Welcome to our meeting.

The date is August 12, 2025.

The time is 6 p.m.

This is an open meeting of the Grand Island City Council.

The City of Grand Island abides by the Open Meetings Act in conducting business.

A copy of the Open Meetings Act is displayed in the back of this room as required by state law.

Let's please all rise and perform the Pledge of Allegiance.

Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Council President Shearden.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk.

Present.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendeza will be absent.

Councilmember O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Pollock.

Present.

Councilmember Lanfier.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Jill Grenier, the city clerk.

Laura McAloon, the city administrator, Patrick Brown, the assistant city administrator, and chief financial officer.

A sign-up sheet was available in the lobby for individuals wishing to provide input on any of tonight's agenda items.

If you did not sign up to speak on an agenda item, please come forward, state your name, and the agenda topic on which you will be speaking.

No one has come forward, so let's continue with item 5a fiscal year 2026 public works engineering administration and MPO budget proposal.

Mr.

Kurtz, it's nice to see you.

Good evening.

So I'm going to kick off the public works uh department discussion tonight for our budget.

Uh obviously we'll go through each of the the divisions here.

I'll talk about engineering and admin, the MPO, um, and then we'll go through streets and fleet, solid waste, transit, and wastewater.

So department engineering and admin, overall our personnel services are up slightly as you can see here.

Engineering is 5.49%, admin increase of 1.77% is proposed.

Our operating expenses for these two did change slightly, uh little bit more on the engineering side, obviously.

Uh 18.98%.

This has contributed to our permitting software.

Uh we switched to a citywide system.

And so uh this open gov contract was carried solely by the engineering division.

Um so that is coming off.

We're absorbing our share of the um new software into our uh existing budget or last year's budget, so this is in or the decrease.

Admin went up a little bit.

We moved the vehicle maintenance for uh the vehicle that I drive while on duty into the admin portion of the budget.

Um, as you can see, uh total expenses uh uh for engineering um, mostly with salaries and whatnot.

Uh approximately a quarter million dollars of that is recovered.

We either track our time and and charge to uh to projects that we're working on or some small portion of it is uh through the permitting fees, plan review fees, those type of things.

Um majority of the work that our engineering staff does is not really accountable, billable, so to speak.

Uh so that's general fund work, obviously, cities citizen complaints and uh review of those kind of things.

Um again, the permitting kind of comes into that as well.

Researching new projects, uh doing homework on those kind of things.

Um our admin, as you can see, um expenses here, 470,000 of that is recovered through fees uh to wastewater solid waste and streets uh to cover a portion of that expense.

So that's that in a nutshell.

I don't know if anybody had any questions on any of those portions.

So we will switch to NPO.

MPO budget.

Um we are a MPO uh primarily because our urbanized area is over 50,000 people.

Uh this is a federally required uh stipulation once we hit that threshold.

This division is funded 80 percent by the federal government through FHWA and FTA.

Um again, this is policy making and planning for our uh transportation network in the area.

So as you can see, our budget uh proposed versus last year, our revenue.

This is down primarily because we aren't asking for as much money from the federal government.

Again, that was an 80-20 split.

Um we are currently working through our long-range transportation plan.

We're getting close to the end of that, but because of that heavy lift in the 25 budget year, our um expenses were obviously a lot higher, but our revenue was higher because of that as well.

So even though this is going down 15%, in essence it's really not because we're not doing another long-range transportation plan.

So our spending, as you can see, is also down considerable as well.

Um again, total budget proposed 314 and change.

The city share of that is a 20%, a little under 63,000.

Uh some of the major notes for 26 that are being proposed.

Obviously, we are finishing uh the work on the long-range transportation plan.

Uh, and then the other two items are just the typical operations of this division.

Again, we're we're putting together an annual transportation program and and work program and maintaining a list of projects, not only that we complete, but the state completes within our boundary.

Uh again, planning uh putting all the pieces together for the future.

So there's definitely uh benefits to this as well.

That's all I have on that.

Uh is there any questions or comments on that budget proposal?

Shared, pardon me.

Thank you.

Uh just two thoughts.

One, uh, just for anybody watching at home and for this group, if you don't know, a couple of us sit on this MPO board and are privy to these conversations and some of these expenses.

We go over them, we see what they are.

Um, this is all in line with what we normally would have.

So I just feel like we don't report out on that a lot, and I just wanted like some of these other things to say that were there.

Um the 80 percent federally funded.

Um this is something we did talk about in our meeting, but speak a little bit about the big beautiful bill and what it might have done to federal.

Did it impact our money at all on this?

No, not in this area.

Uh these are I'm not gonna say stable.

I mean, I I would think that they would be the most stable planning planning funds.

Again, this is something that we're told to do.

Um, so this isn't uh a project specific type thing.

Um it's more maintenance of it of of uh operations, so I I don't feel that the funding and in this regard is at risk at all.

Okay.

Uh I know that that's a question I've been getting a lot is how much to the federal cuts, how much is that impacting us?

And this is one of the areas I don't know that people realize 80% of this comes from federal dollars.

And it's good to know that this hasn't hasn't been impacted in your in your purview.

Yeah, as far as planning, again, it's pretty consistent.

This isn't actually funding any projects themselves.

So that would be a different situation that you know there might not be as many opportunities to apply for federal funding as there has been.

Good evening.

I'm Shannon Callahan.

I'm the street superintendent and um oversee the budget for the streets division and for fleet services.

Um so this is the proposed budget for the streets division.

Uh just a little bit of background here on our some of our facilities.

Um we had talked about in March about the possibility of streets and fleet needing an updated facility.

Um, talked about some best options, um, and then Keith has budgeted some funds in the CIP for land acquisition.

Um lane miles.

So this is something that we report to the state every year, what has been added.

Um so here's just a chart of what we've added through the years and how many lane miles we're responsible for.

Um as you can see, since 2000, we've added over 200 lane miles.

Um, and just to give some context, here are some communities that in total are just over 200 lane miles.

So, in essence, have added an entire community to the city of ground streets division to maintain as far as street maintenance goes.

Um, most of our work is seasonal.

Uh, we try to work around the weather.

Um, this is kind of excuse me.

This is how we organize our staff and try to get as much done as we can through these seasonal functions.

Um, some of the functions we do are non-seasonal, they're continuous.

Um downtown special events, street sweeping.

Um, we've been trying to do street sweeping downtown once a month for about two years now.

We've been trying to up that program.

Um, that's been very successful.

Um, we'll do that unless the weather says we cannot.

Um, some other things like locates we talked about last year.

We're spending a lot of time doing locates for uh underground utilities, storm sewer and the traffic signal wiring.

Now, Keith asked me to be a little more detailed about our stores storm sewer cleaning program, um, just in light of the the flood event that we had earlier this summer.

Um, and then obviously we've just kind of had an ongoing wet summer compared to most.

Um so our storm sewer cleaning program, um, responsible for storm sewer cleaning, which we also refer to as mainline flushing.

Um we do this during the summer months.

We try to fit in about four good months of mainline flushing.

Um, and then also we'll uh handle some trouble calls.

So if somebody thinks a line is plugged or there's an issue somewhere, we'll go try to take care of that right away.

When the guys are not doing mainline flushing in the spring and fall, they're using our big vector truck to do inlet cleaning, so cleaning the storm inlets, or we refer to them as catch basins.

So we try to do that seasonally.

Um and then in between all of those, we do what is called our hotspot list.

So as we're as we've developed our program, we found areas that might need more attention on a regular basis for whatever reason, like tree roots are common there, so we are getting a lot of callbacks that it's plugged.

So we'll add it to our hotspot list, and we'll either hit it once or twice a year, depending on um how bad it is and if it needs it that often.

Um other things on that list include exercising gates, making sure pumps are running, cleaning overpass drains, underpass pits, um, some inlet boxes, uh junction boxes we have as overflow boxes, and also in our what we have done so far, we've come across some siphons, uh, which is where you it would intersect another pipe, possibly a uh sanitary pipe or a water line, and they would actually make the storm sewer go underneath and back to the its original elevation.

Um so as you you know, a lot of debris can collect in those because it's the gravity has to push it up and through that siphon.

So as we find those, we're adding them to our hotspot list, and again, that's that's helped us not get those those trouble calls or you know, trying to not put out fires all the time, so we're trying to stay ahead of it.

So this is our storm sewer network as we know it today, um, constantly getting added to with new subdivisions or finding new things we didn't necessarily have mapped because of the age.

Um the red is what pipes we have flushed to date.

So our program started around 2014-2015 with the goal obviously of trying to make it all the way through the city and not knowing how long that would take us since it had never been done before.

Um so right now, uh linear footage wise, I would say we're about a third of the way through the system, but we have been concentrating on some areas that have a lot of storm sewers, so it takes us and age wise or older.

I would hope that those are probably the most complicated, so probably taking us a little longer as we stretch out, get to the newer parts of town.

I I would foresee it maybe speeding up for us a little bit.

Um but just going into a new program like this, try to figure out how do you just say do the whole city and and try to make make it feel like you're accomplishing you know each year each season.

So really modeling our program off of what the wastewater collections group does as far as their sewer sheds.

So this dividing up our storm sewer network into these uh smaller areas where this area might drain into one larger pipe, such as like a big pipe going down Broadwell or Capitol Avenue, and really trying to say, okay, let's get each of these, you know, focus on an area, and then we'll move to the next area.

And then as we're planning out our work, we'll move on to these whole systems.

So the purple here is what we've had done, um, have done in the orange highlighted is what I what we're referring to as our Broadwell system.

So this is north of the railroad tracks, um, the UP railroad tracks, and all of these lines end up eventually into that Broadwell pipe that runs north to Capitol and Broadwell.

So we're going through and cleaning all these smaller networks to get to the big pipe, and then as we get done, we'll have a better chance of cleaning the larger mainline pipe.

We have one section that we're currently working on in this Broadwell system, clear to the north there in yellow.

Once that's done, uh, that Broadwell system will be complete and we'll be able to focus in on another system.

As I right now, I have it penciled in to kind of focus on this, what I would call the custer system.

Again, all these smaller areas flowing to a bigger pipe on custer, and then that line goes north to capital.

So I feel like once you really start chunking it up like this, it uh you can really see the progress that we're making.

Um it really makes it feel less overwhelming than just that big map of you know, spider webs of pipes.

So I've been really really happy with the way the program's been going the last few years.

I think it's made a big difference for our drainage system overall.

Not only one being able to handle the trouble calls by investing in this factor system and the staff that we have to take care of them.

Prior to that, we would have to have all kinds of stuff out trying to get pipes unplugged because we didn't have the right equipment.

There would even be times we would have to call the sewer infrastructure group to help us if it was something major.

So we'd have a plethora of people and equipment there, you know, and none of it was quite right for what we are doing.

So just in that alone, I think has been a really good ad for the city.

Um, and I think we're all pretty excited to get all the way through town and see what that looks like.

Okay, so the budget.

Um streets proposed budget is here's some numbers here, um, kind of broke into a few categories.

Personnel operating, non-capital projects, and then we also have a budget line item in the 410 fund, which is the capital equipment fundel budget.

Um it's up slightly.

That's just normal cost increases for personnel.

Um we're not asking for any additional FTEs this year, but I would like to note that we are going to ask for a title reclassification, um, a retitle of a position, the accounting tech to an administrative assistant to better align with their job duties that they're already doing.

Um, but that will be presented with the salary ordinance.

Operating budget, um, this is up quite a bit from what we would normally ask for.

Um this past year, we have experienced quite a few vendors giving out notices that they will, if they have not already increased prices, they will be increasing prices due to tariffs and some other things.

So we we went very conservative and quite a few line items for like street repair materials, uh equipment repair.

Um we added 25% to those expenses to try to be prepared for these large increases.

The vendors have said that they are expecting also insurance premiums like for our liability property vehicle insurance went up a lot this year, so we would expect that to be the same.

Uh traffic signal controller replacement.

Um there was uh we're actually trying to rebudget funds from our non-capital projects into operating.

Um this is gonna start becoming a routine maintenance activity for us.

Um so this one is it's a pretty big increase for us, but it's a decrease from a different line item, so we're just shifting where those funds lay within the budget.

Uh downtown on street parking.

Uh we do this once every two years, so it was not in the budget this year, but it will be in this uh, excuse me, not in the budget last year, but will be this year, so that's that's why that shows up as an increase.

Um, and then this would be a new ask asking for some additional funds to address some of our dead trees that are in the highway right-aways.

Um about 15,000.

Um we're working with parks to get some of those on their tree inventory that they've been working on, and I think once that's complete, then we'll have a really good idea of how many we have out there that we need to deal with.

Um I'm not a tree expert, so I'm not sure why, but there is just a lot of our right-of-way trees like along 281, highway 30 um are suffering and/or have have died and need to be um taken down.

So that's that's that request.

Non-capital projects budget.

So this one consists of like our asphalt resurfacing projects, such as the uh resurfacing they just finished on South Locust Street out by the interstate, uh, contracted concrete repair, and then some traffic signal infrastructure replacements and upgrades.

Uh the traffic signal infrastructure is getting expensive.

We will experience some knockdowns, hopefully not many, but that happens.

Um, sometimes that has to be budgeted in here.

Um, an example of one of the smaller projects we did with this type of money is this addition of the advanced warning system uh for northbound highway 281 at highway 30.

Um we did that two years ago, I believe, so that's something that our staff and worked with some contractors and then did a lot of work on their own to add that warning system.

Um, and then again, a note about that signal controller replacement.

I'm gonna try to grab some funds from this non-capital line and put it into our operating since it's gonna be a continuous project for us.

Um capital equipment, uh, these are the equipment requests that we submitted for this year, um, have some HVAC unit replacements that are needed at our main facility, and then I've got one dump truck that has been on order since the fall but is not here yet, and I'm not expecting it probably till late September or early October.

So that's going to get rebudgeted from this year into next year.

Uh streets funding, this is just a list of uh the revenue sources in which streets is funded, um, sources obligated for roadway maintenance or construction, um, and then again the 410, the capital equipment fund.

There's a transfer from the streets fund into there, and then also the car rental tax revenue.

Okay.

Is there any questions on the storm sewer?

Do you think you'll complete the custer section customer system this year or will that go on the next year?

I I think it's really likely we will get started this year, but no, I do not think we'll be able to finish the whole thing.

Um, so for example, this Broadwell system, this is the second summer that we've been working on that.

Um it is going a little bit faster for us now again with with you all allowing us to buy certain equipment, we can go a little quicker.

So we invested in a camp a poll camera a few years ago.

So the guys have been able, they can go out and look actually look at the pipe to see if it needs flush.

And if it doesn't, if it's clear and it's clean, then they they don't have to flush it prior to having that.

We're flushing every pipe, and it was very time consuming.

Um, and actually that's these pictures are from that pole camera.

