City Council - Regular Meeting

It won't happen because we're going to Europe in August. It's the darndest thing. I think it matters. We would just go back and do the same thing.

I haven't. That's a 22-year-old truck. I didn't have a reason to go back to 2016, though.

You can still film, like, feedback, whatever. Come on. I have that next program.

It would be real tempting if we didn't already have a trip planned out. Oh, yeah. So how long are you going to be in there? You're probably like me, though. Probably doing something, probably bumped into something.

It's going to be a...

All right, I'm going to go ahead and call the May 26, 2026 City Council meeting to order.

And we do have a quorum, missing one. And I'm wondering if you might not be a little late, but at any event, we do have a quorum.

Welcome everybody around the table and everybody sitting out there. It looks like we got a pretty good crowd tonight and it's good to see everybody. Before we have our prayer, I want to make a couple of statements if I could. This community lost a giant when we lost John Jewell. I made the comment in my eulogy of him, but I've told others over the years, the last few years especially, Every small town needs a John Jewell, because if you've got a job that doesn't pay anything but needs to be done and it promotes this community, John would be on it. And his late wife Jan was the same way, that you just give them an idea, or if they had an idea, they would take it and run with it. And many good things came out of John and Jan and Bob and Sharon McCone's ideas. The excursion train was was their baby. The jazz festival was their baby, and they worked it hard and made it made it a very successful event here. And so he will be missed. He, at the time of his death, he was holding, he was the chairman of the Planning Commission, chairman of the Board of Zoning Appeals. He was on the historic preservation of committee and our representative, along with myself, on the Nashville and Eastern Railroad Authority. And the county. He had stuff going on in the county with the county planning commission. So I will tell you, those four jobs that John held over the next couple of months will probably be filled by four different people. So that tells you something about what he meant for this community. So I just want to acknowledge him and make sure that we've got something in the minutes to that effect. And then the other thing I want to, on a little more positive, maybe happier note, is to congratulate all our graduates out there at whatever level. Predominantly high school, of course, because that's what we think about when we think about graduation, but You've got people that are graduating in kindergarten, and that's a great big deal. Junior high, high school, college, junior college, trade schools. Anybody that's graduated, we congratulate them and wish them well in the future. So I guess that's all I can think about to say right now. So if you'll bow with me, we'll have a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we're thankful for yet another day of life and the opportunity to come together. We're thankful for the good rain you've given us over the last few days. We pray that everybody's receiving a benefit from that, farmers and those that have gardens and those that take care of their flower beds and all those things. We pray that you'll continue to bless this community as we go forward. We pray a special blessing on the Jewell family, the boys that survive, and the grandchildren, the brothers, that you'll strengthen them. We pray that you'll be with our graduates and their families. And I didn't mention a minute ago how important it is to the families. But we're thankful for them and hope they receive a blessing from the events of the last few days. And now we ask that you go with us tonight. Help us to make good decisions that are pleasing in your sight. Forgive us all our sins. Amen. Okay. Got a set of minutes, sir. And I should have mentioned that about families. You know, we've all been through it, I guess, when we graduated and we couldn't understand maybe why it was such a big deal to our mama and daddy or grandparents. But then after you become mamas and daddies and grandparents, you realize what a big deal it is. So I'll get off my soapbox now. Y'all want to approve the minutes?

So motion to approve. Second.

All right, got a motion and a second to approve the minutes. Any changes we need to make? Anything? Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Minutes are approved. Public business, a comment. Anybody that wants to address us tonight, step up to the microphone and let us know. And also... I've forgotten his name again. The young man operating the... Zach. Zach. Thank you. Let me know if there's anybody on there before I shut it down. Otherwise, my record will be perfect. I'll shut it down and forget to ask. I'm sorry. Y'all go ahead.

No, that's okay. We're just here representing the chamber. As you know, we have the Fourth of July parade coming up. This is Jenna. She's our secretary, and she's going to talk a little bit about it.

Okay.

I'm really coming forward because I need to have, I believe, approval for my... I've been told it's kind of a road closure, kind of not. Depends who I ask and who answers the question. But the parade will start at 4 o'clock going down Main Street. And so I just need to make sure that that's closed off and that I don't have kids and parade attendees being run over, really.

We've always locked that off. I'm assuming you can take care of that when you're in the fire department?

i've also been told i probably need to come forward and ask for more police presence in the parade i've been told on the spray zones that i have owned by many a person that items are being thrown the non-spray zone is being harassed and i've been told by a lot of people that they will not come back to our parade because of um vandalism and almost destruction on their property with attendees on the parade route so i wasn't sure how we could go forward on this but i didn't know if i was able to get some police presence in like my nose flash zone um and i'm gonna have it it's not just the spectator area i've been told in the whole parade um but i didn't know how i feel any of y'all had a good idea and how we can kind of boost this i will be asking trannon and sarah to put it in the newspaper that we will be enforcing rules on the parade just to keep everyone safe and happy

Well, I'll make some comments on that, having been in every one of them since the start and swallowed a lot more water than I deserve. The people that Usually, we've always said no water balloons, no water cannons, that type of thing. The first year I was in it, I got hit with a tobacco sprayer. I mean, people just think it's funny, and that's okay. I can handle that. The people you're talking about that don't want that, I don't know how we can stop it without asking them. As far as the people that are there watching, they know what we're doing.

Absolutely.

And so if they don't want to get wet, I'd like for them to come to the parade, but they can stand 20 feet back and be dry.

My concern is more on the people in the parade. I've been told that, like, I've sold... Yeah. Sprayed and stuff, and I was told that buckets of water reported vehicles. I believe it was last year or the year previous, and that group...

Or they hooked their hose pipe up to the faucet out front.

And I've been told that they will not come back and will not be open to coming back. And a few other people have told me with classic cars and stuff that they will not even consider it. And I don't blame them. I don't want anyone's personal items to be vandalized or ruined in what's supposed to be a fun day. So, like I said, I just wasn't sure if there was anything we can do or if anyone has any suggestions between now and then that they're willing to throw my way. I'm willing to take them.

Well, we do what we can. Thank you. I don't like it either to get hit by a garden hose or whatever, but I can handle that. It's the little kids that adults hit the little kids with that that makes me mad. And that's just, I'll just go ahead and say it, that's just sorry to do that, to pick on a child like that. Anyway, we'll do what we can.

Thank you so much.

Sure. And regarding. Let me just, at 4 o'clock.

4 o'clock was the parade will start.

Line up at 3.

Line up will start at 3. This is my first year doing it, so that's the time set. We'll see what happens in between.

Yeah, and it's an election year, so you should have quite a few people wanting to be in it.

That's what I've been told. I have a good few people helping me and directing me on where to go and how to maneuver this operation, so. Hopefully we will run smoothly.

