[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Any other agency? No one from? Press conference? Yeah, so somebody else who has an experience? Yeah. Which is,
[0:12] yeah, because with the end of January.
[0:18] Are we, are we all ready? Anything's all, whether we're training. Okay. Good to go. Yep. Good to go. Okay. Are we on? All right. I'd like to go ahead and
[0:32] that call this regular council meeting to order for Thursday, June 27th.
[0:37] Bryce, for the pledge allegiance, the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for a resistance, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[0:53] Roll call for council persons, roll call for department heads.
[1:00] In the absence of Mayor Brendan Pratt, we have council president Matthew Byron.
[1:05] Councilperson Dale Stuber, Councilperson Timothy Lyma, Councilperson Katelyn Leopold, Councilperson Susan Roel, we also have present Attorney Sam Bach Hansen,
[1:17] City Administrator Michael Golott, Assistant City Administrator Roy Adkinson, please Chief Kelly Bachen, Director of Public Works Scott Quick,
[1:26] by your chief Mark Renderman and Cindy Bauer-City Clerk.
[1:30] We have a quorum.
[1:31] Thank you.
[1:33] Citizens, participation period, no more than 20 minutes unless extended by two thirds vote.
[1:38] Does anyone in the audience that would like to speak on anything that's not on the agenda this evening?
[1:42] Third time to do so.
[1:44] Seeing there are none, Lime moves to close citizens participation period.
[1:49] Scuba seconds.
[1:50] Thank you.
[1:51] We have a motion and a second.
[1:52] All in favor say aye.
[1:53] Aye.
[1:53] All right.
[1:54] Anyone opposed?
[1:56] Motion carries.
[1:58] Item five is to discuss consider approval
[2:00] of the minutes for June 13th, regular council meeting.
[2:05] I will move to approve the minutes
[2:07] from June 13th, council meeting.
[2:10] We oppose the second.
[2:11] We have a motion and a second.
[2:12] All in favor say aye.
[2:14] Aye.
[2:15] Anyone opposed?
[2:17] Beard abstains.
[2:17] Well abstains.
[2:18] Beard abstains as well.
[2:20] Thank you, Sue.
[2:22] Next up is the reports for the city officers,
[2:24] So there's department heads and city committees.
[2:26] I just have a couple things.
[2:30] First of all, for those that you don't know,
[2:35] the planning commission was canceled yesterday.
[2:39] Due to lack of a quorum,
[2:41] we had Andrea resigned.
[2:45] And then one of the other people that was questionable,
[2:48] whether they're going to make it or not,
[2:50] not make it.
[2:52] So we didn't have a quorum.
[2:53] There's only three members that you can make it.
[2:56] So that will be scheduled for next month
[2:59] with a council action on July 11th on that project.
[3:09] There's excitement this week.
[3:12] The loggers hit a high power line out there,
[3:16] which knocked the power out and also started a fire.
[3:21] of course there's a new story about it that the case of property owners were quite unhappy
[3:28] about that as you can well imagine there's also a story this we just generally about
[3:37] about the project last night at the
[3:41] kind of airing the same thing that they don't like the
[3:45] character of the neighborhood, the density tailor.
[3:50] I think did a good job addressing that it was consistent with the plan.
[3:56] There was some discussion about process and probably thought we were hurrying in.
[4:00] Frankly, this project has been planned as anything I've ever seen in my careers to get.
[4:07] But anyway, that continues to be, you know, a project that,
[4:16] as Matt said, we're learning
[4:19] a lot from it, so we'll continue, hopefully we can have a lot of more lessons to learn,
[4:26] but we'll, we'll, if we need to.
[4:30] So this weekend, Saturday, 4th of July, celebration, dependent state, celebration done at the park,
[4:38] Big dates are playing, volunteer houses for the kids, food trucks, be good time.
[4:45] Please come on down if you get a chance.
[4:48] I'll always be very good turnout and a good time.
[4:56] Along other news over the past week that's up.
[5:00] Some interest to us is that a ton of Washington had some meetings to consider incorporation. I haven't seen the boundaries of where that is.
[5:12] Stores, I've read says South, directly south of Eau Claire. I don't know if that will impact us at all. I don't know if it has legs. Our attorneys are looking into kind of what standing we may have in terms of making our
[5:31] are positioned known on that. The City of O'Claire did pass a resolution. They have a little bit more
[5:41] stake in it based on their proximity, but also that they have a boundary agreement with the
[5:48] town of Washington that essentially they're saying they're not holding up there into the bargain on
[5:56] on the agreement that they have in place.
[6:00] They also used to have a combined
[6:02] sanitary sewer district
[6:05] that Washington and some time
[6:07] decided to pull out of.
[6:09] So there's, it's a little bit more interesting
[6:12] in that regard
[6:14] from the city of Eau Claire's perspective.
[6:17] And they did pass a resolution,
[6:19] which I can perhaps share with y'all.
[6:24] What does that mean to incorporate?
[6:28] Well, if they incorporate a means or a village, and they have all the rights of a village, they can subdivide at whatever density means that we can't grow into that jurisdiction.
[6:39] Okay, I mean, all right, which that's, you know, and I said this during my testimony for the urban town's bill, that's our progative, that's what state lie is.
[6:50] and if they want to incorporate and provide the services that come along with incorporation,
[6:57] I'm all in favor. I am. But it's not that easy. It's not that easy.
[7:05] If they would incorporate, would they have to have their own police department as opposed to using county?
[7:10] They have to have police service. I don't know if Sam knows more than I do,
[7:15] but I don't know what level they can contract, can contract it, I know that.
[7:21] Yeah, there are certain services like there are positions they have to fill, like fire chief, police chief, but I mean, they can generally, they can contract some services, but there is a higher level or higher threshold for services.
[7:34] But also, there's services related to provision of utilities, it's
[7:44] not something I know a lot.
[7:49] lot about frankly that we're going to have to learn Sam soon some research on it right
[7:53] now, so literally right now. So anyway, that's something we'll be following closely.
