Council - Regular Meeting

Hi. This meeting of the West Milton Village Council is called to order on August 11, 2026, at 6.30 PM at the Village Hall. Will the clerk of courts, clerk of council, please do the roll call? It's my first time.

Mayor Satters? Mr. Todd?

Here.

Mr. Fogle? Here. Miss Gregory? Here. Miss Metz? Here. Miss Richardson? Dr. Francis? Here.

Okay, and Mr. Todd was absent on the meeting on 7-28. Do I have a motion to excuse Mr. Todd from the meeting on 7-28?

I'll make a motion to excuse Council Member Todd on July 28th. Second.

Mr. Todd?

Abstain.

Mr. Fogel? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Saunders?

Thank you. And can we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, And Mr. Todd's going to say the invocation tonight.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to gather here together. Please have your spirit of service forefront of our minds as we tackle these issues and make a plan for our community. Please bring peace and comfort to all those who need it and allow the needs that we cannot see on the surface to make themselves apparent. In your name, amen. Amen.

Thank you for that story. The next item is the consent agenda and the consent agenda includes items that require only a single motion to pass all of the items within the consent agenda. So tonight we have the minutes from the village council workshop for June 23rd, 2026 and the monthly reports, the administration, the finance, the police, the fire and the service reports.

consent agenda we also have the minutes from July 14th and I believe you met the workshop from July 28th yes I did I make a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll second Mr Todd yes Mr Vogel yes Miss Gregory yes Miss Metz yes Miss Richardson Dr Francis yes Mayor Saunders

Thank you. So the next item on the agenda for tonight is the Community Beautification Awards. And this is our little baby project that we've been working on. So I'm excited to announce the properties and the winners for the month of August. And I don't know, do we have, are you from 441? Yes. I'm so happy you're here. I do my best. I send out handwritten letters. So I want to present this to you. I will come down here for this one. I'm a little walker, and I walked past your house, and I just walked in seeing you guys working on your house over the last several years, and you have done such a wonderful job.

So here is your award.

Congratulations, and thank you for making our village better. And then the next one we have, and she was unable to be here, is 591 South Miami Street. But I did speak to this wonderful lady on the phone. And her garden is her therapy. And she works out there. And there's a koi pond that her grandkids hand feed the fish. And it's absolutely lovely. And she has done a wonderful job at the 591 South Miami Street. And we really appreciate this, and I will deliver the award. And I did speak to her, and we can put the sign in her yard. And then the last one, and I think they just walked in, is 975 South Main Street, which is the Accel Automotive. And there they are.

Perfect timing. Perfect timing.

Come on up front. Come on up front. So this is your community unification awards and we appreciate you and I know one thing is you guys do give back to our community and that means a lot and you have made your building in that area improved and we appreciate that. So thank you for participating and doing a great job and all that you do for our community. That's fun. Okay, so now we're gonna open the floor up to public comment. So please come up to the microphone, state your name and address for the record, and speak for, you have up to five minutes to speak. Does anyone have any public comments? Cool. I have a question.

I appreciate all of you for the Community Pride Awards, Beautification Awards. We appreciate what you're all doing. So it looks amazing. Thank you.

And if you do not want to stay for the entire meeting, we are cool with that.

You can exit right out the back. That's fine. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

We have no old business to discuss tonight, but we do have new business. So the first new business item we have tonight is CM-26-49. And Lenay, would you read that for us?

Thank you.

