[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.