>> time is now 6:00 o'clock. We'll ahead and call this regular meeting at the bedford city council to order.
it is tuesday, december 9, 2025. I would like to welcome everybody in the audience,
and those who may be tuning in online. First things up, we're going to have an invocation led to us by council member donovan brandon,
followed by the pledge of allegiance being led to us by mayor pro tem dawkins. I'd like to ask everyone to please stand.
>> loving creator, source of wisdom across all generations and all nations.
we thank you for the privilege and honor of collecting
ourselves today as stewards of the city of bedford.
bless every person in this room, those elected to lead and those who came to speak their truth.
help us to hear their words with open hearts and open ears and to listen not to just their words,
but their hopes found in these words. Grant all of us patience,
even when our opinions vary, and a spirit of humility that seeks understanding over pride.
may wisdom be found in each decision made here tonight,
not just for what is easy or immediate, for what's best for our collective future.
give this council the clarity to look beyond today and the courage to choose what's right for the public interest.
let this meeting be a source not only for policy, but for realizing we are all neighbors.
in this season of light, love, and good wishes, may we all be good neighbors. Amen.
>>
>> thank you, mayor pro tem dawkins.
thank you, council member donovan brandon for that. Next up on agenda, council recognition.
I'll give you city manager and your boy. >> thank you, mayor. Good evening, everyone.
happy to start the recognition with brandy west. Brandy, if you could come up, and just say hi. Wonderful. Thanks.
>> hi council. >> I want to go ahead and start by recognizing brandy.
brandy is our special projects and risk manager. We're celebrating 10 years with brandy tonight,
which is very exciting. So let me go ahead and just read.
I don't want to miss anything. Brandy has been busy over the last decade, so I want to make sure I cover things.
tonight, we are honored to recognize someone who has devoted a decade of exceptional service to the city of bedford, brandy west.
brandy joined us back in 2015, coming from the museum world,
and stepping into the role of grants administrator. From day one, she took on the challenge of
seeking funding opportunities for every department, projects of every type,
equipment of every kind, and ideas of every scope. She excelled forming strong and lasting partnerships across the organization.
her work has saved the city significant dollars over the years, and she has become the trusted go two for all things grants related.
back in 2022 and 2020, then, brandy was named assistant to the city manager, which, as we all know,
means everything you were already doing, plus just about everything else that falls into the category,
other duties as assigned. In that capacity, she supported a wide array of special projects,
including stepping in to serve as a project manager for generations park,
and helping guide our efforts to explore a performing art center. She also served as a liaison to
many outside organization representing bedford with skill, grace, and professionalism.
brandy is not just an employee of the city, she is also a resident, deeply invested in the community she serves.
over her 10 years, she has willingly stepped into staffing gaps, taken on countless temporary roles,
consistently shown a determination that says, if I don't know it, I'll figure it out and she always does.
she has also lent her talents as an in house facilitator, helping our teams across the organization collaborate and succeed.
about five years ago, under the leadership of our former city manager, brandy was tasked with creating a new program
to educate our residents about how their city operates. She took the idea and built what is now one of our most popular and in demand programs,
bedford university, which is actually about to begin its fourth year.
>> fourth year. >> fourth year. Most recently, brandy once again stepped up when the city needed her
and was named our special projects and risk manager, taking on an entirely new role and spearheading
bedford's first coordinated and formal risk management efforts. She has embraced this challenge with her trademark,
positivity, curiosity, and eagerness to learn. Brandy's dedication is powered by the love and support of her family.
her husband, reed and her daughter, sarah and beth anne, of whom she is extraordinarily proud mom.
brandy, on behalf of the city council, the city, our staff, myself, everyone you work with.
we personally thank you for your commitment, your flexibility, and your positivity, and your unwavering service to the city.
thank you. >> thank you
[applause] >> thank you so much [inaudible]
>> and next up,
we have a police chief bobby le pena.
>> good evening, mayor and counsel. Thank you for having us here tonight. I'd like to introduce officer han with the bedford police department.
he's been with us for five years. Officer han began his career with us in 2020,
and in 2025, he became an investigator in our criminal investigations division.
he serves as a drone operator. He's on our bicycle team. He has his intermediate tico,
license, and he's a taser instructor. He just in may, completed a master's in criminal justice forensic psychology.
don't talk to him very much. He'll analyze you.
he does a fantastic job as an investigator. Really, really pleasure to have him in the division.
he sees what's coming in his cases, and he prepares and takes the right course of action on, as he's in there.
he's hit the ground running, taking over several of our persons crimes and investigating those and
the empathy and care that he shows to the victims and taking care of them while they're going through some of the worst times in their lives.
it truly shows and several compliments come in on han and his conduct and taking care of them and watching out for their best interest.
so officer han's been with us for five years.
[applause] next.
I have officer ledesma.
officer ledesma has been with the department for 10 years. He began his employment in the jail detention center as a detention officer in 2015,
and in 2020 he became a police officer. Forgot to mention this second ago. Both of these individuals became police officers in one of
the toughest times to become police officers in 2020. I don't want to talk about where we're going through, but everybody knows.
it was a hard time and these guys have excelled and really shown their true worth after coming out of that.
he serves as a drone operator and a firearms instructor, which is one of the most dangerous jobs to have being on the gun range all the time.
it's fun, but it can also be testing at times. He earned a meritorious service award in 2023.
oscar is always having a good time at work, and probably the most important thing to me is he doesn't
let anybody not be involved, even the police chief. If I walk into the room, he'll include me in the conversation,
and it's always going to be a good time. He's a hard worker. He's always trying to improve the programs
that he's taken under his wing and that he's working in, and he never gives half.
he always gives full, and I appreciate it so much. Oscar ledesma, 10 years.
[applause] I do have one more.
she is not with us. She has a sick kid, and I believe that she's gotten the bug also,
so I told her, please, do not. She's also been on shift all day today, too. But it's officer tara noble service
of 20 years with the police department, beginning in 2005. Great officer. Very solid experience and always gonna do the right thing.
officer noble has 20 years with us. She could not be with us. Thank you.
>> [applause] next up, we have public comments. In a few people that signed up for public comments,
just as four warning on this, council recently passed new changes for public comments,
only allowing for three minutes to speak on such items.
you'll get those three minutes. I think there will be a time at the 30 second marked to give you an idea to wrap things up.
I would like to call to the podium susan valiant.
>> yes. My name is susan valiant. I am running to be your state representative for house district 94.
just wanted to come introduce myself to you. One of the things that I'm running on is to restore local control.
I'm not sure if you'll aware, they actually passed a bill this session, the 840 to take the planning and zoning away from our city councils.
of course, it's affecting only populations that are 150,000 or greater right now.
but they're coming after at the local control,
and that's one of the reasons that I'm running is because I want to stop that because the best government is the government that's in the local areas with the people.
also, running on eliminating property taxes, as well,
we had a property owners paid $81 billion
this session and there's $90 billion worth of waste.
I think that we will be able to eliminate property taxes.
I would really like to get to meet any you all on a personal note at any time.
my website is valiantforhd94.com.
I'm just happy to be running and would like to represent you to you and I hope I get your vote. Thank you.
>> thank you so much.
next up to the podium, john wilson.
>> mayor, councilman, council ladies. Thank you for having me. I'm john wilson.
I'm the business director over at new beginnings church, and tonight, you will hear from a development that's being proposed on 2050 feign parkway,
12 years ago, I bought that property for the church, along with 2000 fin parkway.
for 12 years, we've owned it with the intention of possibly developing or putting another sanctuary.
well, just a year ago or less than a year ago, our pastor now is 75-years-old.
he has been one of those who have been a buy and hold forever.
just recently, I approached him and said,
our pastor at 75-years-old, we're not going to build another sanctuary.
we've got plenty of space for what we have now.
he says, well, if you find the right person, they'll find the right people to bring something that
will help the community and be a blessing to others,
then I will consider, and I will strongly consider, and you can move forward.
our church is a community church. We have held training sessions for the swat team,
the police department here bedford, along with the fire department, held cookouts for the fire department,
and do many other outreaches for the community. We don't need to sell the property. We are not in debt.
we simply want something that will benefit everyone and benefit the community,
benefit the city, as you know we're a nonprofit.
we'll also benefit more than just a few people in the area and jobs.
I want to fully endorse on behalf of our pastor, who is not unable to come.
his wife is also battling cancer, who is doing very well. But at their age, they have decided that they
would like to move forward once you found the right person.
the church believes that we have found the right partnership with archway properties that you'll hear from tonight,
and we ask that you strongly consider their presentation and wanted you to know and hear from us as the church,
and the thousands that watch us online that we are fully behind this. Thank you for your time.
>> thank you very much. That concludes public comments.
no one else has signed up. We'll move along in our agenda here. Next to is a presentation and discussion on renderings of
the new central fire station by jim thorpe with william tharp architects.
>> welcome back. Thank you. It's been a few minutes.
>> yes. >> make sure we can see everything. Well, mayor, counsel,
thank you for giving me a few minutes here just to update you on where we are on the design of the new central fire station.