It's a resolution to certify delinquent water, sewer, and refuse accounts and costs associated with removal of grass, weeds, and litter, and repair, construction, or replacement of sidewalk curb and gutter to the Miami County Auditor for collection. Whereas Chapter 743.04 of the Ohio Vice Code and Sections 51.27, 52.134, and 53.31 of the West Mountain Code of Ordinances provides that water, sewer, and refuse charges that are not paid when due and payable shall be certified to the auditor of Miami County, who shall place the charges on the tax duplicate as a tax lien or assessment against the parcel or lot for collection as other taxes. And whereas chapter 93.45 of the West Mountain Code of Ordinances provides that cost incurred for the removal of weeds, litter, and grasses. shall be certified to the auditor of Miami County who shall place the charges on the tax duplicate as a tax lien or assessment against the parcel or lot for collection as other taxes. And whereas chapter 50.09 of the West Milton Code of Ordinances provides that costs incurred for the repair, construction, or reconstruction of any sidewalk curb gutter shall be certified to the auditor of Miami County who shall place the charges on the tax duplicate as a tax lien or assessment against the parcel or lot for collection as other taxes. And whereas the village has been notified by the Miami County Auditor's Office that this year's deadline for the filing of such items certified for collection is September 14th, 2026. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Village of West Milton, Ohio, that Section 1, the water, sewer, and refuse accounts, plus properties for which the Village has removed weeds, litter, grasses, and trees, and repaired, constructed, or reconstructed sidewalks, curbs, and gutters listed herewith as Appendix A, and incorporated herein by reference as if fully rewritten, shall be certified to the Miami County Auditor as tax liens in accordance with Sections 51.27 52.134, 53.31, 93.45, and 50.09 of the West Milton Code of Ordinances. Section 2, the total charges against each lot and parcel shall be payable to the director of finance of the Village of West Milton, Ohio by September 10, 2026. And if not paid, shall thereafter be certified to the Miami County auditor in the full amount shown, including a 5% service charge levied by the auditor's office for covering the expense of the collection. Replacement on the tax duplicate as a tax lien against said property and said charges shall be collected at the same time and manner as other taxes as provided by law. Section 3, this resolution shall take effect and be enforced from and after the earliest date allowed by law.

Thank you, Lene. And Kyle, can you please discuss?

Yeah, so CM 2649 is a resolution that really covers three main components. It's something that we do annually. Jill assesses these for different things that occur during the year. The main three items are the water, sewer, and refuse fees that are not paid. The grass cutting or where there's nuisance abatement that occurs on a property. And then the third one is a special one that happened in 2024 when we had a specific project on Hamilton Street. So this was a curb replacement program that we gave residents multiple years. to pay back the actual cost of that curb replacement. So this is the third and final year of that assessment. So again, it's those three major buckets. It's an annual thing. It goes through the county, and then the county authorizes those assessments, which are then placed upon people's property.

Thank you. Is there any discussion on CM-26-49?

I'd like to make a motion that we pass CM-26-49. Second.

Thank you. Mr. Todd? Yes. Mr. Fogel? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Dr. Francis?

Yes.

Thank you. And the next new business item we have tonight is CN-26-50.

It's a resolution authorizing the village manager to contract with Anthem for employee health insurance. Whereas the village of West Milton has consistently provided health insurance benefits to its full-time employees and desires to continue to provide such benefits. And whereas the current health insurance contract ends August 31st, 2026. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Village of West Milton, Ohio that Section 1, the Council authorizes the Village Manager to execute the proper contractual documents with Anthem for a policy term of one year from September 1st, 2026 through August 31st, 2027 at the various rates as provided by McGowan, Brabender, Dayton, Ohio. Section 2, the Council authorizes the Finance Director to make necessary deposits into the proper employee health savings accounts not to exceed 50% of the deductible of the plan they choose. Such deposits shall begin with the first pay in September 2026 and be made 26 pays equally through the village payroll. Section 3, the council further authorizes the finance director to withhold necessary employee premium contributions of $1 per day per pay of the plan they choose. Such withholding shall begin with the first pay in September 2026 and be made equally through the village payroll. Section 4, this resolution shall take effect immediately upon its passage.

Thank you. Kyle, can you please discuss CM 2650?