And the city of Lebanon has decided they'll have a 4th of July parade on the 3rd. And I don't want to alienate my friends there, and certainly the mayor, but I will just say imitation is a sincerest form of flattery.

Absolutely.

So the fact that they're having one and don't feel like they can compete with us on the 4th, they've got to do theirs on the 3rd, I like that.

So regarding 4th of July and the fireworks, as you know, the chambers always split the cost of the fireworks with the city. We are glad to do that again this year. But after this year, we're going to have to forego that split because the chamber cannot afford it. doesn't necessarily affect or benefit the chamber in a way that's beneficial to the businesses, which is what we're trying to promote as a chamber. So this year, we are going to do it. I think it's 3250, 32 something. But that's quite a bit of change for us as a small chamber. So next year, and inevitably, the cost will probably go up just because it's been going up over the last few years. So next year, we'll have to bow out of splitting.

Let me just say to you, and I understand that. That's your prerogative. We'll have the fireworks display. We're not going to not have them. People have gotten used to that, and we actually get a pretty good little show for the amount of money we put into it. I saw where Malgie was last night putting on a drone show that cost them $40,000. I can do a lot with $40,000. So anyway, we understand.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

While we're on the fireworks thing, I think CDBOT took care of this last year. Remember at the old football practice field, that spigot that's ours, but somebody had tied into it? Did we close and shut that off? Yes. so that nobody can look to that name that's coming up.

I thought so. Thank you. Thank you.

Come on now. No cussing, no drinking, no smoking, no fighting, no arguing, no metal cleats.

Is that a real softball? Yeah.

Can we hear? Yes, sir. OK. Yes, sir. Now I'm doing this on behalf of my brother-in-law, Cortland Sutton. This is the Church of God of Carthage. They do have fields up there, but I told him it would be a good attribute to bring him down here. We have a nice field. We have concession stands and all that. So this is a church-affiliated tournament. There will be... nothing on here i'm gonna be one of the umpires so anything on here i'll throw you out it don't matter to me he is doing this for his youth leadership group of his church they're trying to raise money to do fundraisers for their little kids and other churches to get involved with it too and He wanted to know, you know, if he could come out here and play on our field. I told him, I said, I'll have to ask city council. I said, that'll be fine. I said, now, there's two main rules. I'm not going to have no drinking. And, you know, you can't tear my field up. And Mr. Lawson, which is the pastor of the church, he has no problem with it. The liability disclaimer is on the back of that right there. They're going to take full responsibility for everything that they do at our park. We're not responsible for anything there. I will provide the essentials for the bathrooms, and I'll do the garbage cans and all that for them. Mr. Jonathan is going to open the concession stand up and make money for the city itself. That way the city gets, you know, a little bit of it, plus their church will get, you know, what they get out of the tournament. But he was wanting me to ask if it would be okay for him to do this tournament down here in Watertown.

Cody and I talked about this a few weeks ago, and I understand they're raising money for charity, so... uh what we've done some in the past bob is we've let people use it as long as they don't cut on the lights they don't have to pay anything but if the lights go on it'll cost you how much is it a day we usually charge a hundred but you know daylight it'll stay daylight till late 30s yes sir he's only letting eight teams in it right now he's got three for sure so if he gets eight teams in it

It's going to be about an hour game. It's not going to be a competition game like it says on the flyer. There's not going to be a score keeping them like that. It's just strictly for fun for the kids to come out and play. With his criteria on here, All players have to be 18 and older because this is the first year that they're doing this. And if it goes smoothly this year, like I told him, I said, we would be more than welcome to invite you back to our field. I would like to ask for my brother-in-law and his church to use our field if y'all wouldn't mind.

And Jonathan's not here. Yes, I'm sorry. Any conflict with that date, Jonathan?

No, sir.

Okay.

But to go along with what Cody's saying here, we are first year for us to step up and try to do a church league adult softball as well. Right now, I've got a total of, I think, around six churches that I have contacted or have contacted me since they're interested in playing. So those six churches, not only going to be part of our league, but also going to pay the additional money to be part of this tournament, too, to help fund the youth program. OK. So Cody's discussed it with me. We have arranged a date. Nothing to be scheduled on that date except for what we've got going on here.

Okay.

Well, just come on down. We'll have another screen time. We'll have something special.

Happy birthday. Okay, so you're asking permission to use the field on the 27th, no charge, as long as you don't cut the lights?

Yes, sir. And they're fine with the fee with the lights. My brother-in-law and the pastor have disclosed that. They have no problem with paying any funds for the lights.

Okay. I know you've got the attached letter, but not to be a stickler on this, but we're actually going to need a insurance certificate naming the city as a secondary insured from an insurance company that says you've got a policy that there's coverage in place.

Now, with any tournament I've been to, Mr. Kasich, it's place your own risk. And it is, it sure is, but not ours. Yeah, not y'all's. And that's why everything's going to be led towards the church on this tournament.

But if somebody breaks an arm or a leg over here and they decide they want to get a lawyer, and I can't believe I'm saying this, But if they want to get a lawyer and sue, they're going to sue the city of Watertown because it's our premises. So we've got to have, just tell your brother-in-law, the pastor, I'm sure the church has insurance. Just get a rider to cover that for that day.

Right, right. I was going to say, I'm sure the church already has liability insurance for anybody to slip and fall on their premises. It's a matter of a phone call and a piece of paper for them to issue a rider for that one day naming the city of Watertown as a secondary insured. Or additional insured or some term like that.

I'll get in contact with them this week and get something for you.

All right, with that understanding there, is there a motion to approve this request?

I make a motion to approve.

Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All right, thank y'all. Okay, anybody else? All right, we'll move on to some committee reports. Chief Hahn, I believe the fire department's up front. Well, up front, up first, however you want to say it.

Jack, is anybody up front?

No, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I'll never learn. Too old.

Last month in April, the fire department ran 41 calls, 19 of those in the city and 22 in the county. We've had some maintenance work done. We've done some pump testing. One of the apparatus, we found some deficiencies with it and just some leaking valves and things like that. So we've got that squared away. A guy came to repair it. He had left one of the valves broken. or got the wrong valve for one of them, so he's got to come back. But that should all be settled up within this week, and we're hoping that everything should be squared away by June 1st for the budget.

Okay. Any questions of the chief? Chief, you want to make your formal announcement, or can I talk you out of it and make one more run at it?

I, after... many months of consideration on the first of last month i submitted resignation from my position to be effective june 1st a lot of changes in life and and want to have more time to enjoy those and as my kids get older i've i've missed out on a lot throughout the years and and while there's still time i want to be sure that i'm present and able to do that so it was a very tough decision and went back and forth many times but I feel that that's the most appropriate.