I've got some plans, I've got some renderings, and then at the end, I've got a 3d fly around of the project.
we use 3d and fly around a lot during design, and people seem to understand those a lot more than plans and elevations.
so what you're looking at here is the current site plan. As everyone knows, we're tearing down the jail portion of the law enforcement center,
which is essentially just above where the new fire station is going.
so you'll see all the new paving, circulation for the apparatus and everything there.
so the new fire station in red got a shared fitness room that will be shared between the pd and the fire department,
and some outdoor fitness areas there as well. This is ground floor plan.
you probably need to look at the a little closer to tell what all those colors are essentially. The admin is on the right hand side.
got an extra bunk room area on the back there where the stair is,
got the apparatus bay in the center, and then training and
the decon uniform storage and bunker gear and all of that on the left side there.
the fitness shared fitness room is there in the green at the top fitness and rehab,
separated by an outdoor fitness porch. All of the bunk rooms, the day room,
kitchen, dining, everything is on level 2. Got a couple of outdoor patios.
one of them is covered on the left off the kitchen. And then a secondary one there near the elevator.
so we're going to start on the east side, the front door, work our way clockwise around the building.
so this is the view of the east elevation, that faces the existing parking and the pd.
we're starting to look at lighting now, so I've got some dusk nighttime shots.
again, we use these as we design just to see how things are working,
we plug in the actual light fixtures, and so we can see where that's going.
same shot, just a dusk. Here's the apparatus bay side facing south towards el don dodson.
other shot, again, studium light. You can start to see the covered patio on the left in the upper left there.
that's off the dining and kitchen area. This is on the west side.
this is the training room side, so that has its own entrance so that
all the other stations who come to train can park here and not have to go through the main station,
have our own entrance on this side. Again, patio, upper left corner,
there open to the south screen to the west just to keep the sun off in the evenings.
here's another shot kind of in the evening. This is the north side,
so this is where the apparatus will come back around the back and into the abs bay.
you start to see the fitness room on the left there. Again, a night shot.
the big window there is the day room leading to the kitchen and dining room area.
the watch room is also there, and then the rest of those windows are the bunk rooms and the bathrooms.
level 2. A little bit closer up shots. You can see that trucks pull in under the level 2 and into the abs bay.
other shot, again, studying the light, just looking at it at night.
and then back around to the front door, just a little bit closer up, so you can start to see where starting to look
at the exterior materials that finishes textures on brick,
colors on the panels, things like that. So just give you a little bit closer up view of what
the front door will look like. Then again at night.
if I click this, is it going to jump to the. Now again, we'll start on the east side.
we're going to go clockwise around the building, just an animation. Just give you a little more context around the building.
part of this project as well as to where we're tearing down the jail. We're having to put up new facades,
where the old building was. We're also addressing the new entrance to the pd,
and then around the corner. Again, where we're tearing down the old building, we've got a little bit of work there to do to complete the building,
where we've torn it down. So again, starting here,
pd on the right, you start to see the entrance. We're pulling materials from the pd onto the fire station.
we're also pulling some new materials over to the pd to try to tie them together.
so again, around the west side here, that's that entrance into the training room.
coming around the back, and you see the fitness room there on the left,
and it opens onto an artificial fitness area outside.
I'm pulling the apparatus underneath level two to get into the abs bay.
bunk room restroom windows, got a balcony on that end,
just a little place to step out at the end of the hallway there. And then of up to the front door.
we're also working on all the interiors. We've got some walkthroughs on it as well.
it's just not quite ready to present those. That's where we are right now, we just wrapped up 50% design development.
again, we've been working really closely with chief walker and his crew, the staff, and we're in a good spot for dds right now.
we'll have 100% dds done middle of january,
which will be our next cost estimate as well. And then right now, if we stay on schedule,
we're scheduled to have everything done by, I believe it's may 8.
>> all right. First off, jim, thanks. Thanks for that presentation.
obviously, it's very very beautiful design, looking at it.
just for the record and for the audience.
what is our current square footage of our current central fire station? >> we were in it today we're at 24,992 square feet.
we were told to keep it under 25. >> that's the new. >> this is a new one? So you said 249?
>> 24,992. We ran it today. >> what is our current fire station?
>> we're just a little under 14,000 square feet. >> so quite a bit more space to accommodate more.
so, jim, what more is being added as opposed to our old fire station in this new one?
>> that's a good question. I don't know if I've looked at it that closely. I think we've got a lot more admin area. It has been expanded.
the apps bay, I believe, is larger. We've got a training room here that I'm not sure how it compares to the training room.
I've only been back there one time in the existing one. We've got a big fitness room,
rehab room on the back. I think we have more bunk rooms and larger kitchen,
larger dining area, got the outdoor patios, more amenities than the existing.
>> and you said you've done cost analysis already? >> we had one done back in july,
I believe it was july 14. That's when we were at that schematic design level.
so that was very early. >> and what did we come back with that?
>> right at 17 million. I think? >> I think 16.5.
>> something like that. Just under 17. >> and how much have we allocated for this project?
>> I'm looking at for 15 plus, about 1:16. About 16. Yeah.
>> when I look at this building, just going back to it,
like the front facade there. I'm seeing a lot of different materials.
I know one of the things that we wanted to do was make sure that this kind of blended into the law enforcement center.
what brick am I looking at that would match the law enforcement center?
>> the law enforcement center has two materials on it. There's a reddish brick?
there's also a split face block. That's in the bands on there. So we're pulling the brick and the block.
we're using the block and our landscape walls. Again, this is not the final landscape designed by any stretch.
this is just us throwing some stuff to start the conversation with our landscape folks.
we're going to use the block for the walls, and the brick that you see on the fire department is the brick from the pd.
so we're pulling that material onto the building. Then there's actually just there's three materials on the building.
so the panels that look like wood, and then on the apps bay, and then the red, that's a product called nishi ha.
it's what we used on the blue and gray panels on the rec center. Same product.
it's just whatever color you want. You get it, it looks like wood. And then we've got two colors of brick, essentially.
and then we've got some castone bands that again, tie back to the pd.
it has castone on it as well. So we're pulling material to the fire station.
we're also taking the nishi ha panels, and we're pulling at the other direction for these new entry elements,
where we're taking down the old walls. We've got some joints, some doors and things that we're basically enhancing.
we're using that material back on the pd. So when you're standing there, the materials are they're talking to each other back and forth on the two buildings.
>> so the brick has two different materials?
>> just two different doors. >> just different colors. >> you've got the light brick that you see there that's kind of the field, and then you've got the accent band around there that is the brick from the peter.
>> and the gray up there? >> that's the nishi ha panel. That's the fiber cement panel.
>> got you. And then the wood with that one. >> that's the fiber cement panel as is the red panel there at the front door.
it's one product, different. >> different variations of the one product.
>> exactly. >> I think functionally, it obviously.
I think it was well thought out the layout there. I think from a functional standpoint,
looking at this fire station, I think it fits the bill. I do have concern of it's a very modern looking building for what it is.
for good, bad or otherwise, it's a very modern building compared to the law enforcement center.
do you have concerns with that tying in? >> I don't think so. We talked about that in the beginning,
and everybody seemed to be leaning more towards a modern building and design.
the law enforcement center is predominantly flat roof like this.
it does have the two big angled roof elements. One of them we're removing,
and the other one we're covering up. We're hiding. So I think as far as volumes and shapes,
I think they're compatible with each other. And other details, we're pulling window mullions,
the way the window mullions work on the pd, we're pulling those across. I mean, we're taking more elements,
trying to mix them together as best we can.
>> you're going to continue having these conversations obviously with staff. And so are we
concerned that we're already at this point over our budget and allocated amount?
>> yes and no. I think yes, always, because costs never tend to go down.
they only go up. I believe that when we did run that estimate in july,
though, it was still under a little bit of a larger building at that time. >> actually, it was right about the same.
[overlapping] I understand that in that cost estimate, there was a contingency in there,
an estimating contingency that, I think, was almost $1,500,000. That's trying to anticipate where costs are going.
I think they had figured in about half a percent a month. That's probably about right.
yeah. Historically, what construction has been going up? There was also there was another just general construction contingency in there.
again, at that level, we have to build in sort of, for lack of a better word,
fluff into the numbers because we just don't have the details to really start putting numbers to.
the next estimate will be based on essentially a pretty thorough set of documents that's going to have all the mep,
plumbing, hvac, all that. They'll be able to sharpen the pencil up a little bit rather than trying to guess.
>> got you. >> what things are going to cost? >> and then we can make adjustments at that point?
>> sure. >> what's the time frame on that? >> that set is due, let's say january,
and that's when we'll get the next estimate.
a couple of weeks. Okay. To get it done. >> to get it done and fine-tune it.
>> fine-tune it, see if there's places we can cut. I will tell you. If you look at the plans, I don't think there's any wasted space in this plan at all.
again, in working with the chief and the crew, it's everything they need.
I don't think there's anything wasted. There's certainly not any extra space anywhere.
I mean, we could squeeze it a little bit, potentially, but I mean,
we've been squeezing it. That magic number was 25,000 feet. We've been squeezing as we go to try to keep it under that number.
>> got you. And that cost estimate, that included the demolition of the jail?
>> it did. >> counsel, additional questions. Counsel galgiad.
>> thank you, mary cogan. So mr. Thorpe, didn't you design the fire stations that the city
[inaudible] and so just as a little background,
all of counsel is invited to take a tour of ulus stations.
and from what I saw, it is incredible. They not only have a fire pole, which is amazing,
but they have individual bunk rooms for all the firefighters.
the rest areas are fantastic. The workout areas are amazing.
leaps and bounds from anything we currently have. I love the design.
I mean, it's sort of the current police department building sort
of modern-ish because it's got squareness to it. I think it's going to be great.
are we going to get fancy doors like ulus? >> four of them. That's another one of our costs.
>> they come from sweden. [overlapping] andrea said.
I'll ask karen right now, no fancy doors from sweden. We're going to ikea, folks.
the way it's put together and the way it functions is light years ahead of what we currently have.
I am very, very excited to see this project moving forward.
so thank you again for your hard work. All you've done for the community in the mid cities.
>> thank you. >. Absolutely. Jim's been part of a lot of our new construction over
the last few years and has a hand in all of it. Counsel don brandon.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. Look at me, I got it to go.
thank you for your work. First, I have questions. First, what's dds? I don't know.
>> design development. We have phases that we go through. Schematic design is the very early sketches and concepts,
and laying out the plan functionally spaces,
then we move into design development. We take those schematic design drawings and develop the design.
then at that point, we start talking to our consultants about hvac and plumbing and utilities,
and we start talking to the civil folks about how we're doing the paving. Then, once that's all set at the end of dds,
for the most part, we're done with design. Then we move into what's called construction documents.
that is the details, the specifications, putting everything together that the contractor or
the cmar is going to use to get their bid numbers off of.
we're at 50% dds, we have to get into 100% cds.
>> the colors and the materials were chosen
to tie to the police department building, correct?
>> correct. The bid brick that you see there, yes. We wanted the fire station to be a little bit different.
didn't want to cover it in the same brick. We didn't want them to look identical, so we picked the lighter color brick for the field.
the accent brick is tied into the pd. Then, the other materials that we're using here,
we're actually going to use them on the new parts of the pd to again tie the two buildings together.
the challenge was is make them talk to each other and not look like they're two separate entities.
>> I can appreciate that. >> we're swapping materials back and forth. >> I was going to ask you why two colors are brick because my house,
I'd want the same brick everywhere. It's to make it different from the police department.
>> it's to give the fire station its own identity, but we're also paying respect to
the pd by using some of the brick off of that building onto the new building.
on the campus, when you walk up, it's not too drastically different buildings. There's a dialogue going on between the two,
that that brick is on this building, the wood panels are now on the pd,
so it's making it a more cohesive campus out of the two buildings, correct.
>> is there a need either from artistically or functionally for so many different materials?
