[0:00] We're trying to get worked out, so I've asked Chairman—

[0:04] Commissioner Stovall if he would say the prayer— pledge— I mean, say the prayer,

[0:10] and Commissioner Hollinsworth will lead us in the pledge.

[0:14] My Heavenly Father, it's me, me again, standing in the need of prayer.

[0:19] But we come this evening asking for your guidance and your direction.

[0:24] That you would lead us, dear Lord, in this meeting.

[0:28] Help us to conduct it decent and in order.

[0:32] Well, we pray a special blessing upon everyone that's represented in here

[0:37] everyone that's represented in here tonight.

[0:38] We pray a special blessing upon those that know you're not in the pardon of their

[0:44] many sins. Well, we ask you just to help us because we need you.

[0:49] We can't do anything without you.

[0:51] Amen.

[0:52] Well, we pray a special blessing upon our first responders,

[0:56] and we pray a special blessing upon our young men and women in the militaries as

[1:01] they protect us and enabling us to assemble freely as we do.

[1:04] And we ask a special blessing upon those that may be going through sickness.

[1:09] Yes, Father.

[1:10] Those we know and those we know nothing about.

[1:12] And another special blessing as well, dear Lord,

[1:14] those may be going through bereavement.

[1:16] We ask you to give them strength where they may be weak and pick them up where

[1:20] they may be weak and pick them up where they

[1:20] may be torn down. Father, things that I failed to ask you for,

[1:23] please fail not to grant.

[1:25] These and all blessings we ask and we pray in your name, the mighty name of Jesus,

[1:29] thank you, eternal God. Amen.

[1:30] Amen. Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance.

[1:36] To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

[1:43] stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[1:50] Okay. Let the record show that all members are present,

[1:55] and I will now entertain a motion from Commissioner Strand.

[2:00] So I've got a— you didn't even let me get out the chairman thing there, Mr.

[2:07] Strand. So nomination for chairman.

[2:10] Has been made by Commissioner Strands, Gary Stovall. Is there any others?

[2:17] It don't need a second.

[2:19] I can— so I can entertain a motion to cease nominations and accept by

[2:25] acclamation. All right,

[2:27] so it's been moved that nominations cease and Gary Stovall be elected by

[2:34] acclamation. All those in favor, please All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[2:41] Aye.

[2:42] All those opposed? It's yours, Commissioner Stovall.

[2:47] Thank you, Chairman Grooms. Thank you, sir.

[2:51] I'd like to thank everyone for placing their trust in me again,

[2:58] and I will try to do the best I can, the best I possibly can,

[3:04] with the help of the good Lord on my side. I can't do nothing but good.

[3:11] So if he's leading me, I know I'm gonna do right.

[3:16] So I appreciate everybody, and thank you for trusting in me.

[3:22] Uh, as we continue on with the agenda, we got an election of the vice chair.

[3:30] Can I get a motion to Commissioner Hessler?

[3:34] Patti Hollinsworth.

[3:35] Patti Hollinsworth has been nominated for vice chair.

[3:39] Are there any other nominations?

[3:43] No?

[3:43] If there are not, then we move that Patti Hollinsworth, by acclamation,

[3:47] will be our vice chair of the Health and Environment Education Committee.

[3:50] All right.

[3:51] Thank you, Patti. All in favor?

[3:54] Aye.

[3:55] Aye is had. Patti, you're it. Yeah, all right.

[3:59] Can I get approval of the agenda?

[4:03] Commissioner Hollinsworth? Commissioner Hestla?

[4:07] Seconded? And all in favor say aye.

[4:11] Aye.

[4:12] The agenda has been approved.

[4:14] Do anyone have any— had a chance to look at the prior minutes from August?

[4:19] If there are any deletions, corrections,

[4:21] or anything that need to be taken off or added to this agenda?

[4:25] Uh, have you had a chance to look at it? Everyone has.

[4:29] So we'll let those meetings stand as read.

[4:32] Okay, we come to the part of our meeting now for the public comment section.

[4:37] Has anyone signed up for the public comment? No one has signed up.

[4:41] But anyway, I'll just read this just in case.

[4:44] Public comment note: to provide public comment germane to specific agenda items,

[4:50] please complete and return a public form Available in person immediately prior to

[4:55] the scheduled meeting.

[4:57] Additionally, there are 2 defined public comment periods whereby no sign-up is

[5:02] required. At the discretion of the chairperson,

[5:05] public comment is limited to 30-minute aggregates and 3 minutes per speaker

[5:10] distributed across the 3 sessions:

[5:12] the outset of the meeting during specified agenda items and at all—

[5:17] and at the conclusion of the county business.

[5:20] All comments shall be addressed to the body rather than any one member,

[5:25] and there will be no rebuttals thereafter. As we move forward, Mr.

[5:29] Kenny was here, but he had to leave, but he has some— what is it—

[5:33] budget items that would need to be passed over to the budget.

[5:38] He's just transferring money. Mayor, do you have anything to add on to that? No.

[5:44] Just a transfer.

[5:44] Just a transfer of money. Okay, all in favor? Commissioner Strand.

[5:50] Second by Commissioner Hessler.

[5:52] Any questions about the transfer to the Budget Committee? No questions.

[5:58] All in favor? Every number aye.

[6:01] We'll pass this on to the Budget Committee then for the Health Department.

[6:06] Solid Waste, Mr. Turner, you're in the house tonight.

[6:12] Welcome back. Good evening.

[6:17] Good evening, sir. So I sent out a couple of

[6:21] Excel spreadsheets with some of the—

[6:24] What is that?

[6:26] Making sure you're paying attention.

[6:29] All right.

[6:37] Let's see.

[6:38] Uh, which is some of the data and financial things that we've discussed in

[6:42] previously, uh, meetings.

[6:44] Uh, added the customer, uh,

[6:45] customer list as into when they were recently added on there also.

[6:49] So you'd have that for your reference.

[6:52] Um, it came up in last meeting and then, um, like I said,

[6:55] the financials just continuing to grow there, looking positive trends.

[6:59] So that's good. Um, and then one announcement, which is, September 19th,

[7:03] which isn't this Saturday,

[7:05] but next Saturday is our Household Hazardous Waste Day event.

[7:09] That is, that will be at our main location, 1233 Lawson White Drive from 8

[7:13] location, 1233 Lawson White Drive from 8 to noon.

[7:14] That is a state-sponsored event.

[7:15] So we'll be out there for those 4 hours to accept any household hazardous waste that

[7:20] the folks might have. We're putting flyers out today, trying to get the word out.

[7:25] So help spreading. That's helpful.

[7:27] Okay.

[7:30] Is that all you have? That's all I got. Any questions for Matthew? No questions?

[7:35] Is that the 19th?

[7:37] 19th, yes.

[7:38] The 19th, thank you.

[7:41] Commissioner Hestla?

[7:43] Thank you, Chair. Matt,

[7:45] would you mind going over what would be on a list of hazardous

[7:49] waste? Is it paint or— So since we take—

[7:52] I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

[7:53] No, that's okay, go ahead.

[7:55] Since we take paint on a normal basis,

[7:57] the state doesn't like to see paint on Household Hazardous Waste Day events

[8:01] Household Hazardous Waste Day events simply

[8:01] because We take that throughout the year,

[8:04] so they don't want to be bogged down with it on that particular day.

[8:08] So we're looking at aerosol cans, cleaners.

[8:10] If you've got old gasoline you'd like to get rid of,

[8:13] automotive additives that you add to your fuel, or those kinds of things.

[8:17] Cleaners, pool chemicals, that's a common one that we see.

[8:20] Those kinds of items,

[8:21] things that you would have in your house that are really kind of dangerous

[8:25] chemicals, it's an outlet for you to get rid of those rather than just dumping

[8:30] rid of those rather than just dumping them.

[8:30] What about oil from—

[8:33] So I did look on their website.

[8:35] They don't explicitly list motor oil as accepted or unaccepted.

[8:39] I've seen it go both ways. So I can't say.

[8:42] Normally what we recommend to people is NAPA, Advance, O'Reilly's.

[8:46] These kinds of places provide homes for that material.

[8:52] So do we, are we supposed to be keeping our empty aerosol cans off to the side and

[8:56] not just throw them in the trash with everything else?

[8:59] Because I've always done that.

[9:01] No, no, if it's totally empty, it doesn't have any hiss left in it,

[9:04] that's okay to go in the regular trash.

[9:06] What they're talking about is things that are actually still pressurized containers.

[9:11] They're hazardous because if that container were to get punctured, it can

[9:15] container were to get punctured, it can explode.

[9:15] So some of them can be hazardous from the chemical that's in them,

[9:19] so it's very much case by case. Other ones are simply hazardous Interesting.

[9:23] Okay. What about Freon?

[9:25] That would be in the cans, right?

[9:28] The aerosol, would that be considered?

[9:32] Yeah, they would take that material, I would assume, at that one.

[9:34] Car refrigerant type stuff, yes, I believe they would accept that there.

[9:37] Like I said, they've got a full list on their website.

[9:40] I don't have it memorized, unfortunately.

[9:41] The flyers that we put out have a QR code on it that will take you to the website.

[9:45] to that.

[9:45] Okay.

[9:46] Um, I could probably put a link on our website too. Let me remember to do that.

[9:50] That'd be great. Then, uh, Commissioner Hestla. Yes, thank you.

[9:54] Thank you.

[9:54] Mr. Markham. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[9:56] Uh, what about batteries, used batteries, uh, car batteries and that kind of stuff?

[10:02] We take those at the centers every time, every day.

[10:05] Yeah, all, all throughout the year.

[10:07] Yeah, that's, that's one of the things that we moved to the convenience centers.

[10:12] So that goes in our electronic bin. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[10:17] All right, anybody else? Nobody else? Okay, Matt, I think that's it.

[10:22] Nobody else want to say anything to you this evening. Have a good evening, Matt.

[10:27] All right, thank you. You too. Water Department, Mr. Schultz. Thank you, Mr.

[10:31] Chairman. I just wanted to congratulate everyone on your election and wanted to

[10:37] thank you also for your Uh, commitment to our county and your service.

[10:41] Um, with that being said,

[10:43] I would entertain any questions that anybody might have for the Water

[10:47] anybody might have for the Water Department.

[10:48] Anyone have any questions for Mr. Schultz pertaining to water? Commissioner Spann.

[10:53] Thank you, Chair. How you doing, my friend?

[10:56] Hey.

[10:56] When are we going to have water coming in here?

[11:00] Hopefully, uh, by the end of September.

[11:03] Uh, everybody—

[11:03] In a month? Well, everything will be complete as far as the installation.

[11:09] Our connection should be sometime in October.

[11:12] We've got the plans for the actual connecting to our system there at TDEC

[11:18] connecting to our system there at TDEC right now

[11:18] awaiting approval. So as soon as we get that back from them,

[11:23] we'll go to bid and get that part of it done. Got her done, didn't you, buddy?

[11:29] Yes, sir.

[11:30] Thank you. Thank you all for your support too.

[11:34] Thank you, Chair. All right, any other questions?

[11:37] Commissioner Markham?

[11:39] Yes. Commissioner Markham.

[11:42] Todd, I want you to kind of talk just a little bit about how long you've had an

[11:49] application in with TDEC to draw water and some things that maybe have happened

[11:56] since you applied That, that are— didn't go our way.

[12:01] Uh, I guess if you start and you don't say what I want you to say,

[12:07] I'll ask you a different way. Okay.

[12:11] We actually started the process in 2017, and we do have quite the timeline.

[12:18] We come all the way through the process down to 2023.

[12:23] We were actually issued a Draft permit in 2023,

[12:27] and basically it has sat there since 2023. And where would that intake be?

[12:34] Uh, the intake itself would be over here by the—

[12:38] but in between the animal shelter and the emergency management building.

[12:45] So I guess my addition to that is Columbia Power and Water applied for theirs before

[12:53] or after that? I know it got approved before. You know, ours hadn't been

[13:00] before. You know, ours hadn't been approved.

[13:00] Or what's holding it up?

[13:03] You said— Well, it's TDEC's decision to approve or deny the permit.

[13:09] And they have not taken any action since the draft permit was issued.

[13:15] So I guess my comment is they approved for Columbia Power and Water to take 12

[13:23] million gallons. We were asking for 3. Is that correct? That is correct, yes, sir.

[13:30] They've ignored our request and granted Columbia Power and Water.

[13:36] That's the point I'm trying to make.

[13:42] Same river. Yes, sir.

[13:44] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Todd.

[13:46] Yes, sir. Commissioner Grooms.

[13:49] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[13:51] Todd, everybody that's requested an intake up and down the Duck River has,

[13:57] has been approved but ours, right? That is correct. There's been 2 new intakes.

[14:03] The rest of them have been an increase To the withdrawal permits.

[14:08] So there's actually been 2 brand new straws in the river,

[14:13] but the rest of them have been increases to their permit.

[14:18] But ours is the only one that hadn't been permitted.