So it's a really good piece of technology that we have, and it has really sped up the program for us, so we only have to focus on on what's needed, um, and then it can take these pictures so you can actually see see what you're up against as far as the cleaning, and then the guys can also say, is this pipe we flushed it a few times, is it clean?

And they can actually you know see progress while they're working where prior to that they're kind of flushing blindly, so to speak.

So thank you, Mr.

Nickerson.

Well, Shannon, it's always good to see you here and have you update us on what's going on.

I want to commend you again and the crew for a great job that you're doing on the storm sewer pipe cleaning and the detention cell maintenance.

Those are those are things that pay big dividends when we have a seven-inch rain, as we all know here within the last month or two, whatever it was.

And though everything doesn't drain exactly the way we want it to, it drained a heck of a lot faster than it would have 10 or 15 or 20 years ago because you're doing the right thing.

That's what's important and to keep up with it and to have the tools that you need is exactly what you need.

I think it's also interesting to note that the number of lane miles that we have in this town are farther than driving to Colorado Springs and back, which is what I did here weekend ago, a couple weekends ago, over almost a thousand miles of lane miles, if I remember right, right?

Was that 970?

It was 450 to Colorado Springs, 450 back.

Sequel and going to Colorado Springs and back and still have more lane miles to take care of.

So that's a that's a lot of miles in a little, I don't even know if we're five mile square town, three mile square town.

I don't know what our size is, but that's that's a lot to take care of, and you guys and gals are doing a great job.

One thing that I'm going to encourage residents to do, and that's adopt a drain in your neighborhood.

Even though we had seven inches of rain here a while back, and we saw the drainage there, we had a half inch of rain yesterday at five points area.

And while my area drained very well because I've adopted six drains, I noticed as I headed down Wheeler, I couldn't believe the amount of water that was backed up in the gutters.

And I and I can almost guarantee that those drains have not been kept up.

It's not the city's job to come and clean up every drain because you can't be there.

But I think as residents, we have to adopt adopt the drains within our one block area.

I've got six drains on three on each end of my block, and it's not hard to maintain.

And yeah, I'm gonna get a trash can full of crap from that stuff because it all washes all the pine needles and all the everything that you can imagine, but it scoops off easily.

I can dump it in my trash can and the trash haulers take it away.

But I think in order people want to complain about how water may back up in some areas, it's partly our own fault.

And we need to adopt that drain in our neighborhood.

And and there's usually two or three in many of these blocks.

It doesn't take long to just take a few minutes to get that cleaned up, especially after rain, because it's going to wash it all back there.

Every time I walk or drive by Webb and CAP Webb and State, I'm always impressed at how nicely that particular detention cell is kept up now.

I remember when it used to be grown overgrown with all kinds of stuff.

And I drove by it again today.

And just think, you know, just it it not only looks good, it functions well, and that's what it's all about.

So again, as I see what what everyone does, I just want to commend you again for a nice job there.

And I haven't got to see the concrete crew for a while.

I know they're out there working, but I'm always impressed every time I get a chance to see them and see what they're up to.

Yeah, the the small group of five, if we're fully staffed and everyone's healthy on the concrete crew, they do a really good job.

Um we put them after some of the harder things.

Um, but they also get called away for things like culvert repairs, which unfortunately with the big rains that we've had, we've had quite a few of those this year, um, dealing with some pop-up stuff from that big rain.

I imagine that we will continue to find those for a while.

Maybe stuff that hasn't showed itself, you know, under the pavement from from the the high water that we had.

So not necessarily being able to work on exactly what we planned out this summer, but yes, they do a good job, and and um I think we're lucky to have the crew that we do.

I agree, they're very efficient too.

They they've got it planned out meticulously every day.

Thank you, Shannon.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

Shannon, I've got two questions, one on insurance rates and the other one on locates.

The first thing you said, your insurance rates are have gone up, and you're so your operating expenses are gone up.

And if it's going up for you, I'm assuming it's going up for every department in the city.

Do you know why it's going up for you?

I don't know that I have a great explanation for it.

I know insurance rates after a lot of natural disasters the last few years have gone up.

I think for everybody everywhere quite a bit, not just necessarily for the city.

Um, just even like a personal, you know, anecdotal, your car insurance is going up, like a lot of that.

Um I do think that maybe Pat is looking into trying to see if we can do a little better on that.

So currently we're filling out applications uh with our new insurance brokers, and we are looking at different insurance carriers.

So hopefully we we put in for an increase in for insurance.

Hopefully, it comes in lower.

So if the streets are up like 61,000, do you have an idea of how much the city total city costs of insurance is up for the same grouping?

Same grouping?

Well, for all departments.

I believe it's probably 10%.

Okay.

Which is a million dollars, a half a million.

Do you have a dollar?

Probably 110 to 120,000.

Okay.

Thank you.

So Shannon, the other ones on locates.

You talked about more and more time is on locates.

And there was a national story this last week about um underground fiber being constructed all around the nation uh in large quantities lately and gas lines being hit, and they had a couple of explosions in other communities in the country.

Um do we have an opportunity?

Uh, because part of the blame there was they were talking about locates weren't done maybe properly.

Do we have an opportunity in the city?

Because it's not just this your department, I mean the electric water other departments have the same thing to contract out with somebody who does the locates and they could go for the city and locate electric water sewer, um, storm sewer.

I mean, I imagine that there might be a contractor out there like that.

I know some um like cable fiber folks do have a contractor that locates for them.

Um they might do several companies all at once as they're going around.

Um, and when we talked about adding a position last year, the year before, specifically to help us with the locate workload.

Um, I do think that they're probably we could probably look for something, um, but I think you're losing a lot of that purpose.

And um, so we're trying to manage some risk, right?

We don't want our storm sewer getting hit, but the guys care because if it gets hit, they're fixing it, right?

Like it's their infrastructure to manage.

So I think we might lose some of that if we brought in an outside group.

Um also you would have to have somebody manage the contractor, right?

It's not a hands-free, you have to make sure that they're doing what you're asking them to do and doing it correctly.

Yeah, I I echo everything she said, plus ten.

Um because to her point, our crews know our system.

Uh we're out there, we take it seriously, we get it done.

We oftentimes will be either working on design for a project or literally building a project, and new things will pop up because I don't think they're getting the quality locate that we're providing, whether it be us, utilities, the gas companies, local, they're very good.

Uh the the more local companies we see that like I said, time and time again.

We'll we'll be we've we just had one the other day.

We've had locates called out on multiple occasions, and all of a sudden a new line popped up.

And so I would strongly urge to, even though maybe you can contract it for slightly less, I think we would pay for it over and over again in hits that aren't being located.

I think it would be not a good idea to contract that out.

Yeah, I just think when we get called out for a locate, we probably send three or four city employees from different departments to go locate.

You know, the everybody does their own, and for those reasons, and quite honestly, we've talked about that a little internally.

Would it make sense to have a locate division?

There are pluses and minuses to that.

Uh, but we have had those conversations and in and thinking about that.

There's some other good things about it too.

You get a little redundancy of employees.

If one guy is out, another one can step in and cover.

Um, but I would strongly urge to keep it within the city regardless of how we manage that operation.

Yeah, I'm glad you're looking at it because that was really my question is was there an opportunity?

And and I'm glad you're looking at it.

So thank you.

Mr.

Shear.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

Shannon, um, on your capital expenses for the equipment capital.

You list that we have a truck that is from last year's budget into this year, and I see that there's another one down there below, and you talked really quick when you went through this.

So I just if you said this, I apologize.

Do you is that a second new truck?

Yes, it would be a different truck.

How often do you need new trucks like that?

Mm-hmm.

So we have a we have a fairly large fleet, but it's also a big variety of equipment we have.

So I put together like a point system basically to try to get some apples to apples to see where we what we should even be looking at replacing.

Um and so whatever ends up in that re I call it like the replacement zone, then we then try to drill down a little farther to decide which ones that what we're actually gonna follow through with replacing.

Um we have we have enough dump trucks we could probably do one a year.

I think if we miss miss a year or two, we'll probably be okay and stay on top of it.

Um that's been difficult here for quite a few years is it's taking a long time to get them.

So what used to be maybe take four months, get your truck, now it's we're talking 12, 14, 16 months out.

Um so by that time you have already had to make a decision about what you're getting the next go around.

Um so the last few years I've been hitting the dump trucks hard because I want to try to get on top of that curve.

I don't want to wait till this thing is done, and now I gotta wait 14 months to get a new one just because that lead time is so long.

Sure, and that makes total sense.

Of the different things you have listed on this slide, how many do you think you will actually get this year if we approve all this, and how much of it will carry over?

That's a good question.

Um the kind I like to ask.

Yes.

So actually, I used to not work on a lot of equipment specs until the winter because that's when I have the most downtime, so to speak.

But because of these long lead times, I've tried tried to adjust when and how I work on things.

So again, last year I hit it right after budget.

Like we're September, like I'm trying to get prices, we're trying to work through all the specs, get it ordered right away, and I'm still I'm still a year out on some of the stuff.

So um, I think right now the the drawback for quite a while was chassis.

So anything chassis mounted, dump truck, salt truck, um the street sweeper, chassis mounted.

If we follow through with that, I would see all of those taking probably longer than a year.

Um, but unless the manufacturers have it figured out.

Um, some vendors they might pre-order some stuff just hoping someone will order from them and that so they might be able to kick it out a little faster.

Um, but it's really been up and down, honestly.

Since COVID, it's just really been all over the place.

I don't want to get in a situation where we don't allocate this money, and then you can order something, but it's good for us to know.

I think that of that 990,000, uh you might have half of that that gets carried over, we can expect.

Yeah, I I would say probably the dump truck and the salt spread spreader and that street sweeper, the chalcy chassis mounted, excuse me, probably very likely that they'll either be right up until the end of the fiscal year, or we might have to carry them over.

And would you be like up like would we be screwed if we didn't have the new street sweeper in this budget, or you're you're in advance enough, you're comfortable with that?

So and actually I'm I'm glad you asked that too, because this is one where the street sweeper is probably two years out from where I would normally budget for it.

Um, but because I we're looking at maybe doing a little bit of an upgrade to the chassis mounted.

Um I'm expecting the lead time to be a lot longer, so I am trying to get ahead of that curve.

So trying to hit the the middle there a little bit before we're like, oh man, we really have to have it, and again, now I'm 14 months out.

So well, as we look at a lot of different capital stuff, it's good to know where you stand on that stuff.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Stell.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um Shannon, how many people are in your department headwise?

Or in part-time?

Can you say that again?

How many people work in your department?

So just with the streets division, we have um I have a slide here that said it.

We have all full-time people, we don't have any part-time or seasonal um folks.

Um, but we have 22 crew members and then an accounting tech and a street superintendent and two foremen.

So about 26 people.

But most of them have been there for years and longevity.

Yeah, I mean, our our average is going down.

Um again, we had a a pretty big group of retirements quite a few years ago, and we're still still trying to get over that hump with them.

Um, but most folks have been with us quite a while, or I would like to see them stay with us for a long time.

Sometimes we don't get to choose that, but um, I think overall we have a pretty low turnover rate.

Yeah, I like what you're doing with cleaning out the pipes and that.

The older part of Grand Island where it's over 100, 150 years old.

Are you are you finding any collapse pipe and what kind of pipe are you running into?

Is it plastic?

Is it clay pipe or is it cement top pipe or what are you seeing?

Yeah, so there is a very big variety out there, um, and you can kind of tell it changes with the time periods.

Um there you're there the area they're in now in that Broadwell system is a lot of concrete pipe.

Um, but the older part of town, if you do run into some clay pipe was not uncommon.

Um, and actually that clay pipe is pretty fragile, so you have to be pretty careful when you're cleaning it.

Um, and we did have some, we do have some spots where after we we go through, depending on the condition of the pipe, we might have to go back and do a repair.

Um it it might have been caught, you know, that might have been like the the last straw that broke it.

Um and when you go in and do uh patch on a storm sewer, plastic, there might be some plastic sections in there, there might be some concrete sections in that older part of town because they've had to go in and do a patch.

Uh do you have certain standards for the like the newer storm sewer pipe?

Is it all concrete or yeah?

For the most part, they spec out concrete.

Um I think as a city we have allowed some plastic, um, mostly if it's not under the road, but maybe in the parkway or under the sidewalk.

Um, but largely the new stuff is concrete.

I'd like to also compliment you and your staff on the good job you do on the streets.

They're very clean, they're very well taken care of.

And it looks like you do a lot of planning.

Uh and uh for and forecasting right on your repairs to keep them well.

Tard and this cracks feel filled and uh do a good job of maintaining the streets.

Um kudos to you and your staff.

Yeah, Mr.

O'Neill.

I just wanted to express a little extra support for Keith's idea of keeping a lot of the locating services uh local.

Um I I I dealt a lot with uh cut fiber lines, uh electrical lines, things like that in my career.

I've I've seen a lot of it.

I I can tell you downtown, I'm I know exactly where all the data lines are down there.

And uh when they work on stuff, I'm kind of like a mother hen out there.

What what are you doing?

My stuff's here.

Um it's it's bad for residents to have problems, it's bad for businesses to have problems.

Um I I've dealt with a lot of that, and uh I I I just strongly it's not a place to cut money because the the impact can be very significant very quickly on that.

Mr.

Brown.

Yeah, I just want to know when we order a dump truck and stuff.

Do we uh go to state bid, open source, uh or RFBs or what uh how do we purchase one?

Sure.

So uh a lot of stuff we have been going through source well, which is yeah, similar to the state bid.

Um not always.

Um sometimes the state bid might have a better price or a better spec.

So you check out both of them, that's yeah, I I do.

I try to keep my eye on both of them.

Um we're actually members of a couple other procurement groups.

Um I do feel obligated to check, you know, check each one a lot of times.

Um we have a really good dump truck dump truck spec right now, um, so I have been not changing that too much.

So you can pretty much go one of three or four, whatever.

Yeah, try try to get some twins in there so the mechanics have a better time with them and and the guy the operators, you know, get in there and and know where things are at and how to run the plow and and that.

So thank you too.

You do a real good job, and I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Fleet division budget proposal.

Okay, so we'll go through fleet services quickly.

Um again, this is kind of a uh general breakdown of our facility.

Um fleet services is actually in with the streets department's main office, so we um share a building.

Um fleet services.

This is some of the reasons that you would have a fleet services um in your in your toolbox as a community.

Um fleet services is an internal service fund, so we bill out for our services similar to like a business, so we have expenses and revenue.

Um here's a general breakdown of what our expenses and revenue will be this year.

Uh personnel budget, uh it's just up slightly, normal personnel increases.

Uh we are not asking for any additional FTEs or any additional staffing this year.

Operating and capital budget.

Operating costs are up.

Again, I'm expecting some significant parts increases just with the way that the economy is going right now.

Also some increase for outsourced repairs.

So if there's a specialty repair or something larger than we can handle on our own, we will outsource it to another shop or a specialty shop.