>> I don't know about a need other than it looked good, I'm not sure.
as part of our design, we were trying to distinguish the pieces of the building.
the app's bay has its own material. Then all of the admin,
the level 1 area has its identity, and then the sleeping quarters, everything upstairs,
the private side has its own material up top, just distinguishes the pieces of the building,
so it doesn't become a monochromatic mass that
sits over there and doesn't break up visually,
I guess. That's some interest. >> that brings me to another question. Is that why there are so many?
I don't know the terms. There are different corners.
is it a cantilever? Is that what you do? >> we do have a cantilever on it, yes.
that's on the east end. >> is that why you don't just have a brick,
a big block out there? >> visual interest, to try to do
a building that would just be one big mass up there of one material. >> does that add to the cost to have all that?
>> no. >> no more costs involved with more corners?
>> no. We had all kinds of crazy corners and lots of in-and-out things going on,
but I think we've controlled it pretty well to just not have big, giant blank walls.
we're just breaking it up three-dimensionally.
>> I think that's all my questions. Thank you. I just want to go on record for you to know I'm a traditionalist.
can you tell? But thank you for your work.
>> councilor steves. >> thank you, mayor. Jim, I got a question.
the bunk rooms they're individual. Are they built for current staffing,
or is there allowance for future staffing? I counted about 11 of them. >> I think we have the one extra one downstairs,
that's the, call it, emergency bunk, if something happened, they need to bring in extra staff.
I think we're currently [overlapping] >> current. There's room for one. We've got one.
>> there's room for one more person. >> right. >> thank you.
>> thank you. Councilor farco.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. That concerns me because we're building
a bigger fire station and more apparatuses.
eventually, we're probably going to need more fire staff.
is it expandable for extra bunk rooms?
I know, is it one extra to current levels because I thought
we were a little understaffed in the fire department position. >> based on whatever our full staffing would be,
we're close, so we do have one extra on that. Then, again, this was designed with
fire input as far as anticipated needs going forward and things like that.
I don't know if tino is here to maybe comment on that by any chance.
thank you, but where we've landed is with input from fire staff as far as the capacity.
>> we do have a set staff that we have each ship, correct?
what we're looking at is future,
possibly, maybe adding a couple more personnel,
and then making arrangements. We're also thinking further down the line with station 3, and that building,
and possibly adding to that one as well for more personnel and apparatus.
>> because it's easier to add now than it is to rebuild later.
>> well, you could, but if we're trying to watch our budget and make things a little bit smaller,
and that's what we're trying to do. >> then my last thing is, bill,
on the west side, you showed an open area, no gate.
is there going to be a gate there? Because right now, it's secured. >> no, there is a gate. [overlapping] it just may not have shown up in there.
let's see if it'll. It's just out of frame there.
>> can you go to the site plan, the very first one? >> I point at it if I could.
>> one more back, keep going. >> there you go. Bottom left corner there?
>> yeah. >> that's the secured gate. There's a fence from that corner all the way around the property.
then there will be a separation between the public parking lot to be able to get back to the back.
again, that's part of the landscape design, is how do we incorporate that existing courtyard at the pd,
and the new green space there, and how do we control access back to that point?
we haven't quite worked that out yet, but it will all be secured behind gates.
>> thank you. It looks good. >> thank you. >> councilor sabol.
>> too fast. Hey, jim, if fire trucks get a little bigger,
and you've got these bays that have the [overlapping] >> I hope not [laughter].
>> I know, but they've gotten bigger since I've been on the council.
with those impediments that go into the actual fire station,
would that be a problem as far as pulling in and pulling out, and would newbies have trouble backing in, backing out?
>> no, currently, we have a ladder truck. It's a pretty good size, and we're able to maneuver with that.
a problem that we may have in the future, but we've also thought about this,
is creating what we call an apparatus barn separately,
where we can start housing reserve apparatus and other things that we
need to put in place or put as a front line as soon as we need it.
right now, we're stacked throughout all our stations.
we're loaded, but we're working with city management. They're doing great to try to help us through what we're going through right now.
but as far as the actual size of one, no, it's not going to cause a problem.
it's just the amount of fire trucks that we have and what we need in reserve status to be able to store those.
>> the property is not big enough to actually store additional equipment on that property.
you'd have to have it off the property. >> yes, that's what we're facing.
>> what's the advantage to having the divisions between each of the entrances as opposed
to just having an open way to back those guys in?
>> they don't back in. >> well, pull forward in. It would be tough for me to drive it in any case.
but is there an advantage to having those balusters and stuff as they're coming?
I'm seeing it in the floor plan right there. Is it appearance-wise?
>> it's the structural columns that hold up level 2, where all the rooms are up above when you pull under.
a typical door for the image is 14 feet wide. I can't imagine a fire truck getting much bigger ever.
>> not wide. >> yeah, not wide. We've accommodated it. We took the big ladder truck and made sure that you can make the turn,
and we've got about 50 feet that they can get lined up before they ever have to even go between those two.
the support columns it's actually wider than the door, so they're not in line.
you've got a couple of feet on either side when the truck is coming up. If they go through a 14-foot door,
I think we're 16 feet center to center on the structure, so there's a little bit of room there,
but you should be able to get that truck. Essentially, in the two middle bays, where we've talked about,
they're going to park it to be able to line that up and pull it in.
>> not too wide about the balcony on the front of the building.
I don't know why that bothers me. I can't see a fireman going out there and standing around. I don't know.
it just seems fratty, like a frat house, where they go out.
I'm not really fond of that. I'd rather have that flat. You've got outdoor patios on that second floor, correct?
>> well, right now, we do. That's probably some of the things that may be on the block when we start getting into the budget.
>> your decon room, that is a decontamination room. >> yes, that's correct. >> that's where they unload,
and they decontaminate their suits. >> yes, ma'am. >> but your laundry rooms, directly across.
do you have a laundry room in the decon room? >> it should be closed off if we were looking at that correctly the other day.
>> the decon room itself in the top corner has the extractor and everything for the gear.
the gear never leaves that upper left corner. Once it's clean, it goes into the gear storage locker.
>> the other laundry room is just [overlapping] >> there's a small laundry room on the far right for the admin side in that bunk,
and then there's a laundry room upstairs for all of the bunk area. We have two laundry rooms and then the decon room.
>> jim, I assume this is for you. If this bid comes out to 18,
19 million, what are you thinking? Because we don't have that money.
>> sure. Well, I'm hoping it doesn't. I'm hoping we know ahead of time before it actually hits the street.
we're working on the cmar rfp now.
we'd certainly like to get them on board. Hopefully, before it hits the street,
we have a good feel for what it is. If it comes in over, again,
I don't think there's any real fluff in the building that you can say, well, we'll just get rid of.
we're going to have to cut some spaces,
so much per square foot. >> it'd be more square footage,
so you'd have to make everything smaller. >> potentially, we can always look at some of the materials,
but it depends on how much we're having to cut. If we're having to cut millions of dollars,
then it's typically you get into cutting square footages. >> do you feel pretty confident that it won't be any more than 16 points?
was it 16.5? >> do I have to answer that? [laughter] I'm hoping so.
again, it's been going up pretty steady, so I don't know.
the next cost estimate is really going to tell us, I think, where we are. With all the detail we've now got in here that they can put a price to,
I think we'll know more after the dds to be able to know exactly where we are.
>> thank you. >> not seeing any other questions.
yeah, councilor steves. >> thank you, mayor, sir. We took
a tour of the [inaudible] fire department, fire station you had built. There was an area on the first floor where people,
emergency situations, where they walked in into the firehouse.
the ems had a little room set up. Is that on? We didn't put that in ours?
>> no, we had it. The request was that we didn't need it.
>> thank you. >> just to summarize, I think looking at the building itself, very gorgeous building.
I think we're all impressed by it and know that it is just miles ahead of where we're at today,
and being able to give our firefighters that extra space is much needed.
they're definitely going to need that, and putting it in that location is the best, too.
as you mentioned, I think it's all going to come down to in january, how much the cost comes down,
and then we'll go from there. But I think at this point, looking at the building, looking at the materials, the design,
very impressive, and really looking forward, fingers crossed, that we come in around that 16ml.
>> we will do our best to get it there. Like I said, I think there are some spaces we could carve out if we needed to.
I think it's everything they need. Again, we worked very closely with them multiple times,
multiple meetings, back and forth. I don't think there's anything there they don't need or are going to ask for.
>> got you. Thank you so much, jim, for your hard work. >> no, thank you.
>> next up, we have to consider approval of items by consent.
I'll give you city manager andrea roy. >> thank you, mayor. Good evening.
item number 1, consider approval of the following city council minutes from november 18th,
2025, regular meeting. Number 2, consider a resolution authorizing
the city manager or her designee to purchase the annual subscription for
maintenance and support of the public safety record management software from
central square technologies in an amount of $112,615.
>> essentially, in 2018, the city council approved a contract with tritech technologies,
now known as centralsquare for public safety records management with
annual maintenance subscriptions purchased since the system went live in january of 2020.
this request will extend that addressing all maintenance and support systems, such as our dispatch systems,
which are used by both fire and pd, including all necessary mapping and our records management system, which again,
includes all reports, calls for service and crime mapping subscriptions, etc.
funding will be provided through the general fund police operational budget and the general fund fire operational budgets.
number 3, consider a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with southwest/medic built ambulance,
llc, and kennedale, texas, for the purchase of one ambulance modular remount on
a 2025 ford f-550 chassis in the amount of $357,593 and 74 cents
through a co-operative purchasing agreement with the houston galveston area council.
fire department is currently requesting approval to remount and modernize ambulance unit number 50,
extending its service life in a cost effective and timely manner compared to purchasing a new unit.
partnering with southwest medic, an experienced approved vendor that has successfully completed,
prior remounts will ensure the project meets all operational safety and procurement requirements.
funding is available from the general fund fire department supplemental budget
that was approved with this year's budget. I'm available for any questions. >> very good. Counsel,
any questions on the consent agenda other than where our missing council member is?
>> motion to approve. >> motion to approve by councilman farco. [overlapping]
>> we just pass. >> that's why we're all sitting up here. >> second. >> second by councilman sabol. Let's go vote.
that passes unanimously, thank you, counsel. Thanks staff. Moving on to item number 4.
item 4, public hearing and consider an ordinance regarding an amendment to the bedford forum planned unit development,
and to amend the official zoning to remove the property from master highway corridor overlay to allow
for the construction of two office warehouse and buildings on the property legally described as bedford forum addition,
block 3r lot 4r1, commonly known as 2050 farm parkway, pud 25-2.
planning and zoning commission recommended approval by a vote of six to one. Give you development director wes morrison.
