05/03/2016

[0:00:01] welcome everyone I'm now calling this meeting to order please stand with me while Alderman Gallagher leads us in prayer and then please remain standing and we'll have our Pledge of Allegiance led by Honor to Ferguson Heavenly Father we thank you for the beautiful day that you've given us today Lord we thank you that you love us and that you watch over us Lord that you protect us and that you keep us safe Lord I want to pray a special prayer for this mayor's youth Council for these young men and women Lord Jesus who are growing up Lord Jesus and I just pray that you would Prosper them as they follow you in your name we pray amen amen I pledge allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all of course on our agenda this evening is the approval of minutes for the April 19 2016 meeting Samantha we approve the minutes of the regular meeting April 19th 2016 Within business installations about motion Alderman Payne the second Alderman Gallagher is there any discussion being done roll call yes okay and that motion carries all right next on our agenda I want to recognize some very special people on our mayor's Council we have some uh some of our members of the mayor's Council that are graduate from high school and in just a minute I'm going to ask you to come forward we have a presentation for you before that I want to announce the names um and then I want to get in your business just a little bit I know I'm not your parent but I have a couple words I want to say to you but our let's recognize

[0:02:03] from South Haven High School please hold the Applause to the end and then let's give a large round of applause but from South Haven High School Landon Calvert Eva Jeter from Jasmine Weinberger and from DeSoto Central High School we have Jake berggren Ali Davis Olivia Jennings and Ryan Ryan bathy I hope I'm pronouncing that right forgive me if I'm not but just quick though before we do the presentation I just want to thank you for your service on the mayor's youth Council and congratulate you on your graduation and as you move forward whether you whether it be college or your professional whatever I want to tell you that in the next few years you're going to realize that uh as a grown-up and in this life people always try to put labels on you they're going to tell you what you can do they're going to rate you and tell you what your skill set is and and what you can do and what you can't do and I have some middle-aged me and I'm going to tell you tonight don't let people do that to you okay you can be it's it's a cliche but it's true you can be whatever you want to be if you want it bad enough and don't let any don't ever settle for anything and let anybody put labels on you be what you want to be so if you will meet me up front at this point thank you foreign too much congratulations you're tall man if you want to catch up with you

[0:04:26] that's why um okay next time this evening is our Planning Commission appointments we've had the recommendations to update our Planning Commission the appointments are going to be as follows and then we'll vote to make this official each of our war HR aldermen nominated one person that I nominated one person so the list is as follows my recommendation is John Camp our at large Alderman Brooks recommendation is Les Cooper Ward one Alderman Kelly's recommendation is June Varnell and a Ward 2 Auto ottoman kites recommendation is Cindy English an award three Alderman Payne's recommendation is Anders Lee and then award for ottoman Gallagher's recommendation is Tom Pegram award five Alderman Ferguson's recommendation is Paul wardlaw and then Ward 6 Alderman Flores recommendation is Bill Brewer so now I will entertain a motion uh and a vote to improve these appointments sometimes second okay I have a motion by Alderman Brooks the second Alderman Ferguson is there any discussion hearing none roll call yes okay and that motion carries our next on

[0:06:28] our agenda is Election Commission appointments at this time we have three we still will have two more we'll come back at a later date to a point but for Ward one the recommendation is Mike Hammond from award three the recommendation is lethal air and for Ward four the recommendation is Samuel Williams so is there a motion to approve these Election Commission appointments so moved a second we have a motion Autumn and Flores second by Alderman Kelly is there any discussion appearing none we're all calm yes yes yes okay and that motion carries next on our agenda is our FY 15 audit summary Mr Chris Wilson so mayor Mort um we have received our FY 15 audit financial statements this year and um the balanced copies have yet to be delivered that has been posted to our website um excuse you guys a highlight of it last week and I'm passing around a three-year um kind of bullet points of where we through our 13 14 and 15 Audits and um you know the thing that jumps out obviously is going to be this is the first year we talked about and I know it's it's 80s here also to really get even further in the weeds if we need to about the um just the first year that we've had to account for our net pension liability as you know we don't have City pensions but we are part of the first and first we have to report our what they account as our liability for a net pension liability and that this in 2015 was 47 million dollars so in all member units of first have to report that so when you

[0:08:30] see your total net positions 78 million 85 million to 50 million that's not a funding number in other words we don't owe purse 47 million dollars it's just an accounting number that we have to account for under new accounting standards basically what you're looking at this year and this audit was our understanding general fund balance with 3.7 million to 5.9 as you know that's over the 12 percent that this board set for a fund balance policy our total assets increased from 209 million to 211 million so we're moving the right way until assets and in fund balance um more importantly actually is when you get down to it and after their audit our Auditors found no material weaknesses no significant deficiencies and no compliance findings of any kind so um this audit once you take into consideration the gas b68 which we have to do we have to report that pension liability is a clean audit the sound audit and is one that done this entire City compared problems thank you for your hard work Chris thank you Chris thank you well and you know special thanks to Edie for her continual keeping these books maintaining these financial documents and statements and uh this audit again I I'm pretty sure with the first city in the county to have presented it and have it done and turned in and um areas of improvement we're always looking for obviously we did lower debt per capita as it relates per capita from 1887 per capita to 1849 per capita so other ways to try to lower debt as a highlight and continue to uh maintain our strengths and our financial control Chris I just want to thank Unity for the great job the whole Board of agrees and you've got the um you've got the uh three year if any questions let us know we have to adopt this audit and uh we'll um city clerk will do the ad where it is presented for public comment for public review but like I said we've already submitted it to office of State Attorney