Just happen that way.

So these HVAC units need replaced.

So we budgeted one for streets and one for fleet to replace revenue.

Most of our items are on a percentage.

So parts procurement and sales, we mark up 25%.

Okay.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

What's the position name?

Fleet.

Sergeant, thank you.

Before we rule out any other opportunities for that, what would it look like if you were if this department took a lead in some of that?

Why wouldn't we have all of the fleet under one fleet?

I don't know that I want to talk you out of it necessarily.

Possibly, and some of that was a fleet manager.

Some of that was, you know, uh like uh would give you an estimate on what your the repair is gonna be before it went to the actual mechanic shop.

Um so as we get bigger as a community, I do think it's it's probably a good possibility that if you want to have a role that helps people with procuring equipment and and making helping make some judgments on what we should get, what we shouldn't get, um, even up to the detail of like the question with the dump truck.

Hey, you know, model XYZ, they've had a lot of issues with that in this last production cycle.

Let's not do that this year.

Let's go with something different.

You know, that expertise I think would be invaluable.

Is the community are other departments big enough?

Would they buy into that?

You know, everybody has a pretty good method for how they're replacing things, how they're dealing with it.

Um I I guess I don't know the answer to that.

I do know that police does have a heavy fleet lift.

Um, they work really closely with fleet services.

Um stuff's always coming in and out of the shop.

Um, there are times where they might have a backlog of things that need service, but it is difficult for them to get get brought in to get work done.

Um either they don't need you know, can't it afford the downtime, or something else is down, so they don't want to give it up, or they don't have the staff to be you know to be the rover.

Um so I do know that that has been limiting to them.

Uh I appreciate that insight.

And then I saw in one of your slides, it looks like you're spending some time uh fixing trains.

Yes.

So this was the last time we had the Sully train engine in the shop.

Um, this is our mechanic Steve.

He's the mechanic that's been with us the longest currently, um, and he is um very good at working on trains, which I think is probably a skill that's not easy to find.

Um I hear that there's some upgrades to the Stully railroads, so hopefully that'll stick around for a while.

It's pretty cool.

It's cool to see that you you do everything from fire trucks to to trains for this, so you guys do a lot of different work.

Yeah, and that kind of prompted the question about the police is whether or not we should just have one central or um not, but your feedback is great on that.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

So Shannon, my question is also about this the same thing that that uh council president Sheard talked about.

I believe in in some departments are intended for centralized services.

You know, whether you start with legal or finance or IT or insurance or pensions or HR or city clerk, obviously not locates, but but in centralized services and and having been a fleet manager for a company.

More than paid for our salaries that we had in our people with our people that were managing it.

Because we're spending a lot of money fixing things all over town wherever we're at.

And it is just one of those organizational things.

Right now I think that the you're an internal service fund, and that's meant to be a centralized service for the city.

I see a lot of departments doing IT.

I see a lot of departments doing fleet.

You know, and I really would wish to free up their time to do policing rather than fleet.

You know, I I'm all in favor of adding a fleet person, you know, if that's what we need, and I think that's what we need.

I don't question the need.

What I question is where would be the best place to put that person.

I know the police department has the need, or they wouldn't be asking for it.

The question is how do we fill their needs and can we do it through the fleet department to meet their fleet needs.

I I just want to add to Shannon's comments.

And I'm not familiar with exactly uh the fleet that you manage, what kind of vehicles.

I think there is and maybe it was the case with yours as well, but the city has a lot of variety of our fleet.

Like I don't know, do you know how many vehicles we have in total?

A lot.

A lot, not off the top of my head, but it's a it's a big from lawnmowers to the.

Yeah, and that's the that's the thing.

The scale of it is so much different.

So if we're counting a riding lawnmower at the parks department as one vehicle in our fleet, that's fine.

And we have, I don't know how many cruisers we have, for example, that are all the same.

So we could start to maybe build some of those metrics on that that kind of a vehicle or maybe a pickup truck.

But then we have boom trucks and VAC trucks and dump trucks and like there would have to be a bigger conversation, I think, too, on this um throughout the departments to say, yeah, we we think we could have value in that and and it would be good, but we're still going to be relying on the crews running those pieces of equipment to know them better than just a centralized jack of all traits.

I if we found the right person that perfectly fit it, I think it would be great.

Um there's a lot of different things in the whole organization.

I feel like our fleet is very specialized in some regards.

So I think it would be a balancing act, having not thought about that a lot.

Yeah, no, now in my case, we didn't have mechanics, so we we had mechanics in a hundred different cities, and we had contracts with all of them on rates and what rate would they be on a small uh on a car versus what would they be on a major piece of equipment.

And we didn't deal with lawnmowers.

I mean, that wasn't part of the fleet, you know.

Um the departments can certainly handle those things.

But I just think there's opportunities, and I can tell you the the savings is real, you know, and what it does with the centralized service, it just allows every department to do the best that they do in there in there, and they're not having to worry about the insurance, they're not having to worry about the pension plan.

They're not how having to worry about how do I buy a car, you know.

And so as much as they need to tell you specifically what they need to be successful, that communication absolutely is important for them to get exactly what they need, but it's still there's there's a lot of opportunities when you have a centralized service in a fleet and and you can manage all these expenses.

We even man, well, you have your own gas because you're tax exempt.

You know, we weren't tax exempt, but we still manage gas prices, you know, and and we tell people which which station to go to.

And we had fleet cars, and and we actually did a lot of analysis or statistics about making sure everything got an oil change on time, and and and that was the advantage of the fleet, you know, it was that everything was taken care of in in timely manners because not every person in every department has the same view that I might have on my own personal car.

You know, I might take mine in every 3,000 miles, the next person might say 5,000 miles, and the next person might just do it whenever the oil light comes on.

You know, and so everybody has a different style, but for a city in an organization, having a standard, whatever that standard is, and that's where the fleet manager would come in.

I support you know moving to a centralized service and trying to take these little pockets out of departments and support them because that's where I think it we'd really have the biggest uh support group for for the city.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I guess I never really realized till I just saw your slide here a few minutes ago.

Is it true that you only have three mechanics?

Is that what it said?

So with three mechanics, just out of curiosity, how in the world do they keep up with the fleet that we have with all the things that need to be done?

What kind of backlog do they have?

Just out of curiosity, how in the world can you manage all of this with only three mechanics?

Yeah, there's a lot of lulls actually.

Um, depending on, you know, again, people are at working, they're not wanting to give their stuff up.

Um, but then there'll be times where it's it is a full shop and a lot of stuff.

Um so as far as like I guess speaking with what Mr.

Hossey said, um, we do with fleet with the shop, basically fleet services right now is a mechanic shop, right?

We have one foreman and we have three mechanics.

We do track though those vehicles that are due for services and send out notices.

So they're using manufacturer recommendations or what they're seeing on those types of vehicles for putting in like your P, you know, your PMA B, C, and like your some of your bigger um routine maintenance things, and they'll send out notices to the groups that they need to bring their stuff in.

But once we send out that notice, it's really up to that other department to get it to you to get worked on.

Um, and so that's kind of where the workload part comes in where hey, if you have like a few open bays that day, you're calling around saying, you know, bring can you bring your stuff?

I got an open bay, you know, let's get it in here, but everybody's out working, so you're trying to coordinate all of that as well.

So it's uh um our fleet foreman Neil, he has a he has a tough job, and he but he does good.

It surprises me that it's the opposite of what's uh what I was thinking.

I'm thinking that you're just swamped, can't keep up, and everybody's waiting in line.

You're telling me that there's times that you need people to bring stuff in, and it's all a matter of timing.

Right.

Okay, so that that's a shock to me because you know the mechanics that I do, I call up my mechanic, I need my car in uh to do XYZ.

Well, it's not gonna be till Friday till I can get you worked in.

Okay, well, I have to wait till Friday.

In the city, mechanics are begging people to get their car in because you need to get this thing done.

Yeah, do you print it on the circumstance?

Um, there are times where they are very full.

Um and they can't get people in, you know, right away for things.

But the the mechanics that we do have, especially if it's something small, um, they will try to fit it in that day, you know.

Like if these people they need their vehicles, those are their tools, that's how they get work done.

Like they're trying to get stuff at least patched up, fixed up so that you can get back to what you need to be doing.

Um, and then if it's bigger than that, maybe try to do it on a more scheduled basis.

That's it just surprised me.

I just figured you guys were swamped all the time, but it's all timing, how that timing works out.

We talked about trains to fire trucks.

How in the world does do the mechanics stay up to snuff on the training requirements and the changes in the technology, and we have hybrid cars and we have all of that.

How in the world are they able to keep up with all that?

Yeah, they they do a lot of training that will that comes up as they can.

Uh, if somebody is thinking about getting something kind of out of their realm or has already purchased it, then they'll participate in some vendor training or manufacturer training to try to get up with it.

For example, again, the Vactor, when we first got it, um, the vendor offers you know, hands-on training at their facility for mechanics and for operators, so we budgeted some extra money to send them out of state to go to that specialized training so they could get it.

Are there any times when you have to outsource some of the mechanic work when the load hits you heavy that just to make sure things are moving along?

Yeah, I think there's probably some of that, um, especially depending on what the repair is.

Um, but they take care of some big stuff in-house too.

Um, the other thing, again, with this bigger facility that we are thinking that we're needing soon, you know, if they have a fire truck in there with a big repair and they've got the hood up and the ladder out and all these things going on, that uses up a lot of base and a lot of space.

Um, so that'll bring bring down what else you can work on at the same time.

Interesting.

Finally, I just want to note that your hourly rate.

I think we I don't know if it was last year or the year before, or someone was asking how did you compare to other groups in town?

And I remember I had just at that time talked to my mechanic group, and you were pretty much right on with them.

And that was about back at 120 bucks an hour.

I will tell you now that that shop is now a hundred and sixty bucks an hour.

So you've got very favorable rate when you take a look at what we would have to pay in some other spots, and I know some shops that are 200 bucks an hour for mechanics.

So I'd say when we look at the 120 126 and the 155, we're sitting in a pretty good spot, I think, when it when we're looking at rates there.

Yeah, yeah.

So and it's a little tough with fleet.

You um we want to make sure we have cash to operate.

You know, we need to be self-funded, we need to have some money for reserves, we need to cover our employee liability.

Um, but we don't want to be overcharging, right?

Because it's all we're all city, we're all under the same umbrella.

So we do we do try to stay somewhat competitive, but and at the same time trying to make sure we can run our operation, you know, effectively.

So we we do call around and and double check my math when we're putting these rates together.

So as of right now, I think we're setting pretty good.

I think out of like the seven we surveyed both light duty and heavy duty, we were we were one of the lowest um both for our rates now and for our proposed um private shops.

If they change rates, I I think they'll probably do it in January, new calendar year, as opposed to us.

We're looking at a October fiscal year.

So, very good.

Thank you, Shannon.

Mr.

Paula.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't know how it works now because I haven't been in the files or in the computer or anything like that.

But it's it's not that hard, folks, to set up a program that that works.

We used to do it for the police department.

First day of the week, we'd send them what needed done.

Uh it it just takes a little time to set up the program and get things working.

We had three mechanics, and probably about 500 pieces of equipment like they've got now.

And it can be done, and if there's still any of the old records left, you can go back and look and see how it was done.

But it's not it's not rocket science, really.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think the last comment I wanted to make it was a follow-up, because I think most departments they might say, okay, uh, Shannon, do you have room in the fleet?

And they might not have time to do it today, so they'll go somewhere else.

And every council meeting I come in here, I there's a schedule of bills that's 300 pages long.

And quite frankly, I see a lot of outside uh mechanics shop.

So I would say that there's probably more money spent outside of the shop than the shop garage bill.

And it's the contracting of the the labor for an outside shop, because in my experience, we didn't have a shop, but you have so much specialized equipment, it's really important to have these three or four mechanics because of the specialized equipment.

But it's the contract, the fleet services is it's the contracting out with some other shop in the private sector that says here's the rate we're gonna contract for.

Now, right now we're just going to the shops, and I don't think every department director is contracting out prices for oil change.

They might just go to Jiffy Lube and that's what it is.

You know, and so it's one of those is it's the contracting out.

And for the quantity of bills that I see in our schedule of bills every council meeting, that's where I think the benefit is.

And I know that we need you know the mechanics in the in the fleet because of all of the unique things that we have in a city system, but just the routine stuff is really is where all the all the maintenance is, and you can even negotiate.

I want the first three bays in your shop so that that I can have service now for the first three bays.

You know, that's the way you negotiate, and then you get better prices and you get quick service.

Because one of the complaints everybody always has, I can't get it in in time.

Well, negotiating gets you in in time, it gets you so many bays, how many you know, and you get a pick when you contract out, because that's part of your rate.

You know, they got to guarantee you something, and you got to guarantee them something, you know, and so that's where the benefit to the community would be and the pricing advantages would be because right now more than half of what we're doing is done in outside shops, not negotiated.

So that would be my point.

Yeah, I I guess I can't speak to that statistic more than half of what we're doing.

Um, but probably something that that could get looked into.

Um, some of the stuff that does go out that I know about is um if you have warranty items, a lot of times fleet will just say you need to contact the the dealer and get your warranty item taken care of.

Um, and there's a lot of that.

I think a lot of groups are looking more at extended warranties and getting some of these service agreements so that the newer equipment can get taken care of right off the bat by the vendor so they can back up their product.

Um yeah, something to look into.

Is your new lift uh is it a new addition or does it replace an old one?

Um that was a new addition.

Uh, but we have had it for since 2022.

Um this add-on helped us get some of our mid-sized vehicles.

So we can of your what vehicles?

Mid-size, so like the the half ton pickups, one uh three quarter ton, um some of the ambulance type stuff we could get lifted.

Um otherwise, the other lifts are mostly for for like the cruise PD cruisers and the smaller vehicles.

You ever experience a backlog just because you don't have enough lifts, or do you have enough lifts?

Yeah, I think it's it's probably day-to-day.

Um again, they try to get stuff moved around.

Some things take specialty, like the pit that's next to it with the bigger stuff.

You know, you can only fit one in there, so they they keep stuff waiting so they can work on it as it comes up.

Um thank you.

Thanks for your presentation.

Solid waste division budget proposal.

Hello, Mr.

Wadier.

Thanks for being here.

Evening, Mayor, Council.

Um, I'm Jeff Wadier.

I'm the Solid Waste Superintendent here with the city.

Uh the solid waste division is comprised of the landfill, which is about 15 miles west of town on the Hall County Buffalo County line.

Uh, the transfer station, which is just a mile west of city limits on old pot ash, and then the adjacent transfer station next to it.

Uh as enterprise fund, we obviously receive no funding from the general fund, the tax dollars.

Um we operate solely off of the revenues we charge our customers at the transfer station landfill.

Um we are somewhat unique compared to other city uh operations or facilities where we do actually have competition with uh surrounding transfer stations and landfills, and later on in the in the uh presentation, I'll kind of show a comparison of our our fees compared to other other facilities.

