[0:00] [music]

[0:06] friends, it's about 6:30.

[0:08] started, so if you can all

[0:10] [cough]

[0:13] will be led to scene by Pastor.

[0:18] Thank you for joining.

[0:21] Let's pray.

[0:23] Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you, God, for

[0:26] uh just this day to to gather.

[0:29] We pray for uh your will to be done. We pray for unity,

[0:32] we pray for peace, we pray for um uh you to be glorified through our

[0:35] conversations and through uh what is accomplished today.

[0:41] We we trust that you uh are with us and we pray for your presence.

[0:46] And we ask these things in Christ's name.

[0:47] Amen.

[0:48] [applause]

[0:50] face the flag.

[0:51] I pledge allegiance to the flag

[0:53] of the United States of America

[0:55] and to the Republic for which it stands,

[0:58] one nation, under God, indivisible,

[1:01] with liberty and justice for all.

[1:05] [rustling]

[1:10] All right. We're going to start off

[1:12] uh with a really awesome opportunity tonight for recognition proclamations.

[1:17] for um Item A is the American Planning Association. Texas chapter planning

[1:22] uh awards.

[1:27] We just wanted to let council know and the audience know that

[1:31] we just received uh a very prestigious award from the American Planning

[1:36] Association through its Texas chapter.

[1:40] And basically they went back and looked at our comprehensive plan

[1:44] and they looked at our community for how we uh went about planning

[1:49] and how we went about implementing this plan.

[1:51] And so this year we were the only uh ones in Texas.

[1:54] Sometimes they allow up to two gold awards for the comprehensive plan,

[1:59] but we are the only uh gold level award uh given for the Argadine

[2:04] Gainesville 2040 comprehensive plan.

[2:08] And then they also gave us the only gold best uh community award

[2:12] for the entire state of Texas.

[2:15] So we are very excited about this.

[2:17] This was based around how much uh involvement we did with the public.

[2:23] So this is not a staff or council,

[2:25] this is a true community award.

[2:29] It's to thank, I mean, staff had a lot to do with it, council had a lot to

[2:33] do with it, but our people showed up.

[2:36] And that was unprecedented.

[2:37] At our first meeting they said, we expect to have 25 people from the

[2:41] public here, so go ahead and put 50 chairs out.

[2:45] Once we end up having over 200 chairs pulled out because how many

[2:49] people showed up, and that was a very pleasant surprise.

[2:52] We really did market it, we really did ask for people's input.

[2:56] And so that was very uh it was it was a very heartwarming with that.

[3:01] Then we had a very high participation rate with our survey.

[3:07] And so because we did all that and we talked with individual uh different

[3:11] types of groups of people that were in the community to see how the

[3:15] comprehensive plan would impact them.

[3:18] They liked all that different input and having different groups from the

[3:22] community, like the parks board and the special committee for the

[3:26] comprehensive plan alone,

[3:29] give input on it and the P and Z give input on it.

[3:31] So with all that along with council and the public,

[3:35] they they thought we went down the the right avenue, plus they really

[3:38] liked that we did all the planning at one time.

[3:42] I was talking to a city manager this summer at at a conference.

[3:47] And he says, you just completed all three of those plans

[3:49] in the last year and a half,

[3:51] I said, yes, sir.

[3:52] He goes, man, usually it's only one at a time.

[3:56] And I said, yes, sir, uh it was it was a lot of work,

[3:59] but I think it was well worth it.

[4:01] and this community stood tall during this event.

[4:05] So, thank you for all the staff, thank you to council and

[4:08] most of all thank you to the public for this.

[4:12] Yeah, I think uh we first want to thank the citizens

[4:14] for your part in participating.

[4:17] Because without you, this plan wouldn't have come to fruition.

[4:20] Your voice was important in this.

[4:21] This wasn't our plan, this was your plan.

[4:24] Um, I do want to thank staff for all the hard work that you did uh by

[4:28] advertising it, getting out there and helping people understand, um,

[4:31] what what the plans would when they come to fruition, what that means to us.

[4:35] And then also I want to thank this council for supporting this effort

[4:38] because uh without you uh approving the budget and and having a vision

[4:42] for our community, we wouldn't have uh been able to uh finish these plans.

[4:46] So, uh of course now the hard work is to come and make them all come

[4:49] to fruition and still just being a a plan on piece of paper.

[4:52] So, thanks everyone for for uh um this hard work and uh well,

[4:56] I'm really impressed that we got uh acknowledged.

[5:00] for all that, so.

[5:01] Yep.

[5:02] [applause]

[5:08] All right. uh, was that was that all for the reports, Barry?

[5:12] Okay. Uh, recognition.

[5:14] Now we'll go to reports. Uh, Metal of Honor Boulevard presentation by Kimmelly Horn.

[5:19] Come forward.

[5:23] All right. Well, good evening, Mayor, Council. Thank y'all for having me.

[5:26] Uh for the few new members. Uh my name is Colton Harmes.

[5:29] I'm with Kimley Horn. Uh I'm the design engineer on this project.

[5:33] Also have Brandon Bishop, a partner of mine with Kimley Horn.

[5:35] just standing in the back there.

[5:36] If you ask me any too hard questions, I'll look back to him.

[5:40] Um, you may remember I was up here back in April kicking off this project.

[5:44] That's when y'all approved our design contract to get started.

[5:47] Um since then, we met with the Parks board and some city staff to go over

[5:51] some ideas for the project, get some feedback.

[5:53] What I'm here to do tonight is to go over all of that information that we talked

[5:56] about with the Parks board.

[5:58] And basically show you the update, show you where we're at now.

[6:02] So I'm going to try to take what was about an hour and a half of content

[6:04] with the Parks board, condense that into about 10 minutes tonight.

[6:07] So I'm going to be moving fast,

[6:09] but of course if there's any questions, uh, please feel free to ask.

[6:11] Diana, you're running the slides. Okay, great.

[6:14] Um, so quick agenda, run through just some quick project information.

[6:16] Uh, a lot of this will be repeat from the last time I was up here, but

[6:19] want to make sure that we're on the same page.

[6:22] Um, talk through some street and sidewalk options, the landscape,

[6:24] pedestrian and way finding signage.

[6:27] Uh, elimination and then leave some time for your Q&A at the end.

[6:31] So, wanted to start with the planning efforts and very applicable with what

[6:34] the update Barry just gave us.

[6:36] Um, so now I can tell you you're award-winning comprehensive plan here.

[6:40] Uh, and so a lot of effort that went into this.

[6:43] And what we need to be thinking of is this is the first implementation of

[6:45] that plan.

[6:46] Um, like Mayor said, this is taking it from just a plan on a sheet of paper,

[6:49] we're turning this into a real life project.

[6:52] Um, so very excited to be a part of that.

[6:54] Um, it's not only the the downtown comprehensive plan though.

[6:58] It's the Summp, which I helped to create back in 2020, the street and

[7:01] utility maintenance program.

[7:02] It's the water and wastewater master plan.

[7:04] So we're checking a lot of needs off at the same time.

[7:07] So, Diana, if you go to the next slide.

[7:09] This is just the bare bones of this street.

[7:11] I'll get into the funner stuff here in a second, but

[7:14] the bare bones is there's still a major storm drain underneath the

[7:16] the street that needs to be updated.

[7:19] There's a major sewer line, it's a 24-inch sewer line that takes

[7:21] it down to the treatment plant.

[7:23] There's a water line. We're going to include a piece of Cobson Street.

[7:26] It's the last remaining block all the way from here to 82 that hasn't

[7:28] already been reconstructed.

[7:31] As well as Medal of Honor Street itself.

[7:33] We're also going to be adding sidewalk of course.

[7:35] So, again, wanted to just really reiterate, we're checking off a lot

[7:37] of needs with this project. It's not just the aesthetics,

[7:40] That's the part that's going to be flashy that people are going to see.

[7:43] Um, but the the true base of the project is really addressing a lot

[7:46] of community needs.

[7:49] And most of what you're paying for is going to be buried.

[7:53] Right. Yeah. Yeah. Underground the utilities for sure.

[7:57] Okay.

[7:59] Um, so again, this comes straight from the Guiding Gainville. These are all

[8:02] um specific goals that I feel this project is directly

[8:04] contributing to.

[8:07] So you'll see throughout my slides tonight, there'll be down at the bottom,

[8:10] um, little footnotes of these.

[8:13] So as I'm talking about things, think about directly from the

[8:15] comprehensive plan, what we're trying to accomplish.

[8:19] Okay.

[8:20] So one of those goals, invest in a downtown promenade.

[8:23] And so that is again part of this project is really phase one of

[8:25] a full connectivity promenade.

[8:29] That would run from the zoo and Leonard Park all the way to Kiwana's Park.

[8:34] Um, and so you see the green path there, that is currently still viewed

[8:36] as the primary route.

[8:39] Uh, but we're keeping our options open for the secondary route going

[8:41] down the Con Street instead.

[8:43] Um, and so you see our piece of Medal of Honor there, again, this is one

[8:46] small piece of the much larger grain scheme here.

[8:50] But the decisions that are being made, what we talked about with the Parks

[8:52] board and what we're hoping to get approved to move forward on with

[8:55] tonight, is setting the stage for that entire promenade.

[8:58] So think of when we talk lighting, when we talk benches, signage, it

[9:01] yes, it'll be applied here, it's going to be applied everywhere ultimately.

[9:06] Okay.

[9:09] Okay, so again, I'm giving you all the content that we talked about with the

[9:12] Parks board, but I'm going to breeze through it cuz no need to rehash

[9:14] everything. So, for example, here, the actual street section.

[9:17] So we talked through three different street sections, pros and cons of each,

[9:20] we got a lot of really good feedback, landed on option one, staying the

[9:23] preferred option.

[9:25] So with option one here, it'll be 11-foot lanes, one lane in each

[9:28] direction, currently Meadow Honors two lanes.

[9:31] Um, but we'll be reducing the actual street footprint to make room for the

[9:34] sidewalk, the landscaping, uh, the true essence and need of Medal of Honor

[9:37] Boulevard.

[9:41] Um, so you'll have a 10-foot shared use trail on one side of the road,

[9:43] still a 5-foot sidewalk on the other and dedicated parking on both sides.

[9:48] So you'll have fully dedicated and marked parking for any of your major

[9:51] events.

[9:54] Um, option two was considered, uh it'd be a slight cost savings, but you would

[9:56] lose about 20 parking

[9:59] spot and ultimately we'd determined that the parking was more valuable.

[10:05] Um for the pavement options, we talked through just doing

[10:08] standard concrete pavement, a stamped concrete pavement,

[10:10] utilizing brick pavers like what you have throughout other parts

[10:13] of downtown.

[10:15] Uh ultimately, we decided to use concrete paving with some stamped

[10:18] concrete accents.

[10:20] So you'll see through some of the other images as I progress forward,

[10:23] some of the crosswalks and other accent features of Metal of Honor

[10:26] would have the stamped concrete.

[10:28] Uh down below the two images there are depicting what we call bulbouts.

[10:32] Um and so rather than a standard intersection, you actually pave

[10:35] a little bit extra into a little bit of a bulb shape.

[10:38] Uh that helps add some pedestrian safety, a spot for them to

[10:41] stand and wait before crossing the street,

[10:43] Also protects the on-street parking from any cars that were turning,

[10:47] gives them a physical barrier.

[10:48] Um so a lot of good uses there, also adds to the aesthetics.

[10:54] Okay, landscaping.

[10:55] I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a landscaper.

[10:56] At Parksport, I had one of my professional landscapers with me,

[10:59] so I'm going to try to talk through some of their pieces here.

[11:02] Um really the gist of it is, we're using all natural and native plantings.

[11:06] Um we're not trying to force in anything.

[11:08] Um it's all things that are uh set to thrive in this area.

[11:12] Um so you see the list of trees and shrubs there.

[11:15] Um and so whenever I go through the images, you'll see some larger

[11:19] tree images, some smaller, this is kind of the list that we'll be picking from.

[11:24] Um everything will be locally sourced.

[11:26] Even some of the materials we have um talked with staff on how

[11:29] we can utilize some reclaimed brick pavers from elsewhere in

[11:32] the street and work them into the aesthetics of Metal of Honor here.

[11:37] Okay. So we talked through two concepts, this one, concept A was

[11:41] the ultimately preferred option.

[11:42] Um some highlights here is it really relies on again that those brick features.

[11:47] So the the bricks that you see outside of the street around the

[11:51] existing monument there at Weaver, um those will all be those

[11:55] reclaimed bricks that I was talking about before.

[11:58] Um so it's a very natural kind of curvilinear feel to it.

[12:01] As opposed to if you go forward actually two slides Diana.

[12:05] One more. I'll come back to this one.

[12:07] As opposed to, sorry, one more.

[12:09] Yep. Concept B here is a much more like straight line defined.

[12:13] A little bit more of a modern feel.

[12:14] Ultimately um working with the Parks Board to determine that this

[12:17] wasn't the best fit for Metal of Honor.

[12:18] But again, wanted to show you everything that we had talked through.

[12:21] So now back one Diana, yep.

[12:23] Um so this is just kind of a zoom in on some of those features.

[12:26] Again with the reclaimed brick.

[12:27] Um a lot of those native plantings.

[12:30] Um some seating areas around the the monument. Really make it a nice spot

[12:35] to if you are walking along the ultimate promenade here, this is

[12:38] a good place to stop and rest, learn about the history that the monuments can offer.

[12:43] Okay. Forward a couple, one more. Perfect.

[12:47] Um so now I'm going to get into some seating options.

[12:49] Um wanted to show this as here's all the different types of benches

[12:52] we could find in the immediate area of this downtown promenade.

[12:56] Um I know a lot of these are for different areas, in front of

[12:59] Parksburg Bank or in front of the library.

[13:01] Um the goal of this is to have one nice consistent branding.

[13:04] Throughout the entire promenade.