[0:10:32] it's on our website we have submitted it through all the financial markets and all the regulatory agencies that require and return the Capper in right the gfo yes we need to make a motion to adopt the budget I'd like to make the motion to adopt the F-15 budget has presented exactly I'm sorry not bad to call it as presented okay we have a motion monitoring pain second modem in Flores is there any discussion hearing non-roll comp yes motion carries thank you Chris okay next on our agenda is our right-of-way and grounds maintenance contracts recently uh we we had a an RFD for these Services it's been uh discussed for many months with our city and mainly what we're trying to do with this this is our right-of-ways and our city grounds and uh our spraying contract and then we also have some properties on our Interstate interchanges that um it's owned by MDOT that we are required to maintain so basically what we try to do here is accomplish two goals uh with one process we're trying to improve the quality of our services and make our contracts make a little more sense we had uh some contracts that were overlapping uh so we did this and then obviously uh we had a couple contracts where we'd not had a recent uh quote so we're just trying to be you know improve it with the taxpayers money make sure we're getting a fair price and then like I said clarify the contracts we realized that um after the RRP process we only had four quotes and uh two two are the existing contractors so we only had two existing companies that quoted it and we also realized that possibly when we tried to redefine the

[0:12:34] scope of the contracts we had some areas that were overlapping but when we brought them together we did not clearly Define uh eliminating some giving us hard way to say it but a way to say it is our grounds and manicured right-of-ways require different treatments we realized we grouped them together accidentally and created a little more scope and uh so that way the prices were not advantageous for the city so tonight it's my recommendation to the board that we reject all the uh all the bids and you'll do one of two things after we reject the bids we either authorize a new RFP to see if we can get more interest and again that's not any knock on any existing people that submitted a quote it's basically just to uh get more options you know to make sure that we get a fair gauge of what a competitive price is for these services so it's my recommendation to the board that we deny or do not accept any of the bids on the current RFP and we go out for a new RFP motion that we reject our bids and allow you and the utility committee to renegotiate the current contracts with our vendors I was saying okay we have a motion Monitor and pain second by Honor and Kelly so before we vote on that is there any discussion along the board about seeing a new RFP hearing none seeing none we have a motion made a Gambar and pain second of alderman Kelly and that's to reject all the proposals and then make sure I'm understanding your your motion correctly that's to renegotiate with existing contractors correct okay renegotiate our current our current contract with the

[0:14:36] exactly right away there is no contract right now anyway so we need to renegotiate with I think well how do we want to proceed with that can we do that as a separate motion for a temporary agreement is that is that acceptable that's fine okay we'll do it that way okay okay so we have the motion in the second is there any discussion about that motion right now we're using real needs to the right of ways but let there into a contract to maintain that service in the in the in the interval until you figure out how you want to proceed with the rest of it that makes any sense it would just be a temporary agreement until we get through the negotiation process they're they're the ones that have been cutting it it's just that they're the only contract that's expired right now we have the option to renew that so we'll need another motion after this to um you know to extend our contract temporarily or another option would be to just go ahead and to negotiate with the current contractor to do that but it needs to come pretty quickly in order to start cutting the right of ways but yet you'd have two options I would Rec my recommendation if you're going to go that route would be to give a temporary agreement on the current right-of-way contractor as well just to give us time because we we are in grass cut season so uh that's I that's that's what I would I think that would be best for the city if you all support that well at the cost that this is going right now then what we're doing we're going to look at this a little closer scope maybe where we're trying to do too much rather than the price so we hit that cloud we discussed in the committee meeting and then a recommendation will come from great correct and then basically it's just it's just doing that as an option of not going out and getting a new RFP just going with

[0:16:38] the contracts that we currently have but but I'm understanding right now I'll defer to our attorney but I'm understanding that when you negotiate we're negotiating the scope and our negotiating price as well you can negotiate yeah yes you can negotiate there's a difference between a bit of The Proposal business proposal so legally you can do that okay so you couldn't extend and then review it you can extend okay you can always extend uh under under a professional service but not included there's a video secret seed the law but there is a difference between a bid and proposal but when you're doing this if you allow a negotiation then you're allowing me to bring that back to you and then with an amended contract then you can approve that for each one of the correct name correct yes all all the extension is doing is buying us time until we get into the negotiation process where we can be cutting right now we're not delaying that process okay is there any other discussion about uh about that motion promoter in pain hearing none roll call yes no yes yes yes yes okay that motion will carry okay now we would need a motion to extend the current contract temporarily this your motion would be to enter into a a short-term contract with reality we can make it short-term contract until July 31st with a five-day termination clause for convenience so that way you can advise you two or three months it also allows for a five-day determination second kind of a motion model of Brooks second model in Gallagher is there any discussion well I mean that's something we wouldn't know until we get into negotiation but I

[0:18:41] want to I'm going to make it very clear I want to keep the options open because um I feel like it's our duty to make sure that uh not just these services but any services that we have that we get to that we get a fair price and then we know it's about and again um but we we just want to be able to gauge that it is a competitive price so the more options that you leave open uh will help make that make that happen and that yeah and I don't I don't I'm not aware at this time that there that there would be a discontinuation in services so as long as we do the contract extension we can allow them to work until we make a decision on that is that is that correct yeah okay okay was there any other discussion about extending real needs contract temporarily until July 31st for the five day cancellation provision appearing none roll call yes yes yes okay and that motion carries okay next to our agendas a request to allow bid for renovation of the old courtroom into the new i-tech administrative administration office basically exactly what the mayor say it's just authorize and go to bid it was included in the budget for this FYI so we need to go to authorization for the bid and then I'll just bring the bids back to the board for awarding um after all visits committed so I'll move jacket but most of our employees are second Alderman Ferguson is there any discussion staring in the annex right here right the old corporate right there right correct they're actually in there right now but it's a mess

