City Council - Regular Meeting

To call to order for the meeting and to make a roll call. Thank you.

Mayor Wu.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Tregar, here. Council Member Cahoulis.

Here.

Council Member Friedman. Here. And Council Member Long. Here. Thank you.

Thank you. So we have an item for discussion and review. It's the number one is the Senior Center Modernization Project. Manager, can I have the staff?

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Melissa Barcello will provide information and we do have a PowerPoint for this as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Manager.

Good evening, Mayor Wu and City Council members. Thank you for being here this evening. Tonight, we're going to be talking about a potential project. In staff's opinion, a much needed approach and some attention to our senior center. We are calling it a senior center modernization project. But we will get into all of the details. We're very excited. Next slide. next slide thank you um as you all know being residents of the city of walnut and council members the city of walnut treats our senior center very much like a community center it hosts our special events it holds our older adults programs it hosts Everything from dance classes to karate in the evening to mount sack older adults classes, so we really do use our senior Center as our Community Center. As such it's over 30 years and has provided services for thousands of residents and individuals throughout the Community. It does provide our daily recreation, our congregate meal program, health and wellness classes, special events, and lots of volunteer opportunities. Community meetings, right? We've had city meetings in there. We've had county meetings. We've had election meetings. We've had all sorts of things. So as you imagine, after 20 years of continued use, many of the original interior finishes have reached the end of their useful life. Truly today, the need of our senior center is to help make the interior spaces reflect what we think we want to showcase to everybody who comes to our senior center and our community center. Modernizing these public spaces throughout the facility will improve functionality, accessibility, comfort, and the overall experience for both our seniors and all community who uses the facility. Next slide. We are going to break up the facility into two separate phases, conversationally speaking. The first one is going to be our most heavily used room. in meeting with senior center and community services staff, being a staff member in that facility, there's countless things going on all of the time. Switching from bingo to lunch to karate, opening and closing the partitions as fast as we can. It's always in movement to provide a space for all of our programming. As such, we've We have not only been really hard on our facility, but the dated finishings also show the age of the facility what we're proposing is that we need to replace the flooring, we would hope, with a more upscale would like finish. refreshing our paint and wall finishes replacing lighting. City Council Chambers, replacing and modernize our room partition system so Jen and all her staff don't have to run through. City Council Chambers, And and push the big partitions anymore we'd like to update cabinets countertops and address the much needed storage in the facility we'd like to find a home for all of our chairs that hang out along the wall. We want to improve the stage area with a more permanent integrated design and help us accommodate that additional storage, additionally, we want to coordinate finishes for a cohesive upscale but durable appearance appearance next slide. We do want to focus on our stage, the picture on the left. These are purely conceptual. I wanted to show you the vision that staff has in the facility. They were amazing. They went and did site visits at other facilities to get ideas of ways that they could improve our own facility. So we took those inspiration photos and our own needs and kind of came up with some ideas of the direction we would like to move towards. As you can see in the photo on the left, it's a more integrated built-in stage, updated finishings. Behind it, or if you look to the right, is that new storage area. So cutting off where you kind of, there's piano and some other miscellaneous items. Updating the stage and the floor to a more wood-like appearance. and giving the overall room a refresh in the drywall and the paint to truly match the aesthetics and have a more updated look. The photo on the right shows you the other perspective of the room so you can see how we would like those changes to really tie the whole room together. Next slide. The second phase of our potential project would then be moving to help that look transition through the rest of the facility. We were all over at the Senior Center right now. You've been there many times. And while staff in the facility and public work staff do an excellent job of trying to maintain the facility, it really doesn't have that warm, welcoming feeling. We want to update the lobby and create a stronger first impression for everybody who walks through the doors. We propose to do that by