[0:00] Please stand alsisible

[0:17] with liberty and justice for all. >> Father, we thank you for the opportunity

[0:21] to gather together, Lord, to be about the work of of of people today. Lord, we

[0:25] pray that you would give us his wisdom, Lord, and serve as we try to make good

[0:30] decisions. Help us to do things that are right for our people and good in your

[0:34] sight. In Jesus name we pray. >> Amen. Amen.

[0:45] » Let the roll show that everyone is here except for

[0:49] Tony Wolf

[0:53] district.

[0:56] And at this time before we approve the I'd like to ask council to approve an

[1:03] amended agenda adding under new business item H

[1:12] removing a sales tax increase on grocer.

[1:24] Is there any discussion? All in favor say I.

[1:31] » Oppos? Nay. The eyes have

[1:36] take a minute. Item three approve the minutes. So take a couple minutes to

[1:41] look over the minutes from last meeting.

[2:13] to approve

[2:18] a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

[2:26] Any reports of council district one council

[2:32] Kelly? District two, council.

[2:38] » District three, counc. >> Um, I don't I was just going to inquire

[2:43] about have we maybe hired someone to take those trees down.

[2:48] » We have taken bids. We've got low bid and that should be happening very soon.

[2:54] » Okay. I just wanted to be able to tell. >> Yes.

[2:57] » Yes. [snorts] All all there are four total trees and they should be coming

[3:01] down very soon. >> Thank you.

[3:05] Thank you. Question.

[3:09] Uh, district four council. No.

[3:14] Okay. Wolf is out.

[3:20] All right. From my part, I have got a couple of things I want to make sure

[3:28] to report before the biggest news I want to report. Uh the first thing is

[3:34] um

[3:38] Lamar Cwell of retirement is this Friday we'll have a little city employee

[3:45] lunchon for Lamar. has worked with the city for a long time and

[3:50] we're excited for him and

[3:55] the second thing is uh there was some confusion and miscommunication on the uh

[4:03] our youth football league football and cheer

[4:07] which is not run by the city. It's run by it own board of parents and all, but

[4:12] we got that we got that corrected. They were looking for a place to

[4:16] practice. They had not reached out to us. Now that we know what their needs

[4:20] are, we've got that taken care of. They will be practicing over.

[4:26] So, all that's good and we're glad that he will help. And then the the third

[4:32] thing, the big news of the day,

[4:36] right? But is our fire rating. We got our ISO rating. Our fire department has

[4:42] worked hard. Chief Atkins has really worked

[4:48] to to get to this point, but also this council uh the former council and mayor

[4:56] have done really work put in work and former mayors to grow our fire

[5:01] department and to move us to to a different level. And um u we are very

[5:08] excited. I'm going to go ahead and say the the headline. I'm turn it over to

[5:11] you too. Uh we are we have moved from a four to a three in our ISO rating which

[5:17] is outstanding. Uh that a one is the best, a 10 is the worst. And moving to a

[5:24] three is helpful to all our homeowners and is particularly helpful to uh to our

[5:29] commercial property owners. And so we're excited about that. That will begin.

[5:34] I'll turn it over to Chief. >> All right. So, yes, and we thank the

[5:40] previous council, the mayor, and and definitely all of you as well. We

[5:46] couldn't do it by oursel. We had to have cooperation.

[5:50] We're fortunate to to work with

[6:11] Can everybody hear? >> Well, question is from people online.

[6:16] » Okay. >> Okay. Go ahead.

[6:22] » So again, we thank everybody for the

[6:25] cooperation. We couldn't do it by ourselves. Um, as y'all know, It's not

[6:32] uh it's not cheap to do it. Um we have

[6:36] tried to to do it as economical as possible not waste money. Therefore, we

[6:43] have purchased some used trucks. uh we had researched and found took our time

[6:49] and found something to be in good shape mileage for the simple fact that we just

[6:55] realized we can't afford million million and a

[6:59] half and $10 million contracts. So we're cutting corners there. But um

[7:11] so what led up to a better story? First of

[7:15] all, a little bit about us. We cover 41 square miles.

[7:22] We go from Sandy Creek on 49 to 1500 block 49 north, north and south, east

[7:30] and west from from lake all the way to

[7:40] a good bit of golf. I got a map I'll show you in a minute. So, we cover a

[7:46] pretty good area and for a long time it was covered with one station and then

[7:50] y'all know the history of several years ago the old

[7:56] Suzana fire station which it location was good for them when it was just their

[8:02] fire department but when we absorbed it really didn't fit

[8:09] the coverage map for really helping us a whole lot other than just that

[8:14] took over. So, one of the things that helped us get that score down was moving

[8:20] to its current location because we had areas in that direction

[8:25] that was over 5 miles from the fire station. So, all of that was taken in

[8:31] within 5 miles. So that that helped our school.

