Let's bring the room to order.

Let's bring the room to order, please.

We're going to get started on a regular meeting.

Everyone, welcome to our meeting.

The date is August 19, 2025.

The time is 7.08 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.

The City Council may vote to go into closed session on any agenda item as allowed by state law.

Please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council President Sheeran.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk.

Present.

Councilmember Conley will be absent.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza.

Present.

Councilmember O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Pollock?

Present.

Councilmember Lionfair.

Present.

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, Kerry Fisk, the City Attorney, and Keith Kurtz, the public works director.

Individuals who have appropriate items for City Council consideration should complete the request for future agenda items form located at the information booth.

If the issue can be handled administratively without council action, notification will be provided.

If the item is scheduled for a meeting or study session, notification of the date will be given.

Council members, do you wish to remove any of tonight's consent agenda items?

Mike has his light on.

Thank you.

Mr.

Paulick.

Thank you, Mr.

Pawlack.

Hearing no one else, we shall continue.

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.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Recognition of Stanley Steele for 35 years of service with the City of Grand Island Police Department.

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I have the privilege of recognizing someone who has dedicated 35 years 35 years of service to our city and to the Grand Island Police Department, Sergeant Stanley Steele.

Now I want to promise you there's no favoritism just because we share the same last name.

Stanley's career has been nothing short of remarkable from his years as a patrol sergeant making sure our streets were safe to steck stepping up as a task force commander in 2018.

He has always been the kind of leader who sets the standard for others to follow.

His steady hand and sharp instincts have made a lasting difference in our community.

On behalf of the City of Grand Island, thank you, Stanley, for your dedication, your integrity, and the legacy you have created.

You've made our community stronger and safer.

Congratulations on thirty-five years of service.

You've earned every bit of appreciation we can get give.

And now Mrs.

Granier and I will meet you down front to present a certificate and a City of Grand Island lapel pin.

Stanley Steele, I have this 35-year service award certificate, which states we hereby express our sincere appreciation to Stanley Steele for your loyalty, diligence, and dedicated service during your tenure with the City of Grand Island, signed by me as Mayor and by your chief, Kevin Denny.

Congratulations, sir.

Thank you.

Well, it's a very humbling experience to have this number of people who showed up to uh I guess honor me.

It's been a privilege.

And I thank the City of Grand Island and the Grand Island Police Department.

Thank you.

I have a couple of years.

There are officers on the streets.

Yep.

All right.

All right.

We'll do a couple here.

Anyone else wants to answer?

Yes.

The respect for Sergeant Steele is demonstrated by all his fellow officers who came here this evening.

And thank you all for being here.

Discussion with Nebraska Game and Parks regarding development of State Park.

And Mrs.

McAloon, lead us off with some background regarding this matter.

Thank you, Mayor.

City Council.

Mayor Steele has asked that I provide you with the review of the role that Nebraska Game and Parks.

Sorry, my AI is talking to me.

As you know, the city went through an extensive public process to develop the Camp Augustine Master Plan, which I'm hoping Jeremy can display on the screen for me since I don't have access to it.

Thanks, Jeremy.

We invited professional input from members of the Game and Parks Commission to provide input for recreational amenities to Big Muddy workshop as they implemented the master planning process.

Their extensive knowledge and experience in what makes a state park successful is reflected in the visual of the master plan.

Their support and knowledge base helped the committee and Big Muddy refine the elements of the plan to provide for a strong revenue source in full service RV hookups laid out in a way that not only attracts visitors but brings them back because they have a great experience camping at the park.

In addition, their operational and visitor experience insights were invaluable to the process and are reflected in the master plan.

As the city worked on the master plan for Camp Augustine, Nebraska Game and Parks continued its efforts to consolidate ownership of the land on the south side of the Platte River Channel.

Two years ago, when the city closed on the purchase of Camp Augustine with a vision for a future state park at the entrance to Grand Island, that land was the land that was the source of that vision, over 500 acres, was actually held by multiple entities, including the federal government.

Game and Parks has worked diligently to consolidate the ownership of the Southern parcels, and if you look at the county parcel map today, you'll see that all of it is now owned by the state of Nebraska.

Finally, during the last session of the unicameral, the department worked closely with our own Senator Dan Quick to facilitate the ability of Nebraska Game and Parks to move forward from the planning stage.

Senator Quick introduced, and the legislature passed LR 17, approving the indication of intent by the Game and Parks Commission to consider incorporation of Camp Augustine, currently owned by the City of Grand Island, into the state park system, subject, of course, to the usual budgeting approval processes of the state legislature.

All of these steps have been achieved and made possible for Grand Island through the support of Nebraska Game and Parks Department, for which we in City Administration are grateful.

Mr.

McCoy and Mr.

Swenson's leadership in this effort has paid off significantly for the state, but also for the city of Grand Island, because we are now in a position to bring our shared vision of a state park at the entrance to Grand Island much closer to reality.

Thank you, Mrs.

McAloon.

And I might add that Mrs.

McAlloon was a key player in the planning with Big Muddy Planning Group.

And we have here tonight Mr.

Jim Swenson and Mr.

Tim McCoy from Nebraska Game and Parks.

Gentlemen, please feel free to come forward.

I'll kick it off, and if there's any any really hard questions, I'll ask Jim to answer them.

No, I I appreciate your time and thank you for the welcome.

I'm going to start just thanking the city of Grand Island.

The actions you took to secure this property at the right time were very critical because we weren't in a position to do anything.

And then the vision that you laid out and the work you did with your community in the planning that went into the master plan, which I don't think is up, but that's all right.

It's coming.

Anyway, uh to really plan it thoughtfully and to think about making sure this is additive to the community.

I think we're trying to get the master plan.

We are keep talking because that process.

Otherwise, I'll get in a lot of trouble with the city clerk.

There it is.

I can work from there.

Thank you, Mr.

Brown.

Yes, thank you.

Um, this work was valuable, and you did it very thoughtfully in making sure it was additive to the community, trying to bring new features and new things that that don't compete with what's already in Grand Island.

Um and so we just we see this as a really high priority activity.

And I will start with what happened several years ago with my board of commissioners, which my chairman, John Hoggett's here in the audience.

We talked about identifying three main priorities for the commission.

And one of those priorities was a Central Nebraska State Park.

Because if you look at where we have state parks in Nebraska, we kind of have them all around the edges of the state, and we have a donut hole.

And we have a donut hole.

And the other thing this donut hole hits is the tri-city area.

You have a substantial population here.

The other unique thing about this location as compared to Mormon Island, it's on the north side of the river.

It will be more peaceful.

It will definitely add to that.

It's also got great capability to bring in tourism because of the proximity to the interstate.

Two great interchanges on each end of that, one to Mormon Island, the locust street is just you know a great access.

And so as we look at this and the plans were laid out, you know, part of the part of the discussion was you know, how do we lay this out, make these good features, provide things that will provide people activities to do, but to still maintain some of their that ability to embrace nature and to play in nature and to go learn, which is why, and you know, an education facility, uh, and you know, and that's sort of a uh outdoor education center, we think would be a real keystone for this with some classroom type areas so that what people can come and and we can also bring school kids in, and we can help them under, you know, we can help help talk about all of the great things that happen in this Platte River system.

Uh the other interesting thing about this is we are on a we're on a smaller channel of the Platte River.

Now, from the standpoint of people getting to experience playing in the water a little bit or floating when there's enough water to float a kayak or a tube.

Um, it just provides really unique opportunities here.

And and I, you know, and the ability of this to really tie into Grand Island.

Um, you know, I I know I think you're gonna hear later about you know trails.

Well, one of the interesting things about trails is you consider your path forward.

People that come to a state park, walk in or bike in, don't buy a park permit.

So it will provide opportunities for people using your trails if they connect to Grand Island to be able to come down and enjoy the park because it's a vehicle entry permit.

So we are we are excited about that.

And the work on the south side isn't quite done.

We're still trying to get the final piece, which is the NDOT mitigation land, um, but we're close.

They're trying to clean up some details for the title transfer.

So we're really excited about this.

That south side, because of how it, you know, the previous ownership, what it's been used for, not a lot of really not development, um, but the north side is just such a unique landscape.

And you know, I I see this as both honoring the history of Camp Augustine and just the actions of the city uh to really take great steps moving forward.

So I I want to thank you for that.

I'd be happy to answer questions.

Couple couple things.

I'd like you to state your title with Nebraska Game and Parks.

I'm sorry, my name's Timothy McCoy.

I'm the director of the Nebraska Game of Parks Commission.

And uh I don't know if people know, but when we were contemplating and acquiring Camp Augustine, Game and Parks was moving in unison to expand its land on the south side of the channel to add on to Mormon Lock Mormon Island with the idea if we combined those two properties, we would have over 500 acres of Platte River uh terrain to make one large park.

Uh but that's what happened here, isn't it?

Yeah, Gaiman Parks moved in unison with the city of Grand Island.

Yeah, we had we'd been working on some NDOT had came to us about the first parcel a while ago, and we've been working through that, which takes time.

Government works that way.

Sometimes I wish it didn't.

And then we realized the other piece was owned by the federal highway, and so that one's that one's fully done.

We have the title on that piece now that connects on the east end, and that and NDOT does want to keep kind of that corner by the interchange.

They still think there's potential to do some future wetland mitigation there, but still that is really right by that intersection right by the highway, probably not overly critical in this whole in this whole plan.

The other thing I realized I left out talking with our commission, uh, you know, talking with budget people in state government, our view of how to develop this is we're gonna raise the money.

We're gonna work with our Gaiman Parks Foundation, we're gonna work with donors, we're gonna work with people that are you know dedicated park supporters and the philanthropic community because that's the way to make this project happen.

And we know that with the state situation, general funds would if we were if we told the state we were going to try to get general funds, it would it would kill the project.

And we don't want to do that.

This has to go forward.

It's a huge priority for us.

And the excitement from our foundation and our commission is we're dedicated, we're serious, we're going to get this done.

I'm glad you mentioned an education center, because I was aware of what Game Parks did.

But when we first met, probably two years ago, you told me that education was a huge component of what Game in Parks does.

And I I I guess I should have known that, but it's uh is kind of one of the reasons you exist as as I understand it.

Yeah, it uh absolutely it's important for helping people understand the nature around them and getting connected with nature.

We have a lot, we have a we have a lot fewer folks that really grew up with time in the outdoors.

And so providing that in a real safe way and helping them learn what's out there and get excited about what's in their backyard rather than maybe you know what's what's going on with lions in Africa.

Um so we do see that as really important.

And I think when we connect those people to their landscapes and they enjoy them, they want to come back.

And we'll see that from visitors, tourists, and and people in the communities around here.

Of course, the master plan includes camping, and uh is there a high demand for camping currently at Mormon Island, such that you would expect uh if we put camping at Camp Augustine, that will also be in high demand.

I I do think it will be in high demand because it'll have more, it'll have a little more isolation from the river.

It's also kind of on this side, close to Grand Island.

There's a lot of activities and events that drive we see we see increased full campgrounds from in the Grand Island, once coming up with the state fair.

And so we just we see that in especially developed things full service campsites.

Um that full service with electric and electric water really helps it lengthens the stays that people come for come for, and it'll also draw, I think it'll draw more interest uh for visitors going through, not just stopping for a night, but stopping for maybe two or three days, or maybe this becomes their destination.

I've always believed that one of the most interesting presidents was President Teddy Roosevelt, and he was a great naturalist, and he expanded uh national parklands by millions and millions of acres.

And when he was a young man, he was at the Roosevelt home uh in Oyster Bay, Oyster Bay, New York, and he watched a flock of passenger pigeons uh fly into the air in the evening, and he knew that was probably the last of them.

He knew that the passenger pigeons would would soon be extinct, and that drove him to create parklands because he believed uh that we are we we are a people who should who should be outside.

He always believed in the strenuous life that you go into nature and learn from nature.

And you said something I think is very important.

We have so little access to a natural environment here in central Nebraska.

We do lots of things that we call recreation, but I think people desire the ability to escape into a natural world.

Do you see that desire at the other state parks around the state?

We we do, and we see it both with visitors that are coming in, you know, for in you know, a stay in a cabin or a stay at a campground, but we see a lot of day use.

We see a lot of families that will come out on a weekend or on a weekday just to come explore.

And it in having those sorts of activities, especially for families with younger children, having it fairly close, so you don't have to drive a long ways as a parent.

I remember those days of you know anything that's in close proximity is the first stop because it's a great opportunity.

The last thing I would leave you with is I think about this site.

I would love to be on this site, either in a campground or or at a cabin in this in the spring, early in the morning when the cranes are flying, you know, having a cup of coffee, um, just think of you know, the there's so much other wildlife that uses this.

We're in the center of the migratory pathway for the central flyaway, and we have the world's largest concentration of cranes in Nebraska, and I think those sorts of experiences will attract visitors that'll want to come back.

Nebraska is a very large state.

How many state parks are there in Nebraska?

There's a reason why you brought him.

I think it's eight or it's eight or nine, but maybe Jim Swenson, and what's your title at uh Game and Parks?

Uh good evening.

I'm Jim Swenson.

I have the honor of serving as a deputy director for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

So how many state parks are there?

Well, you know, we got 79 park areas out there.

How many are state parks?

Eight parks, we have eight state parks.

Eight for the entire state of Nebraska, eight state parks.

If we can make a combined Camp Augustine, Mormon Island State Park of over 500 acres, this community would have a huge feather in its cap.

Would you agree with that, sir?

Well, most certainly, you know, over the course of my career I've had the privilege of working in recreation areas, state parks, state historical parks.

