Okay, this is the meeting of the public works committee, and today is uh 134 on Monday, November 24th, 2025.

So glad to have uh with uh Mr.

Councilman Foote.

We also have uh the CAO, Mr.

Tawson here, and uh and we have members of uh public works and uh I think at least one member of planning department here.

We shall get started.

Uh first of all, I want to remind everyone the function of this committee is to oversee the city's public works responsibilities for planning, designing, construction, constructing, operating, maintaining the city's infrastructure, which include public roads, transportation system, wastewater drainage and solid waste disposal systems to ensure the sustainability of structures and services essential to the welfare and acceptable quality of life for its citizens.

Public works that's the backdrop as to how our city operates.

Okay, first thing on the agenda.

Uh is in uh and obviously we do not have a quorum, we do have several members uh of the public works committee, myself and uh Mr.

Councilman Foot.

First thing on the agenda and Mr.

Anderson uh between you and Mr.

Taywison.

We're gonna be counting on a lot of feedback.

If you don't mind, you can have a seat front and center here.

Okay, Mr.

Anderson.

Uh had a chance to look over the agenda, and I'll go a little bit into each item.

First of all, public works equipment is critically important to being able to fulfill the functions of the public works department and uh operating and maintaining the city's infrastructure.

Uh I wanted to see first of all some of the issues you regard as uh uh as priority equipment and some of their applications.

Okay, um, thank you.

Name and uh title.

Uh Lorenzo Anderson Public Works Director.

Uh we have several uh I guess requested and in the uh works fires and equipment.

Uh one is uh you want me to go by each like division, or do you just want to go with uh solid waste?

Uh go by uh each division, please.

Okay.

Uh for solid waste.

Um I would say for the landfill.

Uh we had a list of uh a bulldozer.

Uh we recently received uh two bids.

Um one um correct me if I'm wrong, we have Ms.

Lakeisa Weathers here.

Okay, but um can I pause you a minute there?

Let's save solid waste for later.

Okay.

Let's get some of these other divisions out of the way.

Okay.

Um things is since I've been here, I've seen where uh just for traffic.

Um we have one push machine uh for the city of Jackson.

Uh that's for striping, I would say.

Um a city of this size uh needs more than one pitch machine.

We need a more like commercial uh machine to have it's a safety issue with uh we're getting a lot of complaints about double yellow uh lines and striping uh style bars, ADA compliant.

So uh that's that's one thing.

The push machine is needed, but it's more for parking lots, uh maybe parking stalls on the on-street parking like that.

So for traffic division, we do not have an effective piece of equipment for the general roadways.

No, sir.

Okay.

And uh have we looked at any prices or anything like that for um I just know they range between 300 500,000 dollars, depends on um what model that you have.

I think we went through budget sessions, so it was one one of the things I would I put on my wish list for for budget.

So okay.

Okay, that's one of the things from the traffic division.

Anything else from the traffic division?

Um I would say bucket truck is then um do you have it?

Now try to get it thought it was ordered.

I'm sorry.

You want to come up with afternoon, good afternoon, James Carwell, Deputy Director of Public Works.

Uh to pick up on what Mr.

Anderson was saying, we have a bucket truck for the traffic division.

It was actually ordered through the previous budget and approved.

Uh we're working with the vendor now to get it in stock.

If we can't get through this vendor, we will re-advertise it, but the money's allocated already for it.

Okay, so we we don't have an issue with with funding for that.

No, sir, that's already sitting for and this bucket truck.

What is what's gonna be the applications capabilities?

It'd be useful for the traffic technicians to repair street lights, traffic signals of that nature.

Uh the decorative lights that actually fall up on the public works.

Once we get uh adequate crew, we'll be doing that in-house also.

But we will be working with that in contract right now.

Okay, and when you say adequate crew, uh what are we talking about?

We only have two technicians at this time.

There's two of them.

And so how many are we gonna need?

Well, there used to be at least six, I believe, at one time.

So we need to cut that a couple more.

Do we have vacant slots?

Yes, sir.

Okay, and I'll probably be going really quickly with some of these things.

Um so we won't get bogged down.

Um let me ask something.

Uh I I do know we have bucket trucks in other divisions, right?

No.

No, sir.

We don't have any.

They usually borrow the one from traffic.

It's spread out.

Right, but solid, solid waste.

So there's you think about knuckle boom truck.

Knuckle boom.

Yes, sir.

And the difference is this the bucket truck is actually the gentleman getting inside the bucket being raised up to the traffic signals able to work on them repair those.

Nuggle boon truck, he'd be picking up debris off the ground with it.

Yeah, yeah, you're right.

You're right.

Okay.

All right.

So we don't have any.

We have the money a lot allocated.

Yes, sir.

Already, and we're in the process of ordering that.

It's ordered, we're working with the vendor to receive it.

Okay.

How long do you think it'll be before we get it online?

We've been working with them for the last couple of weeks.

We had a couple of different issues, so we're gonna work with them again.

Um if he for some reason we can't get it through him, then we're gonna call it and we'll readvertise it and order with another vendor.

Okay, yes, sir.

What what could cause us to go with another vendor?

He's having some issues going through our procurement process.

That's all I know.

It's just something in that system, yes, sir.

Okay.

All right.

Uh thank you for that update.

Any other priority equipment in traffic?

Um it's more personnel versus equipment.

Do you see anything else?

You may want to turn in, you might too.

Uh, I would say, you know, um duplicating uh equipment.

I would say, like you said, one bucket truck for the whole city.

Um we also have to keep in mind uh street lights, not the energy owned street lights, but street lights that the city owns.

Um if we're working on a traffic signal, we can't work on a uh uh a street light.

So if something happens to this traffic, I mean to the bucket truck that's in traffic, we won't have any any redundancy on you know backup or anything.

It's just shut down.

We can't we can we have to contract it out far as any repairs because if it anything anything on the ground, we can we can handle, but anything in the air, like one of the aerial traffic lights, we won't be able to handle if anything ever happens to this bucket truck.

Okay, um have we had any relationship with the uh fire department and emergency?

Uh could we rely on the use of any of their vehicles?

Would that be question?

Would that do no not equipped not equipped for it?

No, sir.

Okay, now we have uh third member.

Welcome, uh councilwoman uh brown thumbs.

Um okay, so okay, no funding necessary then just that.

Okay.

You can also add to traffic technicians.

There's a computer that we actually need too for them that will help them to go into the actual cabinets and receive the data and extra program cabinets also.

That's on like our wish list also.

Is that that's uh a computer hardware?

Yes, it's something like MDOT has uh like a laptop that's basically made for that system, and they can go in and they can reprogram and program the um actual data going to the signals.

But we need something like that.

We're talking about still traffic about the traffic signals.

Yes, sir.

This this will help on uh timing, you know, when you have a light and you're waiting for I guess the five more seconds than you think you should be waiting.

It'll help on controlling the timing and any time anything we can switch out controllers.

Um it will eliminate the time for is have to manually do it.

Uh you can just upload it right to the to the uh the communication, I would say.

Okay, you don't have to manually input it.

Okay, we got a lot of ground cover.

We'll be going pretty quick on some of these things.

And Mr.

Taberson, please feel free to chip in.

Yes, Councilman Foot.

Thank you, Ms.

Harley.

The um thank you for being here today.

Uh the when I think of equipment, um, I mean they're combat multipliers, what we need, and we need the the right equipment, we need it working, and and we need good operators, and so I look at it as first is the equipment itself, and do we have the necessary equipment to accomplish the mission of the city?

The second thing is the operators that we got well trained operators who are qualified to operate, particularly some of the more sophisticated equipment, like a bucket truck or even bigger knuckle boom, whatever it is.

And then lastly, is do we have the people uh and the um uh facilities to maintain the equipment when something happens?

And I worried about the state of the motor pool, and I've talked about that a lot with with the new administration is the need to really you know um raise the game, raise our game and when it comes to the motor pool as well.

So um the we have sufficient operators to operate all the equipment we've got.

So what we've done is we've reached out to the vendors we're receiving the merchandise from.

All the vendors will give us training.

So they'll be trained on the equipment for updates.

So everybody's gonna be trained for the touch the equipment.

Okay, they they get trained by the by the actual company, yes, the companies that supply the equipment correct.

Even if it's what if it's a fixed uh piece of equipment we've got had for five years.

Will the vendors still come back?

So let's just say if it's a VAC truck.

Okay, um our vac truck used to come from Samsung.

We we know the vendor, so we can call him for updates.

We can call them for equipment.

He can come back.

He said he would already.

Okay.

And on new equipment, we have warranties, we'll kick in too.

Okay, yes, sir.

So they'll go back to the vendor itself and not go back to the garage, we'll send them out to the vendor to be repaired.

Okay, and what about the motor pool?

