We're going to get started today.
Sorry, that was a little loud, but we just had a full house.
So we're going to get started.
Call the meeting to order.
I'll stop this president.
All commissioners are present.
We'll move on to proclamations.
We are doing June is Pride month.
So who is in the audience representing
our Pride Month proclamation.
Ys jagan.
OK, Doctor.
Hat Just try not to die while I get up there.
Sorry set a minefield for myself.
My apologies.
No OK, well, good morning commissioners.
I just wanted to say very briefly,
thank you so much for this proclamation
representing Pride Month here in the city of Emporia,
where pride has become very much.
Celebrated and welcomed and growing
up here in this community, I love being from Emporio.
I'm proud to be from Emporio.
I never thought I'd see anything like that in my lifetime.
And as a proud member of the LGBTQ community.
I'm very proud of the fact that I don't even have
to message the city anymore.
I get a message at the end of May every year asking,
are you planning to submit a pride proclamation.
And that means a lot to a lot of people.
The fact that the city wants to be recognized for that
and wants to recognize it.
Of course, we'll have plenty of activities coming up on June 21,
so I want to make sure everybody comes out
and enjoys those activities.
And just wanted to say very quickly,
I know that sometimes these topics can be divisive
and can cause a lot of debate and in some cases, anger.
But that's not what pride is about.
Pride is about everyone.
Pride is for everyone.
And we would ask anybody that maybe has an experience that
or has their weariness about it, come and experience it
with an open mind and enjoy the peace and the love
that comes with it.
So thank you again to the city for this,
and for constantly recognizing those of us
at the LGBTQ community who, again,
never thought that we would live to see a moment like this.
Thank you.
All right.
Whereas the city of Emporia is a welcoming community
and exceptional place to live, work, play, and raise a family.
And whereas Emporia has a diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and questioning LGBTQ community
and is committed to supporting visibility, dignity, and equity
of all its residents.
And whereas many of the residents and business owners.
Excuse me.
I put in a cough drops cough within the city of Emporia who
contribute to the enrichment of our city
are a part of the LGBTQ community.
And whereas Emporia is strengthened
by the diversity of ethnic, cultural, racial, gender and
sexual identities of its residents
and business community members, all of which
contribute to the city's character,
talent, economy and leadership.
And whereas critical steps have been made
towards full LGBTQ equity and equality, members
of our national, state, and local communities still
face discrimination, exclusion and prejudice simply
for being who they are and for who they love.
And whereas discrimination against people
from the LGBTQ community from around the world
makes it imperative for cities like Emporia
to stand up and show our support for LGBTQ residents.
And whereas we respect and celebrate the richness
and variety of cultures, values, traditions and uniqueness
as they contribute to the tapestry of our community.
And whereas each of us could and should promote inclusiveness,
celebrate diversity, support all fellow community members,
prevent the spread of misinformation,
and reject hate and bias in all forms,
which will make for a stronger and healthier community.
And whereas June shows, International Pride month
commemorates the 1969 protests and demonstrations in response
to raids at the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village.
And whereas June has become a symbolic month in which
the LGBTQ community and allies come together in
various celebrations of pride.
Now, therefore, be resolved that Becky Smith, Mayor, do hereby
proclaim the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month
and encourage all residents to actively
promote, support and help build a culture of inclusiveness
and acceptance.
Oxygen I'm taking you.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, you can stand up there with me.
I mean, give everybody a minute.
Sure I. Don't want to leave anybody out.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you.
Good job.
Thank you.
This is for you.
All right.
So, proclamation designating the month of June as zoo month.
All right.
Thank you.
Sure all right.
Mayor, commissioners and members of the community,
on behalf of all zoo staff, we'd like
to thank you and the city of Emporia
for their continued recognition and support through this zoo
month proclamation.
The success of the David Traylor zoo
rests on the dedication of the city, the community,
the local businesses.
For 92 years, the city of Emporia, its residents
and its businesses community have shown an immense commitment
to providing an oasis where visitors can step away
from the hustle and bustle of daily life, even
if only for an hour, and become immersed in nature and Wildlife.
That support has allowed us to thrive and accomplish so much.
It has helped us maintain our aza accreditation for 36 years
created a more welcoming experience at our entrance,
and develop a new Education Center
and continue planning for the future advancements that
will benefit our community and visitors for generations
to come.
We are proud to serve as an anchor in the Emporia community.
Beyond providing opportunities to learn about wildlife
and conservation.
The zoo offers a place where families and friends can gather,
connect with nature, and enjoy time
together in a peaceful and comfortable environment.
As we celebrate zoo month, we remain
grateful for the partnership and support
that make our work possible.
Thank you.
Thank you for your commitment to the David Traylor zoo,
and for recognizing the important role zoos
play in education, conservation, recreation,
and community engagement.
Thank you.
Do you have any exciting activities for the month.
I mean, you guys are always busy, but you want to promote.
Note we have stolen show coming up featuring Disney's Zootopia
on June 12 from the stroll starts at o'clock in the zoo,
and the movie will begin at 7:00 o'clock at the zoo
Education Center, free for all.
We've got free popcorn donated by Walmart,
so we're looking forward to having a lot of fun and crafts
provided by our Education Department.
And then we also have our Open House
on June 28 from 1 to three.
That all are welcome for behind the scenes tours,
meet and greet with our staff and an excellent chance
to see how we do what we do.
And an update on construction.
Construction with the King vulture
where putting perching in now getting the animals acclimated.
So you will be seeing a grand opening date posted soon.
But summer nights, our summer hours this year is new.
We're adding Saturdays, so our summer hours will be Sunday,
Wednesday and Saturday will be open until 7:00
o'clock o'clock o'clock PM so come on down and join us and we
have the kazoo wild adventure passport as well that you can
get and visit all seven AZA accredited
zoos in Kansas and enjoy what the whole state has to offer.
If you join, you get discounts.
If you join a heck of a deal.
Yes, absolutely.
I agree.
All right.
OK we're at zoological parks and aquariums of North America.
Serve the needs of both humans and Wildlife.
We're bringing them together in a unique
meet in a unique setting.
And whereas they help build awareness, understanding,
concern and a sense of stewardship
for wildlife and the environment.
And they provide a vital link to global conservation efforts.
Their commitment to education fosters and enriches
the appreciation of wildlife in over 20 million
school children each year.
And whereas they actively conduct scientific studies
to better care for and preserve the diverse wildlife
of the Earth.
And they provide important cultural, recreational
and educational experiences for over 175
million people each year.
Therefore, be it known that our esteemed mayor, Becky Smith,
does hereby designate the month of June as zoo month
and urge all citizens to visit the zoo of Emporia
to experience firsthand the wonders of nature
in our environment offered by the zoo.
Thank you.
Christine is Christine here.
Come on.
OK come on.
Get all your.
Board members as well, please.
It's a.
Short stay here.
Yes that's a good thing.
Thanks, all.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Yeah you.
Sure you want me to just pass that forward to you.
Well, is there anybody else who hasn't signed up.
Who wants to speak with me.
Roll into public comment.
We need to sign a sheet before it gets passed to me.
Officially, or once or twice.
The public is invited to make comments at this time.
Please limit comments to two minutes each.
Please state your name and address
prior to making comments.
Let me start on the top or the bottom or you don't care.
Here at the top.
All right.
Mickey Edwards is up.
Where is she.
Oh, it's.
Oh, it's Mickey outside.
Can you speak up, Mickey Edwards.
Thank you.
OK Mary Halloran.
These people signed up today.
I think they're in the other room.
So somebody else.
Mickey is outside on top of page 1.
That's how you sign an order.
But that's fine.
We're going to hear them all.
So sure.
When she comes in, we'll give her a minute, but we'll go to.
We'll go the other one.
All right.
JPG oh, sorry I missed.
J OK.
Here is Jay.
Becky thank you.
Thank you.
And I live at 1319 Lawrence Street.
So I'm here today to call for an immediate moratorium
on the proposed data center and to demand a process that puts
the people first, as we see in a lot of other communities
like El Dorado, there's been behind the scenes dealing
non-disclosure agreements that have been signed,
and this does not represent what our community needs or wants.
That's why so many residents are signing the fair Emporia,
because they want to move to a city commission form of our city
council form of government, and not continue with a commission
that doesn't represent us.
When we look at data centers, we're seeing
the destruction of water.
It evaporates water.
It doesn't return back to the rivers.
It's going to impact our environment.
And newsflash, we're running out of water.
And Kansas isn't the governor talking about it all the time.
So this is just not a good idea.
It lowers property values.
It has.
It can be heard up to a mile away.
The buzzing sounds.
It impacts agriculture not just on a water level,
but also it stops cows from being able to produce milk
or wanting to have children.
So I think that speaks to a lot of our rural people as well.
It has a massive strain on our local electrical grid,
and it results in raising our utility rates.
And if we've seen anything from Everjoy over the past few years,
they're ready to raise those rates up.
They've already done it twice in the past six years.
So we already know what this is going to look like for us
as a community.
And like we keep talking about jobs
like this is going to do something for our community,
but we know from other communities that it's just short
lived jobs.
For building the data center.
And then after that, there's no jobs.
It's like a handful of people working there,
and a lot of those people probably aren't even
going to be from our community.
So we need to do better, and I expect
better from our government here locally.
We should be the first people to speak with, not the last, right.
You guys have already.
You guys have already planned all of these different.
Today you're going to annex the land,
tomorrow you're going to take the water that we didn't
give you consent to take.
And then after that, you're going
to listen to us for a minute, and then you're
going to still push it through.
Unacceptable Yeah thank you.
Thank you.
My son's next.
So he's got a few words for you guys as well.
We got to say buddy.
Sorry I will say he's going to be the cutest.
We see today that green is data center.
So say it louder, buddy.
Oh, don't do it.
Throw the Daddy.
He wants to save our rivers.
He was telling me earlier, and he wants to protect the animals,
so.
Please yeah.
Think of our children for their future.
Thank you so much.
So is that raya and ragan?
Is that who that was.
That was my son.
No my daughter is.
Oh OK.
She'll so here it is.
So what I have on the list is read index.
Yeah that's right.
OK we're good.
OK thank you though.
We're moving on to Kathy Lamb.
My name is Kathy Lamb.
I live at 1706 East 10th Avenue in Kansas.
And I'm here to oppose the data center and the annexation
of the tracts of land.
I know that once it's annexed, if it is annexed,
it will be the site of a data center
that will cause noise 24 hours a day.
We already pay an exorbitant amount
of money for property taxes.
Everyone in this room is aware of that.
On top of the high taxes, our electric Bills will go up.
Our water Bills will go up.
There's not going to be enough money left
to spend in any small business.
On top of that.
Why is it being built so close to the communities.
It's so close to the houses.
It's a constant noise, and I don't
know any of you have gone and actually observed a data
center and the noise that it makes, it's loud
and I don't understand why you would contemplate getting
rid of one of the world's purest, best tasting water
and sacrifice it to a Monster Machine.
It is the best water.
And we will the well will run dry.
We have droughts.
What are you going to do for us when we don't have the water.
Our people need water.
Our farmers need water.
We put.
We take showers.
We cook with it.
We drink with it.
We need it.
And to use it on that monster contraption
that you want to call something that we all know.
It's a data center.
It's wrong.
I think it's very wrong.
And I think you're selling out the people that put you
in office when you consider it.
Thank you.
I'm going to ask everybody to be respectful.
If you talk while they're trying to talk,
sometimes we cannot hear them.
So keep your.
And you're welcome to do the yeses and the clapping
in between.
I'm just saying, while they talk, please use
their time to Edgar Esparza.
Yes go ahead.
Hello my name is Edgar, and I'm a software developer,
and I live at 11:06 Neosho.
And I'm here to speak against the proposed data center.
I work with data centers for my professional career,
so I know how they operate.
I'm not here to talk based on fear or misinformation.
My main concern is water, and residents use 6 to eight million
gallons of water every day.
And in 2023, when we were using 12 million
gallons of water per day, the infrastructure
was pushed to its limit.
In 2024, the infrastructure failed, and in 2026
it produced a sinkhole.
Adding a data center to that will only make things worse.
I'm also concerned about the strain on the power grid,
the environmental impact on the proposed on site natural gas
generation, air and noise pollution, and the fact
that this facility will be an eyesore from the highway.
Transparency is also a major issue.
Data centers are being fast tracked nationwide, often
despite public opposition.
This site alone is 1,000 acres, that is 505 football fields.
That's the size of a small town.
I can tell you, as someone who works in the industry,
we don't need something that size unless it's for something
that your intelligence.
I read the proposed Amendment carefully,
and I am troubled by how often the phrase the city may require
was used.
May gives permission, but doesn't require action.
It sounds like the city will have
the power to enforce things, but will likely choose not to.
Hiding behind this deliberate language.
We don't want permission for the city to act on our benefit.
We want to require the city to make sure
that they act on our benefit.
You must use words like shall require
or the developer must provide.
Anything less is just a suggestion and not a safeguard.
Also, there are terms in there like surveilling
and quantum computing.
Why are those terms in there.
Are we just blanket trying to rezone something just to make
sure that it pushes through.
And then later on we can't put any of the safeguards up.
So these are all red flags and speculative zoning to me.
So I urge you to vote yes.
David young.
I don't have orientation.
I have questions.
Are you willing to answer those.
Well, no, we don't actually engage
in our public speaking time.
There is a plan, and there is a planning and zoning
meeting in on the 23rd.
And that is the zoning is actually where
this will be really taken up.
So I'll wait till then MS McGuire.
Thank you.
I was told I could hand these out.
And we can pass those around to the group.
Good morning.
My name is Mike McGuire.
I live at 1702 Cal Loma, by the way.
Loud and proud.
Even going straight.
Oh right on.
Yeah here we go.
Thank you for facilitating the public meeting.
It is a sign of your willingness to be transparent.
Government I do not have the expertise to make an informed
decision on whether the Kansa park data center is the best
option for Emporia, so I will offer two points close
and then leave.
Number one, I wish that Emporia were not in this moment.
That feels so desperate.
Number 2, I am handing you and those gathered
j here a two sided document.
It is meant to be studied.
On one side is a list that states.
Quote before any data center project is approved,
the community and the local leaders
should require several key protections to ensure residents
receive real benefits and are not left subsidizing
the project end quote.
That information came from Natalie Martin, a former Emporia
resident ESU graduate, science teacher and now project manager
at Black Veatch.
On the other side is a letter.
The letter is an idea about a theme park.
The letter was written by me and addressed to Taylor Swift.
Some may write it off as a dream.
That's OK.
I like to dream big.
In closing, creating 20 to 50 full time data center jobs
might be the way to go.
Building the Taylor Swift heart of America theater
and Swiftie family theme park that
could create hundreds if not thousands of jobs
might be a better way to go.
And for comparison, Dollywood in Tennessee
employs 4,000 people annually.
Thank you.
Judith oh, man.
I had 12 seconds to.
Get gas.
I didn't want to stop.
Thank you.
I'm at 9:21 Lakeview.
I don't know if any of y'all know
how many threatened or endangered
species we have in this area.
Rhetorical question.
I don't either, but I know the four in my discipline,
which is Freshwater biology.
And of those four, there are two that
are named after one of the rivers that surrounds our city.
And I think that's important to know
because that means those creatures
are nowhere else in the world.
They are endemic to that river.
And if we start building data centers that draw tons of water
and start killing off our endemic species,
we're going to be causing way more problems than just
for humans.
We need to also look at the economical or ecological impacts
of these things.
So I would like to call for a moratorium
of no less than five years.
Data centers are one of the most unifying issues in our country
right now 7 out of 10 Americans do not want data
centers built in their towns.
It's more unifying than when prohibition got overturned.
So nothing has unified us more than beer and data centers.
So I would just like you guys to consider the fact that we might
not know everything about these data centers, which is why
we're asking for more time to know
what they will do to our areas.
We need.
Excuse me.
I should have written down my.
You're doing great.
We know.
Yeah so we need more time in order
to realize what is going on.
So we're not saying that we're against progress here
in this town.
We're just against this progress right now.
Maybe later when we know what it actually does.
But right now, we need industries
that our town has historically.
For clarification, what's the animal that's
named after one of our Rivers.
We have the Neosho madtom and the Neosho mucket.
Are they fish or ones actually like amphibian
And the other one is a mussel.
Thank you.
How do I sign up to speak.
Oh, you can come on up.
We'll pass it over in case there's anybody else.
All right.
We agree.
Hello good morning.