It's the state parks where you really get the family environment because of the activities, the amenities that are available, uh, and just the overall atmosphere.

So it'd certainly be a feather in the case.

And the vision for this, and I'm not I'm not disparaging state recreation areas, but the vision for this is State Park.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

That's correct.

The process that has come together here, you know, that's I want to commend everyone involved.

You know, not only the team that that we've involved, but also the city, uh, the members of the community that came together to put a model together here that will work on the landscape.

That's a tremendous process.

Over the course of my career, I've been involved in many park developments.

Very few have come together in the manner in which this one has.

So kudos to all involved in that for putting together a good public process, truly reflective of what the community wants to see, uh, and certainly one that'll be uh an attraction for the community.

And you believe the Game and Parks Foundation uh will be able to raise money to develop a a uh to develop consistent with the big muddy master plan.

Is that correct?

There's a lot of excitement out there.

I'm pretty confident that we have two board members here present with us tonight, in fact.

So that's that's the members of your foundation board that are here tonight.

DJ and uh Jason Jason Hornaday.

And and you mentioned, Mr.

McCoy, that uh your commission is really excited about that.

Do you feel the same type of excitement from the Game and Parks Foundation?

Absolutely.

They're chomping at the bit.

I think this can be the kind of project that will benefit Grand Island and Nebraska for generations.

This is this is like President Theodore Roosevelt setting aside land for public use that future generations can use and enjoy that would not otherwise have happened had the city council not stepped up and purchased Camp Augustine.

Do you agree with that assessment?

100%.

Mr.

Swenson, do you have anything else to add?

Uh you know, on that camping question, Mayor, uh, a number of years ago uh when I was a division administrator for the parks division, we were looking to expand campgrounds across our areas.

We're limited on that opportunity.

But at the time I took a good hard look at the demand that's out there, and considering the number of recreational vehicles registered in Nebraska alone compared to the number of sites that we offered, we only served about 20 to 25 percent of the market.

Now that's changed a little bit in recent years.

There have been a lot of development, but there's still a demand and a thirst for that activity.

So again, if you walk into a state park or ride your bicycle into a state park, you do not have to pay an entrance fee, is that right?

Walk in, yes, ride a bike in, yes, and recall that it is a vehicle permit.

So if you bring eight folks in the vehicle, there's just one permit required.

So I think that time is of the essence, and in my view, I'm so appreciative that you're here tonight, and the member of your commission, Mr.

Hoggett, and the member of your foundation board are here tonight, because I believe this is an historic opportunity, and I believe that when the city council purchased Camp Augustine, they made one of the most far reaching, important decisions that any city council could ever make.

And I believe that when the city council purchased Camp Augustine, they made one of the most far-reaching, important decisions that any city council could ever make.

And we have some questions.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Boy, you know what we do at city council meetings?

We talk about easements.

And we talk about liquor licenses and change orders and replacing HVAC systems, and sometimes we're pretty dry.

And the mayor said a lot of things just now, but I just don't know if people have realized how flippant exciting this is.

This is just I want to dance.

I got chills listening to you talk.

Uh it this is incredible.

Um I want to thank everybody.

I uh we've talked about this before.

The mayor mentioned it, but the city leadership mentioned Dan Quick and what he did with the legislature, you fellas.

Uh I know Melissa and the foundation had a part to do with this.

Uh that Dave Plonde and the scouts, our friends at tourism, uh John and DJ and Jason, you guys are what you're doing with this.

This is huge.

And I uh I just thank you so much for the investment in the greatest island in all of the world.

Certainly the best in Grand Island, uh best in the state.

So I do have a couple questions.

When is this going to be done?

Uh that's a well just a little question.

Well, it's an interesting question because what we what we will want to do is kind of look at some potential phasing, and really the the speed we'll be able to make progress through those phases is gonna depend on our ability as you know how quickly we can raise funds.

So that's you know, that's gonna be job one for us, you know, if as this partnership moves forward, is to really engage our foundation and the donor community and I know the fan people are excited about this project.

These don't come along very often.

The last new state park we opened was in 1988.

Smith Falls.

Yeah.

So which one was that?

Smith Falls.

I was just there a couple weeks ago.

That's pretty nice.

This will be nicer.

So these opportunities do not come often.

Question number two, related to that.

Roughly, how much are you trying to raise and what kind of footprint do you expect that dollar to be raised from?

Is this like we got to do it here in town, or is this gonna be are there folks from across the state that want to see you mentioned the philanthropy that will go in into it?

We will we will engage people across the state through the through the network we have of partners and donors.

You know, we will also look at any opportunity to bring outside grant funds in that might be you know from beyond the state.

So, yeah, it'll it will be it will not our expectation is that we will try to raise as much money as we can in the state.

We will look for other opportunities, and we will try to take advantage of any that that come to light that we could utilize for this.

And do you need all of that raised before you start to do any of the work?

Or will you see this coming phases that we can start to see?

You know, I know we want to talk about the trail that we want to put down there so we can get that walk-in traffic.

And one of the questions about our trail is as it was mentioned earlier that it's a trail to nowhere, which we can see it's a trail to something that's gonna be amazing.

But how long until we can see some of this, do you think?

And you and I'm not gonna hold you to it exactly, but just an uh an idea.

Very good question.

Thanks for asking that.

Uh when we worked with Big Muddy, we definitely told them that you know, success, we're gonna have to show success pretty quickly here to maintain interest to maintain energy.

So we asked that they designed it in phased approach.

So in the early phases is when you do your utility infrastructure, we'll probably follow that quickly with campgrounds so we can get some activity, get some revenue generated, uh, create a reason for that trail to come out there, make that connection, and then just grow it from there.

So, again, the you know how long is gonna depend on that fundraising uh and how far how fast we can generate those dollars.

Uh but the first phase will be a pretty aggressive uh front load with the campgrounds and utilities.

As effectively answered zero of my questions.

That was brilliant.

That was brilliant.

Thank you.

I'll let you off the hook because I'm really happy about this stuff.

Uh one more plug for you guys.

Uh one of my favorite things out at the state fair that starts next week is your archery range in the whole area out there.

Uh that's really cool.

I just look forward to the day that it's not 11 days of game of parks being uh such a big presence in Grand Island, but 365 uh a year.

So thank you so much.

We'll see, it's fair.

I think we're both there next Sunday.

So no, I'm there the week after.

Mr.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, growing up in Grand Island, uh, I spent a lot of summers out at Camp Augustine.

I was very involved in scouts.

It's absolutely beautiful piece of land out on the river.

Um, you know, a lot of the infrastructure is a little bit tired.

I think it's great to see uh some a lot of new stuff going over there and giving it a holding breath of life out there.

Um question I have for you guys um is there any type of uh estimation of the potential um economic impact to Grand Island just to visitors and events out there uh when you have things completed.

Good question, Ryan.

Uh, we did have the Carney uh two professors, ex-professors from Carnegie College come out and do an economic assessment on it.

I don't have a copy of that report with me.

I know the Laura's got a copy of it.

Uh it did come back in a very positive promoting that this is a very good opportunity for the community, one that you do not want to miss.

Um, as far as actual drawing the numbers with everything, uh we didn't have a full concept design at that point in time, so it's hard hard to put a real hard number to it.

But on the lines of what the scouts did and what this plan calls for, there's a large open-air event space there, which will host special events, which are gonna be critical to economic drive as an economic driver for the community as well as the park.

Sounds like it should have a lot of capacity to draw people to town, so thank you.

Again, I thank you for being here tonight.

Uh, I think we have a couple speakers who want to come up.

Jason Hornendade, did you want to speak?

No, I just raise my hand.

Okay.

Um Chris Kudalek.

I don't know where he went.

Oh, no.

Okay.

I think that was it.

I think this is one of the most important things that has happened to our community in decades.

And I think it's I know you cannot commit to an exact time, but I think there is high enthusiasm for this.

I think we can start the phase development uh quite quickly, and that we will no longer have a trail to nowhere, that we will be on the map with having a Nebraska state park.

Thank you, gentlemen.

The next uh topic on our agenda is presentations on trail trails by Hall County Tourism.

Mr.

Brad Melama.

Thank you.

I think I have a slide which is simply uh a uh picture of the trail.

So uh do I just advance this one and it goes to it, or do I have another folder to open?

Gotta pull it up.

Patrick, the folder opener.

All right, appreciate that.

What does we have?

That'll work.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Brad Meloma, director of Grand Island Tourism.

Thank you for the opportunity to come and address you this evening and go over some thoughts related to this trail.

I do have some things that I want to go through and then available to any questions that you might have.

So we have a unique opportunity to build something amazing on the Platte River as a community right now.

It's laying right in front of us.

We've got a lot of hard decisions to make.

We've got a lot of hard things to do to get there, and it's gonna be a heavy lift.

It is, but as mentioned, the state park is the destination for this trail.

Okay, it's not a trail to nowhere, it's this it's a destination that is absolutely worthy of the investment of this community for that, and I want to talk to you a little bit about that.

It is indeed transformational and connective, and it's gonna connect to the rest of the Grand Island Trail system.

And that's really important as a tourism guy.

I wear that hat frequently, and we like to gather things together to create interest in a destination.

So if you look at uh Augustine Mormon Island, you look at Hall County Park, you look at Stew Museum, and on up into our community.

That's a marketable thing where it is truly a destination where people will come here from other communities, not just for the day, but they have the opportunity to come here for multiple days in the impacts.

Uh, Ryan, you asked a little bit about the impacts, maybe of a state park.

I don't know what that number's gonna be either, but I can say this.

Our family did a reunion at Fremont recreation area, okay?

And we had about 60 of us there.

We were there for about two and a half days, depending on the group, came and went.

We rented a whole bunch of rooms at the Holiday and Express.

We catered through High V.

We rented facilities out at the park.

Three or four of us RV camped while we were there.

Just that one group, not to mention all the boats zipping around and so forth, was probably three to five thousand dollars.

Just one group, and that was a wonderful experience for us, and it was a great place to do it.

And I can tell you, person after person after person will do those kinds of activities down there.

So I just wanted to toss that in.

This is, as Mayor Steele said, a generational opportunity to build this amazing thing.

And I urge you to think of this not just as a slab of cement going down beside the road.

You have to think of this as the collective of the larger thing that we're trying to build.

Okay?

You can't just think of it as that singular thing.

I know that's hard to do, and I realize the budget and the engineering and the drainage and all those things, I get that.

But you have to think of this as a collective where we put this whole thing together into unifying our community and our trails in our region.

Our community is growing.

It's so easy to see when you drive around.

If there isn't a patch of dirt that Roger and some of those folks haven't found to build a building on, I don't know where it is.

It's so exciting to see.

We are on an upward trajectory right now, and I think it is definitely that unique point in time.

According to your little map, I couldn't quite figure out how many existing trails we have.

It's somewhere between 12 and 20 miles of trail in Grand Island.

If you add up all the components of the trail system that we have here, and this link would unify those trails in a great way.

Grand Island uh really certainly uh would benefit from that extension of this trail and that destination and the reward for going for that bicycle ride when you have out there.

The idea for this trail is not new.

This didn't come up a month ago or a year ago or two years ago.

Uh, talking with Dave Plon, this the Boy Scouts did the ride before the exit was made down there, and it was a two-lane road that went down there, and they rode bikes in there and they knew that a trail was going to be the thing.

And then I think what was it, 20 plus years ago, the four lanes went in, and the bridge and that under abutments that built uh the substructures were built with the extensions with that in mind, and so they've been there for 20 plus years in that neighborhood anyway, ready to include.

So this is not a new idea.

This is something that has been in the plans to do that.

Last time I spoke with you a few weeks ago, we talked about partnerships, financial partnerships, those kinds of things.

I got a couple things I want you to think about related to that.

We've got some business leaders in the room here tonight that I have visited with about trails and about business and why it's important and why I want you to think about this holistically versus just this one component of it.

Uh John McFarland, I think he was waving, there he is in the back corner, uh, is the owner and operator of the Pedago bike shop here in Grand Island, right down on Stolly Park, literally a stone's throw from the trail.

And uh been down to his business a number of times talking to him about some of those types of things, and I know John Wayne, I saw him in here right here, there you go.

He's got some experience selling a few bikes in this community and has uh certainly an understanding of the business that's involved with cycling.

Cycling is a mentality.

Bicycling in communities is an idea that some communities get better than others.

We have a decent one here, we certainly do.

We have trails and some things like that, but there's some other communities that do it better, and it's this idea behind healthy living and cycling that that can certainly go in there.

I like John's got his business card.

I wanted to get the right thing on.

He's the chief fun officer at Pedago, okay?

So that's a good thing.

And the another thing that he had mentioned, he's got customers that buy for recreation, but we have a lot of customers that buy for transportation needs.

For various reasons, they can't drive a car, or that bicycle is the absolute lifeline that they have to get and do things, and that absolutely is a thing that that perhaps we're not thinking about sometimes with bicycles going to the uh transportation versus that.

Roger Bullington, who I think you're in the paper more often than Cindy Johnson used to be.

I don't know, you're in there all the time or something that's going on there.

But if this morning's paper uh talks about the wonderful development plan uh with the apartment complex, and if you go on to the first paragraph right after the above the fold, it talks about the bike trail, talks about the connecting to the bike trail.

Why is this complex of importance related to the bike trail?

Those people can get on the trail and they can go to Augustine unintruded.

That means business for Grand Island.

That means people want to live and build things and be on the trail.

It's a more valuable place to live when you have the trail.

Okay?

So I want you to be thinking about that.

Um Scott Reef's not here, but most of you are aware of the incredible development that he's got uh underway.

And I had a visit with him and the prairie district, and he was at Rotary Club a few weeks ago talking about the trails that they're building through there.