[8:35] Okay. And we covered Highway 280 from the

[8:39] Jackson G when we touched them all the way to the 85 mile mark

[8:46] just past right around the

[8:53] Right.

[8:56] So we currently are operating out of two stations. Station one is right here at

[9:00] 339 North. street station in the picture there is in 911. That's kind of what

[9:13] so the green area is our coverage area

[9:19] outside the city and then the center part there is the city. So all that

[9:26] combined is the 41 square miles we cover. Um that's the locations of

[9:32] station one and station two.

[9:56] » Well, next slide is going to show that All of our territory except for a little

[10:03] bit on the far corner where it makes a 90° up in the right hand corner is about

[10:09] [clears throat] the mile out there on road that is outside of five miles. So

[10:15] that one spot is not getting credit for being covered by a fire department even

[10:21] though we cover and we are going if they have a problem they don't get credit. So

[10:27] eventually that's probably our next to get them covered, but also by getting

[10:33] them covered and having our entire coverage area within five miles, it

[10:37] actually helps every one of the things they look at is station distribution. So

[10:44] better we have our entire area helps.

[10:51] So notable improvements, uh we've added personnel.

[10:56] So when city hired me. They had uh including me, they had one full-time

[11:05] person and two part-time when I first got hired. We now have seven full-time

[11:11] and 12 part-time employees, all of which are certified career firefighters that

[11:19] helped us a lot on our ISO school. >> All right.

[11:25] Yes, sir. Can you [clears throat] explain to people the difference in

[11:28] because in certified parttime I mean fulltime or part time certified officers

[11:35] hours >> the hours okay so

[11:38] » that they're all they are all certified trained fire but

[11:42] » yes so currently our part-time people most of

[11:48] the time get 24 hours a week now there's a open spot because somebody took a

[11:53] vacation day They may work with extra but most of the part-time people work 24

[11:59] hours per week. Either one 24hour shift or two 12 hour shifts. Fulltime people

[12:05] um currently are working up to 106 hours in a twoe pay period. After

[12:12] 106

[12:15] overtime kicks in for we fall under FLSA parab standard act. We can work up to 53

[12:23] hours per week without hitting.

[12:28] So that's just traditionally the way it's been for years.

[12:34] So any other questions?

[12:41] » And a big thing that helped us because 40%

[12:45] of the overall score is based off of water. Obviously, we can't put out fire

[12:50] without water. So, uh to help that section, we uh we have added to our

[12:57] fleet a couple more tankers that can haul a lot of water that we can keep a

[13:03] constant flow. So

[13:07] when we got them to bring us this time, which is an extra step, it's a little

[13:14] extra work on on the ISO representative, but that's okay. That's that's it done.

[13:20] So we told we we don't want a split rate. We want to get rid of that X

[13:26] because we were at 44X before. We want to get rid of X. So he said, well, you

[13:33] got to prove that you can a certain amount of water, keep that

[13:37] amount of water flowing without losing the stream. Yeah, we know. So,

[13:45] so that was big. We have done away with X.

[13:54] Current score was 44x and a 10. 10 represents anything over five miles.

[14:00] So if you're if you're over five miles from a recognized fire station, whether

[14:06] they're coming to you or not, as far as ISO concerned, you're not covered. And a

[14:13] lot of insurance companies will need to write your policy and if they do, it's

[14:17] pretty high. All right. Our new score effective that will go in effect for

[14:22] insurance purposes November 1st is

[14:30] 10. So still if you're over five miles from the station is 10, but everything

[14:36] else is three. We didn't w because we can now haul a sufficient amount of

[14:41] water to help meet our fireflow needs.

[14:46] » Chief, if I may add. >> Yes, sir. One thing that people don't

[14:50] understand is the areas that are outside of the city limits that are in our fire

[14:55] district. >> We have no

[15:01] legal recourse to collect fire damage. They want to give us a donation they can

[15:06] but we can't collect fire. For that reason, um we are working with the

[15:13] county commission on how we resolve that issue and and

[15:18] potentially get get some help from them on making sure that we can have a a

[15:23] station far enough out to reach that area all the far northeast corner of the

[15:30] fire district in less than five miles. We want to make sure we

[15:35] live there even though they're not in the city limits they are in a fire.

