We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on uh June 30th, 2026 at 6 p.m.

Welcome to our meeting.

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

The City of Grand Island abides by the OpenS Meeting Act in conducting business.

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

Now proceed with the pledges of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which we stand nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all the 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 item topic on which you'll be speaking on.

Okay.

Um none of them forward, and now we'll proceed with roll call with uh Childrenier.

Council Member Sheardon.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk.

Present.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Council President O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza.

Pollock and Landfair will be absent.

And Mayor Steele.

Thank you.

First up is the library budget proposal with Selene.

Okay, well, good evening, everyone.

Um I'm um excited to be here and tell you a little bit about the budget for this next year.

And um we're looking at our personnel services um decreases from two million to um one million nine hundred and eighty-four, which would be a decrease of two point four percent.

But this does not include the following request.

Um we were requesting one FTE.

What we'd like to do is um do an in-house promotion from library assistant one to library assistant two for the bookmobile driver outreach position.

So the difference in the position um between what a library assistant one makes now and what a library assistant two would make would be um six thousand five hundred dollars more for that position.

So when we add that position, um we would need to replace one library assistant one from that promotion um with uh not one FTE uh full timer, but hiring two part-timers at 20 hours each with uh no benefits.

So for both of those part-time positions that would be $52,227, which would save a lot of money in the budget since we didn't have to pay any benefits at all.

So um this last year we added the two FTE and added the five part-timers, and we found that having the part-time help has been really um a good thing for the library since um we're a little bit more flexible, and the library is open um seven days a week, not just eight to five Monday through Friday, so we have a little bit more flexibility to um assign staff.

So um with the promotion of library the other thing I'd like to add was the promotion of a librarian to to the assistant library director.

And so um this is uh a little um graph of what we have right now, what we've had um since 2023, and so this last year we had uh 22.5 in our FTE, and we'd like to just increase that one position to 23.5 FTE.

And um, so the request for the reclassification for assistant library director um about probably about 17 years ago, I believe.

And so the request for the reclassification for assistant library director about probably about 17 years ago, I believe, um, we did have an assistant library director that we worked with, and we had about five or six librarians, and so um with that assistant director, um, the library director, it it you know, it's a good thing to get someone trained and also helped to um have a little bit more authority with um handling things.

Um there's a little graph there that kind of shows um the difference between what our librarian two does right now and the assistant director and um Sean has worked at the library for about 10 years and he does really terrific work and when I'm gone um I can count on him to um step up to the plate and he's just really good at collection management, um all kinds of things, and I think it's time to start thinking about you know my retirement and getting someone in the door and getting them trained for for future.

So um it would be a difference uh between the two salaries and um I looked at a chart and I think we could uh start them at 3% above what he's making, and with um not taking him to the higher end of the uh salary table.

So right now I just have a request in with um HR to look at that reclassification.

It's not something that needs to be done right away, but I just want to start thinking of the future and planning and not you know getting caught with me being gone or absent or sick or retiring or whatever the case is, but looking to uh start to grow that position.

So um, you know, we're really excited to be getting the bookmobile in the bookmobile.

Um people are really excited about it.

The community's excited, and we've this summer we started doing a little bit more outreach.

Um we've gone out to the literacy council to do some do a Wednesday story time, and um it's been a good thing, a good good fit for us because we work so much with literacy for children and adults.

Also, um we did an outreach to Stalley Park Gardens, and we've done some outreach to um to the parks programs and uh to schools, and um we also did a great outreach to the grand generation center there, that picture on the right.

And so um, you know, adding the bookmobile is gonna be a game changer for the library.

Um, it's gonna contribute to our quality of life, um, help to improve reading scores, go to where the services are needed, and educate patrons about literacy technology and library services.

So we're excited to be getting that in in 2027.

Um they said about nine months, so I'm thinking spring, and then some time to you know, kind of get our rotations lined up where we'll be going out, all that.

So we have a lot of planning to do with that.

So last time I was here, I shared the library report, and uh, so this is just a little chart of how much the library benefits our community, how much money people save.

Um it's like three million dollars, which you know that's a good savings, and then um it also shows our number of programs at the bottom there.

There's a library services that are provided that are not included in those calculations, such as meeting and study room use, um all of our things that we do, we just do and do so many different things with so many different partners in the community and uh for people of all ages, so um you know, from homebound delivery services to people that are are shut ins or can't get out for medical reasons to um providing food in the foyer for people that come in that maybe need some food.

Um, we try to keep food out there.

So turning to our operating expenses, they would be about the same as this last year's budget.

Um that's what I had figured, um, 598,800, and then we also have uh a cost for adding switching out our old computers.

Um, City IT recommends that we replace these on a five-year rotation so we don't get caught replacing everything at the same time.

So this is the year for that.

And for capital projects, um, the only thing I had was recarpeting the old part of the library, the part that was recarpeted in that should be um 2007 is actually that's a typo.

Um it was installed, and so if you go to the library, you can see where the carpet's starting to buckle, and there's big spots on the carpet, and there's spots that are worn off, but um it's it's just getting worn.

So I had an estimate from um a carpet place in Omaha, but when I called them, they had got they were going out of business, so I was like, dang it.

So I did get a couple of other estimates, but I still think it'll be under three three hundred thousand for that.

So um, you know, that's a picture there of our summer reading program, our carnival, which was uh dinosaur theme.

But um just thought I'd share that because we've had some really nice big groups of kids and uh lots of science and hands-on stuff.

So does anybody have any questions for me?

Uh Jack, you're at first.

Thank you.

Um thank you.

Uh question for you on last year you said you would uh hire these part-time employees at 20 hours a week.

And I know we had some questions if who would want those jobs.

Uh what was it like trying to hire for 20 hours a week?

Uh we had over 200 people apply for jobs, and we've got really good people right now.

And uh every once in a while we lose one to you know, um like a medical situation, something comes up big, but the people that are there are very vested in the library and our programs, so it's it's been a good thing.

And you've seen benefits of having those employees there as far as more people having access to the library.

Yes, yeah, you can tell that more people are are coming in engaging with our programs, and uh they all have different skills, so they provide different um you know resources.

We have a lot of part-time teachers and people that are good at art, and yeah, we just have a really great staff right now.

All right, thank you.

Yep.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I appreciate the work you do at the library as you know, and it's interesting.

I was talking with one of the new part-time employees, and Celine happened to be there.

It was in the event was there, and we just happened to be together, and we talked about that very question that Jack just asked, you know, how was it hiring?

How's the hiring going?

And this lady is just new, and I'm not even sure she'd started yet.

I think she was just getting ready to.

And Selene said, you know, we've had a lot of people apply for this job.

And the lady there was so proud, she said, you know, I thought I was the only one that applied.

So she felt very special because out of all the applicants, she had been in one of the top uh employee applicants and and those children.

She was very proud of that, and I and rightly so.

So if you thought that you were the only one applying and found out there was 150, that makes you feel pretty darn good.

I do have a question about the numbers, and I don't know if you feel comfortable about answering them or if if uh Patrick or Chelsea or whoever, but there's just some things that don't jive in the report in my brain.

So you have to straighten that up.

When you talk about overall expenses, I don't have the slides, I probably should go back to the slides.

About 48,000 dollar decrease, you said overall, it was small number or two percent or whatever.

And then you said we need to add 52,000 for this, and then we need 6500 for this.

And I'm wondering trying to understand is that number that you're talking about that's 48,000 lower than last year, including these other asks for the 52,000 and the 6500?

Or is that oh go ahead.

Sorry, no, I'm just looking for a clarification on that.

Sorry about that.

Selene, would you go to the XL on the bottom?

Your sheets pulled up.

In the bottom.

That one?

No, bottom bottom.

XL task bar.

Gotcha.

All the nope.

Yep.

Okay, that'll do.

So can you expand that a little so we could see it better?

Lower right corner.

Oh, wrong way.

Oh, my day's gone.

Ah, okay.

Sorry, it's very temperamental.

Let me try doing it the other way.

I really do work with technology.

Is that that's too big?

Let's see.

Yeah, my my bottom line question is is the reduction truly a reduction?

Or is it because then you're saying we need to add additional dollars?

I'm just I I want to know really what the final number is.

Is it really uh is it below last year, or is it really it's the exact same as it was last year?

Um I looked at what we had had spent, which was uh 580 98,000.

And then so with all the asks and everything, that statement is true.

It stayed the same except for our ask for the computers, and um they recommended that the computers would be paid for from a transfer from the general fund.

Okay, so that you feel is covered well, the computers, and that was another question because you said the operating expenses were the same, except we need 66,000 for computers.

So it's we need it, but you've got a way to pay for it.

It sounds like okay.

Then on the other part, I noticed on your FTE chart, the custodian disappeared in FY25.

There's zero, and then there's zero going forward.

Who's doing the custodian?

We have two maintenance guys, and we lost our custodian um a few years back.

Um he passed away.

So we um when we uh went out to uh put the job out, um, we switched it to two maintenance guys that way we had the everything covered.

Okay, so I saw the maintenance guys, but yeah, the custodian job is basically vacant.

We don't have no, we just have two maintenance guys.

Right, so it's really non-existent and okay.

So they cover everything the grounds, everything.

Cleaning the bathrooms and all that, it's all part of the schedule for I appreciate that.

I just it was just the numbers weren't jiving because you're saying we're asking this is what it is, except we need this, and then we're here, but we're increasing this.

Yeah, now the the thing was Sean, if he's selected.

Yep.

Um how how do you plan to budget that?

Is that anywhere in these numbers at all, or is that something that you just no, I still need to get the the figures from um HR because they had to recreate the position and look at other um classifications and stuff.

So it's it's it's in the works, but um yeah, it would be an increase too.

So that's coming, that information will be coming forward to us at a later date.

Yes.

So um I guess because of last year, we've kind of changed our reclass programming.

There's a lot a lot more paperwork, a lot more forms to fill out, more reviews internally, and we started that process a little late.

So once we get all those forms, all the reviews done internally, we plan to have an FTE budget session at some point, uh, probably late July, where it we'll focus on all the FTEs and council will have all that information to make those decisions.

Will that happen after all of our presentations?

Yes, everyone.

Yes.

That was kind of my fault because I'd never done a reclassification, so I didn't quite change.

So very good.

Okay, well, basically everything's flat, is what you're saying for the most part.

Everything's flat except whatever happens with this reclassification.

Adding the one FTE, which would be um the really two part-timers at that point.

Yep.

And then the switching a library assistant one, that would be an extra six thousand dollars.

So you're looking under sixty thousand dollars for all those changes.

Yes, but you said that's included in your overall numbers that you said for no, that was um we'd need to add that back in that those figures I got was were from um Alicia and finance, and so she said um that would be like a small increase for that if we do add the FTE in the one FTE in the that's what my primary question was.

So that so we're up a little bit.

We're gonna be up a little bit.

A little bit, but not a lot.

How much?

Okay.

So it's not an overall decrease, it's probably a slight increase.

Slight increase.

I try to keep it down and be as cognizant of the budget as possible.

All right.

Well, I hear your excitement about the bookmobile, the things that you've done to help contribute to the assurance that we get it through the kiosk reallocation of funds and doing what you're doing to try to make sure we have somebody to man it because there's no sense having a bookmobile if it sits in the parking lot with no one to drive it.

So again, you just do a great job there and all the things that go on there.

It's I'm gonna go back to uh Mark Stelkin if he ever denies us, I'll take full re full account for it.

But that's just an event center for kiddos and and everybody.

There's so many things going on in the library, it's just another event center.

And you do great things, touch a lot of people, and uh just like to know as we get along here what that assistant library director impact will be, and we'll find that out.

Right.

Yep.

I would like to add that on the personnel side, we will review, go back and review personnel costs for all departments, just because um a lot of these uh bargaining units are based on a CPI, and the latest CPI for that is a five and a half percent increase.

We did not build that into our model.

We built in three percent.

But with these bargaining units, they're capped at five percent.

So um, yeah, we're looking at a sizable CPI for some of these folks.

So we'll revisit that, and that's part of the FTE discussion as well.

So Celine, I just have a few comments.

So I know last year we added a few positions or I think mostly part-time, and the intent was to kind of expand some of the hours, and it sounds like that's been pretty helpful over there, providing a little more access.

And I just want to be careful anything we do that if we're adding people, we're just making sure it's sustainable as well.

Um, you know, if we have a big addition one year, I don't want to keep coming back to the well a lot year after yeah.

Um concerns I have is just on the reclassification.

So on one of the slides, I believed it referred to it as a promotion, and then the next slide referred to as a reclassification, and reclassifications are not promotions, they're for structural changes.

And I did a little looking in this one, and it sounded like the assistant director was really more of a backup to you as the director out there.

Um and I believe in the slide it also mentioned they didn't have the lower level people reporting to them.

I did look at the org chart, and it appeared that most of the staff does this person does have supervisory um access to most of the employees already, so it didn't appear accurate with what I saw in the chart.

Right.

And and also I I did look at the job description for the library too, and it it looked like it clearly stated in there, they already do have um backup access to the director to do financial decisions and and other things at the library.

So I don't really understand uh structurally, um, I'm kind of struggling how that's a true re-class if that's already in that job description uh with the case, but I know it sounds like it's being reviewed, but those are just a couple of the concerns I had because it looked like that's already basically there, so I don't know how it'd be fundamentally different, but I I just wanted to point that out, and uh, I guess that'll go through its process as well.

