City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening. It is after 7:30 or after 7 p.m. And uh welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of Worcester City Council being held this Monday, March 16th. Uh we are obviously live here in council chambers and also on uh YouTube. And our next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Monday, April 6th, 2026. Miss Hamilton, will you please call the role on the uh council members, please?

Mr. Abernathy, here. Mr. Mr. Gaffy here. Mr. Jose, Mr. Malta here, Mr. Owens, Mr. Paul here, Miss Warden. Okay. Well, we have a short agenda and we have a few members missing, we were well aware of the members were not going to be here this evening and at this point with the one piece of legislation that we have, we can uh fortunately move that forward with those that are in attendance this evening. We do have a quorum and the agenda will remain as presented. At this time, I ask you to stand and join the members of state in reciting the pledge.

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. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting? Motion. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Paul. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

All opposed. All right. Minutes are approved. Communications from the mayor. Good evening, Mr. Mayor.

Good evening, Mr. President. Council members, um, thank you for I guess we we've got to be here or we're the ones that showed up, but it's a brutal night compared to what we've had over the weekend. Um, first I want to note that our flags are at half staff today by order of Governor Dwine in honor and recognition of the three National Guard members who died last week in the Middle East. Um, I didn't you I heard that announcement today and it was only on the way into the building I recognized that the flags out front weren't at half mass. So, I want to thank Jonathan for jumping in and taking care of that. Um, it really I guess it's March in Ohio is about the best way you can explain it. Um, a lot of wind damage Friday night from from that. Uh, many trees down and we had trees crews working throughout the weekend on um the road closures. We had a lot of people without power. I think do we have everybody back on power as far as we know at this point? at 4:00 there were still a list of about 20 residents at least on the A.

And part of the problem we had is that I think most of the power outages we had were streets um as opposed to full neighborhoods or full communities. So A and other crews were running throughout the state were places where they could make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time. So you know if it was just your house that was out you were at the bottom of the list. So, I guess that's the good news and the bad news if you're one of those people. So, um a lot of people had a tough weekend. Um Saturday though and Sunday were uh you know, gorgeous. Uh got a chance to get out Sunday, walk through Christmas Run Park. The pool demolition is moving ahead. Um you're going to see a lot of if you wander back up there, you're going to see a lot of rubble, not a lot of concrete left, at least intact concrete. uh the pollinator garden uh down that uh Quantis Club installed looks like it survived and again it's amazing with snow flying out there but uh Sunday afternoon there were the park was full of kids there were people playing basketball there were people playing pickle ball so it was just uh crazy weather we've been having um as far as the activity we've had um I think I told you some of these things I I forewarned you about or told you in advance about on the 3 we had a tri-ity meeting with the mayors and staff from Orville Ville and Ripman and we've already scheduled the next one for June and at this point again Matt Plybin and myself from Orville have been in office two years and we're we're the veterans. Uh uh Rudy Arnold from Ripman is brand new. So this is as much as anything at a a get to know you situation for for the time being. Um the fourth we had our every other meeting every other month managers meeting in this room um which is a time to kind of share uh both ways feedback with our uh department managers and give them information about what's going on in the city and hear their concerns. The fifth there is a group in the county called the egg success team. They held an event out at uh the college

of food agricultural environmental science which uh we think of as the OEDC of a certain age. Um it was pretty good cross-section of people from the county, both government officials and egg officials. Um and the good news that we learned from out there is uh their enrollment is up in that program which they've been down a little bit. So they're very encouraged by that. Um we had uh I think the we all had interviews that day. the administration with uh Rand Associates is now doing in the midst of doing the city audit and they've reached out to a number the administration side as part of that process they'll interview uh both elected officials and administrative officials about processes and concerns and if they haven't done so already they'll be reaching out to all the council members and just a reminder that your cooperation and assistance in that uh is is a important part of that process. Um, Saturday was the Worcester Township Volunteer Fire Department pancake day out at Triway High School. Um, I don't know that you know too much about this yet, but we are they're building a new fire station there down on Hy Road and they are talking to us about um getting water for that. So, we think we're going to be able to make something happen. I'll have to go through councel uh when we do that. But it's a good way really for one governmental entity to help another. And uh it seemed of those I think they told me they served 2900 people. And when we were which is a huge crowd of people for an event like that and I think about a third of them came over and thanked us for extending the water. So if we don't do this we're in big trouble is about a long s. This is, if you'll recall this, we brought this to your attention a year ago, I think, or about that time. This is the one where um Max Miller's office got them about $3

