City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of Worcester City Council being held this Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. Tonight's meeting is in council chambers livereamed on YouTube. It is after 700 p.m. The next regularly scheduled council meeting will be on Monday, February 2nd, 2026. With that, Miss Hamilton, would you please call the role? Mr. Abernathy here. Mr. Gaffy here. Mr. Jose here. Mr. Malta here. Mr. Owens here. Mr. Paul here. Miss Warden here.

We have a quorum and the agenda will remain as presented. At this time, I ask you all please stand and join the members of council in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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.

I need a motion to approve uh the last meeting's minutes. So move. We have a motion. I need a second. Second. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? minutes are approved. Good evening, Mr. Mayor.

Good evening, Mr. Abberathy and council members. Um, just uh I think a relatively quick update. Um, I'll start off with as part of your council packet and this is shown on the agenda. You have a memo from uh Mr. Dia concerning the linked deposit program. I asked him if he wants to talk about it and he said the report should speak for itself, but he is available for questions if you've got any. Um, with regards to activities since we last met, uh, had a meeting with Superintendent Tutor. Um, you know, we've got a new council. Uh, he's got a new board of education. We've got some common in we've plenty of common interest, but one of them is on economic development. And so, we're meeting I think on the 6th of February, um, with his treasurer and, uh, board president and we're gonna, you know, we want to find some common ground. Um and again it's a situation is always changing and we're certainly not looking to be at odds with the the school district and um again that once we have that meeting we'll follow up with a meeting with council um and maybe a combined meeting and uh make sure we're all on the same page moving forward. Um on the 9th we had a meeting with representatives from Catholic Charities. Um they've had an office in town but they are looking to consolidate. Uh, interestingly enough, one of the representatives was former Akan Mayor Dan Han. Um, they are looking at the former Daily Record building on East Liberty Street. Um, so that's, you know, that's been empty for quite a while and, uh, we're hoping that, uh, we're going to come through and be a great fit. Um, we also met a few days later with representatives from one of our local service clubs. Um, discussed a number of issues. They're heavily involved in the parks and we talked about that a little bit. And we also talked about um they had some ideas for participation in uh

the uh Ohio 250 um program this summer and we talked about those possibilities. Um we had our first meeting with the WDC um on the 13th. Uh I had an opportunity to meet with um the president of Miller Poultry. I'll talk more about that in a second, but they're the company that uh acquired Gerber Poultry. So, they don't have any operations in town, but they certainly have a potential to be a big player in Wayne County if that goes through because they've got some expansion ideas underway. Um, few days later, we met with the owners of the former Larville Trailer Park um regarding potential redevelopment of that property. If you're familiar with the history of that property, I'm not going to go through that again, but there was been one house built on that along um uh Larville Street and but the rest of it sitting vacant. And some of our discussion in the um uh committee meeting before this would play into that very much so because that's not really a a traditional lot would uh some more flexibility in how that would be developed would need to come into play. But um they're moving forward with some plans there. Last Friday we did I did an interview with Panorama. I think Andrea has got one coming up or did you have it yet?

Um I was out last week so it's just that time of year. I think they're they're teeing up their program. So um if you're bored late at night sometime you're flip around the channels you may have a chance to to watch Andrea and I in action. Um Sunday had a chance um I am on the Wayne County Sports Hall of Fame board. not because of anything I ever did certainly, but um they have gotten uh they've accumulated a lot accumulated a lot of memorabilia over the years and they've kind of partnered with the historical society and they now have a room a very large room in the uh the main building there that's dedicated to um their use and they've put a lot of time in Mike Plant particular uh has put a lot of time in setting that up and that's open for view now if you get the historical society So, I'll put in a plug for that. It's really kind of some neat stuff, particularly if you you know know the history of some Wen athletics and and uh the people and the personalities been involved in that. So, I'll I'll go ahead and put in a plug to make time to go over there and visit that if you get a chance. Um looking ahead, this is the time of the year that Wish Community Hospital meets with their support organizations. Um, as you know from the history, um, Wor Community Hospital came about because of the city of Worcester and several townships in the area, um, joined together in a consortium to raise funds and build this hospital. And in in a way, city council and those townships still govern that organization. and they put board members on the uh board of governors and uh they report both to the township trustees and a city council and it's the same dog and pony show so to speak but the one for the township trustees is coming up next Wednesday and

then on February 2nd we'll have the same meeting with with uh before our next council meeting um so trustes tomorrow well I'm sorry okay I'm going to say ahead for tomorrow.

