Welcome to our meeting.

The date is October 28, 2025.

The time is 7 p.m.

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

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

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

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

And to the Republic for which it stands.

The City Clerk will now do roll call.

Council President Sheard.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk.

Present.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza.

Present.

Councilmember O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Pollock will be absent.

Councilmember Lanfear.

Present.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Jill Grenier, the city clerk.

Stacy Nonhoff, the assistant city attorney, and Keith Kurtz, the public works director.

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

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

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

Hearing none, we shall continue.

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

If you did not sign up to speak on an agenda item, please come forward.

State your name and the agenda topic on which you will be speaking.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we pass the consent agenda items six A through P and no six E, six I, six R, six S.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second the motion.

Thank you.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Leading off with six E.

Approving of memorandum of understanding between the City of Grand Island and the International Association of Firefighters, local number six four seven.

Mr.

Schmidt, please present on this.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council.

So we currently have a contract in effect through September 30th of 2026 that uses a one-day on, two day off schedule.

So 24 on, 48 off.

The proposed MOU in front of you would be a schedule change to 48 on, 96 off.

So two days on, four days off.

And both both parties were interested in this model.

It's been used fairly widely at other municipalities, fire stations, and they've seen some benefits of it.

So what we're proposing tonight would be a trial basis to see how it would function in Grand Island, if it's advantageous to both parties.

So currently they work 2,808 hours a year.

That'll go to 2912.

So you keep the the annual salary the same, but since there's more hours, that actually brings down the hourly rate a little bit.

But the total compensation is the same.

Does change the overtime schedule just a little bit?

Um I talked about the financial impacts in there.

So I'll leave that um open for questions.

Chief Schmidt is here for questions also, and there's a representative from the IEFF here, too.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hawsey.

I would move to approve resolution 2025-363.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I second the motion.

Mr.

Hossey discussion.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Aaron, I'm not sure who the question is for, but so the concerns when I read it.

Okay, so when you're going from a 24-hour shift to a 48-hour shift, the the things that concern me, and I guess we did look at this 30 years ago, you know, and and so I have some background on it from a long time ago.

Uh the fatigue factor was one of those can you know if you're working 24 on and and you're on calls all night long and you're asked to work the whole next day.

You know, it's kind of like anybody who has been asked to fast for 48 hours.

Well, it sounds like it's pretty easy, except for the second 24 hour.

You know, the second 24 hours is a lot harder than the first.

You know, and so I worry about the fatigue factor.

Uh I'm probably okay with the over there a little more overtime in the way I I see it.

But the other side is the family effect.

And I it doesn't sound to me like it would have a positive family you know, effect on your family, just taking one person out of your family and having them work 48 hour shifts.

And and I mean I know they're gonna be home for the next four days, but that's the kind of the question.

Can you help answer the fatigue factor and then the family factor?

Yeah, well, I'll I'll speak generically and then I'll let uh Zach come up and since he he'll be doing it.

Okay.

Um there has been studies done um quite extensively, and it shows it shows some positives to it.

I think I think you have valid points.

Um I think there's there's a it's a trade-off one way or the other, and and that's where we kind of rely on the union too, where they took that to a vote and determined that the majority of them did want to try this.

Um so that's that's really what we're leaning on.

They're they're fully aware of what this looks like and help draft the language, and um so they they know what they're getting into, and I think you know, from now till September 30th is a good is a long enough period to have a real trial to see if it if it's beneficial or not.

Of course, when we get to negotiations of the new contract, um that would be a decision point of do we want to continue with this or not.

But I'll I'll let uh Zach if you don't mind you want to talk about the fatigue factor a little bit.

Yeah, and I had one other as long as he's coming up here.

One other issue that I was concerned with is we have a hard time finding talent, as does every employer.

Is there any risk of losing talent because of this change for the for the year?

So if you could add that into your responses, yeah.

I think that's always a potential.

You know, there's some when there's change, it's how people react to that.

And um, I think this this will, you know, we don't know until we try type.

So there's no guarantee.

It could be zero issues or there there could be issues.

There is a clause in here that provides both sides a 30-day notice to back out of it if we just start and things aren't going well and both sides are like I think we made a mistake.

We can back out too.

But I'll let I'll turn it over to Zach.

So as far as the question with the losing talent on that, uh we talked to several several departments that had switched from a 24 or 48 to a 4896.

And uh majority of them did not have any turnover during that time, uh, other than uh some of the people that were going to retire did actually retire, but other than that, they didn't see much turnover.

As far as uh fatigue factor, um, as they said, we had uh we have Kelly days on there, so a majority of the time we're starting the day too short, so a lot of people are already working 48, so we don't really see the effects of it with sleep fatigue, any of that, and it's also helps with our recruitment.

Um a lot of cities within the state of Texas have been switching over to this, and they've seen a positive uh recruitment and retention with switching schedules because with the 2448, when you come on shift, you go home.

I live back out in Ogallala where I grew up, so when I get off shift, I need to run out there.

My aging parents are out there.

48 or 48 hours sometimes isn't long enough, so this will also help with that, along with commute times.

Some of our members work outside of the city.

The um they commute from the 45 mile radius, so that's less time that they spend away from their families, and also the nights at home when we're actually off, goes from 120 to 183 days in a calendar year.

So that's uh benefit for family time, waking up in your own bed, things like that.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, sir, Mr.

Nickerson.

Well, you're up here, Zach.

First of all, this is National First Responders Appreciation Day.

So thank you and all of your colleagues for everything that you do for us.

I saw that we had quite a representation down on Fourth Street tonight as they're having their festival.

I saw a fire engine, I saw some of the police, and it's just a good thing.

So thank you for doing the things that most of us don't know how to do and and wouldn't do a good job of.

So thank you for that.

Thank you guys for all your support.

Uh it really means a lot to us.

So we appreciate that.

So a lot of the questions were answered that I had, but uh I don't know if you can disclose it because this is kind of a could be kind of a culture shock when you're used to doing something a certain way and have for 30 years, and all of a sudden things are turned upside down for a while.

Was the union support overwhelming?

Was it kind of close?

I don't even know if you can disclose that information.

I'm just kind of wondering what you what did you feel within the the group as far as the change?

It was a majority wanted to trial it, and we initially voted for the trial, and then when we had the memorandum of agreement, we presented all the information to the members, and the vote was still the same.

Okay.

So the other thing was answered.

You said this is becoming pretty common.

You talked about Texas and some of this.

So I'm just just was kind of curious because it is a major change, and I know people who work 12-hour shifts, and how that they work so many on and so many off, and but then all of a sudden you've got folks who've been living this way for a long time.

So I'm gonna guess that first month is going to be really a real test it and see how it feels, and then it may take another.

How long was the trial for?

I don't remember.

How long are we going to do this?