million to help in the construction of that fire station. And I think I shared this with council only because the first phone call that went out when that award came through happened to come to us and they congratulated us for the $3 million award for the Worcester Township Fire Department. And I had to explain to the person calling that that's great news for our community, but it really doesn't help the city of Worcester that much. But uh I guess indirectly it's going to because it's going to help pay for that water line. Um the WDC had their regular meeting out at Western Reserve Insurance. Um we had a meeting the next day with the 11th with Main Street Worcester leadership there in the course of or in the process of redoing their strategic plan. So Main Street's a very important part of what um we have growing in Worcester and we want to make sure that that continues. Um Landry Mloud who you've met uh is working on a video for a welcome home to Worcester campaign. So, we've all done spots for that. At least some of us have. And she's reaching out to other members of the community. I know Ben Mayall has been part of one. Andy Michael out at uh CFAS. Um Gabe Tutor's done one. So, interesting interesting to see how that turns out. I've got some materials on your desk. Uh you may have seen this paper, but last week uh on March 11th, the uh Harvest for Hunger Food Bank campaign kicked off at the JM Smucker facility downtown Orville. And you probably all remember the um the JM Smucker store that was there were in 57 south of town. Well, they've that didn't fit in with their corporate plans going forward. I think it's part of being bought out. They've donated that facility to the uh Akran Kitten Food Bank and they had an open house then so that the Wednesday night event was more of a uh for the governmental leadership and the

GM Smucker people who were involved in that. The Thursday was an open house and the materials I brought back were from the open house. Um I learned a lot at that. Um, I didn't realize how active the Akran Kaitton Food Bank was in Wayne County and how many of our organizations in town rely on that already, but you know, in the past it's all been coming out of Stark and Summit County. So, this will give that organization a Wayne County presence. So, and it's a they were saying it's, as you might imagine, it's a beautiful facility and much improved on what they're typically dealing with in the food bank world. and they talk about how the Wayne County people are get kind of the envy of all the other food bank areas in the in the system. Um then that evening um Thursday after or Thursday evening we had our first coffee and conversation with the mayor event at M at Marielola Italian. uh turnout wasn't great. Um but those there had the opportunity to ask as many questions as he wanted and they took advantage of it. But it was a nice opportunity and the people that were there I think did get a chance to find out some things. Um we've done two of those. The second one was Saturday morning at the library and you know you get a real cross-section of uh of input on those things. Uh we had one person dealing with a specific um sewer issue that was really might have been best addressed by going directly to John Rice, but but we talked about that. Probably economic development was number one topic. Um questions about that. WGO was a topic. Um the retail, you know, stores coming to town is always a topic. But um we'll we don't have anything planned for followup immediately, but I think we'll do it again. maybe quarterly we'll do a series. We're kind of playing around with that. Friday we met with Carson Cook who's a representative from Senator Marino's office. Again, once again, we are

fishing for money um for any projects that Senator Marino would would like to help us support. So, we'll see how that turned out. We had a good meeting with him. Um we're able to sell him a little bit on the community and things going on. Um and hopefully get something positive out of that positive out of that. Uh March 14th 314th as you may know are is Pi Day. Um and Phil Terski and I celebrated it not once but twice because it fell on a Saturday. Idisu had an event on Friday for their clients and uh invitees. So we went and had lunch there and that was a good time. And then today uh the IT department scheduled a true pi day which was just limited to pi. Friday was uh traditional pie plus pizza pie. Today was just pie, but that didn't hold us back. We went and did that. Um and then just before this uh we sat in on uh Jonathan did a program at 6:00 and 6:30. Um I don't know if he's going to talk at all about, but uh about the CDBG and CHIP grant public hearing uh program that he had a public hearing for. Then he had a fair housing information session and the materials are out and available. I don't know if you should pass those around but they're if you're interested um they're out there. Looking ahead uh Wednesday we have Wayne Trails meeting this week. Um the 19th we have our quarterly meeting with WDC and also uh the Wayne County commissioners. On Friday WDC lined up a leadership team from Hartville, the mayor and some other um people. like so many people, they're coming to talk to us about the downtown, say basically how did uh you know, tell us the history behind this. You know, we'd like to replicate what you've got going in Worcester with regards to your downtown. I'd like to see how you did that. Um the other handout I gave you on the 26th, there's a back on the court basketball game at Triway High School