[14:22] Thank you.

[14:24] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, sir. Commissioner Sumner. Thank you, Mr.

[14:30] Chairman. Congratulations, sir.

[14:32] Todd, can you give me an update on the double branch line upgrade?

[14:38] They are, as of today, looking for another leak.

[14:41] Okay, so it hasn't been— It has not been— it hasn't made the pressure test yet.

[14:48] Okay.

[14:49] So they're— I mean, and they're actively working, but today they've—

[14:54] they're looking for something else. It won't hold. How many leaks have they had?

[15:00] This will be the 3rd one. Wow. Okay. Thank you, sir.

[15:04] Yes, sir.

[15:04] Can you keep us up— at least keep District 5 updated on that process? Absolutely.

[15:09] Thank you.

[15:10] Absolutely. Mr. Schultz, I think that's about it. No one else is— All right.

[15:15] Hold on.

[15:16] You almost got away. It's all right. Mr.

[15:18] Ronsberg, I've got a question, and you may not have an answer for this.

[15:23] But I'm going to go back to a long time ago before you even took over.

[15:28] Originally, Upper Duck River charged everybody a nickel a thousand gallons to

[15:33] everybody a nickel a thousand gallons to build

[15:34] a dam here so we would have a water issue— I mean, wouldn't have a water issue.

[15:39] They're still collecting that nickel a thousand.

[15:43] Uh, I don't, I don't get why we're still paying a nickel a thousand when we already

[15:48] paid off Normandy and they're not going to give us a dam.

[15:52] I mean, it should already been paid. Can you give me some information on that?

[15:58] Well, that would be better answered by the Duck River Agency,

[16:02] but they are still collecting that nickel per thousand from every water user on the

[16:08] Duck River. I know, and that's— I've just got— I've got a major issue,

[16:12] and I know it's not with you, but I thought being with water, you might have—

[16:18] might have a little bit of an idea. Because I, I, that gives me a lot of

[16:23] Because I, I, that gives me a lot of heartburn.

[16:23] It's, and it's not aimed at you, it's aimed at the Upper Duck River Agency,

[16:29] because that should have been sunsetted a long, long time ago. I appreciate it.

[16:34] Thank you, Chairman. All right, Madam Mayor.

[16:37] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to shed a little light on that 5 cents.

[16:42] For all these years, it had been voluntary.

[16:45] But in the past 2 years, I guess just last year or the year before,

[16:50] it was made mandatory.

[16:51] So without getting into anything else,

[16:54] I'm just going to say there were a lot of politics involved in making that

[16:59] mandatory. So that's my comment. It's now mandatory. Thank you.

[17:03] Mr. Schultz, I think that's it.

[17:08] Thank you very much. All right, have a good evening, sir.

[17:09] Have a good evening. Mr. Ray Parks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, sir.

[17:15] Been saying that a long time to get to say it this morning.

[17:21] What I have on the agenda is 2 things.

[17:24] One is an ag grant that we were successful Yes.

[17:28] This is a contract that we were successful on to go toward the,

[17:34] the new stall barns at Murray County Park.

[17:38] There's the contract attached and a budget amendment attached,

[17:43] but it doesn't require any new money on our part.

[17:48] We appropriated out of our fund to do the barn.

[17:52] This will help us to complete the project. It's $150,000.

[17:57] dollars from Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

[18:01] So the contract is there and a budget amendment to take care of it,

[18:07] and I guess we're asking to forward that on to budget.

[18:12] Okay, can I get a motion to move that forward to budget? Commissioner Hessler?

[18:19] Commissioner Strahan? All in favor?

[18:22] Any, any questions before you We move it forward.

[18:27] Anybody have any questions about that? Can you get an all in favor then?

[18:33] All in favor? Aye. All right, move $150,000 to budget. Yes, sir, please.

[18:40] $150,000 to budget. Yes, sir, please. Thank you.

[18:41] All right, and, um, Doug will be here then if there's any questions about it,

[18:47] and if I need to be, I'll be, but it's a pretty simple grant.

[18:53] It's, uh, $150,000 go toward that project, so That was nice to get.

[18:59] Oh, the only other thing we have is an announcement that a park board member's

[19:06] announcement that a park board member's term

[19:06] expires in October. So just for announcement this month.

[19:11] Okay.

[19:13] They're meeting this month, so I will—

[19:17] if they have a recommendation, I'll bring that.

[19:21] After that meeting, the 22nd, I think, their meeting. That's Mr.

[19:27] Marbut, right? Yeah, it's Mr. Marbut's position that is expiring.

[19:33] Okay. And that's a formative announcement.

[19:38] All righty.

[19:39] Anything else with us? All I have.

[19:42] I'd be glad to try to answer any questions if anybody has any. How did the fair go?

[19:47] Went well. Yeah. I think they had a good one.

[19:50] It was a hot one, but, you know, usually is. So, yeah, but I think it went well.

[19:56] All right. Commissioner Strahan, you got anything? Yeah, a quick one.

[20:01] This commission gets criticized a lot for not reaching out to communities,

[20:06] and I could throw up hearing this word transparency all the time,

[20:10] as though we don't communicate with our neighbors and our friends.

[20:15] Don't let anybody know what's going on.

[20:17] Let me tell you how something works, and it worked really well.

[20:22] Wayne and Al very recently had a meeting with a neighborhood that lives across—

[20:27] lives on Casey Lane,

[20:28] which is across the street where they're going to put the new maintenance building.

[20:34] That neighborhood was very concerned about having an entrance off Casey Lane across

[20:40] the street from them.

[20:41] There's a really bad curve There's going to be more traffic,

[20:45] and they're also dealing with a subdivision that could possibly go in

[20:50] subdivision that could possibly go in there.

[20:50] Wayne and Al had a meeting with that entire neighborhood,

[20:54] and there were a bunch of people there, weren't there? And there was a lot of

[21:00] weren't there? And there was a lot of input.

[21:00] The ladies had a whole lot to say about their homes.

[21:03] And when those people left, they all left as friends.

[21:07] They were told exactly what was going to happen, not what was rumored.

[21:12] They were told— and it will happen exactly like they wanted.

[21:16] They were perfectly content and walked out of there saying thank you because those 2

[21:22] folks took the time to talk to the neighbors. That's real transparency.

[21:27] When you get to know the person you're talking to,

[21:30] next time they probably won't even ask or they'll call out because they know who he

[21:36] is. They know he's an honest man. Thank you, guys. Appreciate that.

[21:40] Well, thank you, but that segues, and I keep mentioning this, but now we,

[21:45] we have half the body is new now.

[21:48] We will soon be updating our system-wide master plan.

[21:51] Supposed to do it every 5 years.

[21:53] We're a little bit behind,

[21:55] but you need to keep those things up to date for it just because you need to,

[22:00] but it's also Very helpful in the pursuit of grant dollars.

[22:04] So y'all will get notification of that.

[22:07] There'll be several opportunities for people to have public input because we,

[22:12] we believe in, you know, as much of that as we can get.

[22:16] We want to know, you know,

[22:18] what people want and what we can do better and all that sort of thing.

[22:23] But this is a, you know, an organized effort at that.

[22:26] And then when it's over, we'll have an updated plan.

[22:30] Our last one was 2019,

[22:31] and we'll be looking at that because we've checked a lot of things off that list.

[22:37] And that's with the commission's help and the mayor's help and everybody's help,

[22:42] the highway department's help.

[22:44] And, you know, go down the line of folks that help us do the things we do.

[22:49] So, but you'll get plenty of notice about when that's going to be happening.

[22:55] I just want to throw that out there and thank you for your kind words.

[22:59] All right.

[23:02] Mr. Rayon, I believe you're good. Y'all have a good evening. All right, you too.

[23:09] Thank you, sir. Animal Shelter, Ms. Kim Ralphoff. What you got for us, Ms. Kim?

[23:16] Hi, welcome everybody.

[23:19] All right, hopefully my thing— All right, small victories.

[23:27] This month, for the numbers, we took in 455 animals.

[23:34] 437 found homes. 323 cats came into the shelter and 305 out.

[23:42] 132 dogs and 132 out. Animal Control has been really busy.

[23:50] 169 calls for various reasons,

[23:54] which you can see that is broke down on the side.

[24:01] Our average length of stay is 16 This is, um,

[24:07] our volunteer hours, banked 1,206 hours this month.

[24:14] Attorney Dobis and I have worked on a TNR resolution which

[24:22] we'll talk about. Kennel sponsorship,

[24:27] we'll begin that again this year starting this month.

[24:34] Last year we were able to bring in $25,000 to $30,000 to the

[24:42] county.

[24:43] Thank you.

[24:44] For sponsorship on the new kennels, and that stays up for the year.

[24:48] And each year we go out and sign people up to do that.

[24:52] Some people do it in memory of, some people do their business,

[24:56] but it's just a great way to bring some extra money back to the county.

[25:01] When I send you these slides,

[25:02] you'll be able to zoom in a little bit more because they're on display,

[25:07] but that's our new volunteer application. We are getting digital.

[25:12] Because I have nowhere to store everything that comes in for paper.

[25:16] So we have a volunteer application.

[25:18] It can go on your phone, and then we have boards in the back.

[25:22] It'll bring up the animal that they can only handle or work with,

[25:27] which is great from a safety perspective,

[25:29] and there's a lot of good information on there.

[25:33] The other thing that I did talk about a while back was A rabies application.

[25:38] When I came in 2 and a half years ago,

[25:40] we would get these reports from every vet's office,

[25:44] and they send you all these rabies reports from all the stuff that they do.

[25:49] We created an app to scan those all in,

[25:51] so everything is centralized along with our software to know right up to date if

[25:56] our software to know right up to date if an

[25:57] animal is up to date on vaccines, who the person is who owns it, and so forth.

[26:02] The other thing is our website is up and running.

[26:05] It has really helped down with our phone traffic a ton because everything that you

[26:11] need to find is on that application— rabies microchip clinics,

[26:15] spay and neuter opportunities, adoption events, what animals are available.

[26:20] I mean, we're just living in a digital world, so that helps a lot.

[26:24] Does anybody have any questions?

[26:26] Does anyone have any questions from SCAM?

[26:30] So one of the things I do have on is a TNR resolution.

[26:34] Attorney Dobies and I have worked on this for quite a few months.

[26:39] When I came in, I had experts that came in from the University of Florida,

[26:44] And other shelters in different areas like Williamson County.

[26:49] And each of those areas recommends doing a cat resolution.

[26:53] What does that mean to the average person?

[26:56] You know, everybody spays and neuters their pets. Unfortunately, they don't.

[27:02] And we have a lot of stray cats in Murray County.

[27:06] And if you go through right now on I Heart Columbia or whatever else,

[27:11] all you see is cats after cats after cats.

[27:14] What this ordinance is, is just basically saying anything that's free roaming,

[27:20] that we can bring that in, fix the animal, and be able to return it to the field.

[27:26] So if it's a stray cat, a feral cat,

[27:29] we can get it fixed so it doesn't continue to reproduce and cost taxpayers money.

[27:35] 323 is up by almost 100 cats from last year.

[27:38] And we are going to get to the point where we don't have enough homes for all these

[27:44] cats because they just keep multiplying year after year,

[27:48] actually months after months. So this is what this resolution is.

[27:53] I'm assuming it was attached in everybody's packet.

[27:57] We would microchip these animals to be able to give a 1-year report so the

[28:02] commission could see the difference and then the impact it would have on the area.

[28:08] The other thing is I'm looking at this for our expansion process.

[28:13] You know, we, we don't want to fill it before we even get it built,

[28:18] so we have to do something proactively.

[28:21] We're never going to adopt our way out of an animal crisis.

[28:26] We can only fix the animals.

[28:28] So the more that we can offer free or reduced-cost services or fix animals that

[28:34] reduced-cost services or fix animals that are

[28:34] just roaming, it's a win for Murray County. Does anybody have any questions?

[28:40] Commissioner Hollinsworth from the committee.

[28:43] Hey, Kim. How is the— thank you, Mr. Chairman. How is the building going?

[28:49] We break ground next Monday, the 14th.

[28:52] We just had a, um, we just had a meeting about that today.

[28:57] I do need a storage facility with 2,500 square feet,

[29:01] and if anybody has any ideas, I would love to hear from it.

[29:06] Because that would save $125,000 on the building process if we can purchase the

[29:12] equipment by the end of the year. So—

[29:15] Define that.

[29:18] We need to purchase all the kennels by the end of the year,

[29:21] so when they're delivered,

[29:22] we just need a place to store it until they can be installed into the new

[29:26] they can be installed into the new building.

[29:26] But it would save $125,000.

[29:27] How many square feet?

[29:31] 2,500 square feet. I know.

[29:32] So that's why I'm bringing that up, so everybody can put their thinking caps on.

[29:38] If you have any ideas, please reach out to me. I also will post.

[29:43] Maybe I have a good Samaritan who wants to volunteer up some space.

