Also, yes, everyone is in good evening. I like to call the regularly scheduled Monday, April 17th 2023 select board Berlin select board to order With us tonight to my left is close Smith and Joe Stahl my right tour Nelson David Sawyer I'm Brad Town was also our town administrator Vince Connie town treasurer, Diane Isabel town clerk Richard Additions or changes to the agenda. Yes, we have the additional approval of the warning for the special election Rachel will present tonight, and we have an amusement permit application from Glennis Hill Farm as well That's in your package, and I just like to point out one one error as well on the agenda the 21 5th 2023 meeting Minutes should have been removed. They've been approved and replaced by 6th March So we would add the 6th March 2023 Meeting minutes on there. That was just an omission I missed Nothing else Let me just quickly take a look Nope, the rest is roundtable, and I would just like to before you go to public comment Introduce mr. Ned Swanberg who is here to speak during the public comment period regarding the CRS, which there's a Document in there that talks about the CRS when we were first awarded that and he has been very helpful and Very involved with us in being able to achieve that So just want to thank him on behalf of the town he guided us through the process and helped us quite a lot to be able to Achieve those results and again just as a refresher those those results and the change in rating Gives us a ability to pass on a reduced flood insurance to our residents by achieving that so That's just my little kickoff there my soapbox public comment Yes Swanberg I'm the regional foot name manager for central Vermont and Berlin and this is my colleague Stephanie Smith the state hazard mitigation officer at for my emergency management So working with this on a property buyout, but I manage hazard mitigation funding mostly to reduce flood risk at this day You have other things you are interested in And We have a plaque and we just have to award that to the community and say thank you for your work in the community rating system and This acknowledges the community just has achieved a class seven. So that's a really big that's the leader in the state Can we Chair Oh Any other public comment Very none Makaya Burrington right away from it. I don't see anyone Well, we've got another caller now, maybe this might be them to represent that so that is the one on Route 12 10. No, you Wanted to talk about that a little bit. I want at the bottom of Chandler Road The old wheeler house. Yep So Reached out to a few times Said the email didn't work and the number and nobody called back There's a few things going on there Not sure if they want to pull the first drive way from the second drive way and the larger concern of it all is in 2000 starting I think this year Continuing through next year. The state is doing a complete reproject of route 12 from Northfield the Montellier And they have reached out to the towns and are going to drastically change that intersection. That is no longer going to be The why intersection anymore that is going to come down the hill Sweep slight to the right and come out in the middle of the radius So it is going to be a left and right and not a yield and Ramp for people to run off and just beating up the road So that's going to change that whole area quite drastically My best opinion is is that I believe that everything should kind of wait for the state gets their engineering And figure out what that intersection is going to look like Before moving So nobody knows if they're doing this to accommodate the new intersection or if they're just doing it to I know they They spoke with me once while I was following that intersection They don't care for the amount of snow that they get because they get some snow from route 12 And then they get snow from Chandler Road That house has been there for a very long time So I know Tom will talk to the property owner and in your drawing you'll see a red line That's where the existing drive is they are going to eliminate that drive And they want to move it up to where that the green Section is higher up Chandler Road away from route 12. That's their intent. They're going to cut some of those trees there as well They said Visibility Seeders Like where that green line is there's two huge I think there's footleaf maples on the front lawn. So I assume they're gonna have to come out of there That's their problem, but they have to put an 18 inch culvert in there and Do all that stuff and then I guess that the state's going to change that intersection completely And when the permit it indicates converts Is there discussion about more than one culvert? Like I said, I haven't been able to talk to these people. I've gone there twice after work and nobody's been home Again, what I understand from talking with Tom because I reached out to him as well And wasn't able to reach them when they're talking about the culverts. They want to take out the existing culvert at the end of that drive Make that one go away, I guess Um and put in a new culvert there So that's that was the understanding but they may They may need to leave that culvert there I would guess because that dumps into the little The little brook that runs by in an under route 12 over to the dog river They'll have to ditch it. Yeah, and they'll have to ditch from the existing from the new culvert where they're putting in their new drive To that That isn't very far from the road to the garage No They're going to be able to start at 30 feet So give it a no, it's not very far like that's what I I'm not grasping on the concept. Yeah, I'm going to speculate a little bit They're they're aware that the state's going to change that intersection and that section is going to go away Yeah, right there. So they I'm I'm going to just make an assumption that they're Going to plan on using that existing section of the portion of that road at the end of their driveway So you're saying Tim that where the y is they're going to take him had to go right through the island onto the road Okay Kind of speak to the right more of the center of the radius of the corner So there are addresses group 12 and actually if we change their driveway, they're going to have to have them They're going to have a change of address We changed And honestly it'd probably be safer for them Doing this right I mean dumping right out on route 12 or versus Chandler road However, they do the intersection Yeah, so what's what's the downside of um, this happening at this point Even they're going to spend money that they're not going to need to but I don't My biggest concern is is that there's a there's enough of a corner There's somebody's coming down Chandler road and they drive out into the road There's not going to be enough of the sight visibility There's not have to be some serious trigger removal on the uphill side Like for that. Yeah, they need yeah, they're going to have to do it You know, it's not because it's it's a cedar Hedge row that was planted there years ago. Those trees are 15 20 feet tall All the way up through there looking at some of this in trees around Property they're not going to be able to remove those unless they get the condition because it's off the property line The other thing I just had a quick question Have you been is there like some minimum length of covert that you guys have been requiring because you know how it is when people Round in and crimp them over and don't Don't believe there's a minimum length. There's a minimum size Yeah, because a lot of times that you pull in there And you start to round off and you don't need to read something around Most people will put a 20 foot culvert in because that's what you buy as a 10 foot section and Hearing everybody you think no 20 feet. That's quite a long you put a driveway in and there's not much You have 30 feet Should be something that we look at for a minimum They did include on the permit they wrote for safety Construction of new driveway eliminate old drive for safety I think just my my thoughts on this for what it's worth to the board is If the board moves to to approve this, I would just suggest with the Contingency that we give tim the opportunity and the landowners to talk together to make sure there's a clear understanding of what the state's doing and and what will Need to be met from the town perspective because Unfortunately, we've tried but he hasn't had that opportunity yet. There's a lot going on as tim said right here at this intersection with the state Change we just want to make sure that they're not expecting something from the state That either we're not aware of or Everything including the culverts is going to work from from the town perspective. I mean, I think it can right there's Like I said, there's a lot going on. I think it can work It's just it's got to be clearly communicated by everybody including the state at this point to a certain degree I think I would feel better pulling off on our approval until after that conversation has happened That's exactly what I was going to say. Okay. Yeah, I concur I mean the other thing is just making sure that Maintaining the site distance that they've got the ability to do that It's right now like I've witnessed it. They come off the floor with a pretty good clip going up and then they come down Just as fast as fast and there's not a lot of leeway invisibility Without good tree removal So motion you want to motion the table? Quick date Um What I will do if the board agrees is we'll continue to reach out to them And tim can uh can meet with them if they reach an agreement I will I will put that in an email And text to you since your email's not up to all the board members That we've reached an agreement and and what those details are if the board's own desires But we can discuss it again at the next one after you I I think so, but did they Are there some time at the strength? Well, I think they wanted to get started on the work, right? They wanted to get the trees cut and start some preliminary work as soon as as soon as they could Well, I mean they can't do that anyway. We just can't change the entrance. They can't actually change the entrance Okay, uh second on the motion second Any further discussion All those in favor Motion carries a Best Reno right away permit you for approval. What do you mean? I'm acting agent for a master in honor of property. I'm going to be the builder This is mr. Dindal by the way. Yes, Robert Dindal. I'm sorry Brown resident of course You know this one So where where is this? It's uh right at the intersection of mirror lake and brookfield On the it would be the west side So our dilemma is that we we're tearing down an existing porch at faces east towards the road And we're building a new Living room with a full home foundation up and the footprint is within inches of being the same footprint And we need access to the site with machinery and we don't have it anywhere but off the town road And I have some pictures of where Where that would take place right in this ditch You can see the property in the background This is just temporary. Yeah temporary then we fix it on the way out. Yeah, so I did you take a look at it?  