Welcome to our meeting.

It is 7 p.m.

The date is January 13, 2026.

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.

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

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

The clerk will now perform roll call.

Councilmember Sheardon.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza will be absent.

Councilmember O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Member Pollock.

Present.

Councilmember Lanfear.

Present.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Jill Grinier, the City Clerk, Patrick Brown, the City Administrator, Carrie Fisk, the City Attorney, and Keith Kurtz, the Public Works Director.

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

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

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

Council members, uh from tonight's consent agenda, items seven D have been removed.

Do you council members wish to remove any other consent agenda items for further discussion?

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.

No one has come forward, so we will continue.

The first item on our agenda is to acknowledge the all-state music honorees from Grand Island schools.

I think it's important to note that before we move in tonight into tonight's agenda.

This evening, we are honoring the All-State musicians from Grand Island High Schools in chorus, band, and orchestra.

These students represent the highest level of musical achievement in our state.

Reaching this level takes talent, discipline, and countless hours of practice, along with the courage to perform and excel on a very competitive stage.

And I would add it also takes great young people, great teachers, and great parents.

Through music, you not only showcase technical skill, but creativity, teamwork, and dedication, and you've brought pride to the entire Grand Island community.

On behalf of the City of Grand Island, thank you for sharing your talents and for raising the standard of excellence.

It's my honor tonight to recognize each of you with a certificate and a pin of recognition.

Mrs.

Grenier, please join me down front.

We will start with students from Grand Island Senior High School.

And would like to note, welcome, Superintendent Fisher.

I'm glad you're here tonight.

The first student is Ulysses Acosta for All State Chorus.

I'll put you on my right, okay.

At my house, she takes bassoon lessons from my wife, Paige Bergland.

Congratulations.

Cadence Skidcombe for All State Chorus.

Catherine Johnson, Chorus.

Elijah Meyer Warez, Chorus, Chorus.

I forgot to announce your daughter's instrument.

Harp.

Want to bring that in.

We try to acknowledge.

Caitlin Sadomka, Band.

And that is exceedingly difficult to do.

Cohn Thorpe, Chorus.

Gish Vocal Music Teacher.

Gish band director.

Thank you, Gish students and we have several also from Northwest.

Molly Klein, uh, chorus.

Julian Dupless, Chorus Addie Hayman, Chorus.

Abigail Hazleton, Chorus.

Taylor Hazleton, Chorus.

Blake Norlander, Chorus.

Miles McDermott, Chorus Blake Norlander, Chorus Grayson Roe, Chorus Nolan Steinkey, Chorus from the laundry.

Emma Villadal, Chorus Lizzie Walton, Band.

John Fansteel, Northwest Band Director.

Jeff Villadal, Northwest Vocal Music Teacher.

Jared Hansen, Northwest Vocal Music Teacher.

Tyler Cop, Vocal Music Teacher.

An information item if you had relatives or friends who could not be here tonight.

This meeting is shown over and over on GI TV.

And Spencer Schubert, our communications director, will also clip it and put it on social media.

So if you had uh friends or relatives who could not be here tonight, they can watch you receive your much deserved award.

And we're so proud to have you here.

It's the thing that reminds us that we live in a great city.

And no one exhibits that more than our great young people.

Thank you again for being here.

You got business tonight?

Yeah.

I remember when I used to work with engineers like eight o'clock P and C meetings or whatever.

What's that?

I was two years in high school.

Well, council members.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of items 7D and K.

Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

I move that we accept the consent agenda, items A through L with the exceptions of D and K.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second the motion.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Doug, can you vote?

Sorry.

Motion adopted.

7D notice of availability of diversion program for minor traffic offenses.

Mrs.

Fisk, good evening.

Good evening, Mayor.

The City of Grand Island, as well as most other prosecution agencies, offers a diversion program for minor traffic offenses.

Most of you will know it as stop class to participate in stop class.

Stop class for those of you who aren't aware is a way you can uh do a four-hour either in-person or online class about uh safe driving to uh get yourself out of a minor traffic ticket.

Uh it's available to for a vast majority of the traffic citations that you might get cited under for city code.

Uh there's a fairly wide variety of exclusions and inclusions.

Um but if you ever receive a ticket, you'll have notice that is eligible.

You'll have notice stamped at the bottom of your ticket that says you might want to look into stop class.

Um and UNK administers that program for a fee, and then it does not go on your permanent driving record.

So thank you, Mrs.

Fisk.

And we have a motion with by Mr.

Nickerson.

I make a motion, we move we approve 7D.

Mr.

Brown.

I second that motion.

And discussion, Mr.

Nickerson.

Thank you, Kerry.

I just thought it's a good thing to share with those that might be watching us tonight because it's something we see in a consent agenda, but the stop program, I'm I have not had to partake in it, but I know some folks that have.

And I think it's one of those good things.

You talked about traffic minor offenses.

Um I'm assuming that's speeding and things like that, so it wouldn't apply to everything but minor traffic offenses is when you have that option.

Okay, thank you.

Approving a five-year contract with the Grand Island Casino Resort for Grand Island police officers to work uniformed security.

Good evening, Chief Denny.

Please tell us about this.

Um through this end of the summer, beginning of the fall.

