Testing, testing, one, two, three.

That's pretty good.

If Alders can guess could please take their seats, we'll begin momentarily.

If Alders and guests could please take their seats, we'll begin momentarily.

It's a little bit louder than maybe than needed.

Good evening, everyone.

If IT could turn down the volume just as smidge, that would be great.

But good evening, everyone.

Thank you very much.

So Alder Frazier is joining us remotely.

And then President Horton, do we have any excused absences this evening?

Mo to approve.

There's a motion and a second to approve the minutes.

Any discussion on the minutes.

See none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Opposed.

That motion carries.

We now move on to proclamations.

We do have a proclamation this month because it is Women's History Month.

And so we have a Recene proclamation that reads, whereas in 2026, the National Women's History Alliance has selected the theme leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future, recognizing the vital role women play in building a more just resilient and sustainable world.

And whereas this theme highlights women's leadership in confronting global challenges, including climate change, economic inequality, healthcare disparities, and social justice, while advancing solutions that strengthen communities and improve quality of life.

And whereas the theme also broadens the understanding of sustainability beyond environmental stewardship to include financial stability, community resilience, leadership succession, and intergenerational equity.

And whereas women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic and enduring contribution to the growth, progress, and strength of our nation in both recorded and unrecorded ways.

And whereas the city of Racine proudly honors the stories, achievements, and leadership of women in our community throughout Wisconsin and across the nation, whose efforts continue to inspire and unlip uplift future generations.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Corey Mason, mayor of the City of Racine do hereby proclaim March 2026 as women's history month in the city of Racine and encourage all residents to celebrate and reflect upon the women whose vision, courage, and dedication have shaped our shared history and continue to guide our collective future and witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the city to be affixed this 26th day of no this third day of February or March 2026.

Moving on to the council, uh next item, which is public comments.

I will ask the city clerk to read the procedure before we begin.

The public comment segment is an opportunity for citizens to speak directly to the common council.

Speakers will limit their remarks to three minutes.

There shall be no dialogue or interaction between the speaker and elected officials or staff.

This time is not intended to be a debate or discussion.

The common council shall not hear personal complaints or attacks against any city employee or elected official or any matter related to an individual claim, citation, appeal, or lawsuit.

Profane, disruptive, threatening, or conduct that otherwise impedes the safe, orderly, and effective conduct of the common council meeting is equally unacceptable during the public comment period as it is during all other portions of city meetings.

Candidates for public office may not use this opportunity to campaign for office.

Speakers during the public comment period shall follow all rules of the common council and rulings of the chair, including a decision to terminate the remarks if the speaker does not adhere to these rules.

Public comment shall be limited to ideas or concerns regarding the city of Racine.

We encourage you to submit any detailed concerns in writing to the city clerk's office or your aldermen, where they can be properly documented and directed for response.

There will be four speakers this evening.

The first is Jill Ballantine, 2300, Washington Ave.

When that three minutes is up, the microphone gets turned off.

That is not a reflection on your commentary, just an effort to treat everybody fairly as we move along.

So as soon as we we've got the clock, um is it on this?

There we go.

Okay.

Please begin.

Hi, my name is Jill Ballantine.

I live in the city of Racine, and I live in an area that is just plagued by these horrible, horrible, loud bomb-sounding.

Um I don't know if you'd call them fireworks, because they don't make the display in the sky.

And this is happening behind my house.

Um they're jumping the fence over to the public golf course area, and it makes this um such a loud noise, such a loud bomb-sounding noise that it shakes windows of everyone in the area, it shakes the ground, and it makes this um smoke that makes your eyes tear and it's hard to breathe, and it goes on all night, and it goes on almost every day at night in July.

Um, you can see where they're climbing over the fence, and I'm just asking that the noise ordinances and disturbance of the peace be um be uh followed up on, and maybe we can take some um precautions or some steps ahead of time to prevent this from happening, and uh maybe encourage if people are going to set these things off to do it at their own houses, um, even though I know it's illegal to do, um, maybe then we can find them better.