So about two miles, I think, uh over in this area, and then another mile at least.

He doesn't know exactly how it's gonna plan out to connect to western parts of the city, and he's building them in a very thoughtful way and 10 foot wide, and they are gonna connect to guess what?

The city trail system.

People want to live and be around these types of things.

So I wanted to point those out.

Uh, the the memberships or the partnerships I talked to you about with economic development, the chamber of commerce, of course, us at tourism, grow Grand Island, and the community foundation are behind these projects as well.

Any way that we can be supportive financially or otherwise, we are there.

Um back to that healthy living lifestyle, that mentality.

Uh, Colorado Springs.

I got a brother that lives out there with his wife, raised his kids there, beautiful city.

They have that mentality.

I think maybe you kind of know what I'm talking about if you've been there.

Uh, everybody wears fandex.

Um Garden of the Gods, if you're familiar with that, is a city park.

Can you imagine Colorado Springs having the Garden of the Gods and not building a bike trail to it to get that access?

One of the most beautiful city parks in the country, and not having that.

We're gonna have that right here and available to us.

And so that quality of life and the Garden of Gods, I just want to put that into your mind to think about that.

Trails give a way to immerse people into nature and access to all.

So your constituents do not have to be a car driver to get down there.

And most of us don't think twice about jumping in our car, starting it up and going.

We're a car-driven town, car-centric town, but a lot of people can't have for various reasons that ability to do that.

And we need to think about on into the future, that structure to accommodate all and to have that ability.

Uh, we do rides, my wife and I very frequently, and the diversity of age, all the way from training wheels up to I don't know, 80 or 90 years old or whatever, are on the trails every all the time.

And it is really fun to watch uh and to be able to see that.

This is a big place.

The Mormon Island Augustine, uh, 500 acres, but I did the little square thing right on the city's uh GIS thing, and it came up a little bit over 600 acres.

That's almost 16 times larger than Stalley Park.

It's almost 16 times larger than Stulley Park.

Stolly Park's a good-sized property, perhaps one of our premier park properties in Grand Island, and it's greatly used, and we need more space like this.

And so to think about the prize at the end of a ride of a bicycle, which would take about a half an hour-ish to ride from my house down to that destination, uh, it would do that.

RV camping that was talked about.

Reverse.

RV campers ride into our community to experience things like Stewart Museum and the different things that that are in there.

We look for the water park.

What's that?

And the water park.

And the water park, all the amenities that have been mentioned and the things that we offer, whether it's shopping or restaurants, those types of things.

Those kinds of things will happen and do happen with this.

My wife and I recently traveled to Omaha and did exactly the same thing at uh Cunningham Lake, and it was so much fun to be able to do that.

So just a few more things to mention here, and then we'll open that.

But that safe separated, non-motorized path is crucial for families, kids, and others to be able to enjoy that.

So I wanted to point those things out.

Couple things, regional impact, dark island trail that's up by Central City.

There's actually ways to sort of connect the dots eventually.

There's an underpass under I-80, right at Mormon Island.

It's an old railroad underpass.

It's not hard to imagine, like our friends in Kearney did, where they were actually lowered that down, but kept that bike access to be able to go to Donathan and maybe on to Hastings.

Now, I'm spending lots of money I don't have with those ideas, but it's good to have a plan for the future to be able to do those types of things.

I want to think about that.

Um so I'm gonna close and say, let's build something amazing on the Platte River for this community and for the state of Nebraska.

And there's so many things that we've done.

So I'd like to thank Mayor Steele for your vision.

I'd like to thank City Council for your trust and fortitude to purchase the property, Augustine.

You own it.

It's right there.

It's right where the trail is going to end.

The city owns that whole thing.

I could imagine maybe some amenities, a trailhead parking lot, maybe it's a place to launch kayaks and tubes and some of the stuff that was mentioned earlier.

So I can see those types of things happening in the very new future.

Future to get some of that stuff put together.

But uh that is my presentation on this trail.

I know it's expensive, but I know private investment has already invested in your trail system.

When you look at uh Prairie Commons and the other district that's out there, they've already invested in it with those dollars and cents within the last 18 months.

So you start to look at the miles of those built by private dollars compared to what's going on in the city, and I think it certainly helps with the justification for this expenditure that is on your proposed recreation list.

So that's what I've got.

And if there's any questions, I'd be happy to talk about it.

A couple thoughts, you know, you said this idea is not new.

The uh the bridges on South Locust were built out for a hike bike trail to cross them in 2000, 2000.

I've got it here.

The early 2000s, I think, wasn't it?

2001.

2001.

Twenty-four years ago.

24 years ago.

So we had leadership that far back who saw this vision.

I think the other thing you said, this is very important.

You said trails give access to everybody.

And we don't we need to think about that.

Quite frankly, my wife and I are on our trail system year around.

And and I know a lot of other people, not you know, a lot of things people do for recreation, they do not do it years around, all year round.

I do not expect to see pickleball players playing pickleball outside in February.

People use our trails in February.

People use our trails in January and your during the uh deep months of the winter.

And I know that because by the time my wife and I get out to the trail system, it's usually early evening in the winter, and if it snowed that day, the trails will be covered with tracks.

People have already been out, even if there's snow on the trail, using those trails.

So what you say is so true.

Trails provide access to everybody.

And you said something else that's very important.

You talk about being able to immerse oneself into nature.

And our confluence parks and recreation study that we heard about in April said that's a desire of the people of Grand Island to be able to access nature because there's just there's just really not much of a place where they can do that.

But if they can get on trails and go to a state park, they can access nature.

And the the phrase a trail to nowhere.

Well, I think the state park's going to develop and start to be used faster than anybody thinks.

And I have I believe people who stay at the state park will like to get on the trail and come to Grand Island.

It's only three miles.

Okay.

We'll like to get on the trail and come to Grand Island.

That's not a trail to nowhere.

That's a trail to the water park.

That's a trail to restaurants.

That's a trail to shopping.

I can see easily people who are camping at the state park wanting to access Grand Island on a trail as opposed to getting in their vehicle and driving in.

So I think you said some very important things, and I think the other thing you said, this is vitally important to remember, our community is growing.

And that's why it's so important that we have seized the moment to acquire additional recreation land with the purchase of Camp Augustine, partnering with Game and Parks.

I think it will it won't be that long before Grand Island grows out to Interstate 80 and beyond along Highway 281.

But yet, because we were far-sighted, we will have set aside, and I'll take your measurement, we have set aside approximately 600 acres that will always remain a natural area that they can access.

And I'd like the fact you talked about the city with the greatest city park, in my opinion, in the nation, Colorado Springs and its city park of Garden of Garden of the Gods.

And I have taken the hike bike trail into the Garden of the Gods, and I think what you said is very thought-provoking.

Do we have a Nebraska State Park on our doorstep and not build a trail to it?

Do we say the only way to access a Nebraska State Park from Grand Island is to have somebody take you out in an automobile?

Colorado Springs was not that short-sighted in my opinion.

I know that some you said some communities do trails better.

I know that's true.

Between college and law school, I lived in Silverthorn, Colorado.

And uh I could hop on my bike and I could ride to Vale, Colorado, which I did frequently and back, a distance of 60 miles, and I had to ride in the presence of cars for about four miles.

Otherwise, I was a fellow traveler on on with hikers and bikers on a trail dedicated for that.

And I always thought how forward thinking the cities of of Breckenridge and Copper Mountain and Vale and Silverthorn and Dillon were because they knew that if they just relied upon skiing, that that was uh that was a winter sport only.

So way back then, and I lived there quite a few years ago, they saw the importance of trails, and people traveled to those cities to access those trails.

So I think I think if people think trails aren't used, they're wrong.

I use them.

My wife uses them.

I know that they're used year-round, and I think that's so important.

They use trails year around.

Not many things we provide for recreation you can say that about.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I think somebody's excited about trails here tonight.

Sounds like a lot of people are excited about trails.

There's no question in my mind of the value of trails and what we've developed.

When I looked at this project, and we've talked about it off and on.

They say 24 years.

I wish we would have built it 24 years ago because it wouldn't have a price tag of 7 million right now.

But there's a reason why it wasn't built, it's because it really wasn't cost effective, and that's why things aren't done.

And that's I'm not gonna discuss the merits of whether it's cost effective now or not, because it is what it is.

But when I first looked at this project a while back, for some reason I thought it was a million dollars a mile.

For some reason, I thought there was seven miles between where we wanted to put this.

That's if we stop at the entrance to the dirt road.

If we choose, and I don't know if this project is part of that, probably not, to pave the road or add a trail to the entrance of Camp Augustine, which is roughly another mile down that dirt road, we're looking at 1.8 million dollars per mile for I'm assuming 10 foot wide piece of sidewalk.

Okay?

So we're looking at 1.8 million to 2.5 million per mile, and that's an M per million.

Now, as a council, what I have to do, as I represent part of this community, is do I tell our community that a $2.5 million per mile project for something that's going to help a few dozen people for a while, is more important than projects that we also have to look at this year that, if completed within a year, will serve thousands of people within a year that are less expensive than this.

As a council, I have council member, I have to to to grapple with is that a project that we need for this year?

And do we have to use excess cash reserve funds to do that?

Are there alternative, are there additional funding that we can get to make that happen?

I'm just saying that we have a lot on our plate, and I'm not saying that we don't need a trail there.

I'm asking the question at a two and a half million dollars per mile for sidewalk.

Is that the most cost-effective thing this year?

And do we look at pushing that back, looking for additional revenue sources to help pay for that?

That's a lot of money.

And it is not going to serve very many people in the near future.

It will fit into the big picture in time.

We have state and park folks here, games and parks.

It says, you know, they see a value in that, sure.

But is it necessary this year?

And I'm that's what this council has to grapple with as well.

I understand all of it, but it's hard for me to look somebody in the eye and say that spending two and a half million million dollars for one mile of sidewalk is more important than some of the other projects that we have this year.

Doesn't mean we don't do it next year, we don't revisit it in the interim, look for additional sources of ways to pay for it.

But that's the reality check of what we've talked about tonight.

We can hype all the parks and rec and trails and all the great things that have occurred over the years and the months here, and but the reality is it's a two and a half mile, two and a half million dollars per mile expenditure for us is what it is.

And is that the best use of money for this fiscal year?

Not looking for answers.

I'm just telling you the reality check that I have to face and talk with people about I too have heartburn over the cost.

We chose to build a city in a river.

And when you do that, our engineering friends lose their minds about bridges and drainage and those types of of difficulties that come with those types of things.

I haven't done a deep dive on the drawings or the sketches or to find out where the costs are.

I don't also know, maybe Todd does or Keith does, if that's a two-bridge figure or a one-bridge figure.

It's a one-free.

Uh to do that.

And so is there some value engineering propositions, surfacing alternatives, things like that?

Absolutely.

You need to look at that portion of it to see uh if if those things can be made in a more attainable way.

Long-term maintenance is fairly cheap on these things.

They you put them down and they and they you you could have a flood or something, I suppose that would wash them out over time.

But but when you look at uh the depreciation or that long-term investment is good, you said 24 years ago we looked at it, but if we kick the can down the road another 24 years, guess what that city council is going to say?

They're gonna say, I wished we'd done it in 2025.

And we're also and and I know you're also spearheading a private fundraising effort too.

So we are uh I would not want to dissuade private benefactors from giving if they think the trail is not going to happen, because I think there's a lot of enthusiasm for this.

If we had if we had been scared by the gargantuan lift, the combined Mormon Island Camp Augustine State Park is, if we had been scared by that, we never would have we never would have done it.

But we weren't scared.

And we found valuable partners along the way.

At another point 24 years ago, Augustine was a Boy Scout camp private.

It's changed completely now compared to what we had back in those days as far as that destination goes.

And that's what I was wanting our council to give thoughtful consideration to.

Mr.

Landfeer.

I guess I really didn't get myself make myself clearer than what I was going for.

It is a trail for to nowhere.

We build it this year.

I mean, there is not going to be anything down there.

We need Brian, you know, I'm not going to say yes or no on it.

But it needs to have a reason to go.

And tell they get something at Camp Augustine, there is no reason for building that.

We and we have enough high net dollar projects this year.

You know, if maybe it's time to look at the budget piece by piece and see if we have the money to really set out to do this.

It may be better in a year or two when you see the state getting things done.

But that's what I really want to do.

Mr.

Sheard, thank you.

Um, boy, if I didn't speak in behalf uh positively on a trail, I don't know that I'd make it home tonight.

Uh my wife is one of the runners in this town that live on these trails.

Uh she's one that's probably out there before the mayor and his wife are hitting them in the snow.

Uh I don't know how much she's gonna use this one, but she tells me she will.

Uh, but I'll set my personal connection aside.

Uh I've I've been a little torn on this, and I've talked to the mayor about it a little bit.

Is this the right time?

And it was important for me to hear that the state, you know, state gaming parks are looking at uh turning that into that state park and hearing that excitement.

I do believe when people get off of when I'm driving down the interstate around that town a little bit west of us, and you see a trail, it does say something about a town.

So I keep thinking about this is a rather large price tag, but it is something that I think shows about our town to our visitors, and our biggest draw, one of our biggest draws.

A lot of people are taking that road right there to get there to Fonner Park, to Heartland Event Center, to State Fair, Island Oasis, to rail side, that's your that's your exit.

And to see a trail there, I'd like to see people on it.

I'd like to see some trees on it, but I do think it does say something about our city.

Uh I appreciate you giving us your very passionate uh presentation tonight.

Felt like a little bit of Kevin Bacon and Footloose there a little bit, dancing around.