Uh, but this allows us to make sure that we're getting reimbursed uh correctly.

Um basically it's a pass through of full no financial impact to the city.

Uh the officers have been out there that have been out there previously under the old way of doing it.

Um they really enjoyed it.

It's a good source of income for them.

It's a good community engagement to the um patrons of the casino.

Um it's really it's really been uh a win-win, I think.

I think the visible uh uniform police officers in an area, and I can attest to this through my personal experience uh working a lot of off-duty jobs in my first agency.

Uh it allows the engagement of the public, but it also allows uh for the people that are there in the in the venue uh to behave themselves, hopefully.

Uh lowers crime, ideally.

Uh we have had some more criminal incidents go up in that location in that area uh since the casino itself has been built, the permanent casino, and hopefully this allows uh for some offset of that during peak uh times, holidays and and things like that.

Uh and also allows uh for police officers that are on duty being paid by the city, uh not necessarily to have to uh respond to every call for service at the casino.

A lot of that can be mitigated by some of the officers that are working off-duty there.

Thank you.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we approve 2026-7.

Mr.

Lanfear.

Mr.

Nickerson discussion.

I'm just wondering really what does this what does this entail on a normal basis?

You say it's off-duty police officers can work here.

So are they still representing the city at that point as a uniformed officer?

I'm assuming that they're still sending.

Yes, and their ultimate authority is uh as a police officer, they are not responsive at all to the policies or anything of of any venue that they would be working off-duty at.

Um, so they fall under the same rules, regulations, and laws that they would as if they were out there on the streets as a police officer.

Um most of the time, and I can I can attest to this through personal experience.

I probably averaged three to six hours a week during my 24 years uh in my first agency working off-duty.

Um, very rarely do you have to engage any type of official police, you know, enforcement necessarily.

It's mostly just uh visibility and uniform.

Um they're walking around the location, they're engaging the customers and talking to them.

Um they may be called to make sure somebody doesn't get in the car, for example, and uh drive away, possibly impaired.

Um, but rarely do most of the interactions result in an arrest.

How would the scheduling be requested?

How's the scheduling set up so that they know if times available and how often?

It uh normally it would come in to the police department on uh to our one of our division chiefs, Dean Elliott in this case, um, and he would pass out the um the times that they're requesting police presence, and then it would be filled generally on a first come, first served basis by the officers who are not working.

Obviously, they you know they wouldn't be on sick leave, they wouldn't be uh scheduled for duty, uh, but as officers that would work during their time off.

This be like weekends then or or what?

Sometimes uh for example, they they did want some officers over Thanksgiving, so that would have been on the holiday, Black Friday, the weekend.

Um so it just depends on the holidays or what events they may have going on at the location.

Uh so it usually is going to be a Friday, Saturday probably, uh, but it could be any day of the week.

I understood that the casino had their own security, is that correct, or do they not?

Yes, security, yes.

Okay.

You're just working in conjunction with them, I'm assuming at that point.

Right.

Normally the protocol with that would be, and and normally most uh venues would want the police to be the last option.

And so the the actual protocol, the way it actually works in real real time, is that uh if there's say there's an issue going on, maybe an intoxicated person or maybe a possible domestic that's brewing, uh, generally the venues uh security personnel will try to go uh interact and and mitigate it.

Uh and it works comes to worse, and the police aren't visible, or we will go over and deal with it and and uh and act accordingly.

But most of the time the the location security will be the first uh contact.

That's the way they prefer it.

And obviously, with the staffing that you have right now, you obviously are comfortable with this agreement.

Yes, sir, I am.

Well, and and if we couldn't staff it for any reason, that's that's a lower priority.

Obviously, staffing patrol shifts is the highest priority, so we wouldn't go under staffed in any shift just so we could let officers off to work off duty at the casino.

That that's not an option.

Um but yes, we have adequate personnel, uh, and we have enough people that are on other shifts, and not even in patrol, for example, that may work in CID or as SROs that wouldn't that wouldn't affect their uh their normal work time.

Okay.

Well, very good, thank you.

Mr.

Lanfear.

Um I have crime bar next.

My son is a sheriff deputy down in Chape in South Carolina.

He does this a lot.

I like it.

I mean, he's done construction sites, he's done target, a number of them.

Last two years, this big church, security.

He's making church on Sunday.

You can't beat that.

Uh but the one thing it is, it's not just security, it's just the presence seems to calm things down.

That was his take on it all.

Uh just being there, it's a good interaction with the police and the public.

It's very beneficial.

I so I I agree, I like it.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I again I can speak from experience on this.

I've worked thousands of hours of off-duty, and I don't remember a single time where I had to use force on an individual.

Most of it is you're talking to the customers that come and go, you're talking to individuals.

Visible presence is um is a huge deterrent.

And so you may uh you may disclaise crime, I don't know, but uh I didn't have to deal with a lot of criminal issues.

Uh just simply visible presence was enough to to make people decide not to get in a car or not to get in a fight or not to uh become too intoxicated, at least in the area.

Uh he basically felt you have security out there, private, right?

A uniform officer goes a little much farther than the private security.

And you also hit on one other thing in the past.

He's had a couple of places where they served alcohol.

Uh that was the only time he really did something that he had to in the way of law enforcement, with maybe stop some people from driving.

