[0:00] Let's go ahead and—

[0:00] yeah, go ahead and get started.

[0:03] Please ensure your

[0:08] microphones are on.

[0:14] Thank you.

[0:14] Okay, yeah, we're ready to go back on, I believe.

[0:19] Um, okay, um, so this is the, um,

[0:22] workshop meeting of the Board of Commissioners, uh, for Wednesday,

[0:28] August 19th, 2026, and we have— all of the Commissioners are here,

[0:35] so we have a quorum.

[0:37] However, we will not be transacting any official business where we are

[0:43] taking votes and suchlike,

[0:46] but we will be discussing issues that we are going to be dealing with.

[0:53] So if I could, we have got 3 items on here.

[0:57] I wonder if, if the illegal parking discussion ought to go first.

[1:03] Uh, it will be quick, so— That's what I thought.

[1:07] So if you all will look at your, um, your sheet that looks like this right here.

[1:14] Um, so what you have—

[1:16] I'm glad you're doing this first because you are going to see a kinder,

[1:22] gentler Steve Collie.

[1:24] Okay, so what I—

[1:24] What happened to you?

[1:26] What I'm going to propose here After, um, after a couple of years of,

[1:32] of having this parking issue, um, several people have said things about warnings.

[1:39] And, and, and my philosophy over the years of managing police departments and

[1:46] security details and those things like that is that You know, the,

[1:52] the ticket writer is not the judge. We are the compliance person.

[1:57] So if there's someone out of compliance, we point it out to them.

[2:03] The judge is the one that's going to have mercy on them.

[2:08] It's not going to be the ticket writer or the,

[2:12] or the safety official or the policeman.

[2:15] And after watching this roll out for several years now,

[2:20] I feel like that we could introduce this warning, parking warning program,

[2:26] and not just give a warning, but also have a tracking system for that.

[2:33] And also provide some education along the way.

[2:37] So if somebody is parked in front of their house and they had to park in front of

[2:44] the house because somebody was blocking their driveway or whatever,

[2:49] and they went inside and they took the groceries and they forgot the car was

[2:56] groceries and they forgot the car was parked

[2:57] in the street, and finally, uh, while they were in there cooking dinner, uh,

[3:03] they forgot about the car and they got a ticket.

[3:07] And, um, I've been pretty heartless about that.

[3:12] Park in a traffic lane, you get a ticket.

[3:15] Sorry, go pay the ticket or go cry to the judge. But I have changed.

[3:21] I have had an epiphany.

[3:23] Okay.

[3:24] I, I feel like that there is probably some, um,

[3:28] leeway for housewives or people to park in the street,

[3:33] but if they are going to do that You know, we're not here to try to make—

[3:39] to try to run the city on parking tickets,

[3:43] but we are here to try to run the city in a safe and, um, in a safe,

[3:48] coordinated fashion. So I believe we could use this parking ticket format.

[3:55] And what you see here is actually a ticket that would be like this.

[4:00] It would be front and back.

[4:03] It'd be a ticket on the front and this information on the back.

[4:08] And what this says on the back,

[4:11] it just says that there are rules and regulations that are done for the purpose

[4:18] regulations that are done for the purpose of

[4:18] keeping you safe. And if we— if you continue to do this,

[4:23] you will get a ticket and have to go pay your fine or go in front of the judge.

[4:29] So, so this is what we want to do.

[4:32] And it can be a trial program or we can run it for a year and see how this works.

[4:39] But it will probably get less phone calls to you all for people that got tickets and

[4:47] had to come pay a fine. But that's not what my goal is.

[4:51] My goal is not to cut down the phone calls you get. I hope you get phone calls.

[4:58] Yeah.

[4:58] Because you're really kind of the eyes and ears. We can't be everywhere.

[5:03] But if you get a phone call, then I know that people— that we're doing—

[5:08] we're either doing what we need to do or we're not doing what we need to do.

[5:14] So it doesn't bother me if you get phone calls.

[5:17] In fact, I hope you do get phone calls. And that's the way we make friends.

[5:22] But anyway, so this is what we're going to try to do.

[5:26] This ticket, as you'll see, there's a little perforated edge on the top.

[5:31] We will keep that. And we'll keep that. As a, um, as a, a ticket and a warning.

[5:36] And I believe there's a way that we can put the, um, the license plate on that,

[5:42] and then we'll leave this, um, other piece,

[5:45] the long piece that says what the violation was, and, and, uh,

[5:49] and our public service announcement on the back. So we can start doing this.

[5:54] Okay.

[5:56] And see how this works, because we're not collecting— well, we,

[6:01] I guess we are collecting some fees for parking,

[6:04] and sometimes it's pretty blatant that, that if people are parking in the street,

[6:10] in the roadway, that they need a ticket.

[6:12] But for some of the other things that we think that are not blatant,

[6:17] we could do a warning ticket, and this is what this would look like.

[6:22] Okay.

[6:23] So before we roll that out,

[6:25] I wanted you all to know that I've kind of rolled back on my position on parking in

[6:30] the street just a little bit. So this is what we'd like to do.

[6:35] So I'm just going to throw it open to you,

[6:38] see if you have any questions or comments.

[6:40] Seems like a reasonable step.

[6:45] I have one question.

[6:47] How many tickets a year Or a month do we get?

[6:51] Wrong question. I don't know.

[6:52] 10?

[6:53] I don't know. I don't— I did not— did I? I was— we were busy making this.

[6:57] I didn't look up any, uh, data.

[6:59] But there's enough that people are calling and complaining that they got a ticket.

[7:05] So, uh, we can find that out. We've got information on that, but I couldn't—

[7:10] I couldn't—

[7:10] Do you know if the people getting the tickets, are they residents of Oak Hill?

[7:16] It's about half and half. Half are residents, half are contractors.

[7:20] And the half that are contractors and lawn people,

[7:24] and then the other half is residents.

[7:26] Your court clerk can answer that.

[7:29] Yeah, I was going to ask her. There you go.

[7:30] Yes, sir.

[7:31] What do you got?

[7:32] The parking citations predominantly are from landscape companies.

[7:39] I would like to say Every once in a while,

[7:43] I believe maybe a resident homeowner.

[7:47] I believe there's an estimate of 1 to 2 citations per month,

[7:53] possibly 3 tops.

[7:54] What'd she say?

[7:56] About 3. 3 tickets per month.

[7:59] 3 tickets per month.

[8:00] Yeah.

[8:00] 1, 2, 3 max.

[8:01] And how many of those are landscaping guys?

[8:04] Mostly.

[8:05] Mostly.

[8:06] Okay. Yeah, yeah, because it's got to be repeated.

[8:09] Yeah, violations, you know, it'll happen one time.

[8:13] We don't need to—

[8:14] And they come in spurts.

[8:16] Yeah.

[8:18] Yes, Commissioner?

[8:19] I'm really disappointed that you've had an epiphany on your last day here, but okay.

[8:25] All right.

[8:25] I don't see anywhere on this about parking single file. Is that an issue?

[8:30] I mean, at some point we were discussing that because of health and safety,

[8:34] if you're having an event or, you know, people are coming to your house,

[8:38] they should be parking on one side of the street as opposed to other?

[8:42] Well, you know, for estate sales and yard sales, we have—

[8:46] we make them get a permit for that, and we tell them how that's supposed to be done.

[8:52] Now, if we come up on a garden party Or a T,

[8:55] then if they're parked in the street or if it looks like they're parked in a way

[9:01] that's going to cause a problem, we'll talk to them and ask them to move around.

[9:06] We won't try to give them a ticket for that.

[9:09] Steve, I like this, and I think this is a great approach,

[9:14] and I love the educational component of this because, you know,

[9:19] there are people who say they didn't know anything about it, et cetera.

[9:24] And so I like that. But I also thought—

[9:27] and I get easily confused on this one because we spent some— we spent a lot of

[9:33] because we spent some— we spent a lot of time,

[9:34] not nearly as much as the fence ordinance,

[9:37] but we spent a lot of time on commercial parking several years ago.

[9:42] Right.

[9:43] And I thought we had come up with something on that that basically

[9:48] something on that that basically prohibited

[9:49] commercial parking, namely contractors and their various employees.

[9:55] And then, but for other people,

[9:58] it was to be sure that you had 2 wheels off the road and that you—

[10:03] That's right.

[10:04] Right. And you're leaving a lane that a fire truck can drive through.

[10:08] That's right.

[10:10] And then finally, we do have the yard sale or the estate sale situation that we just

[10:15] did and came up with some different rules on that, right?

[10:19] So I guess you don't need to cover everything in this, but, uh,

[10:23] because this is just a warning.

[10:25] But one thing that we didn't put on here and we're talking about is doing a QR code

[10:30] that can take you to the, um,

[10:32] that can take you to the muni code where you can look up any of the other

[10:36] information that you need. So, um, yeah, you're right.

[10:40] I mean, uh, we, you know, basically we ran out of space I mean,

[10:43] we've got the font down as small as we can get it now.

[10:47] So, um, we don't want to,

[10:48] we don't want to put a booklet out there on the windshield,

[10:52] but I think we can put any other, any other things.

[10:55] You can go to the QR code, but you're, you're right.

[10:58] Those things that you're talking about are in the, uh, in the code.

[11:02] And we are, we are, um, um, taking care of that if it's not, uh,

[11:06] if they're parked out there.

[11:07] Um, just from a record-keeping point of view, and this is way down in the weeds,

[11:13] but do you need to have the number on what you leave with them as well?

[11:18] And then you say you've got— you,

[11:20] you do think you have some way that you can make a record of the vehicle?

[11:25] The perforated line, this tears off and you keep, you keep the tab at the top.

[11:29] You're keeping that?

[11:30] Yeah. And then we'll, we'll also put a, put a space up there to put the, uh,

[11:36] the Or a carbon copy. Or a carbon copy.

[11:39] So we're still in a—

[11:41] we're still on the drawing board exactly how this is going to come out.

[11:46] Yeah. Okay. I just wondered if at some point there would need to be matching up,

[11:50] you know, if somebody come in, I guess they wouldn't come in and say,

[11:54] I didn't get that ticket if they wouldn't know.

[11:57] Right.

[11:57] Okay.

[11:59] Okay.

[11:59] I think it's great. Anybody?

[12:01] So basically, this is sort of the idea of it.

[12:03] We've just got to work out the— we've got to work out some more details.

[12:07] If I may, if we have one in court, will it be on the traditional citation form?

[12:15] Yeah, it'll still be on the traditional citation. Yeah. This is just the warning.

[12:19] Yeah, I think that's good.

[12:22] Wait, some other question just popped I had a thought in my head about

[12:29] this. Now I don't remember what it was. Oh, shoot.

[12:34] Okay.

[12:34] Anyway, I think this is a good direction,

[12:37] and I think people will probably appreciate it.

[12:40] Okay. Now, I guess over the time I've been here, I've had, I don't know,

[12:46] maybe half a dozen people call me about getting a ticket.

[12:50] And their first thing is they said, I've lived here for 35 or 40 or 60 years.

[12:56] And this is, I didn't know that you couldn't park in those, in the traffic

[13:02] couldn't park in those, in the traffic lane.

[13:03] And, um, so that's where I started thinking about this.

[13:07] So, so if they don't know, it's here, it is in the,

[13:11] in the code and we can give them, give them a copy of that.

[13:16] So.

[13:18] Um, and they probably don't.

[13:20] And, and, but they do need to know because, you know, my,

[13:25] my position has not changed on the fact that it's very dangerous to allow people

[13:31] that it's very dangerous to allow people to

[13:31] park in a traffic lane and not say something to them about it.

[13:35] My, my fear is that Meemaw is going to go to the garden And she's going to see other

[13:42] people parked close or near to the street, and she parks in the street.

[13:47] And while she's getting the casserole out of the back seat,

[13:51] she turns around and steps right into the lane of traffic of a Maserati doing 80 on

[13:58] our streets, because they do go fast on our street.

[14:01] And, um, and, and we can't stop that. We can't catch them.

[14:06] We don't know what happens. But there are speeders on these streets.

[14:11] Yes.

[14:11] And that can happen, and we don't want that to happen.

[14:15] And this is why I think this is important.

[14:18] I think it's an education piece, and this is the first piece of this.

[14:22] Let's see how this works, and we'll go from there.