replacing flooring through the primary public areas. We wanna update from our existing carpet to a tile finish. We'd also like to modernize the reception desk for improved accessibility and staff functionality. I assume when you walked in there, ourselves have walked behind the desk. seniors do it time and time and again, so we want to just give us ourselves, we want staff in the facility to to feel more functional and help more defined look. we'd also like to cover those brick surfaces with drywall to give us a more updated and finished look. We'd also try hoping to add senior center and city branding, as well as we finding science throughout the facility and create a community news wall with a digital display and organized flyer space. Most importantly, we want to update and refresh our furniture, lighting, paint, and supporting storage. Next slide. Once again conceptual not necessarily the direction that we're going, but we wanted to show you what that drywall and paint and tile can do to the overall look of the facility, so we are hoping for a more modern clean bright neutral look throughout the facility. The picture on the right shows just an idea of how we can rebrand our senior center and showcase some more modern furniture and our front desk. We have a lot of things we would like to address in these areas and just wanted to show you what we think we can achieve. Next slide. Some additional enhancements that we've talked about briefly are that Throughout the facility, we would like to address all the cabinetry and countertop spaces, we would like to integrate that Community kind of message board and flyer system to be a something a little more substantial and currents in our technology. Lastly, the bane of my existence when I was a rec leader in that facility, our partitions have seen some age throughout the facility. So not only do we need to address them in our assembly room, but also in our side rooms or the other classrooms on the other side of the facility. Next slide. as you can see we're looking at a more updated countertop a more updated cabinets throughout the facility our community news board to be someplace we can truly showcase what's going on not only at the senior center but throughout the throughout the city and then the last photo is going to be what we think those partitions would look like if they were really given a clean and modern look not only helping the functionality but the aesthetics of the room Lastly, next slide. We'd like to talk about what we think we would potentially need in a potential budget. The assembly room is City Council Chambers, In need of repair, we have looked at quotes and contractors to help us with the partitions we have looked at drywall subcontractors. City Council Chambers, So really taking a pause and looking at the whole room in its entirety, we do think that we can do some amazing work with a million dollars. We would like to proceed with the highest use interior space because that really is the home of so many of our Community. Events our classes our lunch program it really is where the heart of the senior Center takes place. Currently, we are proposing a general fund approach to this phase one. Phase two would then be the lobby and the side rooms, or the rest of the finishings throughout the facility. We'd like to break it up into two phases so we're not just completely closing our senior center staff. We met and Jen had some creative ideas of how do we move programming, reinvent where maybe our front desk is for a little while so that we can still provide some of those essential services while we would potentially be in construction. If we also broke it up into two phases, not only could we start the timeline now, but we could use that phase one to leverage that the city is committed to a final project and help leverage some additional funding if you'd like staff to go and seek some additional supplemental funding. Our recommended approach is to initiate phase one with general fund and to leverage the completed project to support outside funding for phase two. Timing. As you can imagine, a highly used facility, it's difficult of when do we close? What do we do? How do we be the least impactful to all the operations of the facility? In talking with our community services manager and looking at the facility, they proposed a timeline that we could Be the least impactful to their operations if we started in early spring in the February in February. So we would like to start now, so we could be in construction in February 2027 where all of the facility programming can be relocated to another facility or off site somewhere. Next slide. This evening staff is seeking direction on a scope phasing and the proposed funding for this potential project. More importantly we're looking to see if you support the two phase modernization approach, if we should proceed with phase one of the Assembly room with general fund money. talking about phase two of lobby and flooring and what the final funding plan would like to return to council. And then lastly, council's pleasure. Any alternatives, any questions that you might have, staff's happy to address any of those, but we are looking for feedback from council.

