Good evening and welcome to the Fort Smith City Board of Directors meeting on this April seventh of twenty twenty-six.

Who can't be here with us in person.

Wait until you calm down.

If you have it always a good idea if you have questions, please notify the administration or board members so they can be prepared to give you an answer.

Lord, I I thank you that we just got done celebrating the resurrection of your son.

And so, Father, I pray that in that spirit we we go from here and we um work together.

I pray for unity amongst our city.

I pray that Lord, we'd all work towards a common goal of enhancing our community.

And uh Lord, I just pray that you'd be with all of us tonight, be with those up here that are making decisions.

Lord, we pray for for those for wisdom for for the seven up here.

Lord, we pray for those that are come speaking that are speaking to the board, Lord.

We pray that you would give them wisdom and Lord, we'd all have the same goal of bettering our community.

Father, we love you.

We th we thank you that you've placed us here, and we ask all these things in your precious and holy name.

Amen.

I want to leave to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republicans.

Thank you very much.

At this time we will ask for the roll call.

Directors Rigo.

Good.

Here.

Kim?

Here.

George Kitzavis.

Christina Gitzavis.

Here.

Settled.

Here.

Martin.

Here.

Okay.

Thank you.

This time I'll ask if there's any presentation by our member of the board or directors of any item of business not already on the agenda.

Okay.

Seeing none, we'll ask for the approval of the March 17th regular meeting.

So the March 31st special meeting.

So moved for both.

Okay.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor?

I'm not working.

Thank you very much.

This time we will go to the first item of business.

The first item this evening is an ordinance granting a non-exclusive franchise to non-ambulatory transportation service, Inc.

within the City of Fort Smith.

City Clerk Sherry Guard will speak to this item.

Good evening.

Okay.

In 1986, the City of Fort Smith granted a non-exclusive franchise to David and Elvis Stofer to operate non-ambulatory transportation service incorporated who provides specialized transportation for handicapped and elderly individuals living in Fort Smith.

In 1986, the franchise was the 1986 franchise was updated and reissued in 1996 and has been renewed every five years thereafter.

The current term expires, April 30th, 2026.

And in March of this year, Ms.

Stoffer submitted a formal request for renewal of the non-exclusive franchise to operate the non-ambulatory transportation transportation service for another five years, which will expire on April the 30th, 2031.

As required by law, the proposed ordinance has been on file in the city clerk's office and available for public review and inspection prior to this evening's consideration.

The public notice uh indicating availability of the ordinance for review and inspection was published in the River Valley Democratic Gazette on Sunday, March 29, 2026.

In summary, the proposed ordinance simply extends the existing non-exclusive franchise to April 30th, 2031.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Or the any public comments, Madam Clerk.

Yes, first is Dave Carnahan with uh uh non-ambulatory transportation.

Uh good afternoon or good evening.

This is Dave, and uh uh we've been in business 46 years.

This is the first time that we've ever attended one of these, so we appreciate what you guys letting us come.

Uh we uh do I have a minute to kind of give you what we do, or you want to take questions or what's good because well uh we primarily if you're not handicapped or you're a senior citizen don't drive, you don't even know we exist.

We we transport folks to and from uh doctor's appointments, and we run 24-7.

We have 13 vans, and uh our mission statement is uh to provide safe, cost-effective transportation for the handicapped and senior citizens.

I don't know what I recognize up there as Mr.

Andre about seven or eight years ago, he I and his wife transported his mom to a facility.

I don't know, you remember that Andre, but uh I I'm a little embarrassed that I have don't know any of y'all since we provide a lot of service to the citizens of Fort Smith.

Um we've been doing this a long time.

Uh we uh we have sixteen families that rely on us as a as a as a source of income.

Uh city's been real good to us.

Sorry, we're choked up here.

Don't get don't get in front of folks very often.

So if you got any questions, I'll take them.

Maybe I can answer them for you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh are there any other citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

Yes, next we have Gary Podgersky.

I yield.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

At this time, are there any questions for them?

Okay.

Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rules.

So move with suspension of the rules.

Thank you.

We've got a second.

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance.

An ordinance amending ordinance ordinance number 10-96 as previously amended, granting a non-exclusive franchise to non-ambulatory transportation service incorporated.

Okay.

Any comments from the board?

Okay.

Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Directors Rigo.

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kim?

Yes.

George Kitsavis?

Christina Kitsavis?

Yes.

Settled?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

At this time we'll entertain a motion to adopt the emergency clause.

So move.

Second.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, call the roll.

Director's good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kitsavis.

Christina Kitsavis.

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

We'll go to item number two.

Item two is an ordinance presented at the request of the Central Business Improvement District Board of Commissioners to amend the number of CBID commissioners from eight to seven.

The CBID was originally created with five commissioners, which was amended to seven in two thousand seven and then to eight in two thousand thirteen, both times at the request of the CBID.

The chair of the CBID is present this evening to answer any questions the board may have, or I'll stand for such questions myself.

Okay.

Madam Clerk, are there any citizens' comments?

We only have one, Mr.

Gary Podgersky.

I yield.

Okay.

Thanks, sir.

This time we would entertain entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rules.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance.

An ordinance amending number I'm sorry.

I can't talk this evening, apparently.

Ordinance amending ordinance number 3345 as amended, amending the membership of the Central Business Improvement District Commission to seven persons and repealing ordinance number 44-13.

Okay, thank you.

Any comments from the board?

Okay.

Please call the roll.

Directors Kemp?

Yes.

George Kitsavis?

Yes.

Christina Kitzavis?

Yes.

Settled?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Item three.

Item three is the annual salary ordinance, which establishes pay rates and related procedures for city employees for 2026.

Eric Garvin, our Director of Human Resources will speak to this item and stand for questions.

Good evening, Board and Directors and Mayor.

Before you tonight is the annual salary ordinance establishing the pay rates and related procedures for city employees.

The ordinance retains the same pay scale for uniform and non-uniform employees for the 2026 compensation year as we had in place in 2025 compensation year as well.

Additionally, this ordinance retains step increases for all eligible uniform employees, and this ordinance includes a two and a half percent across the board increase for all full-time non-uniform employees.

As you may remember, uh these pay increases were discussed during the budget meetings last year, and the funding for both of those increases were included in the 2026 budget that was passed last December.

Okay, thank you.

Any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

Uh only one, Mr.

Gary Podgerski.

I yield.

Okay, thank you.

Uh motion to adopt the ordinance.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Comments from I'm sorry, who moved?

George.

Okay, comments from the board.

Okay.

Seeing none, please call the roll.

Directors George Kitsavis?

Yes.

Christina Kitsavis?

Yes.

Settled?

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Item four.

Item four is a resolution requested by the board at the March 17 regular meeting authorizing a public services agreement with Main Street Fort Smith for administration of the Lebit Amps Music Series grant for 2026 and providing $20,000 in matching funds for the grant.

This item was included and approved in the 2026 operating budget.

I see Ms.

Hager is here from Main Street Fort Smith.

If there are any questions, or I may stand for myself.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Clerk, are there any comments from citizens on this item?

Yes, we do have I think three, I believe we have here, but the first being Dan Williams.

Good evening, board.

Um although I believe it's a good idea that we support our downtown and what they're doing.

I have a couple questions.

One is when we enter into this agreement, although it's not a lot of money.

That uh 60 percent of responders cited that homelessness and safety was their top concerns downtown.

Why would we support something with this money, $20,000 if we have an issue that we haven't got fixed with yet downtown?

And that's kind of my concern.

Is that good stewardship?

And is that something that we really need to do?

So although again, I believe we're doing some things downtown that we need to do.

The perception is that survey either lied or wasn't effective or something uh because otherwise, although $20,000 isn't a lot of money, uh citizens in Fort Smith, $25 percent of uh Fort Smith average household income is $25,000 or less.

So you're talking about people's salaries here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dan.

Next we have Crystal Cadelli.

Good evening, board.

Um we you know, my concern is that we just approved the 150,000 um budget for this year.

And we've backtracked on um the budget that we set numerous times now.

So those what we think small things just keep adding up and eventually it's gonna be a a large dollar amount.

Um, you know, just this past weekend we saw that a uh large portion of residents went without water um for mostly you know a day, and then they were on a boil order.

Um so I know that we think, hey, it's 20,000, that's not a lot of money.

But I again think that you know, just coming behind asking for this money two months ago, we're asking for additional funds.

And I don't think that you know we need right now to invest in any more emergency entertainment.

I think that we need to invest in our infrastructure for our community.

Um water is a priority, not a concert.

And um, you know, if you look at their budget, it's have uh heavy on administration.

And so I feel like there's not a ton being put back into the community.

Um I know that they do have that sixteen thousand dollar grant, which is great, but sixteen thousand out of a hundred and fifty thousand isn't isn't a large percentage.

Um and I, you know, I think Dan made a good comment that you put out surveys and you mail them or you mail them with the water bill.

I don't know how you put them out, but I think that if you look at social media or you put it out on social media, you're gonna get a good pulse on what this community really wants.

Thank you very much.

And last we have Gary Podkerskies.

Yeah, I want to just agree with the last two speakers.

Um it's only 20 grand.