I made another run at him this morning, but I didn't have any luck.

I didn't completely ignore that.

I know.

And once the kids all graduate, you never know. Well, I told everybody I still plan to be around the community. I told them, I said, I'll still help cook some barbecue. And if you need help training, call me up. Or if there's a big one, you can call me. Other than that, I'll be at the house.

Well, Blake, Chief, has done a marvelous job for this community. He's led the department. He's trained these folks. They are prepared to deal with emergencies, and I'm thankful for that. He has continued a long line of fire chiefs we've had here. I think I mentioned it again at Johnny's funeral. Bill Jewell, Ken Fuston, John, and then you succeeded John. And that period of time covers about 40 years. We've had four fire chiefs in about 40 years. And our department has grown. And I made this comment too. I'm sorry to be saying so much, but I just feel this. I was at a county meeting in Knoxville. came back for the funeral, but that morning somebody was talking about, said the comptroller's office does not know how many volunteer fire departments there are in the state of Tennessee. And they know I'm a mayor also, so I don't know about the number, but I can tell you where the best one is. And it's right here. So I'm appreciative of that. I'm appreciative of Blake, and I hate to see him give this up, but I certainly understand why. Do you have any questions of him or about his report?

I do want to say thank you all, and it's been a tremendous honor. It was a dream and learned a lot, mostly through mistakes, but that's generally how you learn best. So I hope to be able to pass that on and make it a little easier for the next ones.

Thank you. Thank you, Blank. You've done well. All right, Dale Smith, you're up next. And one resignation a night is all unhandled, so don't come up here talking about it.

We have the states come out a couple times and met with them about the plant optimization plan they're working on. And this year their plan is to reduce the phosphorus discharges. And they're thinking we can cut it about in half and get like less than one milligram per liter discharged at the facility, which is probably a good thing. um we're trying to utilize some old equipment old wet well and stuff that's been out of service for a very long time and so that's a good thing that we're you know there's not really any cost incurred with it uh hopefully next year they're wanting to do the nitrogen total nitrogen but that's going to take some more infrastructure changes and but we'll worry about that next year when that comes along i suppose but uh Yeah, pretty neat getting some state help on this stuff. Beyond that, I don't have a whole lot for you this month.

Questions of value? All right. That's a good sign if you don't get any questions. Thanks, Dave. Chief Penderwhite, how you doing? Come on. What? Well, that's where I was headed. You appear to be ambulatory.

Yeah, I'm a whole lot better.

Y'all didn't know I knew such a word. It is an ambulance business.

And, you know, again, I want to say thanks to Blake as well. I've been here almost 11 years, and I knew John well, too. I was actually here when, you know, the funny thing is, you know, John didn't drive so well. Mm-hmm. And it sure was a lot of drama. He did not.

Not the best driver in the world. If he was here, he would own up to it.

Yeah, with a few adjectives. Any questions for me? Any questions for Chief?

We will start to work on the budget hopefully next week because we've got to get that done. I appreciate the work you've done already. I haven't had a chance to look at it, but I appreciate it. Okay.

Yes, sir, you're welcome.

But I will. Reality is about to set in. Got to get it done. Yeah.

I called on the 9-1-1 button. There's other ones who flew with that side of that stuff. And we got the paperwork for it and what we need to fill out and everything gets going.

It was the one thing is right at 150. But I do believe that that could be discounted once we get our first responders. And then I think that would also, you know, we could split that because it would be for the whole building per se. So I believe that would be split. But if it need to come out of the police budget, no, we split that.

That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, I think it's all we got to do is fill it out and send it in, and they said they'll be back in contact with us to come out and see what we need. Yeah. All right.

I had that on the agenda, so we got that covered in.

As long as everyone's good with continuing forward.

Do you have any idea when they'll do that?

We have to send it in.

Yeah, I think I just wanted to wait to make sure because I know I don't need – an email that talks about spending.

Yeah.

It was going to be like $150 a month, but I think it can be a little bit less. But I didn't want to just say, hey, that's what we're doing, because you'd have gave me that look over the glasses. Well, we need to.

That guy that I, the fellow I talked to, I think he said it'd be two to three days after we send it back in. Yeah. They would correspond with us, and then they would either call me or you, or they'd send us an email to call them back, and then they would set up a day to come out and see what we did. which I don't think we need a lot unless for some reason they decide that what we have doesn't work, but I can't see why we have it.

Yeah, well, the wiring was there, and, you know, the wiring's not bad. It was just from the other side of it, everything was in that comm room for the fire department. I think it just cut off or cut unplugged.

Any other questions, comments for the chief? Can y'all remind me, what is the process for when the people come for the music videos? Is that through you or is that through April and them? I can't remember.

So the process comes through me. We collect the $1,500, which is what you all implemented. The blanket was to collect that and do additional insuring on everybody. them know, of course April knows because they had to bring her the money and the COI. I believe that was all that any of the minutes ever said other than not just saying, hey, chief, you got it. You handle it. You take the money. You get the COI.

Okay. I just bring that up because I had a few people call me over the last one just because of, you may have got the same calls, but just Everything that was going on, I think some of the business owners would have liked a heads up, and I don't know if maybe that's something we can handle.

We'll shoot that out on Nixle.

I know from a security standpoint, you don't want to, like, throw it out there super in advance, but just so they maybe can learn.

Yeah, and usually, well, there's no usually. Every single time I tell the folks after they get the money and put us on the additional insured that it's their responsibility to go to each business and tell them, you know, what's going on because I can't get involved in financial arrangements to use their parking spaces and this, that, and the other, and that's usually what it comes down to. Yeah. And I don't do that. But I did make a, I went and spoke. The mayor told me to go speak with Ms. Amy, the chamber president. And I told her that what I would do is just going forward, because it's a learning experience for all of us, would be shoot her an email. Just say, hey, we're going to have an event. This is what it's going to be. You know, I can't per se reveal who or what. Yeah. But I did, you know, we did agree on that, and I think that would be a good measure. And, of course, I'll still do the same as letting the mayor and April know because, again, we know we have to do that. So that was the process. It was not ever to bring it back before the board per se. No, no, no. But it was just to make sure the conditions are met, and then we added that condition about the chamber upon your request, you know, letting her know.

Yeah, I mean, I – People need to know it's coming. The problem we have is we may not have 72 hours notice on it. They put these things together.

Yeah, it's very quick, and I'm actually glad you responded quickly because if you hadn't responded fairly quickly, it was like a Thursday evening and they were going to do it Friday morning.

So sometimes it is like that. And we could just tell them no, but I can make arrangements very quick because my job is immediate reaction. Or we might sit for four hours and then all of a sudden have 10 calls. So we're used to that. But yeah, we don't always have. I mean, it'd be nice to have 24 hours notice.

