Good evening and welcome to the fourth Miss City Board of Directors Study Session on this October 28th 2025.

These meetings are being televised live for the benefit of residents who cannot be here with us in person.

Uh today at this time we will go right to the first item on the agenda.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

This evening the board will be reviewing five departmental capital improvement plans.

A capital improv improvement plan is a tool used to schedule and prioritize major projects over several years.

The first CIP plan that will be reviewed is for streets, bridges, and associated drainage, and coming to the microphone is Ben Marts, who is the NM interim director of our engineering department.

Hello.

I apologize.

Okay.

So you all have already seen this plan.

There's been it's basically the exact same plan that y'all saw during the study session.

Um the I think there's two items on there, one dealing with um right of way abandonment around the airport, and also general and extension that are the two added items, but other than that, uh with the exception of items being moved from 2026 to 2025 that finished up early.

This is the same plan that was presented at the previous study session.

With that, um we've I went ahead and presented the 10-year plan here because the original five-year plan could not um contain the the plan as was in the previous year due to the the reduction of the sales tax.

And so in order to be able to show those projects being pushed off into further years, I wanted to be able to kind of show how that would look potentially.

And um I'm open to any questions or guidance that y'all may have on this.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

This time we will uh go to the board.

Are there any questions?

Director Newmart, you recognize Ben, thanks for sending this and thanks for the the corrected item.

You know, I originally looked at this and and I I had a couple concerns, but let's let's uh just kind of level set for everybody.

This the funding for this CIP comes from where?

This is all the sales and use tax, which is the five eighths.

So we've we've got you got some uh one percent um at the beginning of the year, and then once we made that adjustment, it's five eighth cents.

So that's correct.

You can see that on the uh 2025 um item where I've shown the one percent, which went through, I believe it was uh May.

Okay, and then dropped off.

Right.

So where we were getting about 30 million, we're going forward, we'll get about 18 million a year to be able to fund um streets and and drainage projects.

So um I look uh as I was looking at this, I kind of I was I was going back and forth a little bit because there there is at the beginning of 25, there's 51 million dollars there.

So that's carry over from from some uh from previous years, and then also the the combination of the one percent and the five eight percent for the for the year.

So it leaves us with a total total funds available is 74 million.

Um looks like we're spending the expenditures are about 26 million, 27 million, actually.

And so it's so it looks like we got 27 million, 30 million, 30 million.

Uh and I was looking at this and I was just having some questions and concerns about you know the spin down of that, but in reality, these are these are sales tax funds, the citizen the expectation is we spend those dollars.

Correct.

And the the expectation is we're not carrying over more money than we should.

Um because the citizen the expectation is the citizens want this money spent.

Right.

So we're we're care we're carrying over a large fund balance, 51 million.

But in reality, when we get into later years, is this fund or as we get into the the remaining 10 years on this, uh we'll be spending at about 18 to 19 actually in in 35.

We're projecting if no if no major change happens, we're projecting about 20 million dollars.

So we start to see that increase as we go.

So I think that's important to understand.

I just had some questions about the the larger spend in the in the beginning of the of the the first few years, but it makes sense.

We want to spend what the citizens have asked us to spend in terms of all of these items.

So I think that's important for folks to understand and to know.

So when they see um spending of 30 and and you know some odd million when we don't have that much, we've got some we're trying to spin that down into the projects that the that the people want.

So um I wanted to make sure that everybody's aware of that.

And then um, so we're not we're not proposing any new street overlays in 26.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Uh I mean there's no new projects really in 26.

We're basically catching up with what we've done from 23, 24, and 25, and then we're going to reassess with a um uh one of the line items for one of the new projects was to go back and reevaluate the roads.

Um with that they'll reevaluate roads, sidewalks, signs into account to see you know how we're doing on everything.

And we do that typically every you know, two, three, four years, depending on what the cycle is.

But when's the last time we did that?

I think it was about three years ago at this point.

Oh, okay.

I thought I thought you said I thought in here it was like 2005.

Well, that's for the master plan.

That's for the master plan.

Correct.

Okay.

So what's the master plan give me?

Is that where I get a rating for all my streets and I know how uh in what condition they're in?

That that's actually the the rating project.

So the the master plan, the the goal for that project is we do projections on where we think the city is moving and where we think the you know we're gonna want to do major projects in the future.

And the cadence for that is typically at least from what I was able to see on historical stuff, something about every 15 years or so.

So we're a little bit long in that um with it being 2005, the previous one.

Okay.

And then the rating, how uh is that the one that we do every three years of?

Correct.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's it comes up more often just because we want to be able to identify which streets are needing the the help.

So when you said uh, and I'm I'm I'm trying to find it in my notes here.

So when you say that we're we're not we're not adding any new street overlays in 25 or in 26, we're finishing some items in 24 and items in 25.

So we'll we'll see work happening.

Yeah, yeah, we're still definitely going to be busy.

It's just we're catching up, and and some of that's due to you know, lack of staff um being a key issue of just being able to get projects out projects out the door at this point.

And so with that as we move along, we'll um we'll definitely be staying busy throughout um 2026, but we'll also be reassessing um and the new CIP for 2027 will identify new potential projects to bring for before the board to review.

And that'll also include uh overlay projects as well.

Okay.

Um I've got a couple other questions.

Let me let me I'll turn it over to some of my fellow directors, but um I've I think I've got some other things here that I want to at least talk about.

So get come back around to me, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh Director Josh Gassavis.

What's the status on Towson?

The status on Towson Avenue with the state.

Um Maggie, I I know that a letter went out um talking about utilities and possible truck routes and stuff like that, but I don't know what the actual Well no my question is are we seriously considering taking over Tyson Avenue from the state?

Uh my understanding is that's the current plan.

Why?

Um I don't know what the history is on Towson Avenue for that to be able to answer, but well, the last time it was repaid which was four million dollars.

Correct.

Correct.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I'm where are we going to get the money to do that?

Right now, um, you know, it's the bigger issue is not necessarily the roadway funds because it's uh the plan was supposed to be a partnership, I believe it was we're showing four million dollars in here for the the CIP on the roadway stuff with Rot um taking the majority of the money on that, but the utility portion is the the higher expense that's gonna be related to the Towson Avenue, and that's where uh discussions are ongoing at this point.

So would this board have to approve that the taking over to Houston?

I yeah, that would be my understanding, yes.

And any contracts approved would need to be approved to do the actual work long Towson as well.

All right, thank you.

Uh-huh.

Director Camp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Director George Cassaves, I would say the things of the information that I'm aware of, at least to this date, is that our dot is to reconstruct the roadway.

Not that was a reservice.

And when they reconstruct the roadway and and put in uh sidewalks and fix the easements on each side of the roadway and everything, and as the project is turnkey done and ready, we would take it on from that vantage point.

And then I think uh uh acting city administrator Jeff Dieman isn't here tonight, but we were awaiting some potential good news that R Dot would have to deal with the water line infrastructure on Towson Avenue because uh it had predated them installing the roadway.

So that's really good news, and we're hopeful that that gets confirmed.

I don't know we don't know that for certain.

Yeah, but that's what we're hopeful of is that that it predates the roadway.

So when they built the roadway over it, then it would actually be a positive maneuver to consider is going forward.

The question I had was uh as we're talking about this is uh I hear the staffing and uh is there any update from administration on an engineer?

I know we'd we had yeah, the administration had zeroed down on somebody.

Is that making progress?

Yes, the city did hire a director of engineering, and uh the plan is for him to start on January 5th.

Perfect.

So that'll be good, and then I'm hopeful that we can continue to fill vacancies on that team.

Um because I think that will help this correct process.

That that'll help greatly.

Yes.

Wonderful.

Um the concern I guess I have was just the compound effect over time, and we don't take on new projects, then it only further, you know, creates this log of streets that need to be looked at and addressed.

Do we have any kind of interim repair or safety measures in place for these deteriorating corridors that would be on the docket but won't be because we're still kind of working on our backlog?

Are we are we addressing that with maybe an interim repair patchwork?

I I know that our maintenance um group is taking care of um you know potholes and all that stuff.

And let me not sugarcoat this.

This is going to be an issue in a little while.

I mean, because we have something like 500 miles of streets, you really need to resurface a certain number, certain mile number of miles of streets every year to be able to maintain the surfaces on those streets.

And you know, in my opinion, at this point, we're we're gonna have issues down the road on this from just not being able to maintain the number of miles that we need to maintain based off of what we're getting from sales tax.

And so there's gonna be some decisions that need to be made at some point to are we're gonna be rehab heavy and do no other projects, or are we going to you know try to do other jobs and not do any rehab?

I mean, there's some tough decisions that are gonna be coming here.

So, what are some proactive steps that we could be working on?

Is it is it mainly staffing?

The engineers is money.

This is purely money that you need because uh I mean, as long as the you know streets out there for say 20 or 25 years, um, you know, it's gonna degrade.

It's you know, you get trucks on it, trucks will tear it up, and so over time you will have to repair those streets, and if you're not maintaining them and doing the overlays or rehabs, then you will have basically crumbling infrastructure, literally speaking.

And so the current, I think our current value in that process is our citizens to give us positive feedback because they're the ones driving their particular roadways.

Everybody has their kind of set roadways.

I I know I drive around a lot, yet I still take very common paths.

Yeah.

Are we still wanting people to report potholes through the gov, the dot gov on the website, or how do we want people to give us feedback?

