[0:00] Oh, yeah.

[0:01] All right.

[0:04] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

[0:06] We're going to go ahead and call the August Building Committee meeting to

[0:10] August Building Committee meeting to order.

[0:10] This is the last meeting for this committee, for this commission, for this

[0:14] committee, for this commission, for this term.

[0:15] So we've got a lot to cover here. Next item is the roll call.

[0:18] Let the record show that all members are present except for Commissioner Howard and

[0:23] Commissioner Nutt, and Mr. Burkhalter is sitting in for Mr. Howard. And Ms.

[0:27] Hollingsworth is sitting in for Mr.

[0:29] Nutt, so thank you guys for your time to do that.

[0:32] Next item is the approval of the agenda. I need a motion to approval.

[0:35] I have it from Davis Burkhalter. I need a second. I have it from Mr.

[0:39] Markham over here. Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll vote.

[0:43] All in favor say aye.

[0:44] Aye.

[0:45] Any opposed? And that passes. Thank you.

[0:48] Next item is the approval of the July 2026 minutes.

[0:51] Those minutes have been presented to you,

[0:53] and unless there's any changes or alterations, they will stand as presented.

[0:58] All right, seeing no lights, those will stand as presented. Thank you for that.

[1:02] Is there anybody signed up for public comment?

[1:05] All right, since no one has signed up for public comment,

[1:08] we won't read the statement unless somebody signs up.

[1:12] That said, we will go to old business.

[1:14] Um, item number 6, number 1 is update on county buildings.

[1:17] Matt Hill emailed us and has a situation where he could not be here tonight.

[1:22] His report is submitted. If you have any questions, please email Matt for that.

[1:27] Next item is number 2, updates on all county projects.

[1:30] We've got Hewlett Spencer here to give us an update on item A, the courthouse first,

[1:35] so whoever wants to come do that one. I guess everybody will tag team and—

[1:39] Actually, Steve has left the room and we don't know where he's at,

[1:43] so we'd like to have you probably give the latest courthouse, Eric Previti.

[1:48] You probably know it more than anybody. Actually, Abby wants to—

[1:52] go ahead, we'll let Abby.

[1:55] So basically we've— and Eric, you might have to help me with this,

[1:59] but we've had to reapply the interior and the exterior of the building.

[2:05] And we have reapplied as of today for the interior, and the exterior will go before—

[2:11] there he is— courthouse. You could do this much better than me.

[2:15] Sorry.

[2:17] September 16th.

[2:18] Abby could have done it shorter, probably.

[2:20] Oh, excuse me. All right, go ahead and finish.

[2:21] Well, September 16th.

[2:23] She and I were just on the phone all day today.

[2:25] Right.

[2:26] September 16th, everything will be into the zoning for the city.

[2:30] And so that's where we're at right now with that,

[2:33] is doing those reapplications to separate them for the city, right, of Columbia.

[2:39] And, and when we say reapply, we're talking about for the permits.

[2:43] And so that said, we've had discussions and scenarios where the price tags on

[2:48] and scenarios where the price tags on those

[2:48] permits were going to be rather extensive.

[2:50] And so that said, I'll be going to the city council meetings here to ask the city

[2:55] city council meetings here to ask the city to

[2:56] forgive those, like similar to what we did with the judicial center.

[3:00] Hopefully that we can have good cooperation with the city and that they'll

[3:04] cooperation with the city and that they'll forgive

[3:05] those permits for that.

[3:06] I don't recall, it was a pretty extensive dollar mark on that.

[3:10] Of course, the problem with that is that it moves everything up a month.

[3:14] It delays things. So Hill and Spencer has been real good.

[3:18] Yeah.

[3:18] to work on items that don't require those permits to keep the ball rolling and keep

[3:24] everything going. So there's a lot going on.

[3:27] I do know that the brick paver sales have been going well.

[3:31] And so if you haven't bought one yet, buy a brick,

[3:34] have your family name or somebody you wish to recognize on the,

[3:38] on the east side steps.

[3:40] And unless Steve has got something more to that,

[3:43] I think that's all we got for the courthouse.

[3:46] Out of respect for this commission, thank you.

[3:49] All right, next item on the agenda is the animal shelter. Who gets that one?

[3:54] Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Markham, you're up, sir. Go ahead.

[3:57] Just a quick question. Do you know roughly how many bricks have sold?

[4:01] No, sir, I don't. We'd have to give it to the visitor center on that.

[4:06] All right, is that it?

[4:08] Okay. All right.

[4:10] Next item is the animal shelter.

[4:11] Animal shelter, short and sweet.

[4:12] Uh, thanks again for everybody who attended the, uh, the groundbreaking

[4:16] attended the, uh, the groundbreaking ceremony.

[4:16] And thanks to Kim for all her patience.

[4:18] Uh, we're currently still going through a review process.

[4:21] The revision 1 drawings are through the— with the city right now.

[4:24] Talked to the architect on it this morning, waiting for a callback.

[4:27] And if he doesn't get one by the end of the day today,

[4:29] he was going to call him in the morning.

[4:31] So we're still in a revision lookover, waiting for the permits.

[4:35] All right. And next item then is the— let's see here.

[4:38] We will— since you're standing there, we'll skip.

[4:40] We'll go ahead and go to the Mount Pleasant Library.

[4:43] We got the Columbia Library in between, but that's going to be Megan.