Got it, but uh you guys don't have 20 grand to mess with right now.

All right.

Got uh a major water project coming up.

We got to make sure we stay in compliance with the consent decree.

Um, you know, I I'm all in favor of of the city having things, but I don't think the city needs to sponsor them.

Thank you for your comments.

Madam Clerk, are there any more?

That's all.

Thank you.

Just time we'll entertain a motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Uh comments from the board.

Mayor, I have a comment.

Okay.

We'll start we'll start with Director Regal's way.

Go ahead.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, I will be uh supporting this tonight.

Uh $20,000 out of a projected uh over $163 million uh in revenue uh is 0.1 percent of that projected revenue.

Um it was mentioned that this is asking for additional funds.

Um it's actually not.

Uh this is an approval of a $20,000 expenditure that was budgeted for back in the budget process.

Um we approved that budget by a six to one vote back in December.

Uh so this is bringing something forward that was accounted for during that process.

Uh I really appreciate the work uh that Main Street does.

I really appreciate the work they do to secure other funds to go with this grant.

And I uh I know um from conversations that I've had that the people uh who are able to attend this conference concerts and take the time to attend these concerts enjoy them tremendously, and I would imagine that uh the folks who have availed themselves of this opportunity uh would say that it's money well invested uh back into the entertainment options of our community.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh Director Good, you're next.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Excellent comments.

Um Vice Mayor Rigo, I have to agree.

This is just not a concert.

You know, I actually attend and have gone every year.

First I want to go ahead and and thank um Ms.

Amanda Hagar and and the folks that you work with for all the other things that you do downtown, just not this concert.

And again, it's more than a concert.

If you go, you know, you'll see this another opportunity for people not only just to get out downtown, but it's an opportunity for for people to get out and meet one another to have a good time.

You know, is to be a part of a community.

You know, and that's what it's about.

It's just not playing music.

This is diverse um genre of music.

So we bring out everyone from just about every culture.

So if you haven't been out and participated, go out and enjoy some free music, enjoy the folks, enjoy you know the things that Forsmouth has to offer and the music is fabulous.

So thank you.

Okay, Director George Kasavage.

Is Amanda here?

Amanda, come up here a minute, honey.

Let me ask you a question.

What when we were when when did we approve your budget?

Uh was it two weeks ago, three weeks ago?

Um when you approved the agreement, yes, the agreement for downtown services.

I believe that was in it was either March or February.

Okay.

Why why wasn't this grant brought up then?

Sure.

So that's a good question.

So this grant is through the Levitt Family Foundation.

And it they give us a set dollar amount per concert that we put on.

We're required to put on a minimum of seven shows a year.

Um in the past we've done ten.

And um we are required as a part of the grant agreement to match this locally to get a local match for us to be able to get the grant.

What percentage of the 20,000 is the uh of the grant?

I mean what what percentage is that of the total grant?

So this year we're gonna do seven shows instead of the ten shows.

So we'll get twenty-eight thousand dollars from the Levitt Foundation.

Okay.

So this would be a twenty thousand dollar match towards the twenty-eight thousand dollars.

So we'll have to get additional funds.

But the twenty eight thousand is what the city has supported for the past five years.

This is the sixth year for the concert series, and this is the city has supported it for the past.

What do you estimate that brings back into the city tax sales tax wise?

I I can't put a dollar amount on it.

I don't actually know, but I can tell you that we average close to two hundred people a concert, and we did ten last year.

We're gonna do seven this year.

Um we're doing seven in a row to try to gather more momentum instead of splitting them up.

So we anticipate our attendance to be even higher.

Uh these are on a Thursday night, so this is like a typically a night that maybe you wouldn't see as many families downtown.

So we're trying to get more foot traffic downtown.

Um, you know, it's it's about building experiences that whole families can enjoy and um you know meet their community members.

And our hope is they are going into the businesses downtown and spending some money while they're down there as well.

Yeah, I just wish it would have been brought up earlier to you know so we could have looked it over and discussed it a little more.

Yeah, I you know, we we were told um back and the end of last year that we were going to be that we were awarded another three-year grant cycle.

Um I actually had sent information out to the board.

It was either in November or December, letting you know that we had received that grant and that we would be asking for the match again.

Um so I actually sent that to you guys at the end of last year.

Okay, thank you, Mandarin.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Thank you.

I think Director Neil Margination.

Yeah, question uh for you, Jeff.

If we've funded this before, I never see that we've voted on it outside of the budget.

What happened to I know that Director Rigo and Good brought this forward for a vote, but why would we even need to do that if it was passed and approved it as part of the budget?

We we we have budgeted for it in the past and made an administrative payment to that.

I think is more appropriate that we go through this uh this avenue to have a services agreement that uh specifically authorizes the the dollars.

Okay.

Do you want to have that?

Yeah, jump to that.

So if it's a three-year agreement, why don't we just vote on one time and be done?

We certainly can.

Uh my my plan was to approach it one year at a time.

Well, we already know it's three years.

They've already there told us we have three years, so why not just just the next three years and be done?

Certainly can at your discretion.

Okay.

Do we uh do we provide any dollars to Peacemaker?

We do not.

No.

Okay.

It is, but it's the only one that we're I mean, we don't provide dollars for the music concert.

We provide matching dollars for the grant that they received to put the concert on.

Okay.

Okay, we're gonna.

Mayor.

Jeff, where does this money come from?

This money comes from the general fund.

General fund.

General fund non-departmental.

Originally we placed it in the city administrators uh program as uh but it's allocated across funds this for this, which is where we budgeted it this year.

We've transferred it to non a non-departmental expense, so it's all a general fund expense.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any other any other questions from the board?

I I would like to get ROI.

I think that was a good suggestion by Director George Katzavis.

Return on investment.

You know, what what's it bringing in?

You know, what can we measure that in hotel rooms, uh uh food, you know, all those kinds of things.

Yeah, all those things need to be measured out.

I would also say just in in response to that, that this is a series that's put on specifically for for the residents who live here also.

So I mean, I mean, we are certainly trying to attract business to the downtown district uh from folks that may not typically come typically come down on a Thursday night.

Uh but it's not necessarily you know a big attraction in terms of regional draw and that sort of thing.

It could turn into that depending on the kind of uh of access they get.

But I think the theory is a very important thing.

That would be the that would be the goal is is growth of this.

Well, sure, but it's also it's also provide an amenity and activity for the folks who live here.

You know, keep keep in mind the Levitt Foundation.

Uh we presented them with this idea, we've got this great venue down here, and they saw an opportunity to activate that, put more events in it, and they were willing to invest in it.

So uh showing them uh the amphitheater, showing them that space down there they thought was a great opportunity to invest in in our city uh to attract more people downtown.

And also it's free.

Uh so Mayor.

Yes.

I I'd like to uh make a motion to amend this resolution uh to cover 2026, 2027, and 2028 uh at the term of the 20,000 per year.

I'll second.

Okay.

Okay, we got a motion and a second.

Can I comment on that motion?

Yes, you may.

Um Jared, that's fine.

But what uh you know, two or three years from now, what's our financial situation going to be?

So if two or three years from now we're down to the last 20,000 in the general fund, George, that will be a catastrophe that will far outweigh the funding of a matching grant for the Levitt Amp music series.

And incidentally, that's not going to be the case.

Well, uh you don't know what the future holds.

Okay.

I'm pretty sure I'm a thousand percent confident that we will not be down to our last 20,000.

Support Amanda.

I mean, but I just wish this stuff would be brought forward before you see what I'm saying.

Okay.

When something is brought forward and when people take note of it are often two different things.

Yeah, but I thought it would be good business to know ahead of time that this was coming, like when we approved their budget.

Well, we're gonna need a grant for 20,000 in you know, a few weeks.

You can it's reminding me of the the the water slide deal.

It's just gonna be two point eight million million.

I mean two point one now it's eight million.

So no reflection on you, Amanda.

But I'm gonna I'm gonna have state on this, but you'll go.

I know it's going fast, and that's fine.

Okay.

That's fine.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Director Good, you recognize.

Yeah.

Um if the board didn't mind, I'd like to Amanda, would you mind coming up and and and speaking to uh the return on investment aspect?

You know, me personally, um, you know, I consider this something more along the lines of of parks, things that we invest in, you know, and that's part of what we do when we invest in ourselves and in the community.

But can you speak to that uh ROI, please?

Yeah.

So I don't have like a definite economic number for you.

But I can also tell you that most of the headliners that we bring in, so ten over the past five years, and then um in their entire cruise, because it's usually not just one person, um, they do stay in the hotels downtown.

They do eat in the hotels downtown.

Um and you know, somebody had mentioned the survey that we did, and you know, one of the things that I think is so great about the Levin and Fort Smith Music Series is it eliminates barriers for our community to experience high caliber music together.

It's in one of our beautiful public parks at the Harry E.

Kelly River Park.

So we are using that park that is, I would say probably twice as much as it is throughout the rest of the year by us having our event there.

It's free for our community to attend.

It is multi-generational, so we have a kid zone with a bounce house, everything is free.

We even provide food for people to we have stacks for them that are free.

Um we have food trucks and stuff too, but it's also a city park.

So not only is it ADA accessible, you can bring in your own food as well.