But yeah, we're working on the description for that, and yeah, I I get that.

Okay, uh thank you.

Um and Mr.

Hossee.

Thanks.

So, Celine, I guess the first question I think you have the most robust complimentary volunteer program that we have in the city.

Is how is that program still working?

Is it functional or not?

Um it's working pretty good.

Um, we've got a couple of college kids that are volunteering this summer, and um the problem is like last weekend we did outreach, so we had two volunteers, one staff member, and I went out to set it up, and I ended up staying for the whole thing because one volunteer didn't show up because they were sick.

So volunteers are great, but they're not always a hundred percent, but they sure do a lot of things for us at the library as far as helping with programs and sitting at the welcome desk, um, our book sale, getting books out, um, outreach.

The only issue is um it's kind of a you know thing where sometimes they don't show up or they're gone, or something better comes along, but they do a lot for us, it's important work that they do.

But the other thing is they can't access public um our private information like our library um system, people's names and stuff like that.

So we can't just give them a computer and tell them to help with library stuff because um we got to be real careful with the privacy laws and stuff.

Well, about how many volunteers do you think you have at the library?

Oh, throughout the year, I'd say probably over maybe over 150, but they're like some some of them do it just at Christmas time, some of them do just summer reading enrichment, and uh sometimes we get some groups of kids that are um like a college group that needs to come in and volunteer like for the bear fair, we get a group a good group of um seniors from the high school, so they they help a lot and uh one of your reclass requests I think was from a library assistant one to a library assistant two for the bookmobile driver.

So what do they do now?

And other than drive to a other point, what's the difference between other than the driving the bookmobile from point A to point B and parking?

I'm assuming they're they go somewhere and they park.

Right.

That's a great question.

So um our library assistant one right now, they do um all kinds of customer service at all the desks, reference children's check-in, they do uh processing, they help with programs.

So um if we bump someone up to library assistant two, um they would do more technical work, they'd be able to help people when they get on the bookmobile to get a library card into access our databases.

Um it's just more technical skills, they would also have to plan a route and help with outreach.

So these um duties would be more in charge of the bookmobile and outreach, um, and and that's what our library assistant twos do in those positions.

So you said we went 17 years without an assistant director, and you're asking for an assistant director now.

So you've got about 20 people, 20 people in one location.

And you're open, I mean, obviously, let's just say you work 40 hours a week.

The library's open 60 hours.

I don't know how many hours of the library open in a week.

Um gosh, I I don't know.

I'd have to add them all up.

But um we're open, you know, 98, Monday and Tuesday, 9 to 6, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we're open 9 to 5, and uh Saturday or Saturday, Friday, Saturday, 9 to 5, and Sunday 1 to 5.

So I think it's I don't know.

It's either upper 50s or maybe 60 hours.

So who I think it's like 64 hours, but it might be wrong.

Yeah, you that's probably right.

So who does the supervision when you're not there now for the 20 hours that you're we have um librar librarians that are on duty that are that work and um Sean works Saturdays to help cover, so we have um someone, you know, we deal with a lot of stuff, sometimes it's volatile stuff, like you know, we might have to deal with someone that's having a mental crisis.

So it's good to have the librarians there as much as possible, but um there might be a situation where we might have two library assistant twos there and someone has to leave early for a medical reason, you know, something comes up.

So um Sean has just been a real leader with um offering to help cover shifts to take lead work um when we get uh genealogy and cataloging questions, and um he's just like he just does really good work, and I think you know I think when we talk about the I mean, you know, I think organizationally we're talking about is it a good move to create this position in the organization with the intent that if we do create it, it's gonna be here until we we do something different.

Uh I don't I don't want it to be about one person or another because of just the way it works.

Now I like to talk about the organizational needs and stuff.

So I do encourage all the librarians to, they all have their master's degrees to um, I know Sean's done additional um certificates and stuff for genealogy, and um he's also he takes a lot of class, it takes a lot of pride in his work, and so um you know, the librarian ones, I encourage them to you know earn that librarian two spot, you know, if they're when they're ready to move on to that next spot.

But I I just really feel like Sean is ready to move on to assistant library director, and it would be good because most libraries in Nebraska, um, the bigger ones have uh an assistant library director, and most departments have higher level directors and assistant directors to um manage all the admin work, budget work, you know, everything that we do.

Yeah, and I I think it it makes it easier if you have one location and one floor and some of the other departments anyway.

So two other questions.

One about the computer replacement.

So you had 66,000.

Now, will IT be buying those computers on their budget and then just providing them to the library?

Is that how that works?

Um they purchase them in a lump agreement, but it's the libraries can be purchasing $66,000 worth of computers, but IT does the ordering on our state contracts.

So those costs are not in the IT budget, they're in the library.

That is correct.

Okay.

And then in the the carpet, do you have commercial carpet where there's squares?

No, when this was installed, it was before the squares and the planks.

We do have squares and planks on the other side of the library, so we'd be looking at getting the squares and with the replaceable, because that's what everybody does now.

It's uh wears better.

Yeah, so when you have wares or or just damage to one part, it's it's easy to replace and um okay.

And we do um we do clean the carpets and we've got a machine that um cleans the carpets and and furniture and stuff, and the guys hit stuff all the time and make it look better, but I think that old side of the library has reached its its limit.

But I've definitely seen the the increase in the activity in the library, but a lot of it is electronically driven or remote-driven.

Um a lot of online access type of things.

Is that driving a different type of librarian now or a different type of skill set?

Well, we yeah, we we got to make sure our staff all have the skills to help people online with their uh requests, but um we do have still a really balanced out, you know, the people that use the online resources and people that still want books and items they can find in hand in the library.

Um it's it hasn't gone all online, you know.

I think I don't know what it'll be like in 10 or 20 years.

Um, you know, like we used to have like um cassettes and records, you know, kids are like, what's that?

You know, so um things change all the time, and so collections change too, so we always have to make sure we have what people need and move stuff around in our budget too.

Okay, thank you, Celine.

Yep.

Would anyone else like to speak on this?

Then we'll proceed with the uh information technology budget proposal with uh Pat and Steph.

Thanks, Selene.

Yep, thank you.

Bless you.

Thank you, Mayor, Council.

Um tonight this is information technology budget presentation.

Uh personnel services are down barely 0.48, however, probably after the CPI and everything else, there will be an increase of probably one, two or three percent.

Operating expenses uh increase 30 point four.

Um we have some detail that we can show you and Steph can go through kind of an itemization of some of the IT uh budget that we have here.

So just to let everybody know, especially at home, the yellow lines are the main accounts in our accounting system.

The blue lines or in here, these are itemizations.

We we're able to if we have contract services and we have a say three hundred thousand dollars worth of contract services, we can itemize what we're purchasing in through our software.

So these blue lines are those.

Um so her budget's rather uh lengthy here, and then the green over here is just the difference.

Um the difference is between the fiscal 27 uh proposed budget versus the fiscal 26 budgeted items.

So overall the operating expenses went up 370,000, 310 dollars, um 24.3 percent increase.

So I'll let Steph come on up and kind of go through some of these Chuck has a question here.

Line items, so Pat, can you go to the bottom of that the bottom?

The uh so in F, I think the first column says FY24.

Yep.

So the total operating expenses was 800, and I can't read it.

857, 950.

So an FY25 it's how much?

882, 665.

So in the year that we're in now, what are you predicting it to be this year?

So if we keep rolling that.

Yeah, I don't have the projected column on here.

And then we're budgeting for one point so fifth fiscal year 26.

We budgeted uh 1 million 500, and then for this year it's 1,800.

So we've been spending 800 and some thousand the last two years, not counting this year, and we're gonna ask for 1.8 million next year.

What's the delta?

What is it that we're spending new for roughly a million dollars that we haven't spent in FY24 or FY25?

Because it's it's almost doubling, it is more than doubling the from the actuals of FY24 and 25 to 27.

I'm just curious what's what's the driver of the million dollar expense?

So I would say in contract services, if you compare 24 and 25 to 26, 26 went up approximately 100, 120,000.

Um I don't have the itemization for those two years because we didn't have it.

That's all I you know, if you don't have you don't have, but that's that's kind of what I would be looking for is what's driving, because one of the things that I hear when I'm out and about spending so much money.

Yeah, and I want and I'm we're not gonna save our way to success, but I want to make sure that the success is defined when we look at these, and if we're gonna spend money that it's for the right reasons, and we uh that we all know what it is, and we can support it.

So um also the increases in machinery and equipment.

Um we made us we're making a sizable investment into technology.

So as you can see in our um 27 proposed, we have a first line item is an AI system, 100,000.

That probably won't even touch the surface of what AI is.

It's just kind of an introduction or getting into AI.

Again, that's kind of a policy, probably question for council if they want to go that direction.

Um I definitely look forward to the conversation about an AI policy because it's certainly going to be one of those that's gonna impact everyone.

I think I've asked questions on the schedule of bills.

We have people now paying chat GBT premium.

Yeah, I think H HR was the department that was doing it.

I'm like, I I am curious, I I'm not really worried, I but I am curious as to now we have our toes wet.

We now have city departments buying Chat GBT or GROC or some other AI program, and they're buying the premium version.

I only use the free version, so yeah, I find myself using it more and more every day just to find out what time the store closes.

Absolutely, and I guess to add on to that.

Um couple things.

So what I envisioned for the AI system, it's is some of the things I've seen in our conferences that I go to.

It's actually building a uh a closed system, so it's not out, it's not open to the outside, but building it with all the ordinances, all the resolutions, all the council packets, all that valuable information, historical information, and then building agendas that way, so that I think council would actually have a little bit more background, because as you know, some of our institutions knowledge is has left, and I think this would help us in that area.

And um secondly, I had put out uh an RFP.

It has been, I don't know how many years uh since we bid out at an accounting system, a full ERP system.

I think 20 years or so, something like that.

So we put down RFP for a consultant to help us.

Okay, what what is our system have?

Can we maybe just upgrade this or look at a different system?

That will come to council probably in a month or two.

Um but what the point I'm making is I would like to see if these consultants would say, hey, AI can help you in some of these support functions, and so it's it's a huge topic.

Um, but it's there could be some pretty good uses for us.

And I I support getting involved in it, and I don't know what it takes to get involved in it, but I also want to make sure that it is as you say, in a controlled environment, so that we're not uh I I think it can benefit a lot of mundane things.

I when I and I talk to you from time to time, I I look up an AI as like how many chickens can somebody have in the back of their yard?

You know, I mean I look up, but what I don't do, I don't trust the answer.

So I still ask the question because I'm not sure the answer is the answer.

You know, I'm not sure it's accurate.

I don't know how accurate it is.

You know, and so when when I talk about uh because I get c citizens who call me and say, uh, who do you notify when you change the zoning?

You know, and I I look up AI and it says, well, there's a 300-foot notification.

Well, the city's site says neighbor, you know, we notify the neighbors.

I don't know that those are the same, but I'm like, I'm it's where I'm starting to use it.

I know everybody who works, you know, for the city has an opportunity to use it, the free version.

Yeah, and they can get a lot done with the free version.

Yeah, yeah.

Um I tell you, I I I use it, but I use it, I use it every single day.

So again, to your point, you got to fact check those things.

Okay, thank you, Pat.

Sure.

Uh Pat, I got a couple more things on this too.

Good.

Um back up there on the um, I think it was uh machinery and equipment.

Okay.

So there's a pretty big uh shift there from the last uh budget up.

Um does that include like uh workstations too and servers or what all is really included in machinery and equipment.

So it's kind of broken down.

It would be laptops and desktops.

Um do you have police in here as well?

Or is that different?

Yeah.

So um which line are you looking at specifically, Brain?

Um the line 55.

Uh it looks like it's increasing again into the 27 a fair amount.

So it is.

So I will say um this does look like a very large number.

However, some of it is going to be rolled from the current year.

Um so for the VM host server replacements, for instance, that was also in FY26 that is going to be rolled.

That is not an ask for more money because we are currently working on that project right now.

Um so the PC replacements, that did jump up because PCs are expensive to replace these days, and we have a lot of them that we have to replace every every three to five years.

So that did jump up.

Um the um, let's see, AI obviously added some.

I think we can, you know, depending on which way we go, we'll be able to get some of that cost down potentially, but we took the numbers that we got and we went a little bit higher on a lot of these quotes.

And I'd like to touch place uh touch base real quick on the VM hoster replacements.

Yes.

So those are physical servers, I'm assuming.

Yes.

And um and I just have to throw this out there too, just having a lot of experience in that.

Um this is the most expensive time I've ever seen my entire career to buy them.

The cost is basically more than tripled since November.

Um if I could hold off a year, I would.

So I don't know where you're at on the age, but I I would love to.

Um, however, our hardware is very aged.

Um, and with the new models that Dell has currently out, um, the way that we replicate for disaster recovery among other um situations, we have to replace all of them at the same time.

Um so preliminary quotes that we got are over 200,000 for the equipment.

What's the average age of the servers that you're replacing?

These particular data center servers, um embarrassed to say are like nine to ten years old.

So they are very well over their age.

Okay, that's that's very outdated.

Yes.

Um I know it and I those prices are expected to be elevated, I think, for about another year, and I think you may see some relief then, but uh yikes.