And that's beneficial.

Absolutely.

Um and we've had some calls down there in that area with DUIs.

I'm not saying they necessarily came from the casino, but they were stopped in the area and it was a DUI.

Uh and I can attest to that personally from experience that um, you know, just standing in an in a police uniform at a at an exit door as people are walking out.

Um, they may decide to get a you an Uber or otherwise instead of getting their keys to their car, absolutely.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chief, I guess the first thing that I noticed, and I and I shared it with you this weekend, but um the 20% benefit when the casino would reimburse us for the salary plus the 20% benefit cost.

I went back and I looked at the budget, and our average, you know, in in the police department is about a 45% benefit cost, you know, for a dollar a salary.

And so I the first thing I thought of is I don't really want to be subsidizing the casino, you know, having the taxpayers uh not being reimbursed, you know, completely.

And so, you know, I think the actual um benefit percentage is closer to 45%, but just based on budgeted numbers.

So that would be an average.

There might be an individual with more or less, depending on probably on what health care plan they probably took.

You know, so I didn't want to support, I didn't want the city supporting the casino.

And uh I really didn't want to be competing against uh private sector security firms.

So are we in any way, if we weren't there, would they be hiring somebody else?

Uh the casino specifically, I doubt it.

Um they might, but they would probably just bolster their own their own security people.

Um and I agree with you as far as the pass-through goes, it needs to be a 100% pass-through.

Uh and obviously we have different officers of different experiences at different tiers, but uh whichever officer works off-duty out there, it should be a 100% no financial impact to the city, absolutely.

Yeah, then the other thing is that I've sat up here a long time and I've and I've listened to what I call overtime burnout in the police department.

Um the officers they have to go to court for things they have training to do.

Uh oftentimes they're covering for short staff and asked to you know do another shift.

Uh we're already budgeting six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in overtime for police for for this next year or the year we're in.

You know, I I what I don't want to do is see officer burnout.

You know, and that's one of the problems we've had historically.

Um that's one of the concerns too, is this this is all done on an overtime basis.

So not in their normal 40-hour week, but it's an overtime.

So I don't want to see the burnout.

So I'm not in favor of the contract because of the the subsidizing of a casino or the appearance of of subsidizing the casino.

I've been in there when two officers would walk through or stroll through.

I thought they were just being called out there like they could be called out to any any business Grand Island.

Uh, I did I wouldn't know I wasn't aware at that time that they were actually working for the city at that time.

Um they may not have been because we do have our night shift um patrol officers.

They do occasionally walk through the casino just as a matter of course.

So it I'm not sure if that was off-duty working there or if it was uh if it was on duty officers.

So how how do we assure that we're getting fully reimbursed if we're going ahead and doing this?

I mean, who who decides what the what that number is and I have to defer to finance to payroll on that one.

Um, but they have very accurate numbers.

Um whichever officer would be working that, they would have the most up-to-date officer uh off-to-date numbers as far as that officer goes with regard to salary benefits and everything.

And so we would we would ask for the 100 percent reimbursement from the casino on that.

Mr.

Brown, do you have a comment?

Yeah, so that's all run through payroll now.

So when they can get a hold of payroll, they look in uh paycom system and it has everybody's uh rate of pay.

Uh they calculate the uh time and a half, and it has the benefits, the work comp and everything.

So it's all included.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Neckerson.

So just talking through this again a little more in depth.

On a average week, let's say an average week.

What do you anticipate the number of hours of an officer that might be there?

Probably four to six.

If an officer signed an officer, obviously can voluntarily sign up based on what they have going on.

And uh so they would probably on a on an average week, and and again, this may be one week out of the month that they have a special need for police officers.

Uh so you're looking at four to six hours for that shift, maybe a 12 hours for the one officer if they're really aggressive out of the whole month uh working for off-duty.

You know, and the burnout uh is a real thing.

I I we had limits where I was in my first agency.

We have limits here.

Uh we also make sure that the sergeants are aware uh and the lieutenants as to if not we don't have officers that are coming off the shift going on to a patrol shift, for example, or uh generally coming off a patrol shift going to work off duty at the casino because it they work 12 hour shifts in patrol, and so uh that's greatly minimized.

It would generally be officers that uh work an eight hour shift or haven't worked that day that would be working at the casino.

I put a lot of emphasis and a lot of um expectations on the sergeants to control that and make sure that that's under control, and uh I think they do a pretty good job of it.

But again, it's it's it in the whole scheme of things, it's very low number of hours for any given officer per month.

And it's going to be voluntarily up to the officer whether they want to work or not.

I mean, it's up to them.

So when we talk about burnout, they should be able to manage their hours and their how they feel fairly.

Well, they should, and one of the first things they tell us when you get into policing and start working off-duty jobs is don't look at that like that you should depend on that income.

And uh again, this is a very low number of hours.

Uh my first agency, again, we we could work 30 hours a week in uh overtime in in uh off duties.

That was a lot.

So 70 hours during any given seven seven-day period, um that's a lot.

Um this we're talking four to six hours uh per shift per officer.

It's voluntary.

Uh usually they don't have work tacked on before or after that either.

Well, it sounds like it's gonna be pretty manageable.

Okay.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Uh hey, Chief.