So it's a place where our community can gather easily and be together to experience this high caliber music.

And we're trying to create experiences downtown.

Those experiences help to tell a story that downtown is safe.

It is a place that people want to return to.

And this is a community concert.

This is for our community.

Yes, we would love for people from Greenwood, Van Buren, even Northwest Arkansas.

If they see a band they really want to see and they come, that's wonderful.

But this is for us.

This is this is for us.

You mentioned somebody mentioned Peacemaker.

Peacemaker is incredible.

But it's a ticketed event that sees a lot of people that come from outside of our community, which is amazing.

But this is a free community concert for us right here.

I want to add to that if you don't mind.

So it is for us right here, but it's also an opportunity for us to showcase some of our local talent, local talent.

Um and the partnerships that we have, like Riverboy, you know, RaiRot uh has had music that was um part of the um uh it was the NFL um something something like that, something small like that.

But yeah, I mean it is an opportunity for us to showcase ourselves, our partnerships and and talent that has you know been here and gone on and have done well.

So, yeah, it's for our local community as well, but it's also an opportunity for us to kind of put our names out there to people that might not know who Fort Smith Fort Smith really is.

And we do have a lot of partners um in this series.

So, yes, the the city is when the city provides us with that $20,000, it helps to unlock that grant money for us to be able to get it to put on the series.

But we do go out and have to get sponsorships from private entities.

And when they see the city putting that investment into this community concert, it makes them want to give, it makes them want to be part of it.

And we also have a lot of partners outside of just um you know, in-kind services and donations, and then of course cash donations that we need to.

Um, but we partner with different organizations to be our volunteer organization.

So last year we had the Boys and Girls Club, Girls Inc., um, the NAACP, um, just lots of organizations, um, Harbor House and uh Juvenile Criminal Services, so a lot of different organizations come out and they there are volunteers for the night.

Um they it gives them a chance to meet other people in the community, they can set up a booth and talk about their organizations.

Um we don't charge booth rent for any nonprofit that wants to come out um to be part of our event.

So there's there's a lot of community partners that that we have that make this possible.

Okay, thank you.

Director Kemp.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, uh Miss Amanda for sharing.

I did pull up your email that you had sent to the board on January 9th, just talking about this, and you even had a line here.

You said because of the success achieved during the previous grant cycle, the Levitt Foundation has awarded Fort Smith another three-year grant cycle.

Could you speak to what did they find so successful?

Because obviously they could have awarded the dollars elsewhere.

What what did they like the most about what we did during those five years?

So we have a really great reputation within the Levitt Family Foundation and artist community for being a community that is very welcoming to artists who are traveling from out of town.

Um they really like they like staying in our hotels, they like staying downtown, they love getting to meet the community.

Um the Levitt team, um, which is Main Street Fort Smith puts on the concert series, but we have a team of volunteers that we call our Leviteers, um, our committee, and they are like a well-oiled machine.

Um we we mistakes don't really happen too often, and when they do, we roll with them really well.

So they really appreciate how easy and effortless the community um like the series is when they come and the the production team's amazing.

We use a local production team, Annie Dale Sound.

So they you know, we have a really good reputation of providing a fun, easy environment for the artist and for our residents.

So every year, as part of the reporting that I do for the grant, um we send a hundred pictures from our concerts that like show the spirit of um of the series, and I feel like we have some of the best most fun photos of any of the 50 cities across the nation that has a Levitt location.

Yes, and I think one thing I've enjoyed as I've listened to you and your organization talk about things that you presented to the board is you're a unifier among even some of the downtown entities and perhaps maybe linking ours with the AMP leading up to uh if this passes for the three-year, which I'm in support of uh maybe then the AMP can dial in some of their tools to help show an ROI, which will even continue to help you pursue maybe this or other grants in the future to expand the local music scene.

And I do appreciate Director Good's uh comments.

I think it's always positive when we can foster culture and uh diversity of that, and seeing that it's not just one style of music and uh the intent of it.

So thank you for what you do.

When do you expect uh the first concert to begin?

It will be on September 11th this year.

A fall session this year.

Yeah, we're gonna do a full fall session.

Um, they're gonna be on Thursday nights, but the very first concert will be on a Friday night.

We had a small scheduling conflict at the park.

They were already booked on the September 10th, but that's okay.

Um it'll be on September 11th, and we actually have a local artist who moved out to LA and um is gonna come home.

That's just a little tiny sneak peek who's gonna open the series.

Very cool.

And I have four of the headliners of headliners already booked for the seven shows.

You need extra singer, Neil said he'll sing along.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll mark him down.

We've done that before, Mayor's birthday party.

We have a motion and a second to uh say you can say to uh uh amend is any discussions, Madam Croak.

You want to call the role on that?

This is on the amendment.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, just the amendment.

Uh Directors Christina Kitsavis abstain.

Settle.

Yes.

Martin.

No.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kimp.

Yes.

George Git Savage?

Abstain.

Motion passes four in favor, one opposed, and two abstentions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mayor now I make a motion to pass the item as amended.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

Madam, any discussion on that?

If not, Madam Kurt, please call the roll.

Director Settle?

Yes.

Martin?

No.

No.

Rego?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kitzavis?

Abstain.

Christina Kitzavis abstain.

Motion passes four in favor, one opposed and two abstentions.

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll vote item five.

Point of inquiry, please.

Yes.

Is it procedure, proper procedure to when a board member abstains to state the reason for abstention?

It is.

It's not.

Sure.

It was what Robert's rule says.

You are supposed to state the purpose of your abstention.

Yes.

Okay.

You're supposed to state the purpose if you're recusing, not if you're abstaining.

Madam Clerk, would you could you clarify for us, please?

You may have to refer to the city attorney.

Okay.

Just to verify.

Mr.

Rowe, my recollection are uh is consistent with Ms.

Guard's.

Uh certainly don't have the rule book in front of it, but yes, I thought if it's either a refusal or an abstention, the basis is supposed to be stated on the record.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well, I mean, I would be happy to say as I've abstained every time we've had something with 64.6 that my husband has had some uh business dealings with people that were associated with it.

And it even though that is no longer the case, it could be perceived as a conflict of interest, and I don't want to create a conflict.

Okay, thank you.

So that's my reason.

Thank you.

Um I don't want to approve something three years down the road, is one because we don't know what our finances are.

And two, I would I wish this would have been brought up before when we approved their budget so we would know ahead of time.

That's the reason.

That's all.

But I I um I think Amanda's doing a good job.

I mean, I'm I'm I'm happy for her.

Okay.

All right.

So it's it's been voted on.

So we'll okay.

We will go to item number five.

This is an ordinance amending the 2026 operating budget and appropriating funds toward the implementation of ADA digital compliance requirements for the city website and other items.

Josh Bufink, Director of Communications, will further address this item and answer questions from the board.

Josh?

Thank you, Mr.

Dingman.

Over the past year, staff have been evaluating federal requirements related to ADA Title II digital accessibility, including compliance with WCAG 2.1AA standards.

Uh through that review, it has become clear that the city's current websites, digital documents, and meeting materials are not yet fully compliant, and that the scope of remediation is greater than we originally anticipated.

Currently, we are looking at more than 600 web pages, and over I know it says 4500 in your memo, but upon further review, 6500 documents that require attention.

In addition to the need for accessible board meeting materials and live captioning.

We've already begun training staff so that new content is created in a more accessible manner.

And this request is for tools and services needed to remediate existing content and help city the city maintain compliance moving forward.

The total cost is approximately 35,000, and the request is to use unobligated general fund dollars for that purpose.

This investment will help the city meet its legal obligations, reduce potential risk, and ensure that residents have equitable access to public information and services.

In fact, uh the CDC actually states that it estimates that one in four U.S.

adults have a disability.

It will also provide staff with tools and support necessary to maintain compliance moving forward.

Our city attorney Colby Rowe and I can answer any questions you may have today.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Yes, Mr.

Gary Podgerske.

Mr.

Mayor, Bill Board, before I uh address this topic, I have a point of order.

You recognize?

I'd like to know how the board can make a major amendment on an agenda item and not allow citizens' comments on the amendment.

Sherry.

Well, we uh we are within our um realm of responsibility as the legislative body to amend the documents that are in front of us.

Um there is a sign-up period that takes place.

Uh I believe that you signed up to speak on that item and then um deferred or or neglected to utilize your time.

And so uh the way the rules are now, they contemplate comments at the beginning of the process from the citizens, and then we enter into our legislative process where we're able to make amendments and make changes uh as we have uh the ability to do so.

So I understand that uh I'm getting the impression that that's personally very frustrating to you, um, but that's the system that we operate in at present, and I believe that's the answer is complete as can be given to your question.

Okay, well, I believe that free speech that the first amendment trump everything you just said.

Okay, all right.

And that when you make a major amendment, I've no longer spoke on the original, excuse me.

I've no longer spoke on the original thing.

Okay.

I don't understand how seven board members just passed an amendment that literally spent money that all of you will have to go through an election to be on the board.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, that's wrong.

Now, on this particular thing, I am one of the 25 percent spoken by Mr.

Josh.

Uh I can't recommend this enough.