>> thank you, mr. I'm sorry. I thought I was in p&z for a second. [overlapping] >> thank you.
>> thank you, mayor. Council members. I'll get in the right meeting here in just a second.
the request is to rezone or to amend the pud for bedford forum.
bedford forum is one of our larger non residential puds in the city.
the request is for two office warehouses to
be constructed there on site on forum parkway and plaza drive.
the request also includes removing from the master highway corridor overlay.
reason for that is the site way it's designed,
they cannot meet the landscape buffer along forum parkway and so that's part of this request.
jumping into the zoning map, you'll see that staying on the subject of the overlay real quick.
the way the overlay is designed is that normally this piece of property would not be in the overlay.
the ordinance says that the overlay extends 200 feet from the state right of way.
but this property right now, it's currently designed as one lot.
if the development goes through and they subdivide, it would then be outside the overlay anyway.
the definition of the overlay. That's one justification for the overlay removal.
jumping into future land use. The property is classified as employment focus development pattern.
the applicant has provided a site plan that meets all of the points and employment focus.
it's a low density industrial development. It is an office warehouse. It's being proposed.
it's under the two story, the maximum height being proposed is 42 feet.
it takes in consideration of the surrounding area as far as landscape buffers and whatnot.
part of the amendment would be to adopt this site plan that you see before you tonight.
it does include two different buildings. One being approximately 62,000 square feet in size,
the other 141,000 square feet in size. They would be on two separate lots. They would be standalone.
the proposed site meets all the parking requirements and landscaping requirements based on their development standards they've submitted.
as you know, any zoning changes, we do 200 foot notices
within or we send notices to 200 people within 200 feet of the site.
this particular one, we notified eight property owners. Within the 200 foot radius,
we have received two notices of opposition, and then just outside the office building there to the south was not in the notification,
but they have also registered their opposition as well. That 4%, I want to point, that is inaccurate.
that's actually up to 16, didn't include one of the other oppositions. They are at 16% opposition,
but it's not triggered any type of super majority under this request. Planning and zoning commission conducted their public hearing.
they determined the use was permitted within the pud and the employment focus,
and the goals of the employment focus were being met with the conference plan with this submittals.
therefore, p&z recommended approval of a six to one vote. Can you answer any questions you have?
>> thank you, wes. Any concerns from p&z?
>> the main points of conversation at p&z were traffic and
were the landscape buffer along forum parkway.
really and truly, we had as I told p&z, the real decision here is,
if you want that landscape buffer, what they were going to have to do is they were going to have to reduce their buildings.
there's a water line that runs along forum parkway that prohibits them from planting trees and meeting that landscape buffer.
that was one issue there. >> why this is coming in as a pud from [overlapping].
>> it was already a pud. >> but taking it out of the master highway corridor. >> that is one reason, yes.
>> yes. >> or that is the reason. I'm sorry. Then traffic was a big discussion as well.
there was questions about what the proposed truck routes would be, and the applicant was able to answer those.
I will also say the applicants provided staff with proposed truck or traffic counts for this use.
staff has reviewed those, and they saw that no additional improvements or anything like that would be required.
>> looking at the site plan, there's no new entrances off a forum parkway being added, correct?
>> there is one entrance that's going to tie into the church. >> it's just a shared entrance with new church. [overlapping].
>> correct. >> nothing new, per se. There's a lot of it on plaza. >> that is correct.
>> that leads me to believe that a lot of the traffic is just going to be along
plaza drive and circling back out basically plaza drive,
but I'll let the applicant speak. >> that is what the applicants share with us as well, but I know they're prepared to answer those questions.
>> got it. >> counsel, any questions for wes? Mayor pro dan dawkins.
>> thanks, mr. Merit, so wes, if I understand it,
we're moving it from the master highway corridor definition,
but it will remain a pud. >> it would remain a puds. >> I saw the next steps is like replotting,
and the infrastructure and building permits. With the replat that would come back to us.
>> replat would not come to council. They would go to the plating zoning commission. >> planning zoning. But what we get so once it's replotted and a business wanted to come,
would that come back because it's a pud? >> no. >> everything can be built by right.
>> that's correct. >> thank you. >> any additional questions for wes?
yes. Council donovan brandon. >> if we don't approve it, what happens?
>> the application doesn't move forward, and the land remains in its current state.
>> in its current state. >> which is vacant. >> we get no revenue.
the city, right? >> true. It's a tax exempt property now, correct?
>> correct. It is a religious institution that's tax exempt. If we approve it,
we stand to get some revenue, correct? >> it would change ownerships.
it would go on the tax roles as non tax exempt. >> do we have any estimation of.
>> that's not something we look at. This is purely a land discussion.
that's all we're looking at at this point. Tom is land use compatibility. Staff hasn't done any type of analysis on tax revenue at this point.
>> then I have all these papers. >> I'm sorry. Thank you for this,
I totally forgot. My bad. I put as I mentioned,
we had three letters of opposition. One letter was in your packet.
we got two since the packet went out. Then the third letter is a letter in favor of the request from the church.
>> some of the complaints or
the questions are about noise and pollution and traffic.
is there any way to estimate what we're looking at? From a traffic standpoint, again,
they provided us traffic counts based on engineering design standards.
again, our engineering staff has not found any major issues with the proposed traffic counts.
noise and other type of pollution matters. If there are nuisance issues that come up,
we would treat those as code enforcement cases once the issues are there.
>> I'm trying to understand all this. If we don't approve,
then people can come back. Could it be worse to people who don't like it, could it be worse?
>> if you don't approve, then you're going to be right back here looking another application,
so you have the opportunity to deny that application as well if you think it's worse.
at this stage, you will have final say as to what this site's
going to be designed as. That's this stage. The next stage that mayor dawkins was talking about were the details and
more technical reviews that are either administratively approved or approved at p&z level.
you're approving the actual use in the lot layout or site design at this point in time.
>> thank you so much. >> councilman farco.
>> thank you. Wes these two warehouse buildings,
it's not anything that's out of the ordinary that's not already in there.
we're talking about a commercial area that's surrounded by businesses. I know that's really our industrial park area.
I know that there's some residential that backs up to the other part of the industrial,
but this is inner, and it's surrounded. Everything surrounding is some type of business.
I know we have a I think there's a rehab facility. Correct. That's that's to to the east.
but everything else, we have office buildings, hotels.
the church was actually a ua cinema to start.
we're talking about that this really is what we wanted in this area of bedford.
this is our commercial business area, and so it's really not out of the purview of this section of our city.
>> you're correct. This application falls right in line with our proposed conference of plan master plan,
and it meets all the goals for this area. >> we have some businesses that are wanting to come in in a commercial area.
we don't know if they're going to be good business owners or not business owners. That's just a chance we shake,
but it's within our commercial and our economic development area for our city.
correct. Thank you. >> well, so the eight adjoining property manager owners that were notified.
that is the I guess was it 200 feet? >> yes. Two hundred feet out from the property.
>> we already mentioned some of them here, and you said only 16%.
>> 16% is the total. >> none of that was residential.
>> no. None of it was residential. There were no residential properties notified. Now, of course, there was a sign put on the property,
and we published in the newspaper, but the residential is further to the north.
>> further to the north. This may be a technical. Why 200 feet? Why do we do that?
>> that's what state law requires? >> I'm assuming that has to do with
the nuisance traffic and things that may be in a zoning change?
[overlapping] does that bring it before you? All we do the 200 foot because that's a state law requirement.
>> I'm just extrapolating reason why 200 feet. I'm assuming that that would be the impacted area of noise, pollution.
>> that sort of thing, and that's why we go ahead and do the 200 foot rule.
would that be correct, city attorney? >> that could be correct. >> should be correct.
>> I don't try to ascribe too much logic to legislative action. >> I don't think you should ever ascribe logic to any legislative action by the state.
very good. Any additional questions for wes. We got him up here?
>> I do know the applicant has a presentation for y'all, as well. >> very good. At that time,
what we'll do is, I'll open the public hearing, we'll hear from the applicant, and then we'll still leave the public hearing,
open for anyone in the audience who would like to come and speak to this issue. I'll open the public hearing at 7:01.
I invite the applicant to come up and go ahead and begin their presentation.
>> good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me. My name is justin howe, development manager of archway properties.
I've been in archway properties for over six years now. Here we there. Clock, who's our partner in our dallas office.
he just want to talk to you a little bit about who archway properties is as a business owner,
and also give you a little bit more color about our vision for the foreign parkway development.
archway, were founded in 2003, almost coming up on 25 years in development with offices,
both houston and dallas, mostly focused in the industrial office and mixed use sectors,
really looking for strategic land sites that really are going to be a benefit not only to the community,
but our end users, our investors, and ultimately our tenants who occupy those buildings.
we, as archway our mission statement, or our values are really held in excellence,
integrity and joy, and I think we really try to exemplify that in everything we do.
that's part of the reason I've been an archway for the time that I have.
just to give you a little bit more understanding of the quality of product
we typically put on the ground and our capabilities.
some more recent projects we've done in the area on the right hand side of the screen there,
you'll see bonnie view and the I-20 logistics park. Those are both located in south dallas.
the I-20 logistics park actually has the capability for us to build two,
one million square foot buildings. We've built one of two, and which was recently occupied by google.
they took the whole building, and we're currently in design and permanent for the second building.
then just adjacent to that site, we have a three building industrial development,
mixed building, but a total of 450,000 square feet. Currently, we are completing permitting now and ready to go into construction.
then hurst is another 124,000 square foot industrial building,
which again, we've gotten through permitting in houston and about to break ground. Then finally, royal 114,
which we built and completed in 2023 is a four building industrial development,
totals of around, I believe it's about 450,000 square feet,
buildings from 40,000 square feet to 155,000 square feet.
