City Council - Regular Meeting

Quiet. All right, good evening. It is after 7 p.m. and this is the regularly scheduled meeting of Worcester City Council held this Monday, April 6th. Um, we are live here in council chambers. We are also live on streamed on YouTube and our next regularly scheduled council meeting will be Monday, April 20th, 2026. Miss Hamilton, please call the role of those in attendance, please.

Mr. Abernathy here. Mr. Gaffy here. Mr. Jose here. Mr. Malta here. Mr. Owens here. Mr. Paul here. Miss Warden

here. Okay, we have a quorum and the agenda will remain as presented. At this time, I'll ask you to stand and join the members of city 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. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting? Motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor signify by saying I.

I. Any opposed. All right. Minutes are approved. Mr. Mayor. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. President, members of council. Um, I'm going to once again uh start by immediately kicking this over to Chief Fischer. Um, and I'll let him do the explaining as to why we uh we have so many uh of our finest gathered here tonight. So before I do the explaining, I'll let you watch for yourselves uh the video clip from the body cam that night.

If we lose radio because we're fully subdued. Just bring one. Pull it back. Let it go.

It's not working. Not working. Not working still. Breaking.

Watch your head. You need to get out. Roll out. Ma'am, you need ask reacher. Unbuckle. Here's a hand right here. Unbuckle. Unbuckle your seat belt.

Other side. She's still buckled in. She's still buckled in. She's still buckled in. Oh my god. Here. I've got a hold of you here. Right here. Okay. Bring your legs out underneath of you. We're going to work our way back to the land. Okay. I've got a hold of you right here. You are going to float. Okay. I've got you. Okay. Lean back on me. Oh no.

So I can tell you uh that call came in about 5:20 in the morning uh down at Gross Gene. Uh you can all see about how much headroom was left. that car for the woman that was trapped in there. So, that's why we're here tonight because the officers that waited into that freezing cold water at 30° out and rescued this woman, they clearly saved her life. They wouldn't wouldn't have been there. She may not be with us. So, I actually have um some life-saving awards to give out and I also have two awards of valor. And rather than read each one, I'm just going to read one because the the incident is all one. Right? So Lis yours is on top. So I'm going to go with with that one. Okay. On March 27th, 2026, at approximately uh 0513 hours, dispatch received a call for a female who advised she had driven into high flood waters and was now trapped in her vehicle, which was filling with water. The temperature at the time of the call was approximately 30 with 10 mph winds. You were the first officer on scene and without hesitation got out of your vehicle and began walking into the freezing rising flood waters to reach the vehicle. When you got to the vehicle, only 10 in of the roof were exposed. You climbed onto the roof of the roof of the vehicle and the female inside could be heard yelling for help as the vehicle continued to sink and be pushed further into the water by the current. The water was approximately 5 to 5 and 1/2 ft deep and that strong current Schaffer arrived on scene and provided you with a glass break tool and after several attempts you were able to break the vehicle's window. As you cleared the glass with your flashlight, you received a cut on your hand that required several stitches. Despite your injury, you realized the fe female was still belted into the vehicle and by now only 3 to 4

in of the vehicle's roof was exposed. You and Mio Schaefer talked to the female and coached her to unbuckle her seat belt. He then reached under the water to grab a hold of her, pulling her out through the window. Once the female was extracted from the vehicle, she was in emotional distress. She told you she was unable to walk because she was so cold and submerged for an extended period. You then floated the female on her back to a high point where you could get her out of the water. After working to calm the female, you then grabbed her by the arms and began to carry escort her to a waiting medical personnel. Based on Worcester Police Department policy 1034.4, I'm awarding you the Worcester Police Department's Award of Valor. The award of valor may be awarded to any Worester Police officer for an act of bravery that demonstrates obvious self-sacrifice in the face of death or serious injury. You represented the Worester Police Department and yourself in the finest fashion. Your actions uphold the highest traditions of law enforcement and the Worester Police Department. Thank you for your bravery and keep up the good work. That's for all of you. All right. So you have to turn face to

Yep.

All right. So There's your award of valor. We've ordered you a glass plaque. It hasn't come in yet. So, this framed letter is your placeholder until the award arrives.

You too should be very proud of yourselves. Um, this is patrolman Ryan King seated right here. This is Kagan Schaeer who is an NPO which is a master patrol officer and this is officer Liverp and very proud of them for their actions. Clearly they saved this woman's life. Thank you. Now, while I'm sure Mr. Police people, you'd all like to stay for the rest of the meeting. Uh, you don't have to. You can go. I'll take it from here. Thank you,

Do you want me to pull back? Chief, what part of Gross Gene Road? Uh down under the the railroad bridge right there.

Thank you, Chief. Um, I I may sound like a broken record at times because I think I often say how proud I am and humbled I am to to have this position. And part of it's because of the people that, you know, you're you're part of or responsible for the work that they do. And then, you know, something like that happens and it goes all over again. You know, you're humbled right away. Again, you know, that's, you know, I think as elected officials and city employees, we're all kind of determined to to look out for our citizens in our community and their safety and and health. And that's where the bar is at. Okay. So, it probably should choke us all up a little bit. And the other thing that's that they don't mention is that, and I chief can verify this, I stepped out for a second, but you know, my lifetime, we lost two officers in July 4th, 69. And I think we've lost more officers through floods than any other anything else in in the course of duty, at least in my lifetime. So that was a very not just a a tough situation, but a very dangerous situation for them. And and again, it's just uh amazing set of people we've got working for us. I want to uh give some recognition for that. Um, couple things I want to point out and she may have already successfully ducked us, but um, I think you've got the newsletter that's just gone out and uh, it's kind of a spring summer newsletter and I was hoping Landry would still be here, but I think she may be out taking pictures, but a lot of people put effort into this as part of putting the the pieces uh, or assembling the pieces, but Landry gets uh, all the credit for editorial editorial work and assembling it and getting it printed. So, uh, hats off to her. I think we've got a really nice production out there and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it, um, just for the the formatting of it and the presentation it makes for the community. Okay, quick rundown of the what's happened since we last met. Um, on the