[14:25] Okay, that sounds good. Any other comments? No.

[14:31] Uh, sir, may I ask you, are you here for our Uh,

[14:36] this Board of Commissioners workshop meeting, or— Yes,

[14:42] you are.

[14:45] I apologize to these gentlemen.

[14:47] These, these guys are from NES, and they have a presentation, and we had,

[14:54] uh, well, I had mismatched the, uh, the days they were coming,

[15:00] but I want to let them speak to you.

[15:03] And they're going to talk about street lighting.

[15:08] Are you guys— do you have your— do you have your—

[15:13] okay, yeah, I think we should go

[15:19] ahead and do that. Don't keep you

[15:25] here. And let me appreciate you being

[15:32] here.

[15:33] Yeah, look, it's been, it's been, it's been a few days since we met with them.

[15:39] But these guys are from NES.

[15:41] And what's going on with NES, and he's going to explain to you this a little bit,

[15:47] a little bit more in depth.

[15:49] They are converting all the streetlights in Davidson County to LED.

[15:54] And they are already working at Forest Hills and some other of the neighborhoods

[16:00] near us. And they're going to show how they can convert this to LED and start

[16:06] getting our rates down.

[16:07] But it is going to cost us a little bit of equipment cost during the process.

[16:13] But if you'll recall, several years ago,

[16:16] the PATH people came and they wanted a couple of million dollars to do this.

[16:22] Well, I thought at the time, if we just wait, NES is going to do this anyway.

[16:27] So now they're doing it. So let me let him go through this process.

[16:32] He's going to talk about how this process came about and how it works.

[16:38] And I'm sorry, can you introduce yourself?

[16:41] Before we, before we get started,

[16:43] keep me in a frame of reference.

[16:46] We had somebody here And I think they're from Knoxville.

[16:51] That was the PATH people. That was the PATH people.

[16:53] Okay.

[16:54] I'm with you now.

[16:55] This is not that. This is, uh, this is the, uh, utility, uh, department, uh,

[17:00] National Electric Service.

[17:02] So what has happened is—

[17:04] Could you just state your name?

[17:05] Uh, yeah, I'm Josh Jones with Nashville Electric Streetlight Department.

[17:09] Um, what has happened is that we've partnered with PATH, with Metro,

[17:13] in order to change out all of Metro's lights To LEDs.

[17:15] And then in that, we're also including a smart photocell on it.

[17:19] A what?

[17:20] It's called a smart photocell.

[17:22] It gives us data back from the actual light cellular,

[17:25] so we could tell when the lights are out and also what the wattages are.

[17:30] It gives us a bunch of information that we can use.

[17:33] They are in the process of wrapping up with Metro.

[17:36] And while they're still here,

[17:38] we would like to be able to use them to convert the rest of our lights,

[17:42] which are also other cities.

[17:44] Well, we've worked— we're working with City of Forest Hills.

[17:48] They're going to start around Labor Day and do theirs.

[17:51] And that's why we're coming here to, to y'all is to talk about Oak Hill,

[17:56] try and get y'all to go ahead and get them changed out too.

[17:59] Um, they are going to get changed out eventually.

[18:02] One of the biggest differences,

[18:04] if we have PATH come and kind of do it all at one time to where it's uniform and

[18:09] looks nice versus, uh,

[18:11] A maintenance call gets called and we come out and change 1 light out of 20,

[18:16] which is kind of what you've got now. I've got a slide there.

[18:19] You've got several lights that are HPS,

[18:22] and then you got just a handful that are LEDs mixed in.

[18:25] It's very noticeable when you drive down the road and you get all this orange light

[18:31] there, HPS, and then you've got a little bit wider light.

[18:34] Yeah.

[18:34] That's LED, that's right there in there.

[18:37] So we have noticed even with Metro that if we can come in and get them all changed

[18:41] out at once, it's uniform and it's not as noticeable because it just kind of

[18:46] happens.

[18:46] Now we're not going to add any lights, just change out existing lights.

[18:51] So in this process, it actually gives you the ability to add if you want to,

[18:56] or take away, or change the wattage of the light there.

[18:59] They do a submittal process with kind of their recommendations.

[19:03] And we can give you that submittal book that says, hey, right in this area,

[19:08] you've got this one light that seems way too bright for the area.

[19:12] We would recommend reducing it.

[19:14] That's not NES recommending, it's Site Logic, who was PATH, uh,

[19:18] doing the recommendations.

[19:19] But you have the option of saying, yes, lower that wattage, the light down,

[19:24] or increase, or Hey, we noticed that in this neighborhood or in this part of town,

[19:29] it's really dark. We would like to add some.

[19:32] So with this process, you would have the ability to change your lights up.

[19:36] Because I remember in the PATH program presentation,

[19:41] they showed how we could not have such a wide glare and kept the light on the

[19:47] streets and not on the yards.

[19:49] Yes, sir. And we're using the, uh, their dark sky Cobraheads,

[19:53] because that's what y'all have is typically Cobraheads.

[19:56] They're really good about putting the light down.

[19:59] They don't— the light does not go up,

[20:01] and they have relatively good cutoff lines on where they go.

[20:05] I'm not gonna say there's not gonna be any bleedover.

[20:08] It's hard to do that, but it does kind of keep it in contained areas.

[20:12] Thank you.

[20:14] One of the advantages of having the SmartNode part on this too is if If we put

[20:19] SmartNode part on this too is if If we put it in

[20:19] and afterwards you decide it's too much,

[20:22] instead of asking us to roll a truck out to change the light out to a smaller one,

[20:27] you can actually do it from a computer and just lower the, the,

[20:31] the amount of wattage though.

[20:32] It's actually doing it with the voltage going into the driver and it'll dim the

[20:37] light down for you.

[20:38] Mm-hmm.

[20:39] And, uh, with this process we're working on, we don't quite have it all ironed out.

[20:44] We're in the middle of it,

[20:45] but you would have a login to your own lights to where you can The city would be

[20:50] able to control the lights is what we're kind of working to. Just Oak Hill's

[20:54] kind of working to. Just Oak Hill's lights.

[20:55] Yes. So NDOT couldn't touch y'all's, you couldn't touch NDOT's,

[20:58] but you could touch Oak Hill's lights and dim if you wanted to.

[21:02] What happens on Franklin Road, which is a federal highway?

[21:06] It's all about who's paying for the lights,

[21:08] because even though that's a federal highway, Oak Hill, I'm assuming,

[21:13] is paying for those lights. They have control over those lights.

[21:17] Okay. All right. Please go ahead.

[21:24] Okay. So that's the slideshow that they're getting up.

[21:28] So the advantages is that LEDs are more efficient. than the high-purist sodiums.

[21:35] So the energy cost does actually drop.

[21:39] There is a portion of the bill that's called stranded costs,

[21:44] which gets added on there from when we're changing it out.

[21:49] And that's a 60-month payback. So your bill would increase a little bit.

[21:55] I think it's like right around 4% for about 60 months.

[22:00] And then it would actually drop below what you're paying today.

[22:05] As long as NES's kilowatt-hour charges aren't going up.

[22:13] That's an estimation as of today, if nothing changes as of today.

[22:18] Yeah.

[22:19] All right, so when you— well,

[22:20] that's an interesting point because it seems like that was one of the things that

[22:26] seems like that was one of the things that we

[22:26] spent some time with the PATH people on, was something about—

[22:30] I think there was a lot of paying in advance versus paying over time.

[22:34] And I think they were telling us that if we did it with you all,

[22:38] that we would be paying over time. What, what is that?

[22:41] And by you say 4% of our— of what?

[22:43] Of the lighting bill.

[22:45] 4% of the lighting bill?

[22:47] Yes.

[22:47] Okay. Regardless of what the lighting bill is.

[22:51] I mean, in other words,

[22:52] is there a total dollar amount that we're trying to amortize?

[22:57] So it's kind of hard right now.

[22:58] Because, because every day there's lights that go out that are high-pressure sodium,

[23:03] and we're not able to— we have to replace those with LED today.

[23:07] So every month that this goes on, or every day this goes on,

[23:10] there's lights that are getting taken down that are high-pressure sodium and LEDs

[23:15] are put back up. Well,

[23:16] we're not going to go and change those LEDs back out unless y'all ask us to lower

[23:21] the wattage of them or change them out.

[23:23] Okay.

[23:24] So, I mean, I took a rough estimate back several months ago and kind of did

[23:29] a changeout and figured out what the cost would be,

[23:33] and it was right around 4%.

[23:35] That will change just because we won't be changing out as many lights.

[23:40] But there's not a total amount that you're looking

[23:45] at to receive from Oak Hill over those 60 months?

[23:50] Uh, it would be whatever the stranded cost is of what we're taking down because NES

[23:55] is, uh, um, with streetlights, we are, we are charged, uh,

[23:59] not to make money off streetlights and not to lose money off of streetlights.

[24:04] So everything that we do is kind of just a pass along to the city of.

[24:08] So it would be possible to say,

[24:11] X is going to be the cost of changing out.

[24:15] And if we had— we've got— fortunately we've got reserves.

[24:20] We could take the option of just saying, NES, here's the check,

[24:26] go replace them. Yes.

[24:28] And the way that would work is that you would just pay that stranded cost off,

[24:33] which we've had other cities do that.

[24:35] And then that would—

[24:36] then your bill would actually reduce down because your lower energy costs.

[24:42] Okay, I don't want to belabor this, but what—

[24:44] To give you an idea, um, our street lighting, uh,

[24:48] for the end of the fiscal year '26 was $87,000.

[24:52] Uh, the year before that was $86,000. Year before that, '24, was $84,000.

[24:57] So we're— we just had— we just paid our bill in July,

[25:02] and that was $7,500 for street lighting.

[25:05] So that'll give you some perspective when he talks about, you know, when we go,

[25:11] when we go forward to full, full LED.

[25:14] Okay. And so you're saying it'd be 4% of that?

[25:19] Yes, sir.

[25:20] For 60 months?

[25:21] Yes, sir.

[25:22] And then after that 5-year period, then it's— we don't pay that anymore?

[25:26] You don't pay the stranded costs off, which would make that go— the bill go

[25:30] which would make that go— the bill go down.

[25:30] Is the strand— I'm I just want to understand what the stranded cost is.

[25:34] Is that the cost of what you've already installed and it's out there and it has

[25:38] installed and it's out there and it has not

[25:38] been fully paid for?

[25:39] Correct. The way the rate is done is when we put up a new light,

[25:44] it's broken down off of 18 years. So it's built into that $7,400, $7,500.

[25:49] I apologize. And that part of that's getting paid off every month you do that

[25:54] getting paid off every month you do that for 18

[25:55] years. Well, when we take it down, it's not on that bill anymore.

[25:59] And that's what the stranded cost is and would go on there for 60 months.

[26:05] Okay.

[26:06] The question is whether we could make 4% or string it out 4%,

[26:10] whether we'd rather make it—

[26:12] It seems like that's the loan that we just made.

[26:15] Yeah.

[26:18] Yes, sir.

[26:18] Okay.

[26:25] Okay.

[26:28] All right. So let's, let's let him go on.

[26:33] Well, I mean, I've kind of covered everything that's on the slideshow with

[26:37] everything that's on the slideshow with what

[26:37] y'all have asked. I mean, I have no problem showing it.

[26:40] Oh, really?

[26:41] And going over it.

[26:42] Um, but I mean, if you'll go to that 3rd slide or 4th now.

[26:52] You're bad.

[26:54] This one right here. Is it not open?

[26:56] No, it's not showing on that.

[26:58] Okay.

[26:58] Without messing with your monitor displays and all that.

[27:01] Okay. Uh, and I can, I think I've shared this presentation with you.

[27:07] If there's more questions, I mean, it, it kind of shows what you have now.

[27:12] Um, and like I said, there's a lot of HPS out there. I think there was 64.

[27:18] 4 LEDs on y'all's bill as of 3 months ago,

[27:21] and there's been some that have added to that.

[27:25] There you go. There's the slide. Okay.

[27:32] As of 3 months ago, you had 441 HPSs and 64 LEDs.

[27:36] So you're starting to see them now already. It's gonna be the new norm.

[27:42] It's our new standard to have LEDs in,

[27:45] and we are also going forward with the smart photocell in them because now your—

[27:51] our customers don't have to call in when they're out.