It is the 21st. So, I'm sorry, I'm misread my notes. Uh, and uh, then they'll be doing the same presentation on the 2nd. So, looking forward to that. Main Streets has their annual accreditation meeting this week. So, they'll be in town on Thursday. We'll be attending that in the morning. And then Friday, they have their uh, they're having their uh, in lie of their uh, annual meeting. Their annual meeting is now a breakfast meeting Friday morning. Um, and then at lunch we are having the uh lunch meeting and I'm sorry I'm a week off [clears throat] on that one as well. I get those flipped around. So that's a week from this uh f this Thursday. Friday we have a lunch meeting with uh Jarrett logistics talking to their leadership. Um and I think we just lined up something with Daisy as well next week. I didn't make my notes. And uh the last thing I'll show is that February 3rd is Charles Fus day. Joel, you have some things to add?

Um, yeah, if you don't mind, just a couple of highlights from the the update just for the the general public. Um, you you should have seen that uh our our bidding is off to a good start, you know, for the projects. Um, we bid out just over 1.6 million estimated and the bids were 1.4 million. So, we're already coming in um pretty good, at least the low bids for that. So, that's that's good. Just wanted to point that out for various projects. Um I don't know that um we put it in here, but we've been receiving a bunch of calls recently about someone that's interested in the Best Buy building. So that could be a good fit for if if that moves forward. But we we get a lot of these inquiries a lot of times that don't result in anything, but this one seems to be pretty pretty interesting. So hopefully that'll result in another vacant building being used again. Um and another thing uh Bob mentioned the Main Street award and one of the things we're partnering with them you know we we do um give some bed tax funds you know to our various partners one of them being Main Street and one of the things that we are partnering with them on is is an award but it's it's more like a grant for the emerging entrepreneur award and so we had a hand in developing the criteria for that um making sure that they were getting something tangible for that. Whoever wins that get, you know, get some tangible business help um for new businesses getting started, get them off the ground, hopefully maintain their business, get some consulting work and marketing um from that as well. And then uh Jonathan was actually part of the process of selecting, you know, who who that that would be from from the applicant. So that'll be something that they'll announce and talk about at that at that that meeting. Um and the other And I'll let uh Jonathan talk a little bit about this. We I don't know if the

press release has gone out just yet. Um but our CHIP program that we have, we have to competitively apply for that every couple of years. Um and we were we just found out we were awarded. So a couple of words about that. I didn't realize that you had a chance to talk. Okay. Excellent. Um so briefly briefly. [laughter] So um

I do have a hook. That's fair. Uh we were able to secure uh $1,50,000 on behalf of the whole county that for this program that we administer in partnership with Wayne Metropolitan Housing Authority. Um special thanks to Mayor Reynolds who's actually been part of this program in a previous life. Um and uh this is a program that we have been able to win off and on since 1994. Uh, city of Worcester leads it for the entire county. We we partner with the county commissioners as well as the city of Orville and representatives from Ripton to make this happen. We'll be able to fix up and repair at least uh 21 sorry 21 to 29 homes throughout the region to support low to moderate income residents with emergency home repairs. Uh low moderate income in Wayne County is an individual making $50,000 or less. Uh so that covers roughly half of the residents within the city of Worcester Crawford are eligible for this program. Uh so if you have any constituents or members of the community who might be facing some struggles with uh a safety problem with their home, uh this program will make funding available. We do have a waiting list that we just opened and we're taking applications for this uh new period coming up. So please share the news and uh we're happy to help out uh our our residents in need.

Here are some brochures that Thank you. Jonathan was just waiting to get out as soon as he knew he had the had the money. Jonathan, real quick, can you speak to is there a cap to how much any one individual can receive from the CHIP program?

Uh working with the state of Ohio, um we we've been able to obtain waiverss for that. Most projects that we run into [clears throat] are generally going to run in the realm of between 10 and $20,000. Uh we have had some rehabilitation programs uh especially for getting into things like leadbased paint uh that can run us uh in excess of $70,000. So on a case-byase basis working with our state of Ohio Development Services Agency, we may be able to get a waiver to um exceed that limit. Um 44691 is unfortunately a lead elevated zip code. Uh just again um given the age of some of our housing stock uh that's one of the realities that that we work with. Um this is a program though that's meant to help secure uh that lead situation so that we can make that housing stock habitable for um current and future residents.