Um I know a uh I believe a new system's coming out.

Um I don't remember what it's called, but it uh is it a texting or yes?

I think Matt Meeker is got some information.

Yeah.

Coming to the podium is Matt Meeker, who is our director of public works.

Yes, potholes or street dam street damage, they can be uh they can be reported through the tech to text my gov, or they can call directly to our office 784 2360 uh during our business normal business hours and uh get with us and we will make a ticket for it and go out and repair it.

So okay.

Thank you, Matt.

Mayor have a follow-up.

Josh, I was uh close out.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for this.

Maybe we ask Josh B.

Fink to continue to post that in social media schedule just so that people can know how to do that.

Thank you.

Let me let me go to Director Neil Martin and then we'll come back to Director George Cassavage.

Yeah, so this is one of the things that I had concerns about when we had the the sales tax reallocation.

Because I know there are streets that are not heavily traveled that were up for resurfacing.

I disagreed with the method in which we resurface streets.

I know my street, my cul-de-sac is on was on schedule for resurfacing.

I don't it doesn't need it.

Um so I think when we go and look at these and we've got reduced funding, we look at the streets that need to be resurfaced just because it's hit a time frame.

Although the time frame could mean that there's a there's an issue, but just because it's hit a certain marker, I don't think that's necessarily right.

I think we're we just did stuff because we have the money for it.

I think we need to really look at them in the right way to make sure that we're we're ascertaining does this street need it.

My cul-de-sac does not.

Like let's do Phoenix.

Let's do um, you know, some of these well traveled corridors, like you said.

Um that's what I want to see when we go and look at our um the the we go evaluate what streets we've got.

I want to or what streets we're needing to resurface.

I want to make sure that we're looking at it with a fine-toothed comb and making sure that we're resurfacing the right streets in the right time and not just any street and every street because it meets some criteria.

Thank you.

Uh Director Josh Gasavis, then Director Christina.

I'm still stuck on this Towson Abbey.

What benefit is it for us to own it versus the state?

Uh well you just said a minute ago we have old roads that might not be able to be a fixed.

Correct.

So if we spend four million dollars on something we really don't have to I don't understand.

Uh honestly, I have not been in the decision process on this road here.

Uh so I I can't account for can't state on you know how or why Towson has been selected on that.

Um so I'd have to point back to administration.

Who did Carl start this?

Was this started when Carl was?

I believe so.

Siggers.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Director Christina Savage.

Um, what is our evaluation process for repaving the roads?

How do we determine which roads need to be repaved?

So the the rating project that I was talking about that's on uh I think it's 1.4 or section 1.4 there, um if I remember correctly, we're allocating something like 200,000 next year to do that.

They'll actually go through and drive each one of the streets, and they have a camera that basically goes out and measures the cracks and visualizes and then rates based on the known I guess quantity of the street itself and gives it a you know ABCD EF rating.

Um and then during that process from there, we will take that rating system and then allocate that out on our CIP.

And so it should be based on actual data that is provided and not just some arbitrary amount.

Well, it sounds like that uh may not be the case.

Do you think we should be refining our evaluation process so that we get the the hardest hit streets first or maybe more often?

I you know that's guidance I would like to see from the board on that.

Um I think what we do is uh probably bring the the evalu evaluation back, you know, perhaps study session or something, and and watch all review the data and you know direct us on how you would like to go forward on that.

And um can someone remind me what was the the revenue before the reallocation when this tax first came about?

I I was thinking maybe I saw somewhere it was about 11 million uh for like 2024 total revenue?

No, or uh several years back.

I mean how long have we had this tax in place?

Oh since 85.

Yeah, it's been a while.

I was thinking when we talked about the sales tax reallocation that the revenue maybe about 10 years ago or so was around like 11, 12 million dollars.

Is that correct?

Does anyone I I think when we reallocated it, we took it back to where it was about 10 years ago.

Yes, that's yeah, so we're we're and it'll ri it'll rise over time, but I think it was around 20 million.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Director Neil Martin.

Yeah, I'm sorry, I've just got one more question.

Um the Rogers Avenue lighting and electric relocation.

I asked Stan this when you know a lot of people there there's a lot of people that maybe are against what they're doing on Rogers Avenue.

However, are they really gonna bury the power lines down Rogers?

That discussion is still actively ongoing.

They need to bury the power line.

Well, and that's the intent of that project is to to bury the power lines.

And the discussion right now is going on of how we can power the street lights and how we can power um potential um street lights being streetlights overhead that shine down for cars we will see, but then also the traffic lights.

Well, ad advocate as much as possible that they bury those.

That's that would the aesthetics would be so much better on on Rogers Avenue.

So do whatever you can.

If any if they need me to talk to them, I'll talk to them.

Okay.

Director Kemp.

Yes, thank you, Mary.

On that note, are they talking about that for the Towson project?

Or is it just Rogers?

Uh to my knowledge, there is no um power relocation for Towson at this point.

There's not been any discussion on that, to my knowledge.

That's just too bad.

There's a lot of power lines on Towson Avenue.

I feel like they all link low.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any any other questions?

I would encourage them to to do it as well on towns.

The the big issue with the difference between the two projects are that Rogers, they're looking at doing quite a bit of expansion of the right-of-way, right?

Which is encroaching on where the power lines are located out, whereas Towson, they're doing very little right-of-way relocation or just not as not as much.

So there's just not a need for the power company to relocate their lines.

And so what we're talking about on Rogers is doing a cost share where since they're already having to relocate the lines, you know, uh what would be the difference be to go ahead and put it underground versus doing it above?

And it's more expensive to go underground, but you know, we could pay the difference for that.

Well, if our dots listen, please do it on Towson as well.

I think they're receptive.

Yes, so we're working with the power company directly with the sponsor.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Just I will go to uh one B.

Yes, sir.

Item one B is the 10 year CIP for the public works, street and traffic control department and sidewalk program, and coming to the podium again is Matt Meeker, who is our director of public works.

Good evening.

So before you this evening is a proposed 2026 or 2035 capital improvements plan for the streets and traffic control division of public works.

Uh this plan serves as an outline for vehicle and equipment replacements over the next 10 years and uh maybe just in adjusted in the future if uh department needs a priorities change.

These purchases will be paid for out of the department's capital equipment replacement fund.

For 2026, the department is proposing $1,150,000 in vehicle replacements and a capital equipment replacement fund contribution of $1,204,800.

Also before you this evening is a proposed 2026 sidewalk program.

Uh for 2026, the department is proposing 3.09 miles of new sidewalk construction and 0.85 miles of sidewalk repairs.

Input from citizens, board of directors, administration, and city staff is considered during the development of the program.

Uh request requests for uh new construction were prioritized based on a rating system that considers proximity to schools, pedestrian usage, average daily traffic, connectivity to existing sidewalks, and constructability.

Sidewalk repair locations were selected from areas with damaged sections of sidewalk that are also known to have moderate to high pedestrian traffic.

And with that, I'll open it up to any questions you may have.

Thanks.

Thanks, Mr.

Meeker.

Uh just time we've entertained questions from the board.

Um Director Neil Martin.

Uh one quick question for you, Matt.

Um you're now the director of public works, which is consolidating some various departments around the city.

Um I noticed there wasn't anything in here related to water leak mitigation.

Is that some is that something that we we traditionally see as a part of a CIP, or um is that some is is is that or would that be included with the well no normally what you see uh that uh are your larger scale projects with that, and that's included in your your water, you'll have a water CIP and then your sewer, you know, non-consent decree and then consent decree, and that will be on the November 10th study session.

Okay, thank you.

So I could talk about some of that stuff too.

Okay.

If Director Kim.

I just want to say thank you for what you're doing, Matt.

Um I'm already seeing some progress, and especially in the Ward 3 when I've been driving around, a lot more activity, a lot more buzzing.

I've even heard from residents that have complimented it.

So I just want to say thank you for what you're doing.

It's making a difference.

And uh the sidewalks, even and around and places that you guys have added last year for just instrumental for people that are walking.

I see them walking daily on them.

So good work.

Thank you.

And Matt, just this is the theme for for everybody that's coming up here.

Can you can you share with us where this funding comes from to support this CIP?

Uh so uh most of the you know street maintenance fund, which is conf uh made up mostly of uh uh the state turn back money, so you're you're uh from your fuel taxes and the highway tax.

Uh we also get funding uh from uh your your property taxes.

Uh we also get funding uh from uh your your property taxes, we get uh we get a sidewalk assessment fee that comes in when people get permits, so that's basically where all our funding comes from.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Well, then other questions, Director Christina Savage.

But what happens with some of the um assets that you're retiring, some of these trucks?

Okay, so the assets that that uh like the stuff that we replace, generally it goes in what I would refer to as our reserve fleet.

Okay, and so we don't get rid of them.

Usually what we end up getting rid of is stuff that's already in our reserve fleet and pull that out.

And that's how building up and keeping that reserve fleet is how we're able to keep working and everything, and so we're we're able to to pull when something goes down, you know, we're we're not just crews not shut down, we're able to pull something out of the reserve fleet and get them back out in the field and get them back in action.

And so I mean that's what we're doing now too with the water and sewer guys, too, is we've combined them in with using our reserve fleet and everything, and so we're we're using all our reserve fleet to keep you know, five water crews in the field constantly doing water leak repair.

So the things that are in your reserve fleet, what happens to those?