Yeah, so we can't Can't access it to drive the main driveway side They got a septic tank and pump station and up backs the mound system. So the only spot Yeah And it and it The lay of the land lowers down quite nicely toward the road for our access without getting too extreme How big of culvert were you going to put in temporary? We talked about a 20 footer I was thinking diameter. Oh diameter. I don't know whatever whatever the town recommends It's it's a ditch right now. So I don't know exactly It's not like it's a stream or a book. Yeah Whatever you're required and this is just going in for the season or something, right? Yeah, I'll just do some of the heavy equipment and the foundation concrete work And then when we're done with all that and the machinery goes away We put it back Who's doing the dirt work? Vinnie Covino Does he have a pipe and so he said he Yeah, yeah, I mean 15 to 18 minutes right there for temporary is perfectly fine. The ditch only goes probably another 100 feet past where he's still extreme. Nobody water flows. No, it's it kind of comes out of Zell Field there, but there's not a It crosses the road underneath there's not a lot of drastically flow of water there We're a 15 or 18 inch pipe there, but I would recommend a little longer than 20 And that's pretty yeah, especially if he's gonna be you guys are gonna be trying to back concrete trucks. Yeah 20 Like David was just saying 20. Yeah. Yeah Pretty pretty tight when you're trying to back Yeah, I would try to keep a 30 foot pipe in there just 15 or 18. Yeah, whatever he's got. I mean if he's got bigger Yeah Well, I want to keep it as small as possible so we can get fill up over there without digging make the motion to approve the permit as presented to us by Robert For the Mastriano's law on the east side of the field With the contingency that they use the 30 foot length instead of the 20 length that's included on The permit You just have a minimum 15 inch Diameter exactly Thank you. Thank you very much If it was gonna be permanent Okay, um Second uh all those in favor Hi I'm both comparing green mountain tower right away for a minute. I'm here with you guys on soon Hey, good evening Good evening had some technical difficulty signing on but I'm here Good that happens I've seen that I went look at the gate stakes I spoke with Jase Jason Probably two weeks ago. I think They're going all the way down through there doing Put the signals on every railroad crossing down through there and green mountain powers Moving poles out to support them with their crossing signals That one's you know, they just add two poles Just outside of there right away. They put grade stakes in I mean where they we're gonna put the poles See no problem there I take it he Didn't want you to go up completely at the left-hand side on the cross Yes, so I I reached out and I never heard back from him. So I I didn't know if that was just a street No, and I can try again Um, but I didn't hear because I I staked it both ways just in case to present it to them both ways But I never heard back So what he's talking about is you guys can look in that picture They were proposing to stay all completely on one side of the road, but there's that one fir tree and Maybe like a choke cherry tree there maybe but it's mainly the one fir tree On that left-hand side and they were going to run poles all the way up So they didn't have to cross the down road with wires But he reached out to the landowner I guess I didn't get back to him so and that's I don't know if that's anything that we can do or not do What go over the tree Well, they'd have to remove it right Whose land is this George's grosses all the joy goes on the farm. Yeah, this is cat talk river farm Yeah, and you didn't get a hold of George to see if he they tried to they reached out to him Well The only problem for us is he's only trying to spread gravel The lines are in the way Do the fact that it crosses the road twice Trees are important for agriculture Just saying Well One fir tree Somebody could take and frame the motions so that It could be dependent on what they do with that fir tree where the other great where the other pole would go a pole number 25 No, I think it's a seven nine six three five seven. Yeah. Yeah So you're taking If George wants doesn't has no complaints about taking that out. We can do it if they can take it out if not It is picture Now see somebody form that motion Sounds like a complicated one. I make the motion that we approve the green mountain power permit 23-017 as presented with the exception of being assured by conversation with George gross the property owner that they they can Handle the issue with the fir tree if it's a fir tree or what have you and Otherwise I say we approve it Here a second Little further discussion All those in favor All right Those opposed the motion cares There you go Take care Especially that amusement permit that's for blue cross blue shield It's their walk from blue cross to ranger road comstock road and back Did they just I think it's a yearly Walk so I make a motion except the Blue cross blue shield special application Second Any further discussion All those in favor Most in carries Mr. Chair, I just like to remind you that there's one one additional amusement ordinance permit that was added on tonight for the Fundraiser Similar similar last year. That's what up on that's what up on lettuce. Yeah Was there any incense or anything with that last year? No Pretty quiet. I think it went really well. You know how many attendees they wanted about it. I do not hear a motion on it make a motion to approve the special permit Are you missing anything? I'm going to sell Um Second Any other discussion All those in favor All right motion carries Roadside mowing rfp. Yeah, there's a copy of one pager in your package It's basically just to go out the bit for the roadside mowing this year It's uh Exactly the same pretty much as last year's rfp with the dates changed It's only like last year. Do you think we got the minimum five foot? Most places. Yeah, it's hard in some places because of the ditches split. So Well, yeah, that's true. Even when the bank got, you know, short Shoulder ditch bank And I think I noticed a lot of times they didn't get the bank. So I'm spoke with him earlier today about maybe Looking at alternating years between one to two passes on the dirt so One year it would just be the what we normally do And the next year it would be two passes on the dirt because the black tops two passes The last three years two years we've rented Attracted ourselves and gone back and done some of the problematic areas That don't normally get done And we're trying to cut a lot of rush So that would kind of slow the regrowth Of the lake so you would get more of the banks and the Rather over the ditch side And It might not even have to be an alternate year could be two years of single pass and one year of double And then go another two year, you know what I mean The only thing I'd say to that is probably if you're going to a single pass on a dirt road You'd want to somehow specify your intersections Intersecting, you know, your intersection should have be moved back much further Because we have We entertain the idea of possibly, you know, I mean Because it's not getting cheaper. No looking into possibly You know purchasing a used one Or looking at doing Problem is the rental companies have gotten away from doing roadside renting roadside So that traction is not there anymore To do the hard intersections and stuff like that But yeah, you know, I mean Just might be one year that we We have to specify a little bit more to move the intersections You know, 15 feet So there's three passes for a hundred yards type stuff to alleviate some of that It's hard Nobody's doing it anymore They used to be a bunch of guys that used to do roadside rental and then now there's not We don't see the estimated cost of the piece of equipment like that Um This 60 to 80 The one that we rented last year was offered up for sale this spring for 140 would have only had 38 hours on it 40 hours That was a rental at first Yeah, yeah, it was brand new. They bought at the end of last year and then the company It was Fairfields is one that we're doing all the rentals and they got the company that owns them has changed their patterns Are going away from like tractor rentals. They're going to sell them They'll sell the I think their diamond mowers is what they they sell it as a A tractor with a mower on anything else And typically where does this typically land this Just an average I don't remember what last year was I think last year it was like 65 Yeah, I think it was 6,500 for the summer somewhere between 65 and 68 I believe I can look it up and send it to you And we don't have a start date or a finish by day We don't normally he starts great.  Yeah Also the only one that beds on it well Last year he was the only one that bit on it Yeah, we want we sent it out to four different people and No, we returned him. He was the only one that bit or that had the equipment as well because there's a couple of companies northern Vermont that do the B transiders Sent that to them I'm sure they're plates full to take a contract with the state Comes down to the who has the equipment and the time now is what it's coming to Anything be added to the I think I'd like to see a little added mowing and then there's you know the intersections honestly Do we want Do we want to specify three passes for a hundred yards either side of an intersection? Sure There's going to be quite a few places you won't get three passes. No, you won't but You know there's places that you will and places you won't We can add that trust me to add it. Do you already want to see it at the next meeting? Trust you to add it. Okay so you Change that and get it out and see what's possible exactly Anything else on this Local options tax update. Yeah, I just wanted to give you some quick numbers You know, we're still in the first quarter working with railing now just to let you know that the What they're seeing as of Around the fourth of april They'd had a little over 23,000 hits on their ad on their site that they've put out there Which means That's the number of people that have clicked on the ad to view it. It's 23,271 If you want the demographics the breakdown they even have that You know, how many were women between certain ages men between certain ages So 61 percent were women between the ages of 45 and 65 31 percent were men between the ages of 30 and 45 8 non-binary between 45 and 65 the ads between that group also Have been shared 646 times Links to the town of Berlin so residents from the town of Berlin or that were Appeared as residents were a little over 3,000 So it's getting getting well-viewed The next steps going into the next quarter We probably have a couple of We're looking for a couple of residents that are willing to maybe do a little podcast About it as well. I know that joe and david both mentioned. They're available. They would also Represent the town and in doing a podcast with them as well again to go to the next level So that'll be coming up in the next quarter here real soon We'll be getting that setting up and I'll be reaching out To get that going but at least again, we've got some some numbers to show that people are looking at it so it's Getting a little bit more exposure which can't hurt any questions on any of that Yeah, Vince Yes No of the 27,000 definitely not About 3,000 were berlin residents Okay Um, so I drafted up the morning and notice for all sort of you And I also included just if you wanted to look at it what we're looking at for the ballot We're just going to print those here And can count them we are going to send out postcards to all non-challenged voters That's just a one Sided quarter page notice And then we'll Run and add in the newspaper at the time so I got some of the world for two weeks as well As social media. So hopefully that will get enough work out that We'll get some people present Okay And this one's The election is going to be on Tuesday, May 23rd So the night before we'll do a little informational session here, I guess after You'll have to reach out to The senior center the director have her here for that. Well, yeah Any questions for rachel on this? Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much rachel. Thank you Tools of licenses permits vouchers and applications I make the motion to approve payroll warrant 23-21 for payroll from March 26th to April 8th of this year paid on April 12th 2023 in the amount of $366.71 Also payable warrant 23 g 19 with checks 22 869 to 22 904 For payables in the amount of 41,587 dollars and 93 cents And the march reckons out bank statements for the general fund sewer water checking accounts and the march general journal entries as well Second Any discussion All those in favor Motion carries Mr. Chair, do you need a motion for the Tell me more To accept it or The thing there is it was requested by the Voters, so we really don't have much to say about it But you can make the motion just to be safe I move that we Approve the line for the May 23rd 2023 special Tom meeting as prepared second It is through the discussion all those in favor All right motion carries Thank you Approval of minutes for the march 6 2023 I make the motion to approve the monday mark 6 2023 minutes with just one change and that's on page two Um near the end of the paragraph just changing to Conti shared He was okay, etc. It's just he other than that a second Mr. Chair, did we have good clarification on How we go about proving me since we don't have a Warm who was still on the board who was at that meeting Yeah, I I I have submitted that to VLCT as a you know municipal query I'm waiting on that on the on the answer. I should have it any day from them for that clarification So it would make the march 6 and just the march 6 one Yeah So I'll let just the motion I was going to adjust my motion and say that we approve the monday mark 6 2023 minutes with that one change that I mentioned pending the notification that We are awaiting from VLCT And it's can update us Provided they say yes, then approval could go forward second All those in any further discussion on this Could you not approve these just as written? Even though we didn't as presented he has presented sure But it would have to be of the members that were present Right, but we'll see which there was only two right, which you know even Actions the board had to be by a majority or not a majority Present so we would need three votes Either way Which we don't have who are present at that meeting now I was at that meeting, but I was not a board member at that And I concur with the minutes as prepared. I just was not board member at that It's it's a legal Technicality now I wouldn't say on the development view or we would approve these with no issues, but See I'm kind of wondering also I have to go through the Robert's rules, but if if Even two votes when when there's only three people here two votes as a majority But the authority of our board is the majority of the board not majority of the board president being that we're a five-person board A two to one vote would not pass It's so Brad. It's just it's it's it's not even two to one It's the only two people. Yeah, but but I'm but I'm saying if there's only three people here was a two to one vote Yeah, even though more people voted for it since it was not a majority of the board It's not our office rules board. It's our charter of the state delegated authorities to us. It has to be majority of the board Not a majority of the board president Maybe we should drag Carl back Well I guess for 30 for myself Are you a tiebreaker? Yeah only so And but in this case we're not gonna allow him to vote It's not I haven't he's not a tie. I get it So we'll take and do it as stated Let us know Yeah, I'll get that answer. I'm sure Okay, all in favor of the motion All right. I abstain Okay one abstention Approval of minutes of March 20th 2023 I make the motion that we table the Monday March 20th 2023 minutes There's grammatical things and changes but on page three at the bottom. There's a big part The There was the motion it was seconded the motion carried and then it goes on to talk about the credit card limit, etc And so something needs to change there So I just recommend that we table it have those changes made and bring it back to us at the next meeting I Need for the discussion on this Those in favor Motion carries Minutes of April 3rd 2023 I make the motion to approve the Monday April 3rd 2023 as presented with just a few grammaticals And on the very last page under the treasurer's discussion and the decision on moving to paychecks There was one place where I was quoted as Smith asked about the differences 188 times units, which is employees I'd just like to see that clarified from the audio and adjusted To give a little more context to what that question was I think others might ask as well And I'll give bits the minutes of each of these for review You hear a second So I have Any further discussion Hearing none those in favor Motion carries Ralph David Joe I guess the only thing I would have to say is there's been I've had a few calls on the the traffic conditions on 302 I don't know if there's anyone else is dead any You got a bridge project down there Not so much, uh, I guess the morning, but the evening traffic was back way up I don't know if anyone's had it We haven't any calls here on it. I thought it was really pretty smooth. I went through there a couple times the other day I was kind of impressed Well, I went to Price chopper tonight Going into price chopper. It was too late Coming out of price chopper. It was one like and the traffic was backed up in front of price chopper So I think that's where it is, but I mean you had to remember the the car count on that road is phenomenal But what people have to start doing is taking the uh bypass the access road up to the through way And then get you know go down and drop right in down the bro and hill and In the most failure or well, I actually forgot about it. That's how I get caught it I mean when the when both lanes are open the traffic isn't unimpeded, but They're that equipment is working pretty close, but I think they closed that one lane As a safety measure Unfortunately, it does inconvenience people but not much you can do about it Hopefully when the new bridge is in it'll be an improvement Anything else Joe? No The only thing that I had is I was going to ask Vince if he would describe at the last board meeting there was a slight discussion of the potential for some land in West burman for potential in the future Housing if that were to happen and it was in the paper and there were people who expressed Interest in knowing about where that was a little more clarity I think that would be nice to have that discussion tonight So that people I can do it now. It's up to the board chair. I have that on my notes to talk about at the round table Any else Thank you Dave Yeah, Tom's been asking about asking me to bring it up to the board He presented an idea about fundraising for some for like the rec department in the cemetery And some other departments. I guess he talked to Vince about it as well And no one that I was involved in some of these charity events earlier on And they were Texas hold them turnings We just ran one for a gentleman with cancer It was about a five hour event rates about a thousand dollars for the individual at the Canadian club And tom asked if I'd be willing to help set set something up if it was something at the board's pleasure to go forward We try to raise some funds For the rec committee cemetery, I guess there's a list of Things that we can do it and under the state statutes. We can legally run four events a year for each Each uh department the department so uh It's in the early time right now. I know that I've had a few clubs reach out to me I got involved in that first one and now they want to start doing them in the area, so uh, they're going to be doing one at the pfw in east berry On the 21st, I believe a may if anybody's interested seeing how one of them events go So, uh, it's it's early on. I don't really know, you know, what kind of framework but You know to do it for municipality The time I guess tom's looked into it. I have as well. I pulled the state gaming things And I was kind of just waiting to see what happened in the state with the sport betting thing To to go forward with some of this thing because it was end of the house was supposed to vote on it I'm not sure if they felt it was going to pass. I reached out to our and and i you and Can go slap find out if it did and I haven't heard back yet, so You know, it's just something to be thinking about Anything else A little that's sore and nothing Vince I do have a couple um, first I'd like to um Talk about police ship coverage the chief asked me to bring this up He's going to have even though he's you know, we're Well, at least to have to keep bragging about that. Um, he's going to have people away this summer for extended period of time Um for military service and fmla and he um is asking for the board's approval to consider Carrying over some vacation for those people that that will be working the overtime to cover those people being gone. Um In case they aren't able to use You know their their allocation of vacation to allow them to carry over 60 hours So that's that's the first one so, um Leave time how much can they accrue and then how much can they carry over? I have to look at the new contract in the handbook I don't recall what we negotiated to you Diane Not normally in the past. I think they could carry over 40 hours for vacation. Yeah, so Yeah, that's the question. I know it's 40 hours In the past. So they're asking to carry over an additional 20 hours well If you want to take and clarify it with With the uh contract We can what they accumulate yeah, you know, you like it like that put on the agenda for next meeting. Okay So if they carry it over, um when the other officers return When when are they going to be expected to maybe use it? I mean, how long are they going to carry it over? Till they get an increase in that I think the expectation and I'll clarify that with the chief as well just to carry it over