It's pretty exciting.

Uh expecting you to quote the Bible at some point about the bicycle features.

Uh I do appreciate all of that.

Uh we have a meeting Thursday.

I think we're gonna we're gonna have an opportunity to look at how we're gonna pay for everything on this list, as what Councilman Lane Fear as you're asking.

We need to look at all this stuff.

I think it helps us to hear everything you said tonight.

Uh mayor, you're pleased for it.

Uh, I think it it does paint a picture of why this is so important and why uh we need to talk about it for this year.

Uh so it's gonna be a busy week for us.

Uh it doesn't change that that's a big price tag, but I do think that it's it's worth us having the talk.

How does this rank with all the other projects as to as Todd called it the big four earlier tonight?

So I have no questions.

I just wanted to, you know, throw some sense in there to the pot and thank you for your passion.

Mr.

Nickerson, I think the prize was Camp Augustine.

That was definitely the prize.

And again, to put this in perspective, whatever is decided by the council.

The cost of a trail to get to Camp Augustine is three times greater than the cost of Camp Augustine itself.

Just think about it.

We got big decisions to make.

So I don't know.

Uh I don't think we'll know the cost until we actually look for bids.

We haven't done that yet.

John Wayne, did you want to speak on this item?

Sure.

John Wayne, I um owned a bicycle shop and have been involved with bicycles and bicycle trails for nearly my entire life.

A retired 2020, something like that.

And since then, my wife and I have uh traveled all over the place, and one of the main things we do is, and we we go to parks, towns, uh Brookings, South Dakota, because they have a bike trail there.

Um we see so many other people, not local people, people from all over the different areas who are doing the same thing.

They want something that's in the the comment, this is a trail to nowhere.

It's not most of the trails we go on.

You park at a Walmart or wherever, you go out four or five, eight miles, come back around, and it's it's it's the going out and it's the it's the experience of going out.

It's not a trail from that has to go to some destination.

It's it's the experience of actually riding that trail.

So that's you know, when I had this the bike shop um all summer long daily, we would have people calling, wanting to uh know what the trail situation was in Grand Island.

And I was very excited that we could tell people, yes, we have all these trails.

Um when I moved to town in 81, the only bike trails in town were on the streets with signs that were halfway hanging upside down.

When the bike trails started coming in, we had so many more people excited to that, hey, we're coming to town for a reunion or something.

You have some bike trails.

We have something to do because that's the physical activity is something that you know virtually everybody likes to do.

It's a low impact.

It's fun for everybody.

Little kids like 8090.

My dad was 98 when he quit riding his bike because he died.

But so it's something for everybody your entire life.

So it's I it's I think it's a major plus for the community to have bike trails, no matter whether they go around in a circle, or like you said, to nowhere, which really isn't it it isn't.

It's it's a it's a trail.

I would take that trail, go out and back.

Okay, now I got a seven-mile bike ride.

And it's uh it was it was fun, it was enjoyable, it was away from traffic.

Thank you.

Chris Kulak, did you want to speak?

Thank you, counsel.

Um, I don't plan to replicate anything that was mentioned already on items 6B and 6C.

Um, although I do think that what uh John Wayne said made a hell of a lot of sense about the out and back element of a trail that was very poignant.

I am here to drop a couple of seeds, plant some seeds.

One is um Fawner Park has had uninterrupted racing seasons for more than 70 years starting in 1954.

One of the things Fawner did back in the day was they donated ambulances to the city of Grand Island.

They did that a number of times.

Um I'm an advocate for these trails, and I will say that if they can figure out a way, they, whomever, uh, to incorporate the horse horse trails within Camp Augustine, possibly that gorgeous gem of the Hall County Park, um, where we could have some corrals.

Uh Fawner Park will make a donation towards that endeavor that uh I feel very strongly about, and as a member of the Nebraska Horse Trails Committee, I can guarantee you that you get a lot of free labor out of those uh committee individuals to help build horse corrals and things of that nature.

So that's just the first seed.

Um Mr.

Nickerson, heartache, uh ulcers, anguish.

I don't have the bicarbonate of soda for you, but what I can tell you is for getting close to three years now, the casino gaming tax that has been harvested is sitting there, it's in the general fund.

And I don't know how it has been spent already, but it is there to be spent, and I can give you an update right now that the expectations for 2025, the portion that would go not to the state, not to the county, but to the city specifically, is closer to 2 million dollars than it is to 1.5 million, and that's just for the 2025 allocation.

I don't know what's happened with 2023 or 2024, whatever plans there may or may not be.

But hopefully that would soften the blow a little bit if that was used uh for the trails, uh be it for the uh the the parks.

We heard our friends in the game and park speak about that, but there's some money out there, and um I I don't think um you're alone when you should consider that it's there and it's building and it will continue to build and be there by design.

So uh there wouldn't be a casino if there wasn't Fawner Park.

If there weren't horses, there wouldn't be Fawner Park with a community sport support we have here.

So um just letting you know that um there's some money out there if if you look around or want to visit with me more about it if you like.

As a horseman, you also sense the need to be able to immerse in the nature and and go somewhere where you're not fighting traffic.

I've had a couple weekends off since the race meet, and each time my wife and I have loaded up our horses and we've gone elsewhere.

We've gone to Pierce up by Norfolk, or we've gone uh it's close as Gurloff Prairie, but we we camp with our horses.

There's a dearth of opportunities in Nebraska for that, but it's sitting right here in our backyard, and the game in parks gentleman used the uh Tim McCoy said LinkedIn.

Uh Brad Mellon referred to uh contact access from yourself, Mr.

Mayor.

It's all right here, and um we know that paramount concern for Grand Island is that we're off I-80, and this is the connecting body for that.

I think that's all I have on us, anyways.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks to everyone who spoke during our uh presentations and proclamations.

We have one more 6D.

Discuss June 25 weather event response and SBA funding for flood relief.

Mr.

Rosenland.

Hello there.

Okay.

Well, I appreciate the opportunity to speak for a short moment about uh the events that occurred on June 25th and everything that's uh uh occurred since then.

I apologize for the odd type.

Apparently, this PC doesn't have the same fonts that I have.

The one at home looks much more attractive than this PowerPoint, I promise.

Um as you may remember on the evening of uh June 25th, around 11 p.m.

Uh uh very serious uh severe thunderstorm uh hit Grand Island, bringing uh significant amount of rain uh to the area.

Uh we had already had an afternoon filled with some rain.

Uh the evening uh picked up quite a bit.

At one point, uh around this uh 11, 10, uh 9, 10, 11 uh p.m.

time frame, we saw nearly two inches of rain in an hour at the peak.

Uh that's that's an exceptional amount of rain that happens in a short period of time.

At that point, the National Weather Service did issue a uh flash flood warning uh for the city of Grand Island.

Um now uh a flash flood warning is a flash flood warning, and there's been a lot of conversation nationwide with the flooding that happened in Texas about the graduated scale of flash flood warning.

So there's actually regular flash flood warnings and there's catastrophic flash flood warnings.

Um we started off with that regular flash flood warning.

Anyone that has an uh a weather uh weather radio in their home would have received that flash has access to that flash flood warning, as well as uh a number of mobile apps and those sort of things.

Um then at about um 1145, uh Doppler Radar and other um and reports from the 911 Center to the National Weather Service uh indicated some pretty significant impacts to Grand Island, particularly in the Northwest portions, uh Capitol, um Claude 281, Deers, uh a little bit of North Road.

Um and there's quite a bit of uh rescues uh completed by the Grand Island Fire and Police Department.

And uh at that point, the National Weather Service, in conjunction with our emergency operations center, um, decided to issue uh a catastrophic flood flash flood warning.

Uh that activated the integrated public alert warning system or uh that text message on your phone.

So a lot of you probably woke up to a terrible sound from your telephone telling you, hi, wake up, don't leave your house.

Uh but that was the kind of message we wanted to make sure we could send out.

Um because we had some fantastic leadership uh with the Grand Island City Police Department, uh great coordination with the 91 dispatchers and the fire department, and they saw the risk and asked that uh that we begin this process to warn people that this is a serious event and they do need to stay home and give the and and give the rescuers time to rescue those that are in in trouble.

The rest of you please shelter in place.

Uh this is the uh uh message that goes out that went out uh at that time from the National Wealth Service.

Um this is one of the graphics they'll put on their website and and uh the uh their social media.

Uh this is a uh graphic that shows the amount of rain that fell, and you can you can see that there was quite a bit um uh that dropped here.

The storm total for Grand Island somewhere between 6.8 and 7.8 uh inches.

The last time we saw rain that high was 2003.

Um at that point in that storm, if I remember correctly, a lot of that rain fell further west from Grand Island in the Prairie Silver Moor Creek drainage.

That's why in 2003 it was the Silver and Prairie Creeks that flooded and created quite a bit of trouble in the northwest uh areas of Grand Island.

Um to deers and into the years that we saw flooded here in June.

In this event, uh less of it fell in there as much as it really really dumped in uh in Grand Island proper.

Uh it uh as you know, we've built the uh uh well, we between the city and and particularly the uh NRD, they've completed the prairie more silver drainage um uh improvements and the detention cells, which I think did a fantastic job along the Silver and Prairie Creeks.

However, um the Moores Creek, uh, which runs into the kind of the southwestern part of Grand Island near uh, say North and Pot Ash, and then it's channelized until it uh exits town at the north end by Deers and uh Webb Road and Capitol.

Uh that experienced quite a bit of rain after the detention cell projects, and so it's just gonna flood, and it uh I tell people it's like Grand Island took the ice bucket challenge.

Some days you're just gonna you're gonna eat all that water, and there's really nowhere to go other when other than the established training drainage that we have.

Um overnight operations.

Uh we did open the EOC right about 11, 11:30.

Um, there when that catastrophic warning was issued.

Uh that the we did bring in a handful of our agency representatives from the police fire, public works and others coordinating that effort.

Um, some pretty great decision making resource acquisition and uh and decisions made there on what apparatuses are best used in this.

Uh the as you know, the police department has that rescue vehicle uh that was able to enter some pretty deep water without um sacrificing the operations of that vehicle.

Uh we did try to send a few rescue units to rescue people from their homes, uh, but uh the fire trucks were starting to bring water into their engines and not dying to replace fire engines as well.

So um fortunately the police department had uh had that uh MRAP, I think this is the vehicle's name.

Really was a fantastic piece of equipment.

Um we were fortunate, I will say that no injuries or deaths uh occurred from this.

We were pretty fortunate that a flash flood in Grand Island is not the same as flash floods in other areas because we are the grandest island in Nebraska.

Um we're also a fairly flat island, and so we have broad, but fortunately often um relatively uh shallower flash flooding than other areas may uh uh may suffer because of our topography is beneficial in that way.

Um in the morning uh we were able to do quite a bit of good damage assessment, really appreciate city utilities and the Hall County Sheriff's Office for providing some uh access to drone footage.

Uh and the GIS department with the CIT created this website, uh, an amalgamation of both mapping and drainage.

I'm sorry, um uh drone video and and photos that really gave a great uh ill illustrative view of the impacts of this uh of this flood.

And like I said, we really did see the vast majority up and along North Road between Pot Ash and 13th, and then um along the Morse Creek drainage area there along Claude behind uh Deers, uh in Deers along State Street and so on.

Uh in the morning, uh we also gathered all the agencies together to begin that process of of um as the water receded to return the vehicles that were abandoned by the drivers, make sure we could have a good catalog of every vehicle where it was at, who owned it, and how we can make sure we can get it back to that owner.

Uh they were all removed, um, and then that those owners could go pick those up from impound.

And then working with uh with the mayor's office uh issuing the local emergency declaration because this was a uh significant and historic event for the city.

Uh we also instigated the uh uh citizen report tool uh that we have it's an online report tool and uh received hundreds of submissions from the public uh with really fantastic information and photographs of their damages and the impacts that happened to their homes and their businesses.

Uh we followed that up with uh in-person damage assessments, uh particularly in the in the most heavy hit areas just to make sure we wanted to make sure we could uh particularly get um the most drastically of uh affected businesses and homes.

Um and to date we actually have 202 reports.

I got one again this morning.

Uh this is a map uh that we have in from our Orion damage assessment database.

You can see the areas that had uh reported of damage.

Most of our damage here in the northwest area and the western area were uh flood uh uh flood waters coming in from the outside.

A lot of these on the western end were more related to uh sewer backups.

Um as the storm uh as the storm sewers flooded the sanitary sewers, those systems are gonna equal out, and you're gonna have uh some unfortunate backing up into people's homes.

And so these uh areas here uh along highway 30 on the eastern end of town seem to be more likely to be sewer backups or a combination of sewer and and water coming in from the outside.

Had about uh 82 percent of our reports are residences, nine percent uh businesses and eight and a half were public infrastructure, including um some damage to the bridge at Eagle Scout Lake and uh inundated roads.

Uh this is a drone uh photograph.

Uh you're about uh Capital and D uh 281 looking southbound, and you can see the inundation to the left and to the right.

Uh this is same location looking in a little bit more to the east.

Uh you can see uh Webb Road uh and some of the parking lots uh along that northern portion of Webb Road, uh, and uh reports of uh salmon or uh or um not but um I can't remember the fish, but uh a number of fish in the parking lot.

So uh I know you we find you know strange funny things happen during the flood.

Um I might be the most innocuous thing that we found on the water.

Uh then turning north.

This was the area north of uh Capitol, looking along 281, and you can see it uh that water is is trying to drain north and and then out of town.

Uh this is uh looking at the intersection of Potash and North Road, uh looking southbound.