As a matter of fact, I honestly, federal law, I don't see where you guys have a choice.

Okay.

Uh I will say and uh Mr.

Dingman to Mr.

Josh, you know, the the hearing stuff, the dogs, special seating arrangements.

Uh I want to thank the board and the city staff for uh accommodating under ADA my disabilities.

But uh I stand wholeheartedly approval.

I don't know if I have a disability usually website or not, but um this is a big deal.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay.

Any other comments, Madam Clerk?

None indicating.

Okay, you need a motion to adopt the ordinance?

Thank you.

Any comments from the board?

Director Neil Martin and then Director Kemp.

Hey, Josh, does Granicus have any responsibility in this?

Uh I asked uh Mr.

Rowe and some of the staff at Alien Woods to investigate that for me.

They could probably speak to it more, but long answer made short, no.

Really?

I mean, we we're on their platform.

Yeah, that's that's correct.

But there was nothing in the contract that legally obligates them to make these changes for us because we went in we entered into the contract before the DOJ ruling.

Well, well, uh I I thought this D I thought this was the DOJ ruling, yes, was after this, but the rule the rule was in place or the the um so the WCAG 22.1.2.0 previously, and this is the first time that we've had like real guidelines to follow.

Um they were more loosely kind of ethereal, but now there's actual these are this is what your website has to look like.

Um these are the changes you need to make following WCAG 2.10A, which was previously 2.0 double A.

So Colby, you got to agree with Mr.

Bufing.

The you know the issue is I mean Granit Custic, the city has to use Granicus to fix these things, and we've got an agreement with Granicus, but there's nothing in the agreement that obligates Granicus to make these changes without compensation.

So uh you know, going forward when the granite is contract ends, maybe things are reviewed and we consider that.

But yeah, there's nothing in there that says Granica has had to keep it in compliance with federal law and you know, part of their obligations were to do that.

So outside of that, I mean the city is gonna have to do what the law requires it to do and and you know, foot the cost to do it.

Okay.

That's enough for me.

Director Camp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Josh, thank you for this and your work on this.

And a lot of work ahead of you is what it sounds like.

Yeah.

My question is on the plan to maintain in the future without any backlog work, because I understand you you pretty much can't get this done by the end of the month.

Right.

But then going forward, you know, is is the things that you'll have, the tools you have going to help make sure that you're not backlog in the future?

Yes, yeah.

It's specifically the document remediation tool that I'm looking at, which we're we have implemented right now.

We're just not uh they're giving us like a free service for a bit.

So that will save uh a massive amount of time, but we'll also future proof this more or less.

Yeah.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Okay, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Directors Martin.

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kitsavis?

Christina Kit Savis?

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Item six.

Item six is a resolution authorizing acquisition of an easement for a consent decree remedial measures project.

Director of Engineering, Todd Midge will address this item.

Thank you, Jeff.

This this SSA project is seeking to purchase in fee one small lot on L Street, North L Street for $4,000.

And if you wouldn't mind going to slide 127 of the board packet, it has a small red rectangle that shows the the parcel.

If you could zoom in there.

And basically our SSA work will eliminate any potential use of this project for anything or this parcel for anything other than a utility going through it.

Okay.

Thank thank you very much.

Well then citizens' comments, Madam Clerk.

Yes, Mr.

Gary Podgerski.

Okay.

Motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Comments from the board.

Director Settle?

What what's going to be put in here so it can't be reused?

Is it going to be pipe underneath the ground?

It's going to be sewer pipe under the ground.

Okay.

And also help for for uh constructibility.

We can put vehicles there and have room for dirt when we dig and things like that.

We'll have a manhole when it's all done.

Uh well, it's going to be mostly pipe.

I don't know if there's going to be a manhole on this particular piece, but usually our manhole spacing is around every 300 feet, so there is a possibility there'll be a manhole here.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Any other comments from the board?

Motion to adopt a resolution.

We've got that.

Okay.

Uh Madam Crow, please call the role.

Directors Rigo?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Gittsavis?

Christina Kitzapis?

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Seven.

Item seven is a resolution approving partial payment to Craft Reynolds on consent to create remedial measures.

Project number nineteen-fifteen-C one.

Mr.

Midke.

Thank you.

This is a routine payment to the contractor of $844,000.

And since it is over $750,000, it requires board approval.

Okay.

Thank you.

Citizens' comments, Madam Clark.

Mr.

Gary Podgersky.

I yield.

Thank you.

Motion to adopt a resolution.

Some of it?

Comments from the board.

Yeah, one mayor.

Director Kassavish George.

850,000?

Yes, sir.

Do we not have the people on staff to do this?

Well, this is a or can we not hire people to do this on from this for the city?

We cannot in this case because this is a construction project for the consent decree.

And the project is $9 million.

And so almost all of the concentric work we've been forced to advertise and have better.

Why?

Uh most of the time it's the scale of the project.

So in this case we have 1700 or 17,950 linear feet of pipe replacement.

And to have a staff to do that, we would have another word, we don't have the people.

Correct, sir.

That that's basically it.

Yep.

But if we spent 850,000 to hire on people, would that I mean have y'all even looked at that or we uh we are fully staffed as much as possible.

Uh and this is a public works question.

I don't speak to their their uh I mean we're spending millions of millions of dollars on outside for outside work.

Absolutely.

I mean uh we have to for the amount of concentric work we have and the scale of work we have too for for instance later on the agenda we talked about the Upra Lane that that was just advertised for in uh bid for one point three million and we just those are the type of projects where you need bigger equipment, you need more traffic control, and we some cities may do some of it, but I have yet to see a city that can do that size of a project in house.

In house.

But we have done a lot of work in house for concentric related and waterline related projects.

Yeah, but for nine million dollars we could we just couldn't handle that.

Okay, thank you.

Absolutely.

Any other comments from the board?

Madam Clerk, call the role.

Director Scood.

Yes.

Kimp?

Yes.

George Kitzavis?

Yes.

Christina Kitzavis?

Yes.

Settle?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Next item.

Item eight is a resolution approving acquisition of several properties in connection with basin ten and fourteen capacity improvements for the the consent decree project number twenty-four-eleven.

Mr.

Midkey.

Thank you.

This is for a parcel uh of the former unis uh Union Pacific Railroad, and currently the major May branch trail is located on top of it, and we have appraised the project the project area and this area is currently abandoned, but the Union Pacific Railroad still owes owes it owns it in fee.

So we are requesting to acquire the property for the appraised value, which is 203,000 so that we can avoid the possibility of the railroad ever building on top of our new sewer pipe.

Okay, thank you.

Any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

Mr.

Gary Podgersky?

Okay, thank you.

Need a motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

Any comments from the board?

Okay.

Director Kemp?

Yes.

Todd, could you speak to would this property be able to be utilized in some capacity in the future?

Yes.

Our plan is to put the trail back on top of it once it's dug up and the pipe is in the ground.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So no Director Neil Martin.

Do we know what trail that is?

The Maybranch Trail?

Oh, the Maybe that's trail.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

There are no further comments, please call the roll.

Director Kemp?

Yes.

George Get Savis?

Yes.

Christina Get Savis.

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Item nine.

Item nine is a resolution authorizing an amendment to a professional services agreement with half an associates for engineering services related to the Acme Brick Stormwater mitigation ponds.

Project number 25-06-A.

Mr.

Midke.

Thank you.

This as you well know the ACME Brick Stormwater Mitigation Pond is a very large area in the heart of the city that has been acquired by the city and is a great opportunity for stormwater detention to help to lessen the effects of floods downstream.

In this location, with it being in the upper part, upper reaches of this threshold discharge area, the no s notice noticeable and substantial benefits will extend down to approximately park in Kincaid north of the site.

So we are proposing the three different ponds in this location.

And we already have a contract with half an associates, but due to previous comments and discussion among the board, we are undergoing the recommendation of an amendment to help them bring more options to you so that you can make appropriate decisions, wet pond versus non wet pond.

Um costs of different features in different areas so that you have more control over that.

But I there's there's a lot to go through, and uh Alan from Half and Associates is here to answer any questions and we'd love to answer any questions you might have.

Okay, thank you.

Any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

Yes, we do have several.

Uh as Mr.

McGee didn't say, uh Mr.

Alan Deaver is here to answer any questions.

Okay.

And then for public comment, first we have Joey McCutcheon.

It was saying that we're kind of slow on the trigger here.

Um, you know, we spend all this time and all this money and the dog and pony show that we saw several months back on the park, the acme park, you know, we had all the fancy drawings and this and that, yet, you know, the question is is why we didn't know we had this expense months and months ago.

That's right.

This additional 464,000 dollars that is this a is this another example of rent an engineer?

Uh can we do this in-house?

But that's 464,000.

I know it's it director Rego probably can tell us what percentage of the sales tax dollars that is.

It hopefully, but I mean I'm sure that Director Good probably thinks it's just a drop in the bucket, but to citizens, uh it's a big number.

And uh Mayor McGill, when you set a rule quit quit deciding who you enforce the rule against.

You started off this meeting uh telling us that you wanted respect and decorum, yet when we have this back and forth between director good and a citizen, you just sit there and say nothing.

Yet if it would have been on this side, you certainly would have had something to say.