[27:55] We actually get notification when they're out. That's part of it too.

[28:00] Will you be able to tell that on those 64 that are already replaced?

[28:04] Not right now, because whenever we're doing this, we have We have yet to—

[28:07] we are starting to make it our standard. It hasn't been our standard yet.

[28:11] And part of the reason we haven't made it a standard yet is because we wanted to

[28:14] have these conversations with the cities before we just push something out there.

[28:18] So you need to replace those, I guess you need new LEDs that have—

[28:25] No, sir. Uh, the LED fixtures themselves are fine.

[28:28] This is a photocell that plugs into the top of it.

[28:31] Yeah.

[28:31] Oh, so they would just go to those LED photos and take the We call them dumb

[28:35] photocells. Pull those, twist them off, pull them off, and put a new one in.

[28:40] And that's all there is to it.

[28:41] And that's the ones where you can regulate it remotely?

[28:44] Yes.

[28:44] Okay, I got it now.

[28:47] And you can retrofit that on the existing LEDs that have already been installed?

[28:51] Yes, sir.

[28:51] Okay.

[28:52] It works with the— and I don't know if everybody knows or not,

[28:55] but there's a what they call a 7-pin socket on top,

[28:58] and it just goes on and twists in. It's almost It's like a plug.

[29:01] It's a standard that streetlights have.

[29:03] Okay. If I could ask you a question about, uh, you said that it, it,

[29:08] those photocells, um, they,

[29:10] they obtain a whole lot of information or provide a whole lot of information.

[29:16] Like that makes me think of license plate readers. I mean, what kind of—

[29:21] There's zero readers.

[29:23] This is nothing but internal sensors for like voltage, voltage drop.

[29:27] What power usage. It's all with the fixtures.

[29:30] There's zero sensors on the outside of there.

[29:33] It won't give me anything on traffic or anything like that. It's not a camera.

[29:39] This is all for the readings of the electricity going through it is all it

[29:44] electricity going through it is all it really

[29:44] is.

[29:44] Where are they made? Are they made in China, perhaps?

[29:49] So we right now, we've got 2 manufacturers that we are currently accepting.

[29:55] One of them that is our majority using is Ubiqui,

[29:58] and they're actually a Canadian product. And the other one is Signify.

[30:04] Peachtree is where they get sold out of. Peachtree, Georgia.

[30:09] Okay.

[30:10] That's where the sales facility is.

[30:12] I'm not sure exactly where they're getting made out of.

[30:15] I apologize, but I know Ubiqui, which is the big one that we use,

[30:19] is And did you tell me that once, once you got them all in and we decide, hey,

[30:25] there's a couple of streets that have got some dark areas, we can, we can add,

[30:30] add lighting? Or if we got streets that are lit up too much,

[30:35] we can either take down the lighting or we can remove it or either turn it down?

[30:40] Yes, sir.

[30:41] At any time, if y'all want to make changes, even after this, Um, there's a,

[30:46] an email, neslighting@nespower.com,

[30:48] and you just give us a letter saying what you want,

[30:52] whether you want a new light on a new pole or take down a light or even dim until we

[30:57] get— are able to hand over the, um,

[31:00] the software to where you could do it on your own.

[31:03] And then we could dim, we can take down, remove, add,

[31:07] whatever you wanted to do there. Shield is another option.

[31:12] Shield?

[31:12] Shield, yes.

[31:14] Tell me about that.

[31:15] Okay, so there's shields that actually clamp onto these or bolt into the

[31:19] clamp onto these or bolt into the fixtures.

[31:20] Like I said, these are already dark sky, so there's no uplighting to them.

[31:25] But we've had some cases to where there's some light issues,

[31:29] and you can actually get—

[31:30] it looks like a little baffle on the inside of that light that kind of keeps

[31:36] inside of that light that kind of keeps the

[31:36] light from throwing out as far, depending on how you want it. So there are options.

[31:41] So I would recommend that if you do have a customer complaining about the

[31:46] streetlight, get with us.

[31:48] We can see what we can do,

[31:49] whether it's dimming or shielding or whatever we need to do.

[31:53] Thank you, sir. And how long would it take for you to do the conversion?

[31:58] You have And I just said it. You have right at 500 lights.

[32:03] Um, I would be surprised if it took more than 3 weeks to change out all

[32:10] these lights.

[32:12] Wow.

[32:12] Okay.

[32:14] Uh, I know some residents have streetlights in their yard that they pay

[32:17] streetlights in their yard that they pay for

[32:17] privately.

[32:18] Yes.

[32:18] How would those be adjusted, or they would have to contact NES?

[32:24] They would contact us. Those are in our rental light or private light program.

[32:29] Um, the same group of people who actually do that, they would contact one of us,

[32:34] but it is a totally separate program and they would have to request it to be LED.

[32:39] Would it change the amount they have to pay over time?

[32:42] There is a, uh, a little bit of a cost upfront for us to do our side of,

[32:46] of changing it out and everything.

[32:48] And then depending on what fixture they go to,

[32:51] that's where they would change the cost monthly.

[32:54] If you have any residents who again want information on this,

[32:57] they can reach out to neslighting@nespower.com or to customer

[33:01] neslighting@nespower.com or to customer service,

[33:01] and they can write an order, and one of us would actually contact them.

[33:06] This may be more directed to the city officials, but if somebody wants—

[33:11] I can see a problem with somebody wants to put a street,

[33:15] a private streetlight on their yard, which will be, you know, reflecting on others.

[33:21] Do they have to go to get—

[33:23] do we have any regulation about whether people can do that in Oak Hill?

[33:28] I don't think we have a— we just have dark sky.

[33:33] We have the dark sky.

[33:33] We have dark sky. They're not allowed to just let their light bleed over into other

[33:38] properties.

[33:39] But NES wouldn't know that necessarily if somebody requested a light.

[33:43] Well, if they did and we got a call on it,

[33:46] they'd have to call NES to come out and adjust it.

[33:48] Yeah, yeah, but we— I thought we covered all the way,

[33:53] the height of the pole and the— right,

[33:56] and the foot candles that go here and there.

[33:59] And I don't think— I don't think we—

[34:01] I don't even think we had that discussion about NES-purchased security lighting.

[34:07] I don't think we ever had that discussion.

[34:10] That's probably the next You know, and they probably need a permit for that.

[34:15] Yeah, yeah, we need to have a permit on that. Somebody's got to get one.

[34:20] That kind of escaped us because we were looking for the forest instead of the

[34:26] looking for the forest instead of the trees.

[34:26] Yeah, we were just looking for different trees.

[34:31] Yeah.

[34:31] Looking for the sport courts.

[34:33] Okay, the one thing I do want to caution is Um, like I said,

[34:37] they're going to start with Forest Hills, uh, the week of Labor Day.

[34:42] Um, once they are done with that,

[34:45] we don't currently have another city for them to go, uh, work on.

[34:50] So the contractors will, will go away and, uh,

[34:53] trying to get them back would be difficult.

[34:56] It's kind of, this is kind of what we're leading up to is trying to get them in

[35:02] leading up to is trying to get them in line

[35:02] that way after Forest Hills.

[35:05] Okay.

[35:05] Hills gets done, if City Oak Hills says yes, do it,

[35:07] we can get them right in line with the contractors.

[35:10] That way we can keep them busy before they just disband.

[35:12] We got a meeting next Tuesday, don't we?

[35:16] And we'll have numbers that we can look at and agreement and all that.

[35:20] Yeah, we can get some numbers from you guys.

[35:22] Just email me with what numbers you want and I can, I can run it.

[35:25] Okay, thank you.

[35:28] Thank you.

[35:28] No problem.

[35:28] I apologize for the mix-up.

[35:30] That's no problem.

[35:31] It was my— it was my fault. It's on me.

[35:35] Sorry.

[35:35] No problem.

[35:36] Thank you very much for coming.

[35:37] Thank you.

[35:38] Appreciate you coming.

[35:39] Thank you.

[35:39] Good deal.

[35:41] Okay.

[35:43] Thank you.

[35:53] Meeting coordinator does not— does not meet expectations.

[35:59] Actually, I thought they were coming next week. Okay, that's okay.

[36:05] But now this is probably— we're glad,

[36:08] I'm glad that we waited because I thought that NES was going to do this.

[36:15] So because they're doing it other places, so this is good.

[36:20] Okay. All right. All right.

[36:22] So we'll be on the agenda for Next Tuesday.

[36:25] Okay. All right. So that leaves us now going back to lessons learned

[36:32] from Winter Storm Fern.

[36:34] That could be a— what do they call it in songs where there's the

[36:41] refrain or something that comes after the main line?

[36:48] Lessons learned from Winter Storm It's got a good ring to it, doesn't it?

[36:54] Yeah, a little rhyme.

[36:56] Pretty catchy.

[36:58] So you want to say anything about Fern before I go in?

[37:02] You want to say anything about—

[37:04] Yeah, yes. I see this as something that we really need to do.

[37:09] I think that what we experienced in Oklahoma Hill is—

[37:13] probably was experienced by other cities as well.

[37:17] But, you know, to me there's one part and that is, you know,

[37:22] the actual physical work that was going on and the coordination of that,

[37:28] all of which I think once NES got here, once they had enough people working,

[37:34] you know, I think that went really well. But that's really on them.

[37:39] There's There's nothing we can do about that.

[37:42] And they have— they did, as I think I've reported before, we had a meeting,

[37:48] Steve and I had a meeting with the CEO and in-house counsel and so forth a few weeks

[37:55] ago, where they told us that they have really upped their game on all these

[38:01] different areas, and it sounded good.

[38:04] So, but, you know, what we could do, you know, Steve was On top of,

[38:09] and that was basically finding out where the difficult areas were and keeping NES

[38:15] informed of that, their scouts or whatever they were sending out.

[38:21] The other part of it is communicating with the residents.

[38:25] And that was— that really came home to me as an issue that needs to be addressed.

[38:31] Yes. Yes.

[38:32] Because, you know, we were absolutely hamstrung as far as trying to do much

[38:38] communicating. You know, I think I've described to you all before,

[38:43] but during that time, you know,

[38:45] I'm stuck up on a hill with a car that won't go down without sliding down into

[38:50] won't go down without sliding down into the

[38:51] street and with No power, no heat,

[38:53] and only my cell phone to use as any kind of communications.

[38:57] And I can't send out mass emails from that, or at least I don't know how to.

[39:03] Somebody can probably tell me. But I didn't know how to do that.

[39:07] And also, it was just a question of power.

[39:10] I used up an an entire tank of gasoline in my car,

[39:14] sitting out there running the car and slow charging my phone. So we had that.

[39:20] In addition, the city's offices were closed because it had no heat and no

[39:25] closed because it had no heat and no power.

[39:25] And the city— Desiree and Steve were using their laptops,

[39:29] working from home or working from the car or wherever you all were trying to

[39:35] communicate. And, you know, finally— and then I started seeing messages.

[39:40] I could see Facebook or Nextdoor, I can't remember what it was, on my phone.

[39:45] And I could see that the residents, some residents, not a lot, but a few,

[39:51] were starting to raise all these questions about, well,

[39:55] why aren't we hearing from Oak Hill?

[39:57] Why didn't we— why aren't they telling us what's going on?

[40:01] Why aren't they telling us this?

[40:04] And of course, most Most of the answer to that is because we didn't know,

[40:09] because NES was not telling anything either at that point.

[40:13] And they held all the cards.

[40:15] But, you know, apparently Forest Hills was able to get out messages widespread

[40:21] across their city, and as was Belle Meade,

[40:24] or at least that's what people were saying.

[40:27] They were comparing my lack of communication to the mayors of those other

[40:32] communication to the mayors of those other 2 cities.

[40:33] And I think that's a good point. And how they did that, I don't know.

[40:38] I think it's something we ought to find out.

[40:41] How did they manage to communicate during that time?

[40:44] I assume— well, I don't know, I can't assume.

[40:48] I don't know whether Belle Meade City Hall was out.

[40:51] I don't know whether Forest Hills City Hall was out.

[40:55] Well, we don't know. And that's part of the, I think, our lessons learned.

[41:03] And if you want, Let me just go through what I want to talk about,

[41:10] but I'm not here to cast aspersions on anybody,

[41:14] especially myself or others.

[41:17] But I do want to point out some,

[41:21] some hard truths that we need to think about.