17th, uh, we I think Phil, Joel, and I met with Gil Ning to talk uh, plans for the fireworks show on July 4th. A lot of great ideas out there. We're trying to just kind of find those fine-tune those a little bit. The next day, we had a Wayne Trails meeting. Um, I may have mentioned this before, but there's a a project called the Great American Rail to Trail, Gart, which uh runs from Washington DC to Seattle. Um, it's going to be a coast to coast bike trail. And that will pass through Wayne County from Orville to Fredericksburg. And as you might imagine, that's going to be a little bit east of Worcester. And we're trying to figure out ways and Kevin White's helping quite a bit with this, we're going to make anybody that wants to that's going to be using that uh for recreational purposes or tourism. We're going to give them the opportunity to take a detour from Orville to Worcester and then hop on back at uh Fredericksburg. We want to make sure that that's that we're connected to that even though we're not going to be on the trail. We're not going to be that far off the trail. So, we want to that's something we're working on. Um the 19th we had our regular quarterly meeting with Wayne Economic Development Council and then later that day with the Wayne County Commissioners. Um the 20th we had two council members from Hartfield visiting. Um they're interested in knowing how we've managed to revitalize our downtown. So we had a meeting here and then followed up with lunch downtown and Shannon Waller from Main Street was part of that meeting. On the 26th, we had a meeting with one of the Wayne County commissioners, uh, a Wayne Township trustee and the chief of the Worcester Township Fire Department. Um, as you know, they're building a new fire department down on Hy Road, and they're very interested in getting water from the city of Worcester. Um, one of the cardinal rules of city planning, I think, is not extending your utilities out beyond the corporate line. So that's got uh you know there there's going to

be some discussion about how the the we want to help make that happen but there's going to be some discussion about how to make that happen so that it works for everybody but so far everybody's excited about it. We think we can make it happen. Township and the their fire department are very happy about that. Um the 26 there was the back on the court basketball game at Triway High School. Um Donnie Hall organized that. Donnie just was part of that group here. But hats off to him for that. Um that was between our first responders. Several of the people here tonight participated in that in the Special Olympics basketball team for Idos. Um April 1st, Kevin White and I did an radio interview um regarding our support of federal funding for the Rails to Trail program nationally because that's under consideration uh in Congress at this point. Then April 2nd, uh, we had more or less a surprise visit for S from Senator Marino. We had a call on T, that was for Thursday. We had a call on Tuesday afternoon saying, uh, hey, Senator Marino would really like to come to Worcester and would really like to get a tour of the Shuffler plant. Can you make that happen? And, uh, hats off to Phil and Joel and, uh, Ashley for make for making that. And we had a good tour and a good chance to meet. We didn't get a chance to talk much other than automotive industry and uh but it was a way to show off our community and part of what our industrial base is about. Um looking ahead, we're meeting tomorrow with a group from OSU College of Veterinary Medicine on a project they've got going. We'll find out more about that. Um on Wednesday night at uh um six o'clock, the friends of Bush Memorial Park are having their annual meeting at Freelander Chalet. I'm sure they'd be have love to have any of you welcome that would like to attend. Uh the 9th is monthly lunch meeting with the superintendent.

On the 10th, um Joel and I are attending a Habitat groundbreaking at 363 West Larwell. So another downtown Habitat project which again we'd like to see any type of new investment down in our older neighborhoods. on the 16th is when economic development council annual meeting. Uh we're also expecting a visit from representative Senator John Houston's office that day. Then finally on the 20th it is right to read week and I'll be participating in that out at IDU school um for the third year in a row which is always an interesting time a good time. You know you see some people that really have uh got a tough uh tough way to go in life but uh they're making the best of it. a good chance to go out and mix with them and the people that helped care for them.

Joel, you got some sure a couple things you want to touch on.

Um the mayor and I are, you know, we're ex official members of Main Street, so we're permanent members down there. And um you may have gotten a card in the mail. I'm not sure, but they're having some roundts um over the next uh say three to three weeks or so. They're going to meet round table with the retailers, have another round table with the hospitality group, another one with the professional services downtown. Um and so we'll be um at least two to three to four of us from the city. Um joining in on those meetings just to get some feedback from our downtown community, things are important to them, answer questions, those kind of things. So I'm pretty sure they're open to anybody that wants to go to those. Um, and uh, speaking of our partners, um, in our update that we just uh, sent out last Friday, we just sent out our the applications for our 2026 economic development fund application. That's our bed tax that, you know, we send out competitive. Um, I think right now we have just about a little over $100,000 available in that. So, you know, our intent every year is to give all of that away. Um, and we've had applications that have done that each year. So, starting to be We're just getting that out and we'll see what comes in for those. Um, and just a couple of updates you might have heard or if you're anywhere near the north end over the last uh week or so with the Miltown sanitary sewer replacement, there's um a lot of traffic up there. So, when that various parts that are shut down, there's there's a good bit of backup. So, there's not a whole lot to do because there's so much traffic as far as detours or anything like that. But, that within the next couple weeks, they should be out of that area and opened up. Um so hopefully that's just a temporary thing but just wanted to we are very aware trying to you know move them along as fast as we can. Um and just the other thing to point out um we had engineering was really busy. We had a lot of bids you know things that um council had approved in the budget. So in the first quarter alone we bid out

over 4.7 million. That was our estimates you know of infrastructure projects. Um and if you remember we we actually approved about 14.6 six million in the budget over the year. So we you know we we've already started and that's just infrastructure major infrastructure. That's not all of our our capital type things. But so just and the majority of that 14.6 is is roadway related. So you know we're doing about as much as we can um as far as keeping up and maintaining our uh you know our infrastructure there. So just want to point that out. Um one thing was down at the bottom of I think the third page. I think by the end of June, we'll have received over $2 million in our PAS funds. Um that we're receiving the settlement that we're getting. Um so we use that towards you know current future well development project. So it's nice to nice to have it when one well is over a million dollars just to develop and install. So um that's good to get that. and just said a couple other things. Just wanted to to uh run by you. Just um you're aware we've been spending a lot of grant money to clean up the former TCI building downtown and we had an update in here that um after our last test procedure, it looks like while we've cleaned it up a lot, um we can't get our sign off yet from EPA. So, it can be developed um right now. Um it'd be challenging probably for somebody to to get some financing with with a little bit there, but it's it would be safe to develop. We will probably um just plann it for the next five or six years. We'll continue to spend the grant money to continue to clean it up, but then we'll probably put a parking lot, you know, maybe some green space down there for now. Um and then just wait and see. as things along that side of, you know, Liberty start to maybe develop in the future, um hopefully then that'll be ready to to move forward. In the meantime, just putting some parking in will help other