involving our first responders and the Special Olympics basketball team. That's a nice event. I think if you know, we have two schools in the county that do something of the same nature. Orville High School does one involving their basketball teams. This is a first responders event and if you choose to attend this, it's be a good event. Then finally on April 2nd, um SEFAS again is having a state of the college event. They do this out of Columbus. It's for their whole school of agriculture which is based in Columbus, Worcester, and I think a couple other spots. So from from Worcester, it's a remote um participation, but uh we'll be in attendance. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Joel and I think to Andre, too. You've got some things that you want to cover.

I just piggyback off of Andre.

I think uh Mr. Admraat, he's going to make a committee announcement later on, but uh the third quarter uh finance and operations report uh will be available next month. So just a heads up. And then the month after that, we'll be seeing the 20 27 city tax budget. I can't believe I'm saying that, but you will. Anyway, that's it for me, Kathy. Yeah, just a couple of items. Um, there were some items in the update memo we sent out on uh Friday that we didn't share a lot of information, but there's a lot of things going on. on the arts district is something um it's currently under design and we're working pretty closely with uh the uh the county commissioners and you know the the site of the former health department building to incorporate that into that arts district. So, um it's just it's been exciting to work with them and look look towards doing something um that will contribute to the whole arts district and and uh I know Phil's been working on another grant program for another attraction or facility that we can put down there hopefully in that place. So, hopefully have some more information in the coming next month or two um on that. It just it's really coming together. something that started out in the comprehensive plan um 13 years ago before this latest one that we're in that concept came out. So just neat to see that coming to fruition. Um John Rice had mentioned under the projects update about the Burbank Winkler Oldman. Um, and that is something that we're proceeding along with the uh the requirements, the federal requirements when it comes to, you know, appraisals and and making offers and those kind of things. We probably have about another month or so

of that, probably a couple weeks for final offers to go out. John's going to go through the door as much as he can as well as the required notices that we have to send, you know, in in letters and things like that. Um, and so probably with within the next two months, month, month and a half, we'll be coming to probably coming back to council with some updates and information, potentially some uh movement there. Um, I just wanted to also point out there was a brief uh note in here about Eden Life. Um, new business down on the corner down I I can't remember what used to be in on the corner downtown or in the square, but uh um anyway, looks like HomeGoods and those kind of things. just mentioned it because it was open Saturday. My wife already purchased several items in there. Um so just to mention that to you. A just a nice addition to that corner down there. Um the uh the Graham Farm annexation, you know, now that we're we're past that. Um it has generated quite a bit of interest. There's been several people calling, not just there, but once there were some articles in the paper and we've had a lot of interest from other types of housing developers, apartments for all over the city, not just there, but that that just sort of opened the door to a lot of people calling. So, um, and asking questions about available sites and for different kinds of housing. So, hopefully we'll have some things maybe to come back to you with that soon. Um, I did attend a strategic planning session for the schools. are starting down that uh down that road right now. And I just as a summary, just a couple of things that came up, there was pretty much consensus about the great programs and academics that the school has, but obviously the aging facilities. Um the room we were in had pictures of all of their facilities in it. And the newest facility is the high school, which is 32 years old. So the rest are older than that. Obviously, Cornerstone's over 100 years old. So that obviously um dominated a good bit of the discussion

moving forward. Um Jonathan had sent a memo I think to all of council along with some data and presentations. Just want to point that out um on economic development and some initiatives and things that have been coming up um frequently on several projects. So you'll see those as we you know over the next couple of months we come to council. Um just trying to think strategically about those things. Um, and one thing that wasn't in Kevin White's uh update in transportation is he also gave a presentation today at Rotary on the transportation program that was pretty well uh received. So, I just wanted to point that out. He did a great job.