Because I know like uh with parks, I believe it is, you know, they have a truck, I think that's 25 years old, you know, or some of the assets you have more current than what they have, you know, could that be you utilized in different department?

Yes, so those uh when we those will go to auction or but we give other departments a chance to get those first, and so um you know, if if they want them, because by the time we get done with them, they're pretty bad.

I mean but but but sometimes somebody will want them, but but uh and and I'm I'm I guess kind of a whore too.

I'm real bad about grabbing stuff from other departments, you know.

When it gets out there, I've got it going and goes in my uh reserve fleet because I've always got a use for it.

So, you know, so thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

If there's nothing else, uh thank you very much.

Thanks, Matt.

Item one C.

Yes, sir.

Item one C is the five-year capital improvement plan for parks and recreation department.

And coming to the podium is our director of parks and recreation, Sarah Deucer.

Good evening.

Before you is the fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2030 parks CIP.

This capital improvement plan is funded by a dedicated one eight cent sales and use tax originally approved by voters in 2012 and then renewed in 2022 through 2030.

And with that renewal, these sales tax dollars can be used only for parks capital projects.

The CIP is presented was reviewed and discussed by our parks and recreation commission during their September and October meetings, and they unanimously recommended to present this to the board of directors for approval.

So kind of like whatever I did with the Parks and Recreation Commission, it goes through 2030, but for us what we're really looking at is our projects for 2026.

And the main one that kind of stands out that we've had questions about is the 5.1 million dollars for May Branch Greenway.

I know that sounds like a lot, but if you flip the page, you'll see that we have almost $3.5 million in grants and contributions.

So it's not that much, but it's reflected in that.

And with that, we did add a couple new projects that you'll see is the skate park shade at the riverfront skate and bike park.

That's something that had been requested for a few years.

We were finally able to incorporate that in.

It's relatively low cost, 75,000.

And we do have some private contributions that maybe they'll contribute to that.

Maybe we can do something like a pavilion, but worst case scenarios if those don't come through, we'll have we have something to provide shade, because right now there is none.

And with that, I'll stand for questions.

Thank you.

I did have a question about the shades.

Um, you know, one of the one of the uh one of the number of the items talk about replacing of pavilions at various parks, Caroline, others.

Um, you know, those are a lot of times those are made with wood and they just they wear out with with uh with rain and you know sun over over time.

Have we thought about something different like a sun uh a shade sale, something like that that and I don't know the cost of those things, but there's something that can uh as those wear out, they can be replaced fairly easily at a lower cost.

What what's the thought on that versus building something or have something built?

So for the smaller parks like what we're talking about at the skate and bike park, 100% uh shade sell.

Okay, that would make sense there, but for the larger pavilions, I think they start with Fort or with Caroline Cross Park.

I promise you, as long as I'm here unless the board and administration direct me to, I'm not building a wooden pavilion, they don't last.

Right, right.

So we're going with still and those are something much larger, and you want them to last 50 plus years, so that will be still no more wood, but that's really not feasible in that location because it's heavily wooded.

There's a lot of trees, and if a tree falls on that cell shade, you're in trouble.

Okay.

Well, I just oh you know, obviously the wear and tear, like like we're seeing on this on the screen here.

I I I live near um live live near Caroline, and so I see that, and people people come uh have complained to me about it.

So anything that we can do from a cost perspective at you know, instead of if somebody is willing to donate $75,000 and they want to put something in uh uh at the bike and skate skate park.

I mean I we're very much appreciative of that.

But uh we would want something that's as sustainable as possible.

Yes.

Um and shade sales that can as they deteriorate, they can be pulled down, and something new in its place would be uh much more uh much more desirable.

Um tell me a little bit about the Portland Lou.

So that is a new concept.

I saw it at the NRPA conference last year and again this year.

It's this is my words, not their words, but pretty much it's a glorified portable restroom.

And you can connect it to your water and sewer, and it is vandal resistant.

Okay.

And I know some of the pictures, if you look online, it 100% looks like if someone's creeping up there, they can look inside.

I've been in it.

Can't you cannot?

Okay.

And that's something you know, we're gonna have to work with planning and zoning, and of course, CBID and Main Street Fort Smith to see if that's an option that would work for the farmers market.

But that's we'll start those discussions this year and make sure that's a viable option, but it's a lot less expensive than a half a million dollars for a restroom facility.

Right, right.

And and you can still you can see if there's you know, you can still see legs, you can see if somebody's laying down in there.

Yes.

Um, so you know, it was interesting.

I did a little research on it, but it was interesting to kind of uh kind of look at a hundred thousand for it is it is less expensive than a you know the the the bathroom facilities we have at some of the parks.

Um so uh just keep eyeballs on that is the the Portland Lou is not we're not it's a not a definite at this point.

No, not at all.

Okay, all right.

And okay, that's all I got.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for parks department?

So equipment.

You don't director George Gustavich and then Director Kemp.

Yeah, um Sarah, as anybody approached you about the ACME brick property from city or outside of the city.

Approached how.

But as far as development, whatever.

We have a master plan committee, and we're working through that right now.

We've been coordinating with the engineering side.

But as far as anything outside of that committee, no, sir.

So the committee is going to recommend.

So they're not recommending per se.

What we're doing is getting a conceptual plan of what that could look like.

It could look like and how we incorporate the detention or retention ponds right now.

They're dry ponds, what that could look like, and also sectioning off some parcels because I know members of the board are wanting to get some money back.

What parcels we can section off and consider selling in the future?

And we do hope to possibly either in December or January have RDG, the design firm, present that initial drawing and rendering for the parks commission, but we could also provide that to the board as well.

Does the parks department have the money to fund that?

No, that is why we do not have that money right now.

It's set aside, you know, RCIP and listening to the citizens and the park commission and also our staff, we're looking to invest in what we have instead of growing, because we're at a position right now that we can't grow more, so we're investing in existing infrastructure and there's no dollars for the ACME property.

Growing, you mean by opening new parks or whatever or capital expenses?

Park expansion that comes for us, anything that would increase our maintenance would be difficult to sustain for us.

Well, let me ask you this.

If you were just to shut down the parks department tomorrow, how much money do you have in the bank?

For kidding cash money, how much would you have?

This out of the one eight cent selling use tax, one point five million dollars approximately.

Is that what you're planning on carrying over into 26?

No, we will carry over.

I mean, it looks like you're carrying over 210,000.

Yes.

So right now that's that 210, what we have right now, that 1.5 million dollars ish, that's rounded, is what revenues and resources are two days less expenses two days.

So we still have obligations there under contract that will expense through December 31st.

So the end of the year, 210,000 dollars is approximately that much.

If we shut down parks.

But that's just this sales tax.

We still have our normal budget.

Yeah.

The general fund budget.

Uh most of our programs are general fund.

Our program 6201 is 85% general fund.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Yes, I just uh could you speak about the tennis court reservacy?

That's a big project, isn't it?

It is.

You know, I we kind of did something in 2016, 2017-ish.

It was not, it was cost effective, it wasn't a sustainable solution, and here we are a few years later.

We need to do it right.

So that specific project, the lower four courts on the north side, essentially just a pad, a rubber surfacing pad was placed over that.

Well, that surfacing is asphalt for tennis players, it's not working out, it's raising up from the asphalt.

So we're going to do a concrete overlay on those, and then also repair all of the cracking on top of the other four courts.

And you know, we did apply for a grant the board approved for us to submit that application earlier this year.

We hope to find something out maybe in the next month or so if we have that.

But it's a very big project.

Are you optimistic about the grant?

I know there were hundreds of applications, but my understanding is we were one of the only applications that really had a CME project that wasn't like constructing a ramp to a building or something.

Ours was more visual.

When you say resurfacing, and we're talking about we talk about that kind of money.

I know it's an expensive project, but is there at what point do you dig out the the bad footing?

Or is that including in their reservacy?

Yes, that is included.

So the resurfacing is only taking place on the upper four courts on the south side.

The lower four courts were doing a complete overlay, new concrete, and then doing a sports court surfacing over that.

Okay.

That makes me feel better.

I was saying things are only as good as the foundation underneath them.

100% agree.

Thank you.

Okay, Director Christine Savage.

Sarah, are are there still plans to expand the tennis courts and add four more?

I had seen that at one point.

That project was presented.

It was presented by the private sector, and the park commission was strongly opposed to that.

Okay.

Mainly, I mean, it's gonna pretty much take care of all that trees in that area, is already a swamp.

And with that, then Garrin had plans to expand and right now talking with Wada that leases those courts from us.

They are happy with what that is, so I don't really see the need to consider that right now.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

There are no other questions.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

Yes, sir.

Next is the 10-year capital improv capital improvement plan for the Solid Waste Services Department.

And coming to the microphone is Dwayne McDonald, who is our Solid Waste Services Director.

Good evening.

This evening we'll be taking what introduce these two guys right here.

Oh, sure.

Well.

And uh Terry Rankin, who manages our uh maintenance, and Serena Serena Tustin's with us as well.

You're very lucky.

You're very lucky to have these people.

I know.

There that's Mr.

Customer Service right there.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Fully agree with that.

And they're here tonight um just to help uh with the presentation and answer any questions that you might have about uh some of the many things that we have going on.

Um this plan is uh it's a 10-year plan, comes out of the uh 2018 study, and we're gonna be looking in uh 2026 to request for uh replacements for five trash trucks, a large bulldozer for the landfill, uh a landfill excavator, a skid steer loader, um, an ancient pickup truck, and uh some uh containers and uh compactor boxes, as well as um routing system uh for our uh collection vehicles, and a new scale system.