I wish we had enough notice where we could bring it up here and let everybody know. I don't ever remember one being that far in advance, to be honest with you.

And I think what happens, well, it was actually the third one. We had two since. But what happened is they were not allowed. Metro stopped issuing permits for two days for some reason. That's what she said. And we were the second choice, and it was immediate because they already had the talent and the actors involved. and they had to pay them no matter what and that's why that it was so quick but but yes you know there is a process and that we do that process and now include the chamber president and then she that said that she would get it out to whoever needs to or you all can tell me or we can even you know i don't i don't know that putting it out on the everbridge no would benefit us because i think it would draw too much attention to us yeah i was thinking about a blast email could we get a blast email of the business owners yeah she said she would handle it i'll just send it to her and then she can put verbiage on there okay how they need to do because you know their their parking spaces are what we're doing yeah we try a little hard not to interfere with businesses yeah this yeah and we you know and sometimes we have but we try to make it you know in and out you know it moves pretty good yeah you know but again you know we probably would never make everyone happy You might tell her in the future not to let us know who was second choice.

I don't like the sound of that. Maybe we should make it where if they can't give us 24-hour notice, it costs more.

Well, I was told by someone in the music industry, they suggested we raise the prices because other towns have.

Other what?

Other towns have raised the prices.

Some of the bigger towns, like 5,000.

I'm like, oh.

And I'm thinking, you know, we could.

So.

I can say two parts to that. One, I think we're still below that. We're what, 1,500?

Yes, sir.

But. I like your idea that if you're giving us less than 48 hours notice, that there's a expedite fee added to that. Yeah.

And again, you know, like I told Harris, okay, you're so short notice, like I'm gonna have to pay the guys more. So they ended up paying and she would have paid more, but our charter, you know, we'd voted on 1500 because she was in a dire emergency.

But if we had to bring something back in June, then what you're talking about, 24 hours, y'all put something together or tell me what you want put together and let's vote on that. And yes, sir. I'm okay with that. It's not our money.

You know, at least if we have a penalty in there for late notice,

start learning they'll hopefully be more proactive but they may not care well it's not necessarily a kid but a lot of times it's that kind of thing it's just uh production line up you just have to do it so it's not a you don't try to be into the institute to have the money to pay or learn it's a lot of most of the time it simply is just a scary thing

Be willing to pay another $1,000?

Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, when I counted last time, I suggested $1,500 because we've been so low. I didn't have to drop this $1,000 off.

We'll have something to do.

To piggyback on what you said, I received some phone calls, too, that day. And one you just covered, the other was who was paying the police officers. So I just wanted on record... that I've asked, who is paying y'all when we see this?

Yeah, clearly the city does not pay us. The city has been gracious enough to let us use the cars because it is a safety thing with the blue lights. But the film people or whoever it might be pays every officer at an individual rate. They pay each officer, the city's numbers.

But then we still have one person on duty here.

Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes, ma'am.

I think it might be, I know you were saying that it wouldn't be beneficial to use the Everbridge. And yeah, I agree. There was a thought that I had, because we live right on Main Street. I was very close to the shooting. I had no idea what was going on. All I kept hearing was sirens constantly. And I did have other people, you know, like, what is going on? But, like, just to say, hey, like, maybe the day of, say these roads are going to be blocked off. Yeah, and that – My husband wound up going through the chute, pulling his lawnmower on accident. But, I mean, I don't know.

Would that – The only thing about that is, like, the roads were only closed for – 15 to 30 seconds to a minute at each time.

You know, and then it might be, yes, ma'am, like it was never shut down minutes and 30 minutes and 20 minutes, and it was, hey, they made two laps and we shut it down.

And, you know, at 1.20, I decided, you know, it's time for school to get out, so we shut it down completely and moved to a safe location, safer location because of all the children and stuff. So, you know, safety's always at forefront for me. You didn't say it wasn't, but yes, I can understand that, too.

Okay, anything else for the Chief? Glad you're getting around better. Yeah, thank you. Boys still playing ball?

Yeah, we just came back from Florida, so we played the best of the best. And they wrote, Cole's hurt, hurt his back. He can't really swing, but he got the pitch, and they wrote a big write-up on him. He's 87, so he did good. So thank you so much for asking.

Yeah, I'm a fan. All right. I believe we're ready for Mr. Jonathan on his Parks and Recreation report. While he's coming up, I will say that he and his folks just concluded, in my opinion, a very successful community league season. And I gauge that primarily when I don't get any calls from anybody complaining and I didn't have a single one.

I will try to keep it open now. That's all right.

I used to work for a director of schools. He used to say if it don't get to my desk, it ain't a problem.

That's right. So for the spring baseball softball, we ended the season already. They're closing ceremonies. Total kids that signed up for the spring ball that officially signed up was 343. I think we're actually a little higher than that because we did have kids come on after science was over. We do have the adult church league coming up. All churches are welcome to join. It's $350 per team to join the league. That covers the fields, that covers the lights if needed, and it's also us running a concession to Mayweather. We also have already sent out our fall ball sign-up season for our regular baseball and softball. But this year we're going to Put a little twist on that. We're also adding a new league. This league is called the Purple Warriors League. This is for any child with special needs. Where their parents feel like they cannot come out and enjoy the outdoors or play sports with anyone else. So I'm bringing this league up because it hits home to me. My son is autistic. I also have a little girl on my team with special needs as well. And she loves every minute of it. So I'm starting this up this year. As of right now, we only put sign-ups out there as of 6, 7 o'clock last night. We've had 10 sign-up for this. Purple Warriors League. I've had 67 sign up for the fall ball regular season. I've also done received three or four different phone calls for people wanting to donate and help with the special needs program. So that's what we're at on that.

I think that is one of the best things that's ever been proposed. And I just, I look forward to that happening.

So you. Not Julia. Did a lead come up? They made it just to a Saturday.

I don't know, but my daughter's softball game went and helped them out one time. And they reached out to Empower Me Day. And a lot of those people came in their Saturday games.

I just didn't know if that was going

What I'm trying to, since the league officially won't start until August, is reaching out to the high school principal and seeing if the seniors or these hours for college, having them come out and stay with the kids. I've already received many phone calls from middle school ballplayers wanting to come out and play with these kids and stay with them. So we have several volunteers already. Pouring in for it. But I want to try to take it a step further and get to high school and get the whole community involved in it. My thoughts behind the Purple Warriors is to have them play once or twice a night, or once or twice a week, sorry. That way it doesn't wear them out, but it gives them a chance to come out and actually do something in the community. I love it. Yeah.

Yeah. You just keep on keeping on, son. And I know how hard it is to work that league.

