Transcript for:
Key Takeaways from Town Hall Meeting

[Music] [Music] okay all right my phone says 530 but my phone says to me is just what I do my calendar is there my contacts are there so my time is there we'll say it's 5:30 um my name is Adam Rowan in case you didn't know I'm the person that you wrote the name down for on that ballot and I appreciate that greatly I have been doing this now with these great gentlemen for about 7 weeks and I think I know about 10% of everything that I need to know so as we continue to learn things and understand things the biggest thing we wanted to do was open the door to the public and say hey we represent you because you voted for us and now it's our turn to listen to you what's on your mind what's going on if you have questions how can we answer them if we don't have the answers that's just the way it goes we'll try to get the answers for you um some answers might be always answered by the same one person because they are well known for what we're talking about on that topic and other things might be spread throughout the group but the whole goal here today is to make sure that you understand as citizens of eth that your voice is to be heard when I went around knocking on doors and my family was knocking on your doors we kept saying we want to know what's on your mind we want to be a part of what's going on in your home so we can be a part of it here and do our best and I emphasize that do our best to accommodate that so what I want to do tonight through lots of online Googling and I love Google Google tells me a lot of things that I don't know but there are a lot of different town hall style meetings and I don't know what the right answer is for evth yet what I do know is we're not going to break up into groups later on so you can talk to one of us because one of us doesn't know the answers to everything we're also not going to break up because there's a real good chance that someone on this side of the room has a good point and someone on this side of the room has a great point to follow up on that and if you guys aren't in the same group then there's no way that we can follow up and work with each other on these things our goal is not to hook wink the city of elol does not Hoodwink their citizens we want everybody to come in and have an opinion be able to speak freely again that doesn't mean we can do everything in this room that everybody wants it's almost impossible and one of the biggest things we always run into is the law and money if I'm not wrong those two things seem to get in our way on a lot of things money mostly i' I'd love to do everything everybody wants to do but budgets so with that being said um we have had four or five four meetings now we've had some workshops since I've been in and we've talked about uh a plethora of different things just a slew of ideas that have come up that we've been working on from the last um Council and of course I'm the only different face on that Council but working on things that they were finishing up and then working to start new things as we move forward so everything that we've been talking about that you've seen in our uh meetings feel free to talk about them ask us about them have an opinion on them um all I'm going to say is if I just open the door and let everybody start screaming at us that's not going to happen I know that but if we just open the door and just let every start talking at once we're not going to get what we're looking for so our goal is to just try to be respectful and I hope that everybody's seen that as I've started in my first few meetings here that the goal is we let one person talk at a time we try to listen to that person we try to listen to their opinion we don't yell at each other we're not raising our voices at each other we're trying to enjoy being a community together so with that we are using tonight's town hall meeting kind of like a rocky roller coaster we don't have an exact way that we want to do it yet but we're going to learn a lot from tonight on how we're going to do these in the future I'll tell you what Jon I'm sure you're excited as I am to see people here that have an opinion they want to talk to us or maybe just want to hear things but as we see how tonight goes we'll then be able to go back as a council and say hey this is what we're going to do in the future this is how we want to structure Our Town Hall meetings this is this is how we're going to move forward with things so I apologize in advance if you walk out and you're like wow where was the structure okay you don't want to live in my house my house is all about structure and it's all about notes and it's all about boom boom boom bullet points and my kids can't wait to move out but at this point it's all about trying to understand this community so I didn't want to do that to us so um as you know like I said my name is Adam Rowan and I will toss this mic through and these gentlemen here will be able to introduce themselves briefly there you are sir hello my name is Joseph Quin city counselor been on here for many years so any questions I can J Brer in the counil as long as these guys have Brian Millis I've been on the city council for about 12 years and I'm for to hear what you have to say John Ry uh born and raised in West Dev soul and and I am overwhelmed with with the old very [Music] nice anybody else want we're good and then behind we also have uh Chief Lenny from the police department and then Jackie also as City administrator who will be here if they have answers that can be given that some of the other of us cannot give hopefully they can give us a helping hand so with that being said I'm here to start start is there a topic at hand that we can look forward to and start passing a mic around and work together does this just recording what we're doing here is this going to be loud when they talk into it done got it now I learned um so there's a lot of things going on in the city of eth I'll come over I'll drop off this mic and we'll just start working together now remember the goal here is to hear more from you guys than from us okay if you want to hear from us we'll answer those questions just uh give us your name and uh enjoy the mic sir Dale Amo is the name I'm interested in this uh school project up here in this land and the uh proposed uh infrastructure that's going to go into that and what I've seen so far a tax or a bill of $10 million because the IB I don't know if they will it last night a $2 million Grant go with this program and from what I understand stand looking at it and I haven't seen the layout there's 28 Lots when you look at $10 million for 28 Lots you're talking $3 $400,000 a lot you got to recover it where is that money going to come from we'd be better off cutting grass and putting swings up you know we this town has got a $10 million budget a year I mean you go around this room and ask everybody how they're fixed with this economy over the last 4 years and how we've been ripped off by every form of government in this country from the White House State and our colony is really terrible with taxation we got to quit spending we got to get a handle on this stuff I mean we we're we're born and raised under range in E when if you had a nickel growing up you had a lot and all of a sudden we're talking Millions for what thanks apprciate that anybody else have anything on that and then we can start answering some questions if anybody up here wants to specific answer by not that something else gentlemen an answer anybody anybody one of them 10 million go ahead one of them one of the things that came up at the last meeting was U housing people on Iron Age uh lack of it lack of uh senior housing places for those people to go I'm not those 28 Lots they're not written in stone but we did get the money for the infrastructure so that we can at some point get something up there uh years to get it back those houses up there will help pay for that through their tax if you get up the bill if we get up the bill not if not it's going to be grocery store say I'm sorry people need like that all I'm saying is that we're going by what at the last meeting big thing was senior Hy there are plans to get that into the school property at some point we have to find a developer and I'm like you Mr joh I understand unless something help happens up here on the Iron Range unless it opens up again I agree those lots will probably be sitting there for a while and and then and it's going to happen we want good housing nice housing up there you go around El you see all these properties that have been left go they're all shut down nobody can live in them anymore uh we have addressed that we have a person going around going as I can see a fairly good job of uh getting these people to do some improvements to their yards and stuff that's just the start but if we can get some people you know interested in the Iron Range and get these communities we're losing we're losing our young people they're moving away too and I understand that but there's we have to have a start someplace and the grant that we just hopefully we're going to receive from the IB is to get those lots ready there is no infrastructure for water sewer and that kind of stuff going in there so we have to do that Michelle Johnson um what you mentioned about building a new infrastructure when right now if you look out the window how many businesses are closed around here what are we offering these people that are we're literally risking so much money for not knowing if it's going to be sustainable here if you look outside it's not sustainable now what can you promise that it's going to be sustainable in the 30 years by the time everything gets to that point where it's going to be able to be open What's going to be left here I think that kind of money should be invested more in the community and new businesses starting small businesses so people have options so people can put money back into our area and not just some other development or some other contract that could be or might be and spend that much money in such with such an noal outcomes I don't know so to the point that was made just before that and I'll make a full steer back a little bit on it but anybody who has stopped know me a little bit has realized I've been playing Devil's Advocate on a lot of different things I support a lot of the things but I've been Devil's Advocate and I brought up some different things um one being the infrastructure of what we're talking about do do we really need all the homes Mr per and I we've had conversations back and forth about it I talked with the it RB and there is we we'll use the word correct me if I'm wrong Jackie wiggle room wiggle room which doesn't have a definition even in Google but there's wiggle room on what we can do with that property based off of what we proposed to them on what we wanted to do so it's regarding x amount of homes it's regarding um apartment complexes it's regarding utilizing the building that's already there the the old school gymnasium area um Etc it that's what it's that's what it's about that General whole area there and my goal has been talking about Green Space I like green space I like allot Park I don't want to call anything in EV with allot Park but I like allot Park I like I like music in the summertime and I like relaxing and I want to rent a place to have a place for my kids grad party or a family reunion I think things like that nice but nonetheless I'm one vote I get that and we're just working with the infrastructure that was started and voted on prior and we're just working on being able to do what's best with that money that we're able to get now if the Wiggles are too big we'd be forced to be giving the money back just because the money was put in our pocket doesn't mean we have to use it however giving up $2 million is a lot of money so wiggling the best that we can to make it work based off of what the overall idea was and maybe what thoughts and ideas come together if that wiggle still fits we can utilize that money and move forward and if it doesn't fit and the board decides overall that okay this isn't right it's best we just we we have to give the money back and that's not an easy thing to say $2 million is not easy thing to say but we have to decide overall as a board what's the right thing to do anybody on the There You Go sir yeah just a little background on how we went into evaluating this the school property currently is still owned by the school excuse me school district and we intend to close