Where are we stand on on the mechanics and all that?

If if you don't mind.

Let me let me okay.

Let me finish the the did you want to go into something else first?

Well, we're going, we go in division by division.

Right now, we do trying to finish up traffic.

Okay, on traffic then, okay.

If we run traffic, yeah, and we used to have a traffic engineer who you could call up and say, hey, hey, the timing, I get all the complaints from from moms taking her kids to school at a particular school, and and that the traffic lights not time right at at three at eight in the morning or four in the afternoon or whatever.

So who's doing that job now?

I still call him.

You're talking Robert Lee?

Yeah, yes, sir.

Well, he didn't work here, does he?

It doesn't matter, we're friends.

So I have to reach out.

Well, it's nice that he would take your calls, but we still need our own internal people that are qualified to do that.

So we need to make sure HR has on her list to fill out that that we need a traffic engineer.

So our guys are actually gonna be going to a temple for training.

That's who we get our equipment from.

And they'll be going to their couple of days' training sessions so they can get pick up on new knowledge and techniques of how to keep the system running.

Okay.

So yes, so we also need to put you know, thing out there, see if we can get a traffic engineer to come assist you guys.

You guys got enough irons in the fire already without having to do the traffic engineers job, too.

Um, so if that's still on the on the city org chart, we need to try to fill out that city org chart so that we can you know win in the competition.

Thank you.

That's all I got for traffic.

Other than we need a lot of help and traffic.

Any questions?

Uh traffic.

Traffic signals.

Um the light at Raymond Road and Bear Video.

Is it fixed?

Ramping at Belvedere.

It keeps going out.

Yes.

Uh I'm thinking about the one right, Raymond and Ellis.

Same same situation.

Yes.

So that situation had a short in it.

And we called out Lewis Electric, who was does our traffic work also, and they fixed it.

It had some kind of system it was a short in the box.

Our guys looked at it a couple of times, try to get it back running, but it was something more in-depth.

But it is fixed.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um can I say one more thing on track?

Sorry, go ahead, sir.

This listen, and this is just a comment in some of the challenges that Jackson faces.

Way back in the spring, we had a situation that was a traffic light situation.

But it wasn't our fault.

It took us a while to figure this out.

But finally that the the uh the guy and um uh Brad White, who's the head of the DOT, figured it out, and that was that the state was working, Department of Transportation was working on two different roads in Jackson.

One was Lakeland Drive and the other was was Highway 80, I think, or whatever it was.

But they had taken over the light system because it was on a state road, and they were the ones determining they were trying to keep their crews safe and at the same time fix the road, which they got done, but in the meantime, it caused chaos, and a lot of the people who were trying to get out Lakeland Drive off of Ridgewood Road, they they'd have to wait through three or four traffic turns because they were changing the lights so fast.

But we got that that's another challenge we face is coordinating with the state on the state roads with our traffic, and we need to make sure that when people call up that if they're complaining that that we're we're informed enough to tell them that that's not the city of Jackson's traffic light issue, that's the state of Mississippi's traffic light.

Yes, sir, which then pass it.

And one thing uh we talking about capital improvement too.

Yes.

Okay, so uh one thing is uh traffic signals is like infrastructure, it's like streets, it's like water, it's like sewer.

So one thing we have to look at is anything that's below ground, uh, how traffic signal works.

You have these loops that detects the uh vehicles as they approach the the light.

Um now mostly uh all the traffic signals are going overhead because once you dig up or you break that loop, the whole system is down, it doesn't detect that's why it goes basically the default is timing, right?

So it's just based off timing versus the the technology to detect the vehicle.

So and I would say 200,000 to update uh upgrade uh uh a signal per second per per intersection.

Yeah, um we had one just from the ground up, it was a million dollars.

Uh I think we it's Beasley Road, but to retrofit it probably is less, but it's it's a it's an expensive operation.

But we can come back to the pol uh to the committee and show you like the uh dire need for is the intersection that we'll actually need as far as traffic counts.

I would I would prioritize it on traffic counts uh versus you know update everything, but that's a capital, there's a big capital improvement.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Um and how many sections do we have to go through here or are we going through here?

Traffic was just one of them.

How many other divisions are we?

I was I was I would just we have seven, but I would go with uh let's let's let's paving.

Yeah, let's cover some of the low-hanging proofs, get them off the table.

Okay, okay.

The ones that you think are gonna be easiest.

Let's go ahead and get those out of the table.

Okay.

Um, so let me follow up.

Traffic.

Um we have uh we have a need of a striping equipment.

Okay, so we're contracting that out right now.

Yes.

A little bit, a little bit.

Yes.

Okay, so I I see a lot of paving going on, which is very good.

But we also need to have the you know, need to have the capability coming behind and put it in the middle of the street.

I've had a lot of complaints about lack of of lines being on new new streets.

They were excited about the new streets and the pre-paved streets, but they're worried about the safety when there's no lines on the street.

Right, and that's that's been a that's been a complaint for a long time.

Uh my ward, I've been complaining about.

Is that something we do internally, or do we do how we contract that out?

On a new street, uh, we usually put it in the B that the contractor is responsible for, uh, just like downtown.

Uh we we paved it, we put it in the uh contract.

Well, you actually did it separate to to uh do the striping, but uh on a day-to-day is uh it's on us.

This they uh two men uh for the striping wheel push machine.

Okay, so basically all we have is a push machine to do that, and that's that's not that's not gonna keep up.

I'm sorry, sir.

Is that two operators we got?

Uh we have two operators, so we're gonna need addition.

I'm trying to do it somewhat of a recap right now.

Okay, okay.

So striping machine, uh 300 to 500,000.

We do need it right now.

We're using a manual machine, which is not good for going back and and paving striping the old roads that we previously have restriping, rather.

Correct.

Uh we need four additional uh folks in the traffic division, or we have maybe four slots.

We have just there's lots and we have two right now, two people.

Correct.

Well, okay, and we need more.

Yes, okay.

You're gonna talk to HR about that and um the need for a traffic engineer.

I don't know what qualification level we need for that engineer, but you all can discuss that off the line with them.

Uh and we are working with the vendor to get our bucket truck.

It's already been ordered.

No funding, additional funding is needed.

Okay, let's go ahead and close that out traffic and let's go to the next uh division.

I was low-hanging fruit.

Let's just okay.

I would say paving and streets.

We have a uh paver ordered.

It's here, it's here.

Uh it was on the lot.

So uh that's gonna be a good addition.

There, I think they're getting trained.

Um there's gonna be a good addition to the city.

Uh uh one thing we're gonna uh going to need for it as a whole crew is compact.

Okay, before you get there, tell me a little bit about this paver.

Okay what's our capability?

Why do we need it?

Uh when do we expect to get it in operation?

Okay, so the paver is able to go street street with.

So it's a smaller paver, they can go on the utility trailer.

Not like the old pavers had to go on big low boy, you had to pull them in.

There was a lot of grunt work.

This one can go on a smaller trailer, so you can actually get a F 350 utility trailer and pull it.

Um you'll be able to go and you'll be able to do patches.

You'll be able to go and you'll be doing street paving.

So you can essentially start back paving in-house now with the adequate crew with enough members of the crews.

But the size of it is gonna limit the size of the job.

No, sir.

The paver go.

You have people are going to smaller pavers now.

Okay.

They're not they're not except for the highway.

Highway is gonna be highway traffic.

But if you want to do like a two-lane street or something like that, you can mill them down, you can put a paper out there and we can roll with it.

So, yes, sir.

Okay, and so we already got it, already paid for it.

It's on the yard now.

And it's on the yard.

What needs to happen to it next?

Well, now we have to give the one thing we do need for their crew is there's a trailer that needs to go with it.

We didn't have the trailer.

Uh, we're down some trailers, so we're gonna order trailer now.

Have you ordered the trailer?

I'm working on it now.

But we just got the pay random.

Okay.

Um, and and and again, I'm gonna be bullet questions here.

The amount of time it takes to get decals and everything ready for this uh this paper to be operated.

Is already checked in with the garage, they're working on it now.

So by the time we get the trailer in, everything would be good.

How long will it take to get the trailer in?

Uh so to get the invoice for it, uh maybe a couple of weeks.

Okay, but that'll get them time to go.

My suggestion would be they go in the yard with the paver at their facilities or throw training on it, also get breaking runs.

So it won't just sit up and be uh idle.

Okay.

I wouldn't recommend us doing any major streets.

No, with it that's more like residential, two-lane, nothing, nothing like that.

But but for intersections, it could be helpful.

Yeah, sir.

Yes, okay.

Good.

Anything you like to add?

I think those are the highlights.

Um intersections we can do, and of course, we've got residential streets that need attention as we've uh focused on thoroughfares with our contractors.

