Thank you.

So I can just go off on the center floor.

Welcome to our meeting.

The date is September 30, 2025.

The time is 6 p.m.

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

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

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

I ask that you stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

The clerk will now perform roll call.

Council President Sheridan.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk.

Present.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Council Member Hodse.

Present.

Council Member Mendoza.

Present.

Councilmember O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Pollack.

Present.

Councilmember Lanfair will be absent.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Jill Grenier, the City Clerk, Patrick Brown, the City Administrator, Carrie Fisk, the city attorney, and Keith Kurtz, the public works director.

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.

The first item on our agenda is 5A Honeywell presentation.

Mr.

Brown.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, Council.

Tonight we have a presentation from Honeywell International.

They have in the last several months looked at some facilities here at the city, namely City Hall Library, Law Enforcement Center, and in particular Heartland Event Center.

So tonight's presentation is overview on what they found, some costs associated with that.

And with that, Jordan is doing the presentation.

As you may know, I'm Jordan, your uh local account executive here for Honeywell.

So uh very happy to be here, very happy to be uh finally sharing uh the conclusion of our investment grade audit with you all.

Uh this has been a process that's been several months in the making.

Uh a lot of stakeholders involved from Honeywell, from uh our third-party partners as well, a lot of input from the city, so we're we're very excited to be sharing all this with you tonight.

As you may recall, um, we were initially asked to investigate six different facilities as part of our preliminary assessment.

Uh two of those were eliminated from the investment grade audit just due to lower energy use, uh less need.

Um, but the four facilities that we were left to investigate, as uh Pat had mentioned would be City Hall, the Heartland Events Center, the law enforcement center, and the library.

Uh this is data that you all have seen before.

Uh this essentially just summarizes the different uh baseline utility uh assessments by utility type.

So you got electric in yellow, natural gas in green, water and blue, um, and just kind of an analysis of the cost from the 2024 baseline, uh, the usage in energy units, and then the blended rates for each of those utility types by building by utility type, etc.

Uh this table again, uh something you've seen before.

Essentially, what we did was we took the energy use intensity uh for each of these buildings.

It's uh kind of a energy density metric based on the amount of energy used and the square footage of that building, and we compared it to some national averages from Energy Star.

Um and as you saw last time, um, all four of these facilities are performing above what would be expected for uh a similar facility with a similar use case across the country.

So most notably, you can see the Heartland Event Center is almost 200% higher than what the national average would be for an indoor arena.

So certainly some room for improvement in all four of these facilities and absolutely room for improvement at the event center.

This table is admittedly small, complex, not very easy to read on on this PowerPoint screen.

So we won't spend a lot of time here.

This is here for your reference as we are starting to talk through these projects and you're starting to make some important decisions as to which projects should take priority to move forward, which projects may need to be put on pause.

So we have breakdowns here for the project cost for every project that we've recommended.

And then we've also included here the anticipated capital cost avoidance savings, energy savings, water savings each year, and then operations and maintenance savings that would be expected from implementing these projects, and then that all wraps up into a simple payback metric for each project.

So you can really see here what the anticipated return on investment would be for each of these projects.

But you will also notice there's a few projects here that don't have a return on investment.

One example would be 2B, the humidifier replacements.

There's humidifiers here in City Hall that have been out of operation for several years.

We are recommending that we bring those back into operation, but when you turn on a piece of equipment that hasn't been on in several years, you're gonna spend energy, not save energy.

So there's no ROI for that particular project, and there's a few other examples like that.

No need to keep paging back and forth to this.

We have a summary of each project on their individual slides as we go.

So you'll see the same information again as we go through each project.

But the moral of the story here is that all of the projects we've looked at for you are totaling to a budget of about 12.5 million dollars.

And we'll be presenting some scenarios later in the deck that outline that all-in scenario at 12.5.

There is a what we're calling the priority project scenario at 12.00 or at 10.6 million dollars, and then there is a priority project scenario without the ice rink at 8.6 million.

So you'll have a few different scenarios to uh consider, but ultimately you can kind of have an a la carte menu here and pull things in and out of each scenario as you would see fit.

So jumping right into it.

Um the first project uh that we're looking at here is lighting upgrades at the Heartland Events Center.

Uh wanna make sure that I preface this by saying this project does not address the arena lighting.

This is concourse lighting, office spaces, restrooms, locker rooms, anything but the arena lighting at the Heartland Event Center would be touched with this project.

Um very straightforward.

Uh the technology there for the lighting systems at the event center is dated, it's original to the building.

There is newer technology available that will save you money on your utility expenses and save you on operational expenses because your uh staff over there would be changing out fixtures and broken bulbs or or burnt out bulbs less frequently with with an LED system.

Not only does this bring some financial benefits to the city and to the venue works team, but it also brings uh benefits to the attendees and the workers at the facility, you're gonna have better lighting quality, visibility.

Uh, when we were here in June talking to you all, we had a conversation about the concourse lighting uh essentially permeating into that arena for space, and we have a solution that addresses that to make sure that there's not any light pollution between those two spaces.

Uh Don, anything to add here?

Um maybe just the fact that in our in a more comprehensive report that we'll be uh uh getting around to everybody, we do what we call a line-by-line audit.

And it's essentially a long spreadsheet.

Uh lighting replacement is pretty obvious, but when you start expanding it throughout an entire building, it can get really a little bit complicated.

What are we doing here?

What how about these facilities?

What are we doing over here?

And so we've laid all that out line by line for you.

So if there's any specific questions about a specific area or how we're gonna address that, that is covered in the um in the larger report that we'll be sending.

Perfect.

And as you can see below here, the assumed project cost here for the lighting upgrades is just shy of $700,000.

There is some energy savings there to the tune of $23,000 a year, and some operational savings as well from the less frequent replacement of fixture fixtures throughout the life of that equipment.

So this is a pretty good simple payback project here for the lighting upgrades and is typically included in every energy savings performance contract project that Honeywall works on.

Lighting is a lower risk, easy to implement project that drives immediate savings.

Now moving into some of the uh more HVAC or mechanically inclined projects here at the Heartland Event Center.

We had shared with you all a few months ago that uh when we started these assessments, the event center only had two out of five of their boilers operational.

Um that was just enough capacity to help them limp along through this past winter season.

Uh but should they have any issues with those two boilers that are still remaining, uh it could be a very small failure.

You're you're out uh for that for that winter.

Um you have no redundancy with those two boilers.

If one goes out, you are toast.

Um so the the recommendation here is to remove three of the non-operational boilers and replace them with some new high efficiency units.

Uh so not only would that bring you some energy savings and operational savings from those replacements, it would also bring the venue works team that redundancy and assurance that they can make it through uh the the harsh winters here in Grand Island.

Um go ahead, Don.

Anything to add there?

Perfect.

And forgot to mention this at the beginning.

We would like for this to be conversational.

If you have any questions throughout the course of this presentation, please feel free to jump in.

Um happy to entertain.

Mr.

Nickerson.

Yeah, I'm glad you said that because I had a question I didn't know if I should interrupt.

So go back a slide.

We're talking about the boilers and the urgency.

Sounds like it's an urgency no matter what.

I mean, we it's something we have to deal with.

So when we're looking at priorities later in the presentation, it obviously has to be one of those.

This is included in all three scenarios that we'll see later.

Right.

So what is the time frame to get at least a third one up and running and all of that?

I mean, we'll be some redundancy in there while you're working on the well, yeah, to make sure you've got more than two ready.

Uh how long is it how's it long does that take?

Is it and because we've got winter around the corner?

So we have um we have a full-blown detailed summary of the anticipated design time, the lead time on equipment, and the construction installation time in that report that Don mentioned.

It's not in these slides tonight.

Um do you have any feedback on the the lead time for the boilers?

Well, it's a it's a great question.

And if the process continues, um it will not be ready for this winter.

Um very similarly, if you're just a month or so ago, we did something and on an emergency on the chiller.

Right.

That's so that we can have it ready for next summer, just because of the long lead items.

Depending on which direction this the council wants to go, we can probably make that happen, but as a package, it's not gonna be ready for this this winter.

If it needs to be addressed as a standalone measure, similar to how we handle the chillers, we can go through a similar process where we arrange a different source of library that to procure that outside of an energy savings performance.

Sounds like we definitely definitely have to have a contingency plan if two put us at risk right now.

We have to have we have to have a contingency plan for this winter.

So I I that's just one of the things that I noted here, and very much like the chiller.

We have to be ready if there is a crisis because I'm assuming that we're gonna have some events through the winter.

So in fact, I know of a Christmas one that's supposed to be very highly touted right now.

So I thought we'll solution that we're you know, this has to get done because we can also even before we go to contract, and we've done this for other clients is we can pre-order equipment and and and get that expedited.

So we do have that contingency for you.

If that's something council wants us to do, uh Honey Wall be we'll be more than willing to do that.

Good.

So we've got some options, but it sounds like a contingency has to be put in place.

Okay.

Thanks.

Brown.

Yeah, it's the bare minimum is we have to have two.

It has to be two to run the event center.

Yeah, so it's yeah, so the the way the original system was laid out, there's essentially five equal-sized boilers just for redundancy for capacity for use for for at different times.

There's only two, and it's literally just two-fifths of the capacity is currently available, and that's it.

So yes.

And are those two pretty good work in paper?

Are they limp along?

They they are, to the best of our understanding.

We believe that they're about five years old.

So there's no reason necessarily that if there was a failure, if something went down, we read it.

It could be repaired pretty quickly, um, as opposed to more of a catastrophic failure for something that would have been 20 years old, say.

Yes.

Whereas that that chiller project that we looked at, that was a piece of equipment that was original to the building.

And you might might have been throwing good money at bad if you attempted to.

Are you talking about the boilers?

So there were two chillers, um, one larger, one smaller unit, and the one that is going to be replaced as the larger of the two units.

Uh you might correct the year.

Right.

Gotcha.

Sorry.

Can you stand next to the microphone in the center?

They can't hear you at home.

Mr.

Hollis.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, so I was on the Harlan Advance Center board five years ago when when this was done, and the five that had been in there for the 15 years or so, uh, they were all failing at that time.

Uh the number two, and I don't, and I wasn't directly involved with the process, but two of them had to be just for sustainability.

Um the the cost of repairing three wasn't we didn't have the funds at the time to repair all five.

And so the two is what we thought would be sufficient enough for sustainability.

Now, it's not five, it is two.

But I think as you're pointing out here, these two are only five years old, and they probably can easily run another 10 years.

This is not a critical nature for tomorrow or this winter.

Not that it couldn't have an air you know, uh some fault in it at some point, but again, I think we have time to plan and plan accordingly.

Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

Uh and Chuck, thanks, because that was going to be one of the questions I asked.

So thanks for asking or answering that.

I assume if we get newer ones than the ones that Chuck mentioned, these will become the primary, or will all five be equally used, or do these new ones become the primary and these two become the redundancy?

How does that how does that break down?

Yeah, so the the we would base that based on the efficiency and where we want to run the water temperature at.

Now this starts to get into a little bit of the sequencing.

Um but the f the the bottom line is we can do it any way that we want.

But to your point, you wouldn't you would want to run the more efficient ones as the lead, and then the older ones, the five years old, would probably serve as the backup then.

Yes.