[0:20:49] is there any other discussion hearing none roll call yes yes yes okay that motion carries all right next one of the only agenda Surplus property for the information technology and emergency communications report ing the properties the taxes here today um we adopt a resolution of the mayor of Court involvement in the city of South Haven declaring Surplus profit in the Nazi department has presented on the state second you have a motion Alderman Brooks the second Alderman kite is there any discussion going out the old bringing in the news because he's something like that he surprised a lot of equipment here lately yeah I mean I understand it goes quickly is there any other discussion hearing God all in favor say aye aye all opposed say no I was having motion cares next on our agendas and agreement with Marco's Pizza for our Market department is this the sponsorship agreement with Marco's Pizza and allows for the parks department to purchase the pizza from Marcos pizza place right there on Getwell Road uh and as part of the events for all the baseball tournaments the softball tournaments this summer and it'll also also for the for Marcos to advertise at certain locations as designated by the parks department under 3171 East have come out to be purchased for resale so it's not required to go to bed the parks department has worked out a deal with markets for allowing this and Marcus is a great contractual terms and presented tonight for approval

[0:22:53] I don't know if Wes is here for any questions but I I can answer the questions if you have any basically I mean I'm updating on that just I'll update the board basically the uh this contract exceeded the um vote price and uh all the requirements of the other contract that we've had and it's local it's very very close to snow park and we just felt like it was going to be best for the city you know as far as price and Service as much yeah it's good I'll make that motion better sandwiches we have motion ballroom and Flora the second ballroom and pain is there any other discussion um now you said the Turners will they also be there for the rec for recall is that correct mayor are they there all the time yeah anything to wear a pizza was served you know there's no interruption in service and no change in service just the difference there's going to be another event that people exactly and they're donating 500 pieces is there any other discussion hearing non-roll call yeah yes yes okay and that motion carries thank you Nate okay next on our agenda is Municipal Clark's week Proclamation look at that please hang with me as I read where is the office of municipal clerk a Time honor and vital part of local government exists throughout the world

[0:24:55] and whereas the office of the municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants and whereas the office of the municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens the local governing bodies and agencies of government at other levels and whereas Municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality rendering equal service to all and whereas the municipal clerk serves as the information center on functions of local government and community and whereas Municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the Affairs of the office of the municipal clerk for participation in education programs seminars workshops and the annual meetings of their state Providence County and international professional organizations and whereas it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the municipal clerk now therefore I Darren Musselwhite by The Authority invested in me as mayor of the city of Southaven Mississippi hereby Proclaim May 1st through May 7 2016 as a municipal Clerk's week and further extend appreciation to our own municipal clerk Andrea Mullen and to all Municipal clerks for the vital Services they perform in their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent thank you okay now um we're gonna honor our special group tonight I want to share with you that the uh North Point Christian School lady stroger's basketball team recently won the State basketball championship and uh I'm gonna in just a minute I'll ask you to come forward and I'll read the proclamation if we have any team members and coaches here present but I just want to say a special congratulations and I know a lot of people realize that but to win a state championship at any sport at the high school level not only requires that you have a great team it requires great coaches and as any great coach will tell you you also

[0:26:59] have to have some breaks along the way it's a special thing it's something that's very difficult to achieve and it's also something that uh when you win this this is not going away regardless of where life takes you you'll always look back on this year and realize that hey back in 2016 we were good we won the 2016 state championship so I want to congratulate you and I'm going to read the proclamation then if you will afterwards if you will join me up front for a picture foreign Christian School lady Trojans basketball team has had a remarkable season of accomplishments with a record of 31 and two that has been witnessed by their admiring fans family and peers and whereas their dedication and hard work was rewarded as they achieve the title of District champions whereas they travel and pled against other challenging teams throughout the season that whereas on March 3rd 2016 the team won the state semifinal game against Franklin Road Academy and on March 5 2016 traveler traveled to Lipscomb University and played the state championship game accompanied by many loyal fans friends and family members and whereas the North Point Christian School lady basketball team played hard and brought home the Tennessee state championship title defeating Knoxville Webb 63-42 now therefore I Darren mussel wife by the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Southaven Mississippi hereby Proclaim Wednesday May 4 2016 as North Point Christian School lady Trojans basketball t s s double a state champions day and South Haven it is my pleasure to extend the congratulations from the elected officials and all citizens of the city of South Haven for their tremendous artwork team spirit and determination in achieving the status thank you

[0:29:19] foreign thank you sorry [Music] congratulations [Music] please okay next on our agenda this evening is resolution granting authority to claim private property I think we got the resolution to bank authority to clean private property present on the state we have a motion Baltimore kite is there any discussion no discussion among the board is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak regarding the two properties that are on the list do this um

[0:31:28] okay so on the normal resolution are you here to discuss yeah this is my dad's property is this for is this for which property okay let me let me hang that right with me for just a second on the first motion is the normal uh list we had a motion is there any other discussion about that list okay hearing none roll call s yes yes okay that motion carries now now we need a motion on each one of us specifically Nick yes okay the first one's 8206 Cedarbrook drives are a motion uh to discuss that second we have a motion of alderman Gallagher second of alderman Kelly and then uh in our welcome discussion now you so you're you're the property owner or us my father's okay he's in a nursing home resolved but I have someone that wants to buy the house and uh fix it up and move in okay all last year I've been paying somebody but yeah um I think the problem with the property is because the windows and stuff being on board today and when the house the house burned in August of 14 and we had to board the windows up because everything in the house was being stolen out of it okay sorry to hear that and um we've had to padlock and chain the gate to try and keep people off of the property and it's we're having some on one side they're throwing their trash in the yard but we live an hour away okay and it's like we can't ride by there every day to make sure the yard's