Uh keep in mind though, too, we don't just serve the city of Grand Island and or Hall County.

We we do take waste from other cities, other counties in the area.

Uh as far as the landfill out on the Hall County Buffalo County line, we've got based on our annual topographic surveys that we have uh an engineer do every year.

We've got about 20 year 24 years of site life left in that 52-acre footprint that you can see here, which is cell one, cell two that was constructed in 98, cell three, which was completed back in 2018-2019, and then cell four, uh, which we'll be hopefully constructing uh in this next fiscal year.

Um this is 52 acres that we're currently working in and filling in, and we own a total of 330 acres out on the site.

So with 24 years of site life left in this 52 acres, we've got ample acres right on our property for future expansion.

So compared to other towns, municipalities, uh regions in the country, we're very, very fortunate uh to have as much land readily available for future expansion.

Um we're currently working through the cell for engineering uh for the landfill.

Um as I said, we're hoping to construct cell four, which will be about five acres in the next fiscal year.

Uh once that cell four is constructed, uh it will allow us to eliminate the need for some very uh I'd say annoying or somewhat problem-prone stormwater pumps that we have in that area right now to get rid of our stormwater when we have big rain events.

So uh one major notable item from this year, as far as our capital replacement, you can see in the picture that's our new landfill compactor that was purchased for roughly 900,000, uh very expensive piece of equipment, but extremely important to our day-to-day operations.

That machine and the dozer at the landfill, we typically run for four years, roughly 910,000 hours.

So it was nice to get the new one in.

And right now the project is actually out for bids.

The bid opening is, I believe, September 12th.

So we'll see how those bids come in.

Just kind of a snapshot of our proposed fiscal year 26 expenses personnel, about 13%.

Operations is about 11%.

Debt services of a million dollars is about 8%, and capital is about 68%.

What I would say a normal year for us leading up to the last few years, typically we run about a third personnel, a third operations and a third capital.

But with our big transfer station improvement uh project planned and landfill cell four, naturally our capital is way up there compared to normal.

Um just kind of comparing this current fiscal year of fiscal year 25 versus what we're proposing for fiscal year 26 personnel up about 5.9%, operations up about 15%.

Uh one item of note with that 15% increase in operations, it's due to expenses really going up for all of our trucks and trailers and heavy equipment, but also it's due to a large chunk of that is attributed to the NDEE or DWEE as they're now called, the state regulatory agency increasing what we have to pay them per quarter per ton of waste disposed at the landfill.

They increased that by a dollar nine per ton.

So capital's up about 7.8% for a total of about just short of 8% increase.

Notable capital for next year, as I mentioned, landfill sell four at about 2.6 million dollars.

Uh new loader for the transfer station at just short of a quarter million, a new truck tractor for the transfer station at 150,000.

Um a new transfer trailer for the transfer station at 133,000, and then knock on wood, hopefully begin the transfer station improvements for roughly six and a half million.

Um we already had our 4.2% rate increase approved by uh you folks back in April.

That will be taking effect in in the new fiscal year.

Uh with the rate study that was completed back in 2023, we're supposed to be doing a 4.2 rate increase, obviously this year and through fiscal year 28.

Uh we fully intend once we really get rolling around along with cell four construction of the transfer station improvements to take another look at that rate study, have them rerun the numbers and see where we're sitting at that time based on actual bids and costs.

So uh just to kind of let you see and compare where we're at with our current fiscal year 26 rates at the transfer station.

We're at just over $56 a ton for uncompacted waste.

That's uh loose stuff brought in by contractors, and 4571 for compacted waste.

That would be your garbage hauler picking up your trash from the curb.

They've always gotten a uh reduced rate per ton.

Those figures compared to other transfer stations like Columbus at 69 per ton, Norfolk at 7880 per ton, and Fremont at 75 dollars per ton.

And then as far as the landfill rate itself at 4155 per ton for uncompacted and 36 bucks a ton for compacted, that compares compares to the city of York at 65 bucks a ton, Hastings at 45 a ton, and the city of Lincoln just increased their rates to 5209 per ton.

Any questions?

I have just a couple uh questions.

I've seen your caterpillar that you use to push the waste around and your compactor.

You know, like a you said a loader costs 250,000.

But a compactor costs 900,000.

And to me, it you know, both your caterpillar and your loader have those specialized compacting.

What is it about a compactor that makes it so much more expensive than say just a caterpillar a normal caterpillar or a loader?

Um so as far as the landfill compactor, that's really the bread and butter of our of our entire operation.

So on a daily basis, the trash comes into the landfill, whether it's from the transfer station or from regular um, you know, your mid Nebraska disposal or heartland.

Anyway, the dozer pushes it and spreads it where it's supposed to go, but that compactors um smashes it all and packs it in uh you know as tightly as we can because the more we can fit into you know kind of the industry standard is how much can you fit into a a cubic yard of air space?

Basically, we're selling airspace at our landfill.

How much can you fit into that one cubic yard?

So that compactor is what makes it critical for us reaching our target of say 2,500 pounds per cubic yard versus other facilities that maybe target 1,600 pounds per cubic yard of airspace.

The more we compact does a compactor like way more than that machine there is about 93 or 94,000 pounds, and just because of the nature of the steel wheels and the steel spikes, it's it's packing that that waste in as as tight as we can.

Mr.

Nickerson It's good to see you this year, Jeff.

I didn't see you last year.

I think Patrick had to do it all by himself.

So I'm glad to see you here.

Always want to commend you for a very well kept location out there.

I mean, for somebody that deals in trash, I have yet to go out there and find any trash blown around in the yard.

I know it happens, and we have people that pick it up, but whenever I'm there, and I've been there a lot more frequently recently than I want to be, but it's always looks very nice, and and the yard is kept nice.

It's really an impressive operation.

You talked about finally going out for bid for the new facility, and we got our fingers crossed.

It's been a long time getting everybody's blessings.

Uh if and when that occurs, what do we anticipate the build-out time for that would be?

Is that a full year, couple of years?

What do we do you remember?

Logically, I would say more than a year.

Uh I guess we cross our fingers.

You know, there's going to be things with the bid opening and selecting a contractor and getting rolling with with the actual work, um, timelines, you know, uh if it if everything was up to me, everything would be done yesterday.

But as we've seen with this project leading up to just now putting it out to bid, there's the environmental side, there's all the rules and regulations and trying to get new permits approved through DWEE, and it just we'll see.

Uh the sooner the better, but it's gonna be a wait and see on on timeline.

But we are at the point where all of the blessings have been blessed and we can move forward, correct?

Essentially.

Essentially, that doesn't sound very encouraging.

It is.

Uh it's just taken longer through the state to get our new operating permit officially approved because it's taking into account our new proposed facility, but also trying to utilize our existing facility down the road.

Let's say when we've got to have uh concrete replaced in the new facility in five, ten years.

We're gonna hang on to the old facility that we're currently using so that when that happens, we don't need to be closed.

We can contact the state and say we're gonna be closed at our new facility these dates, and we're gonna move into the old building and do what we do.

For whatever reason, that's just been a huge, huge hang up.

So, but we are very close to getting the final approval.

That's just negotiating the details at that point and hammering them all out.

Okay.

Well, that's that's encouraging because I can't wait to see a bigger, better operation out there.

You guys have operated in a pretty tight footprint for quite some time, and the dual scales is going to be tremendously helpful.

The other thing I want to mention to folks is that we as Grand Island residents are still blessed with a place to take our tree branches and our grass for free, as long as we don't screw up the system and don't abuse it.

And I hope that's not happening.

I know we I see the guy that's at the shack or the shed or whatever it is, will come out and and check things every once in a while.

I've not I personally not seen anything that seems out of line there, but that's something that a lot of people will never, I mean, they don't have that opportunity.

So after major wind events, when most of us are picking up, you know, three pickup loads full of branches, we have a place to go with that.

And and it doesn't cost us as residents anything.

If you like to catch your grass, you can take it out there and you can dump it there.

So those are some benefits that we have.

I'm not sure everybody is aware of that, but it's a great opportunity that we have.

And finally, I was out there the other day, and you kind of rearranged the location of where to dump the trees because you're mulching.

You're mulching a lot of this stuff.

I've never seen that mulch before.

Are you going to mulch now than burn, or have you always mulched it and burned, or just out of curiosity?

It's kind of a combination.

We burn a lot of our wood or tree, I don't want to say wood, our tree waste because a lot of people confuse that and think they can just dump any wood back there.

Well, that's not true.

We get in deep trouble for that.

Anyway, we burn as much as we can, but there are times where we have a contractor come in and grind it and haul the material away.

We used to sell some of that, but it just turned into too big of a headache for our guys in the building doing the primary function of loading trucks with trash and hauling it to the landfill.

Um, you know, old man Johnson would show up for a couple of literally bucket fulls of wood chips and expect the loader to be back there and load them.

And I will be honest too.

The product of that grinding is essentially what people are bringing us, and there's a lot of dirt in it.

People for the most part didn't want those aren't wood chips, those are just grindings.

Yeah.

So I was surprised by the amount.

I mean, that's a lot of grinding going on there.

So anyway, that was something I'd never had seen before, but I know about the burning, but mulching is a is a cleaner alternative, obviously, whenever we can do that.

But great operation, always appreciate it.

Thanks for being here.

Mr.

Still.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um how many people work for your division out there?

Uh full-time FTEs, we have 14, plus we have three seasonals plus two permanent part-time right now.

So basically, it a lot of your employees are very skilled uh operators, heavy equipment operators.

Absolutely.

What are what are the starting wages for somebody?

Uh are you looking at like $30, $40 an hour or what?

I wish.

Um, we've actually got an opening right now for a landfill equipment operator.

If memory serves me correct, the starting wage is right at 27 an hour.

If it was up to me, we'd pay more than that because we're we're really starting to struggle to get, you know, with what we do, uh, you know, let's just take the landfill.

Uh one thing I've heard doing what I do now for 26, 27 years, a landfill is essentially a non-stop 365 day a year construction site.

Big heavy equipment running around everywhere, trucks everywhere.

You just hope that everybody does what they're supposed to be doing and nobody gets hurt.

We're looking for the cream of the crop, you know, for running that 90 some thousand pound compact or that 85,000 pound dozer in amongst all the trucks and the the people unloading and and stuff like that.

Um but that's that's out of my hands.

Those those workers have always impressed me because they're very skilled, they're hard to find, and they're very experienced.

So I I think you guys run a good good operation out there.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hossey.

Thank you, Mayor.

So, Jeff, I think you do run a great operation, so I do appreciate that on behalf of everybody, you know, in the city.

I had one question about recyclers.

Are I noticed that you said you had 24 years left, and that's with cell four?

Correct.

So are the recyclers making a difference in reducing the amount of waste that's coming out to you, or do we have a viable recycling program or not?

Uh you know, I I think it's viable.

Uh one thing that really hurt our local recyclers, especially what they're picking picking up from all of us at the curb was I I can't remember six, seven years ago when China really really changed what they would take from the United States as far as quote quote unquote recyclables that really reduced what they took from us, which has then had the trickle-down effect as far as what our local haulers will actually pick up.

If it's not worth something to them to pick it up separately, process it separately and send it off as a commodity, it's trash.

Um, I think there are times where people I think misconstrue that that truck that's coming down their street is is dumping their recyclables in with the trash because in today's day and age, how do I want to say this?

Your your recycling bin is the same size and configuration as your trash bin.

And I think when people see that the their toter of recycling is getting dumped in the same kind of looking truck as the garbage truck, that it's not getting recycled.

Well, that's not the case.

You know, on the other hand, when they're done that where I used to work, there's times where people are throwing exactly what should not be thrown in with their recycling, and it can contaminate entire loads that then have to be brought out to us.

That's not very often, but it does happen.

So I hope I touched on your overall question there.

I mean, you did answer.

I I personally feel that they are recycling everything that they can that will be a financial benefit for them to do so.

Okay, because we do get those calls from council members about some of those.

But thank you, Jeff.

You did answer it.

Thank you for your presentation.

Transit division budget proposal.

Thank you for being here, Mrs.

Fallman.

My name is Charlie Falman.

I am the transit program manager.

Um to give a little background, our public transit system operates 15 vehicles through the urbanized area of Grand Island.

We have uh two Ford Explorers, we have two minivans, we have two cutaway buses, which are the smaller buses, and we have nine Ford transits.

Um this past fiscal year, uh, the transit division it um went through its training review.

Every three years, the Federal Transit Administration visits on site and does a full review of the entire transit program that commenced in March 2025, and it should be fully wrapped up by the end of this year.

Went very well.

We continued our urban only operations contract with Brown Transit.

Um they also operate a separate company, um Holiday Express here in Grand Island, so it's the same organization.

We did also transfer all of the national transit database, the NTD reporting from the transit contractor to the city of Grand Island.

So in our previous contract, which um was under senior citizen industries, it was a contract between Hall County and the City of Grand Island, providing one service under one umbrella, um, and we have since split, and with that the reporting requirements to the federal government has changed.

So now the city of Grand Island is now doing all the service reporting directly to FTA.

So all of the numbers that you see across the country about number of trips provided, number of vehicles that exist, it's all reported through this database.

And we also created a new transit asset management plan, also called a TAM plan.

We previously participated in the state of Nebraska's statewide TAM plan.

Um this plan sets all of the useful life benchmarks for our vehicles.

Um it states how and when we get rid of equipment, how we get rid, um excuse me, um, how and when we acquire equipment, um, how we handle capital purchases, etc.

So we did publish um our own transit asset management plan.

Um this is a comparison of the budget from previous fiscal year to the proposed budget.

Contract services, there is a contract increase written annually into our contract with Brown Transit, which is represented there.

Administration has decreased and vehicles has decreased.

We received all of our Ford transits that have been on order for multiple fiscal years getting backed up and backed up.

Last year they did finally all come in.

So we have one more vehicle to replace, which will be done this upcoming fiscal year.

The $17,000 represents the city's match of that vehicle.

So we are purchasing that off of a state contract, and the full purchase the 80% will go through the state's budget, and only 20% will come through the city's budget.

So that makes for a total down on the bottom.

And our revenue federal funding has significantly decreased because again, we have received all of our capital equipment.

So we will not be doing as many drawdowns as we will not be obtaining as much equipment.

The state funding is representative of the operating contract with Brown.

Um the state funding is from the public transit assistance program, and that program provides half of the city's match for operations and administration.

It does not cover capital, so that's why we're seeing an increase there instead of a decrease as capital equipment's not represented in that reimbursement at all.

And then on top of that, we have an increase of our contractor, so it's kind of leveled out that way with totals down on the bottom.

And just notes there for you that our operating expenses are reimbursed by the federal government at 5050.

Capital and administrative expenses are reimbursed by the federal government at 80-20.