Thank you, Marissa. And... Council, any question?

Yes, please. Thank you, Mayor. In terms of the phases, I know you mentioned early February. That's when it would start. Do you have an estimate of when it would be completed?

Good question. So in talking with some contractors, it really depends on what that final scope looks like, how big we need to go. We could be done in as little as six weeks. It could take 12 weeks. So it really depends on what that final scope is. We have expressed the need for an expedited timeline. So So it kind of depends unfortunately, but we're thinking between that six and 12 week mark.

Understood, thank you.

Thank you. I wanna thank you for bringing this up. I think we've had conversations before that this is a great project to bring to the residents to show them that we are passionate about bringing the best facilities that we can to our community. And like you said, this would be, I think you called it the stronger first impression. I think it's really important when we walk into the senior center that it is a strong impression. So I know we're all imbued with this great passion to make Walnut just the best place possible, but I have a few questions. The sound system, is that also part of an upgrade or is that separate cost?

That has already been completed. One more time. That has already been completed.

So it would be fine. Okay. Is there a drop down screen?

There is currently a drop down screen in talking with staff. The second one would add an additional drop down screen to the back of the stage. We have a current drop down screen. We actually have two. This would add a third.

Okay, great, and again, we were over there today celebrating Kim Watts, but it is a situation where those brick walls, and just, it's very evident that it's dated, and I think the City of Walnut deserves to have a center that is, that they walk in and they're just like, wow, this represents a city. So I would also like to propose the idea potentially of, I know it's right now the City of Walnut Senior Center, I think we should look at potentially having a conversation about making it Walnut Community Center because of making it so updated and not changing anything for the seniors, just making it community center so that all residents kind of feel like, hey, that's a place. And that's a discussion, obviously, that I don't know if it's in here we have that discussion or if it's another point that we have that discussion.

I think depending on how the conversation turns out, there's probably some potential future conversations. We can look into the history of the naming of the facility, the funding, and what that might look like. We would definitely come back for a specific conversation.

Is there some restrictions? Because I know when it was originally built, wasn't there certain funding because it was supposed to be a senior center and open to around it?

I'd have to check. There was some Proposition A funding through the County of Los Angeles that was received. We'd have to check into what that grant agreement looks like, if there were naming restrictions, if there were any restrictions on times, those things. So I will undoubtedly, I will look into all of that and bring back to see if it's feasible or not.

and i'm sorry yeah just this the scope of the study session are physical improvements so it's fine to raise those issues but it's really not on the agenda for discussion so those are things melissa and if she needs our help we're happy to help look at and bring back okay yeah

I just have some follow-up question like Council Member Law said. So the timeline will be like February, I mean six to eight weeks, right? So where are we gonna put those other activities? What are the current activities that's happening during that February timeline?

Good question. I'm going to allow Jen to speak if she'd like to. We've had some initial conversations about what we could do with those facilities or those programs that happen on a continuous basis. But she has some good ideas of where we can move our lunch program. So I'll let her speak to that.

This wouldn't affect the other side of the senior center. So a lot of the activities that happen during our lunch program and in the middle of the day when we do have reoccurring things going on in the assembly room, we would move to the other side and allow our social programs to be more in the morning and in the afternoon. to accommodate our lunch program to move that there. During the springtime, like around February to about early April, May, is our spring session for Mt. SAC. So that one's normally a little bit lower attended. I'm not sure why. I think just our seniors kind of tend to travel during that time. And just around the Easter holidays, they're gone for a while. So another option is having our healthy aging classes, which are our most popular aerobics classes, those can be moved to the gym. So that was an option that we were talking about as well.

Okay. She's already reached out to our YWCA who offers our lunch in the facility to see how we can have like a mobile type program. So we don't, we're still continuing to feed our community, still continuing to feed our seniors. So some of those essential services, she has some great ideas of making sure that there's no impact to those. They might look a little different. They might, you know, go to a different location or be outside. I don't know. We'll plan, but we are committed to making sure that there's no lapse in services.

Thank you. And another follow-up question regarding the council member, the projector, right, or drop-down.

Maybe you can check.

There's a drop-down TV LED just to see how much would it cost.

Good idea. As the seniors see me walking through the facility and Jen and Rob and I all talking, they get really excited, right? They want to know what's happening and they have ideas. One of those things, I just so happened to come in on a bingo day and see what their program looks like. We would also explore opportunities and ways to improve that. Can we get a new, can we get a new Go away from a bingo board that I will no longer have a space for and do something more digital. We've also already talked with an AV contractor of how do we get the best AV quality without having any interruptions, right? We want someone to be able to stand in front of it comfortably. So we have started those conversations and rest assured we will explore those as soon as possible. as soon as we possibly can. If we are given a green light to bring back a final scope, we'll make sure we bring what a potential finished product would look like to count before we proceed.

Yeah, because I know you mentioned we already upgraded our audio system. Maybe we can incorporate our video system as well, the audio-visual

that's a great idea yeah staff would be excited yes seniors would be excited we we definitely think that's a good um investment into a room that we maybe could open up the use for a little more broadly than we do currently use it yeah um yeah very excited in this phase one hopefully we can um yeah push this through in february 2027.

That's it Mayor, thank you.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Low, do you have anything?

I really like the stage improvement.

Probably my most favorite one of the whole thing.

Yeah, well, it's my most favorite because you need to update that stage. So, you know, I like the designs that you guys came up with and I like all your work you've done.

Thank you.

Thank you. So for me.

Sorry Mayor, one more. Sorry, it's a divisible room, right?