Yeah. So CM 2650 is the annual reauthorization of our health insurance here at the Village. We shop every year. So McGowan Braebender is our vendor. They shop the market to try to see if we are able to get the best rates for our employees. Unfortunately, as I'm sure many businesses have managed this year, The rates were higher. So our initial was a bit higher. It was negotiated down to 9.1% increase. So that 9.1% increase for the entire organization is not ideal. But for the last couple of years, we've had very, very low increases. It comes with the territory. There's not all that much that we can do to change the 9%. But we actually budgeted, Jill budgeted conservatively for a 10% increase this year. So the budget actually reflects a 10%. So this will be a savings to us based on that. We have a weird scenario here where our year is over two budget cycles. So Jill has to actually budget for part of this in 26 and part of it in 27, which is a very strange thing to have to do when you don't know what is a fairly substantial cost to our village. We did try to work with McGough and Braebender to understand if there's a way that we could modify this to move it to a january to december which is consistent with our budget cycle but there are a number of challenges to that some of which would put our organization at risk to get a higher renewal so as of now i don't know that there is a pathway that we have to get us to that january to december but we are going to re-look in january of this year with mcgowan brain bender to try to understand if there is a way for us to move that direction. We may have to actually make two steps, kind of a dance weird thing, to get us there. But we're going to look at it and see, that would actually make budgeting easier. We would be able to actually know the full number that we're budgeting for for the next year. So if you can imagine, if this was actually a January to December, we'd be giving you a number, and we would know exactly what that is for all of 27. So that is an easier way for us to know our costs. Otherwise, we have to do what Jill did last year, which is estimate high in hopes of making sure that we're under that number. That works, but we would prefer that we're showing or reflecting the actual number that we have to expend. This is a standard thing that we do every year. Although we don't love the 9%, it is less than the budgeted amount. We do have that money budgeted for this year. So if there's any additional questions, the plans are the same as they were previously. They just cost a little bit more.

Thank you, Kyle.

So no significant changes at all with anything with coverages, no decreases, nothing that's going to affect employees?

The employees are going to be the same. The HSA contribution recommendations are the same that they've been in the previous years. We're not recommending any changes beyond, unfortunately, that 9.1% increase.

Good. I'll make a motion to approve CM 26-50 as written in red.

Second. Mr. Todd? Yes. Mr. Fovill? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes.

Dr. Francis?

Yes.

Thank you. The next new business item we have tonight is CM-26-51.

It's a resolution to adopt Village Council procedural rules and rules of conduct for Village Council meetings. Whereas in accordance with Section 4.12 of the Village Charter, Village Council shall determine its own rules and order of business. And whereas Village Council deems it advisable to adopt the proposed procedural rules and rules of conduct for Village Council meetings as its permanent rules. Now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the Village of West Milton, Ohio that Section 1, the Village hereby adopts the procedural rules and rules of conduct for Village Council meetings attached as Exhibit A as its permanent rules. Section 2, this resolution shall take effect and be in full force upon passage. Thank you.

Kyle, can you please discuss this?

Yes. So CM 2651 is the adoption of formal rules. We already have rules, as you're well aware. If you look in our room, we actually post rules. This is actually just making them a little bit clearer. So the first portion actually explicitly defines how we run our business agenda. Again, the goal of this is to be consistent and make sure that we're transparent with what our meeting should look like. So as you go through each of these items, you'll see it's really the process we're going through today and we go through every meeting. So that is the business agenda portion. I will note in here two things just because I think it's important. We obligate Lene to read the ordinance every single time by the entire thing. That is not actually necessary. If you wish, you would have a right as you have in our charter and in our code of ordinances to waive her reading that. It's obviously up to you how you would like to do that. when you couldn't see the actual language so we now post it online you know WMPA Tom does a great job showing it on our our stream we actually have the document available for people to read in quite a number of places so that is something that can be considered it's in here where you would make a motion to waive the formal reading of a resolution. And so the only reason you would really do that, the only time I would suggest that we consider it is when the resolution is 47 pages long. And although we love listening to Lene, I think at some level, you know, we get lost at the 17th, whereas anyways, everyone's kind of asleep or, you know, kind of nods off a little bit. um you would consider it that scenario i don't know for some of these short ones uh if you want to keep you know moving in that direction we well i can read whatever you'd like or two that's part of the process but it gives you that ability to wave it when you would like That ability already existed. I just want to be clear. That is not being created here. We're just making it clear as part of our process that if and when we determine that's something we want to do, it's clear that we have the right to do that. We already have that right if you go in our charter and our ordinances, but... We just make that clear. The second piece is the rules of conduct, and this is just part of doing business. As we are blessed as a community to have active residents who come to our meetings, thank you all, some of it is just making sure that we are clear in the expectations for the discourse that we have. In this world, unfortunately, there are scenarios where people are not kind to each other, and so this, again, we want to make sure that everybody understands the rules of the road when it comes to being able to speak at our meeting, conducting themselves, and that also goes back on the elected body and the staff. So this is just generally the process for the rules of conduct and expectations for when people speak at a meeting. That's about it. So those two items would be adopted. I would recommend that if you adopt this this evening that we re-look at this every January and readopt it. We make modifications. If there's things that the public says this doesn't make sense or something that council feels is not working, we would readopt it every year, and we would make sure that everybody knows what our rules are for the coming year.