[4:47] So since y'all are up, we'll go ahead and skip and do Mount Pleasant.

[4:50] The Mount Pleasant Library, if y'all remember the original MOU,

[4:54] the entire piece of the Howard Field property was given to the county.

[4:59] Now Mount Pleasant, due to a grant issue and something,

[5:02] they're going to keep the dog park through Mount Pleasant and the softball fields.

[5:07] So they're going to take care of that part of the property.

[5:11] The county will get the remainder of the property.

[5:14] So that paperwork is being redone right now, going through the city.

[5:19] I believe it'll be in your admin committee tomorrow.

[5:22] I believe it comes back to the full commission on August 17th.

[5:26] There are a couple of meetings there in the City of Mount Pleasant that the

[5:30] paperwork is also going through. And once that is complete, we're ready to roll.

[5:36] Tomorrow morning at 10 AM is our big pre-con meeting with everyone— Mount

[5:40] pre-con meeting with everyone— Mount Pleasant,

[5:41] the engineers, Bell Construction, Hewlett Spencer. And so we're, we're moving. Yes.

[5:46] All right. Any questions on the Mount Pleasant Library?

[5:49] Commissioner Markham, you're up, sir.

[5:51] Thank you.

[5:52] So does that mean we'll see a cost savings?

[5:54] From the city taking care of the ball field?

[5:57] Yes, the county will not be taking care of that.

[5:59] They're going to be taking care of that.

[6:01] Okay, thank you.

[6:02] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, uh, Commissioner Gardahl, your light was on.

[6:05] I had a question about, uh, the bricks. Can someone send a link again?

[6:11] Yes, ma'am, absolutely.

[6:12] Yeah, sale of bricks.

[6:13] Okay, we'll do that.

[6:14] Yes, thank you.

[6:15] James, no more questions. Mr.

[6:16] Chairman, to piggyback off what Steve said, On behalf of Hewlett Spencer,

[6:21] we do want to thank this sitting commission.

[6:23] I had calculated these following projects that you guys approved and trusted us to

[6:28] manage: Unali Visitor Center, the Archives Building, the Judicial Center,

[6:32] Culeoaka Park, the Miracle Field, Mount Pleasant Library,

[6:36] the Murray County Animal Shelter, and of course the Murray County Courthouse.

[6:40] I, I think I got all those and covered them.

[6:43] And so we want to thank you for putting your trust in us.

[6:46] and our family firm to manage those for you.

[6:49] We've really appreciated this sitting commission, and for those that won't be

[6:53] commission, and for those that won't be back,

[6:54] we're going to miss you. Appreciate all that you've given us and trusted us with.

[6:59] Appreciate that. And I want to thank you personally.

[7:01] I can't speak for everybody,

[7:03] but I definitely value our friendships that have been built over the past decade

[7:07] that have been built over the past decade and

[7:08] more than that. And I hope the relationship will continue on for many

[7:11] relationship will continue on for many more years for

[7:12] all of the building projects that happen.

[7:15] So Okay, thank you for your service for that. Any other comments on those?

[7:19] All right, next item is going to be the Murray County Library,

[7:22] and we'll bring up Megan for that one. Good, good evening.

[7:25] Hello.

[7:29] Um, I was here last month, and some of those items that I was waiting on,

[7:33] we're still waiting on, but this week we started moving.

[7:36] So this week, um, they were able to get their overhead inspection done for the

[7:41] framing so that way they can continue Uh, their drywall,

[7:44] which is in the kitchen and the circulation desk.

[7:47] So they're prepping that now for paint and to finish up that texture on the,

[7:52] on the drywall. They finally approved,

[7:54] approved the workaround for our HVAC line that was a little larger than our ceiling

[7:59] tiles would allow. So they've now put that up and, and installed that.

[8:03] So now we can go for our overhead electrical inspection.

[8:06] Once we pass that, all the ceiling grids will be put back in and the ceiling tiles

[8:11] will be placed. And then all the rolling and dice will happen from all the stuff on

[8:16] the floor. So from there,

[8:17] they have started putting the frames in for the interior study rooms,

[8:21] and the glass for those just came in today.

[8:24] The exterior windows on the,

[8:26] on the backside of the building was installed a couple of weeks ago,

[8:30] and that looks phenomenal for the space.

[8:32] Mm-hmm.

[8:33] We're still waiting on the glass on the front of the building for the exterior

[8:37] window. Uh, but the study rooms will get—

[8:39] continue to be installed this week into next week.

[8:42] Once that is finished,

[8:43] then we will be able to start moving the stuff around for the carpet to get

[8:47] installed. That is going to be the last piece that they would like to do.

[8:50] They have some areas that still need to be painted.

[8:53] Uh, fixtures in the bathrooms and the kitchen areas are starting to get put in,

[8:57] and then we'll go for our plumbing inspection. Things are happening.

[9:01] We're just not quite there yet, but we're getting there.

[9:04] It's It's starting to come together and look like a new space.

[9:07] Great.

[9:08] I'm very glad to hear that. We do have a couple of lights.

[9:10] Commissioner Huffman, you're up, ma'am.

[9:12] Thank you, Chair.

[9:15] Hang on, hang on. You turned yourself off.

[9:17] Okay. Thank you, Chair. My question is a little bit different.

[9:22] You know, my husband is a city councilman.