Yes. so the divisible room will be in phase one correct correct the entire room would be in the entire assembly room which is that large room we see on the um easterly side of the building that would be phase one okay okay just making sure because you know when you divide the wall you need to do audio i mean your video system and your audio system should absolutely so we did um council's council was um supportive enough as a staff that we were able to do an update to our AB system already to help with how we use that AB type room front and back. So we've been able to put some investment in our current system. But once we take a pause and add other things, we'll make sure that we wrap it all together and it works seamlessly. So we will approach that.

Yeah, I know it's well, but you go, well, I mean, everyone wants to use our senior center.

Everybody does, and I think if we, everybody wants to use, yes, the facility, and if we do update it, I can imagine that those needs and requests will only increase.

Okay, thank you. For me, yes, I have a question. We never have the renovation, changing the carpet or anything? We never have the... Good question.

We have changed the carpet one time. It's been... it's been maybe eight eight ish years since we've done it maybe only six it just really isn't the correct finish type of flooring for how heavily that facility is used we've tried carpet tiles to have staff be able to pop them out and replace them the carpet gets cleaned you know, every six months by a professional company, we just can't keep up. So that is why we're proposing to switch to a different finish. We really wanna go to a tile, make it look more updated, but also help us in that maintenance cost.

Other than carpet, I mean, anything upgraded?

So instead of carpet, we would like to go to tile.

I mean, before.

No, it's only been carpet since the facility has been open. We've flooded it multiple times, yeah.

So the entire building only carpet's been replaced?

Inside of the assembly room, we do have an LVT-type material. So you can see that's a little more high traffic. We also have that material that's in our back arts and crafts room. We redid that about... Oh, man, I did that project, so... Maybe eight years ago or so and pulled it into our club room to as well, it does withhold traffic, a little bit better aesthetically pleasing I don't necessarily think that it's the most aesthetic options, so we are hopeful that we can work with a vendor to show us some. Long lasting high traffic. Um, solution.

Heavy traffic. Yeah.

But in that lobby, we really do want to have a tile. We want it to look, we want it to look nice.

Okay. I'm kind of, yeah, this building has been 20 some more years. Correct. And, uh, Well, I want to say appreciate the maintenance. It's been 20-some years because the commercial is always way until very, very quickly fast. I mean, so 20-some more years, the life cycle, I would say 20-some years life cycle for commercial is very good. And must have the very good maintenance and a very good user.

Thank you.

I will echo the sentiment. The citizen, the resident, and then whoever come to use, they are very, very behave, very, very polite. Yeah, I want to give credit to the staff and also the user. And I'm okay with the modification, modernization, the two-phase, but I'll Are we going to open bid to look for the vendor or something?

Good question. So with a million dollars of a project, there are different mechanisms that we can use that our current city code allows for. So we will look into some different options. We want to prioritize not only timeline, but obviously be in the best interest of citizens' dollars. There are different ways that we can perform this work. So we're looking at our current code to see what's allowable.

Because most of the scope of work here is very common. It's not specialties. Probably, are you going to have a design? I mean, interior designer? Good question. We...

A traditional approach to a facility would be you would have a designer come in and you would pay them to give you a scope. You would pay them to give you a bid document.

And then bid document and then open bid for good and a better price and good quality. Then for another 20 years, that time we all retire, you know.

Absolutely. There are other types of procurement tools that you can use that help you work directly with the source, right? So it's either a sole source type vendor or a nationally bid type vendor. So there are different things that we can do. We'll definitely work with the attorney to make sure that we are dotting all of our I's and crossing all of our T's. But we have some ideas of how we can make sure that we are in construction in February.

Okay.

Obviously, we'll be in compliance with public contract code.

Yes. And then last one, I want to... echo Council Member Linda Freeman say the name. Well, when we see Diamond Bar, City of Diamond Bar, they have Diamond Bar Center. And then maybe I'm kind of okay with the any more a more common name for everybody, for all the users, yeah. That would be, you know, sometimes, like my mom, sometimes I say, hey, why don't you go for a senior center? Oh, am I like, oh? Oh, yes, you know, it's, yeah, it's, yeah, it's,

i i i'm i'm okay i can share that and we will look into all of the documents and the funding to make sure that if it is feasible and then we will agendize for a future discussion absolutely

Yeah, thank you. So any question or comment?