[41:25] Well, you may— let me just finish. I can put a hard truth on this.

[41:30] The hard truth to me was that And I don't know why I didn't know this.

[41:34] People do expect to hear from city leadership, right, in the—

[41:38] in case of an emergency and on a regular basis. And that was— that's my fault.

[41:43] But except— except I don't know, have smoke signals or something.

[41:47] But we were— a lot of fires.

[41:49] Could I ask a question?

[41:50] Yes.

[41:51] Is there a mayor's meeting of all the satellite cities?

[41:57] No, there's not.

[41:59] But don't you think that might be a good idea where you can discuss things like

[42:04] this?

[42:04] Could be, sure, could be. I mean, there are mayor's meetings.

[42:08] There's a new, a new group that is formed of mayors, all mayors, and I don't know,

[42:13] county executives too, in that Middle Tennessee Mayors organization.

[42:18] Middle Tennessee Mayors, that's new,

[42:20] and I'm not sure I'm not sure exactly what the genesis for that was.

[42:25] And then there's another group that meets with the GNRC.

[42:28] GNRC.

[42:29] Yeah, GNRC. And that's statewide. But anyway, yeah, that's a great idea.

[42:35] The problem with some of these organizations is that what really concerns

[42:41] them are things that we don't have.

[42:44] Police departments, large employee staffs.

[42:48] Right.

[42:48] And road crews and stuff like that. And we are more narrowly focused in what we do.

[42:53] But communicating with citizens, important.

[42:55] And we've got to come up with— make sure we've got a way to do that.

[43:00] So yeah, we need to inquire from those other cities.

[43:03] So what I've given you is really just thought-provoking questions.

[43:08] That is basically homework,

[43:10] because I don't think we can really start doing a deep dive on this.

[43:16] And I know Joy and Scott are going to feel like they're going to miss out on

[43:22] something by not being at the next workshop.

[43:25] But we do need to get the new people in to have this discussion and bring them in on

[43:32] the ground floor. And certainly, if you guys would—

[43:36] if you have any ideas that you want to Send to us by going over this list,

[43:42] I certainly would like for you to do that.

[43:46] But I don't— I'm not looking for answers to these questions specifically.

[43:52] I'm looking at how to convert these questions into actionable results.

[43:58] What— how are we going to meet these challenges that we have?

[44:02] And as the mayor mentioned,

[44:05] and I'm going to go right down to number Number 3 on my list is staffing and

[44:11] communications, and mostly communication. That's where we suffered the most.

[44:17] We didn't have good communications even with each other or with the service

[44:23] providers. We didn't have good contacts with those people that we're now

[44:29] with those people that we're now developing,

[44:30] as the mayor alluded to. And we didn't have power.

[44:34] Once you run out of cell service and your cell goes out and you don't have a charger

[44:41] that you can charge it up, you're left dead in the water.

[44:45] And that happened to, I think, everybody in this room,

[44:50] except maybe people that were— that went out to Florida or someplace.

[44:57] place.

[44:57] But the things that we need to be thinking about is how we're going to do this

[45:04] differently the next storm that comes along.

[45:07] And it may be a flood before we get to the ice storm season.

[45:12] And so our biggest challenge is to recognize that we've got a lot of

[45:17] recognize that we've got a lot of preparedness to

[45:19] do to think about how we're going to have some communication devices that we can

[45:25] assign to certain people like me, like Desiree, like the mayor,

[45:30] and maybe one other commissioner that's on the other side of town,

[45:36] that when we see a storm coming and we start seeing these OEM alerts that we've

[45:42] start seeing these OEM alerts that we've got

[45:42] weather alerts coming, that We assign these—

[45:46] this equipment to people and that they're ready to start, you know, communicating.

[45:53] And with a satellite phone,

[45:55] you can tie your laptop into it and it can connect to Starlink and you can have

[46:01] Wi-Fi through a satellite phone. Now, we've got to work through that.

[46:07] I'm just throwing this out for discussion for right now.

[46:11] Okay.

[46:13] Just information about things that need to be discussed and looked at.

[46:20] You know, there's ways that we can have portable solar fields,

[46:25] solar devices that can bring in power to power your cell phone or power your

[46:33] satellite phones or whatever.

[46:35] But that's— I think that's one of our biggest keys is our communication

[46:42] because all we really— all that people wanted from us is what's happening,

[46:49] when is NES going to be on my street,

[46:53] and is the road clear enough that I can get out?

[46:57] And we couldn't even tell them that. You know, we couldn't—

[47:03] Right.

[47:03] We couldn't send anything out.

[47:05] They didn't have Wi-Fi service or even electricity at home.

[47:10] If they were working off their phone, we may not have had their email address.

[47:15] That's why we have kind of made this push that when anybody comes in here and does

[47:21] a— does an account, that we tell them we need your email address or your cell

[47:27] need your email address or your cell number

[47:27] so we can send you messages. And we send that out in the newsletter.

[47:32] Please sign up and give us your permission to use your email address because we

[47:38] can't communicate with but only half of the people in Oak Hill.

[47:42] We've got— what do we got, 1,000 email addresses? About?

[47:46] Probably about 1,300.

[47:50] How many?

[47:52] 1,300.

[47:52] About 1,300? We need about 7,000, you know,

[47:55] we need households of about 2,000 email addresses or cell numbers.

[48:00] But we're working on that. We're trying to be prepared for that.

[48:05] So that's a big challenge, is we can communicate to those people we have emails

[48:10] communicate to those people we have emails for,

[48:11] but the rest of them we don't.

[48:13] So we're hoping that, you know,

[48:15] people are checking with their neighbors to see if they're communicating with us.

[48:21] The greatest thing that we need to think about is of all these things we're going

[48:27] about is of all these things we're going to

[48:27] be talking about is what is the one thing that we could change that would have the

[48:33] greatest impact on our response to the next winter storm?

[48:37] The thing that's going to have the greatest impact.

[48:40] And I would say better communications within our group Within our commissioners,

[48:46] within our staff. You know,

[48:48] we can get a bank of 2-way radios and pass them out and have them charged up,

[48:53] teach everybody how to use them. We can have 6 or 8 satellite phones.

[48:58] We'll keep them here, keep them charged up,

[49:01] make sure everybody knows how to use them.

[49:04] Have some rugged laptops that can tie into that satellite phone and be able to use

[49:10] it. So that you can communicate, you can get emails back and forth.

[49:15] The other thing is we need some— we need to think about a remote— I mean,

[49:20] this room right here could be the command center.

[49:24] You know, we could set up a command center.

[49:27] We've got screens, we've got electricity, but what if electricity goes down here?

[49:33] We've got a generator.

[49:34] We probably needed a generator to be able to run, you know, 10, 12 hours at a time.

[49:40] I don't know if we would keep it up 24/7, but for the first, I would say, 5,

[49:46] 6 days of that storm, we probably needed a command center.

[49:50] The command center was me in my truck sitting over there in the McDonald's

[49:55] sitting over there in the McDonald's parking

[49:56] lot stealing their Wi-Fi.

[49:57] You know, I mean, that's how I got in touch with most of you, most of you folks.

[50:03] And I luckily, I had my cell phone and the city cell phone,

[50:07] so I traded off keeping them charged up.

[50:10] So, you know, there's,

[50:12] there's things we've got to put some funds toward getting some of this,

[50:17] these devices that we can have available to us,

[50:20] and we have to run practice sessions.

[50:23] You know, once a quarter we go through, we go in, open the locker,

[50:28] pass out all the phones, send everybody home.

[50:31] We have a test call and you make sure you can use all your equipment and bring them

[50:37] back the next day. But those are— that's how you get prepared.

[50:41] You can't wait till the storm happens and your light goes out to say, dang,

[50:46] who do I need to call? David DeMarco. I can't get him. He's not answering his

[50:52] can't get him. He's not answering his phone.

[50:52] The reason he's not answering his phone,

[50:55] he don't have any electricity down there and his phone's dead and it's going right

[51:01] to his voicemail and you won't get him till, you know, the weekend. Yes, ma'am.

[51:07] Do you have any idea as to the cost of this?

[51:10] Yeah, I'm working on that. I've, I've gotten several different costs for

[51:15] gotten several different costs for everything.

[51:16] I mean, right now, if we— if I went out and got the thing, the,

[51:21] the bare minimum things that we needed, it'd run $20,000 to $30,000.

[51:26] If we get a little more robust from that, we may get up to $40,000 or $50,000.

[51:32] But that's kind of a one-time cost.

[51:35] But then you have recurring costs of you have to have a subscription to Starlink or

[51:41] one of the other companies that We do that.

[51:45] But I would say, looking back on it,

[51:48] if we'd had all that equipment and we could have communicated with people and

[51:53] could have communicated with people and been

[51:54] able to talk to NES a little bit better and coordinate and coordinate with each

[52:00] other so that you all can coordinate with your constituents and your neighborhoods,

[52:06] you'd say that was well worth that $50,000.

[52:10] Because—

[52:12] You know, disasters are going to happen.

[52:16] I went back all the way to 1997, and there's disasters that hit Tennessee.

[52:22] And not that we're the new disaster zone,

[52:25] but you think about all that's happened since 2010. 2010 was a major disaster.

[52:32] That hurricane, Hurricane Ella, or whatever it was, it hit East Tennessee.

[52:38] It could have easily been Middle Tennessee.

[52:42] This winter storm, we're likely to have another winter storm,

[52:47] but I'm thinking we're likely to have a flood before we have a winter storm.

[52:54] And that's just the nature of things. Mother Nature is not playing around.

[53:00] She's going to— she's going to drop in some disasters here,

[53:05] and we just need to be ready. And we need to know what our appetite is.

[53:11] The appetite is to not only buy the equipment, learn to use it,

[53:16] but also take the responsibility to be the one that takes that device home and uses

[53:23] it and is— and you're willing to be a contact.

[53:27] Otherwise, we'll need to solicit for some volunteers to do that.

[53:32] Or we go out and talk to some security companies that provide security people

[53:39] companies that provide security people that

[53:39] know how to work in disasters.

[53:42] And when those things happen,

[53:44] we call them in and we add a few more people to our staff for a few days or a

[53:51] people to our staff for a few days or a week.

[53:51] I think the immediate community response Communication and the immediate response

[53:58] that we have as a, as a,

[54:00] as a board is to communicate with people right away when it happens.

[54:06] Yeah.

[54:07] I know your electricity is out. We know what the outages are.

[54:12] We don't know what the result's going to be on getting it back on,

[54:18] but we do know that NES is on site. NES is responding to us very, very well.

[54:24] For instance, we had a utility pole in a lady's backyard from the storm just last

[54:31] week. She called in and said, there's still a utility pole in my backyard.

[54:37] It doesn't belong to me.

[54:39] So I called Antonio, texted him, and And said, I hope you're not too busy,

[54:45] but could you go to such and such Franklin Pike and look at that utility pole and

[54:52] see if somebody can pick it up? It was picked up that afternoon.

[54:57] Oh, wow.

[54:58] So they're responsive.

[54:59] They may not be responsive like that every time, but if they are sometimes,

[55:05] that is a huge improvement from what we've had.

[55:09] If we were sitting here a year ago and asking about how to contact Yes.

[55:14] If we had a storm and, and we needed things picked up out of the street or

[55:20] things picked up out of the street or whatever,

[55:20] we didn't know. We weren't prepared.

[55:23] That's why it's important to make these preparations.

[55:27] I have numerous, numerous documents that I've been working on since the storm,

[55:33] and I just didn't have the heart to put it all out to you because I don't think we

[55:40] have time to get into it.

[55:42] I think we need to start doing this at the workshop with the new people.

[55:47] And first thing I'm going to do is bring you a cost of the equipment that we have

[55:53] you a cost of the equipment that we have so

[55:54] we can go ahead and get some communication equipment that we can use,

[55:59] start learning how to use it.

[56:01] And then things like I've developed this This sheet of Davidson County Nashville

[56:07] Emergency Coordination Contact Directory.

[56:10] This is everybody that I could think of that anybody might want to call that could

[56:17] go on our website and could go out in a pamphlet. We can mail it to all the homes.

[56:23] And, um, so that's another thing that's good for disasters.

[56:28] Hmm.

[56:29] But it's going to take a lot of work.

