what I observed. I've been on the front row. So I would just ask you guys to work with Highland because I know eventually that they're gonna try to take over the rest of the block. I know how it works. I worked for city government. I worked for John Hanna when he was the Secretary of State. I've been around the block. So I've been here at Tyler. I've committed myself to helping out the community and being a representative of, uh, Tyler, Texas, wherever I go. If somebody says Tyler, but this morning it was really difficult for me to come here today because what I see and what I witnessed and how they've been treated in that community that they've been there. These aren't people that just moved there yesterday. These are families that have been there for 20, 40 years. If y'all talk to the people and you personalize this like it's your family, you won't just see it as a transaction. And that's all I'm gonna say about it today because I poured my heart out the last time and I just don't have the energy today. But we just wanted to go on record to say that we don't agree with this, we do oppose this, but we know and understand how it impacts the city. And so thank you for your time.

Ms. Moore, you said you're Ms. Franklin's cousin. So for the record, do you live at the same address? I do not. What's your address?

I don't live here. I live in Arlington, Texas. Yes, she does have a cousin that lives with her. His name is Key Mumphrey. I'm not sure.

I'm sorry, his name is what?

Key Mumphrey. Okay, thank you.

All right, anybody have any questions for Ms. Moore? thank you thank you thank you uh looks like that's all that has signed up for z2 unless there's anybody else out there sorry oh he's leaving okay all right any any other questions for kyle i i do so um i think there's a green space on east locust is that part of highland dairy yes ma'am okay do they use that i guess they don't use that for anything

Are there plans for that? I guess I'm trying to say.

I'm not sure.

I don't think this area reflects the expansion.

I think it's outdated. I think that's been expanded on. Oh, I understand.

Parking and other locations are now.

I understand. And Mr. Moore said that they don't have any current plans for 13 and 14. Do we know how far out that's going to be or what the future plans are for those two lots that's adjacent to her property? The 13 and 14. Because he said the 10,000 square foot and the parking lot were going to be on three and four.

Mr. Moore. Is he still here? Yeah, he's still here.

Oh, I didn't see him. Mr. Moore, you come back up. Yeah.

Unless your name and address has changed, you don't have to do that.

Yeah, just can you expand on the plans, the future plans for lots 13 and 14, please? So 13 and 14 have not...

been completely developed yet as far as what that would be in the future. We purchased those properties because they were available. And so in the future, if we were to need additional parking or anything else in that area, that we would be able to go ahead and proceed with that development. The area where the plant did expand is just where you see the green space below that to the south and also where that current truck parking is at that location now. and what did she say the lady's name was on 15 has she been offered okay frank has she been offered any type of compensation for her property or yes ma'am they i know that i don't know the details on it specifically but i do know that they were in contact on multiple occasions and they went through several offers everything was denied for that particular property thank you mr moore anybody else have any questions

Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Okay.

I'm going to I'm going to move to approve Z two. And with that being said, I think it's a great redevelopment project on the tax roll. And I do believe that our UDC requirements, the buffer yard and the lighting, we just want to make sure that we're honoring that and making sure that the residents there are still taken care of as well. But with that said, I would like to move to approve Z2.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Childs and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Z2 is approved. Thank you, Kyle. Z3. All right.

Next request is a request for a planned commercial district site plan amendment for 3103 Bellwood Road. The applicant's requesting the amendment to allow for the existing building to be used for religious services. The property is currently zoned PCD. It was zoned this way back in 2011. At the time, it was limited to just a furniture workshop. only that use. And so now the owner has a tenant that would like to use the property for religious services, which are generally allowed in any zoning district. And so this request would accommodate that. The adjacent properties to the south are Generally residential, there is commercial directly into the south, which is a daycare facility. To the north is the railroad. The future land use map identifies it as neighborhood residential. Religious services would would be compatible with that. As you see here, the site's currently existing. They do plan to use the site as is. Just what's going on in the building is different than what's permissible right now. And so the planning commission reviewed this application and recommended approval.

Thank you, Kyle. Anybody have any questions for Kyle?

Nope, I remember when that building used to be a club and then it's been, I mean, Orange Deli. I never went. But anyway, it's been vacant for a long time, so I appreciate y'all fixing it up and using it as a church now.

Before you make a motion, there is one person that has signed up. Tony Meeks. You good, Mr. Bates? I'm good. Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to make sure you had the opportunity since you signed up.

Okay, we're good. Yes, ma'am. All right, move to approve Z3.

I second. All right, I have a motion to approve Z3 by Councilwoman Hawkins and a second by Councilwoman Marsh. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Z3 is approved. Thank you, Kyle. Z4. Z4.

So a request for a closure of unimproved portion of Barrett Street. This is adjacent to Carlisle Avenue as you see here. This portion is currently a public right-of-way from Barrett Street, but it's never been built. The applicant plans to abandon this portion to incorporate half of it into their lot. They plan to, as you see there on the map, they do have a driveway that is within that right-of-way, and they would like to fence some of that area. So this will facilitate that. As you see here, Barrett Street is not built there. It is constructed west of this area, but does not connect to Carlisle. As you see here on the map, we did provide notice to neighbors. We did receive two letters in opposition. One was without any detail. The other ones in the north there identified that they utilize this for their property. It appears that there may have been some confusion over what was being closed. It's just this unbuilt right-of-way being abandoned. Carlisle Avenue is not changing. And so with this, the Planning Commission reviewed this application and recommended by a 5-0 vote to approve the closure, subject to it being replanted within six months.

Thank you, Kyle. Anybody have any questions?

I move to approve Z4. Second.

I have a motion to approve Z4 by Councilwoman Marsh and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Z4 is approved. Thank you, Kyle. Z5.

This is a zone change request from R22 Family Residential to C1 Light Commercial District. This is at 1125 East 5th Street. The southern portion of this property here is currently split zoned commercial and residential likely because when it was annexed it may have been just a set distance from East 5th Street for commercial and then everything else was different. The applicant plans to make a small extension into that area and so this is really a clean up item that they have to go through to correct the zoning on the property to be uniform as commercial. The surrounding areas is TJC to the north, residential to the south with commercial along 5th Street. This request is consistent with the future land use map. This area is a commercial area. You see there, They really just plan to add a walk-in cooler on the backside, which is in that residential area, so this will help facilitate that addition. Of the notices that were sent, none were returned in favor or in opposition. The plan to commission by unanimous vote recommends approval.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Move to approve Z5.

Second.

The motion by Councilman Childs and the second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Z5 is approved. Z6?