And how long then do you think is this in your report to uh how long that projects the life of the five together, the three new and the two that are current, until we think what's the because it says 26 years.

No, this one doesn't have the payback, does it?

It it this does not have the payback on it, correct?

But how long do you think that would sustain us?

Is that a 20-year plan?

Um vertical uh steel tube boilers like the construction of the ones used at the Heartland Center are over 20 year life expectancy, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Um just a couple things.

I've had a lot of experience with boilers in some of the buildings as well, but aren't they supposed to be inspected about annually as well?

And there'd be a lot of uh preventative maintenance that should be occurring on them periodically as well to extend the lifetime of the units.

Yeah, so um couple couple of things there.

As far as inspections go, uh, that's normally uh a local requirement.

Um we did see inspection reports on the boilers, even the older ones, they're just having been inspected recently, obviously.

Um that's kind of a just a general maintenance thing.

Normally in the fall, people will go through and they'll tune it up and just make sure that the fuel to air ratio is correct to make sure you get the efficiency.

So two two two things covered there, but yeah, you're spot on.

Then overall, the the new units would just be a lot more energy efficient than the the older ones.

Um and one quick question too, just going back to the lighting.

Uh it looked like there's about a 26-year payoff on I assume it's like LED lights that would be going in.

Um, what's the expected lifetime of that?

Those things can last quite a while, can't they?

And also any warranty that would might be on them.

So it's uh that's a that's a great question.

It depends a little bit, and I know that's not a good answer, but um for it, and it's it's kind of a fixture by fixture.

Most of them will have 20-year warranty, a lot of them will have a 10-year warranty.

And then so what is the life expectancy?

That all depends on how often you're gonna run them.

Yeah, so on the runtime hours, yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

I got it.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Uh now jumping over here to City Hall.

Um, we we briefly mentioned the humidifier replacements a little bit earlier in the presentation.

Um, there are three existing humidifiers in use.

Well, not in use, uh, not currently in use here at City Hall.

They've been out of operation for a few years now.

Um so this uh project would recommend replacing those units with new electric humidifiers that would serve the existing air handling units in this building.

Um again, this is not a measure that would produce any energy savings.

You're turning on equipment that's been turned off.

But what this would do is certainly contribute to the occupant comfort concerns at this building.

There's several other projects that we will be sharing with you that help contribute to the singular goal of improving occupant comfort at City Hall.

This is one of them.

So this will get you some incremental improvement, but all of those projects together we feel are the appropriate solution for this building.

Any thing to add there?

Okay.

Air handler unit refurbishments.

Uh, these are also at City Hall.

Um at Don, jump in here if you want to take this one.

So this was one that uh just due to the location and the age.

Um, we we really are trying to do our best at leveraging dollars.

And so instead of just rip and replace, we have uh taken the approach to uh go through, analyze each of the air handling units, and we're recommending a refurbishment of the air handling units that includes the the envelope itself, the mechanical components within it.

So we'll be sliding the coils out, refurbishing the unit itself, putting the coils back in, and um and and re retuning it back to where it should be.

And you'll you'll see there is some capital cost avoidance claimed here.

Uh that is because we are taking the refurbishment route over a replacement route, which would be the alternative here.

Uh still sticking to the HVAC and mechanical equipment category here, but shifting our focus to the law enforcement center.

Uh, we were asked to investigate the replacement of the rooftop units at the law enforcement center.

Uh, this was actually one of the first projects that uh the city had asked us to take a look at.

Uh back at the beginning of this year, we were told that there was actually some money that was set aside to help replace rooftop unit one at the law enforcement center.

Uh, this is the largest of the three units, and it serves the 24-7 operations side of that building, so it's a very critical unit.

Um we've been told that on multiple occasions that unit had failed, which forces the maintenance staff over there to actually go up to the roof and do a manual reset of the unit.

Um so this this one is certainly a big focus for this project.

Uh, but all three of the units are are reaching the end of their useful life.

So we're going to recommend that you replace all three at the same time.

Um, this you know certainly brings you some capital cost avoidance savings, and it you know, uh essentially restarts your clock on warranty and and the maintenance for these units.

Um the one thing we will point out later in the presentation as we're starting to look at some of these scenarios when we jump from the all-in project scenario to what we call priority projects, we've only included one of these rooftop unit replacements, and that would be rooftop unit one, which was the highest priority item.

The other two had been left out of that scenario, should there be a need to uh you know shrink the budget.

And we'll go ahead and move on.

Yeah, as as as most of the council members know, there is also um concerns over the capacity, cooling capacity in particular.

And as you'll see, we we've noted on the slide, rooftop unit number one is actually a 50-ton unit, if that means anything to anybody.

We've run some load calculations and the current load requirements are about 55.8 tons.

So we we selected a 60-ton unit, which should give plenty of capacity to um to the guys who um need that 24-hour operation.

So we've also um uh taken a look at the uh structural concerns of adding additional weight to the roof, and there is one trust member that we will be uh reinforcing as part of this project.

All right, building controls upgrades.

Um I'll pass this one to Don here in a few seconds.

Uh but this is a project that we are looking at for all four of the facilities, but the scope does differ greatly uh between the four facilities.

So if you look at the law enforcement center and the uh the library uh on the bottom half of this screen, um we're really looking at some minor reprogramming projects there just to take the existing equipment that's there and make sure that it has the correct schedules, set points that will reinforce efficient operation at that building.

But then as we look at City Hall and the Heartland Event Center, there are some actual upgrades to the the hardware of the control systems there.

Uh we're we are actually recommending a full rip and replace at the event center.

Um so I'll let Don jump in here and maybe speak to the scope a little more specifically.

Yeah, the uh building controls are obviously critical.

They just they just are for somebody to operate a building, and but it does get to be more of a of a technical complex approach when you start working on improving or replacing controls.

And as Jordan mentioned, the Heartland Event Center needs the most help.

Um there is just there are things that still are functional, but there are legacy control, they really can't be upgraded.

Uh the server itself needs to get replaced.

And there's there's sequence of operations, and not to go too deep, but there's things like demand control ventilation.

And if you think through that, what it does is it when the when the building automation system knows that it needs more air, like when the building is full, it brings in a lot of fresh air.

That's a lot of energy use, whether it's the summertime or the winter.

On the flip side, like an event center, a lot of times the building is empty and almost needs no vilation.

So the current control system doesn't have that capability.

So we're we're recommending that things like that are included.

Now that's the most invasive uh project uh here at City Hall.

The control system is good.

We've got some control updates that we want to do.

The one here at the at the city hall will interact with some of the other ones a lot.

We have a we have an issue in the in the entryway with a lot of solar heat gain from the windows.

We need to uh do uh an air balance, and all of that's gonna wrap be wrapped around the control system itself.

Over at uh law enforcement center, all we're gonna be doing is just some programming issues, and very similar at the library itself.

It's got some relatively new equipment, we like it, good control system.

But particularly at the library, they're just not taking advantage of the features that are already there.

So we're just gonna go in there, we're gonna do some programming, some training, and uh it'll be it'll be ready to go.

Perfect.

Thanks, Dom.

All right, building envelope.

Um building envelope for those that may not be familiar refers to the the envelope of the building that keeps your conditioned air in and the unconditioned air out.

Um so that has to do with your your walls, your doors, your windows, anything that would uh constitute that entire building envelope.

So we've looked at the Heartland Event Center, City Hall, and the law enforcement center uh for this project.

There weren't a whole heck of a lot of needs at the library, so we've left that one out uh for this particular recommendation.

Um but again, it's it's addressing the building envelope system comprehensively.

So for doors and windows, we'd be addressing the seals, um, making sure any cracks were sealed, any penetrations in the wall where air might be coming through, maybe if a pipe or a cable was ran through and not sealed properly, we'd be sealing that up.

We'd also be putting new weather stripping and sweeps and astergalls uh in those entryways to make sure that um air is not coming out through doors that are uh you know currently closed.

Um not only is this going to greatly contribute to the energy efficiency of these buildings, uh, but it's also going to help address the occupant comfort concerns as well.

We know that the lobby here at City Hall already has an issue with solar heat gain.

The last thing you want is hot air coming in through the door, too.

Um, so this will help keep that conditioned air in and contribute to uh that comprehensive approach.

And similar to the lights, uh, these projects have a very good uh payback and are typically included in almost all of these energy savings performance contracts.

Um Mr.

Nickers.

I asked this last time, and I guess you can clarify it again for me.

And when we do something like this, we've got new weather stripping, we've got all that stuff.

We're very good for year one, year two, year three, and then all of a sudden it's going to wear out again.

Is there an audit system through the span of this to where we come back in five years and say, whoops, we need to go back and replace this again because it's worn.

How do you it's not one and done, I'm assuming, but somewhere you got to come back and reassess is it still performing, and is that part of this process at all?

Yeah, so it as part of these projects, we do what would what's referred to as M and V, which is measurement and verification.

This makes sure that we're um realizing the energy savings uh that we're guaranteeing.

And and so in that we are inspecting the work that's done.

And if there is a deficiency, we are figuring out what to do about that.

So that, yes, very specifically.

Ongoing though, um, we're we're we're available to do whatever it is that you want us to do in addition to that.

But yes.

But in this situation, we're basically saying one and done, and whatever goes on the next 10 years, uh, it might still be efficient, it may not still be efficient, but you someone has to look at it to to know that.

Typically these measures ground building envelope, the material we use is it's much much different than you would get from uh like an OEM because of the nature of what we're trying to implement.

So 15 to 20 years is the life cycle for the material that we're using.

So you're you're that confident in all the stuff you're using then.

Yeah, yeah.

It's actually in it um specifically, like even the the two-part foam or uh the door swoops we put in are actually made with honeywall, uh honey wall product from our uh UOP division or uh uh PMT performance material technologies.

So it's a good it's a completely different application than a regular drawer door strip or like a three window kit or something like that.

So we're yeah, we're very confident that what what we do put in will last a test of time.

And to and to Don's point that that measurement and verification process serves two goals.

It's to protect the energy guarantee for the city and make sure that the savings we're guaranteed for you are realized year over year over year throughout that term of the contract, but it also makes sure that Honeywell's interests are protected because if we fall short of that energy guarantee, we have to cut you a check.

So it's in our best interest to have someone from measurement verification come out and check on these systems year over year, so that way if something has an issue, we can address it and make sure that the savings are still met.

So we're keeping our eye on the ball consistently throughout this project.

So it's good to know.

And and before you the um just as a point of reference, um, these are the things that we're doing common throughout these three buildings.

We have another measure that talks a little bit more about what we had at one point called an invasive building envelope study for the LEC.

So not to not to confuse those two measures.

Yeah, broke we broke it up as granular as we could.

So this is what we would call traditional building envelope for this particular project.

We'll get into the invasive stuff here in a few slides.

Mechanical insulation.

Um, this is a fairly straightforward project.

Uh we're looking at the Heartland Event Center and City Hall.

Um, in both of those buildings, you have mechanical rooms that are filled to the brim with all different kinds of mechanical equipment, valves, pipes, fittings, etc.

And there are several instances, as you can see in some of these pictures where certain strainers or valves or pumps are currently uninsulated, and those are areas where you are essentially bleeding energy into that room.

Um so this is a project where you can get custom insulation added to these components and help make your holistic mechanical systems um again um more efficient and uh provide you not only better operation but save you on that that energy expense as well.

