[0:00] So, we're meeting for the month of August.
[0:03] 8 months down and 3 more to go, hopefully.
[0:06] Maybe December we supposed to be, like,
solid, but who knows.
[0:11] So I've asked Commissioner Evans to do the
pledge, and I'm going to do the prayer.
[0:17] Will y'all please stand, please? Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
[0:22] My Heavenly Father, once again we come
assembling to represent you,
[0:27] that you use us to do the things that
you'll be well pleased with.
[0:32] Father, bless this meeting tonight. Bless
everyone in this room.
[0:37] Bless all of our families, dear Lord.
Bless our children, dear Lord.
[0:42] Bless our school system. Bless our first
responders.
[0:46] And bless our young men, women, boys,
[0:49] and girls in the military on foreign soil
as they protect us and allow us to be able
[0:56] to assemble freely as we do.
[0:58] Father, we pray that you would just use us
to do what's right and let us do the
[1:04] things that you'll be well pleased with,
[1:07] because we can't do anything unless you
let us do it.
[1:11] And the things that we do, Lord, We know
if we're doing it for you,
[1:17] then it can't be nothing but right.
[1:19] And Lord Jesus, we ask a special blessing
upon those that are going through maybe
[1:26] bereavement, sickness.
[1:27] And Father, things that I fail to ask you
for, please fail not to grant.
[1:33] These and all blessings we ask and we pray
in your name, the mighty name of Jesus.
[1:39] Thank you, one eternal God. Amen.
[1:42] Amen.
[1:43] Please join me in the salute to the flag.
[1:45] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
[1:51] United States of America and to the
Republic
[1:51] for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible,
[1:55] with liberty and justice for all.
[2:00] Thank you all for that.
[2:06] Let's see. Let the meeting reflect all
members are here tonight.
[2:12] And, uh, can I get approval of the agenda?
[2:16] Commissioner Hollinsworth, can I get a
second on that? Commissioner Evans.
[2:23] All in favor of the agenda, let it be
known by the sound of aye.
[2:29] Aye.
[2:29] I have heard the motion passes. The agenda
is approved.
[2:33] Have we all had a chance to look over the
minutes?
[2:36] From the prior meeting of July?
[2:38] We did.
[2:38] What we'll do is just let those minutes
stand
[2:45] as read. Public comments.
[2:48] Is anybody signed up for public comments
back
[2:54] there? Okay. Nick Beck.
[2:58] What would you like to speak on, Mr. Beck?
[3:04] I'd like to speak on the county park
project.
[3:06] I don't have a whole long-winded speech.
[3:09] If it would be better for me to wait till
right before the agenda item,
[3:13] I can do that.
[3:14] Uh, either way, if you want to do it, you
can speak now or wait to the end,
[3:18] whatever you want to do.
[3:20] Uh, I'll wait till then. Okay.
[3:24] All right, sir. That's all.
[3:25] All right, so I'm going to read this about
the public comment since we got someone
[3:30] speaking on public comment.
[3:32] To provide public comment germane to a
specific agenda item,
[3:36] please complete and return a public form
available in person immediately prior to
[3:41] the scheduled meeting.
[3:42] Additionally, there are 2 defined public
comment periods for county business
[3:47] comment periods for county business
whereby
[3:47] no sign-up is required.
[3:49] At the discretion of the chairperson,
public comment is limited to 30 minutes.
[3:54] Aggregates With 3 minutes per speaker
distributed across 3 sessions:
[3:58] the outset of the meeting, during specific
agenda items,
[4:02] and at the conclusion of county business.
[4:04] All comments shall be addressed to the
body rather than any one member,
[4:09] and there will be no rebuttal thereafter.
As we move forward, Health Department, Mr.
[4:14] Kenny.
[4:14] Good evening, everyone. I just have an MOU
with Murray Regional Medical Center.
[4:19] It's non-monetary. Simply,
[4:21] this is allowing us to send staff to their
mom and baby unit to allow us to complete
[4:27] women, infants, and children visits.
[4:29] This assists in not having a mom who needs
these benefits come into the health
[4:34] department physically with a new baby,
possibly postpartum C-section,
[4:39] so we can complete the visit in the
hospital in the unit while they're there.
[4:44] So all this MOU is stating is that we're
allowed in there and following their
[4:49] security protocols Okay, we just need to
move that forward. Yes, sir.
[4:54] All right, can I get a motion to move that
forward, please?
[4:57] Commissioner Strand, seconded by
Commissioner Hollinsworth. All in favor?
[5:02] Any questions? We're moving it forward.
[5:05] Thank you.
[5:06] Also, we do have a date on our Fight Flu
Tennessee event.
[5:08] This is statewide every year.
[5:09] Health departments across the state offer
free flu shots.
[5:12] It's going to be October 20th. That's a
Tuesday.
[5:14] As soon as we get more information and
locations determined on where we will be
[5:17] locations determined on where we will be
in
[5:18] the community to offer this, I'll get that
out to everybody.
[5:23] All right. You got an announcement as
well? Is that your announcement?
[5:29] That's it, yeah.
[5:29] Okay.
[5:30] That's it? That's it? Okay. Any questions
for Mr. Kinney?
[5:35] Anyone?
[5:37] Madam Mayor?
[5:38] I just wanted to remind him that the
announcement is on here for the Regional
[5:42] announcement is on here for the Regional
Health
[5:43] Office open house.
[5:44] Oh, sorry.
[5:45] Thank you for reminding me.
[5:49] Friday, is it August 21st? I don't have
the address memorized, but Honey Farms
[5:54] the address memorized, but Honey Farms
Way.
[5:54] So it's 2 buildings down from the
McDonald's on Highway 31.
[5:58] Our new regional health office,
[6:00] which has been across from Hospitalets
Daycare right next to the hospital urgent
[6:05] care for the last 30-plus years, they
finally got a new building and are
[6:09] finally got a new building and are
relocating.
[6:10] Moving week is current right now,
[6:12] and the ribbon cutting and grand opening
will be the 21st.
[6:16] And I was— I sent the flyer and we can
share that with everyone, but all is
[6:21] share that with everyone, but all is
welcome.
[6:21] Thank you.
[6:22] All right, sir. Is there any question for
Mr. Kinney other than that? That's it, Mr.
[6:29] Kinney?
[6:29] Thank you.
[6:30] Thank you, sir. Solid Waste, Mr. Turner.
[6:35] Good evening.
[6:43] Good evening.
[6:45] Just want to provide a couple updates.
[6:48] We did finish cleaning up our brush, so
that is all gone.
[6:51] And then we took 672 tons of material that
we diverted from a landfill from that.
[6:56] And I calculated some numbers up for some
of the diversions for what we did last
[7:01] fiscal year. I emailed those out, and I
did notice I missed one item on there,
[7:06] which is clothing. So I'll send out a
revised on that.
[7:09] So we have those America Thrift Stores
drop box at the centers.
[7:13] And they are basically goodwill at the
center.
[7:15] So I'll revise this and send that back
out.
[7:18] But I did want to highlight,
[7:20] after purchasing that burner box just from
this one event,
[7:23] saved the county about $32,000 versus
disposal of that wood waste.
[7:27] So other items that are larger quantity
would be cardboard and metal has continued
[7:32] to be very lucrative items for us,
[7:34] and we're going to hopefully see that
going forward.
[7:37] A new one for us this go-around that we
started a couple months back is e-waste,
[7:42] and it's— I'm not going to say it's going
to be a high-dollar item,
[7:46] but it is working out to be a lucrative
item,
[7:49] and it's making sense for us to do that.
[7:51] So, going forward, just kind of continuing
with the true-up for last fiscal year,
[7:56] convenience centers took almost 15,000
tons of waste that was processed through
[8:01] tons of waste that was processed through
our
[8:01] transfer station, which took a total of
30— almost 32,000 tons of waste.
[8:06] For the last fiscal year.
[8:07] And then continuing with what I presented
last time I was here, the financial data—
[8:12] I sent that out as well— continuing to
trend upwards.
[8:15] So I think that if we keep this up for
another couple of months, we'll
[8:20] another couple of months, we'll
essentially—
[8:20] hopefully, if we keep the trend we're
going—
[8:23] almost catch up with what we were doing
before the city left.
[8:27] So everything seems to be moving in a
pretty, pretty good direction there.