Across the street from me, they also um do ones that are illegal fireworks that have the displays that come down and the sparkles come down and they create smoke and fire onto like bushes and trees.

We had to call the fire department last year.

Um, this is uh a dense, highly populated area, and um I understand for the July is a celebration of you know time, but it it could end up in a bad way, and it really disturbs um everybody's peace and everybody's you know holiday time.

Um I'm just asking that uh current laws and current noise ordinances be enforced.

Um I guess that's about it.

I'm not asking, you know, for the world.

I'm just asking for that we um do something about something that affects everybody, it affects our pets, it affects um veterans, veterinarians will tell you it's the number one night that dogs get run over from running into the street because of the noise, and um it's all night almost every night, and I have had it.

I've had it, and my neighbors have had it, and I know um everybody is probably affected by these things, so maybe we can work together and um head this off before it happens.

Okay, so thank you.

The next speaker is Tad Valentine at 2300 Washington Ave.

Patty, Patty?

Can Patty go you can tell me?

She's the next one.

I have I have Patty as third, but it doesn't matter what order, either one.

Okay, so Patty Priscato at 5315 53rd Ave.

Yes.

Hi.

I'm here because of the fireworks also.

I have a niece that lives in racine.

Last year, her dog crawled in to the crib with her baby.

The baby, mind you, was eight months old.

The dog is a German shepherd.

She had to pick this dog up shaking, and the baby woke up crying and screaming from the noise.

She couldn't sleep all night.

And so I'm asking, please put a control on this.

Back in my day, it was called uh disturbance.

Um, and people got find, and if they didn't stop, they got arrested.

So I'm really hoping that there could be a stop to some of this noise.

Also, in my neighborhood, I have a vet, a veteran, and he also is traumatized, and I've gone to city council in Kenosha with this too.

He wraps himself in a blanket and sits in a corner and shakes all night.

I call and check on him to make sure he's okay, and his voice is just shaking.

Get this over with.

I feel like I'm back in Vietnam.

And I'm like, oh God, I wish there was something I could do.

So I've called the police several times in Kenosha, and I've talked to the mayor in Kenosha, and it has gotten a little better last year.

We'll see what happens this year.

But if there could be some kind of time limit on this, maybe 10 30, and then have it stopped, have extra cops out, even retacops for this, and and get a handle on this because babies are traumatized.

My dog is traumatized.

I have to take my dog all the way to the county at 45 minutes away from my house to make them go to the bathroom.

I mean, this is ridiculous.

So people can have their fun.

I was sitting in my living room, a spark went through my living room like it was uh a light going off, and it scared me, and it scared my husband.

And it's like we had to go outside check to see if there was a fire.

This is not fair.

This is not fair that people have to have these illegal fireworks, let them off, and then get away with it.

And so that's really all I have to say.

Thank you for letting me speak.

The next speaker is Tad Ballantine, 2300 Washington Ave.

Okay.

So if I don't speak, I'm in the doghouse.

Um I told Joe when she brought this up that there's probably no disagreement.

Probably a number of our aldermen have pets, uh mayor have pets.

This is not something that anybody would be in a disagreement.

Um, and I said there's probably three Vs veterinarians.

Uh I didn't realize how big an issue this was.

I'm a dog lover, but she's a bigger dog lover.

And so um, I did talk to a couple veterinarians.

Uh I own 50 horses up in Mekwan.

Talk to them, and they said it's the worst night of the year.

We have to put our 50 horses in the stables in the riding areas because if they see light and sound, they will literally run through a fence, not jump it, which they're told to do, but but run through a fence.

So from horses to dogs, um, if you like animals, it's a bad night for them.

So anything we could do to enforce, I'm sure our city attorney could give us lots of regulations.

Um the mayor can talk with the chief of police.

Uh they love animals.

I'm I'm sure that's something as you do.