on that property this spring uh as we were or as they began their demolition phase of project we had to make some commitments as a city towards the purchase of that property and then we had to decide how we best utilize that property for the city of e going forward so we went into it with a eyes wide open in a planning process a logical planning process where we actually engage professionals that could advise us on on some best practices and so forth but we also engag some of the citizens that reside in that area there and what we end up with was not a perfect plan because I don't think there is such thing as a perfect plan but we ended up with a plan that that fit um the research models that we had done through our analysis of how to use 20 acres and we also had some time constraints that were operating under um one of which or the big one was the IB Grant we had to provide them with details on how we opposed uh utilizing that property for them to um step up to the table and offer any money to help accomplish what our objective is so just so the folks are aware that you know this required a lot of thought a lot of planning a lot of consultation a lot of meetings so it's not a not a deal where we just uh you know come up with the idea fly by by night and we're stuck with it now uh the mayor mentioned there is wiggle room and I'll Echo that sentiment you know we we continue to have discussions about how we're best when utilize that property you know we want to make the best use of it possible now because going forward into the future you know the funding U might not be available to us so um I guess that's all I wanted to add was a little bit about the history more than fair thank you um I'm going to hand the microphone over to Jackie she can kind of come back to where you started de with the 10 million she can kind of give a little basis on that number thank you mayor so when the city applies for IOP grants we have to show that we either have skin in the game mean cash or some other match money so the budget that was published in the paper so we got $2 million and the budget was $9 million 476,000 includes the $2 million Grant from theb Rockbridge School District building demolition of 5,543 and the City of edas um contribution to the um multi-purpose building and the fact that we're going to apply for some more grants to continue to do the project so that 9 million is includes the 55 million that the school district put towards demolition so start it didn't it inflated the number but it's really important to that triple RB for them to keep track of how much money's invested in the project and that was also considered at our estimate so to to clarify on that and Jackie if I start speaking like I'm wrong be the second time today um we'll just call it 10 million - 52 that the school paid for is 4.5 minus the 2 mli that we got from the IB puts us at 2.5 is along with other things that are going on so you are 100% right when you say $10 million project question yep why are we buying back property and buildings that we own that school district belonged to this city we paid taxes on it the money came to the county state or whatever federal government we ow that why are we buying it back stupidity excuse me we don't own it don't we don't so right now the school district owns a school the school district owns the school and their their price $500,000 um that is the price that we in 2024 decided that we were going to pay for it and we're moving through on it the the benefit that came out of it right now is that because they put $5.5 million into them demolition demolition on the rest of the property we were able to utilize that towards the grant aspect of getting the $2 million so there was a little bit of a benefit to that portion of it but doesn't change corre the fact that we purchased a building for $500,000 there's no doubt um o she left I feel horrible it's going to go all the way back to where she was just talking about uh she had a little one she might come back in the room okay I'm going to come back over here and we'll continue this this room thank you oh she's got I got she's heing me plenty of times get a little bit off topic kind of first of all I Liv in this community I taught for 34 years that I over I never made it to the new conf I wish I had um but I have a lot invested in this community and we don't start doing something to bring young people in we're not going to Happ posing is one if my husband and I own two homes here if we wanted to go into senior housing we'd open up two homes for maybe young people I home to come in and buy we need to get young people into our community I'm old I'm I'm getting there but we do need to have things for the young people to come in we have three baseball fields on their softball field and I was a softball coach so I know all about what happened on there and who paid for what and how I got taken care of we we need to keep that up we let two tennis courts go El that was a shame we should have kept it up we need to put somebody we have it there already we don't have to put so much into it anymore when I was coaching the school led me to take care of that while we were practicing on it as soon as we were done practicing on that field then the city had to take over for the Su so now it's all city right the school's not going to touch that so we already have three Fields down there let's keep it up we little kidsle down there and play organized but the two tennis courts that were left well that's a shame now we have the four tennis courts up here are we going to do anything with those they have to be fixed I been retired s years there were cracks on that bed so that I mean the base is there we're not going to have to put that much money into that huge nowadays but some pickle person if you had to it yeah it takes money it takes money to do it but they're there already you're just making them better so it would drop people in when young people if I was young people com to okay what do you have for my kids to do here not much I know what here because I C here and I used to but we need to invest to get young people to come into our community yes do we need businesses oh how I miss IG I I realized how unorganized I was in cooking he can like run down there and pick up something now at 70 years old age never to be organized to go grocery shopping but that was yeah we got Rec director here are we going get what Rec director that hasn't been discussed it has not been it's only been discussed when I found there was that was it the the school took over all the activities L the hockey the the hockey program was taken over by the you know and the the basketball and the and everything even the even the summer baseball is all taken over by the school yeah by the their activity I don't know [Music] baseball they had they had sign up for soft I I thought I just saw sign up for softball and sign up for baseball I'm and I'm not sure if I saw but all I all I know is that they uh they closed on our joint Rec board so we didn't and and Craig retired yeah and they were supposed to take over everything and run everything with the two directors they had up there at the school at the time but they're not run no we have no that's that's just taken care of by the T taken care of by the city and if anything has to be done we will do it one of the reasons that we kept the building up at the school the B the whatever they call and uh uh the tennis court and the and the playground otherwise that would have been all done they wanted to take the whole thing oh the the tennis courts stuff but build up I walked I walked over those tennis courts and yes they are bad the ones not at the IG they've been bad for a long time and we we were we were just talking about it these are yeah and and and I agree and I agree and I think most of counil would agree that you know the baseball fields we got the uh the skateboard thing down there do we need another one of them someplace in in the city um no we we definitely had that in mind when we kept that thing we said no just we asked the contractor can you work around that can you save that they said yes and we did the best we could now do they need upkeep and and and looking at I'm sure they do this but you know and you pick up Ballers that's in the the works too we T we we talked about that Recreation I've seen with tons of cities that get Recreation gr and is never there or Haven been lately so there has to I'm not a gr wrer I I don't want to be either but they all are getting these brands from the and other brands from throughout the state for got to be a pool there for GR for recreation there there absolutely is you're right and we're lucky that uh Paul peler who's now in charge of the Rams Association here um more or less municipalities in the schools up here but he's working great with myself and and Mr Rousey by keeping us in the loop and actually it was just yesterday or the day before I think I know two the morning but we're we are looking at a $30,000 possibility for a grant that we can utilize and one thing if if you opened your door and then chatted with me a little bit not realizing I wasn't trying to sell you something uh popcorn or ice cream or something but I was just trying to talk to you one of the things I said is one big thing we're going to see different in my two years is we are going to try to tackle every Grand opportunity that there is I don't even know what they all are but when I sat down with the Rams coordinator and I said I I want to know what they are just start telling me within one week the emails are coming in here here's another one here's another one here's another one and my answer is thank you thank you thank you now does every Grant right work for our city absolutely not but the ones that do we need to make sure we're jumping all over them and trying to take advantage downside to some grants right is it's a match if we don't have the match funds that does make it really tough but if we can ever get around the fact that there's not a match do we a I don't know we in in house in house Jackie going to break it down how you handle most of those go ahead so the AUD RB grants um to Jerry R Jerry um he writes the grant Recreation I'll do some um grants for public infrastructure so for the I Triple R we don't really need a grant writer now for a big Grant maybe to De or the lccmr which is Recreation things we could probably employ wrer you get somebody to do that for us a little bit more in dep so yes yes there's grant writers out there that we can hire to do grants okay in my last up okay and I don't know I don't know anything about this at all but we go to St lake3 all the time and I UPS we not have any it there there there there's a man at the end of this table that can speak to that a little bit and I don't know I know it's Virginia airport but I well that's a whole can of words you just opened up but um UPS now is fine out of Hing and so is North Memorial or gramar at if I'm not mistaken um we had some turnarounds out at the airport that it just we're still working on and it just haven't panned out and they moved out and moved over there but we have some other things working on the fire right now that can't bring up right now UPS is here for years they were here for how many years when I was gol on wedn night 7:00 5 to 7 go so I knew what time it was they're not gone for good yet but it's take a to get back North Memorial they're not I don't well we have a place the grand raps too so you know I can't speak for the business aspect of it all I can speak for is it's the Virginia Airport and we lost a customer I really can't get into why we lost a customer but we lost a customer we lost two I read I don't know happened there was a flight school come out toight we actually have a gentleman right now that's that's working on it we'll keep you posting on it we know more about it if it goes through it here did I that right that they were coming here and they're not here oh they're not here they were here no youd have to ask ran on that because oh they I don't know yeah but otherwise know you know a shame and I just want to add on to this to G it a mic I my hand that what you brought up about the pick ball courts we've all been talking about that we brought that a while back ago uh as far as the school property Dale and everybody else 10 years ago you told me we going to have schools down I would have called you lions and I laugh this was thrown on us just as well as it was on everybody in town we're just trying to do