[9:26] He got a call— he's had 2 or 3 calls from this gentleman that lives in the house

[9:33] behind the library. He is having water issues.

[9:36] His property is getting flooded every time it rains.

[9:41] We went up there and looked to see if we could tell what was causing it,

[9:47] and the only thing that we could see was possibly the storage trailer that's back

[9:54] there.

[9:54] Okay.

[9:55] That the water is going around it and cutting through his yard.

[9:59] And you can see all kinds of drainage areas through there.

[10:03] And he's, you know, we're trying to find out, you know, since it's county property,

[10:09] it's been worked on.

[10:10] We figured it was probably a county issue more than it was a city.

[10:15] Well, so, I mean, I have heard about the issue with He said it was from our

[10:20] roofline, but our roofline hasn't changed.

[10:23] I've talked to Robert in Building and Zoning about it and to see what my avenue

[10:28] Zoning about it and to see what my avenue was

[10:29] to go on correcting it.

[10:30] Like, parking lot will get redone, curved and striped at the end,

[10:35] but there was nothing done to the actual roofline to change anything.

[10:40] We are also getting runoff from the law office next door.

[10:44] Mm-hmm.

[10:45] So we're trying to solve where and how to best Fix that with the proper departments.

[10:50] Okay. He, you know, he told him that he would check on it,

[10:54] see if there was anything that they could do.

[10:56] And then when we went and looked, that's the only thing we could come up with,

[11:01] was that it, it's running down,

[11:02] hitting the big storage trailer back there and going around down through his yard.

[11:07] Okay.

[11:08] So appreciate, you know, if somebody could check in on that.

[11:12] Yes.

[11:12] Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

[11:14] Yes, ma'am. Commissioner Saunders, you're up.

[11:16] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[11:17] You may want to contact somebody at the City of Columbia that does the stormwater

[11:21] stuff, somebody in their engineering department, and see if they can come out

[11:25] department, and see if they can come out and—

[11:25] or public works— and see if they can come out and check out what's actually—

[11:29] if they can do anything about the runoff, you know, from those, those areas.

[11:32] So they could better,

[11:33] better suit you than everybody just trying to guess where it's coming from.

[11:37] They can, you know, they're the experts.

[11:39] Okay.

[11:40] Yep.

[11:40] Well, I know I've spent the last 3 weeks out of town,

[11:42] and every time I turned around and looked at the weather, it was raining up here.

[11:45] So I guess there's just been an overabundance of water flowing.

[11:48] Uh, Commissioner Grody, your light's on, ma'am.

[11:50] You're up.

[11:50] I couldn't resist this, uh,

[11:52] opportunity to talk to both the library and the sheriff at the same time.

[11:58] I went to an event at Mule House and saw at least 10 people That looked like they

[12:04] were in for the night on these benches.

[12:07] And so we need to have— I know we have security.

[12:11] I know we're paying $85,000 a year for security while the library's open,

[12:17] but we need to figure out something to get these people off of the benches.

[12:22] We're spending over $2 million on the building.

[12:26] So if we could get on some kind of rotation with the—

[12:30] Security.

[12:31] patrol on that, either the city or the county or both or whatever.

[12:35] I called Megan and told her about it, and I just—

[12:39] we just need some kind of help to get— if we have to take our benches off even.

[12:44] I hate to— I hate to have that as the fix, but after hours we have a problem.

[12:50] Well, let's bring that up at safety tomorrow, and then, you know, I mean,

[12:54] talk to the sheriff about that then.

[12:55] Um, I mean, we've already taken those benches up once them sleeping out there.

[12:59] I don't know the answer to that, but that's—

[13:02] there is a discussion that needs to be had about homelessness, and it is coming,

[13:06] and hope it is coming.

[13:07] I'm just trying to help.

[13:07] Anything else on the library project? Seeing none, thank you, Megan.

[13:12] Appreciate y'all being here.

[13:14] All right, next item on the agenda is the final— it says DD—

[13:18] it's the Sheriff's Department evidence building.

[13:21] So Sheriff Rowland, you have the floor, sir. You and your entourage.

[13:25] Yes, good afternoon everyone, and to the building committee,

[13:30] thank you for your service on this committee and of course with the full

[13:35] committee and of course with the full commission

[13:36] as well. But these 4 years, 4-year terms, they fly by.

[13:40] But anyway, as Captain Stample gets hooked up, this is— I hate that it—

[13:45] that we ended up in your last month, I guess,

[13:49] but it's better late than never because You know,

[13:52] we wanted to make sure that things were done correctly.

[13:56] So we'll back up to— all right, we'll back up to November.

[14:01] You know, we had a discussion then which Captain Stample,

[14:05] he's put together a PowerPoint, so I'd probably be better off to let him.

[14:10] I was going to— I thought it'd take him longer, but go ahead, Captain.

[14:15] Well, I'm going to keep this short as well for you guys, but Just 5 slides,

[14:21] kind of recap from where we were in November when we come to see you and bring

[14:27] November when we come to see you and bring this

[14:28] project up from where we had moved it down the road for a few years.

[14:33] So back in November, we come with a $2.1 rough estimate for the building.

[14:39] From that, we've learned that, you know,

[14:42] we had to have competitive bids put out by the architecture— by the architect.

[14:48] So architect put together a full working set of drawings.

[14:52] Those drawings went out to bids. We received 9 bids back from that process.