[13:05] So I wanted to really show that

[13:08] this isn't the goal, we want to have something kind of singular and consistent.

[13:11] So next slide.

[13:12] talked through a lot of bench options.

[13:14] Um ultimately landed on just kind of the standard there at the top left.

[13:18] Um these are similar to benches that were just recently purchased

[13:21] and installed in the Clones Park.

[13:23] So matching that would again help align with the nice consistent theme.

[13:28] Um next couple of slides are just some other options that we had talked through.

[13:31] If you wanted to get a little more artistic, some options there.

[13:34] And then next slide.

[13:36] Um so we have options to customize benches.

[13:38] Um there was some interest here, not necessarily for the entire promenade.

[13:43] but in select locations, we could do such as this, a metal of honor

[13:46] theme bench um again in select areas.

[13:49] Uh these are obviously going to be more expensive than the standard

[13:52] so rather than applying them everywhere and driving up the costs,

[13:54] being a little more selective with them.

[13:58] Um now getting into the signage.

[14:00] Um we spent a lot of time here with the Parks Board, so again,

[14:03] I'm going to breeze through this pretty quickly.

[14:05] Um here were the original options that we provided at Parksport,

[14:08] we really wanted to work in the brick aesthetic, trying to match

[14:12] what is currently installed at the Farmers market.

[14:13] Again, trying to generate a nice consistent branding.

[14:16] Uh once we got to the cost of these, we determined that that's

[14:19] probably a little cost prohibitive.

[14:21] especially those two on the top left, those are very large, I mean,

[14:25] you can kind of see the two-scale person there.

[14:27] These would be like 10-foot plus tall, be pretty expensive.

[14:30] Um so if you go next slide Diana.

[14:32] Here are some options that we feel kind of capture the same idea,

[14:35] only much more affordable.

[14:36] So rather than full brick columns, give them, you know, a little

[14:39] simpler brick accents there at the bottom.

[14:42] Um the the wood pillar shown there could be wood, could be metal, you

[14:45] know, we'll we'll still work through the aesthetics on exactly what the branding looks like,

[14:48] But again, a much more affordable option here.

[14:51] Um another big takeaway from the Parks meeting was you see the little

[14:55] logos on the bottom of the signs there.

[14:58] will have across the top will be

[15:00] nice consistent city of Gainsville

[15:02] branding, but on the bottom gives you

[15:03] the opportunity to have um sub area

[15:05] branding.

[15:06] So when you're in the metal of honor

[15:07] area, you could have metal of honor

[15:09] themed logos.

[15:10] When you're in the downtown area,

[15:11] you have downtown themed logos,

[15:12] at the zoo, at the colonists park,

[15:13] etc.

[15:14] And that can be consistently used

[15:16] across all sorts of media for the

[15:17] city

[15:18] for your online maps for event

[15:19] planning, for your street side

[15:21] signage.

[15:22] Um again, offer a very nice

[15:23] consistent brand

[15:25] um that looks good, is functional,

[15:26] um and is pretty cost-effective.

[15:32] Uh for the wayfinding map itself,

[15:34] um the bottom two are kind of the

[15:36] preferred options, the the light mode

[15:38] versus dark mode.

[15:40] Um the idea here is that wherever

[15:42] you are and wherever you're seeing these

[15:43] within the street,

[15:45] um we're highlighting where you could

[15:47] reach within those red circles are just

[15:48] a 5-minute walk.

[15:49] So you may think, oh, I'm at Metal

[15:51] of Honor Park, it's too far

[15:52] to get anywhere. I'm just gonna get my car and drive.

[15:54] Actually, look, you can get to our

[15:56] downtown, you can get to the zoo all

[15:57] within a nice easy 5-minute walk.

[15:59] So really highlighting the walkability

[16:01] and accessibility of the city.

[16:04] Um could also use this as a

[16:05] sponsorship opportunity, have businesses

[16:07] pay to get on the map.

[16:09] Um again, nice way to highlight

[16:10] different uh amenities and businesses

[16:12] throughout the community.

[16:15] Okay, getting into lighting, we've

[16:18] showed really two proposed lighting

[16:19] and then one the candlestick style there

[16:21] on the far right is the existing style.

[16:23] Um we got a lot of feedback that

[16:24] that is not the preferred style.

[16:26] Um it adds a lot of light pollution,

[16:28] which I'll show in a second, but

[16:29] it's also quite a maintenance concern

[16:31] that I've heard from staff.

[16:33] Um so we really considered the first two

[16:35] with the middle one there being the

[16:36] selected option.

[16:38] Um so Diana, if you can kind of

[16:39] click through.

[16:40] So what you see on the right there is

[16:42] the light shed of each of these lights.

[16:44] So with the downward facing style

[16:46] versus the candlestick style,

[16:47] it's much more concentrated light shed

[16:49] into the area that we're actually

[16:50] trying to illuminate,

[16:51] rather than with the candlestick,

[16:53] it's kind of a 360 lighting backwards

[16:54] into businesses or apartments, lighting

[16:56] up, etc.

[16:58] This really um refines it into the

[16:59] area that we care to light.

[17:01] Uh go to next side, Diana.

[17:03] So here's the one that we landed on.

[17:05] You'll notice it's a slightly smaller

[17:06] light shed than the one before, that

[17:08] was viewed as a positive.

[17:10] Um these are also the most cost-effective of the three.

[17:13] And then last side will be the candlestick style here.

[17:16] And so you see how much more it lit

[17:18] backwards again into parking lots,

[17:19] into apartments once we get further

[17:21] into the main street area.

[17:25] Uh last thing I'll talk about here

[17:27] is utility undergrounding.

[17:28] So there's um currently overhead

[17:30] electric and communication lines

[17:32] running um all along Metal of Honor

[17:33] and the future main street,

[17:35] um so it is one of the goals of the

[17:37] comprehensive plan to take those

[17:38] underground.

[17:39] Um obviously that'd provide a much

[17:41] more clean aesthetic, a lot more room

[17:43] on the surface level for pedestrian

[17:44] amenities.

[17:46] So here's an example of a project

[17:47] that we did actually in Keller where we took those utilities underground.

[17:50] Again, had room for the lighting.

[17:53] Um it is a significant cost,

[17:55] um which if you had, I don't know,

[17:57] bear, did you provide cost?

[18:00] So you'll you'll see the line item

[18:01] in there um it becomes significant.

[18:03] Uh but again, it provides a lot of

[18:06] aesthetic and open space value.

[18:08] Um also wanted to highlight on this

[18:09] picture here, you'll notice the the

[18:11] string lighting that connects from

[18:13] uh pole to pole.

[18:15] So that was something that Parks Board

[18:17] mentioned would be um a nice

[18:18] feature to have is the ability

[18:19] to have that,

[18:21] um or be able to plug in, say, your

[18:23] your Christmas rees that you hang

[18:24] or the garland that you wrap around it.

[18:27] Um so you'll you'll see on these lights

[18:29] on the picture that there's outlets at

[18:30] the top level.

[18:31] So that is priced into these. It is

[18:33] an added feature, so it is more

[18:34] expensive than um the same option

[18:37] without that.

[18:38] Um but again, just wanted to highlight

[18:40] that, that that was something that came straight from the Parks Board.

[18:42] So these poles are all of them.

[18:43] All all the light poles. Yes, sir.

[18:46] It it's sort of like we do with

[18:48] we having uh the Reeves that we wrap

[18:49] around the Garland and then we have the

[18:52] lights that go up and down the lights.

[18:54] Unless you have these plugins, you can't have that.

[18:59] So if that's a feature you want,

[19:00] it's already priced in here.

[19:02] If it's something that you want to cut,

[19:04] we can cut that.

[19:08] Okay, and I think last slide is

[19:13] So, first time I was here was we were

[19:15] collecting feedback, we were starting

[19:17] to do the renderings, we were starting

[19:19] to do the parks board.

[19:20] A lot of that's been done, starting

[19:21] to cross things off the list, which is exciting.

[19:23] Um obviously here tonight to get your

[19:25] feedback and um ultimately approval.

[19:27] And that way we were able to start

[19:29] moving forward with actual design.

[19:30] Right now everything is only

[19:31] conceptual, it's only on the rendering level.

[19:33] Um but as soon as we get your blessing,

[19:35] we'll be moving forward with actual

[19:36] engineering design and getting ready

[19:38] to take it to true construction.

[19:42] I would like to point out on the cost,

[19:45] Um one of the things we were looking

[19:47] really closely at was the bio swells.

[19:51] That's $145,000 for a bio swell.

[19:54] One of the questions I've asked the engineer

[19:57] Uh, with this one,

[20:02] uh, if we didn't have the bio sale, would we have to increase the size of the drainage?

[20:06] 'Cause this helps a little bit with with drainage. The answer was no.

[20:11] Uh, will this reduce

[20:14] in a sort of a big enough manner to really show that it reduced flooding

[20:20] if we were going to have flooding?

[20:22] 'Cause, you know, in the past we've had flooding right there near Taco Bell

[20:27] and and McDonald's on this road.

[20:28] And the answer was no, nothing significant.

[20:32] And hence it's a very, it's very pretty.

[20:38] We're going to have other landscaping, but that's a possible uh cut right there.

[20:41] So we could take that out and it would take some of the the landscaping out in that area,

[20:47] but that would be a $145,000 savings.

[20:51] Right now this is right out uh $4 million for construction, so that'd bring it up a little under that.

[20:57] One of the big things as well is the over uh to remove the overhead electric underground,

[21:03] which was uh a big thing for the comprehensive plan for two reasons.

[21:07] One is the aesthetics, but two is the uh

[21:11] with all the ice storms and with everything happening and wind storms and stuff,

[21:15] this makes it more uh durable.

[21:18] And in fact, one of the things we're looking at in subdivision regulations if we need more and more underground utilities

[21:24] uh to prevent the issues

[21:27] with tree limbs, wind storms, uh and different weather events that could affect power lines.

[21:33] But that's $510,000.

[21:36] So, if you didn't do that, that would be a savings as well.

[21:41] Tonight, I don't expect y'all to have to make a decision.

[21:44] I wanted I did not want this to be rushed. I wanted y'all to be able to look at it, think about it,

[21:50] take the budget home, look at it, think about it.

[21:53] and then either at the first or second uh or at the second meeting in September, first one in October,

[22:01] maybe bring this back and see if y'all want at that time to give us instructions

[22:06] to to uh tell the engineers what we'd like to see.

[22:12] Will the sidewalk be connected to the sidewalk be connected to the sidewalk that we're doing right now, that $4.5 million one?

[22:18] That's coming from the high school out, are we going to make sure that that's connected to this promenade?

[22:24] I believe that one connects into the I-35 piece, it's already there, right?

[22:28] And so we will be connecting from Medal of Honor along Culberson to I-35.

[22:32] Okay. Okay. Yes, we will be connected.

[22:35] Just want to make sure that was on there.

[22:37] Yeah, we will not stop start this like on Medal of Honor, and on,

[22:41] it will actually start on that interstate sidewalk.

[22:46] Sure. Yeah, yeah.

[22:48] I just want to make sure that was all tied in because make it all walkable.

[22:52] What's the alternative to the underground?

[22:55] Like with the existing stuff to stay there?

[22:57] Or would you go back with new?

[23:00] No, so it would just stay right where it would just stay right where it is and stay on the same poles that it is.

[23:05] Um and yeah, it really wouldn't impact our design in any other way.

[23:08] It's far far enough outside what y'all are planning.

[23:13] Any other questions? All right.

[23:17] Thank you. Appreciate you coming up here.

[23:21] All right. Uh, next item on the agenda is citizen comments. Uh, Martin Phillips.

[23:28] Uh,

[23:30] You have five minutes.

[23:37] Good evening. Um, last year

[23:40] I witnessed a child about eight years old, um, almost get hit by a truck

[23:47] in front of my house.

[23:48] Uh, he was out there trick-or-treating.

[23:50] And I'm telling you that to remind you that Halloween's coming again,

[23:53] and children will once again be walking Gainsville streets in the dark.

[23:58] Tonight, I'm asking you to direct staff

[24:02] to develop a plan for temporarily closing streets in the historic district where most trick-or-treating takes place,

[24:09] including a parking plan that allows people to park and walk and to bring that plan back to council for action.

[24:16] This is not a hypothetical concern. It's a safety problem we know exists.

[24:20] It exists every year, and near misses happen likely every year.

[24:26] Gainsville describes itself as a family-oriented community,

[24:29] and guiding Gainsville 2040 emphasizes walkability, connectivity, public spaces and quality of life.

[24:37] Our actions should reflect that identity.

[24:40] Last year, I proposed closing Deton Street during Halloween with a parking plan so people could park and walk.

[24:47] Only the parking plan ever happened, even though it was meant to support and not replace the street closure.

[24:53] For at least that one child, that almost wasn't good enough.

[24:57] I've been told an organization must sponsor the closure and assume liability.

[25:03] But Halloween's gonna happen whether an organization sponsors it or not.

[25:07] The question is not who created Halloween,

[25:10] the question is who is responsible for making streets

[25:14] safer for the children we know will be there.

[25:16] This council recently approved more than $750,000 for a study

[25:21] and design towards an approximate $5 million pedestrian promenade

[25:24] over several blocks of the city.

[25:28] kind of opportune for me that you just discussed that.

[25:32] That creates an important contrast.

[25:35] We're willing to invest millions of dollars in pedestrian-friendly

[25:39] streets in the future,

[25:41] yet hesitate to temporarily close streets for one evening

[25:44] when we know children are walking them in the dark.

[25:47] I'm not asking you to spend money tonight.

[25:49] I'm asking you to direct staff to find a solution and bring it

[25:52] back to the council.

[25:54] Last year we were told there wasn't time.

[25:56] This year there is.

[25:58] Last year every department in the city signed off on closures.

[26:02] and we've had a year to plan since then.

[26:05] Our newly adopted comprehensive plan emphasizes walkability,

[26:09] connectivity, public spaces and quality of life.