[8:03] And again, if they incorporate, that's their prerogative and that's what state laws also
[8:14] It also means that they'll have to have comprehensive planning and good planning practices and it also comes with the referendum, isn't that right, Sam?
[8:31] Yeah, like there needs to be approved by the electorate.
[8:35] So, you know, a lot of people live in the town of Washington because it's lower taxes.
[8:43] So if you start having to provide all those services, the game changes.
[8:50] So I don't know.
[8:51] Again, I support it to the extent that it's
[8:59] consistent with good
[9:03] growth management.
[9:05] If they want to incorporate and have utilities and good storm
[9:13] water practices and create higher density, higher tax density,
[9:23] that's good planning for land use.
[9:27] So what we'll see.
[9:28] I mean, it's a long process, it involves circuit court and everything.
[9:33] Yeah.
[9:33] So what we'll see, I just wanted to give you a heads up on that that that's,
[9:37] That's they did vote to incorporate what that put a halt to the white team development.
[9:41] Yeah, because that's yeah, we're it's already in the city of Veltuna, but I think part of this is that while in process
[9:56] their incorporations or annexations may be.
[10:00] Put on hold. Is something I heard may be part of it, so I'm, but I'm not sure future annexations. While this is pending. And again, don't call me on that, because that's just something someone told me. So I shouldn't have even said that I'll allow frankly. Okay, I don't know. But if, if that's true, then it could have the effect in that area that is planned to.
[10:28] But stop any pending annexations or if there are, I think there's a procedure for if there
[10:36] are pending annexations that they can be put on record.
[10:42] Again, I'm learning as we go, so when I know more I'll let you know.
[10:50] And that is all I had.
[10:52] Thank you.
[10:55] Who's up next?
[11:00] Yeah.
[11:00] Yeah, just a quick couple items, the pavement replacement and the pavement preservation programs
[11:09] are about to kick off here, kind of coming in to focus a little bit with the contractors
[11:15] giving us some inkling when they're going to end.
[11:18] You've probably seen 10th Street, West is being prepped for the real disruptive part of it,
[11:24] which is the milling and surfacing of that.
[11:27] looking at July 8th is probably roughly when they'll be coming in but that's
[11:33] very weather-dependent. So look at that, that could be roughly a bit. Some of our
[11:38] capital expenditures for this year, the sweeper. People have probably seen that
[11:43] out on the red sweeper out on the street. We've got a dump trailer. That's in service
[11:49] and they're both really well received by staff. They really like it. It's
[11:55] very well. The Division
[12:02] Street, just opened up to traffic today. There's some little finishing touches that need to happen out there.
[12:08] And you'll see some sidewalk is left out in preparation for the cannery or what the cannery, the yard.
[12:17] So that's hopefully in the near future, we'll be moving on that.
[12:25] July 19th is the date that we will be able to drive down Fairfax we hope. Maybe even sooner than that they're kind of given us a worst case but we're doing the punch list items on that as this this week and putting up no parking signs and all the connecting as fault is going in.
[12:44] and so yeah, for sure by July 19th, we're looking at that.
[12:50] That's really all I have.
[12:52] Great, thank you.
[12:54] Chief Renderman.
[12:55] Thank you.
[12:57] I just have an update on some of the operations
[13:00] of the apartment.
[13:01] Currently our call volume for Fire and EMS combined
[13:05] were at 823 calls, your date 110 or fire department related calls.
[13:11] seven are in 13 are EMS related.
[13:16] Currently have completed up to 260 correction, 280 about 280 inspections year-to-date on commercial businesses,
[13:28] as well as occupancy inspections.
[13:30] Our goal hit is about 1350 inspections by the end of the year.
[13:38] So we're about at 20% or so on completion.
[13:44] We got a little bit of a late start this year because we were a little bit late bringing our inspector on board, but she's outhitting it in the inspections very hard.
[13:54] She's also conducting a lot of public ed.
[13:57] So far, she's documented that she's had outreach to 820 individuals in the community of Altoona and may be some outside
[14:09] that had visited those events. Out of those events, which we've had about 12 total public
[14:17] events, the youngest person was four years old to attend one of those and the oldest was 103.
[14:25] So we were trying to get out to all demographics, everyone. We talked to them about,
[14:37] especially
[14:37] age, things change, and their ability to handle things also changes.
[14:42] In current staffing levels, we are at 25 firefighter EMTs are greater, we have nine firefighter
[14:49] only staff along with five EMS only staff.
[14:52] And we've got about six new people that will be starting soon, I'm hoping within the next
[14:58] month.
[14:58] and
[15:00] Just kind of, just so you're aware, there's some substantial OSHA changes that are coming for the fire service. We anticipate those changes may be 25 or 26, either late 25 or early 26. It may start affecting us. I'll keep up to date on what those are, but I am concerned about costs related to those changes. Along with some updates for ISO changes, which a lot of for training staff.
[15:29] A lot of those we're pretty compliant with, we're hitting the numbers for, in some areas we need to almost double some of our training hours.
[15:37] But those are things we'll bring to you in the future to give you an update.
[15:41] As far as moving to Bowers Street, that place is coming along really well.
[15:46] Our kitchen looks like a kitchen now, we've got our stove hooked up, staff are feeling pretty good about it.
[15:53] But we're still waiting for a building permit to get the rest of the building worked on.
[16:01] But then that we're just preparing for our independent state celebration, which will be this weekend.
[16:06] So we will have staff at that event to assist and we'll have staff on call and available to respond to calls.
[16:13] That's it.
[16:14] Thank you.
[16:16] Thank you.
[16:17] Chief Bucking.
[16:19] Okay.
[16:20] Thank you.
[16:22] Council President Behrin, members of the council, I have a couple of reports, if you haven't
[16:28] made it down to River Prairie to see the sculptures in the park, get down there, it's
[16:32] pretty cool, it's actually really neat, staff worked really hard on that to get those
[16:38] placed and it looks really good, so I've heard a lot of good reports so far. Staff's been busy
[16:46] working on the flexible facilities grant application, we've been working really closely with
[16:51] with Regina and Martha and Council Member Roe,
[16:55] Library Board President as well.
[16:57] On that, we've engaged a number of partners on that as well
[17:01] to put together the best application we can.
