City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. It is October 22nd, 2025 at 6 p.m. and I'm here by calling the regular council meeting of the Wood Creek City Council to order. Um, I'd like to ask everyone to stand for a moment of silence. Standing Thank you. 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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you.

City Secretary Call, please. Council member Russell Scott here. Council member Len here. Council member Crystal Richardson here. Council member De. Chris here. And Mayor Jeff here. And thank you ma'am. Um I see none. Would you like to have something like to say something? Yeah. It's good to see you in your natural environment. I feel like I'm on a safari here.

We'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh number one is to approve the regular city council meeting minute from October 8th, 2025. Well, actually the consent agenda is 2025 October 8th, the board of adjustments from October 8th, and the approval of the water request to change the triangle plan selections is here. I move that we approve the consent agenda items one through three.

Second all favor, please signify by raise your hand. Say I. Thank you. I don't know what to do. That was so quick. Um all right. So first item of business and uh yes I is on the line. We um will go into executive session at 602 under Texas government code 551.071 consultation of legal council related to legal option pertaining to the pending aqua water rate change request application submitted to the cities including public utility commission docket number 58124 application of aqua for the authority to change rates and any matters related to saying Jeff is on here. We need to um

video record. Yeah. Uh we're gonna be coming out and we'll pick a session at 6:23. Bye, Lori. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Lauren. Let me go.

Oh yeah, this is fine because it won't be publicly posted. Yeah, it still be a public anyway. Just a working unlock. I don't think it did get locked. Did it? Yeah.

Thinks All right, we're ready to move on to second item on the agenda. Discussion and possible action based on the executive set in regarding consultation with attorneys pursuance Texas Government Code section 551.071 071 including but not limited to considering action to approve resolution 2025-10-22-1 setting a public hearing on the application to change rates from Aqua Texas Inc. and to determine the propriety of saying

I move that we approve the resol resolution related to the Aqua rate case setting a formal public hearing date to be determined and that we invite Aqua to attend the hearing. Yes.

Do we need an amendment to say we're also going to send this information to Aqua? No. Okay. can be administrative. Also, you said a date to be determined. The date has been determined. It is it on there? Yes, it's December 7. I mean, it's November 17th. There it is. Sorry. November 17th. Amen. Ed amendment to date to be of November 17th, 2025 at 6 p.m. to be held at the BFW post number 6441.

A second. All right. So, the amendment for the date in place November 17th. All in favor, please say I. I. I.

All right. Um, the amendment to invite Aqua to attend. Was that an amendment? That was that was okay. You amended. Okay. You amended motion. Okay. So the the motion is to approve resolution 2025102201 setting the public hearing um on November 17th at the BFW post 6441 um on the application to change from aqua Texas and to invite to attend. All in favor please say I. Thank you.

All right. and also period we'll get the get that letter and the resolution out by certifi and I'll follow up with um item number three discussion and possible action directing staff to hire a land survey company to determine the exact rideway boundaries along Brick Hollow Drive for a cost not to exceed $20,000 be refunded from capital reserve funds Hi. Um, I move we direct staff to hire land survey company to determine the exact run of way boundaries along the hall drive for costs not to exceed $20,000 be funded from capital reserve funds would be Good. We'll allow at least the motion to be heard and the detail.

I'll second.

Thank you. Um this item has come to our attention because um really Turk did not know any areas along Bo where the proposed walkway would require the property owners to relinquish land because of the rideway lines lines. However, physical observation and measurement suggests areas for the road appears to come right up to the right way line. An updated survey would dispel any questions. Grant funds uh being signed do not include adverse possession expenses. The Freedom Turk uh report clearly states that the accuracy of the reporting depends on accurate runway lines. Uh the maps used in this report were um dated August 17th, 2017. Um and in their report they specifically said survey information would provide the location of existing line of waste as it relates to existing pavement. This information information is critical then I guess read the rest of it. Um we we like people concerned about what happens long follow. And so we've been uh sending out survey sheets so people can can take a look at their property and compare it to their existing deeds and whatever documentation they have. One of the

areas where we have a concern is right here. Uh this is where Augusta comes in and just I guess south and east of that this is where the walkway is proposed to cross. Well, that section there shows that there are pretty familiar with this. A walkway would come through here to avoid the mailboxes. Um, it would come between the utility boxes and the mailboxes. You would have to weave in the trees. Then this is going on further down. Here's a cluster of utilities. It they said it could meander, but even if it meandered through here, uh, these are where the roots come through. These large trees could be damaged. And so what is curious is if we went to the other side the other side of the street instead the the houses on on this side of the street have very narrow front yards on the opposite side that's not the case. So if instead instead of crossing, so the walkway is going to come through here. If it just came on down uh along this side of the street, it would be far less devastating to some of these homes. But why did the city why did the engineers decide to um cross the street right there?

So I believe if you orient yourself, this is where Augusta comes in. And right here, the rideway line takes a deep dive and comes right up to the road. So So there's a lot on this side. So, if that's the reason for choosing the sign with all the trees and a lot of utilities, maybe maybe this isn't correct. And if we had a good survey, we could see, you know, if this would be a better route to put it on this the side of the street where they have big big wide foot yards or if it's simply a matter of buying out one property, we could just buy out one property instead of having potential problems for a whole list of properties. So that's one good reason to um to look at this and also for the peace of mind of the people who feel their concern really show that the city is paying attention. Um so that's all I have to present on this. Thank you so much. I'm not I doubt that this will pass, but thank you for letting me share the information of some of the concerned citizens.