Till the end of the uh contract.

Yeah, in 2026.

So next year, okay.

So that's that's quite a length of time.

I'm gonna guess the first month or so is gonna be kind of a get the feel of it and see how it all works and all of that.

But it was just something different.

I just thought it would be good to discuss, and I see Chuck already pulled it off the consent agenda tonight.

But again, we will see how it goes.

I hope everything goes very well for all of you, and again, thank you for all that you and all the colleagues do here.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Um six I is the Hurtman shooting park.

That's your on L.

You're on L.

Sorry.

Six Eye.

Approval of Heartland Public Shooting Park Capital Project Hornaday reimbursement.

Mr.

McCoy.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

City Council.

So Hornaday has been managing the shooting park for the last two years.

This year there's about $696,000 worth of capital projects.

There's four capital projects that were approved in this year's budget out there.

So last year we did this very same thing.

So this gives them this would give finance requires this uh the this resolution to um to act in that same manner this year.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to approve resolution 2025-367.

Mr.

Lanfear.

Second.

Mr.

Hawsey, discussion.

Thank you, Mayor.

So my my question is probably more about procedure, Todd.

One of the one of the challenging things with government projects is just the hurdles you've got to go through to get a contract and the things you have to do.

So when I'm reading this and you're saying we're going to allow Hornaday to manage it, and I'm not having any questions about their management of the facility.

Will they still purchase materials and hire contractors following the City of Grand Island's purchasing agreements, the purchasing code, get getting the sales tax exempt status, all of all of the above.

I mean, are they still checking every box that we would if you were doing it?

And and I don't have anybody from the finance department here.

I don't know.

I don't know.

It'd be yeah, Pat's not here today.

Um so I don't know if I answer that question.

They would work directly with the finance department, submit their receipts.

They were getting quotes, I know last year.

Um I don't know that they would go through a formal bid process because we actually have to manage a formal bid process.

You know, when it's if it's anything over fifty thousand dollars, we actually the city manages a formal bid process, so I don't know if I have a great answer for you, Chuck, because that does just like I said, I I'm not the finance department.

I I I'm in yeah, I'm in favor of having Hornaday do it, and my issue is all about the procedural parts is that I don't want to go a month or two months down the road and and have a request for reimbursement that has sales tax on it.

I'm not gonna reimburse the sale, you know.

It's like these are public funds, and in order to manage public funds, there are certain requirements under the state law that we have to do.

And even if we let a private person do it, they still have to follow the same laws we have to follow.

So there's no exemption for them to do anything other than what we have to do.

It's hard for somebody in the private sector to follow government rules.

You know, and and as I'm sure our legal staff can tell you, they review all the contracts, they review all these things prior to you going out to and saying, yeah, let's go ahead and do this.

I think it's the challenge, and I just want to make sure that we're all up to the challenge and everybody understands you still got to follow all the government procurement rules in order to be reimbursed.

Totally agree.

I would say I would say that uh like I said the finance department would handle that, and then if uh they have any you know follow-up, maybe they could follow up with you, but okay.

But that that was it, Todd.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted six R approving golf management contracting.

Thank you, Mayor.

So landscapes um unlimited has been managing the golf course for the last five years, and so we have had a five-year agreement, so that agreement was coming to an end, and so we did go back out for an RFP j uh just like we did five years ago.

Um, and we got a great proposal from landscapes again.

And so basically, we are happy to recommend or landscapes unlimited for another five years.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we approve 2025-376.

Second.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

So Todd, five years ago, when we went through the RFP process, five years ago, one of the things that we wanted to do was to try to get the golf course operating on a break-even basis.

They don't need to make any money.

So the question is is how successful were we in the first five years of getting at a revenue neutral or breakeven basis?

And what are our goals in the next five years?

So good questions.

But again, the city, you know, and from I'll I'll tell you from a parks and rec standpoint, you know, not all parks and recreation facilities are gonna make money, they're not gonna be moneymakers, but we want to try to keep that gap as small as we can.

And if we can get to a you know a positive cash flow, that's even better.

So I I think we're offering a great product uh you know, product right now with the golf course.

But um, but again, I think that's probably the the biggest goal, and probably you know, I don't know that we're actually uh you know demanding a cash flow at this point.

Well, I think you know, I'll just try to go back 45 years ago when the golf course first came in in the in the 70s.

Uh I think we operated for most of those years on a break-even basis, and when we made a little bit of money, we were able to reinvest the excess into the we never took any money out of it.

We were able to reinvest the excess into whatever capital improvements they wanted to make, whether they wanted to add a sand trap or whatever they were doing, and then I think prior to landscapes being here the first in the five years ago, we had some capital projects that really cost money, and then we also we had about a decade I would say that we were trickling out money, and then we had some capital projects, I think maybe around 300,000.

And so we had to put in inject a lot of tax money into making the thing work.

So the goal here was to try can we get it back exclusive of maybe capital projects.

Can you tell me uh what the subsidy is, the the tax subsidy is to make it break even for last year for next year.

I mean, can you give me any where we're at and how much where we're close to that, or because I think we have operated on a break-even basis most of the last 40 years now, but for a capital major capital projects that are unforeseeable, I think from by most people's standards.

Are we there?

You know, how close are we?

Well, I I mean I don't have the exact numbers in front of me today, and I probably we should have probably pulled those for you, Chuck.

But uh, I know that um we were operating at about a sixty thousand dollar a year deficit.

What is probably a it's probably a pretty close number.

Um, again, you know, I and and I could maybe defer to the landscapes folks just because they're dealing with that day to day, they could probably give give you some some better numbers of where we're at today, but I don't have that in front of me.

I'm supportive of the contract and I'm supporting of landscapes.

I just want to know where we're going for the next five years, so I can have a plan that I know that we're either gonna be at a break-even or maybe we're gonna need to subsidize 60,000 a year.

In the subsidy business, we used to have to subsidize youth, all youth activities didn't never pay for themselves, but adult activities generally did.

And so that was the difference, Todd.

I would say over the years is that we have always subsidized youth activities.

Uh adult activities, we've actually tried to make them break even.

And that was kind of like the difference in the between the water park, for example.

So if anybody wants to address it at all, or I think this gentleman here does, sir.

If you wish to uh respond, please state your name when you get to the microphones.

Thanks, Todd.

Uh, my name is Justin Arlt, and I'm with landscapes golf management on Lincoln, Nebraska.

Um love to entertain the answering uh uh councilman's question there.

Uh the last five years essentially, the high water mark for a cash infusion was 125,000.

The low uh infusion was zero.

So we're under about a hundred thousand average over our previous five years managing.

However, one key element that's very impactful is we now have a capital fleet program, and that capital fleet program for the majority of the agronomy equipment, golf cars, and high-level expenses are now in the budget and expensed, and they are paid for through operations to a substantial amount.