It's a request for a zone change from two-family residential and... General Commercial C2 to single-family residential. So you see here there are two lots. This is on South Hill Avenue. The applicant owns a house on the northernmost lot. They plan to add an expansion to their house to the south, and therefore the zoning would have to be amended to facilitate that. They also plan to combine the lots together as part of that project. And so generally the area is residential. There is a cellular tower to the south. There is sufficient space on this property that would allow the expansion to not be within close proximity of that tower. And so as you see here, That site to the south, the southernmost area, is currently undeveloped, but there is a tower on there which limits other development. And so of the notices that were sent out, we did receive two in opposition, as you see there. We did not receive any details as to the opposition for that. There is a total protest calculation of 6.22%. But like I mentioned, the applicant plans to just expand on their house. They don't plan to build a new house or anything like that. The planning commission recommended this zone change by unanimous vote.

Thank you, Kyle. Anybody have any questions? No. I move to approve Z6.

Second.

I have a motion by Councilwoman Hawkins and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Z6 is approved. Z7?

since i request for a p m x d one plan mixed use district final site plan for eighty eight thirty one south broadway avenue this is at the the northwest corner of south broadway and what's now west centennial uh... it's in the parkside development The applicant plans to develop a credit union on this site. The current plan development requirements approved in 2019 require that a final site plan be prepared for each development, and so the applicant is doing that here. As you see, everything that's planned on the west or zone on the northwest and south is planned mixed-use district for commercial activity. Similar on the east side, it is commercially developed. This request is consistent with the Future Land Use Guide. As you see here, This area is being developed. I think this is also a little outdated as well. They do have a site plan, as you see here, for a credit union on the site. It does meet all the requirements for development, and it also is compliant with the 2019 approval for this area. The notice of the sent number returned in favor or in opposition. The planning commission, by unanimous vote, recommended approval.

Thank you, Colin. Anybody have any questions? Motion.

Move to approve. I will second with the caveat that we wish it were a PF change, but there is still hope. The whole thing's not developed yet.

I have a motion to approve Z7 by Councilman Nichols. Quasi-second because of the third base. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, Z7 is approved. Z8.

This is a thoroughfare closure for an unimproved alley. This is also for Highland Dairy. As you see here, it's the same area we talked about earlier. There is an unimproved alley between those lots that we were looking at. And the applicant plans to ultimately combine all of these properties together. And so abandoning this alley will facilitate that process. Other notices that were sent on this, we did receive one in opposition. as you see there on the map. But like I said, this is just to abandon an alley for that project. The planning commission, by unanimous vote, recommended approval of this closure, subject to it being replanted within six months.

Any questions for Kyle?

Move to approve Z8. Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Childs and a second by Councilwoman Dark-Bays. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Z8 is approved. Z9.

So Z9 was tabled at the July 22nd city council meeting. So we may need a motion to remove it from the table.

Yes. Do I have a motion to remove from the table? Yes.

Make a motion to remove Z9 from the table.

Second. I have a motion by Councilman Nichols and a second by Councilwoman Dark-Bays to untable Z9. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. You may proceed with Z9. All right.

And if this is a zone change request from R2-2 family and RMF multifamily, uh... to p you are planning plan you the residential district the applicant plans to uh... developing private gated duplex development on the site which would comprise of eighty-five duplexes for a total of a hundred seventy units as you see here the there's a variety of Residential zonings around this property, a variety of densities, generally higher density to the north and west and then lower to the south and east. The current zoning of the property allows duplex development. But the applicant plans to develop this on a single lot, as you see here on the map, on the site plan here. And so this is the arrangement of the site, which, again, is for 85 duplexes, which will be gated access on Plantation and Tyler Park Drive on the west side. So this development will have three points of access which is sufficient for the number of units. As you see there, the duplexes are mixed in with open space on site which that open space will also help with drainage on the site. And there's also a clubhouse. I believe the applicant is here, if there's any additional questions that you might have. But the Planning Commission, well, we'll go back. We did send out notice to the neighbors of this property. We received two in opposition, as you see there on the map. generally the concern was about additional traffic in the area, and this property will have access to two different streets at different areas, so that might disperse the additional traffic here. The planning commission, by unanimous vote, recommended approval of this request.

Any questions for Kyle?

So you said the two accesses, it's going to be Tyler Park Drive on the northwest corner?

Yes, sir.

in and out over here and then plantation. So really three?

Three, yes.

This is a creative bunch. These are all rentals, correct? So it's gonna be commercial.

That's correct.

Charged at a higher ERU rate. So I could see some incentives coming from the back of the room on this to be more creative with that landscaping to contain that water and drainage. So this is good.

Kyle, this helps address that lack of inventory in that middle housing bracket that was addressed in our Tyler Tomorrow plan of not a high inventory of duplexes in this type of... Housing that we need Correct.

Yes, it does. I mean the current zoning does also also would allow for that but there are some specific constraints that might make that more more difficult and so Yes, it will provide for that middle housing duplex development for diverse housing options. I will also note that the The site will not have public streets either. They will have to meet city requirements for weight and things like that. But it will all be privately maintained as well.

Is there a traffic signal on Plantation coming out onto Rife Road?

No.

Or is that in the plan to help manage this traffic? It's not, I know plantation is not a heavily traveled road anyway, so I was just curious.

And whatever, you know, I don't know if they've had to do a traffic analysis at this point for the zoning component.

Not at this point. So the number of units does not cross the threshold for a traffic impact analysis. So there was not one done for this development. But I think those can be evaluated as needed.

Thank you. Any other questions? I know the applicant is here, as Kyle mentioned. It looks like there was two people that signed up on the ZNI. We have Chris Ferris. Is Chris here and would like to speak?

I'm here to answer questions.

Anybody have any questions for Mr. Ferris? No, and also Brent Bradbury. I see him back there. Anybody have any questions for Brent? No, okay. With that, I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move to approve. Second.

I have a motion to approve Z9 by Councilwoman Dark-Bays and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Z9 is approved. Thank you, Kyle.

Thank you.

Before we move on to H-1, there is somebody that has signed up. Thomas A.? Disregarded that the first time it's in the agenda. Okay. I thought that was like some signage. Okay. It said N-A for the agenda item and N-A for the comments. I wanted to make sure you hadn't signed up for that. Okay. All right.

H-1.

Mr. City Manager.