OK am I loud enough for everybody back here.
I feel like I'm yelling at you guys, but I don't want to.
My name is Leah Green.
I live at 2215 North highway 99.
What I wanted to talk about today
is the money part related to data centers,
because I know everyone here is going
to be emotional in front of me.
I have the Kansas sales tax exemption, SB 98, which
Kansas has already passed.
For those that don't Kansas has already
given data centers a 100% state and local sales tax exemption.
So that means data centers don't have to pay taxes on the land.
They don't have to pay taxes on any equipment,
on any construction costs, or on any labor for 20 years.
And Kansas has given that to them.
What I would like to ask the city today
is that since we're already losing out
on 20 years of local sales tax, if we were to get an AI center,
I think it's fair to ask that we don't offer
them any more tax incentives.
I think 20 years of no sales tax is amazing.
I think we would all be happy to get that.
So I would like to ask them if a data center were
approved, would you commit to having
them pay their fair share.
And would you refuse to offer them any local tax incentives.
So, Kirk, do you think that you would
want to offer them any tax incentives
we're not allowed to combat.
Monica, would you be back.
Are you willing to answer.
OK Tammy, would you be willing to stand up for that.
I can't do that.
Aaron wow.
Happy to meet with you after this.
OK I'd love to meet with you, Aaron.
I've appreciated that.
The last thing I want to say is the only way to grow is West.
We've all heard that right.
But what happens if we use 1,000 acres of our land, developmental
land and it goes belly up.
Where is this town going to grow if we've spent
1,000 acres on that.
To put that into perspective, hills has 81 acres.
Simmons has 81.
Hostess has 36.
Tyson had 46.
We're talking about 1,000.
Where will Emporia grow when we've put a 1,000 acre Boulder
in the middle of her path.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Anna.
I live at 1674 road 235.
Am I speaking loud enough.
Yes OK.
There are entirely too many unknowns
for us to be inviting a data center into our community.
Kansas may not be the show-me state,
but we're right next door.
So when it comes to data centers, we say, show me.
Show me.
There will be no noise pollution.
Show me there will be no extreme water consumption.
Show me a promise that utility Bills won't increase.
Show me that there are local jobs that will last five years
after construction is complete.
Show me that the benefits of a data center
outweigh the negatives that we are learning
more and more about every day.
Show me all of that somewhere that is not in our backyard.
Then show me the names of the significant private investor
and a company name.
Show me a clear exit agreement so our community
cannot be left high and dry in a few years after that.
Maybe then we can begin to consider
this so-called opportunity.
Until then, we don't want any land in this city or the County
zoned for this use.
And today we are calling for a moratorium of at least eight
months, which is the reported time that you guys have
had these talks in progress.
At the end of the Moratorium, we want a public vote on whether we
allow data centers.
And am I correct in my understanding
that this could be protested with a petition signed by 20%
of registered voter population.
Christina depends on what you're protesting,
I think is a zoning change.
Can you protest a zoning change.
I'd be happy to meet with you and talk to you about that.
OK yes.
And I would want to know when this petition
should be completed in order to stop the zoning change as well.
If I can get all that information.
Thank you.
I'm going to start calling you names
so that we can have the other person in the wings just
to keep going here quickly.
So Leslie Smith and George typekit George is on deck.
George is on deck.
I didn't say, is he outside or is he here.
He's OK, he's OK.
He's out here.
OK.
Hi.
My name is Leslie Smith, 9:15 Neosho street.
I will give all my extra time to George,
because I'm just going to say something short and sweet.
One, I support everything that everybody said prior to me.
I am opposed to the data center.
While the city needs to find ways to grow economically,
this is not the way, especially with the lack
of transparency exhibited.
I yield my time.
All right, George.
I'm not sure what to do with extra time, but good morning.
My name is George hupka.
I live at 1919 Irving way, and I moved to Emporia
about three years ago.
I grew up in a much larger city.
During my time here, I've absolutely fallen in love
with the city, the community.
I appreciate the spirit of Emporia, the energy of downtown,
the festivals, the local businesses,
and most importantly, the people that
make it such a special place.
Like many small towns across America,
obviously there's challenges and attracting
and retaining good paying jobs.
Why that's why this new opportunity obviously
is going to spark so much discussion, so much
emotion, energy and excitement.
I understand those feelings.
Change can be difficult, and it's important
that we ask questions and carefully
consider the impact of this change of any major change.
I encourage us all to take the time
to fully understand what's being proposed
and decide where we stand.
Things can be done right.
Things can be done wrong.
It could be an incredible opportunity for the city.
It could be an opportunity to create jobs.
It could strengthen our economy.
It could ensure the future generations
can build their lives right here in Emporia if done right.
We need to take the time to make sure it's done right.
Understand what is being proposed.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Two more minutes.
Do you have anything.
It's up to you.
If you really want them, you can keep going.
I'd just like to say we're all using data centers every day.
No, that's not true.
Just remember that.
No, you're not going to get us on board with that we don't
want to operate without that.
I'm not doing that.
We are moving on to Chelsea.
Chris and Ashley Dorris on deck.
Chelsea Chelsea and Ashley.
Jordan hi.
I'm Chelsea.
I have lived here for six years now,
and I've absolutely fallen in love with this place.
Kansas it's beautiful.
I go out and I photograph it every single day.
Bringing a data center here would not be any good.
It's more than the phone.
It's way more.
It's surveillance.
It's everything.
And to just look at it from a money perspective
and all that is disgusting.
It's absolutely disgusting.
We need more time.
We need more things brought.
But in my opinion, it doesn't need to be here at all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
She's up.
Melissa I'm Ashley door.
I live at 7-eleven Constitution.
I've lived here most of my life.
I just want to say we don't need a data center.
Noise pollution.
It's going to cause migraines, anxiety, which most of this town
already has.
It's going to.
It's going to take away all of our water.
What I want to know is when they deplete all of our water.
They're going to leave.
And what's that going to leave us with.
It's not good.
We don't need one.
Thank you.
Moses is up with Clara on deck.
Hi, my name is Melissa stapley.
I live at 1542 road 160.
Good morning.
I am here to formally request that this commission placed
a moratorium to the process digital infrastructure overlay
district zoning, and that any decision of this magnitude
be placed before the public for a vote.
The project was reportedly under discussion for eight months
before Emporia residents heard a single word about it.
Now we are being asked to accept a zoning framework in 43 days
for a gigawatt scale, 1,000 acre facility
whose operating company has not even been named name publicly.
That is not community engagement.
Our community depends on the Neosho river and local
groundwater for drinking water.
We have already experienced drought
conditions severe enough to require conservation measures.
We already have water intensive industries operating here.
And now we're being asked to approve
without independent study, without binding water use caps,
without knowing who the tenant is, a facility
that a gigawatt scale could consume millions of gallons
of water every single day.
Emporia residents are not opposed to growth.
We are opposed to being bypassed.
Decisions that will shape this community for the next 50 years.
Our water, our infrastructure, our tax base and our children's
schools deserve more than 43 days and a planning
commission hearing.
We're asking for three things.
I am asking for three things a minimum of 100.
Minimum 120 day moratorium to allow
independent assessment of water power and fiscal impacts.
Second, full public disclosure of the end
user company before any vote.
Third, that the commission placed the question of approval
before Memorial residents directly.
Let us vote.
This community showed up today because we love Emporia,
and we expect to be treated as partners in the future,
not as an afterthought.
Thank you.
So after Clara will be gone.
Luke yes.
Hi I'm Clara horn, 1122 West.
And I love Emporia.
I moved here in 2010 from a town that I would have considered
not really growing and not really full
of vibrancy to a town that is.
I love Emporia, and I said, no one in Emporia
is against progress.
But not all progress is good.
The vast majority of Syrians don't want this.
As you guys can see from this experience today and all
the social media comments and even the cooling systems that
use less water for these days.
There's different ones, like a closed loop system,
I believe is what we were told this one
will have if potentially.
Oh sorry.
Even those use an inordinate amount of energy,
so they may use less water, but they use a ton of energy.
And then Everjoy will have to use more water.
So they end up using a lot of water and energy.
Regardless we've already seen that we
have these blackouts periodically kind out
of nowhere.
They don't last that long, but they pop up during unbound.
I was in the coffee shop and it just happened.
Came back on a little bit.
No Biggie.
We kept going.
But that's just unbound.
When unbound comes through.
Yeah, there's a lot of energy usage.
There's things plugged in, stuff going,
and if energy can't handle that, how can they handle this.
Yeah, I thought about that to the water system that we have.
I mean, the plumbing in this town
is constantly falling apart.
And as we saw I believe it was in the kvoa coverage of this,
that there's a variety of possible scenarios for fixing
up our plumbing system refurbishment
to completely rehauling it.
It's going to cost us a lot of money
to do that, which is something we need to do.
So that's an addition to this.
This is going to use a lot of water and a lot of energy.
And we're already struggling in those areas.
Sinkholes, water main breakage boil advisories.
This is just an additional issue.
Lastly, as I have only a couple more minutes,
the jobs it creates are going to be very temporary and very few.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
Please give it to Gary.
And after Don, is Barb Ferris OK.
Let's get one.
Hi, I'm Jon Liu.
I'm a member of the advisory board,
but I'm not speaking as a representative of that board.
I voted against the champion landing funding request
because I believe that it does not meet
the requirements of the law.
Champions landing wants to use tax funds for the construction
of four tiny homes, the development
of four RV pads and infrastructure improvements
to statute and other state documents
do not appear to allow the use of funds
for private property and enhancements,
even if the property is used for events that attract tourists.
The statute indicates that TGT funds
can be used for conventions and tourism promotion, which means
activities to attract visitors into the community
through marketing efforts, including advertising,
and to support activities and organizations that encourage
increased lodging occupancy.
There's an ag T91.
Attorney general's opinion noted that convention and tourism
promotion has broad guidelines, and leaves it
up to the local governing body to make particular expenditures.
This opinion indicated that it was OK to use public funds
on public property.
Last year, the legislators legislatures division
of post-audit reviewed expenditures
by Manhattan, Overland park, and Wichita.
It came up with a long list of allowable expenditures
that draw tourists travel advertisement festivals,
museums, website trade shows, conventions, sports events,
print and digital promotion materials,
and operating and maintaining existing
tourism facilities such as city owned convention center.
None of these are similar to champion landing's application.
I also believe it would be unfair to other businesses
in town to provide lodging, to give one company tax dollars,
to get a leg up on those businesses that
are also supporting the same type of activity.
Thank you.
After Barb will be.
We're back to the cameras.
Hi, my name is Barbara lane Farris.
I am at 1408 Guerra place.
I've lived here since 2019.
I absolutely love Emporia.
I am buying a house here.
I'm a grad student at Ku.
I'm fully invested in this community,
and what I want to say today is that data centers
are not quiet, clean neighbors.
They are industrial behemoths that demand staggering amounts
of electricity and water.
A single large data center can consume millions
of gallons of water daily just to keep
its servers from overheating.
Where do you think that water comes from.
Our local supplies.
In a state where water conservation
is always on our minds.
We cannot afford to drain our local supplies
for corporate server farms.
To make matters even worse, to maintain a constant uptime,
these facilities rely on massive numbers
of diesel backup generators, which
emit harmful particulate matter and nitrogen
oxides directly into our air.
Almost 3,000 people in this town already have asthma.
Second, let's consider the economic impact
on everyday residents.
The massive energy draw required to power artificial intelligence
and data servers puts an immense strain on our local power grid.
Historically, these massive power demands
lead to higher utility rates for residents and small businesses,
forcing the community to foot the bill for costly Grid
Infrastructure upgrades.
Add to that the constant high pitched mechanical humming
of industrial cooling fans and our peaceful Flint
Hill nights are replaced by Endless noise pollution.
Emporia is a proud community with a rich history
and a bright agricultural educational identity.
Please listen to us.
Please don't do this.
Please give us a reason to trust you.
I want to trust you so bad.
Please please don't do this.
To me.
Edward with Mary Halloran on deck.
For more.
OK, but is Mickey not here.
All right.
Mary Halloran is up with Becky Morgan on deck.
Good night.
Some new names.
Another day.
She must be signed up on the back side.
OK, I'm guessing we don't have these.
We added to it.
Which ones did you add after Becky tried that one.
Mark Jurgens.
OK, so then Molly Williams is on deck.
Thank you.
Mark Jurgens, 28, 25, Rio Vista, Emporia State retiree.
This town is so great.
Look what Emporia does.
Look what Emporia has.
History is.
And the direction that it goes.
The events and Emporia State.
The National track meets.
We've had the Shrine Bowl.
I mean, Emporia people come to Emporia,
and that pays transient tax money into this town.
If you go to the Chamber of Commerce,
big flyer there shows these events.
Welcome to Emporia.
We don't want to put a black eye on that front page
of a data center.
That's not going to bring anybody to this town.
No one's going to come for that at all.
It is not a selling point.
It isn't.
Eight months wasn't that long ago.
We voted for the city commission.
I listened to the interviews.
I read about the interviews.
I don't recall anybody bringing that up for the need of Emporia.
It wasn't there.
We haven't had enough time to process this.
No pun intended, that you guys have.
But I do know this.
Marion lake is where Neosho river comes from.
Last year it was so dry campers were
camping where the water wasn't.
Comes down through the Neosho river.
I've seen it dry before.
I know that because we've had water restrictions in Emporia.
Lakes are back up.
It's a pond.
That's not the direction we want to go.
Let's keep the positive going for Emporia.
Someone's going to profit from this.
Yes it's not you guys.
Thank you.
All right, Molly is up, and then Alex Babb.
Hi, I'm Molly Williams, this is Sophie.
I live at 175 or 412 road 175, in Emporia.
I would like to say that I am pro-jobs,
but I want jobs for my children when they graduate.
I want jobs for the future as well as jobs for now.
We need to know who are these investors.
What are they planning to use this data center for.
Are they training large language models.
Are they mining for cryptocurrency.
And if they are, they should have to get up here and explain
to all of us what that is.
And if they can explain it to our satisfaction,
then we need to know why should we give
them tax breaks to do that.
Why are we giving tax breaks to billionaires.
The Brookings Institute in May of 26
showed that incentives are poorly targeted.
Location decisions are not driven by tax breaks,
but by power availability, land and fiber infrastructure.
Second, are we having a single center or a cluster.
Again, Brookings says that economic benefits to communities
require multiple facilities, not single facilities.
What are we doing about utilities.
A Harvard study in March of 2025 25,
showed evidence of under-the-table agreements
between city commissions and these companies,
increasing rates for communities.
What kind of energy are they going to be using.
Clean energy.
Are we having noise barriers.
What kind of light pollution should we expect.
There's a hospital plan to go right in across the street
from this place.
I am an ICU RN with 12 years experience
in level 1 trauma centers.
That is a real concern for patient healing.
You're going to mix up their days and nights.
You're going to get ICU delirium.
Healing will take longer.
Do we zone for noise protection.
We need to have them disclose their energy
plan so we can evaluate clean alternatives
during permitting also.
How are we going to use their power during shortages.
Can I say one more thing quickly.
Battery storage versus diesel.
Pollution from diesel generators during even limited blackouts
showed in Virginia an association with $300 million
in annual public health costs, increase for asthma and heart
disease, and this is from the World Resources
Institute in February 2016.
Thank you.
We've got Alex up with Greg Markowitz on deck.
Hey, I live on 25 460th road.
My grandfather was a geologist at USU for 20 or 30 years.
He wrote papers that went to Kansas University about how
there is a drought imminent happening right now,
despite the fact that we have this extreme demand,
energy intensive, not to mention the environmental costs.
This is going to accelerate the drought that we're
already facing by tenfold.
And if you guys don't recognize that,
I want you to ask yourself, who do you actually represent.
We represent the collective population of Emporia.
You to me, represent moneyed interests
in the oligarchs in Washington and everything that is
going wrong with this country.
You guys spent eight months talking amongst yourselves
and not sharing this with the rest of the public,
what is actually going on.
And then you give us two minutes to come and try and stop this.
You guys can have hell to pay if you do this.
You need to ask yourself who you really are deep down.
What are you actually doing here.
Is this actually beneficial for employee.
Yes or no.
And how Why? you should explain to us
how it actually is like this is a yes or no question.
It's not a subjective matter.
So let's get serious and actually do our research.
Take the time to understand what is actually going on.
You have experts here speaking for two minutes and OK,
what else I got bit by a dog here on the way here.
It's hard to be a Good Samaritan.