Yes, please, Mayor. Thank you. Not to scare the city attorney, but I also am very much looking forward to the research that you guys will do in terms of naming. In terms of the assembly room, I'm looking at the images, and I know it's three stairs up. In terms of accessibility, do we have another way to get on stage?

Current is more accessible than theirs. Absolutely. So we do want to make sure that our facility is completely compliant. Right now, we do have a ramp in the back of our stage. Our stage is more of a temporary modular type setup. You've all been on there. And we need, staff would like some additional storage. So we want to take that space from the existing ramp because we are accessible and use it for storage. We don't want to be unaccessible. So we are looking at putting in a lift in the backside. So if you look at that rendering behind those double doors, the right hand side, you'll be access to a lift, which will keep us compliant.

Okay, glad to hear that. Thank you. And just really thank you for presenting. I think our community really loves our facilities and anything we can do to improve our infrastructure. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Can I ask one more? Sure. On the community news board, so that would be outside the welcome center where it says, you know, welcome to the city of Walnut, where it is right now, right? It does, the current one you're saying that is after enhancements still looks a little dated to me. Like, could we do a digital board there as well? I just feel like we're trying to modernize it, but you're bringing it potentially back to a lot of pamphlets.

Absolutely. So our senior population loves a flyer, right? Well, I get that.

I do want to point out that that middle portion is a screen.

Oh, is it?

Okay. I apologize.

I couldn't tell. Yeah.

So that's currently working on incorporating a big television screen in that space. We like that. We want to go digital. So I apologize. My renderings are, you know, not the best. That's fine. Didn't want to invest too much into this, but.

That is digital. And flyers have a purpose. I understand that. But as we look potentially down to however many, 10 to 20 years, I would like to consider what would be an alternate use to all of those cubbies that may not have flyers in them eventually. But that's 10 down. Again, as long as there's a, that middle part just didn't look that way to me.

I'm hearing that feedback, but rest assured that it is the digital display. But I hear you. We can look at that as we refine the scope.

Mayor? Yes, yes, please. Actually, I noticed that as well. I should have pointed like, hey, features. Yeah, I'll take that feedback. Phase 1 or Phase 2?

That's it. That would be in Phase 2. Phase 2. Yeah, because it's located in the lobby. The other two photos on that page would be during Phase 1.

So we're more focused on Phase 1 right now or want to talk about Phase 2 as well?

We are focused on phase one, but we're happy to discuss either of those phases. We're looking at some feedback of how quickly council would like to go, what approach we'd like to take to funding. Council's pleasure. We're looking for some direction.

Yeah. Thank you for your presentation. It looks really good.

How about funding? Are we okay with the funding?

So funding, we are... proposing to use general fund reserves for phase one, and then phase two, it would be council's pleasure. We either fund that with general fund reserves as well, or we get direction to seek alternate funding.

Mayor, if I may, excuse me. The funding question ties in with the timing as well. The council authorizes general fund use for phase one, we go. As we're doing that, I've already had conversations with certain elected official staff regarding our potential plans. I told them about this meeting tonight and that we would follow up with them after this because we wanted to be respectful of the process and the council's feedback and direction. So really what we're looking at is if the council gives a green light, general fund phase one, we go. That doesn't mean we're not looking for funding. But what happens is that when we get bids and do all that, it's fully funded and we can go. As we do that, if there's some funding that's tied in, because they ask, well, what is the city doing? We already put a million dollars to half of this, and we'd like you to help us finish this thing. That's a very easy way of putting it, but that's what the advantage is of doing it that way. We are obviously going to wait for council to give us a proper feedback on it. But that's kind of what we're looking for is to see if we can go with phase one. And then as we go into phase two, hopefully by then we do have some money committed. Otherwise, we would come to you to kind of give you an update. Hey, we got this pot of money. We're going to have to go back to the general fund for another piece of it or however that works. So that's kind of the quick snapshot.

So the phase one is already budgeted, is fiscal year only.

No, that's what we're here to talk about.

Okay, and then this year we are surprised for how many hundred thousand?

Last year, well, I'll let our finance director.

Thank you, thank you, Tom. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. This fiscal year, we have not finalized our numbers yet because it just ended on June 30th. So our financial reporting process lags several months because a lot of our revenues are received on an accrual basis rather than a cash basis. So staff is currently engaged in the financial preparation process for that. And we should have a number for, you know, usage probably within the next month or so.

