uh round table meeting to order here at six pm and in um meeting um pledge of allegiance i'd like to see the wire states in america public for which it says nation that's like that's all every t shirle that's just someone's name that we have to look for tornadoes you'll you'll hear the silence about all right uh sorry is there an invocation yes do we know heavily Bobby we thank you for the gift of tenure as we come together to achieve a common goal maybe may we be unified in our thoughts and actions roll call please older person marking present to see us present for that is any end present bench but the meal present present there's no remote electronic attendance necessary are there any questions on the agenda hearing none is there public comment this evening oh I'm sorry okay thank you we will move right into our round table discussion eight point lead service line replacement plan this from Lovey good evening your honor good evening council I want to give fair warning that I've got my teeth with the city doing uh water main rate repairs so I I detest cold weather uh so in honor of this warm human repair I've had David substitute the extended version of this uh uh so uh do I just need to it's not just those okay so we're gonna talk tonight on about the uh the regulatory environment that we're looking in relating to these flood lines we're gonna talk about uh where we are now uh as more uh with regard to these um these requirements and then uh we'll finish off with some options relating to how we want to proceed and and really there since there's no action that we're seeking here tonight um there'll be no vote or anything but uh we are looking for some direction or uh some concurrence on the ideas that we are presenting so uh this slide represents the map of Moline and and where the uh the lead lines are are exist within the city and within the boundaries this is a map of the census tracts not necessarily the uh the older person wards uh but you can see I think there's the there was the idea when I've met with some of you that um the the predominance of the web lines exists over on the west side of town and maybe especially the work west side of town but in reality they're spread throughout and uh and and so we'll see as we get into the presentation that um we're seeking uh state revolving loan funds for um to fund this and we think that that's the best option uh before I get going too far I want to let you know that I've brought with me a couple of experts and that is uh Brown he's our environmental compliance manager he's the one on our team that knows the most about the lead and copper rule and the uh the lead copper rule revision so that will be in place later on this year and then also Levi Jackson he's the one that uh dutifully worked uh last evening until midnight to work on the repair of the water main on 40th street and second that gives them a better view of the screen anyway thanks all right this okay thank you mayor thank you all our persons for being here tonight to uh find out what this is all about after all these years of being installed into the strategic plan of the city going back to 2021 with one of the ideas that I threw out there for several months because I realized we happen to have a lot of farmland south of the city and no growth just no growth but we owned a lot of property and of course well what are we doing with it not much so the question is what to do with that and this idea was work that's how we got birthday and uh so let's go to the next slide so why would we want to do something like this what's the purpose well first of all you know we own this parcel of land which you're going to see and we've owned it since 2006 and it has been basically under your eyes on the for agricultural production ultimately the entire time that's what it's used for the input and then it's converted and goes into the service panel and then there's some versions that happen we have it's really useful so what are the benefits new revenue source right we're always looking for alternate revenue sources right always only so many of them out there municipalities have the stream annually you know with unfunded mandates from the state or

And then it's converted and goes into the service panel, and then there's some conversions that happen, and governments would be useful.

So one of the benefits, new revenue source, right?

We're always looking for alternate revenue sources, right?

Always only so many of them out there, and municipalities have the stream annually, you know, with unfunded mandates from the state or unfunded federal mandates.

Right.

Uh lead lines is a great example, but it's health issue, right?

Um, we're always looking for revenue.

This is a revenue generator if you're going to learn, right?

Uh, we can use it to generate revenue uh power on site, we can we can actually sell that power, we can actually reduce our costs with that power, you know, and we're looking at a couple alternatives, and again, we're not gonna do some general guidance from council because we're at this level right now, and we're drilling down.

None of us are solar experts, right?

But quickly we're becoming solar knowledge, the best way to describe it.

Um, every day, actually.

So, as we as we look at this, I mean we're looking at tax over savings of cost, I would say.

So we generate, and as you're gonna see you generate about uh, I think it was uh almost nearly a million dollars a year in cost.

We use about 13 kilovolts, what it is.

Um, and it costs us almost a million dollars.

Imagine if you didn't have to pay that boy, it's a million dollar savings, just like that.

13 kilovolts is you're gonna learn about a third of what this will generate, right?

So stuff on that creates jobs, obviously it'll create jobs to not only uh build it, but it'll create jobs to manage it and operate it.

So uh, and also, of course, you're gonna see if we go through this, opens up other doors for economic development.

Nobody around us is doing this.

That's like state solar.

You want to go through this a little bit?

By the way, just a little spotlight on some changes.

I think significant to know is the 47% decrease in costs for implementing solar over the past 10 years.

Um, that's a very significant uh decrease in the upfront costs making it more appealing and more able to utilize for um you know municipalities like ours.

Uh and my button doesn't want to doesn't want to go that far, but if you see on the far graph on the bottom on the right on the top blue section, that is utility scale growth.

Um, and that's what we're looking at doing is a utility scale uh level uh solar development.

So you can see a lot of growth in that blue section over the past three to four years.

And this is Illinois specific.

So right now we're ranked 15.

It's amazing.

We went from nothing from nothing to being ranked 15th.

That's pretty impressive.

Even the folks we spoke to on the phone debate from Washington, DC know what's going on in Illinois when it comes to solar.

Illinois climate bank is putting a lot of effort and funding into uh clean energy in Illinois, which is I think coming under Illinois Finance Authority.

Umsection of Illinois finance.

Okay, so a couple different ways.

I mean, we are looking at a direct ownership model right now, at least that's what we were thinking about from the get-go.

That's still where we are today.

But one of the things we're gonna want to do, of course, is evaluate what is the best model for the city.

You know, is it where we own it, we operate it, we sell that goods to the power company, we offset all of our costs, right?

And we get all the benefits, and we get 100% of benefit, but again, 100% of risk, yeah.

100% of the risk, and whatever that risk is, we get it.

Um, or you enter into public private partnerships.

There's companies out there all across the United States that actually partner with uh government agencies, whether it's school districts or local governments, and they go in and they create public private partnerships, they share in the cost burden.

You know, we get a piece of the puzzle, but then they get their piece because they're investing into it as well.

Our investment, of course, initially is that underlying land is a tremendous value.

We paid about a million dollars for that land, just give an idea about 975, long time ago.

2006, yeah, okay.

Potential funding sources, you want to talk about inflation reduction act from one game.

Um, the tax credits that were available under the inflation reduction act were not available to municipalities at all.

Um, or nonprofits only for private organizations.

So now that that has changed, it's called direct pay, and that program is now uh it's a straight up cash rebate on investment in clean energy.

Um, and it right now it's ranging anywhere from 30 to 50 percent, depending on certain criteria, as Tony mentioned about the census tracks, um, a similar uh kind of um denotation from the from the federal government is to help they have this justice 40 initiative, so they're wanting 40 percent of all federal funds invested to go towards um you know low income and household, yeah.

So depending on you know our structure of the project, it could be up to 50.

We're guessing a minimum of 30 though, um, no matter what uh what we decide to do as far as funding, we should be able to get these 30.

So that's uh it's a special 990 form that's filed.

Um, since you know governments don't pay taxes, uh it's a special form that you get, and it's a direct cash payment back on your investment.