Yep, I had a roadmap meeting with Dell yesterday, and they are expected to be this way until 2028.

Just so a lot of people understand, and a lot of times some of these servers might have been 15 or 20,000.

Now they're about $60,000 in less than a year's time.

Um data center uh data centers are driving that big time.

That just um the sheer growth of those, basically the production of these components is sold out for about a year.

It's uh it's unprecedented.

I've never seen it this level.

Um I want to touch a little bit on uh a couple of things with that too.

Um I don't know if you're using VMware or not either, um, but a couple and you might be on multi-year agreements.

Um we use Hyper V through our Microsoft Enterprise Agreement because we try and cut down those costs.

And just something I see a lot too.

You get on these multi-year agreements.

Some of these companies have been acquired by other ones, and some of the costs for renewals are skyrocketing as much as 40%, is what I'm seeing on a lot of them.

So I hope you're just watching out for those as those come up and uh try and find alternatives if if you have time.

Um on the AI thing, I want to talk about this a little bit too, because I've had a lot of experience on these.

So 100,000 is really kind of like a couple limited use case kind of phase one type of solution, um, you know, kind of entry level.

Um, you know, I think you might get it be able to get a few things, kind of scratch the service a bit.

Um I've spent significantly more doing much more complex AI things out there.

And I would say that uh typically what you see in the private sector is uh businesses aren't really adding new administrative positions now.

I see a lot of times they're kind of maybe holding their current staff, they're really growing more through the uh uh AI and uh software implementation automation type of things.

I think in the next four or five years, AI could be one of the most impactful things we could actually do even as a city, um of the sheer um amount of capabilities it has, and I think we're a lot of people are just barely even scratching the edge of this thing.

Um I would encourage to try and find at least a handful of use cases.

I don't know if you have any in mind that you like to try and do this year, or um so um with some of the points that um Council Hossey brought up that people are using the premium chat GPT, our concern is security because it is open AI.

So we are looking for a closed AI function that will still give us functionality for what we're looking to um for the data we're trying to pull.

Um but we also need to make sure it's compliant for not only us for public safety, so it's got to be in CGI's compliance, it's got to be federal government compliance.

Um so we're trying to find a good solution for that.

Um what I can tell you just through my experience too.

I think you'll find there's a ton of different AI platforms, just each solution will have a or each use case could have a very different thing.

Uh chat GPT subscription is kind of basic, you know, and it's nice to make your emails and letters sound good.

But uh, if you really want to do something transformational, you have to connect to their data as well.

And you're correct, you'll need closing systems.

And I know you guys are working on AI policy.

I've kind of talked about that before too.

Yes.

Um, yeah, and I I would really encourage us to continue to dig and push forward here because I think this could be an extremely impactful thing across a lot of city operations that many departments.

Um there's a lot of impact, and I I don't think we're even seeing.

If I had an analyst look through a lot of workflows, I think you'd find a lot of stuff we could do.

Um a hundred thousand dollars would be extremely limited.

I mean, you could buy a lot of subscriptions for that, but this is way beyond using solutions like Chat GPT.

There's a lot of other platforms out there.

Um so I'm glad we at least have something on there, and I want to I would like to encourage uh to find more specific use cases, and we're our biggest problems.

Uh where can AI take the the friction out of city operations?

That's really kind of the key thing of what departments have a lot of that um friction that we can have people doing more enhanced duties and get the uh routine mundane stuff through AI.

Yep, that is what we're trying to accomplish as well.

So yep.

Thank you.

Um Jack, you're up next.

Thanks.

Um I'm gonna talk about AI here in a second.

But you mentioned that the host server replacements are carryover.

Is that the same with the move GIPD and emergency 911?

It is, yes.

That is a long-term project because that's a that is a major move.

So we have play we have begun the process, and we have some of the infrastructure in place, but we still have a long way to go to to do that.

So that is also a rollover, yes.

Some of that 150 is from the 150 not spent so far in 26.

Yeah, so this, yeah.

Okay, yeah.

All right.

Um the AI, uh, one of the things I use it every day, and we don't use it to write emails, we don't use it to even to look things up.

Like that's that is surface level stuff.

We use it for some of the things Ryan's talking about, where it is we have built a closed system.

We have it's a it's an agent of ours, right?

And we ask it questions.

I have a staff, we have 12 on my team, and we've been doing this probably for six months.

We spent zero dollars on it, honestly, other than the the Claude subscription for the advanced for a business, so not zero, but maybe a couple thousand.

Well, we spent on a lot of time, and we know that investment and time is gonna pay off, but of my 12 people on my staff, I think six of us are feeling comfortable enough to use it.

We need all 12, and it's gonna take training.

So a hundred thousand dollars for our city.

I don't think that even scratches the service when you start to look at to truly make an impact, people have to know how to use it, where to use it.

Uh there's gonna be some training involved.

There's gonna be some uh duplication of time, I guess.

It's gonna go up before it goes down, and I'm all for us doing that.

I want to see a plan before we just invest what I think will end up being more like a quarter million dollars into it.

I would like to see what that plan looks like.

Um I'd also like to see us develop an ethics and a you know, a standardized this is what we agree uh to use the AI for.

And I want us to look at the impact it's gonna have uh if the city does adopt it.

I want to look at the environmental impact of a city this size actually doing it.

We had some folks come in here and contact all of us about data centers and what their draw is the lost at-risk adult 79-year-old white female.

Probably not right here.

Uh boy, that system works, doesn't it?

Yeah.

We paying for that.

Yes.

Down on here.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

Um that's incredible.

Yeah.

Do a test and it has worked.

Um, but I hope they find the person.

Uh back to what I was saying, I want to make sure that you know, when we look at the the people that reach out to us about the environmental impacts of a data center, we're gonna be doing some of the things that cause some of those impacts the more we use AI.

We just are.

And I'm I'm I told you how much we use it at my office.

We are very small, and I'm concerned about that there.

Um I want to make sure that we're being ethical when we do it, and I want to have a I want to have a solution for it that might mean let's look in that long master plan of what offsetting is going to look like and what we need to do to offset the environmental impacts of it.

I think that's our responsibility.

If we're going to take a lead and being one of the cities that uses it, we need to do it right.

So I don't think 100,000 is going to do much when we get to that point of it.

But I would like to see a master plan.

Have you guys, I mean, I you talked about some of that.

What what does that look like?

Yep.

So we do have an internal cybersecurity group that does discuss all of this.

Um we are working on we're working with our cybersecurity insurance policy holder and developing AI policies as well as, like you said, ethical uses, secure uses, training, um, so that is being discussed, and we are developing a plan for that.

And that will be discussed long before we ever let users into a system once it is purchased, um, so that we can have a controlled rollout and that users are aware of you know the best use cases, what we would like to see done with the system.

So that's an internal policy or city policy.

I'd like to see that come before a council, that we understand it and that we I don't know if we have to give our stamp of approval, but I'd sure like to see it and be able to inform that a little bit.

Um I feel like that's our responsibility a little bit to hold each other accountable.

So Pat, did you want to you're you're leaning forward like you wanted to add to that?

So yeah, we'll put it into the personnel handbook where people will have to sign off on all that.

Granted, I I agree with you.

The 100,000 is a drop in the bucket, but I think this starts this road.

It's also an organizational shift for us.

So not many people like a little bit of change.

And so it's it's gonna be kind of slow.

The idea that we have to sell it is we're gonna spend some money to save some money and efficiencies.

Um, some of the things you mentioned, even just being able to access the information faster and to comprehend it faster.

Uh those things are those things are great.

When we start looking at what roles that we don't replace with people uh to bring down some costs, uh that's a that's a next step on it as well.

So thank you guys.

Mitchell Stephanie, it's always good to see you at least once a year here.

So I like to see you up front.

If you wonder who's behind the curtain controlling all this stuff, there's the here's the person right here.

I always ask you what keeps you up at night.

I know the answer is cybersecurity.

You touched on that a little bit, you know, if things go bz berserk in our system and somebody hacks it and all that.

Just curious again.

How comfortable do you feel with everything?

And there's always crooks trying to find a new way to get in.

How in the world do we continue to do a good job of preventing against that?

And how do you guard against the employee who always clicks on the thing they shouldn't have clicked on to possibly introduce something because somebody sent them something that seemed enticing, and then all of a sudden, oops, what do we got?

So I'm just curious how that how that all works and how you protect an entire network like this.

How do you how do we do that?

It's a lot.

Um and a lot of the expenses that you see, a lot of the software packages that you see are geared towards that.

Um we have made significant improvements with our antivirus software, um hardware, network security, um, through routers, firewalls, various things of that type.

Um so we are always trying to be proactive and stay on top of making sure that our our network and our information is secure.

Um last year we did, well, last couple of years we've done multi-factor authentication and you know, a lot of different things to try and circumvent um bad actors from getting in.

I think that works well too, the the dual sources there of authentication.

And then for you personally, just how in the world do you keep on top of all this ever changing stuff?

Because in your position, there's a lot going on.

Just AI is just one small part of it, but it it obviously will have a big impact, but that's not the only thing you gotta be prepared for.

How in the world do you keep on top of all this stuff?

A lot of lists and a lot of research.

Um yeah, it it is uh it is a lot of work keeping on top of all of it.

Do we have outside sources that help us as well?

Any other people that help us stay on top of whatever's going on.

We have a network consultant that helps us a lot.

Um, staying on the forefront of things if he sees things that come out.

Um, he alerts us so that we can make sure that we put the necessary pieces in place to stop attacks and stay on top of updates and changes.

Um, and if we have any concerns, he's there as an outside resource for us.

Good.

And I know that anybody that wants to present anything through our computer system has to go through you now, or you or your your team.

They can't just bring a thumb drive in anymore and just pop it in.

So I think that's another very positive step to scrub everything, make sure it's exactly safe so that we're not bringing some kind of virus or something into our system.

And I know that irritates some people, but that's the way we have to do things to be safe.

Try and error on the side of caution.

Very good.

All right, well, thank you for everything that you do.

I have a couple other notes here as well.

So I know Steph, I've sat in a lot of uh committees and advisory boards with you over the years, and I know we talk shop all the time about security stuff, and the other thing to kind of bring up here too is uh the bad guys use AI too, and it's made a lot of things a lot more sophisticated and Steph's job a lot harder.

Um, so it's it's always tough to stay up on that.

Um, just a couple of things I want to mention too.

You know, I I like to encourage a lot of times when people look at how to do AI, it's tough to know where to start.

You know, we don't really have a like a project management uh position here.

I don't think in IT.

Um, there's a lot of places that have done a lot of very big projects.

You know, we're you know, the the initial trailblazers have been out there a few years at this point.

Um, so I just encourage to look at what others have done.

Um I I talk a lot to the CIO up at the City of Lincoln and and also uh Derek up at dot com in Omaha.

I mean they're they're working on some pretty big things too.

Um and you guys use a lot of standard software at various um uh city departments here too.

So I would really encourage you to kind of look around and see what some others have done.

I'm sure there's already a few ahead, and don't try and chase brilliance too hard on your own.

There's some other people out there that have done a lot.

And I think when you get into it, you'll find uh doing those more transformational projects.

I mean, they'll be expensive.

You'll need some type of project management lead, and you may need to work with an external partner to help do some of that.

Um I'm kind of a subscriber of agile methodology, uh, you know, doing scrums and all that too, and you implement those things, and I just learned how to do it the wrong way a lot of times, and just found a lot better ways or just over uh over my years.

Um I just encourage you to get creative and go out and network and see what everyone else is doing too, and I'm sure you'll come back with some great ideas.

Yep, we'll definitely do our research and and do some digging.

So, yep.

Would anyone else like to speak on this?

And we'll go on to uh community development and CRA with Mr.

Navity.

I would like to add to Mitch's comments.

Our insurance company, the cyber insurance.

I believe they actually do vulnerable vulnerability tests on our system.

They'll they'll try to attack it, and then they send us report.

So it's really we have other people looking in our system and making sure that we're doing the right things.

So and they will also send us alerts.

Um, I just got one today as an advisory to let us know hey, if you have this, make sure you take care of it.

I mean, we're we were covered on that one, so we were good, but they do send us alerts and make sure we stay on top of vulnerabilities as well.

So it's another good resource.

Yep.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Chad, you're up.

Thank you.

I didn't preload my presentation tonight, so you'll have to bear with me as I find it.

Um, and I actually have two of them, and we'll go through this one first.

Um I have a separate presentation for the CRA budget.

Uh, this is community development, regional planning.

And there are three divisions within community development.

So, first is the regional planning division.

We are looking for fiscal fiscal year 27 with a 1% increase in personnel services and no requested FTEs this year.

Operating expenses, we're looking at about eight percent.

That is a total of 2400.

I like to give you those numbers those actual numbers because eight percent sounds really scary, but our budget overall operating budget is really very tiny, and a lot of that is um bringing in the citizen serve subscriptions for employees for myself and for my employees for our um online permitting.

Those actually run about 1,500 apiece.

So if we took those out, we'd have a decrease overall in our budget.

Capital projects, no capital projects in or capital funding for regional planning.

Any questions on regional planning before I jump into building services?

Or do you want to go through them all?

Why should keep going?

None so far.

Okay.

Um capital community development building services, and Ed is here if you have any specific questions.

We are looking at a 5% increase for personnel and no new FTEs.