for the following year those 60 hours Into the following year This is carried out based on July 1st. Yeah fiscal year. Yeah, that was that's it on that one. No, but I have late there's more um Another reminder on Wednesday of this week the 19th at 10 a.m um anyone that's Wants to come to the riverton fire station. We're meeting with cd fiber to uh understand what their proposal is that they want to put in over there for a Station basically What's that going to be like a booster signal booster? Uh, I think it's uh, it's almost I don't remember You know the little uh like the green telephone boxes that you see sitting on cement pads It's going to be something of that nature for them distribution type of box. I guess it's the best word For that Yeah, so that's that's Wednesday at 10 a.m at the riverton fire station anyone that would They've invited the board anyone that wants to come and I'll be over there As well um The root 12 bridge so Friday morning. I had a conversation with the state Regarding the bridge Long story short, it's going to be very expensive for the town if we even want to consider it at this point Um, there's some steel that we'd be responsible to replace Uh, there's lead paint that we'd be responsible to remove from the bridge along with the storage and transportation Uh, the state would contribute only up to the amount of the demolition of the bridge Towards the cost of that so I think it's going to be pretty cost prohibitive For us to do that For the bridge itself. I have talked with the conservation commission It wasn't in the deeds But it is conserved property. So the housing is out of the wind out of the picture at this time There's some significant Vernal pools and things in that area Um, however, I am on the next conservation commission meeting agenda to have further discussion about access to that area because basically right now people are going there for For the walk through the vernal pools to use the swimming hole It's over there and they're doing it in not so much safe manner by walking down through the railroad tracks and the right Away and such um, so we want to Explore opportunities how to get access over there safely Which is again a bridge that from route 12 Is is one means and you don't have to cross the railroad tracks But in the deep paperwork, there is a An old right of way off from Chandler road as well that we haven't set eyes on yet along the brook Over there near west hill where it crosses. Yeah So we want to we want to lay eyes on that and have a look and see if that's something that can be Resurrected for lack of a better term Um, which includes The way it looks in the deed it includes the railroad crossing an old railroad crossing that may be in there as well So that's the status of that And and what we're looking at so it's it's not a dead issue yet, but we look it is for the housing Um, but we're still looking at getting Good at good safe access to that to that part of a call it a recreational area Any way that you can update the deed to show that that is a conserved land Uh, I'm that's part of the conversation with the conservation commission, right? They were originally going to try to do something with Vermont land trust, but at the time When that was being done and the property moving Over it was cost prohibitive to them is what I understand now. So We need to find a way to to get that documented one way or another As well to your point and the last one that I have is There's paperwork like this in the package that just needs your signatures on it. It's for the, um Highway grant that we get every year or try to get every year. I should say resurfacing the airport road ground Did you want to say anything about the health insurance increase? No, no Tim, yes on that highway that has we have there been any roads added class two roads added To the grant or just To the town But you're taking care of now No class two's not any more than what we've had in the years past As they told me Did we add Walker road? Can you plow it the walker road or um not a walker down to Josh Walker's Reclass three Not to Again, if you could just please sign that so I can get that back to the same Make it so these People put in colors. We make it like a 30 foot Like I think it's a good idea because I just driving around and hitting some of these places There's no requirement for length Yeah Because if they have a truck come I'm seeing more and more of the ends. Oh, yeah Kicked over and they're not getting full access and if it's a flood The biggest problem is the price of the culverts Three times the price it was 10 years ago. So People aren't they don't want to put that extra 10 feet on but and then the two connectors if they cut it in half You know to do it, but I think it just makes sense In the long run because if you get a lot of rain stuff washes down mixing, you know, you're washing culverts So everything just I do have one last thing just just to mention for for the board's information and Diane shared this with me this afternoon was that the She got the 23 2023 health insurance. There's been a 3.9 percent for a single person family and a 5.7 percent increase for a two person family That's a lot lower than was predicting was predicting seven percent so it came in a much better Good news Going back to the length of culvert you were talking about Could you address that if you had like a minimum slope From driveway to bottom of the ditch Where the culverts come in? Or a match. Yeah, specify that. Awesome. Don't they have like a 16 foot model 16 foot model that it comes into 16 foot is what they plan but then By the time they're done and then model next out They've made up that 20 feet Say what you say what you say again If you specify the the slope allowed from the top of your driveway to the bottom of your ditch You'd have your culverts coming in and then that would If that was a deep ditch, yeah, it'd be A longer culvert. I'll see so I guess two foot You get away with a minimum if it's three eight foot It's considerably larger. Well, that's more of a diameter, right? Yeah But You know, I mean if we just put it in there at a minimum of 30 feet and then it could be worded, you know, so it's depending on which scenario it is like Yeah, well, we had to change a few of them because They're on ledge So they can't get the depth to put an 18 in without Hammer and You know, these are some some scenarios We've we've gone to a 15 instead of an 18 to try to compensate a little bit and help out We'll look at the policy because I think I think in the existing policy today Um, the length is specified not to exceed and I know it's less than 30 feet I almost think it's 24 feet For a standard driveway like partridge fire or whatever, right if you put in a standard driveway I think it's not I think it's not to exceed 24 feet, but I'm not positive on that, but I I'm sure there's a length specified in there And it's less than 30 feet I've developed a lot or something like by two cohorts come in a half with the two connectors and put half on the both ends You know, it's a lot bigger But it that's it for me any discussion today? No, sir Did I get a motion for adjourn? That's a motion to adjourn A little bit of favor


All right. Good evening, everyone. It is six o'clock and I will call the 22nd regular Common Council meeting to order. Will the clerk state the court of the evening? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. One person can make a difference and everyone should try. Right, will the clerk call the roll? All the person, Ackley. Excused. All the person, Decker. Here. All the person, Feldy.  Let's keep going and come back. All the person, Flicky Panesky. All the person, Heidemann. All the person, Mitchell. All the person, Pirella. Here. All the person, Raimi. Here. All the person, Rust. Present. All the person, Salazar. Here. All the person, Feldy. Barb, can you hear us? I heard a little something. OK, it appears she is online, but we'll proceed with the meeting. If folks could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty, and justice for all. All right. Holder Decker, approval of the minutes from our previous meeting. Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the minutes from the 21st right with council meeting held on February 5th, 2024. Moved and seconded. All those in favor of approval of the minutes, state aye. Aye. Any objections? Minutes are approved. Next, we have a resignation, assistant city attorney, Majoris. Alderperson Amanda Salazar as Alderperson for District 3 in the city of Sheboygan, effective March 5th, 2024. Thank you. Alder, Decker, is there a motion? I move to accept and file. Moved and seconded. All right. All those in favor of accepting the resignation, state aye. Aye. Any objections? All right, that is accepted. Next, we have a mural appointments, city assistant city attorney, Majoris. Julia Hart to be considered for appointment to the library board. Michael Van der Steen to be considered for appointment to the citizens board of review. Mark Mahoney to be considered for appointment to the sustainability task force. Alder, Zach Rust to be considered for appointment as the chair for the licensing, hearing, and public safety committee, effective March 5th, 2024. Thank you. Those will lay over. City clerk, anyone for public forum this evening? We have one person, Mr. Paul Hankins. Mr.  And then if you just want to state your name, address in the item you'll be addressing tonight. And you'll have five minutes. Thank you. OK. My name is Paul Hankins. My wife, Mary, and I live at 1407 South 7th Street in Sheboygan. Be addressing issue or agenda item 39. So 1407 South 7th Street, that might sound familiar. It's because that's the little house on the big lot that is under consideration for being developed into apartments right now. I'd like to speak to this issue tonight, not so much for or against it, but about it.  We lived in Plymouth for 35 years, raised our four daughters, and thought we would remain there for the rest of our days. We loved Plymouth, but we really loved Lake Michigan. We just never thought we could get anywhere near it. And that all changed on a Saturday night in June of 2019. Driving north on South 7th Street, Mary said, oh, look at that cute little house for sale. I kind of knew I was in trouble. I wheeled around. We parked on Georgia. We glanced at the house and then made a B line for the tree line.  And I knew I was really in trouble. I had no idea how to do such a thing, but I knew I had to try to get it for her. Miraculously, we were in that house two months later. And our house in Plymouth sold two months after that. And there has not been a moment, a day, a season since then that we have not been giddy, giddy with gratitude and wonder at being able to live in a place like that. Yes, we knew the day could come that would wake us from our dream, but knowing it could come and knowing it might be here are very different things. So the question is, will we sell? Right now, we don't know. We started a conversation with Jake from the Malibu group. And he mentioned something about a price. And I told him this story a couple of months ago, a co-worker asked me, Paul, what's your walkaway number? What would it take for you to leave there and be happy? And we thought about it and we stopped trying to calculate it when we got well north of a million dollars. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but this is really the only place we ever want to be. We don't take trips because every place we go looks like our backyard. I'm convinced there's nothing like it on all of Lake Michigan when you consider all of the unique factors and combinations. And if there was, we sure couldn't afford it. I heard some friends of ours just listed their house on the North Shore on the bluff, a three bedroom ranch, $899,000, a three day bidding war ensued with the final price undisclosed. We'd have no shot at anything like that. So we looked at the listing. No offense. We like ours better. It's not our primary residence. It's our only residence. And the 3% loan we took out means we can live there for less than we could rent anywhere, no matter how broken down or far from the lake. So for us, there's really no place to go. I ran for Alderman last year, and had Grazia not prevailed, I'd be sitting on that side of the desk, having difficult conversations with my wife. So I think I'm thankful. I learned a lot about the city and its needs. I know housing is huge, and it's very important. It really is. I've talked with the Malibu Group, and I've done a little research. They seem like a reputable, honorable, family-owned, Wisconsin-based company, and I like that. They're not from New York or LA. No offense. I've seen the site plans and the artist renderings, and they look pretty good. I have to say. A lot of positives about this proposal. Now, Mary and I can be happy for the city. We can be happy for the developers. We can be happy for the new tenants. But we're kind of wondering how our happiness fits in with that. So I don't want to be the guy that stands in the way of progress, good things for the city. But I really don't want to be the guy who tells my wife, no bunny, no bunny. We can't have this anymore. So I always look to James 1-8. I thank the council for its hard work and all the work that people put into this. It's difficult and challenging. But James 1-8 says that if anyone lacks wisdom, they can ask God, and he will provide. No questions asked. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hankins. That will conclude our public forum. Now we got council president Decker, council vice president Salazar, city council members, department heads, city staff, and most importantly, my fellow Sheboyganites. Good evening. Tonight, I'm pleased to share with you my third State of the City address. I'm excited to share with you all the opportunities to highlight and some great accomplishments that we had in 2023. As well as share with you our vision for 2024 and what is to come. I'm pleased to report that the city of Sheboygan continues to be a leader in Wisconsin. This is mainly due to the hard work of our 450 dedicated public servants who work hard every day to provide essential municipal services to our 50,000 residents. Our skilled city employees are one of our most important assets that make the city run. 2023 has provided us a great opportunity to hire some new directors and will also ensure our success for 2024 and beyond. Their professional work experiences from other Wisconsin municipalities and their strong dedication will enhance the good work that they've already started. We've already made a positive difference in the past few months. These two new directors are HR director Kelly Hendy, who's been working diligently to support our team and director of planning and develop, Diane McGuinness Casey, who's been a true advocate for affordable housing initiatives. Most importantly, last August, the city council unanimously hired our new city administrator, Casey Bradley. Before coming here, he was the city administrator of Baraboo and is a tremendous amount of experience in public administration. I've had the thrill to work alongside of him these past few months and I'm excited that he will work diligently with city staff and these council members as we continue to grow our city. Of one special note, I'd like to offer my deep appreciation for the incredible hard work that this council has been doing these last few months. Your strong leadership and collaboration between city staff and department heads was a key component for the city accomplishing the goals and delivering the important municipal services that our residents expect. Additionally, this past year, many local leaders from across Wisconsin came together to work with the Wisconsin state legislature to help increase local funding for municipalities. I was proud to work alongside my fellow mayors to advocate for this change. The funding equation for shared revenue is broken and outdated. With the passage of Act 12 and support from our state representatives, we've made a few steps moving forward to address the financial stability for cities across the state. With the city council support, we utilized some of the new funding to add more firefighters and police officers that will continue to keep our city safe, adding more resources to our library as well as additional tools to continue to support our team and staff. I personally wanna thank State Senator Devin Lemahue, Assembly Representative Terry Kotzma, Assembly Representative Amy Binsfield and Governor Tony Evers for recognizing that the citizens of Sheboygan need their hard-earned tax dollars to return to our city so that we can continue to invest in our community. There's some other highlights that I'd like to share in accomplishments from 2023. Throughout the United States, we know that there's a national housing shortage. This is no surprise to us because this housing crisis can be felt right here at home. Our city has made some good inroads on this shortage, and in 2023, we added around 185 new housing units to our community. It's critically important that we listen to the needs of our citizens and local businesses and analyze the objective data to ensure that our housing plan continues to meet the needs of all of our citizens. We need to build workforce housing across the board. Part of this strategy will be to continue to diversify our housing stock, which will include building duplexes, townhomes, single-family homes, senior housing, and yes, even more apartments. Over the last few months, Director Bradley, Director McGinnis Casey, and Director Beebold and myself have been meeting with many of our major employers, not only in the city of Sheboygan, but across Sheboygan County. The number one theme that we've heard from our industry leaders and entrepreneurs and local businesses is to help craft and build our workforce housing is that we need to build more housing throughout our community. In 2024, we are on track to do just that. When companies are looking to grow and expand, they need places for their employees to live and their employees' family thrive. We know that workforce housing is vital for a strong economy, and over the next few months, in response to the strong demand in housing, we'll be sharing the plans to build around 3,000 new housing units over the next few years throughout our community. All of you probably are already aware that neighborhoods are the heart and soul of our community. Many of you are very active and participate in neighborhood associations, and our neighborhoods help shape the spirit throughout our city. This past year, I am pleased to say that we've established another new neighborhood association with the leadership from older Zach Rust, Sheboygan Neighborhood Pride, and several neighbors we were able to formally recognize and welcome the new Farnsworth Neighborhood Association. Of special note, and yet another reminder of how our community continues to work together and support our shared vision. In 2023, high school students in the Sheboygan area school district broke ground on their 26th home and are working alongside a variety of experts in the trades to build new homes this winter and spring, with another new home opening up in mid of 2024. And on the topic of home building, it is always a good reminder of the experts in the trades who build our homes and the many volunteers who utilize their talents to continue to build more housing. And in 2023, another organization, Habitat for Humanity Lakeside, celebrated its 30th anniversary, and their mission is to bring people together to build homes, community and hope. This past year, they just built their 50th home right here in Sheboygan County with more on the way. Together, we can truly make a city where we can all live, work and thrive. And we also understand the importance of fixing and maintaining our roads and critical infrastructure needs. I'm proud to work side a city council that believes in investing in our infrastructure and prioritizing a detailed plan to fix and maintain our roads. Future generations do not want us to kick this can down the road. In 2023, under the direction of Director David Bebel, we fixed many parts throughout Sheboygan, including North 20th Street, sections of Greenfield Avenue, several blocks of Lincoln Avenue, sections of Mayflower Avenue and Highland Terrace. And we're also able to repave sections of North 5th, 7th and 27th Street. Additionally, Indiana Avenue and Broadway Avenue have been reconstructed and repaired. This coming year in 2024, get ready because we're rolling out the orange barrels once again and we're on track to fix Sock Trail Road, Swift Avenue, North 15th Street, North 36th Street, South 11th, 19th and 20th Street, as well as the Western part of Broadway Avenue, as well as parts of Union Avenue and yes, Lincoln Avenue from Barrett Drive to North 6th Street. We are also excited that in 2023, the city of Sheboygan was recertified as a bike-friendly community. Additionally, thanks to the recent bipartisan infrastructure law, the city of Sheboygan was able to receive a grant from the Safe Streets for All program. This grant will help us craft and implement our complete streets initiative. This will allow us to increase safety, reduce speeding and reckless driving, while helping make our city safer and more walkable for all of our residents. Please stay engaged and check out the Department of Public Works webpage for more information on our complete streets planning program. Also in 2024 and over the next few months, thanks to the hard work of our planning and development staff and Administrator Bradley, as well as the redevelopment authority, we will have over $650 million of new economic development investment right here in our city. This is one of the biggest investments in our city in the past few decades. And as holders, I ask you to get engaged in the process and support these initiatives. A key partner in these many new developments has been the redevelopment authority. At this time, I'd like to personally thank and recognize the leadership of the longtime chair of the RDA, Alder Roberta Flicky Paneski. As the chair of the RDA, she has served under seven mayors and under her leadership, the redevelopment authority has been a great partner in expanding our tax