Thank you. Um, so in the packet the the survey for Brook Hollow has already been done and so I I personally don't spend support spending another $20,000 to do the same survey when the road and the land hasn't moved anywhere. Um, now the route is a completely different thing. and that hasn't been confirmed or set or any of it. Um, this was just their the city engineers proposed council haven't decided it. Um, but if it's the C like and I think that you brought up some interesting questions and I think those would be questions you would ask the city of why did you choose that and maybe we should have them come back and discuss why they chose those those routes. But I don't think I think that's way down the road. So far, all we've done is we're going to go see if there's money because it may it may completely blow this situation out of the water if there's no money. We might just go, "Yep, can't do it. Sorry." Um, so I don't again, I'll go back to the main point for me, which is this that exact survey that you're asking for is already done and in the packet. Nothing's changed since it was done since 2017. Yes, ma'am.

Um, my thoughts are that I think we're part for the horse a little bit. Um, you know, last meeting we discussed that that motion was to just seek out grants and I said my position was unless this can be significantly funded by grants and without significant approval, I wouldn't consider moving forward with the project. So, at that point, I'm not too interested in spending more money until we've explored these other options. like this is something that could be brought up further down the line like Mr. Gmerard said. Um I'm also interested in how we got to the number of $20,000. Um like did you reach out to Tenny survey companies because I mean I know for a personal home which is just of simpler survey back in January from $500 to$1,000 for a lot. And then I mean how many houses do we have on we're probably 80.

So I think that number could get really high really quick. Um, so I'd be concerned about that unless you've already like reached out, found out what a a concrete number would be or an estimate. Um, so that was my ideas.

This is this is more about alternatives and about survey. Um but I think at the last meeting um you had the like the the trail map the kind of trail and and that concept and just to say that you know we have been talking to the county about you know where is that um and there's interest in the county about okay we'll see what that is and see how that how that might work and you know when I walk which is all the time you I walk and I I see that 10 foot or whatever easement um that is, you know, a built-in walking trail, you know. So, so I I want to I want to be looking at all the options. Um I I really don't think that I think the whole sidewalk thing got blown out of proportion. I really don't think anybody has in mind that we're going to pave, you know, Wood Creek into Houston. you know, that was that was just too much too soon. So, I I I I would rather see us look at options that that create a like that county trail that happens to go through. Yes.

I just had um well, kind of four points, but one of them has been made. Um, first off, in the future whenever any of us have supplemental materials, it would be um pertinent to get it into the packet so that all of us have an opportunity to review them. I understand that sometimes we can always make that deadline and there is a reason to bring things to the meeting, but it it the whole the goal is to have things in the packet in advance so that we can all view them together at the same time and and have the opportunity to prepare in the future. Uh the next comment is that um you know we had a decent amount 66 signatures on a petition about this topic and then we also heard a lot online in public comment and one of the resounding concerns I heard over and over and over is um the expenditure of funds for this purpose at this point in time. And so I I really can't support this on that principle alone. I I don't see public support to engage in additional spending at this time. And I think that um we would need more information such as the funding possibilities for us and to take that to a town hall and to get more direct feedback. Uh, one of the ideas I believe that would be relevant in the future to address some of these individual concerns would be a town hall and I have to give uh, city administrator Mr. Burton credit for this of uh stations set out by Freeland Turk where individuals could come and there would be a map of a subset of Brookallo and then there would be the design as Freeland Turk recommended and if we do have other designs to consider at the time that's great but um individuals could then voice their concerns on their

lots. They could more directly see um what a design could possibly look like. they could give one-on-one feedback with the people, the actual professionals and engineers designing this instead of us um kind of projecting what we think the design could be at this point in time. I would rather wait until we actually had something more concrete for that purpose. Um because that gets me to my next point is that we don't actually have a design in place. We have a feasibility study with suggestions and a variety of suggestions from material to the location where they've made. They state their reasons for that location placement. It is heavily related to the easement obviously. Um so without having taken a vote on a design, it's hard for me to invest um survey funding because those two would go hand inand in my opinion. uh we would pay professional survey people at the time we're ready to make a design and I just I really don't know that we're there yet and as many people have noticed we have a comprehensive plan survey update coming out. One of the reasons why I personally wasn't in a hurry to do anything other than research funding right now is because of that that point we've we've heard of, hey, we we would like to get more feedback from residents on the overall support of this moving forward. Uh when the feasibility study was voted in, and I know my time's going long, um that was one of the comments I made publicly was that part of the goal of the feasibility study itself was to know if this will work or not, right? Because we are charged with carrying out the comprehensive plan and really digging into all of that. And we knew going into this that it is very possible there are too many uphill battles for this project

to go really forward to uh breaking ground. But what we can do is form a comprehensive report for the public and for future councils where it shows sort of the depth of study we went into and our findings and and where we fell and why we made the decisions we made. That that's my goal at this time. And then um my only question is um that about the survey itself in the packet and I I apologize if this sounds dumb but this survey was before the road was turned into concrete. Correct. It's part of the

right. So there is possibility that the concrete expanded some beyond the lines but truly the actual easement placement isn't in question. Correct. Yeah. So that is another reason why I can't support this payment for this again because we we have the easement lines clearly noted with pins and markers and like GPS dots throughout this. So even though the road running through it potentially expanded in the cement construction that that easement we're actually concerned about has not changed. Right. Yeah.