Operating expenses, there is a big jump.

It's 44%, which includes carrying over 40,000 in contract services.

That is the money that PRT uses to remove problem properties.

We may have one of those.

We have one of those that it looks like we're moving forward with, and it will take up about the 40,000, but then it also would give us 40,000 for projects next year.

Are some of those tied into like code enforcement issues?

Should be okay.

Yeah, I think I might know what you're talking about.

Um typically what that when it's 40,000, this typically means we're condemning a house or something and tearing it down.

So that 40,000 from there, the reason it really hasn't been allocated this year is that um we had some properties out there we're looking at, but with the efforts of PRT and the collaborated effort, we were able to get at least three of those properties off there.

There was one big one on 18th Street that was an old house.

The gentleman had passed away, nobody wanted to take responsibility for it.

That was one that was looking at using this 40,000.

We had a member from the community buy that property, so we didn't have to do it ourselves.

But it wasn't in bad shape, it would have uh they must have found them.

Ending the alert can be a little calm.

So anyway, just uh just to kind of touch on that.

That is why that money hasn't been utilized this year.

That was kind of gonna be earmarked for that one project there on 18th Street, but it came out to uh we didn't have to, and so instead of just letting go, it's uh suggested to carry that over to the next fiscal year.

So potentially we got a couple other ones if we don't have the same success as we did that we'll uh carry that over and use that for potential combination uh combination projects.

And you actually last week approved the micro TIFF on that project on 18th Street, where he's going to be building a couple of duplexes there after he's cleared off that property.

So that is a big part of it.

The other um 22% of the increase is necessary for citizen serve licenses, and that is the software for um building permits and so Mr.

Nickerson has a question.

Yeah, Ed, why don't you come back up?

And for people that are watching may not have any clue what PRT is.

Why don't you just help remind everybody really what that team does?

How often do they meet and what's the uh PRT stands for uh problem resolution team?

So that uh is a group of several different departments, it's legal, um building department, planning, uh the sheriff's department, the police department, health department, and health department.

We all get together and problem uh these for the get on that, there has to be um issues with two or three departments without the city that we're just having problems.

So we kind of get together once a quarter, talk about these properties, and uh we're got the issues that how can I help you to get this move forward?

So it's been really successful in getting uh some of these um stuff that is kind of um dead in the water, and we get in the room and just talk about it, whether going back and forth or emails or talking.

So it's been it's been um a good help.

So that's kind of the purpose of that is.

I think it's uh this team's been around maybe late 80s.

I think uh Mayor Dobish had started this this uh this team, and it's in done a lot of good things here.

And those homes are ones that that are falling under several categories that that are problems, so it's not like just a vacant home that's been sitting there for 10 years.

Uh uh CSOs make uh frequent trips over there, uh building department has issues that are structural issues, or there's some compliance issue that it doesn't move forward with legal, or we get we have to get legal involved to get these things to move forward.

May have to go over to court.

There's one um we cleared a property, it took uh order from the judge to allow us to go in there, and we did use that that uh contract services money that we would just talk about previously to actually get that taken care of.

Okay, about how many properties do you think there are right now that you're dealing with roughly right now?

We we've got about a half a dozen on that list right now.

It just takes time to work through them.

It does, it does.

It may take time uh a year or one extreme, seven years.

So it just depends.

Sometimes you get uh you'll talk to the people with the property and they'll start working towards it, then they'll stop.

And then we kind of start the process all over again.

But we're a little bit further than we were when we started it.

Okay.

All right, very good.

Thank you, Ed.

Well, and then capital equipment, we are looking at one new inspection vehicle.

This will replace the 2010 Ford Focus.

So just a replacement so that we have a vehicle for every inspector so that they can actually go out and do their job.

Um community development, and this should be grants and housing.

Uh we changed that last year.

Personnel services is a decrease of 13%.

We had an a an employee resign and a new one start at step one, so there's a decrease in overall salary over the years, that will go back up.

Um, no increase in FTEs.

Operating expenses, we're looking at an increase of 35%.

That's $6,600.

When we moved this position last year, we didn't budget anything in for in anything for that position for expenses and operating expenses.

So we've been kind of limping along, and part of the it helped that we had a vacancy and didn't have things, but it does we are adding $6,600 for travel and training and office equipment and expenses and those kinds of things.

Um, and then no capital projects or capital equipment.

I have a couple quick questions here, Chad.

And this might be for you or Ed both.

Um so in the last couple of weeks, I actually looked through some of those problems.

I think on that PRT list that you're talking about.

And I mean, some of them are pretty pretty rough out there.

And one of the comments or thoughts kind of came up, you know, it might cost tens of thousands of dollars on a couple of those to really clean them up.

And then I think the concern is, you know, sometimes the person with the problem, you know, may still own the land or the property, and there's a lot of concern, you know, if you spend $15,000 cleaning it up, is it gonna come back again in you know a couple of years, as Ed mentioned.

I think you kind of start that clock over again.

Right.

Is that kind of one of the concerns you guys have too?

Like, is this a which probably case by case?

Yeah, that that is very obviously one of those concerns.

So when I got the can't get you between the goalposts there, thanks.

One of the properties we've got over the one over there on uh East Oklahoma, there's a gentleman that lives in there and the house.

I live very close to that.

One extremely familiar with it.

It's it's a classic horror situation.

He has some other issues.

Um I'm very reluctant, reluctant to use the city's money when I think he'll just go and fill it back up.

So I'm not there's never there's never a good answer on how to how to combat those.

Um, in the past, the city has done cleanups of houses, they move back in, they fill it right back up.

So those I don't really like to use the money for that.

If we've got some other avenues that we can get these uh people help because it's clearly a mental illness.

Um you really just have to treat them all case by case on that, yeah, before you make an investment of that size, I assume.

If it's like if it's a clear structural issue in the house, there's no saving it.

Well, we'll tear it down.

If the if the property owner just doesn't have the means or just refuses to comply, we'll go ahead and get a judgment and get that get that taken down, and then the pro the property can be used for um development.

And I know there are some very frustrated property that that neighbors some of these too, so I know it's just a tough job, but appreciate whatever we can do to try and help get those, but it still has to make financial sense.

So thank you.

Ready for CRA?

Yep.

CRA budget.

Um we are projecting these are big numbers, a lot of that is TIFF pass throughs.

We've got over 90 TIFF projects that are currently active in the city of Grand Island.

Um we've paid off a few of them this year, and we'll pay off a few of those as we as the year continues, but we are looking at operating budget, just slightly increased from 2026 program and program.

When I say program, what I'm talking about is facade improvements, other grants, life safety program, those things that we do as grants.

TIFF bond payments, they are not actually that high.

We've got about a million dollars of additional funding in there that is there to make sure that if more payment more money comes in than we have budgeted than we expect, we can pay that out because we are obligated to pay that out.

We only pay out what comes in.

So if it doesn't come in, we we don't pay it out.

It doesn't give us any real additional authority, but it does keep us from having to do a budget amendment in order to make our contractual obligations on that.

Husker Harvest Days and Conestoga Mall.

We have 200,000 to each of those.

Estimated highlights, we're looking at facade improvements of 450,000, Conestoga Marketplace, payment 4 of 20 of 200,000, Husker Harvest Days, 9 of 10 of 200,000, other projects, $500,000.

So that's a really big number, but I want to talk about that with the property on 4th Street.

The fire and life safety, $200,000.

We have allocated $120,000 of what was budgeted this year, and I've got some people that are still interested.

We may budget some of that, some more of that for this year.

And then land purchase, $100,000.

Most years we don't purchase property.

This year we did.

Carryover projects, and these are things where we have already committed funds to these projects, and they will not be done before the end of the budget year.

So we have three of those that I'm anticipating.

Again, that's more upper story apartments.

And then last month, the leadercrans approached the CRA and requested funding for a fire alarm system and a life safety study.

That life safety study actually will also include things like ADA accessibility, how to potentially put an elevator into that so that you can get from one level of the building to another.

Got rid of any grandfathering for father for sprinklers and so on.

So that was 10 years ago.

But it does make sense to have a plan on how to do it, how to tie it in with if they want to put an elevator in so that they don't have to move things in the future.

And the CRA did make that grant last month.

Projects paid since last year.

We paid off the life safety improvements on the Hetty building.

We paid the facade grant down on Ramada Road, the facade grant at 703 West Third, and we've paid $300,000 of the facade project on the Elks Building.

I anticipate we'll pay the last hundred thousand out before the end of the year.

Then we have two more, the Woolworth Building Life Safety, 55,000.

Again, that's for upper story residential, and a facade.

They are finishing that project up, so I'm anticipating that we'll pay that out before the end of the fiscal year.

And speakers for a portion of the speaker project with rail side.

I know City Council also designated money for that project.

And then the last thing that we did was we purchased the Miller property on 4th Street.

This is the property that's behind the water shop that the utilities department was looking for, looking at purchasing a couple of years ago, and it was purchased by somebody else, and they ended up not being able to use it for what they wanted to use it for.

We did purchase this.

And then the CRA would be able to take that funding that we get back and invest that into the Fourth Street Plaza project.

So this is the property on Fourth Street.

This is T-shirt engineers, this is the water shop.

So this is the old fire station there on Fourth Street.

Utilities would take about two-thirds of this, and this leaves a plaza that is similar in size to a Moore Plaza.

TIFF projects with final payments this year.

The one of Todd Inc's duplex projects, the Auto One project that did a triplex there on Pine Street, Weinerick Development, there's on Division and Plum.

That one only went for seven years.

Tower 217 will pay off this year.

Habitats project on Eighth and Superior.

Those duplex projects that Todd Inc.

did several years ago.

We are anticipating will pay off in the next year.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Catch a rest.

No one ever questions uh Chad Nebity's expertise.

He does a great job with planning and the CRA.

And if you ever want great calachis, boy, um he does a good job there too as well.

But I'm speaking on behalf of the community redevelopment authority's budget.

And I don't think there's a one of you up there that doesn't believe in the mission of the CRA of what it really can provide so many benefits for our community.

Not only does it provide an incentive for development for new folks to be annexed potentially, not only does it provide an incentive maybe for someone to take a risk in a new business adventure because they could go ahead and maybe leverage some assistance, redevelopment old property into something that's meaningful, but when you get down to it, it ultimately creates vibrancy in our community and jobs and uh with every establishment that it fosters once it becomes on the tax rolls, increases a valuation, that means there's more potential public resources for schools and county and city.

So when I talk about this, and I think I've been here now, and maybe Chuck or Mitch can correct me, but I think I've been here the last three years.

And I've just remarked that under the state statute, why do we continue to limit our chances to maximize the CRA's uh opportunities by not using what the state allows the CRA to for taxation of the 2.6 levy?

We had that levy in place years and years ago, and it's my understanding that there's probably more projects coming down the pike each and every year that could use more resources.

And based on this budget, I think there's ought to be potentially a cushion to consider before you actually finalize uh the budget going forward.

So I approached the CRA committee a couple months ago, and Mr.

Nicholson's a liaison, and he attended that.

But I just remember similar remarks from a a year ago when I talked about the fact that why aren't we maximizing the 2.6 not go over it?

We cannot go over 2.6 according to state statute.

But those dollars could be used for more benefit than what we can do at a lower amount.

And going forward, once again, I'm reminiscing of some of the comments made by council.

If there's a demonstrated need to consider going to that level, then let's hear about it.

I don't think there's a close anyone's clo has a closed mind on that if there's a need, and not knowing where all the different tea leaves are going to end up on the aquatic center, but potentially there they might want to have a cushion for the city to be a partner in that aquatics, not knowing how the 22 million is going to end up, not knowing how all the different pieces of the pie might work out.

But if Chad wouldn't mind, this goes back to 2000 and I don't know four, six, when the city did not have a lot of resources to reinvest and build Lincoln Lincoln Pool.

So the CRE became a partner and actually bonded a certain portion of that to make that possible.

And maybe a similar opportunity might exist as you get down the road on the aquatic center, which is going to be a public private partnership if that whole effort comes to fruition.

So I just come forward and saying, hey, just keep for food for thought, keep in mind is there something that would be beneficial knowing that there's a certain number of things coming down the line in addition to maybe the Ledercrayons, maybe other projects that you're not aware of, maybe aquatics, but uh doggone, let's don't sell our shelf self short because while the CRA is relatively somewhat modern.

I mean it didn't exist until maybe the mid-70s, but we kind of take it all for granted now.

But boy, it's it's vibrant, and you look at all these different projects, they wouldn't happen without the community redevelopment authority.

So that's what I wanted to remark uh for your information, just food for thought and maybe discussion to consider um ways that you can bolster this down the road.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Hazi.

Okalaji recipes today.

Thank you, Ryan.

So, Chad, um what is the cash balance in the CRA fund as of now?

As of June 30th, okay, it is the CRA cash, and I'm not gonna include the TIFF cash because that's paid out, um, is 475,587,000.

We have 388,000 of outstanding commitments, so there's about 90,000 in there right now.

It'll it'll be pretty well drained by the end of the year.

It could I anticipate we'll be at about 350,000 by the end of the year because we will get our second uh big part of the property taxes.

Uh what is your tax asking for FY27?

Do you have a tax ask in?

Um we're asking for the $822,000, which would keep our levy at where it is right now, which is 1.54 something.