I'll make a motion to approve CM 26-51. Second.

Mr. Todd? Yes. Mr. Fogel? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Dr. Francis?

Yes.

Thank you. The next new business item we have is CM-26-52.

It's a resolution to adopt a cybersecurity program pursuant to RC 9.64. Whereas in accordance with Ohio revised code section 9.64 enacted through House Bill 96, the village is required to adopt a cyber security program that safeguards public data, information technology, and information technology resources to ensure confidentiality, availability, and integrity. And whereas the law mandates use of generally accepted cybersecurity best practices, including frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, known as NIST, cybersecurity framework, and the Center for Internet Security Best Practices. And whereas village council, having reviewed the recommendations of the village manager and contracted information technology support, wishes to adopt the NIST cybersecurity framework as its foundational cybersecurity controls framework. And now, therefore, be it resolved by the council of the Village of West Milton, Ohio, that section one, that the Village hereby adopts a cyber security program consistent with the requirements of Ohio Revised Code section 9.64C and aligned with generally accepted best practices such as the NIST cyber security framework. Section 2, that the cybersecurity program shall implement the NIST cybersecurity framework to identify and mitigate risks, assess potential impacts, detect and respond to threats, restore affected systems, and maintain ongoing protection of village assets and data. The program shall include annual cybersecurity training for all employees aligned with state and federal best practices and ensure third party providers meet applicable Security standards to achieve practical measurable and cost effective improvements in defending against cyber threats such as ransomware and phishing. Section three that the village manager and consultant information technology support as defined in the cyber security program in coordination with the finance director and law director shall oversee the implementation documentation and annual review of the cyber security program to ensure continued alignment with state requirements and best practices. Section 4, that all records and documents related to the village's cybersecurity program are exempt from public records disclosure consistent with Ohio Revised Code Section 9.64E. Section 5, this resolution shall take effect and be in full force upon passage.

Thank you, Lene. Kyle, can you please discuss this?

Yeah. So this one, CM 2652, this is a continuation of the discussion that we had at the workshop. The village, very similar to all municipalities in the state of Ohio, are obligated under HB 96 in the state of Ohio to have a cybersecurity plan. So this is the first step in our effort to define that. So this is defining the framework we're using. And then we will go out and we will hire a consultant to build that plan. If you will recall from a year ago, I was not here, but we built a budget. There is a budget today that exists for us to hire that and to create that plan. And then again, it's in here, but I think we want to be clear. Cybersecurity is something that is unfortunately extremely extremely important for government agencies now. You will see in the news just the other day, there was a very large city in California that just had a lot of issues with a cybersecurity incident. It's happening more and more around the country. And so the state of Ohio obligates all of its local jurisdictions to create these plans to make sure that we are acting in the best interest of the community and protecting our resources in a way that is reasonable. Unfortunately, what that means from here forward beyond coming back to you to enter into a contract, the rest of that is not public for very clear reasons. The plan itself will never be made public. It is something that is internal to our team. and will be reviewed again by our finance director, our law director, and myself every year to make sure that we are complying with the state. But that document has certain private information in it that we cannot make public. So I say that just to be as transparent about the concept, but when we get to the actual details, the state created a cutout for this particular document in the Ohio Advice Code and make sure that it is clear it is a private document for security purposes.

Thank you for that. Does anybody have any questions or discussion?

Nope. Pretty straightforward.

I really appreciate you getting this done, because I know this was...

This is... It's not done yet, but we are now on the pathway to... We're on a path.

We haven't been on a path. So I appreciate you getting us on the path, because this is really important.

Absolutely.

I'll make a motion to approve Resolution CM26-52. Second.

Yes. Mr. Fogel? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Meff? Yes. Dr. Francis?

Yes.

Thank you. And now, Kyle, can you give us your village manager report? I'm excited to hear this one.