[14:58] Site work hasn't changed any other than we've got some new vegetation that we've

[15:04] we've got some new vegetation that we've got

[15:05] to clear off. This is a set of the bids that came back from the RFP that went out.

[15:11] Okay.

[15:12] Uh, the winning bid from that was Thrash Construction.

[15:17] We've actually got Gabe Thrash with Thrash Construction Services here tonight.

[15:23] Uh, there's an Alternate 1 and 2 on there.

[15:26] So City of Columbia building codes—

[15:29] Lawson White Drive out there is on city property.

[15:33] Alternate 1 is for generators to be hooked up to the building.

[15:38] So that it runs during a power outage.

[15:41] Alternate number 2 is also to include solar panels so that you have another

[15:47] solar panels so that you have another source

[15:48] of power other than electricity coming into the building through electric lines.

[15:54] That brings us to total of what we'd request additional to what we have would

[16:01] request additional to what we have would be,

[16:01] you know, $1.2 million.

[16:03] Making the total project cost $2.7 million for drawings, everything,

[16:08] and then that would include what we consider our FF&E,

[16:13] our high-density storage cabinets and things like that for records and evidence.

[16:19] All right.

[16:21] So that's all you

[16:25] got then?

[16:27] Yes, sir.

[16:28] All right.

[16:29] So first of all, to move this—

[16:30] What would you like?

[16:31] Well, I need a motion from this committee to keep talking about it and move it to

[16:35] budget. So I have a motion from Commissioner Markham.

[16:38] I have a second from Commissioner Morrow.

[16:40] So that said, there was money appropriated for this already.

[16:43] What was that amount again?

[16:45] It's going back to 2020, just before COVID or 2019.

[16:48] We approved $1.5 million for a one-level evidence and records building.

[16:53] Uh, COVID comes along, prices, uh, materials, everything. It was so

[16:58] materials, everything. It was so questionable.

[16:59] We decided to, uh, to hold off because, uh, you know,

[17:02] we wanted to make sure that we got the biggest bang for our buck and everything

[17:08] biggest bang for our buck and everything and

[17:08] let the market kind of settle down.

[17:10] So during that time, there is a little silver lining there is we started looking,

[17:16] uh, at a different site, which we're now building, not just for the future,

[17:21] but for our current needs as well, for the ones that have been out to Yes.

[17:26] Our training building,

[17:28] you all know how tight that is and how much of a need of space that we need for

[17:33] much of a need of space that we need for our

[17:33] training. So that's what the lower level is for, is for training currently.

[17:38] And hopefully it, and prayerfully it stays that way,

[17:42] but potentially it could be used, you know,

[17:45] for records or evidence as the county continues to grow and you get farther down

[17:50] continues to grow and you get farther down the

[17:51] road as well. But so that's kind of the silver lining.

[17:54] And so that's where the, the other increase as well— we,

[17:58] we went from 5,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet, uh, for less than,

[18:03] than half of the increase.

[18:05] Well, that was what I wanted to clarify, is that the 2020 commission, we,

[18:09] we approved the 1.5, so all you need is the 1.2. I've got a quick question for

[18:14] the 1.2. I've got a quick question for Doug.

[18:15] Doug, has that 1.5 been drawing interest this whole time?

[18:18] And can we apply that interest to shrink the $1.2 billion?

[18:22] I mean, not all funds are invested,

[18:24] but you could say that in a roundabout way it's earned interest,

[18:28] but this would be best suited to be funded out of the 189 fund. The money's there.

[18:34] We passed a surplus budget in that fund.

[18:36] We'd expend all of the adequate facilities tax funds first because they're tied to

[18:42] that old law. And then we'd go with the $189 million the rest of the way.

[18:47] And that's a discussion for the Budget Committee. All right.

[18:49] Commissioner Saunders, your light's on, sir.

[18:51] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Doug, just a quick recap on that.

[18:57] That $1.5 million that's already budgeted was from adequate facilities.

[19:03] So it technically was not earning interest because it was sitting in the adequate

[19:10] facilities fund. Just waiting to be expended, correct?

[19:15] The interest from all funds that is earned,

[19:18] it just goes to the 151 fund.

[19:20] So that cash that sat there, some of it earned interest.

[19:24] Okay.

[19:25] Yeah.

[19:26] So the 189 fund, we, we carried over a 1 point— what was the,

[19:31] what was the debt, the surplus we carried over that,

[19:35] like $1.3 million?

[19:36] $1.175 million.

[19:38] Okay. $1.175 million.

[19:39] And then so There's already—

[19:42] there's a surplus in there right now as well.

[19:46] $1,100,000. Are you talking about for this year?

[19:49] Existing surplus. Yeah.

[19:50] Yes. But those are for projects.

[19:52] A fund balance. I'm sorry. A fund balance.

[19:53] Yeah.

[19:53] There's fund balance in there.

[19:55] Okay.

[19:55] So that we could take the additional—

[19:56] The surplus from this prior year,

[19:58] it's going to get carried over into a budget amendment.

[20:00] You'll see a budget committee where we move those to next year.

[20:03] But there— is there $1.2 million worth in that 189 fund to

[20:08] offset the The $2.7 million to offset the $1.2 million

[20:13] additional?

[20:14] Yes, not $2.7 million, but $1.2 million.

[20:17] There's $1.2 million additional dollars in the 189 to offset that.