1.54, and then Mayor Vaberchak talked about the two.

Going to 2.6.

So that literally would bring you another half a million.

Yes, every um.1 mils raises $50,000 at rough.

So should we ask for the other half a million to take the tax asking for the CRA up to 2.6 mils?

Right.

Should we do that?

Um the CRA did not feel comfortable making that ask of city council at this point in time.

We don't have anything very specific.

However, they did say they would not be opposed to council doing that if there is a project that council wants them to take on.

Um, for instance, if you wanted to budget for improvements to so that the CRA would have money for improvements at the leadercrawn's and to facilitate that, or as Mr.

Or as Mr.

Vabrochek said, the potential of working with the Aquatic Center, you know, the in 2013, I believe it was, the CRA levy went from 1.8 mils to 2.6 mils.

And it did go to 2.6 mils because the city council said we can't afford to do Lincoln Park Pool.

It needs to be replaced.

This is a huge asset in that neighborhood, and one of them that we want to preserve.

And so they asked the CRA to bond those improvements and said at that point, we will raise your levy to 2.6 mils and we'll keep it there.

Well, over the course of the last 13 years, property valuations have gone up substantially, and the CRA, I believe, responsibly, and the and the city council responsibly has lowered that levy appropriately since then.

So long answer to your question, if there are things that council wants the CRA to very specifically participate in, they would be supportive of raising the levy if whether it's all the way to 2.6 or somewhere in between.

Well, Chad, thank you.

Because I think the part is is historically I have not I have I do not want any governmental entity to tax people just to hoard money.

Right.

And so at one point we had three or four years worth of ta annual tax in the bank.

Right.

You know, and so we need these projects to in order to pass the levy.

And I think the projects are the essential key to this thing.

I think Chad has managed it to the point now that we don't have hardly any left.

So like less than 100,000 of everything that's committed.

Right.

Gets paid out this year.

And then when everybody makes their August property, second half of their August property tax, Chad will get another infusion, but maybe it takes you up to 90,000 or whatever that may be.

Mayor Baverchak talked about the Aquatic Center and the leader grants, both which are very important to the community.

And I hadn't thought about the CRA, but I would certainly, as we look at this budget process, if if we can actually identify the leader grants and/or the aquatics or needs that are real, I would be willing to look at increasing the 1.54 to closer to the 2.6 if we can actually identify the something that we're going to do with it.

I and I think the CRA board would support that wholeheartedly, but they're also trying to be responsible.

Community members and they're paying taxes too, and don't want to put a burden on anybody.

Right.

And I appreciate that.

And I think listening to the the decades-long conversation with the leadercrance, you know, it's it's a volunteer club.

You know, again, though they all have challenges.

So and a downtown staple.

Yes.

Thank you, Chad.

Chad, I I I echo Chuck here too.

If I I appreciate the restraint if you don't need the extra tax tax asked to not take it as well.

Um I'm probably more familiar about this than a few other people too about the Fourth Street Plaza.

But I mean the 4th Street BID has been extremely interested in that too, correct?

Just to confirm for everyone else.

I yes, the Fourth Street BID actually released the some CDBG funds they had for another project that had not moved forward yet back to the CDBG program with the expectation that those would be used to help purchase this property from the CRA.

By doing that, what we're doing is taking those CDBG dollars, probably about 260,000 give or take, and by and using them for a specific purpose that is allowed within CDBG program, and then the CRA will have those funds and can dedicate those funds back to improvements on that property, but we won't have to follow federal regulations for the use of those funds, Davis Bacon, those kinds of things, because those funds will have been defederalized.

We'll have used them for us the appropriate purpose, put them back into the CRA's pool of funds, and then they can grant them back out for improvements.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Sheard Thanks.

Uh love that's last bit very cool.

On the leader grants, you had money in this year to do the study.

Yes.

I would want to see the results of that study before we agree to any changes to the tax to know what would be necessary and why.

I would anticipate it's going to take six months or so for that study to come forward.

It would not be in this year.

It would be the next budget.

But I don't disagree at all.

But I and in order to do a significant project with the leadercrayons that may last several years.

That was approved as part of a redevelopment plan, and that long-term investment was approved with that as well.

And I think that's a long conversation beyond this of what council will think of that, but I I don't want to.

I know we'll probably say, man, I wish we would have had that extra half a million dollars.

But I don't want to sit and hold it on the idea that we might on something we haven't agreed to yet.

So otherwise, thank you.

Next is Jackrabbit Run golf budget proposal.

All right, hello everyone.

I'm Sadana Manfell.

I'm the general manager at Jack Rabbit Run Golf Course.

Uh plans are that I just run through this quickly.

I want to thank you for allowing us to attend.

This is the first time we've ever been to a study session before and been able to be before council before actual budget approval.

So we really appreciate that.

Um I quickly just want to introduce tonight.

I've got Joel Holling with me, who's been the superintendent of the course for 37 years.

Um Justin Arlt is right here behind me to my left.

He is the regional manager, so he's from Landscapes Golf Management.

And someone who you have probably not had the opportunity to meet yet is Tatum Timbers, who is sitting over there next to Joel.

Um, and he is our PGA golf professional that we've brought on this year, and he's doing an amazing job for us.

So going down to uh the voice of the customer, um, all of our ratings from the NPS course conditions, how likely are you to return, pace of play, staff being helpful, and professionalism are all well above average.

Um the key strategies that we want to implement this year in order to achieve our proposed 2027 budget is we're looking at approximately a four percent increase in pricing um across the board as far as passes go, um, general golf rates go, and that's just to offset um rising costs.

Um could I have you make that a full screen for people that are watching that at home?

F5.

There we go.

Very good.

Thank you.

That'll help.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh some of the other things that we want to do in order to establish the budget are um do expanding our outings.

Um we want to do these are some things that we're gonna be attempting, some of these this fall, and then some of them coming into next year.

So um a writer cut format.

A lot of golf courses will do like a member guest.

We don't have members, we have pass holders.

So we're looking at doing like a pass holder guest type event, um, an adult junior event, um, expanding our current teachers league, and then we have a brand new any time league this year, so we want to look at expanding that as well.

Um, look at possibly doing uh cornhole tournament.

Um we will continue to manage our inventory both uh for merchandise, food and beverage, and in the maintenance department.

Um we want to make sure that we are providing um our staff uh with the equipment and the resources necessary to remain successful, and especially maintaining the conditions of the golf course.

Um we plan on continuing with our current weekend pricing, where weekend is Friday through Sunday, and also continuing to have people utilize our Jackrabbit Run app, um, credit books, tag marshall GPS sponsorships, and then this coming year we want to investigate the possibility of partnering, doing some corporate memberships, sponsorships, and just partnering with area businesses.

Um those are just kind of some highlights from those slides.

Um, this right here is our financial summary that I just want to make sure everyone understands this is through the May 2026 draft.

I did not have the final financials from May available when the presentation was requested.

So basically everything from October through the month of May, our actual numbers may change slightly when the final financials come in.

And then everything for June, July, August, and September are budgeted numbers.

We are, as you can see, it's probably kind of hard to see, but we are beating budget as far as our gross revenues go and gross profit.

Our expenses are fairly flat to budget.

We're about a thousand dollars over budget, nine months into the fiscal year.

So currently we are still looking at a potential loss as far as EBITDA goes for the fiscal year 2026, but today's June 29th, and I'm looking at June numbers in June number, June's well above budget.

So if we can see that success continued in June and have that go through July, August, and September, I can definitely see this being in the positive as far as finishing out fiscal year 2026.

Fiscal year 2027, this is just the summary budget page.

We're basically looking at bringing in just under 1.4 million dollars in revenue, which is about a 10% increase over fiscal year 26.

Expenses are looking at about a 5% increase.

Again, everyone knows everything's going up in price, right?

Equipment, chemicals, food, it all is unfortunately going up in price.

But with this proposed budget, we are looking at finishing fiscal year 2027 with a positive number.

On to 2027 capital requests.

What we're asking for this year is we want to continue our tree removal and planting project.

We've had a few bad storms go through this season, and we have actually fared very well.

We've lost two large limbs over the entire course, and then of course some small, you know, sticks and branches.

But I really attribute us not having severe damage to the fact that we have done this tree program and we've cut down tree trees that are dead and dying, and then we're strategically replacing them.

Our driving range needs some attention.

Um it needs new signage out there.

That some of the numbers are kind of even hard to read on the yardages.

We'd like to put some additional uh markers out there, um, pour concrete and add some additional driving range mats to allow our patrons to be able to come out and utilize the driving range on those nicer days in the winter months.

If it gets above 40 degrees, they can come out and make an hit off of the range all winter long.

Uh, the excuse me, next item is um we've talked about the deck for a couple years.

The deck is basically done.

It's gonna have to be torn down, it's really getting to the point where it's not safe anymore.

So we need to replace the deck.

I'd like to make expand that deck.

Um, our inside space is very limited, and so we basically overflow into that outside deck space when we have events and we could really use some more space, and then along with that, um would be getting deck furniture and then replacing the grill, which is our only way that we have to cook anything unless we do it in a roaster or on the hot dog roller.

So our parking lot needs to be regraded desperately with the landfill still shifting and everything.

I've reached out to Shannon with the streets department.

It's been graded a few times in the past, but there was never any cost to the golf course because it was a city entity and a city entity.

I'm not quite sure how that is gonna work this year, and that's why I put unknown next to that as far as a dollar amount.

She did email me back today, but we um she said she's gonna get us on the schedule, and I asked the question about costs, but I haven't heard back on her that um for that yet, so that's why I left that there.

The equipment that we're asking for is two Toro Greens mowers, which the total for both of them is that 95,060, and that's through source well.

Those mowers would replace two units that we currently have in our maintenance leasing program.

The reason that we want to replace those is twofold.

Um, one, the age of those units is getting to where they need to have the knive units and the blades, and they need to have a bunch of work done to them, and it's gonna be some significant money that we would be putting into leased equipment that is already, I think 11 or 12 years old.

If we purchase the mowers, they would become assets of the city.

They would also then do a better job, but then it would also help decrease our lease payments for those two mowers that are currently coming out of operating.

They would also then do a better job, but then it would also help decrease our lease payments for those two mowers that are currently coming out of operating, and then just another small ask for a blower for the maintenance department for $12,000.

Um, items for the radar, we've covered a lot of this before.

Um, the irrigation system.

I will tell you that uh there is a company coming out.

Um, landscapes golf management is partnering with irrigation technologies out of Denver.

They're actually gonna be on site um July 6th through 8th.

I don't know the exact timeline of arrival on the 6th, but they are basically gonna be doing a study of the irrigation system at the golf course.

They will then prepare a report that council can then review.

Um they will let you know what they think improvements, replacements, what needs to be made, and um I'm not 100% sure.

I'm thinking there'll be some dollar amounts tied with that as well.

So at least now you'll have a document that is maybe more informative of the what we're looking at as far as irrigation system goes at the golf course.

Um the septic system we've talked about and connecting the sewer and water.

Some of these other items are just radar items for the future, but I just included them in the presentation.

Um, you know, we're really um super proud to be the home of all these different organizations here.

Our men's leagues and our ladies' leagues, we've got senior leagues, we have teachers league, we have a new any-time league that we're just doing this year.

Um, we're super proud to be the home of uh Northwest High School's golf program.

Um we did hold the first uh U.S.

kids uh golf event out here that happened in the Midwest for quite a number of years.

As a question here, okay, you're sure okay.

Sorry.

Uh and then um we did host three Nebraska junior golf events.

Um one question, and I guess I didn't have it in the presentation.

Is um I do receive quite a few requests for people that want to purchase cigars on the course.

They are bringing them on the course, which there's that's not against the law, they can do that.

But I don't know if that's something the council would be willing to consider for us to have the revenue from that.

It's it's not gonna be a huge amount of revenue, obviously, but every little bit helps.

Um, and then I guess I just want to conclude before any questions, just say that we're an extremely proud partner for various organizations in the community.

Um, we help all different types of organizations from children with disabilities, veterans, um, scholarship fundraising, various animal rescue organizations, while all maintaining excellent course conditions and excellent customer service at the course to give everyone that visits us, whether it's somebody from out of state that's just coming because they're happened to be in Nebraska for the Cattleman show, which we had some traffic from, the Nebraska State Fair concerts, things like that, all the way to our pass holders that we see every single day.

We just want to give them the best experience possible for coming out to Jackrabbit Run.

So I think Justin wanted to say a few things, and then I'm more than happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Or Jack, do you want to go ahead and Justin?

If you want to come up.

Thanks, Sadonna.

Um just wanted to give a high-level overview.

Obviously, she put together a great presentation.

Um, maybe get in front of some questions, uh, simplify our time.

Um the budget that's been put in front of you, just high-level recap.

We're we're looking at increasing rounds eight percent revenue ten percent.

Our expenses are gonna go up about eight percent.

And then I wanted to touch on payroll because wages are always top of mind.

Uh the total wages will be somewhere around, well, not somewhere around 534,000.

Um, and that's a 43,000 dollar increase, roughly eight percent.

So it's an aggressive budget, but we feel very confident that we can achieve what Patrick and the city and Todd have kind of asked us, and we feel that the council wants is when can we operate at a break-even?

And the exciting thing is this will be the first time that we produce a budget that we expect to finish in the black.