[0:33:30] clean and the you know um once every week or every other week we come down clean the yard cut the grass and but they do have we do have somebody that's interested in buying it um he went and looked at the house today and that's our intention is to sell it to somebody to fix up because it it's it's hard on me what happened and stuff I'm having this stuff for my dad too yeah he's he's in a nursing home he's not able to I mean he has Alzheimer's he doesn't know anything that's going on I'm very very sorry that you're going through that so what what can we do at this point Whitney um if uh do we do we have a cell okay what what um the property owners and I have spoken before and I think I've spoken with Debbie before and they did mention that they had a person interested in the actual house what we have to do at this point is determine if it's even a fixer-upper it has got some severe damage to it my suggestion when I talked to them at one point was that they do have a buyer to come meet with our code officers building fire uh property maintenance code people to see if it's something that we can actually build back up or if it's something that needs to be removed to the ground and the lot sold to the property owner that wants to purchase it um I was hoping it would get resolved before we hit here tonight obviously it hasn't um so at this point you know we can extend a time for them to to work with us and go walk them on the property what you can table it until a date certain in order to I guess accommodate to see if it really is if they're see if the buyer comes through and tailor to that date um that data does not resolved I think the city would have to think condemn it and then there would be a it could be torn down and then at that point I'd be assessed so I think tonight since there may be something that would obviously actually there are two people that are

[0:35:32] interested we can work it out benefit we are mutually beneficial for everyone involved I think we can table tonight to maybe the second meeting in May or first meeting June to allow for further opportunity to fix it up or to sell it and then I mean I thought would be providing a contract or a deed that should convey that it has been sold so there is some type of evidence that the board could then consider yeah the house is I mean he his dad owns the house the house is paid for yeah I see that I'm saying but uh having a warranty deed and or contract two evidence second base I think we'd be fine without like I said they've been very forthcoming they've been in contact with us two or three times um like I said we were hoping it would get resolved sold transferred something would happen before tonight we'd all be agreeable if we could work with them with a set period of time so they meet on site and determine what the best option was for the home Whitney are you good with the first meeting that's fine okay just quick question before we do that on the so what what has to be done so we don't know what needs to be done on the house yet was it a fire there was a fire but he should have some pictures that are associated with a resolution here um a lot of alligator charring on the wood like I said it is boarded up it's it's got some dilapidation tests and City officials have not been able to access the actual house which obviously if we can meet with them in the contractors we can the front part right there that part is not damaged it's on the very back side well we didn't want to trespass so we got the we got the closest pictures we could get to it um but yeah what we would actually do is set a time for a contract with the property owners or the one that wants to purchase it we would set up a time for fire building code and the code officers probably maintenance codes to meet on site um Fire and Building would make a determination as if the structure could be saved salvaged or if it would need to be torn down at that point and we could report that back okay and you'll do that between now and the first meeting in

[0:37:35] June right okay so Alderman Flores made a motion to table it until the first board meeting in June is there a second okay we have a second Oliver Kelly is there any other discussion type on this until June 7th June 7th hearing none roll calling yes yeah no motion that motion carries and then Whitney will be able excuse me just say Whitney will be able to answer any other detailed questions did you have any other questions for us this evening okay thank you thank you very much and sorry to hear about your dad I hope things are better okay next uh the next one is um 82.95 Blue Ridge Drive same situation uh we did a title search for any lien holders uh associated with the property this was a foreclosed house had two burnouts uh two Fire cases on it uh it is back in the hands of Bank of America you can see the resolution this public hearing notice was posted on the door it was sent via FedEx to Bank of America they received notice of it we have the pictures associated with as well they have not been in contact with us whatsoever so our recommendation tonight is to proceed forward with condemning the property and entering it and determining what needs to be done but basically taking it to the ground it's had two fires in it uh has been sitting there since 2011. two fires yes first one didn't get us I came back for more I guess so well most modern Flores the second one Alderman kite is there any discussion what subdivisions is there any other discussion

[0:39:46] any discussion from his property owner in the audience not been in contact like I said I went back to bank America Bank America's hands they've not been in contact with us okay and we do have a Fed action that was delivered and signed for Bank of America Representatives so hearing no other comments real conflict yes yes okay no motion cares all right next on our agenda is our planning agenda cook uh yes our first application we've got a design review request for a mini storage facility in the plan unit development Plumb point it's going to be on the south side of w Ross Parkway West at pepper Chase Drive uh proud of this application we did present a conditional use permit to allow this mini storage facility to be located in this light industrial slash commercial Zone one of the stipulations we had on it is we do have some runoff and drainage issues in the Ross Farms PUD which is located just behind this site they have provided a large detention area and we've asked them to run the pre and post calculations for the water runoff to make sure it if anything it improves it but it certainly doesn't make it worse we do have that in our hands it is an improvement this design review is just basically go on our landscape and the materials used we have asked them to do a raised parapet on the back side where you have the fence where the homes are they have complied with that it's basically you're breaking your your beef is materials the landscaping's been Incorporated and has black rod on saying it was approved Planning Commission unanimously in favor that we have a motion of alderman Gallagher of second Alderman Brooks is there any discussion on item one here with RV