And again, the PTAP from the state of Nebraska then meets half of the city's remaining match.

That is done every three years.

Changes are made to the plan based on the demographics of the community and the goal based on the demographics of the community and the state.

So there have been some changes to both of those plans before submission.

The DBE goal is currently out at public comment and it's scheduled to be submitted to FTA with plenty of time left before the due date.

And we'll continue operations with our transit provider for on transit.

So that sums up public transit.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

This is just a question I have when I looked at your slide on the federal funding.

It says that it's down to 1.1 million, but it's down 72%.

What's that down from?

Because that's these numbers don't add up.

So we um we ordered our first Ford transit in 2021, and we didn't receive a Ford transit until 2023, and we weren't given delivery dates.

Um so essentially, and then we kept ordering on top of that.

So our Ford transits kept getting rolled over from budget year to budget year to budget year, which made last year's budget for capital equipment just huge.

And then they all came in, and so we paid for everything all at once.

Um so it had been rolled over and rolled over and so it's not the 1.9 that it's down from it was much more than that.

I apologize if the numbers are wrong.

Okay.

Percentage is off.

That's okay.

I was just confused.

I'm where that going down 72% would be a huge drop, and that's not what that is.

So okay.

Thank you.

It clears it up.

Mr.

Nickerson.

Well, Charlie, it's always good to see you.

And again, I think Crane is one of the gems of Grand Island.

How are we doing toward the newer better 2.0, 3.0 type transportation system planning, that type of thing to where it's not necessarily curb cider is going to be a hybrid of all.

How's that all laying out for us?

I remember we've talked about it for years, but how's that all gelling, or is it gelling still, or what's going on with it?

The transit development plan was published in 2023, and it's a five-year plan.

So we're currently mid-plan.

Um, the suggestions that appeared before council in that plan were to essentially maintain status quo and then make any changes to the system in response to the state of Nebraska commencing their inner city bus service, which when we published our plan was still a thing.

And since then, the state of Nebraska was moving forward with our inner city program, um, and it was completely removed from the budget by the governor.

So that inner city process um has come to a full halt and and nothing's really happened with that.

So, what our plan currently states is that we'll make changes in response to that, and if that program's not changing at this point in time, we're not planning any major changes to the system.

Okay, so it's still gonna be status quo.

I mean, pretty much what we've got.

One of the things that I didn't realize, although I've used the transit system off and on, it was usually must have been early enough in the day or whatever, it was it wasn't a big deal.

I was picked up, you know, pretty quickly, not quickly, but when I needed to go.

What I've found is I've talked to people who need to get on the transit to go somewhere.

It's almost like you have when you're calling in ahead of time, which is one of the pet peeves I have, but that's the system we have.

They have to kind of stack you up in a route.

And so if I'm needing to be somewhere at 10 o'clock tomorrow, I might be picked up at 8 o'clock because there's other people that need to be on the route.

And I had an example today where a gal was getting ready to go and transit came to her.

In her case, it was pretty fortunate because I think she got picked up by two 15, and she had to be at her appointment at three.

So that works out pretty good.

But sometimes people are gonna have to wait one and a half, two hours to get to their appointment just because of the number of people that are stacked up for pickup and delivery.

One and a half to two hours definitely should not be the case.

So if if you know of any specific writers that are having to wait that long, please definitely let me know.

Um a few years ago, I believe in 2020, we optimized our software, and when we did that, it changed the way that we do the transit service essentially.

We we previously booked trips on um the hour, quarter hour, half hour, three quarters, and then the full hour.

And when we optimize, we at least we started letting the software do the entire um service booking for us.

So what we set is what we set as called a trip window.

We set a one-hour trip window and we base it off of drop-off time.

So if a person wants to be dropped off at 11 a.m., that that means the bus could drop them off as early as 10 50, and then they have a one-hour trip window from their drop-off time.

So the bus can come anytime between 10 a.m.

and 10 50.

So writers definitely should not be waiting an hour and a half to two hours in any circumstances.

Um, but a one-hour pickup before the drop-off time is part of the system, and that's that's what allows for a demand response system to get multiple riders on the bus, which I think is what a lot of people want to see is good use of that system in that way.

So that optimization process is what allows for multiple riders on a bus in that demand response.

That's good to know.

I just in this particular case, I think it was a good 90 minutes or more, but that was many months ago, and I don't know what the current situation may or may not be.

As far as drivers, are you still doing okay?

Not a problem.

The drivers you're finding plenty of people willing to drive.

Yep, they're doing well.

So Brown Transit and Holiday operate in the same building, and there are a lot of holiday drivers that do want to move over to Brown Transit.

So at this point in time, there's essentially a bit of a waiting list to make its way over to Brown.

Um, just because with I think with the school bus system, the hours are really different.

You know, a lot of morning time, a lot of afternoon times, and then there's a middle time with not much going on.

Whereas the crane drivers just have their full shift, you know, they start and they work and then they're done.

So I think that there's been a lot of appeal to that.

So I know previously there were a lot of issues obtaining drivers, especially during COVID, post-COVID, um, things like that, and and that's not the case anymore.

They do very good.

And and the price is still two dollars a ride?

Correct.

You can't beat that.

Yeah, just need to call ahead of time and make plans.

24 hours in advance.

All righty, thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

Up next, wastewater division budget proof proposal.

Mr.

Walker.

Good evening.

Thank you, Mayor.

My name's Matt Walker.

Um, I'm the assistant public works director for wastewater.

And tonight we're gonna go over the wastewater budget.

If I can get her started here.

Uh for those of you who haven't met me.

My name's Matt Walker, uh, professional engineer, run the wastewater division.

Uh, the enterprise, the wastewater division runs as an enterprise fund similar to the solid waste.

Uh, so we collect all of our revenue through user fees.

So your sewerage fees that you pay for your sewerage is how we make our money, and that's what goes into funding our system.

Uh, the wastewater overview uh made up of basically five separate groups collections, engineering, maintenance operations, and regulatory compliance.

Um, if you have any questions about any of those individual groups, kind of shows what they do here.

Um, collections cleans the the sewers and TVs them to make sure they're in good shape.

Engineering provides engineering support for our projects.

Maintenance takes care of obviously all of our equipment, our buildings and things like that, facilities, and as well as our lift stations, which are an important part of our operation.

Operations is the guys that are there 24-7 at the plant that make it sure that everything's running and that our process stays within compliance and regulatory compliance is the laboratory that makes sure that our effluent discharges within the limitations of our license agreement.

So fiscally 25-26 budget revenue is flat, uh and that's because we're being conservative in our approach to revenue, and also because it anticipates some improvements through one of our larger industrial users.

Um we all know are familiar with the lagoon failure that they had there, and so as a part of that, they're making significant improvements to their process for pre-treatment.

And as that comes down the line, then our charges to them will go down, as will our revenue.

So we're erring on the side of uh caution there.

In the personnel side, we're up 6.2%, uh, largely due to raging wage increases and insurance.

Uh, we've requested no additional FTEs, so this is just people that have been with us through longevity, they're making more on their wage scale and insurance, as we have heard from several people.

Uh insurance premiums have gone up.

So we're we're trying to operate and cover for that.

On the operating side, similar to what Shannon had presented, our operating is up almost 17%.

Um, a lot of that is through administrative side of things.

So collection services, that's um the billings and things like that that we pay through GIUD, our administrative services, all of the stuff that City Hall handles for us, and getting all of our projects together and preparing all of our resolutions and memos for council, um, and then insurance.

We got hit pretty good too, um, not to mention cost of goods and services, uh, you know, between the tariffs and just increases in material costs and previous inflation.

Uh, we're just getting hammered on everything that we buy.

So these are the fiscal year 2025 capital projects.

You'll see we came up well short of what we had projected to spend.

Uh, a lot of that is uh projects that got deferred uh for different planning or things that kind of got canceled because we went back to the drawing board and decided, well, we maybe need to take a year or two to think about this and work with other city departments.

Uh one of the big ones there you'll see is the wastewater treatment plant fiber network.

We had budgeted a million dollars thinking that we might get out and integrate all of our remote list stations and our flow meters into our fiber network.

Uh, we've scaled that back to look at just dealing with in plant fiber network for now and then expanding that further once we've had more conversations with other city departments and have a forward-looking plan.

Um that's uh, you know, and then like at the end of the list there, you see the sanitary sewer district unknown.

We're carrying a million dollars because we never know from one year to the next if a sanitary sewer district is gonna come in, apply for that, get approved, and then want us to build out.

So we have a contingency in that we carry that money in case that does go through.

So our proposed capital projects for the upcoming year on the left side, you'll see things that are what I would call plant projects, uh, and then on the right side are sanitary sewer projects.

We're gonna go through each of these individually.

Um, and so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Aeration basins, aeration basins are where our bugs exist.

Uh you can see on the left, there's a partially drained aeration basin, but you can see the diffusers bubbling up the air there.

We provide air in certain oxic zones, um, and then not in others and anoxic zones.

On the right, you see what the diffusers themselves look like.

So on the top of them, you can see there's a ring, and it's got a membrane in the middle of it.

Those rings over time wear out, they break because they're a plastic part, and as you take them apart to work on them, rings wear out.

So this project is all about replacing membrane rings in one of our aeration basins.

Similarly, the aeration basin has blowers that provide that air to those diffusers.

Um they did a project many years ago in which they put in some newer blowers.

We have two old blowers and two newer blowers.

Um at the time when those blowers were put in, they were designed for the load that we were receiving from all industrial users, which was significantly more than what we see today.

So, in terms of just flow, we went from maybe 14 million gallons then to roughly 11 million gallons per day that we average now.

So just the flow alone changed, but more so the nutrient load that we see, which is where we really need the aeration basins.

We're taking out nitrogen through a denitrification process, and the blowers are a critical part in that.

And so, what we've got right now is some oversized blowers.

We're providing too much air, we're wasting energy, and we could be doing a better job by by looking at those and replacing them with smaller blowers.

So this project looks at replacing one blower with two smaller blowers.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I think I accidentally hit this, but I will have a question when it's done, but not right now.

Thank you.

Okay.

So I said two, it's actually placing one blower with two blowers that are right sized.

Uh so we'll do the engineering design in this year and then the construction the following year.

Our collections group building.

Uh, if you've been in council meetings previously, you've seen that we purchased the heart the former Heartland AG building, and we're doing a joint venture with GIPD, in which we're flipping that building to be a joint space for both GIPD and their tactical team, as well as the wastewater collections group.

So the wastewater collections group is the group that does all of the sewer cleaning as well as the televising.

They help with a lot of our projects related to manholes and pipe and infrastructure.

Um we'll be moving currently there in four separate buildings, uh, three at the plant and one at uh on North Front Street by the Fleets building.

We'll be moving everybody out to this single space and sharing it with GIPD.

Uh it was a win-win in terms of dollars, uh, you know, looking at construction, new construction versus buying something and retrofitting it.

Um we presented that, I think Pete presented that previously, um, and it was a no-brainer.

So we're really happy with this.

So that money's always been already been approved through council, and we'll be purchasing that building.

UV system replacement.

This is something that's been going on for a while.

So we finished our UV report that we had anticipated finishing last year, this year, and it indicates that we do need to make uh improvements to our ultraviolet system.

We've aged out our current system, it's roughly 20 years old.

We're gonna be replacing it with a system with uh from the same manufacturer, which allows us to minimize the amount of changes we have to make structurally in the chain in the channels that actually the water goes through.

So we've got to add some depth to the channels, but outside of that, we don't have to add length or anything like that, or additional baffles, things that get very expensive on the construction side of things.

Um in the coming year, we'll be purchasing the equipment and doing some design engineering for the the final construction phase, and then in fiscal year 27, we'll install the equipment and and make the structural changes.

Fiber network I touched on earlier.

Uh, we've set aside $50,000 for next year for updating things at the wastewater treatment plant.

So outdated uh type of fiber, uh single versus multimodal, uh, and also our fiber network.

We go you can do a ring configuration, you can do star configuration.

We're still working through the specifics of that.

Uh, but this improves reliability and prevents us from and provides some redundancy so that uh if a particular device or switch goes down, it will reroute to another one and we don't lose connectivity with critical devices, which help operate the plant.

Our master plan update is currently ongoing.

Uh we'll have just a little bit of money that spills over into the following year.

So uh we've got HDR looking at all kinds of stuff at the plant right now, hydraulic capacity, flow rates, equipment, um, future um uh and then incorporating the B and R and blower study that they completed in 2019 that helps feed that blower project I talked about earlier.

Um a similar collection system master plan is scheduled for 2027.

13th Street Sanitary Sewer Extension.

So in conjunction with state funds and Hornity, we'll be reimbursed completely for this project, but we're gonna be extending the sanitary sewer from roughly Englan Road to 60th Road, and that will allow Hornity to tie in their Alda wastewater lagoons and lift station uh via force main to a manhole at that location near 60th road.

Um, and like I said, we'll be in reverse for that.

So uh this is it shows that we're spending 2.3, 2.4 million.

Really, we're we shouldn't be spending anything when when all the dust settles.

List station number one repairs.

Uh, you may recall we just rebuilt List Station One.

Well, we rebuilt the the housing and did some concrete work and cleaned up some things around it uh that parks and rec had some old buildings and stuff, and no sooner did we did that than the pumps that have been there since the 50s and the forest main then failed.

Um so we're making some changes.

We're gonna add a manhole, we're gonna reroute some piping to improve that, um, and that'll get done uh for a couple hundred thousand dollars between this year and next year.

That project just kicked off.

Manhole rehabilitation is uh a continuation of projects we've done previously.

So you can see on the right side there, you've got a before and after picture.

So in our most recent project, we chose a contractor that provides uh a coating called OBIC.

Uh it's a polyurethane coating, uh it's a plastic type coating.

Uh they go in, they clean the manhole real well, they power wash it, they dry it, and then uh go in and spray this plastic coating.

Um, and then we do pool testing to make sure that it's it's held up, and we're actually in our 11th month cycle with that right now to where the contractor's coming back to to look at warranty type stuff.

Um, but this will be a continuation of that uh where we're looking at additional manholes that have degraded over time.

Manholes degrade primarily due to uh sewer gas, uh hydrogen sulfide being probably the worst one, methane gas as well, as well as just erosion, um, you know, as if there's a high flow conditions uh that comes, it hits, you know, every drop of water shapes the stone, right?

Um so that's our manhole project.

Uh open cut sanitary sewer repairs.

So throughout town, we have a number of locations where we can't do uh cure in place piping like we like to do, where we line through a main and fix it.

These are locations where things have gotten so bad that we can't push a liner through it because it's just gonna dislodge something else, or there's a uh section completely missing, it hasn't collapsed yet.

The water's still flowing, but if we try to put a liner in there and then pressurize it, it's gonna bubble out and it's gonna do more harm than good.