Um that is aggressive, but we feel we can do that.

Um, we're coming off of a year in which we did not ask for a cash infusion, so there was no supplemental cash infusion, uh, which is a great sign.

Um we've only done that two out of uh all of our years managing.

So things are tracking in the right direction.

Um so I kind of wanted to touch that, and with that, Sadonna and I are happy to answer any questions that any anybody might have.

Jack.

Thank you.

Um thanks for the report.

Um I think you guys are doing some good things.

I had a question about the mower, just in that lease you talk about it's $95,000 to get two mowers.

How much is the lease payment?

So our current maintenance lease payment is a little over $14,000 per month for six months out of the year.

Now the two mowers that we would be replacing are included in that $14,000.

I think our lease payment would probably go down two to three thousand dollars per month.

So we're looking at a savings of 12 to 18,000 dollars out of the operating budget because all leases are currently paid out of operating, which is a little bit different than when landscapes first took over, just with some changes in accounting for municipalities and stuff through the management company.

So 12 to 18,000 dollars you'd save in that bucket would take you five years.

How long do these mowers last?

I mean, the current mowers that we're using right now, I believe are 12, 12 years, 11, 11 years old.

Um they're still they're still usable.

We're just to the point where it's gonna cost we're probably talking sixteen thousandish dollars just to do the repairs on them this year, and then every year as equipment ages, obviously the repair costs go up in those, and they are leased, so we have absolutely no equity in them.

The city doesn't.

Um Landscapes first came in, the equipment at the course was significantly aged, and so there really wasn't any choice besides to basically bring in a whole bunch of leased maintenance equipment.

And what we've been trying to slowly do over the past few years in budgeting is slowly start to have the city purchase equipment through capital so that then it becomes assets again of the city instead of paying those expensive lease payments out of operating and then having to repair those out of operating as well.

I think if you can find a way to you know eventually tip back and save money on it, I'm I'm good with that.

Just curious on that cost.

Um you mentioned that you want to do some more tournaments and event things like that.

Are those more profitable than just open tea times?

You know, I think I think it just it's a hard question.

I mean, I think it depends.

You're when we get a full tournament and you have those people that are paying basically a full green fee, so they're paying for an 18-hole green fee with a cart, they're having some beverages, we're feeding them a meal.

Yes, that is gonna be more profitable.

And there are different business models out there that they run leagues every night of the week on both nines, and then they have tournaments Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and there's nothing wrong with that business model.

It's basically more like guaranteed income every day, um unless the weather doesn't cooperate.

But we've always been given guidance to make sure that we have public tea times open.

And so we I very consciously make the choice when I schedule tournaments to try to only do it like on a Sunday of the weekend or a Saturday, have the other day completely open.

It doesn't work every weekend throughout the year, but and also when we run our leagues, we only run leagues on one half of the course, so we have the other half of the course open for public.

But if I ran just straight tournaments and ran like leagues, yes, we would be more profitable, I'd be.

Yeah, let me interject uh to answer the question.

One of the main benefits of an outing, there's two two benefits.

One, it helps the community.

Um secondly, it's guaranteed revenue, meaning it's it's something we can budget and we can plan on, even if it's 20 mile an hour winds or a heat index of 108 or it rains, right?

They're gonna play its pre-booked business and guaranteed business.

So ultimately, we want to balance that as much as possible uh for the community for the bottom line and and managing the the golf course like a business.

Uh one just personal note.

Twice, maybe three times in the last year.

I'm a member of Riverside.

Uh just being what's that clarifying my transparency is the word.

Uh and there's been two or three times in the last year where there's been a tournament or an event at Riverside that I couldn't get go off there.

And each time I've gone to Jackrabbit and you had an event as well.

Is there a way to coordinate to say, and it wasn't just you.

The last one, Indian Head had a tournament.

Uh Caro had a tournament.

I ended up going to Nebraska dunes, and your course is in way better shape than Nebraska Dunes, no offense, guys.

But uh is there a way to because I what I look at there is yeah, it's nice to have that guaranteed revenue, but you have an opportunity on those days to get people from other courses that don't get a chance or don't take the chance to play there as often.

Yeah.

You make a good point, and what you're experiencing is typical to in every community in every golf course post-COVID.

Uh the golf boom has created everybody wants an outing, every business wants an outing, every charity wants an outing.

So it's it's something that's very, very difficult, and again, you kind of have to balance it.

To answer your question, we can probably reach out and do our best.

Um we do the financial packets and and work with Riverside.

We have a relationship with Riverside.

Maybe that's something we can get together with you know the other golf professionals, general managers, and and try to you know, mix and match and try to find a way to keep T sheets open for all golfers at all the facilities.

It's a great idea.

We'll we'll maybe try to do that.

And there are some weekends throughout the year that like Riverside always has this tournament this weekend, and Indian Head always has this one this weekend, and um we have a few that have just oh, we always want to have the first Saturday in June or something, but um you know, our calendar kind of fluctuates each year.

We have a lot of returning tournaments, but we have some that may drop off and a lot of new ones coming in.

But I wish there was like a grand scheduling calendar for all the courses um in T.

Two that they're but there is not, I'm afraid.

So all right.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Mr.

Nickerson, thank you, Sadonna, for a very good report.

Uh covers a lot of territory, not only how things are going, but what you're looking for in the future.

I appreciate you reminding us that you did not ask for cash infusion this year.

That's always nice to remember and to be reminded of.

You talked about you want to adjust the fees about four percent or so.

What does that put it up to now?

I haven't golfed for many, many years.

What what's that all part figure now for a round of nine or eighteen holes with a potential increase?

Like right now, uh uh senior nine whole weekday round is $24 with tax.

Um the prices are a little bit more expensive on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, um, just because they're their prime time.

Um I don't know.

I could I have my rate sheet.

I could I could grab it.

I think uh uh adult uh nine hole during the week is $26 with tax.

So that's at parity pretty much with the competition you're saying because everybody's raising for the very reasons you talked about, things are going up, so you have to find your revenue sources somewhere, and that's the players.

That's part of it.

Yeah, and quite honestly, because of the process with the municipality and what we do budgetarily and it's public input, I can pretty much guarantee everybody's gonna set their rates off of what we do, and they're gonna go up as much or more based on us just the way it is.

Exactly.

One other thing to also remember is that I'm sure you're finding throughout the community and lots of places that you go to is that businesses are charging a percentage like a fee if you're using a card.

And that is not something that we um currently do at JackRabbit.

It may be something that we might have to consider in the future, but when you're comparing prices between courses, it's just important to make sure that you're comparing all the fees and charges at one course to all the fees and charges at another course because that can make a significant difference.

You're saying some people charge a fee to a player even though they're not using a cart, just kind of a cart fee or no, um a card, like a credit card.

Card fees, okay cards.

Like a three percent, you can pay cash and it's this much and it's three percent more than that.

I pay them all the time.

I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, I would I would add one more thing as we talk about rates and increases.

Um, you know, last year we were in a similar situation.

We recommended a similar increase.

Um zero complaints.

We didn't maybe have maybe not zero, but very, very few complaints, which speaks to the value and the product, which kind of dictates customer satisfaction.

Obviously, we want to be the value-driven facility, and we don't want to price ourselves out for the general public and the community, because that's why we're here.

Uh, but because of the experience is as good as it is, we feel like we would have the similar feedback with the rate increases 26 into 27 that we experienced previously.

Good.

And then I think a year ago we were talking about a truck that was in pretty bad shape.

Did you get a new truck?

We have a new truck.

Replace the old Jalopi and Yeah that was a capital expenditure he paid for the truck and then um we paid for the snow plow to go with it out of operating.

Okay.

And then just a quick question I just reminded myself what's a blower for $12,000?

What kind of blower?

It's a machine that's used on the course like to blow off the greens and the T's.

That's $12,000 for one?

Yep.

It's a buffalo blower it's a pull behind.

It's a vital piece of equipment for for Joel and and the crew for two reasons.

One when we get a lot of rain and you got grass clippings they will then follow up with the buffalo blower to get all of the grass clippings off the playing surfaces so it adds to a better experience and then in the fall with the trees and the leaves imperative just two of many you know things that they use it for important piece but like anything like like farm equipment it's through the roof right last five years it's very difficult.

Then this question is for our city attorney going to ask your procedural thing they introduced some of the people in the audience for the golf course is it okay if I asked them to come up if they did not sign up since they're presenting their budget proposal tonight.

They can bring whoever they want up during their presentation since it's a budget presentation they're not just here as members of the public.

Okay good so I I'd like to uh have our pro, our new pro guy come up here.

I told him you don't have to get up and speak.

He does get to he does get to get up and speak.

If I'm here now after November you won't have to worry about this but but up to November you're probably going to get asked to come up and speak.

So I just want to know introduce yourself again tell us what your feelings are about the course you I don't know how long you've been there but just give us your view of what you've seen so far.

Yeah I'm Tatum Timbers I'm from Alliance Nebraska I've been a pro for two years now and I've been here for four months so February 28th I started it's a lot like home I'm from a small golf course so a Muni we had 8,000 people very flat not a lot of hills but what I can say about the course is just how much support we have around us and around in the pro shop just our staff this is my third facility now and I've been with landscapes my second facility I've never been with such a staff where we are so supportive and we come in with such a drive to get what we need done every day.

And then when we come in we also have the support behind with the members and the pass holders to not only we have to support them with just our public tea times but things to do as well other amenities and that's why I think those tournaments and those other things are really going to help because we have things such as like those public tea times but we only have tournaments through our our men our men's and our ladies association.

So if we add stuff like those tournaments and those the cornhole tournament or these other outings I think that's really going to boost our support and also help us just within support with the other golf courses around us because then we're gonna have our our members and our pass holders and our guests support and collect around us if that makes sense.

Alright very good but your overall feeling of the course itself quality of the course pretty darn good what do you feel about the quality of the course?

Oh it's great.

It's probably I mean it's awesome like are you talking about like just maintenance side with everything there's everything.

Yeah it's great it's awesome I think it's probably bang for your buck haven't been to Riverside but yeah I mean it's great it's gonna be a good place anywhere you're at so good.

All right well thank you for your report.

Yeah thank you just one thing I'll I'll throw in here too I I I respect the thing getting out some of those long-term equipment leases uh just having worked in finance for quite a while I can tell you exactly how the math usually works out in the long-term equipment lease makes a lot of sense and uh uh love to see you guys get a year in the black here as well too and appreciate everything you're doing out there so thanks for that and uh Chuck Ms.

Trousey Yeah so I have a first question Sadonna is about rates so uh our senior rate this year is $24 so when I go in on Monday morning it's $24.

Now Indian head is at $24 for an adult now we're at 26 for an adult so we're two dollars higher than Indian head is for this year adult to adult so what it what is it for FY27 what are we looking at for rates so when I did the rates um and brought the proposal before council for fiscal year 26 what I did is I went to Indian Head's website and I went to Caro's website and I saw what their rates were and I did my best to make our fiscal year 2026 rates the same as what they were running in 2025.

So the rate that you're talking about the 24 dollars at Indian Head, does that include the sales tax and does that include the three percent fee that's charged on a card?

Because when I look on the website and we've called out there to to other area courses, not just Indian Head, um, their rates do not include sales tax.

So I just think it's really important to make sure that we're comparing apples to apples.

Um and I think that our rates are uh I could be wrong, but I believe our rates are just slightly below what Indian head is when you factor in even just the sales tax.

Yeah, so I'm an anti-fee guy, so any place that charges me to use the card, I pay cash.

Yeah.

Because I'm just an anti-fee guy.

So I mean that's that's what I would do.

My second probably point is maybe more towards Todd sitting in the back.

I have asked for many years about paving the parking lot at uh JackRabbit.

I know that we're talking about re-graveling it and and but we just got done um repaving Ryder Park.

You know, and I think at Jackrabbit, we have we are predicted to have 28,000 and change as far as the number of rounds.

So we have a lot more traffic.

We have a lot of traffic at Jackrabbit, and we're talking about resurfacing the the asphalt road coming in, and then you get to this dust pile or whatever it is, and and it it should be.

You know, the the city just um we just cited a petting zoo for not having a paved parking.

And I'm telling you, the petting zoo is much cleaner than Jackrabbit's parking lot.

It's like there there's no dust, but yet the city turns around and you know, and others will say you need to pave your parking.

Well, this is when we should pave our own parking lot.

And I and Todd knows I've been asking this for quite a few years.

Uh I would like to see us come up with the funds to help that do that.

There's other golf courses, you know, York was one that I was at that have paved parking lots.

It's just a matter of not getting out in the dust pile.

You know, there's other ways of doing it, and I just think it's time.

This is the 50th anniversary of Jack Rabbit Run.

It's probably time that we do that, Todd.

I guess the only thing I mean, Todd's welcome to come up and speak.

We I I know that that's a desire of yours, and it's something that we have checked on, and I mean, we've visited with Keith about that possibility, and we were basically told that it probably is not the best route to go because that ground underneath, because that's part of the landfill is still shifting and moving.

Um the landfill basically starts where the road into the parking lot ends.

Um we drag the parking lot at least once a week and sometimes twice a week to try to keep it as smooth as we can.

But you can tell after a large rain um the differences and and dips and they're not potholes necessarily, but it is not a level surface.