[20:22] Yeah, I'm fine with that.

[20:23] All right.

[20:23] Okay.

[20:23] Thank you.

[20:24] Is that all you have, sir?

[20:25] Yeah. I make a motion to move this to budget.

[20:27] We already, we already got it.

[20:28] To move it to budget?

[20:29] Yeah. Commissioner Morrow made it and Commissioner— I'm sorry, Commissioner

[20:33] Commissioner— I'm sorry, Commissioner Martin.

[20:33] I thought it was just a motion. I didn't hear the motion to move it to budget.

[20:35] hear the motion to move it to budget. Yeah.

[20:35] Move it to budget.

[20:36] Yeah.

[20:37] Let's see, Mr. Markham, you're up.

[20:39] I'm sorry, Burkhardt first, the first front row, yeah, Burkhardt, okay.

[20:44] Hey, Doug, I've got a question for you. Do we have a budget yet from the state?

[20:50] No, but I haven't been asked any questions, and they have 30 days, so

[20:56] questions, and they have 30 days, so August 6th,

[20:57] this Friday, is that right? Thursday, this Thursday, voting day, Right on time.

[21:03] Budget gets passed on voting day.

[21:06] Okay. But if we don't have a budget by Monday, can this go to budget?

[21:11] Can we— what, how does that work?

[21:13] Um, I'll, I'll knock on this,

[21:15] but I plan on us having a budget.

[21:18] If they say, hey, we need more time to review this budget.

[21:23] Yeah.

[21:23] I'm going to move forward as if I've got one.

[21:25] Okay. So you, you, you're— I'm not worried about it. Moving forward.

[21:30] Yeah.

[21:30] Okay.

[21:31] Got business to do.

[21:32] Okay.

[21:33] Commissioner.

[21:33] Sheriff, on your training area, is that going to be on the ground floor?

[21:38] Yes, sir. On the lower level.

[21:40] Lower level. Okay. Yeah. What will you do with your training area that you have now?

[21:45] It's still— it'll be utilized just like it is.

[21:49] Still, you'll still be using it as a training area.

[21:52] You just have additional training area.

[21:54] Yes, sir. As you can see, you've been out in the training building,

[21:59] but you see that space. We have to clear out the tables and everything.

[22:04] And of course, you try to keep that spot, that space,

[22:07] you want it more for a classroom setting.

[22:10] Where we want, where we would love to have this new space,

[22:14] it's going to be more for the hands-on and lots of different training that you can

[22:20] do there. A lot of, a lot of other uses as well for meeting spaces, uh,

[22:25] not just for us but for others.

[22:27] Of course, we, we would love to be able to host some trainings for surrounding

[22:32] counties, but we just don't have that space,

[22:35] which could potentially bring in a little bit of revenue as well once we get that

[22:41] space.

[22:41] And your upper— your ground floor, that will be evidence, is that right?

[22:47] That's evidence, uh, records that have been kept that we have to keep, you know,

[22:52] from now on, uh, and then our logistics as well.

[22:55] So all of our, uh, equipment and everything, law enforcement equipment, um,

[23:00] corrections equipment, anything like that, will— it's 3 different phases upstairs,

[23:06] uh, that will meet the needs of, of that.

[23:08] And the, the area that you have that is over at the Jail site, right?

[23:14] And that evidence currently—

[23:16] You're right.

[23:16] Yes, sir. It's where the old investigations used to be.

[23:20] Yeah, I've been in there.

[23:22] Yes, sir.

[23:22] And what will you use that for? Yeah, I've been in there. It's pretty—

[23:26] So if you've been in dispatch, you've seen how it's— I mean,

[23:31] we've already taken out walls in the past 12 years,

[23:34] over the past 12 years to extend that, and they're on top of one another.

[23:39] So in the future, that would be turned into a dispatch center where evidence is

[23:45] currently at.

[23:46] Okay.

[23:46] Where records is at, which is just outside of my office,

[23:50] between there and reception where the clerks are at, that will in the future,

[23:55] that will be turned into—

[23:57] it'll be bulletproof glass and the clerks be accessible to the public as soon as

[24:02] they come in instead of We don't really have a hard structure between our clerks

[24:08] and, you know, anybody that walks in that may be wanting to see a magistrate or a

[24:14] deputy.

[24:14] Okay. Oh, what, what is your time frame on this?

[24:17] 18 months, you said, from the time the construction starts?

[24:21] Oh no, sir. Uh, which, uh, Gabe,

[24:24] he may be able to come up.

[24:27] We have 270 days from the notice to proceed.

[24:33] 270 days?

[24:34] Yes, sir.

[24:34] Oh, wow.

[24:35] Okay.

[24:36] Um, okay, Sheriff, was that you in the orange suit a while ago?

[24:40] It may have been. I didn't see the picture.

[24:45] I'm sorry.

[24:45] You look good in that.

[24:49] All right, is that all you have?

[24:49] I have one other picture here, Mr. Burkhardt.

[24:52] The chair recognizes the Honorable Mayor Butt.

[24:54] I don't have my light on.

[24:58] Uh, yeah, while we're waiting,

[25:00] Gabe's got the floor plan of what the new building would look like.

[25:05] Well, in that case, so starting with the upper level, guys, um,

[25:08] this is a floor plan here,

[25:10] and then let me know when y'all want to view the lower level.