I think just like your out of order.

Just like I think you're out of order.

I I think you're out of order.

I think you're out of order.

Well, I'm gonna finish my comments where you you've got uh are you gonna enforce that rule against me too after you've interrupted me?

Because that's what you do.

You allow the people you want to talk and then you don't allow people.

Are you are you want to look back for the officers?

Is that what you're doing now?

Continue your comments.

Yeah, how much time do I have since you've interrupted me?

How much time do I have?

Your time is up.

You didn't know.

No, my time is not up.

Those are design costs that we should have known about months and months ago, and it's not right that we spend all this time on parks.

Now we're asking the citizens to come up with another half million dollars.

Next we have Shane McKinney.

I kind of feel weird following that.

He had a lot of energy.

Um I had a really cool video last year of a guy kayaking down 16th Street when we had a heavy rain for about an hour, hour and a half.

Um I've got a kayak now ready, so if it rains real heavy, I'm gonna get like a couple million views on a video.

It's gonna make me a lot of money.

And this seems like it might interfere with some of that.

So that means it could cost me money.

So uh, you know, I do don't really want to be pushing a lot of cars out of Grand Avenue and 16th.

I've pushed a lot of cars out of there over the last four or five years, and that costs the citizens a lot of money.

A lot of them that they can't afford it because their cars get waterlocked and they don't get the street closed, or when they do, they don't pay attention.

Um so there are some negative impacts with the flooding, and I understand that, but I think the things that we can do to mitigate that are important.

But I also kind of agree with uh like Joey, these these costs have a way of escalating over time.

Is there a way we could figure out a more correct estimate of cost before we get started on something?

Um, what is the reasoning why we keep having these projects that continue to creep?

When I was doing web development or when I'm planning a house, project creep is something we always have to plan for.

Like, what what are we doing to address project creep in advance so we don't need to have these heated discussions later?

I think as a board, that's the question you guys really need to be asking of yourselves.

Why is this over and over and over again a problem?

Trying to spend the minimum up front, I understand.

I think that's a valid goal.

You want to be good stewards of the money, but um being accurate stewards of the money in advance would probably cause the citizens to trust y'all a lot more.

Just kind of a thought.

And again, if you guys fix this water problem, that could cost me money on a video, it could get a lot of use.

So don't be too big of a hurry on that.

Next we have Crystal Cadelli.

Good evening.

So this amendment is more than double what the original uh design cost was going to be.

That seems a little outrageous.

And from what I re on the agenda, is that this all came about because there was a lot of rock in one of the areas where uh retainage pond was going to go.

Did we provided, was the board provided any bids or any actual ink costs on what the removal of the rock would be, or did we just jump right into, hey, well, we could do a wet pond, we can do a dry pond, we can do a third pond.

Did we actually do our homework and see what the cost would be to remove the rock?

Or did we just say, hey, we're gonna pay this engineer firm double what we originally paid them?

Um I think that we need to do more homework and more investigation before we approve funds.

Um and Mr.

Rico, since we didn't get to speak on your amendment, um could be a lot if that 27-inch water transmission line breaks.

Um I don't think that we can come up with four to six hundred million dollars right away.

So that 20 grand might seem like nothing, but I bet the residents of Fort Smith without water sure would like that 20 grand back, and every little other dime that you justify spending.

Um nothing is free, by the way.

That free money is the taxpayers' money.

So we are funding it.

So um free is a buzzword, and I think that everybody on that board needs to take in consideration that you're spending our money.

It's not free.

Thank you.

And last we have Gary Podgerski.

So as many of you know, Mr.

Custavus is my ward director.

Uh I live literally a block away from this property.

My across the street neighbor two weeks ago put in a thousand dollars of his personal money to shore up his rear back property line, which is May branch.

I have some questions about this.

So maybe the city engineer or the other gentleman has the answers.

I'd like to know what is the elevation of May Branch.

I do not know that offhand, so okay.

What is the elevation of the top of the rim around what I affectionately call the pit?

I'll go check, sir.

Good morning.

And is it higher than Maybranch?

Yes, sir.

It is.

So in order to use that effectively as a pond, you guys are gonna pay to pump the money from Maybranch into the pit.

Not entirely, sir.

What is the pit's basic purpose?

How are bricks made?

Bricks are made out of clay.

Clay is not porous.

Any water that goes in there is gonna have to be pumped out of there in order to make the pit ready for the next storm.

Okay.

So not only is this going to cost operational funds.

Are you guys direct on the operational funds that this project's gonna cost?

Because I don't think you are.

Okay.

You got to pump the money, and it's got to be pumped across the street.

You got to get it from May Branch to the other side.

It'll be gravity flow, sir.

It can't be gravity flow.

The pit's higher than the May branch.

The elevations don't work.

Thank you, sir.

Uh two minutes or thank you.

Uh-oh.

That's the all indicating.

Okay.

Thank you.

Did you want to make any comments?

Yes, please.

I think it'd be appropriate for me to expand on more details than I did before.

Uh but directly to address the previous comments.

The elevation of the rim, the very top of the the slope at at uh the Acme Brick Company is approximately 182 feet in 182 meters in elevation.

Let's make change that to feet.

Meters doesn't matter.

598 feet of in elevation.

The basin that the water the bedrock is currently at is 507 feet.

So we got approximately 90 feet of drop from the very top of the rim, kind of r relatively where the water tower is, although the I don't have the water tower at that elevation.

That water tower base is approximately 602 feet.

So there's about 90 foot drop.

Where May Branch comes down, and actually the tributary near the Athlon neighborhood, we are at 521 feet.

So there's approximately 20 feet of drop from the east side of the road for water to gravity flow to the basin as it currently sits where the bedrock is.

So part of this in the design funds that we're seeking for the amendment is to do a more intense geotechnical in investigation of the bedrock here, the bedrock on the slope, and also through the rim of old Greenwood Road, just to the east of old or the west of old Greenwood Road.

We may have to bore through that to get the gravity flow, but there's no pumps involved at all in the stormwater storage here.

So those are some specifics there that I can address.

Thank you, Google Earth.

Um also I want to go through some of the variations and list out what the costs of are for some of these different features that this money would be paying for.

So approximately $65,000 of geotechnical investigation that was beyond the scope of the previous agreement with half and uh off site sewer is another one that we are incorporating consent decree sewer work into this for 173,000 worth of design.

So part of that is coming out of consent decree money, not all of this is coming out of uh the streets and drainage side of things.

Utility excavation is about approximately 11,000.

So we're contracting with the company to excavate up one of the existing utilities to make sure we know exactly where it is.

And it's important in this area to know that.

And there's going to be a pond back there that normally you wouldn't be able to see from old Greenwood Road at all.

There's a a big hill in front of it.

But we're going to dam up the the bottom part of that and use that for uh approximately 66 acres, I believe, Ellen.

And Alan, if you wouldn't mind getting ready here, I'm gonna ask for your comments too.

But we're trying to grab as much of the drainage area in this area that we possibly can and use it in the three ponds.

So part of that uh West Pond investigation is about $69,000 in in funds.

The center pond, which is the pond that can hold the most water, is uh about approximately 104,000 in design costs.

And so that is where currently, if these ponds remain dry, the base of the pond will be where the bedrock is sitting.

If the board wants to go with a wet pond design, we would blast down below that approximately 12 feet to create water that is there, a static water source that is always there.

So that it's one of the options.

So we just want to bring be able to bring you options at a later point.

There, that design is approximately $60,000 worth of design costs, and that's from uh uh commitment we made to the neighborhood to to investigate that.

One thing to notice with the the West Pond is with the $69,000 worth of design funds, we could avoid an extra million dollars in rock excavation if we know what's there now.

So I'm sorry, Todd, can you repeat that please?

The last part about possible Absolutely.

So the West Pond, which is to the the uh far left of the screen, is with a little bit more design that we didn't have a chance to do in the previous, it was just outside of the scope of the previous uh the previous contract, it could avoid up to a million dollars in extra rock excavation.

Another thing worth noting is that the location of shale on this property, that if we do blast and have that, we have a resource of basically a quarry that we can have rock and sell rock and make money off of this.

So those are the types of things that by investigating this up front, which isn't built into these costs, we could know how much money we could make on something like that.

But Alan, I know I'm missing something.

I'd like to invite you up here for any other um details I missed.

And just if there's any further questions, um the only thing I'd hit on is that the sewer design is a big portion of this, almost 37% of the amendment.

So it's outside of that pond project design.

Thank you.

And then we'll move on to director's comments.

That's okay.

So moved.

Second, thank you.

Uh Director Kevin Settling, Director of Chris Savage.

Todd, um, this was approved back in uh January of 2025 for 466,000.

And now you're coming to us for an additional 464,000.

My my question is you you did it, you you you broke everything out in an item uh the reroute of six items.

But what should have happened is we should have probably brought this to a study session.

You the numbers you just gave us were not in our packet.

If I known you know 130,000 was consent decree, it might have been easier, but not knowing all that and trying to make trying to make a decision now versus say we got this coming to us.

If you board really want to steal these items, you know, then this is the cost.

Here's the consent decree, here's the reroute, here's the extra U board want, then that's easier for us to swallow.

