06/16/2020

[0:00:02] welcome everyone i'm now calling this meeting to order please stand with us we'll be led prayer first by arm and gallagher please remain standing after that for the pledge of allegiance and we'll ask aldrin payne to lead us in that tonight heavenly father we come before you once again to thank you for the damage you've given us lord we want uh to pray for our country that's uh undergoing strife right now lord we know that you can heal our lands lord when we ask for your blessings upon the people warned that uh we know that all men were created evil and uh loved by you lord jesus and so we just ask you to heal our lance tonight lord we ask you to be with us in our meeting here i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and justice for all first thing the agenda is the approval of minutes for the june 2nd 2020 meeting mr mayor removing the approvements of the regular meeting of june 2nd 2020 within the admissions deletion for directions kelly is there any discussion carry done roll call yes that motion carries next on the agenda is the resolution to commend ordinance title 10 chapter 1 section 10 through 12. mr nick manley is this ordinance allow for the police to be able to regulate

[0:02:06] the house mayor's office for allowing to break up the parties and along the fines or those who are parties were important to her they're voting back immediately based on the need for the importance and also allow for police to so second baltimore wheeler is there any discussion a question this isn't just residential this is uh like commercials well if this is just going to be a residential for this ordinance one of the issues with it is the common use of you know vrbos things like that um they're in residential areas but they're not owner occupied events and so that's become an issue in the city becoming a big problem disturbing the peace of the neighbors and that's the purpose of this right an out of control party um and i don't use the term elusive out of

[0:04:10] control party and you know one that is disruptive to the lives of the other people that live around them and uh so that's that's the purpose of this any other discussion [Music] yes that motion carries next on the agenda is the resolution for parade ordinance this uh resolution will establish a parade recession the ordinance gives the police chief authorization issues but along with the criteria that you can request for the department for a parade it also allows for a due process you could also be able to available with the parade and as well so it gives us more of an objective black and white standard museum um city south haven regarding frames and recessions in public second

[0:06:14] we have a motion bomber in pain second balance is there any discussion right any other discussion hearing none roll call yes the motion carries next on the agenda is the resolution for high-tech surplus department you we have a motion modern pain second mother with kelly is there any discussion hearing none roll call yeah yes yes that motion carries excellent agenda is an amendment to our employee handbook mr chris wilson [Music] um providers while the policy intent doesn't change

[0:08:20] that family members may work as a department [Music] so it's just the purpose of this just to give clarity and also to add a little more consciousness to new hires you know when that situation happens in the future and i want to just say as i stated this morning at an apartment head meeting this is not uh there's the reason that we've not um or i've not advocated that we change the policy because we have a lot of great employees that have relatives and work for the city and and i always believe that you hire the best person you know and so we don't want to take away the city's ability to hire the best person for the job however nepotism policies are in existence for a reason because there are problems that happen and we we see problems uh in a day from a day-to-day perspective that do happen from that and so it's something that should be counted as a a serious concern when a hire is made but it still doesn't change the fact that if the best hire for the job still knowing that is still the best person we want to make sure that our department has had that ability to hire the best person for the giant

[0:10:22] but it's uh that's why we want to clear it up just to bring more attention to the people making the hiring decisions that there needs to be a lot of thought process in that and i will just say this i mean the city is outhaven of all the organizations i've worked for am i working for i've never seen an organization that has more neputism in this city there are there are a ton of related people that work here not saying that's necessarily a bad thing but it's just something that needs to be you know for the future benefit of the city there needs to be a higher degree of consciousness brought to that because like i said it does cause problems at times and anyway we are let me reiterate the people that work for our city now we have some great employees that have family members that also work for the city so this this is not changing the policy it's just calling more attention to it and just you know bring more clarity to it any other discussion hearing none yes that motion carries next to the gen is the resolution to clean private property is there any discussion among the board hearing known is there anyone in the audience that has a financial interest in any of the properties we'd like to speak hearing or seeing none roll call please [Music]