We're going to have Mr. Cody and his brother out with the tournament, like I said earlier. A lot of the teams that I spoke with, the church league part of it, as Dunn said, they're going to join it. So hats off to them. May the best man be with you.

just want to make one comment and i'm not trying to be negative after that you're doing some great great work i know last year with the adult softball league we were chasing money after the fact we don't we don't need to have that happen this year this is everyone that has been contacted everyone that i've spoke to they have been told it is 350 dollars up front where you did host that one fair enough that's fair enough like i said i know last year we ended up

chasing some money after the fact we don't mean no i'm not chasing it okay that's the way i look at it i do have one request is during our fall ball season maybe we could get a little more police activity in and out of the park there was a three incidents where i did have to call to get some support Which I understand that. I'm not the only one in town. There's other things going on. I get it. But maybe make a presence once in a while. Just in time to be called. I want to appreciate that a lot.

Okay. Will you have some type of opening night for these kids?

I will. we will right now we're just getting signups going getting drafts getting signs going we will have a draft date and i will have an opening ceremony i think the uh depending on how many we get signed up right now my facebook post for the sign of the registry has been shared over 90 something times i think the people in this community will come out for that

Okay. Questions?

Comments? I would submit for you to vote for Tran and get this in the paper. Sir? You vote for Tran and get this in the paper. Oh, yes, sir. In addition to your...

I would actually want to start posting these once I get off of work and one day go around town and maybe some of the businesses would... I mean, if y'all want, I've got extra here you can take with you and pass out

file on your phone? I do. You want to send it to me?

We'll put it a few other places, too.

Yeah.

You have to get your number.

Yeah. All right. Is this your number? Yes. I'll text you. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate all the good work. All right. Ready for Chris on the Railroad Museum.

Good evening. Hello. A couple of things. We had a board meeting this past week. We have a natural esteem with a Tennessee Central person on our board. And they just had an opportunity to share their appreciation for where things are headed and how it's going. I think they feel really comfortable that there's good communication happening. The fellow from National STEAM feels like with what we're doing, WRM, and kind of really trying to work together, they really all feel confident and comfortable. So I felt like that's, if nothing else, we've got that going kind of thing as we get into the next phase of the turntable and those kind of things. I think everybody's really excited and waiting in anticipation of the final steps that are kind of moving into that. So that was really good. A little bit of a pivot for us. We received a letter from Bob McCone, the managing partner for Watertown Place LLC. They have decided not to sell the property now. So our whole thing was built around that. So that pretty much kills that part of the whole plan at this point. So the economic impact thing and all that is kind of just off to the side of it right now. So, disappointed for the town, because it was a fairly significant future thing, kind of thing. So, but from our standpoint, it's just kind of pivot to, you know, option P and C kind of things and other things. Some exciting things, one, Nashville Steam, I can't really give details yet, but they shared at the board meeting, they've taken some exciting steps on the steam engine, so next, they'll probably have some announcements coming. So they're making great progress, feeling really good. So that's really cool, they're excited about that. The board, our board was able to, a couple things that we had kind of in the wings, so we're bringing those to the forefront. Two things, Tennessee Central has really stepped up to kind of reinforce their commitment to Watertown and the whole train thing, what's going on. So two of the projects that were, and I'll just kind of touch on them briefly, some more information to come in the next couple weeks one is we are working with them they're kind of donating if you will a boxcar to us an old boxcar 1970s boxcar kind of thing and the timing was was really good as most of you know john is involved with the train one of the things that was Really important to him was model train railroad. He's got a big model railroad at his house. And so through all of this, and we had been talking about some things anyway, so the plan that we're developing now, we've spoken with John's sons, and the boxcar will become a model railroad museum. We've got a couple concepts for this with other places kind of thing. and that would be part of the rail yard. It would be placed in the rail yard, but it would be kind of a stationary boxcar turned into a model railroad museum. And it would be the John Jewell Memorial Model Railroad Train Museum kind of thing. So I spoke with John T. at length, and they're very excited about that. John has a lot of model railroad things that they want to get with us and donate tours and participate in that. I think the timing of that, again, was really a way to honor what he's done. And they even had some, I spoke with Mike Summers, and he had shown me some plans that they had done 20 years ago, some concept drawings kind of thing. always was sure to mention that and hope to see that. So that's really exciting for us to be able to do that. And like I said, his sons are really excited and appreciative of that. So that's one really cool thing. Another one is Tennessee Central has an old caboose. Again, they are going to send it our way, basically. And the plan is restoration of that caboose. It would be part of the rail yard exhibit. The plan is that, and they assure us, you know, we can do it. It's an old caboose that used to run down in Florida, but then became part of Tennessee Central Line. They had four or five of them. So it's something that has history with Watertown. It would have come through here, you know, multiple times a week, if not daily kind of a thing. There's four or five of them left in the country. It's from the 1920s. So we would restore that so it can be used part of as a mobile, museum if you will it can be here in the yard people can view it kind of thing but would also have and these are just some ideas at this point you know talk with national steam one of the things they want to do with their steam engine is to be able to make it travel to other cities so they can showcase it and do things and one of the ideas would be that our caboose the watertown river museum caboose representing watertown would travel with them so that would you know travel around the country you know kind of showcasing us So those two things are kind of, you know, at the beginning stages in the works or development, Central's really committed to that. So we'll get some more details as that comes along. But other than that, I think everybody's really kind of waiting anticipation of the next steps and feel like with the, you know, the Nashville steam news coming and, you know, once, as we talked about before, kind of shovels hit the ground here in the rail yard. Get some things, get them all rolling kind of thing. That's good.

You started off kind of slow, I guess, but you picked up steam very well. Those are two good ideas.

Yeah, we're excited about those, and they were kind of, you know, ideas in the wings kind of thing. a little pivot here for us, which is fine and the initial concept, you know, has some future legs, potential kind of things, so that's okay. We'll go from there. And, you know, the entire concept, underlying principles of what we're doing and developing the communication between organizations, again, Tennessee Central National State reiterated, I feel like that's really important and I know we've talked about that and you met, you know, Joey and Branton and beginning those conversations so they're they're feeling very comfortable that I'm meeting with Terry in the next couple of weeks and you know they're they're feeling really secure in Watertown what everybody's doing here so good all right thank you thank you for the report Chris anybody have any questions comments all right thank you sir and now we're down to Miss Laura as the civics planning committee oh lord she's got a notebook

During the truck robbery, we had talked about who pays for the police during that time. And as it's set in stone on the time frame, those were our two big things. And we had parking on the square during that time, but I think we got that worked out. So time frame, we've got some business owners that complained about once again closing down. And I know we had talked about it closing down, for that hour once the train comes in. But I don't think it was ever in making. We never approved it. So is that something that we can get approved for the two times that the train robbery happens? That it is shut down for one hour just while they do their...