[26:12] the value of the comprehensive plan

[26:15] is using it to make decisions.

[26:19] This council has the right to do nothing.

[26:22] But if you do, you're choosing not to act on the concerns of 350

[26:25] people who signed a petition last year.

[26:28] And hundreds more you represent

[26:30] who are going to sign one this year.

[26:33] So I'll leave you with one question.

[26:36] Who's gonna stand up and advocate for these kids?

[26:40] Is it you, Tommy?

[26:44] Maybe Gary, is it you? Blair.

[26:47] I've seen you in my neighborhood,

[26:50] trick-or-treating with your kids.

[26:51] Maybe it'll be you.

[26:54] We've seen what the streets in the historic district look like

[26:58] during trick-or-treating.

[27:01] It's chaos, and this year it's going to be on Saturday.

[27:04] It's going to be even more chaotic.

[27:07] Who's going to do it?

[27:11] Which one of you is going to insist

[27:14] we're going to protect kids?

[27:16] If Gainesville truly is family-oriented community

[27:18] we say it is,

[27:19] our actions need to reflect that.

[27:22] You need to reflect that.

[27:24] Tonight, I'm asking you to direct

[27:27] staff to address this issue,

[27:28] find solutions and return with a

[27:30] plan for council approval.

[27:33] approval. Because Halloween is going to happen.

[27:36] The children are going to be there and we know the streets aren't safe.

[27:40] Thank you.

[27:42] [applause]

[27:46] All right. Item seven, consent agenda.

[27:49] approved the minutes from the August 18th, 2026 City Council meeting.

[27:54] Um...

[27:58] Then item B is consideration of action on resolution City

[28:01] Council approving sale of alcohol

[28:03] at Civic Center for Zuboli

[28:05] and C is consideration of an action resolution

[28:09] in the City Council of the City of Gainesville, Texas

[28:11] authorizing the sale of alcohol during Country Nites to be held at Gainesville

[28:16] Farmers Market on September 26th.

[28:17] And item D is consideration of an action on resolution

[28:20] of the City Council of the City of Gainesville, Texas approving the proposed

[28:23] Cook County appraisal district FY 2026-27 budget.

[28:27] Any questions or comments about any of those?

[28:30] If not, entertain a motion.

[28:32] I make a motion to approve.

[28:34] I have a motion to approve. I'll second. Second.

[28:36] All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

[28:39] All those opposed same sign.

[28:40] Motion passes unanimously.

[28:43] Item E, uh, eight

[28:44] action items, uh,

[28:47] A is a public hearing on an ordinance granting a special

[28:50] use permit to operate a short-term rental

[28:52] located at the original donation GB edition block two, block one,

[28:55] pit 1270, commonly known as 115 West California and located

[28:59] in the commercial zoning district within the city limits of Gainsville, Cook County, Texas

[29:04] providing for an effective date containing a

[29:07] severability clause and making an open meeting finding.

[29:10] We will open the public hearing at 6:58.

[29:12] Hey, Mike, why are you up here before Allen?

[29:15] Well, I'd like to say it's due to to importance level

[29:18] but really he hasn't figured out he hasn't he hasn't figured out

[29:21] how far an ice cream cone goes with the city secretary, so.

[29:24] I I see you. Yeah.

[29:26] Well, yeah. Makes sense.

[29:27] I have explained it to him several times, but he just

[29:30] He's not getting it, okay.

[29:32] Sorry, Allen.

[29:34] Maybe one day.

[29:37] Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. This uh this short-term

[29:39] rental we've looked at it,

[29:40] meets all of our requirements.

[29:42] B&Z uh approved it

[29:44] and we asked for approval, staff approved staff staff approval.

[29:47] staff for approval.

[29:48] All right. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it.

[29:52] Uh is there anyone here that would like to speak on behalf or?

[29:57] or have a comment about this.

[30:02] Seeing no, uh, movement I would entertain closing, uh,

[30:05] a motion to close the public hearing.

[30:07] I'll make a motion to close.

[30:08] I'll second. I have a motion to close at 6:59.

[30:10] All those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[30:13] All those opposed, same sign.

[30:15] Motion passes unanimously.

[30:17] All right, N B, public hearing on ordinance granting

[30:19] a special use permit to operate a short-term rental

[30:22] located in the, uh, Lindsey Addition, Block 31, Lot 5 and 6.

[30:25] Uh, PID 19671, commonly known as 507 South Lindsey

[30:28] and located in the single family zoning district

[30:31] within the city limits of Gainesville

[30:33] Cook County, Texas, providing for an effective date,

[30:36] containing a severability clause and making an open meeting finding.

[30:38] We will open the public hearing at 6:59 p.m.

[30:43] Same thing on this one.

[30:44] We've looked at it. We've come up with their parking.

[30:46] They meet all of our requirements.

[30:48] Uh, planning and zoning approved it.

[30:50] And staff recommends approval as well on this one.

[30:53] Thank you, Mike.

[30:55] Any comments to be made about this short-term rental application?

[30:59] This is a public hearing, so.

[31:03] All right. Seeing no motion or movement in the audience,

[31:05] I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing

[31:07] at 7:00 p.m.

[31:09] I'll make a motion to close.

[31:10] Second.

[31:12] All those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[31:15] All those opposed, same sign.

[31:17] Motion passes unanimously.

[31:18] Item C, consideration of an action on a resolution

[31:20] City Council of City of Gainesville, Texas, approving

[31:22] a final plat of the Hahn Addition, Block 11, Lot 7 and 8,

[31:25] commonly known as 613 Bird,

[31:27] Gainesville, Cook County, Texas and also located in the Hahn Addition.

[31:33] Uh, Block 11, Lot 1 and 2, commonly known as 423 Hancock,

[31:36] Gainesville, Cook County, Texas including the corner of Culbertson

[31:39] Street, Gainesville, Cook County, Texas.

[31:43] Okay, this is a, the reason why this plat is before you.

[31:46] It's a plat with a variance.

[31:47] Um, this plat, we've looked at it. Uh, it meets all the criteria

[31:50] of a plat with a variance.

[31:52] This prop, this, these locate, this location was originally set up

[31:54] for single family homes back when it was set up. So,

[31:58] So, now we're moving into the direction the city wants to go

[32:01] with more commercial in that general area.

[32:04] Um, this, the, the, the real hardship here that we looked at,

[32:08] there's a couple of different ones,

[32:09] but the real hardship that matters here

[32:11] is this property is unique because it is bordered by three streets.

[32:14] Which really inhibits the ability to develop this property.

[32:18] We have a really nice project, wanted to go in here,

[32:20] uh, and this is the first step is getting this done.

[32:22] It will allow this to happen, meets all the

[32:24] all fire codes, safety codes, everything such as that.

[32:28] So after looking at this and planning and zoning approving it,

[32:31] staff recommends approval on this.

[32:34] Okay.

[32:35] Any questions?

[32:40] I'd entertain motion.

[32:41] I'll make a motion to approve.

[32:43] I have a motion to approve.

[32:44] I'll second.

[32:45] Second, all those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[32:48] All those opposed, same sign.

[32:50] Motion passes unanimously.

[32:52] Thank you.

[32:53] Thank you all. Amy, Cliff, Meredith and Isaac.

[32:56] Let me know when your, your ball games are.

[33:00] Thank you all for coming tonight.

[33:02] Congratulations.

[33:05] Item D, consideration of an action on an ordinance granting

[33:07] a special use permit to operate a short-term rental

[33:09] located at the Lindsey Addition, Block 31, Lot 5, uh,

[33:12] PID 19671, commonly known as 507 South Lindsey

[33:16] and located in the single family zoning district

[33:18] within the city limits of Gainesville, Cook County, Texas,

[33:21] providing for an effective date, containing a severability clause

[33:23] and making an open meeting finding.

[33:26] I just read that.

[33:29] Uh, are there any questions about this, uh, SUP?

[33:35] If there's not, I'd entertain a motion to suspend the charter.

[33:39] I'll make a motion to suspend the charter.

[33:40] I have a motion.

[33:41] I'll second.

[33:42] Second, all those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[33:45] All those opposed, same sign.

[33:47] Motion passes unanimously.

[33:49] I'd entertain a motion.

[33:51] I'll make a motion to approve.

[33:53] I have a motion to approve.

[33:54] I'll second.

[33:55] Second, all those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[33:58] All those opposed, same sign.

[34:00] Motion passes unanimously.

[34:01] Congratulations.

[34:04] Item E, consideration of an action on an ordinance granting

[34:06] a special use permit to operate a short-term rental

[34:08] located at the Original Donation Addition, Block 2, Lot 1, PID 1270,

[34:11] commonly known as 115 West California

[34:14] and located in the commercial zoning district within the city

[34:17] limits of Gainesville, Cook County, Texas

[34:18] Texas, providing for an effective date, containing

[34:21] a severability clause and making an open meeting finding.

[34:25] Are there any questions or discussions around this SUP?

[34:29] If not, I'd entertain a motion to suspend the charter.

[34:32] I'll make a motion to suspend.

[34:34] I have a motion.

[34:35] Second.

[34:36] Second, all those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[34:38] All those opposed, same sign.

[34:40] Motion passes unanimously.

[34:42] I'd entertain motion.

[34:43] I'll make a motion to approve.

[34:44] I have a motion to approve.

[34:45] I'll second.

[34:46] Second, all those in favor signify by saying, 'Aye'. Aye.

[34:49] All those opposed, same sign.

[34:51] Motion passes unanimously.

[34:53] Congratulations.

[34:55] item of discussion on hotel occupancy tax funding.

[35:06] Okay, on this, what staff is looking for, what we're looking

[35:11] for is to just tell us how much that you want to fund in each of

[35:15] these categories. We don't need to know what you want specifically

[35:20] funded in this, but right now tonight, it's just what's the amount so we could get that in the final draft of the budget.

[35:27] And so, I don't know if y'all want to

[35:30] specifically go through each of these specifically, or y'all want to talk about it and generally,

[35:35] or if you want to start at the top of the list y'all have

[35:38] and tell me if you want it funded and how much or not and what council feels.

[35:45] I I'm open to any way y'all want to go through this.

[35:52] We can all kind of share our uh overarching thoughts and then uh dig into specifics if we need to.

[36:00] I'll let somebody else go first.

[36:01] [laughter]

[36:04] Listen to it.

[36:06] I think it might be easier if we just go from the top.

[36:08] Just start at the top, just if we

[36:10] how we go about it.

[36:13] Like the blues and tattoos.

[36:14] Uh I would say fully fund it.

[36:19] You know, we don't have to vote if y'all just sort of tell me,

[36:21] this isn't really a vote, it's just so because y'all vote on it when it's in the uh the uh budget.

[36:29] I I would like to say that there's a lot of advertising dollars in every request this year.

[36:34] And is there a way for any kind of collaboration

[36:37] or any kind of partnerships to help each other

[36:40] instead of spending so much money on

[36:45] individual

[36:48] I mean, it's I don't know.

[36:50] bulk advertising.

[36:51] I I agree with Tommy 100% on this.

[36:54] Yeah, I just one of the things

[36:57] I also almost every was asking us to fund their own separate,

[37:00] you know, Right.

[37:01] web page or app or what else

[37:02] And I'd really like to see for the city to give direction

[37:06] and putting it all together

[37:08] so you could go to one spot to find out what's going on.

[37:10] One of the things uh Janice and I've always had an issue with is

[37:13] a lot of the organizations will put a fundraiser or event

[37:17] and then you got two or three things on the exact same night

[37:20] because nobody communicated.

[37:21] So we need some type of switchboard or way to coordinate uh

[37:24] a lot of events in town.

[37:27] And provide for some of the smaller groups to be able to

[37:30] put their stuff out there.

[37:32] Exactly.

[37:33] I call it like a clearing house, is what I call it.

[37:35] Because there is economies of scale in advertising,

[37:38] it's in everything you do.

[37:41] So if if we can negotiate a bulk advertising agreement,

[37:46] it it may be even multi-year, I don't know.

[37:48] So that everyone benefits from this,

[37:53] but I see it as best used dollars and return on investment.

[37:58] And so, I want the highest return on investment that we can get

[38:00] for these funds is the way I looked at it.

[38:03] And I I just think, I think we can improve on the way

[38:06] we've been approaching it.

[38:09] One of the things that we as staff because we heard y'all talking

[38:13] about this during different meetings,

[38:15] and we have a budget in here for around a a $125,000

[38:19] roughly.

[38:23] for advertising.

[38:26] Of that, 65,000 of that is for try to get a bulk rate on

[38:31] maybe go out and a couple different networks to get bulk

[38:36] multi-media advertising.

[38:40] So that could be used or that could be cut to allow these other

[38:43] organizations to do some of their own,

[38:46] or we could mix it and have them uh the keep the 65,000 in there

[38:51] and try to get them to help these other organizations.

[38:56] with that.

[38:58] And of course, like I said, there's a overall about $125,000

[39:02] coming through the city for trying to advertise for outside

[39:05] getting people in.

[39:09] So we could use that as a collaborative that 125 and

[39:13] reduce some of these others, or

[39:15] reduce at least the $65,000 that we're looking at to get

[39:19] a bulk rate of that 125 uh

[39:23] and that gives a little allows a little bit more funding for these

[39:29] other organizations. So any way y'all want to do that.

[39:34] Going on what Gary was saying, the electronic billboard was a

[39:37] pretty big ticket item in there. It is.

[39:40] Couldn't we like I don't know if it'd be sublet or just utilize

[39:43] the city purchasing a large amount of the electronic billboard

[39:47] and then allowing the subordinate groups that they because they're

[39:51] not going to get it all get it all year long.

[39:55] during their event we could let them

[39:57] use the electronic billboard at that time.

[40:01] So, what I would like to add to that.

[40:04] Because I've gone through this,

[40:05] I've spent a lot of time on it.