the best thing that we you know we think is best at the lowest price is everything else and we're just their baby steps we're taking it day by day to see what we can do to accommodate it and to have you guys come here let us sit empty for years just cut the grass well we can do that but there's a lot of people in town at want to can still go up there and play on the playground a lot of kids you know you can't just let it go like that you know and like says we just got it so we're just like you we don't know what we're doing we're trying to know what we're doing that's why we're asking you I don't want to get an argument here with anybody we just want to docum you know and as far as businesses coming to come we're all trying to get businesses to come but what people have to realize is get a business into town you have to support it if you don't support it they're going to close up and we had businesses in this to close up because there's no support so that's all I got to say I think I said enough one thing that I want to tie up in uh from Miss Bon's uh questions is one thing that I have learned uh not even in seven weeks one thing I've learned since I've started being a citizen meaning voting and eth Etc is that people in here have their niches they have things that they're good at and what I have learned in my seven weeks is when I've got a question I go to that person that I know that good at that and you guys have a person in this room who own the business who is really good at what's going on at the airport so when there's an airport thing coming up and people are asking those questions I don't I don't make it up I go to that person that I know is going to have the answers or be able to send me in the direction of the person that does so that is one thing that I am definitely doing so if I knock on your door that's because somebody had told me that you're you're really good at something and you can blame them later but I do my best to find those people so I can learn what is going to work best for us here you go I just have a question about um you were talking about grant writing and such on February 15th in The massabi Daily News um there was an article about uh the county having funds for area projects and it was uh 545 million for American Rescue plan act there were multiple cities listed elith was not the um the money was for American Rescue plan act and it was for child care housing Recreation Broadband water sewer Business Development Highway and other projects within the County St Louis County I believe evth is is in St Louis County why wasn't Eli involved $54.5 million and we didn't vote for any of that money I would like to know why so anybody that can speak to that I apologize I don't too fresh for me no no you sure y absolutely so whoever that was correct me if I'm wrong I believe the article talked about possibly some folks from St Louis County had reached out to communities and asked them what they needed so it there wasn't a big solicitation we didn't even know they were doing it because had we know they were doing it we have quite the long list that we could have asked for so I I believe they had their own methodology they were following didn't you get curious I mean get curious about okay this obviously wellbody theer people somewhere let happen opport were money available Community should that be so that we're not more absolutely I'm going to yep you are your your point that you just made you're 100% right there there is there is no good answer to why other than all we can do now is try to move forward and be better at that because you're you're 100% right we miss it on the prop side we have to learn from our mistakes and hopefully we can take these examples and go from there thank you for that here you are I I'm new to the community I've been here for for a year and a half I come from a progressive community in Wisconsin small town um one of the things that I struggle with up here coming up here we talk about like kids staying but we also need to welcome new people into the community in order to grow that new unmarried you know I mean that part has to be it's part of the equation and the one thing that I notice and find kind of frustrating is that there's no transparency like I we all have cell phones most of us have smart phones maybe not all my dad still doesn't but like most of us do when you look at other cities and towns their websites are accessible by way of cell phone on ours when you go to look at it you're directed to the um the computer version right the laptop version like there's no for instance I to call the city to find out when the meetings were help that should be trans parent that should be ban on the first page I'm glad that I made the phone call I'm glad to see that they made that change but things like what grants are there out there things you know what's the city involved in we shouldn't have to in today's age find out from a newspaper what's going on in our city Facebook every town around here City around here has a government City page why doesn't eth why doesn't eth have um that the the presence on mobile app like that I shouldn't have to click and wait to get to a screen that's you know this big for my little cell phone I should be able to access this the other thing that I am frustrated with is knowing what our council members what's their history how long have they been what is our city administrator me what the public pays for these positions what are their benefits to working for the city are they from our area do they live in our city those are things that are important I think if the property taxpayers are compensating that P transparency I I want to know what's being paid for that lot over there I want Public Safety for kids and grandkids we need to start focusing on that as well thank you very much so when vot a week or two after um I sat down with with Jackie and I started asking on a few of your points website Facebook website who does tweeting I don't but all these things how what do we need to do how do we move forward and Jackie we are moving forward in a development of a new website yeah so right now we're trying to update what we have to put more information out there and we do realize who hi there that um we're not mobile friendly like everybody else in the world is you can get a different app you know website when you open up your phone so and I want you to know that it is one of the things that's been on my mind since the beginning and I think if you follow Facebook at all Joe will answer questions for you on his personal page um if I get taged and I didn't even know what that meant until my daughter said you were taged you should do something so anyway I went and answered that question um and I'm learning about that a little bit more but when I came in I knew it was one of the things we need to do to take a huge step forward right and and enter where so many other people are and that is going to take time that that that that is that if it was as easy as a new website we we would have done it my second week when I was asking questions but [Music] [Music] sure so so what I've asked while they're doing their thing with the IT person and I I don't mean to sound like naive in it but this is one thing where I really know nothing about his it stuff but I've just been asking for everything that we are doing to be put on the website put the minutes on the website put this on the website we have a meeting here on Monday put a link on a website so people can read about what's going on whether whether you want to do it or not but I want it to be your decision if you're doing it and as we're slowly working forward to having a website that works the way that should our goal my goal is just keep putting more stuff and more stuff on that website so as archaic as it is that's just the way it's going to be until we get to that next step but there there is nothing that holds us back as from saying we don't want a new website that's going to educate you oh um one other thing that very first agenda that I had and I'm not sure you might see it it was on the website but very first meeting we voted that we're not doing 2:00 in the afternoon meetings anymore [Applause] um he right uh Joe and I got into an arm wrestling match and is stagnant we stuck at 5:30 but we're going for 5:30 on Mondays now so we can try to be more available for people here and we talked you heard me say it every time the reason why and everybody that opened the door said well I've never seen you at a council meeting you're right I didn't go to them I absolutely didn't I was at work just like I know most of the people in here they were at work that's why they want have meetings so starting March 3rd is the first one it is 5:30 um it still be in the council hall for now but um just kind of sitting on the back agenda I did try to move it to this room we didn't quite get there yet but 5:30 1 and 3rd Mondays so that is one change that we're trying to do to be absolutely more transparent absolutely um we head over this way sir thank you uh Paul shrier I'm a new resident of EV he been here about 20 years and what you said about not being welcome is absolutely true if I was here for 15 years before I thought I was welcome so that's something that we need to address as a city um number two if we're going to do this again can we get name tags because my wonderers that that could be more and I don't necessarily remember what govern said on that Podium and number three I just found out today that our City Council meetings are on YouTube but there is no link anywhere on the website about that there is nothing on the website that even mentions the fact that they're being recorded and made available online um and when you say that it's it's a very difficult process to get a website that is not true I have maintained websites I know companies that do it's about a twoe process maybe a month if you got to go through a lot of approvals now I know that there's going to be more Hoops to jump through because this is a um city and there's uh requirements from state and federal but it still should not take 6 months to get a new website thank you very much I value that point I know I I know I came in late sorry about that I don't know I don't know uh how everything goes here but problem in my mind for a long time has been stop science in N with I've always wanted a stop sign on on hatrick Avenue at the end of uh Jon Street that is to me an accident waiting happened down there Aqua power has pickup trucks parked close enough that you can't where you see the traffic coming in One Direction and all of a sudden you got somebody come flying by from the the rink is it going to be an accident though one of these days and I don't want it to be me I go there a lot um we got a four-way slop sign at our intersection they don't use it all the time I I'm not complaining about that it's just that I think there's a lot of stop signs in here and some of them should be now that we don't have a school anymore we should get rid of some of them and uh like the four-way stop on top of Harrison um or Summit Harrison I don't know the streets anymore but I I just think is there a committee that can get together and uh think about getting rid of some of these signs and uh and putting them where they should be instead excuse me long as on the subject of Sid uh you have three sides starting with P Street within one block you have another soft sign you go another block up in kley Avenue you have another soft was my understanding that they were put there because of the children walking to school to slow the traffic down what we doing have any more schools so can we elated to a soft site it will reduce the wear on our brakes on our vehicles and plus get us better assas bers I I know that the the signs via the school being there have come up a few times um somehow some way we're all kind of have it tied to it I I may or may not have tied one of my political signs to one of them but that I felt like it wasn't needed as the school wasn't there but I feel like that is definitely something that Chief we can look into with a board of some sort and re-evaluate the whole school ground area yeah yeah I know in Jon Street up by the high school the com is coming in look at all signs there cuz that is a com Road the one you're talking about at the bottom of the hill on there I've been tring for a while stop sign there the com will put in they're the ones that make the decision on that is that County Road as well yes yep and they will not put