[8:31] Good deal. Is that all you have, Mr.
Matthew?
[8:35] Pretty much, yeah.
[8:37] Is that it?
[8:39] Yes, sir.
[8:40] Any question from Ms. Matthew? Okay. Um,
any question from the committee?
[8:45] No from committee. Commissioner Sumner?
[8:47] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[8:49] Is the burn box better than a grinder?
I'm, I'm asking for Mr.
[8:53] Evans' benefit. No, I want to know if the
burn box is better than the
[8:57] grinder.
[9:00] Mr. Turner?
[9:00] Personally, I believe so, yes.
[9:01] That is my opinion.
[9:02] Thank you.
[9:03] All right. You're on for this guy.
Commissioner Grody?
[9:09] Is there any way that in the future you—
[9:12] are we still adding new customers every
month?
[9:16] Like, if you could have like a sentence
about how many new customers we add every
[9:22] month, that would help. Okay.
[9:25] I think we might have added one this last
thing.
[9:27] That's probably why I didn't include it.
[9:28] Just a running total maybe, or running
monthly total that we add. Thank you.
[9:36] All right. Thank you. Mr. Burkhardt.
[9:38] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[9:40] Matt, did I understand you to say your
metal waste that you're selling,
[9:45] it's pretty lucrative right now? Did I
hear— did I understand that?
[9:50] We just put that out for rebid with the
new fiscal year.
[9:53] We're getting 9 cents a pound for the
metal.
[9:54] 9 cents a pound?
[9:55] Correct.
[9:56] Is, is that a yearly contract?
[10:00] Yes.
[10:00] It is a yearly, and who got that?
[10:03] Waste Solutions of Tennessee.
[10:05] Okay, where are they located at?
[10:08] The facility is located in, I believe,
Williamson County. It's up Carter's Creek.
[10:12] It's the old B. Miller location.
[10:13] Okay, so do you have to haul it to them?
[10:17] Yes, we do.
[10:17] Okay, and you put that out to bid?
[10:22] That's correct, yeah.
[10:22] Okay, okay, and I was just wondering if it
would have been—
[10:26] I guess you've got to go with the high bid
because it seems that's—
[10:30] I don't know what you were getting for it,
where you were taking it to.
[10:35] Bids from last year were 6, 6.5 cents, so
it was more.
[10:39] We did factor, you know, Last year when we
did this, we did factor in travel time.
[10:44] This year there was a mix-up and some
confusion from some of our previous people
[10:50] confusion from some of our previous people
who
[10:50] bidded, and there was only one bidder, so
that kind of tied our hands.
[10:55] Oh, yeah. So you only had one bidder this
year?
[10:58] That's correct, yep.
[10:59] Oh, wow.
[11:00] Okay.
[11:01] All right.
[11:02] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[11:03] All right. Matthews, I think that's it.
[11:05] Nobody else has chimed in, so— You're good
to go, sir.
[11:09] Thank you.
[11:09] Thank you. Water Department, Mr. Schultz.
I don't see him.
[11:13] There he is back there, hiding on us
tonight.
[11:17] You was not in your usual spot.
[11:19] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a brief
update on our water connection with HBNTS.
[11:26] We are, you know, on schedule with that to
be through by the end of September.
[11:34] September.
[11:35] And with that, I'll answer any questions
anyone may have.
[11:39] Anyone have any questions for Mr. Schultz?
[11:42] Anyone on the committee? Anyone,
commissioners?
[11:46] Yes, Commissioner Burkhardt.
[11:48] Mr. Chairman, Todd, you say you are on
schedule for
[11:53] that connection there out on 431, that's
correct?
[11:57] Yes, sir, that's correct.
[11:59] Okay.
[12:00] When—
[12:02] I know where you're going to be putting
the water tank there on Jim Warren.
[12:06] When is that going to start? You start
seeing something there?
[12:09] That could be—
[12:10] we're hoping to bid that tank by fall.
[12:13] We've got plans in review right now to be
sent off to TDEC.
[12:17] You know, all of that has to be done,
[12:20] and then the bidding process will start
once those are approved.
[12:25] So, and you're looking at probably
Probably an 18-month construction period
[12:31] Probably an 18-month construction period
on the,
[12:31] on the tank itself.
[12:33] And that's going to be a 2 million gallon
tank?
[12:35] Yes, sir, that is correct.
[12:36] And your tank on Ash Hill is 200,000?
[12:39] That is correct.
[12:40] Are you going to keep them both?
[12:41] I would think once everything is in
service, that's going to be, you know,
[12:48] a good period of time, but that the
200,000 gallon tank would come down.
[12:54] Okay.
[12:55] And, you know, be replaced completely by
the 2 million gallon tank.
[13:00] Because I, I see something going on around
the tank there, and that may be the, uh,
[13:04] the golf course doing that. I didn't know
what that— whether that was you or them.
[13:09] That is the golf course.
[13:11] They own all of the property around the
existing tank.
[13:14] Okay, so is your 2 million gallon tank
gonna make the calendar Hope so.
[13:21] Okay, thank you.
[13:25] Thank you.
[13:25] Is that all you got?
[13:25] Yes, thank you.
[13:26] Anyone else? That's about it, Mr. Ray— I
mean, Mr. Schultz.
[13:32] Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
[13:33] Thank you.
[13:34] All right, Mr. Ray, Parks and Rec.
[13:47] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[13:49] While Wayne's hooking up a presentation,
[13:53] I'll be glad to try to answer any
questions anybody might have,
[13:58] if you have any. And the presentation
pertains to the agenda item.
[14:04] Mr. Redding, hold on just a second.
[14:05] Sure.
[14:06] Mr. Beck, you ready to speak now? Yes,
sir.
[14:10] Well, I'm going to yield to Wayne. He's
going to do this presentation.
[14:15] We were here in May and showed you an
overview of what we were looking at at
[14:20] overview of what we were looking at at
Murray
[14:21] County Park. We've narrowed that down to a
first phase,
[14:24] and that's what you'll be seeing. And I
will step aside.
[14:28] Okay.
[14:29] Thank you.
[14:29] Would you like Mr. Bick to speak now?
[14:34] Yeah, go ahead if you want to.
[14:36] I'm happy to go after Wayne.
[14:37] Okay, that'd be fine. Go ahead, Wayne.
[14:39] All right, so as Mr.
[14:41] Ray said, if you remember, we came to
Budget Committee in May,
[14:46] asked for some funding.
[14:48] We presented you with a, um,
[14:50] with a 35,000-foot view plan of
improvements to Murray County Park.
[14:56] And, um, so you guys approved that.
[14:59] Uh, it was a $300,000 ask, and that was to
bring you back a GMP.
[15:04] Well, we got to work quickly on that.
[15:07] Soon after that, I got with Jamie Spencer
with Hewlett Spencer, Bell Construction,
[15:13] George Neuberger, and said, hey guys,
[15:16] can we get a GMP to this commission by the
first week in August?
[15:22] And they all passed out, and once they
came to, they said, yeah, we'll do our
[15:28] came to, they said, yeah, we'll do our
best.
[15:28] So kudos to all those guys. They worked
really hard.
[15:33] And we had a call from 9:00 to 10:45 this
morning kind of wrapping this up,
[15:39] but we got to that. So if you— so as Mr.
[15:42] Ray said, we have to phase this project
because we have to get rid of something to
[15:49] make space for something else, and we'll
talk about that in a minute.
[15:54] But Phase 1 Is relocation of the parks
maintenance facility and then relocation
[16:01] maintenance facility and then relocation
of
[16:01] Little League complex. And we'll do an
overview of all of that shortly.
[16:07] But if you remember in that plan that we
presented,
[16:11] our maintenance facility sits right here
in this building.
[16:16] And so Part— the biggest part of that plan
was cleaning up this whole area.
[16:22] The senior center sits here, our park
office here, Baker Building,
[16:27] maintenance facility.
[16:29] And then this area here is where we store
our equipment and things of that nature,
[16:35] right beside Columbia Central High School.
[16:39] So part of phase 1 is relocating this
maintenance facility and this equipment
[16:45] storage area all the way back here to
Casey Lane.
[16:49] Okay.
[16:51] The park property runs all the way back to
the sharp curve on Casey Lane.