Um that one's fairly straightforward.

I don't know if you got anything there.

Uh window film.

Um so this is uh another hot topic with the occupant comfort concerns that have been expressed to us here at City Hall.

Um we know that the the bulk of those concerns are pointed at these windows here in the front.

Um this building is beautiful, and the entryway of the building is very, very beautiful, and we want to make sure you can keep that intact, but also make sure that the folks that work in this building and visit this building are comfortable and excited to visit City Hall.

So what we're looking at here is installing some 3M uh prestige 40 exterior solar film on all of the windows on this front entryway.

Um this not only rejects the solar energy, which uh you know maintains that exterior appearance, but it helps reduce the glare.

It's going to extend the lifespan of your interior furnishings here.

You've seen maybe some fading of some of the finishings in the lobby area.

Um what hopefully this would allow you to do is open up these blinds even on a hot day so that you can have a more welcoming environment here in the lobby of City Hall.

Um, walking up to this building and seeing the blinds closed might not be as inviting of an environment for new visitors to City Hall as you could have.

So we want to make sure that you're able to uh enjoy this space as it was intended, but also still be comfortable where you're working every single day.

Um so uh similar to some of the other building envelope projects, this kind of falls within that category.

This has a good simple payback of just under 30 years.

Roof repairs at the Heartland Event Center specifically.

So uh the roof at the Heartland Event Center is original to that building.

It is 20 years old.

Um any homeowners in the in the room might know that a 20-year-old roof is is nearing end of useful life.

Um, and we've certainly seen that at the Heartland Event Center.

Um, since the very first day that we were asked to uh walk that facility, we've been made aware of uh several different areas and instances of leaks in that building.

Um Kyler sent us some videos, the city staff have sent us some videos, uh, most notably at that 4-H shooting championship.

There was uh an attendee in the stands with a big golf umbrella covering his family because they were getting rained on in the middle of the ceremony.

So this is certainly a project that we uh would like to address, and as with any roof leaking projects, you can take a spot repair approach to it, but water finds a way.

If there is any ability for water to permeate that roof, it's gonna find a way even if you've got some spot repairs there.

So we are recommending a comprehensive recoding solution for that roof.

It's not a rip and replace project.

Uh you're you're making use of the roof that you have and improving that structure.

But what this project will do will extend that roof uh the expectancy of the that life expectancy of the roof another 20 years and give you a brand new 15-year warranty on that roof as well.

Um so very important project here, but it does come at at a decent expense.

Um you'll notice here that we did uh take some capital cost avoidance savings here because the alternative here is ripping and replacing that roof uh when it's time to go, and that will come at a higher price tag than what we are proposing.

Um so this is a a uh more cost effective means to the same end.

Before you move on, the the just so everybody knows the pictures that are shown that the one on the top right, that's actually the current roof at uh Heartland Event Center.

The one just below that is not the hardland, that's basically what it would look like afterwards because it will be it will become a white roof.

Um not that the color matters all that much, but there is uh some energy benefit to that.

And then the third one is just workers installing the um you know the the coating on the roof.

So just just so you understand what those pictures meant.

And as Don had pointed out, this roof would be all white, so that comes with some energy savings in the summer, as that roof can reflect the heat from the sun.

Uh but then in the winter, you're not getting the heat being absorbed by the building when you have a black roof.

So there's a bit of a give and take there, but there is a net energy savings uh for having a white roof compared to that black roof that's there.

All right, now getting into what we are calling the invasive building envelope scope, uh, specifically focused at the law enforcement center.

Um, if you recall our presentation from June, um we had a lengthy conversation about the history of issues at the law enforcement center.

Uh there have been years upon years of reports of water infiltrating the roof, the walls, the floors, you name it, um, and and years of reports of attempted repairs with little to no success.

So rather than taking you know a spot repair approach to this, we brought in a trusted partner to take a very comprehensive and invasive look at the building.

You can see in the top right picture, they actually did remove several sections of brick from the walls of this building and look in different areas to see what the inside of those walls look like.

Um so we really have gotten um our hands as dirty as we can on this this measure to make sure we understand the root of these issues.

Um what it comes down to is you have problems with the lower roof at the law enforcement center, and you have problems with the walls, uh the flashing within that masonry work.

Um, Don can maybe speak to some of the detailed scope suggestions here, uh, but this would be a true comprehensive approach to the entire system and not just a single measure being taken.

Um feel free to jump in.

Yeah, this has been one of those um one of those uh challenging puzzles to solve.

It's um uh 17 years people have been uh chasing this problem, and um it was a few months ago we stood up here and we said we're gonna figure it out.

Well, we have figured it out, and um, we included in the larger report, it's about a 15, 18-page um report itself standalone that goes through not just what's there, um what we did, how invasive it was, and it kind of explains some of these pictures.

The top right picture, if you can see that at all, that's after we removed brick from the exterior of the law enforcement.

It's a beautiful building.

We almost hated to do it, but um we removed brick, and as you can see, what what the kind of the shiny part there, that's the uh that's the flashing, and um it needs to be sealed on the bottom, it needs to extend out beyond the the the brick itself and fold it down, and then would also needs to have what they call end damming, so that water, if water would ever get into that area that it wouldn't get behind the walls and then into the building itself, which is exactly what they've been experiencing for 17 years.

And so it's uh it's a it's a tough one.

Uh we had people on the inside come out and say, you guys are actually removing brick, but um that's what it's what it took to uh to resul to figure out the solution.

Um so we we have we have figured that out.

Um, and as Jordan mentioned, um of the solutions that people have come up with have been pretty creative, and some of them have actually helped a little bit, but it it they really were the the proverbial band-aid uh fix.

And even the capstone, if you can see on that on the bottom picture there on the right, the capstone, the coping uh uh stone that goes on top of the wall, at one point was removed across the entire building and re and reset, and it looked like they did a good job, but the underlying flashing was not fixed.

So the even just recently uh being out there, they were talking about they watch the weather, and if it's gonna rain, there's certain things that they put over certain desks because they know where it's gonna work its way in.

And so it it's it's been a tough one, and to their credit, they just keep fighting the battle.

But the water penetration from the roof, we have we know how to solve that, and that is going to include not replacing the coping stones, but putting flashing over and above it as we put in the roof itself on the lower roof, as you'll see very explicitly in the report.

The upper roof, it's two-stage roof.

Anybody's been out there, the upper roof is older, but we think it's gonna last another five, seven years.

So we're just recommending monitoring the upper roof.

We're recommending replacing the lower roof and doing this flashing work on the walls itself.

The uh penetration that was coming in from the floor was from our understanding, completely resolved from um from landscaping.

So now all the water is going away from the building, so the water that's coming up through the floors, which was a huge problem, they think it's been resolved.

So this is the last piece that nobody could um could find, and and and we think we found it.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Um glad you talked about that one.

So that's uh 17 years of problems on an 18-year-old building.

Um just a couple of questions I have.

So that would lead to, I mean, was some of this maybe just not installed properly at the time, potentially.

Um I'm not sure what you've found on that, or maybe that's hard to determine, but it looked like you did a little dissection in part of the building, or was it just kind of wear and tear of materials over that time?

Or both we can take that offline if you want.

No, that's fine.

But I um the flashing needs to extend out beyond the brick, the flashing end dams have to be there, and it has to be sealed in.

And so those are the things that we have to get done so that water does not continue.

And the the flashing is a key part, yeah.

And I'm I'm sure there's somewhere in tearing that as well, too.

Um, and then if there's been a history of that too, um it sounds like there's been attempted repairs for several years.

I don't know how many you've kind of looked into there as well, and there's probably an initial warranty on it.

That's probably long gone by now, but I don't know if there's other warranty on previous repairs that were done or not either, but just something to consider.

Um we we think we've chased down all of the um the the thought processes, the approaches that others have taken, the theories that they had.

Some were uh the the brick is too porous, and that's why it's popping.

If you're if you're familiar with brick popping, and and and that's a good theory because the um the the planters as you walk in the front door, there's brick that's it's literally just coming apart, and um over by the uh the gates to get to the back, those pillars that that brick is coming apart.

So it made some of these theories had a lot of um seemed to have a lot of merit to it, but none of that is taking place on the building itself, and that's just because those types of construction is just different.

We're not gonna fix the planners for you because that's well, I shouldn't say we're not going to.

Our our our approach does not address the planners, it's just a different construction.

But the building itself can be repaired.

So, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

All right, moving on to a fun project.

Um, arena lighting replacement at the Heartland Events Center.

Uh so as I mentioned earlier, this is separate from project number one, the lighting and the concourse and the rest of the building.

This focuses specifically on the arena lighting.

Um similar to the roof, the arena lighting that exists in that facility currently is original to the building, 20 years old, uh, metal halide fixtures, uh certainly outdated technology, certainly not energy efficient.

Um, and it has some operational challenges as well.

Um the the current fixtures, uh the venue works team is estimated to take about 15 minutes to warm up and about 15 minutes to cool down.

So let's say you had a power surge in that building and the power flashed in the middle of an event.

You're you're without lights for upwards of 15 minutes as those turned back on.

Um so that that creates a challenge for events.

It also creates a challenge for work being done in that building outside of event time.

They are supposed to have work lighting available to them within that system, but they have to turn all the lights on and all the lights off anytime they need to get any work done there.

So not energy efficient, not easy to operate, and really it has no uh no ad to the fan experience at the building.

So what we are recommending here is not only replacing and upgrading those existing fixtures with LED fixtures, which would be more energy efficient and have a great deal of more control capability.

Um this package would also come with the full color spectrum upgrade.

Um so you'd be able to color tune any setting you'd like in that building.

Um it comes with the fan experience paparazzi mode where you can have flashing sequences on on entries uh for teams or events or uh musical acts.

Um but then it comes with the full control package as well.

So remote and touch screen controls, you'd have pre-programmed scenes, different lighting effects, and you can even set uh your lighting shows to music.

Um our partners also have the ability to support additional changes as you know the years pass and you want to come up with a new lighting uh sequence, they have the ability to support that as well.

Um as you can see here, these lights do come with the 10-year materials and labor warranty.

Um, and the benefit here is that these drivers aren't integral to the fixtures.

So if a driver failed on a fixture that's up in the ceiling, you gotta send someone all the way up to the catwalk to fix it or get a big scissor lift up there.

Um these drivers can be down at a more accessible uh area of the facility, so that helps with the operational costs and the maintenance of these as well.

Um, and certainly with upgrading to LED fixtures, there's some energy savings uh for this project as well.

Mr.

Rossy.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

This is a project that I think that the 15 minute downtime is really uh a challenge for if it goes out during any event.

And you have a whole you know crowd of people and you have to do it.

Yeah, safety.

Now, this is one that really needs to be higher on the priority list, and I'm not sure where it's at in your three three tiered hierarchy.

This is included in all three scenarios.

Okay.

Unless you tell us otherwise.

I'm just suggesting to you know everybody else who you know this this one is a challenge, I think, for safety and for a lot of other reasons.

Uh, there's some also some huge benefits to the to the arena side, you know, despite the negative stuff we're trying to avoid, but it has both sides.

Oh go ahead.

Yeah, just to uh just to add to that, I was actually in the control room once and I flipped the wrong switch, and guys were trying to set up some tables, and it went completely dark, and they all looked up to the control room, and I was the only one standing, and I couldn't get them back on.