[17:05] We held a community open house last Thursday
[17:08] and we got a lot of good input.
[17:11] They've continued that input.
[17:13] So if you haven't participated in the main hallway
[17:16] down below, they've got our sheets up.
[17:18] So please provide input on what
[17:20] but you want to see out of the library.
[17:23] Anyways, big coup d'oeuvre everyone involved in that.
[17:26] We've been really pounding the rock
[17:28] to get a good amount of information in on that
[17:31] and insumed it.
[17:33] Container Park, we continue to move forward on that.
[17:37] As you can see, Division Street's open.
[17:39] The street's gate looks really good out there.
[17:42] I saw someone drive over the crosswalk home today
[17:46] at a faster rate of speed than I would have expected.
[17:48] but it looks really good out there and we're continuing to move forward on design and hopefully getting our architectural and our engineering out on the street.
[18:04] So, Dave, that table top crossing, does that come with warning science to slow down?
[18:17] I think we may as well get ahead, we may as well get ahead of that.
[18:21] I think, I think, I think people need to experience it before we put it forward.
[18:27] It's, it's, it's, it's much more, I know it's very gradual, but I, I guarantee you that we're going to get the complaints and we'll need to sign.
[18:37] I don't know. I, I wish I got more home to it because it really, I, I hit it out of all 25 and you barely notice it.
[18:45] So it would have been probably better to shrink it down if we intended it to be more of a speed table.
[18:53] Really what it does now, it's just a level crossing for pedestrians and it sort of shrinks that crossing a little bit, but it's definitely not.
[19:03] option. All right, well, let's see. But I'll bet you I'll bet you I'll bet you a camera
[19:10] grinder. Oh, I think that there will be a complaint. Yeah, no, no, no bet. I was surprised
[19:19] to see they didn't do the work on the container park right away. The isn't that the same
[19:25] contractor? No, because we that it's not out on the street even yet. To do the yeah,
[19:31] Yeah, we've been waiting, I thought that was all there.
[19:35] We've been going back and forth and back and forth to much frustration of all with container
[19:46] manufacturer and their architects slash structural engineer on trying to get foundation plans
[19:52] for one emotional, so that we could incorporate the following plans in our plans.
[19:57] So it's it's been
[20:00] And utility, connection, locations. There's a lot of stuff that we needed that I was I guess I was in the impression that was already done, but also you do. Dave's responsibility.
[20:30] Roy, did you have, were there anything else going on?
[20:33] Nope, I think that includes my report.
[20:35] And then, for the fireworks, do we know
[20:37] it's a festival sponsoring that?
[20:39] Yeah, great, awesome.
[20:41] There's a 10 o'clock.
[20:44] That's the Saturday.
[20:45] Yep.
[20:46] All right, moving on.
[20:49] For the consent agenda, we have three items.
[20:51] We'll just kind of touch on them and then we'll see
[20:54] if there's anything that we want to pull
[20:56] into the main motions.
[20:59] The first one is to discuss approval for Resolution 6B24.
[21:05] This is a resolution of the Altoona Common Council submitted and compliance with the Wisconsin DNR regarding the submittal of the city's compliance maintenance annual report or CMAR for the wastewater collection system.
[21:16] It's just kind of a procedural item, it's kind of an evaluation of our sewer utility, it covers the financial and the collection side of things, and for many years in a row, we are 4.0, A grade.
[21:33] But that this is, it needs to be finalized after the resolution passes.
[21:39] For the second item, this is to discuss, consider approval for the refuse haulers license
[21:46] for the City of Altoona.
[21:47] We have waste management, there's earthbound environmental solutions, GFL, and then
[21:54] thing is that's the trash on trucks, so we have those four signing up for their annual refuse
[22:03] haulers license again, another kind of procedural.
[22:05] The third item we have, was there anything additional on?
[22:11] No.
[22:11] Okay.
[22:12] The third is, this is for a mayoral appointment of Dion Sonsala.
[22:17] This is to the personal committee, also to a civil circle housing committee and to the zoning board of appeals to fill vacated positions.
[22:26] You know, we did meet with Dion, the mayor in particular, and Roy, and
[22:34] young, relatively young person, new to town, and just wants to get involved.
[22:38] Yeah, very civically minded, very interested, you know, a good head on their shoulders.
[22:43] And so, I think it'd be good.
[22:46] Great, thank you.
[22:49] William, we'll move to approve the consent agenda.
[22:52] Will you pull the second?
[22:53] All right.
[22:53] We have a motion of second all in favor say aye.
[22:56] Aye.
[22:57] Anyone opposed, same sign?
[22:59] All right, consent agenda is carried, let's see, for the new business.
[23:04] This is a citizen participation period at 6 o'clock regarding HUD's preservation and
[23:10] reinvestment initiative for community enhancement or the price program.
[23:21] Sure, yeah.
[23:23] Lori is here from SEH, I think she has a PowerPoint presentation to share,
[23:29] or a brief overview of the program. So I'll just turn it over to Laurie and then Howard's
[23:35] here from Hillcrest who this is who the water system that would be the beneficiary of
[23:45] this grant if we if we receive it. So thank you, my thank you Roy. As you said, my name
[23:53] is Laurie Miller. I'm a work for S.H. I'm one of the grant writers working on this project
[23:58] for the price-grade application and I have a little power point for everybody.
[24:03] Let me just pull this up.
[24:14] Right, do you mind just confirming that you can see my screen?
[24:17] Yes, yep.
[24:18] All right, wonderful.
[24:19] Thanks for your help.
[24:21] So we're here to talk about Hillcrest Estates.
[24:25] Hillcrest is a community that needs a grant application to assist them with some of the issues
[24:31] that they're facing currently.
[24:32] Currently, Hill Press is a manufacturing and housing community that has actually 340 families
[24:37] currently.
[24:39] With the capacity of having many more, right now it's the largest single source of affordable
[24:45] housing in the greater or clearer area and so it's really important to the housing stock
[24:49] that we maintain, Hill Press, the states.