The second one was veterans.

That that one I missed.

Um, and shame on me.

I love animals, but uh I certainly love veterans more than that.

And the fact that there's veterans that have to drive three hours away on on before July 4th to leave to go to a county where they don't have fireworks, stay there all night.

Veterans that stay in their basement for 12 hours, put the headphones on.

Um I'm sure if we brought some veterans up here, they would tell us about that.

And so um, I don't want them to go through that.

Um, and then the third one is is your voters.

Lots of your voters have dogs, so they would be supportive.

So um the three Vs, veterans, veterinarians, and voters.

I think we can all agree that we should work together to enforce the regulations.

Maybe there's best practices how it's done.

I'm sure our police force gets flooded with calls initially, so how they handle it.

Um, but that would be a good discussion earlier rather than later for the chief of police to have with the alderman and with the mayor to solve the problem.

Thank you for your time.

The last speaker, I I apologize.

I think it's Tony Rose or Rosa.

Uh good evening.

Uh my name is Terry Rose.

My handwriting probably wasn't uh as clear as it should be.

Uh I'm an attorney in Kenosha.

I practice with Rose and Rose attorneys.

I'm here to speak tonight on an item which is at your agenda at page 16.

I'm representing Ms.

Song, who is the applicant for a massage establishment uh license.

She is currently a license holder uh in an establishment in downtown Racine on Main Street, and I want to emphasize that she has never received any kind of citations, arrests.

There have never been any search warrants executed at her business.

I'm asking the uh your counsel here this evening to refer this back to committee uh for reconsideration.

Uh it is before you on a denial of that license uh for her.

She was because I think there were a number of misunderstandings when the issue was presented to the committee.

Uh her native language is Chinese.

Perhaps you could stand, Miss Sung, if you would just stand for a moment.

Uh and that thank you.

Uh and uh her native language is Chinese.

She did not have an interpreter there.

I think if she'd had an interpreter there, that uh consideration would have been a bit different.

Uh her answers would have been clearer and more articulate, and if it's referred back, she'll have an interpreter there.

Uh one of the misunderstandings was that the uh applicant uh application was thought to be for two licenses, one downtown and one on this Douglas Avenue.

She's actually seeking to transfer the one license to Douglas Avenue.

She's seeking only one license.

There was uh an issue about her phone number.

Uh, she had purchased this business from a prior owner who had some uh racy ads on some various websites, which when which she did not realize that phone number has now been changed.

This is not a setup for prostitution.

I think that that was a misunderstanding and a concern of the committee, and I want to emphasize here tonight this is not a phone number for prostitution purposes at all.

I say she's never been cited, never been arrested, no search warrants have ever been executed.

She's in the process of having those ads removed.

Uh telephone number has been changed.

I think she's always been a good citizen here of Racine.

Uh we'd like to have another opportunity to present our case to the committee, and I think it'll be uh uh favorably discussed there.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

This concludes the public comment segment.

We'll now move on to committee reports and communications uh to various committees.

First uh committee is an item to be referred to the committee of the whole.

Alder Horton, would you like to read an item and uh make a motion for referrals?

Uh I would like to make a motion to refer the following item to the committee of the whole item 0178-26, communications sponsored by Mayor Mason for a presentation from Kaiser Golf Group and Leopold Johnson Golf Group regarding potential improvement and long-term lease agreements for the city racing for shoot part.

It's a motion and a second to refer to this item.

All those in favor of roll, please say aye.

Opposed that motion carries.

We'll now move on to referrals to finance and personnel.

Alder Land, would you like to make a motion regarding these items?

I would like to refer the file following items to finance and personnel.

Item 0120-26 communication by Mayor Mason requesting permission to execute a contract with Aetna moving and storage for municipal solid waste services.

Item 0156-26 communication requesting permission for purchasing manager to sole source the purchase of professional services for the 4th of July Fireworks Display from Pyrotechnical Fireworks Incorporated.