It just it just it took seemed like it took forever.

But um one one of the interesting things here is um we're we're offering we're proposing a new system that's also even more energy efficient, will save energy compared to what's being there now.

Um plus there's currently we measured 41 foot candles on the event floor, and the new system will have a hundred foot candles on the event floor.

Similarly, and I hate to reduce everything to numbers, but numbers speak to me.

The current system has a has a ratio of 6.5 to 1 for the dark spots to the lighter spots throughout the floor, and the newer system will have less than a two to one.

So the uniformity of the floor lighting, the lighting levels will go way up, and the energy costs will actually go down.

So that's the way that we've tried to design it in addition to reducing operational cost and those those kinds of things.

But anyway, go ahead.

Perfect.

Thanks.

Here's uh a few more example pictures for you.

That photo on the bottom is an example of one of the actual fixtures uh that would be installed.

On the left side, that is actually a mock-up of the Heartland Event Center and uh part of the design pack that was handed off to us.

And then you can see uh Pinnacle Bank Arena on the right is uh a current customer of one of our partners.

Um, and again, that's still open if anybody wants to go take a tour there and see the system uh in play.

Um we'd be happy to set that up for you.

Ice rink revival.

Um I imagine we'll have some discussion and some some questions here.

Um we discuss this uh at a pretty high level, but also in a lot of detail uh during the last presentation in June.

We presented you with several different options as to how we could address the ice rink.

Uh some of the options that were proposed would be no ice, don't do anything, leave the system alone as is, uh, no ice, but remove the existing chiller system so that room that it's currently in gets freed up for storage.

Um, or we looked at two different options for bringing ice to the event center, and that entailed bringing in a new chiller.

Um lot of you know, history here, a lot of uh background that we shared with you about the current condition of the floor being in very good shape.

Um, and that was actually decommissioned very well 20 years ago when the system was turned off.

Um, so there is a lot of uh components of that ice rink four that can be reused or just gently refurbished.

But when it comes to the actual system here, um unfortunately it was left open to atmosphere and there was some corrosion on the internal components.

So when we stood in front of you uh in April and asked for your permission to look at this uh this system, the hope was that maybe there would be some small changes that could be made to turn the thing on and it'd be in great shape.

Unfortunately, that's not quite the case.

Um so we've we've done a detailed look and doc can maybe speak to uh some of the reasons why if we are bringing ice to Grand Island, there would need to be a new chiller brought in.

Um yeah, so um as Jordan mentioned, one of the things that we were very happy about was the integrity of the ice rink floor itself.

Um we were able to um circulate brine through the system, and it all seems to be just fine.

There is some cosmetic things that we want to do.

If we're gonna put ice on that floor, there's some edging that uh needs to get some some work done on just so that it's operational.

Um but the ice rink floor itself, which is the which is the big big expense, seems to have great integrity to it.

So we're very happy about that.

The chiller itself, we we have run down multiple paths and multiple options on what we could do, what we couldn't do.

Um we we've met out there with uh with safety folks to see if using uh ammonia, uh which is the refrigerant in the current system, um, could be reused.

Uh there's there's differences in ammonia as a refrigerant versus some other refrigerants.

So we've kind of um uh went down that path as well.

Our current recommendation is to remove the existing chiller system and put a new chiller system in its place inside.

We've also had a lot of conversations about maybe leaving that chiller and setting a new one outside or setting a new one outside, removing the old and repurposing that floor.

So we've we've tried to cover the gamut, and we can go, we can still go in multiple different directions.

And but currently we are recommending the removal of the existing chiller system and setting a new chiller right in its place.

So I don't know if there's any other questions.

So I can I can jump in here.

If you if you take a look at the bottom of the screen here, um you can see there's a fairly large price tag with this project.

It's a it's a serious project worth considering, and it comes at a serious cost.

You'll see that there's no energy savings, water savings, ONM savings with this.

Again, it's a piece of equipment that hasn't been turned on in 20 years.

So you you might ask why.

Why would we move forward with this?

Uh and the reason being is a community benefit at the end of the day.

You can introduce public skate opportunities for the community.

Uh there is a proposal sitting on venue works desk for bringing in expansion hockey team to the Heartland Event Center.

They've also looked at uh Disney on ice events, Cirque du Soleil uh on ice events, um, which all would introduce a new revenue stream at the event center above and beyond, you know, there's a benefit to the community when you bring in those kinds of events.

Um the the two things that we have not claimed or taken credit for in any of the financial analysis cash flow models you'll see later in this presentation would be we haven't taken credit for any potential revenue opportunities if an ice rink is brought in.

Um as we had shared with you last time, there is a grant opportunity that we've discussed with your grants manager.

Uh we feel that this project is very well positioned for this grant, and it could provide 1.125 million dollars worth of funding for this project.

Um there just has to be a commitment from the city to match at a 50-50 ratio with whatever the award amount would be on that grant.

Uherson.

Yeah, go ahead.

That grant part was really nice.

I'm glad you threw that in at the last there because I've been I've been thinking about this quite a bit since I looked at your presentation initially, and I was on board for ice right out of the gate, but I wasn't sure I was two million dollars on board.

But this is where I want to bring up our HEC executive director because I need his opinion, and I am sure he signed up to speak, so we should be okay to ask him to come up and talk about that event center.

But Kyler.

I will.

Yeah.

So my question to you, and it's exactly along the line of what they were saying.

There is no estimation of potential revenue from something like this.

And so in your eyes of a comprehensive event center that offers a lot of things to the public.

And I don't even understand this whole ice rink thing.

I don't know if it's the same floor, if it's a special one that has to be brought in.

I'm not sure.

So you guys maybe can elaborate on that.

What your gut tell you based on past history, anything you've heard from the community for interest in ice events.

Uh competing with Carney, which is only 45 miles away.

So what do you think?

I'm just kind of curious your thoughts on this.

First, I would say that the number one thing I've seen from the community is the number one question I get from people about the event center is are we going to get an ice rink?

That is probably the number one most asked question.

They're not necessarily saying they want it or don't want it, but that's a question that everybody's interested in.

Um I have not been an ice expert, but I would say over the last few months I've become an ice hobbyist, just trying to understand what the parameters are on what the revenue options are and really what the cost associated with that are.

And uh I've I've I've learned a a simple lesson to a degree.

Um ice can be productive, just like any, just like the event center can be productive.

Um, but it really is how you use it.

And uh some of the little details I've learned, and these are these are my new details, but but it shows me that if you manage it properly and you put together a plan to make it profitable, it can be in most places, as long as first the community supports that.

You have the events that actually make the community want to support it, and um and you have a program to make sure that it's profitable.

Um a couple little examples would be like this.

Um the number one takeaway I've gotten from managing the ice is just like any other business if you manage it appropriate appropriately, and you have um in this case a tenant team, which the FPHL has approached me, and and we talked a little bit about that.

The Federal Prospect Hockey League, um, they said they're a hundred percent in they will bring their team to Grand Island if we have ice.

They have an owner set up, they want to do it.

Um they played 28 home games on Friday and Saturday night.

They've expressed flexibility uh to change a Saturday night game.

If I had a concert planned for that night, they'll change it to a Tuesday or Wednesday, so there's some flexibility there.

What I found in my studies and my hobbyist studies has been that the real key is managing that ice.

When we bring in ice for those two games on Friday and Saturday, the team will probably practice on a Thursday.

But the real magic is the day before they practice or even later in the day, we want to set up a couple of public skate days while we have the ice in place.

So we're not setting up new costs to create a public skate.

Then we have the Friday Saturday games, and then on Sunday it's open.

The ice will still be there to have a full-time, you know, public skate opportunity on Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening, then take the ice out for the next week, um, is a real plausible scenario.

So really balancing the event with other ancillary um revenue opportunities in the community.

I think it really it there is a potential to actually be viable and actually make a profit.

If it's not managed and and really planned out, I think you lose money on ice.

But I think uh I have I've had direct conversations with people in our company that have ice.

I came from a building that had ice.

Um, and uh I know firsthand one of our buildings out uh took over a location and they were they were at about a 1.2 million dollar deficit in and in funds, and up and that's the support they needed from their their city.

And this year they'll actually post a hundred thousand dollar profit in that building, and nine hundred thousand of that recovery came from their ice, uh their ice plant um and and maximizing the ice.

And this may be too microscopic to get down to because this is once again, this is these are some of the elements I'm learning.

This person spoke of their ice plant that he sets an ice sheet at approximately 0.93 inches up to 1.25 inches in depth.

Some people say that's too thin.

He's he is an ice expert and said it's not.

Most people just throw down ice and it goes to an inch and a half to two inches.

Well, for every quarter inch of ice depth, it increases 7% of your utility costs, your costs go up.

So once again, even managing those microscopic details and tailoring the to fit other events, so we're not having to set ice just for a public skate.

There's some real magic to doing that.

I I think we probably could do it.

I think there's interest, um, but uh it's um it's it's it certainly would take some work and some attention.

But everything you just said gave me a headache, so I can't even imagine being in your shoes trying to do that.

But it's possible, but it sounds like it'll be it's gonna be big.

It's a it may be a big ask.

It it's it's real feasible.

And and I do have a you know, we we did uh we brought in Cirque de Soleil uh Crystal, an ice show in Topeka, Kansas.

And um that show was fantastic.

It truly was the most elegant um ice show I've ever seen.

It was unusual, it was different.

It was and and uh that was an excellent show.

Comparatively, and we brought in Corteo, which is not an ice show, uh cre a Cirque du Soleil show, and it did about half the revenue and half the attendance that the ice show did.

So, in that exact kind of apples to apples entertainment element, that ice was unique enough to draw people in to say, hey, I'd like to see that thing.

And it was a great show.

So um there's some art to it.

We do have the advantage of this.

It's it's pretty rare to walk in and have a hockey league come in and say, we are coming, here's what we're going to pay.

Rental rates are somewhere between four and seven thousand dollars every time they have a uh sheet of ice.

So um we're talking, you know, quarter million dollars north of a quarter million dollars in revenue that's almost guaranteed annually for the event center on top of the ancillary revenues we can create from that.

So it's um it needs to be looked at deeply.

Um, but the opportunities are are somewhat strong, um, somewhat exciting.

I I would say with the grant opportunity, you've got my interest.

Um because uh for us to just delve into a two million dollar project is is very difficult for me, even as much as I would love ice.

But knowing if we could defray those costs or share those costs, uh that that's a great thing for me.

I I think we can afford to do that.

And this I don't know is this hockey potential hockey team on the same scale as the storm, or is it a lower level, or what is what would they would they be competing, you think, or I believe the storm is a uh a developmental league.

Um these these are younger folks.

I'm not certain about the storm, I haven't studied them, but this is a professional league.

This is sometimes people that have been in the NHL that now have kind of pressed it over, and now they're kind of in that retirement mode, but it's a good professional league, they pay their players.

Um there are some developmental people that are trying to get into the NHL, so it's really it's good hockey.

Um the whole you know, that secondary level of pro sports is always a little bit of a mishmash of, you know, I as a lay person, I don't understand half of what goes on there.

In this case, he's it this is good hockey that's an it's an expansion league.

They have a proven history on the West Coast and the East Coast, and they're bringing it to the Midwest.