I'll tell you what I would like to see happen because I have heard a little of the discussion and there's some dissension, for lack of a better term out there, and most of the time when you have good ideas, that happens. But I would like to see, so that we don't get put in the middle, I don't get put in the middle, Chief Hinterlight doesn't get put in the middle, that we get some type of list of what events are planned for the rest of this year. And we can act on it. And then everybody will know what they can do and what they can't do. think that'd be better for us and I was thinking about for next year from January 1 but really we got a lot of year left now and a lot of daylight hours a lot of good events planned so if we could get that for next meeting and we could act on that and then we're bound by that everybody's bound by it with the exception being as chief has noted these these music videos. I wish there was a better way to deal with them, but there may not be. But would that help them?

Yeah, because part of this is to say what's moving forward. And we did talk about the train robbery and all of that. And we said, oh yeah, we're going to keep on doing what we're doing, but I think you and I may have just talked about it and bring it in front of saying, I don't remember. It wasn't in the And it's like, I know we discussed it, that we can continue doing what we've always done.

And I don't want to get too legalistic here. I don't remember clearly a lot of things that we do a month later or two months later. But whatever's in the minutes is what we're bound by. A government speaks to its minutes. So if we could get that, what I was talking about, and approve it and attach it to the minutes, then everybody knows. Will that work, instead of doing it piecemeal?

Yes, that works well.

I don't think that it was such a big deal that they were closing down stuff. It was kind of a bigger deal that there was a whole lot of setup cars that were taking one-on-one parking spot and doing lots of other stuff. And people couldn't, no one else could park on the square. It was kind of just a mess of, they took the whole area. And then the shops have to, you know, they've got to move in and out of their buildings. they got to do their thing too so we need to do it i don't think it was so much the closure it was just them setting up they didn't they just kind of like just parked anywhere at any time and left it all there that was the problem and it's not yeah they need to understand if they set up they need to move over and park in the church parking lot whatever and come back afterwards right down and not yeah take up

five six spot zones so chris has taken that over and that's one thing that he had said that he was going to make sure he communicates that because i think that was communicating yeah no i don't think anyone minds that they're doing it it's a great thing it's just there was no parking was a dilemma so okay yeah um and then as far as the police he who's in charge of paying for the plates for the trade robbery, I think we got that taken care of too. Because it's a railroad issue, not issue, because it's a railroad event, the railroad's who's in charge of taking care of whatever's needed there. And that won't be discussed.

Yeah, well, you know, she made it clear that it wasn't really a chamber event. Right. Per se, it's not a historic event. So whoever's event, whoever claims it, been responsible for the pain in our mind. Now, if there's something that whenever this comes up and you're like, hey, whatever, you know, that's something that's a sin and you just have to put that in really a budget for itself, whatever we need to do, at the end of the day, we have to come here for any closure.

We need to get you out of the middle of it, of having to be a judge for lack of a better term and the more things that we can spell out like what you're talking about and i think steve mentioned you know if you're going to set up move your stuff off the square your vehicles and stuff and then come back i think it's going to respect across the business owners sure they were just struggling to get in and out and it was early and so yeah and that's one thing when we had the jazz festival everybody parked off the square and they brought the equipment in and loaded put it on the the stage and it was over with they took it back out but it never got on the square okay sounds like we've got two or three major things we need to deal with next month i'll try to remember to get them on the agenda if i don't y'all remind me what one one time just to be a little bit more flexible if we could maybe do it in the six months in july in june we approved six months last

Because things will come up and things will change. Things may get added. Where if we go over a full year out, well, it just might be easier to handle it on a six-month basis.

Good point.

Or we're approving things six months in advance. And then just to give a little flexibility. Yeah. Because I suspect as things get going and we get the turntable and the steam train, We're going to have more things come in. Planning a year out would be difficult. Just a thought.

You good? The only other thing that we had talked about the video shooting, we already discussed all of that. We talked about the brain, we discussed that. And then softball training. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, and then I asked about this because somebody may come up with two things. Somebody may come up with an idea that we like and that we want to do it, or we can put a catch all in there that this is what we're going to approve, but if you want anything else, you bring it to the council, the meeting before your event so that we modify it if we need to. so that we don't get, because people that are organizing these things three weeks before, they may think, oh, I forgot this, you know, this, I need to, so we don't want to be too tight on them, but we do want to, I don't want the chief wearing a robe over there, he can wear a gun, but I don't want him to have to wear a robe and be a judge. All right, well, let's move on with some items of old business then. Some of them we've already touched on. You have a budget report as of May 22nd, which is now four days old. I am pleased to review that and see that we are in the black revenues over expenditures on each fund. I will remind everybody that this is the time of year that revenues slow down a little bit, but the Now that I've said that, we've got, what, 35 days left. Don't everybody rush out and spend money just because I said we're in good shape because I want to end June 30 in good shape. We'll meet twice during the month of June. The Budget Committee and I will get together. We'll put a budget out, hopefully get it to you with enough notice that you will have a few days to look at it. And I recognize we're working on a very tight window here. So what that means is we're going to have to do some work next week. The current projects, we've obviously heard a good report on the rail. Sewer, Cody, they haven't done a whole lot this week, have they?

They told me June 30. I hope we make that. Why don't you ask them?

On Mother's Day, I think it was, there was a Facebook post that said

We have an emergency water spewing out, and it wasn't two minutes after that post was made. Cody, you put it on there. I'm on my way. He was there. He had it fixed. I mean, I'm not going to say he had to leave. I just want to shout out to him because I don't think he gets enough recognition.

He was involved in maybe a lot behind the scenes that nobody knows about.

Well, I responded to an email today and just to say we ask a lot of poor people in this community. We ask them to do street issues, water issues, sewer issues, catch-all issues. So we ask a lot of them, and I appreciate them too. We didn't have our turntable meeting last week, but it's set for June 18. Is that right?

Yeah, the next one's in June. The CRRSA folks canceled the meeting last week. As far as the grant goes, they're in the same place they have been for the last three months. They're going through trying to approve all the paperwork to actually give us the funding or the permission to go forward and approve the funding so we can start bidding the engineering and whatnot. But yes. Yep.