[0:12:30] yes that motion carries there's no planning agenda this evening uh next on the agenda's mayor's report i just want to update everyone quickly on uh the projects that we have going on uh everything we as you all know they have a lot of projects going on got a lot of activity in the city uh everything is going well uh the projects are many of them are completed or nearing completion so just a quick uh rundown of some of those we know that the greenbrook indoor softball training facility is done is now being used it's a beautiful facility we have not done grand opening gatherings for that because of the virus issue so there may be a time in the future where we actually come back after the fact and do a grand opening but these these facilities for this facility is being used now it's awesome springfest pavement project is almost done uh landscaping is happening now uh and when the landscaping is done the only other piece to that will be there's gonna be a circular area uh in the center walkway uh that's going to be beautiful we believe it's going to be a meeting location at spring fest we envision that that people will refer to that as the circle you know they're and some people will meet there maybe we announced the barbecue winners maybe set up some kind of little stage there in the circle before we announce the winners and just to call attention to it but it's going to be stamped the concrete is going to be stamped with the springfest logo so it's going to be really cool looking and uh so that's the only thing that's left and then when that's done uh it's just it's just really nice so if you haven't been out there go check it out it's really nice uh city hall is done you know just a couple of final punch list items you'll notice that the baseboards they were on old back order

[0:14:33] they got those done all over the first floor the parking lot has been resurfaced and then this weekend they're going to do the striking and then after that it's going to be done the sign is lit i don't know if you've been here at night but the new sign on the front of the building is is now lit so it's just i hope you like it it's a beautiful facility we did paint the roof of the pavilion associated park to match the building and we planted the uh our planet painted the um uh the pump house uh in the front uh to match the building as well those were done this past week so anyway i hope you enjoy it i think it's a beautiful building for our city that's one of the finals on the punch list there was an issue um and i apologize i can't remember what there was some issue with it with the rails but that's on the punch those though that'll get done should be done soon parks maintenance shop as you all know we sold the property where the current parks maintenance shop is because that's such a great location for development there at snowden and snow delaney boulevard when we sold that property the new buyers agreed to allow us to have time to build another facility and stay there so we are coming down to the end of that project we expect to be moved into the new facility which is uh just west of the tennis center uh the first week in july so that's just right around the corner looks great too street pavement schedule we're almost done with our 2020 schedule many many streets have been paved in the city cities looks better love new asphalt you know one of the best things you can do in a city to show uh pride in your city or the you know to maintain property values have uh the streets looking good you know when you you know so many people tell me all the time that you know when they come out of some of the neighboring cities in the

[0:16:35] south end that they can tell they can feel it they can tell that we're committed to the streets so i thank all of you for supporting that commitment to allocate more money over the years you know get our streets in good condition so we're down to the wire there may be three or four streets that are not done yet but almost all of them are done at this point we are going to if you have questions when we set the schedule for the next year we're going to try hard to start the next budget year in the fall like not wait till usually in the spring and march weather starts getting better in march and april is when we start we're going to press to try to get a lot of them done in the fall october weather is beautiful it's perfect for overlaid streets uh so we're going to try to have that list of them so if there's a street that didn't get done this year it's probably at the top of the list uh for next year so it may be done this country here still anyway that's that's going well um quickly main street pedestrian project uh been years in the making uh that is actually going to be bid in july uh so that's finally going to become a reality again that provides uh sidewalks from highway 51 all the way down main street to northwest drive and that'll connect to our walks at city hall so people will be able to walk all that way up you know to associate park and city hall that'll be really nice that'll be a big deal during the christmas parade you know that'll help a whole lot so anyway it's going to be really nice and adam have a new look to main street central park snow multi-use trail and we have a lot of people are loving the snowden grove multi-use trail but the central snowden trail will eventually connect to that one and it'll be a 10 foot wide trail just like that that comes out of central park one south on tuesday it'll hit may boulevard and it eventually will connect you know to snowden that way there is a gap there while silo square is under construction so it's probably going to be a couple years you know before it's connected totally but that leg of the trail from