[15:41] Yes. And again, like I said, since it is part of our fire district, it still

[15:47] counts against us without having big. So, we're helping them, we're

[15:53] helping ourselves also. All right.

[15:56] So, a whole bunch of little bitty points add up to big points. So, currently

[16:02] under the new system, 105.5

[16:06] points would be perfect. Uh, nobody's perfect. a 90.0

[16:13] and up. If you're better than a 90, then you are a class one. And there are very

[16:18] few of them. Class two would be 80 to 89.9.

[16:24] And class three, which we are, is 70 79.9.

[16:29] We actually gain a whole 10 points. We were 62 previously. And it takes a lot

[16:35] of little points to get that 10 big points that we got to move a whole

[16:40] numeric. number. Our goal is a two

[16:46] and I think that that is achievable. One of the biggest things is personnel.

[16:56] See from from the from the volunteer side or or not even necessarily

[17:01] volunteer. You can be paid, but if you're off duty, you're not at the

[17:06] station and you have to come back in when the call comes in. ISL counts three

[17:13] offduty people to equal one. >> So that hurts.

[17:20] We're supposed to for

[17:24] purposes, they want us to have a minimum of 12 people on that structure.

[17:30] Well, a lot of times we can get that, but it's not in our initial response. U

[17:36] you know, a lot of times we end up with six or eight, maybe 10 of our own fish

[17:41] getting to that 12 mark because of automatic aid from our department to

[17:47] come to help us. So sometimes we can't get that 12 hours.

[17:53] So any that's a goal for down the road and we can

[18:00] So this is a breakdown. So the community risk reduction

[18:06] that's hard to see 5.5 total points possible. We got 3.7 out of that. Um the

[18:13] water points we moved up to 32 out of 40. So that was a big improvement on the

[18:22] water. Uh fire department side we did move up but they still uh a lot of

[18:28] territory we can gain points right there. Best on fire department side is

[18:34] 50 and we're at 30.7. So once in the future once we get a

[18:41] training facility you get extra credit for training at training facility

[18:46] instead of just reading the book at discussion. So more of the hands-on

[18:51] stuff you get extra credit that goes back to number of personnel.

[18:56] It goes back to number of stations for your distribution to cover your area

[19:00] like it's supposed to be. So there's a lot of those little points that add up

[19:03] in that fire department section. And then the green section

[19:09] is emergency communications. So that is through dispatch. So everybody in the

[19:14] county gets the same score because we all use

[19:20] They got their own dispatch. Everybody else in the county gets the same score

[19:24] on this because we all use county sheriff's office. Our dispatch center.

[19:30] So we got 9.46 out of 10. I think the one thing that's missing is

[19:37] number dispatch circuits. One more to call

[19:44] and then there is Another thing that 3.73 is

[19:50] called those are negative points. So if your

[19:56] fire department and your water are not in line with each other, if one of

[20:01] them's real good and the other one's bad, they actually subtract because you

[20:07] have a really good fire department, they don't have any water, they can't do the

[20:10] job. Or you can have a whole lot of water but don't have a decent fire

[20:13] department and the water's no good. So both they got to work together. So

[20:18] that's you know when we get those two closer together we'll get those negative

[20:22] back. So I think that you know every five years uh is the schedule that they

[20:28] bring us unless we think that we have improved enough to call them on our own

[20:34] but uh which is a possibility but I feel like within the next five years when

[20:39] they come back we will probably be ready to move to a

[20:46] right here. I think it's the next slide. So,

[20:50] this represents all the fire departments across the United States. Total of

[20:54] 37,358 recognized fire departments nationwide.

[20:59] And you can see different classes at the bottom. We are now in a class three. We

[21:04] are one of 3,956 out of 37,000.

[21:10] So, we're doing pretty good.

[21:16] So at the end of the day, it's not so much the graphs and piece of paper and

[21:24] the shiny trucks. It's the heart to go out here and help the uh the people that

[21:31] we live around, people we call neighbors and family, and we have that

[21:36] determination to to help people. That's why we get called home pretty

[21:42] good bit to go even outside of our territory because people need help and

[21:47] we're willing to help as long as we can afford to do so. Obviously, if we have

[21:52] something going on in our area, we're going to handle that first, but we're

[21:59] willing to help people questions.

[22:08] I do want to say how much we appreciate chief the job that you have done in

[22:15] because this the city has committed resources to the fire department but

[22:20] you've also gone out and made those resources go further and that's one of

[22:23] the things that people shouldn't miss when we talk about the amount of water

[22:27] they have to take the trucks and you're driving to Pennsylvania trying to take a

[22:30] truck 50,000 instead of a million those help us get that water up get our score

[22:37] up and make it affordable. We appreciate that.