[40:07] So, I I struggle with even funding a billboard.

[40:11] And here's why.

[40:13] For one thing, it's $265,000 is what it is.

[40:16] And I would tell you last year, I actually advocated

[40:18] supporting a billboard.

[40:21] But after doing some research and having discussed this

[40:24] discussions with staff.

[40:26] I know that there are different ways to approach it

[40:30] where we could actually utilize these funds or

[40:33] keep us under because I'm because I want to go off

[40:35] on something else here that ties back to this.

[40:39] Is I believe in leverage.

[40:42] So, what one billboard on Interstate 35 does for me

[40:45] is one billboard.

[40:47] For $265,000 basically.

[40:51] I would rather spend 100 grand or $200 grand and know

[40:55] I can put billboards in the Metroplex, get on

[40:58] billboards in the Metroplex, Oklahoma City

[41:02] Because the goal is to draw people to the city of Gainesville.

[41:06] What I get when it's sitting on 35 is someone flying

[41:09] down 35 hoping and praying they stop and come back.

[41:13] So, I think there's a better way to approach this in my opinion.

[41:19] So with that, can I carry on this little bit, Tommy?

[41:21] Yeah.

[41:22] [laughter]

[41:24] Well, I'm just You got the mic. I know, but

[41:25] I just want to be sure I wasn't screwing up things.

[41:28] No, you're not. You're not.

[41:29] So this is something that I want to I just want to throw out

[41:31] food for consideration.

[41:34] So we have requests this year for I'll just call it a million eight.

[41:39] Now, you can say that we have total of avail available,

[41:42] approximately a million.

[41:44] and I'm rounded numbers is what I'm doing.

[41:46] Okay.

[41:47] So I know from my experience on the council and those others

[41:49] who've been here, we know that our average revenue for

[41:52] each fund hot fund is a million dollars a year.

[41:57] So if we come in and we distribute and say we're going to give

[42:01] everybody all of this, we just committed to a

[42:03] million eight this year.

[42:05] And now our any reserve is gone.

[42:08] So next year when we just have a million dollars,

[42:12] all these people in this room are not going to be happy with us

[42:15] because we're only going to have a million dollars to distribute,

[42:18] which means we're going to come in and start cutting things.

[42:20] I don't like that approach. I'm telling you.

[42:23] I just don't.

[42:24] So when I go through and add up approve funds for 26,

[42:28] I came up with I'll call it a million dollars. I'll round it.

[42:32] So there's our million bucks right there.

[42:35] Already spent if we just give every organization that got

[42:38] funds last year, we spent a million dollars.

[42:42] So then my point of view is, now we should go look at all

[42:45] the new request, and we also have to make it determined,

[42:51] are we willing to spend that rest of that $900,000

[42:54] and make that I'm going to tell you I don't support that.

[42:58] Because I don't want to be the bad guy up here next year

[43:01] telling ABC organization, we're cutting your monies

[43:04] in half. They're not going to like me very much.

[43:07] So I think we have to go through and we have to prioritize,

[43:11] I believe, in all the new request, how how much and

[43:15] how far we're willing to go into reserves.

[43:19] because and having a discussion with Barry,

[43:23] we talked about in the in the in the the reserves or the

[43:27] overage is an accumulation of years of where all the

[43:31] money was distributed.

[43:34] And and so I said, well, what what can the money be used for?

[43:37] Well, obviously tourism only.

[43:40] But if we have a large item request come in or something

[43:42] we really need to do, let's say all of a sudden we decide we want

[43:46] to do a billboard.

[43:47] You know what? We have the money to go down there and do the

[43:50] billboard and not check for it.

[43:52] That's Gary's thought process.

[43:54] Yeah.

[43:55] Tell me what you, whatever you want to tell me.

[43:58] [laughter]

[44:01] I agree with Councilman Sutton that we shouldn't dip into

[44:05] the reserves too aggressively.

[44:08] It'd be nice to have a cushion, you know, call it

[44:12] 400,000 or 800,000, you know, something in the

[44:14] middle there.

[44:17] we we can kind of decide on that. But I'd like to

[44:18] have a little bit of cushion there.

[44:20] I do not want to overcommit us to where we cannot honor the

[44:23] or at least, you know, do the same next year as we did this year.

[44:31] I I'd be more I I would prefer to give a little bit to as

[44:35] many people as possible and instead of saying this

[44:38] person gets everything and this one gets nothing.

[44:41] assuming they meet the requirements and everything.

[44:44] Uh, I'd I'd rather come in under their requested amount

[44:48] and give them nothing at all.

[44:51] And uh

[44:53] I will

[44:56] [cough]

[44:58] A couple quick things, I- I think.

[45:01] The easy one I think is this billboard. I'm going to tell you,

[45:06] This was a request from another group that says, hey,

[45:09] we could put us and advertise ourselves up here.

[45:10] And I said, well, that's really not the greatest idea I don't think.

[45:13] just to have one organization have the whole billboard and us pay for that

[45:16] and nobody else gets to use it.

[45:18] So then it was like, okay, the whole city could use it.

[45:21] And that I think was really that group's intent, but they had that idea.

[45:25] I think ultimately it's for everybody, but it came from one specific group.

[45:30] It came in about $180,000.

[45:34] to get sort of, yeah, last year. Last year.

[45:37] And well, that's what they requested.

[45:38] But when I got to researching it, is everything said

[45:41] you don't want a $180,000 billboard.

[45:44] At minimum you wanted a $245,000 billboard.

[45:49] I started meeting with a group that owns several billboards in Gainesville

[45:53] and several throughout the Metroplex.

[45:59] And they are actually talking to me about possibly wanting to put digital billboards

[46:03] out on the same area we were looking to do it.

[46:09] But instead of them paying us for that lease space in cash, they would pay us

[46:15] via advertising on all the billboards in Gainesville and plus some of them

[46:19] they had down in the Metroplex.

[46:23] And so something like this what I was looking at with that is, okay, we have

[46:28] $0 up front, we have a few square footage of land being used that wouldn't be used

[46:33] for anything otherwise.

[46:37] Or we would have our own sign up there.

[46:39] When that sign breaks, we have to fix it, we have to pay for electricity, and we

[46:42] have to pay for an annual cell service on it.

[46:46] Where if we did it this other way, it would be we get X amount of advertising per year

[46:50] for as long as that sign's there.

[46:56] And so I think that's a quick $245,000 cut out of the budget.

[47:01] One thing I would request is leave a 20 there, uh because we were looking at

[47:05] starting to add, um,

[47:09] wayfinding signs starting out off of the interstate and coming off and and we had

[47:13] groups asking said, hey, we want this down on the interstate.

[47:17] Well, I-35 will not technically in that area be out of construction to at least

[47:21] February 2027.

[47:25] So we can't put anything there to February 2027, which means it's out of the budget

[47:29] here. So that's just sort of a hold over from last year.

[47:33] So that was one thing I think we could make a very easily $245,000 cut.

[47:39] Exactly.

[47:45] I guess just in general on the billboard. Do we know like the effectiveness,

[47:48] or impact, reach,

[47:51] influence of like billboards versus social media

[47:54] content?

[47:55] Like what what's the difference? What's the reach difference? I know we have some statistics, but

[48:02] That would be a Pauline, if she had that, I don't know if

[48:04] I don't know if she hasn't researched. Do you have that off the top of your head or would you need to look into it?

[48:09] Sorry, Susan Cohens was asking me a question about billboards.

[48:12] Billboards compared to social media.

[48:14] the effectiveness and influence

[48:15] depends on where we're at because um if we are in the Metroplex we can get tens of

[48:19] thousands a month.

[48:23] Um,

[48:24] and it just depends on how we, yeah.

[48:26] I can get you some some data but it just really depends on how we target the

[48:29] social media stuff.

[48:31] And a lot of the little department uh itemizations had some social media

[48:35] advertising line items in there. So we would be ticking both boxes.

[48:42] Can I make a comment on that?

[48:44] I don't think it's um appropriate to talk about social media versus something

[48:48] like a billboard.

[48:50] because you have to balance both the traditional media with the social media

[48:54] and new media, it's a balance between them.

[49:00] So that is something that I just wanted to put out there.

[49:03] I don't think all eggs in one basket.

[49:04] I don't want to ping these organizations down to billboards.

[49:07] And so like, I don't know where the line is on we're talking about getting rid of,

[49:10] you know, the advertising and all these line items for these organizations,

[49:13] but I just didn't want it to be on a billboard only. And so,

[49:17] Yeah, I I don't think that's what he said.

[49:19] I I I don't think it was clarified.

[49:21] [laughter]

[49:22] Oh, oh, with this, we're, we are talking about specifically building one billboard.

[49:27] What, I know, earlier you were talking about getting rid of advertisement

[49:30] because there're so many on here.

[49:32] So I just want to make sure we weren't like just want to clarity around it.

[49:35] That's all. Oh, okay.

[49:40] We were looking to try and aggregate so that we're not funding 10 organizations

[49:43] to do billboard advertising if we can put it together in the pot.

[49:49] Like I'd really like that idea of us being able to get billboard

[49:53] very coverage all over the place for the use of our space right here.

[49:57] And we just be a lease, I guess, a ground lease for whatever sign goes.

[50:00] Mhm.

[50:02] I like that idea.

[50:03] I I think all we're really saying is let's manage the redundancy.

[50:07] Yes.

[50:08] That's all I'm saying.

[50:11] Well here's another quick thing. Uh on butter Butterfield.

[50:15] We go from um and this is building maintenance.

[50:18] It's not what we give to Butterfield. This is the account

[50:20] that the city uses to maintain our required for maintenance

[50:23] on the Butterfield.

[50:26] Like we're responsible for the roof, the windows,

[50:28] and the elevator just to make it really quick.

[50:32] And a few years ago, we redid the elevator.

[50:35] It's a couple hundred thousand dollars.

[50:38] Right now, we're going from 20 to to about 44,000.

[50:43] And the reason for that, that would replace all the rest of the windows.

[50:48] We can either do that or do what we've been doing.

[50:51] Let a window fall.

[50:54] Then we put up a piece of plywood, whenever somebody tells us it's fallen,

[50:58] and then we go and we try to find somebody and we place,

[51:03] usually it's cheaper because of the cost just to have them

[51:06] come up here with the equipment.

[51:09] It's a lot cheaper to do three to four windows than just one.

[51:14] So we do our best as like I guess those three right there get replaced,

[51:17] you know, including that broken one.

[51:21] Or do we just go and replace them all at the same time.

[51:25] And wouldn't have that on the budget for next year

[51:27] because they've been replaced.

[51:28] Well, for next year, that's what I'm asking for is an extra

[51:32] about $24,000.

[51:34] Do y'all want to do that or do y'all want us to wait for them

[51:37] to fall?

[51:40] My opinion there, I did think about, okay, what if we broke

[51:43] what was it 27, 30?

[51:45] what would it be to replace the remainder?

[51:47] About 28 windows.

[51:48] 36 36, okay.

[51:49] I was thinking, okay, what if we broke that into two years

[51:51] instead of one?

[51:53] Uh uh as kind of a compromise,

[51:55] but if, you know, we're trying to trim hundreds of thousands of dollars,

[51:59] I don't I see that as a really important expenditure and it it's

[52:03] you know, only trimming you know, 15 uh $18,000.

[52:08] Um so it would you know,

[52:10] I I'd be open for how practical it would be to it would it be

[52:13] worth the savings,

[52:15] the small savings to break it into two years or uh would

[52:18] we just want to go ahead and get it

[52:20] get it done now since we got the money?

[52:26] I I'll give you a real life example on that one.

[52:29] So my church is across the street.

[52:31] And so I I see that all the time.

[52:34] And and and Barry can tell you exactly what I did.

[52:37] So I came up here one day and I said, there's a window

[52:40] on the south side of Butterfield stage at the top half is missing.

[52:46] Now this was going on during all of the rainy season. Right.

[52:50] And I said, here's the problem we're going to have.

[52:53] And they did go put a piece of plywood over it after we talked.

[52:56] I said, here's the problem you're going to have.

[52:57] That's water is going in that building.

[52:59] Do you know what the mold remediation can cost this city?

[53:04] And so I totally support, let's get them done.

[53:07] [laughter]

[53:12] And then for the rest of the dark green items on yours

[53:16] that would affect the general fund if we don't do that.

[53:19] so can everybody agree to those?

[53:22] [sigh]

[53:26] I do.

[53:27] Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[53:31] Yes. Okay.

[53:37] I would like to get other council members' opinion on the uh

[53:41] Great American Bash. Uh I

[53:44] I'm just going to kind of lay out my entire thought process

[53:48] and then I'd love to have it open discussion about it.

[53:52] Uh I I totally thought uh I attended last year and I thought it was phenomenal

[53:56] and I uh I I would love to continue seeing things like that.

[54:00] But uh if we were lacking in this is a really, really good

[54:04] problem to have, right?

[54:06] because this community the the the staff and the organizations in this

[54:09] town do a great job

[54:11] in putting on a lot of uh really uh amazing events.

[54:15] And so if we were lacking in the uh things to do, uh things

[54:18] for citizens to do department,

[54:21] uh then I I'd be all for it,

[54:24] but we we are uh flush if you will on things to do on the weekend, you know.

[54:29] Uh half these proposals were for festivals and and uh

[54:32] and things like that.

[54:35] So, it makes sense to to do it for the uh 250th uh anniversary.

[54:41] Uh there's if there was no one else around that did stuff like that

[54:46] and, you know, we could kind of uh be the be the beacon

[54:49] that has the 4th of July thing.

[54:52] Uh, yeah, I feel it's kind of a saturated

[54:56] uh thing. There's several other areas around here that do it.

[54:59] Uh, every little community, Casburg has a great show and stuff, you know.

[55:03] Uh, they're all all fighting for when to do it and

[55:07] and uh, it's I I feel like it's not a department we're lacking in.