in there um hatrick yes Ro they won't they won't they won't open up yep and there's some construction happening at the summer down there the new the ground going so it's not going to matter anyways I that's beign bill that uh that stop sign you're talking about that's you're right about that one but the county is going to build a slip ramp in there to go along with the new construction on along Highway 53 and the bridge construction that's going to happen and the round the about and everything that's going to happen up on Highway 53 and I think that slip ramp might eliminate some of it you that not all of it but we'll I think that's something the county is going to have to look at correct that is and I just learned all that today when I went to a meeting with mind that that is all county road all the way through there um and County Road on the other side that front drove by the college so so when things come up like that we can only bring it to their attention but the county has absolute control we live on the corner of Jones and McKinley terrible it does it's got a four-way stop that might as well not even have a stop it's we used to see the police patrolling we don't see that any longer um another thing is the sign of my yard I've asked for over a year to have it taken down still there it hasn't even worked yeah it hasn't worked since they put it in [Music] what's okay my name's Laurel Rowan yes I have the same last name if you like him he's mine if you don't he's his this but anyway um I'm kind of going back to the whole SCH project um and just so everyone knows Adam might be my son but we don't agree on a lot of stuff we have you know difference of opinions we we have arguments we get through them he's still my kid but one of my things with that whole school project and I don't understand a lot about grants I'm not even pretend I do but we're getting $2 million and we're going to put all this infrastructure in that's what I'm hearing for 20 some houses up by the ballpark and unless a lot sizes have changed last I was told by the engineer there 655 by 100 I don't know how many here want to build a brand new house on 65 by 100 not this girl and then the backyard's going to have a city park won't that be fun if you're retired that you'll have a city park in your backyard personally I also not interested but back to the whole infrastructure thing it's like we feel I feel like we put the cart before the horse I get the plan thing I get all that now we got this money we're going to put this in and it could sit there all that infrastructure could sit there for 10 years before we sell one of those lots and I I I don't get that I I would R oh you're all going to kill me give the money back let's figure out a phase thing with this and how we want to do it phase one phase two face three this town needs something we have to be excited about our town because our toone right now basically stays so what can we make to make this town fun a dog park thank you Carla and Steve for taking care of the one we have we travel we road travel we take our dogs and I will look at oh we're going to be here for lunch we have dog park I can tell you if I looked at B Minnesota and that's where that dog park is where it is right now I would never stop there number one I don't know your tong number two I'm going to be on a dead end Road and it's dark up there and you think I'm going to go up there never I will go to the next home that has a safer dog park and I will eat their food from their grocery stores and they will have my business so the first thing you might want to do for tourism since you fixed up B P which was pretty cool let's get a dog park somewhere where people would feel comfortable and safe to go let's put some swings more swings for kids places for kids to play in the summer takes the tennis courts like listen get the that great pickle ball and yes if there's any grant money that obviously we just lost out on tons a splash park I heard that when I walked around tell a lot of people who l so I know theyve got their dream up there of what they want I just don't know if it's for our tongue so I was kind of told through the back door great find and all that good stuff that at the August meeting the people decided that was the plan I don't remember ever being asked I did not take a vote I actually said let's put the senior citizen or 55 and older up at the top by the ballpark I'd WR one of those apartments I could overse the whole wouldn't that be a beautiful site to look at it's gorgeous up there single family homes yes we need but we need to move out of our homes cuz we're all going to do it cuz we can't climb steps yeah she'll he'll tell me to sit pH don't worry my house will go for sale I got a nice house I'm in a nice part of the neighborhood and that's that second generation they bought that first home they could barely afford now they can buy something nice bu by my house and I'll be in an apartment but I don't want to be apartment on Jon Street and [Music] my name is Lori cundy and you're saying it's Aqua power down by the bottom of the hill where they're talking about put the stop sign power why aren't they getting ticketed for parking their truck so far forward because that is a city sidewalk there and their trucks are in over the city Side is one number two um up at the school where the school was are they thinking of putting a hockey ring back up there yes thing cuz that whole area with that building you could make um all kinds of things for kids warming sh cuz the other one was going to fall down anyway right that one was pretty rough yeah so yeah no that's in the works you know just we don't own it yet we really can't do anything okay would they think of something like at the old Junior High they had the tenant uh basketball courts there the kids used to go nuts there every spring so they need something like that up there too that would be nice I am not a citizen of eth I own rental properties here and I would like to know what the city's plan is for I'm hearing that they might start charging landlords for having rental properties here um everyone talks about affordable housing and I'm trying my best to keep my placees affordable so people can afford to live and live well and if there's whatever if the city decides to charge landlords fees for having rentals that just goes right to the renter I I would like to my opinion is please don't then it just is the renters are paying more rent so what she is talking about is something that is just in its very entry stages um I'll hand the mic to Mr Lis and he can kind of tackle what he has so far sure um just to give a little history on that particular issue um for those of you folks that are with me I have been with the city for over 40 years I served as a police officer for uh about 29 years I retired as chief of police in 2012 and I've been on the city council since 2013 and I know that for several years we've had a lot of um negative issues with certain rental properties throughout the city so the city has probably worked for years to try to determine how best to deal with these issues you know certainly the police department can deal with Case by case uh situations but I think as a city we need to address the uh properties that are uh purchased by uh individuals and then rented out and these people that are purchasing them and renting them out don't stick a diamond into the property or stick a minimal amount into the property and renters are left their uh to their own device and you know they're paying good rent and there are certain things quality of life issues safety and so forth that aren't met at these properties so they're you know the city dered at and it's in its in moment it's not been uh officially passed by any Str of imagination but uh we we're getting to the decision making point where we um are proposing a licensing program charging a nominal licensing fee but part of that whole licensing uh situation is a means by which the city can um oversee some of the issues that have been a problem for tenants as well as neighborhood um the proposed um rental code includes an inspection process so anyone that's renting property would have to undergo an inspection by a proper City official to get their license to operate part of that is going to uh go a ways towards making things safe for the people that are renting these properties and also is going to go a long ways towards making these properties a better fit in the neighborhoods that they are in you know there are certain requirements and there are minimal requirements it's nothing outlanding but certainly um a means to improve the quality of life in the a as well as for the people that are renting properties one one thing to that that when it came up in conversation was it was never meant to a create a fee for the homeowner that's renting it where it feels aanish it it feels like it's overwhelming it's a very small fee we haven't come up with it yet but it's fairly small fee um the fees more or less are going to fall on those that are purchasing properties like he stated that are letting them fall apart creating housing that's not that safe and those ones would be then following up with the fee to put things back where they need to be but those landlords that are holding nice homes and have great people living there and they're doing everything they need to do are going to feel very very smart piece of that my name is Tom cundy uh uh the a start would be to enforce the laws uh FL laws we get Fly room up in the water builds all the time nothing gets done you got garbage everywhere and the the Regal properties you're talking about they let them go in the dumpster it fors the W Blake is one of them big time in edland you try to encourage people to come here it's a d Can I conf [Music] there's a BL situation in element that's been going on for 40 years it's called North and South Court 500 block to 700 block I grew up there I know that area you ever get a fire under the wrong wind guess what one side of that's going out them trees are too big they got to come down and I've been told by people that were in uh sentence to serve that they couldn't TI off to get them the work in there well guess what we got to get a little tougher in this world people got to go and do their job and that would be one of the places got to get in there with equipment and clean that out I'll come to it I figured now we straight line here so my name is marchie quenan um I've own a business in Neva for 30 years and I prom I won't embarrass my brother on the far left um I just want to say I think one of the hot topics to me tonight were grants and I don't want to be a dead horse but boy they're important no matter how big or small they are we have a fire department an ambulance and Police Department Public Utilities Department that in my opinion are fantastic we have grants that are available through our Community Foundation there's many members from that Foundation here tonight um we can't get any grants from the city and I don't understand why um I think that our our four entities want to do those I don't know why they haven't been turned in and this is money we want to give back many of you in this room um have given to the Community Foundation and we want to get back and I just think we really need some work in the in in the grant area um it's so important and I don't care if it's 5 or 10,000 or what that number is if you need something it's important and I just also want to say I think it's really awesome the people here tonight because like myself I moved back here and I'm proud to be here and I love Ed and you obviously do too and so let's just work together and try to get things better and these meetings are great for that so thank you to the mayor thank you and like I said a little bit earlier regarding grants when they're brought to my attention as I'm learning these steps I I promise you I didn't come in knowing anything more than most but what I have done is I have try to have an open ear so when I get a text saying hey you should give me a call because I know what a grand I make that call and I'll listen and I'll talk and I will do what you ask me to do so the Community Foundation I talked to a couple people that are a part of our community and said hey this group is looking to give money away you got put a little piece of paper and tell them what you want to do with with it those are the simplest things they don't make it too hard and our goal is to get our hands on every single one of those so we can move