areas down there, you know, like on the north side have parking for development. So, just wanted to bring you up to speed on that. Um and we are working with a group for the former former Larville trailer park site. Um you know, our intent all along with some affordable housing in that area after we cleaned that up and group looking at that. We're working with community action. We've got some grant money um that we got and uh we're hoping that we can come up with, you know, a development that would really see the culmination of that over I don't know how many years. It's been 20 years now, but to to really see from beginning to end a clean up of a blighted area and have some affordable housing in that area. So, we're we're excited to see um how that'll go. We're trying to do everything we can to facilitate that. That might end up being a tip that we bring back to uh to council at some point. So, I just wanted to let you know we're just trying to figure out how to um you know, it's a challenging financing for that area of town. So, we can figure out a way to to try to facilitate that. So, just giving you a heads up at some point you might see something. Thank you. Looking at the agenda, we have 10 items of new business. All but items one, two, and nine are budgeted. The non-budgeted items will require three readings or suspension of the rules. The administration would respectfully request that council consider a suspension of the rules for item one, which is ordinance number 202609 and item nine, resolence resolution number 202624. The former will allow Chief Sally to complete the disposal of a very well-used fire truck. And the second is an annual measure that allows the city to purchase salt for the next year through an ODOT program. and due to deadlines set by ODOT, it is a now or never proposition with regards to tonight's action. Um, I will say, as I've said on many previous occasions, our department managers are always anxious to begin work on projects as soon as possible, and that is particular particularly true

when purchase orders or advertising for bids is involved. So, that caveat is going to apply to items three through eight and 10. So, not asking for anything out of the ordinary with regards to those, but just know that the department managers love to get going on these projects once they've been submitted to council. So, with that, I have nothing further, Mr. President. All right. Thank you very much. With that, we'll move on. Uh, we have no petitions. Um, we have no community reports or public hearings. However, we do have a I'll just briefly mention that we do have a finance committee meeting at the next meeting which is April 20th.

Correct. At 6:30 or 6 o'clock. 6 don't pull out my calendar. Okay. So, I mean I know we've all gotten notified of that already, but I just say it for everyone out in TV land. Um, we have no unfinished business. So, at this point, we will move right into new ben new business, which at this point, uh, ordinance 2026-09. M. Hamilton, you could please read it for us. Ordinance number 2026-09, an ordinance authorizing the director of administration to sell a surplus ladder truck to another municipality and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Gaffy, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, yeah, as all of you know, uh, we took, uh, delivery of our new ladder truck back in fall of 25. Um, which leaves us with our nearly 30-year ladder truck, uh, in surplus. And so, this is a request to uh, get rid of that. It's over $10,000 uh, asset value. And so, that has to come before uh, city council, you know, to to approve that. Um this has gone through two unsuccessful auction cycles on gov deals. Um the first cycle we got zero bids and the second cycle we got one that was apparently uh fairly fair bit lower than the uh offer that we have before us now. Um and so we do have an offer official bid submitted from uh the Carthage Fire Department in North Carolina uh for $15,000 for uh this ladder truck. Uh my understanding this is kind of how gov deals goes. Fire trucks tend to be fairly difficult to get rid of and um yeah there was no I would I guess I would say there was no surprise that this went the way it did on go deals is my understanding. Um does anybody have any questions? Nope. Okay. Um, then I guess I would uh request we move this to third reading.

Motion to suspend the rules. I'll second. Second by Mr. Abernathy. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the suspension of the rules. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Okay. Rules have been suspended. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes.

Okay. Not sure what they're going to do with a 30-y old fire truck, but Okay. Who gets to take a road trip? Shotgun. at this point. Enjoy driving that back to North Carolina. May maybe we're missing the point. Maybe we need to be buying 30-y old fire trucks and rehabbing them. Joel's gears are spinning on that one.

All right. In any event, we'll move on to ordinance 2026-10 of Miss Hamilton. Would you please read it for us? Ordinance number 2026-10, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a permanent easement for an encroachment upon the public rightway and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Jose, the floor is yours. Hey, Mr. President. Uh fairly boilerplate uh request here. Um we're looking at executing a permanent easement in the right ofway. Uh this is uh in response to the Queen County Community Foundation updating and moving into the former Larry's Music Center building. Um they need to uh construct an ADA ramp. This would be on the Beaver Street side of the building. Um you can see in our packets here, this is fairly straightforward request for downtown um developments. You know, eh Hardware has done this. Everything Rubbermaid, think of G& knows on Buckeye Street. Um it's just something that uh building owners have to do. Um we do need to suspend the rules on this. If there's no questions, I would make a motion to suspend the rules.

All right. A motion to suspend the rules. There second. Second. Miss Hamilton, please call the rule a roll on suspension. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. All right. I do have a question. This is probably for um Miss Ooler, but so let's just suppose we don't approve this public right away. What happens? Well, I think in this instance they they need it in order to comply with the the building code and and

Well, I understand that and that's why I asked the question because at this point this seems a little late in the game considering the fact that the building departments approved these drawings. Construction's probably 80% done and we're now being asked to approve a rightaway that at this point is is critical in terms of their building operation in term. So, I'm I'm just I I would say that, you know, it's necessary for council approval because it's a public rideway and but my understanding is this would probably be occurring regardless. But would it kill the deal if we said no? Let Joel speak to that.

Well, we we've never done that before because usually by the time it gets to you, it's gone through a building code review and this is likely a an ADA requirement um for a ramp. We've got a couple of those downtown. And then it would go through engineering to review and make sure, as you can see, if if we granted this, is there still sufficient width to get, you know, for pedestrians, everybody else to get by. You can see there's over six, seven feet there. So, in this case, it was determined there's not a lot of risk of us allowing it to be there. It it's a way for them to comply, you know, for building or access. Um, and doesn't, you know, inhibit it a whole lot. And and the thing is anytime we need it, you know, we could say, hey, you know, we need we need this for utility work or whatever, they would have to remove it and try to figure out some other way.