So I just saw that today, Steve. I went back and went through all my emails and saw that. So appreciate you bird-dogging that for us. The property we voted to purchase back here that we thought we owned all along, the title search has been done on it. The survey guy will be surveying the property, and then we'll try to get that closed. So it's moving along. I asked a guy that does title searches to do that, and he gave it to me last Thursday. I had a request. from Ross Colonna with the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation. I don't see him here to be on the agenda tonight, so I'll put him on the agenda. I did not remind him today of the meeting or anything, but I thought he was going to be here, but he's obviously not, so that won't take long. We have an audit contract for this year. fiscal year 25, 26. Our audit didn't get in on time this time, didn't hurt anything, didn't change the numbers, but I don't like that. I want this to be on time. So I asked our auditor, Mr. Poole, if he could get that in, if he could commit to me to have it in by December 31st, which is the deadline. And he said he would commit to me to have it done within 30 days after the books are closed and got to him. So then I went to Buddy Dacus' office, Jessica, and asked him if they could make that commitment. And she made that commitment that she would get that done early enough that he would have plenty of time. I sent that to him, and he said that was good with him. So having said all of that, I'm going to ask you to approve that audit contract with Mr. John Poole. In April, it's the same amount as last year. Is it down here? Was it what? $5,900. I was thinking it was more than that, but maybe it was. I don't know. I didn't look it up. But anyway, it's not an increase over the year before. So I have no problem recommending that now that I've got those commitments from Eastside. So if y'all will approve that, we'll sign it and get it in.

I'm open to approval. Thank you. I'll second.

Okay. Discussion?

i would just like to if they don't meet it this year i would like for us to think about using the one that we have here in town if we if they don't meet it i will commit to you we'll make that change or at least look at it look at it yeah you know and now that they've made it verbal with their view right that they will honor the deadline if they miss it again then

Okay. So noted. I think it's good. Any other comments, questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Let me, one of the reasons Mr. Colano was supposed to be here tonight is that they want us to do an additional study and uh i told you last time without getting on my soapbox too much again that i took issue with that i contacted bob adams who did the study for us bob was going to talk to mr colonna and tell him that he thinks he's relying on the wrong numbers that the numbers that that bob adams did for what he should be relying upon and that should be okay but according to their rules i've got a contract with somebody so bob adams has told me that he will do any work that's necessary if it's necessary at a cost of 300 per hour not to exceed five thousand dollars now we're both hopeful that that won't be necessary but i need to go ahead and get that approved and it seems to me He would be the logical guy to do it since he already had all the paperwork up to now, all the research. I'm recommending that to you.

Make a motion to approve.

Is there a second? Second. Y'all getting weak on me? Hopefully we don't have to do that, but if we do, we've got it. I really had hoped Mr. Colonial would be here tonight. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Given Blake Hawn all the time in the world, it changes mind and he won't do it, so I am prepared to recommend to you tonight that we move up Assistant Chief Joe Decker to be the full-time fire chief. for the Watertown Volunteer Fire Department. I think that is one that I recommend and y'all confirm, I think so, if you're so of a mind.

I make a motion to approve Mr. Decker's discussion.

Discussion? I think he can carry it right on.

It's an easy interview.

What did he say? It's an easy interview. he uh he's he's grown he's like blake he's grown up here uh maybe not either one of them grown up yet but they they're mature any further discussion on that all in favor say aye aye congratulations chief effective uh what 1201 june 1 you're hoping there'll be no fire Yeah, hold him to it. He said June 1st. Don't let him out. I have on here, well, I do have one appointment I'm prepared to make, and this is my appointment. I mentioned to you John Jewell. John was a member of our planning commission. In fact, he was chairman, and so we have a vacancy. Tony Lee and I were talking at a softball game over here at the high school not too long ago. And Tony said, you know, look around the table at our ages. He said, why don't we appoint somebody younger? I took offense to that. Actually, I didn't. I thought it was a great idea. And he suggested Brant Martin. Brant and his wife and son have bought a house up on Cornwall Avenue, up on what all of us old-timers Remember, it's Billy Goat Hill. And he's agreed to accept it. So I'm going to appoint Grant to that. We'll have a full roster now of five members of Planning Commission. And when we meet, we'll need to elect a new chairman. And I think I've got a man in mind that I'm probably going to nominate. So he's at this table. The other things that, John, the border zone appeals, the historical preservation, and the appointment to the railroad authority. Railroad authority doesn't begin until July, and so I'm going to hold off on those three. I hope to have you somebody next month. I have somebody in mind for the border zone appeals position that has agreed to serve. There may be a little technicality in talking to Chris lawless about how to deal with that. Nothing illegal, nothing do I say technicality. Just want to make sure that we are valid in what we do. But I plan on bringing those back to you in June. We've had our discussion, I think, of events on the square. I'm glad that we had participation from different folks. And then we had, I had two things on here that were added to the agenda, Downtown Improvement Program and Founders Day. Anybody here to speak on that?

Yes, sir.

Come on up.

I'm trying to make it quick. So with the Watertown, or the, not Watertown, the State of Tennessee Main Street Program, Moving forward back on that, that had gotten set up years ago and it lapsed. We're getting it reset. So I need a resolution signed by the mayor, approved by the board here for that resolution to be signed. All it is is an update of the previous resolution. So there's nothing new. It's just they had to have an updated resolution. So all that is is just the city saying that it's okay for the Main Street Program Board to act on the best behalf of the city as far as grants that will help the city, grants that will help the storage, grants that will help the chamber, grants that really just everything, the city as a whole. There's open stuff for everybody. you know, green space development, uh, there's stuff grants that will help with sidewalks. There are grants that will, um, there's a huge grant that could redo old city hall. If it's not, if it stays in the city and doesn't get sold, there's a $200,000 grant that can be applied that could go towards the city hall. That is actually something that the old group had had a little bit of talks with the main street program. um about doing some stuff i talked to the mayor a little bit and talked to mr casey a little bit about um doing some stuff in that old city hall and that's something that that grant is a hundred percent like they stuff like that they would absolutely go for for stuff that would benefit the community um rather than city hall just sitting there empty um so That's what I need for that. Do you have any other questions about it? Any other information you need about it?

I forgot I had the resolution here. I'm glad you explained it.

The reason why I had to have it thrown in real quick is because we have a deadline to meet to be able to get that signed and filed by the...

Oh, you did the right thing getting it on the agenda.

Yeah, there's other forms that I have to get filled out and all of that turned in by the end of this next month. So we wanted to get on this because it's the one thing that the city had to sign.

Is there a motion to approve this resolution? You should have a copy of it in front of you.

I'll make a motion.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right. That's unanimous and I am going to sign it and we'll get April to sign it tomorrow or sometime.

I'm super excited. I mean this really is going to open up. It's not just grants. It opens up doors for other, like Tennessee Tech. It opens up doors to go to Tennessee Tech and their college graduates gather all kinds of data. So this will be super helpful for the chamber. for tourism and development, grabbing. They have a system that will ping cell phones that will let them know how long you spent in this business when you were here. It is so much data that they gather sift through and give it in a easy, presentable, like these are the businesses that you should attract to your town, you know, and things like that that will be, I think, a huge asset to Watertown. Okay.