Yes, sir. All right. And just to kind of run through this one, we'll do kind of abbreviated or a more abbreviated, it's still not short, budget presentation, and then turn it over to the council for the opening and closing of the public hearings associated with this. But Mayor Haney and City Council, thank you for the opportunity to come back as far as further discuss the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027. This budget continues our focus on the services and infrastructure that support daily life across Tyler. It makes significant investments in parks, public safety, streets, drainage, water and wastewater systems, downtown maintenance, and the employees who provide these services. The proposed budget also responds to changing financial conditions. We are balancing the need to maintain dependable services with a responsibility to plan carefully for major equipment, facilities, and infrastructure that will serve Tyler for years to come. As we review the proposal today, I would highlight the investments, operational changes, and revenue adjustments recommended for the coming fiscal year. Public safety remains one of our highest priorities, and the fiscal year 2027 budget continues investments in the necessary equipment and facilities for our police and fire departments. The proposed budget for the Police Department allocates $523,768 for the fifth year of the Axon Subscription Program, which ensures the ongoing use and replacement of crucial law enforcement technology, including body cameras, car cameras, and tasers. This program not only provides essential equipment, but also guarantees that the Department has access to the latest technology without the need to repurchase equipment annually. For the Fire Department, the half-cent work includes $8 million for the demolition and reconstruction of Fire Station No. 2, as well as $5.8 million for the construction of the new fire training facility. This new facility will be located near Station 5, moving us away from the Rose Complex, which is an area frequented by visitors. Over the next several years, the city will also need to replace a number of major public safety vehicles and pieces of equipment that are nearing the end of their useful service lives. These are significant capital expenses that cannot be fully absorbed within the annual operating budget without affecting the other essential services that the city provides. For a police department, the identified needs total approximately $2.3 million for the purchase of several specialized police vehicles. The fire department's identified needs include $6 million for six fire engines and $4 million for two ladder trucks. This investment will ensure that they can replace vehicles in a timely manner while maintaining a reserve of equipment. This approach minimizes the risk of having vehicles out of services when we need them the most. Historically, the City of Tyler has maintained one of the lowest property tax rates in the state of Texas. As the pay-as-you-go city, we purchase capital equipment, such as fire engines, with cash. However, recent changes to state property tax legislation disproportionately affect cities with low property tax rates, like Tyler. As a result, we are now forced to consider taking on debt to fund these capital improvements and investments, which will ultimately lead to higher costs for Tyler residents in the long run. Together, these purchases represent approximately $12.3 million in major public safety capital needs. Planning for them now will help the City replace aging equipment before it becomes unreliable while continuing to provide the level of emergency response our community expects. As construction progresses on the downtown improvements project, the proposed budget begins planning for the care of these completed areas. The budget includes $252,232 from the tax increment reinvestment zone number four for maintenance. This funding will help protect the city's investment and support the ongoing care of the new public spaces and investments as they are completed. And as a reminder, TERS, or the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone number four, is created by the city and the county with Tyler Junior College's participation for the period of time that they have left in there. So we're able to utilize funding from the different agencies that comes in through the improvements that we're seeing downtown to pay towards this. So that then is not something we have to look at in regards to our general obligation. our general maintenance fund to be able to pay towards for the services on this. So this was a way that you as the city were looking at ways to be as far as kind of thrifty and to utilize joint funding to be able to be able to look at the maintenance and operations for this area as it comes to be able to utilize for the public. Now, using the tourism and hotel occupancy tax funds, we will continue to make targeted improvements throughout the Rose Complex. It is important to remember that these funds must be allocated to projects that generate tourism. They cannot be used to fund operations out of the general fund, like police and fire. The proposed budget includes $50,000 for Phase IV of the stamped concrete bed replacement for the Tyler Rose Garden and $245,000 for Phase II of the demolition and improvement work at the former fairgrounds, including the construction of the outside deck of the historic Mayfair. last year the council approved a budget to create a holiday lights display in the garden this initiative doubled the number of visitors in december increasing from 5 000 people to 10 800. this year we plan to enhance the holidays decorations master plan for the rose garden center by adding thirty thousand dollars to the budget these additional elements will help this garden shine even brighter during the holiday season Together, these projects continue the work of maintaining and improving one of Tyler's most visible tourism and community destinations. The proposed budget maintains our commitment to investing in parks and recreation facilities throughout Tyler. We are allocating $802,500 from the Park Improvement Fund for enhancements at Stewart Park, located on Frankston Highway. Additionally, the budget includes funding to replace the chiller at the Glass Recreation Center. We also recommend that the City reinstate an in-house mowing crew to maintain more than 1,000 acres of parkland. This would involve hiring one crew leader and four maintenance technicians with a total personnel cost of $298,000 plus $175,000 for equipment. While we anticipate savings beginning in the first year, those savings may initially be lowered due to the purchase of capital equipment. Overall, we estimate savings of $65,000 in fiscal year 27, $225,000 in fiscal year 2028, and over a quarter of a million in fiscal year 2029. Bringing this work back in-house will allow the city to have more direct control over scheduling and service, while also generating greater service or savings over time. We propose establishing a new street crew comprised of four to five positions dedicated to assisting with crack sealing and base repair projects, rather than continuing to contract these projects each year. By utilizing city staff for this work, we estimate that we can cover an additional 7.68 lane miles through this annual asphalt enhancement project, and an extra 16.9 lane miles through the seal coat project. The initial cost to create this crew is estimated at $1.04 million, compared to approximately $1.25 million in projected contract costs for 2026. Based on these figures, this initiative is expected to save around $200,000 in the first year. In subsequent years, savings are anticipated to reach approximately half a million dollars due to the absence of initial capital expenditures needed to establish the crew. This approach not only increases the volume of work that completed, but also provides a more sustainable long-term financial strategy for the city. As technology advances and becomes more cost effective, we are discovering new ways to improve our services. We propose adding software that will utilize the city's current fleet of dash cameras along with additional vehicles equipped with Samsara technology to automatically identify and prioritize roadway issues. These issues include such issues as potholes, surface deterioration, infrastructure damage, and public safety hazards. The system is expected to integrate with existing work order platforms and provide verification tools to support operational decisions. On the traffic side, we are continuing the Intelligent Transportation System timeline. The fiscal year 2027 budget includes an additional $31,500 for traffic signal maintenance, bringing the seventh year total maintenance investment to $208,000. The Quality Street Commitment Fund, funded by two pennies of the tax rate, provides dedicated resources for the maintenance of Tyler's streets and public alleys. For fiscal year 2027, the proposed budget includes $1.5 million for crack sealing, $869,000 for brick street repairs, and $165,000 for public alley repairs and maintenance. These investments support both preventive maintenance and repairs, helping extend the life of our infrastructure and address needs throughout the city. Tyler Water Utilities is continuing to invest in equipment and infrastructure that will protect our water quality and help keep our wastewater and wastewater systems reliable. The proposed increase of $173,000 for operating improvements will enable staff to monitor water quality more effectively, protect critical equipment, and maintain consistency across the system. Additionally, the budget allocates $13.6 