[0:00] that yours may be deleted
[0:04] >> probably.
[0:10] » Good evening. Today is Tuesday,
[0:11] September 1st. Please stand for the
[0:12] pledge of allegiance.
[0:15] >> I aliance to the flag of the United
[0:18] States of America and to the republic
[0:21] for it stands one nation
[0:25] indivisible with liberty and justice for
[0:27] all.
[0:30] Heather, would you please take role?
[0:32] >> Council member Radits
[0:33] >> here.
[0:34] >> Mayor Prom Smith
[0:35] >> here.
[0:35] >> Council member Laskkey.
[0:37] >> Mayor Sullivan
[0:38] >> here.
[0:38] >> Council member Kek
[0:39] >> here.
[0:40] >> Council member Gowski
[0:41] >> here.
[0:42] >> Council member Ruska
[0:43] >> here.
[0:43] >> City manager
[0:44] >> here.
[0:45] >> Community development director.
[0:48] >> Police chief
[0:48] >> here.
[0:49] >> Fire chief
[0:50] >> here.
[0:50] >> City engineer
[0:51] >> here.
[0:53] >> Roll call complete.
[0:54] >> Thank you. Uh disclosure of conflicts of
[0:56] interest. Council member with a conflict
[0:57] of interest regarding an agenda item
[0:59] should disclose at this time.
[1:02] Public hearings, we have none. Citizens
[1:04] comment on agenda related items. Any
[1:06] citizen with correspondence to be
[1:07] distributed to council should provide
[1:09] items to city clerk prior to the start
[1:10] of the meeting or after the meeting has
[1:12] adjourned. Limited to five minutes.
[1:14] Anybody on the agenda?
[1:21] » Hi, good evening. I'm Karen Mal 5364th
[1:24] Street. Um, I've been on the parks
[1:26] commission for five years, the last two
[1:28] as chair and now vice chair. Our our
[1:30] chair couldn't be here tonight, but here
[1:31] I am. Um, I just wanted to give a parks
[1:34] uh commission perspective on the Duffy
[1:36] and Morton lots. I think the prevailing
[1:39] winds on the parks commission is that
[1:41] yes, the Morton lot, it's kind of
[1:42] debatable whether that's it's a
[1:44] neighborhood park. It's not as heavily
[1:46] used as Duffy and that one is not as
[1:48] high a priority. And if we need to delay
[1:50] or even maybe eventually eliminate that, would be understandable. But the
[1:54] Duffy law, I just wanted to advocate for
[1:56] putting that back on the change order.
[1:58] Um, I was looking, I'm not an
[2:00] accountant, but I'm pretty good with
[2:01] numbers. And I was looking, we had 70k
[2:03] um, earmarked on the capital
[2:04] improvements budget for Duffy and
[2:06] another 25 for Morton for the lot. So
[2:08] that's 95. Am I right? Um, the low bid I
[2:13] think was around 73K. And, um, compared
[2:16] to the fire department lot, I think it
[2:18] incurred like a 28% engineering fee. I
[2:22] applied that to the low bid and that
[2:24] still came out just under 95k which if it's accurate we we had 95 and um the
[2:31] reason I think that's important on the
[2:32] parks commission especially we've been
[2:33] talking about safety there because it's
[2:36] one thing with the muck and the mud and
[2:38] getting pelted in the face with fine
[2:40] gravel in the spring soccer months but
[2:42] that's a nuisance it's not great but um
[2:45] there's kids darting back and forth
[2:47] between that west side soccer field and
[2:50] the east side soccer
[2:51] It'd be great if we could have it paved
[2:53] so we could paint a crosswalk, a
[2:55] designated safe, you know, path across
[2:57] there. In addition, for some reason this
[3:00] year, people have started parking for
[3:02] those soccer matches. Um, driving their
[3:03] cars up on the grass on the west side,
[3:05] so their bumpers, their front bumpers
[3:07] are, you know, parallel with the u
[3:09] bleachers there on both sides. It's not
[3:12] real safe. So, we thought that the paved
[3:14] lot in addition to I think the DPW might
[3:16] have said they had some of I don't know
[3:18] the terminology the bumpers I think that
[3:21] keep you from driving beyond your
[3:22] parking place. I think they might have
[3:24] still had some of those um available
[3:27] that we could put kind of along
[3:29] especially that west lot so that it it'd
[3:31] just be safer for kids. So, I just
[3:33] wanted to throw that out there. Um I
[3:35] also wanted to throw out the Morton
[3:36] Park. I know that there was an agreement
[3:38] made with Morton Salt that they were
[3:40] going to contribute 25K in addition to
[3:42] the city's 25k to repave that lot as
[3:45] well and I didn't know if that was
[3:47] remembered or um I didn't see it
[3:48] mentioned on the on the agenda. So
[3:51] that's all.
[3:52] >> Thank you.
[3:53] >> Thanks. Anybody else on agenda?
[3:58] >> Okay. Consent agenda. All items marked
[4:00] with an aster are considered by the city
[4:01] manager to be routine matters. Prior to
[4:03] approval, any member of council may have
[4:05] an item removed and taken up during
[4:06] regular portion of the meeting. Items
[4:08] include approval of minutes, cash
[4:10] balances, revenue and expenses, balance
[4:12] sheet. At this time, council could take
[4:14] action to approve the consent agenda as
[4:15] presented. Is there a motion?
[4:17] >> I'll make that motion.
[4:19] >> I'll second that.
[4:21] >> She makes the motion. I second it.
[4:23] >> Thank you.
[4:24] >> Heather, would you please take role?
[4:27] >> Council member Radits.
[4:29] >> Yes.
[4:29] >> Mayor Prom Smith.
[4:30] >> Yes.
[4:31] >> Council member Laskkey. Yes.
[4:33] >> Mayor Sullivan.
[4:33] >> Yes.
[4:34] >> Council member Kek.
[4:35] >> Yes.
[4:35] >> Council member Gabowski.
[4:37] >> Yes.
[4:37] >> Council member Ruska.
[4:38] >> Yes.
[4:39] >> Motion approved.
[4:40] >> Unfinished business. We have new
[4:41] business. Introduction of firefighter
[4:43] Jane Dika in the fire department update.
[4:46] She
[5:05] Yes. Uh, good evening, council. Uh, this
[5:07] is your update. We have kind of a
[5:09] midterm update with the fire department
[5:10] with a lot of different things going on.
[5:13] Uh, first thing I wanted to go over with
[5:15] was the current statistics of the fire
[5:17] department. So far, your fire department
[5:19] has responded to 830 calls so far this
[5:21] year. 568
[5:24] of those are EMS type calls representing
[5:27] just under 70% of the calls. We have 13
[5:30] fire calls for 1.5% of our calls. Then
[5:33] 249 calls um we categorize those as
[5:37] other. Um also all the way over on the
[5:39] right hand side we have aid. So those
[5:42] are our mutual aid numbers. So far we've
[5:44] given aid out to other communities uh 41
[5:47] times and received aid 138 times. uh
[5:51] that 138 times is a little bit skewed
[5:54] right now because that involves um when
[5:57] they are doing their reports they're
[5:58] checking uh our police department. So
[6:01] when our police department comes with us
[6:02] on a call that's also um aid. So those
[6:05] numbers are a little bit that the police
[6:06] department has came and helped us out uh
[6:09] 98 times. So really when it comes on to
[6:12] it mutual aid it's running right around
[6:14] 50/50. We helped 40 times and they
[6:17] helped 40 other times. on the bottom is
[6:19] kind of the breakdown of the different
[6:21] types of calls that we respond to. Uh
[6:23] 70% is, you know, our our meta calls and
[6:27] we have public service fire calls and
[6:28] lots of other different types of things.
[6:30] So, respond to a lot of different types
[6:32] of calls. Now, we've had a lot going on
[6:35] with our fire department. Uh staffing
[6:37] has been um a main topic in that and I
[6:40] want to show you on the right there that
[6:42] is an org chart of how our fire
[6:44] department is currently staffed right
[6:46] now with the amount of firefighters that
[6:48] we have allotted to budgeted for us. So
[6:52] our fire department maintains daily
[6:54] staffing of two personnel 24 hours a
[6:56] day, seven days a week and that and
[6:58] that's how we we've maintained that
[7:01] staffing um for a very long time and we
[7:03] continue to do that today. We recently
[7:06] have a new firefighter, firefighter uh
[7:09] Jaden Dika in that and Jaden's gonna
[7:12] come up and say hi really quick,
[7:13] introduce himself. This is Jaden.
[7:17] >> Hi everybody. As Chief said, my name is
[7:19] Jaden. Um I want to thank each and every
[7:22] one of you for the privilege of being a
[7:24] firefighter for your city. Um thank you
[7:27] very much.
[7:29] >> Thank you.
[7:30] >> All right. And Jaden's off to a really
[7:32] good start. We're happy to have him. We
[7:34] also have firefighter Joe Wnak. He's not
[7:36] here with us tonight, but he recently
[7:38] completed his paramedic school and he's
[7:40] looking to take his state test to become
[7:42] a licensed paramedic. Uh we promoted
[7:46] Captain uh Heath Darling. He's been a
[7:48] longtime firefighter. He's actually a
[7:50] firefighter who's been with our fire
[7:51] department for the longest. He got
[7:53] promoted to captain. And we also have
[7:56] firefighter Brandon Nelson who is
[7:58] recently promoted to the fire marshal
[8:01] and he'll be handling those
[8:02] responsibilities for us. Those are a lot
[8:05] of responsibilities and he's also the
[8:07] new union president and Brandon I think
[8:10] you want to come up and say hi real
[8:11] quick.