So the hope is that public works will now be able to fill in and do more of those residential streets as well as hit the uh high traffic intersections.

Excellent, Mr.

Putt.

And on the trailer, as soon as Mr.

Caldwell identifies it, uh we've got funding in place to get the trailer.

Excellent.

So what is it?

So let's say you're gonna go do a road that's you know, um five miles from where the the um the yard is.

So you get your trailer, you got your your crew, you got your paver.

Um, how's the asphalt handled?

How do you handle the asphalt being there?

And we have sufficient asphalt, but where do they get it on a daily basis to take to the site?

So we have our own trucks, our dump trucks will go to the asphalt plant and pick up the asphalt for us.

Okay, so they would just go the dump trucks, would go to the to the asphalt facility, pick up however much they can put in one truck and then meet the paver at the location.

Right.

And then so the the uh loading share with me the how you get the asphalt from the dump truck to the specific site where you want to do the paving.

You get equipment, or does it just equip guys in there with foot shovels or what?

No, so well, they leave the actual facility, but let's say my avalanche.

Okay, the dump truck's gonna go to the asphalt plant, they're gonna go in the harbor, it's gonna load asphalt to the back of the dump truck.

Okay, they would then take it to the facility or whichever location we're paving it, and once they actually bag the dump truck up to the harper of the actual paver, it raises up and loads it into the pavement.

Okay, so the asphalt goes into the paver.

Correct, and then it lays it down.

It lays it down, and it just the truck stays there as long as they got asphalt.

So once it's empty, they go back to the getting more asphalt.

We need more.

Very good.

Thank you.

So we have an open big where we can just the asphalt is pretty much gonna be fluid then.

Yes, go ahead.

So they would probably expect the job out that morning or a couple of days before we're gonna do this area.

We will need I don't know, 35 tons, and they will call it in.

So how many people does it?

Excuse me.

What one moment?

Uh since we have a quorum, let's go ahead and call the mission the media officially a tour.

Okay, go ahead.

Okay, how many crew members do you need to run that operation where you've got a dump truck, you got a paver, and you've got uh whatever else needs to be done there.

Is that a five-man crew or ten men or what?

So honestly, that depends on how big the job is.

I mean, I've seen smaller crews do jobs.

It all depends on what the specs are gonna be for the for the actual guys.

If you want to run a job fast, of course, you're gonna need more trucks.

You know, so you need you have your man on the ground, I'd say probably six guys on the ground.

You know, you have you guys gonna do the roller.

Here are your operators gonna be operating the paver.

You have the guys that's gonna be on the on the screws, making sure the pavers level.

Here are you shovel men, you have your loop man.

So you have all these guys that they're performing these different tasks.

Then you have you guys go on in the trucks to go get the asphalt.

That's why you see on MDOT, you might see them doing roads.

You see a big convoy of dump trucks.

So, depending on how fast you're trying to finish.

How many people do you have on the payroll right now ready to do those type of that ready to fill in those slots?

Nine.

Nine.

That's it.

Yes, sir.

So you have uh the guys that actually do the work, you have nine of them.

You have a superintendent, supervisor, and a office coordinator.

Is that enough?

So eat more.

No, it's not enough.

No, how many do you need?

You could you would need um nine more to keep the other crews going because you have nine now.

This this is the same crew.

You have to take the people off of potholes, you have to take the people off of uh cutouts and patching.

You have to take those people out to just to have a crew.

So you need a full crew, you need a nine additional people to have a continuous crew without affecting the rest of the city.

I I encourage you to sit down with the HR people and make sure we got their they're getting filling those slots.

Thank you.

Okay, I agree.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Taberson.

Oh, hiring subject to budget more so than the HR.

But we hear you.

Okay.

Okay, and and thank you.

Um and I I believe that's going to be this is gonna be consistent across the board.

Again, folks, this is supposed to be our low-hanging fruit.

Get it on the table, get it off until we get to the thick stuff.

Okay, so uh each one of these questions probably will be a personnel type issue.

What do we need?

And then an equipment issue.

Okay, next section.

We're uh so in paving, we have basically we need a trailer.

Uh we got the paver in, get it up and running, uh, need more people between finance and uh HR, we can get that.

So uh the next the next division.

Trainage?

Yeah, drainage uh dead truck.

Um go ahead, explain.

Uh so drainage, we just today received the street sweeper.

It's on the yard now.

The what?

The street sweeper?

Street sweeper.

Yes, here.

Okay, we got it today every ride this morning.

Um it's on the yard, but we're not gonna use until all the training is complete.

So the vendor's gonna train the guys on it, so it's on the yard to keep locked up.

I would say it that way.

Okay, so let me ask something.

Uh yes, pictures would be helpful, but that could be leaves in my other question.

Give me a description of the street sweeper.

Is it an attachment?

Is it a standalone?

It's a standard capability.

Do they have tanks?

So the street sweeper is a standalone truck, it's um it's like a two-ton vehicle, it's big, it's um mechanical, because you have different options.

You have one that could be a vacuum sweeper that's gonna use a suction to pick up the debris, or you use one of the mechanical uses the brushes.

We went with the mechanical because of the way that our streets currently are.

We felt like you would give us a better outcome of sweeping.

So we picked that one up.

Um, it's a big machine, it's not small at all.

It's it's comparable to like a UPS delivery truck, but we tweakers on it, it's that size.

Good sturdy machine, it's able to go on highway so it can travel uh without any problems.

Um, and it's it's a dog, it's gonna be a good machine for us.

Where's it gonna be housed at?

It's right now it's at Mike Avalon.

Mike Avalon.

So in order to get it to North Jackson, it's gonna have to drive it.

You just drive it.

Sir, okay.

Yes, sir.

It's able to go highway speed.

You can pick up and they can go on highway and they can go.

What other street sweeping capabilities do we have?

Or did we have any equipment prior to that?

We have two other sweepers that were old.

They were probably about, I think, probably an oh eight or something like that.

Um there were three of them at one time, one of them malfunctioning, it burned up.

Um, but these sweepers are more of a parking lot sweeper.

They don't go with 20 miles an hour.

But our plan was to recycle them and use them in the program also.

Okay.

And we will be going out with major thoroughfares.

What about uh residential areas in the neighborhoods?

Yes, sir.

That was the plan.

Colleagues, questions.

Now those sweepers, they might want to be put on a trailer because of how slow they actually go.

But we'll work on that part, putting to actually transport them.

You can drive them, but like I say, they only go 20 miles an hour.

So if you're gonna go far off, you eat up so much time just driving there that you will actually sweep it and try to counteract that, or you have to drive them the day before and store them, you know, so you can get a good day's work in.

So okay.

Just on the street equipment.

We haven't even got to drainage drainage, although that is a portion of drainage.

Right.

Um what other equipment do we need to sweep our streets?

Oh, another uh two more sweepers, uh mechanical, uh, that would help uh because the sweeper, it keeps the leaves and everything and silt out of the drainage pipes.

And one sweeper, even though we have two more smaller sweepers that we have to, it's a lot to cover Jackson uh Mississippi.

It's a lot for one sweeper, so more sweepers.

Okay, and and again, you know, all this is just numbers and figures and direction.

Real thing is working out with the administration, HR, Finance, etc.

But we're trying to get an ideal of what where we're at.

Right.

And I know what a lot of the needs are for the city.

Okay.

Ms.

But did you have a question?

My question would be on the these have um different time schedules, like for instance, if if you get traffic going back during the busy time, I would think that sweet sweepers might be more effective or more efficient if you did it late at night or early in the morning or sometime when you don't have a lot of traffic.

Do you try to do it in odd hours so that you can cover more ground?

That would be the ideal, yes, sir.

Just try to do it when it's not a high flow of traffic, or even have a vehicle behind it to buffer so people will actually see it coming.

You know, and even though the sweepers do have flashers on them that have airboards on them, we still have issues where we still have to have somebody to kind of buff the street sweeper, the crews or crew know where to go when they start out on Monday morning.

Do they is there a schedule lined up for the month or something like that for every street gets swept during the course of 45 days or something?

So yeah, we can go through 311 to get complaints.

Um the supervisors ride around, we ride around.

If we see something, we call it in.

But but if there's nobody called in, do they just oh it's gonna be something called in?

Definitely, but we will go.

Like the main tax repairman.

Yeah, that's that's not gonna be.

We will have a we will have a schedule, but we will schedule around the uh I guess the airs that are called in.

Uh we we could put it on the map and say, hey, this area has a hundred call-ins, and we know we need to get back to that same.

I would say cycles, you know.

When they call in, they may not be on the schedule this week, but we know we're gonna hit them next week.

So that's how we'll we'll do the schedule.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, yes.

Um, how much was the street sweeper?

Street sweeper was 385.

385,000?

Yes, sir.

Quite pricey.