OK like this is insane.
Congress just passed a bill saying AI is
not liable for responsibility.
Over 100 people dying due to I. That's
what these data processes are going to be mulling over
is the school in Iran that got bombed due to I think about it,
think about what these data centers are processing.
It's not just our phones and our Google search results.
It's everything.
And this is the Trump regime.
This is fascism.
This is the tech oligarchs, the AI bubble
that has taken over Americans.
It's taken over Wall Street.
It's the biggest financial force in the world
that we're just opening our doors to.
They have nothing to say.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
And then we have Victoria gonet.
She was here earlier.
Good morning, Commissioner, and thank
you for providing this opportunity
to make our feelings known.
I appreciate it.
I just have one point, and that point
is an issue of this magnitude and diversity and questions.
This is not a decision to be made by the five of you.
It is a decision that requires a vote of the people
who will be affected.
This is not a behind the doors.
We're going to do this.
This needs to be voted on.
And the only reason you won't vote on it
is if you're afraid you're going to lose the vote.
Yep and that's my two cents worth.
Take it for what it's worth.
And the other point that I'll make.
And it's not a threat.
But if you choose not to vote on this,
I can 100% guarantee you there will be
a petition to force that vote.
And it won't be very difficult to get signatures.
No it won't.
Thank you.
And then I have Jessica Danford.
Hi it's my first time.
So, hi, I'm Victoria partridge.
I'm the founder and executive director
of the street cats club, and I'm here because Emporia
has a stray cat crisis.
And despite the incredible work being
done throughout our community, the resources
currently available are not keeping pace with the need.
In May alone, the street cats club
received more than 149 requests for assistance
through phone calls, text messages,
Facebook messages and emails.
We added 191 cats to our waiting list in a single month.
Today, there are more than 1040 cats waiting for spay neuter
services in Lyon County.
Of those, 625 are located right here in Emporia.
These are not numbers on a spreadsheet.
These are cats living behind businesses and apartment
complexes and neighborhoods and around our cities,
parks and commercial areas.
They are producing litter after litter of kittens,
spreading disease, creating nuisance concerns for residents
and overwhelming the limited resources
available to help them.
The street cats club is working to address
this value this issue.
In May, we spayed and neutered 106 cats.
This year, we have already spayed and neutered 543 cats,
and we are on track to reach 1,000 cats by the end of 2026.
Most organizations would celebrate.
Numbers like these.
But while we fixed 106 cats in May,
191 more cats were added to our waiting list.
We are working harder than ever before,
yet the demand continues to outpace our capacity.
The reality is that we cannot solve
a problem of this magnitude without additional resources.
We received no city funding.
We have no paid staff.
We borrow a van every week to transport
cats to spay neuter surgeries.
We use a shed to house cats waiting for surgeries.
If we want fewer cats in our streets, fewer
nuisance complaints, healthier neighborhoods and reduced
pressure on local animal welfare resources,
we must continue expanding the community's capacity to provide
spay neuter services.
The street cats club remains committed
to being part of that solution, and we ask the city of Emporia
to partner with us to address one
of the most significant animal welfare challenges
facing Emporia today.
Thank you.
Thanks all.
Jessica Danford on ready to go.
No and.
Lou Clara.
Jean Jacques.
My name is Jessica Danford.
I'm from 3532 West 20th Avenue.
I'm here today to speak, as many others have had,
about the proposed data center and digital infrastructure that
the commission has announced.
I would like to start by saying, as has been evidenced
by the amount of people who have come in today,
this is not a political issue.
This is a quality of life issue for our community.
Data centers are growing faster than regulation can keep up
with, and have led to negative social, economic, and ecological
consequences in our community.
If we do not stop, this project will contribute to these issues.
Examples of known consequences of data centers
include the following.
There's been an increased production of known air
pollutants, such as methane and hydrogen oxide,
that can balloon into super pollutants if not controlled
further, there is insane electricity usage with
infrastructure like with an estimated use of over 5300mw
of electricity across the country from data centers,
which is in 2023, which is more than many countries.
This amount has only increased over time.
And the US Department of Energy has said that the data centers
alone will consume a total of 12% of the country's
total electricity by 2028.
Data centers also cost a huge amount to local communities,
with electricity costs increasing
by over 33% since 2020, with more than 70%
of the increase impacting towns within 50 miles of data centers.
They also exacerbate water strain issues in communities
and create new ones in areas without proper regulations,
causing permanent damage to local water sources
if left unchecked.
Over $20 billion gallons of water
were used by data centers in 2023,
and the amount has only increased from there.
There's more I want to add, but there's only a limited amount
of time, so I would like to again present this information
in support of the Moratorium and transparency of information
with the community before any further steps
are taken on this project.
Thank you.
Yes we have looks.
Sorry and then Helen Lacey on deck.
Hi, I'm Alex.
Claire is 35, 32 West 20th Avenue.
You just heard from my lovely wife.
She did a lot more researching than I did because as a teacher,
too busy to really be able to spend some time on this.
But I want to let you guys know that I moved
here with my family in 1993.
My dad took a job at Wolf Creek, and if history serves,
if I remember correctly, we didn't
want Wolf Creek here for you because of all
these fears of nuclear power.
Now, that is ridiculously overblown in my opinion,
because we have a really well regulated nuclear program here
in America.
When Fukushima happened in 2011, Wolf Creek immediately
bought more backup generators, including extra parts,
to build a whole new backup generator
so that we wouldn't go under meltdown,
just like Fukushima did in 2011.
And these data centers are not regulated
to that extreme of an extent, and that is a big problem.
We pride ourselves on our water.
I see clips on internet now that a lot
of these cities that have data centers, their water,
are getting polluted.
The Brown water is coming out of their spigots.
It's just like Flint, Michigan all over again.
But now more widespread.
We're not going to have the best tasting water in the world.
It's like the best tasting in the country.
If we had these kind of data centers,
someone earlier said that we're talking
about gigawatt levels of energy consumption,
basic supply and demand.
Economics would tell us that with more demand,
the prices go up.
Energy is already jacking up our prices.
This is only going to exacerbate the issue.
And since we're talking about gigawatt levels
in March of this year, Wolf Creek only generated not
even one gigawatt.
Now your homes, whenever you send you your bill,
they talk in terms of kilowatt hours.
I don't know if you know your units very well.
I'm a physics teacher, so I do kilowatt hours.
That's basic household stuff.
Power plants push out megawatts.
We're talking about gigawatts.
We're talking about million kilowatt hours here.
So this is a huge increase in energy
production or sorry, training.
Thank you for your time.
All right, I have.
Helen Helen.
Helen it's OK.
I'm sorry.
Yeah OK.
Good morning.
I would say it's an honor to be here.
It's an honor to speak in front of you
on behalf of the community.
But given the circumstances, I am slightly ashamed.
I live at 1622 Center Street.
I think I said that already.
I've lived in Emporia for about three years.
I genuinely do love this city.
I have found myself.
I've met so many incredible people.
I've learned so much about everything.
Even if we are to ignore the proven environmental impacts
of an AI data center that we've already
heard so much about the water, it will consume the animals it
will kill, the heat it will bring to a summer
that I've already seen bring some of the strongest people
I've ever known to their knees.
I cannot think of a single person
in Emporia that would benefit from the construction
of a datacenter.
Certainly not myself or my countless friends
who are artists whose lifelong passions are most readily
consumed and devalued by the AI'S, powered by data centers,
not the children that play in the park below my apartment.
Who will have to grow up in a world where the incredible power
of their mind is deferred to a computer,
and the objective truth is a myth,
and not the local business owners who
are already fighting a losing battle
against large corporations.
The data center provides nothing for the people of Emporia,
and we are all here today to let you know
that we will not stand to be sold out
for the profit of a select few.
Please hear us and please do not do this to us.
Thank you.
If you cannot control yourself, we'll have to remove you.
So please try to be respectful to everyone.
More than two minutes.
There will be a public hearing on the 23rd.
It's in this Civic Auditorium at o'clock.
So this is another chance to speak.
All right.
Is there anybody else that didn't get to sign up.
They just wants to talk.
What are you going to do.
The annexation.
We're annexing land today by the request of property owners,
because that's who requests.
OK, so your manager said it was by request of the developer.
Well, we will have that discussion.
You're saying the property owners.
I may have misspoke.
I'll have to ask Justin to come out in our business
section coming up here shortly.
Yeah Name and address.
Brenda Thompson, 1442 road, 130.
First of all, I want to say I don't believe any of you
are going to really listen to this stuff.
We know it's environmental.
We know all those things.
But it's obvious that you've been working on this for a while
before you just dropped the bomb on us.
And these people here, and a lot of people don't trust you.
That's right.
A lot of people.
So what I want to and these are rhetorical questions.
Do you know anything about this Kwanzaa.
Whatever this the developer.
Because I do their first LLC, I believe their LLC
was in Cedar Point, Kansas.
Then they requested to move it to Lawrence.
And coincidentally, the news I'm shooting from the hip here.
This is not prepared.
The is it Nordstrom family.
The guy that's the representative for
this organization Nordstrom.
Garrett Nordstrom.
Thank you.
Also has a business where he does
community block grants for hire and consulting.
Have you done any work with that.
Have they.
I want to know have they offered you any of their services
and what is the mega companies at Google.
Is it Meta.
Is it Grok.
Who's behind this.
Because none of us are buying this.
Cans of whatever they are.
None of us.
So are you going to disclose who the big giant behind this is.
Eventually are you going to do it up front.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Anybody else.
Can I come up.
Good morning.
My name is McKenna Phillips.
My friends know me as I live on 101006 Constitution.
I've learned a lot from a lot of the people in the room here.
And I've seen you guys as community members as well.
I work at gravel, so we see a lot of people,
and what I've learned from this.
And watching your faces the whole time
is you're scheming for eight months on,
this is what I'm getting at.
And then you call this knitting that we can't even
ask you questions or do any of that nonsense,
and everyone's already really upset, and I can see it like,
this guy is over, like, slouched in the corner
and I can't even look up.
Yeah all right, let's be respectful.
You're asking us to be respectful
while you are stomping on our necks
with this stupid data center.
We know it's bad.
We've seen towns that have done this.
I'm asking on a moral sense as a human,
if it's really worth it for you to invest all
of this time money talking to these people that
don't give a shit about us.
Like, what do you expect us to do when
you push everybody this far.
Good question.
I don't want to.
You want to live in a world where your hospital, you
got to go to the hospital and you're outside
and your electricity bill is through the roof.
I can hardly pay my electric bill as it is.
And I live in a shoebox.
You're asking all of these working people
to pay more for the selflessness and betterment
of people we don't even know.
I just I don't understand is what I'm saying.
I don't understand, and I think everybody's going
to be pretty mad about this.
So I guess I'm just asking you to be
a little bit ashamed of yourself over this, because it's a shame.
Yeah shame out of here.
Thank you.
My name is Caroline Conway.
I live at 911 Weber street.
I've lived here since 2010.
Before that, I lived here to go to college.
And then I moved away and came back.
I love this community.
This is my community.
I am currently the executive director
of Blumhouse youth services, the youth shelter in town.
Doing something like this that will
not benefit the community that will
take away from the community.
It will use our resources.
A data center of this magnitude can replace a town of 30,000.
In terms of water usage and electricity usage,
that's double the size of Emporia.
So where is that going to come from.
Because we still exist here.
And the prairie that we are around the Tallgrass prairie,
we only have 4% of it left.
So how is this going to impact the Tallgrass prairie.
This is the only place it is.
So when it's gone, it's gone.
So it is really important that before we push through this
in the hopes of lining a couple people's pockets
or however this is coming through
because it is not benefiting us before this gets pushed through.
We really, really need to do some studies.
I support the moratorium.
I believe the five year moratorium would
be great to make sure that this bubble doesn't
burst while we're inside it.
Please, please, please listen to the people.
None of us want this.
None of us.
Thank you for coming over here.
Maybe she's being voluntold to come up.
Thank you.
Hello my name is Rosalie Krieger.
I'm at 5' State Street.
I appreciate you guys extending this time.
Before I begin with the rest of my comments,
I will say that I'm unequivocally
against this digital campus, which I'm going to refer
to as a data center, because that is the term
most people are familiar with.
And I feel that trying to change the terminology
to cloud and confuse people's perception is unethical at best.
I have several concerns.
The first is the speed of which we are moving forward on.
This implies that either you thought everybody would be
on board with this, which suggests that you're not very
in touch with the people of this town,
or you do not care what we're going to say,
and you're going to move forward regardless.
I would also just like to ask a few questions, most of which
have already been asked, next.
Who is this LLC that has been open for seven months
and has already moved from Lawrence to a little ghost town
West of here and is registered to someone
named Daniel Garrett Nordstrom.
A cursory search online only brings up one person in Lawrence
with that name, Daniel Garrett Nordstrom,
who works at a firm called gas government assistance service,
which supposedly specializes in helping small town governments
find money and funding.
I would ask if this is the same person, has Emporia engaged
the services of his company before.
And is this how that relationship started.
I would also ask why one of the only other businesses that
is registered to his name in Max brothers development
is registered to an address here in Emporia
and address, as far as I'm aware, he does not live at.
I'm also not sure if anybody else in here
has dealt with filing an LLC before,
but there are people who can basically act as the filing
person and the contact person for you to help keep
your information private, and they
aren't necessarily affiliated with the organization.
But that begs the further question
if they are using a signature or register,
who really owns the company.
And are we really going to trust that any regulations we try
to put in force, forth, whether it's power consumption, water
consumption, et cetera, are going
to hold against a limited liability company.
Not even an S corp or a C corp limited liability
is in their name.
Additionally, we don't have the infrastructure
to support our town now with crumbling 100 plus
year old storm drains that collapse
under the weight of our own police vehicles
on our own Main Street.
Finally, I ask for a moratorium on the data center,
an independent ecological and economic impact study,
and a public vote on the measure.
Thank you.
Hello you're up next.
Hi, guys.
I'm Sarah Brian.
I live at 1850 road S And I was born and raised in Emporia.
I love this town, and I'd just like
to state that I am completely against this data center.
And I'd like to know if the five of you
are public servants or corporate cronies.
Sorry, I'm a little nervous.
If you vote through the annexation of this land,
we can only assume you will vote yes for this data center.
This issue needs to be put to a public vote,
so that the 0.00045% of the town standing in front of me
does not speak for the 99.99945% of this town.
For that to happen, we need to sign a petition.
20% of this town so we can put this to a public vote.
Thank you.
Yes thank you.
Thank you.
Hello my name is Christy Deckert.
I grew up in this community, and I
was very excited about eight years ago
to move back and buy a gorgeous property on road F5.
Now, if you have been looking at the maps,
you'll see that gorgeous property
is now encircled by a plan to have a data center on it.
Very exciting, I'm sure.
I want to echo everybody's concerns
about the environmental impacts, the physical impacts
on our public health.
The impacts on our infrastructure,
the potential costs in utilities.
And I want to add my voice to the call for a public vote,
but not just those who can vote in city elections.
Because guess what.
It is those of us in Lyon County jurisdiction
that are going to be surrounded by this monstrosity.
Thank you.
That's right.
Thank you.
All right.
Is there anyone else.
Good morning, Sir.
Let me do one.
Oh no thanks.
You can get that.
My name is Tracy Graham, and I'm a former resident of Emporia,
currently living in Chase County.
I moved to Emporia in 1999.
First year was pretty rough, but then we learned to love
it really quickly after that.
Lived here for 26 years and now we live in Chase County.
And it's probable that if this data center were to go forward,
it probably would not impact me directly because I have
solar panels and I have my own.
Well, and so I don't need to worry
about the energy and water anybody else
needs to worry about.
If you live here, but I do shop here,
and I dine here on a very regular basis.
And if the local businesses here are impacted by increased
energy costs and water drought.
I mean, we had drought when we were asked to conserve water
in a rationed water a few several years ago,
and that will happen again.
It's part of the natural cycle.
And when you have drought, who's going to suffer most.
So it doesn't impact me much, but it really matters.
And that land right now that you're
talking about annexing today is currently performing
a function economically.
Ecologically there's water that isn't being dumped
into the rivers immediately.
And if you pave that and put buildings on it.
You're going to have increased runoff.
You could wind up with the irony of flooding during drought.
Too much water in one place while you're using up the water
to cool some of these, I grew.
The more I live in.
11:09 Luther street.
Y'all have taken a beating here today.
I understand that you all are in a very difficult situation.
Companies are closing.