Absolutely. Another great two weeks, month, whatever, in the village. So I, if you do not recall, the village manager report is on the regular meetings We go into a lot of detail and a lot of stuff in our workshops, so if you are watching tonight on YouTube, feel free to watch the workshop. We go into a lot more detail on that. But I'll give you some quick updates on a number of items that I know people are interested in. The State Route 571 pedestrian improvement project, which is the bikeway pedestrian wall that's going in on 571 is still on schedule. We are anticipating a late September, early October timeline. I say that today before the rains, the torrential downpours. So we can cross our fingers that that's not going to slow us down. But this week, it looks a little bit rough. So we'll see. We've been pretty lucky to have some great weather pretty much all summer for construction season. Maybe not as good on the tomatoes. But that project is on schedule. So we should be good on budget. We'll keep you updated. The Village Service Center renovation project, as everyone is aware, the Village is modifying our service center. We're taking a bathroom that is Unusable is usable, but kind of unusable, and making it usable, and then kind of moving it so they can have a better morning meeting room. So those two components are being modified in that existing building. That project has foundation footer in, and I believe the rest of the project is moving forward now. We're on schedule. Wastewater treatment plant, I just want to note, we are still working through the financing options for that. We are also working through the potential scope of work of the project. So the size of it, the type of all those things are all being engineered right now. And so when we have final kind of pathway forward, we'll bring that back and make sure we talk through the impacts of any decision that is made. And then Stillwater Crossings, I did want to note, I did at the last meeting, at the last workshop, I noted I was going to have a meeting. And I did meet with the developer, both Ron and Jason. And I also met with the financial institutions that are associated with the development. I met with individual property owners within Stillwater Crossings. I met with the Stillwater Crossings HOA president. I've met with quite a lot of people to try to understand as much as I can about Stillwater Crossings. And if anybody else wants to meet about it, I'm more than happy to have that conversation, so please come meet with me. At that meeting with the developer, though, I just want to note that they did acknowledge that they need to do a better job of cutting the grass. And as they move forward, they will be mowing it more consistently, and we will be making sure that we follow up on that. The developer noted that the sidewalks that are going to go in on the development, they are targeting October for those to go in. They noted that by November is what they are shooting for for road pavement. I will say that I know Ben and people on our team have been meeting with the contractor the pavement contractor that they are proposing and we are making sure that we are before we are able to accept those roads there's some deficiencies that need to be completed so we've got our list we're taking photos we've got everything that we need to make sure that those deficiencies are corrected before that pavement occurs so Majority of the year, pavement can't go past November. That's when the plants kind of close down until next April. So basically, they've given themselves until the end of the plant this season to get that up. We would hope that that would be sooner. So we'll continue to work through that. But making sure that all the deficiencies are corrected before it just gets paved. So you're aware, as part of the zoning process, Stillwater Crossings North and South both should have a preliminary development plan adopted. They are going to be coming back. The developer will be coming back to the planning board in September. to get the preliminary development plan for the south side and the north side modified to reflect what has been constructed. That did not occur, so we're making sure that we're crossing our T's and dotting our I's. And then in the future, and I think it's important for anyone that has an interest in it, the developer will have to come back before the planning board and before the village council and get final development plan authorization for each component that is constructed so what that means is there will be a public notice and the public will have a right to come out and say whatever you believe positive or negative about any component that is getting approved so i just want to make sure that everybody understands that that's not to change rules to do anything else it is to make sure that the process is being followed And so we believe that the September meeting for the South and the North will be a very nice one. To be completely honest with you, if you are bored in September, come to that meeting. We're going to have that. We're going to be talking about the comp plan. We're going to have just a rousing time. So if you want to be part of kind of all the great things going on in the village, come to that meeting and learn with us all the different things that we're doing. So Finally with that, I want to make sure you know the developer has been asked and will be here at our workshop on the 25th. So in terms of individual conversations that they have had with tenants, I'm not going to speak for them. I will stand up here and I will tell you everything that I have to share with you but i'm not going to speak for the developer in terms of who they believe they can bring in or otherwise i know and as i think it is public they have asked to have a gas station so we are working through that publicly but again as i noted that process will require a final development plan to come back before the planning board and the the village council for approval and that has not happened yet and until that does That is as far as that request has gone. They are unable to do that until they get a preliminary plan change to reflect the fact that the gas station is now next to Rachel Ann instead of Ittings. So we're going through a process. We're going to get there. We've had a number of conversations. I appreciate their candor and their willingness to work with us to make sure that we're meeting all the expectations that I know many people in the community have, because I've heard them and I appreciate them. And so we'll work through that as publicly as we can. And then last but not least, I'm not going to go through every project that we have. So we'll talk about all the other projects at some other time. But I did want to talk about the village things that we've been doing really quickly. If you haven't