Uh those are all replacements for things that are already in place.

Um with the routing system and the scale system, uh the routing system actually expired earlier this year, and we allowed it to expire because it was not a good tool for our needs.

Um we allowed that contract to come to an end.

And uh one of the one of the things I appreciate about the team here is they went to manual operations for the remainder of the year, uh, saved a little bit of money by doing that, and in the meantime, we've been looking for a better tool that we can put in place for our uh for our routing.

We also are looking at replacing our scale system.

It's uh it's running on very old equipment now.

Uh we recently had an issue where we couldn't upgrade to uh Windows 11 because the software won't work with Windows 11.

We're we can't touch anything at this point.

Um maintenance for it and service for it is very expensive, and uh it doesn't integrate very well with our IT and finance needs either.

So Serena will tell you a little bit more about that, but uh that's another thing that we've been uh investigating, uh making a replacement.

This is all coming from our solid waste sinking fund, which is um is built up from revenues uh from our service.

So it's money that's already been set aside for the purpose of replacing equipment and doing capital improvements.

Uh we're also uh always looking for opportunities to conserve that fund.

We did have on our schedule for this year.

We had a lube truck and a knuckle boom uh grapple truck, which is the the bulky pickup truck or dialer truck that we have going around, and they were in the schedule for 2026, but we determined that uh the vehicles that we have right now are doing the job, and their maintenance costs haven't gone up yet, so we pushed those uh to a future date.

Um I think with that I'll turn it over to Mitch Parker and he'll talk about our first couple of uh trash chucks that we're looking to replace.

Good evening, board, mayor, Maggie, and Sherry.

The 26 uh CIP plan for residential department calls for two rear load of trucks and automated side loaded truck.

The rear load of trucks are 2005 and a 2015 that'd be beginning replaced.

The 2005 truck would be uh optional, and the 2015 truck would be used as a replacement in our reserve unit.

The 2013 automatic side loader, it will be uh sold in the auction, and the truck that we replaced would become a backup.

And if we had any questions, if anybody have any questions about the rear load of the automated side loader.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions for Mitch?

Okay.

Okay.

Mitch, you you mentioned three trucks.

Yes, we're getting two out of uh one automated truck and two rear loader.

So where we said there's five.

Where are the other where the other two coming from?

Those will be in industrial and commercial.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Speaking of which, our next item is a request for a commercial front loader.

Um the vehicle being replaced is a 2019 uh model with 156,000 miles on it and a lifetime repair cost of over 180,000.

It's uh it's getting to the point where the maintenance costs are going up, and it's uh it's due to be replaced.

Uh the replacement for this is approximately 470,000, and that's not a typo, that's how much they cost these days.

Um it'll be a natural gas-powered vehicle, and uh we've got a picture of the vehicle being replaced up on the screen right now.

I'll cover the next uh trash chuck that we're replacing as well.

This is for the industrial program roll-off truck.

It's a 2013 model with 272,000 miles on it.

Lifetime repair cost of about 187,000.

Um, and its replacement is approximately 272,000.

We also have three pieces.

Sorry, Josh, I'm jumping jumping around a little bit, but if we can back up a little bit, we'll go over the landfill equipment.

The first item that we have in the landfill is a uh 2022 uh John Deere 950K bulldozer with 43 uh 79 hours on it.

We're looking to replace that with a uh caterpillar bulldozer.

We think this uh the replacement is going to be a better fit for our landfill uh environment.

It's going to have a high drive on it, and we've got a photo up now of the uh of the old bulldozer and its natural environment.

Um yeah, that it's only four years old, but that's about how long they last in the landfill.

So uh we're looking at replacing this with a high drive machine that has a triangular track on it that keeps them the motor and the and the drive system uh further up out of the mud and the trash and and everything that it encounters in that environment.

Um cost for that machine is estimated to be just over one million dollars.

Moving along, we're also uh looking to replace an excavator, which is uh currently a 2020 uh model John Deere 350 G.

It has uh 7158 hours on it.

Uh it's mainly used to uh uh dig out uh soil that we use for daily cover on the working face of the landfill.

And uh it's replaced it's it's uh uh reached its replacement uh point.

Uh replacement is uh about six hundred ninety-two thousand dollars.

And uh I'll just mention that these machines as we replace them, if they can be used by another department, of course, they're available if we particularly with our collection vehicles, if we need to keep them in reserve as spares, uh we will do that with a minimal number of trucks, and then the rest of them go out to auction so that we can get some value out of them and you know, oftentimes there's somebody who's in the market for a lightly used excavator or dozer.

We also have a pickup truck for the landfill that we're looking at.

Uh 2006 GMC with 103,000 uh miles on it.

And um the replacement is estimated to be uh just about 44,000.

It's about a 20-year-old pickup truck.

And one more item.

We have a skid steer that I've skipped over, so I'm gonna get back to it here.

Uh skid steer that we use in the convenience center and uh sometimes in our uh compost area as well.

It's a 2019 uh model caterpillar with 3107 hours.

Uh the replacement cost for that machine new is uh just over 93,000.

And I think that wraps up our trash trucks and our landfill equipment.

If there are any questions about them, I'll be happy to answer them.

Okay, thank you.

Are they any questions?

Director Camp.

Thank you.

Um is that 93,000 in your on your yellow highlighted sheet on page 62 in the packet?

It looks like skid steer, or am I looking at the wrong section?

Or is there more than one skid steer on the equipment list?

Excuse me a moment as I go down the list.

Yeah.

I was trying to track with you.

It is.

It's about halfway down in the section that has all of the landfill equipment, the dozers and the compactors, uh there's some fuel trucks and so on, about halfway down that skid loader is listed, and in the price column, it's listed at 105,000.

Okay.

So uh and the reason for that is because between this point and the time when we actually order the vehicle, there may be some tariffs or or other things added to it that will uh or some price increases after the beginning of the year.

Yeah, might affect the price.

That's good.

I just didn't see a 93 on the on the list.

I was like, well, I don't see a 93.

Right.

Um when we talked about the wash bay that we that was was tabled for another time.

Uh I got to thinking about this that night uh just driving home.

There is and I asked about this administration that I was like, well, there is a bay to the side that you could that I see.

Of course, I don't ever go through it or whatever, but I was told that that really kind of washes the wheels of the vehicles.

Is there ever any thought about just expanding something that sprays up and hire more but would fit in that space to do more than just the manual washing or to save some time?

We've looked at that.

Uh so the washing that we have going on now is really in two different areas, and one of them is the hose rack that I discussed at our last meeting.

And we do have the wheel wash on the way out of the landfill.

Um, mainly there for the large uh trucks as they're you know, so that they're not tracking too much out on the street.

It doesn't have uh an ability to be modified in that way.

So what you have there is you have some sprays coming along the side of the vehicle that will help wash off the tires and the wheels, uh maybe the gas tanks and so on.

It doesn't have any spray that comes up underneath the vehicle though to knock things off.

And uh in looking at it, it's uh I mean you put a lot of effort into very little return for trying to upgrade that device.

Yeah, no, I I was just wondering, maybe even replacing that device with something of an upgraded look, but you know, fits there and does an idea of that.

So that's something I just wanted to put before you.

Thank you.

That could be an alternative.

Director Neil Martin.

Um I know that you and a consultant came to us with um discussions about rate increases and things like that.

Does any of what you've got here or anything on the CIP obligate the or take into account rate increases?

No, not at this time.

Okay.

Thank you.

This is this is and and just to be clear about it, this has already been funded.

We already have the money in the sinking fund for this, so they're they're they're not directly related.

Okay, thank you.

Christina Cosavich.

What do you mean not at this time?

We haven't taken any sort of uh rate changes at all into consideration in the CAP program.

It's based on our 10-year program as it currently exists without any modifications to it.

Okay.

Okay.

If there's nothing else, um thank you very much.

Thank you.

So we will go to uh item one E.

Yes.

Item one E is the transit asset management plan, and coming to the podium is the director of our transit department, Ken Savage.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Uh tonight's study session item one E involves a review of the Department's transit asset management plan for 2025.

The plan is a requirement of our grant partners, the Federal Transit Administration.

Uh it outlines how we will assess, monitor, and report the physical condition of transit assets used in the operation of public transportation.

The executive summary outlines approximately 9.6 million in overall investments over the next five years to keep the system in a state of good repair.

We anticipate roughly 8 million in grant reimbursements with a local match requirement of approximately 1.6 million to address all projects.

In your packet is a summary of the department's active grants, totaling approximately 8.7 million in federal funds available to date.

The transit department receives approximately 2.5 million uh per year as an annual apportionment to address operations and capital needs.

The three major components of this plan involve rolling stock, support equipment, and facilities.

Page 143 represents the rolling stock investments plan for the next five years.

This page uh provides the most consolidated information pertaining to the condition and replacement schedule for the operational fleet.

The large buses, units 67 through 6 uh through 73, are 12-year buses, therefore have addressed the fixed route replacement schedule uh for the distant future for those specific buses.

Um three uh vans are pending delivery for this year to serve as replacements for backup vehicles for the demand response system.

Page 145 provides similar information relating to support equipment.