[8:14] >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh I just want to thank uh
[8:17] Mayor Sullivan for stopping by today to
[8:19] meet with us. Contrary to social media,
[8:22] local 645 is in support of Chief Hearnen
[8:25] as well as Bill Gamble on support of the
[8:27] regional fire initiative in regards to
[8:30] adding full-time staff. Uh we feel your
[8:32] city fire department is not a toxic or
[8:35] hostile workplace. Thank you.
[8:37] >> Thank you.
[8:39] Now, they are on duty, so
[8:42] they're going to be bailing out right
[8:43] now. And that just back to the fire
[8:45] station, that's where they have the full
[8:46] aotment of vehicle or of cars and stuff.
[8:49] So, thanks a lot guys for coming.
[8:54] >> All right. And then uh also, so we do
[8:57] have two openings, open positions with
[8:59] our fire department right now. And I
[9:01] currently have two conditional offers
[9:03] out to two candidates right now. We're
[9:05] going through the rest of the interview
[9:07] process where they do background checks,
[9:08] psychological devel um and physical
[9:11] agility, uh different types of testing.
[9:13] So, we do have two conditional offers
[9:14] out right now.
[9:16] Um, another big topic, hot topic that
[9:18] we're all talking about would be the
[9:20] Manasty Regional Fire Initiative. And I
[9:22] think one of the most important things
[9:23] that I'd like council to understand is
[9:25] why we are doing this. The reason why
[9:27] we're doing this is because the number
[9:29] of emergency calls has risen. This has
[9:32] been a national trend for a very, very
[9:34] long time. We've went back for the past
[9:37] 20 years in Manaste County and counted
[9:39] up all the calls that our county has
[9:41] responded to emergency times and they
[9:43] are following the national trends of
[9:44] increasing by about a third. So call
[9:47] volume is increasing. Uh the second
[9:49] reason why we're doing this is the pool
[9:51] of available responders is decreasing.
[9:54] All right, the number of volunteer paid
[9:56] per call firefighters has dropped.
[9:58] That's another thing that they've been
[10:00] tracking since 1984. 1984 there was over
[10:03] 800,000 firefighters. Today we're down
[10:06] around the 600,000. So that is dropping
[10:09] by a third. So our call volume has
[10:11] increased by a third and um the amount
[10:13] of available responders has decreased by
[10:16] a third. I was speaking with the fire
[10:18] chief just today. Um he tells me about a
[10:22] full roster of 25 they had 15 years ago.
[10:25] Today they're down to nine. Okay. So
[10:28] we're looking to do something different.
[10:30] Mutual aid and other fire departments
[10:31] are important because we have automatic
[10:34] aid agreements. When there isn't a fire,
[10:36] we count on all fire departments to come
[10:38] and respond to us. The when they have a
[10:42] reduced amount, we have a reduced amount
[10:44] to use on scene both inside the city and
[10:47] outside the city. We all work together
[10:49] when it comes to um handling these
[10:51] emergencies. And that's why this is
[10:53] important.
[10:54] The third reason why we're doing this is
[10:56] capital equipment costs have increased.
[10:59] This has been something uh since the the
[11:02] really the pandemic in that that is when
[11:05] um apparatus fire trucks have
[11:07] skyrocketed through that they've
[11:09] increased by 50 to 100%. Uh $500,000
[11:13] fire trucks today now cost a million
[11:15] dollars. Uh ladder trucks now cost about
[11:18] $2 million and it takes about two years
[11:20] to get them. And that so those are the
[11:22] three main reasons why we're exploring
[11:24] this initiative. So, so what is it? So,
[11:28] this is actually the Massie Regional
[11:29] Fire Initiative. This is a ballot
[11:31] initiative to increase fire and EMS
[11:33] capacity within Filer Township, Strronic
[11:36] Township, and Onka Township. It's a
[11:39] ballot initiative. These communities are
[11:42] putting out a millage or a ballot
[11:44] proposal to raise millages in order to
[11:47] raise their funds available to support a
[11:49] fire authority. All right. If we create
[11:52] a fire authority, we're going to have a budget and a funding formula, and each
[11:56] community that participates in it will
[11:58] need to contribute a certain amount of
[12:00] money. These funds in this ballot
[12:02] initiative is designed to raise the
[12:04] funds for their contribution for this.
[12:07] We do have a public engagement meetings
[12:09] scheduled for September 21st in Strronic
[12:12] Township. That's going to be from 6:00
[12:14] to 8:00.
[12:16] Now, and then I think we've all realized
[12:18] is Massie Township was originally
[12:20] involved in this. You can see in our
[12:22] little map and in all of our logos in
[12:24] that that they're colored in there.
[12:25] Well, they decided to withdraw from this
[12:27] conversation from the conversational
[12:29] fire authority. And what that really did
[12:31] is it changed our website, it changed
[12:33] our budget, our changed all of the
[12:35] materials that we have to advertise with
[12:38] or that we have to communicate this
[12:40] idea. So it t took some time to update
[12:44] that website, update all our m material
[12:47] and really devise a whole new plan. We
[12:49] had to come up with the new budget,
[12:51] those types of things. And uh that that
[12:53] takes some time. That did create um a
[12:56] delay, but we are getting things
[12:58] scheduled. The uh website is will be
[13:00] updated by the end of this week and we
[13:03] should be looking good to communicate
[13:04] with the public and really show them um
[13:07] the needs that the fire service has in
[13:09] this community.
[13:10] So with this fire authority, this is
[13:14] what the city of Manasty gets. It gets
[13:16] additional full-time firefighters. Right
[13:18] now, we are the only fire station that
[13:20] has full-time firefighters occupying
[13:23] fire stations. So, we have two two
[13:25] firefighters uh really within the entire
[13:28] county. What this is going to do is this
[13:30] is going to increase it to five
[13:32] firefighters today. They won't be
[13:34] stationed at our fire station. They'll
[13:36] be stationed in Fer. There'll be a few
[13:37] stationed in OnCA. But what that's doing
[13:40] is that's keeping them available to
[13:42] respond to our city immediately when we
[13:44] need help. Remember, mutual aid is a big
[13:47] part of what we do. So, we do need help
[13:49] on occasion and we'll have people there
[13:50] available to respond to us immediately.
[13:53] The next thing it does is it provides
[13:55] replacement apparatus and equipment. So,
[13:58] there's a sustainable capital
[14:00] improvement plan involved in this
[14:02] initiative. So what really what this is
[14:04] saying is is this is covering the cost
[14:06] of our fire apparatus currently right
[14:10] now. Um
[14:13] if we were to go out and to get new fire
[14:15] apparatus, we would have to go for a
[14:17] millillage and a bond and ask for more
[14:19] money from the citizens of Manaste to
[14:22] purchase fire trucks for this this
[14:24] ballot initiative by everyone working
[14:26] together reducing some capital cost.
[14:29] There is a capital plan involved in this
[14:31] and it covers the cost of new fire
[14:33] apparatus.
[14:35] Also, the shared service administration
[14:37] standards, it's really just getting us
[14:39] the same training days um working
[14:42] together, same equipment and just
[14:44] bringing it closer together so it's a
[14:46] little bit more seamless when we arrive
[14:48] on scene emergencies. It's not much like
[14:51] um when there is a fire and we have
[14:54] three, four different fire departments
[14:55] responding. It can be a little clunky at
[14:58] times because we have different
[14:59] equipment, different gear, different
[15:01] ways we communicate and that bringing an
[15:03] organization closer together just helps
[15:06] us make it more efficient and run things
[15:08] run a little bit more smoothly. Now,
[15:10] without this fire authority, uh,
[15:13] municipal fire and EMS would continue to
[15:15] operate independently with the existing
[15:17] staffing levels. We wouldn't be
[15:19] addressing any of the staffing concerns
[15:21] and constraints on long-term
[15:23] sustainability. There is no capital in
[15:26] uh improvement plan that involves the
[15:29] motor pool. How we buy apparatus here.
[15:32] Um with ordinance, we don't uh pay for
[15:36] uh ladder trucks or fire engines through
[15:39] our motor pool fund. In order for us to
[15:41] purchase those vehicles, we would have
[15:43] to go for a millillage, a bond to pay
[15:45] for those types of apparatus. in that
[15:48] currently right now our fire engine is a
[15:50] 2004
[15:52] and our ladder truck is is approaching
[15:55] 30 years old. So they're both uh right
[15:58] there at the replacement age. We we need
[16:01] new fire apparatus. So we do have to
[16:03] plan for that that
[16:06] Oh my gosh, I turned it off.
[16:11] » Must be good.
[16:12] >> Sorry about that.
[16:17] And I think
[16:23] » that was the last slide and really
[16:25] that's what I have. That's the update
[16:27] that I have for you right now regarding
[16:29] this and um believe I'm open for
[16:31] questions.
[16:33] >> Yes.