I want to talk a little bit more about the royal 114 project only because I think it's a really good case study
for ultimately what we're trying to achieve here in bedford.
this site was an infilled site in irving. You can see the four buildings that pretty obvious with the four white roofs there.
but the layout of the site was really focused their rear load buildings,
where the service area, some people refer to as a truck core,
but the service area is internal to the site. You're getting the more aesthetically pleasing features
of the building facing the outward community, and a lot of the noise pollution, light pollution is contained within inside the building area.
the other thing too to mention is a lot of the tenant base that we are seeing in these type of
buildings tend to be more technical.
a lot of people think of industrial buildings, and think of an amazon.
but we have two different pharmaceutical companies.
subcontractors, industrial suppliers, and ultimately low volume logistical users who are for example, our hvac subcontractor.
they have training facilities in there, offices. They have racking and storage,
but a lot of their truck traffic is box trucks, visiting sites as they're installing hvac,
madiska tenant, who's in the building on the northwest plant corner there.
they've gone even so as far as to fill in some of our dock doors, because they really only need, like two or three truck spots.
anyways, keeping this in mind, this is a very similar vision what we're trying to achieve over here in forum.
going from that site plan to this site plan, you can see very similar rear load buildings,
service areas facing inward to the inside of the site,
where we're largely trying to block out the less aesthetically pleasing portion of
those buildings that inner portion of the site, and then focusing on the landscaping on the outside of the site,
where really you're going to have your most potential to see into that service area.
as west mentioned, 42,000 in north of the 60,000 square foot building.
we think it's a great location. There's two major highways, 121, 183 right there,
and we're also adjacent to the dfw airport sub-market, which is where royal 114 was built.
with all that said, we strongly feel that we're going to have a very similar tenant base, pharmaceutical companies, subcontractors.
these buildings are going to be a lot more geared to those type of tenants.
great skilled labor and technical jobs that will also be brought in.
then, as west mentioned, too surrounding infrastructure is designed to support the trough tract that we will have.
this just give you a little more clear picture of the site design.
hopeful a little bit more zoomed in. Is there any general questions in relation to that? I think I've talked through a lot of this.
I have a few more pictures, that's going to give you. >> council member fargo. >> sure. >> you're talking about hvac,
which is right up my alley. But you're talking about 9-5 not 24/7 tenants.
your majority of your tenants are normal business hour tenants and not a walmart.
>> [overlapping] targets. >> the trucks coming in, not like the traffic that I know some of
the residents are worried about that they have already to the east of them.
that's constant with those trucks. This is more on a regular 40-hour basis business.
>> I would say that that's what we've been experiencing.
>> any additional questions for the site? >> I just have a couple more slides here.
we create a couple renderings to give you a sense of boots on the ground of what this will actually look like.
just to note, the landscaping is actually reflective of the landscaping plan in these renderings that we submitted to the city.
this is sitting on the corner of plaza and forum, looking at the larger building.
now, it was mentioned that we did have this landscape buffer that we're combating here.
what we've done is move the sidewalk all the way up as close as we can to the curb and then
try to because of the water line conflicting with the trees.
we want to try to avoid any sort of long-term maintenance issues for bedford.
try to install some larger bushes that are really going to give,
hopefully support that level of screening that you all are looking for. In addition to that,
what's also going to be helpful is the grading on this site, it's a lot steeper than it looks.
that first building you'll notice, and you'll see it better in this next picture. This is front facing building one.
the buildings actually going to sit a little bit lower than form road. In addition to those added bushes and trees,
you're almost not even able to see the first floor of the building or what would be the first floor of the building.
this is a view of the truck court. The way we position the detention ponds and the landscaping,
it actually gives a little bit larger landscape buffer than what's even called for.
you have this front level of trees and bushes that are right up against the road. Then you have our detention ponds,
and then we have an added layer of trees and bushes behind it.
you can see some dock positions, but largely, it's going to block out a lot of
the visual and negative aesthetics and maybe what some people would observe in the truck court or the service area rather.
this is the view from the church other side of the truck court.
again, we're doing our best here with what with the landscaping we can put in
place to largely try and block out a lot of the truck court that service area.
again, just from building two, just to just give you a sense of what we're doing.
the trees are just see through so you can see the building, but again, just a little bit more of the same.
I know there's been a few concerns or there's been concerns brought up about traffic patterns.
we want to address this a little bit further. There's a couple of ways to get to the site,
obviously, coming from 121 and 183. Just to focus on 183, there's really two exit ramps that could provide you access to our site.
there's one a little bit farther up off the screen there,
and the logical entrance to our site from that exit is a plaza,
which is what we're talking about a little bit earlier. Then, if for whatever reason, you missed that exit,
you really have to come up and turn around on the feeder for 121, and then come up back behind.
I'm following that red line here just on called the south side of 121.
there's a side road in there where you would have to take form to come around.
but we believe most of the trucks will take that initial exit to enter plaza.
that's just a more logical route. Then similarly on 121,
you would have to come up onto the feeder and then do a turn around and take that same route onto the side road,
and then a little ways down form to get to get in the service area.
does that make does that make sense? >> yeah, I believe so.
I'm looking at it now. On forum, that make sense.
my initial was if they missed the plaza exit there, that they would take forum, but we have that median in there,
which would make a turn radius very difficult. What's what it looks like there. They'd have to take it all the way to 121 and then go around.
>> sure. That's right. >> it's pretty much contained,
for the most part, right in that area. Any kind of traffic patterns?
>> yes, sir. Yeah. >> on that property. That's what I was thinking when I was looking at this property.
just looking at it, it just seemed like most of the traffic's going to be on plaza, and very few, if any,
would be formed just for a little bit to get access to the either 121 or 183.
>> yes, sir.
>> see the present. [laughter]. >> very good. Appreciate it. Thank you.
council, any questions for archway where we got them? Very good. Thank you so much.
appreciate it. At this time, we're still have a public hearing, so if any we would like to come up and speak on this item from the public.
now is the time. Just come up and tell us your name and address.
>> good evening, mayor cogan and city council.
thank you for this opportunity. I'm here tonight to oppose this problem.
my main concern and the concern of people I've spoken to is health reasons and pollution.
I reside at 3122 bedford road, which is located in the villages of durango townhomes,
which is 690 square feet away from this development.
as such, and assuming that we are going to be having
diesel trucks based on the number of truck bays that are proposed in the project,
diesel fumes pose a huge health problem to people and to animals,
ranging from asthma and we have enough of that without adding additional pollution.
respiratory diseases and every which kind of cancer you can think of.
I tried to do a little bit of research since friday when I found out about this project,
and there's a huge body of research on the effects
of exposure to diesel fumes and it's still ongoing.
the consensus though is that there is really
no safe distance and the particulates stay in the air.
being in a town home of 87 homes,
where we have very young children, we have older adults,
and we have families, we have animals. We are in danger of health issues from this project.
aside from that, we are concerned about the additional traffic and the noise, especially from idling.
now, we don't yet really know what kinds of tenants we'll have,
but based on the number of truck bays,
if the businesses operate during the day,
that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be truck traffic at night.
that is going to be a noise problem for anybody in the area,
not just our community because the trucks idle.
we have a good number of people who don't work traditional hours, so they sleep during the day.
aside from that, I have an estimate here of 537 vehicle trips a day,
which was estimated by the developer and communicated to our engineering department.
that seems like a lot of trips. Not all truck necessarily,
but probably a good portion of them are. We have, in addition to our community,
the copper hill apartments are very close. >> one second. Rib, we had a timer here for three minutes,
but I thought during public hearings. >> it's three minutes.
>> it's three minutes. Except for the applicant. >> except the applicant. I was not here for that through that meeting.
>> hopefully, all that has gotten past there. >> you did. >> [overlapping] I'm sorry. But anyway, the increased traffic,
the wear and tear on the streets, and primarily the health issues are a concern. Thank you.
>> thank you very much. Anybody else here to speak on this item. That would be your time.
not seeing any. Last chance, going once, going twice.
I'll go ahead and close the public hearing at 7:17.
council, looking at the application.
just from the comprehensive land use of what this looks like,
employment focused, looking at the traffic patterns.
for me, personally, I feel as though that this meets it exactly the way it should.
with the comprehensive plan, it meets it exactly what we're looking for, with good access between 183, 121.
this is as good as a commercial property as any, quite frankly,
and any residential is far away from this.
it's to the north. Issues with traffic.
I don't see it being an issue given that traffic pattern and noise as well.
I just feel it's really too far away. Given that it's a great example and great property for commercial,
I'm going to recommend that we as council a approve this application.
I guess I'll make that motion to approve.
second by council member steve. Let's go and vote.
>> it's frozen. Since you seconded, I'm to assume that that would be yes. There it is.
that passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you, congratulations to the applicant.
very good. Let's move on. Item number 5. Is a resolution to the city of bedford texas,
authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an economic development program agreement pursuant to chapter 380 of
the texas local government code in the city's economic development policy by and between the city of bedford texas and sgsc fund,
llc for improvements to the stone gate shopping center located at 1305 and 13 brown trail.
give you economic development manager christian smith. Thank you. Welcome to your debut.
>> thank you, mayor, council, christian smith. Today staff is bringing forward
a resolution to authorize the city managers to negotiate and execute an economic development agreement for
proposed revitalization of the stonegate shopping center. The property was recently acquired by center point commercial,
and the new ownership seeks to make improvements to the facades of both buildings of the site,
extend a portion of the building that's adjacent to turning point brewery into a food court pavilion and make some improvements to the parking lot.
before I forget, we do have mark cohen here from center point commercial available for questions as well.
just to go as oriented, this is the project location at at the corner of brown trail and bedford road outlined here in yellow.
I'm going to flip through a couple of slides here. These just outlined the current condition of the site.
here's that larger building facing turning point, and then the other building just off to the side of the parking lot.
the proposed improvement, as you can see here on this rendering, redoing the exterior facades,
having some extended verticality and new colors mixed materials on the top.
then in the center here just off to the left, you can see that addition of the food co pavilion,
a little over 7,000 square feet. Then this just shows the two main tenants of the larger building on site,
and then just showing in this view what some of those food court kiosk would look like with the extension.
this project aligns with council's approved strategic and comp plan. Specifically strategic plan focus area 2, economic development,
promoting high quality economic growth and business development to expand and diversify the tax base and enhance the quality of life for beefed residents.
then specifically within the comp plan, it calls out the stonegate district, which to kick off revitalization they're doing so incrementally.
building upon the existing character within the zone, based off of its reasonable values to offer
a more affordable approach to business development and revitalization.
the proposed terms of the 3d agreement would be
a minimum capital investment on the part of the company at $850,000 to do that work.
the scope of that project, again, would include improvements, the facade of both buildings, parking lot,
expansion of that northern building to create that food hall pavilion. Upon completion of those obligations,
the city would provide a one time grant of $200,000 that would be provided to the company after the minimum capital investment has been spent.
then a five year 50% sales tax rebate upon completion of those improvements.
the combined total of which from the city's part would not exceed $300,000.
this just breaks up what I just laid out just in a different form.
we'll have the $200,000 grant. Then this just breaks down sales and property tax collections over a 10- year period,
just to give you another idea of what that would look like. On the top chart is sales tax over a 10-year period,
so you can see the portion that the city would be rebating under this agreement and then the portion that's being retained over the 5-year period,
we would estimate a maxing out grant of $100,000 for the sales tax rebate,
and then over a 10-year period, the city would retain a little over 300,000 property taxes listed here,
not because they're part of this agreement, but just to let you know what the incremental property tax collections
would be based off of the investment on the part of the developer. The bottom is just a really quick equation
just to show what the 10-year return on investment to the city would be. You take the gain of investment minus the rebate,
divided by the value of the rebate, and it's about a 50% return on the city's investment over
that period of time. Any questions? >> yes. Question. That's what we're gating.