I can always respect the guy who went into work a little extra overtime if possible.

Sounds like an interesting thing.

Um just a couple of questions here as well.

I I know you have some really good uh a really good stats person over there.

Um you probably don't have numbers off the top of your head here, but would this this would probably reduce a fair amount of uh demand from the on-duty officers while they're working as well, would you anticipate, or any any ballpark on that or if we so you're looking at like some numbers that are out there?

Yeah.

I I did write down some numbers.

So in 22, the year before the temporary casino opened up, we had this is just in the area, so I'm I I can't be I can't say that this is this is because of activity there necessarily, but it's activity that happened on the property.

Uh in 22 we had 11 uh calls for service there.

Uh in 23 when the temporary casino opened up, we had 25.

Uh 24 again temporary, we had 22 calls for service.

And then last year we had 47.

And so with the with the permanent casino open up, we did have a jump in number of calls and stuff.

And so there's a dual benefit there of helping your other on-duty people as well.

So just want to clarify that.

Yeah, absolutely.

There, if you have normally we'll have two officers that they'll request to work there, and so that's very helpful because it does help with uh the response of what patrol would normally send to an incident.

And I assume the casino is probably only gonna ask to schedule guys during like peak times as well, probably.

But correct.

Yes.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Thank you.

Mr.

Shear.

Thank you.

Chief, is this something that the officers like are excited about?

Have you talked to them about it?

Yeah, there's uh the ones that would want to work it are very excited about it because uh you know there is actually a little less opportunity for overtime now because we're more fully staffed, which is a good thing.

Uh but consequently there's also less opportunity, you know, to work extra things and stuff.

So the the casino does provide for those officers that want to work, you know, an extra four or six hours of overtime pay um that opportunity.

So that's a good a good chunk of change for a lot of them.

And so uh it is a little bit of shot to the morale positively uh that some of them can work that and and you rotate.

I would say we'd rotate through you know twenty-five to forty different officers, probably that might want to work it.

Uh so half of our half of our department may want to work it and the other half may not.

Um, but it's a it's it is a morale boost.

Any of that kind of stuff is a morale boost.

And you don't see any issues with you know bickering to who gets it or who doesn't, or you having to worry about managing that that hasn't been an issue.

No, it hasn't been an issue and it won't be an issue going forward.

It's a first come first serve.

Everything digitally is so time stamped now that we know who put in a request when, and so that's not really an issue.

Um, so it's it's handled pretty well.

I think you know it's one of those things if it makes sense mathematically and it's not a force thing, and the officers enjoy the opportunity.

Uh I kind of agree with Doug that it's good visibility for us.

Uh seems to work.

Chief Denny, I looked at the contract, and I just think it's important to state this fact that even though they're on the premises of the casino, the supervision of those officers always remains under Grand Island Police Department.

Absolutely.

If there was an incident involving the off-duty officers at the location, any location, uh, the on-duty supervisor would respond, and that is their direct supervisor.

Thank you.

Please please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mayor Council.

Thank you, Chief.

Public hearings, a day.

Public hearing on acquisition of utility easement, highway two eighty-one and prairie Creek Lane, restored properties, LLC.

Mr.

Schmidt's good evening.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

This is a 20-foot easement to serve uh residential development at one R Road and Highway 281.

Thank you.

Public hearing is now open.

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

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Mr.

O'Neill, your motion.

I move we approve 2026-yeah.

Mr.

Conley.

Oh second that motion.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

A B public hearing on acquisition of public right-of-way for Stalley Park Road, South Locust Street to Stir Road Paving Improvements.

Mr.

Kurtz, please tell us about this.

Uh yes, this is a small bit of right-away needed for the uh South Local uh not South Locus, the Stalley Park Widening Project from South Locust to Stir Road.

Thank you, Mr.

Kurtz.

Public hearing is now open.

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

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Motion, Mr.

Brown.

Move we approve 2026 Act 10.

And Mr.

Hawsey.

I'll second that move.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Resolutions, resolution 9A, authorizing mayor to execute all necessary documents related to application for civic and community center center financing fund grant application for Heartland Events Center Ice Rink Chiller Plant Revival.

Mr.

Brown, please proceed.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council, good evening.

And they offer grants every year.

It starts with an intent letter that needs to be filed by February 15th, followed up by an application by January 15th.

And the award of the con of the grant is on March 30th.

This is a one-to-one cost share match.

And so we are looking for the uh so we to preserve our right to apply for the funds, a letter of intent must be submitted this week.

If the city wishes to pursue this project of the ice rink revival, the total estimated cost is two and a half million.

We're asking for a grant of one million in the city would match 1.5 million for this project.

The application does not grant or guarantee council will make the appropriations for this project in the fiscal year 27 budget and the actual development of this project would be contingent upon said appropriations.

It is anticipated that if this grant were received, council pursues the project in 27 budget, the city would explore a variety of funding sources to complement the city match, including revenue from any increases to the hotel occupation taxes, food and beverage funds, keyno funds, and the city's general fund.

So the first step in this process would be to submit a letter of intent to apply for the funds.

The letter was attached in the packet uh that you had received.

If approved, the city would have a maximum match of one and a half million dollars.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Brown.

And we have a motion with Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we uh approve resolution 2026-1-1.