[55:13] Uh, it's nice that you know, it's great for the 250th anniversary to

[55:18] uh foot the bill for a great thing for uh the city.

[55:22] Now, if I saw him black and white that it was a revenue generator,

[55:26] I'll shut up.

[55:27] But uh, you know, I just like to bring that to discussion.

[55:33] Uh, I'd also like to point out on page 64.

[55:37] Uh, on that Texas two-step on that

[55:41] they give a very specific example that says 'fireworks anyone,' this

[55:45] does not qualify for hot funds.

[55:49] And so I would like to point that out.

[55:54] And so that's up to y'all if y'all want to

[55:57] find some of the other items that were included in that,

[56:01] but like the firework portion and doing all that is not

[56:04] would not be something that we could fund.

[56:09] with hot taxes and that's why last year this was not

[56:12] funded through hot tax.

[56:13] It was funded through just regular funding.

[56:22] I thought it was a really great event.

[56:24] Uh, my grandkid really loved it.

[56:25] Uh, there it was cram packed full.

[56:28] What was it like over 7,000, am I get that number right?

[56:31] It was like 4,100.

[56:33] It felt like 7,000 because it was completely full.

[56:36] And it was more than they were anticipating, right?

[56:38] Much more. Great turnout.

[56:41] Uh, I wouldn't be able to put a number on it, but I mean all the vendors

[56:44] sold a whole bunch.

[56:46] and uh, I thought there were people really having a great time.

[56:50] I thought it really did do a big bonus for the city of Gainsville.

[56:54] If we can't find the fireworks that way, uh,

[56:56] whatever we could find would be great.

[57:03] Did the vendors have a good response to that?

[57:06] Uh, everybody sold out. We actually had some food trucks that had to refund

[57:09] money because they ran out of food.

[57:13] Um, so if we were to do it again, we would at least double the food come out.

[57:17] and we have a lot of ideas.

[57:20] Um, since you asked me the question, I will say that there's no

[57:22] fireworks in that budget.

[57:24] We're not, there's not going to be any fireworks.

[57:27] Yeah, there's not in this.

[57:29] We would not be paying for fireworks.

[57:32] Well, and it wasn't just retail sales.

[57:34] Uh, our brother's house is that am I

[57:36] Yeah, we partner with Cook County United Way and so we had

[57:40] um, volunteers from throughout Cook County

[57:44] to support uh the whole event.

[57:48] So my brother's house helped with parking.

[57:52] Um, we had folks helping with the kids zone, uh,

[57:56] helping vendors in and out.

[57:59] Um, at the end of the day, we'll do whatever uh council wants

[58:04] staff is at your mercy.

[58:07] [laughter]

[58:10] So is that something y'all want or not?

[58:13] Do we know if like would Saffron be open to us being there every year?

[58:16] Do we, is there a space required?

[58:19] Would we have other venues to do that?

[58:22] They had no issue with us being there.

[58:28] But we only had to be there this year because of the fireworks.

[58:32] Uh, I don't understand the question.

[58:35] Well, we had to we had to find a place we could go and have a

[58:38] firework show.

[58:40] Are we going to have fireworks if we do this one?

[58:43] Well, if you budget for this event,

[58:48] we would ask some we would solicit

[58:50] Solicit for donations for or sponsorships for fireworks.

[58:54] you know, make sure that the hot money was going towards appropriate things,

[58:57] but the fireworks paid for by somebody else.

[58:59] And weren't local citizens ponying up quite a bit?

[59:05] You know, there were a significant amount of donations to go with it.

[59:09] There were good sponsorships.

[59:11] Yes, we I about 30,000, 25, 30,000 from

[59:15] um, across the community

[59:19] between the different vendors um we had

[59:22] great partnerships with um in kind donations from

[59:26] uh Walmart, Tractor Supply, GAF, our great partners.

[59:31] We um Saffron obviously helped us with their location.

[59:35] We we had a whole uh stream of individuals who came in and

[59:38] really supported this event.

[59:41] So without their partnership, we would not be able to do this event

[59:44] one way or another, no matter what council decides.

[59:47] We are going to need the community to be a part of this event.

[59:53] I'm kind of thinking, you know, everyone got all excited for 250, you know.

[59:57] will as many people be excited to write the check for 251, you know?

[1:00:01] Uh.

[1:00:03] It's just the perpetual commitment that, uh, I'm kind of worried about.

[1:00:11] If since we're not lacking in other awesome stuff to do on the weekends.

[1:00:15] You know what I'm saying?

[1:00:18] So I have a question for point of clarification. Sure.

[1:00:22] I'm not going to read this, but

[1:00:24] when I read something here, it's stated confidential. Okay. So

[1:00:29] I'm not going to read it. I'm going to read it. I'm going to I'm going to do a quick summary without divulging.

[1:00:35] So and you can go read the hot funds two prong content test.

[1:00:42] Anywhere. You can look it up on the website.

[1:00:45] And

[1:00:47] my interpretation is that

[1:00:50] there's a difference between attracting tourist

[1:00:55] and generating hotel activity.

[1:00:57] So my question is, that's a

[1:01:00] that's a one night event out there with the

[1:01:03] the for this year with the the finale being the big fireworks.

[1:01:09] Yes, there were great turnout.

[1:01:10] I was out there, okay?

[1:01:12] How many heads did that put in our hotels?

[1:01:16] And I that's where I'm really struggling.

[1:01:19] Because I don't think it did.

[1:01:21] I think it was a one night activity.

[1:01:23] And it was locals in the surrounding area.

[1:01:27] So I questioned it on that mirror too.

[1:01:29] I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm not trying to say that.

[1:01:33] Because I was there. I supported it.

[1:01:34] So I asked my wife, does it really

[1:01:35] I'm just saying does it really does it really qualify?

[1:01:37] If if we had gone to it and when our kids were little, she would have

[1:01:42] insisted I got a hotel because they would have been hot and ready to go to bed.

[1:01:46] On the flip side to that, I was at a convention in Waco this summer,

[1:01:49] And there was a card when we checked into our convention

[1:01:53] that each person was handed

[1:01:55] and we were supposed to fill out

[1:01:57] what hotel we were staying at, how many people,

[1:01:59] how many days, and what was the name of the event,

[1:02:03] and each of those cards went to the city so they had hardcore data.

[1:02:07] And I would hardly recommend we institute that here.

[1:02:10] I absolutely agree.

[1:02:11] Yeah, the these uh groups that say they bring people in,

[1:02:15] Right.

[1:02:16] They're going to have a registration process.

[1:02:18] You hand it to them at registration.

[1:02:20] and we could also have some of the hotels, so they

[1:02:22] they could, you know, it's part of their check-in.

[1:02:24] Why are you here?

[1:02:26] Our guests came in to hear the band.

[1:02:29] Just just I mean, I know we only have four rooms, but our guests

[1:02:32] came in to hear the band because

[1:02:34] when they posted the band on Facebook, my phone started ringing.

[1:02:40] Wow.

[1:02:40] So, just FYI.

[1:02:42] Thank you.

[1:02:49] So is the Birthday Bash a yes or no?

[1:02:52] I'm neutral.

[1:02:54] [laughter]

[1:02:56] I I will go with the majority.

[1:03:00] I mean, is it all all or nothing on these things?

[1:03:03] I mean, I feel like we're going to have to

[1:03:06] It's not an all or nothing.

[1:03:07] That's some dollars from a lot of people.

[1:03:09] It's not.

[1:03:10] I mean, we're never going to get to the

[1:03:11] I know.

[1:03:12] to the number if we look at this as an all or nothing.

[1:03:16] Um, going down the line item of all the actions,

[1:03:21] there are a lot of them that don't qualify.

[1:03:23] Absolutely, they don't.

[1:03:24] They like, you know, if you put undetermined,

[1:03:27] How can we fund undetermined?

[1:03:29] Unassigned. Unassigned.

[1:03:30] Unassigned is an X, I'm sorry.

[1:03:31] Yeah.

[1:03:32] I I agree.

[1:03:35] So I I mean, I don't think we want to go through every line item

[1:03:37] and all the information.

[1:03:39] No.

[1:03:40] I'd rather talk. will be here all night.

[1:03:41] I'd rather talk big dollar.

[1:03:43] Big dollar amounts, yep.

[1:03:44] And what we're staying and if we come to a reasonable

[1:03:46] dollar amount on something,

[1:03:49] Um, we's just kind of go at it that way.

[1:03:51] I don't think we can go through.

[1:03:55] Okay. Let's look at our tourism division budget for just advertising

[1:03:59] thing right under the Great American Birthday Bash.

[1:04:04] So we have basically $160,000 there.

[1:04:07] We told you about 65 was for bolt, the rest of it's for advertising

[1:04:11] the city to try to attract tourism through there.

[1:04:14] What's the visitor center blueprinting?

[1:04:17] Uh, that's something

[1:04:19] I cut out.

[1:04:20] That's a wish.

[1:04:21] I I cut that out of the general fund and I said that's something

[1:04:23] I will just suggest cutting out here.

[1:04:26] Okay. Yeah.

[1:04:28] Uh.

[1:04:29] It's way premature. Yes.

[1:04:30] Yes.

[1:04:31] Gotcha.

[1:04:32] Okay.

[1:04:32] I'm good now.

[1:04:33] Yep.

[1:04:35] Uh, but the for the 160,000,

[1:04:41] 65 of it was bolt, most of the rest of it is for

[1:04:44] for other advertising throughout the city.

[1:04:48] So are we using the Nickstar and 101 media media?

[1:04:51] Is that already something that the city's that the city's funding for?

[1:04:54] No.

[1:04:56] This.

[1:04:57] as we were asked to see if we could get some bulk stuff put together.

[1:05:00] Okay. That's what we did.

[1:05:02] And so we were asked to do this.

[1:05:06] Do not feel you're going to hurt staff's feelings if you cut

[1:05:10] this, if you cut the bulk or you cut some of the others.

[1:05:13] The other, you know,

[1:05:16] this year,

[1:05:19] based upon a comprehensive plan

[1:05:21] it says we're supposed to start coordinating with these different

[1:05:24] groups for downtown advertising.

[1:05:27] There's multiple ways to do that.

[1:05:30] We could cut some of their funds back and have them come through

[1:05:33] here or this year cut the 65 back and us do the others and then

[1:05:36] us start coordinating and seeing if once we work together, we can

[1:05:41] come up with a plan throughout the year to do that. Or

[1:05:45] and I know I think that visit widget is sort of one of the first

[1:05:49] things for coordinating that.

[1:05:51] I love this idea.

[1:05:52] Uh, that helps people plan their weekends here and we can put

[1:05:57] things in there and coordinate with everybody plus AI can go out and

[1:06:01] find different things for people and build that for them.

[1:06:05] That's something was I'm guessing one of our first ideas on how to

[1:06:08] start coordinating.

[1:06:09] The visit widget?

[1:06:11] Yeah, I did the tour of Laurel, Mississippi using this today just

[1:06:14] to to test it out.

[1:06:15] And it's a really a one-stop shopping for everything, for

[1:06:20] somebody to plan a trip here from restaurants to hotels, to activities.

[1:06:24] It's all map driven, it's app-based, web-based. I mean,

[1:06:29] I would approve this. The visit widget.

[1:06:33] And that was something that does start us coordinating there.

[1:06:37] And so that if you're for it, we can get that checked off if we're

[1:06:41] general agreement.

[1:06:43] So you're saying that's a starting point for the other stuff?

[1:06:46] That is a starting point to start to coordinate.

[1:06:49] And getting things all focused. Now,

[1:06:55] One of the biggest requests on this is that $160,000 for the

[1:07:01] advertising.

[1:07:03] What do y'all want to do with it? Because we can trim it. And I don't

[1:07:07] think staff will be upset if we trim the bulk this year and try to then

[1:07:11] get with people to see how we could bulk it next year?

[1:07:15] And that might give people some understanding that we're just not

[1:07:19] trying to take all the money internally

[1:07:21] and try to control what their organizations are doing.

[1:07:24] Exactly. And so that might be a good

[1:07:27] $65,000 to cut and then let us coordinate and then if we can actually

[1:07:32] say, oh, you use this, we use that too. Oh, you use this type, we do too.

[1:07:37] Let's go see if we can hire the same person and get bulk and maybe we can

[1:07:41] get discount next year and we can allocate you so much after what we do.

[1:07:45] Would that work? I will support that.

[1:07:48] So you're talking eliminating one-on-one media, Nextstar, and the Visitor Center

[1:07:52] blueprinting off of that.

[1:07:55] I'm just basically saying $100.

[1:07:58] Yes, I'm ta I'm talking take about $65,000 off of that

[1:08:02] $158,000.

[1:08:05] Totaled up in the other when that. So he's talking 15 in the 50.

[1:08:09] Yeah, the 15 and the 50 is 65.

[1:08:12] And also the 32 five.

[1:08:13] And then we want the 32 five removed.

[1:08:15] That's the visitor center.

[1:08:17] Yes, yes. Yeah, we're not.

[1:08:20] So where does this leave the digital, the billboard?

[1:08:24] Well, I think most people have told me the digital billboard is to mark

[1:08:28] that off and put $20,000.

[1:08:30] Sir, I mean like the bulk advertising in billboards across DFW, Oklahoma

[1:08:34] City, Cook County.

[1:08:36] You need to do more research on that.

[1:08:38] That that's two separate things.

[1:08:43] That's what we would start working with people on to see if we can get

[1:08:47] some bulk group multimedia stuff.

[1:08:50] Once we start working with them hand in hand on what they're doing, what

[1:08:53] we're doing, especially now that we're going to start coordinating

[1:08:56] using this visit widget,

[1:08:58] so we can see what people are doing because it picks up and we're trying

[1:09:02] to pick up everything they're doing sort of like you said,

[1:09:05] when people have multi events on the same night.

[1:09:07] That's not necessarily bad if they're sort of totally different type of event.