[0:41:49] campsites on the north side of the Ross department just past pepper Chase it's going to be on the South Side you've got an extension of that RV park on one side on the opposite side of that road coming down off of Ross Parkway it's called South Drive um it's going to be on that almost back in Parcels there not that much so that is for another application okay okay foreign yes okay that motion carries all right uh our second request is for a permanent drainage easement and this drainage easement is going to be on the north side of Mississippi Valley Drive just west of Highway 51 on the Payne property specifically there's a dance academy on there there's a large Stitch line between Colonial Hills or I'm sorry Southaven subdivision section c and this commercial property um it's been maintained for some time by the property owners there was some confusion as if it was a private or public drainage easement so we did have our engineering Consultants go out and look at the property to determine if there was a public drainage going into this Creek or was it solely the private use of that property owner but did in fact find that there's quite a bit of public drainage going into this ditch area it's it takes quite a bit of Maintenance so what we're requesting now is to place an easement on this ditch in this on this piece of property and designated as a public or an adjustment so the city can go in and maintain it correctly and make sure that we keep it a Department's draining appropriately for all the neighboring properties um the subdivision behind Dales but I believe that that's Tennessee I think

[0:43:51] that that was a yeah I know the big ditch line there um I mean we can always go back and take a look at it if there is some public drainage on our side obviously we don't want to leave that on the property owners a lot of times they don't have capabilities but we can always have them go take a look at it because they're Elder Elder church thank you okay we have a motion on item two Alderman kite second Alderman Flores I do have a question myself um Cordell may ask for his help but we have a drainage a very detailed drainage list so uh obviously the first step is to get an easement freaking duty work there um I don't know exactly where this Stacks up on our uh I understand there was some pretty extensive damage would you speak I think there's some pretty extensive improvements wasn't there a request to either put that up water underground is a is it a rib wrap ditch right now it's a major Channel yes sir and it's rip wrap right now whenever it was improved it was root wrap stabilized and at one time I think the city was maintaining and keeping it sprayed but it's on private property and it's it's part it's piped to that point and then about 200 feet down is biked again through a subdivision so probably four or five years ago there was discussions of piping that and I think the local residents actually put piping in to get to that point based off of a previous design that got lost somewhere in the shuffle and never made it to the budget area so in researching it we we cleaned it up by getting this easement so ultimately yes we will want to pipe it at some point when budget alive well as you know we we prioritize those with a limited amount of funding so basically we um you know it is your opinion that it's it is City drained just not a private property it's clearly City drainage okay and we have uh we have them working on an estimate to give us a prize a budget that we can operate from for the improvements to fight it okay so we can know to judge when we can put it in the place okay and we'll

[0:45:53] continue to use our normal qualification process as well as our prioritization with limited funding after the fact this is just the first step to give us the easement to actually be working on this meets all of our qualifications actually it's one of those that should be a city issue now and it just never would okay remember we met before but once we make improvements we should accept them and that never that process never happened okay I know it's been on the list for three years you know to to address it right okay okay well that's good is there any other discussion on item two preparing done roll call yes okay that motion carries on too item number three um we have got a request I guess for the mayor's office and for my office to determine the allowance of a variance at John's Speed Shop I'm sure everybody's wherever it is 89 90 or 89.80 Highway 51 is gonna be right there on that Southeast corner of Highway 51 and State Line Road um you've been provided a summary from the mayor as to how it's been going back and forth with him if you've got a chronological timeline sitting up there as to when it was approved originally uh in 2005 as a conditional use permit uh that permit expired in 2010 he was notified in 2010 then again in 2013 and an hour in 2016 as to the cleanup we want to see on that property we have opted not to go back to a conditional use specifically because we don't have a detailed use he's not motor vehicle repair he's not a minor vehicle repair he's more restorative a museum type I don't really know what to call him so what we've asked is for variants if we want to allow him there

[0:47:55] and if we do what stipulations we want to place on that in terms of cleaning up the property before we allow the variants on site you can see from the pictures there's there's nice restored Vehicles there's also other vehicles that are not necessarily restored there's pieces of equipment you'll see a forklift at one point you'll see a cherry picker for a motor out there we've got some Lawn Equipment looks like he's trying to repair there's going to be some pictures of what he's got stored behind the fence line um as the American attest we have been out there numerous times asking him to clean up things asking him to reduce the number of cars I know at one point there was over 40 cars on the site you know the city has placed a lot of landscaping down there a beautiful intersection of landscaping irrigated so it's kind of negating that from my standpoint I know the mayor's biggest problem at this point is the rest of vehicles and the rest of machinery and equipment on site and from my standpoint in addition to that I think we need to look at the overall site itself uh the Aesthetics the curve willing you go by Mr Mr shinzel did put a new canopy up um he did paint the guardrails he has lessened the number of vehicles I think at the last time around or somewhere around 25 which was 15 cars to chive what he had to begin with one thing that I mentioned to Mr shinsel numerous times was about repairing the parking lot and possibly putting a sealant on it putting a black sealant on it he has mentioned painting the building which I think would help tremendously I know it's been mentioned that we would like to see some landscape on his Hardscape design he's got out there and obviously get more of the vehicles off of the site and I guess what we're asking for tonight as we all know it's been a problem we've all complained about it um but if we're going to allow the variance I think we need to put the stipulations on there I think we need to give them a hard day to meet and at that point if it can't be met then we need to revoke the certificate occupancy uh the Uno the