[0:18:38] central snowden which is um a nine year old project by the way i thought y'all love government uh nine year old project is going to be under construction in july this year so it's awesome uh maloney goodman monument sign y'all know our commitment to beautify our city uh we put monument signs uh at northwest driving state line road uh when people exit i-55 going south that's the first thing they see a grand entrance to south haven same thing going northbound on i-55 just north of starlanding road there's a beautiful monument signed there that was done last year and then we have the third one under construction now which is at malone and goodman so when you come into south bay from the east side now you have a large amount of traffic there uh that sign is underway there it's going to be a beautiful sign there as well they have the blocks laid i would think that it's probably you know probably about another three weeks and then that one will be done fire station number five is still on pace to be under construction this fall is being designed right now and we still project that construction will begin on fire station number five in the curb uh starlanding road just west of getwell uh that that will be under construction in october this year the bayville bar pedestrian bridge is being designed now we expect that construction on that is looking like it's probably going to be early 21 before it would be time for that but that is under design i'll give y'all further updates as we get something to look at there and then lastly as we know the the plan to add artificial turf at snowden grove park in greenbrook that we will open the bids for that on july 2nd so we'll know on july 2nd we're going to have to move fast in order for us to do this construction has got to begin in july to have it ready for the baseline softball for next

[0:20:41] year so i'm going to be asking for some quick decisions uh when we get those bids in we'll need to decide are we going to do both parts in one year are we going to do one of the other which one are we going to do first that kind of thing but we'll have to make those decisions between july 2nd and july 21st so we may have we may call a special meeting just but if you will just kind of have that in the back your mind be prepared be prepared for that obviously one thing that comes into play with that decision is the you know the complications of the virus issue it definitely is going to have some economic impact on the city of south haven we don't know exactly how drastic that's going to be yet as you all know we did a budget amendment for 750 000 and decreased sales tax revenue maybe it won't be quite that severe i know that i get reports from a lot of businesses that they are just absolutely setting record sales since they reopened so i'm hoping that it won't have a tremendous effect but by the time um you know we open these bids hopefully we'll have a little better uh we'll get at least get the june report and we'll know a little more about you know be able to predict you know what the total annual impact of that issue will be and that's basically it does anyone have any questions about any of those okay we'll move on our next one our agenda is our assistant uh the tulahoma uh issue when we when this trail was first um or when i first became involved in 2013 with this we had a meeting with uh i know whitney was with me we had a meeting with him not and that was the first thing that we brought to them this is an mdot project and so the issue is obviously how do you cross get in the road and we haven't even talked about a bridge just like we were talking about at get well same issue there looking into having a bridge on goodwin um that's something that we won't give up

[0:22:44] that maybe there's a possibility in the future there's a pedestrian bridge i'm a goodman there too but in the meantime mdot indicated that that that funding did not include a bridge but what they would do with that is they would uh have traffic calming devices on goodman obviously markings on the streets signage lights things like that so all those things will be part of the project where it does uh create a slower traffic in that area i'll be the first to tell you i'm not totally comfortable with that but that's that's all the money that's mdot's call that's all the money was allocated for that and then we can uh you know just continue to reevaluate that yeah certainly i definitely think so and our new commissioner john caldwell has already uh in my opinion done a great job like he's been he's asked a lot of questions of things that have been uh you know policies for a long time you know asking a lot of why we do this why don't we do this and uh i love that i think he's doing a good job and so i definitely think that's a good point honorable for us that that he will be a and be an asset for us but long way to say it doesn't include a bridge now i would like to see long term there would be some traffic bridge there but in the short term there will be heavy markings you know and signals okay any other questions okay next on our agenda is our citizens agenda is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on the citizens agenda yes sir please come forward oh just relax that's right and you guys can hear me fine awesome i try not to make this long i promise you everybody looks good