Uh and I think we mentioned what about getting attachments just for our tractors to do some of the same job, not as well.

Right.

Okay.

So that goes back to I think curb and gutter cleanup, that type of thing.

Yes.

We're gonna get into that in a moment.

Okay, let's hold off because drainage is a is we're getting a little deeper here.

Uh and so startup is gonna be the biggest thing.

Okay, getting out there, roads that ain't been swept in years.

Yes, sir.

We gotta got a big startup.

Baba Rush Boulevard could be one of those.

I know that hadn't been done.

Dirt is piled up.

That's gonna get into our drainage picture too.

Okay, let's talk about drainage.

Okay.

From the street, let's start at the street and let's go down to the uh to the to the ditches and stuff.

Okay.

Streets, we got dirt piled up.

How are we gonna get it off?

How do we clean up the dirt and the grass in our culverts in our our little drainage areas?

Um, we have the equipment, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr.

Carwell.

I'm I'm getting all this information that was approved uh last year.

But we have the equipment for the blight.

I guess it's the steel part.

We're gonna use the blight equipment to do some of the curb and go, but we don't have a curb and go to crew, so we have to take our crew that's doing the paving or uh no uh bridge and drainage, right?

Uh bridge and drainage to do the curb girl, which is stopping other uh I would say services.

Um, but like you said, to start from the street, you will want to do that first because initially, once you put the street sweeper out, you want to do that first to loosen it up and you know, won't do any wear and tear on your new equipment.

Uh once you do it the first time, once we have a regular schedule, it'll be better.

You won't have to do it each time.

So initially, um we may have to see what the magnitude of all the major thoroughfares are, and we may have to get some help.

Um, because we don't want to, I guess, rob Peter PayPal because I do understand, and again, welcome Mr.

Uh Parkinson to the to the council to the uh public works committee.

Uh my one of my questions is doing our we we got to go through all the streets in the city.

A lot of them have inches of dirt built up in the in the curbs.

Are we gonna go through there with the dozer first, break that up, and then come along with the street sweeper in order, as you said, to save the maintenance of our equipment, our street uh equipment?

Um we had a ski steer, you can go to some ski steers, right?

Okay, right.

So okay.

Mr.

Carwill can explain to how the ski steers work to loosen it up.

So actually, um ski steers would be something you could use to try to push the dirt up.

The sweepers gonna get the loose dirt, but you're gonna probably have to have a hand crew, be honest with you.

This is where the curbing of the crew comes in at.

You have to have some guys that's on the ground, willing to move dirt.

I mean, that's gonna be probably the best, most efficient way.

You would need enough of them, but then you could also come back with a tractor or with the skier steering trying to move the dirt and push it out the way.

Yeah, it's just some cases are gonna be a little harder than just uh throwing a street sweeper.

What about our articulating uh bucket on the front?

Something that can kind of come in and angle to not gonna destroy your roadways.

Right.

That's a good idea.

Yeah, that's the idea.

We could also have right, okay.

So you you can get down in that little cover.

I know there's a little slope to it, there's an angle to it.

Right.

Okay.

Um and for the benefit of Mr.

Parkinson, we've we've gone through traffic, uh, paving street.

Now we own drainage.

We talked about street sweepers, and uh, and so we're gonna need uh we need HR and finance involved.

We need personnel.

Okay.

Uh did you have any questions up to this point?

Okay, all right.

Yes, go ahead.

Okay, my concerns was like with the drainage.

When I was out of town at a conference, they had like screens that went over their drainage.

Have we ever looked into that?

Councilwoman, appreciate you asking that.

Mr.

Caldwell, and I actually had that discussion in September.

We went out and looked at some particular clogged drains in war two, and a lot of what was clogging the drain, as it turned out, were plastic bottles, trash, um, some leaves and debris.

And so Mr.

Caldwell and I spoke about that.

Uh, that is something we're going to look into, whether we buy those, whether we can have somebody who fashion those, we need to put some debris guards on some of our uh uh our uh storm water and so we can stop that.

The back truck is a reaction to a problem.

Council member reading your book, we need to get upstream on the problem.

So um uh yes, we're looking at that, and thank you for bringing that idea up.

I didn't know what they were.

I just remember I've been in the field and I looked at Mr.

Caldwell and said, Surely there's got to be a better solution.

Turns out there is and let me make this clear.

As much as I'm um emphasizing us being prudent on our money, we hear you loud and clear.

Staffing for public works, we consider as a priority, the same as uh sworn law enforcement and sworn firefighters.

So we're not looking to hire public works just to put people in an office, but if you're gonna be out there on the front lines, just like police officers and firefighters, we are making that a priority hiring, and that would include traffic engineer and those positions that you've uh mentioned.

Equipment, a little more challenging.

Personnel, we know we gotta have some more personnel.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for that.

I certainly appreciate it.

Okay, uh drainage.

Now we're getting down.

We work down from the street, the street sweeper, and now we're in the curbs, cleaning that up again and articulating arm on some of our blight equipment that we're looking at on the front of the skid steer that can cut at an angle.

I've seen the county use it just a regular dozer, but the problem, as you know, is that slight curvature.

Right.

So a slight articulating cost a few dollars more, but it can get down to where we need, then we can have a street sweeper come back.

Now the water is allowed to drain out.

What about our vacuum capability and our uh stormwater inlets?

Removing the cover off, sucking out all the bottles and cans and bags and everything else is in it.

What are our capabilities and what do we need to make that happen?

So we currently have uh well one VAC truck working today, another one's in the shop.

Um it has some issues with it, so it's being repaired now.

And there should be a third one that we're gonna try to get repaired to, so we should have three VAC trucks operated, and these are all already on the yard.

Okay, and are they uh out in the field?

I mean, is one out in the field now cleaning out storm drains?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

About um, you know, what uh what what type of productivity does it have?

How many does the covering is getting a big are you able to get a whole neighborhood in a day or a week?

I'm not gonna say a neighborhood.

He could probably go to the areas that were called and say they have flooding, standing water, get those first ones that probably have a bunch of leaves piled in from just the street debris or the line blowing them in there, either one.

So he's gonna hit those first, the ones that are you know, blatant calls and then start on schedule three one.

Um you will have that issue going on, so that should probably take care of a lot of it.

Okay, and I want to briefly touch on the garage later, but that's that's part of this as well.

Councilman Hartley.

Yes, before you leave VAC trucks.

I've also instructed um Mr.

Caldwell uh to contact a local company that has vac trucks and does work for Jackson Water and to see if perhaps we can get them on a contract, not in contract just to pay them, just to pay them contract, but to have them in some sort of redundant capacity as Mr.

Anderson was speaking earlier, so that if we have we know we're about to get in the rainy season.

Yes, we we know we are about to really find out which drains are not draining.

So if we get to a point uh during rainy season um where we have capacity beyond the trucks we have available, we'd like to have a contract in place uh to perhaps have somebody come in and help us in those emergency situations.

We are not there yet.

I'm giving y'all council members notice that we're exploring that option.

And if you if we bring it forth, you can ask us more questions at that time.

But we are trying to look for some contractor redundancy on an as-need basis.

Okay, and I would uh I would also look at I don't I know that we've had several uh contractors that have been doing uh especially for the county um um drainage work.

Uh perhaps we can ask them uh or or some of our in-house experts as to where we need to be directing our cleanup efforts because you're right, January, February.

Sometimes we have a heavy rainy season.

That's when we have a lot of flooding issues.

We need to have these storm uh water inlets clean.

Okay.

Um next item.

Can I say something on drain?

Yes, please, Mr.

Okay, thank you.

Um drainage is one of the trickiest and champ biggest challenges that Jackson faces in public with public work stuff.

It's really tough because uh a lot of it is preventive in nature, and and when the problems really surface, it's too late to go do the grubbing of ditches and things like that because we're it's slowing down the water and you're getting flash floods and other things like that.

Um so I I do think it's a really tough part of the the tough um problems to solve.

And um and it needs personnel and it just needs you know getting you know folks out there, whether it's you know, cleaning out the ditches we've got all over the city or or other things.

The I just got back from had a meeting this at 11 o'clock this morning with the core engineers over in Vicksburg about Ubanks Creek, and it was a very productive meeting.

We're trying to work with them on coming up with some solutions to the drainage issues that that are through um Ubanks Creek drainage issues was four forty, four hundred acres is is the the size of the Ubanks Creek drainage basin.

But we've got White Oak Creek and Purple Creek can still cause major problems when you have heavy rains, and it's just one of those things you got to stick to it and and keep be out there working, addressing the things that that cause the drainage issues, which can be ditches that are you know, culverts or whatever that that need repair, or it can be just undergrowth that grows up in the ditches and keeps the water from flowing out to get to the Pearl River.