I would kind of add to that. Usually there's rideway dedication either by flat or by by deed. And when the road is laid out, um, you know, you have the the range where it can go. And maybe it was meant to go in the middle, but for whatever reason, when when it went to concrete, it got built a little bit up and maybe a little off, but within the easement area, but not exactly where maybe it was intended to go. There may have been something to do with the engineering that required some adjustment. And that's how it ended up in that quirky sactual scenario. But the original dedication through the plat or through uh Broadway dedication indeed that remains the same. So that that would not change.

Yep.

Okay. Well, just and kind of rebuttal um that the survey was in 2017. There were people here who who lived through that boring of the road and there was belief that the road certainly did not didn't follow center of where the east was and that um a certain so the the lines won't change but the relationship of the road to the lines may and that's why people have have gotten out their own black maps to review that. Uh on the other point of the cost that actually is a very high number. I've I've gotten some other numbers now that it wouldn't be quite that costly. And as far as um you know the prematurity um there are there is quite a bit of interest in this and even if it would be completely free to this city. There are still people who are not interested in having a walkway in their backyard. So that's why they're there's still interest to know what the city is planning and maybe the comprehensive uh plan the survey related to that some alternate alternate kits rather than just follow any other comments. Yeah, I'll just second a comment that I I feel strongly that we should survey before any type of work would be done if and that's the big sticker here. If we were to move forward on this everything that we've proposed has been based on grant funding and aspir that we have no interest in pursuing it

unless we find other means to fund that kind of project. So, while I 100% agree that it should be surveyed, I I could not support spending the money for that now until we've moved forward to a point that we feel like the study is in place where we want it and we found the grant funding that we want. Then to me the logical next step would be to survey it then have a public forum you know the public comments and residents can speak their mind about what they want and don't want and then we can come back to the table have a workshop and decide what's the best for our residents but I I I'm sorry I can't support doing that well

just one quick thing on that to talk to grant people we would need to know uh how If there are prescriptive easements that will be part of this, the overall funding package certainly will be dependent on active survey. Can I speak to this?

Sorry. Um, I would say that as we learned with the Deerfield grant process that some of if not all of the grants will be seeking they'll be bringing in their own engineers in their own design team and we'll be working in probably very likely the same path we did with Deer where we've got our engineers reviewing the state engineers work

or county engineers work. So that's just something to keep in mind. And the grant does fund that kind of work and those costs. The motion on the floor direct survey company the exact web boundary along public cost not to exceed $20,000 from capital reserves. I'll favor. Oops. Sorry. Whoops. I

um All right. Good. Um, number four, discussion, possible action to approve an ordinance to create an additional homestead exemption for qualifying residencies in the city of Wood Creek for rainwater collection systems installed for the purpose of use as a primary water source. Council member Hines, I move that we approve the ordinance of the city of Wood Creek, Texas, establishing an abort exemption for the installation of rainwater collection systems of 5,000 gallons or more providing for repealing of conflict severability savings and effective. Second.

Um, sorry. So, this ordinance was drafted by our legal team to support the uh introduction of our first rainwater collection homestead exemption effort in the city of Wood Creek. If we pass this, it will we will be the first city in Hayes County to mirror the county homestead exemption that's in place. It's been in place since about 2017. Um the application is attached in the packet. If you would like to look at that now, I will draw your attention to a couple key factors. One, um this is an application much like the county that would need to be uh applied for every single year. Um, and it it includes an inspection every two years for the function of the system. And this is to make sure that this homestead exemption is accomplishing the goal, which is to um get people off groundwater. U the Hayes County system allows for things other than um primary water source. Now, however, I did restrict it to primary water source as um the goal is not to install more and more landscaping. It's to actually reduce our groundwater usage. So, in this one um I've presented a kind of 2:1 exemption on the size of the system. for 10,000 gallons, you would get $20,000 off of your homestead exemption costs or like the value of your home. I chose these numbers for a couple reasons. I looked at like the cost of the systems we installed at the city and their sizes. And I tried to make the exemption totals to be over the cost of the system or the added value of the system because we don't want people to install these systems and then the value of their home

goes up and the homestead exemption does not exceed that value increase. That was one of the early critiques of the Hayes County program. They have since adjusted their numbers as well. Um obviously any component of this application this evening is up for discussion and alteration and amendment. However, um we do have to have the application with the ordinance eventually. We can pass the ordinance now and it was reviewed by legal and it can go into effect next year, right? Because all of this is for the next tax season, but homes would be able to start applying as early as like January for this. And um we need the application in order for homes to apply because it gives them the parameters that they need.

Mr. um and Mr.

So thank you for answering my question in advance which was the the ordinance itself doesn't have the breakdown or costs and so you're saying the application will be built into that the ordinance itself. No, the ordinance stands alone and is submitted to the county. It is then up to us based on the applications to develop like the supplement that goes to the county and says this person has qualified for this reduction. And it's the same with the 65 plus and seniors that you know they fill out county application or whatever and now it's just like an auto award because they qualify by a different like we don't check their driver's license if that makes sense. Thank you. Um I move to amend that to adjust the ordinance to say 10,000 gallons or more as the minimum.

No, I see the discrepancy. So, thank you. I

Mr. That that's solely on me. When we submitted it to Stan, we said 5,000 gallons, but in my research, considering this is attempting to be a, you know, a first point source of water, 5,000 gallons really isn't enough. nor is 10,000 gallons entirely. These individuals would not be completely off of groundwater and the systems have a switch. So if they've run out of their tank, they can go back to groundwater. Yes, ma'am.