Joel, I'm not I have nothing against the ramp. In fact, I encourage that we're doing it. I guess my concern is in the process. Why wasn't this done earlier? I was not involved in the building plan and review process. You know, that was a building requirement. So, I can't tell you exactly how that happened. I think we're just having fun being contrarians here, but

absolutely. I mean, that's where I'm at with it. I mean, I I see no issue with it, but at this point, just from a timing standpoint, this seems like this is like uh so late into the game that it's almost ridiculous to ask us the question, even though legally we have to. Every once in a while, we have contractors that and and business owners that want to go ahead before all the tees are uh crossed and the eyes are dotted and they'll worry about whether or not they've got everything in place later on. So, I think that might this might be another one of those situations. And this was an odd one from the standpoint of there was building review, but there wasn't any engineering involved except for this right of way, which I think the designer just overlooked at the beginning.

It's all I'll say is, and again, I'm not I'm just I'm just poking the bear at this point, but as soon as I saw those documents when they crossed my desk, I was like, we got to get this uh we got to get this approved. So, way it goes. Anyways, that's all I, like I say, I'm done being staining everyone's backside tonight. So, I would think they'd have a work around of moving this to the front of the building where it' be on the, you know, where the parking area is that would stay off. Now, that aesthetically not a great fit, but could could they make it happen if we didn't get Well, they already have a ramp on the front of the building. Yeah. I think the issue is they've got

the travel distance inside the building drives to this location of this room. Okay. Well, I think they've got a divided space inside too. This is for like a community room that's separate. Copy. Which at this point the occupancy numbers are pushing. So yeah, they've got to have separate access to this since it's more open to the community compared to their offices which are accessible. Yeah. Trust me, I asked a lot of questions because even though we've done these in the past, I don't like it. So, I asked a lot of questions to see if there's any other options. So, maybe we got the answers. Maybe they assumed the one in the front was going to be sufficient. Then they found out during the process the one in the front wasn't going to be.

No, it was was it was pretty clear from the beginning it could be required. But in any event, so no worries. Well, if there are no other questions, I guess do you have a motion for us? I want to make sure you've exhausted your question. I have exhausted my hopefully it's cup coffee. Uh motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Abernathy? Yes. Miss Warden? Yes. Mr. Malta? Yes. Mr. Gaffy? Yes.

All right. Next item, resolution 2026-18. Uh, Miss Hamilton, if you could please read it for us. Resolution number 2026-18, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to enter into a contract with Environmental Design Group, EDG, for professional design ser professional services related to the pedestrian improvement project on Madison Avenue and South Beaver Street and allowing for immediate enactment. Miss Warden, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Uh so this resolution will authorize the city to enter into contract for pro professional services with uh environmental design group or EDG to carry out acquisition services related to the pedestrian improvement project along Madison Avenue and South Beaver Street. The project includes expansion of the city's multi-use path and is intended to provide greater connectivity between the OSU campus and downtown Worcester and the surrounding areas. uh using a firm that is pre-qualified through ODOT is a requirement of the federal grant funds that are being used for this project. The total cost for the services is $97,765 and 90% of this or 87,988 will be paid by ODOT with the remaining 10% coming from city funds. And it is a budgeted item and something I expect they're um eager to start start getting contracts or I'm sorry bids um so they can plan for next year when this is expected to begin. So I will motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt. I'll second. Second. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Paul. Yes. Okay. Next item. Resolution 2026-9. Miss. Hamilton. Resolution number 2026-9. A resolution authorizing the director of administration to enter into a contract with professional design services with CESO, Inc. for the West Miltown Road Pedestrian Improvements Project and allowing for immediate enactment.

Miss Warden, the floor is yours. Thank you. So, this resolution, similar to the last, it authorizes the city to enter into a contract with CESO for professional engineering services. Um, this time related to pedestrian improvements project, including sidewalks and a shared use path on West Miltown Road between Commerce Parkway and Friendsville Road. The estimated cost for these services is $174,000 uh almost 175 with 90% or $157,320 paid with ODOT funds and the remaining 10% paid by the city. And again, this is a budgeted item. So I will move to adopt. Motion to adopt by Miss Warden. Is there a second?

Second. Second by Mr. Gaffy. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Mr. Owens. Yes. Mr. Jose. Yes. Mr. Abernathy. Yes. Mr. Paul. Yes. Mr. Malta. Yes. Mr. Gaffy. Yes. Okay.

Our next Miss Warden item, Resolution 2026-20, but Miss Hamilton could please read it for us. Resolution number 2026-20, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to advertise according to law and enter into a contract with the lowest and best bidder for improvements to Goshi Street between East Wayne Avenue and Winter Street and allowing for immediate enactment. Miss Warden, the floor is yours. Thank you. So, we all know the Goshi Street improvement project is underway and um it this is a request to seek bids for the resurfacing and pavement widening of that. Um the storm sewer installation is already complete water line.

The water line is complete. Thank you. And that was done as a separate contract and separate project.

Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Um this if you haven't been up there um which most people in town probably know about this already but it does take place between East Wayne Avenue and Winter Street. Um the estimated cost for this project is 1,225,000 and it will be paid with city funds. Um 25,500 are being assessed to the affected homeowners. uh which if you recall from a few months ago when we passed the assessments um that is significantly lower than it would have been had the city not taken this um unique approach to uh this project up on on Gshi Street. So the goal is for the project to be completed by the end of the year and I'm sure all the neighbors up there are very hopeful that we achieve that goal. Uh we are going to move to adopt because this is budgeted.

Motion to adopt. Second. Second by Mr. Abernathy. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Jen, do you need some Gatorade? Now I brought my big water over. Next item, resolution 2026-21. Miss Hamilton, if you could please read it for us.

Resolution number 2026-21, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to advertise according to law and enter into a contract with the lowest and best bidder for the Woodland Avenue and Northwestern Avenue area sanitary sewer lining project and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Bordon, the floor is yours.

Thank you. This request will seek bids to line the sanitary sewers on portions of Woodland and Northwestern Avenues, which also includes a stretch of Christmas Run Park. Um, and after speaking uh with John today, I understand that that is not going to interfere with any of the pickle ball courts or playground equipment or anything like that. It runs down near the covered bridge. Uh, most of the sewer lines are not located in the public right away and they are also near mature trees and as we know what tree roots do, they are continuously uh trying to crack into pipes and other types of things underground. So, um, these vitrified clay pipes have joints and other cracks that are welcome for the, uh, roots to try to get in there. This lining of the pipes is effective and economical way to prevent future root intrusion and backups. Estimated cost for the project is $125,000, and it is budgeted. Um, so I will make a motion to adopt.