I should add, speaking of updates, um, uh, City News and Bruise opened today officially. Uh, I stuck my head in there in between before the meeting and they had a great crowd. So, another nice addition to downtown. Now, they've been working on that project for quite a while. Uh, this will be my shortest agenda review ever. Uh, ordinance number 202606, the proposed CRA with Compact and Star Bakers on third reading. I'm going to wrap up with two things. Um, I happen to get an email today that I wanted to share with council. Um, the city snowplow knocked off our mailbox back in January, the very first time in the 45 years we lived here. I called Andrew at Public Properties. He sent someone over to eyeball it right away. He promised a repair as soon as weather permitted. True to his word, in early March, he had a colleague repair and reinstall the box in fine working order. It was a pleasure and a source of reassurance to deal with Andrew. He was true to his word in a timely fashion. And the repair looks great. Perhaps most importantly, my wife is pleased with the outcome and thus so am I. So, piece of good news. The other thing I would throw in, you may have seen in last week's uh paper, there's an article about the um 250 uh America 250 white oak project. Um maybe you had to look for it, but it's a statewide project that's kind of run through the county. Um the county is basically letting different uh political subdivisions in in their county order white oak trees um to be planted in recognition of the 250th. Want to let you know that we have we will be signing up for that. Um, and speaking of trees, um, this is, we've touched on this before, but this is the 50th anniversary of the initial Tree City USA program. And, um, we were one of the charter members or initial award uh, recipients of that. And we're one of the few

recipients that have continued that designation all 50 years. So they are doing something in in later this year. I think April 22nd we've booked as the date for the event. Um and there's going to be you know the national program is coming to Worcester as part of that and there'll be more information on that to come. But we got this video this week and Joel tried to talk me into saving it till it was something closer to the event. But I'm like a a kid at Christmas. I have no patience for that. So we got this. I wanted to share it and get it out there. So you'll see that there's like a first slide or two where it talks about Worcester, Ohio, but I think this same video went out to all the cities that are in the program and they just gave you that first slide with your name on it. But if you So I point that only because you're going to see the city of Worcester feature pretty prominently in this video in several occasions and this went out again this wasn't customized for us but for everybody. So, Phil,

hi, I'm Dan Lamb, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. Congratulations on earning your 50th Tree City USA recognition. We are honored to celebrate you as one of the original Tree Cities, growing with us since the very beginning, 1976. This milestone is more than a number. It reflects your leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to the health and vitality of your community. Your dedication has never been just about trees. It has always been about people, ensuring cleaner air, stronger neighborhoods, and a more resilient future for everyone who calls your city home. Thank you for showing our nation what's possible when leaders invest in their urban forests. Your work has inspired thousands of other communities. Today, more than 3,500 cities nationwide are part of the Tree City USA family. Here's to the next 50 years of growing vibrant, thriving communities together. So, Mr. President, thank you for indulging me. I took a little more time than normal, but uh I thought we had some worthwhile things to share.

All right. Thank you. No, that was uh that was a very interesting video. All right. Well, we'll move on to petitions, communications from the public, which we had no one sign up for that section. Uh, we have no committee reports. I do, Mr. President. I do need to schedule April 20th for finance committee. And Mr. Dhy, 30 minutes or an hour? How long I need 15 at the most? How about the cap right here? Sir, how much do you need? 30 minutes. Okay. So, we'll set it for 6:30. All right. No, I think 30 + 15.

30 + 15. All right. We'll set it for 6 p.m. Thank you. All right, sounds good. All right, we have no public hearings, so we'll move on to our unfinished business, which as we had previously stated, we only have one item, which at this point, Miss Hamilton, will you please read it for us? Ordinance number 2026-06, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Compact LLC and Starbaker 2570 LLC for community reinvestment area tax incentives and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abery, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. So, this will be a CRA 75% for 10year. We are on our third reading here. So, I think we've had ample time to review. Uh I think any questions that have arised, we've asked them. Any further discussion or questions we want to bring up as a council hearing? None. I'm going to motion to adopt. Motion to adopt second. Second by Mr. Paul. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Malta,

yes. All right, you're all set, Mr. Stra. Uh, we move on to new business, which we have none, which takes us right into miscellaneous, which we have, uh, eight people that have signed up to speak for uh, two minutes at a pop. And we'll start off with uh, Reverend Walter Clark. Good evening, Reverend.