[16:55] For those of us that have been around a
while,
[16:57] that's where the old driver testing center
used to sit before it was torn down.
[17:01] Mm-hmm.
[17:01] So that property is actually part of
Murray County Park property.
[17:06] So to get our shop, our maintenance
facility,
[17:09] our storage facility out of the front of
the park so that you guys don't have to
[17:14] drive by it anytime you come in the park,
[17:17] Anybody that comes to Columbia Central has
to drive by that.
[17:21] We thought it would be better to get it
moved back here, kind of out of sight,
[17:27] out of mind, and give a better appearance
to the front of the park.
[17:31] So that's part of phase 1.
[17:33] And again, for us to clean up this whole
area in the front of the park,
[17:38] we've got to get rid of something first.
[17:41] So we have to get rid of that maintenance
facility.
[17:44] And we have to have somewhere to go before
we get rid of it.
[17:48] So that's why we included it in Phase 1.
[17:51] As I said, the maintenance shop and
equipment storage currently sits there,
[17:56] and then we're proposing to relocate it to
the rear of the property.
[18:01] That way it makes way for future park
improvements and in a less visible area.
[18:06] So this is just a real quick view of the
proposed maintenance facility.
[18:11] It's a 40 by 80 building with 2 20-foot
side sheds.
[18:15] It's the exact same size as the
maintenance building we have now.
[18:19] So we didn't try to come in and design
some type of Taj Mahal or something like
[18:25] that. Gravel parking area for employees.
[18:27] This road right here indicates the drive
that goes to the back of the park,
[18:33] and Casey Lane will sit out here. So it's
pretty simple. It's a 2-bay shop.
[18:38] Okay.
[18:38] With one small office, a break room, and
some storage area.
[18:43] And so we'll house our equipment under the
2 side sheds,
[18:48] and then we'll have the 40 by 80 shop area
there.
[18:52] So then that's the small item, but the
bigger item, the Little League complex—
[18:58] and I'll show you some pictures in a
minute— but it is— It's a big deal.
[19:03] It is just a facility that's lived its
life.
[19:07] And it— to put it nicely, somebody in here
maybe can say how old,
[19:12] what year it was built, but in the '60s.
[19:15] '64.
[19:16] '64. So if my math is correct, it's 60
years old this year.
[19:22] So—
[19:22] 62. 62. So my math wasn't correct.
[19:26] So—
[19:26] I'm only 45, so I don't— So it was long
before me.
[19:30] But that's a facility that there's minimum
amount of funds that come out of our
[19:35] budget that go into that facility. The
league is pretty much self-sufficient.
[19:41] I'm not sitting here and saying that we
don't help them out from time to time,
[19:46] but the help they get from us is minimal,
[19:49] that they're able to operate that
facility.
[19:52] In 2010, we applied for a grant To put in
new lighting.
[19:56] But beyond that, that's the only
big-ticket item that's ever came from us.
[20:01] So for the most part, what you see there
is what the community has done themselves.
[20:06] So moving that complex,
[20:08] it provides a facility that's safer and
more user-friendly for everyone.
[20:13] And I'm going to show you some pictures,
[20:16] and a lot of you guys have spent some time
there,
[20:19] and you know what I'm talking about when I
say that.
[20:23] Yes.
[20:24] That is not a very user-friendly facility.
Its accessibility is horrible.
[20:29] We can— I can make a whole list of things
that aren't good about that facility,
[20:34] but it has served a purpose and it served
a purpose for a long time.
[20:39] The 3rd bullet there provides safer and
more parking areas.
[20:43] When we first started talking about this,
[20:46] Al and I got together and we looked and we
said, you know, we can do some things,
[20:52] maybe we can make some things better.
[20:54] We could spend a bunch of money to try to
improve it at its current site,
[20:59] but then we still have a parking problem.
[21:02] And anybody that's spent any time out
there knows as well,
[21:06] on a Monday night during baseball season,
that parking is horrendous and we're all—
[21:12] We're all in agreement.
[21:14] Blessed and grateful that we haven't had a
tragic event out there with young kids
[21:19] because there's, there's really no
designated parking.
[21:23] They just park where they can park.
[21:25] And we could fix it on its site, we could
spend a bunch of money,
[21:30] but we still wind up putting lipstick on a
pig.
[21:33] So we, we decided we're better off to move
somewhere else.
[21:37] And then the last bullet,
[21:39] a new complex allows us to generate some
tax dollars through tourism.
[21:44] And we would be able to host—
[21:46] lease that facility out for people to host
tournaments on the weekends,
[21:51] bringing people in. Those are the kind of
tax dollars we like.
[21:55] Somebody else comes, spends their money,
and then they leave and go back home.
[22:00] So that allows us that opportunity.
[22:03] So just a few pictures if you haven't been
around.
[22:06] And these were taken just last week.
[22:09] You know, people with mobility issues have
trouble in the gravel areas.
[22:16] It—
[22:17] everything there needs replacing, from the
fences to the dugouts.
[22:22] For a while, I said everything there needs
to be gone except the lights,
[22:28] and then we realized that time gets away
from us and the lights themselves are 15
[22:34] years old. So it— If you look,
[22:36] this is going up to the front steps from
the parking lot.
[22:41] This old drain doesn't work most of the
time.
[22:44] Again, access to the area—
[22:46] this is how you access the concession
stand from the parking lot.
[22:51] Nothing compliant about any of it. This
sidewalk— Mr.
[22:55] Provetti might remember this, but last
year Called and said, hey,
[23:00] you guys need to go look at something down
there. And we did. What was it?
[23:06] There was a crack right here, that little
white area,
[23:10] where the sidewalk is falling away.
[23:13] And we went in and patched it best we
could, but it's falling away for a reason.
[23:19] It's because all that concrete has
deteriorated to the point where there's
[23:25] deteriorated to the point where there's
really
[23:25] not much you can do with it.
[23:27] So right beside that,
[23:29] you can see this sidewalk is falling away
from the Concession stand.
[23:34] So we without a doubt have stability
issues.
[23:37] And then this is the ramp on the Major
League side,
[23:41] another access point to get to the
bleachers and to the concession area, but
[23:47] bleachers and to the concession area, but
again,
[23:48] nothing compliant about it.
[23:50] The restroom facilities that were built a
few years ago through The league were able
[23:56] to raise those funds.
[23:58] They did the best they could do with them,
[24:01] but no accessibility to get to those as
well.
[24:05] We are— we hold our breath every day
waiting on the ADA lawsuit that's coming
[24:10] because of this place.
[24:12] So this is the proposed— if you remember,
and maybe I need to Back up to remind you.
[24:19] But if you remember, this is the current
Little League complex.
[24:24] And in that plan we presented in May, we
proposed that we,
[24:28] we take this complex and go and move it to
this area of the park.
[24:33] And for those that have been around a
while, what used to be the softball
[24:39] while, what used to be the softball
complex.
[24:39] So we handed this off to architects,
engineers, and said, hey,
[24:44] see if you can make this work in this
area.
[24:47] And this is what Joe Haddix with Heritage
Civil came back with.
[24:52] And so a 3-field complex with just a
concession stand.
[24:58] There—
[24:58] this little square here represents an
existing restroom facility that has been
[25:03] there. We would still be able to utilize
that,
[25:06] so we don't have to build restrooms to
accommodate the area.
[25:09] Okay.
[25:10] So just the concession stand, storage
area,
[25:14] a small dressing room for officials would
sit in that building,
[25:19] and then a 3-field artificial turf complex
that,
[25:23] that gets rid of all of our maintenance,
ongoing maintenance for that facility,
[25:30] allows us to avoid rainouts,
[25:32] allows us to spend more time playing and
less time working.
[25:37] So this— that's— We would put in 8
handicapped parking spots in this area.
[25:43] One difference from this drawing,
[25:46] that is the fairgrounds where the carnival
sets up for the fair.
[25:51] That would remain as a gravel lot, which
would accommodate parking,
[25:57] but we would have hard surface handicapped
parking here for those that need it.
[26:04] And then the stadium, the football stadium
that sits here, there could be parking.
[26:11] They could park there and actually walk
across as well.
[26:15] So that is a really quick overview of what
we're proposing tonight.
[26:21] And before they— before Jamie comes up
with his part,
[26:26] I'll take any questions anybody may have.
[26:29] Okay.
[26:34] What did you say the cost of that was?