[29:47] That's great.

[29:49] I'm sure I have to do some kind of insurance waivers and so forth, but, you

[29:53] insurance waivers and so forth, but, you know,

[29:54] I'm going to try my best to make that happen.

[29:58] Commissioner Strang. A couple questions about that.

[30:02] You know, I'm sorry, I'm— it's okay. You need 2,500 square feet.

[30:07] It doesn't have to be, uh, climate controlled?

[30:10] Nope, it's just going to be metal kennels and kind of a barn-like thing or

[30:15] something, right? Yeah.

[30:16] And you'll actually— you'll access that.

[30:19] What was that? I was just saying,

[30:20] obviously it needs to be like where nothing can get damaged or so forth,

[30:24] but It does not need to be climate controlled.

[30:27] And you'll access it just during regular working hours or something?

[30:31] Correct.

[30:32] Because it'll probably be sitting on some private property someplace.

[30:34] Yeah. And every one of my ideas was a—

[30:38] is a dead end because the courthouse needed a lot

[30:42] of storage.

[30:43] We'll find something.

[30:47] Okay.

[30:47] And when?

[30:47] Yeah, we— I just need to find somebody ASAP by the end of the month.

[30:53] By the end of this month?

[30:54] Yeah.

[30:54] Can we do it sooner?

[30:57] That would be great.

[31:00] How many kennels?

[31:02] Um, there's cat kennels, there's parts, you know what I mean?

[31:06] Everything will be boxed up.

[31:07] It just needs to have a space to be able to store it.

[31:11] 40 by 40, 4 by 16.

[31:13] I have surgery tables in my food trailer right now.

[31:16] We're, we're trying to make everything work.

[31:20] Well, I've got a— and I'll quit with this—

[31:24] I've got a feeling what our next project is going to be out

[31:28] there. 2,500 square feet.

[31:30] Thank you, Chair.

[31:30] Commissioner Burford, did I pronounce your name right? Yes, sir.

[31:35] I just have a question for Kim.

[31:37] And going back to the conversion to electronics, I commend you for it.

[31:41] I once took over an office of It was all paper and had to convert it to

[31:46] paper and had to convert it to electronics.

[31:46] It's a great idea. I just have a question on data storage.

[31:50] You know, where, where the data is going to be stored,

[31:54] and what's your data security plan for that as far as, you know, hacking and,

[31:59] and as well as preservation for it won't be lost if a server goes down or

[32:03] be lost if a server goes down or something?

[32:04] Well, currently everything is paper,

[32:06] so it's all in boxes throughout the shelter on top of kennels, kitchen, so

[32:11] shelter on top of kennels, kitchen, so forth.

[32:12] Everything is stored on the Murray County government website,

[32:16] so I would not be in charge of any kind of security. Yes.

[32:21] All right, thank you very much. All right, Commissioner Markham. Thank you, Mr.

[32:27] Chairman. Kim, on this TNR agreement, is it something that—

[32:32] is this resolution similar to some other counties?

[32:36] It's absolutely identical to Williamson County.

[32:39] They mirrored it from South Carolina.

[32:41] It will take up to 5 years to really see a difference,

[32:45] but every community has had the same thing that we have.

[32:48] You know, there's just so many cats, so many that are wandering and reproducing.

[32:53] This way it just fixes them without having to do the 3-day hold,

[32:57] putting them back to the area they belong, ear tipping them,

[33:01] and then we would use a special microchip that we Fix them as a community cat.

[33:07] And you pick them up, you don't know where their home is,

[33:10] so you can't contact the owner, correct?

[33:12] Right.

[33:12] And but then they have no legal grounds to come back in.

[33:15] That's correct. It's basically an insurance policy. Okay.

[33:20] All right.

[33:20] And sometimes we have that now where we pick up cats or people pick up cats.

[33:26] I had one today. It's a premium example. A gentleman brings it in.

[33:30] And their dad was moving, and he's had this cat for a year, and it was

[33:35] this cat for a year, and it was microchipped.

[33:36] I'm like, your dad has somebody's cat for a year in his house.

[33:40] It was a community cat that was fixed through Williamson.

[33:44] We were able to locate it through there and then bring it back to Williamson

[33:49] and then bring it back to Williamson County

[33:50] to do that.

[33:51] Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, Commissioner Barnes.

[33:56] How you doing today? Good.

[33:57] How are you?

[33:58] Good, good. I just got some quick questions here.

[34:01] When looking at this resolution, it's called the TNR program,

[34:04] and it talks about the trapping of the animals.

[34:07] Who actually does the trapping,

[34:09] or do you take those animals from people who bring them in?

[34:12] So there's, there's several ways you can do it.

[34:15] If we trap in an area, we need permission from the property owner,

[34:19] but we would be able to have animal control go out,

[34:22] especially if there's a colony in a set area.

[34:24] And be able to trap those animals, fix them,

[34:27] and return them to the area in a timely fashion by the next day.

[34:31] The reason why I say trap is because if you've ever worked with a feral cat,

[34:35] they will bite you, scratch you before you can even react.

[34:39] So by putting them in a trap, it works.

[34:41] But you can only have them in there for 24 hours,

[34:44] which is why this quick turnaround works. So we would trap in areas right now.

[34:48] We currently rent out traps to people if they need it in their own private property

[34:53] or if they have a nuisance and they can bring them in for surgery and we have them

[34:58] fill out a TNR application.

[34:59] And then obviously if people find strays or want to bring them in as well,

[35:04] we can move them through the shelter a lot quicker that way.

[35:07] Okay. Thank you for that answer.

[35:09] Under Section 2, it talks about community cat and it talks about free-roaming cat.

[35:15] Feral, we understand, is a little more difficult to deal with.

[35:19] Under this section and this definition,

[35:21] what protocols would be in place if this resolution comes to fruition?

[35:26] That would protect a normal household cat from getting away from the house,

[35:31] being trapped, and then falling into this TNR program before the actual owners would

[35:36] realize that that's going to happen?

[35:38] Well, any animal that's unaltered, first off, should not be free roaming,

[35:43] so it would fall under this program.

[35:45] Number 2, sometimes people don't get them altered because they don't have the means

[35:50] to do that. And if they were microchipped or any of the vetting,

[35:53] because rabies is a law,

[35:55] they should be up to date on their vaccines or they should not be out free

[35:59] vaccines or they should not be out free roaming.

[36:00] Every animal under this program would be vaccinated,

[36:03] which is another reason why it's very important.

[36:06] You saw like the goats, the petting zoo,

[36:08] 2,000 cases of rabies of people that were exposed to it. It can happen.

[36:12] And a lot of people just skip that because they don't want to take the time to So

[36:17] really, if it's a pet that's out roaming,

[36:19] it should already be fixed or vaccinated or proof of ownership.

[36:23] If not, it would be subject to that.

[36:25] And obviously, you know, we just want to put it back in the area.

[36:29] Cats have a homing device like a sea turtle. They know to go back.

[36:33] They know where they live. They know where they get food.

[36:37] So if you ever feed a cat, they never go away.

[36:39] Okay.

[36:42] It's the truth.

[36:44] So the understanding is that if a child loses a pet and it runs down the road and

[36:49] gets trapped, that it would probably get neutered then if it came in on that

[36:53] program?

[36:53] Yep, it would. And then it would go back to the area so they would know where it

[36:58] lives. I mean, we don't want to keep people's pets.

[37:01] Obviously, if we also, though, too, if you get an animal in in a trap,

[37:05] you can tell when it's friendly or it's a pet or Or whether it's something that you

[37:09] fix and just put back out.

[37:11] We don't want to have an animal be susceptible, you know what I mean,

[37:14] that they don't belong there. Because obviously accidents can happen.

[37:18] But the odds of it are not as great as just free-roaming cats.

[37:22] I know there's a lady today on I Heart Columbia that she's had 3 litters and she

[37:26] just can't afford to have them spayed, but they keep getting with each other.

[37:30] And then, you know what I mean, that's what we're looking to prevent. All right.

[37:35] Under this resolution,

[37:36] if somebody did notice that their pet was missing and they were able to,

[37:40] to get down there, can they take the,

[37:42] the pet back home with them without them being spayed or neutered first?

[37:46] If they've got proof of ownership.

[37:48] Proof of ownership is vet records showing that it's vaccinated.

[37:51] If it's vaccinated, I have no problem giving it back, you know what I mean?

[37:55] Or microchipped or so forth. But the goal is vaccinations.

[37:59] Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Anything else you got for us, Kim?

[38:04] Yes, I just need a motion to— on my resolution.

[38:09] Can I get a motion for that?

[38:11] Commissioner Hollinsworth and Commissioner Hessler. All in favor?

[38:16] All right. All right. Any questions?

[38:20] Okay. No, you're fine.

[38:26] How long will we need this warehouse?

[38:28] Um, good question. I will need to find out the answer for that.

[38:34] Yeah, because I'm gonna have to— if I can find a place, okay,

[38:37] it'll probably be for sale.

[38:39] I will get you an answer.

[38:41] Okay. Yeah, just call me or something. Okay. Yeah, thanks. Thank you, Chair.

[38:46] Okay, so we're moving this forward, this— the resolution forward.

[38:50] for a commission vote. Anything else you got for us, Kim?

[38:54] That's it. I'm pretty simple this month. All right.

[38:58] Thank you.

[38:59] Thank you.

[38:59] All righty. Education Director, Mr. Ventura, welcome.

[39:06] Mr. Chairman? Yes, sir.

[39:09] I had a message from a friend of mine a minute ago that's watching the live feed,

[39:14] and they're having a hard time hearing the audio.

[39:17] I was just going to pass that along.

[39:19] I didn't know if there was anything y'all could do It's been like that for a while.

[39:24] Beyond my control. Yeah, yeah, I think he's working on it though.

[39:28] There you go. He was correcting that, but it's been like that for months.

[39:31] Okay.

[39:32] I can't hear him.

[39:33] I don't know why. All right, Ms. Ventura.

[39:36] Well, good evening and welcome to the new commissioners,

[39:40] and congratulations on being elected and some of you that were reelected.

[39:46] In school board news, On September 1st,

[39:49] Madam Mayor came and swore in our existing and new members,

[39:54] and we welcomed Chris Gouldstein into District 2 and John Lawson into District

[40:00] District 2 and John Lawson into District 7.

[40:00] We did our elections on that night. Mr. Moore remained our chairman.

[40:05] Our vice chair is now Sue Stevenson, and our chair pro tem is John Lawson.

[40:11] So that was an exciting night for us.

[40:14] For those of you new to the commission, normally what I tell you is our numbers,

[40:20] because that is where our state funding comes from and a little bit of our federal

[40:26] funding. Our average daily membership, which is our current enrollment—

[40:32] it's the average enrollment that began on August 3rd—

[40:37] is 12,857 students.

[40:40] Wow. And our average daily attendance is 12,046 today.

[40:44] And I pulled those numbers right before I came up here at about 4:07,

[40:49] so those are today's numbers.

[40:51] As far as staffing, we currently have 9 teacher openings throughout the district.

[40:58] We have 3 educational assistant openings.

[41:01] We have 5 food service openings, and currently we have 8 transportation

[41:07] currently we have 8 transportation openings.

[41:07] We usually like to hire a lot more in transportation than we have openings for.

[41:13] So when I say that, I mean that 8 routes are currently being covered by either

[41:20] office staff or sub drivers. So we have 8 open routes.

[41:25] And I'd be happy to answer any questions anybody has. I got one question for you.

[41:32] I've had several bus drivers ask me about air conditioning in the buses and stuff.

[41:39] I know we provide air in the special needs buses and we provide heat for all the

[41:46] other buses, but why come we don't—

[41:49] Correct. The cost differential for a bus with air conditioning— first of all,

[41:55] the big yellow cheese is probably the least efficient as far as temperature

[42:02] control. So even when they have air conditioning, it's not very—

[42:08] it's not as efficient as your vehicle.

[42:11] However, it's really a cost thing in this district.

[42:16] If we were to convert to air, you know,

[42:18] we're already talking about $187,000 a bus.

[42:21] You would be talking about between $30,000 and $60,000 more per bus.

[42:26] Depending on whether it's a 90-passenger, a 60-passenger,

[42:31] or a special needs bus.

[42:32] But it is required in special needs buses.

[42:35] Okay. So out of a fleet of 150 buses, you know,

[42:41] you would be talking a very costly increase.

[42:47] I was just wondering, because I mean,

[42:52] it's been pretty miserably hot.

[42:56] Absolutely. Absolutely.

[42:58] And if I could, I would, you know,

[43:01] and I say this in every state meeting that I'm in,

[43:05] I would love for the great state of Tennessee to move to a September to June,

[43:12] as our temperatures seem to be, you know, August is getting hotter.

[43:18] You know, September, we started with some heat.

[43:22] And I'm very prayerful that the cooldown that we are hoping comes next week

[43:28] stays.

[43:29] It arrives and it stays. Hopefully.