Can I just get a little clarification on how the the um exemption works? How much did you say it was? Well, there's a chart on page two of your So, it's from 10 to 30,000 gallons um in the chart, but it just says for anything over that, it's the same. It's just a doubling of the gallon. I'm sorry. Where is this? Scroll down past the ordinance page. Pass the I've got an ordinance and an application.

Yes, sir. It's page two of the application. Okay. If you're in the packet, it's page 97. Page two is guidelines of the program. Yes, that's it. And I don't see I think you're on that next item, Mr. Scott. I think you're on the item below it. I think you need to go up. No, the guidelines of the program also. It's on both. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. because it's like the same. There's two applications kind of back to back.

Um the first one is the one for the exemption. But anyway, the exemption would work just like our 65 and older exemption. Free for it and they attach. The only difference is that after you before you go to the county on this one, you're going to come to the city and the city's going to give you a You may that was loud a stamp of approval. This is your exemption total, right? They take that to the county and then they would file with the county their their homestead exemption.

And part of the reason why we have the ordinance is because the ordinance goes in into law, right? And then the we send that to the county and that's where they register that we now offer this homestead exemption. And did you say annual? So the county need to keep it off. The county requires theirs to be annually submitted and I mirrored that and they also require inspections every two years and I mirrored that. The reason being is that we have to ensure these systems are in good operation and standing otherwise they no longer serve the purpose.

All right. Anything else? Okay. So we'll vote on the amendment to um raise the gallons to 10,000,000 in the ordinance in the ordinance. So all in favor please. I

and so the the motion is to approve or create an additional homestead exemption. Let me get some wording. um establish an aborn tax exemption for the installation of rainwater collection systems of 10,000 gallons or more um installed for the purpose of use as a primary water source. All in favor please recognize. Thank you.

All right. Item number five, discussing possible actions to adopt a resolution of the city of B Creek implementing the first annual rainwater collection incentivization program for fiscal year 2012.6 and accepted application for staff use. I move that we adopt a resolution of the city of Woodbury implementing the first annual rainwater collection incentivization program for the fiscal year 2025 2026 and accept the application for staff use adding an amendment that we will bring forth a budget amendment at the next possible meeting to add $10,000 from reserves to green building initiatives number 10105206.

A second. Um you might be wondering about the budget amendment request and that's because whenever we created our budget we did not include um any money under the green building initiatives as this program was not completed at the time. But now since we have a draft in front of us in order to fund this program, we need to put money in the green building initiative uh budget line item. And um I can work with Stan to draft that and get it, you know, but um this program the goal of it is to get pools off our grain groundwater. Uh, inground pools have an autofill feature that cannot easily be turned off and this sucks an immense amount of water from our aquafer every year and specifically over the summer when evaporation rates are incredibly high. We're we can it depends on the pool size. There's calculations to determine that. That's what we used in drafting this in the first place. The other component of the program was the pool covers. And just to job council's memory, you all already gave all of these stipulations that are outlined in the application, um, in a council meeting, we already drafted these parameters together. Um, what we lacked was the resolution to pass to put it in place and an application for staff to be able to to implement it. So motion then is to adopt a resolution of the city of Wood Creek implementing the first annual rent collection incentivization program for the fiscal year 202526 accept the application for staff use and

to bring forth a budget amendment of $10,000 um in the green building initiative account 10105206 Six. All in favor, please sign by saying I. All oppose. Thank you.

Can I just say thank y'all? We just passed two of the most important pieces of business the city has done in regards to protecting our groundwater and actually incentivizing uh groundwater initiatives. And I think it's pretty amazing. We'll be the first city to follow in Hayes County's footsteps on this front. So, I'm really proud of grateful. Might also um get with uh the view. I think there's a pretty good story for Jack could probably help you back on.

Oh yeah. Um item number six, discussion of possible action of approved using concept designs created by the art sub committee regarding possible crosswalks in the city to be used to seek and apply for grants as part of this screen safety enhancement program.

Thank you. I move this rules. Um what I would like and I think council would enjoy is ability to discuss both six and seven as there is definitely overlap. Um, I move that council approve the concept designs by the art subcommittee regarding the possible crosswalks in the city to be used to seek and apply actually pedestrians as part of the pedestrian safety enhancement program. I'll second. It would ask for an amendment to select one to ask council to select one.

Do you want to do that separately? Is that a second? Yes.

I'm not sure what you're asking. She made amend. There's what, five different options here. And I think it would be pertinent for council to voice their selection of one of these for that subcommittee to move forward if if council supports this item that they said. So I'm going to present the item if that's okay. Um this is what the art subcommittee had come up with in regards to possible ideas regarding crosswalks. What it was on the last agenda when it was part and the reasoning was the feasibility study regarding um the possible trails also included crop swaps as part of the plan. And I thought, well, it kind of makes a perfect fit for what what the art seep committee has been considering. And so there's the I will explain the big concept which is the art crossing map that's non-gradient. What it is is it takes the entire city and makes it into a pie of color chart of the color wheel and then a crosswalk that lands inside that pie becomes that color for that crosswalk. lost me.