Uh you can see the two uh water tanks here, and this is the large detention cell that uh set until some years ago was a cornfield that also acted as a detention cell.

Uh but it's uh and it's doing its job.

It's it's retaining water and holding water so that we're not um inundating areas to the north with too much too much at a time.

Uh the road right down here in the Sarah's frost fire.

Um that uh there was a handful of homes here that we had to pull some people out of their homes uh uh they needed to be rescued by the fire department.

Uh and these homes had probably the most serious residential damage.

Mr.

Rosalind, Mr.

Nickerson has a comment.

Oh, sir.

John, looking at the photos that you've shown, especially in the north where Walmart and all that is, where does that ultimately drain?

Because it was backed up for a number of days.

What outlet does that water typically finally find its way to?

Yeah, um that uh the water was there for in there for about a day.

I know Friday morning.

Uh this happened on a Wednesday night into a Thursday.

So the water was there all day Thursday, but by Friday morning it was all gone.

Um it does drain north and um along uh it drains north uh along that ditch that curves over 281 uh and then into Eagle Scout Lake and then out Eagle Scout Lake, north 281 on the west or on the eastern end of 281 in front of on the frontage road, along between that and the frontage road in front of businesses like Kramer's and the rental car place, and then once it runs out uh once it uh passes the last development on that frontage road, it meant Moore's Creek then meanders to the northeast from town.

Okay.

And so uh you're right.

It was there for it was there through Thursday, but uh gratefully by Friday morning, it was all gone.

I remember Ken's appliance parking lot was still under water well into Thursday.

The trucks still had water club covering up to them, and by the next day that was gone.

Because that's correct.

I just so when we're uh as a community, we're trying to understand you know, this is a result of seven inches of rain in a very short period of time.

There's only so many places that water can go, and if we're heading north and we're trying to get through Eagle Scout Lake, that's gonna go so high, and then it's gonna overflow into the next area.

It just takes time, but I think Laura made a comment when I asked the question.

I asked the question a few weeks ago.

Do we have a huddle after this to learn?

You know, and answer was no, we don't really huddle, but we just learn and share ideas and all that, share what we observed.

She made a comment about, and I'm gonna test your memory.

The detention or the what are what all the things we call detention cells or whatever whatever we call those diversion channels and all that were designed to move water, we thought within three days to four days, and it actually moved it out within 24 hours.

Was that is that kind of the gist of it?

So that that's pretty impressive when we think about that.

So I'll let you rehash that because that was pretty profound statement.

Well, it was simply actually repeating something that that both John and Keith pointed out was that our our hope was that the water would recede within three to four days.

So Friday morning when we are back at the EOC, and we have reopened every street in town except I think there was a lane on State Street that wasn't open when we started our meeting at 7 a.m.

But by the time we were ending the meeting after 8 o'clock, Shannon's team was out there removing the barriers.

So it ever all of those improvements that were made uh in the by the city by um the NRD after the 2008-2009 floods did what they were designed to do.

They moved that water out of town as quickly as possible.

And I'm not and I wasn't here in 2003.

Someone who was might be able to remind remember how long deers and how long you know Web Road, those areas that flooded in 2003, we saw flooding again.

I don't know that I'm not sure how many days it took to drain then, but I I'm pretty confident it wasn't just 24 hours.

When I when I talked to my previous deputy uh director who was here for that um without a you know acting director at the time, that seemed to be uh a multi-day issue with the flooding uh throughout Northwest Grand Island.

Grand Island has invested in flood control improvements for decades.

I certainly remember 1967, and I know the McGowan family lived with us for about a week because they lived on Circle Drive and their house was underwater.

So it it huge improvements have been made, and it's it's a just telling it's a testament to the design and the engineering and the work that has been done to make Grand Island residents and businesses safer from flood and natural disasters.

And and because Grand Islands, like a my friend uh Chad Nabity likes to say, we're flatter than a pool table.

When I tell my family uh that who lives out west, they can't understand.

Um you pour water on a table, it's gonna sit there a long time unless you've got a good uh a pretty uh forward-thinking drainage system, and I'm really pleased with what we saw.

Um let's see here.

So um the next step really for the city of Grand Island was to um we forwarded all this information to the state of Nebraska, including um a disaster declaration.

We knew pretty quickly that we would not likely receive a FEMA declaration.

Um the amount and serious nature of the flooding just didn't rise to the level that FEMA declares a presidential declaration.

However, um the state uh working with our office identified opportunities for the SBA declaration.

Those um thresholds are different.

Um we succeeded in having uh a damage assessment done by the SBA uh a week or two later, um, made contact with about 45 property owners that we identified were the most serious homes and businesses, and we're successful in receiving that SBA declaration, which qualified members of our county and all contiguous counties for disaster loans uh through the SBA loan program.

Mr.

O'Neill has a question.

Um yeah, just a couple of things.

So I I was here over 20 years ago and that did happen, and I do recall it took several days longer to drain what it did this time.

And I think sometimes people kind of confuse the two, but I was impressed how much quicker it went.

And also uh I was talking to Keith Kurz probably a month or so ago about how statistically rare that event was.

And I think at the time maybe you or he could clarify, but I think you said it was about a one to two hundred year event statistically that happened.

Yeah, it's pretty it's a very rare occurrence.

And I know we were probably not designing all the the infrastructure to be able to drain 200 year events in in in town, and I'm sure the average is probably less than that, but yeah, it was quite I mean it seems like these things are happening more and more commonly, but uh still very statistically rare of what happened.

And I I think it performed well under the circumstances from what I saw.

But yeah, I think you're right, and you know, recognizing how you know similar properties that flooded in 2003, flooded in 2025 now, but retained the water much uh much uh less in a short amount of time.

I think that's a testament to the improvements in the last 20 years, knowing that that's a vulnerable area, and the only other way you're gonna solve that problem is go to all those missuses and destroy them, raise them up, and then rebuild them.

Well, you can't do that.

And so what the city has done has uh is invest a lot of time effort and engineering in improving the drainage.

So since you can't raise, you know, they can't raise the the properties.

Let's let's get the water out in a in a very quick but responsible manner because we certainly don't want to push, we have to push it in a responsible manner because whenever you have water, you're pushing your problems onto somebody else.

And we want to make sure we do that well.

Um so uh with the SBA process, there are a handful of different types of loans available to our residents and our businesses, and there's been quite a bit of activity publicizing and and and uh and a significant outreach effort.

Appreciate uh uh Spencer with the PIO office as well as uh the folks from the SBA.

Um I've got uh Sharita uh Walker here from the SBA, she can answer some specific questions if you have any on the SBA loans, but they've opened a uh disaster loan outreach center in our office.

Uh they've been there since about the first of August.

Uh I anticipate they'll likely be here for the rest of this month, perhaps a little longer, um, so they can give people face-to-face uh guidance and and uh and assistance.

And we encourage anybody who still has some concerns, questions, or issues, and they want to talk to somebody with the SBA, they can come to the office uh at the corner 13th and north.

We'd love to have them uh and and start that process.

Um so right now, really where we're at is uh it's ongoing.

We've uh been uh my department has sought to make sure we notify all those of those 202 homeowners and business owners so they're aware um by either by phone or by um by email.

And we've also we sat down and did a little bit of an audit with the SBA folks to make sure that um they've at least uh been made contact with those 45 or 50 most significant property owners, and uh they've either called them, uh left a message, uh, or actually been able to visit with them.

Here's some of the statistics from last week of the two that they've made uh 285, they had made 285 business or contact uh calls, 25 to businesses, 260 to residents, and then you can see some of the outcome.

Uh a lot of voicemails were left, um, hoping that people will call them back.

Uh and they have they had uh about 18 visitors to date.

Um uh Sharita just told me today that um as of today they've issued about 560,000 dollars of loan assistance uh to residents and businesses.

Um so um to make sure we got all that.

Yep.

Uh okay.

I guess I just um invite if you had any questions specific to the SBA loans that I can't answer.

I do have uh Sharita here.

If you did have specific questions about that process, I know you already had a long meeting, but if anyone did have a lingering uh question, uh she's been very kind to come and be available for those.

Thank you, Mr.

Rosenland, and good job.

Uh you and all the emergency responders who handled this event so expertly.

Thank you for that.

Well, thank you.

And and I think I just want to send another commendation to the folks to the line officers, the sergeant on duty that night, uh, my staff, the fire departments.

Um, there was some pretty spectacular decision making made on their own prior to opening up the emergency operations center that set the stage for a very successful response.

And uh, and a lot of those folks that work at 11 30 at night, they're not our most seasoned staff.

Um, but they showed fantastic judgment.

Uh, and I was very impressed, and and I've tried to share that as often as I possibly can, but um uh the key sometimes to a great response is the good decision making made in the first few moments, and we saw that in June.

So thank you all.

Well said, Mr.

Rosenland.

Uh 7 J.

The withdrawal has been rescinded on the consent agenda.

So is there a motion to approve the consent agenda item 7a through V.

Mr.

O'Neill?

I move that we approve consent agenda items A through I and K through V.

Uh Jay's back in the Oh sorry, okay.

I I I moved to approve the consent agenda as slated A three uh V.

Thank you, Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I'll second that.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Public hearing eight a public hearing request from Fourth Street Cafe Inc., DBA PAMS PUM PUB and Grub 2848 South Locust, Grand Island, Nebraska, for a Class C liquor license.

Mrs.

Grenier.

An application for a class C liquor license was filed with the Liquor Control Commission and received by the city on July 23rd, 2025.

A notice to the general public of date, time and place of hearing was published on August 9th, 2025.

A notice to the applicant of date, time and place of hearing was mailed on July 24th, 2025, along with Chapter 4 City Code Alcoholic Beverages.

Departmental Reports were received as required by City Code and recommendation is to approve upon final inspection.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Motion council.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I moved that we approve 2025 ST78.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

All second.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion to no hold on.

We're missing one.

Oh Doug on the PAMS.

On the PAMS liquor license.

Do you approve?

It didn't come through.

I can put it in.

Do you are you yes or no?

Yes.

Okay.

Motion adopted.

8B public hearing on acquisition of utility easement 4930 Cobalt.

Mr.

Schmidt, please present.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

It's a 20-foot easement to feed 150 KVA transformer for Vemir down off Wildwood.

Motion, Council.

I have to open it up.

I'm sorry.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

Brown.

I move or approve 2025 TAC 279.

Thank you, Mr.

Lanfear.

I second.

Thank you, sir.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

HC public hearing on acquisition of utility easement 2209 South Locust McDonald's USA LLC.

Mr.

Schmitz.

Thank you.

Another 20-foot easement feeding another 150 KVA transformer.

This one for McDonald's on South Locust.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

I move that we approve item uh 2025-280.

Yeah, there it is.

2025-280.

Sorry.

Thank you.

We had a second.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second that.

Thank you.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

8D public hearing on acquisition of utility easement 2300 West Capitol Liberty Campus.

Mr.

Schmitz.

Another 20-foot easement feeding yet another 150 KVA transformer up at Liberty Campus off Capitol.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

O'Neal.

I move that we approve 2025-281.

And Mr.

Brown.

I second that.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

A E public hearing on acquisition of sanitary sewer easement in Sterling Estates, 7th subdivision, Starovska contracting, LLC.

Mr.

Kurtz.

Yes, uh, this is for a 20-foot uh utility easement for sanitary sewer main to serve a couple lots in the Sterling 7th subdivision.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

Lanfear.

I move that we approve resolution 2025-282.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I'll second.

Discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Public hearing on acquisition of permanent easement for South Locust Street Improvements, Fawner Park Road to 2nd Street.

Mr.

Kurtz.

Yes, this is for uh some more permanent easements uh needed for the South Locust uh street improvement project.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we approve 2025-283.

Mr.

Stell.

I second the motion yesterday.

Thank you, sir.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

8G.

Public hearing on redevelopment plan concerns redevelopment plan concerning a site-specific redevelopment plan for CRA number 17 to allow for redevelopment of property located north of Ray Road and west of Prairie View Street in Grand Island Hall County Nebraska for commercial commercial purposes.

Good evening, Mr.

Nabity.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor.

Let me open this presentation up and the property we're talking about right here is right on the corner of Ray Road and Prairie View Street.

Starbucks would be located just right here in this red spot.

So that'll give you an idea of the piece that we're talking about here.

This is a request for tax increment financing for the construction of a commercial building.

Roger Bullington is one of the principals of that.

And they are expecting to spend about seven million two hundred thousand dollars on the building with a final valuation of about 3.6, about half of that.

And then they are requesting 15 years of TIFF, nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars of tax increment financing over the course of 15 years.

That will be used for acquisition of the property site work grading and then to help pay for the cost of the utilities that were put in as part of that project.

Thank you, Mr.

Navity.

And the Planning Commission very specifically is looking at it for its consistency with the comp plan.

This type of use at this location is consistent with the comp plan.

The CRA has also recommended approval of this and forward it to the city council for your consideration.

Public hearing is now open.

Gerald Pools, would you like to speak on this item?

Thank you, Mayor Council.

As you know, I in general I oppose these public subsidies to private corporations.

Do we have a running total of how much TIFF money we're giving away each year?

You know, we've got the housing projects and all these companies that are getting a break on their property taxes.

And I just wondered do we have a just a running total?

So we could kind of just every month publish it with your agenda to say this is how much money we've got out there.

Sand, and we can kind of look and see if we're getting a little overly generous with our uh taxpayers uh money.

Okay.

I don't get a break on my property taxes if I I can't get a declared blighted and substandard.

And I've got some of the same excuses that I've heard other companies use.

Uh defective lot, uh things like that.