And if it was something that could be done and could stay nice and we wouldn't have to turn around and put a bunch more money in on top of I've been told it's about a million dollars to pave it, I would be all for it because I have the same dust on my car and in the clubhouse and everything.

So it's not that we don't want to pave it.

I just don't know that it's the best decision fiscally because of the status of the ground that it's on and what could happen.

Yeah, the road in is asphalt, and so I wouldn't even mind asphalt at this point.

Uh you know, I mean I just this morning I was walking around Eagle Scott Lake, and and about every six feet, that's asphalt, every six feet there's about a six-inch gap where it does the same thing.

It splits and they fill it in, and it you know, so again, it probably wouldn't be the recommended thing to do for a walking trail around Eagle Scout Lake either, but that's what we do.

And even though we know that there's gonna be cracks, no, I think it's it's something that we need to think about.

Appreciate that.

Would anyone else like to speak?

All right.

Well, thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next uh will be the venue works budget proposal with uh Mr.

Tarwater.

I guess I probably should start off.

We uh we told the golf brother he wouldn't have to talk.

I told Lane over here that he probably wouldn't have to talk tonight, but I'm pretty excited to announce to you that we hired a replacement for Chelsea, our finance director, and his name is Lane Tweehouse, and he's here with us tonight.

So thought this would be a good time to introduce him to everybody.

Um, talk?

Oh no guarantees, but okay.

Good.

Um it's also pretty interesting.

As I started working on this budget this year, you know, you get lost in the numbers sometimes, and I have background in the toy industry, so you're always telling toys out a year ahead of time.

Working on the budget is the same kind of thing.

And I would have to catch myself going, wait, we don't have anything in October.

We're talking about October of 27.

We're talking about this.

So it's been uh it really put into it really highlighted that um I feel like I've known you guys for five years plus.

It's been a year and a half officially today since we've taken over this role, and we've covered a lot of ground.

Um we're still learning a lot about what we have in the building, what we have as far as supporting the uh the the whole facility and having and bringing product in and and talent in, and um, it's exciting, but it certainly is.

We've we've covered a lot of ground in a year and a half, so I continue to learn.

So I'm happy here to be here today talking about our budget and what we're looking at for this year.

So to start with, building rent is obviously a base element.

Um it's slightly up this year, um, not significantly, but slightly up.

Um that's partially due to um we do a uh copros with some talent with some promoters and things like that.

Well, with a COPRO, we throw in all the expenses together and then we split the profits coming out, and they take all the risk, and we have a split of 70-30 percent.

So that can sometimes affect what our building rent actually looks like because that COPRO rent gets thrown into the bucket of expenses that we then share.

Um contractually obligated revenue is up, um, and our first stub year is approximately 150 grand in that level.

Um, but this year I'm I'm forecasting that we'll be at about 500 grand in contractually obligated um revenue, and that includes uh sponsorships, uh suites.

You know, we've doubled the suit rate, uh, the rates that we've been able to charge for suites since taking over.

Um, but that continues to move upward, and that's one we want to keep moving upward because it's typically those areas are roughly 90 to 99 percent profit margin areas, so they're a good area to keep moving the needle.

Um reimbursed expenses, uh event expenses at 400,000.

Um food and beverage revenue is is up again at 1.19.

Um, and ticket revenues are um a little up a little bit, but it's at about a half a million dollars for total revenues of about 2.9 million dollars for our projected 27.

Expenses um we're um these are expected expenses with cost of goods sold roughly at 377,000.

Um personnel costs are are almost the same as they are predicted for 2026 at 1.4 million.

Um, general administrative costs, um, this is an area I think that we've been good at.

Um trying to keep our costs low.

That's um predicted to be about 10,000 lower than what it was last year.

Um, our occupancy costs, this is an area that my ops team at corporate um scratched their head about.

They said, you know, usually your op occupancy costs don't go down each year, and that's a true statement.

They don't.

But when we took it over, um, a lot of this is you know, the um uh prevent and maintenance contracts and such like that.

We found some overlaps in certain places.

We've kind of renegotiated some of those deals.

We found some that aren't quite as relevant now as what they were before.

Um so we actually are in a position to where we think with that um that occupancy cost should be reduced a little bit this year.

Um services and operational costs at 270,000.

Event expenses are at 668, and those expenses should continue to go up with the more events that we get, they should always be going up.

And uh our food and beverage expenses at 175,000 for a total expense of roughly three million dollars.

And in summary form, our revenues are about 2.9 with expenses at about 3.5, so we're right there at that half a million coming up short as far as self-sustaining our own building.

Um you add in the hotel occupancy tax, and this budget is targeted to come in at about $655 over.

Um, for what it's worth this year, it looks like we're trending to be on track budget-wise.

Uh uh, our first stub year, we um we had to ask for that 148,000 dollars.

Um, it looks like this year we might be right where we need to be and taking that first step to not have to ask for any additional dollars, and hopefully next year we can move that needle even further down the line.

So, what I've done here on this last two sheets is just to give you a little bit of a uh year over year comparison so you have some perspective on what our budget looks like and where it's been.

Um I am real proud that we continue to hold personnel expense at that at that level.

Um, we still have a couple FTEs that we haven't hired, one being a marketing director, uh, which is challenging.

Uh but we're still working on that.

Um, you can see where the occupancy is expenses gone up in our budget last year, and it'll drop down a little bit this year after um settling into it.

And um, and really there's just some um some real key takeaways there, I think that are um you'll see the event expenses on line five.

Um, those event expenses go up pretty significantly, but with every event that we have, those those will always go up.

So as long as those numbers are going up, all the other revenues should follow along just the same way.

And that's where we're at there.

Um, Mr.

Bavichek, would you like to speak again?

No, without running the risk of wearing out my welcome, and maybe I've already done that, but nonetheless, I would just like to point out a perspective because to try to estimate what an event center would do a year from now, based on not knowing attendance, not knowing any number of things.

But when you look back here a few years ago, no one anticipated uh unknown circumstances like COVID and how that would impact attendance and so forth.

So A, I just marvel once again at the projection here of the event center because it just shows how important it is to our community.

The reason I bring up perspective, and and some of you have been on council long before I was uh in in your chairs, but I don't think we ever the city ever had a presentation that I could recollect about what the Heartland Event Center would do under the previous management.

We just kind of like entrusted that role to that uh stalwart of our community.

But this is really good.

This is good for people to know.

Also, you know, if you don't have a plan, you don't know what you're gonna build on for success.

So I would just um commend the you know, venue works for uh their investment here and expertise to present a budget that people can understand.

So once again, I think this is a good measurement for government to know uh of what's it hopes to achieve because for many years we really didn't know, we just kind of hoped.

So uh that's my comment with your understanding.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Hasy.

Thank you, Brian.

So, Kyler, my question uh the total expense on the the second slide you have, the total expense you have is at three million dollars.

Uh the two two pages before.

Go back two pages.

This one here.

That one more before.

What's that?

One more or before that one, the one before that one.

That one.

Yes.

So the total expenses on the bottom of that slide say three million and change.

Now go to the next slide.

The total expenses say three million four hundred and fifty-six.

What's the difference between the expenses between those two slides?

Besides three hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars.

It's not that it's not that slight.

It's the I'm going to look because I think I have my answer in here.

Anyway, I it just stuck out, and I don't I don't know what the real expense is because I was expecting that five hundred thousand and you know, in funding to go down because of the big Iron Event Center revenue that's coming up in this, you know.

I I realize it's gonna be a little watered down to the signage, the 50,000 for the signage.

Um but anyway, again, like Mayor Babichek says, we don't really know.

You know, right now we we are predicting, we are projecting, but uh yeah.

So if you can find out that difference, let me know.

Um and I I remember seeing that and I looked at it.

I don't think it's a typo.

I think I just I have lost track of where that is.

But um okay.

Uh one of the things I would want to explain is the difference when for the 20 years that Fawner Park had the the management of the Heartland Event Center.

Um they didn't come to us to get any money, they weren't in our budget.

So for 20 years, we didn't come up with any money to give them, and that's why there was no budget presentation like this.

Uh it was a different format.

Um the city council did have reps on the Heartland Event Center board.

I know the Mayor Steele has been on there for a time.

I have been on there for a time.

And so we did have reps, and we did have an annual audit from Fawner that came to the city.

So I think you know, we were in engaged with financial numbers.

We do know what they were.

We were on the board, we you know, we saw every success, every challenge, you know.

So I think we were engaged, but they didn't do it in the budget format because they didn't come in asking for any money.

So that was why yours is unique at this time around with venue works.

So I did want to mention that is different.

Um, thank you, Kyler.

Yes, and and I would just say the only thing is different is um, you know, fortunately, like I say, oh, I believe we're going to hit our budget this year, so we won't be asking for money.

And the 500,000 that we're getting from the occupancy tax is the same money that Fawner was receiving prior to us taking over.

So I feel like we're in good position to get there too.

Mr.

Nickerson or Pat, did you have something you want to say first?

Uh yeah, so I just want to make this clear.

So uh the Fawner Park Management did get the occupation tax, but they didn't get anything else more than that.

So at the time, probably 350 or whatever the occupation tax was at that time, that's what they received.

This contract is different.

Mitch.

Thank you, Kyler.

It is good to have a plan, and that kind of helps you know as each month goes by, how are we going?

And you know, where do we want to focus?

And again, some of those things are out of your control, but at least you have an idea of what you're what you're trying to accomplish.

The food and beverage seems to be a big part of your organization, and you feel comfortable with those based on a year behind you as far as the amount of revenue that you are seeing from that.

Yes, and more so every day.

Um we uh it's a big part of the income that you get from an event center is the food and beverage.

You know, people think you make a lot of money when you bring in a Hank Williams Jr., but typically the money is fairly small in the grand scheme of things for the actual concert where you make your money back because the food and beverage and and other things that go along with that.

Um we hired a girl named Liz Johnston to be our food and beverage director.

Um she's been outstanding.

Um our inventory was out of control.

Um we were over-ordering, we were we had product waste because you know, lettuce only last so long.

Um she's done a great job of digging into that and really understanding where our waste has been.

Um if you'll notice our uh all of our grab and go coolers now, you'll see most of them are about half filled instead of fully filled, so as before we'd fill the whole uh coolers, and then if you didn't sell it in the right amount of time, it'd go bad, and you'd have to send it back, or you'd have to be lost.

Um she's done a really good job of digging into understanding what those numbers really need to look like by event, um, but in general overall.

And um, a good example is the upcoming State Fair.

Um we planned on the state fair being a significant contributor to our food and beverage uh revenues last year.

It was not.

Um it was the opposite.

It's actually there's just so much food out there to eat, they're not coming in the building to get a hamburger, they're eating the corn dog instead.

Um so learning that in the time that we've put in over the last year and a half, learning some of those elements not to plan for a big windfall from the um state fair and planning for the other concerts that we know.

Hairball, for example, we're going to sell a lot of beer for hairball.

I mean, we've got that history now, so we kind of know what's coming based on what the concert uh demographic is.

So she's done a great job of getting our food and beverage team um firmed up with some of those things that were really critical, right down to even a program called back office that literally lists the amount of pepper that you use in every recipe that she uses.

So she has really dug it down to a level to where we're going to just get better.

Next year will be even better.

She's still learning.

Um she certainly helps us improve.

That's pretty impressive.

And uh I believe I really like that level of detail and people that are into that.

That's important for managing your business properly.

I appreciate that.

Funnel cakes and corn dogs is my favorite at the State Fair, so that's why I'm not going to eat anything else.

That's my go-to.

This is just a question of overall operation, and I don't expect to get into nitty-gritty, but I just kind of like to know in general.

You've got the siege now, which is part of the thing, and there's so many games that will be played there.

And how does that work when somebody has an event like a football game?

And there's X number of dollars for tickets.

I'm assuming they have to rent the facility.

And then there's some kind of profit that you hope to get out of that.

How's it on based on sales of tickets or whatever?

How does that kind of shake out just roughly at the 10,000 foot level?

It's um every contract is different for the football because they're a tenant team.

Um a tenant team usually gets a little reduced rate.

So I charge them five thousand dollars per game, is what they pay for that.

Um we make the money on the food and beverage, we don't split that with the team.

So really a lot of our money comes from the rental rate and the food and beverage that goes along with it.

Everything else that they do from you know, from their suite sales, their their floor suite sales and um their promos and the the giveaways with the footballs and any kind of signatures, that's all their money.

So it really is more of a rental program, more so than an actual copro or a combined effort.

Okay.

And then how's the chiller situation?

I know that was a big thing hanging out.

How's that going?

It's excellent.

Um they had to uh have this big old chiller they brought in, they had to take it apart and put it into three pieces to actually move it inside the room.

So it was fully assembled.

They came in, disassembled it, used an engine, a floor engine hoist to take each part, move it inside the building.

Then when we got in there, the ceilings in certain places weren't high enough, so they had to cut out certain pipes and bring in new piping.

Um that being said, it sounds crazy and hectic.

The good news is by July 7th, we should have the new air conditioner up and running.

It was targeted to be June 22nd.

They hit a few snags with just sizing that they had to re-pipe some things, but it looks like July 7th is the target for when we should have all the new ACN.

Sure.

All right.

Well, that's good news for everybody.

All right.

Thank you.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Year and a half.

Put on a couple events.

Have you learned about events do better?