The economy is down and you guys are under the gun
to fix this, fix the economy and Emporia
because people are scared, people are upset
and you are under the gun to find a solution.
I get that.
But somebody once told me that's the reason
the temptation is tempting is because it looks
like a good idea at the time.
Consider the possibility that this data
center is a temptation.
Maybe it looks like a good idea for now,
but maybe once you've reconsidered.
Maybe you'll discover that it just looked like a good idea
at the time.
And what.
It's OK to say what.
We thought that looked like a good idea,
but that was just a temptation.
We realize now that was not the right thing to do.
And if you make that decision, if you come out
with that statement that says what, Emporia citizens,
you were right.
We were tempted, but we were mistaken.
If you have the courage to do that
will not be a sign of weakness.
That will be a sign of strength, and you will have regained
the respect of this community.
Thank you.
Boy one if you would permit me another minute,
and we have to permit everybody a minute.
One more minute.
No, but everybody would have to have an additional minute.
Oh, I give you a minute.
We'll let her be the only one.
We can't.
We can't do that.
We get into.
Oh, of course, you can.
Expand your meeting time.
Two minutes is a shame.
Yep sure is.
Come on in.
Hi, I'm Max Coldiron.
I live at 1102 East street.
I'm going to shake and my voice is
going to warble the whole time because I'm terrified.
Talk to us.
You're right.
I've lived here for seven years.
I came to get a degree, and I have in biology,
and I ask that before you move forward on anything like this,
you take a second to go for a walk
and just appreciate this beautiful land
that we have here.
I grew up in Wichita, and most of my natural exposure
was a couple acres plot called Great Plains nature center.
And over the course of my education,
I have been taken to so many just
expansive, beautiful pieces of land
directly surrounding the city or even inside of it.
And I hate the idea that we would lose that.
Yeah Thank you.
And also, please do look up the Neosho madtom.
It's adorable.
This is just a regular scheduled meeting, so we
have a long other agenda to go.
But I want to give everybody a chance.
Going once, twice.
Monthly statement for a moratorium.
We will move on to our regular business.
New business.
Appoint member to the human relations commission.
So Tammy and I. And it had been recommended for us
with staff's recommendation.
And so we will approve the appointment of Angela Acosta
to motion to approve the appointment
of Angela Acosta cruise to the human relations commission.
Second, it's been moved and seconded to approve her.
Is there any other discussion.
All in favor, say Aye.
Aye Motion passes.
Now we award the bid for the airport 24 hour refueling
equipment, installation, and that line of finding
somewhere back there.
Brian silcock.
Hold on.
Is Julian here.
Grab Julian to Brandon, please.
Yeah there's plenty of room for anybody out there.
We're out there.
We have staff.
Keep talking.
Oh, OK.
Can you guys give us a minute.
Yeah OK.
Yeah just a 30 second delay.
Is Julian.
Two .51 seconds.
Not Juliette.
Come on up and tell us what you're doing.
Yeah, you probably know more than one.
Got drink and everything.
Yeah here I am.
Come at me.
Did you guys appoint members.
No OK.
Sorry go for it.
Tell us what it's about.
So, what I need you to do today is to award a grant
for the 24 hour services.
So what it is it's all the equipment we need.
The new tanks, the new dispensers,
the piping, electrical, all that is in this bid.
And our stuff that's out there now
looks like it was before I was born.
It's all 30 years old.
OK no longer apparent.
I can't get parts for it.
I mean, I'm an old guy.
We've been holding this thing together.
It was going to be the city paying for it.
But we did get the dot to give us a grant
to take care of this problem.
They gave us 280.
Some estimation was 260.
All you're doing today is the equipment and stuff.
I'll be back next meeting for the concrete bid for you
to approve it.
All right.
Thank you.
I would like to make a motion to authorize the city manager
to enter into a purchase agreement
for the installation of a dual fuel, ground aviation
fueling system capable of supporting unattended 24 hour
aircraft fuel fueling operations,
including dedicated things for storage,
aviation dispensing equipment, fuel quality controls.
Automated transaction capability associated equipment
necessary to support relocation for the airport fuel point.
Does that sound like it covers it all that covers it second.
Motion and second to award the 24 hour
refueling equipment installation with the grant.
Any other discussion.
Do we need to add a little bit that's on this team.
I might know the equipment.
Oh we're just authorizing trade to do that,
to enter into an agreement.
Do you want me to say little bit.
Is that what you're saying.
For the little bit.
Sure Are you guys recommending.
I would recommend you not use the low bid recommend.
There's a couple of reasons why the bid from linings.
Yeah, they were wanting the middle.
Yeah we would like to recommend homedale.
Homedale had more of your cost quantified in the bid.
And the other one was additional cost.
So I'm amending my motion to approve to do that work for you.
Second yeah.
Second second.
Still good Yes All right.
Any other discussion.
Good catch.
Curt all in favor, say Aye.
Aye Motion carries.
All right.
Thank you.
Brian, don't go anywhere.
That's right.
Solid waste.
It's always good to talk about.
Thank you.
And I appreciate Tina weeks who's here
as our solid waste manager.
And she has spent an illustrious career at the transfer station
and was promoted.
She's the woman right there.
She knows where we're at.
Yes Well, what we have before you today,
we've discussed several times in study sessions,
and we are presenting a solid waste
master plan for the utility.
But it's more than just a master plan
and incorporate the cost of service rate analysis,
the operational assessment on whether for both route
efficiency, the customer class type, container types,
the full detail, as well as a capital improvement program, how
to fund said capital improvement program, and then
also to look at our procurement and business strategy,
for lack of a better word, to make sure that we're following
a process and structure that ensures that we're
being efficient and maximizing our return
on the public dollars.
So we presented this for bid previously in March.
And as you are aware, we have had
burns and Mac assessing several of our utility operations.
They have a history, a long history
of such things for sanitation.
One of the benefits and why we feel they were the strongest
of the two submittals, was not only are we looking at how
should we be doing things and are we doing things,
and how do we compare and benchmark
but also, as consumers.
There is a cost entailed to everything.
And as a municipal service provider
of water, sewer, and stormwater the solid waste, sanitation.
We run things essentially as a nonprofit.
And so that requires that we do maximize the public dollars
and are as efficient and effective as possible.
So with that being said, the aggregate burden,
in other words, if we're looking at all of these improvements,
many of which are necessitated by regulations
and minimizing the potential for a single point of failure,
meaning if you're at the wastewater plant
or you're at the water plant and this piece of equipment
or this process goes down, you're
without water for days or weeks until you're
able to get that brought up online so that you
have redundancies and whatnot.
So one of the benefits of utilizing the same firm
but different experts to assess this is they
can not only give us that business benchmark
but also then help us weigh the priorities on how we can try
and balance all of this so that we are keeping in mind
that aggregate burden that we're placing
on ourselves and our neighbors.
So with that, what this is 108,500.
It's essentially a task order.
And we're asking that you authorize the manager
to execute that agreement and to declare this is actually
what we talked about last week.
So two weeks ago.
So this is not just coming out of left field.
I'd like to make a motion to authorize the execution of task
order number 3 with Burns McDonnell engineering company,
in the amount of $105,800 for the completion of the solid
waste facility master plan to provide the city with
a comprehensive plan initiative intended to evaluate operations,
finances, rates, capital planning,
workforce consolidations, automated opportunities
and future proceeds.
Procurement strategies in support of logdump
utility sustainability.
Second I have a motion and a second for the solid waste
utility master plan task agreement.
Any other comments.
Seeing none.
All in favor, say Aye.
Aye Motion passes.
Thank you.
Thanks, guys Mr. Hubert.
Close mayor Smith and commissioners, in your packet
is the C clip KC clip geometric improvements project
on Kansas 99 commercial street from soden's road
to Kansas Avenue.
So city engineering staff designed
this project, this federal aid project
over the last three years.
And House and CDOT then is administering
the bidding and construction engineering side of the project.
On May 20th.
Get outbid it.
They had four bidders.
Kilo construction is the low bidder.
So we are asking the city staff or city staff's
recommending that the commission approve awarding it to kilo
construction and authorizing the mayor to sign cdot's authority
to award the contract, which is our commitment
of city funds to the project.
When do they start.
They have a two week window starting
late June through July 6.
I think the Monday after 4th of July.
So I can answer any questions that you might have.
It's been a long time coming.
It has been.
Yeah I'll make a motion to authorize the mayor
to sign authority or contract commitment of city funds
for CDOT, CG project number 568727401.
Second second.
Motion to award the KC project 056727401.
And have the mayor to sign.
Is there any other discussion to add.
There we go.
I'd like to make a point that they beat your estimate again.
Yes they did.
Are you just Messing with us now.
Thank you.
And before we start annexing, I'd like to.
I had in my mind on our consent agenda
is all voluntary coming into the city.
Those are the people I was speaking
to about when we were annexing.
I understand that.
Can you say what you just said again, so I understand.
I'm sorry.
When you were doing it.
Yeah Justin.
Justin speaks.
Becky said hi.
OK sorry, sorry.
Thank you.
I made a career out of speaking, Brian.
Oh, for.
For 15 years, I was able to translate Brian ease to city
commissioners and other staff.
People like that.
So I get what you're saying.
OK good afternoon.
Now, Mayor and council, Justin Gibbons, Director of building
and neighborhood development.
Before you, we have several voluntary petitions
and consents for annexation for property
located outside the city.
We were asked to provide an overview of some
of the past annexations that we've done here recently,
bringing in several tracks and then some additional tracks
that really the first track that was annexed
was industrial park for those are
tracks 5, 6, and 7 on the map that
was provided on the overview.
Those were done in 2025, 2024, I believe.
And then subsequent to that, just recently,
track number 8 was annexed, as well as track number 9.
Going forward we and then also.
I think track 11 was.
Previously annexed to but so going forward the request
is basically to extend for track 10 and then go up North
where track 1, 2, 3, and 4 are right now to annex
into the city.
Does that cover your question or concerns.
So the owners of those properties.
So yeah, so the owners gave the developer
consent and their option to petition for annexation.
So the owners the owner's agent is the owner's agent.
Agent yes.
Through the developer, they gave that consent to them.
So basically, I think what the confusion is,
and we can state it.
And I'll let Trey give his Trey speech on it.
If the project didn't go through what happens next.
That would probably help everybody.
Yeah so these are voluntary annexations.
We have a voluntary annexation policy where if the project does
not go through, they can request that the commission annex it,
those portions.
And that's what we're anticipating to happen
if this doesn't happen.
It stays rural ag land that these annexed.
It does take an ordinance to do that.
So we can't do it in advance.
But that's part of that voluntary annexation policy.
And also part of that is if it is currently touching city
property, it can be annexed into the city with the owner's
consent owner or agent through their consent, which is
what they're doing right now.
Yes so we're annexing land already
story touches other parts of the city.
So for growth of Emporia, at any point, this might be annexed.
Yes correct.
No, we're not requesting it.
The owner.
The owner through the agent.
Yes I didn't catch when 11 was.
What date was it.
That 11 was two weeks ago.
Two weeks ago.
Yeah Two weeks ago at our previous meeting.
All right.
When we need to do each one separate, though.
So that Terry can put it all in nice form.
Each one is a separate ordinance.
All right.
So, real quick, let me just speak to this for one minute.
This is.
I haven't sat down and counted, but this
is going to be an approximately a 20 step
approval with multiple actions by the commission.
Annexation today or zoning change
does not initiate this project at all.
So this is a start process, and I
want to be clear, if this comes down to a deal that
is not good for this community.
I personally will not recommend this.
The benefits in my mind it's not just a little bit
they have to weigh out and there has
to be benefits for everybody.
And, I think what we've seen, at least in class a projects
in other communities, there truly are benefits
for the entire community.
And that's what I'm looking for in this is something that
benefits everybody, not just the select few,
but has tangible benefits for all of Emporia,
because we actually could ask for them and see what.
And that is my and see if I have some non-negotiables.
Folks are absolutely right.
They don't need to pay for any of the water
costs involved in that.
This needs to be paid by the developer.
Now I want to say we have excess capacity water
and we lost our industries and we've lost our industries.
And so they're basically it's a loss.
And we don't have the other point that
has came up several times in Emporia,
we do not use groundwater.
We use surface water that recharges
naturally from the rain.
We have about two years of it in storage
right now at council Grove reservoir.
So we can do some long term forecasting with that.
We pay big bucks, we pay big bucks,
and we doubled our water rights at council Grove two years ago.
So people have mentioned 2011, 2012 when we did have shortage.
That was before we doubled our rights.
So we work closely with the state of Kansas
to double our rights on what we have in council Grove reservoir.
So this has all been thought of.
Now, we've identified about 2.5 million gallons a day
that we have in spare capacity anything beyond that
very much do studies.
And, we've had engineers engaged to this point.
The other thing I want to cover real quick
is why hasn't this been discussed sooner.
Well, just about a month ago, the land auctions were all done.
You can't discuss as if they can't get the land.
The project doesn't happen and they just got the land done.
So now they can start to move it forward
to the public discussion.
And this is going to be a long six month plus public discussion
standpoint.
The zoning is by far not the end of this.
I have one more question.
Sure this is not a city project.
Correct Correct.
And we have not been talking about this for eight months.
I've only been on the commission for I mean, since it's not even
6 yet, the developer has developer has been talking
to city staff about this for a while, talking to RDA folks,
just like any prospective employer does.
There's a lot of conversations that go on before anything
comes to the surface.
There's a lot of due diligence that everybody industries
talked for years before.
They actually and sometimes this is not unusual and not unusual.
Lots of times you have two or three years where they're just
looking their ducks in a row, and they're
looking at multiple communities and can
they even acquire the property.
And that was one of the biggest questions
with this was could they even acquire the property to do this.
So I think people feel very emotional about it.
So I'm trying not to take it personally,
but it's not anything that.
Yeah and the other thing I want to be clear is the points that
were raised over and over again are points that we
have carefully considered.
They were not listening, but we have I mean,
we have been listening, I have absorbed what has
happened in other communities.
I've seen more other communities have got this wrong.
And I think we are trying to take steps to do this right.
And to bring I want to hit on this point again.
This project should bring tangible benefits
to everybody in Emporia.
This should drastically lower our property
taxes if done right.
This should keep us from having to take huge rate increases
to do this water plant.
If done right.
So there are so many things that this potentially can
help with if we do it right.
If we do it wrong, folks are absolutely right.
But if we do this right, and that is my goal in this,
is to do this right in a manner that protects
Emporia today, tomorrow.
And people are writing 50 years from now.
And we've asked you a lot of questions
and you've given us a lot of positive good answers.
And I have and staff has been in several meetings
where I've had where I've been pretty forceful myself.
This has not been one of these where I just.
Oh, yeah.
I pushed back on you hard.
I would say I have been very.
Would you agree that I'd push back hard on him.
Hard but again, baby steps in our poor planning and zoning.
They can listen to everybody because we want everybody
to show up, but they are literally only
looking at an overlay.
And it's one of many, many, many steps.
So the public will be informed of every step of the way
because it has to be public.
So questions you'll have to see what
it was more than happy to come sit down with you.
Sorry our policies.
Any other before we get rolling.
Are you ready.
Can I do the first one.
Sure I would like to make a motion that we approve ordinance
number 2616, annexing lands located at 647 West highway
50 pursuant to KSA 12 520.
Based on a request for voluntary annexation.
Second, I've had a motion to approve ordinance 2616,
and it's at 647 West 550.
Any other discussion.
Motion say Aye.
Motion passes.
What's the next one.
Kurt no, I'm just asking if you would like to do the second one.
Motion let's do it over here.
OK I'd like to make a motion to pass ordinance number 26,
annexing land located at 640 road 180 pursuant to KSA 12 520,
as pursuant to Justin's request, not mine.
The owner's request.
Request second.
I have a motion and a second for ordinance 26 and 641 80.
Any other discussion.
All in favor, say Aye.
Aye anybody else want to do the next one.
I'll do the next part.
OK I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 26,
annexing the lands located at 1,800
row f pursuant to KSA 12 520.
Is there a motion and a second for ordinance 26.
Annexing lands at 1,800 road f.
Any other discussion.
All right.
I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 26 19,
annexing lands located at 1842 road
f pursuant to KSA 12 5 22nd.
I have a motion and second for ordinance 26
annexing lands at 1842 road f.
Any other discussion.
All in favor, say Aye.
Aye Motion passes.
I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 26,
annexing lands located at 600 road 190.