But I can't make a decision tonight without going through a study session to better understand that because I want to know what the original 464 has gotten us so far, and then what or 466, and what's the other 464 going to get us?

And how you break that down.

To me, I think that would answer a lot more questions instead of causing more confusion and questions and board.

I I think it'd be simpler just table this, bring to a study session, spend spend a few minutes, items one through six, a slide, this is what we're gonna do, this is how we're doing, here's a picture, here's the boar spot, here's the pond.

Because the original packet that back in back in the day has two ponds, and one you talked about was where the wet pond was going to be at.

So I mean trying to even put more where that third pond is versus what was put in there in January of 2025.

So uh I I'll be making a substitute motion to table this, but that's up to the board to decide.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Director Christina Christavens.

So Todd, where this red line is, that's where the we're rerouting the sewer.

That's where the existing sewer main is, yes, that we have to reroute.

So just north of where this red line ends is the ball fields.

And I know there's there's a sewer overflow there quite often any time it rains.

That's one we get fined on, correct?

If it has stipulated penalties, I think I don't know specifically, but if it is an SSO, we would be fined on it.

I think it just got resolved last year.

We remediate that already.

Yeah, before the never mind then.

Okay.

Never mind.

I you know, we uh when we were presented with the renderings, and I remember uh one of the gentlemen from the audience said, you know, these renderings look like hard scrabble, you guys need to go out there and see what it really looks like, and we did.

And you took me out there, and we uh at that point we were only talking about two ponds.

So this does feel like it it came on quickly.

So I I would agree with Director Settle that I think we need to send this to study session and get a little more information.

Thank you.

To clarify we did have three ponds in the January presentation, but I want to be as descriptive and be able to answer as many questions as you can, especially in a study session.

That's a great comment.

So that I'm more than willing, of course.

Thank you.

Director Rigo?

Well, all I was gonna say was that you know there in the long run, uh it seems like based on a reading of the materials that we were provided, uh, that having a third pond constructed uh for a little bit further to the west would uh alleviate the construction costs of going deeper uh into the rock quarry, um not having to do as much excavation there.

Um and the reality is that uh to do construction projects of this you know magnitude, you know, in a legal and professional way, you do have to have these sorts of uh studies and and work products produced by engineering firms, and especially if we would like to be eligible for particular uh potential grant or philanthropic opportunities uh as we've talked about for a while down the road with this, and so you we can't move forward without the professional work uh being done, and so I you know I understand there's some folks that want to uh take this to a study session if that's where it goes, that's fine.

But uh you know it's important to remember that this investment is designed to help alleviate uh that big time flooding that occurs in numerous neighborhoods in the central and northern parts of town, and so I know that that's uh a goal that we all have, uh, and I hope that we don't um uh lose sight of the ultimate goal uh of this project.

Thank you, Todd.

Jared, I agree with you.

The ultimate site is get rid of the flooding.

I just want to see better understanding where everything is visually, where the where the three ponds are at on the drawing, where all those pieces at.

That's all, and how each piece plays into it.

That's what I'm looking for.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Director Josh Kasavit.

Wow.

Why one was discovered from the get-go?

I mean, you you have an engineer design.

I mean, this should have been up front, right from the get-go, the rock, the quarry, everything.

From this is before I came, but from my understanding of the 2025 agreement was not a full design scope.

Well, it was two retention ponds is what I was going to take to mitigate the flooding in my branch.

Now we're coming back.

Well, we need a third pond.

I mean, what the this didn't make sense to me.

Who uh the engine are you are you an engineer?

Come here.

Yeah, as well.

Well, so tell me why why why wasn't this this caught from the get-go from the beginning?

It was.

This is not a good idea.

Well, it was the first we're hearing of it.

The uh third pond has been a plan for a while.

Um we're doing it to reduce construction costs significantly.

Um the the original plan going into the project was yes, let's try to get it into two ponds.

But did y'all know about the rock originally that you'd have to blast it or whatever?

Uh we knew about the rock and the quarry because it's at the surface.

Yeah.

And uh knew that we would be getting into that.

The East property, the rock layer is a lot higher than what we can't see it.

We a lot higher than what we expected.

You didn't do core samples?

We did on the original design fee, that 466,000.

This is we're pivoting the design to try to lower your construction costs due to what we've discovered.

That in this is the juncture point that has been reached after you did the sample work.

Yes, sir.

We've we've progressed through 60 percent designs right now uh for uh all dry pond scenarios and are totally capable of finishing those plans.

This is meant to build upon that.

Some of this work we we absolutely have to do to assist in that design, but some of this is unrelated to the ponds themselves, the sewer work, and then um the wet pond scenario is an added request that you know we're just trying to get more information for us to make educated decisions on how to move forward.

Well, I agree.

We need to take this to a study session and really dig into this a little better.

Thank you, ma'am.

Sir Correct Rigo comment.

Mayor motion to table items uh number one.

Second.

Okay.

So that to a future study session when administration can put it on the docket.

Okay.

Okay, we do have a motion, second, madam clerk.

You want to call roll.

Directors George Kit Savis.

Yes.

Christina Kitzavis, yes.

Settled, yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Can't motion passes seven in favor and zero oppose.

Uh I would say I'd like to get this on quite quickly since it does involve consent decree work.

I agree.

Jeff?

Thank you.

Just time we'll go to item number 10, which is the consent agenda.

There are 15 items on tonight's consent agenda.

However, item number 10 F on your in your packet.

Staff would like to be withdrawn this evening.

There's an issue with that project.

Uh so we would like to not consider that this evening.

Uh however, the remaining items are as follows the resolution approved to being a change order with Western Millwright on the alleyway rehabilitation project.

A resolution approving amendments with integrity on the I'm sorry, with integrity on the farmer's market solar canopy project.

A resolution authorizing a contract for 2024 street overlays and reconstruction phase A.

Resolution authorizing an agreement for project management and support services with Burns and McDonald.

A resolution authorizing partial payment to Forzgrin on Highway 45 relocation project.

A resolution awarding a contract to Crawford construction for I-540 water line crossing at Upper Lane.

A resolution authorizing purchase and installation of security equipment for Creek Moore Park Bathhouse.

Five separate resolutions authorizing five separate third-party hauler contracts for solid waste.

A resolution authorizing an agreement with Motorola for purchase of radio equipment for the River Valley Communications Center.

And a resolution authorizing purchase of HVAC maintenance and control software for the police department.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Yes, we do have several.

On item 10A, we have Andy Hannah to answer questions.

Okay.

Mr.

Gary Podgersky has signed it to speak on every consent agenda item.

Okay.

Item 10B.

10 D and 10E.

Okay.

Shall we start with 10A?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Andy, did you have any to answer questions?

Answer questions only?

Okay.

All right, Gary Podgersky.

10A.

On 10A, I yield.

Tim B.

Kathy Mazick.

Okay.

Nice to see everybody tonight.

I'm here on behalf of the management and the vendors of the Fort Smith Farmers Market.

And I'm just here to thank everyone involved in bringing the solar panel project at second in garrison where the farmers market is located and has been for 23 years to a very near completion.

I'd like to thank the board of directors for their vote of confidence in the mayor, and thanks to Director of Citizen Services, Joshua Robertson, for listening to our needs from the beginning of the project and uh informing us as the project went along of what was going on and what was needed and what they were doing.

And I could go on about this for about an hour, but in short, we are completely delighted and feel very blessed with the outcome of this project.

We weren't sure how the public would react, but it hasn't taken long to find out that uh sitting citizens seem to be thrilled with the look and the feel of the panels, and we've had very positive and uplifting comments about it.

It's a big win for the whole city.

I think as the time goes by that many groups in Fort Smith will be able to use this venue besides us, it's going to be a nice thing for everyone.

Uh Joshua Robertson made sure that our requests for a few electrical outlets were granted, and now we all all we need to do is get the flip switched on.

We're and get busy.

The electricity gives us the ability to replace generators that are noisy and it's kind of stinky, and we'll be able to supply electricity for small freezers with fresh beef, chicken, pork, lamb, small refrigerators for eggs.

And last year, Arkansas legislators passed two raw milk laws expanding where raw milk and other dairy items could be sold, and Act 125 opened up sales to include farmers markets, which requires refrigeration, which requires electricity.

So now we've got a new dairy farmer.

We've got electricity, and we're ready to go.

Okay.

And when I found out about the passage of this law.

Thank you.

Two minutes up, ma'am.

Oh, yeah.

Just 14 seconds.

Just 14 seconds.

And I got very excited about this while I was telling my husband about it, and I said now the farmers market can sell milk that comes straight out of a cow.

And he said, calm down.

I'm pretty sure that's where it's been coming from all along.

Thank everybody.

For uh 10B, we also have Gary Podgerski.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with the policies and procedures, I yield.

Item 10 C, Gary Podgerski.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with policies, procedures, I yield.

For item 10 D, we have Joey McCutcheon.

This is the second round for rent a cop, or I guess it's in this instance is rent of rent of engineer.

A city of this size shouldn't have to rent engineers.

But this is the second round, and I think we need some questions answered.

Um because if I ran my business like this, I would go bankrupt.

And and maybe you can tell me.