>> thank you, mayor kogan. I would like to say this from the very topest of mountain tops.
I move to approve this. I am looking I have been looking so forward to this development.
I've spoken to many patrons, that parking lot is terrible. I've maybe been through it a couple of times.
but I am so excited about that stonegate development.
I've been waiting for this day, and that, I believe, is going to be a huge draw for a larger area.
I moved to approve. >> thank you. I think,
approve let me have a second. I do have questions.
[laughter] I do have questions, and so we can still debate it.
the motion is still on the table, and I will allow us to vote momentarily.
>> [inaudible]. >> we still have correct. We just don't normally do that in our meeting.
normally, we're just ready to go. With that, looking at the contract,
a couple of things that we're holding them to just by looking at it.
they have to get the work started within a year, is that correct? >> two years, by the end of 2027.
that's really just to provide just extra time. All the conversations we've had with the development team.
they would not take that long. >> just to because it such a critical realize or get it started.
to initiate improvements. >> initiate improvement. >> yes.
>> to commence construction. Got you. We're holes holding them to that end, as well,
once they provide us receipts of $850,000,
that's when this gets kicked in with the grant of 200,000. The sales tax.
>> yes, sir. That's the trigger. >> that's the trigger. >> looking at looking at this,
we're just talking about facades, but in the definitions, it also included exterior enhancements, repairs,
including parking lot, repairs, landscaping, painting, all of that.
is that off the table, parking lot, any of those others?
>> that's all inclusive. The point of describing it that way as facade improvements was conceived as
an all inclusive term to render the property in substantial similarity to the renderings provided.
>> also, considering that there's a lot of businesses there,
we're going to have access to their records and for sales tax purposes.
>> there's a couple of ways we can do this. It gets a little complicated.
what we'll do is, once all the company's conditions
have been met and there's a request for a payment, at that point, the city will make a request to the state comptroller for
the list of addresses within this property to be provided a confidential sales tax report,
and that will just provide us the gross receipts from the area for the purposes of calculating a rebate.
where it gets a little tricky is if there's less than four tenants there, that report cannot be provided to us because it violates confidentiality.
we've tried to put some language in the agreement that just says, in that situation,
the city would use its good faith efforts with the means it has available to derive an amount for rebate.
but that's functionally how that would work. >> because we're not talking one business,
and usually when we do these economic development agreements, we're talking about one business, one entity.
this is a little bit different when we're talking about a whole property encompassing multiple business.
>> that's exactly correct. >> let's see here. No property tax rebates at all. Just sales tax.
where are we getting these funds from? The grant will come from the economic development fund.
that is exactly what this fund is used for. Type of things. How much do we have in that fund?
>> I knew you were going to ask that. [laughter] right now,
including if you approve this tonight, we will end the year with 904,000.
>> nine hundred and four thousand each year, each budget cycle, we allocate.
>> we do. Right now, we're only putting in 5,000 from the general fund.
a couple of years ago, we were also putting in funds from the 4b fund, and we pause that for a little bit.
we have talked with the 4b board about starting that backup again, and I think that's probably something we're going to have
to consider to build this fund back up. We may not be able to do the 250.
it'll just be how we'll just have to look and see what that fund can support. >> correct. That's good.
that's good to know going forward because I forse us wanting to do more of these, especially good partners with shopping centers to beautify city.
then I'll echo, council member gagari this is something that has been a long time coming and that we are very interested in doing.
>> yes. >> that's good to know. Very good. I do have some questions. Thank you, amy.
>> yes. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. I do some questions for the applicant as to what they're preparing to do.
if we could get to the picture on the presentation of what it's being proposed. There you go.
>> hi. Good evening. >> good evening. Mark cohen was center point commercial properties.
I hesitate to come up because I was told long ago in business that when you close the deal, be quiet.
[laughter] but no, I'm happy to answer any questions.
>> I don't mean to throw wrench in things. Now, I just want to know looking at this.
first off, thank you so much for being a good partner with the city. >> absolutely.
>> this is a real pivotal shopping center here to
the south side that we're really interested and really enhancing. I'm looking at this. What enhancements are you thinking about doing to this property?
>> everything you see here contemplating has actually been turned in to building inspections.
mr. Morrison has been kind enough to let us go ahead and begin the,
permitting process without our final contractor selected.
we've been taking bids. We wanted to have those finalized so we can actually get
the proper bids completed so that we can start. Our goal, we're way behind schedule at this point.
few hurdles. We had some trouble with the structural element originally
and getting approved designs from engineers for the food pavilion.
over the course of a year, the entire project has morphed into this much larger,
much more involved section. Originally, it was really going to just be
three little containers out there to sell food.
we started to realize there was a big draw and a very big interest with the turning point crowd and as well,
there really isn't anything like this in multiple miles in multiple directions.
we feel like there's a large need here. We're making a size-able investment,
much larger than we originally had planned. That's part of why the incentive package is important to
us because we've already blown our original budget. But it it'll turn around,
and hopefully it will effectuate a worthy return. We've been very selective.
we haven't made some leases that we originally opted not to do because
we wanted to let this thing get open to create that synergy and pull in better quality tennis.
>> goofing to the atp pickleball. >> atp pickleball. Yes. That was the first one,
and that was unexpected, but a lot of entertainment. Part of the facia,
what we did originally was to [inaudible] the building, and some of this was cost engineered.
to make it look really good without spending a lot of money. Currently, there's no screen wall,
and so what we're actually going to do is put a what you see along the facia.
there's if you go to the photograph, you'll see little grooves in the building, and so we've aligned this with that.
we're putting vertical multi colored lights in those. Then we're creating an open fencing,
if the best way, where you can see through it, but they're spaced about 8 " apart.
it's going to give you that screening effect, give you a very modern feel,
but still allow where it helped with some of the structural elements because of wind loads and some other things.
there was some creative design done into that, and then we extended that into the pavilion,
and now we've got roll up doors and an indoor outdoor facility.
we added bathrooms, and so we've done some things that really we felt like were important to have a successful venue.
>> good. Appreciate it. I wanted to throw it out there so when people are looking at this picture,
what are they seeing? Those multicolred lights. There are going to be lights that are going to be on there.
>> yes. >> very good. It's going to really enhance this space, and really create a draw for this area.
I can't stress enough how excited we are about this partnership about seeing this,
unfold in the future, because I think it's going to be good and it's great that it's on our south side of bedford,
really giving us more commerce down there. >> we're excited as well. Yes.
>> councilman farco. >> yes. Thank you. Appreciate you because I really like the words of blowing budget
sizable investments those are buzz words that we like to hear.
I really do. I applaud you. This is something that's been very much needed in that area.
I think it's what you're talking about, I think it'll be perfect for down there.
I think it's going to enhance the economic development around there once this is finished, and you bring it in.
thank you for investing in us and taking some time and if we can help you in any other way.
do you have other tenants that you're looking at bringing in? >> we do, we're talking to a handful.
we've got actually at this point, more tenants for the kiosks within the venue than we actually have space for.
we have a designed for three with room for a fourth.
we're going to wait on the fourth one. But we're going to go ahead and build out and see how that works and traffic flow,
make sure we don't create bottleenecks and other problems and make sure that everything
flows nicely between turning point pickleball and the venue as well.
we've got multiple entertainment concepts that are interested in the remaining space.
we've downsized turning point to improve their sales and improve their longevity,
and then took the larger section, which they expanded into and are going to lease that.
we're looking at some ways of maybe expanding our current tenants that are in there, and then some smaller tenants when I say small.
that's a 12,000 foot space. Trying to get it maybe to eight would be better.
we've got some nationals that have had interest that we're not sure of the right fit. We're real synergistic when we select tenants.
we don't pick the first people who come along and want to pay us rent. There's a lot of tenants that'll pay us a lot of money for uses that we don't like.
we're not always about it's not all about bottom dollars. >> there you go, using this but wears again.
you're doing a good job. Thank you very much. That's it, mr. Mayor for me. >> very good. Any other discussion, councilwoman robin.
>> I have a couple of questions, even though I already seconded. Is the name going to stay the same stonegate shopping center?
>> yes. Part of this pavilion, we've been working on similar concepts in other parts of town going back to about 2020,
none have been able to pull together the way we've wanted. We had some success on one that,
unfortunately, covid ended up killing that. But we're building off of that same concept.
this is a smaller scale. But we've got some branding for those. Now, the stonegate will remain.
but as far as the pavilion and the synergy that we're creating.
we have some names that we're wrapping up that will get some signage to create a brand that you can go to
other parts of the metroplex and find something so you know what to expect without it being an actual business name.
>> I'm also excited that the parking lots going to look better.
>> that's usually the very first thing we do when we're finished with construction.
if people can't park. >> councilwoman [inaudible]. >> is there any chance that you
could either knock down that little kiosk that's in the front of your parking lot?
>> we don't own it. >> I know, but could you buy it [laughter] or knock it down?
>> it's been proposed. >> thank you.
>> seeing no other discussion. We do have a motion on the table, so gag went ahead and made an approved motion to approve.
we have a second by counsel donovan brandon. Let's go ahead and vote and that surprise, it passes unanimously.
thank you, counsel. Thank you, staff. Good day, christian. Moving on.
>> item number 6. Consider a resolution authorizing the city manager or doesn't need to execute a professional services contract with
lowe's design to provide a professional services for the design of four tennis courts and 4-6 pickle ball courts at generations park at boy's ranch,
and an amount not to exceed $222,000 parks and recreation director, mark law.
>> thank you mayor. Good evening, council. I will try to be quick. This has been a long process for me.
as you know this is part of the grant through the texas parks and wildlife department,
I will remind you that our side of that is 750,000.
the state side is 750,000 for a grand total of 1.5 million of this tennis court and pickle ball.
we're a little over a million budgeted towards the court side of things.
this r750 was budgeted out of the phase next bond,
and I'll get into some numbers and things like that here later. Forgive me, my throat or my voice is about to go.
again, this is an item is to enter into a professional service agreement with lowe's design.
lowe's, I think they're out in ashville, and I have david mccaskill, who's here tonight.
if we have any questions related to the design of the proposal, but this is for design of the tennis and pickle ball courts.
the location of those are the five acres or just short of five acres north of the bedford centered ymca,
directly east of the post office or what we in parks call the masquite lot.
it's where we park all the cars and overflow from all of our special events.