Pursuant to KSA 12 520.
Second Motion and second for ordinance 26.
Annexing lands located at 600 road 190.
Any other discussion.
Just that they all still touch.
They all still touch.
City of Emporia.
We're growing.
We're annexing.
Everybody wants us to grow.
All in favor, say Aye.
Aye Motion passes.
Thank you.
Thank you for speaking, Becky.
Thank you.
For interpreting.
Interpreting thank you Yes All right,
commissioners, I would draw your notice to a public notice
that we put out last week, June 10.
We do have a city commission launch
with the friends of the zoo that is open to the public.
So they show what are the greatest
steps in the room with all the snakes and spiders and snakes.
So that's next week.
Then we have seven items on the consent agenda.
Commission meeting minutes from last time.
Three month extension with Emporia chamber
of Commerce for visitor services.
And then we have five voluntary annexation agreements.
Annexation agreement number three.
One would be a $1,368 annual refund.
On number 2, it would be $714.
On number 3, it would be $140 on number 4, it would be $1,751.
And then the last one, I believe, is $334.
That's what that on an annual basis with those annexation.
Thank you.
Make a motion to approve the agenda.
Second, the motion seconded to approve the consent agenda.
Any other discussion.
All in favor, say Aye.
Aye all right.
And for informational items, we do like normal.
But I do want to talk about we are going
to be adopting or having you guys look at a large volume
water user policy.
These are really safeguards that staff
thinks need to be in place.
Not even just people coming in.
Not people.
Yes, we do want to make sure that we have a policy where you
can't take as much water as just turn on your spigot
if you're a large volume user.
If it's going to impact our service delivery,
we absolutely need to have that policy in place.
And that's what we're going to put in front of you guys
and making sure that they pay those costs.
Well, and I commend city staff because a lot of our policies
haven't been looked at to reach technology
in the changing world.
And the other point, several of the discussions I've had,
and we'll talk more in detail, but we
are going to ask a substantial portion of that
be paid up front.
So if they do leave your leave after five years,
we're not left holding the bag.
So all industries all have.
Yes everything.
Yes can do when you're going to have that.
The draft wording.
We'll get that out as soon as we'll
get that out and get it posted.
We may try to get it out maybe early next week
and post it with the bio information if we can.
Oh OK.
Oh you're out of.
So we'll get it done hopefully two weeks.
We were looking at the next meeting for discussion.
Yeah so we will try to get that draft out there.
I mean, if you're gone we'll have
it locked down by Friday, so.
All right.
Governing body comments I'm going to start.
I think we proved today that people
can make an o'clock AM meeting.
Yes so that should be going.
And I want to thank everybody who spoke.
It takes a lot to stand up here.
What's your name.
Put your address down in.
The five of us know you're live.
My voice would have shaken more than four months.
So I want to thank everybody that was brave enough to stand
up here and speak their mind.
And thank you to city staff and emergency services for unbound.
Chief, can you give us a quick did it go OK.
Kind of great little hiccups with the southbound.
I heard that they took a little extra detour the first time.
They say it's good for them.
Throw them under the bus because they do a great job.
But give them a little taste of this road
before they hit the ground.
Quick thinking.
They had to do probably an extra mile and a half on that one.
They can.
They can handle it.
Was that everybody.
All of the first 358.
So not going to bother them.
Yeah so what.
Half or 2/3 or a third of them didn't finish.
Yeah Welcome to Kansas.
Yeah Welcome to the mud.
All right.
Kurt, do you have anything.
Yeah I'd like to thank everybody that came
today and voiced your opinions.
We do listen to you.
A lot of the things that we've written down here,
I know we've already visited about ourselves.
We will be revisiting those things.
We do appreciate what you bring to us, and we consider those.
And we do.
Thank you for being here Mr. Duncan.
I'll echo that.
Will share.
I did take a lot of notes from everyone who spoke.
It is important to listen to the citizens.
And I hope if people continue to have concerns
or even if they find answers or something like that,
I hope people are willing to come and share that.
At the planning commission meeting
on June 23 at o'clock PM at Civic Auditorium
auditorium upstairs.
Upstairs And I will echo, I would love to see you
all in two weeks at 11 o'clock.
You're right.
OK well, not to sound like a copycat, but yes,
I do appreciate everyone coming and showing up today.
It is.
It is appreciated.
I also want to say thank you to city staff and so many
volunteers for the bike race.
It takes a lot and it went very well, except for mother nature.
I was wondering, does anyone know.
Were there any injuries this year.
We had a couple of elite riders, but they basically had a hole
in their knee and gave it up.
But they met each other in the ER.
I know I'm acquainted with one of them,
and so I don't think there were any major injuries.
Fairly normal.
Really normal actually.
Blow count downtown.
OK, good.
Wash off the mud.
You'll be fine.
There are no lightning issues.
No lightning strikes.
Well, good, because there was a lot of lightning out there this.
I really appreciate everyone's speaking today.
We've had a lot of the same questions
that you had along this process, and it is a process.
So businesses do this all the time
in cities throughout the nation and then it comes public.
So this is part of the process.
It became public on Tuesday.
And people have the same questions that we have had.
And we've gotten some of the answers.
We have not gotten them all.
We definitely need to get them all.
And they all have to be rock solid for Victorians
now and in the future before this project moves forward.
We know that we look very forward to getting the answers
and getting them to you, because I completely understand where
each of you are coming from.
You heard about it on Tuesday today is Wednesday.
Whatever facts people have heard or opinions.
We want to make sure that it's all rock solid before anything
moves forward.
And we look forward to meeting with you.
All right.
We're going to recess to the conference room 10 after.
Oh, yes.
That's about 25 minutes to 10 after.
Can we do just people wait on us.
We've got to make a motion to recess to the conference room
for study session until 12:15.
Thank you.
One 5115 115.
115 any other discussion.
All in favor, say I. I will.
All right.
We will bring the study session to order.
Thank you for everybody in the audience who had to wait on us.
OK finding my agenda.
I'm so sorry.
Outside appropriations.
Who's doing them.
Do you want to just do the process of how we usually do it.
We'll go through a budget discussion real quick,
and then we can go to each item.
All right.
So outside appropriations typically
come from one of four funds.
Transient guest tax, which supports
tourism destination marketing.
Visitor related tourism enhancements.
This is from a tax that's levied on folks who stay
at the hotels in our community.
Special alcohol fund this is a tax that is
levied on the sale of alcohol.
It is a state set fund.
We can't our state set tax.
We can't change it.
A third of the alcohol money goes
to the special alcohol fund.
A third goes to the special parks and recreation fund,
and a third goes to the general fund.
By state statute, special parks and recreation
has to be spent on Park improvements,
recreation facility and community programming
initiatives for our parks.
And then economic development sales tax fund.
That is about $925,000 of the city's half
cent sales tax goes to that.
So I want to talk about the next big item.
This year.
We have received more funds requests that do not fit
in one of those four buckets.
It, and the city has traditionally looked very.
We have not funded those before because that's
truly property tax dollars that pay
for that under Kansas statute.
Last dollar in last dollar out of the budget is property taxes.
And then it is truly competing with things
such as public safety, our facilities,
parks our solid waste collectors, people.
Yeah, people.
So we are always cautious.
So give that word of caution, and I think at the end,
we just want to have a little discussion.
Should we even take general fund but doesn't fit
in one of those four buckets.
Do we take those requests.
I didn't pass.
We have moved like the Municipal Band used to be in something
and we're like, they're a park.
So yeah.
So it says we can pay for park programming
with that special park.
So are there some of these that you're
saying that we're going to talk about today that
don't fit in any of this talk.
Are you going to.
Well, yeah.
Yeah, we'll identify that.
Yeah OK.
The other thing that's not in this budget this year
is visit Emporia.
Emporia, Main Street, RDA and Emporia chamber funded funding.
Not that we fund the chamber directly.
Those dollars have been put forward to administration
for tourism and visits for small business,
for economic development.
So those numbers have been set aside.
But until the fire conversation goes one way or another.
So either we will need to come back
to you guys with a formal funding request
and/or funding request for each of those individuals, which we
could do, because really, time wise, I'm not sure
we'd be there in the next year.
Well, we have it set.
I mean, we have the money saved.
So really, we have a line item.
Yes line item for it.
Thank you.
Because those.
Yeah we're not.
Yeah there's a line item for it.
We're just not budgeting it to go to those organizations
at this point in time.
So we're not giving them any money
unless we vote on it like we just did with visit Emporia.
Correct so that's so just what we've done with visit Emporia.
That money is pulled aside.
It exists.
It is there.
But then if we've decided, let's do it because it's
going to take forever to.
So if we get hey, we're still another year out on via then
we can appropriate that money.
We do want to point out.
Fund balances I will say general fund.
That number is still a work in progress.
But, see what our reserve level is.
In general fund transient guest tax
funding, what the ending balance is
and what the target reserve is.
Special alcohol fund.
We have not traditionally held a reserve requirement there.
Special parks we have not there.
And then economic development.
We have not kept a reserve fund with that either.
But you can see what's available funding each of those.
Where did we come up with the reserve amounts.
That's just what we previous commissions
have agreed to agreed to.
So we can always adjust percentages.
We always talk about 20% because some of us
have lived through COVID and TGT funds don't exist during COVID.
So we were very much like, if we've
got to have reserves for maybe six months to eight months.
If something somebody did the math and came out with,
OK, it's 19.2% or something like that.
So I did not do the math.
So before you guys or the transient guest
tax appropriations, you have what is and Lucas is not here.
Is anybody here with tgt?
Christina Christina.
Christina is a staff liaison.
Come on down.
Matt's back there.
Matt and Christina, if you guys want to come up,
since you guys kind of staff that.
But you see what they requested.
You see what was recommended.
Mended and then Taylor has the ability
we're looking at what I call a green, yellow, red system today.
If everybody's good with the request, we mark that as green.
If everybody says, hey, we want to come back and talk
about it more at a future meeting,
we will turn that one yellow.
And then if it's red and we don't want to find that,
then we will.
Although those aren't red because of that.
But those are just red because their recommendation is
different from their request.
Yeah OK.
You ready.
Is there anything else before we dive into this list.
Are you going to tell us the ones
that don't fit in any category, or is that later.
That's later.
That's not in this.
This will fit in the transient minus
the carrack request, which I think they felt that.
And did they feel that did not fit within
does not meet requirement, which is why it's recommended to 0.
Yes OK.
You ready to talk.
And then.
Green light.
Yellow light or red light.
Is that where we're at.
Yeah I mean, you guys are more than welcome to ask questions.
We can run through all the slides,
or we can just tackle this while we're here.
I'd like to start at the bottom.
Yeah let's start numerically.
I'm OK.
Excuse me, with William Allen White House.
I had their numbers done.
They have to raise their own money.
So is anybody else against the Red Rocks.
Green green.
Green teachers Hall of Fame.
Green, green.
I mean, they're literally using it for their hotel bill.
So, by golly, we're going to get our money back.
OK, first Friday keep up the awesome work.
I think it's a good program.
We see a lot of people down there on Friday.
Friday green discovered gravel.
And what was the recommendation 21 just because instead of 30
just to request your request.
So Bobby actually requested on this one $21,000 this year.
It's a self reduction from the 30,000 he received last year.
Part of that was, equipment investments last year
and those type of things that are not reoccurring costs.
So I mean it's growing and he's got hotel stay.
It's all good with that.
Great I'm going to need at least dynamic
to me in a yellow if to discuss.
Maybe later after we get through everything else.
Is that OK with everybody.
Sure I would agree.
Oh, sorry.
Not dynamic, but we can discuss that yet.
Yeah dynamic.
Just that one.
Just because they are it's really
for their events and stuff.
So I'm and they didn't have anything concrete
on what they'd use it for.
It didn't say in the application.
Truth back there she can twirl herself back up here.
Well, we'll come back to you, Jackie.
The Historical Society.
Green green.
Hot so explain why does that not fit the group.
And I'm speaking to this as director of visit Emporia.
Not on the member.
But attending the meetings.
Wanted to see more in lines of the budget.
They were having a hard time understanding
the budget information between what
was in the foundation accounts.
The way it was presented.
Is Michael here.
Yeah OK.
Michael, he can come up if you guys want later
and talk through that.
But that was one of them.
And some questions about the scholarship funds.
So talk about your input at yellow now OK.
On yellow because we want to talk to him
the rec commission green green.
The only thing I will say what's it for.
Go ahead.
I mean I know what it's for, but can we tell the public.
Yeah they're doing those team passes.
That's right.
It's a great deal.
Yeah I'm wondering why I mean, I'm
wondering why it wasn't larger.
The only thing I will say is with the ever changing landscape
of our wonderful high school Activities Association,
I would like this request broken out into each tournament
that they're planning on doing, instead of the whole year
for tournaments that could be in the fall,
could be in the spring, or it could be in the winter.
So is that something we want, Chris.
Do we need them No, I'm good with it.
I'm good.
I'm good with it.
I think it's just the policy.
OK, so we're going green.
Just starting process 28.
State basketball champion.
Maybe we'll pick up more baseball,
baseball, volleyball, men's golf, which we have Aaron
wins golf bag.
Golf is back next year I think.
OK Kirk read.
Yeah they were looking for just their building.
They were looking for parking for their building.
That's right that the tangential TGT
is the fact that it would be, help people
who also played at Hammond.
The problem immediately came up to me
is we had an explanation from you earlier in the year about
what happened in Wichita with sidewalks
and that is where the one AG's opinion has been,
is that there was a request to fund
ADA sidewalks, doing the ramps.
And they said that was not at least
the attorney general opined that was not
a valid use of those dollars.
And that was in Don Lew's presentation.
He highlighted that.
Yeah, exactly.
What is there.
Is there another fund that their request could fall into.
Maybe I'm not sure.
So it's above on the sponsorship request for 40,000.
So it'll come up again.
So do we.
Yeah we have it later.
So just out right now, we are just now say we green
light the 0 recommendation or do we read it.
It's read now, so why don't we just make it read.
Yeah OK.
But we're just talking early out of TGT at this moment.
Sure OK.
Arts council green.
Green is this horrible to say.
Tell me more about what theirs was.
You can call them to the table.
That's why they're here.
I just don't remember, I read it.
Council, come on up.
Well, because you've had more they've had more Granada events.
Because it's both.
Granada you weren't expecting Granada, right.
That we used to get an appropriation
from Granada theater.
So separate.
I see, so sorry.
You may not have to come up at all,
but you might not have much.
Sorry it was because it means you're here.
Give us a speech.
Oh, well.
Well thank you.
I'd like to introduce Cody Lacey.
He is our manager for the Granada theater
since we took it on in November of 2024.
We have significantly had an increase in rentals.
As we the Granada can only sustain
with third party rentals.
Performances alone does not bring pay the Bills.
So Cody has done an excellent job reaching out,
and I'll let him talk on behalf of reaching out
to other communities and businesses.
Yeah so a big part of this is obviously
the Granada theater alliance who was previously running it.
They did a good job, but we reached a place
where it became very stagnant.
And we didn't see performances at the Granada.
And so a big part of this and with these appropriated funds
is just to really help market and advertise.
Other communities hey, Emporia is doing live music again.
We have performances, we have space to host different kinds
of events and conferences.
We've had city planners meetings in banquets there.
We're a big part of unbound as well.
We're the host for all activities unbound.
So just getting back out there to the community
and letting them know that, hey, Emporia is still
the place to go to have a fun Friday
night and experience the town.
Thank you.
I know a lot of times I've been to musical events there
and met people from other towns, and they've
commented that they're actually spending the night also
because we've worked with bring tourism in, we've worked
with Main Street really closely on our placer data as well,
showing that we're drawing a lot of people from Lawrence, Topeka,
outside areas.
And we even I met a couple that was there from Nebraska.
They were a big fan of the frontman when they came in,
and so we're drawing a lot of people from all
over, not just the state, but the region.
And we do as an organization also,
we have to lodge our artist.
So we have over 50 to 60 hotel rooms
that we personally pay for as well
to host those artists here too.
I will point out that we hosted the Kansas association of city
managers conference back in December,
and we used Granada for our Thursday night event.
And other than a really suspect comedian,
it was a great experience and everybody really,
really enjoyed being there I agree on that comment.
Well, and it's not really any secret anymore,
we have put a doorway in between the Art
Center and the Granada theater.
That's going to open up a whole new possibilities to host
a lot of conferences and events there,
so they can use the art center's rooms as well.
And we did.
We use both facilities.