[16:35] >> What determines if we go forward on
[16:36] this? Is it the vote by the other
[16:38] townships or do the Manasty City people
[16:40] get to vote or ask questions? I mean I
[16:43] know we have the 21st but what do what's
[16:45] the drop dead that this is a move
[16:47] forward? So really in order to join the
[16:49] authority that's a vote by the council
[16:51] to say yes we want to join the authority
[16:54] and that so there would be a contract
[16:55] articles incorporation and the council
[16:58] the different councils or township
[16:59] boards would be voted on whether or not
[17:01] to um they want to join what's happening
[17:04] right now is the um the ballot and the
[17:07] initiative and why is that is they are
[17:09] looking to raise funds in order to
[17:11] support it because they need to really
[17:13] increase their fire budget in order to
[17:15] uh make this plan work. We do not need
[17:18] to increase our budget to make this plan
[17:20] work. We're going to we use the existing
[17:23] uh budget that we have now. So, we don't
[17:26] have anything going to vote right now
[17:28] because we're not asking for a
[17:29] millillage to support this plan.
[17:31] >> How much millage do you know that each
[17:33] of the townships are asking? They have
[17:35] very low budgets is why I'm asking that
[17:37] before. They 288,000 were 1.3 million.
[17:41] >> So,
[17:42] there is that form. Uh, I believe it's
[17:45] under the resources on the website and
[17:47] it says millillage details on it with
[17:49] that, but it's wrong right now because
[17:51] it has Massie Township on it. I spoke
[17:53] with Mr. Bradford today. He's reworking
[17:55] the numbers and we hope to have the
[17:57] brand new one on there by the end of
[17:58] this week.
[18:01] » Yes.
[18:02] >> What was the reason given by Manasty
[18:05] Township for withdrawing from the
[18:07] authority?
[18:08] >> Um, I did not get a reason. I got a
[18:10] phone call from Mr.
[18:12] uh told me that, you know, they had a
[18:13] meeting, they decided to withdraw from
[18:15] the um the authority. He said he would
[18:18] follow it up with a letter. Um not sure.
[18:21] I I didn't receive a letter, but that's
[18:23] the only communication that I had with
[18:24] Manacey Township.
[18:26] >> Okay.
[18:28] >> What the minimum it' be sustainable for?
[18:31] Like we have four remaining ones. Have
[18:33] you like say two of them want it and
[18:35] then the other two do not? Yeah, we we
[18:38] do have different budgets in that of
[18:40] what it would look like in that and
[18:42] really what it is when we do have those
[18:44] it would be sustainable with um Stronic,
[18:48] Filer and um the city and that and we we
[18:52] have looked at the different models and
[18:54] really all of them um are sustainable.
[18:57] What it as far as daily operations the
[19:00] meat and potatoes is is the capital
[19:02] improvement in the capital plan. So with
[19:05] reduced amount of people um in this
[19:08] contributing it changes the capital plan
[19:11] not necessarily the operations plan.
[19:15] Do
[19:15] >> you have a question Jeff? Well, I guess
[19:18] the only question I've been you've shown
[19:21] us at least three times a lot of this
[19:23] information with different because the
[19:25] numbers change naturally as people move
[19:27] in and out and I know there's a certain
[19:31] group in the city who doesn't agree with
[19:33] this but I haven't really heard exactly
[19:37] a solid reason why like you know are
[19:42] they going to lose their jobs or they
[19:43] think this community is not going to be
[19:45] served and So, I'm I don't get it why. I
[19:49] just don't get it because you're clearly
[19:51] stated, you know, no no middle age, and
[19:54] that's one of the rumors I've heard.
[19:55] There's going to be a millage.
[19:58] I just I don't get it.
[20:01] >> I know. I agree.
[20:03] >> Do you have any insight?
[20:04] >> That's why I wondered why Manasty
[20:06] Township what their reasoning was
[20:09] because we're hearing all negative,
[20:11] >> right?
[20:12] >> As you can imagine.
[20:13] >> Yeah. And I I think what happened with I I don't know why Massie Township
[20:17] withdrawal really. Um but when that did
[20:20] what that did do is it slowed our public
[20:23] engagement down which was originally
[20:25] scheduled for August
[20:27] >> which didn't allow us to get our message
[20:29] out which allowed a different message.
[20:32] >> Yeah.
[20:32] >> To to really maybe ruminate a little bit
[20:35] longer.
[20:35] >> Yeah.
[20:36] >> And that and um we we need to get the
[20:39] website right and get our message out.
[20:41] Um I feel that this is a and that
[20:44] >> would be good for people,
[20:46] >> right? Jim, you said that you had the
[20:50] there was a similar proposal 13 years
[20:52] ago or so. Do you have any insight? I
[20:56] mean, you probably have more experience
[20:58] than someone like I do.
[20:59] >> Well, they worked at the whole deal
[21:01] before.
[21:03] in your paperwork I read and it says
[21:08] about
[21:12] using
[21:13] the uh axes
[21:18] now you're saying you going to you're
[21:20] going to just use what you got. I mean
[21:22] it doesn't consist same thing you got
[21:26] here.
[21:26] >> Can you just show me the front just
[21:28] >> Well, I'll have to find you. That's what
[21:29] I'm looking for.
[21:30] >> Okay. But you're going to have a fire
[21:31] chief,
[21:33] deputy fire chief, operations chief,
[21:35] fire marshal, clerical position. I mean,
[21:38] we're talking a lot of money here,
[21:41] >> right?
[21:42] >> I can't believe that, you know, you're
[21:44] going to just come in here with with
[21:46] what we have and say that that's going
[21:49] to equal out. I don't believe that there
[21:51] has to be
[21:53] taxes or something going up. And you
[21:55] said it before. Yeah. when you talked
[21:57] that we were going to see a tax
[21:58] increase.
[22:00] >> Okay. I think maybe the paper that you
[22:03] have would have been maybe an original
[22:04] white paper that I wrote in 2023 to
[22:08] introduce the concept
[22:09] >> revised 2026.
[22:12] >> Okay.
[22:12] >> I just ran it off.
[22:14] >> Okay. So that would be the plan that was
[22:16] just before Manacey Township's
[22:18] withdrawal. Okay. So that would have
[22:20] been So that is the plan that was on
[22:23] there with Manasse Township in it. There
[22:25] is going to be a revised plan with that
[22:27] reflects the withdrawal. But with that
[22:29] plan that you have there with Madison
[22:31] Township in it in that we did create a
[22:34] budget that um we feel we've used
[22:36] conservative budgeting numbers and the the budgeting in the plan did work.
[22:42] >> So the public just needs to know that at
[22:44] this point there's no intention of a
[22:46] millage or tax increase or anything like
[22:49] that.
[22:49] >> Not in the city.
[22:51] >> Okay.
[22:51] >> In that but the other ones yes they did.
[22:54] Yeah, they did have to put that out, but
[22:56] in the city, no.
[22:57] >> Okay.
[22:58] >> So, Jim, there's a concern that with
[23:01] increasing staffing, which is another
[23:04] concern we've heard from our residents,
[23:06] is that there is a decrease of staffing
[23:08] or a decrease of availability of
[23:11] services. But you have a concern that
[23:13] with increasing of staffing that that
[23:16] would be a problem.
[23:17] >> Well, are you going to pay your deputy
[23:19] chief? Are you going to pay him 35,000
[23:22] or are you going to pay him
[23:24] So seeing seeing how that's broken down
[23:27] uh with a potential salary for each
[23:30] potential position would help.
[23:34] >> I think it is broken down at some point
[23:36] some documentation I recall has it
[23:39] broken down.
[23:40] >> Okay.
[23:40] >> But I think
[23:43] >> the additional funds for additional
[23:45] staff will happen if these millages
[23:47] pass.
[23:49] There's no additional funding from the
[23:51] city for staff because we're all working
[23:54] together.
[23:56] We get more staff through the county
[23:59] based
[24:01] operating budget in there,
[24:03] >> right? All budgets are projected, right?
[24:06] >> Okay. So, there's a there's a staffing
[24:09] concern that Manis will have too much
[24:12] staff
[24:14] for our fire department.
[24:16] >> Well, I've already talked to some people
[24:18] county and they said there were four
[24:20] fire departments that they talked about
[24:22] having they said there were no way would
[24:24] they vote for something like that.
[24:26] >> Okay.
[24:27] >> Because now you're talking about putting
[24:29] one man in on one man father. Do you
[24:32] think that's going to cut the time down
[24:34] when you have to go on a call?
[24:37] >> Yeah. Yeah. So having a staffed fire
[24:40] station right now um firefighters get on
[24:43] the truck in under a minute. uh as on
[24:46] the paid per call model that they use.
[24:48] They respond from they carry pagers or
[24:51] you an app on your telephone is really
[24:53] popular now. Once a call comes in, they
[24:56] respond to the station then um respond
[24:59] to the call. So what we're doing is
[25:01] we're reducing drive time to the station
[25:03] for the paid per call. So we're getting
[25:05] trucks out the door faster in that. But
[25:08] one of the thing that I I I want to make
[25:10] clear is that we still need in uh
[25:13] volunteer firefighters desperately and
[25:15] that they provide a very valuable
[25:17] service and we need them. What it is is
[25:20] a lot of these medical calls in the
[25:22] increasing call volumes. There's a
[25:24] burden on them and they are asked to do
[25:27] a lot and it's hard to make those types
[25:29] of time commitments. The ones that we
[25:31] have are dedicated. We need them dearly
[25:34] in that and this is a way to help have
[25:37] some staff available to respond to a
[25:39] little bit more of the redundant calls
[25:41] to increase that. We still need the
[25:44] volunteer response for this plan to
[25:46] work. We need uh good dedicated
[25:49] volunteers.