[24:52] Unfortunately, a few years ago, the DNR recognized that there's some deficiencies in their water
[25:00] That need to be addressed to keep them in compliance and to help their residents and some of these issues include low bar pressure in the system, pumping capacity, just regular average daily demand capacity. And then lack of fire hydrants, there's only one fire hydrant for that whole community. And then there's a potential list of leaking laterals, mostly due to just the age of infrastructure. So in 2023,
[25:29] S.E.H. worked with Hillcrest's states to do a study and to just basically determine
[25:34] the best path forward to correct it, there were several alternatives that were discussed
[25:39] within that study, but the one that came out ahead that addressed every concern that's
[25:45] going in with Hillcrest is to go and connect to the City of L.T.U.N.'s water distribution system
[25:51] and abandoned the Hill Press private system and then redo laterals within the community.
[26:03] So with that comes a tremendous amount of costs and I apologize.
[26:11] I've got a little ahead of myself but this is the project that I just mentioned.
[26:15] and abandoning the same private water distribution system,
[26:18] building laddles within the Hillcrested States,
[26:22] connect the new interior system located within
[26:24] Hillcrest to the city of Tuna.
[26:27] We want to bolster the number of fire hydras,
[26:31] normally mobile home communities
[26:33] tend to have a high risk of fire safety issues
[26:37] just due to the materials that sometimes are used
[26:39] within those homes.
[26:41] And then with having to replace all those laterals,
[26:45] will have to go and address any pavement and landscaping that has been removed during
[26:50] that project. So there's two phases that we're working with. Phase 1 is connecting the
[26:58] existing water system to CL2NIS and upon your screen you see the timeline that we're looking
[27:05] at doing phase 1 so it basically be completed by 2026. And phase 2 would be a replacement
[27:11] I know the existing water lines within the community,
[27:15] with that project completion approximately for the 2027.
[27:21] So there are a lot of benefits of this project,
[27:23] which is why City of Tuna and Hillcrest partnered up.
[27:28] Most importantly is for about the potential closure
[27:31] of Hillcrest's states, this water distribution system
[27:34] has to be corrected.
[27:36] There are some alternative solutions,
[27:39] But at the end of the day, they don't solve everything, and so we just want to make sure that everything is solved for this community.
[27:47] The other benefits is addressing the low water pressure system, which can lead to a host of other issues, primarily sanitation type issues,
[27:57] use, public capacity issues, and we have our ceiling demand. One of the other things
[28:03] is to increase access to the fire hydrants for residents and replace the laterals.
[28:09] So as I mentioned just a few moments ago that CDL2 and HealthCest have really worked as
[28:14] a great team together to try to figure out any avenue to come up with the funding for replacing
[28:21] this and and so they've tackled almost anything that they can have and reach so as of today we've
[28:28] gone and submitted for a safe drinking water loan to cover some of the costs a CDB gene grant
[28:34] that's the public facilities grant which you've heard in previous meetings there's been no
[28:39] appropriations request and then today's grant that we're going for which is the price grant so just
[28:46] to tell you a little bit about the price grant price is the preservation and reinvestment initiative
[28:50] for community enhancement. This is a HUD grant. It's the first time it's ever been authored.
[28:55] They recently increased the available funding at 200 from 5 million.
[29:02] The minimum ask is 5 million. So we are within that crameter. And the funding for the
[29:09] preservation revitalization grant is meant for specifically manufacturer housing and manufacturer
[29:16] Fender manufacturer housing communities that would be eligible for this.
[29:23] So what makes a project eligible?
[29:26] You have to have an applicant that is a local government, a private agency or a private
[29:30] entity cannot go for this grant.
[29:33] So that's why, again, the partnership between the City of Elton and Hillcrested States is
[29:40] just so important to this project.
[29:42] As I said, the funding request is over $5 million.
[29:46] The request that we're going for, the price grant, is to cover all both phases, phase
[29:50] one and phase two, which is the total 13.4 or 5 million.
[29:55] The pre-sister's fee additional will request the project needs to be done.
[30:00] Who's several eligible activities listed in that meet the twice grant. This is development
[30:05] or improvement infrastructure that supports manufactured housing communities and resilience activities
[30:11] that would be the fire hydrants. The project addresses three of the six HUD goals that were required for the grant. So,
[30:20] it preserves and revitalizes the existing manufacturing housing community, increases resilience of extreme weather, natural hazards,
[30:27] support energy efficiency and protect health and safety of
[30:30] manufactured housing residents, and we do this in several ways, both one again
[30:34] the fire hydrants, but two, by addressing the world pressure issues that also
[30:39] helps the resiliency of the community. And then increase housing supply
[30:44] affordability for a low-to-moderate income person in the suburban area.
[30:55] City
[30:55] 37% are at their LMI is 37.8 to 86, which doesn't meet the threshold. However, in 2024,
[31:04] SEH and CDBG teamed up and did a income survey just for Hill Press to states in the phase one area
[31:11] and it was determined that the LMI for the community was 61.47, which is well above the threshold.
[31:18] So we are in a great position to actually qualify for this grant application.
[31:27] So, a lot of residents may have some concerns about when they hear about going for grants,
[31:33] what is the match, what, what are, how's this going to impact me as a resident or as a tenant
[31:39] of Hill across the states?
[31:41] And I want to make sure that everybody understands that there is absolutely no match required
[31:45] for a Christ grant, which is why this made it so attractive for City of Altoona to go for.
[31:49] The project funding being pursued avoids increase in tenants' rents or passing on those project
[31:55] that costs for replacing the V distribution system.
[32:00] And it will impact as of today,
[32:03] we do not believe that there's gonna be any impact current,
[32:06] to impact current water rates for county owners
[32:08] outside of Hill cross-states,
[32:10] specifically related to this project.
[32:13] If there are other projects within the community,
[32:15] obviously we are not saying
[32:17] that there won't be any impact to current water rates
[32:20] because we don't have any controls enough.
[32:22] So one of the main things for the price grant was to make sure that the public is actively
[32:29] involved in the application.
[32:31] So we posted the application online earlier in the month to start soliciting comments.
[32:37] Is there anything in that application that residents have questions with or I think should
[32:43] be included?