But I appreciate all your work on that.

And but it is a tough, tough job.

Well one thing that will help that is uh bigger equipment to get in the ditch.

The larger track hole would keep, like you said, preventive uh uh dredging, you know, grubbing all that to get in the ditch, trees, uh a herbicide program where you stay if if you don't mind hold that a minute.

Okay, let's get back to the stormwater side.

We have a stormwater person in the city.

Are we actively going out and inspecting these inlets?

No, we're um we have a program where we're advertising now to you know the DEQ permit.

So um they're expecting uh sites that not the outfouls of all these um I would say drainage canals.

Um DEQ require us to have a hundred and twenty-two outfalls uh samples and also um uh study far as w the contamination on it.

I and I understand this is the discharge side.

I'm talking about our ability to get their water off the street, okay, back to that, the stormwater side, okay, not the uh not the contamination side and pollution side.

But do we have someone going out there looking at the stormwater inlets and say, yeah, we got we got whole neighborhood clogged up storm drains?

Yes, sir.

We have someone doing we have supervisors that go out.

Okay, yes, sir.

And do pre-inspections.

Yes, they do inspections.

They get they get calls from citizens and they they will also go out those times also.

Okay, violations.

One more thing we can add to the list.

Yes, sir.

A camera system.

I'm sorry.

We don't have a camera, a TV camera system around.

Yes, sir.

So we can actually go in the TV our lines because some of the some of the inlets are clogged up because you have breakages that maybe run through next door houses.

If we can't get to them, we don't know where they are.

So instead of dig up the entire line, we could camera it, you know, it's pinpoint exactly where the brake is, and we can go in there and replace it, and that will save money.

It's gonna cost on the front end but on the back end, it'll save time, money, and cruise.

How much are we talking?

Camera start at 80,000 and they go up.

It depends on if you want a standalone camera and you can go to a trailer system or you go to a camera that has a truck with it.

I will suggest a trailer.

So trailer's somewhere probably 120 to 200 150,000, some of that range.

I've been talking to vendors.

I can get you, I can get everybody a list of costs.

We need these suggestions written down somewhere.

Then we need to prioritize them when we go, you know, begging for money or or uh trying to, you know, turn Mr.

Taberson upside down, shake the money out of his pockets.

We need some, we need this.

We need this Christmas list, but it's not gifts, it's necessary equipment for keeping our seat intact.

And council members, um, Mr.

Caldwell and I did secure the return of our camera trailer for Jackson Water.

Excellent.

No, unfortunately, when we got it, there's no camera equipment left in it.

So we did try and look for a less expensive way to address this issue.

We will put this on the list of needed things.

Um, but when Mr.

Carwell tells you we actually need this, you can take it that he and I have looked for some other alternative to whatever we're pitching at that point.

Yes, sir.

And one more thing.

So on a good note, give me a good note.

We have a knockabloom truck coming for drainage.

For drainage.

Yes, and why that's important because your drainage crew also does storm debris.

So when trees fall, they're gonna they go pick it up.

They hadn't had the right equipment, adequate equipment to do it in a fast way.

So by the time they get with the fur through the first run of trees, a second run spell.

And it's it'll tie them up from being to go back and clean up the storm drains, replace pipes, because they're tied up doing storm debris.

Okay.

So now this will help them out a little bit.

So this is the same crew though that's gonna respond to trees across the street.

Correct.

Okay.

So now they'll now they have a knuckle boom truck that can go out there and pick up the trees.

They didn't have that at first.

Is it online?

What the the nucleum?

Yeah.

It's uh should be here in the getting the next next year.

It's been again being built.

Next year.

Yes, sir.

Is I already paid for and everything.

So it's just we're waiting on delivery.

So it's being built now.

And if we can do something to expedite that decal process or have a trailer where we can have uh the decals come to it, but we need these we need these vehicles in the street, just waiting around sitting on someone to figure out okay, we need to put a decal over here and then release it.

The city's needs are greater in there immediate.

So we need to expedite that process.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Uh any other questions on this storm drainage.

The okay, now we're down into the ditch itself.

And uh Councilman put I had uh pause you when you were asking about it.

But going down into the ditch itself, we got a lot of heavy growth, got rocks, debris, we got all kinds of stuff.

Well, how do we address that?

So piggybacking off, mm-hmm.

Mr.

Erneston said, if we can get a smaller excavator that we do have on the equipment list and get a multi head attachment to it, that will help us cut down some of the grass.

You can get different attachments that you need as you go, smaller buckets if you need to do some digging, but if you get a mulch head attachment, it's gonna just like we talked about for the blight program.

It would mulch everything down to almost nothing, and then the water should take it on out once it rains, but it's gonna clear it down to where it should unclog a lot of the blockages that we can now where you come back and you spray it.

That's so you can't accomplish this with a skid still then because the skids they're gonna have a problem getting into the ditch.

You're saying this some of them I mean independent, yeah.

I mean, the excavator probably be better because of the reach.

You do have some excavator attachment that we'll reach out, but I think the excavator will probably be a little better because it can reach out.

Okay, but we can use the same forestry multi head that we use for uh blighted properties, or do you need to have four skiers there or not?

You you guys come out with that list, but we need the capability to be able to get out of those ditches, clean up some now or trees.

Right.

We actually did a demo uh last year in a neighborhood, Councilman Brazil may remember.

Um we came to a neighborhood and we had uh uh a contractor come out do a demo for us on one of the roadside ditches, and he used the excavator with a head on it, and it was uh he did it pretty clean.

He did, and it's time again.

So, but it worked.

It did.

But this actually, this is where we need to be going though.

This equipment should have been here used all the time.

I'm sure in your previous occupations, you've seen it.

Uh we got and the sad part is we got so much catching up to do.

Okay, uh, so down in the ditches, we're cleaning up that with the addition of a small excavator with a forestry mulcher attachment.

Herbicide program.

Okay, herbicide.

That's another thing.

Weed killing.

Yes, sir.

I was just gonna one, I didn't finish up uh when I mentioned the going over to Vicksburg.

The a lot of these drainage issues are really really big issues that that we don't have the manpower resources to fix all by ourselves.

So we need where possible to reach out to different resources at the federal level and the state level, but probably the federal level most, like the Corps of Engineers, NRC, I think it is that you can get funding from for stuff and utilize their resources too.

So we just we we shouldn't just say, oh well, we don't have the equipment for that, so we'll go work on something else.

We we need to get all the resources we can get access to to address these problems because they have a huge impact on the quality of life.

Exactly right.

And um we're talking about the maintenance part of it right now.

Once we get through with this uh 40 million dollar bond, 15 million, 15 million of that is going toward uh rip wrapping ditches.

So the city's gonna look a lot better as far as maintaining ditches.

It's just after you don't just like we met in your world.

We gotta maintain it.

Yeah, if we won't maintain it, if we don't maintain it, you know, after we spend this 15 million dollars, you know, we have this equipment, have the herbicide program.

Is you know how grass grow is gonna get right back to what you know two or three years.

So we can count on somebody, you or your staff, somebody writing these things down or going back through the video and seeing the list we need, and definitely once we get to that ditch, we need it cleaned out.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, okay, it's just been a long time.

Okay, so from the street to the ditch, we got it clean, or we identified our limitations of what we need in order to anything else on drainage, colleagues.

Let's move to the next topic again.

These are supposed to be low-hanging fruit here, okay?

Let's go to the next topic.

The next division.

I think am I missing like we uh covered the majority low-hanging fruit.

Anything else is probably long-term?

Okay.

But uh well, let's talk about, and I and I appreciate the fact that you are in including uh blight equipment because we will be working these two things together simultaneously.

And uh, so next thing, let's go to the back to the agenda on the agenda.

We had uh cost and purchase schedule, is everything running fine there?

Or do we have any hiccups there with ordering, uh bidding, anything that's gonna that's gonna keep us look first of October we allocate money.

I don't know what happens between that and the first of December, but the sooner we can get this equipment on the on the ground, the better off we'll be.

So are any there are any other issues for us the purchase schedules or cost or bidding or anything Mr.

Mr.

Tables can step in and fix right away.

Other than what Mr.

Carwell said about the equipment with the vendor, it's more like the vendor preference.

Uh what piece of equipment was it?

The uh boom truck, yeah, the boom, the bucket truck.

The bucket truck.

Right.

Right, is it's a vendor, like you have a different cities trying to get the same piece of equipment at the same time, and they have a backlog.

Usually in one year, it was like any vendor that you called, it was a year wait.

I don't think that's an issue now.

Uh, but it's more like you said, the vendor is going through procurement.

We have our regular, they may not be used to going through their procurement process on doing that.

So I think Mr.

Cowell can give more information.

If you want the honest truth, some vendors just don't want to use our system.

That's the honest, I can't say the other way.