I just I just I know you're not gonna disapprove this one, I'm sure you won't, but I just really think it's time to consider how much taxpayers' money is being is involved because for 15 years you're gonna have these projects that are probably many of them would be built anyway.

And so for 50 when you finally do start collecting taxes, you're 15 years behind where you should be.

And I and I really think that should be a consideration, particularly, and this one isn't doesn't involve a housing project, it's just fitness center.

But the housing project comes up, and I think it's on page 355 or 56, I can't remember.

They talk about how many students could possibly result from, and it'll come up next.

The apartment complex is it's a beautiful apartment complex, no doubt about it.

But if you're contributing 500 more people to the school system, that's a whole nother school building.

And and we know senior high is getting ready to burst at the seams, so we know that there's going to be another 200 million dollar bond issue for school in the next two years.

We got a 28 million dollar viaduct that's gonna go up, you know.

Well, federal funding, state funded.

That's all tax money, and you got to under you got to remember that.

And I think sometimes it's just write them a check.

So, and I won't speak on number H.

I've already said what I wanted to say on this one, but I really do think it's time to start holding a running total of how much tax money we're not collecting that could be benefiting the city.

We've been doing this tax increment financing for years and years and years now, and property taxes aren't really coming down, and you know, growth is wonderful, but let's let's do something, but let's give some relief to the people that are supporting that growth.

Thank you.

Roger Bullington, would you like to speak?

Roger Bullington, 3935 Westgate Road.

Obviously, this is going into the Prairie Commons development.

It's gonna be a very much needed added amenity to the growth and the filling out what we envisioned that to be years ago.

FieldFit uh approached us uh a while back, um, wanted to go there.

They didn't have the financial wherewithal to pull this off.

So it's my intention to pull together some individual community investors to build this class A building for them to put a second location there.

It's going to be very much needed on the campus within two years.

We'll have 1,200 employees on that 108-acre property or campus, and it'll fill out that section of fitness going along with two miles of the hike and bike trail that we've already completed on that on that project.

One of the things that is very um voided out there is any beverage or restaurants.

And to fill out a neighborhood development like that, we're having a tough time getting restaurants in that area.

You need rooftops.

And so we're our vision here is we put a fitness center in there.

The apartment complex that's going to be proposed to you after this is not going to put a fitness center in there to help the business model of Phil Fit to utilize that property so we can have some efficiencies there.

And so without public assistance.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to approve resolution 2025-284.

Mr.

Still.

I second the motion, Mr.

Mayor.

Mr.

Lanfear.

I agree.

TIFP has gone too far.

And there is a total out there, and it's millions that we've already given away.

And I know a lot of people in the council feel, well, you know, our tax levy goes down.

It's not us.

It's a school and the county.

But every dollar you give away gets stuck on somebody else.

Now I have sort of a little show and tell for tonight.

This is from the independent February 21st or 25.

It's two and a half pages of delinquent taxes.

Now these are not people for dead beats or anything else.

They're people who have struggled to pay their bills, feed their families, and suddenly they're getting hit with inflated property tax.

We even pay lip service at times, how bad our taxes have gotten.

No, I think it's time the county city council just said no more TIFF.

Period.

Mr.

Hawsey.

So we we get to see the comings and the goings.

And one of the things that I want to make sure that everybody understands with TIFF, the process is the CRA makes a loan, and the developer by paying his taxes pays off his own loan over time.

So the city doesn't have any dollars up front with a TIFF project.

But what we do is is every political subdivision is deferring any revenue for 15 years or until it gets paid off.

You know, in the case of the city of Grand Island, our little piece, whether it's I know it's 10 cents on the dollar, we are leaving our tax ask the dollars the same from last year to this year.

And so with growth and everything else, our levy will go down.

You know, and so this is one of the things we are not raising our taxes to cover those.

So we are asking for the same tax asking, which with growth and all the reappraisals, it's going to drive the levy down somewhat, and I think August 20th, Patrick should know the levy, um, the finalized levy from Hall County, and we'll know what those numbers are here in a matter of a day or two.

Um but I you know there's no money directly paid out, but it certainly is a deferral by every political subdivision, and that authority rests with us, which we need to use wisely, you know, and uh I I think this is one of the fuel uh that's providing the growth for the opportunities that we're seeing in Grand Island.

And Mr.

Hawsey, I think uh one thing we've kept our ask, the amount we've asked for in property taxes flat essentially for six years.

I think we need to tell people that so they know that we have uh been disciplined in that regard.

Mr.

Stelp.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh about six or ten years ago, uh we passed a TIFF proclamation for the new hospital, and just look at what that thing has done to the development of that area and to the development of Grand Island.

Um the other question I have for Chad, there's a percentage that of TIFF that we're allowed to get.

There's a percentage of the city that we are allowed to declare blighted and substandard.

What is that?

And that is 35 percent.

We are, and then anything that is declared extremely blighted is removed from that.

We are currently at about 26 percent of the municipal limits that is has been declared blighted and substandard, and seven percent that is extremely blighted, so our net is about 19 percent.

Um I can get you those exact numbers, but those are gonna be reasonably close.

That's the thing I like to look at to make sure that we're file following the state law.

And and that's the blight declaration, which is the first part of this, which would have been what you did in what 2014, 2016, Roger, 2016, um, when Area 17 was declared blighted and substandard prior to building the hospital.

That's the that's where that 35 percent comes in.

But I strongly support this.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted 8 H public hearing on redevelopment plan concerning a site-specific redevelopment plan for CRA area number 17 to allow for redevelopment of property located north of Ray Road and west of Prairie View Street in Grand Island, Hall County, Nebraska, for commercial purposes, Grand Prairie Apartments.

Mr.

Nabity.

Um, the property that we're talking about is I'm gonna scroll back and forth here a little bit between these two.

Prairie Commons was this one, and right behind it is the apartments.

So just to the west of where the last the fitness center is proposed to be built, they're looking at 219 apartments there on about eight acres.

The B-2 zone, as it is currently zoned, allows for apartment development at a rate of one unit per thousand square feet of property, so 43 units an acre.

Um this will be 220 units on eight acres, so a little less than 30 units per acre overall.

So not as high density as it could be, but certainly a relatively high density for Grand Island.

Um this will be one of the more compact developments that we've seen.

They are proposing that this project would be a 47 million dollar project overall to build out, and that and are requesting 11 million dollars of TIFF over the course of 15 years.

Um probably over the course of 18 years, but no single building will be eligible for TIFF for more than 15 years.

Um, these projects are built in phases.

Because these projects are built in phases.

Mr.

Pardon me, go ahead.

Public hearing is now open.

Gerald Pools, would you like to speak on this item?

Thank you again.

Uh the point of I kind of declined to talk on it, but it's the thing is that this is a housing project, and I if you looked at page 350, they discussed how many residents 2.

And how many students they anticipated that would be spread throughout the school system.

And these these are the issues with TIFF.

Yes, it's not a direct payment, but it's deferred taxes that we're not benefiting.

It's you know, when you spread the wealth around everybody benefits, and these benefits are going to specific businesses, and we're not giving we should have some kind of a TIFF program for homeowners that if you own and live in your property, you should be eligible to make some kinds of improvements without being taxed for them.

And then maybe we would have some nicer look.

There's a few neighborhoods in town that are noted to be degraded.

And one of the reasons that I talk to people about well, if I put new windows in, if I put a new sidewalk in, if I put a new garage on, I will be taxed for it.

And we're not giving the benefit to the residents that we're giving to businesses, and that's a big problem with tax income and financing.

Thank you.

Roger Bullington, would you like to speak on this item?

Cassie, you can come you come on up.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, City Staff, City Council members.

My name is Cassie Innes.

I am president of Metonic Real Estate Solutions, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

Um for those of you who don't know, um, we are currently landlords and partners of the City of Grand Island.

We own Grand View Apartments, which is in the northwest area of Grand Island, and it is a senior HUD affordable community, and we have been in this community for many, many years, and we are thrilled about the opportunity to expand our partnership not only with the city but also with Chief Construction.

Um as Chad mentioned, we are asking for 11 million of workforce housing tax increment financing to help offset and the high construction costs, high interest rates, and to keep these rents affordable at a workforce housing level.

So, but for TIFF, if we did not have TIFF, this project would not be possible, and we would not be able to keep these rents at an attainable amount for the constituents who are going to live in these communities.

Metonic owns 10,000 units across the Midwest, and we have recently in the last five to six years to developed about 1,700 units.

And the majority of our projects have to have TIFF, otherwise we would not be able to build them in communities such as this because of the rental rates and keeping those attainable for your community members and the people who are going to be working in and around the Prairie Commons area.

One other thing that I would like to just mention and not to overcomplicate this, but there's something called an AMI or an area median income for those of you who don't know about it.

And the majority of our units are between 80% and 100%, 120% AMI.

And the state looks at that as an affordable or an attainable rent for this type of community.

And so but for this TIFF, we would not be able to keep our rents at that 80 to 120 percent AMI.

So I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

They may have some questions after they make a motion.

Thank you.

Roger, would you like to okay?

Anyone else that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we approve 2025-285.

Thank you, Mr.

Sheard, Mr.

O'Neill.

I'll second that.

Discussion, Mr.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh Chad, in our last housing study, uh, one of the things that I recall and and see if I remember it correctly, uh, the demand for housing is is here, you know, where we need so many units.

Right.

Um, but what I noticed in the last study that the shift was more towards apartments than single family dwellings.

And so I think this is consistent with what I think the housing study showed the need in the community.

Is that a it certainly is?

Um the housing study um estimates that we will need 3,000 units over the course of the next 10 years.

The last housing study said 1350 over the five-year period, and we actually built out 1,240.

So we got reasonably close, but we were still at a deficit and at a deficit of almost 9% of what was predicted.

And Grand Island has been running pretty much for my entire career here, the last 25 years, we've been running about a two and a half percent vacancy rate overall.

Um vacancy rate is how many units are vacant, and a two and a half percent vacancy rate is not a healthy vacancy rate.

What's considered a healthy vacancy rate across the US is somewhere between five and seven percent.

So just to maintain the two and a half percent vacancy rate, we need to build three thousand to get beyond that, we need to build more than that over that time frame.

Thank you, Chad.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Um I was gonna ask that same similar question about the housing study.

Yeah.

Uh you mentioned workforce housing with this.

Uh I guess my question, maybe it is for you.

Uh come back up, sorry.

I rules here.

We'll peg off if it's really for me.

What do you predict as far as uh what type of resident?

Is it families?

Is it you know families of five living in these apartments for how long?

Is it is it entry level at workforce housing and then they move on, or is this where they're gonna live, raise their kids?

So um I can't speak specific to this community, obviously, but what I can speak to is kind of anecdotally what we see across our portfolio and our new developments.

Um in an up-and-coming um subdivision like Prairie Commons, you are going to see about 40 percent of your young professionals.

So these are the people living in the smaller efficiency units, studios, one bedrooms.

Then you're gonna see about 20 to 25 percent of maybe an empty nester or a 55 plus, somebody who can age in place but doesn't want to go to an assisted living, or doesn't you know need those supportive care services, and then everything in between that kind of young professional and the 55 plus are going to be your families, your divorcees, your um single moms with maybe a kid or two, and we see about a 45 to 55 percent retention rate in our communities.

So that means about half of the people every year are gonna turn over, and some people are gonna live there for one year, and some people are gonna live there for 10 years, but it's anywhere between that 45 to 55 percent.

Um recently, post-pandemic, we have definitely seen higher retention rates in communities because of the things like people can't afford mortgages, so they can't you know buy a home.

Um they also we're also seeing that you know, like people don't want to pay to move and to do all the startup costs in a new community, so they're a little bit stickier.

Um, so we might be seeing somewhere between like a 55 to 60 percent retention rate in those communities.

So that's um kind of what we see generally, and I would surmise it would be the same for Grand Island, um, maybe with some different variances for that workforce housing piece, but in talking with the chief team, there are going to be about 1,200 jobs that are brought by the Prairie Commons um redevelopment.

So you're gonna see everything from nurses, doctors, bankers, obviously chief headquarters has 70 employees, the um medical business offices, you know.

So those are all gonna be a huge draw, and we have to have those housing units in order to support those businesses.

So I I guess you've answered the question that we have a need for this.

That's what our housing study says.

And we don't have the vacancy for all of the growth, just what you just mentioned in one small development.

So there's no development for housing without TIFF anywhere anymore.

So I don't see why we could.

I don't see a reason not to vote for this.

Um for a number of the reasons you just explained, but also just because of the need is there, and it does match the development out there that we've already approved, and it does match the housing study.

So I would agree with you, Mr.

Thank you for your answers.

Mr.

Nickerson.

There's a couple things I like about this particular project, and I was part of CRA when it was first presented, and I challenged Cassie on some things there as well.

And uh I think there's two things that are really important here.

One is the component of workforce housing and helping those rents stay lower.

That's pretty important to people in general.

But the other thing that that's really important to me, and I'm looking at a list that I compile.

I keep track of all the housing projects that are approved, TIFF approved, most of them have been TIFF approved.

What the potential is.

We've got we had the approval, they were excited they came in here.

We've got everything ready for them, but the economic situation is not conducive for them to build right now.

You're ready to build.

That makes all the difference in the world.

So the two things that are important to me is we're ready, and we've watched that whole area develop at mind-numbing speed.

It's just you're gonna run out of space, and Roger says, good for us, because we're we'll just find more land.

But you know, they're filling it up, and that was the goal, and it's been so rapid.

And yes, TIFF has helped make that happen, but the need in the community is helped make that happen.

So the workforce housing part of it with the rents that are not going to be what you and I would consider reasonable rents, but they're market rents, and they will be paid for by the young professionals, the people that are gonna you got a whole community right there.