So, if you go to the 102, if you go to art crossings, it's like there's a color overlay. There's a color overlay on the entire city. Okay. Okay. So, let's say you're at a crosswalk at Dittle and Jack Miller. If that one's going to be tangerine. If you're at a crosswalk of Pebble Brook and Westwood, that one's going to be yellow. If you were at a crosswalk of like Wood Creek Drive and Traant Trace, it would be pink. What's the It's the art supple suggestion. You have the authority to

And then is there I guess there's a reason behind you. Thank you. Okay. Um so the the confluence of colorful propwalks actually improve visibility and actually are a traffic calming device. Um which I thought was a brilliant mixture of art and the traffic calming quality of this. Now there are different ideas that they that the art subcommittee came up with. Um personally the one I think is the most feasible for us is the simplest one which is the where it just takes rather than a white bar it's a solid color. I think it would be because Jim and I were actually discussing costs and when we get into more colors, there's more mixing, more cost per color where if we did say the intersection at um the first intersection as you enter the city from 12 um that makes perfect stop and they let children off there. It would be really great to have an intersection of crosswalks. It's also the beginning of the trail that they've gone down Winter's Mill if that was just one color. This people are entering the city. They're encountering these colored crosswalk. So, they're becoming instantly kind of aware of their surroundings and of the environment. Um this is supported by other cities and they often found that those who are supporting them are families with children and seniors and

that it actually reduces um near misses and traffic issues more better than your basic white ones which people have become accustomed to and just become too ignorant. Can I add something then because you talked about you know kids and seniors is that one of the one of the things that we did in the art subcommittee is look at background. One of the best reports on this was from a AARB.

I would like to select the broken barol.

That would be my request of council. It's the simplest one. It matches what the city has already been doing. I think that's what you mentioned earlier. Um, I really appreciate the art committee's efforts here. I I love a good color will and I'm a big fan of all colors. I I am struggling a little bit with supporting this from a management perspective of managing all of the paint colors and know, you know, referencing the wheel. And I I really love the idea and respect it. I I almost would have preferred we select one or two crosswalks and make them colorful and then the rest are just a color. But I I think we in my opinion would be better off selecting a single color doing something other than white. One of the other reasons I've state that is in looking at the color wheel, I'm a little bit concerned about some of these options because they're not a huge break for the color of basketball. So, we're not actually creating uh an alert system with everything from like the the purples to to some of the blue greens like the whole basically bottom half of the color wheel would probably not stand out much. And the last thing I want to talk about is how quickly the paint on our streets fades. Uh we just painted the the uh golf course crosses about four years ago, five maybe, and they were due for a paint over a year ago probably. So the maintenance on this is going to be a pretty big added cost. And then when you're adding more colors and somebody's got to worry about the right color and so I I would like us to select a color, go with the broken bar and and move forward with that. So I do if I may just

understand.

Thank you. Um so the chart that you're seeing is me overlaying the color wheel and because of transparency the colors have become less saturated. So the actual color wheel is much more saturated than this. So if that helps alleviate some kind of concern there but I do understand your point of perhaps more colors is too is is too much management. But I also think we could then turn it into maybe quadrants like four colors because one of the things that the art committee liked the as a concept was that you're driving in the city and go turn left at the purple intersection and they liked that concept. They also love the idea because of encouraging engagement with their kids because they were thinking of their grandkids going, "Hey, I get to drive around the city with my grandkids and go and we're at this intersection of like, oh, here we are in this section of the color wheel and kind of explaining from that point of view, but I understand the idea of possibly reducing the amount of colors."

And personally, I would prefer we stick to ones typically associated with alerts. Like there's a reason why we use yellow and white for driving lines. There's a reason why stop signs are red, right? Because these colors tell us alert, alert, right? It's like basic nature. It's why poisonous snakes are red, you know? Well, I do want to mention that green is actually for bicycle, right? So, we shouldn't use that possibly. Yeah.

Okay. We are often voting the comprehensive plan. The pro comprehensive plan says maintain Wood Creek's character was number two most popular. Um this is not in my idea maintaining the character. It's it's too cartoonish. I think subtle is better. And so I don't think this keeps with with our character and um I don't think the citizens would like it that much. Plus um I see a lot of dots on this one map. There's red ones and green ones. What are the green ones? Um, so what the art community did to us, and I'm sorry that for some reason when I shared

we didn't get the full um, for some reason it didn't show up this time, but the green ones are actually the car paths. So, we just mapped all possible crosswalks, but we didn't and the art committee actually didn't ever say, "Let's do them all." There's one car path that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Wood Creek D by Brandling and without seeing the rest of the map I could

Yeah. Sorry. But that was their that was their guidance was to include possible pro uh car pass because they also saw it as a way to slow down traffic. And so now I'm going to kind of do what I said by um moving over into item seven as well just because that way I think if we have this discussion we can it may be a both or neither or only one choice. The other is um traffic calming regarding uh road striping and I'm only going to discuss it. I'm not going to make the motion yet, but um in the citizen surveys when it came to traffic calming, citizens were asked what kind of traffic calming they preferred and the first one was painting or road stripes. The second was speed cushions. So I thought it was important that we at least bring the idea of painting or road stripes which I as you understand that the art submit kind of approached it from one particular way. Now you've been given a handout if you've completed with um and this is what Freeland's Turk's idea was for possible painting of roads. You know, it doesn't have to be the center strike or the edge strikes, but we can do simple things like slow or it's written on a street or we reiterate the speed limit written on the street. Um then there was a there's always been the studies about the idea of when you put the striping on the edge of the road. It gives the visual impression that the road is narrower which instinctively helps people slow down. Um

I personally on that issue I like the words better than the stripes. I like the idea that maybe we just reiterate the word the speed limit or we put slow down,

didn't it? So remember I was like what have been free intern say about this and we're learning anything to this we were like oh we can't talk about city business right so where I was remembering or what I was kind of getting at is I remember them talking about how narrow some of our roads already are and that the internal striping to further narrow the road would mean that we would create a road where two cars could pass. So, I don't think that's the right call, right? Uh I do like this slow, especially in areas where like for example, Brook Meadow maybe where we haven't taken many additional steps aside from a single radar station and we're uh we're also relying on street trees. So this could be a good ad for Brook Meadow in particular as another sort of pilot of what is working best for us. What you know this is initially less expensive. It does take more maintenance over over time but you know as far as the like slow 25 mile hour.