And as far as the 2026 budget, staff is requesting one 35-foot gilling bus to serve as a replacement for a cutaway with approximately 218,000 miles, and one service uh crane truck to replace a light-kind vehicle that is approximately 23 years old.

Page uh 146 outlines the facilities owned and maintained by the city as it relates to the transit department.

The bulk of investments pertaining to facilities is related to the access road project where funding has been budgeted for uh phase one improvements.

Um going forward, FDA participates in 85 percent uh reimbursement share of all revenue vehicles for transit.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Any questions from the board?

I do.

Okay.

Yep.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you for your time and your work and your leadership.

I did notice I'm just trying to still learn as the new guy as well.

On the on the fiscal 26 budget, when the general fund has that ask for transit, is these dollars separate than those dollars?

Was it 1.9 on the fiscal 26 or 1.8?

Are you talking about the um the part that's over and above the revenues that that we already have?

Is that what you're doing?

Yeah, I'm just trying to understand those.

So like I think it's 1.8, 1.9, I can't remember.

Well, actually, we we anticipate it to be 1.2 million over and above that will uh over and above the revenues that we have already with FTA and with the state uh car rental sales tax and with the fares and all of the revenues combined we show a need of 1.2 million.

That would be the county sales tax portion or general fund portion that would go to the transit budget.

Okay.

So is that number well?

I feel like I've seen a number uh one eight or one nine, Andy, when we were talking.

But are you saying that general fund contribution for be it will be more like 1.2?

1.2 is what we what we look at after we made the adjustments at the um uh the budget meeting with administration.

So that's with the capital included.

Now this 2.2 million for the access road, do you have that in like a sinking fund somewhere?

So we we've been that's a carry forward amount uh that we've that we've um used that's not included necessarily in the 26 budget.

Well, it's in included, it's encumbered, it would be encumbered into this year's budget.

It's actually in the 25 budget.

So when we talk about that 2.2 would probably come from the general fund as well, correct?

That would be portions of it kind of.

Portion portions of it.

The the uh local match portion.

Okay.

And is that gonna be more like a uh local match of 15, 20 percent kind of thing?

Um it'd be 20 percent.

Okay.

That's all I have for now.

Thank you, Kim.

Sure.

Okay, thank you.

There are no other questions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Just now we'll go to item number two on the agenda.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor, item number two is an ordinance or a discussion regarding an ordinance to establish requirements for a board study session to review new major capital projects over the cost of $500,000, and this was presented by Director Christina Cassabas.

Okay, Director Cassavage, you open.

So um I drafted this ordinance.

It is uh mainly to serve as a jumping off point for discussion.

Um, you know, I was going back and watching the um the meetings of the discussion around Parrot Island because I kept thinking, you know, this came out of nowhere, and I realized that um this never went to a study session.

It it came directly to a vote, and I felt it was important to put some guardrails in place to curb spending.

Um, you know, I wanted to allow for um emergency situations, and that was that was in the ordinance.

Um I thought about after I had already submitted it to Sherry was if we have a discussion like we've had tonight on CIP, does it need to come to a study session again before a vote?

And um, you know, I'm not sure.

And so I I would like uh my colleagues to weigh in on that.

Um, I I would point out that the two million dollar car wash we heard about last week at the voting meeting was part of a CIP plan.

You know, sometimes we're presented with these things, it's easy to forget.

Maybe it's good to have a refresher at a study session.

Again, I don't want to necessarily slow everything down, so I would welcome discussion on that from my colleagues.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any discussion from the board?

Director Neil Martin, you're I'm definitely in favor of those items that are not um on a CIP or budget.

100 percent.

I when I when I started thinking through this, it do we if if we look at everything that's budgeted uh budgeted or on a CIP that's over half a million dollars.

I mean we looked at at a number of those tonight.

Do we slow everything down where we were grinding things to a halt?

That that's the only question that I have.

I think it's a great, I think this is excellent.

That would have that would have given more discussion around the slides and other things.

Um but um yeah, I'd be interested in in hearing what what everybody else thinks about that.

I think the ordinance is good, it's just how far do we go on it?

So I'm and I'm certainly open um to amendments and the 500,000 dollars.

That was um just an arbitrary figure.

We could you know make adjustments to that as well, but I just wanted to get um something out for discussion, and I did want to allow for the emergency scenario.

I think that's been executed really well.

Um, you know, I I would also welcome comments on the seven-day waiting period.

Um, you know, I think that gives us some time to fully understand uh how that money is being committed.

Um but you know, I would be open to an adjustment to that as well.

I just really wanted to get the discussion going.

Director Kemp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um yeah, I'm I'm I like the idea in the spirit of the ordinance.

Um I I do wonder, you know, even about if you have a project that starts under 500,000, but then because of inflation or other factors that didn't get factored in and it rises above it, you know, do you do we need to think about that part of it?

Um the other thought I thought about if we not holding up a CIP project, but then I am with you that this is a lot of your hearing information, and then it's like we get caught up in the daily, or are circumstances change down the road.

Do we require administration or direct administration to notify the board, you know, by a certain amount of days before we execute something.

So those are just a thought in my head too, as well about it.

I mean, but also I I the reason I kind I like it, and I would love to continue to chew on it together as a board is as I talked about at the beginning of the year, the thing about the slides or other projects that could come up like this, we need to find ways to build consensus.

And what I like about this is it makes you have to talk about it at a study session, and if you can't build consensus, then maybe it's time to call a timeout and pick it back up at another time versus in the immediate moment.

So I don't know.

Those are just thoughts in my head.

You know, I don't I want to move on things we should move on, but at the same time I want to build consensus where we find that we're lacking consensus.

Thank you.

Director Christina from Savage.

You know, I just I want to make sure that something like the water slides does not happen the way it happened last year, because it when I went back and I put together a timeline, June 18th, uh ARM was here to present to the board about the excess tax that have been collected.

It was casually mentioned uh, you know, we need to think about expansion plans.

That's on June 18th.

By July 2nd, we've got an email from Carl Gefkin stating when Rick was in town, he mentioned the available availability of five slides and he sends a rendering of the five slides.

By July 9th, we're voting on 2.1 million dollars without any prior discussion.

And so that's what I want to make sure that we've got some guardrails that prevent a situation like this from happening again.

So I'm um fully open to amendments if we need to make those, and you know, I welcome everyone's comments um just as long as we're keeping the spirit of the ordinance alive that we have that seven-day waiting period.

Maggie, any thoughts on how many you might not know this, or you might not have any discussion right now, how many projects this would have impacted in 25?

I think just looking at my subject matter experts in the audience, I can safely say lots.

Okay.

Without giving you an actual quantum uh quantifiable number.

So they're coming to us with items that are not budgeted or not on a CIP that are over half a million dollars.

Well, talking about if they are on a CIP.

So when I when we when administration originally looked at this, it was my understanding that these were new items that were not previously presented on CIP.

And that was my intention.

That was my intention.

If it's new items, not not near as many.

And quite frankly, I and if we need to clarify that in you know how the ordinance is written fully for that.

So new items that are not on a CIP, not near as many, probably at how many would you say, Andy?

Do you have a ballpark?

This is Andy Richards, our director of finance for the city.

I mean, if if you think back to the past year, um all the large purchases that we did make that were not already scheduled on a CIP, you know, all the streets, the water and sewer projects, the parks, you're not gonna see those projects have been in the works and planned.

I can't think of anything in those areas that would be not part of the CIP plan, not part of this presentation that we're doing now.

Um but you know, we bought the building.

That was in the study session.

Bought two or three pieces of land in the past year.

Yeah, the slides.

Slides didn't go to study.

It's probably four or five in the past twelve months that I could think of that would I don't think I don't I think it would just be a handful.

I don't think we're gonna counter this on a regular basis.

Things that aren't already part of uh a plan.

What if we move forward at the non-budgeted, non-CIP items, and then we just all of us have it in our brains that as we're looking at approving something on a on an agenda that's over half a million dollars.

We the question is was this in a on a budgeted item?

Was it on a CIP?

And and and we kind of evaluate to to say whether we need to make an update to the uh to the ordinance to have ever have it be everything at half a million dollars or more if the half million dollars is where we're at.

Does anybody have any issues with that?

If we kind of kind of dip our toes into it a little bit, put something in place, and then maybe expand it if need be.

No, I'm good with that because initially um you know, my thought was for new things that weren't budget that weren't going through the budget process that aren't coming before us.

I mean, in my mind, this would have qualified.

We this is a study session and it's brought forward on the CIP.

It was really for those new items to place some guardrails to keep a similar situation from happening.

So if we if if we put made a motion to move forward on this in our next voting meeting, would uh would just need to.

I mean, do we need does the item need to be written up?

Does it need to go through our our legal in order to be?

Yes, it would.

But I I don't see any issue with new capital projects moving forward if that's the I think it's a a great idea.

Mayor Bigglesman?

Yes, go ahead.

I was just gonna say I think it'd be good to make sure, and I think I'm feeling the spirit of this, like consent decree compliance stuff is not what we're talking about, right?

We're gonna move on those.

We won't have to go to a study session on each of those consent decree items, correct?

Well, if uh my assumption would be the consent decree, we we're getting we're gonna see a CIP for that here on the 10th.

Um it would be covered that that would be covered there.

And then anything.

But if Lance came to us and said, hey, I want to do a half million dollar project at the the water uh at Lake Fort Smith, it's not in a CIP.

It's got to come to us and we've got to talk about it.