[56:32] And, um, so Winston, you may be called in to be our, uh, our, uh,

[56:37] our committee member to work on this. So that's right, because you are—

[56:43] you have to do that within 2 years.

[56:45] You have tree ordinances, now we have fence ordinances, now we've got—

[56:49] well, you, you're our, you're our best volunteer.

[56:52] And listen, and you're, and you're still here.

[56:56] Mr. Price. Steve, so are you going to say something?

[57:01] Yeah, my parting advice— don't disagree with the things Steve has said.

[57:09] My perception is whatever perceived shortcomings you may feel as far as

[57:16] communication that you may be genuinely and correctly concerned about have

[57:23] been vastly overwhelmed by how well you handled the cleanup.

[57:29] That's what people will remember 5 years from now, is not,

[57:35] I couldn't get in touch with Dale, I didn't hear from Steve.

[57:42] They will remember how well The city got things cleaned up.

[57:48] Well, at least 1,000 people were able to get in touch with him because that's

[57:53] how many votes he won. He got 1,000 votes.

[57:56] So the other 1,000 didn't vote for you.

[57:59] Well, so, so I don't know if it was Moses or my father,

[58:04] but poverty annihilates the future.

[58:07] Thank heaven that you all and some of our predecessors have been sound fiscal

[58:14] responsible public servants.

[58:17] And we had the resources available to pay for the cleanup instead of, as you said,

[58:24] we'd all be out on a volunteer crew this afternoon.

[58:29] And so to me, that's not that the communication The communications part is

[58:36] significant and worth pursuing and thinking hard about,

[58:41] but the continued sound fiscal management of this city's resources is what I would

[58:48] urge you to also give continued devoted attention to.

[58:53] Somalia, with $813 nominal per capita GDP, Their future's annihilated.

[58:59] They can't respond to famine. They can't respond to a windstorm.

[59:05] They haven't got any money saved as a people.

[59:09] And so that's why it's so important in my mind for this city to continue to be

[59:17] thrifty and industrious as you have been. I'm complimenting you all.

[59:23] Roger.

[59:24] That to me, having that ability To clean up,

[59:28] to pay for the Gulf crew to come in and do the cleanup.

[59:33] 5 years from now, go door to door, might find 1 in 1,000 who says, well,

[59:39] I tried calling Mayor Grimes, we couldn't get him.

[59:44] But 99 out of 100 are going to say, man, that cleanup was amazing,

[59:49] because that was a A storm of unprecedented magnitude in my lifetime,

[59:55] my 43 years in Oak Cliff.

[59:58] Nothing—

[59:58] not been anything like it.

[1:00:01] And so the city responded,

[1:00:03] and you deserve great credit for coordinating with Metro and MOU and all

[1:00:10] coordinating with Metro and MOU and all that.

[1:00:11] Everybody did. I just—

[1:00:13] I say, you know, so whoever complained, I would just remind them.

[1:00:17] Thank you.

[1:00:18] Be thankful that we were able to get the cleanup done.

[1:00:22] And I, in, in the last week of having people complain about the heat, I said,

[1:00:28] hey, remember the ice storm?

[1:00:30] Yeah, right.

[1:00:31] That was this year. And you, but you don't, driving around, there's no trees.

[1:00:39] Yeah, I know, somebody's backyard.

[1:00:41] But I mean, the city's cleaned up.

[1:00:45] I mean, I mean, Northfleet and Lakeview does not even look the same now.

[1:00:50] I mean, you can't even tell that they've—

[1:00:53] the curve at the ends of Granny White, remember that picture?

[1:00:57] I mean, that was a genuine disaster. You can't tell it.

[1:01:01] You can't tell what the thing happened.

[1:01:04] So I just say, you know, now my dad did say this, save for a rainy night.

[1:01:10] Save for a rainy decade. Save for a rainy decade.

[1:01:14] And guess what?

[1:01:17] The 1951 ice storm was worse. It had another inch of ice on it.

[1:01:22] Well—

[1:01:26] It can happen.

[1:01:27] Yeah.

[1:01:29] Well—

[1:01:30] Yeah, I think 2 things I would say, Steve,

[1:01:33] is that I think one is I know that my predecessor as mayor always seemed to have

[1:01:40] predecessor as mayor always seemed to have a

[1:01:40] phone number so that she could contact NES,

[1:01:43] like during the Dereco and things like that. And I never got that.

[1:01:49] And I always figured, well, you know, there's some secret, you know,

[1:01:55] way to get in touch with these people that only the elect few get to find out.

[1:02:01] Yeah.

[1:02:02] But I mean, I think we've got to have those people.

[1:02:05] So now, you know, Alonzo has turned out to be great.

[1:02:08] And y'all are not going to believe this. I don't think I've already said this.

[1:02:13] Maybe I have. NES did not have a communications person until after the

[1:02:17] communications person until after the storm.

[1:02:18] They hired somebody in charge to be in charge of communications. That's

[1:02:22] charge of communications. That's astounding.

[1:02:22] Yeah.

[1:02:23] I think. And so, but you know, we've got that.

[1:02:25] But, you know, we need— and you probably have it on your list—

[1:02:29] the same thing for Metro Water.

[1:02:31] Right.

[1:02:31] That's right.

[1:02:32] The same thing for Piedmont, you know, whoever else is in.

[1:02:37] And so that's the first thing.

[1:02:39] Second thing is that I think it's important for city staff and city

[1:02:45] important for city staff and city employees to

[1:02:46] realize that the commissioners need to know when there's something like that

[1:02:52] know when there's something like that going

[1:02:53] on.

[1:02:53] Right.

[1:02:53] In other words, don't feel like it's on your shoulders to do everything and you

[1:02:58] don't have to, because people,

[1:03:00] the citizens frequently will turn to us and hold us accountable for giving the

[1:03:05] and hold us accountable for giving the kind

[1:03:05] of information that they're looking for before they'll try to contact you.

[1:03:10] So I think that's very important too. And, you know, that probably fits in.

[1:03:15] And then the third thing is there are other types of disasters that we need to

[1:03:20] other types of disasters that we need to be

[1:03:20] prepared for. I mean, such as, you know, what if there was a— God forbid—

[1:03:25] an active shooter situation in Oak Hill?

[1:03:27] Now, Metro Police would handle it, but people are going to be looking to us to

[1:03:32] people are going to be looking to us to say,

[1:03:32] well, what do you— what's going on? What do you know? And that kind of thing.

[1:03:39] And—

[1:03:39] Yeah.

[1:03:40] There's more than floods and ice that we've got to be thinking about.

[1:03:46] I guess the thing that I think that one of the things that one of our biggest

[1:03:53] challenges is kind of leading off from your discussion is that I think that we

[1:03:59] your discussion is that I think that we can

[1:04:00] get the communication gear, we can do the training,

[1:04:04] but I think we have to have a different mindset of what everybody's role is going

[1:04:11] mindset of what everybody's role is going to

[1:04:11] be during a disaster.

[1:04:13] Now, granted, when people have family at home and their power goes down,

[1:04:19] their water stops coming in, their pipes are frozen, their driveway is blocked,

[1:04:26] you're kind of stuck. Your responsibility is to your family right there.

[1:04:32] Your responsibility may,

[1:04:34] may end at your front door because You can't get out of your front door.

[1:04:41] But is the mindset going to be,

[1:04:43] if we are asking you to be part of this crisis action team,

[1:04:48] are you still going to be able to devote to that during those crisis times?

[1:04:55] And I think that's a, that's a, that's a question only each person can answer.

[1:05:02] So I would say You know, in my position, I feel my— it's my— I'm hired to do this.

[1:05:09] That's my responsibility.

[1:05:11] That's what you all pay me for, is to go get in the car, drive around,

[1:05:17] find out what's going on, and be on slick highways, talk to the crews.

[1:05:23] But Do elected officials feel like that that's your responsibility?

[1:05:29] Or is your responsibility taking care of you and your own?

[1:05:34] So I think there's a mindset that needs to, you know, a paradigm shift, if you

[1:05:40] to, you know, a paradigm shift, if you will.

[1:05:41] How deep are we going to get into this?

[1:05:44] Yes, ma'am.

[1:05:45] Because if there's a limit there,

[1:05:47] we need to look at other ways to during those times of crisis,

[1:05:52] have people that can be either contracted or hired to step in,

[1:05:57] to step in the breach, to take care of some of those things.

[1:06:01] And I think that's a, that's a huge, that's a huge step to take for,

[1:06:06] for a small organization like ours.

[1:06:08] Because, you know, just here in the office, we run out of people real fast.

[1:06:14] Mm-hmm.

[1:06:15] And the thing that I thought about That I should have done with our intrepid Ms.

[1:06:21] Lohr is we should have moved her to the embassy suite and set her up where they

[1:06:27] embassy suite and set her up where they had

[1:06:27] heat and electricity and Wi-Fi so that she could be communicating with everybody.

[1:06:33] And she was doing the same thing you were, Dale.

[1:06:37] She'd get Wi-Fi and electricity or power for 20 minutes and she'd work real hard 20

[1:06:43] minutes and it'd go off, and then she'd be incommunicado.

[1:06:48] But she could have waffles.

[1:06:49] Yeah, that's right. She could have had waffles. Same thing with the mayor.

[1:06:54] You know, mayor, maybe we should have transported you to the Embassy Suites

[1:06:59] transported you to the Embassy Suites there,

[1:07:00] and so you can communicate with people. You'd have Wi-Fi.

[1:07:04] You can still be talking to people.

[1:07:06] And I think— and I'm talking about first, you know,

[1:07:10] few hours of the disaster after we find out we can get you out and get you moved.

[1:07:15] But that is not necessarily to make you comfortable or make her comfortable.

[1:07:21] It's to put them in a place they can actually work and be productive.

[1:07:25] Yeah, you know, Commissioner O'Dell's house is centrally located and

[1:07:30] she has a backup generator that runs off gas and automatically turns

[1:07:34] on.

[1:07:34] That's right. I had forgotten about that. It would be.

[1:07:37] And, and, uh, you don't have to go up a hill to get to her driveway.

[1:07:42] That's right.

[1:07:43] You can just slide on in.

[1:07:45] You could slide into her house.

[1:07:46] Now, if it's a flood, you might be— you might not be able to get across the

[1:07:49] might not be able to get across the bridge,

[1:07:49] the footbridge.

[1:07:50] Yeah, that's right.

[1:07:51] But anyway, I think that, um, I need to get a little more concise about where—

[1:07:57] what we start with and what we talk about, and we'll do that at the next workshop.

[1:08:03] And we can have that at— we can do that at Joy's house.

[1:08:07] We can do the next workshop there. Come on over.

[1:08:10] So my discussion on the lessons learned is just that,

[1:08:14] unless you want to take it any further than that. That's all I've got.

[1:08:19] And I've got more documents I want to send you all to review and look at.

[1:08:28] Just one point on that.

[1:08:30] About 10 years ago, I went with the Harpeth Valley folks over to a facility

[1:08:35] Harpeth Valley folks over to a facility that

[1:08:36] Williamson County has built,

[1:08:38] and I think it serves as a regional emergency command center.

[1:08:42] It can withstand 180-mile-an-hour wind,

[1:08:45] and it's got a whole wall of communications equipment.

[1:08:49] And I don't know how that works.

[1:08:52] Or if it relates to other governmental entities or if TEMA has something similar.

[1:08:58] But that's— if you've not seen that facility, it's worth talking to them

[1:09:03] facility, it's worth talking to them about.

[1:09:03] And if there's some other—

[1:09:05] either that or some other place that local governments could sort of dial into or

[1:09:11] connect with, that could be a facility that could be of some help.

[1:09:16] Yeah.

[1:09:21] Yeah, okay. Well, Steve, I think this is a great start,

[1:09:25] and I'm glad to see that you're—

[1:09:28] you've obviously been working on this and thinking about it.

[1:09:32] And I just raised it with Steve a few weeks, couple of weeks ago, I guess,

[1:09:37] just to say, and this is something I don't want us to lose sight of,

[1:09:42] is we really need to do some sort of an after-action report.

[1:09:46] But, and, and That's sort of what this is.

[1:09:49] And I think what this is, is going in the right direction, namely,

[1:09:54] what are we going to do? What are we going to do next time?

[1:09:59] And what, what do we need to build here as a— so there's a lot to think about. Yeah.