You got legacy 34, you've got your proposed group.

Those needs are going to be there, and and those places will be rented, and the fact that it's ready to build.

Those are two huge things for me that supports this today.

Because again, I've got some really great opportunities here that we've approved as a council, but they're sitting, they're not going anywhere.

We need the housing today.

We need the 219 units, covers a spectrum.

They were from efficiency up to two or three bedroom, right?

Yes.

So we've got efficiency apartments cut up to three bedroom over 219.

She even had a picture of a pickleball court that got me excited, but I'm not even sure if that's gonna happen.

She'll probably get more complaints from pickleball if you put it in there, but it's just cool.

So I think we need it, and we want to move forward on this.

Please vote.

Motion adopted resolution 9A approving fiscal year 2025 to 2026 annual budget for Fawner Park Business Improvement District and setting date for Board of Equalization.

Mr.

Brown.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, council.

It's nice to get up and walk around.

So February 14th, 2017.

Uh City Council adopted ordinance 9622 creating Fawner Park Business Improvement District.

The reformation of the Fauna Park BID that occurred in 2017 created the Fawner Park BAD as perpetual entity.

Uh the assessments are paid by front footage of the businesses on the uh map of the Fawner Park BID.

The uh board met on August 11th, 2025, approved the budget of 53,202.

It was the same budget as last year, so no increase there.

The BID does pay the city a fee of 1200 for accounting services.

So we are requesting uh approval by city council to sit as the board of equalization on September 9th, 2025.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Brown.

Mr.

Lanfair.

I move that we approve resolution 2025-286.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I'll second that.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Resolution 9B approving the City of Grand Island Police Department and the Central Nebraska Humane Society Agreement for Animal Control Shelter and Care Services.

Chief Denny.

Mayor, Council.

I promise the people of Humane Society that our meetings don't usually go this long, and hopefully they'll show back up again.

This contract is something that we've worked on for quite some time between the police department, city attorney's office, and the Humane Society.

Involves uh simply the sheltering side of it.

So, in essence, what the police department would do uh pending council approval is that um they would deal with sheltering and the police department would deal with the animal control aspect of it.

So the sheltering side of this and what you have before you is a draft copy.

There have been some minor amendments to it going forward, and I'll let uh city attorney fisk uh talk speak to those or what that looks like.

Um but it's a three-year contract that we're looking for uh based on sheltering attached to uh yearly increase of CPI of goods and services uh or three percent, whichever is greater.

Uh there's a thirty thousand dollar lump sum initially for the first year, and then a 45 uh dollars per diem up to three days, um, which is what the city's on the hook for.

Three days uh for normal animals that are brought in, uh up to ten days for rabies uh observation.

Uh the two there's a couple things that we uh changed within the contract or looking to change.

One is drop-off versus surrender.

Um if we just included all surrenders, all drop-offs, uh, that puts the city on the hook for a lot more animals, and so we're differentiating between what uh surrenders are, which are people that own pets that are bringing them in schedule to drop them off based on availability of um space, and so those won't be counted.

The ones that uh people may bring in that they just pick up on the side of the road and bring to the humane society.

We will uh send over uh animal control officer and uh log that animal in essentially.

The other uh minor item is uh 24 hour period, so at midnight uh the next day is counted as uh as a day as a per diem.

I think that's uh that's all from my end as far as the big ticket items for the for the contract.

Uh it's a renewable after three years, um, and the other details stay the same.

But again, you have a draft copy, and we're gonna uh get together with the humane society and city attorney's office, make the minor approvements to it, and um and look for that um that to be approved.

But I'll uh I'll offer the floor to um Greg Geis, uh Humane Society President, if he'd like to say a couple words as well about the contract.

Um just wanna we had talked about dropping the the animal control you know earlier this year, and I know there'll be some questions on why the the money hasn't changed that much.

Uh but the main reason that we um are not doing animal control anymore is because uh as we look at what our mission is and things like that, we're spending too much of our assets and too much of our time on the animal control.

We started looking at what other communities do in uh in Nebraska, Omaha and Grand Island are the only two that uh do animal control uh that the police department doesn't do animal control.

Um so we thought it would be better in our best interest and the cities to not do animal control any longer and put our uh assets and our time and attention into other things more in line with what our mission is.

So that's kind of why why the changes are coming in.

Thank you.

I want to make sure the city attorney's office didn't have any comments on it as well.

No, I think Chief Denny covered most of the changes that have occurred since the draft copy that's in your uh packet.

They were largely housekeeping to deal with a couple of particular scenarios like pregnant animals, um, some of those nuances, but the one item that really has changed in particular that I think some of you have raised in the last while is clearly defining that that per dm payment is for three days, that's 72 hour period, um, with a few exceptions.

Rabies holds any time they're holding animal pending an animal advisory board hearing, some of those other cases when they're holding the animal because of the city and the city's decisions that is sometimes extended, but those are really the big changes that were made.

Um going in there.

Thank you, Chief Denny.

Mr.

Lanfear.

I move that we approve resolution 2025-287.

Mr.

Brown.

I second that.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I have some questions.

I'm not even sure who to ask.

I know we're we're talking about a contract right now for the agreement for them to basically just take care of the animals and we will be picking them up, so to speak.

I saw that the amount was is it was it $25,000 a month, or did it go to $30,000 a month that was going to go to them for that?

Do you remember?

There's a base payment of $25,000 per month plus an additional per animal per day for those animals that the police department would place at the shelter.

Okay, so we've got the time.

Yeah, we got $25,000 per month.

There was $40 some thousand dollars per month.

The difference, and I help me understand this per DM thing now.

I'm not totally sure exactly what all what all that means.

Is it going to be held for three days for what reason and then what happens after three days?

And I'm just how's that all fit in?

Because I'm trying to understand that part of it.

Well, after uh three days, they become property of the humane uh sheltering society.

Okay, so the three days we we retain ownership at that point while we're working things out or trying to find owners or that's that's correct.

Uh and then if they can't be verified to have a had a rabies vaccine, uh then we will assume the police department, the code enforcement will assume um the observation of those animals at the humane shelter, humane society shelter uh for up to 10 days.

Okay.

All right, so that clarifies that a bit while we're trying to sort through it.

Going back to the cost difference of what it was when we were paying for them to do everything and what we are now taking over.

Are we absorbing some of the employees from the humane society, the current animal control officers?

Do they become part of the city?

Are they still with the humane society at this point?

Are those details still to be worked out?

And then well, let's answer that question first.

Right now, what we've done is uh contract through a temp agency, one of the ACOs uh to help us with animal control in the police department.

So essentially we've we've hired one of them temporarily.

Uh the other one we weren't able to, and so right now we have one ACO uh through a temp agency working as an animal control officer.

Uh the idea is to stand up within code enforcement, um, 2.5 FTE that would be dedicated toward uh animal control duties.

Um, but also what we're looking at doing is uh adding to the code enforcement officers job description, which would include animal duties, and so any new code enforcement officers that we bring in would fall under that new job description.

And so, what would that would give us really a lot more flexibility in the long run over a period of years to deal with animal issues from a holistic point, not only code enforcement, but also animal control?

Yeah, and that makes sense.

I think that's a it's a good idea.

Question is how effective is one ACO right now?

We're gonna I'm gonna call them an ACO, but how how effective are they right now compared to the two or two and a half that we had going before?

Not as effective.

Uh he's working a lot of hours.

Uh we also are all supplementing him, and I personally have been at the Humane Uh Society uh last week, I believe it was when our supervisors, our sergeants and lieutenants went through uh by Emily and Ashley uh some training on how to apprehend dogs and cats and equipment needed.

So I was there.

I went through the training as well uh through the the tour of the humane society shelter and where drop-offs would be, how to get through doors, that kind of thing.

Uh so right now it's not operating as efficiently as it will be.

Um, but once we stand up the uh proper personnel and train them properly, focus them, we're putting policy in place uh here in the next couple days as well as we go through the next couple of months.

Um we uh we anticipate that we'll have a good handle on dealing with animal issues in the city.

So the question then is we have a few weeks till we form formalize our budget for this next year.

We're just down to days really.

How is that factoring in, Patrick, with the needs that the police department sees going forward with budget requests which which were already presented and can always be amended?

Are we going to see some of that those numbers before the end of this year to know what that additional they're carrying on an extra burden now?

So there's got to be dollars attached to that.

Are we just saying the difference between what was paid to the main society for the whole thing versus what we're paying them now?

Is the difference that we have to work with for the year?

Or how we how are we thinking through the financial part of this?

Great question.

So the community service officers, so the two and a half.

So that's going to cost 300,000.

So then you have 300,000 for the base contract.

Now the the kicker is figuring the variable.

Okay.

And according to I think the latest uh Humane Society spreadsheet, they've had 23 hundred animals come in.

So then, you know, you have to start doing some math on that.

Right.

But we need to start doing that math now.

Yes.

Because it's the budget is coming.

And I are will we see an amended request before we finalize?

Do we have enough time to see an amended request so a request for the additional money needed for the police department to take over animal control?

Those FTEs will be uh Thursday.

We'll be on Thursday's discussion.

Okay.

Um the so on the variable side of that, we are going to budget high, just so that we have the budget authority to cover that.

But once we have one year in, we'll we'll kind of know.

Right.

And so we can zero in better.

Okay, so the other part of that is we need vehicles to collect the animals in.

And I'm assuming we're going to either absorb what they have before we buy new.

And has that happened yet or will it happen soon?

As far as the new FTEs.

No, the vehicles.

We now have the the vehicles for putting the animals in.

Do we have we already inherited those?

You've got to have trucks, you gotta have van.

We're not going to throw them in squad cars, I hope.

Well, yes.

That's uh actually uh kind of baked into the vehicle request to some degree.

That's an additional um uh deal what we'll have to do because they we we did let the Humane Society have two of our vehicles to use.

Um drivable really if we get it back.

Uh one of them will be.

And so going into the next um fiscal budget, that was part of the reasoning behind additional vehicles as well, is anticipation if we take animal control over, that's probably a couple more vehicles that we might need to outfit with a couple of cages, older vehicles that we would be pushing into that service, but new vehicles coming in to replace the ones that are going out.

And so uh that's it.

I think the 300,000 was um was actually when we were looking at three uh FTEs, but it's probably a little less than that because we we dialed it back to 2.5, so two full-time and one part-time FTE for co-enforcement.

I'm assuming we would be looking at some type of truck or van for these to go in rather than patrol type cars.

Yes, ideally, um, you know, they we have on state contract uh Ford Maverick.

Uh they can take a couple uh cages in the back, they can handle five people in the front, so they're very economical.

So uh that's one option.

Uh other options are older explorers that used to be police vehicles that we can put cages in the back area.

So um we're looking at a couple different options right now.

Okay.

So it just seems this late in the budget season, there's still many unknowns, and we're gonna be kind of flying blind for the first year, but hopefully, to Patrick's point, we're we're gonna have to just set some money aside and just sort through that as we go.

Well, after uh our training at the Humane Society, uh we also have catch polls, uh pick sorting panels, uh, bike gloves.

We've got we've got we had we ordered several of those for the for the squad cars as well, so that when we do when the police officers get an animal call uh over the next month or two, um they have some equipment to deal with it.

Absolutely.

It's it's a shame to see officers have to deal with that, but I understand in the short term it will probably have to happen, but we have to get the CSOs up and running on that so that our officers are sworn officers can really do what they do best.

So I know it's it's it's the last minute thing, a little messy, but doable.

We just have to sort through the through the details, and I see the city attorney's got something.

Hopefully, I didn't say something wrong and get spanked for it.

So here we go.

I was just gonna point to council that the last two years contracts have included GIPD providing the Humane Society with surplus vehicles.

So in addition to that payment, we have already been providing those vehicles.

I think as Chief Denny pointed out, they've been kind of the older uh vehicles that aren't suitable for cruisers anymore, but that is already an expense that the police department has been carrying um even before this transition.

That's very good.

And I guess the other positive, which is a good positive, is there's a three-year contract here, so we're not gonna have to be debating this every year.

And hopefully everybody's happy with that three year view at this point.

Okay.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh the first thing I probably I'm old enough that I remember the last time the Humane Society took over the animal control, and uh Jim Trule was a big advocate for the Humane Society at that time.

And uh one of the things that we talked about at that time when we were we actually went out and did a bid.

We had a an RFP, and so we were bidding three components.

And the first one was animal control, and the second one was the housing part, you know, how do you where do you put them for those 72 hours?

And the third part, and I didn't read any of this anywhere, was was at the end of that three days, the the municipal or the city responsibility ended with you you wouldn't euthanize an animal.

Now the Humane Society could come in, and that's where the municipal function ends, the humane society, God bless them for being there, says, okay, we're not gonna euthanize them, we're gonna go ahead and and we're gonna adopt them out, we're gonna do all whatever the humane society does.

And thank goodness they're there.

But I haven't seen any anything here about euthanizing.

Do we do we do that anymore?

Is it not done?

It's not part of the contract, I'm assuming.

I didn't read it anywhere.

It's not.

Okay.

We don't euthanize animals just because uh we can't adopt them out.

We we keep them, we try to put have them go to rescues, different things like that.

Um that's part of the problem with you know, we always argue about the the three-day rule.

We still have a lot of animals that are we we have pass a three-day rule, but that we have to try to rehabilitate and get them where they're that can be adopted out, and but we're not we're never going to uh euthanize them just because we don't have space for them or anything like that.

It's it's ordered by state statute that they have to be.

And that's good to hear, you know, it's one of those is is because we're a Dillon's rural state, we can only do the city of Grand Island can only do what is authorized by statute to do, and it's not authorized to do a lot of the humane society functions that you do, you know.