[43:33] Any other questions for Ms. Ventura?

[43:37] Madam Mayor, you got anything?

[43:41] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You might mention Dolly Parton Day.

[43:44] Absolutely. I wasn't sure if you wanted me to yet. So I am working with Mayor Butt.

[43:51] We are going to declare 9/25, 9/25,

[43:54] Dolly Parton Day across Murray County Public Schools.

[43:59] We are going to dedicate that day to obviously her love of literacy and

[44:05] obviously her love of literacy and Imagination

[44:06] Library and really, really follow up with the kindness and compassion that Dolly

[44:13] exemplified.

[44:14] Thank you.

[44:15] So I am really, really excited.

[44:19] The mayor and I are going to work up a proclamation and it will be

[44:23] forevermore, I hope,

[44:24] Dolly Parton Day in Murray County Public Schools on 9/25.

[44:28] Sound good.

[44:29] Thank you.

[44:30] In this room on the 15th?

[44:32] Yes. Yes. All right.

[44:37] I'd like to proclaim it early so that schools have a chance to really Spread the

[44:42] word and, and get everybody excited about it.

[44:45] Any other

[44:49] questions for

[44:56] Ms. Ventura?

[45:03] You got it

[45:08] going.

[45:11] Thank you. Dr.

[45:19] Chaney.

[45:23] Good evening,

[45:30] and—

[45:32] Good evening.

[45:33] I just want to add to the congratulations on the election for everyone,

[45:37] and congratulations, Mr.

[45:39] Stovall and Commissioner Hollingsworth, for continuing to chair this committee.

[45:44] Certainly, it's a committee that's very important to us at Murray Regional,

[45:48] and I thought today what I would do— first, I'll start with this invitation.

[45:53] So when I stepped in as CEO about 5 years ago as interim,

[45:57] I felt that what we really lacked was a time for the commissioners to get to know

[46:02] Murray Regional, felt a disconnect.

[46:04] So we started at that time what we call the Murray Regional Murray County

[46:08] the Murray Regional Murray County Leadership

[46:09] Dinner, and that's a chance for you all to come on campus and have dinner with us,

[46:14] our Board of Trustees, our senior leadership team,

[46:17] for us to answer any questions you have about hospital service lines.

[46:22] We usually get a good tour in. So you can see the spaces.

[46:25] We've set it this year for October 7th.

[46:28] There will be official invites coming out, I understand, tomorrow for everyone,

[46:32] and it will be in our auxiliary conference room,

[46:35] which is our Building A main hospital building.

[46:38] It's also a time— I think after the last election,

[46:42] we had several commissioners that had never been in Murray Regional before.

[46:46] They had never really been there.

[46:48] That's right.

[46:49] And so important time to just get the glimpse of the breadth of the care that we

[46:54] provide. So I wanted to go ahead and invite everybody to that.

[46:59] So, uh, we started a journey.

[47:01] I'm not going to go— some of you are the new commissioners,

[47:05] I'm not going to go deep into this,

[47:08] but about 4 years ago we started a strategic plan as we came out of COVID and

[47:13] strategic plan as we came out of COVID and we,

[47:14] as our Board of Trustees and senior leadership, got together and thought You

[47:19] leadership, got together and thought You know,

[47:19] our county's grown a lot,

[47:21] and the healthcare needs of our community have significantly grown.

[47:26] So we launched this as a 5-year strategic plan centered on how we can build trust in

[47:32] care to stay local with your care, how we can improve access to care,

[47:37] and certainly very centered on that patient experience. What's the center?

[47:42] The patient experience.

[47:44] experience of our patients,

[47:46] and this reimagined patient care has been somewhat of our logo through this.

[47:51] So when we look at what we have done, we are still committed to this.

[47:56] We are now entering year 4 of that 5-year strategic plan,

[48:00] and I'll give you an update on where we are in just a minute,

[48:05] but we have done a lot of things in addressing medical staff growth and

[48:10] addressing medical staff growth and recruiting

[48:11] doctors, certainly, you know, our access to our campus,

[48:15] which I'll show you some pictures and update you in a minute,

[48:19] just that patient-centered care.

[48:21] But I thought tonight I would let you get a glimpse of some of our technological

[48:27] advancements, one in particular that happened on August 6th when Dr.

[48:32] Jan Fries performed the first what is called Ion Endoluminal Robotic System

[48:37] procedure. And so what this is is Is we all know that cancers,

[48:42] especially cancers like lung cancer and breast cancer, if found very early,

[48:47] they have a much higher cure rate than late stages.

[48:51] So our goal is always to find them at stage 1 and 2.

[48:55] By the time they're stage 3 and 4, they've often spread,

[48:59] sometimes to distant organs, and the cure rate goes down significantly.

[49:04] So with this new technology, It is based on—

[49:07] it remodels a 3D map of a patient's airway and allows our pulmonologist, Dr.

[49:12] Fries, and other pulmonologists will be trained in this,

[49:16] to go down in a minimally invasive way,

[49:19] navigate a small flexible catheter down into the lung where there may be a small

[49:25] lung nodule way out in the outside of the lung peripheral fields.

[49:30] Okay.

[49:30] That you don't know whether it's cancer or not,

[49:33] and you have to find out whether it is to see if the patient needs further

[49:38] treatment. So with this procedure, you can go and just with light sedation,

[49:42] it's an ambulatory outpatient procedure, the patients go home, and navigates down,

[49:47] biopsies the nodule. And Dr.

[49:49] Frills has now done about 20 of these procedures over the past month and has

[49:53] procedures over the past month and has gotten,

[49:54] I understand, 100% yield.

[49:55] Yeah.

[49:56] yield as to what the nodule was. Very important.

[49:59] So if it's cancerous,

[50:00] it gives you a great opportunity to intervene on that patient with thoracic

[50:05] intervene on that patient with thoracic surgery

[50:05] and, and, you know, excise this, this area before it has a chance to spread.

[50:10] So just incredible technology.

[50:12] It is AI, it's robotic, it's skilled physicians being able to do this.

[50:16] I will say in my medical training, This would have required an open lung biopsy,

[50:22] which is where a thoracic surgeon would have to go through the chest wall into the

[50:27] lung. Clearly, the recovery time was a day or two in the hospital after that,

[50:32] if not longer, and much more just time to heal,

[50:35] and the complication rate is much higher.

[50:37] So just an incredible technology,

[50:39] and glad to be bringing these type things to our community so patients do not have

[50:45] to travel north to get these things.

[50:47] So we also on August 11th cut the ribbon on our GME space.

[50:51] As I've mentioned, our residency program stood up with the University of Tennessee

[50:56] affiliated graduate medical education.

[50:58] That's what GME stands for,

[51:00] where we're now training resident physicians at Murray Regional.

[51:04] This space was not ready on July 1st when the residency program started,

[51:09] but we did about a month behind there able to cut the ribbon on this incredible

[51:14] Incredible new space for, for our residents to spend a lot of time at the

[51:19] residents to spend a lot of time at the hospital.

[51:19] That's what residents do.

[51:21] They, they are there and present,

[51:23] and there's teaching spaces and call rooms and places that they can chart and learn.

[51:28] So very excited to be bringing this space onto our campus.

[51:32] So just a quick look at our timelines. There's lots of projects.

[51:36] I won't go into them.

[51:37] Several of the green ones here are now in the rearview mirror, which is good.

[51:42] We do have 3 very active projects that are significantly impacting wayfinding on our

[51:48] campus. One is the ED renovation, the other is what we call Access Murray,

[51:52] and then we have now just started the main hospital lobby project.

[51:57] So let's talk just a minute about that because that's probably one of the most

[52:02] disruptive to wayfinding on the campus.

[52:04] This is, of course, to bring a new modern entrance to the hospital that's usable,

[52:09] which is a Admitting will be there.

[52:11] Patients can come in, register for their procedures,

[52:15] and not have to go elsewhere as they come in.

[52:18] We'll have security and, of course, weapons detection in this space.

[52:22] So when we look at our artist's rendition of this,

[52:25] this is a significant upgrade from the 1953 look.

[52:28] That 1953 marble is valuable and very precious to people from a sentimental

[52:33] standpoint. We will preserve some of the legacy of that as we think about moving

[52:38] forward in this project, but nonetheless, we need a more functional,

[52:43] usable space in our lobby.

[52:44] So this is the artist's rendition I've shared with you, and this is now underway.

[52:49] Our old lobby is closed.

[52:51] People have been entering the hospital that way since 1953, so now after 73

[52:56] that way since 1953, so now after 73 years,

[52:56] there's alternative entrances,

[52:58] and I'll show you some of our wayfinding You'll be finding a glimpse of that in a

[53:03] minute. So we try to help people get to where they need to go as quickly as

[53:08] possible. But this is what our final version, we hope,

[53:11] will look like in 12 to 18 months from now as we rethermal package and put a vapor

[53:17] barrier and weather barrier up on the front part of the old hospital building.

[53:22] More modern look, but definitely more efficient.

[53:25] Thank you.

[53:25] So part of that look, and if I went back a slide,

[53:28] you can see this big fountain area out here.

[53:31] That is an expansion,

[53:32] gives us a space for outdoor activities within the organization.

[53:36] It is now pretty much done.

[53:37] There's still some work around it to be done, but the pavers are laid,

[53:42] and so it is now prepared. And you can see the flags are at half-staff.

[53:46] This was taken last week in honor of Dolly Parton.

[53:49] Okay, so this will be done in phases, and I won't go deep into this slide,

[53:53] but just let you know you'll see this happening in various parts of the front of

[53:58] that building over the next six months or so.

[54:01] With that right side, as you're looking at the building,

[54:04] being the first several phases that will you'll see the brick coming off of that

[54:09] before too much longer. So let's talk wayfinding just a second.

[54:13] So one of the greatest challenges we have right now with all this.

[54:17] Yes.

[54:17] —construction is making sure patients can find their way to where they need to go,

[54:21] and so what we are doing is we are now looking at our campus across the board,

[54:25] and we're thinking of our buildings in terms of letters.

[54:28] It gets confusing when people—

[54:30] when people are told you need to go to the hospital to get this test.

[54:33] Well, what building, and where do they need to go,

[54:36] and they very often show up in the wrong lobby,

[54:38] and they need to be in a building 3 buildings away, and Some are frail,

[54:42] and so they then have to, you know, be shuttled over there, or it's a long walk,

[54:46] or they've walked to the wrong place, have to go back to their vehicle,

[54:50] drive around. We're trying to avoid all of that as best as we can.

[54:53] So now we are naming our buildings,

[54:55] and all of the wayfinding will be based on Building A will be the main hospital

[54:59] building, Building B the medical office building, which is the middle one,

[55:03] and I'll show you another picture of this in just a minute.

[55:06] Building C, outpatient position.

[55:08] Outpatient position.

[55:09] Pavilion building, and Building D is urgent care.

[55:12] Building E is actually the old Centerstone behavioral health building that's behind,

[55:18] which is our Human Resources Center now,

[55:20] and so you will see these kind of wayfinding markers up.

[55:24] So we've also taken the parking lots and assigned them to the openings.

[55:29] So if your entrance is A2, you're going to park in parking lot A2.

[55:34] Okay.

[55:35] And so there's banners up on all the new light poles and as you enter the campus

[55:40] showing you which parking lot you park in for the entrance you need to enter.

[55:44] All right, so this is how the campus is broken up and each entrance now has these

[55:49] big signs saying this is A2.

[55:51] A1 is the main hospital entrance that is closed and will be closed for the next

[55:55] closed and will be closed for the next year

[55:56] or so, and then you have all these other entrances, so patients are being

[56:00] entrances, so patients are being wayfinded.

[56:01] You You can go on our website, it will have pictures.

[56:04] If I need to get my mammogram, you're going to go to Building C,

[56:08] you're going to parking, you're going to enter C1 entrance,

[56:11] you're going to go and park in Parking Lot C,

[56:14] and so all this is out there to try to wayfind for our campus,

[56:18] not only during these projects, but looking as we grow in the future,

[56:22] and then these are just examples of all of the signs that are throughout the

[56:26] building on the internal, external spaces,

[56:29] and when you pull into the parking lot to help you find your way.

[56:33] I will say since we've closed the lobby, we were very concerned.

[56:37] This is working, and it's working in a great way,

[56:39] and I take my hat off to our volunteers because they are still wayfinding a lot of

[56:44] people from those spaces up to where they need to go.

[56:48] All right, so this is of course the Reimagined Campus vision that we We set 3

[56:52] Reimagined Campus vision that we We set 3 and a

[56:52] half years ago now. That's what it will look like when it's all done.

[56:57] We are getting close to this but need one more year to get there.

[57:00] So another area, emergency care.

[57:02] Emergency care is probably the one thing that all community hospitals should do and

[57:07] do well, and we focus on just the volumes increases that we've seen since we started

[57:12] our renovation a couple years ago in our ED.