[1:09:11] We're times. Oh, yes, our times

[1:09:13] or but it's a good thing if we have a depot day one day and the next day

[1:09:19] there's something big and all of a sudden we're really saying now this

[1:09:24] is a weekend or here's your depot day and hey, the next day you can go visit

[1:09:29] three or four wineries within a few hours and then still be back home by

[1:09:34] the next evening early enough to go to go to work, you know, come in on Saturday,

[1:09:39] go visit a few wineries Sunday, go back to Dallas on Sunday night and

[1:09:45] then be able to go home.

[1:09:47] So those are the type of things that that would be trying to organize.

[1:09:51] So we make take out the 32 five, we take out the 32 five, we take out the 65 and then that's a pretty

[1:09:56] big cut.

[1:09:57] That's a pretty big cut.

[1:09:58] And and that's a big cut from our own

[1:10:02] of the city's

[1:10:03] request.

[1:10:04] Yes.

[1:10:06] Well, and part of that ask was trying to work in what council wanted

[1:10:09] and see how we could do this.

[1:10:11] But we sort of thought that visit widget would be the first step

[1:10:14] towards coordination.

[1:10:15] Yeah.

[1:10:16] I I think that makes sense.

[1:10:18] And you know, one thing that's positive that might could come out of the

[1:10:20] the leveraging, the bulk at some point and the coordination

[1:10:24] is that the our small organizations, you know, they they they want

[1:10:27] they needed ten to do advertising.

[1:10:30] When we leverage, they may get $14,000

[1:10:32] worth of value.

[1:10:34] So it's beneficial for them too.

[1:10:37] Lynette, on what you were speaking of, I was kind of shocked

[1:10:40] that some of the increases were requested.

[1:10:43] Yes.

[1:10:43] Doul funds.

[1:10:44] Right.

[1:10:45] I don't know about y'all's home budget, I don't get to

[1:10:48] do a 50% increase in budget.

[1:10:51] Right.

[1:10:52] And for like the first in the blues and tattoos, their 20, 26

[1:10:55] actual cost of their event was 38, well, $39,000.

[1:10:59] Right.

[1:11:00] was the was the actual cost of that event.

[1:11:02] And so they've bumped their request of $46, over $46,000.

[1:11:08] And if I remember correctly, I think most of that was in number of

[1:11:12] of uh entertainers.

[1:11:15] Yeah, I think that was was his his presentation that they wanted to

[1:11:18] increase the number of bands, but

[1:11:21] They have $14,000 in advertising.

[1:11:23] Yeah.

[1:11:27] And I do appreciate the events that are trying to by increasing

[1:11:30] the budget trying to make it a two-day event and encourage people to

[1:11:34] to stay locally.

[1:11:37] Right.

[1:11:37] I'm not saying, you know, I sign off on everything completely,

[1:11:40] but I I do appreciate it if that's the reasoning for

[1:11:44] some of the budget increase.

[1:11:46] But in the ones that gave us actual hard numbers, the truck organizations,

[1:11:48] you sent seven pages of zip codes. They gave great.

[1:11:53] Wow.

[1:11:54] Right.

[1:11:55] data on there.

[1:11:56] Yeah. They Whoever put your data together, did great job.

[1:11:59] And I will tell you, I appreciate there's a couple of organizations in here

[1:12:03] that this this get makes me have a lot of respect for these people.

[1:12:06] Instead of bumping it up, hoping maybe we'll get somewhere,

[1:12:08] they reduce their numbers.

[1:12:10] Yeah.

[1:12:11] That impressed me.

[1:12:12] Sure.

[1:12:13] And if they increase it, at least we would see why it's increased.

[1:12:19] Especially if it's drawing people into our city.

[1:12:26] Uh.

[1:12:27] So where are we at?

[1:12:29] Not sure.

[1:12:30] The boys and tattoos, where do you all want to do, I want to do the the same

[1:12:34] as last year, do you want to do the increase? It's about $10,000 difference.

[1:12:39] I think in order to not dip too heavily into the reserves, uh,

[1:12:42] it would be difficult to

[1:12:44] to increase that too drastically.

[1:12:49] have increased what we did last year too drastically.

[1:12:52] I'd say give them what they got last year.

[1:12:54] Yeah, I was going to say, personally, I'd give him the same money.

[1:12:57] The Greek.

[1:12:59] How about Butterfield stage?

[1:13:02] I was kind of

[1:13:05] the direct, what was it, a direct mail?

[1:13:08] The direct mailing I want to talk about.

[1:13:09] Go ahead, Mike.

[1:13:11] Well, I was just going to say,

[1:13:12] Because we're we're headed in the same direction.

[1:13:14] Uh, we had the expert in the room, but when I had marketing in college like

[1:13:17] 30 years ago, you got a

[1:13:18] three to 4% return on direct mail.

[1:13:23] It was a very low return on direct mail.

[1:13:24] It's it's the highest cost exposure, right?

[1:13:27] And when I get direct mail at the house, I don't even look at it.

[1:13:30] I used to always talk to

[1:13:31] That's what a Gary does too.

[1:13:33] I think there's value in direct mail.

[1:13:35] Um, I think

[1:13:40] Barry's advice and awarding

[1:13:42] uh money for advertising to an organization

[1:13:46] would be better than awarding money for a specific thing,

[1:13:51] and then staff can work with the organizations to make sure that the

[1:13:54] money is used efficiently.

[1:13:58] Because I do think there's value in direct mail, but I also think that

[1:14:01] $20,000 for direct mail is a lot.

[1:14:04] It's

[1:14:05] It is.

[1:14:05] Yes.

[1:14:06] It's a lot.

[1:14:07] We could do direct mail and also other things

[1:14:10] and I think Butterfield is very willing to collaborate

[1:14:14] to make sure the dollar is stretched.

[1:14:17] I think that that was their vision because that's what they're familiar with,

[1:14:22] and I respect that tremendously,

[1:14:25] and I also think that they're willing to collaborate on how we can make

[1:14:27] the dollar stretch further.

[1:14:31] I I would go back to what Barry advises to not nitpick the details

[1:14:36] to really look at the vision of

[1:14:38] how much money do you want to give the organizations

[1:14:41] and then direct staff to proceed accordingly with the best

[1:14:46] vision for how to use that money.

[1:14:51] Okay.

[1:14:52] So where are we going with this?

[1:14:54] I want to reduce the amount.

[1:14:55] Do you want to give them $25,000?

[1:14:57] Total.

[1:15:01] So we go 17 3 plus a bit 3ish thousand more for that.

[1:15:06] Is that what you're saying?

[1:15:08] Oh well. Cuz they were asking 20.

[1:15:10] They got 20 last year.

[1:15:12] They're asking 37 for this year.

[1:15:13] 37 for this year. Oh I'm looking for.

[1:15:16] I'm on the wrong line then.

[1:15:17] They got 15 last year so we could

[1:15:20] Or we could go do 20.

[1:15:22] I'm 20 or 25?

[1:15:25] You're good with 20? I'm good with 20.

[1:15:27] I am. Okay.

[1:15:31] And this is separate from the

[1:15:34] Okay, cuz the maintenance is a green item. Okay.

[1:15:37] City book, okay.

[1:15:39] That's in the green.

[1:15:41] Got you. That's a C. Got you. Okay.

[1:15:43] I was looking for the wrong line.

[1:15:44] That goes for as we're supposed to maintain

[1:15:47] sort of exterior.

[1:15:49] We got a lot of lines here.

[1:15:52] Okay. So now, the Classic Truck Nationals.

[1:15:56] That's one of the main ones.

[1:16:00] I guess we are going to go with 20 for them.

[1:16:03] Well, that's the movement. They're focused on the movement.

[1:16:08] They do put heads in beds.

[1:16:09] They do, they do that.

[1:16:13] And they're working towards a two-day program.

[1:16:16] Right. Right.

[1:16:22] I've just, like I said earlier, to me, they proved that they

[1:16:24] are bringing people from all over, you know.

[1:16:28] I agree with that. I agree.

[1:16:31] In the past, when somebody makes a new initial proposal,

[1:16:36] kind of where do they start at? Do they start at 10,000?

[1:16:39] 50,000? Just like that.

[1:16:41] It's not. It's only been the last few years that we've

[1:16:44] been getting a lot of new

[1:16:46] new request. New request.

[1:16:48] Because just, I'm going to just tell you truth.

[1:16:51] Until recently, we weren't getting that much

[1:16:53] Right. Hotel occupancy tax.

[1:16:55] It was just a little bit more than was covering the Civic

[1:16:58] Center and a couple other things, and back then we didn't

[1:17:01] even have a tourist division or communication division.

[1:17:05] So Tommy will remember last time I was on council, we didn't

[1:17:09] have to have a discussion with this, just

[1:17:11] Right. Barry was saying cuz there wasn't that much.

[1:17:14] And we didn't have that many people asking.

[1:17:15] Right. So like, you know,

[1:17:18] a lot of these are kind of some similar. Depot Day's

[1:17:21] got the car show, you've got the Truck Festival, you've got

[1:17:23] Blues and Tattoos.

[1:17:25] Uh, you know, uh, I would like to, uh, for the

[1:17:32] citizenry to get as much love

[1:17:33] as city affiliated festivals.

[1:17:36] You know, kind of equally distribute amongst, you know,

[1:17:40] I don't want to completely fund all the city stuff

[1:17:43] but then the people on the pavement putting on their own

[1:17:46] festival don't get any love in, you know.

[1:17:48] Uh, so I'd like to definitely strongly consider.

[1:17:52] And their project cost is $52,000.

[1:17:55] So they're not asking for 50.

[1:17:57] I would, I actually, I would give this amount.

[1:18:00] I was thinking we I would too.

[1:18:02] And, and part of that thinking is I like the fact they have

[1:18:06] a vision and they're headed towards a two-day program.

[1:18:08] Right.

[1:18:09] And if Blues and Tattoos gets over 30, then I think

[1:18:11] we could give the Truck Nationals 20.

[1:18:15] Just round it off to 20.

[1:18:17] They only ask for 50.

[1:18:18] Well, I wouldn't give more than they asked for.

[1:18:20] No, I'd just give them what they asked.

[1:18:21] That's what I was asking.

[1:18:23] I'm sorry, not me.

[1:18:24] [laughter]

[1:18:29] Okay. Okay.

[1:18:30] So that seems like a check off.

[1:18:33] Uh, how about the Cook County Arts Council?

[1:18:37] That was the one I had the unassigned

[1:18:40] So, so check out the unassigned.

[1:18:42] for a lot of advertising.

[1:18:44] We've got some unassigned funds as well.

[1:18:48] I don't legally think we can do that.

[1:18:50] No, I wouldn't think so.

[1:18:52] Okay, so five gets shaved off there just from the

[1:18:55] unassigned. From the get-go.

[1:18:56] Yeah, that's what I did in my spreadsheet.

[1:19:06] So they're increasing, they used to get 10, now it moved up

[1:19:10] to 25. So that's a $15,000 increase.

[1:19:14] If you take the five off, now they're

[1:19:16] they're at a 10,000. They're doubling from one year to the next.

[1:19:19] Is any representative from the Arts Council here tonight?

[1:19:23] I'd like to know what kind of feedback they get from

[1:19:27] since a lot of that's advertising, you know, what it

[1:19:30] I guess if we increased from 10 to 15 to cover

[1:19:33] more advertising, you know, how much they benefited from that.

[1:19:38] That would be a worthy investment.

[1:19:41] I don't see that being a lot of people staying overnight for

[1:19:46] Most of it's not. No. Most of it's not.

[1:19:49] So I'd go for what they got last year.

[1:19:51] I would go for the 10. I would agree.

[1:19:53] Yeah. With that. I'm good with keeping it where it's at.

[1:19:56] Okay.

[1:19:57] Uh, Cook County.

[1:19:59] fair association.

[1:20:00] That one's not allowed, right? Is that?

[1:20:02] Uh the the majority of it the is maintenance equipment,

[1:20:05] $23,000.

[1:20:07] Although we would be able to do like we can do a scissor lift

[1:20:10] for the Civic Center.

[1:20:13] because Civic Centers and their maintenance and operation are

[1:20:16] all legal.

[1:20:17] But there's nothing in the statute about uh of a

[1:20:21] an arena or a fair barn or anything like that.

[1:20:27] Or maintenance equipment for that.

[1:20:28] So that would not be allowed.

[1:20:32] I would love to support this phenomenal endeavor, you know,

[1:20:35] it's all parents given their time and uh I totally understand uh

[1:20:39] about the maintenance equipment thing.

[1:20:42] but I I'd love to uh

[1:20:44] And to talk this is Hedsen but yeah, she had a great list of

[1:20:47] evidence in her presentation.

[1:20:49] So I'd like to support them partially.

[1:20:52] I will tell you that the county commissioners give this

[1:20:55] organization a lot of money.

[1:20:57] And I'm basing this off because I only got the spreadsheet last

[1:20:59] year. Yeah.

[1:21:01] It was a lot of money. Yeah.

[1:21:04] I'm assuming, I'm making an assumption that they probably

[1:21:06] would do the same thing again this year.

[1:21:07] So there this is not the only money they're getting.

[1:21:09] I can tell you right now. Yeah.

[1:21:12] Do you think they're coming to us for money because they're not

[1:21:14] getting it there?

[1:21:16] Well, I know, I know the commissioners operate on a

[1:21:19] on a very strict tight budget.

[1:21:22] because I listened to them.

[1:21:23] And uh

[1:21:27] I know it's been heavily supported in the past

[1:21:29] by the commissioners.

[1:21:30] I do know that much.

[1:21:34] And uh Dakota, I think, you know, it's probably not a coincidence

[1:21:38] that as our uh remaining uh funds have continued to increase,

[1:21:42] we started seeing more and more people uh uh putting in

[1:21:45] applications and and increasing their um their requests.

[1:21:50] Uh you know, so uh

[1:21:53] that word's probably getting, you know, may gotten around, hey,

[1:21:55] they've got money to spend. Yeah.