[0:49:58] business license whatever's necessary to show them that you can't run the business here any longer that's kind of where we're at and we just need any other suggestions that you would have and a hard date basically what's your suggestion for a hard date mayor what's the timeline a good time 60 days I mean it is completely up to you we've been working a long time with him and he knows it's coming and he knows what he basically knows what you want I mean it's just whatever you feel comfortable with I don't mind renting a variants live so long as it does have a timeline because I know that we have been this is I've got letters after letters we all it's been sent there to clean this lot up to make it look like something more presentable right I would just like to have a firm date that this variance is going to be met and that's what I need from you I need a board action with a date on it so that we can enforce that but on top of that we need those stipulations that you want me to enforce before we determine if he stays open or not we Grant him a variance can you give me a timeline that this sounds reasonable he's looking for us let me copy just make a few comments uh just quickly I mean Whitney said it right I mean we for a long time we've discussed this and um in all fairness Donna has made some efforts to uh to help us and and this ties into a bigger picture you know it's very important that we want to revitalize the original part of our city and um and it it's not fair you know if we're asking other businesses to do that and then we have this on one of the most high proud hope high profile Corners in our city um and I think it has character I really do I mean I don't you know is it the ideal thing on that corner no but I do think it has character and and we'll give Don credit for uh for making some strides that way it's just not enough it not enough has been done the last meeting we have there was on March 23rd and I explained to him then that this would be on the agenda for the first weekend in May but I would not be back out there the last thing I want to do is uh be on site you know trying to coach him and show him what needs to change

[0:52:01] and we've done enough of that it's just time for the board to take action but back to your question I think at this point what needs to happen my recommendation of the board would be uh if Whitney would list some uh specific things about the structure and the property that need to be changed I also think there should be my biggest uh concern is that and this is not just me it's the complaints that I hear from other citizens and I talked about this I don't believe in Don is that it has the appearance of a junkyard I mean it does and I mean these cars are classic cars a lot of these cars are worth large amounts of money it's just that before they're restored it looks like a salvage yard you know and it just you know I guess beauty is in the island of a holder but I don't see it and uh and I just think that you know we need to dress up you know the the ideal solution would be to put the cars that are not restored in a building but the problem for Don is he doesn't have the space there to do that correct so my suggestion is um in addition to what Whitney's going to say is to get rid of the Clutter and then the Rusted Parts he has made steps on doing the painting but as far as the Rusted parts we still have that out there there's trailers with scrap metal that's out there there's Auto Parts just laying around the yard and again it looks like a junkyard so one more quick thing I'll be doing a Joel and then so my suggestion is this I would ask the board tonight um to consider allowing this for Don's Speed Shop but I would like it to be specific on what we're going to require that he do and also name that timeline I think that timeline is 60 days out of a gallery I was just going to say it don't we have uh ordinances on on parking spaces that have to be available yes does this meet that no no um this isn't a normally it doesn't fit in anything sounding wise that we have at this point um you know you go by square footage for parking ratios you don't really have any parking spots you don't have lines to donate where the parking spots are we've

[0:54:03] gone after numerous on numerous occasions with fire department because we don't have fire access to it um you know they could go in deeper into a whole big code issue on the inside and that's not what we're trying to do too and I think that I agree with the mayor that you know he's almost become a little iconic on that corner not you know some ways good some ways bad um he doesn't do it uh for customers he doesn't make money off of it's just his hobby um so does he fit anything we've got no that's why we're asking for a variance because he's not going to fit the bulk regulations of any zoning use I have for a C4 or a c for example he's just not um so when we Grant the variance we're going to have to acknowledge the fact that the whole breaks aren't going to be met in that sense and we're going to allow him to do it based on the fact that he's not doing it for customers he's not turning it into an in and out business like that and they will do the improvements to the site if he's going to remain on that corner [Music] I think 90 days would be very lenient I would say 60 to 90 but I think it as you've seen by the the notes on this this has been going on for a long time it's time to uh it's time to resolve the issue and do you have uh so someone could make a motion for us to actually vote on do you have a list of the things that uh that you would recommend be that would be done and then also the number of cars that we're going to allow obviously if you do not have any other parking spaces there and you have multiple cars backed up and lined up I know he has made efforts I'll give him credit he has taken it down probably 15 cars since the first of the year maybe more but as you can see by the pictures it still has that and it still has a cluttered look it does not you know what is that optimal number what at one time there was a mention of having one row of cars only and how many would that be Whitney do we know what that means I mean he could probably fit 12 across the front right there and at some point in time

[0:56:05] um you know like I said there's 40 at one point he's begging for around 25 and I didn't necessarily have a problem with 25 until I actually went out and took those photos that you're seeing right now and had I needed to get on that site for any type of emergency situation or maybe I just wanted to go look at it both access points were blocked I mean so allowing 25 it honestly makes me nervous because I was 25 could be sitting in place and if anybody else comes up in their fire ambulance police nobody else can get back on that side so I do think we need to probably lessen it um you know and maybe load it to 15 20 somewhere around there and and maybe that can be a work in progress until we actually see them on site and say well this is 15 on the side there's plenty of room yeah let's go with that number or 20 on site it's really hard to tell because it's not just a standard parking lot it's not 10 by 20 stalls going across you know 200 feet it's a corner lot everything's a diagonal there's no striping um so I hate to put a number up there now I do know 25 was still pretty cluttered that's what he had when you and I were out there and it was still being blocked on the drive house and that makes me really nervous from an emergency reaction standpoint from our side um I would say 15 to 20 and then if we determine that's too much or too less then maybe we can come in and alter that Trump a business that would generally require an acre and a half to two acres into a third of an acre lot it's definitely being crammed in there yes um you know he's just somebody who loves him he's he likes to restore them and he keeps buying them and restoring and buying and restoring there's not as much going out as what's coming in a problem yeah the ones that are out there are junk and his argument to that is if I put it out there I've had people try stay alive I've had people damage if I'm having able to Rob them at nine he didn't want to put the nice ones out there and I understand that you don't want weather getting you know damaging on them you don't want somebody going by throwing rocks to the window I get that and he's got some very beautiful