They haven't had to previously and they don't want to.

So they don't need us as a customer.

Some of them, some of them say our wait.

I mean, they they may not want, they may just not you know want to tie into it.

So I mean, they for them, some of them say it's extra work, and they just don't want to do it.

They don't see why they have to do so much stuff to sell.

And so you have that issue going.

Council members, um, CFO Carwell and I have met with the individuals who manage the vendor self-service portal.

We have made it clear the customer service from the city's end has to be paramount.

Um, there are some people who don't want to use the portal because they don't want their money tracked.

We can't help them.

No, there are other individuals who simply don't have the technical capabilities or uh understand how the portal works.

I've made it clear we need to do everything we can to help them.

If that means the city inputs the information for the um vendor, fine.

It there's nothing magic about a vendor importing it, uh inputting information.

We need the information in the system and get it there correctly.

So we're addressing that.

Uh I think most of the companies that have a problem with the vendor self-service portal will be able to isolate, and they just simply don't want to do business with the city.

But we are clear that if you have a challenge with the portal, let us know.

We'll take the responsibility of getting you in there and getting you processed and paid.

Great.

Thank you.

And that's as always, you know, we have to deal fairly, honestly, and expeditiously with our vendors so we can build up that trust.

Uh and uh we had we we revamp that finance, our finance department.

We put different structures in there to make sure that uh we don't have the lost invoices.

We're responsive and we're paying our bills and so forth.

Now we need to make sure that system and finance is working.

I guess no one from finance to hear that, but uh next item.

Let's go back to our our um uh the agenda, landfill status.

Uh gentlemen, is there anything else jumping out at you before we go into this issue?

Okay, streets, okay, okay.

Markings, we got all that covered.

Okay, garage.

That's one thing we haven't talked about.

And I know councilman foot, that's one of the things that's near and dear to his heart.

Do you guys have anything to report on our garage?

Um need more mechanics.

Uh okay, hold hold on a minute.

I want to make sure councilman foot gets in on this discussion.

Okay.

Um, no, no, I'm not gonna move for recess.

But uh while we wait, we uh how we're looking on uh uh auctions.

Um last check we had a meeting with finance, and they were working on trying to get the auction set up with us, so they were it's a progress.

Do you know when?

How long the exact date I had to find out, but I feel fine for you.

We'll look into it.

And councilman foot, while you were in deliberation there, I was asking about auctions, and the reply is that we're working on it.

Okay, but other subjects within the garage, I know that's one of the things near and dear to your heart.

Maybe it's a big deal with me.

I mean, and so just keep working on it, and uh don't buy it's a hot problem here.

And don't forget your microphone either.

Okay, okay, garage.

I've heard a whole lot of things about the garage.

Some of them not quite as healthy as other comments.

Let's be clear.

We're working on the public work side now.

You do have a lot of other cars and vehicles out there too.

Okay, but on our ability now, our ability to work the mechanics of the vehicles.

Okay, let's just that's that's us, right?

Okay, yes.

Okay, that's what I'm talking about now.

How are we doing at the garage for us, being able to piece equipment go down, goes out to the garage, never seen again?

What's the status?

Are we handling these things?

Uh I would say with the best, uh it can be it could be improved on the process.

Uh I asked them one question, you know, how many times it was I I'm looking at invoices.

I'm going through invoices, I'm looking at how much you know we'll spent on this car, and I think we uh want to implement a system.

I'm sorry, implement a system where you know if TK 55 is coming in, you know, 10 times a year, you know, we need to uh log it.

I don't think right now, as I asked what the history was on this piece of equipment, um, and why it's a 2000 uh uh I think it was 20 or or 19 or something like that, you know.

How why are we spending so much money on this car already?

Um I think once we implement this system, I don't know, I don't know exactly what the software is that we need to manage all the uh all the fleets in the city, and that's police fire.

Um I think we will have a better handle on efficiency uh in the garage because right now it's first come, first served.

You got um uh a garage where you have you know minimum mechanics, and everyone's coming in at the same time trying to get their thing, everything is an emergency.

So, you know, if you got two mechanics and you have six cars, I mean it's it's like chaos, you know.

I mean, they have to fix this car that they were out, they were they were already working on, and then you have four more cars that's coming in the same day, and all of it is emergency.

So what's the solution?

More men, um, no, no, no, no.

More mechanics.

Mechanics women, right?

You must not want to votes up there from somebody.

All right, I'm sorry.

So do you let me ask you something, and I think I've heard this before during the last term.

Software.

Do we have appropriate software that can keep track of of all these different vehicles and the times and costs, etc.?

Do we have something?

You mentioned software.

Not that I know of wearing it.

Is there anything effectively that could be used?

Yes, it it is.

I don't know the name of it, but I know uh in the past, uh there's software that tells you when the oil change, it tells you all these uh uh milestones, like you reached 10,000 miles, you know, you need to do this, preventive maintenance.

Is uh there's a bunch of and also you have different uh we which we discussed uh Mr.

Peter that um different manufacturers have different software as far as it's a Ford, Chevrolet, things like that, as far as their protocol, especially with the newer vehicles because everything's a computer, you know.

So less um follow-up on software.

Okay, but we also did in public works was um we implemented check points for our guys, they do like a weekly schedule for the equipment.

So if I'm the operator, and let's say Mr.

Anderson, my supervisor, I do a check on my equipment.

He signs it also.

So both of us sign to say my equipment's okay.

Accountability.

Okay.

So now to make sure that I'm not misusing my equipment and dogging it, because now now I have to sign it.

He has signed it also.

So he's putting his signature on so and that is at a supervisory level, then it goes to the manager.

And we we need that kind of accountability.

I think councilman foot has question.

Yeah, I got a question, but my question is about the motor pool, I guess as a whole.

The we've probably got what amongst all our fleets, we probably got five or six million dollars at least of equipment that um operates, some of it operates a lot, and um some of it operates intermittently, but we've got you got the fire department, you got the police department, you got public works, you got other vehicles that that serve, you know, the the other parts of the the city workforce.

But um I want I I've puzzled about the organization of the motor pool itself.

Is there just who's who's in charge and what is he work for the um public works deprimed or the police department?

Before you before you get into that, I mean that's what I want to I want to verify.

We do have the fire department have their own mechanics, right?

So they take care of their vehicles and their fire trucks and everything, right?

So which everybody else minus the fire department, right?

Correct.

No, police does their separate from the uh uh city garage.

So you have a municipal garage, but you actually have three departments performing the functions of municipal garage.

Fire department is councilman Hartley said, has always maintained their equipment separately because they have specialized equipment.

Sure.

Uh police department has been both in municipal garage and out of municipal garage over the years as people try to figure out what was the best way uh to get that handled.

Currently, as I understand it from going out there, uh police is handling, even though it's the same physical space, they are maintaining their vehicles separate from the municipal garage.

We have looked at uh how do we get a true municipal garage excluding fire for all other vehicles and get the rotation you're saying um so that we can do preventative maintenance and not just always have things brought in when they break.

So uh municipal garage has been a problem off and on for decades, and we're acutely aware that it is in a down period.

So is the municipal garage is that all out at make Michael Avalon?

Yes.

Okay, so I mean uh this is not a question necessarily for for um public workspeople, but just for the city itself on how you oversee a motor pool like that to make sure it's effective, and and is there somebody and who's he worked for?

And and so that you know I I think we need to look at our org chart on on the for the Michael Avalon operation and make sure that that we're doing the right things and in an effective way that that uh works for JPD, works for public works and everything else.

We agree.

Thank you.

And I and I'd like to echo that, you know.

This it can be a tough job managing uh those assets, getting the jobs done, or an equipment, uh, and getting the people, the employees to stay on test.

So uh leadership is out there, it's very, very, very important.

Okay, garage.

The next any other thing on the garage before we move on.

Let's shift on over to the landfill.

I know we can't cover all your little section, but I did want to get to the landfill and amount of time.

Ms.

Carwell, you sitting down?

You getting tired?

You got Miss Weather.

Okay, all right.

Uh Landfill.

Ms.

Weathers.

You might be needed later.

Okay, Ms.

Weathers.

Yes.

Okay, coming up with our landfill, landfill has been inoperable for a period of time, or parts of the landfill, and especially as we gear up the cleanup, and as we generate a lot more blighted um limbs and uh rubbish material, it's gonna be important that we have that sale, we have everything involving the our disposal capability.

It's we got to get that together, and and also waste management is going up on the disposal prices, our tipping fee, maybe as much as uh 50 percent or more.

So our ability, our our capability to get that landfill or our ability to get that landfill is gonna save us money and time and everything.

So not to put on any pressure on you, but uh what do you have?

You we can start out talking about any one of those things from scales, cell development, or the equipment itself.