Um they just opened a um well, and I will say this in Topeka, um, they just took the hockey back on, and I know that in Topeka they didn't want ice and they didn't want hockey, it was really more of a burden.

So the fact that they brought it back on this year with this FPHL shows that there's a business model that's working and the expansion is working.

Um they're adding another team, I believe, in uh Minnesota, in Iowa, and all of these would be the central expansion division that this team's working on.

So having the luxury of a guaranteed baseline revenue to support the ice is a huge step forward in making sure that it's it's uh that we maximize those revenues, but it's not a guarantee.

Okay, that that's understandable.

Thank you.

So I have a question for the other two fellows behind you then again, and I'm guessing other people are going to pick all of your brains.

You're talking about wanting to get rid of the old ammonia system, and that you kind of you've hashed that out.

Is it because of safety concerns, or will the existing system work at all, or you just don't want to deal with ammonia because it's riskier than non-ammonia system?

Because it sounds like you've had some discussion.

Thank you for that question.

Um that leads us down a whole bunch of different paths, but uh briefly, um ammonia systems are actually coming back in some areas to ice rinks because ammonia as a refrigerant is very efficient.

It just comes with some safety concerns, and knowledgeable people are you know, no concern at all.

You put in the right safeties, all good.

It's been stated that there may not be enough ammonia systems around here to have technicians that are um familiar with that type of arrangement because the equipment itself has been eaten basically been deteriorated from the inside out for 20 years.

We are taking this opportunity that since the chiller needs to get replaced, we are proposing a more um environmentally friendly refrigerant.

Um a lot of times folks that are operating in an event center are not chiller experts.

They might be bringing in a chiller expert for service, but that's you know, on occasion as opposed to day-to-day operation.

So there's there's some nasty things that happen if there's a refrigerant leak, is basically the bottom line on ammonia.

Now we'll still have safety set up, but it's just it's just a different animal.

It's not necessarily better or worse, it's just different, and based on everything that we knew, we decided to propose um 513A refrigerant.

I grew up uh 20 years in food processing here over the my previous life, and over those 20 years, we we produced you know high quality appetizers for around the world, and we had an ammonia system, that's what our freezer systems were.

And we had ammonia system, that's what our freezer systems were.

And through those 20 years, and we have people that dealt with it all the time.

I can imagine I can think of maybe count on one hand the number of times we had an ammonia leak.

And it was a serious thing that you had to get people out until they could figure it out.

So those things did happen.

It wasn't freak frequent, but it did happen.

So I I I can understand the environmental friendly thing and all of that.

It's just I didn't know I think it really comes down to the maintenance of the system.

Right.

Challenge uh not having local technicians who are experts in ammonia systems, and I think uh without speaking for Kyler, I think the venue works team had indicated to us that no one in their network is skilled enough to work on ammonia systems, not this part of the country, but anywhere in the in the venue work system.

So really that's what it came down to.

Yeah, just just to sure just to be level-handed here.

We we have found some technicians locally as well.

So well, we've got we still got the same plant that I worked at that's still got the ammonia system.

So I know somebody has to be here, yes, yes.

It's not we're not isolated here, so I know there's still ammonia systems here in town.

The other question that I had probably escaped me right now.

So I'm gonna let somebody else ask a question if I think of it, I'll come back.

Mr.

Hawson.

Thanks, Mayor.

So I really have two questions.

The first one is you because we have an existing ice facility and it's not functioning and hasn't functioned for 20 years.

Now, if we do this two million dollar upgrade, what would it cost if we had to build the whole thing from scratch today?

Is this would you have a five million dollar plant?

Or you know, what is the assets that we have still sitting there, even if we did nothing, you still got significant assets still sitting there doing waste in away.

Um that's a that's a really tough question without a few more parameters, but I will tell you that if the if the rink floor itself, if the integrity of the rink floor was no good, we probably would have just stopped and walked away because the floor itself is just too expensive.

Or if it needed to get repaired, you're talking about removing and putting brand.

Uh many experts said we don't even need to have that conversation because it's not just it's just not gonna happen.

So I know that really doesn't answer your question, but it's a it's a big number.

Yeah, yeah, because I I don't know what the number is.

It just seems like we still have a wasting asset even if we do nothing, you know.

And so, you know, that's part of the conversation.

The other side is we we do ice skating in Grand Island.

In Gray Sabbath, we probably flood a tennis court floor and and we have people ice skate on a what would be a tennis.

It's not a very big place, but we have done that for decades and decades and decades.

So I don't know how well it's used.

We don't have a parks guy in the room, but I don't know how much people go there today.

Uh, you know, so we do do that, you know, right now, and I I'm kind of curious in future planning as to how viable is the sport, you know, and how much does Grand Island really want to you know want to ice skate?

You know, so well I I might be able to speak a little bit to the viability or at least the interest level uh through Kyler, uh the gentleman who I think is claiming to be wants to be the owner, has called me more times than I can count.

And his his his primary question is when can I announce ticket sales?

And so um, yeah, that's if that answers the question of the viability of the sport.

I mean, he is he's talked extensively about competition and teams and bus times and you know way more than I want to know, but yes.

Yeah, so I think there's really the two components.

There's the community component of open open skating, you know, and then the other is the other component of having some kind of entertainment value on ice, whether it's Disney on ice or or or the ice skating, uh the hockey team.

So okay, thank you.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Um, you know, coming into this, one of the questions I had was for two million dollars, kind of like what Mitch said, are we gonna ever make our money back on that?

And like you said, there's no simple payback in years there.

Not that I'm real excited about the one that was 127 years of payback on uh the roof repairs at Heartland Event Center.

Uh like to see uh on this, what I when you start talking about the grant getting half of that.

And Kyler, you said quarter million a year just in rental.

So that's not come up, I'm gonna ask you some more questions, please, sir.

Uh so that's not food, that's not tickets, that's just for them renting it a quarter million dollars a year.

Rent was right around 150.

Okay.

So I estimated uh I actually estimated about 400,000 in revenue as potential, but I downgraded my overall um estimate to go a quarter of a million dollars to be a little more realistic.

Um but the upside is large.

Um the food and beverage um is large.

You know, the more people we have in that building, the more beer they buy, the more pretzels they buy, and then the numbers go up.

And that's just on the hockey you're saying.

So if you had uh skate, would you charge people from the community to come in on those open skates?

And we'd make events around it, we'd build events around it, you know.

Um I've always had this series.

I I told Doug a little bit about it, and I hate to let the cat out of the bag now because I hope to kind of do a big to-do and we did it.

But I've always had this there's a song called Christmas Island.

It's an old 40s song, 50s song.

But anyhow, I won't sing it for you.

Um but I've had this image of having an ice rink, having an an island on the ice out there where Santa Claus is on this side, Grinch is on the other side, and making it Christmas Island.

Um I think that would absolutely blow up in the community.

People can come skate, they could turn it into a kind of a winter wonderland type event for a week or two during the December months that sometimes are slow.

Um there's so much fun around those kind of things.

We don't know what those revenue numbers would be, but I as a as a father who had four kids, we'd have been at that event.

That would have been a fun event to go to every year.

Um I can tell you this.

Um that same building I was talking about, um, he makes over a hundred thousand dollars in revenue just in ice rental and skates in December because people want that Christmasy skating experience.

Now they're down south, so they don't really have the cold like we do, so there may not be the same draw, but if he can make a hundred thousand dollars doing that, I'm guessing we can probably clear fifty to better than that um for the same kind of experience.

So I look at that and think, let's even be conservative and say it's a quarter million.

If we get a grant for half of it, and hockey alone would get us a quarter million in four years with hockey and a grant, this is paid for.

And that's not including the Disney on ice, that's not including the skates for the public, that's not including some of the other opportunities.

This is a lot more doable to me.

And when you talk about hockey, you know, I I've watched the storm over what now, 25 years?

20 to 25 years.

Kind of wax and wane on popularity.

And it's fun to watch.

I've been to a few games.

Not a lot.

But it's not minor league.

It's not in the system.

It's not a farm team.

And I don't know if this would be a farm team of the Avalanche or something like that.

But it minor league is a little bit bigger deal.

This would be a step up from that.

It appears to be, yes.

It to be appears to be a true professional league.

And what I like most about it is they have a model that seems to be working in other markets where they started on the coast and they're coming this way.

And uh oftentimes those lower level pro teams, it's hard to make money on.

Um being involved in expansion league means that they're making it, they have it.

They've told me a little bit about their system on how they charge, how they make money, how they pay their players, and um it's a manageable system of of profit for them.

And they're not doing this to come lose money, that's for certain.

I can tell um they're not just trying to keep hockey live.

This is something they're doing because they believe it's a viable source of revenue.

And um it it looks like a pretty solid partner to do that.

Um and you know, just one other little quick note.

I know this here's some verifiable um revenue numbers.

I know um Disney on Ice and my last building in Topeka, seven shows and ticket sales, we did over $268,000 in ticket sales just on Disney and Ice.

So that's another quarter million dollars.

That doesn't include food and beverage, any kind of merchandise sales, anything else, just ticket sales.

So if you add those other elements in and sprinkle those in, it's really viable.

Um but I but I'll circle back to this.

You know, my job is to be a good steward of uh taxpayer dollars, just like everyone in this room.

And um in the event that we don't make a kill in on revenue from the ice rink, I do believe based on um the interactions I've had with the community that it would be a solid um community ad to have something like this, and I think people would use it.

Um but uh but it certainly would take some management and uh making sure that we have a good plan for it.

Do you think having a set schedule with a profession uh the minor league hockey team?

Do you think that would help with marketing other things as far as uh naming rights or uh the the booth the giving more value to the uh executive booths or whatever we call them, the VIP boost?

Suites, yeah, there you go.

Absolutely.

Um it adds value in every way from from revenue to you know um promotional elements to um enter, you know, hockey rink um advertising for upcoming events, which will also boost attendance.

But having something something going on in that event center gives piece people a reason to go to the website and say, hey, what's going on at the event center this weekend?

That's something that's one of the marketing changes we've really worked hard on doing because they have a reason now.

If they go to the website, and if you haven't noticed, we've been announcing about one new concert or event about once a week, which is it's a lot lately.

Um we need that to slow down a little bit.

Um, no, no.

Keep it going.

My staff is thinking we need to slow it down a little bit.

I haven't seen Night Ranger yet.

You promise Night Ranger at some time when you we talk.

So good.

That's that's a whole other discussion.

Um but we did have Kansas, Kansas turned out to be.

I will say this just for the community to hear this too.

But Kansas walked off and the lead singer of Kansas actually grabbed me after the event and said, Hey, that was a great cat crowd.

They were an older crowd, but they were the most energetic and entertaining, and it was packed.

Well, the way that we designed that building and the setup for the stage, that side stage set, even the members of the band walked away going, what a great event.

Hairball said the same kind of thing.

So when you start getting that kind of conversation going between the talent that starts filtering down to the promoters, which means hey, Grand Island is a place to bring things.

And I'm starting to feel some of the benefits of that because now I'm people are actively progressively calling or actively calling me to say, hey, we'd like to bring this to your event center, can we do this?

And uh so the tide is changing, and we're giving people a reason to actually look at the website to see what's coming to the event center.

Hockey would only um add to that.

And if and I'll say this to kind of summarize if the FPHL hadn't said we're in 100% if you get ice, I probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

I'd probably be saying now two million is way out of line.