Uh, real quick, uh, John, how much more life will that like get out of the pipes by lining them? Like 40 to 50 years. Excellent. And I'm happy to see that we're I mean we're able to save some mature trees in the process which being a Tree City USA is I think of most importance around here. Well, you just you don't have to dig it up have access to the manholes. It's really a a very nice process. Good. How many how many feed were we doing? Uh this one I want to say is maybe 1500 2,000 something. All right, we had a motion to adopt. Did I ask for a second? Not yet.

Second. Second by Mr. Abernathy. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Paul, yes. Okay. Next item, resolution 2026-22. This will be the last time we'll hear from Miss Warden this evening. But before that, you're lucky. Lucky. Miss Hamilton, please read it for us.

Resolution number 2026-22, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to advertise according to law and enter into a contract with the lowest and best bidder for construction services for the arts district streetscape project and allowing for immediate enactment. Miss Warden, the floor is yours.

Thank you. This request is to seek bids for the streetscape project in the new downtown arts district. This will include work along South Walnut Street between Henry and I'm sorry, West Henry and South Streets, as well as the alleys to the east and along the Wayne County Health Department property. Improvements to that particular property are included in this um are included and the city is working with county commissioners to complete these. Outside funding has been applied to this project through the state's capital budget program and the national fitness campaign grant program which will help pay for an outdoor fitness area commonly referred to or well from John referred to as an adult playground so I'm going to say commonly. Um I'd never heard heard it called that though. Um estimated costs are $650,000 and this is a budgeted item. Um just a side note, I'm very excited to see that part of our downtown transform and and look just as great as the rest of it. So, I'm going to make a motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt. Is there a second? I'll I'll second it. I'm curious what what's in It's a fitness court. It's a fitness court. It's not a playground. I think it's it's that stationary. It's equipment that's outside for fitness purposes. And as John was saying, sometimes, you know, if you were to go along Kenny Path, there might be singular places where you can stop and use that use those. But down here, they're talking about having multiple in one set area. So an outdoor class could be conducted or something like that. We we have an ordinance coming next week that I'll be present or in two weeks I'll be presenting with a video of everything. Start thinking of like Southern California beaches with beach or something.

They have a really good example of this up at the city of Toledo in Ottawa Park. And uh it's they spread the the adult jungle gyms I call them, but it's this exercise stuff. Thank you. Just like that. There you go. And they have it spread out on a walking path all the way around around the park. And it's it's very nicely done. So yeah, I don't think I've ever seen one that's all consolidated in one um maybe there was one at Edgewood Middle School many many many years ago, but um but no, I think this is I mean it's a good use of that space down there and it'll fit in with the the recreation court. Is it just basketball or I don't

Yeah, I don't want to be short on the details, but I also don't want to steal Phil some has more asked about this. It's not a playground for people to Well, playground. Listen, John is just making fun because it's not a 10 mile run. Yeah, exactly. He despises doing anything but running. Anything with muscles in our aren't in the legs. Sorry. I've got none. Thank you, Joel. That was wonderful. All right. So, we have a motion to approve. We have a second. Second. I got you. Is there any other or any other discussion related to this? Not. All right. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption.

Miss Warden? Yes. Mr. Owens? Yes. Mr. Jose? Yes. Mr. Abernathy? Yes. Mr. Paul? Yes. Mr. Malta? Yes. Mr. Gaffy? Yes. Okay. We got an adult jungle June. Cool. Uh, resolution 2026-23. Miss Hamilton, please read it for us.

Resolution number 2026-23, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to enter into a contract with MJK Engineering for professional services related to the demolition and replacement of obsolete 480 volt switch gear and electrical equipment at the water resource and recovery facility and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Malta, the floor is yours, so I'm not going to repeat it, but it's a 480 switch gear. That's not nearly as fun as the last one.

Yeah, it's obsolete, 40 years old. We're going to put a new one in. John and I did have a very long discussion today about IR windows and they are not currently required. So, we can move forward with this. There no further discussion. I will motion to adopt. Motion to adopt by Mr. Malta. Is there a second? I'll second. Second. Paul. Miss. Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Malta? Yes. Mr. Owens? Yes. Mr. Paul? Yes. Miss Bordon? Yes. Mr. Jose? Yes. Mr. Gaffy? Yes. Mr. Abernathy? Yes.

Okay. Next item. We will be switching to Mr. call for the last two. But before that, Miss Hamilton, you please read it for us. Resolution number 2026-24, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to enter into a contract to participate in the ODOT cooperative purchasing program and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Paul, the floor is yours. I think we all would agree that having sufficient salt this past year benefited the entire community. This allows us to purchase salt at a discounted rate by participating in the ODOT program. Uh it is not reflected in the budget. So it will need a suspension of rules, but this is we get one shot at this and that's it. So if we're looking to curtail the cost of purchasing salt for the 26 and 27 winter and to do so with the discount that is availed to the state of Ohio, we'll need to approve this measure. This measure will be reflected in next year's budget, but it is not reflected in this year's budget. Joel, do I have that right?

Yep. OD just works on a different schedule than we do. So, we we this is typical that we have to they require council approval to enter into the program 26 even though we're not going to be able to make the purchase till 26. They work on a fiscal year and not a calendar year. So, it almost always so we don't match up. Any questions? Is there a cap on quantity? I know that last year we or well yeah this last year we faced some shortages for the late purchasers. Um is is there a limit to how much we can buy?

There is not. Um as as part of the plan you can uh request as much as you need typically and so we've always been granted that that small amount. I would say we're small small fish in a big pond. Um, so yeah, there w there was a time years ago that you could just say, you know, I wanted this much and you had a pretty wide range of what you had to take. Now they they've definitely tightened that up. So whatever number you give them, you have to buy at least 90% of that. Didn't used to be that way. And we do know that surrounding communities struggled with their salt inventory this past year. So for us to get out and get ahead of it makes sense. Yeah.

Yeah. And part of that um let me just add to that and and this is a credit to the our finance department and you guys um for passing the budget and on on January 1st I requested a PO and within one day I had a PO and was able to put the order in at the first of the year. A lot of municipalities and governments it's a two-eek process and by that time they're already hundreds of thousands of tons behind on the orders. So we are very fortunate and having that capability. So, how much coming out of the season? Did Did we expend most of it? We have a little bit left. 1600 tons left. Wow. So, we we went through a lot of it.