There wasn't a door then, but yes,
but now would be a lot easier.
They don't have to go around in the cold.
Are we green.
Agree all right.
Thank you.
Thank you for the additional information.
Sorry, I was confused.
I'm sorry.
I'm a red, so you want me to come up.
Come on up.
Sure did you bring.
Hello hello.
Can you tell us, in those listening what these $80,000
in funds would go towards.
Please a wide array of.
Improvements to the overall property.
The disk golf course to.
The addition of overnight lodging
through the tiny homes, RV parks.
Let me go back through.
I submit this.
So long ago.
It is a long process.
It's a long process.
Yeah, it was a wide mix of that with
and I did provide obviously the budget along with it.
But it's not just for finding homes or not just for the RV
pads, it's for improving the Disc Golf course to continue
to or not to continue, but to allow us to stay
relevant on the Disk Golf Pro Tour, as
well as the professional disk Golf Association
major tournaments.
It seems like course improvements at some point,
you'd get done with them, but it's actually as the sport just
continues to keep evolving it.
The players continue to get better.
They have to adapt the courses to bring
in the highest caliber players.
And we've had to make or we are planning to make improvements
to stay relevant on the TOUR.
Questions I'll give my opinion and I'm
probably not next to Aaron.
I'm probably the one who that plays
the most disk golf in town.
Oh, you play more than me.
But I know at this point, just because I've given you a lot
and I totally understand keeping the courses up
and the stuff, but I'm just right now
because we have so many requests that I'm
just kind of not at the moment.
So I certainly respect that.
Something I probably should add in
is this request with adding overnight lodging
through the tiny homes and the RV
park does generate back into the transient guest tax fund.
It allows more people to stay.
But does an RV park do PGE park does not currently,
but the tiny homes would.
But the RV park does not do a TGT tax.
I don't know if that's a local policy.
I don't know if that's a state policy on RV parks or state.
Yeah, I think, but I've looked and I cannot find not that I
can't say you can't charge another bag,
but I'm just saying we don't get that back from an RV park,
so the intention would be to book it through Airbnb.
I would have Airbnb.
Airbnb B would be easy for you to say.
The state agitates those dollars,
agitates aggregates, aggregates, aggregates, agitates.
It has aggregates those dollars.
Yeah and I think the other key thing to bring up
is, it's not just one tournament or two tournaments.
It is players coming through Emporia
almost on a daily basis for nine months out of the year.
Then the season is hit and miss.
On players coming through during the winter.
Just this morning a family of three
in from Colorado yesterday Fargo, North Dakota.
And I could just keep going back.
And I don't think that they're.
They are coming intentionally for what we're
doing at champions landing.
And I think that the project that we've got in front of us
here is something to really put a stamp on.
Disc golf being an important economic driver
for the city of Emporia.
Oh, I think it's a great project.
I just don't think right now I am willing to commit that money.
What percentage of the 80,000 would be used
for marketing of tournaments.
I don't think there was anything put in there for marketing.
No, we're obviously marketing our events to the disk golf
community and beyond, but that wasn't a specific line
item in this request.
The reason I ask because I couldn't find it on here.
So I was wondering if that was because it wasn't.
Any other questions for Jeremy.
I don't think so.
Color choices.
I'm feeling like you at this point.
There's been a lot of money given on a loan,
and I understand that.
I just think right now I'm not comfortable with another 80.
Yeah nothing against you.
Oh I frequent.
He sees me up there eating at least.
Yeah yellow or red.
So you're in between orange, yellow, and red.
So you're kind of orange now.
OK OK.
Like your coat.
Shirt if you don't mind.
Real quick on the I certainly.
The city of Emporia has definitely
kicked in big on the $500,000 forgivable loan.
And that ultimately is the only reason that I have
the property at this point.
I do look at that.
And I know there's a lot of criticism towards that,
but when you look at it on a 10 year basis, at $50,000 a year,
that makes disk golf stay relevant
in Emporia and continues to bring people
to Emporia on a daily basis.
I think the question if that wasn't there or maybe isn't
there is going to be why didn't we support champions
landing and disk golf more.
It's certainly been a challenge to keep
the doors open and operational.
I think we've really found a spot
to be sustainable and move forward
to continue to improve things.
But on a 10 year, if it was just if it was $50,000
a year instead of 500,000, I think it
looks significantly different.
And I think the city of Emporia would
lose tremendously more than $500,000 over the 10 years.
And we still got a long way to get to that.
So I would say it was a very Wise Business decision
from the decision makers at the time to do support making
that property an opportunity for me
to acquire it, purchase it and not let it go up
on the open market where it would
likely become something other than it actually is guaranteed.
I have no qualms about that one at all.
So yeah.
Didn't you get another $56,000 at some point.
And was that from tgt?
54,000 that was two years, a year and a half ago.
Two years after the half.
Yeah I didn't ask for anything last year.
And that was to add three different disk golf courses
onto the property to make it a beginner friendly course
and intermediate level course, and advanced level course,
which was needed, and keep our championship level disk
golf course.
So now there's four different disk
golf and golf on the property, as well
as the addition of footgolf.
And we've seen while we didn't ever
expect it was going to be a crazy amount of people that were
going to come and play footgolf, but it's definitely opened up
the door to people who would never step foot on the property
to come and play.
Footgolf feel welcome inside and whatnot.
And that support for the GPX4 was,
I think a very wise investment from the GPX4 fund to we've
now been able to have more disk golf tournaments.
We can have 368 players a day play
tournament rounds because of the use of the two courses
simultaneously.
We haven't done that per se yet on that total number.
But yeah, a lot of good improvements there.
Kurt I'm kind of a yellow orange kind of guy.
I think my position would be just looking at the other things
that how we fund things and the other options out there.
There may be a different way to fund this part of this.
The only commissioner Steinkuhler did ask me,
the only kind of parallel I could think of
was what we did on the Fairfield,
where they're entitled, I believe
it's 80% because they added the conference center that there's
a hold harmless one.
The TGT fund can't go below the previous year's what
we collected, and then they can have 80% back of what
was produced by the property.
And that was for the conference center
that they did there, which could supposed to draw a lot of room
nights with the conference center
and use beyond that facility for that.
To me, that's a better way to look at this.
How does Jeremy do TGT funds.
So if he's only got four tiny homes,
I mean, you just rebate him back what he collected on the four
tiny homes for tiny homes.
Yeah, and 80% of it.
Yeah, I mean that that's the parallel that we
have with another entity.
That entity before.
Yeah did you include the RV pads with that.
I mean, if he's going to collect TGT,
if he's going through Airbnb, the hard thing
in my mind with Airbnb is I think we just
get a check that says Airbnb.
It doesn't break it down.
And Janet, Janet in here.
Yeah, I am and it does not break.
It doesn't break down.
It just says Airbnb x amount.
So he would have to tell us how.
He would have to tell us how much we'd
have to compare that to Airbnb.
So right now we're in the yellow Aaron.
I think there's a lot of stuff in the application.
I don't know that all of it fits TGT.
Obviously, the folks that we put on the TGT board
did think that all of it fit TGT.
I would just if it was a little more broken
down to what actually fits TGT.
I'm kind of with the folks on not making
it for actual infrastructure.
But if it was for marketing and drawing in those larger
tournaments that we know have to use champions landing
to host that quality of players, I'd be green light all the way.
We could send it back to TGT to more carefully.
We can send it back steady to consider a rebate type agreement
and make a recommendation because that
was a criticism when the Fairfield project was done.
That was just done by the commission at the time
without going through TGT.
So potentially kick that to TGT to consider what
a rebate type agreement be.
It be something to consider.
Matt and Christine, what was tg's
thoughts on the full recommendation.
You were there.
Oh yeah.
They looked it was definitely probably the most time consuming
one they went through.
They went through it with a fine tooth comb on it.
The big thing is, when you look at transient guest tax,
one of the three legs of the actual fund
is attraction development.
And that's where they really looked at this one.
Yes, it might be a private business,
but there's no one excluding any other private business
from putting together an attraction
and putting together one of these requests as well.
They kicked it around.
It wasn't.
It was obviously a split vote on the group to promote
the recommendation of $80,000 on it,
really getting into the details of it,
in fact, it was a month ago.
Trying to think through.
The big thing is we've spent a lot
of dollars in disk golf infrastructure,
and we've got to keep it growing.
When I look at it from the visit Emporia perspective,
it's one of the few things on this list
that I can send people to every day of the week.
It sometimes we have a hard time.
We put money behind x or y event,
but attraction development is critical moving
forward from our perspective.
Whether it's this or something else out there,
people have other ideas for attractions
because we've got to have those things
that people can visit the other 50 weeks out of the year.
If you guys don't mind.
One more comment.
I know that there's some concern in regards to it being
a private business that's going after TGT support and funding,
and that support is not going to necessarily a Fairfield
Inn or any other hotels in town, and those other hotels in town
are not drawing and attracting disk golf destination
tourism dollars to Emporia.
And I think that's one of the big
that's the difference in this.
And I think that's really important to keep in mind
that that's why this request is in front of the TGT
to continue to make Jenkins landing in Emporia a tourist
destination for disk golf.
Yeah, I'd like to send it back to TGT and they can rework it.
I mean, so I think is that OK with them.
Be careful how you massage this back
to because in part of your literature
that you submitted with this, you show the mention of handicap
accessible into those tiny homes.
We can't do that.
So just don't mention it.
So we're sending it back to the.
Sorry is that OK with you to send it back.
It'll come back to us again.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah.
After they rework it and.
Yeah and at that point, we'll also see
how much money is left over.
So yeah.
What else.
So back to dynamic disks.
Jackie.
Troll yourself up here MS mayor.
Yes, Erin.
Can we.
Can I submit an appropriation request to turn these fans on.
Oh, I second that.
I don't know how we do it, but pull the thing Mr. Ebert,
give that man some lunch.
All right.
Yeah OK.
So, Jackie.
Yes I think there were questions of what you really
wanted to use the money for.
Is it going to blow over.
Here Taylor.
Yeah explain your appropriation.
What it really helped you do.
So what it really helps me do is I know
at the tax, the last meeting with the board,
I was explaining to them that our disk golf events are
not funded by dynamic disks.
They are funded by sponsorships and the player fees.
So while I to get some products from dynamic at cost.
The money's not coming from them.
So I have to raise those funds elsewhere.
When the player fees are supposed to cover x amount.
So the money that I ask for goes towards
of elevating the experience of the players
while they're in town.
Working with radius to host the welcome party,
getting disks to the Emporia Arts Council council
so they can host kids design disks and give out prizes.
Working with Emporia Main Street to host the block party.
Different things like that not only
our competitors get to enjoy, but also the community.
And it makes the competitors want to come because the more
of a better party you throw, the more obviously,
the more you want to go.
And I also noted that in the last meeting
that the event that's happening a week or two before ours.
Only three hours down the road, only had like 30 people
signed up.
We are nearing 400, so they know that there
will be a rock STAR Tournament.
There'll be a rock STAR Tournament director.
Yeah so in the tournament, in the application it says, please
provide a detailed breakdown of how the requested funds will
be allocated.
And it says I don't have a breakdown of this right
now for 2027.
But I can show what we are using this year's funds for.
As I get it more locked in.
So could this be a yellow and something
that comes back to us after she has it more locked in.
Yeah and that was my concern, is that we don't know what the.
I think that's fair because Jackie has to work a year out.
I mean, yeah, she's.
Yeah, I think it's great.
When will you know what you use the money for in 2026?
So I know a lot of it more now than when
in April that we had was asked.
Yeah so I could actually probably
submit that rather soon because the event
is actually in three weeks.
OK yeah.
That's just what I would like to see too.
Of course, before I make a decision,
if that's OK with the rest of the GPX4,
I'd be willing to Green light the full amount
with the TGT board's discretion to get it.
Get the information from Jackie.
I don't and I met with Jackie.
Was that a month ago or six weeks ago.
We sat down for a couple hours and it was pretty eye opening
to walk through the process of it
and just how much more competitive tournaments have
gotten in communities, and some of those facets
that have changed since the pandemic era.
So it's an eco devo driver.
I'm OK with Aaron's idea of making sure
that it fits into the visitors.
It's probably it's part of the process.
Change with the attraction is they're
not only just they're not just giving the funds anymore.
They're making them come back with this
is what we use the funds on.
I like that.
That makes sense.
So great.
So we're good with green, with the caveat that the TGT board
works with Jackie to make sure it fits
into the elevating the visitor's experience
because it's a visitor's.
So in other words, you're not going to write a blank check.
You're going to go through the process
before you get the full 40.
Yeah, the whole process.
You may not get process that would change.
TGT 2 is pretty much like that already.
Yeah and I but I would like a copy of it too.
I mean, I'd like to see what they're planning on.
We can do after action reports to make sure commission
sees those things.
Yeah OK.
OK, so we're turning to Green work
with putting some more information.
I'm actually OK knowing your life is crazy for three weeks.
It would be July.
I appreciate that.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah we're not saying.
Yeah, we're OK.
We're talking about 2027, Jackie.
And you've been OK, but.
Yeah, you're OK.
Thanks, Jackie.
Thank you.
Hello we got hot pot.
Anybody hear from hot Michael.
Hello, I'm Mike Torres.
I'm the president and his attorney.
OK, so I think what was their reasoning.
Because it went to scholarships and Mike was always on the table
for.
Do you want to walk them through of what.
Yeah so some of the conversation that we had initially
I submitted a pretty detailed, full, transparent budget
so that everybody could see what our expenses
looked like as an organization.
They asked for a more high level view of what
this money would be used for.
And so I provided a four year break out of our budgets.
Looked like for Hispanics of today and tomorrow
over the last four years, having come into the position
last year, being in my second year as president,
I still had to thumb through some
of those previous financial documents,
but I provided just a high level overview.
We consistently spend around $25,000
on our events year to year.
And that's the five events that we built up to.
So when I came to the meeting, the discussion that we had
was around scaling up the events.
We want to not necessarily recycle the same thing.
We want to bring larger talent to the community,
and we want to draw more people to the community
with our events.
And so that you all are aware of those events
that I'm talking about are 5 de Mayo, day of the dead,
vamos a buscar.
That event that we host Hispanic Heritage month,
which we stopped holding.
And within Bahia State University it's now up to hartos
that event and then our annual meeting,
which includes all of our 35 plus partners
and all of our volunteers, including those that
are part of our dance groups.
So following that meeting, some of the feedback that I received
was we don't necessarily just want to fully Fund V events,
and that's completely understandable.
I think the reason we asked for it's a 10,000
increase from two years past when we requested 25,000.
The reason that we asked for that increase of $10,000 was
because we see where $25,000 gets us scaling up with $35,000
we thought was appropriate.
We're seeing less.
Less available options for things like stage tickets.
So we have to rent that out more.
We're seeing more expenses go up for entertainment.
So that's not a.
And so those are really the big things that we're
focused on in the coming year.
Of course, we can make do figure it out.
Don't ever say that.
Yeah, but I wanted to be clear.
One of the other pieces of confusion was around revenue.
And so we have two accounts.
Lyon County State Bank and the important Community Foundation
account.
Is this going to events.
Is this going to scholarship.
This money is solely pocketed for events.
So we have money that could cover it,
our events in the community Foundation, but that's
all earmarked for scholarship.
And so I wanted to be clear about that.
The only other money that we get is on a matchday.
And out of anything that we get from donations
for corporations or businesses, which is entirely up to us
to raise.
So a good example is we had 25,000,
and then that same year we had 5,000 with
the michelin's sponsorship.
And then we had a little close to $7,000 for matchday that we
received, and then everything else
was previous year rolled over.
So I like the idea.
It's for your leveling up, your talent and I
get it at this stage.
And your speaker, I mean, it just costs money these days,
and we have already shown in the past,
pacer data shows that there are people
that are coming from my County and surrounding areas.
Of course, we've seen some changes
with transition or whether.
That, but I have no doubt that this has the ability to continue
to draw large crowds.
We get thousands of people at these events.
So I'm really proud of where we're at.
We've been here for 30 years, so we're close to
and I know we can do it.
So thoughts from commissioners I mean, I like the thought.
Yeah go ahead.
Somebody else want to.
I'm like, I keep reading, so I don't want to leave.
I would be willing to $30,000 for that.
OK thank you.
I am too, because I'm like, if you can do if you can
do your after report to say, look,
we raised our level of talent.
Here's our stages, here's you being
able to maybe work with somebody else to do something.
And that's the way to do it.