forward and if it's brought to my attention I'm going to bring it to those that need to hear it hi my name is Carla and I'm on the park in Recreation committee and anybody I love I love the city of B and that's why I'm on it and we could sure use some more input if anybody wants to join you know call the city see what committees need to be filled if if you can volunteer some time that would be great cuz things need to get done the second thing is is the city how are we doing on the image of elth with the bikers I mean how was our are we improving our image and getting rid of them this isn't [Music] all right so I three questions left that my grant will be submitted tomorrow morning right away three questions left I'm been working out for the last couple days as far as the Hell's Angels we don't want to here any more than you folks do there is a process to go through we have to follow the laws I I'll out of the job there's multiple active investigations going so we can't really say a lot more but it's it's a slow process so I don't want them here either they're they're th on our side but we are working on it so I don't think we're not doing anything there's a lot more to this than just getting rid off so and they hate to say but their citizens just like you folks they don't property just like you folks so it's not not real simple so but we are definitely working on daily nightly strek Street still over it all right they're not anyway I'm Maxine per and I've lived here all my life and probably will be here for the rest of my life but I want I want to thank Adam um I know there's a lot of issues and it's not easy to run for a position and he ran as a writing and we have supported him and I just want to thank him and we have never seen any putting put a thank you sign on the edge of town to the public and so I I want to support him I know these things aren't easy I appreciate all of you that are on the council I think we need to be more transparent I want to bring up you two people that came into elth I lived in elth I just want to tell you this before I end I came back to elth bill was in the service but he was from Gilbert and McKinley 200 400 people okay Bill came back here to live and we were told go back to Gilbert and do your curing that's how we were welcomed back so I feel for you we're not always the most welcoming people and that's shame on us shame on us really we get in our little groups and uh I don't want to be like that cuz it happened to us I'm going Gilbert that was before we were El with Gilbert so we when then they did come together he had his Gilbert out and I had my El you know so I think we need to be more welcoming but I think Adam in his counil because we want them to be more transparent need a big round of applause for even wanting to do this kind job thank you um so my craziness gets out of control sometimes and it's sad when a 16-year-old daughter has to reel you back in but I knew of a house that went for sale and it sold and I told my dog said I should go knock on the door and welcome to town like I'm the mayor welcome she's like you're looking for BS I'm like no pleas no I just want to say like welcome I don't know where they're from and she's like you know how many houses might sell you know how many doors you're going to knock on you know how many diners I'm not going to eat got it but the point to it was is she didn't misunderstand the point right all of us need to do that all of us and we up here can do our best but knocking on their door and saying thank you for moving in a town probably isn't the thing but in our neighborhoods in our communities and in our Parks when we're seeing these people probably be the best time to do it and my goal is to make everybody feel comfortable show up in a park feel comfortable with it that would have been fun and and see what we can do but I appreciate this more than you guys realize and I'm hoping that she complains tomorrow that her wrist hurts because I want to see all the notes because I'm only to takeen so much and I appreciate them being here cuz I like to watch this again realize how much I'm losing my hair faster than I was coaching High School sports but come back and look at everything that's truly important to everybody in here so that we can continue to move forward here you go hi my name is Anna Tomac and I was just at the Rose Garden in to lth today and then I noticed that the school in Virginia um their new playground they built a hill a sliding Hill for the children at the Rose Park in the booth they have a frame where the free slides seven of them are sitting there with two available seats so when the parents take their kids sliding they can sit there and watch the kids falling down and they can take a free sled how much money would that cost for us to make a sled sliding Hill it's just something wouldn't that be nice it's one downtown one so you're stating that there are sleds available for people to use at the school in Virginia I have no idea B there's a and they're sitting there and I was just there today and I thought that is cool we need that that I'm Connie Amman and we moved to West El in 2016 and I would just like to say I'm hearing a lot about how evth is not welcoming but everybody in West ENT has been wonderful we have so many friends who've been very welcoming and maybe we need to take a hint from West El because we've loved it there GL I am glad to do that here you are hi my name is Tony neic um I'm a West edth transplant to town um very quickly with all the things that we want done and that you know all the suggestions for improvement I want to give a huge shout out to the elith library because it is the place in town where every person in this room everybody everybody who we know or will know is welcome at the library and there is something there I stepped in to return a book today and there's somebody who just comes in and she sits my mom used to do this would just go there to make a cross to do um jsaw puzzles people come in to use the computers people come in to read um newspapers they may never take out a book but there is a place for them at the library and they work really really hard to reach everyone in town um and anybody who's new will see that when the summer program for kids gets started I think that when you talk about accessibility having your meetings in a room like this where people can actually come up a little ramp get in the door I won't go to City Hall cuz I'm not climbing those stairs and I think maybe this room is cheaper than putting in an elevator all I'm not sure but maybe so this was really good to have this year and I was really glad to see that this is where it was going to be and then my last thing is speaking of accessibility last year there was a huge electrical upgrade done in town city hall Police Department library and when there was still no automatic door opener at City Hall when all this was done I was shocked that City plan financial institution electrical engineering nobody said hey wait a minute why why do we not put in an automatic door opener there's one in this building and it would be really nice to have one there and I mentioned it one day when I went into City Hall and I was told well you can always call us and we'll come and open the door for you and that really isn't the answer cuz I don't think anybody working at City Hall gets paid to come out and open the door whenever anybody might you know have a St room with a kid or have their arm inous slink CU they have Rotator cut surgery or whatever it is it just makes it easier to get into City Hall so somehow that can be done end two things to that number one yes Miss Higgins amazing amazing job down the library um both visit her she'll she'll talk to you all day it's it's so great what she's got going on down there and the second thing is if nothing else tonight open my eyes to how narrow-minded I can be I never thought twice about a button on City Hall to open the door because currently it's not a problem for me but I understand that it's a problem for some and I never even thought of it so just that alone opens my eyes I'm Ro son I just want to speak to what M Bond said about possibly having some kind of an activity director um you know I used to work at the school and now I I for Library System um and there is a whole population of kids who are old enough to stay home like in the summer when their parents are working but they're not old enough to get themselves anywhere to do anything and so um if all of the sports have kind of been taken over by the school I just think that could be a great option to have somebody who was planning activities for kids in that age group that were right in town that they could participate in since my wife took the microphone I guess I have to stand up I'm Aaron Kelson um I teach in Minnesota North College some of you know me um I want to start by saying something really good about evth I love the water here and when we travel and come back I'm like oh this is great I've been thinking for a couple years I need to send a thank you note to whoever runs that system because it's the greatest water I thank you for that um well anyway I studi this kind of thing a lot from an academic perspective and I I don't want to go down a rabbit hole here but U I hope I can say something that's practical in a way but uh you know every Community has an image and we've been talking a lot about what what is our image and how do we create an image that's inviting for people and I've been pondering what what can we do that really wouldn't take a vast amount of money to change our image that kind of coincides with successful communities around the country and one of one of the initiatives that many countries have excuse me communities have on roughly our sides is they begin to focus more on on the Arts and on music and that kind of a a culture and we have this this multi-purpose building on the School site and I'm hoping that some discussions are being held to have rooms for voice music lessons small performance spaces um art teaching of all kinds Pottery unit and we just sort of become this Arts Focus here which we I don't think we've ever done and I don't think any community on the Iron Range has carved out that Niche yet and so if that's us it's something we could do and it's not particularly expensive to do we just need some direction and some leadership to do that you know there are other ideas of course um uh for one I love to play disc golf and if we could get the disc off m a little more in the summer here and never that'd be great so anyway I I think I'll end with that thank you for listening to me appreciate it I don't need that I don't because I read in the paper and I know for fact that Rivers the clinic I don't use it I don't go there with singles um they're looking to expand so as a person in the community I hope everybody's falling over backwards stay here and that goes for any other business that we have already we need to keep those businesses here and as people in go to those businesses please we need to do that to keep what we have and then I don't know if anybody else knows but I single handly P Aries way way in Black in the red it'll never be a problem I saw hand proba don't even need this I've lived in for about 9 years my name's jar I live in eth I work in eth minnesot of power and I don't I don't know if I'm a young person at 29 but I yeah but I we live on the 700 block by the old and I didn't know what they were doing with it until I January but I really like the idea of space right you have the r Center I don't think downtown is going to attract anybody to move here but I think of green space look at byic with their Green Space you mentioned all Park uh El does great with their Green Space your time um yeah I don't know living on the 700 block and if it's going to be if it's going to be for developing nice houses we got tax or fit houses Garfield that are collated I don't know who's going to want to build across the street from [Music] that yeah um I don't know as far as like getting young people more into town I don't know looking to get out I don't want to live in this town why uh between downtown the ell angels and I know where working on getting rid of that but everybody that's my age talks about evth as meth with the methid and I don't want to raise my wife carrying our first child I don't want to L this down I don't want to I don't I could walk to work but I don't cuz I'm scared to but having a park near my house or on the other side of the house Angels