Thank you. One last real quick thing. Um uh we spoke to uh Council President Sanders last Friday about the possibility of during the this part of the the meeting um next week um allowing for a brief ceremony um for our police department. We've done it every once in a while. I'll let Matt talk about what this one would be about.

Um yeah, we just uh it's always good for public recognition and to give some awards. Um but unfortunately while I was out uh there was an incident that happened involved one of our officers and you may have heard about it in in the paper where it came to fruition with the D police chief that actually started in Worcester and uh I've got some dramatic video that I've got to make sure it's okay because his family will be here uh where the officer just basic traffic stop and the driver rolled right out and just started cranking rounds through the wind windshield. That's what led to that chase where um the Dallas police chief pulled the car over. But we want to give uh Connor or who's that officer an award for that. Um also have a life-saving award for another officer to give that night. And uh it's great to do it in front of you all and and give them some public recogition for what they do.

We did invite uh Representative Craig. She may she may show up to give a proclamation as well.

Um quick agenda review. Um one item on second reading and that's the proposed amendments to the zoning code. We that was the subject of the committee meeting will be the subject of the public hearing. No more needs to be said about that. Three new pieces of legislation on first reading. All three of those are budgeted. So they don't require three readings. Uh the administration would respectfully request passage of the second and third tonight. That's 202603 and 20264. And I'm sure that um u Mr. Malta and Mr. Paul will speak more to that when we get to those. Um finally to wrap up, I do owe an apology to Mr. Dia uh prop for poking funded him at our last meeting for his claim that the budget oversight that he brought to our attention was the biggest mistake he'd ever made and uh and the only reason and when I did that um people may have thought that that we weren't taking the budgeting process seriously and and that's not correct. We do or that uh I be I was casting doubt on his abilities as our financial director and that's not true at all. Um, Andre takes his responsibilities very seriously and he does a great job for the city and he has the awards and the recognition to back that up. If he had simply said that this is the biggest mistake in my professional life, I would have let it slide. But you got to understand that [snorts] at least once a month, we get an Andre story where he entertains us with his latest exploits. The most recent one was having him he locked himself out of his own house in the middle of the night in his underwear. [laughter] And that's all I could think of. So, and that isn't Andre's best story. It's just the most recent one. So, I just wanted to clear the air on that topic. Um, the other thing I want to say kind of on a more serious note, but a good one is I I referenced my meeting with Galen Miller

from Miller Poultry a couple weeks ago. Um he's from Gan Indiana and it coincidentally the day or two before that I had run to was downtown we had some friends from out of town in for dinner and ran some people from Lexington Ohio that had driven over to Worcester for um dinner. They drove 45 minutes to come meet downtown. Good for them. And uh struck up conversations with both and it was amazing how similar these conversations were. Both of them were raving about our downtown uh how nice, you know, how much we had to offer. Um Mr. Miller was talking about how he wished go Indiana had was were doing was doing some of the things we had. Um it was just really nice to hear and and again it's one of those things as mayor you get to hear may say may some stuff that you know you hear the bad stuff but when you hear the good stuff you want to pass it on. And again, I'm new enough at this job that I take no credit for any of this. I'm just uh the the person that gets to hear this stuff. So, I wanted to make sure I share it with council. And with that, Mr. Abernathy, you have nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And and Mr. Dory, I'll second the the mayor on the the good stuff. Believe me, I've I've sat in on the exit meetings with our our state examiners, and they rave about you. I've got the emails to back it up of just what they think of you. So, believe me, your reputation's impeccable. So there is never a doubt uh about your skills from from me at least. So believe me. All right. So we will move to petitions and communications from the public. Now I do see two and those that signed up to speak about legislation. Would would you prefer to speak during the public hearing or would you like to speak now? I I see Kim and Denise. Uh would we like to speak now or would we like to speak during the public hearing? I'm sorry.

I have no opinion. No opinion. We'll save it for the uh public hearing then. All right. So, we'll move to committee reports and we just had a committee meeting. So, Mr. Huz, you want to tell us a little bit about the committee? We had a laws and ordinances committee meeting to go over the uh planning and zoning residential code amendments uh that are before us. Um good meeting, very in in uh informative from Mr. Marian and uh the city administration. I think everybody was there. Mr. Paul showed up a little late, but we'll let that slide.

Thanks. Um yeah, and we I'm sure we'll discuss it more at the uh uh public hearing during the ordinance uh reading and I'll let that go three readings as well. So we'll have more time to discuss this.