[22:41] [applause]

[22:54] » All right. New business approved rec center.

[23:22] I got a motion. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say

[23:26] » I. Nay. The eyes have. Item B is resolution

[23:32] 2617 participation in local government health

[23:35] insurance program. This

[23:40] resolution

[23:44] is u cleaning up

[23:49] our

[23:52] wording and our and making sure that each of [snorts] our rather than

[23:58] our water board, our gas board, and our city

[24:02] insurance being lumped together. The state won't allow us to do that anymore.

[24:06] So, making sure that that we would divide that ourselves now has to be

[24:10] divided force in Texas. So, this is a housekeeping issue that doesn't really

[24:16] change anything other than where the state looks at it from a legal

[24:19] perspective. Is there any discussion on resolution

[24:22] 2617?

[24:27] Do I hear a motion to resolution 267?

[24:32] » Make a motion to approve resolution 17.

[24:38] Have a motion to second. Any discussion? >> All in favor say I.

[24:44] » I oppose. Nay. And the eyes have. All right. Item C. We'd like to hear from

[24:52] our executive director of chamber of commerce for

[25:07] all day. So, um, but I just want to come and update everyone about the chamber,

[25:13] things that we've had going on since the last time I was in. We um along the LCD

[25:20] chamber tourism board and the mayor. We participated in April the dragon boat

[25:27] race. Um Fury was our name. Uh we had a great time. It was at Winry State Park.

[25:35] We did not bring home a trophy, but we plan on next year. So, um we were

[25:41] excited about that. But, um between May and July, the chamber uh had 22

[25:50] members chamber memberships with us. We had two 10 new members join and five are

[25:58] located right here in we have three in the Auburn area and two are from city.

[26:05] So um just encouraging businesses to join the chamber. Uh we do try to help

[26:12] with your advertising and just you know seeing the bond that

[26:19] that our community has and I love seeing it grow. We um we are revitalizing the

[26:27] chamber ambassador program and that is open to anyone that either is a chamber

[26:33] member or works for a business that has that is a chamber member and we just had

[26:39] a meeting yesterday. We have 12 active ambassadors and five new ambassadors.

[26:46] So, that's exciting. Um, and we will also be working with LCD chamber. We're

[26:52] going to have an ambassador day next Friday um on the lake to bring the LC

[26:58] chamber ambassadors and chamber ambassadors together to um just for them

[27:04] to meet in recruit

[27:08] ambassadors. And then um we started planning our fall festival and

[27:15] I just wanted to let everyone know that it will be again in the Dable First

[27:22] Baptist Church parking lot and uh along West Street and we will still have the

[27:30] car show that will be downtown. So, um we're excited. We have a lot of things

[27:36] going on the next couple of months and so you may see some a lot of advertising

[27:43] going on. If you have any questions, please, you know, feel free to reach out

[27:48] to me, call me, stop by, you know, they have a new office and I still call it

[27:53] new because I feel like I'm

[27:58] just I see new faces all the time. So, I feel like I'm still new in my position.

[28:05] So, I would love for anybody and everybody to stop by and see us.

[28:10] Y'all have any questions?

[28:14] Thank you.

[28:19] » All right. Item D is ordinance 480F. Uh this is

[28:27] came up if we as we passed our last meeting, the ordinance on manufactured

[28:33] homes. This is just an addition that goes back

[28:38] to an ordinance that was passed some 50 years ago. Uh so it's not a change, but

[28:44] it's putting u the wording into the the particular section of the code that we

[28:53] have. Uh I believe article four section three that that

[29:00] refers to man homes and it just makes sure that

[29:05] it's clear to anybody who looks at it as you see that single wide manufactured

[29:11] homes are only allowed in a manufactured home park

[29:16] uh and nowhere else in the city limits. So this is this is a a clarifying piece

[29:23] to make sure it's been in place for for quite a long time.

[29:29] Any discussion? Do I hear a motion for

[29:33] Make a motion to approve ordinance. >> Is there a second?

[29:42] » Have a motion to second. Any discussion?