on the opposite side we see people walking their dogs I've seen more people up by that park now or it's not a field but I've seen more people up there now than I ever had obviously when I was at school during school pack to the Gils but yeah that's all I got sorry one more my wife my wife will kill me mention it but have we talked to other towns small towns about what they're doing for drawing in young people I know CH downtown has really come around they've really done a lot of work to get their businesses up and run and I've known a lot of young people that moved to J I have recently reached out to um couple different towns in that direction uh Council members uh people that know their Economic Development people so I can try to get there and honestly you know I guess we can all pack a big full of excuses but basketball season just ended and now I have time and I look forward to making phone calls to catch on all those things uh Chism is one of them H is another one Andora but at a much smaller level right when you start thinking that is a Mecca you are comparing it to and they are there just equally anticipated to do big things so um I I really like the idea of green space at the school and there's so many things we could do there um we like to Garden but like most of us we have a puny yard um sorry when we were in school um the extension did a community garden and we could rent a little garden spot so something like that would be really awesome [Applause] too get into again okay I'll scan y to for this um I have a question about the new development I used to an out to Buffalo Minnesota right County all the time cuz I had living there and it seemed like every time I went down there there was a new development going up but I never saw a city name on I only saw developers developer would buy the land they built the plots they put in the infrastructure and then theyd s it out why are we trying to do this as a city rather than trying to partner with an uh a company to to deal with we're we're not we're not trying to do it as a city we're not trying to uh make that development as a city we're waiting for developers to come to us and say hey we got a markable marketable spot here let's go what happens you know if we don't we're trying to get the infrastructure in there so that they come up there and say yeah there have been two uh two people that said they might come in if everything was available to them to put in a house a model house just say you know and then they would go from there to see if they could get uh if they could develop the props as they lay out it's not to say that you can drop your own plants go to an Arts get a package and put on that property that's not what's going on here we just wanted to make sure that we have the infrastructure going in there to do that but as a city we're not we're not we're not pois to develop anything certainly not at the cost of you people you know we can just like we can't build a grocery store for you we can't get a hardware store for we can't do that but until something happens here on the Range and until we start going off and getting those monies that we should be getting two grants and whatnot those lots will be empty for a while I'm afraid and Carla has um the dog park Whisperer that you are you know we've had a lot of meetings trying to find a new location for that and for the disc a new disc Park but up until the schools went down there was no place in help to build anything not not put another Park in not put another was no place now we have some spots now we have ideas coming from you and a lot of the plan that we've done in the last 2 years we have some plans do we need some direction of course we do we need monies of course we do but since Adam mayor R has been here uh it's been open we're trying to get more open uh I don't know what more to say about it but Carla I think our rec budget is going to Skyrocket in 26 from what I'm hearing everybody wants a park and wants a director but then again those all take money you know uh Craig was our director down at the hip and he did a great job taking care of baseball and softball and and everything G on there but he retired and then everything went back to the schools and those ballparks are on mining public property they're not on El public property so we are just we rent the mind up for the Fourth of July celebration and we also have the uh the ballparks that are on actually on the mining company property That's why nothing has been developed down in that area as far as Parks I thought they traded land at some point not this been that's so company property so that why so do you pay a or what no no we don't pay a be but they can come in at any time and takeable away from us I think they would do you have a lease I don't know we don't have a lease do we Jackie I'm sorry I just we don't have a lease at theide yes we have a lease yes we have aase you know gosh Liz I think it's at least like 5 years and we've had it for decades yeah yeah may I have to leave but I just have one little to we have a lot to in this to United States hoe Hall which is amazing we have the cing club which is amazing we have don't businesses that we Dar the best we can um we have we have a great Community we have this place this place is absolutely fantastic we will start the wedding season next month be involved in some we have two cers here one do not work I would ask you today that that SP only place we cannot do these things I have I have communicated this but communting they have to is huge you get people in to see this this place is awesome and we should have it fill several times a month um so with that I would ask thank you and to the point of the the ball fields we have been really lucky there's been family and friends that really taking care of that area for a really long time beautiful as it is and those are community members that are doing it I I won't speak and say that know for sure but pretty much on their own time and out of their own pocket to make it great for all the kids so I mean our community is stepping up and doing a lot of things to make things work and I don't ever want you know people walk away and be like wow we just really just shunned our town because examples like that are amazing that those ball fields are as great as they are because of family and their friends taking the time over years to do it um our airport doing what it did for years because people stood up and were a part of it for a long time making it active and trying to bring people in ETC so I I don't want anybody ever think like negative Sean this is still hands down I said it when I came in the greatest City the state you can call whatever it is but it's the greatest city in the world and that's why I'm here fire away one uh idea I have for going by the ballp parks if we could get Betrayal on that South Edge I will mind up there for four-wheelers and Sol Wheels to be able to access our town and not just signage saying which streets you're allowed to ride on and could bring some more business into our downtown area if bulldo a trail move that fence back I want to M up a little further so with that CH is I do see four-wheelers in side by side showing up on Main Street for for Gatherings what have you um is the B pretty much stay off fail Road are weing a different way there a designated Trail in to here for yeah we have a design Trail here for coming in town um I believe Club is trying to put something behind failon kind like maybe what you're talking about I don't know what they're on that talking about behind Su back tra to do business park goinging and back there so I know they're working on a few things and they've had a few needs with our city staff here what it's not Mai Trail it's somebody else yeah y AB absolutely and if we have large groups coming town which we do every summer Side by say different clubs I there different fundraisers we give escorts in the town black intersections and they do put on field roads if we have a large group coming in town they always Calla great to work with and yeah we do everything we can to accommodate them absolutely um my question is like there are neighborhoods that have um sidewalks but they have driveways that um people are allowed to park and it crosses the sidewalk whichs the walker from walking on the sidewalk and it also affects like when you're plow the city's plowing like because that car there and then it push the city trucks can't get close enough to the to the curve you know to BL what if it's the state law that car should not be parked over um sidewalks is there something we can do to get some enforcement related to that um and the other thing is I have questions about hand um my husband works with fire department um I mention disabl I don't understand why a city street has a this is a beautiful building there's handicapped parking in the parking lot why is there a disabled parking spot that is allocated only for the auditorium right next to the on a public street that should be open to everybody who the regardless of what business they're contributing to is there a reason that happens yeah thank you um my question is on Dollar General are we getting a Dollar General or a Dollar General market are we going to get some kind of a grocery store in town anybody know it's up to you guys how liberal you want me to be with that answer so eyes little backwards when I started talking about in a workshop we'll start here oh we have a preliminary agreement with the corporation that owns Dollar General and the latest information that we have because we've expressed our sincere desire to have a Dollar General market as opposed to a standard Dollar General store and they could not tell us uh exactly whether or not at this time and they would consider the market or not but they will be before we get further along in the agreement process they will be uh specifying what stores actually going go in there but the Dollar General we have a preliminary agreement to get that store in town we're hoping that a Dollar General market comes to so there was there was is his answer so um all right now I warn get grocery store going so when I came in I understood that we had exhausted everything and this is just me being a citizen I never asked anybody here at this table it's just what I was told through going to the gas station going to the gas station gas station okay different people telling me at the gas station right we called anybody nobody wants to come to wow wow wow wow so I did ask and unfortunately we never did ask anybody if they're interested in coming here um except for Dollar General with that being said Dollar General is interested um I made my point real clear at the first being you won't get a yes vote for Dollar General for me unless it is the market I absolutely don't want the other store here I'm not looking for a metal box with a not looking for a metal box with the neon yellow sign on our main street that that's not who we are that's not what Evil's trying to do and when we're talking the word Revitalize sounds terrible CU that's what Virginia uses very bluish of a word but we are working on our Main Street what's the word that you use Brian revitalization I don't know no no no revitalization we we'll go with it but we're revitalizing Street as well and see a metal box at the end of the street right now so Bob streer who has been uh the one that's been helpful in creating all these ideas and everything we have going on there at Town came back with a with a bunch of pictures that showed us different ideas that Dollar General was willing to do things more with brick facade fronts uh round lighting things that look like they more fit in on the Main Street than they do on the side of the highway um as great as that was it still said Dollar General on their science so my my I still stand with that but I I'm not looking for that I'm looking for a grocery store um I have reached out and I just want to hear answers just tell me why why don't you want to be in neith Super One zups f& D just and maybe the answer is because because because because and we can't fix those because and I understand we don't own ig's building we can't tell some to come to go to a building we don't own I I respect all of that but I just wanted to know today we were let know I can I can say this and you're not going to yell at me um that Dollar General is more interested in utilizing the IG building than they are building a new building um that still does not say that we want to be the Market it still didn't say