[1:10:05] And we just need to get it put together. So thank you.

[1:10:08] What do you want us to do with, with this? You— is this literally homework?

[1:10:14] Would you like to—

[1:10:15] Yeah, it's literally homework.

[1:10:17] Just, uh, it's, it's to kind of jog your memory about what happened during the

[1:10:21] memory about what happened during the storm

[1:10:22] and make some notes on here so that when we come back we can start going through

[1:10:26] these, these items and putting them on a board and,

[1:10:29] and kind of putting a document together to see where we want to go and the things we

[1:10:34] want to tackle. There may be ideas that we hadn't thought of,

[1:10:37] and there may be ideas that we just don't want to do.

[1:10:40] We just want to kind of keep it to the basic.

[1:10:43] But we don't want to just— we, as my old boss used to say,

[1:10:46] we don't want to try to kill this dragon all at once.

[1:10:49] We've got to just kind of cut a toe off at a time.

[1:10:52] Yeah.

[1:10:52] And that's— and I think that's where we are.

[1:10:55] And I think, I think the first toe is just thinking about preparing for the next one

[1:11:01] and How we're going to communicate,

[1:11:03] because I think that was the most frustrating thing that happened.

[1:11:08] The big things like fire, police,

[1:11:10] and utilities were handled by people that do those things. We don't do any of that.

[1:11:16] There's no reason for us to get in the way of that.

[1:11:19] One thing that, uh, maybe is one of the unsung heroes of This whole thing is

[1:11:25] Jonathan Cummings and his public works crew because they were out salting streets

[1:11:30] and scraping roads, but they were also cutting trees and getting people out of

[1:11:36] cutting trees and getting people out of their

[1:11:36] driveway, helping get people out of their homes into the ambulance.

[1:11:40] And anytime we called him, there was a problem, he'd get somebody over there.

[1:11:46] In fact, they got down on North Fleet and trees fell in behind them.

[1:11:50] They couldn't get out. And Oh my God.

[1:11:53] So, so we can't forget about those guys, our public works contractor,

[1:11:58] because they are very key to this.

[1:12:00] Because police, fire,

[1:12:01] and utilities can't get into our streets unless we clean them off.

[1:12:06] So that's very important that we continue that.

[1:12:09] So, I mean, so there's, there's a lot to be done. There's a lot to think about.

[1:12:15] There's a lot to do and there's a lot to be ready for.

[1:12:18] And, you know, if we never have another ice storm and we do all this preparation,

[1:12:24] you know, we're going to say, well, you know, it was all for nothing.

[1:12:29] But when that thing happens and we're prepared,

[1:12:32] I think we're all going to be glad we put the work in ahead of time.

[1:12:37] And Joy and Marshall, you know,

[1:12:39] it would be worth seeing if The potential for some kind of collaboration among the

[1:12:46] satellite cities. If somebody's already done some work and thought,

[1:12:52] and like a place like Marshall's talking about,

[1:12:56] it would be worth exploring to see what the other satellite cities would be

[1:13:02] the other satellite cities would be willing

[1:13:02] to do in collaboration.

[1:13:04] Well, I do have a good relationship with both Jennifer and Mark Hill at Bellevue

[1:13:10] Bellevue, Belle Meade, and Forest Acres. And we talk a lot.

[1:13:14] And of course, we're, we're all in that City Managers Association.

[1:13:19] So there's a, there's a lot of resources, and it's, it's a good group, and, and we,

[1:13:25] we communicate a lot.

[1:13:26] Now, we haven't brought the mayors into that, into that circle,

[1:13:31] but there's nothing that says we can't.

[1:13:33] And I think it would—

[1:13:35] I think that would be the What should be the whole of the group is the city

[1:13:40] the whole of the group is the city managers

[1:13:41] and the mayors, or the city manager and commissioners. Everybody.

[1:13:45] I mean, in those discussions, I think the more is better.

[1:13:49] And then you get down to a working group and then let that group do the hard work.

[1:13:55] Yeah.

[1:14:01] I mean, yeah, just to remind— if I've told this story before,

[1:14:05] you can tell me to stop.

[1:14:07] But when we finally did get a communication out,

[1:14:10] it was after NES sent out their first email that we got that said basically what

[1:14:15] email that we got that said basically what was

[1:14:15] going on. So this was like late in the first week.

[1:14:19] Good grief.

[1:14:23] And the only way I could put that together into a communication to send out to

[1:14:30] the residents was— Steve suggested this— for me to dictate a text.

[1:14:36] Try doing that. Dictate a text. He said, don't worry about punctuation.

[1:14:42] Just do it. Say what you want to say.

[1:14:45] And then he or Desiree typed it up somehow or another from that text.

[1:14:51] And maybe ran it through Claude, and then y'all were able to send it out.

[1:14:58] Yeah, we produced a really good document from that.

[1:15:01] But it was torture getting to it.

[1:15:04] Yeah. But it was either that or just go out back

[1:15:09] and send up a smoke signal.

[1:15:11] You know, that was next.

[1:15:18] Because I went to the office every day and I could have—

[1:15:23] I had power at the office.

[1:15:25] I could have communicated all of this if I wanted to.

[1:15:30] Well, and you know, I mean, that's part of communications.

[1:15:34] When, you know, when something goes down,

[1:15:38] we need to have a central area call in and do We'll do a check, you know, hey,

[1:15:44] I'm here, I've got power, I've got this, I've got that.

[1:15:48] We'll have a checklist, and if you got that,

[1:15:52] if you got ability to help and provide services, then okay.

[1:15:56] Okay. I'm sorry, I'm

[1:16:01] losing my voice here.

[1:16:08] All right.

[1:16:09] Do we have anything else that we would like to or need to—

[1:16:12] Let me, uh, I got a, I got a couple of things.

[1:16:16] One is that, um, you all have been seeing some communication from me and maybe from

[1:16:22] Dale also about the aircraft noise.

[1:16:24] We've been getting some, um, this is kind of surfacing around again.

[1:16:30] People are seeing planes go over their house, they're getting noise,

[1:16:35] and I put I put together a communication and sent to the 2 people that asked about

[1:16:41] it, and I think I copied you all on it, about how to contact BNA,

[1:16:46] how to contact the FAA,

[1:16:47] how to go to the meeting which is happening right now at BNA, and where to

[1:16:53] happening right now at BNA, and where to park,

[1:16:53] where they're located, all that information.

[1:16:57] In fact, I had Patrick go to the meeting today just to see if any of our citizens

[1:17:03] showed up and also to ask questions.

[1:17:05] And he, he provided a list of questions on that form because in order to get in

[1:17:11] front of the board, you have to submit a form ahead of time,

[1:17:16] and then they'll tell you if you're on the agenda.

[1:17:20] And he got a note back that said, you're not going to be on the agenda,

[1:17:25] we're already full, but you've got good questions and we'll send Send you the

[1:17:31] answers back to that. So, so we're trying to get into that loop.

[1:17:36] Also, Creve Hall has a neighborhood committee that they've formed,

[1:17:40] and they've also hired an attorney, and they are involved in that,

[1:17:45] and they're going to keep, keep me in the loop about the things they're doing.

[1:17:51] And subsequently, I'll let you all know how,

[1:17:55] how we get involved with that neighborhood group.

[1:17:58] But folks, I want to tell you, I dealt with the FAA for about 30 years, okay?

[1:18:04] And they have a big foot and you can't step on their toe.

[1:18:08] And I'm gonna tell you, it's gonna be real hard to do anything.

[1:18:13] Now, it doesn't mean you You don't take the effort and fight the good fight,

[1:18:19] but FAA, if they've decided on what they're going to do, they're going to do

[1:18:24] they're going to do, they're going to do it.

[1:18:25] Well, I tell you, this whole effort is like peeling an onion because it started

[1:18:29] like peeling an onion because it started out

[1:18:29] with me getting a couple of emails from some neighbors on Villa Crest,

[1:18:34] and I thought, okay, well, you know, they're upset about noise up there.

[1:18:38] Well, you know, I get those same planes right over my house.

[1:18:41] It is upsetting, but then it turned out that Creve Hall already had this—

[1:18:45] their neighborhood association had hired a lawyer and they were working on it.

[1:18:50] And then it seems like I saw some— oh, and then there was a guy.

[1:18:54] Did you ever get the email from me from the guy who had done the report?

[1:18:58] No, I never did get that. I got your email, but I didn't get the report.

[1:19:02] The report wasn't attached.

[1:19:04] Okay, well anyway, somebody has done—

[1:19:07] somebody who's building a house on Villa Crest It has been taking—

[1:19:12] getting information about flight paths and wind and all these different things

[1:19:19] and has put it together.

[1:19:21] Did you get—

[1:19:21] did NASA send that to you?

[1:19:22] There was a reference to it. I think the number of decibels of the noise was—

[1:19:27] Yeah, yeah.

[1:19:29] I'm not sure he had that in there, but it was—

[1:19:31] Talked about 900 flights, had the data Yeah, it was something like that.

[1:19:37] And it was, anyway, it was pretty interesting.

[1:19:40] But, you know, they've got somebody who's doing that.

[1:19:43] And then it seems like some of those people were saying, well,

[1:19:47] we don't understand why Radnor's not doing— why they're not upset about this.

[1:19:52] And then I mentioned that to our state representative Hemmer the other day,

[1:19:57] and he said, well, that's because they've done everything they can and they're not

[1:20:02] going to budge, which I think is just crazy to be flying over a natural area.

[1:20:07] You know, I mean, that kind of destroys the whole idea.

[1:20:10] Well, if you want to see where the planes are going when they take off,

[1:20:16] when they land, you can go to FlightAware. There's an app called FlightAware.

[1:20:21] I don't know if you ever use that, Joy, when you travel.

[1:20:26] It's a really nice— it's showing a It's showing a plane going right over Radnor

[1:20:32] showing a plane going right over Radnor Lake

[1:20:32] right now. It just, it just, uh, just came over, and it is Southwest Airlines 1644.

[1:20:38] Uh, it is at 274 miles an hour, and it's at 5,400 feet. That's it. FlightAware.

[1:20:44] That's not very—

[1:20:46] but no, and I thought they were supposed to change that so they were going up real

[1:20:49] fast, and then—

[1:20:51] but if you, uh, But if you go on their website,

[1:20:56] you can get the information on the flight data from the FAA.

[1:21:02] Now, they have a couple of maps that they produced.

[1:21:07] And the last one was done in 2024.

[1:21:11] And they're about to produce the one in 2026.

[1:21:15] One in 2024.

[1:21:17] '24, I don't think very good information unless you just want to look through what

[1:21:21] happened. But I think we're more concerned about what's happening right now.

[1:21:25] Well, and this group, or at least these people from Villa Crest,

[1:21:29] keep saying that there's a deadline.

[1:21:31] Was it September 4th or something like that?

[1:21:34] I haven't been able to find what they're talking about.

[1:21:37] What— it's a, it's a public comment deadline.

[1:21:39] Yes, and it's, and it's keyed off of a change that occurred on the 1st of July or

[1:21:45] something like that.

[1:21:46] And that you have to give— those dates are probably wrong—

[1:21:50] you have to give public comments within 60 days and— or any complaints or whatever.

[1:21:56] And that's all directed to the FAA and their timetable because they're the ones

[1:22:02] their timetable because they're the ones who

[1:22:02] made the change, not—

[1:22:03] Right.

[1:22:04] Metro Nashville Airport Authority.

[1:22:06] And I don't I don't know which— who's in charge of that these days.

[1:22:10] I mean, who knows? I don't know.

[1:22:12] I don't know what— I don't know what he's talking about.

[1:22:14] So I did— I have not found that.

[1:22:15] Well, so anyway, there's kind of a short fuse on that.

[1:22:19] Um, but it's— it's— yeah, I think it's something we need to stay in touch with.

[1:22:25] Um, and if I could, I will raise one other thing.

[1:22:29] And then Winston and I did this the other day, was, uh, uh,

[1:22:33] I found out through I guess I got a Facebook notification and from,

[1:22:39] from Caleb Hemmer that came up on my email.

[1:22:42] Excuse me.

[1:22:44] And, um, about this meeting that was going to take place on Monday.

[1:22:48] I think I got this on Friday, on Monday, um,

[1:22:51] to talk about I-65 corridor and changes and expanding lanes and everything.