[29:47] » All right. All in favor of ordinance 480. Yes. Say

[29:51] I. >> I. I. Opposed. Nay. And the eyes have

[29:56] move to ordinance 530 mobile food units. This also

[30:04] a lot of work done by planning and zoning. Uh this just puts some rules in

[30:10] place to help to make sure that our we have more mobile food units

[30:19] that they this is good for them and good for the for those businesses that exist

[30:25] here all the time and brick and mortar. And so the biggest piece of this, there

[30:31] are several things and so I would encourage anybody who is interested in

[30:35] doing a food truck or a food trailer go look at this after it's passed as far as

[30:41] all the thing the things that that are that are

[30:45] gerain the situation. But the big piece is um from my for my takeway is that a a

[30:54] mobile food unit cannot set up within 200 ft of and this

[31:00] is my paraphrase y'all. So this is not legal of of an open restaurant an open

[31:06] brick and mort so that we don't create

[31:14] competition for those So, u there are other there plenty of

[31:20] other little things in there, but that's to me is the biggest piece.

[31:27] Do I hear a motion for ordinance 530?

[31:34] Make a motion to approve ordinance 530. >> Second.

[31:39] » Got a motion to second. Is there any discussion?

[31:44] Hearing none. All in favor say I. Oppos? Nay. And the eyes have.

[31:52] Item F is ordinance 531 group homes. Uh this is another of the um of the

[32:02] items that we had had. We had a six-month mortorium council pass

[32:08] on group homes until we had time to look into it and decide what was most

[32:15] active place and uses for groups of for groups of group homes. Um, and the the

[32:23] takeaway the brief cliff notes on this is this. I won't read the whole thing,

[32:28] but in section three, it says that group homes, group living arrangements, the

[32:32] residential care facilities may be located the R2 medium density

[32:36] residential district and the R3 high density residential district subject to

[32:41] approval as a special exceptional use complies with all standards in this

[32:46] ordinance. So the rest of the talks about state regulations and those things

[32:50] necessary to be able to have a group home, but the big thing is that it them

[32:56] to R2 and R3 and and they are not allowed in R1.

[33:05] » I hear a motion for ordinance 531. >> Make a motion to approve ordinance 531.

[33:14] » Is there a second?

[33:18] Have a motion to second. Is there any discussion?

[33:23] Hearing none. All in favor of ordinance 531 say I

[33:28] » oppose nay and the eyes have item G ordinance 532 is for storage

[33:35] facilities and main warehouses. This also been part of a moratorium while our

[33:40] planning is only look to see what was best

[33:44] for planning for we go forward and I will focus on takeways in this

[33:51] definition some other site plan requirements. But

[33:55] the main part of this cliff notes is self-service storage facilities

[34:01] including boat and recreational vehicle storage facilities may be located only

[34:04] in the M1 limited industrial district and the M2 general industrial district

[34:09] is shown on the most current city and zone.

[34:16] That's really the the big takeaway for future zoning as always in all of these

[34:23] the things that are currently exist in a zone when zoning has changed as long as

[34:29] they're used for the same the same thing that were being used for

[34:34] that is a nonforming acceptable use. So it doesn't mean the zoning change

[34:38] doesn't mean something that's here can no longer be doing what it's doing. It

[34:43] means that nothing new can go in except in these places.

[34:50] Do I hear a A motion for ordinance 532

[34:58] ordinance 532 >> second got a motion second any

[35:03] discussion

[35:06] hearing none all in favor say I oppose nay and the eyes have item H

[35:15] item H is couple months ago we as we decided to uh

[35:21] change our sales tax to be the same as everybody around us and it's paid by

[35:26] Alabama almost have a municipal sales tax at 4%.

[35:33] But one thing that we did not want to do that we need to come back to address is

[35:38] we would like to amend that to say that there will be no sales tax

[35:43] increase on groceries. So on grocery the sales tax will stay at 3.5% on

[35:49] everything else 4%.

[35:54] » Do I hear a motion? >> Make a motion to approve.

[35:57] » Okay. >> All right. Got a motion to second.

[36:01] Any discussion? >> All in favor of amending the prior

[36:06] motion so that there's no increase on sales tax on groceries say I.

[36:12] » I. and all oppose. and the eyes have before we get to a

[36:18] journ there's one thing I would like to do because we'd like to recognize uh

[36:23] many of you know that former police chief Steve Freeman passed away this

[36:28] past week and Chief Freeman served this city for a long time and we appreciate

[36:34] his service and I'd just like to take a moment

[36:38] give us a moment of silent prayer for his family in this time of loss and and

[36:43] thanks for

[36:59] No.

[37:03] [laughter] >> I've got a motion to adjourn on the

[37:07] table.

[37:10] » All in favor say I. >> Oppose. Name. The eyes. Are there public

[37:15] comments? Anybody want to address the council?

[37:20] Thank you very much. Look forward to seeing you next time. If not,

Council session 7/28/2026

Transcript