base and leading key development initiatives in our city with more on their way and more future announcements to come. Our local economy is strong and currently our unemployment rate is 2.1% and this is lower than our long-term average of 4.23%. We are so fortunate to live in a city with strong economic partners because we know collaboration has never done silos. Our local Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce with its more than 830 members in the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation provides valuable workforce and development initiatives as well as providing us unique programming to support our many local businesses here. We also know a key component of having a strong economic community is having strong and secure public safety. Sheboygan continues to be one of the safest communities to live in Wisconsin and thanks to the unanimous support of the city council, we were able to utilize American Rescue Act plan funds to help fund two new key programs focused on community public safety. We now have a crisis response program which is a partnership with our police department and a local nonprofit Elevate. This allows emergency calls that involve mental health issues to be addressed right there in support our police officers. Another initiative is the public safety neighborhood initiatives with social worker program which will address key neighborhood issues. These initiatives required cross collaboration between the city, the police department, Sheboygan County Health and Human Services as well as the sheriff's department. Additionally, in the city council strong support of our 2024 budget, we were able to add more firefighter paramedics to our staff as well as additional staff to our police force. These steps will ensure that our paramedics and firefighters can respond quickly to health related crises and ensure that our police department can respond more effectively to those emergency calls. Our community is truly safer when everyone gets involved and participates. Now, everyone knows that the natural beauty of Lake Michigan and our citizens really help frame why Sheboygan is known as the Malibu of the Midwest. Our tourism continues to grow and thrive. We continue to have a record number of tourism each year. Last year, the city of Sheboygan hosted the Mercury Midwest Challenge which brought powerboat races back to our shore for the first time in decades. This event brought over 40,000 tourists to our city over the course of the weekend with many folks coming to visit our city. Visitor spending came close to $4.7 million for that weekend. This successful event resulted in the city of Sheboygan being awarded the 2023 Race Site of the Year Award by the American Power Boat Association. Now, this weekend in pulling off this event was no easy task and I want to thank P1 Offshore for selecting us to host this event last year and again this summer. Also, I wanna recognize our Department of Public Works, Shoreline Metro, Police and Fire Departments as well as the Sheriff's Department, the DNR, the Coast Guard and Visit Sheboygan for bringing folks together to pull this event off and I'm looking for another successful one this summer. I'm thrilled to share that the success of last year has resulted in the city of Sheboygan gaining the opportunity to once again host this event in August. And a big thank you to P1 Offshore for selecting us to be this host once again. So in 2023, we had 28 boats that roared on our shores right here in city. This coming summer, we're gonna more than double that with 70 boats on the way. Our local businesses wanna make sure that we're experiencing the benefit from these large events and we all know that our local businesses are the heart of our local economy. I'm thrilled to highlight a few successes for many local businesses and new ones coming down the pike. In the north side of the city, in Alderfellies District, Freighter and the Medical College of Wisconsin is moving forward with a $70 million development and we're excited that Freighter will encompass a neighborhood hospital with emergency rooms, outpatient surgery, a new medical office building and we're excited that this project is estimated to create over 300 jobs right here for our community. Now I wanna recognize some of our local restaurants and who doesn't love pizza? So now you can order pizza by the slice on Michigan Avenue at Uptown Slice and they have their doors open for a variety of pizza selection for folks that are craving the New York style pizza. And last October, because October is National Pizza Month, we made it an initiative to visit and recognize every single local pizza shop throughout our city of Sheboygan. That was a fun initiative. Another restaurant that opened up was Venny's Pancake House. This family-owned restaurant offers sit-down options with wonderful breakfast and lunch choices. So go check it out. It's on the east side, excuse me, the west side of Michigan Avenue and it will offer many great breakfast and pancakes for your delight. Now one of the benefits of being in the Midwest is our investment in having a strong manufacturing economic base. I wanna recognize both tonight HTT and NEMAC that are both growing and expanding right here in Sheboygan. HTT is a locally-owned metal stamping company right in older Mitchell's District, District 9, that is growing their footprint right here in Sheboygan. With the city council support, we're helping this business grow and expand. Additionally, NEMAC in this business park, you'll see some cranes in the sky. NEMAC is adding 49,000 square foot to their existing plant in order to add more to their die-cast production. This expansion project will be done in several phase over the next coming months. I also wanna just briefly highlight a few other projects and initiatives that are going on in the city. We are blessed with many beautiful parks and green spaces woven throughout our community and families want their kids to grow up next to parks and not empty parking lots. In the coming months, we'll continue to make investments in our green spaces so that we can be more sustainable in our ecosystems. Some of these projects will include planting more trees, making sure that we're adding additional dog parks, as well as more pickleball courts. Sheboygan is very blessed to have two longstanding sister city relationships. Last year, we hosted our friends from Essling in Germany during the fourth of July weekend, showing them a true American experience. I'm excited to announce that we'll have a delegation this coming summer from our Japanese sister city in Subame. Planning is already underway and this will be the first time that this delegation has visited our city in over 20 years. Now, the uptown parklet continues to also grow. This parklet has been a collaborative effort between a lot of the businesses in uptown and this parklet activates the neighborhood and provides local businesses and restaurants and neighbors are placed to gather, enjoy music, participate in events and enjoy local food and beverages. I also wanna shout out the man behind the camera, Scott Miloff from WSCS, our local TV station for making sure that we can broadcast all of our meetings and share with the public. But I also wanna know through his advocacy and his team that we brought back local sports broadcasting. So folks can now watch North and South games and other variety of sporting events from the comfort of their own home. So thank you, Scott, for leading that. Our wonderful senior center, as Marilyn and Anne Kraft know, is growing and continues to get more involved. We're breaking records with membership and involvement and Uptown Social now has more than doubled its membership before we were in our old senior center. This year, we'll begin the second phase of building out this facility, which will include a new gymnasium, as well as adding picklebacks. Now, before I conclude my speech, I wanna take this moment to recognize two city employees who have dedicated their lives to improve the city's Sheboygan. I've had the pleasure of working with these two gentlemen, both as my time as a city council member as well as the mayor. Over three decades of excellent service to our community, they will soon be retiring. And we will surely miss them and wish them the best for their upcoming retirements. So please join me in thanking director David Bebel, as well as city engineer Ryan Sazma for their many, many years of retirement for the city. Thank you. So I am so proud to call the city Sheboygan my hometown. And I'm proud to once again say that the state of our city is strong. And reflecting on this past year, Sheboygan is strong because of the dedication of our city employees, the partnerships that we create with local businesses, organizations, and neighborhoods, and the progress that we've made together to make Sheboygan one of the best places to live or can play. So thank you so much. Let's continue to keep moving our city forward. And thank you and God bless the great city of Sheboygan. Thank you. So on more important news, I wanna recognize and congratulate Dan Bogy Bogan shoots as he was just nominated or he was nominated but he got selected as a Sheboyganite, Sheboyganative to join the Sheboygan, not the Sheboygan, excuse me, the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame. So this has been a competitive process. So we're always great to recognize local folks and their support of America's real team, the Green Bay Packers. As folks know, Alder Salazar is resigning from the council. We're so excited to see what her future holds and the great work that she's gonna continue to do for our community. And just wanna recognize that folks in district three, if you are interested in filling the vacancy, please get your letter of interest, cover letter and resume to the city clerk's office by March 14th by 430, that's a Thursday to the city clerk and the council will vote to fill the vacancy on March 18th. Those are my announcements, thank you. All right, next we'll jump into the consent agenda. Items 10 through 17. Alder Decker. Thank you, mayor. I move to receive and file all ROs, receive all RCs and adopt all resolutions and ordinances. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion on any of the items in the consent agenda? Alder Flikipineski. Just a clarification for number 12, the motor vehicle fund. We were gonna buy a tar kettle, but now we're buying a truck from the water utility and we'll refurbish the truck, which will take the tar kettles place. So we will no longer have the tar kettle on capital improvements. Who wants to say, Dr. Weebel? For this period of time, our current tar kettle is still serviceable and in good condition. We were having experience problems with it and weren't able necessarily to get the parts, but now we are able to and it's operational. So we are delaying that so we don't need it this year and we've wanted to use this basically money that was allocated to purchase this truck. This truck will provide much more flexibility and much more use than the tar kettle, which is seasonal. This piece of equipment will allow us to be used this year round and again, we're purchasing it through the water utility that no longer needs it and this will be a real asset to our fleet. Follow up. Thank you. So we will still see a tar kettle further down the line in capital improvements. Eventually, yes, I can say if it's gonna be next year already, but it will be in the system as a planned replacement. Thank you. Additional questions on the consent agenda? All right, seeing no more queues. This will be a roll call vote. Nine eyes. All right, that's approved. Next report of officers, items 18 through 21 will be referred to their respective committees. Items 22 through 24 will lay over. Next, item 25 resolution number 562324 by elders Decker and Salazar authorizing retaining outside legal counsel to represent the city in the matter Catherine Cobbs v. City Shboygan Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division and authorizing payment of said services. Holder Decker. Thank you, Mayor. I ask us to spend the rules. Any objection? Seeing none, please proceed. I move to adopt the resolution. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. That's approved. Resolution number 26 resolution number 1582324 by older persons. Decker, Salazar authorizing the sale of the city of Shboygan parcel number<PHONE_NUMBER>0 to Tracy Merritts. Older Decker. Thank you, Mayor. I ask us to spend the rules. Any objections? Seeing none, please proceed with your motion. I move to adopt the resolution. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on this item? All right, seeing none. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. That's approved. Items 27 through 37 will be referred to their respective committees. Right. Item 38, reports of committees. RC number 1992324 by the Finance and Personnel Committee to whom was referred. Resolution or RO number 1062324 by city administrator Casey Bradley, submitting a communication to Mayor Ryan Sorenson and the common council members, providing background information on the proposed development agreement between the city of Shboygan and Malibu Apartments. Alder Mitchell. Thank you, Mayor. I move to receive the RC and file the document. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on this item? Alder Perlow. Yes, I just want to make a comment and explain my vote on this briefly. I know that apartment buildings are needed, especially affordable housing. The Mayor has reiterated that I agree with that. We know that that is true. And then we have city limits constraints that makes apartment buildings even more necessary. So I want to reiterate that apartment buildings are okay and I support them as often as I can. However, in this case, I have to be honest with myself. I do think that this project is too dense for this area and therefore I don't feel comfortable with approving this agreement with the project as it looks right now. Was it or should the project, would the project be smaller and I think more appropriate to this area and land? I would have my full consideration. I just don't feel comfortable with the density of this project on this land. Of course, many constituents also reached out to me but I had to do a little bit of soul searching and this is really coming from my conviction that it would not be appropriate this density on this land. Thank you. Thank you, Alder Perlow. Other discussion on this item? Seeing none, this is a roll call vote. Seven ayes, two noes. That's approved. Next item 39, RC number 223, 24 by the Finance and Personnel Committee to who was referred to resolution number 146, 2324 by Alder Persons Mitchell and Flicky Panesky authorizing entering into tax incremental tax incremental district development agreement with Malbu Apartments LLC for the development of the former kite beach site located at 1403 through 1435 South Seventh Street Alder Mitchell. Thank you, Mayor. I move to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Alder Heidemann. Thank you, Mayor. Again, Alder MacGausie kind of expressed some of my concerns with the size of the project. I also don't never got anything back as far as the effect of property values for the people that are gonna be living in that area. Is that gonna increase their property values? Is it gonna lower their property values? And again, as I many, many times drive down Lakeshore Drive I can actually see the lake, okay? How long is it gonna be when you cannot see the lake on the south side of Sheboy? So I'm not in support of this project because one I think it's too large and I think it's gonna, it doesn't have a positive effect on that area. And also at one time, that was my area. When I was first in Alderman, that was the district that I had. So I know that district. So again, I won't be supporting it. Minister DeBreadley. Just a comment on the value. I thought I did follow up with you on that one. As far as the property values in the area? Yes. Okay, maybe I just. This won't actually have an impact. We use the sales approach. So they'll use apartments are valued on the income approach and properties are valued on the sales approach. So this won't have a substantial impact of any kind of that property. Now, if other projects come in and start paying more for that property, then that will have a different effect on that. Right now, I mean, you could make the argument that this has been a blighted site for the last 20 plus years being that it's been declared a contaminated site and non-buildable. So I don't know that that's had a real negative effect on property values in that area either. So I don't see this having a substantial increase on that as well. Okay, thank you. Follow up, Alder Heidemann? No. Okay. Alder or Salazar? So this is probably for Administrator Bradley. When they're working on the project and the developers are creating this, is there any sort of, is there any point in the project development where they'll get to it and decide, maybe it isn't this scope or they've already pre-worked through that and decided this is what they want. This is the commitment of it, meaning all the units, sounds like it's 210. So this is a long process. This is step one in that process. So this still, if you read through the development agreement, it requires that they go through every step in our process. So the next step will be for them to start the PUD, the rezoning of that property and then coming back with formal plans. This right now, what we're working on is just a development agreement and concept of what, if they move forward, what we will do if they perform as laid out in the development agreement. If we have to make an amendment for some reason, they're able to do a smaller project if that's truly what council wants and they're able to do that. I know with this particular project, we've kind of talked about it a little bit. The developer, ultimately, because of the contamination on that site is going to spend about $50 million and the value of the project's only going to be around 40. So they're losing a substantial amount of money. So the density helps to offset that and makes it the project actually possible. So a smaller scale project on this site, I know this developer would be willing to entertain that, but with this particular site, it won't work just because of financially, it's not a viable project. We need a factor in today's interest rates and what they would actually have to recoup from what they're losing right off the bat. Okay, yep, so I understand what you're saying in sharing that information, but there is a possibility that they could go there and they might themselves through this process realize that it may need to be smaller or it needs to be this large in order for them to move forward on it. It sounds like to cash flow the project right now. Now, if it comes in and they're able to do construction methods a little different and they're working through that now, right now we're, they're anticipating that they're gonna have to do a number of peers. They're hoping to do geo peers as opposed to regular peers.  Right now, Stantec is representing the county and doing an environmental cleanup plan. That's gonna have some effects on their design. So, I don't think they're exact on what all their costs are going to be. They need less. So, we need to kind of work through that process until it's fully. I think that's. Barb, are you looking to speak? I'm sorry, but my phone wasn't working, I guess it is now. Oh, okay, nevermind. Anything else, Administrator Bradley? All right, older cells are any other comments? No, I, no, I don't. I've got Halder Decker. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'm in support of this because I think that if we do not do anything here, I mean, this property set make it now for over 20 years. And I guess I look back at, we had a similar property not too long ago that actually set bacon for 40 years, where it's set in, you know, and we didn't collect any taxes on it. We didn't do anything with it. We got nothing out of it. And I think if we don't take this opportunity now, we may be sitting for a long time without anything there. Thank you, Alder Decker. Alder, Raimi. Thank you, Mayor. Can you maybe clarify what the average cost of rent is gonna be at this apartment? I'm close so they can hear me. We do have the rental information, you know, ultimately that's up to the developer if they wanna disclose that. We need it for valuation purposes. I can say this will not be the top of the market by any means. It's very reasonable. They're looking at this, you know, they wanna fill it. They want it to be a desirable location. And it's not necessarily driven by price, but the location itself and the amenities. So I'd say they're very fair in what they've proposed. And first, first quarter will be very much in line with, I'd say some of our higher end, but not necessarily over those. So very competitive with today's existing rental rates per square foot. I have just a comment. I just, I feel like we are doing more luxury and more expensive and more higher end things, which is sexy and great and all of that. But I hear more and more that people are not finding homes and finding places to dwell in our community that they can afford. So that's a little bit of a turn off for me. I think it's a beautiful development. It looks lovely, but is it truly what we need on our Lakeshore? So that's my comment. Thank you. Thank you, Alderimi. Well, we do have, we did provide the information from redevelopment resources who is currently working on our housing study. What you'll see, you know, you're common as to nobody can find anything that's very accurate. As of January 23rd, 2024, there was 34 units listed for rent in the city of Sheboygan. They have a breakdown there of what was available. A healthy market community, which you would have some flexibility and price and unit type would be about five to 10% vacancy rate. Right now, we have less than 1%. So that's across all areas, not low income, not high income, but everything. So opening things up throughout the spectrum will help. So you'll have some folks that'll move into newer apartments, which will vacate lower apartments. So there will be shifting around that takes place in the marketplace, regardless of what level these or price point apartments are at. Projects that we're working on. You know, we're doing the partners. That will be a low income. We have a number of projects, bringing hundreds of units across the spectrum over a variety of different projects. So we kind of try to manage where we're at price per square foot. How does that fit with kind of that demand? So yes, you're gonna see projects that are gonna be on the high end. You're gonna see projects that are on the lower end. You know, the subsidized housing are gonna be projects that we're gonna be more financially involved with. You know, where we use a lot of our ARPA funds just because those projects on their own aren't financially viable right now. So yes, we're all over the spectrum, but ultimately, you know, just to hit that healthy market with, you know, if today's demand would meet what we actually need to meet our demand for housing. You're looking at, we would need 575 units. That's assuming that none of them are absorbed. So as soon as they're absorbed, which we're hysterically seeing will take place in about a three to six month period. Like when the Oscars opened within six months, our market rate was back, our availability of the market was back down under 1%. And we consistently are seeing that every time large developments open up. So, you know, that kind of comes in line with number four there, there's about 850 to 1,000 new jobs that they're already aware of. And that's what's filling these apartments.  