[26:35] I'm going to let Jamie break it in and
tell you.
[26:38] Okay. Okay. All right.
[26:40] We're going to go with the committee
first,
[26:43] and then we'll get the rest of the
commissioners to voice their opinion on
[26:48] commissioners to voice their opinion on
this.
[26:49] Commissioner Strand.
[26:50] Thank you, Chair.
[26:54] I've got a couple questions.
[26:55] One of them was the cost of the 40 by 80,
but we'll talk to Jamie about that one,
[27:00] huh? The other question is,
[27:02] I've been working with developers in the
neighborhood on a proposed development
[27:07] between the railroad track and the big
curve on Casey Lane,
[27:10] right where you're going to put your
maintenance thing.
[27:14] Is that—
[27:15] will the entrance be off Casey Lane? Well,
there's an entrance there now.
[27:18] Yeah, there is one now.
[27:20] Yes, sir.
[27:20] And so you'll be using that entrance to
get in there. How much traffic is it?
[27:25] How much traffic? Yeah, will you be—
[27:27] So that entrance would just be used by our
maintenance staff.
[27:31] So you're, you're not going to have
vehicles coming in and out of there?
[27:36] We will, but so we have 9 full-time
maintenance staff year-round and then
[27:40] maintenance staff year-round and then
another 9
[27:41] or 10 more during the— Insignificant
number of that, right?
[27:45] Any big trucks or any of that kind of
thing?
[27:48] No, sir, I wouldn't— I'm going to hear
this question again.
[27:51] No, obviously, if we were to have
deliveries, you know,
[27:55] which are very rare in what we do, we may
have some big truck come in there,
[28:00] but that would, that would not be enough
to even worry about.
[28:04] Okay.
[28:04] Thank you.
[28:05] Thank you, Chair.
[28:05] Uh, we kind of broke protocol here. We
were supposed to let Mr.
[28:09] Beck go after you got through speaking.
So, Mr.
[28:12] Beck, you can speak now, sir.
[28:25] Chairman, do you want me to hit my time
button here or let you—
[28:28] You have to take care of it.
[28:29] Okay, perfect. Thank you for my 3 minutes.
[28:32] I'm currently the secretary for the
Columbia American Little League Board of
[28:37] Directors. I have a number of my
colleagues with me.
[28:41] This represents about a third of the
board.
[28:44] I'd like to recognize Nathan McBroom,
[28:46] head coach of the 8U state champion
coach-pitch team, and his son Crosby
[28:51] coach-pitch team, and his son Crosby
McBroom.
[28:52] You know, Columbia sheds a lot of light
across the state as far as Little League
[28:57] baseball is concerned. I'd like to second
everything Mr.
[29:01] Lindsey just said about the ballpark and
accessibility issues.
[29:06] If we had Some pictures from a week or so
ago when we got those 3 inches of rain in
[29:11] about an hour. Even more of that gravel
floats up and moves around,
[29:16] gets onto your grass infield, does those
things. Mr. Bilbo and Mr.
[29:21] Wooliver take great care of the ball field
and make it look as good as they can.
[29:26] The best thing about the ballpark is the
playing surface.
[29:30] If we could take that playing surface and
move it somewhere to a more accessible
[29:36] area, that would be fantastic.
[29:38] Thank you.
[29:38] But we just can't do that.
[29:40] The area around it, when I see— when we
host state tournaments,
[29:45] which we do almost annually,
[29:48] it's embarrassing when somebody's
grandparent in a wheelchair that wants to
[29:53] grandparent in a wheelchair that wants to
come see
[29:54] their son or granddaughter come play at
the ballpark,
[29:58] and you just kind of grit your teeth from
far away, watch them struggle,
[30:04] try to get up.
[30:05] I agree.
[30:06] to where they, they possibly can.
[30:08] And heaven forbid they have to use the
restroom while they're there.
[30:13] It's, it's borderline impossible.
[30:15] So they usually just end up parking on the
road up there, kind of across from 4-H,
[30:21] and, and watch the games from there when,
when they can. As far as what, what Mr.
[30:26] Lindsey said about being able to host
things on the weekend,
[30:31] I think all of us take our children on the
road For travel ball tournaments.
[30:36] We— there's nothing for baseball in
Columbia.
[30:39] You know, Ridley Park is now hosting a
significant number of events for softball,
[30:44] for baseball. We routinely go to
Tullahoma, Muscle Shoals, Murfreesboro.
[30:49] We recently participated in the
11-year-old state tournament in
[30:54] 11-year-old state tournament in
Murfreesboro.
[30:55] I drove there 5 consecutive days in a row
to play.
[30:58] 11 innings worth of baseball because of
rain.
[31:01] If we could have pivoted to a turf field,
[31:04] we could have had this thing done in 2
days.
[31:07] You could have had 8 teams from all across
the state playing ball.
[31:11] And with these fields, I have no doubt
that we'll host one, if not several,
[31:17] Little League state tournaments annually,
[31:19] with teams coming from as far as Johnson
City and Upper East Tennessee.
[31:24] I think this project is a worthwhile
Solution, 1964.
[31:28] It's been plenty of time to build another
ballpark. Thank you for your time.
[31:33] Yes, sir. Thank you. Commissioner
Kuzawinski, I jumped over you.
[31:41] Thank you, Chairman. A few questions for
you, Mr. Lindsey.
[31:44] Kind of following up with what
Commissioner Strahan was talking about
[31:48] Commissioner Strahan was talking about
with the
[31:48] entrance being over there off of Casey
Lane.
[31:51] You're right in the heart of my district
over there,
[31:54] and how noticeable is that maintenance
building going to be from Casey Lane?
[31:58] Are my constituents going to call me and
tell me, you know,
[32:01] why do we have an ugly building over here?
[32:03] And so that's a big concern of mine I've
got on there.
[32:06] Right, understandable. That was one of the
first issues we addressed with Mr.
[32:13] Neuberger, our architect,
[32:15] as we began to talk about this and
realizing that The question would be
[32:22] realizing that The question would be
brought.
[32:23] We would hide that building with
vegetation, arborvitae, some type of large
[32:30] vegetation, arborvitae, some type of large
plants,
[32:30] basically. We would use the landscape to
kind of hide that building.
[32:36] City of Columbia is not fond of metal
buildings, but it will be—
[32:42] it will not be an eyesore.
[32:45] Okay.
[32:46] And we'll make sure of that.
[32:47] And you had mentioned earlier that there
may be occasional deliveries coming
[32:51] may be occasional deliveries coming
through
[32:51] there, but obviously that is— that's
already posted.
[32:54] You're not supposed to have big rigs
coming through there and stuff like that.
[32:58] That's something that my constituents have
already complained about with enforcing
[33:03] that. So putting the entrance back there
and still having deliveries,
[33:06] it seems like that's going to create an
issue that I'd like to head off before we
[33:11] can—
[33:11] And if that's it, so The number of
deliveries we get from big trucks is, you
[33:15] deliveries we get from big trucks is, you
know,
[33:16] you can count on one hand how many we get
in a year.
[33:19] So we'll still have entrances off of Line
Parkway.
[33:22] So if that were an issue, we can always
take care of it from that way.
[33:26] OK. Another question, and you kept on
mentioning it with the ADA compliant.
[33:30] Will this project— are you looking at
making this 100% ADA compliant through
[33:35] making this 100% ADA compliant through
every
[33:35] aspect of it, or are there still going to
be some areas that we're—
[33:40] No, it'll be absolutely ADA compliant. All
right.
[33:45] Um, another question I had, um, just with
my business,
[33:48] I get to travel around and get to see
different ball fields.
[33:52] We used to do an event up at Charlotte,
which has pretty nice ball fields out
[33:56] which has pretty nice ball fields out
there.
[33:56] Uh, is, is 3 fields, will that be enough?
[33:59] Will that be adequate for if we're talking
about expanding and hosting things or You
[34:04] know, they've got 4 out there and it's a
small area, Charlotte,
[34:08] but it's a huge draw out there and I've
seen what kind of crowds come with that.
[34:12] Is a 4th field necessary or are 3 going to
be adequate on there?
[34:16] So I know the director of schools is
sitting behind me and she doesn't know
[34:22] sitting behind me and she doesn't know
this
[34:22] yet, but our plan would be to partner with
the school system and possibly use their
[34:28] softball field as the 4th field.