So in those locations, we have to actually open up the concrete, dig down, remove a section of pipe, fern co on either side, or maybe a weld joint, depends on the type of pipe and repair those for through what we call open-cut sanitary sewer repairs.

Again, an ongoing part of infrastructure maintenance as things age.

The South Focus Street Sanitary sewer repairs.

I think everybody's familiar with the South Focus Street project as it's been going on for some time, and we all detour around it around Fauner Park Road and things.

Um, this is up towards closer to the Koenig Street at Chef Street, where you kind of make the curve as locust and walnut split.

Uh we'll be making some sanitary sewer improvements.

We're going to get some manholes out of the street so that they're more accessible for our collections crew to work on.

It also improves flow conditions as we're able to eliminate some manholes and improve uh grade flow lines.

So just an opportunity to team up on a project when they've got the street already opened up and everything dug up to make improvements to the sanitary system as well.

Sanitary sewer rehabilitation group two.

So we did group one previously.

There are, I think, right now 12 total groups that we've uh decided may need help.

Um so from group one to group 12, they in descending order they uh get less and less severe.

Uh so this is where I was talking about the cure in place pipe where we put in an epoxy liner, uh, and then we go in, we pressurize it, we cure it, and then that revitalizes the life of the pipe up to another 50 years, could be more than that.

Um, but essentially you're turning it into plastic pipe, which you would think of like a PVC pipe, um, but you're able to put it inside a cast iron or clay pipe.

Um, not able to do it in Orange Burg, but they don't use Orangeburg for big things, anyways.

So uh all the stuff that we have that we can do, uh, we're able to do with CIPP.

Uh sanitary sewer district, we talked a little bit earlier about carrying money for ambiguous ones.

We don't know if they're gonna come through.

Well, here's one that did in fact come through.

Um, and so we're setting aside money to build out a sanitary sewer district along East Dolly Park Road, uh, roughly between South Locust, well, between Bellwood and past Kingswood.

Uh there's 12 homes there, roughly.

Um, and they're gonna connect to City Sewer over time, or we're gonna build out the infrastructure that they'll connect to it over time, and as they do, then of course we recoup that money as they do.

That was a uh received council approval in July.

Talked about it a little bit earlier, just money earmark for a potential sanitary sewer district.

Um, we've had one that's been around for a decade or more that um as they change um leadership in their HOA every two, three years uh we're revisited and talk about it again.

And you know, it's always a possibility, it's always on the radar.

So we don't want to get caught short, so we always carry some extra money in case this should happen.

So you total that all up, and it comes down to roughly 11 million dollars.

Uh it's a big spend, but it's supported by our rate study that we performed in 2023.

Uh and earlier I talked about capital projects from last year and how we spent not nearly as much money as we had budgeted, and so we've got some carryover.

Some of that's in this, others are new projects, uh, but overall, everything balances.

Finally, capital equipment.

So uh the new stuff that we need to purchase.

Uh, we need a new camera.

Uh so on the top picture, you can see that's what our transport camera looks like uh that we use to TV sewer lines.

So on the right side of it, you can't see it, but there's a little camera that indexes up and down, and then it's got the three wheels, and you can see they're in pretty rough shape.

Um, so we have to send these in for repairs routinely.

Um, so this is buying a new camera and a transport so that we've got a backup so that we're never down on our TV.

And then the flusher truck is uh gonna be in addition to our existing flusher truck.

But you can see on the bottom right picture there, um, it's on a F550 chassis, which is a lot smaller than our other flusher trucks.

It allows us to be more agile to get into tighter to get into spaces with less weight.

It also has uh longer reel, it's got up to a thousand feet of hose at a higher pressure, so we're able to do longer runs between manholes and in places where we have particularly long runs, like out at um SID2 where we've got uh lift stations 25 and 26.

We've got some really long runs that go into the river that are inaccessible.

So this type of equipment makes that easier for us to keep that clean, keep them flowing, and in turn prevents that H2S that I was talking about that eats up our manholes.

And then replacement vehicles.

Uh we'll be replacing our lift station truck.

That's the truck we use the most in the maintenance group.

The guys go out weekly to uh you know maintain the lift stations, and so that just that truck just gets a lot, a lot of miles.

It's getting worn out, it's time to move it down the road and get something in place, and then operations pickup.

We had slated that last year, but they actually needed a uh utility vehicle worse, so this is carryover, and we're gonna replace their operations pickup.

So the 530 fund, uh, we come down through it.

You've got your projected ending cash balance uh coupled with revenue being flat.

We've got restricted investments in cash.

Uh we'll be spending some of that on the collections building.

Um, but then other funding sources the Horner D reimbursement at 2.3, so total revenue 35.

We take out all of our expenses and our capital, we end with an ending balance of 875.

So things look pretty good, and that aligns pretty well with our cost of rate study uh as well as projected future capital projects.

Speaking of, these are the future project project expenses associated with any projects that we discussed tonight.

Questions, Mr.

O'Neal.

Um back kind of the earlier part of your presentation.

I think you're talking on your operating budget of uh some of the supplies and so if you're buying was like a 17% increase.

And I think you mentioned a lot of that was due to uh tariffs.

What type of uh things are you guys buying that are most significantly impacted by uh tariff price increases?

Sure.

Uh so a lot of our uh you know consumables, right?

So in maintenance, you've got belts and grease and fittings and valves and pipe and all that kind of stuff.

Most of that gets manufactured overseas, and so we're paying extra on the cost of production there.

Uh we buy a lot of chemicals uh for use on the wastewater treatment, and um one of those is a non-carbon-based glycerin um doesn't mean anything other than glycerin prices have gone up significantly.

We had negotiated a contract for one year and we'll be rebidding it here at the end of September.

Um, but I I anticipate that's gonna go up significantly.

And last year we used a lot more of it than we anticipated.

So that's another one of them.

Um, and then with construction projects, it's it's a thing she'd think it's steel, it's you know, all of the anything from floor coverings to steel to wood to tile to masonry, everything just costs more right now.

Yeah, thanks for clarifying.

Yeah, quite a variety.

Yeah, Mr.

Hossey.

Thank you, Mayor.

Matt, so um, I've got a couple questions on the extension project um out to the 60th road.

Okay, how far is that extension?

Is it is it a mile?

Well, let's see.

We go from uh Englman uh monitor north monitor 60th.

So that's yeah, it's about a mile, right?

Or would it at least two?

Oh, yeah, because each of those is a half.

That's right.

He knows more about that project than I do on a defer.

Yeah, I believe it's two miles, but we'll we'll prove it.

Well, part of my question is this is do we go by any pockets of unserved area that helps where we currently don't have service to, or any opportunities for new development in that mile or two mile stretch that would this would help facilitate development in that area?

It's a good question.

Uh primarily right now it's primarily farmland.

Uh there's some farmhouses out there and things.

But one of the things we talked about in our most recent project meeting was putting Y's or T's uh, you know, laterals uh that could serve potential future build out.

Um we never know if when farmland's gonna sell or what's right currently there's no subdivisions or anything that I'm aware of in that area.

Um it's all pretty much farmland or owned by the FCC where the monitoring station is at.

Yeah, so we have some pockets where either we don't have service to or they have private lift stations.

Does this gonna get any closer to any of them?

No.

No.

So this is this is just yeah.

It it it runs along uh 13th Street here, obviously, but we're running by a couple feed yards.

Uh there are a couple farmhouses, like Matt mentioned.

Um it's the six and one half dozen the other.

How many stubs we pl plan to build with the project out of these manholes?

Um it's kind of a guessing game.

If I put stubs in, then they're just something that can leak and break in the future.

But if I don't, then we have to construct them later if it does expand, or they'll want to move a hundred feet away.

And it's like I said, kind of a balancing act.

We haven't gotten to all those details yet, but there'll probably be some, if nothing else, on the half section line or or the county road section line for sure.

For that, so if anybody wants to connect to that in the future, will will there be a connection fee?

And if so, who do they pay that?

Do they pay it to the city?

Do they pay it to Hornaday?

Yeah, it'll be three.

In my opinion, there would not be a connection fee because the pipe is being paid for um at this time.

So it's fully accounted for it's being funded with um funds that uh Hornaday applied for through a grant process.

They're picking up the the remainder.

Um, in my opinion, there wouldn't be anything to hook to that line.

Okay, and I'm grateful for that.

That's a great project.

So thank you.

Mr.

Nickerson, well, a few questions, Matt.

It's good to see you again.

Don't get to you very often, about once a year, I think.

Yeah, about that.

We're good to see you.

So I have a question about, and if you talked about this, I'm not sure if you would have covered it.

I've had someone lock themselves out of the house, and I've been trying to get keys to it.

So I think we got that covered.

But if you covered this, forgive me.

But when we had the big seven-inch rain, is the wastewater plant impacted by all that water?

It is.

Yeah.

How is that?

On the day of the rain event, the morning of when it came into the plant about 6 30, uh, we had maxed out we were running about 44 million gallons per day through the plant, uh, which exceeds our uh our processable amount uh by a margin.

Uh and our bottleneck currently, uh, and it's unfortunate that it always falls in recreation season, but ultraviolet disinfection is the limitation, the bottleneck in the plant, and it's limited at about 28 million gallons per day.

We can increase that by shutting that system off and bypassing it, which we had to do that day, and we just let the state know they're they're willing to work with us on something like that because they understand this is you know uh force majeure type of deal.

Um, and also that the majority of that water, if there's 44 million gallons coming in, it's not because people are flushing their toilets, right?

It's because of inflow and infiltration.

So that water is not a terribly dirty water, and they know that it doesn't have to be processed as much as a typical wastewater stream.

So, yes, it does impact us.

Uh we're able to keep things moving.

We were right at the limit there that day.

Uh the wet well was completely full.

Uh, we were starting to see it back up into the interceptors.

Um people on Voss Road near Seedling Mile.

Uh, we saw a few backups there.

Um that was really about as far as it got back into the system.

Um, and that's a result of just grade.

You know, Grandon's a very flat place, and those places are close to the plant, and there's not much fall as you're coming down, and so as the water backs up, it's gotten nowhere to go, and it finds the path of least resistance.

You talk about the inflow infiltration that comes through breaks in the system, or how does the water get into this?

Yeah, it's it's hard to estimate exactly where the the worst are, but primarily it's going to be more in private laterals, um, but then it's gonna feed into the main, right?

So you think about private laterals have been installed throughout time, you know, and all these homes, 1910s, 20s, um, that may have never had any repairs, you know.

And then we see, like in the war era 40s into the 50s, they started using Orange Burg because materials were uh hard to come by, so they couldn't get steel and they're having a hard time getting clay.

So they started using Orangeburg, which is essentially tar paper pipe.

Um you can imagine that collapses.

That's its lifeline, its life span is much shorter.

Um, and so as that stuff starts to fail, groundwater seeps in, gets into the mains.

We also have issues in the mains, like we've seen with some of those open cuts, as well as our lining projects where we know we have cracks, so the groundwater can get in.

Um we don't have very large inflow instances that we know of, you know, where there's just a huge hole in the system type of a thing or uh a blowout in a manhole.

We don't have any of that.

We maintain our system well enough that we don't have those kinds of surprises.

Right, but we have done projects trying to identify those potential problems, correct?

Correct.

And then prior to my time here, I know that uh Tara had uh performed a project looking at I and I, uh, I don't know the fine final numbers.

I could go back and look at that and follow up with you.

But it has been looked at in the past, and uh what we see is in line with other communities.

Um it's it's not way out of line.

We're not we don't experience much a lot more inflow and infiltration than other communities.

It's just an aging system is leaky.

It's just another problem on a heavy rain event.

Okay, and it's apparent when it rains like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

The other question I have is your fog manager, do we still have a fog manager?

And how's that going?

How's the progress?

Is it delivering what you hoped it would?

And yeah, absolutely.

So uh Dana's been great.

Um, and uh if you want to meet her, you can go out to the state fair on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

I think she's gonna be working the booth with Rachel Stramel, our stormwater program manager.

Um so Dana's been out uh actively working in the community with food food service providers, um looking at what they're doing if they've got grease traps or if they've got outside grease containers with those outside grease containers, then following up to see the haulers that are taking them off.

Are they properly documenting what they're doing?

Um just say, oh yeah, it was really really full, we need to come more often, or these guys don't use any grease, we can span it out to three months type of a deal.

And then also what condition is that grease in.

Um we've we've uh or she has um started a preferred hauler program.

So um for the set the collars that pump out this grease and stuff and food service industries.

Um if you're willing to sign up for this preferred hauler program uh and adhere to certain things like testing the grease and and the the height and the consistency of it, then we will put you on our preferred hauler program and you get a kudos and uh you know if somebody asks us, hey, do you have a recommendation?

Then we can say look at the preferred hauler program.

These are the guys that are doing it right.

Mr.

Walker, you're doing a wonderful job, but our GI TV controller would like you to spa stand between the microphones.

Thank you, sir.

No problem.

All right, so the fat soils and grease managers doing exactly what you were hoping.

Kind of an education and advisory role, it sounds like correct.

Yeah, a lot of education and outreach, similar to our stormwater program.

Uh, that's how we build the programs.

We get out in the community and we make people aware of what they should be doing and what they shouldn't be doing.

Um, and and that's how we really you know make the connection.

Very good.

Then lastly, I was just noticing you were talking about the South Locust project and the ability to start doing things now that it's open.

And I again I just want to always commend our engineering staff and all the folks that look at a project, and we're not just gonna replace a street.

We look at it in its tire in entirety and say, what all can we do and should we do while we have this thing down?

And this is another example on South Locust that was on five points, it's on all these big projects.

You look at everything, and you say, What do we need to do now while we're down?

And I think it speaks highly of good planning and being proactive.

Uh we don't want to have to go back later and dig it all up again.

So this is just the ideal time to do all of that.

So I just again like to commend the the group for all of that insight and foresight as we get into those projects.

Thanks be to the public works director and city engineer and his staff.

Uh they're the ones that help coordinate that.

Very good.

All righty, thank you.

Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

Uh, how many staff do you have?

31.

31.

Um you gave me a tour couple months ago out there.

Uh really appreciated seeing it.

I was impressed if you haven't been out there to see this operation.

Uh, it might stink for a second, uh, but not as bad as you'd think.

And um for 31 people running that big of an operation and effectively and uh cleanly, it's a pretty impressive operation.

Thanks for the tour.

And and just uh it's one of those things that you don't get the hero status, but if you mess it up, we would all know.

That's right.

We try to fly under the radar a little bit.

But uh it's it's nice that uh you're usually under the radar.

So appreciate it to you and all your staff.

Thanks for coming out.

And if anybody else wants to come out, you're certainly always welcome.

We'll give you a tour.

Thank you, Mr.

Walker.

Thank you.

Electric capital improvements and equipment budget proposal.

Mr.

Schmidt's good evening.

All right, well, uh I've got Darren Butner with me here today, and I got to call him out because he takes all my questions, and I come to him every day saying what about this, this, this.