million for cash-funded capital improvements. Key projects include $6.07 million to upgrades in our wastewater system and $7.53 million for the improvements to the water system. For residents, these investments translate to more reliable service, improved water quality protection, and a reduced risk of service disruptions as we replace aging equipment. Since these capital projects are funded with cash, the City can implement these upgrades without taking on additional debt. The proposed budget includes investments in stormwater infrastructure and drainage. includes seven hundred thousand dollars for capital stormwater projects fiscal year two thousand twenty seven along with five point million dollars in absent funding for drainage projects these resources allow city the city to continue addressing drainage needs maintaining existing infrastructure planning projects that help reduce flooding risks For the Solid Waste Department, this budget is intended to provide a path toward more sustainable operations while continuing to provide high-quality services at a reasonable cost to residents. The Department needs to look closely at how services are delivered and how they are funded. Several options are being evaluated, but no operational changes would take effect before January 1, 2027. We intend to bring the proposed options to Council early in the 2027 fiscal year for further discussion and for decisions. The proposed budget will also include $130,000 for new route software for our solid waste services. This technology will give the department better information to manage routes, improve efficiency, and make more informed operational decisions. Our employees are central to every service the city provides. The proposed budget includes a 2% pay increase to all civil service employees and a 2% merit increase for eligible employees who meet performance expectations. The estimated cost, including benefits, is $1.863 million. The City is self-insured and we continuously evaluate premiums to ensure that our plan remains sustainable for the long term. Rising health costs are a major concern as they continue to increase. For this reason, the budget accounts for a scheduled increase in employee health premiums. The Blue Bonnet plan will see an increase of $10 per month, the Azalea plan will increase $20 per month, and the Rose plan will increase by $40 per month. The General Fund supports many of the services residents rely on every day, including police, fire, parks, streets, traffic, the library, municipal court, and animal services. Tyler continues to have the lowest property tax rate amongst Texas cities. Because of that, sales tax is the largest source of revenue for the General Fund. For fiscal year 2027, we are budgeting sales tax revenue at 2% above the current year forecast. That growth is important as the cost of providing civility services also continues to increase. Property taxes, which I will discuss in more detail shortly, provide about 32% of the general fund revenue. To put that in perspective, property tax revenue alone does not cover the cost of our police department. This is why maintaining a diverse mix of revenue is so important. In addition to sales and property taxes, we continue to pursue franchise fees, grants, and other funding opportunities that help us provide high-quality services, maintain and equip our employees, and meet the community's growing needs. So where does each general fund dollar go? The largest share supports public safety. For every dollar the city spends from the general fund, 38 cents goes to police and 26 cents goes to fire. Together, that means 64 cents of every dollar supports our police and fire departments. The remaining 36 cents supports other services funded throughout the general fund, including public services, parks, municipal court, the library, administrative functions, and other city operations. We take pride in our library operations as they offer valuable resources to our community. However, to put this into perspective, if we were to eliminate our library budget, which we're not advocating for or recommend or even want to discuss, but if the library budget was to suddenly disappear and the doors were to close, this would only fund the operations of our police department for 21 days. So I have still another 11 months and nine days that I would have to figure out how to fund the police department if the library was closed. This context highlights our funding decisions. A significant majority of the general fund is already dedicated to essential services, particularly public safety, leaving a much smaller portion to address the city's other needs. Tyler's taxable property value increased by about 2.6% this year, reaching approximately $12.35 billion of personal and business property. The proposed property tax rate is 24.2063 cents per $100 of taxable value, compared with the current rate of 23.6452 cents. At the proposed rate, the owner of an average homestead valued at $286,241 will pay about $693 in city property taxes. That is an increase of approximately $48 per year or $4 per month. Overall, the City expects to collect about $33.97 million in property tax revenue, an increase of approximately $1.71 million. The proposed budget continues the phased transition to uniform volumetric rates. This change is not expected to affect most residential customers because they typically use less than 25,000 gallons of water per month. The adjustment will primarily affect commercial and industrial commercial customers with higher levels of water use. Making this transition is also critical to promote water conservation and to gain eligibility for improved bond interest rates and grant funding through the Texas Water Development Board. For residential and commercial water customers within the city, the rate for the first 25,000 gallons will remain unchanged at $3.75 per 1,000 gallons. However, the rate for 25,000 to 1 million gallons will increase from $3.29 to $3.75 per 1,000 gallons. Industrial water rates will follow a similar structure with proposed inside city rates ranging from $3.04 to $3.41 per thousand gallons, depending on the level of usage. Wastewater rates will also continue transitioning towards a more uniform rate structure. For customers inside the city, the rate for the first 25,000 gallons will remain unchanged at $4.10 per 1,000 gallons. Rate for usage above 25,000 gallons would increase, with the largest changes affecting commercial and other high-use customers. Rates outside the city would follow a similar structure. Single and multifamily homes would continue to have wastewater volume charges capped at 10,000 gallons. Because of this cap, most residential customers would not be affected by changes at higher usage levels. Several changes in the proposed budget would affect utility bills this year. First, the regulatory compliance fee would increase to help pay debt associated for projects required under the EPA Wastewater Consent Decree. The fee would increase by $5 on October 1st and $5 on January 1st, bringing the total monthly fee to $36.17 after January 1st. Dividing the increase into two phases spreads the impact across the fiscal year. Another increase is expected in fiscal year 2028 as a result of any debt approved by the City Council related to the EPA consent decree in fiscal year 2027. The proposed budget also increases the fee paid by commercial waste haulers by 6% and increases the wastewater franchise fee by 1%. The proposed budget would also change how stormwater fees are calculated beginning January 1st, 2027. As you all heard today, currently the fee is 7% of a customer's water, sewer, and irrigation charges, so it can change based on water usage. Under the new method, the stormwater fee would be based on the amount of hard surface on a property, including roofs, driveways, sidewalks, and parking lots. These surfaces would create runoffs because they prevent rainwater from soaking into the ground. The city would measure this area using equivalent residential units, or ERUs. One ERU would equal 3,454 square feet of hard surface and would cost $4.90 per month. Residential properties will be charged in whole ERUs with a minimum of one. Commercial and other non-residential properties will be charged based on their actual amount of hard surface. This change will be more equitable, connecting the stormwater fee more directly to the amount of runoff a property owner creates rather than how much water the customer uses. This is a major change, and as you all heard detailed today, one that will be considered as far as further ordinances and revisions, but looking to take effect for January 1st of this year. This year, we evaluated the landfill fees for solid waste in comparison to other landfills in the area. We propose increasing the landfill royalty fee by $19 in two phases, an increase of $12 for October 1st, while an additional $7 on April 1st, 2027. Additionally, the access or tipping fee will rise from $15 to $25, which is expected to contribute approximately $500,000 to the park's capital fund. These increases will help us remain competitive and provide a better return on the investment by the citizens of Tyler, as well as fair compensation for an asset owned by the city. It's important to note that these fee increases will only affect landfill users and not impact our utility customers. Our second budget public hearing is scheduled today. Pardon me. Our second budget public hearing is scheduled for the next council meeting, the one on September 9th. We also anticipate bringing the tax rate and budget to the council for adoption on that meeting. Thank you for your time and consideration. Any questions of the council?