Thank you for your time, council members. My name is the Reverend Walter Clark. I'm a citizen of the city of Worcester and the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Wayne County. I'm here tonight to let the council know about my concerns regarding future cooperation of the Wayne County Law Enforcement with the Federal Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE. One of the things that I've really appreciated since moving here to Worcester in 2021 is just how well law enforcement performs their duties in the city of Worcester. The role of law enforcement is to help keep the peace, to protect its citizenry. And I've witnessed firsthand the admirable work of local law enforcement officers. It is obvious to me that the police here prioritize deescalation over force. By contrast, ICE officials seem to prioritize actions rooted in brute force and scare tactics. And so my concern is that if the citizens of Worcester were to hear that local police were cooperating with an organization that employs such heavyhanded techniques, it would diminish the local the reputation of our local law enforcement. It would erode their trust with the citizens that they have so well earned, the citizens that they are charged to protect and would make our law officers jobs more difficult in the future. As a religious leader, it is my goal to make sure that the worth and dignity of every person is recognized regardless of their identities. The actions of ICE officers on a national stage are very much not in line with those ideals. Nor do I think they're in line with the ideals of the city of Worester. I hope that this council recognizes the dangers of aligning themselves with such a problem

problematic organization at this time. Please let the local police do their jobs as they have. Thank you. Uh, Herbert Weber. Good evening again, Mr. Weber.

Good evening, city councilors, members of the public. My name is Weber. I live for 21102 Fisher Drive here in Wor. Words matter. The language used by the Department of Homeland Security and Ohio SB 172 just two examples assumes that everyone is guilty until proven innocent. and I quote on this one allows for SB7172 allows local officers to detain individuals based solely on suspected unlawful presence. This is in contradiction of the presumption of innocence as a fundamental legal principle derived from the due process process clauses of the fifth and 14th amendments. However, all are here and upholding the law and those who violate it must be held responsible. This includes ICE and CBP agents of the Department of Homeland Security. Nobody is above the law. The city of Worester law enforcement needs to investigate any violations of court orders, illegal detainments or arrests by ICE or CBP agents. Worster will only be safe if everybody is held to the same standard. Nobody is safe until everyone is safe. Thank you. Thank you, Pablo Delgado.

Good evening, Mr. Delgato.

Members of the council, my name is Pablo. I want to speak just as a person of faith and as somebody that works uh close with immigrants. There are Bible verses in the Bible that tells me uh it shapes my the way I look at people. U Zechariah talks about not oppressing the the widow, the orphan, the the foreigner. You know, in Matthew 25, it talks about, "I was hungry. He fed me. I was thirsty and he gave me something to drink. I was a foreigner or a stranger." You welcome him. Um and it's not only as a a a spiritual guidance, but I think it's also a call on how we build community. I am from Costa Rica originally. I became a US citizen and I feel very welcome this country, like this nation that I love. Um, but it just it's a it's a big concern when I see hardworking families, immigrant families with kids that are living in anxiety and fear in our communities. I know um I I know that and I understand that the federal government is above the the decisions you guys can make, but the the voice that comes out of this building, it matters. It matters to the citizens. The the leadership, the local leadership, the local government matters. Um, we we respect you. We value you. And most importantly, I know I'm running out of time. We're not here to to none of us come pointing fingers telling any question you have guys. We want to walk with you. We want your support. We want you guys to to walk next walk with us. That's basically what I my hope is that we can send a message of dignity and compassion and wisdom to the citizens. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Ann Warner. Good evening, Miss Warner.