Yeah, and another thought was uh emergency repairs thinking about that, like if a line breaks again, yeah.

Yeah, that was covered in section four.

Okay, good.

And then we've we've defined um we've defined emergency because I wanted to allow for that.

I mean, what about like any kind of grant-driven timelines that might come up?

I mean, agree.

We really were only talking about a seven-day waiting period.

Okay.

Good.

Well, it's not what if it to death.

Okay, I think that's good.

What's that?

It's not what if it to death.

It's a seven-day waiting period.

Okay.

Well, we let uh staff, uh, Ms.

Rice um take a close look at it and and we can work through that and come up with something that uh we all agree on.

I prefer for a November 18th target date.

Do you need any kind of motion and second for it?

Two.

We need two.

Do you want to make the motion, Director Katzavis?

Um, I'd like to make a motion.

We place this on the agenda for November 18th.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

That I would need Madam Clerk.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay.

Thank you, Director Savage.

Thank you, and I appreciate everyone's input.

Okay.

Thank you.

We are.

Did you ever want to take a look at the preliminary agenda for November 4th?

Sure, you have.

At this time, we're going to go into our citizens' forum.

Uh, Madam Clerk, would you call the first resident, please?

Yes, we do have several.

Uh so first we have Andy Postrick.

And each will have five minutes.

And we're gonna ask everyone to please uh honor the time because we do have several.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Andy Postrick.

I love living in Fort Smith for the unified development ordinance.

I know it's not um not that popular, but I talk with other zoning nerds online, and uh compared to what they have, we have a pretty good one.

I was just talking to a friend, he lives in Bratislava, Slovakia.

They're introducing speed limits on their sidewalks for walkers.

Um I don't you know we couldn't do that here.

So I'm thankful for that.

Um so I thought that was a really good discussion about things suddenly popping up.

Um something recently popped up that I didn't hear discuss tonight that I wanted to ask about, and that would be the Jenny Lind extension.

Um where is that going and and why?

I have an answer or go ahead, Maggie.

Oh, I'd rather hear your answer.

It'd be much more better.

So the Ginny Lind extension that's proposed in the uh Ben Martz, our interim director of engineering CIP is from the actual the end of the Fianna Hills subdivision, the Ginny Lynn that terminates there, and it would ultimately go south and connect to White Bluff Road.

And that's been on the city's Master Street plan for a long long time.

And it would offer basically residents of Fianna Hills and in that area the a way to connect to the southern side of the city without having to go north and then east and then back south again.

Okay.

Does that extend into the ETJ at all?

It does extend into the former ETJ, and that was kind of the impetus behind the Ginny Lind extension and bringing it forward at this time is that we have a willing landowner that's willing to donate uh an easement to the city.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Um and then going through the rest of the agenda for tonight.

Um as far as sidewalks go, I just wanted to give my positive feedback for the the sidewalks group.

Um two of the projects that I really appreciate are North O Street, and also there's new striping um by the highway on 74 uh by the hospital on 74th.

Uh it looks really good, so thank you for that.

Um as far as the solid waste uh service uh discussion, uh somebody mentioned a rate increase about that.

And I also heard recently something about a cost of service study coming up.

Is that coming soon?

I think it was already delivered to us a few weeks ago.

Okay, is that has that been presented to the public at all yet?

Yes.

So it would have been I can find the date for you, Andy, but it was in a study session back here, so it would have been on a study session agenda.

I'll I'll see if I can find it in my notes.

Okay, I I would be interested in seeing that.

Um and then also um I just wanted to express my support for the the transit department as well.

I'm a bus rider, so thank you.

I'm sorry, next we have Barbara Carber.

No, okay.

Uh Bridget Duncan.

Sorry.

Um I've come uh to basically talk about um the safety of some of our streets downtown.

Um and I know that the board of directors have uh kind of done a plan or uh had a motion for more safety, more safe Fort Smith.

Um I have seen uh the sidewalks down 21st, and I applaud that.

Uh but one street and intersection in particular, which I have a lot of problems with 21st and Rogers.

Now we all know that uh our downtown streets are very unsafe, particularly because of those uh we have two uh grid systems kind of coming into one and they merge kind of on Rogers, so there are a lot of traffic accidents on Rogers, but um specifically um just because we have some of these streets doesn't mean we should keep all of them.

And what I would like to maybe talk about is um how 21st Street is where it connects to Rogers is a five-way.

Um, but there is South D, that little street where people can sometimes merge onto.

Um I seen countless times every single time that I take that road where people they want to go on to that little South D street, and it just ends up causing problems and a lot of inner a lot of accidents.

And um just because that road is a five-way, um, maybe we should look about it not being a five-way and just a four-way and that way.

Um it could be a lot safer for cars, pedestrians, um, because visibility is is you know a lot easier on just a four-way.

And also South D Street, it's you know, that little intersection, it's just behind like nothing to wear in that little area.

Um, and then there's the adult education center.

But in reality, it's just like a kind of easement to get onto uh South Side, and um, you know, they should just turn at an intersection.

I think that would cause a lot less accidents.

But it might be something to look about in the future.

Um I'm just concerned about that specific area because I know that there's a lot of accidents.

I see a lot of people running red lights because they can't see people.

Um, especially whenever they're you know, that it makes it to where whenever they stop at 21st, they can't see who is on south.

Uh whenever they stop on Rogers, they can't see who is on South 21st.

They can only see that first road, which is kind of like at a slant.

And it's just the infrastructure isn't really working there.

So in my own personal opinion, I'm sure other people can attest to that as well.

And over the course of, you know, I've I've been looking at it, there's a lot of accidents as well as you know, just pedestrians in one bicycle list, I believe.

So do we have anything in the future to kind of like really address maybe making some of those streets not five ways?

I also know that South Six South 19th Street and Rogers is a six-way, I believe.

I don't know if we have that in the plan or not.

Um I tried to find something, but I couldn't quite find anything, but I think that would be a lot safer to prevent accidents because South 19th Street and Rogers and South 21st and Rogers are they just have a lot of accidents.

Um of those small tiny roads might not be needed.

So I wanted to bring that up to you guys.

Thank you very much.

And certainly we will take that on advisory with our streets department.

Thank you.

Next we have Kim Fodge.

Um good evening.

Uh before I begin, I would like to publicly thank Chief Baker and the Fort Smith Police Department for quickly addressing a safety concern that I brought to their attention.

Many times their work goes unnoticed or unappreciated, and I just wanted to publicly acknowledge and thank them for that.

Um there are two things that I'd like to address.

One is the indoor sports complex that's being proposed, and the other is uh Parrot Island.

I think an indoor sports complex is an absolutely great idea and is much needed in the community.

However, I believe it should be a strictly private endeavor, and that the city should not have any financial responsibility toward it.

The city is currently reviewing the 2026 budget and discussing the need to make cuts because of lack of funding, uh pledging to guarantee a lease payments of $500,000 on a sports complex, but cutting city services due to a budget deficit just doesn't make sense in my opinion.

If it's such a profitable business venture, uh as it was stated in the recent talk business and politics article, then there should be no problem getting private backing and public money shouldn't be needed.

Um I do hope that the sports complex does get built, but again, I think it needs to be a private endeavor and no taxpayer money spent on it.

Um, in regard to Parrot Island, um, recently Mr.

Kat Savis posted on Facebook a financial report of Parrot Island, and after reviewing that, I have a lot of questions, and I'm probably gonna send an email to y'all so I can get some answers.

But I'm really confused about a few things.

Um Mr.

Kat Sabbath reported that there was approximately the report does not include approximately 170,000 of outstanding invoices, plus the $13,000 still owed to Burton Pools, which would bring the total deficit to 400,000.

However, Mr.

Dingman wrote that there were a number of unpaid invoices that remain from the operating season, and due to the non-budgeted expenses, there's not cash in the park's operating fund to pay for them.

Um were we able to determine if these outstanding payables were already including in that operating report, or if they're in addition to that money that was owed?

Another thing Mr.

Dingman mentioned was that the loss was due in large part to the loss of 44 planned operating days due to the weather when the park was closed.

Per the report, the 2025 attendance exceeded the 2024 attendance, but the revenue was less than 2024.

Actual operational days for 2025 is only eight days less than actual operational days in 2024, which is not that significant.

At least not enough to warrant an exorbitant increase in operational expenses.

So the excuse that AMR gave that 44 days of less planned operational days just does not make sense to me.

Some of my questions is the county and city are obligated by the agreement to equally share responsibility providing funds to pay for the outstanding bills from the parks operating season.

Did Parrot Island inform the city or the county prior to these expenditures?

If not, why not?

It's my understanding that reports are provided at the end of the year.

If this is true, I think this needs to change.

Monthly reports beginning in January needs to be provided to the board as expenses occur outside of the operating season for repairs, maintenance, training of employees, et cetera.

If not already done, I believe monthly updates need to be provided outlining the repairs and maintenance issues, expenses, attendance, and other pertinent information that affect operations and finances.

I also believe that since the county and city are responsible for providing funds for covering these costs, approval from the county and the city needs to be received prior to work being performed or purchases made, especially if they are unbudgeted and exceed revenue.

We are responsible for paying these things, and we shouldn't be left with outstanding expenses when we don't have money to pay for what we have right now.

Thank you.

Next we have David Roberts.

Good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you tonight.

I'd like to comment on the Parrot Island slides also.

I supported the board's decision to purchase these slides.