Um the scales and the equipments uh we're built or bid out.

We're in the process of awarding those bids currently.

The way scale bid um should be on the next, what do we have the next agenda today?

Depending um, it will it will be on either the next agenda or the following.

Um the 16th, the uh equipment as well.

Okay, give me some details on the equipment.

What exactly what I and I heard you already have some equipment you recently got equipment in, or did we?

Uh the the most recent equipment that we have are the two boom trucks.

So we did purchase two new boom trucks.

That's the only new equipment in the world.

And that has really been helping, uh, but that in turns generate more waste that we have to take to the uh transfer station, and that's additional cost too.

Yes.

Um, so yes, sir, we do have the two new boom trucks.

We're in the process of ordering or not ordering, we're in uh in the process of awarding the bids for our excavator and for a frawler dozer.

And those are essential for uh uh for the daily operation at our landfill.

Yes, um we will not be able to open the current sale without those two pieces of we have the funding for that for those equipment we're good um funding.

Yes, uh we had a meeting with uh Mr.

Jackson uh last week, and we discussed the funding for those pieces of equipment as well as the scales.

What's the total price?

933,000 for both pieces, 933,951 dollars and three cents for the two pieces of equipment and the scales, and the scales, yes.

That's good, yes, sir.

I asked for a turnkey quote.

The turn key quote includes the equipment, the installation, the construction, as well as the software.

So there's the training.

Okay.

And we we haven't gotten a bid yet for that on the screen.

Okay, sir.

We're in the process of awarding.

Yes, sir.

Oh, we do have the bids and that's what I just stated.

It should be on the December 16th agenda.

And that is very good then.

And then the company can immediately come out and start the construction, building up the banks, the roadway, everything needs install the meters.

Okay.

The electrical, everything is included.

Okay.

Do we have a time frame on how long that would take?

It depends on how fast we get them the um the PO for purchase.

So upon council approval, we will submit that information to the company.

Um I think right now it's a 30 to 60 day build out.

Okay.

Mr.

Taberson.

Want to make it clear to the council.

We heard you during budget.

This is a priority area.

I've been out there and um visited the landfill personally.

Uh we think for the council's priority and the mayor's priority of blight elimination or blight fighting.

Uh just what you said, councilman Harley, we need an open landfill.

Uh we need those roll-off dumpsters every month, but we also need a a landfill that folks can go down there and legally dump things.

And so now I just wanted to echo what Ms.

Weathers has been saying.

That money is there.

All these things have been a priority since about August.

I think that's when I went down there.

It was hot.

That's all I remember.

Okay.

Let's check this off individual items, uh scales.

Any questions for my colleagues on the scales?

Scales is gonna increase our ability tremendously to regulate how we um monitor the waste coming in and how we can save money and make money.

Specifically, if we have any type of uh disasters, uh, and we go after federal uh uh decl declared money, then uh having those scales there is gonna be very, very it's gonna help the operation tremendously.

It'll make it a lot quicker than estimating and doing all that.

So uh what about supportive equipment?

Uh they're gonna uh Miss Weather, is they're gonna bring along, they're gonna uh put the all the equipment and computers in there in the in our chat there.

Yes, sir.

It's stated this includes everything the installation, the setup, the construction, the training, the software, it includes everything.

Okay, and then also with the uh articulating uh it's not articulating dump truck, just a regular dump truck.

Uh cover at the landfill.

Um so those two two pieces of equipment are vital to the operation.

Okay.

Next subject.

I got a question.

I'm sorry.

Um so um you said make money.

Um what's our revenue we expect from the landfill when this thing gets up and running?

In the first year, we're looking um around 130 to 200,000 within that first year.

Um, and that's starting the new fiscal year year, um, not the annual year.

Um increasingly after that, basically because we're gonna set up contracts, we're looking to uh bring back the possibility of setting up contracts with other municipalities and companies.

Um so we just won't be depending on the mom and pop operations or the smaller contractors.

So right now, who would be our two biggest customers?

Hines County would be one.

Um, and I'm sorry I'm forgetting the company's name.

There is another company currently that does uh limb debris removal, tree removal.

They would be our other biggest.

Thank you.

Have we factored in how much money we'll be saving from not using their transfer station?

No, we have not done that calculation to date.

Mr.

Anderson did uh discuss that in our last meeting with Mr.

Jackson.

So we should have those numbers for you.

Yeah, and that should be significant.

So not only more because our our cost is going up.

Our cost is going up with waste management, so it should be even more what we expected.

But also in the day-to-day operations, uh, we didn't have a compactor.

So there has to be compacted um frequently, you know, to to have the the layer, the protection layer on the debris.

Right now we have to rent.

I think we found the 15,000.

Is it $15,000?

We have to rent the compactor.

That that's for the this is for the sale development.

That's for the uh density tail um the test on the the new sale for the side walls.

Right.

So we do have the that's the construction of the sale, which I think is the next topic.

Uh right.

But yes, sir.

But I'm saying, you know, in the future you're gonna have to cover up daily, right?

Yeah, but it's not required uh compaction like that, unless it's a final cover.

That's what the dozers are for to uh cover.

That's what the dozers are for to uh cover, we dig and cover.

Yeah, it's just placed there, but airspace, I guess.

It's good to have.

Are we looking at long term and at purchasing a compactor?

That can be pretty pricey.

We did not price the compra uh compactor currently.

It was difficult to find a company to even rent us one, let alone sell one.

Okay.

Um it that is a very expensive piece of equipment.

Does the county have one?

I'm not sure.

I can check into that.

Yeah, if we can, you know, I mean, just again, to get into our cell, we have to have those walls compacted.

If we can borrow one, swap something out, do them a favor, they do have a favor.

Yeah, I would check with Fairclaw first um to see if they have one.

But I I'll check with the county, but we do have the funding for the rentals, so we've already put that in the workflow.

Okay, so how long do you think it'll take to get that sale once we pass past that density test?

Neil Schaefer has set it up a burns cooler to come back out and do the testing while we're doing the compaction, so we won't have to wait on that.

As soon as the compaction is complete, MDEQ will be on site to do their uh final inspection, and then we can open time frame, Councilman Hartley.

If I'm guesstimating about a month, um, and that's just guess the main.

We are in the holiday season, so things are a little bit clear.

Mr.

Parkinson, thank you so much, and thank you for all of this work.

This is incredible.

Um, I have very foolish questions because I don't know much about landfills, and so feel be my expert, fill me in.

I heard you mention that where we may, and you said, you know, this will be in the future, kind of looking ahead, but potentially working with Heinz County or the other places, so it's not just mom and pop places to sort of bring in, which is clearly a great revenue driver and all that good stuff.

Um here's my foolish question.

Is there a risk of filling it too fast?

What's the capacity level?

And are we sort of looking ahead so that my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is right now we're sort of without our own, and we have to kind of get a bridge gap in between.

Is there a way to be looking towards the end of one life cycle and starting to look ahead at what's our next going to be if this one's filling up?

I don't know if any of that makes sense.

But it does, it makes sense.

Okay, that's a good question.

So that we're not just waiting for it to be full.

It makes plenty of sense.

Okay, now to be honest with you, I don't have that documentation in front of me.

If you want me to give you a more formal um response, I can.

It's it's basically um uh you look at it as a um allowable tonnage amount per day, right?

Um, if you're exceeding that tonnage amount per day to as far as the lifespan of the facility.

Now, this current sales lifespan is I think 15 to 20 years.

Um, so we we're not expecting to overfill the the facility.

Um we want the ex uh excessive business to bring in the revenue, right?

But there is a uh tonnage to answer your question, um uh overage of tonnage.

I don't see us overgoing uh going over that amount.

Um in fact of overfilling, the main concern that I would have with overfilling uh the sale would be excessive wood debris.

Now that takes up a lot of capacity, however, there is a long-term plan with MDQ to uh permit a previous sale at the facility to use it just for limb debris only.

That's a long-term plan.

Um, so that will take some of that debris out of your um sale, which would extend the life of the of the sale to answer your question.

Yes.

Can you also um explain the chipping process?

How that helps?

Well, the chipping process uh relies heavily on funding as well.

Um, but yes, sir, we do have to chip the wood debris that comes into the landfill um most days.

Well, um normal operations we use that for cover um as part of our cover process, but yes, there is a process of chipping, all wood debris has to be chipped currently.

We do not dig and bury the wood degree, wood debris.

That's why we're looking to permit that other sales so we can remove that debris and place it in another location.

I'd like for us to follow that closely if possible.

You know, uh you know, I've been a solid waste you know decades.

Bearing a tree to mean something's wrong with that picture.

Okay, so any other ways, a storage area, I don't and I you know, you know, I know DEQ has certain laws, but we need to do something to separate that waste out and to manage it differently because the way we're doing it, we're bearing it with the couch and the sink and the rest of that stuff, then that becomes more expensive.