[34:30] It's in close proximity to Very— I mean,
[34:33] within walking distance of our proposed
site here.
[34:36] But without disrupting the fair, Mule Day,
things like that,
[34:41] 3 fields was pretty much our max for that
area.
[34:44] So that was why we landed at 3 fields.
[34:47] Okay.
[34:48] And then last question is kind of
frivolous,
[34:50] but with the concession stand and
everything like that,
[34:52] do y'all plan on putting the announcer's
booth above the concession, I'm assuming,
[34:56] and being able to—
[34:57] Oh, so actually, our plan is not to have
an announcer's booth,
[35:02] and everybody's going to gasp,
[35:04] but our plan is actually to have a
scorekeeping area at one end of the
[35:09] scorekeeping area at one end of the
dugouts.
[35:10] These guys know if you go to travel
tournaments,
[35:14] they don't even use scoreboards anymore.
[35:17] So instead of spending the money to go up
top, finish the area, Yeah.
[35:22] We'll put the scorekeeping area down at
field level so,
[35:26] so we can keep a one-level building for
the concession stand.
[35:30] Okay, that's all my questions for now. I
appreciate it. Thank you, Chairman.
[35:34] Yes, sir.
[35:34] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[35:38] Um, immediately, just parallel off, what
if somebody wants to video a game?
[35:42] Would there be a platform or a roof where
they could get up there to put a tripod
[35:46] and a camera if somebody were going to
broadcast a tournament or something like
[35:50] that?
[35:51] If they've got enough money, we'll rent
scaffolding, I guess.
[35:55] Okay, well, you've already switched
laptops,
[35:57] but I wish you could go back to the other
one for a moment.
[36:01] I've got several questions.
[36:02] So first of all, youth sports are some of
the most important parts of a kid's
[36:07] development. I mean, they, you know,
[36:09] that's how young men learn a lot in life
that way,
[36:12] and having first-rate facilities are
paramount to that. And seeing Mrs.
[36:16] Johnson here tonight, I've always known
her as Mrs. Johnson. She's always Mrs.
[36:20] Johnson to me, but Cindy's here tonight.
[36:23] Back 12 years ago, when I was first
elected to the commission,
[36:26] she was the principal of Central High
School.
[36:29] And, you know, we were real big with
pushing to get Central High School built.
[36:33] And one of the things that I used to say a
lot, because we had no growth back then,
[36:38] we were, we were fairly stagnant. back in
2014.
[36:41] And one of the things that I talked about
is that, you know,
[36:44] when you present to people that want to
come to Columbia,
[36:48] you set out your best centerpiece.
[36:49] You know, when, when a company's coming
over,
[36:52] it's the way my mom used to do it for the
holidays.
[36:55] And I used to apply that logic to the new
Central High School,
[36:59] that if we get this new Central High
School,
[37:01] that's going to be the centerpiece of
Columbia to bring in and look at all the
[37:06] growth we've gotten since then. So.
[37:08] Anyhow, that said, this ball field can
apply to that same logic,
[37:11] that this is that centerpiece for the City
of Columbia to have that, because you're—
[37:16] if you have the tournaments, they will
come and they will stay at your hotels,
[37:21] even though it's all the way out at the
interstate. That's another problem.
[37:25] But they'll stay and they'll eat at your
restaurants.
[37:28] And so that's some of the best tax revenue
there is.
[37:31] The question I wanted to ask is that, you
know, having—
[37:34] Yes, sir.
[37:36] And if you're from here, you spent your
life at that Columbia American League
[37:40] life at that Columbia American League
field.
[37:40] And I wish you could bring up a picture
again of it,
[37:43] but down in that hole is where all the
little kids that didn't want to watch ball
[37:47] played catch and run around and played tag
and chased each other.
[37:51] Where is that going to be for this
facility?
[37:53] Where are those kids that don't care about
what's going on but want to sit there and
[37:57] play and do their own thing while their
big brothers are playing ball?
[38:01] Where is that in this?
[38:02] So if you're familiar with this, the
fairgrounds area, here's a,
[38:09] here's a grassy area that goes all the way
to Casey Lane if they want to.
[38:16] We got 241 acres.
[38:17] No, I hear you, but I mean, but the thing
about it is,
[38:20] is that you were there and your mom knew
you were right there and she could turn
[38:23] around where she was sitting and there you
are.
[38:25] I don't see that here because there's a
concession stand in the middle of it.
[38:29] So there's 60 feet between all of the
fields.
[38:32] So beyond here, this denotes concrete, but
then there'll be grassy areas.
[38:38] We actually— we still have some work to do
on some of this,
[38:43] but we're going to eliminate this
10-foot-wide sidewalk.
[38:47] So there'll be grassy areas down the—
[38:50] That's the one thing that concerns me,
because, like, for, you know,
[38:54] you look and there's your kid and And so
now that little hole is not going to be
[38:59] there anymore. To the bathroom section, so
if you've got 2— if you've got, you know,
[39:04] 6 teams and all the spectators and
everything else, how big is that bathroom?
[39:09] That restroom now is— I'm going to use a
crude term— as we call it,
[39:13] a 4-holer on each side.
[39:15] So it's 2 urinals, 2 toilets on the men's
side, 4 toilets on the women's side.
[39:20] Is that big enough? Does that legally meet
the requirements? It does.
[39:24] It's 4 times the size of what they have
now, so.
[39:26] Okay. Okay.
[39:29] All right. And my last question— I've got
the same concerns everybody else does—
[39:33] has about the building on Casey Lane.
[39:36] That's not my district, but I've driven
that road my entire life.
[39:40] It's my side of town.
[39:41] And all the residents around there,
[39:43] I guess you need to come up with something
that's going to be physically appealing
[39:48] to them that's not going to deter, you
know, You know, to get them riled up.
[39:52] It will look better than it looks today.
[39:54] I mean, you know, everything's—
[39:56] anything's going to look better than the
TDOT location that's, you know,
[39:59] a 60-year-old building right there at the
railroad tracks.
[40:02] But this will be— okay.
[40:05] All right. Well, that's all I had. Thank
you for bringing this.
[40:07] I think this is a great idea.
[40:09] I mean, I want to hear the price tag and
the sticker shock.
[40:11] This is the last month of this commission,
so we're done.
[40:14] So you may have to start all over again
next month, but—
[40:16] Well, hopefully we won't.
[40:17] Hopefully you won't. Anyway, thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
[40:19] Commissioner Markham.
[40:20] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[40:23] Al, are these 200-plus feet fields?
They're all 200 feet. I should have said
[40:28] They're all 200 feet. I should have said
that.
[40:29] Our plan is to build them all flat, no
mounds,
[40:32] so that we can accommodate both baseball
and softball.
[40:36] We would play baseball off portable
mounds.
[40:39] That's not something that These guys
aren't used to doing as you travel around
[40:45] places. So we would make it a multi-use
facility for both baseball and softball.
[40:50] But a grass infield?
[40:52] Or—
[40:52] but it's going to be carpet, really?
[40:54] I mean, carpet, synthetic or whatever.
[40:56] Correct. Okay.
[40:57] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[40:58] Commissioner
[41:02] Burke-Hawthorne.
[41:07] Not yet.
[41:09] Push it.
[41:11] Tell him to push it again. Yeah, put—
[41:20] push it again.
[41:21] Does it go green when you press it?
[41:25] Mm-hmm.
[41:26] Push it again.
[41:26] I'm talking to it.
[41:28] For some reason mine's on. I don't know
why.
[41:41] Okay, thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[41:45] Wayne, you said all 3 fields are going to
be
[41:48] identical, right?
[41:50] Yes, sir.
[41:50] There won't be like a junior field like
they have now?
[41:53] No, sir.
[41:53] The names, will they trend? Like Mr.
[41:56] McFarland, will he— will that one of those
fields still be
[42:01] named after Tom McFarland?
[42:04] So that's a question for our park board.
[42:06] I would hope that they would still think,
[42:09] think about doing that because I may even
have a bathroom named after me down there.
[42:16] I'm not sure, but I may.
[42:18] But I, but, but, uh, I would hope the park
board would still honor Mr.