[0:24:47] uh good evening that mayor must've wife and the lord baldwin for allowing me to speak to him um miss angela hewitt center she's just enlightened and are the owners of 1868 first commercial drive which was built in 2003 and is in the west end district which is also all the ways district i come to you today to discuss the integration of an arcade and outdoor recreation area in the western industry which i understand has been discussed in past economic and ordinance moments initially when the students proposed the development of this recreation area in this past december the chamber of commerce miss crooked planning and all new kelly were highly supportive of how plans to revitalize the area which seems to be trapped in 1980 this moment we are facing the hurdle involved with the installation of a strangler system as per fire department the larger consent c limit of the building was calculated to be 318 persons which therefore requires installation of a sprinkler system prior to purchasing the building i did a lot of research i read the unicode which states the following and the national building held an international fire code has adopted or assembly opportunities eight thousand square feet or more uh gross area under the roof notably the square footage of my building in question is thirty furthermore the building and fire code classified the establishment under the category of casino gaming as there is no loan factor for an arcade casino gaming uses a simple calculation of 3500 which is the square footage divided by 11 persons which gives us 318

[0:26:52] people that could fit under our roof as far away explained if you turn everything out that's the load the building can handle my response was if i took everything out i wouldn't have a business even in some lane sprinkler system would put us under and we haven't even opened all the rules we are currently dealing with two ordinances the first one is the non-formative abuses from 2012. which the boy had elected to use the most restricted fire building code reinforced iron mistake apparently two aldermen who are who are present on the board voted for this ordinance and the second is the general sprinkler requirements of 2015 to enforce 2012 non-conforming mutual evidence currently four aldermen voted for the school orders for president and one was absent which is currently one important speaking off-hand i don't think you all imagined a 3 500 square foot building needed to be scripted it also was existing at that time after many months of emails phone calls plans hired two architects and of course money spent to make it to these requirements we were told that in order to serve food and drink the occupancy threshold prior to installation sprinklers must be one thing that should the logic of 300 persons versus 100 that comes serving is proved that we were served and our business would be chips candy pretzels and pizza no open playing piece of curriculum appliances we would use a standard 220 it's another that's enclosed and a microwave for heat and cheese for the nachos sprinkler's contractors have definitely said we've made someone upset at city hall to install sprinkler in that building that's small when you think of an arcade you think arcades meatballs festivals and pinballs which they all have in common they're pretty big oaky and old and i can have

[0:28:56] max player that are submitting a full plan layout will come from occupancy not real we have curse of 3 500 square foot building divided by that separates us i come in front of you all today we can initiate an appeals process where we can sit down and dissolve the automated sprinkler situation in the building you can press we can present to the appeals board now for our current layout of the games which includes a fire path for safety tables and chairs and no dead ends none other cities who have dealt with this issue took the total area of the building subtracted the four space because they're pretty big occupied by the games and divided by the low factors we want to take it a step further to have because we have an office restrooms and a kitchen area but often with low practice different i'm on the last note i hear you playing i'm not against public safety we are a small business owned by individuals and corporations oh wait we are a small business owned by individuals and not corporations the only problems we have our life savings on ms stevenson i'm asking for a pragmatic approach on how occupancy is calculated [Music] options and if we are to install springs the last option is one of our options where they have one for uh incentives to upgrade for those of the standards the last option is to abandon the project and sell the building and let it remain stuck in the mid-80s i appreciate you coming i think i can help you tonight will you love me yes sir i really want to help you you put the cart before the horse you you are have i i don't know that i've ever seen someone and i don't understand

[0:30:59] the word yes anymore than you that i've personally sent you emails yes yes and i've told you that i love your idea i love the project and i would be an advocate with this board and helping you get your project approved but what you've not done is uh as whitney cook has told you you do a variance application so you're you're here prematurely like all you have to do is do the variance application then we're going to bring the fire marshal whitney's going to be here it's going to go before the board and we're going to try to make this happen if it can we're going to try to make this happen for you i don't understand why you why won't you do a variance application i was in the form of a parent's application yes sir i've seen that you haven't seen it from an email yeah one more time yeah and then that's the threshold is a hundred persons which if we look at the floor plan and we did the map um we can fit less time because those things are big yeah and it's not that much let's see these are all things like we want to like like again the word yes we're going to try to say yes okay and so these are things that we want to try to work that out you know i know that our fire marshal is not here tonight the chief scout is generally correct me if i say something that's not accurate but generally we we take the sprinkler ordinance seriously because it saves lives especially in places of assembly it's very important so a life is not worth less than the 1980s district as you call it as it is anywhere else i don't i don't think of it as a 1980s district i love the west end district we spent a lot of time working to improve the west end district that's one of the reasons we love your idea and we want to try to make it happen um but one of those things is we can't ignore the sprinkler ordinance because it is a