[0:58:07] vehicles on the inside that he doesn't want to bring out his showpieces because he says they're going to get damaged I don't know what the happy medium between those two is going there I like to make comment I'll have to apologize for the board my son is singing tonight and I want to go see that so I I understand where we're going and I I'm okay with the 60-day variance and I think just my communist whatever the recommendations that Whitney comes up with in the board just attach it to the motion as an exhibit can they do that in there yes so but I think 60 days is probably plenty of time for him to either get bit mode it's time to cook or get out of the kitchen wrap yourself I guess our ordinance allows for free non-compliant Vehicles if you want to call it motor vehicle repair and it doesn't really fit the profile of a motor vehicles that's yeah and how many visitors would you say are sitting on that lot there or not white with a city like inside outside they're they're in iraqs inside they're behind the fence they're loaded up on the fronts um he's just outrun the business I mean it's time to move it it's not even a business now ideally you want him in a large shop he has Museum stuff I mean ideally he'd be able to get a museum and a shop to work on them in the back and it's just not conducive to this corner you know and he's his argument to us is you maybe get out of my house I'll do it in my backyard with a big garage back there and the neighbors didn't like it you told me to come here and now you want me to leave here I mean I I understand that I can't help what happened at that point none of us can but it's also not fair like the mayor said to making everybody else straighten up up and down the revitalization zones and just give him the pass so there has to be some stipulations on it um I'd like to see him stay and he has

[1:00:10] done some improvements he has um but there's there's obviously some more improvements that could be done on site and and again back to the I think that uh we can do an exhibit and do a list of things uh structurally or cosmetically that need to happen to the parking lot in the building and the fences and then um and then I like again my comment in there about the Rusted Parts I think that's you know that's what tends to uh catch the attention of a lot of citizens that have expressed dissatisfaction with with their business yes there are and I've explained that to Don you know that um a lot of people don't appreciate uh you know and he's very talented in what he does I mean he hey he has some Vehicles when he gets done with him he he has some talent but but again the problem is is what's invisible you know to the citizens of what it looks like you know for our city so I think we need to come up with a number of cars I think that that we've never been able to derive what that magic number is but obviously you can't continue just to stack them on top of each other and he has gotten rid of some but I think to be clear what do you think that number is I know you mentioned one row would be approximately 12 but probably yeah I think maybe we maybe we can I mean I can measure it off um from aerial photos and from the site plan and kind of determine what kind of square footage is out there and then get with Chief Thornton and determine you know the minimum width he needs to get through there if he needs to get through them he's close enough to the street he might be able to give him a pass and say we can access it from State Line 51 and he may say I need to be right by the building um but if you'll let us work with that and then I can pass on a suggestion to you and you can pass it on to the board and if everybody's okay with that we'll just put that things up as well okay can we vote Nick tonight on a on a contingent exhibit though well I'm is what you're actually voting them you're voting we're voting on to allow variance for a limited amount of time contingent upon the repairs so we're getting to a variance tonight for 60 days and coming to compliance with

[1:02:13] xyzing state of which would still be it would still be it'd still be another variant so you're giving a variance to granted Barbarian it's correct but this would be a temp would be temporary I guess this will be a 60-day temporary variance to be turned into a permanent variance if it complies with the stipulation of exhibit a that's the best if you're doing a temporary for a permanent uh married so I think you could just allow for a I mean tonight authorize a 60-day variance to come into compliance with the next variants no I say we create a temporary variance for 60 days to give him time to comply with whatever we put and exhibit a of that one which would be a purpose of the parking lot sitting on the parking lot painting the building um fixing the fence and then coming up with a number of cars and then in 60 days come back make sure it's complied with that then ask for a experience okay and then at that point we can do whatever needs to be done of course right do you see any problems doing it that way not as we sit right now I don't basically I think with the board is I think we should correct me if I'm wrong I don't want to speak to you but I think what the Lord is trying to say that they are willing to cooperate and work with him however there needs to be a direct timeline right that this needs to change there's just just the months going by and definitely is not acceptable why don't we do this into a 60-day um have six days to have an opportunity to work with the city to come to the resolution the resolution freezing about 60 days then the board can either you know reevaluate and or issues penalties pursuant to the organs so okay you would give 60 days to come into compliance or or amicable solution with the city and then if that doesn't happen you would then either issue abilities and or

[1:04:17] revocations of the occupancy or air into or a new variant so to allow for that Loosely okay so basically we're voting tonight to allow 60 days to come into compliance or or an amicable solution with the city okay is that is avoid y'all feel comfortable with that yeah I'll I'll make that motion okay we have a motion about Alderman first and a second Alderman kite Audubon Brooks did you want to cover okay was there any other discussion about that tonight we'll we'll address that again 60 days after 60 days okay no other discussion hearing none uh roll call um yes okay and that motion carries thank you Wendy okay next to our dentist mayor's report we do have one issue that we just realized recently uh before the agenda was printed um last Friday I'm asked Mr Chris Wilson to come help us with that but it's about the new Mema FEMA shelter there's a change order that has become evident has to do with some discoveries of some soul problems where they're putting the new parking lot in so we'll turn that over to Chris right now mayor more part of this project again empathetic the area in between the actual shelter and the arena is going to be paged and as they got in to start doing it of course they come into some bad soil and they're estimating some three to 500 yards of undercut needed foreign Brooks second Alderman kite is there any discussion for they were estimating 300 yards and