[42:24] McFarland because he,
[42:26] he was a vital part of that park when I
was When I was down there every night,
[42:32] and some of the best years of my life was
spent down there at that old park and
[42:39] everything. I had a question for Jamie,
but I don't— oh, the construction.
[42:45] I mean, you won't tear the old fields out
till this new one's built, right?
[42:52] Correct.
[42:52] So it won't be any interruption?
[42:54] No, sir.
[42:55] Okay. Well, I think Columbia's been
missing the boat on this for a long time.
[43:01] I think this should have happened years
ago,
[43:05] and I would even like to see it a 4-field
complex myself because I know we played
[43:12] Little League, but then once we got up to
the Babe Ruth, we went to travel.
[43:18] And nowadays, these parents are spending
tons of money on this travel ball.
[43:24] Yes.
[43:25] And Columbia is missing out on a lot of
revenue there by not having a baseball
[43:29] complex to host some of these baseball
tournaments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[43:33] Yes, sir.
[43:36] You know, that—
[43:37] just to comment, and I hate to tell war
stories, but I have a 12-year-old
[43:41] stories, but I have a 12-year-old
daughter,
[43:41] and I've spent way too much time in North
Alabama in the last 2 months on Saturdays
[43:46] spending money that they're reaping.
[43:48] And when I— when we couldn't stay here,
you know, we wake up on Saturday mornings,
[43:53] drive an hour and a half to a complex in
Moulton, Alabama,
[43:57] when we could have stayed here in Columbia
and spent our money.
[44:01] All right, Commissioner Brandon Baum.
[44:05] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[44:06] I— the couple questions I had have been
answered by other commissioners,
[44:10] but I do want to make a, a comment in
support of this.
[44:14] It reminds me of when we first moved down
here, and I raised 4 daughters.
[44:18] Didn't have a son, so baseball wasn't in
our family.
[44:21] I will say this, I don't want to ruin his
reputation, but Mr.
[44:24] Beck is my son-in-law,
[44:26] and that's my grandson sitting there that
played on the 11-and-under All-Star team
[44:30] over in Murfreesboro.
[44:32] And I'm going to use some pride here and
let everybody know that.
[44:36] And so we have spent a lot of time in the
baseball fields over the last 2,
[44:40] 3 years because his little brother plays
over there as well.
[44:43] I remember the days in Riverside.
[44:45] The Inman Rose Tournament, the, the league
games my daughter's playing down there,
[44:50] and how miserable that place was in the
last few years that we were there.
[44:54] And, and I don't mean to be insulting to
the neighborhood,
[44:58] but when you had 80 teams come in for the
Inman Rose,
[45:01] there just wasn't anywhere to put them.
[45:03] It took us over 10 years to get Ridley
Park built,
[45:06] and the last year I was the president of
the board, was the year that it got built.
[45:11] So the next year it went in. That was 12
years ago, I think it was.
[45:15] We're in the same situation here. This
place needs to be replaced.
[45:19] I know the history is wonderful,
[45:21] but I can attest to the ADA problems that
we have down there,
[45:24] because even if you get your wheelchair up
on the stand where the concession stand
[45:29] is, there's only room for 3 or 4 of them.
[45:31] And when you get a lot of people in there,
they're just—
[45:35] there's just nowhere to put them. And it's
unsafe, and I can go on and on and on.
[45:39] Thank you.
[45:40] The promotion we have with Ridley was that
it was going to bring tournaments,
[45:44] and there are softball tournaments out
there every weekend,
[45:48] and I see the players in town, and they're
staying in the hotels,
[45:51] and they're eating at the restaurants, and
they're doing everything else.
[45:56] This is a springboard into that type of
economic prosperity as far as the tax
[46:00] revenues and those kind of things are
concerned.
[46:03] Baseball families and softball families
travel, and they travel well,
[46:07] and so this is a long time coming. I fully
support it.
[46:10] I know Jamie's going to blast us with a
price here in a minute,
[46:13] and we're all going to pass out and try to
catch our breath,
[46:17] but I will tell you that I fully support
this. I think it is a long time coming.
[46:21] It needs to be done.
[46:23] All of the safety features that have been
mentioned,
[46:26] all of the tax revenue that's been
mentioned, all of everything else for
[46:30] mentioned, all of everything else for
these kids,
[46:30] we need to provide them with a primo place
to play.
[46:33] Thank you.
[46:34] and to grow up and frankly to get them out
of the living room,
[46:37] get them out of the house, and get them
outside where they, where they need to be.
[46:41] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[46:42] You're welcome. Commissioner Brody.
[46:44] Thank you, Chairman.
[46:46] I don't know much about the timing of
Little League weekend contest or whatever.
[46:54] So tell me what from Friday at 3:00 to
Monday morning, is that when they are—
[47:02] is that when they play on these courts?
When will they play?
[47:08] Local leagues will play throughout the
week, Monday through Friday.
[47:11] But I'm talking about a whole big crowd,
you know, a lot of parking, a lot of cars.
[47:17] When will that happen?
[47:18] Monday— I mean, every day except Wednesday
and Sunday.
[47:23] Okay, so Jamie, can you look up— can you
put Back up.
[47:28] There were 2 red dots. Your map.
[47:32] The first map that you showed us that had
buildings on them.
[47:44] Okay.
[47:44] See those red dots? It looks like one of
those is the Parks Office and the next one
[47:48] is the Senior Center, right?
[47:50] Yes.
[47:50] And it looks like it's right next to our
parking lot.
[47:53] What's going to keep all these thousands
of cars— you say a whole bunch of cars—
[47:59] from parking in the senior parking lot?
[48:02] Because the fields look pretty close to
that.
[48:05] Can you point to where the parking lot is
for these ballparks?
[48:09] Right here.
[48:10] Okay. So they wouldn't park for the
senior—
[48:12] Well, I mean, I can't say that they
wouldn't,
[48:15] but senior center is usually not in
operation.
[48:17] 3 o'clock is when they all go home.
[48:19] They usually don't start till 5:30.
[48:21] Okay. That's what I—
[48:22] that was the first question is what are
the hours that this is going to have Yeah,
[48:27] weekday afternoons and then weekdays. But
after 5:30 on weekdays?
[48:32] Week— weekend days, correct.
[48:33] After 5:30 and then any time on the
weekend days?
[48:35] Correct.
[48:36] Okay, that helps me. Thank you very much.
[48:38] All right, so then carry on.
[48:41] I'm gonna let everybody catch their
breath.
[48:45] Take a recess.
[48:47] I'm gonna let Jamie have it. Mr. Strahan.
[48:53] Thanks, Chairman. I'll keep this short
because I know on the time,
[48:57] get to the price here.
[48:59] The relationship with the Murray County
Parks and Rec Department and Hewlett
[49:03] Parks and Rec Department and Hewlett
Spencer
[49:04] speaks for itself. We've been working with
these guys for a while on several
[49:08] projects, as you guys know.
[49:10] Yanalli, Miracle Field, Kalioka Park that
we just had the ribbon cutting on.
[49:15] So when Wayne And Al asked us to do this
and take it on.
[49:18] And then he gave us the timing that he
wanted this GMP tonight.
[49:22] We almost got a divorce.
[49:24] I'm pretty sure we were close to thinking
that.
[49:25] Mm-hmm.
[49:26] But we, uh, we have a contractor at, at
Bell, as you guys know,
[49:30] that has a pretty good stable of
contractors and subcontractors that really
[49:35] contractors and subcontractors that really
jumped
[49:35] in on this and, and,
[49:37] and got involved and tried to make this
work for the Parks and Rec Department.
[49:41] This is our breakdown sheet that just got
literally finalized earlier today.
[49:46] That's how this thing has gone down pretty
quickly. Get your pencils out.
[49:51] The guaranteed maximum price on this
project has come in at $7,669,842.
[49:55] $7,669,842 is the guaranteed maximum price
on this.
[49:59] As Wayne said, there are some things on
the plans and specs from George Neuberger
[50:04] that we are probably going to value
engineer a little bit to try to help us on
[50:09] engineer a little bit to try to help us on
cost.
[50:09] We've identified some of those already.
[50:11] You know, we are conscious about making
sure that when we have a GMP like that,
[50:16] that we, you know, we get competitive
bids.