I'm Ann Warner, 1515 Drive, Worcester. Thank you for giving me these minutes to share my thoughts. I moved to Worcester over 50 years ago from a small bedroom suburb of Dayton. I loved Worcester immediately. It had a strong sense of community, a friendliness I had never experienced before. There were numerous city parks, trees galore, and it was obvious the residents cared about the city and their neighbors. I think that caring, that respect for others and the desire to protect the quality of life that we that under that we have here underlies many of the comments that you've been hearing expressed recently in some of these. Yesterday, I found the city's mission statement. In the first sentence, it says, "The mission of city of Worcester is to partner with our community to deliver services, conserve resources, protect quality of life, and plan for the future. How you plan right now is critical to protecting Worcester's quality of life. Right now, there are efforts by the federal and the state government to require cities and their employees to partner with and cooperate with federal agencies in ways that could destroy much of what Worcester has been created to be. Our city leaders need to protect the very laws and infrastructure that have made Worcester a well-run and thriving home for his residents. Please pass ordinances to protect our city and our police force. And please don't allow federal agencies like ICE to co-opt them. Worester law officers are not trained to wear masks and hide their identities. They're not trained to terrorize their city and they're not trained to enforce federal immigration laws. They are trained to keep us safe and they do that very well. Thank you.

Thank you, Linda Weirwill. Yes. Hello, Mrs. WA. Good evening.

I note that we opened our meeting with the pledge of allegiance. We all joined together. Uh, justice for all was mentioned there. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. as to the presence of ice in Wayne County and the greater Worcester area, knowing what we do know now from the experience of ICE in Minneapolis, where citizens constitutional rights were virtually ignored, where both citizens and immigrants on a path toward citizenship were inhumanely treated by the entity we call ICE. I am opposed to any type of occupation or interference of ICE in Wayne County. It behooves this council and our community to begin to make a plan that does not allow the ICE operation to come and decimate our community as it has a pattern of doing. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh Joe Harper.

Good evening. Yes, please.

My name is Joe Harper. I live at 506 Street. I'm asking you this evening to pass a resolution that Worester will not approve using state or local resources to assist ICE if they come to Worester. ICE has made an unsafe environment in the cities where they have been in previous searches for people of all walks of life, especially people of color who have been dragged out of their homes and imprisoned only to be released days later because they're here legally. ICE also has nearly infinite resources at their fingertips. Our Worcester city resources should serve those who live here instead of any broad political agenda. As many have mentioned, working with ICE actively undermines community trust towards law enforcement. Untrained ICE agents put sheriffs and local officers at risk. Despite what their vests say, they're not police and they don't have the authority to enforce nonimmigration related codes and laws. I want my tax dollars used to care for our citizens instead of harming my neighbors. Thank you.

Thank you. Eva Lion. Good evening, Miss Lion.

Hi. Um, I'm Eva Lion, 917 Spank Street. Um, I've lived in Worcester for almost two years now, but I also was a student at the college earlier this century. Um, so I wanted to uh express my concern to uh tonight about the um uh bloom of traffic cameras uh surveillance cameras including but not limited to the flop cameras that I see all around the city at every major intersection. Um I have any questions about these cameras and um the software that underlies them, the um AI systems that might be used in conjunction with these cameras. Um, I understand that the city made a contract with Flock in the fall of 2024, and I have several questions around that, including what motivated this decision to contract with Flock. Um, who asked for this surveillance system? Um, and where does the data go and what is the policy on that data use? Who is that data shared with? Can anyone request that that data be shared with them, including law enforcement entities like Bison, CBP, and others? Um, and what is the taxpayer to be surveiled by these systems. Um so I would like to close by requesting that um the city end or resend the contract with Flock uh because of their relationship with um companies like Palunteer that are known for mass surveillance of American citizens and their collaboration with ICE and CBP uh which is very concerning and um until we can answer the questions that I have asked I think that the best thing to do would be to resend this um contract. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, last, Alex Nord. Hello, Mr. Nord.