[25:13] All right, in that case, the chair recognizes the gentleman.

[25:16] Uh, Commissioner Morrow, you're up, sir. Back to committee.

[25:19] Well, I'm, I'm going to save my comment for when we

[25:25] get to the, the parks improvement, the— our parks.

[25:31] Not on the sheriff then?

[25:32] No, it's, it's just on our spending in general.

[25:35] All right. So you don't— okay. In that case, Commissioner, who is this?

[25:39] Yeah, Commissioner Girdie.

[25:41] I just want to know a little bit about why we can't scan evidence,

[25:46] or I know we can't scan evidence, but The records, can we see—

[25:51] are we scanning records, or what's the deal with that?

[25:56] That's one of the, uh,

[25:58] probably one of the biggest accomplishments that Captain Stamphill has

[26:03] accomplishments that Captain Stamphill has implemented

[26:03] as far as scanning documents that, that,

[26:06] that can be scanned and done away with and kept to keep a digital footprint of that.

[26:13] However, we have a— currently we have a jail With every broom closet and

[26:18] jail With every broom closet and everything

[26:19] else that has records shoved in it for, I mean, decades and decades.

[26:24] I mean, literally office space to where, you know,

[26:27] the clerks are having to walk through paths where we're all walking through

[26:33] paths where we're all walking through paths

[26:33] that still need somewhere for those to be stored.

[26:37] There's always going to be hard copies that are going to have to be—

[26:42] stored as far as the records go. And Captain, he may want to speak on that.

[26:47] As far as evidence, it's going to— with every case that comes in,

[26:52] you collect evidence.

[26:53] Mm-hmm.

[26:54] And it's a different time frame of how long we have to keep that on the severity

[27:00] long we have to keep that on the severity of

[27:00] the crime. That's just like I'm sure you saw on social media.

[27:04] It's been pretty quiet up until Saturday,

[27:07] and it was something that was put out on social media, but Uh, anyway,

[27:12] it's our triple homicide, uh, that we've, we've worked 5 years ago,

[27:16] or 5 years ago in October.

[27:18] Um, that, that's all in this, uh, uh, in this plan for the upstairs with evidence,

[27:24] is to have a space to dry evidence, to, to make sure that it's done correctly,

[27:29] to preserve that evidence.

[27:31] Uh, we've just, uh, uh, we've kind of winged it for a long time, uh,

[27:35] and sometimes it's bit us, sometimes it hasn't, but This—

[27:39] there's no bells and whistles with this.

[27:42] This is just basic storage for evidence and records,

[27:46] and that's all we're asking for.

[27:48] It's just something basic, but a lot better than what we currently have.

[27:53] I have a question about the building itself, if you could answer that.

[27:58] I don't know your name. Gabe, do we have extra protection, fire protection?

[28:03] Are we doing beefed-up fire protection,

[28:06] or what's going to keep it from burning up?

[28:11] Okay.

[28:13] Yes, the structure is fireproof.

[28:15] Both up and down is fireproof? Upstairs and downstairs?

[28:22] Okay.

[28:22] Thank you.

[28:23] Is that all you have, ma'am?

[28:25] Thank you.

[28:25] All right. Chair recognizes the gentleman from the 4th District. Mr.

[28:28] Kozlowski, you're up.

[28:29] Thank you, Chairman. Just a real quick question for you.

[28:31] Sheriff, uh, there was an option up there of doing the generators and the solar

[28:35] panels or whatever. Is that included in the number here that you were planning on

[28:39] doing all of that?

[28:39] Right.

[28:40] Excellent. That's all. Thank you.

[28:41] That's all you have? All right, chair recognizes Commissioner Strain.

[28:45] You're up, sir.

[28:46] Thank you, chair. The evidence—

[28:48] is there a need for that to be temperature controlled,

[28:53] which would explain why you ask for a generator?

[28:58] Yes, sir.

[28:58] So the generator isn't for the convenience of keeping the refrigerator running.

[29:04] The generator is to protect the evidence.

[29:07] So that seems like a necessity rather than a request,

[29:10] as the solar panels obviously would be a request, I think. But am I right?

[29:15] You're correct.

[29:17] Both of them are alternates.

[29:18] We can do both of them, or if we want to do the generator no matter what,

[29:22] that makes Yeah, I would think you would just put that in there.

[29:26] I don't—

[29:27] if it's required to have temperature control, it shouldn't be an option.

[29:32] That should be a necessity.

[29:34] The solar, the option 2, that solar, that, that's where, you know,

[29:38] past discussions that we've talked about of whether this needs to be under Murray

[29:44] County codes and zoning or the city with it falling Within the, uh,

[29:48] the city's purview, you know, that's what they're currently in.

[29:53] It actually calls for it to be— to have a generator.

[29:56] Well, potentially a generator, but they call for, uh, that their international

[30:01] call for, uh, that their international code,

[30:02] it calls for solar power to be on that building.

[30:05] Um, you know, it's a good chance we'll ask them to,

[30:08] to kind of waive the solar and let's just have a generator, but—

[30:13] I—

[30:17] it seems like you're duplicating.

[30:18] What's that?

[30:20] The generator and the solar.

[30:22] No, we're creating redundancy backups.

[30:25] Yeah, well, like we have an animal shelter and they don't— they have neither.

[30:30] So, but they don't have— they have animals and not evidence.

[30:33] So anyway, thank you.