[0:33:02] it's a public safety issue and we want to keep people safe everywhere in our city but i know that tim roland our fire marshal is trying to work with you now he did point out and i read that email as well you had an architect that slices in tennessee that's not licensed in mississippi that won't work that won't work and when we told you that and when you don't do it you're delaying your own project by not doing that you have to have a mississippi architect but if you'll if you'll work with us i promise you we'll work with you thank you can we make that deal tonight yes we can okay yeah so i'll give you a phantom how about that but uh we we want to work with you but you gotta work with us okay you gotta do the various application and uh tim is just trying to help he's gonna work with you whitney's gonna work with you uh i know that i don't let the rest of the board speaks i know i've talked to several board members about your business and we love the idea and i don't know another way to tell you again i'm going to be an advocate for you if we can make this work safely i'm going to do everything i can do to help you while still preserving public safety i totally understand i'm all for the safety it's just the building's really small everybody the contractors have joked they're like you make somebody mad that's like no man well and i know it's a joke but that doesn't happen here i mean we treat everybody everybody the same we're trying to you know if there's a situation that makes sense you know there's no perfect ordinance there are some times when that's why you have a variance because there are situations where people have a hardship and you have to use some common sense at times so that's the purpose of a variance application but nobody at city hall is mad at you you know you got people that love your project you know we just again if you'll just cooperate with us we'll try to help i'll keep anybody got any comments oh thank you

[0:35:13] okay anyone else like to speak during the citizen's agenda okay we'll move on next on the agenda is our personnel doctor mr where would we approve the personnel document is presented on the stage is there any discussion here anything excuse me hearing that roll call yes that motion carries next on the agenda is our city attorney's legal update mr nick manley again gallagher secondary wheeler it's very discussion hearing none roll call yes that motion carries and i will add to that the city of south haven is blessed to have nick manley manly does a great job you do you do it seriously he's one of the most brilliant uh i call him young i i still think you're young young to me but i call him uh i call him one of the most brilliant young attorneys that i've ever met i mean the guy he really is

[0:37:16] he's a smart guy he uh helps the city not seriously he does a great job for the city i'm just telling you he's a big asset for us so you know just in the future let's you know we're blessed to have nick and uh for for this part of his career that we have him and uh we appreciate what you do thank you i think william said your head was swell but seriously we appreciate you thank you all right next on the agenda is our utility bill adjustment donkey mr mayor we approve the utility bill leak adjustment docket as presented on the statement promotion waterman payne the second market kelly is there any discussion yes that motion carries second the motion that we removed one one item from the utility bill leak adjustment docket on the june 2nd meeting so we will the motion is to untable that bring that back up for discussion so we have a first and a second discussion yes

[0:39:45] that motion carries okay next on the agenda uh is one claims done mr mayor move we approve the claims document in the amount of three million four hundred and sixty seven thousand fifty eight dollars and forty-one cents including the clean checks thank you well motion ballerman payne's second monitoring flores is during discussion very nine roll call yes that motion carries next on the agenda is to determine the need for executive session make that motion got a motion gallagher second ballerman wheeler all in favor say aye aye the opposed say no i just have it motion carries in need this evening's claims and litigation involving city infrastructure and the southern police department and then utilities personnel and economic development within the city is there a motion to declare executive session we've got a motion gallagher the second honorable wheeler all there is ai all right can you probably say no i just have a motion carries the mayor board will now in our executive session

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=9HY4rbnKYB0