And that that did give me a heart attack too when I saw two million.

Um I was thinking half a million to a million might be that that gave me a heart attack.

But the grant program certainly does open the door to hey, this is more realistic than what we think, especially considering we have a solid foundation, foundational revenue base from this uh FPHL.

It sounds like you've said about 28 games, 28 weekends of home, so I'm assuming there's 28 weekends out.

So that's uh or 28 days, so 14 weeks home, 14 weeks away, 28 week schedule.

Do you know when that starts and when that ends?

I believe it was um this is off the top of my head, I believe it was uh is that what it was, end of October through April?

Okay.

Accurate.

So that doesn't impact state fair crowds or anything like that.

It's after the only challenge we'll have is obviously it overlaps a little bit into um racing, so parking will be a challenge at times because we'll have too many people on campus, but I'm not gonna complain about that.

Uh but I wouldn't be pursuing this if it wasn't for that stable foundational base to get started.

Well, I think money-wise, it adds up.

I think community excitement-wise, it adds up.

The one thing before we do this, I would like to just see a little bit more just a little bit of research that tells me what kind of draw we would have with this, and I don't know if Brad Melama can help with that.

Um, to see you know how many people are leaving to go to Tri-City Storm Games, how many people are going east to hockey, or when they have ice events, um, what we think we could draw.

But I'm I'm digging this.

This is the most excited about the ice I think I've been.

Um, so excellent.

Mr.

Nickerson.

With the high number and let it come up.

We led with first.

Thank you, Jack.

Okay, I'm gonna go back.

I remembered what I was gonna ask you, but now you prompted some other things here.

So it's your fault.

All right.

Two things I always thought Grand Island really could benefit from.

That was a river running through town.

Always thought that would have been a great thing.

That doesn't count seven-inch rains.

But it'd just been a cool thing if we had a river right here close by.

That it'd be a great attraction for us.

The other thing I always thought was ice would be a good thing.

And this is an opportunity that we've had, and I still strongly feel that it's a it's a great opportunity hearing from Kyler tonight, and some of the things we're hearing even makes it a little more palatable, probably.

And we toss out a lot of numbers, but you got to remember the revenue side has to be offset by maintenance, it has to be offset by the competition.

So we don't want to get too excited on one side of the ledger because there's still another side that we've got to consider through the whole thing.

But people in Grand Island, unlike me, it's a good thing everybody's not like me, they like to do things.

They want something to do.

And they're gonna do it.

If we have ice, they're gonna be there.

There's no doubt in my mind.

Uh I'm not a hockey fan, but there are gonna be a bazillion hockey fans.

We know that this is gonna happen because people love that kind of stuff.

They like something to do, and thank God they're not like me, because this city would be probably 20 people.

So anyway, my question that I really missed was what prompted the opportunity for a grant.

What what is this grant wrapped around that that you make that makes you think about it?

Your grants administrator brought it to our attention.

So it was our group.

Yes.

Libby says that we have an opportunity here that falls under something.

Do we know what that something is?

CCC FF, it's the if I remember correctly, the community and civic center financing funds.

Don't tell me that that's what my wife manages for the state of Nebraska.

So don't tell me that because I can't talk about those things, but no, that's um that's interesting.

So she would be involved in that.

Um the pre-application for that grant opens uh January 1st and closes January 15th.

Um full applications would be due February 15th, and they announce uh grant awards by March 30th.

Um so that would be the the timing expectation as far as having a decision as to whether or not this is a thumbs up or thumbs down on the grant.

Um and and I mentioned you know, 1.125 is that kind of maximum ceiling on the grant, uh, but it can range anywhere from $15,000 up to that amount.

So putting priority towards projects that have a uh financial commitment and demonstrated backing from not just the city but also the community.

So, you know, any letters of support we could get from the venue works team or the community at large would help that grant application substantially.

So you're talking close to home for me here, so I gotta be careful.

I'll just have to abstain on any of those kinds of dis uh votes.

Anyway, I think it's a good opportunity, good discussion tonight.

The grant opportunity makes it palatable, even without the grant.

I mean, we're gonna have to make a decision with or without a grant before then, and uh we'll just have that discussion whenever that decision comes together.

But thank you for sharing all of this.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Overall, I like a lot of what I'm hearing as well.

The grants excellent welcome news.

Um I've spoken to Kyler often on the last several months too about you know some of the potential he's had or what he's seen in other communities.

I think there's a big interest in hockey.

I like to see uh some of the objective stuff you're you're bringing.

I'd like to see maybe just a little more refinement of some of the the numbers in there to justify it.

But I think we get a reasonable payoff within a few years.

That's uh a pretty good way to help justify that.

So um I think we're getting close and just like to see a little bit more of it.

Good work, guys.

There you go.

Might be able to see that here in a few years' time.

Um item number seven here, the sound system upgrades.

Um, yet another fun project.

Um I know a few of you were able to attend uh the sound demos that we offered at the event center.

Uh so thank you for your participation.

I hope you had a fun time.

Um this project came to be because the sound system at the event center is again original to the building.

Um initially it was installed up uh secured to the rafters at the very top of the ceiling.

There were complaints from attendees that they were having trouble hearing um the speakers, especially spoken word when you'd have uh maybe stand-up comedian acts in there.

Um so that was the initial complaint, and the speakers at some point in time were lowered and suspended to be closer to the audience, but then that created some sound quality issues, some reverberation issues because those speakers were not designed to be suspended, they were designed to be secured to a solid uh structure.

Um that paired with multiple phases of uh uh sound insulation and sound boards being uh installed at the event center.

There have just been a history of sound challenges at the event center.

And uh what this project is hoping to address is not only providing um enough sound to reach every single seat in that arena, but consistent quality for that sound for every seat in the arena.

So that's what we're looking here is recommending a full replacement and upgrade of that sound system with some equipment from our partner Danley Labs.

Um again, we'd be commissioning that system and training the staff on how to operate it.

Um but this again is it's a capital upgrade project.

Um there there might be some very, very minuscule energy savings from upgrading to this equipment, but really this is a a fan and attendee experience benefit here uh for this system.

So um that's about all I had there.

Any thing add on sound?

Uh Mr.

Hossey.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

So I was able to attend both of the sound demonstrations.

And I Joyce and I do go to a lot of the concerts, not all of them, but we do go to a lot.

And but during those presentations, I was able to stay in a different parts of the arena and listen to the old sound system and then the new sound system.

And so I was able to get that that sense of it.

And what my from all the feedback that I've gotten from the community and from other people that I know is we were just at the Kansas concert, and one of the things is where we were sitting is it's loud.

Now I'm older and I you know I need a little more sound.

They increase the ability to hear, but they don't have to be loud.

They can be at a less decibels, and you can actually hear better, and it doesn't feel like it's just blasting you in the ear.

You know, and so I think the the new sound system was significantly better than what I had even began to imagine when I walked in there before I heard this the sound tests.

You know, and so this is one that as somebody who goes to concerts, I don't need to be blasted out.

I I much rather have it lower volume where I can hear better.

And these new speakers are just technologically that much better than the old speakers, and they're able to do a much clearer sound with less volume, if that makes sense.

You know, and so I I mean I support this because I think it absolutely improves the experience if you're in the Heartland Event Center, and even if there's nothing but a speaker, it's much clearer.

It doesn't have to be music, it can just be someone talking, and it was much clearer and didn't need to be blasting.

So I think there's a lot of uh ability for an upgrade for our customer experience here.

Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

Uh Chuck, I uh uh I know you went to that.

I don't know who else did, but okay.

Well, thank you guys, and thanks for sharing out that feedback because I was really curious the differences.

One of the other questions I had, I guess, is uh I've heard a lot in the circles I run and the feedback I see that we have a good system if you know how to use it, but some bands come in and use their own system.

Kyler, maybe this is a question for you, but you guys, as you put this system in, is this something that other like the traveling acts that use their own sound people?

Is it a common system?

Is this how how is that going to work with all the different acts?

Because I don't want to bring in the Cadillac and people not know how to use it.

I would say most concert, most bands bring their own equipment for sound.

Um, where we're really going to benefit from the sound system is things like the Heartland hoops, the cheer and dance, the wrestling comedy acts, spoken acts.

Um that's really where the value is going to come into play.

And then if you've ever went through one of those McDonald's drive-throughs and get to her horror, that's a lot of times what the sound system sounds like because to make it heard better, you crank up the volume and that adds reverberation and it gets more distorted.

This and the new technology, and I was really impressed with that too with the new technology.

They they custom build these things to where I'm not even going to try to explain it, but the technology changes between then and now are just massive.

And I'm 57, so I'm losing my hearing a little bit.

Um it's so clear though, the new sound system was so clear compared to what we have in place.

The people that would really believe it or not, the people that would benefit most from the sound system are the local and regional groups, like the Cheer and Dance, the USA Wrestling, um, heck, any event that we have in the building, which we have quite a few of those community-based events, they'll benefit most drastically because now there's a clarity issue, and you're not blasting them, you're actually speaking to them, and they can hear it in all parts of the arena.

So there is a difference on the concerts.

Most concerts no.

Most concerts, the sound system won't change the concert because they the bands always want to control and they have those big stacks you'll see out front.

That's where the primary element of their sound comes into play.

Um it'll change for opening acts typically don't use the band structure, they'll use the house sounds sometimes, and um, so it'll help a little bit.

Most bands, especially key, you know, high-end bands, they'll bring your own sound system in.

So they want to be loud, Chuck, not nice sound.

They night ranger will be very, really loud when they come.

I will tell you this.

In my limited experience with understanding the stage works and the how they set up, depending on what the crowd and the sales are.

You know, if we sell 5,000 tickets, they'll bring in the full shebang.

If they sell 1,200 tickets and sales didn't go so good, they'll downgrade that sound system to help control costs.

So there's a lot that goes into it.

But for the most part, the real beneficiaries are probably our local long-term shows like like um uh fire school, you know, uh cheer and dance wrestling, those spoken, they're gonna benefit tremendously.

And so will we because now in graduation that um all those sort of things.

Okay, thank you.

All right, water conservation fixtures.

Um, this is a a project that is often investigated as part of uh energy savings performance contracts.

Um you've probably seen these fixtures and the multitude of restaurants, hotels, any establishments that you frequented in the last 10 years, these are certainly very common.

Um, all of the fixtures from our assessment at the Heartland Event Center are manual fixtures.

So every flush, every sink that you turn on is a manual fixture as it currently stands, and that introduces a few challenges.

Certainly that can lead to increased utility use, not just water, but when you're using hot water, that uh increases your natural gas usage as well, uh trying to heat that water.

Um so this these low-flow automatic hands-free fixtures would help with the utility expense, but it also helps with the wear and tear on these appliances.

When you have someone pulling on a flusher or pulling on a handle a hundred times a day, a thousand times a year, that is going to eventually break and need maintenance.

Um, when you don't have to touch the fixtures and there's less moving parts and pieces, there's you know less uh need for maintenance.

Um this is a project that uh you know contributes some energy savings and some operational savings as well, but it also saves uh the venue works team from having to go uh check to make sure every toilet's been flushed from the last week's event.

So um there's an operational benefit uh there as well.

Um last one that we're gonna talk through here is the new vestibule at the Heartland Event Center.