There is some street striping in places that would make a lot of sense like a center stripe. Um, this is something that came out of the traffic committee report 20 years ago. The big curve at the top of Augusta Drive. People cut that off every single time and just a center stripe and around the corner, something like that. A just Champion circles, another one. They come around the curves and they just cut them. and a little strap down the middle might push somebody a little bit to the side without forcing, you know, one card at night. So another reason I wanted to kind of bring these discussions together is what if we wrote the word slow and it's a different color

just because so the the studies have shown that when we utilize the same sameness like the traditional whites, people are already used to it and they ignore it. Where if it's a different color, people become aware of it and it has a traffic calming effect just instinctively people go oh paused. I also like the idea of poss and the art committee did discuss this when they were discussing the crosswalks is we do a sample crosswalk. Their recommendation, I believe, was the intersection at the beginning of the city. And we see how it goes. See how what the feedback is from citizens. Do they like it? But their concern specifically was the fact that it's a major bus stop and it's an intersection where it goes into the path. And so that one actually is the if we go by a turn if we go by the color. So those are the things I proposed. we have other discussions on all of any of that.

I want the idea of starting out with one and seeing you know how everybody feels about it, what it looks like in person and you know with its surroundings from there. So on the idea of one the cost wouldn't be such that it wouldn't make sense to go out for a grant.

Yeah. No. So the initial motion was to send it to the subcommittee to get a grant. So I will express that based on my research of grants, grants love this concept. They love crossings. Like they just there's ARP has its own brand just for crosswalks, colored art crosswalks. They love that. But if we're going to just sample with one, do you wish to make a amendment that'll be taken away from the subcommittee or sub?

I just wanted to point out also in the like on this front, the lifetime of this is only a few years. So it's not like we're scoring a hole in a road down the middle of town. We're painting some crop blocks and this will last a couple years. The other crosswork I'd like to highlight aside from the entrance is um the Augusta Drive and Ralo one because the peel and stick things have fallen apart. Those are not effect. Let's never do that again. Um the painting lasts longer. So I think that we have two clear places for cross swaps. I like the idea of So when you talk about striping on the curb here, Rosco, do you envision that like ending? Like it's just around the curve. There's a center stripe and it like kind of fades off. So I I would

Oh, the engineers length of stride, but yeah, but just to just to delineate. Okay, there are two lanes here. Stick in one of them. Yeah. So I would also support center lane striking on the curve on Augusta. I would support center lane striking on the curve on Champion Circle. I would also support inroad words of slow 25 on Brook Meadow past the radar sign past that first curve there too. Actually, that's another curve that could really use narrow area

right in front of Yeah. over Brook, I think it is. Uh, not to lie, I I've like had some weird interactions there with other cars. Like, we're talking the first curve as you come in from 12 running. No. Well, there's that one. That one's the one I have. So, that's a 90°. I just go real slow. But that other one, it's like you got centrifugal force and the other person's coming around from a backside. So they I've had it where like people have been kind of in the middle of the road coming out of metal. But maybe that whole scurve should be considered. So I would support that as well. She's talking about you're talking about the left curve coming in. She's talking about the the next right.

That's the one I've drivers been in my before. But yeah, that little S is probably the whole S would be a good consideration. So Chris, can I just ask one point clarification on this? Sure. On on the images that you provided the fact that specifically like the the broken bar or whatever it's called. Mhm. It appears that it and and maybe it's just way you drew it or something, but it appears that these are raised crosswalks with three sections of bars before each bar three sections.

Uh what you're looking at is is gradient paint. There was there one of the option is for gradient painting. It would go from darker to lighter and patch it. So that's one of them. So if you go to crosswalks broken bar color. Uhhuh. It should be just solid bar. But they're not rays. They're not red. Yeah. That it's just paint. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. It's basically just replacing where it's white with a color. Yeah. But white stripes. That was just the area to kind of

Is there a role with the center of striping being a certain color? Does it need to be yellow? Yellow is no better. I would I would be with the engineer, but I was I was I was anticipating white, but it could be yellow. White Well, white is for the sides. Yeah. And if it's broken, that means you can pass. And yellow is for the center. I think we have to follow road rules the center. There should be a a reference in the state manual for years. Yeah, I think that one would have to be yellow. So any better. Yeah, it should be those orange. We do gray and green. Oh my gosh.

So, how about we close this would be my suggestion because I think we've come up with some really interesting ideas. we close out the motion I made which was to send to the subcommittee because at that point she must drive that. Well, we have to vote it away.

Okay. So that motion was to approve using concept designs created by the arc sub committee regarding possible crosswalks in the city to use um to see and send the subway as part of the city. Okay. What's next?

Uh we we can I think it's okay to bypass that Robert at the moment. Since the main motion is failing, the amendment is going to German is after 67. Yeah, we're still following the item.