[32:45] And so that there's a link on the city web page leading to this application.
[32:50] We are still listening to those comments in multiple ways.
[32:54] One, through this public hearing today, you're welcome to leave a comment.
[32:58] I believe there's comment sheets in the back of the room for a recess to fill out and turn in.
[33:03] The other opportunity is to submit via email to assistance to the Edmund Roy,
[33:11] Atkinson, and his email is on the screen for you.
[33:14] And then also if you feel more comfortable
[33:17] than providing it in person,
[33:19] the state clerk's office will take written comments.
[33:22] We are accepting written comments until tomorrow afternoon
[33:25] and actually I'm okay with being able to review all those
[33:32] comments until Monday.
[33:34] So please submit those for us so that we can respond accordingly
[33:36] and answer any questions or concern
[33:38] that you may perhaps may have.
[33:41] And then if there's any questions from anyone in the audience,
[33:43] It's my understanding there isn't anyone, any residents within the room, but if there's anyone online, I'd be happy to help out.
[33:52] I know.
[33:54] Thank you.
[33:54] All right.
[33:55] Thank you.
[33:58] Anything else?
[33:59] So just the effort that's been put forth on this project between Hillcrow, Stacey H and the city has been pretty amazing.
[34:10] And again, I always talk about serendipity, but this price grant coming up when it did
[34:15] in additional funding being provided to it.
[34:20] This project is an amazing fit, and of course, we also say this we're hoping for the best
[34:26] here, but it really would provide fire safety, address the deficiencies in the water system,
[34:36] and provide more opportunities for additional affordable housing within our community,
[34:43] which is, you know, is very badly needed, so we really hope we can get this,
[34:50] and thank you to everyone that's worked on it.
[34:53] I have a question.
[34:54] Is the price grant just for existing developments or is it for new development as well?
[34:58] All right.
[34:59] Thank you.
[35:00] It's for existing. Is that right? Yes, for manufacturing communities, but also there is another element of the price grant to replace mobile home units that are older than 1976. And that's on a ratio to one to three. However, to go and do to build up this price grant application together and to calculate all that data in such a short period of time, that was not
[35:29] on the table and just to be honest, the water distribution, the stone replacement is such
[35:36] a huge ask as it is asking for 13 million. We want to make sure that we're competitive
[35:42] against other applications. And we did want to do such a large ask that it would, you
[35:46] know, you know, depute the purpose of what we really need here.
[35:50] And also, Hillcrest has done such a good job in updating units and over the past couple
[35:58] years and so that by attrition that's happened a lot over the last couple years since Jan Howard
[36:06] have owned it.
[36:08] What about stormwater and sewer system?
[36:12] Soar will, is that part of the deal?
[36:17] We already have soar.
[36:18] Is that into the city or is that their own sewer?
[36:21] We already have soar.
[36:27] Okay.
[36:28] and we build them based on what the metered flow is through there.
[36:34] And now there's not going to be curb gutter and stormwater.
[36:37] Essentially the pavement will be replaced as is so the storm water will remain status quo.
[36:45] Okay.
[36:45] Thank you.
[36:50] Anything else on this?
[36:52] This is just a citizen participation hearing?
[36:57] Seeing there are none,
[36:58] then Lionel will move to close the citizens' participation period.
[37:02] All right, we have a roll second.
[37:04] And a second, all in favor, say hi.
[37:07] Hi.
[37:07] Hi.
[37:08] Anyone opposed?
[37:09] All right.
[37:10] Thank you again, Lori, and your crew, and the city staff working on this, and also Howard and
[37:18] Jay.
[37:19] Yeah, I think like Mike had touched on, just finding these opportunities and these wins
[37:26] and combining resources and finding some real long-term strategies and solutions.
[37:31] I think this is great.
[37:33] Thank you.
[37:34] Thank you.
[37:36] Again, I had been touched on at the beginning of the meeting, moving on to item two, that item
[37:41] has been removed from the agenda.
[37:43] We'll be seeing that next month.
[37:46] But moving on for item three, this is the resolution 6C24.
[37:51] This is to amend the City Emergency Operations Plan.
[37:54] Council,
[38:01] up for your consideration is an update to the emergency operations plan.
[38:07] Our last plan was from 2018, and this is really a plan that we should be reviewing every
[38:16] year.
[38:16] Unfortunately, because there was some turnover in the fire department, it hadn't gotten
[38:21] reviewed, so we decided to tackle it this year.
[38:26] Part of that is for accreditation we needed to ensure that our plan was up to date and
[38:31] that the requirements of accreditation.
[38:33] So the police department, Sergeant Henning, spent a lot of time on this working with the
[38:38] fire department and other city department heads to ensure that it's up to date.
[38:47] There was a number of just verbiage that was out to date.
[38:51] This plan still referred to the emergency service director, which we no longer had, so we divided those tasks between the police chief and the fire chief where appropriate.
[39:03] We also, per state statute, have to have somebody dedicated or somebody assigned to the emergency management position for the city.
[39:13] So the fire chief, Chief Renderman, is now the emergency management director.
[39:18] If he would have updated this, I probably would have been, but since I updated it, he is.
[39:25] No, he's a better fit for the position.
[39:28] His position falls more within the emergency management portion of it.
[39:34] We also updated our back-up locations in the event of an emergency.
[39:40] We updated our list of city buildings and the resources that we have available at those
[39:46] those buildings just to ensure staff had that information, yeah and that's pretty much it
[39:53] unless you guys have any questions about it.
[39:57] In the event of emergency something may...
[40:00] May your catastrophic event. I mean, our council members called on to help do whatever. But you can go ahead if you want. There, there may be some ask and requests for council members to come and assist. I know city administration, elected officials are on our list. And it would be, I think the mayor is one of the first people on the council president and so on. Really big.
[40:32] There's a lot of documentation that needs to happen and it needs to be very thorough.
[40:37] Finance and administration of the department all together to come in to create a command.
[40:42] Yeah.
[40:44] The council in most circumstances would largely still fulfill their policy level role and in particular budget and emergency declaration.