Are you talking about 25, 26? Yes, sir.

That's correct.

As of 26, 27.

So 26, 27 is the year that we're currently in that we just started on July 1st. So we don't have financial reporting for that.

Budget wise, are we? We have a budget. Yes, we do.

I guess his question is what's the surplus in the budget?

Oh, I'm sorry. The surplus in the budget, I apologize. It's about $200,000, $100,000 to $200,000.

$100,000 to $200,000. That's correct.

That could go way up, or it could stay there, or it could go down, too. Yes. It's very unpredictable.

It's just budget, just focus.

Yes, and being that we're only two months into the fiscal year, it's a little bit too early for us to tell whether that's going to pan out or whether that's going to be better.

Our track record is very strong in bringing the community surpluses, but to the finance director's credit, we always have to be guarded and not assume that something's around the corner that does it. I will remind the council in our reserves, we are clear of 40 million, and our reserves have gone up over 30% over the last 36 months.

But last fiscal year, for sure, we have a surplus. Just don't know how much the surplus, right?

We don't know that information yet, sir. The previous fiscal year, so the fiscal year that ended on June 30th of 2025, we had a surplus, I'm sorry, we had a general fund reserve of about $41.7 million. So this project, for instance, would be funded by money from that $41.7 million. Okay. Okay.

One thing I did want to touch on that, thank you, Tom, for bringing this up, is staff are always looking for grants, right? We have $2 million that's been awarded for our Jim and Teen Center. And I do want to point out the fact that we haven't talked about that project just quite yet. Reason being is it's federally funded. So not only do we have to make sure that that gets to us, but then there's a lengthy agreement process. There are a lot of different requirements for those types of funds. amazing that we got them happy to happy to go through all of that but it's a different timeline than we're looking at for this project so we will continue to look for all of the opportunities if we're not doing it for this project we are going to continue for other projects to help alleviate the impact on general fund going forward

I also did hear our city manager say 40 million in reserves. And I think we have to remember that. Even though we're so proud of the surplus every single year, and that is always what we're shooting for, the city has saved and saved and saved. So I feel like the residents who have saved for a rainy day, this is putting back into the city. And I'm really, I'm supporting this effort using general funds if needed.

How much is our unfunded pension liability?

Our unfunded pension liability in total is about $10 million. Annually, we pay about $1 million to CalPERS for our UAL.

So, I mean, so are we looking, sorry, Mayor, I guess I'm, are we looking then to put this onto an agenda for approval then, or are we looking for a, we're potentially in agreement to move forward on a phase?

So staff would like to expedite this as fast as possible. If we're hearing a consensus this evening, we are going to quickly do some finalizing of a scope to bring back a final project ready to approve. It will come to council.

Yes, ma'am. That's good direction. I was, yeah, I'm okay to go further, staff go further to come out with the more precise, not precise, more better estimate. See how much money, I mean, really needed for these two phase. I mean, if you... If you want to go for the interior designer to design and then with the design, I mean with the bidding document, that's, I mean, I'm okay. That way then we know how much money we're really going to spend. And then by that time maybe we already have the first quarter. I mean, we probably know how much money we're spending. I mean, how much money we were getting, I mean, this fiscal year. I don't want... I'm still hoping this fiscal year we have surplus, yes. That's for me, you know.

I do, reason we're asking about a budget now, right, is that we wanna make sure that we don't bring something to council that's not in line with what your initial expectations were. We are not gonna be We are gonna be as frugal and responsible of this budget as possible while making sure that all the current needs are addressed. We are not going to be frivolous in the things that we pick. We're gonna focus on functionality, durability, long-term use of this facility, but it's very different if I were to come and bring you a $500,000 scope to a million-dollar scope. I wouldn't be able to do as much, right? So I wanted to be able to work into what that potential cost could be. Am I going to try to reduce those costs? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm going to try to get the most we can with that budget and be as responsible as we can. But I do want to know if we're comfortable in that range of a million dollars.

Thank you. And also in terms of going forward and looking at not just phase one, but also phase two, do we have an estimate of when we want that to occur after phase one? Are we thinking a certain time not to impact the senior center or are we thinking in terms of when the legislature meets to try and see what grants or funding is available?