So he compiles a lot of this data for us, so and much appreciated.

All right, so for utilities this year, we're looking at personnel service increase of 6.1%, but that 6.1% also includes two positions, which uh we talked about during our generation um study session on future generation.

So to dig a little deeper into those two positions.

Um the first one, the power plant training coordinator.

The whole intent there is to uh train our young uh operations staff, and that position pays itself back through intrinsic savings through lack of uh damaged equipment.

Um it can it will also be a liaison to the new generation we hope to build out here in the next five years, six years to train staff on that, and also to train our dispatch center to oversee our water system, which is part of the plan, which will allow us over time through attrition to get down five operators, um, so it pays itself off over time.

Um, and in the meantime, when we make that switch, those extra operators will put that time towards training on the new generation equipment.

Um, and the other position is the EIC lead tech.

We have seven EIC personnel with an average age of 63 right now.

So the intent is to utilize the experience we have to train a newcomer, and that position would last six years potentially.

That's kind of the cap we're putting on it, and that would be a transitionary position to the new generation as well.

So both these positions would ideally play a role in the specification development of the new equipment and and processes.

So we have several vacant FTEs from migrating verdict station over, and we'd like to repurpose two of those to do these two positions.

Admin expenses, decrease of admin and operating by 0.9.

A large part of that is in uh purchase power, cost of power projections, looking at the future power is kind of uh flatlined.

So that drives a lot of of this.

Um administrative cost increase of 10.6%, a lion's share of that is our insurance has been going up dramatically.

So and then we also um are ensuring more assets like the solar field as well.

So we hope through the current broker that we can negotiate some some better prices, but that's that's why a larger driver there.

And also within the administrative costs are two studies that fall in that bucket.

One is the generation study, which is technically out for bid right now.

We have an RFP out for services to start um get a consultant on board to start routing that process, and the other one is uh a NITS study, which is I won't get in the details, but it has potential to bring back value to Grand Island.

Um it's uh another three to four year process.

So we're pursuing both of those, both those costs are incorporated in the admin section.

Uh, cost of power again, decrease of two percent, and and the cost of power is a big portion of our budget, so a decrease of two percent, you know, um is is not insignificant, and then distribution basically a small increase of 0.1%.

The remaining budget we have 11% of capital, debt service is 3.9%, and others 1%.

And I guess right there at the bottom I did list those two studies that fall in the admin costs.

So we got 200 200,000 for the generation process to get that going, and we have 175,000 for the NITS process, which would be to I guess elaborate a little more, rolling our transmission infrastructure under the SPP tariff, and what that would do could recoup some uh payments from the footprint for using our transmission service as others pass power through us.

Uh capital uh transmission.

So distribution breakers, a few years ago we were down to almost no spares, and we have 60 in service.

So we've done a great job of of building that out.

This is another step in that.

Um motor operated disconnects, uh 50,000.

This allows our dispatchers to open the disconnect to the gas turbines remotely.

Right now, you have to be out in the field doing it, so that's a great ad, both safety and and to expedite the process.

Uh $50,000 for easy packs, these are like um uh like little PLCs that operate things in the umstations, which are getting antiquated, so we want to start phasing in replacements over time, and then transmission relaying upgrades.

That's a long-term process to replace our 115 uh KV relays.

And we the 115 we will do in the fall and spring when the loads are down and we can take down sections of the transmission.

Overhead, so again, electric utility is the only utility that pays for all the infrastructure on new builds.

Uh new replacement infrastructure for overhead, we're budgeting 2.8 million.

That includes all cable materials, transformers.

It also includes AMIs, um, LED lights, things like that.

Underground, again, now you're talking pad mount transformers, boring, all the underground um construction that goes on in the city.

Uh and with all of our new builds in town predominantly being underground, that's why underground carries a higher hard budget.

Um on the production side, so PGS, when we did the AQCS in 2013 or 14, uh, there's a bag house on the backside.

Those bags are a 10-year item.

We're actually closer to 12 years at this point.

So to replace those bags, um, we've budgeted 1.2 million.

Uh turbine overhaul parts, so that would be for the valve outage.

So every six years we do a turbine overhaul, the complete turbine outage, and then intermittently in the three years in between, we do a valve outage, which is a medium step where we go through the valves and and for fouling and different things like that.

So we buy the parts in advance and get ahead of it.

So that that will actually take place in 2027, I believe.

And so then we have PGS data controllers, so they're end of life, they're boxes that monitor a lot of the emission control stuff.

Um, that's also a Burdick.

So those two uh data data controllers are at end of life, and then vertic turbine overall parts.

Historically, for Birdic uh gas turbines, we haven't carried a set of spares.

So what that means is when we take the generator down to do an outage, it's down for six weeks, seven weeks because we have to send parts off to get them remachined or maintenance at a different facility.

So if we have a set of spares on site, we can dramatically shorten how long that generator is out of service.

So those parts can be getting machined.

We put our spares in, so the generators back in while the spares are still being worked on.

So that's where we want to get where we have a set always because we one set will fit both um GT2 and three because they're sister units as well.

So it's a re it actually fits both.

Vehicles and equipment.

So overhead digger Derek chassis.

Um the price of chassis is jumping here this year.

We're being told by vendors, so we're getting out ahead of that and buying just the chassis, and then we'll retrofit that as time goes on.

Umerground hook and rack.

So we have a flatbed that has an old jib crane that we got rid of, and this will be a hook that will lift um wire reels and whatnot onto the flatbed, and then an actual racking system that will help us with with diversifying our our our crews.

Um right now we have a safety training trailer in there, and what that is that's on the right.

So, one of the things we've tried to do as a utility in the last few years is be more interactive with the public.

Um 4 Street's an example of that.

We're doing the lead service program.

Um we we've had a lot more volunteering at different organizational things.

Um, one of those things that I like is exposing kids, like on the right, where you can actually do faults like line faults and show students because we do go to classrooms, you know, what happens in a fault event.

And the other thing is when you do stuff like this, you gain interest, and you might get a kid who gets to high school and goes, Well, I want to be alignment.

Oh, great.

That's a short supply.

And if we can get kids interested and they come here and do an internship, I mean, and become full-time employees, that's a win.

Um line shop generators.

So during the the winter storm we had in March or April, whenever that was one of the deficiencies we noticed real quick was we lost power to our line shop where all our guys come and go out of.

So there was a lot of manual effort done to get doors open and gates open, and and also that's a uh a uh command center post for our line supervisor during that process.

So we're looking at putting a generator there to provide us for the redundancy.

Mr.

Sheart had a question.

Sorry, yes.

Sorry.

On the previous slide, when you talked about those overhaul parts.

Yes, sorry to throw you off.

But um this gets us a full set for 700,000.

Would you then when you have something go down still send it off?

Yes.

So this is kind of just a long-term investment to keep us from having to do this over and over again.

So the the thought process is you you would put the spare parts into service, refurbish the parts, and then they would become your spares.

You always have a spare set, and you always send off correct.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

Um, so the generator, rubber goods trailer, so all our arc flash equipment we send off, and actually it gets tested at MPPD in York.

They have a testing facility and it tests it to make sure the equipment still is shock resistant as spec.

And if it fails, we get rid of it and we get new stuff.

Right now, we ship that back and forth and some totes on the back of a flatbed truck.

So uh a rubber goods trailer would allow us to both have an enclosed option to protect those items that protect our guys, and it would also produce provide an alternate means if guys are on uh um mutual aid trips.

Um there's times where they've had to sleep in trailers and different things, so we could dual purpose that and then the PGS uh a truck out of PGS for operators, and then we have two vehicles.

The ones down in red were approved in previous budget cycles, and they're just take that long to get in.

So I listed those as well.

This is kind of uh excuse me, outlook of kind of where we stand.

Uh the the uh rate increase that you all approved last year has been helpful.

You can see it's smoothed out the rest unrestricted cash line, the green line on the screen.

So we're grateful for that.

And and we also have a three percent increase already pre-approved for next year.

And so going forward, what I see in 2027, so now we're talking two years out, is is no rate increase.

So we will in 2027, we will do another rate study, and then that will determine where we go going forward.

So electric's looking pretty good right now, pretty stable.

Um, we'll see where it goes.

I guess we'll stop there.

I'll ask if there's any questions on electric before we go to water.

Mr.

Brown.

I'm really impressed with uh your power plant training coordinator.

I think that's a really needed item since you're losing all a lot of uh technical knowledge from your retirees and stuff, and where you can take one of those retirees and and make them a trainer and they give all that corporate knowledge out.

I think that's just a money saver in the long run.

But uh appreciate all you do and appreciate the low power charge for this in the state, the lowest power.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

So Ryan, I got a couple of questions.

The first one's on generation.

Um has the federal focus shifted away from carbon emissions on our generations?

It's it's been it's been silent, and a lot of things are being reeled back.

The carbon emissions, so the 2032 drop dead, that rule is being looking like it stayed.

So we're optimistic.

So we I look at PGS and six-year increments because we're spending you know upwards of three plus million dollars to do a major overhaul.

So you want to get your money out of that major overall.

So our next major overall will be in 2029.

So the hope now is with the stay and the rules that we're looking at 35 at least, right?

And then we look at 35 to 41.

Um, I've seen information, you know.

I I've mentioned this before where that unit should be able to go to 2050 if it's well maintained.

So it's really regulation that we're watching closely.

And and different things like this building out other gas turbines, uh it also spreads out your fixed cost, right?

So if we can use staff, obviously there might be incremental additional staff needed, but not if you're doing it, you know, greenfield.

Yeah, because I think we had a couple of units that were high on the carbon emissions list for them for Nebraska anyway.

Yeah.

Well, and and where they were pushing it, I mean, it was getting to the point where they were forcing out coal plants altogether.

I mean, that was the goal.

So it's been there's been a reprieve on that.

In fact, there's kind of been a rejuvenation talk of of certain coal plants that were were being either shuttered or had been shuttered.

So we feel optimistic that PGS um can survive into the mid to back half of 2030s.

Now, obviously, every four years you have an administration change in Washington.

So what that brings will dictate the future, but right now we're we we don't see 2032 as the end of life for PGS.

One of the national stories is all about AI and everything they're doing with AI, and and it seems to be generated with a lot of power.

You need a lot of who's ever doing AI is needing a lot of generation.

Uh are we seeing or trying to predict any of this stuff coming towards our way?

We have we have it'll probably be at the next council meeting or after.

Um we're working, we did an RFP on a land lease over by Swift, and we've done a lot of extensive research that could be beneficial to the city financially.

Um can't speak too much of that, but there should be something coming on that where we will basically have an option for you.

Okay, great.

Uh now I'm gonna get pretty granular.

Four street lights look good.

So thanks for all of this street lights down on four street.

They actually look pretty good.

Um, on the here Grand Island lighting, you know, they have those new uh lights down there.

Two of the banks, two of the strings are out, started at the very first event, one of the strings was out, now two of them are, and they haven't replaced any.

And there's also four lights, individual lights in there that are out that haven't been replaced all over the grassy area.

See, we don't that's not so yeah, who does that or where the BID has so that so that would be a BID question?

We only maintain over the street.

Okay.

Okay, and that's all I have.

So thank you, Ryan.

Yep.

And if anybody sees lights out over the street, let us know because a lot of times you know you don't know what you don't know.

So we like to know that as well.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Uh a couple things.

Um, just to touch on a little bit too.

In the the public parking areas, like the parking lots downtown, right next to that.

Are those maintained by the city as well for the lighting?

Yeah, the the antique lights there.

Yeah.

Yes.

So if those if you have it, usually we we have a portal online where people can report a street light outage.

So they do that.

We will we'll try to get to those.

Yeah, I I used to talk to Larry when he was there years ago, but uh I know there's a few of those out kind of lately as well, just while we're on that topic.

Um let us know I'll submit that.

Yeah, um couple of things.

I I'm uh I I've toured a lot of your sites the last few months, and I'm just really impressed by the quality of the infrastructure the city has.

I don't think people realize how much you guys have put in there and the quality of stuff that we have.

We're really lucky, and even though we've had uh a couple major storms last year, how resilient things really were and how quickly you're able to get them back up.

And I really commend you guys for that.

It seems like there's a lot of focus on improvements and reliability.

You know, I think maintaining the uh spare part set just to reduce downtime is a is a really big thing as well.

Um so thank you for that.

Love those ideas.

Um also just curious on the new solar generation site.

I think that went live in December.

I just curious to that how much of an impact this summer or yeah, yeah, it showed up uh near peak output on on our peak days, which is what you want.

So it it's really had an impact.

Like I said, it it's it's reachful output, and and that plays into the whole data center type discussion.

We're coming, so that gives us another tool to use in that.

I can't say too much, but in that conversation that will come before you here inevitably.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

And and and the other thing we try to be good about is when we have our our system stable helping other municipalities in Nebraska.

Um we've had uh crews in Fremont the spring.

We've just have crews come back from Seward today, and we have a crew coming back from Lincoln tomorrow.

And so we try to maintain those relationships because we know our inevitably we're gonna need it one day.

And and I want Grand Island to be at the top of the list when we need the help.

So we will help others whenever we can.

Good enough.

Thank you.

Have you heard any update on the siding of a small modular nuclear reactor?

Um, they they last I heard they were still getting ready to do the boots on the ground portion of the of the investigation in Nebraska.

A lot of the prototypes, if we're talking nationally or US Canada based, are slated for that 2029 30 time frame, from what I've heard.

So I I'm thinking realistically for Nebraska to see one, you're really looking at mid-2030s to 2040.

That's just my take by the time you build out a supply chain, and then you got to remember Nebraska is is one of the lower cost power states, so you're gonna see it in the higher cost areas first, and then it will work its way in as feasibility uh of the topic.

But it's something that we're pursuing, we're still staying on top of.

In fact, I'm going to a conference in Omaha this fall on it with with Lynn Mayhew.

We're both staying on top of it because we want to stay at the forefront for Grand Island.

So when it when it moves, we're in the loop.

As I understand it, some of those are small enough you can put them on a flatbed.

Correct correct.

And so right now it's just a matter of proving the technology.

They have to get you know those prototypical right now.

It's theorized, it's designed.

Um, some of them are in motion right now, but once they get a prototype active, now they can build out a supply chain and and it rolls.

So it is, it's I think it is the future.

Thank you.

So let's go to water, capital improvements and equipment budget proposal.

Please proceed.

So water um personnel increases of four percent, um, no new FTEs, uh personnel costs are about 17% of our budget.

Um water's I'd say within within reason on everything.

Um water's kind of uh it's a little hard to sho to nail down stuff because a large part of our water budget is the lead service replacement program, and that has a lag for re getting reimbursed from the state.

So trying to line all that up is a little trial and error.

Um so at the bottom, then also an admin cost, and that 5.1% is driven by insurance, and we have uh 20,000 in for the cost of service study.

So this in 2026 will be doing water again.