[25:50] >> You're saying you're going to have 24
[25:51] people. How many on duty at a time
[25:54] >> in that? Okay. So the 20 it's it's two
[25:59] people per station and that and there
[26:02] was two people in the filer station, two
[26:04] people in the Manaste station and that
[26:07] plan that you had there had two people
[26:09] in the um Manasty Township station and
[26:12] two people in the OnClima station. So
[26:14] that was eight people on per day. Three
[26:17] different shifts is 24 total
[26:20] firefighters. That was with that plan.
[26:24] That's where you're losing people
[26:25] because they can you can't get
[26:28] volunteers. Now, how are you going to
[26:29] put those volunteers? Uh when you got
[26:32] paid people in town, now you're putting
[26:36] volunteers.
[26:38] Uh can these guys get off and work? A
[26:41] lot of them at work all the time.
[26:42] >> Yeah. So, what we're prescribing is
[26:45] called uh commonly called a combination
[26:47] style fire department where there's
[26:49] combination full-time and combination
[26:51] volunteer. It is a common model uh
[26:54] within the United States of having both
[26:57] a combination style department.
[27:00] >> Okay. And here you got 16 full-time
[27:03] firefighters and administration. So that
[27:06] means you or whoever is in
[27:08] administration 15 paid encore
[27:10] firefighters. Then you break it down
[27:12] here to staffing city man six father six
[27:17] three shronic none district wide 10.
[27:23] And council member Gowski just want to
[27:25] point out that's the old plan. The new
[27:27] plan is what's stated there where it's
[27:29] two on at the mast station, two on at
[27:31] Filer, one on at Stronic. So that's an
[27:34] obsolete plan and that's what we're
[27:37] >> printed this off.
[27:39] >> Yeah.
[27:39] >> Where's the new one?
[27:40] >> And I believe I sent that to council
[27:43] about two weeks ago. I can resend that
[27:46] and it'll be on the website by the end
[27:47] of the week as well. So, it's
[27:51] >> I just don't see it working.
[27:54] >> Jim, I I thank you for that opinion. Uh,
[27:56] and I'm wondering if part of the reason
[28:00] that some people can't see it working is
[28:03] because that's the responsibility of not
[28:06] this council of whether the whole thing
[28:08] is going to work or not. So, I I really
[28:12] appreciate you giving us uh information
[28:16] about our citywide operations and the
[28:18] decisions that need to be made here and
[28:21] uh the options that we can present to
[28:23] our neighbors and be the best neighbors
[28:24] possible. Um I I just don't feel
[28:28] comfortable skipping way down the road,
[28:29] especially without something current in
[28:31] front of me. and I really look forward
[28:33] to attending on the 21st so that uh
[28:36] everyone can hear at the same time and
[28:38] look at the same information and uh if
[28:41] there's questions or concerns there
[28:44] they're brought forward with full
[28:45] transparency. So I really thank you for
[28:48] this update but I'm going to be honest
[28:50] I'm looking forward to having the
[28:53] >> Okay.
[28:54] >> Well, I'm waiting for that too. And
[28:56] >> you know what people don't realize these
[28:59] gentlemen have gone up to Arcadia
[29:03] >> from so that leaves the city nothing
[29:06] right now.
[29:08] >> Arcadia we've been we've been ble I mean
[29:12] I even ran as when I was on duty in
[29:14] police but the thing is I didn't leave
[29:16] the city empty. This is what we're
[29:18] leaving. This was brought up by Mr.
[29:20] Bachman years ago.
[29:21] >> Okay.
[29:22] >> And that's the
[29:23] >> same thing.
[29:23] >> And if I may that's the whole impetus of
[29:25] this is that council kept asking why we
[29:28] keep responding out of the city. And the
[29:29] idea with this working with um Chief
[29:32] Hearnen was to add capacity to backfill
[29:35] to have full-time to cover. There are
[29:38] going to be instances where we have to
[29:39] do mutual aid, but the idea is to add
[29:42] full-time capacity so that those people
[29:44] can stay in the city and respond in the
[29:47] city. So really, this is kind of a
[29:49] response to those those questions you
[29:51] had, Mr. Gowski, about how we're going
[29:53] to um address this situation with our
[29:56] firefighters leaving town. It's other
[29:58] communities chipping in to add full-time
[30:00] staffing so that our our firefighters
[30:03] can protect the people in the city,
[30:05] >> you know, and then then sometimes when
[30:07] our guys go out, then we got to call in
[30:10] somebody else. I mean, you know, I
[30:12] understand you're you're you're talking,
[30:14] but the thing is then you send somebody
[30:16] else in here. We have to wait. My
[30:18] father-in-law was having heart attacks
[30:19] and we had to wait for Welston to get
[30:21] here for another 40 minutes. So you
[30:24] ain't telling me nothing new about
[30:26] running out in the county and you guys
[30:27] have been out out in Oxy,
[30:29] >> right? And with
[30:30] >> this why I'm concerned about this
[30:33] >> we're going to be running all over the
[30:34] place. You're going to have two people
[30:35] all over.
[30:36] >> But the problem is when that somebody
[30:39] gets busy from
[30:42] >> and somebody else has got to go up and
[30:43] cover their shift and you got to
[30:44] somebody else is open. So you still have
[30:47] it open for you like it or not.
[30:49] >> Yeah. And I I think that's
[30:50] representative of the increased call
[30:52] volume that we're seeing everywhere. And
[30:56] also one of the things that you mind is,
[30:58] you know, we we talked about the mutual
[30:59] aid. We requested aid 40 times into our
[31:04] city. And out of that 40 times, eight 70
[31:06] to 80% of those times it's medical calls
[31:09] that we're requesting aid in for. So
[31:12] that's roughly averaging about once a
[31:14] week we're asking for an ambulance to
[31:16] come in and take care of our residents.
[31:18] That's because our our current ambulance
[31:20] is busy right now. So, one resident is
[31:24] receiving service from our ambulance and
[31:26] the next resident isn't. It's receiving
[31:28] from a a private ambulance. When they
[31:31] receive a service from the private
[31:33] ambulance, they're getting a bill for
[31:34] it. And that so we have one resident
[31:37] receiving a bill, one resident not. By
[31:40] creating this authority and having
[31:41] additional ambulances available,
[31:43] there'll be authority ambulances. So,
[31:45] there won't be a bill. they will be uh
[31:48] built the same.
[31:49] >> So you're saying that if if the people
[31:51] from the city have to call an ambulance,
[31:53] no matter where they're coming from,
[31:55] they aren't going to get built.
[31:56] >> If it's an authority ambulance, they're
[31:58] operating the same way we operate in the
[32:01] city.
[32:02] >> I want to I want to put that down in red
[32:05] because that's a lot of people concerned
[32:08] about that.
[32:08] >> Yeah. Yeah. Put that red.
[32:12] >> Well, I'll wait till the 21st. I have no
[32:14] more questions.
[32:15] >> Okay. Thank you.
[32:16] >> Thanks, Chief.
[32:19] » Consideration of local revenue sharing
[32:21] board grant applications. Local revenue
[32:23] sharing board LRSB distributes 2% money
[32:26] from the Little River Casino. The
[32:27] deadline for the 2026 cycle 2
[32:29] applications is Friday, September 11th,
[32:32] 2026 by 5:00 p.m. City staff have
[32:34] prepared two grant applications for
[32:36] submission to the local revenue sharing
[32:37] board. This agenda item will include two
[32:39] separate motions, one for each grant
[32:41] application.
[32:43] First one is at this time council will
[32:44] take action to authorize a submission of
[32:46] a grant application to the local revenue
[32:48] sharing board for the fire district in
[32:50] the amount of $4,990
[32:52] for video laroscopes. This is a mot. Is
[32:55] there a motion?
[32:58] >> Motion support.
[33:01] Any discussion?
[33:04] Would you please take a vote?
[33:06] >> Council member Radits.
[33:07] >> Yes.
[33:08] >> Mayor Prom Smith.
[33:09] >> Yes.
[33:10] >> Council member Laskkey.
[33:11] >> Yes. Mayor Sullivan,
[33:12] >> yes.
[33:13] >> Council member Kek,
[33:14] >> yes.
[33:15] >> Council member Gabowski,
[33:16] >> yes.
[33:16] >> Council member Ruska,
[33:18] >> yes.
[33:18] >> Motion approved.
[33:26] » I just wrote all over mine. I can't read
[33:28] it. Okay. At this time, council take
[33:29] action to authorize the submission of a
[33:31] grant application to the local revenue
[33:33] sharing board for the police department
[33:34] in the amount of $28,69041
[33:38] for the beach warning lights. Is there a
[33:40] motion? Thank you.
[33:42] >> I'll make a motion again.
[33:44] >> Is there a second?
[33:45] >> I'll second.
[33:47] >> Any discussion?
[33:48] >> I just have one question. If we don't
[33:51] get this revenue sharing grant, what's
[33:53] your plan B?
[33:55] >> We're going to have to work in the
[33:56] budget for a capital improvement
[33:57] project. Something that expensive.
[34:01] >> Yeah,
[34:01] >> there are some other grants out there
[34:04] working with the Coast Guard the last
[34:06] three years. I don't know if I can
[34:07] wiggle I shouldn't say wig. they don't
[34:09] know this would qualify for a port
[34:11] security grant based on my conversations
[34:13] with them. So it's either explore
[34:16] alternative funding sources or put the
[34:19] capital improvement plan or combination
[34:21] of both. So this this this these grant
[34:25] funds if they're awarded gives us five
[34:27] years sustainability and a 10-year
[34:29] warranty for lights which is the most
[34:30] expensive thing.