[1:22:57] And it was like What?

[1:22:58] You're having a meeting on Monday and we're just now hearing about it?

[1:23:03] And so, you know, that's— I called Winston and he fortunately was able to go.

[1:23:09] So I think I sent all of— sent it to all of you, the notice that I got.

[1:23:14] But it was kind of a— it wasn't really a meeting,

[1:23:17] or maybe it's a meeting that's designed to prevent cause célèbres from developing on

[1:23:23] the floor. But it's one of those situations where they just put up boards

[1:23:28] situations where they just put up boards around the

[1:23:29] room, and then they had people standing by them to, you know,

[1:23:33] talk to you and answer questions.

[1:23:36] But, you know, there was no— everyone say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:23:40] No plenary session.

[1:23:42] No, no plenary session.

[1:23:43] And, you know, when Winston and I both— I mean,

[1:23:46] by the time I was getting to some of the people,

[1:23:50] he was ahead of me talking to people.

[1:23:52] And they said, I think I know What you're here to talk about. Sound walls?

[1:23:58] I said, oh, you've heard. I mean, we were spreading that word loud and clear.

[1:24:03] Now, you know, several of the people who were there were trying to explain to me,

[1:24:09] well, no, that really comes up in the later part of the environmental evaluation

[1:24:14] because sound is part of an environmental evaluation. Environmental and so forth.

[1:24:20] And, but then as you all may have gotten, I guess you sent it to everybody. I did.

[1:24:26] I had a pretty much similar email from Senator Campbell today.

[1:24:30] I went ahead and sent it to everybody.

[1:24:32] I probably didn't have time to read it, but it'll be in your email.

[1:24:36] Well, I read through it and it, you know, it's extensive and complex.

[1:24:40] I hope it doesn't make people feel like it's too complex for them to deal with.

[1:24:45] But the main thing is that you've got until September 8th to send in written

[1:24:50] comments, and thank you for sending yours in so promptly.

[1:24:53] Yeah, I think it's really important that we notify the people east of Franklin Road

[1:24:59] about that. I mean, really important.

[1:25:02] I mean, I know you have your newsletter or your email list,

[1:25:06] but don't wait till the end I mean,

[1:25:08] do it as soon as possible so that their voices can be heard.

[1:25:13] Now their noise is really, I think, worse from Radnor,

[1:25:17] but surely a sound wall would help as well.

[1:25:20] Yeah, well, that's true too.

[1:25:22] But yeah, but I guess the difference with the interstate is it's all the time.

[1:25:29] Radnor, I guess you have some space between Between squeals.

[1:25:34] But anyway, it's a lot sort of—

[1:25:37] there's a lot of stuff kind of coming at us right now,

[1:25:42] and I think it's important for us to stay on top of it.

[1:25:47] And I'll say this, I did get a response from them.

[1:25:49] Oh, did you? Uh-huh.

[1:25:50] And it was just kind of like, you know, you know, thank you for responding.

[1:25:54] Somebody like a human will get back with you.

[1:25:56] Okay. Well, Good. I mean,

[1:25:58] it was very disappointing to me the number of people who were there who were—

[1:26:03] I mean, there were more consultant employees there than there were, you know,

[1:26:07] residents.

[1:26:08] I did leave a written comment excoriating the noise issue and filed that.

[1:26:14] And I do have a— I did have communication with one of the people.

[1:26:19] I think she identified herself as the head Communications about it,

[1:26:24] and I'm going to send an email to her asking, saying I'm getting some

[1:26:29] asking, saying I'm getting some complaints,

[1:26:30] can I pass these on to you and you forward them to the appropriate authorities?

[1:26:36] So I'll see what I can do about that. I'll copy you on that, Scott.

[1:26:42] The one thing that Senator Campbell's email did say that Steve has said about

[1:26:47] email did say that Steve has said about the

[1:26:48] airplane noise as well.

[1:26:49] And I think it's something to take to heart,

[1:26:53] and that is that you need to provide specifics.

[1:26:56] You need to say, you know,

[1:26:58] this is waking me and my family up all hours of the night, or something like

[1:27:04] hours of the night, or something like that.

[1:27:04] She did get into, you know, also testing decibels and all that.

[1:27:09] I don't want people to feel like they've got to go test decibels before they send

[1:27:15] got to go test decibels before they send in

[1:27:15] a comment. But really, the more specific, I think, Steve, you can talk about that.

[1:27:21] But well, you know, I mean, you know, time of day, you know, is important.

[1:27:26] And you can get this from the FAA if you've got a time of day, or if you can,

[1:27:31] if you can see the aircraft, see what, what the carrier is,

[1:27:35] you can get that information and you can,

[1:27:37] you can do it with an app like that FlightAware.

[1:27:41] So yeah, and then, you know, as much information as you can get is helpful.

[1:27:45] Yeah.

[1:27:46] Can I make a— I don't know if this adds anything.

[1:27:50] The problem is when you gain altitude,

[1:27:53] and Dad was a pilot in the military and private, and I flew with him.

[1:27:59] I never got my license.

[1:28:01] But if you want to gain altitude, you keep your Wings straight and level.

[1:28:07] That's how the fastest way to get your altitude.

[1:28:11] If you turn your wings to turn, that's how you turn, you bank your wings.

[1:28:17] Your vector, remember, your lift vector is perpendicular to the wings.

[1:28:23] So you lose some of your lift vector when you turn. So you're banking your wings?

[1:28:30] So what these people are doing, they want to get— Southwest Airlines, whoever—

[1:28:37] they want to get to wherever they're going.

[1:28:40] They want to get off the runway as soon as possible and head directly to Houston,

[1:28:47] for example. What should be done, I think,

[1:28:50] they ought to be required to keep it straight and level until they get to at

[1:28:57] straight and level until they get to at least

[1:28:57] 10,000 feet.

[1:28:59] And then turn.

[1:29:01] Then you can slow— at that point you begin to slow your ascent.

[1:29:06] And that's just common sense if anybody knows anything about Bernoulli's principle

[1:29:13] and airplanes. But I think that's— I think it's a whole thing.

[1:29:18] And what somehow it's the dadgum airlines want to cut 3 or 4 or 5 minutes out of the

[1:29:24] transit, and that's why it's We're all getting blasts, if you will,

[1:29:29] at only 5,000 feet, whatever that's worth.

[1:29:33] Well, probably nothing.

[1:29:34] We may, you know, we may have better luck with the interstate. I don't know.

[1:29:39] But I think it's important for them to know that, you know,

[1:29:42] while they're talking about adding lanes or whatever they're going to do,

[1:29:46] that anything they do, whether they think they're alleviating congestion,

[1:29:51] it's going to still produce more noise.

[1:29:54] And— Yeah, because if they make more lanes, there's going to be more noise.

[1:29:58] And so it just needs to be, um, you know, it needs to be part of the,

[1:30:03] part of the process at this point, I think,

[1:30:07] because they're going to try to finish this study by the end of this year.

[1:30:12] And, um, and then it goes to NEPA, which is a national Right.

[1:30:17] For their evaluation. I don't think we want to wait until that at all.

[1:30:23] It's the big bad environmental study.

[1:30:25] Oh.

[1:30:26] That's what that is.

[1:30:27] Okay. So anyway, that's, you know, it's been a long time coming.

[1:30:33] People have been promised that way back and even more recently and it just—

[1:30:39] I'm sure I'm sure it's frustrating to them, and it's noisy.

[1:30:44] It's very noisy over there. So I don't know, maybe something to post on the

[1:30:50] know, maybe something to post on the website.

[1:30:51] The attachment that I had that I sent,

[1:30:54] had attached to my email that I sent this morning.

[1:30:58] Yeah, that one. Yeah.

[1:31:00] That attachment is something that could go on our website or maybe just Was that

[1:31:06] the, uh, the thing you called it, the, the flyer or the poster?

[1:31:11] Yeah, the brochure. It was a brochure.

[1:31:14] Did you put that up? Yeah, I think, I think we got that up.

[1:31:17] Yeah, it's— oh, you did? Yeah, it's this, right?

[1:31:20] It was just a 2-page thing that they had as a handout, um,

[1:31:25] which is probably the most important thing on here is that it says who to contact.

[1:31:34] There is— the lady from—

[1:31:36] the communications lady from TDOT told me and sent it to me,

[1:31:43] there is a bill which just got passed which we can ask the state to do a

[1:31:50] study about our noise level. Catch, we got to pay for it. Yeah.

[1:31:59] Well, and the other interesting thing was that one of the people was showing me—

[1:32:04] or it was on one of the boards, storyboards there that they had—

[1:32:08] but one of them was about the Transportation Modernization Act at the

[1:32:12] Transportation Modernization Act at the state level

[1:32:13] that we get a little bit of money from every year.

[1:32:16] Yeah.

[1:32:16] Well, they were talking about as part of this program that they

[1:32:22] want to deploy those funds From that,

[1:32:26] from that whatever funds the Transportation Modernization Act.

[1:32:33] So I don't know what that is.

[1:32:36] I think you sent out an email

[1:32:40] blast about the I-65 corridor.

[1:32:44] Yes, right.

[1:32:44] But I don't think it's on the webpage.

[1:32:51] I think we put the, uh, that poster up. I don't know if we put the email up.

[1:32:55] Did you put the email, Desiree, on the webpage?

[1:32:58] I don't see it.

[1:33:04] If we didn't, we'll put it up.

[1:33:05] Yeah, I don't see it.

[1:33:07] And what email are you talking about? My email?

[1:33:10] Well, the information about the, um, from, uh, who to contact.

[1:33:16] Oh, okay. Well, that's— yeah, that's it. It's down at the end of that.

[1:33:19] We probably need to highlight it better, but— and then that's the— yeah,

[1:33:22] there you go.

[1:33:23] But that's it. What's that on? What's that under the heading of?

[1:33:31] Latest news, I think.

[1:33:32] Yeah, might be good to have it under Make Your Voice Heard or something.

[1:33:37] Yeah, that's a good idea.

[1:33:49] Yeah, right, I did get that.

[1:34:01] Okay, I think that's okay.

[1:34:03] I just want a quick comment.

[1:34:05] I was pleased at how The paving of Battery was not as

[1:34:09] nearly as disruptive as I thought.

[1:34:12] No, it wasn't. They—

[1:34:14] I think they had a new traffic directing crew than they have had when they had it

[1:34:20] over on Evansdale. But they, they, they moved the traffic around pretty,

[1:34:25] pretty good over there.

[1:34:27] And they did a good job. They kind of expanded the road a little bit to the

[1:34:31] expanded the road a little bit to the sides.

[1:34:32] Um, you all know Mr. McCarty? You know, have y'all met Mr. McCarty?

[1:34:37] He lives at, uh, 848, I think.

[1:34:40] Hunter McCarty?

[1:34:42] Uh, what's his first name? Jim? Jim? Bill? Bill McCarty.

[1:34:46] He, he and his neighbor, they— their, their driveways just come right together,

[1:34:52] and every driveway on that street had a transition from the driveway to the

[1:34:58] transition from the driveway to the street.

[1:34:59] You know how they do the transition, they go out.

[1:35:02] He is the only one that did not get the transition.

[1:35:06] And he is the one that calls us a lot. We know him a lot. We like him. Okay.

[1:35:12] He has a real nice Panama hat he got from Reese Witherspoon's dad.

[1:35:18] And Real nice gentleman, but he knows our phone number real well.

[1:35:23] But the only person that didn't get his driveway transitioned properly was that

[1:35:29] driveway transitioned properly was that one.

[1:35:29] But I talked to our folks over there. They're going to take care of it.

[1:35:35] They're going to take care of it.

[1:35:37] Hey, if I could indulge you all for just a second,

[1:35:41] because I think David will find this interesting,

[1:35:45] and I think you'll find this interesting. But I went to a funeral Monday in Memphis.

[1:35:52] A guy by the name of Michael Cenciola. He was a flight engineer on a B-24.

[1:35:57] And he was stationed in Benghazi, Africa, in the 44th Bomb Group, 67th Squadron.

[1:36:04] It's the same squadron my father flew in. Anyway, his funeral was this week.

[1:36:10] He lived that long? He did not live that long.

[1:36:13] But he, on his first mission, He was shot down by the Germans in Italy,

[1:36:19] and his whole crew was lost.