[1:06:20] meeting with Dan Cordell he suggested to put into up to 500 just in case it's easier rather than come back and ask them back than that we're talking number one ten thousand dollars best with the estimate position make a motion okay is there any other discussion hearing non-roll call yes okay no motion carries thanks Chris okay just one I want to reiterate tonight I know Chris hit the highlights of our last Financial audit but I just want to say a special thanks to uh first of all to Chris and to uh to Edie McElwain and also uh tishcox for their work and helping us with the audit I want to also thank our department heads for uh for their diligence and extra effort in having to stay within the budget I want to thank the board members too for all their help and helping us set this budget but I just think it speaks well you know we've the last back-to-back years we've got two of the cleanest audits in in modern history for the city of South Haven and that doesn't happen by mistake it it uh it gives a lot of credit to our operation we also had no and we had no compliance issues and as Chris will tell you uh there's a lot of as well a few cities that you know go through an audit like that with no compliance issues and what that means is that our day-to-day operations are are running well and I just think that I want the people of South Haven to know that we're committed you know to operating our city efficiently and uh in an approved way financially and I think the last two years have proven that we've been successful at that and I just want you to hear that from me and I think again all the people that played a part of that okay and the next thing I just want to update on everyone on is I get a lot of emails about this you know the it's no secret that a lot of cities are becoming more pedestrian friendly and I get questions and emails at all hours of the night and it's people want to know about

[1:08:23] what are we doing in South Haven to become more pedestrian friendly you know South Haven quickly I'll just quickly update you on this you know we're we're still considered a new city you know we were we were considered an auto era City we were not uh built during the rail era so we never had a Town Square uh we were in Auto era City so our city is spread out so we really do not have a lot of areas that are pedestrian friendly but I want everyone to know that we're working on that you know we're we've got a lot of projects underway uh we have the Main Street pedestrian project that's going to add sidewalks on the State Line Road the Northwest Drive we have the Carriage Hills pedestrian project that's going to add sidewalks to connect all the schools in the with South Haven High School and the elementary schools in the area and uh and then we have a big one that has been going on for a long time and and it's kind of dragged on we've had a lot of obstacles but it's the multi-use trail that'll be connected in Central Park and Snowden Park and I'm happy to tell you that uh that this thing has been underway for five years and we're still working through a few little changes with the Goodman Crossing at tulahoma but this park will be I mean this Trail will be a multi-use trail for you know jogging walking and it will connect the two parks and it's actually slated to begin moving dirt this year in 2016. so we're going to try to work through those issues with the Tullahoma crossing right there with MDOT in the very near future and then after that we hope to see dirt moving then about 90 to 120 days so just want to report that to you hope that all of y'all are excited us about about that as I am okay that's all I have this evening uh next on our agenda is our citizens agenda and uh we have one person that signed up Friday to speak on the citizens agenda and as it is our mayor's youth Council update uh by Gabby Hunter could you please come forward now hi good luck this past school year has

[1:10:30] been a great one for South Haven's marriage youth Council we have gained new members and as we are about to lose some of the best seniors this organization has ever seen it is only fitting to reflect on the past year together we have assisted members of our community in Need by working at the food bank and hope and holding a toiletry drive at South Haven Minnesota Central high schools for the food bank we have also made South Haven Beautiful by partaking in an effort to clean Roscoe Road and holding a craft booth at Hernandez annual Earth Day Festival finally all the mayor's youth Council went to Starkville Mississippi to a Leadership Summit at the Mississippi Municipal youth Leadership Summit we interacted with and learned from other mayor chief councils and through all of this we have not only enriched our communities but we have enriched ourselves we have learned that the value we have learned the value of community service and made friends along the way I cannot express how much I will miss Jake's Starkey comments or even smile next year so as a member of mayor's youth Council for the past three years I would like to thank you on behalf of our Council for keeping this organization and affording us the opportunities that we are all grateful for finally I would also like to thank our sponsors coach Sands and Mr Gardners and without them we would not have this off icer excellent job thank you for coming forward and again I I want to thank the mayor's youth Council for all the the efforts that you've done to help throughout our city I really appreciate that and and again for our seniors undergraduate I wish you well with your future endeavors and our our leaders that are here tonight thank you again for all the time that you spend with helping our youth I really appreciate that I think it's great for our youth and great for our city in general okay next on our agenda is our Personnel docket Mr Mayor Robinson we approve the Personnel documents presented on the state we have a motion model and Brooks a second Alderman kite is there any discussion hearing none roll call

[1:12:34] yes okay now motion carries next on our agendas are city attorney's legal update nothing this evening so next on our agenda is our claims docket Mr Mayor I move we approve the clean stock it in the amount of one million 303 761.50 including demand checks and payroll sorry we have a motion of alderman pain second Alderman Brooks is there any discussion very non-roll call yes okay and that motion carries next on our agenda is to determine the need for executive session no motion Baldwin Brooks second Ballroom gallery all in favor say aye aye all opposed say no us haven't motion carries next uh the knee this evening is claims against City infrastructure and litigation litigation against our Southampton police department and then uh I need to discuss security devices and also personnel and our Planning and Development Department so now is there a motion to declare executive sessions the motion Alderman Gallagher second Alderman Ferguson all in favor say aye aye also say no as having motion carries the mayor board will now enter executive session congratulations [Music]

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=CPJ2Ys_nuRU