I do want you to know that while the texas parks and wildlife grant funds will support
specific portions of the overall project, the design phase covered under this agreement is not
eligible for reimbursement through the texas parks and wildlife department.
basically, when we went and we applied for this grant back in 2002 or 2001,
the city did not budget for professional services within that.
we do not have the ability to use grant funds for design services.
to move this project forward, we need to find funds from outside of the grant to get this done.
I'm going to move all over the place here. I do want to talk about lowe's,
because they are before you tonight. Part of the scope included in their proposal.
they will be taking care of most of all the geotechnical engineering,
civil engineering, landscaping, structural, electrical.
they will also do some master planning of the site. Obviously, they'll need to do that as part of the design process.
they will do some conceptual planning. Dds, design development will be part of that,
and they will obviously prepare the construction documents that we will take forward through the bid process.
with that said, they will also support the bid servicing. We have a really good purchasing department here with angie miles.
she will handle all of those bidding services. If we get into some technical terminology that we can't answer.
we will bring lowe's in on that, and they will be a part of that. Then, of course, they will support
the construction related services once we break ground.
they will also provide us a preliminary scope of opinion of probable cost as part of this as well.
I do want to be upfront and I'm honest with you and say that we do know that
construction costs for the courts alone will come in higher than what we have budgeted.
as I said, we have just over a million in the grant. We do believe we're estimating.
I don't want to throw any numbers out here and have you hold me to this, but we do think it's going to be worth of 1.6
million to about maybe a little over two million that we need to be prepared for.
this means that we're going to have to use interest earnings from the face next bond to pay for that.
let me see here. We will have to use the interest earning from
the face next bond for the construction costs on top of the grant funds,
the million dollar that we'll be using. There are four other elements to this.
we've talked about shade structures. We've talked about disc off additions,
hike and bike trail. Those are all coming into the budget right now,
so we won't need to use any of the interest earnings towards those projects. We are going to try to work with lowe's as far as
the trail segment that maybe they can help design some of that section.
we did lose from the original grant. We did lose what we said in the grant we were going to put in as far as trail goes.
at some point in time, we did that during the build of the center.
we do currently have approximately $835,000 in the phase next interest earnings.
approximately 220 of that, if approved tonight, will go to the design and a good majority,
if not all of the remaining 615,000 ish.
I do think we'll have to go to the construction side of things.
I would prepare for that. I do want to mention because $835,000 is a lot of money that per bond language,
we are required to use these funds only at generations park at boy's ranch.
I want to make that very clear. We do think this is an acceptable use of the money,
and it allows us to complete this project that has been on my desk for a long time.
this project obviously needs professional design firm to design the site layout and put construction documents together.
what you'll find with this, I don't know if any of you've looked at this site. It is a very complex site.
mr. Mccaskill behind me said, it's not that big of a deal. I do think it's pretty complex.
we have a lot of elevation changes throughout the site. There are drainage concerns that we must address from a civil engineering standpoint.
the site will need retaining walls most likely just because of the elevation change.
I think there's 40 feet of
change from south to north or from the bedford center to harwood.
we'll have to address those things. We'll need to contend with existing underground utilities,
and we need to look at parking. We also, of course, need to look at accessibility requirements,
and we need to address those to make sure we're in accordance with tdlr.
also mentioned one of the bigger things with this and probably one of the most frustrating things
and I know councilman steve has heard me update the parks board is we can't get a notice to proceed from the state of
texas without stamped documents.
that is in our holding pattern right now with some of the other projects.
they just have several requirements that we have to follow. With this, we need a design team of engineers and
architects to come in and stamp these drawings and let us move forward with that.
lowe's is the capability to do this. They have very similar projects throughout the united states that they've done.
we are excited about working with them. Given the conditions professional design service are
essential to deliver a safe functional and cost effective project.
lowe's has the technical expertise and the experience needed to complete this complex design work.
really to get this project done, we've got to have them. Time frame on this project,
they're looking at six months for the design and construction documents to be put together,
two months for bidding and construction contract negotiations.
then we're looking at 6-8 months for actual construction of the tennis and pickle ball courts.
if we approve it tonight, we do have a meeting scheduled for thursday with the design team,
and we will obviously work hard to keep this project on schedule and within the budget that we come up with.
that really concludes what I have. As I mentioned, we do have david mccaskill here with lowe's.
he is one of the vice presidents. He's able to answer any questions specific to the proposal and maybe some of the construction.
I'm here to answer any questions on behalf of the city, and if we get into finances,
I'll take a shot at it, but we do have karen here answer those.
>> thank you so much, mark for that summary. I think I speak for everyone when very excited about this.
this is much needed for the pickle ball and tennis ball courts. This has been something that has been talked about.
gosh, I want to say pre-pandemic almost. I remember actually pandemic sitting in here
discussing where we're going to put tennis ball courts. It's been a long time coming,
very excited to see this going underway, and I know that despite,
it might come in a little bit more, I know that karen can work her magic, and we'll make sure we'll get it done.
I do feel that very positive that this is going to be a great asset to the city and I know we're going to get this done.
with that, council, any questions? Mayor pro tem dawkins. >> thanks, mr. Mayor. Mark,
with the grant, it wasn't just the tennis and pickle ball courts.
it was those other projects you talked about. >> correct. >> I guess I need some reminders.
was the skate park any part of the consideration for any parks or anything like that?
my only concern is, pickle ball is very popular now, so we're have a private business that's already coming.
I know but ymca participants
are taking over the courts to do pickle ball there and so now we're building an additional court that,
I guess anyone can use. I just concerned that at some point,
people are going to be over it. I guess the designers can help us have something flexible where,
is it my understanding that a tennis ball court can't be a pickle ball court,
but it can't be vice versa? Or is there some flexibility?
>> you can put several pickle ball courts on a tennis court. Now, purist and I won't even call them purist anymore,
just anyone who plays pickle ball, they're not probably going to like a tennis court
being converted to pickle ball, and vice versa.
>> yeah, I just know that was a young man who came a couple of years ago.
that was an additional element that I just want to keep top of fine of additional things that we want to bring in terms of red parks,
but I'm really happy that we're moving forward with this project. >> yeah. To answer that question,
and is mr. Washington who came, he did a really good job of doing that.
this was specific to these five elements, which was submitted to the texas parks and wildlife department.
from my standpoint, we also look at master plans. We have a priority list that we use that as our bible.
what the citizens rank. I will tell you that, unfortunately,
in ours skate park, did not. Now, I do hear chatter online. Every once in a while.
I don't have social media, but I do have people that tell me that we do have people that still bring up the skate park.
it's out there. We're aware of it. It's just in the ranking system. I don't know if it even ranks in the top 20.
I don't want to say it doesn't, but I'd have to go back and look. >> very good. Any additional questions for mark?
we go. Councilman simons. >> who who would run this mark?
would it be us or the why? >> we we would run it.
tennis courts like this. It's not a tennis center,
so four tennis courts. Really, I think, and I've had a conversation with david earlier last week,
I think we try to get as many pickle ball courts as we can. I think we would go a six.
that is more of a self-paced type complex where
we may internally in house do just a reservation system.
we wouldn't charge any money for that initially, unless we saw it as an opportunity for revenue,
which does happen, but we would probably just do a reservation system of some sort.
>> how would they get in? >> it'll be open. It will have lights.
at curfew or whatever to, probably 10:30, we would have those lights would turn off,
so, but they would be open to the public. >> any additional questions? Seeing no,
I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve by council member gag hardy. Do I have a second?
second by council member donovan brandon. Let's go and vote.
that passes unanimously as well. Thank you, council. Thank you staff. Next up.
consider resolution authorizing the city manager her designee to enter into an amendment to the ground and tower lease agreement with
new singular wireless pcs llc for cellular equipment located at the water tower at 537 bedford road.
give you assistant city manager karen riggs. >> good evening, mayor and council.
normally, this item would be on consent, but based on some history, I didn't think you guys had ever seen anything like this before,
so I just wanted to put it on new business so we could have a brief conversation. This is an existing lease.
basically, cell companies lease space from us to put their equipment on water towers,
or sometimes it's just a cell tower equipment. It could be sometimes in a park,
it can be on fire station, property, things like that. We currently have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 current lease agreements. This one is up in 27.
they like to get ahead of it, because if for some reason, a city chooses not to renew it,
that gives them ample time to find additional space somewhere else so that they can still serve their customers.
that's why it's a couple of years ahead before it expires. This is just a renewal.
we did another 25 year renewal with five year increments. This one had 15% rate escalations.
we negotiated a 10%. They were trying to come at me with a lowering their rent altogether.
I said, no, absolutely not. It's not how we operate. We kept the rent flat for five years,
and then we did a 10% escalation. We do currently have one lease agreement that does have
a 10% lease rate escalation built in as well. It didn't seem too far out of the norm.
just for some historical purposes, there are anywhere between 10-15 is pretty norm,
so 10% is not abnormal. That's why this is on new business,
cause I just figured you guys had never seen anything like this before. I wanted to bring it. If you had any questions,
I'd do my best to answer them for you. >> how much are we charging them for currently?
>> right now, they pay $4,372.52 a month.
just to give you an idea between all of our current tower rentals for budget purposes in our current year budget,
we're expecting $272,400 in revenue. >> wow. I was not aware that we had that
much allocated to leases for these type of things. It's good to know. Thank you.
any additional questions? Yes. Guess what we're done with brennan.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. Is this a competitive thing where we could not approve it,
and somebody else would give us more? >> they could go somewhere else.
>> got it. >> yeah. >> which is probably more likely that it'll happen.
>> probably. >> I'm assuming that, the competition for that.
I don't know if there is much. >> if you think about what they're trying to do is serve their customers so they could
stay here and we could get revenue or they could go here, still serve their customers,
but it may not be in our city limits. It may be in the city next to us.
it's one of those things. >> very good. I'll not hear your motion to approve by council.
second by council member gagliardi. Let's go ahead and vote.
>> that passage names as well. Thank you very much. >> thank you.