[40:55] So that we would be eligible for funding and for emergency expenditure of funds.
[41:01] But also, if something really bad's happened, I'll be out there with sandbags, I mean boots on the ground, yeah.
[41:09] Yeah, yeah, so, but we had an exercise here a couple of months ago that really put that into perspective on a staff level, on what everyone's role would be.
[41:23] and assigning people that could pull other people in as needed.
[41:28] So I think we're in good shape and we're going to expand that.
[41:32] This fall, we're going to have a countywide, is that right?
[41:35] Yeah, we're working, we're working on some additional planning
[41:37] from this year into even next year, but the big thing is the networking
[41:42] between the departments and as it grows, we'll have a larger event
[41:47] where we'll need more people to participate in.
[41:51] That was one of the things that we were lacking is that we really weren't doing a lot of
[41:55] table top training on ICS as a city.
[42:00] We do it department-wide for various different things, and the fire department does it for
[42:06] various things as well.
[42:08] But we brought the entire all of the department heads together to do training, which is important.
[42:13] And you know, and as far as council goes, it kind of depends on the situation and what
[42:19] your skill set may be.
[42:21] So we very well may lean on people that have certain skill sets that would be valuable
[42:25] to the situation at hand.
[42:29] And we may have call center set up where we might have people taking, it could be anything.
[42:40] All right.
[42:41] Any other discussion or questions on this?
[42:43] I will move to approve resolution 6c-24, our resolution amending the Autuna City Emergency Operations Plan.
[42:52] Will you pull the second?
[42:54] Thank you.
[42:54] Motion in a second.
[42:55] All in favor say aye.
[42:57] Aye.
[42:58] Anyone opposed?
[42:59] Motion carries.
[43:00] I thank you again.
[43:02] Moving on to item 4, this is to discuss considered council approval to order the public works trucks chassis to be paid for in the 2025 budget.
[43:12] It's kind of, let me just, so this is a bit unusual in that it's mid year, we're asking to order it, recognizing that it's not budgeted, but that we will budget it and pay for it next year, it's just the world we live in with a long lead times now and with that I'm just going to turn over Scott to talk about the need for the truck in particular.
[43:34] Okay, thanks Mike, yeah, so you may have remembered two years ago, Dave Walter came before you and kind of asked the same question.
[43:44] You were anticipating purchasing a public works truck in the year 2023 to, and knowing that the lead times are really stretching out there, yes, that truck is not earned a wheel in this town yet.
[43:59] So this fall, it'll plow snow for us.
[44:02] So for perspective, we kind of tried a budget of one of our big dollar items every year.
[44:10] The sweeper was this year.
[44:12] And last year was the public work struck that still isn't here.
[44:18] Year before that, the factor, et cetera.
[44:21] And we do have about a dozen items that are in that higher price range,
[44:26] that really, you can only really afford to do maybe one a year, loaders, et cetera.
[44:32] So we're anticipating this year coming up.
[44:35] It's going to be another one of our plow trucks.
[44:37] This would be replacing the, if you've seen the orange truck with the big brine tank in
[44:42] the back of it.
[44:43] That's the one.
[44:44] It's from the year 2000 and it is, it's definitely due for replacement.
[44:49] Now the good thing is that in 2027, when we come and talk about this again, we'll be replacing
[44:56] a truck from 2012. So there, it is.
[45:00] They become a little bit newer, but this one definitely needs it. And I talked with Finance Director Tina Nelson about this and kind of looked at the schedule or at what the 2025 budget looked like, and it does feel like it will. And the CIP and the CIP. And so it does look like it'll fit in there without stretching the budget too much. And kind of there's really not a way to lose in the situation and talking with chassis manufacturers.
[45:28] If you order a chassis and you decide to step away from it, if the budget shifts and we're just not able to afford it, we can walk away from it and there's not a penalty and we don't have to put any money down right now.
[45:42] But this just gets us out in front of it.
[45:44] And the lead times are shrinking now, so I genuinely believe that if we move on this relatively quickly, we'll be able to get this in the service in 2025.
[45:56] It's a pretty good proactive approach on the way you guys are strategically going after
[46:02] these trucks and allowing for the lead times that we're now finally starting to get used
[46:08] to or expecting.
[46:09] Yeah, it varies so much from one thing to the next.
[46:13] You kind of have to be adaptable, I guess, yeah.
[46:17] Lime will move to approve the ordering of the work chart chassis to be paid in the 2025
[46:23] budget.
[46:24] roll second all right motion a second all in favor say aye aye and you want to
[46:30] pose all right motion carries have we sold the old sweeper yet well the old
[46:40] truck be worth anything you're probably not a lot are you better hang
[46:47] an eye to it for backup.
[46:49] It is actually going to stick around as a spare.
[46:51] Oh good.
[46:56] Please.
[46:59] Thanks Dave.
[47:02] Take care.
[47:03] All right.
[47:04] Item 6 is to discuss considered approval contract.
[47:09] I'm sorry.
[47:10] Yep.
[47:11] We're ma'am.
[47:13] Got a big five next to it.
[47:16] The water tender.
[47:17] Yep.
[47:18] This is for the approval purchase of a water tender.
[47:21] It's a fire tanker truck, this is to be delivered and paid in 2025.
[47:26] So why is it the chassis and the tender on the same bed?
[47:31] Yeah, it is on the same, it is on the same for this.
[47:35] The chassis, the only thing we would be ordering the chassis and the conversion done by the
[47:43] same company.
[47:43] The company actually has the chassis being built right now at this time.
[47:49] and because they do have a certain amount of trucks that they build as a standard product line.
[47:57] And we can make some additions to that chassis built as a tender.
[48:04] But yeah, it would be all together.
[48:08] I know, thanks again for allowing me to present this.
[48:12] I did talk to Tina about this truck because this truck has gone up a lot in price
[48:17] case since last year when we did budget and I was shocked even as I approached the end
[48:25] of last year they were giving me signals of significant increases. It went up much
[48:31] higher than I anticipated and we know that chassis costs are going up by 20,
[48:47] I think it's
[48:47] But its new standard is going to cause it to go up the estimated between $60,000 and $90,000.