[34:32] >> Josh, are these taking the the waste of
[34:34] those lights that are on the buildings?
[34:36] >> These are going to replace those. So,
[34:38] what this includes is we have four
[34:40] lights, right? Two in each building and
[34:42] brand new lights which come with a
[34:45] 10-year warranty. There's improvements
[34:47] to the lights. I talked to the engineer.
[34:49] I can't regurgitate all the
[34:50] improvements, but they're more visible
[34:53] um different lighting system, but
[34:55] reality is if we can get this these
[34:58] funds, it's five years of maintenance
[35:00] parts and then 10 year warranties for
[35:02] the lights. Lights are the most
[35:03] expensive. The lights are about five
[35:05] grand a piece. And so we're getting into
[35:08] I think we bought these in 21 or 22.
[35:10] We're getting to the end of their
[35:11] original life cycle, which is five
[35:13] years. These new lights, their life
[35:15] cycle is 10 years. So we're trying to
[35:17] look down the road and find a way to
[35:18] sustain this long term.
[35:20] >> Now, where are you going to put these
[35:21] lights?
[35:22] >> Well, council member, last category, my
[35:25] intent is to put them where they
[35:26] currently are, replacing those, but I'd
[35:28] like to listen to the park's opinion on
[35:30] if there's a better place on the
[35:31] building, they're more visible.
[35:32] >> Yeah. Those lights I'm very I mean, a
[35:34] lot of people tell me they don't even
[35:35] see them. Yeah. So here, so that's a
[35:37] great point. So these were
[35:39] state-ofthe-art four years ago, right?
[35:41] >> Yeah.
[35:42] >> They're LED, which are very visible from
[35:45] here, but as you deviate x%, whatever it
[35:48] is, LED is not so visible. So these
[35:51] lights, the new and improved lights are
[35:52] more visible from a higher degree of
[35:55] whatever. Does that make sense? I'm not
[35:57] doing a great job there. But so our our
[35:59] beach lights while we end up buying two
[36:01] for building is from a long way away. As
[36:03] long as you're at that cone, very
[36:05] visible. Kids can see them from the
[36:07] period, we can see them. But when you
[36:09] get too far sideways, they aren't as
[36:11] visible. These new lights are more
[36:13] visible. A wider cone, I would call it.
[36:16] >> Is it possible to put them on a roof?
[36:20] >> I think anything's possible. I don't
[36:22] know how visible those would be.
[36:24] >> Yeah.
[36:24] >> So
[36:25] >> because I told you when we was up last
[36:27] time. I said people don't see them.
[36:29] >> Yeah,
[36:30] >> that's about time we move them.
[36:32] >> So, if council approves this grant
[36:34] application and then if we get award the
[36:36] grant funds, I think in that time go to
[36:39] the parks, get some input where we've
[36:41] had these lights for four years, are
[36:43] they okay where they're at? Are there a
[36:45] better place for them? We can always
[36:46] review those things.
[36:49] >> I wish both of the applicants luck.
[36:53] >> Thanks, Chief.
[36:54] >> Thank you.
[36:54] >> Anybody else? Heather, would you please
[36:56] take role?
[36:57] >> Council member Resga,
[36:58] >> yes.
[36:59] >> Council member Gowski,
[37:00] >> yes.
[37:01] >> Council member Kek,
[37:02] >> yes.
[37:03] >> Mayor Sullivan,
[37:04] >> yes.
[37:04] >> Council member Laskkey,
[37:06] >> yes.
[37:06] >> Mayor Prom Smith,
[37:07] >> yes.
[37:08] >> Council member Radits,
[37:09] >> yes.
[37:10] >> Motion approved.
[37:11] >> Thank you. Consideration of authorizing
[37:12] a contract and a change order number one
[37:14] with Mullen Construction for the fire
[37:16] station site improvements. Several
[37:18] parking lot several parking lot and site
[37:20] improvement projects were recently bid
[37:21] out uh including Duffy Parking lot,
[37:24] Morton Parking lot and fire station site
[37:28] improvements. The city received two bids
[37:29] for the project. Only the fire station
[37:31] site improvements were within the city's
[37:33] budget and reasonably aligned with the
[37:35] engineers estimate. Therefore, the staff
[37:37] recommends proceeding with the fire
[37:39] station site improvement at this time
[37:41] while evaluating value value engineering
[37:43] options for the two parking lot projects
[37:46] or alternately they may be rebid at a
[37:48] later date. At this time, council could
[37:50] authorize contract with Mullen
[37:52] Construction, Inc. for the fire station
[37:54] site improvement and proof change order
[37:56] number one to remove the parking lot
[37:58] work from the contract. Is there a
[38:00] motion?
[38:04] No motion. Okay. Moving
[38:08] on. Consideration of appointing police
[38:09] chief
[38:11] Josh Glass as harbor master. City
[38:13] ordinance requires city council to
[38:15] appoint a harbor master. The city
[38:17] manager recommends appointing police
[38:18] chief Josh Glass. At this time, council
[38:20] take action to appoint police chief Josh
[38:23] Glass as harbor master. Is there a
[38:24] motion?
[38:25] >> I'll make that motion.
[38:27] >> I'll second.
[38:28] >> Any discussion?
[38:30] >> You want it again, Josh?
[38:34] >> You want it again? I haven't had it uh
[38:36] initially but just talking to other
[38:38] police chiefs come full circle
[38:41] chief hornleold chief cold and house back uh if you
[38:47] graciously appoint this to me chief
[38:49] glass
[38:49] >> chief
[38:50] >> I am willing and honored to accept the
[38:52] additional responsibility to serve the
[38:53] community
[38:55] >> thank you chief thanks would you please
[38:57] take role
[38:58] >> council member Ratitz
[38:59] >> yes
[39:00] >> mayor prom Smith
[39:01] >> yes
[39:02] >> council member Laski
[39:03] >> yes
[39:03] >> mayor Sullivan Yes.
[39:05] >> Council member Kek.
[39:06] >> Yes.
[39:06] >> Council member Gowski.
[39:08] >> Yes.
[39:08] >> Council member Ruska.
[39:09] >> Yes.
[39:09] >> Motion approved.
[39:11] >> And now we will have a report on the
[39:13] Mast County Historical Museum and
[39:15] Historic District Commission. Mr. Mark
[39:17] Feder.
[39:24] » All right. Uh hi everyone. I'm back
[39:26] again for another year uh to talk about
[39:28] the thrilling and exciting world of
[39:30] local history. Uh happy to be here as
[39:33] always. uh talking very briefly about
[39:35] the historic district commission as well
[39:36] as what we do, what we've been up to at
[39:38] the museum within the last year. Uh so
[39:40] getting started uh with the historic
[39:42] district commission uh uh in terms of
[39:44] the museum uh we work with potential
[39:46] building owners, business owners, uh
[39:48] planning and zoning department, uh
[39:50] environmental specialists on researching
[39:52] various aspects of historic buildings
[39:54] here within the city um and within the
[39:57] historic district itself. Um this
[39:59] includes, you know, when was your proper
[40:01] or when was the building built? uh you
[40:03] know, who built it, who occupied it, uh
[40:05] what's the history of the property, what
[40:06] was on there before, was there a fire
[40:08] there, uh was there something underneath
[40:10] it potentially? Um and so we use a lot
[40:13] of different aspect, a lot of different
[40:14] sources to attempt to find this
[40:16] information. Uh building abstracts,
[40:18] newspapers, city directories, maps,
[40:20] aerial views, uh photos, phone books,
[40:23] etc., etc., scrapbooks, uh whatever we
[40:26] can find, uh that will help us answer
[40:28] those questions. Uh sometimes it takes a
[40:30] couple hours, sometimes it takes a
[40:32] couple days, and sometimes it takes a
[40:34] couple of weeks to try to hunt all this
[40:35] stuff down. Uh so, uh it can be a lot of
[40:38] fun, and it can be very frustrating. Um
[40:40] uh uh in the same in the same breath, um
[40:42] a couple I'm not going to go over all of
[40:44] the uh all of the certificates of
[40:46] appropriateness that the historic
[40:48] district commission um uh uh approved
[40:51] over the last year. Uh altogether, I
[40:53] believe it was 17 certificates of
[40:55] appropriateness. Uh this is roughly
[40:57] average uh for what the the HDC does. Um
[41:00] a couple of the pro couple of the
[41:02] buildings that uh the the HD HDC spent a
[41:05] lot of time on and a lot of discussion
[41:07] on as well as um uh some of the uh time
[41:10] that uh the museum spent on uh were um
[41:13] this building here at 385 River Street.
[41:15] The piping clover uh that uh frontage
[41:18] was put on in the 1960s. uh they've
[41:21] taken that off and I think anybody who's
[41:22] driven by that or walked by that of
[41:24] recently uh they've done a really great
[41:25] job of it and uh uh really happy to see
[41:28] that they've put a lot of TLC into their
[41:30] building. It looks terrific. Um uh of
[41:33] course uh uh the HDC has had a lot of
[41:35] discussion on uh this building, the
[41:37] Hotel Northern over the last couple
[41:39] years. Uh it continued on to this year.