Got that one done. Founders Day Festival.

Yeah, there you go. So just for the Founders Day Festival, I ran this stuff through the Civics Committee. I talked to Chief Henry a lot about it. We're wanting to do, this is through Historic, do a Founders Day Festival. We're going to do a 5k run and walk to begin with. I've talked to Chief Interlight about getting officers and what that will cost historic. It'll close down the roads a little bit, but the good thing about people running is they're moving. So the run will start at 8 o'clock in the morning, just kind of over in front of the church area. We're going to line people up. And then as they run, the road will open up. If the race starts at 8 o'clock, say, you know, Depot and Main will be closed at 7.30, it won't take more than 10 minutes for those runners to clean, to clear Depot and Main. So, boom, that's open back up. And the runners will go down, down Waters, around the Waters House, back out, and then they'll cut and go back behind Main Street, go down Woodland to Cornwell, take a left on Cornwall, hit Main Street, and then go down to the elementary school, turn around, and come back. And that gives the 5K distance. And I've talked to Chief Underlight about trying to keep one lane open on Main Street for that long stretch so that we're not completely cut closing our roads. And then, like I said before, as the runners clear areas, the roads will open back up. And then also, I mean, it's just a 3.1 mile race. So an average runner coming to this, 30 minutes at best. Some of them are gonna finish super quick. They might be done in 15 minutes. Your really slow ones, it might be 45 minutes. But I think as a whole, even the folks that are walking down to the water south, turn around and coming back for the walk portion of it, those runners, I'm thinking an hour at most of really total closure. Did I miss the date? What date? I'm so sorry. No, you may have said it. I did not say it. It's September the 26th, which is the last Saturday of September. There's no other runs going on anywhere. It just fell at a good day that there's not anything else going on in Wilson County, Nashville, or anything like that as far as a run. To use that as a fundraiser to go towards historic and everything that historic does. Once the run is done, that'll be from 8 to to 10, and there's gonna be like a little breather switch over time from 10 to 11, and then the Founders Day Festival will start. That is gonna be a community festival. I've talked to Chief Hahn, which means that I'm gonna switch to talk to Chief Decker here, and I've got a backup that doesn't work, but I've talked to the fire about providing food. Historic's gonna pay for a fish fry. We're gonna open up to the first 400 people get a free ticket for a meal we're going to have some relay races sack races things like that going we'll have i've already talked with some bank and trust they're going to do a face painting booth i'm going to talk to a couple of the other businesses about maybe doing a bouncy house and a dunking booth so we'll have festival games for the kids and families food and then all of that though will be outside of the square i'm going to talk to Jimbo Jimbo Jimbo there we go so I haven't talked to Jimbo yet because it will either be in the green space right there that Jimbo owns right next to the sign shop or I'd really like to look at maybe having it just on the city property that's right there because it's a little more shaded back in there kind of around the pavilion area and in that space just because that keeps everybody from the congestion of the square, but there's a walking distance to the square, because part of it will be a scavenger hunt as well. I'm gonna get involved with business. I've talked to several of the business owners, but have a historical scavenger hunt, and they'll go to the different businesses to get clues on where to go. You know, you're looking for Midget's Boutique. You know, where was it in 1960? I can't think. It was somewhere in the 50s or 60s. And they'll have to go to the archive possibly and look up because we'll have some pre-done clues. And they'll go to those different businesses. So it'll get foot traffic from people in the community and the businesses. Hopefully some of the business owners will get to meet people that they don't know. That's my main goal of it. is bring the community together, get people meeting each other that don't know each other, and the community interacting.

So you bring us that in writing. Can you get us something so we can vote on it next time? Get that what we were talking about so we can have it exactly in the minutes?

I can. I was hoping to get it voted on tonight. What are you wanting me to bring? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, what we were just talking about. So whatever we approve, everybody knows this is what these are the rules we're playing by.

Okay.

Yeah, I think the willingness is here. Don't misread that. We just want to make sure.

My biggest thing is, well, my biggest thing to need approval for is the run because i've got a lot of running clubs and a lot of different so the firefighter i'm going to have firefighters come run so i'm going to go all the fire departments uh what about then if we make a motion to approve the run and submit to the details we provide at the next meeting so that's awesome i just need to make sure i can get to the running clubs because that's going to be the The hardest thing to coordinate is getting runners in.

And Mike, just to clarify with you, I think a bullet point outline of your activities for the day is all that we're going to need.

I'll give you a time schedule and everything. I've got it written down. And my bad, I've written it down. I left my notepad at the fire hall.

But I think if I can get a motion and a second, we're going to get you where you can call a running.

Where did you say it's going to end at?

there kind of in front of the church area first baptist church first baptist church area so you're thinking the square let me shut down for what you're saying like 20 minutes yeah 15 20 minutes tops so because as soon as those runners clear that all that will be back open up and you're talking about The next block on Main Street will not be until the runners get down to Cornwall and Main Street to go that way. So all that will stay open until the runners will come around. Then it'll have to be closed just long enough for them. And like I said, talking to Mike, we're going to try to figure out and make sure there's some way to have one lane kept open just as long as people are driving slow and I've got police presence out there. So, but as far as businesses... Yeah, I just want to make sure, because I think there's a...

Isn't there an event the weekend before or after, I think? After.

Yeah. The weekend after is the mile.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

So, yeah, so it will only be there on the square. You're talking the time for a shotgun to start, like, you know, race starts, and, say, 150 runners to go from right there in front of the church outside the square. So, yeah, 10, 15 minutes tops to get that amount of people... through the square. And then it likes to be a rolling open. And we'll make sure I get stuff to everybody that lives on Water Street and all of that. Early notice to them. And then also, because I'll have police officers, like if somebody needs to get out of their driveway, it's not like I'm going to be like, hey, you're trapped at your house. People will still be able to come and go from their homes.

So motion.

I'll make a motion that we potentially approve it and give you a written schedule next month.

Second.

I'll get it typed up and sent to you.

Hang on a second.

Oh, sorry. Might have the horse sold here. Any other questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Awesome. You're good. I'll get it typed up and get it to you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. A couple of informational items. Don't forget, I think June the 13th, isn't it, April, that the folks are coming through to use the gazebo for an hour or so on their bike ride. They stop here. We approved that a couple of meetings ago, but I just wanted to remind everybody, no shutting down the square or anything. They're just riding by and hydrating. And then I mentioned previously, but we'll need to have two meetings in June. One of them will be a special call meeting just to deal with the budget. The other will be our regular meeting. And our regular meeting will be June the 16th, which is the third Tuesday of the month. So that's pretty quick. Approved opening it up by appointment two or three. OK.

We need to drive it, Julian. They're constantly. It's back about 40 feet.