On item six, I move that we select two intersections for colored crosswalks. Those being Wood Creek Drive with Champion Circle in Fairfield and Brook Hollow with Augusta. The the first section not the dead end of

that we do. Did I already say the broken block one? the broken bar and I have not selected a color I would like council to I'll suggest standard bright yellow. So that's a second. So sorry y'all messiest motion ever in the history of motions. Uh I I think yellow is effective. I think it's still very alerting. Um,

I mean it's also a good compromise that you were concerned about, you know, other colors. I mean, yellow would be something that, you know, fits. I mean, it's different. Um, it's also sort of an alert color. So, I mean, it's not bad. Not bad. Question on procedure. You made a motion. Was he spoke to that was your second, but was also an amendment. He made a new second. Okay. Yeah, that hurts. You're right. That's a lot.

Additional amendment. Yellow. Yellow. Yeah. So the the motion is to paint two intersection crosswalks in the intersections with the broken bar design and the amendment was the the color should be all and secondly Deborah seconded the I mean by speak now you want to make well I actually have a discussion point I would like to consider does it make sense for us to still go out for the grant with two crosswalks if we were to add these other kind of safety enhancement road painting things. Yeah.

And just see if we could get that. Okay. So, is it do you all feel it is okay for me to take up item seven right now with an amendment even though we're not under item seven? Well, that's why I in our Are we still just rules? Yeah.

Excellent. So, I would like to amend that we will direct the subcommittee to apply for a grant to fund the color painted crosswalks and add painting in the road to include a yellow center stripe in the S curve of Brook Meadow. The champion circle curve the curve on August of drive and slow 25 miles hour on Brook

clarification. No, I'm done. I'm Champion Circle. Which three? Really? There's four in your opinion. We have one out front here. We have the one heading towards um No, that that one doesn't bother the one the curve that point towards Check Corf. that one and then when you get to Champions Court to turn right to go past a council member's house the phone and then at the top of the hill there's another curve.

So I would well we can't technically but I think we should specify this curve in front of city hall and we can add So it would be two champions this one and above Chris's house. Yes. Those two those two spots on champions. Yeah.

Oh, sure. Well, she typed it all out. She's No, let me I can probably do it. I mean, I've got a I've got I've got a pretty good running list here. I have I can tell them too, but I just am confused on six seven like how it merged. We're making one joint item. Okay.

Six7. So the meeting minutes it would say six items six and seven taken together with a joint motion. Okay. Okay. So, not sure where the amendment Oh, the amendment is to is to ask the committee to apply for a grant. All right. So, we've got the amendment first, which is to um direct the art subcommittee to apply for grants to have any of the crosswalks um at the two interdictions that have been so I guess I drive at Brookello and at the main entrance. Um I'm crossed off um painting yellow center stripes on uh the top of Augusta Drive um at um two two main her circle um and then I'm just going to say the S at Brook Meadow um

and Augusta oh I say top of August and then and then to paint slow 25 mile per or on you went the 25 m per hour. That's what you said. That that would be determined by the engineers like the best possible because we're just sending for Okay. So that's the amendment as I understand it. Yep. All right. Is it possible um Stan for us to just if saying if there's no objection to the amendments, we'll take this as the main motion. Yeah. rapidly suspended rules.

I'm just instead of trying to tease out these three levels of amendments at this point unless there are objections to the color, the crosswalks, the all of it essentially just going to a grant omnibus um boat. So it is two intersections using the broken bar um style in yellow at the entrance and at Augusta Drive and Brook Hollow and then applying for the grant as mentioned. So that is now the main motion. Yeah. All right. So all in favor

can I clarification? Um, so all of these are yellow and does is that just a standard kind of traffic?

Well, as Dan mentioned, there may be an engineer may come back with the guidelines from the state manual that says no, slow 25 should be. Well, we don't we're not sure about that. So, we're going to leave that to the engineers. But the crosswalks and the center stripe are presumably yellow. Say something. All right. We're prepared to vote. All in favor, please signify by saying I. Raise your hand say I. Thank you. Thank you. Amazing.

Safe travels. Thank you. Okay. Um, last item on your agenda number eight, discuss possible action to accept the ABIP status update report to the city of Wood Creek audit report for the 23 24 fiscal year. Mayor May, I move that we accept the ABIP status update report to the city of Wood Creek audit report for the 2023 2024 fiscal year.

Second comment clarification. Um, you're saying that they are pending a bank reconciliation for September 30, 2024. Can we get any definition of that? It says as of as of. Okay. So, um, you know, bank reconciliation is fairly simple thing. It seems that at this late David

I think the issue was that they didn't they they were still trying to determine the the opening balance to reconcile from and so without that number you know to match up within funding that's where they been struggling but they um according to this are close and according to what we heard last time from um Mr. F and Harry that uh this is just this is their confirmation of what we go to last meeting from understand. Is that right? Yeah.