We went through a lot. And we we mix our own brine. We do. We do. Yes. Yeah. Uh we used um this year we averaged um Sorry about that. So we we used 4,100 ton this year and our average is 4,000. So we were just a little bit over and that's a 10-year period. So we're right there. We had a couple what maybe the year before might have been a little lighter, but that's pretty much right.

I do think it's important to also note that we sold 500 tons of our salt to the hospital and to the schools. I think we would all agree that's an important piece to support those organizations. Again, I don't like carrying heavy inventories, but if we're going to be heavy on an inventory, let's be heavy on 5971 per ton on salt. Yeah. I guess Kurt, what would you need to see to need to request more than 5,000 ton? Are you do you need to see like a five or 10 year average of usage?

So, we have a salt storage of about 5,500. So, I dare not want to order more than I can house. So, we are fortunate in an aban that capacity. So we balance that between what we have left what we typically will average even the low side of that. So we know we're going to use at least 1500 ton in a in a season. So that still gives us the 5,000 we have in storage. So because we can take that slowly. We don't have to take that all one shot. Okay. Mr. President, I move to suspend the rules. Motion to suspend the rules. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Jose. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the suspension of the rules. Mr. Paul, yes.

Mr. Husse, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Rules have been suspended. Move to approve. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Hussein. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Jose. Yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes.

All right. Very good. Last item this evening. Resolution 2026-25. Miss Hamilton, if you'll please read it for us. Resolution number 2026-25, a resolution authorizing the director of administration to advertise according to law and enter into a contract with the lowest and best bidder for the public properties maintenance garage door replacement project and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Paul, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. This is about uh replacing 12 garage doors and six openers in our facilities. Basically said our garage doors are 25 years plus. they've outlived their useful life. I do think by putting new garage doors in, we will have increased energy savings, better dependability. We'll also have photo eye sensors and autoreverse mechanisms for in case of uh potential collisions. So, uh we've increased the safety. We've increased the energy savings. It's a better process and by doing that we actually decrease our liability. Um this is a budgeted item. Kurt, should we add add anything to that or I think you did well.

Thank you. All right. There's hope for me yet. Okay. Well, I do I do have a question and again it's just the contrarian in me this evening, I guess. How did we not replace these openers before this because this has been a 20ear situation on the on the regulations related to the the photo eye and the auto reverse and all that other jazz. I'm not sure, Mr. Sanders. I it just blows my mind. I mean, with all the other things that we seem to fret about on a consistently consistent basis, this is one where I was reading this, I'm going, I just can't believe we haven't replaced them before now. But in any event, it's not the end of the world. Any other comments, questions, or need a Snickers? What's that?

Do you need a Snickers? I do not. I just thought it was I just just found a great level of great amount of humor in all of it. But that's okay. I get it. So, M Mr. President, with your commentary, I move to move to approved to so that we get this done. All right. I'll second. Moved and seconded. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Paul, yes. Mr. Gaffy, yes. Mr. Owens, yes. Mr. Malta, yes. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Mr. Jose, yes. Miss Warden, yes.

All right. Very good. Well, that went fairly painlessly. We'll move into our miscellaneous section. We have uh four people that have signed up to speak. Uh when I call your name, you can step up to the uh microphone there, the podium, and uh tell us what you want to talk about. And we'll start with uh Candy and Jerry Smith. Hello.

Hello, everybody. I'm nervous and I don't know whether to yell or to cry, but I feel like doing both. What you did to our property never would have crossed our minds ever. An easement should not be used in the manner in which it was. I believe somebody overstepped their authority. The land, the trees, the house with the Florida ceiling windows was why we bought the house. Privacy was also on top of the list. We live in town. We live at the corner of Portage and Armstrong. And on Christmas, they came in and destroyed our property. Cut 10 trees down. 30, 40, 50 year old trees. They can't be replaced. And now we look from our deck and we look at Portage Road and all the traffic and the noise is even more. Then we had that storm on March 21st, that windstorm. And because we lost our windbreak, I had another tree rocked back and forth all day. It finally went over roots and all, I had to have Kim with All About Trees come out, cut it down, and haul it away. Cost us $700. Is the city willing to repay that $700? Sir, I am so angry. I don't think you took everything away without consulting us at all. No consideration for our thoughts. You knew what our feelings would be. You changed the entire landscape of our property. Now we go out on our deck with no privacy, no noise reduction in Portage Road. Absolutely horrible. Every tree that was cut, we have I can

see 10 major trunks with a healthy maple, not sick or dead. We have had numerous people stop when they're out walking and ask us why we did that. We do limit speakers to two minutes. I do apologize, but it's up to the council president if you please continue. I won't be a whole lot longer. Um, that pretty much covers it.

Well, I don't believe the easement should have been applied to living healthy trees. To top it off, we now have trunks and stumps left. Not very shady or slightly. This move devalued our property in my mind. I don't believe we would have bought this house as it stands now. You all need to rethink how you treat the citizens of Worcester and their property. We pay high property taxes to live here. We have spent tens of thousands on improving this property inside and out. All for not. This was our forever house, but I'm afraid we have to start looking again. Something that never entered my mind prior to all this destruction. I thank you for listening.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, I guess I've got at this point. So, is there some context in this?

Yeah, I can start and then I can turn it over to Ker John. But we have uh along the rightway along that that section of portage we have drainage ditches and storm sewer that we have to maintain. So back sometime right before Christmas I think in December um we had a contractor come in as part of our best management practices for for storm water to to clear out growth that had been there for a long time that hinders our ability to to maintain that and also hinders the the drainage along there. But you guys can share more information if you want on that project. We have never had water back in unfortunately that there's a lot of storm water BMPs within the city that have become um city property now that were constructed many years ago, many decades ago. They've been neglected. And while a lot of those are like detention basins that have mature trees grow up in them. This is actually two storm sewers channels along both sides of portage that are within the rightway. The ride ofway normally it goes to about a foot behind the sidewalks, but here the rideway goes back well beyond the sidewalks because there are drainage channels um that are within the rideway and those are the cities to maintain which they do require maintenance in order to function properly. So unfortunately over the past 30 years they have just been neglected and so the intent was to go in clear out those trees make them accessible so that Kurt and his team can get in there when necessary to get those channels cleaned out and keep the waters flowing because we know with the with the rains of the past couple weeks how important it is to be able to maintain our our storm sewer

system. I do have a question. During the 30 years of neglect, did we have any issues? If we didn't do anything with that for 30 years, they've had tree growth for 30 years. We have problems. I can't say that that uh in in my 10 years that we've had an issue of um that anything was detrimental, but there's definitely erosion and u and the structures have failed there. And so we need to rebuild part of the structures. Uh so in order to get down into a few of those definitely trees had to be removed.