Casey would stop taking pictures or at least cut me out.
Yeah I only fear, like any of these is to make sure
that the funds are actually used.
So I understand that the TTC board recommended
less because that $30,000 it goes over
and above your guys' budget.
But I would encourage you guys to level
up and show that you did that.
And I think all 30,000 could be yours.
Yeah I'm agreeing.
I agree, especially with your after report.
Yeah OK thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah are we switching to the next page.
All right, well, we didn't.
Are we saying no.
We're said no to.
We're moving on to because we handled that transition.
All right.
Let's go.
Next page.
All right.
This is other funds.
And these are all new requests other than cross ones.
Cross ones at $85,000.
That's the old corner house.
That's probably the easy special alcohol green.
So maybe unless there's an objection,
we can green that real quick, then we can come to the other.
Which one are you.
Greening I'm sorry.
Cross did you have to do that at that time.
Did you not do their normal 25.
They did not submit this year.
Oh, OK.
For that.
And is that the whole alcohol thing.
No, that leaves them in.
That's everything we have, Taylor.
I thought we had 105 in it.
So we said crosswinds is going to special alcohol.
Yes OK.
For oh, right.
It's not all that's in there.
But that's the only.
All right, let's go back to the.
We just approved 85.
Yeah OK Flint hills tac.
Last year, they received $71,000 for their nursing program.
This year, they're asking for a number of things.
257,000 for precision alcohol, CeeDee facility renovations
for city annexation.
This is precision.
Precision agriculture.
Alcohol alcohol.
There may be something coming through here.
Precision precision agricultural CDL facility.
Renovations to include ADA and fire suppression upgrades there.
So that's 257,000 at best.
We have funded the.
Phase out of economic development funds in the past.
We three years ago we took the request to RDA.
RDA recommended not to fund it.
The commission went ahead and funded it.
And it wasn't nursing.
What was it.
It was mental health.
No, no.
They're teaching or maintenance.
Child care.
Child care program.
A program to help child care to get
their teachers through faster.
Yes crosswinds.
We talked about crosswinds.
Southwick house, $62,000.
And this is really, once again, maybe you
could stretch it into funds.
I mean, obviously, it's the other side of economic
development, $62,000.
And this is what they're saying is required emergency fire
access drive $40,000 for the car parking,
which I think were hard to get into economic development,
making that link there by itself.
My mind, it's probably a general fund thing.
And then Kansas Spanish speakers.
This does go with workforce development
and community services and employment
and educational services.
So I think you can make a fairly easy argument to put
that in economic development.
How much is in economic development.
1.5 OK.
And then imaginarium this is $20,000
for their STEM activities.
I don't know that this goes in any of our special buckets.
In my mind this is probably a general fund request.
Just hard to put anywhere.
Emporia Municipal Band.
That is the same thing that we've been doing, by the way.
7:30 tomorrow night, ribbon cutting
on the new Christine Romans.
Mark debtor Memorial.
No honorary.
Can we get those pictures, like on a stick when you're at, like,
a ball game and they're all marked better.
I asked Mark if he was coming back and he told me no.
He probably said no.
He told me no.
I was like, oh, so you're really leaving.
Can I ask another question.
Yes when you say economic development, what do we have.
Ending cash fund balance is that right now.
Yes Well, what we have going go back to that Taylor
real quick because the proposed expenditures are
these included in that proposed expenditures amount.
I don't believe so.
No this is last year's look right.
This is beginning is the anticipated 26 ending.
And then the expenditures and receipts
for 27 and then ending balance.
So, so so the expenditures are all fully funding everything.
Yes and the 760.
Well no.
The 763 is going to be one of the 763
is going to basically be the water tower and RDA expenses.
So that's what I'm asking.
Do I need to take that out of either the beginning balance
or the ending cash balance.
No, I mean no, no, it's out of there.
Yeah so the so the proposed expenditures right now
is just so we have 1.5 left after funding RDA and the water
tower that we can use on these things that aren't
in that expenditure stuff, depending
on what we want to maintain.
We don't have a requirement for a balance on that.
I would tell you, unless we truly have somebody who's
going to create 2000 jobs, I really
want a strong balance in that.
Make sure it comes out of industrial and TGT.
Yes Main Street.
Yes right.
Yes in general keeping them.
Yeah part of that 763 does include
the 257 for the Flint hills and the 25 for the Kansas speakers.
Does it include and the water tower.
Yes, it does.
OK yeah.
OK OK.
48 RDA is not in there, so we're 400,000.
So that's the problem.
RDA is not in there.
So that's $400,000 we need to add in there to fund RDA.
So it's 257 that we have in there.
So really the normal expenditures
we need to add 130 to get to the normal expenditures.
And then we tried doing City Math.
Just tell me how much money you got left.
Yeah I think it best you guys have 150 to play with her
in economic development.
Thank you.
So we don't really have.
So can we now look at the economic development ones first.
Yes so that would be economic development.
Go back so that what could go in.
I like that screen there.
What could go in economic development.
Is ESU.
I don't know that can go in there because that's for what is
that for the drug prevention.
Well, they typically do it out of that fund.
This is their fishing one that they do with hot.
So could that mean could you get TGT on that one.
To me it is because they're bringing
everybody to do a whole day of outdoor activity.
I mean it's an event.
It's an event event or a tourist event.
I think it's both because they bring
the kids come from just funded part of its budget
for that exact event.
The hot portion of it, not the portion.
Yeah Leland, can you speak at all on that one.
Well ESU certainly has never put in a request, to my knowledge,
for that specific event.
And obviously I've not seen the specific application,
so I'm not quite sure what they might be asking,
but yes, I did hear Mike clearly, as you all did,
that is one of the events that they requested funding for.
That's about the most historical context of this issue,
to my knowledge, has ever made it.
It does sound a little more transient guest
tax, in my humble opinion, but I have a weird question.
Casey woods, can you.
They told it out.
The prophet can placer narrowed down to just the prophet aquatic
center or whatever it's called.
I would just be curious.
Yeah, we can put that yellow for the day.
Yeah I wouldn't take it out of ego.
If anything, I'm leaning toward something else.
TGT that has a little bit of wiggle words,
in case you understood my words. right.
What else do you want.
So, did you just make that yellow.
Is that what we decided.
And maybe get some more information on it.
Yeah OK.
Big Brothers Big Sisters trying to start that program back up,
and they're asking for an appropriation.
Does anybody hear from Big brothers.
Big sisters.
I don't feel like that's going to be red.
Yeah I'm sorry.
I'm like, that's wonderful.
But if and if $5,000 is going to make or break you,
this is not should have had somebody here
to try to explain it to us.
Well, I mean, it's a great program.
Don't be wrong, but I just can't.
It's a city thing.
Yeah all right.
Imaginarium 25,000.
Once again, we think at best, that would be general funding.
Oh, that's somebody's half salary.
Didn't we give them for last time.
We did out of TGT funding when they were looking
at doing the more museum.
And did they buy any of that was there after.
They have not that money has been impounded.
So we need to have a conversation on that.
So I think until they clear that up then I'm sorry.
I think I read yeah, yeah, they got to get there together.
All right, now we're down to eco devo.
We have the Kansas Spanish speakers at $25,000.
That was OK, right.
Workforce development.
Which I think does fit into eco devo.
Yeah that much workforce development.
That's a huge increase.
That's going from 0 to 25,000.
Leland is here.
No, no, not that one.
I'm totally fine with that one.
I thought you were on the FH.
No, we're on the Spanish.
Yeah, I'm good with that up here.
OK I think they just keep it short.
You're already at a green for most of it, so there you go.
Don't talk yourself.
Out of 25,000.
Well, it's a new request.
And we're a new organization by all standards.
Just this past month, we celebrated
two years of being a 501(c)(3.
We started as a language club.
As most of you are aware, we try really hard.
We do have some new commissioners,
so we want to make sure we're communicating with you.
But in those short two years we have quickly became
very much a community development organization
and in my opinion, a fairly critical and essential one.
Obviously, we work predominantly with Spanish speaking
population in our community, which you guys know the stats.
2010 we were 15% Hispanic.
By today we're 33% of the over 1,000
people that have lost their jobs in the past 18 months.
My organization, which is really two gals, have seen nearly 500
of those people.
We've helped them with unemployment request
applications, job applications, resume building, computer
literacy, programming and all.
Almost all of those Spanish speaking, a couple
speaking, which we do our best to translate like anyone else
would.
But we're there for anyone and everyone
that needs that assistance.
But the point is our Hispanic community
is being disproportionately affected by the layoffs
that we're experiencing, basically
because they're predominantly employed
in those manufacturing roles.
And our organization has been a critical lifeline
to retaining them in Emporia as long as possible.
Unemployment gets them another four months.
Job applications get them either working back in Emporia
or and I will share with you overwhelmingly,
they want to remain in Emporia.
They're willing to commute to Topeka or Ottawa,
the warehouses or factories there.
And anecdotally speaking, our organization,
by admission of these individuals,
has been essential in keeping them in our community.
They would not have otherwise been as easily able to remain
here without our assistance.
Some of that's technical expertise.
A lot of that is trust building.
And so we went back and forth on whether to make
a request to the city.
But we feel strongly and confidently that this is work
that we have become experts in.
We enjoy assisting in this way.
We want to continue doing it, but we
need support in order to do it.
And so that's what this request is.
And it's not just the workforce development,
as Trey put in the summary there,
there's a whole other slew of just community
integration that takes place.
It's connecting people to primary care physicians.
It's helping them get driver's license.
All of those things factor in.
Driver's license isn't just for driving,
it's also for applying for jobs and immigration documentation.
Make sure they have the appropriate documentation
that allows them to work.
All of those things help grow our pool
of talent that can be employed here, that can reside here,
that can rent or buy homes and pay
property taxes and sales tax in our stores and all those things.
And so we're proud of the work we've done.
We've been excited to share it on a platform with the city.
And I think this request is an Avenue for us to open up
that conversation about what we're doing
and how we can work together on that.
OK thank you.
Green green.
All right.
Green right.
Now that changes color.
It's in the right bucket.
So, can I speak on behalf of imaginarium real quick.
Sure sure.
Yeah Who is this.
So, your name and name and address, Brianna Nelson.
I am the president of the Board for imaginarium.
So the whole plan that they had had
originally was when we got the TJ grant was
to build a Children's Museum.
They started working with somebody who is a business
consultant based off of the Patterson
group grants and everything.
They have gotten decided that was not the best direction
within the next five years.
So the sale of the building actually happened today.
And so now the focus is to bring back STEM learning to
with the classes and the summer camps
and everything of that sort versus the actual museum,
I guess.
So with that said, the money that
they need now is completely different
from the original Last year's.
It's more so for consumable items for the kids.
I mean, they're going through products
frequently, especially with summer camps and everything.
Reusing items it's bringing.
Let's see, they have a whole list of things.
Sorry it was not my favorite.
No can I grab my phone.
Sure yeah, sure.
Yeah let's see.
Do we already have.
OK OK.
So their whole plan is to invest in long term sustainability,
to strengthen the actual foundation of the organization
before moving forward.
They've kind of developed now a three year fundraising
plan to move forward.
So this is going to be bringing in money
for the different children that are
in the groups, the classes, the stem, like the drop in classes,
everything of that sort.
They also do a adult classes to bring different stem things,
since they're not being taught as much in the school system.
So it's going to be more so I said,
for the consumable products, supplies, different things
from that source.
It's also going to go towards scholarships for kids who
are in the community, who have actually reached out
to families, have reached out, and there's
cost barriers associated with not being able to get their kids
into it, but they want to.
So local businesses and everything of that sort.
But they want to be able to actually
because they got rid of the peak foundation or the keep program.
So a lot of kids weren't able to afford to be able to go
to the classes and everything.
So that's what the money is being requested for this time
versus the original plan.
So there is a difference in between them.
So yeah, I think the reason we put it in red
is because it just doesn't the ask that they had last year
fit into one of our buckets.
And this ask just simply doesn't fit into one of our buckets.
So since it does bring in people from other towns,
I mean, people do travel from Wichita.
They travel from it's not just Emporia.
There are children that are I mean,
they have a vast Casey is that can we get a placer on that.
Because they have I mean, they teach classes.
Melanie Melanie goes to Madison.
She travels and does things that brings people in.
I mean, my boys do classes at imaginarium
and they have kids that are.
Tell us how you think that it would
fit in workforce development for eco devo and/or.
No, I think she's I think she's saying I understand that it
doesn't fit into one of these four,
but it is bringing people from outside the community.
But could part of it be proven.
Proven to be tgt?
So if Casey could do a place here for us
and we could look at it and say, Casey
knows more about all of that.
So we're putting it in a yellow in TGT.
Maybe we do it in the blue and ask TGT to take a look at it.
I have a note for it that it's going back
to TGT, have them look at the place
or make a recommendation on it.
Sure OK.
But then it comes back to us.
Yes yeah.
Yeah OK.
Thank you guys.
Maybe the request amount changes according to the data.
Yeah and they can share that.
Thank you.
All right Amanda.
Greg Amanda.
Yeah the band is just here.
Yes Bands are just hanging out.
Bands? green.
Band The band.
Band is green.
Green all right.
Back here for the band.
All right, you're green.
Oh, OK.
Yeah come on.
You can be free whenever you want.
Now you're green salad, but.
Yeah Southwick or FTC.
FTC is anybody here.
Can I reach over you.
I'm sorry.
Come on up.
Well, howdy.
How much is it in the eco devo tech college South.
One 5150 150,000.
150 I think 150 is a safe amount to stay in 150,000.
And we've already spent 25 or committed.
Yeah So I'm just.
I know it's math.
So we got 1:25 left.
That would be what I would be comfortable with.
OK go ahead.
Go ahead.
Estimation of math.
Hello Nancy Thompson.
I'm taking Karen Doherty's place.
Forgive her for not being able to be here today.
She was out of town.
So we are requesting assistance with renovating our building
over on the overlander road to fill our precision
ag program and our CDL program.
And the requests that are on the Appropriations Committee
are for the ADA compliance type renovations that we have.
We've had some requests for the County and some other grants
out to for equipment and some of the other renovations.
But that's the ADA side of what we were requesting
from the city for support.
Are there other questions.
Aaron, weren't you with us when we cross
ones came for help with their building 2 and we were like,
we told them to go out and match it.
And then they did not come back to us on a match
because we were like, we can't fund everybody's physical.
Things we want to come back to talk about Southwick
and see how they pair.
Yeah I'm not.
Yeah you can stay here, just for a second.
Yeah Karen.
Aaron and thanks for the fans.
Good suggestion.
That was a good suggestion all the way across the board.
Aaron staring in the room where Aaron, Aaron and Kara
from Southwick and Aaron, I think
you're going to speak a little.
Yeah what do you guys want to know.
How do you think it fits into eco devo?
So in the comprehensive plan, specifically
in the economic development section,
it mentions equitable housing as a prime driver
for economic development.
And that's where we fit in.
There's a growing gap between those who are homeless,
who do not have a place to sleep tonight
and however many weeks in the future.
And what's considered low.
Low income housing, low income renting,
there's a massive gap there and we plan to bridge that gap.
How were your priorities be of somebody who is homeless
versus somebody who has no place to sleep tomorrow
versus I'm full because everybody's
on our low rent side, I guess.
Are you trying to speak, Becky But do you
see where I'm going with that.
Like, how are you going to prioritize your clients,
prioritize them.
It'll be first come, first serve,
and there will be some taken away for it's certain.
Like aggressive.
Yeah so that a lot of people will
come and refer through certain community partners.
Is this what you're doing.
Well, who's getting turned away.
There are only sex offenders.
Offenders? know what I'm saying.
You have, and we'll just round numbers.
Your facility has all low rent people
right now, which is great.
Say they're all.
But now we have two homeless people walking in.
How do you.
I think that our goal is that with the stay
is only 280 days, which is meant to be a time to stabilize.
So for someone who is homeless or in a low income level,
it's never meant to be a permanent solution, which
is intended to keep that space open,
to keep spaces opening up continually.
So It's not meant to be a permanent situation
or permanent housing situation.
It's meant to be a place where when someone is on hard times
and they need just that little bit help and that little bit
of stabilization maybe they've lost their job,
maybe they had some type of catastrophic medical illness.
They need a little time.
So whether or not the space will be first come,
first serve, but the goal will be for the minute someone comes
in the door to get them stabilized
and get them back out so that then those spaces open up
for others.