All right. Well, we are to the point where we are going to have the public hearing. Um so we'll go ahead and kick it off to you again, Mr. Hussein. Good. Uh so this will be our public hearing to go over recommendations provided by the planning commission for planning and zoning code text amendments chapter 11 planning and zoning code amending the official zoning map. There's anybody who would like to speak in regards to this uh ordinance before us. Please come up to the lectern uh clearly state your name, address, and that you affirm to tell the truth. And don't everybody rush up at once.

[snorts] Mark, 1636 Goshi Street. I affirm to tell the truth. I just have two questions. First, I'd like to thank uh Mr. Marian and the committee and all the folks that were involved with this. I know it was probably a very thoughtful and lengthy process. So, thank you for that. I just have two quick questions. One is on that fee in relation to open space where it uh there could be valid reasons. Is there going to be a definition of what valid reasons are

on a case by case basis? This will be evaluated by the planning commission. A developer just can't come in and say, "Hey, I want to pay the fee." He has to explain and demonstrate why It's not it doesn't make sense to do it on site or within the individual development. It's just not going to be an option that's available that's going to have to be justified from the planning commission. Planning commission is then going to have to make a decision on whether or not it's appropriate. Okay. So essentially they'd have to make an argument for it and it would be to the judgment of the commission at that point.

That's correct. The other one is some of those colors are very close. Uh am I correct in understanding that uh at least north of downtown the T1 runs along Bowman Street? Is that correct? Okay. And then the others I think are down in that lower down around the Wayne Center for the Arts in the RT district and wherever within specifically the RT district where there's there's a section in today's that allows for multi or for attached single family to be developed. Those areas are also transition. All right. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you.

Anybody else who'd wish to speak on the residential planning and zoning code amendments?

I really won't take much of your time. Um, I'm Denise Foster, 798 Greenwood Boulevard, and I will tell the truth. First, I just want to thank I know I've talked to a number of you, you know, over the last few months, you know, about uh the development of this um zoning proposal and I think it's a really positive step forward in terms of housing for the city and I really appreciate all the effort that's been put into it by this group and by the task force as well. The questions I had, I think, were handled in the earlier meeting about, you know, green space. And I just hope that, you know, going forward, I would just really urge city council when you do have those opportunities to be mindful of that space so that it's there and available and easily accessible for everyone regardless of what income level they are in the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing nobody else, I will close this uh public hearing. And I let you borrow my gapple, Mr. [laughter] Thank you, Mr. Jose. All right. Now that we have had committee reports and closed the public hearing, we'll go ahead and move into unfinished business. That we'll move over to you, Miss Hamilton. Ordinance number 2026-01, an ordinance amending and replacing part 11, planning and zoning code of the codified ordinances of the city of Worcester, Ohio, and the official zoning map. Mr. Jose, the floor is yours.

Yes, we've gone over this at length today between the committee meeting and um the public hearing we just had regarding the uh planning and zoning code amendments. Um, I plan on leaving this on second reading today and giving everybody a couple more weeks to hear from constituents or go over the uh information themselves. Um, so if there were no other questions, I'd just leave it on second reading. All right, this one has had its second reading and we'll go ahead and move into new business and the next one will be Mr. Malta. But before that, Miss Hamilton, go ahead and please read it. Resolution number 2026-02, a resolution authorizing the expenditure of additional funds with Duke's route control for the multi-ensor inspection of the Christmas Run interceptor and annual route control of the city's collection system and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Malta, the floor is yours. Thank you.

Mr. Fritz is here with us tonight if there's any questions that I cannot answer. Uh, however, it's budgeted. We're going over the budget as usual. fortunately. Um, but I think most of that is falling into the inspection of Christmas Ron interceptor. Mike and I talked about this quite a bit this afternoon. Um, we have done the problem section already. We're coming from the plant coming back north. Um, so yeah, we definitely need to have this inspected so that we can get this potentially lined in the future as we did the northern half coming down already to the Miller Lakes area. So [snorts] if there aren't any questions, I would suspend the rules.

All right, we have a motion to suspend the rules. Do we have a second? Second. Have a second. Oh, I don't Oh, I'm sorry. This is a budgeted item. So we have a motion to adopt. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Paul. Any further discussion. All right. Miss Hamilton. Mr. Mol? Yes. Mr. Paul? Yes. Mr. Owens? Yes. Miss Warden? Yes. Mr. Abernathy? Yes. Mr. Gaffy? Yes. Mr. Jose? Yes. All right. You have your approval. All right. Next resolution. 2026-3 will be also Mr. Malta. But before that, Miss Hamilton, go ahead and please read it.