[57:15] Our ED is seeing about 3,000 more visits a year than what it did at that time.

[57:20] And you think 3,000 a year is not much.

[57:22] That's 10 more patients a day though, almost, that's coming in there.

[57:26] And so it does add up to more people that have to be seen with a length of stay of,

[57:31] you know, 3 to 4 hours in the ED total.

[57:33] It does create some challenges when you're renovating the space where more people

[57:38] are coming to seek emergency care.

[57:40] And we get that and we work through that every day.

[57:43] With throughput and lots of other measures, but at the end of it,

[57:47] we're just trying to bring more spaces so we can treat more people and treat more

[57:52] people in high acuity.

[57:53] So we have exam rooms and we have trauma rooms that are, that are being built.

[57:58] We have, we have 3 more phases to go.

[58:00] Phase 4 will start hopefully this week or the next,

[58:03] and I'm not going to go over what each phase is there,

[58:07] but you can see we'll work through it, and we're looking at by May Uh,

[58:11] to June of next year,

[58:12] we'll be done with this project and our ER will be fully renovated, updated,

[58:17] and have lots more treatment spaces for patients to be seen.

[58:20] And these are just some pictures of the finished spaces,

[58:24] which are being very well received with the patients seeking care there. All

[58:28] the patients seeking care there. All right.

[58:28] So Access Murray, this is our parking. How do you get in and out of our campus?

[58:33] How do you park? Of course, the goal has always been to bring more parking spaces,

[58:38] more ADA parking, and a greener campus when it's all said and done.

[58:42] And then the infamous traffic light project.

[58:45] And this is, uh, this is the overall parking plan,

[58:48] and all of it's done except for the right lower left-hand corner,

[58:52] which started in July, and that's the last phase.

[58:55] So hopefully we will lay asphalt there before the asphalt companies close in

[58:59] December, and we will have the full slate of the extra 200 spaces.

[59:03] And, and we won't have all of the ADA spaces until the lobby area is done.

[59:07] Okay.

[59:08] But certainly our parking will be much, much better,

[59:11] and we hope to bring employees back soon that have been parking at Graymere Church

[59:16] of Christ and being shuttled over because of just all the challenges of these

[59:21] construction projects. So lots going on.

[59:24] Just a quick update on the spend, which I'm very transparent about these numbers.

[59:29] We've spent to date about $60 million of the bond money and have about $40 million

[59:34] left to to allocate.

[59:35] Some of the allocations are still in projects that are finishing.

[59:39] Some are just those last finishing invoices as they come in on the previous

[59:44] projects, but we're pretty much on budget with everything.

[59:47] There have been a few changes to the scope just as we learn more about renovating a

[59:52] 73-year-old building.

[59:54] There's always fun behind the walls, as Deborah and her team can attest to.

[59:58] So That's the glimpse of the spend,

[1:00:00] and of course we're spending a lot of money locally.

[1:00:04] We want as much of these dollars to go— this is a little bit old.

[1:00:08] I hope to update this one.

[1:00:09] I think we're well over $10 million of a local spend at this point.

[1:00:13] Not going to go over all of the projects we have planned for this fiscal year,

[1:00:18] but you're going to see that these aren't the only things we are doing.

[1:00:23] We're updating linear accelerators for radiation treatments in our cancer center,

[1:00:28] building spaces, refreshing our rooms.

[1:00:30] optimizing basically all the spaces that we have for the growth of healthcare for

[1:00:35] our community. And so with that,

[1:00:37] I will pause and answer questions before I let Deborah come up and talk about EMS.

[1:00:42] Dr. Chan, I got one question for you.

[1:00:44] Yes, sir.

[1:00:45] With this construction going on,

[1:00:47] is there any other areas of the hospital being Worked on older part of the building

[1:00:53] such as the second floor? Because I've had some complaints about that.

[1:00:58] Yeah, so the second floor of the old hospital is where we have currently

[1:01:03] hospital is where we have currently outpatient

[1:01:03] surgery beds where patients come in, they're checked in for their surgeries,

[1:01:09] they stay in that room until they go to surgery.

[1:01:12] Sometimes they come back to those rooms and then are discharged home If it's an

[1:01:17] outpatient surgery or they'll be transitioned inpatient from the recovery

[1:01:22] transitioned inpatient from the recovery room.

[1:01:23] It is in the oldest part of the hospital,

[1:01:25] and we do have plans to do a significant upgrade to that area.

[1:01:30] Those plans are being made right now.

[1:01:32] We talked about them earlier today at a leadership meeting of just—

[1:01:37] there's a couple directions we need to go.

[1:01:40] It will be, I think, the next big construction renovation site we need to

[1:01:45] construction renovation site we need to address.

[1:01:45] I, I, we, we want to do everything.

[1:01:48] You just can't do everything at once because of the disruption that we already

[1:01:53] because of the disruption that we already have

[1:01:53] on our campus with the lobby closed, the ER under construction.

[1:01:58] You know, we've had all the other areas.

[1:02:00] We're putting a new roof on all the hospital that's being impacted,

[1:02:05] about to take the whole front wall off of those rooms,

[1:02:09] which will be impactful of those rooms.

[1:02:11] So we still got to care for patients during this process.

[1:02:15] And even though the spaces in some of those areas are old and,

[1:02:19] and well used through the years, and they're showing their age,

[1:02:24] it still comes down to making sure patients can be seen and we can do

[1:02:28] patients can be seen and we can do surgeries that

[1:02:29] need to be done without being disrupted. So we'll come back soon.

[1:02:34] I think within the next 3 to 4 months, we will know what that next phase will be.

[1:02:39] And, and it will probably involve brand new experience for surgery patients in a

[1:02:45] new experience for surgery patients in a lot

[1:02:45] of different ways. Good question though. Mr. Strahan. Thank you, Chair. Dr.

[1:02:50] Chee, how do you dictate and monitor local spend? I, I need to be taught that.

[1:02:56] We have developers that from Denver using people out of California How did you

[1:03:01] dictate that early on when you sat with them? We absolutely did.

[1:03:05] When we did the pro formas for all the construction companies,

[1:03:10] I think that we had about 4 come on site and present, you know, their plans,

[1:03:15] how they would do things, kind of their budget and spend.

[1:03:19] We made it very clear that we wanted as many dollars to stay local as possible.

[1:03:24] I think what you will see is this number will Climb,

[1:03:28] and that Turner Construction does the big things,

[1:03:31] but the local contractors are really valuable in the finished products,

[1:03:36] the drywall and the finishing and all of that.

[1:03:39] So what you see is with these projects, you don't see a lot of local spend early

[1:03:45] you don't see a lot of local spend early on,

[1:03:45] but as they come to, you know,

[1:03:47] the final stages of getting it ready for patient care and all,

[1:03:51] those local contractors have been just valuable.

[1:03:54] And we We just asked Turner to prioritize local contractors.

[1:03:58] They still bid it out, and there's a budget to the bottom line of this,

[1:04:03] but we want as many as possible. How do you monitor that? Do they do that?

[1:04:08] They do that in concert with multiple committees with our senior leadership

[1:04:14] committees with our senior leadership team.

[1:04:14] Yes, sir. Good. Thank you. I will give a shout-out to Smith Construction

[1:04:19] shout-out to Smith Construction Excavating.

[1:04:20] They've done a lot of the parking lot work, and They've done a wonderful job.

[1:04:25] work, and They've done a wonderful job. Good.

[1:04:25] I got to watch it out of my window over the past several months, really 6 months,

[1:04:31] as they scooped up the old and laid down the new with the drainage and everything.

[1:04:36] Just safe process, efficient. They did a very, very good job. Thank you, Dr.

[1:04:42] very, very good job. Thank you, Dr. Chaney.

[1:04:42] Thank you, Chair.

[1:04:43] Commissioner Hestla.

[1:04:45] Good job. This is terrific.

[1:04:49] It's beautiful. It looks— the inside looks,

[1:04:53] and the pictures reminds me of Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance, those slick lobbies,

[1:04:59] you know, that kind of weave around a little bit and everything's real sparkly.

[1:05:05] It looks terrific. It's really— it's beautiful.

[1:05:09] Thank you.

[1:05:10] I remember asking you last year when you were showing us the specs And what the

[1:05:14] outside would look like and all that. I was asking you about painting the outside.

[1:05:19] Is it going to be a different color? Are you going to keep everything the same?

[1:05:23] And you mentioned if you could just sandblast it, it would probably do the

[1:05:27] sandblast it, it would probably do the job.

[1:05:27] Is that still in the picture?

[1:05:29] So we did pressure wash basically every blonde brick you see has been pressure

[1:05:34] washed in the past 3 or 4 years.

[1:05:36] Some brought out a much, much Some of them have a much cleaner look.

[1:05:40] Some are just 70-something-year-old brick that have absorbed a lot of weather

[1:05:45] through the years. I think on the front of the hospital,

[1:05:49] what we have decided is that the old brick behind that layer is built in 19—

[1:05:54] between 1949 and 1953, when asbestos was a common insulation product.

[1:05:58] So behind that old brick, if you don't disturb Serve as best as you find.

[1:06:03] But once we start tearing those windows out and replacing the windows,

[1:06:07] which have to be replaced, it came— became very clear.

[1:06:11] And this is where the scope changed in that project a bit,

[1:06:14] that if we're going to do it, we ought to do it right.

[1:06:18] And so we are taking off the front side all of the old brick that's on the

[1:06:23] all of the old brick that's on the southwest

[1:06:23] side of the building.

[1:06:25] So it has borne the brunt of most of the weather on that side of your house,

[1:06:29] the wind and the rain.

[1:06:31] Mm-hmm.

[1:06:32] And so it needs to be taken off.

[1:06:33] There are moisture penetration problems with that brick and the limestone around

[1:06:38] with that brick and the limestone around the

[1:06:38] windows that's cracking.

[1:06:40] So we're just going to take it off, do a complete new vapor thermal barrier,

[1:06:44] and then weather resist it with those metal and glass panels that are much

[1:06:49] metal and glass panels that are much easier to

[1:06:49] keep clean through the years.

[1:06:51] So that around the sides of that,

[1:06:53] which is not So weather-beaten and the brick is in better shape.

[1:06:57] We are looking at probably staining that brick a different color brown,

[1:07:01] but within the color scheme of the rest of the blonde brick.

[1:07:05] And that's not the big tower, we're talking still the old part of the

[1:07:09] talking still the old part of the hospital,

[1:07:09] and replacing those windows.

[1:07:11] So you'll see that picture I showed you of kind of the metal glassed-out front,

[1:07:16] modern look, but then around the sides you will see some staining of the brick.

[1:07:21] Stain lasts much much longer than paint, and you can pressure wash it,

[1:07:25] and it'll withstand a couple pressure washings.

[1:07:28] So we feel that that's probably the way to go and try to preserve some of that brick

[1:07:33] that's not so weather-beaten.

[1:07:34] That's interesting about the asbestos.

[1:07:38] It's in everything that was built before 1970.

[1:07:41] But all that will be alleviated within all this process? It'll just be—

[1:07:45] We will abate all the asbestos layers.

[1:07:48] I mean, I'm You know, in the guts of an old hospital like that,

[1:07:51] there are still pipes and things that are not exposed to air that I'm sure probably

[1:07:56] still have asbestos. Every old building has it, but we, we know where those are.

[1:08:01] And then when we, when it's time that we have to disturb those areas in any way,

[1:08:06] we do the full abatement per protocol as we need to, to go ahead and replace it.

[1:08:11] Sounds good. Thank you. Good job.

[1:08:16] And I will say that all the new stuff just makes— to Commissioner Gary's comment—

[1:08:22] makes the older stuff look maybe not so new. Looks less new. All right.

[1:08:28] Commissioner Combs? Thank you, Chairman Stovall.

[1:08:33] My name is Greg Combs, and we haven't met before.

[1:08:37] But, and this, I don't want to take you too far off of where you're at in your

[1:08:43] discussion, but I'm curious.

[1:08:46] I thought while I had you here, I would like to ask you a question.

[1:08:51] Sure.

[1:08:52] My first job was helping start Life Flight for Vanderbilt Hospital back in the '80s,

[1:08:58] so that tells you how old I am.

[1:09:00] I have a question about when patient delivery comes through Air Ambulatory,

[1:09:05] where is that patient delivered to? Currently, which helipad?

[1:09:09] So we utilize the helipad that's in front of our Plaza building,

[1:09:13] in front of the Election Commission. Okay, that's the main helipad.

[1:09:17] Okay, I just want to make sure that I had that correct.

[1:09:21] Yes, that, that is really the only one that we use.

[1:09:24] So we have entertained bringing that on campus,

[1:09:27] but those high-voltage wires that go across the front part of our campus

[1:09:32] across the front part of our campus parking lot

[1:09:33] make that very challenging, and then there's not a place on the backside that,

[1:09:38] there's not a place on the backside that, that,

[1:09:38] that needs the space to land a helicopter. Okay.