So, in my opinion, if you compare what we did the last five years, and by the way, that's just the foundation.

We we feel like we can do better, and we will do better in this next five years.

Uh, it's substantially better than the previous five years of information we were able to evaluate compare and contrast, and if we wanted to take a deeper dive, we certainly would be more than than welcome to furnish some more information for everybody to digest as needed.

Okay, thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted 6S approving venue works Heartland Event Center Operations funding request.

Car water, good evening.

Glad to be here.

Um there specific questions you'd like me to answer, or how would we like to address this?

Uh why don't you just give us an overview of what what you're asking for, if that's okay?

We were actually asking for the um the support payment of 200,000 as part of part of the occupancy tax, the annual $500,000 occupancy tax that has gone to the event center historically and going forward.

Thank you, sir.

I see we have a motion by Mr.

O'Neill.

Please proceed, Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we approve 2025-377.

And Mr.

Hawsey.

I'll second that motion.

And discussion by Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

So, Kyler, thank you for uh bringing this forward.

But what we I was just looking at your letter, and it shows that in the first in the operating year-to-date actual, we're down about six hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars.

Now, the city is contributing five hundred thousand through the lodging tax to help support that.

What's the plan on the on that delta, the gap between the six hundred and sixty-five and the five hundred, because somebody's money is at other 165,000.

And and and the the summary is um it's it's not as good as we would like.

I mean, the goal was to break even with that 500,000 in support.

Um, we're gonna fall a little bit short of that this year.

Um, there are a lot of reasons you've heard me spiel about several of them, you know, with some um unexpected expenses, and along with that, you know, when the freezer went down, we lost an amount of food and things like that.

So there have been some losses that were certainly unanticipated.

Um, but we also were working from a an original budget that was um a best guess to a degree based on some of our other facilities, and and we really didn't have a history here on the ATC and what it could and couldn't do, and um with our management style and the way we kind of drive the business.

So um there were a lot of unknowns on the front end.

Um, but I think we will end up a little short from where we really uh were hoping to be.

Um, and right now that variance is about what, 200 or about 1 change?

165.

Thank you.

Um it's changed.

And and I wish I had some uh wonderful news to say we're gonna clean that up.

And but unfortunately, um the um the state fair came in a little um softer than what I had planned, as far as you know, that's that's four straight concerts in an arena and ten days of events going on in the arena.

We anticipated that to be a pretty strong return on our investment, especially in the food and beverage side of things.

Um I've got a couple little interesting tidbits just to share.

So when I talk about we didn't really expect to see the type of return that we did on that kind of profit range, um it was it was surprising to a degree that um um I think we were all a little bit floored, but just to give you some examples.

You know, per person that comes in, that's how much you make on it.

Um for the Matthew West concert, which was our highest selling food and beverage night, the average was $4.40 per cap, which is about a bottle of water per.

So it was not a really heavy crowd, but that was our highest sales as far as actual um food and beverage revenue goes.

Um on the righteous brothers, a sellout crowd, our per cap was a dollar 74.

Um so putting in that perspective, we didn't plan on that.

At the low end, we anticipated $10.

That's kind of that low end threshold.

It just wasn't quite returning the way that we planned.

Um for the craft show, we sold $16.50 worth of food for the two days of craft show.

Um and those were kind of the ones that really just jumped out.

Um ironically, the Marshall Tucker band, which didn't sell that well, it was probably $1,200 in attendance.

The per caps for the Marshall Tucker band were $13.33.

So we actually did better on one that was poor, poorly attended versus the Righteous Brothers, which was packed.

And I do have a theory on that too about the Righteous Brothers.

It's the first concert I've ever done that's at two in the afternoon.

So I think I'm I'm actually aggressively looking at some other options to try to target that um that older demographic and have an afternoon concert that we wouldn't necessarily go after in in traditional kind of concerts.

Um the pattern is not typically to have a two a 2 p.m.

concert.

But seeing that turnout, what I want to find out now is was that a result of the state fair and everybody being in town, or is it something that the older uh the older folks in town actually want to see some afternoon type concerts?

We didn't make a whole lot of money on the food and beverage, but it was a great show, a great show for the community, and it was really fun to watch.

I mean, it was surprisingly fun to watch.

Um so I think those are some of the things that feed into that.

And like I say, I wish I had some magic to say, hey, we can fix it this year, we can't.

But what I do want to do is uh um speak a little bit of the magic, which I think is really the main reason that they brought venue works in.

Um and I'll just run through these because um, you know, a lot of the attention has been focused on the ice hockey rank.

Are you gonna get ice?

Are we gonna do this?

And um, I think a lot of the other things have been missed.

But between now and the end of March, May, May roughly, we have 10 new confirmed events and or concerts that are confirmed and actually going to happen in addition to what everything else is at the HEC has been.

So we're still having Globetrotters, we're still having cheer and dance, we're still having Heartland Hoops and all those sort of things.

But these 10 are in addition to what we have done before.

And and the history that I've seen that they've averaged about one to four concerts a year at the HEC prior to this.

In this seven-month span, we have a total of ten new events, and I'll just run through them real quick.

Um December 13th, we have Lone Star and College, uh, Lone Star and Colin Ray Christmas Show.

December 16th, we have Lindsay Sterling Christmas Show.

No one should miss this show, I'm telling you, tell everyone it's a it's a fantastic show.

Um January 31st, we have Scotty McCreary.

January 17th, we have uh a confirmed motorsports event that I can't tell you yet.

Um just this really isn't announced yet, but I can tell you between uh February 4th and 7th, we have an indoor demolition derby.

Um the place that I came from was the Stormont Velas event center in Topeka.

And during this four-day demolition derby indoor, they literally sold two semi-load trucks worth of bush light beer.

That's not counting other food and other beer, two semi-uh trucks of bushlight beer.

We're bringing the Cornhusker Chaos, which has been an outdoor event in the Buffalo County, I believe, here to an indoor event.

And there's something about the indoor event that just it's a crazy time.

And 85% of the revenue that comes in from that particular event is from out of state from Canada to California.

Um so that's one of those events.

Then we have on the 12th of February, we have Three Dog Night, Ambrosia and John Ford Coley.

Um, March 3rd, we have In Munc that we've confirmed.

Um I wish I could tell you about this one, but I can't say the name yet.

But on March 7th, we've confirmed a pro sports event that will be well received by this community.

Um Saturday uh the 27th, we have another concert that we've confirmed, another good one that we'll announce really soon.

Um and the last one that we have confirmed is another Pro Sports uh announcement that will have a total of of four events associated with that.

So these are 10 brand new events that we've not seen here before.

Um sales are fairly strong on some.

I'd like to see go up quicker, um, and hopefully that will change pretty quickly.