[41:42] Um and at the museum we recently
[41:44] approved some paint colors that will go
[41:46] along with it. Again, I think anybody
[41:47] who's driven by this building has gone,
[41:49] "Holy cow, this really looks great." Um,
[41:51] uh, uh, in all of our combined, well,
[41:54] maybe not combined, but all of our
[41:56] lifetimes um uh has always looked a
[41:59] little a little odd. Uh, but, uh,
[42:01] they've done a phenomenal job with it.
[42:03] And that cool, um, Hotel Northern
[42:06] painted, um, mural or not mural, but
[42:08] sign there on the side of the building
[42:10] is still there today. Um, and is still
[42:12] exposed. And just kind of one of those
[42:14] cool things for anybody who's nostalgic
[42:16] about this sign. Um it is currently on
[42:19] display at the museum. So if you want to
[42:21] come by and pay homage to it or genulect
[42:23] um by it, you are more than welcome to.
[42:25] Um several a couple years ago they asked
[42:28] if we wanted this sign. And of course uh
[42:31] perspective plays a role. Uh not to me.
[42:34] Uh but I was standing on the street and
[42:35] they said, "You want the sign?" And I
[42:37] said, "Yes." And then when they showed
[42:38] up, uh city workers showed up uh uh this
[42:41] March to drop it off. Um, my mouth fell
[42:43] to the ground and where am I gonna put
[42:45] this thing? Um, there it sits right now
[42:47] at the museum. It'll probably be there
[42:48] till the end of the year. So, come on by
[42:50] and and pay homage to it. Uh,
[42:52] regardless, uh, uh, uh, the the HDC
[42:55] spent a lot of time um, uh, figuring
[42:57] this uh, building out and all the
[42:58] specifics and, um, again, it looks
[43:01] really great. I also spent a lot of time
[43:04] uh with a new building owner here at 348
[43:06] River Street earlier this year, wanting
[43:07] to know all about the history of that
[43:09] building, what used to be uh what it
[43:11] used to be when it was built. Again,
[43:13] photographs of it. Um also spent a
[43:16] couple days researching all that
[43:17] information for them. Um hopefully uh in
[43:20] the near future there'll be um some
[43:21] activity there. Um uh as well as this
[43:24] building at 340 River Street, the new
[43:25] occupants, the new owners of it. Uh we
[43:28] spent a lot of time uh between uh uh HTC
[43:31] planning and zoning museum researching
[43:33] the building and and uh going over their
[43:35] plans for it. Um again um uh um with the
[43:39] HTC, you know, there's, you know,
[43:40] signage and paint colors and ex all the
[43:43] exterior work and doors and windows and
[43:45] all that really great fun stuff um uh
[43:48] that uh the HDC kind of pours over and
[43:51] several dedicated members to that uh
[43:53] that want to see um that history
[43:55] continue on. um uh it's unique and it's
[43:58] special to the community. Um so we all
[44:00] kind of want to see it um continue on
[44:02] over the years. So a lot of time, a lot
[44:03] of energy, a lot of discussion goes into
[44:05] it. Um and and poor Jerry over there uh has to hear all of it. So um uh but
[44:11] anywh who um uh we're very happy to
[44:14] continue on with our relationship with
[44:15] the HDC. So uh in terms of the museum,
[44:19] from August 2025 uh to this July, we had
[44:22] 159 visitors. Uh that's a a little bit
[44:25] more than average about 30 or 40 more
[44:27] than average. Um uh which is great uh to
[44:29] have all that activity down there. Uh we
[44:31] had 49 researchers over over that time
[44:34] period. That's about average. Uh these
[44:36] are people coming from uh nobody from
[44:38] around the world this year. Uh but
[44:40] people coming within the United States
[44:42] to come to Manaste to come to the museum
[44:44] to do this research. I had people uh
[44:46] earlier this year as as far away as
[44:48] Seattle and Southern California uh to
[44:50] spend a couple days here and we get I
[44:52] get to know them and get to know their
[44:54] families and get to know their stories.
[44:55] So that's kind of one of the fun aspects
[44:56] that we do in terms of genealogy. Uh
[44:59] have had uh a really interesting
[45:00] increase. I've been with the museum for
[45:02] almost 20 years. Um and and in all my
[45:05] years there um it seems to be an
[45:06] increase of new property owners, new
[45:08] building owners that bought a house in
[45:10] Manacey and and want to know the history
[45:12] of it. Um uh so there's been a
[45:14] significant increase in that which is
[45:15] really great to see. Um people want to
[45:17] know the history of it and want to know
[45:18] if somebody died there um have a seance
[45:21] or whatever they want to do with it. Um
[45:23] but regardless uh it's always fun to
[45:25] meet those people and get to know them a
[45:27] little bit and get to know those
[45:28] properties. I in turn learned something
[45:30] as well as they do. Uh so um always a
[45:33] lot of fun to to delve into all that
[45:35] research aspect of it. Uh couple of the
[45:37] community projects that we've been up to
[45:39] over the last year. Uh back in January,
[45:42] uh we got the great news that Manasty
[45:44] Fire Station was put on the National
[45:45] Register. Uh several years, uh a couple
[45:48] years ago, uh Chief H. Hearnden, uh
[45:50] former Manasty Firefighter Fred La Point
[45:52] and Sarah Herburgger from the Manasty
[45:53] County Foundation, uh kind of met and
[45:56] decided to pursue this venture. And uh
[45:58] we're we're really pleased that uh we
[46:00] got put on the National Register. And
[46:02] that means a lot for the uh for the
[46:04] building and I think for the community.
[46:05] The building looks really great, too. Um
[46:08] uh we uh did the uh uh we did a lot of
[46:10] the information and the photographs for
[46:12] the first phase of the new history based
[46:14] signage on the Riverwalk in River Street
[46:16] uh that was installed uh late last year.
[46:20] Hope to continue on with that um as time
[46:22] goes on, but it looks it's it's got all
[46:24] the cool historical information and the
[46:26] cool historic photo. Uh and it's got
[46:28] kind of a modern vibe to it and it's I
[46:30] think it looks really great and I'm
[46:31] really excited about that. Uh for
[46:32] several years we uh toiled away on the
[46:35] uh mapped the Manary public schools uh generations project. Um we finally
[46:40] decided what to do with that old bell
[46:41] that was sitting outside the waterworks
[46:42] building uh for almost 70 years and
[46:45] there it sits outside the the Manasty
[46:46] Elementary building now. Um so that was
[46:48] a really fun project and took a long
[46:50] time but uh very pleased with that as
[46:52] well. Uh we've been um having a lot of
[46:55] conversation uh from from the museum
[46:57] side of things uh with the Smith family
[46:59] at uh 99 Pine Street. Last year it was
[47:02] put on the the house was put on the
[47:03] state register. Uh we've continued that
[47:06] conversation with them. Um they have
[47:09] some very um ambitious but very uh
[47:12] interesting and kind of very cool plans
[47:14] for the property and if that becomes a
[47:17] reality at some point down the road that
[47:20] would be a very significant attraction
[47:21] for for the city. Um uh so we've been
[47:23] continuing that conversation what kind
[47:25] of role the museum can play um uh with
[47:28] developing that. Um uh and it's it's
[47:30] really been a lot of fun um chatting
[47:32] with them. So hopefully that'll be a
[47:34] thing in in the not too distant future.
[47:36] Um uh we've uh done a lot of the um uh
[47:40] photographs and been involved in some of
[47:42] the design work and um uh the historical
[47:45] information for the uh uh journeys
[47:48] project. Uh I think Sammy from the
[47:50] visitor center has spoken with you about
[47:52] that or spoken with some of the
[47:53] commissions about it. um that'll be kind
[47:55] of history based or portions of it will
[47:57] and so we provide a lot of information
[47:59] for that continue to do so and have kind
[48:01] of h a hand in that work. Um we also
[48:04] were uh involved in the Manasty Chamber
[48:06] Leadership Program for History Day. We
[48:09] toured the museum and did a trolley tour
[48:11] and and a walking tour and all that
[48:13] great stuff. Um now it's always a lot of
[48:15] fun to to to get involved with a lot of
[48:16] those people who don't know of the cool
[48:18] history aspects of Manaste. Um we were
[48:20] involved uh at the big lighthouse
[48:22] dedication here on Memorial Day. Um and
[48:24] of course the museum uh are the former
[48:26] managers of the um lighthouse and we
[48:29] were very uh happy and more ways than
[48:32] one to kind of hand that off to lakes
[48:33] shoreke keepers. Uh I don't know if all
[48:35] of you have gone up there but it's it's really cool and it's they've
[48:38] had a great um ad uh visitorship over
[48:41] the last several months and uh we're
[48:44] very happy to play a a a role in in kind
[48:46] of handing that off. Um very pleased
[48:49] with that. They've done a great job out
[48:50] there. Um uh and we've also been
[48:52] involved in a couple bus tours. People
[48:54] of course uh on the big uh Greyhound
[48:56] buses come in and do a tour of Manasty
[48:58] and it's always kind of fun to see
[48:59] people working in their yards on Cedar
[49:01] Street and all of a sudden this big bus
[49:02] is in front and and I'm uh uh talk
[49:05] yelling about history to all these
[49:06] people on this bus. Um uh anyways uh did
[49:09] a couple of those uh over the last year
[49:11] or so. Um always a lot of fun. Oh, I
[49:15] kind of overshot that a little bit. Uh
[49:17] did several lectures throughout the
[49:18] year. These are some of the these are at
[49:20] least four of them that we did. Uh we
[49:22] talked to the parks commission about the
[49:23] history of Reeds Park. We had a fun
[49:25] night kind of hashing that out and who
[49:27] Mr. Reach was and how Re Park became a
[49:29] thing. Uh uh I gave that talk again at
[49:32] this at the Wagner Center back in July.