Um, as many of you I'm I'm sure know there was a car that crashed into the building earlier this year.

Uh we did provide uh a pretty detailed background and history of that at the last presentation.

Um, the city has looked into a few different options as far as just replacing uh this damage in kind, uh but the the leading uh priority now would be to build a new vestibule in its place that would serve as an entrance to the Bosema Conference Center.

The benefits of that new vestibule from an energy perspective would be you'd have double doors in this area, which improves the building envelope of the facility.

You don't have as much conditioned air getting lost every time you have people leaving the facility.

So there is an energy savings component to it, but uh that energy savings component is offset because you have more square footage that's being added to the building, which requires additional cooling capacity and electric for lights, et cetera.

So this is effectively a wash from an energy savings perspective, and we would call this you know a capital upgrade project or a facility improvement measure.

Um that's about all I had there.

Anything to add?

Nope.

Perfect.

Um before we move on to the next portion, any remaining technical questions, project-related questions before we move into financials.

Okay.

So as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, um, we've got three scenarios that we're gonna discuss tonight.

Um these scenarios are not set in stone.

This is just our analysis of what we understand to be the city's priorities.

Um you have the ability to pick and choose any of these scenarios and shuffle projects in and out as you see fit, and we can also help walk you through alternatives for deducts or upgrades because there's a lot of different options here.

But this first scenario is what we're calling the all-in scenario.

It includes every single project we've discussed tonight.

Um, and those project costs and savings have been broken out earlier in the presentation.

Um here's just an indication of all of those projects and where you can find them.

As you can see, the the bulk of these projects are attributed to the Heartland Event Center.

Um, there's some projects at City Hall and Law Enforcement Center, and really the only scope that we're looking at at the library is those building controls upgrades.

Again, I apologize.

This is really hard to read on the screen.

Um, hopefully you have a better view in front of you here.

But this is our our cash flow analysis for that all-in scenario.

So, again, that that estimated uh or anticipated project price is at 12.5 million dollars.

This particular scenario would assume uh no down payment from uh from the city.

Um you you have the ability to hold off that first payment until after construction is complete.

That's the benefit of energy savings performance contracting, is we don't require any capital down for these projects.

Um, from some of the indicative uh financing uh options that we've explored for you, it looks like rates would be about at that 4.25% mark as it currently stands.

So for a project of this size, there's some significant interest that's included in the financing there.

Um we looked at a 20-year term just as a placeholder here.

I had shared with you all on a prior presentation that the state of Nebraska allows you to extend the term on these projects as far as 30 years if if you do need to fund uh a large amount of capital upgrades.

But quite frankly, when you're talking to banks who are entertaining financing these deals, they they want to see 20 years or less.

30 years would be a bit of a stretch.

Um so we've we've started here.

If we need to model it differently, we're happy to do that for you.

And as you can see here indicated, the all-in scenario assumes a construction period of 16 months.

We feel very confident we can get all of these projects done within 16 months time.

Um so taking a look at this, you have all of your project costs and the uh the left columns here.

Uh, your first column is the actual financing payments uh that would be made.

Second column is your measurement and verification service.

Um, there is no minimum or maximum requirement for measurement verification.

Um there is no minimum or maximum requirement for measurement verification in some states outside of Nebraska, they might require that you carry M and V for the entire term of the contract or a minimum of three years.

Uh for this scenario, we've modeled it as three years for you.

We feel that would be enough to give you a good confidence that you're hitting your energy guarantee for the first three years, and then if you elect to cancel your M and V service, that's your prerogative.

Um so it's been modeled as three years.

If you want to see it for the full fifth or 20 year term, we'd be happy to change that for you.

Um so then you can see your total uh anticipated annual cost there in red.

Now we move into project funding, so you can see energy savings over that 20-year term is uh nearly 2.3 million dollars, uh operations and maintenance savings uh 700,000, and then capital cost avoidance is uh nearly 2 million dollars.

Uh so that total project funding that would be available uh that we're looking at here is just shy of $5 million.

Again, I want to reiterate that that $5 million number does not include a potential grant award for the ice rink, um, and it does not include any potential revenue figures that uh Kyler may have shared with you earlier tonight.

So, if anything, the funding bucket uh is conservative in this analysis.

Uh then as you see on the right hand side that this results in a uh a shortfall of about 700,000 per year.

Um doesn't nearly cover the the cost of the interest on the on this project.

So um wanted to make sure we pointed that out for you here.

There would need to be uh a significant capital contribution to move forward with these projects and finance these projects on a tax exempt lease.

Um our second scenario here is what we have deemed priority projects.

You may feel differently.

This is what Honeywell uh understands to be your priorities based on conversations with you all, based on conversations with your staff and the venue works team.

In this scenario, we do have the ice rink included.

The only difference you'll see between this scenario and the third one is that we pulled the ice rink out.

Everything else is the same between scenarios two and three.

Thank you.

Quick question on the ice rink.

You say on all this, you have a 16-month construction period.

How much of this is necessary?

And how fast can we get a hockey team here?

We were just talking about that over dinner, actually, believe it or not.

Um, so it it may not be the answer that the potential expansion team owner would like to hear.

Uh, but let's say the city elects to move forward with that project by the end of this year and doesn't you know decide to wait for the the grant timeline to make that decision.

Um, again, assuming a 16-month turnaround, uh he wouldn't be able to have that team up and running for the fall season, but 2027 would be that that first opportunity.

So you couldn't front load those jobs.

So we have uh, and you'll see it in the eventual report, but we have an estimated design time frame, procurement time frame, and construction time frame for each individual project, irrespective of which ones move forward how they're paired.

So this would be assuming we start design on that ice rink project tomorrow, 16 months.

Okay.

But we we feel confident from the partners we've been working with that they could potentially expedite that schedule.

We're just trying to give you a conservative estimate here.

Kyler, is there a time limit on the offer from the hockey team?

Of this point, not I'm I'm probably more in the camp of you.

I want it yesterday.

If we're gonna do it, I'd love to have the ice team, the hockey team going right away.

And I'd want that to be escalated as quickly as we could, at least by next year if we could pull that off.

Um, but right now there's no time limit, there's just heavy, heavy interest.

Okay.

We can we can identify paths to try and expedite that timeline, but that's the standard timeline that's been provided to us with the current recommended scope.

So there may be some uh options to expedite.

And the work that needs to be done, would that be and I guess this doesn't matter what of the scenarios, but in that 16 months, would there be blackout periods that we'd have to work around at the event center?

Um so blackout periods, in other words, where you can't have an event.

Yeah, would it be like a month where we can't do something?

Yeah, so you were talking about um the sound system, we're gonna have to be going up, you know, we'll be in the middle of the of the floor itself, mounting speakers, but we're not talking about an extended period of time.

I feel pretty comfortable that the the way that Kyler works, he he's just very accommodating, and we might have to do some things um off hours or in between events.

And I think that particularly if we can stage some equipment there, um we'd be able to accommodate various projects and make sure we swept through when we got the sound system done, and then in between the next events, we got the lighting system installed, depending on what events were coming up.

So that would be a coordination thing that based on everything that I know and the way that Kyle I've seen Kyler work, I think we can get that done without interruption of a significant event.

Okay.

And as far as the um ICE is concerned, the real critical part is when would we really be released to go?

Because we can shave down that 16 months, but I'm assuming that by the time this kind of a process goes through, and then finding funding, and then actual signature, that's really when we get released.

That until October is pretty tight.

We I'd give it a flip of a coin at the moment, but it's really gonna depend on these next couple months.

And then also we time very quick.

Yeah, I was about to say sim similar to the HVAC chiller uh that you all purchased.

Uh the lead time is about 30 weeks right now.

So it's it's a similar lead time where unfortunately that's kind of out of everyone's control to a certain extent.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, so scenario two, as I mentioned, Mr.

Nickerson.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I don't have the details in front of me, and maybe you answered this question already, and it just blew over my head.

But for all the projects that are identified, no matter what scenario that we take.

Let's say we took this one.

You got multiple projects that need to happen.

And what what was the timeline you thought that those things would be done?

Each one's obviously gonna be different, but in order for all of this for the financing and all the dollars that go into this, how many year project is this to get all of this?

Our operations team and our contractors that we've been working with have communicated to us that we can get everything done in 16 months.

Well, the 16 months he was talking about is everything.

Yeah, certain certainly we wouldn't wait to complete the lighting before we start.

You know, there's gonna be multiple projects that we're gonna do.

I'm talking about every project that's okay.

I thought you were just talking about the Heartland Event Center.

But the the ice rink is one of those long lead projects that gets us to 16 months.

Some of the projects could be done in three months.

Uh so it's a very aggressive uh timeline, really, overall when you look at everything.

You don't sit around and wait, you're just ready to go.

Yep, absolutely.

Okay, yeah, I 16 months I thought was just on the Heartland Event Center.

Okay, very good.

Thanks.

Sure.

So scenario number two coming in at 10.6 million.

Um what you can see here is the same matrix that we shared before.

Um the red X's certainly represent projects that were included in the all-in scenario but have been removed in this scenario.

So you can see the humidifier replacements, um, mechanical insulation at City Hall in the Heartland Event Center, and the vestibule have been removed.

And as I mentioned earlier, for the rooftop unit replacements at the law enforcement center.

In this scenario, we're only recommending one out of the three.

Again, that's the the priority unit there.

Um when it comes to the humidifier replacements and the mechanical installation.

The thought there was these are projects that don't contribute significantly to the ROI of the entire project.

Um, and they aren't immediate benefits that are visible to the community, visible the city council.

They're not, you know, very exciting projects that'll end up on the front page, right?

So we we had removed those, but again, could be added in as needed.

Um the vestibule project again comes at a uh high expense and does not produce energy savings or a return on investment.

That is a true capital upgrade project.

We certainly know something needs to be done to that portion of the building, but we're gonna leave it up to the city and city council to decide if that truly is a priority compared to some of the other uh operational benefit projects, such as HVAC projects, building envelope projects, etc.

So for that scenario again, it at 10.6 million dollars.

We have all of the same assumptions here.

The only thing that really has changed is the price and the energy savings, capital cost avoidance, O and M savings have been reduced for any of the projects that may have been pulled out that had savings.

But as you can see, that total annual funding is only being brought down from 4.9 to 4.5.

So the the thought process here is let's reduce your costs, but try and keep as much of the savings intact as we can to give you a bit of a better return on investment.

In this scenario, your uh your net negative 588,000 a year again would require some significant capital contribution.

And in the third scenario, as I had explained uh prior, everything's the same as scenario two, it just has the ice rink pulled out that produces a two million dollar delta.

Um so that brings that total project price down to 8.6 million.

You will notice again, looking at that annual funding column, nothing has changed in this scenario because again, there was no energy savings operational savings, capital cost avoidance from the ice rink project.

So in this scenario, you're reducing your costs, but still holding on to that that full 4.5 million dollars worth of savings.

So your your net cash flow is looking a little bit better there.

But again, none of those potential revenue benefits, grant benefits, etc.

have been included in this scenario.

So this is a uh a good representation of the financial outlook here, but it might not be fully comprehensive of the benefit to the city.

Um I got one more slide for you here.

Really, what we're looking for from council at this point is some feedback on these recommended projects.

Um as far as the next steps are considered in our process, we have officially uh completed our investment grade audit.