But uh the real summary of all this rambling is um it's not necessarily that I'm concerned about our um our ability to bring in revenue and manage the money to a point of of uh break even slash profitability.

Um it's uh it's really an issue of cash flow.

And um what we've done personally, and and Chelsea's my our director of finance, um, but our whole team were a team of six people basically.

I've been kind of covering that piece and using Spencer for some of the assistance, and um we've intentionally not hired to try to offset some of that loss based on some of the challenges we've had in our first year.

So we're doing everything on our end to kind of keep those costs low, just like you would do for a personal personal budget, you know.

Honey, don't spend as much this week at uh at Dillard's, you know, um, or actually speaking to me probably.

Um, but we've done our best to keep the cost low and the labor where we can, but uh but uh some of the early losses with F and B losses and the food losses and some of the unexpected expenses really hit us pretty hard.

So we figured that the state fair would help us recover, but we didn't reap quite the benefit we thought we would.

Okay, well, thank you, Kyler.

I I have absolutely noticed the additional concerts and the initial events.

So I think that that has been a great improvement uh to the community.

So I think that's been doing well.

From what's on our agenda tonight, it's the 200,000 plus 30,000 a month for the next 10 months.

So this is the only time in the next this year that you will be in front of the council for this kind of purpose.

And so this is my one time in the year that I have an opportunity to talk about it as a council member.

And so I wanted to just kind of bring it up because there is a delta that we're trying to cover, and and what I don't want to do is what I'd like to probably see is I'd like to probably see some updates throughout the year.

How we how are we doing?

And and you know, I don't know what format that comes in, but uh if if somehow we can see how we're doing, because I don't want to go down the road another year and say, well, we have a 330,000 dollar delta, what do we do?

That's where I'm just this is the opportunity to say what's the plan.

I've heard your plan.

I I I love the concert, so uh I look forward to every all the things you're bringing to the community, Kyler.

So thank you very much.

Mr.

Nickerson Find it interesting to hear your analysis on everything that's happened.

So I think it's it's good that you're into the weeds on that to understand what's going on.

And I agree this first year is kind of a uh it's just a trial by error.

You gotta you gotta just guess.

So it is exactly guess.

So I understand that.

So you know you've got many, many months under your belt.

The two things that really drive your revenue, you indicated is the attendance to the events, and then of course food and beverage, those are two big things.

And you stated you've had some disappointment in the turnout at some of the events.

Those events that occur during the state fair, are those events recruited by the state fair, or is it in conjunction with you and the state fairs you're looking for for these events to come in through the state fair, period?

State fair recruits those on their own.

Yeah, so it seems to me I've always been probably more disappointed than not, and I'm guilty because I don't attend events.

That's just not something I do.

But I'm I've always been disappointed by the turnout of a lot of events that we do have here.

Because uh, and these are some good named stars that come in, and I and I've always been surprised.

They're not sold out.

I mean, these type of things, you just think when you only have what 7,000 seats or something in an arena like that.

Max it out, we can get close to seven, but typically if sellouts are about 54 to 5500.

Yeah, you just think that the area that we pull from, and these events, unless they're happening within a hundred miles or two hundred miles of us, you would think that they would draw people in, people that like to go to events like that.

When we look at what the state fair is trying to recruit, do you see that becoming more of a joint venture on to where you say, let's see what those that people really want?

I know I know the state fair is trying to guess what people really want.

You're trying to guess what people really want.

Understanding what they really want, I'm not sure how we get to that point because you want those events to where they will hit that 4,000, 5,000 mark, because they happen once a year here, once over once every many years, and you just think you would draw bigger crowds.

So I'm just kind of curious your thoughts on that.

How do you how do you how do you do that process?

Because you're also talking about the marketing part of it.

Well, it's a it's it's kind of like forecasting, and you know, if you could ever figure out exactly the real recipe, we'd all be beyond wealthy.

It's just it's really challenging.

And um, when you take into consideration we have a population of roughly 55,000 here.

So if we have 5500 people in our arena, that means 10% of our population had to turn out for that concert to fill the house just based on Grand Island uh demographics.

So the real takeaway there from a marketing perspective is how do we get Carney?

How do we get the students out of Kearney to come here instead of waiting for something to come to the Vieiro Center, for example?

Uh same with Hastings, you know, how do we get them to pay attention to what we're promoting here?

And a lot of that does have to do with some of the um overall marketing uh efforts to get people uh to make sure they're aware of the events, you know.

You know, that younger demographic, um, they're not watching TV anymore.

My kids make fun of me that I still watch TV.

They don't watch TV, they watch their phones, social media, and TikTok and everything else.

So finding those little ends to that particular demographic is a big key.

Um another big key is um Lindsay Sterling's a big victory for our town.

Um, you know, there's only 23 stops, and we are the names on the list are Vegas, Houston, Colorado Springs, and Grand Island, Nebraska.

Getting that kind of talent can pull people.

People will come from Omaha to see Lindsay Sterling's Christmas show.

It's fantastic.

It's a it's a big draw.

How are those sales going so far?

Um I think we're at 1,700 sales right now against 5500, so it's pretty strong.

Um we uh and part of that flows with the marketing.

You know, when we make an announcement, a non-sale announcement, you'll see a big spike right off the bat, then you'll see it feather down again.

Um we are timing our next round of marketing to target the Black Friday, um, that kind of window of time when people be home for the holidays.

So you'll see another spike in sales then.

Then you'll see it drop down, and then about two weeks prior to uh Lindsay Sterling will do another marketing push, and you'll see that third push.

So there's these little peaks and valleys of of how you market and how you get it out there.

So it's an art, it's a lot of fun, it's really stressful at times, um, and and you can't always crack the code.

Um, but we have uh we have a good young staff that that runs things, and just to give you one more example about how we turn a potentially quote bad show into a good one.

Um, for Kansas, we understood that it wasn't sold as never near as what we thought it would sell.

We sold about 1200 tickets.

So our team instantly grabbed, went into kind of crisis mode, and okay, because now we have to worry about an empty building for a show, and it's just not a good and it's just not a great show.

So everybody, all of our six employees really figured out how to condense these the crowd down.

We took floor to ceiling curtains and kind of moved them in, literally had to take people that were had seats over here, give them new seats, day of show, move them inside, and you kind of pressed them in, kind of like what we do in church sometimes, you know.

Everybody come forward.

And um, and I I bring that up because being disappointed with the turnout from that show.

After the show, Ronnie Platt, the lead singer of Kansas, was walking by and grabbed me and said, Man, what a great show.

The crowd was out there, they were they were so alive and alert, and it was just packed out there.

What a great show.

So Ronnie Platt walked away from here going, what a great place to play.