Yeah the idea is to turn it over,
but if you're asking if we're going
to have to turn people away because we're at max capacity.
Absolutely well, yeah, but your whole thing for eco
devo is for the lower rent.
And so I'm asking, how much.
90% lower rent.
Like how that would really.
Yeah deal.
It really depends on what the needs of the employer are.
If we have more people who can't afford section 8 housing,
then we're going to have to service a lot more people who
are on the verge of homelessness as opposed to
in that low rent category.
And I'll also say that there's a lot of literature
out there from HUD about stable housing
and how it relates to workforce development.
And that all of us sitting around the table right now
have a bed to go home to at night,
have a stove to cook a hot meal over.
But when you're working an eight hour shift,
and I know you guys are all fogged up in the brain
because of how the last four hours have gone,
all you want to do is go home and you want to rest well.
It's pretty tough to do your job and do your job effectively.
If you don't know where you're going to lay your head down
at night when you get home.
There's a lot of literature out there
that suggests stable living supports workforce development.
I would add the other factor with us, with our priority
being women and families, that families tend to look different
when it comes to homelessness.
They don't tend as often to end up on the street.
They end up, living in a car, living
in someone's spare bedroom or and so
that kind of brings us back to that lower income
scenario versus what we like a chronic homelessness
type situation.
So I think that the nature of our facility
will draw us back to that lower income
category versus true unhoused homelessness.
But we plan to be able to accept both the 85,000 we spent.
Special parks that has to go to treatments, though, doesn't it.
What's the.
Let me have Christina look at the special alcohol state law.
So one thing I will say is that we're not offering any case
management, and that's fine.
I'm just wondering, I'll be honest, we only have.
How much did we have left, Kurt.
Yeah, like 125.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Thank you, Eric and math.
And while she's looking that up, I you mentioned
the crosswinds at last year.
You guys had talked about them matching.
We're asking for very, very, very small percentage
of our overall budget.
Our overall construction budget comes out to about 3.1
when you account for all the indirect costs with it.
But you're asking for a very, very large part of our budget.
Yes so it's all relative. $62,000 of 1.5 million.
We're down to $150,000 left in this fund.
Yeah, there's no 051 25 now.
One there's no other zeros behind here
anymore because they didn't.
Yeah they had to add in our other stuff.
So the commission can either accept 60.
You can change the amount.
You can tell them respectfully know what your thoughts.
Can I say one last thing.
Sure in the application.
Don't make me put the two minutes on.
I'm sorry.
In the application, I mentioned that $46,000 of it is
construction for an additional fire lane that we didn't know
we needed until about December.
I want to say January.
And last fall we had submitted plans
pretty early on to the city.
The plans got pushed back and forth between our design review
team and the city, and ended up landing on his desk
about a week before he left.
So the plans kind of sat in limbo for quite some time,
and we had to move forward with our plans
to get them bid out on the CDBG timeline,
because we didn't have enough time to actually
reassess that additional cost.
We bid it as an adult to our construction budget
and have the contractor bid it, so we knew exactly
how much was going into that.
Otherwise, the alternative was probably
to start chopping off rooms or go with other materials
that were less costly.
We weren't awarded that time to go over those budget
considerations, simply because the process took
so long with that fire lane.
So we're asking for $46,000 in appropriations, really,
for that fire lane addition, as well as an extra 16,000 of just
additional construction costs.
Principal purpose.
How many rooms do you sleep or how many South of the house
is it.
Is it 12 or 14.
No it's 14.
Non-congregate rooms with 111 non-congregate 14.
Congregate rooms with the amount of beds.
Space to hold as many as 60.
60 yeah, like 060.
Non-congregate is like that.
One unit is basically almost like an efficiency apartment.
It's kind of a self-contained unit,
particularly because we'll have families and children.
That allows us to have a space because everybody else
shares a kitchen, shares a living space.
They have their own sleeping space,
but they share the showers and bathrooms.
I mean, it's a separate kind of a roommate situation.
Yeah it's like you're living in the dorms, right.
Yeah that is you have your own room, but yeah.
Are you going to have any space that is dedicated
to alcohol and drug people who are
in alcohol and drug treatment.
Not any dedicated space.
I know I'm trying.
It says it's the principle you use has to be the treatment
of alcohol and drug.
Unless Cara has.
So Cara has been our executive director since February.
Oh, no.
Like, end of March.
End of March.
And she's been working with the Kansas
Housing Coalition for a while.
So maybe there have been updates that.
So I know that we qualify for certain drug and alcohol things
under their transitional housing rules,
because one of the requirements, I mean,
we anticipate a significant proportion of our client,
of our residents to be people with substance use treatment
happening at that time or children who
have been impacted by drug use.
So it is an anticipated large portion of our population.
But until we open the doors.
I can't know what that percentage will be.
We will be having an MOU with crosswinds and other substance
use providers.
So it's definitely a component in what we do.
So is there anything in your budget
that you could move out that this would fit in more
into your budget in a section.
You see what I'm saying.
Like, can if we're like, oh, if we're going to pay, I
don't 5,000 for your duck pond.
So take your duck pond out and it's going to be
over paid for something else.
And then we slide in there.
I'm trying to get you anywhere I designate one.
Would designating one room specifically for that use.
Christina suffice.
We're looking at the Statue on the fly.
Yeah it says that the money shall be expended
for other services or programs whose
principal purpose is alcoholism and drug abuse prevention.
But that could be a program within.
It doesn't have to be the sole use of the whole.
That could be a piece of it and then just that piece.
But that doesn't give them a full allow people to have drugs
or alcohol at Southwick house.
Or will you.
I mean, would that somebody who is in treatment.
But some 100% people will be in treatment because we've already
been in conversation with in powerhouse about transitioning
people out into our facility.
And we have already been in conversation with crosswinds
about building an MOU for their clients
who are going through drug treatment.
So, I mean, but that doesn't help them build a fire lane.
Well, yeah, it goes to the construction
of the entire I mean, it's all towards the facility.
Yeah because unfortunately, a lot of the wiggle
room, like for example, there were initially
plans to have some things back behind the building,
but with the extension of the fire lane,
we have not actually had a chance to reevaluate
those things either.
And those would be the areas we probably would have cut.
If what we'd need to do is 2027 is show that we treated
someone for you, you probably need to show
that you have a program.
Do you and any other support services
that are job skills related.
For sure.
And I think I mean, possibly if I
think you would have to show that a certain how many
and what's your total cost for the whole thing
is like 3.6 for the 3.63, 3.1 for the actual construction,
3.6.
And how many rooms.
3.1 and there's 15 units, 15 units, 14 non-congregate or
congregate one non-congregate.
Now I'm into math.
Can we put them in yellow.
Let's put them in yellow.
And we can do some creative thinking outside the box.
And that way we can move on, try to see if we're all tired, OK.
See what we can do.
Yeah OK.
Good we're trying, we're trying.
Our estimates of math are not working as well this morning.
Thank you guys.
Thank you.
OK oh.
Nancy Nancy.
Yeah is Nancy it.
Yeah No Cara.
Cara Cara.
Kara it's Renee.
Yeah, they've been sitting here since the meeting started.
Yeah you guys sat through the whole.
They sat through everything.
I should've took you up on you.
Didn't have anything else to do today, did you.
Not at all.
No working on your house at all.
Are you.
Are you live there.
OK nice.
Yeah they're my new neighbors.
Yeah oh, down the street.
Yeah, I'll be honest, because I can be honest with Renee.
I'm like, a parking lot is not floating my boat for the money.
I mean, if we start doing it for you.
Well, I want a parking lot, or I want a parking lot,
or I want a parking lot.
So I'll just speak to how I'm the CFO there.
I respect that we were like, trying to look at,
yes, it'll be a parking lot for our employees,
but we are so close to Hammond park
and that State Street, if you guys have driven on it,
it has no curbing.
No, we actually had to park on there at one point.
It's pretty congested, but we thought we could open
it up to evening and weekends.
And we were willing to if there was an event scheduled to have
that parking lot available, we're like, right by hole
number 6 on that disk golf.
So we ask you like we asked them, is there something
else that this could fit in so that opens up the moneys for you
to spend on your parking lot.
Do you see what I'm trying to lay down.
Because where do we have I mean, where do we have them right now.
Nowhere we're floating.
We're floating Floating yeah.
Do you have treatment plans, though.
Don't you know.
You don't have.
We see people with addiction.
Yes but you don't.
But you don't have a specific counseling services for people.
They do counseling services, therapy.
But yeah.
Med management.
Just do more Med management.
How much is in special parts.
Left just under 50.
Sorry that's good math.
Well, we were.
We're trying over here.
Yeah so 24,000 negative 85.
It's less than 50.
It's 30.
Parks has to be in the parks.
Special alcohol.
Yes, yes, special alcohol has to be treatment.
Special parks has to just be in the parks.
Yeah we don't have any special parks.
That's what I'm asking.
Special parks.
Not special.
I'm sorry.
Special alcohol.
Giving numbers.
Special special alcohol.
Special alcohol.
What do you guys decide on.
Southwick southwick?
We haven't yet.
They're yellow.
Yellow the special alcohol has $212,000.
The receipts come through and then 85 of it's
going to crosswinds.
So crosswinds is already on your expenditures.
She has 88 5.
Yeah crosswinds and ESU are already on your sheet.
OK, so if there's nothing.
If Southwick's not in there, then
there's 125 special alcohol.
So for 124, 153.
That one.
How much is in special park.
25,000 I don't know what.
But that's negative 15.
Negative 109 we don't know what's in the 109.
Kevin, have a mower.
Usually Kevin has mowers and stuff.
Janet is the 15 for the Municipal
Band and special parks.
Yes it is.
And that 109.
None of this other stuff, though.
Then we have mowers in there for 94,000.
For 94,000.
So we have 25 left.
Yeah correct.
That's the ending.
Balance is 25,000.
Yes so we don't necessarily need ending balance there.
I mean we have COVID.
We're probably not doing Municipal Band next year.
I mean, just the.
Play inside.
Outside yes.
The location of the parking.
Off street parking.
I mean, we could.
Yes it is.
I mean, if they wanted to.
I mean, we're getting creative here.
I mean, if they wanted to take that space
and deed it to the city as and we
could call it part of the park.
Then you just have a parking lot and then
you just said we're maintaining it for the rest
of the city's life.
And that's very true.
I'm Could she OK.
Could she put up signs and say.
Or could we do a cross easement.
I guess the other thing is access park parking.
We could do, what we did with.
Well, when it was the community club, but we had the parking.
Is pickleball parking there.
We maintain that.
I mean, I'm sure if we have an easement there, we'll probably
be asked to fix the potholes in 10 or 15 years
when we get potholes, but I don't know.
I mean, would that be an MOU to do it with sos?
Sos?
yeah.
Who do we pay for it out of parking,
though, or out of parks.
No, no, I don't think so.
That's a Sacred Heart.
Sacred Heart.
We gave them a license agreement to build it.
OK I believe.
What did you.
That was we just had.
We did an easement so that it's a joint parking lot city.
And I think on all of these yellows,
I would encourage city staff to work with the applicants
and let us think creatively what we can do there.
OK trying.
But unless you come up with something like the property is
like it goes down the Hill and there's no parking there,
but right up the street, the city has all that parking that's
already built. So there's more opportunities
for more parking to be built. Teresa, that's
not necessarily our property.
Yeah why don't Taylor and this.
If you can imagine, this week's a little.
A little extra.
But if Taylor and I and maybe Kevin Hamlin
can find time to come out and visit with you guys on site
and walk in and just see if we can do some creative thoughts.
OK OK.
Sounds good.
OK OK.
Thank you.
Sorry thank you.
Yeah thanks for.
It's been good to see you all.
Well, when they were calling Mickey's name
and then you're sitting there, I'm like, OK, is there.
I was like, she's really here.
OK yeah.
Thank you.
We're not done yet.
What else.
And while we did with Karen last time is like, Karen, we cannot
build you a maintenance shed.
But we can sure help you with your drainage system,
is what we did.
Do we want to say we can do 100 and that takes that.
Do we have 100.
And what.
I mean, if we did 20, I mean, because we said 125,
all we have left is the maybe is Southwick.
What?
I think we all agree.
I don't know if eco devo is going to be her table of HTC,
and they can come back with the rest of them.
But in the meantime, work towards 100 number.
Yeah get us there around 100 and see what we can do.
OK OK.
We're not promising it, but it's a more doable.
Yeah do you want that in a form like this or just an email
from Karen or Eugene.
I would highly.
Is it that.
And that's not the one for ADA that you can't put ADA on.
I mean, eco devo we can do.
OK, I think we just have to.
You just have to show that it's eco devo related.
The CDL is highly, highly eco devo.
So yeah.
Yes if you're picking up what I'm laying down, I'm absolutely.
And I think in this case, it's not necessarily that we're
trying to justify it in a fund.
I think it's just the limitation that we have on that.
So revise it to closer to 100.
Yeah, absolutely.
We can do that.
I mean the 71,000 last year was really easy to say yes to.
257 is just it is a lot.
Yeah we just don't have it.
Yeah and still have something.
If we did if somebody wanted to reactivate Tyson or something
like that.
Yeah Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Sorry you had to wait forever for Kirk.
Goes to celebrate his birthday somewhere else.
I think we should bump up the transient guest
tax reserves a little bit.
Do we need reserves in any of those other three.
We do.
And we don't have any.
Nothing but I think at all times we should maintain
a half a million in that fund with the caveat
that if we get the right economic, we will spend it.
It's not for a rainy day.
It's Hopkins again.
And we can say, we can use this for you.
Yes not for I say it's the opposite of rainy day money.
It's a sunshine day if we need it for sunshine day.
A special alcohol.
I mean, that goes to crosswinds, I don't know.
For crosswinds, would they don't have funding next year.
I don't know how that impacts them.
And special alcohol is not one that we have to spend.
No, I mean it has to stay in that fund.
What about special parks and rec.
Do we have to spend that.
No OK.
So those are fine being 0.
I just think we should up transient guest tax reserve.
And I like half a million on that.
Is that OK.
Do you guys agree or am I crazy.
What's your thinking Well, I don't know.
I'd be fine with half.
No, it's late in the half.
I mean, I'd be OK with going up to 500 on that one.
Having 500 in reserves for TGT.
Because again, what if something big comes up.
Well that's TGT.
You have to be an investor.
If you get a big visitor.
Yeah what if somebody wants to put together Taylor Swift's
amusement amusement park.
Hey, if Taylor will sign on for 13 events,
I'm going to use 13, because that's the Taylor network.
I know that that's a problem, but maybe
that's a discussion for a little bit farther down the road.
After we've set this budget, how much we really have over.
Did that feel comfortable.
Should can we say we should have somebody stab.
13 is the number.
We don't even have to vote.
We can just agree to keep it in there.
You guys agree with that.
That's what I'm asking.
Essentially we have 1.5 million right now in reserves,
but we'll spend it on some things I know coming up.
Can we have that at the next meeting.
That's not going to be this long.
Yeah, that's fine.
And we still got executive session a third 30
minute executive session.
Yeah your original Friday email said no,
we didn't have it was a certain member
of the commission requested it.
Which one.
A couple of them.
The one that sits in the chair at the head of the table.
Yes, yes.
Just checking.
Well, I also thought we'd be done, like at 1:30, not 230.
I don't.
How long do you guys.
I mean, 230.
30 minutes.
Fine I have a cake down there for me.
Yeah, it's a surprise.
OK, then I'm OK with that.
Are we going downstairs.
Go downstairs.
So do we.
Are we going to stay.
Is there anybody we can.
We can stay here.
No we have.
Well and Eric has problems.
I don't know.
Yeah so do I have a motion to adjourn to executive session to.
Yeah, but I'll make a motion to recess into executive.
Yeah that's it.
Second 20 minutes 20 minutes, 30 minutes.
Because everybody wanders away.
Goes to the bathroom before we get in there for 30 minutes.
For 30 minutes.
As soon as everybody gets in the room.
How about this.
Yeah, we can't do that.
Permanent city staff to discuss confidential data
with third party relating to the justification
for the executive session is provided by KSA.
754319 1934.
To protect financial affairs and trade,
secrets of third parties will resume in the city commission
chamber at approximately 3:10 PM and inviting
members of RDA and Main Street or representatives
from Main Street.
Second second.
Second All in favor, say Aye.
Aye in a session with nothing to be decided.
No action to be taken.
Do I have a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second Motion.
Second and we all.
Aye Aye.
Any opposed.