noticed, we're updating our website. So we're putting a lot more information on our website now. We're going to be building it out. So you'll probably see things that say 2B. like future coming, that kind of stuff. So bear with us. But the goal of it is to get everything out there. So we're going to have a projects page. In that projects page, we're going to have each of the projects that have financing, that have timelines. And we're going to put everything out there so people can see it. And if you have questions about it or we're not putting something that you want to know about, ask us. And then we'll make sure that we do that. The goal is I don't know that I necessarily want our staff having to answer questions when people call in. I'd much rather just put it online and have people be able to see it if they want to see it. We don't have anything that we don't want to share. We just want to make sure we're sharing in an appropriate way. We're also posting weekly now, pretty consistently on our social media, our events that are going on in the village. So if anybody has events, I know Megan would greatly appreciate it if you would share them with her so she can add more because she likes updating the graphic and making sure that it looks good. She does a wonderful job. Speaking of social media this week, I think it's important for me to note when we have a conversation in our community. This week, we had some issues with grass being cut into the street. We put out a reminder about how that is not legal in the village, and it created a discussion. okay i think that's the nicest way to put it uh and again i think what i want to be clear on at least in our goal our goal is to make sure that people understand our rules and regulations and when we get the response of that we're not enforcing it i want to be clear the reason we put it out is because we actually had just enforced it to a number of people and those people came in and were unhappy that they were being told that this was something that was being enforced We are going to be as transparent as we can with this process. But understand, we cannot enforce it with everyone. We do not have the staff to do that. We are reactive to situations. We would love to be proactive. Absolutely, we would love to be perfect in our enforcement. We do not have the staff as of today to make that happen. But what I will tell you is I would appreciate if anybody sees that and says, well, hey, my neighbor doesn't do this, reach out to us. We're not gonna respond to it on social media, we're gonna respond to it in real life. So call us, stop in our office and talk to us about it and we will make sure that we are enforcing it as consistently as we can. I cannot promise that we will be perfect because we will not. We are not perfect, but we will do our best to try to enforce it as evenly as we can. I know that day we sent out seven, I believe, letters or seven yellow slips. on that exact topic. So we were trying to enforce it. We were trying to ask the community to help us. In the end, these rules are not to make anyone not feel comfortable. We're trying to protect people. So in this case, we're trying to protect motorcyclists and bicyclists and the people who are impacted by that. And then we're also trying to save the community money by not having our guys have to go out and clean all of those catch basins every time that it rains, right? So It's twofold. Again, understood that people have concerns about it. I just want to be clear. Our goal when we give this information out is to make sure that everybody knows it. If you have questions about it, reach out to us. We hope that you can be part of a solution with us. We want to make sure that the community is safe and better. Last but not least, I wanted to note we've gone through the strategic plan, which will come back for the workshop. So I've heard from a couple people. If anybody else in the public wants to add anything, any council wants to add anything to that, please get with me. I will make sure that it's updated. It is in its final form, which is super exciting. So we should be able to, at this meeting next month, we should be able to adopt the strategic plan. Super proud, super excited. That's wonderful. Comp plan zoning code both went to the planning board for review. We went through about 90 pages of the comp plan, which was a two-hour meeting. But I really, really appreciate our planning board for putting in the work. We're going to get there. And it's really exciting for both of those documents to be approved as well. Last but not least, I think I've said that three times now, but the good news part of the section where I finish with good news. Fireman's Waffles, if you haven't been, get yourself some Fireman's Waffles. Somebody told me the other day the best thing to do, and if you haven't done this, I think you need to, get a Fireman's Waffle, go down to Tate's, get yourself some ice cream, and Fireman's Waffle ice cream it up. Right? Like, how is that not... Combo, boom. Great idea, guys. Everyone do that. Or Sugar Land Social. Both of them are wonderful, but just, yeah, combo. Police Citizens Academy is beginning soon. I don't know how many we have, Chief. Do we have? We've got six already. Six. That's awesome. If you haven't done it, do it. I may be joining that club, too, so you get to hang out with me for one night a week. You should do it. I was trying not to say that because then people may not do it. I was hoping they would, but maybe they won't. I don't know. It's really cool. Citizens Academies are a wonderful way to learn about our government better. There's lots of reasons that we do things that people don't understand until you're part of it. So if you have the time, it's a really, really great thing that our police department does. Community survey is out there. I've got the QR codes over here. Thank you, Vanna. See, how could we do this without you? And look at that. Oh, Tom, good work. And we have a little QR code on the YouTube as well. We want your responses. I know we heard from a lot of people who don't believe that we're going to implement those responses. We're at 200 and something right now. The ideas that you have will be incorporated. The point of the code is to incorporate your thoughts and goals. So please, please, please be honest. It's anonymous. If you say something that is bad because you don't like what we do, it's anonymous. It's fine. We want to hear how we can serve you better. That's the point of it. So yes, it will be incorporated. And then last but not least, Rock the Hills this weekend. The weather is going to be better. It looks like it's not going to rain. So the slip and slide down the hill will not happen anymore. But we still have music. We have great event. Please come out to the hill. What time does it start? Five. Five o'clock.