Resolution number 2026-03, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to enter into a contract for the purchase of replacement meter transmission units and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Malta, the floor is yours.

Thank you. So, we are going to continue buying these every couple times a year. It's my understanding. We've done this in the past many times and we will continue doing it as they need replaced is a uh proprietary part sourced. So we're kind of stuck with these but they work very well to my knowledge to this point is budgeted. So I would uh any questions from anybody? I have a question. Um, do we ever envision having everything up to date or is this just going to be like an ongoing?

This is the part of the 15ear roll over on the meters. So, we have 10,000 meters. We need 700 of them a year, I believe. Okay. So, we're trying to keep it on track so that every 15 years, the batteries are good for 15 years. So before the batteries went dead, you know, in the past we got to um they stop reporting and it causes building problems. Sure.

If we can stay on this schedule hopefully in 15 years anymore, but the rest the people that are here will enjoy the benefit of uh having know having having uh kept the replacement schedule up to date. So, and then that I guess that begs the question, are the batteries replaceable or is this like when the battery ends then the useful life is gone? They call it they're potted in which means they're kind of filled in with silicone. So, okay. Waterproof and humidity doesn't interfere. Okay. [clears throat]

Thank you. And just for clarity, this is the transmitting unit that sits on top the meter. The meters are still good. They're still staying there. That's a different replacement schedule. These fit on the meters there. They are it's the radio part of the meeting. It's not we're trying to continue. So that's the that's the idea. Thank you. Any other questions? I'll move to adopt. We have a motion to adopt. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second by Mr. Owens. Miss Hamilton, would you please call the role? Mr. Malta? Yes. Miss Warden,

yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. All right. We have that one also approved for you. All right. And we have one more this evening. It'll be by Mr. Paul. It'll be 2026-4. But before that, Miss Hamilton, please go ahead and read it. Resolution number 2026-04, a resolution authorizing the director of finance to issue payment for services rendered exceeding the original incumbrance for the hydro cleaning of a sanitary sewer line and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Paul, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Abernathy. Um, unfortunately, when you're doing construction work, you have overruns and things that are not predictable. Um, I think most of us would agree that not having sufficient sewer line cleanliness out of Daisy would be environmentally and economically catastrophic. So, um, uh, Flinter, who's done work for the city in the past and has done outstanding work, uh, the cost over went over what budget was and, uh, it caused a $9850 shortfall. Um, their work was good. It was done in a timely fashion and did not interrupt services. Um, but simply more to do than we thought. So, did I miss anything?

Only that we were able to do the first cleaning. This was the second of the first cleaning. We were able to get it done while they were on a plant shut down. So, they did not need to do any bypass pumping. We obviously could not do the second one without w there are no shutdowns really. Um so rather than try to wait for a shutdown, we scheduled it with them to have available. So they did that. Um, but that basically doubled or tripled the cost of doing it without. So with Daisy's schedule, I think it's safe to say that going forward we'll have a better harbinger on how to budget that particular process. This was a one-off. Um, but it was done. It was done correctly and it was done in a timely fashion. [snorts]

They got it in the right. Everything worked. It was just We had a place. We thought we had enough money.

So, this was a budgeted pro uh project, so there's no need to suspend the readings. Um, I'd like to move to approve the distribution of $9,850 to Fler. Okay, we have a motion to adopt. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second by Mr. Husse. Miss Hamilton, please call the role. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes.

All right. Well, that finishes up all of our new business and we'll move into miscellaneous. And we had one person sign up, Mr. Mr. Barnett going to talk to us about the roundabout. Would you like a microphone this evening, Mr. Barnett?

I got it written down today. There's a few numbers I need to remember. Last fall after meeting, I met with Joel and started talking about property values. Joel mentioned that my property value would actually increase after the construction of the roundabout, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Experienced appraiser typically say that minor traffic changes might reduce property value by 3%. More noticeable traffic exposure could lower as 3 to 7%. And in severe cases, drop your value your house 10% or more. For instance, let's just take 5%. Easy math for me. $14,000. I'm going to lose. $14,000. The city is offering me $2,975 out of a desk. Essentially paying pennies on the dollar, convincing residents they are getting a good deal. This is a whole neighborhood, folks. It's just not my property. You're going to destroy a whole neighborhood doing this. That's I'll give you some names. Paul and Carol, Henry and Saran, Mike and his family, Dave and Mary, Matt, who else down Winkler, who else down Burbank? Anybody within this area will lose property value. You know, somebody told me I need to stay calm. Huh? You lose $14,000 and stay calm. We we make a neighborhood up there and