Depends on feedback from council. If I have instruction to use general fund money, that timeline's gonna be much more, much faster than if we were going to be seeking additional funding. I do have a funding request ready. Tom has already seen one and provided it to our local officials. We are always asking, we are always looking. gotten $2 million for Jim and senior, and $1.2 million for Suzanne Park. So we are always looking at ways to really alleviate that general fund. But with these grants come just different timelines. We think that this community center, or this senior center, I apologize, is a way for us to show that we have invested in our facilities ourselves, right? And just like Tom was saying, is that if we do get that direction from council, we can leverage that we funded a million dollars of phase one. We are truly committing to offer a phenomenal facility, not only to Walnut residents, but to the community and the region at large. That definitely makes our request a lot stronger.

Absolutely, thank you. In terms of what my colleagues think, looking towards phase two to have that conversation now, if it's not too premature, I would love to have our other elected officials support us in this venture to modernize walnut thoughts

I also am in support of modernizing this facility. And also when it comes back to council, I would like the information about name change possibility.

I hear that direction. One quick thing, and it's not something staff typically does, we take orders from the community and the council. But in this case, if and when we do go into phase two, we would like the council to be actively involved as well. Because there are some officials that have not given us money. Some have, some have not elected. And it's probably time for them to focus on the cities that are financially responsible with taxpayer money and help those cities continue to do good things instead of other cities that maybe just raise taxes and earn deficits and then they go help them which they need help too. We're not saying they don't, but we would ask the council to engage as well. Because yeah, we want to keep our general fund robust and strong. But this is a situation where, yeah, we will use general fund money if the council agrees for the first phase. And then the second phase, have a portion of it, if not a good chunk of it, be paid through other means.

Yeah, sure, definitely. We're all support for the phase two.

Oral communications, but.

Yeah, for me, I'm phase one. If we can proceed phase one, allowing construction to begin the February 2027, that will be great. And I want to echo also Council Member Linda Friedman's, if ever we can.

We will talk about the name at a future date, absolutely.

Council Member Chikos?

i'm just curious why we're feeling this is so urgent the urgency that i'm hearing here, why does staff feel this is so urgent good question so in talking about.

How do we find that gap in. a lull in programming, so to speak, of a highly utilized facility. No time is a good time, but February is the best time. So if we don't start now and we want to do February 2028, we've now postponed this project for a whole year. So we think that to be the least impactful, our preference is that February timeline. That's the reason we brought it today.

I think we probably need to hear from the oral communications, probably the mayor, but the people in the public.

OK. Let's start the, let's move on to the oral communication. Any person would like to address any item or issue on the agenda or any item on the Consent Calendar? No.

First of all, did you guys go out to the public if they wanted to remodel this building? Or did you guys just come and say, well, we, I don't remember anyone coming through my community saying, well, we're thinking about remodeling the senior center. In terms of feeding the seniors, when you're going through this program, we had a real problem doing COVID feeding seniors. So it looks like a lot of tobacco. What are you going to do with all the furniture that we have in different parts of the unit? I mean, the senior center. What are you going to do with all the chairs, the desks, et cetera? Where are you going to hide those? Now, that's a question.

If you can just address the council, Mr. Harrison, and any follow-up that the council can provide, we can do that. And if we have to have a follow-up meeting, that's fine too. In terms of getting public input, and I'm eating up your time. I don't want to eat up your time. We'll stop that and restart it. But in terms of public input, this is the beginning process of it. That's why we have a study session and there could be no official decision made other than just feedback from the council for us to know how to proceed. And then there'll be, publicly notice council meetings about it because obviously it's a lot of money. But if ultimately the community doesn't want it, of course the staff's listening and council will.