[1:09:41] That's the perimeter that has to be set up. That's probably the answer.

[1:09:46] I was just curious, had any thought been given to bringing the patient to delivery

[1:09:51] to the rooftop of the hospital so that they can be delivered directly into trauma

[1:09:56] center? It talks about that, but I can't remember what that limitation was,

[1:10:01] whether that was structural or not. I can get back with you on that question.

[1:10:06] Elevators, yeah, we'd have to redo all the elevators too. Okay. All right.

[1:10:11] Thank you.

[1:10:12] Commissioner Markham.

[1:10:15] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr.

[1:10:16] Chaney, this, this new lung scope, I'll call it—

[1:10:20] I can't pronounce what you said it was.

[1:10:22] Is it going to be preventive medicine just like colonoscopy?

[1:10:26] At a certain age, you can have this lung scope?

[1:10:29] All right, so the scope is only if something is found on imaging.

[1:10:33] So there, there is a new protocol called screening lung CTs.

[1:10:37] If you have been a smoker in your past or have, you know,

[1:10:41] family history of lung cancer.

[1:10:43] I don't remember all the parameters,

[1:10:46] but insurances are now covering for you to have a surveillance lung CT every so

[1:10:51] often to look for early lung cancers.

[1:10:53] And so if you qualify, you could have one, or if you have a CT for another reason,

[1:10:59] which we do all kinds of CTs in our emergency department— trauma,

[1:11:03] you come in and you fall and break a rib and we need to, you know,

[1:11:07] X-ray you or CT you.

[1:11:09] All of those are potential also screening tests for other things.

[1:11:13] Like, we may be looking for a broken rib, but it may find—

[1:11:17] you may find an early nodule in your lung that you didn't know was there,

[1:11:21] nobody knew, and we just incidentally found it.

[1:11:25] We want to make sure that we have the opportunity to not only capture all of

[1:11:30] opportunity to not only capture all of those

[1:11:30] incidental findings,

[1:11:31] but also through a screening program with your primary care physician,

[1:11:36] That can get chest x-rays regularly or these lung CTs,

[1:11:39] that we can start identifying these, very similar to how women get mammograms,

[1:11:45] where it's slated at a certain time, where you get these every so often,

[1:11:49] and hopefully can detect, when it's very small,

[1:11:52] a potential early malignancy that could then be, through this, biopsied.

[1:11:57] So, you've got this, let's say it's the size of a marble,

[1:12:01] and it's It's not really big yet, but we don't know, is it cancer?

[1:12:05] You can wait, you can see if it grows,

[1:12:08] but that's got risk involved in it by waiting.

[1:12:11] So now, if it looks suspicious in any way, you can get this test.

[1:12:15] They can sample the core of that thing and say, no, it's not cancer,

[1:12:19] or it was some fungal infection you breathed when you were a child.

[1:12:24] And certainly anything new on chest x-rays that have changed from time to time,

[1:12:29] that's a good sign that you need to go and figure this thing out.

[1:12:33] And so it is a procedure that's, that's,

[1:12:36] that's then designed to get early answers to findings on lung chest x-rays and lung

[1:12:42] CTs. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[1:12:43] That's probably more than you wanted, but— No, that's good.

[1:12:47] I had to take my doctor hat off sometimes. Thank you, Mr. Stovall.

[1:12:52] Mr. Ronsberg.

[1:12:54] I want you to know I'm a supporter of Murray Regional,

[1:12:57] but I have some concerns and I want to ask you about them real Sure.

[1:13:02] One of the biggest problems I have with all this construction we've done,

[1:13:06] did we think about any of using any of that money to improve services like

[1:13:11] that money to improve services like bridging

[1:13:12] the— we— the hospital years ago burnt bridges with Columbia Pediatrics.

[1:13:16] Now they ship all their patients to Williamson.

[1:13:19] Williamson is getting ready to be bought by St. Thomas.

[1:13:23] Well, Vanderbilt has Williamson's pediatrics.

[1:13:26] There won't be a pediatric unit now between Huntsville and Nashville for us.

[1:13:31] Have we thought about using any of that money,

[1:13:34] or have we thought about expanding to another— going back to a pediatrics unit?

[1:13:39] Because we lost one years ago. We had a top-notch one. But I have several

[1:13:43] top-notch one. But I have several concerns.

[1:13:44] This is one I just want to bring up right now.

[1:13:47] Do we have any future looking at a pediatric unit?

[1:13:50] Because as many people as we have moving in this county, we're going to need it.

[1:13:55] So I'm a pediatrician by training. Not sure if you knew that.

[1:13:59] Worked with Commissioner Hollingsworth many,

[1:14:02] many years in treating kids at Murray Regional.

[1:14:05] I think my very first call in 2002 when I started at Murray Regional was to

[1:14:10] resuscitate twins that were 16 weeks premature at 24 weeks and weighed about a

[1:14:15] premature at 24 weeks and weighed about a pound

[1:14:15] and a half each. So I've been very involved with the pediatric journey of

[1:14:20] involved with the pediatric journey of Murray

[1:14:20] Regional for a long time.

[1:14:22] Thank you.

[1:14:24] And I will also just say that I think what's changed the landscape is the

[1:14:28] subspecialization of medicine.

[1:14:30] It used to be that general pediatricians handled a lot of sick kids in the

[1:14:35] handled a lot of sick kids in the hospital.

[1:14:36] That has changed in the training of pediatricians.

[1:14:39] It's trained in the comfort level and the expectations of society and the community

[1:14:44] of needing pediatric specialists to be involved in a child's care.

[1:14:48] So, well, what— to answer your question, it really comes down to,

[1:14:52] it's not about spending the money to build the space.

[1:14:56] It's, do we have enough volume of a certain type of pediatric patient illness

[1:15:00] certain type of pediatric patient illness that

[1:15:01] would justify having pediatric specialists practicing at Murray Regional?

[1:15:05] So, So take critical care. So we've done this pro forma with critical care.

[1:15:10] I think the first thing I would like is eventually to have a pediatric critical

[1:15:15] eventually to have a pediatric critical care

[1:15:15] unit. We would keep a lot more kids at Murray Regional if we knew we had that

[1:15:20] backup. And I will say,

[1:15:22] we always have a board-certified pediatrician in-house at Murray Regional

[1:15:26] pediatrician in-house at Murray Regional 24/7 every

[1:15:27] day of the year. There's always a board-certified pediatrician to handle

[1:15:32] board-certified pediatrician to handle pediatric

[1:15:32] admissions, We have the neonatal intensive care unit with neonatal nurse

[1:15:37] practitioners and neonatologists because there are enough babies.

[1:15:41] We have 8 babies right now in our nursery.

[1:15:43] There are enough babies in our NICU that it justifies having those pediatric

[1:15:48] specialists, those neonatologists there.

[1:15:51] The math, if we kept every critical care patient that we ship out of this area,

[1:15:56] which we would not keep all of them because some are definitely going to have

[1:16:01] because some are definitely going to have to go

[1:16:01] to Vanderbilt, right?

[1:16:02] But even if we kept all of them at Murray Regional with a pediatric intensive care

[1:16:07] unit, the last performance showed we would still not have enough patients to have 3

[1:16:13] critical care doctors, which is how many you have to have to stand up 24/7 service.

[1:16:18] Well, if we lose Williamson Medical, that's going to increase—

[1:16:22] that could increase your business drastically.

[1:16:25] That could, that could change the landscape, no doubt.

[1:16:28] Growth of our community— at some point we might be big enough to definitely,

[1:16:33] and we to do this math every so many years to check and see.

[1:16:37] I don't know what's going to happen at Williamson.

[1:16:40] I've heard that Ascension is going to honor the pediatric unit there and keep it

[1:16:45] open. That's— I've just heard that probably through the press or something.

[1:16:50] I have no insider information on that. So we are— you know, I'm a pediatrician.

[1:16:55] I want great care. But I also want— when a child is really sick,

[1:16:59] and needs to be in the hospital, which doesn't happen like it used to,

[1:17:03] you have to have the full weight of specialists to bring to that child's care

[1:17:08] specialists to bring to that child's care when

[1:17:09] they need it and not have to then transfer from the hospital to a Vanderbilt when

[1:17:14] the child is sicker.

[1:17:15] And that's why we're always weighing, is, is, is this,

[1:17:18] is this patient potentially going to need a higher level of care?

[1:17:22] It's a tough question, and I, I hear you. I absolutely do.

[1:17:26] Well, I have several others,

[1:17:28] but we'll bring that up over the course of the next year or so.

[1:17:32] But I appreciate it because I probably wanted to ask him more about EMS because I

[1:17:37] was 33 years with the fire department, also 31 years with Murrayville Fire.

[1:17:42] You're going to hear a good EMS update here in just a minute, sir. Thank you.

[1:17:47] Thank you, Chairman. And thank you for calling.

[1:17:50] My colleague from the 3rd District, Commissioner Harlan. Good evening, Dr.

[1:17:54] Commissioner Harlan. Good evening, Dr. Chaney.

[1:17:55] The question I have is very elementary, uh, and I'm curious,

[1:17:59] and maybe the county commission can ask, uh, help with this, uh, answer.

[1:18:03] Okay, say for instance, uh,

[1:18:05] $80 million bond and the hospital has completed $75,000 million,

[1:18:09] so we got $5 million left. So What is done with the $5 million?

[1:18:13] Are you— is the hospital able to use the money, or is the city, the county?

[1:18:18] So that's my question.

[1:18:19] Basically, do the hospital able to use the rest of the $5 million?

[1:18:23] So, you know, I'm just using that example.

[1:18:26] No, no, it's a great example, and it's a good question. It absolutely is.

[1:18:30] Um, first off, I doubt if there's going to be that much left over as When we get to

[1:18:36] the final of all this, we want to stay under budget. Of course we do.

[1:18:40] We just don't know how much we will be under budget.

[1:18:43] There are parameters of what we can use that money for,

[1:18:47] and it has to be spent in Murray County for—

[1:18:50] We have borrowed the money through the county's bond agency and rating,

[1:18:54] which gives us a good rate on getting capital to make improvements.

[1:18:58] Murray Regional right now Is 100% responsible for paying that back.

[1:19:03] And we have done this for 73 years.

[1:19:05] There have been bonds every few years that come before the county because everybody,

[1:19:10] every hospital system gets capital from Wall Street. It's just how you get it.

[1:19:15] If for-profit's going to get it through investors,

[1:19:18] we use municipal bonds and we're very good and happy with the relationship.

[1:19:23] So we, we would have a choice if we have it left over.

[1:19:26] If there's another project that meets the The parameters that the bond agency

[1:19:31] allowed us to borrow this money to do,

[1:19:34] because they want to know what you're going to use it for.

[1:19:37] They want to know there's going to be a return on this investment.

[1:19:42] If it's within the parameters,

[1:19:44] we can expand the scope and get permission to do it if there's a surgery area that

[1:19:49] we need to upgrade, or we could just pay off some of the bond notes.

[1:19:53] We have less to pay off in the long run, which is the choices I think we would

[1:19:58] which is the choices I think we would have.

[1:19:58] Do we use it for another project that improves improves healthcare for Murray

[1:20:03] County, or do we go ahead and just shorten our overall debt for the long term so

[1:20:08] that our bond payments over the next 20 years or less?

[1:20:12] Okay, so the bond is completely Murray Regional responsibility?

[1:20:16] This, this part of the bond is our responsibility to pay back.

[1:20:20] Okay.

[1:20:21] All right, all right. Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff. All right, Dr.

[1:20:25] Chaney, I don't see anybody else.

[1:20:27] Just willing to ask you any questions or speak on anything. All right.

[1:20:31] Well, I will introduce Ms. Deborah Lumpkins, our Chief Operating Officer.

[1:20:35] Deborah is also Chief Nursing Officer of Murray Regional for 15 years, uh,

[1:20:39] before she moved into this role.

[1:20:41] And she has oversight of our ambulance service, EMS service.

[1:20:45] And so I'm gonna turn it over to her.

[1:20:47] Deborah, you can just click on the slides and you should be good to go.

[1:20:52] Thank you for the opportunity tonight.

[1:20:56] I am most excited to share our newest— let's see if I can get my slides—

[1:21:03] my newest department director at Murray Regional.

[1:21:08] And this is Greg Johnson,

[1:21:10] who is assuming the administrative director role of our EMS.

[1:21:16] Greg comes highly decorated and respected.

[1:21:20] I mean, he has an associate degree, as you can see,

[1:21:25] in emergency medical services, bachelor's degree in business,

[1:21:31] master's in administration, 15 years of experience,

[1:21:36] most recently as the program director for the Columbia State state EMS program

[1:21:44] there. And interesting that he has served as a previous elected county official

[1:21:52] in Ohio, if I am correct.

[1:21:54] So we're so proud that he is here, and he has— this is what, week 3?

[1:22:01] Starting today.

[1:22:02] Yes, week 3. So he definitely has hit the ground running and is really doing a

[1:22:09] fantastic job for us.