[1:21:58] people less money.

[1:22:00] But at what point is that what we're supposed to be doing?

[1:22:03] It is. It is.

[1:22:04] I I hope next year it's $2 million what you distribute.

[1:22:08] Me too. No, me too.

[1:22:09] I'm serious. because that means it's working. Exactly.

[1:22:11] I'm not opposed to dipping into the reserves by no means.

[1:22:14] If it's a worthy cause, I'm I'm not opposed to dipping into the

[1:22:16] reserves, I just don't want to exhaust it. Yeah, exactly.

[1:22:20] So with the Fair Association, if we remove the unassigned and the

[1:22:22] equipment,

[1:22:24] and keep everything else we're $8200.

[1:22:26] 8200 is what I got. Okay. That's what I have.

[1:22:29] We good with that? Yep.

[1:22:30] Cool.

[1:22:33] Okay, Cook Karen to society, Morton Museum and Santa Fe

[1:22:36] Depot.

[1:22:39] We gave them 80 last year and they reduced it to 63 this year.

[1:22:42] So give them what they requested.

[1:22:44] What's the event expenses?

[1:22:46] What is that? The event expenses for $30,000.

[1:22:51] What is that? That's that's almost like an assigned to me.

[1:22:54] That's kind of what I was thinking.

[1:22:56] Yeah. Say that again. It's almost like

[1:22:58] you haven't given us enough information to make a decision.

[1:23:01] I got you. Okay.

[1:23:04] That's That's an expe $30,000 event expense is what it says.

[1:23:08] Yeah, that's what it says.

[1:23:09] I'm not sure exactly what Reese had on, she not get a breakdown

[1:23:12] on that.

[1:23:14] No. Just as an expense.

[1:23:15] just gave a lump sum number.

[1:23:18] Well, and I'm sure because we do have multiple events, it's not

[1:23:20] one event.

[1:23:22] Starting in January, we have our speak easy, um

[1:23:26] then we go into bread and butter, we also have

[1:23:28] the Barbie Girls lunch, which

[1:23:30] we're looking on wanting to convention.

[1:23:31] to turn into a two-day event where we have speakers that

[1:23:34] actually come in, I'm going to the one out in Santa Fe, New

[1:23:36] Mexico.

[1:23:38] So that'll put heads in beds.

[1:23:39] Um of course we have um our Christmas events, PJ's and

[1:23:43] pancakes, we've got our festival of trees and then we've got the

[1:23:47] historical home tour. Okay, that makes sense.

[1:23:50] So it's not just for one event. It covers all of our events for

[1:23:52] the entire year.

[1:23:54] Yeah, and those I went to that speak easy event this year.

[1:23:57] That was a good that was really good. really fun of it.

[1:23:59] It was filled out for our Barbie girl luncheon at the depot.

[1:24:02] Oh cool.

[1:24:03] And a couple of the ladies that came, um they're Barbie heads

[1:24:06] and they have such a huge following especially with the

[1:24:09] the railroad and so

[1:24:11] they invited me to go to Mexico to this two-day convention out

[1:24:13] there.

[1:24:15] So I'm going this November.

[1:24:16] So I can really glean from them and learn and then bring that

[1:24:19] back here because we have such a great historical Santa Fe

[1:24:22] Depot here. Right.

[1:24:25] Okay. Now, now you explain that, that makes sense to me. I'm good.

[1:24:28] I'm going to ask Barry to clarify something for the group

[1:24:31] that I I know the answer because I ask it.

[1:24:35] So Barry, if if we if say we budget, we got we we allocate

[1:24:40] 50 grand for an organization.

[1:24:43] Those expenses are all reviewed for compliance and let's say it

[1:24:47] comes in and there's only 40,000 that are truly compliant.

[1:24:53] Well, that other 10 is not spent, correct?

[1:24:56] That is correct. They have to turn in.

[1:24:58] receipts and we have to verify what they uh did with those funds,

[1:25:03] and if it doesn't qualify, it doesn't qualify.

[1:25:06] We and we have turned down expenses.

[1:25:10] Okay. So, with that statement,

[1:25:12] artifact storage and preservation, will that be?

[1:25:15] Yep. Totally, that's that's one that's that's one that's a one of the things that they 100% allow,

[1:25:20] and that is because of it's for historic preservation.

[1:25:24] But it's only for 15% of the total budget.

[1:25:28] So if we get them to if some of their funding they show and turn in receipts for

[1:25:33] advertising, that has no limit.

[1:25:38] And hence, when if they do that, then there's no limit on the

[1:29:08] I'm good on that program.

[1:29:10] It's nice to see a reduction.

[1:29:11] Well, it's also I thank you for being here to tell us why your requests are.

[1:29:17] Makes sense.

[1:29:18] We have to have the reduction.

[1:29:18] Yep. I'm excited. I'm good with going with

[1:29:20] what they're proposing.

[1:29:21] Okay, how about Downtown Gainesville Alliance?

[1:29:25] Basically, this organization set up and they're advertising

[1:29:29] downtown,

[1:29:30] they hit individual businesses, but it's really about getting

[1:29:33] people in our downtown.

[1:29:34] and showing our I guess lifestyle or quality of life

[1:29:36] downtown.

[1:29:59] And this uh the funding

[1:30:02] that was received for last year had positive feedback.

[1:30:09] Like the assuming that this is mostly uh the same as last year,

[1:30:15] the advertising worked.

[1:30:24] Helena?

[1:30:26] As in whether or not that their money spent is working.

[1:30:29] I mean,

[1:30:31] How you doing?

[1:30:32] I mean, it. It looks like it's working.

[1:30:33] So, but yeah, I mean, if you look at their Margarita crawl for example,

[1:30:37] they had a significant portion of outside of the 50-mile radius,

[1:30:40] and that's kind of what we've established internally that that's gonna be the policy

[1:30:43] for hot funding advertising.

[1:30:45] There were people everywhere on that day.

[1:30:47] Exactly.

[1:30:48] And and they do a really good job of just maintaining a constant presence

[1:30:51] and collaborating with everybody.

[1:30:53] They have their own website.

[1:30:54] I guess the purpose of my question

[1:30:57] We were still

[1:30:57] with I'm totally cool with approving the same requested as last year,

[1:31:03] was it all successful enough to justify an increase?

[1:31:06] That's the basis of my question.

[1:31:09] I would say that um, if I recall correctly, they did itemize

[1:31:14] their justifications.

[1:31:17] And so, based on their track record, I would

[1:31:24] Is most of the increase in the social media campaign, the the largest item

[1:31:28] or is it just kind of divvied out?

[1:31:30] Or all

[1:31:31] I believe there was some decorations and things for their events to kind of make

[1:31:34] the the aesthetics downtown kinda

[1:31:37] boosted it up so that when people do come visit, it's more

[1:31:43] So what about an increase of uh $5,000 council members, uh

[1:31:48] going from 25 to 30?

[1:31:52] So if we're asking people to tighten their belts, they can tighten

[1:31:54] their belts a little bit too on the request.

[1:31:57] I'm good with that. I'm good with 30 myself.

[1:32:00] Anybody against that? Nope.

[1:32:02] Okay.

[1:32:03] Uh, then we have uh, the zoo, this is a program that helps people sign up for

[1:32:10] conference registration.

[1:32:15] We do this at least every other year.

[1:32:18] The Wova app? Yep.

[1:32:19] And personally,

[1:32:22] We've done it for 10 plus years without it, we can do it without it.

[1:32:28] Or we do it, make it a little easier.

[1:32:31] My thing is, if we do this, we need to really start using this to try to help

[1:32:36] different people when they do have conferences and stuff and let them

[1:32:39] at least within the city because

[1:32:41] we're looking at having, believe it or not, we have water and sewer

[1:32:44] workshops all the time.

[1:32:47] And uh we have guys,

[1:32:49] Sounds awesome.

[1:32:50] Yeah.

[1:32:51] We have guys that are they are actually trainers that uh people they they have

[1:32:56] their licenses to train.

[1:32:58] And then we allow them to use the Civic Center for free and then our guys come

[1:33:02] in with people from all over the state and go to these classes. So,

[1:33:07] If you do it, I think we ought to share it, if not, it is something we could live

[1:33:10] without, but it would like make life easier on staff.

[1:33:14] Is it possible to use this widget for that purpose?

[1:33:18] No. This is a sign up for a conference.

[1:33:21] This is, what am I doing this weekend? I want to go to Gainesville

[1:33:27] and I want to stay at this hotel,

[1:33:31] what can I do when I'm there?

[1:33:33] When I'm there.

[1:33:34] And then it goes out and finds everything and it also goes out to internet

[1:33:38] and everything and tries to do that.

[1:33:41] But this is signing up for a conference.

[1:33:44] Which by the way, is a specific thing written out that we can do.

[1:33:49] Uh, this signing up for conferences, registration for conferences.

[1:33:54] Miss Susan seemed excited about it, it's a small enough expenditure, I support that.

[1:33:58] I do too.

[1:33:59] Yep.

[1:34:00] And you're telling me it's mutually beneficial, that's phenomenal.

[1:34:03] It is.

[1:34:06] Next.

[1:34:07] Next is Frank Buck Zoo Auxiliary Society and this is putting up some

[1:34:12] artwork for like pictures and uh doing things of that sort with

[1:34:18] landscaping, benches, things where people can get photographs with us.

[1:34:23] They've spent a lot of money doing improvements there, right, Lunette?

[1:34:26] Uh, recently?

[1:34:28] Yes. Yes.

[1:34:29] We've we've done a lot of improvements there.

[1:34:32] This would help improve those those enhancements, right?

[1:34:35] This is

[1:34:36] Yeah.

[1:34:37] It would be uh the area that we're speaking of is directly across from

[1:34:41] the um Flamingo area.

[1:34:45] Yes.

[1:34:46] And uh more so the there's an aviary where the two cans are.

[1:34:54] And that area is kind of been a butterfly or pollinator garden.

[1:35:00] so it would just enhance it with some carvings of

[1:35:03] uh animals and that sort of thing so that

[1:35:07] people have a good place to get their picture made. Yeah.

[1:35:10] And that markets us.

[1:35:12] Because those get put on Facebook and everybody wants their

[1:35:15] kid to be recognized. So.

[1:35:20] I I can tell you there's some stuff on here that do not qualify.

[1:35:23] Okay.

[1:35:24] Uh,

[1:35:25] you cannot do landscaping, labor, planting, the bench, uh the installation of donor plex.

[1:35:30] You can't do benches.

[1:35:32] Even if it falls within the guidelines of the guide and gain tool benches?

[1:35:39] The guide and gain has nothing to do with the state.

[1:35:42] So where are they supposed to sit to get their pictures?

[1:35:44] Uh, but you can do artwork, you can do uh as long as that

[1:35:48] donor displays are the things like from Frank Buck and it's

[1:35:51] historic type things, you can do that.

[1:35:53] But you cannot do the plaques, you cannot do the benches and

[1:35:56] you cannot do the landscaping.

[1:35:59] So what's that apply?

[1:35:59] When we move the historic plaques, Barry?

[1:36:03] 7500.

[1:36:04] If they're in there historically since the beginning of the zoo, they may not be moved.

[1:36:08] Yeah, if they could just stay.

[1:36:09] in the

[1:36:10] Said he couldn't.

[1:36:13] Historic preservation, you'd have to really look at that are they really historic.

[1:36:17] And so

[1:36:18] I'm just what that. Okay.

[1:36:21] And I don't want to speak for other council members but I'd

[1:36:24] absolutely want to uh support the zoological society.

[1:36:27] in one way, so uh Mrs. Pedigrew and uh

[1:36:30] I believe the staff with the city would be glad to sit down

[1:36:34] with you and and really discuss in detail how the city would be

[1:36:37] able to support you in one way or another.

[1:36:38] I prefer that.

[1:36:39] And we make sure. Because the zoo brings in a lot of people.

[1:36:42] 100.

[1:36:43] bus loads, you know.

[1:36:45] So I think it would be a great thing for us to do as well.

[1:36:50] It's just work the specifics.

[1:36:52] Yes, specifics.

[1:36:53] Yeah.

[1:36:54] We'll do a meeting and see how we can.

[1:36:57] So is the number 7,500 on that?

[1:37:00] So I uh get it to 8,500.

[1:37:02] No, 8,000.

[1:37:04] Could we approve 8,500?

[1:37:05] We'd have to take those off if they, those two don't meet the require.

[1:37:09] If they don't meet the criteria.

[1:37:09] we can uh subtract it and then we can maybe work something out.

[1:37:13] Could we approve a $10,000 uh

[1:37:15] Right now from what they have here, 9,000 because

[1:37:17] the carved wooden creatures and the uh prep for

[1:37:21] donor displays.

[1:37:25] Let's approve 10,000.

[1:37:26] Just call it up to 10,000.

[1:37:28] Yes.

[1:37:29] And whatever qualifies and then whatever we can turn

[1:37:31] a valid out of it, we approved.

[1:37:32] Yep. Okay.

[1:37:37] Okay, we have Chamber asking for Depot days and summer sounds that's brand new.

[1:37:46] Does this not normally fall within the organizational

[1:37:49] number, the 106,000?

[1:37:53] I mean, how is this normally advertised?

[1:37:56] This is new.

[1:37:57] Because we've been

[1:37:59] I don't know.

[1:38:04] I mean, those are very successful.

[1:38:06] Yeah.

[1:38:08] Uh is this gonna have them help enhance those?

[1:38:11] Is that what this is request is?

[1:38:14] And those were phenomenal spreadsheets she or uh

[1:38:17] presentation she provided.

[1:38:19] Yeah, I guess that that's my only question is

[1:38:23] Depot days been going on for forever.

[1:38:26] Forever.

[1:38:30] Do we know where they got the funding, I mean

[1:38:33] those are both current events. Where are they getting

[1:38:35] the funding for this year's Depot Day already?