I was pleased that the board chose to go ahead without the county's participation.

I'm very disappointed to hear that we need an additional two million dollars to install the slides.

At this point, I don't think the city should commit any more funds to the slides.

Maybe we can find a buyer for the slides.

Maybe we can look at a new contractor arrangement with the Parrot Island operator and let them install the slides.

The board has a difficult decision on your hands, and I hope you will be able to find a reasonable solution.

But as to that solution, I have heard a suggestion that part of the money could come from the Parks Department CIP.

As you know, at this time the Parks Department is on a roll.

With your support, the Parks Department has rebuilt Creekmoor Park Bath House, improved walkways, boardwalks, splash pads, playgrounds, and yes, bathrooms throughout at parks throughout the city.

I serve on the uh Parks Commission, uh Parks and Recreation Committee, and in that role I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to serve in an advisory capacity to your decisions related to the city parks.

I'm very protective of the city parks and our existing parks.

I'm asking you not to take any consideration of taking money from our existing parks to pay for the slide installation.

The parks capital projects are project are funded by dedicated taxes approved by the Fort Smith voters.

Those funds are the lifeblood of our parks, but they're limited.

Please don't give away any of that funding for the slides.

As always, I thank you for your willingness to serve on the board.

You give up your time and energy to face sometimes difficult decisions for the betterment of the city.

Thank you.

Next we have Dan Williams.

Good evening, board.

I appreciate the time.

I just want to say again, uh, y'all have already heard about the water slides.

I'm I'm in agreement with what's already been said.

I don't think we need to put any more money into it.

Uh I'm going back to when it was voted on.

There was a large group here that were all against it, and everybody kind of voted for it.

Uh and I may have this wrong, but Neil and George were the only one.

May have been the Levant that voted against it.

Christina.

I've been a no all along.

Okay, well, because I remember you've you voting yes, and I remember that Joey was here and he said and he got on to you.

And no, that was about the sidewalk plan.

I've been a no every step of the way on the water slides.

All right.

Well, I appreciate you clearing that up because I believe that uh going back to the the uh what you proposed to the city and accountability of $500,000.

I like the intent and I like the idea, but if you as a board would hold uh directors and hold people accountable, I don't know that you would need that.

I believe that uh part of the problem is y'all haven't stepped up and done your job that we put you in position to do of holding people accountable.

I want to trust the leaders in this position.

I want to trust y'all.

But whenever I was here last week, the wash station come up and Jeff Dingman himself said that all of it included the price of the equipment and the building, and we had a man stand up here right behind him and said no it didn't.

And so what he said basically was not true in that moment, and I can understand we get caught up in moments and uh say things that we don't mean, but it's caused a problem in this city, and there's one way to solve it.

Do you know how it is to solve it?

For you to lead and you hold people accountable to what they say and and what they do.

And going back to um the uh water in Aracoma.

I haven't heard anything about the water in Aracoma.

Have we got that solution fixed?

Have we got money?

Has uh has the increase happened?

Do we have any news on that?

Increases in place.

Increase is in place.

They're not paying the full bill.

They're not paying the bill.

Are we gonna do anything about it and hold anybody accountable?

Yes.

You are I I the rate is the rate.

Yep.

The expectation is they pay the rate.

Okay.

All right.

I don't know.

I was at the school board last night.

We have 450 less students enrolled in Fort Smith schools.

It's a 1.5 million dollar deficit that they're that they're facing.

Uh we have issues that are going beyond this issue, uh, but it all ties together.

And I love Fort Smith, and I believe y'all do too.

Uh I I believe that there is a time that we can look at these things and understand if we're still funding the convention center of a million dollars a year, if we're funding the animal shelter of somewhere around, is it still a million dollars a year?

That's two million dollars a year.

I think there, you know, it's easy to spot some of the waste, it's easy to spot some of these things.

We need to take some serious looks and look at accountability and how we're gonna hope people to these things.

Thank you.

Next we have Richard Medford.

Good evening.

Uh I have a few questions uh that I feel are concerned on most of our minds as Fort Smith citizens.

If this trip to the Capitol was a must, my questions are to each of you are was there an agenda for the city gain, and were any uh questions asked posed to the representatives that represent the state in the government there.

What I'm asking is uh were questions asked about infrastructure, water, sewer, drainage, developing in the room, the consent decree.

Um I I feel like that's kind of paramount, bouncing off what Dan said.

We're all in the city, we're all in the same book, but we're not all on the same page.

Uh I'm not looking for thesis answers uh or anything getting off of these specifics.

Just honesty to know where or if this board has a focus on anything besides entertainment.

I'm talking about water slides and the convention center.

Things are snowballing and leadership is paramount.

Uh we trust you.

Uh we come here, I've been here for almost two years.

I listen, I I hear the haphazardness going.

You all have to get a hold of this.

I don't know how, but you do.

You've been here a minute.

Uh I'm gonna close with uh show us your doing what's best for Fort Smith.

I left my email and my phone number on the paper uh that I turned into Sherry, and I would love to talk to each one of you individually or in a group.

Mr.

Mitford, uh I will say the primary thing we talk about is infrastructure.

Now, this trip, we talked about F-35 mission and the the uh the items associated with that.

But I do want to make mention of the dollars that have come back to us from our federal delegation is over 500 million dollars.

Majority of that comes from um for the F-35 mission.

A lot of that comes for I-49 in our area, but we've gotten multimillions of dollars from them from state for stating our case in front of them, whether that be streets, water, uh a number of different we've gotten trans uh money for transmission lines.

So with this new government uh that's in place.

This is this is our first time to go up there to talk to them when Trump was in office.

Right.

What I'm hearing is you have made headway with this new administration.

Okay, yes.

Oh, but but think about it.

500 million dollars is coming to Fort Smith is in it has come to Fort Smith and will be coming to Fort Smith.

I am stuck on $800 million.

I wonder well, okay.

I'd love to I'd love to talk to you in person.

I don't think we're gonna get 800 million, but we're gonna get uh we're we're getting we're getting dollars.

What I'm saying is let's start where the crack is, fix it and go forward.

I agree.

Okay.

Next we have Quentin Cunningham.

Good evening.

Thank you for hearing us.

Uh first, Christina, I wanted to say I'm fully behind your proposal earlier, uh, but I did have one question.

Is there any way uh that makes sense that you could say differentiate between something that's for lack of a better term, essential versus non-essential, so we could avoid the Parrot Island thing again?

Well, I did put some definitions in there of what uh qualifies as essential, affecting uh public health and safety.

Okay, sorry, it's kind of hard to read back there.

It should we did um Okay, yeah, I see it from here.

I worked on this with uh with my attorney, he helped me with it, and we made sure to, you know, I think the city gets into uh trouble a lot with ambiguous contracts.

I try to be really specific with the language and outline what uh an emergency situation would be.

Perfect.

I think you're gonna be able to do that.

We do have water main breaks, things like that that are emergency situations that we have to address um quite quickly.

Um but it says emergency means a condition posing an immediate threat to public health, safety, or property requiring urgent action.

Who's doing this?

Um urgent action as determined by the city administrator and approved by a two-thirds vote of the board of directors.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Like I said, I think you're on the right track with that.

Um this also isn't what I came up here to discuss, but I did also want to bounce off the lady who was talking about 21st Street.

I do live right off that corner, except I'm on B Street, and yes, it is it is awful down there.

Um B Street is where North Side is.

And we have a bad problem with speeding and people just not checking either of those intersections.

I work in law and personal injury.

Um I've had to go out of my house on days that I'm off to assist people who have had a wreck in my driveway.

And it's it it's concerning.

So I'm I'm fully behind her.

Yeah, it's it's bad and definitely needs to be looked at.

But the main thing I wanted to discuss was the uh the whole Parrot Island issue, because personally I I have an issue with the optics behind it all.

Because I, as I had spoken to you guys before, I think back in March, I formally or formerly was homeless in Fort Smith.

So I'm kind of tired of seeing our city basing a lot of our choices like this on potential profit from tourism.

It just water slides, they've come up short and now we're doubling down.

Uh why?

Um we didn't have this kind of energy for animal shelters, homeless solutions, things like that.

Those are not amusements.

Those are afflictions that affect our city.

But they're met with resistance so intense you would think that we're debating a declaration of war sometimes.

Like you said, Christina, it was brought up and approved in no time.

A few years ago, I saw next step go through months and months and months of planning and uh uh excuse me, I'm at this passionate topic.

Uh they eventually withdrew their uh proposal because of just the the backlash they got.

And I don't I don't think that's acceptable.

Uh I mean there's no easy solution, but as a reminder, uh former director Martin voted for those slides, and then in August of 24, I can't remember exact which date it was, but he said that we did not have money for an animal shelter right after spending all this money on these slides.

I'm not good with that.

A city's not judged by potential tourism revenue, it's judged by how we treat our most vulnerable people.

As I said, at 26 I was homeless in this city.

The message I hear from it's chilling.

And it says that profit and pleasure are far more simple calculations than compassion.

If we continue down this path, we're gonna be forfeiting the soul of Fort Smith, and that's not something we can buy back with tourism revenue.

Thank you.

Next we have Molly Ancheveria.

Good evening.

I'm here to speak plainly about an issue that should concern every one of us, no matter our no matter our party race or political views.

On September 16th, this board held a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk.

It was a simple act of civic civic respect.

But Director Good walked out.

He only returned after the prayer was over.

Let me be clear.