The public hasn't been notified about this. I mean, it just came up. No one's come to the public to say, do we want to do this, do we not want to do this? I'm in favor of the floors, the painting, what have you. I know that when you do a project like this, you always have cost overrun. It's not going to come in at a million dollars. That's absurd. Then going out to the public, asking for money, you may get that. A 30-year-old building, it's not that old a building. Do we... make good use of it? Yes, we do, but it's not used as much as one would think. I come here at least two or three times a week, and the crowd has never seen it right now with Kim leaving. Other than that, it's partially used. But again, like I said, the... My whole objection to this is it's not that old. We have not gone out to the community to see if they want to spend the money or do they want to remodel. You say staff does it, so I don't know how staff came up with the idea remodeling that particular building. If you're going to remodel that one, then you're going to turn around and say, we need to remodel this one too, up the road. And if indeed you're going to do that, you might as well do them both at the same time or just back to back to back. Again, I'm more concerned with the seniors being fed, because we really did a terrible job with that. And she's talking about moving them to several places, et cetera. These are seniors. They can't get around like that. the storage of the facilities, things that we have, chairs, tables, et cetera, what we're going to do with that there. But most important is not the money. I think flooring, we really need flooring, we need painting. But it looks like you're trying to make a Taj Mahal out of the senior center there. So again, I would hope that you reach out to the public to find out what they want, not just simply coming up with these ideas.

Thank you.

Mr. Warren, if they get back with me, someone will get back to me on these questions, I guess.

I'll be happy to meet with you anytime you'd like, Mr. Harrison. No, I'll meet with you myself. That's probably the best. We can talk it over, and I'll certainly, you know, we'll make sure this process remains open and transparent, because as you said, it is important to have it that way.

Hello. My name is Vijay. I'm sure you guys know me. I have a few comments and questions here. I like City of Baltimore very well. I really love, I love the place. But we have to look at, we are talking about two point, I don't know how much, million dollars to do this renovation. Every time I've spoken to the city staff, I've been told that we don't have any money in the budget for this, anything we ask for. But all of a sudden, we find $2.5 million for this project, which is kind of, I don't understand the process you have, okay? All of a sudden, they find the money. When they want to do something, really, they find the money. But when people ask for something, there's no money, there's no budget. That's kind of, I don't understand that process. And I hope, I wish, some of you can explain me What is the process? Why all of a sudden we found two and a half million dollars surplus, as I think Dr. Wu mentioned, was $200,000 last year or so, not a whole lot. Am I right? I don't know. Very little surplus. And now we have found two million dollars to spend. That is something I wish somebody can answer me that question. Another question I have is Senior Center itself. It's a beautiful place. It is as old as this place here. Why don't we renovate this place also if we renovate Senior Center? I mean, look at that. I'm looking at all our picture. Why do we renovate only one and not the other? Renovate both of them. Take $5 million and do it. Why not? But we are selecting only certain area which you spend money on. Other question I have, and I have no answer for that. I don't know if Melissa has an answer for that. How many Walnut residents, how many Walnut residents actually use a senior facility? You cannot answer it?

Mr. McHill, if you'd like to meet with us after, we can try to answer all of those questions. There's not been one penny committed to this project, not one cent. That's what we're here discussing. There's nothing that's been committed to this. So, you know, we have a budget process. We have a funding process. That's why we're here. But if you have specific questions regarding how many people use the facility, we can get all that for you and we'll have that to you promptly because it is a good question.

Okay, can we go back and find out as to how many residents?

I'm happy to meet with you, get all your questions answered. Mr. Harrison, I think, needs clarification on some things. We're happy to do that. That's why we're here. Absolutely.

Okay. Another thing, I think William mentioned that too, about public input. If you're going to renovate a senior center, why don't you ask senior the question? What do you want to see? Rather than somebody sitting in this big office decide what needs to be done. I think we need to have public input. There's nothing wrong with that. I know it's a big project, and then you start with too many, I'm sorry, I'm taking a bit more time, but you're talking about $2 million here? Trust me, when the project is over, it's gonna be $2.5 million, okay? That's the way it goes, okay? Thank you.

Thank you. Any person in the Zoom want to say anything?

There's no email.

No one via Zoom. No via Zoom, okay. No email, no via Zoom, okay. All right, now close the oral communication. And do we have any concern or anything today?

No, just the study session.

Okay, all right, thank you.

I would have one last comment, Mary Wu. Just in terms of communication with staff, if we do go forward with trying to acquire grant funding, I am absolutely supportive of that and will absolutely be advocating for Walnut. Thank you.

Council Member Law, I already have a funding request sitting here with me. I'll be able to distribute that afterwards.

I will second that as well, that we will, as part of the duties of our elected officials, do also what we can, our due diligence, to meet with our elected surrounding officials.

Yeah, I've been doing that ever since. Hopefully we get something.

All right, so other than now, if we only have five minutes for next meeting, let's adjourn this meeting, and then we'll be back 7 p.m., thank you.