[50:19] All these disciplines, you can see,
[50:21] these have all been bid out through
contractors and subcontractors to put this
[50:26] together. There are a little level of
drawings that we still need to get to with
[50:31] drawings that we still need to get to with
the
[50:32] architect. So you can see in here that we
even have a,
[50:35] what's called a design contingency to kind
of fill some of those gaps that we don't
[50:40] have yet, but we all feel really good
about this price.
[50:44] It comes from educated numbers, educated
subcontractors that knew,
[50:48] that saw the plans of what we have and do
work for us every day here in this
[50:53] community. So we feel good about
presenting that number to you tonight.
[50:57] And with that said, I'll answer any
questions that you have on the pricing.
[51:04] Commissioner Summers.
[51:06] Commissioner Kuzawinski,
[51:08] did you have anything else to add to that?
[51:11] Did you have— were your lights on?
[51:13] I had a question for him after the
presentation.
[51:15] Okay. Commissioner Summers.
[51:18] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[51:21] So this question is for Al or Wayne.
[51:25] Not necessarily a question on the cost,
[51:30] but when you presented this idea, was it 2
months ago,
[51:37] 3 months, May?
[51:38] May.
[51:40] And it was $300,000 in your budget.
[51:42] That was to pursue the GMP,
[51:43] and we're not going to spend that much
because it's coming out of our fund
[51:47] because it's coming out of our fund
anyway,
[51:47] if you recall. So we hope we don't spend
that much.
[51:50] How many, how many phases of this park
project are there going to be?
[51:54] To get To where we showed you.
[51:57] Yes.
[51:57] Which would include a rec center.
[51:59] Right.
[52:00] That's 2 phases.
[52:01] The next phase would be the last phase.
[52:04] Is the rec center.
[52:05] And that would include the senior citizen
center as well.
[52:07] And that they are included in the center.
And I spoke with Steve.
[52:11] I don't know if he's had a chance to speak
with his board yet.
[52:15] I'll be glad to meet with them.
[52:17] And but when we start programming that,
we'll sit down with them.
[52:22] To—
[52:22] And any other user groups, stakeholders,
[52:25] and we will gather information in our
updating of our master plan to shape this
[52:32] thing. So I did go over to meet with Steve
last week, and we talked about it.
[52:38] He understood all of that.
[52:40] They made their improvements out, you
know, their restrooms now are great.
[52:46] Mat is to be commended.
[52:48] I had not seen them yet until last week,
and they were hideous,
[52:53] as y'all mostly know, and they're really
good now,
[52:57] and that's taken care of them such as it
is for a while, but they are—
[53:02] this clears the spot for that.
[53:05] Right, for phase 2.
[53:06] Exactly.
[53:07] Okay.
[53:07] Yes.
[53:07] So my question is for the chairman of the
building committee.
[53:12] Uh, do they— does the,
[53:14] the Health and Environment Committee need
to pass this to the Building
[53:20] Committee tonight for just for discussion
on the cost and the price?
[53:26] It needs—
[53:26] it's on the agenda. It's already on the
building. That's okay.
[53:32] Okay, perfect.
[53:33] All right, thank you.
[53:33] Without Commissioner Sumlers, Commissioner
Kuzawinski.
[53:39] Thank you, Chairman. Um, I just want to be
very clear on the Phase 1 on this.
[53:44] I guess it's for Jamie.
[53:45] That number includes the maintenance
building and all the ball fields?
[53:50] That's everything?
[53:53] All right.
[53:54] That was my only question. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Chairman.
[53:56] All right. Commissioner Markham.
[53:58] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[53:59] I just want everyone to note that where
those ball fields are was 3 softball
[54:05] those ball fields are was 3 softball
fields.
[54:05] So although there will be some civil work
to do,
[54:09] that's That's level for ball fields now.
[54:11] It's not like you got to go move 4 feet of
a berm somewhere, you know.
[54:16] It's in— you know, I mean, you got to
clear the grass and put the surface down,
[54:22] but it won't need a lot of civil work
there. I just want to comment on that.
[54:27] There's numerous reasons we picked the
site, but electricity would come from
[54:32] site, but electricity would come from
here.
[54:33] Main sewer line is here. Water is here.
[54:36] I mean, it's the best site because all our
utilities are sitting within 150 feet of
[54:41] where we need them. So,
[54:43] so it's the most cost-effective site that
we could have picked anywhere.
[54:48] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Wayne.
[54:51] Okay.
[54:53] All right. As we move forward,
[54:54] what's the will of this committee to move
it forward to the building committee?
[54:57] Commissioner?
[55:00] Evans, and seconded by Commissioner
Hollinsworth.
[55:02] All in favor of moving this forward to
the, to the Building Committee,
[55:05] let it be known by a sound of aye.
[55:07] Aye.
[55:07] Any questions? No questions.
[55:11] We're moving it to the Building Committee.
Thank you, sir.
[55:17] Animal Shelter, Ms. Rathoff.
[55:26] Good evening, everyone.
[55:27] I'm keeping mine simple because I feel
like I blinked and I was just here last
[55:33] month. Lots and lots of animals have come
in this month.
[55:37] We've had 420 animals that have come in.
484 have found homes.
[55:42] I did send out the slides to everybody so
you had those ahead of time because I was
[55:48] running— I had an emergency later this
afternoon on my presentation, so Website,
[55:54] our new website should be completed August
10th.
[55:57] We're really looking forward to that
because everything will be online for
[56:03] because everything will be online for
forms for
[56:03] rabies microchip clinic, spay and neuter.
[56:07] This Wednesday we have 300 people
registered for the rabies microchip
[56:12] registered for the rabies microchip
clinic.
[56:12] Yeah, I know, I'm trying not to freak out,
but it's going to work out.
[56:17] Everything's going to be fine. It always
is.
[56:21] Last month we did it, everybody in their
vehicles.
[56:24] It was hot, but it actually was a really
good system,
[56:28] and we're going to continue to do it that
way. We have had 162 animal control calls.
[56:34] We were up 30% this month. It's just kind
of how it works, peaks and valleys.
[56:40] Inventory, we have 185 cats still in the
shelter, and we have 74 dogs.
[56:45] So we last week had 140 adoptions at
PetSmart, and we had a really successful
[56:51] PetSmart, and we had a really successful
week.
[56:51] It was fantastic. That being said,
[56:54] our length of stay is 16 days because of
the quarantine.
[56:58] We're still up a little bit. We hope to
have that down.
[57:02] Volunteers banked 1,212 hours,
[57:04] and I will note that does not include all
my volunteers that are up at PetSmart
[57:10] because they're off-site and they're there
7 days a week to do adoptions.
[57:15] Wow.
[57:15] It's unbelievable. It's the only thing
that has been keeping this moving
[57:20] that has been keeping this moving
constantly.
[57:21] And thank you to everybody who attended
the groundbreaking ceremony on the animal
[57:27] shelter. Everybody is very excited about
that,
[57:30] and we cannot wait to have proper
quarantine in areas that we should.
[57:34] That being said, does anybody have any
questions?
[57:38] Is there any question from the committee
for Ms. Raphael?
[57:42] Any commissioners? Ms.
[57:43] Raphael, I think you get away early
tonight, looks like.
[57:47] I did have one other item on my agenda
concerning our vet and adding
[57:53] benefits. She's looking to add a day
coming to the shelter.
[57:58] Her pay is not looking to increase.
[58:02] She's just had a change in her situation
where she needs medical
[58:08] benefits, and that would constitute to
$16,641 for the year.
[58:13] Could you repeat that? $16,000 what?
[58:16] $16,641. Last year I did not have a 4th
animal control all year.
[58:21] I also did not have a medical assistant,
[58:25] so those salaries sat vacant for the whole
year.
[58:29] This vet has come in, she has organized
things, she is available 24/7.
[58:35] She has done a fantastic job.
[58:37] Had I had this during budget committee, I
would have put it on my budget,
[58:43] but sometimes life circumstances happen,
and so that is why I'm bringing it.
[58:49] Okay, Commissioner Strahan.
[58:54] Thank you, Chair.
[58:56] I'm of the understanding she's going to
add a day a week to her—
[58:59] She'll add a day a week, yes. No increase
in pay.
[59:04] So then the $16,000 is pretty much level
ground if we're looking at an
[59:10] extra day's work from a professional
person.
[59:14] So I think it's a no-brainer.
[59:17] I would—
[59:18] I guess we would send this to budget.