that they're going to be the regular Dollar General but it did say we have more interest in that than we do building a new building on the end of your main street so a part of me felt a little bit better about that but it still doesn't change the fact now May 1 is the date where they're going to tell us kind of what they want to do and what it's going to look like and again if it doesn't say Market I might only be the only one it might be all five of us I don't know but that's when kind of will come up so that's the timeline on that but as of right now the new direction is they're looking at being inside the IG building um with whatever design it is that they're looking for so I hope that kind of takes down some of the questions that you had regarding it but just know that because they're going they have interest in that and just because they might build the market doesn't mean that I want to stop with my phone calls it's just something that I'd like to do in my free time be told no um anybody else please I we did not come here for you to think I want to say something and then not say it and go home said it take care of uh John's drug has similar situation he's been here all all the time and we're going to bring somebody like that in here and they're going to have I really want to see a grocery store that young man back there talked about he was going to like to move um you want to see the saddest thing ever I lived up at school for 46 years there used to be kids that school happy this could be so there's got be something good at this but what we did we got rid of those schools and it's the status not going to get here there is there's no there's no laughing for kids there's none of that the kids used to see my dogs and they take them for a while and they say how much they like they watch them all the time so when we did that other school we kind of I don't think we look far enough just what that did to our city what it did and now we don't have that store we should get a grocery store here and we got to find a way for our youth that young man should never have to listen and say well and to almost every point he just made bum that he he had to scoot up because I didn't want to catch him but he did give me a little more information than he wanted to so it's been um number two though you're you're point about what a regular Dollar General could do to other businesses in our town and that's 100% why I just I'm not I'm not for it I just John has done what he's done a long time and John has to charge the prices he has to charge because he buys quantity at 50 or 100 not at 10,000 or a million and I respect that that's the way it goes my concern right I'm I lay in bed looking at the ceiling like holy cow what are you going to mess up tomorrow Adam but I think about it is if John's not selling me my not cards or my pens I want stick on and have my prescription for me right Virginia anyway well I might as go to the grocery store because I like having John here to take care of my meds cuz John knows me as a person not just as a person who comes in to get meds every month complaining that my co pays are so high and I can't keep up with it he knows me as a person and that to me means a lot so um and lastly to your point yes that grocery store needs something and all we can do as a board is try to work together to either a make sure it is the best that we can can get in for the offer that exists or to just keep saying no to who's willing to offer something in hopes of something different and that of course is always the fear you tell somebody no and then you never do get what you were hoping for so may first comes quick but you know the phone calls are just as quick my understanding is the Dollar General just picks a way at a community they really don't bring anything into a community they don't bring any Spirit into a community they go into small towns and they close up three or four businesses my question is who in this room is going to be happy to buy gas in Virginia how much is Dollar General going to take away from our one and only convenience store in town that we can fill our cars with gas at the short stop what part of the shortstops business is going to end up in the cash register over at Dollar General along with John's drug and a few other remaining retail cash registers in town if every one of those goes down by 25% we'll be buying gas in Virginia that convenience store is not going to sit there if those six shell DRS in that store go down to half the business they are why that one I I'll give you a chat about that Convenience St we have one in town we lost a few other ones we're in the works with another one but the only way you're going to get business of this on is support it some somebody has to come in and spend a half million do to put a building up okay then they have to be guaranteed another million bre even are we taes [Music] are we don't have anybody right our grand go ahead the tax are paying for administration they should be looking fors finding GRS everything that we possibly can to generate business in this [Music] are what are do City ad administ coun we have oural what are we doing talking about we should have done our developer the person we hired to help us with the school our developer the person that's helping us with the school properties and the downtown revitalization has gone to multiple Poli people and corporations Quick Trip Coca-Cola um there was a couple other ones too that that they they got he's reached out to these people and everybody's come back that no there isn't a sight to he's to the corporate headquarters which is where in Wisconsin where I have noidea for one reason have no that that's so we can talk a little bit about uh another service station coming to the city of El at least we're hoping it's going to come to the city of we you probably seen on Highway 37 that cleared out area uh we had our intention was when we first cleed out that area to have por and Bay come down there and uh have a convenience store down there and they they were all up in board but then again you run into federal regulations and they would an anex that as part of their reservation and we didn't we said no we weren't going to do it they accused us of fact you know but actually they did well now we have another uh corporation that is Corner the corner store Rec call and they're thinking about coming in there and they they want to put in their uh ball tanks so that they can deliver Fuel and whatnot you'll be in with the guy from G yes a little confusion on that so corner store would be working with Superior fuel Superior fuel is based out of right now we see him in Virginia um but he is looking to expand with his bolt tanks to get Trucking in to move gasoline to expand his business but he would also be willing to uh be the the Cornerstone so to speak the the bulk gas supplier of a gas station if somebody wanted to command only have the convenience store aspect so developer uh an owner out of the CL area has the the ability to build these convenience stores the only issue that he's running into right now where the snag is on things is because he typically will buy gas stations that have closed he'll buy them renovate them and then open them back up again and we are asking for a slightly bigger ask by saying will you build your new store we have somebody that will supply the gas and those two work well together they're talking so it's not like we're trying to shove them and migrate them together they are talking but it's just a a slightly new Venture for one of them and showing respect I've just been giving that letting him figure out what works for them or not works for them um but it doesn't stand idle that property there that we're talking about the right next to um service master that that is what the plan is and if if the gas station falls through Superior fuel still has interest in creating their services in that area would be a convenience store it would be a business that would bring jobs to the area Etc so that is a conversation that's happening thing I hate about those things right is I don't want you going home and saying well Adam just said that this cornerstone's coming in and Mr perpin said that too it is 100% not that but those are the conversations that are happening I just don't want you to think that things are idle we're not talking about them we're not trying to carry them out but that's where that one's at we have somebody that will put fuel there tomorrow if we gave them the opportunity we're trying to figure out the convenience store aspect of it as well anything else from up here you're welcome to it I just like to add for those folks that may not even be aware that um in the next couple of years is that corridor from station 44 all the way to rock school is going to be opened up the county is going to be putting a road back there and that is going to imate a lot of problems for the people that want to get to the school that bya Highway 53 I would assume most of them are going to want to take the B Road up there so what that's doing that's also opening up a lot of acreage back there that the city owns that we have not had access to previously so one of the projects that the council has been uh working on and and we've uh secured a whole bunch of money towards developing is a uh Industrial Park type area back they're uh preparing it uh to start when we uh or when they start putting the road in so that we can put the infrastructure in at the same time saving uh saving us quite a bit of money but the ultimate goal is to provide building ready site uh of an industrial type in an industrial park to attract uh businesses I know the RB is quite interested in that Venture and are have been willing to uh Pony up about uh quite a bit of money to uh develop and get that project further along so that the piece that we're talking about on station 44 with the gas potentially the gas station potentially Superior fuel that's going to be a real good fit down there because you're going to have a whole bunch of traffic uh in that area once that Industrial Park gets developed or for that matter once that roope gets puted it's going to be a a pretty busy Corridor correcting to uh CC's point it's roughly 30 34 Acres correct Jackie is that what we learned today do you mean our prin Park 34 acres is roughly what is going to be able to be developed between the wetlands and the area that the school decided they didn't know was a rocky Shore there but there's about 34 acres of land that we can develop on in the near future you know a while back uh I heard that super one was interested in the Country Store IG that was that was when it first went you know Down super one has two locations in Virginia both of them doing very well super one has one in babic it's doing fantastic I don't know why Super One have they been offered to come here or have you offered anything for them um because uh we got how many people you said 3600 or something like that plus we got West evth and every and iron and every everybody else uh I think super one doesn't seem like you know they can put up a store anywhere they want and that wouldn't hurt any of our businesses that we have right now as far as I'm concerned so what what I've done with super one is as far as I've taken it and it's the honest truth is I've made the phone call to a friend who knew the person I need to talk to I got that phone number I called that phone number I left a message generally stating hey this is who I am this is what I'm on my chat about and unfortunately I haven't received anything back as of yet but it hasn't been a timeline yet that makes me get excited um as I want to show respect that if they're going to call me back we probably want to have their ducks in in order not just thr winging it my name is Callie Carlson I have a couple of little kids I live right across the street here um we've talked a lot of tonight about what we need in the community and what changes we'd like to see and the things we need from the mayor and the things we need from the city council I want to turn that question back to you guys and say what do you need from us as a community in what ways can we be supporting you and helping you to make the changes that you want to make thank you very much um one thing that I've chatted with most of the members about already I say members councelors of all already is you know is commissions the right thing to bring back do we just have um boards where people get together what I the rec board does but the answer