And Mr.

Hawsey.

I second that motion.

Mr.

Nickerson, your discussion.

Probably touched on it in the early part there, but when will this be awarded?

When when's the time?

March 30th.

March 30s, the decision will be made by then.

Yes.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Is it going to be an issue to get this letter written?

Letters written.

All right.

Fantastic.

Yeah, because it's two days, so yeah, it's written.

I assume so.

Um, once we go through this process, how labor is the actual grant application?

Um, I don't know if Council knows, but our grants administrator has has moved on.

Um she's now in the state of Wyoming, uh working for the city of uh Cheyenne.

So before she left, she completed the application as much as she possibly could.

So we just need to fill in a couple of the sections and we're ready to go.

And if I recall when Kyler talked to us about this, he had thought that this would be once we go down this line, there's a very high likelihood that we would get a minor league hockey team wanting to come here.

Uh what would our you said 2027 would be the earliest we'd be able to actually act on this?

Because we have we haven't had the budget for it.

Yeah, yes.

Uh especially on especially on the financing side.

Um I I will the plans were uh previous council meetings I had plans of using some hotel occupation tax that has not come to fruition at this point, and so it's trying to re-engineer the funds that we need uh in order to make the financing possible.

And so I will tell you right now the financing is tight.

Um, if if we if we had those extra funds, it wouldn't be so tight, and we would actually save some money in interest.

However, it's a matter of now it's a matter of do we want to spend these funds on the ice rink revival.

Well that's certainly something that when we talk about the uh lodging tax again that that would be applicable to talk about whether or not this would be something we want to put that towards.

Uh I know the excitement for doing the hockey and thus needing this is pretty great from some folks I've talked with.

Uh this seems like a pretty easy thing to do to submit a letter saying we want to continue to talk about it.

Thank you.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

Now, I I support you know the putting the letter in for the intent for the grant because anytime you can get 40 percent of a project, you know, paid for with a grant.

I think that helps all of Grand Island.

I like the the idea of ice because I think on one hand you can have the entertainment value of a hockey team, on the other hand, you can maybe have recreational ice skating.

We used to flood some of our tennis courts, you know, during the winter to do that, but we don't do that anymore.

So it's like I think it just provides another opportunity, another level of things that the community can benefit from.

So I really think it's a good thing to pursue, and we'll see how we do on the grant.

Mr.

Landfear.

No, I don't like the idea.

Um problems I have was it.

We've been talking about what it's gonna cost to rehab repair of that building.

Millions.

Is it really worth spending a million and a half on ice?

Wouldn't it be better spent with the sound system, the heating and the air conditioning and other things?

Second, we talked about not increasing the occupation tax to help keep tourism coming in, that we would not tax the people who come here, remind them that'd be a way of showing it.

So I I don't like this.

And at the time, this was a non-issue.

You know, it was I thought it was kind of agreed around the board that you know this is not an important thing.

There were far more important things.

So let's not you're gonna spend a million and a half.

Let's do it on something else that would actually make the building more livable.

Okay.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Um just to clarify a few things.

Um from the last meeting we had about it, Pat, wasn't the the Honeywell number they provided wasn't it was actually two million, correct?

Correct.

So um and this grant would cover 50 percent of that up to one and a half million.

So this grant um there is it's a 50 percent as far as you can go.

And so we decided not to be greedy and just go for the million.

So the two and a half is actually you're looking in the future and inflation.

So just a couple other very so I remember this came up before and it's quite a debate, and I think at first there's a lot of uh not a lot of support for it until we heard about the grant kind of came up late in the process.

And then at that meeting, gosh, this is probably a few months ago.

I know Kyler talked about a hockey team, and it's my understanding that the hockey team would pay like uh uh a rental fee per each game, and I believe at that time he stated to be around 140, 150,000 a year for that as well.

Um so then if you add a million dollar plus or one and a half million on that plus a hundred, four, hundred fifty thousand a year, that could start really paying for this self.

And I think Kyler said there might be some other input or uh additional revenues coming from other ice shows or public skating, things like that.

So I think there is more math than just this grant.

Um and I don't know if he was planning on speaking tonight or not.

I I can't ask him to speak, but I know there are a lot of other numbers than just the grant itself.

He signed up to answer questions.

Yeah, it's that's very true.

So there's other opportunities.

So, for example, Disney on ice or whatever other ice shows that that you want to do.

Uh other ideas that I've heard um uh mentioned were community skate, just opening up to the community and they come in and skate.

Um I don't think there's any place in Grand Island that does that at this time.

But it's it's a lot of uh, I think to Council Hossey's point, a lot of community uh uh interaction with that.

And I'll I'll just say this is one that I've had a lot of public input on and a lot of people inquiring, and uh to me have been very supportive about it, especially when they found out there was a lot of other money to help fund this and ongoing revenue source to continue helping fund it over time.

But thank you for clarifying.

Sure.

And uh, I don't know if Kylie's gonna talk about the hockey team later, but uh okay.

Sure.

Um we're gonna go with Mr.

Stelk first because he's uh asked to speak.

Yes.

Um I do uh raising some concerns about the finance and I'd like to look at the whole picture.

I'm in favor of this application, but I'd like to see what it's gonna do to the Fawner Park campus and the Heartland Events Center and the motel tax in there.