Item 15 0157-26 communication requesting permission for purchasing managers to sole source the purchase of tree diapers, which are watering devices for the 2026 tree planting from Xenovation LLC.

Item 0158-26 communication requesting permission for the purchasing manager to sole source the purchase of 250 trees from Johnson's Nursery for the United States semi-quincentennial celebration.

Submitting the claim of Michael Tenuta for consideration for disallowance.

Requesting permission to apply and enter into a recurring agreement and accept the maximum of 35, 899 from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for Beach Monitoring Program.

Item 0176-26 communication by Alder Pabone requesting permission to enter into agreement to accept funding from the Douglas Avenue bid to fund approximately 340 hours of police officer overtime costs for dedicated traffic and speed enforcement along Douglas Avenue.

Item 0179-2 communication on behalf of the financial empowerment coordinator requesting permission to accept a $1,000 donation from Marine Credit Union to support the program operations and initiatives of the Financial Empowerment Center.

The second to refer these items to finance and personnel.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed that motion carries.

Communication requesting the installation of permanent speed humps associated with the 2026 resurfacing of Michigan Boulevard.

Item 0111-26 communication submitting change order number one to contract 2025001 concrete street reconstruction.

Item 0112-26 communication submitting final payment for the same item.

Item 0114-26 communication submitting change order.

Number four to contract 2024 107, City versus Court Building Tuck Pointing.

Item 0115-26 communication submitting bid results for contract 2025 748 janitorial services for city hall, safety building, city annex and DPW maintenance garage for 2026.

Item 0116-26 communications submitting a professional service agreement between the city of Racine and Industrial Roofing Services for Tuck Pointing and Exterior Restoration Specifications for Multiple City Owned Buildings in the not to exceed amount of $66,500.

0117-26 communication on behalf of the Department of Public Works submitting change order number one to contract 2025-145 multi-site roofing item 0118-26 communication submitting final payment for contract 2025-145 multi-site roofing.

Item 0153-26 communications submitting a professional services agreement between the city of Racine and ACOM.

Item 0154-26 communications submitting amendment to contract 2024 441, three-party consulting engineering services contract between the City of Racine, Wistott and Baxter Woodman for State Project 2703-08-01 slash 71.

Item 0163-26 communication uh requesting to close West Boulevard at 9 a.m.

between Washington Avenue and Wright Avenue for the Memorial Day Parade at the Parade Wheel Depart Grayson Cemetery at 10 a.m.

Moon North the West Boulevard Dasborne and then to Grayslin.

Item 0164-26 communications submitting change order number one to contract 2024 062 CCTV sewer inspection and finally item 0169-26 communication uh submitting amendment one to contract 2026027 McMinn Ramp Professional Services Agreement.

Second the second to refer these items.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

That motion carries.

Alder Kelly, would you like to make a motion to refer these items to public safety and licensing?

I'd like to make a motion to refer the following items to public safety and licensing.

Item number 0107-26, submitting a change of agent application for a class B retail fermented malt beverage and intoxicating liquor license for the main attraction LLC Hotel Verdant, located at 500 Main Street, Michael Godfrey Agent First District.

Item number 0108-26.

Communications submitting a new application for Class A retail fermented malt beverage and intoxicating liquor license for Dominion 14, LLC, DBA Spa, Verdant, located at 512 Main Street, Michael Godfrey Agent, First District.

Item number 0109-26 communication for a new petition to exceed geographical and quota restrictions for a class A retail fermented malt beverage and intoxicating liquor license for Dominion 14 LLC DBA Spa Verdant located at 512 Main Street Michael Godfrey Agent First District.