Woo!

That's all I got.

I love your energy. Do we have any comments from the village council members that would?

I have two.

Scott Fogle.

Wouldn't be right if I didn't have a couple.

I agree.

I have got a couple questions from people in the village asking the status of the old opera house. I haven't heard anything about that for a long, long time. So Chief or Kyle, don't know if there's any updates with that building.

Do you want me to get this one? OK. So as I noted, code enforcement, Chief and I have been talking about different things. I've not got my head fully around our efforts in code enforcement. Buzz Theater is obviously one that is on the list, that has been on the list for a while. We're going to be working on a number of properties that are changing hands or that are potentially going to change hands. um probably sooner than later but some of this goes back to our zoning code update so um we're going to continue to use our code the way that we have but the zoning code update is going to help us be a little stronger in some of our efforts the property is currently condemned so in terms of the actual ability for someone to use that property we've pretty much done all of the legal steps that we can at that level there's a couple levels we can go beyond that and we're just not there yet but Unfortunately, I don't have anything further unless you have something you want to add.

We monitor it. We have it monitored. No one's living there.

No one is living there. Okay.

Good.

Yep. The other question is for Ben.

Paving J Street, when is that going to start? We will know hopefully within the next week or so. I'm just waiting on the contractors to get an official date.

Okay. And that's going to be all the way from J Road to the end of J Street, correct?

From Edgar to Wright.

Oh, Edgar to Wright. Yes. Okay. And we are still in the plan? Because I think we were... Approving moving forward with that, you're going to do some type of light millage of 48 from?

We're still, that was when they come down to do the final walkthrough, I want them to look at it. And some of them have, even since the last two or three months, some of them have actually went to a dip versus a bump. So that matters when you mill because you don't want to create water holes and things like that. So when we do our walkthrough with the contractor and Steve, we'll take a look at it and see what they think they can do or not do. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

I have one for you real quick, Kyle. Talk to the developers. It's the water crossing. I really appreciate that.

Have you had any discussions with either StoryPoint and their plans moving forward or Premier Health with their logs?

Yes.

Okay. So, again, I think what you're going to find generally – i am as i hope everybody understands i'm as transparent as i can be right i think sometimes there's conversations that i i can't tell you what they feel because i don't want to speak for them i have now talked to story point story point it purchased randall house story point is now being purchased by another entity even though it's going to stay story point financially there's a different entity that's going to have that so there are some moving parts there they are looking at completing their portion of the what we call the quads, the assisted independent living kind of quad areas. They're looking at some opportunities there. And I met with Premier last week and had a very, very positive conversation about quite a number of interests in the community and how they're interacting with us. And I think there's some great things that possibly could come out of that. I'm excited. But I don't have anything I can share, at least at this time. Is that fair?