Um I believe the last round was with Ben Marts uh last year, and my information is and correct me if I'm wrong, that we were paying him as a contractor at least double of what we would pay a regular engineer.

Uh we shouldn't have to do this.

Is this is this on the website now?

Is this are these jobs being listed on the website?

Uh I'm not sure I saw them uh on the website.

Uh so um you know, 425,000 dollars for uh three months, I believe, full-time service, and six months of on call service.

Uh that seems like it's gouging the taxpayers.

That's a lot of money.

425,000 for uh how many months of of work?

Uh I think the board needs to dig in and and find a solution to this problem so that uh we can find engineers.

Uh I believe that that we um increase the pay scale so that we we would be competitive with other cities.

And I think it's important that that you know, we have engineers on staff so that the taxpayers aren't bearing the brunt.

And uh, you know, just because you have a big bucket of money up out out there in the forms of a sales tax, doesn't mean that that you should gouge the taxpayers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For 10 D, we also have Gary Podgarski.

I wanted to speak on 10 D.

Go ahead.

We've got a time to talk.

I thought I heard somebody had to speak.

You you you recognize?

I'm recognized, thank you.

Madam Clerk, thank you.

Uh in accordance with procedures, I like to yield.

We moving forward with all of the consent for all public comment.

Uh uh director for Savage would like to pull a D.

D.

Well, we're gonna pull a D off was discussion.

Any other item to pull off for uh board discussion?

Okay.

This Christine, you recognize.

Um I had wondered why these jobs weren't on the website.

They weren't listed because we did um, you know, we did increase our pay scale so that we could be competitive.

And um, you know, I spoke with several engineering firms that said, you know, we were almost too competitive, we might be giving them a run for their money, and we haven't been able to hire anyone.

But it when I looked on the website, I didn't see that we were looking to hire anyone.

Todd.

You know, I know you're new, I know you came in in January.

Um, but it was was it last year we passed we passed the new pay scale?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Uh the project engineer position and the deputy director position through my oversight, we're not listed yet on the website, so that was my mistake.

And the project engineer position is listed now, but uh through my miscommunication with HR through no fault of their own, it wasn't on there.

So I apologize for that, but you're absolutely right.

The pay scale has helped, it helped bring me here, and I appreciate that.

But um I'd like to go into more detail with this because this 425,000 is a budgeted amount from the the road and street drainage CIP that is uh a budget amount, but from what's happened since Stan retired in July and to this coming July.

We expect to lose nine experienced staff within the street and drainage side of things, and so this would help alleviate that with not just one person but up to four people from Burns and McDonald, the nationally recognized engineer firm.

So it's not just for one person this time before it was for one person for six months and then three months, and um so that's a little bit more.

And this is basically the the staff leaving is a result of attrition, be it retirements, uh employee transfers or leaving the city for other positions in the private sector in some cases.

Um but given the critical nature of this these roles as project engineer and deputy director.

Uh I have about 68 projects on the street and drainage side, and uh right now Burns McDonald's help helped provide an extra professional engineer to do that to oversee those day-to-day operations while I oversee them in the utility side.

So it it is it is a lot of money.

Anytime you hire a consultant, it's always a lot of money, and I recognize that, and I am open to any variation of this, and I'd love welcome any discussion.

But uh this would include uh three months of full time for one person and then up to six months of part-time for multiple people or any variation of that at this from this budgeted amount.

How long do you anticipate it'll take to get fully staffed?

Well, we were able to hire a utility engineer, a professional engineer from Ozark in at the same time I came on, which was about three three months ago is when I started.

And so I'm hoping for folks like that that are can come out of the weeds and with the compet competition nature, competitive nature between the consultant and the public side of things.

A lot of times cities, counties, state runs into problems hiring experienced engineers that are from a consulting background already, because honestly, the consulting engineers get paid more and they have better benefits, and I'd hate to say that, but I'm 100% honest with you guys, and I always will be, and your trust is more valued valuable to me than anything.

But when we try to go after the experience, we have I kind of have to go other after other public agency folks.

And sometimes that means recruitment, sometimes it means creative recruitment, but that's what came that's what brought me here.

I've been in other agencies and and uh it's part of your decisions with with pay rates helped that last year.

And the HR is able to assist you with those efforts.

Yes, they are.

Okay.

So with with this and what the the project engineer and soon do you deputy deputy director posting is uh at least a half a dozen periodicals in engineering clubs, if you will, like American Society of Civil Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, APWA, which is American Public Works Administration, uh Arkansas Municipal League, etc.

We can get the word out there, but you gotta get somebody wanting to move here is is one issue, and I wanted to move here once I saw the city, once I saw Crawford Sebastian County, I fell in love with it, and I'm banking on that with others coming.

But I'm excited to to welcome folks in open arms.

I right now I have five positions on the streets and drainage problem uh side of things open.

I have one project engineer filled with an engineering training, and he's kind of new to the streets and drainage side of things.

Um Ben Martz at to this point has been helping me with professional engineering uh as a deputy director interim, but I have three other uh project engineers positions that are that are not filled, and this will help supplement while they are able to be filled.

So one thing I wanted to add to so the the total salary and but of in the budget for the engineering streets and drainage side is 1.47 million for a year.

That's what's budgeted for the 2026 fiscal year.

And we are on track to spend right now 905,000 dollars in salaries, so that leaves if we are fully staffed, we'd have 532,000 dollars that we would be spending fully staffed.

This is obviously less than that, but for less people too.

So this is for me to keep this 68 projects going here, and my staff on the utility side, we have approximately 150 projects, whether they're in for their infancy, full design, full construction, or being closed out.

There, so we have over 210 projects that my responsibility to you and the taxpayers Fort Smith is to keep those going without a hitch, and this will help do that.

Well, one thing I've always appreciated about our engineering department is that you operate your very lean.

And when we looked at that last year, we were looking at you know five percent budget cuts across the board, and um you didn't have five percent.

I mean, this was before you came in, but uh invariable cost, and that was really impressive to me that you that the department was run so lean, so I hope that will continue.

And if you don't mind to keep the board apprised as you move through this process so we know where we're at with hiring these positions, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh were there any other items to be considered separate?

Okay.

If not, entertain a motion to adopt the percent uh agenda.

If I may, we we oh oh I'm sorry.

We have more for other items.

Okay.

I'm sorry about that.

So TNE, Gary Podgerski.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

According to procedures, I yield.

And then for item 10E, we also have Larry Yancey to answer questions.

10 F, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I yield.

Item 10 F, Gary Podgersky.

I thought that was a.

I'm sorry, G, 10G.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I yield.

Item 10H, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I'll yield.

Regarding 10 I, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I'll yield.

Regarding 10 J, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I'll yield.

Regarding 10 K, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I'll yield.

Regarding 10 L, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I'll yield.

Regarding 10 M, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I yield.

Regarding 10 N, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I yield.

And lastly, item 10 O, Gary Podgersky.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

In accordance with procedures, I'll yield.

Thank you.

That is all.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Are we pulling item FDF for a separate vote?

Christina or not.

You make a motion.

Okay.

Make a motion to approve all items.

Item 6F or 10 F because it's been pulled.

Second.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Okay.

Madam Clerk.

Uh any other board comments.

Please call the roll.

Directors Christina Kitzavis.

Yes.

Settle?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kim?

Yes.

George Kasavis?

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We're down to the officials forum.

Um I'd like to We do need to consider 10 D.

10 D.

No, that was 10 D.

We didn't pull 10 D up.

We didn't pull that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I'd like to uh tip my head to the men and women that worked uh that major water leak we had uh just recently.

Uh they they responded in an amazing way, and we thank you for that.

Um Director Rigo things.

Uh one you know, more uh uh macro and one a little bit closer to home.

Uh but I just wanted to to speak uh personally and and for uh with uh behalf of my family for a minute and just say I know I I probably share what a lot of people are feeling uh uh on our our continent here the last handful of days.

Uh just real pride with the Artemis II uh space mission.

I mean the the crew uh Reed Weissman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, and uh Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency just represent the best of our two nations.

Uh they've got uh decades of military service amongst them.

They've got uh 11 college degrees between the four of them.

Uh they've gone the farthest human beings have ever gone away from planet earth.

Um the solar eclipse photos that they shared uh from last night are absolutely stunning uh from the uh dark side of the moon.

Uh uh the Pulitzer, if they don't win the Pulitzer Prize for photography, they should just shut that committee down.

Um and you know, even uh pilot Victor Glover uh has shared openly on multiple occasions during the trip uh about his Christian faith, and it's just been amongst the most inspirational things I've ever seen in my life.

It's something we shall take a great deal of pride in.

It's it's history that we're living right now.

Uh and I hope that everybody um is praying and pulling for a safe splashdown for the crew, uh which is scheduled for 7.07 p.m.

uh on Friday.

Um and then Mayor, closer to home.

Uh I would like to see if um I saw some news out of Fayetteville last night.

Um I would like to see if yourself and administration and our chamber can engage uh perhaps in some outreach to uh uh defense company known as Swarm Arrow.