[59:23] I believe it would go to admin, correct?
[59:25] Thank you, Chair.
[59:28] Commissioner, let's see who it is.
Commissioner Wilver.
[59:35] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[59:38] Doug, what's the number of hours that we
have to have
[59:45] for a person to be full-time?
[59:49] 29 or less is a part-time employee with no
benefits.
[1:00:00] And I understand that this person is
supposedly going to not get an increase in
[1:00:07] pay for this extra hour.
[1:00:09] They would get paid for One extra hour a
week,
[1:00:13] but they're not going to get a raise or
anything other than eligibility for
[1:00:19] benefits?
[1:00:20] I don't know how many part-time employees
we have across the
[1:00:26] county, but if we start making all of them
full-time employees,
[1:00:33] that old, that old tax dollar is going to
get smaller and
[1:00:40] smaller.
[1:00:42] And the tax levy on our citizens is going
to get bigger and bigger.
[1:00:47] Thank you.
[1:00:48] Commissioner Peretti.
[1:00:51] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1:00:53] I was just going to say this is a matter
for the admin committee,
[1:00:56] so we'll hear it tomorrow night then.
[1:00:58] All right.
[1:00:59] Thank you, Chair.
[1:00:59] So this don't go to budget right
immediately, huh?
[1:01:11] Okay.
[1:01:12] Can I get a vote on this from this
committee to move it to the admin
[1:01:17] committee to move it to the admin
committee?
[1:01:18] Commissioner Sumner— I mean, Strand,
Commissioner—
[1:01:22] it's already on the admin committee? We
still got to vote on it, don't we?
[1:01:27] No.
[1:01:32] Well, why did he bring it here?
[1:01:36] I guess we'll do something else.
[1:01:40] Just information.
[1:01:43] Okay.
[1:01:44] All right. Mr. Dobbs, you got anything to
say about that?
[1:01:46] Uh, no, Chairman.
[1:01:51] I think, I think we're okay since it's
already on the admin.
[1:01:54] Okay. Thank you, sir.
[1:01:55] You're very welcome, sir.
[1:01:56] All righty. Okay, we're moving along then.
We're moving this to the admin.
[1:02:01] It's already on admin committee, so we're
just—
[1:02:04] And I just brought it up because I wanted
everybody to hear the reasoning behind it,
[1:02:10] because like I said, she is adding a day.
[1:02:12] You know, we looked for this person for a
long time.
[1:02:16] She's done a really good job for us. So
thank you.
[1:02:19] You're welcome. Let's see, Dr. Ventura.
[1:02:23] Schools, tell us how it was on the first
[1:02:27] day.
[1:02:28] It was fantastic. Yes, today was our first
day.
[1:02:31] We welcomed 12,294 students into our
buildings. That was the count at about
[1:02:37] buildings. That was the count at about
1:00 PM.
[1:02:38] I don't know who registered after that.
[1:02:41] Our current enrollment sits at 12,974,
[1:02:44] so we're looking at about 680 absent
students on the first day of school.
[1:02:50] And that may be misleading.
[1:02:52] Some of them may have enrolled elsewhere
and just haven't told us.
[1:02:57] Those are numbers that will materialize as
we go through.
[1:03:01] Also, please remember that the 12,294 that
I just mentioned that did attend does not
[1:03:08] include pre-K. And we typically have about
300 pre-K kids.
[1:03:13] So pre-K will start not next week, the
week after.
[1:03:17] Our first full day of Kindergarten will be
a week from Wednesday,
[1:03:22] so that does not include all of our
kindergartners as well attending.
[1:03:27] That's how many actual faces we saw today,
and we were excited to do that.
[1:03:33] 125 buses ran. We had 141 routes, so
that's about 16 that had to double up.
[1:03:39] I just got a text that I have 2 buses
still out,
[1:03:43] but everybody else is back in the barn and
safe. So that is wonderful.
[1:03:48] We had 1,958 employees show up for work
today, so that's great.
[1:03:53] Probably have about 25 teacher vacancies
right now.
[1:03:57] We're kind of going through that silly
season of people who committed to work for
[1:04:03] season of people who committed to work for
us
[1:04:03] but then took jobs elsewhere and getting
resignations and all of that.
[1:04:09] I do want to— the men that sit behind me,
just to give them a huge shout-out.
[1:04:15] SROs were there this morning and again.
[1:04:18] Thank you.
[1:04:19] that 1,958 does not include Sheriff
Rowland's employees,
[1:04:23] but they are the best of the best.
[1:04:25] And to see them welcoming children,
[1:04:27] and we got a lot of big men and women that
squat down and help a child get to a
[1:04:32] first-grade classroom, and it always just
warms my heart. I was at E.A.
[1:04:37] Cox and Randolph Howell this morning and
just can't say enough good things about my
[1:04:42] employees as well as Sheriff Rowland's
employees and just I just wanted to say
[1:04:48] employees and just I just wanted to say
thank
[1:04:48] you. I just happen to be sitting behind
you, and, you know,
[1:04:52] I think it really is wonderful that we do
have a sheriff that was an SRO at one
[1:04:57] time, and it shows in the men and women
that he gives to me.
[1:05:01] But I don't know what questions I can
answer,
[1:05:04] but I'd be happy to answer anything you've
got for me. It is literally day one.
[1:05:09] Any questions? Just a second. Commissioner
Privetti.
[1:05:16] Thank you, Ms. Chairman. Thank you for
being here tonight.
[1:05:18] The summer meals program,
[1:05:19] can you tell us how many meals were
distributed over the summer?
[1:05:22] I cannot, but I can email you that
information. I have not—
[1:05:28] we—
[1:05:28] I have not gotten the tally yet, and I
just haven't really asked.
[1:05:30] There's no reason the kids should go
hungry, and I'm just—
[1:05:33] No, and we are serving lettuce in
cafeterias.
[1:05:36] For just those of you— we do not get
lettuce from the vendor that has created
[1:05:41] lettuce from the vendor that has created
this.
[1:05:41] The number one question I got today was,
will there be lettuce served in
[1:05:46] will there be lettuce served in
cafeterias?
[1:05:47] And yes.
[1:05:48] I'd like to know how many we actually were
able to help with that.
[1:05:50] Okay.
[1:05:51] Yes.
[1:05:51] I will.
[1:05:51] Thank you, Chair.
[1:05:52] Ms. Ventura, that's it.
[1:05:54] All right.
[1:05:55] Thanks, y'all.
[1:05:55] All right.
[1:05:56] Thank you. Dr. Chaney. Is he here tonight?
Dr.
[1:06:01] Chaney is not here. All right. We can move
along then.
[1:06:08] So we don't have a report from the
hospital tonight,
[1:06:14] so we're going to move right along. Old
business.
[1:06:20] Any old business? Any new business? Mr.
Peretti.
[1:06:26] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1:06:27] When Al Ray gave his report earlier,
[1:06:29] I had my light on and I wanted to speak to
this,
[1:06:31] but I just wanted to congratulate the Park
Board On the Coleoca Park. I mean, bravo.
[1:06:36] It, uh, you know, it really, it really is
something down there.
[1:06:39] Um, I'm hearing nothing but compliments.
[1:06:42] People that I don't even live anywhere
near it, but they're coming to me saying,
[1:06:46] hey, that park is fantastic.
[1:06:48] Uh, the playground setup and, uh, the, the
track and everything.
[1:06:51] And it was just a great event.
[1:06:53] It was good to see, uh, former
Commissioner Turner, uh,
[1:06:56] be able to cut the ribbon on that, and she
was a big proponent of that.
[1:07:00] So Just congrats. Well done. Very well
done. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1:07:03] Thank you, Parks and Recreation
Department, and Mr.
[1:07:08] Spencer and his organization for
developing it and everything.
[1:07:13] And the Park Board, Mr. Bolton back there.
All right. Okay. That was new business.
[1:07:20] That was old business. We're going to
public comment.
[1:07:24] Anybody still signed up back there? No
sign-up for the public comments.
[1:07:30] Okay, can announcements— all members'
committees—
[1:07:34] committee members' term will expire in
September. Mark that on your calendar.
[1:07:41] Building committee meeting at 5:45. Can I
get a motion to adjourn, please?
[1:07:47] Motion, Mr. Evans, and second by Ms.
Hollinsworth.