[49:34] Um I did a a program with the near and
[49:37] far friends in OnCA and I've done
[49:39] several programs with the Many County
[49:40] Library. Um some of their summer reading
[49:42] programs as well as kind of a Halloween
[49:45] walk through the museum. Um uh in 1976,
[49:49] my predecessor, Steve Harold, began a
[49:51] weekly history column with the Manasty
[49:53] News Advocate. He always told me that was the one of the most important
[49:57] ways to get the community at large
[49:59] involved or interested in local history.
[50:01] 50 years later, uh I continued uh that
[50:04] tradition and that's roughly over 2500
[50:07] uh articles of Many history that have
[50:09] been public published uh within 50
[50:11] years. Um, so that's always a fun thing
[50:14] to do and to try to come up with that
[50:16] article on a on a weekly basis. Um, uh,
[50:19] to continue on with that, I do the daily
[50:21] looking back column uh, in the news
[50:23] advocate, everything that happened in
[50:24] Manaste 20, 40, 60, 80 years ago. Um,
[50:27] and again, a way to engage the public
[50:30] um, uh, in local history.
[50:33] Um, uh, in terms of the future at the
[50:34] museum, we are continuing our work with
[50:36] Hopkins Burns Design Studio out of Ann
[50:38] Arbor. uh they done they did uh the
[50:40] preservation study of the building and
[50:42] we're almost to the end of that phase
[50:44] out master plan. Uh after that the fund
[50:47] starts uh we're with grants and funding
[50:49] and so on and so forth uh to help
[50:51] preserve the building uh to update it uh
[50:53] in certain in certain parts um and to
[50:55] kind of keep that uh keep that uh keep
[50:58] that building down there alive. Uh it's
[51:00] very unique and very special especially
[51:01] the visitors who come in um and so we
[51:03] hope to continue on um um doing that in
[51:06] the future and this will be a part of
[51:07] it. So hopefully by the end of the year
[51:09] we'll have we'll have that master plan
[51:11] uh all all done. Uh I rambled through
[51:15] that pretty quick. Are there any
[51:16] questions uh you have for me uh uh in
[51:18] regards to the historic district
[51:20] commission or in regards to the museum?
[51:23] >> Well, I think you do a good job. I think
[51:25] >> I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.
[51:27] >> And I mean you've helped us out helped
[51:29] me out a lot.
[51:30] >> Happy to do it. Yeah.
[51:32] >> Talk he gives for the parks. We started
[51:33] and it's an annual talk. you have been
[51:35] to it, you are missing a treasure. It's
[51:37] not only historically accurate, it's
[51:40] very entertaining.
[51:40] >> Oh, well, thank you. Yeah,
[51:41] >> it's history entertaining.
[51:43] >> Yeah, I I I try I sat through a lot of
[51:45] uh uh adult dull uh college lectures, so
[51:48] I try to throw a little fun into it or
[51:50] at least attempt to. Anyways,
[51:52] >> I really appreciate the looking back.
[51:54] >> Yeah.
[51:55] >> No, I ages to my She can look at those.
[52:00] But you had a picture of my mother as a
[52:02] cheerleader.
[52:03] >> Oh. grand kids were very impressed.
[52:05] >> Oh, that's great. That's great. Great.
[52:07] That's always a lot of fun. You wouldn't
[52:09] be the first person to mention that to
[52:10] something similar to that to me, but
[52:12] that's always fun to kind of bring that
[52:14] out.
[52:14] >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
[52:15] >> And that's hard to write an article week
[52:16] after week consistently to find new
[52:18] topics, make it interesting, and to make
[52:21] it lengthy and cover it all and done.
[52:23] Good job. You have continued it.
[52:24] >> Appreciate that. Thank you very much.
[52:26] >> Great. Thank you so much every
[52:28] appreciate it.
[52:29] >> Thank you.
[52:30] >> Citizens comment. This an opportunity
[52:31] for citizens in attendance to comment on
[52:33] municipal services activities or areas
[52:34] of city involvement limited to five
[52:36] minutes. Letter submitted to council
[52:38] will not be publicly
[52:46] council. My name is Jordan La Point.
[52:48] Mayor and members of city council. I'm
[52:50] standing before you tonight because I
[52:51] feel that for far too long only one side
[52:53] of the story has been heard. The issues
[52:55] within the Manasty Fire Department did
[52:57] not begin with recent resignations, and
[52:58] they did not begin with a small group of
[53:00] agitators. They began much earlier. In
[53:03] July of 2025, the union was finally
[53:05] looped in on the fire district proposal.
[53:07] The next day, the fire chief and city
[53:08] manager attempted to reprimand using
[53:10] Union President, Captain Brent Haskin
[53:12] for word spoken during that protected
[53:13] meeting. Around the same time,
[53:15] disparaging remarks were made by those
[53:17] involved at city hall about the
[53:19] volunteer firefighters in our
[53:20] surrounding communities. firefighters
[53:22] who are our neighbors, our friends, and
[53:24] the very people we depend on in mutual
[53:26] aid. Then, in the fall of 2025, Captain
[53:29] Chris Jeff was written up by the fire
[53:30] chief for allegedly falsifying training
[53:32] records. Yet, on those very records,
[53:34] next to Captain Jeff name, it clearly
[53:36] stated that he did not attend. The
[53:38] reason, his grandfather was actively
[53:40] dying, the man who was his father figure
[53:42] in his life. Despite that, Captain Jeff
[53:44] was accused of falsifying records and
[53:46] was called a liar. In February of 2026,
[53:49] both myself and the union attempted
[53:50] twice to sit down with the mayor and
[53:52] simply have our side of the story heard.
[53:54] Those requests were adamantly refused.
[53:56] In March, the fire chief walked into
[53:58] city hall smiling as he fired Captain
[54:00] Brett Haskin, a 15-year captain who
[54:02] dedicated a decade and a half to this
[54:03] community and its citizens. The same
[54:05] month, the union made a protected social
[54:07] media post drawing attention to what we
[54:09] believed was a hostile and toxic work
[54:11] environment created by the fire chief
[54:12] and city leadership. That was the final
[54:14] straw that led to additional federal
[54:16] unfair labor practice lawsuits being
[54:17] filed. Then comes July of 2026. The city
[54:20] settled the federal unfair labor
[54:22] practice outside of court. Captain
[54:24] Haskin was paid 200% of his lost wages
[54:26] rather than returning to his position.
[54:27] Captain Jeffrey's discipline for
[54:29] supposedly falsifying records and lying
[54:31] was completely erased and I was given
[54:33] back two of the four days of unpaid
[54:35] suspension received over the protected
[54:36] union Facebook post. Those outcomes
[54:38] should have caused everyone in this room
[54:40] to ask an important question. Maybe the
[54:42] firefighters were actually telling the
[54:43] truth. Captain Jeff had also met
[54:46] separately with city manager Bill Gamble
[54:47] on two occasions and told him directly
[54:49] that he was actively looking for another
[54:50] job because of the hostile work
[54:52] environment he believed had been created
[54:53] by the fire chief and city management.
[54:55] In July, I took a part-time position at
[54:57] MMR to supplement my income and to
[54:59] continue to better my skills as a
[55:01] paramedic. In August, after actively
[55:03] looking for over a year, Captain Jeff
[55:05] interviewed for a supervisor position at
[55:07] MMR, a position that came with a pay
[55:08] raise of over $20,000.
[55:11] Meanwhile, after receiving a total of
[55:13] nine days of unpaid suspension, being
[55:14] told I'd be moved shifts for the third
[55:16] time in a year, and facing the attempt
[55:18] to create what I believed would be an
[55:19] illegal military policy, I had finally
[55:21] had enough. I resigned. The day after I
[55:24] submitted my resignation, Captain Jeff
[55:25] was offered the position at MMR. He
[55:27] accepted then submitted his own
[55:28] resignation. There was no coordination
[55:30] to create a staffing crisis. MMR was not
[55:32] acting in bad faith. MMR was not being a
[55:35] bad neighbor. And MMR had absolutely
[55:37] nothing to do with my decision to leave
[55:38] the city man. My decision had everything
[55:40] to do with the hostile and toxic work
[55:42] environment that I experienced under
[55:43] fire chief Tom Hurden and city manager
[55:45] Bill Gamble. Two experienced
[55:47] firefighters did not simply wake up one
[55:49] morning and decide to abandon careers
[55:50] and a community that they care about. We
[55:52] spent months and in some cases a year
[55:54] trying to make things better, trying to
[55:56] be heard and trying to get the
[55:57] leadership to listen. Since Tom Hen's
[55:59] been hired, there's been seven
[56:00] resignations in one termination. That's
[56:01] an alarming turnover. My only regret is
[56:03] that city council did not take the time
[56:05] to sit down and listen to the
[56:06] firefighters before accepting without
[56:08] question the version of events that was
[56:10] spoonfed to them by Tom Hearn and Bill
[56:12] Gamble. You had firefighters telling you
[56:13] that there was a problem. You had people
[56:15] resigning. You had federal labor
[56:17] complaints. You had settlements. You had
[56:18] my violations. And still the people
[56:21] working inside that department were not
[56:22] listened to. I'm not here tonight
[56:23] because I wanted to leave. I'm here
[56:25] because I wish I didn't have to. Thank
[56:27] you.