We've provided a report to the city that is is being reviewed by the city admin team, and I understand will be shared with you all soon.

Um so over the next two weeks, we're asking the city admin team and city council to review our recommendations.

And if you feel that you have enough information to decide on which projects you would like to see move forward in this next phase, uh our ask would be that uh we come back here on October 14th and take a vote on a particular scenario or craft a custom scenario that you'd like to see move forward for financing and contract development.

Uh again, we understand if if there needs to be more time or discussion, happy to do that.

But this this particular schedule assumes a decision would be made by that date.

Um if that's the case, then we would immediately move forward with developing our energy savings performance contract for you.

Again, even though there's a multitude of projects here, you would be presented with one contract with Honeywell.

You don't have to contract directly with any of our subcontractors.

It's one piece of paper, one throat to choke, as we oftentimes joke.

Um at the same time, we'd be moving forward with financing development with your municipal advisor uh for whatever scenario is uh presented or are selected by council, we would present them with the financials around that scenario and they would work with with Pat and the rest of your finance department to uh outline some uh potential finance financing strategies for these projects.

Uh oftentimes in our experience that process takes about a month.

Uh so we have a month assumed here in this schedule.

And um, if again all of that uh goes to plan, then we would be ready for the November 18th City Council meeting uh to have you all vote to award the ESPC contract and vote to approve that financing agreement.

Um again, if that takes place uh November 18th, then we'd be fully executing that contract by the end of November and officially kicking off these projects early December.

So uh this is about as quickly as we think uh we can move and you can move, but uh at this point you tell us whether or not you feel you need more time or discussion, more information.

Um, and then I will also point out here that um part of the Nebraska state requirement is that not only your internal team review our recommendations, but there are checks and balances where they're asking for a third-party engineer to do a review of our recommendations and sign off on uh the savings uh guarantees that we've been claiming.

So um that can start tomorrow if you'd like, or uh if you want to wait until you have a uh final project scenario selected, then we can have those engineers review specifically just the projects and moving forward.

Um but this is this is where we're at.

Uh, this is uh uh kind of the end of our IGA process and the beginning of our uh financing and project development process.

So um once again, we're very very thankful this for this opportunity.

We've really enjoyed uh working with the teams here at Grand Island and really looking forward to continuing this partnership.

So feel free if you have any other questions.

Thank you, gentlemen.

I want to congratulate you on a nice presentation.

It was concise to the point, a lot of information.

Now it's up to us to have a special council meeting so we can get together and vote this thing up or down on what we want to do.

Uh as soon as possible would be better than later.

I don't know what the majority of the council wants, but that's what I would I would like to see a special meeting within two weeks.

Thank you.

Mr.

Nickerson, well mine's partly along that line.

So if I'm understanding your timeline here, you really want us to make a decision at our next council meeting, it sounds like, which you said October 14th, correct?

If you're prepared for it, absolutely.

Because we tonight we heard the information, but are we do not have any meetings scheduled until the 14th, unless something else is coming in between?

So that's to Mike's point.

If we waited till the 14th, we'd probably be we wouldn't have a good time for discussion for decision, or it's gonna be a very long meeting.

So I see uh our city administrator has something he wants to share, more than likely.

So yes, it's it's it's gonna take us longer than two weeks to go through this internally.

I will tell you uh we are very deep into a good life district application that we need to get completed.

So this just adds to that.

There are other legal steps that we need to do in this process.

So it's gonna take more than two weeks, but we will work on it as fast as we can.

Well, October 14th probably doesn't look very feasible.

That's and that's just what I was wondering, because there's nothing between now scheduled, doesn't mean it couldn't be and the 14th, which would be our next official meeting.

And all the all that we ask of the city at this point in time is just to communicate what that expectation would be as far as timing.

Um certainly we need to uh keep our stakeholders at Honeywell informed as to the progress of this project, but we also have I'd say 20 to 25 subcontracting partners that have been very, very involved and invested uh at risk for some of these projects.

So we need to make sure we understood and keep them informed as well.

So whatever that time may look like, as long as we're kept informed and the communications open, then we're happy.

Yep.

I would I would almost I don't know if we have another study session.

It this it's almost has to be a separate discussion.

If we do it tonight, we're gonna be going till nine o'clock, and I'm not sure we'll even have a consensus tonight because the information is so in-depth, which again you've done a heck of a job, you guys do a great job.

So I hate to screw up your timeline, and uh everybody is standing there waiting, but it's just something like this of this magnitude, just I don't see it happening in two weeks.

It's just very difficult.

I've got some more to add, but I'm gonna I see the city attorney has something to add here.

Just to make sure time to state realistic, the third party uh outside audit we have to do will have to be procured, so we're probably looking even if we could find possible.

I'd auditor to audit these findings who could turn this around in 48 hours.

We're probably looking at least a month for that outside independent review that's required by state law before we can do most of this financing.

So the wheels of government move slow if we want to access these sort of resources on at least some of these projects.

So just to manage expectations, there's not much we can probably do to speed that up too fast.

And it it's it's worth clarifying, and we've discussed it with city staff that um the state law requires a review of the the contract that is entered into.

Um so let's say if you guys knew right off the bat that the ice rink isn't moving forward, there's no need for a third-party review of a project you don't intend to move forward with.

So you know, as as soon as we figure out what that final scope is looking like, then we can kind of minimize the scope of that third-party review uh to match that.

But if the city would like to do that review prior to making a decision on those projects that move forward with, then that certainly could add some time.

Yep.

Well, it it's probably a bummer all this stuff you're hearing about the length of time it's gonna take, but it sounds like that's we're used to this.

You're used to it, okay.

So my next question is for our CFO, which happens to be our city administrator, which happens to be our treasurer.

And so my question is, what account how what account would this come out of?

If we went forward with this, how would we fund this from our budget?

Good question.

So depending on the projects that you pick, okay.

And this is a city council future discussion, is we have a lodging occupation tax coming up.

It's two percent, it goes away in December.

You city council could have a choice of renewing this hotel occupation tax and increasing it to whatever percentage you want.

Or limit.

I believe there isn't.

Wow.

I mean, that's it's it's it's a change in this latest legislature.

So let's just so currently it's at for easy round numbers, it's two percent.

We approximately get five hundred thousand.

Okay.

If you go to four percent, it's gonna be a million.

If you go to five, it's gonna be one point two five million approximately.

So is that something you look at in financing your Heartland Events Center?

Because that is you're you're gonna improve a city asset that's gonna be revenue generating.

And then you're in theoretically with the hotel rooms, more hotel rooms coming online, that tax will go up.

Yep.

So I see the revenue upside, but I think there's also a balance that we'll have to discuss what's fair to the consumer to and and for the purposes.

But I think there's also a balance that we'll have to discuss what's fair to the consumer to and for the purposes.

So I it's a great discussion to have.

The other question I have would again is for our CFO and our city administrator.

Not all of these projects have to be grouped into a Honeywell project.

We could choose to split some of these off and handle them separately, could we not?

You absolutely could.

Okay.

Because I know you guys have done the work as part of a package deal, but I I don't know.

There might be some of these that make sense to let Honeywell run with this and somebody else run with this, which I think is just part of our discussion to find out what that final number would be.

And and Honeywell oftentimes does phased approaches with cities as well.

So if you're unable to wrap your arms around everything at one point in time, you could prioritize some for this next phase and maybe hold off on phase two for a couple years from now.

I mean, that's certainly not uncommon when we do these investment grade audits.

Oftentimes our customers want to set up stages for these projects.

So that's an option as well.

But I know financing comes into play.

Absolutely.

Okay, well, it sounds like we have a lot of discussion, and unfortunately it's not going to be fast enough for you guys, but we want to make sure we make the best and the right decision, and sometimes that does take a little time.

But I just applaud you for all the work you've done.

And Josh, you sit here all night.

Do you have anything you'd like to add?

These other guys have stood up all this time, and you got to rest.

Now I've got to call on you.

Now I've got to see.

I appreciate the level of engagement from the board.

I've been doing this since 2008.

This is a fantastic project, and it is a really good way to procure things.

Um that normally just wouldn't get done.

So uh and to uh your CFO and city administrators point, we're actually doing a very large uh geothermal project for the city of St.

Paul, and that was also um funded uh through the tax of uh resolution for sales tax, actually.

So not an uncommon way to raise capital.

You know, again, I it's a sensitive subject when you raise taxes at any, you know, at any point, you know, because people want to pay less.

But uh I think that's uh it's a viable strategy for this project to get you know very capital intensive performance contract done.

Yes, okay.

Well, thank you.

I just wanted your input because you've been here and you've uh you've got your role to play as well.

Well, appreciate it all, and we still got a lot of discussion to go, but uh my bottom line, I guess, takeaway from all this is I think the ice, I would share before that.

But we'll we'll hash through that as a council as we continue forward.

Thank you.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Uh thank you guys.

Uh I'll echo what they said.

Uh I don't see a lot of fluff here, so I appreciate that you guys went through and said this is what's important.

Um, I don't see a project in here that I don't think is valuable to have uh either for quality of the folks that work in our buildings or um quality of life in the community.

So I think it's exciting.

Uh I too get bummed at how slow we move.

Um I was ready to award the hockey team tonight, but I guess we're not gonna do that.

Uh uh, we'll put that on ice.

Uh I don't know what our schedule is gonna look like for more meetings, but I guess just to prepare you, Pating sure we all know what our options are for financing this.

Uh and if this is the way we have to finance it, or if we have other ways of financing it, we can put money down, obviously, and change some of these things, but uh clear picture.

If we're not gonna pay anything for 16 months, we still got to approve it before that, and how we're gonna pay it, we gotta know.

Um so I guess that would be my request for the next meetings that we have is to have that.

But thank you guys, thanks for sticking it out, Kyler.

Thanks for all the uh answers.

Mr.

Hossey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank you guys for putting everything together.

Um what this seems like to me is that we we've had a uh a 20-year plan where all of a sudden all this is kind of coming together all at once, you know, all these things that need to happen.

And uh it just you know, in my mind is uh one of the things that that we need is like it's like we need a facility manager, because I think you had a very decentralized process where you had to go to this facility and talk to this person, this facility, and talk to this.

Right, and and so as as a prior facility manager, and I had 500 facilities in 200 cities.

I know how it works, and I know this type of presentation I went through all the time, you know.

But we did it every year in our budget process, it was something that we do, and I think uh one of the feedbacks that I'm gonna provide is that I think you know, this city the size with this many facilities, and we have a lot more facilities in the four on this list.

And I know that the facility manager for City Hall in particular was our building director, and he just retired here in the last you know year or two, you know.

And so I'm like, he's doing the two hats as well.

He's doing, I'm the building director, I'm I'm gonna try to, you know, facilitate here or facilitate the you know another another building downtown.

And you know, so I think all this stuff is great to see, but now we need to figure out is how do we handle this this time and how do we handle it all moving forward.

And I think you know, having a facility manager, you know, in a centralized process that we looked at stuff like this all the time as part of our budget process would just benefit you know the community a lot better than than this once in 20 years seeing a a you know 12 million dollar pile.

So but thank you for everything you put together.

I'm sure everything in there is needed, and so we'll be we'll be talking.

Thanks.

Thank you, gentlemen.

We are adjourned.

Thank you, Mary.