I want to see the whole picture on how it's gonna fit together and be cautious that we're not biting off something more than what we can handle.

Okay.

Um a little clarification.

Um actually had a meeting today because I have some other financing needs that I need to get done for the city.

I have uh 11 million to borrow for Island OASIS.

Um all of the updates for Harland Event Center is uh approximately 11 million, so that's at 22, and then also wanted to refinance the uh Veterans Legacy ballpark um out north that's being paid off in 27, so there's a million dollars left there.

And so that is roughly 23 and a half million.

I have there are funds and different funds, food and beverage, and then in our um Chuck will understand this, our 2004 sales tax.

We are able to use some of those funds to make this big payment uh per se.

But what it does is now you're tight, and you're gonna have you we are gonna have issues in doing other projects going forward.

Okay.

So that's where my kind of dilemma is.

I I like to have a little bit of cushion so that I could do some other projects that that may come up.

Now with um the hotel um occupation tax.

Uh we are a Dillon Rule state.

We cannot use any of those funds for Fawner Park.

So when we talk about lodging tax, unfortunately, the law says that we cannot use those for Fawner Park and for investing in in horse and cattle shows.

So it's it's where we're at until someone sells tells us different.

It's it's a tight rope that you're handling, and there's a lot of exposure and there's a lot of risk.

And if we have a turn down in the economy, um we gotta consider that to make sure we have enough to pay our for our obligations.

Absolutely.

You're absolutely right.

So I'm comfortable with what we talked about in financing today.

Uh we will actually um bring on the 27th uh permission to go do some shopping for financing, and and we'll see where that goes.

I know there will be more conversation about this topic at the city council retreat on February 21st.

So part of that agenda will be uh all department directors will bring their FTE requests for fiscal year 27.

Second item on the agenda will be the cattle and horse shows uh at Fawner Park and having that discussion.

Got a lot on your plate and a lot to say yes or no to.

Wait, we got a lot going on in the city, and it's all it's all good stuff.

So it is, and you're doing a good job managing that.

Thank you.

I just want to make sure that we have all the facts so that we can look at everything.

I absolutely agree.

Mr.

O'Neill.

Uh just to clarify for council and everyone here too.

If this passed tonight, we're still not fully committed to it, correct?

And maybe some time to work things out.

Yeah, so we still have to file the application.

And if if we're accepted, it still comes back to council saying, hey, we accept well, the the grant is there, and then when we talk about our budget process and all the different projects that we have, and where all this money is going, and the FTE requests, and all the things that's gonna come at you, we'll have that discussion, and we'll have it early.

So we're gonna have time to discuss this and get to the facts and and whatever data that council needs, hopefully we'll be able to provide.

So at that time, the decision to go forward would be at budget time, and we have two years to spend that money.

So there's a lot of time and uh off-ramp still if it does.

Yeah, but plenty of time to discuss still.

Yes.

Just want to clarify for everybody.

Yeah, I I just we want to be very thoughtful in this process.

As of now, there is no budget authority.

Correct.

Mr.

Paulett.

Yeah, Mayor.

Um, you had my questions answered for me, so I don't have anything to ask for.

Thank you, Mr.

Paulett.

Mr.

Hawsey.

I just want to add one more thing, Mayor.

Um the council's fiscal policies, you know, for the staff is when we have these opportunities for grants, that they get a little bit these grants come a little bit higher in the priority because some projects can be funded in part by grants.

And so our own fiscal policy says please bring these forward so we can review them and we can have these discussions.

But for now, I I certainly support the intent, the letter of intent, and I think all the you know the conversations are gonna come if and when we get awarded the grant.

So I appreciate bringing it forward because I think that's what we ask you to do in our council uh fiscal policies.

Kyler, did you want to come up with the hello everyone?

Thanks for having me today.

Um I'll just kind of hit on a couple of things.

I've listened to what was going on, and obviously I've been noodling this in my brain since I took over the building, and um I really try to actively listen to what the community is saying and what their opinion is, and um there's there's some strong support in the community for ice, but once again, the community doesn't understand all the time all the details of the money to find to support these um items and build them out and such.

So but I think there's community support there.

But as I've noodled this a lot, I I think the real takeaway that I've kind of put in my own mind is I think we as a community of of Grand Island.

I think the biggest takeaway we probably need to think about is do we want to offer an ice rink as a community service to our community?

There are ice rinks across this nation, arenas just like ours.

So we can find all the costs, we know what they are.

We can we can cut costs in certain areas, we can find maybe some cheaper options to put the ice plane in.

There's a way, but I truly think that if we're really looking at it from a perspective of doing best for the city and what we have, we got to look at and decide is that a is that a service we want to provide to our to our our city?

And I think from what I hear they'd like to have it.

I will say this again just because my ops team is real important to run the event center.

They'll hate it.

The amount of work to do this, it's a lot, but the give back to the community is massive.

And when I first moved to Grand Island, I had this vision of I have this vision of the ice rink, and there's a song called um Christmas Island.

It's an old song, kind of that Bob Hope era.

But I could just visit I had this vision of ice on the on the floor in the middle of an island, basically where Santa Claus is on it, maybe um grinch on the back side to where people are coming out for Christmas to go see Santa at the ice rink.