[30:35] Is that all you have? Okay, we have no other lights.

[30:38] That said, we have a motion on the floor to pass this to the Budget Committee from

[30:42] Commissioner Markham. It was seconded by Commissioner Morrow. All in favor say aye.

[30:47] Aye. Any opposed? All right, that passes.

[30:49] Gentlemen, thank y'all for being here tonight.

[30:52] Next item on the agenda is the, um, let's see here, that's— you guys,

[30:56] that's an old printout here. I got to bring this one up.

[30:59] Phase 1 of the Park Service.

[31:00] Yep, Phase 1 of the Park Service.

[31:02] So this is Item B, um,

[31:04] and so basically we've already had a discussion on this You know,

[31:08] in the last committee meeting, so I don't see the need to rehash that.

[31:12] I need a motion to move this to the Budget Committee. I have Commissioner Sumners.

[31:17] I have a second from Commissioner Markham.

[31:20] Is there any discussion on moving this to budget? Is there any public comment?

[31:25] Anybody? Okay, I do have 2 lights from the committee.

[31:28] Commissioner Sumners, you're up.

[31:30] Hey, Doug, can you come up for a second?

[31:36] So, Markham, $7.6 million, correct?

[31:40] Is that what I saw?

[31:43] Yeah.

[31:47] Uh, our 151 fund is our debt service fund.

[31:49] What's the fund balance in that fund right now?

[31:53] Uh, as of the end of May, it was around $56 million.

[31:56] What is the unrestricted fund balance?

[31:59] Um, so basically we got, we got to follow our debt policy, which is, is 50%,

[32:05] and so really, if we take a look at that 50%, $17.5 million is restricted,

[32:11] so the rest, which is about $39 million, would be unrestricted,

[32:16] but it has to always be used for debt unless you do a resolution and get

[32:22] unless you do a resolution and get approval

[32:23] from the state, which there's precedence for that.

[32:27] Okay.

[32:27] In which you cannot— it can't be tied to property taxes.

[32:31] It's got to be tied to your interest revenue.

[32:34] And thankfully for us, our interest revenue this past year was $6.5 million.

[32:40] The year before that, it was over $11 million.

[32:43] The year before that, it was around $4.5 million.

[32:47] So we have proof that interest revenue can provide for a cash funding of something

[32:52] like this.

[32:53] $7.6 million. And we're talking cash. We're not talking borrowing.

[32:57] We're not talking about putting any—

[32:59] Burden on any taxpayers or anything like that.

[33:01] Now, for the legal fees and filing with the state and everything,

[33:05] we'll pay about $6,000.

[33:06] Okay.

[33:07] So I drew a

[33:11] blank there.

[33:15] Sorry.

[33:16] It was the big number of $6,000, wasn't it?

[33:18] I think so. It just shocked me.

[33:20] So the— okay, so the— so our Yearly payments for the, for the 151 Fund.

[33:26] What is the yearly payments that come out of that fund?

[33:30] What's— what, what, what do we expend, I guess, out of that fund?

[33:35] So there's a lot that passes through the fund, and so the,

[33:39] the budget that we're actually liable and what we're actually liable are 2 different

[33:44] numbers, okay, um, because we have shared borrowings with the airport,

[33:49] with Murray County Water, and, uh, Also one with, uh,

[33:53] we've actually finished the ones with Murray Regional,

[33:56] and so they're solely on them.

[33:58] And then we get funding from the schools for some of theirs.

[34:02] So grand scheme of things, um, if all of those parties couldn't pay their debt,

[34:07] probably be somewhere around $42 million.

[34:10] Um, but really we're at about $35 million a year.

[34:13] What's the budgeted number that we expend out of that fund?

[34:17] It's $35 million, I believe, but I'll just give you the exact one.

[34:23] It's actually $32.5 million.

[34:25] That's what we budget out of that fund.

[34:27] $32,459,098.

[34:30] And we've got $50— $56 million in the fund balance. Okay.

[34:34] And this is due to interest revenue from idle capital funds, and they weren't idle.

[34:40] We were spending them.

[34:42] It's just hard to spend so much that fast when you have interruptions or zoning or

[34:47] whatever. And plus, we borrowed a lot from 2014 through today.

[34:51] You know, when you're holding $400 million in debt, you know,

[34:56] you don't spend it all right away.

[34:58] You get a windfall of some of this interest revenue.

[35:02] Interest rates have been higher than—

[35:04] I don't want to say normal because it's become a little bit more normal.

[35:09] But in the last couple of years,

[35:11] we've been able to earn a much higher interest percentage than when the previous

[35:17] trustee was here. We, we had CDs that we spent a lot of money on,

[35:21] and we'd get 1.7% or 0.69%.

[35:23] Now we're doing T-bills, LGIP, different things to get around 4 to 5%.

[35:28] We're in the 3% range right now just because of how the market is.

[35:33] Okay.

[35:33] All right.

[35:34] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Doug.

[35:35] Very good. Commissioner Morrow, you're up, sir.

[35:37] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[35:39] My comments do more with our overall spending and stuff than

[35:43] on the specific issue of it, but—

[35:46] You want to wait until after that then?

[35:48] No, I'll go ahead here because we're working on the park improvements.

[35:53] The evidence building was, to my mind, we'd already appropriated money toward

[35:58] we'd already appropriated money toward that.