[1:36:21] And they buried him in an unmarked grave until just recently.

[1:36:26] They, they, however, whatever, they exhumed them and found out they were

[1:36:31] exhumed them and found out they were Americans.

[1:36:32] And they started checking them out, and they did all the forensics.

[1:36:37] They came back to the family, had them do some DNA,

[1:36:41] and found out that was That was Michael,

[1:36:44] a Cinciola staff sergeant that died in that crash on August 16th, 1943.

[1:36:50] My father was shot down on August 1st, 1943,

[1:36:53] but he survived after being captive by the Germans.

[1:36:57] In the raid on Paris.

[1:37:00] But he was in his unit and they knew each other.

[1:37:02] Wow.

[1:37:03] That's 83 years ago. The wing was shot down.

[1:37:07] Where was the man— where was he buried?

[1:37:11] He was buried in the West Tennessee Veterans—

[1:37:14] I mean, initially.

[1:37:15] Oh, he was buried in Naples, Italy.

[1:37:18] And his parents were born in Italy and immigrated to the United States and moved

[1:37:24] immigrated to the United States and moved to

[1:37:25] Memphis and started a business. But that's where his parents were born, in Italy.

[1:37:31] For those of y'all that don't know,

[1:37:34] the raid that Steve's father was on was the horrible raid where they made a

[1:37:40] the horrible raid where they made a debacle

[1:37:40] out of it, flying in very low against the oil field.

[1:37:44] Operation Tidal Wave. Yeah, it was a suicide daytime run, low-level mission.

[1:37:51] They had one man that was a prisoner with him.

[1:37:55] He had bailed out and And it was floating down, and he said, oh my gosh,

[1:38:01] I'm coming down into the oil refinery.

[1:38:05] It was on fire and exploded, blew him back up 4,000 or 5,000 feet.

[1:38:10] He came over here and landed.

[1:38:12] He was okay.

[1:38:12] Oh, wow.

[1:38:14] Anyhow, we got way off the subject.

[1:38:15] Yeah, Commissioner O'Dell has got something she wants to say.

[1:38:18] Yeah, thank you for indulging me here.

[1:38:21] I'll Be brief, but to the incoming board members,

[1:38:25] I think that there's a little work that needs to be done.

[1:38:30] One, um, when we found out that our property—

[1:38:33] side property setbacks for accessory buildings are not lined up with the main

[1:38:39] buildings are not lined up with the main house,

[1:38:40] please correct that and do it as soon as possible.

[1:38:44] We don't want another debacle like we've had at Robertson and Dustin.

[1:38:49] Also The definition of sports court needs to be somehow defined.

[1:38:54] What?

[1:38:54] Sports court. That needs a definition.

[1:38:57] I mean, I don't think a basketball goal at the end of a driveway qualifies as a

[1:39:04] sport court. I don't think any of us have had that as an objective.

[1:39:09] So I think that really needs to be taken care of.

[1:39:13] Also, I really don't even know that the term trees is defined.

[1:39:18] And the tree ordinance.

[1:39:20] And, you know, we haven't had a problem yet, but you know how people are.

[1:39:26] I just think that we need to take a look at that.

[1:39:30] Lastly, I have seen a situation in Belle Meade where,

[1:39:34] you know how they are about speeding in Belle Meade.

[1:39:38] They have really addressed it other than than just having their police out there

[1:39:45] with their little guns. And Desiree, do you have that video you're going to show?

[1:39:51] This is at Westside— I'm sorry, West Pine.

[1:39:55] It's on the boundary of Bellamy Golf Course.

[1:39:58] It goes in, uh, you're heading from west to, um, Page Road.

[1:40:03] Yep.

[1:40:05] Okay.

[1:40:06] It actually goes all the way to 100, I think.

[1:40:08] Yeah.

[1:40:08] By Sam's place.

[1:40:09] Okay, well anyway, if you can— because I'm such a good driver,

[1:40:15] I can video while I drive.

[1:40:17] Oh, hands-free.

[1:40:18] The little flower box, is that what we're talking about?

[1:40:21] Yeah. Yeah, I, uh, I made some photographs of that,

[1:40:25] and now I can't find them.

[1:40:28] But I went over there and took that Yeah, I talked to Steve about this.

[1:40:33] I'm like, you know, I don't think it can be as expensive as other things that we

[1:40:38] could do.

[1:40:39] Here we go. Okay, where are you now? Which direction are you?

[1:40:44] I'm headed to, uh, Bellamy Boulevard.

[1:40:47] Okay.

[1:40:47] But look right here what they've done.

[1:40:49] Okay, they've done that same thing on Linwood Boulevard,

[1:40:56] um, between Harding Place and on up to Harding Road,

[1:41:01] I guess.

[1:41:02] Now, I witnessed while they were doing this,

[1:41:04] and I don't know if they've got irrigation in there or not.

[1:41:07] I think you're speeding in that picture.

[1:41:11] I'm not. I said it sounds red.

[1:41:13] Well, it's really low. It's like 20 miles an hour.

[1:41:16] Yeah, it is low.

[1:41:17] But you come upon it.

[1:41:19] There's another one.

[1:41:20] And, you know, even if we can't irrigate it,

[1:41:23] we've got residents in certain areas that say something has to be done,

[1:41:27] maybe they would go out there and put water on it, you know, their front yard.

[1:41:32] Plants that are—

[1:41:35] Yeah, there's 3 of them on that street.

[1:41:37] Decorative rocks or whatever.

[1:41:39] Decorative rocks.

[1:41:40] You don't have to put—

[1:41:41] or welcome to Oak Hill.

[1:41:43] Well, Steve, this is exactly what I called you about, the one on, on, uh, Lindley.

[1:41:49] But also Also, it's not just this thing in the median. Desiree, can you go back?

[1:41:54] Because they— see this line right here on the right? I mean, it moves you over.

[1:42:00] And, and I mean, some of them are pretty exaggerated moving you over,

[1:42:05] so you're having to keep your eye on the road all the time.

[1:42:09] They call those chicanes?

[1:42:10] Yeah, chicanes.

[1:42:13] They have those on Formula 1 courses.

[1:42:15] Well, you could also stripe the highway with some of those—

[1:42:21] Well, we talked about that, but I do think that that median,

[1:42:24] little median adds something.

[1:42:26] Well, it's something to dodge.

[1:42:30] Exactly.

[1:42:32] Or not dodge. Yeah.

[1:42:35] But, you know, especially the area where, you know,

[1:42:40] waste redirection. Directs traffic,

[1:42:43] and those streets are really wide.

[1:42:46] I mean, some of those streets are really wide.

[1:42:50] You can narrow them down. Yeah.

[1:42:53] Anyway.

[1:42:55] I think that's not a bad idea.

[1:42:57] It would be probably less obnoxious than a speed bump in the middle of the road.

[1:43:01] I'm thinking exactly, and cheaper. Cheaper and less obnoxious.

[1:43:07] Less maintenance. Because I mean,

[1:43:09] those speed bumps are going to break up and tear up after a couple of

[1:43:13] years. And you're going to have to replace it.

[1:43:16] Yeah, yeah.

[1:43:21] But I've been going over to Caldwell Lane a lot lately,

[1:43:25] and I'll sit there and watch people go over those speed bumps.

[1:43:29] It does not slow people down.

[1:43:31] You're talking about the speed bumps? Speed cushions, the rubberized ones.

[1:43:34] Speed cushions, yeah. It just does not speed them up, it slows them down.

[1:43:37] Or it's an old person, they stop. They want you to stop.

[1:43:42] But if you go over them faster, it's easier.

[1:43:45] But now, a true asphalt speed hump, you can't do that.

[1:43:50] You really do have to slow down.

[1:43:53] It'll throw you up on the roof of your car.

[1:44:00] Oh, Cox Road down here.

[1:44:02] Hobbs Road. Oh my goodness. Those, have you not been over those?

[1:44:07] Yeah, I avoid it.

[1:44:09] There's one in front of Parker Falls School and then there's one east of there.

[1:44:14] Oh, it's unbelievable. Those are poorly designed.

[1:44:17] You can see the dents in the road where 60 cars have already—

[1:44:21] Yeah, and you got some real bank breaks on those.

[1:44:24] The ones on Greene and at the top of the hill, they are real—

[1:44:27] those are excessive and dangerously excessive.

[1:44:29] Really?

[1:44:30] Yeah.

[1:44:30] Wow.

[1:44:31] But the ones on Tara and Robert E. Lee are not.

[1:44:35] If you're going 30 or below, you can go right over them.

[1:44:40] But if you get 35 or faster, you're going to— you're not going to like it.

[1:44:46] But I can go 5 miles an hour over the ones on Hobbs and Still not fine.

[1:44:51] Joy, just to follow up on what you just suggested there about the setbacks for

[1:44:59] accessory structures, side setbacks,

[1:45:02] there was something else that we realized that we—

[1:45:07] oh, I know what it was.

[1:45:08] Oh, oh, oh.

[1:45:09] The main structure must be built.

[1:45:09] Do you live on Westheimer?

[1:45:10] The main structure needs to be built before the— needs to be—

[1:45:14] Right.

[1:45:14] Somebody raised that with me the other day.

[1:45:16] They said, why wasn't that done down here at Robertson Academy, Dustin?

[1:45:21] Isn't that in our code? And I said, I don't think that's in our code.

[1:45:25] Do you know, Marshall?

[1:45:26] Well, we worked on some language one night and we did. We actually—

[1:45:31] that you had to build the main structure before accessory structures?

[1:45:34] We've worked on some— we worked on some language.

[1:45:37] Well, where'd it go?

[1:45:38] I don't know.

[1:45:43] Um, I know we've caught this before and we've discussed it,

[1:45:47] maybe in the context of this same thing,

[1:45:49] but I told her that I didn't think it was part of our code.

[1:45:53] Oh, I know, Julie Gall was the one who was talking to me about that on Election Day.

[1:45:59] Um, she says that's the code everywhere else.

[1:46:02] Well, you have to build the main structure first.

[1:46:05] That may not be in the code But I don't— Marshall, hear me on this.

[1:46:11] I need some backup.

[1:46:12] Okay.

[1:46:13] I don't see why we cannot make that as part of a procedural issue before we issue

[1:46:18] part of a procedural issue before we issue a

[1:46:18] permit, is that we have a timeline of when these structures are going to be built

[1:46:23] and say, as far as procedural, until that— until we put that in the code,

[1:46:28] is that main structures have to be started before for accessory structures are.

[1:46:33] And I think you could tighten up the definition of sports court.

[1:46:38] Oh, yeah.

[1:46:38] You know, that was a very—

[1:46:40] We've got to break that. That whole sentence needs to be broken up.

[1:46:42] Yeah, but I think— can't you interpret it more strict than you have?

[1:46:47] I mean, if you look up the word sports court in the dictionary, it doesn't say—

[1:46:53] it has a lot of stuff.

[1:46:55] I believe we could go to the—

[1:46:57] I think we could just refer to the ICC for a sports court

[1:47:00] definition because we have adopted the ICC.

[1:47:03] It'd be interesting to see what the ICC says about it.

[1:47:08] Yeah.

[1:47:11] Yeah, okay. All right,

[1:47:13] thank you for those reminders and suggestions.

[1:47:17] Anybody else have anything to bring forward?

[1:47:20] Come on, Scott, give us another question. Come on, I'm taking that. Robert E.

[1:47:26] Lee, knowledge is the future.

[1:47:28] Winston and I will talk while you're thinking it up.

[1:47:32] Yeah, well, what I want to say again,

[1:47:35] the same basically as I said at the beginning of the—

[1:47:40] when I gave you all those certificates,

[1:47:43] but it has been a pleasure working with both of you, Scott and And, and, and Joy.

[1:47:50] And you all have made real contributions and have been solid members of this board

[1:47:57] and appreciate what you've done and the time you've put into it. And thank you.

[1:48:03] Thank you.

[1:48:05] It's been a pleasure.

[1:48:08] I've said it before, what a model. How I wish the federal government worked as

[1:48:14] wish the federal government worked as well.

[1:48:18] Maybe put them, put them under a Sunshine Law. Yeah.

[1:48:26] They have a shade law.

[1:48:27] Sustainable.

[1:48:28] Yeah, it's going to happen when our grandkids return.

Board of Commissioners Workshop

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