I don't care what Mr.

Good thought of Charlie Kirk's politics.

That's irrelevant.

This is about decorum.

This is about professionalism.

This is about understanding that when you hold that seat, you represent your constituents and this city, not just those who share your views.

Walking out wasn't a silent protest, it was a public statement made on our time by our elected official, and it sent a clear message.

Walking out fueled voices in our community to hurl labels like racist at some, including myself, simply for objecting, all because one director couldn't stand still for 60 seconds.

Mr.

Good has every right to his opinions just like the rest of us.

But he could have acknowledged the fact that Charlie Kirk was a human being sharing his beliefs, and he died doing so.

He didn't have to agree with Charlie Kirk's views or ideals.

He could have simply recognized that he was a husband and a father.

Now unable to be there for his wife and his children.

Instead, Director Good poured gasoline on the fire, implying that anyone who obducted his walkout was the real problem.

I'm not here to debate Charlie Kirk's politics.

I'm here to demand we deserve better from our leaders.

We deserve leaders who show respect for those with differing beliefs.

We deserve a board that models civility, not chaos.

To the rest of the board, hold him accountable.

Set the standard.

Because if we this pass, we're telling every future director that it's okay to stir the pot, that it's okay to serve uh to uh sew division.

We are not divided because Charlie Kirk was honored.

We are divided because one leader refused to honor the office that he was elected to.

We deserve leaders who stay in the room.

Thank you.

Next we have Crystal Cadelli.

Good evening, board.

Well, I feel like an echo tonight because um many have been here stating the same thing that I had prepared to speak on, which is the financial strains that the city is facing.

Um, we are already facing a ten million dollar deficit.

We are asking um our departments to cut corners and to try to cut their budgets any way they know how.

Um but we can spend six point eight million dollars erecting a water slide for a park that's already losing over three hundred thousand dollars annually.

We ha we subsidized the convention center at a million dollars.

We still have the EPA um hanging over our heads.

That ends in 2026 without a resolution.

So you know, us the people think that agreeing to a 30-year tax extension fixed the problem.

But in reality, we don't know if it did or not.

We don't know if it's going to give us enough money in the end.

We don't know if the EPA is going to give us an extension.

You know, now we're proposing a sports complex that should ultimately be a private business venture, not a city venture.

We have lots of sports fanatics that can uh financially support a complex if it was worth their money and it hasn't been.

So that should tell you that the city has no business financing it.

The FOIA process is intended to provide transparency between the government and the citizens.

If public officials have nothing to conceal, then they should have no problem with citizens requesting the information.

And I think it is another embarrassment for our board.

Jobs are the answer.

We need businesses to move into Fort Smith.

And we need we need a mix of blue-color jobs, we need white collar jobs.

We need people moving here and paying taxes instead of moving out.

And what I want this people of Fort Smith to realize that we are the ones that pay the deficit.

So that's why I get up here every chance I get and beg you to make good financial decisions for the people that you put you in those chairs.

Thank you so much.

Next we have Chris Cadelli.

I would like to start by just quickly thanking uh directors Martin, Christina, and George Gosavas for their continued efforts to protect us from protect the taxpayer from the ongoing water part slide fiasco.

I also went back and watched some videos from 2024 just to kind of refresh my memory.

And there was a lot of misinformation at best and possibly even deception at worst.

The other thing I want to talk about tonight was when it takes a FOIA request to confirm a rumored conflict of interest.

I mean, to me, it's just common sense if there's a board member involved with some type of a private endeavor that could possibly require tax funds.

Right on the front end of the process, not require a bunch of rumor and you know, talk about it and then have to de FOIA to bring it out, bring it to the you know, bring it to light.

Um let's see.

Um Mr.

Rego went to social media and made a you know big deal about this FOIA request.

Um and uh he he um I'm sorry I lost my spot here.

Basically, um one would think that this FOIA request involved something, you know, with the JFK files, uh, the way he reacted on social media.

Um those waiting on baited breath for Mr.

Rego's bonded return to social media can thank uh this FOIA request for for his return.

Uh Mr.

Rigo clearly appeared in damage control mode uh mode today over this this FOIA request and quickly defended his lack of transparency by noting he told anyone who asked um you know that that this was his brother-in-law.

Uh does that sound like transparency?

How does the public have any idea who may have thought to even ask?

Um there's been no public mention of the conflict of interest in any of the news reports on you know talk business or otherwise uh regarding the proposed complex.

Um Mr.

Rigo went on to discuss the FOIA request as you know, this was mere drama.

Uh the only drama I've seen was generated by Mr.

Rigo and a handful of his supporters.

Mr.

Rigo is easily triggered by any pushback or scrutiny of his positions.

We witnessed this recently when Director George Consavis had the audacity to question dollars that were being spent with a DC lobbyist, and then again, of course, today with this FOIA request.

To be clear, I'm not opposed to the sports complex.

I too would love to see that happen with with private investors.

I am opposed to the idea taxpayers are being asked to subsidize another private venture at a time when we're struggling with painful water and sewer rate increases that for some folks resemble a car payment.

And then, of course, we have the uh projected ten million dollar deficit and spending cuts that are being you know asked to take place throughout city departments.

So I just think it's a terrible look to ask for another subsidy.

Thank you for your time.

And the last speaking is Talisha Richardson.

Great evening, board.

I want to first acknowledge not only Indy, but also Bridget and Michael in the audience.

Um these three individuals have worked timelessly to put themselves out there with regard to our streets being safe for pedestrians and cyclists.

And sometimes we fail to remember that there are a lot of individuals in our community who choose to write public transportation, who choose to write bikes, and that be their form of transportation.

So we can't lose sight on that.

And for those members in the audience.

They are to govern the city's operations by setting strategic goals, providing financial oversight, and appointing a city administrator to lead their day-to-day operations.

Director Good has and is until his term expires, serving the City of Fort Smith and Ward II in his capacity to the fullest.

He has been elected.

He has been elected.

There are people that don't feel as though Director Good has rights.

So why do we have a separate and distinct standard for a person of color that chose not to adhere to that?

As a follower of Christ, I worship Jesus.

And the Bible tells us to put no man before him.

No man.

Freedom is on everyone in our community to respect the freedom of others.

Agree, disagree, but let's be civil.

Let's be civil.

We have a community that does not have to fall victim to federal shenanigans.

That's all I have to say.

And please, please respect your fellow directors.

You have no control of this.

Don't buy into the circle of trust, distrust, and the circus.

Treat everyone with civility.

Thank you.

That's all.

Okay.

Thank you.

If there is nothing else to come before the board, I do have one item.

Okay, I'm sure.

I do have one item.

If the budget hearing that was, I think slated for November 14th and 2024.

Is that correct, Sherry?

Um I know that there has been some issues around that date, and if the board is inclined to move it to November 17th, we will need four to place it on the 17th, please.

Can we get four hands?

Did that date work for everybody?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

We need four to those.

It's a Monday.

It's Monday, Monday, November 17th.

I've got a look.

Okay, we'll here we go.

Directors can't directors, both the savages and directors and also Director Neil Moore.

Thank you.

That'd be here at the blue line.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

What time?

8 30.

I think that's the plan.

8 30.

Is that okay with everyone?

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Kemp, you recognize Fort.

Yes, Mayor.

I was asked to just make sure to keep an announcement out in front of us that keep Fort Smith Beautiful.

The city group has a citywide trash cleanup this Saturday.

And any volunteers that would like to be a part of that are to meet at 9 a.m.

in the lot at the lot in front of this building, the blue lion, to get supplies for keep Fort Smith Beautiful.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Thank you, Director Christina.

Well, for having an officials forum, I do have something.

I was contacted.

Well, I attended a town hall on food insecurity last week, and you know, I really learned a lot about the services, the different people that provide the services.

And I was contacted about if the city could create some sort of committee or task force.

They're not looking for money, but what they're looking for is coordination.

We have a lot of nonprofits here working.

We have, you know, the food bank, the food pantries.

Um everything's not necessarily coordinated, and they were hoping maybe the city could provide a place or some guidance for them to be able to do that here in town.

So that's something I hope we can talk about going forward because we have nonprofits, we have churches, we have the um the different services, but they're not necessarily coordinated.

Um maybe we could give this some thought.

Maybe we could uh contact the United Way because many of these agencies are associated with them, and they might be able to help us coordinate.

I think they may have the staffing and the volunteers to do something like this.

Sure.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

If there's nothing else, Director Good.

Thank you, Mayor.

I was asked to um just to give a shout out to um uh neighborhood services, uh, in particular, a gentleman named Um Lee Holland, I believe he's one of our inspectors.

Um Mr.

Holland has helped this one individual and this whole neighborhood actually uh answer a lot of questions and get some things done.

I wanted to also uh thank Matt uh Meeker uh for your um performance at your new position, getting staff out into the neighborhoods, particularly on the north side.

People are sending me pictures of your staff out on the weekends and in the rain.

So we want you guys to know at the Street Department, neighborhood services, and solid waste that you're very much appreciated, as well as the rest of our departments.

Thank you guys.

Okay, thank you very much.

And let me just add the guys in neighborhood services.

Um they go out of their way to work with residents when there is an issue.

And just recently had one about trees being destroyed by gas leaks and what have you.

So thanks, Sean, for um working with the residents, and we thank the people over Summit Energy for participating in resolving that issue.

Okay, if there's nothing else, thank you very much.