Item number 0110-26 communication submitting a renewal application for a 2627 motor vehicle towing license Racine Recovery LLC DBA Racine Recovery located at 2817 Eaton Eaton Lane 7th District Item Number 0155-26 communication for a new application for a Class B beer and Class C wine license for meet and greets worldwide LLC DBA meet and greets located at 6146th Street Letitia Crockman Agent First District Item number 0170-26 communication for the license and premise report communication communication requesting any consideration any formal expression of concern or other actions pursuant to the police report and item 0177-26 communication on behalf of the public safety and licensing requesting appearance of Alexa Gates agent for parlays on Maine LLC DBA parleys on Maine LLC located at 240 Main Street pursuant to formal expression of concern.

Is there a second?

Multiple seconds.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Moving on to committee reports for action this evening.

Alder Land, did you have any items for separate consideration?

No, your honor, I do not.

Then without objection, these items will be placed on the consent agenda.

Moving on to public works and services.

Alder Mack, did you have any items for separate consideration this evening?

I do not, your honor.

Then without objection, these items will be placed on the consent agenda.

Moving back to Alder Kelly.

Did you uh Alder Kelly for the public safety and licensing committee report?

Were there any items for separate consideration or discussion?

Uh no items for separate consideration, but I did want to just pull an item for discussion.

Please read the item.

Okay.

Um it's a communication uh regarding the requesting the approval of an agreement allowing our retired officer uh David Arvide to take ownership and control of uh canine karma.

This was um unanimously passed through committee.

Uh just wanted to make a statement.

Um I know he's really super excited um about keeping his baby at home.

So I want to say congratulations to Officer Arvi and congratulations to our retired canine karma.

Well deserved.

Here, here any other items for separate consideration, Alder Kelly.

That is all.

Then without objection, these items will be placed onto the consent agenda.

We will then move on to the consent agenda.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

There's a motion to approve.

I think Alder Peak got in there first, multiple seconds.

All those in favor of the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

That motion carries, and we are now moving on to common counsel.

Thank you.

In 1983, I know for some of our younger aldermen, it's uh long time ago.

I spent the summer in Munich, Germany, as an exchange student.

I was hosted by Horston McHild Nitschke.

And this week, and I received an email that Horace Nitschke had passed away at the age of 85.

And while my um host brothers over there in Munich are probably not watching this evening, they can see the replay, and I'd like to offer my sincerest condolences to their family.

Ironically, uh both the brothers and the family have visited Racine in the past, and so um they're familiar with where I live just as much as I was familiar with where they live.

Thank you for that.

Alder Pabone.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Just want to say um last night I was able to be at Empty Bowls.

It was fantastic.

A great showing of community, a lot of great soup, a lot of great people.

So thank you to everyone that showed up, all the volunteers that make it possible, and business businesses that also make it possible.

And also um my niece's uh 13th birthday is this month.

So happy birthday, Sylvia.

Happy birthday.

And moving on to Alder Davis.

Thank you.

I just want to take a moment to express my sympathy to the Kimmons family.

Jangs, Terry Kim has passed away unexpectedly last week.

Um he was a huge community advocate.

Um I can't even we'll be here all day listening to many things he did in racing, but um Terry um his family, and I will greatly miss him for uh being the individual that helps me move forward with city of racing business.

He's just he was a mentor, so um I will miss him and just prayers to the family during this time.

Thank you for that.

Other announcements, and just two that I wanted to mention.

Um Fran Scott passed away this last week, um, 104 years old.

May we all be so lucky to live a healthy and long life to be 104 years old?

She loved folk dancing and uh lots of other community events and was active in the community for a very long time.

So godspeed, Fran.

And then the other thing I just wanted to mention, uh it is women's history month, as you heard from the proclamation earlier.

Uh we did this for um Rafter American History Month, and we're doing it for Women's History Month too.

But if you look at our Facebook feed, the city is featuring uh local women of note who made history in one way or another.

So look for those comments and feeds, and thanks to the staff who've been helping to put those first together.

We've gotten lots of positive feedback from that.

So uh seeing no other announcement, Elder Horton at this time I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

There's a motion adjourned and many seconds or one second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Opposed?

We are adjourned.

32 minutes.