[35:58] That's a project that needed to be completed.

[36:01] And we do need evidence storage because there's—

[36:04] it's amazing how many cold cases get solved by old evidence that's been stored

[36:09] because the technology for analyzing stuff is so much better these days.

[36:14] The park, yeah, I was either in the 3rd or 4th grade when that original park was

[36:19] built, that baseball park was built.

[36:21] And I'll be 70 a little later this year and we're both about worn out.

[36:26] So yeah, I think that money is justified.

[36:28] But, and I don't know what's going to happen Thursday,

[36:32] I may or may not wind up on the commission again,

[36:35] but if I wind up back on the commission,

[36:38] I think we need to rein in some of our building.

[36:41] That list of projects that Jamie read off a while ago was very impressive.

[36:46] We've done a lot of building, we have spent a lot of money,

[36:49] and I would say just about all of it was due to be spent.

[36:53] But my understanding on the budget is the budget we submitted was about a $6 million

[36:58] deficit. We need to get back toward a balanced budget.

[37:02] So I think we need to kind of rein in our spending in this next term.

[37:06] So if I'm on— if I am on the commission for another term, I intend to push for

[37:11] for another term, I intend to push for that.

[37:12] Not to say we're not going to build anything,

[37:15] but I think we need to double and triple check everything that we think we need and

[37:20] make sure we really need it before we spend the money because—

[37:24] We do not want to get into tax increase territory. We just don't. Thank you.

[37:29] All right. Thanks, sir, for that. Commissioner Burkhalter, you're up, sir.

[37:33] Okay. Thank you.

[37:34] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can I ask Mr. Ray to come back up?

[37:38] Yeah.

[37:38] You don't—

[37:39] yeah.

[37:39] Okay. Mr. Ray, this, this Phase 1 project,

[37:43] it looks like we've got the money to fund it without borrowing any money.

[37:49] But the Phase 2 is going to probably be a different animal.

[37:54] Is there any chances of getting grants to help on the Phase 2?

[37:59] A chance? Yes, yes, there is.

[38:02] Yeah, there'll be opportunities to bring

[38:06] something, I hope.

[38:07] Okay. I definitely won't be back on the commission.

[38:11] Well, we'll do— we'll beat the bushes. That's what we do.

[38:16] And it'll take a while to program that building.

[38:19] You know, that's— That's, uh, on the little out,

[38:23] but hopefully a good grant cycle will roll around and, and we can bring that.

[38:29] Okay, well, like, like Commissioner Morrow said, you know, I,

[38:34] I definitely want me back. I know that, but I sure don't want my taxes raised.

[38:39] But I think these 2 projects, these 2 projects here, uh,

[38:43] the sheriff's evidence room and everything,

[38:46] part of it's already been set aside and funded.

[38:49] This part, part 1, is definitely, uh, I think, a good start.

[38:53] But, you know, I think part 2, phase 2,

[38:56] is going to be quite considerably higher than what we're looking at on this one.

[39:01] So I, I would encourage y'all to beat every bush you can to see if you can find

[39:07] every bush you can to see if you can find some

[39:07] grant money for that. Thank you, sir.

[39:10] Absolutely. Thank you.

[39:11] Is that all you have?

[39:12] Yes.

[39:12] All right, I see no other lights.

[39:13] So, that said, we have a motion on the floor from Commissioner Sumners to pass

[39:17] floor from Commissioner Sumners to pass this

[39:17] budget. It was seconded by Commissioner Markham. All in favor say aye.

[39:21] Aye.

[39:22] All opposed? All right, that passes. Thank you for that.

[39:25] So, that said, that takes us to the next item on our agenda,

[39:29] which is public comment. Would anybody like to come up and speak public comment?

[39:34] All right, seeing none, we'll move on from that.

[39:37] Next item on the agenda are the announcements.

[39:40] All committee members' terms will expire in September.

[39:44] And so that said, I've got something I want to say here before we adjourn.

[39:48] Mark, would you do me a favor?

[39:50] In that chair next to you, to your right, there's a bag.

[39:54] Would you bring that up here, please?

[39:56] Guys, we need to— this is the last meeting of this term for this committee and the

[40:02] committee before it.

[40:03] I find it unfortunate that that chairman left, but anyhow,

[40:07] Cindy has been taking care of us for many years, and so I'm giving her this.

[40:12] I want to present her with this to thank her,

[40:15] and I want everybody to thank Cindy because this is the last meeting that

[40:19] because this is the last meeting that she's

[40:20] going to be working with us here.

[40:22] We have Lisa tomorrow night, and then the budget people that night,

[40:26] and then Lisa that. So I want to thank Cindy for what you've done to keep us—

[40:31] committee chair— all committee chairs that you've worked with.

[40:35] It's been an honor and a pleasure to work with you and everything, so—

[40:39] Thank you.

[40:41] So, so, so anyway, hang that on your wall.

[40:44] And so anyway, I just, you know, if anybody wants to say something about

[40:50] anybody wants to say something about Cindy,

[40:50] now's the time. Otherwise, we're going to adjourn. Keep it nice. Keep it nice.

[40:57] All right.

[40:57] That said, nobody's hitting the lights. I'll take a motion to adjourn.

[41:01] And thank you all for allowing me to serve as your chairman these, all these years.

[41:05] And we are adjourned.

Regular August 2026 Building Meeting

Transcript