Um contrary to just uh some general thoughts out there that I'm in constant contact with the auditor and our bookkeeper. The problem lies in how and we've said it a thousand times the way it was set up in fund view. If you want to do a paper reconciliation can be done fairly quickly I believe but it's getting it into fund view and when that the problem is when you put it in the fund view because the way it was set set up incorrectly it inadvertently changes something over here. So if you think about it as a thing of dominoes when you push it they all fall down. What's happening now is you push this domino to go down here and it picks up something over there and it skews everything. So, kind of the best analogy I get. We're very close. The the auditor one Monday sent over some Friday sent over some information to our bookkeeper. He got he got into it to make the changes that he was wanting. Well, it created other problems. So, now those have been reported back to the auditor. He's working on it now. Get back to us hopefully by five by the end of the week to where we can we can get a hard stop on the lot that's missing. And then we're going to have to have we're going to have a bigger project with fun. They're going to have to get in because our banking y'all to make the hard entry that needs to be done. They're going to have to do it for us. But we've got to get these two things fixed to get the audit finished. Gets our starting balances. And then it'll be a between me and a bunch of people with fun view to make those hard entries to to correct what was set up wrong. So

that's that's where we're at as of today. Um it in the report you sent me the revenue expense we have paid them $45,116 for that

that's how how can a single wrong in entry acrew so much cost so the lement two years ago, Kevin Rule left in the late spring of essentially last year. So, there's that.

Second, whenever Kevin left, we had a a vacuum at the time and I was at the time serving as Mayor Bro 10 and I was in a series of meetings with Mr. B, who's unfortunately not able to speak for himself tonight, but I will sum up what he conveyed to me and what was subsequently said in a public meeting that in I really don't like continuing to speak of previous staff, but this issue just won't go away. So, we will Mr. Rule broke fun view when he set it up for us. meaning there are a series of parameters in the way this application is set up to work and Mr. Rule in not actually understanding how to use this program and how to transfer the information in and really um type a general law budgeting and things like that as we struggled with him. He forced the program to do things it was not supposed to do. He was issued a formal statement from Fundu telling him not to do that and he lied to them and said he had council approval to set it up that way and proceeded. No such approval ever occurred. Mr. base struggled to get Fun View interested in working with us and spending more of their hours on this outside of what they originally quoted us because it was not in the contract to repair what Mr. Rule wrote. Mr. days through his finesse and professional skills did get Fun View on board to continue to help us with the setup process. As we have worked through the last year, there have been a series of delays that are not under our city

administrators control. As much as we'd like to point the blame at someone else, the reality of the situation is is that council took a while to hire an accountant to handle this. Once we selected the accountant, that accountant worked briefly and then she had family emergency and she completely disappeared. No communication. Then it took time for the city administrator to get a new accountant working on it. All of these professionals from our auditor to our city administrator consultant to the accountant on his team also serve other cities. The auditor started in the beginning of the year. It took them a long time to get done with their work and in fact we even went through over a week of delay maybe once or twice in their process where they had to go work on another city. So this letter tonight is to explain to the citizens that misinformation is circulating out there. But the professionals, the people in charge of this, the accountant, the administrative consultant, and the auditor all acknowledge that they are working on this. It is in progress. It was set up incorrectly to start and they are having to repair and undo that damage. And the point they are at now is back with the ball essentially in the court of fund view saying this program we need you guys to help us hard reset some of these functions because we cannot get it to operate properly. The bank reconciliation is not the simple paper statement that they're referencing here. They're talking about the foundational start of the bank from when it went into fund view to where it is at now and all of the entries in between. Because of the way Kevin set it up, the way the funds interact, it's not collating properly. If we move some of the go bonds like the interest payment

out, it's impacting over here for some reason. And those broken formulas need to be repaired. That's what's going on. That is the point of this letter. That is the timeline as conveyed to me. That is what has been publicly stated in meetings over and over and over.

Motion on the floor is to accept a status update from AB to the city of report for 2324. This clear I post no. All right. the record window. Uh Cal, I did want to make one announcement. I mean, we've been talking about um the drainage pies and the drainage report. Um I selected not to put that on the agenda for tonight because we've got a new council coming to board soon. Um and it's just such a big deal and so much money and so many decisions. I think that should just be on a new council um rather than us telling them what we think they should do. So there's my call and that's what that is. Uh so it will be on a agenda in the very near future. Um there's a consideration for agenda items for next regular council meeting.

Well, there will be a budget amendment um for the 10,000 5,000. We do have 5,000.

So we would need to and add 5,000. Uh uh depending this is a little tricky but I would like to make an announcement either way. I would like to uh bring forth some of the formal motions of the emergency preparedness report that we did uh for council direct council action. Um, now I I won't be on council one way or the other, but I I would be submitting those items beforehand in the hopes that the future council but they

there are some rumors going around. I've heard from a couple different sources that uh the individual who owns Loroka Lane is considering building homes there. Uh so that they may it may involve closing the local lane but it may interfere with that emergency exit. So before that goes further, I'm not sure where to go about uh figuring this out. I thought you might know, but anyway, that's a number.

Okay. I think the item would be to ask Stan to review and grant egress rules and the ability for a private owner to close one that is public and I should not. Okay. He's got he's got four or five lots on the other side of the street. Well, that's it. He wants to make for So, is this a talk to you? I think I've just talked to a couple people about it, but I can ask Stan about Yeah.

What? Because before it goes further, we need to know. No, it would be a council motion, an item on an agenda where you would because it would be spending money. So we would need you would need to submit an item that says okay discussion of possible action to direct legal counsel to research ingress egress closures by private I mean they're supposed to close it twice a year but this is a permanent closure

but this doesn't legisl Oh yeah I'll fine and close Um okay. Anything else? Sir,

um we have um Freeland Turks scheduled to come talk about the drain if we need to move that call them. Um also they um were ready to present by then they'll be ready to make the recommendation on the champions board turn around and you know board that and then also got the 26 holiday schedule discuss. Thank you sir. Others motion to

second for you. We almost made it. That's all.