I think it would kill it.

I do know that from our um building in Alabama, um, I can't remember the specific numbers he made just off Christmas ice skating events, but they opened it up for public skating during the Christmas time, and he said during that 20-day window, they made more money on the ice than they did the rest of the year because people just wanted that Christmasy type ice experience.

So I think there are some real options.

And and the biggest takeaway I would say versus like the HVAC and the ice rink is the HVAC is it's an older building, we're repairing our building and getting it back up to par.

But the ice would be a revenue generating opportunity.

Um I can't guarantee you we'd make money on the ice.

I can guarantee you there would be revenue.

I just can't guarantee you what that would look like.

Um, and my estimation, if I ballpark it, I would estimate that the revenue from the ice rink in a full year once we're up and running.

I bet it's between 300 and 700,000 as far as revenue coming in.

There's a lot of variables in there because it all depends on what shows come in.

You know, um, the main reason and the driver on the front end that I really was um what appealed to me about the hockey team was right off the bat, you know, we had a lot of empty holes when we took over.

Um, but that was 28 days of ice rental guaranteed.

So I saw that as a good foundational base for revenue on the event center.

We could guarantee that we'd know we're getting 150 to 180 grand in just rentals.

Then we add the ancillaries on of selling popcorn and and uh concessions to people coming to the games.

It adds values to our sweetholders, which our sweetholders are paying more for their suites, they expect more now that they're actually paying more.

Um so I think there are a lot of moving pieces, but in general, um I do think it comes back to just that.

Is this something we want to provide to our community?

And um, and honestly, I'm just like the rest of you and probably a lot of the people in this room.

One moment I'm saying, yes, let's get it.

Other moments, I'm going, no, we don't.

So I'm I'm it's a decision that probably just needs to be walked through.

So a couple of things just on those numbers I kind of just randomly threw out there just to give you a little idea.

Ice rental, we're probably talking 150 to 180 grand in ice rentals.

Um I put hockey ancillaries, that would be merchandise uh sponsorships, uh, food and beverage.

I bet that's probably another 50 grand over the course of the season.

Um Cirque du Soleil Crystal is on my hit list for a show I would like.

Um it's amazing.

It's only on ice, probably one of the most elegant ice shows I've ever seen.

Um that's probably anywhere from 20 to 60 grand, depending on how many shows you get from Circus Olay.

Disney on ice is a realistic option.

That's probably another 10 to 30,000 you could earn in revenue from that show.

Um public skating annually, I put that at about 50 grand.

I bet that's probably realistic if we create an ice program for the holidays and then have a standard ice program within the community.

And then you also couple it along with there are people in the community that want skating instead of ice skating.

I do have the vision of we have ice this week, depending on what's going on with concerts, maybe we have skating the next month or next week.

So once again, it all comes back when I step back and try to think about the best decisions I can make.

It comes back to is this good for the building and good for the community?

Then if it is, I want to do it.

If it's not, then I'd probably step away from it.

I think that's it.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Ordinance 10, a consideration of approving salary ordinance.

Is there a motion to suspend the statutory rules?

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we suspend the rules.

Mr.

Landfeer.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Mr.

Schmidt, please tell us about this.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council.

This Sally ordinance tonight just reflects the ask me contract you approved earlier tonight in the in the uh consent agenda.

And then two other items.

Uh one of them minimum wage increased on January 1st, so that just reflects that change, and then there's a clarification to the officer uh referral program.

Um so just through one major item to two minors.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I move that we uh approve ordinance 1005 seven.

Mr.

Paulett.

And I would second that.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Well, it was a yes.

Mike, your went yours went away, but motion adopted.

Ordinance 10 B consideration to repeal Article 37-2 interjurisdictional planning commission.

Is there a motion to suspend the statutory rules, Mr.

Sheard?

Thank you.

I move that we suspend the statutory rules.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Mr.

Hawsey.

I'll second that motion.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mrs.

Fisk, please proceed.

Mayor and Council.

In 2006, uh, pursuant to some authorities given in state statute, uh, Merrick County requested that to join with the City of Grand Island due to that overlapping growth in creating an interjurisdictional planning commission.

Uh since its creation, that commission's only met 12 times and has not met at all since 2021.

Uh the Merritt County Board of Commissioners voted on December 23rd to request dissolution of that commission since it doesn't appear to be serving a useful purpose for either entity anymore.

To dissolve that commission requires a majority vote of both the Merritt County Board and City Council, and so that's what you're being asked to consider doing today.

Uh the ordinance that accompanies that request simply removes the inter jurisdictional planning commission from Grand Island City Code once it's been formally dissolved.

Thank you, Mrs.

Fisk.

Mr.

Brown.

Move we approve 10,058.

Thank you.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I second the motion.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Ordinance 10,059.

Consideration of sale of lot one of Jake's subdivision in Grand Island Hall County, Nebraska.

Motion to suspend, please.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we suspend the rules.

Mr.

Lanfear.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mrs.

Fisk.

Thank Mayor and Council.

Earlier tonight, you approved the final plating of a subdivision known as Jakes Lake Subdivision, which constitutes a small scrap of property adjacent to a private residence that the City of Gren Island had owned unbeknownst to us.