Uh they had a bit of a I guess of a difference of opinion or back and forth uh with the Fayetteville Planning Commission uh yesterday, and so they could be uh looking for uh a new location or or a new home or a new place to do business, and so I would just uh encourage our uh leadership folks to to look into that and see if there's any possibilities uh there.

Okay.

That is on the radar.

That was brought to our attention uh earlier today, so thank you.

Director Good.

Thank you, thank you, Mayor.

Just want to take a moment just to um thank my fellow board members again.

Um recently we went back and uh visited the Spay Newter voucher program.

Um it's a very good program.

I know we're doing a lot of good, but just want to put this out there.

There's so many issues regarding irresponsible pet ownership that we're still not catching.

You know, this is a time for multiple litters, and we've got rescues and individuals and Animal Haven that are just running over, and litters are being dropped off.

You know, I I don't know what more the board can do.

I mean, there's issues such as you know, individuals having animals caged and pinned up in crates outside for the majority of the day, which to me is cruel.

Um I just don't know where we go, how much more strict we can get, but we don't need to be the community we are right now.

We need to do more to protect not only our citizens but the welfare of these animals.

Okay, thank you, Director Kemp.

That's it for me, Mayor.

Thank you.

Director Josh Gassav.

Yes, sir.

Josh, is you here still here?

Josh.

He's in the back.

Josh.

The water department, Josh.

The water department, Josh.

Joshua Robertson, director of citizen services.

Yes, we talked before the meeting, and you're aware of what's going on with these water bills.

Correct?

Well, there's my on there.

Uh the ones that you were indicating, I believe, on social media.

We did research, and there, yeah, there's no issue.

We're working with those customers to find out why they had a high bill, or one was a non-sufficient fund payment.

So there's just different reasons for these.

One, we did find out with Matt Meeker's crew today on a work order that uh one of them was due to a failed electronic uh transmitter, and we contacted the customer and providing a adjustment.

So I will say in March, our billing accuracy, which is between my team and Matt Meaker's team, it was a 99.18% billing accuracy.

Um we did over 600 outbound calls, which a majority of those are to customers that are about to receive a high bill, so we can start that process working with them to figure out what it could be.

And then we issued per policy 255 leak adjustments just in March.

Yes, in March.

Okay, here's here's the the issue is the the customer knows their bill is high.

And I think the city the city does too, because if their bill goes up 300 percent, was it not Lance said that this that with cle the account is flagged for yes?

Over 300 percent.

Over 100 percent.

300 percent, we do do a reread, yes.

You okay, and if the reread is inaccurate, they get a refund, right?

If the reread comes back that the read is inaccurate, we change that read before the bill goes out.

Now, if it is confirmed that that read is correct, then the bill goes out and we contact the customer, like I stated.

We did over 600 outbound phone calls in March.

We contact the customer if they have contact information on their account to let them know, start seeing if they had any kind of issues at the home.

Um even one of the ones that you mentioned to me, we actually called that individual and they did not have a voicemail box that was set up, and so we could not leave a message.

Yeah.

Well, let me ask you, let me answer this is true.

A lot of them people are saying that the city knows their bills high, but they're still gonna cut their water off if they don't pay it.

How would you address that?

No, we work with those customers when especially if we're investigating something trying to find a leak, but they come back and say they do not have a leak, and the meters come back, read is confirmed, nothing is wrong with the meter, the water went through the meter, we have to bill and collect on that usage.

But if their bill is normally $50, they get a $500 bill and the meters shows us that's what it read.

I mean, that's still not you know, there's something not right.

I mean, you the they even uh uh Lance made it to these some of these meters are flawed.

Yes, and I will say that they're inaccurate.

Yeah, Matt Meeker is actually even one of the meters that were um a part of the ones that you indicated.

Yeah, they actually replaced that meter uh with a new badger ultrasonic, and he's going in and putting it in.

Okay, that's a good meter.

Badger's a good meter.

These enters are trash.

Yes, and so Matt is now replacing those with ultrasonic, and we're actually seeing those Earth adjustments go down.

We go down.

Yeah, we only administered 11 in March next to January.

We did 25.

Could I mention this uh about a year ago?

Director Good made a comment says, why don't you go back and look at the six-month average billing history?

Do y'all do that?

We do.

If if we have a hard time, or let's say that they don't have enough time to go out and get all the rereads, or we just cannot get an accurate read.

We will do an estimation.

And it'll actually show on the bill as E.

Estimated.

A is actual.

So yes, there are some that we do estimate if we're not able to really feel like we're getting a accurate read for that bill.

So things are getting better, you think?

I do believe they are.

Especially my team working with Matt.

Um they're going straight out on a lot of these issues and going ahead and just changing out the meter.

They do meter tests, the majority of these.

I don't think I've seen one that has failed, but he's just going to go ahead and replace them, especially with the new technology that he's now purchasing.

And then his team and my team have been working together on some process improvements and efficiencies to try to limit a lot of these rereads and to try to get a more accurate read at the very beginning.

Okay, thank you, Josh.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Maggie, I have a question for you.

The golf course at Deer Trails wants to become an entertainment district.

How do we do that?

So they can sell food out on the course and drinks.

They can't do that now with that being an entertainment district.

You mean they can't walk around with their you can't deliver food out to the golfers or or look or our drinks.

Unless they're an entertainment district.

Jeff, you want to.

I will say that the entertainment district really only applies to public rights of way.

I mean the the golf course is on private property.

Yes.

It's in the city limits.

But it's not city, it's not city owned, it is private property.

Right.

Who owns the private property?

The city.

The FCRA.

It's in the city limits, correct?

Oh, it is.

It is within the city limits of Fort Smith, yes, sir.

And we control the zoning.

Yes.

Correct?

Yes, sir.

But we can't approve an entertainment district.

Well, it's that's that's not the purpose of an entertainment district.

An entertainment district is for like for instance, Garrison Avenue.

All of the all the restaurants and establishments on Garrison Avenue can serve.

Okay, so why is the FCRA title and mm?

You can't go out on the course and sell food or whatever.

That I don't know the answer to that, but an entertainment district is not the is not the answer.

It is it is privately owned property.

So the way it's zoned right now, can they deliver food and beverages to the golfer?

No.

Legally.

I'm not talking about what the FCRA is telling them.

I'm talking about legally.

Do they have the right to do that?

If not, how do we remedy that?

That is certainly something that we can work through with somebody that has an interest in this to determine those answers.

It's it's zoned PCD right now.

This was part of the River Valley Sports Complex original PCD zoning.

And it is zoned for a golf course.

And what the golf course chooses to do on a golf course, the city wouldn't get involved in.

The dealings between the FCRA and the Deer Trails golf course are private matters.

Well, I I think that they reached out.

I'm imagining did they reach out to you?

Yeah.

I'm imagining they reached out because the FCRA isn't allowing them to do that.

And I think we've seen this before with that organization.

If you have a contact, I'll be happy to talk to them.

I'll get to you tomorrow.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Okay.

Thank you.

Director Christina said.

Nothing for me, thank you.

Director Settle.

Sure, a couple of things.

Over the past couple of weekends, the um we've had uh young ladies represent the city of Fort Smith, Van Buren, Halma, Greenwood, uh, North Side, South Side, playing volleyball.

They've gone, we've gone to Minnesota and to Houston, and those young ladies represent our our valley in the city very well.

Uh and it's kind of refreshing when you get to see our girls uh go out there and perform and do their and uh do a great job and and how they interact with young uh people for that United States.

You know, we play teams all over you know the United States, anywhere from Texas to Missouri up to the northern side up down to Arizona.

So our girls are getting a great opportunity to uh show our our our love for our city and where we are.

The other thing is I'd like to start in May.

I like to all have all study sessions in this room starting in May.

I I don't like the back room.

I I think it's less inviting.

I just I I think I'd rather be up here.

So starting in May, I'll give you April, but starting in May, I'd like to have all study sessions.

Just boot the planning department out of here, period.

However, they want to do with it, but starting in May, I like the study sessions in this room.

Okay, thank you.

Director Neil Mark.

Is do we have a project that is rocking Mill Creek or putting some rock in Mill Creek?

There is an engineering project for the fortification of the banks along Mo Creek, yes, sir.

It's the ship the Navy Road.

Yeah, what's what's the what's the timeline on that?

Do we know?

That is Todd's on his way up, but we've been waiting for permitting from the Corps of Engineers.

I think that is nearly nearly complete.

But look.

Yeah, we're getting word from the Corps of Engineers weekly.

It's close.

It's close.

Close to being able to start moving.

To be permitted.

To be perfect.

But we still have some design left on it.

We just met with Hawkins Weir, the consultant on it yesterday and went over some uh.

Do we want it grouted?

Do we want some of these options?

And uh they educated me about the 2019 flood that uh had some impact on that, but yeah, we are moving on it.

Okay, all right, very good.

But just keep us in the loop on that.

Uh and then I do want to second uh whoever said it earlier, those that that spent their Easter weekend um fixing water lines.

Um I felt bad for those guys um doing that and and I appreciate their uh their diligence in getting that up and running.

Uh 11 30 Saturday night.

Um and that's that's awesome, Mark.

I appreciate those guys.

So I I hope you hope you guys pass that along to uh to all of those that that were involved.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, with that motion to adjourn.

So move seconds.

Thank you.