[1:22:11] So I look forward to future reports that Greg will give to this commission.

[1:22:18] One other point that I want to make that I didn't feel like for week 3 that it's

[1:22:26] fair just for Greg to give you the annual report for EMS,

[1:22:31] so I am going to share that, but then he is going to share, you know,

[1:22:37] some His vision and just plans as we move into the future.

[1:22:43] So I want to share for those that are new to the commission that just where our EMS

[1:22:50] stations are located.

[1:22:52] So 3 stations here in Columbia, Maine, near the election One at Tom J.

[1:22:59] Hitch, one at Neapolis, one at Mount Pleasant, one at Hampshire,

[1:23:05] and then there are 2 additional peak trucks that are staffed 6 to 6 and/or 9 to

[1:23:12] trucks that are staffed 6 to 6 and/or 9 to 9 so

[1:23:12] that we can, again, meet those peak volumes that we have. Staffing.

[1:23:19] We have 52 full-time positions. And that is a wide variety of EMTs, paramedics.

[1:23:26] We have critical care trained paramedics.

[1:23:30] We also have dispatch there,

[1:23:32] as well as a whole host of PRN staff that can help when we need extra staffing

[1:23:40] and/or cover vacations, sick leave.

[1:23:43] Current vacancies right now, 3 full-time, and then we have We have 4 PRN vacancies.

[1:23:50] I want to share about volumes because we've already heard from Dr.

[1:23:57] Chaney just how the growth of healthcare in, you know, in our community,

[1:24:03] you all see that, just the growth of census in our community.

[1:24:09] So I wanted to give you kind of a look of our current fiscal year that ended in '26.

[1:24:17] Thank you.

[1:24:17] That ended in June compared to the previous fiscal year.

[1:24:21] So the total number of calls that— for the 911 calls,

[1:24:25] we had over 17,000 compared to 14,000 the previous year.

[1:24:30] Transfers to a higher level of care, again,

[1:24:33] we want to keep patients in our community,

[1:24:36] but there are those patients that need to be transferred. So 2,300 were transferred.

[1:24:42] Okay.

[1:24:43] This past year compared with 4,000 the previous.

[1:24:47] And then you can see then that total transport of over 19,000 compared to

[1:24:53] transport of over 19,000 compared to 18,000.

[1:24:54] So over the previous year, the transports increased 8.2%.

[1:24:59] And again, that's just driven by a growth in, in our community.

[1:25:04] Frequently asked, and a lot of times there are discussions regarding response times.

[1:25:12] You know, what are those average response times?

[1:25:16] And again, you all know the geographic range that our county— that, you know,

[1:25:22] we have rural compared to, you know, here in the city proper of Columbia.

[1:25:29] But in our most recent fiscal year that ended,

[1:25:33] the average time was 10 minutes and 22 seconds. Again, average time.

[1:25:39] And this graph, you can see where it gives you the whole variance there.

[1:25:45] And then the— compared to last year, which was 10 minutes and 2 seconds.

[1:25:51] So again, very close year over year.

[1:25:54] And I'll just share kind of that benchmark we're often asked.

[1:26:00] So in rural areas, about 15 minutes is that average response time.

[1:26:05] Urban is a 9-minute response time.

[1:26:08] So, you know, our times remain within that rural benchmark while maintaining a good

[1:26:16] city performance here in Columbia.

[1:26:19] And then we do break down that average response times by city.

[1:26:24] And just again, year over year, that comparison.

[1:26:28] These are average times in minutes, and then the number of calls.

[1:26:34] So you can see there Columbia here at the main being the— again,

[1:26:39] that average time in the 9 minutes,

[1:26:42] and roughly about 10,000 calls coming here from the city.

[1:26:47] And then all the way to where our lower volume is going to be,

[1:26:53] There at Williamsport with a longer response time.

[1:26:57] Mm-hmm.

[1:26:57] I mean, it, you know,

[1:26:59] it just takes longer again geographically to cover the mileage.

[1:27:04] But we look at these literally on a monthly basis.

[1:27:08] We see if there's any outliers and, you know, where does this, you know,

[1:27:14] leave us for potential growth,

[1:27:17] certainly in the future as our county continues to grow.

[1:27:21] And then I want to share the financial summary. I like, you know, Dr.

[1:27:27] Chaney with the bond and construction, I mean, transparency.

[1:27:32] And this is just a snapshot.

[1:27:34] Our CFO meets regularly with Doug Loukonen, you know,

[1:27:38] shares the operating reports at a very detailed level.

[1:27:43] Just want to highlight here on a—

[1:27:45] One slide.

[1:27:46] Again, just to highlight the financials,

[1:27:50] and this is probably an easier way to think about it,

[1:27:55] but our revenue declined 6% year over year as reimbursement pressures— I mean,

[1:28:02] we see that. Our reimbursement pressures increased. We had higher payer denials.

[1:28:09] That's not just— in EMS.

[1:28:12] I mean, we see that across numerous service lines at the hospital,

[1:28:18] and there were stricter contract terms.

[1:28:21] Just again, you know, payers don't want to pay,

[1:28:26] and that's just a struggle that we often face in healthcare.

[1:28:31] However, on a positive, our operating expenses were reduced 2%.

[1:28:37] That's good.

[1:28:38] And I credit the team with that.

[1:28:41] And that was through disciplined just management of labor and administrative

[1:28:48] costs. We meet every 2 weeks, again,

[1:28:51] looking at staffing and when the payroll ends, the volumes, the numbers,

[1:28:57] and how can we continue to be and put forth operational efficiency.

[1:29:03] So, however, despite these cost-saving measures, our operating loss increased.

[1:29:10] So we had the previous year,

[1:29:13] our operating loss was $3.1 million compared to $3.4 million.

[1:29:18] And that was largely due to escalating maintenance costs. Our EMS fleet is aging.

[1:29:26] Some of our equipment is aging.

[1:29:28] Yes.

[1:29:29] Fuel costs are up. I mean, not, you know, that's not, you know,

[1:29:35] it's not unique just to us personally, but, you know, for the fleet as well.

[1:29:41] And so we completed a record number of transports during our fiscal year while

[1:29:48] maintaining strong expense controls and operating performance.

[1:29:54] I will share that although it may be a little challenging to find Nationwide data

[1:30:01] that for county-owned EMSs, more than 70% operate at a loss.

[1:30:06] And I know all of our counties around here, including Williamson,

[1:30:12] have substantial operating losses for their EMS.

[1:30:16] And there's several reasons for that.

[1:30:19] Just again, payer contracts, I mean,

[1:30:22] they just We don't pay what it costs to conduct an ambulance run.

[1:30:28] But again, we had— we continue to look at our operational efficiencies,

[1:30:34] and I'm very proud of the work that our team has done this past year.

[1:30:40] With that, I'm going to turn it over to Greg,

[1:30:44] and then we will answer any questions here in just a moment.

[1:30:51] Thank you. And before I start, just again, congratulations to all of you.

[1:30:55] I know what it means to get elected and be in these roles, so congrats to you.

[1:31:00] And I'm happy to be here and serving at Murray Regional.

[1:31:03] I feel like I've been a part of the Murray County family for a long time serving at

[1:31:08] the college, so it's neat to be in just a different role with Murray Regional.

[1:31:12] I'm excited to be here. Just a few points on our education and public events.

[1:31:17] We do now have a full-time training manager.

[1:31:20] At the EMS service, and so that's allowed us to increase the amount of training that

[1:31:24] we're putting on for our employees.

[1:31:27] We also have a new collaborative training that's happening with the county's

[1:31:31] athletic trainers at the high schools, so that's been an improvement.

[1:31:35] A couple of public events that we've supported: Mule Day, the county rodeo,

[1:31:39] and then the county fair that just happened recently.

[1:31:43] I got, I got my first fair experience. I grew up in Rutherford County.

[1:31:47] We don't have fairs, so I got my first fair experience,

[1:31:50] and that was an this past weekend, so I enjoyed that.

[1:31:53] And then we put on here, we were recognized again this year.

[1:31:57] This is multiple years in a row now that we've received the American Heart

[1:32:01] Association Lifeline Award for a lot of the work that we've done through our CPR

[1:32:06] training efforts. For fiscal year '27, some of the priorities:

[1:32:09] we want to expand educational outreach to our first responders in the community,

[1:32:14] those that serve alongside us, and the lay rescuers in our community,

[1:32:18] the that want to help and respond. We want to be out there and help educate them.

[1:32:23] We want to increase special event coverage throughout the county with our ambulances

[1:32:28] and our UTV to meet the needs that are there.

[1:32:30] We want to execute some departmental goals as we start on this journey.

[1:32:35] With my leadership, I've been meeting with our team to focus on some short-term and

[1:32:39] long-term goals for the EMS agency, and so we're going to start executing on those.

[1:32:44] We want to evaluate service expansion opportunities.

[1:32:47] Where else in the county might benefit from having an ambulance need in place.

[1:32:52] And so we'll work with county leadership and our leadership to determine those

[1:32:57] areas. And then we have this next year,

[1:32:59] we have the Murray County contract coming up again for renewal.

[1:33:03] And then I just want to take a second and recognize we had on Friday morning,

[1:33:07] as we were in a meeting,

[1:33:08] our teams were called to a local middle school for a 10-year-old that was in

[1:33:13] school for a 10-year-old that was in cardiac

[1:33:13] arrest. And I just want to take a second to recognize the school officials that

[1:33:18] to recognize the school officials that were

[1:33:18] there at that, the teachers, the principals that responded as well.

[1:33:22] We had members from our team, from the Sheriff's Department,

[1:33:26] Tennessee Highway Patrol, Columbia Fire and Rescue,

[1:33:29] and then obviously our Mercy Department teams at Murray Regional for the response

[1:33:33] that led to a resuscitation of that pediatric patient that day.

[1:33:37] That patient is still alive and is in Nashville,

[1:33:40] and we pray and wish them all the best.

[1:33:42] So we're thankful for that response, and again,

[1:33:45] I just want to send as many kudos as I can to our school system.

[1:33:49] It was kind of a weird setup.

[1:33:51] They actually had a fire alarm that was happening at the time,

[1:33:54] so the fire department was on scene when that, that happened,

[1:33:58] so it couldn't have been better for that individual to have had those rescuers

[1:34:02] there, but just a great coordinated effort throughout all the responding units and

[1:34:07] our emergency department crews to get that patient resuscitated and thankfully to

[1:34:12] Vanderbilt where he's getting care now.

[1:34:14] And then last but not least, just again, we're proud to be here,

[1:34:18] proud to serve Murray County.

[1:34:20] We are recognized as a leading ambulance service provider in Tennessee.

[1:34:24] We are what's called the RMCC, a communication center hub for our EMS area.

[1:34:28] And so all the different counties around us rely on us for our EMS leadership,

[1:34:33] for our communication efforts. We use evidence-based clinical protocols.

[1:34:37] We do what's best for our patients.

[1:34:39] And so we provide comprehensive initial and continuing education for our staff and

[1:34:44] community partners. We continue to partner with our Murray County Fire partners and

[1:34:49] Columbia Fire partners to make sure that they've got ongoing continuing education

[1:34:54] they've got ongoing continuing education as

[1:34:54] well. And then we continue to deliver that high-quality, patient-centered care.

[1:34:58] I love our goal at the,

[1:35:00] at the hospital is the clinical excellence and compassionate care every patient

[1:35:04] every time. And I truly feel like since day one working with these responders that

[1:35:09] that is their mission every single day. And it's neat to see that on display.

[1:35:14] And so as Ms. Lumpkins alluded to,

[1:35:16] we've continued to see this growth in service demand.

[1:35:19] We've tried to keep our response times down and meet the need established from

[1:35:23] national benchmarks and by the residents of this county.

[1:35:27] We continue to hope to proudly serve this county as we move forward.

[1:35:31] So thank you all again, and I appreciate your time with this presentation.

[1:35:35] All right. We've got a couple of questions. Commissioner Markham, you're

[1:35:39] questions. Commissioner Markham, you're going.

[1:35:40] Thank you. Probably for Deborah, the question.

[1:35:42] Although you're If your total transports was up, let's say 1,500 calls per—

[1:35:47] over the last year, but your transfer to higher care was down,

[1:35:50] does that mean more admittance or more treat and release or both?

[1:35:54] Both. And I don't have the total breakdown of that,

[1:35:59] but we've We've seen an increase in our ED volume and in our overall inpatient

[1:36:07] volume, so it would be good.

[1:36:10] So even though you have more calls that you responded to,

[1:36:15] less people gone to Nashville, say,

[1:36:18] there is opportunity for Murray Regional to make money in the ER

[1:36:24] or admittance? Is that correct?

[1:36:27] Yes, I mean, yes, there is.

[1:36:29] And I mean, again, without knowing their payer mix, but, you know, yes.

[1:36:34] And of course there's— Greg mentioned protocols.