So we need uh I would like if you don't mind that's the chipping piece, but that's that's exactly what we're doing with that long-term plan.

That is a part of the process of the uh the Neil Schaefer plan that we uh came before council with.

That's part of that process.

That's already in there to um develop that uh that old sale in the back of the landfill, the one that's near the water tower, just for wood debris.

So that's what that would be for.

That is the plan for I guess the word you would use would be staging, um, but we wouldn't have to chip that debris.

That's what that sale would be for.

So that would be a significant cost-saving factor uh for the landfield.

If you come up with some type of uh of um statement or direction or uh description, how that all's gonna work, I'd love to see a copy of that.

It's already in the plan.

I would just provide a copy to uh I mean from a practical standpoint with now with time.

No, it's already it's already typed up in the case.

Okay, that's so how long is it gonna take us to get that on the uh permitting uh for that sale, you're looking at another two years.

Yeah, okay.

It's a process.

All right.

Uh anything else, colleagues on the on the landfill equipment.

I think we covered that pretty good.

Personnel, how we're doing that there.

Personnel, we uh we currently have we currently have uh four um licensed heavy equipment operators.

Um we do have three that are currently operating equipment, the two boom trucks and our one roll-off truck.

Um, so we do have those operators.

Uh, we have maintenance workers, we do have a one full crew right now of maintenance workers.

So what about uh CDLs?

Let's see.

Commercial driver licenses.

That we have uh currently we have four.

Okay, so we have enough.

We currently have enough for what we have, yes.

Thank goodness at one time we were we were uh for what we have, yes.

Yeah, we didn't have much.

Okay.

Uh uh, Mr.

Harley.

You have to think um right now we're using some of the landfill staff to help with the curb, right?

Kurt pick up.

Our land still landfill staff, because we are not fully operational.

Um, those individuals are being utilized, of course, to run our boom trucks and our roll-off trucks on our street operations.

I was explaining to Mr.

Anderson once we open that facility and we go back full time, your street operations will be limited.

Okay.

Um I'm going to number four.

I'm gonna hold that entry.

Uh that's just a report of some information that I've got.

Uh before we go into this grass maintenance division, really briefly, um environmental service center.

Yes, sir.

The environmental service center currently uh as of today has been demolished.

The actual facility.

We have yes, yeah.

Um, yes, we did send out a public notice alerting the public that that facility, well, the uh services are temporary temporarily suspended until we relocate.

We are in the process of finding a building.

Okay.

I had a call um since our last meeting within the last few hours.

Folks want to know where to take their toxic materials.

Well, we well, we are working on an alternative currently with the company that's collecting the um hazardous waste now to see if we can do off-site operations or collections, like it would be similar to like an e-waste day.

Um, however, you do know we would need MDEQ approval prior to doing that because you just can't collect hazardous waste anywhere.

Um, but we are looking at alternative options until we get this building uh secured.

Okay.

And lastly, thank you.

Lastly, potential grass uh uh maintenance division.

At one time the administration was talking about grouping all our grass cutting and that type stuff in one particular area.

Want to see how we were doing on that.

We are making good progress, council members.

Um, both Ms.

Weathers and Mr.

Caldwell have been in multiple meetings with myself, Mr.

Hutton, um about how we're going to do this.

We have uh decided to move one 15-person crew from perks and wreck over to public works.

Uh Mr.

Carwell, I think is in turn creating two crews that will either address curb and gutter grass from that, and then we're gonna work on some complementary scheduling.

We've also um discussed the use of growth inhibitors uh both at the parks and on right-of-way.

Uh one way for us to keep um uh our parks under control, and we've discussed this with Steve Hutton since he's our golf course guy, is we can spray some chemicals on there that will probably reduce us to only having to mow our parks about three times a year.

And so we're looking to do that.

And if we can move more personnel um from parks and wreck over to public works, we will, but we're trying to do the one of the three crews and then work on what we call complementary scheduling.

And we're gonna have to reevaluate this in the spring.

This is to get us through the winter when grass growing starts again in March.

We're gonna have to evaluate this.

We've uh agreed in February and March to make sure we're ready for April going forward.

Uh two things on grass cutting that are important.

One, we would encourage each of you as council members, if there are smaller parks in your ward that a neighborhood group would like to maintain, a legitimate neighborhood group.

Uh we've done some some back of the napkin calculations, and it may make more sense for us to pay an association of South Jackson neighborhoods or somebody uh get gas and weed eater money.

We're not gonna be able to pay people.

They're gonna have to come and meet the city uh where they are.

But if we came to you and recommended a uh worthwhile group or you recommended one to us and said, look, they take care of this park for $2,000 at $2,500.

I think we need to look at that.

Um secondly, uh, in discussions with the mayor uh as recently as uh over the lunch hour, we would like the uh city council um each of you to recommend a couple of contractors in your respective orb that you would feel comfortable having help us with right of way.

I think we've all concluded that the two contractors citywide approach was ineffective.

What could we do going forward for either grass cutting or litter pickup?

Again, where we kind of hybrid this.

We're not trying to say we don't need crews, but if we have city crews on major right-of-way, is there a secondary right-of-way where you have um uh I hate to say mom and pop, local businesses within your ward.

Uh in a ward one, for example, you have Mr.

Ward who's done a ton of work.

It would make a lot more sense putting some funds in his hand and letting him do that.

So we're open to that.

We realize uh grass cutting will be big again in March.

So please share your ideas with us as we uh turn through this to find out what is optimal for the city of Jackson.

Excellent.

All right, uh certainly appreciate everything.

Uh Mr.

Anderson, Mr.

Carwell, Ms.

Weathers, appreciate our auto briefing.

Again, moving forward.

I see uh I didn't get into the uh all the equipment.

Um Mr.

Tawson, one final question as we wrap up here.

When we sat here earlier doing budget hearing, you know, I asked for a couple million.

Yeah, that's not gonna work.

Right.

Do we have the funding, especially in light of our new reports on finances to move forward with a lot of this equipment for um uh for uh uh uh for blight elimination?

I'm gonna give you a conditional yes, conditional yes, but it's yes.

Uh again, the council made it clear that if we could uh dispose of all the um outdated public works and non-police equipment at uh Michael Avalon, we would put that money back into public works, and that's what we're in the process of doing.

We've had internal meetings, we're now in the process of itemizing every piece of equipment out there.

So uh conditionally, yes.

Uh, I think you know, our budget is such that somebody on the outside would probably say, hey, sell that equipment, use that money to plug your budget hole.

We know as a practical matter, our citizens need services, even as we're plugging the budget.

So we're committed to whatever we sell out there is going to go back, just like you heard that the previous money you allocated, we've spent to buy the equipment you wanted us to spend.

Okay.

And and finally, on that same note, uh, you know, talking with the Secretary of State's office, they have like 1.7 million dollars for maintenance of blighted properties, but it comes after we go and clean up.

Uh, and that's one reason I'm pushing for this equipment special a package deal with skid steers, side cutter, tree cutter, grapple, and the dump trailers and everything, so we can go out and do some of that work and then get reimbursed.

Yes.

And so that's that's another that's another source of money.

Uh, and I'm and I'd like to work on that.

But look, closing out, I'd like to thank you all.

Uh like I said, we had a lot of just bullet questions.

Appreciate all your help, but I'm just I I see where you guys are already doing work.

Uh that's already that's good when you can answer these questions like that.

Round table before we go, Mr.

Foote.

Anything in closing concerning public works.

Well, I look forward to I think we're gonna make a uh a PR with social media and other media when we get some of these new pieces of equipment in, whether it's the paver or whatever, let's let's celebrate that, have a ribbon cutting type of uh event, get a paver out there and pave somebody's road who hadn't been paved in 10 years, and then are or with uh whatever the equipment is.

I think we ought to make a big splash out of it and and put it on social media so people can see the the that their tax dollars being put to work and and with stuff that's gonna serve them and take advantage of um uh uh you know um the stuff that we're buying for you know to get some extra headline.

I agree.

I think that's a great idea.

Mr.

Parkinson.

Well, I want to thank everybody for all the fantastic work that you do with public works specifically, and then in addition to all the public works work that you all do, I want to thank uh Mr.

Mr.

Anderson.

He graciously came and spoke to a group of high school students in Ward Seven um about his department.

So, in addition to all the roads and the drainage and all the other issues that we're we're dealing with, he he's also in the business of education, so we appreciate it and uh I'm I'm grateful for that.

Okay, I think this uh and again uh hats off uh public works of uh workers.

You know, you guys do you know God's work out in the break of dawn doing the things to keep the city going.

And uh I for one am not oblivious to that fact.

Thank you for everything you do.

If there's no further comment, this meeting is concluded.