Ed, I went through a lot of my questions at our... August 12th meeting, so I won't rehash those with you in the interest of time. But I believe I speak for everybody up here when I say we take seriously our responsibility to represent the residents of Tyler and steward public funds that is part of our responsibility as council members. And so with that, can you give us just a high-level overview of kind of how this process starts? Because it starts well before... the presentation to council back in August, or the beginning of August. And so kind of go through just a high-level overview of how each department meets with you and Kedrick and Stephanie and Lauren and how proposed budgets are brought to you all and how we have to cut expenses early on in the year so we're not just up here adopting a budget willy-nilly.

I appreciate that question, Mayor. I think that's actually a great opportunity to take a look at how this whole process works. Ultimately, budgets are adopted for October 1st. We then go through our annual audit of the previous year's budget, and that's kind of going on even as we speak as they're preparing for that. We begin to look, though, beginning usually in January and February, January typically our budget team starts the process of looking at where we are after the first quarter of the fiscal year and what are some anticipated costs that we know that are still coming on, what changes have been made, any budget amendments that need to be done. And so we're still kind of working in this kind of quasi area between cleaning up the previous year's budget and then starting to prepare for the budget. We're checking to see where we are, evaluate the budget that we are in, and then starting to prepare for the budget that is coming. And with that, then essentially our budget team begins sending information out to the different departments to say, here are the constraints that you're under. As you are developing your budget, we have ultimately there's different information that the departments then provide back to the city or to the budget team in that February, March timeframe. And that is going to be their base budgets of which it's pretty well kind of keeps as is or looking to see where are their changes, where are the things that we have seen in previous years funding or as far as that they may not have spent money in that we want to push on and start having them answer questions on that. And then what we call supplementals, which are things that are not part of their base budget, but are changes that they want to make, whether it be for or, you know, essentially maybe additional equipment, or maybe changes to where more revenue being brought in, changes to fee structures, that type of situation. Any kind of really big adjustment, any adjustments that are being done in their budget are done through these supplementals. We then start that evaluation of that process in about April and May through as far as their budgets and the supplementals. They will come in, do presentations to our budget team to be able to look at, to see what is, help us really understand what they're asking about for us to kind of really start to question what are the different things that we're seeing that might be discrepancies in their budget for where they may have paid for some things that We think, you know, did that need to be in a different account? You know, the things that you're asking for that we don't see any activity on or action on that we need to just say, you know, this isn't working or change. Where are their efficiencies? You see two big things that are coming out of this into for this budget that we're proposing that come from the efficiency side of things. I don't know if I need to address that. uh... and that is in relationship to looking at contract costs uh... and pressing on this contract cost to see what what those are continuing to build up as versus bringing that work in-house and so that was one this year was one if there was a any type of major thing it was on efficiencies where are those opportunities within this budget because of the constraints that the legislature has put on us regards to what we can increase our revenue structures that we have to look to see then where are there opportunities to either reduce costs and cut costs or additional revenue structures that we can put in place to charge for just the services and try to get a better return on some of those services that are more enterprise fund type of, that are essentially enterprise fund related and being able to bring those in. We also have to look at what are those essential services that we're providing. That is a huge question that kind of looks at that of, you know, there is every day, you know, there are things that the community expects of us as basics. They expect public safety. They expect protection. They expect good streets to drive on. They expect nowadays with the traffic signal improvements not to have to sit at red lights as much. That is a an increased expectation we've created that they deserve and we have to be able to meet. Those, they expect parks to go out there and not be beaten or eaten by fire ants. Or beaten by fire ants. But these are the expectations, those basic expectations that we have to pay for. Now, there's also things that we have had to do where we are assisting other agencies or other groups, and there have been some modifications and changes in those. And so where for those outside of the city, but that have been kind of assisting the city in operations, before we've had to make some changes in those and this is really probably in my time here the second or third time that we've had to really kind of evaluate that because the way the legislature has set all this up and kind of the push that they've done even on whether it be what they've done as far as on your revenue and ability to limiting the revenue generation but expected even spending caps it becomes back to then what is it inside the city that we need to be doing and is the job again that is expected from our citizens that we have to provide with what they provide us in regards to the pay revenue from property taxes, sales taxes, fees, all those different things, because they are ultimately our customers that we have to make sure that we are taking care of and meeting what they expect. Anyway, so those are the big conversations that are kind of going on and being evaluated, where there are things that need to be adjusted or changed. There are some things that this year really was an interesting year because as we went through this, there are still big questions that we have to evaluate and need guidance, especially from the council. The solid waste question is a big one that's still going to be ongoing. That is one where it's just, as we looked at and evaluated the different options and just the impact that it has on our customers, we know that that is a bigger conversation than beyond just what can be done within this budget presentation. so that one kind of gets punted to then really be even disgusting more so into the next fiscal year transit is another big discussion we're still internally working on quite on pushing on transit to be able to for our local match to figure figure out how to constrain what we are paying towards our local match because again your ability to pay towards things is being further and further constrained because as far as to generate funding for these type of things and so you're going to have to we're all going to have to be creative um and look to see what are the ways that we can do this more efficiently and effectively with just kind of the limitations that we are under. We then start to bring as far as the mayor in and then the council by kind of just talking to council members individually about the, as far as the budget and also kind of, and so, that then kind of getting that feedback about well what about this or that so that we can start to figure out what is it we missed where are we going to see some concerns where we're going to hit some roadblocks one of the things that we always want to bring you is a budget that you know that we feel that you are going to be supportive of and reflects what you would want to see for this city and so and not be off from really ultimately council's desires and goals. And so a lot of council, especially with new council members and even with some who have been around for a while, Council Member Nichols still has big dreams. And we always try to, the big dreams sometimes get reflected more in the half cent uh, program, uh, than it does in this, but you know, in kind of our annual, uh, work orders that we have here as far as with the budget, uh, and program of services. Um, but it is a piece of kind of working on those big dreams, you know, just kind of chip by chip each fiscal year, um, to kind of have them reflected in here. And so thus then becomes the presentation, the first presentation, and then the public hearings for today and for September 9th that then are brought to the council. And ultimately then hopefully a vote on the property tax rate and on the budget by the council.