Good evening. Thank you. My name is Alex Nord. I'm at 2011 Pearl Street. Um, and in anticipation of ICE activities, I just want to urge city council and everyone who has any amount of power to consider preparing specific directives for local law enforcement on how to protect the lives and rights of Worcester residents from ICE agents. Um, you know, it's very well documented at this point that ICE has been enthusiastically deploying wanting and extrajudicial violence against people who they just perceive as opposed to them in any way. Um, often with blatant disregard for the law. Um, moreover, you know, as we saw in Minnesota with the killing of Alex Freddy, um, you know, someone was basically murdered for exercising their Second Amendment rights and Ohio is a constitutional carry state. I think that we are at particular risk in, you know, a small town in a red state of those sorts of events repeating themselves potentially. Um, you know, I think it's only a matter of time until ISIS active in our community. And I think it's essential that we have or that we have specific plans for how the Worcester PD will work to serve and protect the residents of Worcester and ensure that our safety is prioritized above the whims of ICE agents. Um, so I'd be curious to know if we already have plans to this effect, what are they? And if we don't have plans to protect the people of serve, why haven't we established those? Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to the rest of our miscellaneous, which will start with Mr. Gaffy this evening.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, and thank you everybody for coming tonight. Uh, very important for your voice to be heard and so we really appreciate when citizens come and share uh, concerns or have questions, you know, for council. I think um, that some good points were brought up tonight and and some good questions were asked and so um, definitely wanted to just say we appreciate that for sure. Um, that's really all I have for tonight. All right. Thank you, Mr. Malta.

I will repeat that. Um, yes, thank you all for coming. We do like to see this audience. We spend a lot of time here without one. So, we do appreciate your time coming out to join us and all of your comments are well retained. We're definitely listening and hope to have more conversations as well. So, again, thank you. And viewing is an issue. Um, I missed the last meeting. I know we've helped out some with the hearing impaired, but anybody at that podium or out outskirts without a microphone directly in front of them is virtually unheard on YouTube. So, I highly encourage that we make some kind of adjustments for that as soon as possible.

We've ordered additional microphone. Thank you. That's all I have. Just out of curiosity, what is the time frame on those? They should be here Wednesday. Wednesday. We're hoping to be here this past Friday, but they didn't have the materials in time. So, this Wednesday, they should be installed, which will be in addition to what we already have. So, we should be able to use one or two of those for the speaker in addition to the ones we currently use. Excellent. Wonderful. Excellent, Mr. Paul.

Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening, folks. I'd echo my colleagues sentiments. What makes our city government great is when we get participation from our citizens. So, thank you for speaking up, speaking your mind, and defending the Constitution. Uh, tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day. I'm Irish. It's important to me. But also, in addition to that, at the beginning of April, it's Easter. And so, we have two holidays coming up. I'd like to wish the people in our community a happy St. Patrick's Day and a happy Easter. And uh I'd also like to thank the city crews who did an absolutely wonderful job of getting the trees off the roads and out of the yards uh over the past week. Uh I don't know, last night the wind was incredible and I was amazed at how well we were prepared for it. So they're doing a great job and I hope if you guys see them out on the street you give him a nice pat on the back as well. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Abernathy.

Thank you. I'd like to congratulate BJ, Chad, and Mitch down at City News and Bruise. Um, this has been a long process for them to get open, and I know that they're excited to get started. Um, to to continue to modernize uh that part of downtown uh is is great. It's another new option for for dining, entertainment, uh good entertainment. Uh obviously, uh good hours down there. Um not late night. um having the golf simulator down there, something very unique and different downtown that we've we've not had in years. So, a new form of entertainment, but just seeing that area, you know, evolve and grow from, you know, City Square, the Lyric reopening, you know, we we we we're getting, you know, City News. I know there's an ice cream shop going down there. We have a, you know, I'm sorry if it's slipping my mind, a wine bar down there. But there there is a definite shift to what that part of downtown looks like now. And it's very encouraging, you know, that that not everybody's thinking about just the north end that, you know, there's a lot of talk about our downtown and our downtown is fantastic. and it's just a testament to and look these guys are just ordinary normal guys who took a chance and and decided to invest in downtown. So, uh kudos to them and uh I encourage anybody everybody to check it out and they're local guys here in Worcester. They're not out oftowners. So, I I just want to continue to encourage people check it out and support local here. And with that, that's all I got.

All right. Well, thank you. And I will uh add to the downtown portion. I was at a planning commission meeting in Madina on last Thursday and pretty much got grilled by the mayor and the uh economic development individual were, you know, talking about our downtown and what did we do and how have we done it, etc. So, at this point, we certainly have uh we've done a great job. We can thank a number of people for that, but overall the entire community has been exceptionally helpful with that and it's uh it's a great situation for us. So with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn this evening?

Motion. Is there a second? Second. A second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. We are adjourned. Thank you all. We want to stay here all night.