>> item number 8. Consider resolution authorizing and casting
of city bedfords allocated votes for appointment on the terran appraisal district board of directors.
give to city manager andrea roy. >> mayor, I think this is almost a tag team two of us.
but just quick recap. We are here tonight again to cast our vote for there are two open positions,
available positions with the terra appraisal district board. You have your choices of michael alfred,
wendy burges, eric rel, and said. I think over the last few months,
I've shared information on all of those candidates with you. Then tonight at your place,
I did provide a list of the current voting tabulations as of
01:00 today as to what entities have cast their votes.
of the 2,000 votes, we get 11. Perspective wise, it's probably not something we would want to split apart.
then I will let you all discuss potential candidates somewhere you'd like to place those 11 votes.
>> absolutely. Yes. Just for counsel,
I'm sure you probably get them the emails as well from our resident and current tad board member, fred campos,
who is vehemently against the reappraisal plan that we are currently under, where they are not appraising properties every year,
but every two years, which led to us to raise taxes this past year.
I know we are all against that. His recommendations, based on that,
were for wendy burges or eric kryl.
you may remember that eric kryl has come to some of our meetings and spoken and both those candidates are against that reappraisal plan.
I foresee that they would be good allies to have on the tad board, to give him some backup.
I'm hopes that both of them can win as we can get back to appraising values yearly.
with that, you can see that currently, miss burges is at 492 in second place,
and eric kryl is at 5:52, and mr. Mike alfred is 476.
again, we're trying to get the top two candidates elected here.
if we want that reappraisal plan completely done away with, we need mr. Kryl and miss burges to pull ahead. Yes. Counsel.
>> we vote for eric kryl and wendy burges 11 votes two different positions.
vote in each position. >> eleven total. Vote for wendy burges.
wendy burges, just to skip and get her ahead. Do I have a second from that?
ma'am. That's fine. I have a second. To allocate all 11 votes from cosmerargo to miss burges,
second by customer gang. Yes. Mayor pro tem dawkins.
>> thanks mr. Mayor. I know that this is for the current positions,
but then we're going to have another position open up. Right? >> from my understanding,
that one is going to be appointed by the board. Mr. Blaylock, who's currently on the board, from my understand,
he's running for texas house, which then leaves a vacancy, and of course,
he waited too late to be a part of this. We can't vote on this as an entity,
but they were going to have to appoint within themselves to fill that position. Thank you. Very good.
with that, we'll go ahead and vote.
that passes unanimously. Thank you, counsel. Thank you staff. Moving along, two reports.
I think we all in christmas spirits. It's time. It's time for christmas spirits.
I hope we take a picture after all of this. Oh, my gosh.
look at this. Very good.
oh, this is hilarious. Anyways, next year, we will have one from brin and andrea.
pass down. There's not another one.
we are definitely getting in the spirit here. I know.
for council member, mayor reports, I do have some things I'd like to discuss on november 25.
I had the opportunity to be at the hrv chamber for the ribbon cutting for dr. Snowball,
which operates heating and cooling, hva systems within our community.
just what a lovely family owned business. They need our support exponentially.
they told me they had a rough year starting their business,
and there's a lot of competition out there. But wow these are the type of family and type of business we need to support.
if you have any issues or any questions with heating or cooling, definitely check out dr. Snowball.
we definitely need their support. Also, on december 1st,
had mayor's council during that meeting, we had an update from fort worth city,
as well as guest speaker, police chief of fort worth, eddie garcia,
shared with us his plans for the department, and we ragged on him a little bit for not stealing some of our police officers.
but he had some good information about recruitment and retention,
about being competitive with benefits and showing that support for your police department.
I can say, just from this counsel, from everybody, as soon as he said it, he's like,
the first number one thing is support your police department, I said, b, we got that.
we absolutely support our police department. That was a good information.
I'd also like to talk about during that meeting, there was a health update, which I always find interesting.
the flu cases are down this year as opposed to last year.
the only problem is the new strain the h3n2 mutated.
if you got a, a shot vaccine for that,
still going to be effective, but it may not be as effective because of that mutation.
does that mean you don't get the vaccine? No, please, it's still recommend to get the vaccine,
see the gentleman over here to my right faculty for that.
also, covid in the county is almost virtually nonexistent, according to the record.
that is a nice, positive one to go away with. There is an uptick in the norovirus,
which is stomach bugs. If you get that, stay home,
get better because that is a very contagious one that we don't want around.
then also last thursday, had the pleasure of being part of
the hb chambers leadership heb session with lunch with the mayors.
got to share, why I ran for office, a little bit about bedford,
its history, the challenges we face, as well as talking about the opportunities and giving a good example of
our strategies here at the city of redeveloping bedford and giving campus west as a good example there.
it was a good meeting there. I think mayor pro tem dawkins, you're in that class,
and you probably share more about the economic side of things, but all in all had a good time with the chamber there.
last and certainly, not least. Last friday, december 5,
we had our annual christmas tree lighting. Oh, my goodness. What an amazing event that was.
I want to say, personally, a big thank you to the whole whole city,
because this doesn't take just one department. It is a whole city effort to pull off this thing for
communications to go out there and get everybody out there, I think we had around 5,000 people show up to this event,
to our police department for providing security, to our parks department for setting everything up.
what a tremendous event. I had people at my daughter's school coming up to me saying how
great that event was and just starting starting a new tradition.
I remember a year ago, sitting in andrea's office when we discussed moving
it to generations park, and I thought to myself, oh, boy, if you're going to move it to generations park,
you better make it the best tree lighting ever. I just got to say mission accomplished.
great job team, great job city, a fabulous event, looking forward to expanding it even more next year.
with that, also want to wish everyone happy holidays.
merry christmas, of course, spend time with your families, enjoy this time.
we don't have another meeting for, like, over a month. Five weeks til next year.
use this time, spend it with the ones you love, and we're going to come back full swing for the new year.
thank you all very much. We will go with boards and commissions animal shelter advisory.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. I want to thank you to the friends of the bedford animal shelter for all they are doing,
and councilwoman, amy sel for starting that and getting that going.
we want you to remember that the weather's going to turn cold, so to make sure that you take care of your pets that they're inside that they're warm,
and that donations are always welcome at the shelter. They're taking donations right now,
so anything that you want to do, they'll take, and we just appreciate the job that they're doing over there this time of the year.
also, that this thursday is the hb chamber of commerce annual luncheon,
and they have harmony from trinity will be singing. It'll be a great time, and look forward to everybody who's going to come out to that.
that's this thursday at texas star. >> very good. Beautification advisory board.
>> thanks, mr. Mayor. Before I go into the advisory board updates,
I did want to highlight with leadership heb being part of the 2026 class.
and so the economic tour of cities, I feel like bedford did a great job setting the standard. Bedford went first.
andrea and christian did get on the bus and give us swag
for the city of bedford and laid out a map of all the economic development opportunities.
also pointed out, like, things are going on like utility upgrades with the bedford road and brown trail.
we visited the hot spots like stone gate development, campus west.
because we first, we get to talk about hrb, and we talked about the challenges of cheeks barger and things like that.
again, setting the standard, where I feel like the other cities did it differently.
that's some of my feedback that we probably should be standardized, but I do want to give kudos to andrea and christian of really making bedford look good.
I'm proud to be part of the city. >> absolutely. >> I'm proud of the council with that representation.
in terms of beautification, we technically did not meet in november.
but the advisory board has gotten
really great feedback about the trees that were planted adjourns park.
going into next year, the board is going to have a concerted effort in having
a tree planned just given that that is something that this community cares about. That concludes my report.
>> good. Next up, library advisory board. >> thank you, mr. Mayor.
we want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported a bedford christmas.
the library foundation raised more than $9,000,
and that money will go to children's literacy initiatives to fund reading and stem kits.
there's been a change that will start in january people who
want to have access to one of our very popular study rooms,
we'll need to have a library card to check out a study room.
then of the library board. I do have a couple of things that I'm going off topic.
>> go ahead. Sorry. >> congratulations to ld bell's band.
only were they in the macy's parade. They were on the today show. I was amazing.
that's so exciting. I'm so proud of not only the band,
but all the people who supported them. I know it's a monumental task for the boosters.
then this is not in bedford, but it is open to the people in bedford.
for children or adults who have sensory issues,
there's going to be a gentle nut cracker, and it's the first one that we know of in north texas.
it is going to be aimed at people who might
need accommodations that are different from a normal population.
it's at 6:30 december 14, which is next sunday at im terrell performing art center.
it's a state of the art performing art center. The lights will go down to 50%.
the sound will be at 50%. If someone wants to get up and move, they may.
it's an opportunity for people to come. Even with small children who just want to wiggle.
it's okay at this one. It's north central ballet putting this on,
and you go to the website to get tickets. I think it's $10. >> very good. Thank you so much. Parks and recreation.
>> thank you, mayor. I'd like to echo your appreciation of the job
that staff did this friday at the tree lighting ceremony. It's the best yet.
it just amazing. The drone show, the whole nine yards was awesome.
I'd like to thank the parks advisory board for coming out and manning the live reindeer station.
that line was super long all night long. But it was a great time, and they did a great job.
thank you to staff. Good job. >> absolutely. Senior advisory board.
>> the board, nothing to report for that. But I unfortunately missed the tree lighting because I had to work at the pharmacy.
but on my way home, I go up forest ridge, and it timed it about when the festivities ended.
the sheer amount of people at that park.
it looked like it was fourth. It was unbelievable.
I'm just so proud that the staff did an amazing job.
we are pulling from all communities at this point. That drone show. Come on.
that was amazing. Unbelievable. I'm glad we didn't cancel christmas. Thank you.
>> how could we? Look at us up here. How could we cancel christmas?
but no, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I met somebody who was from grand prairie and even mentioned.
I know they have their parade of lights, but they said from the city's perspective, he said, "you guys got nothing on grand prairie" I said,
oh, my. I'll take it. >> he lives really in grand prairie. >> what's that? >> does he really live?
>> yes. I'll take it. I will take compliments where we can get him. Very good.
thank you very much. City manager and staff reports. You took off your hat.
>> it was hurting here [laughter] I have nothing to report [laughter]
>> very good. Next up, we have executive session. We have pursuant to section 551072 and pursuant to section 551071,
so we will be back. Afterwards, we're taking a picture with all this.
we are back from executive, and there is no action to take.
reaching the end, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. >> mayor kogan, I would love to move to adjourn this last meeting of the year.
>> motion to adjourn from council gangli. Second. By council member parker.
all in favor. Say aye. >> aye. >> ayes have it. >> we are officially adjourned at 9:00.
merry christmas and a happy new year.