[1:38:40] Yeah.

[1:38:41] Uh

[1:38:42] I I

[1:38:43] I'll speak to one of them.

[1:38:44] Unless you don't say you don't hear me.

[1:38:48] Okay.

[1:38:49] So I'm gonna tell you just what I know for a fact, that what was said to me.

[1:38:53] So I met with Matt Carlson on last Friday.

[1:38:57] And this subject came up because I we got to

[1:38:59] talking about hot funds a little bit.

[1:39:01] And he told me that the EDC has formally funded this to

[1:39:05] summer sounds program.

[1:39:09] And there's evidently been a decision made to change that process.

[1:39:14] I'm not on that board, I have no clue.

[1:39:17] And I know our mayor sets in.

[1:39:19] But anyway, and so I think that's how it showed up on our list.

[1:39:26] Summer sounds, Tommy.

[1:39:27] It wasn't completely, wasn't it also private donations also?

[1:39:30] Oh yeah, that

[1:39:31] I mean there's donations too.

[1:39:33] Right. A lot of sponsorships.

[1:39:39] But you're saying you're saying Matt said that they're not gonna support it?

[1:39:42] That's what he said to me.

[1:39:43] So,

[1:39:44] Cuz I said something about it

[1:39:45] I haven't heard that.

[1:39:46] I said something about it being on the list.

[1:39:47] Yeah.

[1:39:48] And so I just took him at face value, that's what he said to me.

[1:39:51] Of course, yeah, yeah.

[1:39:52] I mean, I believe me, I trust Matt. He's a good guy.

[1:39:55] No, I don't know.

[1:39:56] And so that cuz I was trying to figure out why, how did

[1:39:58] this appear on here all of a sudden.

[1:40:01] the city not been doing this.

[1:40:03] Well obviously not, or it wouldn't be. No, you know.

[1:40:07] advertising.

[1:40:08] I think it's a great program. Yeah.

[1:40:10] I kind of I keep defaulting back to heads and beds.

[1:40:15] Right. Okay.

[1:40:16] I think they're great tourist programs. Yep.

[1:40:18] But how do we measure because I look again,

[1:40:21] I look at return on the our investment. Sure.

[1:40:25] And so how do we how do we measure back to what Mike said earlier that

[1:40:30] there are people from out of town coming and spending the night

[1:40:33] to come to that Summer House program.

[1:40:35] I believe there probably some are. Oh yeah, I do too.

[1:40:38] But what is the value to that?

[1:40:39] Okay, here's a reach. Okay.

[1:40:42] In today's computers.

[1:40:44] Is it possible like Depot Day specific, these are specific days?

[1:40:49] Can we see occupancy/taxes paid on that day more than the prior weekend?

[1:40:56] You follow what I'm saying? If there's a 20% increase in occupancy only

[1:40:59] on the Depot Day, the weekend before and after,

[1:41:01] we're at a certain rate.

[1:41:04] Because they collect it and pay it to the state.

[1:41:05] I don't think we can see that.

[1:41:06] No, we can't see that. We can't see that.

[1:41:08] But what you what you can see is Place AI, and I think they have

[1:41:12] Place AI.

[1:41:15] And you know, a lot of this, these items are starting to

[1:41:17] catch up with these organizations

[1:41:20] as far as the technology to actually do that.

[1:41:23] And we're starting to catch up where the organizations and the

[1:41:26] technology together are.

[1:41:29] And I don't know if they have that Maybe next year.

[1:41:32] items now, but maybe next year for some of their stuff.

[1:41:35] And I think that's what we are hoping to get more and more into

[1:41:39] using Place AI and different

[1:41:42] technology that shows

[1:41:45] people are staying or people are not staying.

[1:41:49] You know, coming and going to these events.

[1:41:53] That's three for shows.

[1:41:56] So when they have to pay for talent, and if they're losing funding from the

[1:42:02] EDC, then that's not a big ass.

[1:42:03] It's not a big ass. I agree.

[1:42:06] Uh, let's go. With both of them? Yeah.

[1:42:08] And and how about the uh 106 that they've been getting for years?

[1:42:12] I'm taking it that's all.

[1:42:14] It's the same thing they got last year.

[1:42:15] Yep. Yep. Boom.

[1:42:16] Okay. Okay.

[1:42:18] Uh, the neighborhood 5K walk.

[1:42:20] Love it. Yeah.

[1:42:24] The mobile app, this mobile app was created. It's about to be

[1:42:26] released. They started getting funding for it this year.

[1:42:30] Uh, they've got the app, it's almost ready or for debut.

[1:42:34] And this is the continuation cost because you do have to continue to

[1:42:38] pay costs for a lot of that.

[1:42:40] And then this is actually for four years. This is not just one year.

[1:42:43] This covers four years of Oh, really? of the website and all that stuff.

[1:42:47] I'm all for it. Yep.

[1:42:49] And basically, this is in the uh Guiding Gainsville specifically,

[1:42:52] they said we need to get this.

[1:42:54] Cool. Thank you.

[1:42:56] Uh, Metal of Honor Host City program.

[1:42:59] Uh, for I wanted to understand they lost a major sponsor.

[1:43:03] And so they've been able to handle stuff on the outside without this

[1:43:06] because they've been had a larger sponsor.

[1:43:09] Is this your airfare? And then this would come in for this.

[1:43:12] I can tell you this organization does cuz they guarantee blocks of

[1:43:15] rooms and they rent blocks of rooms.

[1:43:16] I'm good with the 75,000.

[1:43:19] Actually 90. Isn't it? Oh, it's

[1:43:23] On the application, it's 75, but on here, it's 90.

[1:43:28] 90 to typo. I may just be a typo combined.

[1:43:31] No, it's 90.

[1:43:32] So what is the number?

[1:43:33] Yeah, what do you what do you want? What's the real number?

[1:43:36] 75 and 20 26 is requested amount equal 90.

[1:43:40] Cuz I don't

[1:43:42] Does that what the money is that what is that what those lines add up to?

[1:43:45] Yeah, Jamie went back and added it out.

[1:43:47] So it is 90, okay. It's a typo on my part.

[1:43:50] And even if this weren't a perpetual thing, I'd be okay with it,

[1:43:54] but uh with this being the American Airlines deal

[1:43:57] that was um explained to us, you know.

[1:44:01] they could get a new sponsor next year.

[1:44:03] American Airlines can get back in the game so

[1:44:05] I'll tell you this, we're still working on getting a sponsor them

[1:44:08] back. And then we won't need the money.

[1:44:11] Okay.

[1:44:13] Up to 90.

[1:44:14] Up to 90, yes. Yeah.

[1:44:16] But we will have to provide receipts so keep that in mind.

[1:44:19] My opinion is this is our community.

[1:44:22] If we don't support this, shame on us.

[1:44:25] And if there's anything on this list that does put heads in beds,

[1:44:28] it's this thing.

[1:44:30] Yes. Absolutely.

[1:44:31] Okay. Thank you.

[1:44:32] Okay. they don't even have to serve alcohol.

[1:44:35] Wine Association, uh, the the festival, the Wine Festival.

[1:44:40] They've asked for 6,000 more. $6,000.

[1:44:44] That's that's been a successful. It's been a successful program.

[1:44:48] Our city is the gateway to the wine trail.

[1:44:50] I think this is part of our identity and something that we're trying to grow.

[1:44:53] Right.

[1:44:54] And then it's the same, same for the wine trail. Yep.

[1:44:58] And then uh, Lang

[1:45:00] caster manor.

[1:45:03] And with that, I believe there is some legal questions about that that our attorney had some concerns.

[1:45:09] Right.

[1:45:10] That it's more supporting of a private business even though it does advertise it does that.

[1:45:14] And then there's also

[1:45:15] We love you.

[1:45:16] I know.

[1:45:17] And then there's also concerns that.

[1:45:19] Then every single hotel in town would come and say you need to pay for all of our advertising.

[1:45:28] So, is is is this a rebuild of your website?

[1:45:32] Okay.

[1:45:34] My answer is no.

[1:45:36] Yes.

[1:45:37] I can't agree to the

[1:45:39] Because of the legal issue.

[1:45:40] Yeah, the legal part.

[1:45:42] Yeah, because we have to do it for all of them.

[1:45:44] Yeah.

[1:45:45] Sorry.

[1:45:46] No, I understand.

[1:45:48] So

[1:45:49] It's not personal.

[1:45:50] But thanks. Thank you for taking a stab at it though.

[1:45:53] We got to try, right?

[1:45:55] So we

[1:45:56] I'm the only one in the room that pays in.

[1:45:58] So,

[1:45:59] So everyone

[1:46:00] [laughter] I I opinion.

[1:46:02] Everyone on council is once

[1:46:04] I've a short term memory.

[1:46:05] Everyone on council supports the increase for the GWCF.

[1:46:10] We did.

[1:46:11] Yes, we did.

[1:46:13] Barry, are you keeping a running total?

[1:46:15] Yeah, I

[1:46:16] No.

[1:46:17] I'm asking too much.

[1:46:18] I don't have a running total. I just wrote down what they have and then I'm going to go back and I'm going to put it in the budget.

[1:46:24] Did we did we come to a conclusion on the Gainsville Grand American birthday bash?

[1:46:29] Oh, yeah.

[1:46:30] No.

[1:46:31] I don't think we did.

[1:46:33] Sorry.

[1:46:34] So based upon include fireworks.

[1:46:37] Figure you gave does not include fireworks.

[1:46:39] Correct. It's 53,500.

[1:46:42] Yeah.

[1:46:43] So we need a we need sponsors and or alternative funding.

[1:46:47] Correct.

[1:46:49] But staff, while we will miss the event, if you do decide not to fund it, we also will understand.

[1:46:55] Yeah.

[1:46:56] So, you know, no hard feeling.

[1:46:57] I'm just wondering if we made enough cuts to

[1:46:59] That's what I want to know.

[1:47:00] Allow it.

[1:47:01] Yeah.

[1:47:03] Can you get a subtotal tomorrow and let us know or email it out?

[1:47:07] Yeah, this is all still discussion.

[1:47:10] Yeah, this is discussion. This is this is discussion. This is this is so I can just generally have an idea what to put in the budget. The vote's going to come at the next meeting.

[1:47:16] Okay.

[1:47:17] It would be very helpful to know what's the balance left in the account.

[1:47:20] Right.

[1:47:21] And and this is not personal against staff, but, you know, that's a big expense.

[1:47:25] Oh, no.

[1:47:26] So we

[1:47:27] It's a lot of work. I can tell you there's a lot of people will be happy if it does

[1:47:32] [laughter] that one right there.

[1:47:34] the mastermind behind it.

[1:47:37] It was it was phenomenal. Y'all did an outstanding job.

[1:47:39] outstanding job.

[1:47:40] So for staff and everybody that's taking it out, thank you for going through through that exercise with us.

[1:47:45] We want to do what's right for Gainsville and our partners, so.

[1:47:49] All right.

[1:47:50] Uh, can we can can we move on?

[1:47:52] Yes.

[1:47:53] Okay.

[1:47:53] Item G consideration action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign a change order number two with ESCO incorporated for the BNSF utility relocation project.

[1:48:05] Man, if you need that loan to buy some ice cream, caller.

[1:48:08] [laughter]

[1:48:10] Right now it doesn't seem like a bad idea.

[1:48:12] But I would have I would have bought two ice creams.

[1:48:14] [laughter]

[1:48:16] I'm holding strong to the extortion.

[1:48:18] [laughter]

[1:48:19] But I'm here tonight to request hot phones for this project.

[1:48:22] [laughter]

[1:48:25] And if you want to hear the way, if you want to hear the way, if you want to hear the way I can get this one back to tourism, I've got it all figured out.

[1:48:29] [laughter]

[1:48:30] Are you renting a hotel tonight?

[1:48:32] No.

[1:48:32] I'm already capped out.

[1:48:34] Um,

[1:48:35] The work crews are going to stay in hotels, right?

[1:48:37] Right.

[1:48:38] There you go.

[1:48:39] And this is a it's underneath BNSF, which which uh the Hartland flyer runs on, which we obviously know drives tourism and and so that's the stretch, but.

[1:48:46] Wow.

[1:48:47] He's had a lot of time to think about this.

[1:48:48] A little bit.

[1:48:49] Okay.

[1:48:50] All jokes aside.

[1:48:51] This is change order number two for ESCO for the BNSF utility relocations and during the bore up on 1202, we run into what we believe is just a pile of BNSF debris that was buried, who knows when. I have no idea.

[1:49:05] We can't bore through it.

[1:49:06] So we have to pull out. We've lost our casing, essentially we have to we have to go deeper and try to get underneath it.

[1:49:12] Um.

[1:49:13] So this is a change order for uh a little over $51,000.

[1:49:17] Staff has reviewed this, engineers have reviewed it.

[1:49:20] We all recommend approval.

[1:49:21] And I would appreciate your consideration tonight and happy to answer any questions.

[1:49:26] Thank you, sir.

[1:49:27] Any questions?

[1:49:30] All right, entertain a motion.

[1:49:31] I'll make a motion to approve.

[1:49:32] Motion to approve.

[1:49:33] I'll second it.

[1:49:34] Second.

[1:49:35] All those in favor signify by saying I.

[1:49:39] All those opposed same sign.

[1:49:40] Motion passed unanimously.

[1:49:42] Thanks, Alan.

[1:49:43] Thank you.

[1:49:44] All right. It is 8:18.

[1:49:47] Uh, we are going to go into executive session under Government Code, Chapter 551 to discuss economic development.

[1:50:05] [crowd]

[1:50:19] [chatter] Hey hey Tommy, got me and my partner here.

[1:50:24] [crowd]

[1:50:26] All right, it's 8:37 p.m. We come out of executive session

[1:50:30] with no action to be taken. Uh, meeting adjourned.

[1:50:33] Thank you.

September 1, 2026 Regular City Council Meeting

Transcript