Thank you.

Anybody have any additional questions? I've got a way more specific question for you. Yes, sir. If you're driving around District 4 downtown, it's hard not to go over a brick street, right? So with that said, I know we're trying to stretch the Quality Street Commitment Fund as far as possible, and I noticed, you know, $2.5 million. We have brick street repairs at $870,000. Can you speak to, like, the strategy when it comes to brick street repairs? Like, do we kind of... I know it's not just a break and fix or waiting for something catastrophic to happen before getting after it. Could you speak more to Brick Streets?

Yes. Brick Streets is an interesting thing that we've been dealing with now for 100 years or more. Actually, it's right at about 100 years. And so the difficulty we've always run into at Brick Streets is finding people who are, especially contractors, to be able to do that work. The work on, you know, when you think about just the advancements and the reason it's contractors because even employees, that was back in the day one of our biggest turnovers was when we would have a brick street crew because nobody wanted to work with a brick street crew. It is hard, hard labor. and it is fully manual. There's no, you know, it's unlike a lot of what our street crew gets to work with now of where you have, you know, trucks that come in and can mill their things up, kind of put it in, and it is a good balance between, you know, the manual labor and the technology that doesn't exist with brick streets. It is just popping those things out, cleaning them up, and putting them in. We have found a great contractor that we work with that is able to come in now to help us with our brick street program. The thing though with that is, you know, as contractors, they want a sizable amount of work to be able to be done, not just something that you can come in and out and just do a little bit of here and then go off to a different job and then come back for, oh, we've got another little piece that we need done, that type of thing. So that's one where sometimes we will have funding from the previous fiscal year that will roll over then to come into the fiscal year, what we're trying to program for it. So be able to have a larger amount of money to be able to then put towards a bigger portion of street for that contractor to be interested to come in to do that work. So it's about an economy of scale that kind of gets created, but you need to have, ultimately it's like, you'll look and see that, well, we didn't spend that much from the previous fiscal year, but that's because we may be building up that fund to be able to then put money in from the next fiscal year in order to have a bigger project for the contractor to come out and to work on.

Is there any kind of overlay of prioritized routes or, you know, like, that are... maybe it accelerates fixes in certain...

I don't know if I would say it accelerates fixes. We do have prioritized areas that we want to continue to work towards. Sometimes those get adjusted. I know there's been quite a bit of conversation as the work on the square and some of the other spots have been done and now you've had a whole lot more traffic using Spring Street, for example, but that's a pretty good-sized segment. But, you know, Spring Street will do wonders on your transmission and everything else. And so it is, and so those are things that we look at and go, well, this might become a bigger project that we're going to need to do. But there's, you know, the money's the money. And so there's no additional funding that I can kind of put towards it. One of the things that we do, though, evaluate, and you just saw kind of recently done over here on uh bodark is where you have brick streets that don't have necessarily the tourism level of traffic that are going through them so it is in front of solid waste and i think lighthouse for the blind And those areas over there, a lot of, you know, brick streets, but we had a big drainage problem over there. So as we took that drainage, took care of the drainage problem, we said, hey, let's go ahead and remove the brick streets from this area because, again, you don't have a lot of tourism in that area. It is more of just, and so replacing it with an asphalt street that, you know, is more easier to fix as time goes on, even though brick streets have a longer lasting lifespan to them than their asphalt streets. Those become kind of decision points that we do and go move forward. Typically don't really see too much or any kind of pushback on because for residents, typically they prefer to... If you're just driving as far as kind of a resident in some of the different areas, you're okay with asphalt streets more so probably than brick streets. I say that just because we have areas that we look at and say... Does this need to continue to be a brick street? This is something we have a lot of, like I said, you know, tourism or kind of the charm of the neighborhood is kind of still based around the brick streets versus over there, which was solid waste, you know, as far as Ed Coggs facility, kind of more of an industrial location.

Thank you. If there are no more questions for Ed, we will open up the public hearing and invite anybody that's in attendance that wishes to come speak on the budget to come forward. There is one person that has signed up for H-1, Terrence H. I know he's back there. Terrence, if you want to come up, you can be the first. And then it doesn't look like anybody else has signed up. after him, but if there are those that wish to speak, you can start making your way up to the microphone after Terrence. Terrence, name and address for the record, please.

Terrence Eights, 1406 Alamo Drive, Tyler, Texas.

Miss Cassandra, will you set the timer for three minutes? I don't know how many people are wishing to speak today, but in case there's a lot. And I know you like to talk.

I'll keep it short. Say it again.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, City Council. As a born and raised Tylerite, graduate of John Tyler High, class of 96, graduate of TJC, UT Tyler, and of Leadership Tyler, I am before you today as a Tyler resident. who was also an employee of your health department that John B. Miller, Roy C. Owens, Oscar Burden, and the leadership of Tyler in 1936 created, named the Tyler Smith County Health Unit, where our first offices are now the Tyler Recycling Center. Two weeks ago, Net Health learned that your current proposed budget includes a decrease to Net Health, a 75% decrease from 200,000 down to 50,000. along with a decrease in funding to the Center for Healthy Living, the former fire station on Frankston Highway, a 25% decrease from $66,500 down to $50,000 also. Now, for obvious and necessary reasons, the police department's budget is at $39 million. The fire department's budget is at $27 million. But public health, the unseen side of public safety, is currently being budgeted for only $50,000 or 0.67% of the budget of $66 million for public safety. The budget also has some coincidental and curious calculations. Page 1 shows that the general fund is projected to increase by $4 million, and $200,000 is just 5% of that forecasted profit. Page 8 calculates a savings in public safety from last year to a total of close to $200,000. The proposed budget will also establish, like Ed just mentioned, a new city street crew to assist with cracked ceiling and base repairs, which is expected to save approximately $200,000, with greater savings in the future. Page 25 of the budget shows a rainy day fund balance of $8,291,000, when last year's fund was $8,041,000, a difference of However, it's important to note that Tyler City Council can only draw from the Rainy Day Fund for unforeseen emergency situations, similar to Net Health and similar to many other municipal organizations. So as a resident, as a lifelong resident of the City of Tyler, my ask is just to maintain the $200,000 to Net Health that you've provided for the last 10 years. and to just maintain the sixty six thousand five hundred dollars that you provided to the center for healthy living for the last thirteen years no increase no decrease just stability Not for Net Health, but for every single resident in the city of Tyler. That is the birthday gift that public health relies on in your 90th year of supporting your local health department for all of your businesses, tourists, commuters, and all Tylerites who depend and rely on the Northeast Texas Public Health District.