you want to destroy it. It will destroy it. It get Mike's property across the street, his driveway is almost going to go into the roundabout. That would fall under their 10%. That's a lot of money, folks. You consider all them houses. Let's just take an average $250,000 right there over $13,000 in property value lost. Thank you. Thank you. And this is from a real estate agent local one. Thank you, Mr. Barnett. We will go ahead and uh move into additional miscellaneous and we'll start this week over with Mr. Jose.

Yeah, thank you everybody who participated in the laws and ordinances committee. I think it was productive conversation overall. Uh we'll still have a couple more weeks to review, go over, hear from people. Um and uh we did air during the public hearing to uh not mention or remind everybody we did get a couple letters of support Mr. Marian passed along um from local entities uh in support of the zoning amendment changes. And that's all I had tonight. Mr. Ha.

Thank you, Mr. Jose, Mr. Paul. Good evening, folks. I just want to remind everybody in the public, uh it's cold out. [laughter] take care of yourselves, but also, you know, Worcester is a great community and we have a lot of people who through no fault of their own maybe just can't quite function in the in the cold weather out there. So, keep your eyes open. Let's try to be good neighbors and help those who can't help themselves. Thank you, Mr. Abernathy. Thank you, Mr. Paul. Mr. Gaffy.

Yeah, I just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and sharing with city council. And uh thank you Vince for um your time and effort that you've put into this uh and for the information, answering questions, etc. Um definitely appreciate the police department. So I look forward to uh being able to recognize uh some of our officer officers uh in the near future here. Um that's it for me. Thank you, Mr. Gaffy. Miss Warden,

thank you. Um, last week I well I'm a part of the Wayne County agricultural success team and last week we had a farmers listening lunch um where I would say about a hundred people showed up um perhaps more. I'm always bad at gauging that. But anyways, one of the um main themes of the conversation that we had that day was um the general concern by our farm community for um farmland preservation. And I I was happy to to have been reviewing the um zoning updates that we've been working on here at the city and to see that that was kind of at the forefront um of it was in the focus of what you all were were working towards. So um I'm happy to see that and I think that our farming community will benefit from that as well. Um, the only other thing I'd like to say is thank you to the road crew for um being out so often and spraying and plowing and salting and doing whatever you can to to keep the roadway safe. Um, I know it's not a pleasant job and the hours are probably miserable this time of year, but we really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Wharton. Mr. Malta, thank you. And as always, thank you all those in attendance and watching us live here on YouTube. Um, I don't have a lot tonight. I do have to state that I cannot make it next week. So, I would like to con I'm sorry on the second. Um, would like to congratulate all of those at the police department. Wonderful job that they do and reiterate we do a great job in this city. Hopefully we don't run out of salt. I know there's been some complaints in other places where they're not allowed to get it, but uh we seem to be doing good. So, thanks. Thank you, Mr. Malta, Mr. Owens.

Um, to echo everyone else's, uh, sentiments, I want to thank everyone who came out tonight, those who spoke um at the public hearing at the end. Um, thank you, Vince, for all of your work on this and answering all of my questions certainly, as well as everyone else's. Um, I hope everyone uh got to enjoy their MLK day yesterday. I had the privilege of attending a few events at the college as well as at First Presbyterian, and that was really wonderful. And I would also like to uh call out and recognize our students at the college, faculty, staff, community members who uh exercised their first amendment right this evening to stand in solidarity with the city of Minneapolis. But on that note, everyone have a good night.

Thank you, Mr. Owens. And I I just want to also recognize Mr. Fritz here. You guys do an outstanding job in your in your planning. And you know, sometimes when we get those orders way ahead of time, we look at it and we're like, what are we doing ordering all this salt and stuff and then we get this and then we're like that's why we do it and we're very grateful because as as has been said here, there are other communities who are not doing as well as us. So well done on the planning and and putting us in position to have our roads in fantastic condition and being able to treat them quickly. So uh I I just want to say thank you to that. And so with that I need a motion to adjurnn.

Motion. Motion by Mr. Husse. I need a second. Second by Miss Warden. All in favor please signify by saying I. I. None opposed. Meeting is adjourned. Press it for 10.