And so we're, you know, and like Joyce and I have been donors and volunteers for the Humane Society in past years when we had animals and and other things, you know, that's where their money comes from, is from donations and from other, you know, people in the community all volunteering and doing things, you know, and so that those are great things to happen, but they're not a municipal function.

So as always in the budget side, it was hard for the city to say, okay, this is the municipal, you know, from the animal control up until the 72 hours, then all of a sudden we're we're done.

And then now it's the budget is over here, because it's all one budget for the humane society.

And so how do you how do you divide that, you know, that line, that timeline on uh 72 hours was always a challenge to try to read through it.

Um I do have a question now.

So did all the assets transfer for the animal control part?

And I mean, the vehicles I think I've heard, but the equipment that goes with it, did all of that transfer back then to the city?

Uh the humane society owns all that equipment, so we've just kind of been lending that to the police department as they needed it.

Um I would have I would have said most of the animal control equipment was purchased with public funds.

I mean that's what I would have said.

So okay.

There's probably not much there anyway, is catch polls, things like that.

So the other thing that I was uh we were supposed to our contract required that we had reporting, and I don't remember if it was quarterly or what the reporting were.

And as a council member, I haven't hardly seen any reporting over the years.

Uh I asked five or six years ago or seven years ago, I asked for some reporting, and I and and uh I got a data, what I call it a data dump.

I couldn't even read, I didn't even know what it was, just a bunch of numbers in a in an electronic file.

So I haven't really seen reporting, and then all of a sudden I'm reading the contract, and we're talking about 2200 animals in a year.

We're talking about five percent of Grand Island homes having an animal that has to be handled by the animal control.

And I'm assuming that 2200 is a historic number.

We would did that come from the it's in the contract.

So where that last year and uh each year it it increases probably right around that 10 percent.

That's where we were last year was what was it, 23 something was uh the number of animals that we picked up last year.

We do a report monthly.

Uh and uh so I don't know how that would get with the city attorney and we have a monthly meeting with them uh to discuss, you know, that'd be helpful if we can get it so that way we understand the amount of traffic that you're getting and the amount of work that's going in.

Because right now we don't know, and if you're not you know, if we're not out there or we're not participating, we don't have any idea the amount of efforts that you guys have to do to do all these things.

So I'm sure we're gonna learn, and and maybe uh Chief Denny, if you can get these reports, whatever the the reports are somehow get them funneled into a system where we can see them, or maybe we can see them.

I just need to know where to go get them.

Maybe that more is more of the issue.

Um the reporting that was the last thing I had, so thank you both.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Uh it's almost 9 30 when I was trying to figure this out.

Now it's 9 45.

You mentioned that you're still working on some aspects of the contract with this.

Uh the ones that I just mentioned are the ones that we've verbally agreed to uh that would be changes to the draft that you have.

So what are we proving tonight?

The actual final contract I believe is out on the printers with all the new changes that were sent over today.

Um so it incorporates it is the draft version you have plus the changes that have been discussed today that you'd be approving.

Um and Councilmember Hazi, I'd note the reports are all on the website.

I will send you a link later so you know where to find them.

So you've already made all the changes.

You're not still debating correct.

There's we've agreed to the changes that I mentioned.

There are no other changes that I'm aware of at this time.

And so we'll meet uh after this just to really go over what policy looks like.

Uh like I said, we we are implementing policy on the police department side as far as the ACO stuff goes.

Um, so what that looks like operationally, but the the contract itself, uh, I'm not aware of any other changes.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Mr.

Still.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um your body's working with the animal control body or the humane society.

Is there gonna be a a board that governs both of you?

Uh because how do you work together?

Because you kind of got this set of people doing their thing, and you got another set of people doing their thing.

How do you combine heads or work out resolutions on day-to-day operations that come up that that maybe require both of you or do you have month monthly meetings to go over this stuff?

Right.

We we've had monthly meetings.

Uh, we'll continue to have those.

Um there's an office at the uh Humane Society Animal Shelter that we'll probably still use um quite a lot uh for our animal control officers going forward because they'll be there'll be business hours uh at the shelter when we may have to have animal control officers over there to write citations, release dogs, um, things like that.

Um and we're gonna cover those under policy and uh and other things as well as far as the the operating hours it will have.

So we'll maintain our our new animal control officers, which hopefully you know one of them will be an existing one as well.

Um we'll have an office over there, we'll be able to go over there and help them with uh kennels uh dealing with uh animals that are under observation for rabies, and so uh we'll maintain a pretty close relationship with them.

Uh ideally we'll also know the animals that we're dealing with.

So if there's a drop off of an animal at the at the uh animal shelter, uh one of our animal control officers will go over there, log it in, do the proper paperwork.

Um so I think the relationship will be um as tight or tighter than it has been over the last few years.

And I just wanted to make sure there's not gonna be a big big push.

If you don't get the the dogs or the cats or the animals put out in three days, we're not gonna just do the knives everything that comes along that we'll work on trying to get them out for adoption in the community.

Well, uh the humane society is gonna deal mostly with that.

Uh we're gonna deal mostly with dealing with uh loose animals, aggressive animals, animal bites, and actually um making sure that um deemed animals, deemed owners are in compliance.

And so one of the good things I think uh the police department taking over this aspect of it, and no offense to the humane society, but um as far as the pay, as far as the benefits, it stabilizes that position.

And so in the long term, we keep people uh longer, they become more experienced.

Uh they get to be a little more proactive because they'll know the problem areas and the problem owners, and uh they'll be able to go out there and deal with compliance, probably more so than the current ACOs have because they're they've had a lot of turnover just in in the way that they structure uh their benefits at uh Humane Society.

I I will say that what you're doing is a tough job.

Uh it's hard to pick up um, it's hard to put them out.

But I I I admire you and and wish you the best of luck in working out the situation.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I did have one more question.

Well, the first I have a comment first.

Um we do have a leash law in Grand Island, and I would I walk every day and on Sunday, I think two days ago, I saw three dogs not on leashes.

You know, and and I think their owners had them under control.

And you know, the problem is I don't know that.

You know, when that animal comes by me, I have no idea if he's gonna be friendly, and because I might be nervous, he might be as well.

So anyway, I just want to make sure that we communicate in the community that we still have leash laws, and if you're taking your dog out, you know, for a walk, or you know, make sure they're on leashes because I don't think everybody knows that.

Uh little dog named Tinker, it was running down Custer.

I picked him up, I was gonna bring him home.

And and then I'm looking at his uh dog, he had dog tags on, and he lives on North Road.

And the first thing I I walked by this uh mobile home is sitting in a driveway, and I and the gal says that's my dog, and I said, Good.

You know, here you know, here's your dog.

But you know, here customers are busy street for a little dog to be running up and down, and I didn't see her because of the trailer, but anyway, it was one of those interesting things.

Um the other day, here's where we're my question is.

The other day we uh had a fee schedule, and and for the impound yard, we raised the fee to $15 a day.

And so the owner or or the driver of the car, when they want their car out of there, they gotta pay that $15 a day.

Is there any fee that we are charging when the owner comes in and says that's my dog, what is the fee and who gets the fee then?

I'll let uh Ashley speak to that, please.

I guess that one's me.

Hi, I'm Ashley Meister, I'm the executive director at the Humane Society.

So we do charge a reclaim fee for when people come in to pick up their strays.

Um it's a de it's dependent on a couple of factors.

Um the main one is whether or not we've had that animal before.

So we do have a graduating schedule.

Um so if we've seen your dog multiple times throughout the year, we're gonna charge you a little bit more each time to hopefully deter you from letting your dog run loose all the time.

Um so the starting rate for that is $75 if it stays for the three-day period.

Um oftentimes we do end up discounting it just because we're at capacity and need animals to go home.

Um so a lot of times if it's the first offense, I will let them go for like $25, especially if they pick it up quickly.

Um again, just because I need the kennel space.

So that's what our fee is.

Or so okay, here's my question.

If the city pays you $25,000 a month for what would be $2200 animals in a year, that's $136 per animal that the city is paying, uh, the humane society.

So when that $75 comes in, is that public funds to pay us back for the So we did factor that into the contract.

So when an animal is reclaimed, the fee or the invoice we're sending you for the per diem fees will be reduced by those reclaim fees received for that same month.

So it'll essentially be credited to the invoice we're charging for those per diem fees.

Okay, so Patrick will get an invoice every month and then it'll it'll show on there then.

Yes, okay, thank you very much.

Yep.

Mr.

O'Neal.

I'll be very brief and uh like to thank a lot of you for hanging in there in a very long meeting today as well.

Um I I think the work that all of you guys do are is very important, and uh I'm sure the the life of the animal control officers, that's probably a very stressful job.

And I I was just kind of curious.

And you mentioned uh hopefully this will bring a lot of stability.

Um having them on GAPD, which will be a long-term benefit um to it.

I was just kind of curious you could share a little light on what's kind of the average tenure been of the existing ACOs at the Humane Society.

Any any ballpark idea.

Um it has varied.

So we've gotten lucky with some really good um people who have stayed for three years or so.

They actually work for him now.

So I was about to say we stole a few.

Yeah, he took some from me.

Um police chief would stop stealing.

Um lately, honestly, it's probably been about a year is what we can retain somebody for.

So, like he said, you know, that causes a lot of turnover, it's a lot of retraining, and it does make it harder to keep track of repeat offenders when our off it's new officers, you know, seeing them.

So but we have gotten lucky with some people, they've stayed three years.

So that's the first time I heard Chief being accused of stealing, but it sounds like they've actually worked their way there.

So now I'm sounds like both sides are very supportive, and thank you for what you're all doing.

So Mr.

Lanfear.

Um I'm so very glad you got a contract, really.

Uh I have in two years that I've been with uh connected to the Humane Society.

I really am appreciative of what you do, and I have a great deal of respect to the way you do it.

You are a real asset.

I do want to remind people that they are a matter of the quality of life in Grand Island where you uh handled the stray animals.

I am a little concerned the number of amount of time that the uh police department may have to uh spend you know collecting animals.

I mean, it could be quite a bit of uh work, but uh I'm glad you have a contract.

And uh if I could add, it's it's uh the police officers are doing a great job out there when they're they have to fill the gap, and we have the part-time uh ACO employed with us as well.

It's a short-term pain, uh, long-term, I think, uh, gain in and better services for the community.

Um, but also our our dispatchers as well are getting more calls in and having to deal with a different paradigm of how they send those calls out.

So we've been working pretty close with communications on what that looks like too, uh, with the idea being that any call that comes in goes to a supervisor, and if it's something that we can't deal with as far as police go with our calls for service or call load, uh then a supervisor will will decide how they are they gonna go by the the place uh that this animal is at, or are they gonna call the person that's calling in?

So we'll try to mitigate the call, but uh right now we're dealing with um the most uh egregious ones, which are dog bites or animal bites, um neglect to animals, and uh aggressive animals.

So uh but they're doing a good job.

Police officers are doing a good good job, and the uh communications dispatchers are doing a good job as well.

And uh there should be a lot at the end of the tunnel, I think, in the next few months.

Gonna echo what Mr.

Lanfear said.

We discussed how animal control impacts our budget, but we failed appraise, at least we failed to praise as loudly as we should.

The good work of the Humane Society.

The Humane Society depends upon the people of Grand Island to help them fund their mission of saving animals.

And you folks from the Humane Society, you always ask me how my husky is doing.

She's doing fine.

She wonders where I am right now.

I'd encourage everyone within the sound of my voice, give to the Humane Society and adopt a pet.

You'll never have a better friend.

I can attest to that.

Thank you, folks from the Humane Society for beer being here tonight.

It's a privilege to have you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Ordinance 10, a consideration to authorize financing for solid waste improvements expansion through public markets.

Mr.

Brown.

Well, first we have to uh before you present, I want to take up a motion to suspend the statutory rules, Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we suspend the rules.

Mr.

Lanfear.

Second.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mr.

Brown, please proceed.

Thank you, Mayor.

So we have been talking about uh improvements out at the uh solid waste uh transfer station and cell number four.

So tonight before you is we're asking permission to go shop uh for financing for the project.

Uh we're look we're looking up to nine million dollars.

Uh we expect of interest rate between four, four and a half, and uh a discounting of two percent.

So that is it.

Mr.

Shear, thank you.

I move that we pass ordinance 10,031.

Mr.

Hawsey.

I would second that motion.

Thank you.

Any discussion?

Gerald Poles, would you like to speak on this item?

Yeah, yeah, thanks again, Mayor Council.

Uh my big issue with this is the if you read the packet, it talks about uh the need for well for traffic congestion at the at the transfer station.

If you've ever been there during operation hours Monday through Friday, there's no wait time.

The one scale, you go across or wait for somebody to come across.

There's there's no wait.

They say the peak hour, but at peak hours it's a quarter of a mile long.

That peak time is on Saturdays because the operation hours are 8 to 12, I believe.

And so all the people that are holding off taking stuff to the transfer station during the week because they have a job, they're paying taxes and doing all the things that they have to do.

They do they have to come in Saturday morning.

And I really think this could be one another, considering all the other expenses, and this is something extending Saturday hours would would alleviate that quarter of a mile lineup that was that's mentioned, and I think it's an exaggeration because the peak hours only happen on Saturday mornings.

So when you consider this another nine million dollar expenditure, I would just check it out.

Just go there any during the operation hours Monday through Friday and see just see what see what the conditions are because they're not dire.

It's an old building, I know probably could be nicer, but it works.

And if it's not broke, you know.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

We've completed our agenda.

We are adjourned.

Okay.