It serves no useful purpose to the city, isn't necessary for draining, and the adjacent property owner has proposed purchasing that uh parcel of property from the city for $2,000.

And I believe they're here if you have uh questions about that proposed purchase.

Doc Butts, did you want to talk?

Um certainly uh thank you, Council.

I can speak briefly on this.

Uh my clients are the owners of that uh adjacent parcel.

Essentially, uh the city owns a lake, and the legal description of the lake uh whether intentionally or uh by mistake ends up sent basically eating into about 50 percent of the backyard of this domicile.

And so once that was figured out, I think everybody kind of realized it would make more sense to uh redraw the subdivision, keep the land with the land, keep the lake with the lake in the city.

And um I'm not sure how the $2,000 purchase price was arrived at.

I think by the time I was involved in the conversations, it was there.

Uh the regional planning office has been involved in this as well, and so we've appreciated the opportunity to work with the city and happy to answer any questions.

On purely personal note, uh my five-year-old son asked me to wave to him tonight.

So I think he is probably still awake and watching me.

So hi buddy, you'll see me again in just a second here.

Mr.

Brown.

I move we approve 10,059.

And Mr.

Hossey.

I'll second the motion.

Any discussion?

Please vote.

Sorry, Jason.

Yours disappeared.

Were you a yes, sir?

Okay, motion adopted.

Ordinance 10,060.

Consideration of sale of attractive land comprising part of miscellaneous miscellaneous tracks in part of the south half of the southwest quarter of section 17, Township 11, North Range 9 West of the sixth principal meridian located in the city of Grand Island Hall County, Nebraska.

Mrs.

Fisk.

Well, first let's see if we can suspend the rules.

Mr.

O'Neal.

I move to suspend the rules.

Mr.

Paulett.

I would second that.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Please proceed, Mrs.

Fisk.

Mayor and Council.

This sale of a strip of property involves property that's situated between Bosch Auger and Ryder Park.

Most of you probably think that what exists back there is a street or an alley, but in the course of addressing some other issues, we discovered that though it has been used as a street or alley since it appears, at least the 1950s, the property line for Ryder Park actually runs directly abutting the physical building that Bosch Augur currently occupies.

So in the course of uh helping sort out what the city needs near Ryder Park, what the Bosches need for their operation.

Um it was determined that the city really hasn't even been using this section of property.

Um they have a need for it.

Uh so throughout the course of this process, they've negotiated the sale of this strip of land.

It's about a 30-foot strip of land.

Um they've proposed a purchase price of 11,982.50 cents, which is a portion of uh the property's actual value.

They've also proposed a couple of other very valuable sale terms to the city.

One is right now there is a public sewer line that services only their property.

When they take over this this parcel of property, that will become a private sewer that they will then have that responsibility for.

It'll be removed off of public works list of things to deal with there.

Um they'll also give us a temporary utility easement because one of the other peculiarities with this property is the power lines run directly against their physical building.

So using that that parcel of property for Bosches is difficult because utility department has to maintain access.

So in the short term, we'll still retain that access.

Um, but the Bosches intend to work with the utilities department to relocate those power lines away from the building so that that way they can use that property.

Sounds like it makes it a little easier for utilities to actually service those lines.

Um they have agreed to do so at their expense, subject to working with utilities.

That's estimated to be about a $65,000 expense to the property owners, so not an unsubstantial amount of consideration.

A bill the city doesn't then have to deal with.

Um and then once that is done, I think it's their intent to kind of enclose any portions of that property they're using for storage, just to kind of help uh avoid that attractive nuisance for part goers that storage and materials can sometimes pose.

So there's a lot of benefits to the city purchase price and all of those other contributions uh Bosches are willing to make for a piece of property that I think most of us would have thought they already owned.

Thank you.

Zach, did you want to speak on this one too?

Uh just briefly again.

This is kind of another historical anomaly, frankly.

I think my clients did but believe they either owned it or probably at least had permission to use it.

They've essentially been utilizing uh that strip for storage for multiple generations since Jake and L'Riley are with me tonight, and their uh grandfather, great-grandfather, probably grandfather would have been utilizing it as well.

Then really there's no institutional memory of kind of how that situation started.

But in examining all of this, uh that land does have a pretty valuable use to my clients, and so we have looked forward to the opportunity to work with the city to find a productive way to get that uh to us as Carrie mentioned.

Uh, in the long run, once there are some infrastructure things that are taken care of.

We would like to work with the city to construct a fence between that space, which will have things stored in it that probably aren't necessarily best uh stored next to an open park.

You know, the nature of their business.

There's you know, there's metal, there's equipment, there's things that we might not want little kids playing on.

And so um they look forward to that opportunity to work together with you guys to get a fence that's mutually agreeable to both parties.

Um the purchase price is reflective of a dollar a square foot, which is Carrie mentioned, is less than what the appraised value of the property was, but given the other fairly substantial costs that we are willing to undertake.

We feel that is a fair uh financial offer for a base purchase price.

Um if you have any questions for myself for either Jake O'Reilly, who is with us tonight, we welcome them.

So thank you very much.

Mr.

Brown I move we approve 10,060.

Mr.

Hawsey I'll second that motion.

Any discussion please vote.

Motion adopted.

We are adjourned.

Good night