of that needs to be that we we have to figure out exactly how we're going to get more of your information that you're looking for outside of these events and this one won't wait eight more months to happen again but what we need to do is try to figure out what encourages you to want to play a part is it to have a commission to be a part of our Council meetings that we have now at 5:30 is it to be that you want to be on a board that takes a role in something specific um a prime example is my father who's not a firefighter horribly asthmatic used to leave all the time to go to his Fire Commission meetings and I was so confused as a kid like really you go there for you don't know anything you can't even run you can't even breathe right he was like for but the point being is he wasn't a firefighter and he did have asthma but he was a Community member who cared about what was happening with the fire department so he played a role in that and those are the small things that I've just started talking to them about like what do we do how do we bring that back the biggest way of doing is once we decide how we want to bring that back is by getting your support and being a part of it now when we come back and we have another one of these our goal is to hopefully right been able to tackle some of the things that you brought up and move forward with those and you see that and you feel good I'm glad that my voice was heard there are some things that they're too they're too big we can't tackle them overnight we can't tackle them in 3 months but it's something that we can talk about and her list is huge and that makes me happy that means that tonight was a success because if she had half of a page that means that we're doing everything perfect you're happy with everything that's going on and we're going wow look at us but we kind of knew from the beginning that you had a voice and you wanted to give it to us so that's exactly why when we started talking about there there wasn't one council member that even was like I don't know about that every person we need to do it we need to do it sooner than later so here's the sooner part now my question for you is if we're doing this and we can't come back next week uh Mr per is busy but but me how often how often are we looking for this how often are we quarterly is that is that too much is that too little I mean now you don't need the microphone just tell me a timeline so I can try to hear it so we can try to talk about [Music] itate surve Mony people and on what want there's ways to get Social is the way that it is now and I think [Music] thats City sending out when they send out the you know ask for the water money we can put a form in there that says hey what's your priority me are so many me soci media and also youer I so I have to just wait for another meting and I'm sorry I did not mean that nothing's going to happen till the next Mee that's not how I meant it I just I just meant how much sooner it is that do you want to come back I mean if I I want to be here next month if next month is what you want if you think next month's too soon you want to see 3 months I and I'm agreeing with you that there are so many ways for us to collect information from the public that we are not utilizing and we have the capabilities whether it is use them or purchase them but we have the abilities to get those information and we need to start using it there's nobody up here that's saying we don't want to do that it's just a matter of taking the step and that's that's the new direction that we're going to do this so do you want to leave it to the board to decide that this is something go ahead you know see this new school cost is a half a the that Highway that that Lo Loop they going to put there can you men the 4th of July and this bridge down here when you do this construction unbelievable and then to top it off all of our rec programs are gone in town they're gone that's what makes a real Community I remember growing up in this town with the nickel in my hand to lock 10 blocks to the news you know it was a cool place to live but you know what if we don't get back to some of this how are we going to encourage young families to come in we're grow this last four years with the economy people lost 20 to 30% of their mind power so my point would be is look closely at your budget it needs to go down cuz we're all hurting and you know what it's not the old people I've got money put away I'm in good shape look at the young people they can't even afford a house it's tough and this is a boom and bust economy I've been through it I work for four different miny companies part of it was Choice part of it was the economy and my my numbers according the C but you know what we're living underage we ain't living in a big city we're not living in the and my other point would be is the county is sucking us driving for taxes sucking us dry and then we look at the city portion of it that's the other half I don't know I don't know how to address all your issues I just I don't know but how how do you want to run a city on on on nothing I'll tell you do you want to run it no listen I let you speak now you're please please please we are trying to we are trying our very best to run the city with a payroll and inflation and everything else and we're trying to keep all our options open all comes back to all of our shoulders yeah and mine aren't mine are big they might not be as big as yours but mine are just the same size where's the the city spends I I would like to know like if there or something Jackie can help with so you're asking if we have like a pie CHP that maybe breaks down expenditures and revenue am I [Music] correct so we don't have anything like that available but the city council can direct us sta we can put charge together and put it on the website which hopefully sooner than later you'll be able to read that on your mobile place and I have the hardships you've been having okay I want to thank everybody for coming tonight um I was across the way chatting with some people up at the Elks beforehand and I said I don't know if there's going to be four people or 400 people well there's not 400 but there's definitely not four what shows me that this community does care and when this is the first one that we have I believe that people can go out and they can chat about what was said what was talked about I think that they're listening let's see what happens at the next one I'm going to turn on YouTube and I'm going to watch the the board meetings I'm going to show up at the board meetings at 5:30 whatever it might be but please continue to be a part and be a voice of the community come here and voice your opinions so we can hear them so that we can try to react in the best way that we can and ultimately I thank you very much for your comment in the back how can you help there are a lot of things that a lot of people can do and we need to find a a little bit of a structured way to say hey this is what we want from you and then thank you very much for doing that for us we know a lot of the things going on right now there there there they're a lot there a lot of things that are happening there's a lot of things that come with a lot of money but ultimately we're just trying to take it one task at a time and hearing your opinion regarding whether it be the Dollar General or being the school property or being what you feel about Main Street whatever it was that was important to you we at least got to hear a little bit of a Twist on it that maybe we never thought of maybe we thought of but we didn't voice our opinion or whatever it may stand but our goal is for you to be able to have that voice so we can think about things there are things that I leared sitting here tonight that I didn't know I miss be Hest I had no idea that we lease those properties from the base from the mine I I had no idea so I had all these plans in my head of what I'd love to do back there breaks right what do we do so I thank you guys for bringing things up CU it makes me think twice about things that I want to do and it allows me to allows me to work with this board who is encouraged to help get that direction poly cin I didn't mean to U even say anything but I just had a a thought that I have expressed in years past I think the city of bth and the school district Rock Ridge we need to work more collaboratively together other than just buying and selling land and buildings to each other I uh we can share our resources uh somebody mentioned cultural thing things and and that could help the city and the school district has resources and I've championed for years that we should have a school district if it's whole boards and whole councils to have meetings together or if it's um you know subcommittees or something so let's share resources and work together because we are the city of ela and we are the school district of Rockridge thank you with that anybody up here have anything last they like to say apologize to Dale for my help uh also uh everybody is talking about the school uh we had a opportunity to vote vot day or on the school and uh my B is PP but was one of the coldest all days that we had it was raining the mine we had one pulling place in ela it was out the door to fire all people waiting in to get the vote and I know some of the older people didn't want to vot so they left didn't come back we lost the election we lost our schools and we're on the hook for that now we are on the hook for that could those buildings have been salvaged a lot more than what was paid you know and through all this time there was only one voice as far as I'm concerned from the city of one voice up at that school and it was that lady right there pole she questioned she questioned monetarily what was going on in the school she questioned do we need this she all she wanted be was her and I think she was speaking for a lot of us here election's coming up people you're back on that board I just want to uh Echo Adam's thoughts thank everyone for taking the time to come and visit with us for the last is it been couple hours um very insightful to us you know we sit uh on the council and we try to make the best decisions we can with the best information that we can and using the best uh resources that we have available but the best resource is the voice of the people that are sitting here and throughout the community so thank you very much and I hope to see you again at the next session as you may have noticed I haven't said a lot tonight but I like to get a lot of information collected process it I have a lot of information I could sit here and speak for another half an hour but I'm not going all this cabage again uh a lot of good ideas great participation we need to keep the ball rolling there are things I learned tonight also Adam and I've been here I'm seventh year that I didn't that I thought were going on we have to move forward and continue to concentrate on the good points and what we can do and can do a lot of good R and I'm all for commissions I'm all for I like to talk the people I'm a LLY man so feel free to uh approach me on any subject I might have been approach tonight and I'll give you my I I'll I'll waste have your day with how I feel all right but I I do talk if you still have minutes to get your cell phone don't call him before 9 I you guys are good here wonderful I want to thank everybody here for coming I want to thank council members for their time Jackie and chief for their time um we will put together a plan with how often this happens um change the structure up maybe a little bit to try to help out whatever it may be but we'll now chat about it seeing what you're looking for knowing what we wanted and go from there I will be probably this last personal need tonight so if you've got something that you just couldn't say or you didn't want to say come find me I'm not going to go anywhere if you got something you want to talk about um I said it when I walked around we're not going to forget about our past we're going to worry about today and we're going to take care of our future okay those are the things that we're going to do in E we're going to continue to go that way we're not going to forget about what we where we came from those are important to all of us what's happening today we need to worry about we need to take care of it and then we're going to worry then our future will come where we need to be so thank you again for coming safe travel is home and we will get it out there ASAP when the next one will be thank you