I had a great time, it was a great responsive crowd, and it was a terrible show as far as attendance numbers go.

So some of those things we do to fix that particular concert, but it bleeds into the promoters.

Now he goes out and tells his promoter, what a great show.

Other promoters start going, oh, Grand Island's pretty cool, we can go there.

So that word of mouth starts to spread.

So all those extra efforts that really aren't necessary to change the revenue numbers during that Kansas show are necessary as part of our marketing plan to build throughout the promoter network.

So well, I I just again have just been disappointed in the results.

Again, I'm guilty because I don't go, so you're not getting my dollar.

You may get my dollar for this Lindsey Sterling, though.

It sounds like I will probably be putting my name in the hat for that one.

But it just seems like if if there's some kind of collaboration between the state fair and you when you're trying because they're handing you an event.

It's like here you go, and you don't know whether they're their name might be recognizable, but it's like it's your baby now.

We've got them in here.

It just seems like it'd be nice if there was a joint effort saying, kind of let's work together on what can we bring into the state fair that we all think is going to be good, uh, and just see how that success goes instead of having this group over here working to let you run the, you know, you get to manage the event, but they're picking the names.

It'd just be nice to see some kind of synergy there where that would help on those those days.

What's also seems odd is that the state fair was the one of the best weather state fairs we've had that I can remember in forever.

And you would just think, although tenants was good at the fair that wasn't good at the events.

So we've got to have the things that people want to go to, and I know that's exactly what what your goal is.

But I think I will probably be looking at tickets for Lindsay Sterling.

I think you got me convinced that uh.

This is not me being biased saying, yeah, definitely be at Lindsay.

It's a great, it's a show that normally doesn't come to a town of our size.

Yeah, and I would encourage everybody that you know that's watching tonight and that may hear about this that of course we need to support the event center.

Don't follow my examples just because I'm kind of an old boring guy, but the rest of you aren't boring.

I'm gonna add this too, um Carly Schultz and um Jamie Parr over at the state fair.

We have a good working relationship, we talk to them quite a bit.

Um we do bounce ideas off each other, so we are working on that kind of uh good working relationship to do that.

And I want to make sure that I I bring this up too.

It's not just that they brought in events.

Matthew West and um the Righteous Brothers sold great.

It was just not a heavy food crowd, but involved in that too is that the state fair is going on outside.

So you can either go into the arena and grab a hamburger, or you can go out and get a fried twinkie or something else.

And we made the decision this year to allow them to bring food into the event center because it wasn't pre-told, they weren't pre-warned that they couldn't bring their food in.

So I think that probably has a little bit of an impact on the the food and beverage sales.

But on our end, something that we can do better is it's state fair time.

We shouldn't just be selling hamburgers and hot dogs.

We should be selling a state fair.

We should have some special food and special beverages built to make that uh a viable option instead of grabbing that corn dog as they're coming in.

Wait, and let's get that super uh our food and beverage guy, uh Luke Fairbanks created this um hamburger that had uh literally every kind of meat on it you could thank and cheese for our skating event.

It was a great it was uh it felt like a heartburn on a plate for sure, but it was something special for that event.

I think we can do a better job of becoming more of the um a part of the state fair instead of just saying, hey, it didn't sell well.

So Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

Um boy, you said a lot that I could comment on about marketing.

That's kind of you.

It's kind of a jam.

Um and having worked on marketing concerts in that building for the state fair.

Uh there's a lot that goes into that.

So uh I do want you to be biased.

I want you to tell everybody it's the greatest show.

I don't care who it is, uh, please be biased and and get people there.

Um little history, just so you know, the older Nebraskans show is never going to sell a lot of beer, it's always going to be at two o'clock.

Uh and people will come from all over that day because the whole fairgrounds is older Nebraskans that day.

Uh it's the cheapest show they put on.

Uh the tickets are the cheapest.

It's a thank you.

So I was surprised it was a dollar each.

Um they line up, they sit down, they watch the show, and they leave.

Uh, and then you're not gonna sell out of beer at the Christian show, right?

Like you probably already know that by now.

Um my question is on the shows throughout the year.

Do you see making incremental revenue over time?

You're adding lots of shows.

I'm with Chuck.

Man, every time you announce a show, I'm impressed.

Just not just in the quality, but the the number uh and the variety has been great.

Do you see yourself just chipping away and making incrementally a little bit more here and there to make this up?

And if so, is it the number of shows going to do that?

Is there a tipping point of Mitch can't get everybody to be there every time?

You know, you say five thousand people.

Well, that's only 10% of our but I ain't going ten times, 12 times, 14 times.

So what is what is your thoughts on that?

No, there's a lot in there to even pack all of that.

Um, you know, the answer is yes.

Um we do believe that we're going to um add incremental um improvements to the revenue for a lot of different reasons.

One is um you know by all of by having all of these announcements, and as you know, we we target them to come out on certain days and to time out with the on-sale dates and things like that.

But the more that we have, the more we're giving the general population a reason to go check our website.

If we're only having one a concert a year or two concerts a year in State Fair, they might check it around state fair time and here and there, but they're not actively thinking, oh, let's see if there's a concert going on at the event center.

Now, when they're seeing all these concerts, if they're sitting around on a Saturday and they're going, I wonder if they got anything at the event center.

Odds are pretty darn good.

There's something at the event center.

So you're almost mentally retraining people to actually use the um event center website as a resource for what am I gonna do on Saturday night?

We have those kind of options now.

So in the long term, I think that will generate more attention to the website, which will generate more attention naturally for um people to understand what concerts going on.

Um the other thing is we can get better.

Um, you know, um we have four individual concession stands in our in our building.

One of them has always everybody seen that plastic that they had on the gate, it's covered it for the last I think forever for the most part.

It's never been opened.

But that's where we bought the new um fla fryer and the grill and um a lot of the food prep to actually create food there instead of it being pre and warmed up, you know, we can actually cook food now.

That hasn't been opened yet.

And it is a physiological fact that when you smell a burger cooking, the odds of you buying that burger just went way up.

When you don't smell it, you'll just walk right on by.

So even making that little subtle change of them walking through the uh concourse going, something smells really good.

Um I'm a sucker to that.

I know that.

Um that's that's another place that we can change.

Plus getting better with the service, and um as people get used to the fact that we put bars out and then our grab and go stations and our concession stands.

There really is no reason for people to walk away because they were in line for 20 minutes.

They're usually getting their food within three to seven minutes.

So those things will grow as we continue to grow the business.

Very good.

I uh I look forward to seeing more of what you're doing, and hopefully uh I agree with Chuck.

I'd like to see a maybe quarterly, we can arrange it for you to come and give an update on how close we are at chipping away at that, and also build a little bit more excitement uh for some of the shows.

I'd love to do that.

Pro sports, man.

I want to I want to hear more about that.