Thank you. Thank you, Terrence. Anybody have any questions for Terrence? Is there anybody else here that would wish to speak on H1 during the public hearing? Nobody? Okay. At this point, I will close the public hearing. And we don't need any action items on H1 at this time, so we will then move to M1. Leanne.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Council.

Good morning.

I'm here today to discuss the Reverend Ralph Carraway Senior Field at Fun Forest. We recently resurrected the tee ball field out there, and then it was named after Reverend Ralph Carraway Senior. Um, I think many of you guys were at that ribbon cutting, um, last year in budget year 25, 26, it was approved as a line item for us to get new lights on the tee ball field. That tee ball field has lights, but they work are not currently working. And the North Tyler baseball league that is out there only has one field to utilize with lights. And so this is, um, specifically addressed in our master plan fund forest is, um, and then adding additional field lighting is also addressed in our master plan as a very big concern from our citizens. So I'm here to just request the city council consider authorizing the city manager to approve a bid of $85,000 to install new lighting at Reverend Ralph Carraway, senior field at fun forest park.

Thank you. Any, anybody have any questions?

to approve M1.

Second. I have a motion to approve M1 by Councilwoman Hawkins and second by Councilman Nichols.

Did you have someone that wanted to speak?

Oh.

Oh, yeah, that, yes, there is somebody on M1. Ms. Ashley Bryan, I'm very sorry.

Sorry, Ashley.

It's right name and I just for the record, please.

Yes, my name is Ashley Bryant. I live on County Road 113 in Tyler, Texas. So good morning, Mayor, council members, city manager and staff. My name is Ashley Bryant. I'm the owner of Breezy Day LLC. I work full time in procurement for three years. At Breezy Day, we position small businesses to compete and win in government contracting. To date, we have held multiple businesses secure approximately five million in government contracts. today's cooperative purchase item caught my attention my research shows that the sports lighting company is based in iowa which led me to review 13 previous cooperative purchases nine of those totaling approximately 2.21 million with seven vendors outside of east texas i also identified businesses in tyler Smith County and East Texas whose service aligned with those purchases and provided my findings to the council. Cooperative purchases can be beneficial and efficient. However, as Tyler grows, our local business capacity grows too. When area businesses can perform the work, giving them the opportunity to compete creates healthy competition and gives the city more options. Local businesses wants to be a part of Tyler's growth. They attend Tyler area Chamber of Commerce, Metro Tyler events, business happy hours, mixers, and expos. I have been in those rooms with them. I saw Ms. Hawkins at the chamber event and the mayor at Tyler Metro. I thank you both, and I appreciate you showing up and engaging with our business community. These owners are showing up because they want to learn, grow, and contribute. Yet when I ask them whether do they know about city projects or how to submit the bid, they tell me no because they do not know the opportunity or exist or where to begin. I understand the frustration because I experienced it with myself. While trying to become a city vendor, I was sent from one person to another and back to the original contact. After I returned, I still do not have a clear answer. I work in the government contracting every day, so I understand how someone without that experience could have even a harder time. The current janitorial bid is an example. A business must find the newspaper notice, obtain the documents from the police department between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and deliver the purchasing office. Many owners, which I can say this morning, I did try to go to obtain the solicitation and I couldn't obtain it because the person wasn't there. But they did call me and they sent me an email with that, but that's only because I know what questions to ask. Many small businesses wouldn't know to do that. So many owners are working during those hours. Posting the complete bid package online will allow them to access it after work. Breezy Day is partnering with Smith County for an event on October 29th to help vendors learn about available projects and how to bid on them. The city engineer plans to attend as well, and I'll appreciate additional participation from the city of Tyler. Small businesses are already showing up for this community. By working together on clearer access and stronger local outreach, we can grow the city's vendors pool and create healthy competition. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bryant. Appreciate it. Anybody have any questions for Ms. Bryant?

No, just for Leanne. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Sorry I missed on the list. I apologize.

Yes, ma'am. Did you have the bids for the lighting? You didn't have a presentation for that, right?

So they are on by board cooperative purchasing, which is what she was speaking of. Um, and so we do not have to actually go get bids because they are already giving us the lowest price they can. Um, however, I will say with the Moscow lighting system, it is what we currently have in all of our parks. We are not aware of anybody locally that can do what we need for our athletic fields as far as lighting. But Musco lighting is a huge, not only just lights, but it's a huge software system as well. So that's why we went back with Musco to replace these lights.

Any additional questions?

Yeah, you're welcome. I do for Ms. Ashley. What was the ask with this? What was the ask? Just to attend the event.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, just to be able to attend, but meet the noise with your business, with your county, and have that alarm and be able to... let small business owners know how to be able to bid, how to become a vendor with a similar title.

Thank you. And procurement laws through the state of Texas are, you know, they're not necessarily always the easiest. It's designed to be able to make sure you have competitive bids. through you also through us going out to bid for ourselves or through as far as cooperatives uh that you can join and be part of uh and so kind of understanding that process we're glad that they're interested in learning about more about the bid board processing and um and that as well as to get notification pieces we don't have a large procurement staff and so we are very kind of based upon doing it as per prescribed by the state of Texas and the laws that they have set out for them. You don't have a whole lot of room for local preference. It is pretty much based upon price with as far as a small, depending upon as far as some very special services. But again, you're gonna have to define for your own policies what that local preference is. But again, you don't have a whole lot of wiggle room on that either.

Understood. I just wanted it for the record.

All right, with that, I'll entertain a motion on M1.

Move to approve M1.

Move to approve M1 in District 2.

I think there's a motion on the table already by Councilwoman Hawkins that I seconded already. So I'll third it.