And some that probably didn't do as good as maybe you thought, that maybe it's gonna change the way you book things.

Yes.

Um and I think I'm learning every event.

Um I'm surprised at certain things.

You know, Kansas only sold 1200 tickets.

That was a great concert for a band that's going out, and it was probably one of the more elegant rock and roll concerts you you'd ever go to.

The instrumentalists are great, but 1,200 was that number, and it should have been a little stronger in my opinion.

Um with Dwight Yoakum and Z Top.

You know, I think they they tabled out a 3100, and we had a built for 5,000.

So how we didn't fill the re the arena for Z Top and Dwight Yoakum is that's a question mark.

And May Estus was in that lineup too, I believe.

Or maybe that's a different concert.

No, that was for Ian Munzick.

Um so we're learning there.

Things that I thought would be a for sure home run.

We call it a triple, not a home run.

Um so I'm learning some of those things that are a little surprising, and I don't think I've done learning.

I know it everyone's a little bit surprising.

I was real surprising uh to see the camp the band Ian Munsick.

I had never heard of that person before I started talking to them about uh coming in and playing at our arena.

I'm telling you, write that boy's name down.

This this guy, he um, before he came to our building, he didn't have one hit on the radio.

His only exposure has been just concerts and social media.

And if you look him up, he's a goofball.

I mean, but he is an entertainer to the nth degree.

Now he's got a radio hit.

So you're gonna see this guy go like this.

This was the first concert that we had that the 20-something crowd and 30-something crowd was there and active in our building.

I haven't done another show that brought in that crowd.

Ian Munsick did.

And it was one that wasn't on my radar.

So what it did was shift my mind, going, okay, there's some other up and comers right now that with the whole new world of being, you know, social media drive, and he's a good example of he came up through social media.

Um, and he continues to do that.

So I think what it's really doing is changing my focus on just focusing on promoters only and potentially going after some of these up and comers in a different way.

Um but he was a good example.

It was great to see it in the building.

Great to see those kids running up to the stage.

It was, you know, I I I've talked to you a little bit in chambers and just offline.

Zizi Top, I'm with you.

That was that was an amazing show.

I mean, it was just so entertaining.

Uh but I'd say a big hit you had was a Lindsay Sterling that I don't know if that was a sellout, but the place was packed.

It was pretty close.

Uh fantastic night for Grand Island when we have that.

Something I don't know that you've tapped into, or if you have, I haven't seen it, and you and I talked about this is more of that Hispanic market and some of those opportunities.

Is there a future for that?

Are you do you have any updates on some of the things that might be a little different uh in that regard?

There is.

I I don't have a new update other than I was working pretty heavily on this.

Um I started off with a local promoter and ended up with a promoter out of uh um Lincoln uh that specializes in the Latino market.

And um, we had put together, and this was through um the local promoter and this guy.

We were working on something that we were gonna call uh La Isla Music Festival, and it was three major bands, major uh Latino bands that were gonna come in.

And this happened just about the time ICE was going on.

Um and several of those bands, two of those bands said no, we we're not coming over right now.

We're just gonna sit back and hang tight.

So since that happened, I pretty much put the brakes on it, not out of um any reason other than it just hasn't been at the top of the priority list.

But we're back to that.

Um, one thing I talked to Liz with just two weeks ago was getting our um a concession stand uh set up that is Spanish speaking.

So right now there's no Spanish verbiage anywhere in the building.

So if you really don't know English at all and you go up, you don't even know how to order a hot dog necessarily.

That needs to change regardless of what we bring into the building, and we're working on that now.

Um so some of those little subtle changes, like going cashless versus cash, um, some of those little subtle changes are things I've had the luxury of being able to work on now, uh more so than just events.

But uh, but yeah, that's a it is a driving goal for me to make sure that happens.

It it's a market that will they'll fill the building with the right with the right act.

So that and that 2030-something crowd are two areas that we can really improve on.

And I know you probably have some big sports things coming up, like the volleyball was this big, you know.

How big is a night like the volleyball night was how how big is that?

Uh when you see that place filled.

I'm asking for the financial, like I know it's the same rent, probably, but literally dollars.

What does a night like that mean to your budget?

Um it's significant.

Um, and those are some of the it's like the Corn Husker Chaos Demolition Derby.

That's the hardest week of our lives in in in our industry in our building.

But the money that it brings in is so massively strong compared to what other one-night events are.

It's just, you know, you're talking six figures instead of hoping to get five figures on something, low five figures.

Um love volleyball is the same.

Um, love is obviously one that it it changes the numbers pretty significantly.

Um but also does I don't want to discount other things like fire school and cheer and dance and heartland hoops.

Those are typically the best profit centers for our building because we're not having to write a check for 150 grand for Hank Williams to come sing.

So we're instantly in the hole when we have talent come in, which is what makes it so difficult to make good money on a concert.

So concert in my opinion, really is there to supplement the event center and really serve the community, but that's not where we're making our dollars.

We're making our dollars really on truly those base level community events that really keep us active.

So it's a balance.

You need both.

And um, you know, another thing I mentioned on here was that contractually obligated income.

Without the right names, without Z Top without Dwight Yoakum, I can't go get a sponsor.

So if there's no building, none of the if there's none of the flash, the sponsors don't want to pay for that.

So it's a balance.

You've got to have both.

You've got to have all of have all of it to run the building, but uh they all feed together, and we're getting a pretty good handle on how to do that.

Last question I have is because it's in my world a little bit, a marketing director.

Uh are we not offering enough money to get a good candidate?

I don't know that that's necessarily it.

Okay.

But I don't know that.

Um I maybe.

Uh you know, if I found the right candidate, I would probably come back and plead and and fight to try to up the money where we need it to be.

Um I think it's just a it's an interesting niche.

I and I don't I can't put my finger on it, Jack.

And that's actually something I'd love to get your feedback on because in most places when you list a marketing job, a marketing sales job, you're getting 200 resumes day one.

It's just that's a coveted job.

Here it doesn't seem to be for some reason.

So I don't know if it's just that our unemployment's so low, everybody has a job and they're all working and happy, or if it's just not the venue that they really are interested in.

But it's um it's been an unusual anomaly.

And and I don't know how much of that is my fault, too, because I can kind of handle some of those marketing things.

So if I'm not finding the right one, I can I can set that priority aside and handle what I need to, and then come back to that when I have time.

So some of that could be on me.

Um, but we certainly haven't got the resumes that we need.

Well, you know how I feel that marketing pays for itself to help all of these events get more people to come and buy beer and buy hot dogs.

So exactly right.

It's that's probably one of my I would take that personally and say that's probably my shortcoming more than anything else.

We'll work on it, huh?

Yeah.

Mr.

Hazi.

Thank you, Ryan.

I wanted to point out one thing when I mentioned uh Funner Park.

Now they had they submitted an annual audit, and the most misunderstood part, if you ever look at their finances by almost everyone who has ever read them, is that the city took out a note to build the facility to start with, and the county took out a note to build the facility to start with.

And so I'll just say 20 some million dollars went to build this facility to start with.

Fauner Park comes in, but accounting-wise, when they made their payment, it looks like revenue on the Heartland Event Center balance sheet.

So when it comes in, it looks like revenue.

And it's they didn't see a dime, but there's a half a million in there every year when the county would make their bond payment, when the city would make their bond payment.

It looked like revenue, and so everyone would look and say, geez, you're making a ton of money, and they're like, I'm not even seeing that at all.

And so it was one of the most misunderstood facts by non-financial people trying to read a financial document and understand it.

You know, and so they worked on it on a shoestring the hull the same as you are.

They're trying to get to that break-even level.

I mean, it it's this is the same effort to try to bring in great things to the community, and I appreciate what you're doing, Kyler.

Tyler, you've uh seen me at a lot of events over there.

I try and check a lot of things out.

Um, I've been trying to pay attention a lot.

You guys have been there last year and a half, and I think you guys have learned a lot too.

And I I've seen a lot of things evolve over my time there.

Um, the the type of events I've seen come in in your second year versus the first year, I think it's been quite a bit of change.

You know, had the love volleyball game over there, that was massive, sold out.

I heard nothing but positive feedback all over town.

And the economic impact of things like that, kind of like I think what Jack was talking about earlier is pretty massive.

I went downtown for dinner that night.

Wow, it was packed.

It was a line to get in about anywhere.

You could feel it all over there.

And the other thing I noticed, like the Corn Husker Chaos Demo Derby.

I went down to that one night, and uh, you know, it wasn't sold out, but it had a lot of people there still, and that was a multi-day event.

And I I'm noticing some of these other multi-day events, those have a big impact in hotels as well.

And it seems like you guys are kind of capturing a little bit more of those than what we used to have too.

And I sounds like there's even more coming up later this year, too.

Curious to see how some of those pan out.

Um I've noticed a lot of other just kind of smaller operational improvements too.

You know, if you have a sold-out event, you might have a lot more security.

If it has a smaller event, you're kind of you know segregating that down to one area, finding some efficiencies there.

Um I see you guys went to a cashless system as well, and I think there's a lot of other uh efficiencies and safeguards of that too.

Uh a lot of other peers are doing that.

And I I kind of noticed these little improvements here or there.

It might not get much of an attention, but it really kind of compounds over time of what you're doing.

Um I look forward to see what you're doing.

Um, also, I think now that you guys have some experience, you're uh seeing uh patterns of consumer behavior for some of these events, and you're kind of noticing hey, this type likes this type of concession or this type of concession.

Um, you're starting to build that history now.

I suppose that's making it a little bit easier for you to help budget a little bit better as well.

It does until I get lost in the years.

Lost in the years when I have to rethink it.

But yeah, it it certainly helped, it's helping us dial in.

A little bit, and then I know there's a lot of improvements there.

Obviously, the chiller.

Um, I've been at some of these events, and man, I get a little bit kind of muggy in there at the temp one, so I'm really glad that's gonna be uh going on up there.

Um, you know, there's a lot of things I kind of hear in town about the sound system.

I mean, are there still some things that need to be adjusted with that too?

Or would that have a big impact?

Or there are, and there are several items that have already been approved and we're working on from the lighting system.

You know, we'll eventually we'll have the LED experiential lighting, which once again doesn't seem like a big deal.

You think of lights as just lights, but in an arena, the experiential lighting changes everything.

And one of the better examples I can say is you know, for breast cancer awareness, we had an ice rink and speak, and we had those experiential lighting.

Well, you can turn the whole building pink, and it's not just like one area, it looks like the entire place, the ice and everything is pink.

So those things really do add to the experience.

They add to when a promoter finds out we have experiential lighting versus just regular metal halide that we do, it changes their opinion.

Oh, you're a little bit updated.

It's not just a cataloger to a degree.

You know, I've heard that kind of comment before.

Um, so yeah, those little subtle changes are on the way.

We're working on them now.

Um, the sound system, the sound system will help primarily with with spoken language like this.

Um, you know, for uh Harlem Globe Trotters, that's an actual sporting event, but there's a whole lot of spoken language going on.

There's 4 H national shooting event that we just had on the entire campus for that.

They do all the rewards ceremony in the Heartland Events, the Big Iron Event Center.

Um, and they do that right there, and that that will really help a lot uh just instantly once we get that sound system upgraded.

That's how I noticed too is even with athletic events, there's still an announcer in there, like the love volleyball game or the siege football.

And by the way, if you haven't seen that, I mean it's a pretty interesting game.

The the Siege football, they're undefeated, and uh there's some hard hits out there.

Uh I think a couple of people had a player in their lap over the wall.

Um but uh no, I'm it's really nice to see the the lifeblood kind of flow back um in there.

I'm seeing more events, I think, than than average out there as well, and I hope you keep moving forward too.

So would anyone else like to speak on this?

Mitch?

One more important question.

This is for Chuck Hossey.

In your cashless system, are you charging a fee for the credit card?

In the box office.

I'm gonna ask Chelsea.

Can I ask Chelsea that we charge it in the box office?

Do we charge a credit card fee?

I believe we do, but we charge it to the promoter typically, correct?

I never spoke on this before.

Uh no, not in the box office.

So we're not charging the consumer, but we are writing.

I believe we charge it back to the promoter.

We have a feedback to the promoter.

So we're not we're not affecting the the consumer.

But for the concessions, when we charge when we charge our concessions, are you charging a fee for that, or is it that's the price?

I don't believe we are.

All right, just want to make sure that Chuck would buy a hot dog or Coke when he's in there.

Otherwise, he's not he's not gonna buy it.

Put that in too.

We um I was talking to Brad Bauer at Pinnacle Bank, and um he he made the move to cashless there, or they made the move there.

And uh he said best move they ever made.

He said it's a good decision.

Um, but he said you want to look into a reverse ATM.

That's where somebody that has cash can put it in, they get a card out so they can go buy something.

Which sounds to be crazy to me, but um, after having 4 H in the building this week, you can see there were a lot of kids that basically mom or dad said, Here's a hundred bucks for the week, have fun because there was a lot of cash that we missed out on, honestly.

So I thought, yep, we're gonna have to get a reverse ATM for those guys.

We still had some good sales, but there was definitely cash.

We we lost some sales at that particular event because it was a bunch of kids, a bunch of youth kids that parents had given them some cash for the trip.

Sure.

So all right.

Well, I want Chuck to buy a hot dog.

All right, any other questions?

All right, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.