[48:54] A custom made chassis, we are told they know it's $90,000.
[49:00] So on a custom made, this is a commercial chassis truck.
[49:03] Could be a freight liner with the water tank put on it as well as a pump.
[49:09] $90,000 more or just $90,000.
[49:11] $90,000 more and that's just the engine portion that does not include the other materials
[49:16] going to to the to build the vehicle. That's how how much things are changing. Yeah, that's
[49:24] exactly the look I had on my face when I found this out and so we're rapidly working together. I
[49:30] called teammates. What can we do? I talked to Mike about it and what is this going to cost?
[49:45] What
[49:45] Because the point is we're trying to get ahead of the increases.
[49:48] And this is anticipating those additional cost increases.
[49:53] The longer we wait, the more it's costing.
[49:56] And it's due to a lot of inflationary things.
[49:58] and
[50:00] Parts availability. And so we sent this out to through a source file program for government bidding, which I, Scott, got started on with the generator for the building. And I was talking to some of the manufacturers and one of them says, well, you're a source file member. And so they would give us the government rate being a source, source file member. So we, we sent this out to
[50:29] four manufacturers that were interested in pricing, two of them told us they
[50:35] cannot deliver the truck in 2025. And that's really where we had it on our
[50:40] schedule for capital was in the 2025 year. Two of them said they couldn't
[50:46] deliver until 2026. One of them was mid-year early to mid-year and the other one was
[50:51] late in the year. And then we had two that said they could deliver. The one of
[50:59] of them was over five, like around $560,000, and then this one was the lower cost apparatus.
[51:09] And we currently do not have one.
[51:11] We do not have a tender, and that's big water tank.
[51:16] Yeah, yeah, it's a tanker truck, and it would be a 3,000 gallon.
[51:20] And we're this, it becomes critical, as we just talked about the Hillcrest the States,
[51:28] we wait for water now there.
[51:31] Like that, that, that, that is going to be huge when, if we get all these grants and
[51:35] as soon as that work gets started, I'll be really, really happy.
[51:39] But we have some non-hydrented areas in our community, and we have additional concerns
[51:45] with the changes in manufactured, manufacturing of vehicles.
[51:50] There's more electric vehicles out there that there may not be a hydrant nearby that we can tap into without shutting down, you know, like highway 53 traffic, which would create a whole nother problem.
[52:04] Attender gets us a lot of water on site.
[52:06] We have the rail yard, we have areas along Lake Road and even a few other streets in town that
[52:14] that hydrants are not easily accessible.
[52:17] Do we have the ability to fill that?
[52:20] Yeah, we can fill it.
[52:21] We can go to a hydrant and fill it.
[52:22] Oh, okay.
[52:23] And with that truck,
[52:25] we can actually go to a static water source like a pond
[52:28] or a lake and drop a hose in the water
[52:32] and then take water out of the lake or pond or river,
[52:37] as long as we can get to it.
[52:40] We're also working on a high capacity filling system
[52:44] at our public works yard as well.
[52:47] But really you can fill it at any the tender at any hydrant and it'll take about three minutes
[52:53] to fill it because of the water pressure system we have and during the winter when Mike
[52:57] would talk about having a fill, a fill spot, we can go to our buildings and fill on and take
[53:03] the truck in and let it though, especially if you're running a lot, you have a habitat
[53:09] or attendance seeations I have but a tendency to break valves if you don't
[53:13] thaw them out if they freeze and then they end up breaking. So right now we
[53:18] don't have a tender we rely on township they are a great great partner for us
[53:23] but sometimes you know they've got their own calls to do sometimes there's a delay
[53:28] in getting there and we wait for water. And I mean especially with I mean we're
[53:35] We're looking at putting the water system in at Hillcrest, but that's 340 homes darn protected right now.
[53:42] So I can see the need to have one.
[53:47] Looking down the road though, at some point, will we have water at most of these sources, where the need for the tender becomes less.
[53:55] I mean, not so much this one, but the replacement one, which will be a million dollars, that's what I'm looking at.
[54:03] I mean, at some point, will we have water going to these areas so we don't have to, you
[54:07] know, think about that.
[54:09] I hope so.
[54:10] I hope so.
[54:11] The big one is Hillcrust.
[54:15] The next one is Lake Road, and I don't know.
[54:19] I don't anticipate the next 20 years that we're going to have water down Lake Road.
[54:23] Okay.
[54:24] The rail yard doesn't help us either.
[54:26] We're lucky there that we've been able to get those fires out early on those, and we haven't
[54:32] use a lot of water on those, but the day comes where we could have a significant problem
[54:40] in the rail yard, too, and yet problems at the rail yard are usually bigger problems
[54:47] that they're going to require of, you know, the substantial amount of water and equipment.
[54:50] The nice thing about the rail yard is usually someone working there or someone's on the equipment
[54:55] and they find it or they see it on the camera and they call it, and so that's where
[55:00] They get a started right away where you run into a real big issue is like overnight time. Sometimes nobody notices it. Or law enforcement finds it and they call us and it's been a problem for an hour already or half hour or so. And then I suppose some of that. The ones I can't can't respond or couldn't couldn't fill the order. That's the there's probably a rush or there's a lot of a lot of departments that are looking to get in ahead of that admission standard upgrade.
[55:29] Yeah, well, there is, but everyone is behind on getting apparatus because of supply chain issues.
[55:39] I mean, if you order an engine or an aerial truck, you're talking three years, four years.
[55:45] You know, they said aerial trucks are like four years.
[55:47] Some of the manufacturers might be two and a half to three years, but engines take even longer.
[55:52] and this truck does have a pump on it as well, but if we were to design a custom apparatus,
[56:02] nobody could build it for us until sometime in 2026, we're taking a scheduled truck
[56:08] off the line, adding a few features to it so it fits our profile and they'll tag us on
[56:16] that truck.