[56:28] >> Thank you. Thank you.
[56:31] Anybody
[56:35] else?
[56:50] » Dave Milky at 273
[56:52] 6th Avenue.
[56:55] Um,
[56:56] I had made a previous request
[57:00] for action from the city council
[57:04] regarding the sign at the senior center.
[57:09] I'd like to see some action taken on
[57:11] that. In any response, I would like to
[57:15] have it in writing.
[57:20] Um, some other
[57:23] review items on the sign. It's still up
[57:26] as of a few days ago.
[57:29] Um,
[57:31] some of the statements that were made by
[57:33] the zoning person
[57:35] where they could put up an unlimited
[57:37] number of signs at the senior center as
[57:42] long as they met the size. I think it's
[57:45] 3x3
[57:48] and
[57:51] If that's the case,
[57:55] um
[57:57] I I think that takes away from the
[57:59] character of the whole senior center.
[58:03] And another item that came up there is
[58:08] when they originally put the location
[58:12] signs at the senior center, there was
[58:15] only two signs allowed.
[58:18] So that had to go to the zoning board of
[58:21] appeals for the third sign.
[58:25] So I don't know if the zoning ordinance
[58:27] has changed where they can have an
[58:30] unlimited number of signs over there
[58:33] which doesn't make sense.
[58:36] Um,
[58:39] also some of the material I was supplied
[58:44] when they were reviewing this process
[58:47] through the permitting
[58:49] is there was never a a plan submitted
[58:56] for the the new sign over there.
[58:59] The original three signs all had
[59:03] engineering work done with those.
[59:07] Um,
[59:09] and where the sign is now,
[59:12] I don't think it's made out of stainless
[59:14] steel. It's made out of combustible
[59:17] material
[59:18] and it's nestled up under the eaves of
[59:22] the building.
[59:24] So I think there could be a a fire
[59:27] hazard thing there to
[59:31] consider also. And if you have unlimited
[59:34] number of signs,
[59:36] are they going to place them all under
[59:38] the eaves?
[59:40] So that's just my update and request for
[59:44] a written response. Thank you.
[59:47] >> Thank you. Anybody else?
[59:51] Mr. Gamble. Oh, I'm sorry.
[59:55] Good evening, city council and madame
[59:56] mayor. I'm Caitlyn Snay of 109 Cedar
[59:59] Street. I wanted to bring up my concerns
[1:00:01] in regard to the fire department. I'd
[1:00:03] like to share a fact. My father served
[1:00:05] that the local 645 proudly for 25 years.
[1:00:08] And during that time of service, he only
[1:00:10] saw two firefighters leave. And both of
[1:00:12] those reasons for leaving were personal
[1:00:14] outside of the fire department that the
[1:00:15] fire department wouldn't have been able
[1:00:17] to retain them in any way. With that
[1:00:19] being said, I find it very ironic that
[1:00:22] we've had eight firefighters leave
[1:00:24] within the past two years with our
[1:00:26] current chief being in that role for the
[1:00:27] past three. This is an alarm going off,
[1:00:30] warning us that something is not right.
[1:00:32] It is time to have some hard
[1:00:33] conversations. I'm greatly disappointed
[1:00:35] with how the city manager and multiple
[1:00:37] of our council members have been talking
[1:00:39] about the city firefighter EMTs and
[1:00:41] paramedics, especially the ones that
[1:00:42] have just unfortunately recently
[1:00:44] resigned. I truly hope that you ask all
[1:00:46] the questions, learn what you can, and
[1:00:48] have conversations outside of just
[1:00:50] discussing these things with the city
[1:00:51] manager and the chief directly. I look
[1:00:53] forward to the meeting later this month
[1:00:55] and to get more information about the
[1:00:57] fire authority. I'm hoping that we
[1:00:58] actually get answers. Thank you for your
[1:01:00] time.
[1:01:01] >> Thank you. Else,
[1:01:05] Mr. gamble.
[1:01:06] >> Um, I will just mention there were some
[1:01:08] facts left out of that statement by that
[1:01:10] former employee and I will say there
[1:01:12] were legitimate reasons for the
[1:01:13] discipline. There was a grievance file
[1:01:16] uh process that was followed and there
[1:01:17] was a settlement. So I would say it's
[1:01:19] time to move on
[1:01:22] >> and then we're going to also
[1:01:23] >> sorry
[1:01:24] >> I think we're also going to have we'll
[1:01:26] discuss more about the um parking lot
[1:01:29] determine council's priorities with that
[1:01:30] and move forward.
[1:01:32] >> Thank you. Ra
[1:01:33] >> um I guess I'm I think haven't we sent
[1:01:38] or you sent Mr. Gamble, Mr. Milky a
[1:01:40] reply in
[1:01:42] >> I have
[1:01:42] >> Okay. I just I thought so. I I know you
[1:01:45] sent us a copy of those.
[1:01:48] Um that's it. Nothing on the Rams.
[1:01:52] >> Mr. Kowski. Uh,
[1:02:00] Bill, you I sent you a letter reference
[1:02:03] to two gentlemen and I know in the
[1:02:05] ordinance or the
[1:02:09] city rules you hire and you can fire.
[1:02:12] Um,
[1:02:14] we now with the removal of the
[1:02:18] Department of Public uh works director
[1:02:23] being terminated,
[1:02:25] you put in two other people and I just
[1:02:27] want to voice my opinion. Uh, you sent
[1:02:31] me a letter back saying we're going to
[1:02:33] reduce some of the qualifications
[1:02:36] and I really disagree with that because
[1:02:39] we went down when we hired the last
[1:02:43] person and he didn't have a degree that
[1:02:47] he should have had and now we're going
[1:02:50] to go down again and I would like to see
[1:02:54] back and hire outside people who have
[1:02:58] the degrees that know what they're doing
[1:03:02] because that's to me as a citizen I want
[1:03:06] to know people are doing work they know
[1:03:08] how to do and I don't have nothing
[1:03:10] against gentlemen that appointed. Uh,
[1:03:12] you know, we need to intim people. I
[1:03:15] like both guys and I talk to both guys,
[1:03:18] but I just like to see things change
[1:03:21] here because I'm I'm tired of seeing it
[1:03:22] going downhill. The next thing is, can
[1:03:25] the golf carts that ride around the
[1:03:28] city, the rental golf carts, can they
[1:03:31] advertise on the back? People have asked
[1:03:33] me and I don't know what the rules are
[1:03:34] for that thing.
[1:03:36] >> They have advertising.
[1:03:38] >> Yeah, I think you're talking about Z's
[1:03:39] cart rental. I don't know of any issues
[1:03:41] with that. So, I wouldn't think there's
[1:03:43] >> people asked me. I don't know.
[1:03:45] >> And they're looking at as a sponsorship.
[1:03:46] I don't have a
[1:03:48] >> Okay.
[1:03:48] >> Think there's a legal reason to fight
[1:03:50] that.
[1:03:50] >> I didn't know if there was anything that
[1:03:51] you knew that would help. Okay.
[1:03:54] >> All right.
[1:03:55] >> Miss K.
[1:03:56] >> I'm good. Thank you very much, Mr. Rits.
[1:03:59] >> I just want to say what a wonderful uh
[1:04:01] back to school day for Casine and Maps
[1:04:04] yesterday. I just want to uh thank our
[1:04:06] city law. You're smiling. It was It was
[1:04:09] pretty fun. It was It's a little
[1:04:11] chaotic, but uh just everyone be safe on
[1:04:13] the roads and look out for little ones
[1:04:15] who are excited to get to school. Thank
[1:04:18] you, Mr. Smith.
[1:04:20] >> I am all set. Thank you,
[1:04:21] >> Miss Liy.
[1:04:23] I think Bill, I think it was a good
[1:04:25] decision whoever made it not to have the
[1:04:26] attorney. I think it's a cost savings to
[1:04:28] the city. I don't know that he has to be
[1:04:29] at every meeting. If there's an issue,
[1:04:31] he can view it on video at meeting
[1:04:34] number minute number 37 or something.
[1:04:36] So, thank you. That was looking out for
[1:04:37] us. Um the question someone was asking
[1:04:40] is that plaza I think it was there's
[1:04:43] bolsters that can be put in at the end.
[1:04:45] Is that going to remain open as a road
[1:04:48] most of the time? People are worried
[1:04:49] that it's going to be closed at the end
[1:04:51] more than open.
[1:04:53] >> So the ballards were a long lead time.
[1:04:55] We're waiting for those to come in, but
[1:04:57] the idea was for it to be you can still
[1:04:59] drive through it and it can be closed
[1:05:00] down for special events and we can do
[1:05:03] that as we choose fit. So
[1:05:05] >> be it's still going to be a road. People
[1:05:06] are concerned that it will be Not a
[1:05:08] road, but a
[1:05:08] >> little bit different geometrics where
[1:05:10] you do kind of turn at the end into
[1:05:12] water, but
[1:05:12] >> but you can still go through
[1:05:13] >> and you can go there, you can park.
[1:05:15] >> Good. Thank you.
[1:05:16] >> Does it look good? Okay, I take a motion
[1:05:17] to return.
[1:05:18] >> I'll make that motion.