Thank you, Lord. I appreciate you. I have a motion to approve M1 by Councilwoman Hawkins and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, M1 is approved.

Thank you.

Thank you, Leigh Ann. Thank you, Ms. Bryant, as well. All right, consent agenda. Does anything need to be pulled from consent? Or I'll entertain a motion to approve as is if nothing needs to be. I do.

Can we pull a CA1?

CA1, sure.

For Smith County 9-1-1 district budget. Sure. Just so we can talk.

Are there any questions that you have on that?

Well, I don't remember us talking about it unless I missed it.

This is an annual budget. So the Smith County 911 is operated separate from the City of Tyler. But it is, again, one that you are a participating member of because of the, just, it is Smith County 911. So the PSAP license for the City of Tyler, Smith County, et cetera, is kind of held through Smith County 911. And I don't know if Chief Toler is here. He might want to be able to kind of speak to it further. But yeah, it is. So their 9-1-1 district board puts together the budget, sends it to the different member entities for then their approval as part of it. It does, you know, you get, I think the city is getting

Yeah, I don't believe we're putting money in. I believe their funding comes from phone bills.

In fact, we're receiving $25,000 from them for project participation as regards to our nine months. So we're receiving $25,000? Yes, ma'am. Correct.

Oh, that's all I needed to hear.

Anything further y'all want to add to that?

No, ma'am. It is a cooperative agreement between Smith County and us, the city of Glendale. several other entities that go into it. Big deal for us is that the PSAT funding, two years ago we received about 95, $98,000 worth of support and equipment. This year we've just applied for it, I think it's either the last budget meeting we were here, they provided us with $28,000 to buy radios. As long as it attaches to the actual 911 system, then funding is eligible for it and we can do dispatch calls, but it's just the normal course of business that they have to follow through all the different government agencies.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. And I have never seen Kedrick move so quickly to get up to the microphone.

Since you're up here, you might as well come back up here. Yeah, what did you have to say? What did you want to add?

Anything you'd like to add?

Well, the only thing I was just going to add, it's, you know, their budget has to be approved by a majority of the cities and the county. And it is an annual deal that we bring to you all about this time of year every year. And it's usually they're giving us something. Oh, good. Good to know. Thank you, Keisha.

Thank you. The city usually has a 911 representative that through the boards and commissions you will be appointing a representative when there's availability for that.

Well, yes and no. So not through the boards and commissions. I wanted to raise that expectation. That is, it's a separate item that you put on at a later time for the representative. But you do have a representative on. Yes, please.

So CA1 has been pulled. Go ahead and do something on sync. Correct.

So I'll entertain a motion to approve CA1. So moved. I move to approve.

Second.

I have a motion to approve CA1 by Councilwoman Marsh and a second by Councilman Nichols. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, CA1 is approved. I'll entertain a motion to approve the remainder of the consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

With the exception of CA1.

With the exception of CA1, but this has already been approved.

Yes, I have a motion to approve the remainder of the consent agenda from Councilman Nichols and a second by Councilwoman Hawkins. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, the rest of the consent agenda is approved. City Manager's Report.

Yes, sir. So for me and council, I have a few different, as far as items to report on. The Highway 271 and FM 14 12-inch water line extension project has progressed significantly since the end of spring and is now approximately 80% complete. Tyler Water Utilities contractor, A.E. Schull, is nearing the end of the line on the Highway 271 portion and will be moving to North Broadway soon. One major project milestone is the completion of the Loop 323 and Highway 271 bore, which requires extensive planning and textile coordination. Crews will be moving on to the next portion of the project, which is the north Broadway section. These limits for 12-inch installation were originally Mims Street to West 32nd, but after further field investigation and potholing, limits were able to be reduced by 1,300 feet from Mims to West 28th Street. With the extra pipe, Tyler Water Utilities will be able to allocate these materials to a 12-inch water line upsizing project on East Locust. After extensive modeling and field investigation, it's believed that the upsizing and existing two-inch water main to a 12-inch water main is expected to increase flow to that area by 1,000 gallons per minute. An increase in this magnitude would be enough to help with several different businesses in that area as far as their expansions and upsizing that they've seen. So construction is expected to begin last week with an expected duration of about three weeks on that project. Moving to downtown, crews have begun framing the curb and gutter at the Ferguson Street and College Avenue intersections. There is a partial sidewalk closure near the Tyler Fine Art Gallery, but work is moving additionally. The team expects to finish that section by the end of Wednesday, with sidewalks reopening first thing Thursday morning. If progress continues smoothly, the Ferguson and College intersection will be projected to reopen in early September. Once completed, Ferguson and College will be re-striped for two-way traffic matching the current flow you see on College and Ferguson. Also, the community space is shaping up beautifully with a major concrete pour scheduled for this weekend. And then finally, again back to Tyler Water Utilities, this is an update on the Charleston Park booster pump station. Over the past several days, staff from both water distribution and water protection departments have completed repairs in the Charleston Park booster pump station. Thanks to their dedication, even while working in intense heat, we are now able to operate the station as originally designed. Their persistence has not only resolved key issues, but also restored normal functionality, allowing the station to deliver boosted water pressure as needed. Although the pump station is currently functioning properly, we still need to replace a damaged portion of the control system to ensure full redundancy. Addressing this will allow us to respond swiftly should any new problems arise. In the short term, our focus remains on fully restoring the station to its intended specifications. Looking ahead, we plan to modernize the facility by upgrading the agent control system with new technology. This long-term improvement will help secure the stability of the pump station and enhance service reliability across that entire area. Some additional repairs are still required to completely resolve outstanding issues, but for now, we anticipate the booster pump station will continue to operate normally. So I know that's been a question that's especially with Councilman Nichols has been asked quite a bit about in that Charleston Park area, and so that kind of gives you a little bit more background on the work that's being done on that booster pump station and just kind of what to expect to see in the coming weeks.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions or comments?

No, I was going to make a comment, but I see George and Terrence left. Oh, George. Oh, you are here. He snuck back in. Oh, okay. Sorry. I just wanted to let you know, and I was making a note to you actually while we were up here. I want to talk to you afterwards, but just a good thing, a compliment for Net Health. I had a lady to call me yesterday and she said that you had provided a voucher for her to get a mammogram and She was found to have breast cancer. Wow, and so just get back with her because I don't know the process for Once she's found it because she doesn't have insurance insurance. So if you

to move forward in the process. Okay, so appreciate that.

Don't leave without this note, thank you.

All right, with that, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.