So is there any you know I'm assuming that there's stumps. Is there any plan to at least clean up the stumps at this point?

At this point there's there's no further plans. This was done back in December. Um and we consider the work to be complete. When we do this kind of work and we affect the private property of homeowners, is there any consultation with the homeowners before we do that? Are they notified? Do they have an opportunity to appeal? What process was in place for for the Smiths? Typically we typically with easements and rightway work like that it's it's difficult to get approval because it needs to be done and

not necessarily approval just consulting do we let them know this is what's coming in I mean people are a lot more amanable to agree to that kind of work or understand it if they understand why it's being done we typically do that we didn't we failed in this case to probably have more of those discussions up front. Um I think this is one of those sort of fel in a gray area when we're just doing work in the road. Yeah. You know, we don't go and ask everybody, but this is that as John said, there's this extra wide easement area behind that that we just treated that's our road and our, you know, on our rightway that we need to maintain. We probably could have done a better job of reaching out to the homeowners and talking to them because of this unique situation that exists here.

Given that scenario, is there any opportunity for us to help aesthetically repair the property. I mean, clearly they're upset about the stumps. I would be, too. Um, what can we do to help clean it up so that at least it's clean? Yeah, I mean, we I would say that uh that grinding the stumps out wouldn't be a major issue. Uh, being able to do that and clean up any trash and debris that's probably still left there. Um, I'm sure that uh it's uh um and and we need to do the work there. So, we're going to be there doing the work. So, stump grinding is not going to be a major issue. Yeah. I'll admit I drove through Portage for the first time since this happened. I drove through there and I was like, "Wow." I was kind of surprised to see all those trees cut down and had no idea why. Um, and considering the fact that they were all left at like two and a half, three foot above ground, I was thinking, boy, somebody did a real crappy job. Um, in terms of what we did, sir, or what was done. So, I like I say, I just assumed the the landlords did that. I again, I did not have any knowledge that the extra wide right ofway on the on the street,

but that's uh yeah, it's definitely a shock to drive through it. So, at this point, um, yeah, I think we need to do more than what we've done.

Mrs. Smith, thank you for bringing your attent bringing this to our attention this evening. I will say I'm new to council, but my experience has been that the city of Worcester takes in most circumstances extraordinary care to not aggravate people like yourselves. Um, I appreciate Mr. Montgomery taking accountability for our failure in this time case. And I appreciate Mr. Henning saying that we can at least go in and try to clean up the back of your property to improve it. I hope that you'll stay in our community. I know your house. I had a friend that used to own it. It's a very nice home and uh thank you for bringing that to our attention this evening. Thank you.

All right, we'll move on. Uh next person, Ian Burns. Is this good? Okay. So, I wanted to um express some deep concerns that so many elected officials in Ohio have, in my opinion, abandoned their oath to the Fourth Amendment. And the recent vote on um Ohio Senate Bill 172 is the case in point. Uh 23 Ohio senators, including our 31st district Senator Alandis, supported in what I consider to be an unamerican piece of legislation. If this bill becomes state law, it will allow any person suspected of being undocumented to be tained detained under any circumstances with or without a warrant. I feel that this language creates loopholes that undermine every citizen's fourth amendment rights. Uh critics um of the bill fear that Senate Bill 172 will allow any um newly naturalized citizen, a person of color or someone who speaks with an accent, citizens from Puerto Rico, for instance, um can be held in custody with um without a warrant signed by a judge simply because they look undocumented. This bill treats the Fourth Amendment um rights not as a principle but as something that's dependent upon perceived nationality and that by definition is racist. Um we began this meeting by with a pledge of allegiance saying the words liberty and justice for all. Senate Bill 172 makes a mockery of those words um by undermining the guarantee of judicial warrants under the guise of immigration enforcement. Now, I ask that this council stand up

for their constituents constitutional protections um and the bill in the and the bill of rights. Columbus and Akran um have already passed a resolution opposing Senate Bill 172. I have copies of that resolution. Um I think that this city council should consider it and and um join them in defending everybody's Fourth Amendment rights. If you want to get a copy of this from me, I'd be glad to give you afterward. Thank you. Thank you. Ann Sturbomb.

Good evening. I'm Anne Sturbomb. I live at 1491 Ruth Circle in Worcester, Ohio. Um, I have for several years now been working as a volunteer translator interpreter for the uh various clinics in town. I speak fluent Spanish. So, I have become really acquainted with the uh Hispanic community here and I know they are very hardworking people. They are not afraid of hard work. They milk our cows. They butcher our meats. They lift and carry. They dig. They do a lot of hard work. And they're not afraid of working. What they are afraid of is being detained, of being deported, of having their children snatched out of their schools. And um yeah, that's what they're afraid of. Are they afraid of going to their ICE meetings because uh their people have been detained at those meetings? they're they are afraid that one day they will be taken and their children will be alone. So I am reiterating what Ian said. I wish that that um that Worcester would stand up and um stand in solidarity with these hardworking people who attend our churches, whose children go to our schools and who are adding value to our community just as you have added value to the community. And the Mr. Mayor, you've done a wonderful job. I want to commend you all on a fabulous meeting. But um I do want to ask that you stand and support these people. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

And last, Mr. Barnett. Been a while. Um since the time I've last talked, I've talked to business owners. I'll talk to whisker residents and the question we keep coming back is simple. How many people on the proving this would want that would want this roundabout placed directly in their front yard in your driveway. This isn't about whether roundabouts work in theory. It's about what happens during peak times on soccer Saturday and Thursday and Friday evenings. Traffic is already backed up to Canon Drive. When the traffic becomes a continuous float, there won't be a safe gap to get out of my driveway. I'm not saying I'll never get out of my driveway, but there's many times I can't and won't be the only one dealing with that. Let me tell you, I had a 4:00 appointment today. If that traffic light wouldn't have been there, I would have never got out of my driveway for my appointment. That's a fact. And let me get something straight. I'm not complaining about how fast our emergency vehicles are going past my house. The point I'm making, they have to slow down in the roundabout if they if they build it because the city is saying the safety for the pedestrians will be that cars have to slow down to make it through the roundabout. Now, this includes emergency vehicles. Therefore, it will hurt the response time. And that is a fact. It will hurt the response time. Anything south of my house,

I hope you're not having a heart attack. I hope your house isn't on fire. This is a fact, folks. And I want to talk about the good faith of this city. They made me one offer. They come back with an offer three times as much. Oh, that's good faith. Why wasn't the first offer that fate? Thank you. We'll move on to the rest of miscellaneous. Mr. Jose, you have anything to add this evening? Uh oh, excuse me. I'm sorry, Mr. Sanders. I Joel has something he wants to add.