[56:16] These things usually do not finish manufacturing and they're sitting there for sale because there's such a demand for them
[56:25] So the difference between this one of the previous agenda item is when we order this we order it and it's ours
[56:31] Yeah, and it's all manufactured. Yeah, because it's
[56:36] Manufactured to our very specific specifications and they're building it for us whereas
[56:42] Scott strikes pretty generic the chassis at least and could just be
[56:46] We use for anything so just know that when we order this it's ours.
[56:55] Role moved to approve a purchase of a water tender to be delivered and paid for in 2025 and the amount of $492,641 from fire apparatus and equipment ink.
[57:04] My most second.
[57:06] Thank you.
[57:06] We have a motion and a second all in favor say aye.
[57:09] Aye.
[57:10] Anyone opposed?
[57:11] Motion carries.
[57:12] Please.
[57:13] Good Chief.
[57:13] All right.
[57:13] Thank you.
[57:18] All right.
[57:19] So this is for item six.
[57:22] This is the Discussing Consider Approval of the Contract for Services with the Center for
[57:27] Public Safety Management LLC for the Comprehensive Analysis of Fire and EMS Deployment.
[57:32] So, Your Honor, this has been a long time coming in as much as you heard at the beginning
[57:41] the meeting, demand for fire service and responses, gone up significantly.
[57:48] We've had operational issues and agreements related to EMS.
[57:54] We've had addition of FTEs to the fire department over the past couple of years.
[58:01] We have issues with recruiting and retaining our paid on-call staff.
[58:11] And what this really represents, we've been focused on the facilities part of it over
[58:19] about the last year, year and a half, trying to get that figured out.
[58:23] But now we really need to focus on operations.
[58:26] And from a management perspective, as someone that is not an expert in fire operations,
[58:38] this group works very closely with the International City Managers Association.
[58:44] And they look at it from the perspective of managing a city as a whole, how that fits into
[58:53] those city operations, but they are experts in the field of fire operations. So they'll
[59:02] have that perspective. They'll have both perspectives. They'll have the perspective of
[59:06] the people that have worked in the fire department, but also be able to temper that with the overall
[59:17] management perspective, which I appreciate because I, you know, I kind of have to depend on what
[59:25] Mark and Kelly tell me with regard to police and fire operations because it's very specialized,
[59:30] very, you know, quasi-military, fought with many, many layers of rules, regulations, standards.
[59:39] So bringing someone in that knows all that and can look at our call volume,
[59:46] You look at what kind of calls we're responding to and see what's reasonable compared to
[59:55] much marking with other like communities and
[1:00:00] Being aware of best management practices in other communities, it's going to be really helpful for us to make decisions with fire operations moving forward.
[1:00:13] So, the contract is not cheap. It's $50,000, but I think it's money well spent. It's a very comprehensive study. This is what they do. This is all they do when they're good at it.
[1:00:31] And it's budgeted. It is budgeted, yep.
[1:00:35] We'd planned on doing this, so.
[1:00:38] We're all moved to approve the contract for services with the Center for Public Safety Management for Comprehensive Analysis to fire an EMS deployment in the amount not to exceed $50,000.
[1:00:48] We have a motion.
[1:00:49] Will you hold a second?
[1:00:50] Second, all in favor say aye.
[1:00:53] Aye.
[1:00:54] You want to post?
[1:00:55] Motion carries.
[1:00:56] Thank you.
[1:00:59] Moving on to miscellaneous business.
[1:01:05] I have then your honor. The concert series have been going very well. The crowds just
[1:01:11] keep getting bigger and bigger down there.
[1:01:15] But everyone's having a good time.
[1:01:19] When is the NS Court going to be finished? Do you know that?
[1:01:26] I don't know. We'll check on that. I know I know that I think we've got it lined up.
[1:01:34] we had the bid, so we'll see when they're going to schedule it.
[1:01:38] Any member there, we're going to do something with Pickleball as well using the current nets
[1:01:43] or new nets? Correct, well. Because it's not the same net. They would be the same nets
[1:01:50] that we use now, but what they do is they put a post in the middle with a hook on it and they pull
[1:01:57] it down two inches. Essentially. All right. So I was talking with Greg Emerson Emerson,
[1:02:05] the tennis coach. Yep. And you mentioned some about the right color of lines and stuff,
[1:02:10] and I'm assuming that's all good, so we can do, still do tournaments and stuff there.
[1:02:14] Well, we're consulting with person that all they do is these line gaps for tennis and pickle
[1:02:20] balls. So yeah, they know what it is. It's pretty common now. Most tennis courts are striped for pickle
[1:02:28] I'll just was going to mention Peach Fest was nostalgia being, they were in the library
[1:02:35] parking lot on Saturday, whether ultimately cooperated, I don't think they had quite
[1:02:42] as many people as last year, but the library is one of the beneficiaries of the profits,
[1:02:46] all the money they make selling the peaches goes to four or five different charities, and
[1:02:52] And so the library will benefit from that, and I don't even think the rest of the library
[1:02:57] board knows.
[1:02:58] But we knew we had gotten a request from a family, and they had deposited approximately
[1:03:04] $100,000, since that there would be more.
[1:03:07] And the second deposit was $147,000, so thinking we may be able to augment our flexible facilities
[1:03:17] grant, hopefully, if there are some additional needs, there's money that we can use for that.
[1:03:23] That was incredibly generous, basically.
[1:03:26] Okay, so I need a new peach vest for a new truck.
[1:03:31] It's, yeah.
[1:03:32] Almost exactly what I need.
[1:03:35] It's, yeah, it's like half of the tank or the water tanker truck.
[1:03:41] What a great win, though.
[1:03:43] What a, you know, great partnership with the Staldic Bean.
[1:03:46] Oh, yeah.
[1:03:47] Yeah.
[1:03:47] Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, and then like I said, there were people there and they put up plenty of tents
[1:03:52] So even what was raining it worked goods and he was there and the peaches are great mineral frozen now ready to call for whatever I need and are all eating
[1:04:05] Anything else
[1:04:07] As well as we're ready for a motion to adjourn
[1:04:09] Lamb will move to adjourn at 705
[1:04:12] We pulled a second all right motion second. I knew we're in favor. Say aye. Hi
[1:04:16] You want to pose same side
[1:04:18] All right? Thank you all. Thank you.