If it's what you were hinting at when you talked to me a while ago, then I'm excited.

I I really wanted to tell you a couple of things now, but I can't yet.

So there's some exciting news that's coming up.

Very good.

Well, thank you for the variety, and and thanks for coming and sharing.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

Resolution 7A, approving amendment number three to engineering consulting services for State Street, Deers Avenue improvements.

Mr.

Kurtz.

Good evening.

Um tonight before you is a resolution to amend our uh engineering contract.

This is for State Street.

Um essentially from Claude Road to Webb Road.

Um, we're looking for additional topo survey, uh, final design.

A good share of this is right-of-way negotiations, getting necessary easements and uh right-away that we need for the project.

Again, you guys on South Locust probably recall how many different parcels we had to go through to acquire to build that road and some public involvement.

Uh the proposed contract amendment is 310,800.

Motion, Mr.

Shub.

Thank you.

I move that we approve item 7A.

Mr.

Brown.

I second that motion.

Mr.

Shear discussion.

Thank you.

Um I think this is the we've we've talked about this a lot.

I'm excited about it.

The one thing that I will implore you on this one, and I've we've talked about it before, is just overcommunicating with everybody involved about what it's gonna be throughout the process.

Um can you identify some of those right-aways that you're talking about needing to purchase?

So this map I have doesn't specifically show exactly what right-of-way we're looking at, but I can assure you that we're gonna need temporary easements and some permanent easements along the corridor.

One of the major things I wanted to speak about too is just the extent of the project.

So earlier um during budget season, we had talked about a budget for this whole project of approximately two million dollars.

As we got further into design, a couple things kind of came to light.

One, um, as you can see, we're we're addressing east of 281.

Uh, originally we were not totally anticipating that, but once we get further into design, um, one State Street is the only major road east of 281, other than Fadeley, which hasn't been expanded yet, that doesn't have a median in the middle of the road.

Um we're putting a median on the on the west side of the road.

We kind of need to line those things up.

There's some uh storm sewer culvert work on the 281 ditch that came to light during the flooding uh this spring that we need to address, so we need to tear that up anyway.

Um it kind of made for a I don't know if I want to say perfect situation, but we felt like we needed to address that at this time and made sense.

Um so the overall project budget has grown since what we proposed uh earlier this budget season.

Uh with that being said, we're anticipating Locust Street, maybe going a little slower and stretching into fiscal year 27.

So I I think most of the funds will be there.

We'll just have to shift them around.

But I wanted to make you aware that the extent of the project has has gone up from the original two million dollar budget to almost four.

Um, the other thing that we need to address or that we're looking to address is originally we kind of thought maybe we could salvage some of the paving out here uh and add some of the medians without disturbing everything.

Um there's a lot of ASR, which is um concrete degradation based on the materials used in the concrete.

Um, and so again, when we start looking at replacing some of the panels or part of the roadway, does it really make sense to do it all if we're gonna disrupt everything?

Um so that's kind of adding to it as well.

Again, I just wanted to make you guys aware that this scope has changed a little bit in that regard.

Um, you know, hopefully we'll get the majority of the work done this fiscal year, it will stretch into 27 as well.

Um, but again, everyone along here in some way will be affected with temporary easements at a minimum.

Again, part of this amendment is to meet with individual property owners affected directly by the corridor.

We've also started um talking about how do we get the word out to people beyond just right on the roadway.

Um, you know, whether it be websites, press releases, those kind of things to make them aware that people will have to get to different businesses differently for a while uh while we're working on the area.

So all of those things are being considered um throughout this process.

Good.

I bring up South Locusts.

I've had some folks that work down there, and I think this message is probably gotten to you that it hasn't uh gone for those businesses as well as maybe we were anticipating.

Uh I just don't want to see that here, and some of these are gonna be not temporarily changed, but permanently changed as the case with say Wendy's and and is that taco bell yes access is gonna change permanently.

So just being very, very clear and open on the process and the long-term vision.

Yeah, some of the the access like you're you're saying is is true.

Uh we're gonna we're gonna affect the patterns.

Um the the construction process is a different thing.

You know, on South Locust, there was some factors on that as far as there was some weather delays, we had some water main issues.

You know, there's always unfortunately something that we try to anticipate as good as we can that kind of goes a different way.

So, yeah, all of those things are are brought into the picture when we look at a project like this.

Is that trail going to extend full width across there?

It kind of does now, but oh like in front of all the way down to almost McDonald's.

Is that gonna be trail width or just sidewalk?

So that we're not looking at anticipating any changes beyond uh the bank here on the corner.

Um everything west of there will essentially remain the same as what it is today.

We go through that intersection twice a day, uh, usually.

I've been shocked.

Not that one, the the 281.

Yeah, that one.

I've been shocked at how much I see people walking across there as pedestrians has grown extremely high compared to what it was even five years ago.

And I think as we now have walking distance to a target there, uh that's just something to keep in mind and the amount of foot traffic from over uh west of there coming through.

So, as you can see, we're setting it up for crosswalks, which the one currently does exist today.

Some of them don't have access to other sidewalks on the all of that would be improved with all these projects.

13th Street, which was on the consent agenda, similar situation.

We're gonna improve those as well for that very reason.

We know people are using all of these uh crossings more than more than ever.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted 7B approving bid award for island OASIS water park improvements.

Mr.

McCoy.

Thank you, Mayor.

So a couple years ago we did a facility evaluation and master plan at Island Oasis.

Um council probably recalls it.

Um the council members that that have been here.

Um, the results from that master plan we put together a concept um to remodel the water park.

Um that concept included a new wave pool, leisure pool, remodeling the bathhouse, uh, remodeling the concessions, a new splash pad area, and a mini golf area.

Um so again, we budgeted this year um to uh make that project a reality.

So we did go out for bids.

Um we did receive two bids.

Um the low bid came from Sheel Caton of Lincoln, Nebraska.

The their bid was 13 million one hundred ninety-six thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars, and we recommend approval.

Thank you, Mr.

McCoy.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we approve 2025-379.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I second the motion.

Discussion, Mr.

Nickerson.

Sure.

So Todd, is this the project that was being anticipated to be around 15 million dollars?

And so we've really seen a nice improvement on that.

We got really good prices.

We were very happy.

Um it was we actually budgeted 15.9 million dollars, being very conservative.

You know, this is uh about 13.2 million dollars that we're awarding today.

I mean, we do understand there will be some contingency there.

There'll probably be some some things that come up or whatever, but we did get very good numbers.

Very pleasant surprise.

Do you still think this could be on track to be completed by next season?

No.

Um it's gonna slide.

It's it's gonna be an 18-month project.

So what we're gonna they're gonna get started.