I'm actually going to kick it over to Phil. Um he just wanted me to remind you he's been part of organizing this uh this recycle thing that was in our uh in our newsletter, but he just wanted to make sure that it's going to happen before our next council meeting. Apologies for missing that the first on our first chance earlier on.

Yeah. So e Summit Waste uh Saturday, April 18th at the College of Worcester at the tennis courts. We'll be doing a anything you have that's electronic. They will be shredding hard drives for you so you don't have to worry about compromised information getting out there. But please take advantage of it because it's one of the most common things that's requested um from the start Tuscaris Wayne recycling district and East Summit waste is coming in to do it for us. So and I think there's the benefit is going to habitat for humanity. Uh the last we were told any a small percentage is going to be donated to Habitat. So, please get out there. Yeah. My wife's already highlighted it.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jose.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, yeah, I just want to commend Chief, your officers on the work that they did about a week ago. A week that the work that they just do day in day out. as long as you, Chief Fischer, and Assistant Chief Rotel is in charge. Um, speaking for myself, you know, I stand by your PD, I think you know me well enough. And, um, whatever you guys need, I'll do what I can to make sure you guys get it. And then, uh, my kid turns two on Friday. So, if in 12 years he's going back through old YouTube archive footage, I just want to tell Tommy a little happy birthday. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Paul. Thank you, Mr. President. And I'd like to echo uh Councilman Huzay's sentiments towards our uh officers. What they did in dire circumstances was truly incredible. We're fortunate to have such competent and fearless personnel on our police force. And um while it wasn't said, um I do believe that their actions are a reflection of leadership. And uh so I'd like to compliment you, Chief Fischer, for training and the leadership that you're providing. Um I think we've all seen a little bit of excitement in the national news in that Artemis is in space and they're on the dark side of the moon and looking at parts of the universe that no human eyes have ever seen before. It's a perfect example of government through the National Aeronautic and Space Administration bringing people together and showing what humans can achieve when they put their minds to it. I just want all of us to keep those brave astronauts and our thoughts and remember that not all the news is bad. We have a lot of good things going on, too. Thank you for the time this evening.

Thank you, Mr. Abernathy. You know, Chief, this is the second time we've had a ceremony like this in the past few months. And you know, the the bravery and the courage that our officers are showing is extraordinary. You know, there is a discharge of firearm at one of our officers and now we have somebody in a flood risking their two people risking their lives to to save a life. I mean, you know, I grew up thinking of Worcester, you know, think these things don't happen around here. But you realize that, you know, just because we're Worcester doesn't mean these things don't happen. And it shows that, you know, the the character of the people we have here stands up to anywhere else in the world. And they were willing without thinking. It's not just just like that. There was no hesitation. They did it. and and they save lives. And I I echo Mr. Paul that it comes as a reflection of leadership. So I commend to you on your leadership of this group. So I can't be more proud of of your department and and what what they're willing to do and what they're willing to sacrifice because you know they have families that they have to return home to at night as well and what they're willing to sacrifice and what they're willing to do. So with that, I just want to make just one more statement of thank you to your department. And with that, I'm gonna look at the camera and say little, happy birthday, Mr. Owens. Hello everyone. Um, hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a wonderful Easter yesterday. Um, hope everyone's taking

advantage of the nice weather we've had. Um, also want to echo congratulations to you and your officers, uh, Chief Fischer. Just I need to start knowing that every time I come in and there's a bunch of your officers in the rotunda, we're about to see something just incredible, right? Um, but it it really does speak to leadership at the top and and the character of uh our officers. So, thank you for that. um to be a little boring. Uh remember uh April 15th is tax day, so file your federal but also your your your city. Don't miss it,

Mr. Maltto. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you all in attendance as always and all of those watching out on YouTube. And happy birthday to your and I will re reiterate all of the wonderful comments here tonight to your department. It is great things all the time. That's all I have. Thank you, M. Warden.

Told you you hadn't heard enough from me tonight, but um yeah, I'm going to be very brief. Chief Fischer, again, thank you uh and and your your team of excellent um police officers. I I think this kind of goes sort of handinhand with some of the requests we've been receiving here um to get this city more to to be more proactive um in in establishing some sort of parameters in the event that ICE were to come here. Um I I have full confidence in you and your department that they will follow the letter of the law and we'll carry that out with respect to the individuals as they always do. Um, I've had nothing but great interactions and I mean I suppose that's fortunate that I haven't been on the receiving end of a negative one, but um, but I I'm very proud to call them our Worcester Police Force. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gaffy.

I don't think there's any adjectives left for me to uh share with Chief Fischer, but uh, no, I would echo um all the other council members uh, comments. I think what really it's one thing hear it, but to see the body cam footage and actually uh see it taking place and see the officer's um coolness under that pressure and and you know uh is just very um encouraging and and just amazing to to watch and I know you know we can't understand what first responders deal with on a day-to-day basis and so uh yeah just to be able to see that and have them here um really appreciate that and I would also echo um just from what I've known of you um I I agree with, you know, it being a representation of of good leadership and so really appreciate you and your department and what they bring to the citizens of Worcester. And I would also just echo uh Miss Warden's comments uh regarding, you know, ICE's full confidence in our police department and uh treating people with dignity and respect. Um, so, uh, I have nothing further to add.

All right. So, thank you very much. And with that, do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion. Motion. Is there a second? All in favor signify by saying I. I. We are adjourned. Thank you very much.