[1:36:37] I mean, there's those protocols where, you know, you have to— the level of care,

[1:36:42] take the patient to the nearest ED and those type of things.

[1:36:46] And again, another question, the Spring Hill response time,

[1:36:50] I think was about 16 minutes without flipping back to that slide.

[1:36:55] And that station is right next to Spring Hill High School, correct?

[1:37:00] Yes.

[1:37:01] And then now, are you guys not covering Spring Hill?

[1:37:06] We still— I mean, we still have the Neapolis station that covers there.

[1:37:11] But I know that the city of Spring Hill,

[1:37:15] which is the Port Royal site and the Campbell— the Campbell Station site,

[1:37:20] that is where there are those discussions occurring.

[1:37:25] But currently they're being covered inside the Spring Hill city limits.

[1:37:28] Your calls in Spring Hill are to Carter's Creek or—

[1:37:31] Correct.

[1:37:32] To Greens Mill Road or more of a rural—

[1:37:35] Yes.

[1:37:36] Outside the city limits of Spring Hill.

[1:37:39] Correct.

[1:37:39] Okay. Thank you.

[1:37:40] Yes. Mr. Strahan.

[1:37:45] Thank you, Chair. There's certain phrases that trigger a

[1:37:52] little anxiety to this group.

[1:37:55] One of those phrases is escalating maintenance and fleet

[1:38:01] equipment costs. Are we—

[1:38:04] can we expect a request for something to make up for that

[1:38:10] loss?

[1:38:13] I think what makes up for that loss,

[1:38:16] or what would make up for that loss, as we add new ambulances,

[1:38:22] and I know we've added one this year, there's still a time delay on—

[1:38:29] a production delay on getting ambulances.

[1:38:33] Yeah.

[1:38:34] But again, as I mentioned, fuel costs have escalated.

[1:38:38] And just, you know, there's other aging equipment.

[1:38:41] I mean, and Greg can go, you know, in depth on a lot of the equipment,

[1:38:46] but life-saving equipment, those, you know, ventilator-type supports.

[1:38:51] Is there something you need from the commission?

[1:38:55] I mean, I understand things age. I do.

[1:38:59] We have a new guy on the block,

[1:39:02] and I'm sure he's going to be ready to fix everything that's broken.

[1:39:09] Congratulations and thank you. Ohio, huh? Indiana.

[1:39:14] The commission has a budget. Dr. Chaney has a budget.

[1:39:19] He's not afraid to ask us for things, and we respect that.

[1:39:25] Can we anticipate something, a request of significance?

[1:39:30] Or just another day?

[1:39:32] Yeah, that will be, will be coming as we work toward those contract renegotiations

[1:39:37] with the mayor and the ambulance committee.

[1:39:40] Our goal is to, you know, have that by the, you know,

[1:39:43] by the end of the year because we know you all enter into the whole budget cycle.

[1:39:48] So today I don't know what that number would, would look like.

[1:39:52] Yeah, we, we'll talk. Yeah, no surprises, right?

[1:39:57] Right.

[1:40:00] Look at that smile. God bless you. Thank you very much.

[1:40:03] Thank you for the job that you do and for the people that you do it for. Thank you.

[1:40:08] Thanks, Chair. Mr. Rosberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[1:40:12] Greg, first thing I want to say is congratulations to you.

[1:40:15] You're probably going to get some questions you're going to have to think

[1:40:20] questions you're going to have to think about,

[1:40:20] but you got Ms. Lumpkins up there that can help you.

[1:40:23] One of my— I've got a couple questions. First one will be, uh, on the Peak

[1:40:28] First one will be, uh, on the Peak Command.

[1:40:28] Those units are still stationed at headquarters, right? Station 1.

[1:40:33] I know at one time when the Culeoaka Fire Station was built,

[1:40:36] it was built to support an EMS unit.

[1:40:39] I didn't know if you thought about maybe having one down there to cover that area

[1:40:44] because it has a lot more calls than what I'm seeing that we're going to Spring Hill

[1:40:49] with right now. And my other question,

[1:40:51] I was wondering about where are we with Spring Hill,

[1:40:55] because I know Williamson Medical does not want to come into Murray County anymore,

[1:41:00] but Spring Hill signed a contract with Williamson Medical to— for that to happen.

[1:41:05] Are we having to go into Spring Hill a lot right now or not?

[1:41:09] We're not going in any different. We've not seen any trends.

[1:41:13] I mean, Williamson is still Okay.

[1:41:15] And back to your other point, yes, that is one of the things when Greg and I met,

[1:41:21] looking at those, you know, 12-hour trucks.

[1:41:24] I mean, you being in the business all those years now,

[1:41:28] it's easier to staff a 24-hour truck.

[1:41:31] Oh, yeah.

[1:41:32] You know, and, you know, for lots of reasons.

[1:41:35] So, yes, I think that is one of the things looking at,

[1:41:40] can we redeploy our resources to even improve these numbers.

[1:41:45] So I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Morrow. Thank you, Mr.

[1:41:50] Chairman. Mr. Morrow. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[1:41:50] Do we currently have any open orders for ambulances that haven't been fulfilled?

[1:41:55] I know there's a wait time usually when we purchase.

[1:41:58] I didn't know if we had gotten all of them we'd ordered or if we were still waiting

[1:42:03] on some.

[1:42:04] It is on, on its way.

[1:42:05] That is, and I don't have a timeline in front of me, but it is,

[1:42:10] so in essence that order is being fulfilled because then it has to be

[1:42:14] fulfilled because then it has to be outfitted and

[1:42:15] wrapped and those type of things.

[1:42:18] Yeah.

[1:42:18] And we, you know, go before our capital committee even to, you know,

[1:42:22] think ahead that we know, you know, how can we, you know,

[1:42:26] get these ordered even though you don't have to pay, you know,

[1:42:30] for them until they arrive.

[1:42:32] So we don't wait until it's like, oh, we, you know, for the year to transpire,

[1:42:37] knowing that it's still that, you know, 9-plus month lead time.

[1:42:41] What about remounts?

[1:42:43] I know at one point, not too awful long ago, there was discussion on remounts.

[1:42:48] They'd found a good source for remounts. It was pretty, very competitive

[1:42:53] It was pretty, very competitive money-wise.

[1:42:54] Have we done any further dealings with that?

[1:42:57] Have we— You may— I don't know that you know a lot of specifics, but we—

[1:43:03] anytime we can remount and use that option, absolutely.

[1:43:07] Look, you know, we do that.

[1:43:10] Okay.

[1:43:10] And there's only— and you may know how many times you can remount.

[1:43:15] I mean, there's only so many times that that can happen.

[1:43:19] And then you've got all of the engine and the transmission and, you know, Issues.

[1:43:24] And so we also follow the state guidelines in doing that as well.

[1:43:29] When I remount, doesn't that consist of actually taking the ambulance body and

[1:43:32] putting it on a new chassis?

[1:43:33] It does. It does.

[1:43:36] I was thinking the company that they had talked to,

[1:43:39] and I don't remember enough about it, had—

[1:43:41] they actually would mount on a new chassis,

[1:43:44] but I think they refurbished the ambulance body as well while they had it off.

[1:43:48] So that sounded like a pretty reasonable deal to me. All right.

[1:43:52] Thank you and welcome aboard.

[1:43:53] Mr. Bonds.

[1:43:56] Good afternoon. First, I'd like to say thank you to Dr. Chaney.

[1:44:01] I really enjoyed the presentation and I think it was very informative. Thank you.

[1:44:08] You did a really good job. Director, congratulations. And Ms. Lumpkins, thank

[1:44:14] congratulations. And Ms. Lumpkins, thank you.

[1:44:15] You did a great job today.

[1:44:17] I do have some questions on The understanding of the year '26 volumes

[1:44:22] understanding of the year '26 volumes overview.

[1:44:23] When I look at that, I see the total number of calls for 911 EMS is 17,388,

[1:44:29] the higher level of care transportation at 2,369, with a total transports of 19,757.

[1:44:36] What number of that total call volume and total transport is related to actual calls

[1:44:43] that no transport occurred?

[1:44:45] I don't know that I know.

[1:44:47] I don't have the exact number, but there is a certain percentage.

[1:44:52] And off the top of your head, I don't know if you know, like 20%?

[1:44:56] I mean, we do have, you know, a percentage that—

[1:44:59] because at the time when you're dispatched, you don't know, or the patient

[1:45:05] dispatched, you don't know, or the patient refuses,

[1:45:05] and, you know, we don't make the patient again go if again they're not in a

[1:45:11] life-threatening, you know, situation.

[1:45:13] Of course, and I understand that it's their, uh, their decision most of the

[1:45:19] their, uh, their decision most of the time,

[1:45:19] but when it talks about the total number of 19,757 with that 2,000 in a higher

[1:45:25] of 19,757 with that 2,000 in a higher level

[1:45:25] of care, I would be very curious, you know,

[1:45:28] what that actual number is and how that relates to total call volume.

[1:45:33] Because if there is no transport,

[1:45:36] that ambulance itself is then available for a response call somewhere else at that

[1:45:42] time. And I'd like to know what that timeframe would be so that we could all

[1:45:47] understand what the allocation of these ambulances and the needs are based on that

[1:45:53] call volume in actuality, not just the total number of calls,

[1:45:58] but how many are actually transports of patients. I can't tell you the exact

[1:46:03] patients. I can't tell you the exact number.

[1:46:04] I know it's around 25,000. So you think some 6,000 or so? Okay. Thank you.

[1:46:09] Great suggestion. We will add that data.

[1:46:12] I think it just increases the understanding.

[1:46:16] Thank you. Is that all, Commissioner? Is that all you have?

[1:46:26] Okay.

[1:46:27] All right, Miss Lumpkin and Mr.

[1:46:32] Johnson, appreciate your report. And Dr.

[1:46:39] Chaney, thank you guys.

[1:46:43] All righty, any old business to be taken

[1:46:49] care of? Thank you, Sherry.

[1:46:54] I was getting a little nervous there.

[1:47:00] I know, in a new business.

[1:47:05] Okay, Madam Mayor.

[1:47:08] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[1:47:09] I just want to put on this committee's radar and those of you who are here,

[1:47:13] we are in negotiations with Williamson County.

[1:47:16] They have actually decided they don't want to do the ambulance service anymore

[1:47:20] unless we subsidize them. And so we're negotiating cost.

[1:47:24] Will it cost more to subsidize them or for us to do it ourselves?

[1:47:27] So this needs to be on all of your radar at this point.

[1:47:30] We'll have to make some kind of decision.

[1:47:33] We are going to try to hold this off until next budget cycle,

[1:47:36] but they don't have to do that unless we can negotiate that.

[1:47:40] It falls to Murray County.

[1:47:41] So we're hoping to negotiate the extra time for the next budget year,

[1:47:45] but we will have those discussions in the next week.

[1:47:48] So I just wanted you to know where we are on that because that will come before the

[1:47:53] County Commission. Also, another thing I wanted to mention,

[1:47:56] that we will be naming an interim director for planning and zoning to get us through

[1:48:01] these next committee meetings and be able to work through that, hopefully.

[1:48:05] And we have a projection to work through that by the end of the year.

[1:48:09] with a new interim director.

[1:48:11] The third thing is I have placed on your desks the report of the Data Center

[1:48:15] Frontier Report, which tells the trends of data centers in the next year, in 2026,

[1:48:20] and moving to 2027. So I hope you'll read that information.

[1:48:23] It's very important because these things are going to come before us,

[1:48:27] and we're going to need to know what we're talking about.

[1:48:30] There are AI factories, and then there are data centers.

[1:48:34] There are all these different variations.

[1:48:36] We need to be knowledgeable so when we have to make those decisions, we can do

[1:48:40] have to make those decisions, we can do that.

[1:48:41] So I'm going to start sending things in writing because I know sometimes when it

[1:48:45] comes in the email, it's kind of hard to get to and read all of that.

[1:48:49] I'm kind of— I'm the person that passed a cursive writing bill, right?

[1:48:53] So I believe it's a lot easier when you have writing and paper and you look at it.

[1:48:58] I even retain things better that way.

[1:49:00] So I will be handing out information like this so we can all stay on top of the

[1:49:04] things that are going to be coming before us in the next year. Thank you very much.

[1:49:09] All right. Anybody else? Commissioner Saunders?

[1:49:12] I'm good.

[1:49:13] You good? Good. All right. All right. We got some new business. Public comments.

[1:49:19] Anybody got any signed up for public comments back there? No public comments.

[1:49:25] Any announcements? Commissioner Groom?

[1:49:28] Budget meeting is going to start at, uh,

[1:49:31] Building committee is going to start at 6:30 or 6:35. 6:35. All right. All right.

[1:49:37] Uh, that's it. Um, can I get a motion for adjournment?

[1:49:41] Commissioner Hessler and Commissioner Grooms and all of them second.

[1:49:47] And we out of here.

Regular H & E and Education September 2026 Meeting

Transcript