Um we're kind of leaving up to the contractor just a little bit, but so one thing they could do is the mini golf right away and the splash pad and then leave the pool alone.

One of the things that we are requiring them to do is not impact the swimming this next summer, so we will have swimming next summer.

So um they could in theory um renovate the wave pool and then get that done and have a new wave pool.

We're gonna leave that up to the contractor a little bit, but our requirement of them is to have it completely done before the 2028 season.

So we'll see some work this this year already, but it won't be complete.

But the mini golf will be a priority, it sounds like it'll be a priority.

Again, we're gonna leave it up to the contractor a little bit.

So um we'll we'll we will have the mini golf by 2028 for sure, or this summer.

So we'll we'll see how it goes.

Very good.

All right, well, pleasant surprise.

Thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted ordinance eight, a consideration of amending Grand Island City Code sections two-eighteen and two-21 relative to city council and mayor compensation.

Let's start off first.

Is there a motion to suspend the statutory rules regarding ordinances?

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to suspend the statutory rules.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second the motion.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mr.

Schmidt, please present.

Thank you.

So the ordinance in front of you would adjust uh is a proposal to adjust council pay.

Uh Grand Island City Code Chapter 2 addresses council pay and mayor pay.

Um the last adjustment was back in 2014 when it was set at $7800 for council.

Uh we did a survey of the non-union group, and when we do that, we include uh council and and mayor classifications.

And based on the survey results, um, we're not recommending a change to the mayor compensation that appears to be in line, but um we are recommending a adjustment to council pay, and if we go to the midpoint of the survey results, that would be ten thousand three hundred and ninety dollars.

Along with that, we would suggest a uh CPI similar to what we did with the non-union group this year of three percent.

That would bring the annual number to ten thousand seven hundred and one dollars.

And uh with the proposed change that would um take effect that'd be effective with the seating of the next city council, and along with that, we would also recommend that the CPI uh be an ongoing item in in that so um rather than need to make adjustments ad hoc, we could we could build in that CPI factor.

Now, of course, we'll still do um non-union surveys, and if there if there's a disparagement there, we can address that at that time, but at least building in the CPI factor so that that that number adjusts.

So we would do that every two years.

So say, for example, the years one and two we did non-union three percent each year.

Um, then that second year we would adjust that.

We wouldn't adjust the first year for council, but that second year to go along with that seating, we would do we'd factor in six percent increase.

Uh same idea for the mayor's just over same idea, but four-year period.

So that's the proposal in front of you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Sheard, thank you.

I move that we approve item eight a Mr.

O'Neill.

I second the motion.

Mr.

Hossey, discussion.

Thank you, Mayor.

Having sat on the council a long time, you know, we've been this will be 12 years between the last two times.

And between December of twenty two thousand one and December of 2012, there was another 11-year stretch where actually nothing happened.

Personally, I think that there one of two things is right.

You know, none none of the towns in our ray do nothing pay the council nothing.

Is that but in the community, I think one of two things either you pay the council something that attracts talent, the talent, same talent we're missing in, you know, looking for in our organization.

We need the same talent on the council.

You know, uh the school board has zero pay.

Like, you know, and other I think zero pay would get you talent.

I think zero pay would only people who want to serve have a desire to serve would serve.

Or I think in the case of all of our array, everybody does something.

So I think this is the best of the two choices.

Um, but I do think that conceptually, I think if you paid them not that paid the council nothing, you would have nothing but people who wanted to serve.

And it does exist in Grand Island.

Uh it's it's probably still not even half of what the county board makes, but their government's different as well.

You know, and so it's just the way the government is.

But you do spend a lot of time answering constituents' calls.

But the key thing for me in this vote is to we need talent amongst these 10 people that are on this council.

We need people who pick up their phones when the citizen calls.

You know, we need council members who just reach out to staff and say and help facilitate.

We we don't fix anything, but we help facilitate a lot.

And almost everybody that's been on a council has some reason, some motivator, you know, for them to be here.

And the motivator isn't gonna be money, it's got to be some public service, it's gotta be something that makes you want to be here and answer that phone and and then pick up the call, and I'll call some city staff member or city administrator and have them fix things.

And that's you know, I've been doing it for a long time.

Um I just want talented people up here on the council because I think our best votes are when 10 people are engaged in the conversation.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Ordinance A B consideration of approving salary ordinance.

Is there a motion to suspend the statutory rules?

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move to suspend the rules.

Mr.

Brown.

I second that motion.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mr.

Schmidt.

Thank you.

Well, by pulling the MOU earlier, that makes us this one easier to present.

So this is just the change to the wages to reflect the MOU that you passed earlier tonight.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we uh approve item 8B.

Mr.

Brown.

I second that motion.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

8C.

Consideration of approving the amendment to the Grand Island Firefighters Retirement System Plan and Trust.

Is there a motion?

Uh Mr.

O'Neill.

I move to suspend the rules.

Mr.

Lanfear.

Second.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mr.

Schmidt, please present.

Thank you.

This might be the most I've ever presented at a council meeting before.

Uh this the next two items actually uh reflect statutory changes to the police and fire and uh retirement systems.

Uh the first one in front of you is the fire fire uh fighters retirement system, and the the main thing it's capturing is the change in contribution rates.

So this would amend the increased contribution rates from six and a half percent to twelve point seven percent for the firefighter between twenty twenty four and twenty twenty-six, it increases city contributions from thirteen to fifteen percent over the same period.

Thank you.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we approve item eight C.

Mr.

Landfair.

All right, second.

Mr.

Hossey, discussion, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

So Aaron, I I did look up the statutes, and this this exact I don't know what the motivation was other than they probably need more money in the pension bucket.

Um but it going from six and a half percent, which I think we've been at for the last dozen years or so, uh to 12.7 percent, that's a lot from the employee side.

And again, from the 13 percent match to the 15 percent on the employer side.

Uh having worked in the private sector, if I put in five percent, my employer put in two and a half, and so this is significantly uh better than what my private sector employer was.

Um, but still at the end of the days, I don't I don't know how you know what the calculus was with the legislature.

But when I was looking at that, one of the differences between this one, the fire and the and the police, the fire department used to be exempt from social security, so they weren't part of the social security system, so that's why the numbers were larger, because in Social Security, you contribute 7.65, and your employer contributes 7.65.

You know, so the numbers on the fire department were larger because of that.

Is it still that way where the fire department is not subject to social security?

Yes, sir.

Correct.

So that that accounts for the you know this the larger numbers.

So I just had one question.

Um Article 2.3 in the fire plan, and it's probably the same in the police, but I'll just gonna talk about it on the fire.

Article 2.3 on page 273 of the packet.

Umnuity, the four there was four check marks for X's on single sum annuity, straight life annuity, straight life annuity with a guarantee of 60 months, and annuity payable for life of the participant, and annuity to surviving beneficiary of 175 or 50 as selected by the city.