Um distribution projects, much like Matt talked about, we're piggybacking the street work on locust.

We had a six-inch water main that ran from fauner all the way up to first street that was built in pieces between 1911 and 1929.

So we're upgrading that to a 12-inch trunk line since the streets torn up.

Um and this is continuation of that work.

Umplanned water main developments, it's basically our time on any new subdivisions, build outs, inspections.

Um install a park hydrants is another piggyback effort with uh uh public works.

So there's some older hydrants along Stolly Park, and if work goes there and it's beneficial for us to replace them as part of that.

If it's cheaper, we will do so.

Um well-field improvements.

So six, seven and eight, they're the wells that feed our uranium treatment facility.

So that'll still put panel views to give us the ability to actually control those pumps at the well house.

Right now, you can only control them in the control room.

Um VFDs on the Burdick high pressure pumps right now.

Um, those two have cone valves on them, which are an antiquated throttle system.

This will give us uh a modernize that, and then the the water tower, the elevated storage area.

We do not have a fence around that property right now, so we would like to get that fenced in.

And then we made an independent line for lead service line replacements because we we have a contractor that's moving very fast, and so we need to get our inventory caught elevated to keep up with them.

Um we're replacing our old backhoe and a service truck, and then here's outlook for water.

Water's not as clean as electric, and in some regards, the minimum cash reserve is kind of skewed because it takes into account lead service work.

Um, but the reason so water was was kind of crashing before this last rate increase.

And it if you look at our retail sales, seven percent increase sounds like a lot, but because of the the size of the water budget, it's about you know half a million dollars.

So in the big picture, it's not as much money as it sounds.

So that went a long way, and we've passed seven percent for next year.

And and uh the numbers I saw today, I'm hopeful possibly our end of the year unrestricted cash is a little higher than what's showing up here.

Um, it's all arbitrary on how much rain you get in the summer months.

Um, but but I guess we've been throttling it with capital.

Capital's coming up a little bit because we need to do that locust job and some other things.

So capital has come up in the last two years.

But I'll just be honest.

I I think water's one that's gonna continue to have upward pressure on rates in the next analysis we do.

Um we are one of the lowest in the state, and when you compare our water rates to Omaha's and even to Hastings, it's not even close, which is great, but at some point, you know, there's a trade-off for that.

So this will all be looked at in the next round and brought before you once we have a cost of service study.

But um, I I I feel we'll be fine through next year, but we'll just have to make a decision again.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

So, Ryan, I've got a question of what happened in two 2017.

Now, maybe Darren, the brains of the operation knows that in 2017, the unrestricted cash balance went up from two million to six million.

And and and then it's in the last four years, it's been dropping, including with the rate increase in 25 and 26, it's still dropping.

17 was the water tower, right?

I'm just trying to figure out I'm just trying to follow the unrestricted cash.

And it had a big lift, and I don't know, I don't remember an event or anything.

2017 was when the elevated storage tank was built.

I do know that.

Um, can you remember the mechanism back in 17 that drove that jump?

I think it should answer.

I don't know why I can't think of it.

I I uh but you're still comfortable with the drop, even though the unrestricted cash is still dropping, even with our last rate increase.

That's what you're talking about.

The pressure for the the rate pressure that's it's still dropping, but we we have enough reserves that we can float through next year, but then we'll have to we'll have to do something probably.

Um, because the other thing is we've been kind of sacrificing capital.

Um, we've been sacrificing, you know, you've sacrificed different things to keep it down, but but at some point you don't want to do that anymore.

Um we really don't have the funds to do districts.

I mean, to for new development, and that's where that's where the challenge comes from because you don't have the the excess cash or operating cash to be able to fund districts that that may be needed for for development.

So right and in the lead service work, I mean, it's taken a lot of a time.

I mean, we've at we added positions.

So in 2022-23, we took over service lines between the curb stop and and main.

That added some cost, and we also added three positions, one for that and two for the lead service work.

Um, but it's it's uh it's all hands on deck sometimes with that, and and we have a very good contractor working, and they can crank out up to 15 services a week now that they're fully going, and they have about eight guys at times on on site, so it's it's pretty phenomenal watch them, and then we have we have at least one to two guys, usually two, following that around, getting out ahead with the next house, talking to the people.

Um we we usually have a couple water shop guys making taps for them because we make all our own taps on our mains.

Um, those guys are also doing discovery, and then just the guys um the Mike Hills in the in the office ordering inventory, trying to get out ahead of lead times on inventory because you got to remember when you got a national program, everybody's making a run on the same equipment, and and it has to be American made, so that even that makes it more selective on what you can order.

So there's just a lot of people doing a lot of things to keep keep it going, and I think they're doing a good good.

I mean, we've really streamlined it in the last I'd say two, three months.

We actually made our first draw from the state here in the last month.

So we got 640,000 back, 650,000 back, and we're about ready to make another draw for 400, and then it'll probably be every two to three months.

We'll be making three to four hundred thousand dollar draws from the state back.

So um it's it's a process, it takes time, but I think they've really streamlined it, and uh I think it's gonna move pretty fast now.

So then it just becomes when do you request that next draw?

And what happens federally with the program going forward?

We have the four and a half million we asked for that's in the coffers at the state level, and then I believe the state has access right now in that program, but nothing's certain in the future draws.

So we're gonna spend as it all as fast as we can, and then come to you to re-request more and see where it goes.

How many employees are there in the water department now?

On the books, so so that's why that's a loaded question.

So at the water water department, I believe there are I think it's it's a somewhere between 11 and 14 that are on the books.

But you got our our electric department heavily subsidizes the water, and what I mean is if water needs work on a pump house, we grab maintenance guys at the power plant, they come out, log the hours, only the hours that they're working on that equipment to water, and then they go back to electric.

Same thing with instrument technicians, same thing with an operator at the controls.

So water reaps a lot of benefits being tied to electric, and again, like our our engineering staff, a lot of those on the books are electric employees, but time wise they get split out to water, so there's another it's a great benefit to have those linked.

Okay, thank you, Ryan.

Yeah, Mr.

Brown.

Your lights on.

So the 2017 was a 10% increase in revenue and an eight million dollar bond issuance for the elevated storage.

Um I show you so I got a couple more slides.

So just an update on the lead service program.

Um we we estimated there was as many as 3,000 lead services when we started so far.

Our crews have field verified 736 of the ones that have been looked at in the field and verified, 450 have been found to be lead.

So we're finding about a 61% uh lead rate of what's been looked at.

And of those we've replaced 147, and that number's gonna start moving quickly now that that we kind of got our legs under us.

So and that's the pit bore machine over there that the contractor uses, a pretty slick machine.

They lower it down and he can actually move that around, and just like a directional drill, they can locate the head on that.

And on the left, which is pretty pretty amazing.

They said this has been pretty consistent.

That's all the bigger hole that they're having to open in a typical basement.

That's how close that guy can directionally drill that to the basement.

So they're they're doing a good job.

And then back to 4th Street.

I want to show a picture of the before and after.

So these are the first three blocks looking west towards Eddie.

And so, what you try to do when you do when you do a lighting design is you want obviously the light to be uniform on the street, but you also want to get light on the sidewalks for safety while also keeping the light off the face of the houses.

Having light on commercial buildings isn't as big a deal because that's more of a security thing for them.

But when you have residential houses like we have on Fourth Street at places, it's uh it's gets tricky, and there's things you do, but it it turned out really good.

I thought we we haven't had any complaints, so um, I guess uh check it out if you're down there.

And then the last thing, I think it's my last slide.

Um, now this is just electric and water only compared to others in the state, and you can see so this is kind of a different before we had an all utility slide.

This is just electric water, but it kind of shows you where we're at, and I can tell you talking to peers in the state, there's continuing to be upward pressure on rates for other utilities.

So we'll continue to do our best.

Um, but at some point, you know, things are inevitable, things go up.

And that's all I have.

Thank you, Mr.

Nickerson.

Well, thank you, Ryan, for the report.

I like you.

I've been impressed with the Myers crew on this uh lead pipe replacement is just amazing.

I see sections house after house after house cut, ready to roll, and then next within a couple of days I see concrete over it, and it's just just rolling and rolling.

The question I have is uh you talked about the 3,000 potential and those that have been identified.

What I have not seen lately is the holes where they're actually locating.

Do we still have a crew out ahead of those guys keeping them?

I just haven't seen the neighborhood they're in, I guess.

Yeah, so the idea typically is to have that crew also do the taps for the contractor, those two.

And if you do a per if you look at it, so we've we've had that crew discover 736 out of 3,000.

So percent wise, they're way out ahead on the discovery from what we can replace.

So as they get way out ahead, you kind of pull them back a little bit, you know.

Um, but as time allows, they'll be out there doing that again.

Summer months, a lot of times we we can utilize them doing different things, and since we're so far ahead out of discovery, so we've we have 450 verified, and only 147 of those have been replaced.

So there's 300 to work on right now before we even need to discover more.

So but you were indicating they might be knocking out 15 a week.

Up to 50, that's their goal.

Yeah, so there's that's 60 a month.

Yes.

So it doesn't take long.

If you got if you have eight guys going, um, I'm not saying that's gonna be consistent.

A lot of there's weather, all that, but in a perfect world, that's what their goal going forward is is what they've said.

It's pretty lofty, but I don't I don't discount anything they say because I've seen them do what I've considered impossible time-wise before.

So yeah, it's been very impressive.

I would also concur with you about the rates for water.

I looked at my water bill today, and I I think this last period, I think I watered my grass every day for the most part, and you know, there's only two of us, laundry and whatever, but my rate for the entire month was 24 bucks.

And I thought, holy cow, this is pretty reasonable for what's going on here.

And then I looked at my sewer bill, it was five dollars more than my water bill, so it was twenty-nine dollars.

So when I look at that, I think we we do have some very favorable rates.

Not that I want to see that at 48 dollars or fifty, but I can see where we could afford for the most part, and I I can't speak for people on fixed incomes and all of this.

I can just see where we do have some potential to have some moderate increases that will not be overburdensome, I don't think, based on water consumption.

And and what I advise people is to be careful when you see a percent increase, and then you go read in the paper about another community percent increase.

If that other utility's budget is twice ours, their percent increase.

I mean, their actual effect on the user was twice what ours was, even though we both did a seven percent increase.

And so sometimes that gets lost amongst people as well.

They did a seven percent, and we did the same increase.

Well, not always, isn't dollar for dollar, not always.

Well right, and also included in my water fee is also it wasn't just for water use, it's for the the meter fee.

And I mean, all that adds up to that twenty-four dollars.

So it wasn't just for water use, and so we're talking about water use.

You know, that's gonna be a small that's gonna be a percentage of that whole number as well.

So, anyway, I was impressed with the 24 bucks.

I always look at that and look at how do you do a year ago, and I would agree.

I think we have room for some increases, and it looks like our budget is showing that we're going to probably need that.

Okay, bring that data before you.

Yep.

All right.

Thank you.

Schedule, Mr.

Brown.

Good evening.

Uh here we go.

Fee schedule is uh tonight here.

So all the changes are in red.

Um, there's not too many changes this year, quite honestly.

Um first changes you'll see in the fee schedule is fire.

Um there's uh air bottles he added for I'm not sure how much he did.

Um there's uh air bottles he added for I'm not sure how much he did, but it's for comp uh for air for people picking up for training purposes.

Here it is the uh SCBA bottle fill $12 for that.

All that is is like the air around us, it gets compressed down and then put into a bottle.

So the other fees were on the ambulance, and this is in uh they do an array of eight or nine communities, and this is the average uh on his adjustments of what those communities charge.

So he made that adjustment, and then a lot of the changes are in the parks and cemetery parks area cemetery is going up on some fees.

If you have, I don't think a lot of the directors aren't here, but if you do have questions on these, I will take those questions down and get what the department directors make sure they get answered.

So cemetery uh increase.

And we also have uh quite a few of them going up, uh, burial spaces again.

We have some uh large picnic shelters, half day, all day, price increase, athletic field rental half day, aquatics.

This would be Lincoln Pool, uh some fee increases there, and then also the water park island oasis.

We have some fee increases there as well.

Pool rental increase.

Uh I'm not sure how much uh if he's had any sales in that, but he must have so uh swimming lessons going up three dollars.

So all in all, it's pretty minimal change in our fee structures.

Uh Stolly Park train going up.

Special events, uh the community field house, some of the emission prices going up.

Uh rental of turf fields again, all the increases are in red.

So a lot of a lot of our recreation uh items have are going up.

Uh we did not um I will tell you that landscapes did submit some fee changes to their fees.

We elected not to change those this year due to the RFP being out because that contract is ending December 13th, so we kept the same fee structure.

Uh just planning, or this is police department, just some records uh going from five to ten dollars.

Um I know this is pretty minimal, but I don't know if you if you guys have you if you ever bought toner, this is why this goes up.

So that is so expensive.

Um fee going up five dollars storage fee, Mr.

Ossie.

So Pat, I did have a question about the impound daily fee going from I think it was uh twelve or thirteen to fifteen dollars a day.

So when I look out the airport, and it only costs me five dollars a day to park on concrete or asphalt.

I why is it fifteen dollars a day to park on the gravel out there?

Is it cost-based?

Is are is the fee based on what it's costing us?

Yes, because we also have a person attending out there, so that's part of that cost.

I just I just look at it and I compare to if it if it costs five dollars at the airport.

Why is it fifteen dollars to park in an no one's actually watching it, but it does have a uh have a fence around it.

But that's really what's my question.

Is it cost-based?

And and is that cost based on who's attending it then?

Doesn't get washed or anything, but it is price of a of a person out there.

Okay, thank you, Pat.

Uh uh vehicle auction bid fee twenty dollars from 15 uh engineering, the cut in open permit up to $30 and $5 increase.

Uh sanitary sewer connection application fee 185.

That's a new one.

Um then a lot of changes in our sewer uh service charge.

Uh it's gone from 873 to 926.

Uh Ryan alluded to that in his presentation, then some of these other uh changes in in uh sewer charge.

Uh solid waste um pretty minimal there.

Uh landfill going up a little bit.

Transfer station.

And then utility.

Mr.

Shears.

Sorry to interrupt.

Yeah, no, go ahead.

As you go through this list, this is not riveting.

It just goes on and on and on.

It's nickel and dime.

Yes.

But I guess I I just appreciate that we are doing it nickel and dime instead of waiting five years, ten years and do it five dollar for each of these things.

And the things that are five dollars, it's a percentage.

It's it just makes sense that you're doing all this.

I'm I'm done looking through your whole list.

You can keep going.

But uh it it looks like nothing is major, and it's just kind of nice to see that I'm glad you're reviewing it and nothing's crazy.

Yep, absolutely.

So um basically this is the end.

Uh again, just utility fees gone up, some of these have gone up.

So that's it.

That is the end of that presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Brown.

Thank you, council members, and thank you to our presenters.

We are adjourned.