A citizen who just brought it to me.

So I wanted to share tonight. When we started the trash program, we talked about maybe adding recycling back. And so there's just been a couple of people that have said, I really wish we had curbside recycling. So I just said I would bring it up. I know it was something like we weren't going to start with it and we have the dumpsters. But as the program progressed and we got better with things, maybe we would rethink it. So just putting it out there and maybe

yeah i guess my position on that is other than i don't fully understand the finances of our programs yet so i don't want to say that that's not something that we wouldn't ever consider i can tell you when i did a trash program and a recycling program in covington one of the challenges that you have with that is machinery right, is making sure that we have the equipment to be able to manage that program. And so I don't know the answer to that. Maybe Ben can answer that. But at least when I walked through, I don't know that we have the trucks to be able to do recycling. And so that would be the limiting factor that we have right now is putting together a financial model that would allow us to purchase equipment to be able to manage an additional program. Beyond that, the larger conversation that I'm contemplating in my head whenever we think about programming is the long-term maintenance and then where those things go. If we're going to buy a vehicle from here forward, I believe very strongly that we should have a place to put that vehicle, and that vehicle should not be outside. And so right now we're jumping around trying to figure out how to keep our trash trucks under roof. When we make a huge investment in a piece of equipment, we need to make sure that we're protecting it so it has the longest life that it can so we don't have to reinvest. And so that would be my biggest question is, can we afford to purchase a vehicle? Do we have a place to put it? How can we manage that? And I think we need to build that out before we end up saying we want to take on another service that we provide to people. Even though it is probably something that we certainly are trying to work towards or we could work towards, I don't know enough to be able to tell you that we have a timeline. Is that fair? I mean, do you have anything to throw in there, Ben?

It's kind of like if you take our current service, we're just basically doubling it so that obviously one driver that picks up Most are all week. Mine is Monday, which is maintenance day. You would really need a second, you know, follow up plus the equipment. So I'm sure that it is something that may be visited in the future. It's just like Kyle said, we have a truck and then we have an old, old truck and we're waiting for our new truck. And trash trucks are the hardest working vehicles. I can't think of a vehicle that works harder than a trash truck. And there's just always something wrong with them. So these are all things that we would have to take into account.

Okay. Well, thanks. I was like, I will put it into the universe of things, but yeah.

Absolutely.

And well, okay. And then I'll just follow up that the dumpsters are always full. And so that was like the second kind of complaint. Like anytime I take my recycling, I just, not me, but the, the, um,

well and sometimes when i take it yes it is full but um just saying that they have a hard time i guess that they feel they're often full what what is our schedule to empty the recycling so they're not really on a daily schedule it's i mean you'll get some weeks where they fill up So we've been trying to leave one up there during low peak time because if we don't then we've got two and this one gets used some and this one gets used some and then we end up having two that are two-thirds full to take over and dump. We've been trying to get by with one and most of the time it works but then you you just hit a period where you've got like all of a sudden you've got 100 people taking it almost at the same time so um it's a fourth of july weekend people recycle a lot of stuff on fourth of july weekend yeah i mean we've approached now where um our um cardboard recycling has overtaken other recycling by you know at least a ton a month so I mean you're counting glass and metal and everything our cardboard is actually tonnage wise is now taking over that spot so it's the cardboard we smash it and smash it and smash it until it's full full but recycling is hard because if you do lead to it creates other problems so um but they do a good job of keeping an eye on them but we'll i'll pass that on to the crew just so they know what's going on and having a full bin is a good thing that means our community is actively trying to recycle that's great yeah in the recycling bin what's that the recycling center

For us, or recycling. Just if you didn't know, because I think we haven't really talked about where it is for a while, like the recycling centers by the green elevators and by the service center on 571. If I knew road names, I would have been like, it's that road. J and 571.

It's Hayes Street and J, and you can get to it either coming off Hayes Street or you can come off of North Street and come through the alley right there. So... Thank you.

The last thing, we have a need for an executive session under section 4.12 to consider the purchase of property for public purposes. And there will be no formal action after the executive session. Can I have a motion to go into executive session at 7.20 PM?

So moved.

Second. that was in the beginning no no no it's no it said we open the floor to public comment in the beginning yes yes yes yes