Uh the first three, I think I've seen in the fire plan for the last 40 years.

So I think the first three are the same numbers we had on how we calculated like pre-84 lump sum benefits.

Do we have any or many pre-84s still in the plan?

None.

So there's none still in the plan.

So this is isn't used for determining a lump sum benefit.

Correct.

So in the number four, which I don't remember seeing before.

So an annuity payable for the life of the participant and an annuity of the surviving spouse at 175 or 50 as elected by the city.

Why would why would the city elect that one?

Why wouldn't the participant elect as how would he want to take care of his spouse?

I was just trying, I was a little.

But the fourth one, I was just curious as to why the city would care because I would think it would be the participant who would like to choose how to divide and conquer for his family.

I think historically we would just present it as the totals total amounts if it was a million dollars, and that was a single life annuity, and then if they they elected you know the joint and survivor, that there was the lesser options.

I'm be honest with you, I'm not familiar with the 75% one.

So what used to happen is and we'll just use simple numbers.

If you would go through and you would be retirement, and you would be you would be entitled to a thousand dollar a month pension, whatever that number is.

You could elect to cover your spouse at 100 or 75 or 50, but if you col if you wanted to cover your spouse at 100 percent, your pension now was 900.

If you wanted to cover her at 75 percent, it was nine twenty-five.

You know, and so your monthly pension went down based on what you opted as the employee, what the participant opted, his his annuity would go down based on the amount of coverage he wants to cover.

So it was by the when it says elected by the city.

I don't know that the city, I I was trying to figure out why would the city care at this point.

This is purely, this is their money, this is what however they want to choose.

Right, and I guess probably overlooked it because it's it's a mute point.

All the police and fire pre-84s of or are no longer with us.

So this is all about them.

I I would I would assume that this really we would let them elect whatever they wanted to elect.

If they wanted to cover their spouse at 50 percent or Mrs.

Nonhoffe, so we have to have the pre-84 language in there, even if we don't actually have any pre-84 hires, because by state law, you have to have those covered.

So even if we don't actually use it, it has to be in there.

So in the what I would say is in the last 40 years, not one person has opted for any annuity.

And they may not have, I don't know who opted for what, but it's one of those things when they're required by law to be in there, whether you use them or not, we have to have them there.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Please vote.

Motion adopted ordinance eight.

Consideration of approving the amendment to the Grand Island Police Officers Retirement System Plan and Trust.

Mr.

Schmidt.

Thank you.

Uh so same.

We need to suspend the rules.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we suspend the rules.

Land fear?

I respect.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mr.

Schmidt, please present.

So same idea with the police retirement system plan here.

Just uh updating the document and the the major thing here is the contribution going from 7% to 9%, and that became effective 10.1.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move to approve item 8D.

Pardon me.

Uh Mr.

Pools, did you wish to speak on this?

Probably nothing.

Mayor Counsel.

Gerald Pools, thank you.

I just my question was that on these.

I mean, when I work for my company, we put in a certain amount that was matched by the employer.

And I in reading this, it it looked like they put money in and whatever that they put in, then they get they get that back, compensate.

Do they get it's like what they put in for a match, they get paid that.

Well that that full amount.

Is that Mr.

Smith?

Am I reading that right?

I that's I'm just uh which one you got in front of you.

Yeah, and this was I mean both of them are pretty much the same.

So 10-1.

Well we'll talk about that now.

Both of you.

Both of you please speak into the microphones.

Uh I'm sorry.

And what I was looking at was the employer pickup contributions.

It it to me it looked like whatever that the city was then effectively paying the mandatory funds.

And that's that's what I just wondered because that that's that would I mean the I don't think there's anything like that in the private sector.

That that's what I'm looking at.

That's your that's what I'm looking at.

Sure.

The the pickup just talks about the tax classification, but the reality how it's happened, uh employee gets their paycheck, nine percent of their money came was pulled out, put into retirement account, and then the city, the employer puts in nine percent to match.

So that that contribution is just is put into the 401k then.

Right.

Oh, that's into their because I just I didn't quite understand that.

It sounded like a very favorable arrangement, and I I never got that.

Yeah.

So thank you.

That clears everything up.

Thank you very much.

And Mrs.

Nonhoff, if you have something to add, please proceed.

I was just gonna let Mr.

Pools know that that amount comes right out of Chapter 16, Section 1005 of state statute.

This is beginning October 1, 2025.

Each police officer shall contribute to the retirement system a sum equal to nine percent of his or her salary.

And prior to that it was seven percent.

So these numbers are actually set by state statute.

Back to you, Mr.

O'Neill.

I move we approve item eight.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you, all second.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

8E.

Amendment to authorize financing for solid waste improvements expansion through public markets.

Mrs.

Nonhoff.

Oh, we need to suspend the rules, Mr.

Hawsey.

I would move to suspend the rules on ordinance number one zero zero four-seven.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second that motion.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Please proceed, Mrs.

Nonhoff.

Thank you.

Um, this ordinance is to amend the bond asked to 9.9 million that the city council had previously approved for the solid waste transfer station at 9 million.

It is still a favorable rate, and finance department is asking that you increase the amount from 9 million to 9.9 million.

And finance department is asking that you increase the amount from 9 million to 9.9 million.

Thank you, Mrs.

Nolanhoff.

Mr.

Brown.

I move we approve 10,047.

Mr.

Hossey.

I'll second that motion.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Item 9.

A executive session to discuss union negotiations.

Is there a motion to leave our regular meeting and reconvene in executive session?

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we move to executive concession.

Executive session.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

We are going into executive session at 820.

Operator, another tractor, trailer, truck, those kind of things as we grow into this facility.

But again, obviously our existing transfer station has lasted almost 50 years to this point.

This one I anticipate, same situation.

We're just going to have to step into it as we go.

Better traffic flow, which I'll show you in a minute.

Q lengths, today we all know, especially in busy times, back on to old potash, obviously not a good situation.

Kind of a bottleneck coming in and out, all going through the same scale today.

Those things would be improved.

Again, the scales are a pretty big part of it.

We'll talk about that a little bit.

So in 2023, uh when we last updated it, we were showing a 4.2 percent increase in rates uh through fiscal year 28.

Uh you guys have seen this pretty much every uh year when we talk about our overall budget.

Um again, most of what we're talking about here is compacted rates, which are what the haulers pay at the transfer station.

So all of our trash that goes into the transfer station, essentially we're all paying that compacted rate because it's all running through garbage truck.

So we're still paying the the garbage companies to get it there, but those are the rates that we're living in.

Um these rates down below where we compare to the other uh regional areas, they're probably more comparable to the uncompacted rates.

But as you guys can see, we're very much below where our neighbors are at.