And that lack of availability is what continues to drive the prices up across all of our housing ranges. It's not just high income or low income. They're all gonna go up because of the demand. All right, Alder Prelum? Yeah, just as a point of clarification in the education. So the 34 units you mentioned before as being the only available, obviously we didn't consider into our calculation of our current status all the units that will become available with the new apartment buildings on Indiana and on business tribe. So the units that are coming out of the view building and on the Berkshire building, we didn't calculate those. Just for me to understand these numbers. I can't remember the number of units of the view and or of the Berkshire, but I think that between the two of them are around 110 or 100 and something units. Did we calculate those? Mr. Bradley? No, this is what's available today. Those apartments will be in the market and completely absorbed before this project is ready to go. So that number will grow, but there may be more apartments in the market, but what we've seen historically within the, that three to six month period, all of those apartments are taken up and then you have below 1% vacancy rate within a three to six month period of those apartments becoming available. There are a large number of those apartments that are also age restricted. So they won't even be available to the larger market that may be looking for them. All right, seeing no more. Everyone good? Okay, seeing no more queues. This is a roll call vote. Holder Salazar? Okay, sorry. Take your time. Six eyes, two nos, one abstain. All right, that's approved. Item 40, RC number 195-23-24 by Public Works Committee to whom was referred resolution number 152-23-24 by all the persons, Decker and Rust, authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute an agreement between the city of Sheboygan and Fox Valley Athletics LLC for management operations, management and operations of the recreational programs at Wildwood Athletic Complex. Holder, Decker? Thank you, Mayor. I move to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Any discussion on this item? All right, seeing none. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. That's approved. All right, I hope there's a thorough discussion on that committee on this. There was, there was. Good, good. All right, RC number 201-23-24 by the Finance and Personnel Committee to whom was referred resolution number 149-23-24 by older persons, Mitchell and Flicky Panesky authorizing the purchase of 1211 North 23rd Street from the Aurora Medical Group for future use by the city. Alder Mitchell? Thank you, Mayor. I move to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on this item? All right, seeing none. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. That's approved. Item 42, RC number 202-23-24 by the Finance and Personnel Committee to whom was referred direct referral resolution number 154-23-24 by older persons, Mitchell and Flicky Panesky authorizing the appropriate city officials to sign the January 1st, 2024, December 31st, 2026 contract between the city of Sheboygan and the Sheboygan professional police officers to the supervisory association. Alder Mitchell? Move to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on this item? Seeing none. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. That's approved. Item 42, excuse me, item 43, RC number 203-23-24 by the Finance and Personnel Committee to whom was referred direct referral resolution number 155-23-24 by older persons, Mitchell and Flicky Panesky authorizing entering into a tax incremental district development agreement between Revit Properties LLC regarding the development improvements to be located at 827 North 14th Street in the city of Sheboygan. Alder Mitchell? Move to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on this item? All right, seeing none. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. That's approved. Item 44, RC number 204-23-24 by the Licensing, Hearing and Public Safety Committee to whom was referred general ordinance number 40-23-24 by older persons, Salazar and Feldy amending various provisions of the municipal code relating to open burning so as to create additional regulations of business burning within the city including regulations allowing additional forms of open burn so as such forms are safe and approved by the fire department. Alder Salazar? I move to receive the RC and adopt the resolution. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on this item? Yeah. Alder Salazar? Can you volley this over to the representative we have here from the fire department to get some clarification on what open fire means to the general public before we just kind of move on past this, I'd like the whole public to understand what we're doing here. AC Lubbert? Sure, so essentially what we're doing is we're just kind of updating our open burn policy to meet the times of today. So there's a couple of things going on. The Department of Public Works, they do prescribe burns which isn't really part of our ordinance at this point. So they've just been kind of doing them. This kind of brings them being able to do their prescribed burns for invasive species up at like Evergreen Park as part of our ordinance. And then it takes care of some of the stuff like some of the things that we see now it takes care of like gas, sorry, propane grills or electric grills at apartment buildings which we don't really have in our ordinance right now. So you can't have a regular grill at the apartment buildings but this ordinance will allow people to have a gas grill at the apartment buildings as long as it meets certain parts of the code. It's either sprinkled outside or there's non-combustible materials. And then it addresses, there was citizens that wanted to have like the propane heaters so it adds that into our burning ordinance. So really there's not a lot of major changes. It just has to do with that. So as far as the open flame is concerned that would be like in your backyard, a part of the burn ordinance is you can have a fire ring as long as it's within 10 feet of a property and it's no bigger than 32 inches wide and it's not interfering with your neighbors. So we're just kind of bringing our ordinance up to 2024. Did I answer your question, I hope. Yes, thank you. I just wanted to get some clarification out in the public so that there's just not like, oh, they're burning everything in Jamaica. No, so and just to follow up, I had a long discussion with the fire inspector this morning. We're not going to be granted open burn in to like citizens to burn brush in their backyard. These are really just rare instances for things such as like the WPW burning for invasive species and stuff like that. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. Alder, Fliki Paneski. Thank you. I would just like to thank whoever was responsible for giving us the old document red line with the new language so we could see what it was and what it is going to be and what was the added new. So thank you to the committee and I'm sure the legal department for doing that. You can think our new software. Oh, thank you, new software. Thank you. Additional comments on this item? Seeing no more cues. This is a roll call vote. Nine eyes. All right, that's approved. All right, item 45 will be sent to the city planning commission. We've exhausted our agenda. Alder Decker. Thank you, Mayor. I move to adjourn. All those in favor of adjourning state. Aye. Aye. Any opposition? We're adjourned at 6 57. Good night.


The United States Congress, our senior Senator John Tower, is responsible for that. A great Texan, George Bush, a man that we know, ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States of America. Being back in Texas is that the man I was sitting next to, I've heard this few remarks with a confession, I watched the Democratic Convention on Television. Not all of it, just a little.  I'm surprised they didn't name the Moscone Center the Temple of Doom. One other thing they didn't mention out of that Temple of Doom is there are more Americans working today than at any time in the- Take up where the Vice President left off on one point, at their convention, the leadership of the Democratic Party gave Texas the back of their hand. Well, we've come to give you a message from our heart. We care about where you will be welcome and appreciated. On one line you put down how much you'd earned, and on the other line it said send it. But they offer a three-point program about America. Well, permit me to make three small points of my own. Point one, those responsible for punishing America with record inflation, red broad and phony excuses about malaise are the last people who should give sermenets about misery, unfairness and compassion. Point two, today they offer new realism. Incentives, incentives, initiative and innovation are sparking a revolution in America. We see it here in Austin with your great commitment to technological leadership. But we mustn't stop until we simplify the entire tax system, until we make taxes more fair, easy to understand and most important, until we bring your personal tax rates further down. Because if we bring them down enough, the underground economy will shrink, the world will beat a path to our door, and no one will be able to hold America back. The steps we've taken to reverse years of neglecting our military security. Shameful neglect. Is America better off than she was before, I'm just going to assume that you don't want to go back to the days of America being second best. Let's keep going forward together, thank you and God bless you all.